Page:Cyclopedia of illustrations for public speakers, containing facts, incidents, stories, experiences, anecdotes, selections, etc., for illustrative purposes, with cross-references; (IA cyclopediaofillu00scotrich).pdf/412



At least one Riverhead (L. I.) little boy, Everett Brown, aged about twelve years, son of Mr. and Mrs. Everett Brown, remembers to advantage some of the phisiology he has studied at school.

Saturday afternoon he and Frank Terry, about his own age, son of Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Terry, went into the woods to build a hut or something of that kind, and the ax that the Terry lad was wielding cut a bad gash in one of his feet.

It bled profusely and the Brown lad was afraid his chum would bleed to death, so he quickly got the shoe off of the foot and bound his handkerchief tightly, closing the wound and largely stopping the flow of blood until the wounded boy was gotten home, which was some distance away.

"I learned that in my physiology," said the Brown boy when Mrs. Terry asked him how he thought of it.—Brooklyn Eagle.

(1733)

KNOWLEDGE BY INDIRECTION

One minister builded better than he knew, and one hearer learned more than was meant on the following occasion:

The preacher was showing that shade and light are both necessary in differing conditions. Said he: "Roses, heliotropes and geraniums need lots of sunshine, while fuchsias thrive best in the shade." "Oh, doctor," said a good woman at the close, "I'm so grateful to you for your sermon this morning. I never knew before what was the matter with my fuchsias."

(1734)

KNOWLEDGE, COMPARATIVE

A missionary's son, born on the field, was making his first visit to his parents' home in a small Ohio town. One day a neighbor burst into the yard with the great news. "The circus is coming!"

"What's a circus?" innocently inquired the young Korea-American.

"A circus! Don't you know what a circus is? Haven't you ever seen a circus?" And scorn passing words filled the Ohio lad's voice, as he eyed in boundless contempt this queer visitor.

The boy from Korea was stung to the quick, and he retorted: "Well, what of that? Did you ever see the Pacific Ocean? Were you ever on a warship? Did you ever see Hongkong? Did you ever see the diving boys at Colombo? Were you ever in India? Did you ever see the pyramids? What do you know about London?"

Vengeance was complete. The devotee of the circus was silenced. Before these bigger wonders his traveling tent show grew very small indeed. Similarly, the man who follows the trail of the missionary may lose his intimate contact with some of the inconsequentialities of the day's newspaper, but he will have big and abiding compensations.—, "Men and Missions."

(1735)

Knowledge in Action—See.

KNOWLEDGE, LIVING

Some one asked Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, why he continued to study for his pupils "as tho he should not have enough to give them." "It is not," was his reply, "because I fear I should not have enough to give them, but because I prefer that they should be supplied from a running stream rather than from a stagnant pool."

"Stagnant pools" have been the ruin of many men in many walks of life.

(1736)

KNOWLEDGE, THIRST FOR

Thurlow Weed was so poor in boyhood that on a cold March day he had to wrap pieces of cloth about his bare feet in place of socks and shoes. Thus shod, he walked several miles in the wintry cold to borrow a history of the Reformation.

(1737)

William Elbert Munsey was born upon a Virginia mountain farm, which was so poor that a disturbance could not be raised upon it, much less the articles of food which produce a thrifty physical manhood. After toiling in the field all day, he would carry wood upon his tired, youthful back for a mile, that his widowed mother and five brothers and sisters might have warmth from the evening fire; he went to school only twelve months in his life, but he ate the heart out of every book that came within his reach; while plowing he would keep his book at the end of the furrow, and when he had plowed a "round," he would talk with his tongueless companion for a few moments, "and then push on between the plow handles," the great thoughts ringing in his soul like the tolling of a cathedral bell.

Well, what kind of a man did he make? Let one who heard him deliver his famous lecture on "Man" answer the question: "The vast amount of scientific knowledge he had stored his mind with was truly amazing.