The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1881-11-16
STORY OF A PREACHERS TRIP.
BY JANE GRAY swIssnELM.


STORY OF A PREACHERS TRIP
BY JANE GRAY swIssHELM.
Once upon time, about the veal
of grace one thousand eight hun
dred and fifty, there lived in Frank
lin county, Pa, a young man nam.
ed Jack Merritt and his sister, Eme-
line, who bad lost their father and
found astep-father quite early in life
They inclined to resent the acquisi-
ton, and this resentment aided Jack
in the boy business of governing bis
sister, according to the rules of mas
culine superiority, and greatly for
warded Miss Emeline's studies in
the arts of feminine subjection.
When Jack locked her up in large
house alone, TO keep her out OF
harms way, because she was only a
girl, while be summoned his dogs
and disposed Of Deacon Mirth's tres
passing pigs, or blew to pieces with
powder the logs he had been requir-
ed to prepare for use on the kitchen
fire. Miss EN-. might cry (for what
else could you expect OF a girl }
but she did not question Jack S right
to take care of her in bis own way.
Jack having no brother to educate
and his class of boy pupils being
limited to those of his school dis
trict, he gave proper attention to the
training of the young lady he gov
eraed for her own good-taught her
to ride and drive; to harness horse
and mount one, with or without
help; to row and run and climb
and throw stones like boy. His
success in this last branch of polite
education was such as to cast doubt
on the assertion that woman's
shoulder or elbow joint is so con-
structed as to prevent success in
throwing at mark for Miss Mer-
ritt's proficiency became such that
no boy would have risked giving her
serious offense, if there was n stone
in reach. and once, when a temper
ance meeting was being held in the
school house, in the light of four tai
low candles in tin sconces, and
large, mellow apple came from
among a group of school girls back
in a corner and broke into many
pieces on the bald head of the speak
er, the boys united in declaring that
En-. Merritt must have thrown that
apple, since "no other girl and
mighty few boys could have made
such center shot"
One would not now like to charge
that piece of total depravity on Jack
Merritt's sister, the dignified woman,
who might be a grandmother and
who fills SO large space in society
but, TO look into the merry twinkle
of her gray eyes occasionally, one
might even suspect.
As for the domestic virtues, DO
one in that day thought of teaching
them to a girl in the rural districts
of northern or western Pennsylvania,
any more than they thought of
teaching babies to creep. a girl
learned to cook and bake and sweep
and sew and wash and iron and
pickle and preserve, as matter of
course. If she was of respectable
family, she learned the contents of
the Bible, the Shorter Chatechism
in the same way, and went TO Pres
byterian church.
The young Merits, belonging to a
family of wealth and influence, were
Presbyterian, as matter of course; );
for in those days all respectable
people in northern and western
Pennsylvania were Presbyterian
Methodism had taken firm foothold
among the poor and uneducated of
both town and country, and in cities
the butterflies of fashion said their
prayers in Episcopal churches, but
the pillars of society rested on the
Westminster foundation. In the
fiftieth year of this century there
were many sanity girls in Franklin
but, from that blindness OF
mind and hardness of heart which
can only be accounted for on the
ground of original sin and total de-
pravity, the young preachers of that
region did often overlook their
charms and cast longing eyes on the
forbidden fruit of the reigning belle
of that REGION. Her pomps and
vanities, her sparkle and dash
brought motion into their humdrum
lives, and they came, like moths to
a candle, to be scorched by her keen
wit or fiattered by her smiles. But
her clerical admirers were of her
own church and social circle, until
Young circuit rider of the Pittsburgh
met her in the house of
a brother host, at a quilting, and
threaded needles for her and bore
her sly Jokes at his expense with the
inward resolve to capture the gay
bird and cage her.
When Nature began him, she laid
a superb foundation for physical
man-gave him six-foot frame Of
strong, well,jointed bones rugged
them with sinews like cast steel, COW
cred them with an abundance Of
fine. sensitive skin. but left ont the
flesh usually furnished on such oc-
casions gave him q well-formed
head. crowned it With plenty Of
shining auburn hair, with q slight
inclination to curl.
A six-foot country boy-for this
preacher was not old enough to vote,