Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 August 1895 — A Rarity. [ARTICLE]

A Rarity.

A gentle pleasantry at the expense of one’s critics can be forgiven its bit of sarcasm—especially when it shows more patience than malice. In the early days when Mrs. Julia Ward Howe was becoming known as a public speaker, she met with some opposition both among her friends and the people generally. Walking down Charles street one day with a friend, Mrs. Howe noticed the sign over the Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary, and read It over slowly: “Charitable Eye and Ear—Can It be that there Is a charitable ear in Boston?”