“I hope,” expostulated his father, “you didn’t put that half dollar on the collection plate?” “Yes, I did, father,” said the boy, “and the man he said that the Lord is a good paymaster and that He’d send it back doubled.”
“And you believed him! O pshaw, I’m utterly disappointed in you, James. You’ll never make a business man. The idea of your believing such stuff like that. Why, that half dollar—you’ll never see it again, and that man—why, he’s nothing but a fakir. O well—pshaw! I’ll give you another chance, and see that you do better this time. Here’s a dollar. Now you steer clear of all churches and missionary meetings this time——“
“Why, father!” exclaimed the boy as he took the dollar, “why, that man was right after all. The Lord did send my half dollar back, and sooner than I looked for it—and doubled, too!”
THE POOR
Josh Billings concluded his celebrated lecture on “Milk” with these memorable words—“Remember the poor. It costs nothing.”
A town meeting had been called to devise ways and means to provide for the poor of the community. After many speeches had been made, and many recommendations offered, and much time wasted and nothing done, a benevolent German arose in the back part of the hall and said:
“Mister Chairman, I move, before we adjourn, we all shtand oop undt gif three cheers for de poor!”
TEMPERANCE A HUNDRED YEARS AGO
The first Temperance Society organized in this country, in the year 1808, provided that “No member shall be intoxicated under a penalty of fifty cents, and no member shall ask another person to take a drink under a penalty of twenty-five cents.”
There was a Temperance Society in the State of Maine, prior to the year 1825, which had the following remarkable plank in its platform: “If any member of this Society shall get drunk, he shall be obliged to stand treat for the whole Society all round!”