The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1902-06-14
LIFTING A MORTGAGE.

How did we pay the mortgage on
the church? Waal, stranger, yer
goin' to leave town in the mornin'
for the States, amt yer? Yer won't
blab word of what I tell yer, will
yer? Yer looks like squar' man,
stranger, an / guess I can trust yer.
Yer see, in the first place, stranger,
our preacher was cpar grit to the
backbone. He had a mighty hard
time to convert us sinners. Why, we
used to go up to the old church, play
poker, drink an cut up generally
while he was exhortin' of us, but he
was cl'ar grit, stranger, an as soon
as lie seed that arguin' with us would
not convert us, but we went on play
in poker an got wuss an wuss, he
jest fixed up for war one meetin'
night an came ready for business.
Instead of openin' the meetin' with
pra'ar, as usual, the fust thing he did
was to whip out six shooter an
blaze away at Three Fingered Jacks
hat, that was hung up on the wall op-
posite him, an I'll be scalped if he
didn't put those six plugs in space
that you could cover with a four bit
piece on the crown Of that hat.
Stranger, I'll be scalped if we didn't
jine the church, every one on US,
within six months arter that, and
there's no more lawabidin' camp in
the diggin's than we've got. Oh,
yes, yer wants to know about the
mortgage liftin'. WAL, yer see, ar
ter we'd got converted the preacher
set to work to build bigger an bet
ter church buildin'. Now, our dig
gins warn't pannin' out very well,
an big nuggets were scarce, but we
managed to chip in enough to start
the new church. Lumber was so
all fired dear an buildin' stuff giner-
ally that we had to finally raise money
by mortgage, an when the build
in was done it was covered by pref
ty steep blanket.
One Sunday the preacher took his
text from the Bible on givin' an fin
ished up his sarmon by sayin' that he
expected a visit from the bishop next
Sunday an he would like to have the
mortgage paid off at that service.
He said he know'd we'd been very
ginerous an had done nobly, but if
we made one more effort he know'd
we conld lift the mortgage. He ap-
p'inted Big Jim, Dandy Dave an my
self committe to raise the dust.
Waal, arter the preacher had gone
home we took UP collection, but
when all our pockets were emptied
there warn't nearly enough to settle
the debt. Big Jim spoke up an said
the dust would have to be raised, an
he called for volunteers. We all
wanted to jine with him, but he pick
ed out eight of the best men of us an
said to meet him, masked, armed an
mounted, ready for business, in the
woods back of the church Tuesday
night at 10 o'clock. We were all
there on time an rode off over the
hill in silence, no KNOWN what was
Big Jim's layout, but most of us could
have made pretty tolerable guess.
Arter we'd rode lively for an hour
Big Jim called halt, tellin' US we
had to rob the Pacific express that
was due through the big cut at about
IL O'Clock. He said we warn't to
shoot to kill, only to scare, an give
each one of us our positions, two for
the engineer an fireman, three to
make the passengers ante up an the
rest to do the shootin' in the air.
We tied our horses conveniently
an took our positions in the cut.
Big Jim with a red lantern to stop
the express. Now, we'd all been
used to this kind of business before
we'd got converted an knowed jest
what to do.
The express came rumblin' along
an stopped as soon as she seed the
red light. 1t was sich surprise to
the trainmen-they hadn't been rob-
bed in a long time-that everything
worked slick, an there warn't any
shootin' back at us. The three men
app'inted to do the holdin up went
throught the passengers, an they all
anted up mighty obligin' 'ceptin' one
big, heshy party with a bald head
an glasses. He asked if this was a
civilized country an said he'd have
the sheriff arter US an wanted to
fight Big Jim, but likely young
lady that seemed to be his darter
cooled him down an made him come
up with the dust. Arter we had
made 'em all ante we left the train
go. On countin' over the dust we
found we had plenty to lift the mort
gage. Next day when the robbery
was made known we was the the fust
to form a posse to hunt down the
robbers, but they were never caught.
Sunday we were all in our places in
church early an had put the stuff TO
settle the mortgage on the pulpit so
the preacher could see it fust thing
before he commenced sarvice. We
all wore billed shirts an were dressed
to kill.
What do you think, strangerl
When the bishop put in appearance
with the preacher we railroad COM
mittee found he was the same old, fat,
bald party that we'd robbed on the
express an had made such a fuss.
The committee felt a bit shaky, but
then we remembered that we'd worn
masks, an we KEEP our seats. The
preacher introduced the bishop, an
the bishop spoke about how glad he
was the church had been so prosper
Gus an was able to pay off the mort
gage. He said it was more blessed
to give than to receive, though he