The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-03-08


and divisions Of such magnitude ensued
that the laymen of the session forgot
their good resolutions, and the SEES
sion itself became a seat of war. Mr..
Holt had served in his present pas
torate 10 years. Ten years service in
one Office lessons the number of q man S
critics, unless he be man of supreme
talent; and that Mr.. Holt was not.
From his installation there had been in
the congregation dissatisfied minority,
and it had grown, with the passage
of time, more numerous and more out
spoken. 1t now found in his vote
against having the Wamplers before
the session what, unconsciously, it had
long been waiting fora point of union
and onset. The pastors friends. how
ever, were in the main stanch, and
open opposition only intensified their
ardor. The session divided again about
evenly; but the opponents of the pastor
were the cunninger faction, and finally
persuaded two of his supporters TO
disregard personal preference and join
them in voting a request to Mr.. Holt
for his resignation.
With his session thus become practi-
cally unanimous against him, and a
good third of the congregation fiercely
urging the session on, the poor minis
ter would gladly have yielded up his
charge and fed away. But this, 1t
seemed to him, would be moral weak
ness, a clear violation of his duty to
the larger fraction who devoutly be-
sought him to stay. So he refused TO
comply with the sessions request. APP
peals followed to higher bodies, and a
tedious, complex, eXhauSting contest,
ending in defeat for the opposing mi
nority, which thereupon withdrew from
the church in a body and organized a
new society
And this is the origin of what is
since known in Osceola as the New
church, the church which in recent
years has been so marvelously blessed.
But it had a hard struggle in the be-
ginning. 1t began TO prosper only after
Rev. Mr.. HolliWell took charge. He is
a natural pulpit orator, man
thoroughly abreast with the times. He
began by prefacing his sermons with a
familiar talk on current topics, and
every three months he preached ser
mon exclusively for men, and another
exclusively for women, and one for the
young people, and by these and other
novelties he soon awakened an interest
which has continued, until now the New
church congregation is much the larg-
est and Wealthiest in the town. Then
Andrew Jarbee, a rich old bachelor far
mer, died and left the church $4,000,
and that was great help to it. In life
Andrew had not been a notable sup
porter of churches, but Mr.. Holt had
once rebuked him sharply for failing to
supply a due weight of butter, and it is
supposed that this had somewhat to do
with determining his surprising bequest
to the New church.
Poor Mr.. Holt, after the New church
began to come up so conspicuously,
suffered a certain decline in the regard
of his congregation. The members were
still free in expressions of devotion to
him; but it became evident that in
their feelings they had a little cooled,
and Mr.. Holt finally sought another
charge. And his departure is not the
least important item in a general
change which has now made Osceola
into a wholly different town from what
it was at the time when Hamlin
Wampler disinterred Mrs. Luther
Gears holly-sprig spoon from the tur
key stuffing. Winter at its visitatiOnS
is still profuse; but the householder
and shopkeeper now sweep and shovel
the snow from their walks down al
most to the last flake, and but a
slight moisture under foot deters the
men from going abroad
without their rubber shoes.
Even the revivals are not what they
were. So much have they suffered in
their old-time fervor that to the one
church in which they still maintain
their former lustihood people now re-
sort in crowds out of mere curiosity to
view the spectacle. Here as regularly
as winter comes the best known repro
bates of the town are brought under
tumultuous conviction. But when
come the spring thaws, little by little
their new virtue relaxes, and as the
year advances and all nature grows
jocund and voluptuous, they slip back,
for the most part, into their old wild
ways. Thus one winter opens with no
less occasion than another for stem
torian evangeH. Last winter, however,
among the converts of this hardened
type appeared, one noted character who
had never been brought to the peni-
tents posture before, for however
brief a season.
This was a woman known as Gypsy
Ann; a keen-eyed. disheveled. shrill-
voiced, half-mad creature, held, as her
name betokened, in a certain suspicion
and fear, and often a word in the
mouths of inert mothers to intimidate
wilful children. She dwelt alone in a
remote, ramshaclSle cabin, living
mainly on charity, but earning a little
money now and then by helping in the
rough work of the kitchens. She had
always some special patrons. They
changed, however, from time to time.
for in her moods she was apt to quarrel
with her benefactors. Among the most
devoted of them had once been Mrs
Wampler and Mrs Gears; but on some
fancied provocation both were abruptly
dismissed from her regard, as a number
of others had been dismissed. and
neither had had aught to do with her
now for many years. OF all her dis
likes the biteTest hitherto had been of
the churches. At the name of any par
Licularly honored member, her wont
was to cry. out, with a wild gesture,
My hands a lily beside his black
heart" When, therefore, word went
abroad that Gypsy Ann had presented
herself at the "mourner's BENCH" Os-
ceola quivered with interest through all
It's members. The high and the low,
The full-robed and the ragged, were
alike excited; and at the next meeting
The swift runners after sensations
-hronged the church.
The object and hope of these in
-ruders were of the vaguest. but the
they sought they found.
IN the confidence that a new life had
begun for her, Ann seized the occasion
% renounce her past, item by item, in
he presence Of the congregation. The
'enunciation lacked somewhat Of the
humility that usually characterizes
such performances; but, aside from
his, it proceeded quite prosaically and
would have yielded no particular relish
o the curious, but that toward the end
she disclosed-altogether incidentally
ind as a matter of no more importance