Middletown transcript., 1891-06-18
THE CHURCH AT KEHOE'S BAR

| I atKehoe's Bar-and such men
4 with cold, unreeking eyes,
brown, tough, creased and year-singed
faces hard as stone through their
matted boards, and harder still with
out those tangled screens, in many
cases grown to shield from eyes that
never came, but. which dare not be
met.
There were two hundred women at
Kehoe's Bar-and such women !-of
them the least said, soonest forgiven.
In usual communities the better
half looks askance at the worse, fears,
shudders and condemns.
But things were different at Ke.
hoes.
The rough, bluff and tough little
Sodom never had q better half, but
brawled and cursed within itself, and
grubbed and fought the gritty sands
without, year after year, in all the
pristine wickedness of its bachelorhood
of vice.
There was no church at Kehoe's
Bar. i
No meeting house but Purselfs
Chapel"-mining-town sarcasm, that
-Pursell's, where none but heathen
gods might claim their deyotees ;
drunken Bacchus, tipseled Venus,
and a blear-eyed god of war, 10 end
the drunken orgies of the waning
night ard add one more sunken spot
to the Struggling row on the hill be-
yond the bar.
And there was no church at Ke-
hoes. - ----.-'-
A tall, spare man. with deeply ear
nest eyes and long black coat had
once sternly denounced the sins of the
Kehoites, right under their sharp or
ruby noses, as the case might be, and
in their wolfish faces had warned the
yelling citizens of the wrath to come,
and 70 fee while yet there was time.
Punishment condign had no fears
for them. They fouted him and
secuted him. They laughed the gray
haired man. to scorn, and drove him
from the town with curses. The
Vigilance Committee" cut off the
tails Of bis long black coat, daubed
him with mud, and warned him with
theworse. Bewildered and bruised, he
went away
Bacchus, Venus and Mars resumed
their mutual sway. and Kehoe's was
its struggling, wolfish self once more.
Yet here again 1.-THE diggins" were
in an uproar and dumbfounded with
sheer amazement.
Another " gospel sharp" had dared
show himself at Kehoe's
And, what was more and tarnally
wuss," between the pines, by Pursell's,
tapped and tautened broad, white
sheet announcing in bold capitals a
religious service there that evening.
They all came down to see the fun.
Tall, stumpy, fat and hungry. Grim
in their likeness to the wilderness
from which they tore their livelihood.
Fearless and contemptuous alike of
God, or man, or devil. A swearing,
roaring mob, stained with clay,
tobacco, rum and sin-the last thick
er and more palpable than all the
rest.
Across the stumps was nailed a
plank, and upon this whip-sawed
platform before them, stood the gos-
pei sharp" young, slender, steady
eyed. his yellow hair thrown careless
ly back.
A short blue coat and a flannel
shirt, belt and faded trousers--a
Disappearing growl showed how un.
willingly the crowd were baked Of
their expected ridicule of dingy sacer.
dotal sable and long cloth tails.
There was moment or so Of .antic-
| ipatory calm. The frank blue eyes
Of the young missionary gauged the
homogeneously motley crowd then
turned upon the hanging sign and
read, in silent emphasis Of its declara-
ton then turned camly to the ell.
bowing crowd. A pair of hands rest
ed carelessly upon flexible hips. The
silence was complete. He spoke, low
but firmly:
81 have come to build a church at
Kehoe's BARI
No minstrel premier ever more con-
vulsed an appreciative audience with
comic yarn. Such screams Of laugh
ter and hoarse whoops of mirth. Oh
all ridiculous things they had dream
ed, this was the richest. A church
at Kehoe's Kehoe's children roared
amain. Out of it all arose clear
tenor voice. With unfinching gaze
and earnest smile, the young minister
was singing. singing until the wild,
derisive howl died down through ex-
haustion and they listened again
This, was q novelty. Sweet and
strong rang out the young, clear
voice. The ursine crowd almost for.
got they came to revile, in the unex
pected.
"Sweet By-and-By" was a new
song to them, and good voice a
precious rarity in their bacchanals ;
but sweet" and beautiful" we're
too efeminats words for the crude
! vocabulary of Kehoe's Bar. They
struck no sympathetic chord. The
"by .and-by" had no sweets for those
warped natures-their sieved. Graded,
greed.washed, blood.splashed shores
were all but beautiful" and the
murmur of adverse intent bubbled up
anew. This singer paused a moment,
irresolute, his eyes wandering above
the passion-tossed human waves be-
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