In other enterprises she has shown similar ability. The erection of a permanent building on the state fair grounds at Syracuse is eminently suitable, in view of the fact that the Woman's Christian Temperance Union had secured the passage in the state legislature of a law prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors on the state and county fair grounds within its jurisdiction, the carrying out of which policy has totally changed the character and conduct of agricultural fairs in the Empire State. For several years Mrs. Burt has taken an active interest in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union work at the state fair grounds at Syracuse, greatly to the detriment of her health by overtaxing her physical strength. This course certainly gives the workers an inspiration to undertakings they would never think of braving but for the courage of their leader.
Of a similar character were the skill and dash that secured the Metropolitan Opera House for the meeting of the national convention in 1888. It was said that "the women did it," but it was done so quietly and literally by such rising betimes in the morning that very few know that the skillful marshaling of the few available forces would after all have ended in failure had it not been for the quick wit and personal responsibility of the head hostess of the occasion, the president of the New York State Union.
For thirteen years Mrs. Burt served the state without salary, giving to its work the best her life afforded freely and without price. With such leaders, under God, and with the true end kept steadily in view, Christian women ought not to fail in their great temperance work. It matters comparatively little with what branch of the evangelical church they are associated, but we are persuaded that none of us will esteem our president less when knowing that she has grown in trust and devoutness in this work while in the communion of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
CHAPTER IV.
EDUCATIONAL.
"My people perish for lack of knowledge."