The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-10-25

yard in his own justification, and his
| knowledge of the sacred volume is so
| great that 1t is utterly impossible for
| an ordinary man to argue against him.
| He will begin by displaying a famil-
iarity with the Bible which is SO amaz-
ing as to render his opponent speech
| less; and having got him into that con-
dition he will thunder upon him long
| passages so cleverly constructed that a
| syndicate of presidents of theological
Summaries could not tell where the
genuine word ends and the guileful in
vention begins.
He was an African slave trader, and
therefore, as has been said, a pirate
under the laws of his country. While
there was profit in the business he was
prosperous and VIXEN it ceased to paw
he abandoned it. For several years he
lived in Panama, and gradually his
moneys,slipped away. Meanwhile he had
received many letters from relatives to
whom he had been kind in the days Of
his prosperity. They urged him to
make his home with them in or near
New York. For obvious reasons ! do
rot wish to point him out too accu-
rately.
Finally Briggs acceded to their re-
quests and came north. He was some
what broken in health, yet he retained
the appearance of hardy mariner,
with way of looking boldly in ones
face. derived from a habit of staring
bowling hurricanes out of countenance
from his own quarter deck while his
crew chung to the life-lines and the
trembling slaves below screamed loud
er than the storm.
Having found snug harbor at last
his active nature would not permit him
to remain altogether idle. He is man
Of remarkable cultivation, and welded
a pen almost as handily as marline
spike. If he could not appeal as forci-
bly, to one man with the pen, he could
reach more heads with single stroke.
ssfter some miscellaneous literary
work, he got into the line for which he
seems to have been intended by nature.
He is now engaged exclusively in
writing sermons!
OF all the strange occupations which
men pursue in this crazed throng,
think that is the strangest. To see
Briggs, the pirate, writing a sermon is
to learn that all things are possible.
Ministers whose inspiration fails come
to him, sometimes with a text, more
often without an idea of any kind. By
skillful questions he endeavors to dis
cover the needs of each mans flock:
and then he sits down and grinds
ont a discourse. Sometimes il is
stern and awful warning to the
sinner; again it is gently elo-
quent with the tenderest sentiment of
hope and consolation. The latter
class, he has admitted to me, are the
hardest to write. They give him
great deal of trouble, and make him
swear very hard. The expression ito
swear like pirate" means little to one
who has not the privilege OF Mr..
Briggs acquaintance. | once heard the
great Salvini swear in Italian on an
occasion which would have provoked
saint. and strong men lay down on the
floor and hung on to the heads of the
nails; but John Briggs can give the dis
tinguished tragedian cards and spades
He Is so faithful in his work, so
thoroughly imbued with a sense Of his
duty to the congregation whom his
words will reach, and TO the minister
whose money he will take, that he will
not glide over difficult point in a
sermon by any rhetorical device or
literary trick. He will face the diff