REFORM CLUBS.
These differ in some aspects from most of the associations which, prior
to their organization, had for their object the reformation of men who
had fallen into habits of drunkenness. The distinguishing
characteristics of the reform club is its religious spirit, its
dependence upon God and its reliance upon prayer.
The first movement in this direction was made in Gardiner, Maine, in
January, 1872, by Mr. I.K. Osgood. He says of himself that in fifteen
years he had run down from a moderate and fashionable drinker of wine,
to a constant and immoderate drinker of the vilest spirits; and from the
condition of a respectable business man to one of misery and
destitution. Coming back to his wretched home late one night, he saw
through the window his poor wife sitting lonely and sorrowful, waiting
for his return. The sight touched his heart and caused him to reflect,
and then to resolve, that God being his helper he would never drink
again. That resolution he found himself able, by God's help, to keep. A
few months later he began the work of trying to reform others. His
first effort was with a lawyer, an old friend, who was as much reduced
by drink as he had been. After much entreaty, this man consented to
break off drinking and sign the pledge. Mr. Osgood then drew up the
following call for a meeting which both signed: "REFORMERS'
MEETING.--There will be a meeting of reformed drinkers at City Hall,
Gardiner, on Friday evening, January 19th, at seven o'clock. A cordial
invitation is extended to all occasional drinkers, constant drinkers,
hard drinkers and young men who are tempted to drink. Come and hear what
rum has done for us."
A crowd came to the City Hall. The two men addressed the meeting with
great earnestness, and then offered the pledge, which was signed by
eight of their old drinking companions. These organized themselves into
a reform club, which soon reached a hundred members, all of whom had
been men of intemperate habits. The movement soon attracted attention in
other places, especially among drinking men, and clubs multiplied
rapidly throughout the State. In a few months, the aggregate membership
reached nearly twenty thousand. In June of the following year, Mr.
Osgood began his work in Massachusetts, under the auspices of the
Massachusetts Temperance Alliance, organizing about forty clubs, one of
which, in Haverill, numbered over three thousand members. In New
Hampshire and Vermont, many clubs were organized by Mr. Osgood and some
of his converts.
DR. HENRY A. REYNOLDS.
Another effective worker in the field is Dr. Henry A. Reynolds, of
Bangor, Maine, where he was born in 1839. In 1863, he graduated from the
Medical College of Harvard University, and was assistant surgeon in the
First Maine Regiment, heavy artillery, during two years of the war,
receiving an honorable discharge. He then entered upon the practice of
medicine in his native city, and continued therein until 1874. But he
had inherited a taste for strong drink, through the indulgence of which
he became its abject slave. After many efforts at reform which proved of
no avail, he resolved to look to Almighty God, and ask for strength to
overcome his dreadful appetite. About this time there was, in the city
of Bangor, a band of Christian women who met frequently to pray for the
salvation of the intemperate. At one of their meetings, the doctor
presented himself--it was two days after he had knelt alone in his
office and prayed to God for help--and publicly signed the pledge.
Sympathy for those who were in the dreadful slough from which he had
been lifted, soon began stirring in his heart, and he sought, by various
methods, to influence and save them. After working for several months,
with only partial success, it became evident, that for sure and
permanent work, there must be organization, and he conceived the plan of
a reform club made up exclusively of those who had been drinking men;
believing, as he did, that there must exist between two men who had
once been intemperate, a sympathy which could not exist between a man
who has, and one who has never, drank to excess. As soon as this matter
became clear to him, Dr. Reynolds, by notice in a daily paper, invited
the drinking men of the city to meet him at a certain place. Eleven men
responded to the call, and the Bangor Reform Club, the first of its
kind, was organized, September 10th, 1874, with Dr. Henry A. Reynolds as
president. The motto of the new organization was, "Dare to do Right."
Filled with the true missionary spirit, this little band held other
meetings, and did their utmost to bring in new members, and so
successful were their efforts, that in a few weeks their membership
swelled to hundreds, and the whole city was in a state of excitement
over the new and strange work which had been inaugurated.
From Bangor, the excitement soon spread through the State. Dr. Reynolds,
believing that God had called him to the work of saving men from
intemperance and leading them to Christ, gave up his profession and
threw himself into the work of preaching temperance and organizing
reform clubs. Within a year forty-five thousand reformed men were
gathered into clubs in the State of Maine. In August, 1875, at a meeting
of the National Christian Temperance Camp-Meeting Association, held at
Old Orchard, Maine, where temperance workers from all parts of the
country had congregated, the president of the Woman's Christian
Temperance Union of Salem, Massachusetts, learned of the great work of
reform progressing in Maine under the leadership of Dr. Reynolds, and
invited him to introduce his work in Massachusetts by holding a series
of meetings in Salem during the month of September. So the work began in
the Old Bay State, and within a year, forty thousand men of that
Commonwealth, who had been habitual drinkers, were organized into reform
clubs.
FORMATION OF CLUBS.
The method pursued by Dr. Reynolds in the formation of these clubs is
very simple. There is a constitution with by-laws, to which the
following pledge is prefixed: "Having seen and felt the evils of
intemperance, therefore, Resolved, That we, the undersigned, for our own
good, and the good of the world in which we live, do hereby promise and
engage, with the help of Almighty God, to abstain from buying, selling
or using alcoholic or malt beverages, wine and cider included." Article
III. of the constitution gives the qualification for membership: "All
male persons of the age of eighteen or upwards, who have been in the
habit of using intoxicating liquor to a greater or less extent, are
eligible to membership in this club." After organizing a club of persons
who have been addicted to drink, Dr. Reynolds appeals to the Christian
women of the locality to throw around them the shield of their care and
sympathy, and urges upon the people at large the necessity of upholding
and encouraging them in every possible way.
The meetings of the clubs are held at least once during the week, in the
evenings; and on Sunday afternoons or evenings, the clubs, with the
Woman's Christian Temperance Unions, hold public religious temperance
meetings, which are often crowded to overflowing. The order of exercises
at these public meetings consist of prayer, reading of Scripture and
brief addresses by reformed men, interspersed with the singing of such
hymns as "Rock of Ages," "Hold the Fort," "I Need Thee Every Hour," etc.
Brief addresses are the rule, and a hymn is usually sung between each
address.
The badge worn by members of these reformed clubs is a red ribbon. Their
motto is "Dare to do Right."
One of the first fruits of the establishment of a reform club in any
locality, is an increase in church attendance, and a decrease in the tax
rate. In many towns where they exist, liquor-selling has become
unprofitable, and liquor-drinking a custom that hurts a man's social
standing.
From the East, Dr. Reynolds extended his labors into the West, where his
work has been chiefly confined to the State of Michigan. In a letter to
the _Union_, the organ of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, under
date of July, 1877, the aspect and results of Dr. Reynolds's work in
that State are thus referred to by a correspondent from Evanston: "His
plan is to take a State and settle down in it 'to stay' until it
capitulates to the red-ribbon pledge. None but men over eighteen years
of age are allowed to sign this pledge. Eighty thousand men in Michigan,
to-day, wear the ribbon, which is a token of their signature--all of
them have been drinking men. 'None others need apply' as members of Dr.
Reynolds's Reform Clubs. His method is to speak in a general way to the
public on the evening of his arrival--his meetings being held in a hall
and thoroughly announced. The next afternoon, the doctor addresses
women, chiefly from the medical point of view. If they have not a W.T.U.
he organizes one. The second night he talks to the public generally
again, and organizes his club, then goes on his way, and leaves the town
rejoicing. The doctor is thoroughly business-like and methodical. There
is no doubt about his securing, in every State he visits, the same
results as in Michigan, for his ability is marked, his experience
growing, his sincerity complete and all his work is 'begun, continued
and ended' in a firm reliance upon God."
To give an idea of the excitement created by the presence of Dr.
Reynolds in any community, and of the results of his efforts to reclaim
intemperate men, we copy the following brief reference to his work in
the spring of 1877:
"It is impossible to give figures, for there are additions every day of
hundreds in the State, and the climax of enthusiasm is by no means
reached in any town while Dr. Reynolds is there.
"In Jackson, Sabbath evening, February 11th, two months after the
organization of the club, Union Hall was so packed that the galleries
settled and were cleared, and hundreds could not gain admittance.
"As the result of ten days' work in Saginaw Valley--at the three
cities--(Bay City, Saginaw City and East Saginaw), the clubs number
about three thousand men.
"From there, Dr. Reynolds went to Lansing, our capital, and at the first
signing, two hundred and forty-five joined the club, which is far up in
the hundreds now.
"The last and greatest victory is Detroit. Slow, critical, conservative,
staid, not-any-shams-for-me Detroit.
"Friday and Saturday nights there were crowded houses. Sabbath
afternoon, two thousand five hundred _men_ together, and a club of three
hundred and forty-five formed. Sabbath evening, no room could hold the
people, and the club reached nearly nine hundred. It is safe to say
to-day that a thousand men in the city of Detroit are wearing the red
ribbon.
"Dr. Reynolds has done another grand work, and that is in bringing up
the W.C.T. Unions. Everywhere this follows, churches are packed with
women. Dr. Reynolds tells them how they can help the men and their
families, and they fall into line by the hundreds. Three hundred have
enlisted in Bay City, four hundred in Lansing, two hundred in East
Saginaw, and so on, all over the State."
The establishment of reform clubs has been more general in New England
and the Western States than in other parts of the country, though their
organization in some of the Middle States has been attended with marked
success. Vermont has a large number of clubs, the membership ranging
from one hundred to fifteen hundred.
FRANCIS MURPHY.
The work of Francis Murphy, which, has been attended with such
remarkable fervors of excitement in nearly every community where he has
labored, is not so definite in its purpose, nor so closely organized,
nor so permanent in its results as that of Dr. Reynolds. He draws vast
assemblies, and obtains large numbers of signers to his pledge, which,
reads:
"With malice towards none and charity for all, I, the undersigned, do
pledge my word and honor, God helping me, to abstain from all
intoxicating liquors as a beverage, and that I will, by all honorable
means, encourage others to abstain."
An Irishman by birth, and full of the warm impulse and quick enthusiasm
of his people, he has thrown himself into the work of temperance reform
with an earnestness that commands a hearing, and with an ardor of
appeal and solicitation that is, for the time, almost irresistible.
In the fall of 1869, Francis Murphy found himself in the cell of a
prison in the city of Portland, Maine, to which he had been committed
for drunkenness. He had been a liquor-seller, commencing the work as a
sober man with a good character, and ending it in ruin to himself and
family, and with the curse of the drunkard's appetite upon him. A
Christian gentleman, Captain Cyrus Sturdevant, had obtained permission
of the authorities to visit the jail and talk and pray with the
prisoners. This brought him into personal contact with Mr. Murphy, who
was not only deeply humiliated at the disgrace into which his
intemperate life had brought him, but almost in despair. He tells the
story of this part of his life with a moving eloquence. Capt.
Sturdevant, after some solicitation, induced him to leave his cell one
Sunday morning and attend religious services with the prisoners. He was
in a state of mind to be deeply impressed by these services, and the
result was a solemn resolution to walk, with God's help, in a new and
better way. While yet a prisoner, he began his work of trying to save
men from the curse of drink, and to lead them to enter upon a religious
life; and his influence with his fellow-prisoners was very marked and
for good. On leaving the jail, he began at once his efforts to rescue
others from the slavery from which he had escaped. His first appearance
as a lecturer was in the city of Portland. The effort was well received
by the audience, and at its close he found himself an object of special
interest. From this time, he gave himself almost wholly to the cause of
temperance. After working for a time in Portland, and assisting in the
organization of a reform club, he extended his efforts to other parts of
the State of Maine, and afterwards to New Hampshire and the adjoining
States, in which, he labored for nearly three years with marked and
often extraordinary success. From New England, Mr. Murphy went, on
invitation, to the West, and was very active there, especially in Iowa
and Illinois, in which States he aroused the people, and was
instrumental in the organization of large numbers of local societies and
reform clubs.
In the winter of 1876-7, his work in Pittsburgh was attended with
remarkable results; over sixty thousand signatures were obtained to his
pledge, and over five hundred saloons in Allegheny and neighboring
counties closed their doors for want of patronage. The succeeding spring
and summer Mr. Murphy spent in Philadelphia, where the excitement was
almost as great as it had been in Pittsburgh. But, as in the last-named
city, too large a portion of the harvest which had been reaped was left
to perish on the ground for lack of the means, or the will, to gather
and garner it. The real substantial and enduring work here has been that
of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union; which not only held its
meetings daily during the exciting time of the Murphy meetings, but has
held them daily ever since, keeping, all the while, hand and heart upon
the men who are trying in earnest to reform, and helping, encouraging
and protecting them by all the means in their power.
Mr. Murphy continues to work in various parts of the country, attracting
large audiences wherever he appears, and leading thousands to sign his
pledge. He has done and is still doing good service in the cause to
which he is so earnestly devoting himself.