Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1903-02-20
SIN CRAVEN IN MARBLE.
Warning to Those Who Take Snuff
During Worship.

Warning to Those Who Take SNUFF
During Worship.
There is quaint old parish church
in Plurien, Brittany, built in the early
part of the fifteenth century. and hay-
ing, with many other primitive ar
rangements, the bell rope from the bel
fly hanging down from TIC roof of
the nave and dangling just in front OF
the pulpit, so that the process of bell
ringing is performed in full view of
the congregation. But what was more
peculiar, says the Glasgow Herald,
was the projection at right angles
from one of the walls (also near the
pulpit of sculptured hand and arm
of full size, as though held out from
the shoulder by somebody built into
the solid fabric of the wall itself,
and the hand opened and palm up
ward and fingers extended had sug-
gestion of appeal and solicitation
which naturally provoked curiosity.
AS there was no inscription or any
thing to hint at the nature of the story
that evidently lay behind the sculp-
tured limb, | made inquiry Of charm
ing old lady, who was decorating the
altar with flowers in view of the next
days high mass, and she told me that
many years ago. in the far-off past,
there was a wicked v;iiager who went
indeed to mass, but was far from de-
vout, and on one occasion he SO far
forgot himself in the service on hot
summers day as to hold out his hand
through the open door or window to an
equally undevout friend for a pinch of
snuff
The pinch was duly given, but ST.
Peter, the patron saint of the church,
was so scandalized by so terrible a
want of reverence that he straightway
paralyzed the arm of the offending
snuff taker. who thereupon took to his
bed and died. but not before he had
admitted the justice Of his punishment
and had left directions in his will for
setting up in the church of the
marble reminder of his sin, in order
that all future villagers in Plurien
might be warned against the terrible
enormity of allowing any distraction
to interrupt the devout hearing of the
mass. 1t is a curious story, and re-
minds one that there has been an in
fancy in religion as well as in most
other of the great motive powers of ex-
istence.
How He Kept Informed on Clocks.
A fad more or less general in the
collecting of old clocks, from the tall
timekeepers of foreign make. The
sarrets of old farmhouscs from Maine
to the Carolinas have been ransacked
for the former, and there is many a
man and woman in New York who
keeps an eye on the pawnshops Of the
foreign districts for curious and an
cient things from abroad.
1T is almost impossible to keep
them all running" complained a wo-
man who has two dozen aged and valu-
able clocks scattered through her
Madison avenue home. '.They seem
10 De IN good order and run along Tor
a while, then all of sudden they
stop for no reason at all.
II have found an old German who
knows more about the ways of old
clocks than any one In the city. i
sent him my German prize q few
weeks ago, and when it did not come
back after the usual period of waiting
went to his shop. What do you
think found him reading?"
The friend did not have the slightest
idea.
1T was little German volume with
a title something like this. Thirteen
Hundred Reasons Why a Clock in
Perfect Order Won't Run."-New
York Tribune.