WORTH REMEMBERING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23339, 6 May 1939, Page 9 (Supplement)

WORTH REMEMBERING

There never Was more need for kindness, in the vaorld, and we believe there never was more kindness among men, for the cruelty and misery inflicted on millions ,of unhappy people is the Work of a few who- have filled the World With '"is for us who can, let us be kind and say a friendly word. We have been looking at this old story and think it worth remembering now.

\ PICTURE of a man's head hung for many years in the studio of one of Britain's greatest painters. It was so sfriking a head that many spoke about it. To these the painter would tell this moving tale. One dav there came to a factory in the North of England a new workman. He was a silent man and did not inspire confidence in the others. Presently it came out that he had been a convict. This was 1 too much for one of the workmen. In the presence of the exconvict he proposed that a deputation Bhould go to the manager, protesting against honest men having to associate with gaol-bircls. The ex-convict said nothing. He tied up his few possessions in a handkerchief and walked off. . • ■■■■■ •.

The workman who had spoken watched him go, then, overcome by repentance, he proposed that the man should be taken back. The others agreeing, he hastened out of the yard in search of the new hand. He was nowhere to be seen. From that day tr> this-he has never' been heard of an those works. So tremendous was. the remorse of the workman whose hasty words had expelled him that he gave up all hw spare hours to befriending people who had been in prison. Not only this: ho made himsplf a missionary to chanoo people in lhc street, asking all who would stop to hear him to show kind-

The Man Who Went Out

ness to ex-convicts. So he spent the rest of his life. This story reached the ears of the great painter Mr. G. F. Watts, and ho sent for the man and painted,his head; and there it hung in his studio, continuing his work, for nono who heard that story could withhold sympathy from those agencies which seek to help all prisoners and captives. —Arthur Mee in The Children's Newspaper.