Beneath the Banner: Being Narratives of Noble Lives and Brave DeedsCross, F. J. (Frederick J.)
General
Beneath the Banner: Being Narratives of Noble Lives and Brave Deeds
Cross, F. J. (Frederick J.)
Biography -- Juvenile literature
He had been ordered to take some cheese in the forenoon, so he bought
a piece at about eightpence a pound; and as he munched it came this
thought: cheese wholesale cost but fivepence per pound; would it not
be possible to buy a piece wholesale and sell it to his friends, so
that he too might have the benefit of getting it at this low price?
No sooner thought of than done. But, when he had finished weighing out
the cheese to his friends, he found he had made, quite unexpectedly,
a profit of eighteenpence, and that it was more than he could have
gained by a great deal of weaving.
So he changed his trade: weaving gave place to cheese mongering; and,
after some very hard work and persevering efforts, he placed himself
beyond the reach of poverty.
Now came the important moment of his life. One day in settling a
bargain he drank a glass of whisky. It was, he said, the best he ever
drank, because it was the last. For the sensation it produced made him
resolve he would never again taste a drop of intoxicating liquor.
Finding himself the better for this course, he soon tried to get
others to join him. His first convert to _total abstinence_ was a man
named John King; Livesey and he signed together; and on 1st September,
1832, at a meeting held at Preston, seven men--"the Seven Men of
Preston," as they are called--signed the pledge, of which the
following is a facsimile:--
[Handwritten: We agree to _abstain_ from all Liquors of an
_Intoxicating Quality_, whether ale porter Wine, or Ardent
Spirits, except as Medicine.
John Gratix
Edw'd Dickinson
Jno: Broadbelt
Jno: Smith
Joseph Livesey
David Anderson
Jno: Ring.]
It was a terrible struggle for these men at first. They were laughed
at, they were abused, they were persecuted; but the more people
tried to put them down the harder they fought; and soon hundreds and
thousands had joined their ranks, and the movement spread throughout
the kingdom.
"There is more food in a pennyworth of bread," said Livesey, "than in
a gallon of ale"; and he proved it. He lectured far and wide; and,
though he met with much opposition, facts in the end prevailed.
He was not only a temperance advocate, but an earnest worker for the
good of others in various directions. He visited the sick, and helped
them. When the railways came he started cheap trips to the seaside for
working people, and was never happier than when he was helping the
poor and unfortunate.
Joseph Livesey is a striking example of the benefits to health derived
from teetotalism, as he lived to the good old age of ninety.
A GREAT MISSIONARY EXPLORER.
THE STORY OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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