The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1895-03-02
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,CONKY STILES.

ago people as class were mtloh better &C
quainted with the Bible than folk are now
adsys, and there wasn't another one Of 'em
in the whole Connecticut valley from the
Canada line to the sound that could stand
up longside of Conky Stiles and quote
Scripture Well, he knew the whole thing
by heart, from Genesis, chapter 1, to the
amen at the end Of the Revelation of St
John the Divine. That's the whole business
in a nutshelll
His name wasn't Conky We called him
Conky for short. His real name was Sllas
Stiles, but one time at Sunday school CON
ventlon Mr.. Hubbell, the minister, spoke Of
him as "veritable concordance OF the Holy
Scriptures and so we boys undertook to
call him Concordance, but bimeby that
name got whitfield down to Conky, and
Conky stuck to him all the rest OF his life.
Not bad name for him, neither, as names
60. Heap more dignifed than Sill
My father always insisted that Conky got
his start in the Scriptures in this way:
Conky's folks lived for about five years
(while Conky was boy In the old Ransom
house. Their next neighbors were the
Cooleys, and just over across the road lived
the Kelseys. Maybe you've heard of the
Cooley Kelsey debatei Nor Funny, isn't
it, how soon folks forget events and epochs
and thingsl Fifty years ago nothin else
but the Cooley Kelsey debate was talked
of in Hampshire county, and yet here we
are Twin in this intelligent state of Illinois
and its dollars to doughnuts that half our
people never heard of Lawyer Kelsey or of
Deacon Cooley
You see, the deacon was high up in the
Congregational church, and he believed in
"baptyzo,n " Itch is the Greek for the Con-
gregational doctrine of sprinklin. Law
yer Kelsey had never been converted and
had never made profession; but, havin
brother who was a Baptist minister in
Pennsylvania, he was counted with the
Baptists, too, and guess he was Baptist
If he was anything, although, like as not,
he'd have said he was heather II he
could get up an argument by sayin it, for
of all the folks you ever saw Lawyer Kelsey
was the worst for keepin things stirred up.
One time Deacon Cooley and Lawyer KEEL
sey came together and locked horns on that
word "baptyzo,p Lawyer Kelsey main
tainin that the word wasn't or shouldn't
be ''baptyzo," bat "baptidzo,n and, rs you
know, of course, there is as much difference
between "baptyzo' and "baptidzo" as there
is between a fog and thunder shower
Well, for about six months they had it
! up hill and down dale, in all the meetin
| houses and schoolhouses and vestry rooms
and town halls in the country, and it did
beat all how much learnin they got out of
the books and dictionaries, and what long
| sermons they made, and what sensation
| there was among the uubelievers as well as
the electl guess they'd have been arguin
| yet If the freshet hadn't come an distracted
| public attention by carryin away the North
ampton bridge and the Iiolyoke dam
1t happened that while this theological
cataclysm was at its height Conky Stiles,
bein years old, was born again, and, re-
| pentin of his sins, made profession of
| faith And from that time he never lapsed
or backslided, but was always conscen-
tious and devout follower. illustratin in
his daily walks las Mr.. Hubbell, the minis
ter, said) those priceless virtues which had
illuminated the career of his Grandmother
Cowles, a lady esteemed not more by the
elders for her piety than by the younger
N folks for her cookies and squash pies.
When Conky was years old, he got the
prize at our Sunday school for havin COM
mitted to memory the most Bible verses in
the year. and that same spring he got up
and recited every line Of the Acts Of the
Apostles without bavin 30 be prompted
once. By the time he wss 12 years old he
knew the whole Bible BY heart and most of
the hymnbook, too. although, as / ha*s
said, the Bible was his speciality. Yet he
wasn't one of your palefaced, studious
boys; no, sir, not a bit of It'll He took just
as much consolation in playin three old cat
and barn ball and hockey as any Of the rest
Of us boys, and he could beat us all fishin,
although perhaps that was because he
learnt new way of spittin on his bait from
his Uncle Lutte Mason, who was consider
able of a sport in those days
Conky was always hearty a1d CHEEKY.
We all felt good when he was around. We
never minded that way he had of quotin
things from the Bible, We'd got used to
1t, and may be it WAS desirable influence
AT any rate, we all liked Couky,
But perhaps YOU don't understand what
mean when | rfer to his way Of quotin
the Bible. 1t was like this: Conky, we'll
say, would be goin down the road, and I'd
come out of the house and holler Hello,
there Conkyi Where be you gointp
Then he'd say, John xxi, g." That
would be all he'd say, and that would be
enough, for it gave us to understand that
he was Goin a-tiahin.
Conky never made mistake. His quo
tations We're always right. He always hit
the chapter and the verse sure pop the first
time.
The habit grew on him as he got older
Associatin with Cotky for Is or % min
utes wasn't much different from readin the
Bible Tor couple OF taSs, except thab there
Sasn any ma aatl lapor apent IT,. guess
he'd have been . minister II the war hadn't
come along and spoiled it all.
In the full Of 1862 there WINS a war meetin
In the town hall, and Elijah Cutler made q
speech urgin the men folks To come forward
aud contribute their services-their lives, Il
need be-to the cause of freedom and right
We were all keyed up with excitement, fol
next to Wendell Phillips and Henry Ware
Beecher l guess Eliiah Cutler was th,
greatest orator that ever lived While W,
lead l,4.. of. conky stiles rose up and says