Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-10-01
ELOQUENT WoRDb.
John b. Cough Oh the tnp Of
Blessing and the Cup y
Horrors.

HORRORS.
John B. Cough, the great TEMPERANCE
lecturer, did more perhaps than any other
one to educate public sentiment against
the rum traffic. In one of his Lectures he
used the following language, referring to
cup of cold water as the cup of blessing,
and to the wine cup AS the cup of horrors:
THE CUP OF BLESSING.
"There is no poison in that clp; no
tiendish spirit dwells beneath these crystal
drops to lure you and me and all of us to
ruin; no spectral shadows play uNon its
waveless surface; no widows groah nor
orphans tears rise to God from thoseplacid
fountains; misery, crime, wretchelness,
woe, want, and rags come not within the
hallowed precincts where cold water reigrs
supreme-pure now as when it left Its ma
tive heaven, giving vigor TO our youth,
strength to our manhood, and solace to our
old age. Cold water is beautiful and
bright, and pure everywhere. In the noon
light fountains and the sunny rills; il the
warbling brook and the giant river; inI the
deep, tangled wildwood and the catal1ct's
spray; in the hand of beauty or on the lips
of manhood-cold water is beautiful every
where.
THE CUP OF HORRORS.
"Rum! There is n poison in That cup.
There is serpent in that cup whose sting
is madness and whose embrace is death
There dwells beneath that smiling surface
tiendish spirit which for centuries has
been wandering over the earth. carrying on
war Of desolation and destruction against
mankind, blighting and mildewing the
noblest affections of the heart, and corrupt
ing with its foul breath the tide Of human
life, and changing the glad, green earth
into lazar house. Gaze ID it! But shud-
der as you gaze! Those sparkling drops
widows groans and ORPHANS tears and
maniacs' yells are in that cup. The worm
that dieth not, and the fire that is not
quenched, are in that cup
peace and hope, and love and truth,
dwell not within that fiery circle where
dwells that desolating munster which men
coll rum, corrupt now as when it left its
native hell, giving fire to he eye. madness
to the brain, and ruin to the soul. Rum is
vile and deadly and accused everywhere.
The poet would liken it, in its fiery glow,
to the flames that flicker around the abode
of the damned. The ,heologian would
point you to the drunkard's life, and
thunder in your ears the drunkard's doom,
while the historian would unfold the dark
record OF the past, and POINT you to the
fate of empires and kingdoms, lured to
ruin by the siren song Of the tempter. and
sleeping now in cold obsclrity-the wrecks
OF what was once great, grand, and glorious.
Yes, rum is corrupt and vile, and deadly
and accused everywhere Fit type and
semblance of all earthly corruption
Base art thou yet, as when the wise
man warned us of thy power and babe us
flee thy epchantment. Vile art thou vet,
as when thou first went fortl on tiny unholy
mlssion-tilling earth with lesolation and
madness, woe and anguish Deadly art
thou yet, us when thy envenomed tooth first
took hold on human hearts, and thy serpent
tongue first drank up the warm life blood Of
immortal souls. Accused ant thou yet, as
when the bones of thy first victim rotted in
damp grave, and it's shrieks echoed along
the caverns of hell. Yes, thou Internal
spirit of rum, through all past time hast
thou been, as through all coming time thou
shalt be,
ACCUSED EVERYWHERE.
I'm the fiery fountains of the still; in the
seething bubbles Of the cauldron; in the
kingly palace and the drunkard's howell; in
the rich mans cellar and the poor mans
closet; in the pestilential vapors of foul
NSH', "A!ss IL VIC OAaAc VI So1AOtu Si1OOnS, III
the hand of beauty, and on the lip of man
hood; rum is vile and deadly and accursed
everywhere.
Kun, we yield not to thy unhallowed in
fuence, and together We have met to plan
thy destruction: And by what new name
shall we call thee, and to what shall we
hken thee when we speak of thy attributes ?
Others may call thee the child of perdition,
the base born progeny of sin and Satan,
the murderer of mankind, and the destroyer
OF immortal souls; but 1 this night will
give thee new name among men and
crown thee with new horror, and that new
name shall be the sacramental cup of the
rum power; and will say to all the sons
and daughters of earth: Dash it down!
And thou, rum, shalt be my text in my pill
grlmage among men; and not alone shall
my tongue utter it. but the g,oans of
orphans in their agony and the cries of
widows in their desolation shall proclaim il
the enemy of home, the traducer Of child
hood, and the destroyer of manhood,
whose only antidote is the sacramental cuu
of temperance, cold water"