Annals of our ancestors; one hundred and fifty years of history in the ...

CHILDHOOD OK B. U. WATKINS 35
people who had not heard a sermon for years would flock by
hundreds to his call. He is described as mounted on horseback;
in the storms of winter he wore a greatcoat, and green
baize leggings were tied just below his knee with colored cot-
ton tapes; his buffalo overshoes were lined by turning the
hairy side of the hide inward — heavy and cumbersome they
were, but warm and a great protection in the absence of yet
undiscovered rubber. Many anecdotes are related of Lorenzo
Dow. It was an age of controversy and clashing of creeds,
and this itmerant had some modern ideas of pedagogy in regard
to object lessons. Once at a camp-meeting he wished to
refute the doctrine of "once in grace, always in grace," so on
a sudden he sprang from the stand and caught hold upon an
extending limb, shouting, "Hold on, Lorenzo! Hold on,
Lorenzo, for if you don't you'll fall!" Slipping from the
limb he mounted his horse and disappeared into the woods,
leaving the audience to cogitate upon this lesson till he returned
on some other occasion.
Father had an abundant store of anecdotes, enough to
make at least a small volume, and this is one of his concerning
Lorenzo Dow: He was one day riding on horseback
through a new clearing, when he discovered a man chopping.
The woodsman, seeing it was a preacher, slipped from his log
and hid. Lorenzo rode up and dismounted, and taking his
stand upon the log which had just been felled he preached a
sermon, and in conclusion made the announcement: "Just
one year from to-day, no preventing Providence, I shall be on
this ground and will preach." At the time appointed he
came riding up to the clearing, and found a great crowd to
hear his sermon. His wilderness advertising was a success.
Among the early itinerants was a famous Methodist cir-
cuit rider, Peter Cartwright, a bold, indefatigible leader of the
pioneers a man who understood the signs of the times, who
made war on sin and was willing to "maul grace into their
unbelieving souls" if that were necessary. I remember one
of our father's anecdotes of him: He had been preaching
in the wilderness concerning cross-bearing, and shortly afterward,
when riding through the brush, he noticed a strange