The Republican., 1896-06-11
PROVIDENCE AND A PISTOL.
Rather Remarkable Story Which Carries
Moral Teaching.


A half dozen or so men were sitting
out in front of an uptown hotel the
other evening telling stories, and a Star
reporter was taking ahem all in with an
avidity peculiar to his class.
when l was 21," said tail man, evil
IDENTIFY from southern state, 81 had an
ungcvernable temper and half-broth-
er three years older than myself. We
were both church members, but that
didn't seem to bring us any closer to-
gether, for he was a Methodist and |
was a Baptist. You may have OBJ
served" he threw in as a decora ton to
the story, that Christian charity and
brotherly love don't always thrive on
UNCONVENTIONAL feed. However, as L
was saying, we were of different de-
nominations, and we got along fairly
well together until we began arguing
on our respective faiths. Then we got
hot, and l always lost my temper. l
may say that he did very nearly the
same, but he wasn't quite as bad as l
was in that regard.
"One day we were out hunting with
only one gun, a squirrel gun, between
us, and l had the gun. may add here
that we lived on farm, and a one-gun
hunting party was not at all unusual.
We had sat down on a rock near the
edge of a stream to rest, and in some
way l slipped and went into the water.
1t made me mad to begin with, and
when he began chatting me and telling
me that Baptist ought to be used to a
little thing like that, [ got ten times
worse and hit him lick in the face.
He ran off few yards and picked up a
bOwlder about as large as your double
fist, while | made grab for the gun,
which | had set up against a willow
tree under the bank.
"Of course, we did not know what we
were doing by this time; only | remem-
Der of telling him if he raised his hand
to throw the stone I'd shoot him. He
was nervy, though, and | hadn't more
than got the words out of my mouth
than he let the bowlder come at me, and,
true to my word, | banged away at him.
We weren't 40 feet apart, and it vas a
stand-otf between the bowlder and the
bullet as to which was the more dan
gerous, but Providence, | reckon, was
watching over us, for. as | fired, the
bowlder flew into a dozen pieces, and
both of us were left standing looking at
each other in a dazed, helpless way.
Then, still not understanding what had
happened, but realizing how nearly our
| tempers had brought us to bloodshed,
we rushed into each others arms and
began crying over each other.
when we had got over the excite
ment and collected our wits sufficiently
to make an investigation, we discovered
that by the merest chance-by Provi-
| Dental interference. mean-my bullet
| and his bowlder had met in their flight
md nullitied each other. On one piece
of the broken stone we found the blue
mark of the bullet, and in another place
we found the battered bullet. He took
the bullet and took the piece of marked
stone, and we have kept them to this
day, as sacred souvenirs, and as very
potent reminders never to discuss our
respective beliefs. I'm just as strong a
Baptist as ever, and he is equally a
Methodist, but we both believe that
greater than either Baptist or Method
list is the Providence that watches over
us all. l."-Washington Star.