The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1920-09-22
AMERICAN COWBOY
RESCUES DEREL|CTS
STRANGE STORY OF WORLD
WANDERER NOW DOING
RESCUE WORK is TOLD.

BUENOS AIRES-ON street ir
Buenos Aires which might be called
the back-wash Of the world judging
from the human derelicts cast ur
from every stream and every land
North American COW puncher of the
old West is conducting rescue miss
ion where hungry children are fed
and tired souls are comforted He
is John Calvert do Bohun, who says
he "was born on the hurricane deck
of cayuse" in New Mexico.
Cowboy, jockey, wanderer, and fl
nally ordained minister, Bohun's life
has been such as to make him one
with the dead wood that drifts into
his mission, as he tells his story, and
his redemption to bodily and spirit
ual health a parallel to that of some
of his people. There was a time, he
SAYS, when American whiskey was
no longer strong enough for him so
that he satisfied his appetite with
Chinese whiskey, which is like drink
ing mixed turpentine and banana oil.
But through the years came Gimp
ses to him of something better. A
touch of remorse in Australia, good
example in Europe the influence of
Father Damien, who gave his life to
the lepers of Hawaii and who was
SO loved that there was scarcely a
dry eye in grog shop or ships cabin
from Manila to Melbourne when he
died, such things made him wonder.
and finally, worn and world-knowing,
when he drifted back to that New
Mexico from which he had started
and found "Tom the Devil" preach
ing instead of running the old gamb-
ling game, and later saw others fol-
low in his steps, Bohun says that the
light came to him. He became a
minister.
Bohun's mission is located in a
building something in appearance
like San Antonio's Alamo, and with a
history as eventful as those who re-
pair to it. Built for Masonic lodge
many years ago, it has been various
ly dance hall, gambling house, head
quarters of the Black hand in Argen-
tina and is now a combination church,
school, orphans home and first aid
to the morally injured.
In the room where once women and
men drank and danced, now there are
religious services in Spanish, and be-
tween times children, seldom less
than 100 of them, at lunch or supper.
Children Of every race and religion I
are fed there Other work of the mis-
sion is with lepers, and with old men /
and women The mission of which /
Bohun took charge about four years
ago, is not maintained by any organi-
zation, but is held together by free
will subscriptions.
When Bohun talks with visitor,
particularly with an American who
knows the West, his references to mis-
work are mingled with spontaneous
tales of "hard riding and hard shoot
ing men, Of John Wesley Harding
for instance, the frock-coated ganb-
Ter of Ell Paso, who Bohun says had
killed IA men, twas. every inch gen
aleman and always killed with re-
yret;" Jane whose story was hourd
10 with the fight between law and
;hings as they were that desolated
Tombstone, Arizona; or Moroso, king
# cattle ahieves; of Wild Bill IIikok,
who met his end at Dodge City; and
If many more who made the West
! place of romance. Minister though
le is, he is still cowboy, bent on
getting his herd safe into the final
'ound-up.