The Life Story ol Henry G LAY Trumbul sa»fiia,«KiaMI«S8i»»#«»«W9^^ Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/cletails/cu31924050584592 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 924 050 584 592 FRAGILE PAPER Please handle this book with care, as the paper is brittle. THE LIFE STORY OF HENRY CLAY TRUMBULL The Life Story of Henry Clay Trumbull Missionary, Army Chaplain, Editor, and Author By Philip E. Howard With an Introduction by Charles Gallaudet Trumbull PHILADELPHIA THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TIMES CO. 1905 ^^^ Copyright, 1904, 1905, by The Sunday School Times Company Copyright, 1905, by Philip £. Howard INTRODUCTION WHAT the world at large could not know of Heniy Clay Trumbull, and what no man can tell of himself, this book reveals. As editor, writer, explorer, expositor, chaplain, missionary, the world has known him ; now it may know him as something better than all these. More than one who had known Dr. Trumbull at a distance, through a single branch of his varied and multiplied achieve- ments, and who later came to know him face to face, was surprised at finding him not the man they had expected. But no man, woman, or child, was ever heard to express disappointment in what the real Henry Clay Trumbull was found to be. And it is in all confidence in the subject of this biography, and in the work which the biographer has done, that the conviction is here expressed that no man can read the pages of this life story and be disappointed. The secret of this sweeping confidence becomes in- creasingly apparent as one reads this book. The master passion of Henry Clay Trumbull's life was friendship for individuals. The coming of an individual across his horizon seemed to be an instant challenge to his love. There was only one way he knew, to meet that challenge ; and that was to find out, in the shortest possible time, how he could in some way lovingly serve this new life that God had brought across his path. It vi Introduction was an instinctive recognizing, long before he knew anything about the primitive East, of the sacred and primal obligations of hospitality. There was no such thing, in his life, as an "accidental meeting." As the strangers seen from the door of the tent of Abraham were welcomed as visitors from God before Abraham knew that they were indeed heavenly messengers, so the stranger, or the acquaintance, or the friend, or the relative, who came to the tent-door of Trumbull's life, was not allowed to depart until some loving service had been rendered by this self-constituted host And people are not likely to be disappointed in a man who meets them always more than half-way in eager desire to serve. So it was that the phrase "passion for souls" had little place in this man's life except as it meant loving interest in one soul at a time. Dr. Trumbull never looked at things or at people collectively. If he swayed audiences of thousands as a public speaker, it was because he was speaking with the needs of one in the audience primarily in mind. If an editorial from his pen brought a message from God straight to the hearts of a hundred thousand readers, it was because he was writing to help one soul who needed help. His individual leading of souls to Christ was only a single manifestation of this overmastering, selfless love for individuals which dominated his life. He was no less interested, but rather more, in an individual, after that one had been brought to Christ. And whether one was within or without the Christian faith. Gentile or Jew, Roman Catholic or Muhammadan, it mattered not, if in any way he could serve that one. Introduction vii So completely has the personality of the biographer been eliminated from these pages that it is only fair to the public that there should be a word in this introduc- tion about him. Philip E. Howard married one of Dr. Trumbull's daughters in 189 1, the y^ar of his gradua- tion from the University of Pennsylvania. He had been pursuing his college course with the intention of enter- ing the ministry. But the death of Mrs. Trumbull that summer, and the rapidly failing health of John D. Wattles, Dr. Trumbull's son-in-law and partner and the business head of The Sunday School Times, led Dr. Trumbull to urge upon Mr. Howard, as a call from God, his associating himself with The Sunday School Times. Mr. Howard accepted this call as God's plan for his ministry. Upon Mr. Wattles' death, in 1893, Mr. Howard was made publisher of the paper, and upon Dr. Trumbull's death in 1903 he was elected President of The Sunday School Times Company. Thus Mr. Howard was a member of Dr. Trumbull's family, and his intimate business associate and part- ner, during the last twelve years of the older man's life. Only one who was in this way an integral part of Dr. Trumbull's daily business and home-life, and who was in absolute oneness with him in his excep- tional standards and principles of life and conduct, could have interpreted that life to the world as the biographer has done. Charles Gallaudet Trumbull. AUTHOR'S NOTE In addition to those who are specifically quoted in this volume, there are many others to whom the author owes a like debt of gratitude. Mr. J. Henry Lea's "Contri- bution to a Trumbull Genealogy" furnishes facts not generally known even to students of that theme ; Judge Richard A. Wheeler' s ' ' History of the Town of Stoning- ton ' ' is indispensable to one who would have any true conception of that historic borough as it was a half cen- tury ago and earlier. And no one can trace at all the magnificent pioneer and nurturing work of the American Sunday School Union apart from the close and thorough researches of the editor of the Union publications, the Rev. Dr. Edwin W. Rice, whose aid and whose courtesy the author desires to acknowledge with hearty apprecia- tion. Moreover, such books as Walker's "History of the First Church in Hartford;" Lawrence's "The Life of Joel Hawes, D.D.;" the " Autobiography of Charles G. Finney;" B. Paxson Drury's "A Fruitful Life," — the story of Stephen Paxson' s life-work; "Sunday-School Movements in America," by Marianna C. Brown, and other books of similar usefulness, have furnished valued information, or have proved suggestive in a further search for facts. To Mr. Julius G. Rathbun of Hartford the author's indebtedness is gratefully acknowledged, for many facts about the Morgan Street Mission ; to Mr. Albert C. Author's Note ■ ix Bates, librarian of the Connecticut Historical Society, and to Mr. Frank B. Gay, librarian of the Watkinson Library, for access to facts not readily obtainable, and in par- ticular for copies of "Lux Mundi," Henry Clay Trum- bull's first editorial charge ; to Mrs. Annie Trumbull Slos- son for reminiscences of her brother's childhood ; to Mr. Leroy Bliss Peckham, who is the traveler mentioned on page 463 ; to the Rev. Dr. J. H. Sawyer, principal of Williston Seminary, and to Miss Lucy Rodman, for aid in securing facts about his school life ; to Miss Annie Eliot Trumbull, to President Edward M. Gallaudet, and to other members and relatives of the Trumbull family for notes upon his characteristics. The main sources of material for the life- story are found in a voluminous correspondence of fifty years and more ; in Dr. Trumbull's published and un- published writings ; in the files of contemporary periodi- cals ; in diaries and miscellaneous jottings, and in the memory of a daily and intimate discipleship. CHRONOLOGY Born, at Stonington, Connecticut June 8, 1830 At School in Stonington Academy August i, 1839 Attending Williston Seminary 1844 Clerk in bank and railroad office 1849 Removed to Hartford September, 1851 Brought to Christ by a friend' s letter . . . February 21, 1852 Elected Superintendent Morgan St. Mission . . April 18, 1852 United with First Congregational Church, Hartford June 6, 1852 Married Alice Cogswell Gallaudet May 23, 1854 Partner in drug business February i, 1856 Joined Fremont Club July 16, 1856 First Sunday-school convention address . . . April 28, 1857 Member State Republican Committee 1858 Offered appointment by Gov. Buckingham . . April 10, 1858 Entered wool business ^ 1858 Entered Sunday-school field work .... September 1, 1858 Ordained as Chaplain September 10, 1862 Taken prisoner on Morris Island July 19, 1863 Released from prison November, 1863 Death of his friend, Henry Ward Camp . . October 13, 1864 Mustered out of army service August 25, 1865 Appointed Secretary for New England Depart- ment of American Sunday School Union . October, 1865 Degree of M. A. from Yale July, 1866 Appointed Normal Secretary of American Sunday School Union October, 1871 Appointed Chairman National Sunday- school Convention Executive Committee 1871 Became editor of The Sunday School Times September 1 1, 1875 X Chronology xi Bought The Sunday School Times August 25, 1877 Welcomed U. S. Grant to Philadelphia . . December 18, 1879 Sailed for Europe January, 1881 Finding Kadesh-barnea March 30, 1881 Degree of D. D. from Lafayette 1 88 1 Degree of D. D. from University of the City of New York, 1882 Prayer at Grant' s funeral August 8, 1885 Chosen Chaplain-in-Chief of the Commandery- in-Chief of the Loyal Legion October 20, 1 886 Preaching at Northfield June 30, 1888 Death of Mrs. Trumbull August 23, 1 89 1 Preaching at Northfield July 3, 1892 Death of partner, John D. Wattles March 21, 1893 Sailed for Europe July, 1895 Prayer at dedication of Grant's mausoleum . . April 27, 1897 Entered into the new life December 8, 1903 BOOKS WRITTEN BY HENRY CLAY TRUMBULL The Knightly Soldier April 21, 1865 A Useful Life and a Fragrant Memory 1866 Falling in Harness 1867 The Captured Scout of the Army of the James 1868 Children in the Temple December 15, 1868 Review Exercises in the Sunday-school 1873 A Model Superintendent 1880 Kadesh-Bamea December i, 1883 Teaching and Teachers September, 1884 The Blood Covenant August 14, 1885 Yale Lectures on the Sunday-School . . . September i, 1888 Principles and Practice : Ourselves and Others August 14, 1889 Aspirations and Influences Seeing and Being Practical Paradoxes Character-Shaping and Character-Showing, Duty-Knowing and Duty-Doing xii Chronology Hints on Child Training September 15, 1890 Friendship the Master Passion September 15, 1891 Ten Commandments as a Covenant of Love 1 892 Two Northfield Sermons 1892 Light on the Story of Jonah December 30, 189 1 A Lie Never Justifiable August 14, 1893 Studies in Oriental Social Life May 14, 1894 The Threshold Covenant Passover Week, 1 896 Prayer : Its Nature and Scope February 25, 1896 In Tribulation 1896 Teachers' -Meetings 1896 Hints on Bible Study (with others) 1898 War Memories of an Army Chaplain . . . . September, 1898 The Covenant of Salt October, 1899 Border Lines in the Field of Doubtful Practices . April, 1899 Illustrative Answers to Prayer June 8, 1900 Individual Work for Individuals June 8, 1901 Old Time Student Volunteers June 8, 1902 My Four Religious Teachers June 8, 1903 How to Deal with Doubts and Doubters . September 11, 1903 Shoes and Rations for a Long Malth . . . October 23, 1903 CONTENTS The Man Himself 3 I His Family p II Heroes of the Stonington Days 21 III In School and Out 37 IV Early Literary Tendencies 49 V « Building Railroads and Character 67 VI The Spiritual Awakening 79 VII Lights and Shadows of an Old-Time Mission School, 103 VIII In the Home of the Gallaudeis 123 IX Mixing Politics and Religion . . - 135 X Sunday-School Field Work in the Fifties .... 147 xiii xiv Contents XI Entering Army Life 175 XII A Soldier Friendship in Field and Prison . . . .195 XIII Saving Life and Souls in the Army 217 XIV Secrets of Power in Word and Work 235 XV Learning to See Spiritual Truth 255 XVI Living the Life of Prayer 267 XVII Guided to the Editorial Chair 279 XVIII Daring the Impossible 299 XIX A Practical Idealist at Work 315 XX The Finding of Kadesh-barnea 331 XXI The Aftermath of Kadesh 347 XXII A Writer of "Marked Books" 363 Contents xv XXIII His Ministry to Individuals 375 XXIV A Passion for Rightness 391 XXV Power Through Sensitiveness 403 XXVI Determining the Border Lines 419 XXVII Correcting Common Errors About Bible Truths . . 433 XXVIII Showing Reserve Power Towards Life's Close . . . 445 XXIX As A Man Among Men 463 XXX The Upper Room 491 Appendix and Index 507 PORTRAITS Facing Page Frontispiece At the age of 23 ••.... 108 At the age of 30 1 80 At the age of 35 • • 224 At the age of 45 ^ 304 At the age of 58 378 THE MAN HIMSELF In man as man, the one unifying factor, with- out which man can never be at his best or do his best, is the faith factor. That which distin- guishes man from all the lower orders of crea- tion is the ability to recognize the unseen and the infinite, and to rest on the felt presence of Him who is all and in all, of the universe of his creating and controlling. In the lack of a per- sonal faith in God as his God, no man can be what he ought to be, or do what he ought to do. Without this faith, a man cannot work or study in assured confidence of results ; nor can he see the past, the present, or the future, in the light in which alone all its facts and teachings are intelligible and consistent With this faith, a man can stand, as it were, at the very center of the universe, and look out over the vast sweep of God's providences, in simple confidence that all things are working together for his good ; since his Father orders them all, and he is in loving union with God through his union by faith with Him who is one with the Father. — Character-Shaping and Character-Showing. THE MAN HIMSELF No one who ever met Henry Clay Trumbull in even the most casual way could fail to perceive that he was face to face with a personality of extraordinary mold. He seemed to be exactly what he was, — a delicately sensitive, perfectly adjusted, rigidly con- trolled piece of divinely devised mechanism, undam- aged by misuse, and impelled by the soul within to a high and tense efficiency. There could be no rust, or gloom, or fearsome fore- bodings, or any morbidness, where he was. His tem- perament was buoyant, fiery, and passionate ; and yet no voice was gentler than his, no tenderness more veritable and appealing, no handclasp more reassur- ing. His abounding spirit of good fellowship and his instant interest in others were irresistibly mag- netic, while his utter hatred of evil in any guise set him sharply over against any defense of the wrong. He was never one to stand aloof from the sweep of events. He was nurtured as a boy in an atmosphere of achievement. As a young man he learned how to work hard and continuously, and as he came into maturity he found himself powerfully attracted by the problems of the great days in which he showed him- self so thoroughly at home. His awakened interest in Christian service, his high-minded and peculiarly 3 Henry Clay Trumbull efficient devotion to political problems and their out- working, his burning zeal as a chaplain in the Federal Army, and extended observation in his own land and abroad, aroused his generous nature to a conscious- ness of what a man might do in meeting the needs of other men, and furnished him with a wealth of ex- perience exceedingly rare and fruitful. To this fund of experience he never ceased to add. Even in his later years, when his memory was reviving the ful- ness and fascination of the old days, he had a boy's keen eye for everything new and of to-day. Dr. Trumbull never concerned himself with the discussion of anything that did not seem to him fun- damental. His mind sought centers and foundations. Men who tried to draw him into argument found themselves confronted with statements of principles by which all cases must be tested. His constant search in ethics was for principles, and he carried the same thirst for inner truth into every phase of his varied life-work. Thorough as he was in everything he did, quick to see a full truth long before most men had caught a glimmer of it, he was ever learning, rising to higher levels of ideals and purposes. His love of truth was the touchstone of his character. At any cost he must know. No labor was too great, no amount of time too precious, for the tracking down and the working out of what he wished to see or to make clear to others. He was wholly untrammeled by what any one else had thought or asserted. Always welcoming light from those whose character and views he re- spected, he nevertheless made his own conclusions. The Man Himself and stated them with directness and conviction, with- out regard to the minor question of their acceptance by others. All this was peculiarly evident in his later life whenever he dealt with a Bible teaching. He had gained the Oriental viewpoint. He was not a literal- ist, but an interpreter of the letter, perceiving with Bushnell that the Gospel is a " gift to the imagina- tion," in its inspired setting forth of truth. This attitude enabled him to get at the very heart of the Scriptures, and to understand much that was not clear to the purely Occidental mind. And because his interpretations sprang from the Book itself and from his vivid knowledge of Oriental habits of thought, he never ceased to throw light upon the tangled way of biblical interpretation. To him the Bible was no book of rules, but a book of divinely revealed principles. From that viewpoint he taught that one must not look to the Scriptures for categorical answers to every problem of life and character, but for something far higher, — the eternal, unchanging principles by which all thought and con- duct must be tested. Unlike many other versatile men, Henry Clay Trum- bull was a master in whatever field he made his own, for each work that he took upon himself was at the mo- ment the supreme work, his life-work. What he had done hitherto was nothing. The work of now was everything, and the thought that there was so much more to do spurred him on into an intellectual and spiritual productivity that brooked no waste of strength or time. 6 Henry Clay Trumbull To trace the growth of a singularly strong and lofty character, to mark the unfolding of divine purpose in a njarvelously varied human life, to walk through shadow and sunshine with one in whom friendship was the master-passion, to find how a God-led man did the impossible, and how, resting only " between heart-beats," he toiled that men might see the truth, — that is the purpose of this story of a man with an iron will to do only his Master's will, and with the joyous, trusting spirit of a little child. HIS FAMILY And as to your family, my young friend, if you are doing more nobly than your grandfather did, you may well rejoice that he lived an hon- ored life ;■ but it were better for you to have been a Bushman of South Africa, and improved all your privileges and opportunities, than to belong to one of the best old families of Massa- chusetts or Virginia, and not make a gain on its record. The question is, not whether you are proud of your grandfather, but whether your grandfather would be proud of you. — Our Duty of Making the Past a Success, a sermon preached in the Northfield Students' Confer- ence, July 3, zSgs. ' CHAPTER I HIS FAMILY For the Trumbull origin one must look to the Scottish border countries, and the romantic days of King Robert Bruce in the dawn of the fourteenth century. It is of no small significance that the Trum- bull, or Turnbull, clan should have had its beginning in a daring deed of service, a heritage of noblesse oblige held in honor by all who bear the name then earned. It was in the forest near Stirling that the first of the clan found his opportunity, when he, a strong-armed hunter, saved the life of none other than Robert Bruce himself. ' ' Between red ezlarbanks, that frightful scowl, Fringed with grey hazel, roars the mining Roull ; Where TumbuUs once, a race no power could awe, Lined the rough skirts of stormy Rubieslaw. Bold was the chief from whom their line they drew, Whose nervous arm the furious bison slew. The bison, fiercest race of Scotia' s breed. Whose bounding course outstripped the red deer' s speed, By hunters chafed, encircled on the plain, He frowning shook his yellow lion maine. Spurned with black hoof in bursting rage the ground, And fiercely toss' d his moony horns around. On Scotia's lord he rush'd with lightning speed. Bent his strong neck to toss the startled steed ; His arms robust the hardy hunter flung 9 lo Henry Clay Trumbull Around his bending horns, and upward wrung, With writhing force his neck retorted round, And roll'd the panting monster on the ground, Crush' d with enormous strength his bony skull ; And courtiers hailed the man who turned the bull ' ' This deed was honored by the king in a grant of land and in the knighting of his rescuer with the sur- name of TurnbuU. In the border warfare of the fif- teenth and sixteenth centuries the clan TurnbuU, too powerful to please the kings of Scotland, and suffering from a feud with another clan, became broken and scattered, and their descendants were found in parts of Scotland, in England, and then in the new world on this side the sea. Henry Clay Trumbull was born in Stonington, Connecticut, on June 8, 1830. His father was Gurdon Trumbull, a son of John Trumbull of Norwich Town, Connecticut, whose earliest American progenitor was John Trumbull of Charlestown, Massachusetts, a mas- ter mariner who came to America from his English home about 1636. His mother was Sarah Ann Swan, a descendant of William Chesebrough and of Walter Palmer, the earliest settlers of Stonington, and also of Captain George Denison and Thomas Stanton, the former a noted Indian fighter, and the latter an inter- preter in all dealings of the colonists with the power- ful Pequot tribe, whose lands once included the ground upon which Stonington stands. From Wal- ter Palmer General Grant was a direct descendant. It has been supposed by many outside the family that Henry Clay Trumbull was a descendant of Jona- than Trumbull, the war Governor of Connecticut in His Family ii Revolutionary days, friend and adviser of Washington, the " Brother Jonathan " of our American vernacular. Such, however, is not the case, although the famous war Governor and the Trumbulls of Norwich are apparently of the same clan. No complete genealogy of the Trumbull family has ever been prepared, not- withstanding the conspicuous part that so many mem- bers of that family have had in American life. John Trumbull of Norwich edited and published the Norwich Packet. After his death, in 1802, his wife, with four of her sons, — Samuel, Henry, Gurdon, and John F., — carried on the newspaper. As early as October 2, 1798, Samuel Trumbull issued in Ston- ington the first number of The Journal and Times, whose motto was : " Pliant as reeds where streams of freedom glide ; Firm as the hills to stem oppression's tide." When the Norwich Trumbulls removed to Stoning- ton, they came into a community where historic asso- ciations with colonial struggles were peculiarly vivid. And they were to have no small part in the mak- ing of local history, which, in its pioneer and repre- sentative aspects, had its bearings on the history of the nation. Stonington is so situated that its very location gave it prominence among towns of the early days. It is close to the ocean end of Long Island Sound. It offers a good harbor and anchorage for vessels of every sort, and in both the Revolutionary War and the War of 18 12, it was a favorite port for privateers. On August 30, 177s, Commodore James Wallace, in 12 Henry Clay Trumbull the British Frigate Rose, led an attack on the village. He bombarded the town, which was defended with old Queen Anne muskets; and after having been repulsed by the villagers, among whom only one man was wounded, he remained near that bristling coast a week and finally sailed away. Again, in 1814, an attack was made by a fleet under Commodore T. M. Hardy, in whose arms Lord Nelson died. With two eighteen-pounders and two six- pounders, the New England men drove off the fleet with no loss among themselves. Gurdon Trumbull shared in this famous defense, fired the first gun from the shore, and was the bearer of a flag to the com- mander of the fleet on behalf of the civil authorities of the town, in declining to accede to a demand from the attacking force. Mr. Trumbull told his son Henry that Hardy, during the conference on his ship, pointed to a lounge or settee in the cabin, a relic of his old ship Victory, saying : " It may inter- est you, gentlemen, to know that on that couch Lord Nelson lay in his death, after I had given him my parting embrace." Gurdon Trumbull was a self-educated man. He had worked as a young man in his father's newspaper ofiice. In his odd moments, and far into the night,, he made good use of every book that might give him a wide outlook on the world. Thus he became con- versant with the great English classics ; thus he gained a thorough knowledge of Latin and French, even without knowing how to pronounce the words of these languages. He had no formal schooling after he was eleven years old, but he read so widely His Family 13 and studied so assiduously that he was known to all as a man of culture and fine mental attainments. Mr. Trumbull saw that those about him often needed legal advice. Accordingly he read law, and for years drew up the legal papers of the Stoning- ton folk, settled their disputes, gave counsel as it was needed, and always these services were rendered without pay. He was a member of the state House of Representatives, member of the state Senate, and commissioner of the School Fund, a position of much responsibility and honor. He was interested with his brother John F. in whaling and sealing, in those days the chief occupation of the Stonington inhabitants. Gurdon Trumbull was one of the incorporators and directors of the first railroad in Stonington, incorpo- rated in 1832, as the New York and Stonington Rail- road Company, and, indeed, one of the earliest railroads in this country. He was appointed postmaster by John Quincy Adams, and he was chosen by the United States Government to oversee the building of the breakwater at Stonington. He was one of the in- corporators of the Stonington Savings Bank, chartered in 1850, and a member of the first Board of Directors of the Ocean Bank, now the First National, in 1851. And what Gurdon Trumbull was at his best in these varied fields of service, he was in his own home, — clear-headed, incisive, honored, trusted, and loved. That home must have been an incentive to the younger generation. It explains many a characteris- tic of the TrumbuUs of our own day, and the picture of the life within that household is typical of the best American home life of the period. 14 Henry Clay Trumbull There were generally nine at the table. Mrs. Trumbull had the rare faculty of entering heartily and sympathetically into the work and thought of others, while the father was ever on the alert to in- terest and stimulate his children to careful thinking. He was wont to bring about a discussion by seeming to take the obviously wrong side. Sweeping generali- ties were challenged, opinions uttered were not allowed to stand without stated reasons, and then the reasons themselves came in for their share of the attack. For example, Mr. Trumbull would strive to estab- lish the saying of the French cynic Rochefoucauld, that no misfortune can happen to another that does not bring some kind of pleasure to oneself Then the sparks would fly, until the gentle mother would ciy protestingly, " Father, you have them all confused ! " "That's just what I want!" would be the quick and smiling reply; and the young people, with sharpened wits, would have had another lesson of the sort that helped to make every one of these Trumbull children, as they grew to maturity, keen-eyed for truth, and by no means easy to overcome in an argument. Gurdon Trumbull made his children think ; his wife met them in their studies and interests at the very point where zest may fail unless a sympathetic, understanding helper is ready to give encouragement. Under such training the natural abilities of the young Trumbulls were developed to a high degree. James Hammond Trumbull very early showed his aptitude for scholarly pursuits. In 1842-3, when he was twenty-one years old, he assisted the Rev. James H. Linsley in preparing lists of the mammalia, reptiles, His Family 15 fishes, and shells of Connecticut. In 1847-52, and in 1858-61, he was assistant secretary of state, and secre- tary in 1861-64, ^"d he had been state librarian in 1854. In 1863, he was chosen president of the Con- necticut Historical Society, having been its corre- sponding secretary for the preceding fourteen years. He was the librarian of the Watkinson Free Library of Hartford from 1863 to 1897. In 1874-5, he was president of the American Philological Association, and was for years a member of numerous other learned bodies. Perhaps that for which he was most noted was his study and mastery of Indian languages in North America. He was known as the only American scholar in these modern days who could read John Eliot's Indian Bible. His daughter, Annie Eliot, is widely known as an essay- ist, literary critic, and writer of fiction. In 1897, shortly after the death of James Ham- mond Trumbull, his friend and neighbor, " Mark Twain," said of him in The Century Magazine : " He was probably the richest man in America in the matter of knowledge,— knowledge of all values, from copper up to government bonds. . . . He spent his riches in a princely way upon any that needed and applied. . . . "Years ago, as I have been told, a widowed de- scendant of the Audubon family, in desperate need, sold a perfect copy of Audubon's ' Birds ' to a com- mercially-minded scholar in America for a hundred dollars. The book was worth a thousand in the market. The scholar complimented himself upon his shrewd stroke of business. That was not Ham- 1 6 Henry Clay Trumbull mond Trumbull's style. After the war a lady in the far south wrote him that among the wreckage of her better days she had a book which some one had told her was worth a hundred dollars, and had advised her to offer it to him ; she added that she was very poor, and that if he would buy it at that price, it would be a great favor to her. It was Eliot's Indian Bible. Trumbull answered that if it was a perfect copy it had an established market value, like a gold coin, and was worth a thousand dollars ; that if she would send it to him he would examine it, and if it proved to be perfect he would sell it to the British Museum and forward the money to her. It did prove to be perfect, and she got her thousand dollars with- out delay, and intact." Mary Trumbull studied in Stonington and in Brad- ford Academy, Massachusetts. She married William C. Prime, a prominent lawyer, then of Williamsburg, New York, who became the editor and one of the owners of the New York Journal of Commerce, presi- dent of the Associated Press, and a widely-known writer on art, on nature, and on Oriental travels. The Primes traveled extensively, and through Mrs. Prime's interest in pottery and porcelain they made a collection of representative specimens from all parts of the world. By their generous gift this became the TrumbuU-Prime Museum at Princeton, Dr. Prime's alma mater. Charles Edward Trumbull studied in Stonington, and entered Williams College, where he gained dis- tinction as an orator. On the evening of August 17, 1852, when he was nineteen years old, and a sopho- His Family 17 more, he delivered a prize oration in an oratorical contest, speaking on Henry Clay, who had just died. At the close of the contest, the orator of the evening, Wendell Phillips, delivered an oration before the Adelphic Union Society, in which he took occasion to praise Trumbull's oration, even though he did not agree with the young speaker's attitude to- wards Clay. To gratify his parents' wishes, Charles left Williams and went to Yale. He was not well. His parents desired to have him nearer home. At Yale he won fresh laurels as an orator throughout his course, and delivered a commencement oration on "The Graves of the Regicides." Horace Bushnell, who heard the address, said to Henry Trumbull the next day, "That was the best college exercise to which I have ever listened." And in recent years Dr. Trumbull repeatedly heard old Yale men speak of that oration, delivered by a boy who died when he was in his twenty-fourth year. Charles had purposed to study for the ministry, but his health suddenly gave way, and he died in Magnolia, Florida, on March 17, 1856. Thomas Swan Trumbull was a graduate of the Harvard Law School, practised law in New York in the office of William C. Prime, and when the Civil War came, enlisted in the first three years' regiment from Connecticut, the First Connecticut Regiment of Heavy Artillery. He was commissioned as adjutant, then as major, and was promoted to be Lieutenant-Colonel. He was Chief of Artillery on the staff of two army corps commanders, and at one time had charge of all the artillery before Richmond and Petersburg. He 1 8 , Henry Clay Trumbull died in Washington on March 30, 1865, while on court-martial duty, worn out in army service. Annie Trumbull married Edward Slosson of New York City, a prominent lawyer. As an author of New England stories she has disclosed as no one else has the dreamer and the obscure seer in that fascina- ting country, in such books as "Fishin' Jimmy," " Seven Dreamers," and " Aunt Abby's Neighbors." Among scientists Mrs. Slosson is recognized as an authority on entomology. Two genera of insects have been named for her, and her collection of moths and butterflies is noted for its numerous rare speci- mens. Gurdon Trumbull, the youngest of the children who grew to maturity, became the foremost fish painter in America. Then he interested himself in ornithology, and his book, " Names and Portraits of Birds which Interest Gunners," is an authority on that subject. He died only twenty days after his brother Henry, on December 28, 1903. Each child of Gurdon and Sarah Trumbull who did not die in childhood or youth became a specialist of note in one field or another, and each was the product of a home life and a neighborhood environment that were uncommonly stimulating and broadening. In such a center of home life, in such close touch with local and larger affairs, the younger generation was brought into formative contact with a wonderfully varied life, and had visions of a wide horizon of use- fulness. HEROES OF THE STONINGTON DAYS Impassable barriers ought not to be a real hindrance to one' s progress in the line of duty. If a man has anything to do that he ought to do, he should do it, whether he can do it or not. The fact that a thing cannot be done that must be done, is only an added reason for its doing. — An editorial paragraph. Every truest follower of Christ and every ex- ceptionally earnest servant of God to-day has before his mind some human ideal, or ideals, as his incentive and as his cheer in his daily strivings God-ward. He would never have known the beauty and the nobleness of an abso- lutely unselfish affection, of a simple fidelity to duty in all things, of an unswerving consistency of uprightness in conduct, of tender considerate- ness in word and manner toward others, of heroic bearing and doing in emergencies, if he had never seen one of those traits of character attrac- tively illustrated in fact or in story. — Aspirations and Influences, CHAPTER II HEROES OF THE STONINGTON DAYS Along the New England coast, by reason of its age-long buffetings from the sea, ragged tumbles of surf-worn rock sturdily contest the shore-line with the ocean. But peaceful, sandy beaches temper the bravado of the granite line of battle ; coves and quiet harbors gather and release the full and silent tides where troublous seas can never enter. If you stand far out on the Point in the twilight of a November day, with a whirl of sleet about you, and the gray sea beyond Watch Hill racing into Fisher's Island Sound with the spindrift flying, you are indeed in Stonington. But the Point is narrow where you stand. On the right, within the breakwater, there is harbor ; behind you are the houses of the village ; to the left you catch a glimpse of Watch Hill in the mist. The dim outline of Fisher's Island looms across the Sound, and you are alone with the easterly gale on a jutting, brawny arm of the southern New England shore, thrust out into the gray of the inland water, with tumult overhead, and under the lee of the Point a quiet anchorage. But Stonington was exceptional among New Eng- land towns in its contact with the busy world. Its whaling and sealing fleets were found at the ends of 21 22 Henry Clay Trumbull the earth. It was the terminus and junction of rail- road and steamboat traffic between eastern New Eng- land and the rest of the country. Consequently life in Stonington was by no means narrow or dull. His- torical interest drew many prominent visitors to the famous little seaport, bringing vividly to mind notable events and achievements in the persons of men who had actively shared in them. When Henry was about three years old he was lifted in his mother's arms to see President Andrew Jackson and Vice-President Martin Van Buren pass- ing on their way to the spot on which the Stonington men were stationed when they repelled the British fleet in 1814. In the closing year of his life Dr. Trumbull wrote : " To this day nothing that my eyes have ever seen in the way of natural scenery equals in impressiveness the sight of a great man and a true one. He is sure to excite my interest. I have seen the Alps and the Rocky Mountains, the Yose- mite, Mount Sinai, the Mountains of Lebanon, Niagara Falls, the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the Mediterra- nean Sea, and the Sea of Galilee, but these were as nothing in my memory compared with President Jackson, my first hero, and the other heroes who have followed him in my human gaze." Upon the occasion of President John Tyler's visit to Stonington, Gurdon Trumbull, Henry's father, was a member of the reception committee, while the boy's uncle, Dr. George E., Palmer, warden of the borough, made the address of welcome. The Presi- dent was shown the old eighteen-pounders that had done such good service, and the arsenal, so dilapi- Heroes of Stonington 23 dated that it offered poor protection to the precious relics. Dr. Palmer suggested that the National Government should make some provision for caring for the old guns. Then President Tyler, who was known as Old Veto, said in the hearing of the wide- awake boy, then about thirteen years old, "I'll tell you what I'll do. If you'll get Congress to vote an appropriation for that arsenal, I'll promise not to veto it!" One Sunday afternoon Henry saw Commodore Hull, of the frigate Constitution, moving about the historic places in the village, dressed in his blue coat and trousers and buff waistcoat with gilt but- tons. He saw and became acquainted with Colonel John Trumbull of Washington's staff, the artist son of that Governor Jonathan Trumbull of Connecticut to whom Washington gave the name of " Brother Jonathan." This man carried the boy's thought back to the earliest days of our united country. For John Trumbull had seen the battle of Bunker's Hill, and had known Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, Roger Sherman, General Putnam, and many another man of that day when the welding and the defending of the colonies were still absorbing the best of the nation's best men. At the railroad station, in 1848, on the great man's last journey to Washington, the boy saw John Quincy Adams. It may seem a small thing in these teeming days merely to see a man of note and power. But this was never so at any time with Henry Clay Trum- bull. His interest was in men, and he never missed an opportunity to look into the face of a strong man. 24 Henry Clay Trumbull Others would do this out of sheer curiosity, he as a part of his education. How his eyes would flash as he described General Winfield Scott, who seemed to his boyish, fascinated gaze the " acme of human majesty " ! How his rapid utterance would quicken as he described the pageant in New York, where he went from Stonington with his father to see the victorious General returning from the Mexican war ! It was all a part of his wonderfully broad education in humankind, and throughout his life the individual was his chief study. Henry Trumbull had a memory which even in childhood was a marvel among children's memories. Until he had passed well into adolescence he hardly knew what it was to forget anything. He could not ap- preciate what other boys meant when they said they had " forgotten." The books he read, or heard read, the men he met, and even their conversation, he re- membered with almost photographic exactness. His chief recollections clustered about the men he had met, and the events in which these men had a part were ever vividly before him. Always his conver- sation sparkled with reminiscences of those days. When he was only eight years old the story of Elihu Burritt, the learned blacksmith, made a pro- found impression upon him. Burritt came of a family of Connecticut farmers. While he was an apprentice in the shop of a blacksmith he studied as he worked at the forge. In the winter evenings he read Virgil and Cicero. Then he took up Greek. . Through the interest of his friend William Lincoln and the Honorable Edward Everett the public became inter- Heroes of Stonington 25 ested in him, and, greatly to his surprise, he was sought for as a lecturer. During the winter of 1841, he gave his lecture "Application and Genius" more than sixty times. Of that lecture Dr. Trumbull wrote : "'Fit, non nascitur,' was his motto, in contradis- tinction to the well-known Latin proverb, ' Poeta nascitur, non fit: That lecture I listened to en- tranced while a mere boy of eleven years, in the basement lecture-room of the Stonington Congre- gational Church on a week-day evening. Its abiding impressions are in my mind to-day. It was a start- ling thought to me, young as I was, that we are to be counted the creatures of our associates and our associations ; that it is not so much what is in us at the start as what is about us which must settle the question of what we are to be. That lecture, it is true, presented but a half truth, yet one well worth considering." It was twenty years after the boy had heard Elihu Burritt to such lasting purpose that he met him in the learned man's home in New Britain, and henceforward was in frequent correspondence and close intimacy with him. When Henry was only ten years old, Richard H. Dana's "Two Years Before the Mast" appeared. J. Hammond Trumbull, then a student in Yale, while at home on a vacation read aloud to his mother this wonderful story of the sea. Of course any Stoning- ton boy would be eager to hear such a story as that, and as Henry overheard the reading he became fas- cinated by the book and its author. Many years later, when Mr. Dana made his famous argument for the 26 Henry Clay Trumbull continuance of the Bible in tlie public schools of Maine, Henry Clay Trumbull was himself becom- ing a factor in religious education. Then again the masterly work of Mr. Dana made its impress upon his mind, and for many years he quoted from that argument in addresses throughout the country. And, as in the case of so many other men who interested him as a boy, Mr. Trumbull came to know Mr. Dana intimately in later years. " Peter Parley," Mr. Samuel G. Goodrich, of Con- necticut, was another hero of the Stonington days. Useful knowledge was the field in which he was a pioneer writer for children, amid public criticism and ridicule. But he was read wherever English was read ; and Daniel Webster, upon returning from Eng- land, said that the two living Americans best known in England were Justice Story and Peter Parley. In 1827 he began his writing for children, and in thirty years he wrote one hundred and seventy volumes. Of Mr. Goodrich, Dr. Trumbull wrote: "When I first began to read I had the help and stimulus of Peter Parley's writings. I saw his picture as the crippled old Continental, and his personality was fixed in my mind accordingly. For years he was thus my guide, philosopher, and friend. What a disappointment and shock to me it was when I was somewhat older, as I was presented to the real man as he was, in my father's sitting-room ! He had just returned from Paris, where he was our United States Consul [from 1851-55]. Instead of a venerable and dilapidated old Revolutionary soldier, he was a slim and dap- per gentleman of middle age in the latest cut of Heroes of Stonington 27 Parisian dress. What a drop from the ideal to the real ! " Among Henry's companions was a boy named James McNeill Whistler. His father, Major George Wash- ington Whistler, a noted engineer, had a part in build- ing the Stonington and Providence Railroad. With him was associated Major William Gibbs McNeill, whose sister Major Whistler married. Dr. George E. Palmer, an uncle of Henry Trumbull's, married another sister of Major McNeill, and so the two boys came to know each other. Major Whistler was called to Russia in 1842 to superintend the building of the railroad from Petersburg to Moscow, and the younger children were left with Mrs. Palmer dur- ing the father's absence. " At that time," writes Dr. Trumbull of young Whistler, " he exhibited none of the excessive vanity that has since excited the world's ridicule. He was an attractive boy — bright, cheerful, modest, strange as this may seem. I had practised somewhat in ordinary, very ordinary, amateur pencil drawing. 'Jamie,' who Wcis several years younger than myself, had watched me at my work, and seemed in- terested in it. He was then nine years old, and I was thirteen. One day he made an offhand pencil sketch, and showed it to me. I saw at once that that was the work of genius and I praised him for it without stint. At this he seemed delighted. No admirer of Whist- ler in his more prominent days could believe that there was a time when he was gratified when an ordinary person gave praise to his artistic work. But that is a fact, — improbable as it may seem." The " old corner house " in which Whistler lived, 28 Henry Clay Trumbull and in which Henry Trumbull worked for a time as a dispensary clerk, was built by Captain Amos Palmer, the fifth in descent from Walter Palmer, one of the original settlers of Stonington, from whom, as stated in the preceding chapter. General Grant and Henry Trumbull's mother were descended. In this wonderful old house there is a picture of Whistler's father done by the artist himself Miss Emma Palmer, daughter of Dr. Palmer, tells of young Whistler's painstaking study of the art in which he became a master. For the young artist, as Miss Palmer vividly remembers, spent many days upon the effort to paint perfectly the picture of a single drop of water, — an instance of his ever per- sistent and conscientious practise. Another phase of life was brought home to Henry Trumbull with memorable distinctness and inspiring power. Adoniram Judson stopped at the Stonington railroad station for a few hours one evening on his way from Boston to Philadelphia. Henry, who was then fourteen years old, recognized him from pictures he had seen of him. Not venturing to speak to him, however, the boy hurried to summon the Rev. Dr. Albert G. Palmer, the Baptist pastor. Henry had read the story of Judson in a village library book, and he was intensely excited over the actual presence of such a man in Stonington. Dr. Palmer lost no time in reaching the station, and Henry was close at hand. " I stood, during this interview," wrote Dr. Trum- bull, " at a little distance from the two, and watched the face of the good and great man while he talked Heroes of Stonington 29 with his fellow-disciple of his Master and of his mis- sion. All the while his face glowed with the light of his theme. The sight of that countenance was an in- spiration and a blessing to me. I have never for- gotten it. I never can forget it. In appearance Dr, Judson was tall, spare, wiry, of firmly compacted nerves. In his face were the signs of the many battles through which he had passed, and of the spirit in which he had been a victor through all ; and under all, and in all, there was a spiritual uplook showing that he had endured as seeing Him who is invisible. It was the look of Michelangelo's David, with his sling across his shoulder, ready to meet the grim giant of Gath, and doubting not that he should overcome in the combat, in the name of Him for whom he stood a champion." Nor was it alone by the vision he had of this noble missionary that Henry Trumbull received missionary impulse from those who had served in the world field. When Henry was only sixteen, Albert Bushnell, the " Patriarch of West African Missions," visited Ston- ington to make an address in the Congregational church. Mr. Bushnell called on Gurdon Trumbull, and during the call he expressed regret that he had no map of the Gaboon region with him to illustrate his talk. Mr. Trumbull suggested that he thought his son Henry could make such a map, and Henry gladly said he would try. Mr. Bushnell produced a sketch of the Gaboon Mission, printed in the Missionary Herald, and wished that enlarged. Henry set to work on several large sheets of drawing paper, and in a few hours had 30 Henry Clay Trumbull an India ink sketch map measuring about three and a half by two feet, mounted on a map roller, with a cord by which it could be hung in the church. " However it might have been about others in the audience," wrote Dr. Trumbull, " there was one boy interested in all that the missionary said about his West African field, in the meeting at the village church in my Stonington home, with the help of that map." Gurdon Trumbull, Henry's father, in view of his natural aptitude and his position in the town, had taken a prominent part in politics. He was interested not merely in contests for local candi- dates for oflfice, but he threw himself energetically into the wider battles of national elections and national policies. He had worked and voted for John Quincy Adams, and greatly admired Henry Clay. There had been four presidential candidates in 1824, — Jackson, Adams, Crawford, and Clay. When it became neces- sary to decide the election in the House of Rep- resentatives, Clay gave his influence and vote for Adams. When Adams was elected, and had ap- pointed Clay his Secretary of State, Adams and Clay were the objects of severe criticism as apparently par- ties to a corrupt bargain. But Gurdon Trumbull had confidence in Clay and in Adams, and in 1830, when his sixth child was born, he named him after the man for whom he had so great respect and admiration. It was characteristic of Mr. Trumbull that he then said that he would never have named any son of his after a popular political hero. Named, however, for a political warrior while the Heroes of Stonington 31 smoke of a fierce political battle still hung over the land, Henry Clay Trumbull was to find in that fact a stimulus to intense political interest throughout his life. His vision and his vote were never doubtful in any issue. In his maturity young men were wont to go to him for a clarifying of their ideas on coming elections. His judgment of men and measures was keen, and he was never confused by the wild attacks of an opposing party upon the candidates of another, or by the party picture of its own candidate with a halo poised over a head which he thought was perhaps more deserving of the noose. This political acumen had its beginnings in his naming. It was fostered by Stonington. In the famous campaign of "Tippecanoe and Tyler, too," when Martin Van Buren and William Henry Harrison were over against each other, and when in that " Log Cabin and Hard Cider" campaign popular enthusiasm was intense, the boys of Stonington did not sit on the fence. They marched in the procession. Amid ex- citement rarely seen now, they paraded the village streets singing the stirring songs of that campaign of songs. When Henry Clay and James K. Polk were the presidential candidates, in 1844, one can imagine young Henry Clay Trumbull's devotion to that con- test. And, as if designed to still further inspire that fiery young Whig, his father's house fronted on the village square, and the halyards of the village flag- staff led out from the observatory on the house. It was Henry's special duty to hoist Old Glory to the head of that flag-staff every morning, and to gather 32 Henry Clay Trumbull in its precious folds every night. That of itself ought to make a good American of any boy! It is truest patriotism that in our own day has set the flag fly- ing from the public schools of our nation. When a schoolboy is permitted, as a mark of honor, to raise that flag, he is lifting his own ideals of his duty to the United States, whether he himself knows that blessed fact or not. Another fact impressed itself upon the boy's mind in that house close to the flag. His father had put himself into the campaign for Clay. When defeat came, Gurdon Trumbull was made ill by sheer disap- pointment. His physical collapse was so complete that his family feared he might suffer permanently serious effects. What boy, whose father could be made ill by such a disappointment (he was after no office for himself), could fail to be impressed with the importance and burden of citizenship! Young as Henry was, it was not surprising, on the whole, that he should be led into places of early responsibility in political affairs. In 1 848, when he was but eighteen years old, it was his duty to see that all the Whig voters of Stonington were at the polls in the contest between Taylor and Cass for the Presidential chair. Thus he began an active political work of which he was to do yet more as the years passed. There was no one among all the Stonington folk of whom Dr. Trumbull used to tell with quite so much gusto as of Captain Nat Palmer. He was a master- mariner of world-wide reputation. When a mere boy of eighteen. Captain Nat, in his forty-five ton sloop. Heroes of Stonington 33 Hero, joined a fleet of vessels leaving Stonington for a sealing voyage to the South Shetlands. They were near Deception Island in the season of 1820-1821, when, in the distance, an active volcano was discovered. Captain Palmer went in the Hero to explore the new territory. Returning, in a thick fog, he fell in with a Russian fleet, and as the fog began to clear, the Russian commander sent a boat to the Hero. The Russians were on an exploring expedition around the world. When the Stonington boy, dressed in sealskin coat and boots, with his "sou'wester" on his head stood among the fully uniformed Russian officers and described the new country, the astonish- ment of the Russian commander knew no bounds. He expressed his disappointment over not having found the new land for his sovereign. Then, grasping the young captain's hand, the Russian cried : " What shall I say to my master ! What will he think of me ? But be that as it may, my grief is your joy. Wear your laurels with my sincere prayers for your welfare. I name the land you have dis- covered in honor of yourself, noble boy, ' Palmer's Land.' " So to-day on the map of the world is written the name Palmer's Land across that continent just below the South Shetlands in the far Antarctic. Captain Palmer came to be one of the most widely known ship commanders on the ocean highways of the world. He was a man of marked character. Huge of stature, bold and resourceful, his face and form carried the marks of a master of men. He was one of the founders of the New York Yacht Club, 34 Henry Clay Trumbull and between voyages he amused himself in his yacht. " I was one of those/' wrote Dr. Trumbull, " whom he would frequently take on his expeditions along the Long Island shore, or when he raced with the yachts of the New York Yacht Club. He started out one time to take some friends of his to Saybrook, at the mouth of the Connecticut River. The wind died away toward evening and, as we came to the mouth of the river, the tide running out made it impossible to hold our own. We were being driven back into the Sound. ' Captain Nat ' told us two boys to get out the rowboat and go ahead and tow the yacht. " It was not an easy task with the tide and the river running out like a mill-race, even to keep the boat ahead of the yacht, and as to towing the yacht in addition, that seemed quite out of the question. At the same time 'Captain Nat ' had nothing to do with impossibilities, and he made us feel that we must not consider them. My companion fell overboard and struggled for his life in the rushing torrent. Yet, after all, we accomplished our task, and toward morn- ing we reached Saybrook. We two boys had learned a lesson that night that we never forgot. I felt the power that was commanding us more forcefully than I ever felt its like before or since. And I have never lost the impression of his overpowering effectiveness in making me ready to do what I had to do, whether I could do it or not." IN SCHOOL AND OUT Intelligent, purposeful teaching includes the idea of two persons, both of them active. Nor is it enough that there be two persons, both of them active ; both active over the same lesson. 7%is may be secured by hearing a recitation, and commenting on it ; but that is not, neces- sarily, teaching. The scholar, in such a case, may be merely exercising his memory, reciting what he has memorized verbally without under- standing a word of it ; he learns nothing ; he is not taught anything ; he is not caused to know a single fact or truth, by his teacher's hearing him recite ; nor does he learn anything by his teacher's wisest comment, if he pays no atten- tion to that comment, or if he is unable to understand it "Teaching," as causing an- other to know, includes the mutual effort of two persons to the same end. The teacher must endeavor to cause the pupil to learn a particular fact or truth which he wants him to know ; the learner must endeavor to learn that particular fact or truth. Until the two are at this common work, the process of teaching has not begun : until the learner has learned, the teacher has not taught — Teaching and Teachers. CHAPTER III IN SCHOOL AND OUT " From what college were you graduated ? " was a question often asked of Dr. Trumbull, and no question about his early days gave him more amusement. " College, college ? " he would laughingly answer. " I never went to college. My health would not let me. I never had much schooling, in the ordinary sense, after I was fourteen." " But how did you come to know so much. Doc- tor ? " his interrogator would wonderingly ask. " Oh, I don't know anything," would be the instant reply. " I just have an idea where to go to find out things I want to know, and I go." " But your work in Oriental research, your Bible study, — surely you do know more than most of us about such things ! " " That's it, that's it ! " the Doctor would cry, with his brilliant eyes twinkling mirthfully. " I suppose I do know more than some men, because I know that I don't know anything. That's the biggest part of my stock of knowledge. I know I don't know, and so I must set to work to learn what I want to learn." This was almost invariably the end of the cross- 17 38 Henry Clay Trumbull examination, for the questioner would fall to thinking about a principle of scholarship which is not too com- monly cited by scholars in the open court of conver- sation. Henry Trumbull's boyhood schooling was an ad- mixture of home culture, neighborhood knockabout observation, and severely careful training in private schools under those whose character and personality, quite as much as their instruction, gave shape and purpose to the boy's active intellect. "It was about 1830," wrote Dr. Trumbull, "that infant schools were introduced into this country from England. Children who had never been deemed of school age went to these schools. One of them, taught by Miss Grace Stanton, of Wethersfield, was held in Stonington. I attended it when so young that after my lessons I would be laid on a pillow, on a bench in the schoolroom to sleep." The old Stonington Academy, which Henry began to attend on August i, 1839, when he was nine years old, was taught by Daniel S. Rodman, later of Wel- lesley, and by Dr. Nicholas Chesebrough. " To Dan- iel Rodman," wrote Dr. Trumbull, " I owe very much in his power of making a subject interesting to a boy. He first made Bible stories attractive and real to me from the superintendent's desk in the Sunday-school " [of the Second Congregational Church]. A school- mate of Henry's in the Academy, Miss Fanny Chese- brough, writes vividly of that school : I remember still the Latin recitations in the old Academy when Daniel Rodman taught There were only three in the advanced class, the late Hon. Ephraim Williams, then about In School and Out 39 sixteen years of age, Edmund D. Stanton, and Henry Clay Trumbull. I think they were translating Virgil. I can see them now, sitting in the flood of light that came in behind them from an eastern window. Day after day I lis- tened, drinking in the beauty of the grand poetry, and silently resolving that in a few years I, too, would study Latin, and could then enjoy the delightful story. And what a school Mr. Rodman taught in those days ! Never do I remember hearing an unpleasant word. In a school of over thirty boys and girls I do not now recollect that one was ever reproved. If so, I failed to hear it. Among Dr. Trumbull's papers of long ago was found a poster, measuring about twelve by eighteen inches, on which was skilfully drawn, in shaded and elaborately decorated letters, this modest announce- ment : " All kinds of fancy printing performed at the desk of Henry C. Trumbull, Stonington Academy." Henry's school-days were not passed entirely in Stonington. It was thought best by his parents that he should have the experience of a period of study away from home. When he was fourteen years old he went to Williston Seminary, at East Hampton, Massachusetts, for this purpose. That institution, founded by the Hon. Samud Williston, had been in- corporated in February, 1841, and in December the school was opened. Its need and place were at once recognized. In its early days there was no arrange- ment of studies by terms, and the students were not classified. Luther Wright, its principal from 1841 to 1849, believed it desirable to have his pupils study together in a single room, under his direction. There were two departments in the school, male and female, but in 1864 the latter was discontinued. Williston has 40 Henry Clay Trumbull made, and continues to make, a noble record in the annals of education, and, naturally, has become a fully- graded school. In the forties, at its very beginning, the purpose of the founder was " to make not a Col- lege nor a Professional School, but a Secondary In- stitution of a far higher order than any now existing." Henry boarded in the family of Dr. Atherton Clark, whose son, William S. Clark, was his schoolmate in Williston. In later years, when Trumbull was chap- lain of the Tenth Connecticut, and William S. Clark was colonel of the Twenty-first Massachusetts, they were together at Roanoke Island, and New Berne, North Carolina. After the war, Clark was President of the Massachusetts Agricultural College at Amherst. Henry had a restless boy's desire to go away from home, into new surroundings, but he had not reck- oned on the uprising of an affection for home which was almost overpowering to him. His health was not good. He was frail and nervous, and accustomed to the most tender care at home. Consequently, he was inclined to think more about home affairs and the possibility of having his part in them again than about his opportunities in school. His father wrote long and painstaking letters to the affectionate and sensitive boy, in the endeavor to set his mind at work upon the school life and interests, as opportunities for growth. In one letter, of July 12, 1844, he put the situation clearly in his carefully-framed and delib- erate phrases : I regret that you appear to suffer under the species of dis- content called home-sickness. I regret it because it makes you unhappy, and disqualifies you from profiting by the advan- In School and Out 41 tages of your present position. . . . We hardly appreciate the common blessings of life until we suffer their depriva- tion, and we are apt to make more allowances for the defects in the disposition or deportment of our nearest friends when they are separated from us, while we are more subject to self-reproach in a retrospect of our deficiencies in duty and affection when those to whom they are due are far away. ... If I were to offer advice to you, believing that it would be implicitly followed, I should urge you to make a good use of the present time, to lose no opportunity of getting good and doing good. ... I would have you lay a foundation strong and deep for your future happiness, and to sacrifice present ease and gratification in prosecuting this work I would have you ask yourself, before action, whether what you propose to do is right in itself, whether it will afford you satisfaction in the retrospect, whether it is consistent with that law of benevolence to which I have referred. If you can answer in the affirmative, fear not to go forward, believing that your decision will be approved by your parents, by your own conscience and by your Father above. ... I would seriously caution you against indulging discontent and impatience. They will poison your peace if not subdued. . . . Content- ment and complacency depend more upon ourselves than upon circumstances, and if you would enjoy your present position or any other in which you may hereafter find yourself, you must strive to make the best of it and resist that element in our composition which makes us "Fond of novelty, and studious of change." Thus, although away from home, Henry was not away from the influence of home philosophy. He was in constant ill-health, and before the school year was over he was at home, among his associates in the village. But the influences of Williston lingered with him. There was henceforth an outer world for him in his own experiences. In the school, upon one occasion, he heard the great John Todd, that pioneer 42 Henry Clay Trumbull of educators, whose principles and spirit laid hold upon Henry Clay Trumbull for future outworking in his own ideals of the teaching art. It was while he was at Williston, a fellow-student with a son and a daughter of William Richards, a martyred mission- ary to the Sandwich Islands, that the boy visited the grave of David Brainerd at Northampton. Quick- ened by the story of David Brainerd, Henry Martyn had carried the gospel to India. And for young Trumbull deep, abiding purposes found their begin- nings in that boyhood pilgrimage to David Brainerd's last resting-place. After he left Williston, Henry had occasional terms at school, but with no regularity. He was not par- ticularly interested in study, nor was he very profi- cient in any one branch. One afternoon, however, as he was studying Virgil in the village school-room, under Mr. L. L. Weld as the teacher, he suddenly became conscious of a new interest in his subject of study. " As I was looking out the words in my lexicon," he wrote, " I became interested in the portion of Virgil which was my lesson. Without a thought of the class recitation before me, I felt an interest in the story I was translating. It was my first awakening to an interest in study as study. It was late in school life for such a beginning. It was not many weeks before I left school permanently. But from that day to the present, study, research, has never lost its interest to me." Twice during his Stonington days, once before he went to Willi-ston, and once after he returned, Henry In School and Out 43 was for several months in the dispensary or apothe- cary's store and office of his uncle, Dr. George E. Palmer. As a country physician, Dr. Palmer prepared his own remedies, and, in addition to this, he was ac- customed to fit out medicine chests for the Stoning- ton whale ships. For several months Henry was the assistant of his family physician. Dr. William Hyde, Jr., in preparing medicine chests for the New York and New Orleans steamers ; and he was often called upon by these two physicians to assist in surgical operations, — all of which was of untold service to him in his army experiences in camp and field and prison. When about nineteen Henry was the only clerk of Francis Amy, cashier of the Stonington Bank, and treasurer of the Stonington and Providence Railroad, of which Cornelius Vanderbilt was the president, — Vanderbilt's first office of the kind. Young Trumbull was kept busy. When some one asked Mr. Amy what were his bank hours, that hard-working man replied : " We open when we've a mind to, and we shut up when we get through." Then, when the bank " shut up " for the day, the railroad work was on hand for the evening. Of this Dr. Trumbull wrote : " My office experience in the evenings was of value as training me to devote myself to my work, without being disturbed by noises about me. The treasurer's office, which was also the superintendent's, was on the ground floor of the railroad station, near the far end of the steamboat dock. The office door was always open, and persons were coming in and going out, to ask questions or to make reports. Fifty feet 44 Henry Clay Trumbull from my desk a steamboat was blowing steam through its pipes, while making ready for its next trip. Freight trucks were running by the door, unloading the cars and loading the steamer. Yet I must settle the day's accounts, with conductors and purser, in all this hub- bub. After that training I could sit on a curbstone in a city street and write an editorial as easily as in an inner study of a clergyman's house." Two and a half miles east of Stonington in Henry Trumbull's boyhood a district schoolhouse served the Wequetequock neighborhood in double capacity. For in that little building Daniel S. Rodman, Henry's be- loved schoolmaster, more to him as a boyhood teacher than any other man, had gathered in July, 1845, ^ Sunday-school of about two score members. The Trumbulls attended the Second Congregational Church, of which the Rev. William Clift was then the pastor. Henry had never seriously faced the question of his acceptance of the Saviour, though he was a pupil in the Sunday-school; but his generous and active spirit led him most naturally into whatever work appeared to need his help. When the Wequete- quock school needed teachers, he became a teacher there. One of the boys in his class, now Dr. George D. Stanton of Stonington, has vivid recollections of young Trumbull, who, says Dr. Stanton, was the most fluent talker he had ever known. His teaching was full of illustrations, very practical, and sure to have attention. He was superintendent of the school in the summer of 1855, during a visit to Stonington, and in that capacity he gave evidence of his devotion to individual work with individuals. For it is related In School and Out 45 by Miss Fanny Chesebrough.who has supplied many historical facts about the school, that upon a closing Sabbath of the school (Sunday-schools in those days sometimes closed in winter) she saw Mr. Trumbull in long and earnest conversation with a young and sen- sitive girl, a member of the Bible class which he taught. Miss Chesebrough met Mr. Trumbull some weeks later in the Hartford railroad station, and to- gether they discussed the case of this troubled soui, in whose welfare both were interested. In 1850, Mr. Trumbull was teaching a class of boys in the Second Congregational Sunday-school in Ston- ington. This was the lineal descendant of the first Sunday-school in eastern Connecticut, gathered by Mrs. Phoebe Smith in her Stonington home in 18 15. And of this school the Manual of the Second Church says : " To this church and community it has been a constant blessing, while it has had the honor of giv- ing to this generation one of its most eminent Sun- day-school workers in the person of the Rev. Henry Clay Trumbull." Even thus early in his Sunday-school training Mr. Trumbull began to acquire his sympathetic under- standing of the pupil's way of looking at things. One of his boys, at the close of a lesson, asked the young teacher to explain a picture in a library book. Two little boys who had been sailing on Sunday were about to be drowned by the capsizing of their boat. " Was they drownded ? " asked the boy with wide- eyed interest. "Yes," answered Mr. Trumbull; "and thus, my boy, you may see the fruits of disobedience and Sab- 46 Henry Clay Trumbull bath breaking. Had those boys obeyed their parents, and gone to Sabbath-school, they might have been yet alive and happy." The young hopeful, himself a longshore lad, gazed in silence for a moment at the perilous position of the boat in the picture, and then indignantly cried out: " Why don't the plaguey fool ease off his main sheet!" After Stonington, Mr. Trumbull was ready for any- thing, particularly the unexpected. EARLY LITERARY TENDENCIES The truest preparation for high intellectual pursuits is in the disciplining of the intellectual faculties by an enforced constraint within the limits of special studies, against which the pri- mary instincts and the passing fancies of the stu- dent' s mind incline to rebel. Not until a student has learned how to give his whole being to ap- plication or to research contrary to his natural inclination, is a student capable of application or of research to the best advantage in the line of his inclination. And he who studies only what he likes to study, and only when he enjoys studying, can never make such progress in the direction of even such study, as can his fellow, of equal native capacity with himself, who turns, by his own will, or who is turned by a sense of duty or of enforcing circumstances, in that direc- tion after he has gained the power of working effectively against his impulses and preferences, and who, by holding all his intellectual powers in control, has gained the control of all his in- tellectual powers. — Practical Paradoxes. CHAPTER IV EARLY LITERARY TENDENCIES To Henry Clay Trumbull the gift of expression was vouchsafed in many forms. His brilliant eyes looked straight through you when intent and piercing; they were irresistible in their merry twinkle when the nimble wit behind them flashed out from the windows through which it was not hard to discern the soul within. When opened wide in surprise or astonish- ment, or in the heat of argument, they shone with an almost hypnotic fascination. Indeed, the practise of hypnotism was one of young Trumbull's delights with the village boys as his wondering subjects. Even as a boy his thought found vivid expression through those eyes of his, — keen or lambent, now merry, now dark with anger; through swiftly ges- ticulating, sinewy, strong hands; and by way of mobile lips that seemed no barrier to the rapid utterance of his crowding thoughts. Of course such a nature would express itself It could not be self-contained. The boyish pranks, the love of companionship, adventure, social exhilaration; the ready flow of anecdote, and the trip-hammer strokes of sudden epigram which characterized his conversation in adolescence and in all his later life, were the abounding evidences of an overflowing soul. 49 50 Henry Clay Trumbull Dr. Trumbull used to tell, with a twinkle in his keen blue eyes, of the naming of the Stonington streets, when, nearly fifty years ago, they got the names that have clung to them. Their naming was one of the pranks of the boys, who, even in fun, were working with no little imagination, and to a good purpose. The boys had a reason for each name they gave. Broad street was wider than the others ; Pearl street was so called because of a girls' school on that street; Grand was the finest street in those days; Union is a short street connecting Main and Water streets. "Harmony," wrote Dr. Trumbull, in a letter to Miss Grace D. Wheeler, author of "Old Homes in Stonington," "had reference to a family that lived on it. The father, when excited by liquor, was very ill-natured, and my uncle, John F. Trumbull, told often of seeing the old man in a vil- lage store until late in the evening, when he would say, 'Well, it is time I returned to my cottage of peace and contentment.' An hour later you could go by that house and hear the wife screaming, while the husband dragged her around by the hair of the head; hence the name." One naturally finds evidences of Henry's desire for word-expression in the local prints and speech- making of the day. In such productions one would not look for the restrained utterances of maturity and cultivation, but rather for the efflorescence of a garden run wild in its riot of new life. His first speech was delivered on behalf of a volunteer fire company in Stonington, in welcoming a visit- ing fire company from Providence. Henry was the Early Literary Tendencies 51 secretary of the Stonington organization, the "Un- dine," a name that had been suggested by him, and adopted by the company, against the objection of members who thought " Undine " was too decidedly a heathen name, and who suggested " Neptune " as a substitute. In another saving work which was then coming into increased prominence and recognition, young Trumbull was found working and speaking with all the energy and zeal that always mastered him whenever he united himself with any good cause. For he had aligned himself with the temperance work of the day, and there is, in his fine and pa- tient and beautifully clear handwriting, a record of one of his temperance addresses, delivered before the Mechanics' and Workingmen's Association of his native town on February 4, 1850. His begin- ning is characteristic: " Temperance ! Surely 'twould seem useless to employ the time of this meeting in discoursing upon this well-drilled topic. Truly it is a singular subject on which to speak in this enlightened age. Striving to convince an intelligent audience that total absti- nence from all intoxicating beverages is preferable to delirium tremens and the drunkard's death, is a strange employment. What would be thought of one who should give notice of a lecture on the advantages of air in sustaining life and health, or of the benefits of sun and rain to vegetation ? " But he goes on to recognize the need of such ad- dresses, and he proceeds to picture the contrast between the two extremes of temperance and intem- perance devoteeism. 52 Henry Clay Trumbull " An ultra fanatical temperance man devotes his whole energies to the cause to which he is pledged. He uses every means in his power to secure the refor- mation of inebriates. He endeavors to restore the degraded drunkard to his proper position among his fellow men. He strives to arrest the descent of those rapidly going down to a hopeless grave. He warns the moderate drinker of his imminent danger and urges him to beware lest he follow in the foot- steps of thousands who have become intemperate by degrees." And after a few other outline hints he sketches the contrasting picture. " But, I ask, is there no ultraism on the other side ? Behold men, from respectable positions in society, by intemperance and that alone, brought to a level with the brute . . . who will envy the last hours of the inebriate? Watch him as his end draws nigh! . . . Ragged, filthy, loathsome object, — now striving to hide his head in the dust to escape from the dread demons of his own creation; then springing wildly to his feet, loudly calling with horrid imprecations for aid in dispelling the fearful phantoms. At one moment giving battle to his imaginary opponents ; the next, sinking trembling and exhausted to the earth. Again, wildly tossing his arms to and fro, shrieking vainly for aid in the notes of despair, until worn out with his fruitless endeavors to rid himself of torment, with an oath upon his lips, his soul passes from its mortal tenement, whither, we may not follow ! " There is a singular disparity between the impas- sioned words and their exquisitely clear and deliberate Early Literary Tendencies 53 delineation in Mr. Trumbull's handwriting. And while his rhetoric became more compact, and slipped its burden of superlatives, as time and culture and a ma- turer intensity did their work in him , it needs no look between the lines to see the flashing eyes, the lithe body, the .freely gesticulating, nervous hands, and the magnetic personality of the young prophet of reform as he poured out his abundant argument. But speech-making was by no means the only sig- nificant foreshadowing of Henry Trumbull's life-work. He was the leader among a little group of bright- minded young people who kept the borough from rust. Whimsical wit, from a perennial spring, ban- tering interludes in even the most casual conversa- tions, the saving grace of seeing the funny side, and the determination to use whatever gifts one may have, are never lacking in the normal New England charac- ter. These Stonington young people were true to the blood. It was not enough that they should have their parties, their speech-making and lecture courses, their church socials and fairs, and the fanfare of politi- cal campaign excitement. They must use their latent talents. They must edit a paper. On October 29, 1849, the nineteen-year-old editor, Henry Trumbull, and three other aspiring writers, brought out the first number of a four column, four- paged literary periodical, with the modest title of " Lux Mundi," giving as their motto " The angle of Reflection is equal the angle of Incidents." That issue contained a prospectus, two poems occupying together more than three full columns, two long edi- torials, a story, " I'd be a Fairy," and miscellaneous 54 Henry Clay Trumbull paragraphs, with various ravings by the Maniac, who had been " secured " by the editor to furnish shrewd remarks and reflections. " Our paper will be called," says the prospectus, " LUX MUNDI, and will be issued on Monday, as often as the disposition of our readers may demand, or our own circumstances permit. . . . Will you not then lend us your aid. We come not as craven sup- pliants for money or patronage — ^but to sustain the position we wish it will be necessary that you add a warm and energetic support. Without this to grease the machinery of existence what were hfe to us. Like the thievish boy suspended by his trousers from the pike of a garden fence, we should present the splendid but evanescent spectacle of genius struggling against insurmountable obstacles." " Too long," wrote Mr. Trumbull in his first edi- torial, " have the bright literary flowers of Stonington wasted ■ Their fragrance on the desert air. ' Too long has modest worth and retiring genius been concealed from the outer world, and the many brilliant effusions of our Stonington literati been lefl unnoticed and unappraised because unseen." This sad state of public ignorance was not to remain unchanged. Indeed, so brilliantly did the light shine that it apparently awakened the green-eyed demon of envy in the breasts of other Stonington persons of talent, and on November lo appeared an opposition paper, " The Extinguisher," with its apt motto, " Out, out, brief candle ! " Early Literary Tendencies 55 The Extinguisher was crushingly critical of Lux Mundi and its several makers. They were flayed one by one. Their productions were torn to shreds. The rival sheets were the talk of the village. Then came, on November 27, an Extinguisher " extra," in which these enlightening words appeared : " A few weeks since, four young persons, viz.. Miss M. H. T. [Mary H. Trumbull], Miss B. S. W. [Bessie S. Williams], Mr. E. D. S. [Edmund D. Stanton], and Mr. H. C. T., prompted by no sinister motives, with no desire to 'lord' it over others, thinking them- selves no better or more intelligent than those around them, but solely for their own amusement, issued the first number of ' Lux Mundi.' We hoped that our efforts would at least amuse the readers; we little thought that 'twould displease any; but no sooner was the paper seen than cavillers were found in abun- dance. Our paper was not only denounced as a ' soft, mooney affair,' but the editors were accused of arro- gance and assumption in thus daring to start a literary paper. It was soon proposed to start an opposition paper, to be called 'The Illuminator,' with the sole object of ■ running down ' ' Lux Mundi.' But our paper was not to be ' extinguished ' thus ; on the very day that we learned their intentions we ordered hand- bills announcing the forthcoming of ' The Extin- guisher.' We then appointed a young gentleman (whose modesty prevents his name being given to the public) sole editor, with full editorial powers and privileges, while we agreed to assist him by our con- tributions ; thus it will be seen that (as we have often said) the editors of the two papers were not the same, 56 Henry Clay Trumbull nor, indeed, was either of the editors of ' Lux Mundi ' an editor of ' The Extinguisher.' " We were thankful to a few, who, in the exuberance of their love for us, denounced ' The Extinguisher ' as a low filthy sheet, unworthy of notice, without a single redeeming point, and evidently written by ignorami. Persons in the village near us remarked, 'That's just like Stonington Pint, — the folks there are always fight- ing ; no one can ever start anything there, not even a literary paper, without being opposed and ridiculed.' One lady remarked that ' H. C. T. did look crest- fallen when he came into church on the morning after " The Extinguisher " came out ! ' Others asked if we would not admit that talent was displayed in some of the articles (this, of course, we were ready to do). ' You did not expect so much from that set,' says an- other. ' No, we did not ! ' " Lux Mundi ceased, on December 31, with its fourth shining, and Henry Trumbull wrote its leading edi- torial, " Last Speech and Dying Confession." " Alex- ander the Great, 'tis said, wept when he found there were no more worlds to conquer, that his work was accomplished, that there were bounds to his power, and that he must rest content as master of a single world. With feelings like those that actuated the Macedonian, the editors of Lux Mundi now present themselves before the public but to bid farewell." And in the same issue the paper bids farewell to its editors in an editorial written by Mary Trumbull in prophetic vein, thus apostrophizing Henry : " And to you H. also many wishes with our farewell. ... A merry, merry life to you ! We shall hear of you Early Literary Tendencies 57 doubtless in the future as a school-master exchanging the seal rings and the Genin hat for the fur cap and the brown quaker coat of a pedagogue, in some little district school-house in the back woods. Or perhaps as an editor of a country paper. If the latter, apply always to us, and we will furnish you with news from the latest steamer, and like items at least six weeks before you could procure them in any other way. For you also a kind farewell ! " ***** In the issue of the New London Star and Democrat for April 13, 1850, young Trumbull, then not quite twenty years old, gave his views as " A Lover of Justice " on the famous trial of Dr. John W. Web- ster for the murder of Dr. George Parkman. Dr. Webster was a member of the faculty of Harvard University, and was indebted to Dr. Parkman for money which the latter urgently required of him. Dr. Parkman was missed shortly after an appointment which he was known to have had with Dr. Webster. The discovery by Ephraim Littlefield, the Medical College janitor, of the fact that parts of a human body were being burned at night by Dr. Webster in the col- lege furnace, led to Webster's arrest. The trial was the public sensation of the hour, and Henry Trumbull went twice from Stonington to see it, tlje second time with his brother-in-law, William C. Prime, who, as a member of the New York bar, by courtesy had seats for both with the members of the Boston bar. An editorial in the New London Demo- crat quickened Trumbull to write a vigorous and un- equivocal letter to the editor, giving his views of what 58 Henry Clay Trumbull seemed to him the point at issue. After squarely dif- fering with the editor as to the latter's dissent from the justice of the death sentence in the case of such a man, he writes : " ' But,' you say, ' an awful responsibility rests upon the jury that convicted him,' and you ask, ' How are they to restore that life which belongs alone to God, but which they surrender to the executioner ? ' " If I am not mistaken, the jury were empanelled and sworn to attend to the evidence, to receive infor- mation on points of law from the Judge, and then to say whether or no the prisoner was guilty of the crime charged. They were not to condemn him to death ; they were not to say whether he should be executed, imprisoned, or set at liberty ; they were simply to say whether or no the evidence proved him guilty. They were bound to render a verdict in accordance with their convictions, and there ceases their responsi- bility." And again, when his views were attacked in a later issue by one signing himself "Sigma," he answers thus: " ' Sigma ' desires to know why I would have Prof. W. hung. He is answered by Judge Shaw in his remarks upon sentencing Webster. It is because against the crime of murder the law has pronounced its severest penalty, in these few and simple words: 'Every person who shall commit the crime of murder shall suffer the punishment of death for the same.' " In my former article I wrote as a lover oi Justice, without mercy, I will admit, but not as a Jtater of Early Literary Tendencies 59 mercy. I pressed the claims oi Justice. I said not that it would be wrong to pity him, or that pity for him would be a detriment ' to the heart or morals or religion.' " In this youthful controversy, carried on with vigor and sharp thrusting, he was holding fast to one thing. He was not then thinking about mercy, nor did he consider it the true point at issue. Webster was a convicted murderer. The law was clear, — the law must be carried out. But young Trumbull had quite another side, — a generously playful and whimsical attitude toward men and things which gave him a popularity altogether exceptional for one having such clear and vigorously expressed convictions. His friendly intercourse was not bounded by Stonington. Mr. D. S. Ruddock, of the New London Star and Democrat, his editorial opponent in the Webster controversy, was the printer of " Lux Mundi," Henry Trumbull's first editorial venture. Henry's pen was dipped in acid, or in a kindlier fluid, with his changing moods. In Feb- ruary, 1850, he wrote to Mr. Ruddock, over the signature of " One of the Olden Time," an ac- count of the result of a " psychologist's " visit to Stonington : " As each succeeding day, by the palsied hand, the tottering gait, the dimmed eye, the useless ear, I am reminded of the proximity of the grave, and that my end is not far off, I feel more and more the price- less value of the short space of time allotted to me on earth. . . . " Psychology ! psychology ! Oh, how would our 6o Henry Clay Trumbull fathers have valued this wonderful science ! How much anguish and misery would have been spared the generations that are gone, had they possessed a knowledge of this heaven-born science ! . . . Friend Ruddock, have you made this science your study ? . . . If not, do so. Seek information. . . . " But a few weeks ago a professor of this science condescended to visit our humble village, and by flaming handbills announced that he would perform any required miracles for 12^ cents; and for ^10.00 he would unfold the mysteries of the science to any one desiring information. . . . " As you may never have witnessed any of the ex- periments, I will explain to you the modus operandi of the psychological performer. In the first place, the ' coin ' consists of a five-cent piece (or smooth ' four-pence ' ) inserted in a bit of lead about the size of a quarter of a dollar. The ' victim ' is required to hold this in his right hand at arm's length, and look intently at it, without winking, for four hours. If he has any unpleasant sensations about the arm, or water starts from his eyes, before that time, it is proof posi- tive that he is a ' natural subject' " The operator then seizes the right hand of his subject with his right hand, and inserts the middle finger of his left between the olecranon process of the ulna and the inner condyle of the humerus, touching the ulna nerve (commonly called the 'crazy bone'), and if, upon pressing this, the pa- tient feels any tingling sensation in his fingers' ends, he is 'a gone case"; he is fully 'charged with electricity.' " Early Literary Tendencies 6i Mr. Ruddock was well acquainted with the varying temper of his young correspondent. He acquired added respect for him through a characteristic inci- dent of which he took note in his paper : "The Millennium Almost Here." " Some months since, one of our young friends from one of the towns in this county was in the city trans- acting business. Before leaving for his residence a violent rain storm came up. Not supposing that such an event would occur, he did not provide himself with an Umbrella before leaving home. We loaned him ours. " Immediately after his arrival home he sent the umbrella to our address, but by some ' hook or crook, which this much defamed article is apt to take in its transition from one place to another, it failed to reach us. Last Saturday the gentleman (for he is nothing else) was in our office. We noticed as we were con- versing with him a roguishness in his manner that implied ' I'll astonish you soon.' Presently he handed us a splendid new silk Umbrella, with a patent sheath, remarking ' I have returned your umbrella.' " We could hardly believe our eyes and ears, not that we considered the gentleman incapable of such an honorable act, not by a ' long chalk,' but because it is an act so seldom performed. The umbrella we loaned him was a cotton one, partly worn. Such noble acts as these induce one to believe that there is in this world of trouble something besides mendacity. We would mention the gentleman's name did we believe he would not ' protest.' "P. S. — We here beg to remark that we have 62 Henry Clay Trumbull another cotton umbrella left, which we will loan to any of our friends upon the condition that " The journalistic tendency was in the blood of the young Trumbulls. Their grandfather and his son Samuel were of that craft by reason of their oppor- tunities in Norwich and in Stonington. Lux Mundi and other early literary efforts were singularly pro- phetic. They were far more so than a prophecy concerning Henry which, with its circumstances, is described by Miss Chesebrough, who saw and heard as an opportune witness : " On one occasion, walking down Main Street I observed a group just around the corner in front of Dr. George E. Palmer's office. A chair had been brought out from the office, in which was seated Henry Trumbull, then a youth of nineteen, while a phrenolo- gist was passing his hands over his head, observing the development of the various ' bumps ' (that was what the unlettered styled them), and descanting upon the qualities and endowments of his subject. I must have arrived near the close ; I remember only this, — the final summing up, — that the young man would do a great deal of talking of what he was to do, but it would be mere talk, — he would accomplish little in life. I shall never forget the look that flashed over Henry's face, as, with a funny little laugh, he darted from under the phrenologist's hands and disappeared round the corner." * * ♦ * * Mr. Trumbull was soon to leave his boyhood home in Stonington. He was always gratefully and keenly Early Literary Tendencies 63 conscious of his debt to the little seashore village with its sturdy independence, its world-wide interests, its privileges of education in school and out. Before he had reached manhood Henry had become familiar with the life of the sea, its hazards and its charms. From the observatory in his father's house he had seen the ill-fated " Atlantic " go to pieces foot by foot on Fisher's Island in the great gale of November, 1846. He had sailed under Captain Nat Palmer, the typical Yankee skipper, an undaunted master of cir- cumstances. From his childhood, Henry had lived in a home atmosphere of classical culture. New Eng- land wit, and strict religious practises, and he had taken an active part in the local Sunday-school work. At the same time he had been a social leader in the village, a light-hearted, winsome young fellow, with an eye to the esthetic in the life about him. Although he had gained in character and experience through his political, apothecary, railroad, and banking experi- ences, he had not gained any definite purpose for the future, nor was he giving much thought to the deeper things of life. But all these Stonington experiences were germinal. They bore fruit with singular fertility, and in their kind. Among them all none found deeper root than a single word from Gurdon Trumbull, the some- what taciturn father of this warm-hearted, keenly sensitive, and generous boy. Gurdon Trumbull knew the lad's nature and its perils. Father and son were walking together one day. Suddenly Gurdon Trum- bull stopped, turned abruptly to his son, and asked with great earnestness : 64 Henry Clay Trumbull " Henry, would you like to be respected and looked up to by all your companions, as you grow up ? " " Of course I would, father." " Well, if you won't drink, or use tobacco, or dance, or play cards, you will be respected by others, if you have nothing else than this to recommend you. You will be a leader through this self-control, even if the other boys have more brains or more friends than you have." Then he relapsed into silence. But the boy understood. He was not to be of the crowd. BUILDING RAILROADS AND CHARACTER Stand in the place God has given you to fill. Find out what God would have you to be, and to do, and to say, and then be, and do, and say- it fearlessly, independently. In all things be guided by God' s teachings, not by the opinions of those about you. "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus ;" and then "do as you have a mind to." — An editorial paragraph. In the lower sense of common usage, a man' s "character" is the sum of his qualities, whereby he is distinguished from other individuals. In the higher and more restricted sense, "charac- ter" is a pre-eminence of personality in the direc- tion of one' s better and nobler being. In either the one sense or the other, character is the measure of the man ; for the sum of a man's qualities as an individual is the man's self; and the pre-eminence of a man' s distinctive qualities marks the man' s peculiar self. For all practical purposes, therefore, it is sufficient say, that a man' s superiority of personality in the direction of the right is the real measure of the man. — Character-Shaping and Character-Showing. CHAPTER V BUILDING RAILROADS AND CHARACTER In the autumn of 185 1, when Henry Clay Trumbull was in his twenty-second year, he left his Stonington home, and joined his brother James in Hartford. James was then assistant to the Connecticut Secretary of State, a position he had occupied since 1847. His father was at this time Assistant Commissioner of the School Fund, and later the Commissioner. Henry had purposed to secure a college education, but he was beset with serious lung trouble which had caused his family much anxiety. He was obliged to give up any thought of college life, and was compelled to turn his attention to other pursuits. His brother Charles, then in Williams College, con- stantly lamented the fact that Henry was not with him in that institution, at one time saying to a friend, " ' Hen ' would shine among the ' Kaps ' ! " [Phi Beta Kappas], as he ruefully contemplated what he thought was his own inability to shine anywhere. Henry had been offered, before he was twenty- one years old, the cashiership of the new Ocean Bank in Stonington, but his health was such that the milder air of Hartford seemed more conducive to full recovery than the keen climate of the coast. Through his brother James' influence Henry was 67 68 Henry Clay Trumbull called to a clerical position in the engineering and pay department of the Hartford, Providence and Fishkill Railroad (certain sections of which were then in pro- cess of construction), of which Mr. James M. Bunce was the President. This keen and energetic railroad president was a man of marked personality. One of his sons, the late Rear-Admiral Francis M. Bunce, was a noble representative of the highest type of the United States naval officer. Another son, Jonathan B. Bunce, was for years the President of the Phcenix Mutual Life Insurance Company, and is a man held in high honor in the world of finance. Just before he entered upon his new duties Mr. Trumbull spent a Sunday in Mr. Bunce's home, where he met Edward Kimball, who had married a niece of the railroad president. Mr. Kimball will be most widely remembered as D. L. Moody's Sunday-school teacher, though he was distinguished for years as a " finangelist," a remarkably successful leader in the raising of money to clear churches from debt. The two younger men were speaking of Mr. Bunce's energy and determination and intensity of purpose, when Mr. Bunce suddenly exclaimed to Kimball : " Edward, nothing but Omnipotence can stand in the way of a determined man ! " That saying was a spur to Henry Trumbull as long as he drew breath, and fought the fight of a man in the onset of circumstances. If James M. Bunce gave him nothing but that one dynamic epigram, he gave him a life-impulse that of itself was worth all the Building Railroads and Character 69 costly and tedious toil of his days and nights in the railroad service. And the work he had undertaken was hard. On October 2, 1851, he wrote to his mother: I commenced work at the railroad office on Tuesday morn- ing [September 30], and since that time I have worked harder than I ever did before in the same time in my life. I have to commence work at a few minutes past 7 o' clock A. M. , and work until yi past 9 P. M., with about ^ an hour allowed for dinner and the same for supper. I have to walk from the U. S. Hotel to the depot to and from every meal, of course, and also have to walk from the depot to the Exchange Bank in State Street a few times every day, and run around promis- cuously on errands. My work in the office occupies me just all the time, so that my running around saves me no work at the office. I have had apportioned to me the entire charge of the ticket de- partment of the whole road, which I can assure you is no small item. I have to give out the tickets to the Hartford ticket master, to the agents at all the stations, to the conductors, etc., and keep an accurate account of them in books prepared for the purpose. I have to examine all the tickets collected by all the conductors, receive all moneys from them, examine all their accounts, keep accounts with all the stage agents along the line of the road, and have entire charge of all settle- ments for tickets with all the sub-agents and with other roads. This has to be done with the same correctness that the cash account at a bank should be kept. An error in this case is more fatal than in the other, for if 1 make a single error in my ticket account, or in distributing tickets, I must^ay for it and there is no possibility of ever rectifying the error. I am, however, enabled, by my former experience in the same line at Stonington, to perform this labor with but little of that inconvenience that would inevitably have attended my first efforts had I been a "green hand." . . . I am very much pleased with my situation, although I have to "fly around" a little brisker than I am accustomed to. 70 Henry Clay Trumbull At once his mother answered : I miss you very much indeed. Will you always have so much to do, or are you now bringing up work? Must you forego entirely the pleasure of Society, and your evenings be wholly occupied ? Really, my son, I have shed a great many tears about it. But you are not obliged to stay. If you" find you cannot perform the duties imposed upon you without injury to your health, why leave it at once and come home. Under no circumstances stay if you are sick, but hasten home. Henry's position was indeed no sinecure, or even one that a moderately good modern clerk would have chosen. In answer to his mother's letter he wrote: I was very sorry to think that my last letter home gave you the idea that I was overworked at the Rail Road Office. It is by no means so, nor did I intend for you to think so. I wrote as I did to satisfy you and father that I had enough to do to keep me out of mischief I shall be employed steadily day and evening all the time, but I have no work that I cannot do easily, and I am not hurried at all. I am delighted with my place, and am far from regretting that I am confined to the office evenings. If I can only satisfy Mr. Bunce that I am worth my salary [it was §400 a year] and can prove to him that I am willing to work, I ask no more. .... He is the most particular man I ever saw in my life. I never saw any one that approached him in that respect. He gives me always very explicit directions as to how a thing is to be done, and I always do exactly as he tells me ; but he gener- ally finds that what he ordered done does not suit him as well as he thought it would, and therefore he gives me directions to do it over in a different manner. On Monday of this week I wrote 26 long letters for him between the hours of 8 in the morning and g in the evening, besides doing my usual work with the ticket agents, conduc- tors, &c. Mr. Bunce goes ahead of Capt. Williams [of Ston- ihgton] in questioning the clerks about small matters, and in looking into everything and overseeing everybody from Super- Building Railroads and Character 71 intendent to Brakemen . . . Mr. Goodrich, the Secretary of the Company, whose immediate clerk I am, is a very pleasant man and one whom I like very much. Letters from his parents expressing concern about his overwork were frequent, and they felt that there was good reason for their anxiety. He led a busy life for one who was not supposed to be in robust health. A single instance of his disregard of personal comfort will show in some measure the grounds for maternal anxiety. Somewhat later in his railroad experience he gave her a glimpse of his doings that was not reassuring : I reached Stirling Hotel at Bridgeport on Tuesday night at 10 o' clock and passed the night there very quietly, and with much more comfort than at the Central Village Hotel. On Wednesday morning I walked out to ' ' Ivaniston ' ' (Barnum' s Villa) and saw that interesting specimen of architecture, with its fancy barns, green-houses, wash-houses, fountains, statues, ponds, swans, ducks, dogs, horses, hogs, etc., for as the grounds are open to all I spent some time examining the premises. At yi past lo A. M. I took the train on the Housatonic R. R. for Hawleyville, and stopping there I found I must take an open sleigh to Danbury via Bethel, about 7 miles distance. As the snow was falling very fast at that time, and it was very cold, this ride did not prove especially pleasant, for having left my office this winter to go to and from the center of the city, I am rather tender than otherwise. Having completed my business in Danbury in a very short time, I thought that if I could reach the N. Y. & N. H. R. R. at Norwalk by 5 o' clock I should be able to reach Hartford the same night in the express train that started at that time from Norwalk, so hiring a sleigh and driver, I started for Norwalk, a distance of 22 miles. I had no comforter or scarf, no thick gloves, and nothing on but what I wear every day to the office and back, and as the thermometer stood last evening in 72 Henry Clay Trumbull Hartford at i6° below zero, you can imagine that this was any- thing but a pleasant ride, the more especially as the driver proved to be drunken, and lost the road several times, wandered some distance from the direct course, and after a ride of about 25 miles in an open sleigh, I reached Norwalk about 6 o' clock, too late of course to reach Hartford that night. Finding an accommo- dation train about leaving for Bridgeport, I took that train, spent last night also at the Stirling House, left this morning for New Haven, was detained six hours at that place by a break- down on the N. Y. & N. H. Road, and to-night I am here again in my room safe, and I believe sound in body and limb. His occupation was not a matter of hours alone as he saw it, but as he labored from day to day he was putting to the test principles that he had learned at home. A contemptuous disregard of consequences when doing the right was a part of Henry Trumbull's very nature. He did not destroy that fine sense of individual, sharply defined responsi- bility for his own duty by trifling with the allurements of a half-way policy in his relations with others to whom he was accountable. He was ready to master his impulses, to hold himself in check, to drive him- self with the whip of absolute duty-doing in silent and sturdy independence. He set barriers to his desires, and had an eye single to the doing of a man's work, growing under the pruning knife, and gaining strength and stability. He kept himself under control. "Yet not for power (power of herself would come uncall'd for), but to live by law, Acting the law we live by without fear ; And, because right is right, to follow right Were wisdom in the scorn of consequence." In the relentless routine of the railroad, he was dis- Building Railroads and Character 73 covering that a man grows by restraint. The free and easy days of his boy-life in Stonington were gone. They had slipped into the past with a celerity that amazed him. What he was in Stonington had seemed to him what he was to be ; yet after a month or two of the exacting railroad office drudgery, he wrote to his sister Mary : You would hardly recognize your brother, the " Hen Trum- bull," "beau general" of Stonington, the foppishly particular young " devotee of fashion," the zealous worshipper of new cravats and tight boots, the admirer of every pretty female face, and the leader of the Stonington Band of Loafers, in the plod- ding and industrious clerk, . . . who, with soiled linen, care- lessly tied, cravat, thick boots, and a suit of clothes that were long since renounced as unfit for further wear in Stonington, quietly walks down a back street to the R. R. office at yi past 7 o'clock each morning, and there scratches away, copying unintelligible and unmeaning legal scrawls, or foots up col- umn after column of tedious figures, until % past 9 in the evening, with the exception of half hour each at dinner and supper ; who declines all invitations to parties, sewing socie- ties, or " sociables," who cannot find time to attend concerts, lectures, or places of amusement ; who has called upon but one young lady, and upon her but once since his arrival in Hartford to enter upon his new duties ; whose only_ reading consists of " Day Books,'' " Cash Books," and " Letter Books," and whose only comfort is in writing home once a week, in hearing from mother as often, and in occasionally meeting a Stonington acquaintance upon the arrival of the Eastern train. Yet, Mary, notwithstanding that there is such a change in my situation and habits since my arrival in Hartford two months since, will you believe it, I am as happy as a " clam " is gener- ally supposed to be when a high tide and a full sea protect it from all dangers of hoes and rapacious baitseeking ravishers. To be sure my enjoyment is of rather a different nature than it has been heretofore, and for a short time my employment was 74 Henry Clay Trumbull exceedingly irksome to me, and I was blessed with exceeding low spirits, with anything but good health, but I cannot be uncomfortable for any length of time. I soon adapt myself to circumstances, and already I have come to look at my close confinement and constant employment as a matter of course. Already have I given up all the little ambitious aspirations I might once have indulged, and have determined to find enjoyment and satisfaction in devoting myself constantly to my employment, and forgetting all pleasures I have heretofore enjoyed. You may possibly doubt this, but it is really so. And in the month following he gave evidence of his new ideas of work and duty during a visit to his old home. His parents, in their desire to have him prolong his stay as much as possible, had urged him to stay beyond what seemed to him the proper hour of return to his work. The temptation was strong, and one to which many a young man employed as he was by a family friend, would have yielded with not much thought of his higher obligations. Yet Henry knew that he ought to leave, and he left. Soon after reaching Hartford he wrote to his mother concerning his victory : I am still confident, as I then felt, that it would have been very wrong for me to have remained in Stonington until too late to reach the early train from New London, and since I have been here and found how much there was for me to do, I have been thankful that I was enabled to resist so great a temptation as was placed before me. This spirit of his was shown in a battle with self on one occasion which would have seemed to most young men to offer no occasion for a battle. In the engineering department, in which Henry eventually Building Railroads and Character 75 became paymaster of construction, the young clerks had fallen into the habit of borrowing from the chief engineer's desk, in his absence, an inkstand contain- ing a special ink. Henry accepted this habit as one of the oiifice practises, and one day was using the ink- stand when his chief, Mr. Samuel Ashburner, needed it at once. Sending into the room where the clerks were working, Mr. Ashburner had the young scribe and the borrowed inkstand brought before him. " Henry," he said, with kindly emphasis, " I want that inkstand to remain on my desk at all times. You must never take it away." " I'll bear that in mind, sir," answered the young man, and went back to his work. A few days later the ink was missing when Mr. Ashburner had occasion to use it. Stepping to the door of the clerks' room, he called, sharply, " Henry! " Young Trumbull quickly followed him into the next room. " Henry," he exclaimed, " what did I tell you about that inkstand ? " " You told me not to take it away again." " Yes, and I meant it. Now, bring it to me at once ! " Henry passed into the clerks' room, lifted the miss- ing inkstand from the desk of another, and carried it to his chief. As he placed it in its proper place and started to leave the room, Mr. Ashburner looked severely at him. " Henry," he said, emphatically, " never let this happen again." "I'll bear in mind what you say, sir," was the quiet answer. Later in the day the clerk who had been at fault 76 Henry Clay Trumbull manfully explained the whole matter to his superior. Henry was at once summoned. With an earnest and troubled look Mr. Ashburner received him. " Why didn't you tell me this morning that you hadn't taken that inkstand ?" " You didn't ask me, sir," replied Henry. The chief was somewhat nonplussed. He had found men ready enough to lay blame upon others, but not so ready to keep still, when even a word of denial might clear them. Henry Trumbull's refine- ment of moral vision was a revelation to him. The interview was closed with an apology from the chief, and Henry went back to his desk. He was building character while helping to build railroads. THE SPIRITUAL AWAKENING Self-examination usually results in self-decep- tion. As a rule, the more we study ourselves the less we understand ourselves, and at the best we do not understand ourselves as well as our fellows do. — An Editorial Paragraph. It is not as an exhibition hall, but as a hos- pital, that the church calls for members and that members continue in it. No man has made such progress in the Christian life that he no longer needs the helps that the church supplies to him. The more progress one makes the more he desires progress. If he feels that he is good enough to be a church-member, he gives evi- dence that he has no right view of the church of Christ, or 0/ right life in Christ. — How to Deal with Doubts and Doubters. A man has more power through believing one thing than in disbelieving ten thousand things. It is a man's duty to disbelieve, or to doubt, at a proper time, when the matter has been well considered ; but no man is capable of disbeliev- ing, or of doubting, intelligently and sensibly, unless he first has strong and positive beliefs. A man's real power either to do or to doubt starts from his beliefs, and if a man gives atten- tion to what he does not believe, rather than to what he does believe, he makes no progress, and he lacks practical power in any direction. — I/ow to Deal with Doubts and Doubters. • CHAPTER VI THE SPIRITUAL AWAKENING There are constant outcroppings. of the golden vein of character through all these early Hartford days. Henry Trumbull was not born out of season, and his personality was in full accord with the spirit of the times. The very atmosphere of his young manhood was tingling with the keen freshness of world-currents drawing in upon him. He came into life at a time when the national character was as costly as it is to- day ; when men were striking lustily at evil ; when the breath came short and hdrd, and the pulses ran free and fast. In the twenty years following his birth in 1830, the nation was awakened to a restless and overpowering determination to have some things set right, to get at truth, to uplift the neglected and the unendowed. In the three decades preceding 1830, remarkable impulses had gathered headway and direction in Christian enterprise. State missionary associations in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Maine, and Vermont, were organized before 18 19. From 1806 to 18 10 the movement begun in Williams College by the " Haystack Band " took shape in the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis- sions. One of the first five missionaries who went out 79 8o Henry Clay Trumbull from this company was Samuel Nott, Jr. ; and Samuel Nott, 3rd, a son of this pioneer missionary, was a fellow-worker with Henry Trumbull in the railroad office. In the Old South Church the Boston City Missionary Society was organized in 18 16, prototype — and probably the earliest — of the work in Hartford which was to engage Henry Trumbull's first conse- crated energies in Christ's service. With the organization of the American Sunday School Union under its present name, in 1 824, began a new era of Sunday-school extension and improvement, and to this great agency for Sunday-school advance- ment Mr. Trumbull was to devote seventeen of his busiest and most fruitful years, from 1858 to 1875. From 1830 to 1851 the divisions in the Presbyter- ian, the Methodist, and the Baptist denominations had come. Mormon doctrines began to make their way across the country. The great battle of the forties for Sabbath observance was on, and the right was making great gains in railroad and social and business regu- lations. Connecticut was in the forefront of this movement, with Chief Justice Williams of that state as president of the American and Foreign Sabbath Union. He was Henry Trumbull's first Sunday- school teacher after the young man had given him- self to Christ. These were the years of development for the religious press ; of the Washingtonian and other temperance movements, a cause with which Trumbull was identified by pledge and service; of the founding of the Young Men's Christian Associa- tion in England in 1844 by George Williams, and the forming of associations in Montreal and in Boston in The Spiritual Awakening 8i' December, 185 1. It was at the urgent request of present-day leaders of this organization in its various branches that Dr. Trumbull, in 1901, wrote his most widely-circulated book, " Individual Work for Indi- viduals." From 1826 to 1832 great revivals of religion swept the country. From the beginning of the century to the year 1830 the larger evangelical denominations had increased, some twofold, some threefold, and one sevenfold. It is estimated that in the five months following February, 183 1, more than fifty thousand persons throughout this country, including more than three hundred college students, professed their faith in Christ. As early as 1826, a new evangelistic method emerged. Classical illustrations and ornate phrases were tabooed. The preacher took on greater bold- ness of utterance; he prayed for men by name; he read requests for prayer; he adopted what were called "new measures." And among all the evan- gelists none was more radical, more startlingly clear and original in his simplicity and forcefulness than Charles G. Finney. It was during a time of comparative relaxation from the general religious fervor that had swayed the na- tion until about 1845, when in the winter of 1851-52, upon his return from England, Finney was in Hart- ford conducting a series of meetings. Young Trum- bull made no effort to attend these meetings. In the pre-occupation of his office work he hardly gave them a thought, assenting tacitly to the disesteem in which such doings were held by his every-day companions. 82 Henry Clay Trumbull Letters from home told of a revival of interest in religion in Stonington. One after another of his com- panions there had confessed Christ, but the news from home made no special impression upon him as affect- ing him in any direct way. One noon, however, as he was returning from dinner to his railroad-office work, he found at the post-office a letter from an intimate Stonington friend, Edmund D. Stanton, one of his collaborators in his first editorial venture, " Lux Mundi." He had heard from this friend only a few days before concerning the revival at home. He opened the letter, read a few lines, saw that it was a personal appeal to him, and at once thrust the letter into his pocket, saying to a companion, " I think there must be a big revival in Stonington if it has set my old friend preaching to me." Young Trumbull reached the office, which was on the third floor of one of the station towers, but he passed up the stairs to the fourth floor, and entered a small map-closet, where he shut himself in. The letter had been speaking to him ever since he saw its first lines. He now opened it and read it through : I have been too long silent The prevalence of a deep religious feeling in this community has, to some extent, opened my eyes to my former shortcomings, and led me to consider what was my duty in using my influence, small as it may be, to direct the attention of any of my friends to the consideration of eternal things. Often have I felt like speaking to you on this subject, but as often have timidity and fear kept me back We have been companions and intimate friends for years. We have enjoyed the society of each other, and together the society of others. Seldom has a harsh word, or an unkind feeling marred the harmony of our The Spiritual Awakening 83 intercourse, and it seems to me that thus what you might have considered from another an act of intrusion, you will consider from me an evidence of my sincere regard, and my earnest desire for your good. ' ' Then Stanton urged him to seek the Saviour, and find peace in him, and, finally, he said : Do be persuaded by me. If I could be the instrument, however humble, and to however small an extent, of leading you to think seriously of this, I should consider that I had more than repaid your kindness and interest in me. Let me beg you, by the remembrance of our friendship, but more than all, by the regard for your own good, think of these things. If any impression is produced on your mind [by this appeal] do not attempt to drive it away, but seek light and help from the only source whence they can be derived. I have now tried to acquit myself of a duty too long neg- lected, but do not think it has been an easy one. ... I shall not ask you to excuse me for writing you so serious a letter, the first one [of the sort] I ever wrote you. . . . I may never have the courage to address you again in this manner, and if I do not, be advised by me now. I ask no answer to this, nor shall I expect any, for I know exactly your feelings. But if after acknowledging the truth of what I have written, you determine to follow my advice, I beg you to let me know. Henry Trumbull was touched beyond expression by his friend's letter, and even before he had read it through he was on his knees, brokenly asking God's forgiveness for his heedless past. Love and doubt were over against each other in another contest of the world-old warfare for the soul of a man. Trumbull's highly sensitive nature was suffering under the strain, yet he expected love to win the fight, even though he could not see the issue clearly. He had been for the 84 Henry Clay Trumbull first time swept across the line between indifference to truth and a troubled longing for it, and his eyes were open toward the dawn. Then, after what must have been a night of strange and unwonted thought-expe- riences, he set pen to paper and told his mother the story she had longed that he might some day tell : My Dear Mother : — You are doubtless aware that there has been for some time past a very general and unusual inter- est upon the subject of religion in this city, and that, for nearly two months protracted meetings have been holden in the dif- ferent churches in Hartford. I, however, have, from the con- finement of my business, been unable to attend any of the numerous religious meetings, and I have only known of the continued progress of the revival by the laughter and ridicule of "Father Finney and his theater" continually kept up by my fellow boarders. Thus has week after week passed away, and I have been not only beyond the influence of any religious excitement, but I have listened with complacency or with smiles to the frequent profane jestings upon the subject of religion and revivals until at length I became startled at the fact that I was so torpid and unmoved. . . . Thus being alarmed because I was not alarmed I began to think upon what course I should pursue, to arouse myself to feel an interest in this important subject; but I fear that this feeling would have soon passed away, had I not yesterday have received two letters from Stonington, one from Frank Palmer, announcing the commencement of a revival in Mr. Clifts' church, and the other from Edmund Stanton, being a long letter upon the subject of religion, urging me by every consideration to turn my attention to the subject of religion. Had a letter of this kind reached me from any other source, from any one whom I should expect would address me on such a subject, this letter might have had no unusual influ- ence, but coming from Edmund Stanton who never before mentioned the subject of religion to me, and coming at just The Spiritual Awakening 85 the present time, it has caused me to pause in my present course, and induce me to determine that I will endeavor now to give my attention to the important subject of my eternal salvation. I am constantly confined to my business, and I have no time to converse with any one upon this subject, but I am now literally asking what I shall do to be saved. All is darkness before me. I know not what I should do. I endeavor to pray, but I have no power to pray aright. I can- not pray for what I want to pray. I feel even now that I do not feel that interest in the subject which its importance de- mands. I feel that I do not feel sufficiently my condition and my danger and my need of a Saviour. From the mother came in answer to this letter just such a word as Sarah Trumbull, out of her gentle heart, would write, with no attempt to follow the tan- gled threads of Henry's thought, but to assure her son that she was in loving sympathy with him : I long to hear from you again. I have no doubt now your mind is interested in the subject that you will find many who love the Saviour, and will rejoice to take you by the hand, and will point out to you the way. I cannot tell you how much I rejoice that your mind has been brought again to that important subject with so much interest. How good has God been unto us — unto you, my child, in that while you were separated by your occupation from hear- ing much preaching, or in any way attending upon the means of grace, your Saviour did not leave you, his arm of mercy was around about you, his eye was upon you. Although you had forgotten him, he did not leave or forsake you. Dear Henry, I trust I feel grateful to our dear Heavenly Father for his great goodness in awakening (in the last year) to a sense of their sins four of my dear children. Notwith- standing my undeservedness, unfaithfulness, to these dear children. . . . God hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad. " Praised be his name." 86 Henry Clay Trumbull And from his father, Gurdon Trumbull, came a letter full of sententious advice, with the not easily- expressed heart-love of the reticent New Englander plainly discernible between the lines : I cannot allow to pass unnoticed your interesting letter to your mother which was received yesterday. Interesting & auspicious, as it indicated a purpose to attend now to the great enquiry, a solution of which must ultimately affect your eternal welfare as it will as certainly influence your happiness and usefulness in this life. I need not tell you that painful as were the emotions you described, they were an occasion of grateful acknowledgment in our family circle. . . . I hope you will avoid all metaphysical inquiries into the philosophy of the sinner' s redemption, or of the modus oper- andi of the Holy Spirit, remembering the promise that "if ye shall do the things which I command ye shall know of the doctrine." Dr. Hawes is near you, and his whole life has evidenced his love for the souls of men, and his ability and willingness to point the way that leads to heaven. Confide in his advice so far as you may find occasion to seek counsel from humanity. Religion is a matter between the individual and his God and Saviour, who are always near, always ready, always willing to hear even the most broken, incoherent petitions of the humble and contrite. ... I can only add, persevere and turn not back, whatever trials may await you. Because Henry Trumbull suffered keenly at this time, because he came to solid ground over quick- sand and morass, because his swiftly analytical mind was providentially directed to the sane shutting out of the irrelevant in one's religious experiences, he was enabled in later years to save many another from the retarding mental distress which had clouded his own vision of the Master. Introspection was then a characteristic of the times, and the self-analysis which The Spiritual Awakening 87 so hampered him in youth was an exercise that be- came utterly abhorrent to him in maturity. It was while he was still groping in the fog, determined, and not baffled, that the sun broke through. He called upon Dr. Joel Hawes, pastor of the First Congrega- tional Church, who, in addition to giving him words of encouragement, advised him to attend some of the derided " Father Finney's " meetings. Charles G. Finney was precisely the man who could appeal to young Trumbull's ready responsive- ness to the unusual and unconventional. Finney was then President of Oberlin College. He belonged to no recognized school of theology. He was quite by himself in his methods of thought and work in preaching and teaching. Albert Barnes, the leader of the New School Presbyterians in the United States, wrote of him : " Few men in our country have been as well fitted to act on the higher order of minds, or to bring men, proud in their philosophy, or their own righteousness, to the foot of the cross." When Finney began his meetings in Hartford, he had just returned from a visit to England, where he had preached for a time in the Tabernacle in Fins- bury, London, working with Dr. John Campbell, the successor of Whitefield. Crowds thronged his serv- ices there, and the impression he made was profound. " Why," said Dr. Campbell, " I don't understand it. You did not say anything but what anybody else might have said just as well." "Yes," replied Finney, "they might have said it, but would they have said it ? " Finney wrote of himself : " In writing and speaking 88 Henry Clay Trumbull [as a lawyer], I had sometimes allowed myself to use ornate language. But when I came to preach the Gospel, my mind was so anxious to be thoroughly understood that I studied in the most earnest manner on the one hand to avoid what was vulgar, and on the other, to express my thoughts with the greatest simplicity of language." He was unconventional, not only in his language, but in his ways of leading men to Christ. It is said that when he was on his way home from the scene of a fire in Oberlin which destroyed a grist-mill, he accosted a young man with "Good evening, we've had quite a fire, — haven't we ? Are you a Christian ? " This was the man under whose influence Henry Trumbull came in his time of hesitancy. He at- tended one of Finney's evening meetings, at the close of which he went to a young men's prayer-meeting held a little after nine o'clock in a room over the post-office, for the benefit of clerks and others who could not attend at an earlier hour. On that night neither Finney's words nor the text, " The Spirit and the Bride Say Come," nor the prayer-meeting testi- monies gave him peace of mind. Of his troubled state he wrote to his mother : I wrote to you a few days since that I had determined to seek the Saviour, and to turn my entire attention to the eternal interests of my soul. Thus I vainly strove to pray. I besought God to bring me to a sense of my lost condition, to convince me of my need of a Saviour, and to grant me faith to believe in his willingness and power to save me. But I apparently prayed in vain. The more I prayed, the more fully was I convinced that 1 was not The Spiritual Awakening 89 to be saved, that because I had frequently grieved the Holy- Spirit and quenched its strivings within me, I was now for- ever given over to the consequences of my iniquity, and, like Dives of old, I was to enjoy all the blessings of this life and be refused all comforts and peace in eternity. Then I would despair, and rise from my knees almost in anger, thinking that I had done all I could do, and that no blame could be attached to me if I were refused spiritual aid and comfort Again, I would endeavor to humble myself in the sight of God, and acknowledge my inability to do aught for my own salvation and urge his counsel and assistance to be granted to me in my distress. . . . On Tuesday afternoon I went to see Dr. Mawes, and stated my case to him and asked his counsel and advice. He talked to me kindly and plainly, and advised me to apply to God as the only source of light and knowledge as to what I should do. He wished me to attend Mr. Finney's meetings holden every evening in some one of the Congregational churches, and also the inquiry meetings which follow every evening service. The same evening I was enabled to leave the office and attend Mr. Finney's meeting where I heard a most excellent sermon from the words, "The Spirit and the Bride say come, &c." At the meeting I met Kate Goodrich's brother Samuel who after church asked me to go with him to a young men' s prayer meeting, which is holden every evening in a room over the Post Office, commencing at the close of Mr. Finney's services. I attended the meeting and heard some speak who de- scribed exactly my state of mind, but still I could not be comforted. I read some tracts which Dr. Hawes gave to me, but they only seemed to narrow the path that leads to salva- tion. I still sought refuge in prayer, but with no better suc- cess than at first. I began to think that the Spirit of God was not striving with me, nor would come nigh me, and I felt that I did not have a proper conviction of my sin, and of my utter helplessness, and could not therefore seek assistance of God aright. 90 Henry Clay Trumbull But he was not to be left in this maze of uncertainty and spiritual unrest, for he continues : Last evening I was again released from the office early in the evening, and again went to hear Mr. Finney. He preached from the text, "I pray thee, have me excused." Mr. Finney is by no means an exciting preacher. He makes no appeals to the feelings, no appeals to our fears. He pre- sents a subject calmly and rationally, and treats it logically ; he appeals to the reason and understanding rather than to the passions and feelings. He, last evening, spoke of the different excuses that were offered for not accepting the invitations to the marriage supper . of the Lamb. Amongst others he mentioned every excuse that / had offered to myself, and showed their folly. He said, "you say that you have not sufficient feeling on the subject. What good would it do you if you had all the feeling that a condemned sinner has in perdition ? Feeling does not save him, neither will it save you. You say that you do not see your sins in their true light, and do not sufficiently feel your un- worthiness. Does not your reason prove to you, as well as your conscience, that you are a sinner ; and if so, is not that sufficient to lead you to seek forgiveness ? ' ' This appeal from one who described my feelings so ex- actly, and who evidently understood my difficulties and my doubts, apparently opened my eyes and gave me a glimpse of the truth, and of my duty ; and as I offered up a mental prayer that Christ would accept of my offer of my life and strength to be devoted to his service and glory, it did seem as if I had found the true entrance to eternal life. Dr. Hawes told me this afternoon that the appearance of truth in the heart was like the first sprouting of some seeds that had been planted ; at its first appearance it was almost impossible to tell whether it were flowers or weeds, but it would be folly to pluck up every green sprout that showed itself for fear that it were a weed. " Let it grow, " he said ; " cherish it, and cultivate it, and when it has shown its quality, separate the weed from the plant, for then you may do it safely." The Spiritual Awakening 91 Then, with the evangelistic spirit breaking down the barriers of doubt within him, he gives naive ex- pression to the reality of the new life that was in him, as he exclaims : Oh, how I trust and hope that the revival may continue its good work in Stonington, and that Tommy, [a younger brother], as well as many others may be brought to Christ ! In his sketch of Finney, in his book "My Four Religious Teachers," Dr. Trumbull thus described more than fifty years after the event, the effect Fin- ney's preaching had upon him in that crisis time of his youth. " I never heard such sermons as those, before or since. There was something in them of Henry F. Durant's lawyer-like directness of appeal to the hearer's con- science and best consciousness, with something of Dwight L. Moody's unconventional and unmistakable application of the truth to the individual's heart and sound sense. Yet Finney was like neither Durant nor Moody; he was Finney and was like Finney, and like no other man. There was no getting away from him, nor thinking of anything else while he preached. There were no appeals to mere feeling; the feelings, if moved, were moved by and through the conscience and reason, and as an inevit- able result of the simple truth pressed by itself " I have always been grateful that my first religious teaching when I had entered Christ's service was from a teacher who uttered God's truth positively, but in such a way that neither he nor I could be counted of any recognized school of denominational theology. And I have never since been obliged to count myself 92 Henry Clay Trumbull of any one denomination in strict and conventional theological views." Whatever else Finney may have given to Henry Clay Trumbull, he taught him a fact which Trumbull never allowed himself to overlook in his efforts to help others — the worthlessness of feeling as a guide in one's turning to Christ. In his conversations and in his writings about duty-doing, Trumbull steadily refused to recognize feeling as rightfully a controlling factor. To turn to Christ was a duty, whether a man felt like it or not. " Feeling right is your duty ; but acting right is also your duty," wrote Dr. Trumbull in 1903. " In the long run you are more likely to feel right by doing right, whether you like it or not, than by neglecting your known duty until you may feel like doing it." On March 14 his mother wrote lovingly and gratefully to Henry, in the light of his latest communications : Your letters have, all of them, been intensely interesting to us. They have been read until they are nearly worn out . . . Your father reads them over and over, and never with dry eyes. After your second letter in which you told us you had found Christian friends, we felt at ease about you. Then follows a hint of the spirit in which Henry Trumbull, like Andrpw of old, had entered into the new life in Christ, for bis mother adds : Your letter to Tommy was a very seasonable one. It was just what he needed. He has been quite in the dark lately and thought he never had repentance or faith, but he now seems on his feet again. You may well suppose there has been a great change in him He offered himself as a teacher in the Sabbath-school, but as there was no class for The Spiritual Awakening 93 him now, he today took little Gurdon and taught him, and seemed very anxious to do him good, and to teach him to keep the Sabbath. But the very thought that his brother, so young in the Christian life, should attempt to teach a Sunday- school class, aroused Henry to an expression of con- cern which gives light upon his exalted idea of the new opportunities and obligations disclosed by his and his brother's resolves. To his mother he wrote: You mentioned in your letter that Tommy had volunteered his services as a teacher in the Sabbath-school. Now I have no desire to dictate to him as to his course, nor do I know how the Sabbath-school at Stonington is at present situated as regards teachers suitable to instruct him or scholars of his age, but it does seem to me that he could get more good from being under the instruction of a teacher who was one hour older than himself in the Christian life, than he could by teaching others, or in any other way. To show to Tommy that I feel the truth of what I say and that my remarks are not prompted by an underestimate of his abilities I will merely state that feeling my own ignorance of spiritual things and of the duties of a Christian I myself com- menced attending Sabbath-school as a scholar at the Center Church last Sabbath morning. I believe that I am the oldest or one of the oldest scholars in the school but I felt that I was a babe in grace, and that I should desire the sincere milk of the word, that I might grow thereby, and I therefore asked admission into the school as a scholar, to learn the same lesson each Sabbath as that learned by the children eight years old. My teacher is the venerable Judge [Thomas S.] Williams (ex-Chief Justice of our State), and a most excellent teacher he is, too ; and I hope that I shall receive great benefit from his instructions. Tommy will, of course, do what he thinks best under the circumstances, and will I trust be guided in this matter by the advice of yourself and father. But I hope that he will not think that his being or considering himself a Chris- 94 Henry Clay Trumbull tian leaves him nothing to learn of the Bible, or its truths, and that no pride will prevent his seeking instruction wherever it is to be found. As I sat in my Sabbath-school class today some one remarked that what was not often the case, our entire class were hoping that they had within a few weeks all passed from death unto life. But although this was the case none of us thought of being too old to study God' s Word in that hallowed place. And then Henry goes on to recount some of his own reflections and experiences, and to quote a word of advice from Dr. Bushnell, whose views and ways of stating truth were already finding a response in his awakening spiritual nature : — It was with unfeigned delight that I again found myself on Friday night in the evening prayer circle over the Post Office and again had the opportunity of calling upon God from my accustomed place of prayer. It is with a new light that I now view everything in this city, and I feel more attached to it than ever before. . . . I have today attended five services and that has left me but little time for reading, except my accustomed amount of reading in the Bible, and I had some doubts as to whether it was proper for me to write this evening, but as I have no other time for writing home, and I do not intend to write upon sec- ular subjects I hope that I am not doing wrong. ... A single remark by Dr. Bushnell at one of the in- quiry meetings was so good and appropriate to my present state of mind that I will tell it for Tommy's benefit. He said to the young converts : "You are doubting about your hope and are uncertain whether that will sustain you at all times and in all trials. If you have any fears as to the strength of your hope as to whether it is sufficient to bear you up, fall right through your hope, sink right down through it, into the arms of Christ your Saviour. Loose all hold upon your hopes, place no dependence upon that, but sink right into the arms of Jesus, and he will sustain and uphold you.' The Spiritual Awakening 95 Meanwhile Henry was prepaiing to unite with the church of his own and his father's choice, the old First (or Center) Church in Hartford. This church installed Thomas Hooker as its first pastor, at its organization in Newtown (now Cambridge), Massa- chusetts, on October 11, 1633. But in June, 1636, Thomas Hooker, the pastor, and Samuel Stone, who had been installed at the same time with Hooker as teacher, removed with some one hundred of the con- gregation to Hartford, and established there not only the first church in that place, but the first church in Connecticut. In the one hundred and eighty-five years from the ordination of Thomas Hooker to the ordination of Joel Hawes, the church had had but ten pastors, each one of them dying in office. Dr. Hawes was a man of mark in his community and far beyond it. His- father was a Massachusetts blacksmith and farmer, and the boy grew up among rough companions, and with no early education in higher things. At eighteen he was unacquainted with the Bible, but through his reading of a copy, secured about that time, his course of life was changed. In 1839, he was the first choice of Yale College for the then vacant chair of pastoral theol- ogy, but the faculty did not think it advisable to take him away from his Hartford work. In 1 846, he was made a member of the corporation of Yale College, and so continued to his death in 1867. Dr. Hawes was tall in stature and commanding in appearance, a man of strong and quick sensibilities,, having no patience with sensational preaching or eccentric church methods. He was a warm friend of g6 Henry Clay Trumbull revivals, and especially strong in his work among young men. His " Lectures to Young Men," deliv- ered in Hartford in 1827, and later at Yale, were published, and attained a circulation of more than a hundred thousand copies in America, and even more in Great Britain. Many are the stories about Dr. Hawes that crowd the memories of those who knew him well. He was distinctly a character, owning no man as his master. Mr. Trumbull used to describe, with keen relish, the nervousness of the good old Doctor when young men were speaking in any of the church services. At a monthly concert service on missions. Dr. Hawes said : " I understand that the young men have arranged to report from diiiferent missionary fields to-night. They have not informed me of their plans, but will they go on ? Who comes first ? " Then as one after another finished his report, the Doctor became more perturbed. When Mr. Trumbull rose to report for the Sandwich Islands, the Doctor could stand it no longer. " Stop, Trumbull, stop!" he cried. "Judge Williams, as soon as Mr. Trumbull is through, won't you speak or lead in prayer ? A few words of age and experience would do us good to-night. Now go on, Trumbull!" This was not altogether encouraging to a beginner in the difficult art of " speaking in meeting," but it must not be supposed that Dr. Hawes repressed his young men habitually. Out of the First Church, during his pastorate, came thirty-seven candidates for the ministry, seven of whom went to the foreign field, besides nearly thirty lay workers in the mission field at home and abroad. The Spiritual Awakening 97 Henry Trumbull had attended the services of this historic church in company with his employer, Mr. James M. Bunce. He found encouragement in the companionship of Christians old and young, and he was deeply grateful for the influences set about him. When he had made up his mind that he ought to make a public profession of his faith in Christ, he was eager to have his parents in Hartford on the Sunday when he should take that step. On Tues- day, May 27, he wrote earnestly to his mother: Last Sabbath 46 persons were propounded for admission to Dr. Hawes' church on the first Sabbath in June, and several others were propounded for admission by letter. It will be a solemn time for us who are to act so prominent a part in that scene, in the presence not only of those on earth who see us take this step, but also of God our Father and His Son our Saviour, and of all the angels of the Most High, with the countless host of the redeemed and happy saints. I wish that you and father would come up here at that time and be with me on that day. Why can you not ? You and father would both go to Williamstown to see Charlie grad- uate from his college, and to hear him pronounce the Valedic- tory, and now why will you not come and see me close my connection with the world, the flesh and sin ? Why not come and hear me pronounce a Valedictory to all things that would separate me from Heaven and from God ? Henry's joy in his new life impressed his parents strongly. They had known his absorption in the social affairs of Stonington, in the lighter side of neighborhood doings. They had known the buoy- ancy and elasticity of his many-sided temperament, and now they were rejoiced that he should enter into his Christian experience with no diminishing of these qualities and with a glad heart and high- 98 Henry Clay Trumbull minded good cheer. Early in June he wrote to one of the family : You speak of my religion as being of a cheerful nature, but it seems to me that religion can only make any person cheer- ful and happy. No matter how dispositions may differ, or what variety there may be in temperament and feeling, religion must make all contented and cheerful and it is only when we forget our religion, or doubt the precious promises of our kind Father in heaven that the present or the future can look to us other than bright and pleasant The contemplation of what is ours and of all that is in store for us can only cause our hearts to swell with gratitude to the God who has done & promised so much for us and not unless we forget these things shall we ever doubt or be sad. It seems to me that if all only understood what it is to be a Christian and how pleasant it is in this life (even were there no future hope) there would be no unbelievers, none impeni- tent or unforgiven. And the life in Christ was conferring upon him immediate blessings, which touched him deeply, warming his responsive nature into a lively sense of gratitude. As the time drew near for him to take his stand before the world for the Master whom he loved, he was laid aside a few days with a sudden though not serious illness, and was confined to his room. Of this incident he wrote to his father: It seems that all Hartford is aware of my sickness, and I have been delighted to see so many friends as have called to inquire after my health ; and I have reason to be very, very grateful to my Heavenly Father, not only for restoring me to health, but for making my sickness so pleasant to me, and for bringing to my bedside so many kind and sympathizing friends, and for making my path in life so pleasant and so easy. Each day do I have renewed cause for gratitude to him for giving me some new inducement to a life of holiness, and The Spiritual Awakening 99 for holding out to me some fresh incentive to continuing in the narrow path that leads to life, and to pressing forward yet more earnestly to obtain the prize of my high calling in Christ Jesus. Thus, as you will readily believe, it was only Christian friends that came to my bedside, it was to them I was in- debted for kindness and sympathy, and I had the pleasure of knowing that more than one heart was lifted up to God in prayer for my recovery. Oh, where are the crosses I, was told I must expect in my endeavors to serve God ? Where is the yoke and the burden I was told I would be obliged to bear ? From the moment I first determined to give my heart to God, every step that I have taken in the path of duty and of right has been a step in the path of pleasure, and oh, if all the wandering prodigal children knew of the delights they would experience in their journey homeward, in company with their loving, merciful, tho' long neglected Father (who will gladly meet them "while yet afar off" from their home and final resting-place), how few would longer suffer in the service of a hard and cruel master vainly endeavoring to satisfy the cravings of an immortal spirit with the husks and the scanty nourishment which this world of sin affords. Henry united with the First Church on the first Sunday in June, 1852, but even before this he had begun his life-time service of winning individuals, one by one, to Christ. In the same house with him was a fellow-boarder who was also an associate of his in the chief en- gineer's office of the railroad. Walking one day from the house to the office, Henry told his friend of his decision for Christ, and urged him to accept the Saviour. That friend's response was typical of the answer that may often surprise the messenger of Christ who seeks to reach those near at hand in the home or business circle. loo Henry Clay Trumbull "Trumbull," said he, "your words cut me to the heart. You little think how they rebuke me. I've long been a professed follower of Christ; and you have never suspected this, although we've been in close association in house and office. May God for- give me for my lack of faithfulness ! " Then it was that Henry Clay Trumbull made a resolve that he never abandoned. " I determined," he declares, "that as I loved Christ, and as Christ loved souls, I would press Christ on the individual soul, so that none who were in the proper sphere of my individual responsibility or influence should lack the opportunity of meeting the question whether or not they would individually trust and follow Christ. The resolve I made was, that whenever I was in such intimacy with a soul as to be justified in choosing my subject of conversation, the theme of themes should have prominence between us, so that I might learn his need, and, if possible, meet it." LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF AN OLD-TIME MISSION SCHOOL The Sunday-school membership of no church is in any sense complete, unless it includes the children and youth of the outside neighborhoods which are of its proper field of labor, — that is, of the entire field which can easier be reached by it than by any other church ; even though from two to ten branch Sunday-schools have to be started in order to secure this additional mem- bership. And only by some such method of home evangelism as this, can our American com- munities be brought under and held by the training influence of the Church of Christ It is within bounds to say, that there are at least two or three millions of children and youth now out- side of the Sunday-school, who could be added to its membership within the current year by systematic and persistent efforts in their behalf, by the churches of America already professing an interest in Sunday-school work. And obvi- ously there would be a better prospect of bring- ing into the church fold the parents of these children through their children's winsome lead- ing, than of reaching the parents in such out-of- the-way places without the help of their children' s potent influence. — Yale Lectures on the Sunday- School. CHAPTER VII LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF AN OLD-TIME MISSION SCHOOL Within a few weeks after his decision for Christ, and several months before he became a member of the First Church, Mr. Trumbull found himself called to a work which was to have much to do with shaping his life-course and life-interests. Shortly after he began his business life in Hartford, The Young Men's City Mission Society was organized by members of the Congregational churches of the city, " for the better promotion of the benevolent efforts in the city," according to its prospectus of Novem- ber I, 185 1. Its organization was due to sugges- tions made by the Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet. Its purposes included the support of a city missionary, the establishing of Sunday-schools, and meetings for prayer or religious services in various parts of the city where such special labors seem to be required. The prospectus announced the fact that Mr. David Hawley, who had been at work among the destitute " during the past month," had been engaged as City Missionary. This prospectus and the new organiza- tion were endorsed by the pastors of the Center, South, North, and Fourth Churches, — Joel Hawes, Horace Bushnell, Walter Clarke, and W. G. Patton. 103 I04 Henry Clay Trumbull On March 21, 1852, under the auspices of the So- ciety, a mission Sunday-school was opened in one of the roughest quarters of the city. It was held in a third-story room at the corner of Morgan and Front Streets, on the banks of the Connecticut River, in the heart of a tenement neighborhood, where laborers and river hands and factory workmen, of varied nationality and of many forms of religion and irreligion, swarmed in shanty and hovel and courtyard. Rodney Dennis, afterwards President of the Connecticut Humane So- ciety, was the first superintendent, and he with nine others constituted the working force. And force was needed, both spiritual and physical. On his fourth Sunday Mr. Dennis resigned, being about to leave the city. On the second Sunday of the school's life, an invitation was extended to members of Judge Thomas S. Williams' class of young men in the old Center Church to help in the Morgan Street Mission. In response to this call Henry Clay Trumbull, Julius G. Rathbun, Edward M. Gallaudet, a son of the Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet, with three or four other young men, reported for duty at the mission. At Mr. Dennis' request, Henry Clay Trumbull was almost immediately elected to the office of superin- tendent, taking up that work on April 18, with Miss Antoinette Phelps and Alfred W. Gleason as his assist- ants, and Mr. Gallaudet as clerk and librarian. At that time the school had fifteen teachers and forty- one scholars, — twenty-four boys and seventeen girls. Because the Morgan Street School was a typical mission school, and because in it Henry Clay Trum- bull gained his earliest lessons in Sunday-school An Old Time Mission School ' 105 work as a servant of Christ, it is well to see that school as it was, and its superintendent as he was. Such schools were then comparatively new in America. Through the organization of the Five Points Mission, in New York, in 1849, an impulse was given to mission-school work in this country, and the Morgan Street school in Hartford was one of the earliest and one of the most difficult of its kind. Skilled mission speakers who visited it admitted frankly that nothing in their experience as mission- workers had ever equaled the crowd that faced them there, and sometimes routed them with nonsense and ridicule and shrewd personalities. On one occasion, as described by Mrs. Alice Good- win (one of the first and most efficient teachers in the school), Charles P. Brace, of the Five Points Mission, visited Morgan Street. He was accustomed to a rough crowd at home, and therefore, says Mrs. Good- win, " rose with much assurance to address our boys and girls. " ' Boys,' he said, ' I am going to tell you two stories; one is true and the other is not.' Where- upon a boy called out, ' You needn't come here with any of your lies ! ' For a moment Mr. Brace seemed quite disconcerted, but soon recovered, and when he went away the boys were loud in their shouts of ' Come again, John ! ' Mr. Brace afterwards told Mr. Trumbull that in all his New York experience he had never been taken so aback as at our school." When Henry Clay Trumbull made his way up the rickety stairs and through the dim passageways into this school for the first time, he was accompanied io6 * Henry Clay Trumbull from the street door by a man who was to become his chief teacher in hand-to-hand Christian work. That man was David Hawley, the city missionary. Mr. Hawley had not been in the school on the day of its organizing, and he too was now entering for the first time the turbulent room where he and his young companion in service were to be so much to each other and to the work among the wild young- sters of the river settlement. "Father" Hawley, as he was lovingly called, was a thoroughly sensible, keen-witted, and tactful Chris- tian worker, of self-effacing spirit and rare attractive- ness. He was of fine New England stock. His brother was the father of the late Joseph R. Hawley, distinguished as General Hawley in the Civil War, as Governor of the state in 1866, and from 1881 to 1904 United States Senator from Connecticut. David Hawley was one of the four men to whom Dr. Trumbull looked up as his principal religious teachers. No others outside his family circle were counted by him as comparable with these in their direct influence upon his early life, and upon his views of life and truth. Charles G. Finney had taught him that feeling was no measure or test of one's yielding to Christ, and Finney had illustrated in his bearing and words the reasonableness and good sense of the Christian experience as the supreme ex- perience in life. Elias R. Beadle and Horace Bush- nell were yet to make their impress upon him. David Hawley personified the outreaching, uplifting spirit of br mentioned, 80; Samuel, 3rd, fellow-worker in R. R. office, 80. 520 Index Oil, saying concerning, 279. Old Testament Student, quoted, 369- **Old Time Student Volunteers," book on memories of, 493. Olives, Mount of, encamped on, 348* Opportunities, wishing he had bet- ter improved, 496. Oratory, style of, 180. Ordained as chaplain, x86. Organ grinder, kindness to, 49i< Oriental Club, president of, 467. Oriental hospitality, 347. Oriental names, phonetic spelling of, 395. "Oriental Social Life," lectures to Yale Semitic Club, 407, Oriental viewpoint, 5. Otis, Colonel, acting as aide to, 221. Ould, Judge, order of release from war prison, 214. Owdy, shamming ignorance near Kadesh-barnea, 339; refusing to guide tp Kadesh-barnea, 340; discovering hostile caravan, 343. Palestine IExploration Fund, ac- count of rediscovery of Kadesh- barnea, in Quarterly Statement of, 352. Palmer, Captain Nat, discoverer of "Palmer's Land," 33; teach- ing Trumbull to do the impos- sible, 34. Palmer, Dr. George E., welcoming President Tyler, 22. Palmer, Miss Emma, giving inci- dent of James McNeill Whis- tler, 28. Palmer, John, mentioned, 354. Palmer, Prof. Edward H., men- tioned, 337; his search for Kadesh-barnea, 352, 359. Palmer, Walter, descended from, 10. "Paradoxes, _ Practical," book on, 399; delighting in paradoxes, 400. Paragraphs, plan of editorial, 326, Paralysis, suffering stroke of, 446. "Parley, Peter," seeing in youth, 26. Parmelee, Corporal J. E., quoted, 224. Part greater than the Whole, 399. Passion for Rightness, A, 391-400. Passover, Samaritan, on Mount Gerizim, 349» 350-3Si- Pastorate offered in Baptist church, 165. Paxson, Stephen, holding conven- tions, 151. Peace meeting, citizens' warning to chairman of, iii. Peltz, the Rev. Dr. George A., editorial incidents from, 320; pra^ring for Centennial Sunday closing, 303. Pepper, Dr. William, arranging with about Hilprecht, 370. Petition by brigade officers for Trumbull's promotion, 231. Phelps, Miss Antoinette, co-worker in Morgan Street Mission, 104. Phelps, President Austin, engaged for The Sunday School Times, 308; mentioned, 321. Philadelphia, Babylonian Explora- tion Fund of, 481. Fhilaidelphia, remark upon moving to, 296. Philadelphia, West, characteristics of, 299. Phillips, Wendell, commending Charles Edward Trumbull as orator, 17. Phrenologist, incident of exam- ining Trumbull's head, 62. Pierson, the Rev. Dr. Arthur T.. quoted, 178-180. Piatt, Senator Orville H., quoted, 142. Politics, Gurdon Trumbull's activ- ity in, 30; youthful interest in, 31-32. Porter, E- Payson, 319. Post, Hartford Evening, sought as editor of, 144. Poster, drawn in boyhood, 39. Postmaster, Gurdon Trumbull ap- pointed by John Quincy Adams, 13. Power through Sensitiveness, 403- 416. Power, pulpit, secret of, 248; se- cret of in individual work, 270. Practical Idealist at Work, 315- 328. "Practical Paradoxes," representa- tive essays, 399- Prayer, about The Sunday School Tirnes, 302 ; answer to after accidental shooting, 273; belief in, 118; concerning call to editorship of The Sunday School Times, 293; for snow, 119; account of book on, 454- 455 ; normal relationship with God, 272. Preaching in Asylum Hill Church, 244. Preface to Revised New Testa- ment, influenced by The Sun- day School Times, 355. Preston, E. B., publishing sketch of, 238. Index 521 Prime, William C, brother-in-law of, i6; in library of, 358; helping to secure article for The Sunday School Times, 310, Princeton, speaking at, 3S5. "Principles and Practice," account of essays on, 399. Principles, Bible a book of, 5, 441 ; constant search for, 4. Prisoner of war, finally released, 212; in close confinement, 204; letter about death of his child, 209-210; lodged in Charleston jail, 201; making pencil sketches, 207; meeting General Neal Dow in the lyibby, 211; preach- ing to prisoners, 206; released from Columbia, 210; removed to Richland jail, Columbia, 206; sent to the Libby, 211; sup- plied with books by guard, 206; taken, 200; under suspicion as spy, 205. Priuli, Antonio, dope of Venice, ancestor of the Gallaudets, 125. Promoter, dealing with, 470. Prophet, likeness to, 495. Public speaking, careful prepara- tion for, 325; suffering inci- dent to, 325. "Psychology," satire upon, 59. 8ADAYRAT, mentioned, 340. adees, mentioned, 340 ; , transla- tion of, 343; arriving at wells of, 342- Qadees, Wady, passing through, 341- . Qasaymeh, mentioned, 340. Questions, answering baffline, 471* 472. Rabbihicai, writings, study of, in Kadesh-barnea, 359. Railroad, annoyance on, 251; dis- cussion concerning trans-con- tinental, 290; Hartford, Provi- dence and Fishkill, taking po- sition in, 68; New York and Stonington, Gurdon Trumbull director in, 13; Stonin^n and Providence, clerk to treasurer of. 43- Rallying breaking line, 224. Rankin, President, reference to Henry F. Durant, 284. Rathbun, Julius G., co-worker in Morgan Street Mission, 104- Rawlinson, Prof. George, men- tioned, 321- , Reality, dominant note in his life, 463. Red Sea crossing, study of, 360. Reform, one-sidedness in, 279. Regimental Sunday-school, organ- izing, 188. Reid, Sir Charles, letter from to The Sunda;^ School Times, 307. Religious conditions, account of in period 1800-1852, 79-80. Report, Seventh Annual, of Phila- delphia Sunday and Adult School Union, quoted, 148. Republican; party, uniting with, 139; State Committee, offered salaried chairmanship of, 168; resigning from State Commit- tee, 160. Republican State Central Commit- tee, appointed member of, 143. Research, first attempt at, 118. Return to regiment, 217. Revelation and inspiration de- fined, 472-473. Revivals of religion, 81. Rhode Island, canvass of, 237. Ric& Governor, writing for The Sunday School Times, 309. Richards, William, mentioned, 42. Richardson, Charles F., literary editor The Sunday School Times, 319. Riddle, Prof. M. B., characteriza- tion by, 322; mentioned, 321. Robins, Prof. Henry E., quoted, 137. Robinson, Dr. Charles S., 334. Robinson, Dr. Edward, claiming location of Kadesh-barnea in *Arabah, 336; mentioned, 343, 359. ode] Rodeph Shalom Synagogue, pro- nouncing benediction in, 466, 467. Rodgers, Commander George W., visiting, 199. Rodman, Daniel S., taught by, 38. Rogers, Professor Robert W., char- acterization by, 482. Rollins, Edward H., method of fiolitical canvass, 140. ins, Honorable £. A., helping to secure article for The Sun- day School Times, 310. Rose, H. M. Frigate in attack on Stonington, 12. Rowlands, the Rev. John, discov- ery of Kadesh-barnea, 336; justified by facts, 343; men- tioned, 339; nature of report on Kadesh-barnea discovery, 339; quoted on SeVa, 342. Sabbath: danger of observing no, 170-172; fight for closing Cen- tennial Exposition on, 303; na- tional battle for observance of, 80. 522 Index Sailer, T. H. Powers, speaking at invitation of, 385. Salisbury, I^ord, mentioned, 354- St. Augustine, holding services in, 218; return to regiment in, 2x7. Sainle Chapelle, Paris, impressions of, 447. San Marco, services in fortress of, 218. Satanic sophistry, 434. Saunders, Trelawney, quoted on Kadesh-harnea, 336. Saving I^ife and Souls in the Army, 217-232. Sayce, Professor A. H., character- ization by, 4S0; estimate of "The Blood Covenant," 480; visit to, 451-452. Schaff, Philip, mentioned, 321, 337. School-days: in Stonington Acad- emy, 38; at WiUiston Semi- nary, 39. School Fund, Gurdon Trumbull commissioner of, 13. Schools, infant, introduced into America, 38. Schweinitz, the Rev. Paul de, an- swering letter from, 473. Scott, Gen. Winiield, seeing in boyhood, 24. Scott, the Hon. John, helping to secure article for The Sunday School Times, 310. Scott-Pierce Campaign, making speech in, 138. Scrivener, Dr. F. H. A., men- tioned, 321, ^ Sears, ex-President, mentioned, 321. Secretary, appointed for Hartford County, \SZ' Secretary for New £)ngland De- partment Am. S. S. Union, ap- pointed, 237. Secrets of Power in Word and Work, 235-252. SeVa, rock at Kadesh-barnea, 342. Sermons: collection of, 49S; first as chaplain, 186; method of preparation, 249; written, not extempore, 225. Shakespeare, quoted, 503. Sharon, Plain of, 350. Sheijherd's pipe, played at recep- tion, 468. "Shoes and Rations for a lyong March," his army sermons, 498. Shooting man, accidentally, 272. Showing Reserve Power Towards Life*s Close, 445-460. Shut-in, beginning the life of a, 486, Sicard, AbbS, mentioned, 125. Sigourney, Mrs. !Cydia Huntley, poem on Alice Cogswell, 130- X3X. Silent Comforter an chapel tent, 218. Sin of Worrying, the, 394. Sinai, memorable experience on, §02. Sistine Madonna, mentioned, 446. Sketches, making in prison, 207. Slosson, Annie Trumbull, author New ^ngland stories, 18; ento- mologist, z8; member of Asy- lum Hill Church, 295. Smith, John B., quoted, 241. Smoked glass, saying about street boy with, 255. Snow, praying for, 119. Societies^ early Sunday-school, 150- Soldier Friendship in Field . and Prison, A, 195-214. Somerset, Lady, quoted, 475. South, writing to home papers from, 250. Sparhawk, John, Jr., mentioned, 398. Speer, Robert E-, speaking of Trumbull at Northfield, 387 ; acquaintance with, begun at Princeton, 413; letters to, 412, 414, 415, 416; remark on "A I*ie Never Justifiable," 422; Sfjeaking at funeral service, 500; visits to and from, 414. Spiritu^ Awakening, The, 79-100. Spontaneity, intolerant of, 326. Springfield Republican, writing for, 237, Spurgeon, hearing in I^ondon, 333. Spy, under suspicion as, 205^ Stanley, Dean, invited to service l^Yf 332; mentioned, 321, Stanton, Dr. George D., as boy in Trumbull's class, 44. Stanton, Edmund D., as an editor of **I,ux Mundi," 55; writes Trumbull about relation to Christ, 82. Stanton, Miss Grace,. 38. Stanton, Thomas, descendant of, 10. Star and Democrat, writing for, „ 57-59- State's Prison, addressing inmates of, 167. Steamboat case, 398. Stevens, Bishop, mentioned, 469. Stonington, attacked by H. M. Frigate Rose, 12; center of his- torical interest, 22; defense of in 1814, 12; leaving in 1851, €7 ; location of, 11; naming streets in, 50 ; Trumbulls re- move to, II, Index 523 Stowe: Harriet Beecher, mention- ed, 295; Prof. Calvin %.y mem- ber of Asylum Hill Church, 295. Stryker, Dr. S. S.> mentioned, 331. Stuart, George H., entertained hy, x^Tt mentioned, 316. Stuart, Isaac W., leading political meeting, 138. Student Conferences, attending, 413; New England at Middle- town, mentioned, 385. Studd, G. B., at Northiield, 383. Study, first interest in, 42. Substitute evil, concern over, 225. Suez, leaving for desert, 334. Suffering, capacity for, 404. Sulayman, Shaykh, deceiving trav- elers, 337 ; unavailable as guide, 338. Sumner, Charles, on platform with, 250. Sumter Day, S. S. activities on, 176. • Sunday closing. Centennial Expo- sition, 303, 306. Sunday School Times, The, article with reference to Lesson Sys- tem, 301; Bishmi Ellicott's opinion of, 35s; Centennial is- sue of, 306 ; becoming editor of, 292-296; bought from John Wanamaker, 315; first article for, T^J't first issue of, 167; large circulation necessary, 302; symposium issue on Bible study, 321; transfer to John Wana- maker, 316; Washington's Birthday, issue of, 308; posi- tive, not negative, 395. Sunday School Field Work in the Fifties, 147-172. Sunday School World, conducting department in, 289. Supporting Sunday-schools from church funds, 282. Swearing, detailed to do the, 223. System, pursuing a, 248. Swan, Sarah Ann, mother of Henry Clay Trumbull, 10. Sympathy, power of, 478. Syrian guests at reception, 467. TabShwaclB Presbyterian Church, mentioned, 331. Tablet, discovering in British Mu- seum, 448-449. Tablet, memorial in Gallaudet Col- lege, 126. Talmadge, Henry G., quoted, 393. Tawarah tribes, mentioned, 334, "Teaching and Teachers," de- scription of, 365-366. Teachers' Department, conducting in Sunday School World, 289. Teachers, providentially provided for him, 496. Teeyahah, secretiveness of, 337; transferred to care of, 33s. Temperament, description of, 3. Temperance, address on, 51, 53. Temptatioh, to change work on account of salary, 246. Tennyson quoted, 270. "Ten Commandments, A Covenant of Love," study of, 383. Terabeen tribe, mentioned, 337. Theater, discussion of the, 428, 430. Thinking, boyhood training in, 14. Thompson, Robert Ellis, character- ization by, 475; quoted, 420. Thomson, W. M., mentioned, 321, 337- Thoroughness in "Kadesh-barnea,". 359, "Threshold Covenant, The," ac- count of, 453-454- Titles, care in choosing, 263; characteristic, in writing, 399. Tobacco, using, views of, 424-426, Todd, John, heard in boyhood, 41. Toronto, attending institute in, 292. Toy, Prof. C. H., engaged for The Sunday School Times, 308. Tuch, Prof., approving Rowlands' site of Kadesh-barnea, 336. Travel, extensiveness of in Sun- day-school work, 290. Tremont Temple, speaking in, 167, Trumbull: Alice Gallaudet, men- tioned, 295; Annie, mentioned, 18; Annie Eliot, mentioned, 15, 295; Annie Slosson, men- tioned, 295; Charles Edward, as an orator commended by Wendell Phillips, 16; Charles Edward, at Williams and Yale, 17; Charles Edward, death of, 17; Charles Gallaudet, mention- ed, 295; Charles Gallaudet, on Karlsbad trip, 446; Charles Gallaudet, preparation for edi- torial work, 419; Colonel John, of Washington's staif, 23; Fan- ny, mentioned, 295; "Brother Jonathan,'* mentioned, 10; Gur- don, ai>pointed postmaster, 13; his activity in politics, 30; as bank director, 13; commission- er of school fund, 13; farewell words to H._ C. "T. on leaving home, 63; in mana^gement of first railroad in Stonington, 13; interest in whaling and sealing, 13; legal adviser to neighbors, 524 Index 13; letter from, to Henry at Williston, 40; member of State JHouse of Representatives, 13; member of State Sena^ie, 13 ; sharing in defense of Stoning- ton, 12 ; receiving President Tyler, 22; self educated, 12; Gurdon, Jr., artist and orni- thologist, 18; Henry, uncle of H. C. T., it; Henry Camp, mentioned, 295; James Ham- mond, article on, by Mark Twain, 15; James Hammond, member of Asylum Hill Church, 295; James Hammond, scholarly achievements of, 14; John of Charlesto wn, Massachusetts, i o ; John of Norwich Town, Con- necticut, 10; John F., uncle of H. C. T., 11; Katharine Gal- laudet, mentioned, 295; Mary, as an editor of *%ux Mundi," 55 ; Mary Prime, mentioned, 295; Mary, sister of Henry, 16; Thomas Swan, brother of Henry, 17; Samuel, uncle of Henry, 11; Sophia Gallaudet, mentioned, 295. Truth, looking at from another corner, 264 ; love of, 4 ; su- premacy of, taught as great lesson, 500. Twain, Mark, entertaining in Philadelphia, 469: reference to J. Hammond Trumbull, 15; member of Asylum Hill Church; 295- Twichell, The Rev. Joseph H., characterization by, 243; pas- tor of Asylum Hill Church, 296. Tyng, Dr., on preaching to chil- dren, 280. Tyler, President John, speaking of Stonington cannon, 2^ \ visit to Stonington, 22. UMBR:eLi,A, incident of returning, 61. Under fire, first time, 190. Uniform lesson adopted, 290. Uninvited guests, at Dothan, 347. Union, American Sunday School, begins new S. S. era, 80. Unitine with church, 95, 99. Upper Room, The, 491-504. IJseless, duty of striving to render one's self, 399. University of Pennsylvania, in archseological work of, 481. Vacation, opinion of, 453; unable to bear thought of, 247. Van Buren, Vice-President Mar- tin, seeing in boyhood, 22. Vanderbilt, Cornelius, president of Stonington and Providence R. R-. 43. Van Zandt, Governor, writing for The Sunday School Times, 310. "Verify," office watchword, 393. Verse, destroying his manuscripts of, 128. "Victorious in Death and in I^ife," sermon quoted, 502. Vincent, Bishop John H., char- acterization by, 48^; invited to succeed, 239; mentioned, 316. Vocabulary of speaker not that of writer, 300. Wady Jbroor, camping in, 339. Walking, growing difficulty in, 492. Wall of Egypt, Great. 360. Walnut Street Presbyterian Church, finding church home in, 299; funeral services in, 499. Wanamaker, John, buying The Sunday School Times from, 315; characterization by, 315; conversation with about editor- ship, 293; seeking editor for The Sunday School Times, 292; suggesting trip abroad, 446. "War Memories," writing early chapters, 445. Warner, Charles Dudley, member of Asylum Hill Church, 295. Washington's Birthday, issue of The Sunday School Times, 308. Wattles, George H., mentioned, 332; John D., characteristics of, 319; death of, 416; finding of, 274-276; illness in Florida, 406-407; praying with about The Sunday School Times, 302; walking with, 376. Wayland, President Francis, quot- ed on "infant schools," 147. Wayland, the Rev, Dr. H. L., on Trumbull's hard work, 45S. Webster, Dr. John W., trial of, Weld, ly. I/., teacher in boyhood, 42. Weld, Miss Agnes Grace, niece of Tennyson, copying Kadesh- barnea, 451-452. Welles, Charles P. & Co., partner in firm of, 139. Wequetequock Sunday- school, teacher in, 44; superintendent of, 44. Whaling, Gurdon Trumbull inter- ested in, 13, Index 525 Whistler, James McNeill, boyhood playmate of, 27. Whittle, Major, mentioned, 387. Williams, Canon, mentioned, 336. Williams, Chief Justice, Henry's first S. S. teacher, 80; Presi- dent of American and Foreign Sabbath Union, 80. Williams College, Charles Edward Trumbull at, 17. Williams, Miss Bessie S., as an editor of *Xux Mundi," 55. Williams, S. Wells, mentioned, 493- Williston Seminary, attending, 39 ; preaching at, 249. Wilson, Vice-President Henry, led to Christ by Henry F, Durant, 283. Window, protecting man in prison, 208. Wing, Dr. Yung, quoted, 127. Winslow, Miron, 148, 493. Winter closing of S. S., 165-166. World's Student Conference at Northfield, 383. Woodruff, Albert, attracted to H. C. T., 153. Wool business, connection with, 144. Work, learning to, in midst of confusion, 43; new ideas of, 74- Wounded man, holding jugular vein of, 222. Wright, Dr. William, of I^ondon, reporting Bllicott's opinion of The Sunday School Times, 356. Wrinkles, cost of, 406. Writing, habits of, 247; on cars, 238 ; setting limitations for, 326; with enort, 476. YalS Coi,i,EGE, Charles Edward Trumbull attending, 17; given Master of Arts degree by, 238; I^ectures on the Sunday-school, 377; preaching at, 249; Semitic Club, lecture to, 407. "Yankee Hospital," ministrations in, 202. Yohannah el-Karey, 349. Yonge, Charlotte M., mentioned, 321- Yosemite Valley, first sight of, 291, Young men's prayer-meeting in Hartford, 88. Young Men's City Mission Society organized, 103. CONSERVATION 1987