27 Jul My Favourite Stories #158
LaGuardian Angel
In the middle of the Great Depression (1929 -39), New York City mayor, Fiorello LaGuardia, strived to live with the people. It was not unusual for him to ride with the firefighters, raid with the police, or take field trips with orphans. On a bitterly cold night in January of 1935, the mayor turned up at a night court that served the poorest ward of the city. LaGuardia dismissed the judge for the evening and took over the bench himself. Within a few minutes, a tattered old woman was brought before him, charged with stealing a loaf of bread. She told the mayor that her daughter’s husband had left, her daughter was sick, and her two grandchildren were starving.
However, the shopkeeper, from whom the bread was stolen, refused to drop the charges. “It’s a real bad neighbourhood, your Honor,” the man told the mayor. “She’s got to be punished to teach other people around here a lesson.”
LaGuardia sighed. He turned to the woman and said, “I’ve got to punish you. The law makes no exceptions. Ten dollars or ten days in jail.” But even as he pronounced sentence, the mayor was already reaching into his pocket. He extracted a bill and tossed it into his famous hat, saying, “Here is the ten dollars fine which I now remit; and furthermore I am going to fine everyone in this courtroom fifty cents for living in a town where a person has to steal bread so that her grandchildren can eat. Mr. Bailiff, collect the fines and give them to the defendant.”
The following day, New York City newspapers reported that $47.50 was turned over to a bewildered woman who had stolen a loaf of bread to feed her starving grandchildren. Fifty cents of that amount was contributed by the grocery store owner himself, while some seventy petty criminals, people with traffic violations, and New York City policemen, each of whom had just paid fifty cents for the privilege of doing so, gave the mayor a standing ovation.
The price of your sin has also been paid by him who is both your advocate and Judge.
Postscript: Fiorello Enrico (Henry) La Guardia was an American attorney and politician who represented New York in the House of Representatives and served as the 99th Mayor of New York City from 1934 to 1946. He was known for his quick-tempered, energetic, and charismatic personality and diminutive, rotund stature. Born in the Bronx in 1882. During the twentieth century, the Bronx, a district of New York city, was known for its gang activities and for its poverty-stricken neighbourhoods. He was educated at New York University; he became Deputy Attorney General of New York in 1914. In 1916 he was elected to the U.S. House of representatives, where he had a reputation as a fiery and devoted reformer. He again won a seat in Congress in 1922 and served there until 1933 when he was elected as mayor of New York. Elected on an anti-corruption ticket his story of the loathing he had for gangsters makes fascinating reading. You can read his interesting story on Wikipedia. He died at the age of 64 at his home in the Bronx in 1947.
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