Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 21.pdf/422

 A Picturesque Missouri Lawyer speaker gave no heed but went ham mering steadily on, unwound his black bandage and cast it away, still thunder ing; presently discarded the bobtailed coat and flung it aside, firing up the higher and higher all the time, fiercely flinging the vest after the coat, and then for an untimed period stood there, like another Vesuvius, spouting flame and smoke and lava ashes, raining pumice stone and cinders, shaking the moral earth with intellectual crash upon crash, explosion upon explosion, until the mad multitude stood upon their feet in a solid body, answering back with a cease less hurricane of cheers, through a crash ing snow storm of waving handker chiefs." According to former Judge Claggett of Keokuk, who was Mark Twain's authority for his description:— "When Dean came the people thought he was an escaped lunatic, but when he went away they thought he was an escaped archangel." Dr. Hiram W. Thomas, of the People's Church of Chicago, and of international fame, told the following story of Dean:— Dean was a circuit rider in the old days and while circuit riding in the wilds of West Virginia (then Virginia) he rode up to the door of a cabin and called for the inmates. A lone woman appeared. Said Dean, "Madam, did you ever hear me holler?" The woman had not had that pleasure. "Wait a minute," said Dean; and then shouted "Jerusalem," once, twice, so that it could be heard a mile. The woman rushed into the house, shut the door, and thought him an escaped lunatic. Shortly afterwards the man of the house arrived, heard of the occurrence, recog nized Dean and, overtaking him, took him back and entertained him royally. Dean knew how to "holler," and to utilize it on the public platform. In a

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lecture at Des Moines, before the Library Association, about 1862, he read from Acts, chapter 25, verse 27, "For it seemeth to me unreasonable to send a prisoner," etc. There was a large audi ence in the Methodist Church and Dean was in his element. He read the pas sage and caught on the word, "Unrea sonable." It was a yell. It filled the church and went out into the streets through doors and windows; repeated, there was nothing else to hear, all was dead silence. Then in a voice hardly above a whisper, he said, "Yet John C. Fremont, commander of the forces in Missouri, did"—so and so. At another time he preached in Fair field, Iowa, declares Dr. Shaffer of Keo kuk, on the immortality of the soul. He was invited there to oppose the soul sleepers, so-called at that time. "The old brimstone church was crowded to the doors, for all the people recognized the ability of Dean. He car ried with him a Bible which Uncle Alex ander Fulton gave him, and had the pages turned down that he wanted to use. His text was from the tragic death of Rachel: Genesis xxv, 'and it came to pass as her soul was departing (for she died)', verse 18. Rev. Dean impersonated for the moment the rich man in hell. Dives called on Abraham. So did Dean. He yelled 'Abraham,' once, twice, thrice, so that it might have been heard a mile away. And no one has yet answered or come to controvert any argument as to immortality that Mr. Dean presented." "He used no notes," declares Mark Twain, "for a volcano needs no notes." Another story which Dr. Shaffer tells of Dean and his religious tendencies is as follows:— "Dean was a Methodist, and abomi nated Calvin. On one occasion he spoke of a man who was bewailing the way God governed the world. This man