Sons of Temperance: total abstainers association

Cadet Mark Twain

In Hannibal, when I was about 15, I was for a short time a Cadet of Temperance, an organisation which probably covered the whole United States during as much as a year, possibly even longer. It consisted in a pledge to refrain, during membership, from the use of tobacco; I mean it consisted partly in that pledge and partly in a red merino sash, but the red merino sash was the main part. The boys joined in order to be privileged to wear it - the pledge part of the matter was of no consequence. It was so small in importance that, contrasted with the sash; it was, in fact, non-existent.
   The organisation was weak and impermanent, because there was not enough holidays to support it. We could turn out and march and show the red sashes on May Day with the Sunday Schools, and on the 4th July with the Sunday Schools, the Independent Fire Company, and the Militia Company. But you can’t keep a Juvenile moral institution alive on two displays of its sash per year. As a private, I could not have held out beyond one procession; but I was illustrious Grand Worthy Secretary and Royal Inside Sentinel, and had the privilege of inventing the passwords and of wearing a rosette on my sash.
   Under these conditions, I was enabled to remain steadfast until I had gathered the glory of two displays - May Day and the 4th of July. Then I resigned straightway, and straightway left the lodge.

(Extract from Mark Twain’s Autobiography)