MOOSE’S RURAL WEW-YOBMES. 
SEPT .14 
Chester, a Woman’s itightslcuder; Sir John and 
Lady Bowm.NU, Prof, and Mrs. Fawcett, Baron¬ 
ess Bpruett Coim'g, W.v. A eeinuham the 
lyric artist, Moncurk I). Conway the American 
journalist, and nearly all the scientific men in 
England, including many from abroad. The 
British Association for the Advancement of 
Science is in session here. 
1 have seen the “Imperial” party as yet but 
once. They attended one of tlio Association 
meetings yesterday, at which Htanley read a 
paper. Seats had been reserved for them, and 
I hey entered, eliciting great applause. 1 think 
the English a race of snobs. They cheered, and 
cheered when the parly left, af the close of the 
meeting, and ran after their carriage in the 
street, and upon Ins arrival besieged his hotel. 
The Empress was very plainly attired, in black, 
wearing a peaked black hat, bound with a scarf 
and a dark green leather at one side. She pre¬ 
sented a marked contrast to the lossy purple 
and while and green and blue toggery of the 
English dames around her. She kept her veil 
down, throughout, but through Unit looked very 
well indeed. The Emperor, a pudgy follow, 
looks very like Ilia photographs. The Prince, 
now a lad of fifteen, perhaps, has a prominent 
nose, abundant dark hair, and looks us if lie 
might some day make an effort to gain the 
French throne. They are expected to remain 
here some time. 
Mr. Stanley is a small, dark man, with thick 
black hair, tinged In spots with gray—he is 
young with black eyes, a square forehead, 
wears a moustache and goatee, and looks 
plucky and resolute, lie is quite the sensation 
now in England, and the English, much ns they 
admire his Yankee pluck, never in their honors 
forget the tact that he is one of those “dread¬ 
fully enterprising Americans." If the Rural 
New-Yorker only had more space for such 
gossips as I, it should be told all about the other 
notables hero. Mary A. E. Wager. 
©ur #torg-©ttltyr. 
A HINDOO TEMPLE. 
Ore of the finest types of ancient Indian ar¬ 
chitecture, the Pagoda of Comlmconum, in a 
village of the same name, is represented in our 
illustration this week. Thu structure lias four 
py rami dies I doorways, built of brick, which 
give entrance to the inner court. One of these 
is seen in the picture, I lie view being had from 
fbe interior of tlio court. The connecting walls 
between these great doorways are so poor and 
insignificant, they appear to have no relation to 
what might otherwise be considered as isolated 
towers in a desert. These great doorways are 
completely covered with statues, as shown in 
liie picture. They are made of fine-grained 
lime stone, mid are arranged like a regiment 
under arms. The southern entrance to this 
temple is the most curious, the heads of tlie 
hooded viper being sculptured in great numbers 
over the whole surface. The portion of tin- pa¬ 
goda shown in our picture (see preceding page) 
is dedicated to the god llama. The stone 
dias, on four pillars, is used for kindling the 
sacred lire: and another fire is kindled at the 
same moment on the upper story of the door¬ 
way, as a signal to distant Worshipers. The 
building is vast in dimensions, lias eleven stories, 
and is decorated with eleven bulls and innumer¬ 
able statues. The statues me life size on the 
first lloor, but diminish in size upwards. 
-■- 
PLEASANT PARAGRAPHS. 
At a certain ehilrch fair a set of Cooper’s 
works was promised to the individual who 
should answer a list of conundrums. A dashing 
young fellow was pronounced the winner, and 
received a set of wooden pails. The young man 
received his award with a sardonic smile, and 
would have been angry, but one or the sweet- 
voiced sisters standing near suggested that they 
might be useful for housekeeping some day. 
The conundrum eliminator suddenly discov¬ 
ered that the lady had pretty eyes. 
A New Orleans mother was recently ques¬ 
tioning her little girl in Geography as follows : 
“Who went first through the straits of Magel¬ 
lan?’’ Daisy quickly answered, “ Magellan with 
his squadron." "What do you understand by 
his squadron, Daisy?" Tlio question was not In 
the hook, hut Daisy was ready for the emergen¬ 
cy. “ Oh, 1 know; it’s one of those women thut 
ain’t quite white.” 
A utile girl, when her father’s table was 
honored with the presence of an esteemed 
friend, begau talking very earnestly at the first 
pause iu the conversation. Her father checked 
her rather sharply, saying, “ Why is it that you 
always talk so much’• Tause I’ve dot some- 
sin’ to say," was the innocent reply. 
An Illinois editor thus sarcastically speaks ol 
the marriage of a professional brother in Indi¬ 
ana:—“He stepped upon the hymeneal plat¬ 
form, adjusted the fatal noose, and was swung 
Off into that unsilent bourne, whence ho can 
never re! urn, sav e by the Indianapolis connect¬ 
ing linos." 
A scholar in one of Danbury’s schools being 
asked a rather difficult question, hammered at 
it for a while without success, and then pettish¬ 
ly Inquired, “ Am l hot or cold?" A moment 
later he was quite hot. 
There is a town out West called Random, A 
resident of the place being asked where lie 
lived, said lie lived at Random. He was taken 
up as ft vagrant. 
Wnv is a newspaper like an army? Because 
it lias leaders, columns and reviews. 
o LAUGHING IN MEETIN’. 
f _ 
A Reminiscence by Mrs. Beecher Stowe. 
t - 
i We were In disgrace, we boys, and the reason 
i of it. was this: We had laughed out In meeting 
1 time l To be sure t he occasion was a trying one, 
t even to more disciplined nerves. Parson Lo- 
1 throp had exchanged pulpits with Parson Sum- 
> moral, of North Wcarom. Now, Parson Hum- 
i moral was a man in the very outset likely to pro¬ 
voke the rial bios of unspirltunlizod juveniles. 
. He wusu lliin, wiry, frisky little man, in pow¬ 
dered white wig, black tights, and silk stock logs, 
with bright knee buckles, and shoe buOkies, 
- with round, dark, snapping eyes, and u curious, 
1 high, cracked, squeaking vo!<-e, the very first 
tonoe of which made all the children stare and 
giggle. The news that Parson St unmoral was 
going to preach in our v illage spread abroad 
among us as a prelude to something funny. It 
had a flavor like t lie charm of circus acting; and 
on the Sunday morning of our story wo went to 
>-h<- bouse of God in a v ery hilarious state, all 
ready to set off in a laugh cm the slightest provo¬ 
cation. 
The occasion was not long wanting. Parson 
Lothrop had a favorite dog yclept Trip, whoso 
behavior in meeting w.is notoriously far from 
that edifying pattern which befits a minister’s 
dog on Sundays. Trip was a nervous dog, mid a 
dog that could never bo taught to conceal his 
emotions or to respect conventionalities. |If 
anything about the performance In the singers’ 
scut did not please him, he was apt to express 
hlinscll in a lugubrious liowl. It tlio sermon 
was longer tlian suited him, he would gape with 
sucli a loud creek of bis jaws as would arouse 
everybody’s attention. I f the Hies disturbed his 
afternoon’s nap he would give .sudden snarls or 
snaps; or, if anything troubled Ids dreams, he 
would bark out. in his sleep In a manner not only 
to dispel his own slumbers, but those of certain 
worthy deacons and old ladies whose sanctuary 
repose was thereby sorely broken mid troubled. 
For all these reasons Madam Lothrop had been 
forced, as a general thing, to deny Trip the usu¬ 
al sanctuary privilege of good family dogs in 
that age, and shut him up on Sundays to private 
meditation. Trip, of course, was only the more 
set. on attendance, and would hide behind the 
doors, jump out of windows, sneak through by¬ 
ways mid alleys and lie bid till the second In ti 
had done tolling, when suddenly he Would 
pOur in the broad aisle, innocent and happy, mid 
lake his scat as composedly as any member of 
(lie congregation. 
Imagine us youngsters on the qvi rire with 
excitement at seeing I’arsmi Summeral lrlsk up 
into the pulpit with all the vivacity of a black 
grasshopper. We looked at each oilier and gig¬ 
gled very cautiously with due respect to Aunt 
Lots’ sharp observation. 
At first, l here was only a mild, quiet simmer¬ 
ing of giggle, compressed decorously within the 
bounds of propriety, and wc pursed our muscles 
up with stringent resolution whenever we 
caught the apprehensive eye of our elders. 
But when, directly after the closing notes of 
the tolling second bell, Master Trip walked 
gravely up the front aisle, and seating himself 
squarely iu front of the pulpit, raised Ids nos,- 
with a critical air toward the scene of the forth¬ 
coming performance, it was too much for ns 
the repression was almost convulsive. Trip 
wore an alert, attentive air befitting a sound, 
orthodox dog, who smells a possible heresy, and 
deems it his duty to watch the proceedings nur- 
rowly. 
Evidently he felt called upon to sec who and 
what were to occupy that pulpit in his master’s 
absence. 
T'p rose Parson Summeral, and up went trip's 
nose, vibrating with intense attention. 
The parson begun in his high-cracked voice to 
intone the hymn— 
“ Slug to the Lord aloud.” 
when Trip broke Into a dismal bowl. 
The parson went on to give directions to the 
deacon, in the same voice In which be had been 
reading, so that the whole effect of the perform¬ 
ance was somewhat as follows: 
" Sing to the Lord aloud,” 
"(Please td turn out that dog;— 
“ Anti miike a jnytul noise,”’ 
The dog was turned out, and the choir did 
their best to makeu joyful noise; but wo boys 
were upset for the day, delivered over to the 
temptations of Satan, and plunged in wavesand 
pillows of hysterical giggle, from which neither 
winks nor frowns from Aunt Luis, nor the uw- 
l'ul four of the tithing man, nor the comforting 
bite of fennel and orange peel, passed by grand¬ 
mother, could recover us. 
Everybody felt, to bo sure, that here was a trial i 
that called for some indulgence. Hard faces, t 
even among tlio stoniest saints, betrayed a trari- i 
sient quiver of the risible muscles, old ladies put - 
up their fans, youths and muidensin thesingers' i 
seats laughed outrlght.and for the moment a gen- ■ 
oral snicker among the children was pardoned. 
But! was ou 0 of that luckless kind whose nerves, ] 
once set in vibration, could not be composed. J 
When the reign or gravity and decorum liad re- t 
turned. Harry and 1 sat by each other, shaking < 
with suppressed laughter. Everything in the 1 
subsequent exercises took a funny turn, and in (. 
the long tK-ayer, when everybody else was still I 
and decorous, the whole scene came over me s 
with such overpowering force that I exploded 1 
with laughter, and had to he taken out of meet¬ 
ing and marched home by Aunt Eois as a cou- 
victed criminal. What especially moved her 
indignation was that the more she rebuked and 
upbraided the more I laughed, 1 ill the tears 
rolled down my checks, which Aunt Eois con¬ 
strued into wilful disrespect to her authority 
and resented accordingly. 
By .Sunday evening, us wc gathered around 
the fire, the reaction from undue gayety to so¬ 
briety had taken place, and we were in a pen¬ 
sive and penitent state. Grandmother was gra¬ 
cious and forgiving, but Aunt Lois still pre 
served that frosty nfr of reprobation which she 
held to be a salutary means of qniekcntrg our 
consciences for the future. It was, therefore, 
With unusual delight, that wc saw ournld friend 
Sarn come in and sit himself quietly down on 
the block in the chimney corner. With Sum we 
felt assured of indulgence and patronage, for, 
though always rigidly moral and instructive in 
Ids turn of mind, lie had that fellow reeling for 
transgressors which iseharacterlstie ol' the looso- 
Jointed,,easy-going style of his individuality. 
i'Ordy massy, boys yls," said Ham, virtuous¬ 
ly, in view of some of Aunt Lois’ thrusts, "yc 
ought never to laugh nor cut up in mootin', that 
are’s so, but then there is times when lla- best 
on us gets took down. Wo gets took unawares, 
ye sec even ministers does. Vis. nutur’ will git 
the upper hand afore fbey know it." 
“Why, Sam, ministers don’t ever Jaugh in 
msetin', do they?" 
We put the question with wide eyes. Such a 
supposition bordered on profanity. We thought; 
ii was approaching thcsln of I'/.zab, who un¬ 
warily touched the ark of the Lord. 
“ Laws, ye*. Why, haven't you never heard 
how there was a council held to i ry Parson Mor- 
rel for laughing out in prayer time?" 
“ Laughing in prayer lime!" we both repeated, 
wit h uplifted hands und eyes. 
My gruudluther’s mild luce became luminous 
with a suppressed smile which brightened it as 
the moon does a cloud, but he said nothing. 
“Yes, yes," said my grandmother, “that af¬ 
fair did make a dreadful scandal in the time, 
on’t. But Parson Morrel was a good man, and 
I’m glad the council wasn’t hard on him." 
“ Wol,” said Ham Lawson, “after all.it was 
more like Babbit's fault than 'twas anybody’s. 
Ye sec, Ike, In- was alters for gcttln’ wluil lie 
him till 1 came over -that was the way we man¬ 
aged Dick—hut el' he conic sudden up behind a 
feller, he’d give him a butt in the small of the 
back that would make him run ou all fours one 
while— ho was a great roguo Dick was. Wal, 
that summer I remember they had old Deacon 
Titkens for lithlngmflii, and I tell you he give it. 
to the hoys lively. There warn't no slcepin' nor 
1,0 playln,’ for the deacon had eyes like a gim- 
blet, and he was quick as a eat, and (lie young¬ 
sters hed to look on I for l hernsolvcs. Ji didrenlly 
seem ns if the deacon was like them four beasts 
In the Revelations that was full o’ eyes be hind 
and before, for whichever way he was 6tandin’, 
if you gave only a wink he was down on you, 
and hit you a tap with ids stick. 1 know once 
Lom Sudoe jist-wrote two words in the psalm¬ 
book and passed il to Keziah Barken, and the 
deacon gave him such a tap that. Lem grew as 
red as a beet, and vowed he’d be up with him 
some day for that, 
M ell, I only ttiassa, lolks that is so chipper 
and high stoppin' have to have their come- 
downs, and the deacon had to have his." 
“ That are Sunday, I remember It. now jest as 
well as if f was yesterday. The parson ho give 
us his great, sermon, reconcilin’ decrees and free 
agency everybody said that are sermon was a 
masterpiece. He preached it up to Cambridge 
ul commencement, but it so happened it wasone 
o them Pilin' hoi days that come in August, 
when you can fairly hear the liuckelberries a 
sizzlin’ and cookin’ on the bushes, and the locust 
keeps u gratin’ like a red-hot saw. Wal, such 
times, decrees or no decrees, the best on us will 
get sleepy. The old meet in'-house stood right 
down ut the loot of a hill (hat kep’off all the 
wind, and the sun blazed away at them great 
west winders, and there was a pretty sleepy time 
there. Wal, the deacon lie Hew around a spell, 
and woke up the children and hipped the boys 
on the head, and kep' everything straight us he 
could till the sermon was most through, when 
lie railly gut most tuckered out. und lie took n 
chair and he sot down fn the door right.opposite 
the minister and fairly got asleep himself, jest as 
the minister got up to imiko the last, pntver. 
" Wul, Parson Morrel had a way o' prayin' with 
his eyes open. Folks said It was n't tin- best wav 
nut it was Parson Morrol's \v;iy anyhow, un<l so 
as he was prayin' ho couldn’t help sc-ein' that 
Deacon Tit kins was u tioddin'atid a bobbin’ out 
toward the place where old Dick wsts feedin' 
could out o' tin- town, and In w.,uid tec.I his " 'j thc -h< . I'- front the nioettn'-hmiso door. 
oSTk?a C r?“‘.! ,UUW T 0 "*, - ^‘Kr^ri^K'anS 
other, Ike s lenocs alters contrived to give out, look at the deacon. The deacon had a little 
come Sunday, and up would come bis sheep, and rmm ' 1 head us smooth as an apple, with a nice 
come Sunday, and up would come his sheep, and 
Ike was too pious to drive them back Sunday, and 
so there they was. He was talked to enough 
about it. case ye sec Lo have sheep und lambs ii 
ba-a-in and u blarin' all prayer and sumon time, 
want the tiling. 'Member that are old meeting 
house up to the north end. down under Blueber¬ 
ry iiili, the land sort o' sloped down, sous a body 
hed to come into the moorin' house steppin’ 
down instead o' up. 
" Fat t was, they said ’twits put there’enuso the 
land wa'n't good for nothin' else, and the folks 
thought puttin' a mootin' house on’t would he a 
clear savin’—but 1’arson Morrel ho didn’t like It 
and was free to tell ’em his mind on’t, that 
twas like bringln' the lame and tip.- blind to the 
Lord’s sarvlce,—but there 'twas. 
“There warn’t a better minister nor no one 
more set by in alt the state than Parson Morrel. 
His doctrines was right up and down good and 
sharp, and he give saints and sinners their meat 
in due season, and lor consolin' and comfortin' 
widders and orphans Parson Morrel hadn’t his 
match. The women sot lots by him and he was 
alius’ ready to take tea round, and make tilings 
pleasant and comfortable and he had a good 
story for every one and a word for Hie children, 
and may be an apple or a cookey in his pocket 
for ’em. Wal, you know the’ ain’t m pleasin’ 
everybody, auil of Guberlel himself, right down 
out c>‘ heaven, was to come and be a minister 1 
expect thore'd bo a pickin' at. his wings, and a 
sort o’ fault Ihulin’. Now aunt Jem shy Scran 
and Aunt Polly Hokum they said Parson Morrel 
wan't solemn enough. Ye see there's them that 
thinks that a minister ought tube Jest like the 
town hearse, so that ye think o' death. Judg¬ 
ment and eternity, and nothin* else, when ye see 
him round; and ef they see a man rosy and chip¬ 
per and havin' a pretty nice, sociable sort of a 
time, why they say he ain't splritooal minded. 
But in my times I've seen ministers, Hie most 
awakenin' kind in the pulpit that was the liveli¬ 
est when they was nut on’t. There is a time to 
laugh, scripturesays, tho’ some folks never seem 
to remember that are.” 
“ButSam. how came you to say it was Ike 
Babbit’s fault? What was it about the sheep?" 
“ Oh, wal yis—I'm coinin’ to that are. It wusall 
about tii cm sheep—I expect they was tboinstru- 
rnent the devil set to work, to tempt parson 
Morrel to laugh at prayer time. 
“ Ye see there was old Dlc-k. Ike’s bell wether, 
was the fightin'eet ole critter that ever you see. 
Wfiy Dick would butt at his own shudder and 
everybody said ii was a shame the old critter 
shou’d he left to run louse, ’ cause he mu at the 
children and scared the women half out their 
wits. Wul, I use to live out in that par ash in 
them days und Lem Sudoe und 1 used to go out 
sparkin’ Sunday nights to see tho Larkin gals 
-and we had to go right cross the lot whore 
Dick was to wc used to go and stand at the 
fence and call, and Dick would see us aud put 
down his head aud run at us full chisel, und 
roumi iichu as smooth as an apple, with a nice 
powdered-Wig on if. and he sot there milkin' 
bobs und hows, and Dlt-k begun to think it was 
mi thin sort o puFsmiitl. Lem and me wnsslltig’ 
|c-r where we could look cut and sea the hull 
pictiir. and I.cm was tit to split. 
“•Good, now,' rays he, ‘Ilint critter'll pay the 
deacon oil lively pretty si Kin.' 
" I he deacon bobbed his head a spell, and old 
Hu k lie shook his horns and stomped at him 
sorto threatenin'. Finally the deacon he gave 
a great Low and brought his head right down at 
him, and old Dick lie sot out full tilt and come¬ 
down on him kor chunk, and knocked him head 
over heels into the Lmad ais).-. ,-oid his ivig ih-w 
one way and he t other, and Dick made n lunge 
at It us ii (lew, und carried it off on his horns. 
' ual, vmt may believe, that broke up the 
meet in for one while, for Parson Morn-l laugh¬ 
ed out, and all the gala and hoys they h tom pod 
and roared, and the old deacon he got up and 
began rubbin’ his shins—'cans' he didn't seethe 
joke on’t. 
‘“You don’t Oiler laugh,’ says he, ‘ It’s no 
laughing matter it's a solemn thing,’ snyslie, i 
might have been sent into 'tiirnity t.y that, 
dinned critter* says he. Then thev all roared 
und haw-hawed the more to s. r- the dencon dan- 
ein round with Ida Utile shiny head, so smooth 
a il.v would trip up on't. ‘ I heilevemysoul, you'd 
laugh to see me in toy grave !’ 
Will, the truth on' was, 'twas j<*st one of 
them bustin' Up limes that tmtnr has, when 
there ant nothin’ for It but lo give jo; ’twas 
Jest like the ice brakcri’ up In thGCJhurles River 
it all comes at omie und no whoa to t. Sunday 
or nc Sunday, sin or no sin. the rno-i on’em 
luughd till they cried, and couldn't help it. 
But the deacon In- went home fcedin' prettv 
son- about it. Lem Sudoe picked up his wig and 
handed it to him. Says- lie. '.'Old Dick was play¬ 
ing ruhmg man. was’nl he, deacon ? Teach you 
to make allowance for other folks that net 
sleepy.' 
“ Then Mrs. Tltkins went over to Aunt Je- 
rushy Scran'* and A tint Polly Hokum'* and tbw 
Hed a pot o tea over it. and greed it was awful 
°f * arson Morrel lo set. sich an example, and 
sutluo had got to be done about it Miss Hok¬ 
um said she alters knew that Parson Mom-1 
hadn r no spiritnoality. arid now it had broke out 
Into open sin. mid led nil the rest n f ’em into it, 
and Mrs. Titk ins she said such a man wa nt lit to 
preach, and Miss If ilium said she cot Id n't never 
hear him again, and the next, Hundav the deacon 
and hi* wife they hitched up and driv eight 
rat es fiver toParson Lothrop's and took Aunt 
Polly on the back seat. 
•‘Mill, the thing grown! and grown!, tin it 
earned as if there warn't nothin’ else talked 
about, cause Aunt Polly and Miss Titkins and 
Jerushy Serun they didn’t dr. nothin' else hut 
talk about It, and that sot everybody else a- 
taJUin. 
“ Finally, it was’greed they must her a council 
to settle the bash, bo all the wimmen they went 
to chopping mince, und making up punkin pies 
and cranberry tartsand bi'lin doughnuts, gotten 
ready for the ministers and delegates—'cause 
councils always eats powerful-and they had 
quite a Stir, Ijkeagineral trainin.' The bosses’ 
they wan hitched all Up mid down the -tails, a 
stompin’ and switcliun' llieir tails, an all tho 
women was u-tulkin’ and tlic-v hed everybody 
give up. ' 
"The parson he wn« a master hand at setten’ 
oil a story, mid ul’oro he'd done, lie got ’em all in 
such a roar they did’ut know where to Jcuvootf. 
Hnally they gHc gentenee that there hadn't no 
temptations took him but such as is common to 
man; but they advised him afterward alters to 
come hunt agin the fence and then I'd catch him mml ■ but they advried him afterward allors to 
l,y ,.k, hoina ana bow bin, tan „„ d 
got. m or the fence f other side tho lot, and then In future, and so they settled it. 
TVI lall ...A .. > 1.1 T I 1 1 . 11 . l L • ki Kn 1 . .. I _ _. 1 .. _ 
I'd let go and Lem would holler and shake a 
stick at him and away he would go full butt at 
Lem. and Lem would ketch liis horns aud hold 
’ Ho, boy* " said Hum, who ulways drew a mor¬ 
al, "ye see it 1'anis you you must take care 
what ye look at, ef ye want to keep from laugh- 
III in lilOotin *» 
m mineetin. 
