Dedication
To my mother and my wife, who have been my best helpers, wisest counsellors and most charitable critics in every laudable ambition, this volume is most affectionately inscribed.
The Author.
Copyright, 1891, r. D. Srygley.
Preface
Since the days of early childhood, I have eagerly listened to the life-story of every one who has been willing to confide in me. In this particular, I have been " no respecter of persons." I have given interested and impartial attention to all sorts, ages and sizes of men and women, as they told the stories of their lives in their own way. I have listened to old men and young men, sick men and well men, wise men and foolish men, good men and bad men, rich men and poor men, married men and single men, town men and country men, free men and bond men, serious men and funny men, religious men and worldly men, white men and black men, drunk men and sober men. It did not occur to me when I was listening to all those strange life-stories, that I was accumulating a fund of unclassified information, which, in due course of time, would ooze out of me upon a defenceless public, in the form of a book like this, "but such is life." In gratifying an abnormal curiosity, I simply accumulated more facts than an over-burdened memory could retain or a feeble intellect could digest. The only remedy, so far as I could see, was to disgorge my over-loaded mind of this mass of unprofitable information, in the form of a volume like this. This is my explanation and apology for imposing another book upon the public.
If I thought that readers would find as much pleasure in the perusal of this volume, as I enjoyed in gathering up the information which it contains, I would count myself as one of the popular authors of the nineteenth century, in advance, and advise my publishers to bring out a large edition of the book— at their own risk and without any expense to me !
I know not what estimate a discriminating public may put upon this volume, but it is a relief to me to rid my mind of the matter which these pages contain, anyhow. I have meditated upon the strange stories here given to the public, many an hour when I ought to have been engaged in better business. I have, at times, reflected upon the marvelous changes that have taken place in this queer world within the memory of those yet living, till my head would positively grow dizzy, and I would, for the moment, feel utterly lost
4 PREFA CE.
in the rapidly changing scenes through which my mind was wandering.
Some philosophers say that, if a man would be happy, he must live in harmony with his environments. But, in view of the marvelous changes which have taken place during the last seventy years, it would seem that the man who seeks happiness according to such philosophy would have a hard race, to keep pace with his environments. Indeed, it is difficult for any man, in such times of rapid mutations, to know what his environments are. To try to understand your environments in such an age, is like an effort to study the geography and topography of a country by looking out of the window of an express train, as you dash along at the rate of sixty miles an hour. Your head becomes dizzy, and you soon conclude that environments change so rapidly that it is impossible to fully understand them, if, indeed, you have any at all.
He is not a philosopher who would seek happiness by an effort to put himself in harmony with such rapidly changing environments. If there be any truth in the phylosophy, the environments with which we must harmonize in order to find happiness, must be something less changeable than the fads, fancies, customs and sentiments of this fickle age and generation. To seek happiness by a hard race to keep pace with such environments, is to act the folly of the discontented slaves of fast life, who always make haste to worship at the shrine of the latest gods of fashion. There is no real happiness along that route. The peace which passeth understanding must come from anchoring the soul to something more sure and steadfast. To put it all in the fewest words possible, the nearest way, and the only way, to true happiness is stated in this one sentence : "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself." These two things are the same, and must ever remain the same, in all ages, among all peoples, and under all circumstances. And, " On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
There is no fiction in this book. It is mainly the story of the life of Mr. Caskey, but such things as are not parts of the story of his life, are, nevertheless, real incidents in the lives of other veritable persons.
My young friend, J. D. Kelley, of Nashville, Tennessee, is entitled to all the credit for illustrating the book. AVhatever merit there may be in the pictures, both in the matter of their conception and the manner of their execution, is due wholly to his genius.
I indulge the hope that the reader will, at least, be able to wliile
PREFACE, 5
away a few hours in the perusal of this volume. And I have failed to accomplish the object on which my heart was chiefly set in the preparation of the book, if there are not passages in it which will draw the reader's heart into closer sympathy with suffering humanity.
Finally, I beg to suggest that the changes portrayed in the book, and the blindness manifested by the wisest of men in grappling with problems that solved themselves, in due course of time,^contrary to all the theories, plans and philosophies of would-be leaders— all these things ouglit to convince us that there is a wisdom above man, and superior to all men combined, that guides the world in its progress. If I can but fix this thought firmly in the mind of one of the humblest denizens of earth, I shall consider the labor of preparing the book well spent. F. D. Srygley.
Nashville, Tennessee, March 1, 1891.
Index
An Old-time Meeting 15
An Old Backslider 23
Apostolic Christianity 27
A Remarkable Memory 35
An Old-fashioned Cradle 39
A Flash in the Pan 57
A Spang Up Nag 65
Attacked by Wolves 71
A Dark Night 73
A Cash Wedding 81
A Fashionable Costume 101
A Ludicrous Performance 105
An Abridged Animal 115
A Contented People 123
A Bridal Tour 125
Authority of the Scriptures 229
An Experience Meeting 136
A Good Experience 237
An Old-fashioned Postmaster 249
An Old-fashioned Blacksmith 265
A Plea for Kindness 271
A Shrewd Negro 281
Amusement Among Slaves 299
Armed for the Conflict 347
A Chaplain's Difficulties 351
A Wounded Soldier 357
After the War 359
A Few Words of Explanation 399
B
Black Mammies 41
Blood Hounds After Negroes 279
By Her Grave 49
C
Coon Skins 79
Carding and Spinning 95
Clearing Land 127
Clearing by Fire-light 175
Called to Preach 207
Cam^D-meeting Holy Ghost 225
Crime and Ignorance 285
Conservative Negroes 303
'Coon's Head and Polk Salad 331
Confusion and Controversy 373
Christ and Modern Churches 377
D
Doom of the Eich 29
Daniel Boon's Gun 55
Divine Call to Preach 191
Dividing Families.. 255
Divine Providence 291-369
Dignity and Discipline 317
Desolation and Kuin 361
E
Enjoying Life 67
Eating a Cat 117
Earnestness in the Pulpit 211
Evidences of Calls to Preach 231
Enrolling Volunteers 341
F
Forests and Cane-brakes 53
Fire Alarm 137
Fine Houses 141
Fire Insurance 155
Funeral Congregations 197
Filth and Ignorance 289
From Magnificence to Misery 363
G
Good Morals 239
Good Manners 312
God s Wisdom and Man's Foolishness 375
God's Providence Over Moses and Israel 387
H
Happy Sundays 45
Household Furniture 121
House liaising ]31
Hewing Logs I39
How Negroes were Fed 959
How Runaway Negroes Lived 277
How Slaves Made Money 301
Honor Among Gamblers 313
Hard Times in Dixie 321
How to reach the Masses 379
I
Improved Machinery 169
Independence and Self-respect 319
J
Job's Afflictions 37
Johnny Cakes 83
John Loony's Meshkit 329
Jewish Slaveiy 395
K
Kissing Parties 97
Kindness to Slaves 295
L
Log-rolling 129
Log Cabins 133
Licentiousness Among Slaves 275
Love for the Blue and the Gray 355
M
Must Gum It 107
My First Breeches Ill
Making Soft Soap '. 147
Marks of the Tomahawk 159
Messages From the Dead 189
Moving to Mississippi 267
Milder Forms of Slavery 293
Magnificent Homes 305
Misery in the Mountains 328
Men and Gentlemen 343
Manufacturing Industries 367
Man's Wickedness and God's Glory 397
Moses as a Law-giver 389
Moses as a Military Chieftain 391
Moses Yet Lives 393
N
New-fashioned Pastors 21
Negroes and Mules 171
New Doctrines 233
Negroes and Cotton 251
Negro Patriotism 259
Negro Courts 273
Narrow Bottoms Make Narrow Men 327
Old-fashioned Songs 17
Old-fashioned Preachers 19
Old Times in Dixie 51
Old Andy's Speech 63
Old Cards for Hair-brushes 93
Old-time Farming 163
Old-time Threshers 167
Old-time Funerals 187
Openin' Meetin' 199
Orthodoxy 243
P
Pastoral Visiting 25
Presbyterian Dread » 89
Pewter Plates 113
Pilgrims On a Spree 185
Preacliing Folks to Hell 195
Predestination and Funerals 201
Personal Service in Religion 209
Paying the Preacher 213
Putting in the Dousement 241
Punisliment of Crime. 263
Poverty and Ignorance 287
Preaching to Slaves 297
Pleasure Trips 307
Patriotism of the South 337
Pure Motives 339
Progression and Conservatism 371
Q
Quilting 153
E
Eevival Excitement 217
Runaway Negroes 276
Running tlie Line 323
S
Southern Life 31
Slie Hung Fire 59
Scalped by Indians 69
Sunday Shoes 103
Sassafras Tea 119
Shooting Matches 173
Supporting the Gospel 176
Strange Texts 193
Singing Schools 215
Statesmen and Politicians 309
Southern Hospitality 315
Secession and the AVar 333
Story of the War 350
Southern Enterprise 365
Slow Progress of Machinery 245
T
The Shorter Catechism 33
The Old Daddies 43
The Deserted Cabin 47
The Old Mountaineers 61
The Rail Splitter 77
Troubled Lovers 85
The Bark Gatherers 87
The AVinter Hoe-down 99
The Fighting Gobbler 109
The Hard Work of Woman 144
The Old Washing Place 145
The Old Ash-hopper 149
The Wilderness 161
The Old Bar-share 162
Temperance Work 177
The Temptation 181
The Fall 183
The Jerks 231
Tearing Down the Altar 275
The Soldiers Good-bye 349
The Heretics 227
I
The First Railroad 247
The Period of Slavery 253
The Old " Ferginny " Home 257
The Grandeur of Institutions 261
The Race Problem 284
The Code of Honor 311
The Mason and Dixon Line 325
The Soldiers' Ball 345
Trouble for the Boys in Gray 353
Two Errors \ 376
The World Unseen 381
The Power of Faith 383
W
Why I Was Born 32
Wolf Traps "5
AVoman's AVork 91
AVooden Chimneys 135
AVhip-Saws 143
Whisky in the Church 179
Whipped the AVrong Negro 282
What the South Fought For 335
Index To Illustrations
A
AHasty Retreat 118
A Primitive Saw Mill 142
A- huntin' Seed Peas 199
Administered the Punishment Themselves. 273
An Unclean Fountain 285
A Country Home . ., 305
A Duel " 308
After the A7ar 360
A Ruined Home 362
An Aristocratic Dray Driver 363
A Roarin' Fire 72
A Wheel 96
B
Bound for the Land of Cotton 251
Bound for the Bottoms 268
Breaking up a Horse Race 313
Belles and Volunteers 342
By Her Grave in the Woods 49
C
Corn-shucking 150
Cutting Wheat With a Cradle 169
Clearing Land By Night 174
Clergyman's Suit , 191
Camp-meeting at Night 217
Couldn't Tell Clover From Sneeze Weed 23
Cotton Bolls 298
Carding 91
D
Damnable Hearsay 194
Dangerous Weapon 346
F
Fast Through Freight 246
Fishers of Men 26
IXDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS.
Fast Mail ' ' * 55
Flint and Steel ^ ^ ^ 282
Fotch Dis Yere Note ...'.'.*.*. ^79
Fractional Currency
^ 196
Going to the Funeral ^^g
Going to the Funeral to Swap Horses ^^
Gently Pvocked the Young Hopeful
" . 279 Hunting a Runaway Negro '^ ^„
How Firm a Foundation. 259
Hard on the Negroes "n^Q
How do You Know that's North?
I
... 81 Fve Got the 'Coon Skins
Log Rolling • • • • 300
Listening to Ole Missus Read the Bihle
M
My Trade was a Fortune ^g
Mounted on his Old Pony ' ^^^
Mountaineers on the AVar Path • * ^^
Meal-making Machinery
N
290 Napoleon Crossing the Alps -^^^
No More Interesting Couple Could he Found ^^
No Use fur the Infernal Town
60 One of the Old Land Marks •* ^^^^^
On Came the Foe - * ^^
Old Cards
P
^ , 117
Parson, this Thing was a Cat ^^^
Picking Cotton -|^q3
Putting On Sunday Shoes
loo
Quilting
R
Reap Hook 277
Runaway Negro Stealing Chickens
14 INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS.
Eeception at an Aristocratic Country Home 318
'Eah for American Liberty 337
S
Sorter Sqiiar' Like 115
She Spootered an' Sputtered 57
Souls Without a Care 258
Sh'prise My Old 'Oman 330
Social Monopoly of Volunteers 344
T
The Money Was Counted 179
The Fighting Parson 352
The Old 'Oman's Out'n Camphor 181
The Blue and the Gray 357
The Second Ballot 183
They Started to School 364
The Race Problem 287
The New South 366
Their Own Cotton , 302
The Politician's Dream 367
The Old Way of Building Up a Church 19
Turned Upside Down 36
Tower of Strength 89
AV
We Dined in State 112
We Built Hewed Log Houses 139
We're on Our Journey Home 185
AValking Toward the Church With My Sweetheart 43
Walked Beside His Sweetheart 101
Chapter I. An Old-time Meeting
I attended a religious convention many years ago, which, as well as I now remember, was called a Christian State Meeting. It assembled in a little inland Southern town, and was largely attended by the brethren from the rural districts. There were but few railroads in the South then. Fort Worth, Texas was but a village of a few hundred inhabitants, Dallas was scarcely more than a country town, and Birmingham, Alabama was not so much as named till many years afterwards.
I may not have the name of that old-time annual gathering of Christians exactly right, but no matter. It was not a corporate body or a chartered institution anyhow, and though it assembled every year, it could hardly be said to have "a local habitation" or "a name." It was neither an organized body nor an authoritative convention. It assumed no prerogatives over Christians or churches; neither did it attempt to settle any question of doctrine, or, inaugurate any form of ecclesiasticism. It was simply an undenominational mass meeting of Christians. Those in attendance were, in the main, preachers, but still there were women and laymen enough to give variety to the assembly. Those who were present came not as delegates from churches, neither did they claim to represent anybody but themselves in the meeting. To use the phraseology of the time and country, every man " went on his own hook." They assembled, not as del- CIS)
egates with "letters of authority," but as brethren. Each one brought into the meeting his own ideas and zeal, and from the conglomeration of individuaUty every man filled himself with such things as were congenial to his nature, just as men do at a picnic or a barbecue. The meeting had a chairman, whose principal duty seemed to be to tell the audience when to pray, what to sing and when to adjourn. The chairman also enjoyed a good joke or a sally of wit, and at all proper times he pitched the fun and led the laugh for the convention. He also had a tender heart and a loving soul, and many a time did he lead the audience in a gush of religious pathos or pious tears. He had no committees to appoinj^ and no questions of parliamentary usage to settle. Every body was all the time in a good humor, and no body ever got out of order. It was simply a revival, a prayer-meeting, a love-feast, a social gathering and an experience meeting all in one. The chairman was a privileged character. In fact the}^ were all privileged characters. He would stop the proceedings of the convention to tell a funny story, and then every body would laugh. At another time he would be moved to relate a pathetic incident — his voice would grow tremulous with emotion, tears w^ould gather in his eyes and flow freely down his radiant cheeks, his lips would tremble, his speech would fail — and then sobs and sighs would be heard in all parts of the vast assembly. Again, he would announce a song, and everybody in the audience would join in the singing with a strength of voice and earnestness of expression which would put professional city choirs to shame.
The songs they sang were, for the most part, old and familiar words set to simple melodies. Everybody knew the words, and anybody could sing the tunes. "Amaz-
OLD-FAt^IIIoyED SOXG^.
18 SEVEXTY YEAIIS IN DIXIE.
ing grace, how sweet the sound," was a favorite with them all, and " On Jordan's stormy hanks I stand," was scarcely less popular. "Am I a soldier of the cross,'' was in great demand, and " How firm a foundation " was never tahooed. The exercises were varied, hut always religious and deeply earnest. They sang, and prayed, and preached, and exhorted, and discussed questions, and told then^ experiences.
The preachers in attendance were, in the main, a cheaply-dressed, hard-worked, poorly-paid, saddle-hags crowd of earnest, God-loving, Bihle-helieving, self-sacrificing men. There were hut few rich and fashionahle churches in the country then. Hence, town-preachers and city pastors were conspicuous for their absence in that great meeting. There was hut one "plug" hat in all that assembly, and it was worn hy the president of a college who was there from a distance on a business trip in the interest of his school. And ^^et there was no lack of native ability or scholarly attainments on the part of the preachers in that meeting. Mau}^ of them were graduates from good colleges and universities in older States, and not a few of them were masters of a style of vigorous and pathetic orator}^ that would have commanded the attention and aroused the emotions of cold and formal city audiences, who had nodded and shivered for years under the methodical logic and soulless rhetoric of automatic pastors, who claimed a higher order of culture than the preachers in that meeting ever aspired to.
Those preachers were men long used to the inconveniences and hardships of country life. It required men of strong native ability and impressive delivery to succeed as preachers in this country in those days. The idea that old and cultured countries require a higher order
OLD-FASHIONED PllEACIIERS.
of talent than new countries, to insure success in pulpit work, is a mistake. In old countries, where society is
mmMm
. A well organized, churches are p e r p e t u a t e d largely by inheritance.
Children accept the doctrine and join the church of their parents, )ecause that is generally conceded to be the proper thing for them to do. The ability of the preacher and the plausibility of the creed are things f V twv ' V^ii "i \ \'- } ' i ^ ' ii' i U ^Virt^-iiV^-it^in-«^
THE OLD AVAY OF BUILDING UP A CHURCH.
of little moment. In old countries, churches gain more by generation tlian by regeneration. Xot so in a new country
There are no established churches or
20 SEVEXTY YEARS IN DIXIE.
social castes in new countries. Preachers are not backed by old prejudices or time-worn traditions in their work. They stand upon their merits, and they must build upon the convictions of their hearers. Their only hope of success is in the strength of their case. Their doctrine must be plausible, and their style, both convincing and persuasive, or they will inevitably fail.
Preachers in such a country as this was in those early days are at still another disadvantage. The people who moved to this country in those days did not come, as a rule, to seek religion. Whatever else may have prompted them to come here, it is safe to say it was not particularly an interest in religious subjects. An incident in the mass meeting referred to will illustrate the difference between the old way and the new, in religious work and worship. It will show how far the methods relied on, to establish and build up churches in the early days of a country, differ from the plans adopted, in religious Avork,by people Avho are further advanced in the ways of fashionable society.
There was one typical pastor in that meeting. Elegantly dressed, dignified in bearing, fluent in speech and polished in manner, he was certainly " a thing of beauty" if not " a joy forever." He was as much out of harmony Avith his environments as a daisy in a desert, and he evidently felt that he was a harbinger of refinement crying in the wilderness of barbarism. He had done service as a city pastor in other States, and he came into that meeting as a sort of missionary of refinement, to prepare the way for aesthetic taste in the worship of God. He had a sickly little pastorate, in an ambitious little town, and those of his flock, who accompanied him to the meeting, felt justly proud of his good clothes and stately airs. One day he delivered a
NEW-FASHIONED PASTOR. 21
set speech to the meeting on the subject, " How to build up a church." He Uiid special emphasis upon the social qualities of a pastor, as an element of success in building up a cliurch. In his characteristically attractive style, he told the convention that a minister ought to be a good "mixer;" he explained the advantages of pastoral visiting from house to house ; he emphasized the importance of personal acquaintance with every member of every household ; he insisted that the preacher ought to be a favorite with all the children ; he urged that the pastor should carefully cultivate the friendship of young people ; he showed that it w^as important for the pastor to keep himself and his church well to the front in all benevolent enterprises, public gatherings, temperance movements and social festivals. And, last of all, he showed how necessary it was for a preacher to cultivate the' acquaintance and friendship of leading families in the bounds of his charge, and, to visit regularly all the members of his church, especially those who seemed cold and indifferent as to their religious duties.
When the young pastor took his seat, an aged man of dignified bearing and confident air took the floor, to express his convictions as to " How to build up a church." He was tall, slender, long-limbed, limber-jointed, frail-bodied and angularly-shaped. His nose hooked over his capacious mouth in a way that suggested penetrative inquisitiveness, and he hooked the front finger of his right hand over the little finger of .his left, as if fastening the subject down for dissection after the manner of a saw log in a lumber mill. He spoke with impressive earnestness and in a well modulated voice. As well as I can reproduce his speech, by the help of copious notes, taken at the time, it was as follows :
" I beg leave to difier from the brother who has preceded me on this question. What I understand to be of greatest importance as an element of success in building up a church, he has entirely over-looked, or designedly ignored. I refer to the material of which churches are composed, and the manner in which that material is brought into the churches. There are certain kinds of people in the church, who have been brought into it by certain kinds of schemes, who cannot be kept in it without some man eternally trotting at their heels. "When I hnd such stock as that in a church which I am preaching for, I give them plainly to understand, that, if they haven't religion enough to come out to the Lord's house and worship their God, without being driven up every Sunday like a parcel of stray cattle, they may jump over the fence and starve to death in the wilderness. Brethren, I'm not coming down from intellectual work in the pulpit, to make a common herd-boy out of myself. If I must do such work as that, I will quit preaching and hire out to some man to herd sheep or cows. Church members who cannot be brought out to the house of the Lord, except by pastoral visitations, are not w^orth standing room in a potter's field anyhow. I have recently had some valuable experience myself in pastoral visiting. I tried it, in a sickly little church in a fashionable town. I tramped the streets through dust and heat for three miserable days, hunting for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. I w^as assured that the Lord had some stray sheep in that God-forsaken town, but, after searching the place diligently, I found only one old wanderer on the mountains of sin, wild and bare, and he had grazed on the devil's commons till he couldn't tell clover from sneeze weed. He had lost his bell, shed his fleece and herded with the goats till he wasn't Avorth driving home.
AX OLD BACKSLIDER.
Brctlu-cn, let me speak freely about tliis professional pastoral visiting, as a moans of building up a cburch. The sick and tlie poor, the troubled and tlie distressed,
''couldn't tell clover from sneeze weed." the fatherless and widows, in their affliction, ought to be isitcd, not only hy the pastor, hnt hy all the saints. ^ o
VI SI
one IS r oadier than I to encourage and practice such
24 si: vent y years in dixie.
visiting. But tliis is an entirely different thing from professional pastoral visiting, sucli as we are advised to depend upon, to build up tlie cliurcli. I do not believe that a church can be built up in any such way. lumbers may be added to its membership, but can you increase the zeal, deepen the piety, or strengthen the faith, of members in that way ? I think not. Those who love God and walk by faith, in the religious life, do not gauge their zeal in the church by the personal popularity or Miiixing' qualities of the preacher. If I have studied the Bible to any profit, it teaches us to rely upon the gospel as 'the power of God unto salvation.' Pastoral visiting and clerical clap-trap may popularize a church and till it with the irreligious and worldly-minded, but such things will neither convert sinners nor add to the spirituality of the worship. ' God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.' If you can convert sinners and build up churches by humoring spiritual Aveaklings and flattering simpering sentimentalists, in pastoral visiting, without preaching the gospel, you may as well throw away the Bible, get a fashionable preacher and rent hell out for a calf pasture. People who attend the meetings of the saints from the love of the pastor, and who neglect their religious duties unless they are coddled by the pastor, have neither faith nor -piety, and their pretended worship is but a hollow mockery which will militate against the piety of any church and prove a stench in the nostrils of our God. Without faith it is impossible to please God. It is every man's inalienable right, as well as indispensable duty, to study the Bible for himself and to formulate his own faith from the teaching of the Bible. The Bible is a revelation from God, made, not to priests, pastors or councils, to be interpreted and
PASTORAL VISITING. '^'>
handed out to the people, but to each individual soul, with no mediator between the soul and its God save the Lord Jesus Christ. Sinners are justified by fiuth, and s'dnts walk l)y taith, but the faith that justifies the one and leads the other is not a mere admiration for the pastor or his church. It is faith which, Paul says comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God The man who studies the word of God carefully for himself, and who forms thereby a faith which works by love and purifies the heart, is a Christian, a disciple ot Christ He has been defivered from the powers of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son. ihe idea that such a Christian will absent himself irom the assembly of saints, or grow indifierent as to other reli- 2:ious duties, or privileges, simply because the pastor does not call around regularly, to kiss his baby and gossip with his wife, is contrary to reason and an insult to common sense. The efiort to build up the church by clerical schemes and pastoral visits has always diverted attention from the importance of fidth which works mightily in the heart by love to the saving ol souls. In every age it has, when followed to its logical result, led to a greater effort to build fine houses and strong organizations, than to convert sinners or save souls The his- • tory of religion shows that the efiort of an organized, professional ministry in the CathoHc hierarchy has always been to save the church and let the devil take the sinners. Professional pastors, in that iniquituous system, have, indeed, been fishers of men, in all ages of the world, but they have always cast their nets and baited their hooks for such men as they thought could give most money and social prestige towards supporting the ministry and building up the church. Hence, there has always been more joy, among such clergymen, over one
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