6t Talk

6-c- Talk

He said it to me himself. He said, "Why shouldn't young people dance and. . . ."

You know, Mrs. Jones, I heard that he. . . .

You could understand it in a younger minister, but at his age! . . .

Cigaret-smoking! The idea. . . .

Of course he does a lot for the poor, but. . . .

I really think it's our duty. It's for the best interests of. . . .

That was how it began. The Reverend Charles A. Livingston, descendant of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, approved of dancing and cigarets. Or at least he did not disapprove of them. In little old Setauket, on Long Island's North Shore, that set up eddies of talk behind green-shuttered windows whenever he walked down the street. Plump, rich Julia Smith, in whose backyard is the grave of an ancestor killed in the Revolution, was especially upset. She was president of the Ladies Aid Society and there the talk boiled up hottest. Gentle, white-haired Rector Livingston heard about it, of course, but he had been a pastor too long to pay much attention to the chatter of womenfolk. Besides, he had plenty of stanch supporters, and he loved his prim, 205-year-old Caroline Episcopal Church, with the mark of British bullets on its belfry. That was how it began, but it ended last week in court. Rector Livingston, 70, was suing Miss Smith, 71, for $50,000, charging slander. He had begun paying attention when he heard that she was accusing him of misappropriating church funds. The trouble was over $110. That was the accumulated interest on a fund which one of Miss Smith's relatives long ago set up for the care of the church fence. Rector Livingston had put the money into the general church fund, pointing out that the sexton took care of the fence anyway. Miss Julia Smith thought otherwise.

Most of Setauket went over to Supreme Court in Riverhead for the trial. There it split physically as it had long been split emotionally, Livingston supporters lining up on one side of the courtroom, Smith supporters on the other. Everybody had a fine time. Miss Julia Smith cracked back at attorneys, insisted on standing up to testify, brandished a rubber at a photographer. Had she really accused Rector Livingston of misappropriating the money? "Mercy, mercy no!" All she had said was that some church money had been "diverted." By whom? Why, she had never said. Miss Nellie Prietzel and five other parishioners said she had. Six others said she had not. Mrs. Charles Edwards said she had heard Rector Livingston refer to one of his ladies as a "rattlesnake." Rector Livingston said he had not. He said Miss Julia Smith had told someone that he ought to be "behind the bars." Miss Julia Smith said she had not. Someone said Miss Smith had once broken up a Ladies Aid Meeting by tossing a 5-gal. gasoline can across the room. "I never heard of such a thing," snapped Miss Smith.

When they were all through Rector Livingston, grinning quietly in a corner, heard the jury award him damages of 6-c-. He was satisfied. Miss Julia Smith thought of appealing.

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