Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The Falls City tribune. (Falls City, Neb.) 1904-191? | View Entire Issue (Sept. 3, 1909)
Reminiscences of a Wayfarer Some of the Important Events of the Pioneer Days of Richardson County and Southeast Nebraska, as remembered by the writer, who has spent fifty one years here. “Tenting on the Old Camp Ground." “The faintest vest Age of a shrine Of any worship,begets some thoughts divine." The first I ever heard of the Eng lish poet llyron, the author of the above couplet, was at a Methodist camp meeting away hark near the place of my nativity in an older state, and mixed up with the dimly remembered things of my infancy The preacher that Sunday was a Hev. Mr. Andrus, an accomplished pulpit orator, and a scholar of the j highest attainments. 1 did not know that then, out i came to know it in after years, when . the reverend gentleman had climbed to the very top of professional excel lence, power and influence in the' religious world. Among other beautiful things said by him that day, in his felicitous word painting, was his reference to the incomparable genius of the poet named, and the wrong use he made of it—of ills power of expression, second to none of the Oreck and Latin poets.nnd equal if not superior to the Hard of Avon. It is too long ago, and what he said too imperfect ly remembered, for me to attempt its reproduction here, and if he had failed to titter the words I will pres ently repeat, I should probably not have remembered his sermon nt all. lie believed, or affected to do so, that Byron was thoroughly had and essentially wicked, and in a voice of earnest entreaty warned young men of (lie evil example of such a man. a very human diamond, seductive as the serpent in the garden, brilliant as the sun, and therefore all the more dangerous oil that account, ‘‘otherwise,” hissing the words through his teeth. "In the name of the great lCnglishumn you will sure ly urge your way to hell." Those words have never left me, hut were the efficient reason for my examining (lie works of (he poet for myself, for my own satisfaction and for the exercise of my own judgment; and that having done so with what critical power 1 possess, I am con strained to say that the eminent di vine was wholly mistaken in ills mor al estimate of what the world of let ters lias long ago acknowledged, one of tlie greatest, if not the greatest poet who ever wrote in any language. Like all the race of distinctively representative nu n in all times, he came in for his share of abuse and misrepresentation (to call it by no harsher name), and died the worst traduced and slandered man of his time, It is the common fate of gen ius, for the world lias always thought better of itself when engaged in storming its prophets. The plain simple meaning of the linos quoted above is, thut every spot on this old rolling globe of ours, upon which men have worshipped Clod, lias become holy ground. Had men, those who arc of the real hard ened wicked, do not subscribe to that kind of doctrine; and that is all that need be said on the subject. The foregoing reflections arc not entirely irrelevant to the purpose of this contribution to my reminiscent history, as 1 shall endeavor to make plain as 1 proceed. It is a fact with in the experience of all who have at tained to the years of maturity, though they may not have accounted to themselves for the knowledge, that the association of time and place with persons and events of concurrent ex istence, is quite as important ns the persons and events themselves. As it is impossible to think of persons and events out of time (1 use the last term in its popular sense) and out of space, we attach as much sig nificance to tlu' one as to the other, and posit them all together as one common whole. For example, we cannot think of the piece of earth on which the never-to-be-forgotten bat tle of Waterloo was fought, without associating with it the mighty armies that contended there on dune 18,1815, and the illustrious generals who com manded them, the slaughter that was done, the resultant destruction of an empire, and the end of the meteoric military and civic career of that strange human mystery, who in his day, strode the world like a very colossus. Similarly, with every other physi cal event possible in nature. Time and space—that is place—are mere conditions under which we posit things and so render them compre hensible in consciousness,—the one of sequence the other of co-existence. The popular understanding concern ing time is illusory and all wrong. There is no such thing, yet we can not think of anything dissociated with some place, and unrelated to some other thing or event, prior or subsequent in occurrence or being. Relation and sequence, therefore, con stitute the intangible something we eull •'time." Hut il is not of these abstractions I intend to deal in this paper, though they come in my way for mention, ns explanatory of the idea I have In mind. To the north of our city, and about two miles distant as the crow flies, is a secluded spot in tin* breaks of the Muddy; that possesses for me a peculiar interest. It is the old Methodist camp meet ing ground of fifty-four or fifty-five years ago. Just when the spot was dedicated to that use, I am unable to tell, but according to my best infor mation on the subeji t, the first meet ing whs held there either in the sum luer of IN.In or IS.Ui. ihe site of the camp is located between two ravines and on land sloping gently from the high ground to the point where the two ravines meet, forming a larger one that runs off to the north and out Into the valley of the.Muddy. At the time I saw it first, over a half century ago, it was covered with a grove of young trees, JiiHt thick enough on the ground to form a can opy over head with their mingled foliage, sufficient to afford a sort of cool twilight shade la which the peo ple could congregate, locate their tents, pulpit and altar, with such rude seating for the accommodation of the congregation in their devo tions, as the scanty facilities at hand for the purpose, would allow. The arrangement of things always seemed to lie entirely satIsfactory.and everybody In that contented frame of nilml, which, on such occasions Is peculiarly conductive of pious con templation and reverential worship. It was a kind of benediction to watch those people, or any people so situ atod, suffering privations, but making the most of everything; clinging to a master hope, stronger than life it self, tlull reaches all the way front the blight and wilderness of this world to thy "laud of the leal,"to the promised haven of rest--for of all such, is sublimity personified. Assume for a moment that they may possibly be mistaken, and that the reality touching the future exist ence of the children of men "after the fitful fever of this life," is over, shall prove to be someiliing radically different from what they believe it will lie, what of it? la not every thing in- the present state of exist ente more or less uncertain; and la It not true that nothing remains pre cisely the same for any conslderabh length of time, but is constantly and forever in a slate of unrest and change? Eternity Involves the ld< a of n change!) ss and an etdraa.1 rest, which is nothing more than the notion, if such is admissible, of complete non existence— the Nervaua of the Bud dhists. The earnest Christian, who believes that the heaven of his hope is a place of rest, peace-and exerlasting conscious hnppiness, is, by anticipa tion as much in the actual enjoyment of it in his worship on earth, as he will be in the house of the many man sions awaiting him In the great here after. To disturb such a belief—or dream if you please is to commit the unpardonable sin. Tear a man from his illusions- and human life is largely made up of thorn and lie has died twice. i lie chimp meeting is a I'leinoaist Institution, and a creature of tho American frontier. I had wisited many such before I came to Nebras ka, hut tiiis one over north differed in one marked particular from all I had ever s< < n. There were no very old people in the congregation. 1 doubt whether there were any as much as fifty years old. The class in tho middle life, hoih men and women, predominated. The battles of tills world, whether between contending hostile armies, or the pioneers and the unsubdued wilderness, aie all fought, and forever will lie fought, by young men. That fact sufficient ly accounted for the youthful uppi ar ance of the people I met for the first time in large assembly, on the Archer camp meeting ground in the late summer of lxf>8. It was an interesting experience, and entirely new to me, for 1 was looking on iny kind with the naked eye, dissociated from social conven tions nnd fashion flummeries with which, in mi other place, 1 had been familiar. The weather being warm, the men were mostly in their shirt sleeves, as though their religious de votion was a kind of undress func tion, that could he best performed without the incumbrance of a coat There was a faint suggestion of fashion in tlie hats and dresses of the women, but it was in the past tense, and referable to some other place and time, llui they were all neat, comely, and adorned with that inher ent womanly modesty characteristic of tlii> mothers who have produced and nursed the greatest race of men the world has ever known- the Anglo Saxon. I liked that camp meeting did'went there every year is long as it lasted. The preaching was much in keeping with the surroundings and conditions, a little primitive, very simple, but decidedly earnest, and above all was sincere aud sympa ib tie. the kind of sermon or message nf • uragemeet one traveler in the night cud storm of a sin troubled world, would be likely to deliver to li I'-HoWo. Those preachers, and i ioet er the people, who year after ; i ar. worshipped in that beautiful Move in the early clays, have long been at rest, but the shrine remains, there to preach, in voiceless language the resurrection and the life, while the world stands. According to my best recollection, the Iasi camp meeting over on the Muddy, was held in the year 1866, but 1 do not vouch for the absolute correctnc ss of this statement. The reason for believing it true, is the fact, that in 1866 the first Methodist church building in Falls City was erected, and I am certain no camp un iting was held over there after that date, l have never been there during all the forty-five years that have elapsed, till one day last week. After 1 determined to write of that time, and before doing so, 1 conclud ed to visit the old camp grounds and see what it looked like. I was care ful to take no one with me who knew anything of those meetings, or any thing el' the spot where they were held. This was done tHat i might from recollection alone, hunt out the place, and the location of points of interest such as the spring from which the water supply of the people was obtained, the pulpit and the and tiie space devoted to the seating of tiie congregation. Accordingly,on last Thursday morn ing I procured a team and buggy, and looked about for some fellow as idle as myself to go with me, and found one in the person of .Jim Nausler, who, I knew was engaged in a very different kind'of camping in the swamps of the South about the time those Archer camp meetings were be ing held, and pressed him into ser vice with the bribe of a cigar or two, and the promise of a ride in (lie coun try. Agreed, and we went. I didn’t know exactly how to get to the ground, as the country all about it has been fenced up since 1 used to go there, but I knew the general dir ection -and trusted to accident and circumstances for success in the en terprise. Whoever would go there, can do so in this wise; Go north from town to the corner .of the Jones farm, turn east for probably a lialf a mile to a neighborhood road running north; fol low that till a wire fence is reached near the west ravine that runs by the old camp ground; go through it by a gate, and then through another gait in another fence running north am south, and from there along the edgt of the grove to the top of the ridge east and lie will then stand on the ! southern end of that ancient place of I worship. The place where the pul-! j pit and altar were situated, is prob- < I ably ntiout fifty steps south of the | meeting point of the two ravines 1 have mention* d, and just south of that and pretty nearly all over the sloping space between the two ra vines, were located the seats for the congregation and the tents of the faithful in attendance. If the place was cleared of debris, fallen limbs, underbrush, and some of the lower boughs of the trees lopped off, with seats, altar and pulpit re stored, it would look precisely as it did forty-five years ago, when 1 saw it last. The grove does not seem to have changed at all, and yet, I know that the present growth of trees are not those, except perhaps three or four, knarled, crooked and broken trunks that still stand like “sentinels forgottou on their posts,” that were there at the time of which I write. It required little effort of the imagin ation to repeople tills neglected spot with the long dispersed and shadowy congregations that.,annually met here. The place is barren of interest with out such association, and to think of one, is to think of both. Blot out the intervening years, and the grove and the camping ground are just the same as of yore, but what of the people who worshipped in that wood? Gone, except the young est of them, oirt of life and out of the world, while the spot they con secrated to an holy use, is unknown to the mass, forgotten by many, and neglected by all. I i hall have something more to say on the same subject. A Narrow Escape. Edgar N. Bayliss, a merchant of Robinsonville, Del., wrote: “About two years ago I was thin and sick, and coughed all the time and if 1 did not have consumption, it was near to it. I commenced using Foley's Hon ey and Tar, and it stopped my cough, and i si in now entirely well, and have gained twenty-eight pounds, all due to the good results from taking Fol ey's Honey and Tar. Kerr’s Pharmacy, i | ^ .% .»*.;. II Wanted!! I ?. t : v V •!« v Horse and Cow Hides, * || Woo! and Pelts A i i y Highest Market Price ?! x • ? I | Porter Randolph f ? Falls City, Phone 422 | School Supplies of all kinds AT JVTMillan’s Pharmacy THE REXALL STORE Opposite Postoffice Falls City, Neb. I A camel! t T f Can Go Seven Days Without f £ Drinking I> DON’T BE A CAMEL ? V T »*« *.• Call Phone 66 and order a •j' case of Bottled Seda today. ❖ ’1* It will be delivered at your £ X home promptly. IC | Falls City Bottling f COMPANY 4* v The Best Bargain J in reading matter that your money can buy is your local pa per. It keeps you posted on ths doings of the community. This Paper will tell you the things you want to know in an entertaining way; will give you all the news of the community; its every visit will prove a pleasure; it gives more than full value for the price 1 asked for it. — A To Uneeda Biscuit Hunger makes me think of you; Thought of you makes me hungry. Between the thought and sight of you, Indeed I’m always hungry. But with appetite awaiting— a nickle in hand and you in store—who could wish for anything more? NATIONAL BISCUIT COMPANY
