The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1857-1858, 1857-07-29
The Texas Camp Meeting

NlMhte ehtM OF Ntngve Hue
The rexas Camp Meeting,
During the last week in Sep,emesN lSse,
the Eret successful eamp meeeSns wes held
IN Easteea Texas employ the epitAet
NsNeeeesl0l because several previous fail
Nrcs had apparently rendered eeNets OF a
like kind perfectly hopeless, Indeed, the
meridian, at this period MAS NEST oaeoa.
genial ~ the religious and mora' enterprise.
The country bordering on the Sabine was
occupied, rather than settled, by class OF
adventurous IA wild as the savagcs whom
they had scarcely expelled and the beasts
of prey which still disputed their domains
Of primeval forests. Professional gamblers,
refugees from every land, torgers OF false
coin thieves. robbers and muraercrs inter.
spersed among the race of eneducatea hunt
crs and hcrlsmen, made ap the strange
social miscellany, without coarts, or prisons
or churches, or schools, or even the shadow
of civil authority or suhoraination; a sort of
unprinciplcd pandemouium, where fierce
passion sat oathronei, waving its bloody
sceptre, the bowie knife Let no one accuse
me Of exaggeration for the sake OF dramatic
effect am speaking now of Shelby county
the home of the i.yuchers, the terrible local
ity, where, ten years later, forty persons
were poisoned to death at marriage supper
Ii will be obvious that in such commu
nifty, very few persons would be disposed to
pa,ronze camp meetings: and accordingly,
IA dozen different trials, on various occasions
had never collected hundred hearers on
any single occasion. But even these were
not allowed to worship in peace; uniformly
the first day or night, band of armed des-
peradoes. headed by the notorious Watt Foe
man, chief judge Esd executioner of the
Shelby Lynchers, broke in to the altar, and
scattered the mourners, or assembled the pull.
pit and threatened the preachers to a gratuit-
Gus robe OF tar and feathers. Hence all pru-
dent evanreiists soon learned to shun the
left bank of the Sabine as if it had been in
tested by cohort of demons; and t,yo whole
years elapsed without any new attempts to
erect the cross in So pcriious a field.
At length, however, an advertisement APP
peared, promising another effort in behalf OF
the gospel The notice was unique, a per-
feet backwoods curiosity, both as to its tenor
and mode Of publication Let me give it
rer6atim ct Hteratim:
BARBECUE CAMP MEETING.
mence the last Monday OF this month, at the
in Shelby county.
The exercises vii! open with a grand bar
becue The preparations are being made to
suit all tastes; there will lie a good barbecue
better liquors, and the best of gospel.
.PAuL DENTON,
Missionary Nj, E. c.
ss.Sept ], 1886
This singular document was nailed to the
door of every public house and grocery it
was attached to the largest trees at the inter
section of all cross roads and principal
trails; and even the wandering hunters
themselves found it in remote deils of the
mountains. miles away from the smoke of
a human habitation.
At first, many regarded the matter as a
hoax played off by some wicked wag, in rid
icule of popular credulity. But this hypoth-
esis was negatiyed by the statements of
Peter Brinson, proprietor Of the Double
Spring Grove who informed all enquirers
tllat he had been employed and paid by a
stranger, calling himself Methodist mis-
sionary, to provide an ample barbecue at the
period and place advertised.
t'But the liquor, the better liquor are you
to furnish that, toog, was the invariabie
question of each visitor.
"The missionary said he would attend to
that himself, said Brinson
'.lIe must be precious original" was the
rejoinder; proposition which most of them
had the opportunity to verify experiment
tally
need hardly add that an intense excite.
ment resulted The rumor took wings, and
Lew on the wind, turned to a storm,
a storm Of exa-geratIoa, every echo increased
in its sound till nothing else could be heard
but the la becue camp-meeting 1t be
came the focus Of thou;sht--the staple OF
dreams Aud thus the unknown preacher
had secured ono thing in advance, a congre
cation embracing the entire population Of
the country, which was, likely, the sole pur-
pose Of his stratagem.
was travelling in that part Of Texas. at
the time and my imagination being ini!amed
by the common curiosity, | took some
trouble and attended liut, although my
eyes witnessed the extraordinary scene. !
may well despair Of the undertaking to paint
it: the pen Of Homer. or the pencil Of Ho-
garth are alone adequate to the subliinitv
and hurlesque of such complicated task
| may only sketch the angular outlines
A space h been cleared away, imme.
iiatey around the magnificent Double
spring which boiled up with sufficient
force to turn mill wheel, in the very cen
ter Of the evergreen grove. Here pulpit
bad been raised, and before it was the insep
arabic altar for monrners Beyond these,
at the distance Of fifty PAGES, II succession
Df plank tables, arranged in the form Of
great circle or The perimeter Of a polygon,
enclosing the area about the
.pring An odoriicrous stream of the most
delicious saver dfluseu itself through the
,ir. This was from the pits Of the adjacent
prairie, where the fifty slaves of Peter Brin
.on were engaged in cooking the promised |
The grove itself was literally alive TEEN.
ne swarmine, running over with strange |
isnres in human shape, men, women and |
children. Ill shelby county was there =
he hunters had come, rifles in hand, and
logs barking 1t their heels; the rogues,
etugees and gamblers, with pistols in their
,elts and big knives sticking from their
hirt bosoms. while here and ther9 might be
cen a sprinkling Of well dressed planters,
Nth their wives and daughters
The tumult was deafening, tornado of
abiding tongues, talking, shouting quar-
cling, betting and cursing for amusement.
Suddenly cry arose, "Colonel Watt Foe
nanl Hurra, for Colonel Watt Foeman"
nd the crowd parted right and left to let
he lion Lyncher pass.
] turned to che advancing load star Of all
yes, and shnddered inyolantarily at the Sa-
lnic countenance that met my glance, and
ct the features were not only youthful. but
handsome; the hideousness Law
, the look of savage fire ferocious, murder.
u.s. II was in the reddish-yelow eye balls,
nth arrowy pupils, that seemed to flash Jets
( lurid fame in the thin snecring lips,
nth their everlasting icy smile As to the
est. lie was tall, athletic, very powerful
ian. His tram, a dozen armed desperadoes
allowed him