New-York tribune., 1890-06-12
KIR ON III T. PICNIC

warm discussion is just now going on in the
little village of Kampeska, Ohio, over the ad
visibility Of holding the usual Sunday-school pic
mic this summer The pastor, the Rev. Mr..
Heartsease, favors the plan, the superintendent
of the school, Judge McCracken, opposes it. The
reverend gentleman favors it because it is an es-
tablished custom and gives the children day Of
pleasure the superintendent is against it for half
a dozen reasons. The people have taken sides
and the controversy has been carried into the
local paper, "The Kampeska Patriot and Adver-
tiser"
The Rev. Mr.. Heartsease, as we have said,
favors the usual picnic because he thinks it is
good thing for the children. Mr. McCracken OPP
poses because he thinks it is a bad thing for
everybody. Mr.. McCracken claims that it always
rains picnic day. The minister doubts it, and
saws that he cannot believe that any such strange
fatality should attach to o particular day. At
this the uncompromisng superintendent comes
forward with an alleged record of the Kampeska
pcnics for the last twenty years, in which he
shows that on seventeen occasions there was
heavy thunder shower in the afternoon on two
occasions it rained slowly all day, leaving only
one day to be accounted for, on which, he claims,
the lemonade froze in the glasses and the orator
of the day had to stand on a hot brick to finish
doubts the accuracy Of these statistics, at which
Mr.. McCracken comes at him with specific in
stances as for example, last year, when the light
ming actually struck the reverend gentleman's
own buggy and ripped off q hind wheel and then
zig-zagged over into field and tore the boots off
a tramp who was sleeping under a haystack. He
also recalls the picnic Of 1884, when his reverend
opponent stood under an umbrella while making
his remarks to the children, which treacherous
shield against the raging elements finally
blown away, the sharp end striking Deacon Bur
ridge in the eye and permanently injuring that
organ. The pugnacious superintendent drags for
ward other statistics. The lemonade has made
everybody sick who drank it on eight occasions
He suspects that the other occasions it was
so diluted by the rain to be rendered harmless;
however, it did not matter much, as at nine Of
the remaining twelve picnics everybody was made
sick by the ice cream. Mr.. McCraclSen finds
that the big swing broke down nineteen times
at the twentieth picnic the ropes were so shrunk
up by the rain that the swing could only have
been reached with balloon. lie says that thirty
four young men have become Jealous Of thirty
four other young men and gone over back OF Jim
Whites barn and fought 1t out, with great dam
age to noses, eyes, teeth and other appurtenances
of the human countenance; and that sixty-six
young ladies have been frightened into mysteries
by green snakes and bugs. In view of all. the
facts in the case, Superintendent McCracken SUBJ
mits that the picnic should be dropped as relic
of the dark ages. The Reverend Heartsease as
stubbornly holds out for It,
Whether or not The picnic win be held it Is i'm
possible to say The Sunday-school picnic is a
recognized institution of She country. and we be-
eve that its right to exist was never before ques-
toned. Is it possible that the picnic will join