ct with small population and few,
if any, railroad facilities.

Owing to various circumstances and conditions, the work in one or two
counties has at different periods been suspended for a short time,
usually to be taken up again with renewed vigor. Our total membership is
more than twenty-two thousand, with an honorary membership of nearly
five thousand.

In 1881 annual blanks were sent out for the first time, thus making it
easier to secure correct reports of membership and of work done.

At the first annual meeting a form of pledge was appended to the
constitution recommended for local societies, which read as follows:

We, the undersigned women of ----, severally pledge ourselves in
integrity and honor before God to abstain from the use of and from
traffic in all intoxicating liquors as a beverage, and that we will not
offer the same to others to be so used. And we further solemnly covenant
before God henceforth to work and pray for the suppression of
intemperance as a sin against God and man, and that in our work we will
use such means and forward such measures as God shall direct through the
Holy Spirit in answer to our prayer.

This form was used for a few years only, and in 1878 we find
it changed to the following:

I hereby solemnly promise, God helping me, to abstain from all
distilled, fermented, and malt liquors, including wine and cider, as a
beverage, and to employ all proper means to discourage the use of and
traffic in the same.

In 1879 the words "as a beverage" were omitted, and the above pledge,
with this change, is the one which is recommended to all local unions,
and has stood so from 1879 until the present day.

JUVENILE WORK.

"The door of millennial glory has a child's hand on the latch."
MOTTO: "Tremble, King Alcohol! We shall grow up."

At the first meeting of the "State League," in 1874, one of the topics
for discussion was, "How can we work most effectually among the
children?" showing that in the very beginning they realized the fact
that the hope of our final victory rests in the children, and the unions
were urged to organize juvenile unions and Bands of Hope. The following
year an interesting paper on juvenile work was read by Mrs. Bingham, of
Rome, and a resolution adopted, which read:

_Resolved_, That we urge upon our Sabbath-school superintendents the
necessity of forming temperance organizations in every
Sabbath-sc