The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1910-06-09
DADDY JOHN
AND HIS BELL
Written for The Herald by M. W. B.



disturbs you, you should give your
self over to dreaming dreams or
thinking things purely local in inter-
est, you would be surprised at the
number of interesting facts and
faces appearing to claim your atten'
ton. Some past and forgotten event,
some person long lost to sight and
perhaps even erased from memory
by the constant flow of recedlng
years; some present condition un-
thought of or even unknown, some
thing that you or I did not care to
notice; someone that we have be-
slowed no thought upon save to take
him as matter of course; these aud
other lines of thought will make in
teresting past times for you and for
me. For instance during the past
two years there. have returned to
Bamberg for short visits, no less than
six or seven men all of whom at one
time resided here, but who have NOV
ed to other towns and States twenty
and twenty-five and even thirty years
ago. It would doubtless be interest
ing to recall these by name and fol-
low their fortunes and misfortunes
and see just what of success and
what of failure they have tasted.
But this time for another line OF
thought.
To hold a position for twenty-sev-
en- years is in itself a pretty good
guarantee of faithfulness. There Is
only one man in Bamberg that l
know of who has this record. The
holder of the place is not an es-
pecially competent man. He is, how
ever, like his position, humble. He
does not do his work as thoroughly
as you or might wish; he has to be
told things which he should know to
do without being told; at times, per-
haps, he leaves footprints on the dust
he has failed to remove; at times
our heads are encircled with webs
spun by an Industrious spider, but
not removed by a less industrious
worker; but withal he is faithful. He
never fails to make the trial; he is
always there when you need him,
and he can be counted as one when
ever you make your count, whether
it be at a regular service on the Sab
bath, at the Sunday school, at the
midweek meetings, at the special re-
vivals; any time that you choose to
count, he is faithfully there. When
the early break of day calls to the
sleeping man to awake for the cares
of the new day, this old fellow is
always on the path of duty some
where; it may be to scour some floor;
it may be to make a fire in some Of
flee; it may one of the dozen other
places, but somewhere Old Daddy
John is on the way to work. There
have been storms; there have been
SHOWS and freezing winter mornings,
there have been varying vicissitudes
of life, all of which WOO the man of
the world to linger longer in the
room of comfort and to make man
willing to lie down on his job, let
ting the work of the day make the
best of circumstances; but no Sab
bath day has yet found this old fel-
low idling.
You see I am indulging in a re-
verie, such as I invited you to in the
beginning. Daddy John appeals to
me because he is Daddy John, and
because he does his best even though
that best be far from great.
Ever since Rev. Mr.. Auld came to
Bamberg back in the eighties, Daddy
John has been sexton; to be exact
years ago. John is not
much on keeping church in order,
perhaps, and he is doubtless poor
Judge of cold day when you think
of the hot days he has the furnace
going and of the cold days he lets
the embers slumber; but be that as it
may, John knows Trinity church
history in his own way. There has
never been a marriage or funeral;
there has never been a soul saved in
Trinity church, there has never been
any thing of any kind, whether
Christmas tree or lecture by mis-
sionary, that Daddy John was not
there. He may have been on the
outside or behind the organ or under
the Christmas tree, or some where
else, but the truth stands that John
was there in hearing distance. If
YOU want to hear a man figure with
you, try the experiment of finding out
who his favorite preacher is. He
knows them all and knows some
thing good about each one; if he
,,,oue envfhinp contrary-wiSo he