The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1883-03-03
A HIGH-CHURCH STORY.

You all remember the great hubbub
that arose when the Rev. Peter Orrlcle
set up confessional in his church of st.
Benedict. There was correspondence
about it in the papers; the bishop inter-
fered, and threatened with legal proceed
ings. Mr.. Orricle defed his bishop, but
a mob having broken into the church one
Sunday, and having smashed the confess
sional, Mr.. Orrlcle gave in. He fitted up
an oratory in his house, set up carved
oak confessional in it (which had been
presented to him by public subscriptions
among his friends), and announced that
he would near confessions there. No act
of Parliament could prevent his doing
that. The only person who would have
had any right to object was Mrs. Orricle,
but at that time there was no Mrs.
Orricle.
Mr.. Orriele did not marry Miss Igna-
tia Stark until some weeks after he had
reduced his diocesans to silence; and lit
must be owned that if that his lady par
ishioners had been aware of his matri-
monial intentions, the subscriptions to-
ward that new confessional in carved
oak would not have been SO abundant as
they were. Mr.. Orioles marriage was
not popular proceeding; it was re-
garded in some quarters rs being almost
breach of faith. For had not Mr.. Or
ricle often talked through his nose about
the single life being the blessed life?
We are not laughing at him because he
talked through his nose, for this was an
affinity of nature: but beyond doubt
his utterances acquired an additional de-
gree of solemnity by passing through his
nostrIls, even as mere wind becomes
tuneful by escaping through an organ
pipe. The young ladies' who poured the
stories of their souls torments into the
ceIihate ears of Mr.. Orricle were taken
aback when they heard that he had re-
considered his theories about single
blessedness; and each said to herself in
alarm: Suppose ne should tell my
| secrets to that horrid girl, Nassie?"
| For about year after his marriage,
Mr.. Orioles confessional was deserted.
| The fear of Nassie kept penitents at q
| distance. There were even some girls
| who blushed when they met Mrs. Ofri-
| Gle, and fancied they could read in her
looks that she knew great deal about
them. But this was not the case. Igna-
tia Orricle, during the first twelve
months of her welded life, never made
the remotest allusiou to her husbands s
proceedings in the confessional. She
was quiet young woman, neither pretty
nor plain, with intelligent eyes and de-
corous manners-quite a pattern clergy.
mans wife. Perhaps she had no desire
to see the confessional employed again.
She herself had only come to it once be.
fore her marriage, and on this occasion
l
other things that she should inherit
s1000 year when her grandmother died
After her marriage, which followed close
upon this revelation, she had nothing
more to confess; at least, she never
asked her husband to tell her of any
clergyman beside himself who kept {
confessional open to all comers. It il
worth observing, by-the-by, that married
gentlemen who advocate confession sci
dom encourage their wives to go ant
confess their domestic troubles to othel
members of the cloth. Rev. Peter ORR
Gle was no exception to this rule.
But year after Mr.. Orioles mar
, riage his wife's grandmother died ant
left Ignatia nothing. From that momen
the vicar of st. Benedict became mel
ancholy man, and his life was soured
The parish noticed that there was some
! thing wrong, for the vicar began dismal
ly to allude in his sermons to the deceit
fulness OF the flesh, to the blessedness O
, monkery, and virginhood, and once NOR
he exhorted his parishioners to com
!, and unbosom themselves in his oratory
Mr.. Orricle had waxed plump an
! prospered in matlimony, they woul
have stayed away, but he was q hand
: v,oor orI 5o1afr1 11o1~. l.
we'll. His nasal laments were also yer
touching when he was truly sad. We
men are notoriously pitiful; they sa'
! that Mr.. Orricle was growing estrange
: from his wife; and while they pitied th
vicar, they thronged to his confessions
> with some secret charitable hope of nal
: ing themselves disagreeable to Nassie.
: They did not make themselves di
agreeable to Nassie; but they were mi,
Z taken if they thought that Ignatia Orr
Gle was going to submit tamely to bein
]. annoyed by them and her husband. 7,
: malta was not one of your nervous wome
a who melt into tears, scream and scol,
! She had tongue which could cut like
i razor, and keen, perspicacious min
e which could measure the shortest roa
s out of difficulty, and tread on the san
n with resolute foot She saw that
y crisis had arrived in her domestic affair
], That disappointment about her gran,
9 mothers money was very grievous, b,
n she was not responsible for il, an,
{, therefore, it behooved her to see that 81
IS was not made to bear the penalty of it
n the shape of perpetual destruction
|. her connubial happiness. She meant
y subdue her husband, to bring him bat
). into the paths of marital proprieties wi
II a firm hand, and make of him q submit
q sive and decent companion thencefort
% In order to do this, she determined th
1t her first step must be to abolish th
:, confessional.
L Ladies will acknowledge that Mr.
7. Orricle had some reason to be bite
le There were days when Mr. Orioles or
?, tory was full from noon till after dus
,r The vicar missed his luncheon becau
OF his penitents; he would be late 4