Temperance > Autobiography and personal recollections of John B. Gough

LECTURES.
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though the Deacon was visiting his pet institution, the
Farm School for boys, and would not return till evening.
When I went to the room appointed for me, I found my
coat was badly ripped. This was an unfortunate dilemma,
for it was my only coat, and it must be mended. One of
the family kindly offered to do it for me; and, while sitting
in my shirt-sleeves in my chamber, a message came that
a man wanted to see me. When he came to my room I
found he was an officer with a writ against me for twenty
dollars, owing to Mrs. Luut, with whom some years before
I had boarded. It was a just debt, and I was struggling
hard to pay what I owed; for when I signed the pledge
I was in debt some five hundred dollars, contracted in dif¬
ferent places. Here was another dilemma:—I must either
get security, pay the money, or go with the officer,—and
my first speech in Boston to be given in a few hours! The
officer was very kind, and waited till my coat was mended,
and then accompanied me to the Washingtonian head¬
quarters, in Court Street, where one of the officers became
security, and I returned to Mr. Grant’s house. Imme¬
diately on his return, he made an arrangement to assume
or pay the debt till I could work it out.
This kindness of the officer of the Washingtonian Tem¬
perance Society was thus noticed in their organ, the New
England Washingtonian, April 10, 1845, when the editors
had become offended with me:—“ Who was it that took
him from the hands of the officer and bailed him, and
saved him from going to jail, and there lying from Satur¬
day night till Monday morning, when Deacon Grant,
Levite-like, turned his back on him, and would not assist
him, because he ‘did not know the young man?’”
However, all things were made straight, and I pro¬
ceeded with Mr. Grant to the room under the Boston
Museum, in Tremont Street. I felt rather apprehensive