Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1885-05-23
Jefferson, Ohio, May 9th.
A Meeting House in the Tennessee
Mountains.
CHARLES EGBERT CRADDOCK.

The little log meeting house at the
Notch stood high on a rugged spur of
the Great Smoky. Dence forests en-
comprised it on every hand, obscur-
ing the familiar picture of mountain
and cloud and cove. From its rude
CLASHES windows one could look out
on no distant vista, save perhaps in
the visionary glories of heaven or the
climatic discomforts of hell, according
to the state of the conscience, or per-
chance, the liver. The sky was aloof
and limited. The laurel tangled the
isles of the woods. Sometimes from
the hard benches weary tow-headed
brat might rejoice to mark in the
mOnotOny the frisking of a squirrel
on bough hard by, or a wOodpecker
solemnly tapping. The acorns would
rattle on the roof, if the wind stirred,
as if in punctuation of the discourse.
The pines, mastering strong among
the oaks joined their mystic threno-
dy to the sad-voiced quiring within.
The frs stretched down long, pendu-
lous, darkling boughs, and filled the
air with their balsamin fragrance.
Within the house the dull light fell
over a few rude benches and a plat
form with chair and a table, which
was used as a pulpit. Shadows of
many deep, rich tones of brown Turk
ed among the rafters. Here and
there a cobweb, woven to the con-
sistence of a fabric, swung in the air.
The drOne of a blue-bottle, futtering
in and out of the window in a slant
of sunshine, might invade the rever-
ened silence, as Brother Jake Tobin
turned the the leaves to read the
chapter. Sometimes there would
sound, too, commotion among the
horses without, embarrassed from
the wagons and hitched to the trees;
then in more than one of the solemn
faces might be described an anxious
perturbation-not fear because of
equine perversities, but because of
the idiosyncrasies, of callow human
nature in the urchins left in charge
Of the teams. No one ventured to
investigate, however, and, with that
worldly discomfort contending with
the spiritual eXaltations they sought
to foster, the rows of religionists
swayed backward and forward in
rhymth to the leaders, voice, rising
and falling in long, billowy sweeps
of sound, like the ground swell of
ocean waves.
1t was strange looking upon their
faces, and with a knowledge of the
limited phases of their existence,
their similarity of experience here,
where a hundred years might come
and go, working no change save that
like the leaves, that futtered awhile
in the outer air with spurious ANNA
ton called life, and fell in death and
made way for new bourgeonings like
unto MISUNDERSTANDING to mark
how they differed. Here was man
of a stern, darkly religious convic-
ton, who might either have writhed
at the stake or stopped to kindle the
flames and here was an accountant
soul that knew only those keen mer-
camille motives-the hope of reward
and the fear Of hell; and here was an
enthusiasts eye, touched by the love
of God; and here was an unfinished
hardly humanized face, that it SEEM
ed as presumptous to claim as the eX-
ponent of soul as the faces of the
stupid oxen Out-of-doOrs. All were
earnest; many wore an expression Of
excited interest, as the details of the
chapter waxed to a climax, like the
tense stiffness of metropolitan au-
dience before an unimagined coupe
de theatre. The men all sat on one
side, chewing their guilds; the wo-
men on the other, almost masked by
their limp sun-bonnets. The obiqui-
tous baby-several of him-was there,
and more than once babbled aloud
and cried out peevishly. Only one,
becoming uproarious, was made a
public example; being quietly borne
out and deposited in the OK wagon,
at the mercy of the urchins who pre-
sided over the teams, while his moth
er creeped in again on the tips of
deprecating, anxious toes, to hear the
Word.