Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1863-12-27
Theobald Mathew never touched wine, spir-


what he preached he practiced. He became
President of the Temperance Society, threw
all his energy and power into it, and, within
five months as many as 100000 persons had
taken the pledge to total temperance, in
Cork city alone. -
He then made a progress through Ireland,
with even more success. He preached, he
prayed, lie entreated, and he succeeded.
He was the greatest practical and the most
unselfsh benefactor Ireland ever had In
Liverpool, Manchester, and largely even in
London, he successfully labored, with sur
prising energy to raise the masses from
degrading habits to virtuous and healthful
abstinence. Creed or country made no diff
ference to him.
1t is extremely creditable to the Catholic
clergy of Cork that the immediate and inn
mense popularity of Father Mathew, did
When their Bishop, (Dr. Murphy, we be-
lieve,) was removed from them by death,
they met, as usual, to make list of three
-clergymen of the diocese whose names
should be submitted to the Pope, as worthy
to fill the vacancy. In this list, The0bald
Mathew was set down first, or dignissin,us,
but Rome declined to ratify the nomination,
and Theobald Mathew was left to fulfil his
humber but surely not less noble mission.
Almost all of his own income arose from
an allowance made to him by his brother,
who had distillery in Tipperary-this was
shut up in consequence Of the Temperance
movement. In carrying out his admirable
views, with scarcely any funds provided by
the public, Father Mathew exhausted his
own, and then got involved in debt. At
this crisis his services in the cause of re-
ligion and morality being recognized by
statesmen of all shades of opinion, pen
sion'of $500 was conferred upon him by
Queen Victoria. 1t just sufficed to pay the
interest of the life insurance he had effected
to secure his creditors.
His biographer says he thought that
$500 per annum for life was moderate
allowance to such man. Perhaps so-it
might easily have been larger-but it repre-
sents capital, in consols, of $4,000. He
passed over to the United States, soon after
receiving it, but the Irish here did not APP
prove of his accepting any money grant
from the English sovereign; at the same
time, neither here nor in Ireland was any
attempt made to collect q sum sufficient to
pay off the debts he had incurred for the
Temperance cause and provide him with a
suitable income in his later years. II /.
He had left Ireland in bad health, and re-
turned still more enfeebled. Rest gave him
some relief, but he was soon attacked by
paralysis, and apopleXy supervened on that.
And so, stricken in the flesh, but patient
and full of hope and trust, he fingered on,
we learn, until ''Death stole upon him as
gently as sleep upon wearied man. He
died in peace, without the slightest move
ment. y In the siXty-siXth- year of
his age, and in the forty-second of his minis
try, the Apostle of Temperance" was called
,,ff fh,,aI
yard, at Cork, where he is inferred, informs
Mr.. Mcguire that the sick and infirm resort
to the friar's grave, and are there miracu-
lously cured. But, in his lifetime, Father
Mathew strenuously repudiated the notion
that there was anything supernatural or.
in the results of his preaching
and prayers. "-.- -''
These results would probably have been
more permanent, had his strength and
health continued, SO that his frequent visits
might strengthen the resolutions of tenn
perance which his disciples eagerly made.
In 1S43, the consumption of spirits in Ire
land was fre million gallons-it had been.
thirteen millions in 1881. The number of
had dropped from 1000 to
$500; the sentences to, transportation from
DIG to 4S2, and the sentences to death from
66 to 16. Father Mathew had destroyed
half the crime in the land; and George Roe,
the gfeat Dublin distiller, could say to him:
mo man has done me more injury than you
have, Father Mathew; but forget all in the
great good you have done my country.m.
In notice of his biography, in London
journal, we find the following, which is too
good. to be lost, and is known to be true =
In the household of his elder brother. John,
he saw the master touch no strong drinks
n ,,I Al, a f,.;op t,ca1 IN oifafhtc
looks as the result of his abstinence from
strong liquors; but one night, very late, the
priest had occasion to 60 into his brothers
library, and there he surprised John, all
alone, but exceedingly jolly with the
whisky punch he had been taking and the
till now uninterrupted, of taking
more. This individual case may be the-type
of many more. We find restraint in the
priests presence, but the pledge disregard
ed in his absence, and solitary quaffing en-
joyed in the more, perhaps, because of its
specially illicit character.
There are many humorous Incidents
many, too, of deep pathos-in this life of
Father Mathew. We cannot refrain from
quoting miniature sketch of one Abraham
Abel, a Quaker from under the shadow of
Castle, an excellent but, eccentric
man, with some peculiar opinions -ofie be-
ing theory that in the days before the
flood, men went on all fours. Who that
knew Cork, five and, twenty years ago, can
fail to recognize the original Of this descrip-
ton. q 9G GGG$ t5a L1G DIg-
His toilet was peculiar. He commenced
by cleaning his own boots and shoes, per-
forming the operation in condition of en-
tire nudity. Then he sponged and brushed
his body, after which, ascending an isolated
stool, he threw in as much electricity by the
friction of silk handkerchief on the heels,
as sufficied for the day. Occasionally he
tasted the whole twenty -four hours to keep
down corpulency, to which he had no ten
dency; but his father had been remark
ably obese man. On one occasion his left
arm vexed him by evincing rheumatic
symptoms, and he determined to ehastise
the insubordinate limb, He said the fellow
was a sinecurist and waxed wanton, where
upon he made him work, imposing the du-
ties, of brushing clothes, shoes, etc. until
he found the beneficial consequences
When in business he sometimes sat at his
desk with q cat at either side of him, and
frequently with a favorite tom cat on his
back; their friendly purring, hewould say,
made. a cheerful music to soothe him in his
labors." -. ~-3