W.C.T.U. Meeting Cancelled - President Found "Lit"!

 

We return to 1905 in this week’s reminder of Eldridgeville’s history. 

W.C.T.U. Meeting Cancelled—President Found “Lit”


The Eldridgeville Gazette, April 30, 1905
Orville Birdswhistle, Special Correspondent 

ELDRIDGEVILLE, Ontario — Scandal has rocked the community following an event which occurred at the First Methodist Church, Main Street on the 25th inst. as the monthly meeting of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union was unexpectedly adjourned when Mrs. Matilda Mabel Dunkworth, devoted matron and president of the local W.C.T.U. chapter since 1889 (except 1893, the year Mrs. Phoebe Burns forced a recount resulting in Mrs. Dunkworth losing by 3 votes), was found singing Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis and sashaying about the garden before the meeting was to commence.

Eyewitnesses report that Mrs. Dunkworth had partaken of a “special cordial” gifted to her earlier that morning by her cousin Ernest, an apothecary salesman who arrived from the city last week, intending to spend a fortnight. The bottle, labelled Reviving Tonic for the World Weary Woman, boasted a calming blend of lavender, blackcurrant, and—most unfortunately for the poor woman—a not-insignificant amount of elderberry wine.

Miss Victoria Jones, secretary-treasurer of the W.C.T.U., admitted that other members of the group had indeed sampled the mixture, though none had imbibed to the extent of Mrs. Dunkworth. “It had rather the smell of cough syrup,” Miss Jones remarked, “and was not especially agreeable to the taste." Mrs. Tremblant declared the entire affair “a most unseemly spectacle” and firmly denied sampling what she called “that dreadful concoction.”

Mrs. Evaline Badgley, Vice President added, “She said she had been blessed with a dose of ‘youthful vigour’, before challenging the congregation to a game of hopscotch. And when she winked at Pastor Peters, I thought my heart would stop beating. I dread to think of the gossip.” Mrs. Badgley then reported the meeting was formally cancelled.

By 4 o’clock, the tipsy Mrs. Dunkworth had been  escorted home in a wheelbarrow, still singing, and reportedly requesting a “wee drop more of the Holy Elixir.”

The W.C.T.U. will reconvene on the 9th prox. with Vice President Mrs. Badgley presiding.
Mrs. Dunkworth is “taking a sabbatical to reflect and repent,” per the official statement.

Meanwhile, cousin Ernest was last seen absconding on a bicycle loaded down by a suspicious number of clinking bottles.