A WINE CARD SUBSCRIPTION ON A CHURCH PLATE.

Western Star, Issue 1540, 28 February 1891, Page 1 (Supplement)

A WINE CARD SUBSCRIPTION ON A CHURCH PLATE.

There was an astonished rector in a leading New York church recently, and there was an astonished parishioner afterwards. Whether there will be a third astonished person in the man who was responsible for the surprise of these two, is one of those things which remain to be proved. It came about in this fashion. Mr A. is a wealthy gentleman, belonging to a leading club in New York. Mr B. is his intimate friend. One evening B. came upon A. when the latter was signing a lot of wine cards in the library, “ What are you going to do with those ? ” B. asked.

“ Oh, I hate the bother of signing a card every time I order anything,” A. replied, “ and I always sign a lot of cards and give them to the steward to fill out when I have things. It saves a lot of bother, and they know that whatever they put on one of my cards I will pay.” B. made some remark about the carelessness of this way of doing business, and, as he talked, he fingered the signed cards, managing to abstract one of them. This he filled in with a promise to pay £2O, and on the following Sunday he dropped it in the plate at the fashionable church which both he and Mr A. attended. The rector, when the wine card of the Blank Club was brought to his notice with the £2O subscription, was naturally astonished, and took it at once to Mr A. for an explanation. That gentleman came up to the occasion nobly. He paid the money and redeemed the card, but now their common friends are watching with much interest to see what form will take the vengeance which he will undoubtedly manage to take upon B. sooner or later.—Boston Courier.