“This is Hadley Rescue Hall,” said the man at the door. “Please come in and be rescued while there is time. All are welcome.”
“What!” exclaimed an astonished man; “the old Germania a mission! Why, this place was one of the biggest gambling dens the city ever had, and next door was McGuirk’s ‘Suicide Hall.’ If I had the money that I blew in there I wouldn’t be walking the Bowery to-day in search of a nickel for a cup of coffee.”
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VICTORIES, DISASTROUS
Milman has told us how Pope John XXI, bursting into exultant laughter as he entered for the first time that noble chamber which he had built for himself at Viterbo, is crusht by its avenging roof, which that instant comes down on his head. And thus it is true, in a deeper sense, that many a triumph crushes and extinguishes all that is noblest in him who has won it. Doubtless, failure and defeat are bitter, but hardest of all to bear are not our losses but our victories.—Bishop Potter, Scribner’s Magazine.
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VICTORY
Baldwin, an Englishman, who went to Africa only with the intention of shooting, one day put this problem to himself, after having been very nearly felled by a lion: “Why does man risk his life without having any interest in doing so?” The answer he gave to himself was: “It is a question which I will not try to solve. All I can say is that in victory one finds an inward satisfaction for which it is worth while to run a risk, even if there is nobody to applaud.”
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