Connecticut western news., 1874-12-04
MARK SHIPLEY'S ATONEMENT.

MARK SHIPLEY'S ATONEMENT.
 s'Hallo, Shipleyl good evening, ol6 fellow We've stopped in to carry yor oil with us. You know you promised long ago to take look in at Maason's and we won't let you of. So put or your hat and come along"
 Mark shook his head: "Yor must excuse me. It was, as you say long ago when I made that promise and my opinions have changed some what moreover, Maason's was not ther the regular gambling house it is now De generous and give me back my < promise, boys. I don want it said that I ever entered such a place."
 For reply, his friends burst into up. roarious laughter.
 After some remonstrance, Mark suf. fered himself to be persuaded to ac. company his friends, feeling in homo, bound to do so, since they would moi release him from his promise for il had always been his pride that his word, once passed, had never been | broken.
 Maason's was so-called private gambling-house, and open only to the upper classes. Several gentlemen were gathered about one of the numerous tables, deeply absorbed in the game oi roUge-et-noSr.
 Our three friends looked on for a while m silence, and then Burton and Hawer drew nearer, and each staked a small sum. They won, and again risked larger sum-again fortune favored them and then-alas for human na- ture and human resolution Mark Shipley, carried away by tho excite ment of the moment, forgot the lesson of bis fathers past, and threw down upon the table golden coin.
 "Hurrah, Shipley !" cried Burton. :" We'll done l You are true man, for all your squeamishness. You see these things don't look so bad when you are right close to them. The rouoe-et- ''oar tables are very tasty-not at all repulsive."
 But Mark already regretted his inn pulsive act. "Ah, Burton," he said, there is the whole trouble in a nut shell. It is because gambling looks so harmless at first that so many noble hearted fellows are ruined by it." This he spoke in all earnestness and yet few moments later, when his gold returned to him doubled in amount, he staked it again and yet again it came back to him, four times the amount it first started-forty dollars instead of ten.
 Try it again, Shipley P cried Hawar. Down with it on the ,soSr." No, on the rouge ;' and Mark, with flashing eyes and flushed cheeks. laid down his forty dollars on the spot re- ferred to. Again he won, and eighty dollars were handed him by the banker a clear gain of seventy.
 What splendid run of luck. Ship- ley ]" cried Burton. "Double, triple the amount; you're sure to win p
 Mark hesitated, but the reckless fas- cination of the game was in the ascend ant, and he risked the larger sum sue- gested by his friend, placing it this time on the "inverse," and then he waited with bresthless eagerness for the result. It was against him but so far from checking his wild career. it seemed rather to incite him to further risks.
 "Two hundred dollars on the yoir !!'' A moments suspense, and again he lost.
 As this result was announced Marks face grew pale, and with shock he awakened to full appreciation, not only of the debt he had incurred, but of the sin he had committed-of the self-imposed VOW he had broken. Faint and sick at heart, he gave his note for the sum due Mason, and then bidding his friends brief goodnight, hastened homeward.
 As may be readily imagined, his re- t1ections were far from pleasant. Aside from the reproaches of his conscience, the sum he had lost was by no means an inconsiderable one, and his salary as private secretary to a wealthy banker (no other than his intended father-in- law) could ill withstand this heavy draft upon 1t. Moreover, his next quarterly payment would not be due for month to come, and he had but very little money on hand.
 elf Manson will only wait till this month is out," he thought, "I can weather the storm I have brought on myself, and then "-he raised his hand solemnly toward heaven -"I will never again enter gambling house or engage God !''
 eff Manson will wait," Mark had said to himself, but Mason would not wait. No promise, no security, would satisfy this man, who, destitute of honor himself, could not believe of it's existence in others. Money in good solid coin-this alone would content him. Day after day he intruded him. self into young Shipley's apartments :; and at length one day grew so violent that Mark, to get rid of him for the time, told him to come on the morrow, and he would endeavor, by all possible means, to have the money ready for him.
 "Very we'll, sir," said the man as he turned toward the door, "I'1l come to- morrow, as you say; but if that money is not forthcoming, I will go straight to MT. Morton, and tell him what a nice son-in-law he's going to have. You know him as we'll as I do, and I am more mistaken than I ever was in my life if he don't cut you adrift for this business the moment he hears of 1t, so you'd better get the money ready and keep it all from him."
 This was early in the morning, and soon after, Mark walked down to the bank, thinking it all over with sink