Transcribed by Ann Selchick. Geo. THE WHITEHAVEN NEWS, SEPT. 19. 1907 A VICAR’S DENUNCIATION OF HARVEST FESTIVALS. _____ The Rev. A. M. MITCHELL, vicar of Burtonwood, Warrington, in his Parish Magazine describes the harvest festivals as a “service of lies.” “The Church” he says, “would have done well if she had omitted this undesirable novelty from her service altogether. No good, but much harm, is done by services which help to bolster up unreality, falsehood and hypocrisy, which create self-satisfaction and which pamper the worldly religious taste of the time. The festival never fails to attract a motley crowd of vulgar, irreligious, godless and profane, who make this their service of lies do duty for years of attendance. It is an annual agricultural show with eyes cast upon possible underlying dollars. Great cauliflower, monster cabbage, champion potato, huge carrot, swollen turnip, are all on view fishing for compliment from Tom, Dick and Harry. Withdraw the show, and the eager mob, the riff raff of Church and Dissent, will vanish. __________