116 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS band| lemonade stand and all, steamed slowly up the broad river, while the full June moon rose over the picturesque bluffs of Pike county, Illinois. The music, the perfect night, the pretty girls, the odor of a thousand roses, the enthusiasm of youth — all else was forgot, and the young churchman danced all the way up the river to the tuming-around point, and then danced all the way back to the landing at Louisiana, at two 'dock in the morning. The next Sunday he took his way to church, all unconscious of the gathering storm. Before the service began the young Kentuckian was called before the bar of the Church and ex- pelled from its membership for dancing in violation of the laws of the church. Clark, crestfallen but not discouraged, walked out and cooled his brow in the shade of the long rows of maples on Georgia street. He looked at the cobblestones and thought of De Quincey's "Oxford street, thou stony- hearted stepmother, that drinkest the tears of the children, and hearest the cries of the fatherless. ' ' It was depressing, discouraging. But soon his brain cleared ; he walked resolute- ly back to the church and took a seat on the last bench in the rear, observed by none. There he sat and heard a sermon on backsliding that seemed to be directed at him alone. In the Christian Church it is the unfailing custom, at the close of the service, to oflfer an invitation to all repentant sin- ners to come forward and take a place on the front seat while the congregation sings a hymn. It is a goodly custom. When the usual invitation was given, up rose a tall, blonde, and blue-eyed young man with a square jaw — the young Ken- tucky lawyer who, according to The Riverside PresSj had
- settled in our midst.'* He stalked straight to that front
bench and sat resolutely down, the only repentant sinner to make the good confession. The pastor was nonplussed; the presiding elder gasped. The book containing the rules of the church was hastily consulted ; there was only one thing to do, a repentant sinner could not be turned away, so Clark went back into the fold and there abideth to this day. The practice of law in the town was very slim picking. Clark saw an opportunity to become principal of the high
