The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1888-08-08
John b. Cough on Two Cups.

John B. Cough ON Two Cups.
John b. Cough, the great temperance lee
turer, did more perhaps than any other one
to educate the 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, ana to the
wine cup as the cup Of horrors;
THE CUP OF BLESSING.
"There is no poison in that cup, no fiendish
spirit dwells beneath these crystal drops TO
lure YOU and me and all of US to ruin; no
spectral shadows play upon its waveless sur
face no widows groan nor orphans tears
rise to God from those placid fountains;
misery. crime, wretchedneSS, woe, want, and
RAGS come not within the hallowed precincts
where cold water reigns supreme-pure now
as when II lett its native he wen, 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 moonlit fountains and the sunny
rills: in the warbliug brook and the giant
river; in the deep tangled wildwood and the
cataract's spray; in the hanl of beauty or on
the lips Of manhood-cold water is beautiful
everywhere.
THE CUP OF HORRORS
"Rum There is a poison in that cup.
There is a serpent in that cup whose sting is
madness and whose embrace is death. There
dwells beneath that smiling surface fiend-
ish spirit which for centuries has been wan
dering over the earth, carrying on a war Of
deso,ation and destruction against mankind,
blghting and midewing the noblest afrec-
tons of the heart and Corrupting with its
foul breath the tide of human life, and
changing the glad green earth into a lazar
house. Gaze on it, But Shudder as you
gazel Those sparkling drops are murder in
disguise; so quiet now. yet widows groans
and orphans tears and maniacs' yells are in
that cup. The worm that dieth not, and the
fire thot is not quenched, are in that cup.
'Pesce and hope, and love and truth, dwell
not within that fiery circle where dwells that
deSolating monster which men call rum, cor
rupt now as when il left its native hell Civ
ing fire to the eye, madness to the brain and
rum to the soul. Rum is vile and deadly and
accursed everywhere. The poet would liken
it. in its fiery glow, to the flames that flicker
around the abode of the damned. The theo-
logian would point you to the drunkards
life, and thunder in your ears the drunkard's
doom, while the historian wonld 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 seep-
ing now in cold ohscurity-the wrecks of
what was once great grand and glorious.
Yes, rum is corrupt and VILE and deadly and
accursed everywhere. Fit type and SEM
blance Of all earthly corruption!
Base art thou yet, as when the wise man
warned us of thy lower and babe us flee
thy enchantment Vile art thou vet, as
when thou first went oith on thy unholy
mission-flling earth with desolation and
madness, woe and anguish. Deadly art thou
yet, as 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 art thou yet, as
when the bones of thy first victim rotted in
a damp grave, and its 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,
ACCURSED EVERYWHERE.
''In the fiery foundations of the still; in
the seething bubbles of the cauldron; in the
kingly palace and the druukards howell: in
the rich mans cellar and the poor mans
closet in the pestilential vapors of foul dens,
and in the blaze of gilded saloons in the
hand Of beauty, and ON the lip Of manhood;
rum is vile and deadly and accursed every
where.
Rum, we yield not to thy unhallowed in
huence. and together we have met to plan
thy destruction. And by what new name
shall we call thee, and to what shall we liken
thee when we speak of thy attributes! 9th
ers may call thee the child of perdition, the
base born progeny Of sin and Satan the mur-
derer of mankind, and the destroyer of inn
mortal souls; but this night Will give thee
a new name among men and crown thee with
a new horror, and that new name shall be-
the sacTamental 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 pilgrimage among men;
and not alone shall nv tongue utter it, but
the groans of orphans in their agony and the
cries of widows in their desolaton shall pro-
claim it the enemy of home, the traducer of
childhood and the destroyer of manhood,
whose only antidote is the sacIamental cup
of temperance, cold water!"