Steve P. Holcombe, the Converted Gambler Part 7

[Ill.u.s.tration: MRS. S. P. HOLCOMBE.]

Mrs. Holcombe helps her husband in his n.o.ble work and the "converts"

look on her as their spiritual mother as they regard him as their spiritual father. She _might_ say with Simeon, the _Nunc dimittis_, "Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation;" but instead of that she says with St. Paul, "Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful" for my husband, my children and the work of Christ.

Mrs. Holcombe still has trials, but they are few and small, while her blessings are many and great. She still has faults, perhaps, as most of mortals have; but they are few and small, while her virtues are very many and very great. Many daughters have done virtuously but few have excelled this one in those qualities which const.i.tute a n.o.ble womanly character.

The following letter, written to her by her husband during a short visit in the country, will show how that after so long a time of waiting, the hope of her earliest love is realized at last.

LOUISVILLE, KY., May 29, 1888.

My Dear Wife:

Your letter to hand. I am so happy to know that you are having a good time. Isn't G.o.d good to us? When we look back over our past lives and see how good G.o.d has been to us, how thankful we should be. Very little sickness in our immediate family and no death in thirty years. The two babes that we lost thirty years ago are safe in the arms of Jesus, and all the living ones are sweetly trusting in Him. Let us from this hour be more earnest and untiring in our efforts to save the children of others.

Kiss Mamie for me and then look in the gla.s.s and kiss yourself a thousand times for him who loves you with a true, deep love.

Yours in life, yours in death,

STEVE P. HOLCOMBE.

Those who are familiar with Mr. Holcombe's career as a Christian worker would regard any sketch of his life incomplete which did not contain some account of the a.s.sault made upon him by three strange men in the winter of 1887. A few months after his removal to the new quarters that had been purchased by the Mission, he was attacked by three men in his own house and severely injured. On a Sunday afternoon in January, 1887, he heard some one walking in the hall on the second floor of the building, and went out to see who it was. He found a man there whom he had never seen before, and asked him who he was and what he wanted. The man replied in an insolent, manner that he had come to visit a servant girl who was at the time working in Mr. Holcombe's family. When Mr.

Holcombe asked him why he came into his private family apartments, the man became more impudent and defiant, and gave utterance to some abusive language. Already provoked at the man's audacity and alarmed at the thought of what such a ruffian might have done to some one of his family if he had been absent, Mr. Holcombe's quick nature now became so exasperated that he forgot himself for a moment and thrust the man violently down the stairway and out of the house. The man left the place and Mr. Holcombe thought that was the end of it. But an hour or two later some one knocked at his room door on the same floor, and as he opened it, he saw himself confronted by three men, one of whom he recognized as the man he had put out of the house. The two others professed to be policemen who had come to arrest Mr. Holcombe, but when he asked to see their badges of authority they seized him. One against three, he resisted them with all his might, uttering no cry of distress or call for help. In the struggle Mr. Holcombe's leg was broken, both bones of it, and as he fell, with all his weight, the men thought he was badly hurt and fled, leaving him lying helpless on the floor. He was taken up by those whom he called and laid on his bed. Physicians were sent for. The news spread in a few minutes all over the neighborhood, and before night, all over the city. The Chief of Police, Colonel Whallen, set his detectives to work looking for the men, and many citizens, self-const.i.tuted detectives, inquired concerning the appearance of the men and kept a sharp lookout for them. But they succeeded in escaping, and it was, perhaps, well for them they did.

Before night Mr. Holcombe's room was crowded with friends filled with sympathy and indignation. Drs. Kelly and Alexander set the broken limb and gave Mr. Holcombe the unwelcome bit of information that he would have to lie in his bed for some five or six weeks, a sore trial to his restless spirit; but by the help of G.o.d he accepted it and settled down to endure it, not knowing, however, what good he was to get out of it.

It was an opportunity for the people of Louisville to show their estimation and appreciation of him, and it is safe to say that no man in Louisville would have received the attentions and favors which this poor converted gambler, Steve Holcombe, did receive. It reminds one of a pa.s.sage in Dr. Prime's account of the funeral of Jerry McAuley in the Broadway Tabernacle in New York. Dr. Prime himself was to conduct the funeral service, and this is what he says:

"We are going to-day to the tabernacle to talk of what Jerry McAuley was and what he has done, to the little congregation that will gather there.

If it were Dr. Taylor, the beloved and honored pastor, the house would be crowded and the streets full of mourners, but poor Jerry, he is dead and who will be there to weep with us over his remains? Ah, how little did I know the place poor Jerry held in the hearts of the people of this vast city! I was to conduct the funeral and went early to complete all arrangements. As I turned down from Fifth avenue through Thirty-fourth street, I saw a vast mult.i.tude standing in the sunshine, filling the streets and the square in front of the tabernacle. Astonished at the spectacle and wondering why they did not go and take seats in the church, I soon found that the house was packed with people so that it was impossible for me to get within the door. Proclamation was made that the clergy who were to officiate were on the outside, and a pa.s.sage was made for us to enter. What could be more impressive and what more expressive of the estimate set upon the man and his work? There is no other Christian worker in the city who would have called out these uncounted thousands in a last tribute of love and in honor of his memory."

The tribute which the people of Louisville paid to the work and worth of Steve Holcombe _before_ his death was hardly less.

On Monday, the day following his misfortune, Mr. Holcombe's room was, nearly all the day long, full of people of every grade, from the mayor and the richest and finest people on Broadway and Fourth avenue, down to the poor drunkard and outcast, who forgot his shabby dress and pressed in among those fine people in order to see "Brother Holcombe," and find out how he was. The ministers of the leading churches of every Protestant denomination came with words of sympathy and prayer. Fine ladies came in their carriages, bringing baskets of fruit and all sorts of delicacies. Those who could not go sent letters and messages. And Mr.

Holcombe lay in his bed and wept--not for pain, but for grat.i.tude and humble joy. "Why," said he, "I would be willing to have half a dozen legs broken to know that these people think so much of me and of my poor efforts to be useful."

This, then, was the first compensation and blessing.

He learned also that it would be absolutely necessary for him to watch more closely his impulsive and fiery temper, and get a better control of it. For he does not deny that he was inexcusably hasty and severe in his treatment of the impudent intruder.

And then he was temporarily relieved from the incessant demands and the constant strain of his daily activity and his nightly anxiety. He had time and opportunity, as far as the importunity and kindness of his friends would allow, to get calmed, to look down into his own heart, to a.n.a.lyze his motives, to study his own nature, to see his own faults, to find out his own needs and to pray. He had been told by one of his friends, that while he did not work too much, he did not pray _enough_, and that he was, therefore, liable to be overtaken by some sudden temptation and be betrayed into sin.

That same friend, in conducting service in one of the churches of the city on that very Sunday morning, had offered special public prayer for Mr. Holcombe and his work. He prayed specifically that if Brother Holcombe needed a thorn in the flesh, to keep him humble, G.o.d would send it. It was thought to be a special and speedy answer, that before sundown of that very day, Mr. Holcombe did receive almost literally a thorn in the flesh; a messenger of Satan it was withal to buffet him.

And Mr. Holcombe was the first to acknowledge that he needed this trial and the threefold blessing which came with it.

The perpetrators of the cowardly deed were, some time afterward, caught and imprisoned--every one of them. One of them has been pardoned and released, and through Mr. Holcombe's kindly intervention the other two probably will be, while through his friendly counsels one of them has been brought to realize his own sinfulness, and has promised to live a better life.

It would be out of the question to reproduce here all the written messages of sympathy which Mr. Holcombe received during his confinement from the injury he received. But one of them is too touching and beautiful to be left out. It was written by Miss Jennie Ca.s.seday, a lady of culture and refinement, who has, for eighteen years, been confined to her "sick bed." She is well known as the originator of the "Flower Missions," which, all over this country, have been the bearers of blessing to many unblessed and unloved ones:

"SICK BED, January 18, 1887.

"_Dear Christian Friend_:

"I send you some lines which have been a great blessing to me:

"'I can not say, Beneath the pressure of life's cares to-day, I joy in these; But I _can_ say That I _had rather_ walk this rugged way If Him it please.

"'I can not feel That all is well, when darkening clouds conceal The shining sun; But then I know G.o.d lives and loves, and say, since that is so, "Thy will be done."

"'I can not speak In happy tones; the tear-drops on my cheek Show I am sad; But I _can_ speak _Of grace to suffer_ with submission meek, Until made glad.

"'I do not see Why G.o.d should e'en permit _some things_ to be; When He is Love; But I _can_ see, Though often dimly, through the mystery, His hand above.

"'I do not know Where falls the seed that I have tried to sow With greatest care; But I shall know The meaning of each waiting hour below Sometime, somewhere.'

"Selected with tender sympathy.

"Your friend, "JENNIE Ca.s.sEDAY."

CHAPTER VI.

In conclusion it will not be out of place to glance for a moment backward and to call attention definitely to some plain facts.

Mr. Holcombe inherited from his parents a diversely perverse and bad nature. Already in his childhood he was cross, irritable, spiteful. In his boyhood his temper was savage and revengful. In his manhood he took the life of a fellowman. He inherited the love of drink from his father, who was a confirmed drunkard before the child was born; and the child himself was drunk before he was twelve years old. He was given to sensuality from his boyhood.

His education was not good--as far as the educating power of daily example goes, it was bad, positively bad, continually bad. His a.s.sociations outside of home were, for the most part, of the worst sort.

His boyish companions were given to gambling, pilfering, fighting, and in all these things they called him chief. But the companionship of boys did not long satisfy him and already before he was fifteen, he drank and gambled with grown men in the bar-rooms of the village.

He had an impulsive sympathy for helpless suffering when it was before his eyes. He had a vague, faint fear of the Power that makes for righteousness, so that in his youth he made three or four ineffectual efforts to get the mastery of his evil nature and to become better. He provided well for his family in meat and drink and the like. He was generous to his friends. When this is said, about all is said on that side. Apart from these things he gave himself up for forty years to the indulgence of all his pa.s.sions without let or hinderance from parental authority, domestic bonds, fear of G.o.d or regard for man. So that the adverse power of evil habit, strengthened by forty years of indulgence, was superimposed upon the moral helplessness of an inherited bad nature made worse by bad education and bad a.s.sociations.

Such he _was_. The preceding pages have described in part what he _is_.

And only in part. The uttermost details of the purity of his life since October, 1877, could not be stated without violating delicacy any more than the uttermost details of his sinful life could be uncurtained without injuring the innocent and offending the public. The candid reader will bridge for himself the past and present of Mr. Holcombe's life. These are the facts. And these facts are freely and fully recognized by all cla.s.ses of the community in which he lives his daily life. Thousands of eyes have watched him for years and no one has detected any immoral practice or act or found any fault of a serious nature in him.

Candor requires us to say that he is sometimes over-sensitive, that he has his own views as to the best methods of conducting his work and is sometimes a little domineering in carrying them out; that he sometimes uses unnecessary harshness in his public addresses in dealing with the sins and shortcomings of people, especially of the converts of the Mission, a thing which is probably due to his over-anxiety for them; that he has not yet learned economy and the best way of conducting his financial affairs, and that owing to his own former wicked life he would be a trifle too severe in the control of his family but for the good sense and prudent firmness of his wife. But these are minor matters and when they are said, about all is said on _that_ side.

And Mr. Holcombe has come to occupy a unique and commanding position in the city of Louisville. All cla.s.ses respect him, all cla.s.ses look up to him and people from all cla.s.ses seek his counsel and aid in certain emergencies.

Mothers in distress over the sins of their sons, sisters in sorrow over the dissipation of their brothers, wives in despair over the wickedness of their husbands, all these go to Steve Holcombe for advice, comfort, encouragement and help; and when they can not go, they write; sometimes from distant places, as far away as Canada. The ministers of Louisville refer to him those extreme cases which they meet with in their ministry, and which they feel his experience and his knowledge of the ways and temptations of dissipated men enable him to handle, as a letter from Dr.

Broadus and one from Dr. Willits, elsewhere reproduced, will show. And the dissipated men themselves, the drunkards, the gamblers, the outcast, the lost--all these feel that Steve Holcombe is their friend, a friend who has the willingness and the power to help them up, and they go to him when they are in distress or when they awake to a sense of their wretched condition and desire to rise again. And through his instrumentality many a one _has_ risen again, and to many a mother, wife, sister, family, has come through him a resurrection of buried hope and joy.

And those gamblers who have never yet come to distress or to religion regard him with admiration and affection. The following letter from Mr.

A. M. Waddill, one of the leading sporting men of the South, was written in answer to an inquiry as to how Mr. Holcombe is looked upon by the gamblers:

LOUISVILLE, KY., August 13, 1888.

_Rev. Gross Alexander_:

DEAR SIR: In writing of my friend, Steve P. Holcombe, I will say that his adoption of the pulpit has not lowered him in the esteem of his former a.s.sociates--the gamblers. Far from it.

They are his admirers and his friends, and, when they have the funds, are as willing supporters of his work as any. They can not show him too much respect and can not exhibit a more profound love than is shown him every day by some one of his old companions. He has wielded a wonderful influence over them for good, both here and elsewhere, and has made many converts from their ranks, who could not have been influenced probably by any other minister of the Gospel. I myself have been, I am happy to say, wonderfully benefited by the influence of his benevolent character.