The herald., 1894-02-05
A PULPIT sLANDERER.

A preacher in San Francisco, drawing
his inspiration, doubtless. from pre-
tentious but inaccurate so-called history
OF California, took occasion in recent
sermon to swespingly assail the found
ers of this state as . pack OF rogues.
He said that the 'esrly settlers of
California were merely gold-seekers, ad.
ventu.ers and dyspeptics; that they
filled the state with rszcals. and that
their children were even worse than
their fathers" 1t is aquestion whether
man who deals in calumny in this
wholesale manner, even although he
does so behind the sacred protection Of
the cloth, should be treated with the
slightest lenity. He is undoubtedly one
of those sensational preachers who
court notoriety even at the expense of
truth, and who, in order to have him
self talked about, is not only willing to
violate the amenities of hi. profession,
but to raise himself by chandler to the
bad eminence to which he sspires. Let
us, however, examine his denunciations
by the light of reason and truth. Adj
init that they were gold-seekers, what
then? Not only the early settlers but
the later settlers came here to seek
gold, if not in the mines, then in bust
ness, in the professions and in the fields
and the orchards. That the pioneers
were adventures argues nothing against
them. They adventured into q wild
and unsettled country. They brsved
the tomahawk of the Indian, the I'M
wholesome climate of tropical America
and the storms of Cape Horn to get
here. They were not spoon-fed stsy-st-
homes, but enterprising. courageous and
determined adventurers. Had they been
dyspeptics they would not have been
pioneers. But when this eliminating
parson says that they filed the state
with rascals, he not only flies directly in
the face OF truth, but he libels set oil
men who laid the foundations Of oul
state on broad and solid basis of ad-
vanced civilization, and made it possible
that those who came after them should
enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit o.
happiness, the blessings of religion ant
the benefits of a perfected system o
public education. That there were BAG
men amongst them argues nothing
against the character and probity of tb'
mass of early settlers. Are there NJ
rascals among us now? Is any com
munity without raHcals2 If the rever
end t-aducer can point it out to us, b,
will tell US of place which has no us'
for falsifiers, and where he would no
be welcome. Having established to hi
own satisfaction his assertion that tn
early settlers filed the state with ras
calls. it requires no great stretcl
of his jsundiced imagination to declar
that the children OF the pioneers ar
worse rascals than their fathers. Th
Native Sons of the Golden West are al
the children OF early settlers, and the,
present body OF young men of whom
any state may be proud. Suppose WI
should resort to the same kind OF sweep
ing tactics that this reverend calumni
ator does, and say that because h
falsely defames the pioneers, all preach
ers are liars. Every day, nearly, W
hear OF parson falling from grace, ye
that iustifies no one in applying a dis
graceful epithet to the whole guild o
preachers. We can say with perfec
verify, that there never was commu
nifty in the world that surpassed tn
early settlers OF this state in the trus
they reposed in each other, in the conf
dence men had in each others integ
rity and good faith. and that no societ
everreposed trust and good faith in thei
fellow-men and found it lesH abused 0