John Cassell now went forth as a disciple of the temperance cause.
Remembering his experiences on the way to London he furnished himself
with a watchman's rattle, with which he used to call together the
people of the villages he visited.

A temperance paper thus speaks of him in 1837:--

"John Cassell, the Manchester carpenter, has been labouring, amidst
many privations, with great success in the county of Norfolk. He is
passing through Essex--(where he addressed the people, among other
places, from the steps leading up to the pulpit of the Baptist chapel,
with his carpenter's apron twisted round his waist)--on his way to
London. He carries his watchman's rattle--an excellent accompaniment
of temperance labour."

Cassell had a great regard for Thomas Whittaker. It was an address
given by this gentleman which had first made him wish to become a
public man.

When he called on Mr. Whittaker in Nottingham, as already related,
after some conversation had taken place, he remarked:--

"I should like to hear thee again, Tom".

"Well," remarked Whittaker as a joke, "you can if you go with me to
Derby."

John accepted the invitation forthwith, much to his friend's chagrin,
who was bothered to know what to do with him; for he was under the