Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 64, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 March 1910 — A RETROACTIVE BLESSING. [ARTICLE]

A RETROACTIVE BLESSING.

Most small boys—and many other people, too—have experienced the mortification that comes from beginning a meal before the blessing is said. Tho usual reason for such a breach of etiquette is that the small boy—or the other person—did not know that the blessing was going to be said. The awkward feeling that is sure to follow such a blunder cannot be helped, but it may be mitigated. On one occasion, says Adlai E. Stevenson in “Something of Men I Have Known,” a gentleman at a formal dinner, being very hungry and exhausted, made this mistake of starting in before grace. After the blessing was asked, he turned to Mr. Knott and said, “I am humiliated at my conduct. I should have remembered that Presbyterians always say grace before meals;” To this Kqplt replied, “You ought not to feel so. That blessing of Doetor Bullock's was broad and general; in large measure retrospective as well as prospective. It reminds me of a little incident that occurred on the ‘Rolling Fork.’ “An old-time deacon down there was noted for the lengthy blessing which at his table was the unfailing prelude to every meal. His hired man, Bill Taylor, an unconverted and impatient youth, had fallen into the habit of commencing his meal before the blessing had been fully Invoked. “The frown and the rebuke of the good deacon were of .nd avail In effecting the desired reform. Righteously

indignant, the deacon, in a spirit possibly not the most devout, at length gave utterance to this petition: “ ‘For what we are about to receive, and for what William Taylor has already received, accept our thanks, O Lord!" “Knott,” said one of the guests, “you are the only man on earth who could have thought of such a story at jus*, the opportune moment.” The temporary depression vanished, the premature guest was himself again, and was soon the life of the assemblage.