The True Northerner

Peter Cartwright on his Muscle,

As it has been said of John Knox, so it may be said of Peter Cartwright: "He never feared the face of man." In Cromwell's army he would certainly have commanded a division. In his honest and courageous zeal, united with a tact and address which never deserted him, he would have been a man after Old Noll's own heart. The following is an amusing illustration, taken from his autobiography:

"Our last quarterly meeting was a camp-meeting. We had a great many tents and a large turn-out for a new country, and, perhaps, there never was a greater collection of rabble and rowdies. They came drunk, and armed with dirks, clubs, knives and horse-whips, and swore they would break up the meeting. After interrupting us very much on Saturday night, they collected early on Sunday morning, determined on a general riot. At 9 o'clock I was appointed to preach. About the time I was half through with my discourse two very fine-dressed young men marched into the congregation with loaded whips, and hats on, and rose up and stood in the midst of the ladies and began to laugh and talk. They were near the stand, and I requested them to desist and get off the seats; but they cursed me and said to me to mind my own business, and that they would not get down. I stopped trying to preach and called for a magistrate. There were two at hand, but I saw they were both afraid. I ordered them to take these men into custody. They said they could not do it. I told them, as I left the stand, to command me to take them, and I would do it at the risk of my life. I advanced toward them. They ordered me to stand off, but I advanced. One of them made a pass at me with his whip, but I closed in with him and jerked him out of the seat. A regular scuffle ensued. The congregation by this time were all in commotion. I heard the magistrate give general orders, commanding all friends of order to aid in suppressing the riot. In the scuffle I threw my prisoner down, and held him fast: he tried his best to get loose; I told him to be quiet or I would pound him. The mob rose and rushed on to the rescue of the two prisoners, for they had taken the other young man also. An old and drunken magistrate came up to me and ordered me to let my prisoner go. I told him I should not. He swore if I did not he would knock me down. I told him to crack away. Then one of my friends, at my request, took hold of my prisoner, and the drunken justice made a pass at me; but I parried the stroke and seized him by the collar and the hair of the head, and, fetching him a sudden jerk forward brought him to the ground and jumped on him. I told him to be quiet, or I would pound him well. The mob then rushed to the scene: they knocked down seven magistrates, and several preachers and others. I gave up my drunken prisoner to another, and threw myself in front of the friends of order. Just at this moment the ringleader of the mob and I met: he made three passes at me, intending to knock me down. The last time he struck at me, by the force of his own effort he threw the side of his face toward me. It seemed at that moment I had not power to resist temptation, and I struck a sudden blow in the burr of the ear, and I dropped him to the earth. Just at that the friends of order rushed by hundreds on the mob, knocking them down in every direction. In a few minutes the place became too strait for the mob, and they wheeled and fled in every direction: but we secured about thirty prisoners, marched them off to a vacant tent, and put them under guard till Monday morning, when they were tried, and every man was fined to the utmost limits of the law."