I am now in the full play of my faculties, and without any apprehension
of early departure, not having had any portents, nor seen the moon over
my left shoulder, nor had a salt-cellar upset, nor seen a bat fly into
the window, nor heard a cricket chirp from the hearth, nor been one of
thirteen persons at a table. But my common sense, and the family record,
and the almanac tell me it must be "towards evening."




T. DE WITT TALMAGE

AS I KNEW HIM




FIRST MILESTONE

1832-1845


Our family Bible, in the record just between the Old and the New
Testaments, has this entry: "Thomas DeWitt, Born January 7, 1832." I was
the youngest of a family of twelve children, all of whom lived to grow
up except the first, and she was an invalid child.

I was the child of old age. My nativity, I am told, was not heartily
welcomed, for the family was already within one of a dozen, and the
means of support were not superabundant. I arrived at Middlebrook, New