The Illinois free trader and LaSalle County commercial advertiser. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1841-1843, 1843-04-07

agility. and if he had been fated to have
been contemporary of his great proto-
type, Vulcan, there can be no doubt but
the Lehman blacksmith would have al
lot,ed to him front forge in his estah-
lishment, to act as a sort of pattern card.
and TO divert the public gaze from his
own game leg to the fair proportions OF
his foreman.
Now, although Ned Forgeron. for such
was the name he had inherited from some
Gallo ancestor, was good natured man.
yet the possession of great muscular
stregnth and courage, and the admiration
which successful exercise Of his power
never failed 10 command, had somewhat
spoled INN. Without meaning 10 injule
any mortal, he had managed, nevertheless,
to try his prowess on several of his neigh
bors, and from the success which had al
WAYS crowned his honest efforts in that
way. had unconscously acquired the name
of a BULLY.
With very few early advantages Of ele-
men,ary education, he had nevertheless.
at different periods, collected a mass of
heterogeneous information, which he was
very fond of displaying on all occasions,
He was sort OF political antiquary, and
could tell the opinion Of Mr.. Jefferson or
Mr.. Madison on any subject, and was
referred to on all disputed points of the
theory and history of the government.
that arose among the candidates for the
legislature and country politicians. This
he studied on account Of the consequent
ces it invested him with. But why he
had treasured up an old and well thumbed
copy of Paine's "Age of Reason" and
affected scepticism as to the veracity of
the story of Jonah and the whale, and
Balaam and his ass, would be hard ac-
counting for, unless it proceeded from the
desire of character for singulariiy and
erudition. When vanity once gets the
advantage of a mans reason, there is no
telling the absurdities it will lead him
into. He was fond of speaking of Volney,
and being found with copy of Taylor's
"Diegesis" in his hand, although few of
his neighbors had heard of the author of
the "Ruins," or knew what Diegesis
meant.
This peculiarly, together with tie per-
tinacity of the missionaries, Worcester
and Butler, which carried them to the
penilenliary, may account for the great
aversion of Mr.. Edward Forgeron to all
the preachers of the Gospel. His dislike
for them was so excessive, that he could
scarcely speak Of the "hypocrtical scoun-
drels," without flying into passion and
using indecorous language.
But a circumstance occurred which gave
his zeal distinct and sectarian direction.
A methodist preacher over in Tennessee,
who was fond Of spicing his discourses
with anecdotes, once made the blacksmith
the principal character in long sermon.
His peculiarites were dilated on, and his
heresies dealt with in becoming severity.
he was ridicued by the preacher. All
this came to the ears Of Forgeron, with
such additions and embellishments as Il
story usually receives in passing to a third
person. II would be as useless to attempt
to describe a mountain storm, as TO pic
mre the wrath of this mouptainecr. But
| if we cannot portray the storm, the con-
sequences may be easily told The
/ blacksmith swore in his wrath that he
would whip every Methodist preacher
that passed the gap, in revenge for his
insult.
Forgeron was man Of his word as the
bruised features Of many Of John Yves
Iey's deciples could testify. His charac-
ter soon went abroad, and the good old
matrons of the surrounding counties on
each side of the mountains, trembled at
his name. In short, the mountain pass,
which was really as romantic a place as a
landscape painter would seek for a picture,
and was just the place to remind youth
fresh from his classic studies, of the place
where Ieonidas and his three hundred
Spartans fell, in attempting TO defend
Greece against the army of Xerxes in
spite Of the grandeur of It's beetling cliffs,
and the beauty Of its verdure, was asso-
ciated in the minds of many pioos per-
sons with the BROAD GATE that leads to
destruction. And Ned Forgeron, the
handsome blacksmith, was invested with
the attributes of his Satanic majesty, by
many a mountain girl, who would doubt.
less have fallen in love at first sigh. with
him, under any other name.