Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1902-06-11
LIFTING A MORTGAGE

States, amt yer? Yer won't blab a
word of what l tell yer, will yer?
Yer looks like squar' man, stranger,
an l guess l can trust yer. Yer see,
in the first place, stranger, our preach
er was cl'ar 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 crar grit, stranger,
an us soon as he seed that arguin'
with us wouldn't conyart 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 six shooter an blaze
away at Three Fingered Jacks hat,
| that was hung up on the wall opposite
him, an I'll be scalped ii he didn't put
| those six plugs in Il space that you
could cover with a four bit piece on the
crown of that hat.
| jine the church, every one on US, with
in six months arter that, and there's
no more lawabldin' camp in the dig
gins than we've got. oh, yes, yer
wants to know about the mortgage lift
in. Waal, yer see, arter we'd got con-
velted the preacher set to work to
build bigger an better church build
| in. Now, our diggin's warn't pannin'
out very well, an big nuggets were
scarce, but we managed to chip in
enough to start the new church. Lum-
Der was so all fired dear an buldin'
stuff ginerully that we had to finally
raise money by n mortgage, an when
| the buildin' was done it was covered
by 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 Il 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 one more effort he know'd we
| could lift the mortgage. He appinted
| Big Jim, Dandy Dave an myself a
| committee to raise the dust. Waal,
arter the preacher had gone home we
took up collection, but when all our
pockets We're 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 busl
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 knowin' 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 ut 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'
| 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 soon as she seed the red
| light. 1t was sich a 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
to do the holdin' up went through the
passengers, an they all anted up
mighty obligin 'ceptin' one big, feshy
party with a bald head an glasses.
lie asked if this was a civilized coun-
try an said he'd have the sheriff arter
us an wanted to fight Big Jim, but
likely young lady that seemed to lie
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
mortgage. Next uaV Wnen the ROD
berry was made known we was the fust
to form II posse to hunt down the rob-
bers, but they We're never caught. Sun
day we We're all in our places in church
early an had put the stuff to settle
the mortgage on the pulpit 50 the
preacher would see it fust thing be-
fore he commenced the sarvice. We
all wore billed shirts an We're dressed
to kill
What do you think, stranger? When
the bishop put in appearance with the
preacher we railroad committee found
he was the same old, fat, bald party
that we'd robbed on the express an
had made sch fuss. The committee
felt a bit shaky, but then we remem-
bered that we'd worn masks, an we
KEEP our seats. The preacher intro
duced the bishop, an the bishop spoke
about how glad he was the church hard
been so prosperous an was able to
pay off the mortgage. He said 1t was
more blessed TO give than to receive