Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1885-12-26

Floodgate is not a large town, but it prides
itself on the excellence of its society. How
ever, the only one of its people l care to talk
about at present was never Sin society"
He was known as "Uncle Adam" He had
a surname, but SO persistently was it ignored
that all save a very few forgot it completely.
He was the sexton of the Church of the Pur-
itans. Besides performing all the regular
duties of that office with his own hands, he
pumped the organ. He was not required to
do this, but he insisted on it, not for the sake
of increasing his salary, for he stipulated
particularly that he wanted no extra pay in
consequence, but because he adored music
and had theories in regard to organ pumping.
The Jumper, he said, should be something
of an artist as well as the organist. He
should put his soul into the work and it
would be felt in the music. This he surely
did. Such energy and enthusiasm were never
before applied to organ pumping. When the
music gushed from the tall pipes, rose high
and then softly died away, Uncle Adam, in
the little dim room that concealed him, ex-
ulted. When he emerged from the organ
loft, after services, instead of being weary
from his severe exertion, his face was invari-
ably bright and beaming. Often and often
he was in a state of spiritual exaltation
quite incomprehensible to the fine people who
spoke to him kindly and patronizingly. His
eyes burned with an unaccustomed light,
and his thoughts seemed to be of things
greater and grander than the old church
contained.
The music wrought this change, thought
the few who noticed it. Not entirely. Uncle
Adam was dreaming of things they knew not
of. He lived, at such times, in another
world, the world of the invisible and the
eternal He believed that that world was
shut out from this by the veil of flesh only,
and that at times this veil was swept aside
and the spirit in the flesh saw the spirits
who are as the angels of heaven" without
flesh.
II know there are spirits about us, because
1 see them, " he said. 81 know they are the
spirits of men and women who once lived in
this world, for my own people are among
them-my wife, my children, my mother,
and my friends of long ago. know that we
are immortal, for 1 feel that I shall never die.
l am sure my soul can never perish, for 1
believe it to he a part of God"
The old man always grew eloquent when
talking on his subject. His soul was aflame
n his thoughts came. forth in the strong
and simple language of inspiration. His lis
teners smiled with pitying incredulity, or
gave ear out of curiosity to what they called
his Harmless; fancies. Here and there was
one who possessed a vein of poetic sentiment
which was kindled by his talk of 'the cloud
of witnesses continually near; but all were
too unspiritual to understand that this faith
was the strength and support of the old mans
life, a part of his honest and earnest soul.
Sometimes he told of the sights he saw in
the organ loft, the radiant spirits that came
to him there. The dim little room that shut
him away from the sight of others was the
very door of heaven to him. 1t was not
strange that he entered it with delight, re-
manned in it as long as possible, and emerged
from it with a TRANSPORTED face. He be-
lieved that he there talked with angels.
/ have spoken of Uncle Adam as an old
man. He might better be described as one
who had never been young. In years he
wasn't really old; but he seemed far away
from everything youthful; long past ell the
joys of life.
Cheerful was he always, unhappy never,
though others, seeing only the outward
phase of his life. saw no pleasure or beauty
in it. Poor and hard as it appeared to them,
it held joys they might well have been en-
We'd: but they were Joys of the spirit only.