The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1914-12-25

insanity, but to me It seems nothing OF
the sort. l was only a child when IA.
ther f1rst fell in with Jacob Cochrane.
but RI was twelve when father went
away from home on his mission and
II there wal any one suffering from
d~elusions In our family it was he. not
mother She had altogether given up
| going to the Cochrane meetings. and
we'll remember the scene when my IA
Their told her Of the revelation he had
received about going through the state
and into New Hampshire in order to
convert others and extend the move
ment. She had no sympathy with his
self imposed mission, you may be sure,
though now she goes back in her mem
DRY to the earlier days of her married
life. when she tried hard, poor soul.
to tread the same path that father was
treading. so as to be by his side at
every turn of the road.
Il am sure' there IvOry's tone was
somewhat dry and satiricnI, that IA
theirs road had many turns. WaitStill.
He was a schOolmaster in SHco. you
know. when l was born. but he soon
turned from teaching to preaching. ami
here my mother followed with entire
sympathy. for she was intensely. de-
voutly religious. l said there was lit
| tie change in her, but there is one new
symptom. She has ceased to refer to
her conversion to COchrAni.m as a
blessed experience. Her memory of
those first days seems to have faded.
AS to her sisters death and all the cir
cumstances of her bringing Itodman
home. her mind is a blank. Her ex-
p%ectation Of fathers return. on the
other hand. is much more intense than
ever"
'She must have loved your father
dearly. Ivory, and to lose him in this
terrible way is much worse than death.
Uncle Bart says he had a great gift of
%language"
Yes. and it was that. in my mind.
that led him astray. l fear that the
spirit of God was never so strong in
father as the desire to influence peo-
pie by his oratory. That was what
drew him to preaching in the first
place. and when he found in Jacob
Cochrane a man who could move an
audience to frenzy, lift them out Of
the body and do with their spirits as
he willed he acknowledged him as,
master. Whether his gospel was a
pure and undeiled religion l doubt,
but he certainly was a master Of mes
meric control. My mother was be-
guiled, entranced, even bewitched at
first. l doubt not. for she translated
all that Cochrane said into her wi
speech and regarded him as the proph-
ct of a new era. But Cochrane's last
revelations differed from the first and
were of the earth, earthly. My moth
er's pure soul must have revolted, but
she was not strong enough to drag ia
Their from his allegiance. Mother was
of better family than father. but they
were both we'll educated and had the
best schooling to be had in their day.
So far as l car Judge, mother always
had more 'balance\ than father and
much better j~udgment-yet look at her
now!"
Then you think it was your fathers
disappearance that really caused her
mind to waver?" asked Waitstill.
Il do, indeed. | don't know what
happened between them in the way of
religious differences nor how much IN
happiness these may have caused. l
remember she had an illness when we
first came here to live and l was a
little chap Of three or four, but that
was caused by the loss Of a child, a
girl, who lived only a few weeks. She
recovered perfectly, and her head was
as clear as mine for a year or two
after father went away. As his letters
grew less frequent, as news of him
gradually ceased to come, she became
more and more silent and retired more
completely into herself. She never
went anywhere o entertained visi-
tors because she did not wish to hear
the gossip and speculation that were
going on in the village. Some of 1t
was very hard for a wife to bear, and
she resented it Indignantly, yet never
received a word from father with
which to refute it. At this time, as
nearly as | a Judge. she was q
recluse and subject to periods Of pro-
found melancholy. but nothing worse.
Then she took that winter journey to
her sisters deathbed. brought home
the boy. and, FASTENED by exposure
and chill and grief, l suppose, her
mind gave ~way-that's ALL" And Ivory
sighed drearily as he stretched him.
self on the greensward and looked of
! toward the snowclad New Hampshire
hills. 1--WE meant to write the story
Of the 'Cochrane craze some time or
such part Of it as has to do with my
family history. and you shall read it II
you like"
II should like very much to read your
account. Aunt Abby's version. for in
stance. is so different from Uncle
Bart's that n can scarcely find the
truth between the two. and fathers
bears no relation to that Of any of the