Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-02-04
Devonshire Dissenters.

At first that part of the country
seemed, socially speaking, so inactive
that we watched with great interest for
signs of life ard movement among the
working people, who, of course, pre-
dominated both in number and variety.
The first noticeable feature was that the
majority We're dissenters, and after two
months in our little town one needed
not to be treasured that in Mrs. OH
plants Salem Chapel she presented a
faithful and by no means satirical pict-
ure, for here | saw repeated all the
small ostentations and hostilities of dis
senting Carlingford, the eager, fervid,
poorly paid minister, who, in spite of
fairly good education and definitely
soaring soul, stood completely beyond
the pale of society" and was no more
to be allowed within it than We're his
tirst-class patrons, the green-grocer and
the baker of High Street, yet who was
much to be pitied, since from the very
nature of his education and calling he
felt himself superior being, who had
right to mental and social food of kind
better than his honest, Woodworking
friends could offer him. | used to look
at his tall, slim figure as he went up
and down the little business streets,
wind and rain mattering but little to
him, and think of the wide gulf of diff
ference between the position of such
one in England and America, for in the
Devonshire town the dissenting minister
was not even looked upon as gentle
man; and when one fine old lady, who
had her hands well on the reins of So
ciety, was known to have called on the
minister's quiet little wife, the town
listened in wonder and CONSERVATION,
and no less than five different people
called upon her to demonstrate upon so
lawless an innovation.
The Chapel was a bare-lookine
editice, offering no homage to the deco
rative arts, and attempting none of the
consultations of tlorid texts or comforta-
bic hassocks. but have recollection of
it one wet and windy night when the
minister preached with an almost start
ling fervor, and the voices of the little
heavy congregation rose and fell in
hymn-singing that was forcible re-
minder of Methodist meetings in Ameri-
ca. They had reYiyals. of course; and
with astonishing frankness, young peo-
pie. reused to fervor of renorse and
passionate expression, stood up and told
the congregation of their sins, this hour
of intense utteances being curiously in
contrast with the colorless, matter-of-
fact experiences of their daily lives,
wherein market-day was an excitement,
and the summer fair, or trip to one of
the seaside resorts on holiday, the
highest form of dissipation known.
The complete equanimity and solidity
of the American country man or woman
is not theirs Deep down stirs some
thing which now and then can put
forth its blossoms, and the tragic, pa
thetic, simple figure of such fiction as
George Eliot's, Thomas Hardy's, Mrs.
Gaskel's, or Mrs. ELEPHANTS are not
only not unusual, but to be met on every
side, but curiously enough, affecting
the community but slightly, stirring its
surface in the most tranquil fashion,
which only tends to emphasize the fact
that they are a result of the natural in
stincts of the people. Lucy c. Lille, IN
Hdrper's Magazine for January.