Temperance > Autobiography and personal recollections of John B. Gough

DISSIPATION.
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adhered to my resolution; then my wife came home, and,
in my joy at her return, I flung my good resolutions to
the wind, and, foolishly fancying that I could now restrain
my appetite, which had for a whole month remained in
subjection, I took a glass of brandy. That glass aroused i
the slumberiug demon, who would not be satisfied by so 1
tiny a libation. nother and another succeeded, until I
was again far advanced in the career of intemperance.
The night of my wife’s return I went to bed intoxicated.
I will not detain the reader by the particulars of my
every-day life at this time;—they may easily be imagined
from what has already been stated. My previous bitter
experience, one would think, might have operated as a
warning; but none save the inebriate can tell the almost tt
resistless strength of the temptations which assail him. |l
I did not, however, make quite so deep a plunge as before.
My tools I had given into the hands of Mr. Gray, for
whom I worked, receiving about five dollars a week. My
wages were paid me every night, for I was not to be
trusted with much money at a time, so certain was I to
spend a great portion of it in drink. As it was I regularly
got rid of one-third of what I daily received, for rum.
I soon left Mr. Gray, under the following circum¬
stances:—There was an exhibition of the Battle of Bunker
Hill to be opened in the town, and the manager, knowing
that I had a good voice, and sung pretty well, thought
my comic singing would constitute an attraction; so he
engaged me to give songs every evening, and to assist in
the general business of the diorama. In this occupation
I continued about three weeks or a month, and when the
exhibition closed in Newburyport, by invitation I re¬
mained with the proprietor, and proceeded with him to
Lowell. As it was uncertain when I should return,—the
manager wishing me to travel with him,—I sold otf what