The Van Buren Press

The Ohio Women's Temperance Movement.

The Cincinnati Commercial of February 4th, publishes a letter from Dio Lewis upon the subject of the woman's whisky war that is now in progress in the interior of the State. He says:

"I have just been shown some interesting reports of the 'Woman's Temperance Movement' in your paper. I have no doubt that dealers are resting on their oars, and waiting for the tide to turn. They don't understand it. It is not a new constable who may be bought off or dodged. In those towns where earnest women engage in this temperance movement a new atmosphere is created which will penetrate every nook and corner. If a man owns property in any of the redeemed towns-property which was finished off with reference to the rum trade-I advise him to change the partitions It will not be wanted again for the whisky business. I can't longer deny myself a visit to the front, and so shall leave home in a few days to observe the progress of the struggle in your State. And I shall hope to be able to lend a helping hand where the movement has not yet been fairly inaugurated, or where another soldier may help to turn the fortunes of the day. If any rum seller suggests that Western men can manage their own affairs, I shall not quarrel with him. I am a Western man by birth and education, having come to Boston only a few years ago. Whenever I have an opportunity to meet the brave women who are resting after the battle, I shall urge them to establish reading-rooms and an amusement hall for those who have heretofore given their spare hours to dram shops. That will clinch the nail. And the rum sellers, they should be encouraged and assisted to engage in other and better business. They are not the moral monsters temperance people represent them, but good-hearted fellows generally, who are engaged in a money-making business against which their neighbors have made no earnest protest. We are all to blame. and now as they lose their means of living the women who shut up their shops ought to help them into a better life Give them a little kind encouragement and they will never think of trying their bad trade again. Love is omnipotent.

Yours respectfully,

Dio Lewis."