Page 382 (We Knew Mary Baker Eddy vol 1 expanded edition) gives us an
insight that could be useful in to-day’s confronting financial climate. Folk
are seeking relief from lack brought on by the consequences of the global
pandemic. I read this morning about a woman who had not had a meal for two weeks,
having started to to try to eat the blank pages of her diary. (See The
Christian Science Monitor "In Queens, residents become the coronavirus
safety net", 22nd June, 2020.)
John Salchow speaks of Mrs.
Eddy sponsoring the paving of Pleasant Street. He reports that “money was tight
and everyone was hard up. It was even proposed to have soup kitchens for the
poor. But as members of the household told me, Mrs. Eddy said: ‘They do not
want soup kitchens. They want work.’ And so she helped to provide work by contributing
heavily for road construction” (p.382).
Of course, these are
different circumstances today, but it is something to be kept in mind
always.
On the same page Salchow records that Mrs. Eddy
purchased a Yale automobile. Her motive in doing so is of interest: it was not
for her convenience, but for the sake of the horses which drew her carriage.
The machine, Salchow says, “must have seemed like some horrible demon to the
horses as I drove it around them when they were out exercising, but they gradually
got used to it” (382-3).
Now for a funny. “Mr. Joseph
Mann tried to drive the car once, but it jumped a stone fence and landed in the
lot, so he decided to leave it alone after that” (383).
And on the loyalty of Calvin
Frye, Mrs. Eddy’s secretary and general helper: Salchow noticed something which
touched him very much and illustrated to him just how loyal Calvin was. He was
ever alert to any call from Mrs. Eddy in the night time. The very thick carpet
at his bedside had two holes worn at his bedside which were, “a silent witness
to many long vigils in the night, when (he), instead of retiring, had sat on
the side of his bed alert and ready for his Leader’s slightest call” (386 and 387).
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