The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-10-05 00:00:00

1111r11 STOTTE,BRIDGE oBsERvEn.

highest motive a man could have. Now, about the
example he would say a word or two. The moderate
drinker said he could stand on that " plank " Suppose the
moderate drinker told him the example was a safe one for
him to follow because the moderate drinker could drink
moderately, and suppose the example induced him to
try to follow it, and he was ruined thereby, would the
moderate drinker be clear in the matter? In Pennsyl-
vania once it the close of a teetotal speech, a gentle-
man was -introduced to the meeting as a judge of a
county court, who said that if the audience did not
object he would like to say a few words. He then
said he was a moderate drinker, and that he steed up
in defence of himself and those whom he represented.
The judge added that it was - hard to be said
that he set a bad example; but the speaker had not
said that—he had only sa(i that the moderate drinker
did not set a good one. The judge continued to say
that he was respectable anitiespected, enjoying a respect-
able position in society, and that if other men did as he
did they would be as he was. He denied that he set
an evil example. At that point a man in the audience
roared out, give it him, old man—put a header an
him." Some cried, "Put that man out," when a
gentleman rose and said, "No, don't put him out;
that is the only son of the judge." The "only son"
tried to follow the father's example, and there was the
result—every man that became a drunkard became so
in trying to be a moderate drinker, and failing. No
man intended to become a drunkard. Did every man
take the glass in his hand and apostrophise it say-
ing, "Here I stand in sound physical health and high
mental development. I have a mother who loves me
from the core of her heart, and sisters who cling to
me in affection. lam respectable and respected, my
hopes are high, my ambition and my prospects fair and
bright. Now with this will I ruin my health, mentally
and physically, stain my reputation, blast my pros-
pects, break my mother's heart, estrange my true
friends, draw the last drop of manliness from myself,
and become so mean a thing that the dram-seller shall
sweep me out with the pitiful leavings of his shop.
Now I will take the first step to a consummation like
this by taking my first glass." There were men who
from the first came down the sliding scale to worse
horrors than the mind of man can conceive, and
they brought themselves to that by trying to do as
the moderate drinker did, use liquor in moderation.
(Cheers). The moderate drinker's accusation of weak-
mindedness was the great point that troubled
the young men, who did not like to be called weak-
minded. With this false pride many a man had
brought himself to deatN :.ather than be called weak-
minded. It required more of the man—More strength
of mind, more firmness of purpose and decision and
more of the iron will to break from a habit than ft did
to acquire 'one. He had heard of a young lady who
had acquired the habit of putting her fingers in
her mouth, and she tried to break from it by
asking her friends to call out when they saw her
doing it, "Fingers." (Laughter.) A little habit
like that required more firmness of purpose to break
from than appeared. He knew a man, too, who
had a habit when reading alone of putting his elbows
on the table and twisting his hair. He (Mr. Gough)
said, "You will tear the hair out of you," and the reply
was, "Unless I twist my hair I cannot read with com-
fort." Another man he knew said he would give up the
use of tobacco. He used to chew it. One day he
took a plug of tobacco out of his pocket and said, I'll
have no more," and threw it away, afterwards re-
marking, "That is the last of it ; " but it was the begin-
ning of it. (Laughter.) He chewed leaves, gentian,
toothpicks, anything to keep the jaws going.
(Laughter.) Everything, he said, tasted like cold
cream and he suffered like that for forty-eight hours.
He then said, " I can't go on suffering like this; I'll
go and get some tobacco." He then got a plug, and
said, "I want it awful." He did want it awful, and
he said—looking at it as though there was a good
spirit striving with him—" Are you my master or
am I yours? You are a weed and I am a man;
you are a thing and I am a man; I won't yield to
you, black devil, I will master you if I die for it; it
never shall be said of me again, 'There is a- man
mastered by a thing.'" Every time he wanted it he
would take it out and talk to it, and it took him six
weeks or two months before he could throw it away,
but he said the victory was with the struggle.
(Cheers.) It was a good deal harder for a man to
give up tobacco than drink. It might be in some
cases that a young man took perhaps a glass of ale
or two a day, and said "I don't care for it." But he
smoked his pipe or cigar two or three times a day.
It would be harder for that man to give up the tobocco
than the beer, because the appetite had not been
fastened upon the system. He was in Halifax
some time ago, and he met a physician who said
he had a patient, and he told him he was ruining
his health by smoking. That made no difference
—he would have the pipe. At last a tobacco
cancer formed upon his lip. He told him the
tobacco was producing that cancer; but it
made no difference, it was no good. By and bye he
had to cut out the cancer; it was a painful operation.
He was there four and twenty hours after the opera-
tion, and he found him propped up in bed with the
pipe on the other side. The love of tobacco was a
strong love, it was a mighty appetite, but he did not
agree with them that it was like the appetite for
drink. What would not a man do to get his drink;
what would he not sacrifice to get his drink ? . . .

After relating several interesting illustrative anec•
dotes, Mr. Gough thus concluded his speech :—lf total
abstinence was a principle that they might adopt,
and by adopting it might save others, was it not a
principle that deserved adoptien for its own sake?
Total abstinence from intoxicating beverages was
a lawful one, and it was expedient as well as
sensible. Then he said, friends of the temperance
enterprise, if that is the case, what should they do?
Give it up. Never. (Cheers.) Then what had they
done, it might be asked. He had come back, after
twenty years, and he had seen wonderful progress
wherever he went. He was not going to say this
in any spirit of egotism whatever, because he did not
uppose he did anything whatever, but he wanted to
show the progress. He did not believe there was a
dignitary of the Church of England in the United
Kingdom who would hardly touch him or countenance
him then. Now they had the Bishop of Exeter pre-
siding over two meetings at Plymouth. Now they bad
the Church of England Temperance Society. (Cheers.)
He only wished they would go a little farther and get
total abstinence. He was not going to push that,
because they were all right. They would allow
him to be a little personal. He was in this
country five years, and The Times noticed his work
twice in that period. During his present visit
this was his third speech in this country, and
The Times had given him nearly half a column on each
occasion. These were signs of progress, and he held
that the Press was a mighty power in this country and
in theirs, and they wanted to sanctify the Press as
much as they wished to sanctify others. (Cheers.)
Then let them, in view of the past, in view of what
was going on, have faith. Duty first, always duty.
Let them settle the matter of whether they were right,
and then go forward with the motto "Excelsior." He
hoped there was a bright day coming for them by-and-
bye, and he prayed always in humble reverent faith,
" God speed the right." (Loud and prolonged cheers.)