Ee ocean eee eee TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE i) JESSE MERCER BATTLE ay PUBLISHERS THE MANGAN PRESS ST, LOUIS, MO. 1911 DEDICATION CopyricuTep 1911 To my grandson, EuGENE Batre SmitH, and to my grand- By: daughter, MaRGARET PARKER SMITH. May my grandson Jesse MERCER BATTLE be as good and useful a man as my father was, and may my granddaughter be as good a wife and as good a mother as my mother was, CONTENTS My2Father=5-- >=. SS soe Bee Seema 7 My. Moth erecta 2 ee oe eee 53 Borer hs eI epee er eOO Childhood #223222 2 eee eee 63 qeookingforac) ODE een = ee te eae 85 Changing= My. Occupation== = - 223 89 Another: Chan gesss 2 noes an ee ee 102 "Another Chan gee=22 set ee po ee eae 107 My First: Accident=-.-- -< 22 =-= 2-5-2 === === 120 Meeting My Future Wife_....---.------------- 128 Wandering 22-2222 5-2-2- +222 a525 522-38 -5 137 Back to See My Lady Love ..--:---2--2---- 170 An Accident on the Yadkin River-.-.----- een UT The: Can VaSSete === se ree eas 200 Success, But Not Complete... --------------- 220 MY FATHER. In the September, 1906, number of the “Wake Forest Student” I find the following statement concerning my father. I have been told that it was written by Professor Collier Cobb, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It con- tains a mere outline of a very small part of the services rendered to the Baptists by my father. Doctor William Hooper, a life long friend, wrote a more extended notice, giving more data and more detail; this obituary notice was sent to the Biblical Recorder, a Baptist paper, pub- lished in Raleigh, N. C., and edited at that time by a Mr. Richard Mills. It is greatly to be re- gretted that this paper of Doctor Hooper was lost, misplaced or purposely suppressed, for it contained matter of the greatest importance concerning my father, written by a master hand and a loving friend. At this time Doc- tor Hooper was too old and feeble to reproduce his paper. Noting that the paper did not appear in the next issue of the Biblical Recorder, I went to its office in Raleigh and asked Mr. Mills for the paper. He said that he was very sorry, but the paper was misplaced and he could not 8 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER lay his hands on it at that time, if he found it he would send it to me. I never received it. The explanation was easy, I understood the situation well. My father was no longer a Baptist, and the Baptists were no longer in- terested in him, living or dead. Another rea- son which had some weight is that the columns of a newspaper or magazine are worth money. At that time I knew so little about such mat- ters I did not think to ask what would be the cost of the space that Doctor Hooper’s paper would occupy. Had I done so, I am almost certain that the paper would have appeared. I now give Professor Collier Cobb’s paper. “Elder Amos Johnston Battle, son of Joel and Mary P. Battle, was born at Shell Bank, Edgecombe County, North Carolina, on the eleventh day of January, 1805. His parents, being of an influential family and having ample means, gave to their son the superior ad- vantages of a good education, which he con- tinued to enrich by close study and extensive reading during the whole of his laborious and useful life. “Placed above the necessity of manual labor and possessing talents of a high order, the world proffered to him success and honors in the learned professions, the arena of politics and the emoluments of wealth, all of which he spurned as possessing inferior attractions AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 9 to the sublimity and divine perfections of the Gospel of Christ. “In his twenty-third year, traveling through the country on horseback, from North Caro- lina to his plantation in Florida, he stopped at a country church called Mount Zion in Georgia. It was there that he gave his heart to God, united with the Church and was baptized by the Rev. Jesse Mercer, founder of the Mercer University in Georgia. “Three years after, having returned to North Carolina, he was ordained to the min- istry at a convention held with the Baptist Church at ‘Rogers’ Cross Roads,’ in the County of Wake. “On the seventh of January, 1830, he mar- ried Miss Margaret Hearne Parker, of Edge- combe County, N. C. “In 1834 he was pastor of the Baptist Church in Nashville, N. C. In 1838 and 1889 he was pastor of the Baptist Church in Raleigh, N. C. It was about that time that he was so in- terested in the building up of Wake Forest College, giving largely of his means and put- ting up out of private funds a large and hand- some building. “As a trustee he was very active. About 1835 he was elected agent to collect subscrip- tions, secured by William Hill Jordan and 10 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER John Armstrong. The Institute, as it was then called, was not able to build houses for the professors, so they gave permission to any, member who was able to furnish the money and wait for reimbursement, to erect such house. “Charles A. Skinner and Amos J. Battle ac- cepted the proposition and each erected a house and the trustees gave their bond, pay- able in five years. “The Institute was crowded with students; the rooms were unfurnished, Amos J. Battle was appointed a committee of one to secure a sufficient number of double moss mattresses. There was no more useful member of the board than he. He ceased to attend these board meetings after 1844, as his time was devoted to the education of the young women of the Baptist Church There are trees and shrubs now growing there that he planted with his own hands. “At the same time he was giving largely for the building of a Baptist Church in Raleigh. “From Raleigh he went to Wilmington, N. C., as pastor of the First Baptist Church there. “Within the first six months of his pastor- ate there he baptized one hundred and fifty members into the Church. Among them were Mr. George R. French, Capt. C. D. Ellis, Mr. AND SOME ‘STORIES OF MY LIFE. 11 I. Peterson, Mr. Mitchell and many others too numerous to mention, who were for fifty years afterwards prominent workers in the Church. “Learning that the Baptist Church in Ra- leigh was about to be sold for the heavy debt on it, he gave up the Wilmington Church and for two years (about 1848 and 1844) he traveled over the State to raise money for that debt, Some year or two after that, feeling that Wake Forest College was doing all that could be done for the young men of his native State, he turned his attention to the building up of a college for. girls. In the year 1847 he traveled extensively in the Chowan Association and stirred up the men of means to start the school in Murfreesboro, now known as the ‘Chowan Baptist Female Institute.’ For the first year he was steward of the college. “He was one of the leaders in the Baptist State Convention. He succeeded William Roles as Treasurer in 1836, and held the posi- tion until 1842. He was also Recording Secre- tary of the North Carolina Baptist Bible So- ciey from 1837 to 1842. He was popular and public spirited. During the Mexican War he was chosen chaplain of the North Carolina Volunteer Regiment. “He deserves to rank along with the noblest and best of the strong men of his time. “It was his brother, William Horn Battle, 12 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER who introduced into the House of Commons the bill to charter Wake Forest College, where the measure passed with a good majority. “In 1843 he moved to Wilson, N. C., where he lived until his death, spending his time travel- ing and preaching as an evangelist, sometimes in the eastern part of the State, and sometimes in the mountains. He was preaching at Ruth- erfordton when attacked with cancer near his right eye, from which he died in Wilson, Sep- tember 24th, 1870.” Someone has said, “It is a good thing to be well born.” To be well born means mainly to have a good father and a good mother, that is, each one must be healthy of body and of a sound mind. The healthy body is free from those malignant diseases which can be trans- mitted from father or mother to their children. The sound mind means, first, a mind that can think, and think straight, and think ration- ally, and secondly, it means a mind that sees many truths that remain unseen to the ordi- nary person. A sound mind also means good common sense, which is one of the most uncommon things in the world. My mother had the com- mon sense, that is the kind of sense that is applied to the things of this world. AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 13 She expected and looked for the things that really come to pass. But not so with my father. He always looked for the impossible. He read in his Bible (Luke xviii. 29) “There is no man that hath left house or parents, or brethren or wife or children, for the King: dom of God’s sake (verse 30), who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come, life everlasting.” And he believed this passage was a revela- tion from God, through Jesus, and that it was true, and was to be obeyed implicitly, and meant exactly what it said. So, as far as he was able, he obeyed the command and he did forsake his house, his parents and his brethren and his wife and his children for the King- dom of God’s sake, and became a bankrupt as far as this world’s goods are concerned. He became almost a stranger to his family and he devoted all his wealth to God and His Kingdom by giving it away for churches and school purposes. He gave all his time to the upbuilding of his Church, the Baptist. He did literally what. he understood to be his duty, as he read it in his favorite passages in the New Testament. He was not a fanatic, he was not insane on the subject of religion. He simply believed the picked words that he read were true, and were meant to be obeyed, and he frequently said that he was God’s child, absolutely, and if he obeyed God’s com- 14 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER mandments as given in the words of Jesus, that God would keep his promises. Yet, after giving away all his property and leaving his family, he did not have “manifold more in this present time,” but he might have “life everlasting in the world to come.” The last years of his life were made miserable by pov- erty and an incurable disease (cancer). No one ever doubted his sincerity. All admitted that if there was a true Christian that man was my father. His whole life was devoted to deeds of charity. No one ever came to him and asked for help and was turned away with- out it. All that asked him for help got it, all that wanted to borrow of him, obtained the loan, even without security. His money, his lands, his negroes, his stocks, his bonds, his personal property of every description went as his free will offering to the Church as a whole, and to anyone of its members individually, or to those who were not mem- bers. He just could not refuse to do what he was asked to do. I have known him to go away from home, well dressed, with a good horse and buggy, and have seen him come home in less than a month looking like a beggar, dressed in the commonest kind of clothing, and bringing an old worn-out saddle on his back. He had given away his cloth- ing and bought somebody’s old cast off cloth. ing. He had sold his horse and buggy and AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE, 15 given the money to build a church in a sec- tion of the state where there was none, and had bought the old saddle for a very small price and borrowed a horse to do his mission- ary work with; and when his journey was fin- ished, he had returned the horse and brought the old saddle home on his back to use at some future time. He put his name on the back of some man’s note as an endorsement, and when the note came due, the man did not have the money to pay with, and my father was asked to pay, but he did not have the money either, and said so, but that he would pay when he got the money. The man who held the note asked my father why he put his name on a note when he had no money, my father, in his guilelessness said he did it because he had been asked to do so. This answer so enraged the holder of the note that he slapped my father’s face, and my father deliberately turned his other cheek and said to the man, “You may slap the other cheek if you want to.” I have known many good men, but I have never seen another one as good as my father. He was accessible to rich and poor alike. There was nothing that he pos- sessed that he would not give away if some one would ask him for it. There was never a minute, night or day that he would reserve for himself or family, all his time was at the disposal of any one that would come and ask 16 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER for it. He preached, he taught, he worked, he strived for, he longed for what he called the “Kingdom of God.” This kingdom meant to him for every body to do and live ag he did and lived. He often said, “He loves God most who serves his creatures best.” This was the key- note to his life. It was for this that he de- voted his life and when his days were ended . and we had laid him in his grave, I had put on his tombstone his own words: “He loves God most who serves His creatures best.” He was the only man that I ever saw who implicitly believed the words of the New Tes- tament, selected by himself to be true and put those words in practice in his life. He preach- ed righteousness and he practiced what he - “preached. I saw little of him in my young days, but the last year of his life I was with him ey- ery day and I must say it was a revelation to me to know that I had such a father. I did not know that there was such a man in the world. He was so entirely different from any man I had ever known. He was abso- lutely unselfish, his self-denial was sublime. He was capable of giving up everything, even to life itself for his cause. His conversation was reserved but affable and lively. He condescended to mix with men of a lower state. He never condemned on first information, but always wanted more knowl- AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. ive edge of the case, and the men involved. He said all were liable to err, and he had erred many times himself, and it was only through a knowledge of error that he was enabled to find the right way and to escape from the sin. He said without a body there would be little inclination to sin; but as the body was the excuse and the inclination to violate law, it was the one thing that should be watched, restrained and repressed. That its needs and requirements were only to be decided by an enlightened mind; that this enlightened mind and a cultivated conscience was to be relied upon to map out a line of conduct and the manner of living in order to fill one’s proper place in this world and to be prepared for the world to come. “One may err, but the most important thing in this life is to be just. Sin, error and mistakes are a part of this world. No man or woman is exempt from their con- sequences. Ignorance is at the bottom of nearly all the violations of law. He who is ignorant and violates law is not so culpable as the one who is responsible for the ignor- ance. If you do not show to your child or your neighbor, or his child the difference be- tween light and darkness, then you are re- sponsible for the sin, error or mistake made by them more than they are, for you do know that the act is wrong, and your child, neigh- bor and his child, who does the deed in ig- 18 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER norance, knows it not. You who leave them in darkness are the most culpable, for it is your duty to teach them, and the neglect is your sin.” So he taught, he visited, he worked, he ad- vised, trying to give more wisdom to the ig- norant. He knew the value of faith, so when he came in contact with one who was miser- able through a lack of it, he would say, “Look at the stars in the sky at night. Think you that they could travel on their orbits with- out a calamity if there was no master hand guiding them.” “How could you and I love goodness and hate evil if there were no consequences fol- lowing our deeds?” The consequences are found in progress or retrogression. He believed strongly in the ful- fillment of God’s plans. If anything seemed to go wrong, he said, “God’s plans are too great to be finished in a day.” He gaid hate and selfishness were at the bottom of much of the wrong in the world, but he said, “Hate is passing away and love is taking its place.” There are some men in the world who do love their enemies. There are some men who are merciful to their animals. There are some men and women in the world who will nurse the sick without pay. They will even give their money to build hospitals and asylums AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 19 for the care of the sick and the insane. There are some men and women who will give lib- erally of their means to build schools and colleges to educate the young men and wo- men when they have no children of their own. This he said was progress, for it showed that the old injunction to love your friends and hate your enemies, was passing away. There would be more progress, he said, when men were better taught; ignorance was at the bottom of intolerance; men had no patience with other men, when they were ignorant; they were more patient as soon as they knew enough to be so. Those who had _ suffered themselves were more apt to help others who were suffering. Suffering itself taught us a lesson. It gives us experience, and experience is what life is made of. Love and trust to our fellowman and to our Maker should drive away all fear, except the fear of broken law. Some law is what we call natural law; it could not be natural law un- less it was first supernatural. Some law we make ourselves, and we could not even do this, unless we were first made by the super- natural law. We obey the laws as we know them, vol- untarily, and sometimes we are made to obey them, when we are unwilling to do so, The law which makes water run down hill is what 20 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER ‘ we call a natural law, but it depends on God for its moving power. The law which says “thou shalt not kill,” is a law adopted by man to protect himself and his family from the in- sane murderer. For the murderer is insane in the sense that his sense and judgment are bad, especially bad for his victims. And there is a law back of the insanity, and this law, though unknown to us, is also a supernatural law. The law which permits the cancer cell to ingest and digest the cells of which our bod- ies are composed, is also a supernatural law that we do not comprehend. The bacilli and bacteria, other cells which are taken into our bodies through our food, drink and the air we breath, get their power for harm from the same God that we worship and call His name Love. The ability we have to investigate, the cap- acity we have to invent instruments to dis- cover these microorganisms, is also given to us by the the same God that has made the law which permits these parasites to prey upon our poor bodies, destroy them and send them to the grave, where another set of bac- teria shall ingest and digest them, and when there is nothing more that the bacteria of de- truction can find to live on, he goes back into dust, and even there he is kept alive by the AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 21 same God that gives to us the intelligence to find him, to see him and to describe him in our imperfect way. He knew something of these mysteries; he wanted to know more. He said to me, “You haye a great advantage over me, for you were born just fifty years later, and those who are born later still will have an advantage over you, for they will have all the discov- eries and inventions to guide them.” He also said, “Every genius who is born in the world is a revelation from God.” Had he lived to know of Edison, Pasteur, Metchinkoff, Erlich, Metz and a great army of kindred spirits, he would have known that his predictions would come true. While sticking close to the texts of his Bible, he felt and often said that there was something back of the men who wrote it; for said he, “There are some things that God has not told us yet, not even in the Bible.” Some of these things we find out without the Bible. In medicine we have found out that there are certain substances that we call poisons; these poisons, as arsenic, strychnine, prussic acid, opium and its products, digitalis, belladonna and aconite; all the mineral acids, alcohol and some others, when taken in suf- ficient quantities, will kill the human body. On the other hand, some of these poisons, given in smaller doses or used externally, 22 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER have been found to be beneficial in certain in- fections, and have been used in alleviating the pains and diseases of man. We have found out that steam confined can be made the servant and benefactor of the working classes. We have found that the thing we call light- ning is identical with electricity and can also be used in many ways to serve the human family. We have found that the air compressed be- comes as powerful for good or evil as the ex- plosion of gunpowder. We have found that the winds may be harnessed and made to do our work as well as the horse and oxen. We have found that there is a law that we call gravitation, which may be utilized in many ways for the bene. fit of man. We have found many other things which are true, but not reported in the Bible. These truths, discovered by man, through pains, trials, longings, desires, plans, purposes and designs, are all as much the revelations of God as is the words contained in the book that we call the Bible. He said there was a time when we had no art, no pictures, no statuary, no poetry, no love for the beautiful, but now the world was AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 23 filled with beautiful things, pictures, statues, poetry, which make life worth living; all seen, recognized and by man appreciated. _ He said there was a time when men did not appreciate truth, honor, integrity, faith- fulness, kindness, mercy, gentleness, humility, virtue and love, but now all of these beautiful characters were not only appreciated, but were concluded absolutely necessary as the adorn- ment of a neighbor and friend. He said the various sects in religion repre- sented the many thoughts of men, but no one of them contained the whole of truth; so each and every one, if honest, should be glad, pleased and benefited by looking for the truth that others held, which he did not possess. Again, that if you hold a truth which you know to be true, it is your duty to offer it freely to all mankind. He said the whole duty of the Church through its preachers and priests, was to give to the world the truth in its entirety as far as it was discovered, espe- cially the truths which enabled men to live healthfully, prosperously, honestly, uprightly, faithfully, neighborly, kindly and charitably in this world, and devotedly, trustfully, sin- cerely and dependently for the world to come. He said to do this a man must recognize that there is much outside of himself, and | | 24 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER that all that was accessible to him could only be attained by effort, Health and vigor, he said, could only be preserved and conserved by forethought, more knowledge and a will- ingness to obey the law of one’s physical be- ing. The ability to stand hard work or study meant more to one who was willing to do the work and to study than a capricious talent used sparingly. He knew little about the modern interpreta- tion of ancient philosophies, but he said that the rocks, the hills, the gold, the lands and all the things that looked so solid and real were not so real as the mind and intelligence that created them. He said that the one thing needful, the one thing to desire and work for, was not some- thing to possess, but rather something TO BE. He said that no possibility of experience could ever be so real as the actual experience. He said no man or woman was ever com- pletely himself or herself at any one period of their lives, for their complete fulfillment could only be given in eternty. He said we gain in knowledge and exper- ience every day, but we loose the buoyant spirits and the freshness of youth. AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 25 He said that we were created by God, but that God gave to us the privilege of aiding in finishing the product; and when it is realiz- ed and appreciated that the conscious effort of man in his upbuilding shortens the slow process of what we call nature, then man will or should make an effort to be something higher and better. A contentment in ignor- ance is highly culpable. We should try to remember the past; the future may be read and understood better if we could only en- joy our full capacities. Why do we dream while we are sleeping? Do these dreams tell us something? Are these communications to be relied on? Can our loved ones who have gone to the other world send us love messages or warn- ings of the dangers which may befall us? He said these questions can only be an- swered by discovering the truth involved in them; that to discover these truths may re- quire the effort of one, two, ten or a hundred generations; but the knowledge is in existence and much of it accessible and only prolonged, persistent and intelligent effort can get it. He said this process involved the broad ques- tion of the development of man, which means healthier children with better minds and higher aspirations; these three fundamental qualities of man will open up better oppor- tunities, to the end that the meaning of life 26 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER shall be better understood and the purposes of life better fulfilled. He said that the greatest trouble with the whole human family who had any religion at all, was that man was expected to know all, ation time to learn, and expected to do all without time to do it in. He said no one was born grown; that he was a child first, then youth, then man, then age—then death. He said that a child was only a child and that he could learn only a little at the time; that judgment and the ability to see came only with maturer years. That some children could learn much faster than others; that these bright ones, by persistent effort became the wise men and women of the world, and they in their turn to a large extent the fathers and mothers of the bright ones of the next generation. That the intelligence of the fath- ers and mothers, provided better food, bet. ter clothes, better surroundings, better appor- tunities for their children, and the children when grown were so equipped that with the — same desire for progress would give to their own children the same advantages and oppor- tunities. £ He said that this process was natural and was right, and was evidently the will of God and being right, and the will of God, it was the best and most appropriate way to lift the - ee ee AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 27 whole human family toward God. That this elevation or lifting was itself a process, but being in harmony with the Divine plan, it was the true way to strive and to work in this present world. He said this world is just a part of an- other whole, and the whole included all the other worlds, and that each one was controlled by God and passed on through space according to His plans and pleasure. He said if it all works like a machine it is because an all- wise God could plan it and set it in motion and put behind it all and in it all that power and intelligence necessary to keep it as He wants it to be. In it all and a part of it all is man with some qualities which belong alone to him. He ean think, plan, do things and then reflect and meditate on his plans and his deeds. Sometimes he is intelligent enough to discover his mistakes, his blunders and is will- ing to and does make an effort to correct them, and in some instances does so. This is one of the, important ways that knowledge comes into the world. He said that our inability to use our full capacities made progress in the world very slow, but said he, this is for not making an effort with the capacities we do have; small capacities well used grow to be larger capaci- ties and capacities or talents neglected are _ destroyed by the neglect. It is man’s dany to make the effort whether with small or great 28 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER capacity, the results belong to God. He will take care of that which is His own. He said there is an Intelligence greater _ than my own. This Intelligence keeps the sun, moon, planets, stars and the infinite hosts of heaven in their proper places. It keeps the hills, the plains, the rivers, the brooks, the grand old oceans supplied with that power, that ability to be hills, plains, rivers, brooks and oceans. This Supreme Intelligence gives life to all that lives, and makes it live until it dies, and it dies because it has lived. This Intelligence gives to each shrub its own buds, to each flower its own petal, to each tree its own leaves and makes them bear in their season the buds, the flowers and the leaves as it pleases Him; they all live and die in their proper order. This Intelligence gives to every element 4 power to unite with some other element, this power is measured and exact and is made honest and faithful to perform its proper duty by the same Supreme Intelligence that created it. That this same Supreme Intelligence has given to man some of His intelligence so that man may in ever so little a way or in ever so great a way understand, use and profit to some AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 29 extent by this knowledge and use of the same. and may work with this Supreme Intelligence and some men do, and these are they that we call the Children of God. This does not mean that all the others who do not work with this Supreme Intelligence are not the children of God. It means that they are neglectful chil- dren, disobedient children, either through ig- norance or a purposeful neglect. God knows and will deal with them fairly. He said, it is so much better to be working in harmony with this Supreme Intelligence, for all truth, all right, all good can actually be found in har- mony with this Intelligence, that many of our pains, sorrows, disappointments are in some way connected with our disharmony or the disharmony of another. He said further that this disharmony with all its pains, sorrows and disappointments are also a part of the whole; but said he, the Su- preme Intelligence knows that disharmony is not so good as harmony; so he marks it with tears, sorrows and disappointments to show us the difference between harmony and disharmony, that we may not be contented with the less good. _ Complete harmony with God, he said, in this world, is never attained, for the complete harmony includes a harmony with all that is external to myself, as well as all that is 30 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER is within myself. Man’s greatest need ig to find as much of this harmony as his talents and capacities will permit. The harmony is one, as God is One, to be in complete harmony with the whole, would be to possess the whole, in knowledge and experience, and this is pos- sible alone for God. He said, “I am a part and not the whole, but I play a part and the part I play is a part of the whole, and the whole is not com- plete without the part that I play, whether the part I play makes what we call harmony or discord.” The whole harmony is not played on earth, that part which contains some of the discords are found on earth, some in other worlds; the sweet music, that period of the grand whole harmony which is completed and fitted for the ear of the Composer, alone is found in eternity, for neither a thousand years nor a million years is time enough for God to com- plete the harmony which He has composed for Himself. It is impossible to measure the heights and depths of a man like my father by any ordinary rule. While he accepted the Bible as inspired and believed in it firmly, he said there were many statements in it which seemed to have been changed or mistrans- lated, but he said that no one should waste AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 31 his time on puzzles, as there was enough in the Bible that was clear and intelligent to point out a line of conduct that would make a good man of any one who would follow the light that was given. He gave little time to the discussions of the dogmas of the Church, of his Church, or any other Church. He was first Baptist, aft- erward a Christian, or Campbellite. He was too busy loving his neighbors and doing deeds of charity to waste his time in discussing the trinity, atonement, vicarious punishment, destiny, good and evil, the war of being against being, human consciousness, trans- formation through death, of the Ego, the es- Sence, Substance, the nil and ens, nature, lib- erty, necessity. He purposely avoided discussions of such subjects as being time wasted. He would frequently say, “I believe in the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost,” without any comment or explanation of its meaning. His love was greater than his faith, un- less it was his great faith that made him love. It was his supreme love for all men, high and low, that made him a mark for all. His love was not limited to the human family, it ex- tended to the animals, birds and fishes. It 32 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER was a supreme benevolence spreading over men and extending even to things. He looked on deformity with a pitying eye, putting no blame on the object but seeking thoughtfully for an explanation beyond and back of this crippled life. He recognized friends in some of the reptiles. I remember his warning to the negroes and to myself not to kill two large king snakes that lived in our barn. He said that they were our friends for they drove away all of the rats and were worth more in this way than many cats, and were no expense or trouble to keep. These snakes lived on the rats and mice, and could be seen lying on the joists or be- tween the cracks and sometimes curled up in the feed basket. When found in the basket by the negro who was feeding the mules, there was sure to be an exclamation of horror, for the negroes, like the rest of the human fam. ily, hate a snake, and all snakes are alike to a negro. While these negroes respected my father and were devoted to him and obeyed him with- out question and left unmolested these snakes for a year or two, one day I found both of them dead; they had been broken in several! places and had been buried, but murder will out, for a pig found them and rooted them AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 33 out of the ground, and left the snakes un- eaten. This is curious, for hogs are fond of Snake meat. I suspected the negroes of having killed these snakes. When I told my father, he said, “Poor, ignorant things, they knew no better.” In his mature manhood, his patience, tolera- tion and gentleness seemed to be boundless, but an old friend who knew him when he was a young man, told me that my father, in his youth and early manhood, was passionate, hot-tempered and would fight on slight provo- cation. So his gentleness and even temper was a matter of conviction with him. He had curbed his temper, he had restrained his pas- Slonate nature, until he had both under con- trol He was fond of company and a good talker. He had much to tell that was highly interesting, but the matter related almost ex- clusively to life; life in general and in vari- ous special lives, good, bad and indifferent, that he had known. His stories were the re- lations of actual experience of himself and others. I do not remember a single instance where he told a story or a joke simply to make people laugh. He was cheerful and bubbling over with wit and sometimes made his audiences laugh when he did not intend to do so. I was present on one occasion when he 34 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER was preaching in a country church. The peo- ple were all good, kind, simple folk; but many would go out and come in the church during the services; this seemed to annoy my father and in the middle of his sermon he digressed long enough to beg the people to be more thoughtful of themselves and of him and went on and told this story, to show how a thought- less person could disturb a congregation. He said that he was preaching in a country church in Hyde County, North Carolina, and said, “I must have been very dull and unin- teresting, for I saw one of the men on a back bench fast asleep. He had settled low down on his seat, so that his head rested on the back of the bench; he was breathing through his mouth, and his mouth was wide open. The gallery was above him, filled with young people. One of the boys, a very thoughtless boy, had heard the deep, sonorous breathing of the man below. At first he could not make out what it was. So, in his inconsiderate, thoughtless way, he leaned over the balcony to see what was the cause of these heavy sighs that he had beard; he heard the sup- pressed noise, and connected it with the sleep- ing man immediately below. I saw both the sleeping man and the boy. I knew that some- thing was about to happen. I was so dis- tracted I almost lost the thread of my dis- course. If that poor boy and that poor man AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 35 only knew how much they were disturbing ae and through me the whole congregation, i y would not be so thoughtless, the man ace to sleep, and the boy to do what he = a I saw that boy pull out of his mouth no d exhausted quid of tobacco, and, taking aim, dropped it right into the man’s open mouth. The mouth went shut like a steel trap, and the man waked up.” The congre- gation who heard this story, did not hear the last part of it, for when the piece of tobacco dropped, they went wild and roared with laughter. My father was so surprised at this outburst that he stopped his sermon and dis- missed the congregation. He never even smiled. He told E ward that he felt hurt, but the ce ee gation in the afternoon and the close Bose tion paid to his sermon and the great interest taken by the whole congregation in all the Services and the passing in and out of the church by so many having stopped, he felt compensated for what he called his “break?” in the morning. At home, he was always busy. His days were filled with good deeds, good ‘words, good thoughts. He lived much out of doors; he was fond of long rambles in the woods. He would do some manual labor every day, when the weather was fine he would work in the vege- 36 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER table garden an hour or so, or if the grass was getting the upper hand in the cotton or corn fields, he would go there and work with the negroes. ; If the day was wet and inclement, he would put in the day answering his letters and mak- ing what he called his “skeletons” for his ser- mons. He never wrote out his sermons. He said, “I must preach, not read to my congre- gaton.” These “skeletons” sometimes covered less than one page in a small note book. After making these “skeletons” he would sel- dom refer to them again. Sometimes he would go off on a preaching tour and forget, leaving his “skeletons” at home. I asked him once how he got along with- out his notes. He said, “I do my work mostly - at night, when others are sleeping, when I am not liable to be interrupted and when I have gone over a subject and made my notes, I seem to be able to read them again without having the paper in my hand, but I loose the whole discourse, if I do not make the notes.” He said, “There is another peculiarity about my memory. I do not think that I can repeat the words of a single hymn without the music, but as soon as the words are sung, all of the words of the hymn come to me one by one as they are sung. So I seldom use a hymn book : : *: ” in singing. ep, AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE, 37 He said, “I seldom try to quote Scripture, for I am liable to change one or two words, putting in words of my own and leaving out the scriptural words,” and he said, further, “I note that many others do the same thing. So to avoid this common fault, I read the words out of my Bible. That is wh ou see m Bible nearly worn out.” ne se “This, he said, holding up his well-thumbed book, “is the fourth Bible that I have worn wate meaning, of course, the physical book, and not its contents. At every meal, we all bowed our heads and my father would lift his hands and say, “Gra- clous Lord, accept our sincere thanks for these and all Thy kind provisions and save us in heaven for Christ’s sake. Amen.” At night, sometimes at the Supper table, Sometimes at bed time, depending on who was at our home. When Strangers were with us, it was at the Supper table, if our family alone were present it would be at bed time, my ment; the reading would include the most di- verse subjects, from evening to evening. Then he would say, “Let us pray.” I note that his prayer always followed the subject of the 38 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER reading. These prayers were impromptu and were very eloquent, very devout, very humble and were always supplications. He did not pray the prayers that I have heard others pray, wherein they give to God all sorts of information and then ask Him what He thought of it. After these “family prayers” were over, he would go out in the night and be gone an hour or more, as if the “family prayers” reminded him that he ought to pray. Out under the starry heavens, he was alone with his God, there he could lift up his heart in con- templative, peaceful, adoring mood, with the windows of his soul open toward the sky, with the visible splendor of the constellations over him; he was ready to receive, willing to have, and anxiously awaiting any and all commun- ications from the unknown. At such times, with his heart full of gratitude for all favors received and sending up to God his whole soul in pure elevated thoughts, like the per- fume of the flowers in the night; lost in ador- ing, dazzling, admiration, hardly knowing what was passing in his own mind, but he said that he sent “something away and received something in return.” His meditations were of the grandeur and majesty of God, of the infinity of the future, of the eternity of the past, of all the vast i _the AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 39 insoluble mysteries on every hand, and not trying to unravel the puzzles, he gazed in won- der at them. He saw the obdient suffer as well as the dis- obedient. Saints as well as sinners. He saw old age and death coming to all alike. He Saw the thorns growing with the flowers. He saw the human bandits robbing the law abiding man. He saw that joy lasts only a day, but tears and sorrows are with us a whole lifetime. He Saw that there was little in this life to satisfy one. That all our plans seemed to be cut short. Yet, he said, “God is good, and He knows how it will end. It will end as He wants it to end. No man can spoil the final plans of God.” He worshiped, he adorned, he trusted God. In this trust was centered the reserved force, confidence or faith which gave to him, above any man I have ever known, that power which Served him in every emergency of life and did not desert him in death. His life was a life of love. He loved God, and he loved his fellow men. The cruelty, hatred and oppression of others Simply revealed to him a greater opportunity to teach them, to show them in his own life, immense difference between love and 40 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER hate. “How can you hate one another,” he said, “when love is so much better?” Some men labor for gold, others for lands and others property. Some for ambition anda fame, but his whole effort, his every energy, his whole life and purpose, seemed to be di- rected to one end, to make the rich pity the poor, to make the high pity the low, to make the strong pity the weak, to make the intelli- gent pity the ignorant, to make the good pity the bad, to make the powerful pity the de- pendants, to make the gentle pity the vicious, to make the kind pity the unkind, to make the joyous pity the sorrowing, to make the peace- ful pity the malignant, to make the patient pity the impatient, to make the loving pity those who hate. This was his gospel, this was his text for all sermons. He might vary the words, but he never varied his theme, this was the burden of every Sermon, this was the pith of every prayer, this was the sub. ject nearest his heart, this was his life, this was “the all” to him; the theme was so high, so low, so broad, so long that it left himself at one side’ neglected and forgotten, but still looking on in wonder and anticipation, reflect ing and meditating to find some new plan or course wherein he could do something more to bring in the Kingdom, where the strong would bear the burdens of the weak. Resolutions of respect, passed at a meeting AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 41 of the Diciples of Christ at Oak Grove, Pitt County, N. ©., October 8th, 1870. _ On motion of M. 7, Moye, the resolutions in regard to Elder Amos Johnston Battle were adopted and ordered to be placed on our min- utes: Whereas, It has pleased Almighty God, the Sovereign Ruler and Disposer of events, to re- move our well-beloved brother and co-laborer in the Lord, Elder A. J. Battle from his sphere of earthly usefulness; and Whereas, The Disciples of Christ of North Carolina for whom he has labored so faithfully in the past, have heard the melancholy tid- ings of his decease; now, therefore, be it RESOLVED: First, That while as Christians we are constrained to bow with submission to the afflictive dispensation of his: Father and ours, we feel that one of our noblest men has been gathered to his fathers, and that the Church has lost one of its most eminent preachers, so eminently qualified by the clear- ness of his mind and child-like purity and sim- plicity of his life for the promulgation of the primitive Gospel; Second, That the Moderator of this Confer- ence be requested to appoint some brother to prepare an obituary notice of the deceased to appear with the minutes of this Confer- ence and to become part of its records. 42 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER Third, That we tender our heartfelt sym- pathies to his surviving partner and _ other members of his family in their bereavement, and assure them of our great and abiding con- fidence that God will sustain them by His grace if they lean upon His love; . é Fourth, That a copy of these. resolutions be forwarded by the clerk of the meeting to the widow of our departed brother, and that the “Christian Review” and the “Christian Stand- ard,” of Cincinnati, and the “Wilson Plain Dealer” be furnished with copies for publica. tion. JOHN T..WALSH, MOSES T. MOYE, PETER HINES, Committee. Rey. M. T. Moye was appointed to write the obituary notice and Rey. John 'T. Walsh was asked to preach a funeral sermon on Satur- day night in memory of Elder Battle, which was done. This sermon was very eloquent and beauti- ful and portrayed the character of my father in the most eloquent terms. It was delivered impromptu and no copy of it was preserved. The Rey. Moses T. Moye’s obituary notice is as follows, omitting that part copied by Mr. Collier Cobb, which includes the first three paragraphs. AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 43 “In early life he was deeply impressed with the importance of obeying God and having his mind greatly confused by the mystic and mud. dled doctrines of those who deny to man free agency. or a few years during his early man- hood he gave himself freely to the pleasures and frivolties of the world. These proving al- together unsatisfactory, and feeling deeply impressed with the convictions that life should be devoted to more noble gratifications, he again directed his mind to the serious con- templation of the salvation of his soul. Still mystified by those “mysterious manifesta- tions” of spirit so often portrayed in the ex- perience of those who united with the Church in his vicinity, he sought by prayer and humble Supplication that God would make known to him either by an audible voice or by some mysterious agency, his acceptability and doc- trine to eternal life, and failing in this to ob- tain that peace of mind for which he sought, he turned to the living oracles of God, and learning therein the Divine will, he became obedient to the Faith, uniting with the Mis- Sionary Baptist Church at Mt. Zion, Georgia, in his twenty-third year. “Three years later he was ordained to the ministry. Entering upon his ministerial career with a zeal and fervency which few possess, he devoted his talents, his means and his life to the proclamation of the glorious gospel 44 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER which he loved so well, preaching very suc- cessfully during the remainder of his life with the exception of a few intervals of short dur- ation—first to the Missionary Baptists, aft- erwards to the Disciples of Christ, with whom he became identified about eighteen years ago. Warm-hearted, self-sacrificing, zealous and greatly devoted to pure Christianity, he endured hardships as a good soldier, even walking from house to house and from church to church to proclaim the glad tidings of sal- vation. Patient, hopeful and forgiving, he meekly received the indignities heaped upon him, submitting his cause to God in the great Assize, where the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed. In the month of March, A. D. 1869, while successfully prosecuting his work as evange- list in the mountains of North Carolina, he was attacked with cancer near his right eye, which » became so painful that he was compelled, re- luctantly, to abandon this inviting field, where the harvest was almost ready for the sickle, and return home to seek medical aid. “After applying several prescribed reme- dies, which failed to arrest the progress of the disease, he was induced as a last resort to place himself under the supervision of Dr. Kline, of Philadelphia, who professed to make the treatment of cancer a specialty. AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 45 “Here, patiently enduring great suffering, both from the malignant disease and the se- verity of the treatment, which caused the loss of the right eye, at the expiration of five months he returned home so much improved that he himself and many of his friends were encouraged to believe that he would be speed- ily cured, but in this they were sadly dis- appointed. “Remaining home about six weeks, preach- ing occasionally at the Court House in Wil- son, the progress of his disease remaining un- checked, he returned to Kline’s Cancer Infirm- ary. But the skill of the physician proving in- effectual, he was declared incurable and sent home to die. “For five or six weeks longer he lingered, prostrated by the most intense physical suf- fering, from which he was relieved by death on the 24th of September, 1870. “During the whole of his protracted suffer- ing, which extended over the space of more than eighteen months, no murmuring com- plaints against the afflictive hand of Provi- dence were ever known to have escaped his lips. Addressing his wife and children a short time previous to his death, he said: “Tyo not be go selfish as to have me re- main here in this suffering condition. Weep 46 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER not for me. Christ was made perfect through suffering, and I am willing to endure every- thing that the Lord may see fit to afflict me with. It will soon be over. And I am So happy at the prospect of rest and happiness that nothing disturbs me.’ “The humble petition to the pitying eye of God was beautifully answered in his conflict with the last enemy of man; for he died with. out a murmur; but with the most perfect resignation as a Christian, he neither mur- mured nor complained. “Only one sorrow seemed to brood over his mind, and that was that he was denied the happy privilege of laboring in the Master’s vineyard. “He often spoke of this with deep regret. The highest order of Spirituality to be at- tained on earth was evidently acquired by him before his death. “As an evidence of the truthfulness of this assertion, the complete dedication of himself to God, found after his death among his pa- pers, in his own handwriting is hereby in- serted as follows: “ yen AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 71 all. So we carried our trophies in pride and jubilation to the farm. Everyone in the fam- ily were highly pleased; for stewed turtle with some parsley put in for flavoring certainly does make an appetizing breakfast. Our good luck followed us for some time, and we had got up quite a reputation as fishermen. The enthu- siasm was dying out a little, for we no longer ran in our eagerness to get to our hooks, but went along more like workmen on their way to work. One day when we had lifted nearly all of our hooks without finding a turtle, we came to one of the hooks that seemed to be hanging onto something down under the water; we could pull the hook up a part of the way, and then there would be a pull on the line like there was a strong spring working against us. We could not pull the hook out of the water; Julian and I both had a trial at it; and we were about to leave it, when I thought of one more way. I cut a pole with a fork at the top; with this pole I straddled the line with the fork, and, keeping the line taut, followed it down in the water, trying on each side of the line to dislodge the hook; at last, I felt the object on the hook giving way, and I was draw- ing the hook with what I thought to be a large turtle to the surface, when quicker than words can tell it a large copperbellied moccasin came out of the water with the hook in his mouth, 72 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER He was at least one inch in diameter and three and a half to four feet long. My hands were so near his head I was afraid that he would bite me; I was so excited I really did not know what I was doing; but to save myself I grabbed him about the neck with my left hand; the snake was busy, too; he tried to turn his head to reach my hand with his mouth; but he did not have enough free neck to do so; he did the next best thing that he could; he brought his long wet body out of the water and threw it upon my shoulder and around my neck. I had already got out my big jack-knife and opened it with my teeth; with this I commenced to cut off his head; two or three pulls of the sharp edge on his throat and his head was off, and I felt the body relax. I dropped my knife, took both hands and unwound the nasty, slimy, scaly body from around my neck and threw it off with that strength born of panic, and got out of the swamp as quick as my legs could carry me. Julian was ahead of me, for as soon as he saw the snake he made a bolt to get away; he must have fallen in the water, for he was wet all over. We sat down on the rail- road, and after breathing hard for a while be- came calm; then my fighting qualities came to my rescue; so I went back, got my knife and the snake and brought him up on the railroad. Julian held the body while I pulled the skin off. We carried the skin home, and stuffed AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 73 it with wheat bran, and this snake skin was oma in my room when we moved away in 8. This put an end to our turtle fishing. The Shock was too great; we did not want another like it. Here is another piece of foolishness of which I was guilty: About the last year of the Civil War I was walking the railroad to school every day. The railroad bed was well worn, the rolling stock was in poor condition, and sometimes when a train would start from Wilnington or Golds- boro for Weldon it was no certain thing that that particular train would ever reach its des- tination. These poorly equipped trains would frequently overtake me, as I was on my way to the farm from school. So here is another place when my foolish calculations came near ending my days, as well as my career. There was a freight train that passed Wil- son about five o’clock p.m. This train would overtake me frequently as I was going up the hill after passing over the trestles at Toisnot Swamp. The train would be running slow on this up-grade. It was little effort for me to jump on the last coach as it came by. This coach was called the “caboose.” Now, I fig- ured it out that I was foolish to walk nearly all the way home, and then jump on this pass- 74 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER ing train and ride this short distance, so I would go down to the depot and get on the train as it started from Wilson and ride all the way home. The train was sure to slack up in speed when it came to my hill. So I put in practice my plan for riding home. It worked fine; for some time the train would come close enough to five o’clock to get me home by sup per. But one day the train was late. Old John Crone was the engineer as well as con- ductor, on this particular occasion. I waited till nearly dark and still no train had come, and just as I was about to start on my long three-mile walk I saw the smoke of my train. I call it mine, for I had been riding on it so long I felt that I was really interested in it. It was but a short time before the train ar- rived. Old John Crone made one or two shifts of the cars, and with a very short train for a freight train, he halloed all aboard, and quicker than I can tell it, the train was in mo- tion, with me on the caboose as usual. It seemed to me that I had never rode so fast in all my life. Before I could realize where we were, we had crossed the bridges over Toisnot Swamp and had started up the hill toward my home. Instead of slacking in speed as usual, it seemed to me that the train was gain- ing in speed. I looked for my landmarks, and there they were, and passing on behind like a AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 75 flash. The telegraph poles looked like a fine- tooth comb enlarged. In a minute the train Would be to my jumping-off place; but, good heavens, I could not jump from a train running as fast as this train was running. It would be certain death. What could I do? I had no money. The next station was four miles from my home. It was nearly night. What would my mother think if I did not come home? So in my perplexity and dire emergency, I could See only one thing to do—jump. I must jump; even if it killed me, I must jump. So, picking out a place between the old cross-ties that were on the side of the road, I threw off my books and my tin dinner bucket. Said one, two, three and off I went; as my feet struck the red clay mud my head kept on going forward till my face and the front part of my head were buried in the red mud. As I got up I was surprised to know that I was not dead. -I knew that I was badly hurt, but I did not know the extent of my injuries. I felt of my nose. I thought it was broken. I put my hand on my forehead. I thought there was a hole in it. My mouth and nose were both bleeding. My mouth was full of the red mud. I spit out the mud and felt of my front teeth. I thought that they were knocked out; but none of these things were fully true. I was jarred awfully, I was hurt terribly, but I could discover no broken bones, 76 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER and I could walk, so I went back, got my books and bucket, and went on toward home, in the dark. I knew the path so well I got along very well. When I came to the little creek or branch just before getting to the house I washed my face as best I could. I went to the kitchen and begged old Mammy Dinah to put some flour on my face to cover up the blood, which she did, and after eating a little I went to my bed in an outhouse, where I slept at night. My sleep was broken by fever and dreams of my sad experience. The next morn- ing early my mother came in to learn what was the matter. I told her only a part of the truth. I said that I had fallen down a hill and hurt my face. I was so sore that I did not get out of bed for over a week, and even then it took another week for the scabs to come off of my face. As big a fool as I was at this time I learned a lesson that lasted me a long time. The lesson I learned was this, “Don’t steal a ride on a train,” and “don’t jump off while it is moving.” Here is another piece of foolishness I was guilty of about this time: There was another boy going to the same school, whose name was Charlie Clarke. This Charlie Clarke was about my size, though T think that he was one or two years younger than I was. There were other boys three or AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 17 four years older than either of us—Bill Barnes, Leon Ellis, Frank Deems, the last-named was a talented son of the noted Methodist preach- er, the Rey. Dr. Chas. F. Deems, afterward pas- tor of the Church of the Strangers, New York City, and editor of the Churchman. These three boys learned that Charlie Clarke and I could be induced to fight on very Small provocation. So every few days, at the midday recess, when all the teachers were out of the way, these older boys, who should have had more consideration for us youngsters, would get Charlie and me together, and by put- ting a chip on my shouder and telling Charlie that he was a coward if he did not knock the chip off and when this was done they would tell me that I was a coward if I did not whip Charlie for his act. Sometimes the chip was put on Charlie’s shoulder, and the same pieces of information were given to us. So that it made little difference where the chip was put, whether on my shoulder or Charlie’s shoulder, there was sure to be a fight. At first we were quite equally matched, but as the months passed by I noted that Charlie was getting heavier and stronger, so I figured it out that in 2 month or so more Charlie would be too heavy and too strong for me, and would whip me, so I dreaded such a humiliation, and to prevent it I got up this scheme. I met Charlie one morn- 78 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER ing and said, Charlie, I like you; don’t you like me? Charlie said Yes, Jess, I do like you. Then I said, Do you notice how these big boys get us to fight every few days, just for their amusement? Charlie said that he had noticed it. Then I said, I’ll tell you what we will do. You and I can whip either one of the big boys. Now the next time one of the big boys tries to get us to fight I will grab him around the body and you punch his face, so when we_ get through with him this will end our fighting each other. Charlie agreed to my plan. It was not long before we had the opportunity to put into execution our plan. Bill Barnes was the boy we had to tackle, and he was the oldest and strongest of the three, but we were so quick and attacked him so unexpectedly we had little trouble in doing him up, and made him beg for mercy. This ended the fighting between Charlie and me. As years passed Charlie grew into manhood and he became a giant. He was six feet two inches and weigh- ed about two hundred and fifty pounds. He was made the Chief of Police, and in a negro riot in the town of Wilson he was the principal figure in one of the worst mix-up fights that ever took place in the town. When I saw Charlie years after this he had three terrible scars on his face, where somebody had cut three long gashes in his cheeks, all the way AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 79 from his eyes to his chin. I asked him where he got these scars. He said, “Oh! a little Scrimmage I got into.” The other policeman, Peter Christman, told me some time after that a negro cut Charlie’s face with a razor, but he went on and said, “After the fight was over there were three dead niggers found where the fight had been.” I made this remark to myself, “And this is the Charlie Clarke that I was trying to whip.” As a youth, from ten to fourteen years old, there are only a few incidents, vividly im- pressed upon me, enough to come down through the flight of years. The memory of my boyhood companions is bright enough. I can call to mind Jim Clark and Alvin Clark, who lived diagonally across the street from us. I used to trade biscuits and ham with them for pickles. After supper in the evening at six o’clock there would be left a long part of the day, in the summer time. We were allowed to play until it was dark. I would leave the supper table with a biscuit and a piece of ham, that I had picked up and put between two halves of a biscuit. We were not allowed to eat meat at supper time when we were small boys. I would meet Jim and Alvin out at the cor- ner of out lot, which was a whole block of 80 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER ground. There I would find him or them wait- ing with a cucumber pickle four or five inches long and an inch to an inch and a half thick. I would eat a whole one. These pickles were made with strong apple cider vinegar, and one was enough to kill a horse, but I ate it, not once, but many times. My system must have been gorged on vinegar at that time, for T have never been able to eat pickles or take acids in my stomach since, without pain, not even Jemonade. Up the street that we lived on were some other boys: Gus Skinner and Willie Skinner in one family, with two sisters, Julia and Louise. Further up the street, opposite where Mr. Stevens lived, there was a Henry Skinner. Mr. Stevens had a son named Rozell. This Henry Skinner and Rozell were both older than I, and I did not play with them so much. The Fountain family lived within a block of us and I was always fond of Spencer and William, that the boys called “Bill.” There were George Deems, Eddie Deems, Bill Barnes, Bob. Barnes, Leon Ellis, Alex Green, Jim Tucker, Allen Blount, Albert Rountree, all good boys. I knew them and liked them well, but I met them only at school. The same with Tom Hackney, Dug Hackney and George, but Jim Clark, Alvin Clark, Gus AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 81 Skinner and Spencer Fountain and Bill Foun- tain were my chums. Willie Skinner, Gus’ brother, was three or four years younger than I, and was small for his age as I was, although I was much larger than he. He thought the world of me, and So did I of him, till one day he got me into more real trouble than I had ever had before, and after this I would never play with him, the humiliation was too great, and I did not want another piece of experience like this. : Here is the story and when you have read it you will say with me that I did right to cut his acquaintance. He was so young that he was hardly responsible, but he had some Imagination and powers of. invention, so el think that he must have known that what he did was wrong. His mother was a poor woman, who had a great struggle to raise these four children. She worked hard and sewed and took in wash- Ing to earn a living. This son, Willie, must have seen her put qaoney away, for he got it all, a five dollar Sold piece, a two and one-half dollar gold piece and two one dollar gold pieces and several ee and dimes. He brought it all down a me. He first gave me some of the silver; en he took it back and gave me the five 82 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER dollar gold piece, and then he took them back and gave me two quarters. He would hand me a piece of money and then change it. I thought he was very rich to have so much money. I asked him where he got it. He said his mother gave it to him. At last, night was coming on and he said, “I must go. “You had better take this,” hand. ing to me the five dollar gold piece and one dime, and he said, “If anybody asks you where you got it, tell them that you found it in a goat’s track.” I could remember this very well. The next morning I was showing my money to Julian Rhodes and Julian’s father came along and asked me where I got it. I remembered what Willie Skinner had told me. Willie came up as I was about to speak; I looked at him and he wiggled his mouth, and J understood it to mean that I must say what he had advised me to say. So I said, “I found it in a goat’s track.” Another question came, “Where was the goat’s tracks.” Then I had to get out of my trouble the best I could, so I said, “Down there by the railroad.” Then Mr. Rhodes, my brother-in-law, said, “Come on and show me where you found it.” I started off toward the railroad, with Willie Skinner and Mr. Rhodes following me; when I got near the water station I found a hog’s track. It must have been a hog’s track, because I learn- AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 83 ne that there was only one goat in town, eee . was at the other end of town and was ee ocked up, so there was no opportunity oA ne to make a track in our part of town. Mr. Rhodes said, “Are you sure that you found it here?” J said, “Yes.” Willie Skinner spoke up and said, “Now, Jess, you know you are telling a lie, for I gave it to you.” I never felt so bad in my life. H i caught telling a aeinee lie, aac ee boy who told me to tell the lie gave me away and humiliated me before my brother-in-law. I guess I turned two or three colors; first pale then red; but after the first shock and pain of the revelation passed, I commenced getting angry and asked, “Didn’t you tell me to sa that?” He said, “No, I didn’t.” I did Got hesitate, but I jumped on him go quick and beat him so fast, if Mr. Rhodes had not pulled me off of him, I do believe that I would have beat him to death, I was so angry. This broke up our friendship. I did wrong to give way to m Of , y temper. I he ’ it ever since. ete I handed the money to Mr. Rhodes and said, “He stole the s ; money from somebod ive i back, I don’t want it.” eee eee belonged to his mother, and my mother ‘nt it back to her. My mother did not whip 84 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER me for it, but she gave me some sound advice, which in effect was that I did not have to do or say a mean or wrong thing for any one. This one vivid lesson has lasted me all of my life, and I have added another corrollary to the maxim given. to me by my mother. It is this, if great things are involved, “you do not have to believe anything told to you by anybody until you prove it to be true.” Of these, my boyhood companions, Bill Barnes, Leon Ellis, Rozell Stevens, Henry Skinner, William Fountain, Jim Tucker, Alex Green and Albert Rountree are dead. They were all dear to me. May God receive them kindly. AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. 85 LOOKING FOR A JOB. After my experience in teaching school, the hardships and the small remuneration, I con- cluded that I would try another job. I was al- Ways fond of tools, and liked very much to build things. So my father, noticing my mechanical talent, proposed that I should take a place with a Mr. John McBride, a Scotchman, who had a shop in Wilson. He was a watchmaker and a jeweler and a fine workman, but he had so many friends in town who visited him and he had just come from the war; he had spent four years with Lee’s army in Virginia; he had gotten out of the habit of working and dreaded it so much that he could never be con- tented to work longer than an hour or two at the time, just long enough to pick up a few dollars to buy something to eat and to drink; Something to treat his friends with when they came to see him. So when my father proposed that he should take me as an apprentice, I “m sure that at heart he was delighted, but the thrifty Scotchman came immediately to the surface. He wanted to know how much 86 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER money my father was willing to pay bim for teaching me to be a watchmaker and jew- eler. My father had no money to pay with and said so. Yhen Mr. McBride said that as my two. brothers were in the same company and regiment with him till one was killed at the battle of Seven Pines, the other one was with him for the four years of the war, he, Mr. Mc- Bride, for the kind feeling he had for my broth- ers, would take me on trial. He could not pay me any wages, nor board me, so if I took the job it meant a six-mile walk every day to the farm, and a cold dinner out of my old tin bucket that had been my companion so long The prospect of being a good workman, and some day to have a business of my own, in- fluenced me to accept the position. I did not really know what years of drudgery were before me, so I took the job, with no pay, and I must board myself. Mr. McBride was uniformly kind to me, and he showed me all that he could teach me, but he kept me busy. When I went in the shop there were more than one hundred clocks left there for repairs and several drawers full of watches and a bushel of jewelry. Mr. McBride fixed up a work bench for me and gave me the tools that he thought that I would need, and started me off to work “on the clocks. At first I was awkward and AND SOME STORIES OF MY LIFE. St I pinched my fingers with the plyers and mashed them with the hammers. The drills would slip off the piece of metal that I was drilling and pierce my hand, and many other accidents happened to me on account of my inexperience with tools. But a few months’ use of the tools gave me the experience neces- Sary and I was becoming a good workman. In one year I had cleaned up, repaired and delivered nearly all the clocks, over half of the watches and all of the jewelry. At first I went home every night, but this was too much walking to suit me, so I got a bigger dinner bucket and filled it with such things as I knew would keep for three days; after this I went home Wednesdays and Sat- urdays. One of the friends who visited Mr. McBride daily was a Dr. Stith, also bachelor as Mr. McBride was. On one occasion he brought in Mr. McBride’s back room, where there was one bed, a man who had been in a fight, and was stabbed in the back just below the right shoulder blade. Dr. Stith was a good physician, but a poor surgeon. The sight of blood made him sick at the stomach, so he said. I had seen, on the farm, one of the negroes trim up little boar pigs and spay the little sow pigs and sew them up with a crooked needle, and heard all the squealing and fuss that was made during the operation. So the 88 TRIBUTES TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER sight of a man with a little hole in his back did not make me sick at the stomach. So I volunteered to sew up the wound in the man’s back. The doctor was glad to get rid of the job, so he told me what to do and how to do abs He dissolved some corrosive sublimate in a bowl of water and had me wash the needles and silk thread in it. I also wet my hands in the water, and I sewed up the cut in the man’s back and the man got well. This one act was the turning point in my life.