The Ocala evening star., 1905-12-16
HOW THE CHURCH
WAS BUILT
IOrtg!nal.i !

emerging from barbarism. Some Of
them were already getting ashamed Of
the city's name, though this was by no
means outspoken. At any rate, the
frequent shootings which gave rise to
the appellation had somewhat fallen
of. Some Of the older, more settled Of
the population advocated a church.
They called a meeting of the citizens,
and Deacon Snell-called deacon be-
cause he was the only man in the place
who had never had a scrap" with any
one-made a speech announcing that
the meeting had been called for the
purpose Of taking measures to build a
church. "a church." he said, would
be useful In a number Of ways. In the
first place, IL would benefit our i'm
mortal souls. In the second, it would
tend to the respectabllity Of the place
by reducing the number Of shooting
affairs"
The citizens were unanimous that
they wanted a church. There was no
doubt about that A subscription was
about to be opened when q man called
Slippery Sam, from the fact that he
had managed to kill every movement
for reform that had thus far taken
place, called the attention Of the meet
ing to the fact that the raising Of funds
for the church might be used to stop
the shooting that was still dourishing.
He proposed that the first man who
killed another be obliged to build the
! church.
The proposition took the assembly
| like sudden change Of wind. There
was no opposition, but the idea was so
novel that 1t required thought. Pete
Hawkins, who had many notches In his
| gun, asked If the man who might lose
in the game would be allowed to put
up the money to build the church or
must build it himself. The proposer Of
the scheme said that he intended that
the loser should do the work himself
This would make the penalty all the
more effective. The building Of a log
church big enough to hold. say, fifty
people was no easy task. Slippery
Sans proposition, with the amend
|
| adjourned with a vote Of thanks to the
author of the scheme, who had for once
appeared on the side Of reform.
Fireaway City suddenly became a
highly Christian town. At least so it
| appeared. The day after the meeting
Dick Evans called Hank Williams a
cheat over a game of cards. Hank got
his gun out before Dick, whose holder
had got twisted, and was about to
] shoot when he remembered the church
building. Forgive me. brother" he
said 'T was wrong" Then. as the
game proceeded, he remarked casual
iy: Il wish some galoot d git plugged.
out bein' interrupted
During the next few weeks there
! were flve cases of apology that, with
out the penalty. would have been shoot
ings and any number of small make
ups, the issue of which would have
been uncertain. Then it began to be
remarked that Slippery Sam had killed
the church after all. for it was evident
that no one was going to shoot any one.
thus bringing on himself the penalty Of
building it.
Slippery Sam began to grow unpOpu-
lar. 1t was not that he opposed reform,
but that he had proposed scheme
which was found to be irksome. At
| the Alhambra saloon one morning the
matter of forcing the author of the an
noying plan to end the embargo by
shooting some one himself was dis
cussed. The difficulty in the way was
that any one inducing him to shoot
must get shot. The party was ready
to do most anything to put an end to
the situation, but no one was willing
to be the victim.
1t was finally decided to draw lots as
to who should insult Slippery Sam and
get killed for the benefit Of the whole
Pete Hawkins drew the red poker chip
that had been put into a hat with a
dozen or more white ones. He asked
II it was optional with him to be killed
or to kill Sam and suffer the penalty
Of building the church. A conference
followed, at the end Of which he was
informed that when the lots were
drawn it was understood that the loser
was to be shot. 1t would not be fair tc
those whose lives had been risked In
the drawing to now permit the loser tC
save his life by building the church.
Hawkins turned trife pale at this
decision and bade farewell to them all
taking each by the hand. Then he
went out to find Slippery Sam. In ter
minutes a succession of pistol shots
were heard, and the citizens congre
gated about the bodies of Slippery San
and Pete Hawkins, who had KILLED
each other. thus leaving the communi
ty in the same fix as before. for neither
had been left to build the church.
A meeting was called to settle tn,
question whether the conditions still
held good. The resolution read that tn,
first person TO kill a man must put VI
the building The first man 10 kill wa.
dead. Should it now be understood