Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-12-26


der the name Of Charley, the Con-
verted Boy Tiend' and rake In the
shelSels like Billy But somehow l
felt couldn't get down as low as that.
A brilliant thought struck me. how
ever ] would state the whole thing in
an advertisement. more to relieve my
feelings than with any hope of getting
an answer
80 scraped enough money together
to insert the following In one Of tho
papers: If were drunken bum"
just taken out of the gutter, scores of
kind religious people would stretch
out hand to help me. But as ! am
only decent and self respecting young
man. with no vices or bad habits, am
without work and starving In this
great, cruel city, And I added my
initials and address.
"The next day called to see IL there
might possibly be an answer and got
two. The first one opened read as
follows: I was touched by your
strange advertisement, as myself was
once in the same position. found help
through noble Christian man, and If
you will call and see me l will prove
to you that there Is q Christian who is
able and willing to help you If you are
worthy. Ask to see me personally, as
am sorry to say my partner Is an In
fldel. and, though n good man, he
might not be disposed to look at your
case so kindly
"Afy heart jumped with joy on read
ing this kind letter, and for n little
while l forgot the other one. But
soon opened 1t and read as follows: 4
was deeply stirred by the uudertone
Of despair in your advertisement, as
was once as friendless as you are.
found a start in life through noble
man who, like myself, was an unbe-
lever. And If you will call and see
me will prove to you that there is an
unbeliever who is both able and will
ing to give you start In life II you
are worthy Ask to see me personally,
as my partner Is Christian, and,
though good man, he might not be
disposed to look on your case kindly
wonderful coincidence, wasn't It.?
But the most wonderful part of the
story is yet to be told. These two men
were partners. Each one of them was
trying to do n good deed without the
knowledge Of the other.
"The end of the story? Well, that
was interesting and remarkable too.
After trying In vain to decide to which
of these two gentlemen l should make
myself known l determined to see
them together and read the two letters
to them. / did so. and you ought to
have seen the look of blank surprise
that came over the faces of both men
as they learned that, though differing
SO widely in creed, they were at one in
acknowledging the religion Of humani-
ty. They were silent for few mo-
ments, and then the Christian, with
tears in his eyes, grasped the hand Of
his partner and said:
Brother. have wronged you. for
have learned that. without knowing 1t,
you are not far from the kingdom Of
heaven
att is who have wronged you,' ex-
claimed his partner, in assuming that
you would not obey the teaching Of
your Master to feed the hungry and
clothe the naked. Let us hereafter live
as brothers indeed. even though we
may not be able to profess the same
creed. And may the unknown God
whom ignorantly we worship accept us
| at the last
"These two good men gave me a
start and were my dearest friends un-
til they died. The moral Of 1t all?
Well. think there is more goodness
In the world than can be enshrined In
any creed, however true."-New York
Tribune.