Ellsworth American., 1909-08-18
PAINTING THE
MEETING HOUSE,
~ NJ. QUAD.

only one place to worship. In the
earlier days the Methodists. Baptists
| and Presbyterians had dubbed togeth-
| er, and as time went on the three de-
nominations had agreed 50 well that
! no move had been made for the erec-
tion Of another building.
From time immemorial II has been
the privilege Of the farmers dog to
accompany his master TO church and
take up his station on the front steps
until time to so home again. The
| question as to whether this had made
better dogs Of them Is not to be de-
bated here. Ii is sufficient to say that
on this particular Sabbath day there
we're seven dogs occupying seven dif
| ferent wagons and that when a light
ming rod mans dog came along he
was looked upon as an Intruder and
promptly attacked. Seven dogs pitch
| Ing into one must soon confuse things.
| In this case after a moment il be-
came n battle royal. and the racket
stopped the sermon and was heard 10
the limits Of the village. The Worship
ers came out OF the church To see
and TO interfere and to take sides.
and the affair broke up the services
for the morning aud left good deal
Of acrimony floating around. Al,'~t Of
the blame was laid ON the man of
lightning rods. who was stopping In
the town over Sunday. He repudiated
it and had hot words aud on Monday
was arrested for using profane iau-
guage and fined s.. Up to the mo-
inent he was fined he was defiant.
Then he changed 10 humility. paid his
fne and apologized all around.
There was no one In the town Of
Hicksyille who really knew lightning
rod mans other side or who even sus-
pected that he had second side. II
there had been. a note OF warning
would have been sounded when this
man changed to humility. They ac-
cepted his attitude and his expressions
and some Of them even shook hands
with him and forsave him for having
such a dog. He went away and was
absent for three days and then re-
turned to say that be felt Ike doing
something for the church people to
show that no hard feelings ranked In
his soul. There was The old meeting
house. II needed painting badly. Tn
der its shadow his dog had raised u
row and created temporary hard feel
ings and be would beg the privilege
Of paying for two fresh coats. The
proposition fell like thunderclaL
on the town. II beat the coming OF
circus all hollow. All the church
folks had TO do. said the donor. was tc
get together and decide on the color
and he would furnish the paints and
the painters-simple as A B {.
meeting OF the church people was
called for certain night. and they
were there TO the last man and woman
All knew the issue. and all had come
prepared. The question to be settled
was one OF color. and It was a dead
easy one. The minister presided. as
was eminently proper. and he arose
to say that Of course there could be
but one color for frame meeting
house. That was white, TO represent
purity. The lightning rod man could
be notified to have his painter on hand
next day. Was there anything further
before the meeting:
To the good mans surprise, there
was. Deacon Tompkins arose to say
that while art was In its infancy in
this country q plain white meeting
house did very well, but art had ad.
vanced. Meeting houses should also
advance. Speaking for the Methodist
contingent. his choice was chrome yel-
low for the body Of the building. with
dark brown for the steeple and the
doors and window castings. He would
move that those colors be adopted.
Deacon Williams arose to hope that
no one would second the motion.
Speaking for the Baptists. be would
say that pea green color for the
body. with trimmings Of darker green.
would be more In harmony with the
surrounding landscape and prevent
strangers from taking the cider mill
for the meeting house. He didn't ad-
vance pea green AZ symbolic of the
Baptist faith alone. but Of all faiths.
1t even took In the Adventists He
would move pea green as an amend
ment for chrome yellow. Deacon Jones
said that he represented the Presby.
terians in the congregation and that
the Presbyterians had decided on lead
color for the body Of the building and
dark blue for doors, castings and stee-
pie. He would move his colors A. an
amendment to the last amendment and
he hoped that no further time would
be wasted over the matter.
But his hopes were disappointed.
The lightning rod man was appealed
to. but he replied that 1t was . ques-
ton to be left entirely to the congre-
| cation.
1t was left to them. Meeting after
ynaoffDO waa hold hut M o~a ~~v~