Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1889-02-27

among the memories every
where he has held all with charmn'-
1t was gone. IL was all gone; every
word; every thought; he looked pit
eously about; the great audience was u
blank before him, his exhausted brain
was blank to himself. Every thing
was gone. Not sentence answered to
his command. He had broken utterly,
before them all. He gazed at them one
moment with distressed, coniding
smile; then he bowed low and tottered
from the stage. AT the entrance he
dropped.
!. The doctor was there, and picked him
up. The audience was well-nigh in an
uproar. Mr.. Toddlethwaite swallowed
his whole bottleful of pellets The COM
mittee put on all their spectacles, and
Bunny called for order In much agi-
tation, and deprecating the painful cir
cumstance in proper words that nobody
listened to, the committee awarded the
first prize to Arthur Jiggs Bones; and
Mr.. Toddlethwaite gave Arthur Jiggs
Bones fifty dollars. 1t was n dreadful
moment Half the girls were crying;
and she of the pink kids and bangs was
in Mysteries. The academy boys looked
sulky, and poor Bones retired from pub
lie gaze with his fifty dollars. 1t was
hard on him, for he was good enough
fellow, and had worked like slave for
that prize speaking.
Now in the midst Of il ALL something
unexpected happened. While they were
all in the state they were-confusion in
the audience, buzzing on the stage, and
generally the mischief to pay in that
academy hall-up through the crowded
hall an old woman forced her way stout
ly to the front. She was n queer-look-
ing old lady. She had a dreadful black
bonnet, and lank old threadbare dress.
She wore a black barege shawl,
rusty and ugly. She looked very
poor and out of date, and out of the
world, and timid and frightened. Yes,
she looked frightened to death, but she
pushed on and on and straight up the
platform steps, and there she stood
trembling before them all.
Ladies' and gentlemen" cried the
old lady, in shrill quaver, 81 never
spoke in meetin' in all my life. don't
know how. But I'm going to tell you
something If l die for it. Ed like to
know if this town don't give prizes to
angels of mercy, for if it don't, it
oughter-and that's what he is-and you
know boys amt angels naterally-but
he isn't short of it, for l know it that
have reason to, and when heard just
left my boy and run over, for I've got
TO speak my mind, though never, never
did / speak in meetin' nor never shall
| dot again. It's on account of him,
ladies and gentlemen, that amt
a-mournin' for my dead son this minute
here before your eyes. It's because of
him that set up night after highland
all last night-instead of learnin' his
piece. Ladies and gentlemen, he set
beside my dyin' boy, that is alive and
a-goin' TO be, because of him. God
bless him! It's him that did it, it's all
him, him, him, that's earned q bigger
prize than Toddlethwaite's and some
body'd ought to tell you-and nobody
did-and so land so Lord have
mercy" said the old lady, suddenly,
'I'm scared to death! Let me out. Let
me by. Let me go home. I'll go back
to my son. Let me go. I'm afraid.
Let me go! And God bless Bobby
Gresham If you don'tn'
i'm, ~ l,.an
wiping its glasses, as somebody helped
the old lady out of the way.
"God bless him." murmured the audi
ence from end to"end.
BLESS him." said Bunny, winking
hard at the audience.
God bless him anyhow" cried old
Mr.. Toddlethwaite as loud as any well
man. "And il he's anywhere round,
let him show himselfv'
Bob, pale and smiling, on somebody's
arm, came out of his faint from some
where, and stood before the audience
silent, white-with no prize speech up
on his trembling lips-but with look
that Bones or any fellow might have
esvied in his manly eyes.
'Here, SIR" cried old Mr. Toddleth-
waite. "You come forward, sir. These
are the Toddlethwaite Prizes. am
EliphoSet Toddlethwaite. Pm sick
old man, and I'm not very popular, /
know-but I'm on my own ground
here. l can do as / please, and I'm
going to, sir. Look her, sir; l know
what it is to be sick and no
body visited you. ] know what it is
to suffer what sick folks suffer, and
what well folks know nothing about, and
think they do. know how easy it is for
well folks to let sick ones get on any
how. l know how hard il is for sick
folks to be sick folks, dying
or living young man, know.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm one
of 'em, and know. And | tell you, he
that looks after the sick and is true to
'em, and kind to 'em and loves 'em,
and won't desert 'em, and will let
the thing he wants most on earth go,
and welcome, to do his duty by one Of
'em-Ladies and gentlemen, young
bigger prize than Eliphalet Toddleth-
waite can give him. But I'm proud to
say IL, and I'm proud to do it, and by
the permission Of this committee, and
the approval OF this audience, l do
hereby beg this young man, Robert
Gresham by name, to accept from Mr..
Toddlethwaite a prize for manly
tenderness, a prize for manly faith
fulness, a prize for manly mercy TO the
sick, with all my heart, and yours too!
1t isn't much. It's only n hundred dol
lars. wish it were ten times that, Tor
he deserves IL. Now. Doctor" added
the old man, feebly-"where is my
doctorp I'm very tired. Take me
home"
How the house rang as they took him
home! Three cheers for Bobby Gresh-