But if the tithingman, with his argus-eyes and long rod
were not enough to insure propriety, the charming rows of maidens on
the seats of the gallery directly opposite could have been relied on
to complete the work. The galleries were very deep, and the distance
across the meeting house, from the front seat of one to that of the
other, was not over twenty-five feet. At this close range, reckoning
girls' eyes to have been about as effective then as they are now-a-days,
it may be readily inferred what havoc must have been wrought on the
bachelors' seats in the course of a two hour service. After being
exposed to such a fire all day, it was no wonder at all, quite apart
from other reasons, that on Sunday night the young men found their
ardor inflamed to a pitch at which an interview with the buxom
enslaver became a necessity.
The singers sat in the front seat of the galleries, the bass singers
in the front seat on the bachelors' side, the treble in the front seat
on the spinsters' side, and the alto and tenor singers in the wings of
the end gallery, separated by Dr. Partridge's pew. For, as in most New
England churches at this date, the "old way," of purely congregational
singing by "lining out," had given place to select choirs, an
innovation however, over which the elder part of the people still
groaned and croaked.
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