The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-05-18
SEMI CENTENNIAL REMINIS.
 CENCES OF NM. I. HILL.
PRESENTED TO THE N r. EAST
 ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Its Recent Session in Waterbury, Conn.,, Abridged.

read this paper that it's author has been constrained to submit it to the printer.) Your kind invitation to present semi centennial "reminiscences I presume is designed to ask, not for life histories, since we cannot escape something of that kind at the end; but rather such
 memories of the long ago as we think might interest those whose lives extend less distant into the past.
 ] To begin with things not germane to
 our conference life-the first daily newspaper was printed only thirty-six years before the birth of the writer;
 the first woolen fabric woven by ma chinery in Massachusetts, six years;
 and the first Illuminating gas made in
 New York, but three years, The first locomotive successfully used in the 1 United States would be one year his ! junior if in existence. ] Long after this the New York and l Boston mail and passenger stagecoach i drawn by four horses used to roll along l the Connecticut highways at regular in- l tervals. Our houses were warmed by
 blazing wood in great open fire-places; and little tin-boxes called foot-stoves,
 furnished charcoal heat in churches. Blood-letting by the doctors was a rem
 edy for various diseases.
 The Episcopal church in my native town was brilliant with a candle at ev- cry six by eight window-pane on Christmas eve, and a crowded service held. The boot and shoe maker carried | hi Tf 1e, fn aI15 ltarried a week or two making foot-gear for all the family from sides of leather provided by the employer. There were frequent neighbor- hood gatherings around the hearth for husking corn, cutting apples, smelling nuts, knitting and storytelling Once a year, lasting two or three days, came general training. when the local militia was called out for drill, all in uniform, the cavalry in brilliant scarlet coats and white trousers, with swords and pistols and gay equestrian trap pings; holidays much enjoyed by the young people. The parson of our town was still served by a slave. The tith- ingman was a terrifying parsonage in the eyes of the boys and girls. I On Sundays we used to go to the
 plain meeting house, the men and wo-
 men sitting apart to attend two
 preaching services, with an hours in termission at noon, listening to local
 preachers more often than to the preacher in charge of the circuit. Glass
 meetings held in the leaders home were
 as regular as the weeks, and were char acterized by great spirituality.
 l In 1854 the Kansas Nebraska legisla- tion, which repealed the Missouri com
 promise, stirred the feeling of the north
 to it's very depths; 3,050 New England land 800 western clergynen petitioned ]congress against it's passage. MT. Doug
 las, its author, said that on one day in New England 1,500 to 2,000 sermons
 were preached against the bill. Mass meetings of citizens and the legislatures
 of many statss protested. Northern
 school teachers and college professors
 impressed upon eager listening boys that they were living in historic times. I The anti-slavery newspapers were full i of the outpourings of sincere men who devoted their ability with enthusiasm to
 
 was the time of the power of the "New 1 York Tribune" which was the political I bible in large parts of the north. MT. I George w. Curtis oration delivered Au- gust 5, 1856, to the students of Wesley
 an university on 1.-The Duty of the l American Scholar to Polttic and the l Times, a stirring appeal for Bleeding
 Kansas was published in 173,000 cop ies of the Weekly Tribune" (The cir Iculation of it's daily and semi-weekly l editions in 1863 reached 215,000 copies.) I MT. Greeley was almost a dictator of public opinion. His great influence was I vigorously supplemented by the "New I York Independent and Mir. Beecher. I Personal liberty laws to prevent the capture of fugitive slaves, were enacted l in some of the Northern States, in re- taliation for the bad faith involved in | the repeal of the Missouri compromise, l and the underground railroad was in 1 full operation.
 The temperance question also was be- l ginning powerfully to influence politics. I The Maine liquor law had been enact ed three years earlier, and prohibitory laws had been placed on the statute l books of Massachusetts, Vermont, 1 Rhode Island, Connecticut and Michi-
 gan. ''@ l The Know-nothing CT American
 movement was an important political ! element, electing a, mayor in Philadel- .Ephia by a large majority. Much dis 1 turbanee and vandalism were it's fruit, i with riots in various places. q+.s
 l The efforts of Bishop Hughes and the
 Roman Catholic clergy to exclude the Bible from the public schools had not
 ceased to agitate the country.
 In 1857 occurred the great financial panic followed by the marvellous revival I of religion which spread almost as far
 as the English language was spoken.
 The daily papers published column af- ter column describing the great and 1 numerous meetings, requests for prayer
 and answers, rescue from sin and vile
 habits, scoffers converted, and the at l tention of the people turned from the I stirring political events of the time. !, Soon after came the civil war, which 1 Momsen in his history of Rome calls ''the mightiest struggle and most glori-
 ous victory as yet recorded in human annals" and which cost the nation 617,-
 52S of her stalWart citizens, or an aver l age of 423 per day for four years. At