But at one point we were put at a very great disadvantage.  Older and better established denominations were able to plant missionaries in such cities as Atchison, Topeka and Lawrence, while we were not; and yet in each of these cities there were from the first a small number of brethren, who might have served as the nucleus of a church.  Speaking in general terms, monthly preaching never built up a church in any city, and the reader will see that in the very nature of things I could not set myself down to the care of a single congregation.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

The same causes that have made me a preacher, have also made me an abundant contributor to our periodical literature.  As I wish to present a living picture of these early days, I will, from time to time, furnish extracts from the contributions I have made to our religious journals: 

[Written for the Christian Luminary.]

OCENA P. O., Atchison Co.,
Kansas Ter., May, 1858.

Having myself had a very full experience of the advantages and disadvantages, the trials, pleasures and perils of a pioneer life, I propose to write a series of essays on the matter of emigrating to the West.

While a grave necessity demands that many shall emigrate to the West, it is not to be denied that it is an enterprise fraught with many dangers to the moral and spiritual well-being of the emigrant.  We have here men from the four quarters of the civilized world, and have thus congregated together all the vices found in Europe and America.  The semi-barbarism of the Irish Catholicism of Tipperary and Clare is now fairly inaugurated in Leavenworth city.  All the horses of the livery stables are hired to attend an Irish funeral, and as the mourners take a “wee bit of a dhrap” before starting, they are lucky if they get the corpse well under ground without a fight.  By this time, having become over-joyful, they raise a shout, and with a whoop and hurrah they start for home, and the man that has the fastest horse gets into the city first.  The unlucky traveler, whose horse gets mixed up with theirs in this stampede, and who thus involuntarily becomes one of the company at an Irish wake, has need to be a good rider.

German infidelity has been nurtured in Germany by a thousand years of priestly domination and oppression, and is now translated into our Kansas towns by Germans, who have no Lord’s day in their week.  Corresponding with our Lord’s day, they have a holiday—­a day to hunt, to fish, to do up odd jobs, to congregate together and listen to fine music, dance, sing, feast, drink lager beer, and have a good time generally.  Under the best regimen it is hard for men to keep their hearts from evil; but here, it is a fearful thing for young men, released from all the restraints of their native land, to find the house of revelry and dancing so near the house of God, and the gates of hell, alluring by all the fascinating and seductive attractions of harmonious sounds, so near the gate of heaven.