Year: 1874

De louno at the booksellers stands, One OF
them was called Small Things, and the
slavery book was always indispensibIy placed
among his more orthodox publications. 1t
was ior many years the only anti slavery book
available to the public in MARYLAND and Vir
ginia. 1t was the first book that the present
writer ever read addressed to the instinct of
the STAKEHOLDER, and perhaps it insensibly
paved the way for that political fermentation
on the subject which at last threw down slavery
and all connected with it. The helpIessness
and Individuality of this crusade made him so
independent and inglOriOus that the rich slave
holders could no more than back bite, calling
MIN a deceased man, a reprObate and what
not. On one occasion, when he was a guest at
my father house, some superserviceabe post
master tampeIed with his mail, and found
thsreln an abolition newspaper-whether Ben
lamln Dnndy's, or w. L. Garrison's 5, | do not
know. The charge was so henous that there
was rumor that tar and feathers would be
applied to this abolition emissary.


As revival preacher, [ do not believe
W htheld was more effective. His stock of
IDEAS and information was limited, but every
thing he knew was made available His writ
lngs were quaint and exceptional He had
somehow fallen across q translation of Madam
UulOn hymns which he committed to mem
ory, and reclted to country congreg egatiOns.


Some of you may not like Madam G1ion be-
cause she was Catholic, but that makes no
difference to me- [ well remember that one
OF these poems used to raise the house with
Its sweetness, beginning something like the
following


"A little bird anil


Shut cut from light and air,


let all the night sit and sing


To him who placed me there


We pleased prisoner to be,


Because my God 1t pieaseth Thee"


tie had about dozen anecdotes which he
told over and over again, and they were at his
tongue end, SO that, year by year, he told
them with more power than before. and his
manner was theatrical with purpose anvthinp
but theatrical behind it. One night the daurh
ter OF bank president of an aristecratic town
on the Eastern Shore Of Maryland came with
several OF her schoolmates to hear this wild
man preach, and she was so terrified and
stricken with his sermon that when the invita-
ton was given to walk to the altar and knee
Tor the prayers of the congregation. she wen
forward, TO the surprise of her comrades and
to the scandal Of her church. Next dav he,
family brought in the church parson her rela
tlves and her lover, to dsmay her, and she
Was sent OF to Baltimore to take some lesson,
at the theater and get Methodism out of her
mimi. Tho lesson was successful but the
Methodists kept up the tradition of this younc
girl conviction, suppression, and loss of peace
and heaven, until the story had the force in
the church of one of the Roman miracles,


On one occasion, | remembered, my cousin.
an orphan girl, sat at the table with poor thin
little gold ring on her finger, mounted with a
red stone. Hersey would never sleep on q
leather bed nor mattras>, but, hernit-like.
i1ld down on saeking bottom on the floor
lie came down stairs severe and ugly. At the
breakfast table his eyes lighted on the ring.


My daughter" he said, what are you
doing, with that thing on your finger. 1t will
only drag your poor soul down to hell. "


My father who bad an involuntary liberality,
although a Methodist said Father Ilersey
what do you think the good Lord made such
pretty things for?"


=" | reckon, said Hersey, " it would trouble
a wise man to tell what the Lord IN ado rattle
snakes for.


This is the crude gentleman | have brought
forward in this column to instance the type of
the reformers who made spiritual life in the
Chesapeake and Potomac country.