Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1902-04-17
TIE PARSON OF
NUGGET CAMP
IOriginal.1

] spirit of Christianity among the mil
ers Of a far western territory and one
| bright spring morning entered Nugget
! Camp. Addressing myself to an old
man washing for gold in the creek, !
told him my object and asked it the
inhabitants of the place would be like
| ~ to give me hearing.
| Reckon not, parson," he said. "We
had man along here on the same
| business a year ago."
'"Tell me about ii"
cit was jist sech a mornin' as this
when a man walked into this place an
| said he was parSOn. He was not
straitlaced, long faced duffer, but
one Of them ginoine, sympathizin' sort
! of fellers caPc'lated to take right hold
of camp like this. The first thing he
done was to sit down to a game of
afOre he cleaned 'em all out. Then he
set up the liquor fur the gang an
drunk one stiff horn hfsself
Now, boys he said, 'sence I've
shown you that I'm no whinin', long
! haired, snivilin' evangelist, but one Of
your own kind, l think p'a'aps you'll
pay some attention to what say. I've
| mined an struck it big, an mined an
mighty near starved. I've gambled an
| soaked an done heap of ornery
things too numerous to mention. Then
one day | struck it biggern | ever done
afore. | got what's with more'n all
the gold in these yere mountings-re-
ligion. Sence that time I've wanted
other people to enjoy my find, an
want to give it to you all right yere,
an after you git it you'll all say it's
the biggest nugget ever found in this
yere camp
What do you want us to do, par
son?' asked one of the gang.
81 want you to come outen the
woods back of this place an listen to
what got to say to you. Come right
along now while the sperit moves you.
Tell all the rest on 'em. Scatter
through the camp an say that a man
has come among you who'll distribute
treasured treasure not of this
world, but of kingdom come
"Waal, the man had got such an in
fiuence outer 'em that they went round
cOllectin' the people. Some come from
curiosity; some because they had once
got religion an, havin' lost it, wanted
to git it again; some because the men
huntin' 'em aXed 'em to. LeastaWayS
it wasn't more'n half an hour before
every man, woman an child in the
camp was in the woods waitin' to lis
ten to the parson. When they was all
there, the stranger stood up on stump
an says to 'em:
Gents, this yere woods is now con-
secrated to this yere holy purpose. It
+! isn't meet to come inter q tample of
the Lord with SIGH ornary things as 10
caliber revolvers or ten inch dirk
knives. You're expected to come meek
an humble Now, before the service
| begins l want all weapons deposited
over there on that mound. Any man
as keeps so much as rusty pocket
knife may expect eternal damnation.'
''The men that the parson cleaned out
at poker was the first to move. Then
the rest of the miners, seem what had
been done, or, moved by the holiness
of the occasion, goes to the mound, I'M
straps their weapons an throws 'em
on the pile. When it was all done, the
parson axed 'em:
elias any man concluded to desc
crate this place with weapons hid un-
der his shirt? If so, that man will re-
IN, nv al f1 ~
''He looked so searchin' that one
man who had KEEP his pocketknife
wilted an went out an throwed it
over
"T'm glad that mans conscience
said the parson, has forbid his COM
mittin' an objectionable sin. Is there
any other sneakin' sinner who's got
weapon?
Nobody else moved an the parson
knowed they was cleaned out. Then,
reachin' under his coattails, he draw
ed out two barkers an addressed the
meetin':
essence you're all unarmed an l got
the drop on you would announce that
the fust an the last thing afore this
meetin' is contribution. All step up
as l pint you out an deposit your
valybles afore this yere stump
do you know, stranger, that rascal
made every one on 'em walk up to the
foot of the stump he was a-standin'
on an throw down what he had.
There was pile Of things, some on
'em valyble; some on 'em no use, fur
the people was SO frightened that they
pitched over all they had. When the
last one had contributed, the parson
got down an, still holdin' his bankers
an keepin' one eye on the congrega-
ton, picked out what he wanted. When
he'd stuffed his pockets, he backed up
on ter the stump an pronounced
benediction.
"'Galoots,' he said, T've gone
through multitude of suckers, but
never bled a stupider lot than you peo-
pie of Nugget Camp
'"Thar was one real religious man in