The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-12-20
SUNDAY CHAT
By Andrew JOyncr

j says with some humor, more pathOs,
and still more acidity.
He writes: Il wonder why man.
kind generally wishes to be perverse.
Instead Of listening to the sermon last
Sunday, I went to church with the
best of intentions, in a true, militant
spirit, I thought. / went to sleep. 1t
was not the parsons fault. for I never
even heard his text. But in this in
stance my perversenesS was caused
by that Of two very fine and finely
dressed Christian They sat
in front of me. I could have moved
to another seat, but it would ave
done no good, for every other n OF
the one man to six women at church
was as bad off as I was right there.
He couldn't see the preacher for the
ladies' hats. Those in my front never
even left a chink for me to peep
through. ] kept In good humor for
the first fifteen minutes after hey
arose from praying and reared their
hats aloft towards the loft, and shut
me out from the pulpit. My good
humor arose from the interesting ex-
periments in trying to discover if there
were some loop holes for sight at the
parson through this head gear of hir-
sutical appendages and artlessly artful
montrosities. But it was no go. n
marry a loop. Ducking, side
or to the right. lifting the head until
Adams apple showed angry discOm-
fort, infringing on the territory of the
sister worshipper beside me until
became very near getting enmeshed
in her lead millinery, which was
faithfully doing its duty shutting out
another fellow behind her. I could not
get a glimpse of the sacred shrine
md its under the cross Of
Jesus.
After this ] lost my good nature,
and it must have been a ~dispensation
of Providence that caused natures
sweet reStorer, blessed sleep. to come
to my relief and thus prevented me
from gettiny mad, which is sinful.
Now. at the moving picture show.
YOU Can sit back and see everything
except hat it isn't a preacher that
you are looking for. In church /
could not see the lips OF the preacher.
and he standing up.
At the Rifou you can see the toes
OF the dancing lady on the stage, even
when she lies down and gives q new
wrinkle in the terpischorean art. Why?
! Why the ladies remove their hats at
the show? Why do they remove their
hats at the shows and not at church?
Wear finer hats Sundays, you reckon,
than they do at night at the show,
and want folks to look at them in
stead of the preacher? That cannot
be the reason or they would take their
ld'S olI III g AAo liz lI1cN
won't.
Did you say folks that went to
shows were less refined tina lady
church goers? In the first place, that
isn't the truth. In the second place. /
sat behind one of the very ladies last
night that caused me to miss possibly
genuine conversion. I know she is
not only refined, but is really such a
Christian she will certainly get TO
heaven unless she attempts to pass
through the narrow gate with that
hat. You say the ladies pull off their
hats at the shows because they know
they will prevent one another from
seeing what was going IN on the stage
if they didn't, while at church they
are not as particular about looking
at the preacher and letting others
look as they are about looking at
each others fnery, including who's
got the biggest, most audacious hat.
which they couldn't If the hats were
off. Now, that is tough, but it must
be the correct reason.
If the foreign missionary societies
DO not devise some way of providing
q way for men to see something be-
sides q few stray hairs on the meek
in front of him under a worse hedge
than pivett, there will eventually be
none but blind or foreign men in the
churches at home. Unless they want
the heather brought right to their
doors, with no further need of send
ing lots of money and missionaries
after them, they'd better get q move OF
and arrange for all men to sit on
one side of the church and the ladies
on the other, in the good old-fashioncd
country meeting-house style oEr
splendid forefathers. mothers o.
grandmothers kept their religion so
well under.
It seems to be useless to inquire
why the ladies wear such hats in tn :
first place, or to attempt a reform
in that respect. In the second place
if fashion DEGREES that the door -
hope shall be closed on 8. seeker
after grace seeking the pastors face
by a fool fashion of a hat, thu door
is not only closed but nailed light a.
to that convert.