The evening Argus., 1867-02-20

! GoUGH's IECTURE.-N Notwithstanding the
great snow storm, last evening, Babcock's S
hall was we'll filed to hear lecture on tenn
perance, by John B. Cough, given under the
auspices of the Young Mems Library Asso-
citation. Mr.. Cough, as every one knows, is
j one of those speakers who are very imper-
fectly reported upon paper The words he
utters, strong and forcible as they seem at
| the time of delivery, are but smaTl-very
! small element in one of his lectures Un-
| less one attends them, unless he has wit
| messed his ceaseless play of features, his I'M
! mitable action !; unless he has heard his sar-
casm. wit and consummate powers of mimic
| ry, he has and can. have but faint concep-
ton of what one of John B. Coughs lee
| lures consist. Mr.. Cough has already passed
the prime Of life. and his natural force is
somewhat abated from the standard of his
earlier years. yet those who heard him for
the first time last evening could easily recog
nize those qualities of an orator which for a
score of years have made him famous.
The lecturer said he was sometimes asked
how MANY lectures he had delivered on the
subject of tenn perance. Sometimes newspa-
per correspondent wroth that Mr.. John B.
| Cough had delivered '.hs lecturer2 on tenn
perance for the thousandth time. For him
self he would state he did not know how
many times he had lectured upon temper
ance, nor did he remember the substance of
any lecture he had ever delivered he only
knew that on this occasion as upon all prey
| ions ones, he wished to os0ysomething which
should induce others to. do something to
overcome the giant evil Of intemperanee.-
| He had had enough of sympathy, he wanted
material aid. With this hope he should
| speak to the audience before him. Premis-
lecture. Every one knows what a lecture by
Cough is, nay, must be: brilliant effort,
replete with fancy, with argument, with IL
lustration, with anecdote, each presented
with appropriate and life-like gesture and
action, and enforced by the thrilling earnest
ness andapower Of the speaker. He played
| npon the feelings of his audience, sounding
| the whole gamut Of human passions and
emotions, at one moment dissolving them in
tears and the next convulsing them with
laughter; now exciting the fercest resent
ment against the giant evil, and anon arous-
| ing their deepest pity for its poor Victims
| 1t is one of Mr. Coughs attractive qualities
as a temperance lecturer, that he never ap-
pears to his audience in the character of a
/ preacher or a Pharisee. He has only pity
| for a Enthusiastically even does he de
| nounce the liquor seller. No one ever de-
! parts from a lecture of Coughs feeling that
| he has been listening to bigot, or man
| who deems himself one whit better, by ma
ture, than the most degraded tiplers in his en-
, tire audience. In this he differs perhaps from
] most Of those in this country whose lives are
devoted to this and other causes Of reform.
| Mr.. Cough held the fixed attention Of his
audience for space Of nearly two hours,
and when he closed, if the question had been
put to q vote, no doubt he would have been
| invited to continue Gd liJitum.
Mr.. Cough made capital hit on the
{! drunken people who are trying to recon-
struet the government, instinctiyely calling
to mind Old Thad Stevens, Chandler, Yates,
and that set of whisky bloats. It brought
| down the house.
He lectures here again next Wednesday
evening, on Peculiar People when much
fun may be expected.