The Denver Jewish news., 1919-08-06
MARY FELS-A DREAMER WHO
DREAMED TRUE.
Rx MARY SINGER

Fetal by Petal"
SomeopR 1t was who aptly remarked
that God lets a woman climb Just 80
high up the ladder of success and then
raps her smartly on the knuckles so
that she may slip down again and re-
member she Is bat woman. Had
that paraphraser wished TO call upon
himself undying fame he should have
completed the observation, land He
let's man go just SO far alone and
then shows him the need of a woman.
to remind him that he is after all a
mere mortal"
When Joseph Fels had reached the
mature age of nineteen and laid be-
lind him the fables and hobbies of
boyhood, there still chung to him one
childhood passion-the irresistible int
pulse TO follow up people who bore
the same name as he did. Perhaps
this was an unconscious demonstration
Of the love Of, his own kind, love
upon which he was later to build d
universal love. Then again it may
have been but device in the devious
Qrips of fate to lead the eastern man
to the little Iowa town among whose
| souls was one who was to be the part
i,er of his life.
Both of which conjeciures are not
for from the truth. When the pres
porous citizen of Keokuk, Iowa, casual
ly asked the energetic. vital, fOrceful
young fastener, who In most I'M
expected manner found 1t necessary to
visit this town for business purposes,
whether the Fels of Keokuk were by
any chance related to him, he was
hardly aware that he was acting as
the agent thru whom a great love
would grow into being. For Joseph
fels, true to the instinct for his own.
departed in search of the family that
bore his name.
sh0rt-skirited, diminutive, nine-year
1 old maid who stood framed In the
doorway Of her fathers home, than
he told himself that here was his
destiny. she is mine" ne declared
/ to himself as he advanced to step
/ within and meet her parents" MS
lie naively put it. He sat in the par
lOr long enough to learn that these peo.
pie were not related to min in any
other tie but that Of race and man
kind. but he also stayed long enough
image Of a tiny girl whose soft eyes
even at that immature age held Il
promise of dreams Of bigger things.
4 And so Joseph Fels went eastward
again. to work, to plan, and to watsll
the months go by, months and wa.ks
during which a steady stream of let
tiers passed between the east aud thu
west, months and years that woui,l
bring him nearer to the day when he
would take unto himself the womun
who realized with him the vision for
better world. During this time the
little girl who had been in Bavaria.
and who ut the early age of five had
taken an unaccountable hatred to r.
German alphabet, which she refused
to learn, went thru the educational
institutions Of the land that she had
taken to her heart. With the prec..-
ity that is 80 common to the Jewish
child, she found herself at the age of
sixteen. u graduate Of high sca0ul dc
termined in her stand for higher ,,Iu-
cation.
When she was eighteen, Joseph Eel,
claimed her. Then began career
which took them over all the parts of
the earth. North and South, East and
West, these two travelled to make
plans and see plans for the advance
Inent Of their fellows-he with his
rupid-fire mind that was constantly
evolving schemes, she with her fine,
instructive and intuitive knowledge of
people. a knowledge which she used
not only to supplement her partners
planning, but which guided her in the
selection of men and women to carry
thru their ideas.
The realization that after all it Is
the great mass Of laboring people who
are the real agents of civilization and
progress, led these two workers to cast
their support time after time with diff.
ferent labor organizations. 1t was
wrong that these toilers upon whose
sweat the glories of our marvellous
age We're built, should have to keep
their noses to the grindstone day after
day, except for the all too few hours
when blessed sleep wrapped them in