Homepage 'de Luikerwaal'
Temperance stories, part 5.   
Father, dear father, come home with me now...

Go to: part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4 part 5 part 6 part 7 part 8 part 9 part 10

Temperance Entertainment Deel 3.

At the end of the 19th century, the English manufacturer of magic lantern slides York & Son released three extensive sets of magic lantern slides with stories related to drinking abuse, which was a very social problem in those years. The three volumes with the somewhat strange title of 'Temperance Entertainment' each contain about 50 slides with multiple subsets, presented as a consecutively numbered whole. The Part 3 depicted below contains 6 separate stories, interspersed with a number of slides with the lyrics of a Christian song.

These series of stories were probably shown at meetings of the frequent associations and other organizations that were involved in the fight against alcohol. The stories were basically the same: the man brings the earned money to the pub, the family pines away, the man repents, often with the help of the temperance movement, and finds work and a better way of life again.
And they lived happily ever after.

Those present were encouraged to sing the songs shown on the text slides. Perhaps to prevent them from dozing off halfway the show.

Analogous to these sets, York also released two sizeable sets of slides for children with the title 'Children's Entertainment'.
The performance started with a speech to emphasize the importance of this meeting:

 
Helaas, geen plaatje beschikbaar.
Helaas, geen plaatje beschikbaar. 
Helaas, geen plaatje beschikbaar.  
     
Do I need to point the moral, my friends. Sign the pledge. Sign it tonight - and keep it !
 

The Factory Chimney or The Little Badge of Blue.
1. Title. George stranded on the chimney top. 2. 'George, George. My husband'.
3. George shows calm ingenuity. 4. Safe at last.
A set of four magic lantern slides made by Alfred Pumphrey, England, after a poem by Joseph Malins.

While building a new factory, one of the workers is accidentally left on top of the tall chimney. The safety nets have already been removed. Soon it will be evening and then night. Will the man survive that? If only they could send a thick rope upstairs.
His wife calls out to him from below, “George, take apart the stockings I knitted for you and make a long thread. Lower it down '. That works. They attach a sturdy string to the thread and George pulls it up. Workers then attach a thick rope to the cord that George can pull upwards now. Hanging from this thick rope he comes down safely. For the rest of his life he wears on his chest a piece of the blue ribbon that saved his life.

This poem is a reference to the blue ribbon badge, the symbol of the temperance movement in 19th century North America. The blue ribbon was worn by those who agreed with a pledge of abstinence from alcohol consumption. By the mid-1880s, millions had taken the temperance pledge and wore the blue ribbon. The poem ends:

The Scripture saith, The drunkard is as one alone at last,
In peril swaying on the top of some high vessel's mast:
But even such Love's skill can reach - and rescue from the grave;
The Ribbon Blue - divinely blest - will bring the means to save.
'Twill bring to hand the Temp'rance cord of Faith, Hope, Charity;
And then the Gospel rope attached ensures true liberty.
So the Gospel Temperance cause our hands and hearts we give;
And stand we true and wear the Blue as long as we shall live.





A beautiful slide, probably from a set 'The Drunkard's progress and end'. Numbered 5, Rum instead of Reason.
The size of the wooden frame is 18 x 10 cm, the diameter of the glass is 7,5 cm.


 
More temperance......
 
  Nederlandse versie......  What's new on this site?  Manual for this website.... ©1997-2022 'de Luikerwaal'
All rights reserved.
Last update: 19-03-2022.
Previous page....  Top of page......