The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1881-11-30

worse than the newspaper business The
idea OF publishing the New York Herald
simultaneously in Chicago, was part of the
Inter Ocean scheme. looked about the
building and presses. I consulted the
managers of the Western Union Telegraph
company and the Atlantic and Pacific Tel
egraph company. The latter was lust
starting at that time, and its manager was
an active young man who wanted to get
business | said | proposed to duplicate
the New York Herald dispatches, and he
thought it an immense thing, and so it
was | wrote James Gordon Bennett
about the dispatches. I think 1 told him
If he helped me out in the matter
would consider the Herald suit at an end
Q.-After you gave up the newspaper
enterprise, what did you next do?
A.-That brought me down to the win
ter and spring Of 1876. tried to pick up
the law business, which / had neglected,
but law business was scarce and found it
hard to get any. Then I went out to your
place in Wisconsin. I worked around the
house, studied theology and the New Test
ament, and the newspapers, and soaped
trees and all that kind of thing. In 0cto-
Der, 1875. was in Chicago during the
Moody and Sankey meetings. I attended
prayer meetings and services regularly,
that time [ was with Moody and bore
an active part. was usher
and helped around in general way.
Spoke frequently at prayer meetings.
Some time IN November, during the Moody
work, heard DIR. Kittridge, of Chicago,
pastor of the Third Presbyterian church.
say in reference to the text: 'H I will
that he (meaning john tarry till I come,
what is that to thee" Brethren. 1 have
to confess that do not know what that
means" At that time there was much
expectation in the public mind that the
Savior might soon appear and that idea
has prevailed the peoples minds ever since.
That set my brain whirling and began to
investigate it. went to work in the Chi
cago public library and dug out my lecture
on the Second Coming The idea of
that lecture is briefly this, that the
second coming of Christ occurred on
the destruction of Jerusalem; that it
was an event in the spirit world, and that
tn destruction of Jerusalem was an out.
ward sign of his coming. l hold that for
all these eighteen centuries the churches
have all been in error in supposing that
the second coming of Christ will be in the
future That is the proposition on which
my lecture was written and that was the
result of three or four years investigation
on that subject. Witness then went on to
relate his various failures in delivering his
lecture in Chicago, Evanston, Racine, To-
ledo, Buffalo, Washington and elsewhere.
He frequently laughed upon repeating
some humorous incident of his failure.
At various times he was putioff the train
for not paying his fare and arrested for
not paying his board bills. At other
times he grew excited in asserting that
in all he did he was like st. Paul, en-
gagged La the services of God and that God
was responsible for his board bills On
this latter point he said: Il did not give
up lecturing because OF repeated failures
I tuck to my work. My idea was, as l
was working for the Lord / would do my
dutv an 1 let him take care Of me as he felt
disposed. I went into the whole business
to serve the Lord, not to make money.
Success or failure was nothing to me. !
considered that the Lords affair. My duty
was to continue with my work. Paul had
no success, because he had new ideas on
theology. kept thinking of Paul all the
time and stuck to his theology all the time
On nv way from Baltimore TO Washington,
I avoided the conductor, who had ordered
me to get off at the Relay house
and SO managed to get ON to
Washington The strangest thing about
it was that after / had changed
nv seat a man came along and said to me,
''My friend, are you goingto Washington"
I said yes. He said Would you like
good boarding house" l said yes, and he
said he could taSe me to one. Now l had
been praying that = could get boarding
house, as did not want to go to hotel
and had no sooner got the prayer oue
than this man came along .snd was Just as
free and easy with me as if re had known
me twenty years. Now that WIS case OF
providence l have had hundreds OF slml-
lar experiences, where direct answer 10
prayer has befriended me. While the prs
oner was giving his testimony he was
watched most attentively by all the medl-
cal experts present and with great curloss.
ity by every person in the crowded eour
room. At times he showed his exhaustion
by lowering his voice and it was in couse-
ol ,ence of one of those signs that ten min
utes before the usual time of adjournment
that the court at the instance of the Dis
trict Attorney. adjourned.