284 The Winning of the West 



camp-meetings were very distasteful to men whose 

 religion was not emotional and who shrank from 

 the fury of excitement into which the great masses 

 were thrown, for under the strain many individuals 

 literally became like men possessed, whether of good 

 or evil spirits, falling into ecstasies of joy or agony, 

 dancing, shouting, jumping, fainting, while there 

 were widespread and curious manifestations of a 

 hysterical character, both among the believers and 

 among the scoffers; but though this might seem 

 distasteful to an observer of education and self- 

 restraint, it thrilled the heart of the rude and sim- 

 ple backwoodsman and reached him as he could 

 not possibly have been reached in any other manner. 

 Often the preachers of the different denominations 

 worked in hearty unison; but often they were sun- 

 dered by bitter jealousy and distrust. The fiery 

 zeal of the Methodists made them the leaders; and 

 in their war on the forces of evil they at times 

 showed a tendency to include all non-Methodists 

 whether Baptists, Lutherans, Catholics, or infidels 

 in a common damnation. Of course, as always in 

 such a movement, many even of the earnest leaders 

 at times confounded the essential and the non-essen- 

 tial, and railed as bitterly against dancing as against 

 drunkenness and lewdness, or anathematized the 

 wearing of jewelry as fiercely as the commission of 

 crime. 50 More than one hearty, rugged old preacher, 

 who did stalwart service for decency and morality, 



50 Autobiography of Peter Cartwright, the Backwoods 

 Preacher. 



