Town Turns on Revivalist's 'Personal Abuse'
A visiting evangelist’s attempts to shame locals into piety backfire, leading the paper to call his tent-revival methods 'of no benefit to the community.'
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The Rev. J. C. Redding, an itinerate evangelist, under the auspices of the Immanuel Presbyterian church, has been holding meetings in Coulee City for the past three weeks. Mr. Redding gained notice at the outset by denouncing the sins of the community in a most vigorous manner, saying witty and cutting things with no regard at all for the feelings of his auditors. The results having been of a negative character up to last Sunday, he then adopted a policy of personal abuse of those conducting places of amusement. It is announced that the meetings will close next Sunday night, which is probably the best that could be done as the influence of a revival conducted in that manner can be of no benefit to the community. The license taken by some preachers of using language in the pulpit that would be prohibited in the parlor should be frowned upon.
“The license taken by some preachers of using language in the pulpit that would be prohibited in the parlor should be frowned upon.”
This reflects the town's resistance to outsiders imposing moral standards, a common tension in the history of Washington’s frontier communities. The newspaper’s defense of the 'decent element' against an abusive preacher shows the limits of acceptable public speech in early 20th-century Coulee City.
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