Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-07-28

jurer, Charlie johnson, stood guard before
huge barred gate and demanded
blood money from the regenerate and the un-
regenerate alike, all of which he was careful
to salt down in his own capacious pockets, in
order to pay off a debt which the Christian
gang owed him for printing. This occupation
he diversified with psalm singing, though his
main business was squeezing the eagle on
silver quarter and swearing because there was
not more of them to be had.
| At the hotel other and noteworthy changes
were observed. The lean-faced, hard
! featured gang of two years ago had
| given place to different class
| One which looked more like the ordina-
| ry run of humanity and who evidently. be-
| tokened that they paid more attention to the
| gifts of Ceres and Bacchus. "Old Hutch"
| was there still with the same shutf1ing gait as
when of yore the Christians borrowed
| what little money he had made out of out
siders, to pay off their lecturers and stereopti-
| con exhibitors Back in the little Ofice-the
holy of holies, where the managing
saints were wont to congregate-
shades of the departed past, what
transformation, There where sat the wizard
faced but sanity Iowa mogul, deacon Gil
more, supplemented on either hand by Broth
ers Keith and Allen, stood a card table, and
worse still, party OF four S. Washburn aims
givers, were busily manipulating these wicked
tools and engines of Satan himself And
worse still, if possible, there stood the back
sliding Brother Keith himself, intently
watching the game. Shades of defunct chris
tianity a. 25 cents per head, whence
This collapse-this fall from grace on the
part of the Minneapolis postmaster, who two
years ago only, threw official dignity to the
to the four winds and embarked with untiring
zeal in the business of saving souls at quar-
ter apiece Surely demon of more than
satanic perversity has been at work on the
good deacon. Such change has taken place
there Is no question in the good brother
Keith. His mind is evidently no longer
engrossed in soul-saving, but lis
occupied with other and more worldly
considerations. The things of earth, and not
those of the hereafter, engross him. tie wears
a sad, serious look, and is tOrmented by Sc
rious thoughts, which will not down at his
bidding He is more concerned about the
Minneapolis postoffice than with the future
state of twenty-five cent salvation, and Is
watching every movement of his former CO.
laborer, the pharisaical Charlie johnson. He
knows his innate cunning, and is careful not TO
allow himself to be overreached by his unscru
pulous and cunning rival, even in the affections
of Bill Washhurn, whose position only makes
it worth his while to pay him court. The
berth to which Senator Mcmillan was to help
the obsequious Charlie, as the best means OF
settling the quarrel between the brethren, ,hav-
ing failed through the contumacy OF the un-
regeneratc Southern brigadiers, whom Bill
Washburn is so wont to berate, when none
are around, the presumptuous Charles isagaln
turning his wistful eyes to the Minneapolis
postoffice, and this the good brother Keith
knows full we'll and is watching him as cat
does mouse And well he may, for the
tricks of that heather Chinee are peculiar and
to watch them in all their ramifcations re-
qulres the eye of an eagle ,.
Turning to another part Of the same little
room where Brother Miller-the only sincere
and honest member of the sanity gang-sat
and patiently puzzled his brains over the prob
lem of how to pay running expenses out OF the
quarters OF the few Gentiles who strayed into
the enclosures of the saints, there was moth
ing of the past to be observed. All, all had
been swept away, and the spot where the good
brothers toied was occupied by the common
spring bottom of a cot. Time indeed had
wrought its most violent changes, and the
Saints Rest of yore is to-day the abiding place
of ordinary humanity. Outside the building
the change is eqnally marked. Of all chat
grand aggregation OF exercise and health
giving paraphernala-thre swings,
half dozen quoits and an archery
outfit rented to the aggregation by the pro-
prietor, who was bursted up and ruined in
business by failure to collect his dues from
the impeeunious gang-only solitary swing
is left to tell the tale. All the rest have dis
appeared in the niaw of inexorable time. One
other monument is left however of the past,
this is the bell near that huge pavilion on
paper, which the saints advertised as erected be.
fore a timber had been laid and which ulti-
mately dwindled into canvass tent. The old
bell stands yet and forcibly recalls the scenes
incident on its tapping the announcement to
the assembled Christians (your 25-cent Chris
tian of the Minneapolis and Iowa gang stripe
is ever ready to eat that dinner was waiting.
The rush, the tumult, the pushing and shov-
ing which ensued, will long be remembered.
That old bell stands to-day monument that
"There was boarding house,
Not far away;
Where they set up beans and hash
Three times day.
Oh! how they yell,
When they hear that dinner bell
Three times day." x
The features of clutch" when he saw this
rush presented never-to be-forgotten picture.
The 25-cent saints were notoriously ravenous
and, what is worse, had been Sharp enough to
stipulate with the Boniface for their meals
at half price. Another year of such agony, as
he watched the victudls disappear, would
surely have consigned the poor nf>sn to Tie
dreary abodes of st. Peter. From this fate he
was happily saved through the instrumental
| ity of the GLOBE in breaking up the swindling
| fraud.
| Such is a brief resume of the present condi-
| ton of the famous swindle which, born in
| sin and nurtured in iniquity, took its rise
and fall on the fair shores of Min
netonka two years ago. The tactics of its
| movers are familiar-how they used Lake City
| ~ h,rC nv,