Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1900-12-20
THE CITIZEN ~.
WHY BILL REFORMED.
He Was In q Bad Way TIL He Got n

"Oou sCaEc
Talking about temperance" said
the man with the gray streaks in his
stubby beard, makes me think of my
brother Bill. Bnrs been drinking pret-
ty hard during the past year or so, and
I've worried about him a good deal
You see, he's in the promoting busi-
ness. He gets hold of certain projects
pnd tries to push them. Well, when he
finds a man with money and an incli-
nation TO invest it, Bill comes the good
fellow racket. Before he tries to do
any promoting he invites the man TO
dinner and orders up a couple of cock
tails and then bottle or two, and
from that you know how it goes. There
seems to be a tradition among promot-
ers that you can't promote until both
the promoter and the promotee are just
about so far gone. This sort Of busi-
ness demoralized Bill at last and he
got so he was half drunk nearly all the
time, whether he was promoting or not.
1--WE have a room at home that we
keep always at Bills disposal. Hes
bachelor himself, and when he's in
town he likes to hang around our house
more or less, and of course we like TO
have him. Last spring we had nice
new hard maple floor put in Bills
room, which is located in q wing Of the
house away off by itself. It's been un-
usually damp around here this sum-
mer, and that floor swelled so that you
could hardly see where the joints We're.
The other night, just after the cold
wave struck US, Bill came out, bringing
with him the fag end of what had been
n good sized jag. l had had little fire
built in the furnace during the after
noon so as to take the chill on, ana
when we got ready to 20 to bed it was
quite comfortable.
along in the night some time Bill
woke up. At first, as he told me after
ward, he thought he was on ship out
at sea and that the thing was going to
pieces in n storm. He could hear the
decks creaking and the joints cracking.
Then as he got to remembering where
he was it struck him that there were
spOoks in the room. He remembered
that the wife Of the man who had lived
there before we took the house had
died suddenly and rather mysteriously.
She had quarreled with her mother-in-
law, and it was suspected that she had
committed suicide. 1t seemed to Bill
that he remembered to have heard, too,
that the corpse was found in that very
room. I'm telling the story as Bill re-
lated il to me afterward.
"He lay there and listened and felt
cold dampness Oh his forehead. There
was a sudden, sharp crack over by the
window. Then there was another un-
der the bed Then there were two
creaks near the window, Immediately
followed by two more under the bed
1t seemed as II the spirits were talking
to each other by cracking and rapping
sharply Mingled with the cracks and
taps that came from every part Of the
room were long creaking noises that to
Bills muddled mind became the
shricking and groaning Of lost souls
Il don't know what time it was when
he was aroused, but / found him sit
ting out in the hall shlvering when /
got up in the morning, and for min
ute thought myself that there was a
ghost in the house. He hadn't stopped
TO get his clothes, but had bolted in his
nightshirt, and his face was as white
as chalk. When he saw me, he jump
ed up, ran TO me, grabbed me by the
hand and with tears In his eyes said:
"Come on into your den. You're a
notary public. | want you TO make a
pledge for me to sign. I'm never going
to drink another drop as long as live
81 made out the pledge, and today
BilPs a nobler, better man. ! haven't
said anything to him about the furnace
and the swelling In the new floor, and
guess it'll be just as well not to-
Chicago Times Herald.