Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1886-02-20
THE GREAr TEUPERANCE ORATOR.
Ineidents In the LIE Of John =. 0eagA.

John b. Cough, the eloquent Temperance
lecturer, who died In Frankfort, PA, fhursdAy
afternoon, was born at Sandgate, England,
August %, 1917. He emigrated to the United
States In 1929, and soon after became an ap-
prentice to a bookbinder In New York. He fell
| into Incorporate habits, and was accustomed
| to sing and recite In taverns and low theaters,
where his powers Of mimicry and action made
him favorite. Settling in Newburyport, he
went nom bad to worse, and finally found him.
self at Worcester, where, In October. 1912,
he was rescued from the degrading habits
Of drunkenness, into which he had fallen.
Worthy shoemaker. He then be.
gan to lecture on the horrors Of drink, and found
II SO profitable that he extended his lecturing
visited England several times. Soon after he
became prominent as q temperance lecturer he
the cause. and about ten days AFTER his disap-
pearance he was discovered by friends In q low
resort in that city. He was in pitiable condi-
ti0n, and many weeks elapsed before ne was re-
stored to health. He then resumed his tenn
perance work with renewed vigor, and the gem
eral belief that his fail was the work Of his enc
mics, and not voluntary on his part, rendered
him more popular than ever.
During the first year as public speaker, Mr.
he has appeared before an audience altogether
1867 times up to the beginning of the present
peoes sns he sa has
45O, 900 miles in meeting his appointments
MIR. Cough first went to England in 1858, and
and returned in 1860, ana again in 1878 and
returned the next year. During his three visits
he made ], 26O speeches in England When he
hrst went to the old university city OF OXFORD,
In 1864, he could find no man who would pre-,
side at his meeting. The capped and gowned
students yelled at him. but finally he
got them to permit him to speak by APP
Pssaling to their English love Of fair play:
in n h Then se the
by, Professor Green. and by the great
philologist, Max Muller, and Canon Ellison pre-
exclusively upon temperance, but in that year
he was persuaded, after much hesitation, to de-
nver In New Haven lecture on "Street Life In
his temperance discourses, and was followed
by Lights and Shadows of London Life, ""Elo-
auenee and Orators" Peculiar People" Facts
with which thousands of his admirers in this
city are familiar. He has continued to lecture
on temperance whenever and wherever he Is
asked to do SO, but of late years has been most
frequently heard on other subjects. When he
began those outside discourses he was accused
OF deserving the temperance cause, but re-
sponded that he had done nothing of the sort,
but had simply exercised his right to talk on
any subject he pleased.
To John B. Cough belongs the unique distinc-
ton of having addressed more human beings
no man living has been the innocent occasion
OF SO much hearty laughter and as many honest
tears. Spurgeon began ten years later than
Cough, and has probably not spoken more than
rise into celebrity until Cough had been tor a
half dozen years the prince of platform speak
ers He married Mary Whitcomb, of Worces-
marriage he was worth the coat on his back and
ten silver dollars. The same evening he fulfilled
an engagement to talk temperance in q school
mousse. She took him on trust and stood by him
until he rose into worldwide fame as an orator
and philanthrOpist.