TO TEST MORALS

Grey River Argus, 22 February 1928, Page 7

TO TEST MORALS

PASTOR'S ESCAPADE. The identity of the mysteriou. woman" «i x ni 14*L wearing white shoes, white stockings to the knee, a black skirl hemmed with white, a red hat, and a veil, who frightened the women and children in Curry Uivel, Somerset, last winter and who reappeared recently, has been dis At ten o'clock last night a. villager, seeing the “ woman" in the lane, jumped from his bicycle ami grasped “her” wrists. “Now,” he said who are vou?”

There was no answer . A leading member of the Congrc gational chapel arrived, lilted “her’ veil, and shone a. light in “her” fact The mystery was solved.

It was the Rev. A. Harold Read, the Congregational minister at Currv Rivel, a- married man of advancing years with several grown-up children Asked why he had gone about in

a woman’s clothes, the Rev. Mr Read said he had been looking for material for a novel. AN EXPLANATION. This discovery was followed by two public meetings at Drayton where Mr Read gave his explanation for the aetioM. “I was drawn to this venture,” he said, “because of what appeared to me, as reflected in the Press, a gross degeneration of manners ami morals. L wondered whether the world was as bad as it was painted. “ My idea was to discover what was the attitude of the ordinary man to the ordinary woman going alone on country roads rather late at night. “To my surprise and to my intense satisfaction, though I walked many miles on various occasions, there was not anyone who became at. all troublesome. “After having proved again and again all the local districts as far as I could, ami. to my entire satisfaction (in various disguises, and also by riding a woman’s cycle for a whole week) that men were far more chivalrous to woman than I imagined, 1 resolved to confirm and establish my convictions by visiting othsr and more populous areas. “My experience was just the same, with one exception—a town at some distance—wh«ere, as I. sat on the sea front, all at once I felt a man leering at me. It was a terrible feeling, and 1 moved away very quickly. “Men, I raise my hat to you. I can truly say that you never had so high a place in my esteem as now. 'The lurim Press, the daily journals that give much space in their columns to sensation, are not fair to you. The heart of English manhood seems as sound as ever. MANY A SMILE. “These- doings and goings have not been (happily for me) without their humorous side. Many a silent chuckle have I had when I passed the people of the place all unknown to them. “1 calculated, however, that my position as a. minister would lend added weight to the evidence, Ihe tes- : timony, 1 could give.” At the conclusion of the meeting a member of the audience rose and asked if he could ask a question. “No questions allowed,” said Mr. ■Read. In an interview he said: “1 do not see that any harm, as been done. T have travelled in many places so disguised. and have never been detected. No one, not even my family, knew anything about my adventures.