Indian chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, 1899-08-03
OLD TIME CUSTOMS.
That of Keeping Warm In Unheat'
Churches Was One of Them.

That of Keeping Warm In Unheated
Churches Was One of Them.
Nowadays, with steam radiators,
registers, double doors and screens
to guard the aisles from drafts,
minister is still not surprised to find
his congregation smaller than usual
upon a Sunday of intense cold or
winter storm. Doubtless in the old
times, too, the weather made a diff
ference, though in all likelihood, in
that era of severe dutifUlness, a
less rather than a greater one than
TODAY. Yet. what hardships our an
cestors had to endure IN winter In
their bare, bleak, bitter cold old
meeting houses!
Ye esacramental bread was frozen
hard and ratified sadly in ye plates, y
wrote Judge Sewall in his diary
after a Sunday in the church at
Newbury, with the thermometer
near zero. And it was not uncom-
mon, not only in the days of the
grand old justice, but many years
later, for women to faint from sim
ply cold 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 thingsl
We have only to imagine how a
girl OF today would feel if after get
ting her feet thoroughly wet and
half frozen she wrapped herself in
a heavy cloak-Omitting, however,
her warm fiannels and her close fit
ting outside jacket-and, retiring TO
an unheated barn, sat up straight
on a hard board for three hours,
with drafts 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,
AMI carried many of our shivering
anccSTeSscs to an untimely grave.
Yet, with all that they had 10 en-
dure, women sometimes voluntarily
increased their misery at the de-
mand of fashiOn-at least, the win
ter brides did 80. It 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 a relic of traditional ceremony
akin to unveiling is not known, but
in the depths Of January or Decem-
Der they would come to meeting,
with heroism worthy of a better
cause, in all the uncOncealed finery
of a glossy silk or satin, with not so
much as scarf across the shoulders
for warmth.
\ characteristic story of the re
venge of a Puritan suitOr upon
fair maid who had married his rival,
relates that-he being the sexton of
the church and she a December
bride-he purpOsely managed so
that a bitter wind should blow upon
her from Il deity unstopped chink
when she arrived the Sunday after
the wedding in the customary mad
equate array.
He would bring down the saucy
hussy pride, " he declared. Though
whether he intended to do so Iudi-
croUsly through influenza and a red
nose or tragically by means of lung
fever and an early death, the story
does not relate. But in either case
she survived the ordeal.
There were often among the
tougher and more rigid members
of the church a few who believed all
this hardship to be a good thing
and who opposed even the popular
little foot stoves rs a luxury, while
when stoves were introduced which
attempted to heat the whole church
they fought them with disgust and
bitterness.
Ono old woman, Aunt Judy Jones,
made point of sitting near the new
stove for several successive Sun
days, throwing of or fiinging open
one layer of wraps after another and
finally lying back in a state of con
spicuOus exhaustion, gasping family
and tanning herself with an i'm
mense turkey feather fan. But the
stove continued TO glow and the
congregation to be comfortable, and
before the season ended it was quiet
ly observed that Aunt Judy did not
seem to feel the heat more than 9th
er people and had even been known
To 90 up and warm her feet at the
unwclcOme redhot thing itself be
fore settling down III her pew for
the sermon. n.-Youth's : Companion.
The Most Ancient Books.