Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 June 1891 — The Wheelbarrow Test. [ARTICLE]

The Wheelbarrow Test.

Three or four of us on the car were talking about Gen. Sherman’s death, and; as might have been expected, one of the group modestly admitted that he was with the lamented General on his famous march to the sea. There was a woman in the seat ahpad, surrounded by bundles and baskets, and evidently going somewhere on a visit. The war talk soon stirred her up, and she turned to the veteran and queried: “Were you right in a battle?” “Yes’m.” “Dead men all around?” “Yes’ni.” “Wounded crying for water?’ ££ tt f n ° V 9 “Yes m. “Bombshells and cannon balls falling around you like hail?” “Yes’m.” “And you didn’t run?” “No’m, I should hope not,’ ’lie modestly replied. “Stood right thar and never got scart, eh?” “Yes’m.” “Well, now, I don’t believe it!” she bluntly exclaimed. “It ain’t human natur’. It ain’t accordin’ to things.” “I hope you don’t doubt my word, madam ’ •

‘‘Yes, I do,” she sharply replied. “I don’t believe you have got any more nerve than my Sam has, and Sam can’t stand the test.” t “Then you have a test?” , “Yes, T have. You jest get off at Scottdale. where I am going to stop. There’ll be a wheelbarrow somewhere around there, and you just stand off about thirty feet and let me bear down on you with it. If you don’t jump or dodge or climb a telegraph pole, I’ll give, in that you are the bravest man I ever saw! ’ “I—l'm afraid I haven't time to stop off,” he stammered. “I knew you wouldn’t have,” she dryly replied. “They never do. They talk about bombshells and dead men and slaughter pens, and they make out that they charged up to the roaring cannon; but the minute I talk wheelbarrow they knuckle. You needn’t say ho more. You’ve wilted.” And he hadn’t another word to utter.

Perhaps there is no more heresy in the orthodox pulpit than there was in uformer years, but there is a greater activity in hunting it down and trials are pending on all sides which will doubtless result in driving some of the brightest and most earnest men in all the ministry to pulpits where they can express their; convictions. The times are changing, and the clergy of the day, from the most celebrated to the most obscure, feel the force of the current ot modern thought to a greater or less degree.