The daily Alaskan., 1906-04-14
HOW THE CHURCH
 WAS BUILT

|
 them were already getting ashamed Of the city's name. though this was by no ! means outspoken. At any rato, the frequent shoOtlngs which gave rise to ghe appellaHon had somewhat fallen of. Some of the older, more settled of the population advocated church. They called a meeting of che citizens, and Deacon Snell-called deacon be cause he was the only man in the place who had never had scrap" with any one-made 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, 1t would benefit our i'm mortal souls. In the second, it would tend to the responsibility of the place by reducing the number of shooting affairs"
 The citizens were unanimous that they wanted church. There was no doubt about that. A subscription was about to be opened when man called Slippery sam, from the fact that he kad 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 fomlshing. 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 it 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 be 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 Sam's propositions with the amend ment, was adopted, and the meeting 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 q 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. Il was wrong" Then, as the game proceeded, he remarked casual ly: "I wish some galOot d git plugged. Then q feller could do 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 1t began to be remarked that Slippery Sam had killed the church after all. for 1t 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. It was not that he opposed reform, but that he had proposed a 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 no one was willing to be the victim.
 It 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 if it was optional with him to be killed or to kill Sam ard suffer the penalty of building the church. A conference followed, at the end of which he was Informed that when the lots were drawn 1t was understood that the loser was to be shot. It 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 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 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- ty in the same fix as before, for neither had been left to build the church.
 4 meeting was called to settle the question whether the conditions still held good. The resolution read that the first person to kill q man must put up the building. The first man to kill was dead. Should 1t now be understood
 T