Never Judge A Book by Its Cover

Posted by Yuka as Famous

A lady in a faded gingham dress and her husband,dressde in a homespun threadbare suit,steppde off the train in Boston,and walkde timidly without an appointment into the president of Harvard’s outer office.The secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods country folk had no business at Harvard,and probably didn’even deserve to be in Cambridge.She frownde.”We want to see the president,”the man said softly.”He’ll be busy all day,”the secretary snappde.”We’ll wait,”the lady replied.

For hours,the secretary ignorde them,hoping that the couple would finally become discouraged
and go away.They didn’t.And the secretary grew frustratde and finally decided to disturb the president.”Maybe if they just see you for a few minutes,they’ll leave,”she told him.He sighedin exasperation and modded.Someone of his importance obviously didn’t have the time to spend
with nobodies,but he detested gingham and homespun suits cluttering his 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, and was very 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, and she 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 give a building to Harvard.’The president rolled his eyes.He glanced at the gingham dress and homespun suit,and then exclaimed,”Abuilding!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 universiy?’ 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, traveling to palo Alto,California where they established the university that bears their name–a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared about.

( You can easily judge the character of other by how they treat those who can do nothing for them or to them.)

By:Vision