THE LATE JOHN B. GOUGH.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2149, 17 April 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE LATE JOHN B. GOUGH.

A BOBN orator has just passed awny in the jterson of Mr J. B. Gough. His eloquence was i not that of tho trained rhetorician, like * Canning or a Gladstone, bat the natsnl outflow of a man who combined wttfc* great gift of language those ardent sympathies and burning thoughts which move the masses. As in the case of Mr Spurgeon, he spoke from the heart to the heart. Those who listened to Mr Goughs powerful orations delivered in this country will ha.ye a keen recollection of their distinctive qualities. Such addresses as his never vlmlly pas* from the memory of those bw re whom they are spoken. Completely mistaking ths nature of the man, some luvi; called Mr Uough an actor. The fact is that he once tried acting, but sickened of the paint, the powder, and the making-up ; so that he abandoned the stage. He was too real for this. The secret of his success was nature. He grasped in all its horrors a vice which once held himself within its clutches, and his vivid imagination and dramatic energy enabled him to depict it in such a manner that those who were addicted to it shivered and trembled, and thousands abandoned it as the result of the magic spell of his eloquence. His "Autobiography" is a most instructive work, and proves that from the humblest ranks and the roost degraded surroundings, a man may rise to throw off the slavery of habit. Mr Gough had as witnesses to his power, many thousands of men and women recovered from a life of shame and poverty, and no man could desire a nobler tribute than that of being the saviour of his fellow-men from vice and misery. In the sacred cause of humanity Mr Gough travelled nearly 500,000 miles, and delivered about 9000 addresses— a stupendous achievement for one who had himself been rescued, as it were, from the jaws of destruction. Even those who do not belong to the temperance movement will not deny to him the coveted and honoured name of philanthropist. — Lloyd's.

A spiritualist has discovered that cats have souls. Probably their heaven is the milky-way. Onr of Sir Boyle Roches invitations to an Irish, noble man was rather equivocal : — " I h»pe, my lord, my lord, if ever you com* within » mile of my house, you'll *t»y thorp, all night,"