The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-02-21

4
getting the papers from the chairman by writ Of
| repievin
THE LATE JOHN b. COUGH.
The Degradation and Depravity or His Early
Life-An Attack of Delirium Tremens.
| New York Herald
| In 1887 he joined body of stroling PLAYERS
then performing in Providence. r L, playing
| low comedy parts until the theater closed Des
titution and drink were then his lot for period
| of about year. He would work hard for few
days. and then spend all his earnings in pro-
| longed debauch and only resume his labors al
his trade when without sufficient money TO buy
glass OF rum He went on. fishing
| cruise next and was nearly wrecked of Cape
Sable. Returning to Newport he married. and
| for few weeks was on his good behavior, but
his passion for drink prevailed, and he becames
confirmed drunkard In his autobiography he
relates how strongly he battled with the crayina
| for rum which had become part of his nature
| and how vain were his efforts to overcome the
demon A slave to intemperance. his life waa
one OF unmitigated pvoerty and wretchedness.
And yet he made many strenuous attempts al
| reform. At one time he borrowed q small sum Of
| money from rumseller and started In business
| on his own account For five months hecontinued
| his own master, and he says that in that period
he gradually sunk deeper and deeper in the scale
OF degration. giving himself entirely up to the
bottle. A fearful attack of delirum tremens pros
| trated and nearly killed him, but as soon as he
had partially recovered from its effects he
| flew again to drink. His wife died while giving
birth to child and this loss drove him to despair,
| and he INDUCED more than ever to drown his
| grief. Deprived of his situation, he was in the
habit of frecuenting the lowest groggeries every
night, telling funny Stories singing comic songs
| and ~ other ways amusing the loafers who
drank at the bar, and receiving with gratitude
| glasses OF brandy, with which they rewarded
| his efforts to please them. He frequently con-
templated suicide, and relates how in o state Of
-
stood by the railway track with q vague wish to
| lie across it drink himself into oblivion and let
| the cars go over him. Once he stood by the
rails with bottle of laudanum Gathering against
| his lips, but . sudden impulse overlook him and
he dashed the poison to the ground In October,
lo42, stranger who was a member of a total alb
| stnence society, accosted him in the streets OF
| Worcester, Mass. and in a few kind words in
vited him to sign the temperance pledge On
the following evening. at meeting held at the
| lower town hall, he signed it. Next day he was
| raving under a violent attack of delirium tre-
mems. The sudden cessation from drinking
caused too violent a reaction. He thus describes
| the struggle:
"As in the former attack, horrible faces glared
| upon me from the wals-faces ever changing and
displaying new and still more horrible features
black, bloated insects crawled over my face, and
myrlads OF burning concentric rings we're revolv
| ing necessarily. At one moment the chamber
appeared as red as blood, and in a moment it was
dark as charnehouse. seemed to have a
| knife with hundreds of blades in my hand, every
blade driven through the flesh Of my hands, ane
| and all were so inextricably bent and tangled
| together that I could not withdraw them
| for some time; and when / did from my
| larcerated fingers the bloody fibres would
stretch out all quivering with life. After
| like maniac from my bed and beg for life-ife2
| What of late thought so worthless seemed now
| OF unappreciable value l dreaded TO die, and
chung to existence as feeling that my souls sal
dod waNf1s 20 A
portion OF this time spent alone; no mothers
hand was near to wipe the big drops Of perspira-
| ton from my brow; no kind voice cheered me
in my solitude. Alone l encountered all the
| hosts of demoniac forms which crowded my
| chamber. No witnessed my agonies or
counted my woes and yet / recovered-how
still remains mystery to myself; and still
more mysterious was the fact Of my conceaing
my sufferings from every mortal eye. In about
a week gained in a great degree the mastery
over my accursed appetite, but the strife had
made me dreadfuy weak. Gradually my health
improved, my spirits recovered, and ceased to
despair Once more was l able to crawl into
the sunshine; but. OH how changed! Wan
cheeks and hollow eyes, feeble limbs and alrccS.
powerless hands plainly enough indicated
| between me and death there had indeed been 4
| q step!"
| The above is taken from his autobiography.
| first published in this country in l845, and is
| given as a specimen of his style. IL may be
| mentioned that the work commanded an i'm
mense circulation, was reprinted in hale dozen
| languages and reclaimed many thousand drunk
| ards.
GOSSIP ABOUT COUGH.
| Philadelphia Press.
Had he, like Franklin Pierce or N. p Banks
who were with him in the early days 1.-THE shAp-
| ing of the temperance movement to the ends Of
small statesmen is no new thingl chosen politics
for his field he would perhaps have been heard
OF later and louder than they were. The mimetic
was a second nature to him, and had the cheap
theater in Boston in which he took the part Of
the landlord in the farce of Departed Spirits or
the Temperance Hoax" asatire on the Washing
tonian movement, not closed without paying
him the salary of S. week it promised him in
1888 when he was nineteen years old. the stage
would have had perhaps another MCCULLOUGH or
at least another Old Burton. Cough was essen
| TALLY human, and this was, in great measure
the secret of his power AS boy in Sandgate
England, where he born, August %,
1877. his father being Peninsular veteran
with medal of six clasps for as many battles
in Wellington's Spanish campaigns, he was q
thoroughly boyish boy. ANY and every oppor-
autobiography, which illustrates his strong
direct diction, was a strong termination. almost
irresistible How, when have seen the baker
with tray of loaves on his head, my toes
would fairly curl with the longing just to put
out foot and give him only a little trip"
he took tea with neighbor, instead of at
home the night, in 1929, before he set sail for
America, and his mother said to him: II wish
you had taken tea with your mother, john"
| Forty years later he wrote: THAT was source
| of pain to nae for many years" Again. when
| that mother died in cruel want and was
! buried in the Potters Field of New York
| city. In 1885, Cough was so maddened by the
heartlessness of the officials and the rarity gem
orally of Christian charity to him at the time
| that he Knocked at all embems of mourning.
| II then declared that I never would wear bit
| of Grape for the loss of any human being and
| the declaration then made holds good today
| A fine hearty soul this. capable Of fierce loves
and hates, aud thereby capable to lead and rule.
| Whether it was owing to his humble origin or
cessant dissipation (1S35-1S42) the quality of
reticence foreign to his nature. His life was
all outdoors He painted to the public each
symptom of his mania-a-potn. He quotes in his
autobiography the comment of paragrapher of