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REMINISCENCES 
 
 AND 
 
 SKETCHES, 
 
 Historical and Biographical 
 
 By 
 
 William M. Mali 
 
 
 V / y / 
 
 HAKkiSP.rk(., I'.v. : 
 
 Mi:v]:ks I'rixtixc, HorsK 
 
Entered according to the act of Congress, in the year 1890, by WllJiam M. 
 Hall, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Pagk. 
 
 1. Thaddeus Stevens, 1 
 
 2. The Sermon on the Mount. Is it a Code of Ethics tor the 
 
 Government of our Conduct in this Life? .'J5 
 
 A. The Packer's Path, and an Old Indian Trader's Account Book, 41 
 
 4. An Ancient Meeting-House and a Country Graveyard. . . . 50 
 
 5. Slave Catching in Bedford County, o5 
 
 (). Stoppage of Flow of Blood by Pepeatiug a Verse from Scrip- 
 ture, • (>1 
 
 7. The Traveling Salesman (i8 
 
 8. David Alexander • . . . . 74 
 
 f>. Is Selling Li({Uor a Sin, prr se / 80 
 
 10. A Hero and a Sermon 84 
 
 11. Claycomb's Ride H8 
 
 12. Leslie's Apology, 94 
 
 13. The Tipstaves, 5)8 
 
 14. A Novel Writ 100 
 
 ir,. A Cruel Wag, ' . . . . 105 
 
 Kk a Jury Trial, 108 
 
 17. Some Objections to Allowing Paitics to be Witnesses. ... Ill 
 
 IH. The Battle of Saxton 115 
 
 10. The Ancient and Veneralde Order of Lcclam])sis N'itis. . . 121 
 
 20. E<iuality, 128 
 
 21. Enjoyable Egotism I'M) 
 
 22. The Uncertianty of History 133 
 
 23. The Necessity for Good Nature on Shi^i-Board 135 
 
 24. Did You See any Whales? 138 
 
 (iii) 
 
Table of Conii'.tiiH. 
 
 PA.iK. 
 
 2'k Solojuoii's Wisdom 1:;«) 
 
 :>(). Judicial kolx's U:; 
 
 27. A 'Prip 1<) (Jettysluuo; l.Vi 
 
 :>S. TIr' Stajit-Drivt'i and tlic .Iud<ie ]<;•> 
 
 r>}). An Unrecorded Battle l«;s 
 
 ;>(). A Chapter of IJedtord History — Simon Kenton, tlie Indian 
 
 Hater, and Simon (Jirly. the Ucnciiade \T.\ 
 
 :\\. A Cha))ter of IJedtoid History — Washington. Houijuet and 
 
 Forbes is-i 
 
 :5:>. Clnonicles<.n'.edlord, — Isaac i.ii)i)le William Kreiuhbanm. 1S7 
 
 'X\. (general llowman and the IJedtbrd (razette, 19:i 
 
 ;}4. Bloody kun 19(i 
 
 o"). Historical Sketch of the Sixteenth .ludicial Distiict. . . . 198 
 
 3G. The I'resbyterian Meeting-Honse :i08 
 
 'M. Decoration Day — .\n .\ddress 2Bi 
 
 ;is. Mr. Stanton's Discharge of >rilitary Prisoners 224 
 
 :«). Overtaken by Justice 238 
 
 40. Forty Years Ago, 240 
 
 41. Andrew Jack.son Ogh" 244 
 
 42. David Lewis, the Robber, 24!) 
 
THADDEUS STEVENS. 
 
 "^rO son of Pennsylvanici need be ashamed of the 
 state of his nativity. In climate, soil, mineral 
 wealth, agricultural in-oducts, pure air and water, diver- 
 sified scenery, and a hardy, intelligent, industrious, 
 honest and patriotic population, she has no superior. 
 Nor has this central state of the Union been lacking- in 
 great men. She has given to the nation a long- list of 
 distinguished statesmen, soldiers, philanthropists, phil- 
 osophers, patriots, jurists, theologians, travelers, inven- 
 tors and financiers, in the memories of whose lives her 
 citizens may well feel a glow of proper pride. But the 
 Pennsylvanian whose biography, if it could be clearly 
 and fully portrayed in its g-eneral scope and its minute 
 details, would make the most interesting- reading-, is 
 Thaddeus Stevens. 
 
 I call him a Pennsylvanian althoug-h he was not a na- 
 tive. Like Franklin, and Gallatin, and Stanton, he was 
 a Pennsylvanian by adoption. But here he passed his 
 days from early manhood until declining- age, and be- 
 came thoroughly identified with the public life of the 
 state. He was born at Danville, Caledonia county, Ver- 
 mont, the state that Stephen A. Douglas complimened 
 with the remark that it was a good state to emigrate 
 from, on tlio 4th day of Ai)ril, 1792, and graduated at 
 Dartmouth College, in 1814, at the age of twenty -two 
 
 (1) 
 
Reminiscences and Sketches. 
 
 years, and came to Pennsylvania in 1815, to the town of 
 York, where he taught school and prosecuted the study 
 of the law, which he had previously beg-un at Peacham, 
 in his native comity, in Vermont. The rules of court 
 of the York district required the reading of law in the 
 office of a practicing attorney to the exclusion of every 
 other avocation or pursuit; to avoid this requirement 
 Mr. Stevens went to Belair, in the adjoining county of 
 Harford, Maryland, and was there examined and admit- 
 ted to practice in August, 1816, and immediately re- 
 tm-ned to Pennsylvania and opened a law office at Get- 
 tysburg, Adams county. He represented Adams county 
 in the Pennsylvania legislature from 1833 to 1840, and 
 was a member of the convention to revise the constitu- 
 tion in 1837-38. In 1842 he removed to Lancaster, as 
 affording him a larger field for the practice of the law, 
 and also, doubtless, mth a view to a congressional career, 
 from which he seemed to be shut out at Gettysburg. 
 He was elected to congress from that county in 1848 and 
 reelected in 1850. He was again elected in 1858, and 
 continued to serve in congress until his death, in Wash- 
 ington city, on the 11th of August, 1868, aged seventy- 
 six years foiu* months and seven days. And his grave 
 is at Lancaster in the obscure cemetery which he himself 
 selected as the place for the interment of his mortal re- 
 mains, because the other cemeteries were exclusivelj' for 
 whites. The inscription on his tomb, prepared by him- 
 self, is as follows : 
 
 "I repose in this quiet and secluded sj^ot not from any 
 natural preference for solitude, but finding other ceme- 
 teries limited by charter rules as to race, I have chosen 
 it that I might be enabled to illustrate in my death the 
 
Thaddeus Stevens. 
 
 principle wliicli I have advocated through a long- life — 
 Equality of man before his Creator." 
 
 Mr. Edward McPherson, who read law with Mr. Ste- 
 vens and is the executor of his will, has been expected 
 to write his biography, and has gathered a good deal of 
 material to that end. No man is more competent to per- 
 form that duty ; for it is a duty, a debt owed by the public 
 to the memory of its distinguished dead, for the benefit 
 of the living and of future generations, that the life of 
 a great man shall be chronicled and handed down to pos- 
 terity. The long delay in the performance induces the 
 fear that Mr. McPherson's other cares and duties may 
 cause him to postpone the much-desired work until he 
 dies without accomplishing it. 
 
 The little incidents of daily life are those which show 
 a man's real character, and the portrayal of them is nec- 
 essary to any true biography. You want to see the 
 inner life of the man, the qualities of mind and heart 
 which constitute his individuality. All along Mr. Ste- 
 vens' pathway were strewn with the affluent hand of one 
 possessed of infinite riches, touches of exquisite wit and 
 sarcasm and quickness of repartee that needed the pen 
 of a Boswell to gather them as they fell. But he never 
 would have tolerated such a satellite for a day. He had 
 no confidants and permitted no close intimates. He had 
 none of the vanity of smaller men, and never posed for 
 posterity. 
 
 Mr. Stevens' career in congress is not likely to perish 
 from men's memories. Much of it is. preserved in the 
 congressional records. His earnest, brave, far-seeing, 
 self-reliant, patriotic and determined course as chairman 
 of the Committee of Ways and Means, without ever a 
 
Reminiscences cind Sketches. 
 
 vacillation or a doubt, during- the war and the period of re- 
 construction, is inwoven with the history of the country. 
 The whole question of finances, both of revenue and expen- 
 diture, the internal revenue system, the currency system, 
 the national bank system and the form of the national 
 debt, were under his direction. Mr. Maynard, of Ten- 
 nessee, speaking- of his service in congress with Mr. 8., 
 says: 
 
 "AVlien, the next winter, we met again as members of 
 the new cong-ress all was changed. A million of men 
 were in arms and the life of the nation hung upon the 
 issue of battle. We were both upon the Committee of 
 Ways and Means, charged, as the House was at that time 
 organized, with the examination of all financial questions, 
 both of revenue and expenditui-e, and with the prepara- 
 tion of revenue bills, which, under the constitution, must 
 originate in the House. The expenditures of the gov- 
 ernment, never less than two millions a day, and some- 
 times reaching three millions, made a demand upon the 
 public resources wholly without precedent, and greatly 
 beyond what many regarded as oiu* ability to meet. Be- 
 sides intervention by at least two of the great European 
 XDOwers for months seemed imminent, and a struggle be- 
 tween the Republic and the united ci\'ilized world, and 
 what was still more disheartening to one in the position 
 of Mr. Stevens, he lacked confidence in the abilitj^ and 
 skill both of our civil and military leaders, and in some 
 important instances he had little faith in their devotion 
 to the cause so dear to the general heart. The early de- 
 cisions of the field were not always assuring, and even 
 here there were not a few timid and unbelieving, ready 
 to flee at the first sign of irresolution on the part of our 
 
Thaddeus Steveiis. 
 
 leader. Yet neither on the floor nor in the committee 
 room did his courag-e once weaken or his purpose g-row 
 infirm. On the contrary we saw his energies increase 
 with every new emerg-ency, and his spirit rise buoyant as 
 those around him became more desponding. Among the 
 elements of our final success his unfaltering- leadership at 
 this cardinal period was not the least. AVliile events 
 were shaping- themselves and the public judgment was 
 baffled by the novelty of the situation, weakness, doubt, 
 instability in that quarter might have been fatal. The 
 unabated hostility toward him by the partisans of the 
 rebellion is explained only by the consciousness of his 
 imyielding and overmastering power." 
 
 But his life as a school teacher, at the bar, in the Penn- 
 sylvania legislature, in the constitutional convention, as 
 canal commissioner, as the leader of Governor Ritner's 
 administration, and his hon mots in professional and social 
 intercourse, will soon be hard to gather up and i^ortray 
 fully. Time is fast removing his contemporaries and sur- 
 rounding it all with an obscming haze. Mr. McPherson 
 ought to go on with his work, or, failing this, some other 
 hand ought to come to the rescue. 
 
 The sketch of Mr. E. B. Callender (Boston, 1882), en- 
 titled, "Thaddeus Stevens, Commoner," is admirable as 
 far as it goes, but it is very meagre, and, indeed, almost 
 entirely deficient in regard to his early life as a school 
 boy, and college student, and school teacher, and law 
 student, and his professional life as a member of the bar, 
 and his career in the Pennsylvania legislature, and as 
 canal commissioner, and as the chief leader of the anti- 
 masonic party of this state. 
 
 Like a large majority of the men who rise to })romi- 
 
Reminiscences and S kef dies. 
 
 nence in any sphere of life in this country, Mr. Stevens 
 had res anynsfa domi, the stimuhis of poverty. His 
 parents were poor. His father enlisted in the war of 
 1812 and died in the service. And like most other g-reat 
 men he g-ot his g-reat qualities from his mother. He 
 cherished her memory in affectionate devotion as long as 
 life endured. In the last year of his life he wrote his 
 will and set ajoart a sum to provide an annual income to 
 pay the sexton to keep his mother's grave in good order, 
 "and, plant roses and other clieerful flowers at each of the 
 four corners of said grave every spring," and bequeathed 
 one thousand dollars in aid of the establishment at Lancas- 
 ter of a Baptist church, of which society his mother was a 
 member, saying, "I do this out of respect to the memory 
 of my mother, to whom I owe whatever little prosperity 
 I have had on earth, which, small as it is, I desire em- 
 phatically to acknowledge." 
 
 Mr. Stevens was club-footed in one foot, and was some- 
 what lame and Avalked with a cane. He had a brother 
 who was club-footed in both feet. Notwithstanding- this 
 deformity he was a man of fine physical proportions and 
 powers, and excelled in manly sports. He was a good 
 swimmer. He could throw the ' long- bullet ' further and 
 kick a hat otf a higher peg than any other man in Get- 
 tysburg. His portrait, at the age of forty -five probably, 
 which hangs in the building connected with the colleg-e 
 at Gettysburg, which, in honor of his friendship for the 
 institution and the interest he manifested in its success, 
 is appropriately named " Stevens Hall," is that of a very 
 handsome man. He rode well on horse-back and, as a 
 young man, was very fond of that exercise. It enabled 
 him to appear to advantage, freed from the infirmit}" of 
 
Thaddeus Stevens. 
 
 lameness which marred his progress as a pedestrian. 
 He was fond of fox-hunting", horse-racing and cock-fight- 
 ing-, and used to ride over to the adjoining counties in 
 Maryland to witness these sports. 
 
 How far the deformed foot influenced his character, 
 might be an interesting inquiry. That it had some effect 
 is certain. He was a master of sarcasm, and the cutting 
 strokes were sometimes merciless. On one occasion, in 
 the Pennsylvania legislature, when he was sitting with 
 his distorted foot up on the edge of his desk, an attitude 
 in which he seemed to like to place himself, as if to ob- 
 trude the deformity upon the vision, perhaiDS from a feel- 
 ing that it would not be manly to conceal his defect, a 
 bright little boy in the innocence and bravery of child- 
 hood, advanced near to and looked intently at it. With 
 a scowling expression of countenance Stevens thrust his 
 foot close to the little fellow's face and frightened him with 
 the fierce remark, "There, look at it! it won't bite! it's 
 not a snake !" 
 
 But while his contemporaries say he used his sarcasm 
 cruelly at times, struck wdth venom as if he hated his 
 fellowmen, ihej bear undi^dded testimony to many acts 
 of generosity and kindness to the poor and needy, and 
 that he was genial and attractive to young men. Wlien 
 Mr. R., lately one of the leaders of the Lancaster county 
 bar, first went to Lancaster, as a young man, he had letters 
 of introduction to F. and Stevens. F. discouraged him 
 from settling there and repelled him ^vith coldness. 
 St(wens met him i^leasantly ; said it was a good place for 
 a thorough young lawyer, and at the first court came 
 stumping into his office and asked him to go into a case 
 with him ; said he wanted to see the stuff he was made of. 
 
8 Reminiscences and Sketches. 
 
 Perhaps the incidents of the trial of the A. will-case 
 give a fair illustration of Stevens' wit and sarcasm and 
 knowledge of human nature, and adroitness as a jiuy 
 la^vyer. Colonel A. was an old merchant resident of McCon- 
 nellsburg, Fulton county, Pennsylvania, who had groT^ii 
 rich for that time and place by careful thrift and econ- 
 omy and by the accumulation of money at interest from a 
 mere lapse of time. He had doubtless full testamentary 
 capacity, tested by the established standard of the deci- 
 sions, namely, knowledge of what estate he had to dispose 
 of and who were the proper objects of his bounty. But he 
 had grown dissatisfied with his children's habits of spend- 
 ing money — they did not save or manage as he did. His 
 hard-earned dollars and his careful accumulations, wheia 
 they came into their hands, circulated vdi\\ far too much 
 rapidity and improvident disregard of the future to meet 
 his frugal ideas, and so he provided for them a scanty 
 yearlj^ income and tied up the principal by devising it to 
 his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He made 
 Mr. L., of Bedford, a sux^erannuated lawyer, liis exix-utor 
 and trustee. The children filed a caveat against the pro- 
 bate of the will, alleging want of testamentary capacity, 
 on the ground of some insane misconception with reg^ard 
 to their inability to manage affairs, and employed Mr. 
 Stevens, and procured a change of venue to Franklin 
 coimty, where the case was tried before Judge F. M. 
 Kimmell and a jury. Mr. McL., who was of counsel 
 for the executor, opened his side of the case in a care- 
 fully prepared speech, in which he said a man ought to 
 be allowed to dispose of his own hard earnings as suited 
 his own ideas, that in all ages of the world among civ- 
 ilized nations he was allowed to do so — that it was - a 
 
Thaddeus Stevens. 
 
 stimulus to thrift, etc., etc., that Mr. A.'s une^rateful chih 
 di'en were selfishly tryin^- to destroy and set aside their 
 kind old father's will, and seeking to cast obloquy upon 
 his memory and make it appear that the strono--minded 
 old man Avas an imbecile, and that, in this ungracious 
 effort, they had brought here, all the way from Lancaster, 
 the distinguished Mr. Stevens. At this point Mr. Stevens 
 arose, and with a demure look of innocence and injury in 
 his countenance, quietly said, "May it please your 
 Honor, I ask the protection of the court,' and then, after 
 a long pause, and when silent expectation had hushed all 
 the noises of the court room, added, "I never said any- 
 thing like that of Mr. McL." The audience laughed and 
 Mr. McL. was disconcerted and floundered to the end of 
 his speech, and the effect of a really forcible argument 
 was dissipated with a single shot. 
 
 The Eeverend Mr. W. had testified, on behalf of the ex- 
 ecutor, to some mismanagement of certain property by 
 one of the heirs, a female. The examination of the wit- 
 ness by Mr. L. had been prolix and unnecessarily di-awn 
 out, so that the court asked him once or twice if he was 
 not done. Meanwhile Stevens read, or appeared to read, 
 a newspaper, as if what was going on was tiresome and 
 of no moment, and finally the court said, "Mr. Stevens 
 the witness is in your hands." Stevens appeared not to 
 hear, so that the court had to repeat it to him. Arousing, 
 as if from a state of half sleepiness, Stevens said, "I 
 have no cross-examination." The wdtness left the stand. 
 TMien he had gone half-way across the court room, Mr. 
 Stevens said, " Stop a moment, Mr. W., I have a single 
 question." The witness stopped, standing in a most con- 
 spicuous position with all eyes upon him, and Stevens said, 
 
10 Reminiscences and Sketches. 
 
 "Pray, how old is the g-ood lady with regard to whom 
 yon have been testifying ?" Pansing a while to think, the 
 witness said, "Well, really, I can't tell exactly, but I think 
 about fifty." "You can go, sir, I care nothing about 
 women when they arrive at that age !" 
 
 In the course of the trial Mr. L., the executor, who was 
 active in trying the case, affected a certain supercilious- 
 ness of manner towards Mr. Stevens. After considerable 
 forbearance Mr. Stevens finally said to one of the wit- 
 nesses for the will, "Sir, do you know Mr. L., of Bed- 
 ford?" The witness looked astonished at such a question. 
 Mr. L. was then within a few feet of him, and had been 
 conducting his examination for a half hour. But he 
 finally stammered "yes." "AVell, sir, what e\ddence of Col- 
 onel A. 's testamentary capacity do you think it was that he 
 selected Mr. L. for his executor ?" 
 
 In the trial of the case of Somerville against Jackson, 
 at HoUidaysburg, Mr. M., an old and able Huntingdon 
 lawyer, was arguing the case to the jury. Mr. Stevens, 
 who was to follow, was talking to some ladies in a retired 
 corner of the room. Mr. M. had a harsh voice and a 
 queer way of letting it rise and fall at intervals, at times 
 sinking away almost to a whisper. The ladies had come 
 to hear Stevens, and were impatient to have him begin. 
 In one of the die-away spells of Mr. M.'s speech, Mrs. B., 
 thinking he was done, said, "There, there, Mr. Stevens, 
 Mr. M. is c|one." Before the words were fairly out, how- 
 ever, Mr. M.'s voice was heard in its rising inflection, and 
 Stevens quickly rephed, "Not at all, Mrs. B., he was only 
 greasing Ids saiv / 
 
 In the Pennsylvania legislature John B. DeFord, of 
 UniontowTi, a new member, was anxious to measure 
 
Thaddeus Stevens. 11 
 
 swords with Mr. Stevens. Aiising- to oppose a bill wliicli 
 Mr. Stevens advocated, DeFord said, at the top of bis 
 lung-s, "Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, the gentleman iVom 
 Adams does not imderstand this bill !" " Oh ! very likely, 
 very likely," said Mr. Stevens, " Balaam's ass saw the 
 ang-el when his master did not." 
 
 Stevens Avas always fond of cards, and j^layed occa- 
 sionally for money. Stepping- into a faro-bank with a 
 friend for a few minutes he won a hundred dollars and 
 stuffed it carelessly into his vest pocket. He set no store 
 by money, and was g-enerous and liberal with it. As he 
 left the door of the g-ambling-house he w^as accosted by a 
 minister of the gospel, who asked him for a donation to 
 some benevolent object connected with his denomination. 
 Stevens immediately pulled out the hundred dollar bill 
 from his pocket and gave it to the astonished preacher 
 who was profuse in his thanks, and said it was a special 
 pro\ddence in direct answer to his prayers. Stevens 
 walked off, remarking to his companion, "How inscruta- 
 ble are the ways of Providence!" 
 
 At the time of the completion of the frescoes of the 
 dome of the capitol at Washington, there was a low 
 theatre, called the Canterbiuy, where the performances 
 were made more lively than respectable by certain semi- 
 nude dancing girls. The frescoes, which had been long 
 in preparation, rei)resent a sort of fanciful apotheosis of 
 General Washington, in which he is surrounded by divers 
 mythological female figures rather scantily clad. When 
 the scaffolding was first removed so that the paintings 
 were visible from below, some one met Stevens passing- 
 through the rotunda, and, glancing up, said, "Mr. Stevens 
 what is that?" "Well," said he, "I hardly know, unless 
 
12 Reminiscences and Sketches. 
 
 it is General Washing-ton dancino;- Avitli the Canterbury 
 g-irls." 
 
 In the trial of a case at Chambersburg", Dr. S., a leading- 
 physician and eleg-ant g-entleman, was a witness against 
 Stevens' client. A quack doctor named O. was also a wit- 
 ness. By way of belittling- Dr. S.'s testimony, Stevens, in 
 commenting- on it to the jury, jDrnposely misnamed Dr. S. 
 and called him Dr. O. This being- reported to Dr. S he 
 fell into a towering rage and said he would cane Stevens, 
 and straightway started toward the court house for that 
 avowed purpose, with the crowd following. He met 
 Stevens coming out of court, stumping down the court 
 house stei:>s, and approaching him, said brusquely, " Mr. 
 Stevens, I understand that in commenting on my testi- 
 mony you called me Dr. O." "Did I?" said Stevens, " I 
 am very sorry for it, when I meet Dr. O. I will apologize." 
 The crowd laughed and the Doctor joined in. 
 
 A distinguished Pennsylvania jurist, who had occux)ied 
 a position on the bench for a quarter of a century, once 
 remarked that there were three classes of cases in which 
 jurors are not to be trusted, viz., when there is a pretty 
 woman in the case, when a surety is called upon to pay 
 money for which he received no actual value, and where 
 there is a controversy about a will in which the testator 
 has made an unequal distribution of his property among 
 his children. The strong inclination of the jury under the 
 manipulations of a skilful advocate, is not to ascertain 
 what the man's will really is, but to make a will for 
 him according to their ideas of justice, with a profound 
 conviction that equahty is justice. Divers of Mr. Stevens' 
 triumiihs at the bar were in cases of this class, and 
 some of them were achieved by adroit cross-examination 
 
TliadAens Stevens. 13 
 
 alone. A case of this kind is handed down among- the 
 traditions of the bar. A^ justice of the peace who acted 
 as a county scrivener, and was a very worthy man, who 
 stood well among- his neighbors, had the vice, not very 
 imcommon among- Pennsylvanians of Scotch-Irish de- 
 scent fifty years ag-o, of occasional spells of inebriety. 
 In one of these he had passed the night, oblivious of his 
 surroundings, in a gutter by the road-side, not far from 
 the house of Farmer A. Some months after this, when 
 he was duly sober, he acted as scrivener in drawing A.'s 
 will, and was the chief attesting- witness to the will, in 
 w^hich A. made wiiat seemed to be a very unequal distri- 
 bution of his property among his children. The will 
 was contested and Mr. Stevens was employed to set it 
 aside. The justice was sworn and teslified to the genu- 
 ineness of the sig-nature, and that he hacV-^ttested it in 
 the presence of the testator and at his request, and that 
 he was of somid mind and disposing- memory, and was 
 handed over to Mr. Stevens for cross-examination, which 
 was somewhat as follows; " You attested this instrument, 
 Squire B., in the presence of the testator and at his re- 
 quest?" "Yes, sir, I did." "You say he was of sound 
 mind and disi^osing memory ? " " Yes, sir, I do." " Now, 
 sir, what was the condition of your own mind and mem- 
 ory at the time ? Were you not grossly intoxicated ? " 
 " No, sir ! No, sir ! " " Did you not fall in the g-utter by 
 the way -side within a hundred yards of A.'s house and 
 pass the night there in beastly drunkenness "? " The oppos- 
 ing- counsel here arose (as Stevens expected him to do) 
 and objected to the question as improper and offensive 
 to the witness. Mr. Stevens immediately said he would 
 not press it, and the case closed. Wlien he came to argue 
 
14 Reminiscences and Sketches. 
 
 the case to the jury, avIio were all aware of Squire B.'s 
 habits, he assumed that the drunkenness was at the time 
 of the \\T:itino;- of the will, and asked what reliance could 
 be put on the testimony of a witness, however worthy a 
 man he was, who fell into the gutter, before he g-ot a 
 hundred yards away from the house, so drunk that he did 
 not know himself. The jury set aside the will. 
 
 His powers of sarcasm were tremendous. He could 
 make words wound with the terrific laceration of a lash ; 
 but he did not, certainly not in his later years, use this 
 power without provocation and some ground of excuse. 
 
 In opposing some bill in the Pennsylvania leg-islature, 
 Mr. F. made a bitter attack on Stevens, calling- him the 
 high priest of anti-masonry. At the conclusion of a 
 short speech on t'-'ie merits of the bill, Mr. Stevens, as he 
 was about to tVike his seat, said in reply to Mr. F., "Mr. 
 Speaker, it will not be expected of me to notice a thing 
 which has crawled into this House and adheres to one of 
 the seats by its own slime." 
 
 A member, by his conversation, induced Stevens to think 
 lie would vote for a certain measure. Under party diill 
 he voted against it. Afte wards, meeting him, Stevens 
 said, "Mr. B., are you a married man ?*' "Yes." "Have 
 you any children ?" " Yes, several." " I am sorry to hear 
 that; I was in hopes, sir, you were the last of your race." 
 
 On one occasion, in congress, when Mr. Conkling was 
 a young" man, appearing as if he had just stepped from a 
 band-box and the hands of a barber, with a cork-screw 
 cm-1 beautifullj^ arranged on his forehead, he arose whilst 
 Stevens was speaking and imperiously demanded his 
 reasons for certain actions in relation to a matter then 
 pending. Stevens turned toward him and with an intui- 
 
Thaddeus Stevens. 15 
 
 tive perceiition of the vulnerable point, calmh^ said, 
 " Young" man, unscrew that curl so that you can g-et your 
 feet doTVTi flat on the floor, and I'll talk to you." 
 
 Mr. Holman, of Indiana, who was called the great ob- 
 jector, and was noted for his persistency, received, at Mr. 
 Stevens' hand, the followino- : " The g-entleman is unlike 
 Solomon. Solomon says there is a time for all things. 
 The gentleman from Indiana thinks (dl time is for his 
 tldng.''' 
 
 Mr. Brooks, of New York, in a long speech alluded 
 to Mr. Stevens as a master of billingsgate, saying there 
 are several kinds of gates. Billingsgate, Newgate and 
 Cripplegate. Mr. Stevens replied to his argument and 
 just at the close said he knew something of Billingsgate, 
 his profession had made him familiar with Newgate, and 
 the Almighty, in his mysterious Providence, had caused 
 him to be acquainted mth Cripplegate, but there was 
 another gate to which the gentleman had not alluded, 
 which he intended to avoid, but which he thought the 
 gentleman from New Y^ork was fast apjiroaching — Hell- 
 Go.te. 
 
 A member from the south, of adverse political views 
 to ^Ir. Stevens, and who had no personal acquaintance 
 vsith him, was greatly exercised with the idea that 
 Stevens would thwart some measure or project he had 
 on liand and spoke to ex-Govenior Wickliffe, of Ken- 
 tucky, as to how his ox^position could be obviated. " Go 
 to him frankly, and ask it as a favor," said Wicklifi'e. The 
 advice was followed and Stevens cheerfully assented. He 
 was a big, generous-hearted man — nothing small about 
 him. He could grant a favor to a foe wlio asked for it. 
 
 Mr. Stevens was never mamed. AVhether he ever had 
 
16 Reminiscences and Sketches. 
 
 any youthful love affair I have not learned. Wliil-st he 
 was in the legislature he paid attention to Miss Sergeant, 
 a daughter of the great lawyer, John Sergeant, who was 
 pleased with the idea of the marriage, and the lady was 
 not averse, but Miss Sergeant, once, in a jeweler's store, 
 playfully suggested to Stevens to buy her a diamond 
 ring which she admired. His ideas of propriety were 
 shocked, or perhaps he thought that the young lady was 
 mercenary or ambitious rather than loving, and he took 
 offense at this and ceased his attentions. 
 
 For many years Mrs. Smith, a colored woman nearh' 
 white, was his housekeeper. She was the mfe of a 
 barber. He first became intimate with her at Harrisburg. 
 In after years she nui'sed him with great kindness, and 
 by her will set ai:>art five hundred dollars, the annual in- 
 come from which is to be expended in keeping Mr. 
 Stevens' grave in order. The whole Democratic press of 
 Pennsylvania were in the habit of assailing Mr. Stevens 
 on account of his association with this woman, and 
 charged that it was illicit. Mr. Joseph Bailey, of 
 Perry county, who was elected to congress fi-om the 
 strong Democratic district of York, Cumberland and 
 Perry, when he got within the circuit of his magnet- 
 ism, was a great admirer of Mr. Stevens, and his firm 
 ally, and soon became an ardent Republican. He 
 associated intimately with Mr. Stevens at Washington 
 and knew his housekeeper well. He assured me he re- 
 garded her as a respectable and ^drtuous woman, for 
 whom he entertained the highest esteem, and stated 
 that on one occasion when lie was traveling from Balti- 
 more to Washington in a crowded car he gave her his 
 seat at the expense of having himself to stand. Certainly, 
 
Thaddeiis Stevens. 17 
 
 whatever may have been the state of affairs at tiie iiicep 
 tion of the relationship it existed for years at Washing- 
 ton in such form as to have no discredit connected with 
 it in the minds of Mr. Stevens' acquaintances and friends 
 and of the general public. 
 
 It was also charged upon Mr. Stevens by his political 
 opponents that he was an infidel. In January, 1867, his 
 name was mentioned in connection with the United 
 States senatorship in the canvass which General Simon 
 Cameron and ex-Governor Curtin were making for that 
 position. An ardent admirer of Mr. Stevens wrote hini 
 the letter and received the rex:)ly following : 
 
 " House of Kepresentatives, 
 " Harrisburg, Pa., January ^J, IS 67. 
 " To the Honorable Thaddeus Stevens : 
 
 " Dear Sir : During the late senatorial contest in this 
 city I heard the following charges made against you : that 
 you are an infidel : that you said the Bible was the pro- 
 duction of a barbarous age, and that you do not believe 
 in the existence of a God nor of a hell. I could not 
 reply, not knowing anything about the facts, but immedi- 
 ately went to Representative Armstrong, of your county, 
 and told him what I had heard, and asked him whether 
 such was the case. He could only say that the charges 
 were new to him and that he did not believe them. My 
 curiosity was excited and I Avrite you for personal mfor 
 mation. The committal of the matter to me shall not 
 tarnish your lair fame. 
 
 " Respectfully yours, 
 
 John T. Kea(jy " 
 
18 lierHuiiiicenL-e.s and Sketches. 
 
 " AVashington City, January 1^3, 1867. 
 
 " Deaii SiJi : 1 received your letter. I am not surprised 
 nor much moved at any scandals which may be publicly 
 or privately uttered al:)Out myself. I do not usually con- 
 tradict them. To 3H:)ur personal sugtzestion, however, I 
 willing-ly reply. 
 
 " All the statements which you said were made are false, 
 as the author well knew if lie had any knowdedg-e on the 
 subject. 
 
 " I hav(^ always been a tirm believer in the Bible. He is 
 a fool who disbelieves the existence of a God as you 
 say is cliarg-ed on me. I also believe in the existence of a 
 hell for the especial benefit of this slanderer. I have 
 said that I never den}^ any charges however g-ross. I 
 make an exception when my religious belief is brought 
 in question. I iwwke no pretension to piety (the moi-e 
 [)ity), but I would not be thought to be an infidel. I was 
 raised a Baptist and adhere to their belief. 
 
 " Thaddei s Stevens.'" 
 
 That Mr. Stevens had read the BiV)le carefully is shown 
 very clearly by his public utterances. His speeches are 
 full of Bible references and allusions. He contributed 
 liberally to benevolent objects connected with the 
 churches of all denominations. The agent for the Pres- 
 byterian board of foreign missions received a larger con- 
 tribution from Mr. Stevens than from Mr. Buchanan, al- 
 though Mr. Buchanan was a mem])(^r of that (church. 
 
 AAHiilst he was a resident of Gettysburg the Pennsyl- 
 vania Bible Society was exploring the state and supply- 
 ing destitute families witli Bibles. Mr. Stevens agreed to 
 take ('harge of one toAvnsliip of Adams conntv. He fur- 
 
Thaddeus Stevens. 19 
 
 nislied a horse and i^aid a student one dollar a day and 
 his expenses, and had the townshiji immediately west of 
 the colleg-e canvassed and supplied. 
 
 There is a fine touch of pathos in his letter to Mr. 
 Keag-y (juoted above. " I make no ])retension to piety 
 (the more pity), but T would not be thought to be an in- 
 tidel. I was raised a, Baptist and adhere t(j tli(dr belief." 
 The old man of threescore years and ten and five super- 
 added, was (h'awino- close to the final step which every 
 human being- must make, and make alone, into the be- 
 yond — a step in utter darkness and uncertainty, ex- 
 cept ior the lig"lit of Revelation. He had never con- 
 nected himself with any church org-anization and seldom 
 attended church services. He knew his end was near and 
 that he must soon face the inevitable, dread and solemn 
 to every man, no matter how great his intellect or how 
 strong- his self-reliance. He i-emembered the relig-ion of 
 his mother with whom, as a youth, he had g-one to church, 
 and beside whose knee, as a little boy, he had learned his 
 simple childhood pray(^r. He had nothing- else to rely 
 ui)on except her faith and her prayer, and states, "T was 
 raised a Baptist and adhere to their belief." There was 
 no hypocrisy in the man, and no attempt at concealment 
 oi- self-deception. Keg-ret there doubtless was that he 
 had not lived a different life. The memory that he had 
 not livinl a life of pit^ty, "the more i)ity," crowded upon 
 him. But he was not an infidel nor a disbeliever in the 
 Bible. He believed in God, the Bible and his mother, 
 and adhered to the faith of his mother. 
 
 The following- letter from Mr. McPherson, in reply 
 to an inquiry as to Mr. Stevens' attendance on c;hurch 
 services, is interesting-, and in view of tlic misre|n'esenta- 
 
20 Reminiscences and Sketches. 
 
 tioii Mild abuse of Mr. Stevens in liis lifetime is import- 
 ant testimony as to liis r<'li.i^ions views and charitable life: 
 
 "Gettysbuko, Pa., •/annari/ ,?~), 1SS7. 
 
 "DeakSik: Mr. Stevens, during- ;dl his residence in 
 Gettysburg-, up to 1842, always held a pew in at least one 
 church, frequently in two ; and he attended service both 
 in town and country. At one time we had the Rev. Dr. 
 Paxton at the Marsh Creek church, and the Rev. Dr. 
 Watson in town, and the colleg-e and seminary professors ; 
 ill addition part of the time the Rev. C. G. McLean, a 
 'Duncanite' or Seceder, now United Presbyterian, who 
 was a man of eccentricity and power. Mr. Stevens and 
 the latter had a fierce controversy in the newspapers on 
 the temperance question, Mr. S. l^eing- for total absti- 
 nence, McLean ag-ainst it. 
 
 " Mr. Stevens was rather fond of theological disputation, 
 and there are g-entlemen yet living- in Gettysburg- who 
 remember his controversial conversations with the Rev. 
 Dr. Baug-lier and other Lutherans. Mr. S. held the Cal- 
 vinistic view as disting-uished from the Armenian, and he 
 was well read. He preferred the Baptist org-anization, 
 and in his will g-ave $1,000 to a struggling- Baptist church 
 in Lancaster, conditioned on their raising- a like amount 
 within eight years, which they did. Out of this has 
 grown a prosperous church there. His mother, you 
 know, was a devout and very active Baptist. 
 
 "In Lancaster he had a pew in the Presbyterian church, 
 but he rarely attended service. As he grew older and 
 the slavery question became a prominent subject of dis- 
 cussion, and the clergy, as a rule, were either 'dough- 
 faces' or pro-slavery, he withdrew himself from their 
 teachings. He had no res|)ect f< n' pro-slavery Christianity, 
 
Thaddeus ISlevenH. 21 
 
 and didnt believe it to l)e a form of Christianity, but of 
 somethino- else. He was always a liberal contributor in 
 Adams to church movements of every variety, as well as 
 to all charitable and reformatory institutions. 
 
 "I have been struggling" since 1869 with an impaired 
 vitality, resulting- from over-w^ork, and the limitations 
 g-rowing- out of this prevent me from doing- all I wish. I 
 am hopeful, however, of being- able to tell a story of Mr. 
 8. and his life bf^'ore I quit this countr^'. 
 " Very respectfully, 
 
 ' ' Edw. " McPh ki !son. " 
 
 Mr. Stevens was a decided temperance man. In his 
 early life at Gettysbiu'g he kept his liquors as others did 
 and drank, thougrh I believe never to excess. But some 
 of his intimate associates did, and he saw the folly of it. 
 He, therefore, early in the tem]:)erance movement became 
 a total abstainer. His stock of liquors on hand he pub- 
 licly poured out into the street in front of his office, and 
 althoug-h not a noisy temperance advocate, he was from 
 that time mitil his death a total abstainer from the use 
 of liquors as a beverag-e. He never used tobacco in any 
 form. 
 
 From his early manliood long before the orig-in of the 
 abolition party he was ag:ainst slavery, because of his 
 belief in its injustice and iniquity and he was an avowed 
 abolitionist. He stood almost alone in his community. 
 His views were exceeding-ly unpopular. There was ap- 
 parently every temptation of self-interest that he should 
 smother his convictions of rig-lit and g-o with the current. 
 The border counties of Pennsylvania were intensely con- 
 servative on this question. But from first to last, from 
 
2'2 lie nn')n\scc lives (UhI K^krlche 
 
 liis avliuissioii to \\\e bar in 181() until liis dcntli, lie was 
 au opon, l)rav(^ aiul dotorniinrd ojiponont of slavery, with 
 "no variableness nor shadow of tiirnini:/" Like Wesley 
 he ri\i^a]'d(Hl it as tlu^ "sum of all villainies/" To have 
 takiMi the ])oi)nlar side would have j^iv(>n him inmuHliate 
 professional and })olitica] ])refernient. He stood with 
 heroic manhood by his eouvietions of duty and fore(nl 
 himself forward by his (^ommandini:- intellcH't and his 
 marvelous self |)oise and indiviiluality. No tl(Hun^' slave 
 ever appliinl to him for assistance in vain, and he was 
 ever ready to dt^tend an allei^HMl fui:itiv(> n\ ith his ])]-ofes- 
 sional services. 
 
 His philipi)ii's a<aainst slavery in tlie d(4>att^s on the 
 eomi)romise nu^asur(^s of 1851, ai-e i^rauil spiH-inuMis of 
 pow(*rful ari;'unient and sai'casm, and when his surround- 
 iui^-s ar(> considercHl, and tlu^ t(nn])(n' of the times, tliey 
 are ma,i:nitic«Mit manih^stations of «'oura,L:(\ He knc^v no 
 fear. 
 
 On the 'iOth o{ I'ebruary, 1850, the House, bein.i^- in 
 committee oi the whoh" on the state of the union, on 
 th(^ reference of the Presid(^nt"s annual mi'ssai;-e, ^Er. 
 St(n(vns deliv(M-ed a s])(HH'h against tht^ extiMision of slavery 
 into tht^ t(MTitories, in which, in r(^]>lyini^' to ^li'. Meade, 
 of Viri^'inia. he said: 
 
 "Th(^ h\-irn(Hl and able i:(>ntlenian from \'ir.i:'inia says 
 his stat(^ has a slave ])o])ulation i^{ wvay half a million. 
 w]u>S(> valut^ is chit^tly de])endent upon s(mtliern dt^nand. 
 Let us ]Knise a moment and look u])on this humiliating:- 
 i'ontV^ssion. In jdain Eui^'lish, wliat does it mean.'' That 
 Viri^inia is now only tit to be the heceder, not the (Employer, 
 of slaves. That she is reductHl to tlu^ condition that hvv 
 proud chivalry are compelh^l to turn slave-trailers for a 
 
liv(;]iliu(>(l, instead oi attempting- to renovate tli(! soil and 
 by their own honest labor compelling- th(; earth to yield 
 her abundancf! ; inst(!ad of s(;(*kin<^- the best breed of cattle 
 and horses to h^ed on hej- hills and valleys and fe-rtilize th(} 
 land, the sons of that ^^reat state mnst devote tliriir time 
 to selecting- and grooming- the most lusty sires and the 
 most fniitful w(niches to suj>j)ly th<! slave banacoons of 
 th(! south. xVnd thc^ learned gfiiitleniaii ))atli('ti(^?dly 
 laments that th<! prcjfits of this (jciih-cl trnflic will ])e 
 greatly lessencid l)y the circumscriptiou of slavery." 
 Sj^eaking- of the occasion, Mr. K<;nnedy Mfjorhead says: 
 'In 1850, b^ing- a visitor in Washing-ton city, I obtained, 
 through the courtesies of a friend, admittance to the floor 
 of the House when Mr. Stevens was speaking on the evils 
 of slavery. The leading members from the slave-holding 
 states were gathered in front of his desk. As he por- 
 trayed the degradation and the crim<' of slav(?ry, in such 
 a manner as only Ik; could portray them, scowds settled 
 upon tli(3ir l)rows, (contempt curled their lips and oaths 
 could }>e distinctly heard hissing through their teeth. 
 This w^as in the days when southern gentlemcjn caiforced 
 their arguments with an appeal to the duel, and southern 
 ruffians resorted to the bowdf;-knife and bludgeon. I felt 
 alarmed for him, but he proceeded, unembaiTassed by 
 interruptions and apparently unconscious of th(3 mutter- 
 ings of the storm. As, reacliing liis climax, he spoke of 
 Virginia, the proud mother of Presidents, become a 
 brcMjder of slaves for the southern markets, th(; anger of 
 her representatives could scarcely be re-strained, yet he 
 was as cool as if addressing a jury in his county court- 
 house." 
 
 On the loth of Jun(!, IH.')!), Mr. Stevens, in again sf)eak- 
 
24 Jieminiscences and Sketches. 
 
 lug on the same subject, thus noted some of the attacks 
 made upon his former speech: "I do not remember that 
 any of the numerous gentlemen who have referred to my 
 remarks have attempted to deny one of the facts, or to 
 refute one of the arg-uments; they have noticed them 
 merely to vituperate their author. To such remarks there 
 can be no reply by him who is not willing- to place him- 
 self on a level with blackguards. I cannot enter that 
 arena. I will leave the filth and the slime of billingsgate 
 to the fish women and to their worthy coadjutors, the 
 gentlemen from Virginia (Mr. Millson), from North Caro- 
 lina (Mr. Stanley), from Kentucky (Mr. Stanton) and from 
 Tennessee (Mr. Williams) and all that tribe. With them 
 I can have no controversy. Wlien I want to combat with 
 such opponents and such weapons, I can find them any 
 day by entering the fish-market, without defiling this hall. 
 I beg these respectohle fish-ladies, however, to understand 
 that I do not include my colleague from Bucks county 
 (Mr. Eoss) among those I deem fit to be their associates, 
 I would not so degrade them. There is in the natural 
 world a, little, spotted, contemptible animal, which is 
 armed by nature with a fetid, volatile, penetrating virus, 
 which so pollutes whoever attacks it as to make him 
 offensive to himself and all around him for a long time. 
 Indeed, he is almost incapable of purification. Nothing, 
 sir, no insult, shall provoke me to crush so filthy a beast. 
 Mr. Chairman, I crave your pardon for this unprofitable 
 digression. 1 trust I shall never again be betrayed into 
 a, similar one, even to brush off these invading vermin." 
 The freemasons were accustomed to account for Ste- 
 vens' hostility to masonry by the statement that whilst 
 in York as a scliool teaclier he desired to join the lodge. 
 
'riiaddcus St e revs. 25 
 
 but his deformed foot rendered liim illegible, and out of 
 (rhag-rin at his rejection he became a violent opponent 
 of the order, and one of the orig-inators of anti-masonry 
 It seems altog-ether probable that this is a mistake, and 
 that Mr. Stevens' opposition to masonry was based on 
 his honest judg-ment and not on any narrow g-round of 
 mere personal mortification. It is true, however, that Mr. 
 Stevens first engag-ed actively in politics with the rise of 
 the anti-masoni(; party, in 1828. The kidnapping and 
 murder of Morg-an, actual or alleg-ed, in 1826, g-ave rise 
 to the ag-itation, and the formation of a party which was 
 opposed to all secret societies. Mr. Stevens took uj) the 
 cause in his county and quickly became the leader of it. 
 He was suiTounded by the most vindictive opponents that 
 ever gave force to a political struggle. Every influential 
 man in his town and vicinity was a mason, and by indi- 
 \ddual exertion, and throug-h the press of Gettysburg- and 
 Hag•ersto^vn, a determined effort Avas made to malig-n and 
 destroy his reputation. He was charged, publicly and 
 privately, with the worst crimes in the criminal calendar. 
 A pai^er published in Gettysburg by a Mr. Lefevre was 
 the vehicle^ through which these slanders were conveyed 
 to the public. A negro woman was found dead and 
 Stc^vens was chargcMl with the murder. This brought the 
 political warfaj'e to a climax. A criminal prosecution for 
 libel and ji (dvil suit for damages wer(3 instituted against 
 Lefevre, who was informed that both \\'Ould be discon- 
 tiinied if he surrendered the? name of the author. He 
 declined to do this. At the trial, Mr. Stevens, by his 
 counsel. Judge Watts, waived the ruh^ excluding i\m facts 
 from evidence, and oft'ered to hear all that the defendant 
 might liMve to justify th<' charge. His counsel declined 
 
2C) licininisccncesi and Skefchcs. 
 
 the offei'. H(^ was comicted and sentenced to line and 
 imprisonmant, but was immediately pardoned by Gover- 
 nor AVolf, with which action the public and Mr. Stevens 
 himself found little fault, as Lefevre was a w^eak man, and 
 but ail instrument in the liands of unscrupulous politi- 
 cians. Mr. Btevens recovered against him two thousand 
 dollars dama«-es in the civil suit, boug-ht his property in 
 at the sheriff's sale and left it with him, and assig-nedthe 
 balance of the judi^inent remainin.!^ unsatisfied by the 
 sale, to his wife. 
 
 He w^as the chairman of a le«-islative committee, in 
 1835, to investia"ate and report on freemasonry, and con- 
 ducted an extended investieration and made a vigorous 
 re])ort ag-ainst the order, which is found in tlic^ ])ublished 
 leg-islative proceediiio-s of that year. 
 
 An incident of Mr. Stevens' life illustrative of his <^en- 
 erous manhood is the story of James Dobbin. This man 
 had at one time been a brilliant lawyer, but when Mr. 
 Stevens came to the bar, a^-e and his habits had weakened 
 his intellect, and he had become deran^-ed and the sport 
 of the boys and thouorhtless men of th(^ villag-c. By the 
 will of his father he had come into the ])ossession of a 
 fai'm, charo-ed with encumbrances in favor of leg-atees, 
 and of a law library made up ])rincipally of black-letter 
 books. The last flickerin.i^" rays of reason made the old 
 man cling- to the library as th(^ only joy that was left to 
 him. Reading- the books in his offi(;e and eloquently dis- 
 cussing- their merits on the streets, were the last employ- 
 ments of his life. His farm and library were sold at 
 sheriff's sale and })ought in by Mr. Stevens, who had 
 charg-e of the executions against him upc^n which the 
 sales were made, and the old man Ixn-amc a wanderiuir 
 
Thaddeus Sterens. 27 
 
 outcast. From these cireuinstauces were fabricated tiie 
 most infamous falsehoods by malig-nant political a('ser- 
 saries ag^ainst Mr. Stevens — cliarg-es that the farm \\i\i\ 
 been purchased by misrepresentations as to title, and the 
 valuable library bought for a song", and the poor old man 
 cast out a beggar uj-)on the streets. These charges were 
 made to reach the eye and ear of the public far and near, 
 and, ag-ain, the aid of the courts was invoked and they 
 were shown to be utterly destitute of foundation, but the 
 idea that he was wrong-ed and robbed by Mr. Stevens 
 took possession of the old num's mind, and it became the 
 business of his lifV^ to proclaim to the world that Mr. 
 Stevens had ruined hini. Mr. Stevens quietly and with- 
 out his knowledg-e, or tlie knowledge of any one, sought 
 out and provided a home for the old man in a comfortable 
 room on the outskirts of the town, and made him a 
 boarder at his expense with the old lady who occupied 
 the house. Old Jimmy, however, in time became un- 
 manag-eable and it was necessary that he should be sent 
 to the almshouse. To have proposed such a thing- to him 
 would have made him a maniac. Mr. Stevens was the 
 attorney of the directors of the poor. He resig-ned his 
 position and had the old man appointed by the directors 
 as attorney, on conditi(m that he should keep his officu^ 
 at the almshouse, and had a room fitted uj) with tlie old 
 black-letter library, and tlu> poor old man lived and died 
 in the i^leasant delusion that he was again n lawyer of 
 im]:)ortance. 
 
 In 1838, at the adoption of the amended constitution, 
 in a time of the hig-hest and most bitter party excite- 
 ment, Governor Ritner r(;appointed John Bannister 
 Gibson Chief Justice of Pennsylvania. Stevens was 
 
28 Reminiscences and Sketches. 
 
 Ritner's chief adviser, and no doubt dictated this ai)point- 
 ment. Gibson was a democrat, and Ritiier an anti-mason 
 and whig". The appointment was a mag-nan imous risin<^ 
 above party feeling-, and was hig-hly honorable to Mr. 
 Stevens. It Avas a tribute to the worth and preeminent 
 (lualifications of the Chief Justice. It was madt^ by Mi-. 
 Stevens when he was the leader of tlit^ whig- ])ai'ty, and 
 was the weekly and daily object of vindictiv<' misrepre- 
 sentation and abuse by th(M»ntire democrjitic ])ressof the 
 state. 
 
 Mr. Stevens' idea of a model republic- was ont^ that 
 g-ave education to all its citizens. He held it to l)e the })ri- 
 mary duty of the government to provide for the educa- 
 tion of every child in orthography, reading-, writing, 
 grammar and arithmetic — the rudimental branclu^s of all 
 knowledg-e — that a system of general education, basi^d 
 upon g-eneral taxation, was necessary to mak<^' the citizens 
 of a republic intellig-ent and capabh^ voters, l^ut this 
 idea was novel in Pennsylvania and exceeding-ly unpoi)u 
 lar in many localities. It was urg-ed ag-ainst it that it 
 was unfair that one man should be taxed to educate the 
 children of his neig-hbor, and as very unjust that a child- 
 less man with ])roperty should be heavilj^ taxed to edu- 
 cates the childri^n of his thriftless neig-hbor who ])aid no 
 taxes because Iw had no property, and had no |)roperty 
 because he had no thrift. His own county was opposed 
 to the })roject by a larg-e majority and instructed him, by 
 a popular vote, to vote ag-ainst it. His best friends lu-ged 
 that the measure was unpopulai- and that his advocac}^ 
 of it would ruin his political prospcH'ts. But in this, as 
 in other matters, he followed his convictions of duty. He 
 threw himself into th<' comlnit on the side of universal 
 
Tliaddeus Stecen-s. 29 
 
 education, overcjune dirticulties that would liave appalled 
 a more timid man, and sustained himself before the 
 people of his own county at the next election. 
 
 Wien Mr. Stevens was a youn.^- i)ractitioner at the 
 ])ar he made a journey on horseba(;k through Maryland 
 to Baltimore for the pui'pose of purchasing a law library. 
 On the way he slept for the night at a hotel kept by a man 
 with whom he was A\ell acquainted. A colored woman 
 in tears came to him and implored him to prevent the 
 sale of her husband, the slave of the landlord, who was 
 about to sell him to be taken south. Mr. Stevens, who 
 knew the " boy " and th<' relation that existed between 
 him and his master, expostulated with the landlord 
 against selling his (jwn flesh and blood, and offered to 
 pay him $150, one-half of the expected jDrice, but in vain. 
 The landlord replied that he must liav<' money and that 
 John was cheaj) at $300. Mr. Stevens purchased and 
 manumitted John, and retraced his steps to Gettysburg 
 vvdthout going to Baltimore, and postponed the purchase 
 of his law library. 
 
 The following letter is hoin the- p(ni of Judge Watts 
 wlio was intimately associated Avitli Mr. Stevens in the 
 l)ractice of the law for man}^ years, and who was preemi- 
 nently well qualified to judge and speak of his character- 
 istics : 
 
 "Carlisle, P.v., Jauuart/ /6', /M(;s. 
 
 " Deak Sill: It will afibrd me pleasure to aid you to 
 l)ortray the life of tht^ man whose character was im- 
 pressed upon my memory by a long professional inter- 
 course. I practiced in the courts of Adams county, wIku'c 
 Mr. Stevens resided, from about 1830 to 1842, and dm'ing 
 that period was his opposing counsel in almost cn^ery 
 
30 Reminiscences and Sketches. 
 
 important cas(» tried. I had, therefore, an opportunity 
 to know him well. At jin early period of my knowledg-e 
 of Mr. Stevens he had taken up the erusade jigainst 
 masonry and was surrounded by the most vindictive 
 opponents who charged him publicly and privately with 
 the worst crimes on the criminal calendar, not excepting- 
 murder, and when I first met him at the bar my own im- 
 })ression had been poisoned by the thousand stories which 
 I had heard of his cunning", his artifice, his deceit, as well 
 as his crime. I soon, however, unlearned all this, for it 
 was easy to trace to its source the origin of all these 
 calumnies. I can sa}', without the fear of contradiction, 
 that a more candid, truthful, fair opponent at the bar 
 never lived in our state. As a practitioner he was as hon- 
 orable as he w^as i^owerful. No appeal was made to him 
 in vain to continue a trial on the ground of accidental 
 want of preparation, h(^ would either admit the facts or 
 ccmtinue the case till his opponent was ready. 
 
 "One of the most characteristic features in the life of 
 Mr. 8. was the mysterious infiuence he had upon the con- 
 duct of those who surromided him, whether friends or 
 foes. This may be illustrated by the fact that during the 
 p(?riod when he canied on perseveringly his warfare 
 against masomy, all his personal companions and all the 
 influential men of his time were masons, Thomas C. 
 Miller, Clarkson, McPherson, the McClellands, and many 
 others who might be mentioned: and whilst his exten- 
 sive knowledge of the secrets of masonry enabled him 
 to expose them disparagingly in his public speeches, his 
 cynical asperity in his personal intercourse never lost an 
 opportunity to excite laughter at the expense of the 
 practices of th(^ institution, and although this was har- 
 
Thaddeus iSfcrrns. 31 
 
 rowing- to the feelings of his surrounding- hearers, yet 
 there was not one of them with whom lie dealt so harshly 
 wlio would not seek an ()pi)()rtunit\' to render liim per- 
 scmal service. 
 
 " As a i^ractitioner of law Mr. Stevens was a model. 
 Brevity characterized everythino- he did and everythino- 
 lie said. Tliere was no waste of words with him — no 
 labor thrown away. He had a mind which instantly and 
 clearly comx^rehended the subject ])resented: a strenirth 
 of judg-ment which quickly dictated a sound solution : 
 language which was elo(iuent and curt in ex])ression, and 
 a manner which impressed the force of his c(m^dctions. 
 
 ''Mr. Stevens' life was full of incidents, and many of 
 them characteristic of the man, and especially his gen- 
 erosity and unselfishness. 
 
 "It will give me ])leasure to serve you if lean, because 
 it will be an effort to preserve the character of one whom 
 I much esteemed. 1 was as much his confidential friend 
 as he suffered any one to be. 
 
 "Truly you]-s, 
 
 Fued'k Watts." 
 
 Although he lived to a good old age, his mental 
 vigor survived till the very last. He grew so wc^ak, phys- 
 ically, that h(^ had to be carried by the strong- arms of 
 youthful men to his s(^at in the House of Bepresentatives. 
 But the (bivel of dotage never overcame him. His mem- 
 ory remained firm and his mind hc^ld its gi'ip. Calm, 
 self-poised, far-sighted, industrious, honest, frank, gren- 
 erous, brave and witty he remained, to the last, the 
 born leader of men, tln^ active friend of humanity, and 
 the determined foe of oppn^ssion, wheth<»r of an individ- 
 ual or a race. 
 
32 Rrndnisai'Rce^s and Shrtclits. 
 
 He spent tlie summer and fall of 186G at the Bedford 
 Spring's, and during- the month of August delivered a 
 speech to a larg-e meeting- of republicans, in the evening-, 
 on the public square in Bedford. Parts of it he read bj^ 
 lamp lig-lit without glasses. His speech was teleg-raphed 
 in extenso to the New York TrihiLue. It was probably for 
 this purpose that he Avrote it out. It was a very unusual 
 thing- for Mr. Stevens to deliver a speech from manu- 
 script. In the trial of cases at the bar he kept no notes 
 of evidence. His tenacious and capacious memory made 
 it unnecessary. His speeches in cong-ress were not re- 
 duced by him to writing. I remember that in 1845 he 
 delivered an address before the Diag-nothian Literary 
 Society of Marshall College at Mercersburg, Pennsyl- 
 vania, and when written to for the manuscript for publi- 
 cation replied that he had none — that he never wrote out 
 an address. 
 
 A little incident that happened at the Bedford Spring's 
 in the fall of 1867 illustrates the self-contained and self- 
 reliant character of the g-rand old man. The g-uests of 
 the house had all departed and Mr. Stevens remained 
 almost alone. There were none to talk to and none with 
 whom to play euchre or whist. Whilst walking one 
 afternoon I observed six or (dght small boys (the little 
 peddlers of flowers and maple-sugar who frequent that 
 resort) running- races around the circle about the fountain, 
 and some old gentleman who sat on the brick porch near 
 a column, to whom at the end of each race they ran up 
 for the reward of the winner. Ag'ain and ag-ain they ran, 
 first being: spaced off so as to equalize as nearly as jdos- 
 sible their relative abilities. Mr. Stevens was amusing- 
 himself. He gave the winn<u- a quarter of a dollar. The 
 
Thaddeus Stevens. 
 
 whole crowd ran three times around the circle each race. 
 His object was to so space the boys that in the outcome 
 each one of the six or eight would win a quarter. A 
 merrier or mor(^ joyous crowd was seldom seen. The 
 quarter was an immense stimulus to exertion, and the old 
 man, besides enjoying the glee of the boys, also had the 
 pleasure of seeing earnest racing, and gave employment 
 to his mind by judiciously spacing the boys in the exer- 
 cise of a judgment predicated upon his obsei*^"ation of 
 their relative merits as racers. 
 
 During Mr. Stevens' life men differed greatly as to his 
 merits. Few, perhaps none, who knew him doubted the 
 greatness of the man, but his political opponents feared, 
 hated and reviled him, and endeavered to cover him with 
 misrepresentations and obloquy. Judge Woodward, of 
 Pennsylvania, who was one of seventeen members of 
 congress who delivered memorial addresses in the House 
 of Representatives at Washington soon after his decease, 
 whilst bearing testimony to his great qualities, as all did, 
 says: "Differing from him in toto coelo in politics and 
 religion, I cannot think that the final influence of his 
 great talents upon the public mind will be salutory, nor 
 that posterity, to whom the arbitrament belongs, will 
 rank him as a benefactor of his race." But he was too 
 much enveloped in contemporaneous partisan atmosphere 
 to be able to judge fairly. Lapse of time is needed to 
 give a proper perspective to a great man's character. 
 You must stand at a distance to be able to observe how 
 a tall forest tre(^ towers above its fellows. Mr. Stevens, 
 more than any other contemporary Pennsylvanian, has left 
 his impress on the age. His "works do follow him." 
 
 With him, as with Lincoln, all men are becoming able to 
 3 
 
34 Bemhiiscences and Sketches. 
 
 see that the world is better for his having- lived in it, aud 
 
 that his name is written, with Abou Ben Adams', " as one 
 
 who loved his fellow-men." 
 
 He loved truth for its own sake, and was honest, direct 
 
 and candid. He was generous to the poor and distressed. 
 
 He labored for the advancement of humanity by making 
 
 education universal and giving freedom to the slave. He 
 
 had the courage of his convictions and never feared public 
 
 opinion ; he made and led it. He was frank with friend 
 
 and foe. He was not avaricious. Even in old age he was 
 
 as free with money as nature is with air and sunlight. 
 
 He was temperate. He made no concealments and used 
 
 no subterfuge. He was not a hypocrite or self-deceiver in 
 
 matters of religion. His power of intellect was too great, 
 
 his range of vision too wide, to allow anything of that 
 
 kind. A bold thinker and a bold actor, unswayed by 
 
 popular favor or prejudice, he held the even tenor of his 
 
 way, standing by the right as he saw it. If his moral life 
 
 was ever tarnished by the indulgence of human appetite 
 
 or passion, who is there without defect in one direction 
 
 or another? His enemies called him a libertine and 
 
 gambler. He was neither the one nor the other, in any 
 
 fair sense of the terms. That he failed to throw the great 
 
 weight of his high intellectual endowments on the side 
 
 of personal piety is to some extent true, "the more pity," 
 
 as he said himself in the retrospect of his life called out 
 
 by Mr. Keagys letter. But, take him for all in all, 
 
 "His life was noble, and the elements 
 
 So mixed in him, that nature might stand up 
 
 And say to all the world, 'This was a man.' " 
 
 It will be manj^ a day before Pennsylvania, or any other 
 state for the matter of that, produces a man possessed 
 of more real manhood than Thaddeus Stevens. 
 
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 
 
 IS rr A CODE OF ETHICS FOR THE GOVERNMENT 
 OF OUR CONDUCT IN THIS LIFE? 
 
 T~^ TIRING the progress of the celebrated trial of Henry 
 -^^^ Ward Beecher, after having read the nc^wspaper re- 
 ports of each day's proceedings, I visited Brooklyn, and 
 by the courtesy of the judge who presided at tlie trial, 
 occupied for a day a seat on the bcmch, with a fine oppor- 
 tunity of observing the countenances and conduct of the 
 actors in the drama. The Sunday following I attended Mr. 
 Beecher's church and heard him preach and pray. The 
 whole impression made on the mind was favorabhi to the 
 man. Whilst there were some things in the evidence that 
 were hard to reconcile with the hypothesis of innocence, 
 there were more that were antagonistic to a belief in his 
 guilt ; and, besides, if Mr. Beecher was guilty of the crime 
 with which he was charged he was also guilty of the yet 
 more heinous crime of deliberate perjury and of hypoc- 
 risy that would make him a monster and a marvel of in- 
 iquity. That a man should preach a sermon so earnest, 
 
 (35) 
 
36 BeminiscoicC'S and Sketclics. 
 
 so profound, so full of a realizing- sense of the mortality 
 of the body and the innnortality of the soul, and of the 
 worthlessness of the things of this life compared with 
 the glorious beyond, and should read the Scriptures so 
 feeling!}' and pray so devoutly, and be at the same time 
 a perjurer and hypocrite, seemed impossible. Respect 
 for our common humanity forbade the belief that a man 
 so manifestly g-reat in intellect and information should be 
 so great an imposter and ^dllain. 
 
 Yet there was an incident of the trial that bore the ap- 
 pearance of wonderful self-control and artfulness on Mr. 
 B.'s part, which, in my mind, weighed heavily against him. 
 
 Judge Moms had opened against Mr. B. with a two 
 days' speech, in which he not only arrayed ^\dtli great 
 power all the circumstances that were expected to make 
 out the case, but in addition had done what no lawyer 
 mindful of the requirements of professional ethics should 
 ever do, he had pledged his own personal belief in Mr. 
 Beecher's guilt, and thus sought to throw the weight of 
 his o^vn character as a man of standing and a lawyer of 
 prominence into the jury-box to induce a verdict in his 
 client's favor. 
 
 A day or two after this opening speech Mr. Beecher, at 
 the adjournment of court, advanced toward Judge Morris 
 and introducing himself extended his hand in friendly 
 salutation. As I read of this occurrence my mind was 
 filled with the wondering incpiiry : What did he do this 
 for ^ AVhat motive had he? It seemed to me that the 
 impulse of an innocent man would have been to pass the 
 "hired master of tongue-fence" by with a jn-ofound feel- 
 ing of animosity and contempt. By a great effort, if in- 
 troduced by some malapert friend, one might have re- 
 
The Sermon on the Mount. 37 
 
 ceived him coldly, but as to seeking' an interview and ex- 
 tending a friendly hand and eng-ag-ing- in social inter- 
 course, I would as soon have thoug^ht of fondling- a snake. 
 
 As I returned home I stopped at Harrisburg", and, as I 
 was wont to do, called on one of the best men I have ever 
 kno^Ti, who has since gone to his reward ; a man to whose 
 eminently l)enevolent and Christian character every man, 
 woman and child in Harrisburg of every phase of reli- 
 g"ious faith and of every shade of political jiarty will bear 
 willingr testimony, Mr. James W. AVeir. We talked, as 
 everybody then did, of the trial and of Mr. Beecher's in- 
 nocence or g-uilt. Ml'. Weir was very decided in his con- 
 viction of his innocence. I mentioned to him the unfa- 
 \ orabl(3 impression made on me by his conduct in intro- 
 ducing- himself to Judg-e Morris. "Sir," said he, "you do 
 Mr. Beecher a wi-ong. You have read, doubtless, the 
 Sermon on the Mount, and you remember its wonderful 
 code of ethics, that ye resist not evil, but whosoever shall 
 smite the(3 on the rig-ht cheek tvirn to him the other also, 
 and if any man sue thee at the law and take away thy 
 coat let him have thy cloak also, and whosoever shall 
 compel thee to g-o a mile, g-o with him twain. Love your 
 enemies, bless them that curse you, do g-ood to them that 
 hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you 
 and persecute you. I have no doubt that Mr. Beecher 
 did that which you object to under the influence of the 
 highest Christian motive, that he soug-ht the first occa- 
 sion to show to Judg-e Morris that he entertained no feel- 
 ing's of animosity ; that, like a great man, as he is, he 
 made the; (occasion and a(;ted from a profound sense of 
 duty." 
 
 This was like a new revelation. I had read and ad- 
 
38 Reminiscences and Sketches. 
 
 mirexl the Sermon on the Mount an hundred times. It 
 is to me one of the most convincing- proofs of the divin- 
 ity of the Saviour. That a Jewish peasant, thirty years 
 of age, the companion and associate of peasants in the 
 commonest walks of Jewish life, should arrive at such a 
 code of ethics by the unaided exercise of mere hunuin 
 reason and experience does not seem possible. But that 
 men are to make this code the literal rule by which to 
 g-ovem their every -day life in this world I had not thoug-ht 
 of. It had rather seemed something- that was intended 
 for the millenium, t)r for some future state of existence. 
 
 And so I expressed myself to Mr. Weir. Wliere would 
 be the room for just indig-nation at and resentment of 
 improper conduct ; for contemi:)t of meanness, and selfish- 
 ness, and falsehood, and chicanery, and hypocrisy, and all 
 the other \dle characteristics of base human nature? 
 
 The answer was, you may and should despise all these 
 characteristics, but you have no rig-ht to hate the posses- 
 sor of them. On your own account you are to forg-ive all 
 such manifestations towards yourself and entertain no 
 feeling- of resentment ; always and everywhere and towards 
 all men, you are literally, when smitten on one cheek, to 
 turn the other : literally to love your enemies, to bless them 
 that curse you, and do g-ood to them that hate you. 
 
 But, I said, Mr. Weir did you ever know a man who 
 made this the literal rule of his life, or who ever earnestly 
 tried to live by it f Yes, he said, I myself have for thirty 
 years; and I am persuaded by a long experience that a 
 man will live a happier life and die a happier death who 
 schools liims(4f by a determined effort to make this the 
 literal rule of his conduct here among his fellow-men. 
 Never entertain a resentment for m wrong- : always and 
 
The Sernion on the Mount. 39 
 
 everywhere do actual and positive good for evil rendered 
 to you; seek the occasion and do it fearlessly and un- 
 flinching-ly with all men, no matter how wicked or aban- 
 doned, or how great the wrong. You may rely upon it, 
 as Jesus was and is Divine, it is a practical code for daily 
 life here in this world, and is to be literally followed. 
 
 Not many weeks after this conversation I was casually 
 present at a Sunday school in West Philadelphia. A 
 class of fine-looking, intelligent boys of fifteen or sixteen 
 years of age was without its usual teacher. At the re- 
 quest of the superintendent I undertook to teach them. 
 But they and I were both unprepared as to the lesson of 
 the day, and we read, verse about, the first chapter of the 
 Sermon on the Mount. After reading it I requested the 
 first boy to read over slowly and carefully the verse, "But 
 I say unto you, that ye resist not evil, but whosoever shall 
 smite thee on thy right check turn to him the other also," 
 and asked him what it meant, and whether it was to ])r 
 taken literally, and for the government of one's conduct 
 here in this life. He was cautious about committing him- 
 self, and as the question went around so were they all. To 
 give the thing a practical turn I inquired of each what he 
 would do if the next day at school, or on the street, some 
 boy would in anger smite him on the cheek. Individually 
 and collectively the class spoke out that th(^ proper thing 
 to do, and what each one of them would do, would be to 
 fight the aggressor by all the means which (rod and nature 
 had put in his power. 
 
 Well, I said, how about your superintendent, the gen- 
 tleman that asked me to teach you. He seems like a very 
 good man. Sup])os<' that to-morrow I meet him on the 
 street ;md ndvance in a rude way and smit<' him on the 
 
40 liciniidscences and Sketches. 
 
 cheek ? They answered in c^horus, he would thrash you 
 i!i a minute. 
 
 But, I said, there is tlie i)astor of your church, the Rev. 
 
 Mr. , he looks like a mild and rather weakly man, 
 
 suppose that to-morrow I walk into his study and inso- 
 lently smite him on the face. You had better not try that 
 on, was the reply, he is neither as mild nor as weak as he 
 looks : the imminent probability is that you will be club- 
 bed out of his study and be bound over to answer at court. 
 
 Well, said I, boys, I think you are honest and sincere, 
 and I suspect you are not far wrong- as to what you would 
 do, and your superintendent, and your pastor, and yet a 
 very g"Ood man lately told me that the Sermon on the 
 Mount was meant for our practical guidance in this life, 
 and that it is to be taken literally. 
 
 Not long- agfo I heard an educated and intellig-ent 
 Chinaman lecture on the civilization of China. He 
 claimed for that civilization a favorable comparison Avith 
 ours. He conceded, however, that the position occupied 
 by women in Christian countries was suiDerior to that of 
 females in China, and he extolled and admired g-reatly the 
 }ihilosophy of the Sermon on the Mount: that it was 
 wonderful for its wisdom, and was, perhaps, superior to 
 the ethics of Confucius. "But," he said, "the queer 
 thing- about Americans is that with such an admirable 
 code of ethics they seem to have only a professed belief 
 in it and it does not seem to influence their lives. If our 
 system is not so g-ood we at least make a more earnest 
 effort to reg-ulate our lives by it." 
 
THE PACKER'S PATH AND AN OLD 
 INDIAN TRADER'S ACCOUNT-BOOK. 
 
 jj^ROM the north fork of the Potomac River, south of 
 Cumberland, Maryland, Will's Mountain stretches 
 with an even top, straight as a ruler, N. 25^ E., a distance 
 of about forty miles to where the Juniata skirts the base 
 of its terminal point, called Kinton's Ejiob, three miles 
 west of Bedford, Pennsylvania. The upheaving- power 
 which raised the white sandstone that constitutes the 
 well-defined backbone of the mountain seems to have 
 here spent its force, and the mountain disappears, sub- 
 merg-ed beneath the rolling farm country that lies north- 
 west of Bedford. 
 
 The mountain takes its name from an Indian chief of 
 the Shawneese tribe, whom the earliest white settlers 
 called Will. Tradition says he was a man of gi-eat 
 stature, and of advanced ag-e when the first white man 
 came into the reg-ion. Wlien his tribe was driven west- 
 ward by the advancing tide of civilization, he remained 
 behind, under the care of a few of liis relatives, to die and 
 be buried on the summit of the mountain that bears his 
 name, at a jjoint overlooking the hunting-grounds of his 
 
 (41) 
 
42 lieminiscences and Sketches. 
 
 youth. About seventy years ag-o the grave was violated 
 by a physician from Baltimore who carried away the 
 bones. An old citizen who witnessed the sacrileg-ious act, 
 says the chief was buried in a sitting- posture and that 
 the thig-h bones were well preserved and of unusual size. 
 
 Over the north end of Kinton's Knob there passes a well- 
 worn path. It is used occasionally by travelers on foot 
 and on horse-back from Milliken's Cove to Bedford, and 
 by persons who go up the knob for the view. On a clear 
 October day, this view is very extended. You can see 
 into three states, and over parts of several counties. 
 Bedford, the county-seat of Bedford county, and the vil- 
 lag-es of Schellsburg- and Buena Vista are seen with g-reat 
 distinctness close below, and the main Allegrheny Moun- 
 tain, with its parallel ridg-es, and the different gaps 
 throug-h which the Juniata breaks, are in full view^ within 
 a circuit of forty miles. You may travel far, over different 
 continents, without finding a view more productive of 
 delight. 
 
 This path has a history. One wonders at the existence 
 of a way so well worn, with the tread of many an ancient 
 hoof, over a rug-g"ed mountain where the travel is now so 
 infrequent, and where a comparatively level and smooth 
 route can be found around the base of the knob. For its 
 orig-in we must look quite far back into the times of the 
 early settlement of the country. 
 
 Railroad traveling- is wonderfully convenient. If we 
 had to resume the methods of locomotion of our imme- 
 diate fathers, we would feel that they were intolerably 
 irksome. And yet the ancient methods had some attract- 
 ive features which the modern do not possess. Not long- 
 ago I met in a railroad car a distinguished lawyer, formerly 
 
The Packers Path. 43 
 
 chief justice of Pennsylvania. Wlien we o-ot out at the 
 Market Street depot, in Philadelphia, I was about to take 
 a street car. No, said he, let us take the Girard House 
 coach, with its swing-ing-, leathern spring's. I like it. It 
 reminds me of the time when I was i3 resident judg-e of 
 your judicial district, and of the wonderfully pleasant 
 stag-e-coach rides over the beautiful mountains, with their 
 chang-ing- views, of the pleasant personal acquaintances 
 one made in the compelled intimacy of a stage ride, and 
 of the delig-htful old country inns where we stopped to 
 eat. 
 
 AVlien the McAdamized road, known in common iDar- 
 lance as the turnpike, was first made, in 1817, and Troy 
 coaches and relays of horses were introduced and a speed 
 of eig-ht miles an hour was attained and the travel con- 
 tinued all night, our fathers thought it the ne plus ultra 
 of traveling". Before that time they had what was known 
 as the mudpike, ,with a two-horse stage, which made about 
 tliirty or forty miles a day and stopped at nig-ht ; and a 
 journey from Pittsburg-h to Philadelphia occupied eight 
 or ten days. 
 
 But the road of which I speak antedates all these. It 
 is a remaining- section of the old "Packer's Path." 
 
 The avaunt couriers of the line of advancing settle- 
 ments more than a century ag-o were men who subsisted 
 for the most part by hunting*. They depended for salt, 
 iron, steel, lead, powder and whisky upon the older set- 
 tlements. Winchester, Ya., Hag-erstown, Md., and Car- 
 lisle and Chambersburg", Penna., were thriiing- \illag-es, 
 carrying- on considerable trade with the frontier, receiv- 
 ing- peltry in retui-n for the g-oods and wares sent out. 
 As the border extended, Fort Bedford and Fort Cumber- 
 
44 Reminiscences and Sketches. 
 
 land became advanced trading- forts. There was no 
 money. Peltry and furs were the onl}^ resources of the 
 early settlers for making- payments for the pm-chases of 
 their very few necessaries. 
 
 In the pleasant weather of the fall, a train of pack- 
 horses went out from each little neighborhood. The 
 pack-saddle was a cumbrous carved tree of wood, made 
 with a high pommel and cantel. Each horse wore a little 
 bell, and the bridle of each was tied to the tail of its pre- 
 decessor. 
 
 The bag's pro\dded for the return of the salt and wares 
 were filled with corn to feed the horses, some of which 
 was left here and there, at suitable stag-es, for feed on the 
 return trij). At nig-ht the horses were hobbled with 
 hickory withes and turned out to browse on the under- 
 brush and pick the scanty grasses that the forests af- 
 forded. 
 
 The object in taking the path over the high ground of 
 Kinton's Knob was probably two-fold. Mainly, doubtless, 
 it was because the little canoe-shaped valley of Milliken's 
 Cove was good grazing land and its rim of mountains 
 operated as a sort of enclosure to keep the horses from 
 wandering far. A second object, probably, may have 
 been the extensive view, exhibiting to the vision of the 
 traveler the rising smoke from any camp of hostile 
 savages; for these early journeyings were full of peril in 
 times when the savages were on the war-j^ath making 
 incursions upon the borders. 
 
 The Packer's Path from Frederick, HagerstoT\^i and 
 Winchester^ ascended the Tuscarora or Cove Mountain 
 by the gaj) west of Mercersburg. In a log cabin just 
 within the gap, and about three miles from Mercersbm-g, 
 
The Packers Path. 45 
 
 the father of James Buchanan kept a small store and 
 tavern, and it was there that the future President was 
 born. The ruins of a stone chimney mark the spot, and 
 the path, which is much steeper and shorter than the 
 wag-on road, is still trodden by footmen as a near cut. 
 
 I have before me an account-book, of the date of 14th 
 November, 1737, showing- "Partnership g-oods of Thomas 
 Kinton and David Priest, divided between Thomas Ejnton 
 and John Walker, in Alaganie, as equal as could be ; the 
 said John Walker acts and does for David Priest, and 
 receives David Priest's part of the goods for said David's 
 use, viz: 2 strouds, 2 Cresco shirts, 4 handkerchiefs, 13 
 pounds of powder, Qi^ pounds weight of lead, 1 blanket, 
 3 lucking g-lasses, 5 dozen of rings, 3| bunches of beads, 
 15 knives, big and little, 3 dozen of needles, 4 fadems of 
 green bed leas, 3 yards of flowered ribining, 4 fadems of 
 blue bed leas, 3 yards of green ribining, 4^ yards of yellow 
 ribining, 85 yards of narrow ribining-, a remnant of brass 
 ^^dre, 34 beaver skins, 5 wolf skins, 6 cat skins, 21 fox 
 skins, 6 otter skins, 15 fisher skins, 3 martins, 45 raccoons, 
 and 9 parchment skins." 
 
 These men Avere Indian traders. The place called 
 "Alaganie " is not Allegheny City, but an ancient trading- 
 post on the Allegheny River, at or near where Kittaning 
 now stands. The Packer's Path or trail to reach this 
 place crossed the Allegheny Mountain near Altoona, at 
 the point where the celebrated horse- shoe curve on the 
 Pennsylvania railroad is located, that part of the moun- 
 tain having- long been known as Kittanning Point, 
 
 This book shows that th(^ Indians were sold g-oods on 
 credit, to be paid for in peltries. The standard of value 
 seems to have been buck and doe skins. 
 
46 Bemmiscences and Sketches. 
 
 Tlie account runs: 
 "Trusted by John Walker. 
 
 To Perkines' wife, one Doe skin. 
 
 " His daughter, Caughcaline, .... l " 
 
 Luthemah, 
 
 To Kiscomanetoe, 5 Buck skins. 
 
 " Beat-to-Pieces, 5 " " 
 
 " His wife, 1 
 
 " Wapietomah, 2 " " 
 
 " Little-White-Man, 3| " 
 
 " Toitel-Back, 1 
 
 " Manawallico, | " " 
 
 "Trusted out by Thomas Kinton, at Winan«:o. 
 
 To the Pirate, 8 Buck skins. 
 
 " Kakias, 2 " " 
 
 " Pamanie, 2 
 
 " Injen Jim, 1 Doe skin. 
 
 " Herican Tom, 4 Buck skins. 
 
 " Dolof^-as, 1 " " 
 
 " TheGuse, 4 
 
 " Tomulack, 2^ " 
 
 " Tlie Beaver, 1 Doe skin. 
 
 " Alamacopa, 1 " " 
 
 One of these Indians, KiscomaneUe, seems to have been 
 named from, or have f^^iven his name to, the river Kiski- 
 minitis, a confluent of tlie Alleg-heny, somewhat noted of 
 late daj^s as the proposed object of cong-ressional bounty 
 under the especial patronage of Cong-ressman Wliite. 
 
 The Indian trader, Thomas Kinton, afterwards settled 
 near Bedford and gave name to the knob of Will's Mount- 
 ain over which the Packer's Path crosses. 
 
The Packer'^ Path. 47 
 
 To the credit of the aborigines, it should b(^. chronicled 
 that the accounts are crossed out and marked iDaid. 
 
 The packino" business seems in time to have assumed 
 considerable proportions, and to have resulted in an 
 org-anized company or association for tlie general trans- 
 portation of goods, with a large number of horses and 
 drivers. 
 
 There is among the papers handed to me by Thomas 
 Kin ton's descendants, "A list or roll of pack-horses and 
 drivers mustered into his majesty's service, under com- 
 mand of Thomas Kinton, horse master, York county, 
 October 9th, 1758." 
 
 "A list of pack-horses lost at the battle with Major 
 Grant, September 14, 1758." 
 
 "A list of pack-horses and drivers entered into his 
 majesty's service under command of Thomas Kinton, 
 horse master, Carlisle, 1764." 
 
 The expedition in 1758 was und(^r command of General 
 John Forbes. That of 1 764, under Colonel Henry Bouquet. 
 Both these expeditions marched through Fort Bedford to 
 Fort Pitt. 
 
 Times have vastly changed. The Alh^gheny Mountain 
 is no longer the western frontier. On and on the frontier 
 has receded, until there is no long-er a frontier left. The 
 continent is traversed from the Atlantic to the Pacific in 
 less time than the packers took to travel the wilderness 
 from Winchester to "Alaganie." Yet such is the adapt- 
 ability of human natiu^e to its siuTOundings, and the 
 capacity for pleasure bestowed by a beneficent Creator 
 upon his creatures, that the enjoyment of life may have 
 been, and doubtless was, as earnest and hc^arty and full 
 of incident and zest to the hunters and packers and early 
 
48 lie mini scences ojid Sketches. 
 
 settlers of 1737, as it is to their descendants of this gener- 
 ation. We would be loath to undertake their mode of 
 life. Without our railroads and telegraphs and daily 
 newspapers we would scarcely think it worth while to 
 live. It is possil^le that if they were suddenly re-intro- 
 duced upon the scene of life, they would be as uncom- 
 fortable with, as we would be without these appliances. 
 The bears, and panthers, and wolves, and catamounts, and 
 beaver, and deer, are gone from their forests. The very 
 forests have disappeared. And our life to them would 
 be a dull monotony. 
 
 When the Whig convention, which nominated Henry 
 Clay for President, sat in Baltimore, in 1844, an ardent 
 admirer of the great Kentucky orator and statesman — a 
 plain farmer, whose life had theretofore l)een bounded 
 by the mountains that surrounded the valley in which he 
 was born, impelled by his enthusiasm for "Harry of 
 the west," journeyed one hundred and fifty miles to 
 Baltimore to be present at the couA-ention. Long bc^fore 
 the rest of the delegation returned he came back to his 
 country home. His neighbors asked him why he did so. 
 Oh, said he, I staid but half a day ; I couldn't stand it in 
 Baltimore; it was so lonesome. Deprived of his contact 
 with nature, to which from childhood he had been accus- 
 tomed, the throng and bustle and excitement of the 
 crowded city failed to satisfy his tastes and inclinations. 
 He used the true word, eloquently expressive of his feel- 
 ings, with a volume of meaning in it. It was intolerable 
 lonesomeness. 
 
 The little faded accountbook of 1737 carries us back 
 to a different world. The century and a half which have 
 rolled away into the past have not only been big with 
 
The Packer's Path. \\^ 
 
 great events to the race, but have broug-ht an entire 
 change in the habits, and customs, and manners, and 
 modes of life of the jjeople of this land. It is well to 
 recall the past. It excites our pride and admiration for 
 the sturdy pioneers of the last century, who, with won- 
 derful courage and self-reliance, and skill in adapting 
 themselves to their surroundings, pushed out into a 
 trackless wilderness filled with wild beasts and savag-e 
 Indians, and reared themselves homes where they could 
 enjoy the glorious privilege of being- independent. 
 Wliatever other changes come to us, we may well emulate 
 their self-reliant manhood and love of freedom, and leani 
 the lesson that the true happiness of life comes greatly 
 from the man's inner consciousness and not alone from 
 luxiu-ious surroundings. 
 
AN ANCIENT MEETING-HOUSE AND 
 A COUNTRY GRAVE-YARD. 
 
 '"pHREE-QUARTERS of a mile west of the small vil- 
 lag-e of Schellsburg" where the south end of the 
 Chestnut Ridg-e slopes gently dow^i to meet the low-lying 
 lands of the Shawneese Cabin Creek, is an ancient church 
 edifice, probably the oldest building erected for religious 
 worship that is now standing in Bedford county. It was 
 built in 1806 by the Lutherans and Reformed settlers for 
 many miles around, and the gi-ave-yard (to use the an- 
 cient name) surrounding it is the home of the dead of all 
 that neighborhood for several generations. And a beau- 
 tiful home it is. If the spirits of the dead take any in- 
 terest in the last resting place of their mortal remains 
 they must be well content wdtli this one. The natural 
 surroundings are lovely. The long line of the Allegheny 
 Mountain stretches into the ether blue of the dim dis- 
 tance, and the undulating farms of cultivated fields and 
 bits of forest interspersed with houses and barns, with 
 the Dry Ridge and Buffalo and Wills Momi tains for a back- 
 ground, give an extended landscape for many miles, upon 
 which the eye rests with pleasure as the clouds fly over 
 
 (50) 
 
Ancient Meeting-House and Country Gvifve-Yard. 51 
 
 and add variety ^dth swift-cliano-ino- patches of sunshine 
 and shadow. Talk about Westminster Abbey and the 
 crypts of great European cathedrals ! Better far this 
 beautiful country home of the dead with its wide-spread 
 landscape dressed in living- g-reen in summer, or wrapped 
 in the pure white sheet of winter snow. 
 
 The old churcli is no long-er used as a xjlace of public 
 worship excei)t on funeral occasions. It has been sup- 
 planted by more stately edifices at more convenient local- 
 ities. The Reformed and Lutherans no longer worship 
 tog"ether. In early days the common use of their mother 
 tong-ue, the German lang*uag-e, and the feeling- of friend- 
 ship engendered by the fact they were strangers in a 
 strange land, drew them near to each other, and they 
 sank their denominational differences out of sight, and 
 united in building churches in which they worshiped 
 conjointly, each holding their respective services on al- 
 ternate Sabbaths. But the use of the English language 
 and prosperity and increase of numbers changed all 
 this. Like electric balls that first attract and then repel, 
 they were driven asunder and seem to have less of the 
 spirit of affiliation and christian charity toward each 
 other than for other denominations. Not so with the 
 dead. They occupy the ancient ground in harmony, and 
 constitute a tie which still brings the community to- 
 gether into one common assemblage as one after another 
 passes over to join the great majority. 
 
 It is a queer old church, standing right in the midst of 
 the encircling graves, with a wine-glass shaped pulpit, 
 just large enough to hold the preacher, who is shut in by 
 a little door on which there is a wooden turn-bolt, as if 
 there was danger of his escaping — a sort of cage. It is 
 
52 Beminiscences a) id Sketches. 
 
 perched on a post and access is had to it by eight or ten 
 steps, and the pews have hig'h straig-ht backs, and there 
 is a pew for strang-ers and dig-nitaries just under the pul- 
 pit, where they sat facing- the congreg-ation. And there 
 is the funniest little g-allery, supported by x^osts, with a 
 floor at an ang-le of forty -five degrees and three tiers of 
 high-backed pews, and a steep, narrow stairway to get to 
 it, U13 which you go as if you were climbing a ladder, ex- 
 cept that you don't have the advantage of catching hold 
 of the rounds with your hands. 
 
 They have a stove so as to have fire on cold or rainy 
 days, and a Bible and hymn books, and it is soothing to 
 the living to bury the dead with services in the ancient 
 church in which the forefathers of the hamlet worshiped. 
 Old men and women are laid away in their narrow homes 
 who, as little boys and girls, worshiped and went to Sunday 
 school in the old churchy and played among the graves. 
 
 Originally the building was of logs, rough-cast. With- 
 in the last few years, largely through the instrumentality 
 of the Rev. Mr. Hunt, to whom gTeat jDraise is due, it has 
 been new-roofed and weather-boarded and painted; but 
 the interior remains unchanged ; the same quaint pulpit 
 and pews and funny little gallery. With an occasional 
 coat of paint and a new roof every twenty -five or thirty 
 years, or, better still and more enduring, mth a good slate 
 roof, it ought to last for centuries. And no doubt the 
 descendants of the dead who sleep so peacefully in this 
 beautiful country cemetery, wherever they may be scat- 
 tered over this broad land, will take pleasure in contribu- 
 ting to the proper maintenance of this old church. 
 
 The first graves were scattered promiscuously, with no 
 arrangement for walks or family i)lots. But some years 
 
Ancient Jfeefing-House and Country Grave-Yard. 53 
 
 ag-o the cemetery was incorporated. Peter Scliell was in- 
 strumental in doing" this, and he did a g-ood work. A 
 hirg'e part of it has been regularly laid out in lots where 
 families are buried tog-ether, and walks are neatly kept 
 in order by a sexton. They have fourteen acres of g-round, 
 and a comfortable dwelling- house occupied by the sexton. 
 There have been fifty-eig-ht interments within the last two 
 years. Ah me ! how fast the place is filling uj) ! it is far 
 more populous tl^an the adjoining- villag-e. As I walked 
 there a short time since in the brig-ht sunshine of an Oc- 
 tober Sunday, I saw the names of many an old friend. 
 When you get to be threescore you can find most of your 
 friends in the g-rave-yards. John Sill, and James Burns, 
 and A. J. Snively, and William Keyser, and Michael Reed, 
 and Andrew Crisman, all lay close around me. How 
 memories crowded on me as I recalled the past, and saw 
 them all, as they were a few years since, in active business 
 and political life. In the presence of eternity how un- 
 substantial and unimportant are the things of time. 
 
 Just across the turnpike is a small separate grave-yard. 
 It is a pity, and it don't seem right. It looks like carry- 
 ing animosity into the next world, as it were. Wlien 
 Peter Schell undertook to incorporate the cemetery 
 some expense had to be incurred, and it resulted in a 
 small charge of six or eight dollars for a lot. Hereto- 
 fore the grave-yard had been free. Old Mr. Bowser was 
 opposed to the incorporation, and these old men couldn't 
 agree. And Mr. Bowser started his own cemetery. I 
 know not who was to blame. But it is a pity that the 
 angles of the old men met, and that down through the 
 ages wall go the inquiry why these two grave-yards? and 
 
54 Reminiscences and Sketche, 
 
 the response that will indicate how these old men dif- 
 fered irreconcilably abont this matter. 
 
 The old church is worth a visit and the drive is a de- 
 lightful one. It oug-ht to be added to the enjoyable ex- 
 cursions that make Bedford attractive to summer visitors. 
 And a sojourn of an hour or two to take dinner or sup- 
 per at the old hotel at the west end of Schellsburg will 
 not be found unpleasant. The house is noted for its fried 
 chicken and waffles (it is queer what an affinity fried 
 chicken and waffles have for each other), and the ride 
 g'ives an appetite. A return can be made by the way of 
 Mann's Choice, adding variet}^ without greatly increasing 
 the length of the journey — making the whole drive about 
 twenty miles. 
 
 By the way, do you know how Mann's Choice got its 
 desig:nation ? Persons passing- in the cars often remark 
 on the singularity of the name. They never heard of 
 Job Mann, and think tln^ name is spelled with one "n," 
 Man's Choice, and so they speculate and sug-g-est what a 
 queer name I What did the man choose 'l I wonder why 
 he selected this place ? Perhaps his best g-irl lived here ! 
 and divers other remarks of similar character. The truth 
 is when Job Mann was in congress and Felty AYertz kept 
 the tavern at the "Foot of the Ridge," forty years ago, 
 Felty g"ot the idea that he would like to have a postoffice 
 at his house. The stage ran by the door and it would be 
 a convenience to the neighborhood and no increase of 
 expense, and so he wrote to Mr. Mann, who went to the 
 department at Washington and made kno^^^l his request, 
 which, of course, was granted at once. But no name had 
 been considered either by INlr. Wertz or Mr. Maim, ex- 
 cept the local one of the " Foot of the Bidge," which 
 
Ancient Meeting-House and Country (h-ave- Yard. 55 
 
 the Postoffice Department would not adopt, because there 
 was already a postoffice of that name in the state. Wlien 
 asked for another, Mr. Mann hesitated, unwilling- to 
 take the responsibility of sug-g-esting, and so the clerk in 
 the department called it Mann's Choice, and a thriving 
 village has grown \\\) there, which is now incorporated 
 into a borough apparently destined to flourish and send 
 Mr. Mann's name down to posterity for many genera- 
 tions. 
 
SLAVE-CATCHING IN BEDFORD 
 COUNTY. 
 
 TN a late magazine article {JSforfh American Review, Oc- 
 tober, 1888), General Sherman expresses an opinion 
 that "it is one of the most extraordinary anomalies in 
 political history, that the owners of slaves, who constituted 
 not one-twentieth of the whole population, should have 
 ruled their fellow-citizens with desi:)oti(? severity. They 
 controlled the fashions of their neig'hbors, dictated to the 
 counties, or parishes and states, and were even arrogant 
 to the United States of America in congress assembled/' 
 In fact, this was not an extraordinary anomaly, nor 
 an anomaly at all. It was the same human nature that 
 exliibits itself all through history. It would have been 
 a most extraordinary event if they had not done so. The 
 slave-holders had wealth, education and organization, and 
 constituted an oligarchy, the most powerful, probably, 
 that the world has ever seen. They owned nearly all the 
 landed property and all the slaves, and established a 
 despotism of public opinion against which the i^oorer 
 whites were as powerless to combat as children. They 
 
 (56) 
 
Slavt-Catchin/j in iic.dfofd Coimly. 57 
 
 held and exercised control ;is the nobility did in feudal 
 times. The lawyers, and preachers, and doctors, and 
 editors, were of the slave-holding- class, either in fact, or by 
 birth, or marriage, or interest. Against the aristocracy 
 and plutocracy, and org-anization of the dominant class, 
 the poor whites had nothing- to interpose but poverty, 
 illiteracy and entire lack of org-anization. The brainy, 
 ambitious and energ-etic, men of the poor class, when any 
 such were developed, ciuickly rose into the better position 
 of the upper class, or an intermediate x^o^ition, which 
 made them appendant to the upper class. The control 
 of the g-overnment, local, state and national, went easily 
 and naturally into the liands of the slave-holder. It 
 would have been a deviation from the law of human 
 nature, as exhibited in all societies and governments of 
 which we have any recorded history, if this had not 
 been so. 
 
 And this despotism of slavery not only controlled the 
 white population of the south who were not slave-holders, 
 but dominated the north as well. The great democratic 
 party was its earnest ally, briVjed by the control of the 
 national government and the patronage of office which 
 the slave-holders enabled it to maintain, and the whig 
 party was not far behind in suVjsen-iency. There were 
 no fiercer pro-slavery men than the lower classes of whites 
 of the Vjordf^r states, both north and south of Masons and 
 Dixon's line. There was a time, within the memory of 
 men now living, when it was opproVjrious to be called an 
 abolitionist in southern Pennsylvania. No word of con- 
 tempt was fuller of meaning or more odious. Wliigs and 
 democrats alike, with scarce an exception, Aned with each 
 other in expressions of resxje<-t for the constitutional 
 
58 Uenuniscences and Sketches. 
 
 sanction of slavery and the fugitive slave law, and in 
 profound contempt for any man who advocated the 
 abolition of slavery or who spoke ag^ainst the institution 
 in any way whatever. It existed, it had constitutional 
 recognition and sanction ; slaves were x:>roperty ; and as 
 far as the north was concerned we had nothing to do 
 with it; no right to an opinion even, nor to discuss it. 
 To charge a man with being an abolitionist was about 
 on a par, in the minds of most men, with calling him a 
 scoundrel or a thief. The advent of an abolition lecturer 
 in a south Pennsylvania village fifty years ago, excited the 
 people to fever heat. If word had come that a hyena or 
 a tiger had escaped from its cage and was loose in the 
 community, it could not have created a greater furor. A 
 coat of tar and feathers and riding on a rail, at the hands 
 of a mob, awaited all such who did not desist and leave 
 at once on notice. 
 
 If slaves ran away from Maryland or Virginia and 
 came through southern Pennsylvania, hand-bills offering 
 a reward were circulated and posted up in public places. 
 They were sent to postmasters and put up in the post- 
 offices and taverns, often by the postmasters themselves, 
 and there were men in Bedford county, as in other border 
 counties, who were not only willing, but watchful and 
 anxious, to capture runaways and get the reward. Hand- 
 bills with regard to runaway slaves were received and 
 treated with the same respect as those giving informa- 
 tion of a stolen horse, and offering a rcAvard for its capture 
 and the arrest of the thief. The fugitives followed the 
 mountains which run northwardly, and the slave-catchers 
 lay in wait, both by day and night, at the crossing places 
 of the roads, and arrests were made witliout any warrant 
 
Slave-Catching in Bedford County. 59 
 
 or process of law. Neg"roes and mulattoes were captured, 
 and bound and conducted back to their owners or to 
 slave-catchers in Maryland, without any man darin«- to 
 question the proceedings or to inquire by what authority 
 doest thou these thing's, or who gave thee this authority ? 
 They were taken alonof the public roads and throug-h the 
 villages bound, and without any man caring- or daring to 
 question or even inquire into the authority of the captors. 
 Nay, more than this, such \mis the terrorism of the time, 
 such the fear of being regarded as an abolitionist, that 
 cruelty and actual death were injBicted upon fugitive 
 blacks by slave-catchers, armed with no authority except 
 a printed hand-bill with the alleged owner's name ap- 
 pended to it, upon more than one occasion in Bedford 
 county, and no notice of the occun*ence w^as taken by any 
 official nor by the newspapers. 
 
 I relate one instance upon the authority of Dr. William 
 H. Watson. I do not recall the exact date, but it must 
 have been in 1851, or '52, or '53. An entire family, con 
 sisting of a mother and several chilch*en (it runs in my 
 mind that there were seven in all), w^ho belonged in 
 Virginia, not far from Cumberland, Maryland, escaped. 
 They were to be sold ; the necessity of the settlement of 
 an estate required this. The mother, dreading a separa- 
 tion, fled northward witli her little ones, and with a horse 
 which she took along to enable them to travel. They 
 were captured six or eight miles south of Bedford, on a 
 cold day in December. The doctor saw them in the 
 hands of their captors at Centre ville, half way between 
 Bedford and Cumberland. They stopped there at the 
 tavern to warm. Among tlie children was a lad of six- 
 teen or seventeen years, who had on his stockingless 
 
60 Jieminiscence.s and Sketches. 
 
 feet an old pair of tig-lit boots, that looked like a cast-off 
 pair of g-entleman's boots. To secure him, his captors 
 had bound his feet under the horses body. His feet 
 were frozen, and when his boots were pulled off the skin 
 and soles of his feet came with them. No man dared to 
 question the captors or interfere \\'ith them in any way. 
 
 In Monroe or West Providence township, a few miles 
 south of Bloody Run (now Everett), two fugitive slaves 
 were overtaken by a Maryland or Virginia slave-hunter, 
 aided by some Bedford county assistants, men who were 
 on the qui vive for a reward, and who followed the busi 
 ness of slave-catching- for gain. One of the slaves was 
 armed with an old single-barreled pistol, Avhich, as the 
 captors ai^proached, he drew and exhibited as he retreated ; 
 the captors were armed mth pistols and a rifle, which 
 latter implement was brought into use and one of the 
 slaves was shot at long range. He died and was buried 
 near where he fell, and the survivor was taken south. 
 There was no coroner's inquest, nor published notice of 
 this occurrence in any way, and verj' little comment upon 
 it in the neighborhood. 
 
 The slave-hunters of Bedford county, the men who re- 
 ceived and posted the liand-l)ills and got the rewards, 
 were looked down upon and despised by their neighbors. 
 The name of slave-catcher was nearly as much a stigma 
 as the name of abolitionist. The public sentiment of the 
 better class of the community condemned ]>oth with an 
 e(|ual measure of contempt. The slave-catchers were, for 
 the most part, a despicable set: they were men who 
 drank whisky, chewed tobacco, played cards and loafed 
 jiround village taverns. Occasionally, however, there 
 was a farmer or mechanic who was sneakingly engaged 
 
SJave-Catcliing in Bedford Couitt//. Gl 
 
 in the business Each cominunity in the southern part 
 of the county contained them. The little knot of them 
 in Bedford borough were well known forty years ago. 
 They are all dead now with a single exception. 
 
 It is not pleasant to reflect upon the subserviency of 
 northern public sentiment forty years ago to the domina- 
 tion of the slaveocracy. Here and there in the southern 
 border of Pennsylvania were men who saw things in 
 their true light and had the courage of their convictions. 
 Thaddeus Stevens, for example, who braved public senti- 
 ment and stood manfully all through his life an avowed 
 anti-slavery man. But, for the most part, the men of 
 Bedford county belonged to the great mass kno^vqi as 
 dough-faces. Li 1848, Martin Van Buren, who ran for 
 President as a free-soil candidate, had but a single vote 
 in the comity, and that was my father's. I often heard 
 him avow that they might hang him as high as Haman 
 before he would aid in enforcing the fugitive slave law, 
 and that he would ride a day in the rain to vote for a 
 dissolution of the Union if it could not be repealed 
 otherwise. But he was alone in the whole town, and, 
 with the exception of a few Quakers, in the whole county. 
 
STOPPAGE OF FLOW OF BLOOD BY 
 
 REPEATING A VERSE FROM 
 
 SCRIPTURE. 
 
 r^LAIR county was erected in 1846 out of parts of 
 Hunting-don and Bedford. The line dividing- it fi'om 
 Bedford was composed of the division line of townships, 
 and it was not distinctly defined. Time had rendered 
 the old marks obscure, and in 1850 an act of assembly 
 was passed appointing- Samuel Carn, John Bennett and 
 Henry Moses to run and mark the line from the top of 
 Dunning-'s Mountain to the Cambria county line. There 
 was uncertainty as to which county divers tracts of land 
 in the mountain region of the Blue Ejiob belonged to for 
 taxation. 
 
 The commissioners had authority to employ a surveyor 
 at three dollars a day, and two chain-carriers and an ax- 
 man at one dollar a day each. I had been admitted to 
 the bar in 1849, and was then boarding at the Bising Sun 
 tavern, kept by Colonel John Hafer, and had no acquaint- 
 ance with the people of the county. My father, a Pres- 
 byterian minister, came to Bedford in the fall of 1844 and 
 moved away in the fall of 1849. TMien he left I went to 
 
 (02) 
 
Stoppage of Flow of Blood. 63 
 
 board and lodg-e at the Washing-ton Hotel, kept by Major 
 Samuel Davis. Few county people stopped there, and 
 Major Davis was not the man to make any effort to aid a 
 yomig- lawyer in gaining acquaintances or gt^tting busi- 
 ness. Colonel Hafer was bright and active, and his house 
 was larg-ely resorted to by county people, for every one 
 of whom he had a cheery salutation and a pleasant re- 
 mark. He was a live landlord, and he sent me word to 
 change my quarters ; that his house would suit me better 
 ^would make me acquainted with the people and get me 
 business; and I immediately adopted his sugg-estion. 
 
 Soon after I took up my abode at the Rising- Sun (what 
 a wonderful picture of the orb of day was on the old 
 sign ! Liberty Enlig-htening- the World was no^vhere in 
 comparison with it!) Sheriff' Carn, on a Sunday after- 
 noon, remarked that he Avas gfoing the next day to Clays- 
 burg to run the county line, and mentioned the nature of 
 the work. I asked him to employ me as an axman. He 
 doubted my capacity to endure the labor and fatigue, but 
 finally consented. The next day he and I started to- 
 gether and went to the ground in Benjamin Garretson's 
 hack. The fare was two dollars. The work was likely 
 to last one week, and my pay was to be one dollar a day 
 and fomid, so that, paying hacrk hire going and i-eturning, 
 I was likely to have two dollars clear at the end of the 
 week, with clothing- torn, shoes worn out and a tiled 
 body, but with some added knoAvledge of the counti-y and 
 its iieople and thcur mode of life. I had been admitted 
 to the bar nearly a year, and had one audit, on(^ petty 
 case before a justice of th(^ peace, and had sat as arbi- 
 trator two or three times, and was four hundred dollars in 
 debt for money borrowed in getting my legal education 
 
64 Beni.inlscences ami Hkdches. 
 
 and for law books and my winter's boarding-, and had ar- 
 rived at the point where somethings had to be done. It 
 was not a very inviting- prospect — this surveying trip. 
 Still it was something-. Est aliquid prodire tenus : It is 
 something- to go forward a little. 
 
 Wlien we arrived on the gTOund, the surveyor, Sheriff 
 Oarn's nephew, was not there. Two of the commission- 
 ers, Carn and Moses, the two chain-carriers, and myself 
 as axman were ready, but the surveyor was " non est in- 
 ventus.^' I had studied surveying- at colleg-e and knew 
 how to use the compass, but had no experience in the 
 woods, and very little at all except in running- the lines 
 of a field. But in the dilemma I sug-g-ested that if we 
 had a compass and chain I could run that afternoon, and 
 w^e could get a start ready iov the advent of the surveyor 
 in the morning, and so a man was dispatched to Scjuire 
 Bennett's for his surveying- imj^lements, who soon re- 
 turned with them, and we started near the public road at 
 Fickes' house, which was said to stand on the line — a part 
 of it in each comity— and ran thence to the top of Dun- 
 ning-'s Mountain by the course of the township draft, 
 found the old marks w ith(:>ut trouble and marked the line 
 anew^ by frequent blazed trees. The commissioners were 
 experienced woodsmtni and knew how to find old marks, 
 and to mark line-trees, and sig-ht-trees, and corners, and 
 witnesses, and I pick«>d up this knowledg-e from them that 
 afternoon by a little attention and ol)servation. 
 
 The next morning- the sheriff's nephew came to act as 
 surveyor, but after consultating- wdtli his co-commissioner, 
 the sheriff decided to retain me ; and so I was employed, 
 with a prospect of g-etting- eig-hteen dollars for the week's 
 work instead of six dollars, with eig-ht or ten dollars ad- 
 
Stoppage of Flow of Blood. %^ 
 
 ditional for the draft. It was a h'lix thin*;- in tliat early 
 day of small l)et^innin.fis. 
 
 The axman was John Kauffman. When we were one 
 or two days out, pretty well en\ironed ])y mountain for- 
 ests, John was sent with the necessary fmids to get a 
 quart of whisky to have along- in eas(^ of snake-])ites. 
 AVlien he returned he produced a pint flask full, and stated 
 that the man who sold it had no quart flasks, and, there- 
 fore, gave him two pint flasks, one of which he said lu' 
 had accidentally broken in crossing the fence. A remark- 
 able coincidence, however, was that John w^as visibly in- 
 toxicated, and this gave rise to the suspicion that he had 
 drank one pint himself. While he was absent for the 
 whisky a part of the line remained unmarked, and when 
 he returned I ran back a half a mile or so to have him 
 mark it. AYliilst I w^as taking a sight he was nicking in 
 a fallen tree, and the axe glanced and cut him severely, 
 a deep gash in the foot on the arch of the instep), from 
 which the blood spurted in jets, indicating that a small 
 artery w^as dissevered. We w^ere entirely alone in a dense 
 forest. I put him on his back, with his foot elevated, 
 and made an extemporized tourniquet around his leg with 
 a handkerchief and a stick, which I gave him to hold, and 
 hastened ofl", retracing the line to get to om* party, and as 
 soon as possible John was taken to the nearest house and 
 a doctor was sent for. He bled x^rofusely, and it was a 
 long time before the flow of blood was checked. 
 
 That night we stayed at old George Kitc^hey's, in tlie 
 
 Switz. The Swdtz, or Switzerland, is the high ground 
 
 between tlie Blue Knob nnd the Allegheny Mountain; 
 
 and the Ilitcheys of that day all believed that certain 
 
 5 
 
66 Ilendniscences and Sketches. 
 
 persons Ii.-kI the i)Ovver to stop the flow of bh)0(l: and so, 
 iu conversation about John Kautfman's wound, tht^y ex- 
 pressed deep reg-ret that some man, whose name I do not 
 recall, was not sent for to stop the blood by repeating a 
 particular verse from the Bible. 
 
 This idea was new to me, and I rather controverted it 
 and expressed a disbelief in the possession of any su(;h 
 mysterious power, until old Mr. Ritchey was manifestly 
 a little vexed by my scepticism, whicli involved a quasi 
 censure of his belief, and thus he addressed me: " Maybe 
 you are one of those young- men that believe the world 
 turns round and the sun stands still." I assured him I 
 was. "Yes," he said, "there are such people nowadays! 
 What folly ! How silly it is ! The world round, and turns 
 round, and the sun stands still! Any child oug-ht to 
 know better than that. Why, the houses would all fall oti", 
 and the p(H)ple, and the horses, and the cattle, and all 
 these heavy I'ocks you have l)een traveling- ()V(;r. What 
 Avould hold them on when they g-et on the under side 1 
 You don't believe' in the Bible, wliich says Joshua com- 
 manded and the sun stood still, and speaks of the rising- 
 of the sun and the going- down of the same. You don't 
 believe in the Bible, wlii(;h says the flow of blood can be 
 sto]3ped, and you do believe that the world turns round 
 and the sun stands still! Young- man, you had better g-o 
 home. Y^ou've got a g-reat deal to learn yet!" 
 
 All this was a new development to me, and j)ut on in- 
 quiry by it I learned that among- the jieoph^ of GeiToan 
 descent in Bedford county, forty years ago, the belief in 
 the powcn- to sto]) the flow of blood, by repeating- a par- 
 ticnilar verse from th<' ]>ibl<', was not uncommon, and 
 among- tlie sam<' jx'oiilc at that time there were a num- 
 
Sfojjpage of Flow of Blood. 67 
 
 ber who did not believe in the rotundity of th(^ earth and 
 its revohition on its axis. 
 
 The verse used is the 6th of the 16th ehaptei- of Eze- 
 kiel, and reads as follows : 
 
 "And when I passed l)y thee;, and saw thee polluted in 
 thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy 
 blood, LIVE; Yea, I said unto thee, when thou wast 
 in thy blood, LIVE!" 
 
 This belief still exists in some parts of the county. It 
 is not every one who can stop the How. According- to the 
 current belief, only certain ]>ta^sons are endow(Kl with this 
 wonderful power, the basis of which is faith. It is, how- 
 ever, not necessary that there should be any faith in the 
 subject to be operated on. He may be as sk(^ptical as 
 Bob Ingersoll. And it will also work as effectiv(3ly uj^on 
 animals as upon human being's, and upon small children 
 as upon adults. 
 
 I have conversed with intellig-ent men of age and ex- 
 perience, and in numbers not a few, who are firm believers 
 in this, and wiio say they must believe it for they have 
 seen it done. And they relate instances of divers kind 
 \\h(^re, as they think, people would have bled to death 
 l)ut for the use of this mystic verse. And it is not nt^c- 
 essary that the faith-operator shall be prf^sent with the 
 person or animal who is bleeding-. Th(\y tell Ik^w a mc^s- 
 seng-er liad gone in hot liaste and how, as was verifi<Hl 
 afterward by comparison of time, the blood ci^ased to 
 flow at the \ei'y minute the verses was ri^pc^ated. 
 
 The scientist would probably explain all this l)y iiat 
 nra] causes — the provision of nature by wliicli tli(> coagu- 
 lation of the blood wIk^u it comers in contact witli atmos- 
 pheric air tends to stop the flow, and tlie concurrence^ of 
 
68 Reminiscences and Sketches. 
 
 time MS one of those straiig-e coincidences which some- 
 times happen so wonderfully in human affairs. 
 
 There is a fascination about the mysterious which gives 
 it an advantag-e over the cold facts of science. But the 
 provision by which the blood coag-ulates and checks the 
 How of the Adtal current, the tendency of nature to remedy 
 the injury and effect a cure, constitutes a mystery as 
 wonderful as the use of the verse, even if it had the powder 
 attributed to it; nay, more wonderful by far. Wio g-ave 
 blood this qualit}^ ? Blind chance or intelligent design ? 
 
THE TRAVELING SALESMAN 
 
 A FEAV week ag-o I traveled westward on the Penii- 
 sylvania railroad on the mail-train. At Johns- 
 town a blooming-cheeked g-irl of probably eighteen years 
 of ag-e g-ot in and took a seat just behind me. Her ap- 
 pearance and manner indicated that she was from some 
 (jomitry village. Nicely dressed in her best, her comite- 
 nance all ag-low with animation and delig-ht, it was mani- 
 festly her first trip abroad, and it was a pleasure to ob- 
 serve her innocent enjoyment. Immediately behind her 
 sat a young man of rather fine appearance who was prob- 
 ably twenty-five years old. I had divested myself of my 
 hat and supplied its place with a traveler's cap, and was 
 leaning- ag-ainst the side of the car which carried the^ 
 sound of their words to my ear, and thus became the 
 auditor of a conversation which I wish as far as ])ossible 
 to re-produce for a lesson and a warning-, and to direct at- 
 tention to a class of men whose influence upon the morals 
 of t\m community is to a g-reat extent x^ernicious. I 
 mean the ti-aveling salesmen of city houses. T do not 
 mean to condemn indiscriminately all commercial trav- 
 elers, because, doubtlt^ss, some of them are g-ood men, but 
 
 (69) 
 
7() licini luscciic.i's an/l HIrc/chr.s. 
 
 a ^r<','it iiKiiiy <>• IIk'Hi Jirc not. 'I'lic tciKlcncy of tlir lii'<^ 
 tlicy Icjul is more or l<\ss (Iciuorali/iii^". '^IMh'V an; froinl 
 IVoiii ilic r<'stt'aiiiin<j;- iiillii<ui<-(!S ol" lioirK;, and family, and 
 (•liiiccli, and f»<M|ii('iitly indulge in the li(HiiiS(; tli(dr mode 
 of lif<' allows ix'ciiliar oppoitunitics for. 
 
 I do not kno\s iMcciscly liov\' tlir youn<4" mail l)<;<j;'an 
 th<' convci'sation with tlu^ ^i'l, Ix'cJiusc my att(5iitioii vvjis 
 not; dir(;ci('(l to tli(an until I heard h(3r, in answer to some 
 
 iiMjuirv, say that she r<'sided at , in Som(!rs<'t 
 
 comity. As I knew the people of that villa;^*' to som<^ 
 extent, I l)<H\-ini<' at onee an attentive listeiK^r. 
 
 FHTe spoke (►f the weather" that handy snl)j<M-t upon 
 which ev<'ry one can talk and sa,y what li<' pleases with, 
 out ^ivinj.'- ollense and then, when 1m' found her respon 
 sive, incpiired if she <j;<A. on the train at Johnstown, and 
 lina,li\ asked her iKime, and then h(w first nam<\ wliicli he 
 said was a very pretty one, which he lia,d always ad mi i-e<L 
 He incpiired if she had linished her schooling- and what 
 she had studied. She responded freely and llueiitly and 
 talked well. He asked if she was fond of society, and 
 wli(^tlier she had t ra vele<l l>eh)re, and wlier'e sin; was <.^()in^- 
 to, aJid how loni; she exjx'cted to stay, to all of whi('li she 
 answered with seemin«^ frankness. They had a lon^' con 
 versation in which Iw told liei- h<' was a tr-av(0in«^- sah^s 
 nian lor a l>altimor<' house. Iler \'oice was joyous, (lis 
 tinct and pleasing-. 1 1 is was ^uaj'ded and suppressed, and 
 hut an (xurasiona! word came to my ea)-. P'inally, as we ap- 
 proached rittshiir^h, he asked her if he mi«^-]d. (\*ill to see 
 her at. the hotel where she sa,id slie wa,s i^oin^' to stay ; 
 she r<^plied with evident pleasure sIh' would l)e <j;la(l to S<'e 
 him. Poor i^irl, she thoui^ht her (-harms of pei'son and 
 her conversational powers had won tiie youn^- man's lion- 
 
77/r 7'r(fr(/iii(j S(f/rsNHni,. 
 
 71 
 
 csst ;i<linir;iii<)ii, ;ui(l she wjis .-ill iiii|»r<'|);ii<Mi Utv tlin </^^ 
 voncincnl wliicli lollowcd. lie s;ii(l, 'wIktc will yon 
 scciHcr" She i"(;f)li(Ml, " ill tJir |>;iil()r/ to wliicli li<' ic 
 s|)()ii(l(ul, "T will cjilj if \'<)ii will s(M> MIC ill yoni' looin." 
 " No," sIk' snid, "I do not Miiiik tJinl would he ri^ld ; I 
 li;i\<' never yet r<^eeived m <j;'ent;l<!ri[i}Ui's visit in my room." 
 Ileur^^-ed liis re(^U(;st. Sli(; ji^Jiin d<u'lined iliis lime 
 with ;i HiisIkmI fae(! and Htartl(Ml eye. She could ;il Hist 
 scni'cely r<!;dize the dishoiior;d)le ii;i,t.iiie of his proposi 
 tion : when she did, she was ahuined and confMsed. lie 
 could not h}iv<! hurt her more, not li;df so much, indeed, 
 if he had st»'U(;k he)- a l)low. 
 
 At this iunctur**' I t-iir!ie<l and looked hini full in tli<^ 
 fa,ce. We were then within a few miles of l*it,tsl)in<4h. 
 I telt iik(^ stepping' l)ack a,nd takiii<^' him hy tin; thioat 
 and cliokin^- him. If poss(^ssed of the st»'en<^tli of John 
 \i. Sullivan I would hav<' done ij,. Vet what ri^ht would 
 I have had.' And how would it have mc^nded ma,tt<'rsif 
 The conversation had all Ix^en in ;i (piiet and siilxlued 
 tone. No one else had h<;aj-d it. His la,nj^ua,<j;<; was re 
 fined and his manner ^(aitlcanajily and cointeoiis. No 
 vul^jir or profane word <^sca.[)ed his lips. There was no 
 hreacth of th*^ p<--a,ce no a,ssa,ult, none at lea,st such as the 
 law re<*ojj;ni/(!S. The blow and the shock wer<' to her 
 moral S(;i)se. The offense was a proposition to meet Im-i- 
 in liej- room. Il<; meant, a,iid the ;^irl linally understood 
 him, a, dishonorahle proposal. 
 
 If I had a(^ted on \\\c impulse and throttled him, it 
 would have att)"a.cted the attention of the occupants of 
 thecal', to whom I would ha ve a ppearvd to he interferin<i; 
 unwaiiantahly in a matter which did not concern iim-. 
 '^riie man would liaAo denied that he intended ;iiiv wron<'-. 
 
12 Hentiniscc nexus nud Hk'dtchcs. 
 
 jiiid jxvrliaps luivc tlirMsluMl luc lor my pjiiiis. Tlu' v(>iiiAg' 
 ♦>irl would liJi,V(! IxMiU uiiplcasjuitly iiiadc^ tli<' subject of 
 ol).S(^rvjttioii and niuiark. The; ucwspapris of the uext 
 luoniin^' would liav(^ contained a sensational ])ani^ra])h,in 
 wliicth the wholes ail'aij' would hav<' l)e(ni distoited, and thc^ 
 <^ii'l and niyscilf made the subjcict of unpleasant i)ublicity. 
 
 When he- saAV by my look tliJit I had ov(^rh(^ard th<' 
 eojivcii'sation, he «j;<)t out at the n(^\t station whi(;h was 
 East Liberty, a suhurbof Pittsbui'^h. Probably he went 
 to th(^ city on th(i cable-car or on the next train. He 
 •^■ot out doubth'ss to avoid tli<' contin^(ui(^y of some 
 notice l)einjj;' taken of him in a disa«j;r(Hiabh^ W'ly- '^\^<' 
 \i;\\\ sat dayjMl and (confused and ha-d not fully recovered 
 herself when we arrived at the (h'pot, wheiii she was met 
 by a youn*^'- man in tlu- <^arl) of a nwchaiiic, piobably her 
 brother. 
 
 Novs, wliat i-emedy is there foi- tliis thinj^:' Was therti 
 a wi'on^" done? I do not mean a inoial wroni; •, of courses 
 it was an ollVuse a^^ainst morality this pro|)osa,l, a 
 wicked, hc^aitless, immoi^d proposition, intended to ruin 
 the youji^^ <:firl if she had accepted his suf^>j;'(!stion. What 
 ;jrief would have come to her if she ha.d yi<'hh'd to his 
 puipose :• \Vha,t soiiow to thai (piiet <*()untry home 
 when' she is the pride of her father and tlu* deli<j;ht of 
 lier mother, and tlie lovinj^' companion of lier biothers 
 and sisters? What injniy to the could ry, the stability of 
 whose institutions Jind «^()vernment deptuids on tlie family 
 relation? Virtue in the women of the nation is as nec- 
 (^ssary as valoi- in the men. The man who seduct^s a 
 female from (he path of \irtue is a foe to S()ci(^ty, and 
 the lirsi step in that direction ou^ht to be a criminal 
 olt'ense punishable by law . The simple proposition, thouj^h 
 
77/r 'rntrclnni Suh sntdii. 
 
 7:{ 
 
 coim'IkmI III ^'t^iil l»-miiiil\ laii^'iia«j<', iis a u r<>ii;_' wliuli (lir. 
 Jaw ou^lii to talw ln*l(l ol and |Miiiihli Willi iiiillllicliili^ 
 H(^V<'riiy if it in |Matli«al>l«' !»» < hlahliMJi il l»y .salislaclniy 
 <'Vi(lniirr,. 
 
 liiil, a,s lli<i lau now ;ilan«l.s, wan llirrr any l«'{_'al (»rr<'iiH«' :* 
 l>itl llir man IrajiH^H'HM any law ? Is llinr. any U*.^aJ 
 |ti()lt-(-|ion t<t a yoiin^ ^iil tliiiH .siliiatcd an<l IIhim iikm-ii 
 laird with a .sil^>^<'Htion wliicli may in lini< ;ia|» li» i 
 Nirliir, lt»i wIm» can .say lull Mial IIh- ihaI m somr. siihsn 
 *|n*-nl |n()|H)sal <»|' tlii.i LinJ may not win li« i < onst-nt? 
 
 I Im'Im'vt iJmn' iH iKMH'. An invital.ion in rotirtjMiUH 
 lan^ni'*^?^" *'''" Hcarcrly \h\ ralh'd a, Inrarli of thr | >« ',a,« •« *,, ami 
 mt rr wnids, it is li<-M, do notanioimt to an assault 
 
 It IS all well rnoii^'li to say sIh' on^'lit not to liavc Ixmii 
 IraNcIni^; aloiw and nii|)rot<'ct<'d, or it lliiis travrlin^, 
 that slw! shoiihl ha\*- Immii warmd hy \{i'\ paK'ntH or 
 tnt'iids not to talk to a stranj_'< r on lli«- cars This is to 
 sonm (^\:tt*lit tnir., And I w i il<' this article as an admoni 
 lion and a, vvariiiii^ to pari'iits a-nd yoiin^' ^'irls. 'ThiH 
 \ onn^'; wonuui ou^ht not to lia,vc <'ntcr«'d int(» a, coiiv<'rHa 
 lion with a, stia;li<^nr. She has learned a lesHoii Hillleied a 
 ( I iiel and de^'iadin^' insult Ihit oii^dit sin- to have thus 
 sutl'(;re<tt VVJiat did she do that in a- vvell-rt^-^ilhite-di-oui 
 miinilv should lia\e hroirL'ht this i'j^'iiomiiiy ii)M)n her ^ 
 Shonhl nol (he |^v^ |n<.tect on<' thus Situated ti on. the 
 insult ot such a |»io|.osition, as well as troin such tem|. 
 tatioii i 
 
 It is not pOBHibh^ aJwn,yH to )ia,ve a, protector The ^ijl 
 was makin/j; an excrnHioii trip for a sinf.'le day lo visit 
 hei hrollier a youiiL' mechanic, who had {.'one tr(»m the 
 <|Uiet, dull couhli \ home to {.'et w'oik al JM'tter wajjeH in 
 the <_'rea.t, ;.'rowin,L' city She had sa\<d from her iiiinovv 
 
74 Beniinuscences and ShrfclK's. 
 
 OJiniiiii^s for nioiitlis to <xvt moiH\v tMioiii^li for the c'li<\ii) 
 excursion rates tliat tlit^ railroads allow to a travt'lor who 
 returns the next day. Her brotlun- had for weeks aiitic- 
 il)ated her visit witli pleasure, and had arraui^-ed tlu> hotel 
 at which his i)retty sister was to stop, and was there at 
 the train to nie(^t lu^r and escort her to it. To Jier the 
 litth^ trip was a l)i^- event. Must they foreij-o all this 
 pleasure because of tlu^ possibility of her falling- in the 
 way of a traveliui^- harpy f 
 
 Hie parents and fiitnuls of youn^- <j;iils, thenis(^lv(^s uii 
 traveled and inex[)erienced, do not realize the dan«;H'r to 
 unprotected females. 
 
 But out^-ht there to be any such dan.i;'ei' ^ It is not ik^c- 
 essary or possibh^ in our advanctnl civilization to sur 
 round women with hi^h walls and exclude them as they 
 do in semi-barbarous countries in the eastern world. Fe- 
 males should be as free to travel as men, and tlu^ law 
 ou<;ht to fuinish them ample protection. J^hei-e should 
 be a statutory provision that an immoral pro]^osal, how- 
 ever conveyed, directly or indin^ctly, to a youn,i>' ^irl, 
 should 1)(* a criminal ollense. It is not ri^^i'lit that the law 
 should stand by with folded arms until enticement has 
 seduced viitiie, nnd raise no voice of warning;- or threat 
 of punishment. 
 
 Doubtless it would b«^ ni:;ht to i(Miuire som(^ furthc^r 
 evidence than tln^ i^irrs unsn])])orted oath in i)i-oof of the 
 offense, and this mii^ht in many cas(^s be diiKcult to ob 
 tain. Nevertheh^ss the law upon the statutes book would 
 be of service^; it would stami) ^^i<' ^<'«^1 ^^^ leijfalcondi^mna, 
 tion ui)on such (H)ndu(d. ;uul exert at least some restrain- 
 ing^- influence upon vice and operate to some extent in 
 aid of virtue. 
 
DAVID al1':\ani)i-:r. 
 
 ^ I ^HFi liuniaii Kodv is n wondcrlul st j"U(^tni<\ inarv<^l()usly 
 ad;ij)to(l. If rvolutioii produces siicli ;id.(|)<;di(>iis, 
 evolution is Ji inir;u*l«v 'Vho liuinaii hand of itself jnoves 
 thooxisteiKH^ of ail a,ll-wis(^ Creator no matter vvhctlier 
 creation was an instantani'ous aci or hy de^r<'es of <'\() 
 lutiou. l>ut the liuniari mind is still more wondi'ifnl. 
 Yesterday (February 18, 18*)0) I visit(Ml Moyaniensin^- 
 prison and saw tln^re l)a,vid Ah'xander, who la,t(^ly shot 
 at l^isliop Wliitaker, and was a,n interested aiidilor of a 
 conversation of an hour between him and a commission, 
 coniposcMl of J )r. Thomas C». Morton, the llev. Dr. I'ad 
 dock, an Episcopal (clergyman, and Jolin A. (^lark, l^jSij., 
 appointed l)y tlie eoui-t, umb'r the provisions of a, siatute, 
 to report on the prisoner's insanity, with a view io his 
 confinement in a lunatic asyhim ratln'r than in th<' peiii 
 tentiary, if his condition re<piires il. 
 
 Nothing' shows more conchisivel\ thai the world is 
 <j;Towin^ Ixitter than the growth of humaiiiiaiian senti 
 ments. Jn a sta,te of l)a,rba,rism, man is cruel. What 
 im[)laca,ble haters tlie men who wrote the I'salms were! 
 
 (7.,) 
 
7<; 
 
 Ifrmiiiiscnircs and Skch/trs. 
 
 What a, vindictive disposition David «\liil>its! IMiilan 
 tliiopy lias Immii a j^iowtli, sine. Tlic lunnan<' tr<'a.tni('.nt 
 of |)risonris and of tlic insaiH' is an «'\<>lulion, a, ^lorions 
 one, \\lii<li makes a man lake piide in linmanity. 'I'lie 
 world is i'ai- Ixiier iiian i( was a eenlniy a<^<>. II is 
 ^Tovviii^'- Ixitter <la.ily. And its possiliilities in this dinu- 
 tion, und<'r the ^^uidance ol" 1 ine ehrislianiiy I mean tiie 
 ethics ol* the N(^w 'l\'stain<nl are illimitahle. 
 
 David Alexander is twenlv years of a|.'e. His lather 
 and mothei" a,»"e l)<)th dead. Alter' two y<'ais ol edn<-aiion 
 in 1 he IMiikuh'Iphia hi^'h S(ho<>l. he served as a (-leik in the 
 mail <le|)a»tinent of the stor*' ol" Straw] )rid^'e A' dlotJiier 
 I'oi" thi('(; yeai'S past, and he iias iM-en I'or several yeais a, 
 <Ievont mendxu" of the I^lpiscopal ehin<-h. I'Or y<'ars he 
 lias had in view to i»eeome a minister in that d<;nomina 
 tion, or, to use his ow n la,n;.'ua^'e, for he is a hijj;h cliMreh 
 mail, "a pri(!st in my <niee heloved ehiireh/' lie has a. 
 handsome fac<', honest and frank, and a <^'oo(l slia,|)e(| 
 h<sa,d, and has always, as he stated, <'nj<)yed «.';ood JK-aJth. 
 He eats well, di^'-ests well, sleeps well, an<l n(;v(;j' wa-s 
 seriously sick in his lih'. 
 
 The r"e|)ort I <rot (l»nt not from Mr. Alexaiuhr himself) 
 is that his fa,th(!r was <wi<.'a«j'-ed in IIh' sale of li(pior, and 
 shorteiM-d his life l>y drink, and when nnchr the inlliienee 
 of the acciiis(!(l thin;.' ahnsed his mother, or, at least,, did 
 not treat her as a kind hushaiKJ should: and so David 
 haies rum, and rumsellin^'. and rurrxlrinkin^- with all 
 tli<! intensity of an earnest, lionest nature, and this has 
 Ix-en his pi(>h)und eons iet ion from IjovIkkmI. Litpjor, in 
 Iris view, is distilled daninatioii; to t,aJ<< a sin^-le drink of 
 it as a l)e\('ra<j;(! is a sin. All his lif(^ a,s a hoy u^\^\ as a, 
 Voun<- man, he was iemarkal>le for- e<nTe<-tn<'ss of ecxidiK-t 
 
I)a,vid Ali'xiiiuh 
 
 11 
 
 ;»ii(l MS .III ;i(l v<M';il.«' ()!' l,('iiii)< r;iii<'<' Ih- Ixmiiic ;iii rnjiH-Hi, 
 supporter «»l llir (tiiusr ol" proliihiiioii, )i,ii(l IooIomI l"nrw;i,r<l 
 i,() tln' iHlli of JiiiHi l;i,si,, !i,s ;i (hiy i<> lM^<*oirin m<Miiora,l»l<^ 
 lor :ill liiiic, hy <«n ji/ikikIiihiiI 1,o IIm^ roiisl-il-iil loii of 
 I'nitisyl v;iiii;i, proliiliiliii;.' Uk- rii;iiiiil:Ml uk-, lor h;i,I<', of 
 iiiioxi(';i.tin^ li<jiiors. Il<' docs iioi s<<ni for :i iiionHnl to 
 )i;i,V(! (loiil)i<'<l iJM^ i'Wu'U'Wiy of IJk' jiiih'ImIiikiiI I,o IJir «ii(l 
 (|<^si;.'in(i, ;umI lli;ii ;is n, rrHiilf, if il li.id Immii ;i,<lopl,<M|, llxi 
 sbilr would li.ivc \u'i'\\ f»-«;<'d fioin ihf<'iiip<r;inr(', ;i,iid from 
 ;ill IIh' I<-;_'Io)i of evils, ilie povoriy, ;uid <rmi«'> ;ifid disease, 
 ;uid de;iili flui-i follow in iis l/r;«,iii 
 
 I wish ;i, sliori IimikI wrii<'r li;id l>«<n present ;iiid ili;il, 
 .'in exJM'i report of flie con vers,i,t ion <-ould !)«• prodii«ed 
 It would in;i,ke niosl, inUtreniin^' re;ulin^'. 
 
 To tJi<* iiKpiiries of ilie (N>if)iriission, lie r<;f)lied fli.il lie 
 li;ul slioi io kill (lesintd io kill ;ind vv;i,s sotry lie li;i<l 
 not, killed, liisliof) V\ liif;i,ker, ;in<l ili;i.t, ,'i,s soon ;i.s lie '/n[ 
 ;i.n op|>orlunil,y lie would reniov**" liini, ;i,nd .i.lso I )r 
 M.e,(Jonnell, tlie pasioj- of Si. Siepljcn •; eliurdi; l,|i;if |)» 
 Wliituker W;i,s ;i, vile liy po<;rit-e ; t}i;d Im* w;i,s ;i, sue<-esso» 
 of tjje ji.postles, ;i, hisliop of Ins one<- l><;loved diureli^ in 
 vested hy (io<l witli ;.'re;jit pouej- f(>r ;_'ood,;»,nd Ii.mI ;i,l)U:-ed 
 Ins position l>y rej'ijsin;.' to (;onie out for proljihition ; tli;i-t 
 he favored hi;.di lieerrse ;is ;iM!i,inst prohihition ;uid wms 
 hilse to his trust, 'r}j;i,t Mr. MeConn.ll h;,d ;,;.f upon ;• 
 puMie phitforrii Aith li'pioi sejlcj , with ni<n who ••n 
 ir/'i^cA in tfje vile Ixisiness of sellin;,' riini 
 
 He was asked, why did you not remove Aiehhishoi» 
 lty;j.n, wlio also favore.<j hi^^h lieeuoe ' to whieh he /cplied, 
 Arehhishop l»y;i,n did not helon;^ to my onec Ldovcd 
 ejjurejj, I h;jd notfunj/ to do with liim 
 
 Ah to Oo<l, lie f)<> Jon;/er l>eliev<!d the/e was such >i l>ei/j^^ 
 
78 lic/in'niscences aiui Sketche.'^. 
 
 For nunitlis lu^ luul prayed to him in support of pro- 
 liibition, and not only he, but tliousands and tens of 
 thousands of o-ood people all over the State of Pennsyl- 
 vania, not one day, not one hour, not a minute, not a 
 seeond, for ^eeks and months, in which earnest prayers 
 from devout hearts had not ascended to the alleg-ed thront^ 
 of this alleg-ed bein^r men call God, in favor of the cause 
 of temperance, and apiinst this accursed traffic in rum, 
 NN liicli desolates the earth and causes so much misery 
 and crime, and he had refused to hear them. There is 
 no God. He beheved in Him once, but no long-er did. 
 It was impossible for him to believe that a crood beinir, 
 having- power to aid the cause of prohibition, would fail 
 to do it. 
 
 To the inquiry, what then do you believe in? he re- 
 sponded that lie had joined the Society of Ethereal Cul- 
 ture, and believed in tlit^ moral sense. ^Alien asked to 
 exi>hun, he replied: As in the ]>hysical world, if you put 
 your hand against a red-hot stove it will burn you, and 
 instinct makes you avoid it; so in the moral world, if 
 you transgress a law of youi" being, something tells you 
 it is wrong and guides you ariglit, if you follow its 
 teachings. 
 
 To th(^ inquiry, may you not be insane? he replied, 
 with a fine expression of contemptuous pity for the 
 weakness of the inquirer, curling his lip: Try me. I can 
 reason well, my memory is good, there is nothing ^^Tong■ 
 ^^ith me. If you declare me insane I will appeal to the 
 public with my pen. I am as sound as I (^ver was. Can 
 you not see that a vile hypocrite ought to be rc^moved f 
 
 I inquired of Mi'. H. M. Bitters, chief of the mail depart- 
 ment of Strawbride'e A' Clothier, who confirmed Mr. 
 
Doxid Altx(xnde,r . 79 
 
 Alexander's statement. For three years h<i harl been in 
 that estabhshrnent, and they had no better clerk. His 
 conduct had (3xhih)ited no trace of insanity that they 
 had observed up to t}i<- tiin<' of tlie siiootin^. He was 
 noted for his exerni^lary depoitment and his intellig'ence. 
 
 The committee reported him insane, with homicidal 
 tendencifis, and i-ecommended his removal to the asylum 
 for the insane at Danville. 
 
 On (^very suljject except this one he was f^ntirely 
 rational. In acutc^ness of intellect and in power of 
 reasoning- he ai)peared to be the full equal of the com- 
 mittee of examiners. He quoted scTipture \dth as much 
 facility as Dr. Paddock. His rncrrjory seemed excellent. 
 His manners were superbly g-entlernanly. If he had l)een 
 the lord of a castle — a British nobleman receiving- visitors 
 — he could not have been more composed and courteous. 
 He rose to see the committee out c>f the room with the 
 grace of a king-, and apolog-ized to Dr. Paddock for a 
 casual remark that might have hurt his feelings, with the 
 polished politeness (jf a Philadelphia g-entleman. 
 '' AMiat a mysterious Providenc^e this is— this unbalanc- 
 ing- of the mind of a healthy, brig-ht, active and intellig-ent 
 youth? AVhat is the cause of it, and how is it explicable? 
 What a blessing the boy's mother is not living.^ How 
 she would havfi stuck to her son and believed in him! 
 And, if he luid been the accepted lover of a young g-irl, 
 what faith she would ha^e in him and how she ^\•ould 
 cling to him! Nothing- would have opened their eyes 
 except the homicidal tendency. Up to that point his 
 earnestness and powers of argument would have lead his 
 associates along with liim. It is precisely of such stuff 
 that religious enthusiasts, and dj'eamers of dreams, and 
 
80 RcDuniscenves and Sketches. 
 
 seers of visions liave been made — founders of relig-ious 
 sects, with retinues of faithful foUowers. Except for the 
 homicidal tendency, he would have been an enthusiastic 
 and respected leader of men in the cause of prohibition 
 — that class of prohibitionists who make pi-ohibition the 
 sum of all virtue. Wiat a very thin j^artition divides the 
 sane from the insane ? Some inflamed tissue of the brain, 
 perhaps — some nerve, or vein, or artery out of fix. Wlio 
 can tell? It is all an unfathomed and unfathomable 
 mystery this side of eternity. 
 
IS SELLING LIQUOR A SIN PER SE / 
 
 TH the keepiiif^' of a licensed tavern or restaurant, with 
 a bar for the sak^ of liquors, a sin per se ? That is, in 
 the mere sellint^- of whisky, or wine, or beer, for ns(3 as a 
 beverao-e, a sin I 
 
 Tlu^ Huntint^don Presbytery lately passed a resolution 
 that if a member of the Presbyterian church sig-ns a pe- 
 tition or bond for a tavern lic(5nse it subjects him to church 
 discipluie ; that is to say, a landlord observing' the law of 
 the land in every particular, not sellin*^ on Sunday, nor 
 to minors, nor to men of intemperate habits, nor to a man 
 visibly intoxicated, is doing- a moral wrong-. His busi- 
 ness is inherently wrong-, notwithstanding- the law allows 
 it, and it is morally Avrong- to sig-n his petition or g-o on 
 his bond, because you are thereby aiding- and abetting- 
 him in sin. 
 
 The ground upon which this action can be sustained, if 
 it can be sustained at all, must be that the use of liquor 
 as a beverag-e is a sin — not the abuse of it, not drunken- 
 ness, l)ut the mere use of it as a beverage, under any and 
 all circumstances. 
 
 (SI) 
 
 6 
 
82 Reminiscences and Sketc/ies. 
 
 You cannot sustain this action on the mere ground of 
 public policy, because that is a matter of judgment, as to 
 which each citizen has a right, upon his own conscience, 
 to act for himself. It may be good policy to prohibit the 
 manufactuie and sale of liquors for use as a beverage for 
 the welfare of the public, and he who thinks so ought to 
 so vote. There may be others who honestly think the 
 reverse — who believe that a well-regulated license system 
 is better for the public good, because they think that pro- 
 hibition will not, in fact, prohibit, and will result m a 
 greater abuse of drink and a greater use of morphine and 
 opium, as in Mohammedan countries, or because they 
 think it is not within the province of government to reg- 
 ulate men's conduct as to what they shall drink; and so 
 believing, these men, acting on their own conscientious 
 convictions of duty, have a right to their opinions. 
 Ought they to be proscribed or turned out of church con- 
 nection f oi- thus believing and acting ? Is it the province 
 of a church organization to go so far? 
 
 If you can prevent a man from signing a jjetition for 
 license by ecclesiastical anathema, why may you not in 
 the same way control his vote ? Wliat right has he to 
 vote for a license system if the sale of liquor as a bever- 
 age is morally wrong? If it is morally wrong to sign a 
 petition for a license, if this is an act for which a church 
 member may be subjected to ecclesiastical discipline 
 (and this means expulsion or excommunication if he is 
 obstinate or persistent, or else the alleged power of dis- 
 cipline is a mere threat), then it must be morally wrong 
 to rent a house for a licensed hotel, or restain'ant, or breAv- 
 ery, or for bottling beer. It must also be morally wrong 
 for a lawyer to prepare the petition and bond, and it must 
 
Is Selling Llqucr o Shi per se ? 83 
 
 be morally wroiif^- for the jiidg-e of the court to g-raiit the 
 license. 
 
 No matter that the statute allows it. That is uot the 
 question. It is only on the ground of being- morally 
 AVTong- that the church, ex cathedra, has a right to condemn. 
 
 If it is immoral to sell for use as a beverag^e, it must 
 be immoral to drink it as a beverag-e ; if no man would 
 drink it, no man Avould take out a license to sell it : and 
 if it is morally wrong- to drink whisky, it must be the 
 same as to beer and wine. 
 
 If it is morally wrong to sign a petition for a license, 
 then it is morally wrong- to take a singrle drink of whisky, 
 or wine, or beer, at a bar or restaurant, and a church mem- 
 ber may be disciplined for it. Nay, he not only may be, 
 but must be, to be consistent; and if it is morally wrong: 
 to take a drink of beer or wine at a bar, or restaurant, 
 then why is it not immoral to do the same thing in 
 your house or anywhere else ? And if the church under- 
 takes to determine what is morally ^^Tong- in one instance, 
 then is it not equally bound to determine and declare as 
 to all ? 
 
 No doubt the world does move. Times chang-e jind 
 men change with them. The day when it was respectable 
 to keep a hotel is fast disappearing : but g-ood men and 
 church members were eng-ag-ed in this business in former 
 times not remote. Tlie march of temperance is onward. 
 Its advance within tlie last g-eneration has been with the 
 stride of a g-iant. It is supported by a sound and wide- 
 spread public opinion that stretches from Maine to Texas 
 and across the entire continent. It is no long-er respect- 
 able to drink to excess. The very boys in the street 
 sneer at a drunken man. Tltc manufacture and sale uf 
 
84 lieminificeMces and Skdclttfi. 
 
 distilled liquors for use as a beverage would be doomed 
 if constitutional prohibition, state and national , would in 
 fact prohibit it, and the public mind would become fully 
 satisfied on the point. But it is just here that uncer- 
 tainty asserts itself, and that g-ood men honestly difi'er. 
 And it will not mend matters to interfere with the right 
 of private judgment and individual conscience by eccle- 
 siastical anathema or discipline. Nor is it wise in the 
 administration of distributive justice to bring about the 
 destruction of statute law by indirection. If it is right 
 to vest the judges with power to refuse all licenses in a 
 county on the ground that the sale of liquor is a immoral 
 then let it be so established by law and by a vote 
 of the people. If that issue is involved in the election 
 of judges, let it be so stated by express law, and let the 
 people understand and determine, and do not let us have 
 a strained local option in one county and a license system 
 in another. Better to have a uniform system frankly and 
 honestly voted on and clearly established and enforced. 
 
A HERO AND A SERMON. 
 
 ^ I ^O the observant eye, every community has its men and 
 women of marked characteristics, differing- from or- 
 dinary mortals. There haA^e been, and are now, persons 
 in Bedford w^hose lives and characters would make most 
 interesting- reading- if they w^ere accurately delineated — 
 just as idiosyncratic, peculiar, and eccentric as any that 
 are made famous by the g-enius of Dickens or portrayed 
 wdth discriminative skill in Neal's "Charcoal Sketches." 
 Let me point you to a man of more than ordinary virtue, 
 w^ho moves about daily unnoticed, occupying- a very ob- 
 scure place in life. He wears a black skin, and can 
 neither read nor wTite, and were I to name him suddenly 
 you would probabl}^ be disposed to lay down this book 
 with a smile of derision. 1 will, therefore, first ask you 
 what mental and moral characteristic's in a man are 
 admir-able ? AVhat do you think of this list ? Honesty, 
 truthfulness, sobriety, industry, firmness, cheerfulness, 
 kindness of heart, and g-enerosity. What estimate would 
 you ]>lace npon a man possessing all these virtues ? You 
 would say, and truthfully, he is no common man, would 
 you not f 
 
 (85) 
 
8f) 
 
 licntnnscriH'rs <ni<l Skrlchc 
 
 Sii|»|)<>S(' M iicM) should i^rovv to niiddh' ;ii;r .i (-(niHrnKMl 
 iii(>l)ii;ii«* :t coiiunoii st)'(M't dinuknrd, nlvvnys iiiio\ic;it(Ml 
 wIkmi Ik' could ,jj;<>i liciuor ; ;iud tluit lio li.id led iliislii'c 
 for lu.'iuy ycnrs, a, d('spis(Ml, JllitiMjitc, drunken uci^io; and 
 thai, un(»\])(H't(Mlly, without any human aid, (>x(U'pt his 
 own violit.iou, unassist(Ml hyany hclpini;' hand orcounscl, 
 inspired by nothini;- save his own conviction t.liat his lih' 
 was wioul;, and tliat lie was capahlc of bcttc'r things, he 
 should icforni, and th<Miccforth lead a |)(M'f<H*tly sober life. 
 Suppos(* thai lie should l)e tempted tinw and ai^ain with 
 a prolleriMl <^lass, and always r«'fuse, and that th<> L;ift of 
 the <Mitir(^ town of l>(>dford would not inihicc^ him to take 
 a. siuLjle drink, and that, sujxm' added to this, the man is 
 n<'V(M' heard to sw(»ar an oath, that he never takes a, 
 p<Miny's worth of propiMty that does not heloui;' to him, 
 that Ih' works industriously at the avocation of bhu^kini; 
 boots, that h<' sp<\d<s the tj'uth and lies not, and is uni 
 foiinly Ljood n a tu red and coui"t(M)us and kind-h(\'n"t(>d, and 
 that his (>ainini:s are <'\pen(led in sui)i)ort iui^' a family of 
 di^peiulents who ai'e not remai'kable for imhistiv or any 
 othei- virtue, and that his siiii-oundini^s at his Innnble 
 Ivonu* two miles fioui town, to which hetrudij'es back and 
 forth daily, in all kinds oi wiNithei, ar(> unint(M-(>st iui;- and 
 miinvit ini; and not calculated in any way to inspire vir 
 tue oi- k(M'p a man fiom vice. What would \o\\ think o'i 
 such a man ' 
 
 And add ai^ain that more than threescore^ y(\ars and 
 ten have laid lluMr bui'diMis upon his shouldiM's, and that 
 notw ithstandiui; this load of \eaj-s he is patitMit and 
 cluHM-ful autl greets c\ery one who notic(>s him with a 
 pl(\isant respons(\ Ho you not feel lik«> takiui^- otV your hat 
 
/ //<r<> n)i</ (I St 
 
 87 
 
 ill jn'oloimd sMlnlnlioii to siicli ;i Minn ' IJ'O so 11. would 
 1)(> a, fitting" ii'ibiitc! io iiKM-it. IFis nnnn' is Nelson (Jaics 
 
 WluMi tliC! (liviiio (>ss(Mif(> ilia.i inalu^s ilw i<^a,l man, 
 s(ri|)|>(Ml of its moriaJ coil, stands Ix^l'or*^ Miai, Jiidfj;(> wlio 
 disc«Miis (lie v«MV llioui^lds and inl.<Mds of flic heart, fioni 
 wlios(^ all st'cini;- eye noiJiiiii^" can Ix' hid, and whose judt^- 
 iiKMif is infallihU" wisdom, what think you of fhe cha.nce 
 of fhis man lor a plaudits " W«'ll done i* " 
 
 I knew a, lawyer once, a. i;ra,tluaie of a, colleij;e, of line 
 appcaraiK'c, laru;'e clicnt.a^'c, popular, and <>lo<|uent,, who 
 mii^hf have ha.d any position in the ;^ifi of the people up 
 to judi^c of tlu' court, oi' (Governor of the common wealth, 
 if he had had tlu^ self control of this ohsciiie <'(>loi«'d man, 
 whose life was iitierly w fccked \>y indult;"en«-e in intem 
 peraiice. In the |)resence of eiei'liity tiu^ illit)<'raf,e iK^j^ro 
 towcMS al)ove the educated lawyer as the ij;-ia,iit above the 
 dwarf. 
 
 And what an elo<|iient sermon on temperance is (Jus 
 man's daily life as he walks about anions us, .1, coiistaid. 
 reminder of what (^aii be donc^ by a, d<'termined will ! an 
 example that indicates uinuistakably that rc^foirnation is 
 within any oik^'s reach who is res<>lved to reform, and iJiat 
 there is no e\(Mise for any man's uicttiiii;- <b"nnk on t,he 
 ^•round that he (tan't help it; that it. is a, disease iidienuit 
 in his blood; thai his appetite is at tiines beyond Ids 
 control, and that h<' is^not responsible for it All such 
 paltry and pit.iabh' excuses are <'onfronted by fhe life of 
 Nelson (rates with a.n emphati<' contia,dictioii. if, with 
 his surroundings, after leadinu; a drunkard's hfe for fo?t,y 
 y<'ais, he could tak<' himself up ;ind reform, could close 
 his mouth with invincihlc lirmness aj^ainst. the b-mpta 
 tions of his ;ippetite. :ind becotne, .md continue to be \'>n- 
 
88 Reminiscences and Sketches. 
 
 eleven years last past, a i)erfectly sober man, where is the 
 excuse for the educated man of hig-h i^osition and refined 
 associations who continues to degrade himself "? 
 
 Nelson is a hero and a .sermon. Single-handed and 
 alone, without adventitious aid of any kind, or even the 
 sympathy or notice of any temperance organizations, he 
 fought a g-ood fight and came off conqueror. Take off your 
 liat and salute him. He is one of the remarkable men of 
 our village ; a shining example of self-control ; a living, 
 speaking temperance sermon ; a moral hero ! 
 
CLAYCOMB'S RIDE. 
 
 TTTHAT a wonderful power there is in a ^lass of dis- 
 tilled spirits, in wliisky or g-in, brandy or rum, or 
 any other thing- which will make drunk come ! The invis- 
 ible spirit of the liquor transforms the man. Sometimes 
 it warms up his nature and makes him g-enerous and 
 kind-hearted, takes away selfishness and crabbedness, 
 transmutes him into a genial and pleasant companion, 
 looking loving-ly on all mankind, willing- to do a kindly 
 act to any one. It makes tlie man witty, brings out 
 his humor and mirthfulness, so that all the air around 
 rings with his joyous laug-h, and his very presence is red- 
 dolent of gayety, affecting pleasantly all who come within 
 the circle of his influence. 
 
 But the spirit is as well a demon of destruction which 
 chang-es the man into a fiend. It lies in wait to steal into 
 the citadel of his judgment, and dethrone his reason and 
 make him a fool. Although a single glass may do no 
 harm, it is better for most men, perhaps for all in the long- 
 run, to close the mouth with invincible firmness ag^ainst its 
 entrance and keep it out. One thing is siu-e that power- 
 
 (89) 
 
90 Remiyiiscences and Sketches. 
 
 ful as it is when it gets in, it can't get in unless you let 
 it, and it is impotent to do you harm if you keep it out. 
 It may at first be a pleasant friend, but eventually it is 
 very apt to prove a deadly foe, dominating- the man with 
 an uncontrollable appetite and making- him a WTetched 
 slave; or, if it does not go so far as that, still it arouses 
 the evil passions and propensities of his nature, and 
 swerves him from the path of truthfullness and virtue. 
 
 So much for moralizing, which is not the main object 
 of this writing. I want to tell how this invisible spirit 
 served me on one occasion a funny trick. 
 
 In 1864 (it seems but a day since ; how slowly time 
 moves while it is passing and how quickly it seems to 
 have rushed by after it is gone !) I loaned a young mare 
 to the superintendent of common schools to ride in visit- 
 ing the schools of the county. At Buffalo Mills, Squire 
 Bailey saw and wished to purchase her. Soon after she 
 was returned to me I rode her to town and Bailey, meet- 
 ing me, asked me my price, which was one hundred and 
 fifty dollars. He offered me one hundred and forty, 
 and we failed to agree. We were in front of the 
 Mengel Hotel. The crowd there was composed, among 
 others, of Major Sansom and Sherift' Aldstadt, and some 
 one proposed that we should " send out " on it, which we 
 accordingly agreed to do, and the matter was referred to 
 Aldstadt and Sansom, who soon returned with the price 
 adjusted at one hundred and forty -five dollars, which was 
 announced with an appended rigamarole running some- 
 what as follows: "Two rues, two treats, two stands, two 
 treats, a rue and a stand, a treat, and the ruer treats." 
 We both " stood," and Bailey paid the money and took the 
 horse, and, as in duty bound, I treated. We surrounded the 
 
Claifcoinb\s Ride. 91 
 
 bar manfully in a row and in entire disregard of the in- 
 equalities of human nature by which one person has a 
 weak stomach and another a stron4>- one, each man was 
 required to fill up his g-lass to a level with his neig-h- 
 bors — no shrinking" or dodg-ing- — honest drinking- they 
 called it. They were old-fashioned wide-bottomed glasses, 
 wide as the bottom of your hand, so that an inch plumb 
 made a pretty enlivening- drink as the sequel will show. 
 
 I had not noticed the tenor of the rig-marole that two 
 stands meant two treats, and was about to depart when 
 it was announced that Bailey was also to treat, and so 
 again we advanced and faced the bar under careful espion- 
 ag-e that no man would shirk his so-called duty, and sent 
 another inch plumb on a wide-bottomed tumbler to keep 
 company with its predecessor, and thus I g-ot two solid 
 inches on an empty stomach, for it was in the evening- 
 just before supper. 
 
 I lived in the country adjoining- the town at my place 
 called Echo vale. I had several other colts for sale, and 
 a middle-aged man named Claycomb, from Bobb's creek, 
 was waiting to g-o with me to look at them. He had 
 ridden in on a three-year-old bay colt which Mr. James 
 Bowles wanted to buy for one hundred and twenty 
 dollars, and Bowles told him he could buy a colt of me, 
 that would suit him equally well for eighty or ninety dol- 
 lars. Mr. Meng-el loaned me his horse to ride home, and 
 (;laycomb and I rode tog-ether over the hill by the road 
 then open, but which has since been closed. 
 
 Wlien we arrived at the barn the colts, three in num- 
 ber, ware in the yard and we dismounted, fastened our 
 horses to the fence and proceeded to look at them. By 
 that time " thing-s was workin','' althoug-h there was noth- 
 
92 Remhiiscences and Sketches. 
 
 ing- ill Claycomb's exterior demeanor or mine to indicate 
 it (we were both as g-rave as judg-es so far as I remember), 
 nevertheless "things was workin'" as you will see. The 
 colts had never been ridden, but they had been salted 
 and fondled and were tame and grentle, and as I patted 
 them and led them by the foretop and raised their feet 
 to show how good their hoofs were, and they stood be- 
 side us as quiet as sheep. Clay comb remarked, "Wliy 
 how tame they are! Can you ride them?' "Certainly," 
 said I, or the spirit of the whisky, rather, "Get right on;" 
 and down I stooped and caught his leg- and helped him 
 to mount a three year-old-colt, without saddle or bridle, 
 in a barn-yard full of mud and manure. The confidence 
 and earnestness of my manner, combined perhaps with 
 Mengel's whisky (for I believe the old man was a partici- 
 pant in the " send out " business), induced him to bend 
 a pliant knee and make a spring. No sooner did the 
 seat of his pantaloons touch the colt's back than the 
 circus began, and a lively affair it was. Talk about John 
 Gilpin's ride, and Mazeppa's, and Sheridan's, and the ride 
 of Paul Revere ! Haut ! man, they were no- where ! My 
 Bobb's creek friend could give them the odds and beat 
 them. Claycomb's sudden leap astonished the colt, and 
 it in its turn, not to be behind-hand, astonished him. 
 Away went the colt*vvitli a spring like a deer, and away 
 went the other two colts. In fact Claycomb was, as it 
 were, riding the whole three without a bridle on either, 
 at least they seemed to think so, and so did he appar- 
 ently. "Whoa! whoa! whoa!" he cried, and held on 
 with both hands to neck and main. Round the barn they 
 went as if his satanic majesty was after them. It had 
 been rainy weather. The mixed mud and manure was 
 
Clayconih's Bide. 93 
 
 ankle deep. From the g-alloping- hoofs of the tlying- colts 
 the mud tlew like snow balls. Around and around they 
 rushed. It was manifestly only a question of time. Clay- 
 comb had attempted the impossible. He tried his best, 
 but it could not l)e done. Ofi* he -had to ^o, and oft* he 
 did g-o, into the dirt, full leng-th, face down. 
 
 By that time in the profound enjoyment of the enter- 
 tainment, I didn't care a fig- whether I sold a colt or not. 
 ^Ii\ Claycomb arose, wiped the mud from his face and 
 clothes, and said in a tone of manifest disg-ust, " I don't 
 want any of them," climbed over the fence and mounted 
 his horse and rode off, a sadder and wiser man. He had 
 learned how utterly impossible it is for the most skilled 
 and accomplished horseman to ride three colts in a l)arn- 
 yard without a bridle, and I started to my house by the 
 IDatli across the field. When I g-ot there and was seated 
 at the supper table, I realized that the best thing- 1 could 
 do was to go to bed, and with some excuse to my wife, 
 such as people make at such times, withdrew " to the se- 
 clusion which the cabin g-rants." 
 
 At that time thert^ lived with us a girl named Burk- 
 heimer, a neig-hbor of Claycomb's. As we rode down the 
 hill shehadrecog-nized him and had gone out and advanced 
 l^art way toward the barn-yard for a talk; but the eques- 
 trian feat of her ancient neig-hbor and his abrupt de- 
 parture had prevented this. Ho^^'ever, she was an ex- 
 cited and interested witness of the circus, and to her it 
 seemed a marvelous occurrence. She had not been at the 
 " send out " as Claycomb and I had, and did not have the 
 advantage of looking- at the affair from our stand-jjoint, 
 enlightened and vivified and colored up l)y Mengel's 
 whisky, and she thoug-ht it was a most sing-ular thing 
 
94 Ilennnisceuces (oid Skefchc.s. 
 
 that lier staid ueigLbor, a grave, middle-aged man, should 
 ride in fifteen miles from his home on Bobb's creek, come 
 gravely down the hill, dismount, tie his horse, climb over the 
 fence into the barnyard, andsuddeidy jump upon a three- 
 year-old unbroken colt, without saddle or bridle, ride like 
 Jehu throug-h mud and mire around and around the barn, 
 be thrown off, and then just as suddenly depart with his 
 face and clothes covered ^vith dirt. It was a thing- worth 
 remembering", and she told my wife what she had seen. 
 
 The next morning at l)reakfast, where I Avas presiding 
 with all the dignity of a paterfamilias possessed of a wife 
 and a year-old baby, my wife, to my astonishment, re- 
 marked, "Wliy, my dear, what a queer thing- that was 
 you did Avdtli that old man yesterday evening-! ^liat 
 made you do it? What in the world induced you to put 
 that old man onto the colt without a bridle? Did he 
 get hurt when he was thrown off?" 
 
 Well the cat was out of the bag and I liad to make a 
 a clean breast of it, and put the blame where it belong-ed — 
 on Aldstadt and Sansom and the rest of the crowd at 
 Mengel's. 
 
 Clay comb is dead now, but he lived some years and I 
 often tried to see him to talk over that little incident, but 
 somehow or other he carefully avoided me. When he 
 was in town and I got a g-limpse of him and tried to 
 meet him he would cross the street and dive into an alley, 
 in fact g-o round a square rather than meet me. Funny, 
 wasn't it? I never could get near him. I guess he 
 thought I was trying to put him onto another colt. 
 
LESLIE'S APOLOGY. 
 
 /^NE of the best narrators of incidents that I ever 
 ^-^^ heard talk was George Messersmith, cashier of the 
 Bank of Chambersburg-, with whom I used to spend an 
 occasional evening when I was holding conrt there, which 
 we passed in smoking cigars and swapping stories. He 
 had a keen perception of the ludicrous side of human 
 nature and that rare and wonderfully accurate descriptive 
 power which brings out with a word or two the striking- 
 features of an incident, as the pencil of an artist bring-s out, 
 with a few touches, the lines that g-ive individual expres- 
 sion to the human face. 
 
 Many years ago when Messersmith entered the bank 
 as a bookkeeper the cashier was James Leslie, a man for 
 whom he soon learned to have a high admiration and 
 strong- affection. Messersmith was an earnest w^orking- 
 member of the church. WHiilst Leslie was an honorable 
 and excellent man, of high intellectual capacity, sterhng: 
 integrity and gi-eat kindnc^ss of heart, he seldom or never 
 attended church, and indulged in occasional outbursts of 
 profanity marked by a (piaint originality which almost 
 
 (95) 
 
96 Benn)nscences and Sketches. 
 
 relieved tliem from coiidemnatiou. Messersmitli earn- 
 estly long-ed for his conversion. It was the desire of his 
 heart and the di'eam of his yonii^- ambition. But for a 
 long- time he saw no way of bringing it about nor any 
 opening by which the subject of personal piety could be 
 broug-ht to his attention. But at last, after years of 
 watching and })raying, a suitable occasion seemed to otter. 
 Leslie was taken with sickness and was very ill. Messer- 
 smitli was kind and attentive and aided in nursing him 
 back to health, and after he was convalescing he got the 
 Rev. Dr. McGinley, a minister of the gosi3el of the faith 
 to which Leslie's Scotch ancestors belonged, to call on 
 and converse with him on the subject of religion. He 
 told the doctor of his longing desire for Leslie's conver- 
 sion, and that he was a peculiar man, and must be ap- 
 proached with great care, and that he should come pre- 
 pared to handle the topic with skill, so that he might 
 not startle with a too sudden approach. Accordingly 
 the doctor called and after some pleasant casual con 
 versation spoke of his illness and how near he was to 
 the line which divides this life from the immortality 
 beyond, and how his friends and the whole community- 
 had rejoiced at his recovery, and then said the time was 
 only deferred that must come to all, and that it was the 
 part of wisdom to l)e |)repared for it: that there could 
 be no higher subject of thought and consideration than 
 the soul's ete-rnal welfare, and mentioned the great men 
 through the ages who deemed it not unmanly or un- 
 wise to make religitm the chief concern of their lives. 
 To all this Leslie gave silent but respectful attention, 
 and Messersmitli, who was present, was elated with high 
 hopes for the success of his little scheme. But finally, in 
 
Leslie's Apology. 97 
 
 his enumeration of g-reat and wdse men distinguislied for 
 personal piety, Dr. McGinley referred to David, the 
 sweet sing-er of Israel, the self-made son of Jesse, who 
 had risen by-his own valor and g-enius to l)e the ruler of 
 a mig-hty nation. This was the feather that broke i\m 
 camel's back, and Leslie thereat broke silence ; '' It is all 
 very well. Dr. McGinley, that which you have said, and 
 it is very kind of you to come and tell me, and most of 
 the men you have named were doubtless great and 
 
 g-ood men, but as for that old lecherous rascal, 
 
 Da-vdd, who put XTriali in the forefront of the battle in 
 order that hemig-htadd his beautiful widow to his harein, 
 he oug'ht to have been hanged, and if he lived now that 
 would be his just doom. There is no amount of talk that 
 
 can make me respect that -■ — old scoundrel." 
 
 The disconcerted doctor could not stand this emphatic 
 sally. He seized his hat and abruptly departed, and 
 Messersmith beg-an to weep. Leslie looked at him in 
 surprise and said : " Wliy, Messersmith, what's the mat- 
 ter ? " " Matter enoug-h," he replied, and then he told how 
 he had long-ed for his conversion and had got Dr. Mc- 
 Ginley to come to talk to him, and how sorry he was 
 that he had hiu't the Doctor's feeling-s, when Leslie seized 
 his hat and declared he didn't mean that, that he would 
 g-o at once to Dr. McGinley. And so they both hurried 
 along- to the Doctor's house and rang- the bei. The 
 Doctor himself, who had just arrived at home, answered 
 it, and Leslie took him affectionately by the hand and 
 at once beg-an: "My d(^ar Doctor, Messersmith tells me 
 I have hurt your feeling-s and given you offense. Noth- 
 ing can be further from mv intentions. I liave the 
 
98 Remiyiiscences and Sketch 
 
 liighest respect for you as a minister of the g-ospel and 
 a good man who is trying- to do his duty. It was very 
 kind in you to call on me and talk with me. I am very 
 g-rateful to you. I would not for the world have hurt 
 your feeling-s. I want to apologize. I assure you I did 
 not intend it. Wliat I meant was to express my con- 
 
 temi)t for that old scoundrel David, who put Uriah 
 
 in the forefront of the battle in order that he might add 
 his beautiful widow to his harem. I have the highest 
 lespect for you, Doctor, I wouldn't on any account hurt 
 your feelings. I meant no disrespect to you as a min- 
 ister of the gospel. It was that old scoundrel 
 
 David that I referred to, Doctor. I do hope, my dear 
 Doctor, that j^ou don't for a moment suppose that I in- 
 tended to hurt your feelings." And he held to the 
 Doctor's hand and damned David until Messersmith, 
 in a gieater agony than ever, seeing no other way out of 
 it, clapped on his hat and rushed from the entry. 
 
THE TIPSTAVES. 
 
 OOON after I went on the bencli, in 1871, the retinue 
 of the court, composed of a court-crier, an assistant 
 and two tipstaves, was chan«red by appointing new men. 
 Old Dan Minich was made senior tipstaff, and bore his 
 pole of office with becoming gra^dty, as if the entire 
 administration of justice rested on his shoulders. Dan 
 had been, for many years of his life, a clown in a circus. 
 He started as a boy, more than seventy years ago, and 
 traveled as a clown, and sword swallower, and contor- 
 tionist over all the states from New England to New 
 Orleans. 
 
 Colonel Keefe, who was a lieutenant in the war with 
 Mexico, where he received a wound in the shoulder from 
 a musket ball in the charge at Chepultapec, but who got 
 the title of colonel either by serving on the staff of the 
 Governor of the commonwealth (who is in theory the 
 commander-in-chief of the mihtia, foi'ces of the state) as 
 an honorary aid, a post without pay, but which gives the 
 right to the high-sounding title of colonel, or else by 
 virtue of the law of alliteration for euphony sake, was 
 
 (99) 
 
100 Re niiniscc rices wid HkHchts. 
 
 also appointed to the place of tipstaft'. The judge's 
 bench was then at the side of the court i oom and eg-vess 
 from the jury room, at the side of the bar, to the vacant 
 jury box, into which the jury had to come when they 
 agxeed upon their verdict, was got by traversing the entire 
 space occupied by the lawyers in front of the bench. 
 
 Li making this march, the tipstaff, with his pole in 
 position, headed the procession, and it was a rather formal 
 and formidable looking body, somewhat resembling the 
 awkward squad of a militia muster (now, alas ! a departed 
 and almost forg-otten spectacle). 
 
 The Colonel, besides being a soldier of the Mexican 
 war, spent many years as a gold miner in California, 
 going there in 1849, on the first discovery of gold. There 
 was a scarcity of female society at that early day, and 
 Indian wives were in fashion. The Colonel's Indian wife 
 was a sister of Shacknasty Jim, who afterwards became 
 somewhat notorious in the Modoc war, in the lava beds, 
 which resulted in the defeat of the United States troops 
 and the death of Colonel Canby. 
 
 After the Colonel had been inducted into office as tip- 
 staff and had conducted one or two juries across the bar, 
 some one who knew his terse power of expression and 
 keen perception of the ludicrous, interviewed him as to 
 how he liked his new vocation, to which he replied: 
 "Great heavens! to what mutations does time subject 
 us ! Wlio would have thought that a Heutenant in the 
 Mexican war, an original 'forty-niner,' the husband of the 
 Princess Mary and the brother-in-law of Shacknasty Jim, 
 would have come to this — to be playing second fiddle to 
 a retired Dutch clown ! " 
 
DE VENTRE INSPICIENDO. 
 
 TTTHAT a funny thin^i- human nature is ! Man, they 
 say, is the only animal which can enjoy a laug'h, 
 or g-ive muscular and facial and vocal expression thereto. 
 I believe I once saw a horse that had a sense of humor, 
 and had his own quiet laugh in his own w^ay at w^hat he 
 did. Monkeys sometimes appear to do a mischievous 
 thing- with some apparent appreciation of the fun of it. 
 But it is only in the higher nature of man that the per- 
 ception of the comical, and the ludicrous, and the humor- 
 ous have full development, with capacity to g-ive expres- 
 sion to these feeling-s by a laug'h. And how much g-ood 
 fi hearty laug'h seems to do a man ! It dispels care and 
 aids dig'estion, and helps to make life enjoyable. Being- 
 (endowed by a wise Creator with the faculty to discern the 
 ludicrous and the capacity to laug-li at it, why not exer- 
 cise these powers f Not excessively, of course — not to 
 imike mirth and the pursuit of fun the chief end of life, 
 but to enjoy heartily all that comes casually along-. And 
 to the observant eye a good deal comes thus. There is a 
 vast amoimt of the fantastical and funny mixed up with 
 
 (101) 
 
10*2 Reminiscences and Sketches 
 
 life. If departed spirits can see from tiieir habitations 
 in the world beyond what g-oes on here, and retain 
 their sense of the hidicrous, Heaven's arches must often 
 ring- with laughter. 
 
 With what importance and dig-nity a ne\^'ly -elected jus- 
 tice of the peace sometimes assumes his office. He has 
 been selected by the suffrag-es of his fellow citizens to 
 the hig-hly important office of mag-istrate. He is saluted 
 by the neig"hbors with the title of "Squire." He has 
 been commissioned by the g-overnment. A formal docu- 
 ment sig-ned by the Governor and attested by the Secre- 
 tary of the Commonwealth, under the broad seal of the 
 state, expressing- the hig-hest opinion of his worth and 
 confidence in his ability, has been received and recorded. 
 He has been duly sworn, has g-ot a copy of Binn's Mag-- 
 istrate's Companion, and of Purdon's Dig-est, and a book 
 of forms, and has opened an office in his house or shop, 
 and has the rig-ht to take acknowledg-ments of deeds, ad- 
 minister oaths, issue warrants and summones for parties 
 and subpoenas for witnesses, and to hear and adjudg-e 
 disputes and bind criminals over to court. His neigh- 
 bors all assume that he knows the law. In some mys- 
 teiious way, by virtue of his commission and induction 
 into office, he is supposed to have acquired knowledg-e of 
 the law. The people who come to consult him all assume 
 it. And he himself feels that somehow it must be so and 
 acts according-ly. Not to know under the circumstances 
 would be dereliction of duty. 
 
 Thus it happened with Squire M., of Confluence. An 
 information had been made })efore him by a young- g-irl, 
 who had "loved not wisely, but too well," ag-ainst a 
 neigrhborino- vouth who was charsred bv her ^^'ith an of- 
 
De Ventre Inspiciendo: lOS 
 
 feiise ag-aiiist the law of the hmd, that was likely to add^ 
 before long", to the population of the village, a little mor- 
 tal who would be fatherless, but for some legal proceed- 
 ing- in such case made and i^rovided. The defendant was 
 arrested and bound over to answer the charge at the n(^,xt 
 term of quarter sessions of the peace of the county. 
 But when that time had arrived the expected little stranger 
 had not put in an appearance, and the case was continued 
 by the court at the request of the prosecuting attorney, 
 and the defendant required to renew his recog-nizance 
 to appear at the next sessions. After an interval of 
 several months, when the next court was approaching- 
 the talk of the neighborhood was, that from the young- 
 woman's look she had made a mistake, and w?is not 
 in the way in which " ladies who love their lords de 
 sire to be." And so the young defendant went to the 
 justice and asked his advice. He said that lie ought not 
 to be put to the exx3ense of going to coui't ag-ain, and that 
 there oug-ht to be some way to stop further proceeding- 
 and expense. The sug-g-estion struck the justice as rea- 
 sonable, and he told the young man to call the next day, 
 that meanwhile he would examine the law and be prepared 
 to advise him. 
 
 Somewhere in his limited library he read of the wi-it 
 " de ventre inspiciendo," and he thoug-ht this was the pro_ 
 per occasion for its use. But the law-book said the duty 
 of the officer charg-ed with the execution ol the writ was 
 to summon six discreet and experieiu^ed matrons to make 
 the examination. The justice thought the work could be 
 l)etter done by the villag-e doctor. It would be too com 
 plicattnl a matter for the constable to select six matrons 
 of the character and attainments indicated, and \i would 
 
104 Rerainiscences and Sketches. 
 
 be likely to raise a most wonderful village commotion 
 tliat would end dear knows where. Better amend the 
 common law and adopt a new proceeding- more suitable 
 to modern days and the village of Confluence. In an- 
 cient times when the matter in hand demanded it, the 
 judges in England had invented new writs. They had 
 devised the action on the case to meet the contingency of 
 consequential damages. They adjusted proceedings to 
 the necessity of the occasion, and why should not he ? 
 
 He, therefore, had the young man make an affidavit of 
 the facts of the case, that he was informed and believed 
 the maiden was mistaken, that this was the general talk 
 of the towTL, and that he desired to have this suspicion 
 a,nd belief verified by a search warrant for that purpose. 
 This proceeding was duly docketed, and the writ issued 
 to the constable commanding him to summon the doctor, 
 and forth witli proceed witli him to the house of the maiden 
 and that the said doctor, by inspection and examination, 
 determine the truth of the case and make report, and that 
 the constable should make return of the w^rit. All which 
 was done and the proper entries made. The event proved 
 that "the maiden all forlorn" was not mistaken. It was 
 the village gossips who were. 
 
 The justice made a formal return of these proceedings, 
 not forgetting to tax up the costs, to the district attorney 
 of Somerset county, w^here it is to be hoped they yet 
 remain on file in the case, as a model for the next maker 
 of a form-book who may avail himself of Squire M.'s 
 oiiginality. 
 
 Doubtless proceedings ol justices of the peace would 
 exhibit many another matter equally amusing. One I 
 recall. Two men of Bedford county had a verbal quar- 
 
De Ventre Inspiciendo. 105 
 
 rel, in which angry words and some profanity were in- 
 dulg-ed in on both sides. One of them made an informa- 
 tion before a justice and liad a warrant issued in the name 
 of the commonwealth to fine the other for profane swear- 
 ing", under the statute which provides a summary penalty 
 for that offense. He probably was not aware of his own 
 profanity, for it is not uncommon for men accustomed to 
 swear in early life to indulg-e in it in their more mature 
 years, unconsciously, in a fit of ang-er. I have known ex- 
 emplary church members make exhibitions of this kind 
 and be very indignant when charged with it. When the 
 proceedings were started, the other party returned the 
 compliment by having his adversary arrested for the 
 same offense, and the cases came on to be tried at the 
 same time before the justice, who, after hearing the evi- 
 dence, administered the law by the introduction of the 
 equitable doctrine of set-off. He made up an account, 
 in which he charged A. with his oaths and the fines set 
 opposite as fixed by the statute, and credited him with 
 the oaths sworn by his adversary B., and gave judgment 
 in favor of the commonwealth and against A. for the bal- 
 ance. The case came into court on certiorari. If each 
 had sworn the same number of oaths, logically the jus- 
 tice would have dismissed the proceedings at the cost of 
 the commonwealth. 
 
A CRUEL WAG. 
 
 /COLONEL Edie and Colonel Hug-us were admitted 
 ^■^^ to the bar at the same time. Hug-us always claimed 
 to be the older lawyer because he was sworn in first and 
 was punctilious in having- due precedence in the calling- 
 of the bar list, where the lawyers are entered according- 
 to seniority. Wlien they were examined for admission, 
 Thompson was president judge. He appointed a com- 
 mittee of three visiting- lawyers from adjoining- counties, 
 the young-est member of which was Sam Austin, from 
 Fayette. When the examination closed, Judge Thomp- 
 son said, in a very g-rave and dig-nified manner, "Young- 
 g-entlemen, you can now withdraw, and the committee 
 will consider your application and let you know the 
 result in the morning." Edie, in g-reat anxiety, ap- 
 proached Austin, who was neaily of his age, and asked 
 him what he thoug-ht of their chances for admission, to 
 which inquiry Austin, who was a cruel wag- and who 
 discerned Edie's uneasiness, replied, "Well, I think it a 
 little doubtful. The committee is to meet and decide in 
 the morning; but, as we adjourned, the chairman of the 
 committee remarked, ' I do not think these young men 
 
 (10t>) 
 
A Cruel Wag. 107 
 
 have got very far within the temple of justice.' To which 
 Jiidg-e Thompson responded, 'Nor I, sir — I think they 
 have scarcely g-ot within the vestibule.'" With which 
 disquieting" information Edie passed a sleepless night, 
 only to learn in the morning that the entire statement 
 was a fabrication of Austin's. 
 
A lURY TRIAL. 
 
 nnRIAL by jmy is sometimes a g-ood deal of a farce. 
 Under a clear-minded judg-e, who takes the respon- 
 sibility of analyzing the evidence and indicating- clearly 
 an opinion for the g-uidance of the jury, it is not a bad 
 tribunal. Nay, it is a very good one -. perhaps as good as 
 human ingenuity can de^dse. It amounts substantially 
 to a decision by the judge, operating by process of 
 reasoning in the presence of the public, so as to move 
 the minds of twelve common men to a just appreciation 
 of the case. Oftentimes the twelve common men are of 
 themselves very incapable of making a correct analysis 
 of the e^ddence and a discriminating judgment, and when 
 there is a judge on the bench who avoids responsibility, 
 who throws it over on to the jury as the judges of the 
 facts, and excuses himself from expressing any opinion, 
 confining himself merely to the rulings of the law, results 
 are very uncertain and frequently unjust. The jurymen 
 are in a novel situation. They hear plausible arguments 
 on both sides, and their untrained minds are confused 
 and obscured, and unable to discriminate between sophis- 
 try and logical argument. 
 
 (108) 
 
A Jurii Trial. 109 
 
 As illustratiiii;- tlio iiiioer freaks of juries, the following 
 incident is apropos. Some years ai^o, at Somerset, in the 
 quarter sessions, an indictment was found a true bill, 
 chargini^- a woman with keeping- a house of ill-repute. 
 The case came to trial ami the evidt^nce on behalf of the 
 commonwealth was heard, which made out a plain case 
 for conviction. The defendant had no witnesses. Her 
 attorney, thinking it unnecessary to waste the time of 
 the court, declined to address the jury, and they went to 
 their room with tlie short charge from the court that if 
 they believed the evidence they ought to convict. They 
 remained out a long time, and finally came in with a 
 verdict of acquittal, much to the astonishment of lawyers 
 and judge. The result was so surprising that inquiry 
 was made of one of the jurors how it came about, and his 
 narration disclosed the following facts. When they 
 retired to their room, their first act was to vote by ballot 
 in a hat. The vote showed that eleven were for convic- 
 tion and one was for acciuittal. The one voting for 
 acquittal was an old man named Hartzell, a person of 
 strong religious convictions and a believer in the doctrine 
 of baptism by immersion, who was always read}'^ to dis- 
 cuss the scriptural metliod of baptism and to prove by 
 citations from the testament, which he carried with him 
 in his side pocket for that purpose, that a man must 
 either be dipped or be damned. Forthwith Mr. Hartzell 
 set himself to work, New Testament in hand, to convince 
 the eleven that the woman ought to be acquitted. He 
 didn't deny her guilt. On the cx^ntrary, that was the 
 very gromid upon which he demanded her acquittal. 
 "For," he said, "gentlemen, all scripture is written for 
 our direction and edification. It is intended to govern 
 
110 Reminiscences and Sketches. 
 
 our conduct here in this world. There was a trial once 
 of a similar kind before a g-reat judge, a far g-reater judg-e 
 than any who ever sat in Somerset county, the blessed 
 Saviour of mankind. The charge was adultery, and the 
 woman was taken in the very act; and by the law of 
 Moses, which was the law of the land, she was to be 
 stoned to death. And what did the Great Judge do, gen- 
 tlemen I He said, ' let him who is mthout sin among you 
 cast the first stone,' and that's what I say to you, gentle- 
 men." And then he read the account of it in the eighth 
 chapter of John, and in solemn silence the second ballot 
 was taken, and resulted in an imanimous verdict of ac- 
 quittal. 
 
SOME OBJECTIONS TO THE LAW 
 
 ALLOWING PARTIES TO 
 
 BE WITNESSES. 
 
 "DLIND conservatism is not m, commendable character- 
 istic, nevertheless the advocate of change has the 
 Imrden of proof. The presumption ou^ht to stand that 
 whatever is, is rig-ht. He who supports an alteration in 
 existing' habits, or customs, or laws, sliould be required 
 to demonstratt^ the advantag-es which are to follow by 
 very clear and satisfactory evidence ; because to go back- 
 ward is impossible. Prog-ress in a nation s life is like 
 time in the life of an individual. It cannot be recalled— 
 once g-one it never returns. Prog-ress is like a ratchet- 
 wheel — you can pull it forward tooth by tooth. If you 
 try to let it out a little, it goes backward with a run. 
 The youth (^an never be a child again. The man can 
 never be a youth. If you make erroneous chang-es in 
 habits, or customs, or modes of thoug-ht, or laws, you 
 never can gfet exactly back to the place you started from. 
 The nation's life, its customs, metliods and laws are a 
 
 g-rowth, a development, an evolutiou. It is, therefore, of 
 
 (HI) 
 
112 Reminiscences cind Sketches. 
 
 immense importam-e to hold fast that which has answered 
 a g-ood purpose, and to A^enture with great caution upon 
 the new and untried. 
 
 I read lately an address by a judge, for whose opinion 
 I entertain a very high regard, reviewing his career 
 upon the bench for twenty years last past, in which 
 he speaks of the change of the common-law rule which 
 excluded parties in interest from being witnesses, in 
 terms of great admiration. He says that nowhere in any 
 treatise on evidence has he ever seen any reason given for 
 the rule, except that it tended to perjury, and that that 
 is a matter with which the law, as the agent of distribu- 
 tive justice between man and man, has nothing to do, ex- 
 cept to punish it when it is indicted and convicted : that 
 the moral question of perjury is for the individual and 
 for preachers and priests, and the common-law rule was 
 antiquated folly in that it condemned to silence the very 
 persons of all others best qualified to testify, those who 
 were in the nature of things, by reason of their interest 
 in the subject matter of contention, most likely to be fully 
 informed. 
 
 My observation as a judge and lawyer has led me to a 
 different conclusion. I think the change has been pro- 
 ductive of evil in the following particulars. 
 
 It tends to make persons careless of their contracts. 
 They do not reduce their bargains to writing, or exercise 
 vigilance to have witnesses present, and misunderstand- 
 ings are more likely to arise and an increase of litigation. 
 
 It induces false swearing. I will not say i)erjury, which 
 is "v\ilful, intentional and conscious false swearing, but 
 false swearing in fact, because no one is a good judge in 
 his own case. He is biased. He is a self -deceiver, more 
 
Objections to Parties being Witnesses. 113 
 
 or less unconscious. He works himself into a belief, and 
 in fact swears falsely. This is human nature. It is 
 demonstrated by the patent fact that the statements of 
 the parties are directl}^ antagonistic — Hatly contradictory. 
 If self the wavering balance shake, its rarely rig'ht ad- 
 justed. 
 
 It degrades the sanctity of an oath. One side or the 
 other is swearing falsely : both cannot be correct ; and the 
 public who hear and see this, conclude that the one or 
 the other, or both, are wilful liars; and constant exhibi- 
 tions of this kind every court tend to destroy confidence 
 in human integ-rity. The tendency is to reason thus: If 
 such men as these, of high character, and standing, swear 
 falsely, then who is to be believed ? All men are liars. 
 And if such men as tliese lie, why should I be solicitous 
 to observe the trutli i 
 
 It makes frequent lawsuits in which there is no evi- 
 dence on either side, except the oaths of the interested 
 parties. The jury is compelled to decide between them. 
 How are they to do it? They are made judg-es of the cred- 
 ibility of the witnesses. How can they tell which to be- 
 lieve ? They, therefore, decide the case upon some mat- 
 ter outside the evidence, on some whim or notion, or on 
 something they have heard. And they thus decide 
 not on the evidence as they are sworn to do. They 
 themselves become, from necessity, violators of th(^ir 
 oaths. It is compelling them to decide by g-uessing*, re- 
 quiring them to m^die bricks without straw. And if they 
 do this in one case, tlie tendency is to do it in other cases. 
 It induces a drift in the minds of jurors to decide by 
 some other means than the sworn testimony. 
 
 If there is evidence outside of tlu' ))arti<'s, tli<Te is no 
 8 
 
114 lirniinibcotccs (iiul Skcic/ics. 
 
 need of the new law. If there is not, and tlie controversy 
 is to be decided on the oaths of the contestants alone, as 
 is very frcniuently the case, then ch^uk^s the strain, l)oth 
 on contestants and jurors. The jury are to jud«^e (^f 
 credibility, and they are o^iven nothing- l)y which to judge. 
 How are they to determine and decide 1 They are for the 
 most part men not deeply skilhxl in human nature, and 
 are liable to be swayed by sophistic^al ar^fuments of coun- 
 sel and a, plausible statement of a party. It gives the 
 slick ro^ue an advanta.£!:e over the honest man, the quick- 
 witted, skilful talker, owy the dull man. The case is de- 
 cided by sophistry, or ])rejudic^e, or sympathy, or whim. 
 If jurors are competent judi^-es of credibility by rules 
 of physiognomy, by studying the face, or eye, or manner 
 of witnesses, then why make the excepticms that are 
 made 1 Why have any exceptions arising from the death 
 of one party 1 Better hear all the evidence in every case 
 and let the jury judg(^ of what weight it will have. The 
 very exceptions of the statute, preserving the common 
 law rule in the excepted cases, tend to show the wisdom 
 of the common law rule in its entirety. 
 
THE BATTLE OE SAXTON. 
 
 HOW SUPERINTENDENT GAGE AND CONSTA 
 BLE JONES SURROUNDED AND CAP- 
 TURED THE ALTOONA GUARDS. 
 
 "TN the ye:ir 1879 the Altoona Guards, under the eom- 
 inaiid oi Captain Guthrie, visited the Bedfm-d fair. 
 They eanie in a special ear. which, by previous arranofe- 
 nient, was to c(^nvey them on a certain day and by a }>ai-- 
 ricular train to Bedford ;uid return on a certain other day 
 and train to Altoona, and they paid a reduced fare for the 
 i-ound trip on the basis of retm-ning' by tln^ Huntina'don 
 and Broad Top railroad on the rei^'ular train. In niakina* 
 this trip they passed over the Pennsylvania railroad ivom 
 \ltoona to Huntinirdon. then m-er the Huntino-don and 
 l^rc^ad Top railroad to Mt. Dallas, and then a,£;-ain on the 
 Pennsylvania raih-oad (Bedford diWsion) from Mt. Dallas 
 to Bedfcn'd. But whilst at Bedford they concluded to re- 
 main long-er and return in the evening- by a special euirine, 
 and they made an aiTaniZvment witli Mr. Smith, the su- 
 perintendent of the Beiiford divisicui. for such a train at 
 
 (115) 
 
116 Betniniscences and Sketches 
 
 the desired hour. Mr. Smith conferred by telegrai^h with 
 Mr. Gag-e, the superintendent of the Huntingdon and 
 Broad Top road, who ag-reed to carry tlie special on his 
 hne at tlie time desired on the payment for each soldier 
 of an additional dollar, which arrangement he supposed 
 was accepted by Mr. Smith. 
 
 Off they started on their return trip, and until they 
 reached Mt. Dallas all went merry as a marriag-e bell. 
 At that point, where the motive power is changed, the en- 
 gine of the Bedford division being unhitched and the 
 Huntingdon and Broad Top engine hitched on, and the 
 engineer and brakemen of the Huntingdon and Broad 
 Top road taking charge of the train, they encountered a 
 difficulty. The conductor demanded the additional sum 
 of one dollar each, which they declined to pay. Acting 
 under orders, he then undertook to put their special car 
 on a side track. This they resisted, and, by command of 
 the captain, a squad of soldiers took possession and con- 
 trol of the engine and refused to let it be moved, except 
 in the direction of Huntingdon, and threatened to run the 
 train themselves. For two hours this dead-lock continued, 
 but finally it resulted in leaving the special car and sol- 
 diers on the side track, where they remained all night. 
 WHien the regular train came along the next forenoon, and 
 reason had resumed the throne from which inspiring bold 
 John Barleycorn had for a time unseated it, they paid the 
 additional fare, their car was attached, and they proceeded 
 towards Huntingdon damning the superintendent, little 
 dreaming what a foe they were to encounter on the way. 
 Gage is not a big man, but he is big for his size. He is 
 paid for managing the Huntingdon and Broad Top rail- 
 road and superintending the running of its trains, and 
 
The Battle of Saxton. 117 
 
 proposed to discharge the full measure of his duties. He 
 intended to be consulted at least as to the running of 
 trains on his road, and that no man, however distinguished 
 lie was as captain of a volunteer military company, should 
 take possession of an engine on his road and delay it and 
 its crew of hands for two hours with impmiity. His road 
 was not as long as the Pennsylvania road, but, neverthe- 
 less, it was a duly chartered road, with the franchises and 
 powers, rights, privileges and duties of any other road 
 however large, and he proposed to let his big neighbor 
 and the militia captain know in an emphatic way, which 
 they would remember for all time, that neither he nor his 
 road were to be underrated or unwarrantably interfered 
 with. 
 
 He, therefore, had an information made before a justice 
 of the peace of Saxton, a village on the line of his road 
 midway between Mt. Dallas and Huntingdon, charging 
 the militiamen with a riotous, unlawful and criminal in- 
 terference with the running of an engine, contrary to the 
 act of assembly in such case made and provided. The 
 train aiTived at Saxton at high noon of a hot October day. 
 The sun poured down his ardent rays with unobstructed 
 fervor, and every one who was compelled to go out sought 
 the shade. The depot at Saxton is in a hollow, the jus- 
 ti(*e's office in the town on a hill, access to which was 
 gained by a slanting path, steep as the ascent up which 
 Excelsior climbed. 
 
 The constable, who liad charge of the waiTant, was a 
 very small man, shabbily dressed in his ordinary working 
 clothes. Like Cincinnatus and General Putnam he had 
 been suddenly summoned from his plow, or other daily 
 avocation. But with the majesty of the Commonwealth 
 
118 Reminiscences and Sketches. 
 
 of Pennsylvania behind him, he felt equal to the occasion, 
 and he entered the car and arrested the whole military 
 company, lock, stock and barrel, from captain to corporal, 
 with the privates thrown in for good measure. With 
 profound solemnity and with the seriousness said to be 
 exhibited at a christening- by a woman of a certain char- 
 acter, he produced his warrant and informed them that 
 they were his prisoners and nnist at once accompany him 
 to the squire's office. If a thunderbolt had pealed out its 
 reverberating- notes from a cloudless sky, the military 
 men could not have been more surprised and confounded. 
 They had scarcely ceased damning- Gag-e and his little 
 road and threatening- veng-eance on him, and here they 
 were surrounded and ignominiously captured by a little 
 constable in shabby clothes with a red pug- nose. They 
 held a hurried council of war ; what was to be done ? 
 The train was stopped. They could not go on unless 
 they would take violent possession and run it themselves. 
 They could not well shoot the poor little constable who 
 stood bravely confronting- them Outside was the hot 
 sun g-laring down on the steep, slanting- path. It was an 
 awful dose of humble-pie. Talk about eating crow ! This 
 was far worse. But what was to be done ? They were 
 confronted by a condition — a l)lank bad condition. Swear 1 
 Yes, they did that. Individually and collectively they 
 swore all they knew how, which was a good deal. Swore 
 like the army in Flanders, but it did no g-ood. It was a 
 contingency of war they had never dreamed of. Little they 
 thought when they s(^t out of fig-liting- such a fight. Gage 
 had control of the telegraph as well as the railroad. 
 They could not even counsel with their friends or ad\ase 
 the outside world of their mishap. The more they 
 
The Buttle of Saxton. 119 
 
 thoug-lit the more they did not know what to think. As a 
 master of grand strategy Gag-e seemed to have few equals 
 and no superiors " so far as they had traveled and so far 
 as the}' had been." The inevitable had to be accepted. 
 Out they g-ot. The captain formed his men in line, sin 
 g-le file — the path up the hill would not permit any other 
 formation — "shoulder arms! right about face! march!" 
 and awa3^ they went by word of command up the hill by 
 the slanting })ath, with the little constable close at the 
 captain's elbow. It was a majestic exhibition of the sub- 
 ordination of the military to the civil power. The pas- 
 sengers, to whom the whole thing was an unexplained 
 mystery, looked on in profound astonishment. 
 
 Gage held the train. He intended they should get bail 
 for their appearance at court, which they did. The justice 
 accepted the captain and lieutenant to stand vicariously 
 for the whole company, and these two officers entered 
 into bonds to be and appear in their proper persons at 
 the next court of quarter sessions of the peace to l>o 
 liolden at Bedford in and for the county of Bedford, to 
 answer the charges of riot and interfering with the train. 
 In half an hour they returned. A more crestfallen and 
 dejected military company never stood in ranks. They 
 had met the enemy and they were his — were taken pris- 
 oners, marched in a body by a constal)l(\ and discharged 
 on parole. As they came down the hill in the presence 
 of the waiting passengers gazing with extended necks 
 from the windows, they looked as if they would sell them- 
 selves at a verv moderate price. As court approached, 
 Gage heard from Altoona rumors that Captain Guthrie 
 had employed (counsel and intended to fight the case, 
 with the ho])(^ that a jury (never inclined to favor a rail- 
 
lliO Ii<'nn'in's(;('iu'('s <iml Hh'<'l<'li(!<. 
 
 rojul coinp.-iiiy) luiqlit ;i('<|uit tlu^ (Idcndaiit-s .iiid |)ui \\n\ 
 costs on tlu* pi'oscciitor. Tmt .1 court trial \v;is no partol 
 liis |)ro«;rannuc. Itailroad men have no time to waste in 
 attending;- t'oi- days the dc^layed aiid uncei-tain proceedinj^s 
 of a court ol* justice. Wliat lie \vaiit(Ml was a, l<'tt(M- of 
 a[)oloi;y from (laptain (lutluie a,nd the payment of the 
 costs of th(^ case. He, tlicM-efore, took out a subpoMi.a for 
 witn(^ss(^s on In^half of tlie commonwealth and caused it 
 to he serv(Hl on all th<' chief olliccMS of the Peiuisylvania 
 road at Altoona, recjuirini;- them, in the name of the com- 
 monwealth, laying- aside all business and excns<'s wliat- 
 soev(>r, to hv and ap})ear in theii" pro[)er i^ei'sons at the 
 next court of (juarter scissions of the pc^ace to be holden 
 at Bcnlford, to testify the ti'uth accoj<bn.i;- to tluMr knowl- 
 edi^-e on bidialf of the commonwealth a*;"ainst the mili- 
 tary company. This was the <'i)Hi> dc </r<icc. They could 
 not stand it. The next train brought on(> of the Penn- 
 sylvania raib'oad otHcials earnestly protestini;- and beg"- 
 i^in^" to know what was waiitiul, and what nuist be done 
 to cud the case. It was utterly imi)ossibl(^ for th<> su})er- 
 intendent, manai^'er, master of shops, and all theother of- 
 ficials to leave their positions and i^o to liedfoid to sjx'nd 
 several days in attendance on this case, and it imist be 
 ended on any terms Ga-i^'e recpiired. So the lettiM' of apol- 
 oiiT and reg-ret was written and sii^iied by the captain and 
 svut, and the costs were paid and \]\v case droi)ped. Tt 
 is needh^ss to a(ht that the Altoona (biards have never 
 since then intt^rfered with a Huntinplon and Ih'oad 1\)]) 
 train. 
 
 Pluck, n(M'Ye, i;uni])tion- these are i;r(\it (pialities. T 
 knoAv what to (hi in an enieri^vncy and })romptly to (h)it 
 this is o-enius. 
 
 o 
 
THE ANCIENT AND VENERABLE 
 ORDER OE ECCLAMPSLS VITLS. 
 
 T"X 1847, while I was readin^^ law, tliere came to Bed- 
 ford, from tli(! west, a traveling agent for a patented 
 inv(intion (jf a (;utting-Vjox. Hf) instituted a new secret 
 society called the Ecf-lam/psin Vitin. It was in truth a 
 })url(}S(iu(ion all secret societies — an exaggerated travesty, 
 full of fun and very enjoyable for the younger members. 
 The secret of tlie tiling was wondfiriully w^ell kept for 
 many weeks, and the society flourisherl and liad grown 
 to large proportions, with numerous c-andidates for in- 
 itiation, at the time of the deMOimmeMt, which resulted 
 in its downfall. 
 
 Thf.' society was constituted with a woi^thy patriarch 
 and twT) past grand worthy patiiarchs, witlj (jut-door 
 sf^ntinels and in-door sentinels, and divers other officers. 
 The (ceremony of initiation was formal, solemn and im- 
 posing. The place of meeting was the grand jury room 
 of the (;ourt house, quite a large room, now divided by a 
 partition into two rooms, one of which is used as the 
 sheriff's office and the othca- by the recorder of deeds. 
 
 Behind a long ta})le sat the gxand worthy patriarch, Joe 
 
 (121) 
 
122 Reininit^ences and Sketches. 
 
 Mann, as homely a specimen of humanity as you couhl 
 find in a week's travel, who was then a student-at law. 
 He was supported on either side by the past grand 
 worthies, John Otting-er and Ben Cromwell. The only 
 light in the room was a short piece of tallow candle, 
 which stood in the center of the table in front of the 
 worthy patriarch, without a candle-stick, supported in an 
 uprig-ht position l)y a spot of its own grease, droi)ped on 
 the table for that purpose. The dim light only sc^rved 
 to make darkness visible a*id show tlu^ eyes of the circle 
 of members who sat ai'ound on chairs and bcmches. 
 
 The candidate for initiation was coiiduct(Hl by the 
 friend who had proposed him, to the sentinel, who stood, 
 armed with a musket, in tli<^ entry on the outside, of the 
 door, to whom he made known that he had a candidate? 
 duly voted on and now pres(?nt for induction into the 
 ancient and venerable order of Ecclampsis Vitis ; where- 
 upon the outside sentinel rapi^ed thrice upon the door, 
 which was opened an inch or so, and a stern voice from 
 \\dthin demanded, "Wlio is there and what is wanted? 
 By virtue of what authority do you venture into the 
 sacred precincts of the ancient and venerable order of the 
 Ecclampsis Vitis?" Wlien informed in extcmded lan- 
 guage, formal and j^recise, of the name of the candidate 
 and of the member who vouched for him, the door was 
 opened and the candidate turned over, in the dim light, 
 to the charge of two stalwart inside sentinels, armed Avitli 
 bayoneted muskets, each of whom took him l)y an arm 
 xnd marched him up in front of the grand worthy 
 patriarch, whom one of them informed, in stilted language, 
 "Most worthy patriarch of the ancient and ven(iral)le 
 order of Ecclampsis Vitis, we present here to you. for 
 
llic Order i>f KccUiinps'ts i "it is. 12ii 
 
 initiation into the niyst(a;ies and Ixiu^lits of om- most 
 wonderful, and benevolent, and (exalted order. Mi-. IJI.mk, 
 wlio is vouclicd for as Ixun*^- an intellifrciii, iipri;^!)! ;ind 
 virtuous citizen, l're(^ from l)odily infirmity, hy oui- most 
 worthy Brother Bhink, whose name, liavin*;- Ixieii (hily 
 l»roposed, was voted on, and no siiif^h; hlack l)a]l havin<^- 
 been east a<^ainst him, was <hily acc('j)ted, jind is now 
 l)resent for initiation into thci si^ns and n)yst(;ries of oui- 
 beloved, benevok^nt, and truly eliaritabh^ order." 
 
 \\liereu])on the worthy patriarch arose; ajid put on a 
 hat mad(; of brown i)aper, imposin<.^ lookiii^- in the *^]oom 
 of tlie loom and the frig-ht of th<; candidate, and in w short 
 address inform(;d tlic; (candidate; that th<' origin of tin; 
 order was lost in the; mist of anticjuity. Tlini it embi;i,ced 
 j)eoi)le of all nations — ^o vvlK-n; lie would, he would liud 
 meml)ers who would welcome him with clKiritnble hearts 
 and hands to m.11 so(;ial j>rivile^<!S. 'J^hai he would b(! 
 taken care of in sickness, ;ind if h<? dix^d Ik; would be 
 Ijuried at the expense; of the ord(!r. That the society 
 was far sujjerior to oth<;]- s«!c;ret so(;i(;ties which mad*; 
 <4reat<'r pretentions — that it was ohhvr, wid(!j' spn^ad and 
 particularly that it (excelled them in the hwX tliat its 
 benefits were; extended without i<(juirijj;j of the members 
 any fees or (thar<4-(;s — that it conh'ircd its h(!nefits with 
 out money and without price. How it did this was 
 a mystery that he could not then learn, hut that lie]-e 
 after, as he advanced to the joyal arch dej/jee, he 
 would know more. That secrecy was essential to the 
 existence^ and Wf;lfaj-e of the soci<'ty, and the membf;rs 
 were all bound by a solemn oath, whi(;li would now be 
 administered to him by the <.'rand wf^rthy scrilx'. 
 
 He was then sworn by the u[)lifte<l hand, "In the 
 
124 llendniscenceH and Sketches. 
 
 presence of the Great Creator of the universe, from whose 
 all-seeing eye nothing can be hid, you do solemnly 
 pronounce and declare that you will faitlifully keep the 
 secrets of the ancient and veneral)le order of the Ec- 
 clampsis Vitis, and you do solemnly agi^ee that if you 
 violate this oath, your heart may be cut from your living- 
 body and be burned, palpitating, before your eyes, and 
 your body l)e disembowled, and (piartered, and burned, 
 and the ashes thrown to the four winds of heaven," etc. 
 
 The oath being taken, the candidate was again brought 
 before the grand worthy, who said to him, "I will now 
 initiate you into the signs of the order. Wherever you 
 go the broad world around, you Avill be recognized by 
 these signs by the brethren of the order, and he welcomed 
 with joy. Place your chin in your hand, in this way, in- 
 serting the end of your chin between your thumb and 
 forefinger and extending the hand held level in front of 
 the chin." Wien the candidate had done this, he pro- 
 ceeded, "Now wave your hand up gracefully in this way 
 three times, thus " (showing him, and the candidate doing 
 it). "That," ]n-oceeded the grand worthy, "is to keep 
 the oats from falling out." 
 
 This was the first intimation of the burlesque except 
 the paper cap, but, in the novelty of the situation and the 
 grave and solemn-looking surroundings and in the dim 
 light, the candidate would fail to notice the intimation of 
 the oats, as he had previously failed to notic^e the tallow 
 dip and the paper cap. The G. W. P. would then pro- 
 ceed: "I will now teach you the grand hailing sign. Put 
 your hands in this waj^ as I do." He would then put an 
 extended hand on each side of his head, with his thumbs 
 against liis temples and tlie fingers u}>wmi'(I like a nude's 
 
llic Order of EcclcDnpsis I'ifis. 125 
 
 ears, and required the candidate to do the same. "Now 
 move them backward and forward three times, thus." 
 Further addressing- the candidate, "You will now repeat 
 after me these words: When ^repeat, sir! Wlien— 
 shall — we — three — meet — ag-ain I " This 1 )eing- done, 
 raising- his hand solemnly, the grand Avorthy would 
 cry with a loud voice, "Even now," and would unroll 
 in front of the new brother a large picture of two 
 nuiles, which he was left to look upon, and the initiation 
 was over, amid the uproarious shouts of laughter of the 
 assembled throng, who up to this time had been as mute 
 as mice. Some would stand dazed, some got mad ; but 
 in a few minutes all would g'et over it and be ready to 
 enjoy the fun of initiating- some])ody else. 
 
 Well, we had a torch-light procession all over town and 
 a speech. Jacques W. Johnson, a young- lawyer, delivered 
 an oration on the order in the court house. Judge Black 
 was there to liear it, and old Mr. Russell and all the 
 beauty and the chivalry of the Adllage. Johnson's oration 
 A\as in manuscript, and Judge Black borrowed it and 
 read it through with a great deal of pleasure, he said. 
 He couldn't understand, however, how the s(K-iety existed 
 without levying- contributions on its members ; he couldn't 
 possibly see or comprehend where the funds came from. 
 But that was a mystery only to be learned by initiation 
 into the royal arch degTee, and tlu^ judge did not se^ni 
 willing to go that far. 
 
 John Ottinger and Ben CronnNell were made i)ast 
 grand worthies because of their ability to sit and look 
 wise with grave faces. Nothing would stir the facial 
 expression of either into animation excei)t the immediate 
 prospect of a drop of old rye. 
 
126 Reminiscences and Sketches. 
 
 One of the laughable features of the meeting-s was to 
 call upon P. G. W. Ottinger for n storj'. During the 
 intervals of initiation, a brother would rise and gravely 
 move that P. G. W. Ottinger now favor the lodge with 
 the narration of some little incident or story from his 
 extensive repertory. This being voted, in response, Ot- 
 tinger told always the same story, utterly oblivious that 
 he had ever told it before. It became a matter of absorb- 
 ing interest to see how often he would, with no glimmer 
 of recollection that he had previously told it, retell the 
 story, and as long as the institution survived, some eight 
 or ten weeks, Ottinger re^^eated, with a grave face, the 
 same little story, and wound up with a peculiar laugh, 
 which contorted his face but gave forth no sound, ex- 
 cept a rumble, as if a laugh was rolling around some- 
 where in the cavities of his capacious abdominal develop- 
 ment. 
 
 Cromwell rode at the head of the torch-light proces- 
 sion, as chief marshal, on a gray horse. The regalia 
 was a strip of muslin about two yards long and four 
 inches wide, wiiich passed over the right shoulder and 
 was fastened in a knot at the waist on the left side, orna- 
 mented -vxith a star cut out of the heavy purple colored 
 paper that loaf sugar used to come in For the officers 
 the muslin was blue. The torches were balls of candle 
 wick soaked in turpentine and fastened with wire upon 
 upright sticks. The Bedfoixl band headed the pro- 
 cession. 
 
 Samuel Shuck was chairman of the committee on 
 regalia, and John H. Filler of the committee on torch 
 lights. 
 
 Dr. Keyser was the first man to l)etray tlie order. He 
 
Tlie Order of Ecdamp.sis Vilis. 127 
 
 had been peculiarly anxious for initiation. His name 
 was pending- a g-ood while before^ he was voted in. 
 Somehow we feared he mig-ht divulg-e it, and hesitated 
 to trust him. His anxiety to join sprang- from an idea 
 that the order was g"oing- to be a great power socially and 
 politically — just the thing- for a rising young- doctor to 
 belong- to. 
 
 But Keyser, when initiated, g-ot furiously mad, and 
 would not be placated, and denomiced the order as a 
 burlesque. We talked some of drowning him, but didn't 
 do it. Our fun was done for, and the ancient and vener- 
 able order of Ecclampsis Vitis passed away forever, so 
 far as the villag-e of Bedford was concerned. But we had 
 i\m — lots of it — while it lasted. 
 
EQUALITY. 
 
 T~F equality is equity, and equity is based upon tiie 
 eternal principles of truth and justice, why do some 
 people live to old age and others die young-? Why do 
 some enjoy good health, and others drag out a whole 
 lifetime of sickness and suffering? ^^ly do some have 
 strong minds and others imbecility ? Is this owing to 
 the laws of nature ? Is it inherent in the constitution of 
 affairs'? Or is it because of some T\T.'ong lining of om-- 
 selves or out' ancestors? Some want of perception of, 
 and non-conformity to, the laws of our being, which we 
 ought to be able to discern and obey ? 
 
 But all through the animal world and the vegetable 
 world there are inequalities : some apples are larger and 
 finer than others hanging side by side, some stalks of 
 wheat, some blades of grass, some forest trees ; and horses, 
 and cows, and other animals, domestic and wild, have in- 
 equalities of speed, and strength, and vision, and hearing, 
 and endiu'ance, and of health and duration of life. This 
 morning there was a white frost, the effect upon the 
 youug beans and potatoes in the garden was to kill some 
 
Equality. 129 
 
 and leave others immediately {idjoiniii,i:;- uuinjured. 
 Some years ago I saw a calf born blind, with no si*>n of 
 eyes ; the sockets covered with tig-Jit-drawn skin and no 
 eye-balls within. Everywhere we are surrounded with 
 marked and unmistakable inequality in tli(3 [physical 
 world; inequality that must be desio^ned, unless it all 
 earner by enhance. 
 
 But does it follow that inequality is injustice? Is it 
 tru(i that equality is equity ? This is a hard question to 
 answer. It is not answerable by any lio-ht w^hich we have 
 here on this mundane sphere. 
 
 Some say that it will all be made even in the next 
 world, so that the final outcome will be equality. And 
 they (;ite the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 
 the sixteenth chapter and twenty -fifth verse), " But Abra- 
 ham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime re- 
 ceivedst thy g-ood thing-s, and likewise Lazarus evil 
 thing-s: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented." 
 
 This theory assumes that there must be evil thiug-s 
 here in this world. And moreover, where would the 
 compensation come to animals, who have no hereafter ? 
 
 It is beyond human ken. It g-oes with the other 
 mysteries with which life is environed. 
 
ENJOYABLE EGOTISM. 
 
 A GOOD deal of vanity lies at the foundation of every 
 man's make-up. A certain amount of self-esteem 
 is necessary to success in life ; it gives a pro]3er self-asser- 
 tion, and makes a man stand forward and push himself 
 to the front ; and a character lacking it entirely would be 
 seriously defective. Nevertheless, obtrusive vanity and 
 self-assertion are generally very offensive. But occasion- 
 ally you encounter a man whose all-absorbing vanity and 
 demonstrative self-complacency are not at all unpleasant. 
 They are so marked as to be amusing. It does him so 
 much good to brag about himself and his possessions, 
 his claims are so outrageously extravagant and absurd, 
 and they do you no possible harm, and you are rather 
 pleased to give him delight by listening to his transx3ar- 
 ent egotism and intense self-satisfaction. He is such 
 a complacent self-deceiver in his laudation of himself 
 and of everything connected with him, that it is a sort of 
 luxury to listen to him. His plain wife and unattractive 
 children are to his mind perfection, and he tells you so. 
 His house, his pictures, his carriage, his horses, are 
 the best in the world, as he thinks and tells you. 
 
 (130) 
 
Enjoyable Egotism. 131 
 
 He repeats it again and again, unendingly, on every 
 occasion, and you listen to it with a slight feeling of 
 amusement and half admiration at the man's enormous 
 ability in self -adulation, and his immense capacity at 
 self-deception and braggadocia. In anybody else it would 
 be lying. Incredible as it is, he believes it all — you can 
 see and feel that he does — and he mentions it not offen- 
 sively but in a spirit of apparent joyousness and thank- 
 fulness to Heaven that he has been so abundantly blessed 
 above his fellows. The very magnitude of his egotism 
 and vanity attract you with wonder, and admiration that 
 he can build so large a structure upon so slight a founda- 
 tion. It is an achievement impossible of attainment for 
 any ordinarily constituted mortal. He is a phenomenon 
 of egotism! 
 
 He takes you into his parlor to show you a picture of 
 autumn foliage — a lake surrounded by woods, with a dis- 
 tant hill in the backgi'ound and a thin column of smoke 
 arising from some forester's fire. And he tells you how 
 in traveling he encountered the artist and discovered his 
 remarkable talent, and bought the painting at an exceed- 
 ingly low figure — the finest painter of autumnal tints in 
 America ! Sui'e to attain fame ! Extraordinary discern- 
 ment on his part ! So far as j^ou can see it is a common- 
 jilace effort of no value. 
 
 He walks you to his stable to show you his horses — 
 wonderful promise of speed ! Extraordinary sagacity in 
 him to discover it ! Did it all himself — unaided ! Mar- 
 velous success in getting them at such a price ! To your 
 eye they are farm cobs defective in form, devoid of style, 
 and of ordinary movement. 
 
 And so he takes you from one thing to another and 
 
132 Ii:-)}i)nisce7ices atid Sh'frJw.-.. 
 
 shows you with continual brag- and extreme delight all 
 his possessions, all extraordinary, the very best, none like 
 them elsewhere. You cannot find it in your heart to 
 contradict him or dissent. It would be cruel to mar so 
 much harmless pleasure. 
 
 Fish and hunt? Yes, uncommon success! Beats 
 the whole neig-hborhood ! Nobody can come near him 1 
 Nobody has such guns, or dogs, or rods, or fishing- tackle, 
 or such luck ! 
 
 Succeeds in business ? Yes, wonderfully ! Best farms, 
 and houses, and business, and speculations — marvelous 
 success ! 
 
 Transparent egotism and vanity, and brag- all day and 
 every day whenever you meet him. And yet it gives you 
 no offense— is pleasant, rather. 
 
UNTRUTHFULNESS OF HISTORY. 
 
 ^TTHEN }i boy I j«aid a visit at the house of Doctor 
 Joseph Henderson, of Mifflin county, whose wife, 
 Jane Maclay, was a relative of my father. He was a man 
 of larg-e information and experience, and a most enter- 
 taining companion, taking great delight in imparting in- 
 formation and instruction. A skilled botanist, he ex- 
 plained, as we walked through the woods, the sexes of 
 plants and many other curious things in nature, and he 
 talked of American history, which I was studying at 
 school. He had been a surgeon in the war of 1812 : "the 
 last war,'" as it was then called in contradistinction to the 
 "revolutionary war.' Wliat a little affair it was as com- 
 ]iared with the war since ! I narrated, as I had learned 
 it in my school history, the affair of some fort on the 
 Canada frontier, which was boasted of as cjuitci an (exhi- 
 bition of American courage and gallantry, in which our 
 forces had defeated an attempt to capture the fort, by 
 a much larger British force. He said it was a petty af- 
 fair, in wliich, jtfter a slight resistance, the Americans 
 were in full retreat, and the British had entered the works, 
 
 when an unex])ected (explosion occurred from a liot slint 
 
 (IS?.) 
 
134 Reminiscences and Sketches. 
 
 fired by the British themselves, which had burned its way 
 into the magazine. A large number of the British were 
 blown up, and the Americans rallied and reentered the 
 fort, and it was chronicled as a great American victory. 
 
 Great praise was given in the school history to General 
 Israel Putnam, and I named him as my ideal of an Amer- 
 ican hero, next after Washington. There was the killing 
 of the wolf and the riding down the stone steps at Horse- 
 neck, both of which were illustrated with pictures in the 
 history. The Doctor quite disconcerted my patriotic ad- 
 miration, and with the rude hand of an iconoclast knocked 
 my old general into common-place obscurity. He was 
 let down by a rope into the cave by his neighbors and 
 fired at the gleaming eyes of the animal and was then 
 dra^vn up. It might have been worth mentioning if he 
 had gone there alone and without the rope. The whole 
 affair was a piece of Yankee caution, near akin to coward- 
 ice. He said he knew a hunter in Elk county, a wild, 
 thinly-inhabited region in that day, who discovered a 
 wolf's den with pups in it, and wishing to take them alive 
 denuded himself of his pantaloons, tied up the ends and 
 made an extemporized bag in which, bare-legged, he was 
 carrying off the whelps on his shoulders, when the old 
 wolf appeared and rushed upon him in open-mouthed 
 fiu'y. He shot her and successfully carried off her young, 
 a much braver and more memorable act, as the Doctor 
 thought. As to the ride- down the stone steps, anybody 
 might have done that. It all depended on the horse. In 
 truth he said, the* most of history was exaggeration ; ex- 
 aggerated laudation or defamation, according to the 
 nationality or religious bias of the naiTator. 
 
THE NECESSITY FOR GOOD NATURE 
 ON SHIPBOARD. 
 
 TTTHEN pent up in a steamship for a voyage across 
 the Atlantic you realize the necessity of amiabil- 
 it}^ One cross, ill-g-rained person can radiate all around 
 him a disag-reeable, chilling atmosphere, and make him- 
 self miserable and every one else who comes in contact 
 ^dtli him. But a pleasant, genial man, who tells his best 
 stories and jokes, and laughs heartily at those given in 
 return is like a beam of sunshine, and is a desirable trav- 
 eling companion. Even the dullest fellow realizes the 
 necessities of the occasion, and strives to make the ten 
 days of enforced companionship among those who, by 
 chancer are thrown temporarily together, pass agi*ee- 
 ably. You cultivate your power to please and b(^ pleased, 
 and it is really wonderful how much success attends the 
 effort. You are ready at all times to swap jokes, and 
 memory sends out her scouts all along the past of your 
 life to hunt up littk^ incidents and narrations that will 
 supply your stock in trade. 
 
 Talking of this featur(? of a sea voyage lately brought 
 (135) 
 
136 Reminiscences and Sketches. 
 
 out this responsive story. A young man was starting on 
 the trip to Europe, which is now so easily made, and 
 which so many Americans aninially indulge in. To each 
 one who makes it, however, it is an important event. And 
 the father, wishing to impart from the stores of experi- 
 ence ad\ice that would be useful to his son, said : " My 
 son the world is a looking-glass. If you smile on it, it 
 mil smile pleasantly at you : if you frown, it will inevita- 
 bly return a scowl. You are the maker to a great extent 
 of your own pleasure. If you strive to be pleasant and 
 agreeable to people you encounter they wiU meet you 
 half-way, and your life will be cheerful and happy. You 
 can always find something good in your surroundings, 
 something to admire and speak well of. I entreat you to 
 be pleased : never find fault : cultivate a disposition to be 
 satisfied, and to make the best of everything, and give 
 expression on all occasions to your admiration, because 
 the oral expression of a feeling gives intensity to it." 
 
 Duly impressed with this piece of paternal wisdom, 
 the youthful traveler started on his journey with a resolve 
 that no matter what betided he would never find fault or 
 express dissatisfaction, but on the contrary would exert 
 himself to see good in everything and be la\dsli in his 
 jiraises. He succeeded admirably. Never was a young 
 fellow so popular. Everybody liked him wherever he 
 went, and he added immensely to his own enjoyment. 
 Finally he came to a hotel at the Lakes of Killarney. 
 Seated at the table, he looked around, as was his wont, 
 for something to admire so that he might make a pleas- 
 ant speech to the landlord. He was a truthful young 
 man, however, and felt that the expression of his admira- 
 tion must be found(Ml on fact. He did not Avish to in- 
 
Necessity for Good Nature on Shipboard. 137 
 
 dulg-e in an entire fabrication, and yet tlie character of 
 the entertainment and the make-up of the table drove him 
 to his wit's end. And thus it resulted. Looking over the 
 table he said, " Landlord, I like this hotel, I am charmed 
 and delighted, you have such good salt here." 
 
DID YOU SEE ANY WHALES? 
 
 TT is wonderful how the traveler in distant lands feels 
 drawn to anything- that reminds him of home. Meet- 
 ing- a citizen of his own town or county, or state even, 
 with whom he had no previous acquaintance or inter- 
 course, he is attracted as if he were an intimate friend. 
 The newspaper of his village, how interesting- the dull 
 sheet has become ! At home he hardly g-lances at it. 
 And so a letter from home, how it is longed for ! I re- 
 member with what desire and interest I looked for the 
 first letter from Bedford when I was in Paris. I had been 
 going from place to place and no letter had reached me, 
 until I was quite sick to hear of the dear ones at home, 
 grown doubly dear by absence. Finally I was handed 
 one bearing- the postmark of the ancient village, which I 
 opened with trembling haste. No i^earl of great price 
 nor sparkling diamond could have been seized with more 
 avidity, or would have been half as welcome. It proved 
 to be from my eight-year-old son, whose developing mind 
 was just then intensely occupied with the wonders of 
 natural history. Spelled out in letters made like print- 
 ing, this was its entire contents : 
 
 Bedford, Pa., June 1st, 1875, 
 " Dear Pa : Did you see any whales ? 
 
 " Your affectionate son, 
 
 "George." 
 
 (138) 
 
SOLOMON'S WISDOM. 
 
 XN 1850 Isaac Kensinger was deputy surveyor of Bed- 
 ford county. He resided in Liberty township, and 
 did not attend at his office in the county seat except dur- 
 ing- coui't weeks. The official papers of the office, con- 
 sisting of land warrants and di'afts of returns of surveys, 
 were in a locked case, and the key, to which everj^body 
 had access and over which nobody had special care or 
 control, was left at the prothonotary's office. It occurred 
 to me that if I were given charge of the office and the 
 key, as a sort of assistant to Mr. Kensinger, it would 
 enable me to get surveying to do, particularly in the 
 southern part of the county, from which Mr. Kensinger's 
 residence was distant many miles. Acting on this idea, 
 through General Bowman, the acknowledged head and 
 leader of the Jeffersoniaii Democracy of the county, Mr. 
 Kensinger was induced to make the desired aiTangement, 
 and I was installed ;is liis deputy, with authority to do 
 surveying under him, which fact was duly announced to 
 the public by an advertisement in the Bedford Go,zefte, 
 Surveying was in my case a good stepping-stone to the 
 
 practice of the law. Much of the litigation at that time 
 
 (139) 
 
140 Bemiuiscoiccs and Skefdies. 
 
 was about land. A knowledg-e of practical surveying- was 
 a useful adjunct to a youn^?- lawyer. It \^\\i me into closer 
 contact with the people in their homes, and made me 
 acquainted with the roads and topog-raph}^ of the county, 
 and was a healthful and invigorating exercise, which 
 tended to muscular development in a frame somewhat 
 enfeebled by sedentary habits. For several years I pur- 
 sued this avocation in the spring and fall, and made 
 extended trips, covering two or three weeks of time, often 
 g-oing on foot from one locality to another. 
 
 One Sunday morning in May, 1851, found me in the 
 head of Bean's Cove. It was a beautiful, brig-ht day, calm 
 and genial with sunshine. The apple trees were ladened 
 with frag-rant blossoms, through which the bees were 
 humming, and the mountain sides were covered with a 
 fresh coat of emerald green, dotted here and there with 
 the white bloom of the dogwood and service-berry. There 
 was no church near, and I concluded to walk over the 
 mountain into Black Valley, toward the neighborhood in 
 which I was to work the next day, and visit old Michael 
 Mills, whose acquaintance I had made and for whom I 
 had become concerned, in connection with an older lawyer, 
 in a law-suit of some importance. When I arrived at 
 Mr. Mills' habitation, the door stood <^pen. No dog"'s 
 bark nor other sound broke the solemn Sabbath stillness, 
 and no li\ing being was in sight. I opened the yard 
 g-ate and stepped into the house. AVith his back toward 
 me, without a coat, in his clean white shirt-sleeves, with 
 a shining bald head fringed with a circle of neatly-brushed 
 liair, wearing spectacles with brazen frame encircling- 
 glasses as large as a dollar, tied with a string that came 
 acioss th(^ back of liis liead ])etween th(^ ears, sat tlie old 
 
SoJotNoiLs Wisdorti. 141 
 
 man, with a laixe family Bible, oruamtiiited with hrazeu 
 clasps, resting- wide open on his knees, from which he 
 was reading- aloud to himself. So intent was he, and 
 absorbed, that 1h^ heard not the sound of my approach- 
 ing- footfall. 
 
 I stopped and looked, and was struck with admiration 
 for the man and the scene : a peaceful Sabbath morning-, 
 with all nature beautiful — g-enial sunshine, balmy air, f ra- 
 g-rant blossoms, and a venerable old man sitting- in a 
 comfortable arm-chair in the midst of his quiet rural 
 home, intentl}^ reading- in the big family Bible that his 
 ancestor broug-ht across the ocean years before, and so 
 absorbed in his pious meditations that the noise of my 
 approach had not attracted his attention nor aroused him 
 from his devotions. Ah ! I thoug-ht, what a lovely sig-ht ! 
 How g-lad I am I came ! It is equal to a sermon— a liv- 
 ing-, eloquent sermon — in the presence of which the formal 
 platitudes of ordinary preaching- dwindle into insig-nifi- 
 cance. How fortunate I am that there was no church 
 open in Bean's Cove, and that I came over the mountains 
 and was permitted to witness this speakings sermon and 
 this lovely scene? All! the country is the place to live! 
 Contact with nature is the thing-! A quiet life, a peace- 
 ful, happy old age, rural piety, his own prophet, priest, 
 and king-! Venerable ^ man ! how I admire you and envy 
 your lot ! 
 
 This revery ovt^r, I advanced and saluted the object of 
 my reverence and admiration, who laid his specs in the 
 Bible, closed it with a bang-, and arose with a startled 
 look, and when he recognized me and g-ot over his sur- 
 prise, welcomed m(^ to the hospitalities of his habitation 
 and said: "I am very g-lad, indeed, to s<^e you. T have 
 
142 Reminiscences and Sketches. 
 
 been reading here in the Book of Kings about Solomon, 
 and am greatly puzzled, and would like to know what you 
 think of it. They say he was a wise man — the very wisest 
 that ever lived. Since 1 was a little boy I have been told 
 that Solomon was a wise man — noted above all men for 
 his wisdom. Now I am sixty -eight years of age, and have 
 observed a good deal of human nature in my time, and I 
 tell you if this is true that I have been reading here about 
 him, he is the grandest old fool that ever wrote wisdom 
 for other people to practice." "What's wrong," I said; 
 "what's Avi'ong, my old friend? What have you been 
 reading? AVhat did Solomon do that was so far from 
 wise?" "Why," he replied, "it says here in the eleventh 
 chapter of the Book of Kings, that Solomon had seven 
 hundred Tvdves and three hundred concubines' Wliat 
 under the sun would a man do with them? For my part, 
 I don't believe a word of it.' 
 
JUDICIAL ROBES. 
 
 T ATELY the judges of the Supreme Court of Penn- 
 sylvania appeared upon the bencli in judicial robes 
 of heavy silk. The only other courts in the United States 
 in which the judg-es wear gowns are the Supreme Court 
 of the United States at Washington city and the Court 
 of Appeals of the State of New York. 
 
 For many years past no judges in Pennsjdvania have 
 worn gowns. AMiat is the meaning of the change ? Is 
 it a step backward ? Is it a matter of importance, or is 
 it a mere matter of taste in costume in the individual 
 judges and of indifference to the public ? Does the gown 
 add to the dignity and impressiveness^ of the judge? Is 
 it a useful adjunct in the administration of distributive 
 justice? And if it adds to the dignity and importance 
 of the judges of the higher court, would it not be ser- 
 ^dceable to the court of common pleas as well, and ought 
 it not to be generally introduced into all the courts 1 
 These are questions which seem to be naturally suggested 
 by this innovation. 
 
 More than thirty years ago I was in St. Louis visiting 
 a friend residing there, and as we were walking one day 
 
 (143) 
 
144 Reminiscences and Sketches. 
 
 he asked me to step iuto the court-house with him while 
 he made proof of an account ag'ainst a decedent's estate 
 before the public administrator. They have there a dif- 
 ferent system of settling- a dead man's estate from ours 
 in Pennsylvania. The public administrator opens an ac- 
 count with each estate as soon as he g-rants letters testa- 
 mentarj^ or of administration, and all creditors call there 
 and present and swear to their accounts. In an ordinary- 
 looking- room, behind a small structure that was a sort of 
 judicial bench, sat ii man no\\-ise remarkable in costume 
 or countenance, before whom ^ my friend advanced and 
 presented his paper. No other person was in the room. 
 My friend had removed his hat at the door as he entered. 
 I remained near the door, slig-htly within the room, with 
 my hat on, when I heard uttered, in a deep, slow voice of 
 thundering- tone, these words : " Take off your hat, sir, in 
 the presence of the court." With a g-lanc(^ at the frown- 
 ing- countenance of His Honor, I uncovered wdth startled 
 alacrity. The judg-e, named Ferg-uson, orig-inally a me- 
 chanic or small merchant, had been appointed or elected 
 to the bench of the orphans' court, and made a most ex- 
 cellent officer, commanding- the respect and confidence of 
 the community by reason of his integrity, faithfulness 
 and industrious and intelligent discharg-e of the duties of 
 his position, but with the manifest weakness of being- pro- 
 foundly impressed with his own personal importance and 
 dig-nit}^ as an incumbent of the magisterial office, and 
 with the determination to let no man with whom he came 
 in contact overlook it, or fail to recog-nize the fact that he 
 was in the augnst presence of a judg-e. Robes of ofiice 
 and a train attendant would have suited this man wonder- 
 full v well. 
 
Judicial Robes. 14{ 
 
 A few weeks afterward, in traveling- up the valley of the 
 Missouri, I arrived at Fayette, the county seat of How- 
 ard county. It was court week, and the place was full of 
 people deeijly interested in a trial that was in progi'ess in 
 the court-house, in which a farmer was aiTaigned for mur- 
 der in the first deg-ree. It was charg-ed that with deliberate 
 premeditation he shot and killed his neighbor, with whom 
 he had not been on g-ood terms. From a place of con- 
 cealment, behind a tree in an adjoining forest, with noop- 
 portunit}^ for resistance or escape, while he was pursuing- 
 his peaceful avocation as a plowman, unsuspicious of 
 harm, in his own field, in sig-ht of his home, where his 
 wife was attending- to her household duties and his little 
 children were at play, he had been killed by a bullet that 
 penetrated his brain and summoned him into eternity 
 without a moment's warning-. 
 
 The whole community was intent on this trial. Noth- 
 ing- else was talked of. The court-house was throng-ed 
 at every session of the court. In an ordinary chair, upon 
 a slig-htly-raised plain and small structure, which answered 
 for a bench, with no associate judg-es, without a gown or 
 other insig-nia of office, sat the judg-e, presiding- \\'ith 
 placid seriousness of countenance and quiet dig-nity of 
 demeanor over a trial in which John S. Kollins, afterward 
 a member of cong-ress, and John B. Henderson, afterward 
 a United States Senator from Missouri, were the attor- 
 neys for the defendant, and a young- man whose name I 
 cannot exactly recall, afterward a state senator, prose- 
 cuted the plea for the commonwealth. 
 
 The case was one of circumstantial evidence alone. No 
 
 mortal eye had witnessed the si looting. A motive \\'as 
 
 clearly proven — deadlv animosity .-uid ;i previous threat — 
 10 
 
14() lit- /Hint see lives and Sketches. 
 
 some tracks leading toward the tree from behind which 
 the o'un had evidently been discharg-ed, and the flattened 
 bullet from the dead man's brain, which coiTesponded in 
 weig-lit with the bullets found in the defendant's bullet- 
 pouch, with just such slight amoimt of diminution as 
 would probably be caused by the abrasion in the rifle- 
 barrel and by crashing through the skull of the deceased. 
 
 A small pair of delicately-adjusted scales, such as are 
 used by druggists in w^eighing medicines, was produced, 
 and the commonwealth asked that the jury might be per- 
 mitted to take out the defendant's rifle and the bullets 
 found in his bullet-pouch, and the flattened bullet, and the 
 scales, into the jury -room, and there make the comparison 
 and weigh for themselves. To this the defendant's coun- 
 sel objected on the ground that the weighing had been 
 done in their presence in open court by an expert, Avho 
 had testified as to the result thereof, and that it was not 
 competent to allow the request. This was fully discussed 
 pro and con, and the authorities cited, and the request re- 
 fused by the court. Divers other points of evidence and 
 law were raised and discussed. 
 
 There was no want of dignity or decorum. Rough men 
 made way for the judge with the profoundest manifesta- 
 tions of respect as he passed in and out at the diflerent 
 sessions of the court, and the utmost quiet prevailed while 
 the witnesses gave in their testimony, and the judge an- 
 swered the points or praj^ers for instruction, and the law- 
 yers addressed the jury. There was no need for a gown. 
 In fact, it would have been ludicrously out of place. Thei'e 
 was no necessity for announcing in a voice of thundei", 
 "Take off your hat in the presence of the court." The 
 solemnity of the occasion, the shocking death, the im- 
 
Judicial Roh'S. 147 
 
 periled life of the a(.;cused, the earnestness and al)ility of 
 the advocates, and the gravity and manifest intellectual 
 calmness and dignity of the judge made a gown mere 
 useless toggery, which would liave belittled the judge 
 and the occasion. Each earnest, intent-eyed listener was 
 a conservator of order. 
 
 In olden times, at Chambersburg, when Hamilton was 
 judge, the sheriff, with a drawn sword, followed l)y the 
 tipstaves, with long poles, escorted the enrobed judge 
 from the hotel to the court-house, to and fi'o. Tradition 
 lias it that the same custom prevailed in other parts of 
 the state. At Harrisbm'g, as I learn from Hamilton 
 Alricks, Esq., who was born in 1806 and admitted to the 
 bar in 1828, the judges wore no gowns within his recol- 
 lection, which extends back to 1816, l)ut before that time, 
 probably dowai to the year 1810, as he learned from his 
 predecessors at the bar, both the president judge and the 
 judge of the Supreme Court sitting at Circuit, enrobed 
 themselves at the hotel where they lived, which was 
 situated on the bank of the river, near the bridge, and 
 niarched in a procession, composed of the sherili', the 
 tipstaves and the lawyers, from the hotel to the court- 
 house, and so back and forth at each session of the court. 
 At Bedford and Huntingdon the judge was escorted by 
 the tipstaves with the poles, but was not adoiiied with 
 the robe, so far as I can learn, and dispensed with the 
 sheriff and the drawn sword. Somehow the robes and 
 even the parade with tix)staves did not comport with 
 republican institutions, and they long since fell into 
 disuse. 
 
 Wliat possible chance would a judge have in such a 
 pro(-ession if some irreverent stn^et urchin, as it threaded 
 
148 Bernini see nces (okI Sketches. 
 
 its way throug-h the crowd, would suggest that he had 
 dropped his bustle! 
 
 A real judge, who has dignity of character and conduct, 
 whose knowledge of the law and manifest integrity of 
 intention are known and read of all men, needs no robe. 
 He has authority behind him — the majesty of the com- 
 monwealth which he represents. He has the reverence 
 of law which an intelligent people entertain. Vestments 
 may be necessary to impress ignorance. They are of no 
 use in a contact with intelligence. They do not dignify 
 want of legal learning, or g-ive strength to weakness, or 
 integrity to a political schemer. 
 
 In a profound respect for law and the administration 
 of justice, the American people are excelled by no 
 nationality, ancient or modern. The basis of it is not 
 form or ceremony, not robes or wigs. It is an intelligent 
 knowledge of the constitution of the g-overnment, and an 
 appreciation of the necessity of respect for the adminis- 
 trators of distributive justice in order to the well-being 
 of the community, which every good citizen has at heart. 
 
 Do robes add to the force or strength of the pulpit 
 orator? You cannot transmute dullness into discern- 
 ment, ignorance into knowledge, attenuated di-ivel into 
 logic, or a nerveless grasp into administrative talent by 
 encasing the man with a silk gown. 
 
 Next after Almig^hty God, the American people rever- 
 ence law. It commands their respect, not through fear, 
 nor through forms or ceremonies, not on the basis of 
 (rmne igiioium pro nobile, but because of an intelligent 
 understanding of the principles of government and the 
 recog'nized necessity for a profound respect for constituted 
 authority. They themselves lielp to make the law, and 
 
Ju'licial Uohes. 149 
 
 are a part of the sovereig-n power of which the judo-e is 
 the representative. It is pubHc opinion, not outward 
 show, that g"ives majesty to the jndg'e. It is the office, 
 not tlie man, that is reverenced. Tlie incumbent is re- 
 spected because he fills the office worthily. No mere 
 external sig-n is needed to inspire respect. An earnest, 
 honest and ])roj:>er discharg-e of the duties of the position 
 insures it. You belittle real g-reatness when you dress it 
 in tog-g-ery, and you fail to elevate incompetency by 
 clothing- it in a g-own. 
 
 Everywhere throug'h Eiu'ope are forms, and ceremonies, 
 and official costumes, and insig-nia — the effete remains of 
 feudal times — more or less difficult to gfet rid of, doubt- 
 less, in an old and artificially-constituted society. Noth- 
 ing- can be more mibecoming- and uncomfortable-looking- 
 than a horse-hair wig, such as are worn by the Eng-lish 
 barristers. To see a man in the midst of an arg-ument 
 lift the unsig-htly thing: from his over-heated head with 
 one hand, while he runs the other throug-h his natural 
 hair to g-ive his pate air and relief, is amusing- to an 
 American eye. It strikes one as absurdly ludicrous. 
 
 Some years ag-o I heard Dean Stanley preach in West- 
 minster Abbey. A verg-er, clad in a long- blue g-arment, 
 carrying- a small rod ornamented with silver, followed by 
 another man similarly dressed, bearing two small books 
 
 presumably a Bible and prayer-book — behind whom 
 walked the dean in a velvet skull-cap, with some clerical 
 vestments on, made to my vision a procession neither 
 awe-inspiring nor conducive to a devout frame of mind. 
 With solemn visages they entered, I hardly saw from 
 where, and moved forward toward a little box of a pulpit. 
 The rod-bearer ascended the pulpit steps, unbolted and 
 
150 lie HI in I seances and Sketches. 
 
 Oldened tlie little door and descended. ' The dean then 
 ascended and seated himself. The book-bearer then 
 placed the books upon the desk before the dean, and 
 clostxl and fastened the door. 
 
 Something- may be said, doubtless, in favor of uniforms 
 to designate officials. When the Pennsylvania Railroad 
 Company put uniforms on its (conductors and brakemen, 
 many persons thoug-ht it was a piece of snobbery. And 
 yet it has proved to b(^ useful and a public convenience. 
 But what can be said in favor of .g-owns for Su^jreme 
 Court judg-es/ They need no uniforms to desig*nate 
 them. The persons who see them are the lawyers who 
 know them. They are not there to l)t^ looked at. It is 
 true a gown makes a small man look big-g-er. It migflit 
 be serviceable to g-ive the appearance of size to a diminu" 
 tive judg-e: but if he has a big- head and a big* mind, and 
 is big" in g-ood sense and leg-al knowledg"e, what odds 
 about the size of his body I 
 
 Wliat effect has the wearing* of the g-owii upon the 
 judg-e himself ? Does it tend to puff him up and make 
 him think more hig-hly of himself than he ought to think 1 
 It won't add to his real knowledge of the law. Will it 
 tend to make him think he knows more than he really 
 does ! AVill it minister to a desire for ostentation ? Will 
 gowns add to the comfort of the judges? Is it because 
 of the loose and easy fit of the garment that it has been 
 adopted? If this is the ground, no one can object to it. 
 But if it is with a desire to give dignity to the bench and 
 impress the public by ostentatious displa}^ it is a mis- 
 take and a stc^p ba(;kward. It does not harmonize well 
 with republican institutions and will fail of its object. 
 The true dignity of the bench springs from the reverence 
 
Judici<fl liolx'-^- 
 
 7^, 1 . for Uw and the inteUigent appreciation of 
 
 ,, the peopW ^- -' - ^^ ^^^^ ,, ,,p,ess them 
 
 the character ot the jua^es. ^ i /i .^,i ;. a 
 
 ;Lu,h thei. eyes is loweriu. the standavd and . 
 retrogressiou toward the effete past. 
 
A TRIP TO GETTYSBURG. 
 
 ~[ TAD the whole State of Pennsylvania been searched 
 for a battle-field it is probable no place could have 
 been found better suited for a contest between larg-e op- 
 posing- armies than the vicinage of Gettysbui-g-, nor any 
 upon which the positions and movements of the different 
 regiments, divisions and corps could be as well desig- 
 nated and indicated to a visitor desirous of studying a 
 battle. 
 
 An incorporated company kno^\ai as " The Battle-Field 
 Association " has charge of the matter. Three hundred 
 monuments, many of them quite elaborate and beautiful, 
 have been erected to indicate the positions of the forces 
 on the different days of the fig-ht, and roads have been 
 laid out and opened by which visitors can drive over the 
 field. Cemetery Hill and the tuiTet on the theological 
 seminary give high points from Avhich a bird's-eye view 
 can be had of the suiTOunding country, and the monu- 
 ments mark the lines of the three-days' battling and en- 
 able the g-uides to point out and explain the military 
 movements so as to be readily intelligible. Nowhere else 
 
 (152) 
 
./ Trip to (h'ityshiinj. 153 
 
 in the world is a battle-Held monumentally marked to 
 such an extent. 
 
 That which seemed twenty -five years agfo to be a great 
 affliction and detriment to the citizens of Gettysburg- and 
 the vicinity has x^roved in the long' run a benefit. It has 
 made an obscure country town take a prominent place in 
 history, and a constantly-increasing- throng of visitors 
 gives business to railroads, hotels and hackmen. Gettys- 
 burg must be a noted place as long as the history of our 
 country endures. 
 
 I know of no railroad ride more interesting than that 
 taken by Bishop Benedict and myself in the bright Octo- 
 ber weather of a few weeks since. Leaving Bedford at 10 
 A. M. we went down the Juniata to where it pours its tribute 
 into the wide bosom of the Susquehanna at Duncan's 
 Island. All along the fertile valley was fringed by mount- 
 ains gorgeous with autumn foliage. A more beautiful 
 stream than the Susquehanna from Duncannon to Hams- 
 burg would be difficult to find. It is a vision giving 
 pleasure as the train sweeps along the great railroad 
 curves on the river's bank and passes over the mile long 
 railroad bridge at Ilock\dlle. And the Cumberland Val- 
 ley, mtli its broad farms and excellent crops of corn and 
 clover, and fine houst^s and barns, and its distant line of 
 mountains on either side — do the blue heavinis anyw^here 
 overarch a more lovely scene t AVlien tlu^ rebels invaded 
 Pennsylvania in 1863, the rank and file from the extreme 
 south, where they have no barns, mistook the fine barns 
 of the Cumberland Valley for churches. k\\<\ then you 
 pass from Carlisle through the gap of the South Mount- 
 ain and across the fertile plains of Adams county to a 
 supper at the Eagle Hotel just long enough delayed be- 
 
154 ReminisGences and Sketches. 
 
 yoiid the usual time to sharpen the appetite into a just 
 appreciation of well-cooked food. 
 
 From Gettysburg" we traveled home over the noted 
 Tape-Worm railroad. It has been lately finished by the 
 Western Maryhmd railroad, and incorporated with it as 
 a part of its line. It is a most charming- railroad ride, 
 with transcendently beautiful vistas and outlooks; nor 
 does it strike one now as being- more full of curves than 
 many anothei- mountain railroad. Fifty years ago the 
 Bedford Gazette and other Democratic papers were orna- 
 mented with a wood-cut exhibiting- a Avonderfully tortuous 
 line which they calhnl "Thad. Stevens' Tape-AVorm Rail- 
 road." The slow -marching- multitude have at last reached 
 the position of the advanced thinker. 
 
 From Pen-Mar park, on the Blue Mountain, all of 
 Franklin county, Pennsylvania, and part of Washing-ton 
 county, Maryland, lie stretched before you like a map. 
 Such a view is "worth a voyage across the Atlantic," as 
 Jefferson said of Harper's Ferry. Pen-Mar is named from 
 the first syllables of the two states. It is on tlie line 
 which divides them. You see below you thousands of 
 acres of peach trees. It has within the last ten years 
 been discovered that the slate foot-hills of the west side 
 of the South Mountain are peculiarly adapted for the cul- 
 ture of peaches. The business has proved very profit- 
 able, and many people are embarking- in it. Land that 
 was worth but ionr or five dollars an acre a few years ago 
 now finds ready sale at ten times that pric^e. 
 
 "Bisho}) Benedict, of Bedford," sounds well. The al- 
 littn-ation is pleasing- to the ear. The three B's make a 
 much hai)pi(H' combination than Burchard's three B's, 
 that g-ave Mr. Blaine so mucli trouble. At Gettysburg- he 
 
A Trip to Gettysburg. 155 
 
 was introduced by this euphonious tith^ to Ji youn^- l.iw- 
 yer who has made his advent in that ancient boroug'h long- 
 since the Bishop, then a student, phinted the trees along- 
 the path in the campus of the college, which has ever 
 since been known by the classic appellation of " vi(i Ben- 
 edlcta.'' "Of what is he bishop?" inquired the lawyer. 
 "Of the Lutheran church of the whole United Sbites," was 
 the reply, " by virtue of the parity of the clergy, by which 
 one preacher is as g-ood as another, and probably better." 
 
 Pennsylvania Colleg-e and the Theological Seminary of 
 the Lutheran Church are located at Gettysburg-. These 
 are venerable institutions over sixt}^ years of ag-e. A larg-e 
 additional college building has lately been erected, con- 
 taining admiral)ly -arranged recitation rooms, libraries 
 and rooms for the literary societies, and a new chapel, 
 called the Brua Memorial Hall, for church services and 
 graduation exercises, and the old Ijuilding has been al- 
 tered and refitted so as to give a largely -increased number 
 of rooms for dormitories, and the whole of these build- 
 ings, including also the residences of the president and 
 professors, are heated by steam, so that in the matter of 
 grounds and buildings the college is unsurpassed in the 
 state. Its location at Gettysburg gives it a national prom- 
 inence, and with a (^orps of fifteen professors and instruc- 
 tors and an attendance of over Uvo hundred students it 
 is in a flourishing condition. 
 
 If I could recall and relate all the theological incidents 
 that the Bishop tradtnl to me, as we journeyed, in return 
 for legal stories, you would have such an efl:ervescing 
 compound of theology and law as would swell your sides 
 with laughter. Wliat would my clerical readers do in a 
 predicament like tlie following ^ Foi- many years a grave 
 
156 Reminiscences and Sketches. 
 
 and reverend elder in the church, who invariably attended 
 and expected to be asked to lead in praj^er, opened with 
 this invocation : " Oh ! Lord, we approach Thee on this 
 occasion with the confonndest reverence/' Oug-ht you to 
 privately tell him of his mistake, or ought you to take no 
 ]iotice of it, but let the thing run on week after week, 
 month after month, and year after year, with a grave face ? 
 Perplexing, wasn't it? And yet clearly the right thing 
 to do was what the Bishop did, namely : he took no no- 
 tice of it. To have mentioned it would have wounded the 
 good man's self-esteem and given him mortal offense, and 
 would have done no possible good. The Great Discerner 
 of the thoughts and intents of the heart knew that the 
 old man meant profoundest. The lawyers have a maxim, 
 mala grammatica non vifiat cartam, which means that 
 bad grammar does not invalidate a Avriting ; nor does a 
 slip of the tongue nullif j^ an earnest prayer. 
 
 And what think you of this ? A young man who was 
 studying for the Presbyterian ministry was invited by the 
 Rev. T. K. Davis to try his prentice hand at the Wednes- 
 day evening prayer-meeting. After the manner of the 
 long prayer which used to be in vogue among Presby- 
 terians, which embraced, in elongated detail, an elaborate 
 statement of each particular blessing that was desired, 
 the young man prayed, inter alia, " Oh ! Lord, we ask 
 Thee to bless the heathen. May Thy people not neglect 
 them ; but may they contribute liberally of the substance 
 with which Thou hast blessed them, so that missionaries 
 may be sent forth and the blessed gospel may be preached 
 to the heathen. And we ask Thee, also, oh ! Lord, to re- 
 member the pagans. Let Thy gospel shine forth to all 
 the dark corners of the earth, and may the pagans as well 
 
A Trip to GiittyshKrij. 157 
 
 as the heathen be brought to a knowledg-e of Thy truth." 
 Comprehensive benevolence, wasn't it f Or what of this 
 exposition of the text, " Preach the gospel to every crea- 
 ture "? " Brethren, the word every in the orig-inal Greek 
 is much more emphatic and significant than in the Eng- 
 lish. It means a great deal more in the orig-inal Greek." 
 Two old ladies whom threescore years and ten had 
 broug'ht fully to the realization of the approaching- end 
 of life were talking together of old ag-e and death and 
 heaven — of the blissful future which they hoped awaited 
 them in the beyond, when, with rejuvenated eyes and 
 hearing-, and freed from the stiff joints and bent backs of 
 time, they would enter upon the pleasures of eternity. 
 One, a modest old Methodist mother, said : "Oh I Lovey, 
 Lovey, I hope 111 g-et in. If I can only just g-et inside of 
 the door, I'll be content." 'Oh I no," said Lovey, a Lu- 
 theran, "no, no; I'll not be satisfied with that. I want 
 to g-et up in front. I want to g-et near to Marty Luther " — 
 never doubting- for a moment but that Heaven is a sort 
 of big- church, with the Monk of Eufert in the pulpit, or 
 at least in the amen corner, prominently ofiiciating- some- 
 where near the front. There is something- ludicrous about 
 this which excites a smile ; but the simple, child-like faith 
 of those old women, is it not lovely ? Such faith is worth 
 possessing-. It is a source of infinite comfort — this " com- 
 fortable assurance of hope." It almost seems to border 
 on irreverence to joke thus ; but after all a laug-h is a good 
 thing. It must have been intended that human being-s 
 should enjoy a laugh or the sense of the ludicrous would 
 not have been bestowed upon them. Life is real. It is 
 an earnest thing- to live and a serious thing- to die, and it 
 would not do to be always joking. Neither would it do 
 
158 Ifeminiscences and Sketches 
 
 to be always thinkiug- of death and eternity. Solomon, 
 who is credited with the possession of a good deal of 
 wisdom (thoug-h he certainly did some very foolish things, 
 such as having seven himcbed wives, for instance), says, 
 " There is a time for all things." 
 
 An eminent judge who presides with distinguished 
 ability over the courts of a western district of this state, 
 and who is always ready to swap inciidents in a way which 
 makes social intercourse very pleasant, narrates that when 
 a })oy he worked on a farm and esteemed it a great event 
 to help a neighbor, who was a devout man, accustomed 
 to say grace and return thanks at every meal, at thresh- 
 ing. The work began early and lasted late. In order to 
 get through no time was to be lost. Although they 
 worked so many hours (no eight or ten-hour law limited 
 their efforts), the boys all liked it because of the excite- 
 ment and bustle and crowd of hands, with their occa- 
 sional comitry jokes. It differed from the hum-drum 
 monoton}' of ordinary day labor. Though time was of 
 '' the essencie of the contract,'' as the legal maxim runs, 
 and not a minute was to be lost, yet the good man of the 
 house said grace and returned thanks at eacli meal, with 
 no word omitted. The stereotyped ending of each prayer 
 was : " And all to Thj' praise and glory, world without 
 end, amen," to which the old man. with a realizing sense 
 that there is a timc^ for work as well as a time to pray, 
 and hurrying on with rapid utterance, added, as he snap- 
 ped his eyes open, "Joe, hand round the bread." 
 
 At Gettysburg there resides the oldest member of the 
 Bedford bar, Samuel Eiddle Russell. He was admitted 
 to the bar at Bedford on the 6th day of August, 1823, on 
 motion of Hon. (leorge Burd. so that lie has been a law- 
 
A Trip to Getty sbwrg. 159 
 
 yer for sixty-six years — two- thirds of a century ! He read 
 law at Bedford Avith his brother, Hon. James McPherson 
 Russell, who read law with his uncle, Samuel Riddle, in 
 Chambersburg-, and married Rebecca Lyon, of Carlislej 
 and settled in Bedford in 1812, and built, in the year 1817, 
 the large brick house on the corner of the public square, 
 now 0(^cupied by Hon. Samuel Lyon Russell. 
 
 Samuel Riddle Russell is a genial gentleman eighty- 
 eight years of age and wonderfully well-preserved. He 
 was born in 1801 in Gettysburg, in the house in which 
 he now^ resides. He was never married. He was an ad- 
 mirer of Eliza Dillon, but delayed a little too long in 
 avowing his feelings and she was wooed and won by Major 
 Taliaferro. Russell had started from Gettysburg on a 
 visit to Bedford, intending to propose marriage to Miss 
 Dillon. ^Mieii he reached the Juniata Crossings he 
 learned that she and the Major were then there on their 
 bridal trip. It was a surprise and a shock. He could 
 only stand and gaze and think what might have been. 
 
 AVlien he was reading law in Bedford in 1821 and 1822 
 there were four other law students. Robert J. Walker, 
 afterward United States Senator from Mississippi and 
 Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, was read- 
 ing with his father, Judge Jonathan Walker: William 
 Waugh and M. Cannon with Ge^orge Burd, and John A. 
 Blodgett and Mr. Russell with James M. Russell. He 
 reports that Bedford was a dull village in those days, 
 with very little attractive social life — nothing to break 
 the monotony in winter and very little in summer, except 
 an occasional dance at the Springs. Robert J. Walker 
 was undersized and w^as exceedingly sensitive on the sub- 
 ject, and was twitted and annoyed by Blodgett on account 
 
160 Iternimscences and Sketcltes. 
 
 of it. He wore hi^h-lieeled boots to increase his appar- 
 ent heig-lit. His mother was Lucie Duncan, of Carlisle, 
 who was short of stature, but very brainy, as the Dun- 
 cans all were. His father, Judg-e Walker, was six feet 
 four inches tall. When Mrs. Walker and the Judge 
 walked arm in arm it was a sight to behold. She had to 
 reach up to get her hand in his elbow. In the matter of 
 Robert's size she controlled. He took after his mother, 
 and he got his brains from her too. The Judge was more 
 remarkable for size than brains. 
 
 There was a long bridge across the Juniata where Rob- 
 ert J. Walker and Russell, who were nearly of a size and 
 both fleet of foot, used to run races. When Blodgett 
 first apiDlied for admission to the bar he was rejected by 
 the committee, of which Samuel Riddle was a member, 
 who Avas angry at Blodgett for printing a piece in the 
 newspaper against him, and plied him with difficult ques- 
 tions and induced the committee to report adversely — 
 not an uncommon characteristic of human nature, but by 
 no means magnanimous — on the contrary small, very. 
 
 We came home by Waynesboro' — a most lovely Penn- 
 sylvania town of 4,000 inhabitants, surrounded by a fer- 
 tile and well-cultivated country that is a pleasure to ride 
 through and look upon. How much one man of enter- 
 prise and brains can do for a town ! He can enliven the 
 whole community and transmute a dull country village 
 into a mart of industry and wealth, and of this truth 
 Waynesboro' is an example. A man named Frick, a self- 
 educated mechanic, ^vith an inventive faculty, born and 
 reared near that \dllage, made certain improvements in 
 machinery, and now two large manufacturing establish- 
 ments give employment to hundreds of hands at Waynes- 
 
I Trip to Getty Hbary. IGl 
 
 boro', and manufacture threshing'-machines, steam-en- 
 g-ines, cotton-g-ins, ice-making- machinery, etc., which are 
 shipped to all parts of the country. 
 
 Mr. John H. Crebs, of Waynesboro', was a resident of 
 the place at the time of the retreat of the Confederates, 
 after the battle of Gettysburg", and was an eye-witness of 
 the scene. The rebel forces went in a hurry, pell-mell, 
 with cannon four abreast. General Lee rode about the 
 middle of the retreating host, surrounded by his staff. 
 His countenance was stern, but placid. A little boy of 
 foiu^ or five years of age — Charlie Smith, son of Samuel 
 Smith — advanced to the edge of a porch with a small 
 United States flag and waved it at General Lee with a 
 cheer. The General raised his hat, smiled pleasantly and 
 saluted. He was a big-hearted man, and deserves all that 
 is said in his praise. This little incident indicates it. 
 Weig-hted down with care and responsibility, and in the 
 midst of a retreat after a serious defeat, he noticed the 
 little boy. It shows he was calm and self-possessed, as 
 well as kind-hearted. 
 
 Wlien you want to take an enjoyable summer trip go 
 to Gettysburg and Pen-Mar. You cannot invest three 
 days of time and a few dollars more profitably. And if 
 you wish a genial traveling companion take the Bishop 
 along. 
 
 11 
 
THE STAGE-DRIVER AND THE 
 JUDGE. 
 
 n\ /TODERN methods of locomotion have worked great 
 chang-es in many respects. The old Concord 
 stage-coach, with its nine passeng-ers inside and two out- 
 side, has almost entirely disappeared, and the profes- 
 sional stage-driver of the last generation, who was so 
 marked a character, has disappeared with it. When he 
 was mounted on his box, with the lines drawn taut over 
 his four lively horses, glistening in coats of well-brushed 
 hair, with manes and tails flowing free, and the harness 
 black and burnished, and bright rosettes at the horses' 
 ears, with his lithe hickory -handled whip and its long- 
 buckskin lash, he was king of the occasion. He was con- 
 ductor, brakeman, engineer and fireman, all in one. He 
 could drive fast or slow, as he pleased, and be as sulky, 
 and crabbed, and profane to passengers as he wished. 
 As he bowled along, from his high seat he could look 
 down on pedestrians and slow-moving wagons and pass 
 them }>y with a crack of contempt. Passengers were 
 wont to projiitiate his highness with a cigar or an invi- 
 tation to drink, and endeavored to win his favor by pleas- 
 
 (102) 
 
The Stugt'Drioer and the Jiuhjc 163 
 
 ant remarks and a differential manner. For the time 
 being- he was a man of consequence and importance, and 
 felt it fully. 
 
 The forty years which have intervened since railroads 
 have superseded turnpikes have sent nearly all these old 
 fellows on the long- journey from w^iich no traveler returns ; 
 but here and there one remains, a tottering- old man, liv- 
 ing- in his recollections of the past. I met one to- day. 
 He walks slowly with a cane ; but his eye is bright and 
 clear, and liis memory good, and as he squirts his tobacco 
 juice half a rod or more with the precision of a marks- 
 man, proud of his skill, he delig-hts to talk of times long: 
 gone, and of ihe fine teams he di'ew ribbons on and of 
 the incidents of his earljr life. The old man I introduce 
 you to is Samuel Bag-ley, of Bedford, Pennsylvania. 
 
 Born in 1810, he started as a stage-driver about 1828, and 
 for forty years drove stage in and out of Bedford. Many 
 a member of congress from the west, and many a judge 
 and merchant, traveled with him, and was glad of the 
 honor of a place beside him on the driver's box on clear, 
 bright days, when the diversified scenerj^ of mountain and 
 valley made an outside seat so enjoyable. General Cass 
 and Henry Clay rode behind him, and Edwin Forrest, the 
 actor, and "Tariff Andy " Stewart, and Charles Ogle and 
 many another man of note. 
 
 The old drivers all chewed tobacco and drank whisky — 
 "not to excess,^' quoth my friend, "four or five drinks a 
 day, maybe," good, regular, methodical, steady drinking, 
 that did no man harm, according to the notions of that 
 timc^, but aided digestion and made life rosy, to say noth- 
 ing of noses: and their conversation was rendered pointed 
 and emphatic by oaths well laid in ^\ith euphonistic skill 
 
1(U lioniniscenrcs (duI Sketches. 
 
 at proper intervals, like the caesural pauses in blank verse, 
 an oath for every ten or twenty words — merely for rhythm. 
 
 As he recalls the i)ast my ancient friend grows eloquent 
 in his praises of the grand old times of stage-coaching- 
 and the excellent meals of fried chicken and w^alfles and 
 hot cofi'ee at the w^ayside inn, where the arrival of the 
 stage was the great event of the day. He describes wdth 
 zest the dignified appearance of the ancient landlord and 
 his courteous demeanor as he somewhat pompously re- 
 ceived the tired travelers and ushered them, in winter, 
 into his best room, with its huge, crackling, cheerful hick- 
 ory-wood fire in the open Franklin stove. He remembers 
 the aroma of the oily old rye whisky which the landlord 
 was wont to produce for the delectation of his guests to 
 revive their tired bodies and give tone to the appetite. 
 '"Why, you could smell the blossom of the rye-field," 
 quoth he; and he recounts the conversational pleasant- 
 ries and hon nioU and sociability w^liich the meals and the 
 whisky engendered, and sighs for the past — the good old 
 days when he was young and vigorous, before the country 
 Avas ruined by railroads. 
 
 "Yes, I was born in 1810, and Judge Black was born 
 the same year. Well, he's dead now — three or four years 
 — and I must soon follow^ We must all go. It comes 
 sooner or later to all. The Judge and I were born just 
 thirty miles apart, and in the same year — he in the glades 
 of Somerset, a farmer boy, and I in a little old log house 
 at the western end of Bedford. Yes, this is the first place 
 I ever came to. I stopped here when I came, just seven- 
 ty-eight years ago. AVe both started pretty low down. 
 He got to be a great judge, and I was only a stage-driver. 
 But I'd rather be a stage-diiver than a judge. It suited 
 
Tlie StOAje-Driver and the Jadye. 165 
 
 me better. Well, I'll tell you how my team rau off, and 
 liow I came near licking- Judge Black. I remember it 
 well. It was the first time I ever met him ; but I didn't 
 know him then. 
 
 "I was driving a four-horse coach on the Glade Pike — 
 from the Wliite Horse Tavern, on the top of the Alle- 
 gheny, to Bedford. I had a double route; drove two 
 teams; changed at Metzgar's, on the Dry Ridge. It was 
 in 1842, when the Judge came to Bedford to hold court 
 for the first time. I had a full load — nine inside. A big 
 man was on the front boot beside me. AVe had no con- 
 versation until the runaway of my team that I'm going 
 to tell you about. As I came along b}^ Samuel Stuckeys 
 Ijlace, about nine oclock at night, a sudden thunder- 
 storm came on. I never had but two teams to run away 
 — one at night and one in daylight — in the forty years T 
 drove. There was a flash and a crash that seemed to split 
 the sky, and the horses jumped and started, quick as the 
 lightning — all but. It was a mighty good team. I was 
 always ready for them — two grays at the lead and two 
 roans at the wheels. The team belonged to Jake 
 Peters. They had hardly jumped till I had a strong pull 
 on them. It was a beautiful star-light night till the storm 
 came up ; very dark then ; a heavy rain for half an hour. 
 I could only see the road when the lightning flashed. 
 When they started the man beside me grabbed for the 
 lines. I told him with an oath — I could curse in them 
 days — if he touched a line I would knock him off' the box 
 with the wrench that was in the boot. He never spoke a 
 word. I kept cursing him and he kept grabbing at the 
 lines; but I didn't let him get hold of them. I told him 
 if he caught aline he would run me ofl' the road and upset 
 me and kill the passengers. By that time we came to 
 
166 Reni'ntiscetHM'S and Skefdics. 
 
 Georg-e Stuckey's yard. That was one mile they had i:.un. 
 There it lig-htened and I saw the house, and I pulled the 
 leaders up so that they ran against the porch and it 
 knocked them both down. The wheel-horses ran onto 
 them with their front feet, and then we stopped The 
 big man got down and went into the house in a hurry, 
 and I saw no more of him till I was ready to start, and 
 that was in half an hour." 
 
 " He didn't offer to help you then ?" 
 
 "Oh, no! In fact they all ran into the house as quick 
 as they could get out of the coach. 
 
 " There was always a lot of tin lanterns with tallow can- 
 dles in them about old taverns in them days, and soon 
 several men were there to help me. The leaders were a good 
 while coming to. We threw cold water on them. Finally 
 we were ready to start — nothing broken — nobody hurt. 
 I hollered huiTah ! for my passengers. The big man got 
 up beside me. I told him, wdth an oath or two, tliat I 
 was going to drive the team to Bedford and lick it like 
 
 , and if he touched a line I would knock out of him 
 
 wdtli that wrench. He didn't say a word — sung dumb — 
 behaved like a gentleman from there to town — never of- 
 fered to touch a line. I licked them up, and took on a 
 full run all the way to Bedford. I tell you I had them as 
 hot as griddle-crdves when I got tliem there. 
 
 "The next day, after I had my team fixed and my A\ork 
 done, I strolled around to the Wasliington Hotel. Col- 
 onel Joe Ot^tinger kept it then . He was in the bar room 
 and a big man sitting there talking to him — no one else 
 there. I didn't know the big man was the man that had 
 rid beside me. 
 
 "The Colonel said to me, '8am, you had bad luck last 
 night.' 
 
lltv Sfaye-Dr i rcr and the Judge. 1(57 
 
 " I replied: ' No, sir; I had no bad luck ; I had a run-off, 
 but I had no bad luck — nobody killed and nobody hurt 
 
 The only trouble T had was to manage a d d fool who 
 
 sat beside me and kept g-rabbing- at the lines when the 
 team was running-, and I kept cursing- him and threatened 
 to knock him overboard with the wrench. I told him if 
 he didn't quit he would upset the coach and kill the pas- 
 seng-ers.' 
 
 "Well, after that Otting-er introduced me to the man, 
 and called him Judge Black, and the Judg-e said to me: 
 
 " ' Sir, you would make one of the best witnesses in the 
 world in a critical case — your narration is exact and cor- 
 rect. I am the man who sat beside you. You did pre- 
 cisely right. I was excited. You were calm. You did 
 your duty, and did it well. You managed your team and 
 you manag-ed me !' 
 
 "After that he and I were always sociable as long- as he 
 lived. AVlien I drove street-cars in Washing-ton city, in 
 1863, I often saw^ him walking- along the avenue, and he 
 would take off his high plug hat and raise it over his head 
 and call to me : 
 
 " 'How are you, old Dry Ridge f 
 
 "Yes, he was a pleasant, sociable man: but he never 
 forgot that ride in the thunder-storm with the runaway 
 team. Nor did I. I made a judge behave himself that 
 time. He sat as mute as a whipped school-boy ; but I 
 didn't know him then. I guess if I had known him I 
 wouldn't have done it. 
 
 "Yes, the Judge was a great man. He knew how to 
 sit on a high seat and manage a set of lawyers and run a 
 com't : but he didn't know how to manage four frightened 
 horses rimning-off' after night in a thunder-storm." 
 
AN UNRECORDED BATTLE. 
 
 "TTTHEN a great battle between larg-e armies is fought, 
 it is made up of a multitude of movements and 
 events obscured by smoke and confusion, of which no one 
 man sees more than a very small part. The historian 
 draws on his imagination for most of his details, and 
 more or less uncertainty surrounds his narration. He 
 describes it as he thinks it must have occurred. But the 
 skirmisli, the battle between outposts, the encounter be 
 tween small bodies of bellig-erents, these are ^\dtnessed 
 sometimes from l)eg-inning- to end and can be truthfull}^ 
 l)ortrayed. Lately I fell in with a gentleman who was an 
 eye-witness of the battle of McConnellsburg". 
 
 Fulton is said to be the only county in Pennsylvania 
 which does not have within its borders a single mile of rail- 
 road. It is one of the few counties, however, which can 
 boast of a real battle during" the late war. Althoug-h the 
 forces eng-ag-ed were not larg-e, it was a X3itched battle — 
 a defiance to a cavalry combat, accepted and fought to a 
 finish without gloves. 
 
 McConnellsburg, the county seat, is a village of six or 
 eight hundred inhabitants, situated in the midst of a beau- 
 
 (108) 
 
An Unrecorded B((ftle. 169 
 
 tiful limestone valley. The Tuseaiora or North Mount- 
 ain bounds it on the east, separating- it from Franklin 
 county, and on the west oi the villag-e, at the distance^ of 
 a mile, is a hig-li ridg-e. As \Hm ]>ass over these mount- 
 ains on the tm'npike road on a fair day the views from the 
 summits are very beautiful and well reward the traveler. 
 The whole valley, called the Big- Gove, stretches before 
 you in full view, with is varieg-ated siui'ace of farm build- 
 ing's and fields and patches of woodland, with the shad- 
 o\\ s of floating- clouds chasing each other across the plains 
 and up the mountain sides. The village is for the most 
 ]jart built on both sides of the tm-npike, and is probably 
 tliree-fourth of a mile in lengrth. Near the center of it, 
 in the latter jDart of Jime, 1863, at the time of Lee's in- 
 vasion of Pennsylvania, was a stone tavern kept by Henry 
 Hoke. Part of General Milroy's force, which had re- 
 treated from Winchester, Yirg-inia, lay at Bloody Run, in 
 Bedford county, twenty-five miles west of McConnells- 
 burg-. With this force was Captain Jones of the First 
 New York Cavalry- , which leg-iment, otherwise known as 
 the " Lincoln Cavalry,'" was the first volunteer cavalry of 
 tlie war, and remained in the service till its close, and has 
 a record of many a brilliant charg-e. 
 
 Captain Jones, witli a |)art of his company, was out on 
 a scout, and had ridden into McConnc^llsburg- and dis- 
 mounted at the tavern. Hv and most of his men were 
 inside the house and their horses were hitched along- the 
 street, wdien w^ord came that the rebels were coming- down 
 the mountain. A part of Im})oden's cavalry force, which 
 was moving- on the left fiank of Lees advancing army, 
 had been encamped in the Gap six miles east of McCon- 
 nellsburg for a day or two, and it was a sm;dl detachment 
 
170 , Be))ruiisc(')ires and Sl'f'f cites. 
 
 of these roug-li riders that was apx)roaching'. Captain 
 Jones said he would give them a l)insh, and ordered his 
 men to mount. Each man examined his pistol and thrust 
 it into the leg- of his ])oot so as to be ready for conven- 
 ient use, and then they mounted and drew their sabres 
 and retreated, as it were, at a slow walk toward the bridg"e 
 at the west end of the villag-e. The street was the turn- 
 pike^a long-, straig-ht road. The rebels came on at a 
 lope. A uniformed company of home-g-uards from the 
 neig-hborhood of Orbisonia, in Huntingxlon county, under 
 Dr. Winthrode, about fifty strong, on g-ood fat horses, was 
 there also. Jones said all he asked of them was to fall 
 in at the rear and make a show. As Jones went west 
 these men were in front. They were to g-o on west to the 
 bridge, and when Jones wheeled to charg-e were to fall in 
 behind to swell the apparent numbers. Captain Jones 
 seems to have realized from the first that the Orbisonia 
 farmers were more for ornament than use, like Gold- 
 smith's "broken china wisely placed for show." 
 
 When he g-ot do^^^l near the bridg"e Jones, wdio was rid- 
 ing slowly behind his men, in a loud voice ordered them 
 to wheel and chargv. They did it promptly, Jones lead- 
 ing the van. They came up the street like a whirh^dnd, 
 every fellow for himself, with their horses at a full run. 
 The rebels had slackened their pace nearl}^ to a walk be- 
 fore Jones ordered his charge. Their manner was irres- 
 olute. Defeat seemed hovering- over them in advanc(» of 
 the battle. As soon as Jones g-ot cleverly started on the 
 charge the rebels turned and fied. The distance between 
 the forces at that time was a])Out one hmidred yards. 
 The Hunting-don militia came on in the rear in fine style 
 until thev reached the cross street wliieh leads toward the 
 
^tn lhi,)'(X(>rdf'd liaitle. 171 
 
 court-house, up which they turned — all of them — not an 
 exception. They may be going- yet, my informant said, 
 for aught he knew. None of them ever came back to see 
 the result. Discretion struck them as the better part of 
 valor. However, they served a g"ood purpose. Their 
 presence had helped to intimidate the foe. 
 
 The first firing- was at the brow of the little ascent or 
 hill toward the east end of the villag-e. A number of 
 shots were interchang-ed. The rebels fired an occasional 
 shot backward as they fied. When they reached the forks 
 of the pike east of the village they halted and made a 
 kind of a stand for a minute or two ; but they soon broke 
 and retreated headlong up the Mercersburg Pike, with 
 Jones in close and hot pursuit. 
 
 My informant continued : "I had run out to the east 
 end of town and sat on the fence as the troops passed 
 me, and as soon as they disappeared up the Mercersburg 
 Pike I followed and saw a wouned rebel lying in the mid- 
 dle of the road, who was living. I got him to the side of 
 the road. He was shot in the back betAveen the shoulders, 
 and the ball could be seen just beneath the skin in his 
 breast. He lived about fifteen minutes, and gave me his 
 name, Avhich was William Shelton, of Bath county, Vir- 
 ginia. He said his wife's name was Mary. I wrote to 
 her, but got no reply. About one hundred yai'ds east of 
 this man another rebel lay, but he was dead when I got 
 to him. 
 
 '■Jones came back befoj'e long ^vdth some thirty jiris- 
 oners, A\hicli was more than his own entire force. He 
 took them on west to Bloody Bun. The fight was at noon. 
 That same day in the aft(3rn()on the entire rebel regiment 
 came on, and divide h1 their forces as thev came down the 
 
172 Ileminiscence.s and Sketches. 
 
 mountain, and sent one-half to the southward, who wound 
 around and approached the tow^l from the west, while the 
 other half came in from the east. They met in the town 
 and searched all the houses, but Jones had departed with 
 his prisoners, and they found nobody, and in the evening 
 they went over the mountain and we saw no more of 
 them: The two dead soldiers were^ buried by the citizens 
 just inside of Daniel Fores meadow along-side of the Mer- 
 cersburg Pike, and there they lie yet, in unmarked o^raves. 
 
 "I guess I was the only maii who saw it all. At any 
 rate I was the onl}' person on the street. 
 
 "The reb(4s were encumbered with store «-oods, Avhich 
 they had strapjied behind their saddles. They seemed 
 to have plundered some store. They had shoes and cali- 
 coes, and I saw one hooped skirt. Jones, when he brought 
 back his prisoners, took these goods from them and scat- 
 tered them on the pavements of the town for the use of 
 the citizens." 
 
 In the great magnitude of the war this little battle is a 
 mere drop in the bucket ; but it was well managed and 
 bravely fought by Captain Jones, -who was a cavalry officer 
 of great merit. A few days after this he captured a large 
 section of a wagon-train of rebel w^ounded who w^ere re. 
 treating from Gettysburg and took them into Chambers- 
 burg. He had been a non-commissioned officer in the 
 regular army pre^dous to the war, and had the experience, 
 and courage, and tact, and confidence of his men, neces- 
 sary to success. 
 
A CHAPTER OF BEDFORD HISTORY. 
 
 SIMON KENTON, THE INDIAN HATER. AND 
 SIMON GIRTY, THE RENEGADE. 
 
 TN the year 1755, at the very time that General Brad- 
 dock was concentrating- his force of scarlet-clad Brit- 
 ish and auxiliary Pro\'incials to march them, A\'ith all the 
 ostentation of military display, to be slaug-htered by In- 
 dians and French in ambush near Fort Duquesne, there 
 was born into the world, in Farquier county, Virofinia, a 
 boy babe who was destined to grow up to manhood a 
 more expert marksman, more wonderfully skilled in wood- 
 craft, more alert of hand and fleet of foot, more courage- 
 ous, vig-ilant, endurinor, and implacable than the Indians 
 themselves — their master at their oanii arts of war and 
 horse-stealing-, their conspicuous and hated foe, whose 
 whole existence was to bec<:)me absorbed by an indiscrim- 
 inatt^ thirst for revenge that embraced within its scope 
 the unarmed squaw as well as the warrior, the hel])less 
 papoose as well as superaimuated feebleness, and was sat- 
 isfied with nothing short of the extermination of the 
 
 (173) 
 
174 lit) niniHcey tees and Sketches. 
 
 whole red-skinned nice, actuated by the profound convic- 
 tion that there was and could be no good Indian but a 
 dead Lidian, The l)oy's name was Simon Kenton. 
 
 He was the product of his age — the outgrowth of his 
 suiTOundings. Raised on the border as a hunter, trap- 
 per and scout, with the eyesight of an eagle and nerves 
 and sinews of steel, his life was in constant X3eril, and de- 
 pending on his own vigilance, alertness, resolution and 
 courage for the continuance of his existence, he became 
 one of the typical men of his time — an Lidian hater and 
 Indian hunter. He hunted Indians as other men hunt 
 Avolves and wildcats. He differed fi-om the A\^estminster 
 Assembly of Divines as to w^iat is the chief end of man. 
 Man's chief end, according to his catechism, was to hate 
 Indians and to hunt them forever. As the Indian war- 
 rior believed in a happy hunting-ground in the world be- 
 yond, where, with his pony and dog, he would spend an 
 eternity of bliss in coursing the wild deer through i3rime- 
 val forests interspersed with lovely natural meadows and 
 bright streams of pure water, so Kenton, if he had any- 
 thing in him beyond the severely practical, must have 
 pictured to himself a heaven in which Lidian-hunting 
 was the chi(4' reward in the life beyond for a life well 
 spent here. 
 
 This man, or boy rather, for he was but eighteen years 
 of age at the time, in the year 1773, walked the streets of 
 our ancient village of Bedford. Ah! if the streets of 
 Bedford could but talk, what a lively history they could 
 give ! ^liat a host of noted men, and great men, and 
 brave men, and some l)ad men, too, have fi'om time to 
 time within the century and a third of the old town's ex- 
 istence lived here, or been here as temporary sojourners, 
 
/ Chapter i>f Jkdford H\siin>j. 175 
 
 or passed through as travelers ! Washing-ton (facile prin- 
 ceps in natural dig'nity and goodness), and Forbes, and 
 Bouquet, and 8t. Clair, and Mad Anthony Wayne, and 
 Colonel Crawford, who was tortured to death l)y the Ohio 
 Indians in 1782, and Alexander Hamilton, and Albert 
 (xallatin, and Clay, and Webster, and Harrison, and Cass, 
 and Buchanan, and Zachary Taylor, and Stanton, and 
 Thaddeus Stevens, and Robert J. Walker, and Judg-es 
 Gibson, and Tod, and Grier, and Tawney , and Black, and 
 Lewis, the robber, (big company I have put him in, })ut 
 he was no common man) and Reverdy Johnson, and 
 William M. Meredith, and "Tariff Andy ■ Stewart, and 
 " Spooney " Ogle — these and numerous others of the past 
 jind of the living great men down to our times. T\liat, 
 l)y reason of her position on the old Indian trail (for 
 Lidians had their traveled ways, they did not roam pur- 
 poseless hither and yon through trackless forests, as 
 many people think) and on the packers' path, and being 
 the rendezvous of the Forbes expedition of 1758 and the 
 Bouquet expeditions of 1763 and 1764, and of the army 
 to suppress the Whisky Insun-ection of 1794, and since 
 that time an important point on tlie old state road, and 
 afterward on the turni)ike, that great thoroughfare be- 
 tween the east and the west, and the summer resort at the 
 Springs, Bedford is more widely known and has been 
 more resorted to than most places of its size in the coun- 
 try. It is an historic town. If these old streets could 
 talk how interesting their reminiscences ! But they are 
 mute, and men in this fast and stii-ring life of our new 
 comitry have lived so much in thc^ present, and cared so 
 little for the past and so little for the future, that many of 
 the interesting incidents of th(^ life of our village and 
 county have gt)ne into oblivion beyond recall. 
 
176 Rendniscences and Sketches. 
 
 No doul)t the Indian Cornstalk, chief of the Shawnees, 
 visited Raystown in his time. The Indians of the county 
 were Shawnees. The Indian sub-chief Will, (who gave 
 name to the long-, even -topped and beautiful Will's Mount- 
 ain that stretches from Bedford to Cumberland, which 
 is cut in two just west of Cumberland by the wondrously 
 [)icturesque and grand water gap of Will's Creek) was a 
 Shawnee, and one of the tributaries of the Juniata in the 
 county is the Shawnee Cabin Creek. It is doubtful 
 whether any bigger man (not physically, but in what 
 makes the real man) ever trod the single street of the 
 straggling village of Raystown, or the streets of its suc- 
 c^essor, this ancient village of Bedford, than that same 
 Cornstalk. Nature in all ages and among all races pro- 
 duces great men. They are born, not made. They come 
 to the top by some law of action as sure in its operation 
 as the \si^v of gravitation — the law of the eternal fitness 
 of things. 
 
 Lord Dunmore was governor of Virginia, and in 1774 
 he organized an expedition which resulted in the battle 
 of Point Pleasant. The Ohio Lidians (Shawnees and 
 Dela wares) were commanded by Cornstalk. Eleven hun- 
 dred Virginians under General Lewis concentrated at 
 Point Pleasant, where the Kanawha empties into the 
 Ohio, for a raid on the Ohio Indian villages. They were 
 to join another force of one thousand men under Lord 
 Dunmore. But Cornstalk anticipated them and himself 
 made the attack before the junction. He forced the bat- 
 tle on ground of his own choosing, in the fork between 
 the two rivers, where, liad he triumphed, he w^ould have 
 exterminated his foe, for there was no way of retreat for 
 the white men. He displayed, in his i^lan of attack and 
 
A Chapter of Bedford Historij. 
 
 retreat, g-reat skill, bravery and g-eneralshi]), and iiitiicted 
 severe loss upon the whites. It was a hard f(^ ugh t field 
 on both sides. The battle lasted the entii-e day. During- 
 the whole fig-ht Cornstalk was everywhere among- his 
 warriors, encoui'ag-ing- them with the voice of a Htentor, 
 "Be strong-, be strong;" and it is said that he slew one of 
 his men with his own hand for cowardice. The whites lost 
 seventy -five killed and one hundred and forty wounded. 
 The number of Indians eng-ag-ed and their loss was never 
 ascertained. They withdrew in the nig-ht. The big- man 
 of the occasion was evidently Cornstalk. Self-reliant 
 manhood, courag-e, skill and patriotic devotion to his 
 peoi)le made him g-reat. 
 
 To return to Simon Kenton. At seventeen years of 
 ag-e he fell in love with a neig-hboring- lass. A young- 
 well-to-do farmer was his rival. Prompted by hatrtnl, 
 superinduced by jealousy, they fought, and Kenton was 
 soundly thrashed ; but the next year, with added height 
 and streng-th, in another battle, he nearly killed his rival 
 and left him, as he thoug-ht, dead and fled. The tradi 
 tion that comes down in the Bedford county Kiiiton fam 
 ily is that Simon Kenton was a nephew of Thomas Kin- 
 ton, the horse-master of the Forbes expedition, and when 
 he fied from Farquier he made his home for awhile five 
 miles west of Bedford with his relatives, the Kintons of 
 Kinton's Knob. He followed hunting- and trapping-, 
 rang-ing- the water-courses of the Cheat, Youghiog-heny, 
 and Monong-ahela, and in 1774 he became a scout foi- 
 Lord Dunmore's expedition and was at the fig-ht of Point 
 Pleasant. After that war ended and peace was rt^stored 
 with the Ohio tribes, he explored Kentucky and cleared 
 
 a small ])atch and built a cabin near ^^■hert^ the town of 
 19 
 
178 Ilcinhiisveuccs and Skelvhcs. 
 
 \V;isliiii^toii, Mason county, Kentucky, now stands, and 
 i-aised a little corn, claimed to be the first corn raised by 
 a white man in Kentucky. He and Boone and Harod 
 were the first settlers in that state, and it is said Kenton 
 preceded the others by a few weeks. 
 
 He and Simon Girty trapped and hunted together in 
 1773, and were fast friends. Thej^ w^ere about the same 
 ag-e. It is supposed they became acquainted during his 
 sojourn in this county. The tradition of the neighbor- 
 liood years ago was that Girt}^ was a nephew of James 
 Dalton, a prominent man and large landowner of Bed- 
 ford township in 1773, who Kved within a few miles of 
 the Kintons. Girty was a white man who afterward be- 
 came a renegade, joined the savages, and was adopted 
 into their nation and became worse than a savage. His 
 memory is execrated to this day. He stood by, in 1782, 
 and saw Colonel Crawford burned at the stake and jeered 
 him in the midst of his torments, and was never known 
 to spare one of his race that fell into his hands except 
 Kenton, whom he saved from torture and burning. In 
 his speech in the Indian council in behalf of his friend he 
 said he never before had asked a favor of a white man's life 
 and never would again. It took repeated speeches and 
 Jill his eloquence, and he brought on himself many a 
 scowl and muttered taunt from the savage warriors. Ken- 
 ton, the county town of Hardin county, Ohio, a place 
 containing six or eight thousand inhabitants, is named 
 after Simon Kenton. 
 
 Thomas Kinton, horse-master of General Forbes* expe- 
 dition, was the larget^t landowner in Bedford towTiship 
 by the first assessment of the county made in 1772. He 
 owned six hundred acres of land, of which forty acres 
 
A Cha,pter of Bedford Hisfonj. 179 
 
 were then cleared. This land is now owned and occupied 
 by Theodore Kinton (a great-grandson), Asa Stuckey and 
 James Mortimore. Thomas Kinton had three sons, viz., 
 Thomas, Simon and John, and by his will (dated in 1777) 
 he de\dsed a farm to each. The name is spelled Kenton 
 in the old assessment lists and court record. 
 
 In 1794 Simon Kenton and John Kenton, of Bedford 
 townshii^, with about one hundred other citizens, were ar- 
 rested on a charg-e of aiding in the Whisky Insm'rection 
 by raising- a seditious pole with a banner inscribed "Lil)- 
 erty and No Excise," at or near the Forks, where George 
 Stuckey now lives. At January sessions, 1795, in a court 
 X^resided over by James Riddle as president judg-e, and 
 by Georg-e Woods (2d) and Hug-h Barclay as associate 
 judg"es, they pleaded guilty, and were sentenced to pay 
 fines varying- from five shillings to fifteen pounds, which 
 they paid. The entire population west of Bedford sym- 
 pathized in the Whisky Insurrection. The excise law 
 was reg-arded as a g-reat oppression and wrong. It IcA-ied 
 a tax of fourpence a gallon on distilled spirits. The set- 
 tlers in western Pennsylvania, in Allegheny, Washing- 
 ton, Westmoreland and Fayette counties dei^ended for 
 cash upon the sale of whisky. Their chief agfricultural 
 production was rye, which could not be transported over 
 the mountains in bulk. Their only attainal)le market 
 was hy converting- it into whisky and sending it in arks 
 down the Ohio and Mississip])i and on ])ack-hors(^s across 
 the mountains. Every fifth or sixth farmer A\'a,s a distiller, 
 who converted his own and his n(ighbor's g-rain. Tliey 
 had no other means of prociuing- i-eady money. TIk^ ex- 
 cise tax fell upon th(^m with unusual hardship and seemed 
 unequal and unjust. They were mostly of the Scotch- 
 
180 llemitiisccuces and Sketcht-^. 
 
 Irish r;u'(\ hikI were not the sort of peoj^h^ apt to submit 
 cahiily to what they reg-arded as a wrong. Alexander 
 Hamilton, than whom America has produced no g-reater 
 statesman, was AVashiiigton's Secretary of the Treasury 
 and was the originator of this law, which was desig-ned 
 to raise money to pay off the national debt incurred in 
 the Revolutionary War. To this day Hamilton's name is 
 held in abhorrence b}" some of the descendants of the 
 orig-inal settlers in western Pennsylvania. 
 
 It was on the occasion of the Wliisky Insurrection that 
 Washing-ton was at Bedford for a day or two, and this is 
 the only time he ever was here, except as a part of the 
 Forbes expedition in 1758, and it is doubtful if he was at 
 the place more than one nig'ht at that time. He was at 
 Fort Cumberland with the g-reater part of his reg-iment 
 until the expedition was ready to move from Raystown 
 to Loyalhanna Creek, and moved through the "ctani]) 
 near Raystown" without tarrying more than a day or two, 
 as the dates of his letters show. 
 
 The story of his having an Episcopal chaplain along, 
 and that the earliest relig-ious services held in Bedford 
 were Episcopalian, which has crept into a newspaper pub- 
 lication, and into that wonderful collection of badly-lith- 
 ographed photographs pu )lished a few years since as a 
 history of Bedford county, is aU imag-ination. AVliat a 
 marvelous thing is denomination;d zeal ! It don't make a 
 farthing-'s difference to anybody now living- what sort of 
 relig-ious services were held first in Bedford, whether they 
 were Presbyterian, or Episcopal, or Reformed, or Luth- 
 eran. They are all good of the kind for those that like 
 that kind; and it is scarcely worth while to fabricate 
 history on the point. The bulk of Forbes' forces were 
 
I Clidptcr i>f lirdford Hi.storf/. 181 
 
 Scoteli-Irisli, who were Presbyterians. The remainder 
 \\ere mostly of German descent, Avho were Lutheran and 
 lleformed. Colonel Bonquet was of the Reformed faith, 
 and Colonel John Armstrong-, of Carlisle, who commanded 
 the Pennsylvania Provincials, was a Presbyterian elder. 
 The probability is that the first relig-ious services held at 
 Bedford were Presbyterian. Colonel Armstrong- had a 
 Presbyterian chaplain with his provincial forces, and it is 
 recorded that the Rev. Charles Beatty, chaplain in the 
 Forbes army, and a Presbyterian, preached a thanksg-iv- 
 ing- sermon in old Fort Duquesne in November, 1758, on 
 the occasion of the occupation of tlie fort by General 
 Forbes. Although the book was got up on catchpenny 
 principles and contains maiij^ inaccui'acies of statement, 
 as well as bad pictures, yet it also contains a g-reat deal 
 of historical information as to families, which, in the 
 course of time, when this g-eneration has departed, will 
 become valuable and worth preserving". It is a pity the 
 volume is not better bound and of a more convenient sha)>e. 
 
 WASHINGTON, HOUOUKT AND FORBES. 
 
 TN th(^ Hjddimand i)apers hi the British Museum are 
 the official reports and correspondence of Colonel 
 Henry Boucpiet, and among* these are a number of lettei's 
 from George^ Washing-ton, written at tlu^ " Camx^ at Fort 
 Cumberland," and addressed to " Colonel Bouquet, com 
 manding His Majesty's forces ;d Raystown," dated in 
 
182 Reminiscence.^ and S kef dies. 
 
 July and Au^-ust, 1758. These letters were published for 
 the first time in the Mag-azine of American History, in 
 February, 1889. 
 
 If there had been any fort at Bedford at that time (as 
 has been alleged) it is exceeding-ly improbable that 
 Washing'ton would have addi'essed his letters to " Colo- 
 nel Bouquet commanding at Raystown." In all his cor- 
 respondence he recognizes the fact that there was a fort 
 at Cumberland. It seems, therefore, quite certain that 
 if there had been a fort at Bedford it would have been 
 mentioned and the letters would have been addressed to 
 Colonel Bouquet, commanding- His Majesty's forces at 
 Fort Bedford." 
 
 The expedition of General Forbes rendezvoused at 
 Ilaysto^^al. Its object was the capture of Fort Du Quesne 
 from the French. The force consisted of Provincials 
 from Pennsylvania, Virg-inia, Maryland and North Caro- 
 Ima, of Montg-omery's regiment of Highlanders, and of a 
 detachment of a regiment known as the "Royal Ameri- 
 cans," amomiting in all, with wagoners, pack-horse 
 drivers, and camp followers, to between six and seven 
 thousand men. The Royal American regiment was a new 
 corps raised in the colonies, largely among the Germans 
 of Pennsylvania. Its officers were from Eurojje, and con- 
 spicuous among them was Lieutenant Colonel Henry 
 Bouquet, a brave and accomplished Swiss, who com- 
 manded one of the four l)attalions, of one thousand men 
 each, of which the corps was composed. Early in July, 
 1758, he was encamped with the advance guard at Rays- 
 town. This town was a small Indian A^llage named 
 after an Indian trader, and was situated on the flat be- 
 tween Duiniing's Creek and the Juniata, and the camp of 
 
J Chapter <>/ Bedford Histonj. 183 
 
 Forbes' forces were on the same flat and on the land east 
 of the present town of Bedford and alon^;- Shover's Rnn. 
 
 John Forbes was a bri*^adier g-eneral in the British 
 army, Scotch by birth, forty-eight years of ai>•(^ an abh^ 
 and faithful soldier. He began life as a student of medi- 
 cine, and came to Philadelphia in April, 1758, to take 
 command of the army ag-ainst Fort Du Quesne. 
 
 The Yirginia Provincials were in two regiments, one of 
 which was under the command of Lieutenant Colonel 
 Georg-e Washing-ton, who was then twenty-six years of 
 ag-e. Washing-ton marched from Winchester, Virg-inia, 
 on the •24th of June, 1758, and arrived at Fort Cumber- 
 land on the 2d of July with five companies of his reg-i- 
 ment (the First Virg-inia) and a company of roadmakers. 
 
 The rendezvous of the Pennsylvania Provincials was at 
 Carlisle, and of the Virginia and Maryland forces at Fort 
 Cumberland. Forbes reached Carlisle in July, sick with 
 what he called " a cursed flux," and was quite ill for 
 weeks. He started from Carlisle for Baystown on the 
 11th of August, carried on a litter made of a hurdle and 
 swung between two horses, and was ol^liged to halt at 
 Shippensl)urg, where he lay helpless until September 
 was well advanced. 
 
 The forces under Forbes built the fort near Baystown, 
 on the bank of the river, between Bichard strc^et and Ju- 
 lianna street, during the summer of 1758, and it was 
 called Fort Bedford, in honor of the Duke of Bedford. 
 The town, laid out by the Penns in 1766, and the county, 
 organized in 1771, took name from the fort. 
 
 The two-story log houst^ which constituted the central 
 part of the Bising Sun tavern, which was destroyed by 
 fire on the 14th of December, 1885, was l)uilt as a resi- 
 
184 lieininiscences and Sketches. 
 
 deuce for the eoininanding" officers of the fort, probably 
 ill 1758. At all events it was built prior to 1761. In that 
 3^ ear, on the 29th of October, the manor of Bedford was 
 surveyed for the Penns by John Armstrong, and the 
 di'aft shows the location of the fort, the commandant's 
 house, and several sutlers' cabins, marked " houses built 
 by sutlers who followed the army." It is quite clear 
 there was no private house where Bedford now stands at 
 the time of the survey of the manor in 1761. 
 
 The road was cut for the army up Harmon's Bottom 
 and by the place called th<^ "Breastworks" (yet traceable) 
 on the Allegheny Momitain, at the head of the Breast- 
 works Run, to which it gives name. Prior to that 
 time there was no wagon road west of Bedford except 
 Braddock's road from Fort Cumberland. Travel and 
 tiansportation, what little there was, was by the packer's 
 path. 
 
 The Highlanders were dressed in kilts, the Boyal 
 Americans in scarlet, and the Provincials at first in a uni- 
 form, but linally, at the instance of Washington, in hunt- 
 ing shirts and leggings, like Indians. 
 
 Major George Ai'mstrong, of the Pennsylvania forces, 
 had command of the dt^tachment of roadmakers. 
 
 On the 14th of September Major Grant and the High- 
 landers made a scout from Loyalhanna, which resulted in 
 the battle of Grants Hill. Grant had about eight hun- 
 drtnl men. mostly Highlanders, and lost about two hun- 
 drf^d and fifty in killed, wound and missing. He com- 
 mitttid the great error of despising his foe, and advanced 
 down the hill on the fort with drums beating and colors 
 flying, and was slaughtered and routed in short order. 
 
 Ill the beginning of November Forbes was carried on 
 
J Clidptcr of lU'dford Hisforij. 185 
 
 a litter from Raystown to Loj^alhanna creek, where a 
 stockade had been erected, and the whole army g-athered 
 there, and on the 18tli of November 2,500 picked men 
 moved forward without tents or bagg^ag-e to attack Fort 
 Du Quesne. Forbes was present, carried on a litter. 
 Colonel Montgomery led the Hig-hlanders, Colonel Bou- 
 quet the Royal Americans, and AVashing-ton the Provin- 
 cials. On the 24th of November this force, encamped at 
 Turtle Creek, heard the explosion of the magazine. The 
 French blew up the fort and retreated without a battle. 
 Forbes advanced and took possession of the place and 
 called it Fort Pitt in honor of the great Eng-lish minister, 
 William Pitt. No sooner was the work done than Gen- 
 eral Forbes fell into a state of entire prostration, and lay 
 in that condition at Fort Pitt for some time. In Decem- 
 ber he was carried back on a littei- to Philadelphia, where 
 he died the following March, and was buried in the 
 chancel of Christ church. He must have been a man of 
 g-reat nerve and of a most resolute and determined will. 
 Think of a man prostrated by disease, commanding such 
 an expedition in person ! He purposely delayed moving- 
 on Fort Du Quesne until the cold weather of November. 
 His idea was that the Indian allies of the French would 
 g-o home on the approach of winter, and that the fort 
 would fall into his possession without a siege or assault, 
 which proved to be the case. 
 
 Thomas Kinton (after whom is nam(Ml Kinton's Knob 
 of Wills Mountain, immixliately wtist of B(Hlford, and 
 who was the g-reat-grandfather of Theodore Kinton, 
 who liv(Ml, until his death id)out a year ago, at tlu^ 
 old homestead near the bridge on the Glade pike) 
 was horsemaster of a brig-adc; of the Pennsylvania 
 
18G Reminiscences and Sketches. 
 
 forces, an office of no small importance, and requiring- a 
 man of experience and executive ability, as most of the 
 supplies were carried on pack horses. I have in my pos- 
 session the roug'h copies of the muster roll made out by 
 Thomas Kinton, horsemaster for the expedition of 1758, 
 g-i^ing the names of the owners of the horses and the 
 drivers and the brands on the horses. Thomas Kinton 
 was also in command of a pack-horse brig-ade in Bou- 
 quet's expedition in 1764. Among- the drivers of this 
 latter expedition ai-e the names of John and Charles Sis- 
 ney, who lived at Bhippensburg-, and are the ancestors of 
 the numerous families of the name of Cessna now living- 
 in this county. In 1758 Kinton resided in York county. 
 
 Colonel Bouquet had land warranted in his name on 
 Dunning's Creek in Bedford county. He must have 
 spent in all a good deal of time at Fort Bedford. He 
 commanded an expedition for the relief of Fort Pitt in 
 1763, at the time of the Pontiac war, and foug-ht the bat- 
 tle of Bushy Run, in Westmoreland comity, on the 5th 
 and 6th of iVug'ust of that year. He also commanded an 
 expedition against the Ohio Indians on the Musking"um 
 in 1764. It is a pity that the name has not been perpet- 
 uated by some local appellation. The next townships 
 erected in the county ought to be called after Forbes and 
 Bouquet. Bouquet died unmarried at Pensacola, Flor- 
 ida, in September, 1765, at the age of fort 3^ -four years. 
 He was then a brig-adier general c( )mmanding the British 
 forces at that post. 
 
 Thomas Kinton died in 1779, on his farm live miles 
 Avest of Bedford. His will, dated February, 1777, was 
 ])roven March 16, 1779, and is recorded at Bedford in will 
 book No. 1, pag^e 24. 
 
CHRONICLES OF BEDFORD. 
 
 WILLIAM KREIGHBAUM. 
 
 TTTILLIAM KEEIGHBAUM, born in 1771 in Berks 
 comity ; died in 1866, in liis ninety -fifth year, in 
 Bedford ; married in Centre county, where he at one time 
 resided, to Miss Derry ; came to Bedford in 1807 ; was at 
 first a cabinet-maker and afterwards a bridg-e-builder, car- 
 penter and pump-maker. He did the carpenter work of 
 the Dr. Hofius house built in 1811, and also of the old 
 combined Reformed and Lutheran church, built a year 
 or two later. He was for many years a member of the 
 Methodist church and his mortal remains repose in the 
 grave-yard connected with tliat church. 
 
 Li his later years he followed pump-making- In 1854 
 or 1855, when over eig-hty years of age, he was repairing 
 a pumj) belong"ing to Nicholas Lyons on Richard street, 
 near the house in which I lived. H(^ liad a larg-e chain, 
 called a log-chain, and a heavy pole which he used as a 
 lever, and had taken the boards off the platform and was 
 raising- a large pump stock, big as a saw-log-, out of its 
 
 (187) 
 
188 Renirniscetices and Sketches. 
 
 place in order to g-et at the "sucker," as it was called. 
 Two little girls, about eig-ht years of ag-e, my sister Nellie 
 and Kate Taliaferro, were watching him out of the win- 
 dow of the dining-room. "My! how strong- that old man 
 is!" said one of them in my hearing as I passed through 
 the room. " Yes," said the other, " he is so old ; the older 
 a man gets the stronger he is." 
 
 As I went out past the old man I said, "Mr. Kreigh- 
 baum how old are you ? ' He replied, " I am in my eighty- 
 sixth year;" and then I told him what the little girls in 
 the window had said. "Ah!" he said, "when they grow 
 older they will know better. I am far from being as 
 strong as I once was." "But," I said, "you are wonder- 
 fully well preserved for your years. How do you account 
 for it? Have you lived a very careful life ? Did you ever 
 drink whisky?" "Oh! yes," he said, "all my days when 
 I felt like it." "Well, did you ever use tobacco? Did 
 you chew or smoke?" "Yes," he said, "I did both." 
 " Were you careful what you ate ?" " No, I always ate any- 
 thing I liked." "Well," I said, remembering the old 
 distich, 
 
 Kaily to bed and early to rise. 
 
 Makes a man healthy and wealthy and wise. 
 
 and driven to a last resort to account in some wa}^ ac- 
 cording to the ideas of hygienic philosophers for the old 
 man's longevity and vigor, "how about your going early 
 to bed and getting up early in the morning?" "Yes," he 
 said, "I always did that." 
 
 He was resolute, self-contained and clear-brained ; and 
 had been a reader of his Bible and of other books, both 
 Englisli and German. He was what was called a Penn- 
 svlvania German. 
 
Chroiticles of Bvilfonl. 189 
 
 He repaired a pump iii a house I owned which was oe 
 cupied by Captain Deckerhoof. He was mounted on the 
 spout and was fisliing- with a rope and hook for the lower 
 "sucker," which ehided all his efforts, one cold morning-, 
 when the Captain approaching- and commiserating- his 
 old ag-e and patient efforts, offered to help him. "Do 
 (jou follow pump-making- T said the old man. " No," said 
 the Captain. "Well," said he, "I do, and one of the rules 
 of pump-making is to mind your own business." 
 
 ISAAC LIPPEL. 
 
 A BOUT 1847 Isaac Lippel, a German Jew, came to 
 Bedford and started the first clothing store of the 
 place in an old frame building belong-ing to the estate of 
 Dr. Watson, near the corner of Ricliard and Pitt streets, 
 where McCuUoh Hall now stands. Soon after opening- 
 he wanted a sig-ii, and went to John H. Bush, the painter, 
 to g-et one made. He asked Bnsh what he would cdiarge. 
 Bush replied: "x^ccording to the number of letters" — so 
 much a letter. Lippel's knowledg't^ of Eng-lish was very 
 limited. Bush said: "B" I paint your full name it will 
 cost more than if I i>aint only the initial letter of the first 
 nam(\" Lippel failing to understand, by way of explann. 
 tion, Bush said: "W'ell, now, if your name was George 
 Lippel it would cost you so much; Imt if 1 made it G. 
 Lippel it would cost only so much," naming- a smaller 
 sum. Lippel replied at once, his mind having grasped 
 the idea of economy alone : " Make it G. Lippel. Make 
 
190 Reminiscences and Sketches. 
 
 it ( J. Lippel." And so the sigri was painted: " G. Lippel. 
 Oliea}) Clothing- Store." And Isaac Lip})el did business 
 under it foi' years. 
 
 But in the process of time there came to the town from 
 Cumberland, Maryland, another son of Abraham, named 
 Samuel Soneborn, who started a clothing- store on the 
 corner just across the street from Lippel. Soneborn 
 brought with him and placed over his door this sign : 
 "Samuel Soneborns Cheap Clothing Store." Great was 
 the rivalry between the Hebrews. They glowered at 
 each other across the way, and each claimed to have the 
 best and clieapest clothing. It was not long before Sone- 
 born charged Lippel with doing business under a false 
 sign. " His name ish Isaac,' said the namesake of the 
 prophet, "und you cand spell Isaac mid ein she. Who 
 ever heard of ein Shew named Shorge 1 He ish ein vraud 
 und ein sheed, und does pisniss mid ein valse zine." 
 
 In tht^ same neighborhood was a merchant of c-andies 
 and cigars, who, in entire disregard of the rule of gram- 
 mar which defines the fimction of the copulative conjunc- 
 tion, did business under the sign: "A. L. Deiibaugh. 
 Grocer and Confectionery." Defibaugh and Soneborn 
 were sitting together in front of Defibaugh 's store one 
 day. when the subject of Lippels sign was talked of, and 
 Defibaugh said: "Soneborn, it seems to me that the less 
 you say about Lippel's sign the better, because I see you 
 ^viite your name Soneborn, not Soneborn's. You have 
 an " s " to the end of it on your sign ! How's tliat ? Sone- 
 born looked at his sign and his counteiuuuH' fell. He 
 (crossed the street disconsolate, in deep thought. Soon 
 aftei- he was seen with a ladder and brush and paint, with 
 which he painted out the final " s ' and the apostrophe. 
 
Chronicles of Bedford. 191 
 
 But the letter was only obscured, not effaced. Throu^li 
 the coat of paint there glimmered a ghostly apostrophe 
 and letter ".s" which only made it more conspicuous and 
 induced the inquiry which led to my knowing the history 
 of the signs. 
 
CxENERAL BOWMAN AND THE BED- 
 FORD "GAZETTE." 
 
 XT is difficult to realize the chano-es that have taken 
 place in newspai)ers within the last sixty years. I 
 lately read over the tiles of papers published at Harris- 
 burg: about 1820. All the editorial matter of a year 
 would scarcely fill a sino-le side of one issue. There is no 
 local neAvs, except the most measfre notices of marriages 
 and deaths. Politics and public affairs and advertise- 
 ments fill the whole sheet. The short personal notices 
 and newsy coiTespondence that make up so much of a 
 modern newspaper, are entirely wanting-. You cannot 
 gather any idea of the social or home-life of the people 
 of the day from anything contained in the papers. In 
 this respect modern news]iapers are very different. The 
 historian of the futm^e will be well supplied with mater- 
 ials in the cuiTent files of newspapers. The only trouble 
 will be a plethora of trivial minuti;e. The most petty 
 and oftentimes private personal matters are hunted n\) 
 and published, to the occasional annoyance of those who 
 do not like publicity. In fact the newspaper pendulum 
 
 (192) 
 
Gtiu-ral lUnrnmn nn.d tin- lialfunl Gazt',ihi. 1;K5 
 
 lias swuno- to tlio other extreme. Still it must be con- 
 fessed that the paper of to-day is a vast improvement on 
 its predecessor, even of a much later period than that I 
 started out to write about. And the improvement is not 
 alone in the matter of news but in the comparative ab- 
 sence of personal abuse. It is impossible for a middle- 
 af»-ed man of to-day to conceive, unless l)y an actual read 
 ino-, the deg-radation of the party politics of our fore- 
 fathers. Sexag-enarians and septuag-enarians of Bedford 
 county can have some conception of it by recalling- the 
 Bedford Gazette, under General Bowman's regime, but 
 even that, bitter as it was, was fully equaled by the polit 
 ic;d papers of the state generally in 1820 and 1830, and 
 by some ftnv of Bowman's contemporaries, as, for instance, 
 the Carlisle Vobmteer. 
 
 The Chronicle, published by Hamilton, calls the Repuh- 
 lican, published by Peacock, by no other name than stink- 
 pot. When Judg-e Franks, who was red-haired, was ap- 
 pointed president judge by Governor Findlay, the Chron- 
 icle, which was anti-Findlay, abused him with all manner 
 of personal villification. Here are two specimens : 
 
 "A visitor to the court-house may notice a man on the 
 bench with a red head. It may do for a lawyer to be thus 
 ornamented, because the advocate may at times be fiery 
 and impetuous, but a redheaded judg-e is utterly out of 
 l^lace — he ought to have his head shaved and wear a wig-. 
 No man with a red head ever had a judicial temperament. 
 It makes a man feel hot and choleric to look at him." 
 
 Again : "Tlie alarm of fire to-day was caused by Judg-e 
 Franks looking- out of tlje tvap-door near his chimney." 
 What inci'cdiblc |)uerility : niid yet these ar<^ but fair spec- 
 imens of tlic stvl<' of political eilitorship ot' tliat dav. 
 13 
 
J94 licmliiisccnces anil Skcfches. 
 
 (reneral Bowmnn assumed control of the B( Milord (ro- 
 zeffe ill 1831 and conducted it for a quarter of a century. 
 He, in many respects, was an admirable party leader, put- 
 ting the whole party on a low plane, with nothing higli- 
 toiic^d about it. The object jiarty success, the means to 
 ••ittain it, laudation of anything and anybody connected 
 with the party, and indiscriminate condemnation, villifi 
 cation and lidicule of everything connected with the ad- 
 verse party. From this point of view he was a good 
 party editor. His fealty to party was uiiHinching. He 
 never doubted or ([uestioned its behests. Whatever the 
 party did was right, whatever it condemned was wrong. 
 Whoever was nominated for office by the Democrats was 
 immaculately pure and praiseworthy ; whoever was nom 
 tnated by the Wiigs was miprincipled and despicable. 
 A\Qioever voted the Democratic ticket was wise and good, 
 whilst the Whigs were all either knaves or fools. And 
 this was not an assumed or pretended state of mind ; it 
 was his real belief so far as one could judge. He was 
 serious and ardent in his narrowness and bitterness, or 
 seemed to be so. He never wanted office for himself — 
 sought no nominations — had no other aspiration than the 
 success of the party, was disinterested and profoundly 
 in earnest and had the confidence and respect of the 
 to^\alship leaders. 
 
 For twenty -five years he led this life, when, in 1856, 
 Buchanan made him public printer at Washington. Dur- 
 ing the four years of his administration he accumulated 
 in that office a handsome competency — said to have been 
 $100,000. 
 
 There then o(H*urred a singular change in his (career, 
 which, if he was preAiously sincere, must havt^ resulted 
 
Gciwral Bowuum and tltc ih'dford (r(i?:rHc. \\)l 
 
 from an entire transformation of his views. It was a 
 (complete terg-iversation on his former life. He aban. 
 doned politics entirely, and althoiig-h he lived a quarter 
 of a century longer, dyino- in 1886, lie took no furthering 
 terest in partisan politics. He retired to Carlisle, boug'ht 
 a nice residence there and devoted himself t(^ the educa- 
 tion of his children, and never return(Ml to Bedford ev(^n 
 to visit, except once for a sing-le day or two. He seemed 
 to have no connection with his old associatt^s— no desire 
 ever to see them ag-ain^ — and to have disnussed them en- 
 tirely from his recollection. The transmutation was as 
 g-reat as that of Doctor Jekyl into Mr. Hyde. He led a 
 most exemplary and quiet life, tlie precise converse of 
 his Bedford existence. 
 
BLOODY RUN 
 
 A BOUT fifteen years since the ancient name of Bloody 
 -^^ Enii, which for more than a century had desig- 
 nated the place of that village upon the map, and was 
 kno^\Ti to thousands of travelers throughout this state 
 and the west, was stricken out of existence, and that of 
 Everett was substituted for it. The advent of a railroad 
 had chang-ed the population so that alarg-e majority were 
 new-comers, who had no respect for the historical associ- 
 tion, and who disliked to be called by the dubious title of 
 Bloody -Eunners, and so they thought that Edward Ever- 
 ett's memory ought to be commemorated rather than the 
 unknown travelers who were killed by the Indians many 
 years ag-o, and whose blood had ensang'uined the water 
 of the rivulet, and g-iven the \dllage the name. And at a 
 borougfli election they voted for a change, and the court, 
 no one objecting, for it seemed to be conceded, at least 
 l^assively, that the majority of voters had a rig-ht to 
 adopt a new name, decreed the change. Soon after I met 
 that very remarkable old man, General Simon Cameron, 
 who said to me: "Judg-e, why did you permit that name 
 
 to be changed?" I replied -. " The people living there, by 
 
 (1%) 
 
Mood I I linn. 197 
 
 a Img-e majority, voted in favor of tlie chaiig-e3 and peti- 
 tioned the court to decree it, and I supposed the major- 
 ity oug-ht to rule." " No, sir," said he, " not at all I What 
 hav(^ th(\y to do with it? Wliat right have they to make 
 m(^. and tens of thousands of other people all over the 
 country revise our knowledge of geography and learn a 
 new name ? Besides, the old name commemorated an in- 
 cident on the early history of the county. If I had been 
 judge I never would have permitted it." "Nor would I, 
 General," I replied, "if you had been in court and sug- 
 g(^sted what you have just stated." Un(iuestionably it 
 was a mistake. I have reg-retted it ever since. There 
 would be as much joopriety in changing- the name of 
 Bunker Hill. 
 
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE SIX 
 
 TEENTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT 
 
 OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 n^HE district was constituted by an act of assembly 
 approved the 29tli of March, 1824, and was com- 
 posed of the coimties of Franklin, Bedford and Somerset. 
 The Governor was authorized to ap])oint a president 
 judg'e. The terms of coui't, as fixed by this act, Avere for 
 Franklin, second Mondays of January, April, Aug-ust and 
 November, to ccmtinue two weeks if necessary: 
 
 For Bedford, fourth Mondays of Januarj^ April, Au- 
 o'ust and November, to continue one week : 
 
 For Somerset, the Mondays following tljose in the 
 county of Bedford. 
 
 John Andrew Shultze was then Cxovernor. He ap])ointed 
 and commissioned John Tod, Esq., of Bedford, as presi. 
 dent judg-e of the district. 
 
 Judge Tod presided until the 28th of May, 1827. He 
 was then appointed a judge of the Supreme Court to suc- 
 ceed John Bannister Gibson, \^ ho had, on the tenth of 
 that month, been appointed cliief justic(^ in place of Chief 
 Justice Tilghman, deceased. 
 
 (19K) 
 
Sketch of tlie Si.rfcr.u/// Judicial Dislrid. li)9 
 
 Jiid^e Tod was born and reared in Conuecrticut and was, 
 I believe, a g'raduate of Yale College. He came to Bed- 
 ford in the year 1800. He tau^Lt school for a year or 
 two and was admitted to the bar in 1808. He was a 
 Democrat in politics, and was, to a c^'rtain extent, ostra- 
 cised socially by the persons who then claimed to lead 
 and o'ive tone to society in Bedford, who were Federalists. 
 He was postmaster in 1805 and served as clerk and at- 
 torney to the comity commissioners in 1805, 1806 and 
 1807, and represented Bedford county in the House of 
 Hepresentatives of Pennsylvania from 1810 to 1813, and 
 was twice speaker of the House. He also seiwed a term 
 in the Senate of Pennsylvania and was speaker of tlie 
 Senate in the sessions of 1814 and 1815. He after- 
 wards served a term in Cong-ress. He was, for many 
 years, the leadino- lawyer of the Bedford bar, and was 
 painstaking-, methodical and industrious. He resided, 
 for a number of years, i]i the weather-boarded log house 
 which yet stands on the public square opposite the court 
 house and is now owned by M. A. Points, Esq. Judg-(^ 
 Tod died in March, 1830, aged fifty years, and is biu'ied 
 in the Presbyterian gi-aveyard at Bedford. He was mai-- 
 ried to Miss Hanna, of Harrisburg, and left three cliihb-eii, 
 (iaug"hters, one of whom married Judge Samuel Gilmore, 
 another John H. Brig-gs, Esc)., of Harrisburg, and the 
 third Mr. KeiT, of Harrisburg. 
 
 His opinions as a judge of the Supreme Court are found 
 in the 16th and 17th volumes of Sergeant ^ Rawles ll(^- 
 ports, and in 1st and 2d Rawle. 
 
 He was a public-spiritcMl citi/(3n and was largely in- 
 strumental in rex)airing' the Bedford water works al)out 
 the year 1824, and in bringing in the water from the 
 
200 Iiemini.s(:t.ii(-('.s and Sketches. 
 
 sjjriiig- that is located (Jii tlie hill above the house now oc- 
 cupied by Mr. Peck, ou the Bedford Springs proj^erty. 
 The pipes used were pine logs, and the water was free to 
 all from several running- pumps located in different parts 
 of the villag-t^ 
 
 It is said that young- Tod came to Bedford Avithout a 
 shilling', carrying his pack upon his back — that he pledged 
 his only pair of silk stockings for his supper, lodging and 
 breakfast, at the tavern at Bloody Run the night before 
 iiis arrival. Those were the days of knee-breeches and 
 silk stockings on dress occasions. 
 
 He kf-j»t a precise and minute accoruit of his receipts 
 and expenditures monthly. When I was reading law, in 
 the year 1848, his papers, which had been in a case in the 
 commissioners' office, were moved into the entry of the 
 court house and became scattered about. I remember to 
 have picked uj) one of his account books of the year 1810, 
 or thereabouts, which showed that many of his profes- 
 sional fees were one and tw( > and three dollars, and it was 
 only now and then, and rather rarely, that he got a fee of 
 ten dollars. 
 
 An illustration of how soon the memory of a man of 
 proiriinence and importance in his day and generation 
 fades out and becomes almost entirely obscured, occurred 
 in Bedford three or four years ago, in coiniection wdth 
 the name of Judge Tod. A stranger inquired at the hotels 
 and stores and houses generally in the center of the toAvn, 
 and of the persons whom he met on the streets, wliei-e he 
 could find the grave of Judge Tod. He was unable to 
 find an individual who knew that sucli a person had ever 
 livcui in Bedford, or who had ever heard of him at all. 
 
 Judge Tod was succeeded by Alexander Thom})son 
 
Sketch of the Sixtvenih Judicial District. 201 
 
 who presided ms judge from Aui^ust, 1827, till Novembe)-, 
 1841. Judg-e Thompson w;is admitted to practice at Bed- 
 ford in 1817, and resided for somc^ years in Bedford. 
 Prior to his admission to the bar he was a teacher of hm- 
 g-uages in the Bedford Classical Academy . He also served 
 two terms in Congress just before his a])i3ointment to 
 tiie bench. He died at Chambersburg in 1847, and is 
 l)uried there in the beautiful graveyard of the Falling 
 Sj)ring Presbyterian church, on the banks of the Cono- 
 cocheague — the Westminster Abbey of Chambersburg. 
 
 He was twice married. His first wife was a Miss Cul- 
 ])ertson and his second wiie Miss Jane Graham, a daughter 
 of General Graham, of Stoystown, Somerset county. And 
 he was the father of Dr. Thompson, of Frostburg, Maryland, 
 latel}^ deceased, and of Frank Thompson, vice president 
 ( )f the Pennsylvania railroad, and of Dr. William Thomp- 
 son, of Philadelphia. 
 
 Judge Thompson's term expired (mider the limitation 
 of the constitution of 1838) on the 1st of January, 1842. 
 He was succeeded by Jeremiah Sullivan Black, of Somer- 
 set, who was nominated by Governor David R. Porter 
 ;ind confirmed by the Senate in January, 1842. He pre- 
 sident as judge until 1852. 
 
 Judge Black was born the lOtli of January, 1810, on the 
 farm (^f his father, Henry Black, situated about eight 
 miles east of Somerset, so that he was nearly thirty -two 
 years of age at the time of hisapyxnntment. He was ad- 
 mitted to the bar at Somerset in 1881, and at Bedford in 
 1832. He difiered from his father in politics. His father 
 was a. Federalist ajid aftcii-wards a Wdiig. , He was elet^ted 
 judge of the Sujjreme Court in the fall of 1851, along 
 with John Bannister Gibs<m. Ellis Lewis. Walter Lowrie 
 
202 Reiaini'Sceni'ts and Sketches. 
 
 and Richard Coulter; ;dl Democrats, (^xcept ('Oultcr, who 
 was a Whi*^-. 
 
 This ch^ctiou was by virtu«^ of the chancre in the consti- 
 tution in 1850, which made the judiciary elective. Under 
 the constitution of 1790 judges were appointed by the 
 Governor and confirmed by the Senate, and held office 
 for life, if they so lon^- behaved themselves well, (hi,itiJ>ene 
 (je.sseret, as the commission ran. The constitution of 1838 
 limited the term to fifteen years, but did not make the 
 office elective. The amendment of 1850 made the judi- 
 ciary elective. In 1851 a full bench was elected, and they 
 were to decide their terms by lot : one was to g"0 out 
 (^very three years. Judge Black drew the short term and 
 immediately be(;ame chief justice. 
 
 Judg'e Black was reelected to the supreme bench in 
 1854, for a term of fifteen years. He resig-ned March 4, 
 1857, to g"o into President Buchanan's cabinet as Attorney 
 General. 
 
 His oi:>inions as judg-e of the Supreme Court are found 
 in the Pennsylvania State Reports from 4th Harris to 5th 
 Casey. 
 
 As a master of clear, strong-, concise Eng-lish he had 
 no superior on tht^ bench. Judge Lewis and he differed 
 and disliked each other. Judg-e Woodward, who suc- 
 ceeded Gibson on the bench in 1852, took sides with 
 Lewis, while Black was supported b>' Lowrie and Knox 
 (who had succeeded Coulter). 
 
 It was probably because of this unpleasantness that 
 131ack left the su})reme bench, for which he seemed to be 
 so well suited, and went into Buchanan's cabinet. 
 
 His suc^cessor as president judg-e was Francis Marion 
 Kimmell, of Somerset, who was elected by tln^ people in 
 
ISketcli of the Sixteenth Judicial District. 203 
 
 th(3 fall of 1851. Mr. Kimm^^ll had been a Wiiig- pr.'or to 
 the time of this canvass. Wni. Lyon, of Bedford, w.stlie 
 Whig- nominee. Somerset county revolted from the -loni- 
 ination and Mr. Kimmell was supported as an independ- 
 ent candidate by the Democrats, who made no nomina- 
 tion, and by the Whififs of Somerset, and was elected by a 
 consideral )le maj ority . 
 
 He was admitted to the bar at Somerset in 1840, and at 
 Bedford in 1841. He liad previously to his admission 
 been clerk in the recorder's office, his father being- the re- 
 corder. He was born at Berlin, in Somerset county, in 
 1817, and was thirty -four years of ag-e when he went upon 
 the bench. He served one term of ten years, and at the 
 expiration of his term located at Chambersburg-, in the 
 practice of the law, where he has resided since. As an 
 advocate he has few superiors. His fine personal aj^pear- 
 ance and well modulated and silvery-toned voice make 
 him a very attractive orator. He enjoys a larg-e practice 
 and is one of the few lawyers who have succeeded at the 
 bar after having- been upon the bench. 
 
 Judg-e Kimmell and Judge Black were brothers-in-law, 
 having- married sisters, daug^hters of Chauncey Forward, 
 an eminent lawyer of Somerset, Pa. 
 
 Judg-e Kimmell was succeeded b}^ James Nill, of Cham- 
 bersburg-, who was elected in 1861 as a Re|)ublican, de- 
 feating- Wilson Beilly, the Democi'atic nominee. He died 
 in 1864, and is buried at Chambersburg-. He was a pains 
 taking-, careful lawyer, and an honest judg-e, but was W(>11 
 advanced in years when he went upon the bench, so that 
 his natural force was abated V)y ag-e. 
 
 Alexander King- was elected his successor in 1864, de- 
 feating Judg(^ Kimmell, the Democrntic nomine*', and 
 
204 Ileininlscenci's and Skefchr.s. 
 
 (IhmI ill Jaiiujiry, 1871, and is buried in tlic ct'iiit^terv at 
 Bedford. He was born in Hiuitingdon county, Pa., in 
 1805, was educated at the Huntingdon Academy, nnidlaAv 
 at Huntiiiii'don, and was acbnitted to the bar at Bedford 
 in 1824, and was tifty-nint^ years of aij-e when he went 
 upon the bench. He was a well-read lawyer of clear and 
 stroiii^- logical mind, and c-onimand(Hl the respect and 
 estt^em of the public. His son and namesake is a prom- 
 inent and successful lawyer at the B(^dford bar. 
 
 The business of the district having increascnl, and un- 
 disposed-of cases having- accumulated, an act was passcnl 
 in 18G8 authorizing- an additional law judg-e. David 
 Watson Rowe, of Chambersburg-, was elected to this posi- 
 tion in 1868, defeating \\\\\. J. BaiM-, the Democratic nom- 
 inee. Judg-e Rowe was born at Greencastl(\ Franklin 
 county, Pa., in 1837. He served as lieutenant-colonel of 
 the 126th Pa. reg'iment in the niiu^ months' service of 
 the war for the suppression of the rebellion. 
 
 William Maclay Hall succeeded Judg-e King- as presi- 
 dent judg-e, by appointment of Governor Geary, in Jan- 
 uary, 1871, and was elected by the people for a full term 
 in tlu^ fall of that year, defeating \\ ni. J. Baer, the Dem- 
 ocratic nominee. Judge Hall was born at LeAvistown, 
 Pa., Novc^mber 3, 1828, g-raduated at Marshall College, 
 Mercersburg, Pa., in 1846, read law at Bedfoid, and was 
 admitted to the bar in August, 1849. 
 
 In 1874 the district was divided; Franklin and Fulton 
 countless (this latter erected out of Bedford in 1851) were 
 constituted into a separate judicial district, numbered 
 tlie thirty-ninth, of which Judge Howe became the presi- 
 dent judg-e under the provisions of the constitution of 
 1S73. Judt;-e Hall retained the sixte<'nth district, com- 
 
Hb'i'h of the Sixteenth ,Ju<U<'ml Dislrid. 205 
 
 |)()S(h1 of the counties of Bedford and Sonierst't. His 
 term expired the first of Jjinnary, 1882. 
 
 He was succeeded by William Jacob Baer, of SouK^r- 
 set, the present incumbc^nt, who def(;ated John C(;ssna, 
 the Republican nominc^e. Judge Baer was born in 
 Brothers' Valley township, Somersc^t county, in 1826, and 
 was admitted to the l)ar at Somers<^t in May, 1849. H(^ 
 had l)een for many years prior to his election as judg-e 
 (^ne of the leading- lawyers of the Somerset bar, and was 
 noted as a public-spirited citizen who aided much in tlie 
 improvemtnit of Somerset county. He was a member of 
 the constitutional convention in 1873. 
 
 It is a noteworthy fact that Judg-es Black, Kimni(41 and 
 Baer were born within a circuit of three miles, and that 
 they all rose from the; middle walks of life, without cc^l- 
 legiate education. 
 
 Prior to 1824 Bedford county was, from the year 180r), 
 a part of the Fourth judicial district, composed of the 
 counties of Mifflin, Centre, Huntingdon and Bedfoi-d, 
 by virtue of an act passed February 24, 1806. From 1818 
 to 1824, Charles Huston, of Bellefonte, was ])resident 
 judge of the Fourth district. He afterwards ])(H'am<> a 
 judge of the Su]u-em(^ Court. He and Judge > Burnside, 
 wlio also lived at Belh^fontc^ and who succeeded liim as 
 president judge and who aft(^rwards became a supreme 
 jud<j-e, were maiTied to sisters, and liatcnl each other cor- 
 ( bally. 
 
 Before Judge Huston, .Jonatlian Hoge Walkei' })resided 
 as judge of the Fourtli district. He was bom in East 
 Penns])or()' townshi]), Cumlx^rland county. Pa., in 1756, 
 and was educated at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa., then 
 a Presbyterian institution, and graduated in 1787, and 
 
206 Reminiscences and Sketches. 
 
 read law with Stephen Duncan, of Carlisle, father of 
 Thomas Duncan, a juclge of the Supreme Court. He 
 marri(xl Mr. Dun(%an's daug^hter, Lucre tia, and settled at 
 Northumberland, Pa., where he beg'an the practice of the 
 law. On the formation of the Fourth judicial district, in 
 1806, he was appointed judge, and moved to Belief onte, 
 and afterwards to Hunting-don, and hnally to Bedford, 
 about the year 1810. He lived in the house now occupied 
 as a, hotel by Valentine Steckman, on West Pitt street. Li 
 1818 he was ap})ointed, by President Monroe, jud«-e of the 
 United States District Court for western Pennsylvania, 
 and w^ent to Pittsburgh, in which office he continued until 
 his death, in 1824, at Natchez, Miss., where he was on a 
 visit to his son. He was the father of Eobert James 
 Walker, ITnited States Senator from Mississippi, and Sec- 
 retary of the Treasury in President Polk's administration. 
 Judg-e Walker was six feet four inches tall, and his wife 
 was unusually short of stature, so that in walking- tog-ether 
 she had to reach up to take his arm. A grand-daughter 
 of Judge Walker, and daughter of Robert J. Walker, was 
 married to Benjamin H. Brewster, late Attorney General of 
 the United States. Wiilst on the bench at Bedford, 
 Judge AValker read in open court a very singular letter 
 of apology addressed to Jacob Bonnett, and ordered it t<^ 
 be entered of record. It is found in the case of the Com- 
 monwealth V. Jacob Bonnett and Isaac Bonnett, in quar- 
 ter sessions docket No. 3. Noveml)er sessions, 1808, and 
 is one of the curiosities of legal literature. In the Bed- 
 ford Gazette of 1806 and 1807 are published, by request 
 of tlie foremen of the grand jury, long, verbose, dry 
 and uninteresting charges to the grand jury made by 
 Judge Walker. One is mainly on the subject of duelling. 
 
Skefch of the Sixteenth Judicial /district. 207 
 
 Some of them are six or eight cohimns \oi\g, and must 
 have taken two hours to read. 
 
 Under the act of 1806, president judf>es were paid 
 $1,600 per annum. This sahiry was afterwards increased 
 to $2,000, and since the war to $3,500, and finally to $4,000. 
 This increase is apparent rather than real, the purchasing- 
 |)ower of the salary of $4,000 does not exceed that of 
 $1,600 in 1806. 
 
 The first law jud^^e who presided in Bedford county 
 was James Riddle, of Chambersbui'g-, who Avas appointed 
 under the constitution of 1790. 
 
 Special courts have been held in Bedford at different 
 times by Judg-t^ Gilmore of Fayette county, Judg-e Fisliei- 
 of York county, Judges Ewing and White of Pittsburgh, 
 and Judge Orvis of Centre county. 
 
 The Supreme Court of the state sat at Bedford on tlie 
 lltli of August, 1855, for the argument of the celebrated 
 case known as the Passmore-Williamson case, which was a 
 writ of habeas corpus to determine the legahty of the com- 
 mitment of Williamson,by Judge Kane of the United States 
 District Court of Philadelphia, tor neglect to produce the 
 body of Jane, a colored woman claimed as a slave by Col- 
 onel Wheeler, of North Carolina. The case was argued 
 by Charles Gilpin and William M. Meredith for the peti- 
 tioner, and is reported in 2 Casey, page 9. 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN MEETING- 
 HOUSE. 
 
 TTTHAT constitutes real history? Not o-reat events 
 alone. Is it not rather the home life, the saying-s 
 and doing-s and surroundings of individuals : their rival- 
 ries, and quarrels, and amusements, and witticisms, and 
 sarcasms; their mechanical and professional pursuits: 
 their erection of houses and fulling mills, and grist and 
 saw mills, and school houses, and barns; their party or- 
 ganizations and political meetings ; their church build- 
 ings and church life ; their shooting matches, and sleigh- 
 ing parties, and militia musters ; their births and mar 
 riages and deaths ; their removal to other localities, and 
 how they prospered, and what descendants they left? 
 Wlio built the different houses in Bedford, and Everett, 
 and Schellsburg, and of the county generally, and who 
 have lived in them '. Who were the earliest settlers in 
 the townships, and where did they come from ? Who 
 cleared out the different farms ? AMiat incidents broke 
 the monotony of the lives of our predecessors? 
 
 All this would make interesting reading. The ordin- 
 ary course of human lives is mad(^ up of little matters, 
 
 (208) 
 
Pi 'vsbyic t -ian Meet iiuj- ilo use . 201) 
 
 and it is these that oug-ht to be recorded by the his 
 toriau. They make the details of the picture, which, 
 without them is a dry and uninteresting outline. The 
 iiewspap(?rs of the past t^i-ave but a meag-re supply of 
 local news, and the real life of our predecessors is hard 
 to o-et at. 
 
 Just sixty-two years Sigo the Presbyterian '" Meeting 
 House" (it wasn't called " church " in those days) on the 
 public square in Bedford, was built. Among- some old 
 papers which were about to be committed to the thiitK^s 
 as useless, I lately found the list of subscribers to tlic; 
 fund for its erection. It contains the names of one hun- 
 cb-ed and eig-hteen contributors in sums rang-ing- from 
 one up to one hundred dollars. They are all dead now 
 but one. Major Daniel Washabaug"h. This list is worthy 
 of preservation. 
 
 We, the imdersigned. do hereby agree to pay the sum by us hereto 
 subscribed, to those who may V)e authorized to receive the same, for 
 the i)urpose of erecting a new Presbyterian Meeting House in the 
 borough of Bedford, on the lot whereon tlie old Meeting House now 
 stands, or any situation that a majority of the congregation may 
 agree upon. 
 
 It is understood and agreed upon by the undersigned that the use 
 of the Meeting House to be erected shall be free to all denominations 
 of Christians, and that clergymen passing through and visiting Bed- 
 ford shall be allowed to preach in said Meeting House, when it shall 
 not interfere with the engagements of the regular pastor, more than 
 one sermon of each Sabbath. 
 
 It is also agreed upon that a majority of the contributors to the 
 erection of said church shall direct the principles on which a charter 
 is to be obtained. 
 
 It is also agreed that the materials of the old Meeting House be 
 used toward erecting the new one. as far as the building committee 
 shall think proy)ei\ and the same shall be valued, and after deduct- 
 ing the old debt therefrom, the pew-holders in the old Meeting 
 House shall be allowed their proportion of the l)alance ot the value 
 thereof as a credit for pews they may buy in the riev/ Meeting House, 
 14 
 
210 
 
 Rtntmiscences and Sketch 
 
 when ('(>ni{)let(Ml, and tliat subscril)ers shall also hv allowed a cK-dil 
 \'ov their respective subscriptions. 
 
 And, lastly, it is understood that if twelve hundred dollars is not 
 subscribed by solvent persons within one year IVoni tlie date hereof, 
 our subscriptions hereto are to be void and of no effect : but at any 
 time within one year from this time, if the said twehc hundred dol- 
 lars are subscribed, as aforesaid, we agree to pay the amount of our 
 subscriptions in cash when rec^uired : 
 
 .lohn Tod, $100 t'harles McDowell $."><) 
 
 Abraham Kerns, 100 David Coy le. 10 
 
 J. S. Morrison 100 (xeorge Kspy. '2") 
 
 Job Mann 
 
 H. Dillon, 
 
 G. K\ H. Davie-s 
 
 IMiilip r. Williams, . . . 
 
 S. M. Barclay, 
 
 Thomas Rea 
 
 ,Iohn Kean, 5 
 
 John Reynolds 40 
 
 William Reynolds. .... 60 
 
 .lohn Miller 10 
 
 A. Thompson, 20 
 
 .>0 
 2") 
 2.") 
 
 2:> 
 
 Solomon Filler 
 
 . . 25 
 
 Samuel Davidson, . . 
 
 . 10 
 
 Henrv Hoblitzell, . , . 
 
 . . o 
 
 James Blayler, .... 
 
 . . :? 
 
 C. A. Osterloh 
 
 . . :> 
 
 ,Tohn Loy 
 
 . . 5 
 
 <Termau 
 
 . . 3 
 
 Jacob Ripley, 
 
 2 
 
 .loseph Hunt, 
 
 . . 5 
 
 .leremiah Jourdon, . . 
 
 2 
 
 William Anders<m, . . 
 
 . . 1 
 
 William Room. .... 
 
 . . 1 
 
 (Jerman 
 
 2 
 
 Samuel Waters, .... 
 
 . . 1 
 
 W. Reynolds, Jr., . . . 
 
 . . o 
 
 Joseph Hammer, . . . 
 
 . . 10 
 
 Samuel Blackwood, . . 
 
 . . 20 
 
 .Tames Ivea 
 
 . . 20 
 
 David Scott 
 
 . . 10 
 
 Jacob Fletcher 
 
 . . 10 
 
 N. P. Fetterman, . . . 
 
 . . 10 
 
 .lohn Bridaham. 
 William Piper. . 
 F. B. Murdoch. . 
 William Bowman. 
 Thonuis R. (rettys 
 
 .John Piper 20 
 
 Andrew J. Kline 
 
 William Fletcher. .... 
 Samuel Vondersmith, . . 
 
 James G. DiUou 
 
 Peter Schell 
 
 Elijah Adams 
 
 Henry Williams 
 
 David r.ybarger 
 
 George Claar 
 
 .lohn D. Snider 
 
 C. Herring 
 
 John A. Blodgett, .... 
 
 William Stahl 
 
 .John Claar 
 
 Michael Reimund. . . . 
 
 David Robl), 
 
 Arthur l\ea, 
 
 Solomon Reimund, . . . 
 
 .Iose])h Woll'. 
 
 John G. Martin. .... 
 
 John Arnold 
 
 Samuel Brown 
 
 .bdiii Pritchard 
 
 Thomas II. McElwee. . , 
 
 William Lyon 
 
 .John Kinton 
 
 10 
 
Presbyterian Meeting- Ho use. 
 
 211 
 
 Henry Scovil, 10 
 
 Simon Kinton, 2 
 
 James Mitchell, ..... 10 
 
 Richard Silver, 10 
 
 r). Washabangh, ..... 3 
 
 John King, 5 
 
 James Simpson, ...... 1 
 
 (leorge Hnnt, I 
 
 Benjamin Gibbony, .... 2 
 
 Solomon Metzger, 1 
 
 John Wishart, 5 
 
 Aaion Dillon, 1 
 
 John Williams, o 
 
 (rcorge Pilling, 1 
 
 Adam Holiday, 3 
 
 Samnel Jordan, 3 
 
 Samuel Tate, 3 
 
 John Clark, 5 
 
 Emanuel Statler, 3 
 
 Peter I^evy, 2 
 
 A. McVicker, 2 
 
 Peter Kagg, 2 
 
 Martin Reilly, 10 
 
 W. .1. Dobbin 5 
 
 Thomas Hunt, . . . 
 William Todd, . . . 
 James M. Russell, . . 
 
 German, 
 
 Miss Abbie Johnston, 
 J. C. McLanahan, . . 
 James A. Anderson, . 
 David Lucas, . . . 
 Daniel Wisegarver. . 
 Daniel McKinley, . . 
 Joseph Coulter, . . 
 David Mann, Jr., . . 
 John Silver, . . . 
 Peter Shoenberger, 
 Jacob BarndoUar. . . 
 
 J. Mury 
 
 Adam Ridenbaugh. . 
 James Taylor, . . . 
 Michal Reed, . . . . 
 C'harles Dannaker, 
 Jiichard Ewalt, . . . 
 Andrew Metzger. . . 
 
 ii. McKee 
 
 A friend 
 
 Total, $1,355 
 
 P»KDFORD, February 18, 1828. 
 
 When the Meeting- House was building-, Jackson was 
 tunning- for President, and all the men in Bedford sup- 
 ported him but eig"ht, who were for Adams. Among- 
 these eig-ht was Daniel Crouse, who died a few years 
 since in his ninety-third year. His descendants, to the 
 third g^eneration, yet live in our comminiity. Mr. Crouse, 
 then in the prime of manhood, was possessed of wonder- 
 ful stn^ng-th and ag^ility, and of indomitable c-ourag-e. 
 The Jju-kson men had (erected a small hickory ])<)le on 
 the i^ublic square. Li broad daylight, with no conc^cal- 
 ment, but with an open avowal of his purpose, and in the 
 presen(;e of divers persons, Mr. Orous(\ single-handed 
 
212 Reminiscences and Sketches. 
 
 and alone, armed with an ax, went to the pole and eut it 
 down, put the butt end on his shoulder, and dragged it 
 to a neighboring- wood pile and cut it into pieces. He 
 was saluted with a shower of brick-bats, which the Jack- 
 son men got at the Presbyterian Meeting House, but no 
 man dared to come in direct personal contact with him. 
 
DFXORATION DAY- AN ADDRESS. 
 
 TDATPtlOTISM is a virtue absolutely essential to a con- 
 tinuation of national life. A cowardly and selfish 
 l)eople, unwilling- to make personal sacrifices to maintain 
 the national honor, cannot long- endure. All history dem- 
 onstrates this. 
 
 Love of home, of kindred, of wife and children, and 
 father and mother, and sister and brother, these are noble 
 impulses — sacred passions implanted by a beneficent Cre- 
 ator in the human heart to add to man's happiness and 
 conduce to his welfare. 
 
 But the time comes occasionally when love of country 
 rises above all other duty and calls upon citizens to for- 
 sake all the pleasant surroundings of home, all the en- 
 dt^-aring- ties of friendship and love, and g-o forth to war — 
 war that bringrs with it exposure, and fatig-ue, and disease, 
 jind wounds, and starvation, and imprisonment, and 
 agony, and death ; that fills the land with mourning- and 
 desolates th(^ face of nature. 
 
 When ni(^n olxn^ the hig-h call of patriotism, and sacri- 
 fice their lives for the public g-ood in a necessary and just 
 war to defend the national life, that the; g-overnment 
 
214 lienmiisceMces and Sketches. 
 
 founded b>' our fatliers may descend to our children and 
 our children's children to the latest posterity, that, in the 
 lang-uag-e of President Lincoln, the government of the 
 people, by the people, for the people, may not perish 
 from the earth, it is but little that the sur\ivors can do 
 towards paying the debt of gratitude we owe the dead. 
 Their widows and orphans can l)e taken care of, and their 
 graves can be decked with flowers. In the pleasant spring- 
 time, when the earth has put on her soft robes of green 
 and the God-given flowers have opened so beautifully 
 around us, and all nature is instinct with life and beauty, 
 we can annually assemble to recall to memory their noble 
 deeds. It may oi' it may not be kno\\^l to them, what we 
 do liere to-day. Wlio can tell? Their disembodied 
 spirits may be cognizant of our doings, and our memorial 
 services may rise like grateful inc^ense to the domain in 
 which they now dwell. But whether this is so or not, 
 we owe it to ourselves to keep alive this custom. 
 
 AMio can say what demands the future holds, or how 
 soon the nation may have cause again to test the patriot- 
 ism of her sons? If patriotism be a virtue necessary to 
 national life, it must be fostered and encouraged and in- 
 stilled into the minds of the people. Tlie rising gener 
 ation in boyhood and young maidiood, must cultivate mar- 
 tial ardor and love of country. Deeds of bravery and 
 <-ourage, and fortitude and lieroism, should be commended 
 in song and story, and men everywhere should learn to 
 know and feel that a brave and honorable death is bettei- 
 than an ignobh?, cowardly and selfish, life : that the gal 
 lant soldier who rises above the narrow view of self -ease 
 and safety, and goes foi'th to batth) for his country's wel- 
 fare, is worthy of the highest regard and veneration : and 
 
Dccoratioii Day — An Address. 215 
 
 that the memory of the dead should abide forever in the 
 hearts of the hving', that th(ur descendants for o-enera- 
 tions may feel a pride in their ancestry, an elevating" and 
 ennobling pride that father or grandfather, or uncle or 
 granduncle died in the war for the Union. Such a le<^acy 
 is worth more than gold. No wealth can i)urc-hase it, no 
 bieath of misfoitune take it away. It is invalual)le; it is 
 imperishable. 
 
 We have assembled to-day to commemorate their deeds; 
 to recall the names of the soldier dead who lie buried in 
 < )ur cemeteries, and with martial music to deck their last 
 resting places with Howers. It is a sad but beautiful cere- 
 moni;d. They perished like tlowers cut down untimely, 
 in the prime and beauty of young manhood. 
 
 There are others that we cannot thus honor. Some lie 
 in unknown graves on distant battle-fields; some died 
 from starvation in the horrid prison pens of the south, and 
 fill the trenches of unmarked misery. Their very fate 
 <;an only be surmised. No kindly hand strews flowers 
 over their remains. 
 
 There are others still, who yet move about among us 
 with a wooden leg or an empty sleeve, sad living monu 
 ments of devastating war ; and some with shattered (;on 
 stitutions drag out the remnant of their days. To provider 
 for all such is the Nation's solemn duty. 
 
 War is destruction. It is essentially barbarous and cruel. 
 
 Disguise it as we will, try to soften and refine it as you 
 
 ma3^ throw around its conduct all the restraining influence 
 
 civilization and humanity can sugg-est, and it yet remains 
 
 hoiTid wai'! 
 
 "Oil Will-, what Hit thou? 
 After the l>riirlil<'st 1iiuini)h what remains 
 
216 lieminiscenres and Sketches. 
 
 Of all tliy irlories? Wlien the song of <l('ai-bough1 joy 
 
 Salutes the victor's ear and sootlies his ])ri«le. 
 
 How is the grateful harmony profaned 
 
 By the sad dissonance of virgin's cries 
 
 Who mourn their lovers slain ! Of matrons hoar 
 
 Who clasp their withered hands and fondly ask 
 
 Their slaughtered sons ! 
 
 How is the laurel's verdure stained with blood. 
 
 And wet with widows' tears?" 
 
 God never designed that men should slaug-hter each 
 other. His benevolence and beneficence are infinite. 
 "Wars, like other human ills, are man-made ; there is noth- 
 ing- in the Divine constitution of human affairs that makes 
 them necessar3\ If individuals and nations governed 
 their conduct by the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount, 
 men would beat their swords into ploughshares and their 
 spears into pruning-hooks, and would learn war no more. 
 The world is growing gray with age, and yet this nine- 
 teenth century of the Christian era is still sadly full of 
 cruelty and wrong. It must be possible that, in the ulti- 
 mate progress of the human race, some tribunal can be 
 established to settle human disputes without this horri- 
 ble relic of barbarism, this cruel idtima ratio recfivm, 
 which has so long desolated the earth. 
 
 Wliat a spectacle Christian Europe presents to-day 1 
 The whole object of national organization and government 
 on the continent, is that the masses may toil in ignorance 
 and poverty to support large disciplined armies, ready at 
 any moment to slaughter each other in battle ; to preserve 
 the so-called balance of pow( 'v. Throw the balance of powei- 
 and the whole brood of kings and nobles to the dogs 
 rather than maintain them at such a price of toil and 
 blood. And this very war of ours, this wiping-out of 
 slavery, this forgiveness and reconciliation and restora- 
 
I >tvo ration Day — An Addrt(>s. 217 
 
 tiou of the Union, are a long- step forwjiid in the rig-ht 
 (hiection. 
 
 Of all people we are most happily situated in this re- 
 .ij;:u'(l. We need no standing" army except a nominal one. 
 ( )ur g-overnment rests on justice and public opinion. Our 
 citizen soldiers, intellig-ent and courag-eous and inspired 
 l)y love of country, have ever been ready to respond to 
 all just demands ui)on their patriotism. 
 
 The advice of Pohniius to his young friend is as g-ood 
 
 for nations as for individuals : 
 
 ■ Beware of entrance to a quarrel ; but, being in. 
 Carry thyselt that thine opponent may beware of thee." 
 
 Thus has it ever been with our nation : thus may it ever 
 be. It is only in self-defense, as a dernier resort, that 
 either men or nations have a rig-ht to take u]3 arms. 
 
 We have rid ourselves of the fearful wrong- of African 
 slavery. It was, to some extent, a national sin, and we 
 liave paid a national penalty. It was more particularly 
 a sin of the south, and they liave suffered the more se- 
 verely. Wlien the culture of cotton became profitable in 
 the hands of an olig-arch}^ of slave-holders, they departed 
 from the faith of our forefathers that slavery was a wrong: 
 to be g-radually done away with as soon as it could be 
 accomplished with safety, and came to reg-ard it as an in- 
 stitution to be perpetuated and extended. 
 
 It was because of their fear that their peculiar institu- 
 tion was in peril, that they rebelled ag-ainst the election 
 of Lin(M)ln, and inaug-urated the war. 
 
 The Almighty Disposer of events interfered by a won- 
 derful series of providences to thwart their iniquity, and 
 the great wrong- was wiped out in a delug-e of blood. 
 
 We are happily rid of it. We have paid the penalty 
 
218 Beminwce'iiccs avd Skcfvlics. 
 
 vvliicli, with nations as with individuals, always follows 
 the infrac^tion of divim> law, and our nation is once ag^ain 
 prosperous and happy. No portentous clouds are lower- 
 ing", the skies are serene, and white-winged ])eace hovers 
 protectingly over the entire' land. Long may it so con- 
 thiue. And yet if the time does come that we are com- 
 pelled to embark in a just and necessary war, may our 
 young- men always respond with ]iatriotisni to their 
 country's call. 
 
 Meantime let us treasure the memory of oui' dead, and 
 with every recurring- spring deck their hallowed resting- 
 places with beautiful flowers. May the time when an- 
 other war comes to crowd out their memories by other 
 martial deeds be long- postponed. 
 
 We can best exhibit our appreciation of the dead and 
 of the sacrifice they made, hy preserving- pure and free 
 the institutions and the g-overnment they died to main- 
 tain, by discharg-ing- our duty as citizens and voters in- 
 tellig-ently and from a conviction of duty. Doubtless 
 party org-anizations are necessary and ju-ojier, as a means 
 to an end. But the welfare of })art3^ must not rise above 
 the welfare of the state. Party leaders cultivate partisan- 
 ship for their own personal aggraiidisement. The real 
 future peril to c^ur country is from corrupt party ring-s. 
 W<^ need statesmen looking- to tlit^ g-eneral ]iul)lic g-ood, 
 and not partisans who care only for the success of party, 
 and hold to the detestable doctrine that the end justifies 
 tlit^ means — the end to l)e attained party success, the 
 means, the division of offices and power among the ring-. 
 The maxim, to the victors belong- the spoils, is full of 
 dang-er to the ilepublic. The pressing need of the times 
 is its utter extermination and destruction. 
 
Decoration Day -An Address. '219 
 
 Unfortunately such partisans hold hig-h places in hoth 
 ])olitical parties. Virtue resides in the hearts ol the 
 masses of both parties, but too often they are boui;d by 
 ])arty cliques and set-uj) conventions that fail to consult 
 and reo-jird the popular will, and h^ave the peox)le im- 
 potent to control by their votes, having- really no choice 
 except to vot(^ for the nominee with whose selection they 
 had nothing- to do. The vice and weakness of our sys- 
 tem seems to lie just here. 
 
 All republics whose wrecks strew the pathw^ay of time, 
 1 lave perished from the retention of power by magistratt^s 
 and cliques ag-ainst the will of the people. Li this mat 
 ter eternal vig-ilance is the price of liberty. The smalh^st 
 I )eg-inning-s must be w^atched and g"uarded ag-ainst . A\ 1 1 e 1 1 
 th(^ trickling- stream first washes over the embankun^nt. 
 a few shovels-full of earth will check it; neglectcnl, tlw 
 break becomes a chasm, the streamlet an irresistible toi- 
 rent, sweeping destruction over tln> land. 
 
 No ring within a party has a right to dictate nomina 
 tions. There must be no party olig-archy. The whole 
 jjarty must be consulted and freely indicate its choice. 
 Any otlnn- course is treason to party and immensely pe'r- 
 ilsome to the general weal. Wlien ;i party cannot free 
 itself from the yoke of a ring excey)t by revolution, revo 
 lution is a solemn duty. The tyranny of party, main 
 tained by trickery and fraud and a division of spoils, is as 
 objectionable to a freeanan as aiiy other tyranny. It is 
 more dangerous than an o])en foe. 
 
 Before we i)ass to the further duties of the day h^t us 
 })ay a jiassing tribute of respect to the dead commander- 
 in-chief, the lament(Hl Lincoln. H<\ too, died a soldier, 
 at the head of our armies : died ).)V tlu^ liand of a cowai-dlv 
 
220 Beminiscences and Sketches. 
 
 assassin, for all assassination is essentially cowardly — a 
 secret and treacherous assault upon an unarmed and un- 
 suspecting- victim. Time works g-reat chang-es. It's soft- 
 ening- influences upon human passion is needed before 
 the actors in g-reat events can take their proper j)lace in 
 history. The rancor that saw alone in Mr. Lincoln, un- 
 couthness, malevolence, ig-norance and partisanship, has, 
 to a great extent, disappeared. The g-reat qualities of the 
 man beg-in to be seen even by those who were his bitter- 
 est revilers and foes. May I not say that Ave all here, 
 without reg-ard to party, honor the memory of the man 
 as a statesman and philanthropist, actuated by a pro- 
 foundly unselfish and earnest desire for the welfare of his 
 country and his fellowmen i 
 
 One other thoug-ht that may not be inappropriate to 
 the occasion. The war resulted in setting free four mil- 
 lions of slaves. The necessity of the case has made them 
 equal as citizens before the law. They have done won- 
 derfully well, and are fast learning to be industrious and 
 many of them intellig-ent-citizens. I doubt whether any 
 race of people laboring- under all their disadvantag-es 
 would have done better — perhaj^s none so well. It is not 
 easy at once to lay aside old prejudices, and yet certainly 
 it is the duty of all citizens to do so. It is the behest of 
 true manhood and coui-ag-e that it should be done. 
 
 To forg-ive and forg-et is noble. An adversary, who 
 has been bellig-erent under a misapprehension, and who 
 expresses regi-et, ought to be at once met with the ex- 
 tended hand of reconciliation. But both sides were not 
 right in this war. One or the other was frightfully wrong. 
 Forgiveness does not mean that Ave are to fail to properly 
 <TninciMt(\ on suitable occasions, the jnstnt^ss and human- 
 
Decoration Day — An Address. 221 
 
 itv of our \v;ir. And yet there \W(\\\' doubtlc^ss j^-ood pco- 
 })le, earnest Oliristian i)eople, eng-a<];-ed in the rebellion ; 
 such arrant self- dectei vers are men wIkui warped and 
 blindedby their surrounding-s and by their narrow vision. 
 
 I have hcn-e th<' list of th(^ dcsad soldiers of th(^ eounty. 
 I wish that time would permit to r(\-id tliem to you. 
 More than one thousand of the prime of the manhood of 
 this sing-le (;ounty of Bedford went out to this war. Of 
 this nnmberOver six hundred died in th(^ service, in battle 
 and from disease. One of every six of the men of the 
 couiity went forth to battle — one of every ten of the men 
 of the county laid down his life on the altar of his country. 
 Ing-rates and cravens are we, and falst^ to our duty, if \\<^ 
 fail to love our ccmntry and her free institutions, and to 
 venerate the memory of our soldier dead. 
 
 Let me tell you an in(;ident of the war. From among 
 us here in this villag-e of Bedford, there went out a young- 
 lawyer, Oswald Hampton Gaither, in all the health and 
 hope and fond aspiration of young manhood. The j)a- 
 triotism, the valor, the honor of the country, had been 
 appealed to by the President's proclamation, and from 
 the ])ulpit and the rostrum, to stand by the union of our 
 fathers. The call of duty sounded so imperatively in his 
 ears that his ccmscience would not permit him to say no. 
 He left all the hapj^y surroumbngs of our beautiful vil- 
 lage and marched f(H'th to uphold the heroics stai-s and 
 stripes of our ancestors. On one of the battle-fields of 
 Virginia he fell, pierced through tlu^ breast with a bullet. 
 As he lay upon his hospital bed, conscious of his ap- 
 proaching dissolution, with no mother's hand to wipe the 
 death-sweat from his l)row, he was visited by a Presby- 
 terian minister, who spoke to him of the a])i)]"()acliing end. 
 
222 UrniinisceiiceH and Sl-rfchcs. 
 
 He replied, 1 mil ]>rei)aie(l to die so far as the consola- 
 tions of reli<>*ion are eoncerned, but oh ! sir, it is hard to 
 die thus, on tli(^ very ver^e of a life that was so full of 
 hoptmnd promise, and aspirations of nsefulness and fame, 
 but I am consoled l)y the thonglit that I perish for the 
 <^'ood of my country, that her g-overnment and free insti- 
 tutions may live. In a ftnv hours after he was in eternity. 
 Ang-els If^aned over the battlements of heaven with out- 
 stretched hands to welcome to paradise the soul of that 
 young- Christian hero. 
 
 Death is inevitable. However wc may exclude the un- 
 welcome thought it comes to all. Each one must cross, 
 and cross alone, so far as human aid is concerned, the 
 dark waters that separate us from immortality. The fate 
 of those we this day commemorate is assured. Their 
 liattle of life is fought and ended gloriously. Some of us 
 who survive may fill dishonored graves, may stain our 
 lives with unworthiness, or disgrace our names and line- 
 age. Not so with these. In the language of the brave 
 Roman, Horatius, who, more than two thousand years 
 ago, kept the bridg-e so well, 
 
 " T<) ^'very one u})on this oartli 
 
 Death conieth soon or hite, 
 And how ciiii man die hetter 
 
 Tlian faeinij; fearful odds 
 For the ashes of his fathers, 
 
 The temple of his ^ods. " 
 
MR. STANTON S DISCHARGE OF 
 MILITARY PRISONERS. 
 
 A T the close of the Avar, m Apiil, 1865, several thon- 
 ^ sand prisoners, who had been convicted by courts 
 martial and military commissions, were confined in differ- 
 ent forts and |:)enitentiaries, undergoing- sentences of im 
 prisonment. For the most part they were soldiers of 
 the Union, and i)ersons connected in one capacity or an- 
 other with the army, as drafted men, sutlers, clerks, 
 teamsters, contractors, etc., who had been convicted of 
 desertion, bounty -jumping, failing- to report when 
 drafted, larceny, cheating the government, assaults with 
 int(ait to kill, horse-stealing, rape, arson, robbery and 
 murder. But there were also numei'ous arre^sts, impris- 
 onments and convi(;tions, of citizens ancx)nn(^-cted with the 
 army. 
 
 The war for the suppression of tlie rebellion was an 
 immense and many-sided affair. The magnitude of its 
 operations ran far Ix^yond tli(; conception of ordinary 
 minds. The g-eneral (expectation was that it would end 
 
 speedily. The very limited inter<x)urse and inter-com- 
 
 (22:i) 
 
'224: Iic.itn'iiisiU'tK'Cs aitt/ Skc/c/ir.^. 
 
 innnicjitioii betwoen the people of the South and the pro 
 p\o of the North, had \udnrv(\ a <;-eneral and mutual 
 misapprehensiou of (^liaraeter between tlie ijiliabitants ot" 
 the s(H'tions. ']'h(^ South repmhHl the North as a nation 
 of nierehants, trach'smen and small farmers, absorbed in 
 moiKW ^"ettiui^- and dc^stitute of uianly si)irit and pvv- 
 sonal eourao-e — a cowardly race, who could not be in- 
 duced to fii^'ht ; and the North thoui^ht the South a horde 
 of blusterini^' brat^r.^arts, and failed, for a time, to appre- 
 ciate thesii" d<nidly (^arnc^stness in the ccnitlict for the 
 destruction of the Union, in whicli they had enlisted. 
 Even those wlio controlled aliairs at AVashint^'ton shartul 
 in this misconception. At the outset it was tlioucrlit tlie 
 war would end in ninety days. The first (ndistmeut of 
 volmiteers was for a ptn'iod of tlircH' months. 
 
 Thus it hat)pened that for a lon^^* time no i)rovision was 
 madt^ for a bureau of military justice. Courts martial and 
 military commissions were constituted, as the (^nero-enc^y 
 of the occasion retpiired, by division, oi- c()r])s, or depart- 
 ment commanders, of any officers who were at hand or 
 who could bt^ spared from ac^tive duty, and the proceed- 
 ings were oftentimes very crude and hurried, and doubt- 
 l<\ss in som(* cases unjust. The othcei-s constitutiniif the 
 courts were, for the most part, unskilUnl as jurists. Many 
 of them had never opened a law book, and had no exper- 
 ience with courts of justice or the administration of law. 
 But numerous misdemtninors and sei-ious crimes were 
 connnitted, and there were no courts to try offiuiders and 
 punish offenses, except such as cimld be casually consti- 
 tuttnl by virtue of martial law. Laroe scopes of country 
 were at times undtu' no otliei- *^-overnm(^nt. As (^r 
 armies advanced and took ])ossessi()u, some soi-f of ti"ibu- 
 
Dischanje of Militartj Frisoncrs -hM 
 
 nals had to \)o ('rect<Hl to exercise jurisdietioii for tlin 
 prote(^tioii and ])reservatioii of property, and liberty, and 
 life. The loeal «fO|Vernment had l)(MH)nie entirely disor- 
 i^ani/ed, and the courts broktni u}) and dispersed. 
 
 Martial law is re<*-ulated by no establisluMl systc^rn or 
 <.x>d(\ The military commander is tlit^ fountain of jus- 
 tice. His arbitrary will is the supreme law. Growing 
 out of the nec^essity of the case, prisom^rs, when con 
 victed, W(5r<' sentenced to (umfine^ment in difl[er»^nt forts 
 and penitentiaries throug-hout the North, and in many 
 cases the only record of the trial and (H)nvi(tti()n and sen- 
 tence remainino: in existencre was tlie g-eneral order 
 accompanying the prisoner to tlie ])la(Hi of (confinement. 
 
 It was not until 1863 tliat an attempt was made by 
 congressional Ic^g-islation to r(^m(Hly this evil, and to sys- 
 tematize mattt^rs and have the records of proceedings 
 arranged and properly cared for. To this end, in July, 
 1863, an a,ct was [)assed for the appointm<;nt of a jud^e 
 advocate «"eneral, with the rank of bri^adit^r general, an 
 assistant, with the rank of colonel, and two jud^e advo- 
 cates, with the rank of major. In July, 1864, the depart- 
 ment was enlarg-ed by an act autliorizin^- the a,ppoint- 
 ment of a jud^c^ advoccate, with tlu^ r-ank of major, for 
 each army corps. Judf»-(; Joseph Holt, of K<mtu(cky, was 
 placced at the head of this bureau. 
 
 There is no greater (evidence of manhood than self- 
 poise. In common affairs, matters of <wery-day life^ 
 when somethino- unusual occurs, th(^ man wlio is self-pos- 
 sessed, wlio kee])s his head, who knows how to -cwX on a 
 sudden cmer<,'-(incy, and wlio is willing- totak^^thr n^spon 
 sibility, commands the admiration of his ff^llows. What 
 measure of })rais(' then is du<' to Kdwin M Sbuiton as 
 
22(i licntinisci'iLCeti (ind JSkcfclx .s. 
 
 Secretary of War, during- the contest tor the su})pressioii 
 of the rebellion ? At a time when the ex}^enditures oi 
 the government readied bt^tween two and three millions 
 of dollars elaily, when a million of men were in arms, 
 \\hen all the circumstances and surroundings were new, 
 untried and alarming-, when there were no precedents by 
 which he could shape his actions, he shrank from no re- 
 sponsibility that properly belong-ed to his position. He 
 never wavered or hesitated when disaster after disaster 
 to our armies dispirited many a man of resolute will and 
 strong nerve. He was in personal peril, in peril of as- 
 sassination, and in special peril, if by any chance of war 
 he had fallen into the hands of the Confederates. A short 
 shrift and an ig-nominious death would have been his fate 
 in all human probability, for theii' hatred of him was ma- 
 lignant and intense. He stood at his post at the War De- 
 partment from nine o'clock in the morning till late at 
 nig-ht, month after month, from one year's end to another, 
 and one year after another, and g-rasped the general scope 
 and all the details of its multitudinous affairs. His ca- 
 pacity for work was unbounded. His ability to make 
 others work was immense. His quickness of mental ac- 
 tion and justness of judgment were marvelous. I never 
 met any man who was his equal in the prompt dispatch 
 of business, except Thomas A. Scott of the Pennsylvania 
 K;dlroad Company. He was misrepresented and abused 
 by tht> partisan press and by the secession sympathizers 
 of the north, and was charged with being- arbitrary, ty- 
 rannical, vindictive and unjust. But he held the even 
 tenor of his way, undismayed. He left a lucrative prac- 
 tice at the bar, producing- an income of from twenty to 
 tliirty thousand dollars a year, to assume the responsible 
 
Discharge of MUifary Prisoners. 227 
 
 duties of Secretary of War at a salary of six or eii^lit 
 thousand. The tongue of shmder, urg-ed by hatred the 
 most bitter and malice the most mrdig-nant, assailed him 
 with yitu]>eration at every point Avliere it was supposed 
 he mig-lit be vulnerable. Houthern sympathizers saw in 
 him the main prop of Mr. Lincoln's administration. He 
 stood like an Atlas supporting" the globe upon his broad 
 shoulders. They feared, hated and reviled him. Yet no 
 man ever dared to impeach his honesty, or charged that 
 he made a dollar, directly or indirectly, out of the war, or 
 that any friends of his speculated in army contracts by 
 his connivance. He came out of the War Department as 
 poor as he went in. He came out broken in health by 
 his assiduous attentions to the most exacting" duties. He 
 died a martyr to the cause of the Union, by reason of his 
 disreg-ard of the requirements of his own health, in order 
 that he mig'ht discharg-e the duties of his ofHce for the 
 benefit of an imperiled Union. 
 
 Wlien the war ended, I was a judg-e advocate, with the 
 rank of major, in the biu*eau of military justice, assig-ned 
 to duty with the Sixteenth army corps, then under com- 
 mand of General A. J. Smith and serving in Mississip))!. 
 But I was detailed on special duty by the Secretary of 
 War, which broug-ht me into close personal relations with 
 him for months, and 1 propose to recall my personal recol- 
 lections of him by way of showing what maimer of man 
 he was. With a profound conviction that the country 
 owes to Mr. Stanton a great debt of gratitude, 1 wish to 
 contribut(i my mite to the proper understanding of tliis 
 man of much more than common mold. 
 
 Summoned to Washing-ton about th(^, first of June, 
 18f)5, T called at the AVar Departirient as soon as it was 
 
228 Reniiniiscences and Skelclui^. 
 
 opened, and sent in my (^ard to Mr. Stanton. He replied 
 by his colored niessen<>-er that T should he seated and wait 
 till he could sei^ ni(\ I took a seat in the outer office, 
 where the number of persons desiring" an interview with the 
 Secretary of War contiinied to incr<^ase'as the hours rolled 
 on. ill tliis outer ofhce General Hardie and (^olonel P(^ 
 louze alternately stood at a desk and answered inquiries, 
 and in some instances disposed of matters of minor im- 
 portance. Frcmi time to time th<^ UK^ssenger would (;ome 
 out and usher into Mr. Stanton's inner sanctum those in- 
 dividuals whose cards had been sent in, whom he desired 
 to see privately. At eleven o'clock Mr. Stanton came 
 into the outer room, and taking" his place at the desk, 
 standing, Colonel Pelouze or General Hardie standing- 
 beside him, receiv(^d in turn <^ach individual, and heard 
 what he had to say, and rapidly disposed of his ai)plica- 
 tion or business. Ordinarily, from twenty to thirty p(3r- 
 sons would be thus received and disposed of each day in 
 the hour allotted by the Secretary to this duty. Th<' ap- 
 plications were of every possible kind. Permission to 
 get cotton, tobacco^ or other property that had been 
 seized and confiscated, on the alh?g"ation that the owner 
 of it was loyal to the government, r«^quests to visit pris- 
 oners, or for their })ardon, or for the discharges of boys 
 who had enlisted, or soldiers who were sick, and a hun- 
 dred and (me other thing-s. Mr. Stanton disposed of 
 tlies(i matters with wondeii'ul celerity, and ordinarily with 
 reasonable ])atience and g^ood natm-e. He was intolerant 
 of a prosy narrative, because it wasted his time, and it 
 was not wise to persist in repeating the claim after he 
 had refused it. On some such occasions I have seen 
 him flash like a stroke of lighting and explode like a 
 
Discharge of Milifdry Prisoners. 229 
 
 tliunderbolt. I remembc^r one who claimed tobacco at 
 liic^hmond as beloiig-ino: to a Frencliman, wlio persisted 
 ill urg-in^ sornethinc:;- that the French consul had said 
 about the Fr(*nchmans ri«rhts, and what the French orov- 
 ernnient would do in the premises. Stanton (piickly, but 
 in a very quiet and determined manner, said, " Your 
 Frc^nch consul be damned ! you can withdraw, sir ! " 
 which the man did, and stood not on the ordt^r of his 
 croin^. 
 
 ( )n one occasion amonir the (wallers was Dr. Mary Wal- 
 ker, dr(;ss(Hl in a semi-masculine costume of blue p?yits 
 and a blue coat reaching a little Ik^ow the knees, and 
 with what looked like boots on her feet. Immcxliately 
 oil Mr. Stanton's appearance; she advanced to the desk, 
 although she had not been waiting as long as some 
 others, and urged her rig-ht to be appointed a surgeon in 
 the reg-ular army, because of her services as a doctor to 
 the soldiers in Kentucky and Tennesee. She wanted 
 Mr. Stanton to recommend her to the President so that 
 she might be nominated by him to the Senate, and con- 
 firmed and commissioned, and demanded to know if hit- 
 ters and papers recommending her, and testifying to h(;r 
 merits and services, had been read by him, and when he 
 was going to act, and liow. Her manner was aggressive 
 and waspish. Mr. Stanton's manner towards \un- was 
 mild, and his mouth, which was a very beautiful and ex- 
 pn^ssive feature of his face, was wreathed with a pleasant 
 little trace of a smile of amusement, as he said, no, he had 
 not rc^ad her papers, and, turning to Colon(;l Pelouze or 
 General Hardie (I do not remember which), said, Col- 
 onel, or General, what do you think of \t '. Whereupon 
 Mrs. Doctor Mary, boiling over with rage, stepped her 
 
230 Reminiscences and Sketches. 
 
 foot forward and shook her fist (dose under the Secre- 
 tary's nose, and said she was ontrag-ed and wrong-ed, and 
 he would liear from her, and tlouneed out with a femi- 
 nine wrig-g-ling" motion, wdiich, as she had no skirts on, 
 was preeminently ridiculous. Mr. Stanton evidently en- 
 joyed this little episode, but proceeded at once to the 
 dispatch of other matters. 
 
 Speaking of Mrs. Doctor Mary Walker, I am reminded 
 of an incident of her career in Tennessee. The army 
 of the Union had advanced and occupied the town 
 
 of . On Sunday, services in (commemoration 
 
 of the Lord's supper were held at the Episcopal chur(di, 
 and a small vase of flowers, white with a red flower in 
 the center, was on a table or altar in a conspicious place. 
 Mi's. Doctor Walker, who was in the audience, unpinned 
 from some part of her dress a piece of blue ribbon, and in 
 the midst of the servi(ces advanced and laid it across the 
 flowers in the vase. The congregation' were rebel sym- 
 pathisers, and Dr. Walker's summary dose of red, white 
 and blue patriotism came near breaking it up in confusion. 
 
 Finally, after a patient wait, I think it was after four 
 o'clock, the hour at which the department closed for the 
 general public, I was ushered into Mr. Stanton's private 
 room. He apologized for keejiing me waiting on the 
 groun(f that his time had been fully occupied, and tliat he 
 wished to have leisure to explain to me fully what he 
 wanted done, and proceeded to state tliat there was a 
 large accumulation of prisoners of the kind I have referred 
 to, and that he desired forthwith to release all of them 
 that could be joardoned witliout prejudice to the service 
 or injury to the country, that it would not do to pardon 
 all indiscriminately, because some might belong to regi- 
 
Dischanje of Military FrisomrH. 231 
 
 meuts which were yet in the service, and others mi^-ht be 
 very bad men whose conhnement was necessary for the 
 welfare of society, and who ouo-ht not to bt^ at hirge, and 
 that the pardon and discharg't^ of a vicious soklier, whilst 
 the o-ood soldiers of the same reg-iment were yet held t< ) 
 military service, would be putting- a premium on ])ad 
 conduct and would tend to the demoralization of the 
 army ; but that he had no doubt that many of the crimes 
 had been committed by reason of the license eng-endered 
 by the war by persons who were otherwise pretty g-ood 
 citizens. He wished no delay, no red tape, no formal ap- 
 plications for pardon, no routine work, and desired me to 
 see each prisoner separately and to learn from a personal 
 conversation with and interrogation of the man, from the 
 record of his conviction, accompanymg- him to the prison, 
 and from tlie testimony of the officers of the prison as to 
 his conduct duringf confinement, whether he ought to be 
 pardoned, and directed that I should report to him in 
 person after the investig-ation of each fort (n- penitentiary, 
 with a general list giving- the name, ag-e, residence, reg-i- 
 ment, date of enlistment, duration of confinement, crime, 
 conduct in prison, and my recommendation and the reason 
 therefor as to each prisoner, and with a detached dr sep- 
 arate special report at length, in any ceases of im])ortance 
 where such extended rejiort seemed necessary. 
 
 The first place visited under this ordei- was Fort Mc- 
 Henry, near Baltimore. Therein confined were one hun- 
 dred and forty -two prisoners, other than prisoners of war, 
 who came within the sco})e of the Secretary's order. The 
 department was under the command of Majoi- (xeneral 
 Lew Wallace ; the fort, under the command of Colonel 
 W. W. Morris of the second artillery of the rcgulai'army. 
 
232 Meminiticenccs and Sketcken. 
 
 In the city of Baltimore a military commission was slowly 
 trying, at the rate of about one or two hours' work a day, 
 a lot of offenders, most of whom were Baltimore roug-hs, 
 who had been arrested for expressions of delight at the 
 assassination t)f the President, and drafted men who had 
 failed to report, of whom twenty-five were in Fort Mc- 
 Henry awaiting trial. Some of them had been in con- 
 finement for eight months. The military commission 
 was evidently carefully husbanding the supply of pris- 
 (mers so as to keep the thing going as long as possible. 
 
 The position of the oflicers constituting it was very 
 nearly a sinecure. With pleasant surroundings and good 
 salaries they were in no hurry to be relegated to the or- 
 dinary pursuits of civil life. 
 
 On my return to Washington in a few days with my 
 report, Mr. Stanton, in an interview of an hour or less, 
 which took place after the ordinary working hours of the 
 Wjir Department were over, acted upon the entire list, 
 and, as I ultimately learned, ordered the discharge of all 
 except three, and l^roke up the military commission as a 
 useless affair, and sj^eedily reduced the military force at 
 Baltimore to a very small number. But he by no means 
 adopted my report without examination. Selecting the 
 name of a man imprisoned for a high crime, he asked, 
 "why do you recommend this man's pardon f After 
 hearing what I had to say, he put one or two searching 
 interrogations, as if to test the accuracy of my judgment. 
 This lie did, perhaps, in three or fom- cases, and thus 
 judged of the whole work. 
 
 The cases which he did not pardon were the following : 
 
 Walter Lennox, mayoi' of Washington city, charged 
 with being a rebel spy and bearer of communications 
 
B'hschanje of JJUitary Frisonerff. 233 
 
 from Riclimoud to Canada, confined by order of the Sec- 
 retary of War, and who had never been l)rong-ht to trial, 
 to whom, whilst at the fort, I sent a messag-e that I was 
 there as the special ag-ent of the War Department with 
 no instrnctions as to his erase, but under a g-eneral order 
 to investig-ate the cases of prisoners and recommend the 
 discharg-e of all who could be released without prejudice 
 to the service or injury to the country, and that I would 
 l)e pleased to call on him in the discharge of my duty if 
 lie desired me to do so. He replied, that he did not care 
 for an interview, that his arrest and incarceration consti- 
 tuted a g-ross \dolation of the constitution and of the laws 
 of the land, and that he proposed, when released from 
 confinement, to vindicate himself by a trial by jury, and 
 that he would hold Mr. Stanton personally responsible. 
 At the delivery of this messag-e a trace of a smile curved 
 the corners of the Secretary's mouth, but he made no re- 
 mark. Ml'. Lennox, however, remained a prisoner, and I 
 think was not discharg-ed as long- as Mr. Stanton remained 
 in the war ofiice 
 
 The next case was that of a Union soldier. In one of 
 the battles in Virginia he had been wounded with a sabre 
 stroke on the head. A larg-e ci(?atrix crossing- over half 
 of the top of the head and extending do-wii into the fore- 
 head below the hair, exhibited to the most casual observer 
 that he had survived a fearful wound. After he had re- 
 covered and been discharged from the hospital, and was 
 on the way to join his regiment he shot and killed, in the 
 Camden Street depot at Baltimore, a little newspaper boy 
 ])ecause of a dispute as to whether he had retiu'iied the 
 change correctly. Arrested and taken to Fort McHenry, 
 he was tried, under Colonel Morris' iurisdiction, and 
 
234 Reminiscences and Skefchei 
 
 convicted of murder iind seiiteiic^ed to be lianized, and the 
 day was set for the execution. But whim it came t]u) 
 man was wildly insane, and so the execution was post- 
 poned from time to time. The difficulty (\)lonel Morris 
 encountered was to g-et a day appointed with red-tape 
 reg-ularity to liano- tlie man at a, time when he had a lucid 
 interval. Neither the scar of the wound, nor the insuf- 
 licienc^y of th(^ motive to murder, nor the man's wild spells 
 of insanity seem ev(^r to have sugg-est^ul to Colonel Mor 
 ris s mind thc^ }:)i"ol)ability tliat he was insane when he 
 committed the deed. Mr. Stanton at once transferred 
 this man to an insane asylum. 
 
 The third was the case of a prisoner who Avas tried and 
 convicted as a rebel spy within our lines in Ohio. This 
 man, whose real name was Davis, had been, as was dis 
 covered by some of the prisoners who made known their 
 suspicions to me, a lieutenant in the service of the Con 
 federacy under the notorious Werz at the prison at An- 
 dersonville at the timc^ of tlu^ inhuman treatment of our 
 prisoners of war. Mr. Stanton transferred him to the 
 I^enitentiary at Albany, N. Y., as I learned on the occa- 
 sion of my visit there some months afterwards, and prob- 
 ably hehl him tliere to the last. 
 
 By any ordinary method <^f jail delivery other than a 
 summary one, mcmths would have been consumed in de- 
 termining- what was to be done with these prisoners and 
 there would have been the intervention of pardon-brokers, 
 and jietitions and recommendations, and a vast expense 
 to the government, all of wliich was avoided by Mr. Stan- 
 ton's practical g-ood sense and ]irompt rejdization of the 
 necessities of th(^ (Occasion, and his willingness to take 
 the responsibility and do the^ work himself. If he had 
 
Discharge of Militai^y Frisoiitrs. 235 
 
 l)eeu jx corrupt man and desirous of «inri(;liin^- hims^'lt' or 
 his friends the sale of pardons wouhl liave bee^n a r 'ady 
 nutans of aceomplishing' it. 
 
 In the sam(^. way, and as rapidly as an examination and 
 report eould be made, Mr. Stanton proceeded with the 
 iollowing- forts, camps and j xvnitentiaries, in each of which 
 were a ^-nnitc^r or less number of pris(mers : 
 
 Fort Delaware, below Philadelphia. 
 
 Fort Lafayette, in New York harbor. 
 
 Fort Warren, in Boston harbor. 
 
 Camp Chase, at Columbus, Ohio. 
 
 Camp Morton, at Indianapolis, Indiana. 
 
 Camp Doug-las, at Chicago, Illinois. 
 
 The Ohio Penitentiary, at Columbus, Ohio. 
 
 The Iowa Penitentiary, at Fort Madison, Iowa. 
 
 The Gatriot Street Prison, at St. Louis, Missouri. 
 
 The Missouri Penitentiary, at Jefferson City, Missouri. 
 
 The Virginia Penitentiary and the Libby Prison, at 
 Richmond, Virg"inia. 
 
 The Kentucky Penitentiary, at Frankfort, Kentucky. 
 
 The Tennessee Penitentiary, at Nashville, Tennessee. 
 
 Sing'-Sing', Clinton, Auburn and Albany Penitentiaries, 
 in the State of New York. 
 
 Th(5 New Hampshire Penitentiary, at Concord, New 
 Hampshire. 
 
 The Fitchburg- Female Prison, at Fitchlmrg-, Massachu- 
 setts. 
 
 Li nearly all of thesf^ cases, amounting" in the ag-g-reg-ate 
 to several thousand, the sentences were remitted and the 
 prisoners discharg-ed from confinement. By the end of 
 the year 1865 probably not one hundred remained in con- 
 finement. Finally, by a g-eneral order of the T3th of Tuly^ 
 
236 Reminiscences and Sketches. 
 
 1866, all pi'isoners undergoino- military sentence, wb<> 
 had been imprisoned for a j^eriod of six months, except 
 those underg-oing- sentence for the crimes of murder, 
 arson or rape, and excepting those under sentence at the 
 Island of Tortugas, were discharged and the residue of 
 their sentences remitted. 
 
 The Camps Chase, Morton and Douglas, at each of 
 which were a few prisoners and a large number of ofhcers 
 ha\dng a good time, were suinmaiily broken up, and the 
 prisoners who were not discharged wc^re transferred to 
 other places. 
 
 Mr. Stanton was not a popular man. He had neither 
 time nor inclination for bowing and scraping and compli- 
 mentary speeches. The business of war is real. A vast 
 work was to be done, and done rajndly, with system and 
 exactness, and without much regard to the suariter in 
 modo. His mind promptly grasped everything suggested 
 to his notice, and saw at once the whole subject matter. 
 He had little patience with slo^v men. He seemed to be 
 es]iecially unpopular with the regular army officers. Ex- 
 actly why this was I do not know, unless it was because 
 his ways were not like their ways, and they disliked his 
 methods. I presume it would have taken Colonel Morris 
 as many weeks to discharge the prisoners at Fort Mc- 
 Henry as Mr. Stanton consumed of minutes for that work. 
 
 Henry Ward Beecher's estimate of Mr. Stanton, in 
 May, 1865, was as follows: "I think he lias all the ele- 
 ments of old John Adams; able, staunch, patriotic, full 
 of principles, and always unpopular. He lacks that sense 
 of other people's opinions which keeps a man from run- 
 ning against them, and so he is not unfrequently found 
 with a plan pitched right into somebody who, by tact, 
 
Discharge of Militarif Prisoners. 287 
 
 mij^'lit havr been avoidtHl. But this is an honest trait, 
 and 1 quite hke to see aiuong- supph', dainty, ducking 
 men, now and then, one who, Hke a bull, does his work 
 by downright strength." 
 
 As Mr. Lincoln was the right man for President, and 
 Thaddeus Stevens the right man for ehairman of the Com- 
 mittee of Ways and Means, and General Grant the right 
 man at the head of the army, so Mr. Stanton was preemi- 
 nently qualified for Secretary of War. A timid man would 
 never have done. A slow-minded man, however clear and 
 strong and just, would have been an utter failure. A de- 
 sponding man would have succumbed. A dishonest or 
 corrupt man would have enriched himself and his friends 
 and ruined the country. 
 
 Courageous, resolute, possessed of unfaltering ]^atriot- 
 ism, with unbounded faith in the cause of the Union and 
 in its ultimate success, shrinking from no proper respon- 
 sibility, vigilant, prompt, far-seeing, industrious, ener- 
 getic, self-sacrificing and honest, Mr. Stanton was emi- 
 nently fitted for the post. Amiability would have weak- 
 ened the strong fibre of his character. Mr. Lincoln had 
 enough of that for both. Stanton supplemented Lincoln's 
 character, and together they gave the country the very 
 qualities that were needed at Washington in the crisis of 
 our national life. And down through the ages their mem- 
 oi-ies will go, linked together — President Lincoln and his 
 great Wai- Secr<'tary. When time h'uds a proper per- 
 spective to the view, on the scroll that Fame will ulti- 
 mately unroll, exhibiting the achievements of our great 
 men for the admiration and gratitude of posterity, the 
 name of Edwin M. Stanton will be well towards the top. 
 
OVERTAKEN BY JUSTICE. 
 
 TN looking- over old newspapers to trace the career of 
 David Lewis, the robber, I came upon an item of 
 information in regard to Ellis Lewis, a distinguished 
 man of another g-rade. 
 
 The printing office is a g-ood place to get a practical 
 education — better, in some respects, than a college, if 
 you judge by the men who have graduated at printing 
 offices and risen to success as lawyers, and legislators, 
 and governors. Pennsylvania furnishes a long list of 
 such, and among them is Ellis Lewis, who became a pres- 
 ident judge of the court of common pleas, and afterwards 
 chief justice. He was bound as an apprentice to John 
 Wyeth, of Harrisburg, who published a newspaper 
 called the Oracle. Simon Cameron was at the same 
 time an apprentice in the printing- office of the Pennsyl- 
 vania Republican. 
 
 In February, 1816, Lewis, tired of the drudg-ery or of 
 his treatment, and d(^ubtless conscious of his real powers, 
 suddenly, one Sunday morning, disappeared. Wliere- 
 upon Wyeth advertised him in the Pennsylvania Bepub- 
 lican. as follows: 
 
 (238) 
 
Overtdken hy Justice. 289 
 
 $20 KEAVAED. 
 
 ORA(n.E Office, Febnuu^i/ 8, 1816. 
 Abs(t(nided tVoni this ofiice on Sunday morning an iixiented appren- 
 tice to the printing bufsiiiess, 
 
 E L L I S L E WIS, 
 aged about nineteen years — five leet one or two inches high, slim 
 built, pale coiuitenance with a down look. All persons are Ibrbid 
 harboring him. And the young man mav rest assured that however 
 he may hug himself on his dexterity at running away justice sooner 
 or later will overtake him to his cost. 
 
 John Wyeth.. 
 
 Whether the Oracle was oracular in anything- else or 
 not I know not, but the prediction as to Lewis' future 
 was sing-ularly verified. Justice overtook him, not, how- 
 ever, to his cost, and made him a disting-uished judg-e. 
 
M 
 
 FORTY YEARS AGO. 
 
 j. ,| Y avocation as a sm-veyor tliroug-h Bedford county 
 forty years ag-o introduced me to tlie home life of the 
 people, a description of which may be interesting- and 
 may have historic value, as the chano-es in the habits and 
 customs and modes of life of the poj:)ulation of the county 
 in my time are very marked. The innovations are g-reater 
 in some townships than in others, for there was a differ- 
 ence in the degree of progi'ess made when I first went 
 among- the people, some localities being more advanced 
 than others : but it has been very g-reat in all, both in town 
 and country. I will take Southampton tc^wnship foi- 
 illustration, because that \\'as, perhaps, one of the most 
 backward, and the people most primitive in their ways : 
 and that too was a township in which I surveyed a g-reat 
 deal and had the fullest opportunity for observation. 
 
 I select the year 1849 as the period of description — my 
 advent in the township was in the fall of that year. 
 First impressions are those that can best be recalled and 
 relied upon, for every thing- was new to me and different 
 from what T had been accust<3med to, and therefore 
 stamped itself indelibly on the memory. 
 
 (240) 
 
Fort if Years Ago. HI 
 
 There was not. at that time, so far as 1 know, a silk 
 dress, or a broadcloth coat, or a car]:)(^ted i-oom, in all that 
 township. The women wore sun-bonntits, and (b(isses of 
 linsey-woolsey, and for Hnnday, calico ; and the mt^n won; 
 ronnd-a-bouts called "slips," made of homfvs])un flannel, 
 mostly of a dnll brown color, bnt occasionally of a brig-lit 
 rcHi Store-clothes and store-shoes and store-bonnets and 
 artificial dowers, were unknown. Nearly every thing- that 
 was w^orn was made at home. In every well-to-do house 
 there was a spinning-wheel, a reel and a loom. They 
 raised their own fla:x, from which they made linen for 
 sheets and underclothing, and tow linen, from i\w 
 roug-her parts of the flax, for pants, etc., and the sheep 
 furnished the wool from which flannel was woven. The 
 linsey-woolsey, out of which women's dresses and men's 
 coats and pants were made, was a combination of wool 
 and linen, the warp of one and the woof of the other. 
 
 In hay-making and harvest, the women worked in the 
 
 fields, and in winter, they spun and wove. The best room 
 
 in the best houses had a bed-strip of home-made carpet. 
 
 The only piece of ornamentation that I recall was a small 
 
 looking'-g-lass, the mirror part beloA\', with a painted pic- 
 
 tm*e at the top, beneath which, pendant from tacks at th<' 
 
 two upper corners, hung- a stiff-starched towel with a 
 
 fring-e at the lower edg-e, not intended for use. Ablu 
 
 tions were made at the spring- or in the running- stream 
 
 near tlie door. There was not in all that township, a 
 
 piano, a (^abin<^t-organ, amelodian, a carriag-e or a bug-g-y, 
 
 or a subscriber to a city newspaper. Six copies of the 
 
 Bedfoi'd G<m'ii(' were taken in the township, and not a 
 
 sing-le copy of any other pa])er, secnilar oi- relig-ious. The 
 
 houses, built of ]oo-s, li.-id Inn^e cliimneys madn of stone, 
 10 
 
242 Ii( /itiiiisccHccs (I ml Sl.'ctclivs. 
 
 with lir(^ places wi(l(3 and deep eiK^u^h to put in great 
 back logs five or six feet long. There was room for a 
 stool in tlu^ corner. The cooking was done on the hearth 
 in dutch ovens and skillets. In two or three housc^s were 
 cooking stoves, which were then just Ixdng introduci^d. 
 
 The nionc^y in circulation was worn tips, levys and 
 (piarters, of Spanish coinage. Wliisky was a levy a 
 quart and was for sale at every country store. Most of 
 the men chewed tobacco and smoked pipes. There were 
 no g-lass lamps. Cofd oil was unknown. The lig-ht was 
 made by fat pine thrt)wn on the open tire, or by a wick of 
 cotton partly immersed, swimming- in lard in a little iron 
 vessel. A ritle-grin hung- on peg-s driven in the wall, with 
 a powder-horn and bullet pouch close at hand. A corner 
 cupboard, with glass in the doors, which exhibited a fcM- 
 dishes, was the sole article of furniture that made any 
 demonstration of display. 
 
 The adjoining townships of Monroe^ and Cumberland 
 A^alley were in nnich the same state of advancement. 
 
 Now all this is changed. You will find a piano, org-an 
 or melodian, in nearly every house of the better class, 
 most all have cooking-stoves, and coal oil lamps, and car- 
 peted rooms, and sewing- machines, and oi-namental win- 
 doAv curtains, and bugg-ies, and newspapers, and mag-a- 
 zines, and ))eriodicals: and line dresses of silk and (cash- 
 mere, and bonnets with ornamental flowers, and tine slioes, 
 and city -made clothing of the latest cut, ar(3 se(^n in nearly 
 every locality. In fact, the country ])(H)ple of thesis town- 
 ships dress with as much taste, and livci with as many 
 (•omforts, as the people of Bedford boroug-h did forty years 
 ago. 
 
 The change in ]^ 'dford township is almost as marked 
 
Fortij )V'ay.s ^iijo. '248 
 
 as in S()ntliani])t()ii. Forty years a.^'o tlu^re wc^ro but two 
 farnKU's in all the Dunnin^'s Creek settlc^ment who had 
 any conveyance more pretentions tlian a S])i*inf^ wa^^on — 
 they were John Schnably and Antony Zimmers. lliere 
 were not at that time more than two or three farmers who 
 had (carpeted bed-rooms. The only musical instruments 
 in the township were the spiiminf^-wlu^el and the violin, 
 and tlit^ literature of most households was confined to the 
 Bible, a hymn book ancj the c;ounty newspaper. No 
 wonder the Bedford Gazette was a powei' in those days. 
 It had the exclusive ear of the party. They read nothing: 
 of newspaper kind except its columns, and they believed 
 all its statements ^\dth implicit confidence. 
 
AX DREW lACKSON OGLE. 
 
 "TTTHEN Jack Ogle made his first appearance in Bed- 
 ford, at the ag-e of twenty-three, in the year 1847, 
 he was the handsomest man I ever saw. With a mag-nifi- 
 cent head, crowned by a wealth of brown iiair that needed 
 no barber's art, but lay in g-raceful masses as he thrust it 
 back from his brow with a careless rub of his hand, and 
 the throat and neck of a chiseled statue exposed to view 
 by a low collar turned down over a flowing black silk 
 necktie, and large brown eyes sparkling with vitality, and 
 a complexion aglow with health, with an erect fig-ure of 
 l^erfect proportions, and a carriage of easy grace, as he 
 passed along: the streel, walking upon the earth as if he 
 owned it, no man, woman or child, could help observing: 
 him. If he had landed imheralded and unknown in any 
 village of the United States from Maine to Texas, he 
 would have attracted immediate and greneral attention by 
 his appearance, bearing and conversation, and in a day's 
 time would have had ardent admirers and devoted friends. 
 He came to assist in the tri;d of the cases in the court of 
 quarter sessions of Aug-ust, 1847, between the families of 
 Reed and Colvin that sprang from the marriage of Reuben 
 
 (244) 
 
Andreic Jackson Oyfe. 245 
 
 Cohdn to Miss Reed, Avhi(di stirnMl tlie villa<4-e of Schells- 
 burg" from center to circumference. His voice was clear, 
 full, sonorous harmony, and his laugrli was liquid music. 
 I recall my feeling-s as I saw him for the first tim(\ He 
 was walkings alone, a. manifest strang-er taking- a stroll of 
 observation through our ancient village, in which he was 
 making his first appearance. My first feeling was one of 
 pure admiration, commingled with a desire to know who 
 he was. He looked like a living Apollo. I was a young 
 man, three or four years his junior, and was reading la^'. 
 I nuist conf(^ss t<^ a tinge of envy as I realized his mani 
 fest supeiioi'ity. 
 
 He was elected to the Thii-ty-tirst (\)ngress from the 
 district composed of Somerset, Fayette and Greene, with 
 a large political majority against him, and he died of 
 apoplexy in his thirtieth year. The news of his death 
 fell like the shock of an unexpected blow, and brought 
 sorrow and regret to thousands. That so much of manly 
 beauty should die, and be no more on earth forever, was 
 a great grief. Men gray with age, and not wont to be 
 lightly moved, were dissolved in tears as they heard the 
 announcement, "Jack Ogle is dead,'" and turned aside to 
 conceal the moisture that welled unbidden to the eye [ind 
 trickled down the (;heek. 
 
 Like Burns he lived too fast and discounted Jiis life 
 with too liberal a devotion to pleasure. 
 
 Mounted on a store-box ;it Dr. Keysc^r s store, lie recited 
 Tam O'Shanter from beginning to end, one bright night 
 id el(n'(*n o'clock, to an admiring auditory of boon com- 
 panions. No trained elocutionist that ever I have heard 
 since could hav(^ donc^ it more effectively. 
 
 I recall his speech at th<' Whig meeting on Tuesday 
 
246 Reminiscences and Sketches. 
 
 night of court. It was alternately in Eng-lish and Penn- 
 sylvania German, and elicited enthusiastic admiration 
 and applause. He narrated illustrative stories with con- 
 summate o-race and melody and skill. 
 
 Democratic j^rinciples ! he said, what are they — loaves 
 and fishes — nothing- else. Wlio ever saw a Democratic 
 principle ? Produce the man. Wlio ever saw this won- 
 drous thing- ? Let him step forward and exhibit himself 
 and describe it. What does it look like 1 Explain it — 
 portray it. How does it work f What does it do ? When, 
 where in the whole history of the Democratic party of 
 the last twenty years has there been a Democratic prin- 
 ciple, except to hold office and plunder the public treas- 
 ury at the expense of the taxpayers, the hard-working, 
 honest yeomanry of the country 1? Democratic principles 
 forsooth! Wliat brazen-faced humbuggery! They are 
 as hard to find as Smith's milk. 
 
 Soon after the first effulgence of the honeymoon had 
 grown a little dim in Smith's married life, he had been 
 out with some of the boys, and, returning late and boozy, 
 he reflected that he had heard that milk was the thing to 
 straighten a man up and make him presentable to his 
 wife, but where to get it was the question. Taking ofi* 
 his shoes and approaching his wife's bedroom door he 
 cautiously opened it slightly and inquired, Annie, have 
 ^\■e any milk in the house? Yes, replied his loving 
 spouse, in wondering amazement at the question, yes, 
 there is some in the cupboard. Closing the door softly. 
 Smith descended and groped around in inebriated micer- 
 tainty till he found the cupboard door, and felt about in 
 the dark on the shelves for the milk. ITnable to find it 
 he again ascended to his wife's room, and again opening 
 
Andrew Jockson Ogle. 247 
 
 a crack in the door, said, Annie, Annie, I can't find tli^'t 
 milk. Is it tied up or tying loose ? 
 
 As illustrating the extravagances and corruptions of 
 the Democratic administration at Washington, which he 
 said were beyond his powers to portray, he told this inci- 
 dent : 
 
 In a certain village lived a carter, noted for his quaint 
 and terse profanity. He could swear with an origintdity 
 tliat almost redeemed his utterances from the contempt 
 that ought to be visited upon that vicious habit. And 
 the people sometimes gathered around him on occasions 
 when they expected an exhibition of his peculiar jDOwers. 
 Once he loaded his cart with ashes and ascended a street 
 with a long inclined grade. His well-trained horse was 
 moving up the middle of the street, and he was walking 
 along on the pavement with his whip under his arm 
 wrapped in thought. At the bottom of the grade the 
 tail-board of the cart fell out, and the line of progress 
 was marked by a long streak of ashes, which had dribbled 
 out until the cart was empty. At the turn of the corner, 
 on the top of the hill, the denouement was expected, and 
 a crowd of boys and idle men, gradually swelling in num- 
 bers, had gathered behind and was mo\'ing towards the 
 corner to hear the volley of profanity that the discovery 
 would elicit. Wlien that point was reached he turned 
 and took in the situation at a glance, and with a half 
 apology for his deficiencies said: It's no use, gentlemen. 
 It's no use, / cant d<> Justice to the subject ! 
 
 Charles Ogle, who gained the sobriquet of " Spoony*' 
 Ogle by a celebrated speech in Congress, in 1839, on the 
 extravagant expenditures of the White House at Wash- 
 ington, the occupants of which he said were indulging in 
 
24S RtiniiihveuceH and Sketches. 
 
 g-old teaspoons wh(ni the couiitr}^ had nothing- foi- currency 
 but shinphxsters on broken banks, was an uncle of Jack's. 
 He was a learned lawyer and an orator of ability, l)ut was 
 not possessed of Jack's personal mag'netism. Jack was 
 a g-randson of (leneral Alexander Ogie, the man who 
 wrote the letter to General Jackson with the little "i's." 
 The story runs thus : Old Alexander, who was a self-made, 
 strong-minded man, and who had in his early life repre- 
 sented Somerset count}^ in the Pennsylvania Legishiture. 
 soon after Jackson was elected President, wi'ote a long 
 letter to him on public affairs, advising- him as to the 
 course^ he thoug-ht his administration ought to pursue, 
 l)ut before sending- it off, pleased with his production, 
 carried it around and read it to several of his neig-hbors. 
 The old man's education was limited. One of the per- 
 sons to wliom he exhibited it, noticed that he spoke quite 
 a g-ood deal of himself, and filled his letter full of small 
 dotted " i's " instead of the capital I required by the rules 
 of g-rammar, and ventured to sug-gest that this was not 
 the })roper thing. AMiatever the General lacked he was 
 not deficient in ready mother wit, and, equal to the occa- 
 sion, he assumed at onc(^ to know all about the rules of 
 letter-writing, and said: "Sir, I am writing- this letter to 
 the President of the United States. If I was writing to 
 a common man I would use capital 'Is,' l)ut in writing 
 to General Jackson I think it is proper to use small 'i's,'" 
 and then stretchings out his arm and pointing with one 
 hand to his elbow, and with an eye flashing- with indig-na- 
 tion, added: "If I was writing to you, sir, I would make 
 an 'I,' sir, as long as my arm, sir." 
 
DAVID LEWIS, THE ROBBER, 
 
 ^r^HERE is a predisposition in the human mind to hero 
 worship. It exists to a g-reater or less extent among" 
 all people, but is strong-est among the ignorant. Imagina- 
 tion exaggerates the atihievements and attiibutes of the 
 subject and it is difficult to determine the actual truth of 
 the alleged occurrences and the real characteristics of men 
 who come down in history or tradition as remarkable. 
 Wliilst humanity is by no means on a dead level, noted 
 men do not tower above their fellows to as great an ex- 
 tent as is claimed or supposed. The mass of men are on 
 an equality of dull commonness. A little individuality 
 g-ives prominence. In a (conflict with an adverse tribe or 
 nation, the whole tribal or national tcnidency is t(^ am 
 plify and enlarg-e feats of courage or endurance or skill 
 It adds to the glory of the nation — all share to a certain 
 ext(^nt in the performance. Tht^ feeling is, we did it. So 
 it is the proclivity of a community to exag^gferate in be- 
 half of its members as against other (X)mmunities. And 
 it is therefore difficult to get at the truth. All history is 
 exaggeration of laudation or defaraaticm. 
 
 (249) 
 
250 Eeminiscences ami Sketches. 
 
 But there is a tendency to exag\izerate and make heroes 
 independently of any of these motives. It is hard to 
 say exactly why. Perhaps it is from an innate dispo- 
 sition to lie. Some heroes are entire fabrications — im- 
 ag-inary persons made out of the whole cloth. All times 
 and all nations seem to have such. They come up out 
 of the obsciu'ity of the past like i^hantom ships upon a 
 phantom ocean. 
 
 Seventy years ag'o one of the heroes of central Pennsyl- 
 vania was Lewis, the Robbee. His exploits were nar- 
 rated bj^ every fireside in the valleys of the Alleg-heuies 
 and on the ridg'es of the Seven Mountains, and his name 
 was used to frig'hten children into obedience. Tradition 
 o-ives to him many of the charac-teristics of Piobin Hood, 
 the noted outlaw of Engiish story : it is said of Le^^is, as 
 of Hood, that he never robbed the ]x^or. that he took from 
 the rich to g-ive to the poor, and that he never shed hu- 
 man blood, restraining' his comrades from doing- so when 
 they urged it as the dietate of safety, or on the gi'ound 
 that dead men tell no tales. 
 
 One of the traditionary stories is that Lewis once stayed 
 over nig-ht at the house of a poor widow. It was an ob- 
 scure country home in an out-of-the-way IcK-ality. She 
 was in grreat trouble because her cow and her scanty 
 household effects had been le^-ied upon by a constable 
 for a debt which she was unable to pay. The sale had 
 been advertised, and was to take |ilace the next day un- 
 less she in some way procm'ed the money, which she was 
 utterly unable to do. In the morning- he inquired the 
 amount that would be needed to discharge the indebted- 
 ness, and grave it to her and de])arted amidst her profuse 
 expressions of thankfulness for his g-enerosity and kind- 
 
David Lewis, the Robber. 251 
 
 ness. Soon after, the constable arrived, and the widow 
 ])aid the claim with many laudations of the kind-hv arted 
 izentleman who had g-iven her the means to d > so. 
 AMthin a mile or two of the widow's humble hom '. the 
 kind-hearted o-entleman lay in wait for the constal)lc. and 
 at the pistols mouth presented the alternative '" your 
 money or yom- life" to the astonished ofhcial who, with 
 pallid face and shaking- hands, hastened to restore to 
 Lewis the mone\^ which, a few hours before, he had so 
 generously loaned to the poor ^^•idow. 
 
 It is said that when they robbed McClelland, on the 
 west side of Sidling- Hill, a mile or two east of Sprout s 
 Hotel (now Mcllvaine's) at a thick cluster of pines along- 
 side of the turnpike, which is still pointed out as the 
 scene of the occurrence, both his comrades, Connelly and 
 Hanson, advocated killing- and m-ged the folly of letting 
 the man live to be a witness against them. But LcaWs, 
 who was the controlhng mind and the recognized chief, 
 said he di'ew the line at murder, and that he wanted m^ 
 man s blood upon his hands, and permitted him to go on 
 his way and gave him a few dollars to defi'ay his ex- 
 penses. 
 
 McClelland was a merchant of Pittsburgli. At that 
 day (1819) facilities of exchange through banks by 
 ih'aft were not at hand, and there were no express com 
 ]^anies to transmit by. Thr merchant gathered up his 
 money, much of it in Spanish silver and Portuguese gold, 
 and carried it himseh over the Icmely mountains to Pliila 
 delphia. McClelland was traveUng on horse-back with 
 his funds in his saddle-bags. Tradition gives the amount 
 at eighteen hundred dollars. For this robl^ery. Lewis, 
 Connellv and Hanson were arrested and incai-cerated hi 
 
252 Reminiscences and Sketches. 
 
 the. Bedford jail. The place of arrest was near Lewis- 
 town, Pennsylvania. The time and circumstances I have 
 not been able to learn. Then^ is no file of the Bedford 
 Gazette in existence for any of the years between 1810 
 and 1832 that I know of. The paper was estal)lished by 
 Charles McDowell in September. 1805, who continued it 
 until 1832, when he sold it to General Georg-e W. Bo^n - 
 man. Jno. P. Reed, Esq.. has a bound volume of the 
 issues from 1805 to 1808, which, as a matter of ancient 
 history of our town and vicinag-e, is of inestimable value. 
 It ought to be purchased by the county or the state, and 
 preserved vdi\\ care in some fire-proof building or vault. 
 They were not long in jail until Lewis effected a gen- 
 eral jail delivery. The conformation of his wrists and 
 hands was such that he could divest himself of hand- 
 cuffs. The sherifi' was George W. Barker : the jailer, Eli 
 I^ichart. One morning as Eichert entered the cell, leav- 
 ing the key in the door, Lewis quietly slipped out and 
 locked him in, and set all the prisoners free who were 
 willing to go. One man rc-mained in and refused to go 
 out. Thomas Williams. John McCurdy and Ethelstone 
 Scott, besides Lewis himself, and his associates Connelly 
 and Hanson, were the prisoners liberated. The tradition 
 is that they locked up both the sheriff and his deputj^ in 
 the jail. Rewards for their apprehc^nsion were offered 
 by the sheriff of Bedford county and the Governor of the 
 Commonwealth, and liundreds of citizens scoured the 
 country in i)ursuit. Notwithstanding a fresh fall of 
 sno^\^ Lewis and Connelly escaped. The others w^ere 
 speedily captured. The story is that Lewis and Con- 
 n(41y were crossing Wills Mountain into Milliken's Cove 
 ])v tlie Packers Path, and that Sherifi* Barker and his 
 
David Lewis, the Robber. 253 
 
 party weiv> iii close pursuit; that tlic pursuint;' party 
 made some noise by whicli the attentive cnir of L(^wis 
 was warned of their approach, and that he and Connelly 
 stepped aside behind a lar^e rock (shown to this day as 
 the Lewis rock) by which they were concealed until the 
 sheriff and his party went by. They stood within a rod 
 of their pursuers, and heard theii' conversation as they 
 passed, and then emerging- from their hiding place took 
 the back track by the path down the mountain and 
 escaped. 
 
 The whole state was excited over the escape, as the news- 
 paper notices of the day, some of which are here given, 
 indicate : 
 
 " Hanson, one of the fellows who robbed McClelland, 
 was tried at Bedford last week, found guilty, and sen- 
 tenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary for seven 
 years. Lewis and Connelly have not been heard of since 
 they broke out of the Bedford jail." — Huntingdon Gazette, 
 January ^11, ISW. 
 
 "On Wednesday night, the 19th instant, an attempt 
 w^as made by two men to rob the house of Mr. Besore, 
 who resides in the lower part of this county. They 
 failed, and in endeavoring to escape one of them was 
 caught and on Thursday morning was lodgt^l in Carlisle^ 
 jail. He proved to be the notorious robber and coun- 
 terfeiter, David Lewis, who, in company with Connelly, 
 escaped from the Bedford prison some ninc^ uKjnths 
 since. Lewis' (companion, who eluded the vigilance of 
 the neighbors, is supposed to have been Connelly. After 
 confinement in jail he was on Tuesday morning removed 
 to the jail of Franklin county, said to be the strongest in 
 the state. The jail of this coimty was said to be insuffi 
 
254 Reminiscences and Sl^efcJu 
 
 cieiit for his safe keeping-." — Carlisle Volunteer, April 
 iJ7, 1820. 
 
 " Oh, fve : David Lewis, the notoiious niaraudei, yes- 
 terday morning- about three o'clock, made his escape from 
 the Chambersburg- prison, taking- with him every person 
 in confinement except one — particulars when we g-et 
 them.' — Harrisburg Republican, May ^6, 1820. 
 
 " The persons who made their escape from the Cham- 
 l)ersburg- jail with David Lewis were Felix McGuire, 
 John Meyers, Csesar Rodney (a mulatto) and Peter Pen- 
 dleton (a neg-ro). The latter has been taken and returned 
 l)y two young- men of this place. The rest are at liberty. 
 A reward of three hundred dollars has been offered by 
 the sheriff of Franklin county for the arrest and return 
 of Lewis, and twenty-five dollars for each of the remain- 
 ing: four. Althoug-h the j^risoners had the use of the 
 keys in their escape, the manner in which they g-ot them 
 is without satisfactory explanation." — Harrisburg Repub- 
 lican, June 2, 1820. 
 
 Pennsylvania, ss : 
 
 In the name and by the authority of the Commo7iwealth, 
 
 by William Findlay, Governor. 
 
 A Proclamation. 
 
 Whereas, I have received information that on the morn- 
 ing- of the 25th inst., a certain David Lewis, who had 
 ])een charg-ed with the robbery of John McClelland, mer- 
 chant, of the city of Pittsburg-h, and apprehended and 
 (•onfined in the jail of the county of Franklin, did make 
 his escape from said jail, and hatli hitherto eluded the 
 pursuit of the officers of justice of said county. 
 
 And whereas, the reputation of the g-overnment, the 
 
David Ltwi.s the liohhc/-. "255 
 
 peace and security of its citizens, and tlie obli.^-ations of 
 justice and humanity recjuire that the i:>eipetrators of an 
 otiense so atrocious sliouhl be brouerlit to speedy and 
 condii^rn punishment, I have, therefore, thouo-ht proper to 
 issue this prochimntion, otterini;' a reward of o)i<' hundred 
 dolhirs for his arrest, payable on conviction. 
 
 Given under my hand and the o-reat seal (^f the (Com- 
 monwealth this 31st day of May, 1820. 
 
 Said Lewis is about six feet hio'h, round-shouldered, 
 straig-ht and well-made, athletic and active, sandy hair 
 and whiskers, and had on a half-worn blue suit. 
 
 By the Governor: 
 
 James Trimble, 
 Deputy Secretary of the (^onmiouwealth. 
 
 The first appearance of Lewis in Bedford was in 1815 ; 
 the record of the court of oyer and terminer shows that 
 he was arrested in the fall of that year charg-ed with four 
 different offenses of passing- counterfeit coin and bank 
 notes. He was named as David L. Wilson, otherwise called 
 David L. Phillips, otherwise called David Lewis. In Jan- 
 uary, 1816, four indictments were returned tru<' bills. In 
 one of them William Drenning-, William Drenning-, Jr., 
 and Lewis Drenning- were joined with him as defendants. 
 On the ITtli of February, 1816, he was tried, convicted 
 and sentenced to six years imprisonment in the peniten- 
 tiary at Philadelphia. He was defended by Georg-e Burd, 
 a prominent attorney of that day, and Charles Huston, 
 afterward president judg-e of this judicial district and m 
 judg"e of the Supreme Court of the State, who made a motion 
 in arrest of judg-ment, assig-ning- as g-round some irreg-u- 
 larity in the convening" of the court of oyer and terminer 
 to try the defendant. The case was taken to the Supreme 
 
256 RettiiniscenciiS and Sk<'fcli<-'<. 
 
 Cowvi, and. on the 4tli of September, ISIG, was affirmed. 
 
 Meanwhile it seems Lewis in some way broke jail and 
 escaped, but how I have not been abl<' to learn. The 
 quarter sessions docket shows this entry: "Aug-ust 7th, 
 1816, presentment of the grand jury respecting the escape 
 of David Lewis." I made a dilig-ent search among dusty 
 old records for this paper, in the expectation that it would 
 furnish some interesting- information, l)ut on finding it at 
 last, was sorely disappointed: the grand jury reported 
 that, after hearing- the evidence, they were unable to learn 
 that any one was to blame. The sheriff at that time was 
 Thomas Moore, g-randfatlier of Mr. Walter Moore. 
 
 Lewis evidently had money and powerful friends. He 
 had eminent counsel to defend him. His case was con 
 tinned from January to February, on the ground of the 
 absence of material witnesses. He g-ave bail for his ap- 
 pearance, Jonathan Cessna and Jeremiali James becom- 
 ing his sureties, and finally the case was taken to the 
 hig-hest court - 
 
 After his escape he must have been recaptured and im- 
 jn-isoned, but when, or where, or how this occurred I have 
 not been able to ascertain. It appears, however, that he 
 was pardoned ])y Governor Findlay. Powerful })olitical 
 influences must have been broug-ht to bear to accomplish 
 this, and the pardon had much to do with Findhiy's de- 
 feat for reelection by Hiester in the fall of 1820. 
 
 Lewis died, from a gunshot \\ound, in the Belief on te 
 jail in 1820, and soon after his death there appeared a 
 l)aniphlet, entitled: "The confession of David Lewis;" 
 published in Carlisle by John McFarland, and prepared 
 (but not avowedly) by James Duncan, who had been Lewds' 
 attorney at the time of liis ti'ial for desertion from the 
 
David Lewis, the Robber. 257 
 
 army. With enoug-li of the facts of Lewis' career in it to 
 g-iA'e it verisimilitude, its real object was to hold Gover- 
 nor Findlay up to animadversion for having- pardoned 
 this noted criminal. It is full of covert insinuations 
 ag-ainst Findlay and the so-called court-house clique at 
 Carlisle (one of whom was Joseph Ritner, then sheriff of 
 Cumberland county and afterwards Governor of the state) 
 and was prepared with consummate skill for the accom- 
 plishment of the purpose for which it was desig-ned. The 
 assault was made on Findlay's line of battle at a point 
 where he was particularly unable to rally foi'ces for his 
 defense. It was cleverly disg'uised, too. In fact he and 
 his friends were in the dilemma of not being- able to 
 notice it at all without g-iving- it additional pi'ominence in 
 the iniblic eye. It was circulated g-enerally throug-hout 
 the state, and was universally read because of the inter- 
 est or curiosity to learn of the life and death of the noted 
 ro])ber. A number of copies of it are yet in existence. 
 
 Lewis was bom in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on the 4th 
 of March, 1790, on South Hanover street. His father 
 was LeM'is Lewis, who removed in 1793 to Northumber- 
 land county where he followed surveying- as appears by 
 several returns of survey to the land office mad*' by him 
 as deputy surveyor. His mother, whos<^ maiden name 
 was Drenning, was a sister of William Dreiuiing, who 
 lived and died in Bedford township on the plac(^ now 
 <)^^'ned by Joseph I^emiller, and in whose nam<; land was 
 waiTan ted adjoining the Manor of Bedford in 1794. Sam- 
 uel Drenning, son of William Drenning, was a cousin of 
 David Lewis. Fiom my i-ecollection of him and the de- 
 scription given of David Lewis there must havt^ ho.i^w a 
 
 strong- resemblan(5(^ in personal a]ip<'arauce Ix'twoen these 
 17 
 
258 Reminiscences and Shetclics. 
 
 cousins. Lewis spent a g-ood deal of his time among- his 
 kinsfolk of this country soon after the war of 1812. 
 
 He had two brothers, Caleb Lewis, a single man and 
 common day -laborer, who worked at tlie forg-e at Miles- 
 burg", near Bellefonte, and was a civil and harmless man, 
 and Thomas Lewis, a married man, who lived with his 
 family at Belling-ton fui*nace, also seems to have led a 
 quiet life. Lewis' father died soon after his removal to 
 Northumberland county, probably about 1796, when 
 David was six years old. His own mother died several 
 years before and his father remarried. After his father's 
 death his stepmother removed to a house on the turnpike 
 noi-thwest of Bellefonte, and David continued to live \\dth 
 her until 1807, when he enlisted with a recruiting- party 
 at Bellefonte. He was, no doubt, a wild and bad boy. 
 He was the young-est son and had grown up under a step- 
 mother who seems to have been very fond oi him, but 
 with necessarily very little power to restrain him. Very 
 soon after his enlistment he deserted. In a short time 
 he again enlisted under the name of Armstrong- Lewis in 
 a company of lig-ht artillery, commanded by Captain 
 William A. Irvine, and was taken to the bari-acks at Car- 
 lisle. There he attempted to get a discharge^ on the 
 ground of his being a minor, ])ut seventeen years oi age, 
 and employed, as a lawyer, Mr. Metzg-ar, wIk^ sued out 
 a Avrit of habeas corpus before Judge Creigh who de- 
 cided against him and remanded him to the custody of 
 the military. The fact of his desertion and double en- 
 listment came out at the hearing, and he was tried before 
 a court-martial at Carlisle baiTacks, which ^\'as then undei- 
 the command of General Wilkinson, and was convicted 
 and sentenced to be shot to death. He wrote to his step- 
 
David Lewis, the Bobber. 259 
 
 mother, who came at once, riding on horseback, all the 
 way from Centre county, across the Seven Mountains to 
 Lewistown, down through the long Narrows to Mifflin, 
 and so on to Carlisle — a weary journey of nearlj^ one 
 hundred miles, on a horse borrowed from Judge Walker, 
 who then presided over the Eighth judicial district and 
 resided at Bellefonte. The Judge sympathised greatly 
 with her and wTote earnest letters to his friends at Car- 
 lisle in her behalf. Proof of his age was made by the 
 family Bible which she carried witli her and produced. 
 A second uTit of habeas corpus was sued out by able 
 attorneys, Andrew Carothers and James Duncan, before 
 the president judge, James Hamilton, who, however, re- 
 fused to interfere, and remanded the prisoner to the cus- 
 tody of the United States military authorities. Event- 
 ually he was reprieved by the President and his sentence 
 was commuted to imprisonment. He sawed off the ball 
 and chain from his ankle with an old knife and escaped 
 and concealed himself in a cave on the banks of the Con- 
 (idoguinet Creek near (>arlisle, from which Ik^ afterwards 
 went to his stepmother's, wliere he lay concealed for a 
 f(n\- weeks, initil he met a peddler who was circulating 
 (counterfeit money, made at Burlington, V(^rmont. A new 
 field of operations presented itself to his imagination, and 
 h<^ made his way gradujdly to Bui'lington, where lie was 
 instructed in the secrets of thf^ mainifactur<^ and stnrtcd 
 out in tlie career of gambler and counterfeiter. He 
 bought a horse and paid for it in count(^iiVdts, and was 
 arrested and lodged in jail at Troy, New York. He was 
 a handsome young man, of fine figure and address, and 
 was aided to escape by the jailor's daughtei', and l)y a 
 3''Oung girl who lived near, who liad seen Jiiin tlirough 
 
260 Reminiscences mid Skeickcs 
 
 the bars of the window from a house opposite and fell in 
 love with him. This g-irl fled with him and they ^^'ere 
 married at Alban3^ After living- a while at Albany he 
 went to New York city, where he consorted with gamblers 
 and counterfeiters. Thence he went to New Brunswick, 
 New Jersey, where he set up as a housekeeper. A 
 daughter was born there. His wife, with her child, re- 
 mained there whilst he made excursions, plying his voca- 
 tion as a gambler and circulator of counterfeit money, to 
 Princeton, Philadelphia and elsewhere. He kept his 
 wife in ignorance of his business and visited her from 
 time to time. Finally he left her, and went into the State 
 of New York and joined the army then under the com- 
 mand of General Alexander Smith, as a wagoner, but he 
 soon stole a horse and deserted, and went to Stoystown, 
 Somerset c;ounty, Pennsylvania. Here he heard of the 
 death of his wife soon after giving birth to a second 
 child — a daughter named Kesiah. At Stoystown he or- 
 ganized a gang of counterfeiters, and soon after traveled 
 to Chambersburg to procure suitable paper from Shry- 
 ock's paper manufactory. His appearance or conduct ex- 
 cited suspicion, and Shryock r 'fused to sell to him. He 
 then \vent to a paper mill in Virginia, and got a su|)ply 
 by ni'^aus of a sample whicli he had stolen at Shryock's. 
 He returned with the paper to tlie gang jit Stoystown, 
 and manufactured a large amount of counterfeit bank- 
 notes, which they cii-culated at Bedford, Somerset, Union- 
 town and Brownsville. Soon after this he married a girl 
 in Fayette county and went to housekeeping tliere. 
 
 To the present generation, accustomed to paper money 
 so perfectly made by the general government and so 
 rarely counterfeited, it may be well to state that it was 
 
David Leivis, the Robber. 261 
 
 by no means so difficult to successfully make and pass 
 counterfeit money then as now. Before the war every 
 locality had its bank of issue. Their number was leg-ion, 
 and counterfeits were so numerous that detection of 
 them was a study and an art. A book descriptive of 
 counterfeits was the usual and necessary appendag-e of a 
 merchant's store, and even with its aid and the most care- 
 ful scrutiny it was difficult to detect the fraudulent notes, 
 and many were in circulation. And rings or combina- 
 tions of men, many of them in business and pretending 
 to respectability, were engaged in j^assing counterfeit 
 money. 
 
 The records of the Bedford court show a part of LeAvis' 
 (•archer by the following entries : 
 
 In the Court of Oyer and Terminer of Bedford county, 
 Pennsylvania, before the Honorable Jonathan H. Walker, 
 President Judge, and John Dickey and David Field, As- 
 sociate Judges. 
 The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania i 
 
 No. 2, Jan. Term, 
 1816. 
 
 r. 
 David L. Wilson, otherwise called 
 
 David L. Phillips, otherwise called 
 
 David Lewis. 
 
 Indictment for passing counterfeit bank notes, January 
 5th, 1816, on moticjn of George Burd, Esquire, case con- 
 tinued oji account of the absence^ of dcd'endanfs wit- 
 nesses. l'\'bruary l.Stli, 1816. jury railed, elected and 
 swoin, wlio find the defendant guilty. February 2()th, 
 1816, diaries Huston. Es(piire, files a motion in arrest of 
 judgnn'ut. Fe])ruary 22d, 1816, defendant sentence h1 to 
 pay a line of one dollar and to \)o imprisoned in the jail 
 of I^x'dford eonntv for ten hours. 
 
262 Reminiscence.^ and Sketches. 
 
 The Commonwealth of Peunsylvauia 
 
 I No. 3, January 
 I Term, 1816. 
 
 David Lewis, William Drenning-, 
 
 William Drenning-, Jr., and Lewis 
 
 Drenning-. | 
 
 Indictment for passing counterfeit bank-notes. A true 
 bill. Defendants plead not g^uilty. January 4th, 1816, 
 AVilliam Drenning tent in $1,000.00, with Georg-e Burd and 
 Jacob Hickman in $500.00 each as his sureties, for his ap- 
 pearance during the i)resent term of court. January 5th, 
 1816, W^illiam Drenning- and Samuel Funk as his surety 
 tent in $1,000.00 for his appearance on the 12th of Feb- 
 ruary, 1816, and Lewis Drenning-, with William Dren- 
 ning as his surety, tent in $1,000.00 for his appearance on 
 the 12th of February, 1816. Februai-y 12th, 1816, case as 
 to the Drenning-s continued to April Term, at which time 
 a )iolle prosequi was entered as to them. 
 
 Comm(m wealth of Pennsylvania | 
 
 I No. 1, February Term, 
 
 David Lewis. J 
 
 Indictment for j)assing counterfeit bank-notes. A true 
 bill tiled 14th Feb., 1816. Feb'y 17th, 1816, nolle prose- 
 qui filed. 
 Same I 
 
 V. I No. 2, Feb y Term, 1816. 
 Same. ; 
 
 Indictment for jiassing- counterfeit bank-notes. A true 
 bill tiled 14th Fel)ruary, 1816. February 17th, 1816, nolle 
 prosequi tiled. 
 Same 
 
 r. ; No. 3, February Term, 1816. 
 Same. 
 
David Lewis, the Robber. 263 
 
 Indictment for passing- counterfeit bank-notes. A true 
 bill filed February 14th, 1816. February 17tli, 1816, the 
 defendant being- arraig-ned pleaded not guilty, jury called, 
 chosen and sworn, to wit : John Smith, Thomas Allender, 
 Henry Boor, John Hammond, Jolin Alexander, William 
 Boor, William Todd, John Cook, John Byerly, Peter 
 Wertz, James Adams and Peter Smith, who say they find 
 the defendant g-uilty on the first, second and third counts 
 of the indictment, and not guilty as to the fourth count. 
 Same day Huston, for defendant, moves in arrest of judg-- 
 ment. Motion oveiTuled, and defendant sentenced to six 
 years' imprisonment in the penitentiary at Philadelphia. 
 Writ of error to the Supreme Court received and filed. 
 September 4th, 1816, judg-ment of the court of oyer and 
 terminer afiirmed. 
 Same 1 
 
 V. ; No. 4, February Term, 1816. 
 Same. ! 
 
 Indictment for passing- counterfeit bank-notes. A true 
 bill. February 21, 1816, defendant plead not g-uilty. 
 Jury chosen and sworn, who find the defendant not g-uilty, 
 Imt to pay the costs. 
 
 In the Court of Oyer and Terminer of Bedford county, 
 Pennsylvania, before tbe H(morable Charles Huston, 
 President Judg-e, and Abraham Martin, Assocnate Judge. 
 The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania | 
 
 V, j No. 3, January 
 
 David Lewis, John M. (V)nnelly and | Term, 1820. 
 
 James Hanson. 
 
 ludictmcmt for rol)b(^ry. A ti-uc 1)111. January 7th, 
 1820, Jauies Hanson being arraigned, pl<'ads not guilty. 
 Ju)-v called, ctt-., who find defendant guiltv. Sentence, 
 
No. 5, January 
 Term, 1820. 
 
 264 Reminiscences and Sketches. 
 
 seven years in the penitentiary at Philadelphia. April 
 24th, 1820, process awarded to Cumberland county for the 
 arrest of David Lewis and John M. Connelly, returned 
 non sunt inventi. 
 The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania 
 
 V. 
 
 David Lewis, John M.Connelly, James 
 
 Hanson, Thomas Williams, John 
 
 McCurdy, and Ethelstone Scott. 
 
 Ladictment for breaking- jail. Lewis and Connelly not 
 taken. The other defendant convicted and sentenced. 
 
 The name Connelly was assumed. The man s real 
 name was Pumbaug-h. He Avas a larg-e, coarse-looking 
 man, of a low g-rade of intellect, and was completely 
 under Lewis' influence. Jimmy Hanson was a small man. 
 
 After the escape of Lewis and Connelly from the Bed- 
 ford jail, they proceeded to Doubling Gap, in Cumberland 
 county, and then to Petersburg, in Adams county, then 
 to Conewago Hills, in York county, and afterwards to 
 East Pennsboro' township, in Cumberland county, and 
 from there to tlie house of a Mr. Besore, that stood near 
 the end of the bridg-e over the Susquehanna at Harris- 
 burg, and attempted to rob it in dayliglit in the absence 
 of the men of the household, but Mrs. Besore seized a 
 long tin horn used for calling the men to their meals, and 
 ran up-stairs and got out on the roof and sat on the trap 
 door to keep it down, and blew the horn, at the sound of 
 wiiieli tlie men eame and pursued the flying rol^bers and 
 captured Lewis, Connelly escaping. 
 
 Lewis had a strong hold on the country people. They 
 admired his ag-ility, nerve, self -poise and boldness. He 
 v/as g(^Tierous, and must have had kindness of heart. 
 
David Leivis, the Robber, 265 
 
 The sympathy of the people aided him ^^reatly in escap- 
 ing- and avoiding- capture. 
 
 A citizen of Cumberland, Maryland, attended a horse 
 race at Brownsville. In those days horse racing and 
 betting- on the race, were common amusements. Every 
 country town had its race-lane, Bedford among- the num- 
 ber. I remember, when I came to Bedford, in 1844, that 
 a quarter race was an almost dailj' afternoon occurence. 
 Ben Cromwell, Sheriff Compiler. William Reynolds, Jr., 
 and a few others, were always ready to back a Bedford 
 steed kept for the j)urpose, ag-ainst the horse of any 
 traveler who had ten or tw^enty dollars to risk, and the 
 chief avocation of divers citizens seemed to be to sit in 
 the front street at the Bedford House, or elsewhere, with 
 a view to hailing- any likely-looking- passing- traveler and 
 challenging- him to a test of speed, in which more or less 
 money was staked. That was before the time of county 
 fairs, for which the race-lane was in those daj^s a sort of 
 equivalent. As the story g"oes, the Cumbeiland man pretty 
 well cleaned out the Brown svillians, and besides that 
 rail his horse ag-ainst another, horse for horse, and won. 
 He was returning- the next day. riding- the horse he had 
 won and leading" tlic other. At a lonely wooded plac-e in 
 a mountain ravine, liis own horse Avas walking- jdong- be- 
 liind with the halter tied upon his neck, when suddenly 
 a strang-er hvqxMl over a bank, and caug-ht and mounted 
 tlie liorse, and rode along-side, and saluted him pleasantly. 
 
 and entered into conversation, expressing liis admiration 
 tor the horse whose ])erformance. he said, he had seen 
 tlie day before, and ('Xi)ressed his desii-e to buy him. 
 The owner declined to sell: said lie had <»wn(-d him a 
 long- time and i)ri/e(l liini liiglily. At tlie sam'- time lie 
 
266 Reminisc&rwes and Sketches. 
 
 noticed the appearance of a pistol in the stranger's 
 pocket, and was in no easy frame of mind, but he con- 
 cealed his ag-itation as well as he could, and arriving* at a 
 spring dismounted and asked the stranger to partake of 
 some apple brandy out of a quart flask with which he 
 had provided himseK. Several diinks were taken, he 
 drinking moderately and the stranger more freely. They 
 again mounted and traveled on, the horseman conversing 
 as entertainingly as he could, and endeavoring to conceal 
 liis uneasiness, and treating his companion to another 
 drink from the flask until he became visibly enlivened 
 and in a good humor. The conversation turned on the 
 loneliness of the mountain road and the danger of rob- 
 bers, when the stranger pulled out his pistol, and 
 expressing his indifference to fear, asked the horseman 
 if he had ever heard of Lewis, the robber, who had 
 escaped from jail and for whose arrest large rewards were 
 offered. The horseman said he had, and believed him to 
 be not a bad kind of a man ; that he was a brave man 
 and generous, and that he would like very much to see 
 liim. " Here in the momitains r' said Lewis. " No, not 
 exactly that," was the reply, "still I dcm't think he would 
 rob or kill a man like me." "You would really like 
 to see him then?" said Lewis, pretty well under the 
 influence of tlie genial applejack. "Yes, " said the man, 
 almost quaking with fear, *' I would." " Well," said Lewis, 
 "You see him now. I am Lewis. I intended to rob you 
 of your money and this horse, but you liave treated me 
 like a gentleman and we have had a pleasant ride to- 
 gether and I will do you no harm." 80 saying he sprang 
 from th(^ horse, handed the halter to the owner, and dis- 
 appeared in the woods The horseman rode on at a ([uiet 
 
David Lewis, the Rohger. 267 
 
 g-ait until he was hid by some inequality in the road, 
 and then put his horses to their speed, thankful lor his 
 escape, and not without alarm that Lewis mig-htrea])pear 
 at any turn of the road. 
 
 Another tradition is that after he made his escape from 
 the jail at Chambersburg- some farmers in the search for 
 him in Adams county overtook a well-dressed, fine-looking* 
 strang-er riding- on an excellent horse, with all the ap- 
 pearance of a g-entlemanly traveler, whom they addressed 
 and asked if he had seen anything- of Lewis, the robber, 
 who had escaped from jail and whom they were in search 
 of. He replied that he had not so far as he knew, and 
 inquired what sort of a looking man he was. Never hav- 
 ing- seen him they described him as well as they couhl 
 from the information they possessed, but with entire in- 
 accuracy. Satisfied from their description that he was 
 unknown to them he joined with them, to assist in hunt- 
 ing- &ow\\ the villian, and rode with them for several hours 
 and made himself ag-reeable by g-eneral conversation, in 
 quiring the names of the party and their residences, and 
 finally leaving them with a courteous sahitation and the 
 expression of a hope that he would have the pleasure^ of 
 renewing his acquaintance with them on some future oc 
 casioii. 
 
 He and his g-ang robbed a travclcM- oner in thr All<> 
 gheny Mountains. Lewis en tt;red into (Mniversjition with 
 him and found that he was a near i-elation of a gc^ntlcman 
 who had don«' liimsoinn service in a timr of trc^ublc. Hr 
 returned to him his money and i^olitel}^ expressed icgret 
 at having put him to any annoyance. Connelly, who 
 grumbled his dissf^nt from this proceeding, was immedi- 
 ately silenced by Ijewis with an oatli and a tlireat. 
 
268 Beminiscences and Sketcheti. 
 
 The cave at Doubling- Gap was one of Lewis' frequent 
 resorts. He had also a den in the heart of the mount- 
 ains on the other side of the Cumberland Valley about 
 three miles from Pine Grove, and a c^ave on the Conedo- 
 g^uinet a mih; from Carlisle. 
 
 The last robbery committed by him was in the Seven 
 Mountains, between Lewistown and Bellefonte. In June, 
 1820, he and Connelly waylaid and robbed a wag"on 
 which was transporting store goods of merchants named 
 Hammond and Pag-e. A posse was org-anized by Sheriff 
 McGee, of Centre county, of well-armed and resolute 
 men, who went in pursuit. They were eng-ag-ed in shoot- 
 ing mark on the Sinnemahoning- branch of the Susque- 
 hanna, when they were surrounded and challeng-ed to 
 surrender, which they declined to do and immediately 
 opened fire on their jiursuers. Connelly was shot with a 
 ritle V)ullet throug-h the body and died the next daj\ 
 Lewis was shot throug-h the rig-ht arm near the elbow. 
 He Avas taken to tln^ jail at Bellefonte, where he died 
 about three weeks after his arrest. 
 
 Thomas Burnside, afterwards Judg-e, and John Blan- 
 chard, afterwards a member of Cong-ress, and botli then 
 members of the bar of Bellefonte, were meml)ers of the 
 coroner's jury which li<4d an incjuest on the body of 
 Lewis, who found that McGee and his posse were justi- 
 fied, that Lewis had ccmmiitted a felony of the g-oods o( 
 Hammond and Page, some of \\hich were found on him, 
 and having- been overtaken and i-ec[ueste(l to surrender, 
 liad refused to do so and had tired upon the sheriff and 
 his posse, who were justified in shooting him. 
 
 Here are all the materials for the li(^ro of a novel. Few 
 lives of thirty years" durition have been crowded fuller 
 
David Lewis, the Bobhcr. 269 
 
 of events. H<' was a ])rc)(liu't of the war of 1812, the wild 
 mountain rang-es of Pennsylvania, and tfui times in wliieli 
 lie lived. A man of line physique, and of natural force, 
 who mio'ht have been a useful and distinguished citizen 
 if his avocation and surrounding-s had been different. 
 AVitli all his wickedness, he was not destitute of admir- 
 able traits. He was a born leader, far superior to Con- 
 nelly, and althoug-h a deserter, a g-ambler, a counterfeiter, 
 a robber and an outlaw, was not wholly bad. One can- 
 not but have a feeling- of sympathetic reg-ret for a life so 
 full of capabilities which was so sadly wrecked and came 
 to such an untimely end. The very manner of his death 
 was heroic. He w^as told that amputation of his arm 
 was necessary ; that the chances were ag-ainst him if it 
 was not taken ofi'. He replied, I will not lose my arm. 
 I would rather die than live a one-armed man, marked to 
 be known of all men, and a cripple. I will take my 
 chances. And so, accepting- the inevitable, without 
 whining- or complaining-, with thf^ dignity of an ancient 
 Ivoman, he died. 
 
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