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Show His Treasures Are In Heaven John Codman, Veteran Mariner, Believed Be-lieved That If He Did Right Hero He Would Receive His Reward Re-ward Hereafter. Captain John Codman was the last, is he was for more than thirty years the best. Illustration of the old-fashioned type of sea captain, especially the sea captain who brought to Boston Bos-ton much of Its commercial pre-eminence In the early part of the past century. Captain Codman retired from the ea a few years before the beginning of the civil war. He was a little man, tWn of face, slight of physique, and weather-beaten, and In the early eighties eigh-ties his became one of the prominent S figures In Washington, where he "ved for a number of years. He was an earnest advocate of a tariff for revenue rev-enue only, and In connection therewith there-with his name was a familiar one In the public print of that time and he 'as personally known' to the leading ffien of Massachusetts and of Washington. Wash-ington. In the mid-eighties, when I cane to know him, the captain had alw gained a reputation as the author of a charming book descriptive of the Pleasures of horseback riding, a sport f which he was an enthusiastic devotee. de-votee. Captain Codman Invested a portion o his fortune, not a large one, and Sained In the China trade, in some nines in Montana. Occasionally he slted those properties and he became be-came greatly Interested In the miners, studying always to do something for tteir moral and physical welfare. "I would take it as a great favor if you would visit the second-hand book stores of Washington and buy for me various sets of biography and history," his-tory," he -said to me once. "I do not care how much they cost, provided toe expense Is a reasonable one. I , want to use them as the basis for libraries li-braries for the miners who are cm-foyed cm-foyed In my mines in Montana.- A few weeks later I was .able to 8iy to Captain Codman that I had 'ound a sufficient number of the kind 1 of books that he wanted. He did not ask me what they were and seemed seem-ed entirely satisfied when I told him that the cost was about three hundred dollars. "I am not entirely unselfish In sending send-ing these little libraries to my miners in Montana," Captain Codman con-fesed. con-fesed. "Of course, I have always felt that it was Incumbent upon me to do what I could to make their hard life as easy as possible. And yet I was thinking of myself when I decided to send these little libraries to the miners. min-ers. "I am In religion a Unitarian. I am a profound believer in the fundamental fundamen-tal truths which are in the New Testament. Tes-tament. I believe implicitly In the Sermon on the Mount. But I don't know much about the kind of life we will have herafter, though I read various vari-ous expositions of it, written by persons per-sons who profess to know what it will be. Still, it has occurred to me that if I do what Is right here, then I shall have reward according to my merits hereafter, and there are two things which I have done, and will continue to do as long as I am able, in the hope that I shall obtain credit marks in the future life. "I make It my duty whenever I see a banana skin or an orange peel upon the sidewalk, or in any place where a person stepping upon the peel might be in danger of slipping, carefully to remove and destroy the dangerous thing. I will go blocks out of my way to do that. I sometimes think that I have in this way prevented many an accident. Then, too, I try to do good among my miners. I believe I have done a good deed In buying these little lit-tle libraries for them. The reading of these books will make them happy and do them good. So I am in hopes that these two actions may avail me a credit mark in the hereafter. I think they will." And. the kindly old man spoke with perfect sincerity and in that simplicity simplic-ity of belief and conduct which were all his life characteristics of him. (Copyright, 1911. by E. J. Edwards. All Rights Reserved.) |