Connecticut western news., 1885-03-04
A FAT BLACK BOTTLE
WHICH CONTAINED THE SAVINGS OF
 FIVE YEARS,
And wns the Mems of Making n Whole
 Family Very, Very Hnpny.

fNAJS wy
 There came to light in Macon, We'd nesday, says the Telegraph, a New Years story that would fitly adorn a temperance lecture.
 A bright little girl gave away what was regarded as a very pleasant secret. It happened in this way: The Telegraph man stumbled into millinery store one day, and while waiting to get the atten- tion of the lady who makes the female population pretty, idly listened to con- versation between a customer-evidently the wife of a mechanic-and the mil liner. The lady was looking at pretty hat for her little girl who stood at her side with hungry eyes. That hat was purchased and the newspaper man men, tally thought it looked like extravaganza Tor mechanics family to throw away four dollars and half on little girls hat.
 As this was the only purchase in which the child seemed interested, she sidled up 10 where the Telegraph man was standing and artlessly said {:
 "We dot lots CT money now" The reporter here mentally cursed himself for forgetting to buy ticket for the last lottery drawing,
 Where did you get it, sisP"
 ''Papa broke tn bottle."
 "Broke the. bottle?"
 'Essur; tll' bottle was jus as fuller money as it tood be, an we's rich now"
 No true reporter can be idle when such an item as this is in speaking dis tnnce, and it was not more than few minutes before tho child's mother was persuaded into telling the following story, and yet she never dreamed that every word of it was being jotted down by the shorthand finger of memory upon the thumbworn pages of mental note book.
 "I have passed through the ordeal of a drunkard's wife, and am too happy to go over what and how much I suffered. My husband drank heavily, and often half his wages went for drink. He kept B large black bottle of whisky all the time ln the house, in addition to what he drank in town. On Christmas Eve night five years ago he came home drunk, and as something had gone wrong with him, he was in the worst kind of humor. Our eldest boy was in the crib very sick with fever, and there was not a cent of money in the house to buy him even the cheapest toy. My husband bad been away from home all day, and being drunk had forgotten all about his Christmas. l put my husband to bed and returned to the bedside of my dying boy to watch and weep. It was nearly daybreak when I saw my precious son sinking fast. Rushing out of the house I called in a lady friend, and then aroused my husband. The sleep had somewhat sobered him, and as he loved his boy devotedly, he was soon bending over the little fellow, begging him to say something to him.
 "The little fellow slowly turned bis eyes toward his father and said: I am going to die, papa, for I see the angels b cL oning me to come. This is Christ mas morning, papa; please let me see what Santa Claus put i'll my stocking My husband went to the mantle and took down the little stocking. It was empty He stood still for minute and God only knows the agony of his heart in that short time. He turned to the bed not knowing what to say, but our boy would not havo heard him had the poor 1ltAu 1AAOhNo hAAA " speak. Our boy was dead.
 "The day before New Years my hus- band called for the bottle. May God forgive me for my feelings at that minute, for wished he, too, were dead. Iobeyed him-mechanically. To my surprise he .tpos the bottle in his hands and, pouring the whisky on the ground, said: T will drink 10 more; and the money would spend for whisky we will put in this bot tis, and at the end of five years we will break it and all enjoy the contents You can imagine how happy l was. He had sworn off many times before, but knew he was in earnest this time. We made 0 calculation aud estimated that whisky cost him, taking the past year as basis, on m average of S5 a week. You see a good deal of his money went to pay court fines for drunkenness. We'll, it was de- cided to put S5 week in tie bottle for tive years, come what would. The time was up last New Years day, and the big black bottle was broken; now figure up how many S5 bills that bottle con- tained.
 "Two hundred and sixty"
 "Yes, or Sl, 300. But this was not all. We saved enough in that time outside of the bottle to buy a little home."
 But are you not afraid that in break ing the bottle your husband will break his resolution ?"
 No; because we have started another bottle bank, !" said the lady with ahappy smile.
 The husband is a Macon mechanic, well known, and enjoys the respect and esteem of all. He says he never knew how much genuine pleasure there was at home with his loved ones until he got inSEaa1 nf apoptv fba fot hlonIv bpffla