Officially appointed "Dogg-whippers" and the never idle tithingman expelled
the intruding and unwelcome canine attendants from the meeting-house with
fierce blows and fiercer yelps. The swarming dogs, though they were trained
to hunt the Indians and wolves and tear them in pieces, were much fonder of
hunting and tearing the peaceful sheep, and thus became such unmitigated
nuisances, out of meeting as well as in, that they had to be muzzled and
hobbled, and killed, and land was granted (as in Newbury in 1703) on
condition that no dog was ever kept thereon. As late as the year 1820, it
was ordered in the town of Brewster that any dog that came into meeting
should be killed unless the owner promised to thenceforth keep the intruder
out.
Alarms of fire in the neighborhood frequently disturbed the quiet of
the early colonial services; for the combustible catted chimneys were
a constant source of conflagration, especially on Sundays, when the
fireplaces with their roaring fires were left unwatched; and all the men
rushed out of the meeting at sound of the alarm to aid in quenching the
flames, which could however be ill-fought with the scanty supply of
water that could be brought in a few leathern fire-buckets and
milk-pails,--though at a very early date as an aid in extinguishing
fires each New England family was ordered by law to own a fire-ladder.
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