Temperance > Autobiography and personal recollections of John B. Gough

300 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP JOHN B. GOUGH.
I asked, “What do you mean?”
He said, “Do you see that tall woman, near the plat¬
form.”
“Yes.”
“Her nickname is ‘Hell-fire;’ she is known by no other
name in the vicinity of her wretched residence. When
she appears in the street the boys cry ‘Fire! Fire!’ She
is the most incorrigible woman in the borough. She has
been brought before me scores of times, and sentenced to
imprisonment from four days to six months. She is ripe
for mischief, and if she makes a disturbance, you will see
such a row as you never saw before. The power of the
woman’s tongue in blasphemy is horrible.”
When I rose to address the audience I expected a row,
and confess to a nervous feeling of apprehension. I spoke
to them as men and women, not as outcasts or things. I
told them poverty was hard to bear; but there might be
comfort,-light, and peace with poverty; told them I had
been poor, very poor; spoke to them of my mother, and
her struggles; then of her faith, and love, and hope; that
there was no degradation in poverty;—only sin caused
that. In proportion to wrong-doing was the degradation,
—and so on. I saw a naked arm and hand lifted in the
crowd, and heard a voice cry out: “That’s all true.”
The woman (“Fire”) rose to her feet, and facing me,
said: “That’s a’ true, mon,—ye’re telling the truth;” and
stretching her arms to the audience, said: “The mon kens
what he’s talking aboot.”
When I concluded she came on the platform, and I
almost thought she might tackle me. She was a large
woman, and looked like a hard hitter, and I never desired
to come in contact with “strong-minded” or big-fisted
women; but after looking at me a moment, she said:
“Tak’ a gude look at me, mon. I’m a bit of a beauty,