The Seven Wise Men of Preston

Let me introduce to our readers seven of the wisest men of the present
century--the seven drafters and signers of the first teetotal pledge.

The movement originated in the mind of Joseph Livesey, and a short
consideration of the circumstances and surroundings of his useful career
will give us the best insight into the necessities and influences which
gave it birth. He was born near Preston, in Lancashire, in the year
1795; the beginning of an era in English history which scarcely has a
parallel for national suffering. The excitement of the French Revolution
still agitated all classes, and, commercial distress and political
animosities made still more terrible the universal scarcity of food and
the prostration of the manufacturing business.

His father and mother died early, and he was left to the charge of his
grandfather, who, unfortunately, abandoned his farm and became a cotton
spinner. Lancashire men had not then been whetted by daily attrition
with steam to their present keen and shrewd character, and the elder
Livesey lost all he possessed. The records of cotton printing and
spinning mention with honor the Messrs. Livesey, of Preston, as the
first who put into practice Bell's invention of cylindrical printing of
calicoes in 1785; but whether the firms are identical or not I have no
certain knowledge. It shows, however, that they were a race inclined to
improvements and ready to test an advance movement.

That Joseph Livesey's youth was a hard and bitter one there is no doubt.
The price of flour continued for years fabulously high; so much so that
wealthy people generally pledged themselves to reduce their use of it
one-third, and puddings or cakes were considered on any table, a sinful
extravagance. When the government was offering large premiums to farmers
for raising extra quantities and detailing soldiers to assist in
threshing it, poor bankrupt spinners must have had a hard struggle for a
bare existence.

Indeed, education was hardly thought possible, and, though Joseph
managed, "by hook or crook," to learn how to read, write and count a
little, it was through difficulties and discouragements that would have
been fatal to any ordinary intelligence or will.

Until he was twenty-one years of age he worked patiently at his loom,
which stood in one corner of a cellar, so cold and damp that its walls
were constantly wet. But he was hopeful, and even in those dark days
dared to fall in love. On attaining his majority, he received a legacy
of £30. Then he married the poor girl who had made brighter his hard
apprenticeship, and lived happily with her for fifty years.

But the troubles that had begun before his birth--and which did not
lighten until after the passing