Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1892-06-02
THE FIoHTINo PREACHER.
Being an Account of Mistake Which
Some OF the Boys Made.

Being an Account of "A Mistake Which
Some OF the Boys Made.
About the most deceivin' and sur.
prism man that ever had his turn
with the boys at the Cross Roads was
the Reverent Jonathan Pepperman
relates the Georgia Inquirer-Sun. He
was Methodist preacher and rode
what they called the Backwoods Cir
cult three years hand runnin.' He
was little quick motioned hump
shouldered. willy lookin' man. with
hair and whiskers as red as fox's
tail.
II do say it myself Jonathan Pep
perman was good man, and there
wasn't anything particularly slouchy
about him as preacher. He didn't
have much to say outside of the church
meetin's. but he had his heart
wrapped up in the good work, and
you could look into his clear. steady
gray eyes and tell that he was game
to the bone.
The preacher started off one Satur.
day evenin' to fill his appointments
for Sunday down at old Yellow Shank
church AID his route took him around
by the Cross RoadS The boys was
havin' powerful lively times that
evenin. Liquor had been fowin'
right free and there was horse race
and two or three fights goin' on at the
same time. 1t was more than the
preacher could stand still and put up
with. lie hitched the horse and
mounted big dry goods box and lit
into the crowd without any gloves on.
He told the boys in his own plain.
blunt way that it was headin' straight
for that country where they could not
git any water and didn't need any
whiskey to keep them warm. Some
OF them, he said, want worth the
gospel salt that it would take to save
them and some was so stinkin' mean
that the devil would throw up his Job
II he could keep from bein' caught in
their company.
T; The boys stood off and took the
medicine like he fixed it up for them
till he got through and quit Then
they closed in on him and told him
not to hurry off in the heat of the day.
They didn't like to be rough and un,
gentle with preacher. they said, but
at the same time preacher ought to
keep himself in a preachers place.
Vt didn't look to them like he was in
amy big hurry about reachin' his ap-
Pointment an bein' as he had plenty
OF time to spare they would have to
ask him to tarry till they could un-
button his galluses and give him a
good. sound spankin'. They didn't
like to do il, but it. simply had to be
did. The preacher put in some Sc
rious objections and tried his level
best to talk the boys out OF their fool
notion, but they stuck to it that the
job had to be tended to right then
and there.
! So they pitched in without krowin'
what big slice of blue blazes they
was bitin' OF. They soon found the
fob CROWN devilish unpleasant for the
crowd. The little preacher could
kick like a young steer and hit like o
clap OF thunder at the same time and
he had two or three OF the boys done
up and laid out before you could turn
around. Then the main crowd took
up for the preacher and put a stop to
the performances They decided il
might be better may be. to let him
keep his galluses on and put off the
spaDkin to u more convenient time.
There was meetln' at old Yellow
Shank church the next day as usual
and after that the little Methods,
circuit rider didn't have no better
friends than the boys he met over al
the Cross Roads that Sunday evenin'.