OCR Text |
Show FLIRTING IN CHURCH. At Oakland the Nuisance Was Suppressed ; by the Pollco. Rev. Dr. McLean, pastor of the First Congregational church at Oakland, Cal., was compelled not long ago to cull on the authorities to preserve order during the progress of the Sunday services. The gallery gal-lery of Dr. McLean's church, it seems, has for some time been the trysting place of flirtatious young couples, who heard never a word of the sermons, but spent the hours of worship in giggling, talking and the writing of silly notes. All sorts of appeals were made to the offenders. They w ere asked either to behave be-have or to stay away. Nothing availed, and the nuisance grew unbearable. Then Chief of Police Tompkins was appealed to, and he detailed Officer Howlettto suppress the flirting. The next Sunday Howlett doffed his uniform, put on plain clothes and took a seat in the rear of the gallery. What he saw and what he did is best told In his own words. Says the officer: "It was like a variety show at first; everybody was chewing gum and laughing and gfggling and passing notes, and no one was paying any attention to the sermon. ser-mon. I looked around and it wasn't long before I spotted three girls In one cornel who were having altogether too good a time. I went up to them very polite like and asked them to stop. You ought to have seen those girls look. 1 gave them a chance and then repeated my request 8nd showed my star. "Kven that didn't stop them, and after one more trial I told them they had better leave the church. Tiiey took my advice. Alter i nan asKea a few to leave things worked easily. Sometimes they would make an objection, but a glance at my star or a request that they leave soon stopped all monkey business. They were mighty nice giris and some pretty dudish young j DR. M'LEAN AND HIS CHURCn. fellows. They were not of the first families fami-lies evidently, but were a little too giddy. "Flirting," continued Mr. Howlett, "U all right, but it is hardly proper in church. It ain't right to talk out and giggle nnd tell stories and write notes. . You know that there is a regular crowd of young men who make the rounds of every church in Oak-bind Oak-bind on Sunday nights. They will drop in for a minute at one church to see if there are any girls whom they know there. If there ain't they go to the next, and so on until they find some one to take home. These young fellows have a bad habit of waiting iu the anterooms and smoking cigarettes, or waitinir on tho stens until services are over and their girls come out. When tho ushers would speak to them they would get laughed at for their pains, but they didn't take very long to tumble to me." |