The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1890-08-30
A sermon in a Camp Of R,ilroaders.

A Sermon in a Camp of R~nilroaders.
Tho Mclean county boys working on
the railroad west of Missoula have been
heard from through Ed. Ramsett. He
sends us the copy of a sermon which is said
to have been preached to the crew there on
a recent sabbath, which we publish in full.
Ed. says the sermon had a good effect, and
the boys were much affected by it:
"My beloved brethering-I am a unlarnt
hardshell Baptist preacher, of whom you've
no doubt hearn afore, and I nov appear
here to expound the Scripters and pint out
the narrow way which leads from a vain
world to the streets of %Jaroosalem; and
my tex, which I shall choose for the occa-
sion, is in the leds of the Bible somewhat
between the second Chronikills and the
last chapter of Timothy Titus, and when
you find it, you'll find it in these words:
"tAnd they shall gnaw a file, and fee
unto the mountains of HePsidam, where
the lion roareth and the whang-doodle
mourneth for its f%rst-born.'
'Now, my brethering, as I have before
told you, I am an oneddicated man, and
know nothing about grammar talk and
collidge %highfalutin, but I'm a plain, I'M
larnt preacher of the Gospel, what's been
foreordained and called to prepare a per-
varse generation for the day of wrath-eh!
For they shall gnaw a file and flee unto
the mountains of Hepsidam, where the
lion roareth and the whang-doodle mourn
eth for its first-born-eh!
my beloved brethering, the tex says
they shall gnaw a fle.' 1t does not say
they MAY, but SHALL Now, there is more
than one kind of file. There's the hand
saw file, the rat-tail file, the single file, the
double file, and profile; but the kind of a
file spoken of here isn't one of them kind,
bekause it's a tigger of speech, and means
going it alone and getting ukered; 'For
they shall gnaw a file, and flee unto the
mountains of H%epsidam, where the lion
roareth and the w~hang-doodle mourneth
for its irst-born-eh!'
'"And now, there be some here with fine
clothes on their backs, brass rings on their
fingers, and lard on their hair, what goes
it while they're yung; and there be others
here what, as long as their constitooshins
and forty-cent whisky lasts, goes it blind.
There be sisters here what, when they gets
sixteen years old, cuts their tiller-rope and
goes it with a rush. But I say, my dear
brethering, take care you don't find that,
when Gabriel blows his last trump, your
hand is played out and you've got ukered
-,eh! For they shall gnaw a file and fee
unto the mountains of Hepsidam, where
the lion roareth and the whang-doodle
mourneth for its frst-born-eh!'
"Now, my brethering, the tex also says,
they shall fee into the mountains of Hep
sidam;'' but there's more dams char Hep
sidam. There's Rotterdam, Had-dam,
Amsterdam, and 'Don't-care-a-dam,' the
last of which, my brethering, is the worst
of all dams, and reminds me of a sirkum-
STAINS I onst knowed in the state of Illinoy.
There was a man what built him a mill on
the north fork of Ager crick, and twas a
good mill and ground a sight of grain; but
the man what built it was a miserable sin
ner and never gave anything to the church;
and my brethering, n night there came
q dreadful storm of wind and rain, and the
mountains of the great deep was broke up,
and the waters rushed down and swept
that mans mill-dam to kingdom come;
and 10! when he woke up in the morning
he found he wasn't worth a dam-eh! For
they shall gnaw q file and fee unto the
mountains of Hepsidam, where the lion
roareth and the whang-doodle mourneth
for its f~rst-born-eh!
1hope I don't hear anybody larfn, do I?
SNOW, where the lion roareth and the
whang-doodle mourneth for its first-born
-eh!' This part of my tex, my beseach-
ing brethering, is not to be taken as it
says. 1t don't mean the bowling wilder
ness, where John, the hard-shell Baptist,
fed On locusts and wild asses; but it means
my brethering, the city of New Y'Orleans,
the mother of harlots and hard lots, where
corn is worth SIX bits a bushel one day and
nary a red the next; where niggers are as
thick as black bugs in spilled bacon, and
gamblers, thieves and pick-pockets GO
skiting about the streets like weasels in a
barn-yard; where honest men are scarcer
than hens teeth; and where a strange wo-
man once took i'll your beloved preacher
and bamboozled him out of two hundred
and twenty-seven dollars in the twinkling
of a sleeps tail; but thank God, she can't
do it again! Hallelu-yah! For they shall
gnaw q file and fee unto the mountains OF
Hepsidam, where the lion roareth and the
whang-doodle mourneth for it's frst-boru
-eh!'
"My brethering, I'm the boss of that NJ
box car, you see, and have got her loaded
with flour, bacon, taters. and as good Mo
nongahela whisky as was ver run through
a prohibishun state, and I'm mighty apt
to get a big price for 'em all; but what,
So, Jaor broAhor;no would ~ oil bo xuorkb