The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-07-25
METHODIST RUSTLER.
HONOR TO AN ARIZONA ELDER
WHO CONVERTED COWBOYS.

rrang Relation When Cheyenne Was
Hell on Wheels" end Full of Thieves
The Rev. George H. Adams, Who
Has Just Been Made Doctor of Divin-
i+v-Two Thousand Roughs at Ball
"You Can't Play Poker While
Preach"-A Typical Wild West Re-
former.
From the Neto York Telegram.
There is no doubt that the Methodists are
among the most aggressive evangelizers
at work in the great west President
Grant was Methodist, and he always had
q GOOD word to say for the presiding elders.
reporter met a distinguished western
ranresentative of the church at the Fifth
Avenue hotel yesterday who has just been
made I'D. Dr. by the Ohio university
As the reporter has met the gentleman in
various places in the west, and knows con-
siderable about his struggles where Indians
and buffalo disputed the advance of civil
cation, n few facts concerning his frontier
experiences NAV be interesting.
The gentleman's name is George H.
Adams. and, like Presidents Hayes and
Grant. he was born in Ohio. When the I'm
ION Pacific was building he went west to
grow up with the country. He began
work in cheyenne when that city was the
Uickedest town on the globe.
In those early days every other building
WAS a saloon or a dance house. Train rob
hers and horse thieves roamed the streets
and it was dangerous for a ''tenderfoot" to
he out after dark with money in his pockets.
The horrible scenes nightly enacted in
CHEYENNE gave it the name known far and
wide as Hell on Wheels" The Union Pa
cifc railroad company was sending millions
of dollars and every month an
army of men were paid off
within sight of Cheyenne. 1t
was no uncommon thing for half dozen
men to be shot or hanged after bedtime
within the town limits Mr. Adams said
that he had frequently seen a man or two
hanging from the telegraph poles on his way
to church in the morning.
Wells, Fargo & Co had their headquar-
ters there for protecting currency and gold
dust which were transported across the
plains. When they learned that thieves
were to raid their Cheyenne office they filled
their stockade with armed men. They not
only had revolvers and double-barreled
shotguns, but they were provided with short
muskets loaded to the muzzles with bits of
scrap iron and horseshoe nails. On two or
three occasions when the robbers tried to
storm the place the execution done by these
guns was something terrible.
1t was like running circus in blizzard
to conduct church service in those never-to-
be-forgot1en days. Saturday nights were
given over to wild revels.
On one occasion at a monster dance the
scum of the earth came long journeys to
participate in the frontier ball. Dissoute
men and women from Australia, New Tea
land, San FranClsco-in fact, from all parts
of the globe-were there-and nothing i'll
modern times has approached the rough
abandon of those frontier orgies. Whisky
ran like water Two thousand men and
women danced all night. Every man was
loaded with revolvers, had dirks and bowie
knives in his boots, and spurs on his heels
ready to mount a bronco paving at the
door. The women, too, were arm2d after
their fashion, and nearly every man was a
cuttnroat, gambler, or polltician-us-
ually all three.
1t was here in this frontier Babylon that
Brother Adams was expected to convert
men to God. When service began, along
about IL o'clock Sunday morning, few
faithful ones, together with the half drunk
an wrecks of the previous nights revels,
gathered in the little chapel to hear Elder
Adams expound the Gospel. Being plain
spoken man, of many years experience in
the west, he knew how TO hold his audience.
He made the English language blossom with
terse Saxon. Cowboys on the pine seats
smoked cigars, shelled peanuts and played
poker if they could get a chance, while the
preacher was opening the jaws of hell for
their inspection as sample Of what they
would get if they didn't repent.
On one occasion, when there was an I'M
seemiy disturbance, the parson stopped in
the midst Of some vigorous English, and,
advancing down the aisle, said in loud
commanding voice:
81 want you fellows to stop where you
are This is not a barroom. You can't
play poker and shell peanuts while | am
preaching. The first man that monkeys
with the devil here will find himself pitched
out of the window
II was this sort of able-bodied preaching
that struck home to the cowboys, and they
admired the pastor who was able to meet
them on Their own ground. In few months
the church was packed every Sunday with
quiet congregation of big rough men in
boots taat reached above the seats.
Brother Adams success in spreading Meth
odism in the West and his remarkable
ability for lifting mortgages off struggling
churches caused MIN to be appointed super
Intendent of mission work in Colorado and
later in Arizona and old Mexico.
A banker once said that Elder Adams was
almost too good a man to be preacher He
knew more about horse, than the jockeys
themselves. He knew all about real estate,
was good judge Of cattle, and whenever
he made trade somebody got left-outside
of the Methodist church. Whom bogus
mining schemes were sprung on the breth-
rem by certain other Mcthodlsts a few years
ago in Ohio Mr.. Adams exposed the char
hcter of the swindle and saved hundreds
from ruin
During a conversation with the Telegram
reporter Mr.. Adams said IL have trav-
eled over large portion of the United
States, and, after considering the adyan-
tages OF each section, | must say that Ari-
IONA, where am now living, offers more
Inducements for less money to enterprlsing
settlers and business men than the older
states and territories 1t is true that IN
many places the Arizona landscape has the
appearance of desert when seen by the
eyes of the 'tenderfoot,' but its soil is of
marvellous fertility, and the region can cas-
lily be transformed into garden"
How about waterW
Well strange to say, there is little wa
Yer IN sight, but the ground is full Of it. and
all you have to do is TO dig a pit or reser-
Yolr in the bed of dry river and the water
Immediately fills 1t TO the top. From this
the land can be irrigated with little dill
Guilty, as the grade is gently sloping aud
Tor the most part as level as a croquet
lawn.
A cubic foot OF water on Arizona soil
Will produce more vegetation than else
where IN the United States The old monks
Knew what they were about when they