CAMPAIGN IN CONNECTICUT.
DIST. SEC’Y, POWELL OF CHICAGO.
Perhaps it may interest some of the “Missionary’s” readers to learn a little concerning the speaking campaign in which Rev. G. D. Pike, Rev. Temple Cutler, of Chattanooga, and myself, have been engaged the past few weeks in Connecticut. For the gratification of such I send you the following sketch:
Our first meeting was a convention—Greenwich the place, and the afternoon of Tuesday, Oct. 30, the time. We met in the church; the audience was small but representative, and as our object was to talk to people whose weight rather than number was to be taken into the account, we had no reason to complain of our send-off. Four churches greeted us in this meeting. Rev. Chas. R. Treat, son of the late revered Secretary of the American Board, gave us cordial welcome, and spoke words of hearty endorsement of our work and mission. At Norwalk we held a convention similar in character, and, so far as appearances went, similar in results. Rev. Messrs. Hamilton, Dunning and Bradford were present, and despite a rain storm that had set in with violence and long continuing determination, we had a good audience. “Come again,” said the brethren, “and you shall have a rousing reception”—a remark which in substance we heard at many other places, and a remark which I interpret to mean—“You can count on us as co-workers with you in your grand work.” There is inspiration in such interpretation, and with such co-workers as Norwalk and South Norwalk contain, we can rightfully jot down our visit to Norwalk as a success.
Our next meeting was in Danbury, the home of the “News-Man.” We did not notice that he was present, and, for that matter, we could hardly see that there was any other man. Nobody was to blame. The dryness of the news-man’s jokes, I presume, has had such an effect upon the citizens of Danbury that they have not even the ordinary love of mortals for wet weather; but, were it otherwise, they were excusable for not coming out “to hear about missions” on that particular night. Noah’s Deluge was distantly suggested by that terrible and incessant down-pour of rain. We went through with our meeting, however, and it did seem as though Brother Cutler, extracting courage out of desperation, was bound to do his very best. The memory of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, beneath whose frowning battlements stands his home at Chattanooga, must have been vivid, for “he carried the night.” Rev. Mr. Hough, just home from Detroit and Syracuse, weary from the long journey, and suffering from a severe cold, ought to have stayed at home, but his determination to give us at least an audience of one brought him out, even at the peril of his health.
Our first Sabbath was spent in New Haven. At nine o’clock in the morning we met the students of the Theological Seminary. Had I remained silent and Mr. Pike taken all the time, the students would have had occasion to be under obligation to me. He was in good trim, full of his subject, and effective in speech. Africa was his theme, and he handled it in such a way as to hold the continuous attention of the young men. During the day we spoke in several of the pulpits, and in the evening held a “Union Meeting” in the Center Church, which was well attended. The venerable Dr. Bacon was in his chair in the pulpit, as the “Emeritus” pastor of the church; Rev. Dr. Noble, the present pastor, and Rev. Dr. Hawes, of the North Church, were also on the platform, while the presence of Rev. Messrs. Todd, Williams and other ministers in the audience, showed that it was really a union meeting. The work, needs and claims of the A. M. A., I think, were clearly presented and discussed; though, judging from a report in one of the Monday papers, things were rather mixed; for example, one of us was represented as saying that “the colored people are going down to eternity, and if nothing is done by the people in the North they will drag the white people with them”—a very alarming statement surely, and well calculated to fire the popular heart, but I cannot find that either of my companions acknowledges its authorship, and I don’t quite like to assume it myself. The reporter must have been experimenting with a telephone. On Monday, the ministers very kindly accorded us a hearing.
We were indulging the hope that at last we had entered upon the favorable time for our meetings. New Haven had furnished us something of a field day, and strong desire, stimulated by encouragement, was shooting out into confidence; but that “one swallow does not make a summer”—a trite old adage we are in danger of forgetting just when we should remember it, was forcefully brought to our minds as we went to New Milford. The storm king came out in full force, with wind and rain, to give us welcome, and right pitilessly did he continue to rage all the night long. We hastily took back all we had thought and said about Danbury. There we had merely a distant suggestion of Noah’s Deluge—here we had an advance section of the genuine thing; yet so thoroughly had Rev. Mr. Bonar advertised our coming, and so strongly urged his people to attend, that we had a goodly number out to hear us.
We struck Waterbury on election day; still the union of the two churches, under the lead of Rev. Messrs. Beckwith and Anderson, furnished us with a fine congregation and a profitable meeting. These brethren are both in special sympathy with the work of our Association. At Norfolk, elevated thirteen hundred and sixty feet above the level of the sea, we encountered the opposition of a minstrel troupe, which paraded the town with a brass band just about the time our meeting was to commence. It affected our audience very little, however, as the church-going people in that region are not given to such things. A well filled house greeted us, and with the aid of Pastor Gleason, whose earnest words gave us welcome and introduction, we had what appeared to be a very interesting meeting.
Winsted favored us with another rainy reception, but a fair audience, while a well trained choir was present, which, by the excellent rendering of an introductory anthem, as one of the newspapers facetiously put it, “gave tone to the meeting.”