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Show - a - Last fall this young woman was one of those from our school who passed the government examination for entrance into a midwifery school. She did not enter because she could not raise the necessary three dollars a month. She used to be a student in our Kienning girls' school. After finishing the higher jDrimary she was married. Her husband died soon after their flight from the Reds, so at sixteen she was a widow. She is a quiet, strong, willing worker, doing my room work and washing, besides her studies and still other work. Here it is the middle of March and we have been having some of our coldest days. Times which have always been hard have become harder. There are many sick beggars on the street, Such people, on the first and fifteenth of each month, are given the privilege of begging a penny from each shop. Last week it seemed as though there was a beggar in every store with some between. They were hobbling and shivering, some lying or kneeling along the street, others even dead and F/aiting to be carried away for burial. One cold, raw day I was reaching into my bag to find a penny for a beggar by the road. As I came up to him I saw that he no longer needed the help 1 could give, moreover there was a smile on his face as though now all was well. Again a man was sitting by the road and when I stopped to talk with him, he said he had been a barber, but elephantiasis started, then he went to the hospital and was cured. After going home the trouble returned, so now all that he could do was to beg. He surprised me by reciting "For God so loved the world" and said he had learned it in the hospital. When I said I was sorry I had no money with me, not even a penny, he courteously replied, "That's no matter"- a gentlemen at heart, and was he not a Christian too? This is not a beautiful way to care for the poor of a city; but it does give every one a chance to show his heart and when 1 see a boy in his early teens kindly hand a beggar a copper instead of throwing it at him, 1 feel I have seen something beautiful. As ever your friend and co-worker, Josephine C. Walker. |
