Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1876-04-21
8elluws falls Times,
The Great Temperance Reform at
Keene.

ucul1 sprung VIZ ~ A>~N'
ising results of great good. Its growth
il the same as that of the Reform clubs
in the eastern part of the State. 1t APP
pears that the work was begun by Mr..
j. w. Drew, president of the Reform
Club at Concord, and j. X. Osgood Of
Gardner, Maine, who held series of
meetings at the city hall. Their first
meeting was held March 3lst, and now
the Club numbers 2100 names The
following account of the progress OF the
movement we copy from the Keene Sen
tinel of last week
On Friday, March 31st, MIR. Osgood
concluded the simple and pathetic reel
tai of the incidents of his life, culmina-
ting in his being rescued by an inward
whisper from self-destruction when an
other moment would have landed him in
eternity. Then followed the picture Of
the once prosperous man, recipient Of
various honors from his townsmen, as he
sat down with torn boots and in tattered
apparel in sight of the bar-room, watch
ing the former drinking companions as
they passed him by as coldly as if he
had been sleeping dog Again, the
scene changes: the cottage window is
reached it is past midnight, but light
reveals the figure of distressed wife
convulsed with weeping. The scene
strangely fascinates that husband. He
cannot tear himself from the spot until
with his right hand raised to heaven, he
has registered his vow among the mid
night stars, that under Gods help he
will forswear forever his pernicious hab-
its. Then we see the loving husband,
too careful of his wife's comfort to bear
the thought of the terrible disappoint-
ment that it would cause her, should her
hopes be prematurely raised, and so for
weeks together keeping this trembling
secret between himself and his God
What wonder that so pathetic mar
rative unmingled with any flights Of
rhetoric, utterly Invested of cheap clap
trap appeals, should win the hearts of
of the listeners?
Mr.. Osgood for four and a half years
has rejoiced in his new-found liberty.
He said repeatedly, | am here for bus
mess. Send any one to me with whom
you wish me to talk, and let me go in
search of any one whom you may wish
me to see." Verify, with the apostle OF
old he has virtually said to any poor,
halfdespairing inebriate who may have
sought his counsel, Stand up, | myself
also am man; man now, as you will
be again, and too full of the remem-
brance of my former sufferings not to
pity my fellow-man in his PROSTATE con-
dition.
Mr.. Drew is a younger man, in both
senses of the word, younger in years,
and younger in his labors as Temper
ance Reformer, for it is scarce four
months since the voice of Mr. Osgood
like the midnight angel that freed Pau
and Silas, struck off his letters, and re-
leased him from a wretched slavery, and
caused his wife's and his children's hearts
to leap for joy. Mr.. Drew's manner is
also simple and earnest, and in many
ways progressing. He successfully
conducted two meetings in the absence
of Mr.. Osgood at the anniversary of thu
Haverhill, Mass, Reform Club.
The source of all their misery nigh
have been deemed to come as utterl,
without human fundamentally, as man
ma from heaven, so far as any harsh ref
erence, or even any reference at all t,
liquor sellers was concerned. There aoa
one occasion when a reference to the sill
of liquor-selling was made, but it was b,
an individual (Mr. Otto Lettenmayer
who having signed the pledge, mos
touchingly asked the pardon of an,
mothers and wives whose hearts haC
been made heavy through his instru
mentality. He was answered by deaf
enipg cheers which carried hope ant
comfort to his heart.
As if to give new evidence of tn
magic of this weapon of love welded b,
the staunch hands of these Temperate
Reformers, an exception has been provel
to the old maxim that Corporation
have no souls" For the Cheshire Ns
tional Bank whose basement Mr.. Letter
mayer occupies as tenant has give
him the free use of those premises for
year.
The ministers have all kept up live
ly discussion from the platform, appea
ing, when called upon, to the sympathit
of the audience, encouraging them I
stand fast and pull together, and exhor
ing the reformed men to trust in Coz
1t has been gratifying to notice no
heartily they have all been enlisted
this cause, and to see how, by well trie
pleasantries and cheerful prognostic
fiopo thav have 81 al auad ono mat