The Washington herald., 1914-04-17
HISTORY BUILDERS.
A Curious Instance of the Working
of Conscience.
Written Expressly for The Herald.
BY DIR. Il. j. EDWARDS.

| BY Oh. Il. j. EDWARDS.
I'm my experience as an evangelist I
have learned that the promptings of
conscience so -lstimes lead to peculiar.
inexplicable results" This remark was
| made to me recently by William p. Hall.
! who is not only president Of a large cor
poration. but Is also widely known as an
evangelist. perhaps the most prominent
Of the laymen OF the United States who
have taken up evangelistlc work
Il could relate to you many incidents
that have came within my knowledge
which Justify the statement which have
just made to you. They sometimes lead
to the belief that none OF US fully under
stands human nature.
Let me tell you OF an incident Of
which 1 have never been able fully to
explain. learned upon undoubted au-
thority the facts which l am now to tell
you.
"A gentleman OF excellent character
was riding. some years ago, in one Of
the rapid-transit subway trains in New
York City. He sat in a seat nearest the
door After a while his attention was
attracted to a well-dressed man whose
appearance was that Of a person accus-
toned TO refinement Of life and whose
habits wee good. For some reason.
which he could not explain. the gentle
man Of whom 1 spoke found himself in
constant observation Of this man who
sat opposite to him
AT last. at one Of the stations his
man got up and hastily left the car
lie was lost to view in the crowd which
had gathered on the platform. The
gentleman who had been watching this
man lust then discovered a small pack
age which had evidently been forgotten
by the man who had left the car.
The finder took the package with in
tent to give IL to the guard. There was,
however, son,e delay before the guard
came through the car, which gave the
gentleman opportunity to look carefully
at the package. 1t appeared 10 he a
box OF small size which had been wrapped
i'm a newspaper Somethini- was written
upon the margin OF the news per. which
had been so placed over thu box as to
be certain instantly to attract the eye
II was in these words: This box con-
tains some money that was stolen. For
good reasons I cannot return it. There
fore the money belongs to the finder Of
the box
There was A queer manifestation of
the impulses Of conscience. The man was
in possession Of stolen money and his
conscience would not let him keep il VT
his conscientious sc-Uples were not strong
enough to lead him &c restore the none
10 those from WlOn u HdQ betn STORM
But that was not all. The man who
found the parcel was persuaded that he
hal 4 right TO examine g. lie took OF
The newspaper covering ana found a
cigar box underneath tn TsT'r. lie took
the box with him when he left the train
and at 4 convenient moment O2eAed il.
II contained some s. OC0 in bills. This
gentlemen's conscience would not permit
him to make Jnis conf"ssedly stolen
money his own. After some thought, he
decided to give il as a bencfaction to
some one VINO would lever know that
II was stolec money. lie did ;uis. there
ty satisfying his own conscience.
Now II any one can explain to me the
ny steTiouc workings If human nature
y hich are contain 4 IN this incident I
should be very Slrd To have the ex-
plantation"
Copyright. lsI b. n. p J EEvartL Al r7sh:s