ward Burt, of one of the oldest families in the state.

[Illustration: MARY TOWNE BURT.]

When her only child was yet a lad the crusade tocsin found her ready to
respond, in accordance with her own convictions and her mother's
faithful teachings. She gave a public address in the opera house at
Auburn, and served for two years as the first president of the local
union in that place, and at the first meeting of the national union, at
Cleveland, she was one of the secretaries. In 1875 she was first the
publisher and then the managing editor of the national paper, _Our
Union_, her home at this time being in Brooklyn. From 1878 to 1880 she
was corresponding secretary of the national union, with her office in
the Bible House, New York City.

She has been identified with the New York State union since its
inception. As its recording secretary for the first seven years of its
existence, she had much to do with shaping its aims and its policy.
After serving one year as corresponding secretary, she was elected
president in 1882, at the convention in Oswego. At that time the state
union had a membership of about three thousand, with but thirteen of the
sixty counties organized. During the years of her presidency all the
remaining counties but one have been organized, and the membership has
gone up to twenty-two thousand. In her first annual address she
recommended a change in the form of the executive committee,
substituting for the three previously elected by ballot, in addition to
the general officers, the vice-presidents of the state, who were the
presidents of the county unions. This changed the possible numbers of
the executive committee from seven to sixty-four. Other measures
recommended by her have been the publication of a state paper, the
opening of state headquarters in New York City, securing permanent
headquarters, putting up a building on the permanent state fair grounds
at Syracuse, creating the departments of Non-Alcoholics in Medicine and
Rescue Work for Girls, the memorializing of the Democratic and
Republican parties in behalf of prohibition and for the enfranchisement
of woman, and petitioning the constitutional convention of 1894 for the
last two purposes.

For some years she has had charge of the legislative interests. In
1885-87 she was superintendent of the Department of Social Purity, and
at once entered upon a vigorous campaign to raise "the age of consent"
for young girls. In 1887 this effort was suc