The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1882-02-21 00:00:00

POOL&
"MB BLUR RIBBON" ARMY.

About twelvemonths ago, sir, I forwarded, you a
sketch of an erasing with the adiustinte of what Cord
Shaftesbury once aptly designated " • grotesque
religion "—the 'Salvation Army. On Thursday even- ;
tag last, in response to a Itto&y invite, I ' waisted "
—I believe that I. the professional phrase—St • ?•00t
ins called in the interests of another "Army "—the
title of which beads this ankle. The Bane Ribbon
Army has been ia existence some five years, and is
avowedly started in the cause of total ebetinence.
no lower and Wonder of this movement la—need I
hardly remark it—an Americian—hdr. R. I'. B'ooth,
who, L am told, Jai& no way connected with " Ositerel"
Booth of the 'Salvationists. We have much to be
thankful for to the young country. We get our ofilof
supplies of beef and corn from there, and now.. are
gettiug our religion imported as way mem, moody
and ;:aukey have, I believe, recently paid a second
vie t to our shores, and, obeying a mandate delivered
• good many years ago, departed (I may be mistaken)
without script or puree. Dr. Talmage came to
this benighted Isle, out very long ago, to spread
the Gospel. (What is that whisper I hear from the
Young Men's Christian Association of Weymouth,
about Sbylock and Ids pound of flesh! Silents I The
rev. gentbsuien had but the regeneration of his fellow
creatuies at heart; no thoughts of filthy lucre could
possibly have influeoc.d the American saint, alth.ugh
Young /ion you were some Mout of pocket, of which
he wouldn't return you ono cent.) And now we here
Mr. R. T. Booth, who desires metaphorically to bring
about a second deluge.
Perhaps, sir, you will think I am writing in a tone
of unkind frivolity. I &NUM you lam not imaningly
doing so; but I detest cant and hypocrisy, and any
attempts to trade upon those bitter— although perhaps
latent —feel tap which we all poems* in a curtain degree.
Show me the man who I. really moved by Christian
motive., and not the mere desire to save the labour DI
his bends at the expense of his jaws, and I am with
him.

I. Mr. Booth ons of these ? Let the reader when
he has c,nsluded this sketch famish the answer for
himself.

T. Booth own* to Poole heralded by monitor
" posters,' and at the expeose,no doubt,ot those geoUe •
men here who are always willing to place th4r hands
In their pockets in behalf of the came. Certainly his
recommendation., according to his handbills, wire not
to be despised-240,000 peo,de have taken the blue
nbbon or signed the pledge during his present brief
visit. It was no wonder, therefore, that the Young
fden's Christian Aseociation postponed treir annual
gathering, and that the beautiful chapel in nkinuor-
moot and its grand schoolroom adjoining on Thursday
were crowded to excess.. _

The schodromn waS the chef place of meeting, and
here the ex-Mayor, Mr. U. Curtis, presided. The
densely packed audience was worth to 'king at, but I
have has d Btilow ploy before one where the crush boa
been far more inconvenient. A prayer was offered by
the Rev. Mr. Walker, and • pccuon of scripture read
by the Rev. lir. Vaughan, and then Mr. Curtis, who
said he had bran battling in this movement for
the last 40 years, made a brief but telling
address.—" A lady from Bristol," as she was
introduced to the audience, nog in • pleasant, but
somewhat weak voice, a selection f ninon of the hymne
authorised for ths occasion—air. Calvert, of the
Western Temperance League, of Bristol, followed, and
stated that don't.; the last 15 days in January the
ribbon and pins used in decoratiog the newly pledged
numbers of the Army in that city had cost =ern £l6.
Twenty-fire thousand he said had taken the ribbon,
or in tea of the population. There we greai
applause at this statement, sa it deserved. He then
proceeded in the ancedocieal line, and assured his
audisece that the goveroor of Gloucester jail affirmed
that neither man or woman wee ever released from
that pre= but what he or she were heavier than
when they went in, although compelled to be
teetotalers and poorly fed, (I dare say, sir, Mr.
Calvert is right, but thie ha dly tallies with what we
read about the two farmers who have jest bad the
jail doors ono= to them.) Ur. Calvert, however,
spoke exceedingly well.
Another "young lady from Bristol" then saw
" Oh, where is my Boy To-night," and with appro-
priate responsiveness the great Mr. Booth stepped on
the platform. Calling far • decanter of water and
pulling off his overcoat, he commenced the real
business of the evening. He had, I believe, previously
delivered an address in the chapel, and he certainly
looked thoroughly fatigued. Bat he soon warmed to
his work. He is a thin malium.heighted young man—
I possibly 40.—energetic as the applause roused him;
but as regards Oratory • failure. trrom the immense
6 6 ng " he had had I expected someone out of
'the ordinary ruck, but I failed to find him in Mr.
Booth. There is just the faintest American twang in
his delivery, and that is all. Only owe did he'
attempt rhetoric, and that was whoa he held up, as
" exagnole," the very man to who= kindle= he
admitted himself he was indebted for • "fresh start
la life." I =den sir, when I heard Mr. Boot:11,6pm
to an appreciative (I hope not) audience bow this
young man, a moderate d hiker, had died of delirium
m tre en—the kind, good natured friend who had thenro
hits across the count= CI his batik • roll of notes
which saved him from ,a suicide's fate—l most
admit whatever feeling of 'respect for the speaker
I had previously entertained was drowned in one
of simple ago= Is this gratitude, or even
Cluistlan charity? It was at this point that Mr.
Booth attempted to be "flowery," And his attempt
W• 11 nickelling. Speaking of the deed nun who had
"saved me from taking the terrible plunge into the
ohne, who had given me back my wife and children,
and mbled me te be a sober usen"—those are his
word • proceeded to tell the audience Wet his friend
had been carried to the saddest of all sad graves—e
drunkard's neve ; os, r which the speaker, in poetical
Americansese addc I, the little dowers blossom in
tears and the birds sing in mournful cadence,. Does
Mr. Booth forget that in a certa'S Book we are 'told
the rain falls upon the =Pet as well le the just?
Flowers will but end birds will sing, I venture to
think, as brightly and freely over the Int resting
place of the wart of stoners as upon the map who
audacioual_y =mods up mid tells his bearers " I am
sared-" Yorhans, now your readers will have found
an answer to the question which at the commencement
I said I should lean themselves to solve.
Mr. Booth proceeded in tide strain for a ime time.
He became pathetic when, like Ned Wright, he
referred to his wife. He paid • proper tr. bute to her,
who I am sure most have beau a good woman in every
sense of the wqrd. Re said —"in: the very darkest
days of rity His she was always by my side, and
never it; those mournful hours did she ever give ute
an unkind ward. do poorly ae I requited her lon by
leaving her In debt, by leaving her for weelm at f
In sorrow and want, WA knowing whether I el=
ever return to her, the cause of many_ sleepless nights
to hpr, she Dale teprOlObad me." The speaker then
ducked God for the °cotillion of one of many dos in
his life, which ought to bear a special lemon to Pools,
where wife beating is far too prevalent—in his aerie
'moments, he said, he had struck her,
• One of his anecdote crested roars of laughter at the
expense of two or three gentlemen who were sitting at
• tehillastroiltily reserved for them. He said he
had of a Yankee editor whom body had
brooms so thoroughly maddened with whiskey, that
when • mosquito lit him the unfortunate insect died of
delirious Irene= This was immensely appreciated by
the audience, and it Was some time Wen the speaker
could proceed. Tom Hood, I think, tells a somewhat
simile tale. In otoe of Ms witty poems he careens
bow • dqg bit • man, and instead of the roan dying
tbs doff it was that died.
Al the concludes at the meeting, those present
were invited to come and Ha the 8100 Ribbon Army.
Over • Mouse= signaktree, I am n told Weeq tams
But sir, I ask (hi gen ? Every dirty little psniin
=Janine top is the street had one at thews hits of
blue rlbboo on him on the following morning.
Is the enlistment of them street scabs into the Arm/
a triumph f I pardon ft • but I
ottotesynadzoit I hope
will prove to be. One thing is we must not
judge the advance of Temperance In Poole by the
number of the bits of blue ribbon to be area is the
@GM. nen an oil= ways of promoting Temper-
esql by
tioormr. pormiinion, sir, I will mat
illt*onte
Varroz.

lITALBILIDOR.

TRI now brewer/, commonly known an " W lilto
Brewery," has been coarerted into Mem dour mills,
which will be known In tutor... the &abridge Eiteant
Flom mur. Tlw propos, bebop to the Bight Ho&
Lord Riabird Ciegsvacc- ILP.