Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 February 1886 — JOHN B. GOUGH DEAD. [ARTICLE]

JOHN B. GOUGH DEAD.

The Greatest of Temperance Orators Passes Away at Philadelphia— His Last Words. [Philadelphia telegram.] John B. Gough, the eloquent temperance lecturer, died on the 18th of February, at the residence of Dr. R. Bruce Burna, in Frankford, a suburb of Philadelphia, where he was taken on Monday night when stricken with paralysis while lecturing at the Frankford Presbyterian Church. His wife was at his bedside when he died. There were also present Mrs. Pridge, his sister; Mrs. Bums and two nieces, Misses Mary and Fanny Whitcomb; Mr. John Wanamaker, tbe Rev. Thomas Murphy, and Mrs. Jacob Wagner. Mr. Gough’s last intelligible words were spoken on the lecture platform Monday evening, Feb. 15. “I,” said Mr. Gough, “have seven yean in the record of my own life when I was held in the iron grasp of intemperance. I would give the world to blot it out; but alas I I cannot." Stepping forward with impressive gesture, the lecturer said: “Therefore, young men, moke your record ” He failed to finish the sentence, but sank helplessly into a cbair. SKETCH OF THE DECEASED. John B. Gough was born at Sandgate, Kent, Aug. 22,1817. His parents were poor, and he contributed, by exercising his talents as a reader, to their scanty resources. At the age of 12 he emigrated to New York and became apprenticed to a tradesman, with whom he settled on a farm in Oneida County, New York. In December, 1831, he obtained employment in New York City as a book-binder. He soon fell into habits of dissipation, and was frequently thrown out of employment. To snch degradation did he sink that, night after night, he sang comic songs and played the buffoon to the habitues of the lowest grogshops, who in return supplied him with drink. He married in 1839, and became a bookbinder on his own account; but intemperance prevented his Success. He had suffered from delirium tremens, had lost his wife and child, and was reduced to the utmost misery, when a Quaker invited him in the street to take the temperance pledge. Having told his story at a temperance meeting, he at once became a leading orator in the temperance cause. In 1842 some of his former companions induced him to violate his pledge, and he confessed the fact at a public meeting at Worcester. Since 1843 he has labored incessantly in behalf of temperance with ability and success. His reputation as an orator quickly spread through the United States and Canada, and reached England. In 1853 the London Temperance League invited him to visit Great Britain. The visit, intended to last only six weeks, was protracted to two years, during which he advocated the cause of temperance throughout the island. He then resumed his labors in America. In 1857 he again went to England, and lectured with still greater success than before until 1860, when he returned to America. He then began to lecture on other tonics with great success, acquiring a largo income. In 1846 he published his “Autobiography”; a volume of “Orations” in 1854; a collection of “Temperance Lectures,”lß79: and “Sunlight and Shadow, or Gleanings from My Life-Work,” 1880. In 1873 he announced that he was about to leave the field os a public lecturer; but he appeared subsequently at intervals. In 1878 he again visited England. For twenty years twenty or thirty managers sought Mr. Gough’s services, and he lectured incessantly from four to six months in the year. He never asked for an advance in fees, but always accepted the terms offered him and visited every point to which he was invited that was within his reach. His lectures brought him from $1 to SSOO a night, and he earned from $20,000 to $30,000 a year.