Grain, too, was stored in the loft of the meeting-house for
safety; hatches were built, and often the corn paid to the minister was
placed there. "Leantos," or "linters," were sometimes built by the side of
the building for use for storage. In Springfield, Mr. Pyncheon was allowed
to place his corn in the roof chamber of the meeting-house; but as the
people were afraid that the great weight might burst the floor, he was
forbidden to store more than four hundred bushels at a time, unless he
"underpropped the floor."
In one church in the Connecticut valley, in a township where it was
forbidden that tobacco be smoked upon the public streets, the church
loft was used to dry and store the freshly cut tobacco-leaves which the
inhabitants sold to the "ungodly Dutch." Thus did greed for gain lead even
blue Connecticut Christians to profane the house of God.
The early meeting-houses in country parishes were seldom painted, such
outward show being thought vain and extravagant. In the middle of the
eighteenth century paint became cheaper and more plentiful, and a gay
rivalry in church-decoration sprang up. One meeting-house had to be as fine
as its neighbor. Votes were taken, "rates were levied," gifts were asked
in every town to buy "colour" for the meeting-house. For instance, the new
meeting-house in Pomfret, Connecticut, was painted bright yellow; it proved
a veritable golden apple of discord throughout the county.
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