He Bad Sol En vested.

Otago Witness, Issue 2661, 15 March 1905, Page 81

He Bad Sol En vested.

There is no more effective weapon against an evil-minded man than ridicule. "I would sooner undertake to disperse a mob, could I get its ear, by ridicule than by the bayonet," wrote the Rev. T. P. Hunt, an old-time temperance lecturer, whose own quick wit saved him frequently from rough usage. At one. of his lectures when the cause of temperance was new. Mr Hunt heard a gentleman, evidently of cor.sidciable influence, haranguing- the crowd against temperance. As the lecturer passed tho door he heard this man say: "It is nothing but a money-making scheme." "Sir," Hunt replied quickly, "you do not believe that, and I can prove it." The man defied him to do so. "You are a stranger to me," said Mr Hunt, "but I judge from your appearance that you pay close attention to your own affairs, and are always looking for good investments. You are hunting for good bargains. Is it not so?" The man admitted that it was, and some one in the crowd shouted, '"He's a regular skinflint ." "Well, gentlemen," resumed the lecturer, "I have been two days endeavouring to get him to join, the temperance ranks. If he believed it to be a money-making business wouldn't he have taken stook?" "Yes. y-ss," came a shout from the crowd. Mr Hunt's opponent escaped as quickly as he could, while the listeneis hailed him with laughter and ories of "Join, colonel, join ! Take stock! Take stock! We won't believo you if you don't."