Arkansas weekly mansion., 1883-09-15
WHAT III COST
Read This Story, Boys.

''Gentlcmen, said Il drink
ing man, at a temperance meeting held
in -. during the Murphy excitement,
gentlemen, it has cost me ten thou
sand dollars to bring my nose to its
present state OF perfection. Ten thou
sand dollars! And what did he have
besides his red nose? An aching and
remOrseful heart, pain-rackcd and dis
eased body; Il home where 4 miserable
woman probably dragged her weary life
along in wretched, hopeless apathy,
crushed and bowed to the earth by the
shame of being a drunkard' $ wife. Ten
thousand dollars!' wrote the recording
angel and turned in stern sorrow from
the page. Ten thousand dOllarS!'
chuckled the rum-seller; Il am that
much richer; am | not q lucky man?''
.'Ten thousand Lollars!'' said the devil;
s.what fool. I'll have him surely, if
he doesn't look OUT ''Ten thousand
dollars" whispered a little boy away
back in the corner. whose father was
killed in Il drunken brawl, ten thou
sand dollars would make my mother
happy, and wouldn't have to sell news
papers for Il living. and stay out of
school when my heart is hungry for
books Ten thousand dollars.' So
liloquizcd the young man who drank a
little. Il can't afford that" And he
signed the pled;5e, though he did not
mean to.
The confession was like a spark that
spranw into the Zlamc. and ranX with
vivid tongues of ire through the vast
audience. The ii tie boy went forward
with the thronw W th all the marlIresS
of twenty-five. H. wrote his maine rs
well rs he could. c1d proudly took his
pledge card. When he thought him
Il II
back: .Ten thousand dollcrs savd for
,nothur bi not drinkin.' That was eN-
ictlv the way he wrote it. so YOU need
not laugh. Nav be his own father had
wasted rs much over his cups and now
his child had no time to learn to spell.
He was busy ;ll day at anything to turn
:in honest penny. aud nights, poor fcl-
low. he was too tired and sleepy to even
look at Il book.
How do l know what he wrote. In
passing out his precious card was
brushed from his hand. He could not
90 back. for the throng pressed on. 1t
was picked up by the janitnr. given to
one of the officers i'm charge. and was
next day posted on an immense black
board. and served rs a text for one of
the most magnificent lectures of the
course What Il lot of wet handkcr-
chiefs there were when the speaker was
through. How red the ladies
ewes were almost AS red as the
drunkard'S nose. And Jimmy
there. | didn't mean to tell one
bit of his namn-who had stolen back
to get his treasured card, and see it he
could sell a few books and papers,
tremblcd like a leaf with excitement. to
think he was the hero of all that grand
talk, and the color went in and out OF
his checks with Just that culver you
have seen in the sky when the Northern
lights wave and tremble. BY and by
the gentleman called his name. and
somebody put him on the platform. and
then there was such n stamping and
clapping as YOU never heard of before
in Your life. And how did it all end?
WHY. good people interested themselves
in the child and its mother, and Jimmy
goes to school now, and his mother IS
| matron in Il Temperance House," and
some dav, if YOU don't study hard,
BOYS. Jimmy will be ut the top of the
ladder while you are ust beginning to
climb l want you to remember the
man-for he was Il real living man
who said: .'It cost me ten thousand
dollars to bring my nose to its present
state of pcrfection:' and think of the
boy, a drunkard's orphan. who resolved
to save ten thousand dollars for his
mother .'by not drinking" and if you
make and keep as good resolution. -
Mrs q. ". White, IN Cinetcr.
BEER AND INsANITY.-Insanityi is in
| creasino to an alarming extent in Ger
| many. and it is an established fact that
| there are more cases of insanity among
| the Germans of the United States than