Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1877-07-08
GOING TO
The Sabbath Of Our BoyhOod and
n Way We spent It-sunday on
the Base Range.

tally outside OF the larger towns anC
cities, church going is looked upon by
the older mes as a duty, and enforced
attendance is required of the young
No surer or more certain token o.
moral depravity is looked for, or noted
down against any one, than the fact ol
his or her continued absence from the
sacred edihce on the Sabbath. Few OF
our middle aged readers are there but
can remember, when they were
youths, the hush and calm that
seemed to fall upon all nature at the
advent of the holy day. The birds
lost a portion of their vivacity; the
robins ceased their strife in the pop
lars; the woodpecker desisted from his
monotonous drumming on the butter.
nut; the jay screamed less harshly; the
cows in the pasture piucked the grass
sedately, or lay lazily chewing their
cuds; and the only sign of life was the
droning of the bees as they settled on
the h~ollyhocks or explored a dahlia in
the fower-garden in front of the old
farm house; even the old horse, at
tacbed to the antiquated buggy that
bad done service on the farm for a long
period of years, seemed to droop his
head lower and assume an appearance
OF sedateness that contrasted wonder
fully with week day belongings. The
jog of three or four miles to church
was accom- plished with "a gait BETTING
the soieipnity of the occasion, and the
whip was rarely applied to hasten his
footsteps. Arriving at the meeting.
house, as it was popularity known, he
was hitehed to tho pos;-one of many
that had stood in the same place for
vears-xud the worshipers descended
from the vehicle. Three generations
were comprised in the load-grand
father, grandmother, the stalwart and
horny-handed son and his buxom wife,
and US children.
II MEETING HOUSE.
Our spirits were always woefully de-
pressed by the time we reached the
STRAIGHTFORWARD pew. and our furtive
glances at our white haired ancestor
put a further damper on US, for the
spirit of the old Puritan shone from
his eyes and we knew that any boyish
ebullltion or coltish tricks would re-
eeive due and meet correction by the
aid Of an apple-blossom switch-a
mode of punishment fresh in our
memory by reason OF application for
past transgressions. How we gaze | at
him and wondered how he could keep
so wide awake under the droning voice
of the preacher, the monotonous tones
of which set our eyelids to dropping
and our head to nodding in spite
Of an honest effort on our part TO
l Eaun nm nm npzarunea of txuk afnInnGS
g lped thereto by an Gee tsional pinch
from the nearest grown member of the
family. Ii we managed to listen to the
dry theological husks served out to us
poor s%inners, the thought would co me
into our boyish beads that If, as we
we're taught, Heaven was an eternal
Sunday, the very slight chance OF our
being n of the elect would be no
great deprivation, although the alter
native of fire and birthstone filled us
with terror. The sufferings and
mental agonies of a youth brought up
and trained in the orthodox method
that obtained twenty-five years ago,
can never be told on paper. nor under
stood by those who never endured it.
The stern repression of every boyish
impulse anu instinct, the knowledge
that no matter how good we might be,
vi tib llpANS W. w pt
one OF the chosen of the Lord, that it
was all a futile and vain struggle, IN
less God had selected us from the be-
ginning. sufliced to make us miserable
creatures on that particular day, or at
least while We We're under the re-
straints so heavily imposed on us on
The day the Lord rested from his
labors. Fancy the ~commotion that
the ad ven of n Bob Ingersoll with his
heretical and skeptical doctrines would
have kicked up in the olden time. The
very whisper that an individual enter
tanned atheistical notions, was enough
TO brand him as a man to be stunned,
and furtivoly pointed out in much The
anne a that we would in the present
day ook at a murderer or noted viii
lain. He WAS outside the pale of So
ciety, and it was a source of great on
dermeDt to us youngsters why so
wicked a man was allowed TO cumber
the earth. The Sunday school litera-
ture that was our mental pabulum on
that holy day, and TO which We were
forced To turn as a slight relief from
the oppressive influences that sur
rounded US, is a thing of the past. The
good boys who always died blessing
their fond parents, and the bad ones
that went sailing and got drowned.
have been mmortaliZed hy Mark
Twain. and only live IN his books,
and the memories of those who re-
call O past era. Contrast a
NEVADA MINING OWN
OF to-day with n OF the Eastern viii
lagos referred to. Take Eureka as an
examples: We are blessed with a
number of churches, each of which
exercises an ~undoubted moral in
tiuence on the community at large;
but the worshippers present a marked
contrast to those of the olden time.
The women outnumber the men, and
boys do not figure among the congre-
CATION. The youths are out playing
base ball on the hillside, billiards in
the saloons, or looking owe their re-
spected parents shoulder while he is
deep in the mysteries OF pedro. If not
engaged in these amusements, a crowd
of these representative young Ameri-
cans congregate on the corners, cigar
in mouth, impudenily putting the
,1l-a Ia chair al1Argf fuaao chatting