Woman of the Century/Mary G. Charlton Edholm

EDHOLM, Mrs. Mary G. Charlton, journalist, is official reporter of the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union, secretary of the International Federation Woman's Press League, and has for years been pushing the temperance re- form with a lead pencil. Her journalistic gift is the inheritance from her father, James B. Charlton, and her mother, Lucy Gow Charlton, who were both fine writers along reformatory lines, especially the abolition of slavery, the prohibition of the saloon and the ballot for women. During her sophomore year in college in Monmouth, Ill., she wrote her exhibition essay on the subject, "Shall our Women Vote?" As a test she sent it for publication to the "Woman's Journal" of Boston, and it was published. Her marriage with E. O. L. Edholm, a journalist, developed still more her love for editorial and reportorial work, and for several years they traveled together extensively, and she thereby- gained the knowledge and information which comes alone of travel During those years her descriptive articles appeared in the New York "World," the MARY G. CHARLTON EDHOLM. Chicago "Tribune," St. Louis "Post-Dispatch," "Republican " and Chicago " Inter-Ocean." Both before and after the birth of her children she kept her pen busy. For years she was ofhcial reporter and superintendent of railroad rates of the California Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and annually wrote about two-hundred-fifty columns of original temperance matter for over two-hundred papers, including the San Francisco, Oakland, Portland, New Orleans, Boston and New York dailies, and the "Union Signal" and the New York "Voice." She conducted three Woman's Christian Temperance Union excursions across the Continent. Her promotion came through Frances E. Willard and Lady Henry Somerset, and she was unanimously elected official reporter of the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Mrs. Edholm has for years been interested in the rescue of erring girls and has written hundreds of articles in defense of outraged womanhood, in such papers as the "Woman's Journal, " the " Woman's Tribune," and the "California Illustrated Magazine," where her pen depicted the horrors of the slave traffic in Chinese women for immoral purposes. In evangelistic meetings in Oakland, Cal., she met the millionaire evangelist, Charles N. Crittenton, the founder of Florence Missions for the rescue of erring girls, and at once entered into descriptive articles of Florence Mission work with such enthusiasm that Mr. Crittenton made her reporter of Florence Missions, thus honoring her as a champion of her sex and widening her field of journalism. The horrors of this traffic in girls and their redemption through Florence Missions Mrs. Edholm is now bringing out in book form. She is compiling a book of the life of Mrs. Emily Pitt Stevens, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union Demosthenes and national organizer. For years, Mrs. Edholm has resided in Oakland, Cal.. and has been active in Rev. Dr. Chapman's Church of that city.