The Savannah morning news., 1903-11-29

Surely, l met the reverend man. He
was a bald, brisk. worldly parsonage,
with a most noble appetite for the flesh
pots. He carefully sustained himself
the hypocrite in that last behalf, how
ever, and to folk casual he offered
nothing beyond an appearance ferV-
emily religious. While with us, he held
forth in sundry local pulrits, and al
though l heard him not myself, he was
warmly eulogized by pious critics Who
knew what sermons should be-
The worthy Doctor with a view to
Florida dangled about the General.
The Reverend Campbell. and the mag
pie one, dangled about the worthy
Doctor They were made to see, with
the very finish Of it, however, that by
no accident of concession would the
General place their man, WeStfall in
the van of Florida's affairs TO set up
mimic thrones in the Governors Palace
of st. Augustine.
/ The news was a blow to them; and
the urgent trio We're no stoics to be
capable of excluding from their brows
the chagrin they felt. They no longer
harrassed the General, however which,
when now a score of duties pulled at
him like horses was no small desider-
alum.
Presumably as a last ditch wherein
to perish, the Rev Dr. Ely came to
me. I was no faVorite of his, nor he
oil mine. 20 me ne was not a precious
metal. Polished? Yes-and yet only
to remind one of brass. He was. as
I have said, of fashionable model; fond
of his burgundy, and his canvas-back;
CARRIED fastidiOusly and in the mode;
precisely that character the General
so accurately read those years before
when he suspected him as one less
concerned for the fit of his conscience
than the fit of his coat.
When the Reverend Doctor enCOun-
tered me, l cut him short. To do this,
let me tell you, took my courage in
my hands, for it is no child's play to
thwart a dominic.
You are one who holds fast for
the doctrine of foreordination? ?" I ask
ed this like catechist at his ques-
lions.
Il am" returned the Reverend Doc
tor.
"And you believe that many are call
ed while few are chosen?"
Il do"
damnation; and how hell Is paved with
childrens skulls?'
q do. To what, however, does this
move?"
And the love of gold to be the root
of evil?' 1 went on, disregarding the
question thrust at me; and that it
would be easier to pass a camel through
bilt lNNulG . eye llldll d IlCll lIdIl lIllO
heaven?"
Sir insist on hearing the purpose
of your surprising curiosity"
why, then, it should all be huddled
into this. Your Westfall, rich and sim
full, by what you say may be pre-
sumed to dwell in multiplied peril of
immortal shipwreck. And since such
be your craft, and the trade you pick
up bread by. would it not come more
seemly for yourself, and be for this
Westfall an effort more of grace, were
you, instead of storming the General
with pleas for a governorship which
might prove but worm to knaw him,
to employ your self in bringing about
the eternal safe advantage of his
soul?"
The Reverend Doctor withdrew, his
dander much on furious end, and short
ly thereafter the tail of my eye caught
a picture of him, as-heads close to-
gether-he conferred whisperingly with
the Rev. Campbell i'm corner of the
longroom of the Indian Queen.
Since l could not think well, 1 was
careful to think nothing at all of these
reverend Office seekers. In that lat
ter l dropped into error; they were
worthy serious respect. l should have
borne it more upon my memory how
easy comes destruction, and that he
who is incapable of building one brick
most stubborn best masonry of man.
1 should have kept before me those
powers for i'll which arm the meanest,
and not have forgotten how the veri-
est Vermin of rat might gnaw the
canvas of a Rubens.
Remembering those ignoble ones that
evening, / foolishly burst into dispar-
agement of the clergy as a class. The
General was smart for defense
"Humbug!" quoth the General. BE
cause you have seen the inside Of two,
You would have it you know them all.
1t were as wise if you declared Wash
ington to be a traitor for that Arnold
would have sold West Point Every
tub, even a pulpit tub, must stand
upon its own bottom"
| have told how dumb and dead lay
Vilification on the masculine lip, and
that no man so much as breathed
against the fame of Peg. There was
notice on its way to show the women
were unquelled.
1t was the day before the Generals
inauguration, and he over ears with
his address, reading and re-reading it,
so as to give the periods a best vol
ume and voice, and endow them with
that strutting majesty of utterance his
vanity conceived belonged in justice
TO their merit. He would be by him
self while thus rehearsing for he took
shame to vapor up and down, and toss
about before me- and swore that my
/ presence, glowering from a chair, would
/ have daunted Cicero. l was glad
enough to leave him to himself, it be-
ing but poor sport to play at audience
/ for a bad orator; moreover, since the
speech was written in my Nashville
home and wrangled over, as it pro.
ceeded by the General and myself like
| dogs over a bone, it would come to me
as nothing new. And so the General
| was left to plod about in his para
graphs much like COW in morass, diff
ficult and slow, and sinking to the
hooks with every step. L could catch
| the humming roar of him in my par
lor while he staggered about his
! rooms, singing our shrill and high ii
defamation and reveling in the figure
he would cut.
While l was idly turning this weak.
ness of the General to think himsel
Patrick Henry, when he had no more
! of eloquence or music than any mid
! night owl, a nervous tap came on my
panels. I was instantly on my feet
the tap quite drove the General anc
his rhetoric out of my head. By some
instinct, or, mayhap, the tap itself was
! marked of agitation, l not only recog.
nized it for Peg. but knew she wa!
in grief. / threw open the door.
Peg stepped in; she was white to the
lips; and this paleness of ivory showed
| the more on her because of the grea'
dark eyes and those midnight shadow:
to dwell within her hair. Save for thi!
pallor, however, she seemed steady al
i a rock.
1t was on the outside though, fol
no sooner was l seated again than sh,
| drifted down before my feet on thf