The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-08-21
THE WOMAN'S SIDE oJ! 1T.

A Circuit Riders Wife BY Cora Harris.
With Illustrations by William II. Ever
EFT Published by Henry Altomus Conn
pany, Philadelphia.
II this is the genuine production of
an old lady who had passed her youth
and her middle age as the wife of a
circuit rider in the Methodist church,
as the scheme of it purports to be,
il Is certainly a remarkable production.
II is full of keen criticism, of humor,
and Of illrepressed scorn for good
many of the things she encountered dur
Ding her wayfaring through life. There
Is nothing in it that is absolutely lr-
religious, to be sure, but there is
good deal of human nature contempt for
the constant denunciation of the world
and of the things Of the world in favor
Of an exalted hereafter which it is our
duty to live UP to, without knowing
exactly what to expect.
The scene is laid in northern Georgia
in the baclSwoods riding circuits, The
woman goes as q girl to her duties as
q minister s wife, and falls into deep
discouragement and gloom as the pros
rcct; but her spirit rises above the
temporary i'll and she comes out tri-
umphant Thirty years of q skimping
life in impoverished circuits would seem
precarious lot for woman Of vi
racity and temperament, and yet this
circuit 1der's wife passed those thirty
years with an enduring faith in her
husband and kindly interest in all the
different people with whom she came
in contact. At the last, however. the
dreaded snperannuation comes for the
old preacher and soon after, feeling
himself TO be a mere cumberer of the
earth. he passes to the hereafter which
he has made the glory of his life.
In introducing her work this circuit
rider IS wife says: .tBut now, after an
absence of nearly thirty years, ! am
addressing this series of letters to the
people of the world concerning life and
conditions in another, removed from
this one by the length of country roads,
by the thickness of church doors, and
by the plate glass surface of the reli-
glous mind. They will record some ex-
periences of two Methodist itinerants,
and whatever / think besides, for they
are written more particularly to relieve
my mind Of a very great burden of opin~
IONS, for William has been promoted.
He has received his LII. D. in the
kingdom of heaven by this time, il
there are any degrees or giving of de-
grees there. along with Moses and Eli,
Jah. And | doubt if there is a more re-
spected Saint In that great company"
Some of her comments are certainly
worth attention, as when she says:
IL never knew but one pastor who told
the whole truth in a funeral sermon, and
presiding elder The whole community
regarded II as one Of the most brutal
outrages that had ever been perpetrated
In their midst"
"a woman is a very poor creature. I
think she bankers more just for love than
she does for heaven. don't know how
she Vii get on in place where there
Is neither marrying nor giving In mar
riage. It's -ound to be hard on her II
the Lord does not give her something
more than harp and a golden crown
with which to fill the aching void she is
sure 10 have somewhere under her breast
feathers
AT the last the old lady, worn and
beaten in the stress of life. goes to
live with an older sister in New York
but this sister has lived a more worldly
life. and looks ten years younger than
her sister who has spent her life as
the wife OF an itinerant preacher. This
aarouses little pang Of jealousy, and
the new life seems to her something
very much out of place, and yet she
has the fair common sense to say: ffI
have not been morally offended by any
thing i have seen In the theaters or
other places of amusement, but ! have
had conscientious scruples about the
churches here. This would be the Sab,
bath day far away in the country, where
VIZ hiiio nic prayer anu the pine
trees swing their shadows over the Red.
wine churehyard. But here in New
York it is merely the day when you
change your occupations and amuse
ments. Still, there is preaching for those
who are not drunk or asleep, or in the
parks, or at Coney Island. or giving
weekend parties at their country places
or planning the millennium without God
along socialistic scantlings of thought
and barbed wire theories of the broth
erhOod Of man.
The work as whole is one that i:
eminently worth the reading, and i.
especially worth attention where she
makes pointed and heartfelt criticism:
upon the poor pay Of the circuit rider
the Lack OF advantages at his com