Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1886-11-23
A CHURCH ON THE BORDER.
A Surprising Revival Which a stran
ger Reported in Omaha.

A Surprising Revival Which a stran-
ger Reported in Omaha.
You see, some months ago an eastern
chump with a pale face and big spectacles
landed in Wayback an put up the pur-
test little skulehouse We ever sot eyes on,
an got brand new cow-bell rugged in the
cupolo before he diskivered there weren't
q chick nor child in the hull place" said
q stranger to a piano dealer, according to
the Omaha World.
Rather short,sigbted | should say
Why didn't some one tell him.
"Wayback people hez got inter the
habit of mi ndin' their own business. its
safer We didn't know what he was a.
dom and he, as you say, was near-sight-
ed. an guess his spectacles was second
handed ones, anyhow. HOwsomever,
We bought him out an intended to use the
purity buildin' fer new saloon, but dang
me if it didn't look SO much like church
that it made US homesck.'
II see. q"
''Yes, the boys Just felt as if that there
cOwbell was a-ringin' out a kind of er
benediCtion when they went to take it
down. So they let it stay there and got
inter the habit of swearin' a little less
emphatically when astandin' in front of
it."
yes"
well. things went on. the spirit of
grace a-growin' an a-grnwin' till one day
an Italyon struck the town with hand
organ, an just like u providence that
music factory played "Old hundred" an
another church tune some O. the boys
knew"
THAT helped along, no doubt
Helped With that there church look
in skulehouse on one side of the street
an that hand-organ a piayin Old Hun~
dred' on the other, it just made us feel as
if we were to home playin' mumpelty
peg in the back pews with the dear dead
an gone old folks prayin fer their sins
on the mOurner's bench | tell you we
couldn't stand it, an we Just made up
our minds we'd turn that skulehouse inter
a church. But there's one thing | forgot
There amt no one in Wayback wnt kin
play organ. an I'll have 10 hire an or
ganist too.
Il believe | can find young man wills
ing to move there if the inducements are
sufficient"
well, we talked over that, an allow ed
that, as he hain't no preacher, we could
give him 81 a Sunday, an Brother Bill
kins promises him regular job as bil>
lard marker during the week.
But that won't suit, know"
We'll, it is rather slow work, that's So
an thought of that, too. an it struck
me that as there's good many dudes in
WAY back now | could make a nice ar
rangement with a man who understands
handlin' the organ an' knows all about
Row to mix drinks. Brother Buffers
said only last week that he wanted a fell
Ter of that kind, and besides that there's
two or three poker-roOms in need Of
steady, reliable help. There's plenty OF
inducements, you see, fer steady goin'
Christian Teller, an we got law against
shootin' now, so he kin refuse to drink
whenever be thinks he's had all he kin
stand. That's a big improvement, amt
it?"
ShOuld say SO, Dub LHOl-HG tIt
intimated that revival was already III
progress?'
Its in full blast, mister Wish you
could see it. After that there hand or
gan was speakin about stopped playin'
we Clipped in an. asked the Teller wot he
would take fer it, and told him he ought
to put the price low for the good of the
cause. Well, he did,
"He did,"
Yes, he made us an offer that sur
prised US, but he had monkey with
him, an insisted we'd have to take the
monkey, too, and he charged like-like
fire for that
You took it?'
ooh, We had To-. There weren't no
geltin' out of it; besides that we didn't
know but the monkey might be useful
fer turnin the crank or ringin the hell,
but he wercn'L-not half biz enough
80 you started your revival with that
instrument. eh?'
"Yes, and for the first three Sundays
everything went slick as grease. The
boys wern't quite sure about any tune
except old Hundred, so we didn't try the
other one But last Sunday we got kind
er tired singin that over an over again, so
we concluded to try the other, but dang
me If we ddn' have To play through the
wickedest lot o circus music you ever
heard before we got to it. 1t was dis
gustin'."
80 | should imagine"
Yes; we just felt as if the sanctity Of
the day was broken, so we went back to
Brother Buffers poker,rooms. Then we
held a meetin', an | was delegated to
come to Omaha an'git regular organ and
some one to manage it. au' the boys don't
want any of yer uproaratic organists.
either"
"Of course not. But what did you do
with the monkey"
1.-The monkey! Oh! lie weren't good
fer nothin' else so we took the unregen-
crate little cuss down to the pond. i'm.
mefsed, him couple O. times, lected him
deacon. an now he takes up the collec>
ton"