Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 November 1885 — Only a Boy. [ARTICLE]

Only a Boy.

Sunday night the exercises in the Congregational Church had proceeded decorously enough until the choir had reached the line of the second verse of the first hymn. Just as they struck’ that every light in the room suddenly went out, and the notes of the singers and the strident tones of the organ vanished into the darkness. A few moments sufficed to relight the gas, and the good dominie, with his mouth muffled by his hand to hide an audible smile, said: “The choir will please sing the closing verse of the hymn,” and they at once began: Come, light serene 1 and still Our inmost bosoms fill, Dwell in each breast. The soprano sang a queer compound of snicker and psalm as her eyes caught the words, and the whole audience was on the broad grin to the close of the verse, which was given in good style. It seems that a young miscreant had stolen into the basement of the church and turned the gas off just when he imagined.it would make a sensation. He was nabbed as he tried to slip out by two young men, who took him part of the way to the lockup, and, not finding a policeman, let him go for the time being. He will, nevertheless, get his deserts at the proper time.— Florida Times-Union.