appease the demon who had so tortured me. The day wore wearily away,
and when evening came I determined, in spite of many a hesitation, to
perform the promise I had made to the stranger the night before. The
meeting was to be held at the lower town hall, Worcester; and thither,
clad in an old brown surtout, closely buttoned up to my chin that my
ragged habiliments beneath might not be visible, I went. I took a
place among the rest, and when an opportunity of speaking offered
itself, I requested permission to be heard, which was readily granted.

When I stood up to relate my story, I was invited to the stand, to
which I repaired, and on turning to face the audience, I recognized my
acquaintance who had asked me to sign. It was Mr. Joel Stratton. He
greeted me with a smile of approbation, which nerved and strengthened
me for my task, as I tremblingly observed every eye fixed upon me. I
lifted my quivering hand and then and there told what rum had done for
me. I related how I was once respectable and happy, and had a home,
but that now I was a houseless, miserable, scathed, diseased, and
blighted outcast from society. I had scarce a hope remaining to me of
ever becoming that which I once was, but, having promised to sign the
pledge, I had determined not to break my word, and would now affix my
name to it. In my palsied hand I with difficulty grasped the pen, and,
in characters almost as crooked as those of old Stephen Hopkins on the
Declaration of Independence, I signed the total abstinence pledge, and
resolved to free myself from the inexorable tyrant.

Although still desponding and hopeless, I felt that I was relieved from
a part of my heavy load. It was not because I deemed there was any
supernatural power in the pledge which would prevent my ever again
falling into such depths of woe as I had already become acquainted
with, but the feeling of relief arose from the honest desire I
entertained to keep a good resolution. I had exerted a moral power
which had long remained lying by perfectly useless. The very idea of
what I had done strengthened and encouraged me. Nor was this the only
impulse given me to proceed in my new pathway, for many who witnessed
my signing and heard my simple statement came forward, kindly grasped
my hand, and expressed their satisfaction at the step I had taken. A
new and better day seemed already to have dawned upon me.

As I left the hall, agitated and enervated, I remember chuc