onsternation, swept through the ranks of the
Free Religious Group. They denied the existence of such a law as I had
mentioned, and I promptly read it aloud to them. The leaders went off
into a corner and consulted. By this time not one man in my parish
was left in the hall. As a result of the consultation in the corner, a
committee of the would-be dancers came to me and suggested a compromise.

"Will you agree to arrest the men only?" they wanted to know.

"No," I declared. "On the contrary, I shall have the women arrested
first! For the women ought to be standing with me now in the support
of law and order, instead of siding with the hoodlum element you
represent."

That settled it. No girl or woman dared to go on the dancing-floor,
and no man cared to revolve merrily by himself. A whisper went round,
however, that the dance would begin when I had left. When the clock
struck twelve, at which hour, according to the town rule, the hall had
to be closed, I was the last person to leave it. Then I locked the
door myself, and carried the key away with me. There had been no Free
Religious dance that night.

On the following Sunday morning the attendance at my church broke all
previous records. Every seat was occupied and every aisle was filled.
Men and women came from surrounding towns, and strange horses were
tied to all the fences in East Dennis. Every person in that church
was looking for excitement, and this time my congregation got what it
expected. Before I began my sermon I read my resignation, to take effect
at the discretion of the trustees. Then, as it was presumably my last
chance to tell the people and the place what I thought of them, I spent
an hour and a half in fervidly doing so. In my study of English I
had acquired a fairly large vocabulary. I think I used it all that
morning--certainly I tried to. If ever an erring congregation and
community saw themselves as they really were, mine did on that occasion.
I was heartsick, discouraged, and full of resentment and indignation,
which until then had been pent up. Under the arraignment my people
writhed and squirmed. I ended:

"What I am saying hurts you, but in your hearts you know you deserve
every word of it. It is high time you saw yourselves as you are--a
disgrace to the religion you profess and to the community you live in."

I was not sure the congregation would let me finish, but it did. My
hearers seemed torn by conflicting sentiments, in which anger