San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1881-11-03
He Knew How it Was himself.
by G. A. STEPHENS.

by G. A. STEPHENS.
In the days when Temperance lee
lures" were in full blast, among the
most earnest and vociferous of that
army of lecturers which the mighty
cause rose up Of itself, was man, then
Is now, well known iu the literary world,
whom, not to be unparliamentary, we
will call Judd. Not that by amy means
Judd had always been teetotaler. On
the contrary, all through his younger
years, and later i'll life, when he wished
to do good thing, he had maintained
regular recourse to stimulants.
But now that the growing needs OF
the times demanded it, Judd had re-
formed Gin OVERWHELMINGLY not
wholly in practice), and coming out
boldly before the public as the ire
formed drunkard," drove home his ap-
peals from sad experience. He was one
of the first, the very first, believe, to
assume this role, and his preaching was
attended with immense success. Dur
ing the two years was connected with
him on his lecturing tours as arrange
ments maker and factotum generally, l
never heard Judd's equal us total alb
stinence exhorter. And that is saying
q great deal, rs many will agree, for
there were thousands at it, and "elo-
quence was dog cheap" on the temper
ance platform, and has been since on
some other platforms.
But "my man" had peculiar gifts; he
knew just how to strike the keynote OF
tippler's conscience. I've seen old
bar room veterans writhe and twist, and
then blubber out in spite of themselves.
beneath the keen pathos of his voice
and words. And then his mimicry and
"acting" Oh the platform! There wasn't
a disgusting stagger, contortion, leer or
ordnance in the entire schedule of
drunkenness which Judd couldn't imi
tate, and thus hold up to ridicule or
reprobation. All, those were affecting
times! 1t used to take whole valise
full of blank pledges" to meet the
wants of every large assemblage before
which he appeared.
/ never really doubted that Judd had
the interests of the cause at heart mod
erately so, at least. Yet in the eyes of
his hard-worked factotum, one of the
"best things" about the business was
that his most stirring appeals, and most
remorseless assaults on King Alcohol"
were made under the influence of liquor
that same demon" and "old serpent"
whose head he was so unscrupulously
bruising. How often have sat laugh
ing, in the withdrawing-room, at the re-
pentant uproar going on in the lecture
hall, having in secret keeping the we'll
lowered flask from which Judd had
primed himself ere going before his
audience.
OF course his fame went abroad; and
from his opening lecture in country
school house q believe) the larger towns
and cities had begun to call him to their
halls and churchesAfor in those days
the churches were commonly thrown
open to the lecturer" And near the
close of my second year with him q
warm invitation was forwarded to lec-
ture at the L. Street church in the
city of W. Now, to lecture at
W, and especially to such an audi
ence as would probably I'LL the l.
Street church, had, I well knew, long
been an object of Judd's ambition. In
deed, he made no attempt to disguise
his pleasure and spent a weeks time
furnishing up his discourse and re-
hearsing his home hits. knew he was
exerting himself and felt confident Of Q
great sensation, for il was in him to
make great efforts.
We were then stopping at s., and