The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1885-02-26

Filled 60 ahA Corlx With Five Doli3s
Treasury Note1. ii

Filled % the Cerlx Wish Five Delta
Treasury Notes. IL
There came 70 light IN Macon Wednal
day, says the Telegraph aud Messeage
New Years story that would ftl
adon . temperance lecture. ii
A bright little girl gave away villa
was regarded a. very pleasant secre,
1t happened in this way: The 7eicgrafy
man stumbled into . millenery stoe
Wednesday, aud while waiting to ge
the attention of the lady who makes III
female population pretty, idly listened t,
q conversation between customer-evi
IDENTIFY the wife of mechanic-and til
milliner. The lady was looking at q ver,
pretty hat for her little girl who stood a
her side with hungry eyes. The hat VA
purchased, and the Telegraph man mea
tally thought it looked like extravaganza
for mechanics family to throw away
four dollars and half on q little girls
hat.
As this was the only purchass IN which
the child seemed interested, die itlicd sst
to where the Telegraph man was stand
ing and artlessly said: eve dot lots q
money now." The reporter here men
tally cursed himself for forgetting to bay
ticket for the last lottery drawing.
"Where did you get it, sis ?'
"Papa broke tn bottle"
"Broke the bottle p
"'Essur; tn bottle was JUS as fuller
money as it TODD be, an we's 'ich now"
No true reporter can be idle when such
an item as this is in speaking distance,
and it was not more than few minutes,
before the 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 thumb-worn
pages of mental note book. Z
81 have passed through the ordeal of q
drunkard's wife, and I am too happy now
to 90 over what and how much l sufferetis
My husband drank heavily and often half
of his wages went for drink. He kept d
large black bottle of whiskey all the time
in 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. Oar
oldest boy was in the crib very sick with
a fever, and there was not cent cf
money in the house to buy him even the
cheapest toy. My husband had been
away from home all day and being drunk
had forgotten all about his Christmas. [
put my husband to bed and returned To
the bedside of my dying boy to watch
and weep. 1t was nearly daybreak when
l saw my precious son sinking fast.
Rushing out of the house / called in al
lady friend, and then aroused my hus-I
band. The sleep had somewhat sobered6
him, and as he loved his boy devotedly, /
he was soon bending over the little fell
low, begging him to say something to
him.
''The little fellow slowly turned his
eyes towards his father and said: 1'm
going to die, papa, for / see the Angels
beck9ning ms TO come come; j This is ChEist@&s Chr
Santa Claus put in my stocking Ny
husband went to the mantel and took
down the little stocking. 1t was empty 4.
He stood still and stared at it for a Mis-
ute, and God only knows the agony Of
his heart IN that short time. He turned
to the bed, not knowing what to say, bnts
our boy would not have heard him had
the poor mans breaking heart allowed
him to speak. Our boy was dead! /
The day before New Years my hus1
band called for the bottle. May God
forgive me for my feelings at that mint
ute, for wished he, too, were dead. I
obeyed him mechanically. To my SUR
prise he took the bottle in his hands
and, pouring the whiskey on the ground,
said will drink no more; and the
money l would spend for whiskey We
will put in this bottle, and at the end Of
five years we will break it and all enjoy
the conterts.' You can imagine hoM
happy l was. He had sworn off many
times before, but l knew he was in earl
nest this time. We made calculations
aud estimated that whiskey cost hin,
taking the past year as basis, on AID
average Of IS week. You see good
deal of this money went to pay court 6nes
for drunkenness Well, it was decided
to put IS a week in the bottle for FIVE
years, come what would. The time was
out last New Years day, and the big
black bottle was broken. Now, figure
up how many IS bills that bottle cous
tained - (,
1.-TWO hundred and sixty" /.
eyes. or $1,000. But this was not.
all. We saved enough in that time QUIT
side of the bottle to buy q little home" I"
=" But are you not afraid that in break
ing the bottle your husband will break
his resolution ?" L
"No; because we have started another
bottle bank" said the lady with happy
smile. II
The husband is u Macon mechanic,
well known, and enjoys the respect and
esteem of all. He says ne never knaV
how much genuine pleasure there was
home with his loved ones until he got ~
ber enough to appreciate it, and to ill
instead of empty the fat black bottle.