The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-08-16
ISRAEL I'm TENTS.

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The TribuIatiOns Of Going to ana ir"'
From Our OtDn Correspondents
IN THE Woops NEAR BAREsBoRO, N J., Aug To-
"Ten thousand people in swelter OF neat anu
a cloud of dust" The caption is literally true
and the dopped patience manifested by this
melting multitude affords rare opportunity Ior
stndvino some of the most striking peculiarites
of the American people. The "Old Bethel
Comn-meeting" which was opened on the 11th
and will close on the 10Th of the present month,
is held in clump of trees, of large growth ana
ample extent situated Immediately to the right
of the line of the West Jersey Railroad, about
mile and a half below Barnsboro Station, and
fifteen miles below the Camden terminus. In
front of the camp-meeting ground there is
long platform by the side of the railroad track,
at which almost every train in either direction
stops to disembark passengers during the con-
FINANCE of the encampment. The railroad
company has been taxed to its utmost capacity
in carving all the people that have presented
themselves. and in addition to those who have
reached the camp by rail there has been a con-
slant stream flowing in from all quarters of the
COMPASS. until the multitude has reached the
climax and as / now write numbers, according
to the estimate of prominent participants in the
religious exercises, about ten thousand.
Going to the Camp,
The trains that left Camden on Saturday alter
noon were crowded to sulfocation, and hundreds
were left behind. Your correspondent prepared
TO take the o'clock evening train, and to make
sure of a scat was ready to take the cars at five
But there were already several hundred people
on hand and no cars to take. Every available
niece of rolling stock had been brought into use,
and vet before the 6 o'clock train could be made
ND the train that had preceded it must return.
About seven it pushed into the depot, every car
hacked with people who had been to the en-
campment and been satisfied. By this time the
crowd of people in waiting had been swelled to
monster proportions. 1t was so manifest that
all could not be accommodated with seats, that
as soon rs the train paused, there was grand
rush, and despite the commands and eNertlOns
of the railway officials, it was found impossible
to keep them at bay long enough to permit the
homeward-bound passengers to allght. so the
mutitudes bound in opposite directions en-
countered each other on the platforms and at
the narrow doOrways. and great was the shock
of the conflict. While the struggle for ingress
and egress was being fought ut the ends OF the
cars hundreds of men who could not get near
enough to the objective points to participate
made their way head foremost into the cars
through the open windows, and when the heroes
of the platforms finally effected an entrance they
found the choice seats, and frequently the whole
array of seats, already occupied
At half-past the train moved from the depot
and about 0 it stopped at the camp station, when
the great throng filed through the narrow road
way leading into the woods. Supper for eight
hundred at half-past was serious task. A
few hundreds contrived to get something to cat,
and several hundreds were content to throw
themselves upon the straw without a bite.
The Camp at Night.
The regular sermon for the evening was about
over, but large prayer-meetng was still in pro-
gress at the preachers stand, while from all the
larger tents surrounding the circle came the
sound of prayer and hymn in an unbroken and
discordant strain. Altogether there are about
six hundred tents within the limits of the camp
ground Many of these especially the ones
facing the circle, are hutS rather than tents
being built of rough boards, with some Difference
to comfort, although in utter defiance of all the
rules of taste. The aority of the small tents
have seen service of far different kind and
still bear the imprint of the National Government,
from which they were purchased by spectators,
who made handsome profit upon their invest
ments, and at the same time enabled the camp
meeting people to obtain comfortable and sub
stantial quarters at marvellously low rates.
Here and there about the camp there is a
square case of earth, supported, at a height of
about six feet from the ground, by four upright
posts On each of these is a pile of blazing
embers which serve to light up the encampment,
casting upon the scene sOmbre glare which
adds much to its solemnity. The crowd of par
ticipants in the services at the stand, and the
spectators surge and sway about the point OF
interests eXhortations to penitence, and pleas fol
mercy and songs of praise, and shouts of Joy
arise from hundreds of eager and Jealous lips
and over all the lurid flame of the pine-knot
casts its dim religious lustre. To one who il
accustomed to the scene, and who has faitl
in the efficacy of its appliances and surround
ings as agencies for bringing sinners into tn,
fold of the Church, it has a strong and peculia
attraction. To one who witnesses it for tn,
first time it possesses a strange weird, and i'm
pressve interest, even if its influences do no
penetrate to the depths of his soul and move al
the chords of his being into harmony with it
spirit. To one who is so touched and moved
and who has hitherto neryed his heart in stub
bornness against all religious feeling, it mark
an epoch. Demons of torment and imps O
darkness are conjured up; they glare at hin
among the flames of the pine-knots they leer q
him among the tree tops they haun
him and torture him until they driy
him TO despair and in his deS
peration he throws himself PROSTATE upon tn
earth he smites his breast in an agony of spiri
he cries out with all the energy of his sou
tLord, be merciful to me, sinner!' And the
comes the wrestling with the angels of the Lor
hours-perchance whole days-of deep cont
ton. of earnest longing, of pitifu pleadin
until at last the crisis is past, his heart
changed, his soul regenerated his faith grounds
gl.,r,, Inc cola