Wanganui Chronicle, AND PATEA AND RANGITIKE ADVERTISER. NULLA DIES SINE LINEA. THURSDAY, 23rd APRIL, 1874.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XVII, Issue 2413, 23 April 1874, Page 2

Wanganui Chronicle, AND PATEA AND RANGITIKE ADVERTISER. NULLA DIES SINE LINEA. THURSDAY, 23rd APRIL, 1874.

The " religious revivals " of the Uuited St<tes have become unhappily notorious. The morbid and frantic excitement displayed at them, leading often to what sober people regard as blasphemy, and sometimes producing insanity ; the occasional immoral conduct between the sexes to which camp meetings and other accompaniments of a " revival " give rise, are revoltiug to rightly constituted minds. As a rule " revivals,"' take place in the more thinly settled parts of the country, where the inhabitants are, to a certain extent, freed from the restraints of society, and lack those sources of intellectual culture which are available to lwellers in large towns. The spirit which induces the^e religi us movements has now exhibited itself in another form. A " temperance revival " has begun in Ohio, and is spreading into the adjoining States, which is maiked by the characteristic features of its prototype. In one respect, however, it differs. It is at present confined to women, whereas in the "religious revival ' the two sexes are conjoined in fanatical enthusiasm The movement takes this form. Bands of women perambu'ate the country, halting at liquor stores, as piiblic houses are called in that part of the world, and there hold prayer meetings until the publican, struck. with remors©r*upsets his" liquor into the gutter, and declares his intention of henceforth abandoning the liquor trade. To Euglish people it is surprising how rcen can be thus influenced, but so it is, and a very marked change has been made by the^e praying bands of women. The ' New Yori Tribune ' tells us that " hundreds of liquor, stores have been temporarily, and many permanently, closed. A large number of persons have gone out of the business. The demand for both spirituous and malt liquors has wonderfully faPen off. One place in Southern Ohio, which formerly took 400 barrels of beer a day from Cincinnati, now takes none." This result is part y attributable to the indirect effect upon the public mind by the movement : but still, a large number of public houses have actually been shut in comequeuce of the conversion of the ocn piers ; or, it rrny be, from sheer weariness of the peitinaci'y of their torment rs. Fo- these women carry on the camp; ign with amazing obstinacy. The first proceediug of a praying t>and seems to be to walk into an hotel and there hold a prayer meeting. If the publican objects, and turns them out, well and good, they pray out-sido ; and there they stop until thei- purpose is effected, and the hotel do.- el. Day and night are alike to them ; they, still pray on. Rain or snow may fall, but th y will not budge. The • 'hio women must indeed have strong constitutions. This is what they did in one case : — '• For three days la»-t week the ladies labored almost incessantly in front of one noted drinking place in X'iiiia, the proprietor remaining stubborn vi til the third day, when he opened his doors and announced his unconditional surrender. A despatch was sent to tlie iState Convention of Grangers, and that body, numbering 600, rose and indulged in t ree hearty cheers. All the church bells were set ringing, and the entire

to n turned out to rejoice. The proprietor rolled out his liquors and delivered them to the women, the latter, some 200 in number, meanwhile waking the echoes of the narrow street with "Praise God from whom all blessings flow." Not only the women, but ministers, merchants, and men of all professions and trades, seemed overwhelmed with joy. A halfbarrel of high wines, another of blackben y brandy, three kogs of beer, s- me bottles of ale, and a few gallons of whisky we) c poured out amid the plaudits of a thousand people. Then the leading lady of the praying bands made her address, in which she announced that Mr Phillips had quit the liquor traffic without exacting a single condition ; that he purposed to enter another business, and they all felt it to be i heir Christian duty to support him Another shout and another s«>ng, and ib'e assembly became too happy for orderly manifestation. Some women were laughing, some crying, others praying, but the majority rejoiced iv song or j-ilence. .Nothing w^s to be witnessed

bu< tears, sont>s, prayer*, hand-shakings, and -congratulations. In the outskirts of the crowd w.ts «m old lady almost -in hysterics, but still shouting in that rapt nanner one often hears at camp ini-etiugs, " Bless the Lord ! O ! O ! Oh ! Bless the Lord ! " Shocking to relate, this lady '• belonged to one of the first families in the city, and is, ordinarily, a most quiet, placid lady." We are told that her case is but a specimen of many others. It is not surprising to hear that sucli morbid excitement has made one woman insane.

A publican at New Vienna, Clinton county, stood out for three weeks, but finally surrendered. At the beginning of the -siege, he met his assailants with " bla. phernous epithets, and drenched them with beer while at their devotions in his saloon." It must be confessed that it was not without provocation he in dulged in this loose conduct. At length he was beaten. " The people of the town in large numbers witnessed his complete surrender, after three weeks' labor. A procession of about one hundred ladies marched to his saloon, amid the solemn ringing of all the church bells. When the crowd was gathered about the door, brief religious exercises were held, and then Van Pelt appeared and announced that he was ready to give up his entire stock for the good of the temperance cause. f c would, he said, make 3 complete surrender, because of law or force, but he yielded to the simple labors of love of the women, which had reached his heart. He exhibited considerable emotion while addressing the multitude, and appeared sincere in his remarks. After giving permission that his liquors, consisting of two barrels of whisky and one keg of beer, should be rolled out, Van Pelt stepped forward with his axe, saying, ' This is the weapon I used to defend myself and business with and to terrify the ladies ; now I. use it to sacrifice that which has ruined many souls. 1 Without more ado he knocked the heads out of the barrels and opened the keg of beer, spilling the contents upon the ground. Devotional exercises closed the scene." The crusaders, however, had a harder task before them. Van Pelt's mautle fell upon Max Goeppert, who enjoys the distinction of being " the wickedest man in Ohio." How he climbed to this pinnacle of fame, hiJtory saye:h not. The female batteries opened a heavy fire upon the hardened sinner, but without avail. The latest intelligence about the progress of the siege is this : — " The case seems hopeless. For weeks he has withstood the pleadings of the entire female population of the village, and the singing seems to have a soothing effect upon him rather than otherwise. For a day oi two he displayed in his window a card on which there was a representation of a corpse being carried off on a bier, and the inscription, ' This man was talked to death.' But this joke was not appreciated even by the men, and was withdrawn, lest it should lead to the throwing of a brick in the window. If the crowd at Goepperb's door had been composed of men, praying would long since have been abandoned as a foilorn hope, and the saloon broken open, but from sunrise to sunset the women maintain their patient watch, and from all parts of the State ascend the prayers of faith for their success."

Various devices have been tried by the hotelksepers to protect themselves against the invasion. One unfortunate man at Circle vi lie was besieged by seventy-five New Holland women, who were unsuccessful in bringing him to terms, and he forthwith instituted a suit against them in a Lavv Court Tor interfering with his business, which seems about the most sensible thing he could have clone. Other plans have been tried ; throwing red pepper upon a hot stove while the women were in the saloon has been a f.ivorite mode of annoyance. Several prrsons flooded the sidewalks with water to keep the women from kneeling or even walking in front of their houses ; but carpet or tarpaulin provided by male attendants of the crusaders have generally obviated these difficulties. A Madison ville saloon keeper greased his sidewalk to makti it slippery. At some places bands of music or strolling musicians have been employed to drown the voices of the women ; and occasionally free liquor has been dispensed- to boys, who, in return, made noise enough within the saloon to keep out the sound of prayer and praise. " At Pinter's rum-hole in Oxford it is related that the ingenuity of the barkeeper overcame all obstacles by finding an entrance for his customers through a respectable bakery four or five doors west. The thirsty man was shown into this place through an oyster soloon, out of a back door, around half-a-doze.n gateways, and astly through the kitchen and dining-room of Phifer's house. At another place a mock prayer meeting was held by bacchanalians around the bar, while the ladies s-tng and prayed standing on the snow covered pavement outside." JNor have these fanatics escaped the censure of the public. Rude jests have been hurled at them while walking in bands through the streets ; coarse caricatures have been displayed, and in other ways they have been subjected to those insults which they have wantonly provoked. Their success hitherto has been confined to country places; the large towns> remain unaffected, nor are they likely to }ie'd to such influences as these women exert.

The Borough Council has taken Mr Millar severely, but properly, to task for the " report" which he furnished on the subject of the motion for the production of correspondence, &c,, relating to the waterwoiks. The Council has passed a resolution censuring him for the insubordinate toiiH of the report ; its animadversions upon the Engineer of the Dunedin

Waterworks ; and th« remark that by handing the correspondence to the Council he would be placing it in " unscrupulous keeping." ''he resolution turther staces that the Engineer should not have mixed up official with his private correspondence ; and that in future no correspondence, drawings, or any communications on the business of the Council are to be sent to England by Mr Millar until stamped with the Borough seal, and copies have been made for the use of the Council ; while it requests him to furnish such parts of the correspondence which has already taken place as may be of an official nature. The resolution, in fact, embodies all the remarks and suggestions we mad a on this matter the other day. The Council, in passing it, is merely performing its bo unden duty to the Borough It has laid the ;ixe to the root of a most mischievous system which had been suffered to grow up j and it must not cease its labours uutil the tree is cut down. Mr Millar must heuceforth be kept in his proper position —as the servant of the Council, acting under its orders, and accountable to it for all his doings, beinsf treated, at the same time, with that generous confidence and trust in his opinions which a professional mau has a right to expect from those who employ him. The old state of things can never be allowed to revive, and if Mr Millar is not prepared to accept the chtnge, he must resign. There can be no doubt upon that point.