Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1902-04-22

HERR STEINHARDT'S NEMESIS
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
BY 7. MACLAREN cOBBAN.


three weeks. But had little time for
ruminatien and no time at ali for visits
to Tipmerley Hall until Whitsuntide
was past. Whitsuntide is the great
festival in the Lancashire calendar.
Then mills and pits are idle for a
week, and the work people have spell
of serious enjoyment, and wearing of
new summer clothing, for which money
has been saved from Christmastide or
earlier. Some go on jaunts to the sea-
side for the week or for day or two;
but the recreations and designations of
the multitude are those connected with
the Sunday schools, which are gigantic
and popular institutions; the time and
attention (often to little purpose) that
clergymen are expected to give to them
can hardly be conceived by those who
hold cures in the south. One day there
is grand procession round the parish
of scholars and their friends arrayed
in their new finery, accompanied by
Haunting banners and a blatant brass
band, and headed by their clergyman.
The procession halts at fixed points,
forms into mass and sings hymns, led
by the brass band. while the banners
take up positions to display their hide
Gus devices and pictures. For another
day short excursion in wagons, with
tea or milk and buns, and games are
arranged for the benefit especially of
the younger scholars; and for a third
day long railway excursion for the
others. All these arrangements I had
to undertake (some of them much
against the grain. confess; for I pre-
fer to 60 through the parish as through
life, unaccompanied by instruments of
brass)-to undertake alone, along with
all the duties more properly parochial
and clerical; for the rector was still too
i'll to attend to anything.
For three weeks or so, therefore, I
had no time to rumintae upon extrane-
Gus matters, and no time to spend at
Timperley Hall. But L then made an
acquaintance that considerably infiu-
enced the later events of my story-Mr.
Freeman, the minister of quaint lit
| tie Dissenting Chapel in the village.
We encountered first on the day of the
procession in the Lacroix lane. He
was marching along from the opposite
direction to US at the head of his mod
est and silent troop; the lane was mar
row; he halted, took off his hat, and
smiled (while could do no less in re-
turn), and he and his people (some of
them with reluctance, have no doubt>
stood aside to let our noisier and more
imposing procession pass. That was
our introduction. When the Whitsun-
tide matters were all disposed of, he
called on me one evening to ask me to
be chairman at lecture he was about
to deliver in the little public hall of the
village on some point of the land ques-
ton. I was somewhat taken aback by
his request, and suppose I showed
that was.
"You are surprised. daresay, Mr..
Unwin," said he, with little con-
strained laugh Che was bright, genial
little man, with a big, red beard). II
| will explain why ask you?-because,
1 understand, you, like myself, come
from the south, where pure streams.
and clear skies, and healthy trees may
be seen, but especially because I be-
lieve you are the only man in the
neighborhood who holds somethig like
the same opinions as I do; my friend,
Mr.. Birley, has told me of the talks he
has had with you about the way our
Lancashire friends treat nature"
'Your friend, Mr.. Birley," T ex-
claimed.
eyes," said he, with a comical twin
kle in his eye, "Mr. Birley and I meet
not on theological, but on simply
human common ground, and he is the
friend of everyone who knows his good
heart"
1 began to like my visitor. I agreed
to act as his chairman, and we then
settled down to talk.
On the evening of the lecture I took
my place on the platform in a consid-
erable hutter of nervousness. There
was large attendance of work folk,
with fair sprinkling of well-to-do peo-
pie from the neighborhood, brought to-
gether, suppose, as much by curiosity
to see two parsons of conflicting creeds
together as by interest in the subject
of the lecture. I observed on back
seat Mrs. Steinhardt and Frank, Miss
Lacroix and our friend, MIR. Birley.
Steinhardt himself was not there On
rising l was astonished to find myself
greeted with rounds of applause, and
on explaining in few words how l
came to be where was, was cheered
with such hearty vociferation, that 1
concluded had become, without know
ing it, popular parsonage. Iaccepted
the explanation Mr.. Freeman gave me
afterwards ut was a brave and risky
thing to do, you know, to appear with
me; and these Lancashire folk above
all things admire bit of pluck against
odds"
CHAPTER ".