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CHAPTER II

TEACHING IN ROME-ACQUAINTANCE WITH AND MARRIAGE TO LUCY YOUNG

-HER CHARACTER-WORKING UPON THE FARM AND TEACHING MUSIC-
LETTER FROM REV. DARIUS COOK-MR. BLISS IN HIS NEW HOME-HIS
FATHER'S LAST DAYS-“ GRANDFATHER'S BIBLE."

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IN 1858, Mr. Bliss was at Almond, New York, and in the winter

of that year he taught in the Rome Academy at Rome, Pennsylvania. The previous year, his musical gift had brought him into an acquaintance with the family of Mr. O. F. Young, a thrifty farmer and a devout Christian man, who, some thirty years before, had come into the valley to teach school, and had married one of his pupils, the daughter of John Allen, a leading citizen of Rome, and was now the head of a happy family, consisting of Grandma Allen, her daughter his wife, with their five children, two sons and three daughters. The whole family were singers, and Mr. Young being one of the School Board, Mr. Bliss was invited to make their house his home, and soon became as one of the family. He brought here his younger sister, that she might attend school and be with him for the winter.

The descriptions given of Mr. Bliss by his friends, and a daguerreotype taken at this time, indicate that he was possessed of unusual personal attractions. Of large frame and finely proportioned, a handsome, frank, open face, with fine, large, expressive eyes, and always buoyant and cheerful, full of the kindliest feeling, wit and good humor, with a devout Christian character, and of unsullied moral reputation, he became a universal favorite among young and old. Among his pupils were the children of Mr. Young, who became his most intimate friends. The eldest daughter, Lucy, then about eighteen years of age, was the associate and companion of Mr. Bliss' sister, and thus these young people were thrown much together. During the winter, the singing school, the spelling class and the choir meetings went on as is wont in the country

villages of the East, and these two "kept company," and found ere long that they were necessary to each other's happiness. So, one beautiful morning in the following spring, June 1, 1859, with Pa and Ma Young accompanying, they went in a very quiet way to the little town of Wysocks, six miles down the valley, and were married by the minister, in the parlor of the minister's house.

It is a beautiful ride down the valley of the Wysocken. The hills rise up grandly on either side; the brook flows rapidly by, its babbling and murmurings heard from the road, hidden sometimes in deep dells by overhanging trees, and gleaming in the light through open fields. The woods were filled with wild flowers and singing birds, that June morning, and the world was full of poetry to these two dear friends as they rode to their wedding. Happy in the love of God, happy in each other's love, how rich they were! Of money they had absolutely none. Mr. Bliss did not possess at this time fifty dollars' worth of worldly goods. Mr. Young derived a comfortable support from his farm, but had nothing wherewith to endow the young couple, beyond the warm welcome to the old homestead of the loved daughter and the one whom he had long loved as a son. They came back to the home, and Mr. Bliss, taking off his Sunday clothes, went out to work on the farm, and Lucy went into the kitchen to help her mother.

I find in his diary this mention of this event in his life: "June 1, 1859-Married to Miss Lucy J. Young, the very best thing I could have done." And looking back upon the eighteen years they have lived together on earth, and all they were to each other, in the experiences of joy and sorrow, of poverty and prosperity, that they passed through, no one who knew them but would acquiesce and recognize the providence of God in bringing them together. Mrs. Bliss was in many things the opposite and the complement of her husband. He was by nature poetical, impulsive, demonstrative, easily moved; she strongly practical, steady, reticent, and with great adherence of purpose. She was both wife and mother to him from the first of their union. She was of a deep nature, loving, tender in her affection, beyond what most who knew her gave her credit for. His buoyant, joyful, affectionate, warm-hearted demonstrativeness naturally made her more reserved manner seem constrained; but all who learned to know her loved and admired her, and thanked God that Philip Bliss had such a wife. At

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the time of her marriage, she was a member of the Presbyterian Church in Rome, having made profession of faith in Christ at the age of sixteen. Mr. Bliss, about the time of his marriage, became connected with the same church, and labored efficiently with them in church work, being for some time the Superintendent of a Union Sunday School in the village, and is remembered by many of the grown-up people in this connection.

The year after his marriage, Mr. Bliss worked upon the farm for his father-in-law, and received for his support thirteen dollars a month, the amount usually paid to farm hands. That winter he commenced teaching music in Bradford County, at two dollars an evening "and found." The year 1860 he ever reckoned as a memorable one in his history. The little knowledge he had obtained of music made him feel deeply how little he knew, and gave him the most burning desire to prosecute a thorough study of the art. His soul was filled with that which he longed to express, but the future looked dark to him. He had no means and no prospect of being able to secure any further education. For a time he became burdened and depressed with these thoughts.

In July and August of that year, a Normal Academy of Music was held in Geneseo, New York, under Perkins, Cook, Bassini and others. It was the great event of the period among the musical people of the surrounding country. The advantages to be offered in training and culture were unusual, and of the utmost value to those desiring to cultivate music. Poor Bliss obtained the programme, and eagerly pored over the inducements and opportunities it offered. It was just what he needed. It would be such a joy to him to meet these masters in the art-such a help to him for all the future ; but the expense was far beyond his means. He had not a dollar in

He was almost heart

the world. It was impossible for him to go. broken about it. He threw himself upon the old settee in the sitting-room one day, when no one but Grandma Allen was in the room, and he says, "I just cried for disappointment. I thought everything had come to an end; that my life must be passed as a farm hand and country schoolmaster, and all bright hopes for the future must be given up." Grandma was full of sympathy, and wanted to know all about the trouble. After she had been told about the academy, she said, "Now, Phil., what does that cost?" "Well, Grandma," he said, "it would take as much as thirty dol

lars." "Well, thirty dollars is a good deal of money," said the kind old lady; "I have an old stocking that I have been dropping pieces of silver in for a good many years, and I'll just see how much there is. Perhaps there are thirty dollars, and if there are, why, you can take it and go to the Normal." The stocking was brought out and found to contain more than the thirty dollars, and Bliss spent six weeks of the hardest study of his life at the Normal. God bless dear old Grandma Allen. The world owes her interest compounded a hundred times over as long as she lives, and a grateful remembrance after her death, for what she did that day for P. P. Bliss. In the winter of 1860, Mr. Bliss formally took up the business of a professional music teacher. In his diary he says: In his diary he says: "Old Fanny (a horse) and a twenty-dollar melodeon furnished by O. F. Young set me up in the profession." The next three years were passed in and about Rome. He was quite successful as a teacher, and during the winter months had plenty of employment. In the summer he worked upon his father-in-law's farm, and again attended the Normal Academy in 1861, and in 1863. In 1861, he writes: "Summer at Geneseo, New York, T. E. Perkins, T. J. Cook and Pychowski, faculty this season." In 1862, there is this memorandum: "Worked on farm. Did not go off to school this summer— partly on account of my health and partly on account of my wealth! Winter, Honesdale, Pennsylvania, made the acquaintance of I. Brundage, a good Rev. and singer." To be a good minister and a good singer was to occupy a large place in Mr. Bliss' affections, and he ever esteemed Mr. Brundage as a very dear friend. Indeed, long before he entered upon the life of an evangelist, while following the profession of music, he had scores of warm-hearted personal friends among the ministers of the Gospel. He had a great respect for their calling-a desire to be helpful to them in their work, and a love for them individually, which all who came to know him most cordially reciprocated. From no other class of persons have so many and so tender expressions of love for his memory and sorrow at his death been received as from the ministers.

During these years at Rome, Mr. Bliss' pastor was Rev. Darwin Cook. Mr. Bliss esteemed him very highly, and ever spoke of him with affection. He has often said that it was Mr. Cook's encouraging words, more than anything else, that stimulated him to excel in his profession, and particularly turned his attention to the

BEGINNING OF PROFESSIONAL LIFE.

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composition of melodies for Sunday-school songs. Mr. Cook is still living, and participated in the funeral exercises of Mr. and Mrs. Bliss in Towanda, and writes as follows of his recollections of Mr. Bliss:

MAJ. WHITTLE:

MERRYALL, January 31, 1877.

Dear Bro.-I am sorry that I can't help you more. I went to Rome in 1850, and left in 1858. About 1855, I first met P. P. Bliss in the church at Rome He stood in the choir and sang. In our little company he could not fail to be observed. Therefore I said to Mr. O. F. Young, my chorister, "That young man's voice is worth a thousand dollars a year. Perhaps he does not know it." Mr. Young took him home with him to dinner, and afterward gave him his daughter. Mr. Bliss afterward said that remark of mine was the first hint he ever received that he had any competency or any possibilities more than ordinary. From that time, I occasionally met him while he was holding singing conventions. He began to compose laughable medleys, and to sing money out of the pockets of the penurious.

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I well remember that on one occasion such a man gave five dollars to some benevolence, if Bliss would sing his medley. I heard him sing his Little Willie," at a fortieth wedding anniversary, when the thought struck me, what a power has song to impress the Gospel. I went to him and told him the thought. I mentioned the remark of one who said, "Let me make the songs of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws." I instanced a case at hand then and there, in which his song, in five minutes, had effected more than eight years of preaching.

He was married in June, 1859. At the tenth anniversary I met him again, and was greatly pleased at his evident rapid development. When Mr. Bradbury died, I wrote to him, that if his (Mr. Bradbury's) mantle had fallen on any one, he (Mr. Bliss) must be the man. After the loss of his first child, he wrote to me, and indeed kept me informed of his doings and progress, and when he and Major Whittle were in the South, he had forwarded to me a daily, now and then, to tell me of his work. He had not united with the church when I left Rome, in the spring of 1858, and I do not know the precise date of that union.

I am thankful that I ever met that man, and that I was permitted to give him encouragement in the right direction. He stated publicly in a large congregation "that this man had done him more good than any other man." I don't now recall anything very important in his religious development. We only met occasionally after 1858.

His wife grew up in our Sabbath school, was strong, bright, active, promising, with a good musical talent. It was quite natural that the two should be drawn together. I always esteemed her very highly.

Yours in the Lord,

Merryall, Bradford Co., Pennsylvania.

DARWIN COOK.

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