Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-08-30
The Preachers of
Cimarron
BY Frederic j. Haskin.

Ilftfn III H5t anu Wpfti b9 tb' pfffb'
who cares for the few hundred souls in
this town, and few thousand more scat
tered over the several thousand square
miles Of his wilderness parish.
The Reverend Gilbert u. Traveller calls
himself frontier preacher, and lives and
dresses up TO the part. He has no church
as yet and no plans for building one. lie
is first going 20 establish a community
center where his pafishioners can have
feasts see n o sies, read books, play games
and incidentally heaf the word OF God
expounded by young man who looks,
talks and rides like cowpuneher.
The regular garb Of the Reverend
Traveller consists Of a flannel shirt,
pair of khaki trousers, high-heeled riding
boots and an enormous felt hat. lie spends
most Of his time riding from one mining
camp, ranch or COW camp - the next.
For this purpose he has two fine saddle
horses, which are spotted black and white,
| and are as like as two peas. The preacher
can be recognized q mile away by the
unusual color schemes Of his mounts, for
! which he has refused FIVE hundred dollars.
| lie has also a good car for reaching such
points as are accessible by road lncl-
dentally, he lives in one Of the best brick
houses in town, and has an attractive
wife and a large family Of little Travellers.
FEW BORN, NONE DIE.
A circuit rider is supposed to hold
services when he can get together enough
people, and also TO marry couples, bury
| the dead, christen the babies and com
| fort the bereaved The Reverend Travel
| Ter performs all Of these functions as
much as possible, but that, il appears,
/ is not very much. In few OF the places that
| he strikes are there enough people 20
/ Justify n formal sermon. Worse yet, when
| these people get married they 90 OF to
somr large town 10 have il done. IL APP
pears that they seldom have children and
/ never die. This makes the conventional
1 duties of the circuit rider very hight, but
| he makes a lot of duties for himself. He
acts as a sort Of general friend and coIn-
| cilor 20 all and sundry, and this inter
| prefation Of his clerical function seems
/ very acceptable to thepcopie Of CimaTon,
/ for the preacher is popular.
/ Furthermore, he does not allow his re-
| ligious duties 70 become bore. He carrles
| a rife az well as a Bible when he rides the
/ trails. and although he is looking primarily
for souls in need Of salvation, he has a
| d1:ek eye for A bear or q coyote. In the
| hunting season he brings home now and
| then a wild turkey or q deer. And when
| the Lords business il slow he cuts good
/ willow pole and snakes a mess Of trout
/ out OF some stream. He holds strongly
/ bv the idea that there il no reason why
preacher shouldn't have good time.
Mr.. Traveller, il should be added, -
| only 30 years old and wears q grin which
causes him TO look still younger. lie grew
mn in the beef business and knows horses
and cattle at least "a well as he docs the
Scripture. That is one reason ne IS 20
welcome at ranches and round-ups- lie
can throw rope Just as well as ne can
throw the fear of hell into a. SINNER.
PERmoUs PREACHING.
II Won imagine that Reverend Traveller
has a sinecure you have only 70 listen 10
! the story he can tell you of his predeces-
| sors in this parish. In the course Of the
30 or go wears that this country has been
| settled. there have been several preachers
here. all of them, like the Reverend
Traveller, Methodists, but not sil Of them
| so well fitted for their Jobs. None OF them
stuck. Several of them left very hastily,
and at least one of them was speeded
straight from here TO heaven by migrate
full members Of his flock.
The earliest of these pioneer divlnes was
here back in the sixties, when Luclen Is.
Maxwell. the famous land baron, who
was sketehed in previous HasAn letter,
maintained his little kingdom on the
Cimarron. Maxwell had a daughter OF
whom he was so fond that he would not
let anyone marry. her. lie used 70 meet
all suitors with a gun. But young army
captain made love 70 Virginia Maxwell
through the window of her bedroom on
mooniess nights. Finally she passed down
her toothbrush and few other things and
climbed out after them and the two
eloeed. They hunted up this one snd only
preacher and wished upon hIm the
hazardous Job of marrying them. He per
formed the ceremony in the mill at dead
| OF night and Speeded the couple 70 Fort
Union. where the old man couldn. get 81
them He, therefore, went after tbs
preacher with a rifle and a burst OF ian
guage not really fit for clerical ears. But
the preacher stood his ground and told
the irate Maxwell where 10 60 as well as S
preacher could tell him. What became o
this preacher is not known, but Maxwell
did not have the nerve TO shoot hum.
THE MURDERED MINISTER.
One of his successors who came tC
Cimarron after Maxwell had left was not
so fortunate The great Maxwell lanC
grants had been sold TO q syndicate o.
British capitalists and there were stormy
times in Cimarron. \ number OF squat
tiers and miners had taken up claims or
land which the English company claimed
and a regular little war was started by
the effort TO put off these alleged tres
passers. Four men who were hostile to the
grant company were mysterlously killed
| This preacher, whom we will call Smith
had more nerve than Judgment. He
loudly and publicly asserted that ne would
find out who was guilty Of the crimes ane
would have the murderers indicted. 4
couple of days later his body was found
in the canyon with bullet hole in the
back.
He did not, however, die in vain, fol
he had been a well-hked man, and mot
of 1000 formed to avenge hum. They
lynehed Mexican who was said to have
been paid to do the job, and they wer,
about TO lynch an attorney for the English
company when the United States troops
interfered.~ That attorney still lives neal
here. a man of Is, and he can tell YOU S
hair-raising story of how it feels to hav,
rope around your neck and over tn,
limb of tree.
A FIGHTING DIVINE.