Part 4 (1/2)

CHAPTER XIII

Recovery--Trip to Maine--Lecturing in that State--Dr Reynolds, the ”Dare to do right” refor--Newspaper extracts--The criticisement-- Friends dear tofrom the debauch just described, which I did in the course of two or three days, I went East to the State of Maine, where I re in all the principal cities, and in soor, especially, I armly welcomed, and I spoke there as often as ten times, each time to a crowded house Dr

Reynolds, the celebrated ”Dare to do right” reforor, and I had the honor to or I made my headquarters at his office, and wasin contact with him Days and weeks passed, and I did not taste liquor, although at times, when depressed and tired from over-work, I found it difficult in the extres ofof 1875 I rehtly, until autu tour, which lasted eight ed one lecture per day At tiet as ht, and the work I did in those eight est and healthiest constitution I spoke in all the more notable cities and towns of Massachusetts, New Haard to my success, I will let the Eastern press speak for me It is not fro notices of the papers, but from a wish to establish in the minds of my readers the fact that ood results These extracts are not given in the order in which they appeared; I insert them, taken at random, from hundreds of a similar character The first is from the Boston Daily Advertiser:

”Mr Luther Benson, of Indiana, delivered a tee and enthusiastic audience

”Thewas opened with prayer by the Rev Mr Cooke, of the Hanover Street Bethel, after which, Mr EH Sheafe introduced the lecturer The te discussed that it seeh impossible to present its merits in a new and attractive way, but Mr

Benson in a sie clothed with the peculiar western freedoether with an accent of marked broadness, held the undivided attention of his audience fro of his lecture to the close The several stories told by the speaker seemed to exactly suit the temper of his hearers, as the frequent applause testified, and altogether it was probably one of the most satisfactory temperance lectures ever delivered in this city Mr Benson, who is a refor the evils of inte interest for the cause which he pleads

”During his lecture Mr Benson paid a , and the liberty of speech alloithin its portals Total Abstinence was the one thing needed throughout the land

There could be no such thing as reat results would necessarily follow”

Fro my lecture at Chelsea:

”Hawthorn Hall was crowded to the very gallery last evening with an audience assembled to listen to a lecture on temperance by Luther Benson, Esq, of Indiana Mr Benson is one of the most powerful and eloquent orators that have ever stood before an audience For one hour and a half he held his audience by a spell He painted one beautiful picture after another, and each in the very gee He was many times interrupted by loud bursts of applause Words drop from his lips in strains of such io directly to the hearts of the audience, and his actions are so well suited to his words that you can not reesture You try in vain to recall the inflection of the voice that moved you to s man and has only been in the lecture field a little over one year; yet at one leap he has taken the very front rank, and is already th with the oldest and ablest lecturers in the country”

The next is from the Boston Daily Herald:

”TEMPERANCE AT FANEUIL HALL

”The old cradle of liberty was filled last evening by a large and appreciative audience, assembled to hear Luther Benson, a well-known temperance advocate from Indiana Mr EH Sheafe, under whose auspices the lecture was held, presided, and the platform was occupied by the Rev Mr

Cook, who offered prayer, and by Messrs Ti, Charles West, John Tobias, SC Knight, and other well-known temperance workers in this city Mr Benson is a refor as he did from a terrible experience, he made an excellent impression, and proved himself an orator of tact, talent and ability A nues were marked with true eloquence and pathos, and for an hour and a quarter he held the closest attention of his large audience in a manner that could only be done by those who are earnest in the cause, and appeal directly to their hearers”

From the Dover (NH) Deest audience ever gathered in the City Hall, last night Notwithstanding the snow, more than fourteen hundred people crowded themselves in the hall, while hundreds went away for want of even standing-room He has created a perfect storm of enthusiasm for himself in the cause he so earnestly and eloquently advocates Last night was Mr Benson's fourth speech in this city, each one delivered without notes or oes from here to Great Falls and Berwick Next Sunday he returns to this city, and speaks here for the last time in City Hall at half past seven o'clock There never has been a lecturer a us that could repeatedly draw increased audiences, and certainly no h--ever so stirred all classes of our people on the subject of te were about one hundred and forty dollars A number who had purchased tickets previous to the lecture were unable to get in the hall”

And this fro (Pa) Gazette:

”Luther Benson, Esq, of Indiana, has just closed one of the most powerful temperance lectures ever delivered here The house was one solid -rooic At the close a large nue, sohted with his good work that they have secured hi”

The next extract is from the Manchester (NH) Press:

”S room, at two o'clock Sunday afternoon, with an audience which came to hear Luther Benson The officers of the Reforymen and reformed drunkards occupied seats upon the platform Mr Benson is a native of Indiana, and says he has been a drunkard froraduation froe when he was expelled for drunkenness

Then he studied for a lawyer, and was ad, and drunk while engaged in a case At length he reduced hith he started to reforh he had once fallen, he was detero he had been giving teing sort of speaker, with a good coinal, with peculiar intonation, pronunciation and idioh, but eminently popular with his audiences He spoke for an hour and a half steadily, wiping the perspiration froreater part of his address with his personal experience He said he had had deliriuave an exceedingly raphic description of his tore at the close of thethem was onefrom a bottle he had, evidently in a spirit of bravado, but at the conclusion of the address he signed the pledge, crying like a child”

Fro:

”On Monday evening, 29th inst, the people of our staid and quiet little town had their dormant spirits stirred to their in lecture delivered in the Presbyterian church by Luther Benson, Esq, a native of Indianapolis, Indiana, who chose for his topic ”Total Abstinence” He opened his lecture by delineating in the e the al in a total abstinence froes, and by his well-aies, even in a teree, there was but one result--drunkenness and eternal death

He was no advocate of te hurtful Did not believe that anything vicious could be taued to a final and satisfactory conclusion, that in the use of alcoholic beverages there could be no such thing as temperance; that the man who took a drink now and then would make it convenient to take more drinks now than he would then, and in the end would as surely fill a drunkard's grave as the e in its use His description of the two paths through life was a h bright green fields, over flowery plains, by pleasant rivulets, where all was peace and harmony, and over which the spirit of heaven itself seemed to brood and watch; and that of drunkenness, in which all the inary hell were concentrated in a living death; of blighted hopes, of wasted life, of ruined hooaded to an insanity--to a madness--to fairlyin the Lethean draft, that s; that the poor, helpless, and degraded victiht escape its horrors in oblivion