Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1901-06-13

a position beside my chair, and made
occasional hammering gestures de-
scending toward my head. I thought
of the trip hammer so finely adjust
ed that it could touch n watch on
the anvil and not break the crystal,
and 1 hoped his mighty poundings
would continue to stop above my
head. At the close of each heated
period he cleared his throat with a
threatening gargle, looking down at
me the while. At times he INDUCED
in cas-
Hes a college student-ah, And
he's come out here to instruct us
ah! Yes, and to 1arn US about the shape
of the yarth-ahI And he knows
more'n what Joshua did-ah! Breth-
ering, do We reckon Joshua didn't
know what to pray fur? Did he say
'Yarth, stand thou still on thine axel-
tree?' No! He says, sezee, Sun,
stand thou still upon Gibeon-ah!
And thou moon in the valley of
Aialon-ah.' But he knows mcre'n
Joshua! Yes, / shouldn't wonder eft
he allows he knows more'n God
Almighty that writ this book-ah!
L tell We, brtehering, hits the docterin
of infidelity-ah! And any man that
IL teach it ought to be drummed out
of the country-ah. R-r-r-r-r-ck."
Truly, there was more to be said
on this side of the question than I
had thought. And it was evident that
the audience was by no means a unit
in our favor. The hour drew late.
Tho I,cn,ccf1- n-In1 onJ tho 11l6Cn
went out in the dark to decide.
The vote stood two to one in our
favor. The constable cast the decid-
ing vote. But he admitted to me that
he was not fully satisfied. The deci-
sion lay somewhat heavily upon his
conscience. He sought an interview
with me explaining that his
vote was on the merit of the argu-
ment as he understood it, and not an
Endorsement of my position on the
| question. He asked me to come home
with the children and spend a night
and answer some other questions.
So n few nights later / stayed at his
house.
After supper I set a candle on a
stool, and. taking a ball of yarn,
| stuck a knitting needle through it.
| and walked round and round the
candle. holding the ball high on one
side and low on the other. and turn
ing the ball the while. The eNplana-
ton lasted long, but at last it was
counted satisfactory. My friend, the
constable, declared himself converted,
So we went to bed, and the earth
rolled out into the sunlight again.
After all. we are not so far removed
from the same opinion. When Cotton
Mather preached in Boston that the
| sun is the center of the solar sys-
tem-and Cotton Mather, spite of his
VANITY and follies, was a progressive
man in his day-so learned and intel
ligent a man as Chief Justice Samuel
Sewall, went home and recorded in
his diary his protest. Let us not
hasten to call people ignorant who
went into isolation in Sewalfs time
and have kept pretty well the ideas
of his age on some matters.
But I must tell about two of my
converts. One of them came to me
when 1 returned next year. He had
been to London. the county seat OF
Laurel county. The railroad had just
been finished to that point, and h
had seen it. The rails, he said. We're
as far apart as he could reach, but
as they stretched away in the dis
lance they almost came together.
Don't that show" he asked with
the zeal of a new convert, that every
thing works toward the center OF
orayitation?"
The other was my friend the con-
stable. The subject came up in our
first meeting. I brought it up. and he
fought shy of it. So I pressed the
matter. for I suspected that he had
fallen from grace. At length. he said:
"Well, I reckon I mought as well
own up. They say an honest confes-
sion is good for the soul. You made
that seem mighty plain. and 7 thought
I believed it. But I wasn't comforta-
bic. Feared like every time the old
thing Topped over she was goin' TO
spill us off. and I couldn't git around
Joshua and the n and founda-
tions of the earth. And I said: let
God be true and every man a liar!
And I don't want to believe it, and
amt agoin' to-"
I took the hand of my friend and
said: eff I were in your place 1 don't
believe I would"
So / have no doubt there vet re-
mains opportunity for some ambitious
reader of this story to try whether
his own success may be more endur.
ing.