The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-05-06 00:00:00

NATIONAL TEMPERANCE LEAGUE.

The annual meeting of this League was held on
Monday evening in Exeter Hall; the president, Mr.
Samuel Bowly in the chair. The body of the Hall
was tolerably well filled, and on the platform was
a number of soldiers, who occupied the interval
before the commencement of the proceedings by
singing several hymns. The annual report stated
that a "British Medical Temperance Association"
had been formed to collect and compare facts and ex-
periences regarding the effects of alcohol. Temper-
ance work was progressing in the army, the latest re-
turn from India showing that there were 71 regimental,
brigade, and garrison temperance societies in that
land, with a membership of 5,060 men and 1,106
women and children. Numerous meetings of soldiers
had been held in the Tower of London, Wellington
Barracks, Chelsea Barracks, and other garrisons, in
different parts of the country. In the Royal Navy
there were now 151 temptsrance branches on board her
Majesty's ships, with a membership of nearly 5,000,
and a branch had been formed to consist exclusively of
officers. A missionary who visits the elementary
schools of London had given 570 addresses at schools
which had an aggregate attendance of 42,140 children.
The income of the year had been £4,069, and £2,713,
from suubscriptions and donations, being nearly £5OO
more than was received from that source in any pre-
ceding year. The Chairman, rejoiced that the Church
was taking a deeper interest in this question, and
that thousands of clergymen were now total ab-
stainers. He was not afraid of the drunkards or the
publicans, but of the "influential" drinkers. Convert
the influential drinkers and they would soon shut up
the public houses. (Hear, hear.)—Vice-Admiral Sir
William King Hall, K.C.8., observed that both Gene-
ral Wilmot and himself were well aware that drink
was the cause of crime in the army and navy. He
urged persuasion, and not harsh words, as the leverage
of conversion to temperance. Let the movement be to
turn all the gin palaces into coffee palaces. (Hear,
hear.)—The Rey. Robert Balgarnie, of Scarborough,
feared that one reason why the temperance cause had
not thriven to the desired extent was that the pulpit
had hitherto uttered an uncertain sound.—The meeting
was subsequently addressed by other speakers.

ROMANCE.
From Fun.)
Sorro3 people say romance is dead,
Or lives alone in poets' pages—
That all is said that can be said
By wits and madmen, fools and sages—
That now the world sees nothing new,
And won't the older that it waxes 1
This, peradventare, may be true—
Excepting as to love and taxes
And yet to me it ever seems—
As constantly this life advances— .4 '",
No night is fuller of strange dreams •ik
Than day of marvellous romances I JLII ‘,ll
And could we see behind the veil Jw,v,", tki.
Which hides society's emotions,
Romance could often tell a tale •
1
4j—.l Evolved from dances and devottons lii t

• A vcry little earnest search it
These life romances will discover. - t "I
Sometimes they finish in a church,
Sometimes in a discarded lover Ail
But either way, I'm very sure,
Their charms were great, tho' evanescent,—
▪ That either ending proved a cure—
r; - And—that's enough romance at present