The Jasper Weekly Courier

A FIERCED CONFLICT.

Bitter War in a New England Village.

Brutal Feud: a Methodist Minister's Accusation of Hen Drinking Against a Brother and an Editor—The Congregation and Community Divided.

Moose, Conn., September 8.

This green and white specimen of New England village, on the bank of the Connecticut River, overhanging Mrs. Ferdinand Ward's elegant summer hotel, is moved with a religious war, darkly threatening the welfare of the Methodist Church. It has already divided the church to an alarming extent. The cause is a running fight of words between the pastor of the church, the Rev. F. C. Newell, and Mr. Joseph E. Selden, the editor of the village paper, the Conn. Seat Valley Sentinel, which has vented such a torrent of vituperation as to make itself heard all through this section of the valley. In the meantime, the pastor is filling his church and the editor his subscription list both through a deeply interested and partially awe-inspired public.

The trouble began some time ago by the clergyman's denouncing from his pulpit the progress of intemperance in this fair village. Then he went on to scathe certain members of his congregation who visited such shrines, and wound up by saying that, on entering one of the worst rum holes in the place a few days before, he found a prominent member of his church and Editor Selden hob-nobbing at a little round table over a couple of rum punches. This speech had a startling effect upon many of the audience who were personal friends of the accused and deeply surprised. They rose up and left the church. Mr. Newell, it is said, has since been asked to retract, but so far from this he has reasserted his statement and added more to it. Mr. Selden, in the meantime, has trained the guns of his paper upon the Protestant parson, and the result has been seriously to embitter a large part of the congregation, who have taken sides with one or the other. Mr. Newell is a member of the New York East Methodist Conference, and was sent here last spring. He is a comparatively young man, tall and rugged but passionate and not deeply educated. He is a very bitter speaker, but, on the other hand, he has made strong friends here. Editor Selden is one most popular man in the place. He founded the Advertiser, and has given the place one of the best of local papers. He is something of a poet and his life has been chiefly spent in writing pastorals and in composing the harmless bon mots personal, but now he is thoroughly awakened to the exigencies of this case, and, forgetting poetry and everything else, he is opening the eyes of the villagers to what he threatens with co-operation paragraphs of battering invective against the offending clergyman. It is stated that Rev. Mr. Newell will soon bring suit for slander against the local editor.