| 386 "My mind had been very unsettled in every town I had visited, and no prospect of doing anything by way of preaching had presented itself, but here in West Bromwich I felt to make a stand. The news quickly spread that Charles Derry had returned from Utah. Old women commenced this gossip. Some said I was 'broken,' that is, worn down. Poor souls, they knew not what I had suffered in mind and body since last I saw them. The Brighamite brethren spread their doubtful rumors and expressed their dark suspicions about the object of my mission, proclaiming me an apostate. . . .
"I then went to a Brighamite meeting in West Bromwich, but found their minds very much poisoned against me. One man, named Southwick, saw me as I came in and remarked aloud to me, 'Charley, thee be'st a weak team, lad.' I acknowledged the corn, but I realized that the Lord was strong.
"Everyone took special pains to cast a slur or utter a sneer in their testimony, but they fell powerless. I arose to bear my testimony, but I was commanded to sit down. I did so, and the president told me I should have the privilege to say what I pleased at the close. I thanked him and took my seat until the close, when I arose to claim the privilege promised. The president then demanded to know what I wanted to say. I told him he would hear by the time I got through. He then insisted upon limiting me to two minutes. I had to submit but I put in my two minutes, nor did I waste words. None dared a reply, but all seemed to shun me, or to utter some contemptuous sneer. And this in the branch in which, nineteen years ago, I had been baptized and from which I had been sent out to preach the gospel. Yet I thank God not a soul among them could point to any wrong I had done, and I am persuaded that had I come among them as a missionary from Utah I would have been received as an angel of God, but now, in their eyes I must wear the brand of an apostate."
He continued to make West Bromwich an objective point, visiting other places in the vicinity, and laboring from house to house as the people were willing to hear him, an
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