Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1900-10-24
+. WHY BILL REFORMED.
He wan In n BAD Way TIL He Cot Z
Good Scare.

Good Scare.
Talking about temperance" said
the man with the gray streaks in his
stubby beard, makes me think of my
brother Bill. Bill's 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
and tries 70 push them. Well, when he
finds a man with money and an incli
nation to invest 1t, Bill comes the good
fellow racket. Before he tries to do
any promoting he invites the man to
dinner and orders up couple of cock
tails and then a 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 80 he was half drunk nearly all the
time, whether he was promoting or not.
1--WE have room at home that we
keep always Mt .Bills disposal. He's a
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 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 were.
'The other night, just after the cold
wave struck us, Bill came out, bringing
with. him the fag end of what had been
good sized jag. l had had little fire
built in the furnace during the after
noon so asst to take the chill off, and
when we got ready to go 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 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 1t 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 1t to me afterwarda9
He lay there and listened and felt q
| cold dampness on his forehead. There
was sudden, sharp crack over by the
window. Then there fwasAanother un.
der the bed Then there were two
creaks near the window, immediately
followed by two more under the bed
1t seemed us If the spirits were talking
to each other by cracking and rappinl
sharply. Mingled with the cracks ant
raps that came from every part of thu
room were long creaklng noises that tt
Bilps muddled mind became the
shrieking and groaning of lost souls.
II don't know what time 1t was wher
he was aroused, but found him sit
ting out In the, hall shivering when
got up IN the morning, and for a min
utesI thought myself that there was ,
ghost In the house. He hadn't stopped
to get his clothes, but had bolted In hi
nightshlrt, and his face was as whit,
as chalk. When he saw me, he jump
edfup, ran to me, grabbed me by thu
hand and with tears in his eyes said:
Come on into your den. You're {
notary public. want you to make I
pledge for me to sign. I'm never goin,
to drink another drop as long as / live.
II made out the pledge, and toda.
Bills a nobler, better man. haven
said anything to him about the furnac,
and the swelling in the new floor, an,
l guess it'll be just as well not to.'--
Chicago Times III erald. & ja; 3.