Burnt offering

Those who sing the praises of that fine old American institution, the town meeting, are sometimes inclined to overlook the rather untidy passions barely concealed by the surface exchange of differences. In the case of Orville Phipps, town supervisor of Van Brunt, the give and take of town meeting proves absolutely fatal. Discussions of zoning, of the sale of liquor to minors, of the excess of the Van Brunt family's local influence, are interrupted by the burning up of the local fire house. In its ashes Orville's crispy remains are discovered the next morning. Not until considerable further…