A Mere Civil Friendship: Franklin and Whitefield

A twenty-four-year-old minister with blue eyes and a fair complexion was speaking from the court house steps. He used no notes and looked steadily at his audience, though his left eye was slightly askew. An emotional speaker, he made violent and erratic gestures, acted out the Biblical narrative he was using, laughed convulsively, and wept openly. Throughout it all the crowd remained silent; in fact, the minister had seldom seen so quite an audience. There were many people in Market Street that day listening to this man thought by some to be the ‘Angel of God.’

One of those present was a stout fellow of thirty-three, well-known in the community. He was there not because he believed what the minister was saying, but to find out if this man could really be heard by 25,000 people as the Boston newspapers had claimed. As the minister proceeded, his curious observer walked to the rear of the crowd, determined the total area that it covered, and allowing each person in the crowd two square feet of space, concluded that more than 30,000 people could hear the speaker.