The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1879-04-30

the broken-h hearted wife, the plantation
negro, the topper in every stage. Mrs.
Cough, without whose strong and help.
full patience no sketch of Mr.. Cough at
home would be complete, is an enthusi-
astic admirer of her husbands ,oratory,
been after lifetime of familiar associa-
ton with it, and warns with interest on
the subject whenever questioned concern
ing the secret of his powers. "He has no
methods" she says: lit is like the strik-
ing OF a match" Mr.. Cough himself says
there are two distinct currents of thought
streaming increasingly through his mind
as he speaks--appropriation and rejection.
With all the mass of matter bearing on
the subject of temperance accommodating
during five and thirty years present in
his memory, it to the embarrassment of
the choice which to use; and great en-
barrassment 1t is. Besides this, there is
also ever present desire to bring forth
something new on the well-worn theme.
Thus it is that the orator constantly
launches into untried illustrations, which
always result harmoniously, thanks to an
innate sense of fitness which never yet
led him to be betrayed into Sir-Boyle.
Rocheism. .a.. ,.... . -
"One evening"" says Mr.. Cough, II set
out to build temple. I had never
built temple before. At the outset I
ran up scaffolding, and then proceed
ed, step by step, to the erection of the
building from the foundation up, until at
last the copestone was securely in its
place, and the standard of moral triumph
was bravely floating from flagstaff of
firm resolve. Meantime there was the
scaffolding still standing of other parts of
my ideal architecture, my mind was on
that scaftolding. But one word, and the
whole frail but obscuring structure fell.
It was brought down with a crash by a
reference to the power of prayer"
f. What all this would mean from the
lips of a common man the reader can see
at glance. What it means from Mr..
Coughs lips no one can possibly imagine
who has not heard him speak. Mr..
Cough thinks the great lack of orators
generally is earnestness. Traditions sur
vive, and render the preacher of to-day
mere repetition of some model approved
in other years, but unsuited to times so
vital as their own, when earnestness and
force in every branch-be it oratory, art,
literature, or science-are imperatively
demanded.
eff man were to come into this room
to tell me the house was on fire." says
Mr.. Cough, the flash of his eye showing
that we are to have taste of his quality,
che would not stand with his hands be-
fore him like this Qaughing imitation of
a stiff and awkward manner, very preach
er-like( and say in mealy voice: Mr..
Cough, beg leave to inform you that a
confagration has broken forth with con-
siderable fury below He would rush in
dramatic dash) and cry out: Jack,
here, get out of this; the house is on
frev" In building temples Mr.. Cough
may be obliged to proceed with some
caution; but in setting house on fire he
never had an equal. In his library or on
the platform, his house on fire-whether
1t be the moral house of the drunkard
consuming the edifice of himself with al
cohol, or the actual house which the be-
sotted husband has fred in his idiotic
stupor, and in which his innocent wife
and babes are burnt to death, is the most
robust conf1agration ever seen since Nero
fddled while Rome famed.
This passionate defamation is not
summed up with that consummated ART
which enables Mile. Rachel to weer
binding tears about nothing whatever
Every word spoken by Cough he feels
Once, in speaking on temperance in
America, he brought his hand down up
J, on the sharp corner of handicapped
> table. making an ugly wound, which he
did not notice until after the lecture wa.
concluded, when he nearly tainted witt
f the pain. To driYe his finger nails il
the flesh Of his palms is no unusual ex
pertinent in the heat of his oratory
3 With 10 highly wrought nature, it il
| easy to understand what brought him t,
such madness and rapid abasemen
: in his drinking days. One glass o
D whisky and water made him insanel,
t drunk. Mr.. Coughs plan of reform il
7 simple. He merely wants to persuade
: every man and woman on earth to lie
q spirits alone. If q man does not drink
e he cannot get drunk; if he does not &c
!; drunk, he can never fall into the com
e mission of those CHASTITY and incompre
: are guilty of. "The Anglo Saxon" say
b Mr.. Cough, ''is not brutal-hearted crea
}. ture. The Anglo-Saxon is tender
J. hearted man, who, in his normal condi
q ton, especially loves bis children-plan
8 for them, tolls for them, pinches himsel
# to provide life insurance for them; lie
e awake at night, bordering how he ca
9 advance their position in life. But wha
+ does the drunken Anglo-Saxon do2 II
= puts his baby on the fire and roasts il
i he ties his unofending lame boy to til
Il bed-post and whips him with strap til
a the blood comes; he takes the blanket o
o the shivering body Of his dying wifi
d whom he dearly loves, and goes an
e pawns it for few pence to get glass g
! gin" ~ =
y The comparative freedom of the Unite
g. States from the curse of drink must be
is large measure attributed to the ACTIVE
n persistent, untiring efforts of John ]
8. Cough. Cough himself says that Amer
o. can teetotalism is due to the energet
at temperance work that has been going c
IS there fox nearly sixty years. The gre
le mass of thinking Americans are mode
is of sobriety. Nothing in England su
"a ~ a ., - xx,oro