Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1885-02-05
Our Deacon.

He was q stumpy old man, with &
smooth shaver, wrinkled face. A very
large wart adorned the side of his nose,
fffHUm under ifs gFiizsA4iRyg STOW eyes geersd
was bald except for thin fringe of sill.
very hair, which was always nicely
curled. The deacon's most wonderful
characteristic was his low voice. which
was at one moment deep bass, and at
the next thrilling treble. When he
led the hymns, he was "first too high
and then too slow, and always contra
wise."
He was veritable Yankee, with his
"haow," and "caow," and "idears," and
"p'ints, and could always drive an ex-
cellent bargain. He could sell moldy
oats for higher price than his neigh
Dor could sell good ones, and would
laugh in his sleeve of the discontinue
OF his purchasers. He would haeqle
for hours over the price of pig or
COW, and in the end, to use his own ex-
preston, he would generally carry his
"p'int,"
Very fond was he of speaking in
nesting" and in his rambling talks he
miscellaneous boy having once set him him.
self the task OF counting the number
OF times the deacon used these favorite
words in one of his Thursday evening
lectures, gave the result as thirty-four.
and-no one doubted it.
Our deacon had three hobbies. These.
to use his own words were Scraps"
"orgings" and "dancin,." It was q diff
cult matter to decide which worried
the old gentleman most. Scraps hev
been mighty poor this year, and I've
had Stats and slauthers of bad luck"
was his ready excuse when any one
tried to induce him to increase the
amount of his subscription for the poor
ly paid minister. Indeed, to allow him
to tell the tale, craps" were always
poor, and in no way explained the mar
velously steady increase of his bank ac-
count. Not the faintest shadow of
doubt disturbed his belief that his sa-
tantic majesty dwelt within the case of
an organ, and that to bring such a
berS eoeEag naags iBtathARhwaa}' sf,AoM
rs objectionable.
He often called for q special PRAYER
service in behalf of the weaker mem
oers, who persisted in their wicked
course. In this cause he even went so
ar as to open his tightly tied purse
trings and purchase some penny tracts
IN the all-important theme. These
racts he distributed and then patiently
waited results; but, alas, none APP
1t was one of the Deacon's chief de-
lights to conduct the funeral services
Il some departed brother or sister. He
you'd talk an audience to sleep in his
!eep bass tone, then suddenly awake
hem by changing to treble; rocite all
he "vartues" of the deutschland
7ould sing half q dozen inappropriate
ymns. ,
For the young people he was laugh ,
lg stock, and even the other ones 1
ould not suppress smile at some of
is quaint sayings. He had, seemingly. /
ut one aim IN life, and that was-gain'
himself and his family he scrimped 8
trough life that he might leave a /
ODDLY sum at his death. During life 4
Q gave sparingly to the Lord, but I
ter death it was found that he had q
equeathed some hundreds of dollars n
the church he had graced 90 for SO
any years, with the provision that no a
usical instruments should ever pro- 4
ne the sanctuary. n
Poor mani In life he chung too &
ndly to his money, and even after 4
'ath, when it could no longer be de- 8
sht to him, he could not leave it a
thout one last fling at the despised ii
gan. He was character such as is n
nnd in almost every community, and o,
though his faults were many and his ii
rtues few, he did as well as his 4,
amped and sordid nature would let II
m. In his way he tried to serve the h,
'rd, and perhaps his crown will be IN
Ighter than those of some of his w
ighbors whose lives present SEEM to
yly fairer page University Press. ne