Chapter 10: My Relations with the Publicans.
Chapter 10: My Relations with the Publicans.
"Draw through all failure to the perfect flower;
Draw through all darkness to the perfect light.
Yea, let the rapture of Thy spring-tide thrill
Through me, beyond me, till its ardour fill
The ungrowing souls that know not Thee aright,
That Thy great love may make of me, e'en me,
One added link to bind the world to Thee."
E. S. A.
AT THIS POINT I should like to give some few details of the relations into which my work at the prison gate brought me with the Leicester publicans. Before I commenced it, I had been deeply interested in a Blue Ribbon Mission, conducted by a prominent evangelist, in which, during a campaign of three months' duration in Leicester and the neighbourhood, we had succeeded in obtaining no less than one hundred thousand signatures to the pledge and adopters of the Blue Ribbon badge. I was chairman of the committee which arranged this campaign, and was therefore brought to close dealings with the proprietors of the great vested interests which we attacked; and often my experiences were far from pleasant.
On one occasion, for instance, I received a threatening letter with skull and cross-bones attached to it, in which the writer urged me to abstain from further agitation, at peril of my receiving physical injury from those whom he and others were resolved to employ. On another occasion it was deemed necessary that I should be accompanied home through certain streets, because feeling was running very high through our attacks upon the liquor traffic. And, in point of fact, the publican party were suffering such serious losses in their trade, from the reformation which had come over some of their best customers, that they had every reason to be seriously annoyed.
Money which had been hitherto expended on drink was now taken to butcher, baker, shoemaker, and other tradesmen, for the purchase of necessaries, for women and children. It was said, for instance, by one butcher in a poorer district of the town, that on former Saturdays he had been accustomed to provide some of the commoner parts of meat from which women might pick their little pieces for the following day; but that, during that Mission, so much gold was brought to him for the best joints of meat, that he found it difficult to get it changed! So I was not in very good odour with the publican party, when it fell to my lot to undertake the mission at the prison gate. And yet, for some wonderful reason, after I commenced there was a decided revulsion of feeling; and I am glad to say, on behalf of the publicans themselves, that, for the most part, they seemed cordially in favour of the work of reclamation in which I was engaged, so that on more than one occasion they furnished me with monetary, as well as practical, help.
Of course, the owner of the public-house immediately opposite the prison gate could not look with complacency upon the work which was turning the tide of custom from himself to the coffee-house, and diminishing his yearly revenue by quite £100. Very often little parties would sally forth from his bar parlour, to accost and, if possible, induce the men and women that were coming out of gaol to leave me and go with them. On several occasions we seemed in danger of a fracas in the public road, as the two parties were engaged in wrangling over some undecided individual who was not unwilling to leave the result to be determined by strength of will or muscle.
In all such conflicts, however, one was conscious of having the sympathy of even the lower and more disorderly classes, who would often advise these people to come with me, saying, "He's all right; you need not fear to go with him." And I am afraid that sometimes people came to me with a secret understanding that when they had got all they could, they intended to return to the public-house.
Sometimes I would go to see after my men in public-house parlours, and have always been kindly received. And if it had been possible, I should not have flinched from spending my hours at night in these places, conversing with the inmates and showing them that Christian men were prepared to come wherever there was an opportunity of influencing the dupes of intemperance for a nobler, purer life. On one occasion, I remember, a publican sent for me to adjust a dispute in his household, and arbitrate between himself and one of his servants. The more one knows of the curse that the drink brings with it to those that sell it, the more one pities publicans and their families. Many of them have been employed in respectable households, and brought up under Christian influences; but when once embarked in this traffic, they lose all respect for themselves, and all hope of living a Christian life, and become henceforth condemned in their consciences and hardened in their hearts. Would that all Christians would do their utmost to support the agitation on behalf of the Sunday closing of public-houses; if not in the interests of the community at large, at least in those of the publicans themselves.
One amusing incident happened towards the close of my Leicester work. One morning there came out of gaol the keeper of a neighbouring cemetery, who was therefore something more respectable than the ordinary run of those that came into my hands. He accepted my invitation to come to the coffee-house, where he was met by his wife and two daughters, and, as they seemed well-to-do people, I conducted them from the lower hall, in which my men generally partook of their breakfast, into an upper room where they could enjoy comparative privacy. The whole party was at once provided with the usual coffee, rolls, and ham; and the breakfast was proceeding merrily, when I sat down in the midst of the little party, and said:
"My friend, what do you say to signing the pledge this morning? You know as well as I do that you have been falling under the power of drink, or you would never have come into this position."
"Well, sir," said he, "I can tell you I have been thinking a lot about it since I've been in yon place, and have almost made up my mind to chuck the whole thing up."
"You will sign the pledge, then?" said I.
"Yes," said he; "but I'll tell you what-I have made up my mind to have a pint of porter first."
"A pint of porter!" said I, in dismay. "What's the good of waking up the thirst for it, when you have been all these days free?"
"Well," said he, "it would be a wrong thing for a man to make a vow and not keep to it."
"But aren't there some vows better broken than kept?" said I. "Don't you remember, in the Bible, that Herod made a vow of which he repented? Come, my friend, you'd better break a bad vow than keep it, any day."
"No," said he; "I'm one of those men that can be led, but not driven, ain't I, wife?" as he looked toward her with a scowl.
"Yes," said the wife, meekly; "we know that." "Well," said I, "if you have that pint of porter, will you give me your solemn word and honour that you will sign the pledge immediately after; and will you give me your hand upon it?"
He said, "All right, sir," and he grasped my hand. Now, I was in such a position that I did not dare to send any of the men who were at that time assisting me into the public-house hard by, to get that pint of porter; and I knew that there was no one on the premises belonging to the coffee-house company whom I could employ for such a purpose. And so, as there was nothing else to do, I caught up the first jug that was within reach, and sallied forth to the public-house at the opposite corner, to get this pint of porter. I think it was nearly the only time in my life that I had purchased porter at a public-house, and I felt very strange. The barmaid who served me looked at me with such amazement that I think she supposed that I had suddenly lost my reason. I assured her, however, that this was the final pint; and explained to her that it was not for myself, but for a man in whom I was deeply interested.
On arriving again at my little breakfast-party, with the jug and glass in hand, I poured the porter out as quietly as possible, without the "head," which porter-drinkers are accustomed to appreciate. He took the glass and began to drink. At each gulp, his wife, daughter, and I, gave such an unanimous groan that, after two or three efforts, he put down the remainder, and said:-
"This is the miserablest pint of porter that I ever drank. Where's your card, sir? I may as well sign it as drink any more."
And so he signed the pledge, and afterwards obtained a situation as a gardener, not very far from Melbourne Hall. One of my working-men friends, who heard the story, and had become interested in him, went a mile out of his way each Sunday morning to fetch him to the service, with the result that he was shortly after converted to God. Before I left Leicester, I had the pleasure of meeting him and his wife, looking perfectly transformed and radiant with thankfulness for the blessing which had been brought into their lot.
This incident, somehow, got into the local papers, and sent a laugh, at my expense, all through Leicester. But a more serious result was that I received a letter from the coffee-house company-whether in joke or earnest I never could quite make out-asking me that I should never again use their precious crockery for carrying anything stronger than coffee. Of course, I wrote a very polite and humble letter back. But I am not sure whether I would not repeat the offence, if I had the chance; and I would be prepared to do a great deal more, if I could only induce another man to sign the pledge, and abandon the use of that greatest foe of domestic blessedness and manly virtue.
Once more, as I close this reminiscence, I would urge on all Christian people who may read these words the duty which is incumbent upon them of coming up to the help of the Lord against the mighty; of abandoning, at their own tables and in their own use, this accursed thing; and of taking a pronounced and active interest in the cause of Christian Total Abstinence. It is, of course, wise to set on foot all those agencies which will improve the well-being of the people; for it is certain that adverse social and physical conditions conduce very much to the use of intoxicants. But there is, probably, no other way of saving those who have already fallen into this fatal habit, than by abjuring the use of alcohol for one's self; and then exerting that personal influence which is so often the means, in the hands of God, of winning a sinner from the error of his ways, and covering a multitude of sins.