of salvation,' and then from every corner of the building arose in reply, short sharp cries of 'Amen! Glory! Amen!' while the prostrate penitents continued to receive whispered comfortings, and from time to time a mystic caress. More than once I saw a young neck encircled by a reverend arm. Violent hysterics and convulsions seized many of them, and when the tumult was at the highest, the priest who remained above gave out a hymn as if to drown it.

"It was a frightful sight to behold innocent young creatures, in the gay morning of existence, thus seized upon, horror struck, and rendered feeble and enervated forever. One young girl, apparently not more than fourteen, was supported in the arms of another some years older; her face was pale as death; her eyes wide open, and perfectly devoid of meaning; her chin and bosom wet with slaver; she had every appearance of idiotism. I saw a priest approach her, he took her delicate hand. 'Jesus is with her! Bless the Lord!' he said, and passed on.

"Did the men of America value their women as men ought to value their wives and daughters, would such scenes be permitted among them?

"It is hardly necessary to say, that all who obeyed the call to themselves on the anxious benches' were women, and by far the greater number, very young women. The congregation was, in general, extremely well dressed, and the smartest and most fashionable ladies of the town were there; during the whole revival the churches and meeting houses were every day crowded with well dressed people.

"It is thus the ladies of Cincinnati amuse themselves; to attend the theater is forbidden; to play cards is unlawful; but they work hard in their families, and must have some relaxation. For myself, I confess that I think the coarsest comedy ever written would be a less destestable exhibition for the eyes of youth and innocence than such a

* Trollope, Mrs. Domestic Manners of the Americans, I., 111-118.

Very conflicting reports had come to Mrs. Trollope concerning the camp meetings. Some people had told her that being at a camp meeting was like standing at the gates of heaven and seeing them thrown open, while others had declared that it was like finding oneself within the gates of hell; hence she determined to investigate for herself. Her conclusion was not the former. After the investigation, she penned the following vivid picture of private devotions in a tent :

"Out of about thirty person thus placed, perhaps half a dozen were men. One of these, a handsome-looking youth of eighteen or twenty, kneeled just below the opening through which I looked. His arm was encircling the neck of a young girl who knelt beside him, with her hair hanging dishevelled upon her shoulders, and her features working with the most violent agitation; soon after they both fell forward on the straw, as if unable to endure in any other attitude, the burning eloquence of a tall grim figure in black, who, standing erect in the center, was uttering with incredible vehemence an oration that seemed to hover between praying and preaching; his arms hung stiff and immovable by his side, and he looked like an ill constructed machine, set in action by a movement so violent, as to threaten its own destruction, so jerkingly, painfully, yet rapidly, did his words tumble out; the kneeling circle ceased not to call, in every variety of tone, on the name of Jesus; accompanied with sobs, groans, and a sort of low howling, inexpressibly painful to listen to. But my attention was speedily withdrawn from the preacher, and the circle round him, by a figure which knelt alone at some distance; it was a living image of Scott's Macbriar, as young, as wild, and as terrible. His thin arms tossed above his head, had forced themselves so far out of the sleeves, that they were bare to the elbow; his large

eyes glared frightfully, and he continued to scream without an instant's intermission the word 'Glory' with a violence that seemed to swell every vein to bursting. It was too dreadful to look upon long, and we turned away shuddering."

After describing a tent meeting of the negroes, our religious critic turned her attention to the general gathering, a scene which she described as the pen at midnight. She said:

"Many of these wretched creatures were beautiful young females. The preachers moved among them, at once exciting and soothing their agonies. I heard the muttered 'Sister, dear sister!' I saw the insidious lips approach the cheeks of the unhappy girls; I heard the murmured confessions of the poor victims, and I watched their tormentors, breathing into their ears, consolations that tinged the pale cheeks with red. Had I been a man, I am sure I should have been guilty of some rash act of interference; nor do I believe that such a scene could have been acted in the presence of Englishmen without instant punishment being inflicted; not to mention the salutary discipline of the treadmill, which, beyond all question, would in England have been applied to check so turbulent and vicious a scene. 33

Mrs. Trollope next remarked that at breakfast time she recognized many a fair but pale face, which she knew was a demoniac of the night before, now simpering beside some swain, for whom the erstwhile enthusiast carefully provided hot coffee and eggs. The writer ironically continued: "We soon after left the ground; but before our depart

2 Trollope, Mrs. Domestic Manners of the Americans, I., 235-287. 88 Ibid., I., 241, 242.

ure we learnt that a very satisfactory collection had been made by the preachers, for Bibles, Tracts and all other religious purposes. 9984

The same author referred to the prayer-meetings, which, she said, outsiders would regard as parties. The meetings, according to her, were solemnized by the best rooms, the best dresses, and the choicest refreshments. She declared that there was a very close resemblance between the feelings of Presbyterian and Methodist ladies who were fortunate enough to secure a favorite itinerant and those of a "London Blue" who was equally blest with the presence of a fashionable poet. Her description of one of these cottage prayer gatherings is particularly good, though rather figurative:

35

"We were received with great attention, and a place was assigned us on one of the benches that surrounded the little parlor. Several persons, looking like mechanics and their wives, were present; every one sat in profound silence, and with that quiet subdued air that serious people assume on entering a church. At length, a long, black, grimlooking man entered; his dress, the cut of his hair, and his whole appearance, strongly recalled the idea of one of Cromwell's fanatics. He stepped solemnly into the middle of the room, and took a chair that stood there, but not to sit upon it; he turned the back towards him, on which he placed his hands, and stoutly uttering a sound between a hem and a cough, he deposited freely on either side of him a considerable portion of masticated tobacco. He then began to preach. His text was 'Live in hope,' and he continued to expound it for two hours in a drawling, nasal tone, with no

34 Trollope, Mrs. Domestic Manners of the Americans, I., 244, 245. 85 Ibid., I., 105, 106.

other respite than what he allowed himself for expectoration. If I say that he uttered the words of his text a hundred times, I shall not exceed the truth, for that allows more than a minute for each repetition, and in fact the whole discourse was made up of it. The various tones in which he uttered it might have served as a lesson on emphasis; as a question-in accents of triumph-in accents of despair-of pity of threatening-of authority of doubt-of hope-of faith. Having exhausted every imaginable variety of tone, he abruptly said, 'Let us pray,' and twisting his chair round, knelt before it. Every one knelt before the seat they had occupied, and listened for another half hour to a rant of miserable, low, familiar jargon, that he presumed to improvise to his Maker as a prayer. In this, however, the cottage apostle only followed the example set by every preacher throughout the Union, excepting those of the Episcopalian and Catholic congregations; they only do not deem themselves privileged to address the Deity in strains of crude and unweighed importunity. These ranters may sometimes be very much in earnest, but surely the least we can say of it is that they 'Praise their God amiss.'' 36

Conditions, of course, were better in the older states. Depravity and crime, it is true, were still too common all over the Union in 1830, but in most communities religion then ranked second to getting a living in importance. The Congregational Church was not disestablished in Massachusetts until 1835, and a rather severe type of piety was yet common in all of New England. Sunday was indeed a period of carousal and cockfighting to certain elements, but to most respectable people it was a serious day, observed by a morning and an afternoon

36 Trollope, Mrs. Domestic Manners of the Americans, I., 176-178.