Year: 1874




Truth is stranger than fiction, is an
adage SO often repeated as to have be-
come trite l was reminded of it, durin g
the past year, by reading a story in the
Journal with the title, phillips Lottery
Ticket" which, from internal evidence,
presume to be fact. 1t carried me back,
however, in memory, to the very mature
age of sixteen, when l thought Alonzo
c. the prettiest specimen of young
manliness l had ever seen. Very singu-
lar did it seem to me that my mother did
not coincide with me in this belief; still
more singular that although his mother
was one of the stillloved friends of her
girlhood, she steadily discountenanced
anv acquaintance between her daughter
and the son of her dear friend


He was rather above the common stat
ure, but so finely proportioned as to seem
'.iust right" with curling brown hair, of
a chestnut shade, and the whltest teeth
"a girl might have envied both teeth
and curls in another girl; as they be-
longed to young man, what could she
do but admire them


Pray, do not think lost my heart then
and there. Looking back through all
these intervening years, | do not think
there was the least reason for maternal
| anxiety, since even then, as cordially as
now, were merely pretty" men held in
contempt in my estimation. My rather
| freely-expressed admiration ought { to
| have quieted her fears, for woman will
no more praise the man she loves than a
bird will 1utter toward its nest when the
| intruder is near.


So remember, young man, if the girl
YOU fancy tells another young man she
| is glad to see him, chats gaily with him
upon all the topics of the times, and,
when he leaves, asks him to call again,
you need not be the least bit jealous.
She cares not the firt of her fan for him,
or she would have done none of these
things.


Yet Alonzo c. had other qualities
besides a clear complexion. deep hazel
eyes, and a winning smile. He was in
tellectual and we'll educated, planned,
one would have said, for true and no BILE
manhood


1 will give you brief sketch of his
! life partly from the "few words of eau
ton my mother ''felt it to be her duty"
to bestow upon me- and partly from my
own subsequent observation.


He was head clerk to r, then one
of the most enterprising book-publishers
at the Hub with a good prospect of a
partnership. His employer had himself
suggested the probability of such an ar
| d6 HO OlSGd1G ddyj anu uOSb
people supposed, from certain unmistak-
able signs, that another kind of partner
ship would soon be instituted between
him and his employers fair daughter


At that time lotteries were licensed by
law, as drinking saloons are now-may
the day soon come when the last part
may seem as strange as the first Wheth-
er it was undue haste to be rich, or over
persuasion upon the part of some ticket
vendors, or mere oughtlessness that
induced him to buy a ticket, know not.
That act was the turning point of his
| life. He had the ill-luck to draw the
highest prize offered, twenty thousand
dollars. He did not think it ill-luck at
the time, however. He was nearly wild
with joy, so were his poor widowed moth
er, so were his two young sisters; almost
envious were his younger brothers, who
| Immediately commenced teasing for a
portion of it to buy lottery tickets with,
that they, too, might become rich More
fortunate than he, they drew blanks
every time, and, at last. disgusted with


their "luck," went back to their work,
became rich by honest trade, and so were
able, years afterward, to pay the expenses
of-his last sickness, and give him decent


burial


Could that poor mother have been


told, as, with brain almost bewildered


with ioy she tried to realize the magni-


tude of the sum, and plan the wonderful


things that they would do with it. that


it was the price OF her boy-how would


She have shuddered-how earnestly


would she have tried to cast it far from


her Alas how vainly she cried, in af


ter days. come back to me, poverty and


toll, if with you ye can bring my son


pure and true as when he shared with


me your privations!


How bitterly and passionately sobbed


forth to my sympathizing ear his young
sister, "Ohl would l had never had
brother, or he had died in his innocent
childhoodW For even as she spoke
tramp, tramp, up the stairway, through
the hall, past our chamber door, stopping
only when it reached his room, came the
) heavy tread of the night police bearing
their worse than lifeless burden 1t was
! an arrangement made with the city


watch, by one of the lucky brothers who


only drew blanks, and so were left to be


come rich and respectable by honest in
' dustry that whenever the unlucky
, drawer of the $4,000 prize was seen reel
ing through the streets, or lying in thu


gutter, he should be taken care of b,
! these faithful guardians of a slumberinj
city, and conveyed or assisted to tn
. shelter of his own room, under his moth
er's roof. Surely my friend forgot he