The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1885-01-03
RING IN THE TRUE"
Mrs. Arthray's Plan, and Tom Dol
ser's Reformation.

The richest people are not always the
happiest, but on the last day of Decem-
Der of year that need not be designated
by its calendar number, the most joyous
heart in the little manufacturing city of
Thornton, was Mrs. Alice Arthray, wife
of the owner of the great Arthray mills.
Although she has passed her fortieth
birthday, she would not have exchanged
places with the prettiest girl in the city
of which, when she and Thornton were
twenty years younger, she had been,
though poor and simple, the reigning
belle. Good health, clear conscience,
a good husband and an active mind had
so steadily increased her beauty, spirits
and appreciation of everything worth
ENJOYING, that she looked forward eager
" to the year to come, instead of long
ing for those which had passed. Al
though most of her time was spent in
New York, she was the ruling spirit of
her native town, for she never returned
to her Thornton residence without at
least one new hobby that all her old ac-
quaintances were eager to ride.
This time her. hobby was New Year 5
calls. Thornton society had so divided
and sub-divided itself into cliques that
families, once on intimate terms, now
scarcely saw one another Mrs. Ar
thray believed the original Knicker-
booker system of receiving all ones old
acquaintances on New Years day would
break up this undesirable eXclusiveness,
and she was now, for the first time, able
to put her theory into practice. AT least
q score of other ladies were willing to
assist at their own houses.
Oscar Arthray fully approved of his
wife's plan; his only advice was:
Don't neglect any of your old ad-
mirers, my dear, even if they're now
prosy old farmers or stupid mechanics
/ don't want any one of them to remain
miserable under the impression that you
might have been happier had you mar
ried him instead of me. Men will be
fools on the subject of their old flames,
unless absolutely prevented"
So Mrs. Arthray mailed cards to all
whom she could remember, whether she
had recently seen them or not, and her
memory proved so good that the post
office clerk was myStitied at seeing tiny
envelopes addressed to several men who
had been dead for years.
Among the young men whom Mrs.
Arthray remembered pleasantly was
Tom Dolser; indeed, she had never
known anything against him except
that he sometimes drank liquor. She
had long ceased to know or hear any
thing about him, but most of the old
residents knew tnat ION had become
the most hopeless sot in the village.
His home was the stable of the common
tavern that had once been the village
hotel, and for serving in the bar-room
as bootblack and general messenger he
was allowed to eat with the landlords
colored servants. His wardrobe was
supplied from the cast-off clothing of
stable-bOys, yet his dress never was as
unslghtly as his cOuntenance. Only two
friends Of his youthful days remained to
hlm-rum and the river; the latter could
not cast him off if it would. and he
would not abandon the former if he
could; when he could get rum, he was
happy; when he could not he solaced
himself by lounging on the river bank
and listening to the only village babbler
that talked as it used to do and never
upbraided him.
Late in the afternoon of the day pre-
ceding the beginning of New Years
calls in Thornton, Tom Dolser returned
from long errand and entered the bar
OF the tavern in a doleful frame of
mind, for the trip was to yield him only
ten cents: the next day, New Years,
could hardly bring him business of any
Kind, there being no travellers with
boots to black in town on holidays, so
how was he to get his customary stimu-
Ius? The prospect unnamed him--as
aImosi anything could and he felt like