Russworm-an intelligent negro, who has since died lieutenant-governor of Liberia-joined my class in 1824 and soon made application to join one of the literary societies. This application was contested by stormy opposition from Frank Pierce and other collegians. My enthusiasm for the negro's rights then and there subjected me to an uncomfortable amount of obloquy, and, though honored with no hangman's rope as was Mr. Garrison ten years after, still, before Russworm's rights were acknowledged, as they were, I was hissed and hooted down to my heart's content.

After finishing his college course, he became a student at the Andover Theological seminary, from which he graduated in 1829.

September 15, 1830, he was ordained at Framingham and settled as pastor of the Congregational society in that town. Seven months later, April 15, 1831, he was married, in Lancaster, to Miss Ruth F. Packard, daughter of Rev. Asa and Nancy (Quincy) Packard. He closed his pastorate over the Framingham church April 6, 1836, and a few months later became minister of the Congregational church at Warren, Mass., where he remained about eleven years. During his ministry at Warren he founded Quabog academy for boys and girls. Lucy Stone received her education at this academy and was a frequent visitor in Mr. Trask's family.

During these sixteen years of active service in the ministry, Mr. Trask was a zealous worker in temperance, anti-slavery and similar reforms. Many a time did he address audiences on these subjects "when," as he says, "brickbats were in high repute, and when we had to say to 'gentlemen of property and standing,' 'Gentlemen, these arguments are weighty, but not conclusive."" In this connection we may note the cause of his giving up his pastorate over the church in Framingham. Rev. Mr. Trask would pray for the slaves every Sunday, and one of the influential deacons strenuously opposed his doing Neither would give in to the other and Mr. Trask

so.

very properly withdrew from such an unchristian contest and sent in his resignation as pastor. He lacked the sympathy of even his immediate relatives in his agitation of reforms, his father frequently telling him to "preach the gospel," and let other matters alone.

Early in 1847 Mr. Trask's pronounced anti-slavery views, coupled with his recognized ability as a preacher, led the members of the Trinitarian church here in Fitchburg to extend him a call to become their pastor. This call was accepted and Mr. Trask was installed July 21, 1847. He continued as pastor less than two years, severing his pastoral relations on June 18, 1849. There were apparently two reasons for his doing this-one was poor health and the other a burning impulse to labor in his new field, which proved to be his life-work during the last twenty-five years of his career, the anti-tobacco crusade. As the "Anti-Tobacco Apostle," Rev. George Trask was one of the most noted and widely-known citizens of Fitchburg from 1850 to 1875.

For over twenty years he had been an excessive user of the weed. He wrote in his autobiography: "Physicians said I was at the gates of death. I abandoned this poison. The act was an epoch in my life." Having eman. cipated himself, he was all aglow to free his fellow-men from the tobacco habit. habit. He began by talking to his tobacco-using neighbors. Then he went into the public schools and Sunday schools in Fitchburg and talked to the children and circulated pledges against tobacco and strong drink. Later he began the publication of his antitobacco and anti-rum tracts and Anti-Tobacco Journal, and spent much of his time going hither and yon circulating them and his pledges and medals and making innumerable addresses in churches and public halls, besides doing an immense amount of missionary work privately on railroad trains, or wherever he chanced to be.

Some years later he was advised by a clerical brother to publish extracts from his experiences in traveling about the country, and in 1863 there appeared his "Journal and Memoranda of My War on Tobacco." The writer has seen only extracts for the years 1852, 1853 and 1854, and there is no evidence that there are published records of other years.

A few of these extracts from his printed journal will perhaps, better than anything else, give an accurate idea of Mr. Trask's methods and labors in prosecuting his mission:

Oct. 28, 1852.-On my way to Boston see Rev. Dr. P. in the cars; have a free talk on the evils of tobacco. He says, "It is an insidious evil; it injures the individual more than the community; to fight it is like fighting the miasma;" and winds up by saying, "Brother, I would not fight it another day. Take a parish, be quiet and happy the rest of life."

Boston.-Right in front of the Tremont Temple a clerical brother takes me by the button and facetiously asks, "Brother, have you got all the tobacco out of the world?" "Not all, brother; to mend the world is a vast concern. Dr. P. bids me quit this reform and take a parish." "No, no," my friend exclaims, "go on; agitate, agitate. It is up-hill work, but in the strength of the Lord go on." Doctors disagree. Malden, Nov. 1.-The clergy here seem about right. They entertain my cause with sufficient respect and interest. Sabbath.—In the morning preach on the sinful affinities of tobacco, in the Methodist church; in the afternoon, on the same, in the Baptist church. In the evening I lectured chiefly on the traffic in this poison. As I enlarged on the immorality of manufacturing cigars and selling them to thoughtless urchins and dandies, my audience became much excited. The cause I could not divine. As I closed I learned that a superannuated clergyman, "deaf as an adder," and who had kept his trumpet at his ear all the evening, was a manufacturer of cigars and had piles of the genuine Havana at the depot, manufactured in Malden! The audience was excited, not so much by the magic of my eloquence, as by the fact that I was dealing with a brother clergyman a little as Nathan dealt with David.

Monday morning.-Call on my clerical friend. He appears well; talks like a good man. He says, "You convinced me, last evening, that