A Temperance Advocate Visits Snohomish
A visiting orator delivers a lecture on the virtues of the Olive Leaf Lodge, aiming to steer local young men away from the 'pernicious habits' of whisky.
Our town was visited last Tuesday by Rev. L. M. T. DeCoursey, special agent for the I.O.G.T. of Washington State. His first lecture, last Tuesday evening, at the Riverside, notwithstanding the foul weather, was well attended. The speaker is remarkably in earnest. His long being in the temperance cause renders him a powerful and pleasing speaker. He manages his subject without coarseness and seldom wounds the feelings of the more sensitive. His arguments are conclusive and unanswerable. His anecdotes are touching and perfectly to the point. We wish him hearty success; he is engaged in a worthy cause. We trust he will have a powerful influence wherever he goes and that on the contrary many souls and lives will be much brighter and much happier on account of his brief visit. Following the lecture, he organized a lodge of Templars, known as the Olive Leaf Lodge, with fifteen charter members.
“Young men, join. There are old soakers enough to consume all the whisky that ought to be sold here, without the young earning the habits of intemperance.”
The temperance movement wasn't just about moralizing; it was a powerful social organization that offered young men a community alternative to the saloon. This reflects a recurring historical pattern of civic groups attempting to regulate the social and physical health of the youth through organized peer pressure.
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