Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 September 1889 — Odd Private Charities. [ARTICLE]

Odd Private Charities.

For my own part I cannot help feeling more admiration for secret, spontaneous, unexpected, and even odd I private charities, which seek no re- ! ward and hide out of sight, than for i those who were made with a great flourish before the world. For instance i there was B. , who in crossing the Engi lish Channel fell in with a lonely old lady, whom he had never seen, and outof pure kindness of heart he helped her to a seat and paid her a number of little attentions, to make her comfort- ■ able, and finally on arrival, called a I cab, put her into it, and said good-bye; ' andshortly afterward the old lady died, 'and to the astonishment of 8., she left I him all her money! Now this is what I I call a dear old lady, and I have never i failed since then to be polite and atI tentive to every old lady I meet in my travels. Then again, there was the 'artist whom I knew in Florence years ago, who was struggling through adversity, with no orders and no hqpes of any, when one day a notary came I into his studio and informs film that an [old gentleman opposite—an Englishi man, of course—has just died and left '.him his entire fortune. “But I didn’t ' know him; it must be a mistake,” said A. “But he knew you, and it is no ■mistake,” said the notary; “and though I he never spoke to you, he used to . watch you, and he informed himself about you, and then made his will ■in your favor, and I ata come to announce the fact to you.” I .need not say that from that dayfforwstrd he had, more '"'W uto. of the world. .Still.,, another person I know whose ancestor jphtainafca fortune from an utter stranger simply by opening- his pew door to him a seat. The stranger had entered the church and (Was rather embarrassed where to go. The cold Christian shoulder was turned an him as he went down the aisle, until Ibis gentlemaru-cbserving his shyness, rose, opened his pew and motioned him to take a place in it. The stranger thanked him on leaving the church after service, informed himself of his name by the hymn book, went home, and left him a fortune by his will.— “Conversations in a Studio.”