The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1897-11-03
TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE

chicago hecoru' "A west SIDE cnurcn
had an experience meeting one even
Ing not long ago.
For a year or more the west side
church has had as a regular attendant
a young man who sang Justify and al
ways put money into the contribution
box.
on the night OF the experience meet
ing" the young man arose to speak,
He began hesitatlngly, but soon gain
ed confidence and proceeded in q leis-
urely, conversational manner.
Although he was of the church and a
devout Methodist, the vocabulary OF the
world" remained with him. In spite
OF the solemn nature OF the services.
the experience" caused some laugh
ter.
well, my friends. l want to say at
the start that ! used 10 lead a fast life"
ne began. ~ spent all my salary
around In saloons or else ganbled II
away. one day 1 said to myself,
There's nothing In this life for me- so
/ made up my mind to reform. ! knew
I'd have to change my associations, be-
cause / had been mixed up with 4 tough
crOwd down toward Twelfth street.
So / hunted up a heightened boarding
house, near Ashland avenue, and got a
nice room with a bath, on the third
floor. At that time l was employed at
night and / wanted a quiet place TO
sleep in the day time.
Well everything was lovely Tor
awhile. ! liked my new location, and
as I didn't spend any money around h
saloons / could afford to buy some new
-. nIa afa,Aa- InAtau a pnfNnH fha
boarding house-welI, / guess they
thought I was q nice young fellow.
Things went on this way for going on
four months and I began to think / was
reformed for good, when one afternoon
/ went down town and met q fellow
named Fred Patterson, that / used to
work with. He had q jag / suppose
you'd call II, anyway, he'd been drink
ing. I always liked Fred and when I
saw him in this condition l made up
my mind that I'd sober him up and re-
form him. He wanted me to go into a
saloon with him and finally he said II
I'd 60 to a saloon with him he'd go
home with me afterward. l went into a
place on Madison street with him. He
took three or four drinks and / took
soft drinks and cigars. Then / tried to
get him to go home with me. He
wasn't so bad OFF but what he could
carry himself. He said he wouldn't go
until / took one drink with him. Well,
l was SO sure / wouldn't drink too much
that l consented to take one drink of
LIQUOR Then the house set EN- up and
| had to take another. and that start
ed me.
"Well my friends, TO make a long
story short, we went from n place to
another and / didn't report for work
hat evening. 1t vas late at night
when we started for my room. Fred
had a stitch in his side-something a
man often gets when he's on a spree,
but he was happy and kept singing all
the way home. I got him up to h
room all right and we tumbled into
bed. l was about asleep when I heard
Fred a that he would have to smoke
n cigarette before he could 60 to sleep.
He got up and III @ cigarette and came
to bed to smoke II. He fell asleep and
dropped the cigarette. 1t set fire to the
bed clothes and burned down to h
mattress. The heat woke me up. /
reached out my hand and put II into
the fire. / yelled and jumped out Of
bed, grabbed the water pitcher and
threw the water on the fire. Part OF
the water struck Fred and he woke up
and rolled on on the floor. 1 grabbed
the mattress and bed clothes and
dragged them into the bathroom. ] put
them into the tub and turned on the
water Then / rushed back to open
the windows and let the smoke escape,
Fred was so muddied he didn't know
what had happened and l was only
half sober myself. Fred and l stretch
ed out on an extra comforter and went
to sleep again.
ut seems that we had not aroused
the other people in the house, even
with all the noise we had made. We
slept there until after 0 o'clock in the
morning. The landlady had occasion
about that time to go to the second
floor bathroom. She found 1t flooded
with water and the plaster was drop
ping from the ceiling In big chunks.
She ran up TO the third floor and then
she smelled the smoke. / suppose, for
she hammered at my door and wanted
to know what was the matter In there.
l woke UP without hardly knowing
where / was. The carpet on the floor
was sopping wet and covered with lit
tie pieces OF burned cloth. / told the
landlady nothing was h matter. She
wanted to know II the room was on
fire, and / said 1t wasn't. Then she
said the bathroom had overlooked and
for me to shut OF the water. / start
ed to 70 TO the bathroom, and when l
stepped into the cold water / yelled.
She knew by that time something was
wrong, and she told me she wanted to
see me down stairs.
"'Well, my friends, you should have
seen that bath tub. l was never SO
ashamed OF myself in all my life. ] had
forgotten 30 turn off the water. The
packing from the inside of the mattress
had filed up the escape pipes and the
water had run over the top, flooding
the room and leaking through to the
floor below. Some OF our clothes had
been lying on the floor, and they were
wet. too. Then 1 remembered that /
hadn't reported for work the night be-
fore. and feared / had lost my Job. ]
realized also that ] would rave TO leave
the boarding house at once and find
another place to live. Worst Of all,
when looked into my pockets, l found
that l had spent all but a dollar or two
of my money. That was tho most hor-
rlble morning OF my life. l began to
understand that n man could behave
himself for four months and ruin MS
reputation In n night.
~ had an awful time getting Fred
up and getting him out OF tho house
At first ] thought I'd blame everything
on him when the landlady asked me.
but I'm glad to say / mad manhood
enough to- own up that / was to blame.
and ask ihclandlady how much the lam
ages were. ! got my job back by prom
Using to keep sober forever. ana a friend
OF mine lct me have enough to pay the
S25 damages ut the boarding house.
'Thnt experience taught mo q lesson,
my friends. / saw that II l wanted TO
stop drinking ] would have TO stay