Part 16 (1/2)
Filled with the true missionary spirit, this little band held other meetings, and did their utmost to bring in new members, and so successful were their efforts, that in a few weeks their members.h.i.+p swelled to hundreds, and the whole city was in a state of excitement over the new and strange work which had been inaugurated.
From Bangor, the excitement soon spread through the State. Dr. Reynolds, believing that G.o.d had called him to the work of saving men from intemperance and leading them to Christ, gave up his profession and threw himself into the work of preaching temperance and organizing reform clubs. Within a year forty-five thousand reformed men were gathered into clubs in the State of Maine. In August, 1875, at a meeting of the National Christian Temperance Camp-Meeting a.s.sociation, held at Old Orchard, Maine, where temperance workers from all parts of the country had congregated, the president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Salem, Ma.s.sachusetts, learned of the great work of reform progressing in Maine under the leaders.h.i.+p of Dr. Reynolds, and invited him to introduce his work in Ma.s.sachusetts by holding a series of meetings in Salem during the month of September. So the work began in the Old Bay State, and within a year, forty thousand men of that Commonwealth, who had been habitual drinkers, were organized into reform clubs.
FORMATION OF CLUBS.
The method pursued by Dr. Reynolds in the formation of these clubs is very simple. There is a const.i.tution with by-laws, to which the following pledge is prefixed: ”Having seen and felt the evils of intemperance, therefore, Resolved, That we, the undersigned, for our own good, and the good of the world in which we live, do hereby promise and engage, with the help of Almighty G.o.d, to abstain from buying, selling or using alcoholic or malt beverages, wine and cider included.” Article III. of the const.i.tution gives the qualification for members.h.i.+p: ”All male persons of the age of eighteen or upwards, who have been in the habit of using intoxicating liquor to a greater or less extent, are eligible to members.h.i.+p in this club.” After organizing a club of persons who have been addicted to drink, Dr. Reynolds appeals to the Christian women of the locality to throw around them the s.h.i.+eld of their care and sympathy, and urges upon the people at large the necessity of upholding and encouraging them in every possible way.
The meetings of the clubs are held at least once during the week, in the evenings; and on Sunday afternoons or evenings, the clubs, with the Woman's Christian Temperance Unions, hold public religious temperance meetings, which are often crowded to overflowing. The order of exercises at these public meetings consist of prayer, reading of Scripture and brief addresses by reformed men, interspersed with the singing of such hymns as ”Rock of Ages,” ”Hold the Fort,” ”I Need Thee Every Hour,” etc.
Brief addresses are the rule, and a hymn is usually sung between each address.
The badge worn by members of these reformed clubs is a red ribbon. Their motto is ”Dare to do Right.”
One of the first fruits of the establishment of a reform club in any locality, is an increase in church attendance, and a decrease in the tax rate. In many towns where they exist, liquor-selling has become unprofitable, and liquor-drinking a custom that hurts a man's social standing.
From the East, Dr. Reynolds extended his labors into the West, where his work has been chiefly confined to the State of Michigan. In a letter to the _Union_, the organ of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, under date of July, 1877, the aspect and results of Dr. Reynolds's work in that State are thus referred to by a correspondent from Evanston: ”His plan is to take a State and settle down in it 'to stay' until it capitulates to the red-ribbon pledge. None but men over eighteen years of age are allowed to sign this pledge. Eighty thousand men in Michigan, to-day, wear the ribbon, which is a token of their signature--all of them have been drinking men. 'None others need apply' as members of Dr.
Reynolds's Reform Clubs. His method is to speak in a general way to the public on the evening of his arrival--his meetings being held in a hall and thoroughly announced. The next afternoon, the doctor addresses women, chiefly from the medical point of view. If they have not a W.T.U.
he organizes one. The second night he talks to the public generally again, and organizes his club, then goes on his way, and leaves the town rejoicing. The doctor is thoroughly business-like and methodical. There is no doubt about his securing, in every State he visits, the same results as in Michigan, for his ability is marked, his experience growing, his sincerity complete and all his work is 'begun, continued and ended' in a firm reliance upon G.o.d.”
To give an idea of the excitement created by the presence of Dr.
Reynolds in any community, and of the results of his efforts to reclaim intemperate men, we copy the following brief reference to his work in the spring of 1877:
”It is impossible to give figures, for there are additions every day of hundreds in the State, and the climax of enthusiasm is by no means reached in any town while Dr. Reynolds is there.
”In Jackson, Sabbath evening, February 11th, two months after the organization of the club, Union Hall was so packed that the galleries settled and were cleared, and hundreds could not gain admittance.
”As the result of ten days' work in Saginaw Valley--at the three cities--(Bay City, Saginaw City and East Saginaw), the clubs number about three thousand men.
”From there, Dr. Reynolds went to Lansing, our capital, and at the first signing, two hundred and forty-five joined the club, which is far up in the hundreds now.
”The last and greatest victory is Detroit. Slow, critical, conservative, staid, not-any-shams-for-me Detroit.
”Friday and Sat.u.r.day nights there were crowded houses. Sabbath afternoon, two thousand five hundred _men_ together, and a club of three hundred and forty-five formed. Sabbath evening, no room could hold the people, and the club reached nearly nine hundred. It is safe to say to-day that a thousand men in the city of Detroit are wearing the red ribbon.
”Dr. Reynolds has done another grand work, and that is in bringing up the W.C.T. Unions. Everywhere this follows, churches are packed with women. Dr. Reynolds tells them how they can help the men and their families, and they fall into line by the hundreds. Three hundred have enlisted in Bay City, four hundred in Lansing, two hundred in East Saginaw, and so on, all over the State.”
The establishment of reform clubs has been more general in New England and the Western States than in other parts of the country, though their organization in some of the Middle States has been attended with marked success. Vermont has a large number of clubs, the members.h.i.+p ranging from one hundred to fifteen hundred.
FRANCIS MURPHY.
The work of Francis Murphy, which, has been attended with such remarkable fervors of excitement in nearly every community where he has labored, is not so definite in its purpose, nor so closely organized, nor so permanent in its results as that of Dr. Reynolds. He draws vast a.s.semblies, and obtains large numbers of signers to his pledge, which, reads:
”With malice towards none and charity for all, I, the undersigned, do pledge my word and honor, G.o.d helping me, to abstain from all intoxicating liquors as a beverage, and that I will, by all honorable means, encourage others to abstain.”
An Irishman by birth, and full of the warm impulse and quick enthusiasm of his people, he has thrown himself into the work of temperance reform with an earnestness that commands a hearing, and with an ardor of appeal and solicitation that is, for the time, almost irresistible.