New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-09-14
Anecd0te of HIrs. Van Colt,

| Mrs, Van Cott has been spending Dor
tion Of the last month in earnest efforts fol
the ChIisfianizing Of sundry towns and vii
lagos of Pennsylvania. Among these place;
IS the village OF Freedom, in York county
| where sho met with marked success and
held enthusiastic meetings. One evening
| while canvassiDg the house for repenta7,
sinners, she noticed a middle-aged man, the
stolid expression of whose face attracted
| her attention, and excited her feminine
| curiosity; SO, in her usual magnetic man
ner, she approached him and asked him
whether he would not like to follow in the
| path of the righteous. No answer could
| she gain, and with an audible prayer of
may God drive the dumb devil out of you,
| my brother" she passed on to interview
more impressible subjects.
Two nights passed. and the stranger
again appeared at the church; but this time
his eyes were lighted up with an almost
maniacal glitter, and his countenance seem
ed the playground of the liveliest emotions.
Quickly approaching the al ar, he knelt
among the sobbing and shouting ones, and
as the religious shepherdess drew near he
ASKED her if she knew him. "Why, yes:
you're the man who had the dumb devil the
other night" she replied. lie then begged
of her the privilege of saying few words,
and; the request being granted, he arose and
deliberately drawing revolver from his
breast, held it aloft in thrilling, dramatic
manner while he told his history of life to
the eager listeners. He was a resident of
Chicago, where he had for many years fol-
lowed his profession of photographer. For
the last four years he had strayed far
from the path of right and virtuous
living, and as consequence of his dissipa-
tien and debauchery, his wife had desert
ed him and returned to his friends in
Pennsylvania. Driven to frenzy by this,
he sank still lower and lower, until. as if
the hendishness of hell itself possessed him,
he had purchased this weapon of death,
and started for the East, determined to
murder his wife and children, and then
put an end to his own miserable exist
ence. Only two nights before he sat in
that church looking for his wife, and gloat-
ing over the fiendish plot. The words then
spoken to him had aroused his almost lost
manhood, and falling again on his knees
he desired Mrs. Van Colt to pray for him.
She spoke at once. extending her
hand toward him; "Come, give me
child he handed her the weapon,
and then feeling in his pocket produced q
box of cartridges, which he also placed in
her hand, The strange sight was then pre-
sentsd of the women revivalists holding in
one hand a seven-shooter, and in the other
box of death-dealing missiles, while she
offered to heaven an earnest prayer for the
Saving VI Inns DranQ from Ine burning. AS
Mrs. Van Colt finished telling the incident
to the Post and Mail reporter che said,
Never in my life did l ever feel such
power in prayer, and never before did
offer up petition to my Heavenly Father
under such strange circumstances" The
next day the man, clothed in his right
mind, and happy in heart, sought his in
jured w4le, effected reconciliation, and
another will soon be added to the list of
happy homes in Chicago Chicago Post and
Nail.