To most people, $10.25 doesn’t mean so very much any way it goes, but in the case of Sam Gales, a colored man out at the county home, that amount meant a life of service and changed him from one dependent upon the charity of the county to a self-supporting man of the world.
Most any banker or financial expert will tell you that $10 properly handled will in a number of years grow into a good-sized fortune, but the $10.25 recently spent by the Superintendent of Public Welfare has just about pointed all their fabulous stories of increasing wealth.
Sam Gales had both of his legs amputated about 20 years ago, in a railroad accident, and since that time has been at the Forsyth county home, at an expense to the county of about$150 per year. Now Sam was not a lazy negro. Just the reverse, he was ambitious and has tried for a long, long time to find something that he could do that would make for him a modest living. His effort was to no avail until Mr. Rodwell, the superintendent of public welfare, took an interest in this case and got in touch with Mr. A.L. Stanton, superintendent of rehabilitation, whose office is in Raleigh.
Not long after this Mr. Rodwell received a communication saying that if a man could get around, he could be placed in the A. and T. college in Greensboro to learn a trade. Right there is where the $10.25 comes in. Mr. Rodwell had some knee pads made for him, and now he can walk about on his knees.
Gales goes to Greensboro today, and will commence his training at once, and not only will Gales be turned out of the institution in a position to earn a living for himself, but the county will be saved the sum of $150 per year for the rest of the man’s life.
From The Western Sentinel, Winston-Salem, Aug. 8, 1922
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