Morning journal and courier., 1890-12-12
HE PREACHED FOR YALE.
How a Minister Saw the Footba
 Game After His Sermon.

How a Minister Saw the Football
 Game After His Sermon.
 From the New York Tribune
 The hold that athletic sports have se-
 cured among professional men has no bet
 ter exemplfcation than is given by the
 case of well-known minister, the pastor
 of 6 wealthy metropolitan church, who oc-
 cupied seat on the grand stand and was
 one of Yale's most inthusiastic supporters
 at the recent football match at Easern park
 This clergyman, who is an alumnus of
 Yale, would no more miss seeing that game
 than he would forego preaching his annual
 Thanksgiving sermon to his flock But
 there was the rub, for when he began to
 make calculations how he could manage to
 conduct the Thanksgiving sermon and cheer
 for old Yale as well he was sorely puzzled He finally hit upon a scheme that worked to a nicety.
 He set his plan in operation by inviting two of his clerical brethren, who, he knew,
 would be disengaged, to seat in his pulpit Thanksgiving day, intimated that they
 would be expected to participate in the services and take seats at the Thanksgiving
 table. The minister was so eminent, his church of such high standing and the dinner sure to be so we'll served, that the invitation was m honor not to be declined and the acceptanees reached him in due
 season. He next secured tickets for the | flower show for the female member of his | family, and as he handed them to his wife | he suggested that she and her daughters spend the afternoon in Madison Square garden, and that 6 o'clock would be agood hour for the Thanksgiving dinner. The
 ladies were delighted with the arrange ment.
 Thanksgiving morning the church was well filled with fashionable congregation at the services, which began at II o'clock to the minute with hymn by the we'll paid quartet. Then, ''cutting" the usual preliminary exercises and prayers, the foot ball-loving pastor opened the Bible, and an nouncing his text, plunged into an eloquent and. carefully prepared discourse on the topics of the day that was concluded just 10 minutes before noon. The choir broke forth again, and while the Thanksgiving anthem was in progress the pastor whis- pered to the two invited minister that they would jointly conduct the rest of the ser vice, as he had an important engagement to attend to. He bade them good bye after naming the dinner hour and asking them to be punctual.
 Then he glided from the pulpit to the vesting room, and before the astonish sex
 to had time to ask a question the pastor had bolted throug the side door and was making bee line for the nearest elevated railroad station. He passed through the
 with the crowd at Eastern park at 1:20 o'clock with Yale flag in his hand, and when the old alumnus was recognized by the cohort that wore the blue he wore the blue he was greeted with a wild college shriek and quickly lifted to his seat his sturdy son had kept for him.
 The minister saw the game and cheered for the victory, at which he was so over joyed that at the dinner table in the evening he made an open confession and told his family and guests how neatly he had planned the whole thing.