The Vermont transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1864-1870, 1866-11-30


Westinghouse Of Silas Hathaway,
where r. II Hoyt now lives. On one
Sunday while Mr. Dow was preaching.
Daniel Ryan, then a merchant in the
town, walked the room furnishing
borse-whip, and several times told the
preacher he lied Mr. d. mt last, sud
denly stopped in the midst Of his ser
mon, fell on his knees, and made a
short and affecting prayer for the Of
fender Ryan made no further dis
turbance, and afterwards acknowl-
edged he had done a very foolish thing,
and said he was ashamed Of his con-
duct. After the Court House was
built, meetings on the Sabbath were
held there; but it is said that very
often the number OF men and boys
playing ball on the common III front
of the Court House exceeded the num-
Der OF worshipers in the house. As
an Offset TO all this the reader is re-
minded that the town, on several oc-
casions appointed committees to pro-
cure preaching, and voted tax on
the Grand List to pay the expense;
and on one occasion voted to pay a
minister salary Of five hundred dol
lars a year A majority Of the free
men, Of course, assented to these acts,
at least, majority of those present at
town meeting. These votes Of the in
habitants are in strange Inconsistency
with the conduct of the people above
mentioned 1t must be inferred, how
ever, that those disturbances of public
worship were not numerous, and that
a majority Of the people had the good
sense to perceive that the good of the
community required a due perform
anco Of public worship, and that their
responsibility as a people could not be
maintained without it.
A REMARKABLE CASE OF LITIGATION.
The early inhabitants Of st. Adams
have been accused Of an undue pro-
pensity to litigation; and they proba-
bly, could not plead exemption from
such charge any more than the peo-
pie of other new towns in other parts
of the State. We will mention one
case which VIII illustrate in some de-
gree the character of the litigation,
and the mode of administering justice
in the early times Some sixty-fve
years ago, or more, there were two
families residing in house about two
miles from this village; one of them
consisting of n widow with one or two
children, dwelt in the upper part Of
the tenement The other family, con
sisting of woman and her husband
with some children, lived in the base
ment below. 1t SO happened as il
has often happened before, when man
and his wife reside in one part of a
house, and single matron in another
part Of the same house that the two
female heads were not on the best
terms with each other They often
qualrelcd, and sometimes, on extraor-
binary occasions of irritation, as re-
ported By the mischievous gossips OF
those times, they brandished their
broomsticks with remarkable agility
about each others craniums 1t SO
happened that the floor which sepa-
rated the contending parties was not
entirely water proof but would admit
of the passage of liquid substances
through the crevices. On certain
occasion, when Madam below had
spread her table in the style of those
days, furnished with all the delicacies
the country afforded; and her visitors
were seated around the festive board
discoursing on matters ana things III
general, not emitting to discuss the
wrong side of tho character of the
Madam above, which the hostess had
introduced, the said Matron above
took occasion to discharge an indei-
mite quantity of very unsayory fluid,
not at all suitable as a condiment for
the choice yiands on the table below
This fluid being subject to the same
law OF grayitation which governs al
liquids, sought a passage through the
treacherous floor and, in copious
streams, found Judgment in diverse
places among the viands on the table
underneath. Even the invited guests
did not escape n liberal sui'asion o
, the not inodorous element. The bell
cose spirit Of Madam Hostess was IN
simultaneously excited to the highes
, pitch: and it found vent in the utter
p ance of language not sufficiently re
fined to be repeated She declared
she would bear such grievances nC
a.. go, ali could ata