New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1880-06-23

not returned.ss remember Was sit,
ting on the back porch Of. our: cottage
waiting for, him, when, like flash,
came the thought in my mind What #
Obed should Be induced to subscribed
The thought actually made me faint for
q moment, but I quickly dismissed
it as being unworthy of him. He
knew our struggle with poverty,
and especially appreciated the sac
ritices that l was constantly called
upon to make, and, as you know, I
had been reared in affluence. No, Obed
was not of that class Of men who send
money to the heathen' while wife and
children actually suffer for the neces-
saries of existence. so 80. ~ ~
II &c. That ignoble thought quite passed
away, and half an hour later l heard
Obed's step on the walk, a little, less
eager than usual, it seemed to me, and
the moment he reached the porch
knew something was wrong, for can
always tell from Obed's face, the state Of
his feelings. ,..........,. t..7,,..,, :. ~.
:, -, 49, Well, back again, are you, Obed?'
I said, by way of greeting, as he threw
his hat down with a boyish fling. 81 !;
- "' Yes; and what do YOU think I've
done, Nellp' he asked, vehemently.
49,, ~ couldn't say Obed,' I replied,
quietly. ''''s'.' . ',@.-' +''1' 20
= Subscribed a hundred dollars TO
that pesky church,! I'm ashamed of
myself! despise myself! Inever felt
so mean in all my life! a hundred dol
lars!-and you here shaving your fingers
ends off! I deserve to be shot for nv
- IA hundred dollars echoed,
family, feeling the blood rushing to
my heart. 1t may seem silly to you
that for that paltry sum of money we
should have been made so miserable;
but to us, at that time, it was like a
million. 80 ''.5'' '..F
"Obed!' I cried, after some mo-
ments of silence, not for:ten thousand
one hundred. dollars would I have lost
my faith in your strength to do right
"'Oh, Nell, it's just that which cuts
me to the quick he quickly retorted.
Nobody could have made me believe
that l would do. such thing. l am as
surprised and panied as you can posi-
bly, be, for had no idea that had
such a streak Of weakness within me!
St. Paul must have foreseen me, for
sure, when he warned men to take.
heed lest they fall, while thinking that
they stand 49,. -: ,..,;/.. i.
"Poor Obed!I had never seen him
so mortified and Inundated, and all on
account of what he SO fifty termed that
'pesky church, 5:.-.~,I.,a.,1 :<..} 1
"Then I asked him to tell me how it
happened. and he described the method
his officials to raise the six
thousand dollars. The officials each
went among the. congregation, solicit
ing subscriptions from occupants Of
each pow; then, as the. amount sub
scribed failed to reach the desired sum,
a new appeal was made, and persons
who had refused to-; subscribe at the
first round were again bcsieged. There
was much joking by the various per-
sons brought there to talk money out
of the people, and one OF. them, in
speaking of certain peWs, said the
'swaths had not been moved Clean
So the, moving was done over and
over, and it was in the last moving
when the last thousand dollars was
being raised, that Obcd, after repeated
ly saying he could not subscribe. was
overcome by the combined persuasions
Of two parsons to allow his name to be
put down for 4 hundred dollars --sur-
prised, the moment he yielded, and re-
GREETING it as-you have heard.
s. But we can't pay it, so What was
4 the usc?' l argued, in woman fashion.
"Oh, I shall pay 1t, Nell,' he cried,
desperately, if for no better reason
than as q punishment for my weakness:
But you sllan't suffer from it, he added,
stoutly. ss.:' d: 49,. =.
:i"": Don't be too s,lre,' said, quietly.
"Hc WINGED and replicd:s,;. -..-,
"'True, Nell, l can meyer again feel
sure of anything, IT,. =.
.:As a comforting rejoinder quoted
All things work together for good to
them who love the Lord and keep His
commandments :H..@ -.
eve concluded the, talk by Obed's
asking me to promise cvcr.to allude to
the matter again until the subscription
was paid, which l did, and then free
ing himself Of a final anathcma against
his own weakness and that 'pesky
church, we dropped the subject
and went to the dinner table, which, we
bad for the time being forgotten. !.
swell, within the following. two
years Obed paid that dreadful subscrip-
tiOn.. l remember well the night when
he came home, and, catching me up in
his arms as if he had gone daft, ex-
planned his behavior by saying that the
Uncomfortable horror was at last can
celed, the hundred-dollar subscription
was paid, and that if we only had a
'fatted calf we would kill it in honor
of the occasion. -, =,
although neither Obed nor I dur
ing these two years had men
toned the matter, it was like q
skeleton behind the door. My keen
eyes detected his new economies; the
retrenching screw had received another
turn, and it made my heart ache. I'm
known to him I, too, made my new
economies, in behalf of the same cause,
until l felt mean: and skimped to the
furthest degree. I can't tell you how
much we endured because of that hum
bred dollars, which went toward pay
ing for carpets and cushions and other
luxuries, that the worshipers in the old
church had always done without.
"Of course that 'pesky church still
stands, but from that day to this we
have never entered it. The effort to
make it aristoeratic failed, and it's en-
tire history has been a series of strug-
giles to pay the preacher and keep up
STYLE .1..... 49,. :,
1.-TWO years ago Obed, almost en-
tirely at his own expense, for he had
come into possession Of his patrimony
then, irefttadi the. old church, which,
after all, has come to be fashionable as
M we q, as a gsefp} ;W4sp the spggestion
paired Obed made ID little speech, in
which he said that rather than have a
single man or woman subscribe far
thing beyond what he or she was abun-
dainty able to give, he much; preferred
to bear the entire expense himself; and
that all subscriptions to the fund must