The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1876-09-05 00:00:00

STREET PREACHING.

Street preaching is one ofth—e--f—a-v-Ou;i—te. modes of evan-
gelization in vogue with certain classes of philanthropists,
but the zeal which actuates Risen and women to face an
audience in a public thoroughfare iS not always guided
by discretion. There in occasionally a strange tendency
to ignore the ever•watchful policeman, who objects very
strongly to a thoroughfare being "obstructed," and who,
In the execution of his duty. inexorably "moves on" both
the preacher and the crowd of listeners. A case was heard
at the Marylehone police-court on Monday, in which
Vs uhliam Eggett was charged with being • disorderly
person. This vogue indictment, it appears, arose from the
fact that the defendant, at noon on Sunday. had caused
a footpath in Elgin-road to be completely blocked, he
having caused a crowd of buys to assemble to listen to his
preaching. The orthodox persons of the neighbourhood,
returning from the services of the various churches, were
greatly inconvenienced by having to leave the footpath
and walk in the gutter in order to avoid the crowd. A
constable who was on duty endeavoured to pursuade the
defendant to cease preaching, but without avail, and
eventually Eggett was removed to the police-station.
Ilat before this was done the unfortunate preacher had
behaved in such an eccintric manner that his audience
of small boys had pelted him with flour and created a
positive disturbance. Nothing could abate the zeal of
Eggett, however, •I .3 Monday morning, while waiting
outchle the Marylebone court, he agribi commenced to
preach, and in the very face of the lotion caused
another obstruction. When hclore the magi•drate, his
only defence was the quotation of passages of Scripture,
lnit the Stipendiary wisely checked him by remarking
that whatever might he his talents for preaching he had
no right to cause an obstruction. Religious zeal was
plainly out of place in the chill atmosphere of officialism.
which always pervades a police.court, and Eggett was
ordered to pay a fine of la+. The sum was not forth-
coming, and he was removed to the cells. It is evident
that misplaced energy and fanaticism are calculated to
bring religion into contempt, and it is certainly not an
edifying spectacle to see an eccentric preacher imputing
scraps of Scripture to a parcel of boys vi:ho. can ridicule
and insult him, until a policeman takes him into custody.

CAST INTO A WASPS NE3T.—AN ABOMINABLY
LENIENT SENTENCE,
At the Marshland (Lynn) Petty Sessions, a gang of
three men were charged with • cruel assault on a child
named Thomas Edwin Lindsay, of Terrington St. Clement,
on Sunday, August 13. It appeared that on the evening
of that day, the complainant (aged 13) was on his way to
chapel, at Terrington, when he was seized by the three
defendants, who pulled if his boots, and taking the laces
therefrom, tied his legs with them. Ilia legs were further
secured with a piece of tar rope, and his hands strapped
together behind him. In this conditon the defendant*
carried the poor boy • short distance to a wasp's nest,
which they had just dup up, and having thrown him into
it, they left. The lad wu fearfully stung upon his knees,
thighs. neck, face, arms, and in fact almost every part of
his body. His agonising cries were heard at a considerable
distance, and eventually the defendant* returned and
liberated him. The lad, suffering the most excruciating
pain, was then taken to his home, were his wounds were
dressed. The magistrates characterised the assault as a
most brutal one, and fined each of the defendants and
12a. Gil. costs. During the hearing of the case one of the
defendanta was obliged to betaken out et the court through
Illness, and upon his return his presence was objected to
by some of the audience, on the ground that he was
suffering from typhoid fever. This proved to he correct,
and that his medical attendant had ordered him nut to he
removed front his house, to which phice he was speedily
sent back.