prevailed upon their
father, also a collier, to allow them to deposit a shilling a week,
until they had saved sufficient to buy themselves each a suit of new
clothes. Before then, all their father's earnings, as well as their own,
had been spent in drink."

An actuary of another branch says he has seen fathers and mothers, who
have been drunkards, send their children with money to the bank, He
says: "My heart was made to rejoice when I saw a boy, who never had a
suit of new clothes in his life, draw out his money, and in less than
two hours return well clad, to take his place in the school to practise
singing for Good Friday. At the meeting of the Band of Hope on Good
Friday, he asked the parents and children to signify by holding up their
hands whether or not the bank had been beneficial to them; when many
hands were instantly raised,--one poor mother exclaiming, 'I will put up
both my hands for my two bairns!'"

"A miner, the father of a family, reclaimed from drunkenness, saved his
money in the bank until, with the aid of a loan from a building society,
he built two houses at a cost of four hundred pounds. The bank has been
to many people what the hive is to the bee--a kind of repository; and
when the wintry days of sickness or adversity befall them, they have
then the bank to flee to for succour."

A missionary says: "I met a man and his wife about two years ago--both
drunk. I got them to sign the pledge, and since then to invest their
money in our bank. The pawnbroker had got the greater part of their
goods; but I am happy to say that they have got all the articles out of
pawn, and can bring a little money almost every week to the bank; and
when putting in the money, the man says that it is better than taking it
to the public-house. Their home is now a very comfortable one."

A drunkard one night came to the bank, and flinging down a shilling for
a start, said, "There! that is the price of six pints of beer; but I
promise the landlords that they shan't have as much of my money as they
have had." This man has become sober; and continues a regular depositor.

In another bank, a man who had been a reckless and desperate fellow was
induced by his wife to deposit a few coppers in the bank. He did so, and
his weekly deposits increased; while at the same time his visits to the
public-house decreased. In the course of a short time he had a
respectable balance to his credit; and this induced him to take a share
in a b