Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1876-03-02
AETEOR IN TIED PULPIT.

/ ~ " 90 III "a SSo9SsA ~ e4-N ~ pas
stoned cloquence OF Dean Kir-
wan, then famous, not only in
Leinster, but in all Ireland. =
Within a few years Maffitt be-
came a Methodist preacher. =
His first efforts were so unprom-
Iising that some Of bis friends
urged him to abandon the pull
pit, especially as he had been
pclted with stones in the enyi-
/ rons of Dublin and in Droghe-
ia, and on one occasion came
very near losing his life at the
hands Of a mob that insisted Oh
throwing him into the Litfey. =
From such an orthodox baptism
the young preacher was spared
only by escaping through back
door OF the house in which he
had been preaching.
Mafiitt came to New York,
and his first appearance in pulpit
was at a camp meeting near
New London, Conn. He fash
ed out splendidly, and was soon
recognized as the blazing light
Of the New England Conference.
In Boston he pot into trouble.
and was plaintiff in a libel suit;
but lie came off with. verdict
in his favor. This was the gen
esis of a series Of slanders that
followed him to.his grave.
Disseminating himself from
the New England Conference,
Maffitt was thenccforward a
travelling reyiyalist for a quar-
ter of a century. His rest was
temporary. He was elected
Chaplain to Congress, and in
the ball Of the House he electri-
fed Representatives by a thrill
ing tribute to the well-known
Methodist minister, CoGknan,
lost in the Inflated President.
Subsequently, Mafit was called
to the professorship OF elocution
in Lagrange College, Alabama;
then he edited fhe CuIUdrg To-
ken, a monthly periodical, in
Auburn, New York; then a re-
ligious weekly in Nashville; and
then another in Natchez. All
this was recreation from ardu-
GUS evangelical labors.
There are white-haired men
and women in New Y ork, who
remember when the services of
the police were called in requi-
sition to keep in order the null
titudes that blocked the side
walks and roadwaysof she street
in front of the church in which
Maflitt was 20 preach. On one
occasion, in Boston, it was an
nouneed at the morning service
in the Methodist churches that
Maffitt had arrived and would
preach in the Old Federal Street
Theatre, at early candle-!ight.
The day was wet and dismal,
the night dark and stormy. Yet
long before the hour for the SER
vice every seat was filled, and
people packed themselves a.
gainst the walls and in the aisles,
content with standing room on
ly. No man save Daniel WEBB
ster would have drawn such an
audience on night SO unpropi-
tious. 1t was about this time
that Niles Register said that
the coming and going Of the
Rev. j. n. Matfitt was trumpet-
ed with all the noise that attend
ed Kean in his starring trip in
America.
There was something of ubi-
quity about this man. He shot
the. religious horizon like
a meteor. Scarcely had the re-
vival fire died out in one place
before it broke forth furiously
in another. Mafitt in the pull
pit was a figure worth remem-
bering. The spectator looked
upon a small, pale, dark-eyed
man, with a fine month, some
what marred by an operation for
hare-lip, whose head resembled
in size that of the late Sargent
S. Prentiss, the forehead broad
and the brain packed massiyely
in front. The hair over the tenn
pies was shaved clean, whether
TO preserve it or to give more
fitness or rotundity to the
bray, is not known. His locks
weIe curly. oiled, and treated
with womanish daintiness. He.
had habit, when driving in a
close carriage to church, Of ta-
king f his hat, probably to
preyentNis hair from being dis
arrangeAso that it might be III
the best oder in the pulpit.
In dresAhe was scfupilously
neat, even Slegant, and some-
times, in hotVeather, he spgarg