- ing the proffered position. The editor
scanned his face shrewdly, and then inquired the reason. After much hesitancy the young man told him the whole story, and started to leave.
"Ah," said Mr. Hearst. "Be seated a moment, please!" And, turning to his secretary, he added: "Write a letter at once to Professor X. Y., present my compliments, and say that I should be pleased to receive from him a signed article of five hundred words—subject and treatment to be of his own choosing—for the editorial page of next Sunday's paper. Inclose check for $250.
"Now," he remarked, with a cynical smile, as he bade his caller good-by, "you can see for yourself what comes of that."
He did. The Sunday issue contained a signed article, which gave the paper the reflection of a good man's fame, and spread the influence of his example among other university professors, and—did what to his self-respect?—all at the rate of fifty cents per word! (Text.)
(1574)
See Injustice.
INCONSPICUOUS WORKERS
Most of this world's work is done by the people who will never be known. To every worthy worker, however, a mede of credit is due, and sometimes it finds recognition, as in the instance here recorded:
An officer who was at West Point a generation
ago tells of the influence Miss Susan
Warner had on the boys of the Academy in
the '70's and '80's. "The Wide, Wide World,"
by Miss Warner, was a popular book then
with the cadets' mothers, who would urge
their sons to visit Constitution Island and
write home a description of the author. So
many boys would visit the Island. Every
Sunday afternoon the Warner sisters would
send their man-of-all-work in a boat to the
Point to bring over a load of cadets. The
boys would gather around Miss Susan as
she sat on the lawn and listen to her read
the Scriptures and explain them in a
bright, cheerful view of religion and life.
After the talks would come a treat of tea
and home-made gingerbread. She was very
delicate and frail and often her talks would
completely exhaust her. She kept up correspondence
with many of the visiting cadets
long after they had become distinguished
officers. Her last letter to one just before
her death had a pathos known only to her
cadet friends. It read: "I no longer have
the strength to cross the river to meet the
boys, and the superintendent we now have
will not allow them to come to me, so my
usefulness with them seems to be at an end."
(1575)
Incorruptible, The—See Purity.
Increase by Civilization—See Conservation.
Increasing and Decreasing—See Self-estimate.
INCREDULITY
Dr. W. H. Thomson, in his book on "What
is Physical Life," says that "once, while
talking to a roomful of the naturally bright
people of a town in Mount Hermon about
the achievements of Western civilization, I
happened to tell a toothless old man present
that in our country we had skilled persons
who could make for him an entirely new
set of teeth. Glancing round the room, I
noticed some listeners stroking their beards
in a fashion which I knew meant that I was
telling a preposterous yarn. Fortunately I
had with me an elderly Scotch friend who
had a set of false teeth, and on explaining
the situation to him, he forthwith opened
his mouth and pulled the whole set out. The
Arabs jumped to their feet in fright, not
sure but he might start to unscrew his head
next, for had any of their venerated ancestors
ever seen such an uncanny performance
with teeth? They afterward said
that never would they have believed this
if they had not seen it."
(1576)
See Christianity and Civilization.
INDECISION
When the King of Sparta had crossed the
Hellespont and was about to march through
Thrace, he sent to the people in the different
regions, asking them whether he
should march through their country as a
friend or as an enemy. "By all means as a
friend," said most of the regions; but the
King of Macedon replied, "I will take time
to consider it." "Then," said the King of
Sparta, "Let him consider it, but meantime
we march, we march." (Text.)
(1577)
See Sentiment, Mixed.
Indestructibility of Man—See Man Indestructible.
