A New Enterprise

As the season for church faii 3 ap proaches it is pleasant to hear tha there is every prospect tliat busines will be unusually brisk. lt is reporttt by experienced fair managers that toer is an unexpected activity in pincushions, a large demand for returned missionaries with real idols, and a good, steady market forice-cream, while itis hoped that the stereoptican business, which has lately proved dull and unremunerative, will be revived by the introduction of new comic Scriptural views. As for church lotteries they are expected to gain by the recent vigorous opposition made by Mr. Comstock to theirrivals, the Louisiana and Kentucky Lotteries, and there is good reasou to believe that tableaus and Scriptural Sunday-school dramas will feel the stimulating influence of the successful Bernhardt season, and will draw better than ever. During the last year the business repoiti of many enterprising congregations have been very satisf actory and encouraging. The Smithville Indeptndent Twelfth-day Baptist Church held a fair during the last Chistólas holidays which paidthe Pastor's salaiy for the previous year. In March an exhibition of tableaus provided the meeting-house with new carpets; in July the annual strawberry festival replenished the Suiiday-school library; in October a lecture by a returned mission,ary paid for painting the house, and a stereopticon exhibition last Frida. night defrayed the cost o firewood for the present winter. The gross proceeds of these various enter prises were leven hundred anc eighteen dollars and thirteeu cents, of wluch nearly eleven hundred dollars was net prolit. Other congregations in different parts of the country have done almost equally well, and it is exsected that during the next year business will be better than it has ever jeen before. As it is well known, the proflts of the fair and exhibition business in conection with church and denominaional affairs are enormous. The pincushion that coatains three cents' worth of materials is easily sold for ifty cents, and one quart of oysters will, under judicious management, make foui hundred oyster stews which can be sold at twenty-üve cents each. t is really wonderful that our shrewd msiness men and speculators have litherto left this ecclesiastical Golcona to be worked by women for the benet of ministers, but the recent announeement of the formation of a Church Fair and Entertainment Agency" is the first evidence that business men have given of their discovery f the profitable nature of church enertainments. The new agency has, it is undertood, been formed by several men well known in connection with minng and railway speculations. Tbese men propose to take the entire charge f all church f airs and exibitions of very kind. In the case of a fair they will furnish the stands, stock them, nd supply beautiful young ladies oí 3aptist, Methodist or Presbyterian iews, as may be. desired, to act as ales women. They will also furnish ;ableau performers, warranted to be of ood cbaracter; returned missionaries, tereopticons with slides to suit every enomination. and oyster stews, and emonade of extra strength. The gency will in all cases pay to the conregation which may employ its serices a fixed sum for the use of the meeting house and the usual pulpit dvertising, without regard to the rofits of any entertainment. Thus, when the agency holds a church fair t defrays all the expenses, take all the rofits, and pay the congregation from me to f our hundred dollars, according othenumber of regular attendants n divine service. For ice-cream and trawberry festivals the sum offered )y the agency varíes from flfty to two ïundred and fifty dollars while misionaries and stereopticans will be furished at a fixed charge of twenty-flve ollars each. The advantages oí this system over hat wbich is now in general use are bvious. The congregation which has ts fair managed by Lhe ageucy has no rouble whatever, and is sure of receiving a comfortable suni of money, no matter whether bad weather or rival entertainments reduce the procceds of the fair to a painfully low point. In congregations where the ladies are now constantly at work in this or that scheme f ar raising money they will under the new system, have time to pay some attention to the relicious department of the church. The agency has thoroughly examined the subject, and is confldent that even with the liberal scale of payments which it proposes to make it will do a large and profltable business, and will give a much better clasa of entertainments than kave hitherto been gi ven. So conüdent are the men engaged in this enterprise of its popularity that they havepublished a series of suggestions to church architects in relationto the construction of new churche3. It is proposed that every church should be furnished with a good-sized stage situated in the chance!, so that in reinoving the altar and pulpit theatrical entertainments could be effeetively given. It is also recommended that pews shall be so constrncted that they can readily be turned into stalls for the sale of pin-cushions, and that a butler's pautry, with a range for cooking, should be placed in every vestibule. These changes would greatly facilítate the work of the agency, and their desirability will be readily conceded. As it is, much fault is found by zealous ehurch members with the unfltness ox' modern churches for the transacción of business. Most of them are Duilt solely with a view to ehurch services, and when it becoines necessary to turn them into temporary theatres or restaurants great inconvenience is feit. it the new agency meets with the success which is anticipated, it wil] probably extend its business, so as to establish perpetual fairs in churches which may desire them. The business of many churches is at present so large that what are popularly called divine services can only be held occasionally in the intervals between successive entertainments. It would probably be found profltable to abolish divine services altogether, and to convert the churches wholly into places of business, and this will probably be und ertaken by the agency in the course of a year or two at f urtheat. -