Incidents of Early Tent Life
By J. O. Corliss
Experiences of Former Days— No. 11
Incidents of Early Tent Life
The tent-meetings of early days were not carried on just the same as now. Instead of having a large corps of workers to visit and distribute literature, two ministers and a tent master were considered a full complement of help. Instead of several family tents, in which to lodge the workers, the minister slept on the platform, behind the desk, with the tent master, unless perchance some one happened to invite one or both of them to his home for the night. The tent desks and platforms of those days were arranged, not only for lodging the workers, but also for storing their books and trunks. The platform was usually built sixteen feet long and eight feet wide. Along the entire front of this, at the proper height for a reading-desk, a board was arranged, and covered with a huge oilcloth, or tarpaulin, reaching to the ground in front of the speaker. At each meeting a large display of tracts and pamphlets was arrayed on this novel desk, which were well advertised before the close of the meeting. As soon as the benediction was pronounced, the whole front of the desk was usually lined with people examining the publications, and many converts were secured by reading them, who would not have been led to accept the truth by simply hearing the sermons from the living preacher. Then, too, by calling attention to the books, the workers had an opportunity to become acquainted with the people, and they received invitations to visit and talk the truth at the family gatherings. Do you ask where the preachers ate their meals when they failed to receive an invitation out? Well, usually on the platform, provided they had an appetite for such as fell to their lot. Sometimes friends sent to the tent what they considered toothsome morsels, such as pies, doughnuts, and cake of various sorts. At other times, for a change, crackers and cheese were bought at the village grocery. Looking back to those experiences, it does not now seem strange that the preachers of those days occasionally had fits of indigestion. Yet some way the preachers seemed to like that sort of life, so much so that as time went on, their stay in a place was more and more prolonged, until it became a common thing to spend the greater part of a tent season in one town. When the tent did come down, the very ground it had occupied seemed almost sacred to those who had learned to love the truth on that spot. So much of interest hovered about such work, that the preachers hardly cared to put in much time preaching to organized companies, but rather felt that they were called to give the message to those who had never heard it. And the people seemed to feed on the Word as it came fresh from the lips of the speakers. It seems strange now to think how steadily they would attend a series of meetings right through the busiest season of the year, some coming four or five miles after having worked all day in the hay- or harvest-field. And such seats as we had to offer them! These consisted of rough boards placed across others fastened up edgewise by driving small stakes on each side of them. In later times we did improvise backs to the seats, by driving stout stakes back of the seats, and nailing narrow strips of boards along their tops. But these were not all at the same angle, and were poor contrivances at the very best. How different all this is now! Nearly every tent is furnished with folding chairs, or neatly contrived seats, which are comfortable. The workers now have small tents in which to cook, eat, and sleep. But those days of sacrifice were precious seasons, the memory of which even now makes one feel that the old method of presenting the message can not be improved. It also makes the truth seem dearer than it could have become without those experiences. One thing is certain: those who gave the full strength of their lives to that early pioneer work, were made to feel very sensibly that the “foundation of the Lord standeth sure.”