Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 April 1909 — Really a Compliment. [ARTICLE]

Really a Compliment.

Aaron Bancroft, the father of the historian, was a Massachusetts clergyman who revolted against the Calvinism of the day. The young minister found himself held at arm’s length by the surrounding clergy. In “The Life and Letters of George Bancroft” M r M. A. DeW. Howe quotes the following item from the old minister’s “Memoranda:” An honest but not very intelligent farmer of my parish some ten years ago accosted me in this manner: “Well. Mr. Bancroft, what do you think the people of the old parish say of.you now?” I answered. “I hope something very good.” "They say : ‘lf. we find fault with him he does not mind it at all, and if we praise him he does not mind it, but keeps steadily on his own way. We therefore have concluded that it Is best to let him alone.' ” The farmer mentioned the fact as a subject of laughter, but I thought and still think that, taking the declaration in Its bearings, it was the prettiest compliment I have received through my whole life.