Norwich bulletin., 1918-03-09

men and women sat on separate sides of the house, as in Quaker meetings. The tithing man flourished, a gro- tesque and eccentric figure, bustling and strutting about the church, with his fantastic wand of office Afringed with dangling fox tails. ever ready to bounce upon the sleeping and the un- ruly.
 Mrs. Learned related an amusing but rather pathetic story, told by her mother, about when she was a little girl and went to church alone one sunday morning, as her mother was not well. In front of her sat MT. Gushing Eels, one of the shining lights of old Norwich, and his two boys, one on each side of him. He promptly went to sleep when the sermon began and the boys as promptly began cut ting up. Suddenly Mir. Eels walked up and caught them. He reached out and took them each by the hair of the head and holding them up. shook them well in full view of the congregation The poor girl, sitting behind, who was nervous and tinaid. became hystericai and laughed out loud. Parson John Tyler Cher grandfather stopped in his sermon. and after dreadful si- lince, said. Mary Roath, if you can't behave in church, you can go home!n Trembling and weeping, the poor child went out, and when her big brothers who had been sitting in the gallery, came home, they told how the wicked little Mary had been sent home from church, so the poor little thing was whipped; thus being punished for the sins of the Eels boys.
 The churches were totally unwarm- ed and their damp interiors. closed from Sunday to Sunday, must have through the thrde hour sermons and one and two hour prayers. Bread froze on the communion plates, but Week-old babies were baptized despite the weather. Clothing was inadequate to keep out t'Ne cold; that is women's clothing. The5 men were quite com fortable in tSeir many capped cloaks, heavy top boots. frieze stockings; their warm periwigs and beaver hats or hoods and their muffs, which they were constantly losing. But the wo- men Thin silk or cotton hose, with the thinnest of kid or cloth or silk on the Sabbath. Chilly linen under | clothing and scant French calico gowns, made with elbow sleeves and low cut necks with their lawn necker- l chiefs. A thin cloth cape lined with silk the only covering for the shoul- ders. Only their hands, protected by huge bearslSifr muffs, and their heads, wrapped is veils or muff1ers and hoods could have been warm
 | In bitter weather little footstoves began to be used, some of them very pretentious. The first church of Bos- ton was the first New England meet | ing house to be warmed by a stove 1 This was in 1773, and in 17S3 the Old South church followed with the same luxury and the Evening Post came out with the following poem in regard to it, Jan. 25. 17s3:
 Extinct the sacred fire of love l Our zeal grown cold and dead
 In the house of God we fix a stove i To warm us in their stead
 l This luxury met with much opposi- { ton. It is related that the wife of a lvery bitter opposer swept into church and tainted in midst of the service When carried out and partially re- l icovered, she faintly attributed it tC i the heat of the stove, but on being 1 informed no fire had yet been made ir \ 1t, her recovery was very rapid. ] Of all the dismal accompaniments I of public worship in those early days none was more forlorn than the music
 Not only was the yersi1cation of the l Psalms confused, but the few tunes 1 they knew were nlournfully monoton. ous. The great length. of many of thu Psalms in the Bay Psalm Book. ther in use was fatal to any good singing many of them being 13o lines long ant 1 taking, when lined and sung, a full half hour. during which the patient congregation stood. Still, confused and poor as it was, the singing was z source of pure and increasing -delighi
 to the Puritan colonists and one of the
 rare pleasures they possessed.
 The early church silver of New En- gland is of great interest. Beakers Ecandle cups and tankards. of great his. ] toric value and beauty were ofter 1 possessed by them The oldest piece Icfi cefnmunion plate in town belong, to. the Congregational church at Guil ford. Ii is a quaint old beaker witt flariRg gip and is marked in pouncet icngraving H. K.s. the. gift of. Henr, tKingswortll, one of the first settlers. 1 Until recently belonging to the an cient First Congregational Society O lcur own Norwich Town was a two handled cup made. by John Dixwel sazsd bearing the inscription 'aThe gif fof Sarah Knighte to the Church O Christ in Norwich, April 20th, 1722
 Madame Knight lived several years il Norwich
 Many cities and towns oftConnecti Icut possess antique church Silver, no Iall of which have been preserved il Tits original form, however
 The famous old church in New Gas
 tie, New Hampshire, supposed to hav'
 been the gift of Charles l. of Eng land, owned an ancient communion Iservice given by Mrs. Jane Turrell Isister of Sir William Pepperell, but il icourse of time it was melted over in to modern style. The bell in thi lchurch was rung on all important DC
 casions. the last time having beer
 when it rang all night in 1915 on tn, declaration of peace with England
 It is not often we pause to think O
 these old churches, these treasur houses of history and romance. The,
 stand each one, noble monument t Ithose who have passed on and a towe
 of strength to those who dwell or hay
 dwelt within the limits of their in Ifiuence.
 To illustrate the form of music en Ijoyed by the Puritans, two hymns il tfugue form were sung by the chorus
 Russia, in minor key, with most mel
 ancholy air and words, and majesty
 The afternoon concluded with te
 served by. Mrs. Frank H. Pullen an
 Mrs. Frederick W. Cary, assisted b
 Mrs. Weston Pullen, Mrs. Herber
 Morrow, Mrs William Perry, Miss Pi per. s 4s a.
 TAFTVlELE