Des Moines courier. ([Ottumwa] Iowa) 1848-1854, 1850-02-01

/
nance changed to an expression of nim.
table humor: and now his wild, waggish,
peculiar eloquence poured like a noun
tain torrent. Glancng arrows OF wit.
shafts OF ridicule, bon mots, flashed and
/ flew like hail till the vas, auditory was
convulsed with laughter. For a while
the more ascetic strove TO resist the
strong current of their own spontaneous
|emotions; the sour faced clergy frown-
ed and hung their heads; and all the old
maideny saints groaned as with unspcak-
able anguish at such desecration of the
evangelical desk. These. however, soon
discovered that they had undertaken an
impossible achievement, in thinking to
Withstand the lacetip of Cartwright. -
His every sentence was lik, finger tick
ling the ribs of the hearer. His very
looks indited to milth far more thln 9th
er mems jokes, so that the effort to main
tain ones equilibrium only increased the
disposition to burst into loud explosions,
as every school boy has verified in SINH
lar eases. AT length the encampment
was in roar; the sternest features relax
ed into smiles; the coolest eyes m.ltel to
tears OF irrepressible merrimant No
here's best comedy or Sheridan's funni-
est farce was never half so successful.
This continued for thirty minutes, while
the orator painted the folly of the sin
ner, which was his theme. looked on
and laughed with the rest but finally be-
gan to fear the result as to the speaker
How, exclaimed mentally. will he ever
be able to extricate hls audience from
that deep whirlpool of humor? If he enda
thus, when the merry mood subsidies and
calm reflection snperveaes, will not the
revusIon of feeling be deadly TO his
fame! viii not every hearer realize
that he has been trifed with IN matters
of sacred and eternal interest! At all
events, there is no prospect Of revival
tonight, for were the orator magician.
he could not change his subject now and
stem this torrent of headlong laughter!
But the shaft of my inference fel! wide
of the mark; for even then he commcnc
ed to change-not all at once. but grad
ually as the wind of thunder cloud
His features lost their comical tinge oil
pleasantly; his voice first grew earnest,
and then solemn, and soon walled out in
T tones of deepest pathos; his eve was
was shorn Of its mild light, and yielded
streams of tears as the fountain Of the
/ hill yields water. The effect was indie.
scribable; the rebound of feeling beyond
all revelation, in words OF portraiture BY
Imagination. IeFdescanted on the hor-
rors of hell till every shuddering face
wasSurncd downwards, as if expecting
to behold the solid globe riven asunder
and the fathomless fiery gulf yawn from
beneath. Brave men moanel like sick
infants, and fair, fashionable women,cov
cred with siken drapery oedight with
gems, shrieked as if knife were al
work among their heart-strings.
Again he changed the theme, and
sketched the joys of righteous death
its faith, its hope, its winged raptu.es,
and what beautiful angels attended the
liberated spirit to its starry home--with
such force, fire and evident belief, that all
eyes were raised toward heaven, as the
entire congregation started to their feet,
rs if to hail the visions of angels al
which the finger of the preacher seemed
to be pointed, elevated as it was on high
to the full length of his arm.
He then made call for the mourners
into the altar, and five hundred, many OF
them until that nigh, infdels, rushed for
ward and prostrated themselves on their
knees. The meeting was continued for
two weeks,and more than thousand con
verts were added to the church. From
that time the success of Peter Cartwright
was unparalleled, and the fact is chiefly
due 10 his inimilable wit and maslerly
eloquence that Mehodism is now the
prevailing religion in Illinois.
lin what college did he graduated
Surely it must have required a mighty
alma mater to develope such son."
You are more than half right, mygood
questioner. Peter Cartwright. like most
preachers OF his sect, received his edu.
cation in the great universal university
the same that produced Homer, Plato,
Shakespeare, Moses, Mendelsshon, Frank
lin-ihat weaver of garlands from the
hghtning's Washington and Pat.
rick Henry. High up on the highest
mountain top, deep down in the lowest
valley, far out away on the rolling bill
low, there he studied and toiled together
in the most glorious of all schools--the
free school of self culture! "Bnt did
he GRADUATED" Aye, and nlture's own
hand wrote his diploma with pencil OF
living light, and stamped it with a seal ol
fire-the immortal fire of true genius.
] Cartwright became an i,inerant al
eighteen, with no learning from books
save what he derived from the pages OF
his Bible and collection of hymns.-
Year after year he continued 10 travel
the wild circuits OF the frontier, earning
but hundred dollars for labor painful
as those of slave al the oar. Blu, his
vocation afforded him an excellent op-
portunity for meditation and even read.
ing. In his long journeys from one APP
poin'ment to another he was alone, with
nothing about him but woods and wa.
ters, birds, mountains, sun, moon, and