The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1902-06-24
T 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 a
word Of what l tell yer. will yer?
Yer looks like a squar' man, stranger,
an guess l ear trust yer. Yer see,
in the first place, stranger, preach
or was cl'ar grit to the backbone. He
had Il 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 al cl'ar grit. stranger,
an as soon as he seed that arguin'
with us wouldn't convart us. but we
went on playin' poker an got wuss an
wuss, he jest fixed up for war one meet
in 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 a six shooter IN blaze
away at Three Fingered Jacks hat,
that was hung up on the wall opposite
him, an I'll he scalped if he didn't put
those six plugs in a space that you
could 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, with
in six months AFTER that, and there's
no more lawabidin' camp in the dig
gins than we've got. Oh. yes, yer
wants to know about the mortgage lift
in. WAL, yer see. arter we'd got con-
verified the preacher set to work to
build a bigger an better church build
in. Now, u diggin's warn't pannin'
out very well, IN big nuggets were
scarce, but we managed to chip in
enough to start the new church. Lum-
Der was so all fired dear an buildin'
stuff ginerally that we had to finally
raise money by a mortgage, an when
the buildin' was done it was covered
by a pretty 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 u 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 giner-
GUS an had done nobly, but if we
made n more effort he know'd we
could lift the mortgage. He appointed
Big Jim, Dandy Dave an myself a
committee to raise the dust. WAL,
arter the preacher had gone home we
took up a 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 picked out eight of the best
men of us an said to meet him, mask
ed. armed an mounted, ready for bust
ness. 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 a pretty tolerable guess.
After we'd rode lively for an hour Big
Jim called a 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
" SS"ANp I'LL SoNC CANA Ol1C VI US OuT
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 convarted
an knowed jist what to do.
The express came rumblin' along an
stopped as oon as she seed the red
light. 1t was SIGH a surprise to the |
trainmen-they hadn't been robbed in
a long time-that everything worked
slick. an there warn't any shootin'
at us. The three men appointed
do the holdin' up vent through the
passengers, an they all anted up
obligin' 'ceptin' one big, 1eshy
party with a bald head an glasses.
asked if this was Il civilized coun-
try an said he'd have the sheriff arter
US an wanted to fight Big Jim, but a
likely young lady that seemed to be
his darter cooled him down an made
him come up with the dust. AFTER we
had made 'em all ante we left the
go. On countin' over the dust
found WI had plenty to lift the
mortgage. Next day when the rob-
berry vas made known we was the fust
to form a posse to hunt down the rob-
bers. but they were never caught. Sun
lay w were ali in our places in church
an had put the stuff to settle
the mortgage on the pulpit so the
preacher would see it fust thing be-
fore he commenced the sarvice. We
Ill wore billed shirts an were dressed
kill.
What do you think. stranger? When
he bishop put in appearance with the
preacher we railroad committee found
la was the same old fat hald m rtu