uplifting and reformation of the unfortunate and erring I was only doing a sort of retail business while the enemy was working at wholesale, sowing broadcast the seed of immorality throughout the length and breadth of our commonwealth. But thought would keep on thinking as to the, what, that must be done in order to lay the ax at the root of the deadly upas that was poisoning and blighting the fairest of our land. As I was becoming more and more acquainted with these dens of infamy as the adjunct to, or rather the twin sister of the saloon, I came to query, "What are we of the W. C. T. U. of Iowa doing for this class? While we are banded together as avowed opponents of the saloon, ought we not to take in the brothel as well?" And I began occasionally to hint it to our sisters as in our weekly meetings we came together to execute and lay plans for future work. At the very outset I was given both by words and actions to understand that I was bringing before them that which was by far too low for their consideration. But I was forced to entertain it, for in the night season the voice of the Spirit was continually prompting me to the urgent necessity of immediate action in the direction of closing those schools of vice where in the presence of womanhood reft of all womanly graces the youth of our land are being educated to so under-value woman's virtue as to consider seduction a mere joke. And by manhood thus educated, our daughters are being seduced and in the hour of their extremity seeking the brothel, the only shelter open to them, to become, in their turn, the seducers of the oncoming youth of our land, thus furnishing a continual round and round of ever widening, ever increasing evil. It was thus in this silent communion with the Teacher of teachers, that the plan was given as to what should be done and how to do it. But amid the cares of my own household that hardly admitted of one hour's remittance from daily toil save that which the rest of sleep required, and with not a dollar to advance in the direction of what seemed to me the first step to be taken, a Christian shelter for the seduced and a refuge for the sinsick prostitute. "What could I do?"

And how often my cry had gone up to my Father in heaven. "Oh! why roll this burden upon me? Why not upon some woman who has means to prosecute the work?" But he who "moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform," had His plan in which, as His servant, it was but mine to be the passive instrument as He made the way. And, as when He committed to me the gospel message, He first felled me to the earth with a stroke of his hand that well-nigh took my life, in the death of my first born, so, now, He proved me closer by his seemingly severer blow in the sudden taking to Himself of the partner of my life, leaving me so desolate that the severest form of labor was joy compared with waiting hour by hour the days and years go by ere the time of reunion in that better country should come. And so steadily did I follow the guiding of His providences in the work of the rescue of these perishing ones, and so was my life pledged to and identified with the work, that the sun had not gone down on the day that my husband's sacred remains were committed to the grave, ere I was called upon, by the urgent pleading of a Christian sister, to go quickly to the rescue of a little four year old girl whose mother was keeping a house of prostitution in our midst. So early the next morning I did my first work in my stricken condition without, however, being able to secure the child at that time. But following up the case, never giving up as my motto is, where there is a soul concerned, never give up until the last thing is done that it is in my power to do, after four years' vigilant but vain effort to reclaim the mother my labors were richly rewarded by seeing this sinful mother safely housed in our penitentiary and the little one placed in our industrial school and beyond the reach of the profligate mother. The death of my husband seemed to bring to a close the necessity of my being any longer engrossed in the cares of house-keeping as my son and daughter were now grown and in business for themselves. So there was seemingly no reason why I should not carry out the plan that had been given me, which was to gain the co-operation of the W.

C. T. U. and under its auspices to go through the State, and from the platform and sacred desk awakening an interest in raising higher the standard of purity both for men and women, calling the attention both of the church and the world to our duty in regard especially to fallen womanhood, and the same time soliciting means to provide a way by which she might return. Pursuant to this, I watched for every opportunity to speak a word in interest of the work to which I apprehended I was called of the Lord.

For the purpose of bringing this subject before the ministers and more prominent members of the Methodist church, I visited Clear Lake, arriving there so near the close of their summer camp meeting that there was but one more meeting to be held on the ground, which, at my request was granted me. Improbable as it would seem in human reasoning that the closing meeting should be given to one of another church coming in with her request so at the last of the feast, yet they did, and the Lord so blessed my effort to make this Christian people acquainted with the burden of my soul that while many hearts were touched with sympathy and interest in the work, one dear sister was, at least, so thoroughly converted that although a perfect stranger to me she requested me to go to her cottage saying, "I have some money for you." On expressing my surprise, thinking she must surely be mistaken in the person, she repeated with emphasis, “I have some money for you. There is a little income that I handle, onetenth of which is the Lord's, and I have a few dollars laid by that I want you to take and use in that very work that you brought to our notice to-day." Thus from the well known Sister Lozier I received my first installment to the fund that the voice of the Spirit was saying I should be able to raise for a refuge for the unfortunate of earth, if I would but exercise the talent that He had given me in their behalf.

In October, 1879, I attended the convention of the W. C. T. U. of our State, carrying to them the burden of my heart for the unfortunate women and girls of our commonwealth.