OUT-OF-TOWN PLACES 



ornamentation. The other was Episcopal, 

 with sharp-headed windows, and three or 

 four crazy-looking turrets; but the paint upon 

 this latter was nearly worn away by the storm- 

 gusts that beat unbroken over the common. I 

 am compelled to say too that the services were 

 only occasional in this gothic tabernacle; and 

 regret exceedingly to add that, after a fitful 

 and spasmodic life, the Episcopal society which 

 maintained nominal ownership of this tur- 

 reted temple made over its interest and debts 

 to certain worldly parties, and the sharp- 

 headed windows now shed their light upon 

 "town meetings," and the late church is abased 

 to the uses of a town hall. It must be said, 

 that the rural residents of New England have 

 no large or growing appreciation of the beau- 

 tiful Litany. They like long sermons and a 

 "talking out" in prayer. You or I may feel 

 differently; but the men and women of those 

 retired districts, where books and newspapers 

 rarely come, want to hear on a Sunday what 

 the parson will say — not only in his sermon, 

 but in his invocations. 



The doric meeting-house, however, gloried 

 in a thick, white sheen of paint. The blinds 

 were green to a fault. No exterior mark of 

 prosperity seemed wanting but a flanking line 



