From collection Frances Willard Journal Transcripts
there is in her psychic powers? My interview aoout we "Puritan & the Play" has gone far& wide. We give the people's recreation over to the devil & then expect him not to play the pipes & them not to fall a dancing? Therein we are fools& blind. No sleep till midnight-Cossie came then, full of spirits-good committee mts all day & [......] mtg in evening.
November 15, 1893
We went up to London to the 1st School of Methods of the BWTA. I staid in the gallery & watched Isabel "go on." It seemed queer to be out of it all-a little as I shall feel perhaps when disembodied & looking downon the dear old planet where I was used to toil. They had the "Model WCTU" that I first introduced (Lake Bluff Convocation-about 1883). Different women took the parts & dramatized a mtg of the local union before our eyes. Bessie Gordon made believe that she was a Nat. organizer visiting the local & was ever so cute& effective. Alys Smith-lovely girl- spoke well on the "Y." Isabel made a witty& effective speech on public speaking-her happy mimcry bringing out "bursts of applause." The audience gave me the white, ribbon salute as I sat in the gallery &. I waved back to them. Eva McLaren gave a first rate parliamentary drill, Isabel, Jessie Ackerman, Bess, Hannah Smith& I lunched " with a world- bouquet big& round-made of chrysanthemums from her ladyships' conservatory, also a lovely volume of Tennyson. On the platform were Little Andrew& Dr Kate how little they have made of the 2 sea voyages! They brought dear letters from my little Anna who doesn't come alone after all, but has Amanda Smith [......]. I'm glad. Canon Leigh welcomed Jessie& so did Walter McLaren, M.P. Cossie made a remarkable speech as chairman& Jessie gave an address in excellent spirit. She is not a great orator at all, but speaks fluently, is at home, gives good facts& makes her points-best of all has a sweet spirit-says she had not half known how kind folks are till she went out among 'em. Mtg not "worked up" as Mr Osborne would have done it-poor fellow! Came home Thurs. [11/16/93] leaving Cossie to wrestle& to reign! Letter [entry continues in space of 11/17] from dear La Marechale [accent aigu over e] Clibborn-Booth; she is too ill to come& rest at the Priory as she intended. Dear child! She has borne her little ones too fast in view of the duties she had assumed as a great leader. Bess went to see Exeter Hall-wondered at its crudeness as she does daily at the dull streets, offices and railway stations, dingy St comfortless. America is the land o' luxury. Coal war will end we hopa-as Lord Rosebery agrees to act as a sort of umpire. Mrs. F. Stead told me my watch led her to work up a fund of five thousand dollars among the Congregationalists. I prayed about that giving& can't think but it was good to do.-Have been thinking much about a letter from my niece Katharine who has returned to her mother in Berlin& given up singing &now wants employment. She frankly asks if I can
