The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 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 ''early settlers of
California were merely gold-seekers, sd.
ventu1ers and dyspeptics; that they
filled the state with rsscals, and that
their childrea were even worse than
their fathers" It is a question whether
a 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, lie not only willing to
violate the amenities of his profession,
but to raise himself by SANDER to the
bad eminence to which he aspires. Let
us, however, examine his denunciations
by the light of reason and truth. Ad-
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 a 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 Epoon-fed stay at
homes, but enterprising, courageous and
determined Adventures. Had they been
dyspeptics they would not have been
pioneers. But when this eliminating
parson says that they filed the state
with rascsls. he not only flies directly in
the face of truth, but he libels set of
men who laid the foundations OF our
state on broad and solid basis Of sd-
vanced civilization, and made 1t possible
that those who came after them should
enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness, the blessings of religion and
the benefits of perfected system OF
public education. That there were bad
men amongst them argues nothing
against the character and probity of the
mass of early settlers. Are there NO
rascals among US now? Is any COM
munity without rascals? II the rever.
end t-aducer can point it out to US, he
will tell us of place which has no use
for fslaifers, and where he would moi
be welcome. Having established to his
own satisfaction his assertion that the
early settlers filed the state with ras
calls, it requires no great stretch
OF his jaundiced Imagination to declare
that the children OF the pioneers are
worse rsscals than their fathers. The
Native Sons OF the Golden West are all
the children OF early settlers, and they
present body OF young men of whom
any state may be proud. Suppose we
should resort to the same kind of sweep
ing tactics that this reverend calumni.
ator does, and say that because lac
falsely defames the pioneers, all preach,
ers are liars. Every day, nearly, We
hear oil parson falling from grace, yet
that justifies no one in applying a dis
graceful epithet TO the whole guild o
preachers. We can say with perfec
verify, that there never was a commu-
nifty in the world that surpassed til,
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,
ever reposed trust and good faith in thei
feilow-msn and found it less abused o