Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-20

and in its place care, preoccupation and
anxiety sat upon every countenance, and all
faces were drawn, distressed and furrowed
with the signs of age and trouble, and
marked with the still sadder signs of mental
decay and incipient madness; that factories
were at work night and day in eight cities,
and vet to supply the demand for the puzzle
was thus far impossible. Hawkins was wild
with Joy, but Sellers was calm. Small
matters could not disturb his serenity. He
said:
''That's just the way things 60. A man
invents thing which could revolutionize
the arts, produce mountains of money and
bless the ear'l and who will bother with it
or show any interest in it?-and so you are
Just as poor as you were before. But you
invent some worthless thing to amuse your
self with, and would throw it away if left
alone, and all of a sudden the whole world
makes a snatch for it and out crops a for
tune. Hunt up that Yankee and collect,
Hawkins-half is yours, you know. Leave
me to potter at my lecture"
This was a temperance lecture. Sellers
was head chief in the temperance camp, and
had lectured now and then in that interest,
but had been dissatisfied with his efforts
wherefore he was now about to try new
plan. After much thought he had con-
cluded that main reason why his lectures
lacked fire or something was, that they
were too transparently amateurish; that is
to say. it was probably too plainly percepti-
BILE that the lecturer was trying to tell peo-
pie about the horrid effects of liquor when
he didn't really know anything about those
effects, except from hearsay, since he had
hardly ever tasted an intoIicant in his life.
His scheme, now, was to prepare himself to
speak from bitter experience. Hawkins
was to stand by with the bottle, calculate
the doses, watch the effects, make notes of
| results, and otherwise assist In the prep
aration. Time was short, for the ladies
would be along about noon-that is to say,
the temperance organizations called the
Daughters of Siloam-and Sellers must be
ready to head the procession.
The time kept slipping along; Hawkins
did not return. Sellers could not venture
to wait longer, SO he attacked the bottle
himself and proceeded to note the effects.
Hawkins got back at last, took one compre-
hensive glance at the lecturer and went
down and headed off the procession. The
ladies were grieved to hear that the cham
pion had been taken suddenly i'll, and vio-
lently so, but glad to hear that it was hoped
he would be out again in few days.
As it turned out, the old gentleman didn't
turn over or show any signs of life worth
after the procession, and learned what bad
happened about it. He was sorry; said he
had been fixed" for it. He remained abed
several days, and his wife and daughter
took turns in sitting with him and minister
ing to his wants Often he patted Sally's
head and tried to comfort her.
"Don't cry, my child, don't cry SO; you
know your old father did it by mistake and
didn't mean bit of harm; you know he
wouldn't Intentionally do anything to make
you ashamed for the world; you know he
was trying to do good and only made the
mistake through ignorance, not knowing
the right doses and Washington not there
to help. Don't cry so, dear, it breaks my
old heart to see YOU and think I've brought
this humiliation on you and you SO dear to
me and so good. won't ever do it again,
indeed I won't Now be comforted, honey,
that's good child. -
But when she wasn't on duty at the bed
side the crying went on just the same; then
the mother would try to comfort her and
say:
"Don't cry, dear, he never meant any
harm; it was all one of those happens that
you can't guard against when you are try
ing experiments that way. You see don't
cry. It's because know him 50 we'll I
could never look anybody in the face again
if he had got into such an amazing condi-