Manley Beasley, and anyone else who wants to help..

[turmeric]

Help me concoct a story. I've had these characters stuck in my head - just their names and vague descriptions. I think they belong in a Saki story or something. They're all British. Anyway, here they are...

General Ransome - an old military buffer who is "full of high sentence but a bit obtuse" to quote Eliot.

Sir Wesley Keswick - his friend from the club

Alexander Coppersmith - a likely young charlatan

Heywood Stubble - a "carnal christian"

Dr. Mark Thyme - a Dispensational theologian

They all attend St. Philip the Hitchhiker Church.

Oh, and a Southern lady vacationing in the vicinity - Miss Polly Esther Dacron.

I just laugh hysterically when I think of them, but honestly, I've never figured out what adventures to make them have.

 

[JM]

Put them on a boat heading toward Niagara where Dr. Thyme is scheduled to speak.

 

[Presbyterian Deacon]

It's October 1881 in London. John Nelson Darby has just published his Bible, A New Translation, and Dr. Mark Tyme, rector of St Philip the Hitchhiker Church has invited Darby to hold meetings.

Miss Polly Esther Dacron has left her father's cotton plantation to visit her uncle General Ransome.

Wesley, Alexander, and Heywood all vie for Polly's affections, but Polly, being a good Southern Presyterian (once a member of Dr. R. L. Dabney's church) sets them all straight and ultimately prevents the publication of the Scofield Bible.

Or something like that!

 

[turmeric]

It's October 1881 in London. John Nelson Darby has just published his Bible, A New Translation, and Dr. Mark Tyme, rector of St Philip the Hitchhiker Church has invited Darby to hold meetings.

Miss Polly Esther Dacron has left her father's cotton plantation to visit her uncle General Ransome.

Wesley, Alexander, and Heywood all vie for Polly's affections, but Polly, being a good Southern Presyterian (once a member of Dr. R. L. Dabney's church) sets them all straight and ultimately prevents the publication of the Scofield Bible.

Or something like that!

Nice! I like yours better than mine.

-----Added 12/16/2008 at 11:06:55 EST-----

Well, I should have read the article, obviously my geography was off, WAY off! But it's funny. Here it is, but I like Presbyterian Deacon's plot better and will adopt it.

On a clear day in the late 1800’s, a wooden boat sailed majestically toward it’s destination at Niagara, New York. Its occupants were a party of tourists from England, keen to hear a message from their nonconformist leader on the subject of prophecy. Miss Polly Esther Dacron, her face shaded by an enormous blue sunbonnet, was sipping Welch’s grape juice (the only drink selection) and trying to interest herself in what her uncle, General Ransom, was saying. He was from England, and had earned some distinguished medal in the Crimean War, which Miss Polly Esther greatly preferred to the war which had been going on in her part of the world at the same time. Indeed, her uncle’s presence was the only inducement for her to come into a Yankee state at all, even if she was approaching it from Canada.

In the deck-chair next to her, an insipid young fellow named Alexander Coppersmith was sitting, reading a book on the stock-market. He was not interested in the coming Conference, or in General Ransom either; he was keenly interested in what Miss Dacron stood to inherit from her father, and for this reason was following her obsequiously about, from England to America, to a religious conference. Their fearless leader, Dr. Mark Thyme, was below, preparing his lectures, which revolved around an elaborate and many-colored chart, depicting how England and the United States featured centrally in the Apocalypse of St. John. Meanwhile, Sir Wesley Keswick, with an exalted, otherworldly expression on his pale ascetic face, was pacing back and forth murmuring; prayers for the upcoming events, presumably. Another young man, apparently seeking some spiritual benefit from the conference; sat apart from the rest, trying to make his expression look like Sir Wesley’s. His name was Heywood Stubble and he had been attending seminary in hopes of becoming a low-church vicar when he had heard of the Conference to be held in Niagara. From his chair, he had an excellent view of the way ahead, and thus was the first to see that they were headed over the falls. “Help!” he cried, “Someone give me a copy of the Sinner’s Prayer!”

 

[Presbyterian Deacon]

Nice! I like yours better than mine.

-----Added 12/16/2008 at 11:06:55 EST-----

Well, I should have read the article, obviously my geography was off, WAY off! But it's funny. Here it is, but I like Presbyterian Deacon's plot better and will adopt it.

Adopt as you see fit. Glad I could help!

 

[ManleyBeasley]

I don't know what to tell you but this is cracking me up!