Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1856-11-05
Cbuitt gittratart.
PAUL DENTON,
OR THE TEXAS CAMP MEETING.

ny cHAs. sUMMERFIELD.
During the last week Of September 1886,
the first successful Camp Meeting vas held
in Eastern Texas. | employ the epithet
successful" because several previous fail
ures had apparently rendered all efforts of
a like kind perfectly hopeless. Indeed,
this meridian, at that period, was most un-
congcnial to religious and moral enterprise.
The country bordering on the Sabine, had
been occupied, rather than settled, b.
class Of adventurers almost as wild as the
sayages whom they had scarcely expelled,
and the breasts of prey which still disputed
their domain Of primeval forests. Profes-
sional gamblers, refugees from the Jail, alb
seconded debtors, outlaws from every land,
forgers Of false coin, thieves, robbers, MUIR
derers, interspersed among q race of uned-
ucatcd hunters aud herdsmen, made up the
strange social miscellany without courts,
or prisons, or churches, or schools, or even
the shadow Of civil authority or subordina-
tion--a sort Of unprincipled pandemoniune,
where the fierce passions sat enthroned,
waving its bloody sceptre the naked bow
ie knife. Let no one accuse me of exag-
Grafton, for the sake Of dramatic effect
am speaking now Of Shelby county-that
home Of the Lynchers-the terrible locale,
where ten years later, forty persons were
poisoned TO death at a marriage supper ?
Ii will be obvious that, in such a COM
munity, very few would be disposed to pat
ronize camp-meetings and accordingly q
dozen different trials, at various times,
- had never collected hundred hearers, on
any single occasion. But even these were
not allowed to worship in peace uniform
ly the first day or night, band of armed
desperadocs, headed by the notorious Watt
Foeman, chief judge aud exccutioner of the
Shelby Lynchers, broke into the altar and
scattered the mourners, or ascended the
pulpit and treated the preachers to gra.
tuitous robe of tar and feathers Hence
all prudent evangeists soon learned to shur
the left bank Of the Sabine, as if it haC
been infested by a cohort of demons; ant
two whole years elapsed without any ney
attempt to erect the Cross in so perilous
field.
At length, however, an advertisement
appeared promising another effort in be
half of the Gospel. The notice was a
nigue, perfect backwood's curiosity, bot
as to its tenor aud mode of publication
Let me give it Uerbdtim ct Lterdtim {:
"Barbecue Camp Meeting.
"There will be Camp. meeting TO CON
mence the last Monday of this month, I
the Double Spring Grove, near Peter Bril-
sons, in the county of Shelby.
"The exercises will open with spleI
did barbecue. Preparations are being mad
to suit all tastes there will be good ba
becue, better liquor, and the best of Go
pei +! 'PAUL DENTON,
Sept. l, 1886. Missionary NJ. E. c.
This singular document was nailed
the door Of every public house and gree
ry; it was attached to the largest trees Q
the intersections Of all crossroads and priT
cipal trails aud even the wandering hui
ters themselves found it in remote del
Of the mountain, miles away from the smol
Of human habitation.
At first many regarded the matter as
hoax played off by some wicked wag,
ridicule of popular crcdulity. But this b
pothesis WIS negatiyed by the Statemer
of Peter Brinsop, proprietor of tho "DO
bic Spring Grove" who informed all inq
rers, 'that he had been employed and pa
by stranger calling himself Method
missionary, to provide an ample barbec'
at the period aud place advertised"
"But the liquor-the better liquor;
you to furnish the liquor two?" was
iuvariable question of each visitor.
"The missionary said he would atte
to that himself" replied Brinson.
"He must be precious original" '
the egeneral rejoinder. A proposition VIII
most Of them afterwards had an opportu
ty to verify expermentally.
l need hardly add that an intense excl
ment resulted. The rumor took win;
few on the wind turned to storm-a sto
Of xaggeration-every echo increased
sound, till nothing else could be heard
'the Barbecue Camp Meeting" it beca
the focus Of thought, the staple Of drea
Aud thus the unknown preacher had
sured one thing in advance, oongregat
embracing the entire population Of
country, which was, it is likely, the
purpose of his stratagem.
was travelling in that part Of Te
at the time, aud my Imagination being
famed by the common curiosity, |
some trouble and attended. But altho
my eyes witnessed the extraordinary SC
may we'll despair Of the undertaking
paint 1.-THE pen of Homer, or the pt
# Hogarth, were alone adequate to
sublimity and burlesque of the comp
ted task, may only sketch the anl
outlines,