Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 November 1892 — The Greatest Compliment, [ARTICLE]

The Greatest Compliment,

One wet, foggy, muddy day, a little girl was standing on one side of a street in London, waiting for an opportunity to cross over. Those who have seen London streets on such a day, with their wet and mud, and have watched the rush of cabs, hansoms, omnibuses, and carriages, will not wonder that a little girl should be afraid to try to make her way through such a babel as that. So ghe walked up and down, and looked into the faces of those who passed by. Some looked careless, some harsh, some were in haste, and she did not find the one she sought, until at length an aged man, rather tall and spare, and of grave yet kindly aspect, came walking down the street. Looking in his face, she seemed to see In him the one for whom she had been waiting, and she went up to him and whispered timidly “Please, sir, will you help me over?” The old man saw the little girl safely across the street, and when he afterward told the story, he said: “That little girl’s trust was the greatest compliment I ever had in my life.” That man was Lord Shaftesbury. He received honors at the hands of a mighty nation; he was complimented with the freedom of the greatest city on the globe; he received the honors conferred by royalty; but the greatest compliment he ever had in his life was when that little unknown girl singled him out in the jostling crowd of a London street, and dared to trust him, stranger though he was, to protect and assist her.