Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1860-12-14
THE FAMOUS APOsTROPHE TO WATER

inouo "Pooolopno W WdUeT, WHlcn JOnn ID.
Cough, the eloquent lecturer on Temper
ance, has repeated to electrified thousands
in America and England We stated that
it originated with Paul Denton, an timer
ant of the Methodist Church in Texas and
that it was delivered at barbecue which
Denton had prepared, and to which he in
vited the strangers 1t had been years
since we read the incident, and we are de-
lighted to find it in an exchange, credited
to Texas paper. We feel sure our readers
will be equally delighted with its perusal.
-PiHsbuuy Dispatch.
The smoking viands were arranged on
the table by scores of slaves, and the
throng prepared to commence the sumptu-
GUS meal, when voice pealed from the
pulpit loud as the blast of the trumpet in
battle, Stay, gentlemen and ladies, till
the giver of the barbecue asks Gods bless
ingv @ af .r.i
Every heart started, every eye was di-
rected to the speaker, and a whisperless
silence ensued, for all alike were struck by
his remarkable appearance. He was almost
a giant in stature though scarcely thirty
years Of age. His hair, dark as the ravens
wing, flowed down his immense shoulders
in masses of natural ringlets; his eyes.
black as midnight, beamed like stars over
a face pale as Parian marble, calm passion
less, spiritual, and wearing singular
indefmble expression. The heterogeneous
crowd, hunters, gamblers and homicides,
gazed in mute astonishment. The mission
airy prayed, but it sounded like no other
prayer ever addressed to a Throne of Grace.
1t was the cry of a naked soul, and that
soul beggar for the bread and water of
heavenly life. ,...-, ...... r
He ceased, and not till then did | be-
come conscious of weeping. I looked
around through my tears, and saw hun
lreds of faces wet as with rain.
Now, my friends, said the missionary,
"partake of Gods gifts at the table, and
then come and sit down and listen to His
gospel.
1t would be impossible to describe the
sweet tone ofkindness in which these sim
pie words were uttered, that made him on
the instant five hundred friends One heart
however, in the assembly was maddened
by the evidence of the preachers wonder
full power
Col. Watt Forman exclaimed, in sneer-
ing voice: "Mr. Paul Denton, your rever-
ence has lied You promised us not only
a good barbecue, but better liquor. Where
is the liquor?'o e ga 80 dt
"There," answered the missionary, in
tones of thunder, pointing his lnotionless
finger at the matchless Double Spring
gushing up in two strong columns, with a
sound like shout of joy, from the bosom
of the earth. "There," he repeated,
with look terrible as Lightning, while his
enemy actually trembled at his feet,
" there is the liquor which God, the Eter-
nal, brews for all His children. Not in
the simmering still, over smoky fires,
choked with poisonous gases, and sur
rounded with the stencil of sickening
odors and rank corruption, doth your
Father in Heaven prepare the precious es-
sence of life, the pure cold water. But in
the green glade and grassy dell, where
the red deer wanders, and the child loves
to play, there God himself brews it; and
down, down in the deep valleys, where
the fountains murmur and the rills sing
and high on the tall mountain-tops where
the naked granite glitters like gold in the
sun, where the storm-clouds brood, and
the thunder-tones crash, and away far out
on the wide, wide sea, where the hurricane
All H
howls music, and the big waves roar the
chorus, sweeping the march Of God /
there He brews it, that beverage of life,
health giving water. And everywhere it
is a thing Of beauty cleaning in the
dew-drop, singing in the summer rain,
shining in the ice-gen, till the trees all
seem turned to living jewels; spreading a
golden veil over the setting sun, or white