Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1894-11-24
DEACON coZzLE'S STORY,
How the Church Dsbt Was Lifted uy q
Mysterious stranger.

How the Church Debt Was Lifted ~ q
Mysterious stranger.
"Ycu know" said Deacon Gozzle.
nd often heard Of men going away
from their native Village to the city
and getting rich, ami finally coming
lack to settle and building a fine
house or building u house and com.
ing there to spend the summers; or
giving the town a library or building
a new church or school house, or
doing something good that showed
that their heart was In the old town.
But the queerest thing Of that sort I
ever heard of happened In my town,
aud IL happened In the church that
l belong to-
There came to our church one
Sunday q stranger, just an ordinary
looking stranger In good Sunday
clothes, and we put him as We al
ways did strangers In as good u seat
as we had, which happened to be 10
this case the best seat in the middle
aisle, u fact for which we were after.
ward very grateful. We didn't oh.
serve anything very remarkable about
this man, he listened to the sermon,
and stood up with the rest when they
sang, and when the plate was passed
he dropped In q bill. That was kind
o. remarkable, but not 50 dreadful
remarkable for folks sometimes did
put ILLS In the plate in our church.
But when we came to straighten out
the collection and count II, which va
always did after meeting, we did en-.
counter the most remarkable thing
that had ever happened In that
church: the bill that tho stranger
had put in folded up 50 small and
quiet was a $1,000 bill.
"Well, if there'd been an earth.
quake In the town there couldn't any
more people have heard of 1t. nor
any quicker, aud every body wondered
who he was. He was stopping at tho
hotel and keei ing very quiet, and
next day he went away, and then
everybody wondered IL he'd ever come
back. He did the next Sunday, and
he went to church, aud he dropped
another bill 10 the plate, when IL got
to him. folded up small, just like the
other. 1t was another thousand.
"Then there was excitement. The
man went away the next morning
Just the same, but he came back the
next Sunday and put In another thou.
sand. and he kept coming and going
In this way until he'd put In nine
1000 bills, with the excitement
growing all the time
"Thcre was mortgage on the
church OF $4,000. by this time, OF
course, everybody had get It into
their heads that the stranger was
paying oil this mortgage, and every.
body was very GLAD OF It, 1t wasn't
poor town, by any means, but II
was o farming town, where cash
wasn't overplentiful and $lO,OUO
seemed like great deal Of money
which 1t was-and this man was pay.
ing 1t, or everybody thought he was,
and when II came to the next Sun.
day. the tenth Sunday, which every.
body sort Of felt was going to he the
last one, and the one that would
tell who the stranger was you
couldn't get into tho church. But
we managed to make room for him
when he came, and no did come, and
we gave him the identical pew he sal
In the tirst Sunday. Well, when the
plate came around he put In another,
He'd done it-he'd paid the debt O
the church.
'Aiter that no didn't keep himself
quite so quiet He was around thu
village more, and tirst one aud ther
another recognized him, and ther
everybody that was old .enough won
dcrcd that everybody hadn't recog
nized him from the beginning. II,
was born and raised there and hat
gone away when u v,ung man Of q
to make his fortune, and he'd made
1t, not In cities, but out on the plain,
raising clttie, and nobody had me,
him or heard Of him. But he didn',
look like COWBOY when he cam,
back: he looked justlike anybody ant
acted 10.
"lle did say afterward that payin,
the church debt was more fun thar
he'd ever struck In hisilife; lie was
little curious In that way, In his wa,
OF speaking; but his heart, Pm sure
was sound US u dOllar."-New YOrl
| Sun.