This is from Jim Rudolph [jrudolph@rmci.net]

Silver City is an old mining town high in the Owyhee Mountains of southwestern Idaho. In the 1800s Silver City was a lawless place, full of sin and degradation. One cold winter, a Baptist preacher decided it was high time to build a church in Silver City to bring the word of God to the miners. He started to build a beautiful little chapel and by February he had it all spic and span for the first service.

On that first Sunday, many of the miners came to church wearing snowshoes, tramping ice and snow all over the church’s nice clean floor. The preacher was furious but didn’t know what to do.

The second Sunday, some of the miners came to church directly from the saloons. Many of them had busted noses still bleeding from the bar fights of the night before. They bled all over the church’s foor. The preacher was once again very angry, but this time he had a solution.

On the third Sunday, he had a sign posted on the chuch door:

“Snowshoes. Nose hurts. No service.”