Red Wing sentinel. [volume] (Red Wing, M.T. [i.e. Minn.]) 1855-1861, 1859-01-29

9. ss5
dents, and setting aside its oddities,
and even allowing that the author was
not properly "posted, - must command
Bnd more than command interest. tt
describes, in fact. the birth, fortunes
and general experiences of the oldest
Methodist preacher. When
Peter Cartwright set forth to preach,
there We're emo. colleges, nor even .
common school within
hundreds Of miles," "Old Dyke or
Dilworth'' was his spclling-book. AL
pocket Bible, Hymn-B Book, and Dis
cipline constituted his library. s'1t.isl
true,' he reports, tsmany ofus could
not coniugate verb or parse . SEM
tence, and murdered tho Kings Eng-|
lish almost euery lick" But advan-
tages accrued from the want of learn
ing. "A divine unction attended the
word preached, and thousands Utter
ally) fell under the preachers power.
DR.. Peter Cartwright was born, in|
1885, in "Ole Virginny," when the
country was not 't6lled up" but some
what thinned by Indians and bears.
The government of the State was con-
Quoted by a band ofregulators; there
was not newspaper, south of Green
River, Logan County,-no mill short
Of forty miles, and no schools worth
the name. The life is thus describ-
eds as
Sunday was a day set apart for hunt
ing, horse-racing, card-playing, balls,
dances, and all kinds ofjollity and
mirth. We killed our meat out of the
woods, wild and beat our meal and
hominy with q pestle and mortar. We
stretched a deer-skin over a hoop,
burned holes in it with the prongs Of a
fork, sifted our meal, baked our bread,
ate it, and it was first-rate eating too.
We raised, or gathered out Of the
woods, our own tea. We had sage,
bohea, cross-vine, spice, and sassafras
teas, in abundance. As for coffee, I
am not sure that I ever smelled for
ten years. We made our sugar out Of
the water Of the maple-tree, and our
molasses too. These were great lux
uries in those days. We raised our
own cotton and flax. We water-rotted
our flax, broke by hand, scutched it;
picked the seed out of the cotton with
our fingers our mothers and sisters
carded, spun, and :wove it into cloth,
and they cut and made our garments
and bed clothes, &c. And when we
|got on new suit thus manufactured,
and sailed out into company, we tho't
ourselves tos big as any6ody.' =
Peter was wild wicked boy. At
nine he was sent out to invite the
neighbors to hear preaching; and Ca
young race-horse nearly proved his
everlasting ruin" At sixteen he
gave up his race-horse, and re.
quested his father to sell him, thongh
we fear the price at that date would
not be remunerative. At the time he
Joined the Methodist Church in -ls01
there were only ssof members, proba-
toners, .cotott1ed and all, 2,4s4, and
about fifteen travelling preachers. - :
The difficulties of preaching in these
primitive times are we'll illustrated by
the following anecdote respecting vii.
son Lee - 5a -. 49, :;
"He was one of the early pioneer
Methodist preachers sent to the West.
He was very solemn and grave min
lister. At one Of his appointments, at
! private house on a certain day, they
had a motherless pet lamb. The
boys of the family had mischievously
learned this lamb to butt. They would
60 near it, and make motions with
their heads, and the lamb would back
and then dart forward at them, and
they would jump out of the way, so
that the sheep would miss them. A
man came into the congregation who
had been drinking and trolicking all
the night before. He came in late,
and took his seat on the end of bench
nearly in the door, and, having slept
none the night before, presently he be.
gan to nod; and as he nodded and
bent forward, the pet lamb came along
by the door, and seeing the man nodd.
ing and bending forward, he took il
as banter, and straishtway backed
and then sprang forward, and gave
the sleeper Severe jolt right on the
head, and over he titled him, to the
no small amusement of the congrega-
ton, who all burst out into laughter ;
and grave as the preacher, Mr.. Lee,
was, It so excited his risibilities that
he almost lost his balance. But recov-
ering himself little, he went on in a
most solemn and impressive strain"
A celebrated Revival follows, in
which the Methodists 'skept well bal
anced," and in which camp-meetinps
Originated. "A powerful exercise
called "the jerks" which arose under
preaching, is = popularity Of this pc
"No matter whether they were saints
or sinners, they would be taken under
a warm song or sermon, and seized
with a convulsive jerking all over,
which they could not by any possibility
avoid, and the moro they resisted the
more they jerked. If they would not
strive against it, aud would pray in
good earnest, the jerking would usual