exasperated. The second day that I spent in Cologne, I went to
a German barber to be put into trim for making my descend into the lower
latitudes and consequently warmer countries. Another customer was ahead of
me. While the barber was at work upon him, all the time in a rage and
swearing _barber_ously at some proceedings, a thunder storm came up very
suddenly, and so obscured the light of the sun (though it was midday) that
he could not see to go on with his work. Hereupon he began first to swear
at the clouds, then at the Lord himself, using all the epithets of abuse
that he could find in his entire vocabulary of profanity, there were heavy
peals of thunder and vivid flashes of lightning, but, the darker it became
and the more tremendous the crashes of the thunderbolts, the more the
senseless and exasperated barber cursed and swore. After the shower and
hail, I walked out into the pure fresh air and under the blue vault of
heaven smiling down upon the refreshed vegetation, and tried to draw a
picture of that profane man's mental panorama, but I never succeeded even
to this day. Such behavior is not of rare occurrence, else I should not
have related it; but even sacred history refers to similar incidents. The
wicked, it is recorded, danced and were merry even until the waters of the
flood swept them away.

A certain divine related to me a similar story concerning the behavior of
a large body of the passengers with him on the "Great Eastern," when she
was foundered at sea and obliged to return, after they had advanced 500
miles. When the storm was assailing the great ship, breaking down its
masts and tearing away its rigging, so that most of the passengers were in
despair and expected to sink any hour, they kept prayer-meetings almost
continually. Another faction found fault with these, declared that praying
was an intolerable nuisance and asked the Captain to prohibit it. The
Captain decided that he would not interfere, whereupon the party offended
took to dancing, cursing and swearing, and tried their utmost in this way
to break up the prayer-meetings,

I heard similar profanity on my return trip across the Atlantic. One night
when a storm assailed our ship, so that the waves rolled over the deck and
the fierce rocking of the vessel threw many almost out of their beds, I
heard many of them swear, even during the very time that the thunder
rolled with tremendous roarings and crashes across the heavens. It seems
almost