A MADMAN IN CHURCH.

Westport Times, Volume XVI, Issue 1967, 17 January 1882, Page 3

A MADMAN IN CHURCH.

The Nelson Mail gives the following account of a scene, which occurred in Christ's Church, Nelson, recently : Just after the officiating clergyman (the Rev. S. Poole) had taken his place in the reading desk, a man accompanied by fouV little children entered the church by the. main door, and unhesitatingly walked up the aisle to the

chancel. There he left the children standing in the aisle and went into the choir stalls, taking up his position in one immediately behind, and on a level with the floor of the reading desk. One of the officers of the church regarding this as a somewhat strange proceeding, took charge of the four children, who appeared quite dazed, and accommodated them with a pew. Meanwhile the voluntary ceased and the service commenced, the man standing immediately behind Mr Poole and looking down the church over his right shoulder. A member of the congregation left his seat and endeavored to persuade him to come down, but without avail, Ids request being quietly but firmly refused. The confession was made, the absolution read, and then came the Lord's prayer, and as soon as the strange visitor's ear caught the familiar words his countenance, up to the time dark and gloomy, lighted up, and, with apparent earnestness and fervency, he joined in the prayer. The clergyman, despite the awkwardness and disagreabless of his position, maintained his self-possession, and with unfaltering voice, continued to read the prayer, but occasionally he might be seen to cast a furtive glance over his shoulder, prompted by pardonable curiosity to know what was going on immediately behind him. The opening prayers over, the organ struck up the chant for the " Venite," and the choir commenced to sing the hymn of praise, but in all other parts of the church there was a dead silence, for every eye was fixed on the intruder, who moved by the music, began to walk up and down on the space behind the clergyman. There could now no longer be any question what was the matter. The man was perfectly mad ! The " Venite" concluded there was the usual pause while the clergyman pronounced the Psalms for the day, and then the chanting recommenced. More and more excited became the stranger; he increased the pace of his uneasy tramp over the yard and half of the floor on which he had to walk; he gnashed his teeth

under the growing excitement, and now and then he paused to glare and to make grimaces, now over the right, now over the left shoulder of the clergyman. One or two ladies avlio were in pews immediately under the reading desk here made a move, and this was a signal for a general stampede. The congregation was an unusually large one, but within the space of a very few minutes none were left within the walls, except a few men. A parley now commenced with the madman, who now stepped into the reading desk, and took up the position vacated by the clergyman, who retired when he saw the congregation disperse. The man's desire appeared to be to preach, and no persuasion could induce him to leave his point of vantage, while if any approached too near, he at once showed fight. Under the circumstances, it was thought best to send for the police, and three of them shortly arrived, and after a short but hard struggle he was handcuffed and sent to the lock-up. The requisite number of doctors and Justices of the Peace were summoned, and he was committed and conveyed to the Asylum. The unfortunate man was a storeman in the employ of one of the leading mercantile firms in Nelson, and was a sober, industrious, and generally respected man. About eighteen months since he lost his wife and was left a widower with a family of six young children. He has for some time past been ailing, and during the last day or two had displayed symptoms of insanity.