The San Francisco call., 1895-05-20
oAKLAND's CHURCH SCANDAL.
The Mistake of a Man Who Mistook
Bier for Beer.

The Mistake of Man Who Mistook
Bier for Beer.
b. Oakland ecclesiastical circles in the
neighborhood of st. Johns Episcopal
Church at Eighth and Grove streets was
shaken to the core Saturday evening and
Sunday morning by the startling report
that Undertaken Leitch had left keg of
beer in the church, where he had gone
Saturday to attend funeral service. And
the report was not entirely wrong
only the keg part of it-for Mr.. Leitch had
left bier there, a bier, TO be more accurate.
The mistake came about in this way:
Saturday evening, when the young ladies
went into the church to decorate it for
Sundays services and place the usual
floral offerings on the altar, they found
that the undertakers had left their bier be-
hind them after the funeral ON Saturday
Two OF the young ladies went to the near
est telephone, which happened to be in
McManus' undertaking establishment, on
Seventh street, near Grove. McMasters,
the young man in charge of the estab-
hshment, gave them permission to use the
telephone, and overheard their CONVERSE
ton. They rang up Leitch undertaking
parlors and said to send q man down at
once to take away the bier that had been
left there. Now, it seems that the tele-
phone message was imperfectly understood
at J1C l[ClbOu 50 dDOub n1lI
an hour later some one from there rang up
McManus and asked who it was that had
recently telephoned to them.
McMasters answered the telephone and
described the ladies who had just used the
instrument.
What was their message?" inquired
Leitch's man.
'They said to tell you to come right
down here to the church and take away
that key of beer that you left on Saturday
at the funeral" was McMasters' answer.
Mrs. McManus and several of the neigh
| bors were in the Office and heard McMas-
tiers talk over the wire. Central heard
the message, and perhaps some other
listeners on the wire also caught it. At
all events before midnight it had spread
all over the town, and all who heard it
were scandaliZed at the outrageous work
Of Mr.. Leitch in taking keg of beer to a
funeral. The story grew and grew, and
everybody who told it added some of his
or her own imagination to it. All sorts of
scandalous stories were ahoat.
yesterday when CALL man started out
TO investigate the rumors he was assured
most Solemnly by Mrs. McManus and by
MI. McMasters that Undertaken Leitch had
taken keg of beer down to the church to
treat his men after the funeral on Satur-
day. Many OF the neighbors told the same
or worse stories, but when DR.. Floyd ].
Maynard, the rector of st. Johns, heard it
he roared with laughter.
at all depends on how you spell it." he
said. 1.-The ladies' have been trying to cor
rect the mistake ever since.n
AT the Morgue and at all the undertak-
ing establishments in the city Yesterday
Mr.. Leitch's scandalous conduct was dis
cussed.
Baseball in Alameda
The Tillmann-Bendei Baseball Club of
San Francisco played redhot game with
the C. Z. Hall Cub of Oakland at the Ala
media cricket grounds yesterday. The
Halls were defeated by score of 20 to 4.
Ysaye at Macdonough's.
; The advance sale of seats for the concert
of Eugene Ysaye at Macdonough's Theater
in Oakland tonight has been very. success
full so far. The box-office will be open at
o'clock in the morning. 1t will be soci-
ETY. event for this city.
Robinson Will Die.
. Frank Robinson, the Pullman car
cleaner who cut his throat from ear to ear
the other night because his wife deserted
him, is not expected to recover. The re-
markable thing about the case is that a
man who could SO horribly lacerate himself,