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.