Posted on 03/23/2017 3:00:15 PM PDT by entropy12
His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog.
There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death.
The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved.
'I want to repay you,' said the nobleman. 'You saved my son's life.' 'No, I can't accept payment for what I did,' the Scottish farmer replied waving off the offer. At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the door of the family hovel.
'Is that your son?' the nobleman asked. 'Yes,' the farmer replied proudly.
'I'll make you a deal. Let me provide him with the level of education my own son will enjoy. If the lad is anything like his father, he'll no doubt grow to be a man we both will be proud of.' And that he did.
Farmer Fleming's son attended the very best schools and in time, graduated from St Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin.
Years afterward, the same nobleman's son who was saved from the bog was stricken with pneumonia. What saved his life this time? Penicillin.
The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill ...
His son's name? Sir Winston Churchill ...
Someone once said: What goes around comes around.
>>This is a story in the spirit of good human deeds. Unless there is proof it is false, why not file it as such?<<
I am pretty sure there is ample proof.
No need to be gullible to be nice.
This is something MSNBC would write about Obama. (He was the true inventor of penicillin, doncha know.)
Thank you!
Also, thanks for not spewing with skepticism. Good America was raised on these stories at one time. They are out there and they are true stories.
What is the true story then?
Good story but it is untrue.. I just looked it up..
That is the true story. The literary embellishments only relate to the supposed dialogue. That was never recorded, although the substance is probably fairly accurate.
In 1986, Peter Davies was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from Northwestern University. On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed, so Peter approached it very carefully. He got down on one knee, inspected the elephants foot, and found a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it.
As carefully and as gently as he could, Peter worked the wood out with his knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot. The elephant turned to face the man, and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for several tense moments. Peter stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away.
Peter never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.
Twenty years later, Peter was walking through the Chicago Zoo with his teenage son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Peter and his son Cameron were standing. The large bull elephant stared at Peter, lifted its front foot off the ground, then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man.
Remembering the encounter in 1986, Peter could not help wondering if this was the same elephant. Peter summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing, and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder.
The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of Peter legs and slammed him against the railing, killing him instantly.
Probably wasn't the same elephant.
Dangit, dug into it a bit more. The whole thing is fake. Sigh.
Yup.
For a brief moment I thought the farmers son was going to turn out to be Ian Fleming...
Did ya notice the knee jerk skeptic posters who are calling this story false are offering zero evidence to support their skepticism? Or...may be they are relying on Snopes for the truth lolol.
Okay, thanks.
I am often skeptical of relying on Wikipedia, but, on this page, under the heading “Myths”, it says that Fleming called this story “a wondrous fable”. It also says that Churchill was treated in Tunisia with a sulphonamide drug and not penicillin.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Fleming
See my #33.
That is patently ridiculous.
Everyone knows that Unicorns are solitary creatures that never travel in herds.
;)
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