Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 April 1885 — Passing the Collection Plate. [ARTICLE]

Passing the Collection Plate.

A great deal depends on the man who .carries the plate. . He needs to have a sharp eye, of course, motto miss anybody, because there is not one chance in 1,000 of his being called hack. What he needs more than anything else, though, is business tact There’s everything in knowing bow to pass a plate to different people. Some of them are cranky. If you put the plate at them too persistently they feel offended, and take pride in not contributing .a cent for six weeks. Then other people have their little weaknesses, and 'want their light to have a good chance to shine. I knew a man who, if A plato came to him empty, would put on a (garter or a half, and be satisfied with starting it that way; but, if there were a lot of quarters and things on already, he’d just as like as not to slap down a dollar bill. And he’d get at least a dollar’s worth of satisfaction in watching the heatation of the men next to him, who knew they were as good as he, and yet didn’t like to give so much. Why, I’ve bad a plate come sailing by me just loaded with bills, and you’d think the congregation was extravagantly liberal, when the fact was that two or three men started in that way, and the rest wouldn’t take a bluff— Jfew Fork Sun. Sou® men are shining lights because they sparkle with gems of thought.