Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/701

660 Miss Gordon is altogether a strong, well-poised, gentle and lovable woman, and has made for herself a noble place in the world's work. Willard Fountain, which stands at the entrance of Willard Hall, in Chicago, is the embodiment of her own thought and work. The money for its erection was raised by having the children give their dimes and sign total abstinence pledges on red, white and blue cards, which were used to decorate the Women's Christian Temperance Union rooms at the Columbian Exposition.

She was Miss Willard's constant companion during the last years and especially the last weeks of Miss Willard's life. The life use of Rest Cottage, at Evanston, 111., was given to Miss Gordon by Miss Willard, but she has never used it as a source of income to herself, but has held the gift as a sacred trust, keeping the property in order, and providing a caretaker, so that tourists and friends of the Women's Christian Temperance Union may visit the rooms and home made sacred by Miss Willard.

Mrs. Lillian M. N. Stevens, national president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, was born in Dover, Me., and has always made her home within the borders of the Pine Tree state. Like so many women of the New England states, Mrs. Stevens' first public work was in the schoolroom as a teacher, but she early left this sphere and at the age of twenty-one married Mr. M. Stevens, of Stroudwater, at that time a charming little suburb of Portland, Me. Born a prohibitionist, Mrs. Stevens early began her temperance activities and the following data holds an interest for all : "Mrs. Stevens first met Miss Willard at Old Orchard, Me., in the summer of 1875, and there aided in the organization of the State Woman's Christian Temperance Union, of which she was elected treasurer. She held this position for three years.

"For many years Mrs. Stevens was reckoned as Neal Dow's chief coadjutor, and since his death she is recognized throughout the state as the leader of the prohibition forces. Indeed, in the well-fought battle of 1884 which placed prohibition in the state constitution, Mrs. Stevens won for herself a fame as organizer and agitator hardly second to Neal Dow himself. Some of the triumphs of the Maine Woman's Christian Temperance Union under her leadership have been the raising of the age of protection to sixteen years, a strong Scientific-Temperance-Instruction law, and the constitutional amendment to which we have already referred."