The Massachusetts Spy

A WORKING MAN'S SPEECH
At the Manchester Temperance Society's Tea Party.

We are much indebted to the politeness of the Editors of the "Old Countrymen" for a scrap of the Manchester (Eng.) Times of June 16th, containing an interesting account of "a meeting of upwards of 400 members and friends of the Manchester Temperance Society in the Exchange Buildings, where they partook" of a beverage of tea instead of alcoholic drinks. The several speeches are given, but we pass them all, for the present, to give the following, which will be found highly instructive, as well as graphic and amusing.

New York Temperance Agent.

Salford, then addressed the company to the following effect:--Mr. Chairman, and ladies and gentlemen--I have been as drunken a fellow as was ever known in Manchester or Salford. Before I knew of the temperance societies I was without employment.--I could get no work; and I was like a poor lost sheep wandering about in the streets, the day twelve months: and had it not been for Temperance Societies I should have been like a vagabond in the streets yet. There was a master silk dyer who had started in the country. I went and asked the master for a situation. Then he went to inquire into my character, and when he had gone I thought to myself my job's done. (Laughter.) He soon came back and said "We don't want any." I then went up to a man who had gone with me there and said, "I have found that out." This man said he had been at a temperance meeting in Campfield, and had heard some very good discourses from a gentleman from Eccles. I said "what's meaning of these temperance meetings?" and he told me that they were meetings of men who had refrained from ardent spirits. I said to him, "When is there another meeting?" and he said he could not tell me. But as we were going up Salford he saw a bill on the wall, and he read it for me, for I could not read myself. But now I can read a bit. (Applause.) The bill said that the meeting was in Broughton-road, on Tuesday next. I went to it and liked it very well. I attended the next meeting in Gravel-lane, and I liked that better; and the next meeting was in Bloom-st. and I liked that better still. The next meeting was in Canal-street, Oldfield-road, on the first of August last, and there I was convinced it was a good thing, and I signed the pledge, and prayed to God to keep me to it. (Cheers.) I thank God I did do so. An old master of mine was the chairman that night, and he said to me, "Rimmer if thou had taken my advice three years ago, thou would now have been worth one hundred pounds;" and I have since found his words were true. Now I can draw my wages comfortably, and when I get the money I throw it in my wife's lap, because I know she will lay it out to the best advantage. (Applause.) For twenty-six or twenty-seven years before I joined the Temperance Society, she was plagued with a drunken husband, and she has not had one moment's comfort only since I joined. Before I joined I had neither tables nor chairs, nor any pots in the house; but now I have plenty of chairs and tables, and a good fat pig in the cote. (Laughter and applause.) I have left off drinking altogether, except a gill of beer at my meals, which I send for to the Tom and Jerry shops. Those Tom and Jerry shops, sir, are a big nuisance: men are rolling about from them on Sabbath mornings, and they are worse places, sir, you may depend upon it, than gin-shops. (Laughter.) I thank God that Temperance Societies were raised in Manchester. I thank God I have joined. I have now a good coat on my back, and I have the honor to say it is paid for. (Cheers and laughter.) Every thing I have in the house is paid for, and I am never without a shilling in my pocket. (Renewed cheering.) My Missus says and declares she never knew comfort in the house until I joined the Temperance Society, and she tells her neighbors she is sure she has got a new husband. (Laughter.) I pressed on her to come to the tea-party: but she said she could not come, but she said, I shall be quite comfortable when thou'rt out, for I shall be where thou art, and that thou wilt come home sober. (Cheers.) I will say this of her, there is not a better wife in the land. (Cheers and laughter.) I have served in the army for many years, but I would not take 10,000 pounds to part from the Temperance regiment. When my wife used to travel on the baggage-cart, the other women would say, "come Mrs. Rimmer, and take a glass of gin." And my wife would never take it, but she said, it always starved her; and it does starve people, sir, you may depend on it. (Loud laughter.) I think that the happiest night of my life that I signed the pledge in Oldfield Road. I lost one of my lads about a month ago; he was drowned at Broughton Bridge. When I was a drunkard he used to get off to bed before I got home, for fear of me: But when I became a sober man he never would go to bed till his father came home, he loved me so. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) I have another son, about 18 years of age; and a man who works with me said to me one day, "What benefit hast thou, Rimmer, in the Temperance Society?" I said to him, "Ask our Charley, what benefit there is." He said, "Well, Charley, is there any benefit in these Temperance Societies?" And Charley said, "Aye, I get more bread and cheese now." (Laughter.) I think to myself very often what can I do to make my wife amends for my ill-usage to her. She has had the sours, and now she shall have the sweets. She now often says, "I never passed such a year since I was tied to thee." I read now in the spelling-book, and when she has done her work she gives me a lesson. I have found it easier to engage a downright drinker than a moderate one. I am raising recruits. I have formed a section: and soon hope to get a division, and even a company. There's many folks have said that Rimmer often gets drunk now, and that they have seen me rolling out of Jerry's shop; but I don't mind them, or they think they are doing Temperance Societies harm, but what they say is doing them good. The speaker, after a few more remarks, retired from the platform amidst thunders of applause.