QUEER CONSCIENCE GIFTS.

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume XLV, Issue 2930, 27 October 1925, Page 5

QUEER CONSCIENCE GIFTS.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer is not the only person to whom conscience money is -sent. ■To date, I have reeeiv-" cd, writes "A Parson" in the Daily Mail, 22 'conscience* remittances in cash' and four in kind—a kneeling mat, a large and expensively bound hynvi book, a rose bush, and a hat. ■ > The mat, sent "in replacement of one taken as a joke many years ago" was all right, but the hym,n book was- of a type no longer used, the rose, bush (to be planted in the churchyard "to make good one thoughtlessly broken' 7) declined to grow, and. the hat, evidently intended for my predecessor and sent by an ex-chorister Vho admitted, with sorrow, that he had annexed the original and used it on a Guy Fawkes effigy —was of a size and shape that made it useless to me. And, the old vicar being dead, .1 couldn't pass.it on to him. Ultimately it was sold for sixpence. ■In cash,'the highest remittance T have received was £10 from "One who should have put more in the collection bags. I' was somewhat curious as to the" identity of .the' donors, but my told me ,not to worry. The description "One who should hare put n*ore in the collection bags" applied, in his opinion, to everybody, dead and alive, who had attended church for the last 20 years. Thrpe people sent £5, £2 and £1 respectively, in adjustment of pilfered hymn books—those, inscribed "Not to be taken .away," you know, A? 4 £<>

fewer than five have confessed to hay- , ing annexed and eaten harvest festival apples, grapes, and so one, and sent verying sums in satisfaction. The gentleman, however1, who sent 2/to replace a poor box theft, and asked that it be acknowledged in a certain, daily paper, had no sense of proportion. To spend 5/-vin acknowledging 2/- is not business! V Tli£ smallest sum. I have received was 3d —"to stop my conscience worrying me." An illuminating P.,S. said: "I bought sweets instead of putting the money in the bag."