Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1875-03-27
Struek by Lightning.

Rogers was raising his boys up In the
SUNDAY School. exceptIittle Bill, whose
heightened name was William Henry;
Early in life he had been demorallzed
bv crawling under the canvas OF cir
ems tent. twas sad indeed for Boggs
10 contemplate the results of the fatal
influence of spangles and slang-a fair
Young life blighted in its early bloom.
The other sons Of the household could
sing all the long meter hymns III the
orthodox book, while William Henry
was developing taste for minstrel
songs and when the other boys were
partakiug of the bread and water at
love feast, he would sit on the fence
and take another chaw of terbacker.
Only seven seasons had spread their
freckles on his face, but they had de-
veloped, since the circus was in town,
the reckless features of a street gamin.
1t would have required the oracle of
Greece to have predicted where his
depredations and mischiefwould direct
themselves next. One day he would
crawl in at the pantry window and eat
up all the marmal ade the next he
would dig through the floor and clean
out the jelly or the canned peaches.
Then while his mother was reading the
chatechism to him he would be plan
ming another raid or some trick on his
kind paternal relative. He had no.
ticed that his father was guided in his
early rising by the striking of the
clock, and with mind bent to the mis-
chief of this new idea he would slyly
move the hands and make the clock
strike wrong. One morning he would
have the old gentleman hopping out in
his bare feet on a cold floor three hours
before day; the next he would put the
clock an hour behind time. 1t was
very puzzilpg to Boggs why that clock
had got into such eccentric habits, and,
after taking it three times for repairs
without any improvement in its moral
condition, he wisely concluded that it
had fallen under the demoralizing in
fuences of William Henry. Boggs
bored an augur hole 10 the partition,
and with an old shot. gun loaded with
salt, he stood like a sentinel through
the long afternoon, with the clock in
range of his eagle eye. A noise broke
the stiffness as William Henry glided
into the other room with a diabolical
smile on his face. He rolled the -four
barrel TO the hearth, upon it he placed
a box, and on the box he balanced a
chair upon three legs then he climbed
up on the pile and made that clock
sing. Boggs took in the situation at a
glance: He realized the depravity of
that boy and the hopeless results of all
former discipline.
ltwas evident, without some radical
reform, that boy would in manhood
become a politician, and go to Wash
ington to demoraliZe our good. hon
est rulers there. Tears filled the eyes
of Boggs as he poked the muzzle of the
old gun through the hole in the par
tition; his hands trembled and his lips
quivered when he drew bead on the
seat of William Henry's trousers. For
moment the fate of the boy hung in
the scale between stern justice and pa
ternal love; then came an awful fash,
a loud report and the yell of William
Henry mingled with the crash of fall
ing clock, and chair, and box, and bar
rel as they all piled up in a heap.
When William Henry opened his
eyes the family all stood around his
bed in tears while his father cut the
seat out Of his pants to spread the
poultice on.
MY son." said Boggs, solemnly,
you have been struck by lightning an
awful visitation of Providence upon
you"
Then they had a camp-meeting there
around that boy, and it was evident
the devil had lost one of his black
sheep.
William Henry now stands up in the
Sunday School hoping he will be able
to sit down in another week, studying
the chatechism and learning to sing
long meter hymns. He will go down
to his grave believing he was struck by
lightning, so regulated by kind Prov
iderce as to only burn through the seat
of his pants.-JoeL .Sloper.