Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1892-05-27
THE FIGHTING PREACHER,
Being an Account of Mistake Which
Some OF tho Hoys Made.


Being an Account of Mistake Which
Some OF the noys Made.
About the most dcceivin' aud sur
prism man that ever had his turn
with the boys at tho Cross Roads was
tho Reverent Jonathan Pepperman.
relates the Geot gia lnouirer-Sun He
was II Methodist preacher and rode
what they called the Backwoods Cir
cult three years hand runnin.' He
was u little quick motioned hump
shouldered. willy lookin' man. with
hair and whiskers as red a; fox's
tail
II do say it myself Jonathan Pep.
perman was a good man. and there
wasn't anything particularly slouchy
about him as IA 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 ut 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 go.n' on at the
Same time 1t was more than the
preacher could stand still and put up
with. He hitched the horse and
mounted big dry goods box and lii
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 OF
if he could keep from bein' caught in
their company.
The boys stood off and took the
medicine like he fixed it up for them
till he got through and quit. Their
they closed in on him and told hin
not to hurry off in the heat of the day.
They didn't Ike to be rough and un
gentle with preacher they SAID. bu
at the same time g preacher ought t.
keep himself in preachers place.
1t .dn't look to them like he was II
any big hurry about reachin' his up
pointment an bein' as he had plenty
OF time to spale they would have t.
ask HIM to tarry till they could -un
h,,tt nd ~; Ia ,
good sound spankin'. They didn
like to do it. but it simply had to b.
did. The preacher put in some Sc
r.ous obJ ections and tried his leve
best to talk the boys out OF their foo
notion. but they stuck to it that thu
job had to be tended to right thel
and there.
SO they pitched in without KNOWN
what big slice of blue blazes the
was bitin' OF. They soon found tn
job GROWN devilish unpleasant for tn
crowd. The little preacher coul'
kick like young steer and hit like
clap Of thunder at the same time. an,
he had two or three of the boys don
up and laid out before you could turl
around Then the main crowd too
up for the preacher and put II stop I
the performance. They decided
might be better, may be. to let hir
keep his galluses on and put of tn
spankin to II more convenient time
There was meetin' at old Yello,
Shank church the next day as usual
and after that the little Methods
circuit rider didn't have no bette
friends than the boys he met over a
the Cross Roads that Sunday evenin