LETTERS: SOME NEVER GIVE UP HOPE FOR THE FUTURE

To the editor:

I once asked my students to describe someone they knew personally who reveals his or her character by the work he does.

One of my students worked in a piano store and described a young girl, the precocious daughter of the owner, who used her delightful personality and knowledge of pianos to meet customers and sell pianos. The girl who emerged from the well-written essay continues to live in my mind although I never met her. Recently I read of her, now become a lady, and of her dream to revive the Marquette Hotel. If we didn't eat at the hotel, we often went to the Royal N'Orleans Restaurant. I was a self-appointed ambassador for our city. When fire damaged the Royal N'Orleans, prophets of doom told us it would never be rebuilt. But it was, and I could show it again to my out-of-town visitors with a pride which suggested it was my personal achievement.

One more memory: A student from Biehle, Mo., recalled in her theme the night the Buchheit business burned and how the Buchheits looked at each other at breakfast the next morning and asked their father what they would do. "We are Buchheits," he replied.

Our Sunday-school class years ago sang "Kind Words Can Never Die." It remains a truth worth singing again.

PETER HILTY

Cape Girardeau