The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-07-20
The Bronze and the
Human Heart
By ALAN HINSDALE

named for the man who did more
LOT 1t than any other person. While
joel Hollingsworth did much for the
town, he did not do anything for
any one in it excepting himself. He
rounded the Hollingsworth institu-
uon and endowed it for the work Of
scientific research. Its benefits to
mankind We're intended to be general.
not particular, and the real design was
10 perpetuate the name of Joel Hol-
ilngsworth. On circular plot Of
ground just within Its gates stood a
bronze statue Of its founder on a lofty
pedestal
1t represented man who looked az.
gressive, by no means modest or retir-
lng-one who would not hide his light
under bushel
one day Edgar Walker, a young fell
low seventeen years Of age, was pass
ing through the town of Holdings
worth, his worldly effects tied up in a
bandanna handkerchief, ON his way to
city near by where he hoped to make
Ills fortune. His way led him by the
Hollingsworth institution, and paus-
ing, he looked through the gilded bars
or the gates at the noble pile within,
Ills eyes finally resting ON the statue
OF its founder
Hearing moan behind him, he turn
ed and saw u girl about eight years
old crying. Turning, he asked her what
troubled her She told him that her
mother had sent her to the store with
silver dollar TO make some purchases
and she had lost it.
Now, Edgar Walkers capital on
which he proposed to found his for
tune was exactly 81. Taking 1t from
his pocket, he offered it to the girl.
She drew back, stopped crying and
with changed expression said:
1T would be mean for me to take
money from boy with holes in his
shoes, even as gift. My father says
that the man who built all these build
ings used to take money from anybody
he could get 1t out Of won't do that,
no matter what need"
Ahe SHi WHIT VI leT way, duu Eu-
gar passed On through the town dream
ing of the fortune he would make, how
he would make 1t and what he would
do with it after 1t was made.
! The years went by. The noble pile
called the Hollingsworth institution
still rose high over the town that nes-
/ tied about it. Joel IIollingsworth In
bronze still stood with folded arms
within the gate, conscious OF his no
! bility of soul. An occasional passer
still stopped 10 peer between the bars.
The particular passer who gazed one
summer afternoon just before sunset
was a prosperous looking gentleman
! a few years short of forty.
Hearing musical laugh behind him,
he turned and saw woman between
twenty-five and thirty with a girl some
! twenty years her junior whose resem-
blance to her indicated that the child
was her daughter.
Come, mamma" said the girl, tug.
ging at her mother; Tets look In at
the green grass and the flowers and the
trees and the pretty walks"
The woman yielded, and the two
stood beside the man, mother and child
gazing on this beautiful home Of sci
ence, the man gazing upon the girl.
Madam" he said, twenty years ago
| was looking through the bars OF this
gate when. hearing some one weeping
behind me- | turned and saw that
child She said that her mother had
given her dollar with which to make
purchases and she had lost It, | offer
ed her the only dollar possessed, and
she declined ii, saying that she would
not be so mean as the man standing
there IN bronze. Can 1t be that she
ceased from that time to develop and
is still a child"
II am or was the child" replied the
mother. who had lost the dollar and
who declined your kind offer | grew
TO womanhood married and became
widow This child is my daughter.
| have not forgotten the boy who Of
fered to supply my loss. and he has
always existed In my mind as the an
tipodes OF the man OF bronze"
and | have remembered your re-
marks about the bronze heart of this
man. was going to the city to enter
upon my life's career, | resolved that
~ could not make fortune without
grinding nv fellow beings, without re-
fusing the poor and lowly, ! would get
ON without one. | have come within
reasonable bounds OF keeping my reso-
luton have made money, but | at
tribute II TO a natural gift for business
rather than to hard work Fortunate
IL II has not been necessary for me to
be mean. To me money making has
been easy
..Then you will not leave a monu-
mont 10 yourself such as thisf"
~ shall leave no monument at al
whom I die all or nearly all the funos
7 have accumulated will have gone al
rpsdv to any deserving. or 1t may De
rndeservine. person whom | happen
y meet needing assistance. II there
q ANYTHING left It shall be distributed
IN sums Of 81 among the poor
"Then YOU do not believe In organ
Ted charity
a, ,-,.irIv do believe In II. But for