The Helena independent., 1894-12-10
DEiCoN GozzLEs SroRr.


"You know" said Deacon Goazle 10 the
New York sun, "'d often heard Of mon
going away from their native village 10
the city and getting rich, and finally cam-
INK back 20 settle, and building a nae
house, or building a house ana coming
there 10 spend their summers, or giving
the town allbrnry. or building a church or
I school house, or doing something good
/ that showed that their heart was IN the
old town. liut the quecrest thing OF that
sort ever heard OF happened In my town,
and lt happened la the church that be-
! louged TO,
There came 70 our church ono Sunday
/ q stranger, Just an ordinary hooking
stranger In good sunday clothes and we
put him, ala We always ana atrangers, In
as sod seat as We had which happened
to hc IN this cuso the best seat in the
middle aisle. fact for which we were
pfterward very grateful We didn't OBJ
serve anything very remarkable about
this man; he listened 10 the sermon. and
stood up with the rest when they sung.
and when the plate was passed he dropped
IN "A bill That was kind of remarkable,
iut not so dreadful remarkable. FOR folks
I'D sometimes put bills in the plate In
car church. But when we came to
straightcn out the collection and count n,
which We always did after meeting. we
did encounter the most remarkable thing
that ever happened In that church. the blll
that the stranger had put IN folded up so
small and quiet was a thousand-dollar
bill.
well if there'd been an earthquake IN
the town there couldn't any more people
have heard OF Il, nor any quicker and
everybody wondered who ne was. he waA
stopping at the hotel ana keeping very
quiet, and next day he went away. and
then everybody wondered II he'd ever
come back. lie did the next Sunday. and
he went to church. and he dropped an,
other bin in the plate when II got To him,
folded up just like the other. IL was an
other thousand.
Then there was excitement. The man
went away the next morning just the
same. but he came back the next Sunday
ana put IN another thousand. and he kept
coming and going In that WAY until he'd
put I'm nine thousand-dollar bills, with the
excitement growing all the time.
. There was a mortgage ON the church
Of $1,000. by this time, OF course. every
body had got IL into their heads that the
stranger was paying on the mortgage,
and everybody was very glad Of 1t. IL
wasn't a poor town by any means. but IL
was a farming tOwp, whore cash wasn't
over plentiful, and $1,000 seemd like
great deal Of money (which II was--nud
this man was paying II, or everybody
thought he was. and when II came to the
next sunday, the tenth Sunday, which
everybody thought was going to be the
last one. and the one that would tell who
the stranger was, you couldn't get into
the church But we managed To make
room for him when he came, and he did
come. and we gave him the Identical pew
he sat in the first Sunday. Well. when
the plate came around he put in another.
He'd done it-hed paid the debt of the
church.
After that he didn't keep himself quite
so quiet He was around the village more.
ana first one and then another recognized
him, and then everybody that was old
enough wondered that everybody hadn't
recognized him from the beginning. lie
was born and raised there and had gone
away when he was n young man of ~
to make his fortune. and he'd made il. not
in cities, but out on the plains raising
cattle, and nobody had met him or heard
Of him But he didn't look like cowboy
when he came back; he looked Just like
anybody, and acted so.
"He did say afterward that paying the
church debt was more fun than he'd ever
struck In his life; he was a little curious
In that way in his speaking; but his
heart, I'm sure, was sound as a DOLLAR