Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1879-05-01

~ Ou1y b8lO, HOW SWo0GI
HOW sweetw It said, with fainting moan,
II must die, to die alone
For her,
For her
To die at her dear feet
JOHN B. COUGH.
The Great Temperance Orator and
Agttat0r at His Home.
From the London World.
Though born an Englishman, John B.
Cough, in his life, modes of thought,
habits of utterance. diet and, gait, is, IN
American of the kAmericsns; and his
home is type Of the American gentle
man-farmer's residence. It is in the State
OF Massachusetts, six miles by smooth
and pleasant carriage road from the town
of Worcester, a lesser Boston, situated
forty-five miles from the American Ath.
ems, on the main line of railway. You
take the ten o'clock express at Boston,
and at II 30 step from the train at Wor-.
cester. Thence it is an agreeable walk
or drive to Hillsdale, ackaracteristically
American house, picturesque both as to
it's shape and situation, with. wide pill
Jared veranda running all round it;
broad windows opening to tie floor.
sheltered by venetian blinds, a great
square wooden cupola on the top, with a
shading coInice; wider cornice orna-
menting the caves of the house itself,
which. is of two stories only, and sits
lightly on the earth, seeming to have no
cellar, and to be supported on an airy
structure of diamond latticed trestle-
work.
1t Is q handsome house, airy, roomy,
summary, and, as resting place after
the !. lecturers winter work. altopether
charming. Surrounding it is the ''farm"
-'anoble and beautiful estate OF 24O acres,
part of of it of park-like beauty, and ali
of it under thorough cultivation. The
grounds Immediately surrounding the
house are extremely lovely, and laid out
with gravelled roads, bordered by fine
old trees with broad-reaching depths of
shade. The lawn includes five ceres, Gid
ing downward into one of the loveliest
valleys in New England---a valley which
English visitors are quick to compare
with those of Kent and Surrey with its
gentle undulations, its round and velvet
hills, its Towering hedges along the turn
pike roads, its perfumed air, and its
swarms of singing birds. Nor is the
interior of the house less attractive.
Taste and culture unite with Yankee
observation-disclosures to make drawing room,
dining-room. library and ''grass parlor'
singularly fresh and inviting. Like all
the rooms in. the house, the library is
bright and sunny. with broad, large paned
windows coming from the ceiling right
down to the floor. Upon the marble
mantleshelf are vases holding fresh-cut
flowers, whose fragrance fills the room
a few choice landscapes and family per-
traits are on the walls. Lining the walls
between the airy lace-hung windows, are
book shelves from floor to ceiling, upon
which rest 1900 carefully selected vol
umes, consisting largely of English COM
mentaries on the Scriptures, and other
helps to the compr ehension of sacred
writ. Next to these, the most nota-
BILE thing in the library is the great num-
Der CT volumes relating to art, and the
immense quantity Of sketches and en-
cravings, bound in magnificent folios
aad quartos, or lying loose in portfolios.
Among them are Cruikshank's works, of
which Mr.. Cough has perhaps the finest
collection in the world. It numbers near
ly l,200 of the best sketchings of the
humorous and highly moral pencil
advocate of teetotalism.~
The English visitor to this charming
home is naturally somewhat surprised to
ind it such beautiful property. But
lccturing in the United States is very
different pursuit from lecturing in Eng
land. In this country Mr., Cough is q
temperance lecturer only; and it is true
he is. that pre-. eminently in the states
but there he is also one, if not the
chief, of the lyceum speakers, who spread
all over the country every winter, ad-
dressing such hosts of people as English
lecture audiences can scarcely conceive
John. B. Coughs usual fee is two hun.
dred dollars, or about forty pounds. In
some of the largest cities he receives
eighty guineas per night, the profits of
the association which manages the lecture
being often quite equal to the lecturers
honorarium. Multiply these figures per
night by one hundred and fifty nights
his yearly average lectures~-and it will
be seen that Mr.. Coughs income Is equal
to, such . home AS Hillside. AS q
matter. of tact it is equal to
much more; and less open handed
-giver than Cough would be. at, his age
wealthy. : =: ~ : 49,: !,
Cough has this nome, and that literally
IS all. He has accumulated no comre-
tency upon which; to retire from bis
arduous work. His charities have been
boundless, though always unostentatious.
He means to die in harness, and retire
ment from his active life is thing that
has never for q moment entered into his
SCENE of existence. To work in the
winter, to rest in the summer-that is his
whole programme. For SO years he has
been, except during the summer months,
necessarily travelling. The distance he
hasfjourneved would have suficed to carry
him dozen times around the terraque.
GUS the globe. He has delivered
nearly 5000 speeches; he has been heard
by more human beings than any preacher
living. Spurgeon negan to preach near
ly ten years later. than Cough, and has
net spoken more than half as often
Henry ward Beecher: was not heard ol
until sixty years after Cough had become
the recognized king of teetotaliam, and il
in demand as lecturer from thousand
platforms every winter.
1t is impossible to converse long with
Mr.. Cough without his passing to the
subject Of temperance. For thirty-6ve
years this theme has formed the staple Of
his discourses. There is not an actor on
any stage who can approach him in yer.
satility. In illustrating his lectures be
will play with equal ease the rolickina
Irishman, the unloading Scotch deacon