The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1871-02-01
JOHN BuNYAN.
BY JAMES PARTON.

In &ensely pcopled countries, like
England, Holland and Germany,
there arc classes of people, unknown
i'll America, who move about from
town to town, and from village to
village, exercising some homely craft
by which they live. In Germany,
fer example, there arc butchers who
travel from farm to farm, staying a
day or two at each, killing all the ami
mails required by the farmer for the
season. In all these countries there
arc travelling musicians and bands. of
music, and menders of household ar
ticles who know no rest for the soles
of their feet; to say nothing of gip-
sizes, who roam over every land, living
no one knew how. In England,
where these wanderers arc exceeding
ly numerous, they go by tho name of
general Tramps. III ...r ~. )
From time immemorial tinkers have
belonged to this order of population.
The best of them convey the imFlc-
mcnts of their trade in donkey cart,
along with their hol.seht ldgoods while
others carry their whole possessions
on their backs: and SO they go from
house to house, each having a certain
round, (which occupies him for con-
siderable part of the year. 1t some-
times happens that 4 tinker, steadier
and more enterprising than the rest
settles in a village when his family
has beco.. ineonven1entfy numerous,
and passes the rest of his days i'll mend
ing the pots and kettles of one neigh.
Such tinker. was was tho father Of
Jokn Runyan, and he was settled in
village called Efstow, not far fasa,.a
the large English town of Bedford:
The flmily was near the bottom OF.
the social scale. The wandering
tinkers, who as a eluss lEero apt to
mako free with the farmers poultry
and fruit were considered little better
than gipsies: and if tl-e stationary
thinkers were less disreputable, they
were after all, only tinkcrs. John
Bunyan's father must have been SUI
perior to his class, since he was not
only stationary, bat he sent hts son to
school, and had him taught reading
and writing. -.
John Bunyan was born in Eistow
in 1928, two years before Boston was
founded, and eight Years after the
Pilgrim Fathers set foot upon Ply.
mouth Rock. This gifted and impres-
sible boy, therefore, grew to manhood
during the heat and sfermeht OF the
between tho Puritans and
the Bishops. To. the, tinkcrs son,
barely able to read and write, living
in remote village, this controversy
came in a form wichl did not require
learning or literature to understand.
One of tho most .kcenlY contested
points between .hc Puritans and tho
King related TO The lawfulness of the
c1rnnnioiii sports Of tlie time. such as
danciag, bail PLAYING. buH-baiting
and bell ringiag- 1t Was . compiica- I
ted question, because some of these 4,
sports were innocent and others cruel
The Sunday question was also .involv-
Ell in it, zothe King assafihga thatA
Christians could properly indulge IN !
these movements on Sundays after
church, which the puritans vehement
ly denied,
As Bedford WAS centre of puritan !
ic influence, the attention of the boy
who dearly loreda al the sports of the
field, was early called to this branch
Of the controversy. He was particu-
Iarly fonl nt ringing the chimes, dan.
cing on the green, and playing at ball
and as the good, people around him,
in the war NTH of their party zeal, had
these innocent sports as
he'deviPs own diversions, ne came
1T length to regard them i'll that light
himself. But as he was unable to re
nouncs. them, he felt all the pangs of
I guilty conscience, while leading an
exemplary life. When We re III the
strong expressions which he employs
N denouncing the Guilt Of his early