Alice Cogswell Bemis: A Sketch by a Friend

								

that ever lived. Wealth to her was not a reason for luxury and pleasure
seeking, but an opportunity for helping others--with a lack of
ostentation characteristic of her whole nature. She was truly a secret
helper. That the young should have their chance in life and that the
paths of the needy should be made more easy, became increasingly the
object of her life. Colorado College and the Young Women's Christian
Association were the two organizations in Colorado Springs whose welfare
she had most at heart, and for them she was constantly devising liberal
things. In the wakeful hours of the night, she planned to relieve the
sufferings of others, and her spirit of good will came from no weak
sentimentality. She was a woman of good judgment, an incisive mind, and
a strong character. She was a wonderfully loyal friend and her daily
life centred in her own family circle, in a few personal friendships,
and in the benevolence which was her avocation."
Even her closest friends knew but little of her constant and quiet deeds
of kindness, and that rarely from her directly. It could never be said
of her that she was "confidential with her left hand." From the
recipients of her generosity more is known than could have been learned
from her. Often with an apology lest she might seem to intrude, she
learned if friends, and sometimes mere acquaintances and even strangers,
needed assistance at a time when she knew an emergency had come to them,
and often asked others to be the means of meeting such needs, not
letting it be known whence the help came. "Just tell them you have it to
give away," she would often say. Sometimes she gave to personal friends
a check, asking that they spend it as they thought best in ministering
to others.
This was done for many years to some who were in close touch with the
students of Colorado College. "Don't take the trouble to give an account
of this," she would say, "only be sure that it goes where it is really
needed." But when the account was rendered, she wanted to hear all that
could be told of the circumstances of each one who had been helped, and
often arranged that certain of these should have further assistance. To
a number this was voluntarily continued during their professional
studies. The following, from a letter to her son in 1908, shows her
sympathetic understanding of the students whom she helped:
"I wonder if I told you that the suit that you left here I gave to Mrs.
S---- for one of the college boys. The lining was greatly worn and so I
pinned on an envelope with $5.00 in it and she gave it to a very needy
fellow who is working and attending college. She had a letter from him
and from the mother. I am going to send her letter and some other
letters from other boys to whom the President has given a little from
time to time from a little that I gave him early in the winter. I want
you to read them, for I don't think that any of us realize how brave