Alpena argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1893-1909, 1894-04-11
THE MINISTER'S WIFE.

slVely, DuI dlds! noI ouCCeeSiuiiy
filled the passionate of Farmingvale,
had had good reason to congratulate
themselves when they left the place.
They had all been married men
they had all had large families and
small salaries, and they had never
given satisfaction. After the first
few months the trustees had groan-
ed over the salary; the elders decided
that Brother A. wasn't gifted in
prayer" the congregation COM
planned of not being visited enough,
of not being sufficiently edited,
and wondered whether the minis
ter couldn't do more good in another
place. And then matters came to a
crisis, and there was a vacancy in
the Farmingvale pulpit, and a sue
cession of young ministers and old,
who preached by request and gen.
orally made favorable impression.
And finally another call was made,
another pastor came, who was well
coined cordially, treated to donation
parties, and then descended in pop
ular favor until his light died out
in darkness.
Farmingvale was particularly un-
fortunate in this respect; it was in
fact famed for its dismission of pas
tors without peculiar provocation.
Many a grave, middle-aged man
gave good advice to Arthur Bart
lett, the newly-hedged clergyman
who had proclaimed himself ready
to be installed as pastor of the
church in Farmingvale. Men of
much experience had failed there
able men, too, whose orthodoxy
could not be doubted. Bartlett was
a man of promise-why should he
doom himself to disappointment at
the beginning of his career? No
body approved of the act; but Bart
lett, ardent, hopeful, and only
twenty-five, was all the more re-
solved to accept the call. He hoped
to succeed where no one else had
ever succeeded; to do good, to be-
coined beloved, and to end his days
where he had begun his work. 1t
was a pure and beautiful ambition,
although worldly men might smile
at it as being very humble. So
Arthur Bartlett came to Farming
vale, and stood before the pulpit
during the ceremony of installa-
ton, and received the charge with
an humble determination God be-
ing his helper) to obey it; and the
next Sabbath stood in the pulpit
and preached unto the people.
There are some young men who
have woman's beauty without be-
ing effeminate. Arthur Bartlett
was one of these. He had soft,
golden-brown hair, which could not
be called red by his greatest enemy,
a broad, high forehead, white as
flesh and blood could be, and a
color that came and went-now the
faintest tinge of rose, now deepest
carnation. Moreover, he was Meth
er puny nor ungraceful, stood
straight like an arrow, and had a
voice clear and singularly musical,
and powerful enough to fill the
church without an effort.
That day bright eyes looked up
at the young minister, and many
a girl, if the truth were known,
drought more of his fair face than
of his sermon. But he preached
with all his heart in the words he
uttered, and thought not at all of
any one of them.
Perhaps they did not quite UNDER
stand this; for that day the young
ladies took violent fancy to the
young minister, and most of them
resolved to do all they could to
make Farmingvale pleasant to him.
Of course he would marry soon.
He needed a wife, they decided.
Sewing societies, fairs, and tea-drink-
ing followed each other in quick
succession. Farmingvale, so to
speak, caroused, though in gen.
teel and virtuous fashion, for the
next three months, and Miss Allen,
the dressmaker, took new appren-
tice, and superintended the fitting
department herself, leaving the nee
die to vulgar hands, so great was
the demand upon her skill. New
bonnets, fearfully and wonderfully
made, came by express from "the
city," and the five Misses Marden
excited unparalleled envy by ap-
pearing in pink silk dresses.
There never had been such a sue
cessful minister before; nobody
dared to find fault with him, upheld