"Down the fellow went, plump on his two knees, and down Brother Blank went beside him right in the dust of the street; and the way he wrestled for that blacksmith"s soul was a lesson to all faltering Christians.
""Lift those blood-shot eyes to Heaven and pray," says he, and his voice was tender with compa.s.sion.
""I won"t. Pray for me," says the sinner.
"He did pray. All the old Adam had left Brother Blank"s soul when he laid down that whip. It was flooded now with the milk of human kindness.
In a voice, strong as his right arm and clear as his conscience, he poured forth a pet.i.tion to Heaven, so loud, so powerful, so full of Christian force, that the blacksmith began to tremble on his knees, the two hands that had been clenched like sledge-hammers clasped themselves, till the palms met and were uplifted to Heaven as a child pleads with its mother.
"By and by another voice--hoa.r.s.e, deep, and earnest--joined with the prayer of Brother Blank. All that it said was, "G.o.d be merciful to me a sinner;" but that was enough, for there was that stout old reprobate with his face to the earth, his broad chest swelling with repentance, and great tears making furrows through the cinders and ashes on his cheeks, penitent as a child, and meek as a spring lamb.
"When Brother Blank saw this, his feelings came forth in a grateful shout, tears leaped down his own cheeks, and in one voice these two men thanked G.o.d for the soul that had been saved."
When the man with green spectacles had finished his story, he took out a silk handkerchief from the crown of his hat and wiped his own eyes; then turning to the Sugar-scoop, says he:
"Let this encourage you to persevere to the end, for "while the lamp holds out to burn, the vilest sinner may return." If this person is hardened in the perversity of a depraved nature, think of the blacksmith, and do not despair."
"Did that heathen blacksmith hold out?" says I, so interested in the cindery wretch that I pa.s.sed over his comments about my perversity.
"Hold out!" says he; "I saw him at a camp-meeting three years after, and heard him tell the story with his own lips. Brother Blank himself was sitting on the speaker"s stand, and the blacksmith pointed him out to the people, and called on him to say if it was not his prayers that had s.n.a.t.c.hed him as a brand from the burning.
"Brother Blank got up and walked with a lazy motion down the platform.
Putting both hands behind him he smiled benignly down on the agitated face of his old enemy. Then he looked around on the congregation, and spoke:
""Yes," says he, "I really do believe that I was the humble instrument of mauling some grace into that precious brother"s soul."
"Sisters, that was a glorious moment for Brother Blank; think of it--a human soul turned heavenward in the midst of its wrath; persevere with this one. Leave her not till she is brought to the anxious-seat, and so by regeneration to membership with the church."
"But I am a Church member," says I.
"A Church member?" says the man with spectacles.
"Certainly," says I.
"In good standing?" says the woman, dropping her underlip.
"A missionary from one of the first societies in the world," says I, with becoming dignity.
The woman with the sugar-scoop bonnet looked at the man with spectacles, and the man with spectacles looked at the woman with the sugar-scoop bonnet. Before they could begin again I bowed my head with a lofty and dignified air, and walked away; which, I take it, was something of a rebuke to people whose religious zeal runs ahead of their good breeding.
I have left that camp-ground and descended a hundred or two feet nearer the earth again, without feeling the worse or very much the better for it. The path of duty is sometimes awful steep. I found this precipitous to a wonderful extent. I really think nothing but the saving grace of church-membership kept me from the anxious-seat; but the opportunities of a new birth are not unlimited, and when one is folded and tethered among the lambs, there is a little awkwardness when you are exhorted to have it all done over again by a new minister and another church.
Fortified with a certificate of church membership, I pa.s.sed through the whirlwind and storm of this camp-meeting, with that graceful dignity which has won the high post you have kindly imposed on me.
True, sisters, the pressure brought to bear upon me was long, strong, and persistent. A fierce raid was inst.i.tuted against my back hair and the soft puffings of my frizzes in front. My white hat was a terrible source of trouble to those who want regeneration in nothing but religion; and the feather seemed to get more notice than the preaching did wherever I happened to take it.
Lx.x.xVII.
THAT OVATION OF FIRE.
Sisters:--I give you this little dash of camp-meeting, because I wish to level myself gradually and gracefully down to the gay sinfulness of Long Branch again, where the salt air is revivifying, and our return is a source of complimentary jubilation at this no-end of a hotel. We came here in the ten o"clock boat--that floating mansion-house, which Mr.
James Fisk left as a memorial of the public good a splendid sinner can do when he is active and oriental in his taste.
I am used to these things now; but it was gratifying as we drove up in Dempster"s carriage from the railway to hear a glorious burst of music swell out from a round summer-house on the lawn. A serenade of that kind was what I had not expected, and my heart swelled with not unworthy triumph when I listened. The moment that crowd of musicians saw my white feather, they struck up "Lo, the Conquering Hero comes," with a soft and touchingly subdued sweetness, which threw an exquisite femininity into the air, and plainly marked out its object.
Feeling this, I bowed a graceful recognition to those superior performers, who answered with a prolonged blast from the most curlecued of the long toot-horns as our carriage swept down the curving road that forms a horse-shoe--just a little broad at the heel--in front of Messrs.
Leland"s hotel.
Feeling that many admiring eyes were upon me, I stepped with dignity from the carriage, and walked with a downcast look, which I did my best to make unconscious, through the gay crowd that had gathered in front of that long portico, only just to get a glimpse of me as I went in.
Sisters, I had compa.s.sion on these people, and walked with slow gracefulness through their midst, determined to give even the humblest a chance to see how true genius can deport itself when ovations of music and respectful admiration recognize its greatness.
There was a great publisher present when we got back to the hotel. I have no doubt that he listened to the music of that band when it gave me this harmonious reception, and I hope he indirectly felt the compliment reverberate back on himself. It was an honor he deserved to share with me, or any other high-bred, intellectual person to whom he had opened a golden pathway to the Temple of Fame through his numerous art journals.
I had an idea of the gentleman in my mind, and tried to single him out from the crowd of persons standing in silent homage on the balcony as I pa.s.sed into the hotel, but I think he was not there.
Before the day was out, I could give a good guess at the reason why he did not appear to claim the honor of my acquaintance. He was meditating a delicate little surprise for me--one of those poetic fancies that take root only in highly artistic minds. By and by you will hear what it was.
In Washington, and at the Grand Duke"s reception at Sandy Hook--why that strip of salt water, which lets ships in and out from New York to the Atlantic Ocean, is called a hook, I cannot make out, for the life of me; and as for its being sandy--well, in my opinion, it is deep, salt water, and nothing else. But, as I was a-saying, in Washington, and at Sandy Hook, the largest guns of the nation did me homage. Here I am received with bursts of music from the middle of a home-lot belonging to the hotel; but this evening the crowning glory of an ovation was given me by the great publisher, who, unseen, and with the most delicate attention, startled me into a wild enthusiasm of grat.i.tude.
By guns on the water, by guns on sh.o.r.e, and by enchanting strains of music, my appearance in society has been heralded. Now the cap-sheaf has been placed on all these honors by a compliment of fire combined with the most exhilarating music. On Sat.u.r.day nights, every hotel along the beach is crowded from ground-floor to gable, and gay as a spring morning. Then the husbands and brothers and beaux come down from New York, till all the trains run over with masculine humanity. When the cars come in, it really is a sight to behold. Out from a long train of cars rushes a swarm of men, with here and there a feminine sprinkling, carrying carpet-bags, satchels, umbrellas, and little baskets of fruit.
Then they cl.u.s.ter in a thick, black cloud around the depot, like bees swarming from their hives. The streets all around are choked up with carriages, hacks, omnibuses, wagons, and all sorts of wheeled things, in which drivers sit, on the sharp watch, and ladies and girls wait for their men folks to get in and be drove away. I beg pardon--driven away.
On Sat.u.r.day night, every female seems to own a mate of some kind, and be on the watch for him. Then the engines give a snarl, and carriages make a grand start and go off in a line, stringing down Ocean Avenue a mile or so, and leaving clouds of dust rolling along the beach, each driver going it as if he were crazy to leave all the other fellows behind.
Well, this fills the whole Branch with delightful confusion. The ladies put on their most scrumptious dresses, and the masculines blaze in red and blue and green neckties that almost set you on fire.
Everybody dances on Sat.u.r.day night. Streams of music pour upon you in cataracts if you walk up the beach after dark. All the doors and windows are open, and you feel dizzy with the idea that all creation has got into one grand whirl. This is Sat.u.r.day night at Long Branch, as a general thing; but the particular Sat.u.r.day night after we came from the camp-meeting, was the beatinest thing of all. Early in the evening the people seemed to flock in crowds to this hotel. They came afoot; they came in carriages; they came by the omnibuses, load after load. Cousin E. E. was astonished, and couldn"t understand it. "Never," says she, "have I seen such a crowd before. What can it mean?"
I said nothing, but kept a deep and satisfied thinking. What did it mean? Hadn"t _I_ just arrived? Hadn"t the news spread? Was not this a popular uprising--a great wave of homage to the worth and genius of a woman whom I did not care to mention? These thoughts were in my mind when a great storm of music broke out from that summer-house in the front home lot. Then whiz went a fiery snake, clear up into the sky, where it bent its head, opened its mouth, and poured a stream of burning stars down over the people.
Mercy, what a great crowd those falling stars lighted up! The street in front of the hotel was black with people. The long, long stoop was swarming with them--the ladies all in scrumptious dresses; the gentlemen with red and blue ribbons on their hats, and the same colors glowing at their throats. This I saw by the light of the gas-globes and of those shooting stars that dropped like great jewels through the still air. The sight of that fiery snake frightened me; I jumped like a pea on a hot shovel, and gave a little scream.
"What does it mean? What temptatious snake is it?" says I, a-trembling all over.
"It"s a rocket," says E. E.; "a publishing gentleman is going to compliment the ladies with a display of fireworks."
"The ladies!" thought I, in silent irony. There is but one lady to whom so n.o.ble a compliment can be paid, and that lady--is--but no matter!
I did not say this in words. Let E. E. have her vanities and her little delusions. She does a.s.sume a few airs on account of our relationship, but I seldom notice it--let her make her little mark in society. It pleases her, and does not hurt me. Only, an ovation like this--to think she, or any one else, could share that with me, is asking a little too much.
Out went another snake, curling along the gra.s.s, shooting straight up, with a venomous blue light in its folds that was enough to frighten one; but it sort of melted away in sparks, and then a great wheel of fire--crimson, blue, green, yellow, rainbowish in every line and spoke--began to whirl round and round at the other end of the home lot, sending out great curving plumes of sparks, and twisting them into ten thousand rainbows, all winding, whirling, and shooting fire like a great wheel of jewels and revolving stars.
Another broke out, and began to whirl close to one of the mammoth flower-vases, raining light down upon it, till the great white vase shone like snow, and all the flowers it held were frosted over with a beautiful light.
Then another wheel--another and another--kindled and burst out, sending torrents of fire every which way, changing, flashing, shooting out gorgeous flames of color, till the gra.s.s was all aglow with light, and flashed under the vivid rain of sparks like a meadow full of lightning-bugs.