An Outcast; Or, Virtue and FaithAdams, F. Colburn (Francis Colburn)
General
An Outcast; Or, Virtue and Faith
Adams, F. Colburn (Francis Colburn)
Conduct of life -- Fiction; United States -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction; Vice -- Fiction
In those days the wandering Christian Jews undertook to instruct the
polished Greeks--why could not Americans at this day inculcate the
doctrines of Jesus to these educated heathen? It was a bold and daring
experiment, but he was willing to try it. The Allwise worked his wonders
in a mysterious way. In this irrelevant and somewhat mystical style,
Brother Spyke continues nearly an hour, sending his audience into a
highly-edified state. We have said mystical, for, indeed, none but those
in the secret could have divined, from Brother Spyke's logic, what was
the precise nature of his mission. His speech was very like a country
parson's model sermon; one text was selected, and a dozen or more (all
different) preached from; while fifty things were said no one could
understand.
Brother Spyke sits down--Sister Slocum rises. "Our dear and very
generous guest now present," she says, addressing the good-natured fat
man in the chair, as Lady Swiggs bows, "moved by the goodness that is in
her, and conscious of the terrible condition of the heathen world, has
come nobly to our aid. Like a true Christian she has crossed the sea,
and is here. Not only is she here, but ready to give her mite toward
getting Brother Spyke off to Antioch. Another donation she proposes
giving the 'Tract Society,' an excellent institution, in high favor at
the South. Indeed I may add, that it never has offended against its
social--"
Sister Slocum hesitates. Social slavery will not sound just right, she
says to her herself. She must have a term more musical, and less grating
to the ear. A smile flashes across her countenance, her gold-framed
eye-glasses vibrate in her fingers: "Well! I was going to say, their
social arrangements," she pursues.
The assembly is suddenly thrown into a fit of excitement. Lady Swiggs is
seen trembling from head to foot, her yellow complexion changing to pale
white, her features contorting as with pain, and her hand clutching at
her pocket. "O heavens!" she sighs, "all is gone, gone, gone: how vain
and uncertain are the things here below." She drops, fainting, into the
arms of Sister Slocum, who has overset the wise man in the spectacles,
in her haste to catch the prostrate form. On a bench the august body is
laid. Fans, water, camphor, hartshorn, and numerous other restoratives
are brought into use. Persons get in each other's way, run every way but
the right way, causing, as is common in such cases, very unnecessary
alarm. The stately representative of the great Swiggs family lies
motionless. Like the last of our chivalry, she has nothing left her but
a name.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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