Temperance > Autobiography and personal recollections of John B. Gough

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN B. GOUGH.
the generous made selfish, the noble made mean, the high-
spirited become debased, the ambitious become hopeless,
the proud become grovelling and degraded; beauty is
blighted, purity defiled; all that is noble, glorious, and
God-like in a man, is blasted and mildewed by the damn¬
ing influence- of drink. Could we lift the curtain that
conceals from our view the secrets of the charnel-house,
every eye would be dimmed by the hideous sight, every
heart would swell with an indignant and fierce resolve, to
battle to the death any agency that could by any possi¬
bility produce such untold horrors.
Hear the cry of despair from the wretched sufferers,
coming up from the depths, and listen to the wailing of
women and children—and be still, if you can. One
woman writes me, “It would take weeks to tell you all I
have suffered from a drunken husband.”
Another writes: “I have heard you picture tales of
misery, but not one where the child of a drunkard has
suffered what I have.”
Another: “Ah! how my heart aches when I think of
all we have passed through. I often look at my poor
father, and say to my dear mother: ‘Oh! if Mr. Gough
could only look here—would not this give him a subject?’
Oh! my poor, poor father—my broken-hearted mother!
My hand trembles, and tears come unbidden to my eyes,
when I think of what we have to endure. I was obliged
to leave school between eleven and twelve, as about that
time my poor father became a complete idiot, and I have
been obliged to be pushed about in the world with the
rest of-our family as best we can; and what has caused
all this, but strong drink?”
A mother writes: “ O, God! the staff of my old age is
broken—my boy is a drunkard! ”
Head this from a young lady: “ In the beginning of the