Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-10-03
A RscRuDEscEncE.

An Ohio church has just discharged
Its pastor and refuses to permit him
to hold services in the church build
Ing. The reason given for this decisive
action on the part OF the church Off
Gals is that the preacher has been
trading horses. and, as readily to be
inferred from the result has been con-
Quoting his equine exchange with rare
Judgment and knowledge of horset1esh.
He was "churched'' by his elders, per-
haps some of these had swopped horses
themselves, and the session broke up
in trouble. The elders nailed up the
church and left the minister out in the
cold, cold world.
If the dismissal of the preacher came
about from conclusion by the congre
cation that man canscarcely live re-
ligion and trade horses, a large num-
Der of people will agree, especially
those who have done considerable
horse trading themselves. However,
the suspicion is inevitable that some
of the members had been stuck with
a balky animal or found out next
morning that heaves, etc, had disar-
ranged the internal economy of the
bargain of the day before Had the
preacher dwindled down from a good
horse to a crow bait in these transact
lions with his flock, the nails would
never have been driven in the door
frames. 1t makes so much difference
whether the preacher is gored or gor-
ing.
Time was when to trade horses with
a circuit rider was to rush blindly
to equine destruction. The ancient
and honorable pioneers of the church
militant knew good horse when they
saw him, were eloquent in praise, of
points and cautiously reserved as to
blemisles Indeed one capable horse
trader of the olden time was wont
to confess that while he had not failed
to hold his own with gypsies and itin-
Grant horse dealers, he found himself
helpless before an itinerant minister or
a man from east of the Hudson river.
In that day npre found fault 1t was
a day of game traders. No man was
supposed to learn of his opponents
on,; hat np1,1I fn9nh
II he traded horses he took the conse-
quences and smiled or grilnly grinned
as the case might indicate. And in
that glorious time men lodged the
ministers wheen they Went forth to
swap. Alas, what times have, we come
upon! af
Few will find sympathy overlooking
their hearts for the fellows who failed
to beat the Ohio preacher in a horse
trade. It is rather refreshing than
otherwise to read of a minister who
seems able to take care of himself
Perhaps were the. truth known, his
salary was and is now.long past due,
and it's total insufficient for a good
man to keep house on. 1t usually
is in the smaller charges like this one.
now nailed shut against its pastor. IL
has been a common thing to skin the
preacher out of a portion of his pay
by contributions of potatoes and side
meat and things that we had to spare.
Now that the worm has turned again
and turned a penny by means of an
inherited gift, a perspicacity handed
down perhaps from some circuit riding
ancestor who carried saddle bags and
rode home a better horse than he took
away, we nail the doors against him.
Render unto Caesar the things that
are Caesars" might be rendered into
the vernacular: "Hand to the horse
trader what he has coming" and the
horse trading community i'm Ohio
seems to have '.got theirs"