The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-04-22
CITY'S SKY PILOT
DIR. Benjamin Young Former
Mining Camp Missionary.
Took Advantage of Funerals to
Reach POpulace's Ears.
knew SCENE OF "VIRGINIAN"
Incidents in Owen Wister's
Novel Familiar to Pastor.
Went From House to House to
Gather an Audience.
knew SCENE OF "VIRGINIAN"

The romance and hardships and
perils of western frontier life are well
known to DR.. Benjamin Young of this
city rhe mining camp, the mold up
and the Indian forays marked his tlrst
DAYS as a Methodist missionary. The
camps of the frontier towns OF Wyom-
ing, Nevada and Utah were all known
to him. With his Bible and a small
handbag DR.. Young, just out OF col
lege, travelled through these states try
ing to elevate the lives of the cowboys
and miners above the life of vice
which was then the rule. He tells his
story as follows:
You ask me to tell you some of my
own experiences on that picket line"
of Home Missions?
On one occasion I was sent to a cir
cult in Wyoming which had or was
supposed to have three points or
preaching places. 1 really found only
one and one church 1 had very few
members and being rather a wild min
ing camp the people were not given
70 church attendance. However, when
ever a death occurred the people al
ways or nearly always had the funeral
service at one of the two churches in
the camp. 1t was then that the Epis-
copal rector and the Methodist parson
took advantage of the situation and
dealt out hunks of the Gospel. We
could not help the dead and often the
character before us would not allow
OF EluCn DOdSllIB 81 dDOAl LiiC Olliy
thing we could do was to preach in
somewhat plain terms to the living.
The people seemed to expect this and
accepted it as part of the camp s
ecclesiastical program. l was not par
ticularly happy over the plan but then
much can be said for such an arrange
ment in more refined communities
Someone Yelled Fire
I remember one night preaching in
the church or getting ready to preach
10 a fair congregation. / stood up be-
fore the people and had just announc-
ed my text, Il am the light of the
world when the door opened with a
bang and a man with a voice like a
fog horn yelled, "Firel Firei' twice.
never saw church so quickly empt-
led. Before 1 had gotten to my first
"" every seat was vacant. l turned
to the janitor and said, Il guess you
would better close up for tonight, we
can go to the fire, too" few
buckets of water put out the fire
which was up the winding street but
the excitement of it all eXtinguished
the religious service that night.
One of these preaching points was
made famous in the "Nirginian" by
owen Wister, and some of the charac-
tiers of Wister's story were easy for
me to pick out and several of the
scenes i'll the novel quite harmonic
with many of the traditions which We
float about that country.
1t was seventeen miles across q
mountain range to the other preach
ing place. Every other Saturday 7
got my Bible and a few things to-
gether in a small hand bag and started
over the mountains. I had to walk the
whole distance there and generally the
same back. That meant that 1 had
to travel the thirty-four miles in two
days and on the third or on Sunday
preach twice and conduct the Sunday
school and besides as soon as | ar
rived in camp-a mining camp had
to visit every house, boarding house,
cave, tent and dug-out to announce
that there would be preaching to-
morrow.
Trains Had No Schedule.
The railroad was being built, in fact
had just been finished but the trains
had no schedule and the freight ran
up at indefinite intervals. The new