The Republican journal., 1886-08-12
The Preacher Playing Baseball.

There is some CONSERVATION among truly
good people at the East over the fact that
minister i'll one Of the smaller towns near Bos-
ton. has resigned his pa>toratc, and accepted
the position of pitcher in a baseball club. 1t
seems little tough but the congregation will
have to stand it, as the minister says his call
inc and election is sure as a baseball player.
He tried preaching faithfully on four hundred
dollars year, and tried to support family,
but when he had a call to play baseball at
three thousand dollars Il wear, he felt that it
was his duty to accept.
10 those of his former congregation who
find fault with him, and say he has fallen from
grace, and is i'll the employ of the devil, lie has
replies that silence them. He SAYS in the first
place that the college at which he was educat-
ed paid more attention to the education of his
| muscles than his brain. The athletic exercises
We're compulsory, and before he realized it he
was champion oarSman, a foot-bast, and Il
| baseball player of note. lie tried to learn all
that was possible of that which was good. be-
tween his athletic studies in order to prepare
himself for the ministry, and he believes that
he graduated a. well posted as ministers aver
age, and when he was assigned to a pulpit, he
tried to do his duty, but it was uphill work,
| and when he saw his classmates playing base
ball al good salaries. and he was compelled to
take his pay i'll donations of farm produce, and
be looked upon as an object of charity, he felt
that playing baseball couldn't he very bad. and
he accepted Il position. and instead of owing for
groceries and seeing his family poverty stricken,
he has money in the bank, his family lives we'll
and he thinks he can lay up money enough dur
lhg the baseball season so he can preach for
nothing all winter, and he had rather do that
than preach for pay. and not Get it without beg
gihg. some Of his congregation tell him that
f, l.,I1
players, where betting is INDUCED in
lie replies that since he has been in The base
ball club there has been less backbitn@ than
there was in his church, and he has had less
mean things said about him by the baseball
players than he did by his brethren before he
left the church.
lie says he has vet to hear any person say his
wife is eNtraNagant because She made over an
old bonnet into a new one, by putting on Il
piece of cherry ribbon, and some Of the sisters
IN his >formerscongregation did abuse his wife
for the same thing before he left.
He said before he left off preaching he carried
subscription paper around for week to raise
money TO send poor woman to her friends in
Illinois, and finally had to make up most of the
money himself out of his alleged salary, while
few days ago, on the ears, his baseball club
encountered Il woman who was out of funds.
and wanted to get to Missouri, with her baby,
and before the woman had time TO tell her story
the baseball boys raised sXty-iyc dollars for
her, and wanted her to take more and they
tended her baby for two hundred miles, and
made her happy.
lie says As far as betting on the game is con-
cernet, he is opposed to it, but he can't help it.
If people want to bet they will bet on anything,
and if they are to bet they had best wager on Il
square Egame of baseball or square horse
race. than to take chances on a church grab
bag or lottery, where they are bound to lose
their money anyway.
The minister is evidently loaded for bear, and