Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1853-07-21
Soaring q Crowd.

Standing at Post-office in one of our
Southern States, | was introduced to a
very respectable looking and intelligent
Methodist clergyman, with whom Ienter-
ed into conversation.
tie proved cheerful man, and the
discourse fell on the eccentricities of
preachers. owe the groundwork of the
following anecdote of the celebrated Lo-
reno Dow to this rencontre.
Dow was very exactin the appointments
he made, and sometimes arranged them a
long way ahead. He once preached near
one of the smalltowns of Upper Georgia,
| and told his congregation, on that day
| one year he would preach to them again
The next season, on Saturday after
noon preceding the Sabbath of the ap-
pointed time, the old man was jogging
along the main road in the direction of
his congregation.
He noticed before him stoutli little boy
| of peculiarly active step and manner who
| carried in his hand small tinhorn, such
as are used to call the people to their
| meals.
The custom among many in the South
wives houses, and children to visit their
parents, on Saturday evenings, to stay
with them on Sundays, and as the negroes
are musically inclined, they carry fife,
or horn, or banjo to givenotice of their
approach, and to beguile the way. A
healthy cheerful negro, of honest inten-
tions, uses generally some association,
even if he is obliged to talk to himself!
Dow, according to his usual manner,
entered into conversation with the boy,
and found he was about to visit the con-
gregation he had appointed to meet.
If the truth must be told, Lorenzo had
an idea that the character of his flock was
a reckless, frolicksome, kind of careless
people, upon whom it was necessary to
make very decided impression, or his
time would be thrown away among them
"What is your name, my lad 2" asked
Dow.
Gabriel, sir, replied the boy, lifting
new straw hat, and showing his ivory,
while he actively stepped along to keep
pace with the minister's horse.
''Can you blow upon that horn?
''Oh, yes, master, can toot little"
"Well, let me hear you"
So the negro inflated his velvet cheek,
and made the woods resound.
"Do you know tall pine near the stand
at Sharon 2" said Dow.
eyes, that l does, very well, master"
Lorenzo then putting his hand in his
pocket, and pulling out silver dollar,
showed it to the boy, and told him if he
would climb into the pine tree before the
people met at the meeting, and keep quiet
there until the preacher called out his
name, and blow loudly on his horn, as he
had just done, he would give him the sill
yer dollar if he would not tell any BODY
about it.
The negro expressed himself highly
delighted with such an offer, and promis-
ed punctuality with secrecy.
On the Sabbath large meeting assem-
bled at Sharon, to hear the famous Loren
20 Dow. Serious old men and their
wives, wild boys and their sweethearts,
almost all on horseback, sometimes by
twos and threes,s besides negroes from
great distance on foot, being readily cap.
tivated by the naturally eccentric, for
they love anything that has a laugh at
tached to it, and they knew Lorenzo was
good for joke, if he did hit hard.
!. Dow selecte ed rather birthstone text,
and made the applications as strong as
possible, but he forced his way slowly
among the mercurial, healthful, honest
hearted people. who were hard to frighten.
He enumerated the enormity of the vices
he thought to prevail, but they were so
used to them that the words slid over
them like water over ducks back.
AT length he boldly described, in the
plalnest kind oflanguage, the appearances
and character of the last day. and what
would be their condition when that came |
"Suppose, said the preacher suddenly, |