Year: 1879




Many had no doubt, come through
curiosity to see how Bill, lately con-
ysrted, would doport himself In this,
his Initial sermon, Upon the stage sat
q hurley, red.hced man, with arms
folded In a careless manner, who look
ed over the large audience with an air
OF the most decided Independence
THIS was Faro Bill, the speaker Of the
occasion. When he arose he glanced
around the tent for moment, evident
ly collecting his thoughts and began :
"Fellsr-citirens, the preacher bein
absent, il falls on me to take his hand
and play it fur oil its worth, You all
know that I'm just lcaruin' the game
aud, Of course, I may DO expected to
make some wild breaks, but ] don't
believe thar's q rooster In the camp
mean enough to take advantage o my
ignorance and cold-deck mo tight on
the first deal. I'm sincere in this new
departure, and ] believe that ! struck
q game that can play clear through
without copperin' n bet, for when
man tackles such layout as this he
plays eveiy card 10 win, en- IT he goes
thro' the deal as he ortcr do, when he
lays down TO die, and tho last case is
ready TO slide from the box, ho can
call tho turn every time. l was read.
in the Bible to-day that yarn about
tho Prodigal Son, and / want to tell
yer the story. This Prodigal Son had
an old man that put up the coin every
time the kid struck him for stake,
and never kicked at the size Of the
pile either. reckon the old man was
purity well fixed, an when he died he
intended TO give all his welth to
the kid and his brother. Prod
give the old man q little game o talk
one day. and injuccd him to whack up
in advance of the death racket. He'd
no sooner got his divy in his fist than
he shook the old man and struck out
to take 10 some of the other camps. He
had a way.up time for while, and
slung his cash to the front like he
owned the best payin' lead on arth,
but hard luck struck him a lick at
last an lett him fiat. The book don't
state what he went broke or, but l
reckon he got steered up again some
brace game. But anyhow he got left
without q chip or four bitpiece to 60
an eat on. An old Granger then TUX
him home and set him to herding
hogs, and here he got so hard up and
hungry that he piped off the swines
while they were feedin', and he stood
In with them on husk lunch. He
soon weakened on such plain proven
der, an says he to himself, says he:
Even the old mans hired hands are
living on square grub while I'm wor'
ryin' along on corn.husks straight. III
Just take q grand tumble to myself
an chop on this racket at once. I'll
skip back to the governor and try to
fix things up and call for new deal :
so off he started. The old man seed the
kid coming, and what do you reckon
he did Did he pull his gun and lay
for him, intending to wipe him as
soon as he got in range? Did he
hustle around for club, and give him
stand-off at the front gate? En- :?
| Not to any alarming extent he didn't.
No sir The Scripture book says be
wal,zed out to meet him, and froze to
him on the spot, and kissed him, and
then marched him off to q clothing
store and fitted him out in the mob.
biest rig to be had for coin. Then the
old gentleman killed the fat calf and
invited all the neighbors, and give the
biggest blow out the camp ever seed. }.


At the conclusion of the narrative the
speaker paused, evidently framing in
his mind proper application Of the
story. Before he could resume a tall
blear-eyed gambler with fierce NOUS
tacbe, arose and said "Tan't me as
would try and break up q meeting or
do anything dlsreligious. No sir, l
am not that sort of citizen. But in
all public hoo docs it is parliamen-
tary rule for anybody that want to
Ak questions to rise up and fire them
off. / do not want to fool away time
questioning the workings of religion
oh no. As long as tits kept in
proper bounds, and does not interfere
with the boys and their games, I do
not zee ~ 1t can do harm. l just
,,, o., osL tho houorable sneaker il