Damnation of Theron Ware

Harold Frederic

Description

Although it languished in relative obscurity for several decades, the novel The Damnation of Theron Ware has recently experienced a revival in popularity as it has been identified as one of the earliest examples of realism in American fiction. An idealistic young minister finds himself facing a profound crisis of faith, and he succumbs to a series of temptations. Can he put things right before it's too late?

Informations

• Publié par: The Floating Press
• Date de parution: 01 mai 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781776587315
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE DAMNATION OF THERON WARE
OR, ILLUMINATION
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HAROLD FREDERIC
 
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The Damnation of Theron Ware Or, Illumination First published in 1896 Epub ISBN 978-1-77658-731-5 Also available: PDF ISBN 978-1-77658-732-2 © 2014 The Floating Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike. Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
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PART I Chapter I Chapter II Chapter III Chapter IV Chapter V Chapter VI Chapter VII Chapter VIII Chapter IX Chapter X PART II Chapter XI Chapter XII Chapter XIII Chapter XIV Chapter XV Chapter XVI Chapter XVII PART III Chapter XVIII Chapter XIX Chapter XX Chapter XXI Chapter XXII Chapter XXIII Chapter XXIV PART IV Chapter XXV Chapter XXVI Chapter XXVII Chapter XXVIII Chapter XXIX Chapter XXX Chapter XXXI Chapter XXXII
PART I
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Chapter I
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No such throng had ever before been seen in the building during all itseight years of existence. People were wedged together most uncomfortablyupon the seats; they stood packed in the aisles and overflowed thegalleries; at the back, in the shadows underneath these galleries, theyformed broad, dense masses about the doors, through which it would behopeless to attempt a passage.
The light, given out from numerous tin-lined circles of flaring gas-jetsarranged on the ceiling, fell full upon a thousand uplifted faces—someframed in bonnets or juvenile curls, others bearded or crowned withshining baldness—but all alike under the spell of a dominant emotionwhich held features in abstracted suspense and focussed every eye upon acommon objective point.
The excitement of expectancy reigned upon each row of countenances, wasvisible in every attitude—nay, seemed a part of the close, overheatedatmosphere itself.
An observer, looking over these compact lines of faces and noting theuniform concentration of eagerness they exhibited, might have guessedthat they were watching for either the jury's verdict in some peculiarlyabsorbing criminal trial, or the announcement of the lucky numbers ina great lottery. These two expressions seemed to alternate, and even tomingle vaguely, upon the upturned lineaments of the waiting throng—thehope of some unnamed stroke of fortune and the dread of some adversedecree.
But a glance forward at the object of this universal gaze would havesufficed to shatter both hypotheses. Here was neither a court of justicenor a tombola. It was instead the closing session of the annual NedahmaConference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Bishop was aboutto read out the list of ministerial appointments for the coming year.This list was evidently written in a hand strange to him, and the slow,near-sighted old gentleman, having at last sufficiently rubbed theglasses of his spectacles, and then adjusted them over his nosewith annoying deliberation, was now silently rehearsing his task tohimself—the while the clergymen round about ground their teeth andrestlessly shuffled their feet in impatience.
Upon a closer inspection of the assemblage, there were a great manyof these clergymen. A dozen or more dignified, and for the most partelderly, brethren sat grouped about the Bishop in the pulpit. As manyothers, not quite so staid in mien, and indeed with here and therealmost a suggestion of frivolity in their postures, were seated on thesteps leading down from this platform. A score of their fellows satfacing the audience, on chairs tightly wedged into the space railed offround the pulpit; and then came five or six rows of pews, stretchingacross the whole breadth of the church, and almost solidly filled withpreachers of the Word.
There were very old men among these—bent and decrepit veterans whohad known Lorenzo Dow, and had been ordained by elders who rememberedFrancis Asbury and even Whitefield. They sat now in front places,leaning forward with trembling and misshapen hands behind their hairyears, waiting to hear their names read out on the superannuated list, itmight be for the last time.
The sight of these venerable Fathers in Israel was good to the eyes,conjuring up, as it did, pictures of a time when a plain and homelypeople had been served by a fervent and devoted clergy—by preacherswho lacked in learning and polish, no doubt, but who gave their liveswithout dream of earthly reward to poverty and to the danger and wearingtoil of itinerant missions through the rude frontier settlements. Thesepictures had for their primitive accessories log-huts, rough householdimplements, coarse clothes, and patched old saddles which told of wearyyears of journeying; but to even the least sympathetic vision thereshone upon them the glorified light of the Cross and Crown. Reverendsurvivors of the heroic times, their very presence there—sittingmeekly at the altar-rail to hear again the published record of theiruselessness and of their dependence upon church charity—was in thenature of a benediction.
The large majority of those surrounding these patriarchs weremiddle-aged men, generally of a robust type, with burly shoulders, andbushing beards framing shaven upper lips, and who looked for the mostpart like honest and prosperous farmers attired in their Sunday clothes.As exceptions to this rule, there were scattered stray specimens ofa more urban class, worthies with neatly trimmed whiskers, whiteneckcloths, and even indications of hair-oil—all eloquent of citifiedcharges; and now and again the eye singled out a striking and scholarlyface, at once strong and simple, and instinctively referred it to thefaculty of one of the several theological seminaries belonging to theConference.
The effect of these faces as a whole was toward goodness, candor,and imperturbable self-complacency rather than learning or mentalastuteness; and curiously enough it wore its pleasantest aspect onthe countenances of the older men. The impress of zeal and moral worthseemed to diminish by regular gradations as one passed to younger faces;and among the very beginners, who had been ordained only within the pastday or two, this decline was peculiarly marked. It was almost a reliefto note the relative smallness of their number, so plainly was it to beseen that they were not the men their forbears had been.
And if those aged, worn-out preachers facing the pulpit had gazedinstead backward over the congregation, it may be that here too theirold eyes would have detected a difference—what at least they would havedeemed a decline.
But nothing was further from the minds of the members of the First M. E.Church of Tecumseh than the suggestion that they were not an improvementon those who had gone before them. They were undoubtedly the smartestand most important congregation within the limits of the NedahmaConference, and this new church edifice of theirs represented alikea scale of outlay and a standard of progressive taste in devotionalarchitecture unique in the Methodism of that whole section of the State.They had a right to be proud of themselves, too. They belonged to thesubstantial order of the community, with perhaps not so many very richmen as the Presbyterians had, but on the other hand with far fewerextremely poor folk than the Baptists were encumbered with. The pewsin the first four rows of their church rented for one hundred dollarsapiece—quite up to the Presbyterian highwater mark—and they now hadalmost abolished free pews altogether. The oyster suppers given by theirLadies' Aid Society in the basement of the church during the winterhad established rank among the fashionable events in Tecumseh's socialcalendar.
A comprehensive and satisfied perception of these advantages wasuppermost in the minds of this local audience, as they waited for theBishop to begin his reading. They had entertained this Bishop and hisPresiding Elders, and the rank and file of common preachers, in a stylewhich could not have been remotely approached by any other congregationin the Conference. Where else, one would like to know, could theBishop have been domiciled in a Methodist house where he might have asitting-room all to himself, with his bedroom leading out of it? Everyclergyman present had been provided for in a private residence—evendown to the Licensed Exhorters, who were not really ministers at allwhen you came to think of it, and who might well thank their starsthat the Conference had assembled among such open-handed people. Thereexisted a dim feeling that these Licensed Exhorters—an uncouth crew,with country store-keepers and lumbermen and even a horse-doctor amongtheir number—had taken rather too much for granted, and were notexhibiting quite the proper degree of gratitude over their reception.
But a more important issue hung now imminent in the balance—wasTecumseh to be fairly and honorably rewarded for her hospitality bybeing given the pastor of her choice?
All were agreed—at least among those who paid pew-rents—upon the greatimportance of a change in the pulpit of the First M. E. Church. A changein persons must of course take place, for their present pastor hadexhausted the three-year maximum of the itinerant system, but there wasneeded much more than that. For a handsome and expensive church buildinglike this, and with such a modern and go-ahead congregation, it wassimply a vital necessity to secure an attractive and fashionablepreacher. They had held their own against the Presbyterians these pastfew years only by the most strenuous efforts, and under the depressingdisadvantage of a minister who preached dreary out-of-date sermons, andwho lacked even the most rudimentary sense of social distinctions