ng about
the village street, hither and thither, without much aim; stands erected
for the sale of gingerbread and beer,--home-made beer, concocted
of sassafras roots and wintergreen leaves, etc.; games of ball, not
base-ball, as now is the fashion, yet with wickets,--this was about all,
except that at the end there was always horse-racing.

Having witnessed this exciting sport in my [20] boyhood, without any
suspicion of its being wrong, and seen it abroad in later days, in
respectable company, I was led, very innocently, when I was a clergyman
in New York, into what was thought a great misdemeanor. I was invited by
some gentlemen, and went with them, to the races on Long Island. I met
on the boat, as we were returning, a parishioner of mine, who expressed
great surprise, and even a kind of horror, when I told him what I had
been to see. He could not conceal that he thought it very bad that I
should have been there; and I suppose it was. But that was not the worst
of it. Some person had then recently heard me preach a sermon in which I
said, that, in thesis, I had rather undertake to defend Infidelity
than Calvinism. In extreme anger thereat, he wrote a letter to some
newspaper, in which, after stating what I had said, he added, "And this
clergyman was lately seen at the races!" It went far and wide, you may
be sure. I saw it in newspapers from all parts of the country; yet some
of my friends, while laughing at me, held it to be only a proof of my
simplicity.

There were worse things than sports in our public gatherings; even
street fights,--pugilistic fights, hand to hand. I have seen men thus
engage, and that in bloody encounter, knocking one another down, and the
fallen man stamped upon by his adversary. The people gathered round, not
to interfere, but to see them fight it out. [21] Such a spectacle has
not been witnessed in Sheffield, I think, for half a century. But as to
sports and entertainments in general, there were more of them in those
days than now. We had more holidays, more games in the street, of
ball-playing, of quoits, of running, leaping, and wrestling. The militia
musters, now done away with, gave many occasions for them. Every year we
had one or two great squirrel-hunts, ended by a supper, paid for by
the losing side, that is, by the side shooting the fewest. Almost every
season we had a dancing-school. Singing-schools, too, there were
every winter. There was also a small band of music in the villag