S.—SMITH, MRS. HANNAH WHITALL.
BORN and reared in a Quaker home, educated in a Quaker school, and for many years holding her membership in the sect known by that name, Mrs. Smith has been characterized as “a Friend indeed.” Of her father and herself, this has been said: “He was a bright, cheery, joyous, yet Cromwellian soldier, clapped by mistake under the broad brim of a Quaker, but this extinguisher was never able to hide his gladsome piety, and the daughter is her father over again.”
Her husband is a partner in the firm of Whitall, Tatum & Co. And just here I want to tell you something which I learned the other day regarding the temperance principles of this firm. Their business is the manufacture of white glass; theirs being the largest establishment of the kind in the world. So consistent and loyal to the cause of temperance are these men, that no orders for glass ware are accepted from men who will use the bottles and glasses for rum in any of its guises!
Doubtless they sometimes lose money by refusing large orders, but it is a fact that it sometimes costs something to be consistent. Nevertheless, let us be consistent—it pays in the long run! Mrs. Smith is well known to the world of Christians as H. W. S. You may have seen in your mother’s workbasket, or found slipped between the leaves of her Bible or other favorite book of devotion, little tracts bearing this signature.
She has for many years been accustomed to give expositions of Scriptures, sometimes going to obscure country churches of a Sabbath evening, then again speaking to thousands gathered in an immense hall in London. Of her powers as a public speaker, an English paper says: “Her freshness, her profound insight, are as remarkable as her surprising fluency.”
I think it was in a little paper called Times of Refreshing, that an article appeared which described the effect of her addresses upon an audience as something remarkable. Saying that, however old and worn the topic, she by her vigorous way of presenting the truth seemed to make it over new, and the secret of her power is given in five words: “consecrated talent and careful research.”
One of her children says of her: “She seems to me perfectly unselfish, and this she carries into the smallest details.” Of how many of us can this be said, I wonder!
Speaking of the sorrows and the bereavements which Mrs. Smith has been called to bear, Miss Willard says: “To the praise of that dear name above all others, let it be said, this Christian heart knows, proves, illustrates, always, in all life’s changeful discipline, the victory that overcometh even faith. No sentence is so familiar to her friends from those dear smiling lips that open but to speak brave and tender words, as ‘I cannot be unhappy, for I always have God.’”
Mrs. Smith is also known to the world as the Superintendent of the Evangelistic Department of the W. C. T. U. Does that need explanation? You all know what sort of an organization the W. C. T. U. is. Well, one of the first questions which came to the noble Christians who banded themselves together to fight the monster vice of intemperance was this puzzling one, How shall we reach the masses? Men bound by the chains of the drink habit were not likely to come voluntarily within their influence. Then there was but one answer to the question: “Go to them!” And they went, and it is this work of carrying the Gospel story to the poor drunkard, that we call evangelistic work. Mrs. Smith tells us how she became identified with the W. C. T. U. At the time of the Crusade she was in England, engaged in her work of Bible exposition, but when she heard through the newspapers of the wonderful outpouring of God’s spirit upon her countrywomen, her soul was stirred, and she seemed to hear the voice of her Master calling upon her for a consecration to the work, and she says, “sitting before an English fire in our London house, I joined that Crusade.”
She said: “Those women are my sisters, and their work is my work from this time forward until my death.” Again she says: “I consider the W. C. T. U. one of the grandest instrumentalities for good the world has ever known.”
Can you tell why I have selected Mrs. Hannah Whitall Smith to stand in this list of Remarkable Women?
Faye Huntington.
