The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1912-12-11
WOMAN WHO HAS
GRACES OF HEART
1t Is Not Always the Cultured Who
Have Highest Courage. -,
By FRANCES sHAFFER.

II this woman had been born in an
other station in life, with the weight of
wealth and the magic of power on her
side, one wonders how she would have
grown.
Perhaps you read about her a week or
so ago, a gray-haired woman of sixty
years, who plunged into the icy waters
of the East River New York; to rescue
man from drowning But there is
something about the story that makes
one willing to read il twice.
Mrs. Caroline Phillips is a widow, and
keeps a little boarding house in Astoria,
Long Island. but 1t is not a very pros
porous boarding house. because she ca
tiers to poorer folk, who pay pretty mod
est rates. And so she gets up very early
in the morning and goes out along the
river edge to watch for firewOod that
comes drifting in.
The other morning she went as usual,
and as she stood there looking across
the waters she espied, far out in the
stream something that she thought was
a piece OF wood. But as it drifted nearer
she noticed a movement that made her
sure it was a human being. She waited
for nothing. but hurried to the rescue.
Drawing the treacherous currents until
she reached the unconscious man, who
was held up by his heavy clothing.
Troubles Continued.
When she got him ashore her troubles
were not over. She was foreign-born
and could scarcely make herself under
stood when quite composed, but the colo
water had chilled her to the bone and
she was all excitement And when she
went racing through the streets at that
carly hour in the morning. calling for
help, residents. who rushed to see what
the noise was all about could not make
out her strange. shrill cries. They did
not take the pains or run the possible
risk of finding out and carefully closed
their doors and windows In her face.
But she finally stopped butchers wag-
on. forced the bOy-driver to go back with
her., and impressed in the service sew
eral men on their way to early work.
When they learned the cause of her eX-
element they very willingly returned to
the still unconscious man, who proved to
be a policeman, lifted him into the wagon
and the butcher-boy drove on to the hos
pital.
Then the woman hurried to her little
cottage to get dry and warm-and prob
ably 10 prepare breakfast for her board
ers.
At Personal Risk.
And who can tell what makes the
wonderful difference in the human spirit?
She, a Woodworking woman. with her
life pretty nearly spent, born on alien
shores, seemingly without very much to
foster the warmest and truest senti-
ments toward her fellow-man. first res
cued, then went shouting through the
streets in her broken English, begging
for the help that was slow enough TO
come. And from start to finish, it was
at grave personal risk. for she was wet
and very, very cold.
And those othre folk, snug and COM
Portable in their homes, raised their win
dOws and opened their doors, but when
they thought there might be some sort
of danger, they FASTENED back TO cover.
And the thought will come
Suppose she had Travelled the softer
ways Of life had been cultured, with the
culture that comes from without had
had some one at her side to smooth the
path and make it very pleasant indeed.
into just what manner of woman would
she have grown?
Hard tricks of fortune bring to light
all the slumbering forces in men and
women, so they tell US, and they de-
velop where they might have gone on
sleeping had their lot been cast in easier,
brighter places. But, first Of all, there
must be the natural timber to work
upon.
Had the Timber.
And nobody doubts that that woman
had the timber, at least in strength of
spirit
It is not always that they go together,
the natural timber and the opportunity
to bring it out in all its softened, won
derful colors when it is carefully worked
upon.
And when we read of men and women,
brave, unfiinching, and very true. whose
lives have been one long round OF hard, |
hard work: men and women lacking the
grace Of education and knowing nothing
of association with beautiful things, it Is
interesting to try to figure out what
they might have been and how they
might have developed had they been
started and carried along on a plane
where culture is taken for granted.