The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-08-09
EVEN RAIN STOPS AND BOOMING OF SURF SPILLED WHEN JOHN 1.
 STARTS FIRST "DRY" LECTURE
Try -out Night at Asbury Park Finds Conqueror of Demon Rum Talking to 275 Persons in Auditorium That Seats 4,0Oo-If Business Picks Up, ExCham
 pion Will Step About Country on Reforming Jaunt


 Asbury Park, N. J., Aug. s.--4ours truly. John L. Sullivan, stepped jaunt- tly out before SIPS vacant chairs last night at the beach Auditorium-there are 4oo0 seats in the Auditorium and 275 of them were occupied-and oelv. cred his first lecture on the ner1ts or total abstinence. It was a sort of try out. and if business picks up MT. Sul- livan will tour the country, reforming as he goes.
 There was water, water everywhere as Mfr Sullivan of Boston entered the Auditorium at $40 last night. Raln had fallen wetting everything with water. The Atlantic ocean was pound Ing it's waves onto the beach few feet away. Swimmers were swimming in the boardwalk natatorium Every where there was water.
 Mir. Sullivan, according to his man ager, D'Arcy O'Connor, was to have begun his address at 5:1o.- He d1dn t. Mir. Sullivan waited around in the rain for spell and finally mounted the platform half an hour late
 There was a ripple of applause as MT. Sullivan entered the building. To quote Paul Armstrong. he had the clear eyes and red lips of youth Mr.. Sullivan also wore a--double breasted blue serge suit with a small American flag fastened in his lbuttonho1e. Mayor c. E.. F. Hetrick, wearing a tan Palm Beach suit, went on to the platform with MT. Sullivan and introduced the speaker.
 For years,'' said Mayor Hetrick, I've worshiped at the shrine of John L. Sullivan, the foremost athlete in this country It has been said that he could not come back He has. (Ap- plause.) Ladies and gentlemen, . Mayor Hetrick concluded to the little group of earnest thinkers gathered about the platform, ''I have the honor to present John L. Sullivan
 John. l.. Talks, Rain Stops.
 MT. Mayor. your Honor, my friends and ladies and gentlemen began MT Sullivan The rain stopped abruptly as the orator. spoke. The Atlantic Ocean seemed to think that it was time to call the day day Arguments may go on forever, but the fact remains l that from the time MT. Sullivan be- gan to address the 275 persons pres ent the surf ceased to boom. Some say that the waves continued to boom inward against the sands of, ASbury Park. but beyond the question of a doubt no sound could be heard from fthe well known ocean the minute John began to speak.
 ct was on the fifth Of Marsh, 1905, g MT. Sullivan began, 'sthat r took my last drink. (Applause.) If hadn't sworn off that night I would not be here now. Instead-Jonn L. Sulli- van- Gaughter and applause.) I don't come here on any crusade, but l come to tell you to leave the stuff alone. My experience has been that when q man says T can leave the stuff alone he always takes i.. (Laugh- ter.)
 When I was an athlete it was my 1 i-if iod Q human antagonists before me. But my resolution and spirit were no use to me when went against old John Bar 1 leycorn-
 FoIIies of Liquor Outlined.
 "A rurnhound is a peculiar and fas- miliar sort of human being. His common saying is, Let's have another | one.' The younger generation and the older have seen the folly of the 1 booze game Take all your athletes of today. your Ty Cchbs, your Christy Mathewsons, your Honus Wagners and i your Johnny Everses-none of them are 4booze fighters. If they were they ! wouldn't be where they are today in i Che game
 T was money making machine and and my success as fighter depended on the spirit and strength of John L. I Sullivan. I was never slow to accept \ g. challenge, But finally John Bar 1 leycoTn challenged me and it tired him out. Finally I took a tumble tc myself and quit.
 I Money looked to me like water of a ducks back, but want to say, gen t1emen, if eyef got into the has been class, which I never was. I'd have been 8 nonentity. The booze has more ways of hitting you than you have of lodging it. I've known a Io1 of 'em- At the age of 40 they were lN--e and living up to the age of so they all died at 45.''
 MT Sullivan thereupon went into sociological questions and discussed for some time the growth of the pro hibition movement throughout the States Every day he said the countr1 is becoming more enlightened on the prohibition question. seIt used to bt said,'' he continued, that newspape1 men done his best work when he wal
 under the affects of booze. But thert is rule now in newspaper office that the less man drinks the mor, he is thought of. The result is tha
 journalism is reaching higher per
 centage basis than in the past Abstinence Aids B1atrimony Since I have given up booze I'v, devoted more attention to my wifi,
 (laughter) Pm more stuck on her nov
 than I was before married he
 (laughter). She cooks better meal
 for me now than she did before
 married her Gaughter)
 Take the boot on the other foo
 and let the wife stay out all night
 What will happen? Suppose she cam
 home soused-there'd be nurde Oaughter).''
 MT. Sullivan here wandered off in to sociological fields again. "I was run1hound with a bank 5 T 5ea
 regret what I've done. But I tell vol
 young men, pass it up. The day qui drinking I was blind drunk Qaugh
 ter); we'll not blind drunk, but I ha' l been drinking. I used tos love wine not the red stuff, but the real grape champagne. I was in Grand Rapid one week, and I went into a drul :