■^ m^-. ^i'l ClassBXS^aS- I* I lV-.kl ^^^ 'V.- COPYRIGHT DEPOSm LIFE SKETCHES. PRESS OF J. J. BOWLES 170 ATLANTIC AVE. BROOKLYN LIFE SKETCHES OR Pleasant Reminiscences OF A BUSY CAREER SPENT AMONG ALL CLASSES AND CONDITIONS OF PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA. By Archibald Ross, Author of " Duty and other Poems," etc. THE RAEBURN book CO., NEW YORK. 1904. ^■^'Jl^^^ LIBRARY of CONQR&SS Two C«pie» Reeeived IkH 12 1904 \ Copyright Entry Class e^ XXc. No. ' COPY 3 TO MY MUCH ESTEEMED FRIEND, JOHN D. ROSS, LL.D., A STOUT LOVER OF FREEDOM, A DEAR FRIEND OF THE MUSES, AND AN INTREPID WORKER IN THE UPWARD MARCH OF HUMANITY, THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. This series of sketches appeared a few years since in the Newtown, L. L, Register, and at the re- quest of many friends is now printed, with a few changes, in a separate volume. It reveals some note- worthy incidents in the path of my experience on health, adventure, athletics, character and morals — in fact is largely a picture of my own life — one quite in- formal, and sufficiently off-hand to give Nature health- ful room without wounding her with malicious indiffer- ence. The reader will see that in many places I lay special stress upon the curative properties of cold, pure, dry air ; and I am obliged to do so because most people forget the worth of this grandest of all tonics. And another thing the reader may see — I never failed to keep up my confidence in human nature. A man can never realize the full worth of life till he does this. As a spectator on this beautiful little planet, one arriving at my age has the prerogative of knowing something, and should not be afraid to speak it. The shackles of creed or dogm.a have no place in my mental furniture. After all, the love of life is the real genius that prompts this volume — that healthful sense of freedom, not born of the richly freighted parlor, but of the pure sky and the green fields. To feel the glow and the 6 PREFACE charm of being, and live up to the higher adaptations that arise from it, I take to be our noblest definition of the sum of human existence. Metaphysics, philoso- phy, biology — all offer their varied domain for our observation, as well as the practical and material. Life — so full of the poetry of common things — places us ever forward on our vantage ground, where we need not fail to do some good service for the great human family. Brooklyn, N. Y., December, 1903. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I.— Early Days, - - - 9 CHAPTER II.— Pressing Ahead, - - 18 CHAPTER III.— Nature Humoring her Children, 27 CHAPTER IV.— Actors in the Forum, - - 37 CHAPTER v.— Epigrammatical, - - 48 CHAPTER VI.— Pertinacious and Practical, - 59 CHAPTER VII.— A Race for Life, with some hints for amateur lecturers, - 72 CHAPTER VIII.— Criticism and Common Sense, - 98 CHAPTER IX.— Health and Exercise, - 109 CHAPTER X.— Philosophical, - - 125 CHAPTER XI.—" A Man's a Man for a' That," 136 CHAPTER XII.— Hours with the Scotch Folk, - 155 CHAPTER XIII.— The Marriage Bureau, - 165 CHAPTER XIV.— Some Thoughts on the Devil, 177 CHAPTER XV.— The Labor Question, - - 189 CHAPTER XVI.— Beauty of Character, - 201 CHAPTER XVII.— The Religion of Humanity, - 211 For General Index see pages 237-247. CHAPTER I. EARLY DAYS. I HAD one temptation in starting out in these chapters — and that was to give a somewhat close sketch of the social and more circumstantial hemisphere of my nature. As this is the ground where dramatists and novelists cast their nets, and lay siege to the whole octave of pas- sion to furnish the material, I question whether it would be right in my own case ; for merely coming before the public as a casual visitor, who shall soon drop out of sight, wiser reflection convinced me that it were better to hold my peace, or to unfold some of those essentials which underlie the events of our daily life, and which, too often, from the want of insight, we let sleep in ob- scurity. For that circumstantial hemisphere I speak of has less to do with the making of a thorough man than that other half where nature, in study, in meditation, and in experience, fertilizes the mind for its great world work. For it would be unjust and cruel to maintain that Nature places us here at a disadvantage. Watch carefully the lives of certain persons, and the rationale of their daily habitudes is beautiful — their actions bespeak such at- tention as if some one were addressing them, as if they lo LIFE SKETCHES were listening, and so act accordingly. There is no enigma here ; yet the vices of our age are endeavoring to shut our ears to this divine truth. Just as I am writing this series of chapters, let me say here that, from the pressure of certain events passing around me, I shall follow no chronological arrangement. It is not always convenient to be turning over old leaves in the life-book. No matter how much a man may learn of the theory or history of a thing, he knows nothing of it practically till he has passed through it, and in some sense made it his own. Then he has right to give utter- ance. At the same time it is a pity that the most of those who have travelled over the rough road of ex- perience and observation grow tired, or indolent, or thoughtless about the multitude who are stepping out over the same road, and striving to pick their way. Selfishness is a very filthy little rascal that hangs on the skirts of even great men. I was born at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, in 1835, of rugged Scotch Highland stock. My mother was a MacGregor, and bore the signet of authority. Two of her great granduncles fell in battle, one at Prestonpans, Scotland, and one with Wolfe at Quebec. In my third year my father pitched his residence in Upper Canada, in the small and but recently opened village of Perth. Laid out and garrisoned by officers and soldiers of the British army, it possessed a some- EARIvY DAYS ii what military air, and was credited with certain quali- fications which fitted it for the residence of respectable politicians. The respectable politician of that day was not unlike that of our own in his proclivities to claret and port, which seemed no disadvantage. It was pretty hard, slow work for the temperance reformers when at length they made a break in the fortress of the enemy. They had nothing of the machinery of the present system, and were the subject of comedy and burlesque for many a year. This village, graced by the presence of three churches, had nothing to boast of in its moral characteristics. The two lawj^ers, young, robust and natty, were noted for their nice mannerisms with the upper ten ; while the school teachers were adepts in the art of flogging — one of the pedagogues, whose taste was marked by the presence of a green waistcoat summer and winter, and some expressive dilettantism with the ladies, had an eye knocked out in a scuffle, and his pride forbade him ever after to be seen. Another had the fortune or mis- fortune to have a wooden leg, which, just at the time when Hood's lines were running in every head, exposed him, though a good teacher, to much obloquy, that he also shortly disappeared and left the country. Nature framed me in a peculiar mold. Frail and delicate in my early years, the first acquisition I in- herited from my foster-mother was the art of asking 12 IvIFE SKETCHES questions, and it sometimes cost me a high price. In my sixth year a distinguished personage entered my father's house. He was the Christian teacher in that locality. One day I asked him "Are you a man of God? " He smiled and patted me on the head. Another day as I sat near him, and a bottle of odorous Glenlivet fell to the floor, I said "Do you love brandy?" That was one of the most exjDensive questions I ever asked. I remember a son of Vulcan who had long lived near, having one leg, one good eye, and four fingers on his left hand. A heart full of merriment, brimming over with military songs, which he picked up in her Majesty's service, joined with a touch of the St. Vitus' dance, ex- posed him as a subject to common buffoonery. One morning, while at service and in the midst of the minis- ter's prayer, the blacksmith, troubled with his distemper, and a drop too much of spirits, walked out in the aisle, and with bobbing, dancing, singing, and shouting "God save the Queen," put the whole church in such laughter that the parson stopped, and had the man violently ejected. Health is such an equivalent in a man's whole life, that I dare not in this chapter pass by the subject un- noticed. Fresh as yesterday comes up the recollection of a last resource adopted to save my life in my fifth year. Just as I was being tenderly lifted into the bath, I overheard my playmates speak of my near funeral. -EARLY DAYS 13 and the dresses they should wear. The whole of them have passed before. The greatest monster that I ever met inhuman society in mv childhood was the phlebotomist. Whether it was to drain all the MacGregor blood out , and to get new blood in, or whether some incarnate fiend threw a spell over the family, I never could gauge to my satisfaction. But the way that I was hacked and cut to please the blood vampire, my scars to-day testify. The question that I mused in my heart was just this — How may I get blood ? My appetite failed; my sleep failed. Fever, asthma and cough clung to me like old friends. Slow in learning the secret of reserved energy. I was bound when once I foimd it not to forget it. From parent. schoolmaster, minister or doctor, I could get no satis- faction. I felt that I must follow my intuitions — the whisperings of the Infinite in the soul — ^they were my law, and I must obey them. Let caste bind me with its iron cords if it dare. I should have to snap them or cde. "When man learns the secret of perfect breathing in cold, clear air, he learns the secret of perfect health. God has given us two oceans in which to wash our- selves — the cold, clear water to cleanse our bodies, and the bracing, penetrating atmosphere to cleanse our blood. The hundreds of millions of air cells in the lungs have been neglected and misused. Man is afraid to breathe : the cells consequently become clogged and 14 lylFE SKETCHES choked with foreign matter. This in a nutshell explains how in badly ventilated rooms men fall a prey to diseases that accelerate death. They have not the sagacity on leaving unhealthy abodes to breathe deeply of the pure air, and wash out the foulness from the cells. Deep breathing in clear air, exercise and sleep are the criteria of longevity, and the happiest of the human family — irrespective of the money question altogether — find here their stronghold and safety. Let me illustrate how I found out the secret of living. I had been sick, dear knows how long — it was spring, raw cold weather; snow in patches lay on the ground. I had not been out for months. But it was election time— some one was rushing for parliament, and the festive music shook all the walls, and penetrated my ears. No Argus was there to eye me, and I soon left the house, thinly clad, two hundred rods behind. There I ravished my whole frame with a dual exitement — the grand music, — but the pure, clear cold air! God, wasn't it delicious ! O how thirsty I was ! I recall it all now. Those deep inspirations, how long, how delightful! About twenty minutes after I was found and well pom- meled for such coquetting with nature. In one cold winter day of my twelfth year, when some religious controversy was going on between my father and the village clergyman, I wrapped myself up warmly and used some evasion to steal outside. I started EARLY DAYS 15 I know not whither. It was of little consequence; I could breathe. After walking about three miles I thought of returning, but the bracing air cheered me, and I advanced. How I walked and ran, and bounded that day ! Cold water to a thirsty soul is indeed sweet ; but the cold air — how I would stretch my body, throw forward my chest, and swing my arms. I kept up the deep inspirations as long as nature would allow. I grudged to expel the air, and made very long, and deep draughts. All day long I lived in this delirium. Over hills and frozen streams, through dense woods, drinking, drinking for life. I counted the seconds. I wondered after all whether this was real healthy enjoyment, or the precursor of death. The day grew intensely cold, but the colder the air, the greater the exhilaration. I questioned whether there was any nectar in the wide world that could equal the pure crisp oxygen of the dry Canada air. When I ar- rived home at nightfall all wondered at the change. It was my first comprehension of the reserved energy that God had placed somewhere in my constitution, and not in mine only, but in the physical systems of all who care to look for it. What a mine of wealth ! But I might as weU speak at that time to a log of wood as to any one but a solitary few on such a blessing, without being re- minded that the consequences would soon be of such a terrible nature as to teach me otherwise. My judgment i6 LIFE SKETCHES has grown with my experience and my years; and I be- lieve that thousands annually drop into their graves, whose incapacity or carelessness or fastidiousness will not allow them to trace this storehouse of their being. At a very early age I was led to look into the com- pensations of nature. A n extraordinary memory formed part of my mental apparatus. Lyman Beecher's Lec- tures on Intemperance fell into my hands. A first reading placed an accurate transcript of every word in my mind — and with the greatest ease I delivered the oration to crowded houses. I was very much annoyed one day to find that a second reading was necessary for a new lecture ; and on another occasion a third reading. It was lucky for my health that it was so ; for I was petted and spoiled just to the verge of ruin. I thank my stars to-day that, considering my surroundings, my memory lost its mechanical brilliancy. I studied Latin from my eleventh to my thirteenth year, and with the assistance of the Bible, Paradise Lost and Chalmers' Astronomical Discourses, laid hold of a key which opened the door to many a precious avenue of language. Then my father's fortunes flew to the winds, and our home was broken up. Apprenticed to a printer in Montreal, Canada, my quiet, silent tem- perament kept me printer's devil for a long time ; but young and feeble as I was, I kept asking questions. And they were questions no man could answer. But I didn't EARLY DAYS 17 know why. Thus I learned to look within, and though this introspection isolated me from my companions, the years convince me that any other step would have proved suicidal. The being who nobly resolves to fill his place in the realm of existence will find that an inner as well as an outer voice calls him to action. To heed the former alone will make him a useless enthusiast ; to solely heed the latter will make him a cramped, frozen materialist. I have been looking at the rocks ahead, and am very thankful that I have escaped this Charybdis without an accident. All speculation's tact Proves man is but at school, And cannot solve essential fact More than a babe or fool. Essence will not be known. Man stands but at the door. Just as he stood, a child ungrown, A child, but little more. Though he fly to the sun, Or compass Virgo's range, His knowledge then is but begun In Nature's wheel of change. Laws borne of Mind have place In Nature's wide domain. But human prescience ne'er can trace The mysteries they contain. Eelation j-et is seen. Or felt where not perceived. Life forms the centre of a Mean, eternally conceived. CHAPTER II. PRESSING AHEAD. As this world is a school, and we are students, every one of us, it is but natural that young inexperienced minds should interrogate the older and more experienced ones regarding the difficulties on the way. We are ever learning from impressions and experiences — and our teachers are not always members of the human family. O no. The whole round of Nature is made in some way to subserve this end. But how far we are and are not the children of experience, is the great enigma of philos- ophy. Here the varied schools are forever quarreling. Is there anything or any series of things prior to or superior to our ordinary sense knowledge that makes even experience itself possible? The whole history of philosophy tells us that man was made for development from the very make-up of his spiritual nature. We must not despair. Civilization is looking for a new school where apriority will be thoroughly tested as a great factor in the phenomena of mind. We must not be afraid to branch out for the fullest birthright of our being. Materialism laughs us to scorn, and many of our churches and academies are bridled to suit this tendency. I have a very distinct recollection of a gentleman PRESSING AHEAD 19 placing in my hands, when about ten years old, Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding. As I had carried along with me for years a strong dislike for Locke, I often wondered where I acquired it. About twenty-six years ago I sat down to a careful perusal of his essay, when strange feelings came over me that I had read the work away back in my childhood. I cannot recall the time ; but somewhere around my tenth or eleventh year I met a heartrending disaster. While playing with some children in the attic of my father's barn, some one out- side, in throwing a load of hay near us, forced the tine of a pitchfork into my left nostril, throwing me against the wall. My screams aroused the neighborhood ; and all I remembered for some time was the sea of blood around me. Long months of sickness resulted. And when health came I found that for many a day sweet memory had fled. Locke undoubtedly was one of my early teachers, and the impression I so early formed I have only somewhat modified. He was instructive as far as he went, but he did not go far enough. Sensation and reflection are not the sole doors to our knowledge. I made my debut in New York in 1852. My anxiety was to meet men — but my experiences for some time were not cheerful. I soon found work at Smith & MacDougall, Beekman Street, and there finished my apprenticeship. There I met my old chum, Robert Waters. Of my life- 20 LIFE SKETCHES long friend I will speak again. Here also I met and worked with John Swinton at the compositing. As he was the theme of much controversy in labor circles in after years, let me say that young Swinton was very active and wiry, an intense reader, an apt speaker, of much enthusiasm, with eccentricities that kept com- pany with him all life long. One early statement of his I well remember : ' 'Could I but cross the ocean and shake hands with the great Thomas Carlyle, I should die happy." In connection with my reading I would use much spare time in striving to get a glimpse of the faces of great thinkers — men with eagle eyes that I might peer into Avithout flinching. I was not long in finding such a man in Horace Greeley. My perambulations in the vicinity of his den were frequent. What titillations of delight seized me when he appeared on the sidewalk ! One day bracing up, I wrote a paragraph, and submitted it to the phil- osopher. But my clumsiness barely saved me. While he was reading the paper, I as usual asked him a question or two. "Here, here, " said he, "stop your questions; at- tend to business, stick to your writing, condense your ideas, simplify your language, and the world will soon know it." In my eighteenth year. Professor Robison's Intro- duction to Lord Bacon's Inductive Philosophy gave me a great thirst to know more about the grand thinker- PRESSING AHEAD 21 Robison himself may be classed as a teacher — his rich, full flowing diction spurred me on. As a clear, persuasive and masterly digest his work cannot be surpassed. A very able condensation of it appeared in the third and seventh editions of the Encyclopedia Britannica, to which I refer the reader. From the year 1854 to 1858 I devoted much of my spare time to reading the poets. Leaving Milton out of the category, as he was an older friend, I started with Pope, and very naturally drifted to his master, Dry den. Over those two charmed writers I spent hours at a time. Ease, grace, euphony are the characteristics of Pope ; dignity, majesty, strength are the characteristics of Dryden. They live the paragons of rhyme — Dry den the greater wonder indeed, from the fact that with all his rapidity of execution, no one has been found to equal him in the art of grasping the right word, and moulding it with astonishing swiftness. I loved Cowper for the tenderness and simplicity of his style ; Akenside for the sublimity of many of his periods; Thomson for good flashes of genius, and the closing hymn, which is indeed a coronal of beauty. Wordsworth I read for his Intima- tions of Immortality ; Coleridge for his peerings into the infinite; Longfellow as the grandest heart-poet of the American continent, and in some respects of the whole world ; Bryant, not for his cold Thanatopsis, but for his pleasant walks with Nature, talking with God's lesser 22 LIFE SKETCHES creation, scattered around his feet — and a thousand others I cannot mention now. The poets are a high priesthood, and give Hfe that equipoise which dignifies humanity, and forever reminds us of the relation which binds us to our Original. Some years after this I took up the study of practical astronomy, and thus found that life was full of com- pensations. It would be useless for me to go over this ground, where I received so much satisfaction. But I would say for the benefit of my younger readers that no earthly study can furnish healthier material for the mind in the sore warfare of life. You should accustom yourselves to pleasant walks in the country far from the glare of our city lights to see the skies in their splendor, and trace out the links which bind the present so strangely with the past ; where you are sure of acquiring some knowledge of universal truths if you but rightly look for them. An omnivorous reader, I fell early into the habit of striking out for those arenas in literature where criticism holds a solid ground. And this is altogether a question of taste with readers. Jeffrey, the Edinburgh reviewer, deserves credit for the power and energy he exhibited in this line — far superior in many respects to Sidney Smith, whose caricature at times degraded his writing. Carlyle possessed, and will possess for many generations to come, grand distinctiveness and safety as a leader. I make no PRESSING AHEAD 23 scruple whatever in saying that I have been much in- debted to him. Carlyle shows the world that he is earnest, that he hates shams, that he is after the real and the essential, if it can at all be found. A man so eager will not be censured for his mannerism of style. We rise from his writings satisfied, because we feel that he has spoken what he knows. He pains occasionally, but his lancet is visible — he does not hide it under the veil of dissimulation that it may sting in secret, like the Satanic school. Any man who reads Carlyle for strength, information and good sense will find it ; and I gladly recommend him to my readers as one of the foremost of our modern names. I merely make allusion to Emerson at this time from the friendship that sprang up between these two men. There are pages of this illustrious writer that glow with a richness of illustration and wealth of genius that history has never surpassed. Having but touched the border ground of my training school, there are some querying as to my belief in a higher school than any of these. There is a great deal of moral weakness exhibited here amongst men. I find very little of that conspicuous fervid action of Paul which might be looked for as a necessary resultant in natures like his own. For myself I love liberty; I love the spirit and genius of the essence of Christianity; I embrace the Divine incarnation — the doctrine of a Trinity ; I believe this life is a probation ; that one of the most precious of 24 IvIFE SKETCHES its teachings is a spiritual resurrection ; I believe in re- wards and punishments. But in the doctrine of a free and unfettered Divine love for all who will be saved I most certainly believe — where the Almighty in the plenitude of His grace calls to every son and daughter of Adam, "Here is the light, walk in it; I have given you free will, use it." But we know that some prefer the darkness. Milton's conception of the sufferings of the damned, stripped off the false images which, from the nature of the case, he was obliged to use, seems in consonance with the government of a just and free sovereign. Many love evil; it is their heaven; and the Creator permits it to be so. We must leave the mystery with Himself. When I first arrived at New York in 1852 I found a boardinghouse, kept by a Mrs. Eyan, at 37 Pearl street, near the Battery, long since pulled down for a more ex- tensive structure. Many an evening I strolled over into the park, and endeavored to drive away the melancholy that preyed upon me. I missed my mother's face, and found that in spite of all my efforts, I became singularly unhappy. While ruminating over my condition one evening I was sure that I heard some one singing: I listened — the voice was that of a woman — O how clear, how thrilling, how natural ! I moved in the direction of the sound, and found that it proceeded from Castle PRESSING AHEAD 25 Garden. My melancholy disappeared, and I was deter- mined, if possible, to see this great singer. The next evening I walked around to the entrance. I had no money to spare, tickets were expensive, and I spoke to a driver, explaining my dilemma and my desire ; he was an Englishman, and seemed to be superintendent over a race of Jehus. I knew not what the result might be ; the crowd kept pressing, but I kept near the cockney. Carriage followed carriage. "'Ere she comes! Gents, make way!" suddenly cried the man. At this I saw a lady grasping a gentleman's hand, and alighting. Her face was calm, and indeed beautiful. It spoke of peace at any rate to me. The crowd jostled me along, but I was satisfied that I had seen Jenny Lind, but, better still, that I had heard her, and that long night I waited out- side and drank in the sweetness of her notes. I went over to my boarding-house with pleasing reflec- tions ; but I found on entering my room a strange man in my bed — ^the light was burning. Nothing daunted, I fell on my knees to offer my daily thanks to God, and when I arose the man asked me what I was doing. ' ' I was praying to God — do you pray?" "O I wish I could pray," and he sobbed the words aloud as if his heart would break. "I had a good mother," and he sobbed again. I changed the topic for a moment; and found that he was a laborer; he had been hard at work in the hot sun that very day, and seemed to be worn out next 26 LIFE SKETCHES to death's door. So I endeavored to cheer him, when he asked me, "Will you teach me to pray?" I immediately rose, and knelt at the bedside. reader, be thou a politician, or merchant, or what not, it will not do to sneer at testimonies of this kind. Never be ashamed of thy Creator and His great love. In trembling accents I used the opening part of the Lord's prayer. He followed me, repeating, but in great pain, the words "Our Father who art in heaven" — he could get no further; he was de- termined to know this at any rate ; and we lay down to rest. I was awakened at intervals by the sounds "Our Father who art in heaven." This was the last refrain I heard from my companion. On awakening in the morn- ing he was missing, and on my return home at night I inquired what became of him. "0, Mr. Ross," said the lady, "be is dead." "Did he leave any message? What were his last words?"" Our Father who art in heav" — "He's all right," said I; "he wrestled with God like Jacob, and he found the blessing." CHAPTER III. NATURE HUMORING HER CHILDREN. It is very much to be regretted that this aspect of the great Hfe struggle is so little touched by journalists. The very element that Providence throws in our way as a spice and condiment to tide us through disaster and difficulty is often looked upon in later years as a sort of moral incubus that we must get rid of at any rate. We have not sufficient confidence in Nature, and turn our back upon her in a very unfriendly way. Humor is the very salt of life. We all have a great deal of it in our constitutions. But we very seldom think that this faculty has much to do in prolonging our years. That it has tended to this point to a large extent in my own life, is one reason I allude to it here. Solomon said ''There is a time to laugh." He was no fool when he said it ; though some of the Sunday school lesson lecturers think they know more than he did. A laugh is a very pleasant sauce at the life feast table. The lower animals exhibit this propensity to humor to a wonderful extent. I was once visiting a friend, when my attention was called to an eighteen months old child 28 LIFE SKETCHES on the floor, throwing out his arms, and crowing lustily at the antics of a cat, that jumped over the baby's head, gamboled playfully, then jumped back again — keeping this up four or five times. This undoubtedly was great amusement to pussy as well as the child. We can see it all throughout nature. It is the compensatory law of special providences, showing that every line of being has its share of advantages to charm the sense, so that things may meet their proper fitness. Things for a time looked pretty blue in those far away days when I first entered the printing office. The fore- man was a strange nondescript. People shunned him like a plague. Soaked in whiskey, he threw out from his person to a compass of ten feet a malaria which seemed to embrace raw onions, garlic, assafoetida, toads- tools, limburger, forty -rod, and stale pigs' wash ; and was therefore pretty sure to hold the fort on his own terms. Tom was a terror. On one occasion he asked one of the boys to return to office after supper ; but as the fire- men were out that night in procession, Scott thought it best to view the parade, then went to bed and dreamt of Squiggs. The apprentice was in for it next morning. Squiggs at first sight rushed for him, yanked him by his collar with two hands, lifted him up — it was his method — and shook him so terribly that his boots flew across the floor. Then he brushed off the blue bottles that settled NATURE HUMORING HER CHILDREN 29 on his own pate, absquatulated for an hour and came back sodden. We did'nt laugh, not we; we thought of retaliation, and at length settled on mud pies. As Tom had a wide distance on the streets, and the butterflies of fashion constantly hinted of a nefarious odor in his whereabouts, we sought ambuscade, and for some evenings made it hot for Tom. But when winter came with its long array of snow storms, he had it sure and heavy. How the snowballs would rattle around Tom's head ! But he always sought relief in the flowing bowl, and fortunately never challenged us on this score. I had been away for some years, and on my return found that Tom still held the fort. He was the Nemesis of the place. From editor down to messenger boy all kept a safe distance, hoped and longed for his retire- ment, but no one dared approach him to speak of it. But Tom yielded at last ; the news flew like wildfire that Tom was dead. Having no desire to attend the funeral, I asked some of the hands for information. ''D'ye moind? " said Donohue, "am I a fool? " On questioning another, "B'gob, I would take arsenic first." "Mr. Flynn, were you at the funeral of Mr. Squiggs? " " Was I? —do you think I'm as full as a herring? — nix; " and he hurried away. As a last resource I asked Mike, who was once a boon companion with him. " Well, I own up I was a pal of Tom's ; but I sorter hated his pot drinks ; 30 LIFE SKETCHES why, Tom would drink out of a spittoon, and I let him go. No, I can't go near him." And that was all I could ever find out about the exit of Tom Squiggs. What fools we readers should be not to see in this strange episode the law of compensation. The foreman was useless and unfortunate, but Nature gave him en- joyment even at the expense of his character. On our side we were destined to occupations where quietude and seriousness, in the midst of the most unhealthy air, would expose us to frightful diseases; but compensatory ad- vantages sprang up in the oddity of our surroundings, and gave us laughter and gayety for companionship in the most critical period of our lives. I have no sympathy, therefore, with those minds who will teach differently. Nature is ever telling us, "I have given you faculties for amusement, and no matter what the proclivities of custom or even religion may say, I know my duty ; my aptitudes will bear you through life cheerfully." While we try to crush this tendency of Nature, we do injury to the moral fabric of society, and throw insult in the face of the Divine Being. Very distinctly do I remember of using a word out of place to study its effects. I ahvays hated swearing; but I was constantly frightened and abused by rough swearing boys, whose bluster, I used to think, made them appear like giants. One day I resolved to try an experiment, and thus turn the tables on them. The NATURE HUMORING HER CHILDREN 31 turning point was on the word " hell," so thoughtlessly bandied about by feeble minds. It was not long till one of my bold antagonists rushed upon me, when I immed- iately caught him by the coat coUar, shook him and asked him very boldly in his own phraseology, what he meant by thus annoying me. The poor fellow burst into tears, slipped away and ran as if there were a thousand dogs after him. Now, people may say what they please regarding this experiment, and though I felt very sheep- ishly about it for fully a year after, two or three decades have convinced me that this early argumentum ad hominem opened out a hundred voliunes regarding the grandeur of moral character, and the cowardliness and imbecility of all manner of vice. Having once had to face a contingency, where the ab- surd, the laughable and the ludicrous threw their veil around me, it will not be inappropriate to mention it as bearing on the subject in hand. Shy and reserved in my nineteenth year — and many years after — I kept silent in society, and could barely muster courage to speak to a lady. While passing one day Fulton street, near Broadway, where Horace Greeley and Bayard Taylor stood in conversation, a lady, jostled by the crowd, fell in mid-street, and a conveyance was passing over her when I with others rushed to her rescue. Thanking us for our efforts, I hurried on, and thought no more of the matter. Accustomed to cross the Hamilton ferry at that time, on several occasions I noticed that I was watched by a 32 LIFE SKETCHES strange looking fat, fiery-faced lady, who at length egged on her attentions so far as to enter into conversation when leaving the boat, walked beside me, and asked me questions that made me blush to the roots of my hair. Having too much of this sort of thing, (it kept on for weeks, and caused not a little tittering around us) I changed boats, but the dowager found me out, and, as I could not dodge her, in as genial a manner as I could collect I awkwardly asked if I could be of any service to her. As this was just w^hat mine ogre wanted, I found, to speak plainly, I had put my foot in it. "Why," said she, "don't you remember of saving my life in Fulton street, my dear man?" It was too much — come what might, I was determined to get rid of her. First, I thought of throwing up my position, and leav- ing the city, and was quandarying over the matter, when on Sunday following, while standing with some young men near the boarding-house, one cried out, ' ' There is Miss Carbuncle," — a name she received, from a wen on her nose. There sure enough she was — advancing toward us. I cautiously moved onward, appearing indifferent, though I was mightily agitated. On looking back, there was only about fifteen feet between us — she was running, and the boys were roaring. I tried to run, but I could not ; some sickening fascination staggered me, while she — weighing at least two hundred and thirty pounds, and I suppose fully forty-five years old — was in a passion, NATURE HUMORING HER CHILDREN 33 and I expected something like a whacking — I didn't know what. But as luck would have it, when about four feet from me, she threw her big arms too far forward to seize me, and fell over a switch of pine, and I escaped. Now, this seems ridiculous, doesn't it? but is there any compensation in it? If so, I have no right to reject it in this series of sketches. And should the reader think my ministerial capacity forbids that I should recall it, let him remember that events of this kind deserve registra- tion, in that they often prove blessings in disguise. There is a true as well as a comic side to all this. I look back upon it as a disagreeable incident carrying an agree- able compensation. Long hours of hard thinking before and after my daily labor soon reduced my physical health; my appetite failed, my sleep failed; when up rose this bold, impertinent Cassandra, who insisted — the minx — that I, a boy of nineteen years, had saved her life, that therefore I had a right to her hand, and she would see that nobody else should have it. Well, the result was just this, that I raced hither and thither till I got rid of her; my studies dropped, my exercise gave me a good appetite ; my sleep came to me as of old. So for all these remunerations I need not censure Providence for sending along the fussy dame. Quite apropos to these reflections may be cited the case of Alexander Somerville, a Scotch genius. He had been a soldier in the British army, but through Palmerston's 34 LIFE SKETCHES influence secured a release. Settling in Montreal, his versatile and elastic pen charmed the people with a long series of readable articles. His letters were invariably signed "Alexander Somerville, Whistler at the Plough." This went all right for a while, when one Lanigan, a man of subtle, penetrating wit, forever running into the most charming antitheses, started a satirical sheet, and in a weekly series of articles, signed "Darius Y/intergreen, Fiddler at the Harrow," flooded the city with some of the keenest and raciest broadsides of the day. The articles caused roars of laughter all over the country, and tended not a little towards clearing the atmosphere of certain unhealthy foibles which infested the literature and habits of the people. There is a place in the world for satire and humor. While I should not go so far as to commend Swift and Eabelais for stepping aside from the boundary line that nature marked for the limits of their pasture ground, they are certainly deserving of credit for the cheerfulness and humor which have seeded in the heart of that influ- ential class who have read them. The wit of Rabelais conveys some of the finest morality, while the satire of Swift has taught us how — with a few blunt well studied words — we may do much useful work. But let us not forget that human nature takes its cast largely from our humor: the thoughtful may always read two or three tongues with theirinflections where the crowd reads one. NATURE HUMORING HBR CHILDREN 35 This mysterious argosy, the human soul — how it does baffle the calculations of the most far-seeing schools ! It looks awkward and bungling, in this twentieth century, to be told that we know no more than our progenitors regarding the budding of genius in childhood. Why is it that the individual who has been so long looked upon as the dull, good for nothing loutish boy, turns out the marvel and hope of his race? What is the secret of his personality? He himself moving along in the soberest daily common-place — so kind were the dealings of nature in his defence, so bounteous her provision that he should not be stinted in anything necessary to a proper and full development. There is something intensely beautiful to the student of mental science in looking over such a picture. He sees something that the mighty crowd with all the imple- ments of knowledge at their finger ends, never witness. He sees the priest, the judge, the physician, and the par- ent looking with despair and unmingled pity upon the dull and apparently stupid boy. They cannot stir him ; and they are baffled in every endeavor to pierce the secret of his stronghold. In fact they deny that he has any. They cannot see the panoply that encases him ; and the fact remains that he is neglected and abused, and made the scapegoat for the sins of the neighborhood. And who knows but that the qualities of his mind are strikingly sharpened by this discipline? Some way or another he 36 IvIFB SKETCHES bears through it all — the idea never arising within him that his foster-mother is feeding and training him, and that one day he shall leave the chrysalis and fly with new wings. Life is full of compensations, and when our teachers fully realize the grandeur of their mission, they will teach a great many things they do not understand now. When our eye is opened to behold something of the vastness and grandeur that Nature has in store for even the poorest of her children, the money question will hold its proper place, suicide will be on the wane, and man will not allow himself to become the prey of vices which have disfigured the face of society with a stigma a thousand times lower than the brute. CHAPTER IV. ACTORS IN THE FORUM. Before I proceed with some detailed account of my church and world experiences, it is fitting that I mention to-day a few personages who have given me some hours of instruction as well as enjoyment. Don't let us forget by all means that events are very spirited teachers in this school of life. When I was quite a boy, Francis Hincks, of Montreal, was rising rapidly into eminence, and in high circles was looked up to with much respect. As I often carried proof-sheets from the office to his own hands, I had some opportunity, young as I was, of noticing the care and ex- cellent taste he exhibited in his writings. And this was one secret of his after success. Long years before his knighthood he was well aware of his mental strength — a noble quality not to be deprecated by any means in a noble mind. There are many just as able and well in- formed as Sir Francis Hincks, but their timidity kills them. This impression doubtlessly swayed him through life in filHng out his ideal. He did the best he could, and where he erred he was all the better fitted to gauge the strength of his own mind. He passed through seas of the most bitter rancor unharmed; but who that has 38 LIFE SKETCHES climbed the slippery political ladder can expect to escape scot free? As governor of Barbados he earned distinc- tion for some years before his death. Years ago there lived a man in Canada for whose name I bear a warm respect. A conservative in politics, he for once in his life became an out and out radical. In 1849 Lord Elgin, under the advice of his ministers, for the sake of ensuring peace, pledged the payment of losses sustained in the French rebellion of 1837. The loyalists were intensely angry, burned the parliament house to the ground, and soon drove Lord Elgin out of the country. The editor of the Gazette, James Moir Ferres, was one of the loyalists. He had beeu a school teacher; and possessed a great deal of energy, coupled with a good share of versatility, and a spice of humor that made him a favorite with the people. But at times his pen was steeped in the most poignant irony. Many of his articles bore traces of the most elaborate preparation, and might be considered as models of eloquence. When I found any of his thoughts in harmony with my conception of beauty, I revolved them over and over in my sensorium till I could easily recall them. But these occasions were rare ; for the whirl of politics gave him little time to look for jewels. Of Ferres' subsequent life I learned little, but sufficient to know that he died poor, unrewarded for his zeal for his country. About the year 1868 I had many opportunities of meet- ing with the Hon. D'Arcy McGee, a gifted son of the ACTORS IN THE FORUM 39 Grreen Isle. At that time he had been writing extensively for the Canadian press, especially the Montreal Gazette, and was rising rapidly in the affections of the Canadian people. This gentleman possessed some excellent traits, but he did not succeed well as a politician. When young and inexperienced in the lessons of patriotism he made vows that riper years urged him to cancel, at a time when he found himself hemmed in between files of men un- governable in passion, and studied in revenge. A man indeed of peculiar genius, where the beautiful and the repulsive had much in common, he manifested a gayety and innocence of heart which only those who well knew him could appreciate. He studied but little of the artifices of evasion, and in more peaceful times might have arisen to the highest honors in a noble, sincere and chaste soci- ety. At times singularly feeble, he allowed the bridle of indiscretion to rest on his lips, and would go, like Sen- nacherib, to his ruin: then he would re-resolve to be a man, and be worthy of the name. Those who say he was a born orator make a sad mis- take. His best orations were after drinking heavily. Nature never sanctions such work at the expense of her own purity. Yet here lay his terrible temptation. He long fostered the idea, that in giving up the wassail-bowl he would give up the spirit of eloquence. Yet he had great heroism ; he tried to master the frightful habit time and again, and at length succeeded. In the bosom of his 40 LIFE SKETCHES family he spent many a pleasant hour with the muses, and gave birth to thoughts that will long live after him. His will at length grew resolute. He threw his affections on the side of national and civil order. Friends and affluence gathered around him. He used all his energies for the furtherance of reforms. But venom rankled in the breasts of his old confederates, and he fell by the assassin's hand one early morning while leaving the parliament house at Ottawa, leaving a pall of the most intense sorrow hanging over the nation. I was once witness in Montreal of an event in the life of the Hon. McGee, which showed him before the world in a clear light after his changeable career — making him hosts of friends. A former lawyer of some repute in the city, and formerly a friend of D'Arcy's, became his bit- terest enemy on hearing that McGee threw aside the Fenian interest for a more loyal profession. One day the two men met in Great St. James street, when the lawyer immediately spat in the face of his old associate. McGee threw out his cane as if for defence, but offered no retal- iation, as the crowd separated them. There was a heroism in this act on the part of McGee that may be misconstrued, but neverthless will give him a lustre singularly striking amongst his contemporaries. The heroism of Sir Philip Sidney, in the face of a similar insult, is nearly parallel. In this place may be mentioned the name of Alexander Mathieson, the noblest representative of the Scottish ACTORS IN THE FORUM 41 church in Canada, and for thirty-five years minister of St. Andrew's in Montreal. In the midst of a circle of the most amiable qualities which have ever adorned the human person, men and women sought the aureole of his friendship, and never left his society with a murmur. A splendid type of the true pastor, he made no distinction in his calls of duty, and both rich and poor ever found him — at all hours of the night as well as the day — ready and eager to attend the sick and the dying. One of the most memorable episodes connected with his life relates to the visit of the Prince of Wales to Montreal. The doctor was set in the idea that the Scotch church was entitled just to as much deference at the hands of the prince as the English church, and he was determined not to rest till it was granted. But the prince and suite had already passed through Montreal. No matter: the Scotch church, with their famous leader, would pursue them till they secured their rights. The doctor first wrote a strong letter to the Duke of Newcastle — ^the prince's guardian — and followed it up by proceeding in formal method — he and the church elders — right on to Kingston, where they were conveyed to the steamer con- taining the prince, when he read with great clearness and fervor the memorable address. Touched with the courtly breeding and courtesy of the old veteran, after the formal salutations were over, the prince said, "Doctor Mathie- son, allow me to do myself the pleasure of shaking hands 42 LIFE SKETCHES ■with you." •• Gk>d bless you! " said the doctor, the tears rushing to his eyes. The good old man was satisfied. The Scotch loved him better than ever for his stubborn victory, and the whole province echoed the sentiment. Sad was the blow when his beautiful daughter, Janet Ewing — the hope and joy of the home after her mother's death — whUe bathing at Cacouna was suddenly drowned. A thrill ran through the country as to the agonizing shock that might result on his hearing of the disaster. But he bore it with splendid Christian fortitude, and soon after followed her in 1870, in his seventy -fifth year. Somewhat akin to this was the short career of the Rev. William Darrach, as grand a type of the true missionaiy as ever lived. Shortly after his arrival from the north of Scotland, he entered Queen's College, Kingston, and while as janitor there, entered on a course of study for the ministry. This man never knew anything of sec- tarianism in man, and as he preached in his church, or sat on the wayside, entering into conversation with all classes of society, every one fell in love with the simphcity of his nature and his fatherly way of illustrat- ing the Scripture. Quite suddenly in the heats of June. 1864, he feU iQ, and in a few hours was dead. Though but a few months in the city, Montreal went into great mourning for her adopted son. One of the most accomplished men of our age. in all those qualities which give renown to scholarship and ACTORS IN THE FORUM 43 dignity to private life. Sir VTilliam Da^vson. I had long known in Montreal. This gentleman never lost sight of the accretive faculty, and therefore as the lai'ge sheaves of knowledge fell into his lap. he held the scales with such exactness that one knew not which most to admire — his acquaintance with the realm of theological contro- versy, his researches in metaphysical and natural science, or his adventures in the field of poetry and letters. With these Dr. Dawson insensibly gathered round him a sun- shine that mellowed his countenance with cheerfulness and refinement. Xo pei-sonage was more heartily greeted in the streets of Montreal and no one seemed to bear the stress of ordinary cii'cumstance with more composure or gracefulness. Dr. Dawson ranked as a remarkably intrepid worker. Not only in the duties of college life, where he had long been a teacher; not only in the church, where he had also preached a true gospel: nor in the special chair of science and philosophy where he filled his seat with the noblest of the earth : but in those details which call forth a sjKjntaneity of nature which has invariably marked the best minds, has the professor come before the public. Nova Scotia has produced many brilliant sons : but Dr. Dawson, while the most modest and unassuming of men, challenges a place with those leaders who afiect society for generations. While pursuing missionary work at Grenville. I was 44 IvIFE SKETCHES considerably annoyed by the peasantry regarding the actions of a weird character, dressed in rough homespun, slouch hat, pea jacket, and long waterproof boots, who day after day made his home on the Laurentian mountains. The superstitious, good-natured people kept shy of him— some thinking that he was possessed of a devil, as he was seen often to jump and strike the ground heavily, and then mysteriously hide himself in the rocks, whence there would issue such hangings and rumblings and infernal sounds as to strike terror into all the neighborhood, both man and beast, for miles. One morning I started out determined to ferret this hob- goblin myth to its source, and found no less a personage than the illustrious Sir William Logan, of the Canadian Geological Survey. "Well, we laughed, and his laugh had a resonance that must have sent that innocent country folk running into their corners. Our meeting was on the eve of the publication of his admirable work on the geology and mineralogy of the province. I was enabled to spend several hours with him after this in his happy home in Montreal, where, charmed with the simplicity of his life and vigor of his intellect, I bade him a last farewell. He who looks carefully into the career of John Lovell, printer and publisher, of Montreal, will find much to encourage and beautify his own life. As I was a few years in his employ, beginning in 1862, I had some ACTORS IN THE FORUM 45 opportunities of knowing him. One secret of his success was his plodding, unyielding persistence in carrying out his plans. Great giant undertakings fell right in his way as simple incidents. Nothing daunted him. He entered into every department of his labor with the nicest finish and training, and never succumbed to disaster. He was engaged up to his death in probably the greatest undertaking of his life — the production of a geography of the British American possessions, in several large volumes, which, while it will tend to his celebrity, will add in many Avays not less to the wealth of the nation he so richly represented. Quite a prodigy of nature was Wm. Gordon, a proof- reader of Montreal, whose acquisitiveness for language was in itself a marvel. By nature saturnine, reserved and singularly self-abstracted, his taste ran radially from his mother-tongue to the most diflScult languages. With the modern tongues he easily mastered Greek, Hebrew and Arabic. While in Boston, in 1883, I found him taking up Persian and Coptic for companionship. He said he wanted kinship, and as his self-abnegation kept him from human society, he married language to save his life. A disciple of the school of Berkeley, the breath of inspiration settled upon him while defending the tenets of his master; and it must be said, with all deference to the abilities of Reid, the Scotch meta- physician, that the latter never arrived at such a true 46 IvIFB SKETCHES conception of Berkeley's philosophy. Can we ever hope to see the day when civilization will get hold of these children of nature, and place them where they belong in our halls of learning ? Here one cannot help thinking of the utterance of Spinoza: "Governments should never found academies, for they serve more to oppress than to encourage genius." It certainly may be hoped that America will do her best to rescue such names from oblivion. It is quite in place here to say a good word anent John Dougall, long editor of the Montreal Witness. He was a man who helped to build character. As some have objected to his methods, let me show you the man. Beloved by his family, and kind to his workmen, he was generous to a fault. No apples nor grapes bloomed into fulness in his garden, but his employees as well as his own family were asked to regale themselves with the delicacy. Of course he respected a temperance man more than a tippler, and gave many benefits and delighted many a heart where no blessing or benefit was expected. Moreover he had winning ways of drawing out the thoughts and aspirations of his workmen. Many brilliant reforms owe their origin to his pen. His Sabbath very often found him in the pulpit or founding missionary stations for the sake of his Master. His partisan feelings in religion were sometimes bitter, but he spoke fearlessly under his name, and according to the light given him. ACTORS IN THE FORUM 47 Just a word on Sir John A. Macdonald, the last, but I tell you the mightiest of the throng. I met him in 1874, and again a couple of years after. My first visit found the man taciturn but genial. A second visit revealed something of his mental reserves, of which he had a large storehouse. He was just then enjoying a rest after securing a slight victory over the opposition. The thing which peculiarly struck me about this Nestor of debate was his apparent disinterestedness and ease at a time when the gravity of pending issues called him im- mediately into action. He was so aware of his strength that unforeseen emergencies could not fluster him. His experiences in the school of statesmanship have been of incalculable benefit to the Dominion, and have placed his name high in the zenith of his country's grandeur. These men of genius— take them in a mass, Their quibbles, quartans, eccentricities— And view them as if standing in our presence. They gave us but a short hour with their lesson. But yet, as Nature's children at the door And vestibule of Truth, we find it pleasing To see their best, and in these accidents To trace a Master hand without a failure. CHAPTER V. EPIGRAMMATICAL. In my course of philosophy and theology I adopted the peripatetic method. My studies were desultory and informal. My teachers carried with them the prejudices of the schools, and allowed themselves to be checkmated by the walls of scepticism to which their theories in- evitably tended. I branched out for the doctrine of innate ideas; and thank Heaven that the twentieth century will witness grand discoveries in the realm of mind from a wiser knowledge of the worth of God's gift to His children. There are two faces rising up before me as I write, who, as they come and go, throw on the curtain of memory an impress of the noblest satisfaction. One of these was Duncan Morrison, the best teacher of my boy- hood days — stern, unyielding, in fact severe with his pupils; but gentleness and tenderness invariably pos- sessed him in his relations with myself. Our Latin class was accustomed day after day to the very climax of his passion, and as he neared me the storm passed away, his face lit up with a smile, and good humor resulted for the remainder of the hour. He was a grand teacher, — slow EPIGRAMMATICAL 49 but sure in his aims. Had we all such teachers, life would lose much of its subsequent bitterness. A good many years after, while studying divinity, I was blessed in finding another excellent teacher, my Hebrew professor, the Rev. Prof. Mo watt, of Queen's College, Kingston, Canada. There I may say that I never opened my mouth, but at the same time learned to instruct others how to open theirs. I pay great def- erence to the ability of this teacher — for his study of nature in teaching, for his gentle method of dealing with the varied capacities of mind around him — a far-seeing man — one, therefore, who could afford to have patience ; it was the seal of his citizenship, and em- braced a prescience that gives peace and security to its possessor. The tendency of much of our religious life is agnostic. This is not the worst thing that could happen. Far worse is the tendency to entertain shallow, puerile ideas of religion — to live satisfied with husks that surely harass and weaken us in the great life struggle; to stand halfway, and exhibit a feebleness that makes us appear degenerate and unfit to substantiate and defend our very existence. A strong, vigorous mind must be broad, but not only that — its greatest strength must come from its depth. An able mind, conscious of its power, goes out to in- vestigate. What may be called a healthy, clear, incisive 50 IvIFK SKETCHES nature cannot walk constantly in low ruts; he is de- termined, if he be a man at all, to peer to the uttermost horizon around him. And yet the moment he does so he is looked upon with suspicion by minor souls. No man can be honest to himself who forever lives on stereotyped creed or dogma. We all fall to it through our teachers for a while ; some from peculiar stamina cling to it all their lives. To such, creed is the sentry that leads them into place, and keeps them in deep furrows where they can see but little of the sky above them. But original minds have an orbit whose eccen- tricity is governed by a law which Nature gave them at birth, and this they involuntarily follow — it is their very life. Yet withal man is very slow in learning the most precious lessons of his birthright. The human soul indicates, from the animus it exhibits in our daily life, a state of action that may not inappro- priately be considered in the light of a comet flying through the air. There is nothing about mental capacity to prove that the soul is bound within certain walls, and must not step beyond. The path of history is marked by the labors of the noblest minds in the solution of the problem. Paul, Bunyan, aKempis, Wesley and Chil- lingworth sought in their views of the plan of salvation a resting-place for the soul in its inquiries regarding its own genesis. Their labors have tended toward develop- ing great influence in the formation of society. EPIGRAMMATIC AI. 51 While Plato, Kant, Hobbes, Berkeley, Newton and Leibnitz, on the other hand, have been probing to the utmost of their knowledge the mysteries of spirit and matter, they are deserving of all the esteem the ages can give them. They have failed largely in their inquiries, but their labors continue to lift man higher and higher above the brute. The shortness of life in this body is a theme too solemn for the romance of the world. The subject runs counter to the ideas of millions, for truth is sweet but to a few. Life offers us such a large field for enjoyment that our perceptions care not to lay hold upon the in- visible. In some respects this disposition of our nature is to be commended. Life is the epitome of all that is lovable and beautiful in God's universe, but death has a negative aspect — it is cold and chilling in its approaches. The one, like the blood of its tenement, is impetuous and warm ; the other seems but a shadowy pantomime where Melancholy and Disaster hold dreary carnival. It would not be consistent with this nature of ours that we should be continually meditating on death. The ascetics of the early ages found here their standing ground, and dis- graced their manhood by travestying nature. The quality which stamps man and makes him what he is, is the moral quality, and this pertains to spiritual existence. We thus enter the doorway of religion. We cannot live without it. The grandeur of our being lies 52 LIFE SKETCHES in our spiritual nature. When man once realizes that there is some tinge of the infinite in every human soul, he has nothing more than a fitting conception of him- self. He is a being of growth. The material body- increases m size — then apparently rests, except in the alchemy of change. The soul increases in vision. The years roll on, yet the soul takes a wider and more re- juvenating bound; the body totters and falls, but the soul springs outward more elastic and brilliant than ever — telling us in the plainest of languages that the soul and body are distinct substances. The mind is the man, and naturally seeks for a supreme parent. It matters not what are the symbols adopted, man looks without to find some reflection of the deity within. His ideal takes color largely from his environ- ment. Thus in barbarous nations the ideals are very rarely high, for such a prospect could only tend to danger. Even in civilized nations, where the ideals are often lofty, minds are misunderstood, and stand isolated because they have the courage to defend the seal their Maker stamped upon them. Faith and virtue grow in the soul as trees in the field, and man must love and worship. He is therefore subject to his own moral power. And when this is sharpened through experience and trial he grows up into a religious being. Reverence is the one great underlying principle of honest investigation. All the noblest thinkers in art, EPIORAMMATICAL 53 scieno- - _^:ri-: .ir :,:.::- ii-rre for sneltrr. Men and women are str^n^ :L:e:iel in the great 11:^ ; 1 '. r? ! ? : . ; : :.- ing to their conceptioiis of this :'.-:^^.:::i_. To b^e humble in our ■:'_'/_.: it, to have fitr:::.. L-^:>ect for the lines of gradation 'l^;:'^ n-^ t:' ":: " ■ "— ively to the beautiful and :de -■,"d:n-_e :: -^'n ^ _:_ __nre Tah- dued and sacrea -r^-Zj '■:■:-. ''~- r/nnn.in ':nT Hn;" ;: Holies finement in the "n n- -n :: :n:-^ "n: ^ :• onward in the great stra-n.r : ':j::::..\:. i^n:- Tne farmer, the day laborer, the sien^dom. :it :-?.:n^: n:-r -ener. the judge, m?o~ ::er:n:^ene in :ne=:T r:'.'"'n':r,^T~, Xone is ex- extensive kn:^ :nni, I thrininn in: ^nTeendnT— nr'ni'd as one of the mi : n,~ ; mans well-being in his search for truth. Let me put patience as another, and by all means energy as a third. Observation is the ground- work of our labor. On this we build. Our classic lore — Greek, Latin, German, etc., will not help us much with- out tills foundation: they give us material for clothing our thought, but tiie ideas arise from the wells of intro- spection — ^they are there waiting for the piercing lens of the earnest sight-seer. C»bservation is the key that has opened the gates of Paradise; that has found Oenius Iq her cell, and bade her come forth to the world; that has rent the chains of anarchy, and breathed the healthy 54 LIFE SKETCHES air of freedom; that has bade the poet sing the lofty- strains of other worlds to human hearts. True teachers, therefore, will make this a great point in their endeavors, to teach their pupils to see rightly, to look within, and find where their wealth lies. When this is once com- passed, the outer world opens before us like the flash of an aurora, and man finds his true place as a monarch in the universe. The moral nature of man is progressive. Some are infants through life; their scope of years embraces relatively no more than a small house ; some venture out as far as a mile ; some take in an extensive province ; some sweep round the towering Andes; some embrace the sun; some look over universes. Is it any wonder that man is religious ? Is he such a fool, with his ap- titudes, to sit down and cry like a child, "I can know no more ?" No, this is not the prerogative of mind. Nor is it likely that man, who possesses aptitudes to embrace vast riches in his mental telescope, is to embrace nothing. This would show imbecility in the Creator. The Al- mighty would be laughed to scorn by His own subjects. The case must be argued differently. The trend of existence in nature as in grace is in the line of beneficence — "Ask, and ye shall receive." Man comes upon the stage of life : he involuntarily asks for bread, and finds it at his door. Spiritual growth, the KPIGRAMMATlCAIv 55 result, the product of infinite essence — is the law of the mind, as physical growth is of the body. Just as clear, therefore, as the bright sun in the heavens is the truth expressed, that man has some appanage within that speaks in tones subdued, but ever on the alert. Whence is it ? Is this not the finger of the potter on the clay ? Man must, from his very nature, be religious, or he should be a brute, not a man. Here in the zenith of the Divine wonders, embellishing the whole range of being with the brightest halos, stands the great mosaic of fact — life, which is ours for some purpose; and that man is indeed unfortunate who has tasted its sweets, and yet goes down to his grave, empty, careless and dishonored. Faith has done much to embellish and beautify the life of man. But Faith and Eeason, married by the Divine hand, form the very key that opens up the pano- rama of the heavens and the earth. The breadth of a single mind seems at times to have the sweep of an archangel. Just to speak of our own day, look at the case of Henry Ward Beecher. Of his contemporaries probably not ten men in any depart- ment of life have done so much for the growth of humanity. Take the last thirty years of his career, when the whole man had been unfolded (the errors of his life being in comparison like a handful of dust beside the Alps) and we may well be amazed at what mind may do. 56 IvIFK SKETCHES The reason why Beecher has cast such an influence upon the many-sided aspects of civilization is just be- cause he involuntarily — from obedience to the law of his nature — fell in line with the progress of the age. He spread sunshine everywhere. Fear with its ebon wings flew away. Man had more sympathy for man, and more love for God. The seer of Plymouth takes us right into the arcana of nature, and there unveils the gorgeousness, the terror, the sublimity of the scene — making us love the divine more than ever before, and throwing into the far distant future a radiance that will cheer and beautify whole races of men. The elements of cheerfulness, energy and honesty have so much to do in the building up of perfect character, that he would be indiscreet who should say they are not salutary principles. And when these are crowned by a ripe intelligence, man, superior to passion, forms a splendid earthly type of a nearly perfect being. That there is some close relation binding us to the All- Father is absolutely more true than the distinction between darkness and light. That this Father loves us, and has given us certain faculties to keep near Him, is evident; that He would do anything for the bettering of his subjects, consonant with his perfections, is evident ; that the infinity of his being and the finiteness of our conceptions will forever prevent our knowing Him as He is, is no less evident; that from love for his own off- EPIGRAMMATICAL 57 spring He has opened and will open ways for arriving at a closer knowledge of Himself, is evident ; that therefore a revelation of Himself is of special fitness, and seems natural from the wealth of its source. God loves man ; He has certified this love in many respects, but in none so natural and simple as this of coming in our own flesh to dweU among us. Precious reflection of the love of God as manifested in the sacred Man ! Now, analyzing these mysterious intuitions that God has planted in the human soul, and doing this in as dis- creet and decent a manner as possible, we find that there is a perfect accord regarding this work of the incarna- tions. We must respect our intuitions. Coming un- called for at the strangest times, always on the side of purity, they declare there is no contradiction — that the sanctity of the Divine Gift on the one side, and the change wrought upon the heart on the other, is the true evidence. When individuals therefore rise to a high plane of this Divine consciousness, they are led, from the very nature of the work on their own minds, to proclaim it earnestly to others. In this great culmination of God's love for the race, they behold the climax of their own grandeur. They are impelled to preach most that truth that will benefit society here, and fit the soul for that higher existence in which both revelation and nature agree. The reader will see that I had been revolving the ar- gument quite a time before stepping out on the religious 58 IvlFE SKETCHES platform . But the truth faced me, and I was obliged to respond. My first step strengthened the resolution. There were many obstacles, many embarrassments ; but the words rang strongly in my ear, ' ' He that puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the king- dom of God." O how often as I look On man's face, that human book, With his wondrous blazing eye, Wealth of an eternity! When I turn and turn the leaves, How my gentle spirit grieves ! How the storms so thick and fast Beat upon him to the last ! Not enough of bread to eat. Not the comfort of reti'eat, Not a word to cheer his home. Not a picture nor a tome. And when baby comes to earth Sacred in Its homely birth, There is none to greet its face, Not a glow of human grace. All alone, the mother's tear Proves that God is very near. CHAPTER VI. PERTINACIOUS AND PRACTICAL. Not long since I gave an address at Springfield, L. I., impressing upon my hearers the charms of much physical exercise and a serene life as the gates that lead to the Hesperides of Health ; and on my return in the capacious wagon with some two dozen happy hearts, whose songs of pure joy and merriment soared far in the distance, I found pleasant sleep in a cosy farmhouse at Foster Meadows. Next morning I sallied out on my way to Brooklyn, but the thousand voices of Nature bade me slow up and visit a poor afflicted woman in her sixtieth year, not far from Jamaica. For long months she had suffered from neuralgia, when some unwise person urged her to have all the lower teeth withdrawn as her only hope of relief, and some more foolish dentist, like a wild beast, wrenched thirteen teeth from their sockets. De- mentia rapidly set in, and the poor victim had been rolling in agony on her bed for weeks, rapidly sinking, when I called on her. The scene was sore and saddening, as she suddenly sat up in bed, her eyes wild with pain, and seizing me with her bony hands, ' ' O where is He ?" said she, " I have not seen Him to-day; I have lost Him. 6o LIFE SKETCHES O tell me where is Jesus ?" I endeavored to soothe her, citing the rich promises of His words, but she would not be comforted for a time, when on leaving I invoked the Divine blessing upon her, my right hand on her feverish brow, and my left locked in her right as she fell asleep. Arriving at home about 4.30 p. m. after a thirteen mile walk, I partook of some refreshment, and half an hour later started for Paterson, N. J., where I was to preach Sunday morning ; but when I arrived at Jersey City, the evening was setting in, and the horizon here and there presenting patches of cloud pale and crimson, that threw me into ecstacies, and reveling in the enjoyment, knowing that there was more to come, I resolved to take a pleasant twelve mile walk to Passaic. On the slope of the Pater- son road, leaving Jersey City, a traveler ought to be in a splendid frame of mind. On my left there were the wide marshes, and the calm, quiet Hackensack rolling sleepily along; but just above, the heavens with the setting sun were dazzling in their effulgence. Byron saw nothing more beautiful from his description of the Morea. What tranquillity falls upon the soul in the wealth of such a scene! It is on just such occasions that we are enabled to lift the veil of being, and enter into a court- ship that need never be obliterated. Now we all have heard something of the Jersey flats or meadows, Jersey mosquitos, Jersey lightning, etc. ; but excuse me, reader, there is poetry in the Jersey flats. PERTINACIOUS AND PRACTICAL 6i It was fourth of July night, and the heavens as well as the earth were alive with fireworks. If I turned once, I turned fifty times, stood still, and uncovered my head in the presence of such sublimity. "In my Father's house there are many mansions." There are some of them, and I feasted in a luxuriance greater than man ever tasted at this earthly table. But then the mosqui- tos were asleep. How the myriads of fireflies danced around me, and the will-o'-the-wisp played such tricks as I tracked it with a juvenility that would have astonished our city fathers. Carlstadt sat glimmering in the distance, a little town set on a hill, and as I approached I met some two or three of its citizens striding uproariously with arms akimbo as if they owned the earth. The road on each side between Carlstadt and Passaic is in places lined with thick forest. People were here and there disporting themselves with fireworks, and passing them I proceeded with a quicker step, when bang, fizz, from the darkness up goes a tremendous bomb and rocket fully three hundred feet in the air. I felt its stinging heat and breath on my face. One step more and I might have been carried up amidships for fifty feet, to come down in several pieces. dear spirit of Descartes, let me still say with thee, Cogito: ergo sum. I love men — real, thorough men, and women too, as far as that goes, and I love to see them playing their 62 LII^E SKETCHES main parts. You know there are individuals among us who don't know what they are here for. Some of them are singularly learned too — and yet four words express the breadth of their vocabulary— idling, grunting, eating, sleeping. There is no progress in their geography. And to see their heavy, passive, indolent forms day after day, gives me the blues. I like motion, and when I am taking a brisk walk, to see how some of the three or four pound stones which intrude upon my feet immediately take wings on a high tangent is amusing. For that reason I like quiet country walks, where no head may be broken, and no lawsuit result. Some three years ago, when enjoying an agreeable ambulation, I suddenly stopped and asked a passer-by for information regarding a street, but he dodged so rapidly that I inquired what was the matter. "Why," said he, ' 'the way you sailed along, and stopped all in a jiffy — I was afraid you would shoot me." I begged pardon, and said that I was merely taking a little ramble. I am no aristarch in criticism, and so like to hedge around true character, and look down for the gems lying in the soil. For this purpose I sometimes take hold of the most ungainly, unkempt little children, and as I wipe away the grime from their pretty faces, I look into the deep ocean of their eyes, and see a great deal. It is astonishing what languages these eyes speak, all the way up from infancy, and the true observer need not be PERTINACIOUS AND PRACTlCAIv 63 disappointed in his investigations — not at all. This is generally my first step in grasping at character as well as aptitude — it is synthetical and simple, and therefore the safest way. I do esteem men who, when they are strong enough, like to throw out their feelers, and see where they are standing. A man must delve and dig in his own nature to find out his resources. A ripened mind is like a deep well with a thick soil of the most promiscuous materials, where all the capacities and affections have been storing for years the choice things of ages ; and there, the owner, as he labors day after day, learns to sort, arrange and utilize his creations. What a mine of wealth was that soul of Plato's, of whom Emerson said that he had an- ticipated all our learning. What a great blessing it is when we can speak and reason with minds well rounded and well-developed. When I see men talking every blessed day about buying acres, building houses, and eating splendid dinners, I somehow feel as if I am in a dungeon, where the air is musty, and I cannot breathe. A rounded mind is well- balanced. He takes his faculties at their full worth; he finds in them a storehouse of supplies for that strange soul with which he is endowed. The past, present, the future are within his province. He does not rush away into one corner of his being, and there nurse and idolize one faculty to the neglect of all the rest. His perceptive 64 LIFK SKETCHES nature is developed; he finds that, in spite of all the amorphisms in society, his life is like a vessel sailing out into a broader and deeper sea ; and he finds that no mat- ter how much he may learn, his faculties are so well adapted to meet the needs of his development, that he may live a very enjoyable life even in this bustling world. To tell the truth this world is no very easy road to travel for honest men. For honesty is worth a fortune any day, and the good man knows it. If such a man reasons not as other men, he cannot help it. That he has the right kind of wealth is evident — he has a sound, clear conscience ; he can sleep peacefully at night ; he can cheerfully pay his debts, he can walk uprightly, and look a man in the face ; he is not afraid to put his hand to any worthy labor ; he is not afraid of being plain and outspoken in his utterances. In one word, he loves life; and, properly speaking, if there be a rich man in this world, he is one. He doesn't think of that, and it doesn't necessarily concern him ; but he carries some inherent sense of contentment and cheerfulness that makes the world bow to him as a man. The man who, in short, rightly loves life, is the richest man to be found on this planet. Look at the obverse side of the medal. There is an immense amount of dishonesty in our civilized life, and with this dishonesty there is much unhappiness. It is remarkable that the bone of contention is the dragon of PERTINACIOUS AND PRACTICAL 65 gold. It is admitted without dissent that those who possess the most, are mihappy — fear, suspicion, avarice alternate with insomnia, paresis, etc., and keep them poor. Poor indeed. They do not know how to love life, and start digging their own sepulchres as if it were for a wager. Were not Socrates, Dante, Des Cartes, Samuel John- son rich in comparison ? Rich indeed ; they have been feeding the world for generations with nourishment to build up great men. The golden idolaters are buried, and contemporaneous history speaks of them in such bitter irony as to hint that they did not really enjoy life, and therefore could only be classed with the lowest poor. To get right into the argument at once : Life is given to every individual for some purpose, as the subsequent days or years consequently prove. Successive civiliza- tions (so slow is our unhappy race in learning any good thing) have convinced us that when we are distinctly called to act a necessary part in any reform, as we value our happiness we will not let the opportunity slip. What mysterious instinct was that which prompted Milton, Audubon, or Lord Brougham to follow certain lines as their very safety— any divergence, they feared, might result in suicide. Thousands of men and women commit self-murder every year as a natural sequence of violating natural instincts. Let me adduce a common illustration : Here is a young man, of noble, refined tastes, yet earn- 66 LIFE SKETCHES ing his bread, year after year, in the midst of low asso- ciates. He stands isolated — his bias is firm on the side of temperance and religion, but his surroundings are morbidly antagonistic. Events call him in due time to act according to his ability, and take his part as a worker. He wavers ; he has been losing ground ; again and again has he avoided the opportunity to do a little or to say a word to encourage progress. He hopes, he again promises, but again is wanting; he cannot muster the resolution — and at length awakes to the fact that he has lost his moral power, and that life is useless without it, and rushes like Saul on his own sword. All sensitive and refined intelligent minds discern some shading of this in their own experience. The motive and the principle of volition do not always run on the same plane ; and when the motive is not pure and honest, and the mind is forced from its customary volitions to enter into a transaction, the rebound on the moral nature is so ter- rifying that many prefer death to the mental agony that results. Thus it is that many of the noblest minds of history have risen out of the lowest and most degrading positions : Nature and conscience having taken them to the verge of the precipice, and shown them the place where their sin would eventually land them ; and it is just on the brow of this precipice that man has enrolled himself in his fight against diabolism, and written his name high among the worthies. For it is a remarkable truth that where the Almighty PERTINACIOUS AND PRACTICAL 67 has given great intellectual power He has placed us in the midst of a great battlefield, where on one side it may be the most revolting animal excitements are endeavoring to drag us down, and the noble graces and virtues on the other side are endeavoring to lift us higher and higher. The more gifted the soul, the more arduous and dificult the trial ; but those who are true and brave enough to come out as victors will even in this world find some- where a garden of delight. The acme of the noblest education terminates in certain accomplishments which give man the privilege, it may be said, of using a coat of mail suited to every conceiv- able aspect of society. He holds the key of symbolism in his hand, and steps with the greatest ease from one world of action into another. How much sorrow and suffering might be avoided in our married life where there is no natural affinity, yet where the law has sanc- tioned the bond of union, could the wiser individual rise to the benefits which exist in the multifarious simplicity of his own mother-tongue, and thus make the way smooth and pleasant that had been so long covered with thorns. The seers and poets fall into this language as a natural heritage. Shrewd, wise men are often driven by necessity to adopt it. Durer, Addison, Milton found that life had a soft pillow after all, and they need not lay on a bed of thorns. That was a quaint and well-spiced utterance of Hobbes 68 LIFE SKETCHES of Malmesbury: "Words are wise men's counters, but the money of fools." The sentiment has been stereo- typed for generations. It is astonishing to look over the writings of this prodigious mind and see the grains of truth dazzling with lustrous brilliancy, in a diction chaste, clear and simple, that any one, it might be said, may understand; and yet we look at him to-day perfectly satisfied with what a few critics have narrated — we allow him to remain a mute, silent figure in our libraries, and when he comes up as a witness in our controversies no figure in history is more misconstrued, or misunderstood. Nevertheless words are still wise men's counters ; and it happens that the dictum of Hobbes stands as a pair of balances, on one scale of which the more thoughtful weigh their products ; and on the other where f ustianed pamphleteers, erotic schools and literary dryasdusts crowd with a vengeance, and are speedily bounced into oblivion. The moral life of our age is famed for sciolism. Said one of our professional teachers to me one day — one with whom I fraternised in a literary club some forty-two years ago : ' 'You see I take splendidly with my people ; my physique pleases them ; round dark eyes, clear, full skin, handsome hair, graceful manner." Did you ever ! Ah, I thought, that's it, is it ? Now, with all his bluster, this man had to take a far back seat in the councils of PERTINACIOUS AND PRACTICAL 69 Ms church ; the physical framework failed for want of the intellectual. But the conceit and bluster of our age go to great leng-ths. Once in conversation with a lady who was about to de- liver an address on John B. Gough, the temperance reformer, I asked her regarding some special qualities of the man she intended to delineate. "Ah," said she, "the passion he exhibits is natural^ he makes me his friend at once ; but, besides, his pictures are so terrible — he carries me right to the scene of his adventures — I forget everything else." Now this is a sufficient test. Where Nature gives us opportunity to garner in these rich fields of the universe, and also gives us aptitudes to lay hold of the diviner manifestations of life, and present them to others, we are called to do it at any cost, for our responsibility cannot be thi*ust on another's shoulders. When but a child the lines of Smollett caught my ear, and their recurrence in my memory is something strangely sweet: " Thy spirit, Independence, let me share, Lord of the lion heart and eagle eye." Away from their immediate application, I found them falUng as a benison when I set my mind to study the great and wonderful things of God: I couldn't rest a moment — my physical frame as well as my soul took coloring, and glowed with a new life. Rocks, trees. 70 IvIFE SKETCHES flowers, streams spoke a language of their own. They were opening the door of nature, and coquetting with the inner sense. And to be a thorough good soldier for life's battlefield a man must have some independence. No man ever spoke a greater truth than Cowper, in the couplet : •'He is a freeman whom tbe truth makes free, And all are slaves beside"— and over the broad Atlantic I see two noble minds (for their physical presence has vanished) still acting on that principle — seeking for truth with a sweetness and grandeur of soul — Max Muller and George Mivart ; and many of us fight shy of them, and would decry them as unfriendly to the truth within them. O no ! They at least respect these monitions, though they cannot trace their origin. Yes, I am looking for free, outspoken, genuine liber- ality in Christian thought. We always gain when we are honest in our endeavors in fathoming the tide of things around us. Methinks that in the Bible there is a variety but a safeguard that may be depended upon. The more closely we read it, we inherit more and more that peculiar genius which fits us for the opening future. An honest sensible thinker will not allow himself to be handicapped by his profession. Whether a grave-digger, porter, painter, or any true artisan whatsoever — aware that his genius rises above such consideration, he goes PERTINACIOUS AND PRACTICAL 71 on to victory conscious of the fire that bums within him. The friendships of the nobly great are high above all commendation. It was said that Queen Elizabeth wrote of Ben Jonson, the poet and mason : "With trowel and rule Works many a fool," and that Jonson replied in this distich : " In satin and scarlet Walks many a harlot." But history has not told us that any blood was shed in consequence. CHAPTER VII. A RACE FOR LIFE, WITH SOME HINTS FOR AMATEUR LECTURERS. Let me tell the reader in this chapter something that will cheer him, and start him hunting for some reserved forces that may make him a new man. Given good sense, fair ability, a spice of self-denial, a share of patience, an extra share of cheerfulness, and one hundred tons of energy, there is no reason under heaven why circumstances should make a man miserable, and tie him to the iron wheel of necessity. God has placed us here in a paradise called Earth, and while men throw them- selves for the sake of dollars into cooped-up, unhealthy oflBces year in and year out with no rest or recreation, then most assuredly they eat the forbidden fruit, and must entail the penalty. In that wonderful Book so full of pregnant questions, there is one which runs in this fashion, ' ' What shall a man give in exchange for his soul ?" — or for his life, for the soul, in fact, is the very life of man, being the vehicle of the life. "There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration (or the inbreathing) of the Almighty giveth him understanding." Now, as I have no time in my A RACE FOR LIFE 73 short visit on this planet to look for anything less than essential truths, I do not think that it would be honorable to misstate the results of my short travel for health, and hide the greater truth in a sea of evasion. While I found but little of that yellow metal called gold on my voyage, I yet found great riches ; and I may answer the sacred question by asking another — How much is this new life in which I participate worth to me ? a thousand, a hundred thousand, a million dollars, or how much ? I am singularly fond of life, I am very much in love with it. And therefore, speaking like an honest man, it seems to me that in a healthy body and healthy mind there is more wealth than all the Californias and Indies yield in their possessions. Sixteen years ago I fell a victim to a strange disease. Some called it rose fever, some hay fever, some infernal fever, and this latter was perhaps the nearest approach to its nomenclature, as it would seize me about the month of August with most diabolical titillations in the nostrils, throw me into spasms of violent sneezing, then into a flood of perspiration, followed by such a complete blocking up of the olfactory passages, as if huge blocks of wood were driven through right into the brain. Eest was out of the question ; for no sooner would I throw myself on my bed than the jaw would fall, the mouth become speedily parched, and cold trickles of water make their way down the throat. You say that this was 74 LIFB SKETCHES indeed a frightful disease, but the sequel was even more frightful. I was obliged to close my windows tightly, and breathe a bestial vitiated air that I might at all live ; or open them, and that clear fluid, which for years I looked upon as the most precious heritage God ever gave man, became demonized, as if a million of devils sur- rounded me, and rushed with the force of a Niagara into the air passages, causing such paroxysms of physical agony as to drive me to my wits' end. This affection seized me in its clutches for about five months from August till December, and kept at it for two years. Medical treatment, I soon found out, was of no avail. I had studied the debit and credit side of the question. My nature revolted at the drug market: and as I saw Death lurking in the pot there, I soon gave it up. And for some months I brooded over a scheme that I must mention to the reader. When I realized the sensation that the great principle of life apparently became the messenger of death, and that to live I must shut myself up in close, dingy, un- ventilated rooms, I began to grumble at my Creator. Life lost its enjoyment, and I set myself to the endeavor of finding out whether I might not resort to some method of alleviating this suffering in death without infringing upon the sanctities of our highest morality. No living being can imagine the suffering through which I passed. And if the world, on one side, should dare to sneer at me A RACE FOR LIFE 75 for dwelling upon the incident, I should, on my own side, prove an ingrate were I, in a life sketch, to pass by a matter which had such an ominous bearing on my subsequent existence. About this time Henry Ward Beecher passed away. The event fell upon me with the force of a concussion. I felt as if my right arm had been severed from my body. And yet I had met this man in conversation only some eight or nine times. But what a blank he left in my heart ! Beecher is yet waiting for his eulogy. We are too near him to see him in his full grandeur. I forgot my pain, prepared a paper on Beecher, and delivered the eulogy quietly. Had I something of the financial business tact about me I could have piled up money on that venture, but I was thoroughly satisfied at the result, and found in my bosom the key that opened the doors to Hygeia's temple, where, in the sweet in- spiration of CHANGE, all the winged graces of Heaven flew around me, and I inherited a new life, and some- thing more beautiful than ever before. This was the beginning of a lecture course of nine months, which I will briefly detail here. The reader can see that it was a critical turning point in my own life, and furnishes a splendid illustration of the truth of the axiom that God helps those who help themselves. Energy, stubborn energy saved me. Privation never deprived me of my cheerful aess. If there be one gift for 76 UFB SKETCHES which I have reason to thank God to-day as a blessing far above all rubies it is the grace of cheerfulness. No matter what difficulties faced me, by day or night, I kept that as a pearl of great price. My energy in connection with this enabled me to beat down mountains. I am aware that I traveled on the brink of hazard, but there was a heroism in it that gave it a divine sanction. A man's life is like a book ; let him look over it and read it carefully, and he cannot fail to find just when he should turn the leaf. And moreover, he must consult his own nature about these leaves. In the great life episodes, successful men invariably rush into the theatre of their own hearts ; they are matters too sacred to consult the world about : but weak minds invariably look for the nod of their neighbors. When we are certain of finding minds whose scope of action seems throughout similar to our own, even then it is only with the greatest delicacy we can seek their counsel. A man's years are not at all counted in such an argument. The loftier the mind, the more difficult to find the congener ; and our loving mother Nature hints of our needs just at the right time and place through the intuitions. No matter how gifted the soul, there is the monitor ready by his side to dictate in his difficulties. And yet this knowledge is only acquired through the keenest observation. A man may hold a very high position in life as a A RACB FOR LIFE 77 teacher, and yet be subject to strange prejudices and even jealousies, which to others seem terribly beneath the dignity of his name. By reason of this weakness, therefore, the wiser minds confine themselves within their own citadels; and it will be found that in this measure of their individuality they leave the noblest and purest impress on art, science and literature. And so, throwing away the ordinary bands of conven- tionalism — church, place and society, I started forward on what some would call a wild adventure, like a rash youth of twenty years. Events unfolded themselves very pleasantly. Newark, N. J., was my first station outside of this State. My subject was partly political, yet I endeavored to be im- partial, and to mete out even justice in dissecting the subject on hand. But the next day one of my auditors met me on the street, and handled me with much sever- ity, stating that I should have been hustled very violently off the platform — that he had started on his feet to do it — for daring to say one word in favor of Sir William Gladstone. A little spice of this kind did not deter me. But an unseen providence led me in a healthier groove. My next move was for Yonkers. Winter was on me with her wet blanket of snow. I bought my ticket at the Grand Central Station, New York, and, waiting for a few moments in the car, my old distemper violently seized me. I was determined to live free from pain while 78 LIFE SKETCHES I should live, for now I had the secret. So, rushing out of the car, I tore up my ticket and walked all the way to Yonkers. A heavy snow-storm met me on my journey, and was never more welcome. The air grew cold and exhilarating, and a strange aura of health took possession of me. What a transformation ! There was nothing in the Arabian Nights to equal it. I lost no time in securing the Temperance Hall there ; and, introduced by Rev. Mr. Ullman, an Episcopal clergyman, I gave my lecture on Beecher. The audience was small but select, and the best humor prevailed through the evening. Then I started up for Newburgh — wide-awake. For, like a Divine voice ringing in my heart, my conscious- ness caught the whisper : "Son, attend to thy business, thou art here for health, not for money." I fell like a thunderbolt on the Newburghers, and could not, after long hunting, secure a church, so engaged the City Mission chapel. Then to the printer to strike off tickets, " Distinguished Personages I Have Met." I rapped at the door of an unknown gentleman's residence, and, introducing myself, gave him a clew to the situa- tion, saying, " Do you think the public would be interested in my opinions ?" "Yes, sir, and they ought to be willing to pay for them. There are so many fools running around with their gimcracks, that the people are starving for something better. Give me fifty tickets — I will speak of A RACE FOR LIFE 79 this to my friends." I was astonished, but I was en- couraged ; and found out that this little angel Courtesy was one of the sweetest pets I ever met in my life. The meeting proved a success. Wappinger Falls was my next station. I had sent on tickets four days previously. The Hudson was frozen over, a heavy snow storm had swept the country ; the thermometer was near zero, and the biting northwest wind swept around me like scalding water. But I was in for it ; my lecture was for Monday night ; and on Saturday morning I started out on foot in that blizzard, and had a grand kiss from Boreas, no mistake: I ran like a lion in his strength, constantly rubbing my face and my ears, and inhaling deeper than wont the frozen air, till I arrived at Cold Spring, some ten or twelve miles. Here I entered a place for refreshment before taking the car, when I was accosted by some one near the station. "This day is a terror," said he. "Yes," said I, "I have just been taking a walk in it." "How far?" "From Peekskill." "You're a liar; you can't fool me — no living man could walk four miles even in such a blizzard as that." "All right — I did it." After refreshment I rode a few miles to Wappinger Falls. Friend Mitchell worked like a hero all day Mon- day. The result was that we had a very good meeting with three clergymen on the platform. Thence to Troy, where I had some pleasing adventures. 8o LIFE SKETCHES The Trojans are a strange, peculiar people, particularly the West set. I would not have felt at home, not a bit of it ; but that cunning old sweetheart of mine — Nature — had the usually muddy streets all carpeted with the richly-driven snow, and the cold west wind whistled around me like a peal of wedding bells. I had sent all my surplus cash down to Brooklyn, and understood there were friends who anticipated my arrival — but where were they ? The snow in places lay six feet high, and I had some heavy travelling; it was nine at night, I had already walked some sixteen or eighteen miles. "Ha! there's the house at last." No, no; house after house, street after street — no hope. Eleven o'clock — yet cheer- ful, undaunted. Some one had mentioned a Mr. John Ross, who was a member of a society that had known me in another nation in my earlier years. I know what human nature is; I felt that I was all right. Whispered through the key-hole — ' ' Stamboul . " " Half -past twelve — come in." We shook hands; we knew each other. Well done for Troy ! Was I treated like a king ? You better believe it. I was the hero of the West Trojans while I remained ; and they secured Park Place Hall for my address. I took up " Distinguished Personages" away from the time of Sir Allan MacNab, of my boyhood days, down to Beecher. The house was well filled, we had some ringing applause : and yet that faithful monitor kept singing out, "Look out, son, you came here for health, and not for money." A RACE FOR LIFE 8i Nevertheless I sent home a good handful of shekels to my family, but was not allowed to leave Troy im- mediately. Preached in the Third Presbyterian Church in East Troy, where Mr. Geo. Lenmion — a young man of splendid mental ability, who has since entered the ministry — immediately made arrangements for my giving a lecture there on "Men of the Nineteenth Century." "John B. Gough" formed the subject of a lecture I gave at Harmony Hall, Cohoes. In the Hall of the "Ancient Order of United Workingmen," Amsterdam, I repeated my lecture "Men of the Nineteenth Century." As the subject was well advertised, we had a very fine audience, and everything passed off jubilantly, with many handshakings. I had every reason to feel en- couraged, and better than all I kept drinking in the cold ozone sweeping over the hills of Amsterdam with a gusto I cannot express in words. I departed for Albany under somewhat pleasing circumstances. Fresh air and sound sleep were my dearest friends. These I was determined to have at all costs. A New York publishing house requested me, at an ample weekly salary, to introduce at my leisure a new quarterly magazine, more especially among the politicians of the capital. I cheerfully accepted the tender, and found that the field offered a new kind of exercise in the dry air. I succeeded in getting three or 82 I,IFE SKETCHES four subscribers for the work, but I found that I was out of my latitude at that critical juncture of my life. A couple of weeks had passed, and a new enemy insidiously stole in to break up my serenity. I had always looked upon politics as a slippery science, but I never knew in experfence what it was till I entered the capital. Some twenty-six years ago Dr. Duryea, of Classon Avenue Presbyterian Church, Brook- lyn, gave me an illustration of some of its terrors. One day he brought up the subject of our great political men, and alluded to Tilden. "And who is Tilden ?" said I, affecting some ignorance of the name. The atrocious question proved a deadlock of silence for six months. But at the capital, from the governor down to the janitor, all became invisible just as soon as I thought I had my hand on them. Even the Hon. David B. Hill, when I called at the mansion at his own request, sud- denly metamorphosed into a tall strapping fellow like one of the beef -eaters of the Queen's body-guard. "The governor, I presume?" said I, bowing with a show of reverence. "Bedad, sir, you missed him, he's all over," said the man ; so he was, and so they all were. Slippery as an Albany politician ! Let that go into the book of American proverbs. The eel and the octopus are terminal ana- logues of those senators who go out plotting like Jero- boam the son of Nebat. A RACE FOR IvIFE 83 The little vampire that came to suck my blood was anxiety. Sleep left my pillow night after night ; and I wrote a couple of strong letters to the publishers, telling them with the neatest courtesy that I didn't intend to be butchered that way— to be kind enough to take the agency out of my hands. I immediately secured Bleecker Hall for a lecture, "England and the United States," and sleep came to me as sweet as that of a child. " What do you propose to unfold as a main topic of your lecture ?" said a son of St. George to me one day in conversation. "I will more particularly take up the religious aspect of things, and the tendency towards centralization in the religious thinking of England and America in the next one hundred years." ' ' I had been hoping you would take up the political side — we are all politicians here. For myself I already see two great governments in this nation — the Germanic and the American — divided by the Rocky Mountains. At any rate, your subject is a good one, but don't be annoyed if you should hear some hissing in the hall ; it is a common thing in this city. I would advise you to speak soothingly so as to conciliate some pot-headed politicians who might otherwise make it hot for you." "Thanks; I am not in the habit of putting myself in the way of offending people, or of pandering to them. I speak my mind, and the consequences will take care of 84 IvIFB SKKTCHKS themselves. When a man speaks as a man, even in such a city as Albany, I am inclined to believe he will not be molested." Neither was I. The audience was fair and select, including representative clergymen and others — one journal stating next morning that were it not for Inger- soll at the same hour drawing the crowd to hear his eulogy on Conkling, I should have had a large audience at the hall. Before I left Albany I met a wriggler, and I will tell you how it was. I boarded near Eagle street, not far from Capitol park. A student of divinity, about thirty- five, roomed near me, who was troubled with obesity. We started for a pleasant walk one breezy evening, and I noticed that my dogmatist became tremulous and short-winded. He said that he was well able to keep up with me, and I out of respect tortured myself into a slower pace. But mercy, how he did shake ! Said I, "Why do you quiver so?" "I am all right," said he, "go ahead, I am studying my sermon" — one that he was to deliver the following Sunday. Well, I prevailed upon him to sit down and rest, while I looked over his discourse. "It's no wonder that you wriggled, my good fellow, going to preach a sermon on nothing but hell and damnation for man, — not a word about God's love, not a word about the loving Jesus in it. See here, Mr. Tomkins, do you notice all these murderers and A RACE FOR LIFE 85 drunkards in society ? God has been so often represented as a monster, it is no wonder if his own creation fall into bad habits. Preach God as a being of love, and his Son as the Saviour of sinners, and society will be better, for they will see that God is a being to be loved, not to be hated." Brother Tomkins took the hint, and said that with the grace of God he would never preach a wriggling sermon. He was honorable enough to say that I hit the nail on the head that time. Utica was my next station, and I confess there are great beauties about it. Secured a furnished room, and made lecturing arrangements. As I am partly writing for the benefit of lecturers, let me say that regarding halls I always kept on the right side of the fence. It was useless to consult dignitaries ; they suggested the big expensive opera halls and academies. But my monitor said, "Get a plain, moderately priced, clean hall, so that on leaving and paying expenses, you may have a little money in your purse." Very good advice, and I fol- lowed it. "There's no earthly use," said a lawyer, "there's no use in lecturing; you can't get out half a dozen, you can't sell a ticket. Why, wasn't the great English Arnold lecturing in that grand hall there, and we lost $150 on him ?" ' ' That doesn't affect me a particle, my dear sir. You selected a dear place and a high-priced lecturer. I will 86 life; sketches secure a low-priced, neat little place." So I engaged. Sovereigns' Hall, an out-of-the-way place, somewhat, but I had an audience that enabled me to meet more than my expenses. Then I besieged New York Mills, three miles out, not a classical name, but, upon my word, quite a paradisaical kind of a place, where I had a well-filled house. Eambled around Utica, calling one day on the Eev. Mr. Sawyer, a great Hebrew scholar, at Whitestone, then in his eighty-second year, who has been long engaged in a new translation of the Bible. But his comments are unjust to himself and to the Kecord. A strong feeling of sym- pathy seized me for the old recluse, for he lives in an isolation as cold and cheerless as an iceberg in the northern sea. At New York Mills and New Hartford I lectured on "John Knox and John Wesley," often making my way home to Utica at midnight, round the hills, under the bearings of the Cross, in the constellation Cygnus. O wondrous symbol ! It united me with my family, it united me with the universe around, and opened up a nearer acquaintance with the wealth of my Creator. It is a few steps out to Rome, some fifteen miles, and my readers may laugh at me for saying so, but there is no use denying that the days of manly exercise are past. It is what I should call a pleasant little walk to Rome, true, somewhat tame in scenery, but there is plenty A RACE FOR LIFE 87 compensation. Here I engaged the Wesley an Methodist Church. Preached Sunday before lecture, and proffered half proceeds to church at the lowest ticket of my whole pilgrimage. Rome is a level, quiet city — too level to be interesting ; and too dead at the time of my visit to show the least spark of energy. A short ride brought me to Syracuse, a great city of dust and excitement, containing some excellent streets and edifices. Here I preached two Sabbaths for the Rev. Mr. Becker, of the Methodist Protestant Church, and secured Mead's Hall, in Opera House for lecture — "The Religious Element in American Politics." In a monetary aspect this lecture was a complete failure, in another aspect the most profitable of the course, as it tested my mettle considerably. When I paid board bill and expenses, I found that I had but one dime in my pocket. I had made engagements to lecture in Rochester, eighty- two miles off. I therefore paid a visit to the great salt works, secured myself some refreshments, and started on my pleasant walk at two p.m. The adven- turous aspect of my voyage cheered me wonderfully. Talk about ten dollar tickets for an opera. Then it was worth five times ten to stand and view that great forest and farming land, intersected by the double four- track line of the Grand Central Road between Syracuse and Rochester. Those riding over it have no conception of its beauty. Smooth and clear as a billiard table— 88 IvIFE SKETCHES stretching far away into the western horizon — carrying on its bosom countless trains of cars that, like the camels of the desert, bear the riches of every clime. The wealth of America was constantly rolling at my feet, I never was more interested in a work of art. Suddenly I seemed to have the fleetness of an Apollo, and when I arrived ere nightfall at Weedsport I had not the first sensation of weariness. Stopping at the house of a gentleman, and revealing my identity and position, I partook of a healthy meal after my twenty-two miles' walk. What a hearty re- ception I had from those heroes of the hearth, who pressed me to remain many days. How enlivening were our songs of praise to the Divine Being, how sacred were the emotions that filled the room as the old patriarch spoke with God in prayer. Then sleep soon wrapped me in her precious mantle. Next morning I walked over to Conquest, visited many friends, and spent a most agreeable night with Elder Wheat. Walked over the next day to Newark — on my way plunging into the Clyde at Lyons, and taking nothing less than a good old-fashioned swim, one of the best of my life. Before noon the following day I entered, hungry as a bear, the beautiful city of Rochester, which offers much diversity all the way round from the rocky sub-soil to the human heart. The fresh, crisp air, the laughing waters and lawns — the gorges of the A RACE FOR LIFE 89 Genesee — and the sweet sunsets (though we may see these anywhere when we look for them) all gave festive- ness to the scene. Hearty greetings awaited me from some of the citizens. John Knox and John Wesley is a subject that in good hands should take like wild fire. There is much border- ing on the tragic and the thrilling in the life of Knox, and much resignation and moral grandeur in the life of Wesley. But only skilful hands can touch the theme. I suggested to my friends another subject, but they struck out for the reformers. Rochester treated me very handsomely, put a good handful of money in my purse, passed resolutions of thanks for lecture at Knights of Honor Hall — afterwards treated me to a grand ovation, and begged me to call again. And now one more hint to amateur lecturers — don't go reasoning like Alnaschar when you have a few dollars in your purse. We are all learning by experience, and I must post you a little. Men who use their faculties at the right time and place are the safeguards of society. What crowds I meet all the way up on the social ladder — who are absolutely afraid to speak as men — they are away down in low ruts, where conventional untruths, stock margins and lickerish tidbits of ceremony keep them dwarfed. O ye rich churches, for heaven's sweet sake, send healthy missionaries among our people; we want them more than does Africa. 90 LIFB SKETCHES Determined to see Buffalo, and to make the best of things, I alighted at Batavia, walked through the quiet little town, which seemed half asleep; and there finding that I should have to wait three hours for car, thought just this way : if I remain here I shall be walking all the time ; I may as well walk to Corfu, ten miles, and view the country. So off I started, arriving long before train. Then to the Bev. A. Smith, of the M. P. church. Brother Smith met me with open arms. I really can't say when I spent a more pleasant time. He is a grand army man, and bears the marks of suffering for his country. Preached for him Sunday morning and evening, paying an afternoon visit to the pleasant little cemetery back of the village, and rejoicing that life opened out so singularly fresh and delightful after my long years^ illness. Off for Buffalo on Monday morning, bearing a letter of introduction which considerably cheered me, and alighted some seven or eight miles from the city to embrace the beauties of its environs. In fact I was so interested in my surroundings that I forgot my dear, kind monitor, and began to reason like Alnaschar over his basket of brittle ware — hence my advice. It was not long before the great Main street, and inter- secting rich avenues burst upon me, and I was very much rejoiced. Evening was setting in, — the clouds suffused with a rich crimson, and I sought refreshment A RACE FOR lylFK 91 and repose. Turning down Nassau street, I was about entering a dining-room when my hand involuntarily started to my pocket. Out like lightning, I thrust it into another, then another — over and over again — my forty -seven dollars and seventy- three cents had gone like a vision of the night. But a sound, good sleep fitted me for the duties of the next day. Things brightened up wonderfully, more cheerfully than I dared anticipate, and I soon found out that I had work to do in Buffalo. I secured new Era Hall, in Swan street, corner Main, for lecture, "The Glory and Shame of America," and was besieged by various Christian people to take up Sunday preaching. My travels brought me over near Canal street, and Hamburg Canal, where I found a Christian mission church, struggling to hold up its head, under circumstances so humiliating that I fell into sympathy with the work at once. There were women of spotless integrity, of high families, carrying on the work of the Lord amidst the jeers and venom of the most depraved human beings that have ever lived. Yet my life in this city was tempered by very pleasant experiences. Making my house in Division street, not far from Main, while I remained and preached at the mission, I was brought daily into contact with all shades of men. President Cleveland was in for a large share of objurgation, and the tattle at the tea tables rang upon him with severity. 92 LIFE SKETCHES ' ' Why all this clatter about Cleveland ?" said I, sick of the conversation. ' ' Don't you know you're in his training-school, and what can you expect from a place of such low associa- tions ?" Now I do fight shy of these political extremists, but I spoke good words for the President. I say before the world, all the more honor to this man Cleveland, who could pass through such scenes, and yet claim the suffrages of the American people. My boarding house was a quiet, unpretentious, little edifice, kept by a carpenter, a far-seeing Scotchman, possessing some grand traits. His wife was a model Christian woman— I may say ultra Christian for the atmosphere in which she moved. She took the Bible as her counsel; and while I have passed through varied grades of society, I must honestly say that her life formed a picture to be hung up in the memory far above all the others. Arduous trials surrounded her, but no matter how hard the strain, she sang out from the ful- ness of her heart she should bear all things for the sake of Him who made her happy. On the 9th of August I gave my address, " The Glory and Shame of America," as illustrated in the church, home, legislation, literature and manners of the people. There was much to be said, and I could but barely glance at the material that opened before me. There was a creditable audience, and the best attention prevailed. A RACE FOR LIFE 93 "Would you be kind enough to give us an address," said a lady of the mission at the close, ' 'at a price that will enable many of the poorer class to come out and hear you ? Take any subject you please, and I am sure that you will have a house full." Now what subject could I take in view of such a question ? Nor would I dare to leave Buffalo without some public expression of thanks to that sisterhood who place themselves in the very jaws of death to save the fallen. Neither would I pay compliment to them without arraigning ourselves. Our moral cowardice in this age is absolutely sickening in its repulsiveness. Living constantly in tainted air, one loses the sense of its danger. I therefore took up the subject, "Woman's Tribute to Christianity," in irregular four line hexameters of ninety stanzas, giving due apostrophe to woman for what she has done in speeding the temperance reformation, and in educating the race to the virtues of resignation, patience, and affection. In this poem I did not fail to cast very severe reflections upon our own sex for the low ambitions which so often seize us in our golden opportunities. It was a scathing arraignment, but it represented a state of things that is too true. There is a large class in Buffalo — like in all our large cities — of poor, ignorant, earnest, Christian people, who know that they are slighted by the stronger churches : while at the same time it may be admitted that in the grace of Christian knowledge 94 IvIFE SKETCHES they are often in advance of our richer friends. To some of those people the Salvation army offers good work; others have no Christian home but at their own firesides ; there is no minister or missionary who calls upon them or cares about them, and thus there is a wall of estrange- ment rising between them and the church — they are honest, and simple, and God-fearing, and yet they are strangers in their own land. Let me pass on. I grasped my pen, sat down with very solemn reflections one Sunday afternoon to frame this " Woman's Tribute." It was on the eve of completion the following Tuesday, when a woman rapped at the door desiring a few printed copies. We were not rich enough for that ; but the sisters and those interested in the Mission showed much enthusiasm, and when the evening came for delivery there was a very promiscuous gathering. I became warmed and excited as I advanced, and as I read the lines — We have entered tlie pulpit— God's message beside us, To counsel our sister to fly from disgrace ; But, alas ! she too often has cause to deride us. And throw back the taunt in our pharisee face— "That's right"—" Give it 'em hot"— " God bless you"— came from all quarters of the room. Many pleasant hours I spent with Kev. Thomas Carr, a good, decent Irish Episcopal minister, author of a small, A RACE FOR LIFE 95 ably-written treatise, a vindication of the Episcopal church against the charge of holding the ' 'Stiff est Calvin- ism" in her Thirty -nine Articles. An old bachelor, in his seventieth year — living alone, cooking his own meals — out of sympathy I called on him, and the time flew too rapidly as we opened many a theme. Dear old fellow ! his eyes were wet with tears as we parted, perhaps, for the last time in this world. Mr. Evans, an old-time printer, in Washington street, was another favorite I picked up. I am proud of my old profession. " Now," said I, " Mr. Evans, I have written some lines, called The Poet, and I should like to put them in type." " O no, don't think of that, I will do them up in fine style. Don't soil your fingers." "Now," said I, laughing outright, "is it any wonder we preachers are made the laughing stock of the public, when we become so proud that we can't touch type, blacken our boots, or button our coats ?" Friend Evans had to cave in to my argument, and I set up the poem, beginning He walks with men, and yet be is a king, and one of these days you will be reading it. Oh, I do from my very soul abhor those individuals, be they men or women, who sneer with pompous strides at the nice little bridge that at a critical time in life so nicely carried them over. I have watched Buffalo's crowds day after day with 96 LIFE SKETCHES undiminished interest. What beautiful pictures of life the passing throngs furnish to those who look for pictures. And he who can see into the depths of the painting will not be censorious in his estimate, since he is in group with the others, and is just as odd and singular as any of the rest. From appearances I should like to say a word in favor of street discipline . Order prevailed, indicative of good police surveillance. In fact I promenaded in a pretty lively manner for some seven weeks those busy streets, and met little or no disturbance. Life was very enjoy- able, the hot waves being tempered with currents of cool air from Lake Erie. So much for the positive side, and now for the negative. The first and the best thing Buffalo can do is to get rid of that Hamburg Canal. I take care that no profanity shall be allowed in my presence. I have a high regard for the sacred office: but if any man should ask me whether such a place as hell could be found on this earth, and where, I should say, " Certainly, in Buffalo." At the same time I would discriminate between the respectable one of Milton, where Satan exclaims, ' 'Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven." In that grandest of all poems, where Satan is pictured as coursing the universe hunting out the blissful pair, the reader can clearly see that boiling seas, walls of brimstone, and showers of dynamite if you will, would not daunt him a A RACE FOR LIFE 97 particle ; but doubtlessly a place proportionably like the Hamburg Canal would make him swear so as to frighten his legions, drive his blazing fingers up to his nostrils, and cry out — ^to use the more expressive language of poetry : O Death, O Furies ! what assails my nose ? Well I'll be damned ten thousand times and more Before I touch this pottage. Now, Buffalo, this is enough. Gret rid of that canal, and save your credit before the nations ; save your noble- hearted Christian women from being sacrificed on such frightful altars ; then plant gardens of roses on the soil that their fragrance may blot out the past forever, and the rising generation may call you blessed. My hay fever had completely disappeared in that pleasant adventure of eight months, and a walk of over three thousand miles. CHAPTER VIII. CRITICISM AND COMMON SENSE. Nature has furnished me with a large amount of in- dependence, or what might be called a spirit of freedom and fair play. No sooner did I see my own faculties developing, than I found myself entering arenas where prejudices and jealousies like massive mountains lay ahead of me. Could I go through their midst without breathing their atmosphere and assimilating something ot their constitution ? No, it must not be. I am here but as a traveler; and nothing fills me with greater wonder than the plexus of human minds around me, all representative of certain antecedent phenomena which have invariably defied the keenest generalization for any satisfactory solution. The styles which characterize the literature of our best thinkers are never modelled on those of others. These speak a language of their own, which they follow as naturally and as easily as the air they breathe. In this high realm the vagaries of jealousy rarely enter ; there is a communion of soul which settles as a benediction, and which purifies and ennobles the human heart to a greater extent than we can ever estimate. The versatility of DeQuincey, the symmetry of Addison, the grandeur CRITICISM AND COMMON SENSE 99 of Washington Irving typify a wealth and personality of which they themselves never could have been conscious. V/hen I see a man's individuality grandly marked, I must unfold it immediately for the general good, or bear some tremendous thumping from that conscience which God has given me. Now, I dopJt care about being thrashed in that peculiar way ; for I have told my people from the pulpit more than once that I would prefer even to have my ears boxed in the streets in broad daylight than bear the terrible whip of conscience for neglected duties. So you see, reader, there is a little difference between myself and some others. Thousands of great men cry out, "Pshaw for conscience ! What does Mrs. Grundy say? — that's the thing." Well, that's not the thing for me. In the year 1863 I had an opportunity of meeting Ralph Waldo Emerson in Montreal, when he gave a lecture under the patronage of the Mercantile Library Association. Though the meeting had been well adver- tised, and Emerson well paid for his services, the audience was so slim as to make his friends and admirers unhappy. He himself seemed out of sorts,— whether it was the poor turn out or whether he had a delicacy regarding the work, I could never fathom. There was great strength in his thought, but great weakness in his utterance. And yet there was something so charming and beauti- ful about that man that is well worth description. I iL.of C. loo LIFE SKETCHES merely introduce his name here to show that even such a man as Emerson makes mistakes sometimes. ''Never read any book that is not a year old," said he, in his three axioms regarding the reading of good books. Emer- son himself was an instance that not the mighty crowd around him, but the man of genius found him out and read him before his printed pages were dry. It is the prerogative of genius to find out whether a book is worth reading, and to wait not a year, nor a month, nor a day, but to seize the glowing ingots of the author's mind im- mediately, and present their wealth before the people. I see that Sir John Lubbock copies this phrase of Emer- son without seeing the fallacy of it. But I have a bone to pick with Sir John and other equally excellent writers. There is a very unhealthy tendency amongst literary men in our day to treasure up in the memory extracts from the large field of literature, and then drop them into their own writings as quotations from So-and-so without tracing them to their authors. The consequence is that the quotation is adulterated, and the author mis- quoted. For instance here, in the "Pleasures of Life," Sir John Lubbock gives the extract : " How charming is divine philosophy ! Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, But musical as is Apollo's lute," as from Shakespeare, when most readers know better — that it is from Milton's "Comus." And such a blunder passing at the head of a chapter seems inexplicable. CRITICISM AND COMMON SENSE loi A beautiful -looking small 12mo volume, well printed on fine thick paper — and a choice morceau of thought, was put into my hands one evening at a friend's house. In turning over the pages rapidly I found no less than four extracts at the head of chapters far off from their authors — two from Milton attributed to Shakespeare, one from Dry den to Shelley, and one from Pope to Byron. With all its splendid printing I threw down the volume in disgust, and have been studying over and over again how the error might be rectified. The responsibility in all these cases rests upon the author. I have come across instances where the author of the volume leaves the quotation authority to the proof- reader. This is very unjust ; for the department of care- ful proofreading is perhaps the most laborious of all work in book printing. The reader is rarely thanked for his trouble, and he is scourged for his unavoidable errors. The author or compiler should invariably take time to look after his own extracts. A case in point will show that there is something dis- creditable in trusting to the memory passages which are called for in the production of standard works. When the first part of the great Oxford Dictionary under the editorship of Prof. Murray appeared a few years ago, I soon found out that many of those who had been for years selecting quotations, depended too much on their memory ; and the consequence was that Milton, Dryden, I02 LIFE SKETCHES Pope, Swift, Gray, and a host of others were imperfectly rendered in the quotation or book. Through the kind- ness of Messrs. MacMillan, publishers, 1 wrote to Prof. March, then American editor, and received his hearty thanks, with a hope that I might be able to continue my labor on the dictionary. In one of his letters he states, ' ' Should we publish Language^ we shall have a sort of Dictionary Department ; and we should be glad to print your corrections in it as an example to others, and an invitation to more examination." I regretted very much that I had not the time to follow it up. Of course mistakes will occur in a work of such magnitude; but there is sufficient time to do ample justice; and I trust that the most rigid scrutiny will be bestowed on that great work which is being welcomed with such hearty regard by the best scholarship of the English speaking nations. A well known New York house published a few years ago a popular English encyclopedia, with American additions, in six volumes. I desired a copy at the time, and one day glanced for about half an hour at the specimen. I did not feel satisfied, and wrote to the publisher, in sub- stance asking him whether he thought it just to his own interest as publisher as well as that of the buyer to present his work before the public literally crowded with faults of all kinds ; and stated that it would not take long to find fifty thousand errors in the volumes, that should by CRITICISM AND COMMON SENSE 103 all means be corrected. To this I received no reply. A friend, also a publisher in New York, urged me to send a copy of my letter to the New York Tribune, which would surely through that channel elicit some response. My sensitive nature alone prevented me. I saw there was some little excitement ahead, and some hot temper that might not prove beneficial to either, so I dropped the matter. Well I look at it just this way. When a hardworking healthy man goes to the market to buy good meat and potatoes for his dinner, the law protects him in his efforts to get good material; and the man who will buy the poorest potatoes, and cry out in selling them that they are the best, is a fraud, and the law is bound to censure him. Now there is some relevancy in these two cases, and there is no use in getting mad over it. • A man who buys a book as a play -toy will have no cause to grumble at the price put upon it, or the maculae upon its pages. But it is vastly different with the cultured mind ; and a book diseased with the most culpable errors — ^like diseased meat in the market — betokens the presence in many cases of fraudulent dealing which demands legal interference, and this right should be strenuously insisted upon. A pleasant note of introduction a few years since gave me hearty welcome to the home of Dr. John Miller of Princeton, where I spent many happy hours. His new translation from the Hebrew of the Proverbs of Solomon I04 I.IFB SKETCHES — a work of massive erudition and critical exegesis — had just arrived from the publishers ; and it is safe to say- that the next century with the acutest scholarship will not surpass it. On leaving him the next morning he placed a volume "Fetich in Theology" in my hands. This little treatise, as well as all his productions, makes a man think— the Doctor knew well that the highest office of an educator is to make men think and question. The great majority of books that leave our presses show the very reverse of this — they weaken and stultify the argumentative powers, because they offer no pasture ground for the understanding. And it will be found after some examination, that, with but few exceptions, the great mass of novel reading withers and degenerates the mind, thereby leaving it open to the inroads of passion, and the thousand other eventualities which culminate in insanity, suicide, or the leprosy of drunken- ness. In one word, the strength which dignifies the will power is lost, and there is nothing left to fill its place. It is with great pleasure therefore that I look into the writings of such a man as Dr. Miller. The conciseness and point of his periods, balanced with a wit that carries with it the aroma of ancient as well as modern civiliza- tions; and interspersed with a tincture of cheerfulness and urbanity — added to a ready prehensile faculty of ingrafting which is constantly budding into new creations — all these separate him from ordinary thinkers as a CRITICISM AND COMMON SENSE 105 type of the noblest school of cultured, unfettered minds. Of his theology I will only say that it is to be much re- gretted that scholars too often show an uneasy bias of feeling by a silence which they know is base, but which they imagine their environment calls them to sanction. The literary worth of a man should always be acknowl- edged as apart from his creed : while the latter should never be construed by the community as a plea for for- feiting the sacred instincts of home and society. Those large minds who feed us with the best pabulum have often to pass through the most trying ordeals. The doctrine of discrete degrees could never be better illus- trated than in just such cases. We are constantly viewing certain minds from our own platform, instead of theirs : when all our learning, insight and observation will never allow us to ascend the scaffolding where Nature has placed them. It is in place here to speak of some of the productions of a very near relative of the doctor, whom, for the grace- fulness of his diction, and the weird grandeur of his images in the realm of verse, I look upon in some sense as one of the ablest poets of the nineteenth century. Whatever may be said regarding this literary celebrity, the fundamental principles of honor, which cling to noble souls as the sap to the tree, run out immediately for his defence on the ground that he has been misunder- stood and misinterpreted by a large throng who view io6 LIFE SKETCHES him altogether outside of his plane of genius. In "Silence," one of his first poems, the Rev. Miller Hageman presents to the world the fecundity and pov^^er of a superior mind in mastering language and adroitly drawing it within the orbit of his vision so as to make it pay ready obeisance to the subject before him. The thrilling severity of the "Divine Malignity" grasps in small compass, but in striking aphoristic phrase (and this is where the poets often claim advantage) a great deal that will be syllabled very frequently in the next fifty years, and tend not a little to precipitate that re- vulsion of feeling against certain dogmatic beliefs which is already taking deep hold of the public mind. "Liberty" is a magnificent poem, teeming with the richest truths, embellished and chiseled in the choicest language, which is destined to a noble future ; while his "Bird Songs" contain some of the neatest imitations of nature ever known. In this line he has found his real forte ; and as this argues genius of a high order, it is to be hoped that he may be enabled to prosecute his work with satisfaction to himself as well as to the public. A gentleman, perhaps of as reticent and unassuming a nature as may be found in this broad world. Dr. John D. Ross, I first met in 1882. This man comes from the land of the heather — dear old Scotland — where he was born in 1853. I soon gleaned from his writings that for the little time he was to live in the world he was. CRITICISM AND COMMON SENSE 107 determined to do some good ; and, with an impartiality rare and wonderful, he goes around picking out the jewels hidden in a man's innermost soul — unseen, un- known till the eye of genius seeks kinship, and finds it ; and then brings them up in the lustre of the sunlight, where the world can admire and love them. He is a man with perhaps as good a substratum of keen literary sense as any writer of our day, and is carving out a pathway that, while it will tend to make men happier, will also prevent feuds and jealousies that so often degrade the literary forum. Many of our readers have become familiar with his peculiar method of review^ seeking the beautiful as his first consideration. In the domain of poetry he has been singularly felicitous in this respect, as his writings on Robert Burns, and the Scottish poets of America testify. Events led me recently in the society of Prof. Sedgwick, Winfield, L. I., one of our ablest astronomers. I was well aware that the professor had been misunderstood by many, who pictured him as being strongly opposed to the essential principles of the Christian religion. Noth- ing could be farther from the truth. The doctor is noted for a devoutness of feeling, and a tenderness of Christian belief that won my highest regard. He is an acute classical scholar, a great reader of the Greek Testament, and one in whose society many clergymen could glean a great deal regarding the useful and the beautiful. io8 LIFE SKETCHES Besides this, the doctor has been engaged for many years in what may be called one of the grandest under- takings of our age. And this is the ' ' Illustrated Family Bible," in twenty volumes, with some twenty thousand of the choicest engravings, steel and copperplate, to illustrate the text. I have been looking over some three or four volumes, and find that the doctor's grasp is no less exegetical than historical ; his faculty of insight is keen and adaptive; his happy manner of selection throws such light in the path of the reader, that the attention is relieved and instructed at the same time. This great work, as an heirloom to his children, cannot fail of meeting with a large meed of praise from the public. The subtle principle of genius is manifest throughout. CHAPTER IX. HEALTH AND EXERCISE. There is a tremendous amount of uncheerfulness afloat, so don't blame me if I prescribe a little in this chapter. A laugh is better than a sigh in such trying and sickly times. I do not favor the long-faced, styptic religion that gives a man a vinegar aspect all his life. No, life needs expansion, humor and gayety. Grip, pneumonia, and kidney disease are running after us like fiends, and I meet so many men and women that look as if they had been packed away in barrels of alcohol. It's a great mistake. You say it's hard to keep in good humor when the back of your head is on fire, your lungs clogged up, and a cough setting in to break you in pieces. Yes, I say that even then you must keep in good spirits. What are you here for ? I look back, and it is astonishing to see how my friends have been going. Ministers, editors, merchants, bakers, butchers, artisans have been dropping off like leaves in a hurricane. You say that I am the strangest man living that I don't feel it. I will not tell a falsehood over it either. I look over the barren waste so lately filled with wealth of life and enjoyment, and I am not disappointed. I came here no LIFE SKETCHES but as a visitor, and will soon join the army of the de- parted. With the wonderful array of faculties that God has given man it is certainly our own fault if we do not keep our spirits in readiness, and our wings plumed for the flight. And, as I said before, the best way to do this is to wrap a robe of cheerfulness and honesty around our natures, and go through the conflict as true courageous men and women for the little time we re- main here. Moral courage and heroism are rare in this world after a man wades in the sea of physical affliction. People lose heart, lose confidence at the very time of life when it is most necessary to have them. There have been hours in your existence when you have been seated at a great feast where course followed course, and tempting dishes and viands and fruits lay waiting to appease your appetite, and you have said, ' ' Isn't this delightful ? It is worth living to taste all this." Well, this will give you some idea of my position when I go out on my long isolated walks in the vast amphitheatre of being. Every- thing is aflame with song, majesty and beauty. Living here in the concrete, I then associate with the infinite and the sublime. Man at length has disappeared, and left me alone with Nature. When the clouds drop their fatness upon the earth I walk subdued in the presence of such divine beneficence, and when the stars burn in their azure depths I am aware that I am a spectator in HEALTH AND BXERCISK iii their galleries, and realize with much enjoyment my relation to them. Since the genera of gambling and pool, and church lotteries, and a thousand other queer things have come into fashion; and men and women walk with their fingers with a deftness that has never been known in history ; and strange swellings and dropsies lay hold of our lower limbs, that we can't walk a mile without screaming with pain, and at fifty years are worn out, and white-haired and laggard as if we were a hundred — all these to me are some of the mysteries of this wonderful time. Gosh, it does seem that I don't belong to this planet anyway. When Winter comes, dear, cold heart, I feel like dipping my head with ecstacy in her first snow-bank; but to see most of my neighbors, how they do scamper off, helter- skelter, for a whiskey sour, shouting with the jim-jams, or swearing like troopers, and I singing for joy — now, what does it all mean ? It just means partly this, that I am bound to take my Father's goods as he sends them, and trust that my many readers are trying to do the same. Now regarding physical exercise, I have little sym- pathy with those brethren of my own kin who adopt horse-riding and shooting ducks as something marvel- lous. Why don't they walk on their own pins, instead of begging horses to carry them ? What a treat I would have had on that smooth walk between Syracuse and 112 LIFE SKETCHES Kochester had some of those gay, reverend seigniors been beside me ! What a peripatetic school we might have organized, where the spirit of Socrates would not hesitate to meet, in our converse on God, nature and man ! Let me be plain in saying a thing here which I trust teachers and all ministers will take to heart. Thinking is stimulated wonderfully by pedestrian exercise in a high gale. It doesn't matter from what point of the compass : the adage, ' ' an east wind is neither good for man nor beast" is all bosh. Clergy- men, particularly, should be good walkers till eighty years of age. Ten miles a day is excellent for a sickly man ; twenty miles a day is fair for a healthy man ; and twenty-five to thirty miles a day may be called a good walk. I must confess that I don't like to be speaking all the time on laws of health. But really it can't be helped as long as people try to make out that this world is an hospital. This world, my dear reader, is a paradise. And as long as the crowd allows itself to be swamped by tides of corruption, and human bodies and souls are tossed on its billows as they were in the Johnstown flood, man, eaten up by avarice, passion, and prejudice, is sure to be miserable. My advent in missionary work in the rocky Laurentian region of Grenville, Canada, set me at my wits' end how to clamber up the cliffs and visit the people. I was HEALTH AND EXERCISE 113 studying the dietetic part of the plan, when a plain, old-fashioned Scotch woman said to me one day: " You can't live here. Bless you, it would kill you in a week to try to climb these hills like our last minister. Why, he thought nothing of visiting ten families a day; he had legs like a horse." "Don't be afraid. I see it's no joke — but look out; I didn't come to sleep my life here — I'll be able for it." I said little, but resorted to a strong plain diet, partly to invigorate and purge the whole system, and incorporate a new anatomy. At the foot of a pretty steep hill one day — about the eighth of a mile — I looked away up ; it did seem pretty hard to travel, especially as I had to meet fully a dozen or more such in a day. I sat down on a knoll for a few moments, and meditated. I had a good appetite — that was all right. I knew something of deep breathing, but not enough. I wanted purchase power in the lungs; how was I to get it ? This very sum- mer and very place must decide, said I, or I must give up the ship. That very day I solved the riddle; and now let me explain it, so that the reader may understand me, and become a stronger and a wiser man — not forgetting my lady readers by all means. I found that this purchase power could only be secured by expanding the lungs — in taking deep inspirations moderately fast through the nostrils, and arriving at a high pitch, make another tremendous effort, and inhale 114 UFB SKETCHES still deeper. Now you see I would have little advantage were I to walk slowly with this reserved power ; there- fore I started to run on a pretty rapid gait, holding in my breath just as long as nature would permit — then emitting it, not too rapidly ; I would then walk, but not fail to keep up the method of deep inspiration. I found that the use of this advantage every succeed- ing day gave new advantages, so that in very few weeks I was astonished to see myself sailing along more rapidly over rocks and fences than even my predecessors. The application I should like to make is this : When you find a difficulty in ascending many — say eight or nine — flights of stairs, before you start take a veiy deep inhalation of the pure outside air (I would never encourage indoor deep inhalation) — then run rapidly up three or four stories before you exhale the air; the work is half done: then go leisurely, and on arriving at the summit you are not weary. Look at the others how jaded and out of breath they are. You mounted just as many stories as they ; but they appar- ently did twice your work, because they knew nothing of the secret of reserving energy. An illustration here will be in place. One day in March I started out on foot to cross Lake Ontario, near Kingston, where it is but three miles wide. The ice was like a moth-eaten garment full of holes. Before a mile's travel I was convinced of the fearful hazard on all sides HEALTH AND EXERCISE 115 of me. Slender, treacherous ice in places gave way in a moment, and before I could extract one foot, down would go the other. The chance lay in the good spots, but the eye is constantly deceived here. On occasions a speedy leap would place me on firm ice, but when it came to making four or five leaps without a moment's inter- mission, — not alternate steps, but leaps — nature prompted me to use all the elasticity possible, and deal it out care- fully in just such an emergency. When I look back on that day far from any human hand, I sometimes think how many persons would have gone down in the depths for the want of a knowledge of this kind, v/hich, with all its dangers, made it appear to me little more than an ordinary adventure. In my younger years I wrought for a long time on the New York Evening Post, where hundreds of times I met the poet Bryant. On one post-prandial occasion I re- member of a gentleman calling on him whose face was absolutely clothed with laughter. This was Oliver Wendell Holmes. After a little while came in another, whose features bore the marks of deep thought. I could not trace this man, though I carried the impression that he was Emerson the philosopher, whom I was fortunate enough to meet some years after. Holmes gave expression to some thought that set them all laughing. "Well, gentlemen," said Bryant, "it seems to me that with careful and sufficient exercise of ii6 IvlFK SKETCHES the feet as well as of the mind man ought to live one hundred years." Bryant to the very last carried about with him the agility of a young man, and were it not for some indis- cretion in remaining bareheaded on a public occasion in the burning sun, he might have turned one hundred years. Don't laugh when I tell you that I slipped near my own door on a bit of ice eighteen years ago, and sustained a severe compound fracture of the right arm— the wrist bone was broken, and the radius partly injured. It was horrible to contemplate as my physician set the arm. The agony was frightful, and through the night I tore Oif the bandages. Being reset the next morning — ' 'Now, " said the doctor, ' ' don't stir out of the house for a week or two, or the consequences may be very serious." The January weather was intensely frosty. I stayed in the house one day — then out with my arm in a sling — trav- elling, drinking deeply the cold, frosty air. Day after day I often took a very pleasant walk between meals of twelve miles, and as I inhaled the deep, cold air, I felt a strange vibration running all the way through the broken arm. What could it be ? What but this that the pure, clear atmosphere was giving me new blood just as well as the food at my home table. I wasn't afraid to test nature, and she cheerfully carried me to safety with astonishing swiftness. HEALTH AND EXERCISE 117 September sixteenth, 1901, was a memorable day in my calendar. A strange lethargy remained in my right leg above the knee, the result of the grip in March. Two months after, my physician said, "walk but about two miles at a time till the fall weather, when you may in- crease the energy." I would not dare to act a couple of days on such suggestion ; I should certainly lose the use of my leg. The most intense exercise only gave me relief — sixteen and eighteen miles walk a day gave me rest and made me sleep. The numbness remained, but I did not worry over it and run after oils, lotions and turpentine. So on the above date I said to my wife, " I must see what is the matter with my leg, even if I drop on the street," and went out for a five mile walk before dinner. In the afternoon I walked down to Twenty-third street ferry, nearly four miles, crossed the ferry, walked about a mile and a half to Eighth ave., took the Elevated to 155th street, then walked nine miles to Yonkers. Had a light tea ; after which I addressed the Salvation Army, where I spent an agreeable hour; and at ten o'clock, with as much freshness as if I had just risen from my bed, started on my pleasant walk. No one can conceive my happiness. Few can imagine the benefit of such a school of education. On I advanced, quietly, pleasantly, all the way to my residence in Madison street, near Central avenue, but a little way from East New York — making about twenty-three miles after leaving the ii8 UFE SKETCHES Salvation Army, or about forty -two and a half miles for one day. Of course, my arrival home at three m the mornipg made things for all the world look like Mr. Caudle's house when the facts came out. ' ' A broken leg, wasted frame and chronic disease" were laid at my door. ''No,'' said I, "I have been testing my leg." I lay down and slept nine hours. And, would you believe it, on waking the numbness had nearly gone. It was just as if Nature had said, ' ' This man is a hero ; I will let him live a little longer." Learn to welcome the weather — that's your business. I do not suppose that one of my readers is possessed of as weak, skeleton-hollowed a chest as I have. A blow from a child would put an end to my fleshly existence. But Horace never enjoyed himself more heartily over his Falernian, than I in blasts of cold air. For I am determined, at any rate, to fill up these lungs with the aura of Nature's wines. So when a cold spell suddenly meets us, I rush into it with extraordinary delight, in- haling it deeply and long, walking several miles before my dinner, following it up while the cold lasts. And the way that that cold air extracts the rheum, clears the lungs, relieves the kidneys, braces up the system and gives fifty per cent, new vitality — just think of it, and after having had pneumonia, too. The grand thing is to keep the chest well covered ; shut the mouth rigidly, and inhale deeply the clear, fresh air. HEALTH AND EXERCISE 119 Be active, intenselj active, nor fall asleep as some men do on the street. Bat sleep at home long and happy as a babe. The great secret of health in cold weather is in generating animal heat; energy and long, deep inspira- tion is best for this. Seek the hi^est ground possible, and, unlike those loonies who cany up bags of dust in the air to produce rain, strive to invent something that win produce a frosty snow-fall over large areas, and, as the wild wind sweeps over it, there's nothing in the cal- endar of champagnes to equal it. Men may talk as they please about the advantages of place or money, but when I get near them, and feel for their inner emotions, their cry invariably is, Give me health, that i? wcnh more than all. Oh, give me my health! Let me dose with a pleasant incidrait of my long walk. I was >«Dme thirteen or fourteen miles from Bochester, when I called at a residence for a pleasant g^ass of water. But my reception was something si]9erb. Some form- alities passed, the greatest courtesy was proftered; when my host remarked, "Might I ask, sir, are yon Dr. Talmage f * The mistake had been made more than once before. "No, sir; I am only a plain, simple oomitry- man."' But he was not satisfied; for after a while the lady of the house came into the room. ' ' You will excuse me, I hope,^^ she said, *' but I have just been reading Dr. Tahnage's sermon, and you speak just like him. Tell I20 LIFE SKKTCHES me, please, are you Dr. Talmage?^' "No, my dear friends ; but I may tell you that I have the pleasure of knowing the doctor, and I am sure that he will laugh when I tell him of this incident." Well, they begged me to take old Tom, sherry, etc. ; all of which I declined. And now, reader, I will give from my experience some — RULES FOR WALKING AND BREATHING. For prolonged exertion and the advantages offered as a preventive of disease, deep abdominal breathing should be followed. Do not forget that principles of health demand that we should breathe through the nostrils, and not through the mouth. Teach your children this. In taking long walks, commence with the long breath ; nature will prompt you to continue it. Commence walking exercise with a fair lively gait, or you will soon find yourself weary. A long walk at the dinner hour may be followed with advantage, with a light meal. See that your clothing is sufficiently loose to give perfect ease in walking. Eating gently some delicious biscuit in your long walk will prove beneficial. Persons habituated throughout to active exercise, such as walking, who desire to change to slower methods, should be careful in studying the necessary gradations HBAIvTH AND EXERCISE 121 of life, so as to give nature fair play in her way of dictation. There is a great mine of wealth and truth in the fact that you may walk a couple of miles, and feel weary ; but go right on, breathing deeply, and at eight or ten miles you seem to have the strength of a giant. Should large quantities of mucus gather, and a headache set in, do not be afraid, but take remarkably deep nasal inspirations, then spasmodically eject the mucus ; by degrees you will be relieved. Better than other medicine a thousand times. To keep the health well balanced, a man of sedentary occupation should walk eight or ten miles a day ; while a man of active business is doing work equivalent to fifteen or eighteen miles a day. Exposure to cold, blustering weather may be experienced with much enthusiasm and benefit. People that are naturally lethargic may have to struggle hard to find this reserved energy ; but let them perse- vere. Nature will not disappoint them. If obliged to put up with foul air for long periods, seek the bracing clear air twice a day, inspiring deeply. On leaving ill- ventilated rooms, first expire deeply, then inspire deeply and often. In occupations where the air is constantly foul, seek your spare moments in deep breathing of pure air, even if you eat your lunch on the highway. 122 LIFE SKETCHES The deep nasal inspiration of pure cold air is probably the best tonic ever given to man. The voice acquires rotundity, resonance and ease, from this practice. While the lungs should be active, don't inspire wildly. If unavoidably placed in a draught near a window, in- spire deeply if air is pure. There is no use denying the fact that if one is necessitated to sit in a draught of southern or eastern air in winter^ even near a window, if he breathe very deeply, and the air be pure, he will rarely catch cold. I have tried it hundreds of times, and know whereof I speak. Of course the more the window be opened in these cases the better. It is the small draught that is to be dis- couraged. Never venture to take deep inspirations in any room or locality where the air is foul. For asthma and all tight or congested breathing, practice in the well hours deep breathing in the coolest dry air possible, and the disease will disappear. Looking at the disadvantage of a bad asthma, it must be admitted that it will take more heroism at times in our endeavor to save life than in nearly anything we can undertake in this world. To save ourselves from the plague of asthma, we must fortify ourselves in those intervals of weeks or months when the disease is absent. But most people think they are thoroughly HEAIyTH AND BXBRCISB 123 well, and need not fear the future. In those intervals of cessation, during my asthmatic years, I have sought the purest air, closed my mouth with rigidity, breathed deeply and slowly, holding my breath, doing this in my long walks day after day, never forgetting It; and by degrees my lungs and chest acquired a robustness and vigor that warded off the complaint. Let asthmatic invalids travel much alone till their lungs get strong. Constant companionship breeds too much talking, which tickles the air passages, and fosters the disease. The long walk and deep breathing affect the kidneys in a wonderful manner; the secretion of the urine is abundant and healthy. Deep inspiration rouses the moral energies with the physical. The atmosphere plays a most significant part in the functions of nutrition. Singing is one of the best methods for stimulating deep breathing. In singing, if at all convenient, open all the doors and windows possible. Suppose you are well in years, and there is a tendency to shun the sudden cold spells at the approach of winter, resolve to meet these changes as if they were old friends, rise before the sun, walk rapidly, inhaling nasally and deeply the life draughts ; after a while a pleasant sensation of heat is experienced, accompanied 124 IvIFE SKETCHES with fresh elasticity ; walk some three or four miles, then the day will pass pleasantly. The Rubicon is crossed. Practice this method all winter. By so doing you are reserving strength for the ensuing summer. One more word, dear reader— do not worry. Oh, those worry-bugs on earth ! Heavens ! I rarely crossed a hearth But a nagging, worrying sound Made me fly swift o'er the ground. And I wondered why was this. Worrying in a world of hllss. The poor worry they are poor, The rich worry for some more. Waggles worries for a crust, Morgan for a big world trust. The wife worries o'er her mate, Staying ( lodge or spree ) so late. Husband worries o'er his wife Cutting up a Caudle life. Preachers worry o'er their share, The judge worries like a bear. Farmers worry o'er their crops, Long-faced Christians o'er the hops. And the curtain never drops. Then their cemeteries grow Metaphors, that hide the woe From the crowd ; but I could glean From some lines I read between : "Here some twenty thousand rest, And twelve thousand at the least Died from worry"— sad but true. Reader, does the dress fit you ? CHAPTER X. PHILOSOPHICAL. Discouraging and doleful indeed would life prove to the thoughtful man if it were not for his constant chase after truth, whereby he finds out the obstacles that lie in his pathway. He thus discovers that a frictionless even life would be fruitless and uneventful. The makers of history — ^the creators of ideas — find next to a divine pleasure in their life of toil. They often stand alone — solitary, isolated, misunderstood and unrewarded, till a new race of mind arrives, grasps hold of their burning conceptions, and, clothing them in a new dress for the people, reap the reward that we may suppose should have gone to the original architects. There is a wonder- ful intensity of meaning in all this, and one may see that it partly uplifts the veil that hides the modus operandi of divine method. It shows how true greatness bows readily to trial; how true majesty asserts itself inde- pendently of circumstance ; how virtue holds her place unswayed by the accidents of chance or fortune. There is much of the supernatural apparent in every man's life which, mixed with the drapery of fashion and commonplace, is allowed to sink out of sight. Life is thus stripped of much of its higher meaning. Careful 126 LIFE SKETCHES students cannot fail to see that in the mystery of existence they are walking on the verge of the infinite, and therefore endeavor to classify the passing phenomena in such a manner that their whole being may take a healthier coloring, and their minds become more and more strengthened with the increase of years. When we consider that there is such a tendency amongst greats and fertile thinkers to do herculean work, we wonder that they are spared half their days. Far better for the world that they should do less in a given time, that they might do more in a longer age and a riper experience. The few instances recorded of gifted minds with great ages reveal some hints of those stores which, with care and discretion on the part of the possessor, open up with the years to a more splendid fruition. Are we not spiritual beings, or, as Carlyle says, ghosts ? It would be criminal folly for us to deny it, and virtually say that we are but as blocks of wood and no more. For our outside fleshly clothing this is all right. But I do love to see a man with some respect for that sovereignty which rules within, as a king on his throne. Life is very strange, isn't it ? I am a spectator largely from the fact that the phenomena of life and action reveal themselves with an intensity that would be ab- solutely painful did I not stop to examine and weigh the genius and purpose of all this divine machinery. To me life is a temple of splendid proportions — I am standing PHIIvOSOPHICAIy 127 on the vestibule, and as I am peering into the profusion of wealth and magnificence it is necessary to have firm footing — for the nearer we get to the essentials of things, we find our best safety lies in having large faith in a clear unfettered, strong mind. None else can live and look into the presence of such divine revelation. Now one department of my labor is to see those law- givers and laborers, and all classes of society accept the gifts of God to their full extent, and not think that it is presumption to use their senses to their fullest and best extreme. For there are those who are far-seeing enough to know that they must not only use their five senses ; but they must find out and use that sixth and seventh sense which they feel that God has given them. And, reader, between you and me, a man may as well keep his mouth shut and starve to death, unless he can open it decently as a man. And opening our mouth to eat bread and meat is a very little part of the business. Any baby can do that. The thing to find out is how to open it so that we may sow seed that will burst into a fruition of life-giving principles. The individual who is capable of such power, and yet despises it, as the good Book says, it were far better for him " that a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea." When a man passes through life as a student, analyzing subjects that daily come up to view in the theatre of 128 LIFE SKETCHES action around him, it is not likely that he will remain at any point like a post driven in the ground. There is but one resting-place in his whole career— it is felt at the dawn of reason— it accompanies him in life's pilgrimage. This resting place for the mind is God. We have a thousand ideas of Him, ever varying, ever imperfect; but yet there are divine scintillations of truth always permeating the conception that prove its reality. God is, but, as his Word declares, He is past finding out. The astronomer, the metaphysician, the moralist, the musician, the philosopher, the poet, form part of that distinguished band who (do what they may at times to obliterate or shun this divine attestation) are ever calling the nations to acknowledge its supremacy. Like the planetary orbs sailing through space, so, too, human minds are like visitants passing from one sphere to an- other. The best definition that we can give of man's life on earth is that he is a student, and the more refined the attributes which clothe his nature, the nearer is his assimilation with diviner forms. Look at the blacksmith, the shoemaker, or the cooper — hear them expatiate on the many-sided aspects of their arts, and no one is offended or afraid. But when the grand question of mind comes up for discussion, and God and heaven and immortality cry out in our hearts for recognizance, we must shut our windows and our doors, and speak under cover. So say a great many deep think- PHIIvOSOPHICAIv 129 ing men ; but it is not true. The great heart of humanity- beats for a Divine Being, and the corelation of one divine truth with another is opening up the higher man- ifestation that in embracing one we are logically led to embrace all. I am not a fatalist ; I believe that the known and un- known, the sour and the sweet, the turbid and the clear are somewhere hidden in the sunshine of divine sov- ereignty. It matters not whether five or fifty years have elapsed — are we not still little children ? Will the pettish- ness and dislike and cross-grained character we to-day exhibit ruin us for ever ? Centuries have passed, and be- hold, we are beginning to know a little of our Creator. We partly understand that he has given us a certain amount of free will, and one endorsement as to its truth is the rod he puts in our own hands whereby we punish ourselves for our own sin. Neither am I a pantheist ; and yet there are a thousand things worse than pantheism. Depravity is worse; sen- suality is worse; intemperance is worse. There is one sight in our modern history the reflection of which should make us all blush for shame. Little more than two centuries ago there appeared a singular man who endeavored to solve the enigma of life. In this desire he sacrificed every ambition and aim that he might live worthy of his Creator. He for one said that he would only according to the light of his conscience, but 130 IvIFE SKETCHES just as soon as he opened his lips, dense walls of iron ecclesiasticism fenced him round. He was excommuni- cated ; attempts were made upon his life ; he was pro- claimed as a traitor before the world; the so-called churches of God called him atheist and antichrist ; people were warned to shun him as a pestilence ; and so deeply- rooted lay the mountain of prejudice upon him that over one hundred years had passed before one would openly dare to do him justice. This solitary, grand, isolated figure of our modern history is Benedict Spinoza. I confess that when I first read his story, tears filled mine eyes, and I cried, " No, it must not be; this world is not a prison-house." Spinoza's great sin lay in the fact that he brought forward the philosophy of Des Cartes, his master, and in the crucible of his mind, under the keenest mathematical demonstra- tion, step by step, produced one of the grandest master- pieces of reasoning the world has ever seen. His ' ' Ethica" was the result, which fell like a thunderbolt on the nations. While to some his argument may seem harsh and repulsive, what sweet sublimity marks its pages, and no man can read this code of morality without be- coming nobler and wiser, and more adapted for the station which he holds. Let this pass as a keynote to other thoughts. I am very glad to say that I am a citizen of the world. I am obliged to view all manners and conditions of men ; and PHIIvOSOPHICAL 131 when I find them every one subject to toil and tears, and the wrench of pain is pressing upon their homesteads every day, I will not dare to take the divine prerogative out of my Maker's hands, and say to those large bodies of the human family, " I am right, and you are wrong." On these matters I am singularly sensitive. Where we have thoughts worthy of a Divine Being, the aggregate of our labors will yield a consensus of opinion that will be healthy at least. That monotheism has thrown other forms of devotion into the shade is largely owing to the postulate we set forth as the groundwork of the whole. Society takes its main coloring from our conception of the Deity. Where God is pictured as a being of malev- olent passions, society suffers frightfully, as we find in many nations of the earth. The reverse follows where he is pictured as a Being of love and justice ; and with all the errors of our human governments their noblest prestige springs from this fundamental principle. Perfectly aware of the nature of the platform on which I stand, I see great crowds of life sweeping by, and nearly every one is crying out ; the questions of God, of the soul, and of the future are too hard to understand ; at the best I have but a weak faith in them ; I will labor for that which I do know ; I will be charitable ; I will do something to make life enjoyable. Now there is nothing at all heterodox in this. We can see but a little way ahead ; and we throw ourselves into 132 LIFE SKETCHES masses like ants for our better protection. But it is good for us that we do not all follow this method. Minds are called over all the earth to stand alone — they have a mission to accomplish — they seem to carry some unseen armor of defence, and, like the weak oak gaining strength in the wintry blast, so these minds grow sturdy and firm by the intense opposition and warfare used for their destruction. It is the word of prophecy that "the lot is cast in the lap, but the disposing thereof is of the Lord." No more beautiful and significant utterance ever passed the lips of man than the remark of Oersted, that "the conception of the universe is incomplete, if not comprehended as a constant and continuous work of the eternally-creating Spirit." Weigh this passage with the utterances of the Bible — ponder the wonderful Book well, and you will find that Oersted's mind lies in close corre- spondence with it. To think that we may be only break- ing the mist that has enveloped us for ages — that our constant traveling in old beaten paths, based on some ancient procedure or form, prevented us from looking at spirit and nature in their higher aspects ; to think that the inorganic forces in our midst have at length shamed us into acquiescence with a sweeter and more ennobling religious life, more exalted ideas of divine government, and such knowledge of the spaces around us that give many a hint of our relation to the riches and beatitude of a future life. PHIIvOSOPHICAL 133 There are thousands of utterances in the Book that find their analogies in the boundless machinery of nature around us — constantly misconstrued by the ignorant mind, but stimulating and invigorating to more cultivated understandings. I find that many noble and eminent men like Parker and Emerson find here mines of wealth not seen by others. The changes and fluctuations of life led them to look up to the Creator as constantly super- intending his works — not only superintending, but con- serving; not only conserving, but creating. It would be wrong to say that these men have not strengthened the vision of their readers, by placing them in more fitting perspective in this great camping ground. It is in a knowledge of this kind that we find we are entering farther into the arena of our Father's workmanship. Still at work as of old, "when the morning stars sang together," the Creator is to-day the great builder as well as the architect. There is a mighty field of prefiguration and analogy right in our midst barely touched upon. Now just as soon as close and careful observers set themselves to work in these lines they will find a series of steps that will lead them to a storehouse of abundant evidences. Every man entering the pulpit has not only the right to grasp at the fulness of Scripture, but at the fulness of nature also ; and to peer with all his capacities in that field which in its truest aspect is nothing less than a 134 IvlFB SKETCHES garden of gold. Intelligent minds wish to know the why and wherefore of things. Now logic cannot answer them: but when you take them into the garden of nature I speak of, you show them through symbol and analogy strange things that will humble them in their thought, and speak to them in their silence : — We are stepping- stones to higher truths that rest ultimately in God and immortality. When we compare the age of our race, the character- istics of mind — the variations, the strange transitions ever marking the face of society, over which govern- ments have no control whatever, and yet order and to a large extent wisdom are overlapping all — is there not here evidence that the Book, but on a higher and grander scale, will bear much of a new interpretation ? Should we fall in line with this natural transition in shaping events, or fight against it, and be great losers in the end ? There are a goodly crowd who follow the old conservative paths; and from their point of compass they do well. Man sees a certain distance — some farther than others. He must be a brave man to live up to the range of his vision, be it short or long. There is no room for censure here. Sympathy is needed all along the line. No two minds are alike, and yet they are fashioned in their essentials to march onward to the call of duty, under the great leadership of God. In that swirling tide where the fools of fashion play their somer- PHIIvOSOPHICAIv 135 saults there are seldom any vestiges found of the diviner side of man's destiny — where with plausible air and oily subterfuge each steals the equipment of the other, and cries it as his own. Modern investigation, combined with some correct knowledge of the analogies of life and nature, is at length pulling down many of the barriers which for generations have kept civilized races from living up to their highest privilege. The difficulties that were constantly looming to stagger and perplex man were so often the creatures of his own invention, and became so marked in the texture of his researches, that any fresh light thrown upon the canvas has very slowly been acknowledged in its purpose and mission. The fundamental error in all this lay in the great distance between God and His works. As the Creator and Maker, He has been for untold gener- ations separated from man. It looks indeed as if the hand of science were stretching out over the range of His workmanship for a closer acquaintance with His methods, that, let us hope, will prove as a great adjunct of Civilization in accomplishing her mission. CHAPTER XI. *' A man's a man for a' that." Life is so full of beauty, that even looking backward should be agreeable . When a delicate boy, in the old printing office, a rapscallion one morning challenged me to a fight; but a stout, ruddy youth of my own age ran to my defence, and pommeled my antagonist into a more gentlemanly demeanor. I occasionally meet my old deliverer, as we have kept the divine fire warm and glowing ever since. Mr. Robert Waters is well known as the able supervisor of the Public Schools in West Hoboken. His "Life of William Cobbett," "Shakespeare Portrayed by Himself," " The Intellectual Life, " "Selden and His Table Talk," "Flashes of Wit and Humor," have left a healthful stamp upon the age, and prove well the genius and worth of my old friend. Vigor, wit and clearness mark all his pages. Another of my printing confreres was Mr. John Patterson, a Scotchman, who furnishes a strong proof that the aristocracy of m.ind is never anywhere so firm and unbending as in the children of genius. And, most wonderful to state, these pets of nature seem largely to be unaware of the first principles of dogmatism. Most of Mr. Patterson's poems are sweet and lyrical. No "A MAN'S A MAN FOR A' THAT" 137 man regrets more than himself that he has had no leisure to perfect them as choice pieces. There are flashes of genius in his late poem on Robert Burns, which it is to be hoped the guardians of our literary taste will preserve to the honor of their author. Another typo was Denis Quinn, a character I loved heart and soul. A stout, elephantine mortal, quiet and docile, fond of books, one day reading Ferguson's History of Rome, and on another a treatise on law, he unfolded into a lawyer of no mean ability, then into a judge of the Civil Court in New York. Some became excellent business men. One of these was Mr. J. W. Pratt, whose large printing establish- ment in New York is well known. Nor should I forget to speak of the patience and nobility which characterize God's children everywhere. Good old Robert Watson, the cheerful stereotyper, was one. For nearly fifty years, I understand, he stood at his post. Earnest, re- signed, trusting — he left no record on the printed page of man ; but what a faithful student for the time he dwelt among us ! George Young was a frolicking good boy, a copyholder when I knew him, and now he is a man of power and influence in Brooklyn, and very seldom saws the air, unless it be at a church or prayer meeting. The Scotch wouldn't forgive me one bit if I were to leave out of these sketches my old friend Lawrence Robertson, afterwards long proprietor of the Scotsman. 138 LIFE SKETCHES Mrs. Robertson would captivate me with her Lowland Scotch accent, which I candidly confess is one of the sweetest dialects in the world. "Now, Airchie, sit doon to your dinner, and eat plenty. What ! you dinna want that nice soup ! Well, you can just eat it, or get up and skip. What is guid for me, is guid for you, honey." We had a printer in the same office by the name of Donnelson, as strange a character in his way as ever walked this world. Lucky indeed if he could make his three dollars a day, his braggadocio in betting on the streets gave the crowd an impression that he was a millionaire ; and many a horse-race and many a prize- fight waited the dictum of his little finger. His good nature ran to excess, and floored him so completely at times that to retrieve his fortunes he rushed into the betting field, and for aught the world knew he gained his point. There were grand traits about Donnelson. He made many a home happy, and many a heart sing for joy. Regarding old printing associations in.Beekman street I should have mentioned William Wilton, with whom I wrought in the early fifties, and at whose little printing office subsequently my first printed sermon, "David Looking on Himself," saw the light. I set up the type with mine own hands ; and the way we fraternized and hobnobbed day and night to make the production come out in time and in the best dress possible, is worth men- tioning. " A MAN'S A MAN FOR A' THAT " 139 In those early days we were besieged by famous visitors. V/alt Whitman was a common figure in the streets of New York with a peculiarly independent man- ner that in itself won great attention. His "Leaves of Grass" had just been placed on the market and evoked much severe criticism. His hour had not arrived. Bayard Taylor was a prominent visitor at the print- ing office; also, James Parton, author of Life of Horace G-reeiey, "Fanny Fern" and others. What tides of theologians hovered in the arena; for Carter Brothers, the great Presbyterian publishing house, was then in its prime. All quarters of the mental compass, and all sides of the odium theologicum were sifted in the printing press — the compositor sometimes wondering whether he was virtually standing on his head or his heels. In 1857 I became acquainted with a peculiar, silent character, who worked as a job printer on the Evening Post — one Edouard Jones, about seventy years of age. At that time when bitter controversies were still raging regarding the "Revelations of Maria Monk," he entered the lists of the opposition, but wrote in the French language. His work gained some repute in Canada. He was a good French scholar and a thorough gentleman. An Italian count, an exile, at the same time and place wrought as a comjDositor. We could never glean his name : he had abundance of money, was an accomplished I40 LIFE SKETCHES linguist, an excellent player on the flute ; his dress was of the richest materials, and he always carried a stiletto on his person. Uncommunicative, except when speaking on his beloved Italy, when his temper rose to an amaz- ing frenzy, his sudden disappearance in 1858 led many 10 suppose that he entered the Italian army under Gari- baldi, and probably perished in battle. No greater enjoyment had I in my young days than meeting with John B. Gough. A veil of despair occa- sionally limned his countenance, and gave some hint to the outer world of the fearful soul-struggle that was passing within. Duty alone kept him at his post, but it was duty baptized in tears. Dry and unpolished in his utterances — often jagged and harsh in his intonation, nervous and excitable to the highest pitch — the law of association befriended him as he advanced, and the scenes of his life flew around him like a hailstorm. It is astonishing that Gough, wearing such an intense robe of earnestness on the platform, ever saw a good old age. For he possessed an enthusiasm like a raging flame, that could be turned to terrible advantage. He endeavored to keep this fire within limits, but some- times it set the audience into such paroxysms of suffering that his quick retort to repartee from respect for their feelings had not the desired effect, and his disappoint- ment was strong. His speeches were more than pictures — they seemed realities. Some would go to scoff and '* A MAN'S A MAN FOR A' THAT" 141 raalign him, and left the house crying like little children. On one occasion, on opening his address, he stated in a singularly calm way that the day before as he rapped at the door of a house he heard strange groans, and rushing miadly up-stairs — for he divined the cause — he narrowly escaped the axe aimed at a poor sick wife's head, and warded it off within a hairbreadth of her brow, when the daughter like a fierce tiger rushed with a large knife on her father, crying : ' ' Murder ! O God, my mother is dead I You brute to kill her." He went on, but the sequel could barely be heard from the groans and sighs that affected the audience. Many strove to rush for the door, but the crowd prevented them, and Gough soon set them right again. The Rev. Dr. Chapin, Unitarian, was gifted with an- other sort of eloquence. Strength and grace marked his style. The Sunday of my visit gave me an opportunity of seeing the Tribune philosopher in church ; for there, a little way ahead of me, was Greeley, bowing forward, apparently asleep — but whether asleep or awake, it is said by those who knew him well, he would remember nearly every word of the preacher. Chapin's discourse did not strike me at first as peculiarly brilliant, but he was a master, as I soon found, keeping his hearers on tip-toe expectancy for some metaphor or illustration. It was pretty near the peroration when I could see that the preacher was slowly entering the garner house for a 142 LIFE SKETCHES theme. It was not new. He was touching on the spirit of evil throwing out her cords around the human heart, and instanced the ever new figure of a man imprisoned alone in a room for days and weeks, and finds that the place is certainly not the same — that it is becoming smaller around him. And so the walls draw in day after day till he is crushed to death. Chapin pictured this in a diction that could hardly be surpassed. He studied the whole art of elocution to adorn such pictures with telling effect. In my early years in Brooklyn I had many oppor- tunities of conversing with Dr. Abel Stevens, the historian of Methodism, and have not failed in following the counsel he gave me. I had also the good fortune to meet with Richard G-rant V/hite, who was then one of the ablest contributors to the New York World. His affability strongly impressed me, and his pleasing, open, sunshiny face fell like a picture on my memory, where it remains fresh as the day I first met him. Call it a riddle if you please, but I believe that the cheerful- ness of Richard Grant White's nature (a physiognomy you can see that forestalled great breadth of emotion) has added to the hours of my existence. In newspaper life there were stormy scenes. Journal- istic rancor was terribly bitter in those years. Horace Greeley by nature was not a man fitted for low diatribe and venom. He lived above them. But when he was " A MAN'S A MAN FOR A' THAT " 143 challenged and berated, and plastered with the filth of the forum, he lifted his weapon of defence like a two- edged sword; and it fell with remorseless fury. Perhaps James Gordon Bennett and Erastus Brooks were more famed for literary fireworks than any others. The Hon. James Brooks I knew well. He was a being of splendid temper, a man of cool determined resolution, whose literary style seemed largely superior to the taste of his readers. But Erastus, his brother, made up where James failed. And so Bennett and Brooks had it hot and heavy. Home, friendships, personalities w^ere all drawn out of their precincts to open up an era of mud- throwing. Mr. Bennett must be criticised and scourged on account of his plain, shabby-looking dress, and the public must know, on the other side, that Mr. Brooks' bill for the butcher was seven dollars a month. It was a very poor era for journalism. And when Branch came out with his ' ' Alligator, " the world saw the incarnation of whips and stings. No paper was better named. We have outgrown all these miseries, though now and then an attempt is made to revive them. As a general observer of life and manners, I made no scruple of meeting on several occasions in 1857 with the ''Sons of God," a society of fanatics that sprang into existence a few years before. The Brooklyn meetings T^-ere under the leadership of one Cook, quite a religious diplomat, as any sensible person might see by the way 144 LIFB SKETCHES he rolled and winked his eyes, as if a thousand imps were laughing there at the tomfoolery he was playing with the sacred affections of the heart. A feature of their system was the denial of any consciousness of their prior identity, that in their new relation of divine sons they were quite unknown to the world. A Dr. Bennett, of Brooklyn, was a great disciple and teacher. I once interrogated him. "Why," said he, "you are not speaking to Erastus Bennett any more. I don't know anything of him — never knew him. I am a ' son of God.' " The "sons" had a degrading habit of pouring the filthiest ordure upon the heads of all who sought admis- sion to the circle. Could you once pass this ordeal of infamy (which probably Cook hatched after the Greek Eleusinia) you were supposed to receive the nature, and then the hand of fellowship. Poor Amy Beck ! I wonder if there is any family in Brooklyn to-day of the name of Carpenter who remembers her. She was a relative — a woman of some education and refinement. They had a comfortable home; but there was no room there for her. I heard her at the prayer meetings, and soon gauged her calibre. She occupied for a few weeks a position as reader or chaplain in City Hall park. New York, at the time of the war. Here she was in her element. One evening when I was present she visited the ' ' sons," for women were also admitted. "You're as black as "A MAN'S A MAN FOR A' THAT" 145 the devil," said the leader; " we dare not get near you — you are rotten with sin from head to foot ; you must be purged as with fire and brimstone before we can touch you. The devils are tearing your body." "O God Al- mighty, where am I ?" said the poor creature, gathering up her skirts, and rushing for the door. " Let me out — let me out— I am surely in hell." Miss Beck was taken to Flatbush, where she remained at intervals for about twenty-five years till her death. After my return to Brooklyn I visited her on three oc- casions. Her sanity was mild, and never violent. I have not the least doubt however that the yelpings of the "sons" drove many a noble heart to madness and death. New York from the years 1852 to 1857 may be said to have been pretty well under mob law. The most revolt- ing pictures were publicly hawked about the streets, and drunkenness and lunacy were wonderfully prevalent in society. Here also walked the ogre Morrissey, who for his bull-dog pugilism was sent to the senate at Albany to the shame of the American people. Coming down to more recent times — I had long heard of the good work carried on by Dr. Theodore L. Cuyler, the Christian temperance orator, and called upon him on the edge of his great affliction — a precious young daughter full of genius and promise had just been carried to the grave. *'0 my dear sir," said he, "she is not there — that is but the casket. Grod has bereft me of her 146 LIFE SKETCHES just as she was blossoming into usefulness— but all is well. I can trust in Him/' Wherever I find him in the busy thoroughfare or quiet retreat, that first meeting with its touching sacredness rises before me. Of my old friend Dr. Edward Beecher — brother of Henry Ward — I must say a word here, as our relations were free and unconventional while preaching in the Parkville Congregational Church. His "Conflict of the Ages" — which gained him notoriety at the time — bears testimony that keeps ever widening as to the diffi- culty of the solution of the problem of the fall. His argument for pre-existence, while displaying some of the keenest logical acumen, exposed him to a tirade next door to ribaldry from friends and foes. In dogmatics the doctor was a good fencer ; he could lunge and parry as well as the best. And in his " Concord of Ages" he paid them back at full arm's length but with a calmness and keen sense that must have been terribly provoking. "Concord" is worth reading. Let me pay deference here to the Rev. J. Hyatt Smith, a man who was never more pleased than when he could see the young rising to the most exalted positions. The venom of base-born jealousy never assailed him. Rom- anist, Protestant, Israelite, Unitarian, Universalist, Quaker, were his brethren. As a teacher and as a poli- tician he wrought with clean hands. A great and honorable character was Dr. Reuben "A MAN'S A MAN FOR A' TPIAT" 147 Jeffrey of Marcy Avenue Baptist Church. Such a man was called to fill a wider field, and when he left Brooklyn for the West, many were the sighs and hopes that he might have all the latitude he desired to work for his Master. Some of his declamations rang with a power that thrilled his audiences to the height of his own passion. An intelligent but sceptical friend of mine had been going from church to church. " Why," said he, "they talk like children." "Well," said I, "go and hear Jeffrey." "Now at last I have found a man who can preach and teach," said the delighted inquirer. This is high testimony for Jeffrey, but it is true. The Bev. Dr. Charles H. Hall, of Holy Trinity, had long filled the role of a polished and well-developed teacher. His utterances were weighty, and robed at times in a cloth of gold, displaying an exuberance of the acutest learning and a most extensive knowledge of the passions. The doctor was a great study in himself — gifted in private conversation with an ease and deference which conciliated and charmed, but not till one heard him on the platform had he any idea of the Boanerges standing before him. On my return to Brooklyn Henry Ward Beecher gave me most cordial greeting ; and certainly took hold of me so suddenly with his point-blank familiarity as to make me feel just as if I were in my own house. There was a magnetism about his grasp that was certainly inspiring, 148 LIFE SKETCHES and as if he feared that the afflatus were not rich enough he would press me with both hands. How wonderfully wise he became with his years ! And how wonderfully unwise on our side we became in chasing after the little bits of refuse in his utterances that must necessarily exist where there is so much gold. The Rev. Dr. Richard Storrs had been laboring in the Pilgrim Church, Brooklyn, for many long years. It would not do for me to pass him by without some refer- ence — although it does seem that the eventualities which constantly mark our life leave their prejudices sticking all around us, and frightening us near to death. Let those catch who can. My knowledge of the doctor goes back to 1852, when I read many of his proofs. His written style pleased me remarkably. Ease, grace and point were conspicuous. I like to mention a matter of this kind, as it partly shows how we are built up in this world — and how in turn we are called to build and en- rich others. Another noble worker for his Master was the Rev. Dr. Tyng. " Look here," said he, as he ushered me into the vestry, where there were some seventeen persons — poor, sick and wounded, waiting his personal attention. "This is my morning's work — every day I have my hands full. I have not a moment to myself. I am worn out. Give me your address. Give me a date when you can come again." Dr. Tyng had a remarkable sense of " A MAN'S A MAN FOR A' THAT" 149 freedom, which the conventionalism of his Church did not sanction, to the pain and sorrow of many of his dearest friends. Dr. Elbert Porter, of the Intelligencer, was another man I loved. The old writer was popular. Like all men he had his failings — he was aware of it — but for mental grasp there'^were few that could equal him. His thought ran at times like glistening diamonds on a bed of marl — at others he was incisive as a knife cutting into the flesh. 1 am to day singularly thankful that I had even one opportunity of meeting with Dr. McCosh, the Zeus of theological thinkers. When I see so many men wander- ing out into the realm of reason, and finding deep waters where there is no standing, this divine fearlessly went out, and came back with something that he had gathered in the thousand different lines of human learning. Such a mind does not belong to Europe or America, but to the world — not to the Presbyterian, or Episcopal, but to the whole church. The presence of such a thinker in the domain of religion forbids sectarianism. The profundity of thought that marks his large collection of writings is something astonishing. As I had many opportunities of meeting the Rev. Dr. Talmage, I must touch on him here. He was well aware of his genius, but of his frailties also ; and was a grand delineator and sketcher, where power and good humor were wonderfully blended. Many did not agree with his I50 I,IFE SKETCHES theological bias. But he grew more earnest with the years, and cast an influence that has been largely bene- ficial to the world. Dr. Lyman Abbott is still with us, a type of the new progressive theology. His observation is broad, his in- tuitions keen, his ratiocination large and ready. He is not therefore apt to flounder in the weeds of speculation, but can with his grappling-hook extricate the sands of gold from the waters of infidelism, and show a course for the vessel to steer out into clearer seas. He can thus feed the inquirer and pay homage where it is due, to Eome, to Buddha, or to Zoroaster. He will hold up Christ as the great love and light of life, and will not Iveep you wasting your time sifting into the depth and relationship of this mighty incarnation. He is educative throughout, and his vocabulary easily adapts itself to the grasp of his audience on any subject before him. He strives to do justice to the sovereignty of the v/ill and to the majesty of existence ; he is reflective by nature, and is seldom caught dallying v/ith the emotions. The Rev. Dr. Behrends, of the Central Congregational Church, Brooklyn, I had often called upon. Born in Holland, and bearing the traces of a clear and concise thinker — slow and cautious in his approaches, he carried the impress of a man whose esoteric grasp was large, but would be unfolded just according to the nature of the events iu which he might be called to act. Many were "A MAN'S A MAN FOR A' THAT" 151 the regrets that Dr. Behrends had not the field for his fullest ideal. But that great mind, like that of Dr. Jeffrey, let us believe will have scope for its ablest efforts now ; every pure and chastened thought of a future life tells us this. A word or two here regarding the happy hours spent with Samuel Putney, jr., of London, England, a man of fine business tact and capacity ; also of his estimable wife, daughter of Rev. Dr. Anderson, of Quebec, Canada; where I first met the poet, James Williamson, who charmed us with his conversations on Carlyle and other dignitaries. Williamson's muse was plain and simple, not weighted with metaphor, nor dazzling with conceits of style. He loved the well-beaten path. The Rev. J. J. White, of the M. P. Church, and the Rev. Jas. O'Bierne, of St. John's R. C. Church, had many and similar traits worth noting. White came of an old warrior stock, his father having fought in the war of 1812, and while exhibiting the graces of the Christian life, he would not allow himself to be smothered with the flowers of compliment especially when accompanied with an extra amount of hard work from the sister churches. His large veneration, benevolence and good nature were strikingly developed. People spoke of him as the dollar marrying minister. But it mattered not to him whether it was a dollar or a cent when age and nature called for union. " I am glad," said he, " to be a party to an engagement of this kind." And he was right. 152 UFE SKETCHES The Rev. Jas. O'Bierne was much of a wit as well as a pastor, and was highly esteemed by all classes of people. He was subject to an affliction which, with all its annoy- ances, never deprived him of his good humor. A cancer on the nose for many years baffled the skill of physicians. At length, a Dr. John Hanna, a specialist in this line, took up the case, and Bierne was cured for a time. When the truth came out great was the horror to think that an Orangeman could cure such a dignitary. But said the good father to me, "I thank G-od for the cure, no matter through what agency." Some years after the cancer reappeared, and carried him to his grave. The Rev. Sylvester Malone, the gentle leader in the R. C. Church, Dr. Edward McGlynn, the most aggressive warrior, and Dr. Justin D. Fulton, the great war horse in the Protestant Church, I knew well. And something seems to tell me that now they have passed away, they are the best of friends. Let me mention here a character — Dr. Peter Ross — whom I first met in 1890. Perhaps Scotch grit and vigor were never better exemplified. His daily routine of newspaper work, that would be enough for most men, but sharpened his appetite, so that the night found him employed as well as the day. His "Life of St. Andrew," ' ' Scotland and the Scots, " ' ' The Scot in America, " ' ' King Craft in Scotland, "" History of Freemasonry," and his vast "History of Long Island," about being finished at "A MAN'S A MAN FOR A' THAT" 153 the time of his death, give us room to believe that such a life has added largely to the happiness of man. Away from the literary zone let me mention Daniel B. Fitts, who died recently in Newport, E, I. He had been a school teacher, and suffered from a lameness for many years ; but while it inconvenienced him in many things, it never checked his purse in distributing his charities. •And his benefactions were at times very large; thous- ands of all denominations were constantly recipients of his bounty. And yet so quietly and nobly and un- selfishly was this work done, that he passed away with little ceremony. He did not care about pushing his name before the world. I must not forget to speak of my old friend Mr. John A. Halton, whom I met several times in 1888, while writing my church sketches for the Standard Union. He held the position of editor with versatility and tact, tempered with such noble sense of freedom, _and large insight for the brotherhood of man, that won my highest regard. I congratulate my readers that he still car- ries, in the editorial chair, that vein of independence and fair play to his own honor and the esteem of the public. It is in place here to speak of a star rising in the firma- ment of social ethics. Mr. Philip L. Seman is a very young man, a native of Poland ; and passed in his seventh year a rigid examination in the Hebrew Talmud. Be- 154 IvIFB SKETCHES sides speaking German, French and English, he is con- versant with the twenty-one idioms of the Yid- dish ; is an apt and fluent speaker ; has been teacher and supervisor in the large Hebrew Orphan Asy- lum, and in the Educational Alliance, New York; and has been urged to take the editorship of a journal ''New Life," to appear next January; he is quite a humanitarian, and leader of a large Progressive Circle in Brooklyn. His gifts are great. May he wear with dignity and success the honors conferred upon him in this nation where he has made his home. The most of them have gone: we will soon follow. Take the rough and the smooth, there is nothing disheartening in the records of the past. Self-denial may cost a good deal, but it is a fortune to a young man. I have watched life closely. Self-examination leads to caution and to reverence : we thus enter new degrees of being even in this life if we look for them ; but the knave and the sen- sualist pave the way for their own ruin. CHAPTER XII. HOURS WITH THE SCOTCH FOLK. In this elusive age, when there is so little independent thinking, and where men study in the institutions to think one way, and then rush for ruts to speak another way, and hide in the crowd whatever special dowry Nature has granted them, I have to thank that same old Mother Nature for saying, Now keep your mouth shut till I open it, for you will have to speak very plainly at times, and don't you dare forget it. At this time of life I ought to know something about myself, and therefore I must candidly confess that I am a most rigid optimist in a school where Schopenhauer tells us the whole moral universe is dyed in pessimism. You may call me a paradox if you please ; but I am very jealous of running to the common side of things, and I do it for my safety. Providence gave me a sensitive, nervous temperament, and it sticks to me like a burr on a woolen sack. To keep calm and cool, therefore, I must have my own way: I suffer no embarrassment from courts, councils, or assemblies, as I never throw myself in the way of needlessly affronting them. I hold com- munion with Nature through two channels — one when alone with her in the haunts of silence, and one when 156 LIFE SKETCHES in the mighty crowd, where I unbosom the hearts of men and read the story of their life. I am remarkably fond of rainy weather, and often when a heavy Scotch mist is falling, and I find it essential to take a good walk through it, I bare my head to the delicious moisture for half an hour or more, and find that it is a spur to health. If I have any business to transact a mile oil by one route, and a mile and a half or two miles by the other, I invariably take the longest road, and avoid the cars as I do a pestilence. Walking is my prophylactic, and should I ride two or three hours, or enter a badly ventilated room, I become so ill that all the drugs of the pharmacopoeia will not restore me. In all these things I please my mentor of health, and consider that — as I have a great deal to do to brighten the spirits of my brethren all around me and lift them out of that all-gone condition they exhibit rushing like a swarm of bees into the doctors' offices and drug stores — to be in good health is to be in good humor. I have no sympathy with that form of Christianity that debars secular song and enjoyment from its place in the working of a cheerful civilization. All our systems of philosophy and ethics must le^ve a very large margin for the humorous in our nature. Where wealth and sordid misanthropy, or fanaticism, throw their chilling influence to enervate or weaken the social fabric, HOURS WITH THE SCOTCH FOLK 157 our civil laws invariably rush to the front for the de- fence of the people. Man must laugh, and laugh heart- ily, to keep well. It was in Boston, Mass., one evening in the autumn of 1891, when a never-to-be-forgotten experience planted this argument firmly in my mind. Early in the night a lady asked me to call and see her very sick son, who had long been ill. "He cannot last long, poor fellow," said she, as tears filled her eyes. I told her that on my way home from a Scottish gathering, where I was to give an address, I should call upon him. Burns' famous song, ' ' Duncan Gray Cam' Here to Woo, " had been sung with great enthusiasm before I left; and, somewhat oddly for myself, in such a crisis, I kept humming the refrain as I walked to his house. On the door being opened, starting the melody quite inadvertently before the sick man, I suddenly stopped and changed my remarks. But the man was too quick for me ; and, with tears bursting from his eyes and joy lighting his face, cried out : ' ' Oh, Mr. Ross, sing it! sing it!" I felt that the man must be com- forted, so I sang two verses. Neither did I forget in that wonderful hour my ministerial office, for I prayed with my friend before leaving with great enjoyment to us both, and left his chamber ripe with a new experience that has blessed me and others. That flush of joy so stirred the sick man that he soon recovered. Whenever afterward I met Mr. Murray he would cry out, " Here's 158 LIFE SKETCHES the man that saved my life by singing ' Duncan Gray.' " There are times even in the sick room when a song has a more inspiring effect than any hymn in the world. The northern section of the tight little island, called Auld Scotia, has done more for the uplifting and up- building of mankind than she gets credit for. In the popular range of song her ' ' Auld Lang Syne" has touched scores of millions of human hearts ; and in her perhaps too exclusive religious atmosphere, one refrain, bursting all bounds, has knit the whole world together — the Twenty-third Psalm. I may cite here an experience of my own in Massachusetts some years ago that made me feel proud of my Scottish folk. I engaged a hall for an evening's entertainment in May, and, in the presence of the proprietor, jotted down the date in my note-book, leaving with the understanding that any further dealings would be made with the janitor. Things were sailing very satisfactorily until the last moment, when a Mr. Lovely with his backers confronted us, stating that he had engaged the hall, and that his tickets had been selling for three weeks. It was a trying moment for myself particularly, but I was sustained with such brusque, warmhearted determination by my friends that another place was soon secured. It was small, and we were all sweltering in good wholesome perspiration. We were there to be happy — that fact was evident. This is the golden privilege of the Scot. His acumen is keen and HOURS WITH THE SCOTCH FOLK 159 metaphysical, but matter-of-fact, nevertheless. He is aware of his gift. He sings as he goes along his hard, daily work, and the world pays him testimony that no one can beat him. He has no time for entering into those brawls which on just such occasions disturb many other races. The stubborn ess of John Knox and Jennie Geddes shows to good advantage after all. When in the coal regions of Shenandoah, some seven years ago, just after going down the deep William Penn mine, I found myself, after a long walk, near a pretty country house, where I had hoped to make arrangements for a night's rest. I was heartily welcomed ; musical instruments and song were brought in for our delectation. As I sat and rejoiced with the cheery folks in the cosy mansion, I do not suppose that on this little v»?orld a sweeter place could be found. It was fully twelve o'clock before we retired to rest. Through the night a strange dream possessed me that I was sailing in a very unstable old boat that might at any time break up. Undisturbed I slept on. While at breakfast a gentleman called — asked why they allowed me to sleep in such a house sinking into a deep coal mine. " Well," said my host, ''we've been living here thirteen years, and the house hasn't sunk yet." His thrilling description made me think, and I soon bade them a pleasant farewell. Before nightfall of that day the house had largely disappeared, but the inmates escaped. Yes, thought I, life is worth living i6o LIFE SKETCHES after all. Ah, yes! but it is our relationship to the Divine that keeps us happy. Ringing a door bell in Lynn, Mass., for some informa- tion regarding work I had in the city, the door flew open, and a lady with red hair appeared, who showed some terrible tantrums of passion, so that I was obliged to give her a pretty apt lecture. She softened and bade me be seated. There was a pretty piano in a corner of the room, covered thick with dust, but the lady sharply ad- mitted that no one could play it. Well, I suddenly opened it, put my hand upon it, sang and played one solitary air that I had picked up, "The Lord's my Shepherd." Tears sprang into the lady's eyes. She told me her thrilling life story, begged me to remain some days and cheer her home. "No," said I, " I came here as my intuition led me. But you are better now." "Yes, thank God. He sent you here. You have made this day happy." O Earthians, why don't you sing more? That was no lie but a grand truth of Orpheus with his lyre charming not only the living, but the rocks and waters, and even the very demons in hell. The great spur to a healthful and happy life amongst mankind is sympathy. We are fashioned this way ; and just in the ratio of our expression of this divine quality, so will our whole life tend. Society takes its base from individual impression; and this relation is invariably sustained in the fact of existence. HOURS WITH THE SCOTCH FOLK i6i In the play of social physics song has a great place, and is more highly representative of spiritual nature than is generally known. In this relation, therefore, the whole subject, some ten years ago, loomed up before me in its full suggest] veness. After my severe illness in 1890, I travelled extensively — Pennsylvania, up and down, through the coal mines, giving me a very fair exhibit of life in that region; then taking the New England States, I made Massachusetts the main field of study. My visits to the factories and workshops awakened me into a new life. Night after night I met employes and employers at their homes. We conversed on a thousand different things. Ventilation was a common topic. Light, water, manners came up for discussion. There was but one great essential lacking, and that they all acknowledged was sympathy. Though the wages in many respects were small, the workmen did not grumble so much at this. And while I was astonished here, I was gladdened at their testimony for the church. But thousands cared not to attend the church. They said they found but little magnetism in the preacher. And yet there was that in those men and women that could be roused into life-giving activity. What is the best plan to arouse it? That is the great question. While some of the clergy, as our readers are aware, are hoping to strengthen their pastorates by opening i62 UFE SKETCHES dancing halls in the church basements — a very question- able business — others are placing billiard tables in the church rooms, others are forming euchre parties to stimulate the interest and keep their people within the church. But in all of these methods there is a lack of cohesion. I do not think that the churches look into the matter from the most fitting standpoint. What is life unless it be embosomed in enjoyment, grace and beauty ? It is said, and I think truly, that to a large extent we have the making or unmaking of our- selves. The theatre, the billiard table, the euchre or dancing party draw out enthusiasm and interest; but they have not that singular sway over the feelings that skilled singers possess. When this is carried on by pastor and people the round of enjoyment keeps them more together. He takes part with his people in the night of prayer, and also in the night of song. The mem- bers feel that he is one of themselves. They listen to his spiritual advice; and yet they know right well that he is a jolly good fellow. I would heartily recommend entertainments of Scottish song from the fact that the Scotchman carries such a large fund of fine native humor. His hearers are on the look-out for more, and they are in ecstacy while it lasts. Instrumental music in good hands gives an excellent sauce. The whole tones their system ; they feel better at their daily work, and wonder at the sudden change. HOURS WITii THB SCOTCH FOLK 163 There will be little or no malaria where people sing heartily. Much of the great secret lies in the deep nasal breathing of heaven's purest air. I do not think that in the whole range of our innocent enjoyment we can find a healthier or more bracing tonic than good Scottish song. Certainly song possesses a sanitary advantage. My physical frame, as well as my moral make-up, have gained just in the ratio of the adaptedness of song, or even the dance. How impressive is the magnetism of some minds! Mr. Robert Scott, of Brooklyn, or Mr. Robert Maitland, of Passaic, would not, under any con- sideration, have their names in print for the public eye; but men that know how to cheer and interest humanity must be known. Take the case of that joyous little Scotch woman, Mrs. Daniel J. Bremner, of Brooklyn; her presence alone is an inspiration ; but when she wakens into song and dialogue, the whole place is wrapped up with enthusiasm. Also in the case of Mrs. G-eo. Blackman, Brooklyn, lineal descendant of Flora MacDonald, whose dulcet strains are singularly captivating in Scottish song. So with scores of others, who keep in the private walks of life, but are not the less — thanks be to Heaven — benefactors of society. Music and song are the divine keys for opening up the large chambers of the mind, that the sunshine of life may flood the place. i64 IvIFB SKETCHES HYMNS OF ROBERT BURNS. Dear Burns, we often speak thy praise In song, in festival, in story, Unmindful of thy sweetest lays, When faith and reverence marked thy glory. What grander for a human heart Than thy loved lines we sang in meeting— "O Thou great Being what Thou art !" That set the languid pulses beating. Strange, wondrous soul ! we look above. As thou didst look when thine endeavor Touched the dear chord of Christian love. And sang of Him who loves forever. From Pharisaic cant 't were wise Could churches but be liberated, And place again before our eyes Thy thought so nobly consecrated. As for thy frailties, Robert Burns, We bow before the Hand that made thee. Great genius ever soars by turns From the bright spectrum to the shady. 'Tis true we each one have our ills, Our shame, our blindness, our disaster. Some hymns give nothing but the chills. But Burns gives honor to the Master. CHAPTER XIII. THE MARRIAGE BUREAU. Perhaps in the wide realm of sociology there can be found no more interesting theme than this of marriage. When I found that I had to face the stubborn issues of life, my reason and my judgment could not agree like good brothers in this matter. All the helps of logic and morals could not aid me, and I had to fall back defeated at the prospect that not in ethics or conventionalism could I find standing ground. For it is too true that this continual cry of inability and depravity has kept man back in civilization. They have been like ropes strangling him, so that he cannot see his footing. It is terrible to think what one-sided and narrowed views men have taken of the Bible, the great mirror of the human soul. The map of humanity appeared so black and disfigured through Pharisaism and animalism, that I must confess I stood crestfallen. I boldly met the fight, and to some extent have triumphed in my position. The fact — so unexpected, that I must cite it here — came upon me in all its vividness one evening when taking my accustomed w^alk. A short distance in front of me I saw a lady of very stout proportions steering along as if for her life, and I thought of the old proverb, the best piece i66 LIFK SKETCHES of furniture in a house is a virtuous woman. "I shall soon pass her at anyrate," said I to myself; but as I neared her it was distressing to witness the heat that wreathed her countenance. She eyed me somewhat tartly, and wishing her good evening T made a little extra exertion in my gait. But there was no ground gained, as she did the same. I saw there was a dilemma brood- ing, and as I am an isolated man, and pay little attention to the courtesies of our city life, I had no thought of speaking first, — a matter which, on after consideration I much regretted, as then I could have turned the tide of conversation more to my standpoint. But I was suddenly taken off my guard when she passionately blurted out : " O, you must be a perfect bon vivant, the way you go it." Of course the utterance was rude, and I might have flung it back with more propriety upon the speaker, but then I know what heavy overheated dowagers are, as I have met them more than once. My first reflection w^as that she must have taken me for a young fellow of twenty years; so I begged pardon, walked beside her, and in opening up some healthy conversation, said that if it would be agreeable we might slacken our pace a little, for I am not accustomed to travel fast when walking with a lady. "Thanks," she said, " I am glad of your company. I had been hoping to get to my home," naming her resi- dence, " before nine o'clock. But I know you. I have THE MARRIAGE BUREAU 167 seen you a dozen times, and yet I have never seen you without a smile upon your face. Please tell me how is this ?" *'Well now," said I, "you have asked me a question that I somewhat hesitate to answer: for could you but see or imagine the arena of diflSculty and suffering through which I have passed you might probably mis- construe my language." A conception sprang up in my mind which I differentiated to suit mj^ purpose, so I replied: "The explanation is just this: the Almighty has placed me on the earth ; I have but recently opened mine eyes, and find that I am in the Garden of Eden : the fact that there is throat-cutting, and drunkenness and lust all around me does not affect my argument the least. I love my Creator, and that's the reason I can afford to smile." I was drawing her out. " O, my dear sir," said she, ' ' pardon my insolence when we met. But your philosophy is too high — it is too sacred for me. You speak the truth as plainly as it is written in the skies ; but the whole coloring of our institutions has a vulgar and pessimistic bias which is taken from our religious teaching, and it is this low, ignoble aspect of Christianity that injures Christian minds. I find so much of the mean and vulgar in my surroundings that my tastes, I am afraid, at times run very low. And when I speak of mean and vulgar I mean amongst the educated as well as the ignorant. i68 . IvIFE SKETCHES Do you think it possible that Christianity can offer some plan for the thorough happiness of our race, and where is it to be found ?" She struck the chord, and I dared not hesitate in answering. "Yes," I said, "the whole solution of this question is found in the coming study of prenatalism. Here the sacredness of marriage will find its highest ideal. We are only touching the first letter of its alpha- bet. As we advance in our progress taking up the new human forces before their appearance, we will find that this great subject will affect not less the question of mental weakness than hereditary taint. This great pro- spective arbiter will give such basis at the outset that not only man's physical but to a large extent his moral nature will be under healthy control. It v/ould certainly be wise for clergymen and others to abstain from perform- ing the marriage ceremony without a very close study of physiology, and the relations that affect the moral and physical being. With careful insight much of the ]phenomena of disease can be seen in advance. x^Lnd if a class of therapeutics and theology could be established in all colleges to meet the solution of this question, scrofula, epilepsy, imbecility — diseases now so common, would be largely eliminated. God has planted a divine mark on every human soul. And even amongst our religious teachers there are those who cannot trace it or distinguish it. There is consequently much conflict — THE MARRIAGE BUREAU 169 even antagonism between that divine seal and the worker. But the day is not distant when a divine chord shall echo from conscience to revelation with a spon- taneity of which we have now no conception." Now I must be very matter-of-fact in this paper. I have no desire to quarrel with Providence for having provisioned me with a strangely sympathetic nature. When I see people wisely rejoicing I must rejoice with them; but when I see them suffering, wisely or unwisely, I must suffer with them also. There was one faculty that I found imbuing my whole being, and gathering with the ripeness of years — to some extent the gift of prescience — that I must honestly confess disturbed me for a very long time. Would I bury it and throw it aside as a useless talent, or strive to find out by careful medi- tation its value in my life struggle ? This quality of seeing is not common in man ; or if common, men must indeed have the most callous hearts to disregard it. When I found that my position in the church placed much that was new and singular in my pathway, I soon realized the fact that but for the most uncommon shrewd- ness of disposition I should be miserable. But no, thought I; the conventionalisms of society will not shackle me. The tree grows in beauty and strength ; I am also a tree, but something more ; I must grow wiser and stronger, not from what man but what nature has dowered me. On the evening of my ordination, therefore, when my I70 LIFK SKETCHES certificate was placed in my hand, giving me not only the right to celebrate the ordinances of the church, but also the seal of the State as my legal authority, and when I was complimented that now I had a good oppor- tunity to make a fine sum in marriage fees, I threw back a rejoinder that this did not affect my mental balance one way or another; that being in the possession of a very sensitive conscience, I was bound to see that it should have its just rights. I therefore resolved for peace of mind, and the necessity of calm, childlike sleep at night that I should never celebrate the ordinance of marriage on individuals without three weeks' lease of time for the purpose of fathoming their moral, and to some extent their physical capacities for union. Men will say that I have lost by the process, but in the higher outlook I have gained fifty per cent, where I have lost one. Some years ago I was harassed and disturbed on this matter by a professed purveyor of some kind or another, who had the effrontery to throw the law in my face, and tell me that I should be forced before the bar of this city to state why I should not marry persons of full age, having guarantees of character, witnesses, etc. As I considered this an intrusion on my right of ofiice, I paid no attention to it. It might have been perhaps about ten days after when a lady and a gentleman of about nineteen and twenty- three paid me a visit, requesting marriage, as the gentle- man should be leaving the city the following day. THE MARRIAGE BUREAU 171 Although the odor of very bad liquor annoyed me, this was not the worst evil. I am a physiognomist to some extent, and I saw that it was better to be point blank, and give some of my reasons why I should cer- tainly not perform the ceremony. This I did, but my argument was powerless oq the man. When he allowed his passion to get the better of him, and uttered some very impolite language, I beckoned him into an ad- joining room. "Why," said I, "Nature has never called you to marry this woman. There are various reasons; I see some of them — ^but one prominent fact is that you drink liquor heavily; the other fact is that this woman is a frail thin creature — she will suffer much, and I will have no hand in her murder." Somebody performed the ceremony for them ; he went on with his drunkenness and diabolism. His wife died within a year. It would be useless for me to occupy space with an account of the manner in which I have been pestered by such characters. Now there are some " holy terrors" amongst us just as well as yourselves. Not very long ago I was in company with a clergyman who in a pulpit or prayer-meeting can hold his place well, and drive the audience rightly to tears at times. Well, he went on describing — for he is a natural genius— a tussle of some kind he had seen on the street. ' ' The fellow," he said, •' gave the man a terrible welt near the epigastrium, ricochetting with his right on 172 IvIFE SKETCHES the nasal dexter, closing the peeper and making the claret" — I heard no more, as my fingers were immediately in my ears, and I felt that I could sink in the ground. But then I thought, suppose he did say it, he couldn't have spoken of the nasty business in more appropriate language. ' ' Ross," said he, "how about the marriages ? I made thirty-five dollars last week — twenty-five in one night." "All right," said I, " I haven't made sixty cents last week in marriages. But look here, Brown, I see farther than you. I weigh things." " O weigh the deuce, men must live." Well, he laughed loud and long, and I had to laugh with him. In our city of Brooklyn, not long ago, a lady and gentleman called late at night on an undertaker inquiring where they might be married at once. He telephoned to the rich church pastor, who replied, ' ' Is there money in it ? If not, I cannot get up out of my bed." "O I believe that it is all right," said the undertaker. The party went up to the house, were united in marriage, paid twelve dollars. Next day the minister called on the undertaker. "Say," said he, "if you have any more twelve-dollar marriages — the work of eight minutes — send them to me" — then turned off, proud as Lucifer. But enough of this diabolical business. In all this you will see that a certain lapse of time between the applica- tion and marriage will be of incalculable service. It will THE MARRIAGE BUREAU 173 enable us to ferret out a whole train of circumstances that will be of benefit to ourselves as well as to them. We cannot shut our eves to the fact that even a week's examination of character and idiosyncrasy would pre- vent many an hour of useless suffering. And it is ex- pected, with some justice, of clergymen that they should be apt in gauging something of the fitness of the appli- cants. I have been looking over this matter pretty carefully; and know, and the people also know, that the good old custom of publishing bans two or three weeks ahead of marriage would prove a comparatively healthy measure. The time given for inquiry and re- flection would prevent much suffering, and save us from many of those harrowing divorce cases which make us the shame of the whole world. No man in society — not even a lawyer or physician — has the ad- vantage of a clergyman in studying those concrete phenomena in the faces of mankind that appeal to us with a persistency that none but the weak-hearted can disregard. How many of these faces tell us at the altar: "Do not pretend to join that nature with the other, be- cause God has separated them that they can never be joined;" but the paltry five, tenor twenty dollars rescues the action from debasement. To me there is something singularly debasing in such an action. Our formula of marriage involves our right to look for some fitness for union ; and, with very rare exceptions, the rapid misery 174 LIFE SKETCHES and disgrace of unhappy married life reflects upon us as celebrants with something of the severity of a legal punishment. The sacredness of the marriage vow is such as certainly to demand an allotment of time for a proper examination into the claims of the applicants. Now there is a very patent truth regarding this work of marriage that must not be lost sight of. And that is the advantage opening before us. I am speaking here of that dignified, inherent sense of duty which clings to a true man like his own flesh. It seems to me also that a clergyman above all other men on this wide world is provisioned — if he be a sincere man — with a wonderful capacity for gauging character and physical equipment from the fact that his communion- ship with the Divine leads him to look deeply into the wants of his own brotherhood. For where men are swayed by passions, their usefulness is curbed; where there is such a thing in the human soul as consecration to Divine purpose, that life's usefulness is unbounded — there are no impediments in his way, and Nature is for- ever unlocking doors and opening windows that he may peer farther every succeeding day into the rich beauties of her temple. And there is another advantage, and that is in cultivating a healthy spirit of observation. Cir- cumstanced as we are, the children of amazing privi- leges, it is absolutely necessary that all ministers and leaders in the church enter daily into the school of THE MARRIAGE BUREAU 175 human nature, from infancy upward. For nothing is more true in this strange world than the constant appear- ance of men and women of remarkable genius and keen perception flying off into tangents, or hiding themselves away from the anxious crowd, or involving themselves in the most demoniacal affections. Now these are the very beings who, could they lay their heart to the prop- agation of truth, would astonish the age with their successes. But so ignorant even to-day are we of the formation of character in childhood, or even the deter- mined expression of Nature in teaching the child, that with all our Christian training we throw odium upon certain of our own offspring. Wisdom and simplicity are the great bulwarks of great natures. The angel and the infant are ever represented in our purest and best society. What a burning disgrace to our American civilization to-day is this fearful distemper of divorce. There's no necessity under heaven of running into this scandal if the ceremony of marriage were attended to with pre- caution and with that prescience which is the prerog- ative of the careful observer and student. But the almighty dollar is in the way ; and where the avenues to progress and well-being are so blocked with the direst materialism, society will show a retrograde ten- dency that subsequent reformations will find it difficult to remove. 176 LIFE SKETCHES And there is yet a deeper and richer meaning here. It is in the home where we should find the culmination of all human blessing. Anglo-Saxon speech gave no nobler bequest to history than when with prophetic insight she forged this golden ingot of thought to bind the whole human brotherhood. And in this great era of science we may believe that the noblest minds, who are working for the interests of home, will treat with the noblest and purest consideration the question of marriage. Woman's rights ? Well, 'tis a theme Much on earth, hut yet a dream. Here man acts as lord of all. Marries, and thence casts a pall O'er his wife to hide her worth As his equal on the earth. Patience, mercy, love are hers. One with Nature's worshipers. But poor jealous man gets mad, Keeps his little victim sad. Cannot hear to hear her sing, Though she soars on angel wing ; Cannot hear to give the space God allots her in the race. Yes, the damsels seek their due. Look for comforts while they strew Their sweet graces like the flower. Which man, monarch of the hour, Will not have. He swears he's hest. And he's bound to he the guest Of the gods. With all his freaks. Bum, tobacco, snuff— he seeks Ghoulish freedom with the bores, And expectorates and snores Like a bull— oft beats his wife. Making quite a hell of life. CHAPTER XIV. SOME THOUGHTS ON THE DEVIL. The greatest argument ever raised by free-thinkers and also by ordinary plain thinkers against ecclesiasti- cal dogma is that her anathemas, so full of vengeance and hell-fire, have hidden the beauty of the Lord and made the seekers of truth ever blush for shame. There is no difference — when one arrives at the altar of Truth, where purity and chastity are seen — between the physi- cal and moral abuses. Many a lady and gentleman walk the streets for a breath of fresh air, and the showers of blasphemy and obscenity that assail them (though not directly aimed at themselves), by affecting the sensitive and moral fibre of their make-up, pave the way for ill health ; and these same parties will tell you that had they been beaten physically they could not have suffered more. And the most cruel and pain- ful of these expressions is where the name of the Divine Being of Love is bandied about. It is a crush- ing rebuke on our Christianity that we will not get away from this kind of fetichism. What a noble lesson we learn here from the Jews, whose respect for the Divine name is the mantle of their virtue, and it will be found that in the long run their moral character 178 LIFE SKETCHES holds high vantage ground when compared with other peoples. Isn't this a fearful devil, this blasphemy? And if Christianity would only set her hand to it, the evil would largely die out. At Poughkeepsie a child of fifteen lay dying of lung complaint in an ill- ventilated and foul-smelling room. ''I can't stay here one minute," said I to the mother : ' ' you must open your windows for air, or I shall be sick too on your hands." ' ' But the doctor says she must be kept warm. " * ' Cover her with all the clothes you can ; but don't let her breathe this tainted air over and over again — that's what's kilhng the child. She wants sweet air." Suddenly two men entered ; they took no notice of the virus in the atmosphere, and after asking the invalid a couple of doctrinal questions fell on their knees in prayer. Had I my way, I would have grasped them by their whiskers and turned them into the street. They did shout, and lustily too; and the air became absolutely gangrenous, as you will notice in rooms where a peculiar rancidity is afloat. I followed with a short prayer — very short — as I was obliged to rush for the door to eject the thick, poisoned saliva that nearly choked me. The child died a couple of days after, and, as the family was in comfortable circum- stances, she might easily have been saved. Devils of this kind have wrought much mischief; SOME THOUGHTS ON THE DEVIL 179 but I have done some good and saved not a few lives by advocating, in my short stay here, the healthfulness, the vitality and full play of pure air in ventilation. Often have I gone into houses and factories sweltering in putridity, to meet insult and blasphemy; where a few months after I might go and remain for hours with nothing less than a sense of thankfulness at the blessed change. Disease and decline play fearful havoc in unclean homes. But recently I paid somewhat like five hundred visits to the tenement homes of New York, west side, between Fifteenth and Fiftieth streets. In fully forty per cent, of these visits, I have started for the street with a sense of sickness and disagreeable nausea that told me m.any of these tenements were cesspools and not homes. Many a time, on the door opening, I was obliged to say, "Excuse me, I may call again;" the suffocating odors hardly allowing me to speak. And to look upon the pallid, wasting forms of many of the inmates, creeping slowly along in the midst of a living death, obliged day and night to hive in these black, unventilated holes! Oh the horrors of the spider-flat! Like prisons, one over another — tier above tier. Alas for the poor man in our large cities with his crowded, airless home! There are keen, strange natures, so sensitive to the aroma of health, that they would have an arm wrenched from the socket sooner than enter some of these abodes. i8o LIFE SKETCHES And this in the midst of such a civilized country as America. Is this the sacrifice to Moloch? Yes, our "refined" Christianity allows living men, women and children to be thrust into the burning lap of the god of gold. Why send them to cesspools, and why strive to bribe our government to sanction this despicable infamy? There's a devil for you, Messrs. Rockefeller and Carnegie — you say that it is a disgrace for a man to die rich ; then here is room for a godlike display of your wealth. Pull down these rookeries, and build decent ventilated homes, and civilization will give you the highest regards. What is consumption? There is no excuse whatever in our modern society for allowing ourselves to be eaten up by this fell destroyer. Pay attention to your deep nasal breathing in clear air; live and labor in well- ventilated rooms ; take all the outside physical exercise — especially walking — you can ; eat heartily and slowly of good food ; always keep a splendid temper, and for heaven's sake avoid nostrums as you do poison, and those hateful pamphlets on disease scattered through the streets of our large cities by libertines — and you need not fear consumption. Even if this devil be hered- itary, you will kill it — it will not kill you. Look at our insane asylums. Of our modern civi- lization they form the greatest piece of burlesque ever thi-ust in the face of Heaven. Thousands upon SOME THOUGHTS ON THE DEVIL i8i thousands are dying there who from sheer passivity and indolence have become crazed, where strenuous phj^sical exercise under God's blue canopy, and the thousand ]3leasures of change would transform them into new beings. Could our governments realize the fact that a few of our wasted millions might be used to- wards giving asylum inmates all the outside air and exercise they need, what a saving of life! What an honor to humanity! When corporations and associ- ations understand the law of sympathy in its higher relations, they will save one thousand men where they save ten now. With very few exceptions we are as ignorant of the anticipations of nature as the world generations before Aristotle was born. Look at the adulterations creeping into our food, and our municipal governments so inefficient and feeble that they can no more stop them than stop the north wind. See the concoctions mixed with our wines and liquors, shortening life at the most alarming rate ever known ; and though travelers are constantly telling us that European beverages are never followed by this terrible mortpJity, so puerile are we in our respect for moral legislation, that we allow the curse to go on, even while it is eating into the very fabric of our personal liberties. Pretty bad devils, no mistake. Look at the chase after gold. From the judge to the artisan society has never seen the like. While in Hemp- i82 LIFE SKETCHES stead I called in the Inquirer office, and met an intelligent Christian Brooklyn gentleman. "Don't say a word, my brother," said he, "about the church. I have been through it all, from the Sunday-school all the way up. It's the almighty dollar the church is after ; the minister covets the dollar, the revivalist insists that he must have his one or two hundred dollars in a church before a soul will be converted ; then he will seek for the salvation of quite a number." My God, has it come to this? I changed the subject; I wished to hear no more. But, reader, there is some truth in it. We cannot be happy nor healthy when we bow down and worship gold, in- stead of keeping it in its appointed place. There are men who are more wicked than they are insane. Such are those who lumber the market with poor goods at a high price, and send hundreds of ignorant men and women into consumption through their shoddy leather and dry goods. The tea merchant who passes old dust on the purchaser, after he has had her custom for a little while, should be severely punished; while the doctor or board of health officer who has allowed himself to be bribed to keep silence regarding adulterated milk or feeding of infants with the milk of swilled, putrid cows, should be tied to a whipping-post, and receive one hundred lashes for his cruelty. Why ? Because God sends us here to live. And it is absolutely necessary to secure the best possible diet to SOME THOUGHTS ON THE DEVIL 183 rear healthy children. Think of our future legislators in the great congress at Washington growing up on swill-fed, putrid cow's milk. Their great enactments and proceedings would soon have a swill-fed taste, as some of them, we read, have to-day, and the country would go to pieces. O no. A robust, healthy diet can alone make good strong men. I was once witness of a scene so terrible, that I must recount it. A sad degenerate weakling found himself at length at Death's door, and a messenger was on my track. Almost immediately at his bedside, I saw that nothing could be done. Hasty consumption had seized him like a beast of prey ; and while his eyeballs seemed bursting from their sockets, the rattle in his throat was heavy, and filled every room. In his delirium he did not notice me ; but a restorative seemed to arouse him to consciousness. " Am I going to hell ?" said he, turning to me, and pitifully bursting into tears. Then maddened with anger he cried, "You have sent me there. You ministers will go to hell because you have not warned me against the glass. I have heard thousands of sermons and not one word against liquor. Who should be cursed, you or I? Don't pray," said he, "lam going to hell, and shall meet you there. " Then he raved in unconscious delirium, while I left the house. Can any one doubt that there was a devil there ? Let the reader take note. Then there are the little devils that harass literary i84 LIFE SKETCHES men. In the vestibule of truth, all throughout the universe, there is a corresponding unity as the children of Nature rise in the scale of endowment. Now on the earth you proudly say that the author is the most blessed of all men. He is a king, and all that. But I ask you authors, why do you so dearly caress those little scorpions, jealousy and bitterness ? How often do we find a nest of hornets where we naturally expected doves of peace ! And your scions, young and tender, are fed on the same subsoil, and the air is constantly lurid with the flames of passion. Then there is the propensity that so many of us writers have for the little something as we say, ' ' with a stick in it," to titillate the idea. You may rest assured that when Mother Nature draws her veil gently over you while you are writing, she is not hinting that you should take brandy, wine or similar concoctions, but that you had better lay your head on her bosom, and take a little nap. That's the old, safe method. And you, Earthians, are not called to charm Mother Nature out of her idea — you may drift into weakness, lunacy, suicide — but you cannot change her. A great many well-meaning people strive to make out that the Supreme Being is a devil. It was no wonder indeed that Jonathan Edwards lost his head at times as he pictured the scenes of the redeemed in heaven and the terrors of the damned in hell fire in each other's view. SOME THOUGHTS ON THE DEVIL 185 When I was about four years of age my school teacher one day led an unruly child near a large stove glowing with intense heat, and as she opened the door, and we all looked at the seething flames, ' 'This, " said she to the child, ' ' is not nearly as bad as the fire in hell that God has made for wicked children like you." I looked upon it with a terrible intensity. Here started my first drift into infidelity. For years I was anxious to find some place where I might hide from God. What a monster ! O, if I could only hide from Him ! But as the years crept along, and a new life possessed my affec- tion, my intuition laid hold of another voice — that to live was happiness; or, conversely, that in fact life was an emanation from the Almighty. An instance comes forward of a doctor of di^anity — a heavy, globose sort of a man, well known in our midst — writing for one of the quarterlies a few years since a paper in favor of the doctrine of everlasting punishment, which he had a perfect right to do ; but he seems to have possessed some other right in his conversations with men to proclaim the contrary doctrine. This may suffice as an illustration on the theological side. It shows that the progress of true thinking is hampered through vacil- lating minds wheedling around to every point of the compass for their bread and butter. But there has been a little devil there nevertheless. The evil I speak of is singularly common with political i86 LIFE SKETCHES mountebanks, who cannot for their life stick to their own texts on politics, manufactures, etc., but enter the domain of eschatology and kindred matters, where they are a thousand leagues from home. There are two or three United States senators just now making themselves the laughing stock of sensible people by a relentless gush of this kind. The question of the future life is taken up by these men for the purpose of banter, and their funeral orations and eulogies are clothed in a false selvage of eloquence that the people really cannot tell whether they are speaking of horse-racing or heaven. The habit to some extent is creeping in our pulpits. And this is not surprising when we consider that pulpit auctioneering is becoming too general. Think of it a moment. "Here is a man of splendid parts — how much for this man ? Look at him well. His prayer, speech, illustra- tion are all full of power ; he will have honest men around him — is not afraid to condemn evil from the pulpit. His whole life is thrown out for the comfort of the poor, and he will not subsidize the glory of God to the opinions of men — ^how much?" "Five hundred dollars." ' ' How much for this young man — bright parts, splendid reasoning power, beautiful features ? Will not say one word against the devilism of the liquor traffic, nor against pools, nor gambling, nor political corruption, nor bribery — how much ?" "Two — three thousand dollars." SOME THOUGHTS ON THE DEVIL 187 Don't tell me it isn't so ; I have seen it. The system is growing, but it is nevertheless obnoxious. Facial blem- ishes, or asinine ears, or too prominent aquiline nose form the subject of comment, but not one word on the discourse. Change is necessary, and another man must go on the auction block. His material isn't worth a penny ; but his bearing is charming — his physique is fair and beautiful. He gets the highest bid. The world is filled with demons. Civilization has a very hard task before her. But she has her compensa- tions. Little by little light is breaking over the world, and lurid dogma must go. The libel is too often thrust in the face of the Creator that we are all weak and fail- ing because He has made us feeble, imperfect creatures. This is an atrocious falsehood. It has been ringing through the centuries to the disgrace of man. And our progeny come along, and drink it in as they drink water. Can we really ever enter the sanctuary of our Father's house without admitting the existence of good wherever it may be found ? I should prove base to the glories of my mental heritage and the higher sovereignty which permits my existence, could I not see that in the clear sunshine of heaven and in the sweet sunshine of human liberty, there is a relation that binds us all together as children, irrespective of creed, circumstance or color. Not to mention the bribers, the political tricksters, the policy kings, and a thousand other devils, I must close. CHAPTER XV. THE LABOR QUESTION. There is very much to be said on the labor question. And one diflSculty looms here. Some make it quite a class affair to be a laborer ; they say that officials, clergy- men, lawyers, etc., are not laborers. Then what are they ? Mere nonentities. Queen Victoria was nothing less than a good laborer, as her son King Edward is to-day. President Roosevelt isn't too proud to be called a laborer, nor Bishop Potter, Lyman Abbott, and others. Any true honorable worker for the good of society is a laborer, and the world is beginning to recognize the term in that light. And for this very reason the ordinary workman will be treated better than ever before. We are all laborers on life's ladder, — all brothers on higher or lower grades. In my pilgrimage among the mechanical and artisan laborers, I have alighted upon four families that may be taken as class types of the workers of our civilization. In their youthhood they were much alike. In their homes, attitudes, affections there was but little difference. Each loved the other, and would wade through fire and blood to protect the other: but some strange potency seized them with the years, so that instead of drawing THE LABOR QUESTION 189 nearer, as inculcated by the teachings of love and the principles of reason, they diverged further and further apart — and dislike, hate and revenge rose up like mighty walls between them. Anthony may be taken as a fair type of the simplest class. He was a quiet, harmless boy at school; but there were many circumstances which God only knows that had strange influence over his destiny. He is now a day- laborer, or longshoreman, or miner; his home is but a name, as starvation constantly stares him in the face, and makes sad inroads in the family. We call at the house, and Mary, his wife, salutes us. Did you ever see a kinder soul ? It is no wonder if she be rough and quick-tempered at times; but with all that, she has some- thing of the Christ spirit within her, and her heart warms towards you, while she would divide with you her last crust. Her children are away at tobacco factories and sewing rooms, making thirty and sixty cents a day. Poor starved creatures ! The horse in the stable is fed much better than they. But don't say a word against these children, if you are a man; for if they do swear and drink liquor, they are driven down to the very pit of hell, and they cannot help it. Here is Dante's Inferno, without the infamy that engendered it. And this in America, the land of liberty. Let us go and talk with Anthony digging at the road- side. His eyes brighten up as if some angel had come I90 LIFE SKETCHES down from heaven; but otherwise they are lustreless. You do not say much to him. There is only one friend who cares anything about him now — his wife. Society has crushed him under its heel like a viper. Richard represents the second type. His parents gave him some little education, or sensibly taught him a trade, and nature has gifted him with a fair share of qualities for his success in life. But the more he adheres to these convictions of nature, he loses caste in society, till cun- ning and immoral espionage seek their place. But will he court them? No! Richard cannot run in such dis- reputable ruts, and shrinks back to his quiet vocation, and will be glad to suffer for the sake of his own man- hood, even if society despise him. He makes but little profession of religion, yet he has much of the vitality of it in his nature. You venture into his home, and his heart stings him immediately if he does not refresh you before you depart. No matter for the appearances, no matter for the asperities, Christ has visited that home, and been a guest there. The man may be indiscreet, but at least he will be charitable. Avarice is something that he disdains like the sting of the cobra. Yet the world rides over him, and grinds him nearly to powder. His modesty is a boon to him, yet he is shunned and neglected because he cannot court presumption. William is a very fair type of the third class — a splendid go-ahead sort of a man, and learns to keep aloof THE LABOR QUESTION 191 from others just as soon as he gets raore confidence in himself. He is on the road for money-making, and has certain methods which are commendable, even though his vision becomes blinded at times to the needs of those around him. His home is elegant and comfortable ; and he can afford to meet its demands without any great strain on his purse. William notices that somehow he is drifting away from his brother, the longshoreman, though at school they were the greatest chums. His brother John is a professor, Henry is a doctor, and Marcus is a lawyer. The mercantile brain of William keeps him ahead of the others in financial matters ; yet there is the best of friendship, for the culture of philos- ophy makes up in happiness what they miss in money. There is one thing that annoys William more than all the others. He is put to terrible temptation; where he is able to withstand and be a man, he is the very pattern of the noblest manhood; but when he misses his way, and falls down and idolizes the dollar, money rolls in, and Christ goes out. Rufus is a well-marked type of the fourth class. When at school, Richard, William and Anthony were his play- mates. While William and Richard were reflective but slow in figures, Rufus was away up in interest, and cal- culating even then about making a few pennies at school. Still the boys played together and thought not of the future. But by and by Rufus is getting rich, and Anthony 192 LIFE SKETCHES is getting poor. Rufus understands all about it, but Anthony does not. Anthony goes on digging ditches, till one day he falls dead at his work. Does Rufus go to his funeral ? O no. Instead of that, he goes on through the machinery of his curious arithmetic stealing land, and paying a big price to some fellows to legalize his depredations. He builds large edifices, and cumbers the whole literature of his plans with such technicalities, that all the Anthonys are wiped out as if they were serpents. Even William feels the blow. He and Richard had an eye on some nice little bits of land, secured a lease, and rented the property out on shares to benefit the community as well as themselves. But Rufus, as coldblooded as a murderer, comes along and gobbles it all up at a great price, ruining his brothers in an hour, who on their side had been very naturally thinking that as Rufus became rich, life would be easier and more com- fortable for all the others. So it would if Christ had been sought by Rufus as by Richard and Anthony. And how civilization can commend Rufus's methods while professing Christianity is the mystery of mysteries. A trend towards communism is certainly necessary to see harmony established between the families. There must be room for decent equality. Nature wants it, and we have a right to it. No man with his jewelled millions has a right to crush his brother to the dust, who with nature's grand certificate of mind is richer than the other. THE LABOR QUESTION 193 Monopolies of this kind have a brutalizing tendency, which always results in sore reaction and retaliation just as sure as man exists. Some twenty-three years ago I had been visiting a Society of Friends at Eingsbridge, near New York city. It was midnight when I left them and on my way to the train, which was some two miles or more off, I was suddenly seized by three men, who violently dragged me along, demanded with oaths my money, and threat- ened death should I make resistance. They wrenched me so violently that I cried out, and begged them as men to tell me what was the matter. They were victims of some malfeasance, that was evident. One was depraved with drink, one seemed idiotic, and the third ventured on a spirit of braggadocio which I saw was foreign to his nature. I gave them what money I had, but I may say that the most of it was returned before we parted. Said I in conversation, "we are all brothers — why can't we live as brethren ? I was not afraid in taking this lonely walk to-night. I know that you have feeling as well as myself. Tell me all — are you in distress ? Have you any families — have you any work ?" I found out that these men had employment, but they were goaded to despair. One was an engineer — he was aware of the danger of drink stealing upon him ; and one was a pressman, whose long days of fifteen to eighteen hours were killing him. He was well paid; but the 194 LIFE SKETCHES slavery made him hate his employer. They gave me the address of their workshops, which I soon visited. It was not long before I found out the trouble. The heavy, stagnated atmosphere — the heat and sense of oppression were intolerable. Pale feverish groups passed me by with such careworn eyes and lacklustre faces that were bitterly painful. When they spoke, they became restless and watchful that no superior should see them. When their dinner bell rang the rush was like the roar of waters, while it was pitiful to see the emotion of the women as they tried to muster strength in their rigid limbs that they might go and breathe God's outer air. Here was the secret of the trouble with my antagonists. They had money— but hatred and hostility and revenge grew in their minds because they were daily stripped of that which was better than money — their very life. So, reader, we may not at all agree in what I .may say regarding labor and capital. To tell the honest truth, I have steered clear of this very complex question. And it is becoming more so every year. Some of the reasons that tend to this I will touch upon, and tbrow out a few salutary hints from experiences through which I have passed. In this consideration let us not lose sight of the fact that God has given us life that we may live it ; and He has given us capacity for action that we may enjoy it. By combining rightly these two essentials in our make- THE LABOR QUESTION 195 up, we find the resultant in labor that is healthy even if it be hard. There is one factor in the future discussion of this question that is destined to have large place — and that is the life element. At present we seem to think that in deadly occupations things may be adjusted by money equivalents — that a thousand dollars a month, for in- stance, is a compensation for the loss of health and virtue. It is no compensation. It is a bribe ignorantly thrust in the face of the Almighty. It shows that even in the methods of great business men there is sometimes a puerility utterly incompatible with the nobility of their own nature. We cannot honorably separate the labor and money question from the life question. Six or eight, or even ten hours a day, are not at all injurious to health where air, light and cleanliness are easily obtained. The intense white slavery of our day in many places beggars all description : and it is slavery not on account of the hard work, but on account of the filth and slime and exuviae in the atmosphere of the worker. It breaks down not only his physical but his moral nature. Such men and women I hardly ever expect to see within church doors — I do not desire it ; their spare moments should be in fields and groves, and by running streams. They are here to live, and while the laws of labor are in such crude condition as to barely give them a chance to live, they 196 LIFE SKETCHES are perfectly safe in attending Nature's festival at every opportunity. Well acquainted some years ago with a millionaire, I censured him severely for putting his main and largest workshop under ground where one hundred men were called to labor, but where horses would hardly be ex- pected to live. He incurred a fearful amount of enmity in consequence of his action. The corners and walls were daily blackened with tobacco and filth of all kinds. The employer was constantly in bad humor with his men. The gas burning all the air during the day left with the residuum pale-faced, dried-up, feverish mortals. They were paid from six to twenty-two dollars a week. In such a place, and in such conditions, where the life question was left out of the argument altogether, these men might have been paid fifty dollars a week, and yet that would be insufficient. Nor would a hundred dollars suffice. Unfortunate men ! What did they know about health ? The employer was their leader, and should have been arraigned before the country for treason in sacri- ficing the lives of his brethren. Look on the debit side one moment. Where the air is foul and oppressive, there is a constant thirst for stimulus. Fifty cents a day per capita in some large establishments may be considered a minimum. Then there are the headaches, jars and pains--family troubles and doctors' bills, which mount up the expenses to a large parcel — a THE IvABOR QUESTION 197 great deal of mischief brought on by a foolish employer building a bad shop for his workmen. So you see thirty or forty dollars a week in such places melts away very rapidly. Now shift the scene a little. We will suppose the employer has a large, healthy, well- aired series of rooms, so that it would be a pleasure for ladies and gentle- men to pass through them. There is another considera- tion coming into play here. Vice is an inherent evil with many of our race . In such a place the drunkards and profligates would have little or no chance, as they have now. Well they would soon drop out of sight, and we can well spare them. Those who secured employ- ment would be inclined from their environment to look a little higher than capital — to think of the comfort they experienced — the blessed light, the clear air ; they would grow cheerful, and look very naturally for long years ahead of them. Suppose they were receiving fourteen dollars a week at the present rates of living— these men would say — "Our fourteen dollars is better than your twenty dollars or thirty dollars without any conveniences. " The labor and money questions would soon meet their proper level. To some extent I have seen this plan carried out. I have watched men month after month, year after year, receiving steadily their ten dollars or twelve dollars a week in situations, which, from their favored advantages, they would not exchange for thirty dollars without these 198 LIFE SKETCHES compensations. I have seen these men ultimately secure nice holdings, — the feelings were absolutely affectionate between the employer and his men. And there is no earthly reason in this wide world why the same principle cannot be adopted in all our large workshops and fields of labor. True, the wages seemed small, but look at the credit side. Contentment and cheerfulness reign in the work- shop. Health and exercise give sweet sleep and appetite. The Friday and Saturday come round, and the physical frame is as strong and vigorous as at the beginning of the week. Why not ? From the demands of our social atmosphere at present, it is fortunate for the workingman that he has his trades union, but it is also fortunate for the employer that he has his also. The balance is thus adjusted without much disharmony. I leave out of sight the whole question of political demagogism. Every line of labor, every interest that seeks growth is readily looked upon by wire pullers, and dyed in the wool with political trickery. Bribery is used as a confection. And while it is lamentable that good men and true hold back from respect for purity , it is none the less true that certain elements remain as a winning force in the ultimate triumph over evil and dis- integration. Of course there will be wonderful advantageous strides made in the field of labor. The average intelligence Avill THE LABOR QUESTION 199 be greater than at present. Politeness and courtesy will be mighty factors, dear reader, though you may perhaps laugh at the suggestion. Man is gradually evolving, and in this evolution he will be more sensitive of his own worth. And the give and take — if I may speak that way — will be tinged with the consciousness, "I know my business." Workers will involuntarily carry more re- spect in their own homes, to their general advantage, and a universal language, if not the English, will hasten the day for man's noblest triumphs, even in the fields of the rudest and humblest labor; and when we will no longer be challenged as now by these burning questions from the throne of Justice : — Why is It -women lose caste, And gink a city's shame, For sins men follow thick and fast. And keep in church a name? Why— when one takes some bread To feed her child from God- Should law drop vengeance on her head, Yet keep the murderer shod ? Why— for a stolen dime- Should one drink felon's gall. While stealing thousands is small crime, And millions none at all ? "Why license polished thieves. Who turn the world aghast. And lie for party, thick as leaves Borne on October's blast? Why keep the bribers free To wine and dine at ease ? Yet jail bribe-takers, as their fee, And make them drink the lees ? IvIFE SKETCHES Why should Trust's mammon crew Seize all we wear and eat? Why squeeze the smaller tradesmen out, And laugh at their defeat ? Why keep our factory throng In sweatshop, mine and stall Ill-fed and under-paid— a wrong That drives them to their fall ? And why not hang Sir Wealth For murders in his line ? O no, good sir— here's to your health ! Your gold makes you divine. How can we lift our race. How open paths for good. When perjured men leap into place. And live a pensioned brood? And Justice will he heard. None dare escape her eye. Stern goddess, when her anger wakes, She'll know the reason why. CHAPTER XVI. BEAUTY OF CHARACTER. The tendency that exists in this nation towards laud- ing women on their literary side, to the neglect of even the more famous qualities of the heart, is perhaps stronger than anywhere else in the world. But this cannot always last. In the obscurity of great souls there is often a heavenly grandeur; and when real solid womanhood is observable it will not lose its lustre on account of certain weaknesses in the system. Let men look to their own laurels; they have more clap-trap in their lives than women, which undoubtedly is one reason of their advance. The graces of the heart form woman's noblest anthology, and give her fitting sovereignty in the paradise of earth. In one of these quiet little thoroughfares of East Brook- lyn between Bedford avenue and the river dwelt one of these noble sisters of charity. Here Mrs. Mary Munro kept open table for her ministerial friends. "It is not my lot to feed the soul," she would say; "I will do some- thing to feed the body. " Isolated yet faithful creature ! How long she had carried on her labor of love I know not. But here was a being who could pierce the shams and hypocrisies of her time, and do the best she could. Having no children to provide for, she sought to succor 202 UFK SKKTCHKS the poor-rich in the Christian church with the little means at her command. What a picture for the painter ! But the brush and the easel are wanting ; and yet I dare not pass such a being without limning something of her portrait. Quaint, plain and old-fashioned as the hills was good old Mrs. Munro. She loved everybody; and when she found that any of her clerical visitors, young or old, de- served a severe reprimand, she never failed to administer it ; and sometimes it fell so hot and heavy that I have heard some of them say it was equal to a good horse- whipping. But she balsamed the wounds with a charm of character rarenow-a-days. Her voice was a baritone, which on its tenor side had a musical softness that captivated the hearer ; but there were occasions when she was obliged to speak with authority, and as she rounded over to the bass with a crescendo that no one could forget who once heard it, the windows in the neighborhood flew open, and the craning of necks of aunts and chambermaids made things look like a holiday. Late one afternoon I paid a visit to the ' ' Ministers' Rest," as it was called. "And who do you think was here," said she, "but Dominie Johnson, God bless him ! He's a beauty ! He's a minister for you. Catholic, Pro- testant, Unitarian — everybody loves him. They can't help it. He would divide his last bite with anyone of BEAUTY OF CHARACTER 203 them. What'U you have — porksteak, mutton chops, or eels ?" "Excuse me — I'm not — " ' ' Come now, not a word ; you needn't tell me. Min- isters are always hungry — blowing their bellows all day Sunday, and half of them starved to death. I know it. Why, the dominie tells me he's just been at a great funeral — he must "celebrate" two more to-night. I wish all our ministers were like the dominie. O yes, they say they are going to have a tea-meeting up at the church ; but if Mrs. Munro isn't going with two or three baskets loaded to the brim — pork pies, jellies and cakes — a good many would go hungry. And they just know I'm going too — right well they know it. Why, bless you, we can't have people starving around us. Just when my husband gave me his money last night, I bought a pair of shoes for one poor woman, some steak for another, and a coat for a minister, and so every week there is something." Talk about self-denial. If you wish to observe it in its fullest grandeur go and see some of the poorly paid ministers of the Christian gospel — men of pluck, men of good intellectual calibre — willing for the sake of their Master to demean themselves in all aspects of society with a uniform sincerity that should rouse the heartiest plaudits of every honorable soul. The depth of suffering, the chill of privation in this rich land, left no mark upon their brow. 204 IvIFB SKETCHES How often the hungry and distressed knocked at her door ! It mattered not who they were, her heart ached, and beneath her sullenness of temper shone the jewel of a soul that bore the certificate of her Master. As her pleasant refreshment warmed and strengthened the traveler, he revealed to his benefactor the secret of his life— perhaps his early fall, the temptations in his way. " And now," said Mrs. Munro, after many a pleasant repast, " our place is very small; here is a little money; it will bide you for a while. God never forsakes his children." It was just her way. We cannot fathom her happiness as she saw the bread of heaven falling into the mouths of the poor around her. "Mr. Ross, do tell me, is there ever to be an end to suffering ? I am worn out; I can't do much more." "Yes, Mrs. Munro. The path is marked out as the real forerunner of all true enjoyment. Hard labor, pain and endurance are the hammers that break away the shell and rind ere we can taste the sweetness within." It is said that as Mrs. Munro frightened and distressed a good many people by her loud sallies of temper, we should let her sleep in oblivion. But as long as these precious words remain in Scripture, ' ' And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity," whether it be love or benevolence, she is worthy of a monument. There are a great many people in the church who have all the patience and BEAUTY OF CHARACTER 205 sweetness of dear little babies, and they think that they are deserving of much extra attention because religion has deeded so much to them; and yet they have not grown to understand the sum of all religion in those beautiful words of James: "If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food ; and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace ; be ye warmed and filled ; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful for the body, what doth it profit?" Mrs. Munro understood this to the letter. Many a hungry man relished her dinners; and even if she growled a little, there is every probability that her scoldings were at times necessary. "Good square meals " are always cried at a high premium ; but good square manliness is often allowed to run at a very low discount. In my experiences in the ministry I have fallen wit- ness to some eight or ten episodes of what might be called causes celebres of the pulpit. But, reader, I have washed my hands of scandal ; and though jour- nalists tell us they supply it because the people are itching for it, I must throw back the gage out of respect for you. You are weary and heartworn, it may be, and desire the vivacities of life, and not its nightmares. But come along with me just this once, and see a picture where riches and learning hide themselves in the mire of soul leprosy, and cast a stain upon the tem- ple of Christ. 2o6 IvIFE SKETCHES Years ago there came to this city of Brooklyn a plain, quiet man, who immediately enrolled himself as a worker in the Christian field. This gentleman was the Rev. Arthur Chester, poor but ambitious. There was some healthy stamina no doubt about this man, and for some years preceding his arrival he labored with Dr. Dio Lewis, embraced the tenets of his system, and hoped to be able to prosecute it with success as an ad- junct of his ministerial work. After a few months' busy experiences he rented the upper part of a store, and carried on preaching services. A few zealous people rallied around him — and a credit- able Sabbath-school was the result. Around the city, quietly and unostentatiously, day after day he traveled gathering money for a new church. Some treated him with disdain, not a few with scorn, while one or two contributed handsomely. The pros- pects were brightening for Mr. Chester. Yet it must be said that he had one great drawback, though subsequently it proved his armor of defence. His reticence was painful. People shunned him on this account; they questioned him, and no reply was forth- coming. He was isolated; an air of gloom seemed to hang around his person, yet Chester might be said to have been a happy man. At the same time there was a nobility about him worthy of the noblest emulation. He did what some BEAUTY OF CHARACTER 207 thousands of men never do in their long lives. He challenged the verdict of a medical committee that a young girl horribly burned could only live a few hours. He placed himself in the breach, and told them that he could save the child. He bore insult and rebuff for his suggestion, and surreptitiously waited for another chance, when the doctors left the dying and unconscious child with directions for her burial. Antiseptic dressings were immediately applied to the body, and allowed to remain a number of days. The child revived. The most sedulous attention was con- stantly bestowed for months till she regained her wonted health. But Chester's diffidence told him to keep the secret in his own bosom. By the strangest providence I found it out. A sudden visit to his room one day revealed the fact. Chester was dressing the limb of the young child. I asked him what it all meant. Then he told me the whole story. "Look here, Chester," said I, "there's too much talk about you now ; but I tell you I'll let the world know you're doing some good work for God." By and by a new church arose — the Bushwick Avenue Congregational Church. Chester had some right to be satisfied. But prejudices and jealousies multiplied around him. Little clouds of dissent rifted in the hor- izon. "Though he did build the church," said some, "let us put him out and secure a better preacher." It 2o8 lylFK SKETCHES is the old story of man's hatred to man. Little minds — be they king, priest or peasant — care not who sinks the foundation stone: they look for the temple adorning it. Yet Chester held out bravely: he would not give up the post. What a piece of burlesque sounded out on the air when the "church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth " took him in hand. They tried him in his own den. His counsel urged him to follow his natural silence, which he did to the defeat of the large opposition. What a hot day it was for all concerned ! What stinging questions fell upon his ears ; but his pro- voking silence fell upon the prosecution in return like molten metal. They went away gnashing their teeth, and still Chester remained. Then he was summoned to that shrine whence, for nearly forty years, the aureole of genius radiated over the whole earth. But the glory of Plymouth had de- parted. He was condemned of lying; he was charged with writing fraudulent epistles ; he was combated with intolerable misdemeanors — but he moved not his lips ; when up rose young Andrew Ogden, who charged them with unchristian malice as ministers of God, stating that if such bitter feeling was a type of their character, he had seen far more honorable conduct where it was hardly to be expected. Chicanery was resorted to, to get him out. ' ' I will BEAUTY OF CHARACTER 209 take the evening service (the more crowded session), and let him take the morning," said an old wa^r horse of the pulpit. But Chester kept his weather eye open, and smelt carrion in the air. Yes, he had a thousand fail- ings, but he was a brave hero not to submit to an under- hand diplomacy, that might do in Dahomey, but certainly has no right to be forever disgracing the Christian pulpits of this land. Chester's weaknesses I understood well, and to help in his efforts to secure a lecture course for the public, I bore him cheerfully for a time on my own shoulders. But nature as yet did not give him the material to stand alone, and thus severe issues pinned him to the wall. The fault was but one-third his own. Inuendo should have no place in the heart of the guardians of the pulpit ; and those who took him in hand as his counsel should have treated him from the highest standpoint of his nature, and thus gradually would have drawn him out in the sunlight, where he would soon prove that he had a large human heart. He died just as he had lived. He kept his thought to himself, and told no man of the bitterness or rejoicing of his departure. Delirium wrapped him in its folds as erysipelas sank into the brain. There was some laugh- ter of scorn that greeted not a few ears when, as soon as the breath was out of the body, one of the high priests of the opposition wrote a word of tribute to the 2IO LIFE SKETCHES press regarding the excellence and moral worth of the man — ^poor fellow, when it was too late to reply. So, reader, you may notice splendid common sense is rare in this world. In this man you see the portraiture of one who, with the capacities given him by his Crea- tor, was allowed to sink in the maelstrom of society through his hesitancy and silence. Were he qualified with blatant presumption, he might have wheeled in the circle of fashion in the pulpit and out of it. Who knows? Peace be to the manes of Chester! HENRY BERGH. A Moses come to help a lower race, We say of Bergh ; and truly he was one, Not from affection, but an Inward sense Of sacred duty. A true soldier, horn In times most fitting. How blasphemers stared When he would cool the hell fire on their tongue, Then win their hearty cheers right joyously! How lords and ladies, with o'errunning wealth, Who daily tortured needlessly the dumb. At his calm gaze would stay their cruel hand. Bergh's day was short, but his reforms are long. The mellowed tenderness that marks th' divine In our progression, leaves abiding press In all our marts of labor, where his name Gives nobler lustre to the human mind. CHAPTER XVII. THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY. A GREAT theme for discussion — and one claiming some fragmentary notes here — is the religion of humanity. From my little corner in the universe it may not be the best vantage ground for taking a bird's eye view. Still a man having ears cannot deny that he hears something of the din around him ; and having eyes he must be in- deed unfortunate if he cannot see a great deal. Aye, there's the rub, and we cannot get away from it to save our lives. In that vast stream of human existence passing me by, what a mighty throng of keen, able thinkers I see engulfed in the torrent. They have plunged head foremost through political rings, wirepull- ing, horse-racing, stocks, gambling, crime, to escape the vital question. What can we do to elevate mankind? It seems a very easy thing to run into the raging cur- rent. But to stand up and breast its buffeting waters : it takes thorough men and women to do it — men and women of soul. A noble work indeed, for in some sense it takes aAvay the heterodox assumption that has crept into our orthodoxy that we are purely the creatures of our environment. This is too bad ; this belief has a ten- dency to stultify the dignity of our race. As I look at 212 LIFE SKETCHES the world through my spectacles, I see that we are not so far away from the garden of Eden after all, and my daily habitudes prompt me to seek proofs in defence of the statement. While it may truly be said that earnest thorough workers never fail in gifts of prescience — an insight grounded on nice observation — it is a lamentable con- fession for our race that when the higher qualities of mind manifest their presence, we generally strive to thrust them into deep worn grooves to do what other minds have done. Originality is singularly rare on this account. Considering that the vast domain of the soul far overshadows the geography of our little planet, one may see that could we but have a proper conception of this tremendous purchase power, we will find a creative principle like an ever -fruitful tree, ever bearing new and more vigorous saplings as progenitors of still higher growths. When we speak of the Augustan age of Rome, and its congener of England, we refer more to the capacities of the prevalent language than to the mental storehouse — which is nothing less than a uni- verse. Philosophers and metaphysicians have more or less through the passing generations embraced this opinion, and nearly all their researches, doubtlessly through errors of data and prejudices of learning, have fallen alarmingly short of success. Can any cause be assigned for this? Now it must surely be that in THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY 213 a world garnished with such an array of furniture, some steps are hidden that will yet be revealed. It is impo- tence for us to say that mind can make no headway. Let us be glad that we are living in an age when the throb of humanity is heard louder and louder on the side of a divine love as a controlling force in the world around us, and surely we must live up to this belief to be worthy of our being. Dogma is going out, and truth is coming in. It is true that human minds are apt to clothe their conceptions of a Messiah in varied ways to meet the views of their respective communities. We cannot help this state of things. The fibre of our civil- ization springs from it. Life, like some wondrous sem- piternal cycle, is bearing us along through endless change and transition. It is a grand and noble thing to acknowledge it, and submit as men. But there are many of us endowed with great learning who will not admit it, who hang back, and are afraid to speak. And so we must launch out on the vessel of faith and hope, and do the best we can. The future is full of light and mean- ing. And this looking for truth as a light to the seeker is pregnant with happiness here, and a richer joy beyond. But what if our knowledge be purely relative ? Well, there is no discomfort — nothing discouraging in this. We must have faith to do our duty, and gladly leave the results in the hands of Him who wills that it should be so. 214 LI^B SKETCHES The fact that honest, sincere men and women are re- markably fond of life, affords an admirable argument for the existence of a diviner state. Such a life is a fore- shadowing, an elucidation of something nobler yet to come. Any other view would be contrary to the whole texture of reason and philosophy. We cannot therefore run away from the argument, so palpable all through nature, that a Guiding Hand rules the universe, and that he has not made His world an illusion to deceive His children. No matter how far we may advance in the future — as in the past the humble truth seeker will still believe with Seneca, "It is God who inspires us with great ideas. Without God there is no virtue." In the deep vastness of his soul man sees a little of the Sacred Presence e'er his mantle drops to the ground. The mysterious essence of being will not vanish — the good, the beautiful, the true can never die. It is assuring to-day that where national religion or polity is dilatory in acting out its platform, the never failing instincts of the higher humanity will force at- tention, and like the ocean waves, will prove resistless. When we speak of the religion of humanity we come under the influence of a philosophy that meets the actual, while fundamentally based on the ideal. Man, no matter how ignorant or learned, will meet no stumbling-block here. His inner consciousness cannot lie, but his meta- physic he will carry sheltered in his own bosom. We THE RKUGION OF HUMANITY 215 are the children of experience ; and though some of the keener minds maintain that experience is but one of our teachers, that there are other avenues of knowledge, and though the thought may be a profitable one to them, yet the concept in our era may never become popular. Man thinks, and so he is. The dictum is old, but ever new in its application. Sectarianism is the Sargasso sea of our civilization. It is not so bad in corners, where children and the ungrown rush to it for safety. But it has no enginery for civilizing the world — a machinery that providence and man will ere long thrust in our way. Many Yevj earnest thinkers maintain that it is better in spreading the truth to keep walking very solidly in our own rut, and let every one know, as they come along, that there we are. By and by we will see many wandering in the rut, but we soon recognize and know each other, as we cannot escape the rubbing and jostling that ensue. It does not so much matter what are the real thoughts of the travelers ; by and by as we become ac- quainted we will see into their defects. This polity, say they, will ensure a leaven, that will culminate in a large and abiding spirit of happiness. Now with all candor to my friends living in the rut, I cannot see that this was the intention of Jesus in his pilgrimage on earth. Where will you find such grandeur and manliness and tenderness of soul as he exhibited 2i6 LIFE SKETCHES amongst the people ? Ah, yes, you say, but He could see through men. And will you, poor pharisee, living in the rut, tell me that it is not your prerogative to see through men ? Here is where we show our contemptible weak- ness — yet calling ourselves Christians, hiding in a little rut, where we can hold confab about our neighbor's physique or breeches, or what not, while hundreds of men around us are dying for lack of knowledge. Why, bless you, my little traveler, it makes my gorge rise to hear bishops and other great dignitaries over the earth telling us that the Christian Gospel for some reason can- not meet the needs of the people. No wonder, for just when we realize something of its enjoyments we rush and throw ourselves into the ruts where the world can't see us — and we dare not walk up and down our city streets without shutting our eyes for fear of seeing something we cannot notice in the rut. Here you are, my dear brother, capable of accomplishing a world of good, hiding yourself in the rut, when every noble, God-energized heart is wanted in the army to pull down the walls of partition that deprive Christianity of her birthright in speedily civilizing the world. How often there comes to the home a celestial visitor to make life happy ! But dissociated as such a life is from the mannerisms of the people, he is not under- stood, but considered aberrant and unnatural; and therefore exposed to an unnecessary ordeal of trial. THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY 217 he often sinks out of sight. But, reader, if you can take the time to look a little into this grand argument on which I have merely touched, where truth with her visual ray throws reflection on the foreground, you will find broad avenues of safety spreading out into the dis- tance, where nature and spirit blend in sweeter harmony than we are accustomed to in our narrow daily life where we learn something ever new about ourselves, something not yet known, but yet that pertains so close- ly to us as men and women that it would be absolutely infamous with our capacities to pass it unnoticed. And what I allude to is the richness of the spiritual, or, more expressively the mental nature of man. Shakespeare paraphrased it well, "In apprehension how like a god!" And yet with this great spirit of apprehension, does it not seem very remarkable — yea, somewhat stupid in us, that the brute creation, so far beneath us, and so plenti- ful at our doors, has never been apprehended or under- stood? And if not the brute creation below us, how much less the spiritual creation above and even associ- ated with us ? Now one way to grasp at the body of things is at first to take the more simple, and ascend gradually the larger steps to a wider platform. And that wonderful Providence that fashions us sends men and women to pierce into the arcana of nature ; yet after the experience of thousands of years we know not what to think of those minds when they come among us, and 2i8 LIFE SKETCHES immediately gather all the paraphernalia and habitudes of society to stifle the original propensity, and graft our young visitors with our own prejudices. There is absolutely so much rubbish and polluted soil in the pathway of honest investigation, that it is neces- sary — not to bound and climb over it, but to clear it with giant force away, so that we may know how to grasp at the meaning of those obstructions that are for- ever preventing man from enjoying the fullest capacity of his nature in this life. Every individual of years and reflection is bound by the infinite laws that encircle him to come forward and assist in this undertaking. For the clearer our knowledge of the Divine in the universe, the happier and more contented will be the lot of our brother man. I cannot conceive what is the use of living, unless we can with our capacities go far out into the depths, and come back laden with new wealth, stronger and more vigorous, and more fitted to elevate our race in the great life struggle. There is a picture hanging in my room, clothed with rich associations, and as it touches one section of my argument, I must allude to it here. It is an excellent photograph of some forty-six faces, including myself. The young personages all around me were brought up in the Jewish faith; but the courageous stand that they have taken for the rights of man in the religion of humanity have won my highest admiration. I must THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY 219 associate with them. I must look in their eyes, and catch every word that they utter. They are well educated, apt in debate, and proud of their lineage. Proud also am I to-day of this picture. But my young friends can never fathom the extent of meaning that forces itself upon me in their presence. What a history of mankind I see there. All the rich past comes welling up in spite of myself — seership, poetry, jurisprudence, economics ; and as I write the Roumanian and Kishineff massacres are yet thrilling the world. What does it all mean ? You, reader, are asking the same question. But only in exclusive circles we care about answering it. We all know what it means. But the mire of bigotry and caste has so begrimed us that we are afraid of ex- pressing a thought on the matter. And yet the epigraph on their temple of worship is a rebuke to the civilized world — the religion of humanity. And this lovely young group beside me in the picture represents the people that "Christianity" will see maligned and scourged century after century. The He- brews, as a part of this religion, are called thieves and vagabonds — they are pelted with stones, their beards are plucked out on the streets, their children are jeered at and mocked to the shame and scandal of mankind. They are all to be consigned to perdition. Such is the fury of blind ecclesiasticism . Is this permitted under the aegis of Christianity ? God help the little society that I 220 LIFE SKETCHES see around me as a star rising out of the ocean. The spirit of Jesus, the Jew, I believe, will give them his sweetest love and blessing. The Jew and the Christian agree upon the beautiful and lovable spirit of Jesus. But when Ecclesiasticism took this Child of Bethlehem, and through the centuries robed him with all the garniture of fable and supersti- tion, and consigned the Jew to persecution and degrada- tion, the scorn and byword of the centuries, it commit- ted the most damnable sin that ever blotted the page of history. The cancer of hate fastened on the brow of Dogma, and was allowed to eat its way to the injury of the race. The whole current of civilization was turned back, and the dark ages supervened. Malignity spread over the earth like wild fire. It was looked upon as a sacred ordinance to curse and maltreat the Jew. With such a background, Medievalism soon brought the in- quisition of torture with all its hellish cruelties to com- plete the work. In contrast, what a beautiful picture is that of the Oranges fighting for centuries in Holland to stay the pestilence! What a blessing for us to-day that one of them was carried over to England to protect the human brotherhood ! What a blessing for America and the world that the labors of the Cromwells and Hamp- dens and the illustrious Washington culminated in the great triumph for human rights ! Good, sensible liberty is in the world to-day, and will THE REIvIGION OF HUMANITY 221 remain. With this grand era of light and freedom comes the Hebrew to fill his place in civilization so ruthlessly stripped from him nearly two thousand years ago. Study him well in the environment of education ; study him well in the picture; peer into his retentive mind, and it is the wonder of all wonders that he grasps the tenth part of what he does know — taking hold of the various languages with a facility known but to few peoples; and relishing a keen insight for finance and philosophical research that fits him as a nation-builder. To the progressive Jews the Messiah — M'cheach — is not the coming one man to save the world, but the unity the salvation of all. Is this not wisdom, philosophy and love ? Surely it is time now for us to shake hands, and be one. History is constantly repeating itself. When at inter- vals the miasma of political degradation leaves its bale- ful influence, the whole earth is affected. But the evolution of man, through science and popular educa- tion, is gradually lifting him to a higher pinnacle, and he shudders at the retrospect of his undoing. It will not do in this grand American nation to have the sacred in- stincts of home and religion any longer thrown in the raging waters of sectarianism and bigotry. The human mind is too noble for that. There is nothing now to prevent man reaping his highest ideal on earth. The religion of humanity is on its way, and as the obstacles dis- appear, happiness, comfort and song wiU take their place. 222 LIFE SKETCHES Traveling extensively among all races of men, and looking into the intuitional capacities of all cults and peoples, I have wondered over and over again, when I read the story of Jesus the Jew, so clearly presented in the New Testament, why Christians, who are thereby knit to the brotherhood of the Jews, could pile such furious damage and malignity upon them. Does man's intuitional capacity and understanding count for nothing? If so man could have no faith but in experiential history. But our insight counts for a great deal ; and the balancing of probabilities is an act of administration put in our hands. The whole of Christ's system is built on the Golden Rule, "Whatsoever ye would." The Hebrew may take heart in this grand American nation. We will give him here every opportunity — through the halls of learning to educate his children for the great world struggle. The Jew and the Christian will be very glad to shake hands. For the Hebrew's great grasping mind will place him where we want him — to give force and color to a healthy political system, where both subornation and superstition will yield place, and the hell-fire dogmas, which have disgraced the earth for ages, will disappear. The sooner our eyes are awakened to this the better. Ecclesiastical dogma ever looks for bloodshed, while the religion of humanity — the Golden Rule — will not have it. There is much leveling required before we can realize THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY 223 that we are clearly on the stream of progress. Mono- poly and milionairism are being tested as they never were before. And a race of prophets is springing up telling us that the end of all things is at hand. The ele- ment of fear has never done much in the elevation of races. The great heart of the people has at least one chord in unity with their Founder — they intuitively trust their faculties, and great issues never fail to reveal them. Here lies the germ which promises a noble des- tiny for the whole human family. The people need every honest word of encouragement in their upward walk. It is good, therefore, to know that we are all brethren, that though we are unequally rewarded for our toil, yet care, anxiety, suffering compass us as clouds. And a closer acquaintance with this very knowl- edge, to-day at least, will often show us that in many ways "He spreads the cloud for a covering." In this age of pseudonym and sub rosa chivalry it may perhaps be considered a useless if not a daring thing to touch on this humanitarian trend. Whatever may have been the more pressing circumstances encirc- ling the life of Jesus of Nazareth, our civilization has hardly yet grasped the pith and sinew of it. For while idealistic in his teaching, no nation in Christendom as yet has taken hold of his socialistic platform, the most plain and simple and beautiful that has ever been placed before the world. And not only have the nations reject- 224 LIFE SKETCHES ed it, but they have raised obstacles in the way ol those who have dared to preach it. It is no wonder therefore that a dull, heavy leaden materialism covers the nations as a cloud. And the one whom we have placed as the head of our spiritual government, Jesus, a divine social- ist, full of the unction of healthy communism, is looked up to as being so supremely high, that all, as we say, "we have to do is to read His sayings, but we cannot live up to them. We might hasten the millennium, by so doing. What we want to do just now is to make plenty of money — not to have brotherly feeling, but rather class feeling. It is so beautiful and charming, don't you see, to be aiding the poor with food and clothes, not to help elevate them to our plane. When we give a hundred, thousand, or a million dollars to help some people or cause, our names will be made famous over all the world." When the genius of toleration illumines the earth, we shall see the ideal in its best manifestation. Even yet but little known, certainly our pampered Christianity has given it no room for development. Toleration is the high priestess of the civic virtues. Where she is re- spected, the way of altruism is clear. ' ' All things what- soever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." Moses, Confucius, Jesus knew what they were talking about. Here is altruism plain and simple. Here, in one word, is the religion of humanity. THE RElvIGION OF HUMANITY 225 It need not be in anything but the most hopeful at- titude that man should face this significant problem. Whither are we drifting? Medievalism gave us no com- fort — investigation was blocked there. And the greatest hope of the future lies in this very principle — inves- tigation. We dare not go back. We may look upon our school system, and say thankfully : God has given us faculties for advance in growth and virtue. The free public school under government protection gives us every op- portunity to utilize these faculties to their best extent. There is no room allowed here for the dwarfing of the mind; no room for the entrance of idle tradition and superstition, but a sharpening of the capacities of the will, of the perception, of the understanding — that we may not live as dumb driven cattle, but worthy of the exalted Being who has given us life. The picture pre- sented before the world the last few years is that of the affectionate and devoted mother over her loving child. She hears the threat of danger, and her whole soul is aglow with a righteousness of indignation which forever silences her antagonist. This is our attitude to-day before the world, and Rome and Russia and Spain may understand it if they will. Our educational system is the culmination of the best methods of all preceding ages, where literature, philosophy, heroism and science have given of their best treasures. With all this we are 226 LIFE SKETCHES still improving. The growing intelligence and refine- ment of our people is the best argument for our schools. Education, with its sentinel the Public School, is pull- ing us one way ; and Superstition, with its trumpery of legends to pacify the children of toil, is pulling hard another way. There are those in this nation who say superstition will have the best of it ; that the grossness and animalism of man require such panaceas, that his- tory has proved it. Well, the United States has time to test the matter thoroughly, and is bound to carry her plan through. But whatever events may be shaping out new lines, let them but respect the programme of the rights and duties of the public school, and we may rest assured that matters will come up all right. Let educa- tors be true to themselves. Let history be presented in all its aspects. There should be no shirking there. Many are irritated that the Bible is not allowed to be read in the school. But let us not quarrel over this. Eemember that in itself a broad range of good studies will make man ashamed of superstition — and of all the evils that have ever cursed the world, and driven the nations to interminable bloodshed, the most diabolical is this demon of superstition. Give it but room to begin its infamy, and there will be no end to its horrors. See the degradation it fastens upon our race. Mother Goose's nursery rhymes are not half so absurd as the trumperies of superstition, and yet these trumperies are THE REIvIGION OF HUMANITY 227 presented before adults as their meat and drink. I dare not mention them here, or I would be disgracing my theme. But why do I allude to them ? I mention these things just because their work is going on to-day. And the only remedy for this is not to be afraid of what fanatics or zealots may say about the dangers of the public school — but to educate, educate, educate. Now mankind is honored in the reflection that with the successive progress of the race, the religion of hu- manity will accompany it. The laws of man's inner nature, indubitably true, will spur him onward to the ideal ; while the keener minds, rising constantly above the horizon, will so fire and electrify the people, that like the filings near the magnet they will rally for their deliverer. As it is to-day, we are as yet somewhat hot- headed, our liberties are so extensive in this beautiful nation ; we are titillated with every little conceit forced on our attention ; we are losing cautiousness in the re- dundancy of ornament We are apt to be carried away by crowds, and will barely take time to say, as our pro- genitors did, "No thank you; I will think this matter over for myself." The consequence is that many are taking advantage of us; and we are drifting away into new theories, that carry us far out in the ocean of doubt and despair. And yet with all this it is questionable whether any ecclesiastical system, through its heavy baggage of forms and ceremonies, can ever come up to our 228 LIFK SKETCHES fullest necessities. The ideal and the spiritual must be in the ascendant. The reason why the dogmatists and ritualists are bending over to catch the first lispings of church and state as the only hope for the future, is be- cause we do not seek the fullest worth of our privileges. They sturdily maintain that though the Christian work be spiritual — ritual with all the material aids, civil and political, must be relied upon, at whatever cost, for its perpetuity. It will take far-seeing statesmen to know how to meet this great issue. The virus of medievalism still hovers as a cloud over the earth. But the progres- sionists are in advance — they look for the fullest devel- opment of mind, and the prospect also looks as if they are going to have it for many years to come. To-day when philistinism is so rampant, when ideals are largely lost sight of in a web of thick materialism ; and wealth, commercialism, speculation — yes, and brib- ery too, are mounted on very high pedestals for worship, it looks ominous for the human race for many a year. And now, as science and education are making excellent progress, there is an outcry that we must narrow the work of the school — that people are beginning to know too much. This is but the cry of the church and state party. It will not do in the twentieth century that bars and chains shall be put at the doors of the mind. With all deference to the ability and piety of a late cardinal, his remark that his church, when necessary, never THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY 229 failed to spare the knife in spreading her glorious relig- ion, sent a thrill of horror in many homes that she may have in store something of this kind in the future as she had in the past. With the advancement of the religion of humanity, where socialism and positivism will be great factors, comes the better brotherhood of man, when the precious benison of liberty shall be more re- spected apart from sectarian wrappages ; when the pro- gress of this most beneficent religion will be advanced, as non-essentials in faith and belief will more and more disappear. The most subtle yet most pervasive argu- ment for the soul is God — the nature idea. As the ages pass, there will be more unity in this line, always tend- ing to reverence and love. The doctrine of the Trinity will be a matter of faith as now, but there will always remain a wide field for discussion here, but no friction as we have to-day. Honesty, purity of heart, will be the creed of the people, whether in church or council. And this will be a great blessing for the world. That Divine Oneness is charming to humanity. The Buddhist, Con- fucian, Christian and Jew will unite in one, and be loving children there. Yes, the day is approaching when we shall rejoice together as God's children — no Universalist, no Baptist, no Methodist, no ritualist, and no other creed, but the one of Unity. God is One. Did you ever think of the physiological process of as- similation, when this wonderful human microcosm is at 230 LIFE SKETCHES rest ? Here is where a new creation is formed for the next day. If we could only see then with a suitable microscope into the magnificence of that di^'ine archi- tecture where millions upon millions of nerves, filaments and vesicles are ever moving in stately order under the most perfect generalship ! And the sweet, clear air of heaven is the prime motor in all this complexity. Just as the body is held together through the strange in- finitesimal operation of the fluids and solids in the for- mation of blood and bone, so with the mind. Millions of those peculiar forces that go to make this wonderful mind of ours are unknown, and will never here be un- ravelled. Let the humanist, the Jew and the Christian grasp hands. We can learn grand lessons from each other, we can give the kiss of peace and love, and when Nature calls us to give up life here, we can go with a smile upon our faces. We speak of the seriousness of life — the gravity of it. But I tell you honestly, reader, the man who cannot put some humor in the heart of the people while he remains here is working to little purpose. Why is life so hard that it demands this regimen ? Revivals on religious and ethical grounds are useful in their place ; but when they condemn the healthful games and popular amuse- ments they have little or no knowledge of the human heart. What crowds would sink into ennui or suicide without such amusements! A good large theatre, con- THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY 231 ducted under the most refined regimen of philosophy and truth, would not be a bad school for training min- isters in the higher accomplishments of rhetoric, so that they might learn to read the Bible with the majesty and passion befitting it, and thus draw multitudes to the church of God, Any man who is true to himself must have that within him that will explain and unfold his message. But to most of us workers in this world it is not so. How the hunger for gold attracts thousands to good paying positions : positions that they dislike — never can like — because their ethics find no correspondence in their environment. Of all those men of the past that I have known to fill his niche gracefully and well was Horace Greeley — the very acme of anomalies — his sim- plicity, gait, awkwardness and honesty formed the school ground in which Nature nursed this weak physical child for the terrible conflict of his future life — a life of sixty-two years, but which in its true relation was one of the longest ever lived by man — in that its last forty years comprehended the most passionate period of our nation's history. And there stood Horace Greeley, journalist and philosopher, calling daily for mercy, justice and righteousness^always pleading for the rights of man, condemning in the plainest manner the vices that were eating into the nation ; and daily receiv- ing the most bitter obloquy in return. It were to be hoped that we could arrive at the full 232 IvIFE SKETCHES meaning of that marvel of Divine philosophy — the Sermon on the Mount. As it is to-day, we read it as if it were a fairy tale ; we take hold of it like some incan- tation, rattle it over our tongues — sleep it off, and then, God help us ! we go through the week studying out some new system of white lies, or how to make a dollar without working for it, or pile in quite a little through some fraudulent trickery that we think will never be found out. Don't think, brother or sister, that we mean it, but we do it nevertheless. Our plane of morality is below par — has been for a long time; and when the grammar and syntax are changed to suit the times, you cannot help it, you but go with the stream. But what do you think of such hypocrisy as that? Is it not better a thousand fold for a man to be right out as a man — earnest, truthful, honest, even if in his impulse he may say a bad word, or take an extra glass of sherry to brace up ? This infernal hypocrisy ! What do you think of it, prohibitionist ? And what in the long run is to remain as the most valuable of all our mental equip- ment? Honesty — plain honesty. Ah, my brother and sister, you can dress yourselves as richly as you please, gather all the enticements and adornments of fashion; all the styles and lingeries of the market — yet, lacking honesty, the poor, barefooted, honest boothblack is a more beautiful sight than you are. That is where society is lacking to-day. The higher that men and women step THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY 233 up the ladder of wealth and empty appearance they drift farther from honesty. How often I censured Walt Whitman before I understood him for what I considered his irrelevance and coarseness. But when I found that he brought out the very savagery of the human cesspool to mold mirrors and kaleidoscopes for his work in the garden of the gods, he looked to me as one of the most wonderful of men — a man that has the rare power of concealing himself from all but the chosen few. The calling of a great ecumenical council and peace congress, to be held in New York, and to be the greatest the world has yet seen, will be in order before many years. The absolutists will keep back, of course; but Christians, Buddhists, Jews and Mahometans will arrange on a conference of devout scholars to sift the religious books of aU nations, and purge off these bloodthirsty passages that stimulate hate and defiance. There are Mahometans just as eager as we are for a reign of peace and love. When their children are brought up under the doctrines of the revised books, we will not have the spectacle — so common every few years — of Turkish mas- sacres. The Turk is as good as any other man when he has the example and the precept. This is the voice of the religion of humanity. Perhaps it is all the better in our apprenticeship here that there are found differences in faith and kind. According to our present ethical range, the Dowieites, Holy Ghosters, Eddyites and others 234 lylFB SKETCHES will force themselves to the front ; but with the intel- ligence born of an unfettered education the religion of humanity will make steady headway ; and Justice will not fail in looking to it for protection as the belief truest to nature. And in our beloved nation there is a hopeful trend. While the teachings of Jesus for the last seventeen hundred years have been misinterpreted by the world — we having adopted the side of blood and conquest, we cannot turn back now. The jealousy of nations is raised to the highest pitch, and the green-eyed monster is the same with nations as with individuals. For a land of peace and prosperity we wish America to be a picture before the world. And to do this we must have our cities and harbors well fortified, dynamite scattered in all directions, and submarine war vessels flying along like fishes. We must be strong enough to say to the world, hands off ! We have only one ally in language. Great Britain, but Germany and France are coming nobly forward in the great camping ground of truth to be one with ourselves. We will at least leave one good example to those who come after us, and that is ' 'Liberty over all the land, and to the inhabitants thereof." The American need not be afraid — he is doing his duty in one way, if not another. He is not adding to the population . The Italians, Spanish and Hungarians are doing this for him. This is the sacred part of their religion. So, THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY 235 should Americanism become a dead letter, and church and state be again in war for supremacy, — the re- sult will ripen into a fuller manifestation of the religion of humanity. Do not for a moment imagine, kind reader, that we can ever know the substance of things here — things tangible even. The empiric state of learning ever keeps us on the borders of uncertainty. Endeavor is so con- stantly surrounded by a nebula of unverifiable theory that ages pass when man goes back to the original start- ing point. And particularly in the domain of meta- physics is this apparent. When any one is asked for a thorough definite solution of the essence of mind or mat- ter, he invariably waives the question, and he will do it in the future as in the past. You may do a great many things with the forces of nature, explain their relation and corelation, theorize about their atomic secrets, weigh them even in the balance. But the moment you de- sire to go further, and seek for that essential something that makes them what they are, your labored rationale tumbles to the ground, and you shrink back ashamed at your presumption. You find that after all your years of toil the object of your investigation, as through some in- finite kaleidoscope, completely dazzles you with its com- plexity and riches. All our solutions but draw us nearer to the Infinite, and we put our finger on our lips. There is one point I have not touched upon. The 236 LIFE SKETCHES religion of humanity will meet its highest manifestation when man also awakens to the worth of his physical being. His horse, his dog and his cow have received his highest attention, and worth and wealth have followed his endeavors. But he has altogether forgotten to attend to this noble work for himself ; and the consequence all along has been that monstrosities and idiots have been filling the lands. Well might the gods laugh at the im- becility of the human race deifying the cat and the owl, while degrading themselves. But things will take a pleasant change before many years, and prenatalism, as one of the highest objects of study in the domain of social dynamics, will be widely acknowledged. What a noble race of beings will then fill the earth, and Humanity re- alize its highest ideal ! INDEX. PAGE A Kempis, - - - - 50 Abbott, Dr. Lyman, - - 150 Accident, a serious, - - - 19 Addison, - - - 67, 98 Adulterations in food, _ - _ 181 Advancement with transition, - - 7 Agreement of Scripture with Nature, - - I33 Albany. N. Y., - - - 84 Analogies of Nature, „ - _ 133 Anderson, Rev. Dr. Duncan, - - 151 An experience, _ _ . 166 An uncommonly strange medicine, - 157 Aristocracy of mind, _ _ _ 135 Arnold, _ . - 85 Ascending stairs, - - - 114 Aspects of marriage, - - 174 Asthma, relieving, _ _ _ 122 Audubon, - - - 65 Augustan age of Rome, - - , - 212 " Auld lang syne," - - - 158 Balsaming hot-tempered wounds, - 201 Bans, publishing marriage, - - 173 Barriers in way of human progress, - 135 Batavia, N. Y., - - - 90 Beauty of literary style, - - 104 Beck, Amy, . _ _ 144 Beecher, Dr. Edward, - - 146 " Henry Ward, - - 55, 75, 78 Behrends, Rev. Dr., - - 150 Ben Jonson. - - - 71 Beneficence in Nature, - - 54 Bennett, Jas. Gordon, - . - 143 Bergh, Henry, _ _ _ 210 Berkeley, - - - 45, 51 Bird Songs, _ _ _ 106 238 INDEX Blackman, Mrs. George, - - . 163 Book of human life, - - - 76 Branch's " Alligator," - - 143 Bremner, Mrs. Daniel, - - . 163 Broken arm, - - - 116 Brooks, Erastus, - - • 143 " Hon. James, - - 143 Brougham, Lord, - - - 65 Bryant, Wm. Cullen, - - 115 Buffalo, N. Y., - - - 90, 95 Bunyan, _ _ . 50 Burns, Robert, - - - 107 Byron, Lord, _ . . 60 Carlyle, Thomas, - - - 22, 126 Carr, Rev. Thomas, - - 94 Carter Bros. , . - - 139 Castle Garden, - - - 24 Causes celebres of the pulpit, - - 205 Challenging a medical verdict, - - 206 Chapin, Rev. Dr., - - - 141 Chase after truth, - . - 125 Cheerfulness in the search for truth, - - 5o Chester, Rev. Arthur, - - 206 Chillingworth, - - - 50 Christian, type of a, - - 92 Christians in Buffalo, - - - 93 Church and State, - - - 228 Church Lothario, - - - 68 Church tea-meeting, the, - . - - 203 Citizen of the world, - - 130 Cleveland, ex-president, - - - 92 Clyde River, Lyons. N. Y,, - - 88 Cold air, advantages of, - - - 13, 108 Cold Spring, N. Y., - - 79 Common sense — its rarity, - - 210 Communion with Nature, - - 155 Compensatory law of special providences, - 28 Consumption, disease of, - - 180 Concord of the Ages, . _ - 146 Conflict of the Ages, - - 146 INDEX 239 Conkling, Roscoe, - - - 84 Conquest, N. Y., - - - 88 Consistency of Nature with revelation, - - 57 Constellation Cygnus, - - 86 Cook, John, - _ _ 143 Cooped-up, unhealthy rooms, - - 72 Corfu, N. Y. , - - - 90 Cowper, poet, - - - 70 Creed a sentry, . _ . 50 Cuyler, Rev. Dr., - _ _ 145 Dancing halls and billiard tables, -. 164 Dante, - - - .65 Darrach, Rev. Wm., - - 92 David Looking on Himself, - - 138 Dawson, Sir William, - - 43 Delirium of drunkenness, - - - 183 DeQuincey, - _ . g8 Des Cartes, - - - 61, 65, 138 Devil of blasphemy, - - 177 Devils of the ink, - - - 184 Dime, the solitary, - - - 87 Diseases of the idle rich, - - -65 Distemper of divorce, - - 175 Divine Malignity, - - - 106 Dogma making way for truth, - - 213 Donnelson, - - - - 138 Dorcas at her post, - - 203 Doubt the lot of mankind, - - 131 Dougall, John, Montreal, - - 46 Draught, sitting in a, - - - 122 Dryden, - - - - 21, loi " Duncan Gray cam' here to woo," - - 157 Dundrearies of business, - - 63 Durer, Albert, - - - 47 Duryea, Rev. Dr., - - - 82 Dwarfing of the mind, - ^ 225 Edwards, Jonathan, - - 184 Elder Wheat. ... 88 Elgin, Lord, - - - 38 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, - - 23, 99, 115 240 INDEX England and the United States, English Encyclopedia, Ethica, Eulogy on Beecher, Evans, John, printer, Experience our greatest teacher. Faith and reason, Fanny Fern, Fireflies in the marsh, Ferres, Jas. Moir, Fetich in Theology, Fireworks, a night of, Fitts, Daniel B., Flashes of Wit and Humor, Flying like an Apollo, Foster Meadows, L. I., Friendships of the great, Fulton, Dr. Justin D., Geddes, Jennie, Genesee, Generating animal heat, Genius in infancy not respected, Gladstone, Wm. E., Glory and Shame of America, Gold, the race after, Golden idolaters, Gordon, William, Gorgeous sunsets, Gough, John B., Greeley, Horace, Grenville, Ont. , Habitudes of Nature, Hackensack River, - Hageman, Rev. Miller, Hall, Dr. Charles, - Halton, John A., Hamburg Canal, Hammers of hard labor and pain, Hanna, John, M. D., 83 102 130 75 95 215 55 ^39 , 61 38 104 61 153 136 S8 59 71 152 159 89 119 35 77 91 181 65 45 60 69, 140 20, 142,231 43, "2 9 60 106 147 152 91, 96 204 152 INDEX 241 Hay fever, - - - - 71 Health prescription, - - 109 Hedging for true character, - - 62 Hell, an argument, - - 31 Heroes of the hearth, - - - 88 Hesperides of health, - - 59 Hill, Hon. David B., - - - 80 Hincks, Hon. Francis, - - 37 Hint for amateur lecturers, - - 89 History of Freemasonry, - - 152 History of Long Island, - - 152 Hobbes, - - 67 Holmes, Oliver Wendell, - - - 45 Honesty, riches of, - - - 64 Horace, - . - _ 118 Horrors of tenement houses, - - 179 Humanity looking for the Divine, - - 129 Humor the salt of life, - - 27 Hunting for errors, - - . loi Hymns of Robert Burns, - - 164 Ideals of peoples, - - - 52 Idiosyncrasies of Nature, - - 35 Illustrated Family Bible, - - 108 Independence of true genius, - - 70 Inorganic forces as teachers, - - 132 Insane asylums, . - . 181 Instincts of the higher humanity, - 214 Intellectual Life, - - - 136 Intuitions, worth of the, - - - 76 Irving, Washington, - - 99 Isolation in walking, - - - no *' of strong minds, - - 132 Italian count, ... 139 Jeffrey, Dr. Reuben, - - - 147 Jeffrey, Lord, . _ - 22 Jersey City, N. J., - - - 60 '* flats, mosquitoes and lightning, - 60 John Knox and John Wesley, - - 86, 89 Johnson, Samuel, _ - . 65 Johnson, Dominie, . _ . 202 242 INDEX Jones, Edouard, Kant, Immanuel, Key of symbolism, Kingcraft in Scotland, Laborer, the dying, Ladies requesting a lecture, Lanigan, a famous wit. Lecture course, " Leaves of Grass," Legal protection, Leibnitz, Lewis, Dr. Dio, Liberty, Life a great battlefield, *' of St. Andrew, '• of Wm. Cobbett, " shortness of, " the temple of, - Lind, Jenny, Literary styles, Locke's Essay, Logan, Sir William, Long-faced, styptic religion. Looking for a fight, Love of life, an argument Love of the wherewithal, Love of independence, Lovell, John, printer, Lovely, John, MacDonald, Sir John A., MacDonald, Flora, Macmillan, Messrs., Maitland, Robert, Passaic, Makers of history, Making money in marriages, Malone, Dr. Sylvester, Man as a student, Man's life a vessel Man's real nature progressive 139 51 66 152 25 93 34 75 139 103 51 206 106 66 152 136 51 126 25 98 19 44 109 19 55 91 98 44 158 47 163 lOI 163 T25 172 152 128 63 54 INDEX 243 March, Prof. F. A., Mathieson, Rev. Dr., Max Muller, McCosh, Rev. Dr., - McGee, Hon. D'Arcy, McGlynn, Dr. Edward, Meade's Hall, Syracuse,. Memorable walk, year 1891, Miller, Dr. John, Milton, Mind, characteristics of, Mivart, George, Monotheism, Moral courage. Moral cowardice. Moral quality, Morea, Morrison, Duncan, teacher, Mowatt, Hebrew professor, Munro, Mrs. Mary, Nature work of continued creation, Newark, N. J., N. Y., Newburgh, N. Y., New England States, New Hartford, Newton, Sir Isaac, New York Mills, O'Bierne, Rev. James, Objective points of vision. Observation, its wealth in research. Oersted, Ogden, Andrew, Old Tom, sherry, etc., Orpheus with his lute, Oxford Dictionary, - Palmerston, Lord, Pantheism, Paradise of earth. loi 40 70 149 38 152 87 117 103 65, 67, 96, 100, lOI 49 70 131 no 93 51 60 48 49 201 133 77 88 78 161 86 51 86 151 134 53 132 208 120 160 lOI 33 129 72 244 INDKX Parker, Theodore, - - . 13^ Parton, Jas., - - - I39 Passaic, N. J., - - - 60 Paterson, N. J., - - - 60 Patience in investigation, - - 53 Patterson, John, - - - 136 Paul, St., . - . 50 Pictures, God in, - - - 131 Plato, - - - 51,63 Pleasant prospects of long walk, - - 87 Poets, the, - - - 21 Politics a slippery science, - - 82 Poor-rich, the, - - 201 Porter, Dr. Elbert, _ - _ 14^ Pratt, J. W., - - - 137 Prefiguration, _ _ _ 133 Prejudices of life, - - - 77 Pretty faces of children, - - 62 Purchase power of the lungs, - - 43 " " " mind, - - 212 Putney, Samuel, jr., - - 151 Queen Elizabeth, - - - 71 Quinn, Denis, _ _ . 137 Quotations, - - - 150 Relativity of knowledge, - - 213 Residence in Buffalo, - - - 91 Revelations of Maria Monk, - - 139 Reverence in investigation, - - 52 Robertson, Lawrence, - - 137 Robison, Professor, - - - 20 Rochester, N. Y., - - - 87, 88 Rome, N. Y., - - - 86 Ross, Dr. John D., - - - 106 Ross, Dr. Peter, - - - 152 Rules for walking and breathing, - - 120 Running in a blizzard , - - - 79 Running in the ruts, - - - 55 Rushing on to ruin, > - . 201 Sacrifice to Moloch, - - - 180 INDEX 245 Sanitary advantages of song, - - 163 Satan's disgust, - - - 97 Sawyer, Rev. Dr., - - _ 86 Scene at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., - - 178 Schopenhauer, - .- - 155 Scotch mist, - - - - 156 Scotland and the Scots, - - 153 Scotsman, the, . _ _ 1^7 Scott, Robert, Brooklyn, - - 163 Scottish song, . - _ 162 Sectarianism, its greatest weakness, - 215 Secular enjoyments necessary, - - 156 Sedgwick, Prof., - _ _ 107 Selden and his Table Talk, - - - 136 Self-denial of Christian workers, - - 203 Seman, Philip L., - - - I53 Seneca, - - - 214 Shakespeare Portrayed by Himself, - - 136 Shenandoah, Penn., - - - 159 Shooting ducks, _ - _ m Silence, the power of, - - 208 Singing good for breathing, - - 123 Sinking home, the, _ _ _ i^g Sixth and seventh senses, - - ■ 127 Slippery as an Albany politician, - - 82 Smith & MacDougall, - - 19 Smith, Rev. A., - - - 90 Smith, Rev. J. Hyatt, - - 146 Smollett, - - - - 69 Socrates, - - - 65, 112 Somersaults of fashion, - - - 135 Somerville, Alexander, - - 33 Sovereigns Hall, Utica, - - - 86 Sons of God, - - - I43 Spinoza, _ - - - 139 Springfield, L. I., - - - 59 Stevens, Dr. Abel, - - - 142 Stopping in a jiffy, - - - 62 Storrs, Dr. Richard, - - - 148 Struggle of mind, - - - 66 246 INDEX Studies, - - - - i6 Swift and Rabelais, - - - 34 Swilled milk, - - . 182 Swinton, John, - - _ 20 Sympathy a Godlike trend, - - 134 Tact in literature, ... 105 Talmage, Rev. Dr., - - 149 Taylor, Bayard, . _ _ 13^ The human book, - - - 58 The " Minister's Rest," - - - 202 The Religious Element in American politics, 87 Thinking stimulated in a gale, - - 112 Ticket torn to pieces. - - - 78 Tilden, Samuel J., - - - 82 Tomkins, James, - - - 84 Tyng, Rev. Dr. - - - 148 Ullman, Rev. Mr., - - - 78 Unmated couple, the, - - 171 Uses of symbol and analogy, - - 134 Utica, N. Y., - - - 85 Value of life, - - - 73 Value of mental independence, - - 154 Vampire of anxiety, - - - 83 Victim of dementia, - - 59 Visit to the factories, _ - . 161 Wales, Prince of, - - - 41 Walk, the long, - - - 119 Walking beneficial for the old, - - 123 Walking in ruts, . _ _ 215 Wappinger Falls, N. Y., - - 79 Waters, Robert, - - - 136 Watson, Robert, - - - I37 Weedsport, N. Y., - - - 88 Well-rounded minds, - - 63 Wesley, John, - - - 50 White, Rev. J. J., - - - 151 White, Richard Grant, - - - 142 Wilton, William, . - - 138 Whitman, Walt, - - - 139. 233 INDEX 247 Williamson, George, Woman's noblest anthology, Woman's rights, Woman's tribute to Christianity, World a school, World ecumenical council, Worry-bugs, Worth of the intuitions. Yonkers, N. Y., Young, George, 151 201 176 93 18 233 124 57 77 137 BOOKS BY JOHN D. ROSS, LL. D. CELEBRATED SONGS OF SCOTLAND. From King James V. to Henry Scott Eiddell, with Memoirs and Notes. 8vo., 400 pages, cloth, gilt top. $2.00. SCOTTISH POETS IN AMERICA. With Biographical and Critical Notices. 8vo., cloth, 225 pages. $1.50. ROUND BURNS' GRAVE: The Paeans and Dirges of Many Bards. Post 8vo., cloth, 182 pages. $1.25. ROUND BURNS' GRAVE. New and enlarged edition. Post 8vo., cloth, 316 pages. $1.50. BURNSIANA. A collection of Literary Odds and Ends relating to Robert Burns. 4to., cloth extra, gilt top, 6 vols. $1.50 per volume. BONNIE JEAN. A Collection of Papers and Poems relating to the Wife of Robert Burns. Crown 8vo., cloth, 180 pages, with portrait. $1.00. HIGHLAND MARY. Interesting Papers on an Interesting Subject. Crown 8vo., cloth, 150 pages, portrait. $1.00. BURNS' CL ARIND A : Brief Papers concerning the Poet's Renowned Correspondent. Compiled from various sources. Crown 8vo., cloth, 250 pages, portrait. $1.50. RANDOM SKETCHES ON SCOTTISH SUBJECTS : Lady Nairne and her Songs, The Poet Fergusson, The Mother of Robert Burns, The Water Mill, etc. Crown 8vo., cloth, 144 pages. $1.00. EARLY CRITICAL REVIEWS ON ROBERT BURNS. Demy 8vo., cloth, 313 pages. $2.00. STORIES OF PRINCE CHARLIE. Jacobite Songs, etc. 8vo., cloth, 173 pages. $1.00. THE MEMORY OF BURNS. Brief Addresses com- memorating the geoius of Scotland's illustrious bard. Demy 8vo., cloth. $1.50. A CLUSTER OF POETS, Scottish and American, with Biographical and Critical Notices. 8vo., cloth, 376 pages, portraits. $1.00. THE BURNS ALMANAC. A Record of Dates, Events, etc., connected with the Poet. 8vo., cloth, 176 pages, portrait. $1.00. THE BURNS SCRAP BOOK, or, Odd Moments with the Lovers of Scotia's Darling Poet. Full of choice Reading, Information, Anecdotes, Poems, etc., about Robert Burns, his home, friends, country and works. 8vo., cloth, 256 pages. $1.00. ALL ABOUT BURNS. The Poet of Humanity— Full Details of his Life — Glimpses of his Home — Accounts of his Friends — Eulogies to his Memory — Garlands from the Poets — Criticisms of his Works — Pilgrimages to his Country — Notable Anniversary Addresses — With Various Other Interesting and Valuable Information Gathered from all Parts of the World. 8vo., cloth, 178 pages. $1.00. FROM GRANT'S TOMB TO MOUNT MAC GREGOR. Patriotic Poems and Addresses along the Hudson. By the Hon. Wallace Bruce. Edited with a Preface by J. D. Ross. Paper covers, 96 pages. 50 cents. DUTY AND OTHER POEMS, by the. Rev. Archibald Ross. Edited with a Biographical and Critical Sketch by J. D. Ross. 8vo., cloth, 209 pages. $1.00. ALL ABOUT TAM O'SHANTER, with Brief Papers on AUoway Kirk, '• Souter Johnny," Captain Grose, etc. 8vo., cloth, 173 pages. $1.00. HENLEY AND BURNS; or. The Critic Censured. Be- ing a Collection of Papers replying to an offensive Critique on the Life, Genius, and Achievements of the Scottish Poet. Crown 8vo., with frontispiece (repro- duction of Burns Bust by Stevenson in Hall of Heroes, National Wallace Monument). Art cloth, gilt top, with special design on cover by Alfred Mathers. $1.00. THE RAEBURN BOOK CO., New York City, N. Y. iJAW J2 1904 Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: May 2006 PreservationTechnologies A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive Cranberry Township, PA 16066 (724)779-2111 f; .^-/^^%f^^^^^ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS I 017 527 151 A €wfm