A Personal Reminiscence

Speaking before a crowd, she related this personal experience,

”There came into my big playroom one day a crowd of boys. Among them was one walking on a homemade crutch and a homemade cane. He limped in. One foot turned completely around and faced backwards. His whole body was so twisted he couldn’t play with the others, so he backed up against the wall and followed them so hungrily with his eyes that my heart just broke for him. I called him into the office and asked him what had happened. He answer, “A truck ran over me.”

I cleaned him up and made an appointment with a doctor friend who had helped me many times before. The doctor examined him carefully, then called in several other doctors. Finally they said, “Miss Margaret, we can straighten his leg and arm and a few other things. There is no reason why he can’t walk again! It will take several operations. He’d have to stay in the hospital for a long time. The only problem for you now is to get somebody to pay the hospital expenses. We’ll do our work gratis--we’ll gladly do it for you if you can find somebody to pay the expenses.

I picked up the telephone and called the president of one of the banks and told him I needed to see him right away. He said, “Well, come on down. I’ve got the president of one of the other banks here with me. Come on, it’s just about a block and we will both be glad to see you.” The little boy, on one crutch and a cane, limped with me into the president’s office. I told them the story. They looked at each other for a moment, nodded, and then said to me with a smile, “God ahead, Miss Margaret, put him in the hospital. We will see that the bills are paid.”

The day came when the boy literally danced into my playroom and putting his hands on his hips, he hopped up on one foot and then on the other, then asked, “How’m I doing, Miss Margaret?”

I answered, “You’re doing just fine.” when he had gone, I walked around the playroom with my shoulders up and my head held high with pride. I said to myself, “Margaret, that’s one thing that you did that you can see.. You are always complaining that you can’t see any visible results, and you don’t know whether you are accomplishing anything or not. There’s one thing definite that you can put your finger on that you did.”

Then Margaret Sangster leaned over the podium and asked: “Where do you think he is today--that boy the doctors and bankers and I straightened out?”

Someone in the audience replied, “He’s a preacher.” She said, “No.”

Miss Sangster held up her hand for silence and with sadness in her voice said: “You’d never guess. He’s in the penitentiary for life for a crime that was so heinous, so terrible, that except for his youth they would have sent him to the electric chair or the gas chamber.” After a moment she continued. “Do you see what my mistake was? I spent so much time teaching that boy how to walk that I forgot to tell him where to walk.”