Year: 1875




Mrs. Van Cott has been spending a
portion of the last month in earnest
efforts for the Christianizing of sundry
towns and villages in Pennsylvania.
Among these places is the village of
Freedom, in York county, where she met
with marked success, and held enthusi-
astic meetings. One evening, while
canvassing the house for repentant sim
ners, she noticed a middle aged man,
the stolid expression of whose face
attracted her attention and excited her
feminine curiosity; 50, in her usual
magnetic manner, she approached him,
and asked him whether he would not
like to follow in the path of the righteous.
No answer could she gain, and with an
audible prayer of "may God drive the
dumb devil out of you, my brother"
she passed on to interview more impress
sible subjects.


Two nights passed. and the stranger
again appeared at the church but this
time his eyes were lighted with an almost
maniacal glitter, and his countenauce
seemed the playground of the liveliest
emotions. Quickly approaching the
altar, he knelt among the sobbing and
shouting ones, and as the religious shep-
herdess drew near he asked her if she
knew him. "Why yes, you are the man
who had the dumb devil the other night"
she replied. He then begged of her the
privilege of saying a few words, and the
request being granted, he arose, and de-
liberately drawing a revolver from hi, (,
breast, held it aloft in a thrilling, dram
attic manner, while he told his history of
life to the eager listeners. He was resi-.
dent OF Chicago, where he had for many
years followed his profession of photo
grapher. For the past four years he had
strayed far from the path of right and
vlrtucus living, and, as a consequence
of his dissipation and debauchery, his
wife had deserted him and returned to his
friends in Pennsylvania, taking his three
children with her. Driven to frenzy by
this, he sank lower and lower, until, as If
the fiendishness of hell itself possessed
him, he had purchased this weapon of
death and started for the East, deter
mined to murder his wife and children,
and then put an end to his own miserable
existence. Only two nights before he
sat in that church looking for his wife,
and gloating over the fiendish plot. The
words then spoken to him had aroused
his almost lost manhood, and falling
again on his knees he desired Mrs. Van
Cott to pray for him. She spoke at once,
extending her hand toward him, "Child,
give me that" and with the meekness
of child he handed her the weapon,
and then feeling in his pocket produced
box of cartridges, which he also placed
in her hand. The strange sight was then
presented of the woman revivalist holding
in one hand a seven.shooter and in the
other a box of death. dealing missiles.
while she offered to heaven an earnest
prayer for the saving Of this brand from
the burning. As Mrs. Van Cott finished
telling the incident to the Post and Mail
reporter, she said: "Never in my life
did | ever feel such power in prayer, and
never before did offer up petition to
my Heavenly Father under such strange
circumstances" The next day the man,
clothed in his right mind, and happy in
heart, sought the injured wife, effected
reconciliation, and another will soon be
added to the list of happy homes in Chi
cago.