Gleanings by the way, from '36 to '89. In two parts

Preface

PART FIRST Shows something of school and college ways fifty and thirty years ago; of a voyage around Cape Horn; life in Valparaiso, South America; adventures in California in '49 and '50; touring through Old Mexico; crossing the Gulf, and taking a boat up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to Cincinnati and Baltimore, and from there by rail to the old home of childhood days, in western New York.

PART SECOND Gives incidents of missionary work in Missouri, Colorado and Dakota, with over two years' service in New England as Field Secretary of the American Congregational Union.

DEDICATED

MY CHILDREN

AND OTHER YOUNG PEOPLE

FAVORED WITH LIFE IN THIS PERIOD OF TIME, PROMISING GRANDER POSSIBILITIES FOR THE KING'S GLORY AND THE WEL- FARE OF MANKIND THAN THE WORLD HAS EVER BEFORE SEEN.

PART FIRST. CHAPTER L— School

The School — Employments — Punishments — Hanging — Daily Whipping

— Hoeing Potatoes — Blood Blister — "I'll Kick You Blue" — Design of the School — Painted Face — Keeping the Fire — Story Tellers — Elm Stumps — Rattlesnake — Famous Hunter — Smelling his Breath

— The Doctor — Liberty Pole — Jehu-like Drivers — Bees Stolen — Stolen Watermelons — Betsy Jane — The Deacon — Signing the Pledge

— Silver Lake Snake — Queer Minister — His Tea Drinking — His Horse — Insane Alan.

CHAPTER II.— College

Entering College — First Class Meeting — Ringing Off the Rust — Night Alarm — Law — Missing Bible — No Chalk — Black Cow — Bombarding the Juniors — Imagination — Little Cherub — Coasting.

CHAPTER III.— Doubling the Cape

Doubling the Cape — Sea Sickness — A Change — Man Overboard — Porpoises and Flying Fish — First Whale — First Storm — Cape Verde Islands — Fairy - like — Sousing — Swells — The Equator — Neptune' s Children — Bathing — Unwelcome Visitor — Magellan Clouds — Fearful Storm — Sea Birds — Penguins — Icebergs — Kingfisher — Speaking a Ship — To New York — Variegated Waters — Twelve Days' Tempest

— Missing Vessel — Thick Fog —Waterspout — Man-of-war — Beautiful Day — Herrings — Whales — land Breeze — The Andes — Oily Waters.

CHAPTER IV.- Valley of Paradise. .Searching the Trunks — Strangeness — Earthquakes — Public Amusements

— Keeping the Carnival — City of the Dead — The Mass — The Sabbath — Princes and Beggars — Crime — Our School — Boys and Donkeys — Distinguished Himself — Dr. Trumbull — Saluting a Peon — Gift of Tongues — William Wheelwright — Earthquakes — God's Light Needed.

6 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V.— Golden Gate

Cross Captain-Gymnastic Birds— Clear Water- Peculiar Storm-Peculiarities—Gambling Houses — Preaching to the Gamblers — City Surveying—First Fire — Rebuilding — Swift Changes — Profane Man — Church Full of Men— Tom Hyer — Poisoned — A Felon — Off for the Mines — Mushroom Growth— The Outfit — Camping Grounds — Excitement of Mining— On a Gold Bed -Gold Hill -The Editor- Dealing with Criminals — Midnight Arousings — Dressed-up Indian — Preaching in the Mines — Surrounding Scenes— "I'd Like to Preach"— To the New Diggings— The Journey — Losing the Way — Meeting the Mail.

CHAPTER VI.— Old Mexico

The Corn Cracker and the Fox — Elective Affinities — Lashed to the Deck

— Burial at Sea— Land, ho!— Old Mexico — First Night — Death of the Doctor — Cholera — Sabbath Halt — Robbers — Hanging Man — Lasso Cavaliers — Pumpkin Raft — Mills' Horse — Halls of Montezuma— Pockets Picked — Mexican Churches — General Scott's Road

— Fancy Mule.

Chapter II

The Land of the Dakotas — Pleasant Greetings— Brule Valley— The Trio —Fire Fiend— Pillar to Post— Stormy Night — Results — Caught in a Whirlpool — God's Voice — Grand Jury — Santee Agency — Important Changes — Indian Chiefs — Cain's Wife — Marked Advances — Frostbitten— Tragic Tumble — Free Pass — Magnificent Farm House — Translated Hat — Race with a Tin Pail.

CONTENTS. 7

Chapter III

The Angel of the Lord — Blizzards — Keeping Cool — Funeral Notice — Taken for a Stage Driver — Caught in the Dark — Lost on the Prairie

— In the Old Barracks — Receiving New Members — Last Town Westward — Sioux Indians — Church Gathered- — Tin Horn — Destroyer — Up the Vermillion.

Chapter IV

Home Missionary Campaign — Cordial Welcome — Going West — "How Large a Town is Dakota ? " — Commendable Interest — What's a Dugout ? — A Dialogue — Noble Example — Old Faneuil Hall — Centennial Exhibition — Montana Man — The Capitol Building — Other Visits — Moody and Sankey — Theological War Horse.

Chapter V

Renewing the Buggy — Perils of Waters — Bloody Raiders — Results of the Trip — Just the Religion — Want the Gospel — Kind Hospitality — Perils of Mud — Diamonds — Specimens — Insane Man — Oaks from Acorns — The Lord's House — Revival — The Hopeless Case — Showing his Colors — Aged Convert — Honor from the Lord — Live Prayer Meeting — Enlarging the Church — Home Heathen — "A What!" He Answered — An Atheist's Death — Fatal Plunge — Belle of the Town ■ — Healer of Division.

Chapter VI

Church Building Collection — Good Investment — Truth Wins its Way — Abusing the Tavern Keeper — New Light Obtained — Tongue Loosed

— A Stigma — Tobacco — Superintendent and Cigar- — Reformer Reformed — Moving Sermon — Dogs at Church — The Circus — Grand Kampeska Hotel — Grand Central — A Quarrel Settled — Storming the Fort.

Chapter VII

Glorious Overrulings — The Church was Built — Sabbath School and Prayer Meeting — A Misunderstanding — Another Happy Ending — A Strange Medley — Weekly Pledges — Willing Hearts — Good Shot.

Chapter VIII

The Little Boy's Prayer — Killed by his Own Son — Fairy Scenes — Sunday Ball Playing — Swift to Ruin — Satan's Emissary — Divine Providences

— Scoffing Lawyer — Little Child's Funeral — Black Boy and White Stage Driver — Pappoose.

Chapter IX

Wonder Land — Denver — Clear Creek Canon — Colorado Springs — Cluster of Marvels — Santa Pueblo — San Juan Regions — The Disturber Put Out — Church Organization — The Two Mourners- — Footing and Ford-

S i i VTENTS,

in g _Twin Lakes — Grand View— The Meeting — Diverse Conveyances—Free Rule — Deserted Town— Wagon Wheel Gap — A Rocky Mountain Stager — Dead and Dive Timber — Immense Pines — Slum

Ciullion.

Chapter X

Picturesque View — Distances Deceptive— Bird's-eye View— Sand Mountains— Veta Pass — Soliloquy — Grand Canon — Sunshine— Funeral in lhe Mines— Touching Appeal — Gold Hill — Spirit of Union — In the Dance House — Colorado College — Gifts. CHAPTER XL The Major Domine—The Heroine — Remarkable Plistory — Gospel Trophies—Afraid of the Storms — Providential Delays— Sabbatarian — Faithful Witness— Service in the Grove — Shot Dead — Swift Vengeance—Worse than Heathen — Brule Sioux. CHAPTER XII.

Wonderful Railroad Building— A Nation Born in a Day — All Kinds— The famous Hunters— Young Plowmen — Hunting Chickens by Railroad — Another Little Boy's Prayer Answered — Christmas Present — Lost Book — Happy Overrulings — Church Building — Journeying under Difficulties— Prayer Answered — Hard to Get and Keep Men — Asking Cod — Forward — March — Halt.

CHAPTER XIII.

Around the Circle — Hotel Tent — Steamer Ceneral Rucker— Soliloquy —

( 'rowning Glory.

CHAPTER XIV.

Destructive Ice Gorge — Brave Young Men — Fruits of Missions.

CHAPTER XV.

Black Hills— The Conveyance — Gumbo — Freighters— Villages and Cities

— Dead wood — Rapid City — Living under the Ground — Road Agents

— Rapid Growth — Summary.

CHAPTER XVI.

Welcome Home — Religion and Politics — Bible Verse — Santa Claris — Taken Away the Well — Baby's Angel — Samuel's Coat — Are You Coing to Heaven?— Climb Through — Real Good Meeting — New Dress Torn — Little Crumb— Tears with Joys. CHAPTER XVII.

Unsurpassed Skill— The Old House — Roughing It — A Glimpse — Bushel of Peas — Kind Helpers — Unexpected Testimony — Some of the Returns—First Why? — Second Why ? — Professor Phelps — Professor II oppin — Professor Park— The Great Need.

CHAPTER I.— SCHOOL. The School — Employments — Punishments — Hanging — Daily Whipping

— Hoeing Potatoes- — Blood Blister — "I'll Kick You Blue" — Design of the School — Painted Face — Keeping the Fire — Story Tellers — Elm Stumps — Rattlesnake — Famous Hunter — Smelling his Breath — The Doctor — Liberty Pole — Jehu-like Drivers — Bees Stolen — Stolen Watermelons — Betsy Jane — The Deacon — Signing the Pledge

— Silver Lake Snake — Queer Minister — His Tea Drinking — His Horse — Insane Man.

The school house was just at the bottom of a high bluff, on the grounds of an old ashery; directly in front of the door ran a little brook, all of which furnished rare facilities for coasting, digging in the dirt, and playing in the water.

When the boys were not thus engaged, they were largely occupied, when out of doors, skating, snowballing, and sliding down hill in the winter, playing ball and goal in the summer, and when in the house, both summer and winter, they devoted much of their time in cutting the desks to pieces with jack knives. These desks were wide inch planks, set up against the sides of the room, the seats in front being plain, common benches, so high that small children could not touch their feet to the floor.

Among many punishments was the holding of the ruler in the middle of the room as a penalty for whispering, or sitting on what was called the dunce block, or stooping over ; sometimes a long row of boys thus arranged holding down the heads of nails in the floor, while the master would march io GLEANINGS BY THE WAY.

along behind this file of upturned buttresses and hit every

one a good, smart clip with the ruler.

Another course with one of the teachers was to "hang the boys," as he called it, standing them on a table in the middle of the room, with one end of a string around the neck and the other fastened to a nail in the ceiling above, there always being sufficient slack in the string to prevent any injury. The whole thing, though really harmless, was quite a serious affair with the boys, the scare and disgrace connected with it being a pretty severe punishment.

One boy used to get whipped about every day, and the rule was that when he was whipped at school he must be whipped at home, so that he got two scourgings a day, with but few exceptions. He had become so accustomed to the rod that he took it as a matter of course.

His love of play was greater than his fear of the lash, as seen by his neglect of a task at potato hoeing, which his father, who was to be absent from home for three long days during one vacation, had left him to do. He went to the field and looked over it the first day, and said, "Well, now, I can hoe those potatoes in two days easy enough." So he went and played the first day. The next day he took another look, and said, "I can hoe them in one day," and he was off again for play. The third morning he went to the field and looked at it, and the task loomed up before him in fearful proportions. "There are three good days' work here," he said ; " I shall get a whipping the best that I can do," and so he went and played the third day.

Another boy, who was so inoffensive that he never got whipped at home and only this once at school, was called up one day by the teacher, who, without asking any questions* applied about his waist most vigorously six or eight strokes with a whip which would have answered very well for an ox goad. His offense came from a large water blister on one of his fingers when, as he held it up between the finger and thumb of the other hand, he asked his neighbor to prick it. The teacher saw it and there was no escape. As the end of the whip chanced to hit one of his thumbs it drew a blood blister, and so he~had two blisters, besides what might have been termed a blistering all around. But he was determined not to cry. Not a whimper escaped him. When the whipping ceased, he took his seat, and that was the end of it, only he thought if he ever came to be a man he would whip him in return if possible, but he never had a good chance, and the teacher abandoned corporal punishment almost entirely, and became a very superior teacher, not being instructed, it is presumed after this, to make the fur fly.

One of the small boys, who had been taught by the teacher not to strike back if struck by the larger boys, was one day hit by such a boy, when he burst out, "Now, Lon, don't you strike me, but if 3 ou do strike, I shan't strike back; I'll tell the school ma'am;" and now with a sudden turn of the mind, "but if you strike me again, I'll kick you blue, I will."

Of course the ostensible design of the school was to teach the children, and reading, writing, spelling, geography and arithmetic had their places during the hours of school, but were so conducted as to be avoided if possible.

My first day at school found one of the larger boys tardy at the afternoon recess, but when he made his appearance, he had painted on one side of his face in red, and the other in green, the head of a man, which some of the workmen in a wagon shop just above the school house had executed. A general commotion of course was produced among the pupils, when the following words passed between the teacher and the recreant youth:

"Who painted your face in that style?"

" Some men at the wagon shop."

"Well, young man, go straight to the brook and wash your face, or I shall have something to say on this subject." "But," says the boy, "I can't wash it off; it's dried on." "Go immediately, sir, and wash your face." He went out, was gone some time, and returned with his face completely besmeared with a mixture of green and red paint.

"Go back and wash your face," said the teacher. "I can't wash it off; it's dried on, I told you; I scrubbed it with a chip and it won't come off."

"Mind me," was the reply; "go and wash your face, or I shall give you a good whipping."

"It's of no use," muttered the fractious youth," as he strode toward the door ; " it won't come off."

He returned, however, in about twenty minutes with a tolerably clean face.

One of the duties of the boys before and after school hours, was that of replenishing the fire, when that important element had gone out, which chanced to be very often. Lucifer matches had not then come into use, and the flint, steel, and punk were not very reliable. So, furnished with a curiously punctured, cone-like lantern of tin, a run to the nearebt neighbor was the only alternative. Though it furnished divers opportunities to take vengeance on bumble bees as they patronized the flowers of the big thistles in the corners of the high rail fences, and to frighten the frogs as they peered out of the edge of the water, or sunned themselves on the snags of the old tree by which we had to pass, and sometimes gave us an extra chance to stone Mr. Snake, or analyze Mr. Angleworm, or give Mr. Chipmunk a chase, yet how vexing it was after all our painstaking to have some unpropitious puff from old Boreas steal around the corner just as we were about to enter the house and blow out the light, sending us back to try our luck once more. How carefully we would guard the blaze of the tallow dip in the curious tin lantern, as we approached the dangerous spot the second time, using hats, pinafores, and a double breastwork of two us, if there chanced to be two along, especially if some favorite play was likely to be interrupted by a longer delay.

As a substitute for much of the light literature with which the leisure hours of school boys now-a-days are not a little occupied, we were furnished with several wonderful story tellers, to whose yarns we used to listen as to fairy tales, and which were a great relief from the dry tedium of the school room.

"I was plowing one day," said one of these men, "in a field covered with elm stumps. I had fifty yoke of oxen hitched to my plow, and I never turned out for anything, but went right through the stumps, splitting them in two and tearing them up by the roots. Once I had my coat tails, standing out straight behind me we went so fast, cut off, as I tore through a tremendous stump, and it came together and snapped like a pistol. Twice I lost the soles of my boots, as my feet stuck out behind me like a flying jack. I plowed a hundred acres of such land," he said. While we half doubted, we half believed, his stories, and thought certainly he was a wonderful man.

Another used to tell about catching a rattlesnake that had fastened to his pants as he was mowing one day. "At first I thought it was a thistle," he said, "and I dragged it around for an hour or two. But when I saw what it was, I took it off, coiled it up, put it in my hat, and wore it on my head till noon. When I got to the house, as the family were all seated around the dinner table, I said to them, 'Look here,' and straightening out the snake, I bit it from head to tail, and that's what makes my teeth so good. They will never ache or decay after this, but will be just as sound as they now are, if I live to be a hundred 3' ears old." He was the most remarkable man that ever lived, in the estimation of the boys.

Another time he said, "As I was out hunting I got after a flock of blackbirds, and as they were flying around a hay stack, I gave my gun a kind of swing, and as I fired it off at the same time, the shot went clear around the stack, and I caught them in my gun barrel, didn't lose one, and killed twelve dozen and fourteen birds." What was Nimrod to him in our estimation!

Another one who opposed the teetotalism that prevailed in town said: "As they sold no liquor in Perry, I went down into Leicester to work in haying and harvesting, and when I came up .Saturday nights to spend the Sabbaths, the men would pay me twenty-five cents a piece to smell of my breath. I made more money in that way than I did in working."

SCHOOL. 15

Hour after hour would they spin out to their youthful hearers those wonderful stories, and we would drink them in with the utmost avidity.

On our way to and from school, we often fell in with the good doctor of the parish, who was a general favorite, especially with the children. He would frequently give us rides, and we always learned something worth knowing in our pleasure trips with him. He was one of nature's noblemen. As a physician he ranked first. As a Christian he always honored his profession. Pre-eminently was he the friend of the poor, giving them his services in the majority of instances, and never making an account against any one for extracting teeth, which was no small task in those days, before dentistry had come to be a profession by itself.

"I have taken out teeth enough," he said, "to amount to a thousand dollars at a shilling apiece, but as I think those who have the teeth pulled have the worst of it, I never charge any thing."

Although he was a heavy, thick-set man, yet he was as spry as a cat. It was a pleasure to him and a good thing for certain young men, that he could take the conceit out of them so easily. At a time of some great political excitement, the boys had raised what they called the liberty pole. It was very high and tapering at the top. In the morning of a great political occasion, when the town was to be thronged with visitors and the people harangued by orators, they had put up their gay streamer, which floated proudly on the breeze, as the booming cannon gave forth its sounds and the tide of merry people poured into town. The liberty pole was the great center of attraction. All of a sudden, by some unpropitious whiff of wind, this beautiful streamer had become entangled in the top of the pole. Every means to extricate it proved a failure. "What shall we do?" said the young men, the bloods of the town. The doctor came along. He saw their trepidation. "What shall we do, doctor?" said one and another. "Climb up and loosen it," said the doctor. "It can't be done," they all said. The only answer was, "You're a smart set of young men." Upon which, as the story goes, he pulled off his coat, vest and boots, and went up almost like a squirrel, unfastened the streamer, fixed everything all right, turned around and came down head first.

At another time the doctor was returning from the raising of a large barn, about two miles from town. As he was driving leisurely along, the check rein down and in no especial hurry, one of the Jehu-like drivers came up, drew a tight rein, snapped his whip and went by the doctor in a jiffy. At length another drove up and went past in a similar style. Then a third, and a fourth.

"Those chaps need a lesson," said the doctor, and now's a good time for it." His horse was remarkable for speed if he desired it. He gave the word. The gay young men ahead saw him coming. "What," they cried out, "can his horse go so like the wind! We never saw him drive in that style." They put to the whip but in vain. One after another was soon left behind, and the doctor went sailing into town many rods in advance of them all.

They looked blank enough when they next met him.

At another time the doctor lost a hive of bees. He requested that nothing should be said about it and not a word was uttered by one of the family. He mistrusted the thief

SCHOOL. 1 7

but kept quiet. One day he met him, and the man, thinking of course that the matter had been talked of in the community, said, "Well, doctor, have you found out yet who stole your bees?"

"I've just found out. Now why did you do so mean a thing and injure yourself and me too?"

The man was so completely taken aback that he owned up and made full restitution.

On another occasion some of the roguish boys stole a large portion of his watermelons. He suspected the chaps, doctored the best of the melons that remained with a pretty strong but harmless infusion and was soon called to doctor the boys. "Ah," said the doctor, "I recognize these melons. Next time come "and ask for them and I'll give you some that won't make you sick. Here, take this medicine so and so; you'll soon be well, I'll call to-morrow." He called, but they had so improved that they did not wish to see him.

To show the occasional excitement of people who called for his services, he once told the following story of a good neighbor who came for him one morning, and all out of breath rushed into the house exclaiming "O doctor! doctor, come quick, quick ! Betsy Jane's fallen up stairs and struck a knot hole in her eye and we're afraid she won't live from one end to 'tother!" evidently meaning, "down stairs" and "one minute to another," to say nothing of what the "knot hole in the eye" did mean.

But the deacon no less than the doctor was a friend of the school house occupants, and when the teacher pronounced the ever welcome word "dismissed," as fast as young feet could scamper, we often made for his fields to get the tid bits of comfort that he was always ready to give. We loved to watch him at his work. He would lay the smoothest swath with his keen scythe, pitch on a load of hay in the quickest time, and do the most logging of any man in town. He was a radical by nature, believed in progress and practiced accordingly. When he went into that new country, he cut his way with an ax through the thick timber to reach the site of his homestead with a team, planted the dried-up apple seeds that he took with him and ate of his planting more than fifty years. He helped organize a church, for want of a better place, in a barn, and lived to see the stately meeting house and hundreds of church members.

When almost every one drank whiskey, and the pulpit even was not always a stranger to the bottle, he said, "I'll sign the pledge, and no more of the wretched stuff shall be found on my premises. If I can't get men to work for me, then I'll do without them."

But he had no trouble. He prosecuted the rumseller for selling without a license, made his town the banner temperance town of the State, and enabled the children of the school at ihe old ashery grounds to say, at the age of young manhood, "We have never yet seen an intoxicated man."

In after years when the great Silver Lake snake excitement prevailed, he had to stand almost alone, as he had done for years before, on other questions of general interest. That there was something, or supposed to be something, he had no doubt, but that there was a great live serpent there, he did not believe. People came from long distances to see the creature. Editors and other prominent men from New York city, and Boston, and Philadelphia, and all over the school. 19

country came. An observatory was built near the lake, spy glasses of large magnifying power were obtained, a sailor with his regular Jack Tar suit was brought from New York, and with whaling boat and harpoon and various tackle, he sallied out after the monster on several occasions, came very near hitting him once or twice; the most reliable men in town had seen him at different times, seen him very distinctly; correspondents for the papers had seen him; flaming pieces had been published; sure enough, the great, famous, worldrenowned sea serpent that had sometimes been seen in the middle of the Atlantic, and sometimes in the Indian Ocean, had got up, wonderful to tell, into Silver Lake, a little sheet of water three miles long and half a mile wide, in the town of Perry. Where was the inlet or the outlet ?

On! on! on! It was the eighth marvel of the world. And yet the deacon was an unbeliever.

Well, how did it turn out?

Some young chaps wanted to make a little money, and so they got up a gutta percha snake, which they worked by means of ropes and wires, as they were concealed away in the brush, the headquarters of all this excitement.

It was worse than the Cardiff giant, and turned out very much as the good deacon, the safe patron, and the true friend of the children thought it would.

Strange to say, the pastor of the parish was just the reverse of the doctor and the deacon. We children dreaded to meet him, and when we saw him coming, we would run and jump over the fence or stone wall, and hide till he had gone past. When he came for a pastoral call, we would scud for the garret or the barn, and never show our heads till he was well out of sight. He was supposed to he a man of great learning, a physician and a clergyman, but very eccentric, and in many things remarkably void of common sense.

At every meal, two cups besides his own were turned from the boiling tea pot, his being served first, and always returned for a second cup by the time the other two were passed. How he did it unless he had a cast iron throat, no one seemed to know. But he invariably insisted on having his tea in just that way.

As to his horse, he was what most people would have called a little stubborn, had they dared to apply that word to the minister. This animal was a little black French pony, and she was always running away with him, and yet he would not part with her. As he was driving her home from meeting one day, a small lad came along holding on to the tail of his cow as the quiet animal plodded on her way, and the little runaway started and landed the whole load in a muddy stream, piling them all together, with the wagon on top. The mud was so deep and soft, that they were almost literally buried in it, and there they laid till parties from the house reached them, when they first lifted off the wagon, which was turned entirely over, and then pulled out the riders, and at length the horse. It was a wonderful escape, notwithstanding the soft place chosen for them, and yet he would not part with the brute. Shortly after this, as he had driven through the gate and was shutting it, the squealing of some pigs lying near started the nervous beast, and she soon broke from the wagon and ran with nostrils distended and head erect, till she reached a piece of timber about a