Men often lose great opportunities to assist their fellow-men through
neglect, through carelessness and indifference. It is so easy to say,
“you have my sympathy, you are doing a noble work,” when many times the
speaker may be better adapted for the same kind of work and be far more
successful. And so an opportunity is allowed to slip by all for the
lack of taking advantage of it.
The influence a man or a woman teacher has over a boy is wonderful. In
the eyes of a boy, a teacher stands for a model of perfection and is
supposed to be in reality, in daily life and actions, what he seems to
be when he shows his best side to the pupils.
From the school, from the teacher, from a trusted friend, the boy
carries the influence back to the family, into his daily life upon the
streets, and many of the teachings follow him through life. The boy at
school is taught to be kind, to be generous, and to remember his little
friends whenever opportunity favors. Heartfelt sympathy in a newsboy,
comes like a flash of lightning, and he is ever ready to fall in line
when the boys want to remember a friend. The president was taken by
surprise one day when the street sellers, the poorest of our newsboys,
through one of their hustlers, presented him with a gold badge. The
money to purchase it was raised by subscriptions from the boys, in
amounts ranging from two cents to twenty-five. A few days after the
presentation the president was walking on one of the main streets when
he was accosted by a little seller, from the opposite side of the
street.
“Say, president, come over here.”
A boy never called the president to go where he wanted him to go but he
complied at once, and cheerfully. The little ragged fellow stepped in
front of him and said:
“Pres., have youse got de gold badge we gives you?”
“Yes, here it is,” and the badge was taken from the coat and handed to
the boy. Looking at it closely, and calling several companions to him,
he said:
“Pres., youse see that diamond in the center?” pointing a dirty finger
to it.
“Yes, sir, we all see it, and it’s a beauty.”
“Well, you see,” he said straightening up above his natural height,
“I subscribed four cents to this here badge, and all the boys put up
the dough. When I went home and thought it over, I says to myself, we
ought to have a bigger badge than this fur our president. So when I
comes down town I see de boys and we concluded to have a diamond put
in the center. It met wid de kids ’proval, and it was done. You see de
diamond?”
“Yes,” replied a dozen voices.
“Well, I blowed eleven cents in it,” he proudly replied. Adding, “Ain’t
it a bird?”
Happy youth.