Kansas City daily journal., 1897-02-06
SOME OLD-TIME CUSTOMS.
That of Keeping Warm In Jnheated
Churches One of Them.

From the Youths Companion.
Nowadays with steam radiators, regis
ters, double doors and screens to guard
the aisles from draughts. minister is still
not surprised to find his consregatlon
smaller than usual upon Sunday OF in
tense cold or winter storm Doubtless IN
the old times, too, the weather made n
difference, though in all Likelihood, IN that
era of severe dutifulness, less. rather
than greater, one than to-day. Yet what
hardships our ancestors had TO endure in
winter in their bare, bleak, bitter cold old
meetinghouses!
''Ye sacramental bread was frozen hard.
and ratified sadly in ye plates, wrote
Judge Sewan in his diary. after a. Sunday
in the church at Newbury, with the ther-
mometer near zero. And il was not un-
common, not only in the days of the grand
old Justice, but many years later. for wom-
en- TO faint from simple colu. or to become
so chilled as to be unable to rise or move
when it came to hymn time, and TO have to
be carried out of church and thawed at
the nearest neighbor's. Little wonder,
poor things!
we have only to imagine how a girl OF
to-day would feel If, after getting her feet
thoroughly wet and half frozen. she wrap
ped herself in u heavy cloak-omittins, how
ever, her jacket-and retiring to an unheat-
ed barn, sat up straight on hard board
for three hours. with draughts from every
crack and knothole playing freely about
her. We should expect consumption or
pneumonia as the natural result: and they
were the natural result, and carried many
of our shiyerinG ancestresses to an untime-
ly grave.
Yet, with all that they had to endure.
women sometimes voluntarily increased
their misery at the demand OF fashion. at
least, the winter brides did So 1t was long
the custom for brides on first attending
church after marriage to wear no outside
garment-whether merely to let the folks
see their new gowns, or as relic of ira
ditional ceremony akin to unveiling. is not
known: but in the depths of January
December they would come to meeting
with heroism worthy of a better cause, in
all the unconcealed fnery of a glossy silk
or satin. with not SO much as scarf
across the shoulders for warmth.
A characteristic story Of the revenge of
a Puritan suitor upon a fair maid who
had married his rival relates that-he be-
ing the sexton of the church. and she a
December bride-he purposeiy managed so
that bitter wind should blow upon her
from a deity unstopped chink when she
arrived the Sunday after the wedding in
the customary inadequate array.
He would bring down the saucy hussy's
pride" he declared; though whether he in
tended to do SO ludiorously through influ-
enza and red nose. or tragically by means
of lung fever and an early death, the story
does not relate. But in either case she sur
vived the ordeal.
There were often among the tougher and
more rigid members of the church a few
who believed all their hardships to be a
good thing, and who opposed even the pop
ular little footstoves as q luxury; while
when stoves were introduced which at
tempted to heat the whole church, they
fought them with disgust and bitterness.
One old woman. Aunt Judy Jones, made
a point of sitting near the new stove for
several successive Sundays, throwing off or
hinging open one layer of wraps after an
other, and finally lying back in state OF
conspicuous exhaustion. gasping family
and tanning herself with an immense tur-
key-feather fan. But the stove continued
to glow, and the congregation to be COM
Portable, and before the season ended il
was quietly observed that Aunt Judy did
not seem to feel the heat more than other
people. and had even been known to 20
up and warm her feet at the unweIcome
red-hot thing itself before settling down in
her pew for the sermon.