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WHILE the Irontown Dispatch adopted this rosy view of a very untoward episode, Mr. Perry Northcutt did not follow any such slippery ethical practice. The state of his village lay, as he told his fat wife, Nannie, on his heart.

One night at the Irontown bank Mr. Northcutt remained in the building after a directors' meeting, thinking what to do about the moral state of his town. The directors' meeting had been a success. The board had decided to call on Railroad Jones for further security, and Mr. Northcutt knew this would be impossible for the magnate to advance. It seemed to Perry that the railroad was ripening, like a plum, and when it fell he meant to catch it. In fact, this request for more security was a very gentle shake at the plum tree itself.

So the banker sat at the directors' table, musing his projected coup, when his thoughts veered around to the immoral depths to which Irontown had fallen. Being a man of action, he drew pen and paper to him and indicted this letter to the Reverend Blackman at Big Cypress. It ran:

Dear Brother Blackman

I am writing to ask you to hurry up your appointment in Irontown. We need a revival here right now. The new railroad has brought a disturbing element in our midst and the law is unable to control them. Nothing can help us but the blood of Christ upon the heart of Irontown. I ask you as a lover of lost souls to cancel any other appointment you may have and come on at once. Our streets are lined with drunks; crap games go on everywhere; our young girls are subjected to indecent remarks. The other day our town was disgraced by a shot-gun wedding. We soldiers of the Lord have got to break up these wicked practices. Sometimes I al--