Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 140, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 June 1910 — A Curious Custom. [ARTICLE]

A Curious Custom.

In observance of a custom, which is said to have originated over 500 years ago, 21 aged widows of the parish of St. Bartholomew the Great, London, attended the church the other forenoon to receiye sixpence each, which they had to pick off a gravestone. The custom is the survival of a bequest left by a lady for the provision of doles for widows over 60 years of age, on condition that prayers • were offered for her soul every Good Friday. The tombstone from which the money is picked is supposed to be that ot the benefactress, but it is so cruhibled with age that it is impossible to say whose it is. This uncertainty, however, does not Interfere wfth the usefulness of the coins to any considerable extent