Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1905-12-05
DAILY SHORT STORY
HOW THE CHURCH WAS BUILT.
IOriginal !

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
off Some of the older, more settled of
the population advocated 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
oue-made a speech announcing that
the meeting had been called for the
purpose OF taking measures to build
church "a church. he said, would
be useful In a number of ways. In the
first place. it would benefit our i'm
mortal souls In the second. il would
tend TO the responsibility 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 a man called
Slippery Sam. from the fact that he
had managed TO kill every movement
for reform that had thus far taken
ing TO the fact that the raising of funds
for the church might be used TO stop
the shooting that was still fiourishing.
He proposed that the first man who
killed another be obliged to build the
church.
The proposition took the assembly
like a sudden change of wind. There
was no opposition, but the idea was SO
novel that il 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 il 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 log
church big enough to hold. say, fifty
people was no easy task. Slippery
Sans proposition. with the amend
ment. was adopted. and the meeting
adjourned with vote of thanks to the
author of the scheme. who had for once
appeared OH the side of reform.
Fireaway City suddenly became
highly Christian town. AT least so il
appeared. The day after the meeting
Dick Evans called Hank Williams
cheat over a game of cards. Hank got
his gun out before Dick, whose holder
had got twisted, and was about 10
shoot when he remembered the church
building. Forgive me, brother" he
said Il was wrong" Then. as the
game proceeded. he remarked casual
ly: Il wish some galoOt d git plugged.
Then Teller could de his shootin' with
out bein' interrupted.
During the next few weeks there
were five 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 he
remarked that Slippery Sam had killed
the church after all, for it was evident
that no one was going 10 shoot any one.
thus bringing on himself the penalty of
building il.
Slippery Sam began To grow uupOpu-
lar. IT was not that Ire 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
moving 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 10 one was willing
10 be the victim.
1t was finally decided to draw lots as
get killed for the benefit of the whole.
Pete Hawkins drew the red poker chip
that had been put into Il hat with Il
dozen or more white ones. He asked
if 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 il was understood that the loser
was TO be shot. 1t would not be fair to
those whose lives had been risked in
the drawing TO now permit the loser TO
save his life by building the church.
Hawkins turned a trihe pale at this
decision and bade farewell to them all.
taking each by the hand. Then he
went out to find Slippery Sam. In ten
minutes a succession of pistol shots
were heard. and the citizens congre-
gated about the bodies of slippery Sam
and Pete Hawkins, who had killed
each other. thus leaving the communi-
~ in the same fix as before. for neither
had been left to build the church.
a meeting was called to settle the
question whether the conditions still
held good. The resolution read that the
first person to kill man must put up
the building. The first man TO kill was
dead. Should il now be understood
that the next man to kill should build
the church. When the question was
put. there was a shout of Nor from
those who had affairs to settle. The
peace party voted yes Deacon Smell
arose and said:
This yere penalty has got rid o. the
fu- f1,a,, IN EYroa f,i4u that