From: Dagored95@aol.com
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 01:47:39 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: DANGER OF JUDGING A BOOK BY ITS COVER ..


Great Story
A lady in a faded gingham dress and her husband, dressed in a homespun
thread bare suit, stepped off the train in Boston and walked timidly, without
an appointment, into the Harvard University President's outer office. The
secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods, country hicks had no
business at Harvard, & probably didn't even deserve to be in Cambridge.
"We'd like 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 didn't, and the secretary grew
frustrated and finally decided to disturb the president,even though it was a
chore she always regretted. "Maybe if you see them for a few minutes, they'll
leave," she said to 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 and with dignity, strutted toward the couple.

The lady told him, "We had a son who attended Harvard for one year. He
loved Harvard. He was happy here. But a bout a year ago, he was accidentally
killed. 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 buildings here at
Harvard, For a moment the lady was silent. The president was pleased.
Maybe he could get rid of them now. The lady turned to her husband and said
quietly, "Is that all it cost 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 got up and walked away, traveling to Palo
Alto, California where they established the university that bears their name,
Stanford University, a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared about.
You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who
they think can do nothing for them. A TRUE STORY By Malcolm Forbes