A Plea for Temperance, 1874
The origins of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union lay in spontaneous prayer meetings held by women outside local saloons, where they appealed for men to stop drinking and liquor sellers to destroy their product. A string of such meetings in Ohio won national attention, as in this image from a popular magazine, the Daily Graphic. “Who Will Win?” asked the artist. The answers varied. A few saloon owners, struck with remorse over the damage caused by alcohol abuse, smashed their beer kegs and poured their liquor into the gutters. Far more refused, but in the 1880s, temperance women succeeded in organizing the largest grassroots movement of their day to build support for outlawing liquor sales. The Granger Collection, New York.