The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-04-19 00:00:00

A BUTCHERS' TEA PARTY AT NHL
SPURGEONI TABERNACLE.

A very remarkable spectacle might have been
witnessed in the basement of Mr. Spurgeon's Taber.
nacle on Tuesday evening (writee the Daily News, from
which the following report of the meeting is taken.)
About twelve hundred butchers, mostly young journey-
men, merry as chddren, took tea together. It was the
eighth celebration of what has for some time come to be
known as the Butchers Festival.

Eight years ago Mr. Henry Varley, himself then •
butcher, but now a well-known conductor of popular
services, invited 100 of his calling to a friendly tea
meeting. The majority of the invited guests, as
they afterwards explained, deemed that a trick was to
be played upon them, and therefore the party consisted
of forty only. The next year, however, no suspicion was
rife, and the difficulty was how to provide for the num-
bers' assembled. Since then the scheme has grown
year by year, until, in 1872, nothing less than the Me-
tropolitan Tabernacle would suit the requirements of
the feasters, Mr. Spurgeon fell at once, and gener-
ously, into the plan, and the Easter Tuesday Butchers'
Festival at Newington Butts is now a recognised insti-
tution. The lecture rooms, class rooms, school rooms,
and offices below stairs at the Tabernacle are quite a
small town in their extent and number of thoroughfares,
and in the quantity of information and directions
liberally printed on the walls to prevent a wayfarer
from losing himself. These large rooms were last night
full of tea drinkers. With the exception of a few
ladies presiding at the tables, it was found necessary to
limit the attendance to the sterner sex. That they
were butchers pure and simple no man in his senses
who glaced at their hands and faces ootild doubt ; doubt
though he reasonably might if his attention had been
confined to the faultless broadcloth and seethes they
wore. All the types of the order were there. The
smart youth who, shining and hatless, shoots round
suburban corners behind a plump little trotting
pony, handled the plumcake an deftly as to-day
he will handle the reins. The mild ruddy-faced
giant, bashfully passing bin teacup, was just the man
you would select for felling • prize ox. The dapper
comrade who questioned him touching the milk and
sugar will in due time politely sell at the ruling high
prices the flesh which his friend has killed. The
gathering was cosmopolitan in other senses too; for the
master-roan, whose cheque is a bank-note at Smithfield,
sat next to a lowly slaughterman, and pressed more
cold beef upon the porter who would in the course of a
few hours be staggering under the weight of a fresh
carcase. Yet, rough and ready an many of these men
srere, there was nothing boisterous and nothing vulgar
in their conduct, except, indeed, to the superfine soul
to whom any tea-table must be vulgar where 1,150
pounds of meat, 5 cwt. of bread, and 5 cwt. of cake
are made to vanish like chaff before the wind.
The area of the Tabernacle was, later in the evening,
reserved for the butcher-guests, whlle the galleries were
crowded with • mixed audience. Mighty was the
cheer when Mr. Spurgeon and Mr. Varley ascended
to the rostrum to open the public meeting which was
to supplement the tea. Little time was lost in
beginning. Twelve honored butcher-men singing in
full volume of sound, and perfect tune and time,
"There is • fountain filled with blood," was at
least a novelty. The hymn was followed by • prayer
from Mr. Spurgeon, a prayer adapted to the
comprehensions of the congregation. It had much re-
ference to the market place and its idlers, and incul-
cated the neceesity of honesty and industry in it. The
rev, gentleman invoked • Divine blessing upon the
shambles, and asked that, though some of his congrega-
tion might be drivers of bullocks, they should not live
Cr die like brutes. A master btftcher named Venablee
came forward when the speech-making began, and, as
the product of pence subscriptions from the work-
ing men of the trade, presented Mr. and Mrs. Varley
and their eon with some handsomely-bound books.
Then came sensible addresses of thanks and advice
from Mr. Varley. The speaker who succeeded him
was introduced as a gentleman who could either kill
a pig or preach • sermon—as the Rev. W. Cuff, once a
student at the Pastor's College, now a Baptist minister
In the country. It was, of course, Mr. Spurgeon who
in this quaint style described the young speaker, and
the butchers brought down the hotve when the
reverend humourist laid it down as an indisputable
proposition that every butcher could drive • horse
and cart, and that if anybody could make • rocking.
horse go 16 miles an hour, he was the individual!
When it came to Mr. Cuff's turn, he manifested
no desire to deny the soft impeachment as to the pig-
sticking, but entered boldly into his past experience in
the various branches of the profession. Mr. Spurgeon,
after a few amusing anecdotes, made • serious appeal
to the butchers not to lose sight of the paramont claims
of Christianity, enforcing it by a happy reference to
what once took place at the Smithfield they knew so
Well. If the Jehus of the trade, as he called them,
only took the advice he gave in the matter of cart-
driving, the hospitals would have lees work, and the
list of fatal accidents would be minus numerous
entries. All the speakers were listened to attentively,
and a more appreciative audience no speaker could
have.