THE
WILLIAM L. CLEMENTS
LIBRARY
Purchased from the
Trust Fund of
Lathrop Colgate Harper
LITT. D.



(25804)
150
TEMPERANCE

MRS. S. J. C. DOWNS.

L
E
I F
OF
Mrs. S. J. C. Downs;
OR,
TEN YEARS AT THE HEAD
OF THE
Woman's Christian Temperance Union of New Jersey.
EDITED BY REV. J. B. GRAW, D.D.
ILLUSTRATED.
CAMDEN, N. J.:
GAZETTE PRINTING AND PUBLISHING HOUSE,
131 FEDERAL STREET.
1892.

Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1892,
By J. B. GRAW & SON,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C.

PREFACE.
IT WAS not the intention of the publishers
U to write an elaborate and exhaustive
history of Mrs. Downs' life, but merely
to gather up in convenient and permanent
form the record of the events which chiefly
distinguished her career. In order to stamp
her individuality on the book as much as pos-
sible, we have introduced her writings and
addresses in full, wherever deemed necessary.
We have endeavored to select only those
incidents and actions which we believe were
closest to the heart of Mrs. Downs, and to
present them in simple, untechnical forms.
If we have been successful in this, we are
content.
For the assistance kindly given by the
numerous contributors we return our sincere
thanks. Mrs. Ellis, Mrs. Easton, and another,
whose name we are forbidden to use, were

PREFACE.
especially helpful. It is true, it was to them
a labor of love, but it is, nevertheless, as
highly prized as though it were otherwise.
Strange, indeed, would it be if so long and
busy a life were not marked by events too
numerous to be gathered in a book of these
dimensions. We aim simply to give those
which are agreed to be the more striking.
The space at our command forbids any other
course.
Mrs. Downs took a deep interest in the
history of her ancestry, and two of the most
valuable contributions on this line are from
her own pen. These exhibit the carefulness
and exactitude which marked her later years,
and enable us to accurately outline the
genealogical tree.
We believe the book is its own best intro-
duction; that the many glowing tributes, the
heartfelt eulogies, and the sympathetic recital
of a life of unselfishness and whole-souled
devotion to duty, need no comment or com-
mendation from us. And if the study of this
noble career shall awaken in any an aspiration
to a better life, all is well : the mission of the
book is fulfilled.
THE PUBLISHERS.

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER 1.
PAGE
Early Ancestry...
CHAPTER II.
The Corson Genealogy. ...
CHAPTER III.
School-days and Marriage....
24
CHAPTER IV.
A Loving Tribute, by Rev. George Hughes ...
....
36
CHAPTER V.
Early Reminiscences, Rev. Dr. Atkinson ....
CHAPTER VI.
Her Life in Tuckerton ...........
.... 56

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VII.
Ten Busy, Helpful Years, by Mrs. Ellis.
74
CHAPTER VIII.
Letters and Extracts ....
III
CHAPTER IX.
A Happy Summer Day....
I 20
CHAPTER X.
Women in the Churches ....
. . 124
CHAPTER XI.
Extracts from Annual Addresses .
139
. CHAPTER XII.
The Last Hours . .
74
CHAPTER XIII.
The Funeral .
CHAPTER XIV.
The World's Memorial Service .....
210

CONTENTS.
TRIBUTES.
IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING CHAPTER XIV.
Frances E. Willard ....
Mary T. Lathrap .....
Mary A. Woodbridge ...
Clara C. Hoffman .....
Mrs. R. P. Penfield ....
Rev. Henry Belting .....
Letters, Reminiscent and Sympathetic ...
Music and Poems ....
Statistical Summary ...
APPENDIX.
Sketch of the Life of “Mother” Hill.
Sketch of Mrs. Denman, the First State President ...
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Mrs. Downs (frontispiece).
Mrs. Downs at twenty-six.
Rev. C. S. Downs.
“Mother" Hill.
Mrs. R. P. Penfield.
Mrs. M. R. Denman.


LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
CHAPTER I.
EARLY ANCESTRY.
HE influence of heredity was one of the deepest
J16 studies of Mrs. Downs' life. Consequently she
and her only sister, Mrs. Dr. Phillips, had sought
out very carefully every item of interest connected with
their ancestry, believing firmly that character is not
formed in one generation, and feeling in a wonderful
degree the responsibility of the present because of its
influence upon succeeding generations. In the training
of her children she carefully searched the records of her
ancestors for light upon the tendencies of the present,
and thus forewarned of any possible pitfall awaiting
them, saw to it that she was forearmed. From this fact
we have been able to glean much of interest from diaries
and letters carefully kept.
The first of her ancestors of whom we have any defi-
nite knowledge is one Samuel Neswinger, the son of a

IO
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
prosperous Holland land owner and miller, who was
born some time about the year 1722. We know com-
paratively little of him, but what is known stamps him
as a man of more than ordinary character and ability.
That he was a favored son is evidenced by subsequent
events which indicate that his parents had marked out
for him a career above that of an ordinary scion of
Holland's staid gentle folk.
Mrs. Downs never tired repeating the romance of his
life to the children who gathered round her with eager,
rapt faces, to hear how he came to this country from
Holland so long ago. A man of great force of charac-
ter, sterling qualities, and high integrity; driven from
his father's house, and forbidden to marry the woman
of his love.
One day to the home in Holland his father brought a
new servant, a dairymaid, who was destined to play a
prominent part in the life of the miller's son. She was
fair, and possessed of more than ordinary charms, and
the instant Samuel set eyes upon her he vowed that she,
and she only, should become his wife. The father soon
detected the evidences of their mutual affection, and his
fury knew no bounds. Importunity and pleading were
useless. The love had grown to be the life of the two,
and finally poor little Adelheide White, the dairymaid,
was sent away, no one knew whither. Whereupon
Samuel vowed never to eat of his father's bread or see
his father's face until she was found.
In search of her he came to America, leaving his
father's wealth and home to earn his bread by the sweat

EARLY ANCESTRY.
II
of his brow; to be an independent, self-sustaining man.
Seeking employment, he found it with a miller upon
the banks of the Wissahickon, near Philadelphia. One
morning, after eight years of industrious, honest living,
still cherishing in his heart his love, he was sent by his
employer to the Market street wharf, Philadelphia, to
meet an incoming vessel laden with immigrants, and
instructed to bring home mill-hands.
Now, in those days it was the custom to sell the
service of those who were unable to pay their passage
money, and there were, unfortunately, many such. The
bidding was sometimes spirited, sometimes slow. If the
latter were the case the thrifty Hollander would secure a
bargain for his employer. After the vessel had been
made fast, the gang plank was swung in place, and the
passengers, wearied by their long imprisonment in the
indifferent quarters of the ship, eagerly made their way
ashore, and the first one to cross the bridge was the
dairymaid! They were married at once. Eight long
years had not dimmed their ardor or effaced from their
hearts the inscriptions of love. She proved to be a
noble woman, wife and mother, and by hard work and
industrious, honest living they acquired great wealth.
Mrs. Downs often told this little story to her children,
just as it had been told to her as, when a child, she stood
by her mother's knee. A descendant of the third gen-
eration, she seemed to take an especial pleasure in tell-
ing her children of the constancy of Samuel and his
sweetheart.
In a history of thế old church at Frankford we find

12
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
Samuel Neswinger's name mentioned first in a long list
of contributors. Their child, Elizabeth, married Enoch
Addis, the father of Mrs. Downs' mother.
From Mrs. Downs' own pen we have the following:
“Enoch Addis, my grandfather, was one of Washing-
ton's army when he crossed the Delaware on that dread-
ful night of December 25, 1776.
"For hours they fought the floating ice in a blinding
storm of snow and sleet, leaving foot-prints of blood
upon the snow, for they had neither shoes nor stockings.
It was at McKonkey's Ferry, now Taylorsville, eight
miles above Trenton, where the perilous passage was
made.
“They who are familiar with the history of those days
know the story of the complete routing of the Hessians,
and how our half-clad and worn-out soldiers stripped
their dead enemies, and appropriated to themselves their
comfortable shoes and stockings.
"The Hessians, as prisoners of war, were marched to
Newtown, Pa., under a strong guard of soldiers, of
which my grandfather was one, and he loved to narrate
this incident to his children and grandchildren to the
day of his death.
“Subsequently, when the enemy was in possession of
Philadelphia, and our army was encamped near that city,
Enoch Addis, my grandfather, was on guard one day on
the outskirts of the camp, when he espied a young girl
gathering herbs and digging roots in the edge of the
wood. They were mutually attracted, and entering into

EARLY ANCESTRY.
13
conversation he told her the story of his privations and
how he had scarcely tasted food for days.
"She ran quickly to her home, a farm-house near by,
and, returning with a bountiful supply of provisions,
gladly watched the half-starved youth eat of the abun-
dant repast until his hunger was appeased. What re-
mained she packed in his knapsack, resolving that while
he tarried in the neighborhood he should be freely
supplied from her father's well-filled larder. She was a
staunch patriot, and, as well as her father, was in hearty
sympathy with the colonies in their struggle for liberty
and emancipation from the oppression and power of
the mother country. The acquaintance thus begun
by accident, ripened into a warm attachment, and at the
close of the war they were married.
"General Washington was a frequent guest at her
father's house, and there is still in the family a warming
pan which was used to warm his bed, and a small table
upon which he was accustomed to do much of his
writing."
Enoch Addis was born 1758, and was in his seventy-
second year when he died. Elizabeth Neswinger,
daughter of Samuel and Adelheide, and wife of Enoch
Addis, was born in 1754 and died in 1839, aged eighty-
five. They were industrious and thrifty, and acquired
large estates and considerable wealth. Nearly all of
Addisville, Pa., was owned by him at one time. After
his death it is conjectured his wealth was mostly con-
sumed in bad investments, and, what was common

14
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
even in those earlier times, in bickerings and contentions
among the heirs.
The following paper, yellow with age, was discovered
among Mrs. Downs' letters shortly after her death. It
must have been written in 1864, or thereabouts :
Genealogy of the Addis Family.
MY MOTHER'S FAMILY.
Enoch Addis, my mother's father, was the son of
John Addis, and Elizabeth, his wife, whose maiden name
was Taylor. He was married in the year 1778 to
Elizabeth Neswinger, of the same county (Bucks), Penn-
sylvania. They were the parents of nine children:
Elizabeth, married to John Harman; Ann S. (our
mother); Abigail N., who died at the age of seventy-
one years, unmarried; John, who married Jane Thorn-
ton; Samuel, Mary and Enoch all died in infancy;
Amos, who married Eliza Thornton and Ann Welford;
and Sarah, who married R. S. S. Eels.
Elizabeth Harman, the eldest child, was the mother
of ten children; Enoch Addis (who died unmarried be-
fore the age of thirty years); Mary, who died in infancy;
Daniel Y., who married Hannah Hough, of Doyles-
town, and was the father of six children, and afterward
was married to Elizabeth Bennett, of Brownston, and
by her had three children, and died, leaving her his
widow; Mary, who married Isaac Beans, of Warminster,

EARLY ANCESTRY.
15
and was the mother of ten children, died in Philadel-
phia, where her children now reside who survive her;
John, who married Sarah Ann Wilson, of Chester
county, and had four children, none of whom survived
infancy. He went south, and is reported dead. Mar-
garet Y., who married her cousin, Thomas J. Corson, is
still living, and has one son, Horace B.
Elizabeth N. married Samuel M. Hough, of Doyles-
town, and was the mother of nine children, three of
whom survive her.
Sarah Ann married Samuel Spencer, of Northampton,
and died in 1841, leaving one son, Cameron.
Abigail married Thomas L. Smith, of Philadelphia,
by whom she had six children. Left a widow while yet
young, she married Dr. D. S. Gloniger, of Philadelphia,
by whom she has three children. George W. left home
in early manhood and settled in Texas, where he mar-
ried and has one child.
Louisa married John M. Little, a merchant of Pitts-
burg, and has had four children, two of whom have
recently died.

16
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
CHAPTER II.
THE CORSON GENEALOGY.
M17 HE mother of Mrs. Downs, Ann Somers Addis,
16 was born September 2, 1782, and died in 1867.
She married James Corson in 1809, he dying in
1827, in his forty-fourth year. He was a man of studious
habits, and intensely fond of books. From him, no
doubt, Mrs. Downs inherited her love of letters. Mrs.
Corson was a woman of remarkable physical energy and
will power, and this significant fact throws a side light
on what seemed to some an incomprehensible enigma in
the life of Mrs. Downs: How a woman of her ripe years
could, day in and day out, through storm and sunshine,
torrid heat and bitter cold, pursue the even tenor of her
way, performing tasks which would have been impossi-
ble to a woman of less enduring strength and vitality.
Nothing seemed to tire her so completely that a few
days' rest would not restore her to wonted vigor and
health. Her recuperative powers were, indeed, remark-
able.
In 1864 Mrs. Downs wrote the following, which illus-
trates the strict attention to details which characterized
her after life, and which was the substantial foundation

THE CORSÓN GENEALOGY.
of her success in the administration of personal and
public affairs :
Genealogy of the Corson Family.
BY SARAH JANE CORSON DOWNS.
MAY 11, 1864.
The history of the family as transmitted to us by our
parents is as follows:
Three brothers came originally from Amsterdam, in
Holland, bearing the name of Van Corson, viz: Rich-
ard, Benjamin and John Richard and John settled
somewhere along the Jersey shore and Staten Island,
and were the ancestors of the numerous families of that
name still found in those localities. Benjamin, our pro-
genitor, settled in Pennsylvania, and sometime about the
year 1730 we trace him to Northampton township,
Bucks county. He was the father of five sons and one
daughter, viz: Benjamin, John, Richard, Cornelius,
Henry and Mary.
Benjamin located in Montgomery county, at Ply-
mouth, and reared a large family of sons, and two
daughters. Among his descendants are found Prof.
Hiram Corson, M. D., noted alike for his medical and
literary attainments, and Dr. John Corson, of New
York. His daughters intermarried with the Blakers and
Bennetts.
Richard settled in New Hope, Pa., as a physician,
and had two children, Richard and Hannah. Richard

18
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
studied medicine and succeeded his father in practice in
his native town, where he died in the year 1839, at a
green old age. He married early in life Helen, daughter
of Thomas P. Johnston, Esq., of Princeton, and grand-
daughter of Robert Stockton, one of the signers of the
Declaration of Independence. They were the parents of
a large family of sons and daughters, four of whom died
just as they were entering active life: Caroline, Ramsey,
Helen and Richard. Harriet, wife of Dr. Foulks, occu-
pies the homestead. Dr. Thomas J., a physician of
Trenton, N. J., and Eliza and Robert are still living.
Hannah married a Bye, from whom descended the
numerous families of that name in Buckingham town-
ship, Bucks county, Pa.
Cornelius settled in Bucks county, and was the father
of two sons, John and Benjamin, both of whom married
and settled near him.
Henry also settled in Bucks; had two children, a son
and daughter.
Mary, the only daughter, married a Marple, and re-
moved to Plymouth, where her descendants still reside.
John, our grandfather, was the third son of Benjamin,
and was born in Northampton township, Bucks county,
Pa., November 28, 1760. He married Charity Vansant,
of his own neighborhood, by whom he had six children:
John, James, Benjamin, Mary, Jane, and Charity; the
last named died in infancy. John and Benjamin never
married, and both died in early manhood.
Mary married Charles Finney; died after a few years,
leaving two daughters: Charity, who died at the age of

THE CORSON GENEALOGY.
eighteen years, unmarried; and Elizabeth, who married
Jacob Krusen Cornell, and was the mother of ten chil-
dren. She died in the year 1859.
Jane married Henry Vanartsdalen, of her native
town, and died after a brief period, leaving two daugh-
ters: Mary, who died in infancy, and Catharine, who
married Charles Craven, of Newtown, and died without
children.
James, the oldest child of John and Charity Corson,
was our father. He was born March 13, 1784. He
married Ann Somers Addis, daughter of Enoch Addis,
of Northampton township, February 11, 1809, and died
at Addisville, Pa., November 28, 1827, at the age of
forty-four years. He was the father of four children,
three of whom survived him: Thomas Jones, Elizabeth
Ann Byron, John Pickering and Sarah Jane. Thomas
married his cousin, Margaret Y. Harman, and is now
living near Philadelphia. Elizabeth married Dr. John
H. Phillips, of Pennington, N. J., for years a practicing
physician, but at the present writing a surgeon in the
United States army. He entered the service in the
spring of 1863, during the war of the rebellion of the
Southern States; was first stationed at Nashville, Tenn.,
as hospital director ; then, being ordered into the field,
accompanied General Sherman in his famous march to
Atlanta, and is now at Chattanooga, Tenn., in the first
general army hospital as director. Two daughters are
their only children: Josephine Elizabeth and Emily Vir-
ginia. Josephine died March 4, 1862, aged twenty-one
years, unmarried. Emily, their sole surviving child,

20
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
remains with her mother. John Pickering died in
infancy, aged eleven months.
Sarah Jane, the youngest child, married Rev. Chas. S.
Downs, a traveling minister of the Methodist Episcopal
church. She has been the mother of four children,
Charles Wesley Bunn, who died at his birth; John Phil-
lips, now nearly eleven years old; Charles Corson, who
died aged three and half months; Sarah Louise, now
nearly seven years old.
All the older branches of this genealogical tree who
made a public profession of religion, were members of
the First Reformed Dutch church of Northampton
township, under the successive pastorates of Rev. J.
Lazalere and Rev. A. O. Halsey, the present venerable
incumbent. With James Corson's children came the in-
troduction of Methodism, all of whom with their fami-
lies are members of that communion.
The concluding sentence in the above paper gives the
key to Mrs. Downs' character. Others might have
truthfully said, “With my conversion came the intro-
duction of Methodism;" she simply said, “With James
Corson's children came the introduction of Methodism.”
In the light of the truth the sentence is its own com-
mentary. None other is needed.
Mrs. Downs was born in Philadelphia, December
19, 1822. While she was yet an infant the family
moved to Addisville, Bucks county, Pa. This town
was named for her grandfather, Enoch Addis, who, in
those days, was considered a very wealthy man, owning

THE CORSON GENEALOGY.
21
much real estate, and regarded as one of the leading, in-
fluential men of the community. Here James Corson,
the father of Mrs. Downs, died at the age of forty-four,
when she was only five years old. Her mother, Ann
Addis Corson, was a most remarkable woman in phys-
ical strength, endurance and executive ability.
After the death of her husband, Mrs. Corson cared
for her three children, managing her affairs with great
ability. They resided in Addisville a number of years,
then removed to Taylorsville. It was here Mrs. Downs'
only sister, a great belle and beauty, was married to Dr.
J. H. Phillips in 1839. The sister Elizabeth (named for
the child of the “dairymaid”) was nine years her sister's
senior, and was courted, loved, and admired.
One day when the younger Sarah was thinking of
her sister's beauty, and the fact that every one loved her,
she arose, and looking long into the glass at the face re-
flected there, said to herself: “Well, Sarah Corson,
if any one ever loves you, it will not be for beauty of
face or form;—but they shall love me all the same for
beauties of the heart and mind.” How well she ful-
filled that vow we all know.
After the marriage of her sister to Dr. Phillips
and his rernoval to Pennington, N. J., where he en-
tered into the practice of his profession, Mrs. Downs
and her mother went with them, and this place, from
that time, was considered her home. This was the turn-
ing point in her life. All her associations had been, up
to this time, of a purely worldly character. Here she
passed her school-days. Here she blossomed into beau-

22
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
tiful womanhood. Here she was loved as all her life for
the qualities of "heart and mind” she had vowed to
possess.
A friend of those early days, Dr. A. A. Willitts, says
of her at that time:
“My memory glows with the radiance of a sunbeam
as I recall her name. Clear-eyed, sunny-faced, intelli-
gent, cheerful, courteous, drawing friends to her easily
and holding them firmly.”
Another friend of those happy Pennington days, Rev.
James R. Bryan, says:
"She was the life of the circle in which she moved.
Her genial manner, joined with a great fund of informa-
tion and a power to express her thoughts, made her one
of the loveliest of girls. There was no social party or
evening company in Pennington in those days where
she was not a conspicuous figure. She easily led in
conversation and in quick repartee. The charm of her
manner always made us feel at home. How impercepti-
bly the hours glided by when she was there. She was
just budding from girlhood into womanhood and seemed
to have a motherly interest in every student. I believe
she knew by name every one in the seminary, and there
was not one who did not feel that Miss Sarah Corson
was his true and deeply-interested friend. I was then
about seventeen years of age, and I can see now the
sweet, almost angelic, smile she wore whenever she
opened her mouth to speak to us boys. With her
sweetness of spirit there was joined a positiveness of
assertion that carried all before her. These impressions

THE CORSON GENEALOGY.
23
of my youth, so vividly enshrined in my memory, have
been strengthened by the lapse of years."
Here, in the old River church, near Titusville, she
was converted, and many times did the loved sister say,
"Sarah brought religion into the family.” Under the
pastorate of Rev. Jefferson Lewis, D.D., at the age of
seventeen, she gave her life to Christ, and then her work
for humanity began. One beautiful Sabbath morning,
in the long ago, an old lady with the snows of many
winters upon her brow; a tall, dignified man; a sweet
young wife, and our own Mrs. Downs, then a girl of
seventeen, stood at the altar of the Methodist Episcopal
church to be received on probation-her mother, sister,
brother-in-law and self.

24
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
CHAPTER III.
SCHOOL-DAYS AND MARRIAGE.
RS. E. A. PHILLIPS, the sister, with an insatia-
ble thirst for knowledge, a great reader, strong
intellect, determined that “Sarah” should be
educated. Those who remember the old days of Pen-
nington Seminary, when they lived in the Brown House,
now occupied by Dr. Hanlon, know what the home of
Elizabeth Phillips was to that community—the centre of
mirth, wit, brightness and good cheer.
To Mrs. Downs she was more than sister. In her
maturer years Mrs. Downs paid to that sister this loving
tribute: “Whatever I am, under God, I owe to the faith-
ful, loving care and influence of my sister Phillips."
In Pennington her education began; first as a pupil
in Prof. Hyde's Female Seminary, and afterward in the
Pennington Female Institute. This institute was under
the management of Mr. Joseph Bunn; Miss Malona
Stevens was its first preceptress, a woman of great liter-
ary ability and culture. Under her supervision and in-
struction a well-grounded foundation was laid for intel-
lectual and moral development.
The Pennington Female Institute was the first Meth-

SCHOOL-DAYS AND MARRIAGE.
25
odist institution erected for the education of women.
Mrs. Downs was a member of the first class that gradu-
ated from this institution, and was awarded the valedic-
tory. She was then seventeen years old. Her essay on
that occasion, "The Pilgrim Fathers," has been kept as
a priceless treasure. We here re-produce the essay in
its entirety:
THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
In casting a retrospective glance over past ages, upon
no epoch in our country's history does the mind rest
with more interest than that which marks the landing of
the “ Pilgrim Fathers” on the rock at Plymouth. In
tracing the history of these holy and devoted men, we
find much to interest, instruct and profit us, and many
useful lessons might we learn from their pious examples.
Driven from their fatherland by the potent arm of mo-
narchical tyranny and ecclesiastical despotism, we see
this weak but resolute band of Christians leaving all
behind them that is dear and cherished, and launching
with frail vessels on the bosom of the unknown ocean,
to seek a passage to that far-off western world, whose
savage wildness and deep solitude offered them an
asylum from the pointed shafts of the most vigorous
persecution.
'Twas bitter to bid adieu to the loved scenes of child-
hood and youth; 'twas with anguish of spirit that they
severed the only ties that bound them to their native
country; but they were not those who, startled at diffi-

26
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
culties, shrank from duty, and coward-like abandoned
the standard under which they had enlisted. What
were friends or fortune when religious freedom was the
price! all dwindled into insignificance when compared
with the great and momentous object of their pursuit.
The chastening was severe, but in humble submission
they kissed the rod, and adored Him of whom it is
written, “ He loveth whom He chasteneth, and scourgeth
whom He receiveth.” To these holy lovers of the
truth, exile and banishment were far preferable to quiet
submission to the despotic sway of a dissolute and cor-
rupt ministry; and adhering to the divine precept by
which they governed all their actions—" in all thy ways
acknowledge God and He will direct thy paths"—they
resolved, trusting in His omnipotent arm, to brave the
perils of the deep, and seek beyond its blue waters a
home and country free from the power of European
aristocracy, where they might worship the Lord accord-
ing to the dictation of their own conscience.
They sought not our lonely, wild America to possess
themselves of untold treasures; they sought it not that
another province might be added to the list of English
conquests. No! they sought it with a nobler, higher
motive: that they might rear an altar to the God of
heaven, and in the simplicity and sincerity of devout
worshipers bow at a pure and hallowed shrine. Behold
them embarking on their perilous enterprise! For a
time all is propitious and the hearts of the exiles are
cheered with hopes of a prosperous and successful voy-
age; but soon they encounter fierce and contrary winds,

SCHOOL-DAYS AND MARRIAGE.
they are tossed and driven at the mercy of the waves,
and subjected to all the discouragements and discom-
forts of an autumnal passage. Suns and moons rise and
set; days, weeks and months glide by; but still they
traverse the pathlesss ocean. Now they are delayed by
a calm, now they are driven before the raging tempest;
but amid all the trials and sufferings they despair not.
Their trust is in One mighty to save and strong to
deliver, and despite the warring of the conflicting ele-
ments they offer unto Him their sacrifices of praise and
thanksgiving
He who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb had an
eye of compassion and a heart of tenderness for these
weary, wandering exiles, and at last they are brought to
descry the bleak shores of the New World. With joy
unspeakable they rejoice at the prospect of a speedy
termination of their perilous passage. For five months
their frail bark had been the sport of the merciless
waves; and now that the dangers of the sea were past,
they knew not what awaited them on the land. A
savage and unnumbered foe inhabited the broad shores
that stretched out before them, and from whom they
had nothing to hope, but much to fear; but the same
Omnipotent Arm that brought them to the forest home
would still protect them; they trusted and were content.
Onward was their watchword, and onward they went.
“The breaking waves dashed high
On a stern and rock-bound coast,
And the woods against the stormy sky
Their giant branches tossed ;

28
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
The heavy night hung dark
The hills and valleys o'er,
When a band of exiles moored their bark
On the wild New England shore.
“Not as the conqueror comes
They the true hearted came;
Not with the roll of stirring drums
Or the trumpet that speaks of fame;
Not as the flying come,
In silence and in fear,
They made the depths of the forest ring
With their hymn of lofty cheer.
“Amid the storm they sang,
And the stars heard and the sea,
And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang
To the anthem of the free.
"The ocean-eagle soared
From his nest by the white waves' foam,
And the rocking pines of the forest roared-
This was their welcome home!
There were men of hoary hair
Amidst that pilgrim band;
Why had they come to wither there
Away from their childhood's land?
There was woman's fearless eye
Lit by her deep love's truth,
There was manhood's brow serenely high,
And the fiery heart of youth.
What sought they thus afar-
Bright jewels of the mine,
The wealth of sea, the spoils of war?
They sought a faith's pure shrine.

SCHOOL-DAYS AND MARRIAGE.
29
Ay, call it holy ground,
The soil where first they trod;
They have left unstained what there they found,
Freedom to worship God.”
Who does not respond to the beautiful sentiment of
Mrs. Hemans as expressed in the last stanza? Well
may the rock at Plymouth be called a holy thing, and
well may the soil be honored that was first pressed by
their footsteps. Here it was that our fathers relin-
quished all claims to hereditary pre-eminence, and put
far from them all effeminate softness. In their austere
ranks the plebeian and the patrician were equal; no
proud aristocrat was found there, none but men of
unswerving, unflinching integrity, who were resolved in
every trial and emergency to adhere firmly to their
principles.
They had fled from England to escape the power of
the church. They sought in America religious freedom,
and in America they found it; here they were permitted
to worship unmolested and unrestrained, and perhaps
never did purer homage go up before the throne of
the Great Eternal than that first offered by the pious
Pilgrims. To us, their happy, favored descendants, they
have left a glorious liberty; though they purchased it
dearly for us, they have transmitted it pure and uncon-
taminated. In our then desolate and almost uninhabited
land, they laid the principles of our holy Christianity on
a basis so broad, on a foundation so firm, that the united
efforts of popery and infidelity have never been able to
shake them.

30
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
No; though popes, priests, deists and friends rally
and co-operate against her, she will ever stand forth
bright and unsullied, and immovable as the pillars of
heaven.
Ladies and gentlemen, in closing the exercises of the
day, and the labors of the academic year, we should do
violence to our feelings, as well as fail to discharge an
important duty, should we neglect to express the grati-
tude which we feel towards you for the attention you
have given and the interest you have manifested in our
humble performances.
To-day closes the first year of experiment for Pen-
nington Female Institute, and at its close, while we are
grateful to you for the liberal patronage extended to our
infant institution, we cannot but be sensible of the
obligations we are under to a kind Providence for the
success attending our efforts to advance the cause of
education. We have endeavored to acquit ourselves to
the best of our ability; we have passed through the
ordeal of an examination, and we have so far wandered
from woman's proper sphere as to appear before you in
the character of declaimers. This, to us, has been a
season of anxiety, of dread; but if the feeble efforts we
have this day made will in any degree contribute to
enhance the value of female education, or help to raise
woman to her proper elevation, where she may cope
with the lords of creation, we are repaid for all our toil.
Or if we have awakened in any youthful breast aspira-
tions to attain to greater heights of mental excellence,
our task is done.

SCHOOL-DAYS AND MARRIAGE.
31
My dear fellow students, the time has come when we
are forced to sever those friendly ties and social friend-
ships which have so long existed between us; the period
has arrived when we must separate. A year has rolled
away since we assembled within these walls; that year
has sped almost imperceptibly away. Time has flown
so pleasantly that we have scarcely been conscious of its
flight. We have lived together in peace and harmony,
and nothing has occurred to mar our happiness or dis-
turb our quiet; and although we anticipate with delight
the social joys of home, we cannot but look forward with
regret to the hour of parting. We have every reason to
render thanks to the Great Giver of all our mercies, that
the ruthless hand of death has not snatched any of our
number from us. We have not been called to lay any
fair and gentle companion in the cold, damp earth. No
fell disease has made the blooming cheek grow pale or
the agile footstep heavy; but all has been health and
happiness. And many times when we shall have gone
forth from these halls forever, will memory linger round
this loved place, and call back the images of days of
yore, and in the language of the poet, sing
"Long, long be my heart with their memory filled,
Like the vase in which roses have once been distilled ;
You may break, you may ruin, the vase if you will,
But the scent of the roses will hang 'round it still.”
Dear and respected teachers, it is with mingled feel-
ings of pleasure and pain that I undertake the perform-
ance of this, my last duty; pleasure that I have it within

32
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
my power to congratulate you on the success attending
your efforts as teachers; and pain that the pleasing con-
nection that has existed between us is so soon to be dis-
solved. In parting with those who have been commit-
ted to your care, you at least have the gratifying
approval of your own hearts that in all things you have
faithfully and conscientiously discharged your duties to
them. Would that we had the same pleasing reflection.
Those duties to a part of you, at least, have been ardu-
ous. You have encountered the difficulties and dis-
couragements common to the establishment of literary
institutions as well as having borne with our capricious
and wayward nature. You have pointed the way of
rectitude and propriety, and have assisted us by your ex-
ample to walk therein; and when with the impetuosity
of youth we may have wandered beyond the precise
limits circumscribed to our frail sex, and thereby sub-
jected ourselves to the severe criticisms of a censorious
world, you have ever kindly and affectionately expostu-
lated, and gently led us back.
For all your kindness and forbearance I, in the name
of those I represent, sincerely thank you; and should it
be that we part forever, be assured that your counsels
and precepts have a resting place in our hearts, and the
fruits of your labor shall be seen in days yet to come.
And praying Heaven to bless our institution and make
her to shine as a bright star in the literary firmament,
we bid you, one and all, an affectionate farewell.

SCHOOL-DAYS AND MARRIAGE.
33
After graduation, Mrs. Downs taught for a time in the
lecture-room of the Methodist Episcopal church in
Pennington; then secured a position in Milford, N. J.-
her first absence from the loved home circle. Into her
work as a teacher, she seems to have carried the same
zeal and earnestness that characterized the work of later
years. Fighting bravely homesickness, and the longing
for mother and sister, she pursued her work with a
determination that brought success.
At Milford she writes Mrs. Phillips : “In two weeks
I shall be home. I see you all now in the quiet room.
Oh, how I want you; but I shall stay in Milford, for I
get a good salary, only living is so expensive; I have to
pay two dollars a week for my board."
She next taught a select school in New Egypt for
seven years, in the house now occupied by Mrs. Brown,
the present President of the New Egypt Woman's
Christian Temperance Union. On a recent visit to that
place, Mrs. Downs held a Mothers' Meeting in the very
room over which she had presided as a school-mistress
more than forty years before. She was identified with
the first woman's temperance society of the place,
known as the Daughters of Temperance. It was here
she first met Rev. Charles S. Downs, who afterwards
became her husband. He was the preacher-in-charge
on this circuit, and she relinquished her school duties
to become the wife of this Methodist itinerant.
On May 16th, 1850, she was married, the wedding
taking place in the Pennington Methodist Episcopal
church. That night two little girls sat upon the pulpit

34
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
steps with wide-open eyes. To-day they are bright
lights in the temperance work.
“That wedding,” says one, "to my childish eyes
seemed a most brilliant affair—a wedding with a recep-
tion afterward at the home of her brother-in-law, Dr.
John H. Phillips, to which I was not allowed to go. I
can see them now, in that youthful picture; the crowded
church; the minister, Rev. Jefferson Lewis; the bride in
a dark green silk, with white crepe shawl and cottage
bonnet; the tall bridegroom; the bridesmaid, Annie
Petherbridge, who afterward became the wife of R. T.
Martin, so long the efficient treasurer of Pennington
Seminary; the groomsman, Dr. A. L. Brice. After the
reception, they went at once to Mr. Downs' charge,
New Egypt Circuit, which then included nine appoint-
ments, where graciously and with great efficiency she
took up the work before her, that of a pastor's wife, and
a mother, for Mr. Downs had two little boys, aged three
and eight years, who rise up to-day and call her blessed.
Though children she had herself borne gathered around
that fireside, a friend of later days says, 'I was always
being called upon to tell which of the children were
really her own. The word stepmother was never
uttered in that home, and when friends said, “They are
so little; they love you so, and will never know; why
do you tell them?” but her reply was always, “What if
they were mine and should never know.” And so they
loved her, and learned of her of the angel mother gone
before. Dear, unselfish, honest soul; always and ever
true.”

SCHOOL-DAYS AND MARRIAGE.
35
The same little girl, "grown tall,” says: “Several
years after her marriage, I remember I met her again in
Pennington, at the house of Mr. Ripley Martin, where I
was captivated by the charm of her conversation. As
she rose to go Mr. Martin said to her, 'Sarah, what does
make you so entertaining?' 'Why, am I?' was the
reply, 'I do not know; but if I am, I think it must be
because very early in my life I looked in the glass and
saw a homely face reflected there, and resolved then
to make a point of trying to be agreeable to every-
body. This I could do without being handsome.'
And this resolve, carried out from a heart all love at its
source, made her the most delightful and entertaining of
companions. She it was who was always sought first."
Mr. Downs was on the New Egypt Circuit two years
(1849 and 1850), during which time great success
attended his efforts. In all 190 probationers were
reported—85 in 1849, and 105 in 1850. The next
appointment was Allowaystown.
After serving two years there, Mr. Downs was
appointed to Cape May Circuit in 1853. Their next
appointment, in 1855, was Millville, which he filled until
1857, when failing health compelled him to take a super-
numerary relation. At nearly all his charges, some of
which were of more than average importance and respon-
sibility, revivals of marked power attested the efficiency
of the pastor. Mr. Downs was one of the pioneers of.
the New Jersey Conference, he entering it in 1838, one
year after its organization.

LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
CHAPTER IV.
A LOVING TRIBUTE.
EV. GEORGE HUGHES, a friend and co-laborer
of the early days, writes:
Christian friendship is a precious jewel, set in
gold. It is born in the heart pervaded by the love of
Christ. It is lustrous, and wonderfully captivating. It
brightens life's pathways, and gives hope of a brighter
eternal beyond. Its glowing annals furnish good read-
ing for earth, and a thousand times more so for heaven.
Volumes of many chapters have been written, con-
tributing largely to the comfort and elevation of our
humanity. Another one is here presented, gathering up
the memorials of a life fragrant with the spirit of Jesus,
augmenting the glories of His kingdom in earth and
heaven. It is my privilege to contribute a little to these
blessed remembrances, in the hope that the cross may
be lifted higher, and the Redeemer be more eminently
glorified by these sacred ministries.
• In the year 1843, having been licensed to preach by
the Quarterly Conference of Franklin Street church,
Newark, N. J., and receiving an appointment from Rev.
J. S. Porter, Presiding Elder of the Newark District, I

Å LOVING TRIBUTE.
left my home in New York for Madison, N. J., to be
associated with Rev. Charles S. Downs, as junior
preacher on the charge. It was then a small circuit,
embracing several places, Sabbath and week-night
appointments. I went with trembling apprehension,
alive to the responsibilities of the position, but with
upliftings of soul to heaven for needed light and
strength.
Arriving at the home of the ambassador of Christ
with whom I was to be associated, I received a hearty
welcome from this beloved brother and his excellent
companion, and was bidden to consider that my home
from thenceforth. I was then only twenty years of age
-a mere stripling, weak as helpless infancy. I needed
a father and a mother in the gospel, to direct my feeble
steps. Into such relations and fellowship I was happily
introduced, receiving daily counsel and encouragement
in the prosecution of my work. I was not so favorably
situated as young preachers now are. I had no board-
ing place provided, but was a real itinerant, literally vis-
iting the people “from house to house," and sharing
their Christian hospitality, which was tendered without
stint. I had many friends whose memory is affection-
ately cherished. But, under the circumstances, having
no settled habitation, it was most natural that “the boy-
preacher” should often have his steps directed to the
parsonage. The same warm welcome that greeted me
at the first was ever extended to me. A generous table
and a quiet resting-place were often my portion under
that kindly roof. Brother Downs was a man of large

38
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
soul, kind, loving, and spread over his tremulous asso-
ciate a paternal wing that shielded him from harm, and
gave him increased confidence for his life-work. As a
minister, he was devoted to his calling—a pointed, prac-
tical preacher of no mean ability—a careful pastor,
earnest in his endeavors to save souls and to build up
the kingdom of Christ. Revivals, of course, were the
fruit of these efforts.
During that year a lot was secured for a church in
Madison, in the centre of the town, on which a house of
worship was erected, under the administration of our
immediate successors, which was considered quite a feat
in those days. After securing the ground, under the
leadership of our earnest preacher-in-charge, we ran a
car up and down on the railroad track with our own
hands, loaded with stone for the foundation of the
church.
In subsequent years, I followed my friend and brother,
Rev. Charles S. Downs, and his companion, in their sev-
eral appointments, with profound interest. In all the
mutations of their career I was with them in spirit, if not
in bodily presence. While pastor of the Front Street
church, Trenton, my health failed, and my first col-
league, who was then a supernumerary, was appointed to
fill the vacancy, and was favored with a blessed revival of
religion.
When called, in the providence of God, to part with
his precious helpmeet, it was a heavy blow to Brother
Downs. It devolved upon him peculiar responsibilities,
in the care and nurture of children which had been

A LOVING TRIBUTE.
born unto them. But, in reliance upon God, he endeav-
ored to watch with paternal tenderness and love over
the beloved ones thus committed to his care.
In due time, another helpmeet was kindly provided, in
the person of Mrs. Sarah J. C. Downs, to a portraiture
of whose life and work these pages are specially de-
voted. For this important position she was remark-
ably endowed, both as to domestic qualities, and fitness
for the more public work of a Methodist itinerant's
wife. Her natural intellectual endowments were
superior, and, having been favored with educational
advantages, she entered upon her new sphere under
bright auspices. Her heart was warm and full of love.
She was tender, kind, considerate-seeking steadily to
contribute to the comfort of both husband and children.
Hence her home was bright and cheery, love having
undisputed sway. She delighted to have order, which is
“heaven's first law," pervading her habitation; neatness
was everywhere apparent, giving a pleasant aspect to
everything, husband and wife and children being united
in the sweet bonds of love.
Mrs. Downs cherished a lively interest in the work of
the ministry which was laid upon the heart and hands of
her husband. The occupancy of her seat in the sanc-
tuary was a joy to the people; she had a smile and a
warm hand to extend to all. It was a peculiar delight
to her to be in the Sabbath school, giving young minds
an uplift toward “the central point of bliss." She was,
in fact, as a minister's wife, a winner of hearts, in which
she has now a perpetual enshrinement. She was no

40
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
light and airy creature, flitting to and fro like a butterfly
among the people, but a woman—strong, symmetrical,
lustrous, in all the womanly qualities, making a bright
record everywhere.
: When called to part with her husband, to see him go
down to the grave under the wasting hand of disease,
that was the crucial period in the life of our sister. Her
sorrow, was, however, alleviated by the cheering testi-
mony which he was enabled to give of a sure hope of
everlasting life. The sad work of interring the mortal
remains of her loved companion being ended, she gath-
ered her darling children around her, drew them closely
to her heart, and, with all the heroism of a true woman,
betook herself to the work of fitting them for honorable
spheres. It involved years of toil and sacrifice, but she
was calm, resolute, determined to reach the goal, and
those years of consecration have met their reward.
Upon the brow of daughter and sons, one and all, there
is the luminous signature of heaven. They were, while
she lived, “as olive plants around her table," and, now
that she has been translated to the immortal realm, they
remain as monuments of her maternal love and devotion
-CHRISTIANS, linked to the cross, with a bright counte-
nance on earth and a joyous outlook toward eternity.
It was fitting that the closing hours of this beautiful
life should be spent under the roof of her loving
daughter, Mrs. Quigley, at East Orange, N. J. Mrs.
Downs sent for me to visit her on the Sabbath before
her departure. When, however, I arrived, she was not
able to see me. I purposed to make another attempt on

A LOVING TRIBUTE.
41
the evening when her earthly pilgrimage was closed, but
this privilege was not accorded to me. Her loving
children and devoted friend, Mrs. Ellis, were there to
catch the triumphal words which fell from her lips,
which are elsewhere given to the reader.
It has been an unalloyed pleasure to bring this tribute
of love to the memory of our departed and glorified
sister, and to her husband, my cherished friend, who
finished his earthly pilgrimage before her. They sleep
in Jesus. Glad memories will ever cluster around their
resting-place. Strew the flowers upon their quiet
graves. Anticipate, in living hope, their glorious resur-
rection at the Redeemer's summons. Then, loved
children and Christian comrades,, having “swept
through the gate, washed in the blood of the Lamb,"
will share a blissful reunion with them in heaven.

42
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
CHAPTER V.
EARLY REMINISCENCES.
THE following article by Rev. Dr. John Atkinson,
J16 is of more than ordinary interest, as it treats of a
period of Mrs. Downs' life which is unknown to
the majority of her friends :
I became acquainted with Mrs. Sarah J. C. Downs
in the month of June, 1852. She was then in the prime
of young womanhood, under thirty. I began my minis-
terial work at that time as the assistant of her husband,
the Rev. Charles S. Downs, upon Allowaystown Circuit,
which included the church in the village of that name,
and also Nazareth, Hancock's Bridge and Canton. Be-
tween the first two and the last two of these churches,
Mr. Downs and I regularly alternated each Sabbath.
I was young, much younger than would now be deemed
a requisite age for a youthful preacher, not having
attained to seventeen years when I commenced my work
in the circuit. My inexperience, lack of knowledge,
and boyish ways, would undoubtedly have soon taken
me home to my mother, but for the tender, sweet,
and never-to-be-forgotten companionship of my ever-

EARLY REMINISCENCES.
cherished friend, Mr. Downs, and the encouragement
and help given to me both by himself and his admirable
wife, his true helpmeet. My relation to Brother Downs,
and the cordiality and kindness with which I was
always treated by him, and the graciousness and help-
fulness of the communion I enjoyed at his fireside, took
me very often to the then new Methodist parsonage in
Allowaystown, New Jersey. Of course, I was “under
the presiding elder," but Brother Downs and his good
wife made my admission into the New Jersey Confer-
ence easy at its session at Bridgeton, in April, 1853. I
was then received on trial in the same class with
Dr. Hanlon, of Pennington Seminary; William Walton,
J. B. Heward, C. W. Heisley, Bishop Vincent, and a
dozen others.
I can never forget that Conference. I had never
before seen an Annual Conference in session, and of
course I, a boy of seventeen, was all eyes and ears.
Much of what I witnessed is yet vivid in memory.
Bishop Morris presided. Rev. Jefferson Lewis was sec-
retary. Manning Force, Isaac N. Felch, William A.
Wilmer, Caleb A. Lippincott, John K. Shaw, Thomas
McCarroll and Thomas Sovereign were the presiding
elders. At the close of that session Mr. Shaw went out
of the eldership in which he had been very efficient and
popular for eight years, and John S. Porter went into the
office. The bishop and all the presiding elders of that
day have passed on to the Great Beyond. I rode from
Allowaystown to the seat of the Conference the morn-
ing it began with Mr. Downs and Rev. Joseph Gaskill,

44
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS,
who received me into the church and first commissioned
me to exhort. Subsequently Mrs. Downs came and
attended upon some of the sessions of the body. Of
the members who were more or less heard upon the
floor during the Conference, I remember the philosophic
and pungent Isaac Winner, the dignified and alert James
Ayars, the hearty and aggressive David Graves, and the
ever-vigilant and influential Porter. Of those whom I
heard speak and preach during the Conference were the
splendid R. L. Dashiell, the urbane and fervent Ellison,
the eloquent Wesley Kenney, the able and powerful Prof.
Wentworth, the stately Samuel Vansant, the scholarly
J. T. Crane, and the celebrated Dr. Bond, then editor of
the “Christian Advocate," all of whom have finished
their course. I also, in the same week, heard others on
Conference anniversary occasions, among whom were
Abel Stevens, the historian of Methodism; E. H.
Stokes, and L. R. Dunn. Dr. Durbin was there also,
and I then saw him for the first time. The missionary
sermon was preached by W. P. Corbit, and no one who
heard it can have forgotten it. Aside from its remark-
able rhetoric and eloquent delivery, it was extraordinary
as to length, reaching to the measure of about two and
a half hours. I have since attended many Conferences
in the east and the west, but I think none in which
more men of altogether remarkable and various talents
were assembled than in that session of the old New
Jersey Conference at Bridgeton in 1853.
Among the interested spectators and intent listeners
at that Conference—at least a portion of the time-

EARLY REMINISCENCES.
was Mrs. Downs. She was a Methodist—a Methodist
preacher's wife. She loved and honored the ministry of
her church, was deeply concerned for the prosperity of
Zion, and she enjoyed an Annual Conference in session,
especially one of such eminent attraction as that which I
have briefly described. Besides, the then disciplinary
term of two years had been accomplished by Mr. Downs
at Allowaystown, and of course they were to move. He
was certainly a man of thought and of ability. His vocal
intonations were rather monotonous, as was quite com-
mon at that time with Methodist preachers, but his fer-
vor and earnestness of manner, clear conceptions of the
truth, elevated diction and convincing argument, ren-
dered him one of the best preachers of the Conference.
His social ways, also, were agreeable and winning. His
manner was very cordial, and his conversation was
marked by good sense and good humor. He so won
upon me from the first that I loved him, I think, as
much, if not more, than I have ever loved any man out-
side the circle of my nearest kindred. Why, then, should
not such a man and his wife expect to be somewhat
favored in their next appointment ? With Mrs. Downs'
sharp insight, she did not fail to discover her husband's
merits as a minister, nor to see how favorably he com-
pared with other preachers who were better placed as to
position, temporal support and social surroundings. Yet
through all that Conference, and in the months preceding
it, I do not recall having heard from her, or from Mr.
Downs, one regretful or complaining word about their
appointment. I was, I think, more anxious than they

LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
were that the Conference should display its appreciation
of that beloved pair by sending them up much higher.
When Bishop Morris read the appointments, Mr. Downs
was announced as senior preacher for Cape May Circuit.
He seemed entirely satisfied, and I remember no look or
word that indicated to me that Mrs. Downs was dis-
pleased. She accepted cheerfully and without criticism
the decision of the appointing power. She was loyal to
the church and to the itinerancy, thereof, whatever pri-
vations or trials in her own case might be incident
thereto. As after that Conference we were widely sepa-
rated, and for a number of years by hundreds of miles, I
but seldom saw her.
I did, however, know Mrs. Downs in the Alloways-
town parsonage, when, as a youth, I marked her ways
and listened with avidity to her charming conversation.
How much she told me in those quiet hours in that par-
sonage of the church, of ministers, of Christian experi-
ence and Christian service, of life, of men and things,
not excluding myself!
In those days Mrs. Downs was without children of
her own. Her two step-sons, Samuel and James—she
always called him "Jim"-engrossed her motherly
solicitude and care. They are both living, and both rise
up and call her blessed. “Jim” cheered her failing heart
amidst the chill of Jordan's flood by singing to her, de-
spite his tears, at her dear request, just before she got
over to the better shore, “My ain Countrie.” Subse-
quently to the Conference of 1853, children were born to
Mrs. Downs, and one of them—Mrs. Quigley, of East

EARLY REMINISCENCES.
47
Orange—tenderly ministered to her, with the winsome-
ness and resourcefulness of love, in her last illness, as a
true daughter, into whose house her mother came, weary
from much toil, to rest and—to die; nay, not to die, but
to vanquish death, and ascend with shoutings amid the
angel band to the rest and glory of life eternal. Her
precious son John, in the distant West, she could not
see, but from the verge of heaven she uttered for him her
last loving message. It was a mournful gratification that
my early friend remembered me in the physical anguish
and spiritual rapture of her last conflict and victory. I
received from her daughter, Mrs. Quigley, a note con-
taining these touching words:
"Mother died last night at midnight. Funeral at
Newark, Halsey Street, on Friday, at 1.30 o'clock.
Come to us—mother's life-long friend. She asked for
you at the last, and wanted you to speak at her funeral
of her early ministerial life and church work; and will
you be one of the bearers ? Such a glorious home-going
it was!”
If ever I mourned sincerely, it was when I received the
intelligence of the promotion of my blessed friend to the
diadem and throne of the glorified. Memory imme-
diately took me to the Allowaystown parsonage, and, as
of yore, I sat in her presence, saw her smile, and heard
her gracious words. How I recalled her saintly ways
and works; remembered her telling me, in 1852, that in
a startling hour, when death seemed imminent, her faith
was victorious over fear; and so, when I reached the
home whence she went up to her coronation, and was

LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
told of her triumph, I said: “It is not necessary to tell
me that she died triumphantly, for, knowing her as I
did, I should be sure, without hearing it, that if she
were conscious, it was so.”
And what did I know of her? To answer this ques-
tion more fully will occupy all the rest of the space I
shall claim for this tribute-heart-felt-of my pen to her
extraordinary worth.
1. I knew her first of all as a keeper at home. Not
that she did not go abroad, for she did. She was
known throughout the village as one of its first women,
indeed, I should say its chief woman. She was promi-
nent in the social life of the place, and eminently so in
the religious life thereof. She ministered in various
ways to others. She went forth with her husband in
his pastoral walks. She was alert in relation to every-
thing that concerned the work and success of the
church. In the chamber of sickness and in the home
beclouded with sorrow, she was found. Still she kept
her home. It was well kept. Upon it she impressed
her mind, and heart, and hand. There was no untidi-
ness, nor visible marks of slovenliness there. The salary
was small, only four hundred and forty dollars, besides
parsonage. A carriage had to be kept for the work.
Guests were frequent and came from far and near.
Their welcome was always cordial. The table was
spread for belated visitors at an off hour. But with all
the management and toil required, most of the time
without “help,” her house was always attractive; her
table was always inviting; her spirit always genial; her

REV. C. S. DOWNS.
MRS. DOWNS AT 26.


EARLY REMINISCENCES.
heart always warm. To me the mystery is to this hour
unsolved how she contrived to do so much with so little.
Somehow her aptness and versatility were equal to
the exigence. If she could not do a thing in one way,
she would find another way; and so she succeeded in
keeping a home and in dispensing a hospitality befitting
opulence itself on the little stipend of a circuit preacher.
Ah, those heroines of the Methodist parsonage! They
have been but little noted in their obscure service in
kitchen and parlor, but their hands, adorned not with
jewels, but soiled and worn with housework, have con-
tributed immensely to build the vast and overshadowing
fabric of Methodism in this great republic. In that
glorious company of heroines was Sarah J. Corson
Downs, when I knew her in her delightful home in
Allowaystown, in 1852. And in all her service as a
Martha in that parsonage, I do not remember to have
heard her utter a word of dissatisfaction with her lot, or
complain of her incessant toil. Indeed, she did not
seem overburdened; I never saw her in a hurry. She
always appeared to have enough leisure to entertain, to
make calls, to enjoy family life, to read and write, and
to do the work the church put upon her. Thus was
her executive power shown in those early days.
2. I knew Mrs. Downs as a woman of notable
capacity and intelligence. I believe she was equal to
any place she ever filled; to any occasion she was called
to meet. I have just shown that she was equal to the
sphere—the noble sphere-of a housekeeper. At the
same time she adorned the social hour. I have met in

50
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
her home in Allowaystown and elsewhere people of
education, prominence and influence, and representing
more than one religious denomination, but I never saw a
person or a company there to whose social require-
ment she was unequal. The breadth, penetration and
furniture of her mind were conspicuous, and adequate
to every phase and form of society in which she was
ever found.
Her mental alertness was equal to almost any occa-
sion. Before I had opened my lips to preach on the
circuit where I went as her husband's assistant, I
received from her a striking lesson on plagiarism. It
was thus: Before the arrangement was settled for me
to become junior preacher at Allowaystown, a local
preacher had been engaged for what proved to be my
first Sunday morning in that village. He came, and, of
course, as it was his appointment, he preached. It was
a good, an able discourse that he gave us. It was on
the text, “Let us come boldly to the throne of grace,"
etc. When meeting was out, and Mrs. Downs and I
had returned to the parsonage, she told me that Dr.
Adam Clarke was the author of the sermon we had just
heard. At once she went to the "study” and brought
me a volume of the learned commentator's sermons
opened upon the discourse in question. Looking it
over, I saw that our local preacher, whose voice has now
for long years been still in death, had that morning
preached Dr. Clarke's sermon without book or manu-
script. As a feat of memory it was creditable, but, as I
thought, not otherwise. Mrs. Downs did not utter any

EARLY REMINISCENCES.
51
unkind criticism, as far as I remember, but by her
quickness in detecting the plagiarism, she caused me to
see how hazardous it was for a preacher to exhibit
borrowed material in even a small village church. That
afternoon I preached my first sermon “under the elder,"
at Nazareth, but it was not another preacher's sermon,
whatever else it was. I do not remember that Mrs.
Downs gave me any advice in relation to thus appropri-
ating other men's sermons, but she certainly gave me
an object lesson thereon which I have not yet forgotten.
This incident is illustrative of Mrs. Downs' intellectual
character. Hers was not a drowsy nor a misty mind.
She was mentally awake and astir. Her mental eye was
clear; her mental ear was acute. When I first knew
her, she was possessed of a bright, keen, strong mind,
well cultivated, and she was undoubtedly one of the
ablest women intellectually, even at that time, I have
ever had the fortune to meet.
Mrs. Downs, in those days, did not speak in public, as
women in that region were not expected to address
audiences, except they were Quakers. She therefore
missed early practice in public speaking. In the class
meeting and love-feast she spoke, and she also prayed in
public. Hers were memorable prayers. Her reason,
culture, heart, were poured forth in those earnest and
impressive petitions which she offered at the Mercy
Seat. And this leads me to say that
3. I knew Mrs. Downs as a devoted and active
Christian. Her religion was not a sentiment nor a
theory, but an experience. She had some time, some-
where—I do not know when nor where-been radically

52
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
converted. She had experienced the second birth.
How much, in her home conversations, in which I par-
ticipated in those long-vanished days, did she speak of
Christian experience. What stress she put upon holy
living. Hers was a positive, life-swaying religion. Her
faith worked by love, and was ever shown by her works.
A class meeting was held at the parsonage, and not only
did she attend upon that, but I remember to have
accompanied her to a class meeting in a private house
in the village, and on the way thither, as well as in
the meeting, she talked of the great salvation. Oh,
Mrs. Downs knew Jesus. She enjoyed the hidden life
—the life that is hid with Christ in God. She was
always ready to speak or to pray; to intelligently
instruct the inquirer, or to kindly invite the sinner to
come to Christ. She was at the age of thirty, as I can
testify, a worker in the vineyard of her Divine Master.
Her nature was swayed by the Holy Spirit, and she
walked up an elevated plane of holiness. Yet I do not
know that she professed extraordinary sanctity. She did
profess to enjoy conscious salvation from sin, but I have
no remembrance of ever hearing her speak as if she
thought her attainments in grace were exceptional. Her
every-day life told of the power of her faith; of the
depth of her devotion, and of the constancy of her love
of her Saviour. She was humble, and not given to talk-
ing of her own attainments, works or virtues.
Mrs. Downs was not ascetic. She was a social,
cheerful, Christian woman. Her strong common sense
was manifest at the time of my frequent intercourse with
her family, in the general tenor of her daily life. There-

EARLY REMINISCENCES.
fore she was not only an earnest, zealous follower of
Christ, but a sensible, practical, intelligent and useful
Christian. This she was at the age of thirty, and, as I
believe, until her death.
4. I knew Mrs. Downs as a filial daughter, an affec-
tionate sister, a faithful mother and a loving wife. At the
time when I was so much in the Allowaystown parson-
age, Mrs. Corson, the mother of Mrs. Downs, was for a
period a visitor there. I believe she enjoyed her so-
journ there. So far as I can recall in memory the inci-
dents of that time, I never saw or heard aught that did
not bespeak loyalty and love in the bearing of that
daughter towards her mother. Indeed, so true, so good,
so kind was the heart of that daughter, that I could not
conceive of her treatment of her widowed and aged
mother being other than beautifully filial and sweet. I
remember that mother as a happy disciple. I heard her
in class meeting at the parsonage say, “Jesus all the day
long, is my joy and my song.” She long preceded her
daughter to the better land, but now no doubt they are
united in the Golden City where
“In love's eternal reign
Parted hands shall clasp again.”
Mrs. Downs and Mrs. Dr. Phillips, late of Trenton,
were sisters. I well remember a visit of the latter at the
parsonage in Allowaystown. Mrs. Phillips was a lady
of intelligence, refinement and piety—an excellent type
of woman. The intercourse between the sisters was
altogether sisterly. Mrs. Downs was in that relation
what a woman should be.

54
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
As a mother, she was in the period of which I write
but a step-mother, but she filled with painstaking fidelity
a mother's place, and with a mother's solicitude trained
her husband's two sons. The younger knew not the
time when she came to be his mother, and both grew up
to love and honor her as a mother indeed. Both are
honorable citizens and exemplary Christian men. They
revere and cherish her name and her memory. Her
own children were her charge in her widowed years.
With her unfailing resource she educated them, and her
daughter graduated in 1876 from Pennington Seminary.
As a wife, Mrs. Downs seemed to be almost every-
thing that a wife should or could be. She honored her
husband. She appreciated his talents and his virtues.
She was ever ready to acknowledge his ministerial
excellences. Once in Allowaystown I heard her ask
him, “Who are the strong men of the New Jersey Con-
ference besides Charles S. Downs?" That was but a
little thing, but it was a wifely compliment delicately
given, and it showed the spirit of a doting, loving wife.
In the days of which I write I saw that husband and
wife much together, and I can truly say that their inter-
course was marked by indications of conjugal affection.
She was ever ready to show her high estimate of him,
and her love for him. In all the tests of trial and adver-
sity to which that love was subjected, she clung to him
with a true wife's complete abandon, and taught her chil-
dren to cherish his name and to honor his memory after
he had triumphed over death. My heart does homage
to that noble woman who, through all vicissitudes, stood
by her husband, caring for him in trouble and in penury;

EARLY REMINISCENCES.
55
ministering to him in his long sickness; comforting him
when his head lay upon the death pillow, and through-
out her widowhood keeping his memory green and
precious in her heart.
It may be thought, perhaps, that in this reminiscent
sketch I have indulged freely in the language of pan-
egyric. I will only say that I have honestly sought to
write the truth, and nothing but the truth. I have
written of a person whom I had excellent opportunity
to know when her name was not in newspapers nor her
form seen upon platforms. I have written of a woman
of whom I have vivid recollection when she was yet
young, and the presiding genius of a Methodist parson-
age in a country village; a woman who was my sympa-
thizing friend, counselor and examplar in days of youth-
ful crudeness, weakness and inexperience. Her memory
is very precious to me. The rush of forty years has
but slightly dimmed the life-like lineaments that her
gentle and skillful hands engraved on my heart in the
ten months that I was so often in her society. It does
indeed seem to me that her character, as I knew it, was
almost without a flaw; that her womanhood was of a
high type; that her life was radiant with holiness. I
must say that, take her "all in all,” she was one of the
best and greatest of her sex I have been privileged to
personally know; and I record my judgment here, I
think impartially, that Sarah Corson Downs was one of
the foremost women in soundness of heart, strength of
character, mental resource and effective leadership, not
only of New Jersey, but of America.

LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
CHAPTER VI.
HER LIFE IN TUCKERTON.
IT HE life of Mrs. Downs in Tuckerton is described
of the place; the first, Dr. T. T. Price, con-
tributes the following:
The years that Mrs. S. J. C. Downs spent in Tucker-
ton were not seemingly marked by a great variety of
incident. Though active in work and untiring in energy,
yet so quiet and unobtrusive were the duties in which
she was engaged, that comparatively little of a striking
character is available. Her residence at this place cov-
ered a period of about fourteen years—from 1860 to
1874. They were probably the saddest and most trying
years of her life. Her husband had removed to Tucker-
ton, the home of his childhood, upon retiring from the
ministry. In this quiet home, among the relatives and
friends of her husband, she faithfully fulfilled the tender
duties of mother and wife. The care of the family
devolved in a goodly degree upon her. Her husband's
health was failing. He was not a rugged man, and the
opportunities for remunerative employment in such work

IN TUCKERTON.
57
as he could do were few. He taught school, and
engaged in such business as opened before him; but
the disease which finally laid his body beneath the soil
of his native town was already making inroads upon
his health.
Amid these trials and discouragements, Mrs. Downs
preserved her characteristic cheerfulness and courage.
She engaged in whatever honorable employment offered,
to assist in the support of her family. She soon opened
a private school, first at her own house, and subsequently
in a rented hall, and continued it for several years. She
also taught a part of the time in the public schools of
the village.
As a teacher, she was proficient and popular, and her
scholars became attached to her. A young man, now
connected with the Tuckerton Railroad Company, in
speaking of his attendance upon her school, said: “I
liked her as a teacher, and learned more from her than
from any other teacher, in the same time.” Her private
schools were well patronized; and many of the younger
men and women of the town remember her with rever-
ence and affection.
She was also, during most of her residence here, a
regular contributor to the "New Jersey Courier," pub-
lished at Toms River, and furnished the items of local
news from Tuckerton for that paper. She wrote with
great fluency and ease, and her articles, though often of
commonplace matters, were always readable and interest-
ing. This labor, added to her household cares and
school-teaching, made her life a busy one, even here,

LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
and added a further modicum to her personal earnings.
From a file of the “New Jersey Courier," during those
years, many items of interest might be obtained, bearing
upon her life and thoughts at that time. Perhaps a
single quotation from an old number of the "Courier,"
dated May 16th, 1872, will serve to illustrate her style,
and the condition of the temperance cause in Tuckerton
at that time:
"On Friday evening last, Captain Charter addressed
an audience in the Methodist Episcopal church on tem-
perance. As your reporter came in late, it would hardly
be considered just to venture any extended comment on
the lecture; but from what we heard, our judgment is
that he is a very graceful, pleasant speaker, well calcu-
lated to interest on any subject he might discuss. He
was here by invitation from the two temperance organi-
zations of the place. There is but little zeal in this cause
manifested here; the interest in these gatherings is
never very great. Perhaps this is owing, in a great
measure, to the almost unprecedented absence of drunk-
enness. A person under the influence of intoxicating
liquor is a sight very rare in our streets."
Mrs. Downs was at this time, or during a part of her
stay in Tuckerton, a member of the Good Templars
society; and this was the only temperance work in
which she engaged at that time.
But her principal activities, and those for which she
will be longest remembered in Tuckerton, were directed
to the erection of a new church building for the Metho-
dist Episcopal church. She assisted at the very begin-

IN TUCKERTON.
59
ning of the movement, with other earnest and active
women of the church, in organizing a Ladies' Aid
Society, of which she was the efficient secretary. This
society was, perhaps, the most active and successful
agency employed in accomplishing the large task which
they had undertaken.
One of the sisters, who was associated with others in
this work, says of Mrs. Downs: “She was the moving
spirit, and did the head-work, while we did the hand-
work;" and again: “She laid out the work for others,
planned ways for raising money, and did but little of the
laborious work herself. I don't believe the church
building would have been built, had it not been for her.”
Another sister says: “She was our leader in the
Ladies' Aid Society. Her brain was more fertile in
devising ways than ours. She was a pleasant and
agreeable woman to associate with.”
As an illustration of her business-like methods and
firmness of character in maintaining what she thought
right, the following anecdote is offered:
On one occasion, while the building was in course of
erection, when the Ladies' Aid Society was in session at
one of their homes, two brethren—leading members of
the church—called upon them and informed them that
they needed $200, and had come to ask them for it.
Mrs. Downs asked them if they had an order for the
money. They replied, “No." "Then,” said she, “you
cannot have it.” The brethren insisted that the need
was an urgent one, that the getting an order was only
an unnecessary formality, and would cause delay. She

60
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
stoutly resisted the payment of the money, except
through the regular methods, and the arguments pro
and con were continued for some time. The other ladies
were divided in opinion about the matter: some agreed
with Mrs. Downs, and some advised letting the money
go. At length, a motion prevailed to let the brethren
have the money. Mrs. Downs replied: "Well, they
have gained their point this time, but they will not do
so again.”
The writer well remembers the great number of fairs,
and festivals, and exhibitions of various kinds, held
through several years, averaging, perhaps, one a month
during the time of the preparation for and the building
of the church edifice. These were largely planned by
Mrs. Downs, and carried through to a successful
issue by the energy and perseverance of the other
ladies of the church; always assisted, of course, by
the brethren, and liberally patronized by the citizens
of the town and surrounding country. And the result
of these untiring labors is seen in the large, handsome,
commodious house of worship of the Methodist
Episcopal church of Tuckerton, with its convenient
and comfortable parsonage, which was also a part of
the work accomplished during those toilsome and busy
years.
She was also active in the Sunday school as a
teacher, and gained in that capacity the kind remem-
brance and gratitude of those who came under her
instruction. Her husband and herself had been
made life members of the American Bible Society,

IN TUCKERTON.
61
by some one of the churches, while he was in the min-
istry. This entitled them to receive annually a dollar's
worth of Bibles and Testaments from any of the
Depositories of Bibles of that Society. While they
lived in Tuckerton the Tuckerton Bible Society,
auxiliary to the American Bible Society, kept on
hand Bibles and Testaments, and Mr. and Mrs.
Downs regularly called for their Bibles or Testaments
every year, and, probably, gave them away to destitute
persons.
Her hopeful, cheerful disposition was a subject of
observation to many. While her husband was sick
and unable to earn anything, and her little family
was almost entirely dependent upon her own per-
sonal exertions, she was observed to go humming a
hymn on her way to school or returning, and had a
kind smile and cheerful word for every one she met.
Her trust in God truly enabled her to say: "Because
Thy loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall
praise Thee."
C. M. Headley, one of her Bible class, pays this
heart-felt tribute to his teacher:
It was said by a celebrated author that “he must be a
· bold man that dares undertake to write the life of
Daniel Webster." This the writer feels would apply
with equal force should he attempt to write the life of
the noble woman to whom this book is dedicated.
Indeed, there is no need of this, for her life has been

62
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
already written; proudly, grandly written by herself, for
all of us who knew her; and all there is for us to do is
to try and gather up for other eyes to read a few of the
kind and noble acts with which her busy life was
crowded. It is, therefore, the privilege of the writer to
pay a modest but an honest tribute to her memory as a
teacher; and to relate a few of the many incidents that
his memory may recall, that happened twenty years ago
or more, when, as a youth, he, with other young men,
had the good fortune to be one of her scholars in the
Sunday school. It is not an easy task for any teacher,
no matter how earnest or thoroughly prepared, to hold,
Sabbath after Sabbath, the attention and the attendance
of a large class of eighteen-year-old boys. Yet this
feat Mrs. Downs accomplished with apparent ease. The
class to which we refer was in the Methodist Sunday
school at Tuckerton, N. J., during her residence among
us. The writer has often asked himself the secret of
her success as a teacher. She was not a rapid, nor
scarcely a fluent talker at that time, although an easy
one. She did not attempt to clothe her thoughts in
flowery language, nor did she talk as much as many
teachers feel they must; but by her skillful questions
that appealed to the intellect of the scholar, she drew
from him, almost unconsciously to himself, an answer;
and often the scholar was surprised to find he had such
clear ideas about the lesson. Her mind seemed to com-
prehend, as a whole, the lesson to be taught, the main
features being already arranged; and, when a place
was reached to make a personal application of the

IN TUCKERTON.
63
truth, again her wonderful tact was displayed in knowing
just how to enforce it. In speaking of this the other
day to a gentleman who was a member of the class, he
recalled an incident that will illustrate this fact. One of
the boys was a nephew of Mrs. Downs, and in reply to
a remark from her relating to the responsibility of a
teacher, said: “Oh, Aunt Sarah, let me have the
Journal. I can teach the lesson.” She allowed him to
do so, and after he had talked a few minutes, and shown
a fair knowledge of the subject, he handed the paper
back to her. The boys were quite amused. Mrs.
Downs did not seem displeased; and yet there was a
touch of sadness in her voice as she said: “Oh, George,
how well you know the way!” and then turning upon
him one of her intensely earnest looks, she said: “What
a responsibility!" "That was twenty years ago,” said
he," but it made an impression on me that I have never
forgotten. Very often I hear again in fancy, that voice
saying: 'What a responsibility!” This gentleman was
converted under her teaching, and in this same church
there is no stronger supporter to-day, nor a more con-
sistent follower of his Lord and Master. Who can tell
the influence of a single sentence under divine direction?
There were nine members of this Sunday school
class, and it is a remarkable, as well as a pleasing fact,
that all but two were either converted under her
teaching or not long afterwards, and to-day are useful
members of various churches. Two of these seven,
who were converted, are trustees, and two are stewards
in the church where Mrs. Downs taught them; and of

LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
these, one is assistant superintendent of the Sunday
school; while another has been assistant superintendent
of another school, and superintendent of still another.
Of the remaining three, the writer knows that one, at
least, has been superintendent of a Union Sunday school.
In the study of the Bible and Bible characters, we
were made to feel that Abraham, or Moses, or Paul,
were as really men of ages past, as were Washington,
or Jefferson, or Lincoln, and her earnestness and clear
illustrations lent a zest to the study of the Bible that
we shall never forget. We felt that she knew the way,
and had trodden it before us. She never had to tell us
that she had a personal interest in us—we knew it.
•One of her many noble traits was that she always
saw and appreciated the good in others, and tried to
help them. An instance of this was told us but a
short time ago: There was an old lady in our church,
a good woman, but always worrying and often crying
over some imaginary trouble. Mrs. Downs wrote out
that beautiful hymn, beginning-
“Peace, troubled soul, thou need'st not fear,
Thy Great Provider still is near."
And late one evening placed it under the old lady's
door. The next morning she found it and felt that it
was divinely sent, and who can say that it was not?
One Sunday, in the fall of 1873, Mrs. Downs referred
in the class to a call that she had made the evening
previous upon a lady who had just married a business
man of our village and come to reside among us.

IN TUCKERTON.
"She is a dear little woman," she said, "and fits in her
new home splendidly." This very lady, when speaking
to us of Mrs. Downs but recently, said: "I shall never
forget when she called upon me for the first time. I
came here a stranger, and in her kind and motherly way
she brought sunshine into my life at once.”
The last time the writer saw Mrs. Downs was at the
Woman's Christian Temperance Union Convention, held
in Tuckerton in June, 1891, only a few months before
"the Master came and called her.” She grasped my
hand warmly, as she said: “And here is Charlie,
another of my boys!” How well she looked, but how
little we know? Even then her feet were on the mar-
gin of the river. The mystic oarsman was very near
the shore, and the crown was only a little way above
her head.
Rev. J. H. Payran, who was her pastor during a part
of her life in Tuckerton, writes:
While stationed in Tuckerton, N. J., during 1870 and
1871, I became intimately acquainted with Mrs. Downs
and her family; as pastor, I was frequently at their
home, her husband, Rev. Charles S. Downs, being an
invalid and confined to his house most of the time. The
cheerful spirit of Mrs. Downs often impressed me;
though burdened with many cares and sorrows, she was
always cheerful. To the management of her home and
the care of a sick husband was added the charge of the
public school and the duties of an earnest worker in the

LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
church, for she was interested in all church work, and
one of its faithful servants and most active members; yet
in all this she was happy. Forgetting self and seeking
only the good of others, her cheerful spirit filled her
home with sunshine.
The great executive ability that Mrs. Downs displayed
in the successful management of the temperance work
committed to her care, was witnessed in her home life.
While so many things were to be looked after, requiring
time, patience and tact, yet, by system and energy, she
was enabled to accomplish a great amount of work-
regularly writing for the press, carefully looking after
her home, her school, and always at her place in the
church and performing with zeal her duty. Mrs. Downs
was born to manage, and in her home life this trait of
character was developed to its highest degree, fitting her
for the grand work that crowned her closing years. She
possessed a genuine Christian experience the life of
Christ in the soul. She was always ready to give a
reason for the hope that was within her. Her walk was
consistent, her life earnest, and her faith in God won-
derful. This was the secret of her cheerful and success-
ful life. The oft-repeated expression that “It is all
right," in trials, discouragements and frowning provi-
dences, revealed the confidence she had in God, who
fails not to notice the falling of a sparrow, or to number
the hairs of our head.
The church of God, with all its interests; lay near her
heart—not only the local society to which she belonged,
but the whole church. She was interested in all the

IN TUCKERTON.
67
great questions that have, from time to time, agitated the
church, and especially those questions of church policy
in her own denomination. While she was not sectarian
in any offensive sense, and entirely free from the spirit of
bigotry, she loved her own church and was zealous of its
doctrines and usages. Her convictions upon church
polity were deep, and her sentiments well defined; right
well would she express them, and earnestly maintain her
views. She gave much of her time and strength to the
church, was a most efficient Sunday school worker and
tract distributor, and wisely planned for the temporal and
spiritual success of the church. No one listened more
attentively to or enjoyed the preaching of the gospel
more than Mrs. Downs, and she was faithful in her
attendance upon the public and private means of grace.
Her great love for the church, and native energy, led
her at times to be impatient of the tardiness of the
leaders, and she would, by well-chosen words, stir them
up to greater zeal. She was a true friend of the pastor,
always encouraging him. Having traveled and labored
with her husband in the pastorate a number of years, she
knew how to encourage and assist the pastor in his
work, and was always ready to render good service.
Her good sense and sound judgment made her services
of special value.
Mrs. Downs had a true motherly love for her home
and family. All the children of the family were alike to
her; she knew no difference. Their happiness and
spiritual good were her chief concern. The spirit in
which she sought the good of all in her home, and the

68
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
care and love for her invalid husband, manifested the
noblest traits of a true Christian woman, and showed
the power of the grace of God to sustain in trial and
wearing toil.
Her husband, after a long illness, passed triumphantly
to his reward on high in 1870. He was a man, like his
devoted wife, with honesty of heart, and strong faith in
God. It was my privilege to frequently visit him, and
to observe his happy spirit in failing strength and
approaching death. He would talk about death and
dying in the most natural manner, without the least
indication of any emotion of fear. I said to him a little
while before the hour of his departure came, being
deeply impressed with his calm and even joyful spirit,
when so near the eternal world: Bro. Downs, what is
your experience in view of death? Have you those
spiritual sensations of rapture that come to the soul in a
glorious conversion to God, when the Spirit of the Lord
comes mightily into the heart, making it new and filling
it with light and love? His reply was, “ No; I have
strong faith in God that He is with me, and that all
is right."
A very short time before his death he said to his
physician, the aged Dr. Mason: "Doctor, how is it with
me now?" The reply was: “Well, Charles, you are
near your end." With deep emotion the dying man
said: "Doctor, I shall then go where they live, while
you remain where they die."
It was our privilege to entertain Mrs. Downs at the
parsonage while on an official visit to Atlantic City only

IN TUCKERTON.
a short time before her sickness and death. She
appeared so well and full of hope in her work that
death seemed a good way off. She spent a delightful
evening with the family discussing the great cause of
temperance, in the speedy triumph of which she had
unbounded faith. We talked over our past experiences,
and the condition and prospects of our children, tem-
poral and spiritual. She was exceedingly happy in
reflecting upon the condition and surroundings of her
children, and of the deep gratitude she felt for the good-
ness of God that had followed them. At the hour of
retirement she led the evening devotions, and such a
prayer! It was simplicity itself; a prayer born of true
friendship and a pure heart.
The life of Mrs. Downs was one of cheerfulness in
sorrow, trial and care; of great usefulness in patient
and anxious toil through many discouragements, and of
mighty faith that all that opposes the establishment of
the kingdom of Christ on earth must yield to the sword
of the Spirit, the truth of God faithfully presented.
Though dead, she yet speaketh ; and her works do
follow her.
Shortly after her husband's death the following article
appeared in Mrs. Downs' column in the “ New Jersey
Courier:"
In the circling flight of time, we have passed another
milestone on the great highway, which all are traveling
to eternity. Another year has passed away, and the

LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
events of eighteen seventy-one have been inscribed
upon the lasting page of history. It is gone! not one
single moment can be recalled, and whether its record
has been for weal or woe, it is now inevitable. Very
naturally, at such a period, does the mind retrospect the
past, and, in thought, go back to other years, when the
loved of the “long ago” were among us, and made joy-
ous by their presence those familiar scenes which now
to us are desolate, because they are not. What tender
memories flood our hearts, as we remember only their
virtues and those qualities of mind and heart which not
only rendered them lovely in our sight, but which gave
them a title to that celestial inheritance which God has
promised to the faithful. We love to think of them as
safe from the ills of life and that they now tread the
gold-paved streets of the New Jerusalem, with spotless
robes, and conquering palms, and glittering crowns,
albeit we are left to weep over the family circle broken,
the hearth-stone desolate, and ties the most tender
sundered forever.
How dreary would life be, if no light from the hope
of “joys beyond” were flung across our pathway; if no
prospect of reunion with our loved and lost ones were
granted us to comfort our lacerated hearts when we laid
them away in the deep, darksome grave! But the light
of revelation sheds its cheering rays over the dim years
of the far-off future, and tells us we shall live again our
renewed being in their company, and, buoyed up by
this hope, we equip ourselves anew for the battle of life,
till, tried and proved in the furnace of affliction, the

IN TUCKERTON.
Master shall say to us: “It is enough ; come and in-
habit the mansion prepared for you.” Oh! when the
anchor shall drop within the harbor, what joy shall be
ours. It shall be:
“Like the mariner tossed on the wild, pathless ocean,
Hails with rapture the star that hangs over his home.”
The dead of seventy-one! who are they? As we
glance over the past twelve months, how many names
have been erased from the tablet of life! Not only the
cherished ones of the private circle, but many whose
records are inscribed on the roll of fame. The church,
the state, science and philosophy have had their bereave-
ments. Many of the great ones of earth have passed
off the stage of action and gone to swell the “nations of
the dead.” One star after another has been blotted out
here, to shine more resplendently in the higher heaven
of God's eternal presence. Eloquent tongues are now
silent upon whose utterances thousands hung entranced.
Wise counsellors are not, upon whose decisions the
weal or woe of important trusts depended. With them
the record of life is closed and sealed for the great day
of eternity. No year to them so important, so awfully
important, as that just flown! Such is life! Happy we,
who hail the opening beauties of this new year, with
high resolves of greater activity in every good work,
with nobler aspirations than ever before animated our
hearts, with deeper, broader views of life's responsibili-
ties, and a more firmly-rooted purpose to live and
answer the end of our being, by devoting all we are to
the service of truth and righteousness.

LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
O youth, whose eye now rests upon this page, are you
devoting your talents and energies to the cause of God?
Are you spending the strength of your young manhood
in promoting truth and pureness of heart and life?
This may be the year in which, with you, time will end
and eternity begin. Make a wise preparation and heed
the stranger's warning, for
Lo! on a narrow neck of land,
'Twixt two unbounded seas you stand,
Yet how insensible!
A point of time, a moment's space
Removes you to yon heavenly place,
Or shuts you up in hell.
In 1873 Mrs. Downs sent her daughter to boarding
school, she teaching in Tuckerton and writing for the
press to pay for the tuition. One of the bitterest disap-
pointments of her life was that “with her own two hands,
she could only earn enough to send one” of the child-
ren to school. Which should it be? Without an
instant's hesitation, she said: “The girl.” A little prop-
erty (a very little that was left) was sold to help out the
expenses. One year was spent in the Bordentown Col-
lege. In 1874 Mrs. Downs secured a position in the
Pennington public school as principal, and the daugh-
ter was placed in the Seminary. Mrs. Downs boarded
at the Irving House, kept by Mr. Joseph Bum, an old-
time friend, and there she received, with open arms, her
daughter's friends from the Seminary. They always
went freely to her room, and how every one learned to
love her! Whenever they went out on pleasure bent,

IN TUCKERTON.
73
.
they were sure to gravitate there. She was interested
in their societies, their opposites, and their studies—a
mother to the homesick ones, with a tender side for the
romances of the Seminary. Even with all the cares and
perplexities born of her circumstances, Mrs. Downs,
while in Pennington, found time, aside from her daily
duties, not only to mother the confidences of the Semi-
nary girls, but to consider the best interests of the town.
The public spirit evinced in her life elsewhere was mani-
fested here, also. While living in Pennington she first
became interested in the Woman's Christian Temperance
Union, although not so actively as in later years. The
Minutes of 1876 give “Mrs. S. Downs, of Pennington,"
as the “Vice-President for Mercèr county.”
The daughter graduating in 1876, Mrs. Downs moved
to Ocean Grove, and there "she built upon faith a little
home.” In September of the same year, the daughter
began teaching, and the loved mother was never called
on again to follow her avocation. In the meantime,
John, Mrs. Downs' only living son, by dint of personal
effort, had acquired an education. Samuel and James
had been educated previous to their father's death. This
happy rounding out of the rough edges of life's stern
battle left Mrs. Downs free to assume the work which
stands out as her chiefest monument. She had been
battling all her days for her own; now, in these closing
years, she was to devote her life, her consecrated ener-
gies and skilled intellect, to the well-being of others, and
the upbuilding of an organization whose fame was to rest
on a solid and sure foundation.

LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
CHAPTER VII.
A SKETCH OF TEN BUSY, HELPFUL YEARS.
“Happy we are !
For though we stand alone,
Like the disciples gazing up to heaven,
Toward our ascended one,
We know that God, who takes what He has given,
Never a soul forsakes,
And surely gives again that which He takes.
She who has passed above the sky
Has gone in Time, comes in Eternity.”
PE APPROACH the last ten years of Mrs.
Downs' life with a keen realization of the
impossibility of giving anything like a complete
record of the work done by her. We stand before this
life in wondering admiration at its completeness, its
breadth, its strength, its scope; a many-sided life; a life
so full of the Spirit of her Divine Master, who "went
about doing good,” that she literally followed in His
blessed footsteps, carrying comfort and joy, hope and
blessedness, wherever she went. Coming to a time in
life (fifty-nine years of age) which had already been given
to self-denying service, when most women naturally feel
that laboring days are about over and resting time had

TEN BUSY, HELPFUL YEARS.
75
come, she entered upon the laborious duties of President
of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of New
Jersey. I well remember when I first saw her; it was at
the State Convention held in Millville, October, 1880. A
large woman, with earnest face and manner, note-book
in hand, was frequently upon her feet, seeking informa-
tion or giving her ideas concerning some item of busi-
ness before us. I turned to my neighbor, and asked,
“Who is she?" and the answer given, “I think her
name is Downs; she is a delegate from Monmouth
county, but whoever she is, she knows what she is
doing," gave evidence that her good judgment and clear
brain impressed us even then.
The Sunday evening following, by invitation of Rev.
J. H. Payran, we both spoke in his church-Mrs. Downs
preceding me. Her opening remarks were tender and
pathetic, as she told us that in this pulpit her dear hus-
band, long since gone to his reward, hạd stood as pastor.
"It seems strange,” she said, “ for one at my time of life
to make her maiden speech.” But she very soon con-
vinced her appreciative audience that her heart was full
of zeal and earnestness concerning the great theme of
temperance.
I did not meet her again for a year, when the next
State Convention, held at Lambertville, in October, 1881,
brought us again together. During that year the health
of our former President, Mrs. M. R. Denman, had failed,
and Mrs. E. A. Mickle, the State Treasurer, proposed
Mrs. Downs to fill the place, and she was elected by
an almost unanimous vote. In her address of accept-

LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
ance of the position, she said: “I am but the widow of a
Methodist preacher, with very little of this world's
goods. I have neither silver nor gold to bring to the
office, but such as I am and such as I have, I dedicate to
God and temperance work;" and such giving as it was!
Such an abandonment of self one seldom finds.
I was elected Corresponding Secretary of the State at
the same time, and our lives ran along, side by side, in
the closest intimacy, for ten years. Her unwearying
spirit never faltered in summer's heat or winter's cold.
In storm and sunshine, up and down this state she has
gone, breathing hope and inspiration into the work she
had espoused. When she was made President there
were twenty-six Unions in New Jersey, and at the time
of her death every county was thoroughly organized,
and two hundred and eight Unions, with a paid-up mem-
bership of nearly eight thousand, were largely the result
of her faithful efforts.
At the next Convention, held in Bridgeton, in 1882,
Miss Willard was present, and presented a resolution
endorsing the principles of the then little known
“ National Home Protection Prohibition Party.” Mrs.
Downs listened very intently as that resolution was
read, and showed unusual interest in the discussion
which followed, and when the vote of the Convention
was taken, a majority voting in its favor, she evinced
deep satisfaction at the result, and from that time on
never ceased to aid, in every practicable way, the cause
of that party, which she firmly believed would bring
about the overthrow of the liquor traffic in our country.

TEN BUSY, HELPFUL YEARS.
.
77
The Bridgeton Convention was memorable in other
ways. We were asked, on the first day of our meeting,
by one of the Bridgeton sisters, to walk through certain
streets going to and from the church where we were
assembled and to the luncheon hall. Said our sister :
"It will take you a little out of your way to go by the
Davis House,' but do go, sisters, and as you go, pray
that God will close up every saloon in this city, but
especially that one." Miss Willard and Mrs. Downs
headed the column, and, as we passed the Davis House,
the porch was about filled with men and boys, who
looked with astonishment at the goodly array of women
passing quietly by. We did this each day, and the third
day not a man or boy was seen on that porch; and in a
very few years, every saloon in the city was closed, the
"Davis House” pulled down, and on its site there stands
a fine edifice, occupied by the Cumberland County Bank.
"No license" would still prevail in Bridgeton, were it
not for that infamous “Excise Commission,” granted
by act of the legislature in 1890, and approved by
Governor Abbett, which, notwithstanding the indig-
nant protest of its citizens, granted license to eleven
saloons.
The now famous resolution which has called forth so
much criticism was framed at the National Convention,
held in Detroit, Mich., in 1883. It reads:
Resolved, That we will lend our influence to that party, by
whatsoever name called, which shall furnish the best embodiment
of our principles, and will most surely protect our homes,

78
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
This action on the part of the National Woman's
Christian Temperance Union created animosity in the
minds of some, and for five years thereafter the sessions
of the National Convention were kept in turmoil by the
few who would not endorse its sentiment, and who
strove unavailingly to influence the majority to reject
it, until at Chicago, in 1889, they withdrew from the
National Woman's Christian Temperance Union and
organized the so-called non-partisan organization.
During this period, great wisdom was needed in the
National, especially in the Executive Committee, and it
was about this time that Mrs. Downs received the title
of the “Andrew Jackson” of the Committee. Her
judgment was relied upon, her wisdom was felt, and she
was there recognized, as in her own state and sur-
rounded by her own cabinet, a veritable “Tower of
Strength.” She was cautious about taking advanced
ground until her mind was clear concerning it'; but
when the truth entered into her soul; when she felt after
mature reflection and waiting upon God that He said,
“Go forward,” nothing stopped her brave spirit. If she
stood alone—why, she would stand alone if necessary,
even as Luther stood, with the same cry: “Here I stand;
God helping me, I can do no other." This was particu-
larly true in the case of woman's ballot. Some of our
state workers were urgent upon her to more fully
espouse this department of our work, and to present its
necessity to the Unions, but she waited. She studied
the position long and carefully, looked at the situation in

TEN BUSY, HELPFUL YEARS.
all its bearings, asked God for guidance, and the light
broke in upon her. At the Convention held in Millville,
in 1887, in her Annual Address, she uttered this ringing
sentence:
“Viewing this evil from our stand-point, and realizing
the necessity for immediate and very prompt action, I
have come to the place and time where I can say what I
have never said before in this presence, give woman the
ballot! and I hope this Convention will declare unequiv-
ocally for equal franchise, believing it to be the surest
method of overthrowing the liquor traffic and all other
sins against our homes."
It so happened about this time that we were passing
through Trenton, during a session of the legislature,
and stopped in to watch the proceedings for a
while. To our surprise a bill allowing women to vote
on all school questions, also to hold the position of
school trustee, except in cities of the first and second
classes, came before the house, passed with very little
opposition, and subsequently became law. Mrs.
Downs wrote of it at once to the Unions, explaining it
to them and urging them, where they were entitled to
the suffrage, to use it as a weapon of defence in bringing
to pass a better state of things for the children. At the
next school meeting held in Asbury Park, she led the
women to the polls, much to the discomfiture of many
of the male voters present. The following items
culled from Asbury Park papers give a fair history of
the case:

LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
From the “Shore Press," March 23, 1888.
WOMEN TO THE FRONT.
The right of franchise was exercised for the first
time by the women of Asbury Park and Ocean Grove
on Tuesday evening, when, by the presence of a large
delegation of ladies at the High School, Mrs. A. C.
Dunham, of Ocean Grove, was elected a member of the
Board of Education. The weather was extremely un-
favorable, but the women, who were determined to
exercise their newly-acquired right, astonished the men
by turning out to the number of about twenty-five.
This was a great surprise to the male voters, who,
although cognizant of the feminine right, had not
thought they would be present. The other sex was
headed by Mrs. S. J. C. Downs and Mrs. M. Helen
Crane, and every lady looked as if she meant business.
They got what they went after, a lady member of the
Board, and a very distinct voice in the proceedings of
the meeting. When nominations were called for, Mrs.
Downs, in a neatly-framed and well-pointed speech,
caused some excitement by submitting the name of
Mrs. A. C. Dunham; this was seconded by several men.
Mr. Treat’s and Joseph Wainright's names were also
placed in nomination, but the former withdrew in favor
of the latter. Then the balloting begun. Mrs. Downs,
Frank Tantum, W. F. Le Roy and F. Leggett, ran

TÉN BUSY, HELPFUL YEARS.
81
the ballot-box and the tally-sheets. The ladies were
given the right of way, and they marched in and dropped
their votes as though the fate of nations hung on the
result. Mr. Tantum waxed funny and asked many of
the most elderly ladies if they were twenty-one years of
age. Mrs. Dunham received fifty-four votes and Mr.
Wainright fifty-three, total one hundred and seven.
But there were only one hundred and one names reg-
istered, and so it happened that the legality of the
election was at once called into question by many men.
However, after much oratory from various sources, Mrs.
Dunham was, by the chairman, declared elected. This
dissatisfied many ungallant men, and there is a possi-
bility that the matter may be taken to the courts. Just
the same, Mrs. Dunham will pluckily insist on holding
office until she is duly unseated by process of law.
From the same paper, March 29, 1888.
THAT WOMAN TRUSTEE.
The sensation produced by the election of Mrs. A. C.
Dunham as school trustee last week has not yet sub-
sided. The selection of a woman for such a responsible
position seems to particularly grind a certain few would-
be dictators, who are making every possible effort to
have the election declared illegal. With this end in
view, an emissary was sent to Freehold to consult with
County Superintendent Lockwood. It is reported that
to Dr. Lockwood it was stated that one vote had been

82
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
cast at the election by a lady who was not a resident
of the school district. The lady referred to was Mrs.
S. J. C. Downs, one of the best-known ladies of the
state, and who has resided in New Jersey more than
one year, in the county longer than five months, and in
the township more than twenty-four hours. Thus she
is a duly qualified voter. County Superintendent
Lockwood wrote Mrs. Dunham a letter, telling her he
had been officially notified that the election was illegal
on the following grounds:
1. That one vote was cast by a lady not a resident of
this district.
2. That the election was illegally officered (but in
what way was not stated).
3. Because the name of each voter was not duly reg-
istered. He further said, that Mrs. Dunham could
legally decline to serve, and that in that case he would
be relieved of much annoyance.
The old members of the Board were allowed to act
without her presence until he could appoint a successor
to fill the vacancy which he alleges to exist in the
Board; because of the supposed illegal election. Mrs.
Dunham was informed this morning that last night a
meeting of the Board was held; she said she had not
been notified that there was to have been a meeting, but
said in view of the position assumed by the County
Superintendent, she was not surprised at the attempt
to ignore her by those persons who were opposed to
women holding office.

TEN BUSY, HELPFUL YEARS.
From the "Asbury Park Journal,” March, 1888.
The actions of the “crowing hens” at the school
meeting on Tuesday evening has placed the sex they
misrepresent in a humiliating position, and brought mor-
tification, undeserved, upon the ladies of this place. The
spirit shown was merely that of bravado, and it is reap-
ing its reward in the flippant ridicule that has been uni-
versally prevalent in this neighborhood since the meeting.
There was no necessity for a female trustee. The dis-
trict is one of the largest in the county; it embraces
three schools; the board has the employing and over-
sight of more than a score of teachers; its business
involves the annual expenditure of from eighteen to
twenty thousand dollars, and in the management of
affairs requires not only intricate and careful financial
methods, but also a large amount of physical labor.
Above every other requirement, a trustee should have a
thorough knowledge of business methods, and experience
in educational management. Without any possible dis-
paragement to the lady whose name was used on Tues-
day night, it may be said there were at least three
gentlemen available for the position whose qualifications
excelled in these particulars. * * * There is no
compensation attached to the office, but they stood
ready to give their time, talents and experience freely
and willingly for the good of the district. Would it.
not have been wisdom to have still further advanced

84
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
the interests of our schools by selecting one of these
gentlemen ?
Resolutions passed by the Woman's Christian Tem-
perance Union of Ocean Grove:
WHEREAS, The legislature of the state of New Jersey has
enacted a law, giving the right to females who are properly quali-
fied to vote for trustees of our public schools, or to serve as
trustee of the same, when elected to that office; and,
WHEREAS, In the exercise of these rights, the wives and
mothers of School District No. 9072 are entitled to the same
rights and privileges as the male citizens who were present at the
recent election; therefore,
Resolved, That we, the members of the Ocean Grove Woman's
Christian Temperance Union, indignantly resent the ungentle-
manly attack of the "Asbury Park Journal," in denominating the
ladies who took part in the election as “crowing hens."
Resolved, That inasmuch as there were less than twenty-five
ladies present to vote, and that Mrs. Dunham received fifty-four
votes, that we hereby express our gratitude to the more than
thirty gentlemen who cast their votes for a woman trustee.
Resolved, That the above be printed in the "New Jersey
Tribune," "Shore Press,” and “Ocean Grove Record.”
Mrs. M. A. BELTING, President..
Mrs. S. CULVER, Corresponding Secretary.
Asbury PARK, N. J., April 4th, 1888.
MRS. A. C. DUNHAM :
Dear Madam :-I am directed by the County Superintendent,
Dr. Lockwood, to notify you of the legality of your election as
school trustee of District 9012 for the term of three years. I will
notify you by card when the trustees meet again.
S. W. KIRKBRIDE, D. C.

TEN BUSY, HELPFUL YEARS.
When the term of one more of the male trustees
expired, another woman was elected; and the schools
have been run satisfactorily to all concerned, notwith-
standing “the district is one of the largest in the county,
and requires intricate and careful management of its
affairs." And so the world moves on! Mrs. Downs
stood for principle against trickery in this, as in every
other case; winning to her side many who were won by
the womanly tact and patience shown by those who were
so needlessly assailed.
During a visit to one of the large cities of New
Jersey, where a series of meetings had been arranged,
the first one was to be held in a Reformed church.
About a dozen persons only came to attend the service.
Upon inquiry, we found it was prayer meeting night in
many of the churches. "Oh, well," said Mrs. Downs,
"we must never conflict with the church meetings.
Suppose we go in a body to the nearest church and join
in their service," which we proceeded to do. The
“ nearest church” proved to be a Methodist, and they
were holding a union prayer meeting with three sister
churches, the four pastors in the altar. Mrs. Downs led
the company up to the side front seats, and when the
time for testimonies came, she turned to me, saying:
“Now, Margaret, do your duty for God and temperance,
and give the message with no uncertain sound;" and, as
a result, the meeting took a temperance turn almost, as
all the testimonies, after this, were for temperance and
Prohibition. At the close of the meeting the pastors
present gathered around us, and exclaimed: “Why,

86
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
Sister Downs, where did you come from? and how does
it happen you are here when we had such a temperance
meeting?" To which she made answer: “The people
didn't come to us, so we came to the people, and have
had our temperance meeting."
During the second year of our frequent journeying
together, she one day said to me: "I want to plan this
trip so you can stop over at Beverly and see my sister.”
This only sister, Mrs. Dr. Phillips, had been such an
important factor in her life that very often as we
traveled together in the train she was the subject of
our conversation; and I learned to respect and love one
so tenderly and lovingly represented to me, and became
anxious to meet her. She was living at the home of
her daughter, Mrs. Emily V. Street, who, with her now
translated husband, Prof. J. Fletcher Street, was doing
all that love could devise to make this gentle sufferer
comfortable. As we entered her room that day, Mrs.
Downs exclaimed: “Well, sister, here I am back again,
and have brought another temperance tramp to see
you." From the bed came a feeble voice: “You are
welcome, always welcome,” and, as she extended her
wasted hand to clasp mine, she said: "I must lie here
and cough, while you go out to do the work." Then
she questioned about our trip: “How many meetings
have you held? Did the people come out to hear?
Have you formed any new Unions?” &c., &c., entering
into every incident connected with the trip with interest,
and showing that, although laid aside, she was keenly
alive to all that was transpiring in the busy world out-

TEN BUSY, HELPFUL YEARS.
87
side. Three years confined to her room, and most of
the time to her bed, yet with a brain so clear, a mind so
active, it rose superior to all hindrances of the flesh
and kept abreast of the times, not only in current litera-
ture, but in all reform work. Her grandchildren, from
the youth preparing to enter college, to the little lad
just mastering his A B C's, all came to grandma's room
for aid in preparing their lessons; a veritable encyclo-
pædia of knowledge was this rare woman. When Mrs.
Downs was about to organize the Beverly Union, Mrs.
Phillips gave her name and money, saying: “I want to
be the first one in Beverly to join this Union," and until
her death was greatly interested in all that pertained to
its welfare.
I cannot leave this home without referring to its head,
whom God called so mysteriously to Himself in 1887–
three years after Mrs. Phillips' death—a man so genial,
so tender, so needed, that his place has never been filled
in the community. Mrs. Downs telegraphed me this
message: “My heart is crushed: Fletcher Street is
dead.” I knew something of what he had been to her;
I knew that his home had been her home; that for the
last two winters of Mrs. Phillips' life, particularly, Mrs.
Downs had been a welcome inmate of that home; that
his purse had often been opened to place in her hands
the wherewithal to go to some point in the state requir-
ing her aid. I knew how his helpful words had inspired
her during the first years of her work, when she felt
herself all unequal to the task imposed upon her, and I
knew that from him, more than from alınost any other

88
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
one in the state, bad she received counsel and encour-
agement to persevere in her Heaven-sent mission, and I
knew, indeed, her heart was "crushed.” Three months
after his death, "little Emily," a gem of a child, followed
him. I am sure there was a blessed reunion in that
upper clime, when our sainted leader arrived, for it was
she who led Mrs. Phillips and her husband, and the dear
mother, to Jesus Christ and His pardoning mercy many
years before.
As Mrs. Downs had made her home at Ocean Grove
for a number of years, and knew of the vast influence
extending all over this and other lands from the meet-
ings held there from year to year, it was but natural, as
there had not been a temperance meeting held under the
auspices of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union
for several years, that she should crave a place in the
very excellent programme arranged by Dr. E. H. Stokes,
the worthy president of that world-renowned and
greatly-loved home by the sea, for the New Jersey
Woman's Christian Temperance Union, that the thou-
sands who attend those services might become acquaint-
ed with our work and workers. Accordingly, upon
her presenting the case to Dr. Stokes, he granted her a
place on the programme for a one-day's meeting in July,
1883; this was the beginning of a series of meetings,
which have continued year after year, until the “Ocean
Grove School of Methods” has become, through the
wise leadership of Mrs. Downs, one of the features of
the summer programme, and the vast influence extend-
ing far and wide from these meetings is beyond compare.

TEN BUSY, HELPFUL YEARS.
The summer of 1884, Mrs. M. J. Pierson, of England,
with several others, was one of the speakers at this
meeting. One afternoon she gave us one of her most
stirring addresses. General Clinton B. Fisk was on the
platform. At the close of her address, Mrs. Downs
called on him to make a few remarks. He arose, passed
to where Mrs. Pierson was sitting, and, taking her by the
hand, said: “Allow me, madam, to thank you personally
for your grand address; it has gone to the very centre
of my being." Then, turning to the audience, he said,
with a force and energy that was thrilling: “Before God
and in this presence, I wish to declare my fixed deter-
mination never again to cast a ballot for any political
party that is not unalterably and unqualifiedly opposed
to the liquor traffic—so help me God.” As he stood
there, with hand uplifted, a hush came upon the people,
but only for an instant, when a burst of sympathetic
applause showed how the audience appreciated his
action.
Dr. Stokes, who was sitting near by, said: “General,
that means a great deal.” “Yes,” the General responded,
“but I have counted the cost.”
Ah! what a cost it was! A man with a nature so
true, so brave and tender, with a heart as gentle as a
woman's, and yet, when aroused, like that of a lion; to
such an one the misrepresentation, the calumny and
abuse which were heaped upon him because he had
listened to the voice of God and conscience, and was
willing to stand for the Home against the Saloon, choos-
ing, with Moses, to suffer reproach with the people of

90
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
God rather than disobey the promptings of his soul,
meant a great deal.
Mrs. Downs was one of the first to recognize his
probable leadership in the gubernatorial contest of 1886.
Previous to the nominating convention, she asked an
interview, during which she urged him, if the nomina-
tion were tendered, to accept it, and become the standard-
bearer of principle, rather than party, in New Jersey.
The General said " he felt others could do as well, if not
far better, than he, and hoped some other name might
head the ticket; still,” he declared, “if God calls me, I
shall not shrink from my duty.” After that memorable
convention, held in Newark, in May, 1886, by which he
was nominated by acclamation, she wrote him at once,
assuring him of her prayers and sympathies, and prom-
ising, so far as was in her power, to aid him in every
way. This she did, and when, in 1888, he was nomi-
nated on the presidential ticket, how bravely she stood
by him; how loyal she was to him and the cause he had
espoused! and yet, so wise was she, that at no time
during those campaign days did she wound any of her
constituents who did not fully concur with her in the
position she had taken ; but frequently, when in the
home of those who were not in sympathy with her
views, did she strive, in her own logical, convincing way,
to remove prejudice and to show them that General Fisk
had stepped out of the old party into the new because
he felt assured it was a divine call to him; and many
who to-day are earnest champions of Prohibition were
brought to this way of thinking by her faithful presenta-

TEN BUSY, HELPFUL YEARS.
91
tion of the truth. And when the end of life came to
that noble soul; when he who had stood as a target for
bitterness and hate, and yet, through it all, had kept as
sweet as a June day; when he passed on to the glory-
land, her heart went out in crying and tears. We sat
together during those funeral obsequies, and listened to
those who spoke eloquent words of eulogy, as they
dwelt upon General Fisk's greatness as patriot, states-
man and philanthropist; but we listened in vain for one
word or allusion to his temperance record. That period
of his life was a blank. It seemed a strange and unac-
countable omission; and, as we stood beside the casket,
looking down on that calm, still face, her whole frame
shaken with sobs, Mrs. Downs exclaimed: "General, your
brethren may not recognize or appreciate the work you
have done for temperance, but God will not forget it, and
we will not forget it, and the broken-hearted will not
forget it. May God help us to be as true— faithful unto
death!'” As we passed out of the church, we met Dr.
Graw, and, as she took his hand, she said to him:
“Doctor, if you live to attend my funeral, promise me
you will not talk of me, but talk to the people of tem-
perance and Prohibition."
Mrs. Downs had the rare faculty of remembering
names and faces. She could, without apparent diffi-
culty, call a person by name whom she had not seen
for months, and sometimes years; indeed, it seemed as
though she knew and remembered by name each one
of the seven or eight thousand White Ribboners in the
state; meeting them on train or at Convention, she was
never at a loss to name them.

92
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
After she disposed of her cottage at Ocean Grove, it
was still deemed wise to continue State Headquarters at
that place during the summer months, where she could
receive the many who, very naturally, desired to see her
during their sojourn at the seaside. Accordingly, dur-
ing the summer of 1888, White Ribbon Cottage, on
Ocean Pathway, was State Headquarters. Here four
hundred visitors registered their names during the
season; 1889 and 1890, Headquarters were, through the
kindness of Dr. D. M. Barr, established at Hygeia
Hotel. Here Mrs. Downs endeared herself to every
guest who came into the house. Her warm, motherly
nature went out toward the suffering ones, and she be-
came a blessing to those shut out from the busy, active
world. Returning from her frequent trips about the
state, she was always heartily welcomed, and her fresh,
breezy accounts of the varied experiences during these
trips were greatly appreciated and enjoyed. A little
circle of interested listeners would speedily gather about
her chair on the wide porch, or in her office, enjoying
to the full her entertaining and interesting recital.
While she was mindful of every invalid in the house, a
very tender attachment sprang up between one of the
invalid guests, Col. C. A. Crane, husband of Mrs.
Laura Boyden Crane, and herself—he styling her his
"little mother." "She always had time to bring a little
sunshine into my monotonous, weary life," he said to
me after her death. A friend stopping in one Sabbath
morning after service, to ask a question of Mrs. Downs,
was kept waiting some time. When she came she
apologized, by saying: “I always make a tour of the

TEN BUSY, HELPFUL YEARS.
93
sick rooms Sabbath after service to give them their
crumb of the sermon, and I knew they were expecting
me."
The Ocean Grove Union felt an especial pride in
having her as a member of their local Union, and in
many ways sought to do her honor. During her
sojourn at Hygeia Hotel, they resolved to give her a
surprise reception on her sixty-seventh birthday. She
returned home during the day, wearied from one of her
journeyings, but in the evening, when the spacious par-
lors had filled with loving friends who came to greet
her, she was one of the brightest in all that company.
During the evening one of the ministerial brethren
present stepped forward, and, in behalf of the Ocean
Grove Union, presented her with a handsome new dress,
in these words:
“My dear Mrs. Downs,
I hope that the gowns
That envelope your years sixty-seven,
May each be succeeded,
As long as they're needed,
And then the white robes of heaven.''
During 1891 Headquarters was at 94 Main avenue.
Here, with Mrs. N. L. Caminade, an old and tried friend
of Mrs. Downs, she spent one of the busiest but happiest
summers of her life. Between seven and eight hundred
visitors were registered. It made no matter how weary,
or anxious, or careworn she was, to each and every one
she extended a cordial welcome. The busy pen laid

94.
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
aside, her question: "How is the work prospering in
your town, or city, or state?" was not one of mere
courtesy, but of real interest. Thus she kept herself
in touch with every phase of the work all over the
country. Many and earnest were the conversations,
often protracted until late in the evening. My
daughters, who, in turn, acted as her secretary during
the summer months for four years, have come home
at nine o'clock in the evening to find me resting, and
have exclaimed: “Why, mother, Mrs. Downs has a
porch full of visitors, and is as bright as she was at
nine o'clock this morning,” such was her remarkable
vitality.
Word was brought one day that summer of a sad
case that was to be tried in the justice's court at
Asbury Park: A young Swedish girl had been betrayed
by a young American living in the Park, from
whom she was trying to get support for herself during
her confinement, and for her unborn child. She was
homeless, friendless, penniless — understanding very
little of our language. Mrs. Downs at once sent word
to a half dozen true-hearted women to meet at a cer-
tain hour and accompany her to the court room. It
was one of the warmest days of the year, but she led
the way to that hot, stuffy room, and took her seat be-
side the frightened, homesick and heartsick girl, telling
her: “These ladies have come to be with you during
your trial, because you are a woman and in trouble.”
Soon the room filled with many of the loafers of the
community and half-grown boys, all eager to listen to

TEN BUSY, HELPFUL YEARS.
95
the sad story of sin. While the girl was telling her
version of the affair, in broken English, and trying to
understand what the defendant's lawyer was saying,
who took particular delight in using phrases unknown
to a foreigner, and who, at every point possible, sought
to show the jury that it was the young man who had
been led astray; that this girl trembling and cowering
before them was too vile to live in such a place as
Asbury Park, and should be cast out; at which point
the girl, not fully understanding what had been said,
left the witness' chair and came to her seat. Mrs.
Downs had been growing more and more indignant at
the turn the case had taken, under the unprincipled
handling of this man who was making capital for him-
self out of the suffering of this defenceless girl, and
who enjoyed the laugh he raised at her expense among
his male hearers, who “ rolled as a sweet morsel under
their tongue" the ofttimes indecent remarks pertaining
to her. As she resumed her seat, Mrs. Downs took one
of the girl's cold hands in hers, and, covering her face
with the other, wept and sobbed over the shame and
horror of the whole thing. Seldom had I seen her
show such emotion; her whole being rose up at the in-
justice of the entire procedure, and she was not sur-
prised to learn the jury had decided for the man. She
at once secured a home for the girl with one of
Ocean Grove's blessed women, who not only kept and
tended her during her time of sorrow, without money
and without price, but is still caring for her and her
child. This is but one of many instances where she

96
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
gave practical help. Many to-day rise up and call her
blessed for the aid she tendered them in a time of
extremity.
At another time, she addressed the African Methodist
Episcopal Conference, and learned of a young brother
who had sought to enter the Conference, but had failed
in his examinations, and was in great distress of mind.
She hadn't time to seek him out, but, upon reaching
home, wrote him and told him to let her know if she
could help him. He replied, “circumstances had been
against him; he needed certain books, and his wife's
sickness had used up the money he had laid aside to
procure them.” Whereupon, Mrs. Downs wrote to
certain ministerial friends, asking their co-operation, and,
as she went from point to point, gathered up and sent to
him not only the books he so much needed, but the
nucleus for a good library. Two years ago, she again
addressed the Conference. At the close of her address,
a fine-looking man came to her, and introduced himself
by saying, “next to God, I owe you my thanks for the
position I hold as a Christian minister.” She manifested
her surprise, but soon learned this was the brother to
whom she had sent the books, and who was now one of
the acceptable ministers of the Conference.
Mrs. Downs had a happy way of speaking kindly to
trainmen, gate-keepers, car-drivers, and any one she
thought would be helped by a word of cheer. At one of
the ferry-houses in Philadelphia stood a gate-keeper, to
whom she always spoke pleasantly as she passed
through. He did not know who she was—nor did she

TEN BUSY, HELPFUL YEARS.
97
know aught of him, but that he stood there year after
year. One day, upon alighting from the horse-car to
cross the ferry, she found her pocketbook gone—she
had been robbed. She was a long walking distance from
friends, it was almost night, and for a moment she did
not know what to do, when she espied the gate-keeper.
Going up to him, she told him her quandary. “Don't
let that disturb you, madam,” he said, as he put his hand
in his pocket; "how much would you like to have ?"
and he unhesitatingly placed in her hand the amount
required to take her to her destination. When she
returned it, she wrote him, “ If there were more of this
brotherly kindness in the world, there would be fewer
heart-aches and heart-breaks ;” and that she looked
upon him as one of “nature's noblemen.”
She was one upon whom old age sat very lightly,
keeping her heart young and entering into the projects
of young people with zest. One day, when a group of
lads and lassies were sitting on her porch, she came out
with a number of letters she desired to have mailed
at once. Handing them to a youth standing near, she
said: “Here, R- , run to the post office with these,
and as you come back, bring some fruit and nuts, and
then we'll have a good time,” at the same time placing
in his hand the wherewithal to procure the treat; and
when he came back she sat with them, enjoying the fun,
for nearly an hour, and then went back to her desk. At
another time, a little birthday gathering was planned for
one of my daughters. Mrs. Downs' name was the first
on the list. To these girls, who could not remember a

98
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
grandmother's love, this blessed woman filled that place
in their hearts, and was admired, revered and loved by
them. On the day of the gathering—which was during
the last of July, and, in consequence, the very busiest
time of year for her—we feared she would be unable to
be present; but, about four o'clock, she came, wearing
her best cap, and bringing a little gift and some choice
flowers. She seemed not at all out of place in that com-
pany of young people; on the contrary, they gathered
about her, and, when at table each one was required to
write a verse of poetry in honor of the occasion, her con-
tribution caused much merriment. Here it is:
“A thought for your birthday, dear Minnie,
Is quite out of question for me;
In poetry I'm always a ninny,
In prose I'll do better, you see.”
While attending the last Hunterdon County Con-
vention, held at Frenchtown, she was told a wedding
was to take place in the church at five o'clock. It was
proposed that those of the delegates who remained over
should attend. “Yes, girls,” said Mrs. Downs, “we
must not miss that;" and shortly after, when the usher
came to escort them singly to seats, they told him to
“ take the State President, and we will follow." Bowing
to her, he gallantly offered his arm, saying: “Allow me,
madam?” “With pleasure, sir,” she responded, as she
took his arm and tripped up the aisle like a girl, her
brood following closely behind.
She respected children, and children's rights, always

TEN BUSY, HELPFUL - YEARS.
99
greeting them pleasantly as she met them going to
school, her hearty“Good morning, children," bringing
quick response. When children were present at meet-
ings where she was to speak, she invariably suited a
portion of her remarks to them. The last time she
visited Middletown, Monmouth county, was during the
summer, to speak at a Sunday afternoon meeting. Quite
a number of boys were present, and she was especially
drawn to address them, saying at the close: “Boys,
remember what I tell you, for I may never pass this way
again;" and when the news of her death reached that
place, they repeated some of the things she had said, and
expressed much interest in the Memorial Services. She
always urged upon Unions the necessity of pushing for-
ward the children's work; indeed, the Loyal Temper-
ance Legion was, to her mind, second to none of the
departments. “Our hope is in the children; these boys
will soon become voters, and these girls the wives of
men who will decide the fate of the republic," was one of
the sentiments frequently expressed by her.
Mrs. Downs was, indeed, a true friend to the lowly.
Her washerwoman, the huckster, the newsboy, the hack-
driver, the fish-man, the man who brought water lilies-
all came under her especial care; and if, in any way, she
could make a heavy burden lighter, it was her joy to do
so. For years she kept a barrel, which she filled, from
time to time, with books, pamphlets and papers, sending
them to the freedmen of the south. The vast amount of
good reading matter which passed through her hands to
those needing such help was astonishing; in all her

I00
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
busy life, this was not overlooked. One of the last acts
of her life was to aid a young man-a converted Hebrew
-in preparing to enter school. She interested others in
his behalf, saw that he had clothing sufficient to be com-
fortable, a trunk in which to pack them, and not until he
was well equipped did she rest satisfied. She said: "He
is the stranger within our gates, and I must lend a
hand.” To those coming to her with books or articles
for sale (and their number was legion), she had only
kindly words. If she did not purchase (but she usually
did cripple her finances very materially by her gener-
osity toward them), then she would encourage them to
persevere, assuring them of ultimate success. There
was nothing narrow about her. A young Catholic
woman came to solicit a donation toward the building of
a new church. Mrs. Downs invited her to a seat, telling
her to rest while she "finished a letter;" then, turning
around, said: “Now, what can I do for you?” The
woman told her story; when she had finished, Mrs.
Downs said: “Your church is an example to us of
faithful, persevering effort,” and gave her a small contri-
bution. The woman was full of gratitude, saying:
“You are the first person to give me a kind word
to-day. I never tried to beg before, and it has been so
hard; but you make me feel better." Her great,
motherly heart took in many tales of sorrow of those
who came to her laden with grief, and poured their sor-
row into her sympathetic ear. I have known her to lie
awake hours after some peculiarly sad case had been
brought before her, turning it all over in her mind, and

TEN BUSY, HELPFUL YEARS.
IOI
crying out from the depths of her heart: “Lord, Lord,
do help that stricken one!" She stimulated all who
came under her influence to do their best. Many
women in this state to-day, in labors abundant, would
have remained in the little groove in which their lives
seemed cast, but that she recognized the ability within
them, called them to higher ground, encouraging, cheer-
ing, aiding them to persevere. Says one: "She never
made us feel small by her superiority, but helped us to
overcome our diffidence and lack of training, and
brought out whatever of good there was in us." What
a blessing she has proven to the homes that have opened
wide their doors to welcome her; how her influence has
been felt by each member of the family; how eagerly
and attentively all listened to her entertaining conversa-
tion, as they gathered about the table; and when at
family worship she was asked to take charge of the ser-
vice, her tender, loving petition for each one—not omit-
ting "the ones who so faithfully have cared for our
creature comforts”-always brought a blessing; and
when she left, all felt they were the better for her having
been among them. She was frequently asked: “How
is it you do all this hard work, and keep so well?” Her
answer almost always was: “Because our women take
such good care of me. Why, I have the best homes,
the best beds, the best food, and the love of the best
women in the country, and why shouldn't ] be well ?”
Often, after we had retired for the night, has she
exclaimed: "Lord bless this home! Ought we not do
our very best, when these blessed women do so much

102
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
for our comfort ?" It was a constant source of thanks-
giving to her that, almost to a unit, the homes of our
White Ribboners were well kept and well governed.
Many, many times has she expressed her satisfaction,
and would say: “How I should like Dr. - to see
this home, and know that this mother, with these well-
trained children, is one of our most efficient helpers in
the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.” How full
of righteous indignation she became upon reading
unjust, and ofttimes untrue, criticisms concerning the
“ lack of home-keepers among the Woman's Christian
Temperance Union women;" or, “what a blessing it
would be, if the women who are running about the
country would remain at home and care for their chil-
dren," when she knew the great majority of women
actively engaged in this outside work had reared their
children to manhood and womanhood; that the homes
and children "neglected” were among an entirely dif-
ferent class of women; that the yearning mother-love of
our women had constrained them to go out in the
by-ways and hedges, seeking for those who, from lack of
mother-love, had been swept into the maelstrom of sin;
to take the warm, throbbing heart of sympathy to those
dying for sympathy; to give to unprotected girlhood a
mother's protection; to women cruelly, mercilessly
crushed by the force of circumstances, down into the
blackness of sin, to help them to look upon that blessed
Saviour, who so tenderly spoke to the weeping sinner at
His feet: “Neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no
more!" How often I have seen her eyes fill, as she

TEN BUSY, HELPFUL YEARS.
103
heard these harsh criticisms, and she would exclaim:
“Some day there will be a reckoning; some day the
eyes of those so blinded by prejudice will be opened;
some day those who should stand by us in our labor of
love will realize they judged us unjustly; we can afford
to wait God's time!”
Mrs. Downs would allude to her own family of sons
and daughter with motherly pride; and on election
days, with a degree of satisfaction rarely equalled, would
say: "I have had four votes cast for me to-day; my
three sons and son-in-law all vote a clean ballot for Pro-
hibition.” After she had left us, I was speaking of her
wide influence to one of her nephews, and he assured
me: “Not only outside, but inside the family had her
influence been felt for temperance and Prohibition;" and
upon inquiry I found there were twenty-three Prohibi-
tion voters in the family, and that nineteen of them had
always voted the Democratic ticket until, largely
through her influence, they had been converted to Pro-
hibition, and for years had only voted the Prohibition
ticket.
When Mrs. Downs entered upon the presidency she
became a close student of what other states were doing
to bring about the desired end of good; and, when in
1882 Vermont, mainly through the agency of Mrs.
M. H. Hunt, National Superintendent of Scientific
Temperance Instruction, came into possession of a law
compelling the study of “Physiology and Hygiene” in
the public schools, Mrs. Downs presented the fact at
our spring Executive Committee meeting, and the de-

104
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
partment of Scientific Temperance Instruction was
created in our state, Mrs. M. C. Nobles being made
State Superintendent. Mrs. Downs from that time
until her death was an indefatigable worker in this
department. She planned and aided in every way pos-
sible the securing of a law, whereby the three hundred
and fifty thousand children then in our public schools
might be taught the effects of alcohol and narcotics
on the human system. We petitioned again and
again; other states wheeled into line, securing the law,
but still our efforts were fruitless. Petitions were re-
ceived with derision or contemptuously tossed into
waste-baskets. A certain German member, during one
of the sessions, arose in his place, and called out:
“Meester Speeker, it is only de vimmen and de chil-
drens dat vant dis ting; de mens don't vant it," and as
it was “women and children" who were seeking better
laws, our honored representatives turned their attention
to what, to them, seemed more needing protection-
viz., fish, milk, butter, and hogs. Each succeeding year
either memorials or petitions were presented, only to be
rejected. At another time, one of the members from
whom we had looked for better things, as he held an
official position in a Methodist Episcopal church, in
commenting on the bill when it was before the house,
suggested the necessity of “having teachers who had
been victims of inebriety, or inmates of inebriates'
homes, that they might the better understand what was
required of them in the teaching of the effects of alcohol
upon the human system;" also, “that the state should

TEN BUSY, HELPFUL YEARS.
105
furnish the best of Durham tobacco and china cuspa-
dores to the teachers, to more fully illustrate the effects
of narcotics," and so amid scoffs and jeers our petitions
have been received; albeit, some brave, true men have
stood by the measure from the beginning. At the State
Convention of 1889, it was resolved to make still
another effort toward securing the law from the legis-
lature of 1890. Again, our faithful women trudged
through snow and wet to secure a larger number of
signatures to the petitions than ever before, hoping by
this means to influence our legislators in its favor. Mrs.
Downs spent over two weeks in Trenton, and, with the
aid of Mrs. Caminade, classified and arranged, in com-
plete form, to present to the legislature. There were
15,783 names enrolled-viz., 532 ministers, 234 physi-
cians, 135 lawyers, 7,844 business men, and 7,038 adult
women. Senator Carter presented the bill in the senate,
and Assemblyman Cole in the house. Mrs. Downs
had prepared a letter setting forth the merits of the
bill, which had been placed on the desk of each mem-
ber. She went almost daily to the sessions, and soon
found that many of the members, even though good,
honest men, did not fully look into things theniselves,
but as the “leaders” went, so they voted on all bills.
That year the house was almost evenly balanced as to
parties : Voorhees, of Union, being the leader on the
Republican side, and Marsh on the Democratic. In the
senate, the Republicans were one or more in majority,
and she thought “surely now, with the aid of a few
temperance Democrats, we will secure the passage of

106
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
the bill.” But, alas! she soon found one side was as
afraid to touch it as the other. The senate passed it;
and when it came before the house, an amendment was
offered by the leader of the Republican side of the
house, which practically killed it. Mrs. Downs, sitting
in the gallery, realized how worthless the bill would be
as amended, wrote a note to the gentleman, requesting
an interview. After waiting several days, he promised
to see her, and came at the close of the session with the
words: “I have only a few spare moments to grant
you." She thereupon called his attention to the non-
political phase of the bill, and asked if he had
read it. "Certainly, I have,” was his answer. She
appealed to him “for the sake of the four hundred
thousand children in the public schools, to withdraw his
amendment and let the bill come up on its own merits."
She also reminded him of the fact that thirty-six states
and the District of Columbia had already passed such
a law; that for seven years the women of New Jersey
had come seeking, by education, aid in protecting their
children against the eight thousand protected saloons
in the state, and called to his mind the petitions which
that year had been presented with nearly sixteen
thousand names, asking for the law. To all of which
he replied: “We are not here to legislate for morals to
be taught in the public schools," and much more in the
same vein. As she rose to close the interview, sick at
heart, he said: “Now, if you ladies would only work to
save the children from narcotics, there would be some
sense in it,” showing conclusively he had failed to

TEN BUSY, HELPFUL YEARS.
107
examine the bill. She explained to him that “narcotics
were included," but he passed on, and she-dear faithful
heart, God saw her tears, heard her sighs, as with dis-
appointment and grief she folded her papers, packed
her valise, and went back to her little home at Ocean
Grove, the burden of her cry being: “The blessed
women, how cruelly disappointed they will be! They
have worked so hard; have hoped so much from this
legislature—and now, to think it is all for naught. Too
bad; too bad!” Before Mrs. Downs' interview with
the gentleman referred to above, she invited Miss
Willard, who was east at the time, to visit the legisla-
ture. Senator Carter thought he had all arranged for
the Joint Committee on Education to hear her. Ten or
twelve women of Trenton Union, with Mrs. Downs and
Miss Willard, passed into the senate chamber, after the
session had adjourned, and here they waited over an
hour. Senator Carter made frequent efforts to have the
committee excused from the house, in order that they
might hear Miss Willard, but the speaker would not
excuse them, as they were in the midst of a terrible
struggle over a dog tax, and needed every member
present. Miss Willard could not wait longer, and while
some six or seven senators took their seats, our women
seated themselves in the vacant chairs, and Mrs. Downs
and Miss Willard ascended the rostrum, Mrs. Downs
taking the president's chair. With a few opening re-
marks in explanation of what we, as representatives of
eight thousand women in the state, wanted, she intro-
duced Miss Willard, who spoke about fifteen minutes on

108
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
the advantages of this bill from an educator's stand-
point. Then the committee arose. As Miss Willard
passed out, several senators wanted to be introduced
and talk with her on the bill, which she did in her
most kindly way. Then we took up our line of march.
As we left her at the home of her hostess, Miss Willard
gave us one of her rare smiles, and said: “Well, girls,
we have had a very pleasant episode, if nothing comes
of it," and history tells us nothing did “come of it."
As my mind goes back over the life we are studying,
I see very much to admire and stimulate to better effort;
diligent and faithful in the observance of duty, never
leaving to-day's duties unperformed, but, as though she
kept a “day-book” with God, settling up each day's
accounts. She was one of the most truly unselfish
spirits I have ever known. And now we come to the
last few months of this active life! After the busy,
trying season at Ocean Grove closed, County Conven-
tions called her. To these she turned unweariedly,
joyfully going from one point in the state to another;
always with the same helpful spirit, assisting a timid
county president to preside, encouraging, aiding in
every way; answering, with an intuition born of God,
the often difficult questions placed in the question-
box; presiding with dignity at the evening services,
bringing out the best points of the meeting held
during the day, and giving them to the audience in
a terse, comprehensive way; always winning friends
to the cause; never omitting to thank the pastor and
officiary for their generous use of the church, speaking

TEN BUSY, HELPFUL YEARS.
109
a few helpful words to the women, and then away
to some hospitable home to rest for the night, and in the
morning taking an early train, with very often a long,
cold ride, and again entering a church where was being
held another County Convention. As soon as she
entered, new life and energy seemed to enthuse the
entire assembly, as, with bright smile and tender words,
with no signs of weariness, she told the women “how
through the routine work of the day, alert, watchful,
taking in every item of business, and as painstaking as if
this were the only meeting of the kind to be held.
Again presiding at the evening service, and again loving,
helpful words out of her motherly heart, and then to
another home to rest wearied body and brain for another
day of service; and so on and on, frequently attending
four Conventions in one week. Often have I seen her,
after such arduous labors, get down beside the bed, and
groan out: “Lord, Lord, do, do help me!" And when
I would chide her for using her strength so prodigally,
her answer would be: “Oh! I love the work; it doesn't
tire me so but that I soon get rested, and every one is so
kind and thoughtful of me. No, I haven't much time
left, and I must make the most of it.” Surely she did
"make the most” of her life! The impress of her life
upon the state is measureless; and the influence will go
on and on"unto that perfect day.”
friend, a loving counsellor, a faithful guide. Life will be
richer and sweeter for the blessed ten years' comrade-

ΙΙΟ
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
ship. Work seems all the sweeter because of that last
call to me as she was sweeping out into the cold stream
of death: “Margaret, you will need to work harder
now, but when the work is over, I will meet you;" and
so, farewell for a time.
“A life well spent is like a flower
That had bright sunshine its brief hour;
It flourished in pure willingness,
Discovered strongest earnestness,
Was fragrant, for each lightest wind
Was of its own particular kind;
Nor knew a tone of discord sharp ;
Breathed alway like a silver harp
And went to immortality:
A very proper thing to die.”
MRS. MARGARET B. ELLIS.

LETTERS AND EXTRACTS.
III
CHAPTER VIII.
LETTERS AND EXTRACTS.
OfT WOULD take a book many times larger than
il this to contain all the good things written of
Mrs. Downs. We make room for a few of them,
with the regret that space does not allow us to publish
them all :
“Two years ago, in Pennington, at the Convention of
Mercer County, Mrs. Caminade read a paper on the
rights of women to be independent doers and thinkers.
In it she referred to the old church, now replaced by
the new. As she sat down, Mrs. Downs arose and asked
permission to speak upon that paper. 'How it has
aroused old memories,' she said. “I was married in that
church, and you were one of those little girls on the
pulpit steps with Joe and Em Phillips. From that,
with consummate tact, she led her hearers to the paper
in question, and made the strongest suffrage speech,
from a Christian standpoint, I ever listened to in all
my life, and in a place where the theme was most
unpopular. Her tact was, to me, one of her

TI2
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
strongest characteristics. We welcomed her to our
fireside, with her pronounced political opinions, knowing
if any one could win our husband from party affilia-
tions, it would be Mother Downs. As election day
drew near, how glad I was to welcome her, for I knew
the masculine backbones of my household would be
stiffened for election day. She was fortified with un-
answerable argument. Though all did not agree with
her, all loved her.
“As she came in contact with those who knew
nothing of her work, she soon showed them she could
talk of other things, and that, too, intelligently. To
keep abreast of the times in all things, for the sake of
her children, for the sake of her work, was as much a
part of her religion, as the going to church. She was
the most inveterate newspaper reader I ever saw. Who
ever met her in the cars, but that the hearty 'How do
you do?' came from behind a newspaper ? When she
was with us, we often used to smile. My husband
always comes home with pockets full of newspapers,
and, knowing her fondness, would usually place them
before her. Soon she would be absorbed in their con-
tents, and it was this broad outlook upon affairs and
things that won for her the admiration and respect of
men who knew and cared little for her work; and this
she did without show or fuss, exhibiting rare tact that I
would we might all cultivate. She was a wonderfully
well poised woman: grace of manner, and voice, and
heart, beautifully combined. A rare creature, indeed."

LETTERS AND EXTRACTS.
113
The following characteristic incidents in her busy life
will be read with deep interest :
“We were always proud of her at the National. We
knew little New Jersey would be kept abreast of the
most advanced state in the Union. There was no fear
that our President would make a false step. To every
appeal of Miss Willard, who moves our hundred and
fifty thousand women as she moves her right arm, New
Jersey was the first to respond. When the Temperance
Temple was a doubt, and not a fact, and the woman who
had had the faith to originate and carry out the plan
was assailed in the house of her friends, the pledge of
New Jersey was a rock under her feet. And once,
when she had undergone a cross-examination severe
enough for a criminal prosecution, with tears in her eyes,
she came down from the platform, put her arms around
Mrs. Downs, saying: 'Downsie, New Jersey is always
true.' In the National Executive, they called her their
"Andrew Jackson. We, of her own county of Mon-
mouth, were proud of her ability there, and when she
sometimes entered our meetings, and, with the decision
of a queen, made some arbitrary ruling (which none
dare oppose), we consoled ourselves with the thought
that we could not enjoy the honor of belonging to this
Andrew Jackson' without submitting to occasional
arbitrary rulings.
"One summer at our School of Methods, a visitor
from Nebraska (himself a public man) watched with keen
interest the business of the Convention, and said with

114
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
enthusiasm: 'I have never seen an assembly presided
over with greater ability; that woman ought to rule a
senate.' With this trait of her character was combined a
perfect effacement of self. When Mrs. Downs brought
her work before a meeting, no one ever thought of the
speaker-only of the work.
"In her political affiliations, she was a radical third-
party Prohibitionist, yet she never thrust her political
opinions upon us. At the question-box this phase of
our work was always cropping out. Yet there she was,
always free from acrimony. Once the question was
asked: What are the relations of the Woman's Chris-
tian Temperance Union to the third party ?' After a
pause, with one of her rare smiles, she said: “The only
relation the Woman's Christian Temperance Union bears
to the Prohibition party is—its mother.' A voice in the
audience said: “The Prohibition party is proud of its
mother.' With the same bright smile, she replied:
"Well, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union hopes
some day to be proud of her son.'
"Will we ever forget that dedication of the woman's
building at the Waverly fair? How happy she was that
day! I see her now, her arms full of flowers, her look
of triumph, as she paused with her foot upon the thresh-
old and exclaimed: “Who would have thought we could
have done it; lots of good times and we in 'em.' Can we
ever forget that dedicatory prayer; how she poured out
her very soul in praise and thankfulness, that this pure
white banner for temperance and Prohibition was raised
in the midst of sin and wickedness? With what satis-

LETTERS AND EXTRACTS.
115
faction she emphasized the dedication of the building
to free speech—no more to be hampered, but to give the
message as God gave it to her.
"Once I remember the question-box held this query:
"Shall we ask the speaker not to talk on Prohibition ?'
"I know all about this,' she said. “You meet your
speaker at the depot; you give her a cordial welcome;
you provide well for her physical comfort, and then
whisper: “Don't say a word about Prohibition; they
won't stand it here.” A wet blanket upon her enthusi-
asm. Don't do it, ladies! Let her speak as God gives
her the message; don't dare to bridle her tongue.'
"How keenly she felt the reluctance upon the part of
Her temperance work was her Christian work. There
was never a more loyal church member trod this earth-
this was her part of church work. God pity the blind,
who will not see this even now. We believe, as did she,
that unless the church of the living God is aroused, our
work is in vain.
“At the memorial service in Salem, I remember,
she said: 'One by one we are dropping out of line.
Who will be the next? None can tell. O, my sisters,
let us do our work well.' With tearful eyes we thank
God that for her, life and the beloved work ended
together.
“At one time there was trouble in our 'Y' Union.
I wrote Mrs. Downs for help, for advice, and there came
a sweet letter in reply, with a hearty 'Come and see
me?' 'Oh,' I thought, 'I cannot talk to the State Presi-
dent,' for this was a very timid ‘Y. But I went, trem-

116
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
blingly, and soon forgot she was the State President,
and felt, before I left, that I had had a good talk with
my mother.
"She was an intense admirer of General Fisk, and
loyal to the last degree. The General used to tell, in his
own inimitable way, how once, while living in Ocean
Grove, she had employed a man to cut grass on the
lawn. When the work was about half done, she went
to the front door, saying (it was when the General was
running for governor): ‘See here, my brother, I forgot
to ask you how you voted?'
"Vote? Oh, I'm all right; I'm a temperance man,
and vote a straight Republican ticket.' The reply was:
“Here, sir; just step inside. I will pay you; you need
not finish the grass; none but Fisk men work for me,'
and the grass was left unfinished.
“She would go without, or walk a mile to spend her
money with a Prohibition merchant. Her standard
was: The man who votes right. Never was the oppor-
tunity lost, to ask the question: My brother, how do
you vote?”
Three interesting extracts from articles written by
Mrs. Downs are given below. The first is especially
significant, when read in connection with the foregoing
letter. It was written in 1870, while Mrs. Downs was a
resident of Tuckerton:
To-morrow is town-meeting day. No questions of
much moment are involved in the election, we believe,
and the presumption is it will be rather quiet. Now, if

LETTERS AND EXTRACTS.
117
the “sixteenth amendment” were in force, we should not
dare to promise so much; but as it is not, and the dear
women are yet keepers at home (and it is to be hoped
ever will be, so far as going to the polls is concerned),
the “lords of creation ” will have it all their own way.
In 1887, in a letter to the “Union Signal,” Mrs.
Downs concluded an interesting article with this frank
confession:
I was not interested in temperance, nor did I realize
the evils of the traffic in alcoholic drinks, at the time the
Crusade movement was ushered in. I belonged to that
class of easy-going Christians who believe the church is
to work out all reforms, and that to engage in any move-
ment outside her precincts was rank heresy. It took five
years of indifference, and sometimes severe criticism of
the woman movement, to open my eyes to the truth. In
1878 the awakening came to me, and, with the dawning
of a quickened conscience, active work began. The
influence of this “touch of God” upon my heart has
been felt in every fibre of my being, and changed the
whole current of my life. It has given existence a new
ambition, and every act a new motive. Then I rededi-
cated myself to God and His service. To-day, I lay
again upon the altar all of soul, mind and body. I bring
to my work the best of thought, of word, of deed—all
I have! all I am! His acceptance of me and my best
fill my heart with gladness and my soul with joyful
thanksgiving!

118
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
In no state in the union does the old Crusade fire
burn brighter or warmer in the hearts of our women
than in ours. Lighted upon the altar of woman's love
and woman's faith, it will flame on, till the last foe of the
home is vanquished, and this cruel war is over, and we
rejoice in a nation redeemed! “No compromise," is.
New Jersey's war-cry! Faith in God and in ourselves
will bring us out victorious !
We wish to call especial attention to the following:
paragraph, taken from an article from her fluent pen. It
is a thorough confutation of the charge made by a cer-
tain minister, who said: “All she wants is to set the
women against the pastor." Note the sweet spirit of
sympathy that pervades the article:
Oh! if persons could realize how many burdens.
(which they know nothing of) are laid upon the shoul-
ders of a minister, even when his lot falls in pleasant
fields of labor, they would not be so chary of their
favors. If they could look into the secret chambers of
his soul, and see there the ceaseless anxiety and care
which he has for his flock; the fears, the doubts, the per-
plexities incident to his relation to them, not to speak of
the warm personal friendships which are interrupted, the
ties which are severed by frequent removals, and the
partings with congenial minds, never to be reunited on
earth. Give him, then, the cordial grasp of the hand,
the encouraging and sympathizing word; let him see, by
your habitual occupancy of your place in the sanctuary,

LETTERS AND EXTRACTS.
119
that you are ready to sustain him and hold up his hands
as he prosecutes his labor of love among you, for, when
affliction throws its dark shadow across your pathway;
when sickness and the death-angel cross your threshold,
it is to your faithful pastor you may look for sympathy
and comfort; and how priceless will these prove in the
dark, sad hours.

120
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
CHAPTER IX.
A HAPPY SUMMER DAY.
RS. DOWNS went up and down this state,
exerting an influence for good upon all classes
and conditions of men with whom she came in
contact, simply because of what she was, not so much
by what she did, though the doing was the natural
result of the being. The influence of a woman will be
what she is not what she tries to be or seems to be. If
she be a good woman, the results of her simply living
only the scroll of eternity will reveal; silently as the
snowflakes does her influence fall. As unconscious is
she of her power as the child of its beauty, or the flower
of its fragrance. Whether at work or at play, the radi-
ance of what she is falls like the sunshine—"a ray here,
a flash there, and a shower of jewels everywhere—full of
light and life, and tender as the dew of the morning."
Silently, never knowing when or how, she sheds the
influence of the Christ in her. Happy always! As
ready for play as work.
“A halo hovers o'er one golden summer day at
Ocean Grove," writes a near friend, “when she brought
home to me this marvelous, unconscious power of a

A HAPPY SUMMER DAY.
I21
good woman. Perhaps it was a little thing, but no
sweeter memory of her lingers in my heart to-day. We
had driven to the office, a merry trio of us, begging her
to 'jump in,' only for a little ride. Down went the pen,
and in a twinkling she was with us, only stopping to get
a bonnet and seize a bundle of literature, 'in case we
should go near the life-saving station.'
"O the glory of that day! How the sun shone!
How the leaves danced in tune to the music of our
hearts, and the sea wafted to us its briny fragrance as
we sped along its shore; the sea that seems now, in my
thoughts, to be always sobbing, as if it, too, remembered.
How we laughed and chatted, we thirty (three of us),
she seventy-yet all the same age. We had just come
from the Summer School at Avon-by-the Sea, a mile
below Ocean Grove. How we fairly deluged her with
an account of the good times we had down there-all
talking at once. This one must be listened to about the
Ibsen lecture; another, the Delsarte lesson, or Madam
Le Prince and the sketching-club; and she, taking it all
in with our enthusiasm, said: 'Oh, what you girls can
make of your lives! Learn, learn everything.' One of
the number, a quick, intelligent girl, is blessed with a
witty pen. We had urged her long to begin a sys-
tematic study of journalism; but her reply had always
been: 'I am too old; if I were younger, I would.'
"Presently the subject of conversation turned upon
the occupations opening up to women. We said, Is it
not strange there are no schools of journalism for
women? (Why, Mrs. Downs said, 'there is one, and

122
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
they are writing me now about establishing a branch
here next summer, and I am going to enter the school
myself. All my life I have been writing, at sea as to
real methods; now I am going to study journalism as
it should be studied.'
“We looked at each other, we three, and said not a
word.
“After leaving the bundle of reading matter at the
life-saving station, and a kind word with the sailors,
the happy ride was over. We left her at Head-
quarters, to take up the pen. As we drove off, we
looked back and saw her sitting in the window writing
steadily, just as we had found her an hour before, and
knew that all that day, and every other day, she would
go on working and playing, shedding sunshine and help
always.
“That morning, while at play, she had renewed an
ambition in a human soul. A few days after I met my
friend, who said to me: “I never felt so little. She,
dauntless, progressive at seventy, and I, discouraged
and afraid at thirty. It was the turning point of my
life. I went directly home to my desk, and wrote to
the school of which she spoke, and next week I begin
the study of journalism in earnest. I will never think
of my age again, as long as I live.'
“Oh, the blossoms of that seed-sowing, and who can
count the fruit thereof? Truly, “Her feet have touched
the meadows and left the daisies rosy.'
“Another of the 'girls' that enjoyed that ride, said to
me: 'Really, a great load has rolled off my shoulders.

A HAPPY SUMMER DAY.
123
I have been dreading growing old; now I know there
need be no old age; I am not afraid of it. I look
forward to it, with its possibilities for growth, with
anticipations and joy. I am going to learn everything
I want to learn. The thought “too old” has gone
forever from my mind. I never realized the glory of
living until now. God means it to be study to the end.'
“And she never knew! Oh, the influence of what a
woman is! 'The path of a good woman is, indeed,
strewn with flowers: but they rise behind her steps,
not before them.'»

124
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
CHAPTER X.
WOMEN IN THE CHURCHES.
THE FOLLOWING article was first published in
J16 the “Boston Traveler." We reproduce it
entire, as it accurately reflects Mrs. Downs'
sentiments on the subject under discussion :
WOMEN IN THE CHURCHES.
(An Open Letter to Dr. J. M. Buckley, Editor-in-Chief of the
“ Christian Advocate.”')
At intervals, for many months past, you have been
unsparing in your condemnation of Miss Willard,
President of the Woman's Christian Temperance
Union. How deeply you have wounded the sensitive
nature of that peerless woman, and, through her, the
organization of Christian women, of which she is the
trusted and honored head, whose only aim is to
advance the kingdom of Christ, and save our homes
from the curse of strong drink, you will never know
until you stand before the judgment seat. We have
borne it all, because we love the church better than

WOMEN IN THE CHURCHES.
125
we love the Woman's Christian Temperance Union,
and recognize the high position you occupy as the
exponent of Methodist doctrine and usage. In sor-
row and silence we have lamented the unbrotherly
treatment and the bitter feeling so manifest. But there
comes to us all, sometime in our lives, a crisis when
non-resistance under injury becomes a sin, and should
we hold our peace the very “stones would cry out."
Your recent utterances at Chautauqua have brought
such a necessity upon us. You are reported (and your
own editorial confirms it) as saying in answer to a
question concerning woman suffrage:
"Permit me to inform you that a great majority of
the open advocates of modern spiritualism are women;
nine out of ten-if not nineteen out of twenty-of all
the spiritualistic mediums are women; the majority of
the adherents and practitioners of Christian Science
are women. Permit me to say, that in all the false
religions of the world, women are greatly in the
ascendancy over men. The Mormons were the first
to grant woman suffrage, for they knew that their
women would stand for polygamy. There is a great
similarity between women and music. Both will help
a circus, a cathedral, and an army."
The allusion made to the Woman's Christian Tem-
perance Union I omit as too old to discuss here. That
has been worn threadbare, and you have done your
full duty to it. It is not as a Woman's Christian
Temperance Union member, not as a Prohibitionist,
that I resent this unwarrantable attack, but as a woman

126
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
I take up my pen to-day. I desire to give you full
credit for the good things expressed by you on the
occasion referred to.
Taking up your first point, and admitting that your
assertion be true (which is an open question), that the
advocates of modern spiritualism, Christian Science,
and false religions generally, are women, would it not
have been just to state that their advocacy of the true
religion puts them in an overwhelming majority in the
church to-day? I would ask you, who knows so well,
Who is it that bears the burdens of the church, to which
you and I belong? Who plans for new churches and
parsonages? Who supplies deficits in salaries? Who
sustains discouraged pastors by their presence at class
and prayer meetings ? Who keeps the ark moving by
prayer and faith?
To all of these questions, truth would compel you
to answer: “Faithful and true women and men, with the
latter in most deplorable minority." You well know
· what an impetus was given to the missionary enterprises
in the year following the organization of the Woman's
Foreign Missionary Society, the amount of money
(more than one million five hundred thousand dollars)
raised by these untiring women, their sacrificing labors
to help you men evangelize the world.
You know of the Home Missionary Society, formed
as late as 1880, which has brought hope and comfort to
many homes by its half million of dollars; its supplies
of clothing; its loving sympathy and help in time of
need.

WOMEN IN THE CHURCHES.
127
You know that woman has borne her full part in
carrying out the magnificent plans of our Freedmen's
Aid Society, our educational projects and Sunday
schools, Epworth Leagues, Bible and Tract Societies,
and deaconess' work, &c., &c. All this you have the
best opportunity of knowing in their widest details.
You once said, in a public address : “Susannah
Wesley was the mother of Methodism." You spoke
truly, and it was but a just tribute to the worth of that
good and strong mother.
Yes, Doctor, your church and mine owes much to her
women, for, from the days of Susannah Wesley and
Barbara Heck, down through the years of its first cen-
tury, they have labored for its best interests, both tem-
poral and spiritual. Yet, in the face of all this, you
come before a mixed audience and utter sentiments so
equivocal, to say the least, as to subject you to wide
criticism, and once more stab that class of your church
membership to which we owe so much.
How could you do it?
A distinguished woman of our church, who is abun-
dant in labor and in gifts, recently sent this message to
the officers of a society whose anniversary I was attend-
ing: “Dear sisters, do pray that the next editor of the
Christian Advocate' may be up with the times. Amen,
and amen."
In regard to the advocacy of polygamy by women, I
have never found, in the course of my reading on the
Mormon question, or in the limited experience that has
come to me incidentally, one true woman, within the

128
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
boundaries of Mormon territory or out of it, whose
soul did not revolt at polygamy and its distinguishing
concomitants.
Finally, I can see a striking resemblance between the
influence of woman and music. Both are, on the whole,
ennobling and elevating. The society of true women
will lift humanity to a higher plane. So a soul filled
with music will have aspirations for the good and
lovely; but as to their likeness to a circus, not having
experience along that line, I am unable to trace the
analogy. (This last item may have been a misrepre-
sentation; if so, we will drop that, for I would be unjust
to none.)
Now, Doctor, is it not about time that this crusade
against women should cease? Is not the church sur-
feited with it? I think it is. Fifty years of member-
ship in the Methodist Episcopal church has endeared
its interests to every fibre of my heart. I love the
church as I love nothing else on earth.
I value my church relations as I value nothing else ;
and to know that one who represents the church
should, in a great Chautauqua audience, so far forget
himself as to use the language referred to, is a humilia-
tion to which I will not submit without rebuke.
Through all the controversy concerning the admis-
sion of women into the General Conference, I have been
silent, for I knew the righteousness of the cause would
insure its success, and it needed no help from me. I
know, too, that I am no match for you in controversy,
for I am unlearned in the wisdom of men, neither do I

WOMEN IN THE CHURCHES.
129
desire to enter the lists as a disputant on any question;
but I do desire to record my indignant protest against
such utterances as you made at Chautauqua.
A proper self-respect demands this. May God for-
give you!
SARAH J. C. DOWNS.
Ocean Grove, N. J.
Mrs. Downs was invited by the management to
address the great convention held at Prohibition Park,
N. Y., in August, 1891. The title of her theme was
"Ought Drunkenness to be more Severely Punished,
and in what way?” Following is a verbatim report of
the address:
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the
Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of
God, him shall God destroy, for the temple of God is holy,
which temple ye are.
In answering, as I may be able, the question, Ought
drunkenness to be more severely punished, and in what
way? I assume that those who use intoxicants to a
degree which would entitle them to the cognomen of
drunkard, have reached the age when we naturally
look for some amount of good judgment and common
sense, for none attain drunkenness suddenly. It grows.
upon its victims gradually, and oftentimes distaste and
disgust have to be overcome before the habit is con-
firmed.
God has created man in his own image, pure and

130
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
good, with body fashioned after the perfect model of
Deity itself; with faculties of mind akin to God; with
powers capable of elevating humanity to the highest
point of intellectual and moral excellence; but, tran-
scending all, with a soul which is a part of the great
God Himself, into which the Spirit of Christ breathes
as an enlightener, as a guide. Knowing all this, with
all the possibilities of usefulness before him, with all
the God-given agencies for good by which he is sur-
rounded, and more than all, with the positive, plain
command of God, “Look thou not upon the wine when
it is red, when it giveth its color in the cup, when it
moveth itself aright; at last it biteth like a serpent and
stingeth like an adder," hanging over him; he who
defiles his body, dwarfs his mind, taints his soul, and
runs recklessly on to ruin, present and eternal, by the
habitual use of strong drink, is a sinner of deepest
dye, and subjects himself to all the penalties of a
broken law.
Next to the anathema of God upon such defilement
of what he created pure and holy, science adds its
protest against such indulgence by giving in detail
the effects of alcohol on the human system; what
damage it can do to brain, nerves, tissues, &c.; how it
burns, congests, inflames; how it stimulates them to
an abnormal activity in their effort to dislodge the
intruder; technically denominated by pharmacists as a
diffusible, powerful stimulant, when taken into the
mouth and throat, thence into the blood, heart, arteries,
liver, lungs, &c., every organ of them regards it as an

WOMEN IN THE CHURCHES.
131
enemy and hurries it by as speedily as possible. The
best medical authority corroborates this. Knowing all
this, can any one be guiltless who thus defiles the
temple of his body? He is a sinner in the sight of
God, and merits adequate punishment. This punish-
ment should begin with social ostracism. Society should
set its seal of disapproval upon any and all who indulge
in the use of intoxicants of every kind. Mrs. Grundy
has but to say the word, and it is done. (Many a
youth would be saved if she would.)
Fines, heavy or light, commensurate with the number
and extent of the offense, should next be the penalty
of transgression. Next, imprisonment should be tried;
complete isolation may induce reflection; if not, per-
haps absence from the blighted home may bring a
reprieve, at least for wife and children, for they know
best what the presence of husband and father, mad-
dened with strong drink, means. There has been a
vast amount of sympathy wasted upon the drunkard,
but very little manifested for those whom he injures
most, and not infrequently has the blame of his habits
been thrown upon the despairing wife. The poor, ill-
treated men are considerably given to doing just that.
Their father, Adam, set them the example, which many
of them delight to follow.
While I would punish the man who thus degrades
himself to the level of the brute, I would go farther
than that; I would have him held responsible for the
damage he does. I mean by this, repair the material
damage he does. The damage of the heart—who can

132
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
compute it, or who can compensate for lost confidence,
blighted hopes, ruined life, squandered fortune? Civil-
damage laws should be enacted and strictly enforced,
and damages in hard cash should be demanded. The
idea of a man, because he chooses to degrade himself
with maddening drink, to be allowed to sell the bed
from under a sick wife, to deprive her of food, and fire,
and all the comforts of life! It is a scandal upon the
civilization of the day. Rum scores must be wiped out.
at the saloon, whether there is a dime left or not to pur-
chase a crust for the starving family. Another fiend in
human shape, in a fit of frenzy, breaks the furniture,
destroys property, burns up clothing, and commits
other like depredations—and who calls to account?
Who steps in to defend the poor, weak wife or child ?
Does the law? I think not. He goes free to repeat his
insults and abuse, and she to suffer the consequence.
Oh, men! men, who hear me; why have you been
insensible to this thing so long? Why has this curse
been allowed to plant itself so firmly on our soil, to
devastate this fair heritage of ours? It stirs every fibre
of my womanly nature, as I think on these things, and
demands stern justice to exercise her right.
Men hold this power in their hands, and it would
astonish some of these good brethren here to-day to
know just how few real, protective laws for women are
to be found among our state statutes. Men have not
had the “arrest of thought,” until now they begin to
see. The Woman's Crusade was the first smothered
cry, which, reaching the ear of Omnipotence, was sent

WOMEN IN THE CHURCHES.
133
back to the hearts of the manhood of this nation. They
are beginning to see how little legislation has done for
the protection of that part of society which moulds and
fashions everything, either for weal or woe. The
home is woman's realm, and everything connected with
it is her affair. The prosperity of every nation depends
upon the virtue of its homes, as much as upon the
intelligence of its citizens; and everything calculated
to elevate and purify it should be one of the first
objects of good government.
Enforced law, wisely framed, is the only thing which
the transgressor really dreads, and the absence of
courage to make good and effectual legal enactment is
the most prominent reason why there are so many
dead letters upon our statute books. The paid cus-
todians of the rights of the people are often in league
with the offenders, and the guilty consequently go
enforcers of law! Upon no woman's skirts is found
the responsibility of these things.
But while I would show little quarter to the drunk-
ard, there are mitigating circumstances in his case
which ought not to be overlooked. The law of
heredity, once so obscure, is now better understood,
and we find we are to-day suffering from the moderate
drinking habits of our ancestors. From a long line of
drinkers comes this uncontrollable desire for strong
drink. From away back down the years of genera-
tions, held back, perhaps, because circumstances were
unpropitious, but gathering strength because of these,

134
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
it now rushes on, with maddening force, to the ruin of
its victims. Environments favor and hasten this; the
yawning doors of the ever-open saloon invite him, bid
him welcome. Its attractiveness dazzles and bewilders
him, companions tempt, and the gnawings of his own
appetite goad on to indulgence; and thus he drifts on,
till, like the moth in the candle and the poor fly in
the spider's web, he rushes on to destruction. Thus the
great army of our youth is being drafted, year by
year, till the number of the slain touches the million
line! Million! Yes, multiply. by another one, and you
are still wide of the mark! Lost to society, to family
and friends, to the church, and to the world, and, worse
than all, lost to heaven and eternal life. For the Book
says, No drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of heaven.
The eight thousand open saloons in my state, are the
open sepulchres of our citizens. The $40,000,000 which
went into their tills last year, were worse than wasted.
Forty million dollars taken out of the legitimate
channels of trade, is enough to beggar a state. No
cry of hard times, nor of a stringent money market,
need ever be heard in this fair land of ours. Were not
so much of our substance wasted. plenty would every-
where abound, and peace and prosperity universally
prevail.
Punish the drunkard? Yes!
Punish the rumseller? Yes!
But I would go back of both of these, and lay the
blame where it belongs: the country, the nation, the
state, the county, the municipality, the courts—all are

WOMEN IN THE CHURCHES.
135
guilty; and back of all of them is the voter, who, by his
ballot, that most potent of influences, that means so
much to us as a people, makes it possible for all these
evils to follow. The groundwork of all our trouble
lies back and beneath all these. This question must
be settled at the ballot-box; there is no other place !
Men have it in their power, women have not. Dear
brethren, with the privileges of citizenship go its re-
sponsibilities. You have it all in your hands, what will
you do with it?
Very few families care enough for their genealogy
to commit its history to the written page. Each gen-
eration recounts to its offspring the traditions of its
immediate predecessors, and they in turn hand them
down to those who come after. For these legends seem
more deeply tinged with romance when recounted at
the winter fireside by an aged grandparent, than when
confined to the cold forms of the types or the inanimate
tracings of the pen. Even the most studiously matter-
of-fact persons will, in their franker moments, admit that
the association of some gallant deed or noble act with
their individual ancestors awakens in them a thrill of
keenest pleasure. We feel, on such occasions, that the
brooding mists of antiquity are lifted as if by a friendly
magician's hand, and that we stand face to face with
heroes of our own kindred.
It takes many kinds of people to make a world, and
yet with all our dissimilarities there are certain qualities
held in common. In some a commanding eminence is

136
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
attained along certain lines; just how much credit for
this is due to heredity, and how much to self, is difficult
to determine. Of one thing we may rest assured, how-
ever, no matter what the process of analysis, the major
share is quite as often due to what we inherit as to what
we acquire. We all respond to common impulses; some
swiftly, others slowly. What more natural than the
truism that nature rewards her more obedient children,
and that they whose feet are swift to do her bidding
should tread in favored paths ? Thus we find an ances-
try, whose founders laid the lines in harmony with re-
vealed truth and the most diligent integrity, freely trans-
mitting the cardinal virtues to its descendants. It is
this hereditary fact which inspires the noblest aims and
leads to the most unselfish sacrifice. The weal of pos-
terity is lodged in this basal truth. Well might we
despair if, on the earthward side, all ended with life's
setting sun! Would the measure of our reward for the
toils and privations of this life be “heaped up and run-
ning over” if the solemn intonation of the priest, the
muffled tolling of the funereal bell, and the sighings of
the bereft, ushered in the finale whose consummation
was complete with the ending of the grave-digger's
task? Surely such a minor strain could scarcely find a
responsive chord in many weary hearts. Not that we
would surrender all and devote ourselves wholly to a
life of selfish ease and pleasure, but if the inspirations of
the after life were withdrawn; if the fires of hope were
quenched, and if we were left alone to grope in Egyp-
tian darkness, how could we infuse that spirit of zeal

WOMEN IN THE CHURCHES.
137
and devotion into our toil that marks the labor of them
whose work-song is pitched in the major key?
“Virtue hath its own reward,” 'tis true, but the im-
measurable recompense resulting from a life devoted
wholly to soul-culture and the welfare of our kind is
denied all here on earth. During life we are doled a
mere pittance, but, content with what we get, we confi-
dently await the day of final reckoning, knowing full
well that every good deed, every self-denial, every
heroic act will be rightly adjudged and compensated.
And who dares say what the reward will be for the
fruitage of a long life devoted unselfishly to the good of
humanity?
Last September Mrs. Downs visited Richboro (Addis-
ville) to attend the Annual Meeting of the Bucks
County Woman's Christian Temperance Union. In her
letter to the “Temperance Gazette," September 12th,
1891, giving an account of the trip, she writes:
Just in front of the church is the old graveyard where
former generations of my kindred lie buried. I stood
beside the graves of my parents as the last living rep-
resentative of the family name. Floods of tender
memories came over me as I went back to the days of
childhood, when, on that very ground, I played with my
schoolmates by the side of the old schoolhouse, where,
under the iron rule of a cruel, unsympathizing man, I
mastered the difficulties of the "three great Rs.” As
I stood by the now tenantless graves (for the ashes of
the once loved ones are all that remain) and thought of
ΙΟ

138
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
the inheritance left behind them (the legacy of tainted
blood), I then and there renewed my vows before God,
under His blue arch, with the glow of the setting sun
and the fast-gathering evening twilight, to do what
one woman can to turn aside the heredity tendency
and free this fair land of 'ours from the curse of the
traffic in liquid death and all its ghastly and blasting
concomitants.

EXTRACTS FROM ANNUAL ADDRESSES.
139
CHAPTER XI.
EXTRACTS FROM ANNUAL ADDRESSES.
THE Minutes of the Woman's Christian Temper-
J16 anсe Union, for 1882, contain no report of
Mrs. Downs' Annual Address. The Minutes of
1883, and for each succeeding year, however, give the
President's Annual Address in full. Would space per-
mit, we would gladly publish all the Addresses entire,
but, under the circumstances, we must content ourselves
with merely publishing extracts from the same:
In the 1883 Address, Mrs. Downs says:
We come praying for divine unction, the baptism of
the Spirit; we bring our faith and earnest supplication,
which, co-mingling before the Throne of Grace, come
back to us in rich blessing upon our own souls, giving
power and strength for greater, richer trophies for our
Master. We must get very low down at His feet; we
must make the fullest consecration of ourselves to Him,
if as workers in this branch of His work, we shall be
workmen that needeth not to be ashamed. In this
fierce and deadly battle between the home and the
dramshop, woman has been providentially thrust to the

140
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
front, and, while we take our place in the ranks of this
great army, we realize the magnitude of the enemy we
have to contend with. The tremendous current of evil
born of and nutured by a legalized liquor traffic, which
is sweeping through this happy land of ours, is no
pigmy to battle against, but a monster of mammoth
proportions, which has been growing upon the apathy
of this nation. * * * One long, strong, persistent
effort of combination among Christ's professed fol-
lowers, and the work is done. May God speed the
day. * * * Let us work more, pray more, talk
more, and let it be said of the women of New Jersey :
“They are at it, all at it, and always at it.” May God
permit us to help do the work, and then enjoy the
victory which is sure to come.
There were stirring times in this state in 1884, and
the Address of that year indicates the feeling of polit-
ical unrest then widespread. We quote the following:
| Along the great highway of life, reaching from
infancy in its helplessness, to old age in its maturity,
God has placed milestones to mark old Time's jour-
neyings. We call them years, months, and days; a
fragment of eternity lent us in which to prepare for
what would be the great unknown beyond but for the
blessed light of revelation. These years come to us in
this day laden with events so momentous in their bear-
ing upon our future destiny as a nation and as individual
citizens, that we stand appalled at the mighty respon-

EXTRACTS FROM ANNUAL ADDRESSES.
141
sibility resting upon us, and exclaim, "Who is suffi-
cient for these things ?".
A strong and powerful evil confronts us on every
hand, the influence of which is undermining every in-
terest dear to us as women. As the defenders of the
church, as the protectors of home, as the purifiers of
society, this curse of strong drink is our mortal enemy,
laying waste our domestic Eden, tearing from our em-
brace the fair sons and daughters God gave to our
keeping, transforming the nature and blunting the
mental and moral faculties of the dear ones upon whom
we leaned for support, and whom we loved as ourselves.
In the past we have thought most of cure; of late it
has come to us that prevention is a better way, and our
thoughts and energies now turn into those channels
where we can save our dear ones from the taint of the
monster. Hence, we come here to consider methods
of prevention, and we sit to-day in this annual gathering
under peculiar circumstances, after ten finished years of
work along the lines laid out for us. I say finished
years; yes, finished so far as we are concerned, for
between the lids of God's book of remembrance is their
record forever sealed; but not finished in their influence,
which, like the waves of old ocean, overlap each other
as each in turn sends further seaward the ripples which
are lost in its mighty surges. These years have their
unwritten history in the world's eye; but God with his
finger has marked each deed of love on the page of
destiny
If I were to ask of these battle-stained and scarred

142
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
veterans before me if discouragement ever followed de-
feat; if, after a hard conflict with the powers of sin and
darkness, they had never felt the battle an unequal one,
I fancy I should hear them answer, “Troubled on every
side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in
despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but
not destroyed.” Praise the Lord! They could point
me to redeemed souls, to transformed homes, to happy
wives and smiling children, and say, “These are our
trophies of victory.” Praise His name! They could
point me to this noble hall, to these sober men, respect-
able citizens, who, once the frequenters of the dram-
shop, now clear-headed and clean-hearted freemen ;
once slaves, now masters, as, with a pure ballot in their
hands, upon which they have asked God's great bless-
ing, they go to the polls and drop in the little white
paper which seals the fate of their old enemy, the liquor
traffic, and sends re-echoing through these streets and
hills, and valleys of our beloved state, the cry, "The
saloon shall go !” God bless them, every one. May
they recognize this as the duty of the hour, and acquit
themselves like men, casting aside party affiliations
when in league with rum and ruin, and taking strong
ground for God and the right.
* * * A faint hope has lingered in the minds of
our leaders that the existing political parties of the day
might take up the question (seeing how strong the cur-
rent of public opinion was swaying that way) at their
next presidential election, and give Christian men an
opportunity to express their convictions, and not sever

EXTRACTS FROM ANNUAL ADDRESSES.
143
their political ties. In view of this, at our last National
Convention, held in Detroit, last October, the following
resolution was passed unanimously by the delegates
representing forty states and territories, and the District
of Columbia :
Resolved, That we will lend our influence to that
party, by whatsoever name called, which shall furnish
the best embodiment of our principles, and will most
surely protect our homes.
This is the attitude of the Woman's Christian Tem-
perance Union, and it now remains for us as women,
disfranchised though we be, to ascertain for ourselves
in which of the platforms and candidates we see floating
the "white banner of Prohibition."
* * * May 27th, was the national day of prayer
for presidential platforms, candidates, Christian voters,
etc., etc. This was also observed quite generally with
most blessed results. New Jersey rejoices in the fact
that the prayers of her faithful ones helped to bring to
our nation the blessing of at least one platform and one
candidate whom Christian, virtuous women will not
blush to advocate. The remembrance of the gracious
outpouring of the Divine Spirit upon that day in many
of the meetings held, encourages us to believe that He
who heard and answered them will not close His ear to
the cry of His children when again they ask for the
success of those principles which will free our native
land from the blighting curse of a legalized liquor
traffic. * * * We need a more thorough organization

144
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
of the forces at our command. Women to work out our
plans of work are wanted for the departments. While
we need a few leaders, we want more workers. We
have them in our ranks, and the old adage that “many
hands make light work,” is eminently true of our work.
It is no mark of a good general to try to do all the
fighting, but he is most efficient who marshals his
forces and places the strong in the weak places, and so
on. There is every variety of talent to be found among
our workers, and a place for all to do her part. We
need to be more systematic in our county work. While
some of the counties are well arranged, and grand work
is being done, not more than one-half of them have
acting vice-presidents.
The year 1885 was one of many discouragements
to the valiant Woman's Christian Temperance Union
workers, but neither they nor their leader lost heart.
The Address this year is especially marked by a
kindly, Christian spirit. It was a time when grace, as
well as grit, was sorely needed :
The earnest, conscientious work of true womanhood
has always been approved of God and honored of
men, in whatever sphere of action she has exercised
her powers. Through the long line of centuries, from
the hour when the promise came to her in her forfeited
Eden, down to the present, it has been given to her
to cross arms with the powers of evil. In this genera-
tion she confronts the mightiest agency that the Prince

EXTRACTS FROM ANNUAL ADDRESSES.
145
of Darkness has ever employed to destroy the souls
and bodies of men. The Christian civilization of to-day
sanctions her engaging in this conflict, and the story of
the Woman's Crusade against the organized forces of a
legalized traffic, is familiar to every one. The soul of
this movement yet lives; so, after eleven years of
experiment, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union,
“its sober second thought,” stands unrivaled in its broad
catholicity, its ever-widening influence and growing
power. We come to this hour, as a part of that
mighty enginery which is doing so much for humanity,
with one hand upon the fading past, and the other out-
stretched into the unknown and untried future. With
reverent gratitude we retrospect the conflicts and vic-
tories of a vanished year, humbly acknowledging that
it has been “not by might, nor by power, but by my
Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts,” and with noiseless
footsteps we tread upon the threshold of a new epoch in
our history. No year of our life, as a state organiza-
tion, opens with such momentous issues, such weighty
responsibilities, yet such grand and noble possibilities,
as this present one. The smoke of the battle, conse-
quent upon the last presidential election, for months
clouded our sky. The bitter animosities engendered
by the struggle for political ascendency between parties,
both radically corrupt and equally the willing slave of
the rum power, seeking vent in scorn and contumely
visited upon the heads of weak but resolute women, to
an extent hitherto unparalleled in the history of this
country. But, understanding our position, and sure of

146
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
the righteousness of our cause, we have stood firm in
the strength of our Great Leader, for our conflict is
with a sin against God, and "a crime against man
which no human law can make right.” But the skies
are clearer to-day than a year ago, and, viewing through
the rifts of the clouds the broadening light, the glowing
sunshine, we recognize the quickened sentiment of a
more enlightened judgment, which is rapidly carrying
this great reform through its transition state up to a
plane where it touches the pulse of the body politie,
with so pronounced a pressure as to make the old
carcass tremble before this latest evolution of the truth.
* * * In our Bands of Hope and Temperance
Schools lie the latent power which is to perfect what
we have only feebly outlined, and somewhere in this
broad field of yet undeveloped effort is the Moses who
is to lead on to victory. May God give to the leaders
of the Children's Work a double portion of His spirit.
* * * The sowing of the gospel seed is bringing
blessing to our own souls, therefore when I speak of
the pre-eminent value of our evangelistic work, I mean
to magnify the social meeting held weekly for the
spiritual profit of the workers, and bringing in wander-
ers to the Master's fold. I cannot adequately express
to you my heartfelt appreciation of these precious means
of grace, as I have been permitted to enjoy them inci-
dentally. The trophies won from the ranks of sin for
our Master have been numerous, so much so that only
the great day of eternity can unfold their number.
This, after all, is the best of all work; a soul saved, a

EXTRACTS FROM ANNUAL ADDRESSES.
147
sheaf garnered, is of priceless value; and, while we
branch out in more extended avenues of usefulness, let
us never lose sight of this, our primal object and uni-
versal aim. * * * During the nine months of the
active work of the year—for three months at its begin-
ning I remained in the west after the St. Louis Con-
vention, during which time I attended to my official
correspondence, and did what I could at the distance I
was (eight hundred miles)—I have visited fifty-nine
towns and cities in the state, made one hundred and
ten addresses, besides leading prayer meetings at home
and abroad, and giving Bible readings when occasion
admitted. I have spoken in ten towns, where no Unions
exist, by invitation of the pastors and others. I have
organized five new Unions. No less than seven hundred
letters have been received and answered. I have been
able to keep all my appointments with a single excep-
tion (when a severe cold prevented). I have had
(excepting this attack) the most perfect health, for
which I desire to publicly render devout thanks to the
Great and Good Giver of all my mercies and blessings.
I thus close up my review of the work of the state with
these personal allusions, which I cannot well avoid, if I
present a true resume of the transactions of the past
twelve months.
Prayers are heard, but ballots count. Both are hemi-
spheres of the same golden globe: separate them, and
they are useless; unite them, and they are an irresistible
force. God had a purpose in keeping women so long in
the background of the temperance reform; now, as a

148
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS,
reserve power, they are brought to stand side by side
with men, to add their influence, social and political (if
we have any), toward the final overthrow of the greatest
enemy of the home and of our common humanity.
May we be found firm and true, and, doubting nothing,
but believing in His promises, fight on for God, and
Home, and Native Land.
The Address of 1886 was delivered just a few weeks
prior to the memorable election of that year, when Gen-
eral Fisk polled nearly twenty thousand votes. Note
the introduction. It would be difficult to match it for
strength and beauty of diction, or for the sentiment per-
meating and interweaving its every fibre:
Down the dim, voiceless aisles of old Time's temple,
memory wanders to-day, with noiseless tread, among the
ruins, searching for the footprints of something which
has made the world better and mankind happier. The
records of martial deeds of noble daring are there; vic-
tories of master minds over error, the scattering of moral
darkness, the uplifts of truth; and all along the cen-
turies are milestones to mark grand endeavor and tri-
umphant success. But what is this which stands out so
boldly, marking the latter decades of our own nineteenth
so conspicuously? It is Woman's Crusade against a
mighty wrong! A bloody battlefield is before us, upon
which lie a hundred thousand slain! A still uncon-
quered enemy, still strong and mighty! "Woman to
the rescue!” is inscribed on many a streaming banner!

EXTRACTS FROM ANNUAL ADDRESSES.
149
Side by side with heroic and brave men stands the con-
secrated womanhood of the nation. "Down with the
saloon!" is their common battle-cry. The world pauses
in its busy round of labor and pleasure to watch the out-
come of this deadly conflict. Whose shall the victory
be? Shall the traffic in intoxicating liquors be pro-
hibited or not? Shall the overthrow of this drink
monster, this moral Juggernaut, under whose wheels
struggling victims are mangled, be subdued by the
potent power of human law, or shall the vital interests
involved be yielded to hungry greed or political power ?
This question confronts the Christian world to-day, and
God stands awaiting the answer. As a part of the great
army of women who have answered God's call, as a part
of the aroused mother-heart of this nation, we-mothers,
wives, sisters, daughters of New Jersey-are here to-day
in Convention assembled to help answer this question.
From the hillsides and the valleys, “from country waste
and city full,” we have come; we meet not as strangers,
but as sisters beloved, wearing the simple badge of our
common sisterhood, speaking to the world in unmis-
takable language that we are in this fight 'twixt right
and wrong, and there to stay till “this cruel war is
over," and the homes we love are forever freed from the
curse of strong drink. Loving words of welcome have
been spoken to you, and the recognition of these kindred
bands of workers have been pleasant to all our hearts, in
which your speaker most heartily joins, realizing how
much she owes to your kindly sympathy and forbear-
ance. To veteran and new recruit alike, my heart goes

150
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
out in liveliest interest. May God's great blessing come
to us all, while in this friendly convocation we linger,
among these kindly friends, whose hospitable doors have
opened for our entertainment; and may the knowledge
here gained, and the kindled enthusiasm born of contact
with kindred minds, enable us to go back to our fields
of labor with renewed zeal and freshened energy, and do
better work for the Master than ever before.
* * * Acting upon a suggestion from one of our
old and tried friends, who never fails to put in a good
point for us when opportunity offers, I met, by permis-
sion, with the committee of five appointed by our last
legislature to consider the propriety of the erection of a
State Prison for Females, the accommodations of our
present brown-stone mansion on the banks of the Dela-
ware being found insufficient to accommodate the
wretched fruits of our barbarous license system, which
eminent jurists have declared to be at the bottom of
seven-eighths of all the crimes committed in this com-
monwealth of New Jersey. I was allowed, by courtesy,
to offer my suggestions and unfold my plan, which was
received and ordered put upon the records of the com-
mittee's work. In the name of four thousand of my
state, I claimed protection for my sex while incarcerated
for crime in our penal institution, with what results time
will show, as the arrangements for a trip west, to
Indiana, and another east, to Massachusetts, to examine
the institutions there already established and controlled
exclusively by women, was all the visible outcome of
the committee conference.

EXTRACTS FROM ANNUAL ADDRESSES.
151
* * * Throughout our entire state, Prohibition by
constitutional enactment is our rallying cry. I think
our women are a unit on the subject, and, standing out
on its broad platform, victorious in prospect and faith,
we give notice to a wondering world that, trusting in the
Lord God of hosts, we will wage an unending warfare
against the iniquitous traffic in human souls. Abreast
of the most advanced thought, we are looking back and
beckoning to some of our lordly brothers, who, pausing
to discuss possibilities, are losing their advantage and
allowing the enemy to gain ground. Strange, isn't it?
Disfranchised citizens though we be, our womanly
instincts take in the situation, and, as the advance guard
of the great temperance army, we have bent our ears to
the sound of the advancing hosts, and, like the intrepid
Scotch girl, who, with quickened perceptions of sight
and sound, heard the tramp of coming reinforcements,
and with her cry out: “Dinna ye hear the slogan ?"
But they're coming, coming, many hundred thousands
strong. The fiat has gone forth; the saloon power
must be overthrown, and that, too, by the strong arm of
the law-organic law.
I wish to speak especially of the very great kindness
which I am constantly experiencing in my work from
the clergymen of every name, with whom my work
brings me in contact—their invariable courtesy and
brotherly interest. I cannot give you an adequate idea
of its value to us, as workers, and to me, as a pioneer
for woman's work in many places. Let us cherish this,
dear sisters, for the prestige which their favor gives us

152
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
we can get from no other class of men. God bless
them! I notice that those among them who speak out
most boldly against this enemy of the church as well as
of the home, are the most successful in saving souls and
building up their churches.
Another year of experiment in methods has just
closed. It is among the things of the past. Between
the lids of God's book of remembrance are forever
sealed its record! It is no longer ours, but His.
God's purpose in thus educating the Christian woman-
hood of this age, we cannot fathom; but we know that
He has heard our prayers and sighs, and been mindful
of our tears, as, like Rachel, we have wept for our chil-
dren because they are not. Man has had his oppor-
tunity; it may be that woman is to have hers. We
know not, but this I do know:
“That right is right, since God is God,
And right the day shall win ;
To doubt would be disloyalty,
To falter would be sin.”
The Address of 1887 is chiefly noteworthy for its
advocacy of the ballot for woman. So far as we know
this is Mrs. Downs' first public declaration along this
line :
Surely God has wonderfully honored the womanhood
of this day, in placing in their hands this great and
momentous interest. To be made the 'messengers of
relief to poor besotted humanity; to be placed side by

EXTRACTS FROM ANNUAL ADDRESSES.
153
side with noble and true manhood in this battle with
wrong; to be permitted to lend a helping hand to those
whose place is in the thickest of the carnage, is surely
a phenomenon at which the world pauses to gaze to-day.
* * * As I look into your eager eyes just now I
realize that each one of you is a part of that mighty
aggregate of thousands of earnest Christian women drawn
up in well organized battalions facing the deadliest foe
against which the sword of vengeance was ever drawn,
and with every blow you are striking “for God and
Home and Native Land,” you are growing stronger
and stronger. * * * The “strong man armed” of
God's Word finds an analogy in our well-known and
justly-dreaded enemy. We find him entrenched behind
political and social influence, rearing his proud and
defiant head on every corner of our city streets and in
towns and hamlets throughout our entire territory, with
very few notable exceptions, where the will of the people,
crystalized into ballots, has set boundaries beyond which
he cannot pass. * * * Our bridges are burning
behind us and we are marching to music that never
plays a retreat. * * * Our pledge is the keystone
of our arch, and we must carefully guard it, not lowering
it one hair's breadth. * * * To me, it is sheer folly
to think of staying this tide of evil, which is deluging
our native land, with anything short of compulsory law.
The total annihilation of the traffic by organic law is my
remedy for this cancerous sore upon our body politic,
which is sapping the foundation of everything that is
good, and pure, and noble; law, and law enforced with
II

154
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
the heaviest penalties and punishments due to flagrant
.violation and the direst crimes. We have dallied with
this thing long enough, let us now take a firm grip upon
the throat of this monster and make short work of his
overthrow. The saloon is in politics; for proof of this
take this single fact: Out of one thousand and two
political meetings held in New York city last year, seven
hundred and ninety-two were held in saloons.
* * * Viewing these things from our standpoint,
and realizing the necessity for immediate and very
prompt action, I have come to the place and time when
I can say what I have never said before in this presence,
give woman the ballot, and I hope that this Convention
will declare unequivocally for equal franchise, believing
it to be the surest method of overthrowing the liquor
traffic and all other sins against our homes.
* * * It is difficult to bring ourselves to realize
that the good, true man, the able exponent of Prohibi-
tion, John B. Finch, is gone from us; that the hand of
death was laid upon him in the midst of his power and
usefulness, and in the twinkling of an eye his brief life
went out. No truer friend had the Woman's Christian
Temperance Union than he, and we are bereaved of a
brother, advocate, true friend. To short-sighted human-
ity it would seem that our loss is irreparable, that just
now we needed so much his wise counsel, his, clear fore-
sight. But He knows, and we bow in submission to His
high behests. * * * I would bear testimony to the
unfailing kindliness in your treatment of me. I feel that
I cannot adequately express the deep gratitude of my

EXTRACTS FROM ANNUAL ADDRESSES.
155
heart for your patience and charity. The performance
of the duty has not always been satisfactory to myself,
and I cannot hope that it has been so to you. Imperfec-
tion must characterize every effort not divine, and mine I
know have been full of imperfections. Sustained by
your earnest prayers, which I know have followed me in
my journeyings, I have done my best. God has been
very good to me in giving me so much of good health
and strength to perform my work. I regret that I could
not do more, but such as it is, it is now history, and so
far as God's glory has been my aim, just so far has it
been successful.
I do not know where falls the seed which I have tried to sow
with greatest care ;
But I shall know the meaning of each waiting hour, sometime,
somewhere.
I do not look in nature's book nor on the present to read my
fate;
But I do look for promised blessings in God's blessed book, and
I can wait.
We cull the following extracts from the Address of
1888. It is one of the most interesting of the nine:
Every reform has its infancy, when the motherly ten-
derness and wisdom of its advocates are called into
constant and patient requisition. This is pre-eminently
true of the cause which we have espoused and whose
interests have called us together to-day. It was a feeble
child when the Christian womanhood of this nation
became its foster mother! It was pining for the

156
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
woman's hand and the mother's heart! We have seen
this nursling of ours pass through its stout boyhood
and come up to a stalwart manhood, albeit it has to
lean hard sometimes upon its mother. The bondage
of the saloon is still upon us, imperiling everything
dear to us as women, and heavy lies the yoke of his
remorseless power. But the little cloud, no bigger than
a man's hand at first, has grown into proportions which
now alarm our enemies, and send them to their
strongholds of defence. The nation is aroused; the
irrepressible conflict is upon us; society is in upheaval,
and right lifts its head with greater confidence. * * *
It is too true that the cowardice of official power yet
permits the audacious rumseller to find his warrant for
his murderous business in human law, and upon our
statute books, state and national, are legal enactments
which shelter him from the justice which ought to
punish his diabolical acts. Sadly we admit that this
is so; still hope sees the glimmer in the distance, as the
church seems waking up to the consciousness of the
inconsistency of sending out in the same vessels mis-
sionaries to teach the benighted sons and daughters
of the dark continent the salvation of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ, and whole cargoes of New Eng-
land rum! The developments of that wonderful book,
“ Free Rum on the Congo,” is startling the public
mind and awakening the public conscience. The atro-
cities perpetrated upon the defenseless and unsupecting
emigrants landing at Castle Garden by the minions of
the liquor interest have found their way into printer's

EXTRACTS FROM ANNUAL ADDRESSES.
157
type, and the busy multitudes pause to read of the
efforts of the proprietors of the rum-shop and the
brothel (twins in crime) to entrap the unwary. Yes, the
world is rubbing its eyes after its long slumber of per-
fect indifference, and we see the glimmer of a brighter
day.
“Though right's forever on the scaffold,
Wrong forever on the throne,
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
And within the dim unknown
Standeth God within the shadow
Keeping watch above His own!”
General Fisk, our grand standard bearer, the exponent
of woman's creed of what government ought to be!
No speaker calls together larger audiences and more
impresses the hearts of our people. The gentleness of
his manner and speech is truly worthy of all commenda-
tion. No word of vituperation has ever been heard
from him during this or any other campaign in which he
has been a prominent figure. Truly the opposition has
the entire monoply of that. Christian in practice as well
as profession he honors the church of his choice, and his
charitable forbearance and non-resistance, sweeten even
the political arena, whose malodorous concomitants and
disgraceful calumnies are a reproach to us as a people.
A genuine man, whose fair record his enemies have
been unable to mar with a single act unbecoming the
Christian statesman and patriot, his labors in the state
have been abundant and effective. An honorary mem-
ber of our State Union, he is everywhere our champion

158
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
and true friend. If the government of these United
States acknowledged the rights of all her citizens and
did not make sex a stumbling block, the votes of women
would place him where his virtues and capabilities would
shine out commensurate with the necessity for such men
in high places, and the old White House at Washington
not only have a mistress who cleans out periodically
the old castle of its accumulations of liquid death, but
whose master stands out before the world as an abstainer
from all that intoxicates, and whose constitutional advi-
sors shall be men after the same pattern, and not the
after-dinner debauchee whose muddled brain vainly
grapples with state questions only to make direful
blunders, which often foreshadow for the country
disaster and disgrace.
The bare fact that the signs bearing the name of the
cottage, “White Ribbon Headquarters of the W. C. T.
U., of New Jersey,” hung out on two sides of the house,
which front on two most prominent streets in Ocean
Grove, was an educator in itself to the people. Every
passer-by glanced upward to read the name, some to
rejoice, some to wonder, and a few to sneer; but out in
bold relief from June until October, the gilded letters
told their story. Flung out to the gaze of the thous-
ands and tens of thousands with woman's faith! Shall
we not continue to flaunt our insignia before the multi-
tude? Shall our flag be hauled down? It remains for
you to say. It will be the keenest of disappointments to
some of us if the answer is an affirmative.
No mother ever took greater pride in a grown-up

EXTRACTS FROM ANNUAL ADDRESSES.
159
daughter, than does the Woman's Christian Temperance
Union in the “Y's.” As I look in the faces of the
bright young girls before me, upon whose breast is
knotted the symbolic white ribbon, I thank God with the
deepest consciousness of His goodness, and with the
profoundest gratitude that He has raised up such an
army of young women, upon whose shoulders will rest
the mantle of usefulness, once worn by the older
workers, and who will fill up the broken ranks of our
army, when the Master shall call us from labor to
reward. In every bright, cultured, consecrated girl I see
a polished shaft for the Master's use. * * * Let
there be the most perfect unanimity between the two
branches of the work. Mother and daughter dwelling
at the same hearth-stone, should not be more loving and
considerate of each other's welfare. Again, the girls are
nearer the schools than we are. To some of us, the
days when we tried to get the mysteries of fractions and
the conjugation of verbs through our brains is so far
away in the dim past as to be almost a dream! But the
girls are fresh from the books, and the mental discipline
they have acquired by hard study fits them to take hold
of work demanding the pen of the ready writer and the
quick perception of truths which require explanation.
I reckon, among the most gratifying experiences of my
official term, the hearing of reports and minutes from
these young workers. The successes of my own chil-
dren never thrilled my heart with a deeper satisfaction.
God bless and multiply our “Y’s” everywhere, and

160
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
bind them to their true friend and loving mother with a
deeper love and stronger tie of common sisterhood.
Some who have labored faithfully from the "crusade”
days have recently passed away. God called them
before the victory was announced, but who knows but
from their bright abode they shall watch the conflict and
join in the loud anthem of thanksgiving when our
enemy shall be vanquished? Who knows that their
employment in the "great beyond” will not be the
guardianship of the soldier yet in the field? The Bible
warrants us in believing that we each and all have our
guardian angel. Surely, “but dimly the veil intervenes
between the fair city and me!” The unseen is nearer
to us than we think, and who dare deny that intercourse
in some way is not permitted by Omnipotent power?
Sisters, for us will this service be performed some day;
when we know not! Let us be ready when the sum-
mons shall come.
I cannot forbear reiterating in your hearing what I
have so often brought to your minds in my Annual
Addresses. I make no apology for so doing, because its
great importance becomes more and more apparent.
We must read and study more! Our periodicals are
teeming with matter which our workers must know and
understand in order to be able to meet the enemy on his
own ground. Our state publishes more temperance
matter, according to its territory, than any state in the
union. The “Temperance Gazette" is the oldest, and
is a necessity to every state worker. * * * Books

EXTRACTS FROM ANNUAL ADDRESSES.
161
and papers are our weapons with which to wage battle,
and as well might a soldier go to war without his gun
and ammunition, as temperance workers undertake good
service without a general knowledge of the tactics of
our enemies, or the means being tried to outwit him
by our friends. All this can only be obtained through
the public prints.
Moral suasion has had its day, and I would not under-
rate the efforts of noble and self-sacrificing reformers,
but the rapid strides truth is making in the world, is
teaching us that we must do more than persuade; we
ought to compel men to do right by wholesome laws
and courageous enforcement. I am well convinced that
we are striving to “make bricks without straw” when
we seek to remedy the evil by means less summary. If
the civilization of a nation is graded by the righteous-
ness of its laws, then is our boasted freedom a farce.
I ask of this Convention to adopt Miss Willard's sug-
gestion of a pledge, and make it a personal matter,
"never to speak disparagingly of the workers, or dis-
couragingly of the work."
The Annual Address of 1889 contains much that is in-
structive and interesting, but we can only give a few of
the good things it contains :
The Woman's Crusade was the first smothered cry,
bursting from broken-hearted motherhood and childhood,
hitherto ground under the iron heel of the liquor curse.
Suffering womanhood had dreamed only of deliverance

162
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
when death's kindly sleep closed weary eyes and folded
still hands over sorrow-stricken hearts. To oppose this
deadly foe, to lift her puny arm and trembling voice in
opposition had never crossed her mind. But when God
applied His mighty power and helping hand, and by the
descent of His Holy Spirit, He called out woman's latent
power; when, in that supreme hour, queens were
crowned and prophetesses were anointed, then was
sounded the first stroke of the death-knell of the home's
great foe. That phenomenal event was the beginning of
the end. For fifteen years we have been marching under
orders given then and there. We were to close the
saloon. That was God's mandate to us. We have been
trying to obey. We were to pray and work, we were to
educate and agitate. We have done so, and yet our
enemy has grown stronger, more arrogant, more aggres-
sive. How is this? Is God's plan at fault? Not at all.
He meant, undoubtedly, that woman's work should be
along reformatory and educational lines; that she should
only be a scout before the grand army of Christian
workers, of Christian men, who hold in their hands the
power to crush our enemy at a single blow. But, alas !
for human weakness! While God points out the way,
man fails to enter in, and in the exercise of his free
agency frustrates the plan the good God set before us
and shuts out hope. We are to-day facing a great prob-
lem; and in view of the tests which are being applied to
men in the management of it, it is narrowing down to
just this: Will man, in the exercise of his power as a cit-
izen, stamp out this iniquity? or must there be put in

EXTRACTS FROM ANNUAL ADDRESSES.
163
woman's hand power to do it? Frances Willard first
declared the faith that was within her on this point amid
the "piney woods” of Maine, and afterwards at the
third annual meeting of the National Woman's Chris-
tian Temperance Union in our own Newark, when the
dignified presiding officer, Mrs. Allen Butler, of New
York, at the close of Miss Willard's address, said, “The
National Woman's Christian Temperance Union is
not responsible for the utterances of this evening. The
weapons of our warfare are spiritual and not carnal.
We have no mind to trail our skirts in the mire of
politics.”
Twelve eventful, fruitful years have rolled by since
that hour, and to-day good men and true, women fair
and faithful, are rallying around the standard of equal
will be centered in the wee bit of white paper which falls
"As silently as snow-flakes fall upon the sod,
But executes a freeman's will as lightnings do the will of God.”
A long list of names constituted the subject of our
memorial service last evening. The number of the
“discharged” is growing larger every year. This year,
notably, we have laid away two of our county presidents,
who were very dear to all of us. We miss them in our
council chamber, for both were wise and lovely. We
pause as we drop our tears into the open graves of these
and other departed ones, and wonder who will be the
next. They were our companions in labor and in bless-

164
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
ings, and while we miss them all in the various fields of
labor, and some from this Convention, let us thank
God that our workers die so well, and upon the new-
made graves of these who have preceded us to rest and
reward, let us lay a garland of true affection, with the
brightening hope that we may meet them in a happier,
holier sphere.
Our work is widening so rapidly, that it is attracting
the notice of men and women hitherto unmoved by its
grand philanthropic idea, while enemies are rising up on
every side. The intelligence of the liquor trade is
being brought to bear upon our tactics. It is no longer
the illiterate foreigner, dealing adulterated poison, who
rails against “dem Rock of Ages vomens," but the
pomposity and shrewdness of the millionaire beer barons,
who are bringing their influence to bear against us as a
dangerous factor in this conflict with their profitable
business. So we must match them by our acquaintance
of events, of men and things; we must add to our faith
and prayer, knowledge as well as patience. Then let us
read and study more, and may God quicken our under-
standing that we may take in the things which will fit us.
for the mighty conflict before us.
It is quite time that conscience was made the factor
in politics, and that men looked upon the ballot as they
do upon the Bible, just as sacred, and test it by the
matchless prayer of our Lord. This question ought to
be answered as for eternity by every Christian voter :
What is the relation of my party, my candidate, my
platform, to the setting up of Christ's kingdom on the

EXTRACTS FROM ANNUAL ADDRESSES.
165
earth? The answer to this query is sacred enough to
come from our pulpits on the Sabbath day, and it ought
so to be. The sacredness of the ballot has never been
estimated; human sagacity has not yet settled its status
in the consciences of men. Mary Allen West has said,
“To-day Christ sits over against the ballot-box, as of
old He sat over against the treasury, and judges men by
what they cast within.” * * * Two political parties
are striving for the mastery in this nation to-day; one
stands by its old record of make all you can, sell all you
can, drink all you can. The other assents to this, but
appends to it this supplementary addition : Put a high
license on it and make it pay for all it costs the country.
We have no sympathy, no prayers for either; but if
God, in His providence, ever puts a ballot in my hand,
it shall be cast with the party that has no rum-makers
or rumsellers in it, but which stands for the protection
of the homes of the nation.
Few of the Addresses appeal with stronger force to
the mothers of the country, than did that of 1890:
The world moves, and we must move with it, or we
shall find ourselves swept on by a flood of circum-
stances which will bring us to a sudden and startling
awakening. Our lives seem too short for the weighty
matters thrust into our hands, and upon our hearts.
Hurry, bustle, excitement, pressure mark every passing
hour. The work of days is crowded into as many
hours, and the laggard finds himself belated on every

166
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
hand. Facts explain this. As a nation, we are making
history, at almost lightning speed: startiing events
crowd each other in such quick succession that they
almost take our breath away. The tragedy of to-day,
at the announcement of which the world paused in its
giddy whirl to read of, is succeeded to-morrow by the
recital of one more startling still. Thus we go on, as
the days lengthen into months and months into years,
and life is lost in death and time in eternity. The
temperance work, thrust upon woman so providentially,
brought her into this whirlpool of God's activities. It
found us happy, contented in our wifely, motherly
duties. We had set up a high standard of virtue and
religion within the hallowed precincts of home, and
we are living by our own rule, and thus by godly pre-
cept, and loving, tender example, trying faithfully to
influence our loved ones around us. But the time had
come when our eyes opened to the sad truth that there
was an enemy outside the breastworks, who, with cruel
purpose, was breaking down all our defences, and, with
malice born of Satan himself, was seeking to destroy
all we held most dear and sacred. Single-handed, we
could not resist this mighty power, but, as the tiniest
thread may be multiplied till it becomes the giant cable,
so “organized mother love,” crystalized into consoli-
dated effort, may be the agency which shall fell this
mighty Goliath of Gath, which, entrenched behind
social and political power, is the one great enemy of our
homes—viz: the legalized liquor traffic. This foe stands
upon the threshold of every home in New Jersey, and

EXTRACTS FROM ANNUAL ADDRESSES.
167
is the inspiration of every crime which disgraces our
civilization, and we face it to-day. The law of this
state is license, and license means drunkenness, pau-
perism, and crime. From eighty to one hundred
thousand souls annually, in this broad land of ours,
go down to drunkards' graves, and this army, ghastly,
despairing and lost, is to be recruited from American
homes! Then, wonder not that, like the tigress, which
is fiercest when her offspring is endangered, woman rises
in her just indignation at this most cruel of wrongs, and
stands angered, aroused, determined to fight for souls,
for God, and her own sacred altars. * * * To-day
we pause at our seventeenth annual milestone along the
great highway of our lives as temperance workers in
New Jersey. Looking backward, we see gleams of
sunlight in the rifts of the clouds of defeat. Some
successes, more failures, not because we have failed in
plan or purpose, but because those whom we trusted
failed us when the ordeal was upon us. God is true
but man is fallible.
Our work is wholly reformatory and educational, and
has no political bearing upon any party or parties. We
are unalterably committed to the principle of Prohibi-
tion of the sale and manufacture of ardent spirits, and
are ready to help all and any agency organized for its
promotion and final achievement, but so far as our
work goes, we are undenominational and non-political
in every sense. Some of us endorse the Prohibition
party, and a resolution having such reference is usually
passed by a large majority of votes at our State Con-
ventions, and from which every one has the right to

168
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS,
dissent. While we do not recede one iota from the
position held heretofore, on this point, we do desire that
our educational work be made pre-eminent, as that
is within our province now, and the power to wield
political seems yet in the distance. Meanwhile, we
shall work for the ballot for woman, and for the entire
extirpation and annihilation of the liquor traffic, and
are ready now, as ever, to lend our influence as far as
disfranchised citizens can, to any agency which is
organized to that end.
I have given to my work all I am and have to give.
None can go beyond this. Errors have been made,
doubtless, but they have been of the head and not of
the heart. My health has been uniformly good, not
having lost a single appointment by sickness, and but
few from bad weather and storms. God has been very
good to us, and let us devoutly thank Him from
whom all our blessings come. Let us work on in love
and harmony as of aforetime, and some day we shall
together shout the harvest home over a country
redeemed, and a direful evil conquered.
The Annual Address of 1891 is especially fraught
with interest. In no other address does Mrs. Downs
give such evidence of the weight of the responsibility of
the work:
When we duly estimate the magnitude of the work
God has put into our hands, and fully measure the
gigantic proportions of our enemy, and appreciate the
influence—social, political, financial—which is ever

EXTRACTS FROM ANNUAL ADDRESSES.
169
ready to do its bidding; of the greed and avarice which
stand behind every open bar, and the unconquerable
appetite which pleads before it, I am reminded of that
most interesting incident in the life of the Saviour, when
He faced the hungry and famishing multitude on the
mountain-side, and the answer of His disciples to His
kindly question: "How shall we buy bread that these
may eat? There is a lad here with five barley loaves
and two small fishes, but what are they among so
many?" It seems like the lifting of a single arm to stay
the whirlwind, and yet God is with us, and He is
greater than all those who are against us. “Home
versus the saloon," is our war-cry! This is the problem
that faces us. Which shall conquer ? They are natu-
ral enemies, and each is seeking supremacy. The
Home is the institution of God Himself; it is the
corner-stone of society, and the perpetuity of our civili-
zation depends upon its virtue and intelligence. What-
ever is arrayed against it must be carefully watched and
persistently antagonized. We must bring to bear our
mightiest agencies to remove the blight and mildew of
the liquor traffic, and bring it speedily under the ban of
popular condemnation, and to so educate public senti-
ment that the open dram-shop, with its flaunting signs
and glittering allurements, shall no longer disgrace us.
There is a mighty work before us, and, almost despair-
ing, sometimes we cry out: “Who is sufficient for
these things?” Sisters, the Woman's Christian Tem-
perance Union is the little lad, which itself, and all it is
and has, is a hostage to this destroyer, for we count not
12

170
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
our lives dear if we can save the homes of the future
from the direful influences of the present. We are lift-
ing our puny arm against its mightiness, hoping, trust-
ing, praying, that ere long the opened eyes of the
Christian church may be turned upon us, and be led to
see and appreciate the necessity of action, and aroused,
infuriated at its audacity and aggressiveness, with united
forces make an attack upon its hitherto impregnable
fortress, which shall be resistless. This has been, and
still is our task.
This present gathering of New Jersey's earnest and
faithful workers marks the tenth anniversary of my
election to the office, which, through your kindly prefer-
ence, I have held in the years past. At the close of that
year—1881-'82—our membership numbered 1,200, in 39
Unions; in our juvenile schools, 3,500; and in our
“Y's," 157. Our Treasurer's Report showed receipts,
$341.06. In 1890 (not counting the present year), we
number 204 Unions, with a membership of 7,736. Our
Juvenile Work foots up 10,000 (three-fourths pledged).
Our “Y's," 1,596, and Treasurer's Report, $2873.33.
During this time, every one of the 21 counties has been
organized and placed under the leadership of faithful
and efficient Presidents, with associate officers, who are
carrying on the work grandly. In these ten years
there has been but one change in the board of officers,
Mrs. Ronan retiring after one year's service as Record-
ing Secretary, Mrs. Emma Bourne taking her place and
holding the office for nine consecutive years, with satis-
faction to all concerned.
One great hindrance to progress along this line is the

EXTRACTS FROM ANNUAL ADDRESSES.
171
want of willingness on the part of our women to assume
the responsibilities of office. So manifest has this been,
that it seems to me all important that we should seek a
special baptism of Divine Power, that we may overcome
this timidity and be willing to do what we can to
advance the cause. While most of the larger towns
and villages in our state are already pre-empted for God
and temperance, there are many smaller places where we
ought to set up our banners. Wherever there is a
saloon or drinking-place, there should our standard be
planted, for never has there been one set up anywhere,
but some one was hurt by it, and it was mostly a woman
first to be struck! So let us all be watching for oppor-
tunities for lengthening our cords and strengthening our
stakes. There are thousands of women in New Jersey
who ought to be enlisted in this cause. They cannot
afford to be indifferent, and it is given to us, who have
had the God-touch upon our hearts, to rouse them to a
sense of the danger which threatens their homes. In
listening to Colonel Hadley, recently, I was struck by
his proposition to his workers, to single out some one
drunkard for whom we were to pray and work with spe-
cific reference to their reformation and disenthralment
from the bondage of strong drink. This is a grand and
practical idea! What if each of us should, in our own
minds, designate some dear soul who had not come to
the light, and offer for her special prayer, and direct
effort be made for her enlightenment; if we should put
in her way our periodicals and literature; if her chil-
dren could be gathered into our Loyal Temperance
Legion, what a tide of success would roll in upon us.

172
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
And this is just what we ought to be doing. We must
pass the blessed light around among our benighted and
unawakened sisters, whose interests are involved in this
conflict as well as ours.
Several of our Unions have had the death angel enter
their ranks and bear away from the activities of the
work those whom they loved and honored. In humble
submission to His high behest, we bow our heads, and,
although our hearts are aching and tears dim our eyes,
we know He doeth all things well. To our human eyes,
we could illy spare them, but God speaks, and we are
dumb before Him. As one by one our true and tried
workers drop out of the ranks, let us, whom God per-
mits yet to wave aloft the banner of the cross and of
temperance, be more than ever faithful and persevering
in the work, so that when we are called to render up our
account, it shall be said of us, as we say of the loved
ones gone before," she hath done what she could.”
The interest in the work of the Young Woman's
Christian Temperance Union was never greater than at
present, and never were our relations with our daugh-
ters more tender and kindly. We realize more and
more the necessity of bringing the young women into
our work. Seventeen years of service have left their
mark upon us who were the pioneers in the work in
this state, and we must soon fall out of the ranks and
our places must be filled by younger women. How
important, then, is it that our daughters be trained for
the duties of the future. Their number must be
increased, their capabilities must be tested, their edu-
cation carefully considered, that we may be succeeded

EXTRACTS FROM ANNUAL ADDRESSES.
173
by others better trained for service than we were, who
have been warned of the quicksands in the path of life,
and be well fitted to meet the need of the hour. God
bless the “Y's," and may their number be doubled the
coming year.
In conclusion, let me thank you all for your unfailing
kindness and forbearance, as expressed in loving words
and kindly actions. I am conscious of falling far short
of my own ideal of what the position demands of its
incumbent, and still more conscious of my utter inability
to reach it, but I have done my best, inadequate as it is;
it is all I have. Your loyalty to me during these ten
years of service, imperfect as the service has been;
your prayers and your sympathy, are cherished in my
inmost soul as tender, sweet memories; your unfailing
welcomes to your fireside have been like dew to the
thirsty earth, and many a time, as I have stayed my
weary feet at your thresholds, I have given thanks to
God for the friendship of earth. No unkind or hasty
word has ever been uttered to me by any one of our
number, and good will and the kindliest of relations
exist between us all. It is sweet to linger over these
pleasant memories. Their fragrance is like the perfume
of flowers. God grant that nothing may ever occur to
disturb these pleasant relations. We need to be united
in heart, and, with strong ties of universal sisterhood, to
be bound together, firm and strong, that our enemies
may see and recognize the God-life in our character.
God bless you all; and now unto Him who hath loved
us and bought us with His precious blood, be glory and
honor, praise and power, now and evermore. Amen.

174
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
CHAPTER XII.
THE LAST HOURS.
This life doth but our life begin,
Is but outside the porch of the abode,
And death the going home, the entering in,
The stepping forth on the wide world of God.
HERE are occasional passages in our human
Jl lives so informed with the Divine that, before
them, methinks the angels must needs veil
their faces.
It behooves us to take the shoes of earth off our
feet, as we now enter the sacred chamber of death. It
is a holy place. Those who were privileged to tarry
there, where heaven and earth touched, seeing and
feeling unutterable things, like the disciples on the
Mount of Transfiguration, marveled and feared, and
would forever keep silence, wrapped in the after-cloud
of their bereavement, did they not know that there was
a message here the world must receive through them.
Mrs. Downs died, as she had lived, a triumphant
witness to the faith as it is in Christ Jesus; to the ful-
filment of every promise of the Gospel. Not in fitful
utterances and last messages only, but in every circum-
stance connected with those final days and hours, in

THE LAST HOURS.
175
which she laid down the work of earth in full con-
sciousness of all that it meant to her and others, and
went forth to meet the unknown work beyond, reso-
lutely, fearlessly treading the enemy under foot at every
step. He might rack her body with pain, as he did,
and wring tears from her eyes, but her mind was as
serene, her soul as calm, her hold of God as firm, her
courage as unflinching, as the eternal realities upon
which she was entering.
She was not called with any unfinished work on hand.
She dropped the pen only when the Minutes of her
last Convention were complete, rejoicing too much in
the loved labor, with her dear co-workers, to take note
before that she, herself, was weary.
The eye of filial love, however, had already detected,
with a thrill of anxiety, the unusual sign, and the
daughter's heart had said in a previous day's shopping,
when sharing lovingly together woman's needed noth-
ings: "Mother must have rest; I shall tell Mrs. Ellis to
have the women spare her more.” And all the while,
mother and daughter were happy in preparations inci-
dent to their first attending a “National” together.
It had been a long, fond dream, and now it was on the
eve of fulfillment.
This was Wednesday, November 3d. Monday even-
ing Mrs. Downs had come from the Convention to the
loving welcome of her daughter's home-nest. Dear
little arms she loved unutterably, clung fondly around
her neck, as the grandchildren climbed to their seat of
privilege before she was more than across the threshold.

176
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
The “Temperance Bag," sure not to fail, was raided
next, and, as they expected, yielded abundant proof of
grandma's loving provision for the delight of the little
ones, who were never forgotten amid her larger,
pressing cares.
Oh! the glow, the light, the joy of that first evening;
its sweet rest from labor; its promise of enjoyment to
come—a foretaste, it now seems, of the great reward so
near. Would we could blot out the intervening dark
passage of pain and sorrow. But, how so? Should we
not then have also missed, what we needed, that lesson
of a strength born of God, by which we might grow
stronger? Surely, were she to pass the same way
again she would not count the pain, were we only
profited thereby. This we know.
The Minutes written up; the dinner, that now seems a
sacramental meal, eaten in love together; the dear hands
dropped, and Mrs. Downs thought she would 'rest
awhile. It seemed just the thing for her to do. None
were anxious—all were glad—when she stayed abed
next morning. She would be that much more fitted
for the approaching journey. Yet there was disturb-
ance in nature's workings. Simple remedies were used;
proving ineffectual, the doctor was called. He, too, saw
no cause for anxiety, but his remedies were powerless.
Steadily the disease-peritonitis—with all its terrible
anguish crept on, and the tired frame was unequal to
the contest. Gradually it was rumored that the daunt-
less leader lay low; but very slowly did the truth
unfold itself to the watching circle of friends.

THE LAST HOURS.
177
Sunday morning, regardless of pain, the voice they
never questioned, called the dear ones to her bedside.
“Come here, all of you, and let us pray.” The son
led, all joining, she with them, in the Lord's prayer.
Later, she called for her old friend, Rev. George
Hughes, but when he came it was not thought best
that she should see him, and so he prayed down stairs.
She wanted afterwards to know all he had said.
Monday, one of the dear women she loved so well,
sent her exquisite roses. She buried her face in them,
and the unbidden tears flowed silently at this last token
of love. That day she would follow the daughter with
“Don't stay long," whenever called away from the
room; and even yet, they did not understand. Monday
evening, for the first time, the doctor said "there is
danger.” It shot terror into the unexpecting heart, and
a trained nurse was instantly sent for. “My angel of
light," as Mrs. Downs called her. Oh! these blessed
ministers of the sick-room. God be with them!
A consultation of physicians next morning put the
danger apprehended beyond a doubt; and though no
intimation was given in the sick-room, as they left the
patient said: “The fiat has gone forth, I am going
home.” On being remonstrated with, she added:
"No, I have not yet given up hope. It would be so
strange for me to die, the Master has such need of
workmen!”
That last Tuesday, election day, her thoughts, true as
the needle to the pole, turned in all her pain from self
to the testing hour of pure manhood, and forgetting the

178
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
bodily suffering, her soul poured itself out in an agony
of pleading that man might do right. Every other
interest paled before this supreme issue, and the grand
soul, with its large vision, spent itself in unremitting
prayer for the church of the living God, that it might
wake up to the emergency of the hour. “So many men
this day will forget God and home, as they cast their
ballot.” “So many men are doing wrong to-day.”
“God help the church! The votes of Christian men are
all I ask-but they will not, they will not; God forgive
them!" Every hour of that day, some such cry escaped
her. Oh! could they have known—the voters—that
this strong soul was travailing in a pain for them that
conquered the pain of death, would they not have
been moved? Brave heart, thy pain is stilled, and thou
hast gone where thou knowest that it has prevailed. In
the day when He, whose right to reign has come, and
results are counted, there will be one more note of
triumph to swell the victory, because of that travail of
soul on thy dying bed. Even so, Lord Jesus, Amen.
The next morning she was told, the first thing,
the returns from the various states. Cutting the account
short, in which she generally took so great an interest,
she said: “Give me the Prohibition vote?” Some one,
told her: “A thousand.” “It's not so," came with her
wonted determination, in a strong voice, “there are
over a thousand in Essex county. Wait until we get
the Voice,' and you will see. There are more true
men than that in New Jersey."
When the paper came, she was past reading it, but

THE LAST HOURS.
179
asked several times if we knew the vote yet, frequently
exclaiming:
"I forgive everybody; I forgive even Dr. Buckley."
She said: "I do not think I am going to die, but if I
should, this is no time to get ready. If I were not
ready to go, there would be no time now.”
Mrs. Ellis came, and Mrs. Downs opened her arms,
and took her in a long, lingering embrace, whispering :
“Margaret, Margaret Ellis!” They then talked of the
National. " Mrs. Downs said: “I want you to represent
New Jersey in Executive.” On learning from Mrs.
Ellis that she was not going: “Oh, yes; you will,”
came the quick reply, “don't disarrange things.”
As the daughter stood by the bed, next morning, with
her baby in her arms, the grandmother looked at the
child, then at the doctor, and said :
“Ain't she the prettiest thing you ever saw ?” and
baby was left playing in the room.
At four that day, a change came rapidly. The doctor
said: “I want you to rest." She threw her head back
upon the pillow, with the remark: "I think it will be
the long rest.”
The agony increased. It was a strange experience to
one hitherto exempt from bodily ailments. “All my
life long," she said, “the Lord has sent so little suffer-
ing, I will bear this, until He says, enough. On ye
brave; on, on ye brave!”
Presently, she grew easier-resting, her eyes closed.
To the daughter, watching, there came an unutterable
longing to have the mother speak to her again, and as

180
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
the doctor was asked, “Could she?” Mrs. Downs
opened her eyes, and, with a tone sweet, melodious with
love, said:
"Louie knows it all. I haven't left it until now to
tell her. You haven't waited to put roses on my grave,
child, but have scattered them all along my path.”
Then, as a dying message, she gave not a word about
the other world, not once “Meet me in heaven ;” but,
the characteristic injunction: “Keep abreast of the
times. Be foremost in every good thing." The teacher,
the leader, the reformer still lived.
To the doctor she said: “Is there any hope?”
“Yes, Mrs. Downs.”
“Praise His name!”
Shortly after: “Doctor, is there any hope?”
"No, Mrs. Downs."
“Praise His name!” was again the ready answer, fol-
lowed, as she looked around, with:
"Now, I do not want a tear shed in this room.”
Presently she turned, with a loving greeting, to her
son-in-law, who had come in from the city:
“Neddie, they say I am dying."
“Yes, mother; you are."
"I am not afraid.”
A pause; then: “Ned, how is Prince's foot ?" The
horse had hurt his foot, and the tender heart remem-
bered it in her dying hour. Still speaking to her son-in-
law, she said :
"I will find your mother when I get there, and tell
her what a son you have been to me." Then, recalling

THE LAST HOURS.
ISI
the time of day, she added: "I want you all to go get
your dinner, and leave me alone,” in a manner from
which there was no appeal.
All this time the suffering was on the increase. At
seven, Mrs. Ellis came. She drew near the bed. The
brave patient looked up, with a rare welcome in her
eyes, as she tenderly said: "I wanted you to see me
die. Now, Margaret, won't you kneel right down there
and ask the dear Lord to sever the cord quickly?” And
the brave heart, the faithful comrade, knelt beside that
bed, clinging to the hand that had led her through ten
long years of toil for the Master, and, with faltering
voice and broken heart, prayed that He would spare the
dearly beloved one further pain, and take her now to
Himself. Still the Master waited. Her son came from
Brooklyn.
“Why, James, how did you get here? Did they tele-
graph you? You have come to see mother die. I wish
you would sing 'My ain Countrie.!”
The windows of the chamber where she lay were all
open to the night. Through them the clear, beautiful
voice trembled, faltered, but finally rose and rang out
-joyously, almost-upon the midnight air:
“We'll all gang at last to our ain countrie!”
As the echoes died, there came from the bed a great
heart-cry:
" Room, ROOM for my bairns in paradise !"
To the doctor, weeping at the foot of the bed, Mrs.
Ellis said, through her tears:

182
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
“Do you see many such scenes?”
"No, Mrs. Ellis; nothing like this, ever."
As the suffering increased, the doctor made the sug-
gestion that he could ease her, but at the cost of con-
sciousness and the shortening of the hours. It seemed
hard to consent to this; but at the mother's word, inti-
mating her intuition of what had passed—“Don't you
keep me, Louie"—the consent was given.
Expecting this would be the last, Mrs. Ellis spoke to
her, and got the message for the women: “Tell them
to work harder; to work just as if I were here to spur
them on." To Mrs. Ellis' promise that she would work
harder, came: “When the work is done, I will meet
you.”
The family gathered around the bed, before the doctor
administered the medicine that should take her speech
away; but were met with:
“What are you all coming here for? It isn't time
yet. I will tell you when to come to kiss me for the
last time. Not yet.”
There was a scattering, a silence, a long waiting;
then: “Mother, do you know us?”
“Know you? Of course I do, as well as ever I did
in my life.”
Another watch—the pain all gone—the mind still
clear. The doctor was amazed. “Her mind,” he said,
"will be the last to succumb. There is no ordinary
mind here."
"Oh, I wish I were not so extraordinary," came, with
a little laugh.

THE LAST HOURS.
183
Then: “The hours are leaden. How long, Doctor ?”
"Not yet, Mrs. Downs; be patient. Soon, I hope,
He will come;" and he stooped, and reverently kissed
her brow.
“That was the kiss of a son,” she said. “I will find
your mother and tell her.” She reached out her hand
for his, and he knelt beside her, telling her every few
moments how fast the Death Angel was coming, the
soul was so eager to take its flight!
"Do you remember how they whipped old Uncle
Tom, and could not kill him? This old body will not ,
die; it makes me think of Uncle Tom's Cabin.”
True to her life's instinct to be of help, she said to the
doctor:
"I want you to use my body if it will teach you any-
thing or do anybody any good.” Pain could distress,
but not rob her earth-life of its completeness, its sym-
metry of action, even to the perfected close.
With a movement toward the hills, she said:
"Louie, up there in the beautiful Orange Mountain."
"Tell John I love him. Tell him to be good. He
knows mother's idea of goodness. Tell him to vote for
Prohibition, for the liquor traffic will be outlawed, and
blessed is he who helps !”.
"Mrs. Ellis, write at the close of my Address, died,
November roth, and the hour. I think I shall go at the
noon of night.”
Still the expected coma does not come.
“Oh, Doctor, what is this sudden pain at my heart ?”

184
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
“That, Mrs. Downs, is the last effort of your heart to
do its work."
“Praise the Lord! O death, where is thy sting; O
grave, thy boasted victory! Death is not the king of
terrors. Be good, be good! Nothing else pays when
death's cold chills are creeping on. Doctor, will the
coma come soon?”
“I think it will not come at all; but in a few moments
you will go.”
"Praise the Lord!”
Still slowly He comes. The very angels seem wait-
ing, breathless. Lower and lower they bend over the
dear form, and gather her in their arms. Surely it is
after she has caught a glimpse of their radiance that she
remembers—remembers the dear ones of earth, and
wafts to them a faint, joyous message—“All right”—and
is gone.
The heavenly influence, the blessing of that scene
remains an undying memory, a living witness.
· Thank God for such a legacy of faith, as through her
has become vision! For us, who through it, have seen
what we have believed, a new halo must henceforth
invest our Christian course; a halo, a joy, over which no
subtlety of unbelief can ever have power. So grant it,
Lord Jesus!

THE FUNERAL.
185
CHAPTER XIII.
THE FUNERAL.
7 HE morning of November 13th—the day we were
Jll to look, for the last time, upon the face of our
Mother Downs—dawned beautiful and bright.
The clouds had lifted and God's sunshine was every-
where; who could think of her without it? By ten
o'clock the dear form (so like her) lay in the simple
casket in the home she loved so well, that home where,
only a few days before, the voices of happy children
had rung out in glee the glad news, “Grandma's come;"
the home from which the pure spirit began its flight,
and where her influence will live forever; the home that
was her resting place, her Mecca; and how beautiful
and bright it was that morning!
“Mother was the embodiment of sunshine; we must
be true to her.” There was no gloom.
With the intuition of love, which planned better than
it knew, the door-knob was twined with ivy, emblematic
of the beauty and strength that cannot die, and the
fragrant violet, prophetic of awakening life. As the
ivy, she had clung to the Rock of Ages, and we had
looked upon her, and seen her grow in vigor and rich-
13

186
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
ness unto the end, clothing life and service in the fresh-
ness of heaven. Like the violet, she exhaled fragrance
in, and made beautiful the lovely places of earth.
Loving hands had touched with brightness the room
where she lay; the sun streamed through the windows
song of praise that burst from the heart-praise that a
human soul, in this world of ceaseless, restless strife,
this world of sin, and want, and woe, had lived a life as
pure, as spotless, as the gentle lilies that nestled upon
her breast. Oh, Mother Downs! the fragrance of the
lilies will die, but the fragrance of thy life will never
die; the flowers thou didst strew were plucked from
fields that are fadeless, and their perfume is wafted by
the winds of eternity.
Peacefully she lay amid the sunshine and roses; how
like Mrs. Downs it all was. Her dress was simple as
always; the beautiful white cap that we loved to see her
wear at conventions when she looked every inch our
queen mother; a sweet peace upon her brow—did we
imagine a halo hovered there as we gazed? Dear, tired,
ceaseless, unselfish worker for humanity—could it be
that the great mother heart was stilled ?
Very simple, yet impressive were the services here,
husband; another last look, and the face which was
an inspiration to look upon, went out from our sight,
borne by loving hands, from the home which never again
would be blessed by the sunshine of her presence.
The public services were held in the Halsey Street

THE FUNERAL.
187
Methodist Episcopal church at half-past one o'clock.
Each arriving train had brought some to swell the
number of those anxious to do honor to the memory
of Mrs. Downs, and an hour before the appointed time
these began to assemble before the closed doors of the
church. Hushed voices, silent hand-clasps, and the
black ribbon, blending mournfully with the white, spoke
the common sense of loss. Some brought flowers for
the casket; all brought the tribute of love and tears for
the dead. The memory of the recent State Convention
in Salem, where Mrs. Downs had been the central
figure, was fresh in the minds of many, and the thought
of that gathering gave peculiar pathos to this. The
burden of all hearts seemed to be, "Who will take her
place?” “What shall we do without her?”
When the doors opened the waiting throng moved
silently to their places inside the church. The entire
congregation rose as the casket, borne by her sons,
moved slowly up the aisle. Through the hush came
the soft notes of the organ. Above the silence rose the
clear tones of a strong voice: “I am the resurrection
and the life; he that believeth on me shall never die.”
Mid waving palms and lilies white they left her. Ser-
vices were conducted by Rev. N. A. Macnichol; prayer
by Dr. Hanlon—a prayer full of tenderness and com-
fort. Then followed the reading of a telegram from the
National Convention, in session in Boston, which at the
same hour was holding, in Tremont Temple, Memorial
Services for our fallen leader and their comrade.

188
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
The first address was by Rev. George Hughes, who
said:
“Here lie the remains of the most heroic woman I
ever knew. God's saints never die. We did not come
here to talk of death, but to commemorate her corona-
tion.
“Forty years ago her husband was my colleague in
the ministry. I have known her as a wife, a mother,
and a worker in the field of the itinerancy, and in these
later years as a worker in the gospel temperance field.
Converted at seventeen, she grew into a solid Christian,
holy woman, devoted in her powers, pure and ardent in
love and constancy, and intensity of thought; full of
strong faith that could not shrink before any foe, a
woman of great moral courage, a Joshua, as it were, pos-
sessed of great patience, of forbearance and long suffer-
ing. She illustrated the perseverance of the saints, for
no mountain was too high to cross, no seas too broad
to pass if the word of duty called her.
"In her family circle I saw her, so devoted to
husband and children, all of whom are enlisted under
the banner of the cross. She was a light to her
husband's ministry; her death a triumphant transition
from the terrestrial to the celestial, beyond language
to describe.”
The next speaker was Rev. John Atkinson, D.D.
"I have been asked to say something of the early days
of my acquaintance with Mrs. Downs. Forty years ago
I went to the house of Mrs. Downs. I was then not

THE FUNERAL.
189
quite seventeen years old. “Mrs. Downs was not at
home, but would soon be in.' I waited, and I never
shall forget how she looked at me as she came forward
extending her hand so cordially, saying, “Is this our
supply?' She took me at once into her confidence, and
her home was indeed a home to me; and she a sincere,
tender friend all her life. She was the most devoted of
wives; her devotion was tested and never failed. I have
a vivid remembrance of her mother who, though aged,
made a lengthy visit there while I was a member of the
family. Everything a daughter could be or ought to
be, she was to her mother. The love between her and
her only sister, Mrs. Dr. Phillips, I have never seen
equaled. As a mother, I remember her when the
oldest son was too small to remember me. She and her
husband gave me my theological education; then relig-
ion was a personal religion lived in the heart. I would
not be here to-day but for her and her husband. They
nurtured, cheered and counseled me. I owe to her a
debt I cannot pay. To-day I lay upon that casket a
chaplet—a chaplet bedewed with tears to the purest,
noblest woman the world ever saw.
"I rejoice in what she was and did: a power for
God and humanity; noble wife of my dearest friend,
his helpmeet, true; maker of my success in the
ministry. God bless the workers of the Woman's
Christian Temperance Union; she fell in your glorious
service."
A favorite hymn, "Work for the Night is Coming,"
was then sung.

190
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
Rev. J. H. Payran was the next speaker; he said:
"I can scarcely realize the facts that crowd them-
selves into this hour. Only a few weeks ago she was
entertained in my home in Atlantic City; she was then
so clear in mind and so vigorous in every way. At the
parsonage at dinner we talked over the doings of the
past twenty years; talked over the earthly and spiritual
prospects of the children. It was my pleasure to
receive the daughter into the church. Twenty-one years
ago I followed her husband, Charles S. Downs, to his
last resting place. Such a triumphant death; he died
so calmly. I remember as the doctor came in Mr.
Downs said to him:
“Doctor, don't be afraid to tell me; am I nearing
my end?'
“He replied, 'Yes, Charles; only a little while.'
“Mr. Downs said, 'I go where they never die; you
remain where they are ever dying.'
“I admired Mrs. Downs in the Tuckerton church;
she had a deep and genuine love for church work; her
spiritual life was grand.”
Rev. Mr. Little spoke as follows:
“The grandest moral movement of the Nineteenth
Century is that known to-day in twenty-seven countries
as the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. If we
judge by the loftiness of its aim, or breadth of its opera-
tions, or the diversity of its agencies, or the efficiency
of its organization, or the heroism of both its eminent
and humble members, it is the grandest as well as most
practical and philanthropic movement inaugurated since

THE FUNERAL.
191
the days the Son of God visited our suffering humanity,
and 'went about doing good.' This great Union trains
young life for long life and good life, by juvenile organi-
zations for instruction in total abstinence; it secures in
their interest the legal introduction of text-books on the
nature and effects of alcohol, in a majority of the public
schools of the nation. It also warns the heedless
scorners, who reject the Divine command, ‘Look not on
the wine when it is red,' and with perilous and profit-
less dalliance, venture the moderation currents far above
the cataract from whence many thousands of inebriates
annually shoot Niagara, first into the resistless rapids,
and then into the fiery whirlpool of a drunkard's hell.
It also reaches forth the gentle hand of kindly sym-
pathy to the despairing inebriate, while with the other it
points to the cross as the only perfect cure and sure
deliverance. It also appeals to our legislators to frame
laws that shall favor 'God and home and native land,'
and it throws the whole weight of this society's com-
bined influence fearlessly and prayerfully for any and all
against the wickedly strong; who will make the streets a
safe passage between home and the place of daily toil.
"Time will not permit even the mention of forty other
departments of practical and wise benevolence in which
the work of Christian women becomes a good Samaritan
to our common humanity, and an additional safeguard to
the homes of Christendom.
"I am here to say that a leader in this movement, a
Deborah in our modern Israel, has been promoted out of

192
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
this strife and toil of seventy years, into the eternal rap-
ture of the countless years of heaven; her great gain is
our great loss, a loss to the entire state she loved and
served. No longer will she wear the 'white ribbon,'
that significant badge of purity and peace through
righteousness, but she will wear amid immortal com-
panions the ‘white robe' of which a little ribbon seemed
in these years of conflict a fitting suggestion, as well as a
worthy precursor.
"As President of the Woman's Christian Temperance
Union, of the state of New Jersey, she served her God
and country for the last ten years of her life. Her
efficiency in that service is well attested by her con-
tinuous re-election to that office amid many worthy
women who would have graced and honored the office
had it fallen to them. She was a good officer, not a per-
functory official, or an ambitious woman grasping for
the honors of a noble organization. Her service as a
private in the white ribbon army was equally devoted
and faithful. Neither was she an hysterical enthusiast,
borne along by the warmth of her feelings into the cur-
rents of fanaticism, and against the strong bulwarks of
reason and solid judgment. She was richly endowed
with sentiment, and her feelings were like the current of
a river, deep and wide, but always controlled by a clear-
thinking and strong judgment. Her addresses, there-
fore, were both intellectual and convincing, her manner
quiet, her reasoning clear, her words fitly chosen, her
logic convincing, and her self-devotion to the cause she

THE FUNERAL.
193
was invisible, because non-existent. She had not that
peculiar talent which has so richly endowed some of her
sisters, which seems to be moved by a kind of instinct
akin to genius, which has all the charm of poetry and
the enchantment of music, but which cannot stand a
careful analysis or the scrutiny of the critic. The last
time I heard her speak was in the vast auditorium at
Prohibition Park, where she appeared in connection with
the most eminent temperance talent in our country, and
her strong, sound reasoning, and natural manner, won
the enthusiastic applause of the assembly.
“As an organizer she was thorough and comprehen-
sive, and by the strength of her judgment and the
weight of her personal character gave great efficiency
to the Unions that were favored with her presence.
“As a leader of the noble women of New Jersey,
she was always courageous-never timid, yet never
rash. Nature gave her the endowment of a clear
vision. When she saw the right, she saw it clearly,
and she could quickly decide where to take her stand,
and there was only one way to move her from it: it
was by convincing her judgment and her conscience.
“With a kind and valiant spirit she led the praying,
working hosts of the Woman's Christian Temperance
Union of New Jersey. That her patience was sorely
tried by the apathy and indifference and sometimes
the bitter prejụdices of her brothers and sisters in the
church, who had not her clear vision, I need not state.
She charitably believed such negative or positive
opposition was born of unsuspected ignorance of the

194
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
facts and issues involved, and not of inhumanity or
aversion to a Christ-like devotion to the great work of
making society safer and the world better. The
Holy Spirit, which nourished so constantly her Chris-
tian life, also imparted the moral courage which was
so eminent a trait in her character, and enabled her to
stand by the right and the truth, even though a mock-
ing world should ridicule her devotion.
"May the descending mantle of this ascending saint,
fall on younger shoulders and bring even a double
portion' of that same spirit which actuated and
crowned her life.
“I will close this tribute of personal esteem by
applying to our sainted dead, these lines, which so
fitly adorned the casket of the lamented President
Garfield :
" 'Life's race well run,
Life's work well done,
Life's crown well won-
Rest in Peace.”
The hymn, “How Firm a Foundation," was then
sung, after which Dr. Stokes spoke as follows:
“The spirit of Christ in a human soul is a vital
principle, which must produce holy activities. No man
or woman can be truly born of God, and live the divine
life, without giving evidence of that life in their daily
walk. The fruits of the spirit are love, joy and peace.
Because the love of God dwells within, there will be
love toward humanity for Christ's sake. Love towards

THE FUNERAL.
195
humanity for Christ's sake, will bring joy from the Holy
Ghost; joy from the Holy Ghost fills the soul with
unutterable peace. Thus, from the motives of human
selfishness alone we might labor to do good. But an
infinitely higher motive is to do good for the benefit of
others, and for the glory of God. The spirit of Christ
in the human soul makes us Christ-like, as He who was
rich, for our sakes became poor, that we, through His
poverty, might be rich. The good spirit in us must
work out for the blessedness of others. The Christ
Spirit must find activity in helping on in every good
thing. Hence, Christian benevolences, holy charities,
good works, which were never more universal than now.
Among the most fervent and effective in all Christly
and benevolent services, is woman! Never was the
world under such high and noble obligation to con-
secrated womanhood as to-day. She is foremost and
unwearied in every good work. Her practiced eye is
quick to discern real want, her fond and emotional heart
ready to respond in the wisest and best ways. There is
no mountain too rough or rugged for her to ascend, or
valley so dark as to awaken fears. No sea so wide as
to chill her enthusiasm, if an imperiled life is to be
rescued, or a lost soul saved Bold, courageous,
strong in affection's might, she is ready for any work
where good is to be accomplished; and when all agen-
cies have been tried and seem to fail, she, in the
intensity of her zeal and unconquered and unconquer-
able determination, will invent another, and with that
march straight forward to success. Whether she stoops

· 196
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
or rises, there is one aim in view—to overcome; and
she rarely fails. The form of such a woman lies before
you. She started out to win, and she has won. She
won the crown of success here, and wears, beyond all
doubt, the conqueror's crown yonder. Of imposing
physical proportions, she possessed a still broader
mind, well poised, clear and strong. She was not only
the President of the Woman's Christian Temperance
Union of New Jersey and, as such, a woman of large
influence in the National Woman's Christian Temper-
ance Union, now in session in Boston, and in whose
deliberations six days ago she expected to have taken
part, but she did not disdain to be, and was a private
member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union in
Ocean Grove, and Superintendent of the Press Depart-
ment in that place, where her presence was always a
benediction. She was a member of the Executive
Board of the New Jersey Conference Woman's Home
Missionary Society, and, at the same time, an active
member of the Woman's Home Missionary Society of
St. Paul's church, Ocean Grove. She was also a mem-
ber of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of St.
Paul's, Ocean Grove, and a member of the Parsonage
Aid Society of the same church. She was a member
of the Elim Association of Ocean Grove, an organiza-
tion of ladies, whose aim is to aid, by the reduction of
their expenses, sick and poorly-paid ministers in their
summer vacation. She was a true, loyal and royal
King's Daughter, and belonged to the circle of Willing
Workers' at Ocean Grove. And whatever else there

THE FUNERAL.
197
was of good in the church of God, her hand, heart,
voice, purse, pen, influence, example—everything, was
cheerfully laid upon the altar, and to promote that
particular interest, she was always and everywhere a
'willing worker.' She was willing, and worked up to
the last. In the spiritual department of the church she
was ready to pray, bear testimony, exhort, expound,
unfold, enforce, persuade, lead sinners to the cross,
comfort and encourage the weak, or join with the
strong in their song of holy triumph. Of course, in
the Woman's Christian Temperance Union work, to
which she was, no doubt, divinely called, she especially
excelled. Of this others will speak. Sitting at the
same table with her only a few days ago, and talking
with great interest about who would be at the great
Boston meeting, now in session, and where she will be
greatly missed, I said, a little inquisitively, perhaps,
and, even playfully: 'You don't expect to be there?'
Turning, and looking me squarely in the face, her
countenance kindling with the highest, and I might
say almost divine satisfaction, she answered: If there
is any body there, and I am alive, I shall surely be
there.' Is she disappointed ? No, no, no; a thousand
times no! Disappointed among the joy-bells, the
songs, waving palms and coronations of high, holy
and eternal heaven? No, no! Mingling with the
white-robed and exultant multitude; welcomed by
Christ, crowned by the divine Father, surrounded by
saints and approving angels—not only not disappointed,
but full of exultant joy, she joins in the blessed wel-

198
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
come home, and, if possible, sends love songs and holy
messages of hope and inspiration to her Boston sisters;
and I almost hear her say: 'Be not weary in well doing,
for in due season you, too, shall reap if you faint not.'
Courage children, and grandchildren, friends, fellow-
workers, it is only a little way to where she now lives
and waits to welcome you at last.”
Dr. Graw was the next speaker; he said:
"My acquaintance with Mrs. Downs dates back over a
period of more than twenty years; at that time she was
living in Tuckerton, and was one of the most devoted
and earnest workers in the church. Mrs. Downs was
useful in the Sunday school, as well as in all the general
activities of Christian duty. She was a member of the
Order of Good Templars and began her public temper-
ance work within that organization. As she studied
the temperance question, her interest deepened and
broadened in this important work. When the Woman's
Christian Temperance Union was organized she, natur-
ally, was attracted towards it, and soon united with it.
Her first public address on the subject of temperance
was delivered in Millville, N. J., during the session of
the Woman's Christian Temperance Union Conven-
tion. With steady and ever-increasing pace, she moved
forward in the temperance work. Her qualities as a
leader attracted the attention of the active spirits in the
organization of which she was already recognized as a
prominent and useful member. Ten years ago she was
elected President of the Woman's Christian Temperance
Union of New Jersey, and of this decade in her life I

THE FUNERAL,
199
outlived her and spoke at her funeral, that I should
speak of her work rather than of herself. These words
were spoken after the funeral services of General Fisk,
on which occasion but little reference was made to his
work in the cause of Prohibition, and this conspicuous
omission was particularly deprecated by Mrs. Downs.
She said the noblest work in the beautiful life of Gen-
eral Fisk was his devotion to the great principle of Pro-
hibition; asking, why was it that so little was said on
this subject? Then fixing her eyes upon the speaker,
she said: 'If you outlive me, I want you to speak at
my funeral; it is my wish that you should speak of my
work rather than of myself.'
“The great work of Mrs. Downs, as President of
the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, will forever
stand as a monument to her zeal, her self-denial and
her untiring labors for God, for home and native land.
I never knew a person so fully absorbed in a great
work as was our departed sister. She talked, she
prayed, she traveled, and she toiled with tireless efforts
to rear the walls of our Prohibition temple. While
in the beginning of her work she was not what is
called a political Prohibitionist, still, being a sincere
student of the liquor problem, she reached a conclu-
sion that all honest men and women must reach who
study this question, that for the overthrow of the liquor
traffic there is but one hope, and that is Prohibition.
An evil must be outlawed before it can be exterminated,
and this was the faith of our sainted sister, as was

200
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
expressed in her dying words, “The liquor traffic will
be outlawed, and blessed is he who helps.' And how
glorious were the last ten years in the life of Sister
Downs ! Let her work as an organizer speak. How
completely equipped for duty is this Woman's Christian
Temperance Union to-day, and in every department
of this organized work you may trace the hand that
now lies before us cold in death. And who shall tell
of the harvest that shall come from the seed that she
has scattered in every part of our beloved state! From
Sussex to Cape May her voice has been heard pleading
for the boys, the girls, the fathers and mothers who
have been made to suffer in consequence of the cruel
work that alcoholic poison has wrought.
“While Mrs. Downs at first shrank from public speak-
ing and questioned her own ability to stand before
the public in this capacity, she quickly rose superior
to what might have seemed to others adverse circum-
stances, and became a most efficient and impressive
speaker. All the pulpits in New Jersey were open to
her, and even the preachers who did not accept her
radical political Prohibition views, listened to her words
with interest and respect.
“Her life has ended, and its last ten years are more
beautiful and enduring than any monument that can
be placed over her grace. God buries His workmen,
but His work goes on. Sister Downs has ascended,
but her work remains with us. The soldiers of
Alexander carried his dead body into battle on a
shield of gold; the spirit of Sister Downs will go with

THE FUNERAL.
201
us into every battle, to nerve our hearts and strengthen
our hands. Let us show our love for Sister Downs by
doing all that we can to forward the work that filled her
heart and hands during her life; especially the last
ten, so conspicuous and glorious.”
Throughout the service there were marks of intense,
though subdued feeling, which reached its climax when
Mrs. Ellis told the sad, yet joyful story of the struggle
and the victory, the pain and the peace of those last
hours. Like the dying words of a mother to her child-
ren, of a victorious commander to his hosts, so will Mrs.
Downs' last message be cherished in the hearts, and
bear fruit in the lives of the temperance workers of New
Jersey.
"I have stood," said Mrs. Ellis, “in hard places,
but this is the supreme hour of my life. Mrs. Downs
was a very dear friend. She was a mother to me!
With her dying breath she said, 'we've loved each
other and walked together for ten years, Margaret, and
we've never had a word of misunderstanding. I could
only kiss those cold hands and say, no, no, never a word
of misunderstanding.
“When her children asked me to speak on this sad
occasion, I felt it would be a difficult task, for I loved
her so; but consented, knowing it to be their desire,
and so I will try.
“October 20th, I met her in Camden, en route to
Salem, where our State Convention was to be held.
We went together as we always did on the train, and as
the women came in one by one, how their faces lighted
14

202
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
up as they caught sight of her. 'Oh, there is Mother
Downs!' and then how heartily and lovingly did she
greet each one by name, for she seemed to know and
remember the entire membership of White Ribboners in
New Jersey; and what a cheery, happy time was that
hour and a half ride to Salem. The Executive Com-
mittee were to hold a session during that first afternoon.
At the opening we repeated in concert the twenty-third
Psalm, sang Jesus, Lover of my Soul;' then she led
in prayer, and we who were present, I think, will never
forget that prayer; we had never heard her pray like
that before. It seemed as if the Gates of Heaven were
opened, as if she touched the very Throne of God; her
soul was in that prayer! When we arose from our
knees we looked at each other with a wonder, a ques-
tion in our eyes. We were in tears; what does it
mean? There seemed to be a holy touch upon her
even then. It was somewhat like unto that last prayer
of Christ for His disciples, when He was about to
leave them. Ah! how little we dreamed that three
weeks from that day she would go from us to be
forever with the Lord.
“The business of the Convention went on very
smoothly. Love and good feeling were everywhere;
differences were forgotten, and that night when alone in
our room she said, 'Does it strike you that this is a
most harmonious Convention, or am I mistaken?' I
assured her it was indeed so, and she replied with fervor,
It is wonderful, wonderful.'
“Her Annual Address—who of us will forget it?—

THE FUNERAL.
203
was the outpouring of her great motherly heart for us,
for the world. It seemed to draw us all into her arms,
close to her heart. Dr. Graw listened to it, and I saw
him go up and speak to her at the close, and saw her
dear face light up with pleasure. That night she said in
her quaint, funny way:
“See here, Ellis, do you know Dr. Graw said some
very nice things to me this morning?'
"Dr. Graw, I am so glad you followed your heart's
promptings, and said those appreciative words to her
at that time. Ah! how well I know how she was
cheered and encouraged by the kind words of her
brothers in the ministry, and how disappointed she was
when sometimes they were forgotten, or overlooked.
Her great heart, so modest, was thus cheered and
comforted
"When the vote was taken, and she was declared our
President for the eleventh time, a committee was
selected to bring her back to the chair she had vacated.
They found her sitting alone, with such quiet in her
eyes and manner. Her face broke into a smile when the
spokeswoman said: Dear Mrs. Downs, we want you
again.'
“Do you, girls? I am glad, but thought you might
feel you must have a younger woman.'
"As she entered the church door the Convention
arose, and, amid the waving of handkerchiefs, she stood
while we sang Blest be the tie that binds,'—and the
tears running down her cheeks. Then with tenderness
in her voice she said:

201
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
“For me the shadows are lengthening; I shall soon
have done my work, but I do try to keep young; to
know all that is going on in the great outside world, and
to keep posted in everything relating to my duties; but
if possible I shall work harder than ever to merit your
confidence during the year that is to come. All that I
am and have, I have given to you, sometimes my chil-
dren think more than I give them; but you have dealt
so tenderly with me, have received me into your homes,
and ministered to my comfort as children to a loving
"As was our custom at the close of the Convention,
we stood and sang ‘God be with you till we meet
again.'
“She came up from Salem to Ocean Grove for a Sab-
bath, then came to Orange, to her daughter's home,
where we had planned to meet and get the State
Minutes out before we went to Boston to attend the
National.
“Wednesday, she went to New York to make some
purchases accompanied by her daughter, and such a
happy day as they had! Thursday morning, Mrs.
Bourne and I went up early to work on the Minutes, but
found her already at the desk, cheerful and bright as
sunshine as she greeted us; but she looked pale and
worn, and upon inquiry said: 'I don't feel just well, but
think it's nothing. We worked hard all day, only stop-
ping for lunch. Ah! had we known that was the last
day's work for those dear hands as she steadily plied her
pen until seven o'clock, when she laid it down, saying

THE FUNERAL.
205
with a deep sigh of satisfaction, there, that's done!'
and her life work was finished !
"As we left her she followed us to the door kissing us
tenderly. We urged her to go right to bed and get a
good rest, but soon, ah! soon, came the eternal rest.
She was taken violently ill in the night, and for eleven
days her sufferings were intense, the disease resulting in
peritonitis, but through it all she kept in cheerful, brave
spirit. During one of the paroxysms she exclaimed:
'On, on ye brave,' as though encouraging herself to
overcome the shrinking from pain. During the after-
noon of Tuesday, November roth, the doctor told her
'the end was coming soon.' All that medical skill could
do, and tender love suggest, had been done, but of no
avail; yet she never faltered, but with perfect faith and
trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, faced the dread hour
of her life unflinchingly. Her heart-broken children
were about her. To them she gave loving, tender words
of counsel and endearment, telling them to be good, and
you know what mother's standard of goodness is,' and
when their sobs would attract her, she would exclaim :
Oh! don't hold me back; oh! let me go.' She sent
loving messages to her absent son, and other dear ones.
She said again and again, 'I am dying, but am not
afraid!' and again, 'I did not think death was like this ;
He is called the King of Terrors, but there is no terror
here. See! my fingers are stiffening in death, but I
haven't a particle of fear; am no more afraid of the
grave than if there were no grave,' and repeated that
passage in Corinthians, 'O Death, where is thy sting;

206
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
O grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be unto God
who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ.'
“To the women of New Jersey she sent this message:
“'Tell them I love them every one, tell them to work
as hard as though I were here to spur them on.'
“Then resting, she added: 'I have given ten full
years to the work, and now “the Master is come and
calleth for thee;" how often I have repeated those
words to inspire others, but now “the Master is come
and calleth for me."
"Among the many golden words, which fell from
her lips, that never-to-be-forgotten night, were these:
"'The liquor traffic will be outlawed; blessed is he
who helps.'
“Vote for the children.'
“'Stand by the church; church activity is Christian
life.'
"Good night, here; in a happier clime, good
morning.'
“Lord bless Frances Willard! How I love her!
Tell her to take good care of her health, and not work
too hard.'
“To me, she said: Margaret, you will need to work
harder than ever now; but when the work is over, I
will meet you.'
“At her request, one of her sons sang most beauti-
fully ‘My Ain Countrie,' we all joining in the chorus,
during which she waved her hand in token of vic-
tory, and at the close said, 'Beautiful, beautiful;' then

THE FUNERAL.
207
raising her hand aloft, said: 'Room for my bairns in
Paradise.
"Her strong mind was the last to succumb to the
dread destroyer. She said to the physician, who had
so faithfully attended her:
.“ Doctor, I supposed I would enter into a comatose
condition and sleep myself away.'
"Upon her being assured this was not necessary, as
she was so strong-minded, and her mind would probably
be the last to yield, she said: 'Yes; I have always been
called strong-minded.'
“Passing her hand over her face, she said: 'My
nose is pinched, and that is another premonition of
dissolution.'
"I think I shall go about the noon of night,' and
she did. Just as the breath was gone, her son cried
out: "Mother, mother, you're going; is it all right?'
Back from the threshold of eternity, in a long gasp,
came the words: ‘All right!'
"And thus a royal soul passed into the glory-land.
To her I owe a debt of gratitude, I can never repay.
She taught me what a woman could be; she taught me,
for I saw it in her, that a human soul can get utterly out.
of self. She always thought of others first. How she
smoothed the rough places for our feet; how we shall
miss her; and, oh, how we shall need her! We little
knew how hard we leaned upon her, for she was so
strong. Oh, women; women of New Jersey! let us
'work harder,' and by-and-bye, by-and-bye we shall
meet her; and I believe, from the windows of heaven,

208
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
she will watch how the battle wages. I believe it was
with a prophetic vision that she uttered those memora-
ble words: “The liquor traffic will be outlawed; blessed
is he who helps.
“When at that bedside we parted company, after ten
years of the closest friendship, I promised her to work
harder, and, God helping me, I will, until my work is
done. Next to God, she has been my guide and
counsellor during these years. I am bereft; but I
rejoice in her glory. I am glad to-day for her song
of victory. I shall praise His name through an endless
eternity that He permitted me to know her, and love
her. Beloved comrade, 'Hail and Farewell !'”
The services closed with the singing of our own
benediction hymn, “God be with you till we meet
again."
“Through the mist of falling tears, I saw visioned
that last Convention. As she stood before us, and with
faltering voice said, “For me the shadows are length-
ening. My work will soon be done,' again her voice
mingled with ours in the hymn she loved so well.
· "In the hush that followed, in the silence that seemed
to shout victory, we came for the last look at our dead
commander; dead, upon the battle field, and it was the
morning of the first day of the battle.
"As we turned away it seemed to me, to each she
said, 'God be with you till we meet again !' And an
answering echo sang, ‘At Jesus' feet, at Jesus' feet.'
“Meanwhile the short autumn afternoon had worn

THE FUNERAL.
209
itself away, and it was late when we reached the
cemetery
“On the beautiful Orange Mountains,' she had said,
and here, all in the glory of the dying sunset, we
gathered round the spot, evermore to be a hallowed
place. Here Rev. George Hughes and Rev. Dr.
Atkinson uttered the last words.
"As the dear form was lowered lovingly to its last
resting place, the evening star in all its glorious beauty
stole softly out and stood over the spot. As the
moon bathed the sacred soil with its brightness,
we slowly turned away, content to leave the precious
dust with Him, who counts the hair of His childrens'
heads, and who tenderly guards the sleep of His
beloved."

210
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE WORLD'S MEMORIAL SERVICE.
h
HE noontide hour of the World's Convention
JTC had arrived, when Miss Willard announced
that there had just come from New Jersey,
the state which originated the noon tryst of prayer,
this message from the daughter of Mrs. Downs:
"Almost no hope: mother is going home; pray for
us."
Our hearts were saddened, indeed, at this announce-
ment, and very fervent was the prayer of all present,
voiced by Mrs. Barnes, of New York; but the brave
spirit of New Jersey's President preceded it to the
announced
Miss Willard's Annual Address, then in type, had
thanked God that death had not entered the ranks of
the Executive Committee during the year. May we
not now thank God, amid our tears, that He had given
such a grand spirit to earth, leaving her with us till
she had fought life's long battle well, and now has
called her to her coronation in heaven ?

THE WORLD'S MEMORIAL SERVICE.
211
Amid the business of that first World's Convention,
we paused to hear the message read that should go
to the stricken household:
“Tender sympathy and condolence. We grieve for
you and for ourselves. Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of his saints.
“FRANCES E. WILLARD,
“World's Convention."
Miss Willard, amid all her cares, found time to send
this personal message:
"I miss the noble comrade of many great Conven-
tions. How is our strong staff broken, and our
beautiful rod! As one whom his mother comforteth,
so may God comfort you.”
Alas! how suddenly the news came to us as we
arrived during that evening and the next day. Our
hearts were all warm for the greeting she would give
us, and she not here! Gone home! We were stunned.
Everybody was kind; everybody pitied us. Oh, that
first meeting of the delegates without our strong human
leader. The pressure of the hand, the tearful eye, told
the story of our loneliness; and we sat in hushed silence.
In Miss Willard we saw a great pity for us and the
deep love for one who had been to her a wise counsellor
and mother. How like her it was to have the memorial

212
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
service at the same hour of the funeral. How our
hearts were comforted by the strong words spoken
and the tender love shown.
As the regular programme was laid aside, we were
thrilled with the music of that hymn, "Jesus, Lover of
my Soul,” the reading of the twenty-third Psalm, and
the symphonies of faith and prayer. It seemed as if
all the loving hearts of the nation had assembled to
participate in the ceremonies of her coronation, for it
did not seem that we were commemorating her death.
When Mrs. Bourne spoke for us, the bereaved state,
we were carried back to the State Convention so
recently held at Salem, and the tears flowed fast as
every New Jersey member remembered our dear
mother's request that we sing, “One more day's work
for Jesus.” Once was not enough for her, so she had
us sing it three times.
Miss Willard said, “Death is but a bend in the
stream of life which sends us heavenward."
Mrs. Hoffman, President of Missouri, then said, “For
ten years we have been accustomed to see Mrs. Downs
in our Executive Committee. She was distinguished
for her reliability and motherliness. While she was
long past the prime of life, she kept her heart young
and fresh, and I notice that the girls of New Jersey
were just as fond of Mrs. Downs as were the women
of New Jersey. In parting from me the last time she
gave me this message, Clara, be good, be good.' She
repeated this, and, as we were about to separate, she
called me again and said impressively, ‘Until we meet in

THE WORLD'S MEMORIAL SERVICE.
213
Boston, I want to give you this scriptural text, “Trust
in the Lord and do good. Commit thy way unto
Him and He shall bring it to pass. Trust in Him and
He shall give thee the desire of thy heart." Thus we
women, who had left home previously to the going out
and upward of our sainted comrade, were permitted
to unite in thought and feeling with those who were
more favored in listening to the testimonies of those
knowing her intrinsic worth, and in looking upon the
face which never more should smile upon us, as she
pressed our hand, saying, "Well, . dearie, we will work
on, do our best, and we shall win.'”
Mrs. Lathrap then offered prayer: “We come into -
Thy presence in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, our
Father, as we pause here in the hush that has come
where a comrade has fallen. We know that for us, for
some of us, the battle and the tumult, the care and the
anxiety still go on, but we pray Thee that amidst our
loving and amidst our grieving, the peace into which she
has entered may come into our souls, and keep them in
perfectness. We pray Thee, our Father, that to-day as
we pause here in this sadness which comes to us, and in
the presence of that mystery which the puzzled children
of this world call death, that Thou wilt come so near to
us by Thy Spirit as to teach us that these are the gate-
ways of eternal life. We pray Thee that we may recog-
nize them as the gateways through which John saw the
heavens; help us to see Him who is the King eternal,
immortal and invisible, in all His glory, as He sits there
the Prince of all kingdoms, the Ruler of all nations and

214
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
the Solution of all problems. And we pray Thee that
out into the peace of His presence our tired and grieving
hearts may go until we find His unutterable peace. We
thank Thee, dear Christ, that Thou didst walk among
men, and for the hearts that Thou didst comfort, and for
the words Thou didst speak to weeping Martha. We
thank Thee for the things Thou saidst to Mary after
Lazarus died. We thank Thee for saying to the world,
'I am the resurrection and the life, and he that loveth
and believeth in me shall never die;' and we believe
what Thou dost say to-day, and so we talk not of our
fallen comrade as one who is dead, but we know that
to-day she is in the glorious life. We pray Thee to lead
us to lift up our eyes unto the hills from whence cometh
our help, unto the beautiful hills where she is with her
Master, and rejoice that she has entered into glory and
into rest. We thank Thee for this beautiful, this strong,
this wholesome life that has touched us with its strength
and with its beauty all these years that are gone by. We
thank Thee for the friendship she gave us; we thank
Thee for the words of wisdom Thou didst teach her; we
thank Thee for the spirit Thou didst put upon her; we
thank Thee for the beautiful life that we say to-day is
ended, but that God knows is just begun. We pray for
the state in our great constituency that is specially
stricken. We pray for the dear young women that she
took to her motherly heart and taught the lessons she
loved. We thank Thee for the strong, steady, brave
women that for years have stood at her side and helped
her in the work in New Jersey. We thank Thee for the

THE WORLD'S MEMORIAL SERVICE.
215
work that she has been able to do and leaves as a price-
less monument behind her. Oh, bless this stricken dele-
gation, and as they sit mourning the leader that has
fallen, we pray Thee that the richness and fulness of
Thy grace may comfort them, and that they may learn
some lesson out of it that they could not learn even out
of her presence. We pray for Thy blessing upon the
National Union which is singularly stricken in this loss.
Help us to remember that as we pause for this one,
others shall sometime pause for us. We pray Thee that
these last years of life may be richer and fuller and
may be admonished by this deprivation to be ready to
do Thy work and to be faithful unto death. At this
hour we tenderly pray for those that are nearest and
dearest of all: for the daughter who weeps by the side
of a mother so soon to be put beyond her sight, for the
family circle so stricken, for the hearts that will remem-
ber when others have forgotten. Dear God, behold
them, comfort them with Thy spirit, touch them with
Thy love and grace, and we pray that in that stricken
household and upon all our hearts that mourn may
come the blessed benediction of Thy grace. Now wilt
Thou be with us as we take unto our hearts the sweet
and solemn lessons of this hour. Give us the peace of
God. Give us the joy of faith; give us in our souls the
promise of eternal life. While we wage the battle here,
may we do it knowing that in a little while we shall
receive, if we are faithful, the crown that she has re-
ceived, and we shall enter into the peace into which her

216
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
spirit has entered. Wilt Thou bless us, wilt Thou keep
us, wilt Thou hallow us under this sorrow, wilt Thou
make our lives sweeter and gentler for it, and by and by
when our work is done may we as triumphantly pass
into that inner presence to come no more out forever,-
we ask it for Christ's sake, Amen.”
Mrs. Lathrap's prayer caused a tidal-wave of sym-
pathy to sweep over that vast gathering, and we felt :
“Over the arches a perfume falls,
Like breath from the hills of balm,
And melody sweeps to a world in pain,
As notes of an angel psalm.
The song rings out, like a prophet's cry,
And tells of a day that is drawing nigh.”
At the Memorial Service it seemed as though a
mother had died and left a great family of children to
mourn for her: the older would so need her counsel;
the younger would so need her tender love and
encouragement.
The chair which she would have occupied, was
decorated the entire Convention with white flowers.
Miss Willard found occasion, at nearly every session,
to call attention to our loss and hers; and, when, on
Tuesday evening, the moment came for New Jersey's
President to speak, she said, so tenderly:
“I have looked down often, during the week, at the
sable decorations and the calla lily, and seen the loving
faces of the New Jersey delegation. The name oppo-

THE WORLD'S MEMORIAL SERVICE.
217
site is that of Mrs. Downs, of Ocean Grove. I do not
know what you think., but I have a very sweet persua-
sion that she knows we are here, and that she will,
perhaps, as clearly discern and know what is said about
New Jersey as any of us. Will her loved friend and
comrade, Mrs. Bourne, please speak for her state?”
After Mrs. Bourne had spoken, Miss Willard
continued :
“For the sweet influence that it will be to us, let us
listen to Mrs. Harris, while she sings one verse of
'The far away home of the soul,' in memory of our
comrade who left us so few days ago.”
"We felt that heaven was nearer and dearer truly,
and caught a fresh inspiration for the on-coming days.
Who shall say that her spirit was not hovering around
us, giving us clearer visions of the great unknown
chasm, which intervenes between the now and the here-
after ? Very confident am I, that our dear President
breathed our thoughts when she prayed:
“'We bless Thee for the dear sister of our Woman's
Christian Temperance Union that has passed into
heaven, that comrade with the strong face and keen
eye, that during so many years looked up at us. We
know that to-day, that which was mortal of her, lying
in its mortal, earthly grave, wears the same badge
above that pulseless heart that we are bearing over
these hearts that beat and pulse with life. We know
when we shall pass away that we shall be with her
and the company of the redeemed. Make us to feel
15

218
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
a little bit what it is to be a Christian, some glimpse of
what it is to have been adopted into the family of the
Lord. Give us more gratitude, 'tis a heavenly plan.
We would trust each other more. We pray Thee to
bless us, who are not the triumphant, but the militant
soldiers, who in these tenements of clay still find
burning the immortal spirit that shines through.'
Resolutions had been prepared by the Executive
Committee, which were adopted by the Convention.
They are as follows:
WHEREAS, The Executive Committee of the National
Woman's Christian Temperance Union is called to
mourn the loss of a most honored member, and sister
beloved, Mrs. S. J. C. Downs, President of the New
Jersey Union, who heard and with joy obeyed
our Father's loving summons,“ Come up higher;"
therefore,
Resolved, That we thank God for the long years of
close friendship, suspended but for a little, to be renewed
farther on; that we cherish the memory of that great,
loyal mother heart, and rejoice in the unfaltering faith
that rung out in the words, “The liquor traffic will be
outlawed; blessed is he who helps." While we pause
to chant the tender requiem, thought follows beyond
the grave; with upward gaze and hearts aglow, we
pledge ourselves never to forget her loving admonition,
“Be good," and we will follow where her finger
pointed, as with dying lips she left these last inspiring
words, “ On! ye brave."
Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be
engrossed and sent to our sister's only daughter,
Mrs. L. Downs Quigley, East Orange, N. J.

Tributes.


TRIBUTES.
MRS. SARAH DOWNS.
FRANCES E. WILLARD.
9 PE used to call her “The Andrew Jackson of the
Executive Committee.” She was a woman of
large mould, physically, mentally, emotionally
and ethically. The words “much every way” charac-
terize her as well as any single phrase could do. For
years hers was “a face that duly as the sun rose up for
me” in great conventions. The New Jersey delegation
has always had a decided individuality. Indeed, each
state delegation has to a degree, but in some the salient
quality is more emphasized than in others; in none
more so, however, than what we were wont to call “The
New Jersey Regiment,” at the head of which always
sat this dauntless general who had stamped upon the
work and workers so much of her own pronounced
personality.
First of all, I should say she was religious while
wholly free from cant. Fanaticism found no home in
that broad intelligence. Her Christianity was breezy,

LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
bright, heartsome. She suited the action to the word
and the word to the action. She read the gospel and
carried it out to the smallest details in daily life. This
characteristic has always been a most notable one in the
New Jersey delegation. The noon-hour of prayer was
made a feature of our work by their request, presented
at the second convention we ever held—in 1875. They
brought it to my mind, if ever in the hurry of business
I was likely to omit its observance in the great conven-
tions; sometimes by lifting her watch Mother Hill
would remind me; other times dear “Mother Downs,"
(as many of us learned to call her) would bring me to a
state of recollectiveness. It was the New Jersey women
who issued the little souvenir of the noon-hour, sending
it to all their local Unions. It was an old-fashioned
clock, and had suitable Scripture passages by way of
inscription.
Another quality of Mrs. Downs and of her women
was bonhomie. They were large physically, as well as
large natured. I believe the delegation would have
weighed more in proportion to its numbers than any
other in the convention. A certain amplitude of good
nature, bright and winsome, especially characterized
them as a class. Seated at the head of her elegation,
Mrs. Downs had in her steel-blue eyes no steely light.
Wit, wisdom, shrewdness and a genuine piety were
mingled in her every glance. She, like those whom she
represented, was remarkable for the forceful character
of her opinions. Many think that religion makes people
conservative, but this is not my observation. In the

TRIBUTES.
steeple chase of opinion no group has taken every fence
with better poise and swifter movement or more cheery-
going skill than the New Jersey leader and her co-
adjutors. They were early in the field for a paying basis
of membership, for woman's suffrage, for independent
politics—the three great subjects of controversy that our
eighteen years have registered.
In debate Mrs: Downs was perfectly at home; most
courteous and considerate, but explicit to the last degree,
and her blows were always ponderous. There was in
her kindly countenance the light of devoted conviction,
but she had the friendliest feelings towards those from
whom she differed. She was like a mother to me, and
many a time her strong, warm hand has grasped mine,
or her arm been thrown over my shoulder as she has
bemoaned the stress that a presiding officer cannot
escape, and the burdens that a leader must bear in the
intervals of those harvest homes we call conventions,
when the clans rally, the platform is built, the super-
structure of plans raised upon it, and the alignment for
the new year determined. So considerate was this New
Jersey Great-heart, that she forebore writing to me many
times when I should have been glad to hear; but she
thought, and said in her letters, it would "only make
one more letter of the ten thousand you have to an-
swer.” She had, indeed, little occasion to counsel with
her official chief, for her independence of character made
personal initiative attractive and agreeable to her. She
knew whereof she affirmed, and she did not fear to
affirm. On my part, I always felt that things were going

LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
well in her great parish. There was a heartiness and
zeal among the workers, and an esprit de corps unex-
celled by that of any other state. Her love was testified
in many ways that linger now in memory, and in none
more appreciated than the giving of my name to a new-
born granddaughter when it had been decided that the
little one should bear her own.
If Mrs. Downs had lived fifty years later she would
have become Governor of New Jersey, or a Bishop in
the Methodist Episcopal church, for in her were united
the deepest mother-heart and the bravest brotherly
brain. She was safe in counsel, fearless in action, and
strong in the mind and will force that sent her forward
along whatever paths opened before her keen and
watchful eyes. In the great battle for Prohibition, she
dealt heavy blows to the enemy, yet always with a
smile. She seemed to know nothing of jealousy or
revenge, but would go out of her way to do a kindness
to one from whom she differed politically or otherwise.
When the dynamite, now being so slowly worked in
beneath the Hell Gate reef of public prejudice, shall at
last be set off (perhaps, as in the earlier instance, by the
touch of a child's hand), the great, happy, new age will
hardly stop to learn who sunk the mines, who risked
reputation and life itself to put the combustible material
where it would do the most good, but in that upper air
where all sounds are registered, the reverberations will
echo in no ear celestial that will welcome them more
warmly, the great, new light will be reflected in no eyes
more keen and kind than those of this noble, mother-

TRIBUTES.
hearted woman, chosen by God for a difficult emergency;
our Deborah, whose motto always was, “Let us behave
ourselves valiantly for our people.”
May God bless and all good men hallow the name,
the memory, the services of Sarah Downs.
Rest Cottage, Evanston, Ill., Feb. 16, 1892.
AS I KNEW HER.
MARY T. LATHRAP.
C OME characters reach completeness early because
90 their scant resources have no need of time to
bring them full development; so 'even in youth
they reach the sudden finish of a plaster image, with
nothing beyond to be attained. Other lives come slowly
out in divine ordeal of the years, as the marble statue
grows under the hand of the sculptor. There is no die
in which they are quickly moulded; the pattern is out
of sight in the mind and will of God, while the years
are a necessity to give, by chisel stroke and polishing,
the rare glory of a rounded life.
Such finished beauty distinguished the character that
in the poverty of human speech we seek here to express.
Two separate and differing ideals of womanly sphere
and work are set forth in these days by thinkers who
seem equally honest. The first, that woman's highest
possibility is motherhood; the second, that her divinest
achievement is womanhood. We are told with tiresome

LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
iteration that the great need of to-day is good mothers;
but the world has been slow to learn the lesson that the
ideal motherhood for which demand is made comes
after, and because of, the highest womanhood, and is
impossible without it. The finest illustration of this
truth is found in the strong, broad, beautiful life of
Sarah J. C. Downs. Hers was a character wrought
slowly out; full of late and sweet surprises as it grew
towards completeness.
The writer's acquaintance with her began ten years
ago, when we came at nearly the same time into the
Executive Council of the National Woman's Christian
Temperance Union. New Jersey women had made a
strong and impressive record in the crusade, and the
organized work that followed it. No one familiar with
those early days can ever forget the baptism of power
which rested upon them in the great meetings at Ocean
Grove, in the evangelistic temperance work that stirred
the cities of their own state, and brought blessing and
help to the annual conventions of the National Union.
To follow such leaders, and command such forces in
the more difficult later days, required an exceptional
woman, and such was Mrs. Downs. I have been told
by her associates that she did not desire the office of
President of the State Union; that she was appalled at
the responsibility, and at first unfamiliar with the duties
required. But in ten years she came to the front rank
among the National leaders, and brought her State with
her. This was not accomplished by a sudden, brilliant
dash, but by patient, self-sacrificing toil. To thus lead

TRIBUTÉS.
others, and push on a great cause to which her life was
devoted, she became a student of principles, methods
and men, and, what was quite as difficult, a student of
woman, until a certain statesmanlike quality gave weight
to her conclusions, and wisdom to her action.
In the long discussion concerning the political attitude
of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, she stood
firm as a rock, and kindly as the sunlight. She was a
Prohibitionist because the logic of principles carried her
to that conclusion, and made fellowship with law-making
forces dominated by the liquor traffic, an impossibility.
She understood that “the friendship of the world is
enmity with God," and not only took issue with the low
infamy of the saloon, but with the higher infamy that
legalizes and perpetuates it. Whoever swung toward
compromise for the sake of peace, she never; and when
the truth divided, as it always does, she knew neither
doubt nor fear for results.
It was the writer's privilege to be much with her in
the summer of 1889, some sweet “off days” at Ocean
Grove. She seems often yet to stand in that glorious
setting of sea and sky, surrounded with the group of
loyal women from her own state, to whom she was
leader and comrade. We "outsiders,” Julia Thomas,
of blessed memory; Mrs. Hoffman, the writer, and
others, were taken into the joy of those golden days.
Mrs. Quigley, the only daughter, with her two children,
were of our goodly company, their presence filling even
the business office of the New Jersey Woman's Chris-
tian Temperance Union with a certain homelikeness. In

LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
those weeks Mrs. Downs illustrated before all eyes, the
best in both ideals of womanly character. She had
achieved womanhood; and apart from all human condi-
tions, her life was in itself an inspiration to any within
its touch and influence. Being such a woman, mother-
hood sat upon her as a crown, and her sons and daugh-
ter call her blessed.
Sarah J. C. Downs needs neither apology nor argu-
ment from any to prove that she made a wise use of life,
in giving herself to a wider sphere than that popularly
set apart for women. She was a leader, brave and full of
faith; an organizer of individuals and forces, divinely
called and as divinely led. When she came to the office
of State President of the Woman's Christian Temper-
ance Union, New Jersey had twenty-four Unions and a
thousand members. When she laid down her work
there were two hundred and twenty Unions, and eight
thousand white ribbon women united in service for
Christ and the world. As a presiding officer, she was
just, kind, and far-seeing. As a reformer, she was
broad, fair and without bigotry, radical and unswerv-
ing as the truth for which she made battle.
In the Executive Committee of the National Union
she was easily among the first. Her opinions were
sought and prized by her co-workers, and the most diffi-
cult questions submitted with confidence to her clear and
and humanity, her Christian life and experience found
expression in deeds, rather than words. "In quietness
and confidence was her strength," until her work was

TRIBUTES.
done. The overflowing joy of salvation was reserved
for the last hours of pain, when, with psalms of praise
and victory, she went on like a conqueror to her place
with the glorified.
These words but faintly outline the life and work of
this translated leader. How many who read through
tears will fill out, in rare coloring, the fair details of
virtue and Christ-like service that find no record here.
Did she miss ideal motherhood, this woman who heard
across the lullaby she sang to her own, the heart-sob of
the motherless? Let the facts make answer.
Some other pen may, perhaps, tell the story of those
hours of triumph and rapture which made a fitting close
to such unselfish living. We lift, with reverent hand,
the curtain for a moment only upon the mother and her
children. They were at her bedside in those closing
hours when the heaven drew near-strong sons, fresh
from life's stern battle, and the gentle daughter. As her
eldest son knelt by that bedside, the dying hands were
placed reverently upon his head, as solemnly from her
lips fell the words: “God bless you, my son; faithful
unto death. You have never failed me.” Another
comes and lays this tribute at her feet. Listen, ye carp-
ing critics, who fear that, in reaching for a broader
womanhood, motherhood is forgotten:
"Mother, your voice always followed me, by land and
sea. I could never escape it, until I came to your God.
I shall gain heaven at last, mother, and it will be through
you." Then, with glorious voice, he sang at her bidding
"My ain Countrie.”

IO
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
The sorrow-stricken daughter, at that bedside kneel-
ing, said: “Mother, while life lasts, you will be my ideal
of womanhood, of motherhood, of all that is purest and
best."
Another son, in the far West, writes: “Thank God
that in heaven to-day mother knows that she may look
at my life since I left her, and not be ashamed for me.”
In a letter written by one of these children are these
words of gold:
"In the hush that came after the soul had fled, we
looked into each other's sorrow-stricken faces and whis-
pered: ‘She taught us how to live, and showed us how
to die.! ”
Her life was a sheaf at its ripeness,
Of goldenest grain ;
Its wealth had the glory of sunlight
And sobbing of rain.
Ah! who shall contend with the Master,
For whom it was grown,
That now, in its day of completeness,
He gathers His own?
Or who to earth's duty and sadness
Would call the great soul from the gladness
That heaven makes known?
Writing thus far for other women and for all who
may be blessed by the record of this noble life, I dare
finally a personal word for my comrade and friend.
In all my intimate counsel with her, I never knew her
to be false to a friend, unfair to an antagonist, or bitter
to an enemy. I never saw her show anything like
anger, or be other than calm and self-controlled under

TRIBUTES.
II
the greatest provocation. She had opinions, convictions,
and great fearlessness in their expression, but it was the
“sword of the Lord” with which she smote in battle.
She had a vein of exquisite humor that lighted her
social intercourse and rippled like sunshine across her
graver moods. She was helpful, loving and true to
women, and believed in them with all her heart. She
was my strong and trusted friend, and since her going
the world has seemed poorer, and I have felt as if a
great palm had fallen, or a far-sailing ship had gone
beyond my tear dimmed vision out to sea. What can
be added better than her own sweet farewell:
"Good night here; in a happier clime, good morn-
ing?”
MRS. S. J. C. DOWNS.
MARY A. WOODBRIDGE.
b ITH gratitude I accept the privilege granted me
I to join with others in paying tribute to my
PP friend, long honored and beloved, now entered
into rest.
It is well that in so doing my glance may, for a time,
be turned backward, for, peering from the midst of a
busy life into the gates beyond, as the Israelites could
not endure the sight of their Lord, I fear the glory of
the eternal home, the heavenly mansions, would dazzle
vision and blind the eye to that which hath not been
seen, nor heard, nor thought. Yet, sitting by my study

12
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
table, I walk in memory, step by step, with her since
first we were acquaint; and so unswervingly hath she
moved on in her unfaltering trust in God; so firmly has
she held my hand and helped me through the sometimes
dark and rugged way, that, almost unconsciously, I seem
with her to reach the entrance of the kingdom with joy,
and not with fear, and, as the portals open, to catch the
light that shines forth and glorifies the whole being, and
for a moment long for translation.
The Convention of the World's Woman's Christian
Temperance Union, toward which Mrs. Downs had long-
ingly looked, was in session November 11th, 1891.
Across the wires flashed to that gathering the message
that she was sick nigh unto death. The noon hour of
prayer (which came to us from her own state of New
Jersey) was at hand. The telegram was read, bringing
to every heart solemnity and sorrow. Mrs. Downs was
the oldest member of the National Woman's Christian
Temperance Union Executive Committee, but upon the
youngest was laid the privilege of pleading for her
recovery. Mrs. Frances J. Barnes prayed as a daughter
beloved for the salvation of the mother of her heart,
and, reaching forth her arms of faith, cried: “If it be Thy
will, O God, save, O save our loved one !” But even at
that hour, though we knew it not, her last day of earthly
pilgrimage had closed, and closed in peace. Already
she had heard the voice divine ; she had hung entranced
upon His lips, whose words were sweeter to her taste
than “droppings of the honey-dew," and could say, with
poet-saint:

TRIBUTES.
13
“I turned to see who called me; and lo! One
Wearing a form of human tenderness
Approached. Human He was, but love divine
Breathed in His blessed countenance, a love
Which drew me onwards irresistibly
Persuasive; I drew near to Him,
And He to me. O beatific sight!
O vision with which nothing can compare !
The angel ministrant who brought me hither
Was exquisite in beauty, and my heart
Clave to his heart: the choristers of light,
Who sang around our pathway, none who saw
Could choose but love for very loveliness,
But this was diverse from all other sights :
Not living only, it infused new life;
Not beautiful alone, it beautified;
Not only glorious, for it glorified.
For a brief space methought I looked on Him,
And He on me. O blessed look! how brief
I know not, but eternity itself
Will never from my soul erase the lines
Of that serene transfiguring aspect.
For a brief space I stood, by Him upheld,
Gazing, and then in adoration fell
And clasped His sacred feet, while holy tears,
Such tears as disembodied spirits may weep,
Flowed from my eyes. But bending o'er me,
As bends a mother o'er her waking babe,
He raised me tenderly, saying, "My child.'
And I, like Thomas on that sacred eve,
Could only answer Him, ‘My Lord, my God.'
And then He drew me closer, and Himself,
With His own hand, His pierced hand of love,
Wiped the still-falling tear-drops from my face,
And told me I was His and He was mine,
And how my Father loved me, and He loved.”

14
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
And while this passed in heaven, we tried to do the
bidding of our Lord, with thought divided between
heaven and earth, with hope, while heeding duty's call,
to us might come some glimpses of the infinite to be.
How strong we grew in memory of her life! How
clear to us the spirit power of her great soul!
As President of the Woman's Christian Temperance
Union of New Jersey, she followed a saintly woman
whose health could no longer endure the strain.
Neither her state nor national comrades measured her
well, or she grew with rarest speed under the responsi-
bilities unexpectedly thrust upon her; for unawares, in
our very midst, there stood a woman with a heroism
that touched the sublime, alike in doing and enduring;
a woman with hope so triumphant that through storm
or darkness its eye ever caught the victory.
The real epic of the Woman's Christian Temperance
Union, glorious in its ultimate consequences, is being
continually wrought out. Great chapters are added
each year, but none have been of mightier import than
those written at St. Louis at the National Convention of
1884. A new problem had risen among us. We were
surprised. and grieved. There must be a right and a
wrong to the question, and the great body sought the
right. Conscience was aroused; the monitor rallied
the forces to stand, yet there was danger! At a moment
of unparalleled importance a silence fell upon us. Who
should break it? and what would be the word sent by
God to our longing souls ? Mrs. Downs was His
chosen messenger.

TRIBUTES.
15
With the utmost simplicity, but with naive skillfulness,
she outlined the required action, and with unique vivid-
ness portrayed the result, were we to fail in the duty of
the hour. The intervening years have proven her
sagacity, and no regret has followed the acceptance of
her proposition.
No protrusion of self marred her truthfulness. What
mattered it to her that she was a marked figure for
praise or condemnation? She was called of God to
patient, heroic participation in that episode, and no such
paltry motive as self-interest could hold her back.
From that hour she was held in warmest appreciation.
No: one of all the host inspired more complete confi-
dence. Her judgment was often sought and a new
fountain of delight was opened in a fellowship of heart,
unbroken through the years. In her the Lord created
a tabernacle worthy of himself, where he might enter
in and dwell, and leave no doubt that she was the “tem-
ple of the Holy Ghost."
Her life was a holy psalm—a canticle of love. Her
example evidenced the endowment and beauty of grace;
her inward spirit was written on every lineament of her
countenance and found expression in her every act. The
memory of her blameless life, of a soul sanctified and
spotless through faith, will give to her co-laborers of the
Woman's Christian Temperance Union courage to act
well their part.
Yet, while we rejoice with Mrs. Downs, we mourn our
loss. The daughter, loved and loving, sits not alone in
her sorrow, but with her, before His throne whose will is

16
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
ours, we bow, and, with a trust the mother has taught,
we hold in loving faith the stricken child, whom Jesus
loves, and to whose heart the Spirit will bring comfort
and make mighty for Himself. With her we look for-
ward to a “reknitted companionship," for
“Upon this earth we lived and loved ;
Ours was a fellowship of light :
The outer circle might be dark,
But all within was fair and bright-
A day without a night!
“One faith, one hope was ours—the faith
That can the cloudiest night illume,
That seeth the unseen; the hope
That looks into the joy to come,
Foredating rest and home!
“We parted : one went up to be
Where partings are forgotten; where
Life in its fullness dwells; where love
Breathes its bright perfume through the air,
And every face is fair.
“And we were left behind, to wait
A solemn while on earth; to long
For the eternal meeting where
All sing together with one tongue
The everlasting song !
“The earth is lonelier now, when she
Who walked with us its ways is gone
But loneliness will soon be o'er,
The blank forgotten and unknown
Not long, not long till then”
Ravenna, Ohio.

TRIBUTES.
17
OUR “ANDREW JACKSON.”
CLARA C. HOFFMAN.
LE CALLED Mrs. Downs the “ Andrew Jackson
HH of the Executive Committee.” With the most
unbending integrity, the most fearless advocacy
of the right, she combined the most delicate and
thoughtful consideration for those who could not agree
with her. The forty to fifty women who constitute the
National Executive Committee, cannot always see eye to
eye-cannot always agree as to policy and plan—and
during the past few years some severe tests have come
to that body of consecrated women ; but, in the most
trying ordeal, it was Mrs. Downs who said: “We must
be true to principle—true to our highest conviction of
right—though friends misunderstand, and foes malign;
though the heavens fall, we must do our duty.” This
devotion to principle and to duty was the keynote of her
well-rounded, harmonious character.
There was no member of our National Executive
Committee who did not trust and respect Mrs. Downs.
She was so faithful a friend, so fair an opponent, and so
judicial in judgment, they could do no other. Some of
us, who learned to know her intimately outside our
great, crowded, absorbing conventions outside the long
and exhausting work of the Executive Committee-
learned to love her with a great and exceeding love. To
the writer she was “Downsie," the trusted friend and

18
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
beloved elder sister. At Ocean Grove, in the quiet of
her own apartment; in long, earnest talks by the surg-
ing, sobbing sea; in social and private prayer, hearts
were knit together with bonds that death cannot sever.
Here, again and again, were revealed the generous
nature and the tender motherliness that reached out to
every stricken, sorrowing soul.
Mrs. Downs had great self-control-hence her control
of others. I remember a Woman's Christian Temper-
ance Union School of Methods at Ocean Grove in the
summer of 1884. I was present but one day. The heat
was intense, and the excitement of the campaign still
more intense. A large number of ministers were
scattered through the audience, and the majority of
them were not Prohibitionists, and were fully convinced
that the Woman's Christian Temperance Union was most
unwise to openly advocate St. John's election. These
ministers, and many others from the great audience,
asked questions. Some were written—some oral. For
two hours they came like shot toward the platform.
Mrs. Lathrap and myself were appointed to answer these
questions. The most radical of the radicals, we did not
always pour oil upon the surging waters.
Dear Mrs. Downs presided, and, although equally as
radical as we, with most consummate tact and skill, with
gentle but most firm hand, she held that great audience
in order and sweetness through that hot cross-fire of
question and reply. All felt and acknowledged her fair-
ness, her unfailing goodness.
It was Mrs. Downs who brought the lamented Julia

TRIBUTES.
19
Thomas to Ocean Grove, and encouraged young and old
to enter Miss Thomas' classes for physical culture.
Mrs. Downs was the first to recognize this need for her
women, and with all her cares and years upon her, she
entered the classes with the enthusiasm of the youngest.
She interested herself to gain admittance to the class for
two young girls who could not afford the course.
In the most practical and unostentatious manner she
lived the Christ life, and “went about doing good.”—a
good life and true. Though dead she yet speaketh unto
all who knew her.
To the intense, impetuous nature of the writer, she
was an anchorage, wise and tender, when injustice to
woman, whether in church or state, called forth indig-
nant protest and scathing denunciation; when the infamy
and cruelty of the liquor traffic, upheld and perpetuated
by Christian manhood, rent and embittered the heart,
“Downsie,” feeling every pang and responding to every
sentiment, yet soothed and calmed the tempest, and
strengthened trust in One who is Justice, Truth and
Love.
As an elder sister, who has filled a mother's place, we
shall miss her, we shall mourn her. On her grave we
lay this tribute of her love:
"We are truer, stronger women for the blessed com-
radeship of our sister; and we will patiently follow
where she has led the way.”

20
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
“THERE IS LIGHT ABOVE.”
MRS. R. P. PENFIELD.
M Y ACQUAINTANCE with dear Mrs. Downs
was formed as we walked to the cemetery in
Millville, during noon recess of the convention.
As we stood at the spot where one of her children
rested, we talked of death and the grave. But,“ There
is light above," said she. On that sacred soil I elected
her my friend, and have had no reason to repent my
choice. I voted for her as State President when dear
Mrs. Denman was so ill, and have watched her unwaver-
ing, dignified course in all our gatherings, her patience
in discussions, her rulings in committee and at con-
ventions, and felt that, as our head and counsellor, she
could be trusted to lead our gospel temperance work.
When shut out from the active duties of our work, I fol-
lowed her, as reported by various Unions and the press,
and I felt at peace, knowing that our John Knox was
traversing New Jersey with a heart set on the outlawing
of the liquor traffic. Having served the state faithfully
for ten years, she was just elected to the eleventh
term, when she passed from our presence into her
Father's house, leaving children, kindred, and her loving
Woman's Christian Temperance Union comrades over-
whelmed in their bereavement—dumb with sorrow and
loneliness. But her last message, “work harder," came
with a force that aroused them from the stupor of

TRIBUTES.
21
grief, and peace came to them through this “accepted
sorrow."
In the clear morning of that other country,
In Paradise ;
With the same face that we loved and cherished,
She shall arise !
Let us be patient, we who mourn, with weeping,
Some vanished face;
The Lord hath taken, but to add more beauty,
And a diviner grace.
And we shall find once more, beyond earth's sorrows,
Beyond those skies,
In the fair city of the “new foundations,"
Those heavenly eyes,
With the same welcome shining through their sweetness,
That met us here;
Eyes from whose beauty God has banished weeping,
And wiped away the tear.
Plainfield, January, 1892.
The writer of the above sketch, Mrs. R. P. Penfield, is
the oldest White Ribboner in New Jersey. For many
years she was one of the most prominent workers in the
“Home for the Friendless,” in New York city. An
earnest advocate for everything which would advance
the kingdom of Christ on the earth, she entered the
ranks of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union in
the very commencement of its history, and has been one
of its most zealous and fearless members. On her
seventieth birthday she presented to the state of her
adoption (New Jersey) a beautiful banner, designed by
her own hand, emblematic of the “noontide hour of

22
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
prayer." Although now shut in from active work,
nevertheless her fluent pen sends out its message of
cheer and encouragement to those in the heat of the
strife. May she long be spared to us!
M. B. ELLIS.
MRS. S. J. C. DOWNS AS I KNEW HER.
REV. HENRY BELTING,
7 MONG the pleasant things that a Methodist
preacher meets with in his itinerant life is the
variety and number of friendships he forms in
the various charges he may be called to serve. Among
these he finds not a few “elect” and “honorable
women,” “mothers in Israel” indeed, who are often more
to the church than many of the official brethren. Their
deep spirituality, love for souls, love for the church and
the means of grace; their strong faith and readiness to
work, are a source of constant inspiration to the pastor.
Among such women Mrs. Downs occupied a prominent
place.
Years ago, when the writer was but a boy, he heard
her worthy husband preach in the Broadway Methodist
Episcopal church, Salem, N. J., and the impression the
sermon produced is still fresh in memory. The personal
acquaintance with Mrs. Downs dates back to 1883, not
long after she had entered upon the great work for
which she was so well prepared and adapted, and to
which God called her as clearly as he calls any one to

TRIBUTES.
23
preach the gospel. At that time but few organizations
of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union existed
in the towns and cities of New Jersey; and, as a
consequence, many pastors knew but little about the
organization. Meeting Mrs. Downs at one time at
Ocean Grove, the writer invited her to come and spend
an evening in Pitman church, New Brunswick, and
explain to the people what these Christian women were
doing. The audience was not large, but some were
deeply interested in the address of the evening, and the
writer was won at once to the cause she represented;
and the interest then aroused has found no abatement,
but has steadily increased from that period on to the
present. The impressicn then made was, that Mrs.
Downs was the right one to be at the head of this
organization for this state. In her address then, and in
many listened to since that time, there was indicated a
clearness of perception that evinced a breadth of view
and a comprehension of the great cause for which she
labored, that many persons fail to grasp even at the
present time, when years of added light have brought
the subject into clearer view. No doubt her careful
study, and close and extended observation of the curse
of the liquor traffic, enabled her thus to see what others
failed to perceive.
Her knowledge and her convictions always kept pace
with each other. To her the conduct of some appar-
ently good men was inexplicable. They could utter
burning words against the evils of the drink traffic,
holding out no mercy for the drunkard or the drunkard

24
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
maker, and yet fail to see that by voting for its continu-
ance they made themselves partakers of the sin. In her
addresses sometimes this glaring inconsistency would be
held up with such clearness that many voters winced
under the force of her logic, and the clean-cut convic-
tions of right and wrong upon this matter to which she
gave expression. To arraign men thus at the bar of
conscience and show their sin of participation with the
giant evil, required no small measure of courage, but
with this was always blended prudence and discretion.
In this she showed great womanly tact. Harsh denun-
ciation of an evil, however flagrant that evil may be,
rarely wins the evil doer to a better course, and Mrs.
Downs never lost sight of the great end to be secured
in all her addresses, namely: to so inform her hearers as
to win them to the cause she loved so much. Facts
were stated, objections were answered, misrepresenta-
tions corrected, and prejudices were gradually melted
away by her womanly gentleness of manner, which
almost disarmed criticism, and in most cases won con-
verts to her side of the question. This is no small
achievement in a public speaker, and especially so in the
line of temperance; because the subject is one of such
vast and far-reaching interest, and the evils of the traffic
in intoxicants are so enormous, that there is a natural
tendency to become aroused and more or less excited
when these things are presented in a public address.
The same self-possession manifested in addressing an
audience, whether in church or hall, was manifest in the
chair as presiding officer. In state or county con-

TRIBUTES.
25
ventions, or what was probably even more trying, con-
ducting the School of Methods at Ocean Grove, she
never seemed embarrassed, or became confused in her
rulings or decisions. At these gatherings at Ocean
Grove there were present, usually, the best and most
experienced minds of this great organization; and at
almost every meeting some of the sterner sex were
present who were not always in full sympathy with
these women; and among these were many who were
skilled parliamentarians; but through all these she pre-
sided with a dignity becoming a bishop presiding over
some great religious assembly. Her executive ability
was of a high order, and she made a model presiding
officer. She never lost her head, and always kept the
business well in hand.
With all her love and devotion to her chosen work,
Mrs. Downs could not be called a “hobbyist;" her heart
was large enough, and her sympathies sufficiently broad,
to take in other subjects which meant good for the
human race. The Woman's Home Missionary Society
found in her a warm friend and active co-worker. She
gave not only her thoughts and sympathies, but fre-
quently her slender purse was called upon to aid in the
good work. The needs of those nearest her excited her
first sympathies and efforts, but she could look also to
the "regions beyond,” and spare something for the
women of heathen lands, and so the Woman's Foreign
Missionary Society found in her a friend and supporter.
In all the various benevolent enterprises of the church of
her choice, she felt a deep and abiding interest, and

26
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
responded to every appeal with readiness, and was one
of the “cheerful givers” to God's cause. The poor, and
the wronged or oppressed, were sure of a friend and
counsellor in her. To these she gave as she was able
out of her small income, and incited many others to do
likewise. She is enshrined in the hearts of many persons
of this class, to whom she proved a shield and refuge in
times of trouble and sorrow.
Mrs. Downs' character was so well rounded, so
symmetrical, that it is difficult to say which quality pre-
dominated; but to those who were nearest to her, and
were privileged with frequent visits from her in the
home and family, as in the case of the writer, her
motherliness seemed to make the deepest impression
upon every member of the family. Being her pastor for
four years, and having her at the parsonage almost every
week, we learned to love her more than a friend
or fellow-worker in God's cause; we felt she was
indeed "mother” to us all. Children loved her as well
as those more advanced in years. When the sad tidings
came to the parsonage that Mrs. Downs was dead, a
shadow fell upon our hearts as if we had lost a mother.
The youngest boy, a lad of thirteen years, was so over-
come that he went to another room and cried bitterly, so
keenly did he feel the loss of this good, motherly
woman.
Though burdened with the cares which her respon-
sible position brought, she could enter fully and heartily,
and with a true motherly sympathy, into the cares and
troubles of other hearts. Never had a pastor a truer

TRIBUTES.
27
friend, or a more willing worker in the church, or a more
appreciative hearer, than the writer found in Mrs.
Downs. Having herself been in the itinerant ranks, she
knew something of the cares and trials of a pastor, or a
pastor's wife. If there were misrepresentations, or mis-
apprehensions, she was ever ready to stand for the right,
and clear away the mists. If the pastor's hands seemed
ready to hang down, her support was given freely, so
that new inspiration for the work was aroused. She was
a good counsellor, and ought to have been a member of
the official board of her church, and would have been,
had not her duties called her away from home so fre-
quently. She understood the needs of the church far
better than those brethren who managed to get to the
prayer meeting once a year, so as to be present at their
election as a trustee. Prejudice was allowed no place in
her mind; she calmly and deliberately weighed matters,
and thus formed an intelligent and unbiased conclusion.
Happy is that pastor who has such women as his
helpers in the gospel! How we shall miss her motherly
presence in the Sabbath services, in prayer and testi-
mony meetings, in the School of Methods at Ocean
Grove, and especially her visits at the parsonage! All
this is our loss; her absence from us means to her
"eternal gain,” for," being absent from the body," she is
"present with the Lord.” There we hope ere long to
meet her, never more to part again.

28
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
A BEAUTIFUL INCIDENT.
E. D. H.
O SHALL never forget the occasion of her last visit
to us (October, '91). As we marched into the
convention with one hundred and twenty-five chil-
dren of all ages, from five years up to fifteen, singing :
“Tramp, tramp, tramp, O, see them marching ;
Full of hope they're marching on;
Never thinking of retreat; never dreaming of defeat ;
But determined that the vict'ry shall be won,"
She arose to her feet, and stood with uplifted hands,
exclaiming, “The children, the children;" her counte-
nance meanwhile beaming with joy. And when I said
to her that we did not wish to take up the time of the
convention, but that we would like her to say just a few
words to the children, that they might cherish as a.
remembrance of her, she replied: “Take up the time of
the convention! Let me assure you there will be no time
in this convention better employed than this very
moment." And then how beautifully she did talk to
them, telling them, among other things, that she was a
sort of great-grandmother of theirs; and what loving,
motherly advice she gave the young girls; they will not
soon forget it, we know. And when, at the conclusion
of her remarks, a request was sent up that Mother
Downs take a position at the head of the aisle, and take

TRIBUTES
each child by the hand as they passed out, her reply
was, “To be sure I will, and reckon it, too, as one of
the proudest moments of my life that I am permitted to
do so."
It was a beautiful sight; one never to be forgotten.
As those children filed past her she took the hand of
each in hers, and looking down into their eyes, she gave
to them from her great, warm, motherly heart, beautiful
parting words.
And so she passed away from their sight, but not
from their memory. We believe the memory of that
scene, and the words she then spoke to them, will
remain with them and be an influence over them for
good as long as they shall live. “She being dead, yet
speaketh."
Cape May, N. J.
SHE “NEVER SURRENDERED."
MRS. E. R. WARE.
1.
RS. DOWNS' letters to me about our work
impressed me very strongly with the thought
that she “never surrendered herself, and
never wanted any one else to surrender to the foes of
our temperance work.
At one time, when the President of Woodbury Union
was undergoing some persecution because of her
religious views, Mrs. Downs wrote from a State Con-
vention, in the midst of all her cares:

LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
“I have just seen the newspaper article against you
and your work. Don't be turned aside; go right on.
Yours lovingly, in sympathy, S. J. C. D.”
This, of itself, was a great comfort and inspiration to
this discouraged worker, and afterwards she wrote of the
same matter :
"I did not know what your religious sentiments are,
and do not now know to what church you belong. I
never inquire, for our organization is as unsectarian as it
is non-partisan." And in the same letter she said:
“ Disband! never, while there is an open dram-shop in
the land.”
. When a meeting of the State Executive Committee
was being held in Woodbury, trouble was experienced in
securing a church for an evening meeting. Finally one
minister gave his consent for the use of his church, with
the precautionary request that the women should not
talk on “ Prohibition.” As Mrs. Ellis, Mrs. Hammer
and Mrs. Downs all made stirring speeches, it is need-
less to remark that considerable Prohibition sentiment
slipped out, and the pastor of the church was moved to
make this confession:
“I am in a dilemma, and cannot tell with which party
it is my duty to vote, for there is no grit in the Repub-
lican party, no grace in the Democratic, and no gump-
tion in the Prohibition party.” Mrs. Downs answered
him in this way: "Brother, if you want to be on the safe
side, vote with that party which has no rumsellers in it."
Her last visit to Woodbury was made in the interest
of a Parlor Meeting, which she addressed with even

TRIBUTES.
more than her accustomed power, and several persons
remarked that she seemed to keep right on “growing"
—and every year seemed to broaden and deepen her
noble character. That night, in speaking of the excuses
offered by many women for not joining our temperance
organization, especially the one that they had too much
“ church work” to do, she said: “Dear friends, do you
not know that there is no more important Christian
work being done in Woodbury to-day than the work of
the Woman's Christian Temperance Union ?" And she
emphasized the fact that it was a work in which women
of all denominations could join heartily. After the
meeting, she was entertained at the home of the Presi-
dent, and seemed so well and lively, and talked so
brightly of her experiences at the National Convention,
which met at Atlanta, we all felt that she was a truly
remarkable woman-physically, mentally and spiritually
—and we prayed that we might have her with us for
years to come.
Although by her death we feel like motherless chil-
dren, the memory of her strong, brave spirit will always
inspire us with courage.
Woodbury, N. J.

32
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
MEMORIAL MEETING AT SUMMIT.
ON DECEMBER IIth, the Summit Union held a
Parlor Memorial Service to express their grief for
the loss of their State President, and their love for
her. The services opened with singing “Our Days are
Gliding Swiftly By," followed by prayer from Mrs.
Helena Nicoll. The following passages of Scripture
were then read in turn: Ps. 116:15; Rev. 14:13; Is.
25:8; Is. 60:20; John 9:4; Ecc. 9:10; after which
the hymn, “One Sweetly Solemn Thought," was sung.
Mrs. Geo. Wilcox followed by an impressive reading
of I Cor. 3, from the eighth verse. Mrs. Rebecca Lore,
though confined to a wheeled chair, lovingly lent the
blessing of her presence, and led in a full, feeling prayer.
The hymn, "Rise, My Soul, and Stretch Thy Wings,"
was next sung, and then Mrs. M. B. Easton, who had
charge of the meeting, spoke a few unwritten words, of
which the following is the substance:
“We are met to-day, dear sisters, to honor the
memory of one to whom we owe much as temperance
workers. Not only officially, as to a faithful, untiring,
judicial, judicious leader, who ably fulfilled to the last the
duties of her onerous position, increasing in labor instead
of declining with increase of years, but as to a woman
who grandly fulfilled, in her well-rounded life, the high
calling of her sex. To Mrs. Downs it was given to
reach to within one month of the appointed term of life

TRIBUTES.
on earth-three score years and ten—a fit emblem of her
completed womanhood, which, in its bud, blossom and
fruitage, stands before us—pure, wholesome, without a
blemish that man can detect—a living witness to the
grace, the truth, the power of God. In Him were all
her springs, and with no wavering trust did she draw the
needed supply from day to day, that kept her force
fresh, unabated to the end—a steady growth. Hers was
no fitful light, but that which, once kindled, shone more
and more unto the perfect day.'
"As maid, as wife, as mother, she met every duty,
faced each change, with the poise of a spirit that had
mastered self, and was a support to others. Thus much
it has been my privilege to glean, from the few facts of
her life that I have searched out. It is the barest out-
line, but, such as it is, I dare bring it to you, thankful if
it convey one tithe of the blessing I myself have received
from it.
“When at fifty she was left a widow, without means,
and four children to support, two of whom she had not
borne, but over whom she brooded with a true motherli-
ness, she rose to the full height of her emergency.
Wisely, ably, lovingly, she met and overcame the diffi-
culties in her way, and fitted for usefulness each life
entrusted to her care. Then, when each stood in its
appointed place, and God needed her well-trained
motherhood for the larger work, she stepped bravely
to the front of our need. For ten blessed years we
have been taught by her precepts, moulded by her
wisdom, led by her courage, increasing in strength,

34
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
in numbers, in power, and have never found her
resources less than our requirements. Yea, rather
ahead of them. Peculiarly gifted as a presiding officer,
she has imparted grace and dignity to the presidential
chair, and held our individual impulses in abeyance to
the general good. With an unusually clear and legal
mind, she handled and settled every vexed question of
the hour, and the very tone of her voice spoke, “ Peace,
be still,” to the fluctuations of thought or feeling in our
assemblies, that might have led to friction, and there
was a calm. She had a keen perception of the latent
ability of individuals and of Unions; a happy faculty
of developing both, bringing out in our meetings, con
ventions, Schools of Methods, all that was best and
most progressive. She went in and out among our
Unions, dropping the ripe fruit of her experience
fresh with the breath of God's fields upon it, and we
were fed, refreshed, strengthened.
“Her personality was much to me, individually.
When craving, as your hearts have also craved, deliv-
erance from the drink-curse of the world, as its count-
less evils met me at every turn, I entered the Woman's
Christian Temperance Union. It was with hesitating
steps, questioning each method as it arose in its new
dress before me, and it was the calm assurance of Mrs.
Downs that stayed my heart, and her terse, direct logic
that won my reason, while her cordial, unfailing wel-
come allured me. Her sure appreciation encouraged
every effort and made attainment possible, whether
private or public. I never found her time or ear too

TRIBUTES.
preoccupied for a fair share of what concerned me or
mine, and the testimony I bear is reiterated from every
quarter. Her life, her work, have been an inspiration
to me, and I record the fact to-day with grateful,
reverent love.
“We have lost a great leader, but one whose watch-
word, 'Go forward!' abides with us. Let us - not waver.
It was well-fitting that the close of her life should have
been as it was, a calm, fearless facing of the King of
Terrors,' who had no power to dismay a soul that had
triumphed by faith over every previous adversary. She
had tested the power of God to sustain; therefore,
without a tremor, in full possession of faculties, whose
liberty to use had never been abused, she met and
noted each assault of our common enemy, called Death.
He might storm the fort without, she was impregnable.
To the doctor, she said: 'I am dying, am I not? There
is no longer any pulse.' To her sobbing children: 'Do
not try to keep me back.' To her loving co-workers:
Tell the women that they work harder, than if I were
there to spur them on. The liquor traffic will be out-
lawed.' As her hands and features stiffened, she
remarked: “This is dissolution, but I am not afraid ;'
and, again: 'I did not think death was like this.' At
eleven P.M. she requested her son to sing: 'My Ain
Countrie,' waving her hand triumphantly in the refrain.
She then said: 'At the noon of the night I think the
Master will come for me.' And it was then He came,
taking her, after recent intense suffering, very quietly

36
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
out of the pain to the rest, out of the conflict to the
reward.
"Human nature shrinks instinctively from the ap-
proach of death. It is often hard for the Christian,
even, to follow our Saviour into the dark. Such a wit-
ness-bearing as this one is only an added grace,
through His loving mercy, to help us who still lag
behind. What more could He do for us than He has
done? In leaving us, Mrs. Downs crowned her many
lessons of life with that one of How to die, sealing
indelibly the impress of her faith upon her work,
now committed to us. May we prove worthy to carry
it on!”
Mrs. Easton's remarks were followed by a corrobo-
rative testimony from Mrs. Cory, of New Providence,
who, with tears in her eyes, told of her having been
one of Mrs. Downs' pupils in her early life, and how
she had profited by her teaching.
Dear Mrs. Lore, who had honored the meeting by
her presence, though she had to be wheeled in a chair,
spoke of the times she had met "Sister Downs” in
missionary meetings, and how often she had admired
her broad, catholic spirit, capable of taking in all sides
of Gospel work.
Mrs. F. B. Humphreys then sang, with deep feeling,
most beautifully the hymn “Meet Me There," which
she had joined with Mrs. Downs in singing once at
Mt. Tabor, and we felt the hush of a heavenly in-
fluence, the inspiration of a heavenly message, as we
parted.

TRIBUTES.
LETTERS, REMINISCENT AND SYMPATHETIC,
FROM STATE AND NATIONAL LEADERS AND WORKERS.
HE sad news came to me, as you know, at the
16 very opening of our National Convention duties.
We shed our tears over the books, in our loss,
and for your sorrow. Oh, how we needed her sanctified
judgment! The tie to heaven seems stronger to me
since her entrance there; to earth weaker since she
went.
Mary A. WOODBRIDGE.
Ravenna, Ohio.
I cannot realize that she is gone. More and more
will we miss her wise counsel and tender sympathy.
As we lose the inspiration of her faith and zeal will we
begin to realize the awful truth. 'I hear her “Be good”
always in my ears.
Very sincerely,
(Mrs.) J. S. BAER.
In 1852 I first knew her. She was then a woman of
such mental force and intelligence that I have, up to
this day, met but few who have excelled her in intel-
lectual strength or loftiness of character. I sorrow with
you in the loss of so tender a friend and mother. God
bless you always.
Very truly yours,
JOHN ATKINSON.

LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
We cannot understand God's ways. They are beyond
finite mind; but we shall know some day. The Lord
comfort us! He will, for has He not promised? Let
us lean hard upon the Burden-bearer. I cannot
remember when she was not our friend-rejoicing
with us in her joy, weeping in our sorrow—and we are
sad indeed. In the cause she loved, her place can
never be filled.
Yours in love,
MARY L. Cox.
Middletown, Del.
We can do nothing but talk of her. We have lost a
dear friend. For forty years I have known her. I con-
gratulate you and the dear brothers. It is an honor to
have had such a mother. * * * What a worker she
was! When I was stationed at Tuckerton, she was my
counselor, my “right-hand man.”
Yours in Christ,
(REV.) T. S. Wilson.
Windsor, N. J.
MY DEAR FRIEND: -I knew your dear mother long
and well, and my memory of her glows with the radi-
ance of a sunbeam, as it recalls her name and her face.
Always cheerful, always courteous, always intelligent,
sunny-faced and clear-eyed, she drew friends to her
easily, and held them firmly by her intelligent mind and
kind heart. She was the embodiment of Christian
charity, and I never heard her utter a censorious or
bitter word in regard to any one. Her heart yearned

TRIBUTES.
with the God-like desire to help somebody, comfort
somebody, and, in every way in her power, to make this
world a little brighter and better by her residence in it.
What a blessing to the world are such spirits, and what
a void they leave when God takes them to Himself !
But while there is sorrow on earth, there is great joy in
heaven. What a welcome and what a greeting awaited
her there! "Better was the day of her death than the
day of her birth.” She has reached heaven and, with a
heart all attuned for its blessed society and services,
has put off her mortal garments, and put on "the
white robe,” for which she so often prayed and sighed.
She has joined the lustrous and illustrious company of
God's redeemed.
“Yon robes of theirs are not like those below,
No angel's half so bright;
Whence came that beauty, whence that living glow,
And whence that radiant white ?
Washed in the blood of the Atoning Lamb,
Fair as the light these robes of theirs became;
And now, all tears wiped off from every eye,
They wander where the fairest pastures lie,
Through all the nightless day of that unfading sky.
Ever lovingly yours,
A. A. WILLITS.
Dayton, Ohio.
She will long be remembered as a citizen of Pen-
nington. Faithful to her own vocation, she was ready,
also, to enter into the labors of others, and was closely
identified with the interests of the town, and especially

40
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
with those of the church and Seminary. She had a
fresh and cheerful sympathy with youth, and particu-
larly with girlhood, which made her always an agreeable
companion and an efficient counselor and guide. This
was manifested in a rernarkable degree toward the
young friends of her daughter, for whom her motherly
heart at once made room, and who were ever after freely
welcomed to her home and hospitalities. She was never
so busy or so tired that her face did not light up with
genuine gladness to meet and greet her daughter's
friends. One of these recalls a summer evening, years
afterward, when she arrived, an unexpected guest, at
Mrs. Downs' cottage in Ocean Grove, and found her
seated in the midst of a group of callers on the front
porch. She arose quickly, and came forward with open
arms to meet the newcomer, quoting warmly the words
of Rochester to Jane Eyre: “Come in, come in, and
stay your weary, wandering feet at a friend's door!" It
was this gracious blending of dignity and tenderness
in her manner that made the words, “Mother Downs,"
fall so naturally from the lips of the younger women
who knew her. Here on earth she made them think
of home and mother; now her memory gently turns
their thoughts toward heaven, where, in some bright
one of those “many mansions," "Mother Downs” still
waits to greet" the girls.”
We loved her in life and honored her in death. She
had won the women by her strong, common sense, her
counsel and advice in trying times; her heart of love

TRIBUTES.
41
always shining through her dear face. But the Master
had need of her above; her work finished here, He
called her to come; we shall meet her. I rejoice in her
life; I rejoice in her death. God be with you.
M. C. NOBLES.
New Haven, Conn.
I was smitten when she died; I loved her and trusted
her so. We had been together “off duty," when we
had time for personal friendship. I see her this
moment, with the glory of the sea for a setting; its
mighty music her psalm of victory.
MARY T. LATHRAP.
Jackson, Mich.
Each time she visited our Union she was with us in
our home. What a beautiful, happy way she had of
winning one's love; there was such a lovely influence
about her. One afternoon I love to think of, before an
evening meeting, she was sitting upon the couch with
note-book and pencil in hand; I fancied she looked
tired, so brought a robe and, throwing it around her,
said: “I wish you would rest a little; you have work to
be done; we want you to be young." She laughed her
good-natured laugh, saying: “Why, I'm not old; how
can I be, when you all take such good care of me, and
love me as if I were your very own mother.” She
threw herself down to rest, and in a few moments was
sleeping, as calm and peaceful as a babe. She always
did me good. Oh, what a shock her death was to that
Convention.
S. A. T.

42
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
The State Convention, held in Millville in 1880, was
the first one Mrs. Downs ever attended. I shall never
forget it. I was impressed at that time with her earn-
estness and zeal, and knowing Mrs. Denman was to
withdraw, said: “There is the woman.” The following
year in Lambertville, I urged her to accept the nomi-
nation. “Why," she said, “I have not the ability, nor
the means to carry on the work." After considerable
talking, she allowed me to nominate her. It was a
Convention long to be remembered. After the election,
she arose and said:
“Well, ladies, I come to you with more zeal than
knowledge. I will do the very best I can; I will give
you all I have—you must bear with me. I shall make
mistakes; but, remember I did not seek the office, the
office sought me."
Ten years we've walked together, in paths not always
strewn with roses. We did not know how much we
loved her until she was gone; I cannot make her gone.
How considerate she was of the women in the state;
too lenient, I would tell her, but the reply was always:
“We must have charity.” I can hear her now, in the
midst of a heated discussion in Convention, say:
“Steady, ladies."
E. A. M.
She was so welcome to my home, I always longed
for a whole week of her presence, but her reply was
always, “I have no weeks to spend away from my
work.” Once I remember while here there were two

TRIBUTES.
43
young men, verging on manhood, at the table. She
asked them how they were going to vote. “The
Republican ticket," they said. “Now, see here, boys,"
she replied, "why do you ally your young political
life with a dying old party? Come to the clear, clean
new party where there are no rumsellers." Truly she
never lost an opportunity.
The last time she spoke here I was wonderfully
impressed by her earnestness. "Eight thousand open
saloons in New Jersey,” she said, “and eight thousand
white ribbon women. What are we going to do about
it?" Oh, how she did plead with men that night to
vote down the liquor traffic, instead of helping to build
it up by indifference; and with the women, to don the
white ribbon, and put their shoulders to the wheel.
The last time I saw her was in my own home
when, after the County Convention at Dover, she came
with her bonnet and wrap on, and said, “I have
arranged with Mrs. Ellis for the evening meeting, and I
am going home with you to rest." That evening is
full of delightful memories.
H. M. MULFORD.
We cannot estimate the value of her ten years' work
for us. Once, while passing under the shadow of a
deep affliction, she said to me: “We do not take time
to help each other bear these heavy burdens; and do
not tell each other how much we love them until it is
too late. I cannot forbear uttering what is in my heart
for you. May He who tempers the wind to the shorn
lamb have you in His holy keeping."

LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
She always had a word of commendation when we
did our best. She never sought popularity, and was
always ready to do a kindness. None was ever over-
looked. What a wonderful memory for names she
had! The eight thousand names of our women
seemed to be on her tongue's end. I met the dear
·mother first at Mt. Tabor, just after she was elected
President. Since then she has been my warm friend,
my inspiration. Her encouragement has done more
for me in temperance work than all else combined. I
could always do my best when she furnished the motive.
Another link is made in that mystic chain which
binds us to the heavenly city. We are only waiting
till the shadows are a little longer grown. Then, when
faith shall have changed to sight, and hope to glad
fruition, we shall meet her, and unite our voices with
hers in ascribing praise to Him who washed us, and
made us white in the blood of the Lamb.
HELEN M. BRITTIN.
Very early in my acquaintance with Mrs. Downs, I
discovered that the secret of her success in temperance
work was her unwavering faith in God. She believed
He was in the temperance movement, and especially
in the work of the Woman's Christian Temperance
Union. She believed—therefore she worked and talked.
She knew no defeat, she yielded to no discouragements,
because she felt that He in whom her soul trusted would
turn and overturn, until the traffic in intoxicants should
be done away.
At the outset, 1 was impressed with her perseverance

TRIBUTES.
and determination, as instanced in the way she moved
up and down the state, which, for one of her age,
was simply marvelous. She seemed to take Paul's
motto for her motto: “ This one thing I do," and with
what zeal and determination she did it, we who are left
to mourn her loss can testify. And then, how motherly
she was; how ready to enter into all our plans, how
kind in all her criticisms, how tender and sympathetic.
Who shall say that her death, coming, as it did, just
at the time of that wonderful World's Convention, was
not ordered of the Lord ? Surely, her benediction fell
on that Convention; and God grant that her last
prophetic words may be the watchword and inspiration
of the weary temperance worker in all lands, until the
blessed time comes when “The liquor traffic will be out-
lawed; blessed be he who helps."
Coming in contact with Mrs. Downs many times
during the past few years, I was greatly impressed with
her strong, earnest Christian character, and it made me
long, as never before, to do something for those around
me, and to live a more earnest Christian life. Her beau-
tiful death made the future seem very real, and a prayer
ascended that I might live so as to meet her on the
other shore.
L. A. HUSTON.
In my thoughts of the dear departed “Mother
Downs," there is nothing but love, admiration and help-
fulness. Perfectly do I remember my first meeting with

46
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
her, in which she pictured the need of united action
against the common foe of the home, saying: “You
know not but your door-post will be the next one
sprinkled with the blood of your best beloved.” In my
contact with her she was always and ever the same
tender, loving friend and counselor. Never did she
chide me for my mistakes, but enceuraged and helped
me in my weakest endeavor. Words fail to express the
loss that she is and will be to me; but the dear Lord
never makes a mistake, but “ doeth all things well."
Yet to-night, as I write, her memory is, more than ever
before, an inspiration to all that is better and higher.
The question box was one of the features of our
County Conventions. Mrs. Downs always took charge
of it. The clear-sightedness, the consecrated common
sense, the words of cheer, the suggestions of practical
methods, always more than met our most sanguine
expectations. In one of our public meetings, when
urging the voters to come up to the issue for the pro-
tection of the home, she said: "For five successive
years, the Scientific Temperance Instruction Bill has
been before New Jersey's legislative bodies, and there it
stays, and sleeps the sleep that knows no waking. They
legislate on skim-milk, and make laws to protect the
beasts and birds and fishes, and the lovely, trailing
arbutus, from wanton destruction, but our four hundred
thousand children are left to the mercy of the eight
thousand saloons in the state.” Many times has she
said: “I have long since ceased to consider the worker;
it is the work—first, last, and always."

TRIBUTES.
Fully did she realize the blessedness of the “sun-
shine of commendation," for it was a word of cheer
here, an encouraging suggestion there—always kind,
thoughtful and appreciative. Gladly was she welcomed
into the homes of the White Ribboners of Morris
county, each vieing with the other as to who should
entertain her.
We shall sadly miss her, but know that to her there
was no death, since
"What seems so is but transition."
ADA B. S. GREENMAN.
The memory of Mrs. S. J. C. Downs is very precious
to many of the ladies of Chatham. No one in our vil-
lage was personally acquainted with Mrs. Downs pre-
vious to April 17, 1889, when the Morris County
Woman's Christian Temperance Union Convention was
held in the Methodist Episcopal church, for the first
time in this village. It was a dull, rainy day, and the
Convention had been opened by our worthy County
President, Mrs. E. C. Greenman, when Mrs. Downs
arrived. The first we knew of her presence, the dele-
gates began clapping hands, and we saw Mrs. Downs
moving quietly up the aisle. As she turned, bowed and
smilingly accepted the applause, in her gentle, motherly
way, she seemed to be a ray of light to the heart of
every woman present, and at once we felt that we loved
her; and we learned that day that a gentle Christian
woman could preside at a business meeting with as

48
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
much tact and ability as a inan. Mrs. Downs organized
the local Union in Chatham that evening, and gave one
of her excellent addresses.
Four weeks later, on the 13th of May, Mrs. Downs
came and spent the day with us, and led our Union
meeting. I shall never forget that day. She came on
one of the early morning trains from Dover, and was
entertained at the parsonage, the meeting being held in
the parlors that afternoon. After my morning domestic
duties were completed, and we were seated in the quiet
parlors, she began at once to ask me about our church
work here. I said to her, I should suppose you were
so busy with the temperance work that you would have
no time to be interested in church work. She replied,
“Ah, no, my dear! you are mistaken. I love the
church; I love all the churches, particularly my own.
I am especially interested in the Methodist Episco-
pal church in Chatham, for my husband preached here
many years ago, in the earlier days of his ministry,
before I knew him; and when I come to a spot where
he has worked, his memory is so precious to me I am
greatly interested.” Then I learned she had been an
itinerant Methodist minister's wife, as I am now. I
felt that I was in the presence of a friend and mother
in Israel, and I opened my heart to her, telling her of
our toils and trials, our joys, and what we hoped to
do. She encouraged me with much sweet, Christian,
motherly advice, that I shall never forget. After con-
versing about the spiritual interests of our church, she
asked about the financial work; had we a ladies' society,

TRIBUTES.
49
and what were we doing? I told her how the ladies
were trying to reduce the mortgage on our parsonage.
We were, just at that time, trying to get up a "name
quilt." I laid the plans before her. She was at once
interested, and, with pencil and paper, drew another pat-
tern, and suggested a better plan, showing how, by get-
ting names at ten cents each, we could succeed. She
then drew out her purse, giving her name and the first
ten cents that went on that quilt. We adopted her plan;
the quilt was a success, netting our church one hundred
and fifty dollars, which was paid on the mortgage.
That quilt is now parsonage property, and can be seen
any day in the Chatham Methodist Episcopal parsonage.
I mention this circumstance to show Mrs. Downs' love
for the church, and her desire to work for the Master
everywhere.
Mrs. Downs presided at our Union that afternoon, and
laid our plans for temperance work; called us her baby
Union at that time, and left a pleasant impression of a
noble Christian woman behind her. The last Morris
County Woman's Christian Temperance Union Con-
vention before Mrs. Downs' death was held in the
Chatham Methodist Episcopal church, on September
22, 1891. It was a very warm, lovely day. Mrs.
Downs was with us, seemed to enjoy everything
around her, and was in the best of spirits. She praised
the decorations and the lunch, and tried to make us all
happy. The next morning she left us, in company with
Mrs. E. C. Greenman, to attend the dedication of the
Woman's Christian Temperance Union building, at

50
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
Waverly Fair Ground. As she left us, we loaded her
with flowers, and she bade us a cheerful good-by and
“God bless you.” Little did we think we should see
her no more alive. She has gone from us, but her
memory is as ointment poured forth. It can truly be
said of her: She hath done what she could.
A memorial service was held in the hall on Sunday
afternoon, December 6, 1891, presided over by our
much-loved President, Mrs. N. Kelley, and addressed
by Rev. J. Mead, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal
church, Professor F. O. Payne, principal of the public
school, Mrs. N. Kelley and the writer, with appropriate
singing by the Union.
Mrs. J. MEAD.
Chatham, January 30, 1892.
Humanly speaking, her loss is irreparable. When
she wrote us that she could not be with us at our last
County Convention, our hearts sank within us, and we
said: “Why, we cannot have a Convention without
Mrs. Downs." The last time I saw her was in Stan-
hope. At the evening meeting, the Presbyterian
clergyman, in his address, made some remarks that
aroused Mrs. Downs; she arose and answered him most
forcibly. He said: "I am glad I made those remarks
that called forth that eloquent address." Her power
in impromptu address was remarkable. I once asked
her to repeat, at Newton, an address I had heard at
another place: "I would, my dear, if I could; but, I
never know what I am going to say.”

TRIBUTES.
Ah, she was a true servant of God; the world is
surely better because she lived. May we be followers
of her, as she was of her Saviour.
Lovingly,
C. R. McMURTRY.
In the spring of 1891, the old Quaker Meeting
House, on Irving street, Rahway, was dedicated to the
cause of temperance. On the occasion Mrs. Downs
delivered the dedicatory address, which was listened
to with the closest attention by the large audience. The
following synopsis is taken from a local paper :
“Mrs. Downs is a vigorous speaker, and her appeals.
were made with such earnestness and motherly tender-
ness that they convinced the understanding while
touching the heart.
"She began by congratulating the temperance people
that they had found it necessary to move to new and
more commodious quarters, taking it as a sure evidence
of progress whenever a change of this character was
made. She paid the highest tribute to the zeal and
faithfulness of the members of the Rahway Woman's
Christian Temperance Union, who, for seventeen years
have labored continuously in this great movement;
and stated that it is in dispute whether Rahway has
the oldest Woman's Christian Temperance Union in
the state. She avowed that there are supreme moments
in the history of a nation, and that we are to-day facing
a crisis: whether the rum oligarchy shall dominate:

52
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
in the affairs of this government to the exclusion of
the principles of sobriety, morality and purity.
"Different organizations exist for the accomplish-
ment of specific lines of work: The Young Men's
Christian Association, for the development of young
men, the Sunday school as a nursery of the church.
It was popular to belong to these, and to send money
to the heathen and to the Indians (whom our govern-
ment is supplying at the same time with rum), but
the rescue of the poor drunkard at our own door was
not a popular work. The white ribbon was often the
occasion for sneers by those who did not understand
us and were not identified with the movement. Thus
many who felt that they ought to be connected with
this noble. work, were deterred from publicly espous-
ing it, because of its unpopularity. Nevertheless, it
becomes the duty of all Christians to engage unitedly
in this special line of work, and meet this crisis of
drunkenness, ever increasing, ever widening its influ-
ence, that is now upon us.
“So we are here to-day to set apart this building, and
so far as my office permits, I now dedicate it to God
and his righteous cause; I dedicate it to the purest
principles of virtue; I dedicate it to purity of thought
and speech; I dedicate it to total abstinence; I ded-
icate it to the Prohibition of the liquor business; I
dedicate it to the protection of little children and to
the rescue of women from cruel wrong, brutality, and
· hardships.
“At the conclusion of Mrs. Downs' address, short

TRIBUTES.
speeches were made by Rev. Brothers Hull, Ligget, and
Payson, heartily commending these organizations that
are working .so nobly for the cause of humanity, and
taking advanced ground upon the temperance question.
Thus auspiciously was dedicated the new home of
the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the
Reform Club. Long may they live to scatter the
light of truth, and to thunder with their combined
artillery against the gigantic evil of the age ; long may
they live, until the weak and defenceless shall no longer
plead in vain for deliverance from the rum fiend ; long
may they live, until the white winged angel of peace
shall hover over every home, and the blessing of liberty
shall be enjoyed by the poorest and humblest."
Mrs. Downs was much respected and beloved by
the friends and workers in the temperance cause in
Rahway. We felt proud of our President, and justly so,
as she was a leader in the fullest and highest sense of
the word. Her last visit to our Union was at the dedi-
cation of our present headquarters on April 5, 1891.
Her address upon that occasion was a masterpiece of
eloquence. She seemed to lose herself in her lofty con-
ception of the Divine cause of God and humanity as it
becomes blended in the temperance cause. Although
surrounded by four of our ablest ministers, she seemed
not to falter, but as one whose lips were touched with a
live coal from off the altar, she poured forth words of
truth and power with eloquence, until all felt their hearts

54
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
aglow with their truth. The dedicatory portion of the
address and prayer following were beautiful and very
touching:
I took occasion to compliment her on her forceful and
eloquent address, adding, in my judgment, it was her
finest platform effort. She seemed to really appreciate it,
and said: "Well, we should grow in power as we grow
in soul. I'm so glad you think so, and have told me so.
Such things are encouraging as we go about doing our
best, and the best I have, and am, belongs to you.” My
husband did the same, conveying to her the praise and
appreciation of the ministers present, all of which she
received in such a genuinely gratified manner, I inwardly
felt such things are right, and should come to us as
flowers in our path, while we are in the struggle.
Merited praise hurts none, and helps many to sublimer
heights.
Our beloved President was a soul who should have
thus been encouraged and upheld; she was above and
beyond flattery, yet timid and unconscious of her own
power and mental strength, until pressed to the front by
strong conviction and loyalty to truth and principle.
Then we beheld a veritable warrior, whose weapons were
not carnal, for she wrestled not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against powers, against the
rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked-
ness in high places. She seemed panoplied for the
fray with the whole armor of God, wherewith she
was able to withstand and quench all the fiery darts of

TRIBUTES.
5
the wicked, and having done all, to stand; praying
always in the spirit and watching thereunto, with all
perseverance.
Rahway made the last public engagement with our
beloved President. We fully expected her presence
on the evening of November 6th; she was to have
presided at the lecture given by Mrs. Mary T. Lathrap
on that date. She wrote to me that she would be very
busy, but hoped to get through, and would enjoy being
with us. I looked forward to the visit with much
pleasure, as I knew they were dear friends, and would
enjoy a little season together before the Boston Con-
vention. We hoped to keep them both over Sunday,
but it was not so to be: she did not come. How I
wished she might have been privileged to have come to
us. Her heart would have rejoiced in her friend. God
was with Mrs. Lathrap in spirit and power in her ad-
dress. It was a memorable season to us all, and only
lacked our precious President's presence to make it
complete. We learned that she was detained by the
sickness which proved to be her last.
It was my privilege and pleasure to be the traveling
companion and room-mate of Mrs. Downs during, and
to and from, the convocation of White Ribboners and
the Woman's Council held in Washington in 1890.
Many notable White Ribboners gathered at the Fre-
donia, and, while there, I had an opportunity of
enjoying the sweet companionship of our beloved
President, and see others do the same. She had a
rich social nature. She seemed beloved and sought

56
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
after by all, so youthful in spirit, cheery and strength
the New Jersey women was marked and commented
on; but the borders of our little state could not con-
fine her influence, nor our hearts enfold her overflowing
love. I saw there that she was especially dear to
other hearts than ours of New Jersey.
While there she was sick, unable to attend several
of the Convention sessions. Many were the little love
tokens of sympathy and service tendered her by Miss
Willard, Miss Gordon, Mrs. Lathrap, Mrs. Chapin,
and others, together with those of her New Jersey
friends. She showed love and appreciation to and for
all. I remember how eager she was to hear reports,
even at a late hour at night after our return. On one
evening, near midnight, as Mrs. Lathrap, leaning over
the foot of the bed with the glow of love and interest
in her face, recounted to her the interesting features
of the evening, how her dear face lighted up in
response, notwithstanding she was suffering. Her
good-night kiss was so tender, sweet, and genuine,
as given and received by both, I felt here are two
hearts with a touch of true love between them. I
can well understand her heart's great ache and lament
as poured forth in her poem, for her "lover and com-
rade" fallen; but the richness, buoyancy, and sweet-
ness of her nature have been left us, as a dear legacy,
and as the incense of flowers, may it perfume our
lives with its fragrance. I count it one of God's
choicest blessings to me to have been her companion

TRIBUTES.
57
on that memorable occasion; memorable to me, chiefly
because of the opportunity of becoming better ac-
quainted with one of earth’s noble, loving, great souls;
for I, too, loved her dearly, and as I pressed my lips
to her dear brow, cold in death, I thanked God for
what she had been to me, in her strong, true, sweet,
motherly influence.
In loving remembrance,
M. J. Wilson.
The news of your dear mother's death has filled my
heart with sorrow for you, knowing as I do that life
will nevermore be to you what it was before, and I
shall miss her more than words can tell, for I counted
her one of my dearest friends. But some way, I do
not know how, I felt last summer that she had not
long to stay with us; that the Master had work up
higher for her. I remember one day at the School of
Methods at Ocean Grove, where she presided so
beautifully, seated among the sweet water lilies, sud-
denly everything in the Tabernacle seemed to melt
away in a deep mist, and Mrs. Downs and the water
lilies only were visible in a kind of halo of glory from
the sunset light. Like a vision it was to me, and I
gazed and gazed, as though she, too, were fading from
my view; and the thought came, "She will .not be
with us long; she is going away to dear Julia.” And
I felt all summer afterward so tender toward and so
watchful of her. You know I used often, after my
work was done, run down to her cottage, and, if fortu-

LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
nate enough to find her at home and alone, we would
have a long, quiet talk, which I so much enjoyed.
Often dear Julia's going away so suddenly was our
theme, and her tears mingled with mine. I remember
once saying, "I cannot understand why she, who was so
much needed, should be called away."
Mrs. Downs replied, “Why, Annie, it is to me as
plain as day. There was the cause and the effect. She
worked herself to death. When ill from that fearful
cold, she went on working when she should have been
in bed."
And since dear Mrs. Downs went away, I have
thought just so it was with her. She never rested or
thought of herself when there was work to do, and to
her there was always an abundance of work so long
as she saw on every hand the terrible results of the
“hydra-headed monster, intemperance.” So often I
think of the first time dear Julia and I met her, half a
dozen years ago, and how we always afterward loved
her. She seemed like one of our own. We never
thought of her age. She had the childish, trustful,
loving heart with the strong and steady brain of all
great souls and minds. In her, childhood, youth, age,
faith, knowledge, wisdom so entwined were that
whether young or old, none thought. She, better
than almost anyone else, at once understood and
appreciated our work, and did everything in her power
to make it known to the members of the New Jersey
Woman's Christian Temperance Union.
How often, when' undecided, Julia would say, “I will

TRIBUTES.
59
ask Mrs. Downs' advice. She has such good judg-
ment,” or “We always know just where to find Mrs.
Downs." "She is so good, and true, and just.” Often
and often she said, “I love Mrs. Downs for her fearless-
ness and truthfulness." "She is a born statesman.”
“She is one of our girls, and the youngest one in
spirit we have,” &c.
You know, dear, she was to visit me when she came
on to attend the New York Convention last fall. I
intended to keep her a week, at least, and prepared
everything for her ease and comfort that she might,
while with me, become thoroughly rested, for I knew
she had worked hard all summer. And when at last
she wrote of the great pressure of work, rendering it
impossible for her to visit me, I could not bear the
disappointment, but wrote that she must come. Some-
thing seemed to tell me that if she did not then, she
never would come, and I wanted so much to see her
before she went away. But I never saw her after bid-
ding her good-bye at Ocean Grove, and when I heard
she had gone I was not surprised; I knew she could
not long bear the strain of the work she was doing.
She never tried to save herself. Her heart was in
the work and her eager, anxious spirit, perhaps,
urged on beyond its strength the weary, overworked
body. And yet I more and more believe we are not
called up higher until our work here is accomplished or
so arranged that others can carry it on. The great joys
and privileges of the world to come are not kept from
us one moment longer than is necessary for the soul's

60
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
growth here in this mortal frame, and so happy those
who hear the blessed words of welcome, “Well done."
We do not know nor understand, nor can we see
through the thick-falling tears; but some day we shall.
My tears mingle with yours, dear friend, but through
them break the sunlight and the rainbow of hope, and
joy, and love and faith appear; and so, dear,
"I wage not any feud with Death
For changes wrought on form and face ;
No lower life that earth's embrace
May breed with him, can fight my faith.
"Eternal process moving on
From state to state the spirit walks ;
And these are but the shattered stalks
Or ruined chrysalis of one.
«Nor blame I Death, because he fare
The use of virtue out of earth;
I know transplanted human worth
Will bloom to profit, otherwhere.
“For this alone on Death I wreak
The wrath that garners in my heart :
He put our lives so far apart
We cannot hear each other speak.”
- Tennyson's In Memoriam.
Sorrowingly and lovingly,
ANNIE THOMAS.
Hid away in the sacred chamber of my soul are some
of the tenderest recollections of your loved and hon-
ored mother, and it is with a sweet hush of spirit that I

TRIBUTES.
open the door of this inner sanctuary, and with tear-
dimmed eyes look around to catch the radiant smile and
the light from beaming eyes that seem to look down
upon me from many a pictured face that decorates the
walls of this priceless gallery, into which memory so
often leads me, and where I seem to stand again in the
living presence of those who made life beautiful, and
around whom clustered my holiest, truest and loftiest
earthly affections; with the sweetest sense of strength
and support from the fragrance of their lives, and
though no longer visible to the human eye, no longer
inhabitants of earth, they are so distinctly clear to the
soul's vision, and stand out before me clothed in new
beauty and strength, with every trait of character that
made them grandly noble, rounded out in such com-
pleteness, that I bow with reverence and thanksgiving
unto God for the glow of His glory that their lives still
reflect back to earth with a brightness that illuminates
many a dark and lonely pathway. I shall never learn
to think of your dear mother in any other light than
living, and never think of her as far removed from
your pathway or mine. Thousands who knew her as
a great and safe leader along the most advanced lines
of the temperance work, honor her memory with trib-
utes of the loftiest praise and tenderest sympathy.
JOANNA P. R. PERRY.

LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
BE GOOD.
Dr. E. H. STOKES.
Mrs. GEO. M. BENNETT.
1. The message came, on
wings of flame, From out where the
Death An-gel stood; Mother's fond eyes beam love as she cries,
Rit.
CHORUS.
“My son, O my son, be good.” Be good to the Lord, O
heed His blest Word; And be good to all of mankind; Oheed my last
TI
NND
TO
T20
call,
be good un- to
all,
For God is
so wondrously kind.
Sung by Mrs. GEO. M. BENNETT at the Memorial Service, Ocean Grove.

TRIBUTES.
“BE GOOD!”
[Mrs. Downs' message to her son John, in Beatrice, Neb.,
while similar words of endearment and inspiration were sent to
her co-workers in every direction.]
THE message came, on wings of flame,
From out where the death angel stood;
Mother's fond eyes beam love as she cries,
"My son, O my son, be good!”
CHORUS.
Be good to the Lord, O heed His blest Word;
And be good to all of mankind;
O heed my last call, be good unto all,
For God is so wondrously kind.
From first to last, through calm and the blast,
In city or in solitude ;
In joy or grief, in doubt or belief,
Keep doing and always be good.
The pulse beats slow ; our beloved go,
Hearts bending in grief's attitude;
But love's last prayer still flies through the air,
My loved ones, my cherished, “be good.”
No, not the last; though death's portals are passed,
Yet life is in full plenitude ;
Beyond the sky, love renews the cry,
Co-workers, go forth and "be good.”
Be good, yes this, for herein is bliss,
Rum's ruin no more shall intrude;
Hear us now say, we'll vote as we pray,
While struggling to do and "be good.”

LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
Let tidings fly, 0, 'tis bliss to die,
With God and with heaven imbued ;
Beloved, do the work I leave you,
Work on, and forever "do good.”
Ocean Grove, November, 1891.
E. H. S.
SARAH J. C. DOWNS.
TREAD lightly, for she sleeps! we did not know
That death could be so beautiful as this !
Infinite peace, on marble cheek and brow,
Lies like an angel's kiss.
In rapt repose, in sweet unconscious grace
She sleeps; the fair hands lightly laid to rest;
A quiet, not of earth, is on her face,
Pure as the snowy ribbon” on her breast.
Sacred as love—though but the vacant shrine
Whence love hath fled to seek a nobler goal;
Hallowed by touch of messengers divine,
That bore to fairer realms, the fairer soul.
And we, who linger 'mid life's toil and pain,
Nor see the meaning of its mystery,
Shall keep within our hearts a tenderer strain
For that sweet memory.
To lift our souls from this poor life below,
To that which far transcends the outward sight
Whose peace, through tears, the sorrowing heart may know,
Whose fullness dwells with God, in love and light!
Mrs. HELEN M. BRITTIN.

TRIBUTES.
COMRADES, TWO.
WE PASS ON WITHOUT THEM.
[Written in memory of Julia Ames and Mrs. Downs.]
WE stood in an eloquent silence,
These holiest days,
When thoughts of the Christ have been woven
In'sweetest of lays.
We came where the years were dividing
The new and the old,
And passing 'twixt grave heap and garland
We counted the gold-
Of sands that for joy or for sorrow,
Move on where awaiteth to-morrow
With story untold.
II.
All songs have seemed far in the stillness,
Like strains of a lute,
That trembles alone o'er the waters
When voices are mute.
But/years that divide do not move us
To sharpness of pain,
So little they seem with their burdens
Of losses and gain-
When souls have come near the immortals,
And treading the edge of life's portals
Been thrilled with their strain
III.
We heard in the circle of silence
The fall of a tear;
Have scented the fragrance of roses
Love brought to a bier,

LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
Have listened while low, tender voices,
Half under their breath,
Were speaking of farewells and parting,
And talking of death-
But out from a glory supernal
There thrilled a great voice, “life eternal
I give them," it saith.
IV.
One life was a sheaf at its ripeness
Of goldenest grain ;
Its wealth had the glory of sunlight,
And sobbing of rain ;
Ah ! who shall dispute with the Master
For whom it was grown,
That now in its day of completeness
He gathers His own-
Or who to earth's duty and sadness
Call back the great soul from the gladness
That heaven makes known.
One life was a flower prophetic,
Aglow with the June;
Why tarried it not for the fruitage,
But faded so soon;
Ah! who shall declare in what region
Should come to its best,
The soul that so utterly loving
Is utterly blest-
Or who in these days of bereaving
Would break by a sob of our grieving
Ineffable rest.
VI.
Ah ! comrades, we stand in the silence,
Homesick for a day;
But how can our anguish be better,
We follow that way.

TRIBUTES.
· Let us lift up our hearts, our beloved,
Love on as of yore ;
Who knows but in stress of the battle
They haste to the fore-
"Then onward ye brave;" to the duty,
Not far, with the King in His beauty,
We greet them once more.
MARY T. LATHRAP.
IN MEMORIAM
MRS. S. J. C. DOWNS.
You ask a song for our leader dead!
Shall it be a song of tears?
Shall the mists of a sorrow uncontrolled
Loom up through the coming years?
Shall we falter in our onward march?
Shall the sword drop from our hand,
While the marshaled hosts of the evil one
Triumphant before us stand?
Shall the light die out of the captives' eyes,
The sad-eyed captives of woe,
Who hoped they saw in the gray of night,
The dawn of their freedom glow?
Shall the Christ look down on the world He loves,
With love that turned not from death?
His “Inasmuch as ye do unto these,”
To His own but idle breath?

68
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
Hark! a voice comes back from the portals bright,
Of the city of pearl and gold,
From lips that never gave doubtful sound,
From the heart that never grew old:
“Forward, my comrades, the fight is not vain,
The victory before you is sure;
And blessed is he, when the dear Christ wins,
Whose strife has been steadfast and pure!”
And a holier voice from the ramparts calls,
“Mourn not for your strong one gone,
But look to Me for courage and strength,
For I still will lead you on."
JENNIE CLARK.
IN MEMORIAM.
[Written by Mrs. Joanna P. R. Perry for the Memorial Services
of Mrs. Sarah J. C. Downs, held in St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal
Church, Ocean Grove, Sabbath, November 29, 1891.]
OVER the host of the White Ribbon army
Surges a tide of sorrow to-day;
Out of the ranks to a clime pure and balmy,
A great light and leader is taken away.
Under the shadow of loss and bereavement,
Thousands are offering their tribute of love
To her whose clear judgment and wondrous achievement,
Has brought to New Jersey rich gifts from above.

TRIBUTES.
Over her archways a still hand is lifted,
Pointing to battle-fields dusty and worn;
Where, with God's guidance, the crusade was shifted,
Till the last foe was routed, defeated and shorn.
Alas! for ourselves, is the cry that's ascending,
From hearts bowed and broken at sorrow's dark shrine ;
With lips mute in anguish and silence we're bending,
To ask the dear Saviour to make us resigned.
Ah, here, precious sister, in hearts true and loyal,
Thy mem'ry's sweet fragrance shall ne'er pass away;
Thy works have reared for thee a monument royal,
That cannot be marred by change or decay.
O thou blessed Jesus, whose tears were once mingled
With sisters that wept o'er a fresh-opened tomb ;
Speak Thou unto us, let our eyes catch the signal,
That points from the grave to eternity's bloom.
But oh, how much darker the deep cloud of sorrow,
Hangs over the homes in the East and the West;
Over whose portals there dawns no to-morrow.
When mother will come with her children to rest.
But look up, ye sons, and fond, loving daughters,
To the mansion of light, there she's waiting for thee,
Her dear arms are reaching above the dark waters,
To gather her “bairns to her ain countrie.”

70
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
STATISTICAL SUMMARY.
HE following statistical summary shows in com-
1 pact form the work of the State Woman's Chris-
tian Temperance Union, since its organization
in 1874.
In the earlier years of its history, comparatively
little attention was paid to keeping an accurate record
of affairs. This is to be regretted. However, we may
rest assured that the workers of the pioneer days were
just as faithful, just as energetic, and, with the means at
their command, just as successful as those of later and
more favored days:
Money Raised.
Year Where Held.
President.
Unions.
No. of
No. of
Members.
State and Local
National Work.
Total.
1874 Newark ..... Mrs. Denman
1875 Hackettst'n Mrs. Denman 3 691 13 70.
13 70
1876 Paterson ... Mrs. Denman 17 190 97 78
97 78
1877 Trenton ..... Mrs. Denman 17 2241 44 17|
44 17
1878 Camden..... Mrs. Denman 29 469 164 80.
164 80
1879 Mt. Holly... Mrs. Denman 38 563) 112 701.
112 70
1880 Millville..... Mrs. Denman 33 4911 98 05 ............ 98 05
• 1881 Lambertv'l Mrs. Downs .. 26 517) 103 40 1340 00 1443 40
1882 Bridgeton .. Mrs. Downs .. 39 1200 341 c6 3263 48 3604 54
1883 Hackettst'n Mrs. Downs .. 50 1806 547 19 4667 41 5214 60
1884 Newark ..... Mrs. Downs .. 77 3396 943 34 15764 76 16708 IO
1885 Trenton ..... Mrs. Downs .. 100 42141242 47 20050 54 21293 Or
1886 Plainfield... Mrs. Downs .. 132 51592108 9922742 43) 24851 42
1887 Millville..... Mrs. Downs .. 1767423 2957 77 29308 60 32266 37
1888 Passaic ..... Mrs. Downs .. 200 7427/3332 61 31312 81 34645 42
1889 Oc'n Grove Mrs. Downs .. 215 84113278 21 34380 24 37658 45
1890 AtlanticC'y Mrs. Downs* 204 6657 2873 33 35078 35 37951 68
1891 Salem ...... Mrs. Downs .. 2086732 3270 15 39101 10 42371 25
molem
21,529 72 237,009 72 258,539 44
*In 1890 and 1891 only paid-up members were counted. This explains the
seeming decrease in members and Unions.
No account was kept of money raised for local work, previous to 1881.

Appendix.



“MOTHER” HILL.
MRS. R. P. PENFIELD.

APPENDIX.
“MOTHER” HILL.
M RS. MARY G. HILL, affectionately known as
AT “Mother” Hill, was born in Caldwell, N. J.,
March 6, 1803. She was of Huguenot and
Scotch descent, the daughter of Mr. David Barnett,
whose father was one of the “Covenanters.” At the
age of eighteen she was converted in Halsey Street
Methodist Episcopal church, Newark, of which she
was a devoted member for many years. She was
married to Mr. John Hill when she was twenty years
of age, and lived with him fifty years, always a loving,
faithful wife. To her, every obligation as a wife and
mother was a sacred one, and no interest of her home
failed to receive from her all that love and duty
demanded. Although the mother of ten children,
burdened with domestic cares, and often in feeble
health, by the frugal use of every moment she culti-
vated her naturally strong intellect by judicious
reading, and found time to do very much for the
church of her choice; and, because of her far-reaching
wisdom, and fine executive ability, she was esteemed

LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
and helpful in planning for the benevolent enterprises
of her city.
In earlier days her home was a hospitable resting
place for worn, weary itinerants. She was one of the
organizers of the Female City Mission of the Methodist
Episcopal church in Newark, from which sprung the
Trinity Methodist Episcopal church, with which she
united, and remained a beloved and esteemed member
until her death. She was President of the Ladies'
Parsonage Association for twenty years. She was also
instrumental in starting the mission out of which grew
St. Luke's Methodist Episcopal church, and the
Dashiell Memorial church. For many years she was
greatly interested in the Orphan Asylum on High
street, opposite her residence. Of course she had no
time for idle gossip, but her sympathetic ear always
listened to the cry of suffering or want, and her ready
heart and mind were quick with the comforting,
encouraging word, as was her generous hand with
aid. In her charities her keen discernment of character
was usually correct in distinguishing between the
worthy and unworthy. The overmastering power of
her life was her love for God, his church, his service,
even “unto the least.” Her convictions were positive,
yet she was modest, never self-asserting, but like the
force of a deep, quiet river, the impulse of her plain,
practical common sense was irresistible.
Left a widow at three-score years and ten, unlike
most women who, at that age, would have ceased all
activities for the church or public benevolences, she

APPENDIX.
75
put herself, with new zeal and consecration, at the
service of her Master, identifying herself with the few
women who met for nine months, previous to the
organization of the Newark Woman's Christian Temper-
ance Union, to pray for a deeper work of grace to
fit them for any use at God's pleasure. For nine
months the cry went up for a perfect self-abnegation,
abandonment to the Divine will, separation from the
world, and consecration. Work for temperance never
occurred to them, but in the "fullness of time," " when
the hour was come," the command came to these
women of blessed memory to “arise and build” a
Temperance Union, their hearts were ready, and they
would not have dared to be “ disobedient to the
heavenly visions.” At their first election of officers the
first ballot resulted in a tie between Mrs. Mary G.
Hill and Mrs. M. R. Denman. The latter withdrew in
favor of Mrs. Hill, who was thus made the first
President of the first Woman's Christian Temperance
Union of Newark. With such a surrender as these
saintly women had made to Divine guidance, who will
say there could have been a mistake in this matter ?
It was in this new field, the battle-field against the
curse of drink, that she won the crowning renown of
her life. To take up the new and very great responsi-
bilities, she did not resign or neglect her church work,
her household cares, or ever cease to take an interest in
every benevolent undertaking; but she was soon recog-
nized as an able leader in the great reform, and known
and beloved for her spirit, ability and eloquenee in plead-

LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
ing for truth, justice, and righteousnes. Her voice in
appealing to people and in prayer to God had wonder-
ful sweetness and power. As an organizer, she showed
great discrimination and tact in securing the right
woman in every place, encouraging the timid, and (all
unconsciously to themselves) holding a mild restraint
upon those needing it. She was sought and welcomed
as a speaker and counsellor in surrounding towns and
counties, and the broad foundations which she helped lay
in those first days of the New Jersey Woman's Christian
Temperance Union, are those upon which it rests to-
day. Associated with her in the Newark Union during
the first of her administration as President, were Mrs. F.
W. Moores, to whom came the inspiration for a “Noon-
tide tryst” for White Ribboners; Mrs. Rev. J. H.
Knowles, whose sympathies have always remained with
the cause, but whose services for the Woman's Foreign
Missionary Society demand most of her time; and
others equally royal and strong. Her term of office
continued by re-election from 1874 to 1882, when she
resigned positively, and was elected Honorary President
for life,
All who were blessed by “Mother” Hill's friendship
remember her warmth of heart; her genuine interest in
their welfare; her horror of all shams; her keen ap-
.preciation of truth and consistency; and her sometimes
quaint expressions. Hers was a "green old age," indeed.
In the summer of 1878 she, at seventy-five years of age,
visited California, Oregon, and Washington Territory
with her son, Rev. John B. Hill; addressed three Con-

APPENDIX.
77
ferences on temperance; taking that three days' horse-
back ride which was then necessary in visiting the
Yosemite, and enjoying all the scenery with the enthusi-
asm of youth.
She held so warm a place in the hearts of those who
knew her that, when she ceased from her labors (nearly
eighty-one years of age), multitudes felt a personal
bereavement. At her funeral held January 24, 1884, the
large platform in the church in which she was con-
verted more than sixty years before, and from which she
was borne to her grave, was crowded with clergymen
who eulogized the well-rounded life that to the very last
was spent in doing good. No other woman ever
received such grateful homage in Newark, at the last,
as did “Mother" Hill, until that large assemblage met in
the same church to pay their tributes of love to Mrs.
Downs. Rev. J. I. Boswell, who had been her pastor,
made an eloquent address, in which he referred to her
deep and true piety, her intelligent study of the Bible,
her activity and her most efficient work in the tem-
perance reform. Rev. Mr. Craig said: “She spent no
time in thinking of a monument that would be a memo-
rial of her industry and faithfulness. What she wanted
was to get her work done. He compared her with
Howard, Florence Nightingale, Bunyan and Wesley.
Rev. J. Boyd Brady, in a sermon delivered to a large
audience the next Sunday, January 28th, spoke of
“Mother” Hill's strong characteristics, and commended
her independence, coolness and conscientiousness in the

78
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
discharge of duty, and her benevolence and kindness
to the poor and unfortunate.
Secular, church and temperance papers, far and near,
vied with each other in honoring this good, noble
woman. What a glorious close of a long, useful life!
“The days of our years are three-score years and ten.”
After Mother Hill had finished her seventy years, spend-
ing them all in helping the world to be better, truer, she
made an enduring impression upon her city, state and
nation by her advanced stand in the greatest reform of
her age; and, departing, left an inspiration with all
workers for the upbuilding of His kingdom, as well as a
precious, joyous inheritance to her children, and “Her
works do follow her.”
SKETCH OF THE FIRST YEARS
OF THE STATE WOMAN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION
WORK, UNDER MRS. MARY R. DENMAN.
(N 1873, Mrs. Mary R. Denman, having received
a wonderful uplift in her spiritual life at the
National Camp Meeting at Sea Cliff, felt herself
prepared of God for some especial work in His service.
Mrs. Denman was not a Methodist, but an earnest
member of the Evangelical branch of the Protestant
Episcopal church. She recognized the baptism meant
work for the Master, and waited for Him to show her
what it was. She did not have to wait long. At one

APPENDIX.
of Mrs. FitzGerald's Friday meetings, in Newark,
Rev. Mr. See, a Presbyterian minister, told of a won-
derful meeting he had attended in Brooklyn, conducted
by women. Mrs. Denman had read of the work of
the women of the Crusade, and her heart had
burned within her; she now was anxious to know
what the women of Brooklyn were doing. Upon the
first opportunity, she met with them in the rooms of
the Young Men's Christian Association. A large
gathering of ladies and gentlemen were present, and
the Rev. Mr. Boole introduced Mrs. Denman to the
Assembly. Listening to the reports of these women,
of work accomplished, she felt condemned, knowing
the great need of temperance work in Newark. Mrs.
Wm. P. Jube, of Newark, was also at that meeting, and
they concluded to carry the subject to the eight o'clock
daily morning prayer meeting, at the Young Men's
Christian Association rooms. There they told their
story, and a dear old clergyman, affectionately called
“Father Osborne," said: “It is high time such work
was begun in Newark, and I appoint Mrs. Denman
leader."
At this time a singular circumstance occurred. Some
one (who was never known) put in the paper a call for
a temperance meeting, to be held at the same place
and hour a ladies' holiness meeting was always held.
Many saw the call and responded, and others came to
attend the original meeting, among them, Mrs. Denman.
The leader appointed for the holiness meeting, not
understanding the call for the temperance meeting,

so
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
failed to put in an appearance, and Mrs. C. A. McCall
was appointed leader, and upon her came the honor of
leading the first woman's temperance meeting held in
the state. She was faithful to the trust, and is to-day
one of New Jersey's blessed White Ribboners, a mem-
ber of Paterson Woman's Christian Temperance Union.
Mrs. Denman, coming in late, was astonished to find
a stranger in the chair, and the subject-temperance.
Thus God leads and brings about His own work, and
prepares His own workers.
After this the interest grew, and as many men were
out of employment and attended the meetings, after
meetings were instituted, which often lasted till nearly
noon. A drunken engineer was one of the trophies;
he was soundly converted, opened his own house for
evening meetings with his companions, and has since
been wonderfully used in rescuing men in his own
position in life. Thus early God sets His seal on the
work.
About this time a lady from Brooklyn came over and
urged opening a four o'clock meeting, to be held daily.
This was done in an unoccupied store on Broad street.
The history of these meetings will be known better in
eternity. They were never closed until about 1890,
when many of the old people were dead and the even-
ing meetings took the attention of the younger ones.
“Mother” Hill, as long as she lived, and Mrs. Denman,
till broken health laid her aside, stood by those
meetings, commenced in a store-building with seats
of boards, laid on empty boxes. Gladly they gave

MRS. M. R. DENMAN.


APPENDIX.
up their New Year days, and other public holidays,
to gather the poor drunkards around them and
proclaim Jesus and His power to save.
The time soon came when it was felt best to organize
into a Temperance Union, still taking the Brooklyn
sisters as their example. When the election for
President came, there was a tie between Mrs. Denman
and "Mother” Hill (a name given by Mrs. Denman, as
Mrs. Hill had been a dear friend of her own mother),
but the former withdrew in favor of “Mother" Hill, who
became the loved and honored President of Newark's
first Union, and was a tower of strength till the day
when she was promoted from “ labor to reward.”
About the same time Miss Julia Barker, of Rahway,
organized in that city what became the second Union
in the state. Now came the time for New Jersey
to take her place among the states on the temperance
question. A circular letter was sent to every town
where a Young Men's Christian Association was
established, calling upon Christian women interested
in the cause of temperance to meet in the Clinton
Street Methodist Episcopal church, Newark, to organ-
ize a State Union, November II, 1874. This first
Convention lasted two days. Many came from neigh-
boring towns; two ladies from a distance, Mrs. Hance
from Hackettstown and Mrs. Lummis from Cedarville.
Mrs. Kidder of Madison, whose husband was President
of the Madison Methodist Episcopal Institute, presided.
Mrs. Margaret Clark, of Jersey City, took an active part,
especially on the nominating committee, where much

82
LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
praying was done. Mrs. Denman was unanimously
elected State President. She felt her own insufficiency,
but hearing God's call, dared not disobey, and looked
to Him to give the needed wisdom.
The next state meeting was held at Rahway, in the
spring of 1875, after which the conventions were held
semi-annually, the fall meetings for business, the spring
meetings of a inore informal character, eminently
spiritual, and for mutual encouragement in the work.
Mrs. Brundage was Secretary; Miss Julia Barker, Treas-
urer, and Mrs. Nobles, State Vice-President. At the
Rahway meeting, Mrs. Judge Haines became interested,
and started the next Union in Elizabeth. Mrs. Haines
afterwards became Corresponding Secretary, and at
one time treasurer of the state. Mrs. Nobles and her
husband, Rev. John Nobles, with Mrs. Denman, now
made the tour of the state, especially the southern part,
and Unions were established, or the nucleus of them, at
various places along the coast. Atlantic City, at that
time consisting of only a few small houses and tents,
was visited in 1877, and meetings were held there
and in all the towns in that part of the state. With
Mrs. Brundage, Mrs. Denman visited Oxford Furnace,
Belvidere, and towns away back in the country and
among the mountains. At this time, at the earnest
invitation of Mrs. Penfield, Plainfield was visited, and
a promising Union formed there. This all reads
smoothly, but between the lines one may trace indif-
ference, prejudice, hardships and discouragements un-
told. This dear woman of God, delicately reared, left

APPENDIX.
her home of luxury, opposed by friends, loved ones,
churches and pastors, and carried her despised subject up
and down the state, in the face of the loudly-uttered dis-
approval of woman's work in public, and the entire want
of sympathy in the sections she visited. The writer well
remembers scenes through which she passed with Mrs.
Denman, and houses of poverty opened for their enter-
tainment, because in those pioneer days the more com-
fortably situated had no sympathy with the cause.
How different now, when all vie with each other in
welcoming our White Ribbon sisters to their hearts and
homes. At one place, Mrs. Denman spoke in a large
country school-house, as the churches were closed
against her. It was crowded until standing room could
scare be found, for it was a matter of curiosity to hear a
woman speak; even the windows were filled from the
outside. Leaning on the Divine, power from on high
was granted her, and the utmost quiet prevailed while
she told of Jesus and His love, and power to save from
the appetite of strong drink. The ladies met next day
and formed a Union. At the pioneer meetings held in
Camden, great encouragement was given by old tem-
perance workers and a Union followed, Mrs. Fannie H.
Carr being President. Mrs. Wittenmeyer, National
President, hearing of New Jersey's work, appointed
national meetings at Ocean Grove, which were held
annually, till the state took up that work. Mrs. Den-
man and Mrs. Wittenmeyer went through the Southern
States, holding meetings and opening the way for those
who followed later on. Mrs. M. Helen Crane, who so

LIFE OF MRS. DOWNS.
soon followed our sister, Mrs. Downs, to that “other and
better country,” should have kindly mention as one
earnestly interested from the incipiency of the work.
She was especially interested in trying to get a place for
temperance in the State Sabbath School Association.
Mrs. Denman accompanied her to one of their state
meetings, but being a woman, was given no opportunity
to speak. The following year through the courtesy of
the then President, Mr. Alfred Treadwell, a time was
given for her to be heard. A common man in the gal-
lery called out that “women were to keep quiet," but he
was silenced, and from that time women and temperance
had a place in their deliberations.
Through all these years, and with this arduous labor,
Mrs. Denman was in very frail health, many times
returning from her trips to spend days or often weeks
in her bed, gaining fresh strength for the next campaign.
In the winter of 1880, Mrs. Denman was prostrated
with paralysis, the result of her seven years' labor in
the cause she loved so well. It then became necessary
for her to resign her state position, and in the fall of
1881, Mrs. Downs was elected to fill her place.
ANNA M. HAMMER.

Car Life of Mrs. S.T.C. Downs
37904
Harper]