SCENE IN A CHURCH.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2310, 12 August 1880, Page 2

SCENE IN A CHURCH.

Captain William S. Young, who commanded tlie steamer Narragansett, which was burned, with terrible loss of life, off the mouth of the Connecticut Eiver, on June 11, 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 street, in that city, for denouncing the Rev. Eichard Harcourt, the pastor, as a liar, while the services were going on. The complaint was subsequently withdrawn and the captain was discharged. Mr Harcourt preached upon the lesson

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 :—“ I stayed with the wreck of the Narragansett from the time of the accident until Friday, when I returned to my home in Fourth street, Jersey City. This morning I saw a notice in one of the papers that the Kev. Mr Harcourt was to preach this evening on ‘ The Lessons from the Narragansett Slaughter,” and I went to bear him. The sermon was a recital of the scenes 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 the vessel. I did not care what he said about me, but when the preacher denounced our crew as ‘ the biggest set of cowards that ever manned a vessel.’ my blood boiled. 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 his closing prayer he asked the Lord to make ‘ that old man sorrj’- for his hasty action,’ I said the preacher was a blackguard. I did wrong, and I should have kept still; but when I heard crew denounced in that manner I could not contain myself, and so I said just what I thought.”