The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-28
ELDERS TRY mrs. GRANNIS.
CHURCH MEMBERS ACCUSE HER
or II KINDS OF CONTEMPT,
Some Referring to the Ex-Beloved Pastor
Denham, Some to Little Christiana in
the Front Row-Everything Secret Eek.
cent the Wild Words That Escaped.

ceDt the Wlu WOfuB mat Escapeu'
Elizabeth B. Grannis, exuding defence
and purity, was on trial all day yesterday
on charges of showing fourteen kinds Of
contempt for her brother and sister mem
beers in the Church Of the Disciples on
West Fifty-siXth street, or else OF showing
the same contempt in fourteen different
ways. There were fourteen charges, any
how. and most of them were edged and
embroidered with all the specifications
that anti-Grannis ladies Of the congrega-
non had been able to knit together sinoo
that day in June, a year ago, when Mrs.
Grannis said she wouldn't get out Of the
church unless she was put out.
Some of the charges referred to the ex-
beloved pastor, the Rev. b. Q. Denham,
who is now raising lemons in Florida,
having found his gospel work in New York
too strenuous when coupled with frequent
attendance at the West Side police court,
where he had many hearings on charges
ef having tried to firt with women, other
than those Of his own flock, from his study
window.
Because the Rev. Mr.. Denham is now
gone and has ceased to be al issue in the
church, the friends of Mrs. Grannis sug-
gested that time might be saved by elimi-
Mating the charges bearing on her remarks
about the conduct OF the pastor and limiting
the inquiry to the allegations that Christiana,
the little black child and protegee of Mrs.
Grannis, did then and there wriggle all over
minds of the parishioners from the wise
sayings of Mr.. Denham.
But the elders in charge of the trial would
have no elimination of any Of the fourteen
counts,
Although the trial was way back in the
Bible class room, voices we're heard from
time to time out in front. and some were
called, "Old cats" and Frances NJ. Apple
gate, the leader Of the opposition to Mrs.
Grannjs, was never called anything but
1T" by the friends of the purity champion.
Neighbors didn't like it aud said that If
the brothers and sisters of the Disciples
Church were planning to have another row
they would have to put tam bark on their
tongues 80 as not to disturb the quiet
dwellers on the block. A man with a barrel
organ outside couldn't get an audience, not
even with the Palms" and Holy City
Secrecy characterized everything about
the affair except the wilder words that es-
capped over the transom and under the door
into the infant class department, where the
excluded Grannis party were eating cake and
drawing sketches on the blackboard that
had been intended exclusively for sketch
maps to show the source and mouth Of the
Jordan. Fortunately for the members OF
the infant class these pictures were rubbed
out before the adjournment. Sketches
were made Of an anti Grannise elder and an
anti-Grannis deacon and there we're also
drawings in chalk of our pastor" waving
q pocket handkerchief from a window
and again of our pastor waving his hand
at somebody away off in the distance in a
lemon grove. But when grown up people
lit for six hours on the little chairs intended
for the infant class they're bound to do
something toward the end of the day to
kill time. Simply calling Mr.. Apologize
it, and Offering Mrs. Apologize a piece
Of cake wasn't diversion enough.
There were seven reporters in the infant
lass group, each one Of whom had re-
ceived a note from Mrs. ranni instruct
ing him to gain admission by saying that
he was a witness for the defence. Each
reporter 80 declared himself, but none Of
them could get into the Bible class room.
The secrecy became thick as soon as the
seven reporters arrived and haughtily tried
to PASS to the inner room as witnesses.
To conceal their confusion when rebuffed
they began to ask questions, an'elder
said: moi a word: not a syllable about
anything, whether it relates to the case
or not"
Another member jumped up quickly and
erased the words, "T'ha sinners friend go In
,nace,n before he thought anybody had a
chance to get that scrap of information to
the public. This quotation, of course,
Lad nothing to do with the trial, neither
had anything else that the outer group
was allowed to hear until very late, except,
Of course, "old cat and sit" and Mrs. A
Mrs. A." was the term by which Elder
hpplegate summoned his wife when he ap-
reared at the trial room door and beckoned
And Mrs. A." arose hurriedly and passed
within, while all the ladies Of the Grannis
faction snickered and began to call each
other by the letters Of the alphabet. 1t
NdS WHICH, Ills n Ill S"
enemy ironically passed her the cake which
had been brought in to ward of starvation
The first charge was that, when the
present lemon grower telegraphed to Mrs.
Grannis's house one night that he could
not come there to address the Purity
League because he was sick, MB. Grannis
got right up and told the league that she
didn't believe a word that was in the tele-
gram.
For another charge Elder Apologize,
Opposing, said that Mrs. Grannis had said
Specification b that the Rev. Mr.. Denham
had then and there wiggled his hips in
the pulpit during divine service.
To specification B Mrs. Grannis made
general denial adding that she didn't know
whether Mr.. Denham had any hips or not,
and didn't care.
It was further charged that Mrs. Grannis
had rendered assistance, moral or other
wise, in the prosecution Of the Rev. Mr..
Denham in the police court.
The idea exclaimed a Grannis sup
porter. IF she rendered assistance, Of
course, it was moral, and there wasn't any
otherwise about it."
Cb,roo a ,yos. GGba ha ndad sopna lattara