The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1896-09-12

1901 1919 @8ANEAn N1 AHAN%AA0 -
good work, and convinced everybody
who had any doubt before that really
am an atheist2"
It was on the face ofitan unfortunate
circumstance, and n could only sug-
gest that peoples memories are very
short in these busy days.
"The people in that room don't for
get" said Fletcher. glOomily. "And
this very day 1 crowned my iniquity;
it's no use fighting against fate, by
which / mean this hideOus vice OF the
ridiculous. It's in my blood-the only
bad turn my mother did me.
What happened to-day? oh, nothing
again, nothing. simply stumbiedinto
the conference Of the 'Sisterhood Of
Female Philanthropists,' and was
dragged to the platform, where / sat
facing the audience and he shuddered
at the remembrance.
"She was a most eloquent speaker,
and she was enlarging on the courage
it needed to ask a stranger to Join the
~sisterhood. Wen do I remember my
feelings and then she Travelled into
autobiography. Your feelings that day
were doubtless the same as mine aud
again she turned aside, and we were
kept in anguish. Yes, you and / had
the anne experience, and we shall never,
never forget there every one made
ready to take a note. Dear sisters, did
not each of us burst that minute into a
violent perspiration?' There seemed
no way of getting out except through
the hall, and it vas really very good Of
them not to hiss me.
"Of course IN never run such risks
again, but it does not matter where l ami,
this evil spirit viii seize me; it is my
profound conviction that there is q
personal devil, and that humor is one
of his choice instruments.
you know that wonderful verger of
ours who is an understudy of an alder
man? Well, he took charge of q party
of strangers at the door, who had come
in at the venite, and started a procession
he leading majestically, chanting as
he went, and genCly beating time with
his left hand. Then he turned at a GER
tain pew, and motioned to his convoy
to enter, but there was nobody. The
| people had found seats for themselves
at the back, and the procession had
consisted of the great man himself.
When ! stood at the lectern, the sight
came up before me, and / went to pieces
over the word ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.
"As for Observation-Disclosures was de-
termined to make a clean breast of it,
they are simply q terror to me; men
play such pranks and are so unreal.
You know Bibby, what a droll, chubby
faced, hearty little ni0n he is?" Yes,
] did know Bibby. "Weil, he came yes
terday into the room where we were all
sitting in hat awful silence with an
expression so woebegone that / could
have shaken him; ne sat down beside
me, and sighed like u blast furnace"
which was too much:for your wick
edness?"
Il only said in anatural yoices Bitter
east wind and if the wretched creature
did not reply: tAh, yes, very unex.
pected'-he' did not know the relatives
by sight. and had mistaken the doctor
for the chief mourner-'and sad. We
are there to-day and here tomorrow
Then if he didn't wag mis- head, and
Satan seemed to take possession of me.
ut isn't that / am not ashamed of my
self, or that l don't take precautions.
l have not preached a sermon for years
without reading it over once for the
special purpose of scoring out any sin
gle word hat would provoke a smile.
Yet people laugh when L preach in
strange churches, although / am as sol
emn as a grave-digger, and ~a,raseally
newspaper called me an amusing
preacher. AS for myself, the public exec
cutions Ihave conducted!"
A a counteractive, do you mean?"
"Yes, of course; the moment l see any
danger, 1 condemn some poor wretch
to death without mercy, and strap his
legs and arms. and place him on the trap
door, and put on the white cap, and pull
the bolt. Surely that is enough. The
number of people I bave hung at an ec-
~clesiastical gathering, say the diocesan
conference, to maintain my character,
often fills me with remorse."
DO ecclesiastics never laugh?" I
dared to inquire.
Never, except in a quiet, regulated
fashion at some jocose, t~ime-honored
clerical pleasantly, and then only il it
proceed from an archdeacon upwards.
If a mere commoner like myself. being
suddenly overcome by the pedantic abb
surdity of ecclesiastical ways. should
express himself freely, you would see a
sickly smile on the faces of those SUI
perior men, and afterwards you might
overhear them: Great want of serious
ness; very light mettle, indeed
"In fact" and Fletcher became al
most bitter, "if you wish to succeed in
church or state, never jest. and remem-
Der what our English humorist said
when, with his friends, he was tasting
some agreeable tale: Look solemn,
here's a fool coming"
It vas in vain that I labored at con-
ISOLATION, urging the w-oodenness of men
that had no humor, their blunders,
weariness, and inanities, from all of
which a sense of humor surely delivers
a man. No poor words of mine could lift
the detected rector Of st. ORIGINS, who
left, declaring that he was a disabled
man, and that the conditions of solid
success in public life were a stout figure.