Beschreibung
SIGNED BY COWIE on the front free endpaper as follows: "'In His love' | Bessie Lee Cowie | Worlds W.C.T.U." New Edition Revised. 8vo. (20 cm.) 220p. Frontispiece black and white captioned photo of Mrs. Harrison Lee plus three other full-page black and white captioned photos, including two of her in various parts of the world. Green cloth with black letters on the front cover and the spine and with black vertical ruling on the front cover. Just hints of wear to extremities, cloth clean and bright, all photos in fine condition, previous owner's note in pencil on front free endpaper (Bought April 21, 1943 Pasadena, Calif.), else near fine to fine with no internal markings. No dust jacket. Date determined in part from the inscriptions. Born in Daylesford, Victoria, Australia in 1860, Betsy (Bessie) Lee was a temperance evangelist who traveled the world in the interests of the W.C.T.U. Her mother died of consumption in 1868 and her father was unable to keep his five children together. Bessie was sent to Melbourne relations who mistreated her during their bouts of drunkenness, experiences which must have informed her later decision to join the temperance movement. Possessed of a strong social consciousness, she toured slums, refuges and gaols with Dr. John Singleton. She went to hear the evangelist, Mrs. Hampson, about 1883 and soon afterwards launched on her own career of public speaking. In 1884 the American temperance lecturers, Booth and Glover of the Blue Ribbon Gospel Temperance Army, won her into the active prohibition camp. She helped to pioneer the Woman's Christian Temperance Union in Victoria in 1887 and traveled widely in Australia in support of temperance. She sponsored the powerful Victorian Alliance for the Suppression of the Liquor Traffic in 1890-96 and fought district local option battles over whether numbers of hotels should be reduced, maintained or increased. Besides incessant traveling, speech-making and pledge-taking, she wrote copiously for daily newspapers and the temperance press. She acknowledged heavenly direction as a speaker and was admired for her fluency and sincerity; she reacted well under pressure and attracted a following, mainly of women, who slaved for her. With no income of her own, she was dependent on the generosity of temperance supporters. 1896 saw the first of her countless trips abroad, principally to Britain, New Zealand and the United States of America. She spent some years in Hawaii before settling at Pasadena, California. In 1947 her last campaign brought her national headlines in America. She died at Pasadena on 18 April 1950. Her written works include Marriage and Heredity (Melbourne, 1893), One of Australia's Daughters: an Autobiography (London, 1906) and One of God's Lamplighters: Incidents in my Life Work (London, 1909). [Australian Dictionary of Biography]. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 008226
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Bibliografische Details
Titel: ONE OF AUSTRALIA¿S DAUGHTERS. AN ...
Verlag: R. Bowen, Los Angeles, CA
Erscheinungsdatum: 1940
Einband: Hardcover
Zustand: Near Fine
Zustand des Schutzumschlags: No Jacket
Signiert: Signed by Author(s)
Auflage: 1st Edition
