Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1902-06-07
Lifting a Mortgage.

How did we pay the mortgage on the
church? Wall. stranger yer going to
leave town in the mornin for the Sta les.
amt yer? Yer won't blab word OF
what tell yer. willy er s: Yer look like a
squar' man, stranger. an guess | can
trust yer. Yer see, in the first place,
stranger. our preacher was cl'ar grit Il
the backbone. He had mighty hard
time to convert sinners. Why, we sed
to go up to the old church. play pooller,
drink an cut up generally while he was
eXhortin' of US, but he was cl'ar grit,
stranger. an as soon as he used that ar
gum with us wouldn't convart US, but
we went on playin poker an got wuss
mectin' night an came ready for bust
ness. Instead of openin' the meetin
with pra ar. as usual; the fust thin.: he
did was to whip out a six shooter an
blaze away at Three Fingered Jack :
hat, that was hung up on the Wal OPP
posite him an I'll be scalped if he didn I
put those six plugs in space that you
could cover with four bit piece on the
crown of that hat
Stranger. I'll be scalped if we didn L
jine the church. every one on us, with
in six months after that, and there's no
more lawbidin camp i'll the diggin S
than we've got. Oh. yes. yer wants to
know about the mortgage liftin'. Waal.
yer see, arter we'd got converted the
preacher set to work to build bigger
an better church buildin'. Now, our
diggins warn't pannin' out very we'll,
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 gincrally tha5 we
had to finally raise money by ort-
gage. an when the buildin' was done il
was covered by pretty steep blanket.
One Sunday the preacher took his
text from the Bible OH givin' an finished
up his sermon by sayin' that he expect.
ed 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 ginereus an had
done nobly, but if we made one more
effort he know'd we could lift the mort.
gage. He appointed Big Jim. Dandy
Dave an myself committee to raise the
dust. WAL. arter the preacher had
gone home we took up collection, bu,
when all our pockets were cmptied 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 line
with him, but he picked out eight of tn,
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, not KNOWN what was
have made pretty tolerable guess. Ar
ter 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 gave 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 i'll the air.
We tied our horses conveniently an
took our positions in the cut. Big Jim
with red lantern to stop the express.
Now, we'd all been used to this kind Of
business before we'd got convarteG an
knowed jest what to do
The express came rumblin along, an
stopped as soon as she seed the red
light. 1t was SIGH surprise to the
trainmen-they hadn't been robbed in
long time-that everything worked
slick, an there warn't any shootin' back
at us. The three men app'inted 10 dc
the holdin' up went through the pas
sengers, an they all anted up mighty
obligin 'ceptin one big, ficshy party
with bald head an glasses. He asked
if this was 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 tn,
dust. AFTER we had made 'em all ante
we left the train go. On countin' oven
the dust we found we had plenty to lift
the mortgage. Next day when the rob
berry was made known we was the fust
to form a posse to hunt down the rob-
bers, but they were never caught. Sun