The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-09-15
"TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS.o


Gentlemen, said a repentant-drink-
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-racked and dis
eased body; a home where miserable
woman probably dragged her weary life
along in wretched, hopeless apathy,
crushed and bowed to the earth by the
shame of being drunkard' S 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 lucky MANI"
"Ten thousand dollars'' said the devil;
"what fool! I'll have him surely, if
he doesn't look out" Ten thousand
dollars" whispered little boy away
back in the corner, whose father was
killed in a drunken brawl, "ten thou
sand dollars would make my mother
happy, and Wouldn't have to sell news
papers for living, and stay out of
school when my heart is hungry for
books" "Ten thousand dollars!" So
liloquized the young man who drank
little. 81 can't afford that" And he
signed the pledge, though he did not
mean to.
The confession was like spark that
sprang'into the flame, and rang with
vivid tongues of fire through the vast
audience. The little boy went forward
with the throng with all the manliness
of twenty-five. He wrote his name as
well as he could, and proudly took his
pledge card. When he thought him
self unnoticed, he wrote slyly on its
back: "Ten thousand dollers savd for
mothur bi not drinkin." That was ex-
actly the way he wrote it, so you need
not laugh. May be his own father had
wasted as much over his cups, and now
his child had no time to learn to spell.
He was busy all day at anything to turn
an honest penny, and nights, poor fell
low, he was too tired and sleepy to even
look at q book.
How do | know what he wrote. In
passing out his precious card was
brushed from his hand. He could not
go back, for the throng pressed on. 1t
was picked up by the janitor, given to
one of the officers in charge, and was
next day posted on an immense black
board, and served as a text for one of
the most magnificent lectures of the
course. What a lot of wet handker-
chiefs there were when the speaker was
through! How red the ladies'
eyes were-almost as red as the
drunkard's nose! And Jimmy
there, l didn't mean to tell one
bit of his name-who had stolen back
to get his treasured card, and see if he
could sell few books and papers.
trembled like leaf with excitement, to
think he was the hero of all that grand
talk, and the color went in and out of
his cheeks 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 stamping and
clapping as you never heard of before
in your life And how did it all endP
Why, good people interested themselves
in the child and its mother, and Jimmy
goes to school now, and his mother is
matron in q Temperance House," and
some day, if you don't study hard,
boys. Jimmy will be at the top of the
ladder while you are Just beginning to
climb. want you to remember the
man-for he was real living man
who said: ut cost me ten thousand
dollars to bring my nose to its present
state of perfection;n and think of the
boy, drunkard's orphan, who resolved
to save ten thousand dollars for his
mother "bynot drinking" and if you
are tempted to drink, see if you can not
make and keep as good resolution
Mrs. &. W. White, IN Cimeter.
FULLY one-half of the State of Mary
i L Il. L..