Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-09-12
a TBE9LoaLcAL oAe-FEsE

The gar,6sh is the only genus of its
family. Hugh Miller says OF it: cit
would seem as if the lepidost,us had been
spared amid the wreck Of genera, and
spec es 70 serve US as key by which to
"unlock the maryels Of those remote
periods OF geological history appropEia-
ted to the dynasty Of fish," San Fran
cisco has a theological gar-fsh in the
person Of Deacon Roberts. Like his
enamel plated, harj-shelled prototype, he
may "serve IS q key to unlock the mar.
''vels OF remote periods" Deacon Rob
erts has found hereto; that is
to say, Deacon Roberts has found a
woman who does not agree with
him. All hasesy is merely q dis
sent from popular belief, and may
be punished as crime until it is strong
enough to punish in turn for heretical dis
sent from It's conclusions. As successful
treason becomes patriotism, so successful
heresY becomes orthodoxy. It Is not long
since IN the history of relisi 2us intolerance
when men Of Deacon Roberts faith were
purified OF heresy by fire. Deacon Roberts
IS only hereto Of somewhat longer stand
iug than Mrs Cooper The deacon lived
a little TOO late to exercise to the full his
peculiar gifts. lie, like the gar-iish, is a
single remnant of an extinct genus; he
rises into prominence by his isolation he
reminds Us of former times, and should be
placed in safe keeping, ike the thumb.
screws and the rack, as living memento
OF barbarous age he fingers among us
like the last of his race he remains to us
the last remaining peak of submerged
World. Deacon Roberts desires to have
Mrs. Cooper mathematical as = hereto.
Suppose she Is; what then? It would be
but small satisfaction to Deacon Roberts.
BE could not burn her, or break her on the
wheel, or pinch her with red-hot pincers. or
iasten round her neck the collar Of torture,
or do any Of the many things which used
TO crafty the pious zeal of bigots. None
of these amusing things are to follow the
successful termination Of Deacon Roberts
suit, The game is hardly worth the can
die, for suppose the Presbytery should pro-
nounce Mrs. Cooper hereto, this would
only be calling her ill-natured Names and
Che enlightened intelligence of the world
would say, Ga, is that all - Bat the
church will not declare Mrs. Cooper a
hereto, for the church has grown away
beyond the age of the gar-hsh. There are
no churches now of the type correspond
ing to Deacon Roberts as a church mem
Der. The deacon brought proceedings to
cast Mrs. Cooper out of the church as a
teacher, only to find that all along he had
been ont himself. The deacon's species
of religion appears to have no church to fit
It; the church in which Mrs. Cooper
taught heard the charges OF the jealous
deacon, and acquitted her of heresy.
This theological gar.6sh saw trout
and called council to expel it from
the ARCHAEOLOGICAL family, only to find
that his genus had livsd beyond its age
shat he was a remaining type of genus
dominant in former period, but now almost
extinct Deacon Roberts has no right to
complain. In the divinely appointed order
Of nature the ganoids among fishes and the
hard-shella among sectarians are passing
away. OF the former there remains the
gar-fish-of the latter there fingers Dea.
con Roberts. One of the offenses charged
against Mrs. Cooper by Deacon Roberts ap-
pears to have been rather too free express
sion in choice of the kind of company de.
sired by her in the life hereafter. She
contemplated the armored scales of the
deacon. and exclaimed with Aucassin:
There are the barefoot monks and iriars,
With gowns well tatteved by the brars:
The saints who lift Their eyes and whine,
| ike them not-a starveling set.
Who'd care with folk Ike these to dine
TIE other road turns just WELL
That you and should take, ma belle.
She recalled the genial wit, the loving