Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1861-02-14
A Marvellous Deliverance.

A Marvellous Deliverance.
John B. Cough, the celebrated Temper
ance orator, having returned from England
is attracting immense crowds in Boston ant
New York to listen to his thrilling ad
dresses on his favorite theme.
In one of his Boston speeches recently
he gave the following touching incident a
illustrative of the degrading influence o
intemperanee and of the power of the Cos
pei 10 save.
spoke in Dundee to the outcasts o
that town. The Right Hon. Lord Kin
naird and his lady were instrumental ii
getting up that meeting 1t was such
meeting, I suppose, as you cannot see il
this country-at least, never saw such
one. If such an audience can be gathered
together here, / should like to see it, anc
to address it. The town missionaries hac
got together large mass Of men and wo
men, and you would almost have looked ir
vain to find one lingering trace Of human
beauty left 1t seemed as if the foul hoo
of debauchery had dashed it out. 1t was
a horrid sight to look at. Rags, filth, na
kedness--a fostering, steamiug mass oi
purtrefying humanity. A woman sat at my
feet, and the place was so crowded that
touched her; her nickname for years had
been "Hell. fire." The boys called hel
"Fire," and she was known by no Other
name in the vicinity of her wretched resi-
dence. Fify.three times had she been con.
victed and sentenced for, from six days tc
four months Imprisonment.
The Ex.Provost of the town, George
Rough, said to me, 81 never sent one po.
liceman to take her. She was never mas
tered by one man. She is muscular wo.
man, and she will hit right and left. She
has been dragged before me, time after
time, with the blood streaming from hel
face"
The Rev Mr.. Hanaway and Mr.. Rough,
said to me. "If she kick up row as she
probably will, you will see one of the most
comical rows you ever beheld. 1t is dread,
full, but there is comicality about it; she
has such power with her tongue that it is
amazing. We have seen men, who could
stand any amount of common swearing,
run when Fire began to blaspheme.
She sat there at my feet, and as went
on she interrupted me little. I told that
audience what they had been, what they
might be, what God meant they should be.
1 showed them that they were thwarting
Gods good designs towards every one Of
them. I asked that mother if she did not
remember sending that half.starved little
child for peuuy's worth of oatmeal and
fourpence worth Of whiskey. I asked that
young man to remember what he promised
when he married that girl, and to 60 and
look at thai bed of rags to which he had
brought her. Some of them lifted up their
naked arms, and said, "Oh that's all true. "
By and-by, the woman at my feet looked
up and said. "Where did you learn that ?''
Then she looked as if she had some impor.
tant communication to make to the people,
and she said "the man kens all about it.
Would you give the likes O me the pledge?'
"To be sure I will" said I.
"Oh no-no!" said some "it won't do
for her to take the pledge"
I said, "why not ?'
"She can't keep it."
GLOW do you know?"
"She'll be drunk before she goes to bed
tonight"
Chow do you know"
"Madame," I said to her, "here is a
gentleman who says you cannot keep the
pledge if you sign it?"
The woman few into rage.
Said "before you fight about it, tell me
can you keep it"
The reply was, ''if I say l will, I can. "
I said, "theu you say you will ?"
ri will"
"Then" said I, "put down your name"
After she had done it, l said, :sgive me
your hand again"
She did so, and said, 81 will keep it,"
II know you will" I said, "and I shall
come back again to see you"
"Come back when you will, she said,
"and YOU will find I have kept it."
Some three years afterwards I went back.
Lord Kinnaird presided over the meeting.
The woman was there. After the meet.
ing T introduced her to Lord Kinnaird,
not as "Fre," but as Mrs. Archer, very
respectable Scotch woman. She had on her
head white cap, and her shawl pinned
across her breast. He shook hands with
her. I went to her house. I wish could
tell you what she told me. I wish could
make you feel as she made me.
81 am poor body" she said, ri dinna
ken much, and what little I did ken, has
been about knocked out of me by the slaves
of the policemen. They pounded me over
the head, sir. I dinna ken how to pray
I never went to Gods house these %
years; I Gamma pray; but sometimes l
dream"-and then her eyes filed. "I
dream I am drunk, and Gamma pray but
I get out my bed, sir, and kneel by the
side of it and I never get back to it until
the day dawn, and all can say is, 'God
keep me! I Gamma get drunk any more. "
Her daughter said, "Aye, mon ; I have
heard my mother at dead of night, on the
bare floor, in the bitter winter time cry
out God Keep me!' and I said, mother
go to your bed, and she said, no, no; had
dream, and I Gamma go and drink any
more"
That woman is now to be seen going ev.
cry Sabbath day to hear Gods word preach.