Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 November 1874 — Muscular Christianity in the Far West. [ARTICLE]

Muscular Christianity in the Far West.

I saw one of those desperadoes get a nice dose of quiet courage and stern will at this time, 1867. I had had occasion to go down the road, and had to wait for the train. My abiding place was one of those dining-tents, where I had taken a meal in the meantime. Among the several persons seated around, one evidently was very raw. His dress was semi-clerical, and, as he held forth in no constrained manner about “ the terrible sin” and “ Babylonish Cheyenne,” the old-timers within hearing enjoyed, in an uncouth way, poking small chaff at him. In the midst of one of his tirades against “ this sinkhole of perdition” a man came into the tent, walked up to the bar, and demanded a drink It seems for some reason he had been refused before. Suddenly throwing his hand under his coat, he drew a six-shooter, and, half facing the crowd and the barkeeper, he said with an oath: “ I’m going to have a drink right here, or I’ll turn loose” (meaning to shoot)! To tell the truth, most of those terrible old-timers broke for the door, the barkeeper sunk under the counter, and death to some one seemed imminent. I confess to a cold sensation down my back, and thought of several debts that different parties owed me, and wondered if I should ever be paid; the green field in which I had sported as a child rose before me vividly; I remembered one Sunday, having played off sick, I went down to the foot of Mill street and went swimming. I felt sorry for the Frogtown boy who licked me once; but what a sight! That parson—his tall, slim form seems to grow taller as, in a quiet way, he strides up to the death-dealing cuss with the pistol. He wrenches that weapon from this terror; graspshim by the throat, fairly lifting him from his feet; his protruding tongue and blackening face show the powerful grip of the parson’s hand, and, to make the picture complete, says in ordinary tones, “My friend, I have observed you before to-day trouble the landlord of this tavern; I am of opinion that you are entirely in the wrong place. The landlord appears to think you have had a sufficiency of intoxicating liquor. Now observe, if you create any further disturbance I will jerk the gullet out of you.” And he literally threw him headlong out of the door. Subsequently the parson held forth on the sins and iniquities of Cheyenne, and was listened to respectfully by the subdued old sinners.— Fort Laramie (Wyominq T.) Cor. Cincinnati Commercial.