The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1917-07-13
The Bronze and the
Human Heart
BY ALAN HINSDALE

any one In 1t excepting himself. HI
founded the Hollingsworth institu
tion and endowed it for the work o.
scientific research. Its berefts tt
mankind were intended to be general
not particular, and the real design wa,
. to perpetuate the name Of Joel Hol
Hngsworth. On a circular plot Of
ground just within its gates stood 6
bronze statue of Its founder on lofty
pedestal. IT,
1t represented man who looked ag
gressive, by no means modest or retir.
ing-one who would not hide his light
under bushel. .rrlr
One day Edgar Walker. a young fel.
low seventeen years of age, was pass.
ing through the town Of Holdings.
|. worth, his worldly effects tied up in q
bandanna handkerchief, on his way to
a city near by, where he hoped to make
his fortune. His way led him by the
Hollingsworth institution, and, paus-
ing, he looked through the gilded bars
of the gates at the noble pile within,
his eyes finally resting on the statue
Of Its founder.
Hearing moan behind him, he turn
ed and saw a 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
a 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 a changed expression said:
1T would be mean for me to take
money from boy with holes in his
shoes, even as a 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" ...-
The girl went on her way, and Ed
gar passed on through the town dream.
ing Of the fortune he would make, how
he would make it 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 1t. Joel Holm gsworth In
bronze still stood with folded arms
within the gate, conscious Of his no.
bility Of soul An occasional passer
still stopped to peer between the bars.
The particular passer who gazed one
summer afternoon just before sunset
was prosperous looking gentleman
a few years short Of forty.
Hearing musical laugh behind him,
he turned and saw a 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; ''lets 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 sch
ence, the man gazing upon the girl.
Madam" he said, twenty years ago
i 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 I possessed, and
she declined 1t, 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 childY
u am or. was the child" replied the
mother, "who had lost the dollar and
who declined your kind offer. I grew
to womanhood, married and became
a 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
hpodes Of the man Of bronze"
"And l have remembered your re-
marks about the bronze heart Of this
man. was going to the city to enter
lSoa my life's career. l resolved that
4 could not make fortune without
grinding my fellow beings, without re-
using the poor and lowly, I would get
IN without one. I have come within
reasonable bounds of keeping my reso-
ution. I have made money, but at
ribute it to natural gift for business
'ather than to hard work. Fortunate
y 1t has not been necessary for me to
,e mean. To me money making has
'een easy"
"Then you will not leave monu-
nent to yourself such as thisp'
II shall leave no monument at all.
When die all or nearly all the funds
have accumulated will have gone al
eady to any deserving, or 1t may be
person whom I happen
o meet needing assistance. IL there
8 anything left it shall be distributed
n sums Of 81 among the poor"
"Then you do not believe In organ.
zed charity?"
II certainly do believe in it. But for
Myself I prefer to scatter my gifts in
uch way that the donor shall not be
nown"
"In other words, you prefer that your