The Council Bluffs nonpareil. [volume] (Council Bluffs [Iowa]) 1857-1867, 1861-03-30
HOW MEN EXPAND IN THE wrxr

HoW MEN EXPAND IN THE wrSr
one Is often amused, in TRAVELLING !, -,
western States to meek with q dissippui, ha.
lawyer or politician, perhaps irjce =
congressman, produced land no sham n,o
auciion eiiher) from wha, WA k,,r, i
some district school az the East as rnaraIv
,onguey lad, or at best, college bov. On,
| dowed with some little native bras, /,
De; but foreshowing no more d; s,inesi,n !
! NE world than forty nine others in a elas. j,
hstF. Aphyslcian, who now stands eonfas,
sed'y NJ the head Of the faculty in one i,
the largest cities Of the West, wen, tbsr,
some twenty years ago, without even j.
/! iege diploma 20 recommend him-mereir q
tall- green Yankee, who had iborou,hIv road
medicine. and c0u read men. H. and NJ.
friends, and his native New Enyiani. ovs
! Dts expansion and elevation to the form,
tive power OF the West. Ia the same CITY
where 1t was our lot 10 preach half a d:r
Tor brother minister and calieqe matt
| Il distinguished ID. D., by the way. who's
distinction had ali been acquired after he
went out ihere,j in answer 10 questions art
| 'essiF asked respecting the general habits
Oh tue congregation, as hearers Of the word.
We are told the story of lawyer in his
sach lofty standard of pulpit excellence.
Tat be had become a terror. not TO s.eyil
Doors merely, but to all who could not do
extremely well. And 50 quick vas his per-
ceptiAn Of any defect, that in nine cases our
OF tsn he could tell, or thought he could, By
the way in which the preacher read his FIRST
hymn, or a chapter in the Bible, a, the Open
ing OF the service, whether be was fit 10
oh g H. II. l.,
Ieei bound to keep awake, and had often
been known TO show other less equivoca
,igns Of disgust. 1t was impossible, after
hearing all this. not to feel annoyed Mt the
thought Of preaching in such presence
We betheught Us of David, with his five
smooth stones and sling. going to meet Il
giant whose spear was like ..wcaver's
Dram;" but could hardly be solaced with
the hope that, like him, we possessed II
missile hat would penetrate either his head
or heart.
We remember to have once preached to
Daniel Webster, and found him an attentive
hcarc? bat then. while we could not dues-
non his intellectual equality with this
49, coDI Danicd come 10 Judgment" IL was
remembered that he of Marshfi.ld was pro
verbally indu gent in his criticisms of mil
'ster-, which, II was clear from the
pastors showing. was not the habit OF this
formidable parsonage. Several times dur
lng the sermon, and in several different
pews, i'm .inatIun saw the man for neither
ms name, natlveIy, not place in church, was
told us. On leaving the pulpit we were ac-
costed hy Young man. remembered as
student III Monsoon Academy some ten years
previous, when we had the honor of serving
o. the board Of trustees. To our utter sur
prise, 1t afterwards appeared that thus was
me her than that same "uolIah Ofuath,'
grown TO this statue from that acadcm.- boy
since he came into the West. In another
loculity-a rising young city-we found In
almost cverybudy's mouth the name Of Il
certain individual of remarkably shrewd
business tact, of large enterprise, and the
owner Of an immense landed estate, with
any number Of tenants and employees ut his
control. He had built An eighty thousand
dollar hotel in the young city Of his adop-
ton. at which he boarded. We, too, had
taken lodging ut the same house. Judge OF
our astonIshment, when the dinner hour
came, to fed this western nabob at our ell
bow. the identical person whom we had
known in one of the ohscnrest towns OF
Eastern Massachusetts, himself an obscure
youngster, with no more promise than
scores OF others in that place, who, in con
tInucd obscuri,y,
''Aons the cool sequcstcred vale Of life
Have ptsAcd the even tenor OF their way"
These are given rs specimens. Each Is
representative Of IA class. Other classes
might he represented rs well but there Is
no need of 1t. The great fact underlying
them all is sufficiently apparent, namely
that. from some cause or other, there Is II
cncrgizing, expanding, efect
pro luced Ia the West OF the genera! man
hood Of taose who come there from the East.
What Is it? Can it be pointed out or de-
fined? 1t is the theory Of some, we know,
that these phenomena can be accounted for
on the principle that only the most active
and cnterprisjng 20 from home; that 1t Is
not so much the West that expands then |
IN lnhood rs it is their expanding manhood
that carries them there. But this is mer'
b cgng of the question; for 1t Is part OF
phenomena themselves, that there Us no per-
ceptiblc difference in this respect between
those who 90 and those who stay at home
till after they have gone Congregational
Quarterly.