Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1877-03-09
TEMPERANCE
The Interest Continues.

The progress Of this reform, inaugurat-
ed. as was stated last week, by deIega-
ton from Pittsburgh. has continued stead
lily along in all its impetnOsity and force,
unaffected by ITS transfer from their hands
to our home agency and instrumentality.
Our young men have put on the harness.
with gratifying readiness, and showed an
adaptation and fitness for the work. which
has outstripped and put at fault all the
timidity and misgvings that began to be
felt as that harness was assumed The
musical department, about which some
anxiety was felf, has been taken hold Of
by Mr.. G. W. Waite, who has organized a
most effective choir, embracing some Of the
best female voices in the place, and gentle
men enough have volunteered, to afford
good balancing bass, and that part of the
business is we'll attended to. Then as to
speakers, less difficulty has been felt, for
that department is ably and tellingly car
ried on by the recruits themselves, that
come in nightly by scores and fifties.-
Among these are some very good takers
the best we haYe-clergymen lawyers, doc
tors and one judge-Sherman-who en-
dorsed the movement and gave it his sig
nature and hearty approval and identii-
cation in one of his able and forcible ad-
dresses, on Wednesday evening last. Thus
the means are all at hand and in active
service.
The meetings have been held every eve
ming with the exception of Saturday eve
ming, and they have almost uniformly
crowded the Opera House, which holds
some 500 or 600 people. The Wednesday
evening meeting was, perhaps, the most
numerous Of any that preceded it, and
there was no abatement of feeling. The
number Of pledges nightly taken have va
ried from 25 or 30 to so 80, and the whole
number on Wednesday evening last, had
reached a round thousand. OF course, the
number left to sign becomes beautifully
less, and the number Of signers must di-
minish as the work goes en-.
Sunday afternoon meetings have gather
ed at the A., Y. & P. round house for the
two Sabbaths since the work started, and
by the aid of train running between the
village and tha novel place for Sunday
meeting, the accommodations have been
fully occupied, and the number taking the
pledge has been wonderful.
The MONDAY prayermeeting has also been
q prominent feature Of the work; they have
been well attended, and an earnest spirit
Of devotion marks their sessions. After
alternating for some days among the
churches the Opera House was occupied
until Wednesday last, when permanent
possession was taken of room in Smiths
Centre street block. 1t is pleasant, and
easily accessible place. and the expecta-
ton and hope is, that every seat may be
filed, and the devout dependence upon su-
perhuman power to give continued and
complete success to the work OF reform,
more and more effectually secured.
The signers of the pledge come from the
different ranks Of the communicable to-
tai abstinents, the temperate drinker, and
the besotted. whose experience Of years
has, at times, according to their own story,
brought them to the verge of self-destruc-
ton.
The work goes bravely on, but how long
the tension can be endured remains to be
seen. Thus far, it may be said, the results
have been in the full ratio of the fidelity of
effort, and our people are unwilling to
show faint heart or to weary in well do
ing