A LITTLE MISHAP IN CHURCH.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1227, 10 November 1874, Page 4

A LITTLE MISHAP IN CHURCH.

The following is Max Adeler's : Last Suday. night, during the sermon in our church, the gas suddenly went out, and there was sudden darkness. The minister requested the congregation to remain perfectly quiet until the cause of the trouble could be ascertained, and other lights procured. Old Mrs Smiley, it appears, was sound asleep when the accident occurred, hut just after the minister had finished speaking to the congregation she awoke. At first she thought she had become blind, but as she sat by the window she immediately saw the light in the street, and then she knew that the congregation had gone home, and that she had accidentally been locked in by the sexton. Dreadfully frightened at the loneliness and horror of her situation, she picked up a hymnbook, and, dashing it through a pane of glass in the window, she put her head out and began to scream for help. Her shriek impressed passers-by with the idea that the church was on fire, and in an instant the alarm was given. A moment later the engine arrived, and just as the sexton began to light the gas again, one gang of firemen began playing through the open window on Mrs Siniley's spring bonnet, while auother gang poured a three, inch stream up the middle aisle with such force as to wash the Eev. Dr Hopkins, the minister, out of the pulpit and down among the high hats which were floating around by the pew doors. Eventually the matter was explained, and the fire department shut off the water and went home. But the deacons want to know how, if Mr Smiley refuses to pay the bill for repairs to the church, he can ever look a fellow-worshipper in the face again.