Smyrna times., 1869-10-13
MiSceIIun IL e o as.
THE N. Y. TRIBUNE ON PETER
CARTWRIGHT.

Last week we published notice that an ova-
ton had been given to the Rev. Peter Cart
wright, the eccentric Methodist preacher of
IlnOis, on the anniversary of his fftieth year in
the ministry as presiding elder. The New
York Tribune thus refers to the man and the
occasion:
Apart from all sectarian, and even from all
religious considerations, the recent honors paid
to the Rev. DR.. Cartwright, at Lincoln, ILL.,, by
his brethren in the ministry, have an interest
for all to whom the spectacle Of life devoted
to duty is beautiful. DR.. Cartwright, who is
now eighty five years of age, has been for six
ty6ye Of those years in the ministry-a fact in
this day Of shifting aims and vacillating exer-
ton in itself sufficiently remarkable. The fine
old man, after half century of toisome travel,
Of self-Sacrice, of genuine apostolic devotion,
stood before his brethren to receive the need
Of their admiration and gratitude. Such a ca
reer, such man, must have recalled to those |
who listened to him the beginning of the Meth |
Odlst Church, when its founder, with his little |
band OF devoted adherents, with his saint-like |
minstrel brother by his side, went out to no
holiday task and, weeping over the lukewarm
condition of tn: Church to which he still ad- |
hered, sought among pauptr' AMI outcasts in
oh0 DiWdyO Vi lIngldDu lOT tD6
witnesses OF faithful ministry. DIR. Cart.
wight is living representative of the genuine,
primitive discipline of We>ley-of the men who
thought no journey too long, no danger too
IMMINENT no suffering too acute, if only they
might carry glad tidings to the sinful and the
degraded He Is one of the last as he is one of
me greatest OF the travelling preachers of the old
school, de is one whom John Wesley would
have taken to bosom which rarely glowed with
emotional affection, and who would have NOV
ed the aseetic nature of that extraordinary man
% words OF approval, perhaps even of unaccus
toned praise
The speech in which DR.. Cartwright respond
Cd to the congratulations of his brethren was
emarkable for rare simplicity, an engaging
eaador, and rude strength altogether refresh
\ Gng In these days of shallow pulpit rhetoric
inere was, indeed, no absence of sectaran
schncalities and of camp meeting phrases,
Nr which the refined reader might have no
t's9 Tor Dr. Cartwright adheres las he has
angnt to dol to the dialect of his youth, and
may not have kept pace with his associates in
IGe march Of refinement. But nothing in the
suOe range OF domestic poetry could be more
beautiful or touching than the allusion of the
WtOgenary to his aged wife,. He had not been
peaklng hve minutes before his thoughts went
aek 10 her. She had been his worthy COM
EdnGnr-one who had never hindered him from
ssay'ehng and preaching, had never scolded him
" leaVlng her destitute and lonesome, but had
E"Sys urged him to do what he thought to be
Tduty l have, said he, " expect, the
uGs. ,Metnodlst preacher $ wife in the world. V
anu tnen not simply with pardonable but just
"lPIaVcee1cy, the patriarch spoke of his fifty
TTaInIdehlldren and of his twenty great grand
%%lloren. lie had been not only a preacher o
SgOSpei but the founder of tribe.
G"or could anything be more entertaining thar
fTeuihlscences T in which, upon this occasion
4. A. cartwright indulged. He rambled througl
y NC STORY OF his life with something of the mi
~ JoueSS Oh lie tOe-here stopping for an aneC
s" %Oe, there pausing to detail some humorou
sSuulstance, s.S but always giving evidence of a
SooS ,"Tst S ana kindly nature. He had suffered
A. Lg ugal 10 oody and mind and circumstance
H. s.1 ss1 oeen caught five hundred miles frol
n Gh;a'ner mouse with but seventy five cen
S.r"Ip pocAet In strange land, as a Methodi
,ng s.g preacher, on horseback, and with NJ
gLtuneInt Dutwhat was brought to the patch.
tI as nad been taken to task by an older brother
"rIu "nIInlhlstry for wearing suspenders." and vi
Hay1.c"o Hy consoed when he found that Bishop NJ
msSay wore "suspenders'' also. He had be-
b;soas.:e u. D." and the very day he q
bis haol Sate y he was taken i'll with a pain
eJnask;; His father wanted to make ,
OusIv " ma man Of him, but missed it tremen
sion i% ma When he was converted, bis conve
siIya,'sIs; I; not one of your tip-tOp, fashionat
sioDa siippered, best bib-and tucker convt
trsosa;ln tn was backwoods conversion, SO e
hs nouuary In its physical manifestations tn
tv;,S ;Soc.or !. wanted to shave his head and GOV
s;1sa. large blister'-an anecdote whi
Mssas enind the reader of somewhat simil
Sgs 70 the early life of George Fox. N
Nesshl told the audience that she h
kWSesu as many sermons as any living man
k1as we call sermons" he added, mode
nod might take dozen of them to max
hvs;;se' ohe' Tor what l know, but they cost
hen, SeD Al labor as well as mental labor" III
lomsnoss ~s may say, is veritable clerical pl
: 9DSsa 9S'snon. For half a century, in all weat6e
, 4 lud d;G .e open sky, with long intervals oflon
6r hcuit oncuit travel, here is man who has ne
SuS5 nd moment moment faltered, has kept himself i
shatu physical condition, and has dispen
: eues.ae ne thought to be the truth with ali
: smSss, oi perfect conviction, with perh
! hsS uca "a effect as if he had been deem in
8 anu master OF theological dialectics.
g r. hs ppae whatever his religious views. whe
: site ue r,gidly orthodox or broadly ratio,
z ae nosl ssn doubt the real good, apart from
2 Dr. rsr,l ronal example, which in all these ye
b not tsslhswnght nv must have accomplished. Z
"e pace nor is ours the pen to disc