Joseph H. Choate tells the story of how he was approached one wet, wintry night on one of London's lonely streets by a policeman.
"I say, old chap," called the "bobby," "what are you doing walking about in this beastly weather? Better go home."
"I have no home," replied Mr. Choate. "I am the American ambassador."
This story is repeated in a pamphlet issued by the American Embassy Association, whose purpose is to promote and encourage the acquisition by the United States of permanent homes for its ambassadors in foreign capitals.
(1426)
HOMESICKNESS
A young Swedish girl was very homesick.
"You ought to be contented, and not
fret for your old home, Ina," said her mistress,
as she looked at the dim eyes of the
girl. "You are earning good wages, your
work is light, every one is kind to you, and
you have plenty of friends here."
"Yas'm," said the girl; "but it is not the place where I do be that makes me vera homesick; it is the place where I don't be." (Text.)—Louis Albert Banks.
(1427)
HOMING INSTINCT, THE
The soul's instinct toward the immortal life is like the instinct of these wasps:
Fabre, the wonderful French observer of
wasps, experimented on them in regard to
the matter of finding and knowing their
holes, by carrying them away shut up in a
dark box to the center of a village three
kilometers from the nesting-ground, and releasing
them after being kept all night in the
dark boxes. These wasps when released in
the busy town, certainly a place never visited
by them before, immediately mounted
vertically to above the roofs and then instantly
and energetically flew south, which
was the direction of their holes. Nine separate
wasps, released one at a time, did this
without a moment's hesitation, and the next
day Fabre found them all at work again at
their hole-digging. He knew them by two
spots of white paint he had put on each one.—Vernon
L. Kellogg, "Insect Stories."
(1428)
HONESTY
A merchant prince once pointed out a
clerk in his employ to a friend, and said,
"That young man is my banker. He alone
has entire control of my finances. He could
abscond with a hundred thousand dollars
without my preventing it." Seeing the
friend's evident disapproval at so great trust
in one man, he continued, "I would trust
him as I would my minister. He is absolutely
honest; he could not steal." And there
are thousands of such men who have passed
beyond temptation because of the ingrained,
undisturbed integrity, acquired by a reverence
for right and an early resolution to be
true.—James T. White, "Character Lessons."
(1429)
See Bargain Discountenanced; Christian
Honesty.
HONESTY IN BUSINESS
The story is told of a young merchant who,
beginning business some fifty years ago,
overheard one day a clerk's misrepresenting
the quality of some merchandise. He was
instantly reprimanded and the article was
unsold. The clerk resigned his position at
once, and told his employer that the man who
did business that way could not last long.
But the merchant did last, and but lately
died the possessor of the largest wealth ever
gathered in a single lifetime.—Noah Hunt
Schenck.
(1430)
HONESTY, INTERMITTENT
In his "Among the Wild Tribes of the
Afghan Frontier," Dr. T. L. Tennell tells
of an escort of two villainous-looking
Afghans who had him in charge in turning
back to Bannee from a journey across the
frontier. They had paid him the greatest attention
and brought him safely home. When
he offered to reward them for their good
conduct in guarding him and his belongings,
they repelled the offer with a show of indignation,
adding that to accept money from
a guest would be to break their best traditions.
But next morning, after he had entertained
them generously overnight, and
sent them off with many expressions of appreciation
of their faithfulness, he found
that they had decamped with all his best
clothes. Their honesty did not survive the
night.
(1431)
