Morning journal and courier., 1886-03-01
JOHN R. COUGH.

CaFllss Opera House Yesterday After.
 nOOR-Prominent Citizens on the Platform.
 Notwithstanding the severe cold that pre- vailed a large audience assembled at Carll's Opera House yesterday afternoon in response to call for a memorial service in honor of | the late John B. Cough, the great temperance orator. The audience was made up of intel | ligent men and women from all parts of the city who had gathered to listen to the elo- quept tributes in memory of one who had of l ten electrified them by his matchless elo- l quence while pleading for the great cause I which lay so near his heart. On the plat | form and we'll in front, resting on an easel, | was large portrait of Mir. Cough, around | the form of which were wreathed ealla lilies and roses intertwined with smilax, while on the top of the frame were two white doves ! with outstretched wings. Seated upon the platform were the following:
 | John G. North, Hiram Camp, Rev. Dr..
 s. D. Phelps, Judge R. s. Pickett, Hon. J. D. Plunkett, J. H. Foy, Major Moulthrop, Judge Sheldon, Frank W. Benedict, Rev. Dr. J. O. Peck, Sylvanus Butler, Julius
 Twiss, Rev. E. M. Jerome, w. H. Conklin, Rev. T. S. Samson, Captain w. G. Dickin-
 son, Griswold I. Gilbert, Hon. James Galla- gher, L. L. Camp, Rev. Dr. Munger, F. H. Hart, Elihu Larkins, John Mccarthy. Rev.
 I. c. Meserve, c. M. Hawkes., Charles J. Mo-
 ble, G. w. Badt, Ward Coe, Ruel P. Cowles,
 J. A. Moore, L. w. Cleaveland, R. NJ. Hook
 CT, D. s. Cooper, Rev. J. w. Denton and
 many others.
 Many ladies and gentlemen from the vari
 ous choirs in the city occupied the front seats l in the parquet, while a male quartette oc- l cupied MT. Car1ls private box the left Of l the stage. Professor B. Jepson directed the
 chorus singing, occupying a position on the I right of the stage.
 The exercises opened with singing by the chorus and congregation, the selection being | the familiar hymn commencing, ttRock of | ages cleft for me-" After the singing John | G. North, who presided, gave 8 brief &C., l count of the death and funeral of Mr. Cough l ill substance as follows:
 At this time and hour multitudes are l gathered in the large cities in our own coun- 1 try, and at different hours in foreign lands, l to hold memorial services in honor of John | B. Cough, whose name is best known, whose l face has been looked upon by the greatest | number of eyes, whose voice has reached the | greatest number and variety of minds and l whose power over the same has exceeded that
 of any ether orator of our age. We are here ! ! best we can the merited honor due such I 8 man and pay our last respects, the same as | if we were assembled at his funeral or gath
 cred about his open grave. The likeness of l his face you now look upon was the one pre- | scented to me at my last visit with him, and
 when he bade me goodbye said: "John, | shall not go through this winter I feel ," Next came to me the dispatches concerning
 the attack of death while he was speaking in 1 Philadelphia, and 1 am requested to speak of
 his death and burial. In the midst of his l speech, while uttering the words, 'Young
 hand to his head, stepped back a few steps ! and fell upon the sofa. Great excitement prevailed among the audience, but the | president of the meeting with a wave of the hand indicated perfect silence. Oh! how still was that awful silence. Not person disobeyed the important request. Presently, and very quietly, strong men took the sofa with the unconscious orator and passed down the aisle and out of the church to the house of Dr. Burnes where he had been entertained and from which, short time before, he left in perfect health. His niece, Mary Whitcomb, was the only relative present. Soon dispatches of his condition reached many friends and those who at once came to his aid. All that was possible was done Days and nights of deep anxiety were passed. He never recovered to speak to his wife aud other near friends who sat and
 
 away to his rest. His body was embalmed and mourning service was held l when Hon. John Wannamaker and Hon. | George H. Stuart, old and lifelong friends, spoke words of consolation to the mourning,
 and expressed the sympathy of the public in l fitting words. The body reached his home l and was placed upon his writing table in his l library, where he spent so much time among his books in his days of summer rest. Mrs Coughs dispatch to me was: "John is now resting on his table in his library This 1 part of his home was sacred place, nagnif- cent ln it's sdornment with works of art and highly prized gifts from his friends from all parts of the world.
 In conclusion MT. North paid deserved tribute to the memory of the deceased orator, with whom he had been intimately ac- quainted for so many years.
 MT. North then read letters of regret at their inability to be present from Rev. Dr. Barbour and Rev. Dr. Twitchell, both of whom eulogized the character and life work of NIr. Cough.
 Prayer was then offered Rev. l. C. Me serve, of the Davenport Congregational church.
 The first address was by Rev. Erastus Blakeslee of the Second Congregational church, Fair Haven. He spoke in substance as follows: I count it as one of the great pleasures of my life to have had the person al friendship of John B. Cough. I first met
 
 ance lecture in my native town and was en- tertained at my fathers house. He then gave me copy of his first autobiography then not long published, and at my request he wrote his name. This keepsake still have and value highly. Later in life it was my good fortune to visit him in his beautiful home near Worcester, to sit with him at his well spread and elegantly served table, to join with him in his family devotions and listen to his earnest touching prayers for Gods grace on us sll, to roam with him through his ample grounds and sit ds enjoying the fresh breeze and and enjoying the extensive view, to finger with him among the many treasures of his li- brary. to turn over with him the leaves of his portfolio, full of choice and rare engrav- ings, with it all to listen to the almost con stant flow of his delightful conversation Those who have heard him on the platform only have, I think, hardly seen him at his best. It was among his friends and in the intimacy of private life that his sympathetic and generous nature showed most resplsndent- ly.
 Contrasting these days of his renown and abundance and the dreary days of his youth; his charming home at Hillside whence amid great lamentation he has just been carried to an honored grave, with the one little attic | room in New York tenement house, where, | almost frozen by the winters cold and almost |
 
 with his mother and sister and from whence his sainted mother was hastily carried in | pine box to prayerless pauper's grave, we l cannot but wonder at the change which God l wrought in his life.
 But MT. Coughs life was full of contrasts. | We contrast Lincoln, the rail splitter, with | Lincoln, the president; Grant the tanner, with | Grant, the victorious general; but the contrasts | in their lives are hardly as great as those be- tween Cough, the drunken play actor, and | Cough, the prince of temperance orators; between Cough, the debauched victim of de- lirium trsmens, in his agony fighting alone with the hellish demons which | tormented him in his deliriun, and Cough, the honored and feted guest of l the nobility of England; between Cough, sick nigh unto death from a drunken de- bauch at Worcester, alone with nobody in the wide world, excepting his father on the other side of the sea and his sister, who was he hardly knew where, to Care a straw whether he lived or died, and only saved by his strong constitution and the humanity of his neighbors, and Cough ,tstricken down at last with 8 favorite thoughtN in his heart and a favorite expression on his lips, "Young man keep your record clean," and concerning whom, as he lay for days insensibly waiting for the great doors of eternity to ouen and