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Edward Mills and George Benton: A Tale
Mark Twain
These two were distantly related to each other--seventh cousins, or something of that sort.
While still babies they became orphans, and were adopted by the Brants, a childless couple,
who quickly grew very fond of them. The Brants were always saying: "Be pure, honest,
sober, industrious, and considerate of others, and success in life is assured." The children
heard this repeated some thousands of times before they understood it; they could repeat it
themselves long before they could say the Lord's Prayer; it was painted over the nursery
door, and was about the first thing they learned to read. It was destined to be the
unswerving rule of Edward Mills's life. Sometimes the Brants changed the wording a little,
and said: "Be pure, honest, sober, industrious, considerate, and you will never lack friends."
Baby Mills was a comfort to everybody about him. When he wanted candy and could not
have it, he listened to reason, and contented himself without it. When Baby Benton wanted
candy, he cried for it until he got it. Baby Mills took care of his toys; Baby Benton always
destroyed his in a very brief time, and then made himself to insistently disagreeable that, in
order to have peace in the house, little Edward was persuaded to yield up his play-things to
him.
When the children were a little older, Georgie became a heavy expense in one respect: he
took no care of his clothes; consequently, he shone frequently in new ones, with was not the
case with Eddie. The boys grew apace. Eddie was an increasing comfort, Georgie an
increasing solicitude. It was always sufficient to say, in answer to Eddie's petitions, "I
would rather you would not do it"-- meaning swimming, skating, picnicking, berrying,
circusing, and all sorts of things which boys delight in. But no answer was sufficient for
Georgie; he had to be humored in his desires, or he would carry them with a high hand.
Naturally, no boy got more swimming skating, berrying, and so forth than he; no body ever
had a better time. The good Brants did not allow the boys to play out after nine in summer
evenings; they were sent to bed at that hour; Eddie honorably remained, but Georgie usually
slipped out of the window toward ten, and enjoyed himself until midnight. It seemed
impossible to break Georgie of this bad habit, but the Brants managed it at last by hiring
him, with apples and marbles, to stay in. The good Brants gave all their time and attention
to vain endeavors to regulate Georgie; they said, with grateful tears in their eyes, that Eddie
needed no efforts of theirs, he was so good, so considerate, and in all ways so perfect.
By and by the boys were big enough to work, so they were apprenticed to a trade: Edward
went voluntarily; George was coaxed and bribed. Edward worked hard and faithfully, and
ceased to be an expense to the good Brants; they praised him, so did his master; but George
ran away, and it cost Mr. Brant both money and trouble to hunt him up and get him back.
By and by he ran away again--more money and more trouble. He ran away a third time--and
stole a few things to carry with him. Trouble and expense for Mr. Brant once more; and,
besides, it was with the greatest difficulty that he succeeded in persuading the master to let
the youth go unprosecuted for the theft.
Edward worked steadily along, and in time became a full partner in his master's business.
George did not improve; he kept the loving hearts of his aged benefactors full of trouble,
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and their hands full of inventive activities to protect him from ruin. Edward, as a boy, had
interested himself in Sunday-schools, debating societies, penny missionary affairs, anti-
tobacco organizations, anti-profanity associations, and all such things; as a man, he was a
quiet but steady and reliable helper in the church, the temperance societies, and in all
movements looking to the aiding and uplifting of men. This excited no remark, attracted no
attention--for it was his "natural bent."
Finally, the old people died. The will testified their loving pride in Edward, and left their
little property to George-- because he "needed it"; whereas, "owing to a bountiful
Providence," such was not the case with Edward. The property was left to George
conditionally: he must buy out Edward's partner with it; else it must go to a benevolent
organization called the Prisoner's Friend Society. The old people left a letter, in which they
begged their dear son Edward to take their place and watch over George, and help and
shield him as they had done.
Edward dutifully acquiesced, and George became his partner in the business. He was not a
valuable partner: he had been meddling with drink before; he soon developed into a
constant tippler now, and his flesh and eyes showed the fact unpleasantly. Edward had been
courting a sweet and kindly spirited girl for some time. They loved each other dearly, and--
But about this period George began to haunt her tearfully and imploringly, and at last she
went crying to Edward, and said her high and holy duty was plain before her-- she must not
let her own selfish desires interfere with it: she must marry "poor George" and "reform
him." It would break her heart, she knew it would, and so on; but duty was duty. So she
married George, and Edward's heart came very near breaking, as well as her own. However,
Edward recovered, and married another girl-- a very excellent one she was, too.
Children came to both families. Mary did her honest best to reform her husband, but the
contract was too large. George went on drinking, and by and by he fell to misusing her and
the little ones sadly. A great many good people strove with George--they were always at it,
in fact--but he calmly took such efforts as his due and their duty, and did not mend his
ways. He added a vice, presently--that of secret gambling. He got deeply in debt; he
borrowed money on the firm's credit, as quietly as he could, and carried this system so far
and so successfully that one morning the sheriff took possession of the establishment, and
the two cousins found themselves penniless.
Times were hard, now, and they grew worse. Edward moved his family into a garret, and
walked the streets day and night, seeking work. He begged for it, but in was really not to be
had. He was astonished to see how soon his face became unwelcome; he was astonished
and hurt to see how quickly the ancient interest which people had had in him faded out and
disappeared. Still, he must get work; so he swallowed his chagrin, and toiled on in search of
it. At last he got a job of carrying bricks up a ladder in a hod, and was a grateful man in
consequence; but after that nobody knew him or cared anything about him. He was not able
to keep up his dues in the various moral organizations to which he belonged, and had to
endure the sharp pain of seeing himself brought under the disgrace of suspension.
But the faster Edward died out of public knowledge and interest, the faster George rose in
them. He was found lying, ragged and drunk, in the gutter one morning. A member of the
Ladies' Temperance Refuge fished him out, took him in hand, got up a subscription for him,
kept him sober a whole week, then got a situation for him. An account of it was published.
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General attention was thus drawn to the poor fellow, and a great many people came forward
and helped him toward reform with their countenance and encouragement. He did not drink
a drop for two months, and meantime was the pet of the good. Then he fell--in the gutter;
and there was general sorrow and lamentation. But the noble sisterhood rescued him again.
They cleaned him up, they fed him, they listened to the mournful music of his repentances,
they got him his situation again. An account of this, also, was published, and the town was
drowned in happy tears over the re-restoration of the poor beast and struggling victim of the
fatal bowl. A grand temperance revival was got up, and after some rousing speeches had
been made the chairman said, impressively: "We are not about to call for signers; and I
think there is a spectacle in store for you which not many in this house will be able to view
with dry eyes." There was an eloquent pause, and then George Benton, escorted by a red-
sashed detachment of the Ladies of the Refuge, stepped forward upon the platform and
signed the pledge. The air was rent with applause, and everybody cried for joy. Everybody
wrung the hand of the new convert when the meeting was over; his salary was enlarged next
day; he was the talk of the town, and its hero. An account of it was published.
George Benton fell, regularly, every three months, but was faithfully rescued and wrought
with, every time, and good situations were found for him. Finally, he was taken around the
country lecturing, as a reformed drunkard, and he had great houses and did an immense
amount of good.
He was so popular at home, and so trusted--during his sober intervals-- that he was enabled
to use the name of a principal citizen, and get a large sum of money at the bank. A mighty
pressure was brought to bear to save him from the consequences of his forgery, and it was
partially successful--he was "sent up" for only two years. When, at the end of a year, the
tireless efforts of the benevolent were crowned with success, and he emerged from the
penitentiary with a pardon in his pocket, the Prisoner's Friend Society met him at the door
with a situation and a comfortable salary, and all the other benevolent people came forward
and gave him advice, encouragement and help. Edward Mills had once applied to the
Prisoner's Friend Society for a situation, when in dire need, but the question, "Have you
been a prisoner?" made brief work of his case.
While all these things were going on, Edward Mills had been quietly making head against
adversity. He was still poor, but was in receipt of a steady and sufficient salary, as the
respected and trusted cashier of a bank. George Benton never came near him, and was never
heard to inquire about him. George got to indulging in long absences from the town; there
were ill reports about him, but nothing definite.
One winter's night some masked burglars forced their way into the bank, and found Edward
Mills there alone. They commanded him to reveal the "combination," so that they could get
into the safe. He refused. They threatened his life. He said his employers trusted him, and
he could not be traitor to that trust. He could die, if he must, but while he lived he would be
faithful; he would not yield up the "combination." The burglars killed him.
The detectives hunted down the criminals; the chief one proved to be George Benton. A
wide sympathy was felt for the widow and orphans of the dead man, and all the newspapers
in the land begged that all the banks in the land would testify their appreciation of the
fidelity and heroism of the murdered cashier by coming forward with a generous
contribution of money in aid of his family, now bereft of support. The result was a mass of
solid cash amounting to upward of five hundred dollars--an average of nearly three-eights
of a cent for each bank in the Union. The cashier's own bank testified its gratitude by
endeavoring to show (but humiliatingly failed in it) that the peerless servant's accounts were
not square, and that he himself had knocked his brains out with a bludgeon to escape
detection and punishment.
George Benton was arraigned for trial. Then everybody seemed to forget the widow and
orphans in their solicitude for poor George. Everything that money and influence could do
was done to save him, but it all failed; he was sentenced to death. Straightway the Governor
was besieged with petitions for commutation or pardon; they were brought by tearful young
girls; by sorrowful old maids; by deputations of pathetic widows; by shoals of impressive
orphans. But no, the Governor--for once--would not yield.
Now George Benton experienced religion. The glad news flew all around. From that time
forth his cell was always full of girls and women and fresh flowers; all the day long there
was prayer, and hymn-singing, and thanksgiving, and homilies, and tears, with never an
interruption, except an occasional five-minute intermission for refreshments.
This sort of thing continued up to the very gallows, and George Benton went proudly home,
in the black cap, before a wailing audience of the sweetest and best that the region could
produce. His grave had fresh flowers on it every day, for a while, and the head-stone bore
these words, under a hand pointing aloft: "He has fought the good fight."
The brave cashier's head-stone has this inscription: "Be pure, honest, sober, industrious,
considerate, and you will never--"
Nobody knows who gave the order to leave it that way, but it was so given.
The cashier's family are in stringent circumstances, now, it is said; but no matter; a lot of
appreciative people, who were not willing that an act so brave and true as his should go
unrewarded, have collected forty-two thousand dollars--and built a Memorial Church with
it.
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