Show TALKS WITH A BR B USH AN ECCENTRIC OLD evangelist OF westchester N Y winter and summer ne he wanders along the roads painting scripture texts on an Ilo boulders Bowl ders nothing yoth inar deters nim limpos ras sive ive when violence la Is used who is the mysterious paint brush evangelist of westchester county up and down the beautiful hills bills and along the rugged rocky roads of westchester for mile after mile his work can be ba seen the wayfarer cannot escape it at every fresh turn tum iu in the road the painted words of warning confront him even the mos most t ungodly sinner in all new york after walking a mile from the little village tillage of white plains would think he was surely on the kocl rocky road to the new jerusalem up in westchester they call the mysterious evangelist the I 1 scripture slinger and they say he be slings it powerful thick so he does and with discrimination rare in paint of the huelf hue of he heavens ees own blue mixed in oil an all along those rocky roads the fences are made of huge boulders bowl ders put out of which rough walls aie are made separating the pastures pastur es and bounding the roadsides besides there are still other boulders bowl ders jutting out of the soil along the roadway on these and on the atone fences the mysterious evangelist unfolds his warnings he is a little man but energetic he is a silent man except with his brush made out of hairs haira plucked from the necks of oxen with ithe it he speaks hn only name is george he marches a salvation army of one ona man carrying a bugle to announce his comins coming his sandy mustache bristles and the lines of his face show sixty years there hangs upon his head bead an old straw hat summer and winter and on the hat is a broad ribbon bearing the legend jesus iq mighty to save A cane carved with innumerable inscriptions helps him over the hills as he marches on carrying carry ins tho the battered handbag in which repose his estness lest i less brush brash las his pot of paint his bible and other little things such as a comb and cake of soap through the use of which he keeps himself only a they say there is no vanity in him nor any glass with a quicksilver back in that battered bag As ho he marches he spies a rock big and brown half hidden behind a clump of weeds and on which he left no message when last along that way in a moment the weeds are uprooted and im kneeling eeling by the rock he paints letter by letter 0 b e y the t h e lord L o r d 11 theu then ho he marches on reading the bible on a smooth worn wom bowlder boulder in the stone fence he prints repent believed Beli evel and sin no more across the road he leaves the warning you must repent or go to hell A little farther on be kneela again and under his brush grow the words the wages for sinners is hellfire there are painted words though along the roads more worldly than talan tle lie ones he leave there one of them says spend your sundays at manhattan beh beach on finding this it is said he bowed his head a moment then in a deeper shade of blue than usual mixed on the spot he painted right alongside the words where will you spend eternity many of the farmers up in westchester take summer boarders and on a big tree in the front yard each of them nails up a sign which reads pleasant summer home board by the day or week across the road from such as these thy th 0 paint brush says think of that beautiful home above so the strange evangelist goes on fighting the world with blue paint measure for measure and covering the surplus space with admonition exhortation and advice to him all things are of the world worldly and therefore he knows naught of politics this strange man sleeps by the roadside in a stable or where he may and for months eats only what is given him I 1 nn money is nothing to him for rk a little while each year he works on he sound view stock farm owned by villiam A sammia and it is ia then he pulls the hair the ol of oxen I 1 and makes his stock of brushes his paint is given him and he mixes it himself i he hast has been told to stop the task of covering the rocks of westchester with blue paint but he keeps on by his action he says shall a man not make his hia fellow in man reflect township trustees threaten and resolve in vain tho the mottoes in multiply assaults do not terrify him once he was met by two men near the westchester fair grounds and commanded to stop painting a sentence he had begun hp he turned his back to them and kept on wit without hoxit reply when he had linis finished bea he began a new sentence then tho the men rushed rubbed at him and struck him down senseless with clu clubs bs the U unfinished anfin dished zent sentence euce read forgive thine new Now york advertiser |