tornado had literally crushed the brick into small fragments and wrecked everything about the place, which was strewn with the fragments and splinters, and the tires of the wagon wheels were twisted as if some strong machine had twisted them round and about. My man was there alone, the mother and family were sheltered in another home beyond the line of the storm, which, by the way, was hardly more than half a mile wide anywhere.

"You were not hurt then," I said, "or the wife and children? " "No," he answered very "he quietly, as one still in the shadow of a great awe, " and I will tell you why. When we came here, the Indians used to tell about these tornadoes; and we have had bad storms, but nothing like this before. And I would think the thing over and wonder what we should do if one came along. Well, it came to me sudden, one day, what to do. You see that sort o' cave in the rise near by? That was the idee that came to me. We would dig in there and make a root house with a good strong door. Then, if the [something I will not spell] did not jump on us too sudden, we would rush in there and shet the door. Well, things began to look skeery, sir, in the week before that Sunday afternoon, up above, and it

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was stifling on the prairie, so I began to look out for squalls. I had told my woman' how I felt, and warned her to be ready with the children if the thing should come along. Well, about three o'clock I was setting on that hump a-watching, and all to once I see her away out yonder, comin' whirlin' head on, black and angry, and I ran and shouted, Ma, here she comes !' She was ready with the children. There was no time to spare. We rushed for the root house and shet the door. She could not hurt the rise and slid past the door. First there was a roar, and then it was still, and then another roar; but we were safe in the root house, and, when we came out, things were what you

They tell of an Englishman, who came over sea to see how we fared, and, coming to Chicago, exclaimed, "Well, she beats her own brag!" And that is true, for the double reason, first, of her marvellous growth, and then because she brags no more. Forty-five years ago in this week when I came there, she was lifting herself out of the mud, where the need was, seven feet, the buildings, as I have said, with jack-screws worked by the might of Irish labor

houses, banks, stores, and hotels - while the inmates

stayed about their business just the same, and the spaces in the streets were brought up to the new level. The population in 1860 was one hundred and nine thousand, and she was alive to the tips of her fingers and the core of her heart and brain. I had lived in the country all my life, and when I came there was thirty-six years of age. The life in a city was a new life, and I caught something of the strong inspiration. The rune runs, "God made the country, and man made the town." The rune is not true. Every great city hath foundations whose builder and maker is God. We come to the strong and vital cities to find ourselves: this was what befell me in going to Chicago. There was a challenge in the strong and headstrong life I must answer. Evil, yes, but good also to match, and more than match. And well the fine old Scotchman says:

"Evil is here that we may make it good,

Else had good men on earth scant work to do. What would you have? In Paradise, no doubt, Weeds grandly grew, and Adam plucked them out.”

How good the years have been as I look backward now, and none more full of pure satisfaction than those twenty years in the mighty

young city! I wist not what lay before us of sorrow and joy, loss and gain. I thank God for that, as I sit here in the silence, sure in my soul that through all the mishaps, the mistakes, and the failures more than I can number, 66 He has led me all my life long." Of these years I shall try to tell the story as the memories touch me,― of the new-born church in the great conflict for the solidarity of the republic and the extinction of slavery, her steadfast continuance in well-doing and then in the great conflagration, when the church and the homes were destroyed, to be rebuilt again and established. Of these things I should have told the story already, but have been allured to linger, it may be to small purpose; but I did want to tell you how I came to be the minister of Unity Church through the wide door and the warm and strong welcome.

XVI

I was lured away last week from the true sequence of these memories of the time when the telegram told us in Chicago of the shot fired on Fort Sumter which was also heard round the world—and of the answer our lusty and loyal young city made to the challenge. The news came there on the Sunday morning. The answer was given in that week, when our city spake, and on the next Sunday by the loyal churches and their ministers; and you would not have doubted for a moment where our own church stood when you went indoors that morning. You could not see the pulpit: it was wrapped about in a great flag, and there was another behind the minister. The organ at the other end was also hung all about, while others hung from the iron rods set under the ceiling to hold the frame well together. I did not like those rods at all, and had branded them in my mind as an instance of some Dutch deformed style of architecture; but now they looked beautiful to me because of the ban

ners.