Not only our forefathers bat our fore
mothers of revolutionary times joined
bauds to do a necessary work. We read
that during those early days the women
of various colonies—Virginia, New York,
Rhode Island, Massachusetts—formed
anti-tea leagues. Iu Providence, li 1.,
young ladies took the initiative; twenty
nine daughters of prominent families,
meeting under the shade of the sycamore
trees at Roger Williams’s spring, there
resolved to drink no more tea until the
duty upon it was repealed. The name of
one of these young ladies, Miss Codding
ton, has been preserved; to her house
they all adjourned to partake of a frugal
repast, Hyperion taking the place of the
hated “bohea.” The chosen drink was
made of the dried leaves of the raspberry,
which shared a sudden favor with . age
and birch.
OUB PATBIOTIO FOBEMOTHEBS.
In 17G9 the matrons of 300 families to
gether agreed to use no more tea until
the tax was taken off. Soon after this
example was followed by a large number
of young Indies who signed this covenant:
“We, the daughters of those patriots who
have and do now appear for public inter
est, and in proper regaid for their pos
terity as snob, do; with pleasure engage
with them in denying ourselves the drink
of foreign tea, in hope to frustrate a plan
which tends to deprive a whole country
of all that is valnab.e in life.”
la England, during onr civil war, wom
en displayed the same enthusiasm of
sympathy. They organized tojlookjafter
those Jfamilies of operatives who were
thrown out of employment in the oottoa
mills of Birmingham and Manchester, all
glad to do what they could for those who
suffered in the cause of liberty.
