Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 November 1893 — AN UNSELFISH ACT. [ARTICLE]

AN UNSELFISH ACT.

The Unidentified Hero of a Western Town. In a ■Western city last winter, says tlje Youth’s Companion, a fire nearly consumed a hotel occupied almost wholly by wealthy families, among whom were many children. It was after midnight when the alarm startled the inmates from their sleep. The flames rushed through the elevator shaft, shutting off that way of escape, and the electric lights went out, adding darkness to the confusion and horror. One lady, a widow, with a little child, was groping her way with him through a corridor, stifled by the smoke and pursued by the flames, when in the midst of it a figure darted to her side, took the boy in his arms, caught her by the hand, and led her through the smoke and danger out of the house. “You have saved my boy I” she cried. “Who are you?" “One of the bell-boys," he said, giving the child to her. She was not satisfied with the answer and held him fast. “I can’t see you, but I must know who you are! What is your name?” “It doesn’t matter, Mrs. P——he said. “It’s just one of the boys;” He turned quickly away in the darkness, and still remains unknown. Yet he knew that she had great wealth, and would probably reward most generously the man who had saved her child. Many good men have accepted fame and fortune as the reward of noble actions. But there is something in the choice of this poor hotel servant, to let the secret knowledge of his unselfish deed In his own heart be his own reward, which comes as an inspiration into our commonplace lives. The late Prince Consort of England once said: “The man who embodies to me most strongly the idea of Integrity is a poor Highland gamekeeper. If I ever did a dishonorable action I should not meet Davy’s eye. He would know it." Some of our readers may occupy positions as humble as that of the bell-boy or the poor Highlander, and jsometimes, perhaps, revolt agaiflst their lot. They should remember that God, now as in the days of David, often chooses a poor lad to anoint him and make him a king among men.