Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1875-08-20
SUNDAY AT CAMP MEETING.

SUNDAY AT CAMP MEETING
THE MEETING AT PLEASANT GROVE
ONE THOUSAND PERSONS PRESENT
sTAUNToN MINIsTERs-wHAT A SPEC
TATOR SEES,
&C., &C.. &c.
s.It will only take minute to shaw
me-" said All anxious looking man in ;
BARRIERS chair, talking out of a wave o
lat'ler, and the barber promptly silencin@
him by dabbing the brush i'll his mouth.
But camp meetings. been going Oh al
hour already" said the man on the pave
ment with buggy whip. I'd take
it; you said you'd be ready by six o'clock. .
The anxious man took another dose OF
lather trying to explain his hardness.
And that was the scene in every barber
shop in Staunton early Sunday morning.
Buggies were priceless, and the syren voice
of love could not beguile a man out OF a
riding horse. Our party Of four, including
grim-looking bank officer. got off about
10 O'Clock, leaving Il small margin OF three
hours from the time we had engaged to go.
We had hardly gotten seated in the car
rage after the first jolt, before two OF the
party remarked that it was the first time
they had ever been to camp meeting.
and one made the asser ton that he hadn It
been to one for thirty years. Wedon't be-
leve that, with the exception of a game OF
draw poker, any four men ever got together
to do anything that some Of them didn't
say it was the First time" Wehave heard
some men bold enough to say it at draw
poker, but it didn't fool anybody after the
first deal. ..s~. ,-44 s..
THE ROUTE.
1t may be shat good errand brings the
favor of Providence-that is, it may be so
as general rule, but we are afraid
going to camp-meeting is an exception.
The road to Pleasant Grove was rough;
the clouds which overhung it were uI-
friendly, and the mud which covered its
hard heart was splitting, malicious sort
of mud that laid in wait for decently
dressed people. You look back at a puddle,
after whizzing through it, and it lies there
looking after you with it's dull yellow eye,
as calm and unrutfie0 as if it had never
done thing, and you just sit and damn
the oyerseers of the road. After getting
into the narrow road leading to Pleasant
Grove, our mud splashes cease because two
of the wheels are always up the side of the
bank and the other two are too deep to
splash. 1t was very trying on our fat man,
who was continually getting up UNI
brella to jump, and still more tryihVto a
thin one on the other side, who was i'm
plQring him not to jump on his side.
NEARING THE GROVE.
The first sight that assures you you are
getting to the camp ground is water
melon wagon surrounded with customers.
1t is mile from the camp-ground and
they have tramped through the mud to get
them, and they seemed to enjoy it. You
can always eat water melons with more
in the shadow Of Il camp
can send for a minister SO
handy, and if the attack is fatal you can
have a combination funeral. From this
point, which might be called Watermelon
vile, one could hear the hymns, sung with
strong voices, come surging through tile
woods. A few hundred yards more and
you are in the midst of hundreds of tied
horses, unhitched from the acres of vehicles
around, and you add to the num-
Der by leaping out into the mud and hand
ing your fiery and unframed coursers to a
young man with book in his hand, who
says they will be feared for' which they
are to the extent Of being returned alive.
THE MEETING.
Standing on the edge Of the meeting,
after lodging the heels of Il score of horses
to get there, and throwing away your
cigar to stay there-smoking being against
the rules-you see at the further end a
successful imitation Of candy stand on
Il small scale, containing four or five min
listers, one Of whom is standing and .ges-
and that is as far as you may
know. He may be quoting the law and
the prophets, or he may be reading some
extracts from the vINDICAToR as far as
you can tell. Very little Of the sermon
reaches the edge Of The assemblage and
we think very few souls are saved at that
long range. Your neighbors, sati SIZED
that they cant hear anything, commence
and you soon yield to the tempta-
ton. You know the sermon is a good one
because ReY. John Martin, of Staunton. is
it, but that is about all you
know about it.
You see by the breaking up Of the crowd
that the sermon is over, and then COM
mences the dlnr er SkirmiSh, and the
persons who are skirmishing for the meal
about one fourth of the assembly.
1t is a forlorn hope of young" men from
twenty to fifty years of age, who being
without families. propose to eat with
somebody else's family than which
nothing can be better, if somebody else's
family will only let you. Our party now
increased to six by the addition of two
ssyoung'' men who had joined, under the
impression that we had brought dinner,
God in friendless sort of way around q
tree. Our Jokes on the situation were
strained and lacked the element of cheer
fulness. In fact we all rather envied a
boy that had been stung by Il wasp during
service and excited so much sympathy
and attention that twenty boys couldn't
have eaten what was offered him. One
bright little girl skipped by with big
basket and said something about s'dinner,'
and our head joker said ooh, we're en-
gaged'' and got a sharp Nobody said
y-o-u'' for his pains. He looked grieved
and said children were raised badly now
adays. He frightened up presently and
said ooh there's a girl L met at the
springs.'' His bow was unexceptionable
but she didn't recolect him. One of the