The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-06-22
LUTHER BENSON DEAD
FAMOUS THROUGHOUT THE WEST AS
A TEMPERANCE ORATOR.
Saved Thousands from n Fate He
Could Not Resist-Death
Came Suddenly.


tour by outdoor work. He went to the
home of Mr. Nixon Monday night and spent
several hours before retiring telling stories
of his boyhood. Shortly before l o'clock
Mr.. Nixon heard a noise in his guests room
and entered It. He saw Mr.. Benson expire
within a few minutes. The body was re-
ceived here last night. The funeral Will be
from his home, 1925 North Delaware street.
He was born Sept 9, 1S47 on his fathers
farm, in Rush county, and lived there until
he was eighteen years old. He was the
youngest of nine children. 1t seemed that
his mind was peculiarly constructed and
from his early boyhood he confessed to a
craving for strong liquor. He said this APP
petite was inherited and had lain in wait
for him for three generations" His first
drink of whisky was taken when he was six
years old. He and another boy found bot
tie of whisky at the side of sheaf of
wheat and they became drunk After that
time Bensons life became struggle with
the whisky fiend and it proved stronger
than he He was a most rebellious slave,
however.
When he was sixteen years old he was
sent to school at Fairview, Rush county, to
William M. Thrasher. who has since been
a professor at Butler College for many
years. Afterward he went to Cincinnati and
in 1866 returned to his fathers farm. In 1867
he went to Connersville to study law in the
office of John S. Reed. From there he went
to Rushvile and opened up an office for
the practice of law. Then he fell With the
broad, bright field of success before him
his master called him back and he returned
to his fathers farm once more broken
man. At that time he had about given up
everything better than to drink. After
time, however, confidence returned under
the encouragement of sobriety and he went
to Bluffton to again start practice. His APP
petite for liquor did not give him a chance
to begin hardly and he had to give up fur
Their effort to follow the profession for
which he had been educated. He travelled to
several of the smaller towns Of the State,
teaching school, not stopping long in one
place because of his frequent sprees.
Through all this time of drinking he ex-
perienced nothing but misery. He drank
desperately as if trying to quench an ever
burning fire. He realized his condition deep
er than he himself, with all his eloquence,
could tell The curse of these years is vivid
ly pictured in the book which he wrote and
published. That he did not drink for ex-
hilaration, which most men find in whisky
is strikingly shown by the title of his book
Fifteen Years in He'll
He had made many efforts to break away
from his devilish habit. but had failed. In
1874 he summoned all his strength and an
nounced that as last resort he would take
the platform a temperance lecturer.
Though this step was not taken as means
of gaining livelihood there is no doubt
that as a lecturer his success was greater
than it would have been in any other line
His name and his work spread swiftly
abroad. In three years he spoke 40 times
in Indiana and then he was called into other
parts of the country He went East and
paid particular attention to the New Eng
land States. He held vast audiences spell
bound by his eloquence and his praise
sounded everywhere. 1t was said that John
b. Cough never equalled him in eloquence
and homely pathos. His method was not to
break off from an appeal that set his audi
ence weeping into an anecdote and for that
reason it was said that in anecdote Cough
was MS superior He continued his lectures
INTO every State and Territory of the
Union. For the last ten years he has snent
ms energy principally in the South and
west. SIX years ago he took his family to
California and for eighteen months Iectlred
in that and neighboring States The last
tour of his life was through Texas for four
months. He returned to his home June /
ne denied. Through all the years of lectur-
ing he had his inspiration with him con-
stantiy Tor he never succeeded in breaking
however, he had been able to reduce his
drinking spells considerably
mere nave probably been but few mon
IKE Luther Benson. Drinking to him was
not habit, an indulgence, but a curse like
mat or the morphine fiend's. He acknoWI-
euged that ne was drunkard and yet he
was so constituted, the people understood
MIN SO we'll that he could go on the Plat
form and 0enounce whisky without the
slghtest impression of cant. He was pitied
ana loved and admired at once There was
no such thing as drinking in moderation
with him. He must drink until he was
ar4nk II he ne tasted so much as drop of
WHISKY. he would eXclaim, Moderation! A
urlnk OF liquor is to my appetite what a
red-hot coal of fire is to a keg of dry pow
ger ger You can Just as easily shoot bullet
from lannon's mouth moderately or fire
off magazine slowly, as / can drink LIQUOR
moderately. When take one drink, if it is
out taste, must have more, if l knew hell
would burst out of the earth and engulf me
the next instant. I am either perfectly So
Der, with no smell of liquor about me, or I
that has made me more wretehed and done
more to weaken and drag me down, than the
continued accusation of doing something
tnat Is Just as impossible for me to do as ii
would be to live without brea thing-that is.
to take a. drink of liquor without getting
uIunk. ana II there is any one thing that
Will make me hate man-loathe, abhor and
despise him,-it is to have him accuse me of
drinking or using any kind of stimuIants
regularly or moderately. just want to saw
here now and for all time that they who
thus accuse me. lie in their teeth mouth
throat. and away down deep in their dirty,
cowardly, craven. black kearts.''
In 1877 he published his book Fifteen
Years in Hell" and If sold rapidly In 1856
he revised it and this summer he intended
to re-revise it and add to it several sketches
he had written since. Thousands of copies
are scattered over the country and there
are few home libraries which do not contain
it,
Mr.. Benson was a deeply religious man.
For twenty-five years he had been a mem
Der of the Methodist Church and while he
lived here his name was enrolled in the
membership of Roberts Park Church His
love for mankind was tender and true and
his beautiful personality was as strong off
the platform as when the effect of his elo-
quence entranced his audiences. He not
only worked for masses but also for indi-
Vtduals, and 1t is said that no man has n
larger acquaintance in the United States
than Luther Benson.
His wife, who was formerly Miss Anna
Slade. of Ladoga, and four children, live af-
ter him. Florence, thirteen years old:
Luther eleven; Paul. nine; Ruth five Four
brothers and one sister also survive him
John, of this city; Walter B.. and Martin
K. of Hendricks county; Richard J. of
Rush county, and Mrs. Anna T. Murger, of
Milton.