Judging Others,
as told by Malcolm Forbes
A lady in a faded gingham dress and her
husband, dressed in a homespun threadbare suit, stepped off the train in
"We want to see the president,"
the man said softly.
"He'll be busy all day," the
secretary snapped.
"We'll wait," the lady replied.
For hours, the secretary ignored them,
hoping that the couple would finally become discouraged and go away. They weren’t
and they didn’t. The
secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to disturb the president, even
though it was a chore she always regretted doing.
"Maybe if they just see you for a
few minutes, they'll leave," she told him. He sighed in exasperation and nodded. Someone of his importance obviously
didn't have the time to spend with them, and he detested gingham dresses and
homespun suits cluttering up his outer office. The president, stern-faced with dignity,
strutted toward the couple.
The lady told him, "We had a son
that attended Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard. He was happy here. But about a year ago, he was accidentally
killed. And my husband and I would like to erect a memorial to him, somewhere
on campus."
The president wasn't touched, he was
shocked. "Madam," he said
gruffly. "We can't put up a
statue for every person who attended Harvard and died. If we did, this place would look like a
cemetery".
"Oh, no," the lady explained
quickly. "We don't want to
erect a statue. We thought we would
like to give a building to Harvard."
The president rolled his eyes. He glanced at the gingham dress and
homespun suit, then exclaimed, "A building! Do you have any earthly idea how much a
building costs? We have over seven
and a half million dollars in the physical plant at Harvard."
For a moment the lady was silent. The president was pleased. He could get rid of them now. The lady turned to her husband and said
quietly, "Is that all it costs to start a University? Why don't we just
start our own?" Her husband
nodded.
The president's face wilted in confusion
and bewilderment. Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford walked away
and eventually traveled to
You can easily judge the character of
others by how they treat those who can do nothing for them or to them.
--Malcolm Forbes
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