Dr. Angell was not in the habit of telling reporters what he did
not wish them to know, and when asked the question replied:
"Haven't a word to say. I really don't know anything new at all."
Then with a smile which he fondly believed to be inscrutable, he
remarked: "Why, I don't even know whether I'll go to Turkey or
not."
A few minutes later those last words of the President were reported
over the wires, without the sarcasm and without the smile. That
very evening, in big headlines on the first page, it was announced
that there was some hitch, and that President Angell might not go
as Minister to the Court of the Sultan.
The correspondents of the morning papers hastened to see President
Angell, who insisted that if he had made such a remark it was in
fun. But it was unavailing. The despatch had stirred up the
officials in Washington, and the morning papers that printed the
President's explanation printed over it the official statement,
that the Porte was objecting to Dr. Angell, on account of his close
relationship with the Congregational Missionary Board.
After his graduation in 1897, he took a position on the staff of a
Detroit evening paper. Much of the two years of his newspaper work
there was spent in Lansing covering State politics. In this line
of work lay his chief interest, though he by no means confined
himself to it.
His work made it possible for him to indulge his bent for dipping
into the by-ways of human life. Utterly fearless, resolute,
persistent, there was yet in his manner a beautiful simplicity, a
gentleness and interest that rarely failed to disarm and win
admission where he desired to enter. Added to this equipment were
a fine sense of humour, a subtle sympathy, and a passionate
tenderness for anyone or anything lonely or neglected or in
trouble. So, as only the few do, he learned "Why."
Here amidst the struggles and temptations, the joys and
disappointments, the successes and mistakes of his busy life, one
hero rose surely to a place above all others, a place that was
never usurped - "the man, Christ Jesus," worshipped in the years
that were left, not only as the Redeemer of the world, but as his
ideal hero.
This was his manliest man, so grandly strong and brave, yet so
inexpressibly sweet-spirited and gentle, with a great human heart
that, understanding so wholly, was yet so little understood; that
in the midst of overwhelming work and care and loneliness hungered
for human love and sympathy, giving so generously of its own great
store, receiving so little in return.
