AI image created by Barbara Schmidt |
We are all creatures of impulse. It's a great mistake to get everybody ready
to give money and then not pass the hat. Some years ago in Hartford we all
went to the church on a hot, sweltering night, to hear the annual report
of Mr. Hawley, a city missionary, who went around finding the people who
needed help and didn't want to ask for it. He told of the life in the cellars
where poverty resided, he gave instances of the heroism and devotion of
the poor. The poor are always good to each other. When a man with millions
gives we make a great deal of noise. It's noise in the wrong place. For
it's the widow's mite that counts. Well, Hawley worked me up to a great
state. I couldn't wait for him to get through. I had four hundred dollars
in my pocket. I wanted to give that and borrow more to give. You could see
greenbacks in every eye. But he didn't pass the plate, and it grew hotter
and we grew sleepier. My enthusiasm went down, down, down - $100 at a time,
till finally when the plate came round I stole 10 cents out of it. So you
see a neglect like that may lead to crime.
- speech January 20, 1901.
Quoted in The New
York Times, January
21, 1901 |
