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DETAILED CONTENTS
List of Cases...............................................................................................xv
Preface to the Fourth Edition....................................................................xvii
vii
Chapter 8. Elasticities......................................................................125
8.1 Introduction............................................................125
8.2 Elasticities................................................................126
8.3 Income Elasticities...................................................127
8.4 Price Elasticities of Demand.....................................127
8.5 Other Elasticities......................................................130
8.6 Using Elasticities......................................................130
8.7 Conclusion...............................................................132
Exercises........................................................................133
References......................................................................134
Chapter 9. Forecasting....................................................................137
9.1 Introduction............................................................137
9.2 What Is a Sales Forecast?..........................................138
9.3 Forecasting..............................................................140
9.4 What Matters?..........................................................145
9.5 Conclusion...............................................................148
Exercises .......................................................................149
References......................................................................152
xv
xvii
Instructor Resources
Key Concepts
Economics provides a map for decision making. Maps do two things. They
highlight key features and suppress unimportant features. To drive from Des
Moines, Iowa, to Dallas, Texas, you need to know how the major highways
connect. You do not want to know the name and location of each street in
each town you pass through. Of course, what is important and what is unim-
portant depend on the task at hand. If you want to drive from West 116th
Street and Ridgeview Road in Olathe, Kansas, to the Truman homestead in
Independence, Missouri, a map that describes only the interstate highway
system will be of limited value to you. You need to know which map is the
right tool for your situation.
Using a map takes knowledge and skill. You need to know what infor-
mation you need, or you may choose the wrong map and be swamped in
extraneous data or lost without key facts. Having the right map is no guar-
antee that you can use it, however. You need to practice to be able to use a
map quickly and effectively.
1.3.2 Insurance
Because risk and uncertainty are inherent in healthcare, most consumers
have health insurance, and healthcare organizations have to contend with
the management problems insurance presents. First, insurance creates confu-
sion about who the customer is. Customers use the products, but insurance
plans often pay most of the bill. Moreover, most people with private medi-
cal insurance receive coverage through their employer (in large part because
the tax system makes this arrangement advantageous). Although economists
generally agree that employees ultimately pay for insurance via wage reduc-
tions, most employees do not know the costs of their insurance alternatives
(and unless they are changing jobs, they have limited interest in finding out).
As a result of this situation, employees remain unaware of the true costs of
care and are not eager to balance cost and value. If insurance is footing the
bill, most patients choose the best, most expensive treatment—a choice they
might not make if they were paying the full cost.
In addition, insurance makes even simple transactions complex. Most
transactions involve at least three parties (the patient, the insurer, and the
provider), and many involve more. To add to the confusion, most providers
deal with a wide array of insurance plans and face blizzards of disparate claim
forms and payment systems. Increasing numbers of insurance plans have
negotiated individual payment systems and rates, so many healthcare provid-
ers look wistfully at industries that simply bill customers to obtain revenues.
The complexity of insurance transactions also increases opportunity for error
and fraud. In fact, both are fairly common.
Why is the healthcare system of the United States in such turmoil? One expla-
nation is common to the entire developed world: rapid technical change. The
pace of medical research and development is breathtaking, and the public’s
desire for better therapies is manifest. These demands challenge healthcare
managers to regularly lead their organizations into unmapped territory. To
make matters worse, changes in technology or changes in insurance can
quickly affect healthcare markets. In healthcare, as in every other sector of
the economy, new technologies can create winners and losers. For example,
between 2000 and 2007, Medicare payments to ambulatory surgery centers
more than doubled. Medicare changed its policy, and growth slowed down
(Medicare Payment Advisory Commission 2018). What appears profitable
today may not be profitable tomorrow if technology, competition, rates, or
regulations change significantly.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has resulted in a wave of innovations
by providers, insurers, employers, and governments. (See chapter 6 for more
detail.) Which of these innovations will succeed is not clear. In addition,
some healthcare organizations will thrive in the environment of the ACA,
FOOTNOTES:
[2] This was, alas! too true—and true of a very large portion of
country that I have visited, where the great majority of the
preachers were uneducated.
[3] At the time of his death this property would have sold for
nearly or quite a quarter of a million dollars. The plantation alone
was sold under the hammer for ninety-five thousand dollars.
CHAPTER XIV.
OLD-TIME ILLITERATE PREACHERS IN THE BRUSH.
I have very often thought that the best work that could possibly be
prepared in favor of an educated ministry, would be to send
stenographers through those States where the census reveals the
greatest amount of ignorance, to make verbatim reports of sermons
that are actually preached, and publish them in a volume. Such a
book would be the most remarkable exhibition of ignorance ever
printed. Any one who has not traveled extensively will be astonished
to learn of the great number of altogether unlearned and ignorant
preachers who minister regularly to large congregations. I have
found that the deeper I got into the Brush, and the denser the
ignorance of the people, the greater was the number of preachers. I
have seen a surprisingly large number of people who knew very little
of the world, and a great deal less of books, to whom the honors of a
preacher were very attractive. I say "honors," for the emoluments
were so small that they had very little weight in the matter. I have
known them to urge their own claims, and "electioneer" with others
for years, and with the greatest pertinacity, in order to secure
licensure and ordination. Some of them could not read at all, and
many could read a verse or chapter only with the greatest difficulty,
and miscalled a large number of the longer words.
I penetrated a wild region among the hills, and my own observations
and the explorations that I caused to be made secured for it the
undoubted and undesirable preëminence of being the banner county
for ignorance and destitution of the Bible of all those that I visited. In
some manner that I do not now remember, on my first visit I was
directed to call upon one of the preachers of the county, who would
coöperate with me in making arrangements to have it canvassed and
supplied with the Bible. I found his house among the hills in the midst
of a vast, dense forest, surrounded by a small clearing or
"dead'ning," which was planted with corn and tobacco. He was rather
a short, thick-set man, with a powerful, muscular frame, and very
quick and active in his movements. On riding up and introducing
myself, he gave me a very cordial welcome to his home. It was a log-
house, rather larger and higher than was usual in the region; but it
was without chambers, and from floor to roof all was a single room.
His family, including wife, mother-in-law, and children, numbered an
even dozen. I spent the night with them, partaking of such food,
using such knife, fork, and dishes, and occupying, with others, such
a bed as I can not well describe, and I am sure my readers will not
be able to imagine. But I had by this time become so accustomed to
this kind of life in the Brush, that, if not pleasant and agreeable to
me, it was at least not strange. Not long before, in a similarly wild
region, in an adjoining county, I had slept in a much smaller cabin
with one room, where the man and his wife and mother-in-law and
four children, with another visitor besides myself, occupied three
beds. I shared one of them, upon a very narrow bedstead, with the
visitor, a neighbor who had called in for a social visit, as rough and
tough-looking a long-haired backwoodsman as one often meets,
dressed in butternut; and a "chunk of a boy," as his father called him,
about a dozen years old, who was placed in the bed between us,
with his head at our feet, and ex necessitate his feet not far from my
head. It is a kind of lodging that can be endured for a night, as I
know from positive experience. But I am not prepared to recommend
it.
When I arrived at this house, which was about dinner-time, I found
the children parching corn in a spider. The father was absent, and it
was necessary for me to remain until he returned. The mother made
no movements toward getting dinner, and said nothing about it,
which was a very unusual thing in my experience. At length the
children brought to me some of the corn, which was parched brown,
but not popped. I had by this time become satisfied that this was to
be their only dinner, and ate some of it with them. The father
returned in a few hours, and urged me to spend the night with them,
which in the circumstances I was glad to do; I could easily have gone
farther and fared worse. He soon took a bag and went through the
woods a mile or two to a neighbor's, and returned with some corn-
meal and a piece of bacon. The entirely empty larder being thus
replenished, a meal was soon cooked, and I sat down to what was to
me both a dinner and supper of corn-dodger and fried bacon. I called
upon some of the families in this neighborhood, and some months
after met one of the young ladies at the county-seat. In talking with
her in regard to this visit, I said:
"I was told that a number of the young women in your neighborhood
can not read."
"Oh!" said she, "there are but two there that can read."
And yet I was told that there were two or three resident preachers
there, but I had not time to call upon them. As the kind of food and
lodging that I have described were so common to me, the chief
"variety" that was the "spice" of my itinerant "life" was in the varied
characters that I met. And I rarely found this "spice" of intenser flavor
than in my own profession, among some of the preachers that I
found in the Brush. The one that I had sought out, and with whose
family I had spent the night, was one of the most remarkable of his
type with whom I became acquainted.
In the morning he mounted his horse and rode with me to visit and
confer with several of the leading citizens of the county in regard to
its exploration, and to spend the following day, which was the
Sabbath, in visiting two different and distant congregations, for the
purpose of presenting the matter to them, and "lifting collections" in
its aid. We rode several miles through the woods, only occasionally
passing a small cabin and clearing, and made our first call at a log-
house, where my clerical friend and guide was evidently a very great
favorite. Here we were urged to have our horses put in the stable,
and remain to dinner. We assented to this, and arrangements were
at once made for convening a Bible committee, at a house in the
neighborhood, that afternoon, and for religious services in the house
at which we had stopped to dine that night. The husband and
children at once started out to circulate these notices, and the wife
began her preparations for our dinner. She was apparently about
thirty years old, above the medium size, in a region of country where
the most of the women were very large, with a bright, pleasant face,
a cheerful, happy disposition, and very cordial and enthusiastic
manners. The log-house, though not of the best, was decidedly of
the better class; and our dinner, both in its quality and the manner in
which it was served, was a great improvement upon my breakfast,
and the supper the night before. It was a happy group. Conversation
was cheerful and animated, and geniality and joy glowed in all faces
and pervaded all hearts. Some time after dinner I started with my
clerical friend on foot through the woods to meet the Bible
committee. After a pleasant interchange of views, we appointed a
colporteur to canvass the county, and adjourned. At once we
received earnest invitations from different ones to go home with
them to supper. They were unwilling that the family upon which we
had first called should monopolize the pleasure and honor of
entertaining us. I left my clerical friend to settle this matter, and we
went a mile or two in another direction, where we were hospitably
entertained at supper. We then returned to the house where we had
dined, and it was soon filled with people, who had assembled upon
this brief notice. It was arranged that instead of a sermon a chapter
should be read, and each of us should occupy a portion of the time
in brief addresses. My friend read the chapter. I was astonished. I
had never heard the like at any public religious service. Many of the
words were mispronounced and entirely miscalled, and it would have
been difficult to understand what was meant, from his reading of the
passage. But both his reading and remarks were very well received,
and I saw no one who seemed to notice that there was anything out
of the way with either. I followed him with some remarks, and the
meeting seemed to be greatly enjoyed by all. Then began a very
spirited contest as to where we should go and spend the night.
There were many claimants for the honor.
"You must go home with me," said one.
"No," said another, "you had Brother A—— when he was here, and
you can't have these preachers. They must go with me."
"No," said still another, "you've had the preachers a heap of times
since I have. I hain't had nary one in a long time, and they must go
hum and stay with me."
For myself, wearied as I was with the varied labors of the day, I
should have greatly preferred remaining with the family where I was.
But I left the matter for them to decide, and we soon started out, and
taking a footpath through the underbrush, among the large forest-
trees, we went in the darkness a mile or two, to an entirely new
cabin. The logs had been peeled, and it looked very clean and nice.
A large fire was soon blazing upon a hearth made of fresh earth, and
roaring up a chimney made of split sticks covered with mud. It was
the home of a young couple, who had but recently married and
commenced housekeeping. There were two beds in the room. We
sat before the bright fire and talked for some time, until I told them
how weary I was, and they pointed out the bed which the preacher
and I were to occupy. The room was new and bright, and the sense
of cleanliness was most grateful to my feelings. I thought that in that
new house I should enjoy that rare luxury in the cabins in the Brush,
a nice, untenanted bed and a pleasant sleep. As I turned down the
blankets and moved my pillow to adjust it, I saw what I at first
thought was a drop of molasses dried on the sheet. I impulsively
moved my finger toward the spot to ascertain what it was, and it ran!
My pleasant dreams were all banished, and I plunged in, in
desperation, to share my bed with such company as for months and
years I had found in so many of the log-houses in the Brush. The
mild climate and the habits of the people conspired to make the beds
quite too populous and repulsive to be described.
Though my meals were often such that only necessity compelled me
to partake of them, yet the want of beds fit to be occupied by a
human being, after my long, hard days' rides, was by far the greatest
of all my privations and trials in the Brush. If I were to describe all
that I have seen and endured in this matter, it would not only be very
unpleasant and repulsive reading, but would surpass belief with all
those not personally familiar with the country and the people
described.
After breakfast the next morning we walked back to the house where
we had first called and left our horses, and sat with the family until it
was time to leave for church. As we sat together, my clerical friend,
who was of an inquiring mind, turned to me and said, "How do you
preach the first seven verses of the twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes?"
I must here say that, in common with the great majority of his class,
he used the word "preach" in the sense of "explain." My friend the
Rev. Dr. S.H. Tyng, of New York, once told me that while preaching
in a Southern State, in the early part of his ministry, a preacher of
this class made him a visit. Seeing a pile of manuscripts upon his
study-table, he inquired what they were, and was told that they were
sermons.
"Why!" said he, in astonishment, "how many texts can you preach?"
These men were accustomed to "study" a passage in their manner,
and form some opinions in regard to its meaning, and then they
"preached" (explained) it on all occasions, with the most positive
assurance in regard to the correctness of their views. Hence, when
my friend asked me how I "preached" the passage alluded to, he
wished from me a full exposition. Taking a Bible from the mantel-
piece above the large fireplace, he turned to the chapter and read
the first verse, as he had read the night before, and said to me, "How
do you preach that?"
I gave my views of the passage in as few words as possible, and
then he proceeded at much greater length to tell how he "preached"
it.
As he concluded, the good sister, who had listened with face all
aglow with delight, exclaimed: "Ah! Brother P—— has studied that!"
In this manner he read, and we gave our views of each of the seven
verses.
His "preach" was in each case much longer than mine, and
invariably drew from the attentively listening sister the fervent
expression of rapt admiration and delight: "Ah! Brother P—— has
studied that!"
I am sorry that I can not tell my readers how he "preached" the entire
passage; but it was so utterly strange, and so entirely unlike anything
I had ever conceived of as possible to be said in explanation of this
or any other passage of Scripture, that I confess I was obliged to
exert myself to the utmost to maintain the gravity becoming my
position. If I had smiled, I should have given great offense to the
delighted sister, for no enthusiastic lady that I ever saw was more
proud of her pastor than she was of her preacher at that moment. So
earnest were my efforts to maintain my dignity, and not dishonor my
exalted position as an agent of the American Bible Society, that I
could not afterward recall his explanations but of two of the
passages. I will give but one of them: "'Or ever the silver cord be
loosed.' The doctors say that there is a cord that runs from the nape
of the neck, down the backbone, through the small of the back, into
the heart, right thar; and that when a man dies that cord always
snaps: that is the silver cord loosed."(!)
"Ah!" said the sister, her face radiant with delight, "Brother P—— has
studied that!"
I will only add that this is a fair illustration of his explanations of all
the other verses. If I might moralize upon this subject, I would repeat
the opening sentence of this chapter: "I have very often thought that
the best work that could possibly be prepared in favor of an
educated ministry, would be to send stenographers throughout the
Brush, to make verbatim reports of sermons that are actually
preached, and publish them in a volume." Soon after this exposition,
we mounted our horses and attended services at two different
appointments, Brother P—— preaching at one of them. About a year
after this I saw him regularly ordained to the full work of a minister of
the gospel.
There are books containing "plans" or "skeletons" of sermons, and
some clergymen are said to make free use of them in the
preparation of their sermons. I will give one which may aid some
limping preacher who needs such helps, and hereby offer it as a
contribution to the next volume of skeleton sermons that may be
compiled. The sermon was preached to quite a large congregation in
a grove, where I was present and occupied the "stand" with the
preacher. His text was Job xxvi, 14: "Lo, these are parts of his ways:
but how little a portion is heard of him? but the thunder of his power
who can understand?" After an introduction that was quite as
appropriate to any other verse in the Bible as to this, the preacher
said:
"In further discoursing upon this passage, I shall, in the first place,
review the chapter, and show what is meant by the word 'these.' I
shall, in the second place, mention some of the works of God. I shall,
in the third place, conclude, according to circumstances, light and
liberty being given."
I must say to my readers, in explanation of his "third place," that the
"plan" and effort in sermons, addresses to juries, political and all
other speeches in the Southwest, was to wind up with as grand and
stirring a conclusion as possible. Here the congregation was to be
deeply moved, the jury to be melted, and the crowd to demonstrate
by their applause how they would vote. These perorations often
reminded me of the manner in which the stage-coaches of the olden
time used to drive into my native village, in the days of my boyhood;
when the driver cracked his long whip, blew stirring blasts from his
tin horn, and his four horses rushed up to the village tavern on the
jump, his noisy demonstrations startling all the villagers. It was so
with these sermons and speeches. However lame and limping in
their progress, there was always, if possible, a rousing conclusion, a
demonstrative drive into town. Hence, my clerical friend did not wish
to embarrass himself by announcing definitely what he would say in
his conclusion; but left himself free to soar and roar "according to
circumstances, light and liberty being given." He went through with
his sermon according to his "plan," but his conclusion did not arouse
and move his audience like many that I have heard.
I have already spoken of the genial friend to whom I sold my faithful
horse, and of the accounts that he gave me of the preachers he had
known and the preaching he had heard. He told me that upon one
occasion he heard the funeral sermon of a child preached from the
text, "Write, Blessed are the dead," etc. The preacher was so
ignorant in regard to spelling that he supposed the "write" in the text
was "right," not wrong, and he endeavored to comfort the parents by
showing them that it was "right" that people should suffer affliction,
"right" that their children should sicken and die, and that all the
Lord's dealings with his people were "right."
On another occasion he attended a meeting where a number of
ministers were present, and the opening sermon was preached by
an old acquaintance and friend, who owned a good plantation, a
number of slaves, and for many years preached regularly on
alternate Sabbaths to two quite large congregations. There are many
thousands of people who rarely, if ever, hear a sermon from an
educated minister. These people have strong and well-defined
notions as to the kind of preaching that suits them. If the preacher
ranges extensively over the Bible, and quotes a great deal of
Scripture without any regard to its appropriateness or connection
with the text, they say of him approvingly: "He's a Scripter preacher.
He's not a larnt man, but he's a real Scripter preacher." Hence, many
of these preachers range over both the Old and New Testaments in
every sermon, and quote as much as they can, with as little
connection as a page in the dictionary.
The preacher on this occasion took for his text the words: "The name
of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it, and is
safe." He described these towers as places of safety, ranged through
the Old Testament, and, coming down to the New, said: "The world
was then in an awful condition; there were no towers, no places of
safety! The whole generation was without a tower! You may say:
'How do you know this is so? You haven't much learning. You haven't
read many histories.' Ah! but I've got Scripter for it. I don't want any
histories when I've got the Bible for it. Here it is. Peter, preaching to
them on the day of Pentecost, said, 'Save yourselves from this
untowered generation.'"
After the meeting "broke," and they mounted their horses to ride to
dinner, my old friend said to the preacher:
"Why, Brother Mansfield, you made a great mistake in your sermon
this morning."
"Mistake!" said he, "what was it, Brother Roach?"
"Why, that about the 'untowered generation.' It is not untowered,"
said he; "it is untoward. It is, 'Save yourselves from this untoward
generation.'"
The preacher dropped his head, thought a moment, and then said:
"There can't be any mistake about that. Why, I've preached it that
way more than a dozen times."
When they reached the house where they were to dine, they found a
dictionary, and that was appealed to to settle the matter. Alas, that
the verdict spoiled a favorite sermon!
I was about as much astonished at the facts I heard in regard to the
salaries that were paid to these preachers, with all the formalities of
a regular contract, as at anything I ever learned in regard to their
preaching. I once occupied the pulpit with one of them, in a church
which was a large, barn-like brick structure, having four doors, one
near each corner, for the ingress and egress of the congregation.
This preacher was a great favorite in the region, with both the white
and colored people, and was familiarly known as "Jimmy B——." He
had stentorian lungs, was wonderfully voluble, and his sing-song
"holy tone" was most delightful to his audience. It was a warm
summer day, and the house was packed with whites dressed in
butternut jeans, and groups of colored people were standing outside
near each open window. It was a monthly service, and all seemed to
enjoy it greatly.
In the afternoon, after the custom of the Southwest, he preached to
the "servants," and I again occupied a seat in the pulpit with him. His
colored audience was moved by his stentorian voice and avalanche
of words to the extremest excitement and joy. At the conclusion of
his sermon they could not separate without singing some of their
"breaking" songs, and all marching by the pulpit and shaking hands
with the preachers. This hand-shaking was one of the most marked
features of their religious services, and these "breaking" or parting
exercises have afforded me the opportunity of hearing the grandest,
wildest, most beautiful and genuine African melodies to which I have
ever listened. As I was a "visiting brother," I was entitled to as warm
and cordial a greeting as the one who had preached. The leader
commenced a hymn familiar to the large audience, and they began
to sing and move in procession by the low pulpit where we were
standing, shaking hands with each of us as they passed. As the long
procession filed by, their dark faces shining with delight, the music
arose louder, wilder, and more exciting, until they seemed entirely
unconscious of the strength of the grip they gave my poor, suffering
hand. I was unwilling to mar their joy by withdrawing it altogether,
and, to save it from being utterly crushed, I resorted to the expedient
of suddenly clutching the end of the fingers of each hand that was
extended to me by the excited and happy singers, and so they were
unable to give me their vise-like squeeze, and I escaped
comparatively unharmed. The hand-shaking ended, the meeting
"broke," and they all dispersed, masters and slaves highly delighted
with the preacher and all the services of the day.
My host upon this occasion was the hotel-keeper of the place. In
talking with him about the great popularity of this preacher, he said
that, if equally extended notice should be given that he would preach
there on one Sabbath, and the Rev. Dr. Young, the learned and
eloquent President of the college at Danville, would preach there on
another, Jimmy B—— would call together the largest audience. At
another place, when quite a number of persons were present,
reference was made to the salary that was received by this popular
favorite. I made particular inquiries upon this subject, and learned
that the church negotiated with him to preach for them one Sabbath
each month during the year, for one dollar a Sabbath. Hence, they
paid him twelve dollars a year for one fourth of his time. Some of
them thought that as neither he nor any other good hand could at
that time get more than fifty cents a day for mauling rails, hoeing
corn, or any other labor, this salary was rather excessive; but in
consideration of the fact that he had to leave home on Saturday
evening in order to meet his appointment, and furnish his own riding-
nag, they magnanimously voted him the full dollar a Sunday, "for one
fourth of his time." I was informed that he preached to other
churches, but did not learn that any of them paid him a larger salary.
In another place that I visited, the Rev. James L—— had preached
to the same church twenty-one years, and he said the largest sum
he had ever received for preaching in any one year was twenty
dollars, and he had often received less than ten dollars! Very many
of these churches were entirely satisfied if they had regular
preaching once a month. In riding through the Brush, I used often to
gratify my curiosity by making inquiries in regard to the salaries
received by those who preached in the churches that I passed.
Once, in riding late in the evening, I overtook—or, in the vernacular
of the region, "met up with"—a boy some twelve or fourteen years
old, who was riding a mule. After exchanging "howd'ys," I found him
very loquacious, and disposed to enlighten me in regard to
everything in the neighborhood. I asked him what salary they paid
their preacher. "Oh!" said he, "they pay the one they have got now
right smart. They give him a dollar and a half a Sunday."
We passed a church where the members washed one another's feet
at each communion. I made some inquiries in regard to the
ceremony, and he told me the brethren washed only the brethren's
feet, and the sisters the sisters' feet. I told him that I supposed they
only sprinkled water upon their feet—they did not wash much. "Oh!"
said he, "sometimes they gets happy, and washes right hard." I had
spent a Sabbath at a meeting in the woods with the poet of this
denomination, and purchased of him a hymn-book that he had been
duly authorized to compile and publish for them, containing some
hymns that he had written to be sung at these feet-washing services.
He was one of the most illiterate men I ever met. I regret to say that I
have lost the book, and can not transcribe some of these original
hymns for the benefit of my readers. I had a good deal of
conversation with this "poet," and he told me he was at the time
engaged in teaching school. I afterward met the school
commissioner, a lawyer, at the county-seat, who had examined him
and given him his license to teach, and rallied him jocosely for giving
a man that was so ignorant, authority to teach a public school.
"Oh!" said he, "I only certified that he was competent to teach in that
neighborhood."
For years I was accustomed to avail myself of every opportunity of
hearing these illiterate preachers, both white and colored, consistent
with my other duties. It was a new and interesting study to me.
Sometimes I got rare kernels of wheat in the midst of a great deal of
chaff, rich nuggets of gold among a great deal of sand and rubbish;
and I always felt more than repaid for the time thus expended. It was
interesting to observe the workings of minds, often of superior
natural powers, in their attempts to elucidate the Scriptures. It was
especially strange to hear them render any Scripture narrative,
entirely in their own Brush vernacular. I have often regretted that I
did not take down many of these narratives of Bible facts at the time
I heard them. But the unusual sight of a person thus employed in a
congregation would attract more attention than the preacher himself,
and I was therefore unwilling to do it. But I can give my readers a
very correct idea of these narratives.
In riding through a very rough, wild region, I fell in company with a
gentleman on horseback, and rode some distance with him. He told
me that a preacher, who was so illiterate that it was with the greatest
difficulty that he could study out a chapter in the Bible, sometimes
preached in a log school-house in his neighborhood, and he had
heard him the Sabbath before. It was in a region where a rough-and-
tumble fight would attract more attention than anything else. The
preacher had a theme of the deepest interest to himself and the
most of his congregation. This gentleman gave me quite a full outline
of the discourse, and I write it out from his description, and fill it up
as my extended acquaintance with these people, and knowledge of
their vernacular, derived from years of constant mingling with them,
enable me to do.
"Last week, my breethrin, as I was a-readin' my Bible, I found a story
of a big fight (1 Samuel, xvii). It was powerful interestin', and I
studied it 'most all the week. There was two armies campin' on two
mountains right fornenst each other; and a holler and, I reckon,
some good bottom-land and a medder-lot lying between 'em. In one
of the armies there was a big feller—a whoppin', great, big feller—
and every day he went down into the medder-lot and looked up the
hill to t'other camp, and jest dared 'em! He told 'em to pick their best
man and send him down, and he'd fight him. And he jest strutted
around there in his soger-close, and waited for 'em to send on their
man. And such soger-close I never heerd tell on afore. He had a
brass cap and brass trousers, and a coat made like mail-bags where
they are all ironed and riveted together. But the fellers in t'other
camp just clean flunked. They darn't fight the big feller, nary one of
'em. They jest all sneaked away, and the big feller he went back to