SCENE IN A CHURCH.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume II, Issue 149, 24 August 1880, Page 4

SCENE IN A CHURCH.

Captain William S. Young, who commanded the steamer Narragansett which was burned, with terrible loss of life, oil’ the mouth of the Connecticut river on the lltli June, was arrested in Jersey City on a charge of disorderly conduct, made by Cyrus D. Shepherd, one of the trustees of the Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, York-sfcreeb, in that city, for denouncing the Rev. Richard Harcourt, the pastor, as a liar, while the services were going on. The complaint was subsequently withdrawn and the Captain discharged. Mr Harcourt preached upon the lessons taught by the accident, and when he bitterly denounced the officers and sailors of the vessel as the biggest set of cowards that ever lived, 'Captain Young said, in a deep bass voice, “ You are a liar.”

Captain Young gave the following statement : wreck of the Narragansett from the time of the accident until last Friday, when I returned to my home in Fourth-street, Jersey City. I saw a notice in one of the papers that the Rev. Mr Harcourt was to preach on “ The Lessons from the Narragansett Slaughter,’ and I went to hear him. The sermon was a recital of the scones and incidents of the collision, the burning of the Narragansett, and the loss of. life that followed. A great many of the statements were untrue, and the preacher reflected in very severe terms upon the action of the officers and crew of my vessel. I did not care what he said about me, but my blood boiled when the preacher denounced our crew as ‘ the biggest set of cowards that ever manned a vessel.’ I was terribly excited, and in my indignation shouted out, “You are a liar !’ The people got up to look at me, and it was all I could do

to sit quiet. When, in Lis closing prayer, he asked the Lord to make ‘ that old man feel sorry for his hasty action,’ I said the preacher was a blackguard. I did wrong, and I should have kept still; but when I heard my brave crew denounced in that manner I could not contain myself, and so I said just what I thought.”