Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1854-07-19
price Two Cents.
abe 9aiIp gpg,
WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 1854.
Biography of the Angel Gabriel.

| Biography of the Angel Gabriel.
| The New York Sunday Courier gives tho
following as a true history of the famous
street preacher, generally known as the Angel
! Gabriel
The true name of the celebrated gentleman
| whose singularities have gained for Linn SO
| great reputation, and whose popular cogno-
men is the Angel Gabriel, is McSwish, though
| he is sometimes called Orr, or Horr, III the
public papers. His father belonged to the
elan Gordon, and was, in early life, servant
in the employment of the Marquis Of Huntley.
He married a female domestic in the same es-
adjustment, by the name of Saunders, and
emigrated with his young wife to the Isle Of
Skye, in which place the Angel, as he is now
Called was born, on the third OF September,
1909, which makes him forty-fve years of
age. He was christened by his mothers
name OF Saunders, and was called Sandy Nc
Swish while he remained in his native town.
The present writer, who knew him well, and
attended the same parish school with him,
kept by the minister of the place, the Rev.
Archibald Cameron, has often been on birds
nesting expedition with him, and once res
cued him from drowning, when he fell from
high cliff, into little black pool, called the
Devils Loeb. Sandy was very dull boy,
and was often fogged for not Knowing his
lesson, and the Rev. Mr.. Cameron, if he were
alive now, would hold up his hands in utter
amazement, to know that his unpromising
pupil had become famous street preacher in
the great city of New York, and was kicking
up Tremendous row, under the name of the
Angel Gabriel. Sandy was bound an appren-
tice to a weaver in his thirteenth year, but his
mother having become widow, and married
an itinerant Baptist minister, named Orr, she
soon after left the Isle of Skye with her new
\
convenience sake, or to disguise his Celtic
origin, assumed the name of his stepfather.
What became of him after leaving his native
place, until he turned up in this country as
an evangelist, is known to the present writer
only as second hand, aud may not be strictly
authentic, though the facts are, probably, not
far from correct. s eA
Mr.. Orr, the itinerant preacher, went his
circuit in the Highlands for a year or two,
until finding that way of life rather hard, his
converts few and his family increasing, he
came to the conclusion that he would change,
not only his pasture, but his occupation and
his name. lie was not Celt himself, but an
Engtishman, native Of Brumnagem, and it
is said, but with what degree of truth do
not know, in his early life, he had been
member of an equestrian company At all
events, he joined troupe of eluestrians at
Newcastle, and having taken the name Of
Virgins, assumed the post Of ring master
His young step-son, Sandy McSwish, who
still called himself Orr, became member of
the company, and soon attracted attention by
his feats in ground and lofty tumbling.-
Having quarrelIed with the manager he
gave his parents the slip, and Joined conn
pany of acrobats with whom he visited some
of the principal towns of England, aud at least
at Liverpool, where he fell in love with the
daughter of the proprietor of " wine and
spirits vaults" near the Princes Dock He
eloped with her, and was married in Wales,
where he became a local preacher, of the
Methodist persuasion, in the village Of
| Llangffd. Up to this time the budding angel
had been a very jolly fellow, and was much
liked by his acquaintance but he entered
| with such seriousness upon mis- new vocation,
that he rather alarmed his simple Welsh
| hearers, whom he used to arouse from Their
| apathy by blowing tremendous TIN horn
| from the pulpit. Growing tired of his rural
| position, and having brought on a dyspepsia
| by eatiug too heartily of Welsh rabbits, he
disappeared one night, leaving few debts
behind him as tokens of his affection, among
his parishioners, and taking with him, by
way of remembrance, the pewter tankard
which had been employed in the chruch sa-
craments ~
He made his way for the nearest seaport,
which was Bristol, where he shipped as cook
on board vessel bound for Jamaica, and, on
his arrival in that island, he again assumed.
the functions of preacher; but finding that
the Baptist persuasion was more popular than
the Methodist, he joined that sect. How long
he remained in Jamaica is not known, but
probably not long, for he taught dancing
school in the town of McGrawsvile a few
years ago, after which he became a convert to
Mormonism, but, when Joe Smith went to IL
linois, he turned his face towards the Atlan-
tic States, and, after having been by turns,
check taker at a circus, an assistant in q
menagerie, temperance lecturer, tin ped
lar, an editor of a nativist paper in Philadel-
phia-he found himself in New York with
just money enough in his pocket to purchase
brass trumpet and with this for his stock in
trade, he commenced the Angel Gabriel line
of business, which has proved SO highly pro-
htable and made his nams so famous. His
career in this city is too well known to re-
quire any comments but his future career
may be as varied and remarkable as the past.
We have had many conversation with him
about old times, when we were boys together,
and he often reyerts with gratitude to the day
when the writer Of these lines saved him from
an early DEATH The Angel is a good fellow,
naturally, and, although rather eccentric,
means well. He is not the only man who
has made his way in the world by blowing his
own trumpet.