A Worrying Story

As I was going through very old back copies of the Western Mail, the following story, which appeared in April 1895, caught my eye:

'Go Up Higher'

'A friend of mine brings me an Easter story which is too good to be lost. He
attended one of the churches where, by reason of a special attraction and a
fleeting congregation, it is deemed advisable to collect the alms at the door as
the congregation enter. An official, armed with a plate, stands at the receipt
of custom, and no-one ventures to "pass" the plate. My friend, as he frankly
admitted, having nothing smaller than half-a-crown tumbled it into the plate. Greatly to his amusement, he heard the holder of the plate whisper in a stage aside to an attendant, "top seat." Whereupon my friend, by virtue of his half crown, found himself ushured into the topmost seat of the synagogue.'

The Western Mail was at this time a Conservative, pro-Anglican paper, and the Church in question a Nonconformist chapel. This story goes to show that we are being observed by the world, and our inconsistencies will be picked up on.