Wichita eagle., 1888-09-05
WAITING ON A BIRD.
An Incident In the Life Of Inventor Cor
lisa Touch of HUMANITY.

WA ItN0 Yin n 6laOs
- lisa Touch Of Humanity.
The late Edward Corliss, of Providence.
the inventor and manufacturer of the
great Corliss engine, was . man who
valued his business largely for the op-
portunities which it brought him of doing
thoroughly and unpretentiously humane
acts. Very many stories are told at
Providence Of his generosity to people in
his employ, and especially Of a way he
had of coming to some employee or
workman who looked i'll or overworked,
or who had complained of having a hard
time, and saying to him, Now. look
here; you are not looking well. You
had better go off somewhere for rest of
few weeks, and will take care of your
family while you are gone And the
man was started off on a vacation Of
months, if months were needed, without
any apprehension on his mind as to the
needs of his family.
But other employers have done the
same thing, no doubt, and the Listener
would not have had occasion to note the
matter if it had not been for the true
story Of another generous deed of Mr..
Corliss', lately told him from a most
authentic source, which is so exceptional,
and so quite idyllic, that it merits special
relation. More than that-it merits such
setting of incident as the story telling
genius Of Hawthorne or a Hale would
give it; but as the Listener can give it no
such setting, and as, moreover, he has no
right to do more than tell the tale just as
it was told to him, he will narrate it il
Its simplest form:
Mr.. Corliss, not very long before his
death, had occasion to build an addition
to this manufactory-a big IL, for a6.
ditional machinery. To prepare the
foundation for this L it was necessary to
remove ledge Of rock BY blasting. The
men to do the work on the addition had
been employed and put on the pay roll;
the materials had been purchased and
brought to the building, and the work of
blasting had begun. The next morning
MIR. Corliss passed by the place where
work was proceeding, when the foreman
in charge, knowing his interest in pretty
things, called him.
''See here, Mr.. Corliss,'' said he;
''here is birds nest that we've found,
and that's got to CO."
He showed the manufacturer robin
sitting upon a nest that had been built,
fast and snug, in a crevice of the rock,
among some bushes that grew there.
The bird flew Off her nest as the men
came near, and showed five blue eggs.
that looked as if they had just been laid.
'.Can we move that nest somewhere
else?" asked Corliss.
I'm afraid not, sir. We'd tear it to
pieces getting it out, and it isn't at all
likely that you could get the bird to go
to sitting again anywhere else. We've
got to go on, so we may as well rip it
out and throw the eggs away
NO" said Corliss 1--WE won't dis
turb her. Let her bring out her brood
right there"
'sBut we'n have to stop the work on
the building!"
''Let us stop it them
And SO orders were given that opera
tons on the addition should be suspended.
They were suspended; and the hands
stood still, drawing their pay for doing
nothing, or next to nothing, while the
robin sat on her nest with her air Of
great consequence and jealous attention
to business, and had her food brought
her by her mate, and at last Matched her
brood. And then there were three weeks
more to go by, at the least, before the
young ones could fly. Corliss visited the
nest frequently, not with any uneasiness
or impotence to have the robin and the
young ones out of the way, but with a
genuine interest in their growth. The
old birds had all the time they wanted,
and when at last they had sternly helped
the clumsy, reluctant youngsters over the
edge of the nest, and they showed them
selves to be able to get about on their
own hook, orders We're given to resume
the building operations; and the dull
boom of the gunpowder, tearing the
rocks apart, was heard where the birds
had peeped.
1t was an idle freak, a practical man
would say, of a man who may have had
more money than he knew what to do
with. Perhaps it was freak, but it was
one of the sort of freaks that make the
world better.-Boston Transcript lis
tener."