Temperance > Autobiography and personal recollections of John B. Gough

MY FATHER’S ARRIVAL.
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respectable person say I kept a large stock of wine in my
cellar; and then she rather broadly hinted that I was a
hypocrite. The “respectable person” perpetrated a very
poor joke, and the lady took it in earnest,—that’s all.
I crave my reader’s pardon for alluding to these little
things; but they produce an effect. “Oh! do not mind
such trifles.” That’s easier said than done. I have been
often seriously requested—personally, and by letter—to
deny in public that I use intoxicating liquor; for it is
reported that such is the fact, &c.
Now, how can a man stand up and say, “Ladies and
gentlemen, I beg to assure you that I do not drink intoxi¬
cating liquors ?” Just as properly might he announce, if
accused of lying, “Ladies and gentlemen, I assure you I
am not a liar.” These foolish, jesting words that touch a
man’s reputation, are so easy to say, though their effects
are not so easily remedied. It is easy, too, to make an
accusation that is hard to disprove,—to say words that
sting those who never hear them, and cannot answer
them.
On the 27th of October my father arrived in this
country, and on the 28th came to my house. I had ob¬
tained his direction, and written to him immediately on
hearing that he was living. I had repeatedly written to
him during the past eight years; but he had married
again, and on the death of his wife gone into Chelsea
Hospital; so my letters failed to reach him. An English
gentleman in whom I had become interested, and to whom
I had been of some service, when leaving this country for
a visit home, asked me what he could do for me in Eng¬
land. I told him the only thing I could ask him to do,
was to ascertain, if possible, whether my father was living,
and if so, where he was. I gave him all the direction I
could, to enable him to succeed in his search, and in 1846,