MISCELLANEOUS.

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 979, 14 June 1872, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

Close Hauled.—Since the death of Father Taylor, of Boston, many anecdotes are told of him, among which is the following f'ron Richmond, where he was born. He spoke the sailor vernacular to his audience, who fullv appreciated and loved tho good old man. On one occasion, while making the dust fly from the pulpit cushions, he noticed an old salt, whose weatherbeaten face was a good facsimile of an old-fashioned door-plate, seated near the altar, and who expression to his conviction of sin by loud, prolonged groans, and at every renewed blast from the pulpit the groans became louder, whereat the good father fixed him with his eye and addressed him in these words : " Luff, brother, luff; luff while she breezes, you'll weather hell yet, with the lee leeches of your topsail smoking;" which neatly expressed the nearest touch and go possible, and gave good; solid comfort to Jack.

An American paper thus chronicles a domestic incident:—" A Franklin street gentleman and his wife had a little argument on Christmas Eve, when he kindly said he would hang up her stockings for her ; he did, hut inadvertently omitted to take her out of them. She stood on her head for nine minutes, when the neighbours arbitrated." It must have been with infinite chuckle, and many of what Cooper describes as old Leather stocking's long inward laughters,, that Henry Ward Beecher, during a long vacation, heard one of his own published sermons delivered in an obscure village. At the close of the service he accosted the " divine," and eaid, " That was a very good discourse ; how long did you take to write it ?" Oh, I tossed it off one evening when I had leisure," was tfcfe reply. "Indeed," said Mr Beecher, "it took me much longer than that to think out the very framework of that sermon." "Are you Henry Ward Beecher ?" "I am," was the reply. " Well, then," said the unabashed preacher, ' all that I have to sav is that I ain't ashamed to preach one of your sermons anywhere."— 1 Harper's Magazine.' A clerical correspondent of the 'New Zealand Church News,' writing on the question of free seats in churches, says : —The evils of the inhospitable custom of letting seats are as manifest here as they are at home ; and if an occasional instance of this were made public it might do much to stir up Churchmen to do away with the evil. Suppressing names and dates, I will give two instances which have came under my own observation. The one is the experience of a lady friend of my own. She landed in the principal city of one of the Australian colonies on a Saturday evening. On Sunday morning she went alone to the nearest church, entered,- went into an open and unoccupied pew near the door, and engaged herself in private devotion until the service should begin. After a few minutes so spent she rose from her knees, and saw a lady standing at the door of the pew, who, with authoritative speech and gesture, ordered her out of the seat. She rose and left not only the seat hut the church. The pleasure of once again attending church after a long voyage was so great, and the rebuff 1 so rude, that she could never bring herself to enter the door of that church again. The second instance is that of a man in my own parish. I had pressed him to know why he did not come to church. His answer waa the following story. He had been engaged in goldmining in Australia. On one of his periodical expeditions to the chief town of the colony, he dressed himself as well as he was able to do, and started to go to church. At the door he was met by an official who told him that he could not go in, as he was not sufficiently well dressed to mix with so aristocratic a congregation. He assures me that his dress was quite as good as is usually worn by working men on Sunday. The following brief dialogue occurred lately in the Auckland Resident Magistrate's Court. A plaintiff in an undefended case was asked the usual questions before judgment being given The Court: Are vou the plaintiff in this case? Plaintiff: I are. The Court: Is the defendant indebted you in the sum mentioned in this account ? Plaintiff: He am. The Court: Are the charges fair and reasonable? Plaintiff: Them is. The Court: Has any portion of this account been paid ? Plaintiff: They wor, but worn't This last was a puzzler. But it came out that the plaintiff meant to say that defendant bad, several times promised to pay on account, but on every occasion of making such promises he had broken them. On judgment being given, the plaintiff looked towards the table where learned couusel were sitting, and said, *' Are he to pay ?" A learned counsel: "He am." The plaintiff left the Court looking supremely satisfied. The proprietor of a new paper at Atlanta, Q-a., haviug declared that he will " condemn the wrong nnd applaud the right," the ' Era' says the task will keep him about as busy as a school boy with a hornet in his trousers.