Temperance > Autobiography and personal recollections of John B. Gough

REJOINS THE SOCIETY.
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My friends, who did not desert me even in these dark
hours of my existence, again rallied round me, and per¬
suaded me to remain, in order to attend the temperance
meeting on the Monday I had fixed as the day of my depar¬
ture. My candid statement had, in a measure, revived
their confidence in me. In accordance with their desire,
I did remain, and went, at the time mentioned, to the Upper
Town-hall, where a very large audience was assembled,
and appeared to feel a great interest in the proceedings.
I was almost broken-hearted, and felt as if I were insane;
hut I humbly trust that I sincerely repented of the false
step I had taken, and, cheered by the considerate kind¬
ness of my friends, I determined, God helping me, to be
more than ever an uncompromising foe to alcohol.
As this portion of my history is of some importance, I
shall, instead of entering into any detailed description of
the meeting I have just spoken of, myself, quote in this
place the report of the proceedings which appeared at the
time in the public journals.
The following article appeared in the Cataract and
Wash ingtonian:—
Mr. John B. Gough, as soon as he was known to be in the
hall, was called for in all directions, and received in a manner
which showed the true spirit of Washingtonian sympathy, kind¬
ness, and charity to be still predominant in the bosom of this
great Washingtonian fraternity. Feeble in health, and with an
utterance half choked by the intensity of his feelings, he briefly
alluded to, and promptly acknowledged his late misfortune,
saying that he had, within a few days past, deemed himself a
crushed and ruined man; but that the enemies of the great cause
he had attempted to advocate need not rejoice,—that he had
rallied, had re-signed the pledge, and then felt, and should prove
himself, a more uncompromising foe to alcohol than he had ever
been before; and, after invoking, in tones that came from, and