The idea had become prevalent that Brother Harmon was one of the Twelve. I called on him to speak first. The assembly listened to him for about two minutes. Then Brother Wallace tried it, when a blacksmith by the name of Anguish interrupted him, and Brother Wallace spitefully told him to "shut your head." That remark brought matters to a climax. He spoke no more than ninety seconds, and then we had a good representation of what imagination pictures as the pandemonium of hell. I knelt with my back to the congregation and said, "Father! I have done all I know. If there is anything else you wish me to do, manifest it to me when I get up and I will do it." As soon as I arose to my feet, a comic song that I used to sing in those days came to my mind, and I felt as though it wanted to get out of me in all my parts. I paused a moment, stepped to the front, threw my arms out towards the congregation, and said, "Boys, it will be a new thing for you to hear a minister sing a comic song in a meeting; but if you will be quiet, I will sing you one." I sang it better than ever before or since, and at the close they gave me a good, hearty cheer. I then appealed to them as Englishmen, telling them how Americans treated Englishmen when they came to our country. I continued speaking for one hour, and from the first five minutes the dropping of a pin on the floor could have been heard. At the close many came and shook hands, and in sixpences, shillings, etc., gave me something over $17.00.
When my hands went out towards, and over a part of that congregation I felt power and control go with them as tangibly as I ever felt cold or heat, and I learned this lesson, not to shirk my own responsibilities and run for others to fill my place, let me be ever so weak.
CHAPTER III.
AN AMUSING EPISODE—OBTAIN THE KEYS OF A CHURCH—NOTIFY THE PEOPLE THAT A MEETING WILL BE HELD IN IT—A GOOD TURN-OUT—MY COMPANION PREACHES WHILE I, DISGUISED AS A POLICE, GUARD THE DOOR—EXCITEMENT AROUSED—CONTROVERSY WITH A MINISTER—AN ANTI-"MORMON" MEETING HELD—I ATTEND—REPLY TO THE MINISTERS' ATTEMPTS TO EXPOSE "MORMONISM"—MY ESCAPE FROM THE BUILDING—SAVED BY AN INFIDEL—PROSPERITY OF THE WORK—REMARKABLE HEALINGS—A PREDICTION UTTERED AND FULFILLED—MY RETURN HOME—CONTRAST BETWEEN THE CONDITION OF THE SAINTS NOW AND THAT OF THIRTY YEARS AGO.
I will mention an amusing episode, that occurred during a visit that Brother Wallace made the conference. It started in fun but resulted in great good: I took him to a country branch where the work was pretty dead and we stopped with a man who had a standing in the Church, but as a reward for his little faith had been made trustee of one of the prominent sectarian churches and held the keys of their place of worship.
We rather crowded ourselves on to him. It was a damp, cold day, and the man of the house was very stingy with his coal. We finally found his coal-house and helped ourselves to fuel. It was amusing to see the old gentleman come in and out and eye our bountiful fire, and we thought the more coal we burned the more anxious the old man would be to get us out of the house. So the next time he came into the room he found us with a fire that entirely filled the fire place. I took no notice of his sour looks and gravely told him that Brother Wallace was a builder by trade and took great pleasure in visiting the churches and public buildings, and asked him if he would allow us the keys of his church, that we might examine the architectural designs. He gave us the keys and we told him we would not return that afternoon until late.
This town was divided into what was called Upper and Lower Shipdom, and was separated by quite a little distance. The church was in Upper Shipdom. One of us went to the lower town and notified the people quietly that an American gentleman would lecture in the Upper Church that evening, while the other examined the church, arranged the seats and lights. At the hour appointed the church was pretty well filled. We did not light up until all was ready for commencing.
Brother Wallace took the stand, and preached a very good sermon, while I took my stand against the inside of the door dressed as a policeman and with a club in my hand. By occasionally tapping a few on the shoulder I succeeded in keeping pretty good order until "amen" was said, when Brother Wallace made his exit through the back and I through the front door. By some means the door got locked after we had passed out, and the mob, which had by this time collected, imagining we had locked ourselves in, made pretty violent demonstrations at the front of the building trying to get at us while we were laughingly wending our way to some other section.
For the next two weeks the papers of the neighborhood teemed with accounts of "Mormon impudence," etc., and in a little time we could not call a meeting anywhere in the conference, but what it would be crowded. Curiosity was above par.