Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-10-06
STORY OF GOOD
WOMAN'S WORK
Lucy M. Burd Has Established
Home That Is Saving
Boys
Copyright, 1915, Star Company.

Our daily life teens with tales Of
sad, bad and foolish women who make
mistakes and do evil deeds, and spoil
their own lives and the lives of others.
- But in spite of these o'er-ture dark
tales, the world is starred with beau
tiful souls, doing beautiful work in
the vineyard of the Lord. Here is the
story of one woman who consecrated
her life to God through service to hui
manity. Her name is Lucy M. Burd,
and she has an industrial school in
Bedminster, Pennsylvania.
To a friend who asked her for an
account of her undertakings she wrote
the following interesting letter 1t
will be an inspiration to all who are
striving against difficulty to accom-
plish some worthy purpose:
Twelve years ago / left Philadel-
phia with a boy thirteen, who had
not slept in bed or eaten at a table
for two years. My object was to start
a home for unfortunate and misunder-
stood children. l had neither money
nor interested friends to help me.
I'VE arrived at the farm on a cold
day, followed by colder night The
conditions were what most people
would have thought well-nigh impos-
sible for the making of home. l had
invested $50 In furniture, and soon we
had the coziest room / think l ever
saw.
There was neither rich carpet nor
costly furniture-just plain things
which meant home.
x,;fo To-
end of the farmhouse, but vacated it in
a few weeks This left the entire
house to us. The owner lived in
Doylestown. He loaned me the house,
a portion of ground and left some
stock at the barn for us. The little
fellow took a vital interest in every
thing; but neither of us knew how
to milk, so we were obliged to hire
a girl from a neighboring farm 70
teach u.s. 1e soon learned to milk
quite we'll and do the work at the
barn.
"At first our home was open only to
Juvenile Court boys. 1t only took a
few weeks before we numbered seven
teen, and then twenty, which was all
we could care for. We learned to econo-
mize in every possible way. l remem-
Der one little fellow, who did the milk
ing and thought we were using more
milk than he could afford to let us
have, suggested that we do without
milk on our oatmeal for a week
Strange to say. every boy was willing.
At the same time he insisted on the
cats having their full share. This lit
tie fellow has since graduated from the
Philadelphia Trades School as an elec-
trician.
The first year was hard financial
struggle. All we had to depend on was
a little money that few of the boys
could pay, with a small amount of
my own, to provide food and clothing,
besides furnishing the house The
. boys became interested in all the farm
work and were anxious to see how
much they could do.
AT the beginning of the second year
we had the entire farm of 120 acres.
By this time we had made a few
friends, who contributed something.
While we did not have the means to
provide teachers, we found it most diff
ficult, at times, to do the work and
keep the boys interested. Occasional
runaways would result, but they were
always anxious to get back, and would
describe their trips with the greatest
interest. We have now bought the
farm and have the privilege of pay
ing for it.
Il know you would like to know
more about the success of the work
There are two ways Of measuring sue
cess. The one, Making a Life; the
other, Making Living To-day, with
shrewd business ideas, one can make
living and accumulate great wealth.
To make life requires finer work
m q n N.HHy H.
have no bookkeeper able to balance the
profit and loss sheet If there is
deficit IL cannot be made up by shaw
ing little here and a little there. 1t
is lost forever.
only the other day l heard a man
say: If I had my time to go over,
how differently l would do! Showing
US that deficit when the day closes
means deficit when life enus.
Seven years ago little blue-eyed.
light.haired girl came to live with me.
She has been a great help in making
our home pleasant. We had a great
deal to learn to know how to live to-
gether and be happy. She was able to
throw sunshine across the path of
many a little child. Tonight she is
writing this letter to you on the tyne
writer. Tomorrow morning she goes
to West Chester to enter the Normal
School. We hope to have her come
back as teacher for our school,"
Surely this true story is more In.
teresting than many a great work of
fiction. I wish 1t might go straight to
the heart of some millionaire philan-
thropist and bring to Lucy NJ. Burd
the strong financial support which her
splendid work deserves.
We can be Dhdt ge DiH to be. We
can do tChdt zoe tUtH to do"