While the men of Rushden have been wondering who will provide them with suitable premises in which to hold a young men’s institute, the members of the Rushden branch of the British Women’s Temperance Association also wondered who would provide them with a room which could be utilized for their meetings and which could be turned into a girl’s parlour, where the young women of the town could spend a social evening without temptation to drink. The men are still wondering; the women opened their room yesterday. The men want someone to do it for them; the women did it themselves. They bought a mission-room of corrugated iron and have had it enlarged and painted, and Mr. Geo. Denton kindly permitted them to place it on a most central site opposite the Public-hall. The total cost has been £125 towards which they have £48 in hand. Seating accommodation is provided for 150 people, and the room has been very nicely fitted up.

The opening service took place yesterday afternoon. Mrs. N. P. Sharman, of Wellingborough, presided, and congratulated the B.W.T.A. on possessing such a cheerful, pleasant, and comfortable room.

Mrs. Burton Alexander, of Pavenham Bury, formally declared the room open. She deprecated teetotallers dallying with strong drink by having shares in brewery companies. Their great work was to educate the public conscience against the drink traffic, which had a most deadening influence on all who had anything to do with it.

Capital addresses were also given by the Rev. C. F. Groom and Mr. J. T. Nowell (Derby), but the men speedily gave way when at last Miss Agnes Slack, of Ripley, Derbyshire, one of the most prominent lady temperance workers in the world, entered the room. Miss Slack is the secretary of the World’s Women’s Christian Temperance Union, which is the federation of the White Ribbon movement the world over. She congratulated the women of Rushden on being so inventive and go-ahead, and said she regarded that new building as a tremendous witness for God and for righteousness. No work in the world needed doing so much to-day as temperance work. (Hear, hear.)

Tea was served in the Public-hall.

A largely attended meeting was held in the Public-hall in the evening, Mr. F. Newman presiding, and he was supported by the Rev. M. Parkin, Mrs. Tailby, Mrs. Parkin, and Mrs. John Sargent. The Old Baptist choir sang several glees during the evening, contributing materially to the success of the meeting.

The Chairman eulogised the work of the B.W.T.A. and said the Rushden branch started in 1892 with 13 members, and now there were 150 on the roll. (Hear, hear.)

Miss Agnes Slack then gave one of the brightest and most effective temperance speeches ever delivered in the town. She spoke of the value of wearing the white ribbon, and said that no woman who held aloof from that organisation was doing quite as much for temperance as she would be able to do if she joined. The tide had turned in favour of temperance. Not long ago 2000 leading doctors in Great Britain signed a document declaring that health could best be maintained entirely apart from alcohol. Dr. Benj. Ward Richardson found he had double the cures without alcohol than when he ordered it. There was still a great deal to be done. Drinking among women was greatly on the increase, and the certified deaths among women through drink were 120 per cent more than they used to be. Throughout, Miss Slack’s remarkable address was characterized by an eloquence of the highest order – the eloquence which carries conviction to the hearer.

It was risky for a mere man to take to the platform after Miss Slack, yet Mr. Bramley, of the United Kingdom Alliance, was courageous enough to undertake the task. Happily he was the right man, and he gave the right address – pithy and witty. “Abstain and live; drink and die” was the burden of his address. Taking those who abstain and those who do not, he said, millions for millions all the country over we can demonstrate with mathematical precision on the authority of the actuaries, that the tee-totallers will live ten years longer than the people who drink, either moderately or immoderately. (Cheers.)