The courier-index., 1920-11-05
This Gink COltLd' Slip One OUer On
 St, Peter Himself

moral and adorn tale, depend ing altogether upon the, viewpoint. For the ministers of Marianna it probably points moral" For the reader it may "adorn tale"
 However and at last, as all writ CTS say when they lack better ex- pression with which to introduce a new angle to story, the clergy of Marianna is temporarily wary of strangers who haven't the price of the railroad fare from this city to Memphis, especially if he halls from Mississippi, is an ex-sawmill hand, wears firemans cap, is clad in blue overalls, has an exceedingly sharp nose and walks the goose step like a we'll disciplined German sol dier
 A young man answering this de- scription literally blew into Mari anna on Wednesday afternoon of last week. And then he blew ou. again with about ten dollars in pocket change he extracted from RevsJ A. Womack, pastor of the Methodist church, Rev. w. K. John ston, pastor of the Presbyterian church, and Rev. R. ". Saylor, pas tor of the Christian church. It ap- peared that the stranger was a mem Der of all these churches. At least he so informed the ministers.
 Each was touched in his own home and each very discreetly made no mention of his charitable act until the other day when the pastors of the city met in one of their regu- lar sessions. The ministers were dis cussing the presence of so mdny graf ters and skin game artists in the city and Bro. Johnston recalled that fellow had come to his home on Wednesday evening of last week with hard luck story. The strang- CT had been employed in a sawmill in Mississippi The. mill had shut down and he was Nthrown out of work. He went to Helena and fail ed to find employment He then came to Marianna, thinking surely in this enterprising city he would have no trouble in connecting with a profitable position, but after dil- igent inquiry he had found condi- tions here on the bum. He had a little change but not enough to take him to his former home in Memphis where he had relatives and friends who would help him. He told Bro. Johnston he was a devout, conse- crated and loyal member of the Presbyterian church. He knew Dr. Williamson, the great Presbyterian minister in Memphis. He knew oth- CT Presbyterian pastors. Brother Johnston also knew them. The To- cal pastor could not turn down an s. o. s. call from a worthy brother. He agreed to assist him but unfor- tunately discovered he had no change in his purse. He called on his good wife and borrowed $2.5O from her and gavesit to the dis tressed stranger.
 When the Presbyterian minister recited his story, the Christian pas tor, MT. Saylor said he had some claims on the individual in question. That he had come to his home on Wednesday evening, said he was a member of the Christian church, gave the name of the minister who baptized him and convinced the Christian minister he was a worthy object of charity. Mir. Saylor had just returned from the general con vention in St. Louis and had manag- ed to save $5.00 out of his expense money. This he had turned over to his wife for safe keeping, ex- pecting to apply it as first pay ment on new pair of shoes. While he and the stranger were in conver- sation supper was announced. The minister was very deeply touched with the sad predicament of the young man and invited him to the dining room. Being a devout church member the stranger was asked to return thanks. He did it like he hadn't had square meal since Ar kansas went republican. He imi- tated Jack Spratt and "licked the platter clean" He also cleaned the preacher for his V.
 Pastor Womack, who in fact was the first minister touched by the grafter, remained discreetly silent about his loss and enjoyed the joke on Johnston and Saylor. But in the meantime it leaked out that he, too, received call, that the same kind of story was put up to him, that the stranger was a well-sprinkl- ed Methodist, that he knew several ministers who were friends of Wo- mack and that he needed a small loan to pay his fare to Memphis. Like Johnston and Saylor, MT. Wo- mack was shy of change. He went to his wife and borrowed $2.10 she had saved from the sale of milk. He very cheerfully turned his wifes funds over to the indigent and de- vout brother, just as the other min isters later did.
 Rev. c. L. Hammock, pastor of the Baptist church and Rev. c. c. Burke, Rector of St. Andrews Epis- copal church, were apparently not on the visiting list of the stranger. If so, they were fortunately not at home.
 There are perhaps several morals to this story ,chief among which is that minister's wife should new CT lend any of her money to her husband.
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