RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD 71 



but it was a more dignified game in that it consisted 

 of dodging rather than sliding to bases. We 

 waxed as enthusiastic as boys do now, but such a 

 thing as betting on an amateur game was quite 

 unknown. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD 



The nearest church in my boyhood was at Mc- 

 Duffietown, a hamlet made up of half a dozen 

 houses and three small shops about two miles from 

 East Varick. At that time the Methodist spirit 

 for this was a Methodist church was so intense 

 that I do not think that a Unitarian, or Universal- 

 ist or Roman Catholic could have lived there with- 

 out being ostracized. The people tributary to this 

 church were, however, not all church members; 

 perhaps not more than one-half of the heads of 

 families and two-thirds of the younger people over 

 twelve years of age were communicants. But, as 

 there was no other church within five or six miles, 

 the congregation was generally quite large. 



Scarcely a winter passed without a " protracted " 

 meeting, and these services were extremely noisy, 

 what with the stentorian preaching, loud praying, 

 wild singing and shouting. The excitement not 

 infrequently culminated when some overemotional 



