Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1875-10-14
A Religious Hen
The Hen That Went to Church and
did Her Duty, and What
Came of Her talking
About 1t.

Quite a disturbance occurred
. in western church few Sun.
0 days since, the circumstances of
0 which are as follows: Rev. Mr.
Moody was just beginning his
0 sermon, and had uttered the
. words, Brethren, | wish to d.
} rect your attention this morn
, ing to the fourth verse of the
twentieth chapter OF st. -
when Il hen emerged from the
} recess beneath. the pulpit. AS
; she had Just laid an egg, she in
terrupted Mr.. Moody to an
nounce the fact TO the congre-
; CATION; and he stopped as she
marched into the aisle screech-
''Kuk kuk kuk to-kor' The
minister contemplated her for a
moment and then concluded to
90 Oh. But the sound of his
voice seemed to provoke her to
rivalry and she put on'live or six
pounds Of steam to the square
inch, and made such racket
that the preacher stopped again
and said:
"Will Deacon Grimes please
remove that disgracefuI chicken
from the meeting-house?"
The deacon rose and proceed
cd with the job, He fist tried
to drive her toward the door, but
she lodged him, and, still cack-
ling vigorously, got under the
seat in the front pew. Then
the deacon seized his umbrella
and dragged her out in the aisle,
after which lie tried to "shoo'
her toward the door but she
flew into a pew, w,hopIc | over tic
partition, came down in the op-
pOsitc pew and in the aisle, and
then flew over into the middle
aisle again, making 4 noise like
a steam planning mill. The dca-
con did not like 10 climb over
after her, so Ec went around,
/ and Just as he got into the side
aisle the hen flew over into the
middle aisle. Then the boys in
the gallery Iau9hcd,and thc dea-
con began to grow red in the
face. At last Mr.. Biinns came
out Of his pew to help. and both
he and the'deacon made Il dash
at her from opposite directions.
Then she flew up, with a wild
cIuck to the gallery ana perched
on the edge, while she gave cx-
cited expressions to her views
by emitting about five hundred
cacklcs Il minute. The deacon
flung a hymn book at her to
scare her down again, but he
missed her and hit Bill Jones, a
Sunday school scholar, in the
eve. Then another boy in the
gallery made Il dash at her and
reached over so far that he fell
on Mrs. Miskey's bonnct,where-
upon she said he was predes-
tined for the gallows. The
crash scared her and she flew
over and roasted on the stove
pipe that ran along just under
the ceiling, fairly bowling with
fright. In order to bring her
down, the deacon and Mr.. Binns
both beat on the lower part Of
the pipe with their umbrellas,
and about forty feet Of it came
down with a crash, emptying a
! barrel of SCOT over the congre-
CATION. There were women III
that congregation who went
home looking as if they had
been working in a coal mine,
and wished they could stab
Deacon Grimes without being
hung for murder. The hen
came down with the stovepipe,
and as she flew by Mr.. Binns
he made a dash at her with his
umbrella, knocking a hole.
through $15 pane of glass,
whereupon she Landed in the.
street and hoped off cakling
insanely. Mr.. Moody adjourn
ed the congregation. They are
going to expel the owner of that
hen from the church when they
discover his identity.