The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-06-12
Stories of an Inland State.


| with, forsook his evil associates and begar
to be a regular and interested attendant al
| all meetings.
Three Sundays after his first introduction
| TO the Mourner's Bench, Peter dropped into
| the Sunday school. The bright light of the
| afternoon beamed through the imitation
| stained glass windows and two hundred
| children were engaged in the Sunday labor
of learning the text. in order TO duly forge,
| it. Peter sat back in an out-of-the-way
pew and watched the little children with
| their happy faces. And feeling Of desoia-
| ton came over him. He had just Joined
! the church after all these years Of freedom,
| from restraint. for he did not have it in his
| heart 10 call vice anything harder than
| that. If he had had the right sort of train
| ing in his youth, he argued. If he had come
| to a Sunday school like this, 1t might have
| been different with him. This thought was
| merely a touch of sentiment, which came
upon his heart unasked and being treated
with some frigidity. speedily left again.
While he had joined the church, he had
in no wise surrendered to sentiment. A
friend, he said was more apt TO cheat you
at poker than an enemy. That is, he had
joined the church as rough, cold business
transaction for the selfish salvation of his
soul. He did not allow this thought to
escape him for a second. He had Joined
the church from perfectly selfish motives.
Why deny It? He confessed it and took
credit for being virtuous enough to confess
it. In joining the church, he felt he was
doing the tabernacle service. He had
been a particularly bad specimen, perhaps
an active agent of the devil. That much
at least. But he had surrendered his soul,
so long held captive, and he expected a
ransom of cold, legal tender salvation. He
believed he had received this. He believed
that in his prayers he had felt the presence
of an all merciful God, who had said to
him (using his own name familiarity Peter
Wattles, have struck the shackles of sin
from you. Go forth and sin no more. This
was personal experience, held sacred by
him and repeated to no one: It was not
mere sentiment. for sentiment he believed
to be mild form of hypocrisy and hypoc-
risy he abhorred.
Lately Wattles had been reading the Bible.
Strangely enough he refused to accept it as
infallible, in fact, he read it more for amuse
ment than otherwise. He certainly did
not feel more respect for it than child
feels for Gr:mms Fairy Tales. Once told
was many thousand words by ocular evil
dence, and denied it; the Trinity he held to
be three distinct deities, and he would have
held forth bitterly that the Holy Ghost
was the grandfather of the three When
the hymn containing the line: II will guide
thee with mine eye" was given Peter join
ed in, in heavy bass, and made 1t eyes
refusing to concede what he believed the
n hat no Of
had but the single optic.
No doubt many good people think it i'm
possible but until this man had reached
sixty-one he had never opened Bible with
his own fingers, nor read line within its
covers with his own eyes.
While he was this day watching the chill
dren in the Sunday school the Superintend-
ent came to him and said:
Brother Wattles, how would you like to
teach a class today? Brother Swartz did
not come and his class of boys over there
are without an instructor"
How do you do it?'' asked Wattles.
The Superintendent explained the text
and the necessity of reciting the plain b.
blical story for the edification Of the little
ones and drawing from it a worthy moral
and lesson.
The boys ranged from nine to thirteen and
were fidgetty. nervous set. kicking. cuff
ing, noisy and inattentive, the worst class
in the school,"
Peter looked the boys over gravely and,
sudden ache for a chew OF to-
bacco, which he felt would not be proper,
why he could not determine, he
asked what the text was. Discovering that
1t was something in regard to a passover
which he had never heard of before he
dropped it at once and said:
who ever heard of Daniel and the Lions
DEM"
One boy Immediately said that he had.
Tell US about him." commanded Peter !
Wattles.
But the boy demurred just as Peter ex- |
pected and so Peter said himself: IF you |
boys will quiet down there I'll tell you the |
story Of Daniel and his single-hsnded scrap |
with the biggest lions in Palngstine.
The boys were all attention.
You see it was this way. A duck by the /
name of Darius was running the country |
then and after he had been elected and in /
augurated he made whole lot of appoint
nents-one hundred and twenty princes to |
Kind of keep tab on the taxes and bring up !
he primaries for him the next time. Then
he names some bosses for these fellows to
Keep tab on them and Daniel was one of |
hese. Now Daniel was all wool and a
fard wide with a red stripe down the mid
lie and hot bird generally and the others
>elicans working with him got as jealous
is a good-lookng kid who has been cut
'ut by an ugiy-looking fellow. And these
ealous fiamingoes went 10 see old Darius,
md they said to him: Darius, you pass a
aw here fixing il so that If any one is
ound praying TO any one but you, chuck
hey 60 in among the lions. What do you
ay?'
THE king said he'd 90 il as soon as he
cot around 10 il. Then they told him If Ii |
vas a go, he wasn't 10 have any favoritss,
hat it was the law Of the Modes and the
'ersians that when a law was il was and
oth!ng could change the unchan geability
f its wasness. The king himself was
Iede and when the jealous gang was gone.
he king called himself order. had the bill
ushed through and read the third time,
igned IL and it became a law. You see
Darius was the whole show himself. steam
ahope. Congress- White House, Supreme
our; and all. Well then the gang watch
d Daniel Daniel you see was Christian
'hile Darius was only Odd Fellow or
omethng Ike that-that is he didn't join
be church. Well these fellows saw Daniel
own on his knees praying and asking God
Dr. something and of they Jumped for
'arius. They busted in the palace door
nd bowed low before him and told him
ow Dan was acting up. The king liked
'an. but the Modes and Perians's custom
as 20 enforce the law. II they had 20
aaage police commissions every six hours
nd so Darius told EN- 20 take Dan and
hove him in among those lions. whose