To the Brethren in Western N. Y.
By R. F. Cottrell
MANY of you know Bro. Warren of Cattaraugus Co., a hard-working and whole-hearted man. He has a small property which he has earned at the forge and anvil. He has recently had the misfortune to have his barn burned, a little motherless boy he had taken into his family kindling the fire. He barely saved his horses from being burned, his hay and grain and other things being lost. We all of course pity him. But the Irish have a proverb that “a little help is worth a world of pity.” To illustrate: In the north of England there lived a poor man who made a scanty subsistence for his family by drawing coal with a single horse. One day his horse fell dead in the street. His friends and neighbors gathered around expressing much sympathy for his misfortune; some said they pitied him so much they didn’t know what to do. At length an old Quaker came along, with a little more grace in his heart than noise in his head, and hearing their expressions of pity he took from his pocket a three pound note, and laying it in his broad-brimmed hat, he said, “I pity him so much.” The hint was taken, and in a few minutes enough was raised to buy the man a horse. Now I pity Bro. Warren $5.00. How much do you, brethren? You are at liberty to respond to me, or to him. His address is B. B. Warren, Cottage, Cattaraugus Co., N. Y.