Page 80 - Cornelius Hedges Story

67 The Cornelius Hedges Story

“When we have learned to do our charities in secret, anticipating
the request, and have really learned to do kindness for sweet
charity’s sake, without thought or hope of praise or pay, we shall
have found our way into the sanctum sanctorum by the only
path or doorway through which mortal can ever enter it. We
want aggressive, discriminating charity, not that passive, blind
sort that encourages mendicancy and begets helplessness.”240
How were these ideas manifest in Hedges’ daily life? In the
broad, general sense, because of his integral concept of charity,
every time he aided or supported a movement that was noble
and beneficial, he was really rendering an act of true charity and
brotherly love.
Specifically, an excellent example of personal charity, which
prom­ oted usefulness, is recorded in Hedges’ journal in the early
months of 1888. On January 20, a night when the temperature was
somewhere between -10 and -25, and he noted “we have a tramp
sleeping in the cellar.”
By the 25th and 27th, Judge Hedges found usefulness in the
“man in the cellar” and had given him a job tending the furnace
and glazing the cupola. By March, Hedges noted that Carl Johnson,
his “cellar boarder,” was still there, and he had put him to work
painting. Thus Hedges had brought out the usefulness in a former
outcast of society. On March 31, Carl left with Cornelius’ “old suit
of clothes.”241

Another case of Hedges’ personal charity is revealed in an
answer to a request for Masonic charity from the widow of Past
Grand Master James W. Hathaway:

“Yours of the 13th ultimo was received some days since and
I have showed the letter to some of your husb­and’s friends
in Morning Star lodge, and I find there was a general strong
feeling that you neglected your husb­ and in his last days and
they were unwilling to do or suggest anything to help you. For
myself, I was a warm friend of your husband, and I am willing
to do what I can to assist you and your son.”242
These were the motivating forces of his inimitable character.
However, there were many other character traits which were
distinctive in Judge Hedges’ life.