Show 0 I 1 0 TALES OF 0 I 1 I 1 0 0 o 0 THE OLD 0 1 I 1 I 1 11 0 1 0 1 FRONTIER 0 1 I 1 0 0 1 0 I 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 by ELMO SCOTT WATSON 1 I I 1 11 19 23 western union CIRCUIT RIDER DAYS AND WAYS yours was wa not ft a man made temple yours no pulpit weal wealth th endow eil god and you spoke in a cabin where the humble meekly bowd there you preached your gypsy googol bave Is ve soul boul night a happy dawn left them singing songs of zion leaped your horse hone and journeyed on en the gospel gypsy by herschell Herg Iler chell sebell TP F EVER a frontier hall of fame Is I 1 erected this gospel gypsy the circuit rider Is sure of tits niche for these itinerant preachers who rode from settlement to settlement were heedless of at nil all perils of weather or hostile indian indans tearless fearless unselfish and humble they were nvere fired with the icell 01 to carry the word of god to the farthermost border of civilization the circuit rider must have counted strongly upon a reward in heaven for his earthly recompense was scanty enough perhaps the most famous ot of them nil all was mas peter cartwright carett right but even his salary was scarcely in proportion to his fame tho the records of a quarterly conference of the pulaski circuit in 1835 1935 show that he recel received ved a three months wage of 0 1007 th of 2121 A and 60 50 cents for traveling expenses a total compensation pensa tion qt of 1060 10 CO cart cartwright was an eccentric old fellow stern of demeanor and caustic ot of tongue lie believed thoroughly in the future of the raw western connery in which he served and he had a great con contempt tempt for the narrow provincialism of the atlantic seaboard they represent this country as a vast waste and its people CB as very ery ignorant he once declared but it if I 1 was going to shoot a fool I 1 would not take aim tit at a western man I 1 would go downto down to the seashore and cock my fusee at those imps who live on oysters the circuit riders preached in a day of rough living aid more than once they were culled called upon to uso use physical strength in turning the particularly ungodly from the path of sin once a band of rowdies interrupted the meeting that was being conducted by one of these churchmen militant ile iio did not hesitate for a second springing over the pulpit 0 altho edg cabin church be strode down the state aisle seized two or three of the disturbers disturb ers and threw them to the floor then he sat on them and as ho he bumped their heads together repeatedly pe he remarked well boys if I 1 cant bent beat religion into you ill beat the devil out of you and he did it so BO thoroughly blat they never again disturbed hla his meet ings THE irhe SUDDEN CHANGE OF 38 I 1 tl rv WAS in december 1830 for days the weather had been mild but the early settlers in the mississippi valley shook their heads doubtfully its a weather breeder they said ominously it was wa like this in december 1830 the winter of the deep snow look out for a change I 1 then the change came first a light snow fell then it turned to rain and the ground became ankle deep in slush blush suddenly a cold wind began blowing from the west wesl almost instantly the tha temperature dropped from 40 degrees above zero to 20 10 below a change of CO 60 degrees in a little more than that many seconds the whole face of the country was changed from water to lee ice and in some places the strong wind blew the water in a series of ripples which froze making a stretch of ridges on the lee in one settlement it a group of boys going home from school came to a pond about fifty yards wide the larger boys boya started to wade across and reached the opposite side only with I 1 difficulty tor for the water was freezing ahead of them one little fellow held back tor for a few minutes and by the time he had started the tee lee was thick enough to support his weight the whole distance the no sudden change wrought terrible havoc over a wide stretch of country deer elk end and other wild animals perished in their tracks the settlers live stock seemed to be driven crazy by the sudden cold chick ens curled ciulei up on their roosts boosts and fell to the ground frozen solid thousands of horses cattle and hogs died before they coull could be brought into shelter eh elter A young apy oy who was riding he homo me from a neighbors cabin was abro thrown wn from his hl horse which ran away nis boots boota were filled with water and by the time he had reached home only a short distance away both boots were werd frozen fast to his feet one on e man riding across the prairie realized that he would not be able to reach the nearest settlement alive if he be tried to push ov on so ho he dismounted killed hla his horse dismembered it and crawled inside the warm body to escaje the rigid frigid wind weeks later passersby found his frozen body inside its ley icy tomb later of t the he sudden change showed that the fi lc blast blan had struck the mississippi river settlements nebout ten la in the morning sy by three that tt it had reached eq cajal cejal ial Illi noll and by aleyen oe briock ori we ock k WM F in its lt pip ril |