Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 3.djvu/667

667 the organization. During nearly fourteen years we have held regular meetings in a hall rented for the purpose, and paid for by earnings of the society. An excellent organ is owned by the club; they have a library of several hundred volumes, book-cases, carpet, curtains, pictures, tables, chairs, stove, etc., and the members take great pride in their cosy headquarters. At this writing, interesting meetings are held on each Wednesday evening at the homes of the different members of the society. In the course of so long a time, this organization has had many changes. Members have removed to all parts of the United States, and many similar clubs elsewhere trace their origin to our society.

Several years ago an open letter from here to "Woman's Kingdom," in the Chicago Inter-Ocean called attention to our plan of work for small towns; as a result fifteen similar Unions were organized, some of them still flourishing. In northwest Missouri the same kind of clubs were formed in Maryville, Nodaway county, and Savannah, Andrew county, but neither of them became permanent. In the course of twelve years many of the best speakers on the American platform have addressed Oregon audiences, brought here by the determined efforts of a few women. To-day, public opinion in this part of Missouri is in advance of other sections on all questions relating to the great interests of humanity. In March, 1879, a call signed by prominent citizens brought together a large assembly of men and women in the court-house. An address in favor of woman suffrage was delivered by Rev. John Wayman of the M. E. Church of St. Joseph. Mr. James L. Allen acted as chairman of the meeting, and a society was then organized, to bear the name of the Holt County Woman Suffrage Society. At the National Woman Suffrage Convention held at St. Louis later in the same year, Jas. L. Allen acted as delegate from this association and reported our progress. The best organized woman's society in the State is probably the Women's Christian Temperance Union. In its different departments, although hampered by too much theological red tape, it is reaching thousands of ignorant, prejudiced, good sectarian women who would expect the "heavens to fall" if they accidentally got into a meeting where "woman's rights" was mentioned even in a whisper. Mrs. Clara Hoffman, of Kansas City, is State president, and a woman of great force. She, as well as other leading lights in the Women's Christian Temperance Union, is strongly advocating woman suffrage as a sine qua non in the temperance work. The women of this part of the State have been given quite a prominent place among organizations mentioned in a late "History of Missouri, by Counties." The Woman's Union has taken the