Grace and favour.

Not far from where I  live I can frequently see swans, birds of such beauty with so much grace and a real sense of dignity. Yesterday I was inspired by a friends painting of swans to go and look at them again. There is just so much beauty in the gentle almost effortless way they move through the water.

 Walking home I was warmed by the sight of this beautiful bird. My mind began to drift back to earlier days. I remembered an old lady who though she did not have much always managed to buy some frozen peas which she used for feeding ducks and swans. It was her that taught me that bread was not good for these birds. She tried very hard to teach children that feeding ducks bread was not good for them.

My flighty mind then remembered a true story about another old woman and bread. This old woman had ended up in court because of bread.

A story is told about Fiorello LaGuardia, who, when he was mayor of New York City during the worst days of the Great Depression and all of WWII, was called by adoring New Yorkers 'the Little Flower' because he was only five foot four and always wore a carnation in his lapel. 

He was a colourful character who used to ride the New York City fire trucks, raid speakeasies with the police department, take entire orphanages to baseball games, and whenever the New York newspapers were on strike, he would go on the radio and read the Sunday funnies to the children. He was indeed a very caring person.

I was told this tale about him by a friend after I had been forced to fine a person while acting as a magistrate. I had little alternative so imposed the fine then quietly paid it off.  I was told this story. about LaGuardia.

One 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 LaGuardia that her daughter's husband had deserted her, her daughter was sick, and her two grandchildren were starving. 

But the shopkeeper, from whom the bread was stolen, refused to drop the charges. "It's a really 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 sombrero saying: "Here is the ten dollar 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 Baliff, collect the fines and give them to the defendant." 

So the following day the New York City newspapers reported that $47.50 was turned over to a bewildered old lady who had stolen a loaf of bread to feed her starving grandchildren, fifty cents of that amount being contributed by the red-faced grocery store owner, 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.

There is always room even in the direst situations for a little grace and favour. 

Have a good day.