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diff --git a/old/10134-h.zip b/old/10134-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4690caa --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10134-h.zip diff --git a/old/10134-h/10134-h.htm b/old/10134-h/10134-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1581bda --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10134-h/10134-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,7898 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?> +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<title>John Wesley, Jr. The Story of an Experiment</title> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> +<style type="text/css"> +body { font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; + background-color: #ffffff;} +a:link {color:#000000} +a:visited {color:#000000} +a:hover {color:#000000} + +</style> +</head> +<!-- Converted to HTML for the Gutenberg Project by Sjaani --> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of John Wesley, Jr., by Dan B. Brummitt + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: John Wesley, Jr. + The Story of an Experiment + +Author: Dan B. Brummitt + +Release Date: November 19, 2003 [EBook #10134] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN WESLEY, JR. *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Sjaani and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + +</pre> + +<table align="center"><tr> + <td> + <h1 align="center">John Wesley, Jr.</h1> + <h1 align="center">The Story of an Experiment</h1> + <h3 align="center">BY</h3> + <h2 align="center">DAN B. BRUMMITT</h2> + <h3 align="center">1921</h3> +</td> + <td rowspan="2"><a name="image1" id="image1"></a><img src="images/imgone.jpg" alt="The Cartwright Institute - Frontispiece" /></td> + </tr><tr><td> +<p>TO<br /> +THOMAS KANE, "LAYMAN,"<br /> +WHOSE LONG LIFE OF NOBLE SERVICE<br /> +IS BEARING FRUIT IN A NEW CHRISTIAN<br /> +CONSCIENCE TOWARDS THE SUPPORT OF<br /> +THE WORK OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM IN<br /> +ALL THE WORLD<br /> +AN INTRODUCTION TO THE<br /> +EDUCATIONAL, MISSIONARY<br /> +AND BENEVOLENT<br /> +WORK OF THE CHURCH</p> +</td> +</tr></table> +<table align="center" cellspacing="10"><tr><td> + +<br /><br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /> + <h2 align="center">CONTENTS</h2> + +<p>CHAPTER</p> + +<p><a href="#genesis">THE GENESIS OF THE EXPERIMENT</a><br /> +I. <a href="#chap1">AN INSTITUTE PANORAMA</a><br /> +II. <a href="#chap2">JOHN WESLEY, JR.'S BRINGING UP</a><br /> +III. <a href="#chap3">CAMPUS DAYS</a><br /> +IV. <a href="#chap4">EXPLORING MAIN STREET</a><br /> +V. <a href="#chap5">HERE THE ALIEN; THERE THE LITTLE BROWN CHURCH</a><br /> +VI. <a href="#chap6">"IS HE NOT A MAN AND A BROTHER?"</a><br /> +VII. <a href="#chap7">THE FIRST AMERICAN CIVILIZATION</a><br /> +VIII. <a href="#chap8">CHRIST AND THE EAST</a><br /> +<a href="#teacheth">THIS EXPERIMENT TEACHETH—?</a></p> + + +</td><td> +<br /><br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /> + <h2 align="center">ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + <div align="center"><br /> + </div> + <p><a href="#image1">THE CARTWRIGHT INSTITUTE</a><br /> +<a href="#image2">THE WESLEY FOUNDATION SOCIAL CENTER</a><br /> +(This one is at Illinois University)<br /> +<a href="#image3">MAIN STREET</a><br /> +<a href="#image4">THE TENEMENTS OF MANY DELAFIELDS<br /> +ONE OF THE HIGH LIGHTS OF MAIN STREET</a><br /> +<a href="#image5">ONE OF THE CANNERY COLONY</a><br /> +<a href="#image6">THERE'S HOPE FOR THE NEGRO IN A SCHOOL LIKE THIS</a><br /> +<a href="#image7">THE MEXICAN'S HOME IN THE SOUTHWEST<br /> +THE MEXICAN'S CHURCH IN THE SOUTHWEST</a><br /> +<a href="#image8">DR. JOE CARBROOK DOES SUCH WORK AS THIS IN CHINA</a></p> +</td></tr></table> + +<br /><br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /><br /> +<table align="center" width="80%"><tr><td> +<a name="genesis"></a><h2>THE GENESIS OF THE EXPERIMENT</h2> +<br /> + +<p>After years of waiting for time and place and person, +the Rev. Walter Drury, an average Methodist +preacher, was ready to begin his Experiment.</p> + +<p>The process of getting adjusted to its conditions was ended. He believed +that, if he had health and nothing happened to his mind, he might count +on at least eight years more at First Church, Delafield—a ten-year +pastorate is nothing wonderful in to-day's Methodism. The right preacher +makes his own time limit.</p> + +<p>He would not think himself too good for Delafield, but neither did he +rate himself too low. He just felt that he was reasonably secure against +promotion, and that he need not be afraid of "demotion." There are such +men. They are a boon to bishops.</p> + +<p>The unforeseen was to be reckoned with, of course, the possible +shattering of all his plans by some unimagined misfortune. But the man +who waits until he is secure against the unknown never discovers +anything, not even himself.</p> + +<p>Walter Drury had at last found his man, or, rather, his boy, here in +Delafield. It was necessary to the Experiment that its subject should be +a decent young fellow, not particularly keen on formal religion, but +well set-up in body and mind; clean, straight, and able to use the +brains he had when need arose.</p> + +<p>John Wesley, Jr., was such a boy.</p> + +<p>Would the result be worth what he was putting into the venture? That +would depend on one's standards. The church doesn't doubt that the more +than twice ten years' experiment of Helms in the south end of Boston has +been worth the price. And Helms has for company a few pioneers in other +fields who will tell you they have drawn good pay, in the outcomes of +their patience.</p> + +<p>Still, Walter Drury was a new sort of specialist. The thing he had in +mind to do had been almost tried a thousand times; a thousand times it +had been begun. But so far as he knew no one preacher had thought to +focus every possible influence on a single life through a full cycle of +change. He meant his work to be intensive: not in degree only, but in +duration.</p> + +<p>At the end of ten years! If, then, he had not shown, in results beyond +question, the direction of the church's next great advance, at least he +would have had the measureless joy of the effort. No seeming failure +could rob him of his reward.</p> + +<p>Now, do not image this preacher as a dreaming scattergood; he would do +as much as any man should, that is to say, his utmost, in his pulpit and +his parish. The Experiment should be no robbing of collective Peter to +pay individual Paul.</p> + +<p>But every man has his avocation, his recreation, you know—golf, roses, +coins, first editions, travel. Walter Drury, being a confirmed bachelor, +missed both the joys and the demands of home life. No recluse, but, +rather, a companionable man, he cared little for what most people call +amusement, but he cared tremendously for the human scene in which he +lived and worked. He would be happy in the Experiment for its sheer +human fascinations. That it held a deeper interest, that if it succeeded +it would reveal an untapped reservoir of resources available for the +church and the kingdom of God, did but make him the more eager to be at +it in hard earnest.</p> + +<p>The church to whose work he had joyfully given himself from his youth +had grown to be a mighty and a highly complex machine. Some thought it +was more machinery than life, more organization than organism. But +Walter Drury knew better. It _was_ a wonderful machine, wheels within +wheels, but there was within the wheels the living spirit of the +prophet's vision.</p> + +<p>Partly because the church was so vast and its work of such infinite +variety, very few of its members knew what it did, or how, or why. It +was all over the land, and in the ends of the earth, for people joined +it; and they lived their lives in the cheerful and congenial circle of +its fellowship. But the planetary sweep of its program and its +enterprises was to most of them not even as a tale that is told. They +were content to be busy with their own affairs, and had small curiosity +to know what meanings and mysteries might be discovered out in places +they had never explored, even though just 'round the corner from the +week-by-week activities of the familiar home congregation.</p> + +<p>Walter Drury, at the end of one reasonably successful pastorate, had +stood bewildered and baffled as he looked back over his five years of +effort against this persistent and amiable passivity. It was not a +deliberate sin, or he might have denounced it; nor a temporary numbness, +or he might have waited for it to disappear. All the more it dismayed +him.</p> + +<p>At the beginning of his ministry he had set this goal before him, that +every soul under his care might see as he saw, and see with him more +clearly year by year, the church's great work; its true and total +business. He had not failed, as the Annual Conference reckons failure. +But he knew he had been less than successful. The people of his +successive appointments were receptive people as church folk go. Then +who was to blame, that sermons and books and Advocates and pictures and +high officials and frequent great assemblies, always accomplishing +something, always left behind them the untouched, unmoved majority of +the people called Methodists?</p> + +<p>It was all this and more of the same sort, which at last took shape in +Drury's thought and fixed the manner and matter of the Experiment. This +boy he had found, with a name that might be either prophecy or mockery, +he would study like a book. He would brood over his life. Mind you, he +would take no advantage, use no influence unfairly. He would neither +dictate nor drive. He would not trespass even so far as to the outer +edges of the boy's free personality. For the most part he would stay in +the background. But he would watch the boy, as for lesser outcomes +Darwin watched the creatures of wood and field. Without revealing all +his purpose he would set before this boy good and evil; the lesser good +and the greater. He would use for high and holy ends the method which +the tempter never tires of using for confusion. He would show this boy +the kingdoms of the children of God, and the glories of them, and would +promise them to him, not for a moment's shame but for a life's devotion.</p> + +<p>As to the particular form in which the result of the Experiment might +appear he cared little. He had a certain curiosity on the subject +naturally, but he knew well enough that the Experiment would be useless +if he laid interfering hands on its inner processes. That would be like +trimming a whitethorn tree in a formal garden, to make it resemble a +pyramid. He was not making a thorn pyramid in an Italian garden; he +wanted an oak, to grow by the common road of all men's life. And oaks +must grow oak-fashion, or not at all.</p> + +<br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /> + +<p>Four years of the ten had passed. That part of the history of John +Wesley, Jr., which is told in the following pages, is the story of the +other six years.</p> + + + +<br /><br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /><br /> +<a name="chap1"></a><h2>CHAPTER I</h2> +<br /> + +<p><strong>AN INSTITUTE PANORAMA</strong></p> +<br /> + +<p>"IF anybody expects me to stay away from Institute this year, he has got +a surprise coming, that's all."</p> + +<p>The meeting was just breaking up, after a speech whose closing words had +been a shade less tactful than the occasion called for. But the last two +sentences of that speech made all the difference in the world to John +Wesley, Jr.</p> + +<p>The Epworth League of First Church, Delafield, was giving one of its +fairly frequent socials. The program had gone at top speed for more than +an hour. All that noise could do, re-enforced by that peculiar emanation +by youth termed "pep," had been drawn upon to glorify a certain +forthcoming event with whose name everybody seemed to be familiar, for +all called it simply "the Institute."</p> + +<p>Pennants, posters, and photographs supplied a sort of pictorial noise, +the better to advertise this evidently remarkable event, which, one +might gather, was a yearly affair held during the summer vacation at the +seat of Cartwright College.</p> + +<p>The yells and songs, the cheers and games and reminiscences, re-enforced +the noisy decorations. At the last, in one of those intense moments of +quiet which young people can produce as by magic, came a neat little +speech whose purpose was highly praiseworthy. But, to John Wesley, Jr., +it ended on the wrong note. Another listener took mental exception to +it, though his anxiety proved to be groundless.</p> + +<p>It was a recruiting speech, directed at anybody and everybody who had +not yet decided to attend the Institute.</p> + +<p>The speaker was, if anything, a trifle more cautious than canny when he +came to his "in conclusion," and his zeal touched the words with +anti-climax.</p> + +<p>"Of course," he said, "since ten, or at most twelve, is our quota, we +are not quite free to encourage the attendance of everybody, +particularly of our younger members. They have hardly reached the age +where the Institute could be a benefit to them, and their natural +inclination to make the week a period of good times and mere pleasure +would seriously interfere with the interests of others more mature and +serious minded."</p> + +<p>Now, the pastor of the church, the Rev. Walter Drury, would have put +that differently, he said to himself. If it produced any bad effects it +would need to be corrected, certainly.</p> + +<p>Just then, amid the inevitable applause, and the dismissal of the brief +formal assembly for the social half-hour, something snapped inside of +John Wesley, Jr., and it was the feeling of it which prompted him to +say, "If anybody expects me to stay away from Institute this year, he +has got a surprise coming, that's all."</p> + +<p>You see, John Wesley, Jr., had just been graduated from high school, +and his family expected him to go to college in the fall, though he +faced that expectation without much enthusiasm. He felt his new freedom. +He addressed his rebellious remark to the League president, Marcia +Dayne, a sensible girl whom he had known as long as he had known anybody +in the church.</p> + +<p>"Last year everybody said I was too young. They all talked the way he +did just now. But they can't say I am too young now," and with that easy +skill which is one of the secrets of youth, he managed to contemplate +himself, serenely conscious that he was personable and "right."</p> + +<p>The girl turned to him with a gesture of surprise.</p> + +<p>"But I thought your father had agreed to let you take that trip to +Chicago you have been saving up for. Will he let you go to the Institute +too?"</p> + +<p>"Chicago can wait," said John Wesley, Jr., grandly. "Dad did say I could +go to Chicago to see my cousins, or I could go anywhere else that I +wanted. Well, I am going to the Institute. It's my money, and, besides, +I am tired of being told I am too young. A fellow's got to grow up some +time."</p> + +<p>"That's all right," said Marcia, "but what's your special interest in +the Institute? Do you truly want to go? How do you know what an +Institute is like?"</p> + +<p>Her voice carried further than Marcia thought, and a man who seemed a +little too mature to be one of the young people, turned toward her. He +was smiling, and any time these four years the town would have told you +there wasn't a friendlier smile inside the city limits. He was in +business dress, and suggested anything but the parson in his bearing, +but through and through he looked the good minister that he was.</p> + +<p>Marcia moved toward him with an unspoken appeal. She wanted help. He was +waiting for that signal, for he depended a good deal on Marcia. And he +was still worried about that unlucky speech.</p> + +<p>"Well, Marcia, are you telling J. W. what the Institute really is?" he +asked.</p> + +<p>"No, Mr. Drury, I'm not. I'm too much surprised at finding that he's +about decided to go. You're just in time to tell him for me. I want him +to get it right, and straight."</p> + +<p>"Well," the pastor responded, "I'm glad of that. If he's really going, +he'll find out that definitions are not descriptions. Now, our Saint +Sheridan used to say that an Institute was a combination of college, +circus, and camp meeting. I would venture a different putting of it. An +Institute is a bit of young democracy in action. Its people play +together, for play's sake and for finding their honest human level. They +study together, to become decently intelligent about some of the real +business of the kingdom of God, and how the church proposes to transact +that business. They wait for new vision together, the Institute being a +good time and a good place for seeing life clear and seeing it whole."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Marcia, "that's exactly it, only I never could have found +quite the right words. Do you think J. W. will find it too poky and +preachy?"</p> + +<p>"Tell him to try it and see, as you did last year," said Pastor Drury.</p> + +<p>"I'll risk that," said John Wesley, Jr., in his newly resolute mood.</p> + +<p>He knew when to stop, this preacher. Particularly concerned as he was +about John Wesley, Jr., he saw that this was one of the many times when +that young man would need to work things out for himself. Marcia would +give what help might be called for at the moment. The boy was turning +toward the Institute; so far so good.</p> + +<p>To-night was nearly four years from the beginning of his interest in +this young fellow with the Methodist name. He was a special friend of +the family, though no more so than of every family in the town which +gave him the slightest encouragement. To a degree which no one suspected +he shared this family's secret hopes for its son and heir; and he +cherished hopes which even the Farwells could not suspect. Unless he was +much mistaken he had found the subject for his Experiment.</p> + +<p>That mention of the Farwells needs to be explained. Of course "John +Wesley, Jr.," was only part of the boy's name. In full he was John +Wesley Farwell, Jr., son of John Wesley Farwell, Sr., of the J. W. +Farwell Hardware Co. As a little fellow he had no chance to escape +"Junior," since he was named for his father. There were many Jacks and +Johns and Johnnies about. His mother, good Methodist that she was, +secretly enjoyed calling him "John Wesley, Jr.," and before long the +neighbors and the neighborhood children followed her example.</p> + +<p>A little later he might have been teased out of it, but at the +impossible age when boys discover that queer names and red hair and +cross-eyes make convenient excuses for mutual torture, it happened that +he had attained to the leadership of his gang. For some reason he took +pride in his two Methodist names, and made short work of those who +ventured to take liberties with them. In all other respects he played +without reserve boyhood's immemorial game of give and take; but as to +his name or any part thereof he would tolerate no foolishness and no +back talk. When he reached the high school period, however, most of his +intimates rarely called him by his full name, having, like all high +school people, no time for long names, though possessed of infinite +leisure for long dreams. Straightway they shortened his name to "J. W.," +which to this day is all that his friends find necessary.</p> + +<p>Very well, then; this is J. W. at eighteen; a young fellow worth +knowing. Take a look at him; impulsive, generous, not what you would +call handsome, but possessed of a genial eye and a ready tongue, a +stubby nose and a few scattered freckles. A fair student, he is yet far +from bookishness, and he makes friends easily.</p> + +<p>Of late he has been paying furtive but detailed attention to his hair +and his neckties and the hang of his clothes, though still in small +danger of being mistaken for a tailor's model.</p> + +<p>With such a name you will understand that he's a Methodist by first +intention; born so. He is a pretty sturdy young Christian, showing it in +a boy's modest but direct fashion, which even his teammates of the +high-school football squad found it no trouble to tolerate, because they +knew him for a human, healthy boy, and not a morbid, self-inspecting +religious prig. Pastor Drury, you may be sure, had taken note of all +that, for he and J. W. had been fast friends since the day he had +received the boy into the church.</p> + +<p>The morning after the Institute social J. W. announced at breakfast his +sudden change of plan.</p> + +<p>"If you don't mind, Dad, I've about decided to go to the Institute +instead of Chicago. There is a bunch of us going, and Mr. Drury will be +there. Uncle Henry's folks might not want to be bothered with me now, +and anyway I don't know them very well. But I can go to the Institute +with the church crowd; and there will be tennis and swimming and plenty +of other fun besides the big program." Which was quite a speech for J. +W.</p> + +<p>John Wesley, Sr., didn't know much about the Institute, but he had an +endless regard for his pastor, and the mother was characteristically +willing to postpone her boy's introduction to the unknown and, in her +thought, therefore, the menacing city.</p> + +<p>So, after the brief but unhurried devotions at the breakfast table, +which had come to serve in place of the old-time family prayers, +parental approval was forthcoming. And thus it befell that J. W. +selected for himself a future whose every experience was to be affected +by so slight a matter as his impulsive choice of a week's holiday. That +choice expressed to him the new freedom of his years, for he had not +even been conscious of the quiet influence which had made it easier than +he knew to decide as he had done.</p> + +<br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /> + +<p>It was a mixed and lively company that found itself crowded around the +registrar's table at the Institute one Monday evening in July, with J. +W. and his own particular chum, Martin Luther Shenk, better known as +"Marty," right in the middle of it.</p> + +<p>J. W. wondered where so many Epworthians could have come from. Did they +really hanker after the Institute, or had they come for reasons as +trivial as his own? He put the question to Martin Luther Shenk.</p> + +<p>"Marty, do you reckon these are all here for real Epworth League work, +or does the Institute want anybody and everybody?"</p> + +<p>Marty had been scouting a little, and he answered: "No, to both +questions, I should say. Some have come just to be coming, and others +seem to be here for business. But I saw Joe Carbrook just now, and if he +is an Epworth Leaguer I am the Prince of Puget Sound. You know how he +stands at home. Wonder what he came for."</p> + +<p>Just then Joe Carbrook himself came up. He was from Delafield too, +member of the same League chapter as the two chums, but he had rarely +condescended to league affairs. Having had two rather variegated years +at college, he felt he must show his sophistication by holding himself +above some of those simple old observances.</p> + +<p>"S'pose you are here for solemn and serious work, you two," he remarked +mockingly, as he saw the boys. "I just met Marcia Dayne, and she told me +you were registering. Well, I'm here too—drove up in my car—but you +don't catch me tying myself down to all that study stuff. I'm looking +for fun, not work."</p> + +<p>"Nothing new for you in that, Joe," said Marty. "But I should think you +might try the study stuff, if only for a change, after you have spent +good money on gas and tires. And you have to pay for your meals, you +know."</p> + +<p>"Well, I studied hard enough last month in college cramming for the +final exams, so I could get within gunshot of enough sophomore credits, +and I'm through; with study for a while. If I find a few live ones in +this crowd, I guess we can enjoy ourselves without interfering with any +of you grinds, if you must study," and Joe Carbrook went off in search +of his live ones.</p> + +<p>J. W. and Marty were in no hurry to register. The crowd milling around +in the office was interesting, and J. W. was still wondering how many of +them, himself included, would get enough Institute long before the week +was over. Besides, it was yet an hour before supper.</p> + +<p>"Think of it, Marty. All these people come from Epworth Leagues just +like ours, from Springfield, and Wolf Prairie and Madison and all over +this part of the State. What for, I'd like to know? Will you look at +those pennants? Wish we had brought one or two of ours; we could add to +the display, anyway."</p> + +<p>"I have two in my suitcase," said Marty. "We'll have them out this +evening at the introduction meeting. And maybe you'll find out 'what +for' by that time."</p> + +<p>The introduction meeting in the chapel after supper was for the most +part informal. Yells and songs and the waving of pennants punctuated the +proceedings, as is quite the proper thing in an Epworth League +gathering. Some people, who see only what is on the surface, cannot +wholly understand the exuberance of an Epworth League crowd. But it has +roots in something very real.</p> + +<p>The dean of the Institute managed, amid the roystering and the intervals +of attention, to set things up for the week. A few regulations would +need to be laid down; and these would be fixed, not by the faculty or by +the dean, but by the Student Council. Would each district group please +get together at once, and select some one to represent the group on this +council?</p> + +<p>This request being obeyed amid considerable confusion, with Marcia Dayne +appointed from the Fort Adams District, and the council excused to draft +the basic laws for the week, the faculty was introduced, one by one.</p> + +<p>Each teacher was given the opportunity to describe his or her course, so +that out of the eight or nine courses offered every delegate might +select two besides the two which were required of all students, and so +qualify for an Institute diploma.</p> + +<p>J. W. found himself enjoying all this hugely. It appealed to his growing +sense of freedom from schoolboy restraint. If he did go to any of the +classes, it appeared that he could pick the ones he liked. Up to now he +had entertained no thought of any serious work, but the faculty talks +about these courses made him think there might be worse ways of spending +the week than qualifying for an Institute diploma. The whole thing +seemed to be so easy and so friendly. Of course he could see that the +study would not be much, even if he signed up for it, being just for a +week, but it might not be bad fun.</p> + +<p>Morning Watch was an experience to J. W. He was surprised to find +himself staying awake in a before-breakfast religious meeting, and was +even more surprised to be enjoying it. Something about this big crowd of +young people stirred all his pulses, and the religion they heard about +and talked about seemed to J. W. something very real and desirable. He +thought of himself as a Christian, but he wondered if his Christian life +might not become more confident and productive. In this atmosphere one +almost felt that anything was possible.</p> + +<p>Meal times turned out to be times of orderly disorder. J. W. and his +friends were at a table with other groups from the Fort Adams District, +and he quickly mastered the raucous roar which served the District for a +yell. Before the end of the second day his alert good nature made him +cheer leader, and thereafter he rarely had time to eat all that was set +before him, though possessed of a boy's healthy appetite. It was simply +that the other possibilities of the hour seemed more alluring than mere +food.</p> + +<p>From the first day of the class work J. W. found himself keen for all +that was going on. There was variety enough so that he felt no +weariness, and the range of new interests opened up each day kept him at +constant and pleasurable attention. Without knowing just how, he was +catching the Institute spirit.</p> + +<p>He walked away from the dining hall one noon with his pastor-friend, and +he talked. He had to talk to somebody, and Walter Drury contrived to +know of his need.</p> + +<p>"Why, Mr. Drury," he said, eagerly, "I'm just finding out how little I +know about the church and real Christian work. I thought I was something +of an average Methodist boy, but if the people at home are no better +than I am, I can see how being a preacher to such a bunch is a man's +job."</p> + +<p>"Correct, J. W." said the minister. "I find that out many a time, to my +humbling. But honestly, now, are you learning things you never knew +before?"</p> + +<p>"Ye-es, I am," J. W. answered, "and then, again, I'm not. It seems to me +as if I had always known a lot of what we are getting in these classes, +though there is plenty of new stuff too. But until now I didn't get much +out of what I knew. I've always liked to hear you, but you're different. +As for most of the things I've heard, I just thought of it as religious +talk, church stuff, you know. It didn't seem to matter, but here it is +beginning to matter in all sorts of ways, and I can see that it matters +to me."</p> + +<p>"How, for instance?"</p> + +<p>Well, take the class in home missions; Americanization, they call it. +Maybe you noticed that the first thing the teacher did was to divide the +class right down the middle, and tell those on the left hand—yes, I'm +one of the goats—that for the rest of the week they were to consider +themselves aliens. The others were to play native-born Americans. And so +the study started, but believe me, we aliens have already begun to make +it interesting for those natives. Some of 'em want to come over on our +side already, but they can't. A few of us have found some immigration +dope in the college library, and it is pretty strong. We'll show up +those Pilgrim Fathers before the week is out. They think they have done +everything an alien could ask when they let him into the country, and +then they work him twelve hours a day, seven days a week, or else let +him hunt the country over for any sort of a job. They rob him by making +him pay higher prices than other people for all he has to buy. They +force him to live in places not fit for rats, and on top of everything +else they call him names, so that their kids stick up their noses at his +children in the school grounds. After all that they expect he'll become +a good citizen just by hearing 'The Star-Spangled Banner' at the movies +and watching the flag go by when there's a parade.</p> + +<p>"Say, Mr. Drury, it makes me sick, and, if I feel that way just to be +pretending I'm a 'Wop' for a week, how do you suppose the real aliens +feel? Excuse me for talking like this, but honestly, something like that +is going on in all these classes; I wish we could take up such things in +the League at home." And he forced an embarrassed little laugh.</p> + +<p>Pastor Drury laughed too, and said of course they could, as he linked +arms with J. W., and they passed on down the road. The preacher talked +but little, contriving merely to drop a question now and then; and J. W. +talked on, half-ashamed to be so "gabby," as he put it, and yet moved by +an impulse as pleasant as it was novel.</p> + +<p>"And foreign missions, Mr. Drury. You won't be offended, I hope, but +somehow as far back as I can remember I have always connected foreign +missions with collections and 'Greenland's Icy Mountains' and little +naked Hottentots, and something—I don't know just what—about the River +Ganges. But here—why, that China class just makes me want to see China +for myself and find out how much of the advantages of American life over +Chinese has come on account of religion."</p> + +<p>"Well, why not, J. W.? Maybe you will go to China some day, and have a +hand in it all," suggested the pastor, to try him out.</p> + +<p>The boy shook his head.</p> + +<p>"No, I don't think so. I am certainly getting a new line on foreign +missions, but I don't think there's missionary stuff in me. I'll have +to go at the proposition some other way."</p> + +<p>Then Pastor Drury set him going on another subject.</p> + +<p>"What do you think of the young folks who are here?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Well, at first I thought they were all away ahead of our bunch at home, +and some of them are; but you soon find out that the majority is pretty +much of the same sort as ours. I think I've spotted a few slackers, but +mighty few. Most of the crowd seems to be all right, and I've already +made some real friends. But do you know which one of them all is the +most interesting fellow I've met?"</p> + +<p>The pastor thought he did, but he merely asked, "Who?"</p> + +<p>"Why, that Greek boy, Phil Khamis. He is from Salonika, you know. He +knows the old country like a book, and he's going back some day, maybe +to be some kind of missionary to his people, in the very places where +the apostle Paul preached. Honest, I never knew until he told me that +his Salonika is the town of those Christians to whom Paul wrote two of +his letters; those to the Thessalonians—'Thessalonika,' you know. Well, +you ought to hear Phil talk. He came over here seven years ago, and +learned the English language from the preacher at Westvale."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I have heard about him," said Mr. Drury. "They say he lived in the +parsonage and paid the preacher for his English lessons by giving him a +new understanding of the Greek New Testament. Not many of us have found +out yet how to get such pay for being decent to our friends from the +other side."</p> + +<p>"Well, he is a thoroughbred, anyway; and do you notice how he is right +up in front when there is anything doing? The only way you can tell he +isn't American born is that he is so anxious to help out on all the +unpleasant work. When I look at Phil it makes me boil to think of +fellows like him being called 'Wop.'"</p> + +<p>By this time the two had swung back into the campus, and J.W. found +himself drafted to hold down second base in the Faculty-Student ball +game. But that is a story for others to tell.</p> + +<p>On the steps of the library Marcia Dayne and some other girls were +holding an informal reception. Joe Carbrook, with one or two of his +friends, was finding it agreeable to assume a superior air concerning +the Institute. The impression the boys gave was that their coming to the +Institute at all had been a great concession, but that they were under +no illusions about the place.</p> + +<p>"All this is all right," Joe was saying, "for those who need it, but +what's the good of it all to us? For instance, what do you get out of +it, Marcia?"</p> + +<p>"What do you think I want to get out of it? If you cared for the young +people's work at home, I should think you could see how 'all this,' as +you call it, would help you to do better work and more of it at +Delafield."</p> + +<p>"As you ought to know pretty well, Marcia," Joe replied, "back home they +think I don't care much for the young people's work. It is a little too +prim and ready-to-wear for me, if you'll excuse me for saying so. No fun +in it at all, though I'll admit some of the classes here have more life +in them than I looked for."</p> + +<p>One of the other girls, who knew him well enough to speak with large +frankness, came to the defense of them all, saying: "Well, Joe, I don't +see that you get very far with what you call fun. It's mostly at the +expense of other people, including your father, who pays the bills. +Besides, since you came home from college this spring, you seem to have +run out of nearly all the bright ideas you started with. I wonder if it +ever strikes you that being a sport, as you call it, is mostly being a +nuisance to everybody? Some of us long ago got over thinking you clever +and original. You must be getting over it yourself, by now, surely."</p> + +<p>"Many thanks, dear lady, for them kind words," Joe responded, as he +bowed low in mock acknowledgment; "you make yourself quite plain, Miss +Alma Wetherell." He flung back the insult jauntily, as he and his +companions moved on, but at least one of the group suspected that the +words had struck home.</p> + +<p>You who know the General Secretary could easily forgive J. W. his +delight in the class of which the program said the subject was +"Methods." This is the only hour in an Institute which the Epworth +League takes for its own work. Rightly enough, it is a crowded hour, +with the whole Institute present, and usually it is an hour of +unflagging interest.</p> + +<p>J. W. and Marty were enjoying their first Institute too much to be late +at any classes. They were merely a little earlier at this class; to miss +any of it would be a distinct loss.</p> + +<p>Now, what the General Secretary talked about was no more than the +everyday work of the League—how it meant the young people of the church +and their work for and with young people for the sake of the future. But +he had a way with him. He said the League was a great scheme of self, +with the "ish" left off. In the League one practiced self-help, and +enjoyed the twin luxuries of self-direction and self-expression, and +came sooner or later to that strange new knowledge which is +self-discovery. He explained how Epworthians as such could live on +twenty-four hours a day, the plan being an ingenious and yet simple +financial arrangement for keeping the League work moving, both where you +are and where you aren't, even around the world. He had innumerable +stories of the devotional meeting idea, the Win-My-Chum idea, the +stewardship idea, the Institute idea, the life service idea, the +recreation idea, the study-class idea, and every other League idea so +far invented.</p> + +<p>But all this is merely a hint of what the General Secretary meant to the +Institute, and particularly to the delegates from Delafield. Even Joe +Carbrook had been impressed. He heard the General Secretary the morning +after that little exchange of compliments on the library steps, and for +an hour thereafter let himself enjoy the rare luxury of thinking. The +results were somewhat disconcerting.</p> + +<p>"It's funny," said Marty, as the four of them, the other three being +Joe, Marcia, and J.W., sat under a tree in the afternoon, "but I believe +that man could make even trigonometry interesting. I thought I'd heard +all that could be said about the devotional meeting; but did you get +that scheme for leaders he sprung this morning? Watch me when we get +back home, that's all."</p> + +<p>"You needn't suppose you are the only one who got it," said Marcia. +"Everybody was trying to watch the General Secretary and to take notes +at the same time, and I don't believe you are any quicker at that than +the rest of us. Of course all of us will use as many of his ideas as we +can remember, when we get home again."</p> + +<p>Joe Carbrook, with a new seriousness which sat awkwardly on him, +confessed that he could not understand just what was happening. It was +evident that he was ill at ease; Marcia had noticed it every time she +had seen him since that encounter with Alma Wetherell.</p> + +<p>"I guess you folks know I am not easily caught; but I'm ready to admit +that man has hold of something. Yes, and I'm half convinced that this +Institute has hold of something. I wish I knew what it is. If I could +really believe that all I hear and see at this place is part of being +young and part of being a Christian, I might be thinking before long +about getting into the game myself. The trouble is you three and the +other Leaguers I've watched at home are just you three and the others, +and that's all. I know, and you know, what you can do. You'll take all +these ideas of League work and use them, maybe; but what I can't see is +how you will pick up the Big Idea of this place and get back home +without losing it."</p> + +<p>"We can't," said Marcia, "not without all sorts of help, visible and +invisible. You, for instance; if you would really get into the game, as +you say, nobody could guess how much it would mean to our League. And it +might mean more to you."</p> + +<p>"Marcia's right about that," said J.W. "The Big Idea of this place, that +you speak of, is a lot too big for us to take home alone. Maybe you'll +think I'm preaching, but I don't care, if I say that for God to handle +alone, it is not big enough. He makes the stars, and gives us his Son, +without any help from us. Nobody else can do that. But he won't make our +League at home a success without us; and all of us together can't do it +without Him. I'm not saying I know how to do it, even then, but that's +the way it looks to me. Why, Joe," he said with sudden intensity as he +faced Joe Carbrook, "if you ever get hold of the Big Idea, and the Big +Idea gets hold of you, something is sure to happen, something bigger +than any of us can figure out now. I know you have it in you."</p> + +<p>All four showed a surprised self-consciousness over J.W.'s unexpected +venture into these rather deeper conversational waters than usual, and +there was more surprise when Joe Carbrook began to talk about himself.</p> + +<p>He laughed to hide a touch of embarrassment, but with little mirth; and +then he said, "Well, J.W., that's not all foolishness, though I don't +see why you should pick on me. Why not Marty? Of course, I came here for +fun, and I have had some, though not just the sort I expected. And I've +had several jolts too. I might as well admit that if I could just only +see how you hitch all of this League and church business to real life, I +would be for it with all I've got. The trouble is, while I've never been +especially proud of my own record, neither have I seen much excuse yet +for what you 'active members' have been busy with. I have been playing +my way, and you have been playing yours; but it all seems mostly play to +me. All the same, I guess I am getting tired of my kind." If Joe could +ever have spoken wistfully, you might have suspected him of it just +then.</p> + +<p>Clearly, thought Marcia Dayne, in the silence that followed, something +big was already happening. But how to help it on she could not tell; so, +with a desperate effort to do the right thing, she contrived to turn the +subject It seemed to her it had become too difficult to go further just +now without peril to Joe's strange new interest, as well as to a very +new and tremulous little hope that had begun to sing in her own heart.</p> + +<p>The shift of the talk was a true Institute change, and would have been +most disconcerting to anyone unfamiliar with the ways of young +Christians; but Marcia was sure that what had been said would not be +forgotten, and she knew there would be another time.</p> + +<p>It was this that made her say, "I wish you boys would suggest what sort +of stunt our district should give on stunt night; you know the time is +getting short."</p> + +<p>"That's a fact," exclaimed Marty, sitting up. "Stunt night is to-morrow, +and our delegation has to fix up the stunt for the Fort Adams District. +Let's get to work on something. We've been mooning long enough."</p> + +<p>For though Marty never thought as quickly as Marcia, he too felt some +instinct of fear lest by an unfortunate word they should break the spell +of Joe Carbrook's interest in the "Big Idea," and promptly the four were +deep in a study of stunts.</p> + +<p>To the uninitiated, stunt night at the Institute is without rime or +reason, but not to those in charge who are looking ahead to Sunday. They +know that the converging and cumulative psychic forces which the +Institute invariably produces must be tempered, along about midway of +the week, by some sharp contrast in the communal life. Otherwise, the +group, like over-trained athletes, will grow emotionally stale before +the week is done, and at the end of that is let-down and flatness. Hence +"stunt night."</p> + +<p>In the early Institute years it was easy, as in some places it still is, +for stunt night to be no more than clowning, witless and cheap; but +there is a distinct tendency to exercise the imagination in producing +more self-respecting efforts.</p> + +<p>Cartwright, happily, is one of the forward-looking Institutes, and stunt +night, crowded with most excellent fooling, produced two or three +creditable and thought-provoking performances. One of them deserves +remembering for its own sake. Besides, it is a part of this story.</p> + +<p>The home missions class furnished the inspiration for it, and called it +"Scum o' the Earth," an impromptu immigration pageant. A boy who had +memorized Schauffler's poem stood off stage and recited it, while group +after group of "immigrants" in the motley of the steerage passed slowly +through the improvised Ellis Island sifting process. It was all +make-believe, of course, all but one tense moment. Then Phil Khamis +stepped on the platform, incarnating in his own proper person the poet's +apostrophised Greek boy:</p> + +<p>"Stay, are we doing you wrong, +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">Young fellow from Socrates' land?</span><br /> +You, like a Hermes so lissome and strong, +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">Fresh from the master Praxiteles' hand?</span><br /> +So you're of Spartan birth? +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">Descended, perhaps, from one of the band—</span><br /> +Deathless in story and song— +Who combed their long hair at Thermopylae's pass? +Ah, I forget the straits, alas! +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">More tragic than theirs, more compassion-worth,</span><br /> +That have doomed you to march in our 'immigrant class' +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.25em;">Where you're nothing but 'scum o' the earth!'"</span><br /> +</p> +<p>The audience was caught unaware. It had been vastly interested in the +spectacle, as a spectacle, the more because the unusual Americanization +class which produced it had attracted general attention. But, Phil +Khamis, everybody's friend, standing there, an immigrant of the +immigrants, smiling his wistful friendly smile, was a picture as +dramatic as it was unexpected. First there were ejaculations of +astonishment and surprise. Then came the moment of understanding, and a +shining-eyed stillness fell on all. Then, what a shout! J.W. led off, +the unashamed tears falling from his brimming eyes.</p> + +<p>On Saturday morning J.W. was sitting beside Phil Khamis at Morning +Watch. The leader had asked for answers to the question "Why did I come +to the Institute?" getting several responses of the conventional sort. +Suddenly Phil nudged J.W. and whispered, "Shall I tell why I came?" and +J.W. with the memory of stunt night's thrill not yet dulled, said +promptly, "Sure, go ahead."</p> + +<p>When Phil got up an attentive silence fell upon them all. The Greek boy +had made many friends, as much by his engaging frankness and anxiety to +learn as by his perpetual eagerness to have a hand in every bit of hard +work that turned up. Since the stunt night incident he was everybody's +favorite.</p> + +<p>"Friends," he said, in his rather careful, precise way, "I am here for a +different reason than any. When I was in America but a little time a +Methodist preacher made himself my friend. I could not speak English, +only a few words. He took me to his home. He taught me to talk the +American way. He find me other friends, though I could do nothing at all +for them to pay them back. Now I am Christian—real, not only baptized. +The young people of the church take me in to whatever they do. They +call me 'Phil' and never care that I am a foreigner, so when I heard +about this Institute I say to myself, 'It is something strange to me, +but I hear that many people like those in my church will be there.' I +cannot quite believe that, but it sounded good, and I wanted to come and +see. And now I know that many people are young people like those I first +knew. They treat me just the same. It makes me love America much more; +and if I could tell my people in the old country that all this good has +come to me from the church, they could not believe it. Still, it is +true. Everything I have to-day has come to me by goodness of Christian +people."</p> + +<p>There were some half-embarrassed "Amens," and more than one hitherto +unsuspected cold required considerable attention. All the way to +breakfast Phil held embarrassed court, while his hand was shaken and his +shoulder was thumped and he was told, solo and chorus, by all who could +get near him, that "He's all right!"—"Who's all right?" "Phil Khamis!"</p> + +<p>But J.W. was walking slowly toward the dining hall, alone. As he had +listened to Phil, at first he thought, "Good old scout, he's putting it +over," but by the time the Greek's simple words were ended, J.W. was +looking himself straight in the eye. "Young fellow," he was saying, "you +have come mighty near feeling glad that you have had so many more +advantages than this stranger, and yet can't you see that what he says +about himself is almost as true about you? All you have to-day—this +Institute, your religion, your church, your friends, the kind of a home +you have and are so proud of—everything has come to you by what Phil +calls the goodness of Christian people."</p> + +<p>And then it was breakfast time, with an imperative call on J.W. from the +Fort Adams table for "that new yell we fixed up last night," and the +minutes in which he had talked with himself were for the time forgotten. +But the memory of them came back in the days after the Institute was +itself a memory.</p> + +<br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /> + +<p>The Saturday night camp fire at this Institute, contrary to the usual +custom, was not co-ed. The boys went down to the lake shore and sat +around a big fire on the sand. The girls had their fire on the slope of +a hill at the other edge of the campus.</p> + +<p>Nor does this Institute care for too much praise of itself. Its +traditional spirit is to work more for outcomes than for the devices +which produce complacency. It stages only a few opportunities of telling +"Why I like this Institute."</p> + +<p>So, at the camp fires a man talked to the boys and a woman to the girls, +not about the Institute, but about life. These speakers knew the strange +effect an Institute week has on impressionable and romantic youth; they +knew that by this time scores of the students were either saying to +themselves, "I've got to do something big before this thing's over," or +were vainly trying to put the conviction away.</p> + +<p>The woman who talked to the girls happened to be a preacher's wife. +This gave her a certain advantage when she told the listening girls that +the greatest of all occupations for them was not some special vocation, +but what Ida Tarbell has called "the business of being a woman." It was +good preparation for the next day's program, with its specific and +glamorous appeal, for it put first the great claim, so that special +vocations could be seen in clear air and could be fairly measured.</p> + +<p>Pastor Drury, who talked to the boys, was talking to them all, as J.W. +very well knew, but every word seemed for him; as, indeed, it was, in a +sense that he did not suspect. He was not surprised that his pastor +should present the Christian life as effectively livable by bricklayers +and business men as surely as by missionaries. He had heard that before. +But to J.W. the old message had a new setting, a new force. And never +before had he been so ready to receive it.</p> + +<p>The songs had sung themselves out, as the fire changed from roaring +flame and flying sparks to a great bed of living coals. From the world's +beginning a glowing hearth has been perfect focus for straight thought +and plain speech. The boys found it so this night.</p> + +<p>The minister began so simply that it seemed almost as if his voice were +only the musings of many, just become audible. "I know," said he, "that +to-morrow some of you will find yourselves, and will eagerly offer your +lives for religious callings. We shall all be proud of you and glad to +see it. But most of you cannot do that. You are already sure that you +must be content to live 'ordinary Christian lives,' It is possible that +to-morrow you may feel a little out of the picture. And those who are +hearing a special call might regard you, quite unconsciously, of course, +as not exactly on their level."</p> + +<p>"Now, suppose we get this thing straight to-night. There is no great nor +small, no high nor low, in real service. The differences are only in the +forms of work you do. The quality may be just as fine in one place as in +another. The boy who goes into the ministry, or who becomes a medical +missionary, will have peculiar chances for usefulness. So also will the +boy who goes into business or farming or teaching, or any other +so-called secular occupation. Just because he is not called to religious +work as a daily business he dare not think that he has no call. God's +calling is not for the few, but for the many. And just now the man who +puts his whole soul into being an out-and-out Christian in his daily +business and in his personal life as a responsible citizen must have the +genuine missionary spirit. He must live like a prophet, that is, a +messenger from God. He must know the Christian meaning of all that +happens in the world. And he must stand for the whole Christian program. +Otherwise, not all the ministers and missionaries in the world can save +our civilization. It is your chance of a great career. You who will make +up the rank and file of the Christian army in the next twenty-five +years—do you know what you are? _You are the hope of the world!"_</p> + +<p>As the group broke up in the dim light of the dying embers, J.W. +stumbled into Joe Carbrook, and the two headed for the tents together. +They had been on a much more friendly footing since Thursday.</p> + +<p>"Say, J.W.," said Joe, abruptly, "what's the matter with me? I came to +this place without knowing just why; thought I'd just have a good time, +I suppose; but here I am being bumped up against something new and big +every little while, until I wonder if it's the same world that I was +living in before I came. Do you suppose anybody else feels that way? Is +it the place? Or the people? Or what?"</p> + +<p>"I don't just know," said J.W., trying to keep from showing his +surprise. "I feel a good deal that way myself. I think it's maybe that +this is the first time we've ever been forced to look squarely at some +of the things that seem so natural here. At home it's easy to dodge. You +know that, only you've dodged one way and I've done it another."</p> + +<p>"But do you feel different, the way I do, J.W.? Do you feel like saying +to yourself: 'Looka here, Joe Carbrook, quit being a fool. See what you +could do if you settled down to getting ready for something real. Like +being a doctor, now.' Do _you_ feel that way? You don't know it, but +I've always thought I could be a doctor, if I could see anything in it. +And then the other side of me speaks up and says: 'Joe Carbrook, don't +kid yourself. You know you haven't got the nerve to try, even if you had +the grit to stick it through.' Is it that way with you, J.W.? You've +paid more attention to religion and all that than I ever did. And what +you said on Thursday about the 'Big Idea' has kept me guessing ever +since."</p> + +<p>"No, Joe, my trouble's not like yours. I know I can't be a doctor, nor a +preacher, nor a missionary. I've got nothing of that in me. But what we +heard to-night at the camp fire came straight at me. As I tried to say +the other day, if you get the 'Big Idea' of the Institute, Christian +service looks like a great life. But me—I've no hope to be anything +particular; just one of the crowd. And I never quite saw until to-night +how that might be a great life too."</p> + +<p>As they were parting, J.W. ventured a bold suggestion. "Say, Joe, if you +think you could be a doctor, _why not a missionary doctor?"_</p> + +<p>Joe's answer was a swift turning on his heel, and he strode away with +never a word.</p> + +<p>"Probably made him mad," thought J.W. "I wonder why I said it. Joe's the +last boy in the world to have any such notion. But—well, something's +already begun to happen to him, that's sure—and to me too."</p> + +<p>On Sunday the little world of the Institute assumed a new and no less +attractive aspect. Everybody was dressed for Sunday, as at home. Classes +were over; and games also; the dining room became for the first time a +place of comparative quiet, with now and then the singing of a great old +hymn, just to voice the Institute consciousness.</p> + +<p>The Morning Watch talk had been a little more direct, a little more +tense. And before the Bishop's sermon came the love feast. Now, the +Methodists of the older generation made much of their love feasts, but +in these days, except at the Annual Conference, an occasional Institute +is almost the only place where it flourishes with something of the +ancient fervor.</p> + +<p>Many changes have come to Methodism since the great days of the love +feast; changes of custom and thought and speech. But your ardent young +Methodist of any period, Chaplain McCabe, Peter Cartwright, Jesse Lee, +Captain Webb, would have understood and gloried in this Institute love +feast. It spoke their speech.</p> + +<p>Our group from Delafield will never forget it.</p> + +<p>Nearly all of them spoke; Marcia Dayne first because she was usually +expected to lead in everything of the sort, then Marty, then J.W., and, +last of all and most astounding, Joe Carbrook.</p> + +<p>Marty looked the soldier, and he put his confession into military terms. +He spoke about his Captain and waiting for orders, and a new +understanding of obedience.</p> + +<p>Before J.W. got his chance to speak, the leader read a night letter from +an Institute far away, conveying the greetings of six hundred young +people to their fellow Epworthians.</p> + +<p>J.W. could not bring himself to speak in terms of personal experience. +He was still under the spell of last night's camp fire, and his brief +encounter with Joe Carbrook, but without quite knowing what could +possibly come of all that. And the telegram gave him an excuse to speak +in another vein. You must remember that up to now he had been wholly +local in his League interests. He had gone to no conventions, he was not +a reader of _The Epworth Herald_, and to him the Central Office was as +though it had not been.</p> + +<p>"I wonder if anybody else feels as I do," he said, "about this League of +ours? Until this last week I never thought much about it. But we've just +heard that telegram from an Institute bigger than this, a thousand miles +off. And there's fifty-five or sixty Institutes going on this year, +besides the winter Institutes, the conventions, and all the other +gatherings. We seem to belong to a movement that enrolls almost a +million young people, with all sorts of chances to learn how it can do +all sorts of Christian work by actually _doing_ it. This isn't the only +thing I've found out here, but it makes me want to see the whole League +become as good as it is big. I don't want to be dazzled by the size of +it, because I know how many other members are just as little use as I've +been. Only when I get home I hope I'm going to be a different sort of an +Epworthian, and I can't help wishing that we all felt that way about +being more good in the League. We can make it a hundred times more +useful to the church and to our Master."</p> + +<p>Many others spoke like that, some of them because they could find +nothing more intimate to say, some here and there those who, like J.W., +could not quite trust themselves yet to talk of their deeper personal +experiences.</p> + +<p>And then Joe Carbrook arose. He spoke easily, as Joe always did, but it +was a new Joe Carbrook, and only the Delafield delegation understood how +amazing was the change.</p> + +<p>"This Institute has made me all sorts of trouble," he said. "I had +nothing else to do, and without caring anything about it, except to get +some new fun out of it, I came along, intending to stir up some of you +if I could, and I knew I could. But I've seen what a fool I was. Every +day I've seen that a little more distinctly. And last night, just as I +was leaving one of the boys after the camp fire he said something about +what I might do with my life. I don't know how seriously he meant it. +Maybe he doesn't, either. I went off without answering him. There wasn't +any answer, except that I knew I wasn't fit even to think about it. And +then, thank God, I met a man who understood what was wrong with me. He's +our pastor. I haven't been anything but trouble to him at home, but that +made no difference to him. And he introduced me, down yonder by the +lake, to a Friend I had never known before, some one infinitely +understanding, infinitely forgiving. He showed me that before I could +find what I ought to be I'd have to come to terms with that Friend. And +I have. Whatever happens to me, whatever I may find to do, I want now +and here for the first time in my life to confess Jesus Christ as my +Saviour and Lord!"</p> + +<p>The Bishop preached a great sermon, but it is doubtful whether the +Delafield delegation rightly appreciated it. They were too much +occupied with the incredible fact that Joe Carbrook had been converted, +and had openly confessed it.</p> + +<p>More was to come. The afternoon meeting, long established in the +Institute world as the "Life Work Service," was in the hands of a few +leaders who knew both its power and peril. An invitation would be given +for all to declare their purpose who felt called to special Christian +work. The difficulty was to encourage the most timid of those who, +despite their timidity, felt sure of the inner voice, and yet prevent a +stampede among those who, without any depth of desire, were in love with +emotion, and would enjoy being conspicuous, if only for the brief moment +of the service.</p> + +<p>For once a woman made the address—a wise woman, let it be said, who +made skillful and sure distinctions between the Christian life as a life +and the work of the Christian Church as one way of living that life.</p> + +<p>It would have been a successful afternoon in any case, but three +incidents helped the speaker. When she asked those to declare themselves +who had decided for definite Christian work, young people in all parts +of the room arose, and one after another they spoke, for the most part +simply and modestly, of their hope and purpose. And Joe Carbrook was +among them!</p> + +<p>He said very little, the nub of it being that he had always thought of +being a doctor, but not until a chance remark made by John Wesley, Jr., +last night had the idea appeared to him important. Just to make one more +among the thousands of doctors in America was one thing, he said. It +was quite another to think of being the only physician among a great, +helpless population. But to be a missionary doctor a man had to be first +a missionary. And how could he be a missionary if he were not a +Christian? Well, as he had confessed at the love feast, that was settled +last night, and as soon as it had been attended to be knew there was +nothing else in the way. So he must work now toward being a medical +missionary.</p> + +<p>Joe's declaration stirred the whole assembly. And while the influence of +it was still on them, J.W. saw Martin Luther Shenk, his classmate and +doubly his chum since a memorable day of the preceding October, get up +and quietly announce his purpose of becoming a minister. "And I hope," +said Marty, "that I may find my lifework in some of the new home mission +fields we have been learning about this week."</p> + +<p>At that point the leader felt more than a little anxious. These two +decisions, with all their restraint, had in them something infectious, +and she feared lest some young people, not holding themselves perfectly +in hand, might be moved to sentimental and unreflecting declaration.</p> + +<p>If there had been any such danger, Marcia Dayne dispelled it. She was +all aglow with a new joy of her own, whose secret none knew but herself, +though one other had almost dared to hope he could guess.</p> + +<p>"May I speak?" she asked. "I have no decision to make for myself. Last +year I took the 'Whatever, whenever, wherever' pledge, and I intend to +keep it, though I am not yet sure what it will mean. But I know a boy +here who will not talk unless somebody asks him, and there's a reason +why I think he should be asked. Please, mayn't we hear from John Wesley +Farwell, Jr., about _his_ kind of a call?"</p> + +<p>J.W., taken unawares at the mention of his name, was still at a loss +when the leader seconded Marcia's invitation; and the knowledge that he +was expected to say something unusual did not make for self-control. But +he understood Marcia's purpose, and tried to pull himself together.</p> + +<p>"Miss Dayne is president of our home Chapter, and she had a lot to do +with my coming to the Institute," he began. "She has heard me talk since +I found out a little about the Institute, and I told her this morning +something of what Joe Carbrook and I had discussed last night after the +camp fire."</p> + +<p>Well, to get to the point, I think she wants me to say, and I'm saying +it to myself most of all, that for nearly all of us young people, +Christian lifework must mean making an honest living, doing all we can +to make our religion count at home, and then backing up with all we've +got, by prayer and money and brains, all these others like Joe Carbrook +and Marty Shenk, who are going into the hardest places to put up the +biggest fight that's in them. We've just got to do it, or be quitters. +As Phil Khamis said at Morning Watch yesterday, 'Everything we have has +come to us by the goodness of Christian people.' We aren't willing to be +the last links of that chain.</p> + +<p>We don't want any special recognition, but I hope the Bishop and the +General Secretary and the Dean and all the rest of the League leaders +will know they can count on us just as we know they can count on these +friends of ours who have just become life service volunteers.</p> + +<p>Nobody knows what might have happened if some one had not spoken like +that, but as the group of new volunteers stood about the platform at the +close of the meeting, the other young people, instead of wandering off +and feeling themselves of no significance, came crowding about them, to +say to them, boy-and-girl fashion, something of what J.W.'s little +speech had suggested. Out of some four hundred Epworthians enrolled in +the Institute, about forty had made definite decisions; but certainly +not less than two hundred more had also faced the future, and in some +sort had made a new contract with themselves and with God.</p> + +<p>The Institute ended there, except for a simple vesper service after the +evening meal, and on Monday morning the whole company was homeward +bound.</p> + +<p>The Delafield delegation had separated. The larger group went home by +train, but Joe Carbrook's insistence was not to be withstood, so J.W. +and Marty, Marcia Dayne and Pastor Drury were Joe's passengers for the +fifty-odd miles between Institute and home.</p> + +<p>They sang, they cheered, they yelled the Institute yells. They lived +over the crowded days of the week that had so swiftly passed. But most +of all they deeply resolved that so far as they could help to do it +while they were at home the League Chapter of Delafield should be made +over into something of more use to the church to which it belonged.</p> + +<p>It was Marty who put their purpose into the fewest words. "We, and the +others who have been to the Institute, don't think we know every little +League thing," said he, "and we don't think we are the whole League +either. But every time anybody in our Chapter starts anything good, he's +going to have more and better help than he ever had before."</p> + +<p>Which thing came to pass, as may one day be recorded. The Rev. Walter +Drury kept his own counsel, but he knew that more had happened than the +putting of new life into the League. The Experiment had progressed +safely through some most difficult stages.</p> + + + +<br /><br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /><br /> +<a name="chap2"></a><h2>CHAPTER II</h2> +<br /> + +<p><strong>JOHN WESLEY, JR.'S BRINGING UP</strong></p> + +<p>Those words of Phil Khamis at Morning Watch kept popping into J. W.'s +head in the days following the Institute—"Everything I have to-day has +come to me by the goodness of Christian people."</p> + +<p>"I know that must be true," he would say to himself, "but it's worth +tracing back."</p> + +<p>The preacher was coming over to supper one night, as he loved to do; and +J. W. made up his mind to bring Phil's idea into the table talk. He was +on even better terms with the preacher than he used to be.</p> + +<p>J. W.'s mother hadn't said much about the Institute, though she had +listened eagerly to all his talk of the crowded week, and she was +vaguely ill at ease. She had hoped for something, she did not know just +what, from the Institute, and she was not yet sure whether she ought to +feel disappointed.</p> + +<p>But she provided a fine supper, to which the menfolk paid the most +practical and sincere of all compliments. And since nobody had anything +else on for the evening, there was plenty of time for talk.</p> + +<p>The mother had a moment aside with the minister, and there was a touch +of anxiety in her question: "Do you think the Institute helped my boy?"</p> + +<p>And the pastor had just time to whisper back, "It helped him much, but +he gave even more help than he got You have reason to be proud of him. I +am. He's growing."</p> + +<p>It was not very definite, but it brought no small comfort to the +mother's heart.</p> + +<p>"This Institute idea seems to be everywhere," said J. W., Sr., to the +pastor, "but how did it get started? I used to be in the Epworth League, +but we had nothing like it then."</p> + +<p>"That's not so very much of a story," said the pastor. "We have the +Institute idea because we had to have it. And so the League gave it form +and substance."</p> + +<p>"Well," J. W., Jr., chimed in, "I think it's about time more people knew +about it. I've wanted to ask you to explain it ever since we came back +from the Institute."</p> + +<p>The pastor nodded. "I know; but remember even you were not really +interested until you had been at an Institute. Do you think our +Institute just happened, J. W.?"</p> + +<p>"I know it didn't," J. W. replied. "Somebody did a lot of planning and +scheming."</p> + +<p>"Yes," returned the pastor, "but did you notice that a large part of its +work touched subjects familiar to you, the local League activities, for +instance—the devotional meeting, and Mission Study, and stewardship, +and the scope of the business meeting which not so long ago elected you +to membership?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, you're right, though I don't see anything remarkable in that. It +was a League Institute, wasn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly. But still, if there had not been any local Chapter, there +could have been no Institute, don't you see? What I mean is that the +Institute came because your Chapter needed it, and you needed it; not +because the Institute needed you. It's merely a matter of tracing' +things back."</p> + +<p>J. W., Jr., thought of Phil's words. "Sure enough," he responded, +"tracing things back makes a lot of difference. I've been going over +what Phil Khamis said at the Morning Watch—you remember? How everything +he has to-day has come to him by the goodness of Christian people. At +first I thought that was no more than a description of his particular +case, because I knew how true it was. But when you begin to trace things +back, as you say, what's true about Phil is true about all of +us—anyway, about me."</p> + +<p>"How is that, son?" Mrs. Farwell asked gently.</p> + +<p>"Well, I mean," J. W. smilingly answered her, though flushing a little +too, "the Institute, that seemed to me something new and different, is +really tied up to what you folks and the whole church have been doing +for me as far back as I can remember."</p> + +<p>And so they talked, parents and pastor and J. W., quite naturally and +freely, of the long chain of interest which had linked his life to the +church's life, back through all the years to his babyhood.</p> + +<p>J. W. had been in the League only a year or two, but it seemed to him +that he had been in the church always. And the memories of his boyhood +which had the church for center, were intimately interwoven with all his +other experiences.</p> + +<p>As his father said, "I guess, pastor, if you tried to take out of J. +W.'s young life all that the church has meant to him, it would puzzle a +professor to explain whatever might be left."</p> + +<p>J. W. had been born in the country, on a farm whose every tree and fence +corner he still loved. His first recollections of the church as part of +his life had to do with the Sunday morning drive to the little +meetinghouse, which stood where the road to town skirted a low hill. It +had horse-sheds on one side, stretching back to the rear of the church +lot, and some sizeable elms and maples were grouped about its front and +sides. It was a one-room structure, unless you counted the space +curtained off for the primary class, as J. W. always did. For back of +this curtain's protecting folds he had begun his career as a Sunday +school pupil and had made his first friends. At that time even district +school was yet a year ahead of him, with its wider democratic joys and +griefs, and its larger freedom from parental oversight.</p> + +<p>When J. W. was six, going on seven, the family moved to Delafield, +though retaining ownership of the farm, and for years J. W. spent nearly +every Saturday on the old place, in free and blissful association with +the Shenk children, whose father was the tenant. It was here that he and +Martin Luther Shenk, already introduced as "Marty," being of the same +age, had sworn eternal friendship, a vow which as yet showed no sign +whatever of the ravages of time. There were three other children, Ben +and Alice and Jeannette. Now, Jeannette was only two years younger than +J.W. and Marty, but through most of the years when J.W. was going every +week to the farm, she was "only a girl," and far behind the two chums by +all the exacting standards which to boys are more than law. But there +came a time----</p> + +<p>J.W., Sr., reveling in reminiscences before so patient a listener as the +preacher, though it was an old story, rehearsed how he had served for +years as superintendent of the country Sunday school, and how Mrs. +Farwell was teacher of the Girls' Bible Class. Their home had always +been Methodist headquarters, he said, as old-time Methodists usually +say, and with truth.</p> + +<p>When they moved to town the change brought no loss of church interest; +the Farwells merely transferred it entire to Delafield First Church +("First" being more a title than a numeral, since there was no second).</p> + +<p>But First Church had not a few progressive saints. They wanted the best +that could be had, so J.W., Sr., Sunday school enthusiast that he was, +found himself in a new place of opportunity. The Board of Sunday Schools +at Chicago had been asked to help Delafield get itself in line with the +best ideas and methods, and J.W., Sr., found the beginnings, at least, +of Sunday school science in active operation. At first, like a true +country man, he was a little inclined to counsels of caution, but in +his country Sunday school work he had acquired such strong opinions +about old fogies that he dreaded being thought one himself.</p> + +<p>"And that's how it happened," he said with a laugh, "that I was soon +reckoned among the progressives. In that first year I helped 'em win +their fight for separate departments, and before long we had the makings +of a real graded Sunday school. Don't you remember, mother, how proud +you were when young J.W. there was graduated from the Primary into the +Junior Department?"</p> + +<p>All this was before Pastor Drury's time, of course, but he had gone +through the same experiences in other pastorates, and needed not to have +anything explained.</p> + +<p>"How long have we had a teacher-training class in our Sunday school?" he +asked.</p> + +<p>That called out the story of the struggles to set up what many openly +called a useless and foolish enterprise. The Sunday school was +chronically short of teachers, and yet J.W., Sr., and the other +reformers insisted on taking out of the regular classes the best +teachers in the school, and a score of the most promising young people. +This group went off by itself into a remote part of the church. It +furnished no substitute teachers. It wasn't heard of at all. And loud +were the complaints about its crippling the school.</p> + +<p>"But, pastor, you should have seen the difference when the first dozen +real teachers came out of that class; we were able to reorganize the +whole school. Our John Wesley got a teacher he'll never forget. And, of +course, we kept the training class going; it's never stopped since. The +Board of Sunday Schools has given us the courses and helped us keep the +class up to grade in its work, and you know what sort of teachers we +have now."</p> + +<p>The pastor did, and was properly thankful. In some of his other +pastorates it had been otherwise, to his sorrow.</p> + +<p>"Speaking of the Board of Sunday Schools," the elder Farwell resumed, +for this was a hobby he missed no chance to ride, "it made all the +difference with us in our work for a better Sunday school—gave us +expert backing, you know. And I notice by its latest annual report—yes, +I always get a copy, though J.W. thinks it dry reading—that it is +helping Sunday schools by the thousand, not in this country only, but +wherever in the world our church is at work. Of course you know how it +starts Sunday schools, and how often they grow into churches. Well, it +didn't quite do that here, but this church is a sight better and bigger +because we began to take the Board's advice when we did. It was a good +thing for our boy, and many another boy and girl, that the Board woke us +up."</p> + +<p>"It hasn't all been easy work, though," the minister suggested. "I +remember that when I came I found there was a good deal of discontent +over the Graded Lessons."</p> + +<p>"Sure there was," said J.W., Sr. "We had all been brought up on the +Uniform Lessons, and most of us thought they were just right. Besides, +we rather enjoyed thinking of ourselves as keeping step with the whole +Sunday school world—all over the wide earth everybody studying the same +scripture on the same Sunday. And that was a big idea to get into the +minds of Christians of every name everywhere."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but, Dad," put in J.W., "what was the good of it if the lessons +didn't fit everybody? Did people think that the kids in the primary and +their mothers in ma's class ought to study the same lesson? or did they +think they could fit the same lesson to everybody by the different notes +they put into the Quarterlies?"</p> + +<p>"Well, son," his father replied, "I reckon we thought both ways. And I'm +not so sure yet that it can't be done. But if one thing more than +another reconciled me to the Graded Lessons, it was that they made being +a Sunday school teacher a good deal bigger job than it had ever been. It +was harder work, because every lesson had to be studied by the teacher, +and in a different way from what was thought good enough in the old +days. And I'm for anything, Graded Lessons or whatever, that'll make +people take Sunday school teaching more seriously."</p> + +<p>Then Mrs. Farwell ventured to take up the story. It was about that time, +in the very beginning of the Drury pastorate, that J.W. joined the +church on probation; much to her surprise and humbling.</p> + +<p>"I hadn't even thought of it," she said, "though I should have been the +first one. He had been getting ready in the Junior League, as I very +well knew, but one day, as you may remember"—Brother Drury did, for +that day was the real beginning of this story—"you made an invitation +at the end of a real simple sermon, and if J.W., Jr., didn't get right +up from my side and walk straight to the front!"</p> + +<p>After that there had been a probationers' class, with J.W. and perhaps +twenty others meeting the pastor every week for straight religious +teaching, so that at Easter, when they came up for membership, what with +their Sunday school and Junior League training, and what with the +pastor's more personal instruction, they were able to pass a pretty fair +examination on the great Christian truths, and on the general scheme of +the church's work.</p> + +<p>"For a time mother was a trifle disappointed that J.W. hadn't waited for +the big revival we had the next year," said J.W., Sr., "but I think she +was glad afterward."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I was," the mother said. "You see, I had been brought up to +believe in revivals, and I do yet, but we had no such chance to get the +right Christian start when we were little children, as J.W. has had, if +you'll let his mother say so, and that made a revival a good deal more +important to us when our church did get ready for one. But the other way +is all right too. I'm mother enough to be glad J.W. hasn't known some of +the experiences the boys of my time went through, and the girls as well. +He's no worse a Christian for having been right in the church ever since +I put him in short dresses, are you, son? And I will say that his father +was always with me in holding to the promises we made when he was +baptized. We've not done what we might, but we've never forgotten that +those promises were made to be kept."</p> + +<p>J.W. felt none of his old shrinking from such talk, especially since the +Institute, and yet he had the healthy boy's reluctance to discuss +himself in company. But this was interesting him, outside himself.</p> + +<p>He turned to the pastor. "That's what I meant when I told you what Phil +said. I'm all for the church, and church people and church ways; why +shouldn't I be? I've never known anything else. I remember well the one +thing I didn't like when it first came along; and that was the new sort +of Christmas celebration Dad and the others planned when I was ten or +eleven. You know what Christmas means to such kids, and I guess we were +all selfish together, because we didn't use our heads. Well, the Sunday +school proposed that instead of us all getting something we should all +give something. It looked pretty cheap to us little fellows at first, +and our teacher had all he could do to hold us in line. But let me tell +you, every boy was for it when the time came. We found that we could +have as much fun giving things away as we could grabbing things, and, +anyway, nobody really cared for those mosquito net stockings filled with +nuts and candy and one orange. It was only the idea of getting something +for nothing. That first 'giving Christmas,' I remember, our class +dressed up as delivery boys, and we came on the platform with enough +groceries for a small truck load, that we had bought with our own money. +The orphanage got 'em next day. And one class was dusty millers, +carrying sacks of flour, and another put on a stunt of searching for +Captain Kidd's treasure, and they found a keg of shining coins (new +pennies, they were)—more than a thousand of 'em. Everything went to the +orphanage, or the hospital; and then when the Board of Sunday Schools +began to get us interested in other Sunday schools and in missions—I +remember a scheme they call a 'Partnership Plan' that was great; I don't +know what happened to it—I got right into the game every time."</p> + +<p>"How do you happen to know so much about the Board of Sunday Schools, +J.W.?" asked Mr. Drury.</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's easy. You know how it is in our Sunday school: they don't +make one or two of us young fellows serve as librarians and secretaries +and such and miss all the class work: they have more help, and we all +get into class for the lesson. Well, two years ago Dad told me you had +nominated me for something at the annual Sunday school meeting. It was +only a sort of assistant secretary's job, but very soon I began to catch +on, and I've seen a lot of the letters and leaflets that come from the +Board in Chicago. Well, let me tell you that Board of Sunday Schools is +a whale of a machine. Why, it's the whole church at work to make better +Sunday schools, and more of 'em. They have Sunday school workers in all +sorts of wild places, and Sunday school missionaries in foreign lands. +Yes, and last year I happened to meet one of their secretaries, at your +house, you may remember. But you'd never think he was just a secretary, +he was so keen and wide awake. He knew the Boy Scouts from A to Z, and +that got me, 'cause I'm not so old that I've forgotten my scouting. And +he knew baseball, and boys' books, and all that. Don't you think, +Brother Drury, if more of the fellows knew what the real Sunday school +work is they would take to it like colts to a bran mash?"</p> + +<p>"They couldn't help it," said the pastor. "And you may have noticed that +your father and the other people of our Sunday School Board are trying +to get them to find out some of the things you have found out. For +instance, you know what the two organized classes of high-school +freshmen are doing, and the other organized classes. Seems to me their +members are finding out that Sunday school is something big and fine."</p> + +<p>"That they are," Mrs. Farwell agreed, "and you mustn't forget my +wonderful class of young married women, and the men's class of nearly a +hundred. I think our Sunday school has really begun to change the ideas +of a lot of people. Just think how little trouble we have now with what +Graded Lessons we have, and how happy all our teachers are because they +have the helps they need for just the sort of pupils that are in their +classes."</p> + +<p>"That's so," said J.W., Sr. "I don't suppose even old Brother Barnacle, +'sot' as he is, would vote to go back to the times when the +superintendent reviewed the lesson the same way the teachers taught it, +from a printed list of questions. Seems as if I can hear Henry J. Locke +yet—his farm joins ours down by the creek—when he conducted the +reviewing at Deep Creek. He would hold his quarterly at arm's length to +favor his eyes, and then look up from it to the school and shoot the +question at everybody, 'And what did Peter do _then_, HEY?' He sure did +come out strong on Peter; but I'll say this for him, that he never +skipped a question from start to finish."</p> + +<p>All three laughed a little over Henry J. Locke, and then the pastor said +he mustn't stay much longer. But he did want to back up J.W.'s belief +that what Phil Khamis had said was true of everybody—we are all +debtors.</p> + +<p>"Look at this young J.W. here, will you," he said to the father and +mother, for once letting himself go, "with a name he's proud of, and a +home life that many a Fifth Avenue and Lake Shore Drive family would be +glad to pay a million for, if such goods were on sale in the stores. I'm +going to tell him something he already knows. Young man," and there was +a gleam in the pastor's eye that was not all to the credit of the work +he was praising, "you owe a big debt to the Sunday school. I'm not +jealous for the church, or for any other part of it, but by your own +admission the Sunday school has had a lot to do with your education. +Very well; remember it is a part of what Phil said, and what you are +because of the Sunday school you have become by the goodness of +Christian people. I don't think you'll forget it, seeing that you have +two of that sort of people in your own home all the time."</p> + +<p>And then, with a fine naturalness the little group knelt by the chairs, +and two of the four, he who was pastor of the whole flock and he who +with simple dignity was priest in his own household, gave thanks to God +for the manifold goodness of Christian people, of which they were all +partakers every day.</p> + +<p>As he went home, Walter Drury thought of the long days that stretched +out ahead before he could see the outcomes of the great Experiment, but +this night had seen a good night's work done in the laboratory, and he +was content.</p> + +<p>One tale of the past had been much in J.W.'s thought that night, but +nothing on earth could have induced him to talk about it, especially +since the happenings at the Institute. Only one other person knew all of +its inwardness, though the preacher guessed most of the secret pretty +shrewdly, and everybody was familiar with its outcome.</p> + +<p>It was the story of Marty Shenk's conversion.</p> + +<p>These two had been David and Jonathan from their little boy days, no +less friends because they were so unlike; Marty, a quiet, brooding, +knowledge-hungry youngster, and J.W. matter-of-fact, taking things as +they came and asking few questions, but always the leader in games and +mischief; each the other's champion against all comers.</p> + +<p>Marty's father, tenant-farmer on the Farwell farm, was steady enough and +dependable, but never one to get ahead much. Before the Farwells moved +to town he had rarely stayed on the same farm more than a year or two, +but, as he said, "J.W. Farwell was different, and anybody who wanted to +be decent could get along with him." So, for many Saturdays and +vacations of boyhood years J.W. and Marty had roamed the countryside, +and were letter-perfect in their boy-knowledge of the old farm.</p> + +<p>Marty came in to high school from the farm, and often he stayed with +J.W. over the weekend. His school work was uneven—ahead in mathematics, +and the sciences, and something below the average in other studies. +That, however, has no place in this story.</p> + +<p>Of course he and J.W. were thick as thieves. Except when class work made +temporary separations necessary, they lived the high-school life +together. That meant also, for these two, the social life of the church, +which occasionally paid special attention to the students.</p> + +<p>So you might find them at Epworth League socials, Sunday school class +doings, in the Sunday school orchestra—violin and b-flat cornet +respectively—and, most significant of all in its effect on all the +later years, they went through Win-My-Chum week together. The hand of +the pastor was in that, too.</p> + +<p>Marty was not a Christian. J.W. had been a church member for years, and +early in his course he had faced and accepted all that being a Christian +seemed to mean to a high-school boy.</p> + +<p>There had been hard places to get over; some of the boys and girls were +merciless in their unconscious tests of his religion. Some were openly +scornful, and others sought by indirect and furtive means to break his +influence in the school. For he had no small gift of leadership, and he +cared a good deal that it should count for the decencies of high-school +life. By senior year the sort of trouble that a Christian boy encounters +in school was almost all ended, but it had been more through his dogged +resistance to opposition than because of any special zest in Christian +service.</p> + +<p>And then came the announcement of Win-My-Chum week, with J. W. +confronted by two stubborn facts. He had only one real chum, and that +chum was not a Christian. Pastor Drury had let fall a remark, a month +before the Week, to the effect that any Christian who had a chum could +dodge Win-My-Chum week, but he couldn't dodge his chum. When the week +was past, the chum would still be on hand.</p> + +<p>Think as he would, there was no honest way of escape from whatever those +facts might require of him, so J. W., long accustomed to go ahead and +take what came, had known himself bound by the obligations of this +matter also, days and days before the activities of Win-My-Chum week +began.</p> + +<p>The two were out one Saturday on the north road. They had been up to the +woods on Barker's Hill for nuts, and with good success. The day was +warm, the way was long, and there was no hurry. When they came to the +roadside at the wood's edge they sat on a fallen tree and talked. At +least Marty did. For J. W. was not himself.</p> + +<p>It was his chance, and he knew it. But a thousand impulses leaped to +life within him to make him put off what he knew he ought to say. The +fear of being misunderstood—even by Marty—the knowledge that Marty, in +the qualities by which boys judge and are judged, was quite as "good" as +himself; and, above all, his sense of total unfitness to be a pattern of +the Christian life to anybody, filled him with an uneasiness that +actually hurt.</p> + +<p>And Marty soon discovered that something was amiss. Willing as he was to +do his full share of the talking, he became aware that except for +inarticulate commonplaces he was having to do it all.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with you all at once, J.W.?" he asked. "You're not +taken suddenly sick, are you? You were all right when we were among the +trees. _Are_ you sick?"</p> + +<p>J.W. laughed shortly. "No, old man, I'm not sick. But I'm up against a +new game, for me, and I'm not in training."</p> + +<p>"Sounds interesting," said Marty, "but sort of mysterious. Is it +anything I can do team-work on?"</p> + +<p>"It surely is, but first I've got to say something, and I want you to +promise that you won't think I'm putting on, or butting in, because I'm +not; nothing like it. Will you?"</p> + +<p>"Will I promise?" said Marty, much bewildered. "Course I'll promise not +to think anything about you that you don't want me to think, but I must +say I don't know within a thousand miles what you're driving at. Out +with it, and even if you're the train bandit who held up the Cannonball +or if you've plotted to kidnap the Board of Education, I'll never tell."</p> + +<p>Marty's quizzical humor was not making J.W.'s enterprise any easier. He +had always supposed that what the leaflets called "personal evangelism" +had to be done in a spirit of solemnity. But how was he to acquire the +proper frame of mind? And certainly there was nothing solemn about Marty +just now. Yet the thing had gone too far; it was too late to retreat. He +tried to think how Mr. Drury would do it, but saw only that if it was +Mr. Dairy's business he would go straight to the center of it. +Desperately, therefore, he plunged in.</p> + +<p>"Well, Marty," he said, speaking now with nervous haste, "what I'm up +against is this. What's the matter with your being a Christian?"</p> + +<p>He will never forget the swift look of blank amazement that Marty turned +on him, nor the slow-mounting flush that followed the first astonished +start. For Marty did not answer, and turned his face away. J.W. was sure +that in his blundering bluntness he had offended and probably angered +his closest friend. The distress of that thought served at least to +drive away all the self-consciousness which thus far had plagued him.</p> + +<p>"Say, Marty," he pleaded, putting his hand on the other's arm, "forget +it, if I've hurt your feelings. I know as well as you do that I'm not +fit to talk about such things to anybody, and, honest, I meant nothing +but to say what I knew I'd got to say."</p> + +<p>Then Marty turned himself back slowly, and J.W. saw the troubled look +in his eyes. In a voice that trembled despite his proud effort at +control, he said, "Old man, you needn't apologize. You did surprise me, +I'll admit; I wasn't looking for anything like this. It's all right, +though, and I'm certainly not mad about it. But, say, J.W., let me put +something up to you. Why did you never think to ask me that question +before?"</p> + +<p>"Why, it was this way," J.W. began, somewhat puzzled at the form of the +question, and still thinking he must set himself right with Marty. "You +know the Epworth League is planning for those special meetings +soon—'Win-My-Chum Week'—and I've been asked to lead one of the +meetings. But you can see that I wouldn't be ready to lead a meeting +like that unless I had put this thing of being a Christian up to you, +anyway. You're the only real chum I've got. Mr. Drury said something a +little while ago that made it mighty plain."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Marty, "I can see that. But why did you never say anything +to me about it when there wasn't any meeting coming? Haven't we always +shared everything else, since away back? This is the one subject that +you and I have kept away from in our talk of all we've ever thought +about, and I was wondering why."</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't exactly know," J. W. replied. "It may have been that it +never seemed to be any of my business; that it was the preacher's +business, or the Sunday school teacher's, or somebody's. And you know +I've always been surer of what you really are than I have of myself. I +think I was always afraid you would either make fun of me or believe I +was letting on to be better than you were. But when the League got into +this Win-My-Chum plan, why, the name itself was an eye-opener. And I've +seen lately that a fellow's got to be a Christian, out and out, or his +religion is no good. And when I heard the preacher say, not long ago, +that a fellow might dodge Win-My-Chum week, but he couldn't forever +dodge his chum, I knew I had to speak to you. But you're sure you're not +offended?"</p> + +<p>"Let me admit a thing to you, J.W. I've never said so before, but I've +been wanting somebody to ask me to be a Christian for a long time. I was +a coward about it, and wouldn't let on. I've been wanting to find out +what I've got to do, but I wouldn't ask. Do you think I _could_ be a +Christian?"</p> + +<p>"I know you could be a long way better Christian than I am," J.W. +answered with unwonted feeling. "And if you did take Jesus Christ to be +your Master, it would be more than just your getting religion. You would +be the biggest kind of stand-by for me and for other people I know of. +It's the one thing you need to be a hundred per cent right. I'm a pretty +poor Christian, myself, Marty, partly because I don't know how to think +much about it, but you'd be dead in earnest to get all that there is in +the Christian life, and maybe I could follow along behind. You've always +helped every other way, and I've always wanted you to help me be a +genuine Christian."</p> + +<p>Marty put his hand on J.W.'s shoulder and looked him straight in the +eye: "You've got me rated a lot too high," he said. "How can I help you? +But we two have been pretty good chums so far, haven't we? Well, there's +a lot to settle before I can be sure I'm a Christian, but it means +everything for you to think I can be of some use. And I promise you +this, J.W., I'll not let up until I am a Christian, and we'll stick +together all the more, when I am, us two. Is that ago?"</p> + +<p>It was a go. J.W. was ready and far more than ready to call it a go. It +had been easier than he had expected, but then it had all been so +different from the vague and formal thing he had been afraid of. He +could hardly believe, but he had one request to make. "I know you'll +settle whatever has to be settled," he said, a bit unsteadily, "but when +it's all done, and you tell people about it, as I know you will, please, +Marty, don't bring me into it. Publicly, I mean. Let's just have this +understanding between ourselves. I can lead my meeting now, but there's +no need to say anything about me. Besides, I made a mess of it."</p> + +<p>"It may be the best mess anybody ever stirred up for me, J.W., but I +won't say anything to worry you, if the time comes for me to say +anything at all. And I believe it will."</p> + +<p>It did. Marty and the pastor had two or three long interviews. From the +last of them the boy came away with a new light on his face and a new +spring in his step. Evidently whatever needed to be settled, had been +settled.</p> + +<p>He kept his promise to his chum, but that did not prevent him from +choosing the night when J.W. led the meeting to stand up at the first +opportunity and make his straightforward confession of love and loyalty, +since God had made him a sharer in the life that is in Christ. Then for +a moment J.W. feared Marty might forget their agreement, but Marty said +simply, "And part of the joy that is in my heart to-night is because +there is a new tie, the only other one we needed, between myself and my +old-time chum, the leader of this meeting."</p> + +<p>In the back of the room Walter Drury, quietly looking on, sent up a +silent thanksgiving. The great Experiment was going well.</p> + + + +<br /><br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /><br /> +<a name="chap3"></a><h2>CHAPTER III</h2> +<br /> + +<p><strong>CAMPUS DAYS</strong></p> + +<p>So it was that J.W. and Marty had come into the inner places of each +other's lives. Of all the developments of Institute week, naturally the +one which filled J.W.'s thoughts with a sort of awed gladness was +Marty's decision to offer himself for the ministry. Joe Carbrook's +right-about-face was much more dramatic, for J.W. saw, when the decision +was made, that Marty could not have been meant for anything but a +preacher. It was as fit as you please. As to Joe, previous opinion had +been pretty equally divided; one side leaning to the idea that he might +make a lawyer, and the other predicting that he was more likely to be a +perpetual and profitable client for some other lawyer.</p> + +<p>In the light of the Institute happenings, it was to be expected that the +question of college would promptly become a practical matter to four +Delafield people. Marty was greatly troubled, for he knew if he was to +be a preacher, he must go to college, and he couldn't see how. J.W. felt +no great urge, though it had always been understood that he would go. +Marcia Dayne had one year of normal school to her credit, and would take +another next year, perhaps; but this year she must teach.</p> + +<p>Joe Carbrook spent little time in debate with himself; he let everybody +know that he was going to be a missionary doctor, and that he would go +to the State University for the rest of his college course.</p> + +<p>"But what about the religious influence of the University?" Marcia Dayne +had ventured to ask him one evening as they walked slowly under the elms +of Monroe Avenue.</p> + +<p>"I don't know about that," Joe answered, "and maybe I'm making a +mistake. But I don't think so. To begin with, there isn't any question +about equipment at the State University. They have everything any church +school has, and probably more than most church schools, for what I want. +And they work in close relationship to the medical school. That's one +thing. The big reason, though—I wonder if you'll understand it?"</p> + +<p>"I believe I could understand anything you might be thinking about—now, +Joe." And Marcia's voice had in it a note which stirred that usually +self-possessed young man out of all his easy composure.</p> + +<p>"I'll remember that, Marcia," he said in the thrill of a swift elation. +"I'll remember that, because I think you do—understand, and some day +I—but I've got at least five years of plugging ahead of me, and----"</p> + +<p>"You were going to tell me about your big reason for going to the State +University," Marcia broke in, though she wondered afterward if her +instinct had not played her false.</p> + +<p>"Yes," Joe said, with a little effort. "Well, this is it. You know I +didn't make much of a hit at college; I pulled through sophomore year, +but that's about all, and I doubt if the faculty will pass resolutions +of regret when I don't show up there in the fall. The religious +influences of a church school didn't prevent me from being a good deal +of a heathen, though I will say that was no fault of the school. Maybe I +ought to go back and face the music. It wouldn't be so bad, I guess. But +I feel more like making a clean, new start, in a new place. The State +University wouldn't be any worse for me than I should be for it, if +nothing had happened to change my point of view. So, that isn't the +issue. But if the State University life is able to beat me before I get +to sawing bones at all, I'd make a pretty missionary doctor if I ever +landed in foreign parts, wouldn't I?"</p> + +<p>Marcia could find nothing to say; perhaps because her thoughts were busy +with other and more personal aspects of Joe's plans for the future.</p> + +<p>And as Joe's people were completely oblivious to everything except the +startling change that had come over him, and were abundantly able to +send him to three universities at once if necessary, Joe Carbrook was as +good as enrolled.</p> + +<p>Marty and J.W. did not find the future opening up before them so easily. +Marty, for all he could not imagine the way opening before such as +himself, was all eagerness about the nearest Methodist school, which +happened to be the one where the Institute had been held, Cartwright +College. It was named, as may be supposed, in honor of Peter Cartwright, +that pioneer Methodist preacher who became famous on the same sort of +schooling which sufficed for Abraham Lincoln, and once ran against +Lincoln himself for Congress. J.W. was not specially eager to look for a +college education anywhere. Why should he be, since he was expecting to +go into business?</p> + +<p>The two had many a discussion, Marty arguing in favor of college for +everybody, and J.W. admitting that for preachers and teachers and +lawyers and doctors it was necessary, but what use could it be in +business?</p> + +<p>"But say, J. W., you're not going to be one of these 'born a man, died a +grocer' sort of business men," urged Marty. "Broad-minded—that's your +future, with a knowledge of more than markets. And look at the personal +side of college life. Haven't you heard Mr. Drury say that if he hadn't +anything else to show for his four years at college than the lifelong +friendships he made there it would have been worth all it cost? And you +have reason to know he doesn't forget the studies."</p> + +<p>"That's all right, Marty," J.W. rejoined. "I don't need much convincing +on that score. I can see the good times too; you know I'd try for all +the athletics I could get into, and I guess I could keep my end up +socially. But is all that worth my time for the next four years, +studying subjects that would be no earthly good to me in business, in +making a living, I mean? The other boys in hardware stores would have +four years the start of me."</p> + +<p>"But don't you remember, J.W., what our commencement speaker said on +that very point? He told us we had to be men and women first, no matter +what occupations we got into. And he bore down hard on how it was a good +deal bigger business to make a life than to make a living. In these days +the most dangerous people, to themselves and to all of us, are the +uneducated people."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I remember," J.W. admitted. "'Cultural and social values of +education,' he called that, didn't he? And that's what I'm not sure of. +It seems pretty foggy to me. But, old man, you're going, that's settled, +and maybe I'll just let dad send me to keep you company, if I can't find +any better reason."</p> + +<p>"That's all very well for you to say, J.W.," Marty retorted, with the +least little touch of resentment in his tone. "You'll _let_ your dad +send you. My dad can't send me, though he'll do all he's able to do, and +how I can earn enough, to get through is more than I can see from here."</p> + +<p>But J.W. asserted, confidently: "There's a way, just the same, and I +think I know how to find out about it. I haven't been a second assistant +deputy secretary in the Sunday school for nothing. You reminded me of +the commencement address; I'll ask you if you remember Children's Day? +It came the very next Sunday."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I remember it; but what of it?"</p> + +<p>"Well, my boy, we took up a collection for you!"</p> + +<p>"We did? Not much we did, and anyway, do you think I'd accept that sort +of help? I'm not looking for charity, yet," and Marty showed the hurt he +felt.</p> + +<p>"Steady, Martin Luther! I wouldn't want you to get that collection +anyway; it wasn't near big enough. But don't you know that every +Children's Day collection in the whole church goes to the Board of +Education, and that it has become a big fund, never to be given away but +always to be loaned to students getting ready to be preachers and such? +It's no charity; it's the same broad-minded business you want me to go +to college for. I can see that much without getting any nearer to +college than the Delafield First Church Sunday School. You borrow the +money, just as if you stepped up to a bank window, and you agree to pay +it back as soon as you can after you graduate. Then it goes into the +Fund again, and some other boy or girl borrows it, and so on. More than +twenty-five thousand students have borrowed from this fund. About +fifteen hundred of 'em got loans last year. Ask the preacher if I'm not +giving you this straight."</p> + +<p>Marty had no immediate way of testing this unusual wealth of +information, so he said, "Well, maybe there's something in it. I'll talk +to Brother Drury about it, anyway."</p> + +<p>That observing man was quite willing to be talked to. When Marty +presented himself at the study a few days later he found the pastor as +well prepared as if he had been expecting some such interview, as, +indeed, he had.</p> + +<p>He told Marty the story of the Student Loan Fund—how it originated in +the celebration of the Centenary of American Methodism, in 1866, and how +it had been growing all through the years, both by the annual Children's +Day offering and by the increasing return of loans from former students.</p> + +<p>Then he explained that this Fund, and many other educational affairs, +were in the hands of the Church's Board of Education. This Board, Marty +heard, is a sort of educational clearing house for the whole church, and +especially for Methodist schools of higher learning. It helps young +people to go to college, and it helps the colleges to take care of the +young people when they go, of course always using money which has come +from the churches. It has charge of a group of special schools in the +South, and it sets the scholastic standards to which all the church's +schools and colleges must conform. Besides looking out for these +interests it helps the school to provide courses in the Bible and +Christian principles, and it furnishes workers to serve the colleges in +caring for the religious life of the students.</p> + +<p>Marty listened carefully, and with no lack of interest, but when the +minister paused the boy's mind sprang back to his own particular +concern.</p> + +<p>"But, Mr. Drury, can any student borrow money from that fund?"</p> + +<p>"Well, no," said the preacher, "not every student. Only those who are +preparing for the ministry or for other careers of special service. They +have to show that the loan will help them in preparing to be of some +definite Christian value when they graduate. That won't affect you; you +can borrow, not all you could use, perhaps, but enough to be a big help. +How much do you expect to need?"</p> + +<p>"Why," answered Marty, "I hardly know. I hadn't really thought it +possible I could go. But dad says he'll let me have all he can, and they +tell me a fellow can get work to do if he's not particular about easy +jobs. I'm pretty sure I could manage, except for tuition and books, +but----"</p> + +<p>"Then you may as well consider it settled," said the pastor, "Cartwright +College will welcome you on those terms, or I'll know the reason why. +And I think you can count on J.W. going with you."</p> + +<p>J.W. was not hard to convince. His parents were all for it. The pastor +had no intention of overdoing his own part in the affair, and contented +himself with a suggestion that disposed of J.W.'s main objection.</p> + +<p>J.W. had been saying to him one day, "I know I should have a good time +at college, but I should be four years later getting into business than +the other boys."</p> + +<p>"That depends on what 'later' means," replied Mr. Drury. "You would not +need four years to catch up, if college does for you what I think it +will. Besides, you're intending to be a Christian citizen, I take it, +and that will be even more of a job than to be a successful hardware +man. Colleges have been operating these many years, to give young people +the best possible preparations for a whole life. Remember what John +Milton said: I care not how late I come, so I come fit.' You want to +come to your work as fit as they make 'em, don't you?"</p> + +<p>And J.W. owned up that he did. "I don't mean to be a dub in business, +and I've no right to be a dub anywhere. Me for Cartwright, Brother +Drury!"</p> + +<p>Another day's work in the laboratory. Walter Drury knew how to be +patient, yet every experience like this was a tonic to his soul. And now +he must be content for a time to let others carry the work through its +next stages, though he would hold himself ready for any unexpected +development that might arise.</p> + +<p>So it befell that J.W. and Marty started to Cartwright, and a week later +Joe Carbrook went off to the State University.</p> + +<p>The day after they had matriculated, J.W. and Marty were putting their +room to rights—oh, yes, they thought it would be well to share the same +room—and as they puttered about they reviewed the happenings of the +first day. They had made a preliminary exploration of the grounds and +buildings, revisiting the places which had become familiar during +Institute week, and living over that crowded and epochal time.</p> + +<p>Marty, scouting around for something to do, had discovered that he could +get work, such as it was, for ten hours a week, anyway, and maybe more, +at thirty to fifty cents an hour. He had a little money left after +paying his tuition, and the college registrar assured him that the loan +from the Board of Education would be forthcoming. Therefore the talk +turned on money.</p> + +<p>"That tuition bill sure reduced the swelling in my pocketbook, Marty," +remarked J.W., as he examined his visible resources.</p> + +<p>"What do you think it did to mine?" Marty observed quietly. "I'm still +giddy from being relieved of so much money in one operation. And yet I +can't see how they get along. Look at the big faculty they have, and all +these buildings to keep up and keep going. When I think of how big a +dollar seems to me, the tuition looks like the national debt of Mexico; +but when I try to figure out how much it costs the college per student, +I feel as though I were paying lunch-counter prices for a dining-car +dinner. How _do_ they do it, J.W.?"</p> + +<p>"Who told you I was to be looked on in the light of a World Almanac, my +son? I could give you the answer to that question without getting out of +my chair, but for one small difficulty—I just don't know. Tell you +what—it's a good question—let's look in the catalogue. I'd like to +find information in that volume about something besides the four +centuries of study that loom before my freshman eyes."</p> + +<p>So they looked in the catalogue and discovered that Cartwright College +had an endowment of $1,750,000, producing an income of about $80,000 a +year, and that the churches of its territory gave about $25,000 more. +They learned also that most of the buildings had been provided by +friends of the college, with the Carnegie Library mainly the gift of the +millionaire ironmaster. They learned also that about $500,000 of the +endowment had been raised in the last two years, under the promise of +the General Education Board, which is a Rockefeller creation, to provide +the last $125,000. The college property was valued at about half a +million dollars.</p> + +<p>"And there you are, Martin Luther, my bold reformer," said J.W., +cheerfully. "The people who put up the money have invested about two and +a half millions on you and me, and the other five hundred students, say +about $250 a year per student. And we pay the rest of what it costs to +give us a college career, $125 to $175 a year, depending on our taste in +courses. I remember I felt as if the John Wesley Farwell family had +almost gone broke when dad signed up for $1,000 on that last endowment +campaign. I thought the money gone forever, but I see now he merely +invested it. I've come to Cartwright to spend the income of it, and a +little more. Five or six people have given a thousand dollars apiece to +make a college course possible for each of us. There's some reason in +college endowments, after all."</p> + +<p>And Marty said, "One good I can see in this particular endowment is that +anybody but a selfish idiot would be glad to match four years of his +life against all the money and work that Christian people have put into +Cartwright College."</p> + +<p>"I hope you don't mean anything personal by that remark," J.W. said, +with mock solemnity, "because I'm inclined to believe you're more than +half right. It reminds me again of what Phil Khamis said. I'm beginning +to think I'll never have a chance to forget that Greek's Christian +remark about Christians."</p> + +<p>By being off at school together J.W. and Marty gave each other +unconfessed but very real moral support in those first days when a lone +freshman would have known he was homesick.</p> + +<p>But another antidote, both pleasant and potent, was supplied by the +Epworth League of First Church. It had allied itself with the college +Y.M.C.A.—and for the women students, with the Y.W.C.A.—in various +ways, but particularly it purposed to see that the first few Sundays +were safely tided over.</p> + +<p>So the two chums found themselves in one of the two highly attractive +study courses which had been put on in partnership with the Sunday +school. It was in the early afternoon of one of the early Sundays that +J.W. called Marty's attention to a still more alluring opportunity.</p> + +<p>"Looky here, Marty, it's raining, I know, but I've a feeling that you'd +better not write that letter home until a little further on in the day. +What's to stop us from taking a look at this League fellowship hour +we're invited to, and getting a light lunch? We don't need to stay to +the League meeting unless we choose, though we're members, you know."</p> + +<p>Marty picked up the card of invitation which J.W. had flipped across the +table to him, and read it.</p> + +<p>"Well," he commented, "it reads all right. Let's try it."</p> + +<p>Out into the rain they went and put in two highly cheerful hours, +including one in the devotional meeting, so that when Marty at last sat +down to write home, he produced, without quite knowing how, a letter +that was vastly more heartening when it reached the farm than it would +have been if he had written it before dark.</p> + +<p>Joe Carbrook set out for the State University in what was for him a +fashion quite subdued. Before his experience at the Institute he would +have gone, if at all, in his own car, and his arrival would have been +notice to "the sporty crowd" that another candidate for initiation into +that select circle had arrived.</p> + +<p>But Joe was enjoying the novelty of thinking a little before he acted. +Though he would always be of the irrepressible sort, he was not the same +Joe. He had laid out a program which surprised himself somewhat, and +astonished most of the people who knew him.</p> + +<p>He knew now that he would become, if he could, a doctor; a missionary +doctor. No other career entered his mind. He would finish his college +work at the State University, and then go to medical school. He would +devote himself without ceasing to all the studies he would need. Not for +him any social life, any relaxation of purpose. Grimly he told himself +that his play days were over. They had been lively while they lasted; +but they were done.</p> + +<p>Of course that was foolish. If he had persisted in any such scholastic +regimen, the effort would have lasted a few days, or possibly weeks; and +then in a reaction of disgust he might easily have come to despair of +the whole project.</p> + +<p>Fortunately for Joe and for a good many other people, his purpose of +digging into his books and laboratory work and doggedly avoiding any +other interest was tempered by the happenings of the first week. +Doubtless he would have made a desperate struggle, but it would have +been useless. Not even conversion can make new habits overnight, and in +his first two years at college Joe had been known to teachers and +students alike as distinctly a sketchy student, wholly inexpert at +concentrated effort.</p> + +<p>And so, instead of becoming first a grind and then a discouraged rebel +against it all, he had the immense good fortune to be captured by an +observant Junior whom he had met while they were both registering for +Chemistry III.</p> + +<p>"You're new here," said the Junior, Heatherby by name, "and I've had two +years of it. Maybe you'll let me show you the place. I'm the proud +half-owner of a decidedly second-hand 'Hooting Nanny,' you know, and I +rather like bumping people around town in it."</p> + +<p>That was the beginning of many things. Joe liked it that Heatherby made +no apologies for his car, and before long he discovered that the other +half-owner, Barnard, was equally unaffected and friendly. It was +something of a surprise, though, to learn that Barnard was not a +student, but the youthful-looking pastor of the University Methodist +Church, of late known as the Wesley Foundation.</p> + +<p>"I'm not up on Methodism as I should be," said Joe to Barnard, a day or +two later, "and I may as well admit that I never heard before of this +Wesley Foundation of yours. Is it a church affair?"</p> + +<p>"Well, rather," Barnard answered. "It is just exactly that. You know, or +could have guessed, that a good many of the students here are from +Methodist homes—about a fourth of the whole student body, as it +happens. And our church has been coming to see, perhaps a bit slowly, +that although the State could not provide any religious influences, and +could certainly do nothing for denominational interests, there was all +the more reason for the church to do it. That's the idea under the +Foundation, so to speak, and the work is now established in nine of the +great State Universities."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I see," Joe mused, "but just what is the Foundation's duty, and +how do you do it?"</p> + +<p>Barnard laughed as he said, "We do pretty near everything, in this +University. We have a regular Methodist church, with a membership made +up almost entirely of faculty and students. The town people have their +own First Church, over on the West Side. Our church has its Sunday +school, its Epworth League Chapter, and other activities. We try to come +out strong on the social side, and in a little while, when our Social +Center building is up—we're after the money for it now—we can do a +good deal more. There is plenty of demand for it."</p> + +<p>"That's all church work, of course. I suppose you have no relation to +the University, though," Joe asked, "studies and all that?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed, and we're coming to more of it, but gradually. We are +already offering courses in religious subjects, with teachers recognized +by the University, and credit given. It's all very new yet, you know, +but we're hoping and going ahead."</p> + +<p>"I should think so," said Joe with emphasis. "But where does the money +come from for all this? It must be Methodist money, of course; who puts +it up?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, the usual people," said Barnard. "A few well-to-do Methodists have +provided some of it, but the really big money has to come from the +churches—collections and subscriptions and all that. This sort of work +is being done in forty-odd other schools, where the Wesley Foundation is +not organized. The money comes officially through two of the benevolent +boards."</p> + +<p>"Yes?" queried Joe. "I've often heard of 'the benevolences,' but I never +thought of them as meaning anything to me. How do they hook up to a +proposition like that?"</p> + +<p>"Well," said Barnard, "the Board of Education, naturally, is interested +because of the Methodist students who are here. And the Board of Home +Missions and Church Extension is interested because at bottom this is +the realest sort of home mission and church extension work."</p> + +<p>"Do these boards supply all the money you need?" was Joe's next +question.</p> + <a name="image2" id="image2"></a><img src="images/imgtwo.jpg" alt="The Wesley Foundation Social Center" /> + <p>"No, not all at once, anyway," Barnard answered. "We're needing a good +deal more before this thing really gets on its feet; and when our people +know what work can be done in State schools, and what a glorious chance +we have, I think they'll see that the money is provided. The students +are there, half a hundred thousand of them, and the church must be there +too."</p> + +<p>"Well," Joe said, "I admire the faith of you. And I want to join. You +know, although I'm a mighty green hand at religious work, I've got to go +at it hard. There's a reason. So please count me in on everything where +I'm likely to fit at all. I didn't tell you, did I, that I'm headed for +medicine?—going to be a missionary doctor, if they'll take me when I'm +ready. Maybe your Foundation can do something with me."</p> + +<p>Barnard thought it could, and the next two years justified his +confidence. Joe Carbrook, as downright in his new purpose as he had been +in his old scornful refusal to look at life seriously, quickly found a +place for himself in the church and the other activities of the +Foundation. It saved him from his first heedless resolution to study an +impossible number of hours a day, and from the certain crash which would +have followed. It gave him not a few friends, and he was soon deep in +the affairs of the League and the church. Besides, it made possible some +special friendships among the faculty, which were to be of immense value +in later days.</p> + +<p>While Joe Carbrook was fitting himself into the life of the University +and the Wesley Foundation, the chums at Cartwright were quite as busy +making themselves a part of their new world. As always, they made a +good team, so much so that people began to think of them not as +individuals, but as necessarily related, like a pair of shoes, or collar +and tie, or pork and beans. And, though the old differences of +temperament and interest had not lessened, the two had reached a fine +contentment over each other's purposes. J.W. was happy in Marty's +preacher-plans, and Marty believed implicitly in the wisdom of J.W.'s +understood purpose to be a forthright Christian layman.</p> + +<p>But it was not all plain sailing for J. W. Nobody bothered Marty; he was +going into the ministry, and that settled that. Among the students who +went in for religious work were several who could not quite share +Marty's complacence over J.W.'s program. They thought it strange that so +active a Christian, with the right stuff in him, as everybody +recognized, should not declare himself for some religious vocation.</p> + +<p>And from time to time men came to college—bishops, secretaries, +specialists—to talk to the students about this very thing. There was a +student volunteer band, in which were enrolled all the students looking +to foreign mission work. The prospective preachers had a club of their +own, and there was even a little organized group of boys and girls who +thought seriously of social service in some form or another as a career.</p> + +<p>Now, J.W., before the end of sophomore year, had come to know all, or +nearly all, of these young enthusiasts. Some of them developed into +staunch and satisfying friends. If he had run with the sport crowd, +which was always looking for recruits, or if he had been merely a hard +student, working for Phi Beta Kappa, he might have been let alone. But, +without being able to wear an identifying label, he yet belonged with +those who had come to college with a definite life purpose.</p> + +<p>Just because nobody seemed to realize that being a Christian in business +could be as distinct a vocation as any, J.W. was at times vaguely +troubled, in spite of his confident stand at the Institute. He wondered +a little at what he had almost come to feel was his callousness. Not +that he was uninterested; for Marty he had vast unspoken ambitions which +would have stunned that unsuspecting youth if they had ever become +vocal; and he never tired of the prospects which opened up before his +other friends. He kept up an intermittent correspondence with Joe +Carbrook, and found himself thinking much about the strange chain of +circumstances which promised to make a medical missionary out of Joe. He +more than suspected that Joe and Marcia Dayne were vastly interested in +each other's future, and he got a lot of satisfaction out of that. They +would have a great missionary career.</p> + +<p>No; he was not unfeeling about all these high purposes of the boys and +girls he knew; and if he could just get a final answer to the one +question that was bothering him, his college life would need nothing to +make it wholly satisfying. He had early forgotten all his old reluctance +to put college before business.</p> + +<p>Marty knew something of what was passing in J.W.'s mind, and it +troubled him a little. He thought of tackling J.W. himself, and by this +time there was nothing under the sun they could not discuss with each +other freely. But he did not quite trust himself.</p> + +<p>At last he made up his mind to write to their pastor at home. He knew +that for some reason Mr. Drury had a peculiar interest in J.W. and was +sure he could count on it now.</p> + +<p>"I know J.W.'s bothered," he wrote, "but he doesn't talk about it. I +think he has been disturbed by hearing so much about special calls to +special work. We've had several lifework meetings lately, and the needs +of the world have been pretty strongly stated. But the stand he took at +the Institute is just as right for him as mine is for me. Can't you +write to him, or something?"</p> + +<p>Walter Drury could do better than write. He turned up at Cartwright that +same week.</p> + +<p>It happened that three or four prospective preachers and Christian +workers had been in their room that afternoon, and J.W. was trying to +think the thing through once more. He recalled what his pastor had said +at the camp fire, and his own testimony on Institute Sunday in the +life-service meeting, after Marcia Dayne had put it up to him. But he +was making heavy weather of it. And just then came the pastor's knock at +the door.</p> + +<p>There was a boisterous welcome from them both, with something like +relief in J.W.'s heart, that he would not, could not speak. But he could +get help now. For the sake of saying something he asked the usual +question. "What in the world brings you to Cartwright?"</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Pastor Drury, "I like to come to Cartwright. Your President's +an old friend. Besides, why shouldn't I come to see you two, if I wish? +You are still part of my flock, you know."</p> + +<p>So they talked of anything and everything. By and by Marty said he must +go over to the library, and pretty soon J.W. was telling his friend the +pastor all that had been disturbing him.</p> + +<p>"It all began in the summer before I came to college, at the Institute +here, you know, when you spoke at the camp fire on Saturday night."</p> + +<p>"I remember," the pastor replied. "You hadn't taken much interest in +your future work before that?"</p> + +<p>"No real interest, I guess," J.W. admitted. "I'd always taken things as +they came, and didn't go looking for what I couldn't see. I was enjoying +every day's living, and didn't care deeply about anything else. Why, +though I've been a Methodist all my life, you remember how I knew +nothing at all about the Methodist Church outside of Delafield, except +what little I picked up about its Sunday schools by serving as an +assistant to our Sunday school secretary. And when I began to hear, at +the Institute, about home missions and foreign missions, about Negro +education and other business that the church was doing, I saw right off +that it was up to us young people to supply the new workers that were +always needed. But, even so, only those who had a real fitness for it +ought to offer themselves, and I thought too that something else would +be needed. I wasn't any duller than lots of other church members—even +the older ones didn't seem to know much more about the church outside +than I did. You would take up collections for the benevolences, but if +you told us what they meant, we didn't pay enough attention to get the +idea clearly, so as to have any real understanding. I suppose the +women's societies had more. I know my mother talks about Industrial +Homes in the South, and schools in India—she's in both the societies, +you know—but that is about all."</p> + +<p>"And it seemed when I began to find out about things, Mr. Drury, that if +our whole church needed workers for all these places, it needed just as +much to have in the local churches men and women who would know about +the work in a big way, and who would care in a big way, to back up the +whole work as it should be backed up. So, when you spoke at the camp +fire it was just what I wanted to hear, and when I was called on, I made +that sort of a declaration the next day at the life decision services."</p> + +<p>"Yes I remember that too," said Mr. Drury, "and I remember telling Joe +Carbrook that you had undertaken as big a career as any of them."</p> + +<p>"That's what I kind of thought too," said J.W., simply, "but rooming +with Marty Shenk—he's going to make a great preacher too—keeps me +thinking, and I know about all the students who are getting ready for +special work, and lately I've been wondering----"</p> + +<p>"About some special sort of work you'd like to do?" Mr. Drury prompted.</p> + +<p>"No; not that at all. I'm just as sure as ever I'm not that sort. If +only I can make good in business, there's where I belong. But can a +fellow make good just as a Christian in the same way I expect Marty +Shenk to make good as a Christian preacher?"</p> + +<p>The pastor stood up and came over to J.W.'s chair. "My boy, I know just +what you are facing. It is a pretty old struggle, and there's only one +way out of it. God hasn't any first place and second place for the +people that let him guide them. A man may refuse his call, either to go +or to stay, and then no matter what he does it will be a second best. +But you—wait for your call. For my part, I think probably you've got +it, and it's to a very real life. If you and those like you should fail, +we should soon have no more missionaries. And if the missionaries should +fail, we should soon have no more church. God has little patience with a +church that always stays at home, and I doubt if he has more for a +church that doesn't stand by the men and women it has sent to the +outposts. It is all one job."</p> + +<p>There was much more of the same sort, and when J.W. walked with his +pastor to the train the next morning, the only doubt that had ever +really disturbed him in college was quieted for good.</p> + +<p>Walter Drury went back to Delafield and his work, surer now than ever +that the Experiment was going forward. He knew, certainly, that all this +was only the getting ready; that the real tests would come later But he +was well content.</p> + +<br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /> + +<p>It was early football season of the junior year. The State University +took on Cartwright College for the first Saturday's game, everybody well +knowing that it was only a practice romp for the University. Always a +big time for Cartwright, this year it was a day for remembering. Joe +Carbrook, who had been graduated from the University in June, and was +now a medical student in the city, drove down to see the game. For +loyalty's sake he joined the little bunch of University rooters on the +east stand. Otherwise it was Cartwright's crowd, as well as Cartwright's +day.</p> + +<p>To the surprise of everybody, neither side scored until the last +quarter, and then both sides made a touchdown, Cartwright first! A high +tricky wind spoiled both attempts to kick goal, and time was called with +a score at 6-6. Cartwright had held State to a tie, for the first time +in history!</p> + +<p>Joe came from the game with the chums and took supper with them. The +whole town was ablaze with excitement over its team's great showing +against the State, and the talk at table was all of the way Cartwright's +eleven could now go romping down the schedule and take every other +college into camp, including, of course, Barton Poly, their dearest foe.</p> + +<p>The boys were happy to have Joe with them, he looked so big and fine, +and had the same easy, breezy bearing as of old. Nor had he lost any of +that frank attitude toward his own career which never failed to +interest everybody he met. After supper they had an hour together in the +room.</p> + +<p>"Those boys in the medical school surely do amuse me," he laughed. "When +I tell 'em I'm to be a missionary doctor, which I do first thing to give +'em sort of a shock they don't often get, they stand off and say, 'What, +you!' as if I had told 'em I was to be a traffic cop, or a trapeze +artist in the circus. Some of 'em seem to think I'm queer in the head, +but, boys, they are the ones with rooms to let. When the others talk +about hanging out a shingle in Chicago or Saint Louis or Cleveland or +some other over-doctored place, I tell 'em to watch me, when I'm the +only doctor between Siam and sunrise! Won't I be somebody? With my own +hospital—made out o' mud, I know—and a dispensary and a few native +helpers who don't know what I'm going to do next, and all the sick +people coming from ten days' journey away to the foreign doctor!" And +then his mood changed. "That's what'll get me, though; all those +helpless, ignorant humans who don't even know what I can do for their +bodies, let alone having any suspicion of what Somebody Else can do for +their souls! But it will be wonderful; next thing to being with him in +Galilee!"</p> + +<p>There was a pause, each boy filling it with thoughts he would not speak.</p> + +<p>"Where do you expect to find that work, Joe?" J.W. asked him.</p> + +<p>The answer was quick and straight: "Wherever I'm sent, J.W., boy," he +said. "Only I've told the candidate secretary what I want. I met him +last summer in Chicago, and there's nothing like getting in your bid +early. He's agreed to recommend me, when I'm ready, for the hardest, +neediest, most neglected place that's open. If I'm going into this +missionary doctor business, I want a chance to prove Christianity where +they won't be able to say that Christianity couldn't have done it alone. +It _can_!"</p> + +<p>Then, with one of those quick turns which were Joe Carbrook's devices +for concealing his feelings, he said, "And how's everything going at +this Methodist college of yours? Your boys put up a beautiful game +to-day, and they ought to have won. How's the rest of the school?"</p> + +<p>Both the boys assured him everything was going in a properly +satisfactory fashion, but Marty had caught one word that he wanted Joe +to enlarge upon.</p> + +<p>"Why do you say 'Methodist college'? It is a Methodist college; but is +there anything the matter with that?"</p> + +<p>Joe rose to the mild challenge. "Don't think I mean to be nasty," he +said, "but I can't help comparing this place with the State University, +and I wonder if there's any big reason for such colleges as this. You +know they all have a hard time, and the State spends dollars to the +church's dimes."</p> + +<p>"Yes, we know that, don't we, J.W.?" and Marty appealed to his chum, +remembering the frequent and half-curious talks they had on that very +contrast.</p> + +<p>J. W. said "Sure," but plainly meant to leave the defense of the +Christian college to Marty, who, to tell the truth, was quite willing.</p> + +<p>"There's room for both, and need for both," said that earnest young man. +"Each has its work to do—the State University will probably help in +attracting most of those who want special technical equipment, and the +church colleges will keep on serving those who want an education for its +own sake, whatever special line they may take up afterward: though each +will say it welcomes both sorts of students."</p> + +<p>This suited Joe; he intended Marty to keep it up a while. So he said, +"But why is a church college, anyway?" And he got his answer, for Marty +too was eager for the fray.</p> + +<p>"The church college," he retorted with the merest hint of asperity, "is +at the bottom of all that people call higher education. The church was +founding colleges and supporting them before the State thought even of +primary schools. Look at Oxford and Cambridge—church colleges. Look at +Harvard and Yale and Princeton and the smaller New England +colleges—church colleges. Look at Syracuse and Wesleyan and +Northwestern and Chicago. Look at Vanderbilt, and most of the other +great schools of the South. They are church colleges, founded, most of +them, before the first State University, and many before there was any +public high school. The church college showed the way. If it had never +done anything else, it has some rights as the pioneer of higher +learning."</p> + +<p>J.W. had been getting more interested. He had never heard Marty in +quite this strain, and he was proud of him.</p> + +<p>"That's a pretty good answer he's given you, Joe," he said with a +chuckle. "Now, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"It is," admitted Joe. "I reckon I knew most of what you say, Marty, but +I hadn't thought of it that way before. Now I want to ask another +question, only don't think I'm doing it for meanness; I've got a reason. +And my question is this: granting all that the church schools have done, +is it worth all they cost to keep them up now; in our time, I mean?"</p> + +<p>"I think it is," Marty answered, quieter now. "They do provide a +different sort of educational opportunity, as I said. Then, they are +producing most of the recruits that the churches need for their work. +Since the churches began to care for their members in the State +Universities, a rather larger number of candidates for Christian service +are coming out of the universities, but until the last year or two +nearly all came, and the very large majority still comes, and probably +for years will come, from the church colleges. And there's another +reason that you State advocates ought to remember. Our Methodist +colleges in this country have about fifty thousand students. If these +colleges were to be put out of business, ten of the very greatest State +Universities would have to be duplicated, dollar for dollar, at public +expense, to take care of the Methodist students alone. When you think of +all the other denominations, you would need to duplicate all the State +Universities now in existence if you purposed to do the work the church +colleges are now doing. And if you couldn't get the money, or if the +students didn't take to the change, the country would be short just that +many thousand college-trained men and women. The whole Methodist Church, +with the other churches, is doing a piece of unselfish national service +that costs up into the hundreds of millions, and where's any other big +money that's better spent?"</p> + +<p>When Marty stopped he looked up into Joe's good-natured face, and +blushed, with an embarrassed self-consciousness. "You think you've been +stringing me, don't you?"</p> + +<p>"Now, Marty," Joe spoke genially, "don't you misunderstand. I said I had +a reason. I have. My folks have some money they want to put into a safe +place. And they like Cartwright. I do too, but—you know how it is. I +want to be sure. Anyhow I'm glad I asked these questions. You've given +me some highly important information; and, honestly, I'm grateful. You +surely don't think I'm small enough to be making fun of you, or of +Cartwright. If I seemed to be, I apologize on the spot. Believe me?" and +there was no mistaking his genuine earnestness.</p> + +<p>"Of course I believe you, old man," Marty rejoined, just a wee bit +ashamed. "Forgive me too, but I've been reading up on that college thing +lately, and it's a little different from what most people think. So you +got me going."</p> + +<p>"I'm glad he did," said J.W. "It makes me prouder than ever of +Cartwright College." And, as he got up he said, as though still at the +game, "The 'locomotive' now!" and gave Cartwright's favorite yell as a +solo, while Marty and Joe grinned approval and some students passing in +the street answered it with the "skyrocket."</p> + +<br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /> + +<p>There is material for a book, all mixt of interest varying from very +light comedy to unplumbed gloom, in the life of two boys at college—any +two; and some day the chronicles of the Delafield Duo may be written; +but not now.</p> + +<p>Senior year, with its bright glory and its seriously borne +responsibilities. It found Marty a trifle less shy and reticent than +when he came to Cartwright, and J.W., Jr., a shade more studious. Marty +would miss Phi Beta Kappa, but only by the merest fraction; J.W. would +rank about number twenty-seven in a graduating class of forty-five. +Marty had successfully represented his college twice in debate, and J.W. +had played second on the nine and end in the eleven, doing each job +better than well, but rarely drawing the spotlight his way.</p> + +<p>Curiously enough, you had but to talk to Marty, and you would learn that +J.W., Jr., was the finest athlete and the most popular student in +school. Conversely, J.W., Jr., was prepared to set Cartwright's debating +record, as incarnated in Marty, against that of any other college in the +State. What was more, he cherished an unshakable confidence that the +"Rev. Martin Luther Shenk" would be one of the leading ministers of his +Conference within five years.</p> + +<p>And so they came to commencement, with the Shenk and the Farwell +families, Pastor Drury, and Marcia Dayne in the throng of visitors. Mr. +Drury rarely missed commencements at Cartwright, and naturally he could +not stay away this year. The Farwells thought Marcia might like to see +her old schoolmates graduate, and the boys had written her that they +wanted somebody they could trot around during commencement week who +might be trusted to join in the "I knew him when" chorus without being +tempted to introduce devastating reminiscences. And Marcia, being in +love with life and youth, had been delighted to accept the combined +invitation. She was not at all in love with either of the boys, nor they +with her. They thought they knew where her heart had been given, and +they counted Joe Carbrook a lucky man.</p> + +<p>"Tell us, Marcia," said J.W., Jr., one afternoon, as the three of them +were down by the lake, "how it happens you went to the training school +instead of the normal school last year."</p> + +<p>"That's just like a man," said Marcia. "Here am I, your awed and +admiring slave, brought on to adorn the crowning event of your +scholastic career, and you don't even remember that I finished the +normal school course in three years, and graduated a year ago!"</p> + +<p>Marty rolled over on the sand in wordless glee.</p> + +<p>"Aw, now, Marcia, why----" J.W., Jr., boggled, fairly caught, but soon +recovering himself. "You must have been ashamed of it, then. I do +remember something about your getting through, now you mention the fact, +but why didn't I receive an invitation? Answer me that, young lady!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, we educators don't think commencement amounts to so much as all +that. With us, you know, life is real, life is earnest, and so forth. +But I'll tell you the truth, J.W. I knew you couldn't come, either of +you, and I was saving up a little on commencement expenses; so I left +you—and a good many others—off the list. I needed the money, that's +the simple fact; And the reason you didn't see me at home last summer +was because I was busy spending the money I had saved on your +invitations and other expensive things."</p> + +<p>Marty usually waited for J. W., but the idea which now occurred to him +demanded utterance. "Say, Marcia, I think it's fine of you to be +studying dispensary work and first aid."</p> + +<p>"How did you know?" Marcia demanded.</p> + +<p>"Never mind; I saw Joe Carbrook in Chicago when we went through on our +way to the Buckland-Cartwright debate, and I guessed a good deal more +than he told me, which wasn't much."</p> + +<p>"Marty," said Marcia, her face aglow and her brave eyes looking into +his, "there's nothing secret about it. When Joe gets through medical +school we shall go out together to whatever field they choose for him. +The least I can do is to get ready to help."</p> + +<p>"Is that why you've been going to training school?" asked J.W. They had +so long been used to such complete frankness with each other that the +question was "taken as meant."</p> + +<p>"Yes, J.W., it is," said Marcia. "Joe has been doing perfectly splendid +work in his medical course, and they say he will probably turn out to be +a wonderful all-round doctor—everybody is surprised at his +thoroughness, except me. I know what he means by it. But, of course, he +has little time for training in other sorts of religious work, and so, +ever since last June, I've been dividing my time between a settlement +dispensary and the training school. Why shouldn't I be as keen on my +preparation as he is on his, when we're going out to the same work?"</p> + +<p>"You should, Marcia—you should," J.W. agreed, vigorously, "and we're +proud of you; aren't we, Marty? I remember thinking two years ago what +fine missionary pioneers you two would make. Only trouble is, we'll +never know anything about it, after we've once seen your pictures in +_The Epworth Herald_ among the recruits of the year. If you were only +going where a feller could hope to visit you once every two years or +so!"</p> + +<p>Marcia looked out across the lake, but she wasn't seeing the white sails +that glided along above the rippling blue of its waters. In a moment she +pulled herself together, and observed that there had been enough talk +about a mere visitor. "What of you two, now that your student +occupation's gone?"</p> + +<p>"Tell her about yourself, Marty," said J.W. "She knows what I'm going to +do." And for the moment it seemed to him a very drab and unromantic +prospect, in spite of his agreement with Mr. Drury that all service +ranks alike with God.</p> + +<p>Marty was always slow to talk of himself. "It isn't much," he said. "The +district superintendent is asking me to fill out the year on the Ellis +and Valencia Circuit—the present pastor is going to Colorado for his +health. So I'm to be the young circuit-rider," and he smiled a wry +little smile. He had no conceit of himself to make the appointment seem +poor; rather he wondered how any circuit would consent to put up with a +boy's crude preaching and awkward pastoral effort.</p> + +<p>But J.W., Jr., was otherwise minded. A country circuit for Marty did not +accord with his views at all. Marty was too good for a country church, +he argued, mainly from his memories of the bare little one-room +meetinghouse of his early childhood. In his periodical trips to the farm +he had seen the old church grow older and more forlorn, as one family +after another moved away, and the multiplying cars brought the town and +its allurements almost to the front gate of every farm.</p> + +<p>So J.W. had tried to say "No," for Marty, who would not say it for +himself. It was one of the rare times when they did not see eye to eye. +But it made no difference in their sturdy affection; nothing ever could. +And Marty would take the appointment.</p> + +<p>Commencement over, for the first time in many years the chums went their +separate ways, Marty to his circuit, and J.W. home to Delafield. Then +for a little while each had frequent dark-blue days, without quite +realizing what made his world so flavorless. But that passed, and the +young preacher settled down to his preaching, and the young merchant to +his merchandising; and soon all things seemed as if they had been just +so through the years.</p> + +<p>To J.W. came just one indication of the change that college had made. +Pastor Drury, though he found it wise to do much of his important work +in secret, thought to make use of the college-consciousness which most +towns possess in June, and which is felt especially, though not +confessed, by the college colony. The year's diplomas are still very new +in June. So a college night was announced for the social rooms, with a +college sermon to follow on the next Sunday night. The League and the +Senior Sunday School Department united to send a personal invitation to +every college graduate in town, and to every student home for the +vacation. They responded, four score of them, to the college-night call.</p> + +<p>As J.W. moved about and greeted people he had known for years he began +to realize that college has its own freemasonry. These other graduates +were from all sorts of schools; two had been to Harvard, and one to +Princeton; several were State University alumni. Cartwright was +represented by nine, six of them undergraduates, and the others +confessed themselves as being from Chicago, Syracuse, De Pauw, three or +four sorts of "Wesleyan," Northwestern, Knox, Wabash, Western Reserve, +and many more.</p> + +<p>Not even all Methodist, by any means, J.W. perceived; and yet the +fellowship among these strangers was very real. They spoke each other's +tongue; they had common interests and common experiences. He told +himself that here was a suggestion as to the new friends he might make +in Delafield, without forgetting the old ones. And the prospect of life +in Delafield began to take on new values.</p> + +<p>On the next Sunday night not so many college people were out to hear Mr. +Drury's straight-thinking and plain-spoken sermon on "What our town asks +of its college-trained youth"; and a few of those who came were inclined +to resent what they called a lecture on manners and duty.</p> + +<p>But to J.W. the sermon was precisely the challenge to service he had +been looking for. It made up for his feeling at commencement that he was +"out of it." It completed all which Mr. Drury had suggested at the +Institute camp fire four years ago, all that he himself had tried to say +at the decision service on the day after the camp fire; all that the +pastor had urged two years ago when J.W., Jr., confessed to him his new +hesitations and uneasiness.</p> + +<p>The pastor had not preached any great thing. He had simply told the +college folk in his audience that no matter where they had gone to +school, many people had invested much in them, and that the investment +was one which in its very nature could not be realized on by the +original investors. The only possible beneficiaries were either the +successive college generations or the communities in which they found +their place. If they chose to take as personal and unconditional all the +benefits of their education, none could forbid them that anti-social +choice; but if they accepted education as a trust, a stewardship, +something to be used for the common good, they would be worth more to +Delafield than all the new factories the Chamber of Commerce could coax +to the town.</p> + +<p>And to those who might be interested in this view of education, Pastor +Drury said: "Young people of the colleges, you have been trained to some +forms of laboratory work, in chemistry, in biology, in geology—yes, +even in English. I invite you to think of your own town of Delafield as +your living laboratory, in which you will be at once experimenters and +part of the experiment stuff. Look at this town with all its good and +evil, its dying powers and its new forces, its dullnesses and its +enthusiasms, its folly and wisdom, its old ways and its new people, its +wealth and want. Do you think it is already becoming a bit of the +kingdom of God? Or, if you conclude that it seems to be going in ways +that lead very far from the Kingdom, do you think it might possess any +Kingdom possibilities? If you do, no matter what your occupation in +Delafield, Delafield itself may be your true vocation, your call from +God!"</p> + +<p>For John Wesley Farwell, Jr., it was to become all of that.</p> + + + +<br /><br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /><br /> +<a name="chap4"></a><h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<p><strong>EXPLORING MAIN STREET</strong></p> +<br /> + +<p>J.W., Jr., found small opportunity to make himself obnoxious by becoming +a civic missionary before the time. He was busy enough with his +adjustment to the business life of "Delafield and Madison county," this +being the declared commercial sphere of the John W. Farwell Hardware +Company. J.W. always had known hardware, but hitherto in a purely +amateur and detached fashion. Now he lived with it, from tacks to +tractors, ten or twelve hours a day. He found that being the son of his +father gained him no safe conduct through the shop or with the +customers. He had a lot to learn, even if he was John Wesley Farwell, +Jr. That he was the heir apparent to all this array of cast iron and +wrought and galvanized, of tin and wire and steel and aluminum and +nickel, did not save him from aching back and skinned knuckles, nor from +the various initiations staged by the three or four other employees.</p> + +<p>But he was getting his bearings, and not from the store and the +warehouse only. A good hardware store in a country town is a center of +democracy for town and country alike. In what other place do farmers and +artisans, country women and city women meet on so nearly equal terms? +Not in the postoffice, nor in the bank; and certainly not in the +department store. But the hardware store's customers, men and women all, +are masters of the tools they work with; and whoso loves the tools of +his craft is brother to every other craftsman.</p> + <a name="image3" id="image3"></a><img src="images/imgthree.jpg" alt="Main Street" /> + <p>It was in the store, therefore, that J.W. began to absorb some of the +knowledge and acquire some of the experiences that were to make his work +something to his town.</p> + +<p>For one thing, he got a new view of local geography, in terms of tools. +All the farmers from the bottoms of Mill Creek called for pretty much +the same implements; the upland farms had different needs. The farmers' +wives who lived along the route of the creamery wagon had one sort of +troubles with tinware; the women of the fruit farms another. J.W. knew +this by the exchange of experiences he listened to while he sold milk +strainers and canning outfits. He found out that the people on the edge +of town who "made garden" were particular about certain tools and +equipment which the wheat farmer would not even look at.</p> + +<p>And the townpeople he learned to classify in the same way. He was soon +on good terms with those store clerks who were handy men about the +house, with women who did all their own work, with blacksmiths and +carpenters, with unskilled laborers and garage mechanics. In time he +could almost tell where a man lived and what he did for a living, just +by the hardware he bought and the questions he asked about it. +Heretofore J.W. had thought he knew most of the people in Delafield. +But the first weeks in the store showed him that he knew only a few. Up +to this time "most of the people in Delafield" had meant, practically, +his school friends, the clerks and salespeople in certain stores—and +the members of the First Methodist Church.</p> + +<p>That is to say, in the main, to him Delafield had been the church, and +the church had been Delafield. But now he realized that his church was +only a small part of Delafield. The town had other churches. It had +lodges. When the store outfitted Odd Fellows' Hall with new window +shades he learned that the Odd Fellows shared the place with strong +lodges of the Maccabees and Modern Woodmen. And there were other halls. +J.W. Farwell, Sr., was a Mason, but these other lodges seemed to have as +many members as the Masons, and one or the other of them was always +getting ready for a big public display.</p> + +<p>The same condition was true of the country people. He began to hear +about the Farm Federation, and the Grange, and the Farmers' Elevator, +and the cooperative creamery, for members of all of these groups passed +in and out of the store.</p> + +<p>One day J.W. remarked to the pastor who had dropped into the store: "Mr. +Drury, I never noticed before how this place is alive with societies and +clubs and lodges and things. Everybody seems to belong to three or four +organizations. And they talk about 'em! But I don't hear much about our +church, and nothing at all about the old church out at Deep Creek. Yet +I used to think that the church was the whole thing!"</p> + +<p>The older man nodded. "It's true, J.W.," he said, "all the churches +together are only a small part of the community. They are the best, and +usually the best-organized forces we have, I'm sure of that; but the +church and the town have to reckon with these others."</p> + +<p>"What good are they all? They must cost a pile of money. What for?"</p> + +<p>"That's what you might call a whale of a question, J.W." John W. +Farwell, Senior, who had been standing by, listening, essayed to answer. +"And you haven't heard yet of all the organizations. Look at me, for +example. I belong to the Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club. I'm on +the Executive Committee of the Madison County Horticultural Society, and +I've just retired from the Board of Directors of the Civic League. Then +you must think of the political parties, and the County Sunday School +Association, and the annual Chautauqua, and I don't know what all."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and I notice, dad, that a good many of these," said J.W., Jr., +"are just for the men. The women must have nearly as many. Why, +Delafield ought to be a model town, and the country 'round here ought to +be a regular paradise, with all these helpers and uplifters on the job. +But it isn't. Maybe they're not all on the job."</p> + +<p>"That's about it, my boy," his father agreed "I sometimes think we need +just one more organization—a society that would never meet, but between +the meetings of all the other societies would actually get done the +things they talk about and pass resolutions about and then go off and +forget until the next meeting."</p> + +<p>"Well, dad, what I want to find out," J.W. said, as he started off with +Mr. Drury to the post office, "is where the church heads in. Mr. Drury +is sure it has a big responsibility, and maybe it has. But what is it +willing to do and able to do, and what will the town let it do? It seems +to me that is the question."</p> + +<p>J.W. heard his father's voice echoing after him up the street, "Sure, +that is the question," and Mr. Drury added, "Three questions in one."</p> + +<p>J.W. found himself taking notice in a way he had not done before through +all his years in Delafield. As might be expected, he had come home from +college with new ideas and new standards. The town looked rather more +sordid and commonplace than was his boy's remembrance of it. Of late it +had taken to growing, and a large part of its development had come +during his college years. So he must needs learn his own town all over +again.</p> + +<p>Cherishing his young college graduate's vague new enthusiasm for a +better world, he had little sympathy with much that Delafield opinion +acclaimed as progress.</p> + +<p>The Delafield Daily Dispatch carried at its masthead every afternoon one +or more of such slogans as these: "Be a Delafield Booster," "Boost for +more Industries," "Put Delafield on the Map," "Double Delafield in Half +a Decade," "Delafield, the Darling of Destiny," "Watch Delafield Grow, +but Don't Stop Boosting to Rubber."</p> + +<p>These were taken by many citizens as a sort of business gospel; any +"theorist" who ventured to question the wisdom of bringing more people +to town, whether the town's business could give them all a decent living +or not, was told to sell his hammer and buy a horn. J.W. said nothing; +he was too young and too recent a comer into the town's business life. +But he could not work up any zeal for this form of town "loyalty."</p> + +<p>A big cannery had been built down near the river, where truck gardens +flourished, and there was a new furniture factory at the edge of the +freight yards. Hereabouts a lot of supremely ugly flats had gone up, two +families to each floor and three stories high; and in J.W.'s eyes the +rubbish and disorder and generally slattern appearance of the region was +no great addition to Delafield's attractions.</p> + +<p>Still more did the tumbledown shacks in the neighborhood of the cannery +offend the eyes and, to be frank, the ears and nose as well. It was a +forlorn-looking lot of hovels, occupied by listless, frowsy adults and +noisy children. Here existence seemed to be a grim caricature of life; +the children, the only symbol of abundance to be seen, continued to be +grotesque in their very dirt. What clothes they had were second or +third-hand garments too large for them, which they seemed to be +perpetually in danger of losing altogether.</p> + +<p>To J.W., Delafield had always been a town of homes; but in these dismal +quarters there was little to answer to the home idea. They were merely +places where people contrived to camp for a time, longer or shorter; +none but a Gradgrind could call them homes.</p> + +<p>One of the factory foremen was a great admirer of Mr. Drury, who +introduced him to J.W. one day when the foreman had come to the store +for some tools. He had talked with J.W., and in time a rather casual +friendliness developed between them. It was this same Foreman Angus +MacPherson, a Scot with a name for shrewdness, who gave the boy his +first glimpse of what the factory and the cannery meant to +Delafield—especially the factory.</p> + +<p>J.W. was down at the factory to see about some new band-saws that had +been installed; and, his errand finished, he stopped for a chat with +Angus.</p> + +<p>"This factory wasn't here when I went off to college," he said. "What +ever brought it to Delafield?"</p> + +<p>At that MacPherson was off to a perfect start.</p> + +<p>"Ye see, my boy," he began, "Delafield is so central it is a good town +for a good-working plant; freights on lumber and finished stuff are not +so high as in some places. And then there's labor. Lots of husky fellows +around here want better than farm wages, and they want a chance at town +life as well. Men from the big cities, with families, hope to find a +quieter, cheaper place to live. So we've had no trouble getting help. +Skill isn't essential for most of the work. It's not much of a trick +nowadays to get by in most factories—the machines do most of the +thinking for you, and that's good in some ways. Only the men that 'tend +the machines can't work up much pride in the output. Things go well +enough when business is good. But when the factory begins to run short +time, and lay men off, like it did last winter, there's trouble."</p> + +<p>J.W. wanted to know what sort of trouble.</p> + +<p>"Oh, well," said MacPherson, "strikes hurt worst at the time, but +strikes are just like boils, a sign of something wrong inside. And +short-time and lay-offs—well, ye can't expect the factory to go on +making golden oak rockers just to store in the sheds. Somebody has to +buy 'em. But the boys ain't happy over four-day weeks, let alone no jobs +at all."</p> + +<p>His sociology professor at Cartwright, J.W. recalled, had talked a good +deal about the labor question, but maybe this foreman knew something +about it too. So J.W. put it up to him: "What is at the bottom of it +all, MacPherson? What makes the thing the papers call 'labor unrest'?"</p> + +<p>MacPherson hesitated a moment. Then he settled himself more comfortably +on a pile of boards and proceeded to deliver his soul, or part of it.</p> + +<p>"I can tell you; but there's them that would ship me out of town if I +talked too much, so I'll have to be careful. John Wesley, you've got a +grand name, and the church John Wesley started has a good name, though +it's not my church. I'm a Scot, you know. But I know your preacher, and +he and I are of the same mind about this, I know. Well, then, if your +Methodist Church could find a method with labor, it would get hold of +the same sort of common people as the ones who heard Jesus gladly. These +working-men are not in the way of being saints, ye ken, but they think +that somewhere there is a rotten spot in the world of factories and +shops and mills. They think they learn from experience, who by the way, +is the dominie of a high-priced school, that they get most of the losses +and few of the profits of industry. They get a living wage when times +are good. When times are bad they lose the one thing they've got to +sell, and that's their day's work; when a loafing day is gone there's +nothing to show for it, and no way to make it up. Maybe that's as it +should be, but the worker can't see it, especially if the boss can still +buy gasoline and tires when the plant is idle. Oh, yes, laddie, I know +the working man is headstrong. I'll tell you privately, I think he's a +fool, because so often he gets into a blind rage and wants to smash the +very tools that earn his bite and sup. He may have reason to hate some +employer, but why hate the job? It's a good job, if he makes good +chairs. He goes on strike, many's the time, without caring that it hurts +him and his worse than it hurts the boss. And often the boss thinks he +wants nothing bigger than a few more things. Maybe he _is_ wild for a +phonograph and a Ford and golden oak rockers of his own in the parlor, +and photographs enlarged in crayon hanging on the walls—and a steady +job. But, listen to me, John Wesley, Jr., and you'll be a credit to your +namesake: these wild, unreasonable workers, with all their foolishness +and sometimes wickedness, are whiles dreaming of a different world, a +better world for everybody. 'Twould be no harm if some bosses dreamed +more about that too, me boy. Your preacher—he's a fine man too, is Mr. +Drury—he understands that, and he wants to use it for something to +build on. That's why I tell folks he's a Methodist preacher with a real +method in his ministry. Now I'll quit me fashin' and get back to the +job. I doubt you'll be busy yourself this afternoon."</p> + +<p>He gripped J.W.'s hand, so that the knuckles were unable to forget him +all day, but what he had said gripped harder than his handshake. If the +furniture factory was a mixed blessing, what of the cannery?</p> + +<p>Somewhat to his own surprise, J.W. was getting interested in his town, +but if at first he was inclined to wonder how he happened to develop all +this new concern, he soon ceased to think of it. So slight a matter +could not stay in the front of his thinking when he really began to know +something of the Delafield to which he had never paid much attention.</p> + +<p>It was through Joe Carbrook that he got his next jolt. Joe, now spending +his vacations in ways that amazed people who had memories of his wild +younger manner, was in and out of the Farwell store a good deal. Also he +spent considerable time with Pastor Drury, though there is no record of +what they talked about.</p> + +<p>"J.W., old boy," Joe asked one day, coming away from the pastor's +study, "have you ever by any chance observed Main Street?"</p> + +<p>"Why, yes," J.W. answered, "seeing that two or three or four times a day +I walk six blocks of it back and forth to this store door, I suppose I +have."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, that way," Joe came back at him, "and you've seen me, a +thousand times. But did you ever observe me? My ears, for instance," and +he put his hands over them. "Which one is the larger?"</p> + +<p>Without in the least understanding what his friend was driving at, and +stupidly wondering if he ever had noticed any difference in Joe's ears, +J.W. stared with inane bewilderment. "Is one really larger than the +other?" he asked, helplessly.</p> + +<p>Joe took his hands down, and laughed. "I knew it," he said. "You've +never observed my ears, and yet you think you have observed Main Street. +As it happens, each of my ears takes the same-sized ear-muff. But you +didn't know it. Well, never mind ears; I'm thinking about Main Street. +What do you know of Main Street?"</p> + +<p>J.W. thought he could make up for the ear question. So he said, boldly, +"Joe Carbrook, I can name every place from here to the livery barn +north, and from here to the bridge south, on both sides of the street. +Want me to prove it?"</p> + +<p>"No, J.W., I don't. I reckon you can. But I believe you're still as +blind as I've been about Main Street, just the same. I know Chicago +pretty well and I doubt if there's as big a percentage of graft and +littleness and dollar-pinching and going to the devil generally on +State Street or Wabash Avenue as there is an Main Street, Delafield."</p> + +<p>"You're not trying to say that our business men are crooks, are you, +Joe?" J.W. asked, with a touch of resentment. "You know I happen to be +connected with a business house on Main Street myself."</p> + +<p>"Sure, I know it, and there's Marshall Field's on State Street, and Lyon +& Healy's on Wabash Avenue, and Hart, Schaffner & Marx over by the +Chicago River; just the same as here. But I—well, of course, there's a +story back of it all. Mother heard a couple of weeks ago that one of our +old Epworth League girls was having a hard time of it—she's working at +the Racket store, helping to support her folks. They've had sickness, +and the girl doesn't get big wages. So mother asked me to look her up. +Mother can't get about very easily, you know, and since I'm studying +medicine she seems to think I'm the original Mr. Fix-It. I made a few +discreet inquiries, discreet, that is, for me, and can you guess who +that girl is? You can't, I know. Well, she's Alma Wetherell, and that's +the identical girl who gave me such a dressing down one day at the +Cartwright Institute four years ago. Remember? Say, J.W., that day she +told me so much of the deadly truth about myself that I hated her even +more for knowing what to say than I did for saying it. But she had a big +lot to do with waking me up, and I owe her something."</p> + +<p>J.W. had not remembered the Institute incident. But he recalled that +Alma was at Cartwright that summer, and he had seen her at church +occasionally since he came home from college. She was living in town and +working in some store or other he knew, but that was all.</p> + +<p>"What did you find out?" he asked Joe.</p> + +<p>"I found out enough so that Alma has a better job, and things are going +easier at home. But that was just a starter. My brave John Wesley, do +you remember your college sociology and economics and civics and all the +rest? Never mind confessing; you don't; I didn't either. But I began to +review 'em in actual business practice. First I told the right merchant +what sort of a bookkeeper I had found slaving away for ten dollars a +week on the dark, smelly balcony of the Racket—and he's given Alma a +job at twenty in a sun-lighted office. Then I told Mr. Peters of the +Racket what I had done, and why. He didn't like it, but it will do him +good. That made me feel able to settle anything, and I'm looking around +for my next joy as journeyman rescuer and expert business adjuster. +Honest, J.W., I've not seen near all there is to see, but I'm swamped +already. You've got to come along, you and some others, and see for +yourself what's the matter with Main Street."</p> + +<p>Not all at once, but before very long, J.W. shared Joe's aroused +interest. Pastor Drury was with them, of course; and the three called +into consultation a few other capable and trustworthy men and women. +Marcia Dayne had come home for a few weeks' holiday, and at once +enlisted. Alma Wetherell was able to give some highly significant +suggestions.</p> + +<p>There was no noise of trumpets, and no publicity of any sort. Mr. Drury +insisted that what they needed first and most was not newspaper +attention, and not even organization, but exact information. So for many +days a group of puzzled and increasingly astonished people set about the +study of their own town's principal street, as though they had never +seen it before. And, in truth, they never had.</p> + +<p>It was no different from all other small town business districts. The +Gem Theater vied with the Star and the Orpheum in lavish display of +gaudy posters advertising pictures that were "coming to-morrow," and in +two weeks of observation the investigators learned what sort of moving +pictures Delafield demanded, or, at least what sort it got. They took +note of the Amethyst Coterie's Saturday night dances—"Wardrobe, 50 +cents, Ladies Free"—and of the boys and girls who patronized the place. +The various cigar and pocket-billiards combinations were quietly +observed, some of the observers learning for the first time that young +men are so determined to get together that they are not to be deterred +by dirt or bad air or foul and brainless talk.</p> + +<p>The candy stores with soda fountains and some of the drug stores which +served refreshments took on a new importance. Instead of being no more +than handy purveyors of sweets, of soft drinks and household remedies, +they were seen to be also social centers, places for "dates" and +telephone flirtations and dalliance. Much of their doings was the merest +silly time-killing, but generally the youthful patrons welcomed all this +because it was a change from the empty dullness of homes that had missed +the home secret, and from the still duller and wasting monotony of +uninteresting toil.</p> + +<p>It was Pastor Drury who suggested the explanation for all these forms of +profitless and often dangerous amusement. He was chatting with the whole +group one night, and merely happened to address himself first to J.W., +Jr.</p> + +<p>Your great namesake, J.W., was so much a part of his day that he +believed with most other great religious thinkers of his time that play +was a device of the devil. His belief belonged to eighteenth-century +theology and psychology. But even more it grew out of the vicious +diversions of the rich and the brutalizing amusements of the poor. Both +were bad, and there was not much middle ground. But here on Main Street +we see people, most of them young, who feel, without always +understanding why, that they simply must be amused. They feel it so +strongly that they will pay any price for it if circumstances won't let +them get it any other way. And Main Street is ready to oblige them. +There could be no amusement business if people were not clamoring to be +amused. And we know now why we have no right to say that all this clamor +is the devil's prompting. Isn't it queer that the church is only now +beginning to believe in the genuineness and wholesomeness of the play +instinct, though it is a proper and natural human hunger? Literally +everybody wants to play.</p> + +<p>"People pay more for the gratification of this hunger than they do for +bread or shoes or education or religion. They take greater moral risks +for it than they do for money. We have seen people who undoubtedly are +going to the devil by the amusement route, unless something is done to +stop them. They go wrong quicker and oftener in their play than in their +work. Are we going to be content with denouncing the dance hall and the +poolroom and the vile pictures and the loose conduct of the soft-drink +places and Electric Park? Haven't we some sort of duty to see that every +young person in Delafield has a chance at first-hand, enjoyable, and +decent play?"</p> + +<p>All agreed that the pastor was right, though they were not so clear +about what could be done.</p> + +<p>But commercialized amusement was not all they found in their quiet +voyages of discovery up and down Main Street.</p> + +<p>The chain stores had come to Delafield—not the "5 and 10" only, but +stores which specialized in groceries, tobacco, shoes, dry goods, drugs, +and other commodities. Alongside of them were the locally owned stores. +Altogether, Main Street had far too many stores to afford good service +or reasonable prices. With all this duplication on the one hand, and +absentee-control on the other, Main Street was a street of +underlings—clerks and salespeople and delivery men. That condition +produced low wages and inefficient methods, many of the workers being +too young to be out of school and too dense to show any intelligence +about the work they were supposed to do. Cheap help was costly, and the +efficient help was scarcely to be found at any price.</p> + +<p>The investigators were frankly dismayed at the extent and complexity of +the situation. They had thought to find occasional cases calling for +adjustment, or even for the law. But instead they had found a whole +fabric of interwoven questions—amusements, wages, competition, +cooperation, ignorance, vulgarity, vice, cheapness, trickery, "business +is business." True, they had found more honest businesses than shady +ones, more faithful clerks than shirkers, more decent people in the +pleasure resorts than doubtful people. But the total of folly and evil +was very great; could the church do anything to decrease it?</p> + +<p>And that question led the little company of inquisitive Christians into +yet wider reaches of inquiry. J. W. and Joe and Marcia at Mr. Drury's +suggestion agreed to be a sort of unofficial committee to find out about +the churches of Delafield. He told them that this was first of all a +work for laymen. The preachers might come in later.</p> + +<p>Joe invited the others to the new Carbrook home on the Heights into +which his people had lately moved. The Heights was a new thing to +J.W.—a rather exclusive residential quarter which had been laid out +park-wise in the last four or five years; with houses in the midst of +wide lawns, a Heights club house and tennis courts and an exquisite +little Gothic church.</p> + <a name="image4" id="image4"></a><img src="images/imgfour.jpg" alt="The Tenements of Many Delafields and One of the High Lights of Main Street" align="right" /> + <p>"When our folks first talked about moving out here I thought it was all +right; and I do yet, in some ways," explained Joe. "But the Heights is +getting a little too good for me; I'm not as keen about being exclusive +as I used to be. I've thought lately that exclusiveness may be just as +bad for people inside the gates, as for the people outside. But here we +are, as the Atlantic City whale said when the ebb tide stranded it in +front of the Board Walk. What are we up to, us three?"</p> + +<p>"We're up to finding out about the town churches," said J.W. "Maybe they +can help the town more than they do, but we don't know how, and so far +we haven't found anybody else who knows how."</p> + +<p>And Marcia said: "At least we know some things. We have the figures. +About one Delafield citizen in seven goes to church or Sunday school on +Sunday. Church membership is one in ten. And as many people go to the +movies and the Columbia vaudeville and the dance halls and poolrooms on +Saturday as go to church on Sunday, to say nothing of the crowds that go +on the other five days."</p> + +<p>Joe Carbrook whistled. "That's a tough nut to crack, gentle people," he +said, "because you've simply got to think of those other five days. The +chances are that four times as many people in Delafield go to other +public places as go to church and Sunday school."</p> + +<p>"What can the churches do?" asked J.W. "You can't make people go to +church."</p> + +<p>"No," assented Marcia, "and if you could, it would be foolish. We want +to make people like the churches, not hate them. One thing I believe our +churches can do is to put their public services more into methods and +forms that don't have to be taken for granted or just mentally dodged. +Half the time people don't know what a religious service really stands +for."</p> + +<p>"Meaning by that----?" Joe queried, as much to hear Marcia talk as for +the sake of what she might say.</p> + +<p>"Well, they have seen and heard it since they were children. When they +were little they didn't understand it, and now it is so familiar that +they forget they don't understand it," Marcia responded, not wholly +oblivious of Joe's strategy, but too much in earnest to care. "I've +heard of a successful preacher in the East who seems to be making them +understand. He says he tries to put into each service four +things—light, music, motion; that is, change—and a touch of the +dramatic. Why not? I think it could be done without destroying the +solemnity of the worship. They did it in the Temple at Jerusalem, and +they do it in Saint Peter's at Rome and in Westminster Abbey and Saint +John's Cathedral in New York. Why shouldn't we do it here in our little +churches?"</p> + +<p>"Make a note of it, J.W.," ordered Joe. "It's worth suggesting to some +of the preachers."</p> + +<p>J.W. made his note, rather absently, and offered a conclusion of his +own:</p> + +<p>"The church must take note of the town's sore spots too. I've found out +that crowding people in tenements and shacks means disease and +immorality. Isn't that the church's affair? Angus MacPherson has taught +me that when the jobs are gone little crimes come, followed by bigger +ones; and sickness comes too, with the death rate going up. Babies are +born to unmarried mothers, and babies, with names or without, die off a +lot faster in the river shacks and the east side tenements than they do +up this way. Maybe the church couldn't help all this even if it knew; +but I'm for asking it to know."</p> + +<p>"I'll vote for that," Joe asserted, "if you'll vote for my proposition, +which is this: our churches must quit trying just to be prosperous; they +must quit competing for business like rival barkers at a street fair; +they must begin to find out that their only reason for existence is the +service they can give to those who need it most; they've got to believe +in each other and work with each other and with all the other town +forces that are trying to make a better Delafield."</p> + +<p>"That's right," said J.W. "I was talking to Mr. Drury this morning, and +I asked him what he would think of our starting a suggestion list. He +said it ought to be a fine thing. But he wants us to do it all +ourselves. Just the same, we can take our suggestions to him, and then, +if he believes in them, he can talk to the other preachers about them, +and, of course, about any ideas of his own. Because you know, I'm pretty +sure he has been thinking about all this a good deal longer than we +have."</p> + +<p>It was agreed that the list should be started. Marcia was not willing +to keep it to themselves; she wanted to have it talked about in League +and Sunday school and prayer meeting, and then, when everybody had been +given the chance to add to it, and to improve on it—but not to weaken +it—that it be put out for general discussion among all the churches.</p> + +<p>"And then," said Joe Carbrook, "we might call it 'The Everyday Doctrines +of Delafield,' If we stick to the things every citizen will admit he +ought to believe and do, the churches will still have all the chance +they have now to preach those things which must be left to the +individual conscience."</p> + +<p>That was the beginning of a document with which Delafield was to become +very familiar in the months which followed; never before had the town +been so generally interested in one set of ideas, and to this day you +can always start a conversation there by mentioning the "Everyday +Doctrines of Delafield," The Methodist preacher gave them their final +form, but he took no credit for the substance of them, though, secretly, +he was vastly proud that the young people, and especially J. W., should +have so thoroughly followed up his first suggestion of a civic creed.</p> + +<p>THE EVERYDAY DOCTRINES OF DELAFIELD</p> + +<p>1. Every part of Delafield is as much Delafield as any other +part We are citizens of a commonwealth, and Delafield should +be in fact as well as name a democratic community.</p> + +<p>2. Whenever two Delafield citizens can better do something +for the town than one could do it, they should get together. +And the same holds good for twenty citizens, or a hundred, or +a thousand. One of the town's mottoes should be, "Delafield +Is Not Divided."</p> + +<p>3. Everything will help Delafield if it means better people, +in better homes, with better chances at giving their children the +right bringing-up, but anything which merely means more people, +or more money, or more business is likely to cost more than it +comes to. We will boost for Delafield therefore, but we will +first be careful.</p> + +<p>4. Every part of Delafield is entitled to clean streets and plenty +of air, water, and sunlight. It is perhaps possible to be a Christian +amid ugliness and filth, but it is not easy, and it is not +necessary.</p> + +<p>5. Every family in Delafield has the right to a place that can +be made into a home, at a cost that will permit of family self-respect, +proper privacy, and the ordinary decencies of civilized living. +Every case of poverty in Delafield should be considered as +a reflection on the town, as being preventable and curable by +remedies which any town that is careful of its good name +can apply.</p> + +<p>6. Delafield believes that beauty pays better than ugliness. +Therefore she is for trees and flowers, green lawns, and clean +streets, paint where it properly belongs, and everybody setting +a good example by caring for his own premises and so inciting +his neighbor to outdo him.</p> + +<p>7. The only industries Delafield needs are those which can +provide for their operation without forcing workers to be idle +so much of the time as to reduce apparent income, and so to +cause poverty, sickness, and temptation to wrongdoing. The +standard of income ought to be for the year, and not by the +day; in the interest of homes rather than in the interest of lodging +houses and lunch rooms.</p> + +<p>8. Delafield can support, or should find ways to support, the +workers needed in her stores, shops, and factories, at fair pay, +without making use of children, who should continue in school, +and without reckoning on the desperation of those made poor +by their dependence on a job.</p> + +<p>9. Amusements in Delafield can be and ought to be clean, +self-respecting, and available for everybody. This calls for playgrounds +and weekday playtime, as well as plenty of recreational +opportunities provided by the churches, without money-making +features.</p> + +<p>10. The forms of amusement provided for pay can be and +should be influenced by public opinion, positively expressed, +rather than by public indifference. Any picture house would +rather be praised for bringing a good picture to town than condemned +for showing a bad one. Picture people enjoy praise as +much as preachers do.</p> + +<p>11. Delafield's many organizations should tell the whole town +what they are trying to do, so that unnecessary duplication of +plan and purpose may first be discovered and then done +away with.</p> + +<p>12. Whenever a Delafield church, or club, or society, proposes +to engage in a work that is to benefit the town, the plan ought +to be made known, and in due time the results should be published +as widely as was the plan. This will help us to learn by +our Delafield failures as well as by our Delafield successes.</p> + +<p>13. The churches of Delafield are Delafield property, as the +schools are, though paid for in a different way. Neither schools +nor churches exist for their own sakes, but for Delafield, and +then some.</p> + +<p>14. Every church in Delafield should have a definite parish, +and every well-defined section or group should have a church. +The churched should lead in providing for the unchurched, and +the overchurched might spare out of their abundance of workers +and equipment some of the resources that are needed.</p> + +<p>15. The first concern of all the churches should be to reach +the unchurched and to make church friends of the church-haters. +This goes for all the churches; it is more important to get the +sense of God and principles of Jesus into the thought of the +whole town than to set Protestant and Roman Catholic in mutually +suspicious and hateful opposition; devout Jew and sincere +Christian must realize that righteousness in Delafield cannot be +attended to by either without the other.</p> + +<p>16. The churches of Delafield believe that all matters of social +concern—work, wages, housing, health, amusement, and morals—are +part of every church's business. Therefore they will not +cease to urge their members always to deal with these matters as +Christian citizens, not merely as Christians.</p> + +<p>17. Every child and young person in Delafield ought to be in +the day school on weekdays, and in Sunday school on Sunday. +Delafield discourages needless absence from one as much as +from the other.</p> + +<p>18. Delafield wants the best possible teachers teaching in all +her schools. She insists on trained teachers on week days, and +needs them on Sundays. Therefore she believes that teacher-training +is part of every church's duty to Delafield.</p> + +<p>"There's one thing about all this that bothers me," said J.W. when they +had finished the final draft of the Every Day Doctrines, "not that it's +the only one; but some of these Doctrines stand small chance of being +put into practice until the church people are willing to spend more +money on such work. It can't be done on the present income of the +churches, or by the usual money-raising methods."</p> + +<p>"That's a fact," Joe Carbrook agreed. "I'd already made up my mind that +the Carbrooks would have to dig a little deeper, and so must everybody +else who cares."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but how to get everybody else to care; that's the trouble," J.W. +persisted. "Dad's one of the stewards, you know, and they find it no +easy job to collect even what the church needs now. They have a deficit +to worry with every year, almost."</p> + +<p>Marcia Dayne was the only other member of the "Let's Know Delafield" +group who happened to be present at this last meeting. She had been +waiting for a chance to speak. "I'm surprised at you two," she said. +"Don't you know the only really workable financial way out?"</p> + +<p>"Well, not exactly," J.W. admitted. "I suppose if we could only get +people to care more, they would give more. It's a matter of letting them +know the need and all that, I guess. For instance—"</p> + +<p>Marcia was not ready for his "for instances." "John Wesley, Jr.," she +interrupted with mock severity, "as a thinker you have shone at times +with a good deal more brilliance than that. If you had said it just the +other way 'round you would have been nearer right. People _will_ give if +they care, of course, but it is even more certain that they will care if +they give. The thing we need is to show them how to give."</p> + +<p>Joe Carbrook broke into an incredulous laugh. "In other words, my fair +Marcia, you want Christians to give before they care what it is they are +giving to, or even know about it. Don't you think our church will be a +long time financing the Every Day Doctrines on that system?"</p> + +<p>Joe and Marcia never hesitated to take opposite sides in a discussion, +and always with good-humored frankness. So Marcia came back promptly: "I +know you think it unreasonable," she said, "but there's a condition you +overlook. We became Christians long before any of us thought about +studying Delafield's needs. And if we and all the rest of the Christians +of the town had accepted our financial relation to the Kingdom and had +acted on it from the start, there would always be money enough and to +spare."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," Joe said understandingly, "I see now. You mean the tithe."</p> + +<p>Marcia knew, no matter how, that Joe had begun to think about tithing, +and this seemed the opportune time to stress it a little more. It could +help the Every Day Doctrines, and both Joe and J.W. were keen for that.</p> + +<p>So Marcia admitted that she did mean the tithe. "I don't pretend to know +how it began, any more than I know how real homes were established after +the Fall, or how keeping Sunday began; I do know these began long before +there was any fourth or fifth commandment, or any Children of Israel. +And I've gone over all the whole subject with Mr. Drury—he has a lot of +practical pamphlets on the tithe. I believe that it is the easiest, +surest, fairest and cheerfulest way of doing two Christian things at +once—acknowledging God's ownership of all we have, and going into +partnership with God in his work for the world, what the books sometimes +call Christian Stewardship."</p> + +<p>"I'd like to see those pamphlets," said J.W.</p> + +<p>"It's queer you haven't seen them before this," said Marcia. "Mr. Drury +has distributed hundreds of them. But maybe that was when you were away +at Cartwright. Anyway, I'll get some for you."</p> + +<p>Joe was holding his thought to the main matter. "Marcia," said he, "if +you can make good on what you said just now, pamphlets or no pamphlets, +I'll agree to become a tither. First, to start where you did, how is +tithing easier than giving whenever you feel like giving?"</p> + +<p>Now, though Marcia expected no such challenge, she was game. "I'm not +the one to prove all that, but I believe what I said, and I'll try to +make good, as you put it. But please don't say 'give' when you talk +about tithing, or even about any sort of financial plan for Christians. +The first word is 'pay,' Giving comes afterward. Well, then; tithing is +the easiest way, because when you are a tither you always have tithing +money. You begin by setting the tenth apart for these uses, and it is no +more hardship to pay it out than to pay out any other money that you +have been given with instructions for its use."</p> + +<p>"Not bad, at all," said Joe. "Now tell us why it is the surest way of +using a Christian's money."</p> + +<p>By this time Marcia was beginning to enjoy herself. "It is the surest +because it almost collects itself. No begging; no schemes. You have +tithing money on hand—and you have, almost always—therefore you don't +need to be coaxed into thinking you can spare it. If the cause is a real +claim, that's all you need to find out. And when you begin to put money +into any cause you're going to get interested in that cause. Besides, +when all Christians tithe there will be more than enough money for every +good work."</p> + +<p>J.W. had not thought much of the tithe except as being one of those +religious fads, and he knew that every church had a few religious +faddists. But he had long cherished a vast respect for Marcia's good +sense, and what she was saying seemed reasonable enough. He wondered if +it could be backed up by evidence.</p> + +<p>Joe smilingly took up the next excellence of the tithe which Marcia had +named. "Let me see; did you say that the tithe is the fairest of all +Christian financial schemes?"</p> + +<p>"Not that, exactly," Marcia corrected. "I said it was the fairest way of +acknowledging God's ownership and of working with him in partnership. +And it is. It puts definiteness in the place of whim. It is proportional +to our circumstances. It is not difficult. Mr. Drury says that forty +years' search has failed to find a tither who has suffered hardship +because of paying the tithe."</p> + +<p>"Well, Joe," J. W. put in, "if Marcia can produce the evidence on these +three points, you may as well take the fourth for granted. If tithing is +the easiest, surest and fairest plan of Christian Stewardship, seems to +me it's just got to be cheerful. I'm going to look into it, and if she's +right, as I shouldn't wonder, it's up to you and me to get our finances +onto the ten per cent basis."</p> + +<p>Joe was never a reluctant convert to anything. When he saw the new way, +his instinct was for immediate action. "Let's go over to Mr. Drury's," +he proposed, "and see if we can't settle this thing to-day. I hope +Marcia's right," and he looked into her eyes with a glance of something +more than friendly, "and if she is I'm ready to begin tithing to-day."</p> + +<p>Pastor Drury, always a busy man, reckoned interviews like this as urgent +business always. Not once nor twice, but many times in the course of a +year, his quiet, indirect work resulted in similar expeditions to his +study, and as a rule he knew about when to expect them. He produced the +pamphlets, added a few suggestions of his own, and let the three young +people do most of the talking. They stayed a long time, no one caring +about that.</p> + +<p>As they were thanking the pastor, before leaving, Joe said with his +usual directness, "Marcia _was_ right, and here's where I begin to be a +systematic Christian as far as my dealings with money are concerned."</p> + +<p>J.W., not in the least ashamed to follow Joe's lead, said, "Same here. +Wish I'd known it sooner. Now we've got to preach it."</p> + +<p>And Joe said to Mr. Drury, in the last moment at the door, "Mr. Drury, +if we could all get a conscience about the tithe, and pay attention to +that conscience, half the Everyday Doctrines would not even need to be +stated. They would be self-evident. And the other half could be put into +practice with a bang!"</p> + +<p>The Delafield _Dispatch_ got hold of a copy of the "Everyday Doctrines" +and printed the whole of it with a not unfavorable editorial comment, +under the caption "When Will All This Come True?"</p> + +<p>But Walter Drury, when he saw it, said to himself, "It has already come +true in a very real sense, for John Wesley, Jr., and these others +believe in it." And he knew it marked one more stage of the Experiment, +so that he could thank God and take courage.</p> + + + +<br /><br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /><br /> +<a name="chap5"></a><h2>CHAPTER V</h2> +<br /> + +<p><strong>HERE THE ALIEN; THERE THE LITTLE BROWN CHURCH</strong></p> + +<p>It was all very well to work out the "Everyday Doctrines of Delafield." +To secure their adoption and application by all the churches of +Delafield was another matter. The unofficial committee scattered, for +one thing. Joe Carbrook went back to medical school, and Marcia to the +settlement and the training school. Marty was traveling his circuit. J. +W. and the pastor and a few others continued their studies of the town. +Nobody had yet ventured to talk about experts, but it began to be +evident that the situation would soon require thoroughgoing and skilled +assistance. Otherwise, all that had been learned would surely be lost.</p> + +<p>One day in the late fall a stranger dropped in at the Farwell Hardware +Store and asked for Mr. J. W. Farwell, Jr. He had called first on Pastor +Drury, who was expecting him; and that diplomat had said to him, "Go see +J. W. I think he'll help you to get something started."</p> + +<p>J. W., with two of the other clerks, was unloading a shipment of +stovepipes. The marks of his task were conspicuous all over him, and he +scarcely looked the part of the public-spirited young Methodist. But +the visitor was accustomed to know men when he saw them, under all +sorts of disguises.</p> + +<p>J. W., called to the front of the store, met the visitor with a +good-natured questioning gaze.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Farwell, I am Manford Conover, of Philadelphia. Back there we have +heard something of the 'Everyday Doctrines of Delafield,' and I've been +sent to find out about them—and their authors."</p> + +<p>"Sent?" J. W. repeated. "Why should anybody send you all the way from +Philadelphia to Delafield just for that?" He could not know how much +pastoral and even episcopal planning was back of that afternoon call.</p> + +<p>"Don't think that we reckon it to be unimportant, Mr. Farwell," said Mr. +Conover, pleasantly. "You see I'm from a Methodist society with a long +name and a business as big as its name—the Board of Home Missions and +Church Extension. The thing some of you are starting here in Delafield +is our sort of thing. It may supply our Board with new business in its +line, and what we can do for you may make your local work productive of +lasting results, in other places as well as here."</p> + +<p>J. W. did not quite understand, but he was willing to be instructed, for +he had found out that the effort to promote the "Everyday Doctrines" was +forever developing new possibilities and at the same time revealing new +expanses of Delafield ignorance and need. Anybody who appeared to have +intelligence and interest was the more welcome.</p> + +<p>They talked a while, and then, "I'll tell you what," proposed J. W. +"How long do you expect to be in town?" Mr. Conover replied that as yet +he had made no arrangement for leaving.</p> + +<p>"Then let's get together a few people to-night after prayer meeting. Our +pastor, of course, and the editor of the _Dispatch_—he's the right +sort, if he does boost 'boosting' a good deal; and Miss Leigh, of the +High School—she's all right every way; and Mrs. Whitehill, the +president of the Woman's Association of our church—that's the women's +missionary societies and the Ladies' Aid merged into one—she's a +regular progressive; and Harry Field, who's just getting hold of his job +in the League; and the Sunday school superintendent. That's dad, you +know; he's had the job for a couple of years now, and he's as keen about +it as Harry is over the League."</p> + +<p>They got together, and out of that first simple discussion came all +sorts of new difficulties for Delafield Methodism to face and master.</p> + +<br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /> + +<p>Manford Conover was a preacher with a business man's training and +viewpoint. He may have mentioned his official title, when he first +appeared, but nobody remembered it. When people couldn't think of his +name he was "the man from the Board," which was all the same to him.</p> + +<p>After that first night's meeting Conover gave several days to walks +about Delafield. J. W. had found the shacks and the tenements, and Joe +Carbrook had introduced J. W. to Main Street, but it was left to +Conover to show him Europe and Africa in Delafield.</p> + +<p>There's a certain town in a Middle Western State, far better known than +Delafield, rich, intelligent, highly self-content. Its churches and +schools and clubs are matters for complacent satisfaction. And you would +be safe in saying that not one in five of its well-to-do people know +that the town has a Negro quarter, an Italian section, a Bohemian +settlement, a Scandinavian community, a good-sized Greek colony, and +some other centers of cultures and customs alien to what they assume is +the town's distinctive character.</p> + +<p>They know, of course, that such people live in the town—couldn't help +knowing it. Their maids are Scandinavian or Negro. They buy vegetables +and candy from the Greeks. They hear of bootlegging and blind tigers +among certain foreign groups. The rough work of the town is done by men +who speak little or no English. But all this makes small impression. It +is a commonplace of American town life. And scarcely ever does it +present itself as something to be looked into, or needing to be +understood.</p> + +<p>So Conover found it to be with Delafield. The "Everyday Doctrines" were +well enough, but he knew a good deal of spade work must be done before +they could take root and grow. He fronted a condition which has its +counterpart in most American towns, each of which is two towns, one +being certain well-defined and delimited areas where languages and +Braces live amid conditions far removed from the American notion of +what is endurable, and the other the "better part of town," sometimes +smugly called "the residence section," where white Americans have homes.</p> + +<p>Conover and Pastor Drury compared notes. They were of one mind as to the +conditions which Conover had found, conditions not surprising to the +minister, who knew more about Delafield than any of his own people +suspected.</p> + +<p>One afternoon they met J. W. on the street, and he led them into a candy +store for hot chocolate.</p> + +<p>As they sipped the chocolate they talked; J. W., as usual, saying +whatever he happened to think of.</p> + +<p>"Say, Mr. Conover," he remarked, "I notice in all your talk about the +foreigner in America you haven't once referred to the idea of the +melting pot. Don't you think that's just what America is? All these +people coming here and getting Americanized and assimilated and all +that?"</p> + +<p>"I'd think America was the melting pot if I could see more signs of the +melting," Conover answered. "But look at Delafield; how much does the +melting pot melt here?"</p> + +<p>Then he looked across the store. "Do you know the proprietor, Mr. +Farwell?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed; Nick and I are good friends," answered J. W.</p> + +<p>"Then I wish you'd introduce me," returned Conover.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Nick," J. W. called, "will you come over here a minute?"</p> + +<p>Nick came, wiping his hands on his apron.</p> + +<p>"Nick," said J. W., doing the honors, "you know Mr. Drury, the pastor of +our church. And this is Mr. Conover from Philadelphia, a very good +friend of ours. He's been looking around town, and wants to ask you +something."</p> + +<p>Nick's brisk and cheerful manner was at its best, for he liked J. W., +besides liking the trade he brought.</p> + +<p>"Sure," said he, "I tell him anything if I know it. Glad for the +chance."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Dulas," said Conover—he had taken note of the name on the window, +"you know the East Side pretty well, do you? Then, you know that many +Italians live just north of Linden Street, and there's a block or so of +Polish homes between Linden and the next street south?"</p> + +<p>"Sure I do," said Nick, confidently, "I live on other side of them +myself. See 'em every day."</p> + +<p>"Very well," Conover went on. "What I want to know is this: how do the +Italians and the Poles get along together?"</p> + +<p>"They don't have nothing much to do with one another," Nick replied. +"It's like this, the Poles they talk Polish, and maybe a little English. +The Italians, they speak Italian, and some can talk English, only not +much. But Poles they can't talk Italian at all, and Italians can't talk +Polish. So how could they get together?"</p> + +<p>"That's just the question, Mr. Dulas," Conover agreed. "I'm telling +these gentlemen that it is harder for the different foreign-born people +to know one another and to be friendly with one another than it is for +them to know and associate with Americans."</p> + <a name="image5" id="image5"></a><img src="images/imgfive.jpg" alt="One Of The Cannery Colony" align="left" /> + <p>"Sure, Mister," Nick said, with great positiveness. "Sure. Before I +speak English I know nobody but Greeks, and when I start learning +English I got no time to learn Polish, or Italian, or whatever it is. +English I got to speak, if I run a candy store, but not those other +languages."</p> + +<p>And he went off to serve a customer who had just entered.</p> + +<p>"There you have that side," said Conover to the minister and J. W. "The +need of English as an Americanizing force, and the meed of it as a +medium of communication between the different foreign groups. Looks as +though we've got to bear down hard on English, don't you think?"</p> + +<p>"As Nick says, 'Sure I do,'" Mr. Drury assented. "It will come out all +right with the children, I hope; they're getting the English. But it +makes things hard just now."</p> + +<p>"What can the church do?" J. W. put in. "Should it undertake to teach +English, as that preacher taught Phil Khamis, you remember, Mr. Drury; +or Americanization, or what?"</p> + +<p>"I think it should do something else first," said Conover. "Why should +we Americans try to make Europeans understand us, unless we first try to +understand them? Isn't ours the first move?"</p> + +<p>"But this is the country they're going to live in," returned J.W. "They +can't expect us to adjust ourselves to European ways. They've got to do +the adjusting, haven't they?"</p> + +<p>"Why?" Conover came back. "Because we were here first? But the Indian +was here before us. We told him he needn't do any adjusting at all, and +see what we've made of him. Maybe these Europeans can add enriching +elements to our American culture."</p> + +<p>"I guess so, but"—and J. W. was evidently at a loss—"but they've got +to obey our laws, you know, and fit into our civilization. The Indian +was different. We couldn't make Indians of ourselves, and he wouldn't +become civilized."</p> + +<p>"Americanized, you mean?" and Conover laughed a little at the irony of +it.</p> + +<p>"No, no; not that. But he wouldn't meet us half way, even," J.W. said.</p> + +<p>"I think," suggested Pastor Drury, "that what Mr. Conover means is that +we'd better be a little less stiff to newcomers than the Indian was to +us. Am I right?"</p> + +<p>"Exactly right," returned Conover. "Europe is in a general way the +mother-land of us all. But many of her children were late in getting +here. The earlier ones have made their contributions; why may not the +later ones also bring gifts for our common treasure?"</p> + +<p>"Well, what in particular do you mean?" asked J.W., who was finding +himself adrift. He had been quite willing in the Institute days to be an +admirer of Phil Khamis, and to forget that Phil was of alien birth; but +this was something more complicated.</p> + +<p>"Particulars are not so simple," Conover said. "But, for instance: some +European peoples have a fine musical appreciation. Some delight in +oratory. Some are mystical and dreamy. Some are very children in their +love of color. Some are almost artists in their feeling for beauty in +their work. Some do not enjoy rough play, and others cannot endure to be +quiet. Some have inherited a passionate love of country, and great +traditions of patriotism."</p> + +<p>"We can't value all these things in just the way they do, but at least +we can believe that such interests and instincts are worth something to +America. Then our Americanization work will be not only more intelligent +but far more sympathetic."</p> + +<p>"If I may turn to the immediate business," Mr. Drury said with a smile +of apology, "suppose you tell J.W. what your Board has to suggest for us +here in Delafield, Mr. Conover?"</p> + +<p>Conover turned to J.W. "I wonder if you know anything about Centenary +Church?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"That little old brick barn over in the East Bottoms? Why, yes, or I +used to; if was quite a church when I was a youngster, but I haven't +been that way lately. I guess it's pretty much run down, with all those +foreigners moving in. Most of the old members have probably moved away. +I know there were two Methodist boys with me in high school who lived +down there, but they've moved up to the Heights. One of them lives next +to the Carbrooks."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Drury should take you down that way one of these days," said +Conover, "and you'd find that when your friends moved out of the church +the foreigners who live nearby did not move in. Centenary Church is run +down, as you say."</p> + +<p>Mr. Drury added, "And the few members who are left don't know which way +to turn. They have a supply pastor, who isn't able to do much. He gets a +pitiful salary, but they can't pay more, and there's no money at all, +nor any accommodations, for any special attention to the newcomers."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Conover, "I'm instructed to tell you Delafield Methodists +that the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension is ready to help +make a new Centenary Church, for the people who now live around it. We +have a department that pays special attention to immigrant and alien +populations. Our workers know, in general, what is needed. We can put +some trained people into Centenary, with a pastor who knows how to +direct their work. I should not be surprised to see a parish house +there, and a modernized church building, and a fine array of everyday +work being done there."</p> + +<p>"My, but that sounds great, Mr. Drury, doesn't it?" asked J.W., in a +glow of enthusiasm. Then he checked himself. "It sounds well enough," he +said, "but all that means a lot of money. Where's the money to come +from?"</p> + +<p>"From you, of course," Conover replied, "but not all or most from you. +My Board is a benevolent board—that is to say, it is the whole church +at work in such enterprises as this. That's one way in which its share +of the church's benevolent offerings is used"</p> + +<p>"But you don't mean to tell us," said J.W., incredulously, "that you can +drop in on a place like Delafield, make up your mind what is needed, and +then dump a lot of money into a played-out church, just like that?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's not so informal as all that," Conover said, "The thing has to +go through the official channels, of course. Your district +superintendent and Brother Drury and the Bishop and several others have +had a hand in it already. All concerned have agreed as to the needs and +possibilities. But Delafield is also a good place to put on a +demonstration, an actual, operating scheme. I have been making ready for +a survey of the whole East Side, just a preliminary study, and before +anything positive is done we must make a more thorough inquiry. We +expect to find out everything that needs to be known."</p> + +<p>"There was only one anxiety I had about it," Pastor Drury said, "and +that has been all taken away. I was keen to have this be a truly +Christian demonstration—not just a settlement or a parish house or +night school classes, but a real demonstration of Christian service +among people who now know little about it. In some places these +activities are being set going because church people know they ought to +do something, and it is easier to give money and have gymnasiums and +moving pictures than to make real proof of partnership with Christ by +personal service and sacrifice. Take your old friend Martin Luther +Shenk, J.W.—do you know that he's working at this very difficulty? And +I hear he's finding, even in the country, that some people will really +give themselves, while others will give only their money and their +time."</p> + +<p>J.W. thought of Win-My-Chum week, and how he had had to drive himself to +speak to Marty, so he knew the pastor was right. And he went home with +all sorts of questions running through his mind, but with no very +satisfying answers to make them.</p> + +<p>Coming back in a wakeful night to Mr. Drury's casual mention of Marty, +the thought of his chum set him to wondering how that sturdy young +itinerant was making it go on the Ellis and Valencia Circuit, just as +the pastor guessed it might. To wonder was to decide. He would take a +long-desired holiday. A word or two with his father in the morning gave +him the excuse for what he wanted to do. Then he got Valencia on the +long distance, and the operator told him she would find the "Reverend" +Shenk for him in a few minutes. He had started out that morning to visit +along the State Line Highway, as it was part of her business to know. At +the third try Marty was found, and he answered J.W.'s hail with a shout.</p> + +<p>After the first exchange of noisy greetings, "Say, Marty, dad's asked me +to run down in your part of the world and look at some new barn +furniture that's been put in around Ellis—ventilators and stanchions +and individual drinking cups for the Holsteins—not like the way we used +to treat the cows on our farm, hey? Well, what do you say if I turn +fashionable for once and come down for the week-end—not this week, but +next?"</p> + +<p>No need to ask Marty a question like that. "Come on down. Make it Friday +and I'll show you the sights. We've got something doing at the Ellis +Church, something I want you to see."</p> + +<p>Then Marty thought of a few books that he had left at home—"And—hello, +J.W., are you listening? Well, how'd you like to go out to the farm +before you come down here? Jeanette has gathered a bundle of my books, +and I need 'em. Won't you get 'em for me and bring them along?"</p> + +<p>Certainly, J.W. would. The farm was home to both the boys, and J.W. was +almost as welcome there as Marty; to one member of the family quite so, +though she had never mentioned it.</p> + +<p>On the next Sunday morning J.W. drove out of town in time to get to the +little old church of his childhood for morning service. Then he would go +home with the Shenks for dinner, spend the afternoon, get the books and +come home when he was ready. There was no hurry. J.W., Sr., had given +him two Sundays' leave of absence from Sunday school. The next Sunday +would be his and Marty's, but this would be his and Jeannette's.</p> + +<p>Not that he needed to make any special plans for being with Jeannette +Shenk; of late he had found the half hour drive down to the old farm the +prelude to a pleasant evening. Sometimes he would make the round trip +twice, running out to bring Jeanette into town, when something was +going on, and taking her home afterward in the immemorial fashion.</p> + +<p>As J.W. turned to the church yard lane leading up to the old horseshed, +he noticed that there were only two cars there besides his own—and one +old-time sidebar buggy, battered and mud-bedaubed, with a decrepit and +dejected-looking gray mare between the shafts.</p> + +<p>It was time for meeting, and he contrasted to-day's emptiness of the +long sheds with the crowding vehicles of his childhood memories. In +those days so tightly were buggies and surries and democrats, and even +spring wagons and an occasional sulky wedged into the space, that it was +nothing unusual for the sermon to be interrupted by an uproar in the +sheds, when some peevish horse attempted to set its teeth in the neck of +a neighbor, with a resultant squealing and plunging, a cramping of +wheels and a rattle of harness which could neutralize the most +vociferous circuit rider's eloquence.</p> + +<p>At the door, J.W. fell in with the little group of men, who, according +to ancient custom, had waited in the yard for the announcement of the +first hymn before ending their talk of crops and roads and stock, and +joining the women and children within.</p> + +<p>Inside the contrast with the older day was even more striking. The +church, small as it was, seemed almost empty. The Shenks were there, +including Jeannette, as J.W. promptly managed to observe. Father Foltz +and his middle-aged daughter stood in their accustomed place; they had +come in the venerable sidebar buggy, just as for two decades past. +Mother Foltz hadn't been out of the house in years, and among J.W.'s +earliest recollections were those of the cottage prayer meetings that he +had attended with his father in Mrs. Foltz's speckless sickroom. Then +there were the four Newells, and Mrs. Bellamy, and Mr. and Mrs. Haggard +with their two little girls, and a few people J.W. did not know—perhaps +twenty-five altogether. No wonder the preacher was disheartened, and +preached a flavorless sermon.</p> + +<p>Where were the boys and girls of even a dozen years ago? where the +children who began their Sunday school career in the little recess back +of the curtain? and where the whole families that once filled the place? +Surely, old Deep Creek Church had fallen on evil days.</p> + +<p>It was a dismal service, with its dreary sermon and its tuneless hymns. +After the benediction J.W. shook hands with the preacher, whom he knew +slightly, and exchanged greetings with all the old friends.</p> + +<p>"Well, John Wesley," said Father Foltz, with glum garrulity, "this ain't +the church you used to know when you was little. I mind in them times +when you folks lived on the farm how we thought we'd have to enlarge the +meetinghouse. But it's a good thing we never done it. There's room +enough now," and the old man indulged in a mirthless, toothless grimace.</p> + +<p>The Shenks didn't invite him to dinner; their understanding was finer +than that. Pa Shenk just said, "Let me drive out first, John Wesley; +I'll go on ahead and open the gate," And J.W. said to Jeannette, "Jump +into my car, Jean; it isn't fair to put everybody into Pa Shenk's Ford +when mine's younger and nearly empty."</p> + +<p>So that was that; all regular and comfortable and proper. If Mrs. Newell +smiled as she watched them drive away, what of it? She was heard to say +to Mrs. Bellamy, "I've known for three years that those two ought to +wake up and fall in love with each other, and they've been slower than +Father Foltz's old gray mare. But it looks as though they were getting +their eyes open at last."</p> + +<p>At the farm Mrs. Shenk hurried to finish up the dinner preparations, +with Jeannette to help. Ben and little Alice contended for J.W.'s favor, +until he took Alice on his knee and put one arm about her and the other +about her brother, standing by the chair. And Pa Shenk talked about the +church.</p> + +<p>"I reckon I shouldn't complain, John Wesley," he said, "seeing that our +Marty is a country preacher, and maybe he'll be having to handle a job +like this some time. But I can't believe he will. His letters don't read +like it."</p> + +<p>"But, Pa Shenk," said J.W., "don't you suppose the trouble here in Deep +Creek is because you're so near town? Nine miles is nothing these days, +but when you first came to the farm there was only one automobile in the +township. Now everybody can go into town to church."</p> + +<p>"They can, boy," Pa Shenk answered, "but they don't. Not all of 'em. +Some don't care enough to go anywhere. One-year tenants, mostly, they +are. Some go to town, all right enough, but not to church. A few go to +church, I admit, but only a few."</p> + +<p>J.W. started to speak, hesitated, then blurted it out. "Maybe dad and +others like him are responsible for some of the trouble. They've pulled +out and left just a few to carry the load. You're all right, of course; +you really belong here. But a lot of the farmers who have moved to town +have rented their places to what you call one-year tenants, and it seems +to me that's a poor way to build up anything in the country, churches or +anything else. Tenants that are always moving don't get to know anybody +or to count for anything. It's not much wonder they are no use to the +church."</p> + +<p>"There's a good deal in that, John Wesley," said Pa Shenk. "Your father +and me, we get along fine. We're more like partners than owner and +tenant. But it isn't so with these short-term renters. The owner raises +the rent as the price of land rises, and the tenant is mostly too poor +to do anything much after he's paid the rent. Besides, he's got no stake +in the neighborhood. Why should he pay to help build a new church, when +he's got to move the first of March? And the church has been as careless +about him as he has been about the church."</p> + +<p>"That's what bothers me," J.W. commented. "But even so, I should think +something could be done to interest these folks. They've all got +families to bring up."</p> + +<p>"Something can be done, too," said Pa Shenk. "You remember when the +people on upper Deep Creek used to come here to church, four miles or +so? Well, now they are going to Fairfield Church—owners, renters, +everybody. It's surprising how Fairfield Church is growing. That's going +away from town, not to it, and they're as near to town as we are."</p> + +<p>"Then," persisted J.W., "how do you account for it?"</p> + +<p>"Only one way, my boy," said Pa Shenk. "I'm as much to blame as any, but +we've had some preachers here that didn't seem to understand, and then +lately we've had preachers who stayed in town all the time except on +preaching Sunday, and we scarcely saw or heard of 'em all the two weeks +between. They haven't held protracted meetings for several years, and I +ain't blaming 'em. What's the use of holding meetings when you know +nobody's coming except people that were converted before our present +pastor was born?"</p> + +<p>"You say some people are going over to Fairfield?" asked J.W. "Why do +they go there, when they could go to town about as easy?"</p> + +<p>"Well, John Wesley," Pa Shenk answered, soberly. "I think I know. But +you say you're going to spend next Sunday with Marty. From what Marty +writes I've a notion it's much the same on his work as it is at +Fairfield, except that Marty has two points. Wait till next week, and +then come back and tell us how you explain the difference between Deep +Creek Church and Ellis."</p> + +<p>In the afternoon Jeannette and J.W. took a ride around the +neighborhood, whose every tree and culvert and rural mail-box they knew, +without in the least being tired of seeing it. Their talk was on an old, +old subject, and not remarkable, yet somehow it was more to them both +than any poet's rhapsody. And their occasional silences were no less +eloquent.</p> + +<p>But in a more than usually prosaic moment Jeannette said, "John Wesley, +I wonder if there's any hope to get the Deep Creek young people +interested in church the way they used to be? I'm just hungry for the +sort of good times the older boys and girls used to have when you and +Marty and I were nothing but children. They enjoyed themselves, and so +did everybody else. What's the matter with so many country churches, +nowadays?"</p> + +<p>To which question J.W. could only answer: "I don't know. I didn't +realize things were so bad here. Maybe I'll get some ideas about it next +Saturday and Sunday. Your father seems to think Marty is getting started +on the right track. And that reminds me; don't let me go away without +those books he wants, will you?"</p> + +<p>This is not a record of that Sunday afternoon's drive, nor of the many +others which followed on other Sundays and on the days between. Some +other time there may be opportunity for the whole story of Jeannette and +J.W.</p> + +<br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /> + +<p>As J.W. drove up to Ellis Corners post office late the next Friday +afternoon Marty waylaid him and demanded to be taken aboard. "Drive a +half-mile further east," he said after their boisterous greetings. +"That's where we eat to-night—at Ambery's. Then just across the road to +the church. We've got something special on."</p> + +<p>"A box supper," asked J.W., "or a bean-bag party?" But he knew better.</p> + +<p>Marty told him to wait and see. Supper was a pleasant meal, the Amberys +being pleasant people, who lived in a cozy new house. But J.W. was +mystified to hear Marty speak of Henry Ambery as a retired farmer. He +knew retired farmers in town, plenty of them, and some no happier for +being there. But in the country?</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Marty, "that's easy. Our church is the social hub of all this +community, and I told the Amberys that if they built here they would be +as well off as in town. I'm right too. They bought two acres for less +than the price of a town lot, and they have most of the farm comforts as +well as all the modern conveniences. You didn't notice any signs of +homesickness, did you?"</p> + +<p>No, J.W., hadn't, though he knew the retired-farmer sort of homesickness +when he saw it.</p> + +<p>"And the Amberys are worth more to the church than they ever were," +Marty added. "I'm thinking of a scheme to colonize two or three other +retiring farmers within easy reach of this church. Why not? They've got +cars, and can drive to the county seat in an hour if they want to. +That's better than living there all the time, with nothing to do."</p> + +<p>By this the two were at the church, a pretty frame building, L-shaped, +with a community house adjoining the auditorium. People were beginning +to arrive in all sorts of vehicles—cars, mostly. J.W. looked for signs +of a feed, but vainly. No spread tables, no smell of cooking or rattle +of dishes from the kitchen.</p> + +<p>"What is it, Marty?" he asked. And Marty laughed as he answered, +"Old-fashioned singing school, with some new-fashioned variations, +that's all." Certainly it was something which interested the +countryside, for there was every indication of a crowded house.</p> + +<p>J.W. heard the singing and noted with high approval the variations which +modernized the old order. He thought the idea plenty good enough even +for Delafield, which, for him, left nothing more to be said. And there +_was_ a feed, after all; but it was distinctly light refreshments, such +as J.W. was used to at Delafield First Church.</p> + +<p>On the way back to the Amberys', and well into the night in Marty's +room, they talked about the circuit and its work.</p> + +<p>"It isn't a circuit, rightly, you know," Marty said. "I preach every +Sunday at both places, and for the present"—J.W. grinned—"I can get +across the whole parish every day if necessary. But I'm working it a +little more systematically than that."</p> + +<p>"You must be. I can hardly believe even what I've seen already," J.W. +replied. "When I was at Deep Creek last Sunday I was sure it was all +off with the country church, and on the way down here I passed three +abandoned meetinghouses. So I made up my mind to persuade you out of it. +You know I wasn't much in favor of your coming here in the first place. +But maybe that's a bigger job than I thought."</p> + +<p>"You're right, John Wesley, about that. I don't budge, if I can make +myself big enough for the job. It's too interesting. And things are +happening. There's no danger of this church being abandoned."</p> + +<p>"But what do you do, Marty, to make things happen? I know they don't +just happen. I'm from the country too, remember that."</p> + +<p>"What do I do? Not 'I' but 'we.' Well, we work with our heads first, and +our hearts. Then we get out and go at it. Take our very first social +difficulty; in Delafield you have a dozen places to go to. Here it's +either the church or the schoolhouse—that's all the choice there is. +And the schoolhouse has its limitations. So our folks have decided to +make the church, both here and at Valencia, the center of the community. +That explains the social hall; we call it 'Community House.' Everything +that goes on, except the barn dances over east that we can't do much +with so far, goes on in the church, or starts with the church, or ends +at the church. That's the first scheme we put over. It was fairly easy, +you know, because all our country people are pretty much one lot. We +have no rich, and no really poor. And they're not organized to death, +either, as you are in Delafield."</p> + +<p>"Do you try to have something going on every night, and nearly every +day, as Brother Drury does with us?" J. W. asked.</p> + +<p>"Not quite," replied Marty; "we can't. We're too busy growing the food +for you town folks. But we keep up a pretty stiff pace, for the +preacher; I have no time hanging on my hands."</p> + +<p>"I should think not," J. W. commented, "if you try to run everything. +Mr. Drury always seems to have lots of time, just because he makes the +rest of us run the works in Delafield First."</p> + +<p>"Oh, he does, does he?" said Marty, shortly, who knew something of the +older minister's strategy. "That's according to how you look at it. I'm +not above learning from him, and I don't run everything, either. But I'm +there, or thereabouts, most of the time."</p> + +<p>"How do you get time for your study and your sermons, then," queried J. +W., "if you're on the go so much?"</p> + +<p>Marty turned a quizzical look at J. W. "My beloved chum, how did you and +I get time for our studies at Cartwright?" he said. "Besides, I'm making +one hand wash the other. The social life here, for instance, used to be +pretty bad, before Henderson came—that's the preacher whose place I +took. It was pulling away from the church; now it draws to the church. +Henderson started that. The people who are my main dependence in the +other affairs are mostly the same people I can count on in the Sunday +school and League and the preaching service. The more we do the better +it is for what we do Sundays."</p> + +<p>"Then, there's another Because these people and I know one another so +well, I couldn't put on airs in the pulpit if I wanted to. I've just got +to preach straight, and I won't preach a thing I can't back up myself. I +use country illustrations; show them their own world. It's one big white +mark for the Farwell farm, as you might suppose, that I know the best +side of country life, though I don't advertise your real estate."</p> + +<p>"I know," said J.W. "But don't you find country people pretty hard to +manage? That's our experience at the store. They are particular and +critical, and think they know just what they want."</p> + +<p>"They do too," Marty asserted, "Why shouldn't they? I believe I can tell +you one big difference between the city boy and the country. You've been +both; see if I'm right. The country boy minds his folks, and his +teacher. But everything else minds him. He is boss of every critter on +the place, from the hens to the horses, whenever he has anything to do +with them at all. So he learns to think for them, as well as for +himself. In the city the boy has no chance to give orders—he's under +orders, all the time; the traffic cop, the truant officer, the boss in +the shop or the office, the street car conductor, the janitor—everybody +bosses him and he bosses nothing, except his kid brothers and sisters. +So he may come to be half cringer and half bully. The country boy is not +likely to be much afraid, and he soon learns that if he tries to boss +even the boys without good reason it doesn't pay. Maybe that's the +reason so many country boys make good when they go to the city."</p> + +<p>"And the reason why a city boy like me," suggested J.W., "would be a +misfit in the country."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you," scoffed Marty. "You don't count. You're a half-breed. But, as +I meant to say, you're right about country folks. They are a little +close, maybe. They are more independent in their business than town +people, but they learn how to work together; they exchange farm work, +and work the roads, and they are fairly dependent on one another for all +social life."</p> + +<p>"On Deep Creek the tenant farmers are the biggest difficulty, your dad +told me last Sunday," said J.W. "They go to town when they go anywhere, +and not to church, either."</p> + +<p>"I know," said Marty. "And I don't much blame 'em, from all I hear. But +Henderson changed that considerably in this community. He found out that +the tenants were just as human as the others, only they had the idea +that nobody cared about them, because they might be here to-day and gone +to-morrow. And, what do you think? I find tenant farmers around here are +beginning to take longer leases; one or two are about like dad's been +with your father—more partners than anything else. Every renter family +in this neighborhood comes to our church, and only three or four fight +shy of us at Valencia."</p> + +<p>"All right," said J.W., drowsily. "Go to sleep now; I've got to inspect +that Holstein hotel in the morning, and I know what country hours are."</p> + +<p>The next day J.W. drove off toward the big barns of his customer, and +left Marty deep in the mysteries of Sunday's sermon. Marty was yet a +very young preacher, and one sermon a week was all he could manage, as +several of his admirers had found out to his discomfiture, when one +Sunday they followed him from Ellis in the morning to Valencia at night. +But the "twicers" professed to enjoy it.</p> + +<p>J.W.'s farmer was quite ready to talk about the new barn equipment and +how it was working, and he had remarkably few complaints, these more for +form's sake than anything else. That business was soon out of the way.</p> + +<p>But Farmer Bellamy was interested in other things besides ventilators +and horse-forks.</p> + +<p>"So you're a friend of our preacher," he said, in the questioning +affirmative of the deliberate country. "Well, he's quite a go-ahead +young fellow; you never get up early enough to find him working in a +cold collar. Maybe he's a mite ambitious, but I don't know."</p> + +<p>J.W., as always, came promptly to Marty's defense. "He's not ambitious +for himself, Mr. Bellamy; I'll vouch for that. But I shouldn't wonder he +is ambitious about his work, and maybe that's not a bad thing for a +country preacher in these days."</p> + +<p>"That's so," Mr. Bellamy assented. "But I doubt we keep him. He'll be +getting a church in town before long."</p> + +<p>Now J.W. had no instructions from Marty, but he thought he might +venture. And he had been introduced to a few ideas that he had never met +in the days when he objected to Marty's taking a country circuit.</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you something, Mr. Bellamy," he said. "Marty is a farmer's +boy who loves the country. If he has the right sort of backing, I +shouldn't wonder he stayed here a good long time. He's got enough plans +ahead for this circuit of his."</p> + +<p>Mr. Bellamy laughed. "He has that; if he waits to get 'em all going +we're sure of him for a while. Why, he wants to make the church the most +important business in the whole neighborhood; and, what's more, he's +getting some of us to see it that way too."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I guess that's his dream," J.W. said. "And it's so much better +than the reality up around where I used to live that I wouldn't head him +off if I were you."</p> + +<p>"Head him off!" Mr. Bellamy laughed again. "Why, do you know what he did +in the fall, when some of us told him we couldn't do much for missions? +He phoned all over the neighborhood the day before he set out with a +ton-and-a-half truck he had hired for the job. Told us to put into the +truck anything we could spare. And what do you think? Before night he +drove into Hill City with a big overload, even for that truck, of wheat, +corn, butter, eggs, chickens, sausage, apples, potatoes, and dear knows +what. Sold the lot for sixty-nine dollars. He paid nine dollars for the +truck—got a rate on it—and turned in for missions sixty dollars. We've +never given more than twenty, in cash."</p> + +<p>"But that wasn't all. Next Sunday he reported, and before any of us +could say 'Praise the Lord!' says he, 'Don't think the Lord's giving any +of us much credit for that stuff. We owe him a good deal more than a few +eggs that we'll never miss. I just wanted to show you that when we +country people really start paying our tithe to the Almighty our +missionary and other offerings will make that truckload look like the +crumbs from our tables. I've proved that we're rich, instead of being +too poor to provide for missions. And it's all our Father's, you know. +When we pay him our tithe we admit that in the only practical way,' +Funny thing was the whole business had been so queer, nobody got mad +over his plain talk. Some of us have begun to tithe, and to enjoy it. +Yes; that young feller is quite a go-ahead young feller."</p> + +<p>J.W. rather admired the tale of the truck; it was like Marty, right +enough, to get his tithing talk illustrated with a load of produce; but +there was more than a hint of a new Marty, with a new directness and +confidence.</p> + +<p>So he asked, "What else is he doing that's making a difference?"</p> + +<p>And the floodgates were lifted. The Bellamy gift of utterance had a +congenial theme. For an hour the stream ran strong and steady, and when +it would have stopped none could tell. But J.W. remembered he had +promised to be back with Marty for dinner, and so, in the midst of a +story about Marty's Saturday afternoon outings with the boys, highly +reminiscent of their own old-time Saturdays in the Deep Creek timber, +J.W. made his excuses and hurried away.</p> + +<p>In that hour he had heard of the observing of special days, Thanksgiving +and Christmas particularly; of the rage for athletic equipment on every +farm which had youngsters, so that the usual anaemic croquet outfit had +given place to basketball practice sets, indoor-outdoor ball, +volley-ball nets, and other paraphernalia. Some of it not much used now, +since winter had come, but under Marty's leadership, a skating rink +construction gang had thrown up a dirt embankment in a low spot near the +creek and then cut a channel far enough upstream to flood about four +acres of swamp. Mr. Bellamy told about the skating tournaments every +afternoon of the cold weather for the school children, and Saturday +afternoons for the older young folks. More people went than skated too, +the garrulous farmer asserted. It was just another of that young +preacher's sociability schemes, and there was no end to 'em, seemed like +to him.</p> + +<p>There was even more on the business side of country life: how Marty had +joined forces with the Grange and the county agent and the cooperators +of the creamery and the elevator and the school teachers. And so on, and +so on.</p> + +<p>J.W. would be the last to worry about such a program; it just fitted +his ideas. But it made him a little more interested in the Sunday +services. Would Marty's preaching match his community work?</p> + +<p>But before Sunday morning came J.W. had other questions to ask. He put +them to Marty in intervals of the skating races; and again after supper, +before going over to the church to meet a little group of Sunday-school +folk—"my teacher-partners" Marty called them—who were learning with +him how to adapt Sunday school science and the teaching art to the +conditions of the open country.</p> + +<p>All of J.W.'s questions were really one big question: "Say, Marty, boy, +I always knew you had something in you that didn't show on the surface, +but I never thought it was exactly the stuff they need to make +up-to-date country preachers. How does it happen that you've blossomed +out in these few months as a Moses to lead a 'rural parish'—if that's +the right scientific name—out of such a wilderness as I saw at Deep +Creek last Sunday?"</p> + +<p>Marty made a pass at his chum in the fashion of the Cartwright days, and +waited for the return punch before answering. "Don't you 'Moses' me, +John Wesley. Besides, this circuit was no wilderness. Henderson, the +preacher who was here before me, was just the man for this work. He knew +the country, and believed it had the makings of even more attractive +life than the town. Too bad he had to quit. But he started these folks +thinking the right way. And then, don't you remember I wrote last +summer that I was spending two weeks at a school for rural ministers?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, I remember that," J.W. answered, "but that's no explanation. I +spent four years at a college for town and country boys, and now look at +me! Two weeks is a little too short a course to produce miracles, even +with such an intellect as yours, notwithstanding your name is bigger +than mine, Martin Luther! Now, if you'd said four weeks, I might almost +have believed you, but two weeks—well, it just isn't done, that's all!"</p> + +<p>"Make fun of it, will you!" said Marty, with another short-arm jab. +"Now, listen to me. That thing is simple enough. First off, I'd been +thinking four years about being a preacher. On top of that, I'd been a +country boy for twenty-three years. I know the Deep Creek neighborhood +better than you do, because I had to live there. You were just visiting +the farm your father paid taxes on. When I came here I found that +Henderson had set things going. He told me what his dream was. So, when +I went to that two-weeks' school I was ready to take in every word and +see every picture and get a grip on every principle. Maybe you don't +know that it was one of many such schools set up by the rural work +leaders of our Home Missions Board, and it was a great school. They had +no use for rocking-chair ruralists, so the faculty, instead of being +made up of paper experts, was a bunch of men who _knew_. It was worth a +year of dawdling over text-books. You see, I knew I could come back here +and try everything on my own people. It was like the Squeers school in +'Nicholas Nickleby,' 'Member? When the spelling class was up, Squeers +says to Smike, the big, helpless dunce, 'Spell window,'" And Smike says, +'W-i-n-d-e-r,' 'All right,' Squeers says, 'now go out and wash 'em,' +Well, I hope I got the spelling a little nearer right, but I came home +and began washing my windows. That's all.</p> + +<p>J.W. said "Huh!" and that stood for understanding, and approval, and +confidence.</p> + +<p>As to Marty's preaching, it was a boy's preaching, naturally, but it was +preaching. And the people came for it; J. W., remarked to himself the +contrast between the close-parked cars around Ellis church and the +forlornly vacant horse-sheds he had seen at Deep Creek the Sunday +before.</p> + +<p>The hearty singing of people glad to be singing together, the contagious +interest of a well-filled house, and the simple directness of the +preacher were all of a piece. Here was no effort to ape the forms of a +cathedral, but neither was there any careless, cheap slovenliness. And +assuredly there were no religious "stunts."</p> + +<p>Marty preached the Christian evangel, not moralized agriculture. He made +the gospel invitation a social appeal, without blinking its primary +message to the individual to place himself under the authority of +Christ's self-forgetting love. He put first things in front—"Him that +cometh unto me," and then with simple illustrations and words as simple +he showed that they who had accepted Christ's lordship were honor bound +to live together under a new sort of law from that of the restless, +pushing, self-centered world: "It shall not be so among you." Besides, +he told them they could not separate service from profit. They knew, for +instance, that their farm values were a third higher because of the +presence of the church and its work, but they would find that the profit +motive was not big enough to keep the church going. They had to love the +work, and do it for love of it.</p> + +<p>That afternoon the friends drove over to Valencia, where at night Marty +would preach again this his one sermon of the week; and J.W. left him +there, turning his car homeward for the fifty-two miles to Delafield.</p> + +<p>As they parted, J.W. gripped Marty's hand and said: "Old man, I own up. +I thought you ought not to bury yourself in the country, but I had no +need to worry. I know preachers who are buried in town all right; you +have a bigger field and a livelier one than they will ever find. And +I'll never say another word about your two-weeks' school. If the Home +Missions Board had nothing else to do, such work as it showed you how to +do would be worth all the Board costs. I'm going to make trouble for Mr. +Drury and the district superintendent and the bishop and the Board and +anybody else I can get hold of, until Deep Creek gets the same sort of +chance as this circuit of yours. If only they knew where to find another +Martin Luther Shenk—that's the rub!" And with a last handclasp the +chums went their separate ways.</p> + +<p>On Monday J.W. called up Pastor Drury and gave that gentleman, who was +expecting it, a five-minute summary of his day with Marty. "I'm awfully +glad I happened to think of going over there," he said, "not only for +the sake of being with the old boy again, but because I've got some new +notions about the country church, and about what we Methodists are +beginning to do for the places where Methodism got its start."</p> + +<p>And Walter Drury said, "Yes, I'm glad, too." So he was; he could put +down a new mark on the credit side of the Experiment.</p> + + + +<br /><br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /><br /> +<a name="chap6"></a><h2>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<p><strong>"IS HE NOT A MAN AND A BROTHER?"</strong></p> +<br /> + +<p>The colored Methodists of Delafield, who called their church "Saint +Marks," had always been on good terms with their white co-religionists. +Mr. Drury and the pastor of Saint Marks found many occasions of helping +each other in their work. The single way in which these two showed +themselves conscious of the color line was that while the pastor of +First Church often "preached" in Saint Marks, when the pastor of Saint +Marks appeared in the pulpit of First Church, it was "to speak on some +aspect of his work."</p> + +<p>J.W. knew Saint Marks of old. In his high-school days that church had +for its preacher one of a fast-vanishing race, a man mighty in +exhortation, even though narrowly circumscribed in scholastic equipment. +His preaching was redolent of the camp meeting, and he counted that +sermon lost which did not evoke a shout or two from the front benches.</p> + +<p>A few of First Church's younger people often went to sing at Saint Marks +on special occasions, and went all the more cheerfully because of the +chance it afforded to hear Brother King Officer preach. Where he got +that name is not known, but he had no other.</p> + +<p>Do not think the young people either went to scoff or remained to pray. +If at times they were amused at Brother Officer's peculiarities, so +were some members of his own flock, and Brother Officer was wise enough +to assume that no disrespect was intended. And if the white visitors +treated his fervent appeals to the unconverted and backsliders as part +of the program, but having no slightest application to them, this was +also the regular thing, and nobody was troubled thereat.</p> + +<p>But while J.W. was away at college a new pastor had come to Saint Marks, +a college and seminary graduate. And he had come just in time. Brother +Officer was getting old, but the determining factor which made the +change necessary was that Delafield happened to be near one of the +general routes by which thousands of colored people were moving +northward. "Exoduses" have been before; Kansas still remembers the +exodus from Tennessee of forty years ago; but this latest exodus had no +one starting-point nor any single destination. It was a vast shifting of +Negro populations from below Mason and Dixon's line, and it swept +northward toward all the great industrial centers. Its cause and +consequences make a remarkable story, for which there is no room in this +chronicle.</p> + +<p>Delafield thought it could not absorb many more Negroes, but before the +exodus movement subsided the stragglers who had turned aside at +Delafield had more than doubled the Negro population of the town.</p> + +<p>A heavy burden of new responsibility was on the young pastor of Saint +Marks. The newcomers had no such alertness and resourcefulness as his +own people. They were helpless in the face of new experiences. Soon +they became a worry and an enigma to the town authorities; but +especially and inevitably they turned to the churches of their own +color, of which Delafield could boast but two, a Methodist and a +Baptist. So Saint Marks and its pastor found both new opportunity and +new troubles.</p> + +<p>One day in the early spring Mr. Drury dropped in to the Farwell store +and asked J.W. if he would be busy that night. The road to Deep Creek +was at its spring worst, and J.W. had nothing special on. He said as +much, and answering his look of inquiry the pastor said, "There's a man +speaking at Saint Marks to-night who's a Yale graduate and a Negro. He's +also a Methodist. Does the combination interest you?"</p> + +<p>"Why, yes," J.W. answered, "it might. You know I used to go with the +bunch to Saint Marks when Brother Officer was pastor, but I haven't been +since he left. I'd like to see what the new preacher is doing, and it +ought to be worth something to hear a Negro alumnus of Yale."</p> + +<p>William Hightower, it seemed, was the speaker's name—a strong-voiced; +confident man in his thirties. As J. W., soon discovered, Hightower was a +distinctively modern Negro. Where King Officer had been almost cringing, +Hightower's thought, however diplomatically spoken, was that of an +up-standing mind; where Officer accepted as part of the social order the +colored man's dependence on the white, Hightower spoke of something he +called racial solidarity. It was plain that he meant his Negro hearers +to make much of the Negro's capacity for self-direction.</p> + +<p>There was little bitterness and no radicalism in the speech, but to J.W. +it had a queer, new note. He said as much to Mr. Drury, on the way home. +"Why, that Hightower hardly ever mentioned the church, although he was +speaking at a church meeting. And how independent he was!"</p> + +<p>"So you noticed that, did you?" the pastor responded. "To me it is one +of the signs of a new day."</p> + +<p>"But do you think it is a good day, Mr. Drury?" queried J.W.</p> + +<p>"Yes—perhaps; I don't know. Anyhow, it is new, and some of the blame +for it is on our shoulders. The way the Negro thinks and feels to-day is +a striking proof of the fact, often forgotten, that when you settle old +questions you raise new ones."</p> + +<p>"Maybe," said J.W. doubtfully, "but I didn't know we had settled the +Negro question."</p> + +<p>"Nor I," agreed Mr. Drury. "What we—I mean, we Methodists—settled when +we began to deal with the Negro right after emancipation was not the +race question. It was not even a missionary question, in the old sense, +but it was the question of the nature of the education we should give +the young colored people. For we set out deliberately to give them +schooling first, with evangelism as an accompaniment. The stress was on +education, and we decided at the outset on a certain sort of education."</p> + +<p>"I should think," ventured J.W., "that any old sort of education would +serve; the first teachers had to begin at the bottom, didn't they?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and lower than any beginnings you know anything about," the pastor +replied. "Our first workers began without equipment, without +encouragement, and without everything else except a great pity for the +freedman. Did you notice, by the way, that the speaker to-night never +said 'freedman' or mentioned slavery? It is a new day, I tell you."</p> + +<p>"I wish you'd explain just what you mean by that, Mr. Drury," J.W. said. +"I don't seem to get it."</p> + +<p>"I mean," said Mr. Drury, "that as soon as our church had decided to do +something for the emancipated slaves, it began to work out a scheme of +Negro education. That was before Tuskegee, and even before Hampton +Institute. Maybe we never thought of the Booker Washington idea, or +purely industrial education, but at any rate we went on the theory that +the Negro deserved and in time could take as good an education as any +other American. So we started academies and colleges and even +universities for him, and a medical school and a theological seminary."</p> + +<p>"I can see myself that there's a difference between that and the +industrial idea," said J.W.</p> + +<p>"Decidedly, there is," answered the minister; "all the difference which +has helped to bring this new day I'm talking about, and to produce such +Negro leaders as William Hightower. You see, J.W., it's this way: Booker +Washington believed that after the Negro had been taught to read and +write and cipher, his next and greatest educational need was to learn +to make a living."</p> + +<p>"Well, what's the matter with that?" retorted J.W. "Seems to me it's +common sense."</p> + +<p>"Possibly," Mr. Drury answered, dryly. "But what would you say was the +first thing needed in the fight against the almost total illiteracy of +the freedmen?"</p> + +<p>"Why, teachers, I suppose," said J.W. "And it would sure take a lot of +teachers, even to make a start."</p> + +<p>Mr. Drury said, "That's exactly the fact. It has called for so many that +to this day there isn't anything like enough teachers, although some of +our schools and those of other churches have been at work for fifty +years. And, remember, that practically all of these teachers, except in +a few advanced schools, must be black teachers, themselves brought up +out of ignorance."</p> + +<p>"Well," said J.W., "that's my point. The quicker we could teach the +teachers, the sooner they would be ready to teach others."</p> + +<p>"That is to say," Mr. Drury interpreted, "the less we taught them, the +better? Seems to me I heard something of a small revolt in your time at +Cartwright because it seemed necessary that a young tutor should be +temporarily assigned to the class in sophomore English."</p> + +<p>J.W. chuckled. "It was my class. Why, that fellow was never more than +two jumps ahead of the daily work. We knew he had to study his own +lesson assignments before he could hear a recitation. We weren't +getting anything out of it except the bare text. So some of the boys +made things lively for a few days, and he asked to be relieved."</p> + +<p>"Quite so. Your class had every imaginable advantage over the colored +boys and girls in our schools—just one teacher below par. And yet you +think it would be all right to have all colored teachers no more than +two jumps ahead of their pupils."</p> + +<p>"Well, yes, I see," J.W. said, with a touch of thoughtfulness. "I +suppose a good teacher needs more than the minimum text-book knowledge. +Is that the Methodist theory?"</p> + +<p>"Now you're talking like yourself," Mr. Drury told him. "Yes, that's the +Methodist theory. For the fifty years of the old Freedmen's Aid +Society—now the Board of Education for Negroes—it has run these +schools, eighteen of them now, with five thousand seven hundred and two +earnest students enrolled, on a double theory. The first part of the +theory is that every child—black, white, red or yellow—ought to have +all the education he can use. Anything less than that would be as good +as saying that America cares to develop its human resources only just so +far, and not to the limit. The other part of the theory is that the last +person in the world to be put off with half an education is a preacher +or a teacher. The best is just good enough for all teachers, whether +they teach from a desk or from a pulpit."</p> + +<p>"I guess that's so too," said J.W. "You're getting me interested. Now go +on and tell me some more."</p> + +<p>"The new pastor of Saint Marks told me," said Mr. Drury, irrelevantly, +"that they would be wanting some new roofing for the barn they're +turning into a community house. I shouldn't be surprised if you sold the +church a nice little bill of goods. And while you are at it, you might +talk to the pastor—Driver's his name—about this thing from his side of +the road. He knows more than I do."</p> + +<p>J.W. said he would. And, though he would have meant it in any case, the +hint about roofing made certain that "Elder" Driver would have a call in +the morning from a rising young hardware salesman.</p> + +<p>By this time they were at the Farwell gate, and J.W. said goodnight. Mr. +Drury walked home, but before he got ready for his beloved last hour of +the day, with its easy chair and its cherished book, he called up his +colored colleague, and they had a brief talk over the 'phone.</p> + +<p>Now, Walter Drury had taken no one into his confidence about the +Experiment, nor did he intend to; he had the best of reasons for keeping +his own counsel, through the years. So Elder Driver could not know the +true inwardness of this telephone call; indeed, it was so casual that he +did not even think to mention it to J.W. when that alert roofing +specialist turned up next morning.</p> + +<p>"I heard you were going to put new roofing on that barn you are fixing +up, Mr. Driver, and I thought I might get your order for the job. Maybe +you know that we do a good deal of that sort of work, and we can give +you expert service; the right roofing put on to stay, and to stay put."</p> + +<p>Yes, they were thinking of that roof; had to, because it leaked like a +market basket, and they needed the place right now, what with the many +colored Methodists who had come to town and had no home—only rooms in +the little houses of the colored settlement that had been too small for +comfort even before the exodus. But the place would be worth a lot to +their work when they got it.</p> + +<p>"About how much do you think of spending, Mr. Driver?" J.W. asked. +Knowing the limited means of Saint Marks, he expected to supply the +cheapest roofing the Farwell Hardware Company had in stock, but Pastor +Driver had a surprise for him.</p> + +<p>"Why," he said, "we want the best there is. That building was a barn, +I'll admit, but it is strongly built, and we expect to fix it pretty +thoroughly. We have a gift from the Board of Home Missions and Church +Extension, and we match that with as much again of our own money, enough +in all to swing the building around off the alley, put it on a new +foundation next to the church, and remodel it for our needs."</p> + +<p>"That's news to me," said J. W., "though of course I'm glad to hear it. +But I didn't know that the Board put money into such work as this. +Somehow I supposed you were under the Board of Education for Negroes."</p> + +<p>"No, not for this sort of church work," the colored pastor answered. "I +was 'under' the Board of Education for Negroes, as you put it, for a +long time myself, in the days when it was called the Freedmen's Aid +Society. And so was my wife. But now we're doing missionary work, and +that's the other Board's job."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," J.W. assented. "I might have known that. And you mean that +you were under the Freedmen's Aid Society when you were going to +school—is that it?"</p> + +<p>"That's it," said Pastor Driver, with a gleaming smile. "I was in two of +the schools. Philander Smith College, at Little Rock, Arkansas, and +Clark University, at Atlanta, Georgia. Then I got my theological course +at Gammon, on the same campus as Clark."</p> + +<p>"You say your wife was in school too?"</p> + +<p>"Yes"—with an even brighter smile—"she was at Clark when I met her. +Like me, she attended two schools on that campus. The other was Thayer +Home, a girls' dormitory, supported by the Woman's Home Missionary +Society."</p> + +<p>"A home? Then how could it be a school?" J.W. asked.</p> + +<p>"That's just it, Mr. Farwell," the minister explained. "It was a school +of home life, not only cooking and sewing and scrubbing, and what all +you think of as domestic science, but a school of the home spirit—just +the thing my people need. Thayer was, and is, a place where the girl +students of Clark University learn how to make real homes. And in the +college classes they learn what you might suppose any college student +would learn. That's why I said Mrs. Driver went to two schools."</p> + <a name="image6" id="image6"></a><img src="images/imgsix.jpg" alt="There's Hope For The Negro In A School Like This" /> + <p>J.W. recalled the Hightower speech of the night before, and the +discussion with Mr. Drury on the way home. He wanted to go into it all +with this pastor, who wasn't much past his own age, and evidently had +some ideas. For the first time he wondered too how it happened that in +that draft of the Everyday Doctrines of Delafield they had altogether +ignored the Negro. Was that a symptom of something? Then he remembered +his errand, and the work which was waiting up at the store.</p> + +<p>So he said: "Excuse me, Mr. Driver, for being so inquisitive. I've never +thought much about our church's colored work, but what I heard at last +night's meeting started me. Rather curious that I should be here talking +about it with you the very next morning, isn't it? But about that +roofing, now. Of course you'll look around and get other estimates, but +anyway I'd be glad to take the measurements and give you our figures. I +promise you they'll be worth considering."</p> + +<p>"I'm sure of that, Mr. Farwell," said the other, heartily, "and if I +have any influence with the committee—and I think I have—you needn't +lose any sleep over any other figures we might get. As for being +inquisitive about our work here, I wish more of this town's white +Methodists would get inquisitive. And that reminds me: there's to be an +Epworth League convention here week after next, and I've been told to +invite one of the League leaders in your church to make a short address +on the opening night. You're a League leader, I know, and the first one +I've thought about. So I'm asking you, right now. Will you come over and +speak for us?"</p> + +<p>Now, though J.W. always said he was no speaker, he had never hesitated +to accept invitations to take part in League conventions. But this was +different. He made no answer for a minute. And in the pause his mind was +busy with all he knew, and all he had acquired at second hand, about the +relations of colored Christians and white, and particularly about what +might be thought and said if it should be announced that he was to speak +at a Negro Epworth League convention. And then he had the grace to +blush, realizing that this colored pastor, waiting so quietly for his +answer, must infallibly have followed his thoughts. In his swift +self-blame he felt that the least amends he could make for his unspoken +discourtesy was a prompt acceptance of the invitation.</p> + +<p>So he looked up and said, hurriedly: "Mr. Driver, forgive me for not +speaking sooner. I'll do the best I can"; and then, regaining his +composure, "Have you any idea as to the subject I'm supposed to talk +about?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," the colored minister replied, not without a touch of curious +tenseness in his voice. "The committee wanted me to get a representative +from your Chapter to make a ten-minute address of welcome on behalf of +the Epworthians of First Church!"</p> + +<p>Again J.W. was forced to hesitate. Here he was an Epworthian, but +knowing nothing at all about the work of these other young Methodists. +Until to-day he scarcely knew they existed. And now he was asked to +welcome them to town in the name of the League!</p> + +<p>But once again shame compelled him to take the bold course. With an +apologetic smile he said, "Well, that's the last subject I could imagine +you'd give to any of us at First Church. Your young people and ours have +hardly been aware of each other, and it seems queer that you should ask +me to make an address of welcome in your church. But as I think of it, +maybe this is just what somebody ought to do, and I might as well try +it. Trouble is, what am I going to say?"</p> + +<p>"We'll risk that, Mr. Farwell," said Pastor Driver, confidently. "Just +say what you think, and you'll do all right."</p> + +<p>J.W. was by no means sure of that, and the more he thought about his +speech in the next few days, the more confused he became. Any ordinary +speech of welcome would be easy—"Glad you were sensible enough to come +to Delafield," "make yourselves at home," "freedom of the city," "our +latch strings are out," "command us for anything we can do," +"congratulate you on the fine work you are doing," "know when we return +this visit and come to the places you represent you will make us +welcome"—and so on. But it was plainly impossible for him to talk like +that. It wouldn't be true, and it would certainly not be prudent.</p> + +<p>He put the thing up to J.W., Sr. "What'll I say, dad?" he asked. "You +know we haven't had much to do with the people of Saint Marks, and maybe +it wouldn't be best for us to make any sudden change as to that, even +if some of us wanted to. But I've got to talk like a Christian, whether +I feel like one or not."</p> + +<p>"My son," his father answered him, sententiously, "it's your speech, not +mine. But if an old fogy may suggest something, why not forget all about +the usual sort of welcome address? Why not say something of the whole +program of our church as it affects our colored people? It touches the +young folks more than any others. Welcome them to that."</p> + +<p>"That's all very fine," J.W. objected. "Everybody who's on for an +address of welcome is advised by his friends to cut out the old stuff, +but it means work. And you know that I don't know the first thing about +what you call the whole program of our church for the colored people. +That man Driver knows, but I can't ask him."</p> + +<p>"Of course not," assented J.W., Sr., "but you can ask somebody else. +I'll venture Mr. Drury can tell you where to find all you would want to +talk about. Ask him. You're never bothered by bashfulness with him, if I +remember right."</p> + +<p>J.W. admitted he had already thought of that. "He and I were talking +about this very thing the night before I went to see about that roofing. +But here's the point—I'm not to represent the pastor, but the young +people. And I'm not so sure that what Mr. Drury might give me, if he +were willing, could be made to fit into a League speech, under the +circumstances."</p> + +<p>"I'd try it anyway," said the elder Farwell. "He's nearly always +willing, seems to me, and a pretty safe adviser most of the time."</p> + +<p>"All right," agreed J.W., "I'll see him, but he'll probably tell me to +find things out for myself. He's a good scout, is Mr. Drury; the best +pastor I ever knew or want to know, but sometimes he has the queerest +streaks; won't help a fellow a little bit, and when you're absolutely +sure he could if he would. It won't be enough to see him, though; even +if he is in a generous mood and gives me more dope than I can use. I'd +better talk to some of the League people." And still he gravitated +toward the pastor's study. It was the easiest way.</p> + +<p>The pastor was always in a more generous mood than J.W. gave him credit +for. It was only that he never supplied crutches when people needed to +use their legs, nor brains when they needed to use their heads, nor +emotions when they needed to use their hearts.</p> + +<p>He told J.W. to rummage through the one bookshelf in the study which +held his small but usable collection of books and pamphlets on the +Negro, and see what he might find. And, as always, they talked.</p> + +<p>"I can tell by that preacher at Saint Marks," said J.W., "how I had the +wrong end of the argument that night we came from Hightower's address. A +man with a big job like his has to be a pretty big man, and he needs all +the education he can get."</p> + +<p>"There's a principle in that, J.W.," suggested Mr. Drury; "see if this +seems a reasonable way to state it: In dealing with any people, the +more needy they are, the better equipped and trained their leaders +should be."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, it sounds reasonable enough," J.W. admitted. "And yet I never +thought of it until now. But you said something the other night that I +don't see yet."</p> + +<p>"That may be no fault of yours, my boy," said the minister, with a +laugh. "What was it?"</p> + +<p>"Why, you said men like Hightower are inclined to overlook the work of +the church, and that it was the church's own fault; something about +raising new questions when you settle old ones."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," said Mr. Drury, "I remember. Maybe saying it's the church's +own fault is not just the way to put it. Say instead that you can't +educate children, nor yet races that are developing, and expect them to +turn out exactly according to your notions of the future. Because, when +their minds are growing they are developing, not according to something +in you, but according to something in them. So every teacher, and I +suppose every parent, has moments of wondering how it ever happens that +young people learn so much that is not taught them. And it's the same +way with races."</p> + +<p>"You mean," inquired J.W., "that Hightower is like that?"</p> + +<p>"I mean," Pastor Drury replied, "that everybody is like that. If we had +given the Negro no education at all, we could probably have kept him +contented for a good many years with just being 'free.' If we had given +no Negro anything but a common-school chance, the race would have been +pretty slow to develop discontent. But Hightower went to Yale, and Du +Bois went to Harvard and Germany, and Pickens went to Yale, and so on. +Thousands of colored men and women have been graduated from colleges of +liberal arts. And so they are not satisfied with conditions which would +have been heavenly bliss to their grandfathers and grandmothers."</p> + +<p>"I know I'm stupid," said J.W., a trifle ruefully, "but I've always +supposed that education was good for everybody. Now you seem to say that +education makes people discontented."</p> + +<p>"Of course it does," said Mr. Drury, "that's the reason it is good for +them. Would you be content to call a one-room shack home, and live as +the plantation hand lives? If you would, the world's profit out of you, +and your own profit out of yourself, wouldn't be much. Real education +does exactly mean discontent. And the people who are discontented may be +uncomfortable to live with, if we think they ought to be docile, but +they get us forward."</p> + +<p>"Maybe you're right," J.W. conceded, "and the church is not to be +blamed. Still, if our work for the black man has made him troublesome, +and given him ideas bigger than he can hope to realize, how does that +fit in with our Christianity? Shouldn't the church be a peacemaker, +instead of a trouble-maker?"</p> + +<p>"Now, John Wesley, Jr.," the other said, in mock protest, "that sermon +of mine on 'Not Peace, but a Sword' must have been wasted on you. Our +Lord most certainly came to make peace, and he spoke a great blessing on +peacemakers. But he was himself the world's greatest disturber. Peace +while there is injustice, or ignorance, or any sort of wickedness, has +nothing to do with Christ's intentions. I know that the old-time +slave-traders of the North, and the more persistent slave-buyers of the +South, were always asking for that sort of peace. But they couldn't have +it. Nobody ever can have it, so long as Jesus has a single follower in +the world."</p> + +<p>"Well, what has all this to do," asked J.W., "with our church's special +work for the colored people?"</p> + +<p>"Ah, yes," the pastor answered, "that's the very thing you must find out +before you make that address of welcome."</p> + +<p>By this time J.W. had gathered up a pile of books, pamphlets, reports, +and papers—enough, he thought, to serve as the raw material of a Ph.D. +thesis, and he said to Mr. Drury, "Would you mind if I took this home? +I'll bring it all back, and it's not likely I'll damage it much.".</p> + +<p>The asking was no more than a form; for years the people of First Church +had known themselves freely welcome to any book in the preacher's +shelves. An interest in his books was passport to his special favor. His +own evident love for books had been the best possible insurance that +these particular borrowers would be more scrupulous than the general. +This bit of pastoral work, it should be said, with the frequent +book-talk that grew out of it, was not least among all the reasons why +First Church people thought their bachelor minister just the man for +them.</p> + +<p>So off went J.W. with his armful, and for a week thereafter you might +have supposed he was cramming for a final exam of some sort. Early in +his preparation he decided that his father's advice was wise, and he put +the stress of his effort on the church's work and how Negro youth had +responded to it. The other matter was too delicate, he felt, for his +amateur handling, and, besides, he was not altogether sure even of his +own position.</p> + +<p>On the convention night Saint Marks was crowded with young colored +people, some of whom came from places a hundred miles away. They were +badged and pennanted quite in the fashion to which J.W. was accustomed. +But for their color, and, to be frank, for a little more restraint and +thoughtfulness in their really unusual singing, they were just young +Methodists at a convention, not different from Caucasian Methodists of +the same age.</p> + +<p>When J.W.'s turn came to speak, the chairman introduced him in the +fewest possible words, but with the courtesy which belongs to +self-respect, saying, "Mr. Farwell will make the delegates welcome in +the name of the First Church Epworthians."</p> + +<p>And he did. He had his notes, pretty full ones, to which he made +frequent references, but the quality in his speech which drew the +convention's cheers was its frank and natural simplicity.</p> + +<p>"I would have begged off from this duty, if I could," he began, "but I +knew from the moment I was asked that I had no decent excuse. But I knew +so little of what I ought to say that it was necessary for me to dig, +just as I used to do at school."</p> + +<p>The result of my digging is that I know now and I want you to know that +I know, why First Church young people should join in welcoming you to +Delafield. Some of them don't know yet, any more than I did ten days +ago; but I intend to enlighten them the first chance I get.</p> + +<p>We First Church Epworthians might welcome you for many reasons, but I +have decided to stick to two, because, as I have said, I have just been +learning something about them.</p> + +<p>We welcome you, then, because you represent the most eager hunger for +complete education that exists in America to-day, unless our new Hebrew +citizens can match it. No others can. The record of our church's schools +for your race prove that it simply is not possible to keep the Negro +youth out of school. They will walk further, eat less, work harder, and +stay longer to get an education than for anything else in the world.</p> + +<p>Not so many days ago I ignorantly thought that the 'three R's' was all +that ought to be offered, partly because the need is so great. I hope +you will forgive me that thought, when I tell you that now I know what +ignorance it revealed in me. The great need is the strongest argument +for the highest education. Because of your great numbers, and because +of your ever intenser racial self-respect, the Negro must educate the +Negro, be physician for the Negro, preach to the Negro, nurse the Negro, +lead the Negro in all his upward effort. Otherwise these things will be +done badly, or patronizingly, or not at all.</p> + +<p>But if you are to do your own educational work, your educators must be +fully equipped. It is not possible to send the whole race to college, +but it is possible to send college-trained youth to the race. For this +reason our church has established normal schools, colleges of liberal +arts, professional schools, homes for college girls, so that the coming +leaders of your people may have access to the best the world offers in +science and literature, in medicine and law, in business and religion.</p> + +<p>You will not mistake my purpose, I am sure, in saying that you know +better than we can guess how your people, through no fault of theirs, +have been long in bondage to the unskilled hand, the unawakened mind, +and the uninspired heart. But it is more and more an unwilling bondage.</p> + +<p>And our church, your church, has set up these schools and these +training homes I have mentioned, as though she were saying, in the words +of one of your own wonderful songs, 'Let my people go!' And the results +are coming. Your two bishops, one in the South and one in Africa, your +leaders in the church's highest councils, your educators, your +far-seeing business men, your great preachers, are part of the answer +to your church's passion to give full freedom to all her people.</p> + +<p>For you are _her_ people, the people of the Christian Church; we are +all God's people. It seems to me that just now God is interested in +bringing to every race in the world the chance of liberty for hand and +head and heart. God has greater things for us all to do than we can now +understand, but all his purposes must wait on our getting free from +everything that would defeat our work.</p> + +<p>Our First-Church young people welcome you because with all else you +represent a great purpose to make religion intelligent. You know, as we +do, that piety to be vital must be mixed with sound learning. You have +the missionary spirit, which never thrives in an atmosphere of +resistance to education. You are 'fellow Christians,' fellow workers. We +are sharers with you in personal devotion to our Lord, and in the common +purpose to make him Master of all life.</p> + +<p>And, finally, let me say it bluntly, we welcome you because we believe +in your pride of race, and honor it in you as we honor it in our fellow +citizens of other races. They and you have some things in common, but +you will not misunderstand me when I congratulate you on what is +peculiar to you. You have been fully Americanized for more generations +than most other Americans. You have no need to strive after the American +spirit. I have a friend of Greek birth, who thinks pridefully back to +the Golden Age of Greece, and I envy him his glorying. But your pride +of race, turning away from the unhappy past, sees your Golden Age in +the days to come, not in the dim yesterdays. You are the makers, not the +inheritors, of a great destiny.</p> + +<p>"For that noble future which is to be yours in our common America, you +do well to hold as above price the purity and strength of your racial +life. Better than we of Caucasian stock, you know that only so may all +the values be fully realized which are to be Africa's contribution to +the spiritual wealth of America and the world."</p> + +<p>There was a moment of silence, for the implications of the last sentence +were not as plain as they might have been. But when the audience caught +J.W.'s somewhat daring appeal to its racial self-respect it broke into +such cheers as are not given to the polite phraser of conventional +commonplaces.</p> + + + +<br /><br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /><br /> +<a name="chap7"></a><h2>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<p><strong>THE FIRST AMERICAN CIVILIZATION</strong></p> +<br /> + +<p>The full record of J.W.'s commercial career must he left to some other +chronicler, but an occasional reference to it cannot be omitted from +these pages.</p> + +<p>Pastor Drury's brother Albert, a Saint Louis business man who knew the +old city by the Mississippi from the levees to the University, was a +citizen who loved his city so well that he did not need to join a +Boosters' Club to prove it. The two Drurys saw each other, as both +averred, all too seldom. On the infrequent occasions when they met, as, +for instance, during a certain church federation gathering which had +brought the minister down to Saint Louis from Delafield, their +"visiting" was a joyous thing to see.</p> + +<p>Lounging in the City Club one day after lunch, with every other subject +of common interest at least touched on, Brother Albert turned to Brother +Walter: "And how goes the church and parish of Delafield? You told me +long ago that you wanted to stay there ten years; it's more than eight +now. Does the ten-year mark yet stand?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Al., it still stands, if nothing should interfere," said Walter. +He had never told his brother the reason back of that ten-year mark, and +he was not ready, even yet, for that. Of late he had taken to wondering +when and how the Experiment would come to its crisis. He wanted some +help just now, and here might be an opening. So he went on, "I've been +working away at several special jobs, as you know I like to do, and one +of them has a good deal to do with a young fellow named Farwell, John +Wesley Farwell, Jr., who'll be the mainstay of the best hardware store +in Delafield before long if he sticks to it. Everybody calls him 'J.W.,' +and he's the sort of boy that has always interested me, he's so +'average,'" He paused; his thoughts busy with the Experiment.</p> + +<p>"Well," his brother broke in, after a moment, "what's this young John +Wesley Methodist been doing?"</p> + +<p>"It isn't altogether what he has been doing, but it's what I'd like to +see him get a chance to do," explained the preacher. "He's tied to the +store and to Delafield, so far, and I've reasons for wanting him to see +some parts of this country he'll never see from Main Street in our +town."</p> + +<p>"Well, brother mine, maybe he could be induced to leave that particular +Main Street. There's where we get the best citizens of this village. Has +he any objections to making a change—to travel, for instance?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," said Walter; "probably not. He's young, and has a pretty +good education. I do know that he's ambitious to make himself the best +hardware man in our section, and I believe he'll do it, in time. +Personally, I _want_ him to travel. But how would anybody go about +getting him the chance?"</p> + +<p>Albert Drury laughed. "That's easy, only a preacher couldn't be +expected to see it. If any country boy really knows the stuff he +handles, whether it is hardware or candy or hides, he can get the chance +all right. This town wants him. Don't you know that the big wholesale +houses recruit their sales forces by spotting just such boys as your +John Wesley Farwell may be? But what do you mean by calling him average, +if he's such a keen judge of hardware?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, he _is_ more than average on hardware, but he's so +beautifully average human; one of those chaps who do most of the real +work of the world."</p> + +<p>"All right, old man; I'm not sure that I follow you; but, anyway, I may +be of some use. I'll tell you what I'll do; I know the very man. Peter +McDougall, who's a friend I can bank on, is sales manager of the +Cummings Hardware Corporation. Nothing will come of it if Peter is not +impressed, but all I need to do is to tell him there's a prospective +star salesman up at Delafield, and his man who has that territory will +be looking up your John Wesley before you have time to write another +sermon. By the way," he added, "what part of the country did you say you +wanted young Farwell to see?"</p> + +<p>"I didn't say," the preacher admitted, "but I would like him to see +something of the Southwest. I want to see what will happen when he bumps +up against the sort of civilization that followed the Spanish to +America."</p> + +<p>"Well, of course, you know that wholesale hardware houses don't run +salesmen's excursions to help Methodist preachers try out the effect of +American history on their young parishioners, no matter how lofty the +motive," and Albert Drury poked his brother in the ribs. "But supposing +this boy is otherwise good stuff he'll be in the right place, if he goes +with the Cummings people. A big share of their business is in that end +of the world."</p> + +<p>If J. W. had been told of this conversation, which he wasn't, he might +not have been quite so mystified over the letter from the great Peter +McDougall, which came a few weeks after the preacher's return from Saint +Louis. McDougall he knew well by reputation, having heard about him from +every Cummings man who unpacked samples in Delafield. And to be invited +to Saint Louis by the great man, with the possibility of "an opening, +ultimately, in our sales force," was a surprise as interesting as it was +unexpected. Naturally, J.W. could not know how much careful +investigation had preceded the writing of that letter. The Cummings +Corporation did not act on impulse. But he would have accepted the +invitation in any case.</p> + +<p>And that is enough for the present purpose of the story of J.W.'s first +business venture away from Delafield. Not without some hesitation did he +close with the Cummings offer; but after he had talked it all over with +the folks at home, and then all over again out at Deep Creek with +Jeannette Shenk, who was both sorry and proud, it was settled. Reaching +Saint Louis, the canny McDougall looked him over and thought him worth +trying out; so over he went to the stock department. Then followed busy +weeks in the buildings of the Cummings Hardware Corporation down by the +river, learning the stock. He discovered before the end of the first day +that he had never yet guessed what "hardware" meant; he wandered through +the mazes of the vast warehouses until his legs ached much and his eyes +ached more.</p> + +<p>At last came the day when he found himself on the road, not alone, of +course, but in tow of Fred Finch, an old Cummings salesman who had +occasionally "made" Delafield. The Cummings people did not throw their +new men overboard and let them swim if they could. They had a careful +training system, of which the stockroom days were one part, and this +personally conducted introduction to the road was another.</p> + +<p>Albert Drury had been sufficiently interested in his brother's wish to +drop a hint to McDougall, to which that hard-headed executive would have +paid no attention if it had not fitted in just then with the +requirements of his sales policy. But the hint sent J.W. out with Finch +over the longest route which the house worked for trade. On the map this +route was a great kite-shaped thing, with its point at Saint Louis, and +the whole Southwest this side of the Colorado River included in the +sweep of its sides and top.</p> + +<p>To Fred Finch it was a weary journey, but J.W. gave no thought to its +discomforts. He was seeing the country, as well as learning to sell +hardware, and both occupations were highly absorbing. Before long he +found too that he was seeing a new people. Storekeepers he knew, as +being of his own guild; the small towns were much like Delafield, when +you had become used to their newer crudeness of architecture and their +sprawling planlessness; and the people who used hardware were very much +like his customers at home.</p> + +<p>He had no fear of failing to become a salesman, after the first few +experiences under Finch's watchful eye; his father had taught him a sort +of salesmanship which experience could only make more effective. He knew +already never to sell what he could see his customer ought not to buy, +and he knew always to contrive as much as possible that the customer +should do the selling to himself. The elder Farwell used to say, "Let +your customer once see the advantage that buying is to him, and he won't +care what advantage selling is to you."</p> + +<p>Now, as has been said before, this is not a salesman's story. Let it +suffice to say that before the two got back to Saint Louis J. W. knew he +had found his trade. He was a natural salesman, and so Fred Finch +reported to Peter McDougall. "If it's hardware," he said, "that boy can +sell it, and I don't care where you put him. He can sell to people who +can't speak English, and I believe he could sell to deaf mutes or the +blind. He knows the line, and they know he knows it. Why, this very +first trip he's sold more goods on his own say-so than on the house +brand. Said he knew what the stuff would do, and people took that who +usually want to know about the guarantee." All of which Peter McDougall +filed where he would not forget it.</p> + +<p>But to go back to the trip itself. Along the railway in Kansas J.W. +began to see box-cars without trucks, roughly fitted up for dwellings. +Dark-skinned men and women and children were in occupation, and all the +household functions and processes were going on, though somewhat +primitively.</p> + +<p>"Mexicans," said Finch, as J.W. pointed out the cars. "Section hands; +when I first began to make this territory you never saw them except +right down on the border, but they have moved a long way east and north. +I saw lots of them in the yards at Kansas City last time I was there."</p> + +<p>J.W. watched the box-car life with a good deal of curiosity. Here and +there were poor little attempts at color and adornment; flowers in +window boxes and bits of lace at the windows. Delafield had plenty of +foreigners, but these were foreigners of another sort. They seemed to be +entirely at home.</p> + +<p>"I suppose," he said to Finch, "these Mexicans have come to the States +to get away from the robbery and ruin that Mexico has had instead of +government these last ten years and more."</p> + +<p>"Yes," Finch answered, "thousands of 'em. But not all. Some of these +Mexicans are older Americans than we are. We took 'em over when we got +Texas and New Mexico and California from Old Mexico. They were here +then, speaking the Spanish their ancestors had learned three hundred +years ago and more. But they're all the same Mexicans, no matter on +which side of the Rio Grande they were born. Of course those born on +this side have had some advantages that the peons never knew."</p> + +<p>"But do you mean," J.W. wanted to know, "that they are not really +American citizens?"</p> + +<p>Fred Finch said no, he didn't mean exactly that. Certainly, those born +on this side were American citizens in the eyes of the law, and those +who came across the Rio Grande could get naturalized. But that made +little real difference. A Mexican was a Mexican, and you had to deal +with him as one.</p> + +<p>J.W. was not quite satisfied with that explanation, but he preferred to +wait until he had seen enough so that he could ask his questions more +intelligently. So he kept relatively still, but his eyes did not cease +from observing.</p> + +<p>As the trip progressed, and the jumps between towns became longer, the +young salesman had time to see a good deal. In the far Southwest he +became aware that the increasingly numerous Mexican population was no +longer a matter of box-car dwellers, more or less migratory. It was a +settled people. Its little adobe villages, queer and quaint as they +seemed to Middle-Western eyes, were centers of established life. And he +discovered that in these villages always one building overshadowed all +the rest.</p> + +<p>One day as they were headed towards El Paso he ventured to mention this +to his traveling companion. "Seems to me," he said, "that none of these +little mud villages is too poor to have a church, and mostly a pretty +good church too. How do they manage it?"</p> + +<p>Now Finch was no student of church life, but he did know a little about +the country. "That's the way it is all over this Southwest, my boy, and +across the line in Old Mexico it's a good deal more so. My guess is that +the churches and the priests began by teaching the people that whatever +else happened they had to put up for the church, and from what I've +noticed I reckon that now nothing else matters much to the church. It +has become a kind of poor relation that's got to be fed and helped, +whether it amounts to anything or not. But it's a long way from being as +humble and thankful as you would naturally expect a poor relation to +be."</p> + +<p>During the El Paso layover the two of them took a day across the +International Bridge. J. W. had watched the Mexicans coming over, and he +wanted to see the country they came from.</p> + +<p>"You'll not see much over there," a friendly spoken customs official +told him. "It's a pretty poor section of desert 'round about these +parts. You ought to get away down into the heart of the country."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I suppose so," J.W. responded, "but there isn't time on this trip. +Are such people as these coming over to the United States right along?"</p> + +<p>"I should say they are," said the man of authority with emphasis. "In +the last four or five years the Mexican population of the United States +has about doubled; three quarters of a million have crossed the Rio +Grande somewhere, or the border further west. You people from the East +make a big fuss over immigration from Europe, but you hardly seem to +know that a regular flood has been pouring in through these southwestern +gateways. You will some day."</p> + +<p>What they saw on the Mexican side of the bridge was, as the customs man +had said, nothing much. But J.W. came away with a strange sense of +depression. He had never before seen so much of the raw material of +misery and squalor; what he had observed with wondering pity in the +villages on the American side was as nothing to the unrelieved +hopelessness of the south bank of the river.</p> + +<p>That night in the hotel lobby J.W. noticed a fresh-faced but rather +elderly man whom he recognized as one whom he had seen over in Mexico +earlier in the day. With the memory of what he had seen yet fresh upon +him, J.W. ventured a commonplace or two with the stranger, and found him +so genial and interesting that they were still talking long after Fred +Finch had yawned himself off to bed.</p> + +<p>"I thought I remembered seeing you over there," said the unknown, "and +you didn't look like a seasoned traveler; more like the amateur I am +myself, though I do get about a little."</p> + +<p>"I'm no seasoned sightseer," said J.W.; "this is my first time out. And +that's maybe the reason I've developed so much curiosity about the +people we saw to-day. Do you know much about them?"</p> + +<p>"Who? the Mexicans?" The other man smiled, and then was suddenly +serious. "My friend, I begin to think I'm making the Mexicans my hobby. +I don't know who you are, but if you are really interested in the +Mexicans as human beings I'd rather tell you what I know than do +anything else I can think of to-night. It isn't often I find a traveling +man who cares."</p> + +<p>"Well, I do care," J.W. asserted, stoutly. "They're people, folks, +aren't they? And it looks as though they could stand having somebody get +interested in them a little."</p> + +<p>"Ah, I see now what you are; you are that remarkable combination, a +traveling man and a Christian. Am I right?"</p> + +<p>"Why, I suppose so," said J.W., with a smile and a touch of the old +boyish pride in his name. "My initials, as you might say, are 'John +Wesley,' and I'm not ashamed of them."</p> + +<p>"And that means you are not only a Christian, but a Methodist? My dear +man, we must shake on that. I'm a Methodist myself, as the stage robber +said to Brother Van, with the romantic name of Tanner. Got my first +interest in Mexico and the Mexicans when my daughter married a young +Methodist preacher and they went down there as missionaries. I make a +trip to see them and the babies about once a year. But now I am getting +interested in these people as an American and, I hope, a Christian who +tries to work at the business. What did you say your other name was?"</p> + +<p>J.W. hadn't said, but now he did, and the two settled to their talk. +This William Tanner, some sort of retired business man, certainly seemed +to know his Mexico. And he had that most subtle of all stimulants +to-night, a curious and sympathetic hearer. By consequence he was eager +to give all that J.W. would take.</p> + +<p>Before long J.W. had edged in a question about the church. He said, "You +know, Mr. Tanner, we have a pretty good Roman Catholic church in my home +town, though Father O'Neill doesn't tie up much to what the other +churches are trying to do, and some of his flock seem to me pretty wild, +for sheep. Now, these churches down here are all Roman Catholic too, yet +they certainly don't look any kin to Saint Ursula's at Delafield. Are +they?"</p> + +<p>It was the sort of question which William Tanner had asked himself many +a time when he first came to Mexico. "This is the way of it, Mr. +Farwell," he said. "The church came to Mexico, and to all Latin America, +from Spain and Portugal. It had a few great names, we must acknowledge, +in those early times. But in a little while it settled down to two +activities—to make itself the sole religious authority and to get rich. +It was a church of God and gold, and as a matter of course it preached +that it was the supreme arbiter of life and death in matters of faith, +and extended its authority into every relation of life. It brought from +the lands of the Inquisition the idea of priestly power, and there was +none to dispute it in Latin America, as there was in the colonies of our +own country. It gave the people little instruction, and no +responsibility or freedom. It made outward submission the test of piety +and faith. And so when Spain lost its grip on the western hemisphere the +church found itself with nothing but its claim of power to fall back on. +Well, you know that would work only with the ignorant and the +superstitious."</p> + +<p>"Mexico, and all Latin America for that matter, clear to the Straits of +Magellan, is a land of innumerable crosses, but no Christ. The church +has had left to it what it wanted; that is, the priestly prerogatives; +it marries, baptizes, absolves, buries, where the people can pay the +fees, and the people for various reasons have not cared that this is +all. If they are afraid, or want to make a show, they call in the +church; if they don't care, or if they are poor, they go unbaptized, +unmarried, unshriven, and do not see that it makes any difference. They +have no understanding of the church as a Christian institution; in fact, +I think it would puzzle most of them to tell what a true church ought to +be. Now, all this is the church's reward for its ancient choice, which, +so far as I can see, is still its choice. To the average Latin American +the church is, and in the nature of things must be, a demander of pay +for ceremonial, and a bitterly jealous defender of all its old +autocratic claims. That is of the nature of the church."</p> + +<p>"But I don't understand," interposed J.W. "If the people have no real +use for the church, why do they support it? It certainly is supported."</p> + +<p>"That, Mr. Farwell, is the tragedy of the church in all these lands," +said Mr. Tanner, soberly. "The church began by looking to its own +interests first. It wanted great establishments and a docile people. It +found the gospel hard to preach to the natives—the real gospel, I mean. +The cruelties and greed of the conquest had made impossible any +preaching of a ministering, merciful, and unselfish Christ. In fact, the +vast majority of the priests who came over from Europe brought with them +no such ideas. The church was ruler, not missionary. And so far as it +dares it sticks stubbornly to that notion even to this day. So it has +had to make practical compromise with the paganism and superstition it +found here. Many of its religious observances are the aboriginal pagan +practices disguised in Christian dress and given Christian names. The +church has sold its birthright for the privilege of exploiting the +credulity and the fears of the people. It has made merchandise of all +its functions. Now, after the centuries have come and gone, both church +and people through long custom are willing to have it so. The people +have their great churches, with incense and lights and all the pomp of +medæival days. But they have no living Christ and no thought of him. The +priests have their trade in ceremonial and their perquisites, but they +have no power over the hearts of men."</p> + +<p>As his new acquaintance paused for breath after this long answer to a +short question, J.W., remembering something Fred Finch had said, brought +the remark in: "The man who is showing me the ropes as a hardware man +tells me that all over Latin America the church is likely to be the one +real building in every town and village. Is that also something that +the people are so used to that they don't notice it any more?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," Mr. Tanner assented. "I suppose the contrast between the +church and the miserable little hovels around it never occurs to any of +them. It has always been so. The church has built itself up out of the +community, and for the most part it puts very little back. It conducts +schools, to be sure; and yet eighty per cent of the Mexican people are +illiterate, it has some few institutions of help and mercy; but the +whole land cries out for doctors and teachers and friendly human +concern."</p> + +<p>"Is that really so?" J.W. asked. "Do the people really want our +missionaries, or are we Protestants just shoving ourselves in? I can see +that something is desperately wrong, but we are mostly Saxon, and they +are Latins. Do these people want what to them must seem a queer religion +and a lot of strange ideas?"</p> + +<p>"So long as they do not understand what we come for, naturally they are +suspicious. When they find out, they take to mission work and +missionaries with very little urging. I wish you would meet my +son-in-law," Mr. Tanner said with positiveness. "Why, the one tormenting +desire of that man's life is to see more missionaries sent down into +Mexico; more doctors, more teachers, more workers of every sort. He +writes letters to the Board of Foreign Missions that would make your +heart ache. The church at home couldn't oversupply Mexico with the sort +of help it desperately needs if it should turn every recruit that way, +and disregard all the rest of the world's mission fields."</p> + <a name="image7" id="image7"></a><img src="images/imgseven.jpg" alt="Mexican's Home and Curch in the South West " align="left" /> + <p>"Do you mean," asked J.W., who was seeing new questions bob up every +time an earlier one was answered, "do you mean that so many missionaries +could be used on productive Christian work right away? Or is it that we +ought to have a big force to prepare for the long future of our work in +Mexico?" Now, J.W. was not so sure that this was an intelligent +question, but he had heard that in some mission fields it was necessary +to wait years for real and permanent results.</p> + +<p>His companion saw nothing out of the way in the question. It was part of +the whole problem. "I mean it both ways," he said. "What I've seen of +our Methodist work down in these parts, particularly its schools and one +wonderful hospital, makes me sure we could get big harvests of interest +and success right off. We're doing it already, considering our +relatively small force and our limited equipment."</p> + +<p>"But all Latin American work takes patience. I've made one trip down as +far as Santiago de Chile, and what is true in Mexico is, I guess, about +as true in other parts. The Roman Catholic Church has been here four +hundred years, and its biggest result is that the people who don't fear +it despise it. Latin America is called Christian, but it is a world in +which what you and I call religion simply does not count. Well, then, +that's what makes me talk about the need of persistence and patience. +The bad effects of three or four hundred years of such religion as has +been taught and practiced between the Rio Grande and Cape Horn can't be +got rid of in a hurry. Wait till Mexico has had a real chance at the +Christ of the New Testament for three hundred years, and then see!"</p> + +<p>J.W. had yet another question to ask before he was ready to call it a +day. "If all that you say is so—and I believe it is, Mr. Tanner—why +should so many of the Mexicans hate the United States? They do, for I've +heard it spoken of a good deal lately, and I remember what was always +said when some one proposed that we should intervene to make peace and +restore order in Mexico. It would take ten years and a million men, and +all Mexico would unite to oppose us. You talk about how much the +Mexicans need us and want us. But a great many of them surely don't want +us at all."</p> + +<p>"I know what that means," Mr. Tanner admitted. And it is true. We are +all influenced by the past. Look at the history of our dealings with +Mexico. The very ideas we fought to establish as the charter of our own +freedom we repudiated when we dealt with Mexico three quarters of a +century ago. We had every advantage, and what we wanted we took. +Certainly, we have done better by it than Mexico might have done, but I +never heard that reason given in a court of law to excuse the same sort +of transaction if it touched only private individuals. Then, in late +years big business has gone into Mexico. It has had to take big chances. +It has paid better wages than the peon could earn any other way. It has +a lot to its credit; but it has been much like big business in other +places, and, anyway, the admitted great profits have enriched the +foreigner, not the Mexican.</p> + +<p>"Besides, Mexico is not the States. As you say, it is Latin in its +civilization, not Saxon. It does not want our sort of culture. And some +of our missionaries, both of the church and of industry, have thought +that the Mexican ought to be 'Americanized.' That's a fatal mistake in +any mission field outside the States. All in all, you can see that it +isn't entirely inevitable that the Mexican should understand our +motives, or appreciate them when he does understand. But that's all the +more reason for bearing down hard on every form of genuine missionary +work. It's the only thing that we Americans can do in Mexico with any +hope of avoiding suspicion or of our presence being acceptable to the +Mexicans in the long run. We've got to fight the backfire of our +American commercialism, and the prejudice which is as real on the Texas +side of the river as it is on the other; for if the Mexican thinks in +terms of 'gringo,' the American of the Southwest is just as likely to +think in terms of 'greaser.'"</p> + +<p>When J.W. and Mr. Tanner parted for the night it was with the mutual +promise that they would have another talk some time the next day, but +the promise could not be kept. The retired business man heard from some +of his business in the early morning, and had just time to say a hurried +farewell. As he put it, "I thought I had retired, but unless I get back +to look after this particular affair I may have to get into the harness +again, and that is not a cheerful prospect at my age. So I go to +business to avert the danger of going back to business."</p> + +<p>A little later the two hardware salesmen were in El Paso again, after a +couple of side trips. J.W. took advantage of a long train wait to hunt +up the city library. He wanted to know whether Mr. Tanner was right in +saying that the Latin-American question was much the same everywhere.</p> + +<p>He wrote a letter to Mr. Drury that night, having thus far used picture +postcards until he was ashamed. In the letter he took occasion to +mention his talk with the "missionary father-in-law," and his own bit of +reading up on the subject.</p> + +<p>Said he: "I guess that man Tanner was right. He did not speak much of +the difference between the people of one country and those of another, +which rather surprised me. He said nothing of the two great classes, the +rulers with much European blood, and the peons, largely or altogether +Indian. There must be all sorts of Latin Americans, rich and poor, mixed +blood of many strains, Castilian and Aztec and Inca, and whatever other +people were here when Columbus set the fashion for American voyages. But +this is where this 'missionary father-in-law' hit the heart of the +trouble: Latin America has all sorts and conditions of men, but +everywhere it has the same church. And it is a church that can't ever +make good any more. It might, at the beginning, but it can't now. It has +a reputation as fixed as Julius Cæsar's. I'm hardly ready to set up as +an expert observer, being only a cub salesman on his first trip, but, +Mr. Drury, I believe I can see already that the only chance for these +people to get religion and everything else which religion ought to +produce, is for us to send it to them. Maybe that would stir up the +church down here, and help to give it another chance at the people's +confidence, though I'm not sure."</p> + +<p>Our church ought to send doctors; the amount of fearful disease that +flourishes among the poorer people is just frightful. If Joe Carbrook +were not so set on going to the Orient, he could do a big work here, and +so could a thousand other doctors. It would be so much more than mere +doctoring; it would be the biggest kind of preaching.</p> + +<p>And the church should send teachers. You know I believe in conversion; +but if the Mexicans I have seen are samples of Latin America's common +people, they need teachers who have the patience of Christ a good deal +more than they need flaming evangelists who make a big stir and soon +pass on. Because these folks have just _got_ to be made over, in their +very minds. They are not ready for the preaching of the gospel until +they have seen it lived. Long experience has made them doubtful of +living saints, though plenty of them pray to dead ones.</p> + +<p>This is the whole trouble, Mr. Drury, it seems to me. They've known +only a church that had got off the track. Any religious work that +reaches them now has almost to begin all over again. It has to undo +their thinking about prayer and faith and God's love and human conduct +and nearly every other Christian idea. They have a Christian vocabulary, +but it means very little. They think they can buy religion, if they want +it—any kind they want. And if they can't afford it, or don't want it, +they don't quite think they'll be sent to hell for that, in spite of +what the priest says. They think enough to be afraid, but not enough to +be sure of anything. The missionaries have to teach them a new set of +religious numerals, if you get what I mean, before it is any use to +teach them the arithmetic of the gospel.</p> + +<p>"I'm beginning to see that everything among the Latin Americans runs +back to the need of Christian living. The wrong notion of religion has +got them all twisted. I know Delafield is a long way from being +Christian, but the difference between Delafield and such a pitiful mud +village as I've seen lately has more to do with the sort of Christianity +each place has been taught than with anything else whatever. But I never +thought of that before."</p> + +<p>As Pastor Drury read that letter his heart warmed within him. He said to +himself, "John Wesley, Jr., is 'beginning to see,' he says. Please God +he musn't stop now until he gets his eyes wide open. The thing is +working out. He's groping around for something, and some day he'll find +it."</p> + + + +<br /><br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /><br /> +<a name="chap8"></a><h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<p><strong>CHRIST AND THE EAST</strong></p> +<br /> + +<p>For a first trip the Southwestern expedition under Fred Finch's tutelage +had been something of an exploit. Finch's report to Peter McDougall was +more than verified by the order sheets, and the observant Peter, keeping +track of things during the succeeding weeks, noticed with quiet +satisfaction that not a single order Was canceled.</p> + +<p>To himself he said, "The lad's a find, I'm thinking. From Finch's talk I +should say he has not only a natural knack of selling, but he sells for +keeps. And that's the idea, Peter. Anybody can sell if the buyer means +to call off the order by the next mail. This John Wesley boy may go far, +and I'll have to tell Albert Drury the next time I see him that he's +done the house of Cummings a real favor."</p> + +<p>The months went by. J.W. kept his wits about him, and on the road he +stuck to his salesman's faith that goods are better sold by those who +know exactly how they may be used and that they are never sold until +they are bought. So he found favor in the sight of Peter McDougall. The +proof of that is easy. Peter gave him a week off before the end of his +first year.</p> + +<p>Delafield looked better to the homecoming salesman than it had to the +boy coming back from college. And the town was glad to see him. He +meant something to not a few of its people, altogether outside the +interest of the Farwells—and Pastor Drury—and Jeannette!</p> + +<p>Deep Creek was his first port of call, after his first half-day at home. +He had been welcomed with deep, quiet gladness by the home folks, and he +had talked a little over the telephone with the preacher. Then time was +a laggard until he could head the Farwell car toward Deep Creek and the +old farm.</p> + +<p>Jeannette's welcome was all that even he could ask, though, of course, +just precisely what it was is none of our business. In the car, and by +the fireplace in the Shenk living room, and around the farm, they +considered many things, some of them not so personal as others. J.W. +told the story of his life in Saint Louis and on the road; Jeannette +listening like another Desdemona to the recital. And once again it was +not the adventure which supplied the thrill, but the adventurer.</p> + +<p>And Jeannette told him the news of Delafield. How Joe Carbrook and +Marcia Dayne's wedding had been the most wonderful wedding ever seen in +Delafield, with the town as proud of its one-time scapegrace as it was +of the beautiful bride. How brother Marty had been finding many excuses +of late for driving up from his circuit, and how he managed to see Alma +Wetherell a good deal. How Alma was now head bookkeeper and cashier of +the Emporium, the town's biggest store, and how she was such a dear +girl. How Pastor Drury and Marty had become great friends. How the +minister was not so well as usual, and people were getting to be a +little worried about him. How the Delafield church had taken up tithing, +and was not only doing a lot better financially, but in every other way. +How Deep Creek was going to have a new minister, a friend whom Marty had +met at the summer school for rural ministers, who would try to help the +Deep Creek people get an up-to-date church building and learn to use it. +How the Everyday Doctrines of Delafield had been first boosted and then +forgotten, and now again several of them were being practiced in some +quarters. And much more, though never to the wearing out of J.W.'s +interest. Certainly not, the news being just what he wanted to know, and +the reporter thereof being just the person he wanted to tell it to him.</p> + +<p>One bit of news Jeannette did not tell, for the sufficient reason that +she did not know it. Pastor Drury and Brother Marty _had_ become great +friends, but what Jeannette could not tell was the special bond of +interest which was back of the fact. Marty had long been aware that for +some reason the Delafield pastor was peculiarly concerned about J.W. +Never did he guess Walter Drury's secret, but he knew well enough there +was one.</p> + +<p>These two, the town preacher and the young circuit rider, read to each +other J.W.'s letters, and talked much about him and his experiences, and +made J.W. in general the theme of many discussions.</p> + +<p>"It has been good for the boy that he has had that border trip," said +the pastor to Marty a few days before J.W. got back. "Don't you think +so?"</p> + +<p>Marty was, as ever, J.W.'s ardent and self-effacing chum. "I certainly +do," he said. "He's growing, is J.W., and growing the right way. We need +business men of just the quality that's showing in him."</p> + +<p>The pastor hesitated a moment. Then he spoke: "Marty, when J.W. comes +home I hope something will set him thinking about the outer world that +has no word of our Christ. He hasn't seen it yet, not clearly; and you +know that there isn't any hope for that world to get out of the depths +until it gets the news of a Helper. I'm counting on you to help me with +J.W. if the chance comes. Just between ourselves, you know."</p> + +<p>"I'll do all I can, Mr. Drury; you may be sure of that," said Marty. And +he did.</p> + +<p>J.W.'s holiday brought several young people together who had not met for +a long time. Marty came up again, and spent the day with J.W., all over +town, from the store to the house and back again. In the evening Mrs. +Farwell made a feast, to which, besides Marty, Jeannette and Alma and +Pastor Drury were bidden. Mrs. Farwell was much more to Delafield than +the best cook and the most remarkable housekeeper in the place, but her +son insisted that she was these to begin with. Certainly, she had not +been experimenting on the two J.W.'s all these years for nothing.</p> + +<p>After dinner—talk. No need of any other game in that company at such a +time. There was plenty to talk about, and all had their reasons for +enjoying it. Naturally, J.W. must tell about himself. Letters are all +very well, but they are no more than makeshifts, after all. He was +modest enough about it, not having any special exploits to parade before +their wondering eyes, but quite willing. His Western experiences being +called for, he was soon telling, not of desert and cactus and +irrigation, but of the people who had so taken his attention, the +Mexicans.</p> + +<p>"I believe," said he, "that we can do something really big down there. +And it's our business. Nobody except American Christians will do it; +nobody else can. Besides, the Mexicans are Christians in name, now. What +they need is the reality. They are not impossible—just uncertain. All I +heard and what little I saw made me believe they are suffering from bad +leadership and ignorance more than from anything hopelessly wrong. They +seem easy to get along with. The women are the most patient workers I +ever heard of. And the poor Mexicans, the 'peons,' do want an end to +fighting and banditry."</p> + +<p>"Well, J.W.," Marty asked, "what's the first thing we ought to think +about for Mexico?"</p> + +<p>"I told you I don't know anything about Mexico, except at second-hand. +But, I should say, schools. Schools are good for any land, don't you +think, Mr. Drury? And in Mexico they are such great disturbers of the +old slouching indifference. They will make the right kind of +discontent. Schools bring other things; new ideas of health and +sanitation, home improvement, social outlook, and all that. Then, with +the schools, I guess, the straight gospel. The Mexicans won't get +converted all at once, and they won't become like us, ever. But I'm +about ready to say that whether missions are needed anywhere else or +not, they surely are needed in Mexico. And Mexico is the first +stepping-stone to South America; which is next on my list of the places +that ought to have the whole scheme of Christian teaching and life."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Alma, "and you know, I suppose, that the beginning of our +Panama Mission was an Epworth League Institute enterprise? Well, it was. +California young people assumed the support of the first missionary sent +there, and later he went on down to South America, with the same young +people determined to take him on as their representative, just as they +did in Panama."</p> + +<p>"Where did you get that story?" J.W. wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I forgot," Alma answered him, laughing. "You haven't had time to +read The Epworth Herald in Saint Louis."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I have, young lady," J.W. retorted, "but I missed that. Anyway, +it's on the right track. I think we've got to change the thinking of all +Latin America about Christianity, if we can. Most of the men, they say, +are atheists, made so very largely by their loss of faith in the church; +and many of the women substitute an almost fierce devotion to the same +church for what we think of as being genuine religion."</p> + +<p>The minister spoke up just here. "I should think it would be pretty +difficult to treat our United States Mexicans in one way, and those +across the Rio Grande in another. We must evangelize on both sides of +the river, but only on this side can we even attempt to Americanize."</p> + +<p>"That's right," J.W. affirmed. "And even on this side we can't do what +we may do in Delafield. The language is a big question, and it has two +sides. But no matter what the difficulties, I'm for a great advance of +missions and education, starting with Mexico and going all the way to +Cape Horn."</p> + +<p>"That's all very fine," interposed Marty, "but what about the rest of +the world, J.W.? What about the world that has not even the beginning of +Christian knowledge?" Marty had put the question on the urge of the +moment, and not until it was out did he remember that Mr. Drury had +asked him to help raise this very issue.</p> + +<p>"Well," J.W. answered, slowly, "maybe that part of the world is worse, +though I don't know. But we can't tackle everything. Latin America is an +immense job by itself, and we have some real responsibility there; a +sort of Christian Monroe Doctrine. Ought we to scatter our forces? The +non-Christian world has its own religions, and has had them for +hundreds, maybe thousands of years. What's the hurry just now? If we +could do everything, we Protestant Christians, I mean, in this country +and Britain, it might be different, but we can't. Why not concentrate?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," Marty came back, "but not because Latin America is so nearly +Christian. What about this atheism and superstition and ignorance; isn't +it just a non-Christian civilization with Christian labels on some parts +of it?"</p> + +<p>"One thing I've heard," put in Jeannette, not that she wanted to argue, +but she felt she ought to say something on J.W.'s side if she could, +"that the religions of the Orient, at least, are really great religions, +more suited to the minds of the people than any other. 'East is East, +and West is West,' you know. But, of course, the people don't live up to +the high levels of their beliefs. Americans don't, either."</p> + +<p>Mr. Drury shot an amused yet admiring glance at Jeannette. What a loyal +soul she was! Then said he: "The religions of the East _are_ great +religions, Jeannette. They represent the best that men can do. The +Orient has a genius for religion, and it has produced far better systems +than the West could have done. Some of the truth that we Western people +get only in Christianity the thinkers of Asia worked out for themselves. +But God was back of it all."</p> + +<p>That suited J.W.'s present mood. "All right, then; let's clean up as we +go—Delafield, Saint Louis, the Southwest, Mexico, Latin America; that's +the logical order. Then the rest of the world."</p> + +<p>Marty put in a protest here: "That won't do, old man. Your logic's lame. +You want us to go into Mexico now, with all we've got. Your letters +have said so, and you've said it again to-night. But we're not 'cleaning +up as we go.' Look at Delafield; the town you've moved away from. Look +at Saint Louis; the town where you make your living. Are they +Christianized? Cleaned up? Yet you are ready for Mexico. No; you're all +wrong, J.W. I don't believe the world's going to be saved the way you +break up prairie sod, a field at a time, and let the rest alone. We've +got to do our missionary work the way they feed famine sufferers. They +don't give any applicant all he can eat, but they try to make the supply +go 'round, giving each one a little. Remember, J.W., the rest of the +world is as human as our western hemisphere."</p> + +<p>"I know," admitted J.W. "And I don't say I've got the right of it. I'd +have to see the Orient before I made up my mind. But those countries +have waited a long while. A few more years wouldn't be any great +matter."</p> + +<p>Alma Wetherell now joined the opposition. It looked as though J.W. and +Jeannette must stand alone, for the old people said nothing, though they +listened with eager ears. Said Alma, "I think it would matter a lot. The +more we do for one people, while ignoring all the others, the less we +should care to drop a developing work to begin at the bottom somewhere +else."</p> + +<p>"There's something in that," J.W. conceded. "I'm not meaning to be +stubborn. But I've had just a glimpse of the size of the missionary job +in one little corner of the world. Even that is too big for us. We could +put our whole missionary investment into Mexico without being able to do +what is needed."</p> + +<p>"The missionary job, as you call it, is too big, certainly, for our +present resources," said the pastor. "Everybody knows that."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Marty, who wondered if Mr. Drury had forgotten their compact +about J.W., "but why limit ourselves to our present resources? They are +not all we could get, if the church came to believe in the bigness of +her privilege. I'd like to see for myself, as J.W. says, but I can't. +Why don't you get a real traveling job, and go about the world looking +things over for us, old man?"</p> + +<p>"Me?" J. W. said, sarcastically; "yes, that's a likely prospect. Just as +I'm getting over being scared by a sample case. I'll do well to hold the +job I've got."</p> + +<p>Alma didn't know what Marty's game was, but she played up to his +suggestion. "Why shouldn't you go?" she asked. "You've told us that +Cummings hardware and tools are sold all over the world. Doesn't that +mean salesmen? And aren't you a salesman? They have to send somebody; +why shouldn't they pick on you some time?"</p> + +<p>J. W. rose to the lure, for the moment all salesman. "Nothing in it, +Alma; no chance at all. But I would like to show the world the +civilizing values of good tools, and I'd go if I got the chance."</p> + +<p>Jeannette's reaction was quicker than thinking; "Would you go half way +around the world just for that?" she asked, with a hint of alarm.</p> + +<p>"Why, yes, I would," said J.W., "that is, if you were willing."</p> + +<p>Whereupon everybody laughed but Jeannette, whose pale cheeks flamed into +sudden rosiness.</p> + +<p>The minister came to her rescue. "It would be a good thing every way, if +more laymen would see the realities of Oriental life and bring back an +impartial report. Suppose you should be right, J.W., and we found that +the Orient could wait until the western hemisphere had been thoroughly +Christianized. Think how many thousands—perhaps millions—of dollars +could be directed into more productive channels. I can see what a great +influence such reports would have if they came from Christian laymen. We +have learned to expect stories of complete failure when the ordinary +traveler comes back; and maybe the missionaries have their bias too. But +business men with Christian ideals—that would be different."</p> + +<p>Now, all this was far from unpleasant to J.W. He detested posing, but +why wouldn't it be worth something to have laymen report on missionary +work? Of course, though, if the time ever came when the firm was willing +to trust him abroad, he wouldn't have much chance to study missions. +Business would have to come first. It was no less a dream for being an +agreeable one.</p> + +<p>"There's no danger of my going," he told them. "The Cummings people are +not sending cub salesmen to promote their big Asiatic trade. What could +they make by it?"</p> + +<p>Then the talk drifted to the Carbrooks. Marty said, "Well, we've spoiled +your scheme a little, J.W., right here in Delafield. Joe Carbrook and +Marcia are in China by now, and I'd like to see both of 'em as they get +down to work. You can't keep all our interest on this side of the +Pacific so long as those two are on the other."</p> + +<p>"No," said J.W., warmly, "and I don't want to. I'll help to back up +those two missionaries wherever they go." And his thoughts went back to +camp fire night at Cartwright Institute, when he had said to Joe +Carbrook without suspecting the consequences, "Say, Joe; if you think +you could be a doctor, why not a missionary doctor?"</p> + +<p>Then he asked the company, "Just where have these missionary infants +been sent?"</p> + +<p>Nobody knew, exactly. They had the name of the town and the province, +but the geography of China is not as yet familiar even to those who +support the missions and missionaries of that vast, mysterious land.</p> + +<p>The pastor thought it was two or three hundred miles inland from +Foochow. "Anyhow," said he, "it is a good-sized town, of about one +hundred thousand people or more, and Joe's hospital is the only one in +the whole district. The man whose place he takes is home on furlough, +and I've looked up his work in the Annual Report of the Foreign Missions +Board. Six or eight years ago the hospital was a building of sun-dried +brick, with a mud floor and accommodations for about seventy-five +patients. He was running it on something like five dollars a day. But it +is better now, costs more too. And there's a school attached, where +Marcia has already begun to make herself necessary, or I'm much +mistaken."</p> + +<p>So the talk ran on, until the evening was far spent, and everybody +wished there could be half a dozen such evenings before J. W. must go +back to Saint Louis and the road.</p> + +<p>No other opportunity offered, however, and all too soon for some people +J. W. was gone again from Delafield.</p> + +<p>Walter Drury, seeing his chance, set himself to follow up the talk of +that one evening. It had given him a lead as to the next phase of the +Experiment, and he wanted to try out the idea before anything else might +happen.</p> + +<p>So he wrote to his brother Albert in Saint Louis. "I know I'm a bother +to you," the letter ran, "but you have always been generous, being your +own unselfish self. It's about young Farwell, 'John Wesley, Jr.,' you +know. I judge he's a boy with a fine business future, and I've found out +from his father some of the reasons why he is making good. Now, I don't +know much about business, but it seems to me that the very qualities +which make J. W. a good salesman for a beginner would be profitable to +his company if they sent him to their Oriental trade. He's young enough +to learn something over there. My own interest is not on that side of +the affair, but I know it would be out of the question to suggest his +going unless the Cummings people could see a business advantage in it. +If you think it is not asking too much, I wish you would talk to Mr. +McDougall about it. Tell him what I have written, and what I told you +long ago about J.W."</p> + +<p>Albert Drury had unbounded confidence in his brother's sincerity and +sense, so he lost no time in getting an interview with his friend +McDougall.</p> + +<p>"See here, Peter," said he, "I'll be frank with you; I know you think +I'd better be if I'm to get anywhere."</p> + +<p>"That's very true," said McDougall, with assumed severity.</p> + +<p>"Well, then, read my brother's letter; and then tell me if he's wanting +the impossible."</p> + +<p>Peter McDougall read the letter twice. "No," he said, when he handed it +back, "he's not wanting the impossible. He's given me an idea. I owe you +something already, for finding this young fellow, and I'll tell you what +I'm thinking of. Of course the boy isn't seasoned enough yet, but he's +getting there fast. A couple of long trips, a few months under my own +eye here in the office, and he'll be ready. Now, your brother has hinted +at exactly what young Farwell is good for. That boy sells goods by +getting over onto the buyer's side. And he knows tools—knew 'em before +we hired him. Well, then, here's the idea; one big need of our foreign +trade is to show our agencies what can really be done with American +hardware and tools. It takes more than a salesman; and Farwell has the +knack. So there you are. Tell your brother the boy shall have his +chance."</p> + +<p>A few months later McDougall sent for J.W. and put the whole proposal +before him.</p> + +<p>"But I'm not an expert, Mr. McDougall," J.W. protested. "I haven't the +experience, and I might fall down completely in a new field like that."</p> + +<p>"We're not looking for an expert," said McDougall, shortly. "You know +what every user of our stuff ought to know; you can put yourself in his +place; and you'll be a sort of missionary. How about it?"</p> + +<p>At the word J.W.'s memory awoke, and he heard again what had been said +in the living room at Delafield when he was last at home. A missionary! +And here was the very chance they had all talked about.</p> + +<p>"Of course I should like to go, if you think I'll do," he said.</p> + +<p>Peter looked at him more kindly than was his wont. "My boy," he said, "I +know something about you outside of business, though not much. And I +think you'll do. Mind you, your missionary work will be tools and +hardware, not the Methodist Church. You will have to show people who +have their own ideas about tools how much more convenient our goods are; +handier, lighter, more adaptable. What they need over there is modern +stuff. It will help them to raise more crops and do better work and earn +a better income. You've nothing to do with selling policies, finance, +credits, and all that. Just be a tool and hardware missionary."</p> + +<p>"Where had you thought of sending me?" asked J.W., still somewhat +dazed.</p> + +<p>"Oh, wherever we have agencies that you can use as bases: China, the +Philippines, Malaysia, India. You will have to figure on a year or +nearly that. And you mustn't stick to the ports or the big cities. Get +hold of people who'll show you the country; the places where our goods +are most needed and least known. Study the people and their tools. Work +out better ways of doing things. Don't try to hustle the East, but +remember that the East is doing a little hustling on its own account +these days. And talk turkey to our agencies—when you're sure you have +something to talk about."</p> + +<p>The rest is detail. The trip determined on, preparations were hastened. +A month before the date of starting J.W. had time for no more than a +hurried visit to Delafield, to say good-by to the home folk and to the +preacher whom he had come to think of as Timothy might have thought of +Paul. Then he had something else to say to Jeannette. His prospects were +becoming so promising that he could ask her a very definite question, +and he dared to hope for a definite answer.</p> + +<p>Jeannette, troubled at the thought of his long absence in strange lands, +consoled herself by her promise, which was his promise also. As soon as +he came home again they would be married. Brother Drury should +officiate, assisted by "the Rev. Martin Luther Shenk, brother of the +charming bride," as J.W. put it.</p> + +<p>Walter Drury was not his usual alert self, J.W. thought, and it hurt him +to see his much-loved friend touched even a little by the years. But +the pastor brightened up, and grew visibly better as J.W. told him all +his plans.</p> + +<p>"Just think, Mr. Drury," he said with animation, "I'm to be a +missionary, after all. Once long ago I remember you suggested I might go +to China and see for myself the difference between their religion and +ours; and now I'm going to China. Who knows, maybe I'll see Joe Carbrook +at his work. And then I'm to go all over the East, to preach the gospel +of better tools." Then he became thoughtful. "Don't you think that's +almost as good as the gospel of better bodies—Joe's gospel?"</p> + +<p>"Surely, I do," said the pastor, "if you and Joe preach in the same +spirit, knowing that China won't be saved even by hospitals and modern +hardware. They help. But remember our understanding; you have your +chance now to see the religions of the East. Going right among the +people, as you will, you can find out more in a week than the average +tourist ever discovers. I'll give you the names of some people who will +gladly help you. And we shall want a full report when you come back. God +bless you, J.W."</p> + +<p>It was a tired preacher who went to bed that night. This new adventure +of his boy's; what would it mean to the Experiment? He had done his best +to keep that long-ago pledge to himself. Not always had the project been +easy; he could not control all its circumstances, but in the main it had +gone well.</p> + +<p>And now J.W. was in the last stage of the Experiment Walter Drury had +contrived to shape its larger conditions, with the help of many friendly +but unsuspecting conspirators. This tour in the interest of better tools +was due mainly to his initiative. But he could do nothing more. The +event was now out of his hands. The relaxed tension made him realize +that his nerves were shaky, and he had a sense of great depression. But +before he went to bed he pulled himself together long enough to write to +five missionaries, including Joe Carbrook, whose fields were on or near +the route J.W. would travel. He had told J.W. that he would let these +men know of his coming, but he did more. To each one he said a word of +appeal. "Don't argue much with this boy of mine; I want him to see it +without too many second-hand opinions. Explain all you please, and let +him get as near as he can to the people you are dealing with. If, as I +hope, he gets a glimpse of the work's inner meaning, I shall be +satisfied."</p> + +<br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /> + +<p>The first day which J.W. spent in Shanghai was a big day for him. Even +amid the strangeness of the scene he felt almost at home. The people who +had the Cummings agency had received their instructions, and were +prepared to help him every way. He could begin an up-country trip at +once if he wished. Then he met the first of the men to whom Pastor Drury +had written, Mark Rutledge, and at once he saw that this well-groomed, +alert young missionary, who used modern speech in deliberate but direct +fashion, would be of immense service to him.</p> + +<p>Rutledge received J. W.'s gospel of tools with almost boyish +enthusiasm. "I've always said," he exclaimed, "that if the other +business men of America had as much sense as the tobacco folks they +would hasten the Christianizing of China by many a year. Not that +tobacco is helping; far from it. But it's the idea of fitting their +product to this particular market. And your house has evidently caught +that idea. You must have a real sales manager in Saint Louis! Of course +I'll help you all I can."</p> + +<p>Some of the help which Mark Rutledge gave him was of a sort that J. W. +could not rightly estimate at the time, but he knew it was good. As long +as he stayed in Shanghai, and as often he came back to the city as a +base, he and Rutledge were pretty frequently together. The missionary +kept his own counsel as to the Drury letter, merely dropping a hint now +and then, or a suggestion which fitted both the Cummings agency's +program and the pastor's desire.</p> + +<p>The inland trips for business purposes kept J. W. busy for weeks; he +found himself in so utterly novel a situation that he saw he could not +work out anything without careful study and expert Chinese cooperation. +As he came and went he saw, under Rutledge's guidance, much of the +inside of mission work. In Shanghai he found a Methodist publishing +house, sending out literature all over China, as well as two monthly +papers, one in Chinese and one in English. Many missionary boards had +headquarters here. From Shanghai as a business center every form of +missionary work was being promoted, reaching as far as the foothills of +the Thibetan plateau. Hospital equipment was distributed, and school +equipment, and supplies of every variety. He saw that it was the +financial center too, and mission finance is a special science. Shanghai +seemed to J. W. to be one of the great capitals of the missionary world.</p> + +<p>Rutledge's own work, many sided as J. W. saw it was, had two aspects of +special significance. Rutledge was sending back to America all the +information he could gather from the whole field. With the skill of a +trained reporter he showed the missionaries how to write so as to make a +genuine story seem convincing, and how to subordinate the details to the +importance of making a clear and single impression.</p> + +<p>The other work of Rutledge's which caught J. W.'s eye was his activity +in behalf of the young people of China. Until lately nothing at all had +been done comparable to the specialized development of young people's +work in America, but now the Epworth League was beginning to be utilized +and adapted to Chinese ways. Funds were available—not much, but a +beginning. Leaders were being trained. A larger measure of local, +Chinese help was being employed.</p> + +<p>J. W. asked Mark Rutledge about all this one day. "Isn't it going to +make a difference with the work by and by, if you get so many natives +into places of responsibility? Are they ready for it?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Rutledge, "they're not. But we must make them ready. You +haven't begun to see China yet, but already you can see that the +country could never be 'evangelized,' even in the narrowest use of that +word, by foreign missionaries. And it ought not to be."</p> + +<p>"You mean that we Americans ought to consider our work in China as +temporary?" J.W. asked.</p> + +<p>Rutledge answered, "Frankly, I do, if you let me put my own meaning into +'temporary,' We must start things. And much that must be done in the +long run has not yet been started. We must stay here beyond my life +expectation or yours. But China will be Christianized by the Chinese, +not by foreigners. As far ahead as we can see the work will have help +from outside, but I honestly want the time to come when we missionaries +will be looked upon as the foreign helpers of the Chinese Church; not, +as now, controlling the work ourselves and enlisting the services of +'native helpers.'"</p> + +<p>"Then tell me another thing," J.W. persisted. "Is our Christianity, as +the Chinese get it, any advance on their own religion? Or is their +religion all right, if they would work it as we hope they may work the +Christian program?"</p> + +<p>"That's two questions," said Rutledge, dryly, "but, after all, it is +only one. Our Christianity as the Chinese get it is far ahead of the +best they have, in ideals, in human values, everything, even if they +were more consistent in responding to its claims than Christians are. +The old religions—and China has several—are helpless. We are not +killing off the old faiths. If we should get out to-morrow these would +none the less die out in time, but then China would be left without any +religion at all. Instead, she's going to have the Christian faith in a +form that will accord with the genius of the Chinese mind. That's my +sure confidence, or I wouldn't be here."</p> + +<p>It was necessary that J.W. should run down the coast to Foochow, the +base for his next operations in the hardware adventure. "I know I'm +green," he said to Rutledge, "and I may be thinking of impossibilities, +but do you suppose there'll be any chance for me to get up to Dr. +Carbrook's place from Foochow? I've told you about him and his wife, and +I'd rather see those two than anybody else in all the East."</p> + +<p>"It's not impossible at all," Rutledge assured him. "Carbrook's post is +not so very far from Foochow, as distances go in China, and Ralph Bellew +at the college will help you."</p> + +<p>"Yes, my pastor at home told me to be sure and call on him," said J.W., +and took his leave of a man he would long remember.</p> + +<p>The call of Professor Bellew was not delayed long after J.W. had found +his bearings in Foochow, and the Professor's welcome was even more +cordial than that of the Cummings agency, though these gentlemen were, +of course, the soul of courtesy. If they were not so sure as Peter +McDougall that J.W. or any other American could teach them anything +about selling the Cummings line in China, at least they would not put +anything in his way.</p> + +<p>One important interior town, Yenping, they had hoped J.W. might visit, +but unfortunately there was no one connected with the agency who could +be sent with him. They understood that some of his missionary friends +were ready to help him in the general enterprise, and perhaps they might +be able to suggest something.</p> + +<p>When the difficulty was stated to Professor Bellew he said: "Why, that's +one of our stations. It is a little out of the way to go up to Dr. +Carbrook's place on the way to Yenping, but we'll see that you get to +both towns."</p> + +<p>"That's certainly good of you, Professor," said J.W., gratefully. "I've +told you about Joe Carbrook, and I can hardly wait until I get to him." +As a matter of fact, he had told everybody about Joe Carbrook.</p> + +<p>Professor Bellew was sympathetic. "I know," he said, "and I understand. +When you come back, if we can manage the dates, you may find something +here which you ought to see."</p> + +<p>The Carbrook Hospital—it has another name in the annual reports, but +this will identify it sufficiently for our purposes—spread itself all +over the compound and beyond in its welcome to J.W. Joe and Marcia were +first, and joyfullest. The school turned out to the last scholar, and +even the hospital's "walking cases" insisted on having a share in the +welcome to the foreign doctor's friend.</p> + +<p>"Tell us what you are up to," said the Carbrooks, when they were back in +the house after a sketchy inspection of the whole establishment; +hospital, dispensary, school, chapel, and so forth. And, "Tell me what +you are doing with it, now that you have the hospital you have been +dreaming about so long," said J.W.</p> + +<p>But J.W. told his story first, just to get it out of the way, as he +said. Then he turned to Marcia and said, "How about it, 'Mrs. +Carbrook'?"</p> + +<p>"Well, J.W.," said Marcia, "that name is not so strange as it was. I'm +feeling as if I had been married a long time, judging by the +responsibilities, that are dumped on me just because I am the doctor's +wife. And this doctor man of mine hardly knows whether to be happy or +miserable. He's happy, because he has found the very place he wanted. +And he's miserable because he ought to be learning the language and +can't get away from the work that crowds in on him."</p> + +<p>"And you yourself, Marcia," J.W. asked, "are you happy or miserable, or +both?"</p> + +<p>"She's as mixed up as I am, old man," Joe answered for her. "Talk about +the language! I don't hanker after learning it, but I've got to, some +time. If they would just let me be a sort of deaf-mute doctor I'd be +much obliged. The work is fairly maddening. You know, it was a question +of closing up this hospital or putting me in as a green hand. Of course +there are the nurses, and a couple of students. But I'm glad they put me +in; only, look at the job! Never a day without new patients. A steady +stream at the out-clinic. Why, J.W., I've done operations alone here +that at home they'd hardly let me hold sponges for. Had to do 'em."</p> + <a name="image8" id="image8"></a><img src="images/imgeight.jpg" alt="Dr. Joe Carbrook Does Such Work As This in China" /> + <p>"Well," J.W. commented, "isn't that what you came for?"</p> + +<p>"It is," Marcia answered—these two had a queer way of speaking for each +other—"and it would be a good plenty if the hospital were all. But we +are putting up a new building to take the place of an adobe horror, and +Joe has to buy bricks and deal with workmen and give advice and dispense +medicine and do operations, all with the help of a none too sure +interpreter. He's the busiest man, I do believe, between here and +Foochow."</p> + +<p>J.W. wanted to draw Dr. Joe out about the work in general. What of the +evangelistic work, and the educational work, and all the rest.</p> + +<p>But Dr. Joe would not rise to it. "I'll tell you honestly, J.W., I just +don't know. Haven't had time to find out. When I got here I found people +standing three deep around the hospital doors, some wanting help for +themselves, and some anxious to bring relatives or friends. I was at +work before anything was unpacked except my instruments. And I've been +at it ever since. Everything else could wait, but all this human misery +couldn't. And I don't know much of what the evangelistic value of it all +will be. We have a Bible woman and a teacher in the school who are very +devoted. They read and pray every day with the patients, and as for +gratitude, I never expected to be thanked for what I did as I have been +thanked here. I'll tell you one thing; I didn't dream a man could be so +content in the midst of such a hurricane of work. I'm done to a +standstill every day; I bump into difficulties and tackle +responsibilities that I hadn't even heard of in medical school, though I +haven't killed anybody yet. And all the time I remember how I used to +wish I might be the only doctor between Siam and sunrise. I'm plenty +near enough to that, in all conscience. The only doctor in this town of +one hundred thousand, and a district around us so big that I'm afraid to +measure it. On one side the next doctor is a good hundred miles away. +Now, do you know how I feel? Oh, yes; insufficient until it hurts like +the toothache, yet somehow as though I were carrying on here, not in +place of the man who has gone home on furlough, but in place of Jesus +Christ himself. You know I'm not irreverent; I might have been, but this +has taken all of the temptation out of me. It is his work, not mine."</p> + +<p>J.W. turned to Marcia again. "I thought you said this Joe of yours was +miserable, I've seen him when he was enjoying himself pretty well, but I +never saw him like this."</p> + +<p>"I know," Marcia admitted, "and I didn't mean he was really unhappy. But +it is a big strain, and there's no sign of its letting up until the +regular doctor gets back."</p> + +<p>The next day J.W. watched his old friend amid the press of duties which +crowded the hours, and he marveled as much as the wretchedness of the +patients as he did at the steady resourcefulness of the man whom he had +known when he was Delafield's adventurous and spendthrift idler.</p> + +<p>As he looked on, J.W. could understand something which had been a closed +book to him before. No one could stand by and see this abjectness of +need, this helplessness, this pathetic faith which was almost fatalistic +in the foreign doctor's miraculous powers—it recalled that beseeching +cry in the New Testament story, "Lord, if thou _wilt_ thou +_canst_"—without being deeply, poignantly glad that there were such men +as Joe Carbrook. It was all very well to talk at long range about +letting China and other places wait. But on the spot nobody could talk +that way.</p> + +<p>The visit might have lasted two weeks, instead of two days, and then the +Carbrooks would have hung on and besought him to stay a little longer. +Torture would not have drawn any admission from them, but back of all +the joy in the work was a something that left them without words as J.W. +and his little group from Foochow set out for the next stopping place. +Just before the last silent hand-grips, J.W. told his friends about +Jeannette and himself, and promised Joe a wedding present. "You see," he +said, "I never sent you one when you were married, and I'd like to send +you a double one now, for yourselves and for us. You send me word what +it is you most need for the hospital, an X-ray outfit, or a sterilizer, +or a thingamajig for making cultures, microscope included, and Jeannette +and I will see that you get it. I'm a tither, you know, and my salary's +been raised, and I want to do something to show what a fool I was before +I knew what sort of a business you were really in out here. So don't be +modest; you can't hurt my feelings!"</p> + +<p>Back at Foochow in the course of the slow days which Chinese travel +gives to those who go aside from the beaten path, Professor Bellew +welcomed J.W. with eager warmth. "You're back just in time, if you can +stay a few days; the celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the +college begins to-morrow."</p> + +<p>J.W. had at least a week's business with the Cummings agents. He had +found some conditions on his inland journey which called for much +discussion. So he had time for sharing in a good deal of the +celebration. It was something to marvel at, that a Christian college had +been at work in this great city for forty years.</p> + +<p>The president of the college and his wife started the proceedings with a +formal reception, at which a Chinese orchestra furnished music outside +the house, and Western musicians rendered more familiar selections in +the parlors. Alumni flocked to the reception, men of every variety of +occupation, but all one in their devotion to their Alma Mater. The next +afternoon was given over to athletics, and the evening to a lecture, +quite in the American fashion.</p> + +<p>The third day being Sunday, J.W. listened to an American missionary in +the morning, who spoke boldly of the prime need for a college like this +if the youth of China were to be trained for the highest service to +their country. At night he sat through nearly three hours of the most +amazing testimony meeting he had ever seen. It was led by a Chinese who +had been graduated from the college thirty years before. The eagerness, +almost impatience, to confess what Jesus Christ and Christian education +had meant to these Chinese leaders—for it was evident they _were_ +leaders—was a thing to stir the most sluggish Christian pulse. J.W.'s +mind took him back to a memorable love feast at Cartwright Institute, +when Joe Carbrook had made his first confession of and surrender to +Jesus Christ, and it seemed to him that the likeness between these two +so different gatherings was far more real than all their contrasts.</p> + +<p>On Monday the anniversary banquet brought the American consul, a +representative of the provincial governor, and many other dignitaries. +And on Tuesday the students put on a pageant which illustrated in +gorgeousness of color and costume and accessories the history of the +college. Besides all this pomp and circumstance there was a wonderful +industrial exhibit. The president of China sent a scroll, as did also +the prime minister. Former students in the cities of China, from Peking +to Amoy, sent subscriptions amounting to twenty-five thousand dollars +for new buildings, and other old students in the Philippines sent a +second twenty-five thousand dollars.</p> + +<p>All of which stirred J.W. to the very soul. Here was a Christian college +older than many in America. Its results could not be measured by any +visible standards, yet he had seen graduates of the school and students +who did not stay long enough to graduate, men of light and leading, men +of wealth and station, officials, men in whom the spirit of the new +China burned, Christian workers; and all these bore convincing testimony +that this college had been the one great mastering influence of their +lives. A Christian college—in China!</p> + +<p>J.W. thought of it all and said to himself: "I wonder if I am the same +individual as he who not so many months ago was talking about the good +sense of letting China wait indefinitely for Christ? Anyhow, somebody +has had better sense than that every day of the last forty years!"</p> + +<p>The "tour of the tools" was teaching J.W. more than he could teach the +merchants of Asia. And yet he was doing no little missionary work, as +evidenced both in his own reports to Peter McDougall, and still more in +the reports which went to that observant gentleman after J.W. had moved +on from any given place. The Cummings Hardware Corporation may be +without a soul, as corporations are known to be, but it has many eyes.</p> + +<p>These eyes followed J.W.'s progress from Shanghai to Foochow, to Hong +Kong, to Manila. They observed how he studied artisans and their ways +with tools, and the ways of builders with house fittings, and the +various devices with which in field and garden the toilers set +themselves to their endless labor. As the eyes of the Cummings +organization saw these things, the word went back across the water to +Saint Louis, and Peter McDougall took credit to himself for a +commendable shrewdness.</p> + +<p>But the ever-watchful eyes had no instructions to report on the tool +missionary's other activities, and therefore no report was made. None +the less they saw, and wondered, and thought that there was something +back of it all. There was more back of it than they could have guessed.</p> + +<p>For J. W. had come to a new zest for both of his quests. The business +which had brought him into the East was daily becoming more fascinating +in its possibilities and promise. In even greater measure the interests +which belong especially to this chronicle were taking on a new +importance. Everywhere he went he sought out the missions and the +missionaries. He plied the workers with question on question until they +told him all the hopes and fears and needs and longings which often they +hesitated to put into their official letters to the Boards.</p> + +<p>In Manila he saw, after a little more than two decades of far from +complete missionary occupation, the signs that a Christian civilization +was rising. The schools and churches and hospitals and other +organization work established in Manila were proof that all through the +islands the everyday humdrum of missionary service was going forward, +perhaps without haste, but surely without rest.</p> + +<p>When he came to Singapore, that traffic corner to which all the sea +roads of the East converge, he heard the story of a miracle, and then +he saw the miracle itself, the Anglo-Chinese College.</p> + +<p>They told him what it meant, not the missionaries only, but the Chinese +merchants who controlled the Cummings line for all the archipelago, and +Sumatra planters, and British officials, and business men from Malaysian +trade centers whose names he had never before heard.</p> + +<p>The teacher who put himself at J. W.'s service was one of the men to +whom Pastor Drury had written his word of appeal on J. W.'s behalf. He +respected it altogether, and the more because he well knew that here was +no need for mere talk. A visitor with eyes and ears could come to his +own conclusions. If the college were not its own strongest argument, no +words could strengthen it.</p> + +<p>The college had been started by intrepid men who had no capital but +faith and an overmastering sense of duty. That was a short generation +ago. Now J. W. saw crowded halls and students with purposeful faces, and +he heard how, at first by the hundreds and now by thousands, the product +of this school was spreading a sense of Christian life-values through +all the vast island and ocean spaces from Rangoon to New Guinea, and +from Batavia to Sulu.</p> + +<p>But it may as well be told that, even more than China, India made the +deepest impress on the mind and heart of our tool-traveler. From the +moment when he landed in Calcutta to the moment when he watched the low +coasts of the Ganges delta merge into the horizon far astern, India +would not let him alone. He saw poverty such as could scarcely be +described, and religious rites the very telling of which might sear the +tongue. If China's poor had a certain apathy which seemed like poise, +even in their wretchedness, not so India's, but, rather, a slow-moving +misery, a dull progress toward nothing better, with only nothingness and +its empty peace at last.</p> + +<p>Once in Calcutta, and his business plans set going, he started out to +find some of the city's Christian forces. They were not easy to find. As +in every Oriental city, missionary work is relatively small. Indeed, J. +W. began to think that this third city of Asia had little religion of +any sort.</p> + +<p>He had been prepared in part for the first meager showing of mission +work. On shipboard he had encountered the usual assortment of missionary +critics; the unobservant, the profane, the superior, the loose-living, +and all that tribe. The first of them he had met on the second day out +from San Francisco, and every boat which sailed the Eastern seas +appeared to carry its complement of self-appointed and all-knowing +enemies of the whole missionary enterprise. While steaming up the Bay of +Bengal, the anti-mission chorus appeared at its critical best. J. W. was +told as they neared Calcutta that the Indian Christian was servile, and +slick and totally untrustworthy. Never had these expert observers seen a +genuine convert, but only hypocrites, liars, petty thieves, and +grafters.</p> + +<p>In spite of it all, at last he found the Methodist Mission, and it was +not so small, when once you saw the whole of it. By great good fortune +his instructions from home ordered him up country as far as Cawnpore. +And to his delight he met a Methodist bishop, one of the new ones, who +was setting out with a party for the Northwest. So, on the bishop's most +cordial invitation, he joined himself to the company, and learned in a +day or two from experts how to make the best of India's rather trying +travel conditions.</p> + +<p>Benares, Allahabad, Cawnpore, Lucknow—J. W. came to these cities with a +queer feeling of having been there before. Long ago, in his early Sunday +school days, the names of these places and the wonders of them had been +the theme of almost the only missionary book he had at that age cared to +read.</p> + +<p>At Allahabad, said his companions of the way, an All-India Epworth +League convention was to be held, and J. W. made up his mind that a +League convention in India would be doubly worth attending. He did +attend it too, but it left no such memory as another gathering in the +same city; a memory which he knows will last after every other picture +of the East has faded from his recollection.</p> + +<p>The party had reached Allahabad at the time of the Khumb Mela, a vast +outpouring of massed humanity too great for any but the merest guesses +at its numbers. This "Mela," feast, religious pilgrimage, whatever it +might mean to these endless multitudes, is held here at stated times +because the two sacred rivers, the Jumna and the Ganges, come together +at Allahabad, and tradition has it that a third river flows beneath the +surface to meet the others. So the place is trebly sacred, its waters +potent for purification, no matter how great one's sin.</p> + +<p>With the others J.W. set out for an advantageous observation point, on +the wall of the fort which stands on the tongue of land between the two +streams. On the way J.W. assured himself that if Calcutta seemed without +religion, here was more than enough of it to redress the balances. In +the throng was a holy man whose upraised arm had been held aloft until +it had atrophied, and would never more swing by his side. And yonder +another holy one sat in the sand, with a circle of little fires burning +close about him. The seeker after he knew not what who made his search +while lying on a bed of spikes was here. And once a procession passed, +two hundred men, all holy after the fashion of Hindu holiness, all +utterly naked, with camels and elephants moving in their train. As if to +show how these were counted men of special sanctity, the people fell on +their faces to the ground beside them as they passed, and kissed their +shadows on the sand.</p> + +<p>The point of vantage reached, J.W.'s bewildered eyes could scarce make +his brain believe what they saw. He was standing on a broad wall, thirty +feet above the water, and perhaps a hundred feet back from it. Up and +down the stream was an endless solid mass of heads. J.W. looked for some +break in the crowd, some thinning out of its packed bodies, but as far +as he could see there was no break, no end. Government officials had +estimated the number of pilgrims at two millions!</p> + +<p>A signal must have been given, or an hour had come—J. W. could not tell +which—but somehow the people knew that now was the opportunity to enter +the water and gain cleansing from all sin. A mighty, resistless movement +carried the human stream to meet the river. Inevitably the weaker +individuals were swept along helpless, and those who fell arose no more. +Horrified, J. W. stood looking down on the slow, irresistible movement +of the writhing bodies, and he saw a woman drop. A British police +officer, standing in an angle of the wall beneath, ordered a native +policeman to get the woman out But the native, seeing the crush and +unwilling to risk himself for so slight a cause, waited until his +superior turned away to another point of peril, and then, snatching the +red-banded police turban from his head, was lost in the general mass.</p> + +<p>The woman? Trampled to death, and twenty other men and women with her, +in sight of the stunned watchers on the wall, who were compelled to see +these lives crushed out, powerless to help by so much as a finger's +weight.</p> + +<p>What was it all for? J. W. asked his companions on the wall. And they +said that the word went out at certain times and the people flocked to +this Mela. They came to wash in the sacred waters at the propitious +moment. Nothing else mattered; not the inescapable pollution of the +rivers, not the weariness and hunger and many distresses of the way. It +was a chance, so the wise ones declared, to be rid of sin. Certainly it +might not avail, but who would not venture if mayhap there might be +cleansing of soul in the waters of Mother Ganges?</p> + +<p>On another day J. W. came to a temple, not a great towering shrine, but +a third-rate sort of place, a sacred cow temple. Here was a family which +had journeyed four hundred miles to worship before the idols of this +temple. They offered rice to one idol, flowers to another, holy water +from the river to a third. No one might know what inner urge had driven +them here. The priest, slow to heed them, at length deigned to dip his +finger in a little paint and with it he smeared the caste mark on the +foreheads of the worshipers. It was heartless, empty formality.</p> + +<p>J. W. watched the woman particularly. Her face was an unrelieved +sadness; she had fulfilled the prescribed rites, in the appointed place, +but there was no surcease from the endless round of dull misery which +she knew was her ordained lot. Thought J. W.: "I suppose this is a sort +of joining the church, an initiation or something of that sort. Not much +like what happened when I joined the church in Delafield. Everybody was +glad there; here nobody is glad, not even the priest."</p> + +<p>At Cawnpore J. W. was able to combine business with his missionary +inquiries. Here he found great woollen and cotton mills, not unlike +those of America, except that in these mills women and children were +working long hours, seven days a week, for a miserable wage. It was +heathenism plus commercialism; that is to say, a double heathenism. For +when business is not tempered by the Christian spirit, it is as pagan as +any cow temple.</p> + +<p>In these mills was a possible market for certain sorts of Cummings +goods, as J.W. learned in the business quarter of the city. He wanted +more opportunity to see how the goods he dealt in could be used, and, +having by now learned the path of least resistance, he appealed to a +missionary. It was specially fortunate that he did, for the missionary +introduced him to the secretary of the largest mills in the city, an +Indian Christian with a history.</p> + +<p>Now, this is a hint at the story of—well, let us call him Abraham. His +own is another Bible name, of more humble associations, but he deserves +to be called Abraham. Thirty years ago a missionary first evangelized +and then baptized some two hundred villagers—outcasts, untouchables, +social lepers. Being newly become Christians, they deposed their old +village god. The landlord beat them and berated them, but they were done +with the idol. Now, that was no easy adventure of faith, and those who +thus adventured could not hope for material gain. They were more +despised than ever.</p> + +<p>Yet inevitably they began to rise in the human scale. The missionary +found one of them a young man of parts. Him he took and taught to read, +to write, to know the Scriptures. He began to be an exhorter; then a +local preacher; and at last he joined the Conference as a Methodist +itinerant at six dollars a month. Now this boy was the father of +Abraham.</p> + +<p>As a preacher he opened village schools, and taught the children their +letters, his own boy among them. Abraham learned quickly. A place was +found for him in a mission boarding school. Thence he moved on and up to +Lucknow Christian College. It was this man who escorted J.W. through the +great mills of which he was an executive. He had a salary of two hundred +dollars a month. If his father had been an American village preacher at +twelve hundred dollars a year, Abraham's salary, relatively, would need +to be twenty or thirty thousand dollars.</p> + +<p>Abraham was the superintendent of a Sunday school in Cawnpore. He was +giving himself to all sorts of betterment work which would lessen the +misery of the poor. He had a seat in the city council. A hostel for boys +was one of his enterprises. Here was a man doing his utmost to +Christianize the industry in which thousands of his country men spent +their lives; a second-generation Christian, and a man who must be +reckoned with, no longer spurned and despised as a casteless nobody.</p> + +<p>J.W. followed Abraham about the mills with growing admiration. Inside +the walls, light, orderly paths, flowers, cleanliness. Outside the gate, +to step across the road was to walk a thousand years into the past, +among the smells and the ageless noises of the bazaar, with its +chaffering and cheating, its primitive crudities, and its changeless +wares. Certainly, a Cawnpore mill is not the ideal industrial +commonwealth, but without men like Abraham to alleviate its grimness the +coming of larger opportunities through work like this might well lay a +heavier burden on men's lives than the primitive and costly toil which +it has displaced.</p> + +<p>There was just time for a visit to Lucknow, a city which to the British +is the historic place of mutiny and siege; to American Methodists a +place both of history and of present-day advance. J. W. worshiped in the +great Hindustani Methodist church, the busy home of many activities. In +the congregation were many students, girls from Isabella Thoburn +College, and boys from Lucknow Christian College. Lifelong Methodist as +he was, J. W. quickly recognized, even amid these new surroundings, the +familiar aspects of a Methodist church on its busy day. The crowding +congregations were enough to stir one's blood. A noble organ sounded out +the call to worship and led the choir and people in the service of +praise. There was a Sunday school in full operation, and an Epworth +League Chapter, completely organized and active. His guide confided to +J. W. that this church had yet another point of resemblance to the great +churches at home; it was quite accustomed to sending a committee to +Conference, to tell the bishop whom it wanted for preacher next year!</p> + +<p>J. W. was not quite satisfied. The days of his wanderings must soon be +over, but before he left India he wanted to see the missionary in actual +contact with the immemorial paganism of the villages, for he had +discovered that the village is India. How was the Christian message +meeting all the dreary emptinesses and limitations of village life?</p> + +<p>Once more he appealed to his missionary guide; this latest one, the last +of the five men to whom Pastor Drury had written before J.W. had set out +on his travels. Could he show his visitor a little of missionary work in +village environment?</p> + +<p>"Surely. Nothing easier," the district superintendent said. "We'll jump +into my Ford—great thing for India, the Ford; and still greater for us +missionaries—and we'll go a-villaging."</p> + +<p>The village of their quest once reached, the Ford drew up before a neat +brick house built around three sides of a courtyard, with verandas on +the court side. This was no usual mud hut, but a house, and a parsonage +withal. Here lived the Indian village preacher and his family. The +preacher's wife was neatly dressed and capable; the children clean and +well-mannered. The room had its table, and on the table books. That +meant nothing to J.W., but the superintendent gave him to understand +that a table with books in an Indian village house was comparable in its +rarity to a small-town American home with a pipe organ and a butler!</p> + +<p>The lunch of native food seemed delicious, if it was "hot," to J.W.'s +healthy appetite, and if he had not seen over how tiny a fire it had +been prepared he would have credited the smiling housewife with a +lavishly equipped kitchen.</p> + +<p>People began to drop in. It was somewhat disconcerting to the visitor, +to see these callers squatting on their heels, talking one to another, +but watching him continually out of the corners of their eyes. One of +them, the chaudrie, headman of the village, being introduced to J. W., +told him, the superintendent acting as interpreter, how the boys' school +flourished, and how he and other Christians had gone yesterday on an +evangelizing visit to another village, not yet Christian, but sure to +ask for a teacher soon.</p> + +<p>The preacher, in a rather precise, clipped English, asked J. W. if he +cared to walk about the village. "We could go to the _mohulla_ [ward], +where most of our Christians live. They will be most glad to welcome +you."</p> + +<p>The way led through dirty, narrow streets, or, rather, let us say, +through the spaces between dwellings, to the low-caste quarter. Here +were people of the bottom stratum of Indian life, yet it was a Christian +community in the making. The little school was in session—a group of +fifteen or twenty boys and girls with their teacher. It was all very +crude, but the children read their lessons for the visitor, and did sums +on the board, and sang a hymn which the pastor had composed, and recited +the Lord's Prayer and the Twenty-third psalm.</p> + +<p>"These," said the pastor, "are the children of a people which for a +thousand years has not known how to read or write. Yet see how they +learn."</p> + +<p>"Yes," the superintendent agreed, "but that isn't the best of it, as you +know. They are untouchables now, but even caste, which is stronger than +death, yields to education. Once these boys and girls have an education +they cannot be ignored or kept down. They will find a place in the +social order."</p> + +<p>"I can see that," J.W. said, thinking of Abraham. "But education is not +a missionary monopoly, is it? If these children were educated by Hindus, +would not the resulting rise in their condition come just the same?"</p> + +<p>"It would, perhaps," the missionary answered, "but your 'if' is too big. +For the low caste and the out-caste people there is no education unless +it is Christian education. We have a monopoly, though not of our +choosing. The educated Hindu will not do this work under any +circumstances. It has been tried, with all the prestige of the +government, which is no small matter in India, and nothing comes of it. +Not long ago the government proposed a wonderful scheme for the +education of the 'depressed classes.' The money was provided, and the +equipment as well. There were plenty of Hindus, that is, non-Christians, +who were indebted to the government for their education. They were +invited to take positions in the new schools. But no; not for any money +or any other inducement would these teachers go near. And there you are. +I know of no way out for the great masses of India except as the gospel +opens the door."</p> + +<p>"Is there no attempt of any sort on the part of Indians who are not +Christians? Surely, some of them are enlightened enough to see the need, +and to rise above caste." J. W. suspected he was asking a question +which had but one answer.</p> + +<p>"Yes, there is such an effort occasionally," the superintendent +admitted. "The Arya Samaj movement makes an attempt once in a while, but +it always fails. If a few are bold enough to disregard caste, they are +never enough to do anything that counts. The effort is scarcely more +than a gesture, and even so it would not have been made but for the +activities of the missionaries."</p> + +<br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /> + +<p>And so ended J. W.'s Indian studies. Before many days he was retracing +his way—Calcutta, Singapore, Hongkong, Shanghai, Yokohama. And then on +a day he found himself aboard a liner whose prow turned eastward from +Japan's great port, and his heart was flying a homeward-bound pennant +the like of which never trailed from any masthead.</p> + + + +<br /><br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /><br /> +<a name="teacheth"></a><h2>THIS EXPERIMENT TEACHETH—?</h2> +<br /> + +<p>For the first day or so out from Japan J.W. behaved himself as does any +ordinary American in similar case; all the sensations of the journey +were swallowed up in the depths of his longings to be home. The voyage +so slow; the Pacific so wide!</p> + +<p>But shortly he resigned himself to the pervading restfulness of +shipboard, and began to make acquaintances. Of them all one only has any +interest for us—Miss Helen Morel, late of Manila. Her place was next +to his at the table. Like J.W., she was traveling alone, and before they +had been on board twenty-four hours they had discovered that both were +Methodists; he, from Delafield in the Middle West, she from +Pennsylvania. J.W. found, altogether to his surprise, that she listened +with flattering attention while he talked. For J.W. is no braggart, nor +is he overmuch given to self-admiration; we know him better than that. +But it was pleasant, none the less, on good days to walk up and down the +long decks, and on other days to sit in comfortable deck chairs, with +nothing to do but talk.</p> + +<p>Miss Morel, being a teacher going home after three years of steady, +close work in a Manila high school, was ready to talk of anything but +school work. She found herself immensely interested in J.W.'s +experiences. He had told her of the double life, so to say, which he +had led; preaching the good news of better tools, and studying the work +of other men and women, as truly salesmen as himself, who preached a +more arresting and insistent gospel.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad to meet some one who knows about missions at first hand," Miss +Morel began one morning, as they stepped out on the promenade deck for +their constitutional. "You know, I think people at home don't understand +at all. They are so absorbed with their little parish affairs that they +can't appreciate this wonderful work that is being done so far from +home."</p> + +<p>J. W. agreed, though not without mental reservations. He knew how true +it was that many of the home folks did not rightly value mission work, +but he was not so sure about their "little parish affairs." He watched +to see if Miss Morel meant to expand that idea.</p> + +<p>But she evidently had thought at once of something else. Said she, +"Sometimes I think that if the gossip about missionaries and missions +which is so general in the Orient gets back home, as it surely does in +one way or another, it must have a certain influence on what people +think about the work."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that," said J. W., with no little scorn. "That stuff is always +ignorant or malicious, and I doubt if it gets very far with church +people. Of course it may with outsiders. I've heard it, any amount of +it; you can't miss it if you travel in the East And there's just enough +excuse for it to make it a particularly vicious sort of slander. You +could say as much about the churches at home, and a case here and there +would not be lacking to furnish proof."</p> + +<p>"Certainly," said the teacher. "And yet missions are so wonderful; so +much more worth while than anything that is being done at home, don't +you think?"</p> + +<p>There it was again. "I'm afraid I don't follow you, Miss Morel," J.W. +said, with a puzzled air. "Do you mean that the churches at home are not +onto their job, if you'll excuse the phrase?"</p> + +<p>His companion laughed as she answered, "Maybe not quite as strong as +that. But they are doing the same old thing in the same old way. Going +to church and home again, to Sunday school and home again, to young +people's meeting and home again. But out here," and her hand swung in a +half circle as though she meant to include the whole Pacific basin, "out +here men and women are doing such splendid pioneer work, in all sorts of +fascinating ways."</p> + +<p>"True enough," J.W. assented. "I've seen that, all right. But the home +church isn't so dead as you might think. Just before I left Delafield to +go to Saint Louis, for instance, a new work for the foreign-speaking +people of our town was being started, with the Board of Home Missions +and Church Extension backing up the local workers. They were planning to +make a great church center for all these people, and I hear that it is +getting a good start."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, I can well believe that, Mr. Farwell," Miss Morel hastened to +say. "I think work for the immigrant is so very interesting, don't you? +But, of course, that's not quite what I meant. The usual dull things +that churches do, you know."</p> + +<p>"Well, take another instance that I happen to remember," J.W. had a +touch of the sort of feeling he used to delight in at Cartwright, when +he was gathering his material for a debate. "My first summer after +leaving college, a few of us in First Church got busy studying our own +town. We found two of the general church boards ready to help us with +facts and methods. The Home Missions people gave us one sort of help, +and another board, with the longest name of them all, the Board of +Temperance, Prohibition, and Public Morals, showed us how to go about an +investigation of the town's undesirable citizens and their influence. It +is in that sort of business for all of us, you know."</p> + +<p>"That must have been exciting," said Miss Morel. "I know I should enjoy +such work. What did you find out, and what could you do about it?"</p> + +<p>That was a question not to be glibly answered, J.W. knew. But he meant +to be fair about it. "We found out plenty that surprised us; a great +deal," he added, "that ought to be done, and much more that needed to be +changed. We even went so far as to draw up a sort of civic creed, 'The +Everyday Doctrines of Delafield,' The town paper printed it, and it was +talked about for a while, but probably we were the people who got the +most out of it; it showed us what we church members might mean to the +town. And that was worth something."</p> + +<p>Miss Morel was sure it was. But she came back to her first idea about +the home churches. "Don't you think that much of the preaching, and all +that, is pretty dull and tiresome? I came from a little country church, +and it was so dreary."</p> + +<p>J.W. thought of Deep Creek, and said, "I know what you mean; but even +the country church is improving. I must tell you some time about Marty, +my chum. He's a country preacher, helped in his training by the Rural +Department of the Home Missions Board, and his people come in crowds to +his preaching. Country churches are waking up, and the Board people at +Philadelphia have had a lot to do with it."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm glad. But anyway, home missions is rather commonplace, +haven't you noticed?" and Miss Morel looked almost as though she were +asking a question of state.</p> + +<p>"I can't say I've found it so," J.W. said, stoutly, "I was some time +learning, but I ran into a lot of experiences before I left home. Take +the work for colored people, for instance. I had to make a speech at a +convention, and I found out that our church has a Board of Education for +Negroes which is doing more than any other agency to train Negro +preachers and teachers and home makers, and doctors and other leaders. +That's not so very commonplace, would you say so?"</p> + +<p>"Well, no," the young lady admitted. "It is very important work, of +course; and I'd dearly love to have a share in it. I am a great +believer in the colored races, you know. But you are making me begin to +think I am all wrong about the church at home. I don't mean to belittle +it. Perhaps I appreciate it more than I realized. Anyway, tell me +something else that you have found out."</p> + +<p>"There isn't time," J. W. objected. "But if you won't think me a +nuisance, maybe I can tell you part of it. For example, Sunday school. +Long ago I discovered that the whole church was providing for Sunday +school progress through a Board of Sunday Schools, and there isn't a +modern Sunday school idea anywhere that this Board doesn't put into its +scheme of work. I was a very small part of it myself for a while, so I +know."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and even I know a little about the Sunday School Board," confessed +Miss Morel. "It has helped us a lot in the Philippines. And so I must +admit that the church does try to improve and extend Sunday school work. +What else?"</p> + +<p>J. W. told about his experiences on the Mexican border, where home +missions and foreign missions came together. Then, seeing that she was +really listening, he told of his and Marty's college days, how Marty had +borrowed money from the Board of Education, and how the same Board had a +hand in the college evangelistic work. He told about the deaconesses who +managed the hospital at Manchester, and the training school which Marcia +Dayne Carbrook had attended when she was getting ready to go to China. +That school had sent out hundreds of deaconesses and other workers.</p> + +<p>The thought of Marcia made him think of Joe, and he told what he knew of +how the Wesley Foundation at the State University had helped Joe when he +could easily have made shipwreck of his missionary purpose. Of course +the story of his visit to the Carbrooks in China must also be told.</p> + +<p>Miss Morel changed the subject again. "Tell me, Mr. Farwell," she asked, +"were you in the Epworth League when you were at home?"</p> + +<p>"I surely was," said J.W. "That was where I got my first start; at the +Cartwright Institute." And the story jumped back to those far-off days +when he was just out of high school.</p> + +<p>As he paused Miss Morel said, "I was an Epworthian, too, and in the +young women's missionary societies. We had a combination society in our +church, so I was a 'Queen Esther' and a 'Standard Bearer' as well. Those +organizations did me a world of good. You know, when I think of it, the +women's missionary societies have done a wonderful work in America and +everywhere."</p> + +<p>"I guess they have," said J.W. "I know my mother has always been a +member of both, and she's always been the most intelligent and active +missionary in the Farwell family."</p> + +<p>The talk languished for a while, and then Miss Morel exclaimed, "I know +why we've stopped talking; we're hungry. It is almost time for luncheon, +and if you have an appetite like mine, you're impatient for the call."</p> + +<p>J. W. looked at his watch and saw that there was only ten minutes of the +morning left. So they separated to get ready against the sounding of the +dinner gong.</p> + +<p>But J. W. was not hungry. He was struggling with an old thought that to +him had all the tantalizing quality of novelty. The talk of the morning +had become a sort of roll-call of church boards. How did it happen that +the church was busy with this and that and the other work? Why a Board +of Hospitals and Homes? Why a Deaconess Board, even though deaconess +work happened to be merciful and gentle and Christlike? What was the +church doing with a Book Concern? How came it that we had that board +with the long name—Temperance, Prohibition, and Public Morals? He had +traveled from Yokohama to Lucknow and back, and everywhere he had found +this same church doing all sorts of work, with no slightest suspicion +but that all of it was her proper business.</p> + +<p>So picture after picture flickered before his mind's eye, as though his +brain had built up a five-reel mental movie from all sorts of memory +film; a hundred feet of this, two hundred of that, a thousand here, +there just a flash. It had all one common mark; it was all "the church," +but the hit-and-miss of it, its lightning change, bewildered him. The +pictures leaped from Cartwright to Cawnpore, from the country church at +Ellis to Joe Carbrook's hospital in China; from New York and +Philadelphia and Chicago and Cincinnati and Washington to the ends of +the country and the ends of the earth; and in and through it all, swift +bits of unrelated yet vivid hints of _Advocates_ and _Heralds_, of +prayer meetings and institutes, of new churches and old colleges, of +revivals and sewing societies, of League socials and Annual Conferences, +of deaconesses visiting dreary homes, and soft-footed nurses going about +in great hospitals; of beginners' departments and old people's homes; of +kindergartens and clinics and preparatory classes. There seemed no end +to it all, every moment some new aspect of the church's activity showed +itself and then was gone.</p> + +<p>It was a most confused and confusing experience; and all through the +rest of the day J.W. caught himself wondering again and again at the +variety and complexity of the church's affairs.</p> + +<p>Why should a church be occupied with all this medley? Why should it be +so distracted from its main purpose, to be a Jack of all trades? Why +should it open its doors and train its workers and spend its money in +persistent response to every imaginable human appeal?</p> + +<p>Perhaps that might be it; "_human_." Once a philosopher had said, "I am +a man, and therefore nothing human is foreign to me." What if the church +by its very nature must be like that? what if this really were its main +purpose—all these varied and sometimes almost conflicting activities no +more than its effort to obey the central law of its life?</p> + +<p>J. W. was in his stateroom; he paced the narrow aisle between the +berths—three steps forward, three steps back, like a caged wild thing. +Something was coming to new reality in his soul; he was scarce conscious +of the walls that shut him in. Once he stopped by the open port. He +looked out at the tumbling rollers of the wide Pacific. And as he looked +he thought of the vastness of this sea, how its waters washed the icy +shores of Alaska and the palm-fronded atolls of the Marquesas; how they +carried on their bosom the multitudinous commerce of a hundred peoples; +how from Santiago to Shanghai and from the Yukon to New Zealand it was +one ocean, serving all lands, and taking toll of all.</p> + +<p>In spite of all the complexities and diversities of the lands about this +ocean, they had one possession which all might claim, as it claimed +them—the sea. It gave them neighbors and trade, climate and their daily +bread. In the sociology and geography and economics of the Orient this +Pacific Ocean was the great common denominator. _And in the geography +and economics and sociology of the kingdom of God? Might it not be—must +it not be, the church_!</p> + +<p>Not only the Pacific basin, but the round world was like that, every +part of it dependent on all the rest, and growing every day more and +more conscious of all the rest. Railways helped this process, and so did +steamships and air routes and telegraph and wireless. More than that, +all the world was becoming increasingly related to the life of every +part. With raw material produced in Brazil to make tires for the +limousines of Fifth Avenue and the Lake Shore Drive, what of the new +kinship between the producers in Brazil and the users in the States? All +good was coming to be the good of all the earth; and all evil was able +to affect the lives of unsuspecting folk half the earth's circumference +away.</p> + +<p>In such a time, what an insistent call for the program and power of the +Christian faith! And the call could be answered. J.W. had seen the +church applying the program as well in a Chinese city and in an Indian +village as in his home town and on the Mexican border. He was sure that +the power that was in the Christian message could heal all the hurts of +the world, and bring all peoples into "a world-commonwealth of good +will."</p> + +<p>This was what Jesus meant to do; not just to save here and there a +little group for heaven out of the general hopelessness, but to save and +make whole the heart of mankind. The church was not, first of all, +seeking its own enlargement, but extending the reach of its Founder's +purpose. It did all its many-sided work for a far greater reason than +any increase in its own numbers and importance; in a word, for the +Christianizing of life, Sunday and every day, in Delafield as well as in +the forests of the Amazon and the huddled cities of China.</p> + +<p>J.W. sat on the edge of his berth. In the first glow of this new +understanding his nerves had steadied to a serenity that was akin to +awe. Yet he knew he had made no great discovery. The thing he saw had +been there all the time.</p> + +<p>Then his mind set to work again on that motley procession of pictures +which he had likened to a patchwork film. Was it as disjointed as it +seemed? Could it not be so put together as to make a true continuity, +consistent and complete?</p> + +<p>Why not? In the events of his own life, strangely enough, he had the +clue to its right arrangement. By what seemed to be accidental or +incidental opportunity it had been his singular fortune to come in +contact with some aspect or another of all the work his church was +doing. And every element of it, from the beginners' class at Delafield +to the language school at Nanking, from the college social in First +Church to the celebration at Foochow—it was all New Testament work. Its +center was always Jesus Christ's teaching or example, or appeal. There +was in its complexity a vast simplicity; each was a part of all, and all +was in each.</p> + +<p>"John Wesley Farwell, Jr.," said that young man to himself, "this thing +is not your discovery—but how does that bit of Keats' go?"</p> + +<p>'Then felt I like some watcher of the skies +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.75em;">When a new planet swims into his ken;</span><br /> +Or like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.75em;">He stared at the Pacific—and all his men</span><br /> +Looked at each other with a wild surmise— +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.75em;">Silent, upon a peak in Darien,'</span><br /> +</p> +<p>There you have it! But I might have known. Cortez, if it _was_ Cortez, +could not have guessed the Pacific. He had nothing to suggest it. But I +might have guessed the singleness of the church's work. What is my name +for, unless I can appreciate the man who said 'The world is my parish,' +and who would do anything—sell books, keep a savings bank, open a +dispensary—for the sake of saving souls? That's the single idea, the +simple idea. It makes all these queer activities part of one great +activity; and rests them all on one under-girding truth—'The Church's +one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord.'</p> + +<p>But the wonderful thing to me is that, after all this time, I should +suddenly have found this out for myself!</p> + +<p>"What a story to take home to Delafield! Pastor Drury is going to have +the surprise of his life!"</p> + +<br /><hr style="width: 35%;" /><br /> + +<p>Three people met J.W. as his train pulled in to the station at +Delafield. The other two were his father and mother.</p> + +<p>After the first tearfully happy greetings, J.W. looked around the +platform. "I rather thought Brother Drury might have come too," he said.</p> + +<p>The others exchanged meaning glances, and his father asked, "Then you +didn't get my second letter at San Francisco?"</p> + +<p>"No," said J.W., in vague alarm, "only the one. What's wrong? Is Mr. +Drury—"</p> + +<p>"He's at home now, son," said the elder Farwell, gravely. "He came home +from our Conference hospital at Hillcrest two weeks ago. We hope he's +going to gain considerable strength, but he's had some sort of a +stroke, we don't rightly know what, and he's pretty hard hit. He's +better than he was last week, but he can't leave his room; sits in his +easy chair and doesn't say much."</p> + +<p>J. W.'s heart ached. Without always realizing it, he had been counting +on long talks with the pastor; there was so much to tell him. And +especially so since that wonderful day out in the middle of the Pacific, +when he had seen what he even dared to call his 'vision' of the church.</p> + +<p>So he said, "You and mother drive on home; I'll walk up with Jeannette."</p> + +<p>For lovers who had just met after a year's separation these two were +strangely subdued. They had everything to say to each other, but this +sudden falling of the shadow of suffering on their meeting checked the +words on their lips.</p> + +<p>"Will he get better?" J. W. asked Jeannette.</p> + +<p>"They fear not," she answered. "The doctors say he may live for several +years, but he will never preach again. He just sits there; he's been so +anxious to see you. You must go to-day."</p> + +<p>"Of course. And what shall I say about the wedding? If he can't leave +his room----"</p> + +<p>Jeannette interrupted him: "If he can't leave his room, it will make no +difference. Church wedding or home wedding I should have chosen, as I +have told you; but you and I, John Wesley, are going to be married by +Walter Drury, wherever he is, if he's alive on our wedding day."</p> + +<p>"Why, yes," said J.W., with a little break in his voice, "it wouldn't +seem right any other way. We can have the dinner, or breakfast or +whatever it is, just the same, but we'll be married in his room. I'm +glad you feel that way about it too; though it's just like you."</p> + +<p>And it was so. J.W. went up to the study as soon as he could rid himself +of the dust of the day's travel, more eager to show Walter Drury he +loved him than to tell his story or even to arrange for the wedding.</p> + +<p>As to that ceremony, the plans had long ago been understood; nothing +more was needed than to tell Walter Drury his study afforded a better +background and setting for this particular wedding than a cathedral +could provide.</p> + +<p>J.W. was prepared for a great change in Pastor Drury, but he noticed no +such signs of breakdown as he had expected to see. He did not know that +the beloved pastor was keyed up for this meeting. He could not guess +that the beaming eye, the old radiant smile, the touch of color in a +face usually pale, were on special if unconscious display because the +pastor's heart was thanking God that he had been permitted to welcome +home his son in the gospel.</p> + +<p>Those had been dreary days, in the hospital, despite the ceaseless +ministries of nurses and doctors and friends from Delafield. This +hospital was a place of noble service, one of many such places which +have arisen in the Methodism of the last forty years. It was a hospital +through and through—the last word in equipment and competence, but not +at all an "institution." It was at once a home for the sick and a +training school of the Christian graces, where the distressed of body +and mind could be given the relief they needed—all of it given gladly, +in Christ's name.</p> + +<p>Walter Drury was not unmindful of the care and skill which the hospital +staff lavished on him, though no more faithfully on him than on many an +unknown or unresponsive patient. But he was in a pitifully questioning +mood. The doctors had told him he could not expect to preach again. When +the district superintendent had come to visit him, he carried away with +him Walter Drury's request for retirement at the coming session of the +Annual Conference.</p> + +<p>In his quiet moments—there were so many of them now—the broken man +counted up his years of service, all too few, as it seemed to him, and +lacking much of what they might have shown in outcomes for the church +and the kingdom. His Conference was one of the few which paid the full +annuity claim of its retired preachers, but even so he had not much to +look forward to. His twenty-five years in the active ranks meant that he +could count on twenty-five times $15 a year, $375, on which to live, +when he gave up his work.</p> + +<p>Perhaps he could live on this, with what little he had been able to put +aside; at any rate he could be glad now that there was none but himself +to think about. But was it worth all he had put into his vocation? His +brother in Saint Louis, not remarkably successful in his business, had +been able at least to make some provision for his old age. He too might +have been a moderately successful business or professional man. Truly it +was more than the older preachers had, this Conference annuity, which +would keep him from actual want; so much, surely, had been gained by the +church's growing sense of responsibility for its veterans.</p> + +<p>But had it really paid? Was all the gentle efficiency of the hospital, +and all the church's money which would come to him from the Conference +funds and the Board of Conference Claimants, enough to compensate him +for the long years when he had been spendthrift of all his powers for +the sake of his work?</p> + +<p>He knew, of course, the answer to his questions; no one better. But he +was a broken-down preacher, old before his time; and knowing the answer +was not at all the same as _having_ the answer. So he had been brought +home from Hillcrest, mind-weary and much cast down. Nor did he regain +any of his old buoyancy of spirit until the day when they told him J. W, +would be home next week.</p> + +<p>It was then that he told himself, "If J. W. has come back with only a +story to tell"—and gloom was in his face; "But if he has come back with +_the_ story to tell"—and his heart leaped within him at the thought.</p> + +<p>The pastor and J. W. were soon talking away with the old familiarity, +but mostly about inconsequentials. Neither was quite prepared for more +intimate communion; and, of course, the returning traveler had much to +do. The wedding was near at hand, and everybody but himself had been +getting ready this long time. So the call was too brief to suit either +of them, with the longer visits each hoped for of necessity deferred to +a more convenient season.</p> + +<p>J. W. must make a hurried journey to Saint Louis to turn in his report +to Peter McDougall, which report Peter was much better prepared to +receive than J. W. suspected. And a highly satisfactory arrangement was +made for J. W.'s continued connection with the Cummings Hardware +Corporation.</p> + +<p>Doubtless all weddings are much alike in their ceremonial aspects; short +or long, solemn-spoken ancient ritual or commonplace legal form, the +essence of them all is that this man and this woman say, "I will." So it +was in Walter Drury's study. And then the little group seated itself +about the pastor; Marty with Alma Wetherell, soon to become Mrs. Marty; +all the Shenks, the elder Farwells, John Wesley, Jr., and Jeannette. The +dinner would not be for an hour yet, and this was the pastor's time.</p> + +<p>Pastor Drury could not talk much. He had kept his chair as he read the +ritual, and now he sat and smiled quietly on them all. But once and +again his eye sought J. W. and the look was a question yet unanswered.</p> + +<p>"What sort of a voyage home did you have?" Mrs. Farwell asked her son, +motherlike, using even a query about the weather to turn attention to +her boy.</p> + +<p>"A good voyage, mother," said J. W. "A fine voyage. But one day—will +you let me tell it here, all of you? I've hardly been any more eager +for my wedding day than for a chance to say this. I won't tire you, Mr. +Drury, will I?"</p> + +<p>"You'll never do that, my boy," said the preacher. "But don't bother +about me, I've long had a feeling that what you are going to say will be +better for me than all the doctors." For he had seen the eager glow on +J. W's face, and his heart was ready to be glad.</p> + +<p>Thus it was that J. W. told the story of his great moment; how he had +talked with Miss Morel one morning of the many-sided work of the church, +and how in the afternoon he had looked through the open port of his +stateroom and had seen an ocean that looked like the church, and a +church that seemed like the ocean.</p> + +<p>"I shall remember that day forever, I think," he said. "For the first +time in my life I could put all the pieces of my life together; my home, +my church, the Sunday school, the League, college, the needy life of +this town, your country work, Marty, Mexico, China, India—everything; +and I could see as one wonderful, perfect picture, every bit of it +necessary to all the rest. Our church at work to make Jesus Christ Lord +of all life, in my home and clear to the 'roof of the world' out yonder +under the snows of Tibet. Can you see it, folks? I think _you_ always +could, Mr. Drury!" and he put his hand affectionately on the pastor's +knee.</p> + +<p>Pastor Drury's face was even paler than its wont, but in his eyes glowed +the light that never was on sea or land. He was hearing what sometimes +he had feared he might not last long enough to hear. The Experiment was +justified, and he was comforted!</p> + +<p>He picked up the Bible that lay near his hand, and turned to the Gospel +by Luke. "I hope none of you will think _I_ wrest the Book's words to +lesser meanings," he said, "but there is only one place in it that can +speak what is in my heart to-day." And he read the song of Simeon in the +temple: "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine +eyes have seen thy salvation," and so to the end.</p> + +<p>It was very still when his weak voice ceased; but in a moment the +silence was broken by a cry from J.W.</p> + +<p>"Why, Mr. Drury, it has been _you_, all these years!"</p> + +<p>"What do you mean, J.W.?". said Marty, somewhat alarmed and thoroughly +mystified.</p> + +<p>"Exactly what I say, Marty. Can't you see it too? Can't all of you see +it?" and J.W. looked from one face to another around the room. +"Jeannette, _you_ know what I mean, don't you?"</p> + +<p>And Jeannette, at once smiling and tearful, said, "Yes, J.W., I've +thought about it many times, and I know now it is true."</p> + +<p>Marty said, "Maybe so; but what?" for he was still bewildered.</p> + +<p>"Why," J.W. began, with eager haste, "Mr. Drury planned all this—years +and years ago. Not our wedding, I don't mean that," and he paused long +enough to find Jeannette's hand and get it firmly in his own, "we +managed that ourselves, didn't we, dear? But—I don't know why—this +blessed minister of God began, somewhere far back yonder, to show me +what God was trying to do through our church, and, later, through the +other churches. He saw that I went to Institute. He steered me through +my Sunday school work. He showed me my lifework. He made me want to go +to college. He introduced me to the Delafield that is outside our own +church. He got me my job in Saint Louis—don't you dare to deny it," as +the pastor raised a protesting hand. "I've talked with our sales +manager; he put the idea of the Far Eastern trip into Mr. McDougall's +mind—and, well, it has been Pastor Drury all these years, _and he knew +what he was doing_!"</p> + +<p>Pastor Drury had kept his secret bravely, but there was no need to keep +it longer, and now he was well content that these dear friends should +have discovered it on such a day of joy. After all, it had been a +beautiful Experiment, and not altogether without its value. So he made +no more ado, and in his heart there was a great peace.</p> + +</td></tr></table> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of John Wesley, Jr., by Dan B. 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Brummitt + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: John Wesley, Jr. + The Story of an Experiment + +Author: Dan B. Brummitt + +Release Date: November 19, 2003 [EBook #10134] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN WESLEY, JR. *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Sjaani and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +JOHN WESLEY, JR. + +The Story of an Experiment + +BY + +DAN B. BRUMMITT + +1921 + +TO +THOMAS KANE, "LAYMAN," +WHOSE LONG LIFE OF NOBLE SERVICE +IS BEARING FRUIT IN A NEW CHRISTIAN +CONSCIENCE TOWARDS THE SUPPORT OF +THE WORK OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM IN +ALL THE WORLD +AN INTRODUCTION TO THE +EDUCATIONAL, MISSIONARY +AND BENEVOLENT +WORK OF THE CHURCH + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + +THE GENESIS OF THE EXPERIMENT +I. AN INSTITUTE PANORAMA +II. JOHN WESLEY, JR.'S BRINGING UP +III. CAMPUS DAYS +IV. EXPLORING MAIN STREET +V. HERE THE ALIEN; THERE THE LITTLE BROWN CHURCH +VI. "IS HE NOT A MAN AND A BROTHER?" +VII. THE FIRST AMERICAN CIVILIZATION +VIII. CHRIST AND THE EAST +THIS EXPERIMENT TEACHETH--? + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +THE CARTWRIGHT INSTITUTE +THE WESLEY FOUNDATION SOCIAL CENTER +(This one is at Illinois University) +MAIN STREET +THE TENEMENTS OF MANY DELAFIELDS +ONE OF THE HIGH LIGHTS OF MAIN STREET +ONE OF THE CANNERY COLONY +THERE'S HOPE FOR THE NEGRO IN A SCHOOL LIKE THIS +THE MEXICAN'S HOME IN THE SOUTHWEST +THE MEXICAN'S CHURCH IN THE SOUTHWEST +DR. JOE CARBROOK DOES SUCH WORK AS THIS IN CHINA + + + +THE GENESIS OF THE EXPERIMENT + + +After years of waiting for time and place and person, +the Rev. Walter Drury, an average Methodist +preacher, was ready to begin his Experiment. + +The process of getting adjusted to its conditions was ended. He believed +that, if he had health and nothing happened to his mind, he might count +on at least eight years more at First Church, Delafield--a ten-year +pastorate is nothing wonderful in to-day's Methodism. The right preacher +makes his own time limit. + +He would not think himself too good for Delafield, but neither did he +rate himself too low. He just felt that he was reasonably secure against +promotion, and that he need not be afraid of "demotion." There are such +men. They are a boon to bishops. + +The unforeseen was to be reckoned with, of course, the possible +shattering of all his plans by some unimagined misfortune. But the man +who waits until he is secure against the unknown never discovers +anything, not even himself. + +Walter Drury had at last found his man, or, rather, his boy, here in +Delafield. It was necessary to the Experiment that its subject should be +a decent young fellow, not particularly keen on formal religion, but +well set-up in body and mind; clean, straight, and able to use the +brains he had when need arose. + +John Wesley, Jr., was such a boy. + +Would the result be worth what he was putting into the venture? That +would depend on one's standards. The church doesn't doubt that the more +than twice ten years' experiment of Helms in the south end of Boston has +been worth the price. And Helms has for company a few pioneers in other +fields who will tell you they have drawn good pay, in the outcomes of +their patience. + +Still, Walter Drury was a new sort of specialist. The thing he had in +mind to do had been almost tried a thousand times; a thousand times it +had been begun. But so far as he knew no one preacher had thought to +focus every possible influence on a single life through a full cycle of +change. He meant his work to be intensive: not in degree only, but in +duration. + +At the end of ten years! If, then, he had not shown, in results beyond +question, the direction of the church's next great advance, at least he +would have had the measureless joy of the effort. No seeming failure +could rob him of his reward. + +Now, do not image this preacher as a dreaming scattergood; he would do +as much as any man should, that is to say, his utmost, in his pulpit and +his parish. The Experiment should be no robbing of collective Peter to +pay individual Paul. + +But every man has his avocation, his recreation, you know--golf, roses, +coins, first editions, travel. Walter Drury, being a confirmed bachelor, +missed both the joys and the demands of home life. No recluse, but, +rather, a companionable man, he cared little for what most people call +amusement, but he cared tremendously for the human scene in which he +lived and worked. He would be happy in the Experiment for its sheer +human fascinations. That it held a deeper interest, that if it succeeded +it would reveal an untapped reservoir of resources available for the +church and the kingdom of God, did but make him the more eager to be at +it in hard earnest. + +The church to whose work he had joyfully given himself from his youth +had grown to be a mighty and a highly complex machine. Some thought it +was more machinery than life, more organization than organism. But +Walter Drury knew better. It _was_ a wonderful machine, wheels within +wheels, but there was within the wheels the living spirit of the +prophet's vision. + +Partly because the church was so vast and its work of such infinite +variety, very few of its members knew what it did, or how, or why. It +was all over the land, and in the ends of the earth, for people joined +it; and they lived their lives in the cheerful and congenial circle of +its fellowship. But the planetary sweep of its program and its +enterprises was to most of them not even as a tale that is told. They +were content to be busy with their own affairs, and had small curiosity +to know what meanings and mysteries might be discovered out in places +they had never explored, even though just 'round the corner from the +week-by-week activities of the familiar home congregation. + +Walter Drury, at the end of one reasonably successful pastorate, had +stood bewildered and baffled as he looked back over his five years of +effort against this persistent and amiable passivity. It was not a +deliberate sin, or he might have denounced it; nor a temporary numbness, +or he might have waited for it to disappear. All the more it dismayed +him. + +At the beginning of his ministry he had set this goal before him, that +every soul under his care might see as he saw, and see with him more +clearly year by year, the church's great work; its true and total +business. He had not failed, as the Annual Conference reckons failure. +But he knew he had been less than successful. The people of his +successive appointments were receptive people as church folk go. Then +who was to blame, that sermons and books and Advocates and pictures and +high officials and frequent great assemblies, always accomplishing +something, always left behind them the untouched, unmoved majority of +the people called Methodists? + +It was all this and more of the same sort, which at last took shape in +Drury's thought and fixed the manner and matter of the Experiment. This +boy he had found, with a name that might be either prophecy or mockery, +he would study like a book. He would brood over his life. Mind you, he +would take no advantage, use no influence unfairly. He would neither +dictate nor drive. He would not trespass even so far as to the outer +edges of the boy's free personality. For the most part he would stay in +the background. But he would watch the boy, as for lesser outcomes +Darwin watched the creatures of wood and field. Without revealing all +his purpose he would set before this boy good and evil; the lesser good +and the greater. He would use for high and holy ends the method which +the tempter never tires of using for confusion. He would show this boy +the kingdoms of the children of God, and the glories of them, and would +promise them to him, not for a moment's shame but for a life's devotion. + +As to the particular form in which the result of the Experiment might +appear he cared little. He had a certain curiosity on the subject +naturally, but he knew well enough that the Experiment would be useless +if he laid interfering hands on its inner processes. That would be like +trimming a whitethorn tree in a formal garden, to make it resemble a +pyramid. He was not making a thorn pyramid in an Italian garden; he +wanted an oak, to grow by the common road of all men's life. And oaks +must grow oak-fashion, or not at all. + + * * * * * + +Four years of the ten had passed. That part of the history of John +Wesley, Jr., which is told in the following pages, is the story of the +other six years. + + + +CHAPTER I + + +AN INSTITUTE PANORAMA + +"If anybody expects me to stay away from Institute this year, he has got +a surprise coming, that's all." + +The meeting was just breaking up, after a speech whose closing words had +been a shade less tactful than the occasion called for. But the last two +sentences of that speech made all the difference in the world to John +Wesley, Jr. + +The Epworth League of First Church, Delafield, was giving one of its +fairly frequent socials. The program had gone at top speed for more than +an hour. All that noise could do, re-enforced by that peculiar emanation +by youth termed "pep," had been drawn upon to glorify a certain +forthcoming event with whose name everybody seemed to be familiar, for +all called it simply "the Institute." + +Pennants, posters, and photographs supplied a sort of pictorial noise, +the better to advertise this evidently remarkable event, which, one +might gather, was a yearly affair held during the summer vacation at the +seat of Cartwright College. + +The yells and songs, the cheers and games and reminiscences, re-enforced +the noisy decorations. At the last, in one of those intense moments of +quiet which young people can produce as by magic, came a neat little +speech whose purpose was highly praiseworthy. But, to John Wesley, Jr., +it ended on the wrong note. Another listener took mental exception to +it, though his anxiety proved to be groundless. + +It was a recruiting speech, directed at anybody and everybody who had +not yet decided to attend the Institute. + +The speaker was, if anything, a trifle more cautious than canny when he +came to his "in conclusion," and his zeal touched the words with +anti-climax. + +"Of course," he said, "since ten, or at most twelve, is our quota, we +are not quite free to encourage the attendance of everybody, +particularly of our younger members. They have hardly reached the age +where the Institute could be a benefit to them, and their natural +inclination to make the week a period of good times and mere pleasure +would seriously interfere with the interests of others more mature and +serious minded." + +Now, the pastor of the church, the Rev. Walter Drury, would have put +that differently, he said to himself. If it produced any bad effects it +would need to be corrected, certainly. + +Just then, amid the inevitable applause, and the dismissal of the brief +formal assembly for the social half-hour, something snapped inside of +John Wesley, Jr., and it was the feeling of it which prompted him to +say, "If anybody expects me to stay away from Institute this year, he +has got a surprise coming, that's all." + +You see, John Wesley, Jr., had just been graduated from high school, +and his family expected him to go to college in the fall, though he +faced that expectation without much enthusiasm. He felt his new freedom. +He addressed his rebellious remark to the League president, Marcia +Dayne, a sensible girl whom he had known as long as he had known anybody +in the church. + +"Last year everybody said I was too young. They all talked the way he +did just now. But they can't say I am too young now," and with that easy +skill which is one of the secrets of youth, he managed to contemplate +himself, serenely conscious that he was personable and "right." + +The girl turned to him with a gesture of surprise. + +"But I thought your father had agreed to let you take that trip to +Chicago you have been saving up for. Will he let you go to the Institute +too?" + +"Chicago can wait," said John Wesley, Jr., grandly. "Dad did say I could +go to Chicago to see my cousins, or I could go anywhere else that I +wanted. Well, I am going to the Institute. It's my money, and, besides, +I am tired of being told I am too young. A fellow's got to grow up some +time." + +"That's all right," said Marcia, "but what's your special interest in +the Institute? Do you truly want to go? How do you know what an +Institute is like?" + +Her voice carried further than Marcia thought, and a man who seemed a +little too mature to be one of the young people, turned toward her. He +was smiling, and any time these four years the town would have told you +there wasn't a friendlier smile inside the city limits. He was in +business dress, and suggested anything but the parson in his bearing, +but through and through he looked the good minister that he was. + +Marcia moved toward him with an unspoken appeal. She wanted help. He was +waiting for that signal, for he depended a good deal on Marcia. And he +was still worried about that unlucky speech. + +"Well, Marcia, are you telling J.W. what the Institute really is?" he +asked. + +"No, Mr. Drury, I'm not. I'm too much surprised at finding that he's +about decided to go. You're just in time to tell him for me. I want him +to get it right, and straight." + +"Well," the pastor responded, "I'm glad of that. If he's really going, +he'll find out that definitions are not descriptions. Now, our Saint +Sheridan used to say that an Institute was a combination of college, +circus, and camp meeting. I would venture a different putting of it. An +Institute is a bit of young democracy in action. Its people play +together, for play's sake and for finding their honest human level. They +study together, to become decently intelligent about some of the real +business of the kingdom of God, and how the church proposes to transact +that business. They wait for new vision together, the Institute being a +good time and a good place for seeing life clear and seeing it whole." + +"Yes," said Marcia, "that's exactly it, only I never could have found +quite the right words. Do you think J.W. will find it too poky and +preachy?" + +"Tell him to try it and see, as you did last year," said Pastor Drury. + +"I'll risk that," said John Wesley, Jr., in his newly resolute mood. + +He knew when to stop, this preacher. Particularly concerned as he was +about John Wesley, Jr., he saw that this was one of the many times when +that young man would need to work things out for himself. Marcia would +give what help might be called for at the moment. The boy was turning +toward the Institute; so far so good. + +To-night was nearly four years from the beginning of his interest in +this young fellow with the Methodist name. He was a special friend of +the family, though no more so than of every family in the town which +gave him the slightest encouragement. To a degree which no one suspected +he shared this family's secret hopes for its son and heir; and he +cherished hopes which even the Farwells could not suspect. Unless he was +much mistaken he had found the subject for his Experiment. + +That mention of the Farwells needs to be explained. Of course "John +Wesley, Jr.," was only part of the boy's name. In full he was John +Wesley Farwell, Jr., son of John Wesley Farwell, Sr., of the J.W. +Farwell Hardware Co. As a little fellow he had no chance to escape +"Junior," since he was named for his father. There were many Jacks and +Johns and Johnnies about. His mother, good Methodist that she was, +secretly enjoyed calling him "John Wesley, Jr.," and before long the +neighbors and the neighborhood children followed her example. + +A little later he might have been teased out of it, but at the +impossible age when boys discover that queer names and red hair and +cross-eyes make convenient excuses for mutual torture, it happened that +he had attained to the leadership of his gang. For some reason he took +pride in his two Methodist names, and made short work of those who +ventured to take liberties with them. In all other respects he played +without reserve boyhood's immemorial game of give and take; but as to +his name or any part thereof he would tolerate no foolishness and no +back talk. When he reached the high school period, however, most of his +intimates rarely called him by his full name, having, like all high +school people, no time for long names, though possessed of infinite +leisure for long dreams. Straightway they shortened his name to "J.W.," +which to this day is all that his friends find necessary. + +Very well, then; this is J.W. at eighteen; a young fellow worth +knowing. Take a look at him; impulsive, generous, not what you would +call handsome, but possessed of a genial eye and a ready tongue, a +stubby nose and a few scattered freckles. A fair student, he is yet far +from bookishness, and he makes friends easily. + +Of late he has been paying furtive but detailed attention to his hair +and his neckties and the hang of his clothes, though still in small +danger of being mistaken for a tailor's model. + +With such a name you will understand that he's a Methodist by first +intention; born so. He is a pretty sturdy young Christian, showing it in +a boy's modest but direct fashion, which even his teammates of the +high-school football squad found it no trouble to tolerate, because they +knew him for a human, healthy boy, and not a morbid, self-inspecting +religious prig. Pastor Drury, you may be sure, had taken note of all +that, for he and J.W. had been fast friends since the day he had +received the boy into the church. + +The morning after the Institute social J.W. announced at breakfast his +sudden change of plan. + +"If you don't mind, Dad, I've about decided to go to the Institute +instead of Chicago. There is a bunch of us going, and Mr. Drury will be +there. Uncle Henry's folks might not want to be bothered with me now, +and anyway I don't know them very well. But I can go to the Institute +with the church crowd; and there will be tennis and swimming and plenty +of other fun besides the big program." Which was quite a speech for J. +W. + +John Wesley, Sr., didn't know much about the Institute, but he had an +endless regard for his pastor, and the mother was characteristically +willing to postpone her boy's introduction to the unknown and, in her +thought, therefore, the menacing city. + +So, after the brief but unhurried devotions at the breakfast table, +which had come to serve in place of the old-time family prayers, +parental approval was forthcoming. And thus it befell that J.W. +selected for himself a future whose every experience was to be affected +by so slight a matter as his impulsive choice of a week's holiday. That +choice expressed to him the new freedom of his years, for he had not +even been conscious of the quiet influence which had made it easier than +he knew to decide as he had done. + + * * * * * + +It was a mixed and lively company that found itself crowded around the +registrar's table at the Institute one Monday evening in July, with J. +W. and his own particular chum, Martin Luther Shenk, better known as +"Marty," right in the middle of it. + +J.W. wondered where so many Epworthians could have come from. Did they +really hanker after the Institute, or had they come for reasons as +trivial as his own? He put the question to Martin Luther Shenk. + +"Marty, do you reckon these are all here for real Epworth League work, +or does the Institute want anybody and everybody?" + +Marty had been scouting a little, and he answered: "No, to both +questions, I should say. Some have come just to be coming, and others +seem to be here for business. But I saw Joe Carbrook just now, and if he +is an Epworth Leaguer I am the Prince of Puget Sound. You know how he +stands at home. Wonder what he came for." + +Just then Joe Carbrook himself came up. He was from Delafield too, +member of the same League chapter as the two chums, but he had rarely +condescended to league affairs. Having had two rather variegated years +at college, he felt he must show his sophistication by holding himself +above some of those simple old observances. + +"S'pose you are here for solemn and serious work, you two," he remarked +mockingly, as he saw the boys. "I just met Marcia Dayne, and she told me +you were registering. Well, I'm here too--drove up in my car--but you +don't catch me tying myself down to all that study stuff. I'm looking +for fun, not work." + +"Nothing new for you in that, Joe," said Marty. "But I should think you +might try the study stuff, if only for a change, after you have spent +good money on gas and tires. And you have to pay for your meals, you +know." + +"Well, I studied hard enough last month in college cramming for the +final exams, so I could get within gunshot of enough sophomore credits, +and I'm through; with study for a while. If I find a few live ones in +this crowd, I guess we can enjoy ourselves without interfering with any +of you grinds, if you must study," and Joe Carbrook went off in search +of his live ones. + +J.W. and Marty were in no hurry to register. The crowd milling around +in the office was interesting, and J.W. was still wondering how many of +them, himself included, would get enough Institute long before the week +was over. Besides, it was yet an hour before supper. + +"Think of it, Marty. All these people come from Epworth Leagues just +like ours, from Springfield, and Wolf Prairie and Madison and all over +this part of the State. What for, I'd like to know? Will you look at +those pennants? Wish we had brought one or two of ours; we could add to +the display, anyway." + +"I have two in my suitcase," said Marty. "We'll have them out this +evening at the introduction meeting. And maybe you'll find out 'what +for' by that time." + +The introduction meeting in the chapel after supper was for the most +part informal. Yells and songs and the waving of pennants punctuated the +proceedings, as is quite the proper thing in an Epworth League +gathering. Some people, who see only what is on the surface, cannot +wholly understand the exuberance of an Epworth League crowd. But it has +roots in something very real. + +The dean of the Institute managed, amid the roystering and the intervals +of attention, to set things up for the week. A few regulations would +need to be laid down; and these would be fixed, not by the faculty or by +the dean, but by the Student Council. Would each district group please +get together at once, and select some one to represent the group on this +council? + +This request being obeyed amid considerable confusion, with Marcia Dayne +appointed from the Fort Adams District, and the council excused to draft +the basic laws for the week, the faculty was introduced, one by one. + +Each teacher was given the opportunity to describe his or her course, so +that out of the eight or nine courses offered every delegate might +select two besides the two which were required of all students, and so +qualify for an Institute diploma. + +J.W. found himself enjoying all this hugely. It appealed to his growing +sense of freedom from schoolboy restraint. If he did go to any of the +classes, it appeared that he could pick the ones he liked. Up to now he +had entertained no thought of any serious work, but the faculty talks +about these courses made him think there might be worse ways of spending +the week than qualifying for an Institute diploma. The whole thing +seemed to be so easy and so friendly. Of course he could see that the +study would not be much, even if he signed up for it, being just for a +week, but it might not be bad fun. + +Morning Watch was an experience to J.W. He was surprised to find +himself staying awake in a before-breakfast religious meeting, and was +even more surprised to be enjoying it. Something about this big crowd of +young people stirred all his pulses, and the religion they heard about +and talked about seemed to J.W. something very real and desirable. He +thought of himself as a Christian, but he wondered if his Christian life +might not become more confident and productive. In this atmosphere one +almost felt that anything was possible. + +Meal times turned out to be times of orderly disorder. J.W. and his +friends were at a table with other groups from the Fort Adams District, +and he quickly mastered the raucous roar which served the District for a +yell. Before the end of the second day his alert good nature made him +cheer leader, and thereafter he rarely had time to eat all that was set +before him, though possessed of a boy's healthy appetite. It was simply +that the other possibilities of the hour seemed more alluring than mere +food. + +From the first day of the class work J.W. found himself keen for all +that was going on. There was variety enough so that he felt no +weariness, and the range of new interests opened up each day kept him at +constant and pleasurable attention. Without knowing just how, he was +catching the Institute spirit. + +He walked away from the dining hall one noon with his pastor-friend, and +he talked. He had to talk to somebody, and Walter Drury contrived to +know of his need. + +"Why, Mr. Drury," he said, eagerly, "I'm just finding out how little I +know about the church and real Christian work. I thought I was something +of an average Methodist boy, but if the people at home are no better +than I am, I can see how being a preacher to such a bunch is a man's +job." + +"Correct, J.W." said the minister. "I find that out many a time, to my +humbling. But honestly, now, are you learning things you never knew +before?" + +"Ye-es, I am," J.W. answered, "and then, again, I'm not. It seems to me +as if I had always known a lot of what we are getting in these classes, +though there is plenty of new stuff too. But until now I didn't get much +out of what I knew. I've always liked to hear you, but you're different. +As for most of the things I've heard, I just thought of it as religious +talk, church stuff, you know. It didn't seem to matter, but here it is +beginning to matter in all sorts of ways, and I can see that it matters +to me." + +"How, for instance?" + +Well, take the class in home missions; Americanization, they call it. +Maybe you noticed that the first thing the teacher did was to divide the +class right down the middle, and tell those on the left hand--yes, I'm +one of the goats--that for the rest of the week they were to consider +themselves aliens. The others were to play native-born Americans. And so +the study started, but believe me, we aliens have already begun to make +it interesting for those natives. Some of 'em want to come over on our +side already, but they can't. A few of us have found some immigration +dope in the college library, and it is pretty strong. We'll show up +those Pilgrim Fathers before the week is out. They think they have done +everything an alien could ask when they let him into the country, and +then they work him twelve hours a day, seven days a week, or else let +him hunt the country over for any sort of a job. They rob him by making +him pay higher prices than other people for all he has to buy. They +force him to live in places not fit for rats, and on top of everything +else they call him names, so that their kids stick up their noses at his +children in the school grounds. After all that they expect he'll become +a good citizen just by hearing 'The Star-Spangled Banner' at the movies +and watching the flag go by when there's a parade. + +"Say, Mr. Drury, it makes me sick, and, if I feel that way just to be +pretending I'm a 'Wop' for a week, how do you suppose the real aliens +feel? Excuse me for talking like this, but honestly, something like that +is going on in all these classes; I wish we could take up such things in +the League at home." And he forced an embarrassed little laugh. + +Pastor Drury laughed too, and said of course they could, as he linked +arms with J.W., and they passed on down the road. The preacher talked +but little, contriving merely to drop a question now and then; and J.W. +talked on, half-ashamed to be so "gabby," as he put it, and yet moved by +an impulse as pleasant as it was novel. + +"And foreign missions, Mr. Drury. You won't be offended, I hope, but +somehow as far back as I can remember I have always connected foreign +missions with collections and 'Greenland's Icy Mountains' and little +naked Hottentots, and something--I don't know just what--about the River +Ganges. But here--why, that China class just makes me want to see China +for myself and find out how much of the advantages of American life over +Chinese has come on account of religion." + +"Well, why not, J.W.? Maybe you will go to China some day, and have a +hand in it all," suggested the pastor, to try him out. + +The boy shook his head. + +"No, I don't think so. I am certainly getting a new line on foreign +missions, but I don't think there's missionary stuff in me. I'll have +to go at the proposition some other way." + +Then Pastor Drury set him going on another subject. + +"What do you think of the young folks who are here?" he asked. + +"Well, at first I thought they were all away ahead of our bunch at home, +and some of them are; but you soon find out that the majority is pretty +much of the same sort as ours. I think I've spotted a few slackers, but +mighty few. Most of the crowd seems to be all right, and I've already +made some real friends. But do you know which one of them all is the +most interesting fellow I've met?" + +The pastor thought he did, but he merely asked, "Who?" + +"Why, that Greek boy, Phil Khamis. He is from Salonika, you know. He +knows the old country like a book, and he's going back some day, maybe +to be some kind of missionary to his people, in the very places where +the apostle Paul preached. Honest, I never knew until he told me that +his Salonika is the town of those Christians to whom Paul wrote two of +his letters; those to the Thessalonians--'Thessalonika,' you know. Well, +you ought to hear Phil talk. He came over here seven years ago, and +learned the English language from the preacher at Westvale." + +"Yes, I have heard about him," said Mr. Drury. "They say he lived in the +parsonage and paid the preacher for his English lessons by giving him a +new understanding of the Greek New Testament. Not many of us have found +out yet how to get such pay for being decent to our friends from the +other side." + +"Well, he is a thoroughbred, anyway; and do you notice how he is right +up in front when there is anything doing? The only way you can tell he +isn't American born is that he is so anxious to help out on all the +unpleasant work. When I look at Phil it makes me boil to think of +fellows like him being called 'Wop.'" + +By this time the two had swung back into the campus, and J.W. found +himself drafted to hold down second base in the Faculty-Student ball +game. But that is a story for others to tell. + +On the steps of the library Marcia Dayne and some other girls were +holding an informal reception. Joe Carbrook, with one or two of his +friends, was finding it agreeable to assume a superior air concerning +the Institute. The impression the boys gave was that their coming to the +Institute at all had been a great concession, but that they were under +no illusions about the place. + +"All this is all right," Joe was saying, "for those who need it, but +what's the good of it all to us? For instance, what do you get out of +it, Marcia?" + +"What do you think I want to get out of it? If you cared for the young +people's work at home, I should think you could see how 'all this,' as +you call it, would help you to do better work and more of it at +Delafield." + +"As you ought to know pretty well, Marcia," Joe replied, "back home they +think I don't care much for the young people's work. It is a little too +prim and ready-to-wear for me, if you'll excuse me for saying so. No fun +in it at all, though I'll admit some of the classes here have more life +in them than I looked for." + +One of the other girls, who knew him well enough to speak with large +frankness, came to the defense of them all, saying: "Well, Joe, I don't +see that you get very far with what you call fun. It's mostly at the +expense of other people, including your father, who pays the bills. +Besides, since you came home from college this spring, you seem to have +run out of nearly all the bright ideas you started with. I wonder if it +ever strikes you that being a sport, as you call it, is mostly being a +nuisance to everybody? Some of us long ago got over thinking you clever +and original. You must be getting over it yourself, by now, surely." + +"Many thanks, dear lady, for them kind words," Joe responded, as he +bowed low in mock acknowledgment; "you make yourself quite plain, Miss +Alma Wetherell." He flung back the insult jauntily, as he and his +companions moved on, but at least one of the group suspected that the +words had struck home. + +You who know the General Secretary could easily forgive J.W. his +delight in the class of which the program said the subject was +"Methods." This is the only hour in an Institute which the Epworth +League takes for its own work. Rightly enough, it is a crowded hour, +with the whole Institute present, and usually it is an hour of +unflagging interest. + +J.W. and Marty were enjoying their first Institute too much to be late +at any classes. They were merely a little earlier at this class; to miss +any of it would be a distinct loss. + +Now, what the General Secretary talked about was no more than the +everyday work of the League--how it meant the young people of the church +and their work for and with young people for the sake of the future. But +he had a way with him. He said the League was a great scheme of self, +with the "ish" left off. In the League one practiced self-help, and +enjoyed the twin luxuries of self-direction and self-expression, and +came sooner or later to that strange new knowledge which is +self-discovery. He explained how Epworthians as such could live on +twenty-four hours a day, the plan being an ingenious and yet simple +financial arrangement for keeping the League work moving, both where you +are and where you aren't, even around the world. He had innumerable +stories of the devotional meeting idea, the Win-My-Chum idea, the +stewardship idea, the Institute idea, the life service idea, the +recreation idea, the study-class idea, and every other League idea so +far invented. + +But all this is merely a hint of what the General Secretary meant to the +Institute, and particularly to the delegates from Delafield. Even Joe +Carbrook had been impressed. He heard the General Secretary the morning +after that little exchange of compliments on the library steps, and for +an hour thereafter let himself enjoy the rare luxury of thinking. The +results were somewhat disconcerting. + +"It's funny," said Marty, as the four of them, the other three being +Joe, Marcia, and J.W., sat under a tree in the afternoon, "but I believe +that man could make even trigonometry interesting. I thought I'd heard +all that could be said about the devotional meeting; but did you get +that scheme for leaders he sprung this morning? Watch me when we get +back home, that's all." + +"You needn't suppose you are the only one who got it," said Marcia. +"Everybody was trying to watch the General Secretary and to take notes +at the same time, and I don't believe you are any quicker at that than +the rest of us. Of course all of us will use as many of his ideas as we +can remember, when we get home again." + +Joe Carbrook, with a new seriousness which sat awkwardly on him, +confessed that he could not understand just what was happening. It was +evident that he was ill at ease; Marcia had noticed it every time she +had seen him since that encounter with Alma Wetherell. + +"I guess you folks know I am not easily caught; but I'm ready to admit +that man has hold of something. Yes, and I'm half convinced that this +Institute has hold of something. I wish I knew what it is. If I could +really believe that all I hear and see at this place is part of being +young and part of being a Christian, I might be thinking before long +about getting into the game myself. The trouble is you three and the +other Leaguers I've watched at home are just you three and the others, +and that's all. I know, and you know, what you can do. You'll take all +these ideas of League work and use them, maybe; but what I can't see is +how you will pick up the Big Idea of this place and get back home +without losing it." + +"We can't," said Marcia, "not without all sorts of help, visible and +invisible. You, for instance; if you would really get into the game, as +you say, nobody could guess how much it would mean to our League. And it +might mean more to you." + +"Marcia's right about that," said J.W. "The Big Idea of this place, that +you speak of, is a lot too big for us to take home alone. Maybe you'll +think I'm preaching, but I don't care, if I say that for God to handle +alone, it is not big enough. He makes the stars, and gives us his Son, +without any help from us. Nobody else can do that. But he won't make our +League at home a success without us; and all of us together can't do it +without Him. I'm not saying I know how to do it, even then, but that's +the way it looks to me. Why, Joe," he said with sudden intensity as he +faced Joe Carbrook, "if you ever get hold of the Big Idea, and the Big +Idea gets hold of you, something is sure to happen, something bigger +than any of us can figure out now. I know you have it in you." + +All four showed a surprised self-consciousness over J.W.'s unexpected +venture into these rather deeper conversational waters than usual, and +there was more surprise when Joe Carbrook began to talk about himself. + +He laughed to hide a touch of embarrassment, but with little mirth; and +then he said, "Well, J.W., that's not all foolishness, though I don't +see why you should pick on me. Why not Marty? Of course, I came here for +fun, and I have had some, though not just the sort I expected. And I've +had several jolts too. I might as well admit that if I could just only +see how you hitch all of this League and church business to real life, I +would be for it with all I've got. The trouble is, while I've never been +especially proud of my own record, neither have I seen much excuse yet +for what you 'active members' have been busy with. I have been playing +my way, and you have been playing yours; but it all seems mostly play to +me. All the same, I guess I am getting tired of my kind." If Joe could +ever have spoken wistfully, you might have suspected him of it just +then. + +Clearly, thought Marcia Dayne, in the silence that followed, something +big was already happening. But how to help it on she could not tell; so, +with a desperate effort to do the right thing, she contrived to turn the +subject It seemed to her it had become too difficult to go further just +now without peril to Joe's strange new interest, as well as to a very +new and tremulous little hope that had begun to sing in her own heart. + +The shift of the talk was a true Institute change, and would have been +most disconcerting to anyone unfamiliar with the ways of young +Christians; but Marcia was sure that what had been said would not be +forgotten, and she knew there would be another time. + +It was this that made her say, "I wish you boys would suggest what sort +of stunt our district should give on stunt night; you know the time is +getting short." + +"That's a fact," exclaimed Marty, sitting up. "Stunt night is to-morrow, +and our delegation has to fix up the stunt for the Fort Adams District. +Let's get to work on something. We've been mooning long enough." + +For though Marty never thought as quickly as Marcia, he too felt some +instinct of fear lest by an unfortunate word they should break the spell +of Joe Carbrook's interest in the "Big Idea," and promptly the four were +deep in a study of stunts. + +To the uninitiated, stunt night at the Institute is without rime or +reason, but not to those in charge who are looking ahead to Sunday. They +know that the converging and cumulative psychic forces which the +Institute invariably produces must be tempered, along about midway of +the week, by some sharp contrast in the communal life. Otherwise, the +group, like over-trained athletes, will grow emotionally stale before +the week is done, and at the end of that is let-down and flatness. Hence +"stunt night." + +In the early Institute years it was easy, as in some places it still is, +for stunt night to be no more than clowning, witless and cheap; but +there is a distinct tendency to exercise the imagination in producing +more self-respecting efforts. + +Cartwright, happily, is one of the forward-looking Institutes, and stunt +night, crowded with most excellent fooling, produced two or three +creditable and thought-provoking performances. One of them deserves +remembering for its own sake. Besides, it is a part of this story. + +The home missions class furnished the inspiration for it, and called it +"Scum o' the Earth," an impromptu immigration pageant. A boy who had +memorized Schauffler's poem stood off stage and recited it, while group +after group of "immigrants" in the motley of the steerage passed slowly +through the improvised Ellis Island sifting process. It was all +make-believe, of course, all but one tense moment. Then Phil Khamis +stepped on the platform, incarnating in his own proper person the poet's +apostrophised Greek boy: + +"Stay, are we doing you wrong, + Young fellow from Socrates' land? +You, like a Hermes so lissome and strong, + Fresh from the master Praxiteles' hand? +So you're of Spartan birth? + Descended, perhaps, from one of the band-- +Deathless in story and song-- +Who combed their long hair at Thermopylae's pass? +Ah, I forget the straits, alas! + More tragic than theirs, more compassion-worth, +That have doomed you to march in our 'immigrant class' + Where you're nothing but 'scum o' the earth!'" + +The audience was caught unaware. It had been vastly interested in the +spectacle, as a spectacle, the more because the unusual Americanization +class which produced it had attracted general attention. But, Phil +Khamis, everybody's friend, standing there, an immigrant of the +immigrants, smiling his wistful friendly smile, was a picture as +dramatic as it was unexpected. First there were ejaculations of +astonishment and surprise. Then came the moment of understanding, and a +shining-eyed stillness fell on all. Then, what a shout! J.W. led off, +the unashamed tears falling from his brimming eyes. + +On Saturday morning J.W. was sitting beside Phil Khamis at Morning +Watch. The leader had asked for answers to the question "Why did I come +to the Institute?" getting several responses of the conventional sort. +Suddenly Phil nudged J.W. and whispered, "Shall I tell why I came?" and +J.W. with the memory of stunt night's thrill not yet dulled, said +promptly, "Sure, go ahead." + +When Phil got up an attentive silence fell upon them all. The Greek boy +had made many friends, as much by his engaging frankness and anxiety to +learn as by his perpetual eagerness to have a hand in every bit of hard +work that turned up. Since the stunt night incident he was everybody's +favorite. + +"Friends," he said, in his rather careful, precise way, "I am here for a +different reason than any. When I was in America but a little time a +Methodist preacher made himself my friend. I could not speak English, +only a few words. He took me to his home. He taught me to talk the +American way. He find me other friends, though I could do nothing at all +for them to pay them back. Now I am Christian--real, not only baptized. +The young people of the church take me in to whatever they do. They +call me 'Phil' and never care that I am a foreigner, so when I heard +about this Institute I say to myself, 'It is something strange to me, +but I hear that many people like those in my church will be there.' I +cannot quite believe that, but it sounded good, and I wanted to come and +see. And now I know that many people are young people like those I first +knew. They treat me just the same. It makes me love America much more; +and if I could tell my people in the old country that all this good has +come to me from the church, they could not believe it. Still, it is +true. Everything I have to-day has come to me by goodness of Christian +people." + +There were some half-embarrassed "Amens," and more than one hitherto +unsuspected cold required considerable attention. All the way to +breakfast Phil held embarrassed court, while his hand was shaken and his +shoulder was thumped and he was told, solo and chorus, by all who could +get near him, that "He's all right!"--"Who's all right?" "Phil Khamis!" + +But J.W. was walking slowly toward the dining hall, alone. As he had +listened to Phil, at first he thought, "Good old scout, he's putting it +over," but by the time the Greek's simple words were ended, J.W. was +looking himself straight in the eye. "Young fellow," he was saying, "you +have come mighty near feeling glad that you have had so many more +advantages than this stranger, and yet can't you see that what he says +about himself is almost as true about you? All you have to-day--this +Institute, your religion, your church, your friends, the kind of a home +you have and are so proud of--everything has come to you by what Phil +calls the goodness of Christian people." + +And then it was breakfast time, with an imperative call on J.W. from the +Fort Adams table for "that new yell we fixed up last night," and the +minutes in which he had talked with himself were for the time forgotten. +But the memory of them came back in the days after the Institute was +itself a memory. + + * * * * * + +The Saturday night camp fire at this Institute, contrary to the usual +custom, was not co-ed. The boys went down to the lake shore and sat +around a big fire on the sand. The girls had their fire on the slope of +a hill at the other edge of the campus. + +Nor does this Institute care for too much praise of itself. Its +traditional spirit is to work more for outcomes than for the devices +which produce complacency. It stages only a few opportunities of telling +"Why I like this Institute." + +So, at the camp fires a man talked to the boys and a woman to the girls, +not about the Institute, but about life. These speakers knew the strange +effect an Institute week has on impressionable and romantic youth; they +knew that by this time scores of the students were either saying to +themselves, "I've got to do something big before this thing's over," or +were vainly trying to put the conviction away. + +The woman who talked to the girls happened to be a preacher's wife. +This gave her a certain advantage when she told the listening girls that +the greatest of all occupations for them was not some special vocation, +but what Ida Tarbell has called "the business of being a woman." It was +good preparation for the next day's program, with its specific and +glamorous appeal, for it put first the great claim, so that special +vocations could be seen in clear air and could be fairly measured. + +Pastor Drury, who talked to the boys, was talking to them all, as J.W. +very well knew, but every word seemed for him; as, indeed, it was, in a +sense that he did not suspect. He was not surprised that his pastor +should present the Christian life as effectively livable by bricklayers +and business men as surely as by missionaries. He had heard that before. +But to J.W. the old message had a new setting, a new force. And never +before had he been so ready to receive it. + +The songs had sung themselves out, as the fire changed from roaring +flame and flying sparks to a great bed of living coals. From the world's +beginning a glowing hearth has been perfect focus for straight thought +and plain speech. The boys found it so this night. + +The minister began so simply that it seemed almost as if his voice were +only the musings of many, just become audible. "I know," said he, "that +to-morrow some of you will find yourselves, and will eagerly offer your +lives for religious callings. We shall all be proud of you and glad to +see it. But most of you cannot do that. You are already sure that you +must be content to live 'ordinary Christian lives,' It is possible that +to-morrow you may feel a little out of the picture. And those who are +hearing a special call might regard you, quite unconsciously, of course, +as not exactly on their level." + +"Now, suppose we get this thing straight to-night. There is no great nor +small, no high nor low, in real service. The differences are only in the +forms of work you do. The quality may be just as fine in one place as in +another. The boy who goes into the ministry, or who becomes a medical +missionary, will have peculiar chances for usefulness. So also will the +boy who goes into business or farming or teaching, or any other +so-called secular occupation. Just because he is not called to religious +work as a daily business he dare not think that he has no call. God's +calling is not for the few, but for the many. And just now the man who +puts his whole soul into being an out-and-out Christian in his daily +business and in his personal life as a responsible citizen must have the +genuine missionary spirit. He must live like a prophet, that is, a +messenger from God. He must know the Christian meaning of all that +happens in the world. And he must stand for the whole Christian program. +Otherwise, not all the ministers and missionaries in the world can save +our civilization. It is your chance of a great career. You who will make +up the rank and file of the Christian army in the next twenty-five +years--do you know what you are? _You are the hope of the world!"_ + +As the group broke up in the dim light of the dying embers, J.W. +stumbled into Joe Carbrook, and the two headed for the tents together. +They had been on a much more friendly footing since Thursday. + +"Say, J.W.," said Joe, abruptly, "what's the matter with me? I came to +this place without knowing just why; thought I'd just have a good time, +I suppose; but here I am being bumped up against something new and big +every little while, until I wonder if it's the same world that I was +living in before I came. Do you suppose anybody else feels that way? Is +it the place? Or the people? Or what?" + +"I don't just know," said J.W., trying to keep from showing his +surprise. "I feel a good deal that way myself. I think it's maybe that +this is the first time we've ever been forced to look squarely at some +of the things that seem so natural here. At home it's easy to dodge. You +know that, only you've dodged one way and I've done it another." + +"But do you feel different, the way I do, J.W.? Do you feel like saying +to yourself: 'Looka here, Joe Carbrook, quit being a fool. See what you +could do if you settled down to getting ready for something real. Like +being a doctor, now.' Do _you_ feel that way? You don't know it, but +I've always thought I could be a doctor, if I could see anything in it. +And then the other side of me speaks up and says: 'Joe Carbrook, don't +kid yourself. You know you haven't got the nerve to try, even if you had +the grit to stick it through.' Is it that way with you, J.W.? You've +paid more attention to religion and all that than I ever did. And what +you said on Thursday about the 'Big Idea' has kept me guessing ever +since." + +"No, Joe, my trouble's not like yours. I know I can't be a doctor, nor a +preacher, nor a missionary. I've got nothing of that in me. But what we +heard to-night at the camp fire came straight at me. As I tried to say +the other day, if you get the 'Big Idea' of the Institute, Christian +service looks like a great life. But me--I've no hope to be anything +particular; just one of the crowd. And I never quite saw until to-night +how that might be a great life too." + +As they were parting, J.W. ventured a bold suggestion. "Say, Joe, if you +think you could be a doctor, _why not a missionary doctor?"_ + +Joe's answer was a swift turning on his heel, and he strode away with +never a word. + +"Probably made him mad," thought J.W. "I wonder why I said it. Joe's the +last boy in the world to have any such notion. But--well, something's +already begun to happen to him, that's sure--and to me too." + +On Sunday the little world of the Institute assumed a new and no less +attractive aspect. Everybody was dressed for Sunday, as at home. Classes +were over; and games also; the dining room became for the first time a +place of comparative quiet, with now and then the singing of a great old +hymn, just to voice the Institute consciousness. + +The Morning Watch talk had been a little more direct, a little more +tense. And before the Bishop's sermon came the love feast. Now, the +Methodists of the older generation made much of their love feasts, but +in these days, except at the Annual Conference, an occasional Institute +is almost the only place where it flourishes with something of the +ancient fervor. + +Many changes have come to Methodism since the great days of the love +feast; changes of custom and thought and speech. But your ardent young +Methodist of any period, Chaplain McCabe, Peter Cartwright, Jesse Lee, +Captain Webb, would have understood and gloried in this Institute love +feast. It spoke their speech. + +Our group from Delafield will never forget it. + +Nearly all of them spoke; Marcia Dayne first because she was usually +expected to lead in everything of the sort, then Marty, then J.W., and, +last of all and most astounding, Joe Carbrook. + +Marty looked the soldier, and he put his confession into military terms. +He spoke about his Captain and waiting for orders, and a new +understanding of obedience. + +Before J.W. got his chance to speak, the leader read a night letter from +an Institute far away, conveying the greetings of six hundred young +people to their fellow Epworthians. + +J.W. could not bring himself to speak in terms of personal experience. +He was still under the spell of last night's camp fire, and his brief +encounter with Joe Carbrook, but without quite knowing what could +possibly come of all that. And the telegram gave him an excuse to speak +in another vein. You must remember that up to now he had been wholly +local in his League interests. He had gone to no conventions, he was not +a reader of _The Epworth Herald_, and to him the Central Office was as +though it had not been. + +"I wonder if anybody else feels as I do," he said, "about this League of +ours? Until this last week I never thought much about it. But we've just +heard that telegram from an Institute bigger than this, a thousand miles +off. And there's fifty-five or sixty Institutes going on this year, +besides the winter Institutes, the conventions, and all the other +gatherings. We seem to belong to a movement that enrolls almost a +million young people, with all sorts of chances to learn how it can do +all sorts of Christian work by actually _doing_ it. This isn't the only +thing I've found out here, but it makes me want to see the whole League +become as good as it is big. I don't want to be dazzled by the size of +it, because I know how many other members are just as little use as I've +been. Only when I get home I hope I'm going to be a different sort of an +Epworthian, and I can't help wishing that we all felt that way about +being more good in the League. We can make it a hundred times more +useful to the church and to our Master." + +Many others spoke like that, some of them because they could find +nothing more intimate to say, some here and there those who, like J.W., +could not quite trust themselves yet to talk of their deeper personal +experiences. + +And then Joe Carbrook arose. He spoke easily, as Joe always did, but it +was a new Joe Carbrook, and only the Delafield delegation understood how +amazing was the change. + +"This Institute has made me all sorts of trouble," he said. "I had +nothing else to do, and without caring anything about it, except to get +some new fun out of it, I came along, intending to stir up some of you +if I could, and I knew I could. But I've seen what a fool I was. Every +day I've seen that a little more distinctly. And last night, just as I +was leaving one of the boys after the camp fire he said something about +what I might do with my life. I don't know how seriously he meant it. +Maybe he doesn't, either. I went off without answering him. There wasn't +any answer, except that I knew I wasn't fit even to think about it. And +then, thank God, I met a man who understood what was wrong with me. He's +our pastor. I haven't been anything but trouble to him at home, but that +made no difference to him. And he introduced me, down yonder by the +lake, to a Friend I had never known before, some one infinitely +understanding, infinitely forgiving. He showed me that before I could +find what I ought to be I'd have to come to terms with that Friend. And +I have. Whatever happens to me, whatever I may find to do, I want now +and here for the first time in my life to confess Jesus Christ as my +Saviour and Lord!" + +The Bishop preached a great sermon, but it is doubtful whether the +Delafield delegation rightly appreciated it. They were too much +occupied with the incredible fact that Joe Carbrook had been converted, +and had openly confessed it. + +More was to come. The afternoon meeting, long established in the +Institute world as the "Life Work Service," was in the hands of a few +leaders who knew both its power and peril. An invitation would be given +for all to declare their purpose who felt called to special Christian +work. The difficulty was to encourage the most timid of those who, +despite their timidity, felt sure of the inner voice, and yet prevent a +stampede among those who, without any depth of desire, were in love with +emotion, and would enjoy being conspicuous, if only for the brief moment +of the service. + +For once a woman made the address--a wise woman, let it be said, who +made skillful and sure distinctions between the Christian life as a life +and the work of the Christian Church as one way of living that life. + +It would have been a successful afternoon in any case, but three +incidents helped the speaker. When she asked those to declare themselves +who had decided for definite Christian work, young people in all parts +of the room arose, and one after another they spoke, for the most part +simply and modestly, of their hope and purpose. And Joe Carbrook was +among them! + +He said very little, the nub of it being that he had always thought of +being a doctor, but not until a chance remark made by John Wesley, Jr., +last night had the idea appeared to him important. Just to make one more +among the thousands of doctors in America was one thing, he said. It +was quite another to think of being the only physician among a great, +helpless population. But to be a missionary doctor a man had to be first +a missionary. And how could he be a missionary if he were not a +Christian? Well, as he had confessed at the love feast, that was settled +last night, and as soon as it had been attended to be knew there was +nothing else in the way. So he must work now toward being a medical +missionary. + +Joe's declaration stirred the whole assembly. And while the influence of +it was still on them, J.W. saw Martin Luther Shenk, his classmate and +doubly his chum since a memorable day of the preceding October, get up +and quietly announce his purpose of becoming a minister. "And I hope," +said Marty, "that I may find my lifework in some of the new home mission +fields we have been learning about this week." + +At that point the leader felt more than a little anxious. These two +decisions, with all their restraint, had in them something infectious, +and she feared lest some young people, not holding themselves perfectly +in hand, might be moved to sentimental and unreflecting declaration. + +If there had been any such danger, Marcia Dayne dispelled it. She was +all aglow with a new joy of her own, whose secret none knew but herself, +though one other had almost dared to hope he could guess. + +"May I speak?" she asked. "I have no decision to make for myself. Last +year I took the 'Whatever, whenever, wherever' pledge, and I intend to +keep it, though I am not yet sure what it will mean. But I know a boy +here who will not talk unless somebody asks him, and there's a reason +why I think he should be asked. Please, mayn't we hear from John Wesley +Farwell, Jr., about _his_ kind of a call?" + +J.W., taken unawares at the mention of his name, was still at a loss +when the leader seconded Marcia's invitation; and the knowledge that he +was expected to say something unusual did not make for self-control. But +he understood Marcia's purpose, and tried to pull himself together. + +"Miss Dayne is president of our home Chapter, and she had a lot to do +with my coming to the Institute," he began. "She has heard me talk since +I found out a little about the Institute, and I told her this morning +something of what Joe Carbrook and I had discussed last night after the +camp fire." + +Well, to get to the point, I think she wants me to say, and I'm saying +it to myself most of all, that for nearly all of us young people, +Christian lifework must mean making an honest living, doing all we can +to make our religion count at home, and then backing up with all we've +got, by prayer and money and brains, all these others like Joe Carbrook +and Marty Shenk, who are going into the hardest places to put up the +biggest fight that's in them. We've just got to do it, or be quitters. +As Phil Khamis said at Morning Watch yesterday, 'Everything we have has +come to us by the goodness of Christian people.' We aren't willing to be +the last links of that chain. + +We don't want any special recognition, but I hope the Bishop and the +General Secretary and the Dean and all the rest of the League leaders +will know they can count on us just as we know they can count on these +friends of ours who have just become life service volunteers. + +Nobody knows what might have happened if some one had not spoken like +that, but as the group of new volunteers stood about the platform at the +close of the meeting, the other young people, instead of wandering off +and feeling themselves of no significance, came crowding about them, to +say to them, boy-and-girl fashion, something of what J.W.'s little +speech had suggested. Out of some four hundred Epworthians enrolled in +the Institute, about forty had made definite decisions; but certainly +not less than two hundred more had also faced the future, and in some +sort had made a new contract with themselves and with God. + +The Institute ended there, except for a simple vesper service after the +evening meal, and on Monday morning the whole company was homeward +bound. + +The Delafield delegation had separated. The larger group went home by +train, but Joe Carbrook's insistence was not to be withstood, so J.W. +and Marty, Marcia Dayne and Pastor Drury were Joe's passengers for the +fifty-odd miles between Institute and home. + +They sang, they cheered, they yelled the Institute yells. They lived +over the crowded days of the week that had so swiftly passed. But most +of all they deeply resolved that so far as they could help to do it +while they were at home the League Chapter of Delafield should be made +over into something of more use to the church to which it belonged. + +It was Marty who put their purpose into the fewest words. "We, and the +others who have been to the Institute, don't think we know every little +League thing," said he, "and we don't think we are the whole League +either. But every time anybody in our Chapter starts anything good, he's +going to have more and better help than he ever had before." + +Which thing came to pass, as may one day be recorded. The Rev. Walter +Drury kept his own counsel, but he knew that more had happened than the +putting of new life into the League. The Experiment had progressed +safely through some most difficult stages. + + + +CHAPTER II + + +JOHN WESLEY, JR.'S BRINGING UP + +Those words of Phil Khamis at Morning Watch kept popping into J.W.'s +head in the days following the Institute--"Everything I have to-day has +come to me by the goodness of Christian people." + +"I know that must be true," he would say to himself, "but it's worth +tracing back." + +The preacher was coming over to supper one night, as he loved to do; and +J.W. made up his mind to bring Phil's idea into the table talk. He was +on even better terms with the preacher than he used to be. + +J.W.'s mother hadn't said much about the Institute, though she had +listened eagerly to all his talk of the crowded week, and she was +vaguely ill at ease. She had hoped for something, she did not know just +what, from the Institute, and she was not yet sure whether she ought to +feel disappointed. + +But she provided a fine supper, to which the menfolk paid the most +practical and sincere of all compliments. And since nobody had anything +else on for the evening, there was plenty of time for talk. + +The mother had a moment aside with the minister, and there was a touch +of anxiety in her question: "Do you think the Institute helped my boy?" + +And the pastor had just time to whisper back, "It helped him much, but +he gave even more help than he got You have reason to be proud of him. I +am. He's growing." + +It was not very definite, but it brought no small comfort to the +mother's heart. + +"This Institute idea seems to be everywhere," said J.W., Sr., to the +pastor, "but how did it get started? I used to be in the Epworth League, +but we had nothing like it then." + +"That's not so very much of a story," said the pastor. "We have the +Institute idea because we had to have it. And so the League gave it form +and substance." + +"Well," J.W., Jr., chimed in, "I think it's about time more people knew +about it. I've wanted to ask you to explain it ever since we came back +from the Institute." + +The pastor nodded. "I know; but remember even you were not really +interested until you had been at an Institute. Do you think our +Institute just happened, J.W.?" + +"I know it didn't," J.W. replied. "Somebody did a lot of planning and +scheming." + +"Yes," returned the pastor, "but did you notice that a large part of its +work touched subjects familiar to you, the local League activities, for +instance--the devotional meeting, and Mission Study, and stewardship, +and the scope of the business meeting which not so long ago elected you +to membership?" + +"Yes, you're right, though I don't see anything remarkable in that. It +was a League Institute, wasn't it?" + +"Certainly. But still, if there had not been any local Chapter, there +could have been no Institute, don't you see? What I mean is that the +Institute came because your Chapter needed it, and you needed it; not +because the Institute needed you. It's merely a matter of tracing +things back." + +J.W., Jr., thought of Phil's words. "Sure enough," he responded, +"tracing things back makes a lot of difference. I've been going over +what Phil Khamis said at the Morning Watch--you remember? How everything +he has to-day has come to him by the goodness of Christian people. At +first I thought that was no more than a description of his particular +case, because I knew how true it was. But when you begin to trace things +back, as you say, what's true about Phil is true about all of +us--anyway, about me." + +"How is that, son?" Mrs. Farwell asked gently. + +"Well, I mean," J.W. smilingly answered her, though flushing a little +too, "the Institute, that seemed to me something new and different, is +really tied up to what you folks and the whole church have been doing +for me as far back as I can remember." + +And so they talked, parents and pastor and J.W., quite naturally and +freely, of the long chain of interest which had linked his life to the +church's life, back through all the years to his babyhood. + +J.W. had been in the League only a year or two, but it seemed to him +that he had been in the church always. And the memories of his boyhood +which had the church for center, were intimately interwoven with all his +other experiences. + +As his father said, "I guess, pastor, if you tried to take out of J.W.'s +young life all that the church has meant to him, it would puzzle a +professor to explain whatever might be left." + +J.W. had been born in the country, on a farm whose every tree and fence +corner he still loved. His first recollections of the church as part of +his life had to do with the Sunday morning drive to the little +meetinghouse, which stood where the road to town skirted a low hill. It +had horse-sheds on one side, stretching back to the rear of the church +lot, and some sizeable elms and maples were grouped about its front and +sides. It was a one-room structure, unless you counted the space +curtained off for the primary class, as J.W. always did. For back of +this curtain's protecting folds he had begun his career as a Sunday +school pupil and had made his first friends. At that time even district +school was yet a year ahead of him, with its wider democratic joys and +griefs, and its larger freedom from parental oversight. + +When J.W. was six, going on seven, the family moved to Delafield, +though retaining ownership of the farm, and for years J.W. spent nearly +every Saturday on the old place, in free and blissful association with +the Shenk children, whose father was the tenant. It was here that he and +Martin Luther Shenk, already introduced as "Marty," being of the same +age, had sworn eternal friendship, a vow which as yet showed no sign +whatever of the ravages of time. There were three other children, Ben +and Alice and Jeannette. Now, Jeannette was only two years younger than +J.W. and Marty, but through most of the years when J.W. was going every +week to the farm, she was "only a girl," and far behind the two chums by +all the exacting standards which to boys are more than law. But there +came a time---- + +J.W., Sr., reveling in reminiscences before so patient a listener as the +preacher, though it was an old story, rehearsed how he had served for +years as superintendent of the country Sunday school, and how Mrs. +Farwell was teacher of the Girls' Bible Class. Their home had always +been Methodist headquarters, he said, as old-time Methodists usually +say, and with truth. + +When they moved to town the change brought no loss of church interest; +the Farwells merely transferred it entire to Delafield First Church +("First" being more a title than a numeral, since there was no second). + +But First Church had not a few progressive saints. They wanted the best +that could be had, so J.W., Sr., Sunday school enthusiast that he was, +found himself in a new place of opportunity. The Board of Sunday Schools +at Chicago had been asked to help Delafield get itself in line with the +best ideas and methods, and J.W., Sr., found the beginnings, at least, +of Sunday school science in active operation. At first, like a true +country man, he was a little inclined to counsels of caution, but in +his country Sunday school work he had acquired such strong opinions +about old fogies that he dreaded being thought one himself. + +"And that's how it happened," he said with a laugh, "that I was soon +reckoned among the progressives. In that first year I helped 'em win +their fight for separate departments, and before long we had the makings +of a real graded Sunday school. Don't you remember, mother, how proud +you were when young J.W. there was graduated from the Primary into the +Junior Department?" + +All this was before Pastor Drury's time, of course, but he had gone +through the same experiences in other pastorates, and needed not to have +anything explained. + +"How long have we had a teacher-training class in our Sunday school?" he +asked. + +That called out the story of the struggles to set up what many openly +called a useless and foolish enterprise. The Sunday school was +chronically short of teachers, and yet J.W., Sr., and the other +reformers insisted on taking out of the regular classes the best +teachers in the school, and a score of the most promising young people. +This group went off by itself into a remote part of the church. It +furnished no substitute teachers. It wasn't heard of at all. And loud +were the complaints about its crippling the school. + +"But, pastor, you should have seen the difference when the first dozen +real teachers came out of that class; we were able to reorganize the +whole school. Our John Wesley got a teacher he'll never forget. And, of +course, we kept the training class going; it's never stopped since. The +Board of Sunday Schools has given us the courses and helped us keep the +class up to grade in its work, and you know what sort of teachers we +have now." + +The pastor did, and was properly thankful. In some of his other +pastorates it had been otherwise, to his sorrow. + +"Speaking of the Board of Sunday Schools," the elder Farwell resumed, +for this was a hobby he missed no chance to ride, "it made all the +difference with us in our work for a better Sunday school--gave us +expert backing, you know. And I notice by its latest annual report--yes, +I always get a copy, though J.W. thinks it dry reading--that it is +helping Sunday schools by the thousand, not in this country only, but +wherever in the world our church is at work. Of course you know how it +starts Sunday schools, and how often they grow into churches. Well, it +didn't quite do that here, but this church is a sight better and bigger +because we began to take the Board's advice when we did. It was a good +thing for our boy, and many another boy and girl, that the Board woke us +up." + +"It hasn't all been easy work, though," the minister suggested. "I +remember that when I came I found there was a good deal of discontent +over the Graded Lessons." + +"Sure there was," said J.W., Sr. "We had all been brought up on the +Uniform Lessons, and most of us thought they were just right. Besides, +we rather enjoyed thinking of ourselves as keeping step with the whole +Sunday school world--all over the wide earth everybody studying the same +scripture on the same Sunday. And that was a big idea to get into the +minds of Christians of every name everywhere." + +"Yes, but, Dad," put in J.W., "what was the good of it if the lessons +didn't fit everybody? Did people think that the kids in the primary and +their mothers in ma's class ought to study the same lesson? or did they +think they could fit the same lesson to everybody by the different notes +they put into the Quarterlies?" + +"Well, son," his father replied, "I reckon we thought both ways. And I'm +not so sure yet that it can't be done. But if one thing more than +another reconciled me to the Graded Lessons, it was that they made being +a Sunday school teacher a good deal bigger job than it had ever been. It +was harder work, because every lesson had to be studied by the teacher, +and in a different way from what was thought good enough in the old +days. And I'm for anything, Graded Lessons or whatever, that'll make +people take Sunday school teaching more seriously." + +Then Mrs. Farwell ventured to take up the story. It was about that time, +in the very beginning of the Drury pastorate, that J.W. joined the +church on probation; much to her surprise and humbling. + +"I hadn't even thought of it," she said, "though I should have been the +first one. He had been getting ready in the Junior League, as I very +well knew, but one day, as you may remember"--Brother Drury did, for +that day was the real beginning of this story--"you made an invitation +at the end of a real simple sermon, and if J.W., Jr., didn't get right +up from my side and walk straight to the front!" + +After that there had been a probationers' class, with J.W. and perhaps +twenty others meeting the pastor every week for straight religious +teaching, so that at Easter, when they came up for membership, what with +their Sunday school and Junior League training, and what with the +pastor's more personal instruction, they were able to pass a pretty fair +examination on the great Christian truths, and on the general scheme of +the church's work. + +"For a time mother was a trifle disappointed that J.W. hadn't waited for +the big revival we had the next year," said J.W., Sr., "but I think she +was glad afterward." + +"Yes, I was," the mother said. "You see, I had been brought up to +believe in revivals, and I do yet, but we had no such chance to get the +right Christian start when we were little children, as J.W. has had, if +you'll let his mother say so, and that made a revival a good deal more +important to us when our church did get ready for one. But the other way +is all right too. I'm mother enough to be glad J.W. hasn't known some of +the experiences the boys of my time went through, and the girls as well. +He's no worse a Christian for having been right in the church ever since +I put him in short dresses, are you, son? And I will say that his father +was always with me in holding to the promises we made when he was +baptized. We've not done what we might, but we've never forgotten that +those promises were made to be kept." + +J.W. felt none of his old shrinking from such talk, especially since the +Institute, and yet he had the healthy boy's reluctance to discuss +himself in company. But this was interesting him, outside himself. + +He turned to the pastor. "That's what I meant when I told you what Phil +said. I'm all for the church, and church people and church ways; why +shouldn't I be? I've never known anything else. I remember well the one +thing I didn't like when it first came along; and that was the new sort +of Christmas celebration Dad and the others planned when I was ten or +eleven. You know what Christmas means to such kids, and I guess we were +all selfish together, because we didn't use our heads. Well, the Sunday +school proposed that instead of us all getting something we should all +give something. It looked pretty cheap to us little fellows at first, +and our teacher had all he could do to hold us in line. But let me tell +you, every boy was for it when the time came. We found that we could +have as much fun giving things away as we could grabbing things, and, +anyway, nobody really cared for those mosquito net stockings filled with +nuts and candy and one orange. It was only the idea of getting something +for nothing. That first 'giving Christmas,' I remember, our class +dressed up as delivery boys, and we came on the platform with enough +groceries for a small truck load, that we had bought with our own money. +The orphanage got 'em next day. And one class was dusty millers, +carrying sacks of flour, and another put on a stunt of searching for +Captain Kidd's treasure, and they found a keg of shining coins (new +pennies, they were)--more than a thousand of 'em. Everything went to the +orphanage, or the hospital; and then when the Board of Sunday Schools +began to get us interested in other Sunday schools and in missions--I +remember a scheme they call a 'Partnership Plan' that was great; I don't +know what happened to it--I got right into the game every time." + +"How do you happen to know so much about the Board of Sunday Schools, +J.W.?" asked Mr. Drury. + +"Oh, that's easy. You know how it is in our Sunday school: they don't +make one or two of us young fellows serve as librarians and secretaries +and such and miss all the class work: they have more help, and we all +get into class for the lesson. Well, two years ago Dad told me you had +nominated me for something at the annual Sunday school meeting. It was +only a sort of assistant secretary's job, but very soon I began to catch +on, and I've seen a lot of the letters and leaflets that come from the +Board in Chicago. Well, let me tell you that Board of Sunday Schools is +a whale of a machine. Why, it's the whole church at work to make better +Sunday schools, and more of 'em. They have Sunday school workers in all +sorts of wild places, and Sunday school missionaries in foreign lands. +Yes, and last year I happened to meet one of their secretaries, at your +house, you may remember. But you'd never think he was just a secretary, +he was so keen and wide awake. He knew the Boy Scouts from A to Z, and +that got me, 'cause I'm not so old that I've forgotten my scouting. And +he knew baseball, and boys' books, and all that. Don't you think, +Brother Drury, if more of the fellows knew what the real Sunday school +work is they would take to it like colts to a bran mash?" + +"They couldn't help it," said the pastor. "And you may have noticed that +your father and the other people of our Sunday School Board are trying +to get them to find out some of the things you have found out. For +instance, you know what the two organized classes of high-school +freshmen are doing, and the other organized classes. Seems to me their +members are finding out that Sunday school is something big and fine." + +"That they are," Mrs. Farwell agreed, "and you mustn't forget my +wonderful class of young married women, and the men's class of nearly a +hundred. I think our Sunday school has really begun to change the ideas +of a lot of people. Just think how little trouble we have now with what +Graded Lessons we have, and how happy all our teachers are because they +have the helps they need for just the sort of pupils that are in their +classes." + +"That's so," said J.W., Sr. "I don't suppose even old Brother Barnacle, +'sot' as he is, would vote to go back to the times when the +superintendent reviewed the lesson the same way the teachers taught it, +from a printed list of questions. Seems as if I can hear Henry J. Locke +yet--his farm joins ours down by the creek--when he conducted the +reviewing at Deep Creek. He would hold his quarterly at arm's length to +favor his eyes, and then look up from it to the school and shoot the +question at everybody, 'And what did Peter do _then_, HEY?' He sure did +come out strong on Peter; but I'll say this for him, that he never +skipped a question from start to finish." + +All three laughed a little over Henry J. Locke, and then the pastor said +he mustn't stay much longer. But he did want to back up J.W.'s belief +that what Phil Khamis had said was true of everybody--we are all +debtors. + +"Look at this young J.W. here, will you," he said to the father and +mother, for once letting himself go, "with a name he's proud of, and a +home life that many a Fifth Avenue and Lake Shore Drive family would be +glad to pay a million for, if such goods were on sale in the stores. I'm +going to tell him something he already knows. Young man," and there was +a gleam in the pastor's eye that was not all to the credit of the work +he was praising, "you owe a big debt to the Sunday school. I'm not +jealous for the church, or for any other part of it, but by your own +admission the Sunday school has had a lot to do with your education. +Very well; remember it is a part of what Phil said, and what you are +because of the Sunday school you have become by the goodness of +Christian people. I don't think you'll forget it, seeing that you have +two of that sort of people in your own home all the time." + +And then, with a fine naturalness the little group knelt by the chairs, +and two of the four, he who was pastor of the whole flock and he who +with simple dignity was priest in his own household, gave thanks to God +for the manifold goodness of Christian people, of which they were all +partakers every day. + +As he went home, Walter Drury thought of the long days that stretched +out ahead before he could see the outcomes of the great Experiment, but +this night had seen a good night's work done in the laboratory, and he +was content. + +One tale of the past had been much in J.W.'s thought that night, but +nothing on earth could have induced him to talk about it, especially +since the happenings at the Institute. Only one other person knew all of +its inwardness, though the preacher guessed most of the secret pretty +shrewdly, and everybody was familiar with its outcome. + +It was the story of Marty Shenk's conversion. + +These two had been David and Jonathan from their little boy days, no +less friends because they were so unlike; Marty, a quiet, brooding, +knowledge-hungry youngster, and J.W. matter-of-fact, taking things as +they came and asking few questions, but always the leader in games and +mischief; each the other's champion against all comers. + +Marty's father, tenant-farmer on the Farwell farm, was steady enough and +dependable, but never one to get ahead much. Before the Farwells moved +to town he had rarely stayed on the same farm more than a year or two, +but, as he said, "J.W. Farwell was different, and anybody who wanted to +be decent could get along with him." So, for many Saturdays and +vacations of boyhood years J.W. and Marty had roamed the countryside, +and were letter-perfect in their boy-knowledge of the old farm. + +Marty came in to high school from the farm, and often he stayed with +J.W. over the weekend. His school work was uneven--ahead in mathematics, +and the sciences, and something below the average in other studies. +That, however, has no place in this story. + +Of course he and J.W. were thick as thieves. Except when class work made +temporary separations necessary, they lived the high-school life +together. That meant also, for these two, the social life of the church, +which occasionally paid special attention to the students. + +So you might find them at Epworth League socials, Sunday school class +doings, in the Sunday school orchestra--violin and b-flat cornet +respectively--and, most significant of all in its effect on all the +later years, they went through Win-My-Chum week together. The hand of +the pastor was in that, too. + +Marty was not a Christian. J.W. had been a church member for years, and +early in his course he had faced and accepted all that being a Christian +seemed to mean to a high-school boy. + +There had been hard places to get over; some of the boys and girls were +merciless in their unconscious tests of his religion. Some were openly +scornful, and others sought by indirect and furtive means to break his +influence in the school. For he had no small gift of leadership, and he +cared a good deal that it should count for the decencies of high-school +life. By senior year the sort of trouble that a Christian boy encounters +in school was almost all ended, but it had been more through his dogged +resistance to opposition than because of any special zest in Christian +service. + +And then came the announcement of Win-My-Chum week, with J.W. +confronted by two stubborn facts. He had only one real chum, and that +chum was not a Christian. Pastor Drury had let fall a remark, a month +before the Week, to the effect that any Christian who had a chum could +dodge Win-My-Chum week, but he couldn't dodge his chum. When the week +was past, the chum would still be on hand. + +Think as he would, there was no honest way of escape from whatever those +facts might require of him, so J.W., long accustomed to go ahead and +take what came, had known himself bound by the obligations of this +matter also, days and days before the activities of Win-My-Chum week +began. + +The two were out one Saturday on the north road. They had been up to the +woods on Barker's Hill for nuts, and with good success. The day was +warm, the way was long, and there was no hurry. When they came to the +roadside at the wood's edge they sat on a fallen tree and talked. At +least Marty did. For J.W. was not himself. + +It was his chance, and he knew it. But a thousand impulses leaped to +life within him to make him put off what he knew he ought to say. The +fear of being misunderstood--even by Marty--the knowledge that Marty, in +the qualities by which boys judge and are judged, was quite as "good" as +himself; and, above all, his sense of total unfitness to be a pattern of +the Christian life to anybody, filled him with an uneasiness that +actually hurt. + +And Marty soon discovered that something was amiss. Willing as he was to +do his full share of the talking, he became aware that except for +inarticulate commonplaces he was having to do it all. + +"What's the matter with you all at once, J.W.?" he asked. "You're not +taken suddenly sick, are you? You were all right when we were among the +trees. _Are_ you sick?" + +J.W. laughed shortly. "No, old man, I'm not sick. But I'm up against a +new game, for me, and I'm not in training." + +"Sounds interesting," said Marty, "but sort of mysterious. Is it +anything I can do team-work on?" + +"It surely is, but first I've got to say something, and I want you to +promise that you won't think I'm putting on, or butting in, because I'm +not; nothing like it. Will you?" + +"Will I promise?" said Marty, much bewildered. "Course I'll promise not +to think anything about you that you don't want me to think, but I must +say I don't know within a thousand miles what you're driving at. Out +with it, and even if you're the train bandit who held up the Cannonball +or if you've plotted to kidnap the Board of Education, I'll never tell." + +Marty's quizzical humor was not making J.W.'s enterprise any easier. He +had always supposed that what the leaflets called "personal evangelism" +had to be done in a spirit of solemnity. But how was he to acquire the +proper frame of mind? And certainly there was nothing solemn about Marty +just now. Yet the thing had gone too far; it was too late to retreat. He +tried to think how Mr. Drury would do it, but saw only that if it was +Mr. Dairy's business he would go straight to the center of it. +Desperately, therefore, he plunged in. + +"Well, Marty," he said, speaking now with nervous haste, "what I'm up +against is this. What's the matter with your being a Christian?" + +He will never forget the swift look of blank amazement that Marty turned +on him, nor the slow-mounting flush that followed the first astonished +start. For Marty did not answer, and turned his face away. J.W. was sure +that in his blundering bluntness he had offended and probably angered +his closest friend. The distress of that thought served at least to +drive away all the self-consciousness which thus far had plagued him. + +"Say, Marty," he pleaded, putting his hand on the other's arm, "forget +it, if I've hurt your feelings. I know as well as you do that I'm not +fit to talk about such things to anybody, and, honest, I meant nothing +but to say what I knew I'd got to say." + +Then Marty turned himself back slowly, and J.W. saw the troubled look +in his eyes. In a voice that trembled despite his proud effort at +control, he said, "Old man, you needn't apologize. You did surprise me, +I'll admit; I wasn't looking for anything like this. It's all right, +though, and I'm certainly not mad about it. But, say, J.W., let me put +something up to you. Why did you never think to ask me that question +before?" + +"Why, it was this way," J.W. began, somewhat puzzled at the form of the +question, and still thinking he must set himself right with Marty. "You +know the Epworth League is planning for those special meetings +soon--'Win-My-Chum Week'--and I've been asked to lead one of the +meetings. But you can see that I wouldn't be ready to lead a meeting +like that unless I had put this thing of being a Christian up to you, +anyway. You're the only real chum I've got. Mr. Drury said something a +little while ago that made it mighty plain." + +"Yes," said Marty, "I can see that. But why did you never say anything +to me about it when there wasn't any meeting coming? Haven't we always +shared everything else, since away back? This is the one subject that +you and I have kept away from in our talk of all we've ever thought +about, and I was wondering why." + +"Well, I don't exactly know," J.W. replied. "It may have been that it +never seemed to be any of my business; that it was the preacher's +business, or the Sunday school teacher's, or somebody's. And you know +I've always been surer of what you really are than I have of myself. I +think I was always afraid you would either make fun of me or believe I +was letting on to be better than you were. But when the League got into +this Win-My-Chum plan, why, the name itself was an eye-opener. And I've +seen lately that a fellow's got to be a Christian, out and out, or his +religion is no good. And when I heard the preacher say, not long ago, +that a fellow might dodge Win-My-Chum week, but he couldn't forever +dodge his chum, I knew I had to speak to you. But you're sure you're not +offended?" + +"Let me admit a thing to you, J.W. I've never said so before, but I've +been wanting somebody to ask me to be a Christian for a long time. I was +a coward about it, and wouldn't let on. I've been wanting to find out +what I've got to do, but I wouldn't ask. Do you think I _could_ be a +Christian?" + +"I know you could be a long way better Christian than I am," J.W. +answered with unwonted feeling. "And if you did take Jesus Christ to be +your Master, it would be more than just your getting religion. You would +be the biggest kind of stand-by for me and for other people I know of. +It's the one thing you need to be a hundred per cent right. I'm a pretty +poor Christian, myself, Marty, partly because I don't know how to think +much about it, but you'd be dead in earnest to get all that there is in +the Christian life, and maybe I could follow along behind. You've always +helped every other way, and I've always wanted you to help me be a +genuine Christian." + +Marty put his hand on J.W.'s shoulder and looked him straight in the +eye: "You've got me rated a lot too high," he said. "How can I help you? +But we two have been pretty good chums so far, haven't we? Well, there's +a lot to settle before I can be sure I'm a Christian, but it means +everything for you to think I can be of some use. And I promise you +this, J.W., I'll not let up until I am a Christian, and we'll stick +together all the more, when I am, us two. Is that ago?" + +It was a go. J.W. was ready and far more than ready to call it a go. It +had been easier than he had expected, but then it had all been so +different from the vague and formal thing he had been afraid of. He +could hardly believe, but he had one request to make. "I know you'll +settle whatever has to be settled," he said, a bit unsteadily, "but when +it's all done, and you tell people about it, as I know you will, please, +Marty, don't bring me into it. Publicly, I mean. Let's just have this +understanding between ourselves. I can lead my meeting now, but there's +no need to say anything about me. Besides, I made a mess of it." + +"It may be the best mess anybody ever stirred up for me, J.W., but I +won't say anything to worry you, if the time comes for me to say +anything at all. And I believe it will." + +It did. Marty and the pastor had two or three long interviews. From the +last of them the boy came away with a new light on his face and a new +spring in his step. Evidently whatever needed to be settled, had been +settled. + +He kept his promise to his chum, but that did not prevent him from +choosing the night when J.W. led the meeting to stand up at the first +opportunity and make his straightforward confession of love and loyalty, +since God had made him a sharer in the life that is in Christ. Then for +a moment J.W. feared Marty might forget their agreement, but Marty said +simply, "And part of the joy that is in my heart to-night is because +there is a new tie, the only other one we needed, between myself and my +old-time chum, the leader of this meeting." + +In the back of the room Walter Drury, quietly looking on, sent up a +silent thanksgiving. The great Experiment was going well. + + + +CHAPTER III + + +CAMPUS DAYS + +So it was that J.W. and Marty had come into the inner places of each +other's lives. Of all the developments of Institute week, naturally the +one which filled J.W.'s thoughts with a sort of awed gladness was +Marty's decision to offer himself for the ministry. Joe Carbrook's +right-about-face was much more dramatic, for J.W. saw, when the decision +was made, that Marty could not have been meant for anything but a +preacher. It was as fit as you please. As to Joe, previous opinion had +been pretty equally divided; one side leaning to the idea that he might +make a lawyer, and the other predicting that he was more likely to be a +perpetual and profitable client for some other lawyer. + +In the light of the Institute happenings, it was to be expected that the +question of college would promptly become a practical matter to four +Delafield people. Marty was greatly troubled, for he knew if he was to +be a preacher, he must go to college, and he couldn't see how. J.W. felt +no great urge, though it had always been understood that he would go. +Marcia Dayne had one year of normal school to her credit, and would take +another next year, perhaps; but this year she must teach. + +Joe Carbrook spent little time in debate with himself; he let everybody +know that he was going to be a missionary doctor, and that he would go +to the State University for the rest of his college course. + +"But what about the religious influence of the University?" Marcia Dayne +had ventured to ask him one evening as they walked slowly under the elms +of Monroe Avenue. + +"I don't know about that," Joe answered, "and maybe I'm making a +mistake. But I don't think so. To begin with, there isn't any question +about equipment at the State University. They have everything any church +school has, and probably more than most church schools, for what I want. +And they work in close relationship to the medical school. That's one +thing. The big reason, though--I wonder if you'll understand it?" + +"I believe I could understand anything you might be thinking about--now, +Joe." And Marcia's voice had in it a note which stirred that usually +self-possessed young man out of all his easy composure. + +"I'll remember that, Marcia," he said in the thrill of a swift elation. +"I'll remember that, because I think you do--understand, and some day +I--but I've got at least five years of plugging ahead of me, and----" + +"You were going to tell me about your big reason for going to the State +University," Marcia broke in, though she wondered afterward if her +instinct had not played her false. + +"Yes," Joe said, with a little effort. "Well, this is it. You know I +didn't make much of a hit at college; I pulled through sophomore year, +but that's about all, and I doubt if the faculty will pass resolutions +of regret when I don't show up there in the fall. The religious +influences of a church school didn't prevent me from being a good deal +of a heathen, though I will say that was no fault of the school. Maybe I +ought to go back and face the music. It wouldn't be so bad, I guess. But +I feel more like making a clean, new start, in a new place. The State +University wouldn't be any worse for me than I should be for it, if +nothing had happened to change my point of view. So, that isn't the +issue. But if the State University life is able to beat me before I get +to sawing bones at all, I'd make a pretty missionary doctor if I ever +landed in foreign parts, wouldn't I?" + +Marcia could find nothing to say; perhaps because her thoughts were busy +with other and more personal aspects of Joe's plans for the future. + +And as Joe's people were completely oblivious to everything except the +startling change that had come over him, and were abundantly able to +send him to three universities at once if necessary, Joe Carbrook was as +good as enrolled. + +Marty and J.W. did not find the future opening up before them so easily. +Marty, for all he could not imagine the way opening before such as +himself, was all eagerness about the nearest Methodist school, which +happened to be the one where the Institute had been held, Cartwright +College. It was named, as may be supposed, in honor of Peter Cartwright, +that pioneer Methodist preacher who became famous on the same sort of +schooling which sufficed for Abraham Lincoln, and once ran against +Lincoln himself for Congress. J.W. was not specially eager to look for a +college education anywhere. Why should he be, since he was expecting to +go into business? + +The two had many a discussion, Marty arguing in favor of college for +everybody, and J.W. admitting that for preachers and teachers and +lawyers and doctors it was necessary, but what use could it be in +business? + +"But say, J.W., you're not going to be one of these 'born a man, died a +grocer' sort of business men," urged Marty. "Broad-minded--that's your +future, with a knowledge of more than markets. And look at the personal +side of college life. Haven't you heard Mr. Drury say that if he hadn't +anything else to show for his four years at college than the lifelong +friendships he made there it would have been worth all it cost? And you +have reason to know he doesn't forget the studies." + +"That's all right, Marty," J.W. rejoined. "I don't need much convincing +on that score. I can see the good times too; you know I'd try for all +the athletics I could get into, and I guess I could keep my end up +socially. But is all that worth my time for the next four years, +studying subjects that would be no earthly good to me in business, in +making a living, I mean? The other boys in hardware stores would have +four years the start of me." + +"But don't you remember, J.W., what our commencement speaker said on +that very point? He told us we had to be men and women first, no matter +what occupations we got into. And he bore down hard on how it was a good +deal bigger business to make a life than to make a living. In these days +the most dangerous people, to themselves and to all of us, are the +uneducated people." + +"Yes, I remember," J.W. admitted. "'Cultural and social values of +education,' he called that, didn't he? And that's what I'm not sure of. +It seems pretty foggy to me. But, old man, you're going, that's settled, +and maybe I'll just let dad send me to keep you company, if I can't find +any better reason." + +"That's all very well for you to say, J.W.," Marty retorted, with the +least little touch of resentment in his tone. "You'll _let_ your dad +send you. My dad can't send me, though he'll do all he's able to do, and +how I can earn enough, to get through is more than I can see from here." + +But J.W. asserted, confidently: "There's a way, just the same, and I +think I know how to find out about it. I haven't been a second assistant +deputy secretary in the Sunday school for nothing. You reminded me of +the commencement address; I'll ask you if you remember Children's Day? +It came the very next Sunday." + +"Yes, I remember it; but what of it?" + +"Well, my boy, we took up a collection for you!" + +"We did? Not much we did, and anyway, do you think I'd accept that sort +of help? I'm not looking for charity, yet," and Marty showed the hurt he +felt. + +"Steady, Martin Luther! I wouldn't want you to get that collection +anyway; it wasn't near big enough. But don't you know that every +Children's Day collection in the whole church goes to the Board of +Education, and that it has become a big fund, never to be given away but +always to be loaned to students getting ready to be preachers and such? +It's no charity; it's the same broad-minded business you want me to go +to college for. I can see that much without getting any nearer to +college than the Delafield First Church Sunday School. You borrow the +money, just as if you stepped up to a bank window, and you agree to pay +it back as soon as you can after you graduate. Then it goes into the +Fund again, and some other boy or girl borrows it, and so on. More than +twenty-five thousand students have borrowed from this fund. About +fifteen hundred of 'em got loans last year. Ask the preacher if I'm not +giving you this straight." + +Marty had no immediate way of testing this unusual wealth of +information, so he said, "Well, maybe there's something in it. I'll talk +to Brother Drury about it, anyway." + +That observing man was quite willing to be talked to. When Marty +presented himself at the study a few days later he found the pastor as +well prepared as if he had been expecting some such interview, as, +indeed, he had. + +He told Marty the story of the Student Loan Fund--how it originated in +the celebration of the Centenary of American Methodism, in 1866, and how +it had been growing all through the years, both by the annual Children's +Day offering and by the increasing return of loans from former students. + +Then he explained that this Fund, and many other educational affairs, +were in the hands of the Church's Board of Education. This Board, Marty +heard, is a sort of educational clearing house for the whole church, and +especially for Methodist schools of higher learning. It helps young +people to go to college, and it helps the colleges to take care of the +young people when they go, of course always using money which has come +from the churches. It has charge of a group of special schools in the +South, and it sets the scholastic standards to which all the church's +schools and colleges must conform. Besides looking out for these +interests it helps the school to provide courses in the Bible and +Christian principles, and it furnishes workers to serve the colleges in +caring for the religious life of the students. + +Marty listened carefully, and with no lack of interest, but when the +minister paused the boy's mind sprang back to his own particular +concern. + +"But, Mr. Drury, can any student borrow money from that fund?" + +"Well, no," said the preacher, "not every student. Only those who are +preparing for the ministry or for other careers of special service. They +have to show that the loan will help them in preparing to be of some +definite Christian value when they graduate. That won't affect you; you +can borrow, not all you could use, perhaps, but enough to be a big help. +How much do you expect to need?" + +"Why," answered Marty, "I hardly know. I hadn't really thought it +possible I could go. But dad says he'll let me have all he can, and they +tell me a fellow can get work to do if he's not particular about easy +jobs. I'm pretty sure I could manage, except for tuition and books, +but----" + +"Then you may as well consider it settled," said the pastor, "Cartwright +College will welcome you on those terms, or I'll know the reason why. +And I think you can count on J.W. going with you." + +J.W. was not hard to convince. His parents were all for it. The pastor +had no intention of overdoing his own part in the affair, and contented +himself with a suggestion that disposed of J.W.'s main objection. + +J.W. had been saying to him one day, "I know I should have a good time +at college, but I should be four years later getting into business than +the other boys." + +"That depends on what 'later' means," replied Mr. Drury. "You would not +need four years to catch up, if college does for you what I think it +will. Besides, you're intending to be a Christian citizen, I take it, +and that will be even more of a job than to be a successful hardware +man. Colleges have been operating these many years, to give young people +the best possible preparations for a whole life. Remember what John +Milton said: I care not how late I come, so I come fit.' You want to +come to your work as fit as they make 'em, don't you?" + +And J.W. owned up that he did. "I don't mean to be a dub in business, +and I've no right to be a dub anywhere. Me for Cartwright, Brother +Drury!" + +Another day's work in the laboratory. Walter Drury knew how to be +patient, yet every experience like this was a tonic to his soul. And now +he must be content for a time to let others carry the work through its +next stages, though he would hold himself ready for any unexpected +development that might arise. + +So it befell that J.W. and Marty started to Cartwright, and a week later +Joe Carbrook went off to the State University. + +The day after they had matriculated, J.W. and Marty were putting their +room to rights--oh, yes, they thought it would be well to share the same +room--and as they puttered about they reviewed the happenings of the +first day. They had made a preliminary exploration of the grounds and +buildings, revisiting the places which had become familiar during +Institute week, and living over that crowded and epochal time. + +Marty, scouting around for something to do, had discovered that he could +get work, such as it was, for ten hours a week, anyway, and maybe more, +at thirty to fifty cents an hour. He had a little money left after +paying his tuition, and the college registrar assured him that the loan +from the Board of Education would be forthcoming. Therefore the talk +turned on money. + +"That tuition bill sure reduced the swelling in my pocketbook, Marty," +remarked J.W., as he examined his visible resources. + +"What do you think it did to mine?" Marty observed quietly. "I'm still +giddy from being relieved of so much money in one operation. And yet I +can't see how they get along. Look at the big faculty they have, and all +these buildings to keep up and keep going. When I think of how big a +dollar seems to me, the tuition looks like the national debt of Mexico; +but when I try to figure out how much it costs the college per student, +I feel as though I were paying lunch-counter prices for a dining-car +dinner. How _do_ they do it, J.W.?" + +"Who told you I was to be looked on in the light of a World Almanac, my +son? I could give you the answer to that question without getting out of +my chair, but for one small difficulty--I just don't know. Tell you +what--it's a good question--let's look in the catalogue. I'd like to +find information in that volume about something besides the four +centuries of study that loom before my freshman eyes." + +So they looked in the catalogue and discovered that Cartwright College +had an endowment of $1,750,000, producing an income of about $80,000 a +year, and that the churches of its territory gave about $25,000 more. +They learned also that most of the buildings had been provided by +friends of the college, with the Carnegie Library mainly the gift of the +millionaire ironmaster. They learned also that about $500,000 of the +endowment had been raised in the last two years, under the promise of +the General Education Board, which is a Rockefeller creation, to provide +the last $125,000. The college property was valued at about half a +million dollars. + +"And there you are, Martin Luther, my bold reformer," said J.W., +cheerfully. "The people who put up the money have invested about two and +a half millions on you and me, and the other five hundred students, say +about $250 a year per student. And we pay the rest of what it costs to +give us a college career, $125 to $175 a year, depending on our taste in +courses. I remember I felt as if the John Wesley Farwell family had +almost gone broke when dad signed up for $1,000 on that last endowment +campaign. I thought the money gone forever, but I see now he merely +invested it. I've come to Cartwright to spend the income of it, and a +little more. Five or six people have given a thousand dollars apiece to +make a college course possible for each of us. There's some reason in +college endowments, after all." + +And Marty said, "One good I can see in this particular endowment is that +anybody but a selfish idiot would be glad to match four years of his +life against all the money and work that Christian people have put into +Cartwright College." + +"I hope you don't mean anything personal by that remark," J.W. said, +with mock solemnity, "because I'm inclined to believe you're more than +half right. It reminds me again of what Phil Khamis said. I'm beginning +to think I'll never have a chance to forget that Greek's Christian +remark about Christians." + +By being off at school together J.W. and Marty gave each other +unconfessed but very real moral support in those first days when a lone +freshman would have known he was homesick. + +But another antidote, both pleasant and potent, was supplied by the +Epworth League of First Church. It had allied itself with the college +Y.M.C.A.--and for the women students, with the Y.W.C.A.--in various +ways, but particularly it purposed to see that the first few Sundays +were safely tided over. + +So the two chums found themselves in one of the two highly attractive +study courses which had been put on in partnership with the Sunday +school. It was in the early afternoon of one of the early Sundays that +J.W. called Marty's attention to a still more alluring opportunity. + +"Looky here, Marty, it's raining, I know, but I've a feeling that you'd +better not write that letter home until a little further on in the day. +What's to stop us from taking a look at this League fellowship hour +we're invited to, and getting a light lunch? We don't need to stay to +the League meeting unless we choose, though we're members, you know." + +Marty picked up the card of invitation which J.W. had flipped across the +table to him, and read it. + +"Well," he commented, "it reads all right. Let's try it." + +Out into the rain they went and put in two highly cheerful hours, +including one in the devotional meeting, so that when Marty at last sat +down to write home, he produced, without quite knowing how, a letter +that was vastly more heartening when it reached the farm than it would +have been if he had written it before dark. + +Joe Carbrook set out for the State University in what was for him a +fashion quite subdued. Before his experience at the Institute he would +have gone, if at all, in his own car, and his arrival would have been +notice to "the sporty crowd" that another candidate for initiation into +that select circle had arrived. + +But Joe was enjoying the novelty of thinking a little before he acted. +Though he would always be of the irrepressible sort, he was not the same +Joe. He had laid out a program which surprised himself somewhat, and +astonished most of the people who knew him. + +He knew now that he would become, if he could, a doctor; a missionary +doctor. No other career entered his mind. He would finish his college +work at the State University, and then go to medical school. He would +devote himself without ceasing to all the studies he would need. Not for +him any social life, any relaxation of purpose. Grimly he told himself +that his play days were over. They had been lively while they lasted; +but they were done. + +Of course that was foolish. If he had persisted in any such scholastic +regimen, the effort would have lasted a few days, or possibly weeks; and +then in a reaction of disgust he might easily have come to despair of +the whole project. + +Fortunately for Joe and for a good many other people, his purpose of +digging into his books and laboratory work and doggedly avoiding any +other interest was tempered by the happenings of the first week. +Doubtless he would have made a desperate struggle, but it would have +been useless. Not even conversion can make new habits overnight, and in +his first two years at college Joe had been known to teachers and +students alike as distinctly a sketchy student, wholly inexpert at +concentrated effort. + +And so, instead of becoming first a grind and then a discouraged rebel +against it all, he had the immense good fortune to be captured by an +observant Junior whom he had met while they were both registering for +Chemistry III. + +"You're new here," said the Junior, Heatherby by name, "and I've had two +years of it. Maybe you'll let me show you the place. I'm the proud +half-owner of a decidedly second-hand 'Hooting Nanny,' you know, and I +rather like bumping people around town in it." + +That was the beginning of many things. Joe liked it that Heatherby made +no apologies for his car, and before long he discovered that the other +half-owner, Barnard, was equally unaffected and friendly. It was +something of a surprise, though, to learn that Barnard was not a +student, but the youthful-looking pastor of the University Methodist +Church, of late known as the Wesley Foundation. + +"I'm not up on Methodism as I should be," said Joe to Barnard, a day or +two later, "and I may as well admit that I never heard before of this +Wesley Foundation of yours. Is it a church affair?" + +"Well, rather," Barnard answered. "It is just exactly that. You know, or +could have guessed, that a good many of the students here are from +Methodist homes--about a fourth of the whole student body, as it +happens. And our church has been coming to see, perhaps a bit slowly, +that although the State could not provide any religious influences, and +could certainly do nothing for denominational interests, there was all +the more reason for the church to do it. That's the idea under the +Foundation, so to speak, and the work is now established in nine of the +great State Universities." + +"Yes, I see," Joe mused, "but just what is the Foundation's duty, and +how do you do it?" + +Barnard laughed as he said, "We do pretty near everything, in this +University. We have a regular Methodist church, with a membership made +up almost entirely of faculty and students. The town people have their +own First Church, over on the West Side. Our church has its Sunday +school, its Epworth League Chapter, and other activities. We try to come +out strong on the social side, and in a little while, when our Social +Center building is up--we're after the money for it now--we can do a +good deal more. There is plenty of demand for it." + +"That's all church work, of course. I suppose you have no relation to +the University, though," Joe asked, "studies and all that?" + +"Yes, indeed, and we're coming to more of it, but gradually. We are +already offering courses in religious subjects, with teachers recognized +by the University, and credit given. It's all very new yet, you know, +but we're hoping and going ahead." + +"I should think so," said Joe with emphasis. "But where does the money +come from for all this? It must be Methodist money, of course; who puts +it up?" + +"Oh, the usual people," said Barnard. "A few well-to-do Methodists have +provided some of it, but the really big money has to come from the +churches--collections and subscriptions and all that. This sort of work +is being done in forty-odd other schools, where the Wesley Foundation is +not organized. The money comes officially through two of the benevolent +boards." + +"Yes?" queried Joe. "I've often heard of 'the benevolences,' but I never +thought of them as meaning anything to me. How do they hook up to a +proposition like that?" + +"Well," said Barnard, "the Board of Education, naturally, is interested +because of the Methodist students who are here. And the Board of Home +Missions and Church Extension is interested because at bottom this is +the realest sort of home mission and church extension work." + +"Do these boards supply all the money you need?" was Joe's next +question. + +"No, not all at once, anyway," Barnard answered. "We're needing a good +deal more before this thing really gets on its feet; and when our people +know what work can be done in State schools, and what a glorious chance +we have, I think they'll see that the money is provided. The students +are there, half a hundred thousand of them, and the church must be there +too." + +"Well," Joe said, "I admire the faith of you. And I want to join. You +know, although I'm a mighty green hand at religious work, I've got to go +at it hard. There's a reason. So please count me in on everything where +I'm likely to fit at all. I didn't tell you, did I, that I'm headed for +medicine?--going to be a missionary doctor, if they'll take me when I'm +ready. Maybe your Foundation can do something with me." + +Barnard thought it could, and the next two years justified his +confidence. Joe Carbrook, as downright in his new purpose as he had been +in his old scornful refusal to look at life seriously, quickly found a +place for himself in the church and the other activities of the +Foundation. It saved him from his first heedless resolution to study an +impossible number of hours a day, and from the certain crash which would +have followed. It gave him not a few friends, and he was soon deep in +the affairs of the League and the church. Besides, it made possible some +special friendships among the faculty, which were to be of immense value +in later days. + +While Joe Carbrook was fitting himself into the life of the University +and the Wesley Foundation, the chums at Cartwright were quite as busy +making themselves a part of their new world. As always, they made a +good team, so much so that people began to think of them not as +individuals, but as necessarily related, like a pair of shoes, or collar +and tie, or pork and beans. And, though the old differences of +temperament and interest had not lessened, the two had reached a fine +contentment over each other's purposes. J.W. was happy in Marty's +preacher-plans, and Marty believed implicitly in the wisdom of J.W.'s +understood purpose to be a forthright Christian layman. + +But it was not all plain sailing for J.W. Nobody bothered Marty; he was +going into the ministry, and that settled that. Among the students who +went in for religious work were several who could not quite share +Marty's complacence over J.W.'s program. They thought it strange that so +active a Christian, with the right stuff in him, as everybody +recognized, should not declare himself for some religious vocation. + +And from time to time men came to college--bishops, secretaries, +specialists--to talk to the students about this very thing. There was a +student volunteer band, in which were enrolled all the students looking +to foreign mission work. The prospective preachers had a club of their +own, and there was even a little organized group of boys and girls who +thought seriously of social service in some form or another as a career. + +Now, J.W., before the end of sophomore year, had come to know all, or +nearly all, of these young enthusiasts. Some of them developed into +staunch and satisfying friends. If he had run with the sport crowd, +which was always looking for recruits, or if he had been merely a hard +student, working for Phi Beta Kappa, he might have been let alone. But, +without being able to wear an identifying label, he yet belonged with +those who had come to college with a definite life purpose. + +Just because nobody seemed to realize that being a Christian in business +could be as distinct a vocation as any, J.W. was at times vaguely +troubled, in spite of his confident stand at the Institute. He wondered +a little at what he had almost come to feel was his callousness. Not +that he was uninterested; for Marty he had vast unspoken ambitions which +would have stunned that unsuspecting youth if they had ever become +vocal; and he never tired of the prospects which opened up before his +other friends. He kept up an intermittent correspondence with Joe +Carbrook, and found himself thinking much about the strange chain of +circumstances which promised to make a medical missionary out of Joe. He +more than suspected that Joe and Marcia Dayne were vastly interested in +each other's future, and he got a lot of satisfaction out of that. They +would have a great missionary career. + +No; he was not unfeeling about all these high purposes of the boys and +girls he knew; and if he could just get a final answer to the one +question that was bothering him, his college life would need nothing to +make it wholly satisfying. He had early forgotten all his old reluctance +to put college before business. + +Marty knew something of what was passing in J.W.'s mind, and it +troubled him a little. He thought of tackling J.W. himself, and by this +time there was nothing under the sun they could not discuss with each +other freely. But he did not quite trust himself. + +At last he made up his mind to write to their pastor at home. He knew +that for some reason Mr. Drury had a peculiar interest in J.W. and was +sure he could count on it now. + +"I know J.W.'s bothered," he wrote, "but he doesn't talk about it. I +think he has been disturbed by hearing so much about special calls to +special work. We've had several lifework meetings lately, and the needs +of the world have been pretty strongly stated. But the stand he took at +the Institute is just as right for him as mine is for me. Can't you +write to him, or something?" + +Walter Drury could do better than write. He turned up at Cartwright that +same week. + +It happened that three or four prospective preachers and Christian +workers had been in their room that afternoon, and J.W. was trying to +think the thing through once more. He recalled what his pastor had said +at the camp fire, and his own testimony on Institute Sunday in the +life-service meeting, after Marcia Dayne had put it up to him. But he +was making heavy weather of it. And just then came the pastor's knock at +the door. + +There was a boisterous welcome from them both, with something like +relief in J.W.'s heart, that he would not, could not speak. But he could +get help now. For the sake of saying something he asked the usual +question. "What in the world brings you to Cartwright?" + +"Oh," said Pastor Drury, "I like to come to Cartwright. Your President's +an old friend. Besides, why shouldn't I come to see you two, if I wish? +You are still part of my flock, you know." + +So they talked of anything and everything. By and by Marty said he must +go over to the library, and pretty soon J.W. was telling his friend the +pastor all that had been disturbing him. + +"It all began in the summer before I came to college, at the Institute +here, you know, when you spoke at the camp fire on Saturday night." + +"I remember," the pastor replied. "You hadn't taken much interest in +your future work before that?" + +"No real interest, I guess," J.W. admitted. "I'd always taken things as +they came, and didn't go looking for what I couldn't see. I was enjoying +every day's living, and didn't care deeply about anything else. Why, +though I've been a Methodist all my life, you remember how I knew +nothing at all about the Methodist Church outside of Delafield, except +what little I picked up about its Sunday schools by serving as an +assistant to our Sunday school secretary. And when I began to hear, at +the Institute, about home missions and foreign missions, about Negro +education and other business that the church was doing, I saw right off +that it was up to us young people to supply the new workers that were +always needed. But, even so, only those who had a real fitness for it +ought to offer themselves, and I thought too that something else would +be needed. I wasn't any duller than lots of other church members--even +the older ones didn't seem to know much more about the church outside +than I did. You would take up collections for the benevolences, but if +you told us what they meant, we didn't pay enough attention to get the +idea clearly, so as to have any real understanding. I suppose the +women's societies had more. I know my mother talks about Industrial +Homes in the South, and schools in India--she's in both the societies, +you know--but that is about all." + +"And it seemed when I began to find out about things, Mr. Drury, that if +our whole church needed workers for all these places, it needed just as +much to have in the local churches men and women who would know about +the work in a big way, and who would care in a big way, to back up the +whole work as it should be backed up. So, when you spoke at the camp +fire it was just what I wanted to hear, and when I was called on, I made +that sort of a declaration the next day at the life decision services." + +"Yes I remember that too," said Mr. Drury, "and I remember telling Joe +Carbrook that you had undertaken as big a career as any of them." + +"That's what I kind of thought too," said J.W., simply, "but rooming +with Marty Shenk--he's going to make a great preacher too--keeps me +thinking, and I know about all the students who are getting ready for +special work, and lately I've been wondering----" + +"About some special sort of work you'd like to do?" Mr. Drury prompted. + +"No; not that at all. I'm just as sure as ever I'm not that sort. If +only I can make good in business, there's where I belong. But can a +fellow make good just as a Christian in the same way I expect Marty +Shenk to make good as a Christian preacher?" + +The pastor stood up and came over to J.W.'s chair. "My boy, I know just +what you are facing. It is a pretty old struggle, and there's only one +way out of it. God hasn't any first place and second place for the +people that let him guide them. A man may refuse his call, either to go +or to stay, and then no matter what he does it will be a second best. +But you--wait for your call. For my part, I think probably you've got +it, and it's to a very real life. If you and those like you should fail, +we should soon have no more missionaries. And if the missionaries should +fail, we should soon have no more church. God has little patience with a +church that always stays at home, and I doubt if he has more for a +church that doesn't stand by the men and women it has sent to the +outposts. It is all one job." + +There was much more of the same sort, and when J.W. walked with his +pastor to the train the next morning, the only doubt that had ever +really disturbed him in college was quieted for good. + +Walter Drury went back to Delafield and his work, surer now than ever +that the Experiment was going forward. He knew, certainly, that all this +was only the getting ready; that the real tests would come later But he +was well content. + + * * * * * + +It was early football season of the junior year. The State University +took on Cartwright College for the first Saturday's game, everybody well +knowing that it was only a practice romp for the University. Always a +big time for Cartwright, this year it was a day for remembering. Joe +Carbrook, who had been graduated from the University in June, and was +now a medical student in the city, drove down to see the game. For +loyalty's sake he joined the little bunch of University rooters on the +east stand. Otherwise it was Cartwright's crowd, as well as Cartwright's +day. + +To the surprise of everybody, neither side scored until the last +quarter, and then both sides made a touchdown, Cartwright first! A high +tricky wind spoiled both attempts to kick goal, and time was called with +a score at 6-6. Cartwright had held State to a tie, for the first time +in history! + +Joe came from the game with the chums and took supper with them. The +whole town was ablaze with excitement over its team's great showing +against the State, and the talk at table was all of the way Cartwright's +eleven could now go romping down the schedule and take every other +college into camp, including, of course, Barton Poly, their dearest foe. + +The boys were happy to have Joe with them, he looked so big and fine, +and had the same easy, breezy bearing as of old. Nor had he lost any of +that frank attitude toward his own career which never failed to +interest everybody he met. After supper they had an hour together in the +room. + +"Those boys in the medical school surely do amuse me," he laughed. "When +I tell 'em I'm to be a missionary doctor, which I do first thing to give +'em sort of a shock they don't often get, they stand off and say, 'What, +you!' as if I had told 'em I was to be a traffic cop, or a trapeze +artist in the circus. Some of 'em seem to think I'm queer in the head, +but, boys, they are the ones with rooms to let. When the others talk +about hanging out a shingle in Chicago or Saint Louis or Cleveland or +some other over-doctored place, I tell 'em to watch me, when I'm the +only doctor between Siam and sunrise! Won't I be somebody? With my own +hospital--made out o' mud, I know--and a dispensary and a few native +helpers who don't know what I'm going to do next, and all the sick +people coming from ten days' journey away to the foreign doctor!" And +then his mood changed. "That's what'll get me, though; all those +helpless, ignorant humans who don't even know what I can do for their +bodies, let alone having any suspicion of what Somebody Else can do for +their souls! But it will be wonderful; next thing to being with him in +Galilee!" + +There was a pause, each boy filling it with thoughts he would not speak. + +"Where do you expect to find that work, Joe?" J.W. asked him. + +The answer was quick and straight: "Wherever I'm sent, J.W., boy," he +said. "Only I've told the candidate secretary what I want. I met him +last summer in Chicago, and there's nothing like getting in your bid +early. He's agreed to recommend me, when I'm ready, for the hardest, +neediest, most neglected place that's open. If I'm going into this +missionary doctor business, I want a chance to prove Christianity where +they won't be able to say that Christianity couldn't have done it alone. +It _can_!" + +Then, with one of those quick turns which were Joe Carbrook's devices +for concealing his feelings, he said, "And how's everything going at +this Methodist college of yours? Your boys put up a beautiful game +to-day, and they ought to have won. How's the rest of the school?" + +Both the boys assured him everything was going in a properly +satisfactory fashion, but Marty had caught one word that he wanted Joe +to enlarge upon. + +"Why do you say 'Methodist college'? It is a Methodist college; but is +there anything the matter with that?" + +Joe rose to the mild challenge. "Don't think I mean to be nasty," he +said, "but I can't help comparing this place with the State University, +and I wonder if there's any big reason for such colleges as this. You +know they all have a hard time, and the State spends dollars to the +church's dimes." + +"Yes, we know that, don't we, J.W.?" and Marty appealed to his chum, +remembering the frequent and half-curious talks they had on that very +contrast. + +J.W. said "Sure," but plainly meant to leave the defense of the +Christian college to Marty, who, to tell the truth, was quite willing. + +"There's room for both, and need for both," said that earnest young man. +"Each has its work to do--the State University will probably help in +attracting most of those who want special technical equipment, and the +church colleges will keep on serving those who want an education for its +own sake, whatever special line they may take up afterward: though each +will say it welcomes both sorts of students." + +This suited Joe; he intended Marty to keep it up a while. So he said, +"But why is a church college, anyway?" And he got his answer, for Marty +too was eager for the fray. + +"The church college," he retorted with the merest hint of asperity, "is +at the bottom of all that people call higher education. The church was +founding colleges and supporting them before the State thought even of +primary schools. Look at Oxford and Cambridge--church colleges. Look at +Harvard and Yale and Princeton and the smaller New England +colleges--church colleges. Look at Syracuse and Wesleyan and +Northwestern and Chicago. Look at Vanderbilt, and most of the other +great schools of the South. They are church colleges, founded, most of +them, before the first State University, and many before there was any +public high school. The church college showed the way. If it had never +done anything else, it has some rights as the pioneer of higher +learning." + +J.W. had been getting more interested. He had never heard Marty in +quite this strain, and he was proud of him. + +"That's a pretty good answer he's given you, Joe," he said with a +chuckle. "Now, isn't it?" + +"It is," admitted Joe. "I reckon I knew most of what you say, Marty, but +I hadn't thought of it that way before. Now I want to ask another +question, only don't think I'm doing it for meanness; I've got a reason. +And my question is this: granting all that the church schools have done, +is it worth all they cost to keep them up now; in our time, I mean?" + +"I think it is," Marty answered, quieter now. "They do provide a +different sort of educational opportunity, as I said. Then, they are +producing most of the recruits that the churches need for their work. +Since the churches began to care for their members in the State +Universities, a rather larger number of candidates for Christian service +are coming out of the universities, but until the last year or two +nearly all came, and the very large majority still comes, and probably +for years will come, from the church colleges. And there's another +reason that you State advocates ought to remember. Our Methodist +colleges in this country have about fifty thousand students. If these +colleges were to be put out of business, ten of the very greatest State +Universities would have to be duplicated, dollar for dollar, at public +expense, to take care of the Methodist students alone. When you think of +all the other denominations, you would need to duplicate all the State +Universities now in existence if you purposed to do the work the church +colleges are now doing. And if you couldn't get the money, or if the +students didn't take to the change, the country would be short just that +many thousand college-trained men and women. The whole Methodist Church, +with the other churches, is doing a piece of unselfish national service +that costs up into the hundreds of millions, and where's any other big +money that's better spent?" + +When Marty stopped he looked up into Joe's good-natured face, and +blushed, with an embarrassed self-consciousness. "You think you've been +stringing me, don't you?" + +"Now, Marty," Joe spoke genially, "don't you misunderstand. I said I had +a reason. I have. My folks have some money they want to put into a safe +place. And they like Cartwright. I do too, but--you know how it is. I +want to be sure. Anyhow I'm glad I asked these questions. You've given +me some highly important information; and, honestly, I'm grateful. You +surely don't think I'm small enough to be making fun of you, or of +Cartwright. If I seemed to be, I apologize on the spot. Believe me?" and +there was no mistaking his genuine earnestness. + +"Of course I believe you, old man," Marty rejoined, just a wee bit +ashamed. "Forgive me too, but I've been reading up on that college thing +lately, and it's a little different from what most people think. So you +got me going." + +"I'm glad he did," said J.W. "It makes me prouder than ever of +Cartwright College." And, as he got up he said, as though still at the +game, "The 'locomotive' now!" and gave Cartwright's favorite yell as a +solo, while Marty and Joe grinned approval and some students passing in +the street answered it with the "skyrocket." + + * * * * * + +There is material for a book, all mixt of interest varying from very +light comedy to unplumbed gloom, in the life of two boys at college--any +two; and some day the chronicles of the Delafield Duo may be written; +but not now. + +Senior year, with its bright glory and its seriously borne +responsibilities. It found Marty a trifle less shy and reticent than +when he came to Cartwright, and J.W., Jr., a shade more studious. Marty +would miss Phi Beta Kappa, but only by the merest fraction; J.W. would +rank about number twenty-seven in a graduating class of forty-five. +Marty had successfully represented his college twice in debate, and J.W. +had played second on the nine and end in the eleven, doing each job +better than well, but rarely drawing the spotlight his way. + +Curiously enough, you had but to talk to Marty, and you would learn that +J.W., Jr., was the finest athlete and the most popular student in +school. Conversely, J.W., Jr., was prepared to set Cartwright's debating +record, as incarnated in Marty, against that of any other college in the +State. What was more, he cherished an unshakable confidence that the +"Rev. Martin Luther Shenk" would be one of the leading ministers of his +Conference within five years. + +And so they came to commencement, with the Shenk and the Farwell +families, Pastor Drury, and Marcia Dayne in the throng of visitors. Mr. +Drury rarely missed commencements at Cartwright, and naturally he could +not stay away this year. The Farwells thought Marcia might like to see +her old schoolmates graduate, and the boys had written her that they +wanted somebody they could trot around during commencement week who +might be trusted to join in the "I knew him when" chorus without being +tempted to introduce devastating reminiscences. And Marcia, being in +love with life and youth, had been delighted to accept the combined +invitation. She was not at all in love with either of the boys, nor they +with her. They thought they knew where her heart had been given, and +they counted Joe Carbrook a lucky man. + +"Tell us, Marcia," said J.W., Jr., one afternoon, as the three of them +were down by the lake, "how it happens you went to the training school +instead of the normal school last year." + +"That's just like a man," said Marcia. "Here am I, your awed and +admiring slave, brought on to adorn the crowning event of your +scholastic career, and you don't even remember that I finished the +normal school course in three years, and graduated a year ago!" + +Marty rolled over on the sand in wordless glee. + +"Aw, now, Marcia, why----" J.W., Jr., boggled, fairly caught, but soon +recovering himself. "You must have been ashamed of it, then. I do +remember something about your getting through, now you mention the fact, +but why didn't I receive an invitation? Answer me that, young lady!" + +"Oh, we educators don't think commencement amounts to so much as all +that. With us, you know, life is real, life is earnest, and so forth. +But I'll tell you the truth, J.W. I knew you couldn't come, either of +you, and I was saving up a little on commencement expenses; so I left +you--and a good many others--off the list. I needed the money, that's +the simple fact; And the reason you didn't see me at home last summer +was because I was busy spending the money I had saved on your +invitations and other expensive things." + +Marty usually waited for J.W., but the idea which now occurred to him +demanded utterance. "Say, Marcia, I think it's fine of you to be +studying dispensary work and first aid." + +"How did you know?" Marcia demanded. + +"Never mind; I saw Joe Carbrook in Chicago when we went through on our +way to the Buckland-Cartwright debate, and I guessed a good deal more +than he told me, which wasn't much." + +"Marty," said Marcia, her face aglow and her brave eyes looking into +his, "there's nothing secret about it. When Joe gets through medical +school we shall go out together to whatever field they choose for him. +The least I can do is to get ready to help." + +"Is that why you've been going to training school?" asked J.W. They had +so long been used to such complete frankness with each other that the +question was "taken as meant." + +"Yes, J.W., it is," said Marcia. "Joe has been doing perfectly splendid +work in his medical course, and they say he will probably turn out to be +a wonderful all-round doctor--everybody is surprised at his +thoroughness, except me. I know what he means by it. But, of course, he +has little time for training in other sorts of religious work, and so, +ever since last June, I've been dividing my time between a settlement +dispensary and the training school. Why shouldn't I be as keen on my +preparation as he is on his, when we're going out to the same work?" + +"You should, Marcia--you should," J.W. agreed, vigorously, "and we're +proud of you; aren't we, Marty? I remember thinking two years ago what +fine missionary pioneers you two would make. Only trouble is, we'll +never know anything about it, after we've once seen your pictures in +_The Epworth Herald_ among the recruits of the year. If you were only +going where a feller could hope to visit you once every two years or +so!" + +Marcia looked out across the lake, but she wasn't seeing the white sails +that glided along above the rippling blue of its waters. In a moment she +pulled herself together, and observed that there had been enough talk +about a mere visitor. "What of you two, now that your student +occupation's gone?" + +"Tell her about yourself, Marty," said J.W. "She knows what I'm going to +do." And for the moment it seemed to him a very drab and unromantic +prospect, in spite of his agreement with Mr. Drury that all service +ranks alike with God. + +Marty was always slow to talk of himself. "It isn't much," he said. "The +district superintendent is asking me to fill out the year on the Ellis +and Valencia Circuit--the present pastor is going to Colorado for his +health. So I'm to be the young circuit-rider," and he smiled a wry +little smile. He had no conceit of himself to make the appointment seem +poor; rather he wondered how any circuit would consent to put up with a +boy's crude preaching and awkward pastoral effort. + +But J.W., Jr., was otherwise minded. A country circuit for Marty did not +accord with his views at all. Marty was too good for a country church, +he argued, mainly from his memories of the bare little one-room +meetinghouse of his early childhood. In his periodical trips to the farm +he had seen the old church grow older and more forlorn, as one family +after another moved away, and the multiplying cars brought the town and +its allurements almost to the front gate of every farm. + +So J.W. had tried to say "No," for Marty, who would not say it for +himself. It was one of the rare times when they did not see eye to eye. +But it made no difference in their sturdy affection; nothing ever could. +And Marty would take the appointment. + +Commencement over, for the first time in many years the chums went their +separate ways, Marty to his circuit, and J.W. home to Delafield. Then +for a little while each had frequent dark-blue days, without quite +realizing what made his world so flavorless. But that passed, and the +young preacher settled down to his preaching, and the young merchant to +his merchandising; and soon all things seemed as if they had been just +so through the years. + +To J.W. came just one indication of the change that college had made. +Pastor Drury, though he found it wise to do much of his important work +in secret, thought to make use of the college-consciousness which most +towns possess in June, and which is felt especially, though not +confessed, by the college colony. The year's diplomas are still very new +in June. So a college night was announced for the social rooms, with a +college sermon to follow on the next Sunday night. The League and the +Senior Sunday School Department united to send a personal invitation to +every college graduate in town, and to every student home for the +vacation. They responded, four score of them, to the college-night call. + +As J.W. moved about and greeted people he had known for years he began +to realize that college has its own freemasonry. These other graduates +were from all sorts of schools; two had been to Harvard, and one to +Princeton; several were State University alumni. Cartwright was +represented by nine, six of them undergraduates, and the others +confessed themselves as being from Chicago, Syracuse, De Pauw, three or +four sorts of "Wesleyan," Northwestern, Knox, Wabash, Western Reserve, +and many more. + +Not even all Methodist, by any means, J.W. perceived; and yet the +fellowship among these strangers was very real. They spoke each other's +tongue; they had common interests and common experiences. He told +himself that here was a suggestion as to the new friends he might make +in Delafield, without forgetting the old ones. And the prospect of life +in Delafield began to take on new values. + +On the next Sunday night not so many college people were out to hear Mr. +Drury's straight-thinking and plain-spoken sermon on "What our town asks +of its college-trained youth"; and a few of those who came were inclined +to resent what they called a lecture on manners and duty. + +But to J.W. the sermon was precisely the challenge to service he had +been looking for. It made up for his feeling at commencement that he was +"out of it." It completed all which Mr. Drury had suggested at the +Institute camp fire four years ago, all that he himself had tried to say +at the decision service on the day after the camp fire; all that the +pastor had urged two years ago when J.W., Jr., confessed to him his new +hesitations and uneasiness. + +The pastor had not preached any great thing. He had simply told the +college folk in his audience that no matter where they had gone to +school, many people had invested much in them, and that the investment +was one which in its very nature could not be realized on by the +original investors. The only possible beneficiaries were either the +successive college generations or the communities in which they found +their place. If they chose to take as personal and unconditional all the +benefits of their education, none could forbid them that anti-social +choice; but if they accepted education as a trust, a stewardship, +something to be used for the common good, they would be worth more to +Delafield than all the new factories the Chamber of Commerce could coax +to the town. + +And to those who might be interested in this view of education, Pastor +Drury said: "Young people of the colleges, you have been trained to some +forms of laboratory work, in chemistry, in biology, in geology--yes, +even in English. I invite you to think of your own town of Delafield as +your living laboratory, in which you will be at once experimenters and +part of the experiment stuff. Look at this town with all its good and +evil, its dying powers and its new forces, its dullnesses and its +enthusiasms, its folly and wisdom, its old ways and its new people, its +wealth and want. Do you think it is already becoming a bit of the +kingdom of God? Or, if you conclude that it seems to be going in ways +that lead very far from the Kingdom, do you think it might possess any +Kingdom possibilities? If you do, no matter what your occupation in +Delafield, Delafield itself may be your true vocation, your call from +God!" + +For John Wesley Farwell, Jr., it was to become all of that. + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +EXPLORING MAIN STREET + +J.W., Jr., found small opportunity to make himself obnoxious by becoming +a civic missionary before the time. He was busy enough with his +adjustment to the business life of "Delafield and Madison county," this +being the declared commercial sphere of the John W. Farwell Hardware +Company. J.W. always had known hardware, but hitherto in a purely +amateur and detached fashion. Now he lived with it, from tacks to +tractors, ten or twelve hours a day. He found that being the son of his +father gained him no safe conduct through the shop or with the +customers. He had a lot to learn, even if he was John Wesley Farwell, +Jr. That he was the heir apparent to all this array of cast iron and +wrought and galvanized, of tin and wire and steel and aluminum and +nickel, did not save him from aching back and skinned knuckles, nor from +the various initiations staged by the three or four other employees. + +But he was getting his bearings, and not from the store and the +warehouse only. A good hardware store in a country town is a center of +democracy for town and country alike. In what other place do farmers and +artisans, country women and city women meet on so nearly equal terms? +Not in the postoffice, nor in the bank; and certainly not in the +department store. But the hardware store's customers, men and women all, +are masters of the tools they work with; and whoso loves the tools of +his craft is brother to every other craftsman. + +It was in the store, therefore, that J.W. began to absorb some of the +knowledge and acquire some of the experiences that were to make his work +something to his town. + +For one thing, he got a new view of local geography, in terms of tools. +All the farmers from the bottoms of Mill Creek called for pretty much +the same implements; the upland farms had different needs. The farmers' +wives who lived along the route of the creamery wagon had one sort of +troubles with tinware; the women of the fruit farms another. J.W. knew +this by the exchange of experiences he listened to while he sold milk +strainers and canning outfits. He found out that the people on the edge +of town who "made garden" were particular about certain tools and +equipment which the wheat farmer would not even look at. + +And the townpeople he learned to classify in the same way. He was soon +on good terms with those store clerks who were handy men about the +house, with women who did all their own work, with blacksmiths and +carpenters, with unskilled laborers and garage mechanics. In time he +could almost tell where a man lived and what he did for a living, just +by the hardware he bought and the questions he asked about it. +Heretofore J.W. had thought he knew most of the people in Delafield. +But the first weeks in the store showed him that he knew only a few. Up +to this time "most of the people in Delafield" had meant, practically, +his school friends, the clerks and salespeople in certain stores--and +the members of the First Methodist Church. + +That is to say, in the main, to him Delafield had been the church, and +the church had been Delafield. But now he realized that his church was +only a small part of Delafield. The town had other churches. It had +lodges. When the store outfitted Odd Fellows' Hall with new window +shades he learned that the Odd Fellows shared the place with strong +lodges of the Maccabees and Modern Woodmen. And there were other halls. +J.W. Farwell, Sr., was a Mason, but these other lodges seemed to have as +many members as the Masons, and one or the other of them was always +getting ready for a big public display. + +The same condition was true of the country people. He began to hear +about the Farm Federation, and the Grange, and the Farmers' Elevator, +and the cooperative creamery, for members of all of these groups passed +in and out of the store. + +One day J.W. remarked to the pastor who had dropped into the store: "Mr. +Drury, I never noticed before how this place is alive with societies and +clubs and lodges and things. Everybody seems to belong to three or four +organizations. And they talk about 'em! But I don't hear much about our +church, and nothing at all about the old church out at Deep Creek. Yet +I used to think that the church was the whole thing!" + +The older man nodded. "It's true, J.W.," he said, "all the churches +together are only a small part of the community. They are the best, and +usually the best-organized forces we have, I'm sure of that; but the +church and the town have to reckon with these others." + +"What good are they all? They must cost a pile of money. What for?" + +"That's what you might call a whale of a question, J.W." John W. +Farwell, Senior, who had been standing by, listening, essayed to answer. +"And you haven't heard yet of all the organizations. Look at me, for +example. I belong to the Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club. I'm on +the Executive Committee of the Madison County Horticultural Society, and +I've just retired from the Board of Directors of the Civic League. Then +you must think of the political parties, and the County Sunday School +Association, and the annual Chautauqua, and I don't know what all." + +"Yes, and I notice, dad, that a good many of these," said J.W., Jr., +"are just for the men. The women must have nearly as many. Why, +Delafield ought to be a model town, and the country 'round here ought to +be a regular paradise, with all these helpers and uplifters on the job. +But it isn't. Maybe they're not all on the job." + +"That's about it, my boy," his father agreed "I sometimes think we need +just one more organization--a society that would never meet, but between +the meetings of all the other societies would actually get done the +things they talk about and pass resolutions about and then go off and +forget until the next meeting." + +"Well, dad, what I want to find out," J.W. said, as he started off with +Mr. Drury to the post office, "is where the church heads in. Mr. Drury +is sure it has a big responsibility, and maybe it has. But what is it +willing to do and able to do, and what will the town let it do? It seems +to me that is the question." + +J.W. heard his father's voice echoing after him up the street, "Sure, +that is the question," and Mr. Drury added, "Three questions in one." + +J.W. found himself taking notice in a way he had not done before through +all his years in Delafield. As might be expected, he had come home from +college with new ideas and new standards. The town looked rather more +sordid and commonplace than was his boy's remembrance of it. Of late it +had taken to growing, and a large part of its development had come +during his college years. So he must needs learn his own town all over +again. + +Cherishing his young college graduate's vague new enthusiasm for a +better world, he had little sympathy with much that Delafield opinion +acclaimed as progress. + +The Delafield Daily Dispatch carried at its masthead every afternoon one +or more of such slogans as these: "Be a Delafield Booster," "Boost for +more Industries," "Put Delafield on the Map," "Double Delafield in Half +a Decade," "Delafield, the Darling of Destiny," "Watch Delafield Grow, +but Don't Stop Boosting to Rubber." + +These were taken by many citizens as a sort of business gospel; any +"theorist" who ventured to question the wisdom of bringing more people +to town, whether the town's business could give them all a decent living +or not, was told to sell his hammer and buy a horn. J.W. said nothing; +he was too young and too recent a comer into the town's business life. +But he could not work up any zeal for this form of town "loyalty." + +A big cannery had been built down near the river, where truck gardens +flourished, and there was a new furniture factory at the edge of the +freight yards. Hereabouts a lot of supremely ugly flats had gone up, two +families to each floor and three stories high; and in J.W.'s eyes the +rubbish and disorder and generally slattern appearance of the region was +no great addition to Delafield's attractions. + +Still more did the tumbledown shacks in the neighborhood of the cannery +offend the eyes and, to be frank, the ears and nose as well. It was a +forlorn-looking lot of hovels, occupied by listless, frowsy adults and +noisy children. Here existence seemed to be a grim caricature of life; +the children, the only symbol of abundance to be seen, continued to be +grotesque in their very dirt. What clothes they had were second or +third-hand garments too large for them, which they seemed to be +perpetually in danger of losing altogether. + +To J.W., Delafield had always been a town of homes; but in these dismal +quarters there was little to answer to the home idea. They were merely +places where people contrived to camp for a time, longer or shorter; +none but a Gradgrind could call them homes. + +One of the factory foremen was a great admirer of Mr. Drury, who +introduced him to J.W. one day when the foreman had come to the store +for some tools. He had talked with J.W., and in time a rather casual +friendliness developed between them. It was this same Foreman Angus +MacPherson, a Scot with a name for shrewdness, who gave the boy his +first glimpse of what the factory and the cannery meant to +Delafield--especially the factory. + +J.W. was down at the factory to see about some new band-saws that had +been installed; and, his errand finished, he stopped for a chat with +Angus. + +"This factory wasn't here when I went off to college," he said. "What +ever brought it to Delafield?" + +At that MacPherson was off to a perfect start. + +"Ye see, my boy," he began, "Delafield is so central it is a good town +for a good-working plant; freights on lumber and finished stuff are not +so high as in some places. And then there's labor. Lots of husky fellows +around here want better than farm wages, and they want a chance at town +life as well. Men from the big cities, with families, hope to find a +quieter, cheaper place to live. So we've had no trouble getting help. +Skill isn't essential for most of the work. It's not much of a trick +nowadays to get by in most factories--the machines do most of the +thinking for you, and that's good in some ways. Only the men that 'tend +the machines can't work up much pride in the output. Things go well +enough when business is good. But when the factory begins to run short +time, and lay men off, like it did last winter, there's trouble." + +J.W. wanted to know what sort of trouble. + +"Oh, well," said MacPherson, "strikes hurt worst at the time, but +strikes are just like boils, a sign of something wrong inside. And +short-time and lay-offs--well, ye can't expect the factory to go on +making golden oak rockers just to store in the sheds. Somebody has to +buy 'em. But the boys ain't happy over four-day weeks, let alone no jobs +at all." + +His sociology professor at Cartwright, J.W. recalled, had talked a good +deal about the labor question, but maybe this foreman knew something +about it too. So J.W. put it up to him: "What is at the bottom of it +all, MacPherson? What makes the thing the papers call 'labor unrest'?" + +MacPherson hesitated a moment. Then he settled himself more comfortably +on a pile of boards and proceeded to deliver his soul, or part of it. + +"I can tell you; but there's them that would ship me out of town if I +talked too much, so I'll have to be careful. John Wesley, you've got a +grand name, and the church John Wesley started has a good name, though +it's not my church. I'm a Scot, you know. But I know your preacher, and +he and I are of the same mind about this, I know. Well, then, if your +Methodist Church could find a method with labor, it would get hold of +the same sort of common people as the ones who heard Jesus gladly. These +working-men are not in the way of being saints, ye ken, but they think +that somewhere there is a rotten spot in the world of factories and +shops and mills. They think they learn from experience, who by the way, +is the dominie of a high-priced school, that they get most of the losses +and few of the profits of industry. They get a living wage when times +are good. When times are bad they lose the one thing they've got to +sell, and that's their day's work; when a loafing day is gone there's +nothing to show for it, and no way to make it up. Maybe that's as it +should be, but the worker can't see it, especially if the boss can still +buy gasoline and tires when the plant is idle. Oh, yes, laddie, I know +the working man is headstrong. I'll tell you privately, I think he's a +fool, because so often he gets into a blind rage and wants to smash the +very tools that earn his bite and sup. He may have reason to hate some +employer, but why hate the job? It's a good job, if he makes good +chairs. He goes on strike, many's the time, without caring that it hurts +him and his worse than it hurts the boss. And often the boss thinks he +wants nothing bigger than a few more things. Maybe he _is_ wild for a +phonograph and a Ford and golden oak rockers of his own in the parlor, +and photographs enlarged in crayon hanging on the walls--and a steady +job. But, listen to me, John Wesley, Jr., and you'll be a credit to your +namesake: these wild, unreasonable workers, with all their foolishness +and sometimes wickedness, are whiles dreaming of a different world, a +better world for everybody. 'Twould be no harm if some bosses dreamed +more about that too, me boy. Your preacher--he's a fine man too, is Mr. +Drury--he understands that, and he wants to use it for something to +build on. That's why I tell folks he's a Methodist preacher with a real +method in his ministry. Now I'll quit me fashin' and get back to the +job. I doubt you'll be busy yourself this afternoon." + +He gripped J.W.'s hand, so that the knuckles were unable to forget him +all day, but what he had said gripped harder than his handshake. If the +furniture factory was a mixed blessing, what of the cannery? + +Somewhat to his own surprise, J.W. was getting interested in his town, +but if at first he was inclined to wonder how he happened to develop all +this new concern, he soon ceased to think of it. So slight a matter +could not stay in the front of his thinking when he really began to know +something of the Delafield to which he had never paid much attention. + +It was through Joe Carbrook that he got his next jolt. Joe, now spending +his vacations in ways that amazed people who had memories of his wild +younger manner, was in and out of the Farwell store a good deal. Also he +spent considerable time with Pastor Drury, though there is no record of +what they talked about. + +"J.W., old boy," Joe asked one day, coming away from the pastor's +study, "have you ever by any chance observed Main Street?" + +"Why, yes," J.W. answered, "seeing that two or three or four times a day +I walk six blocks of it back and forth to this store door, I suppose I +have." + +"Oh, yes, that way," Joe came back at him, "and you've seen me, a +thousand times. But did you ever observe me? My ears, for instance," and +he put his hands over them. "Which one is the larger?" + +Without in the least understanding what his friend was driving at, and +stupidly wondering if he ever had noticed any difference in Joe's ears, +J.W. stared with inane bewilderment. "Is one really larger than the +other?" he asked, helplessly. + +Joe took his hands down, and laughed. "I knew it," he said. "You've +never observed my ears, and yet you think you have observed Main Street. +As it happens, each of my ears takes the same-sized ear-muff. But you +didn't know it. Well, never mind ears; I'm thinking about Main Street. +What do you know of Main Street?" + +J.W. thought he could make up for the ear question. So he said, boldly, +"Joe Carbrook, I can name every place from here to the livery barn +north, and from here to the bridge south, on both sides of the street. +Want me to prove it?" + +"No, J.W., I don't. I reckon you can. But I believe you're still as +blind as I've been about Main Street, just the same. I know Chicago +pretty well and I doubt if there's as big a percentage of graft and +littleness and dollar-pinching and going to the devil generally on +State Street or Wabash Avenue as there is an Main Street, Delafield." + +"You're not trying to say that our business men are crooks, are you, +Joe?" J.W. asked, with a touch of resentment. "You know I happen to be +connected with a business house on Main Street myself." + +"Sure, I know it, and there's Marshall Field's on State Street, and Lyon +& Healy's on Wabash Avenue, and Hart, Schaffner & Marx over by the +Chicago River; just the same as here. But I--well, of course, there's a +story back of it all. Mother heard a couple of weeks ago that one of our +old Epworth League girls was having a hard time of it--she's working at +the Racket store, helping to support her folks. They've had sickness, +and the girl doesn't get big wages. So mother asked me to look her up. +Mother can't get about very easily, you know, and since I'm studying +medicine she seems to think I'm the original Mr. Fix-It. I made a few +discreet inquiries, discreet, that is, for me, and can you guess who +that girl is? You can't, I know. Well, she's Alma Wetherell, and that's +the identical girl who gave me such a dressing down one day at the +Cartwright Institute four years ago. Remember? Say, J.W., that day she +told me so much of the deadly truth about myself that I hated her even +more for knowing what to say than I did for saying it. But she had a big +lot to do with waking me up, and I owe her something." + +J.W. had not remembered the Institute incident. But he recalled that +Alma was at Cartwright that summer, and he had seen her at church +occasionally since he came home from college. She was living in town and +working in some store or other he knew, but that was all. + +"What did you find out?" he asked Joe. + +"I found out enough so that Alma has a better job, and things are going +easier at home. But that was just a starter. My brave John Wesley, do +you remember your college sociology and economics and civics and all the +rest? Never mind confessing; you don't; I didn't either. But I began to +review 'em in actual business practice. First I told the right merchant +what sort of a bookkeeper I had found slaving away for ten dollars a +week on the dark, smelly balcony of the Racket--and he's given Alma a +job at twenty in a sun-lighted office. Then I told Mr. Peters of the +Racket what I had done, and why. He didn't like it, but it will do him +good. That made me feel able to settle anything, and I'm looking around +for my next joy as journeyman rescuer and expert business adjuster. +Honest, J.W., I've not seen near all there is to see, but I'm swamped +already. You've got to come along, you and some others, and see for +yourself what's the matter with Main Street." + +Not all at once, but before very long, J.W. shared Joe's aroused +interest. Pastor Drury was with them, of course; and the three called +into consultation a few other capable and trustworthy men and women. +Marcia Dayne had come home for a few weeks' holiday, and at once +enlisted. Alma Wetherell was able to give some highly significant +suggestions. + +There was no noise of trumpets, and no publicity of any sort. Mr. Drury +insisted that what they needed first and most was not newspaper +attention, and not even organization, but exact information. So for many +days a group of puzzled and increasingly astonished people set about the +study of their own town's principal street, as though they had never +seen it before. And, in truth, they never had. + +It was no different from all other small town business districts. The +Gem Theater vied with the Star and the Orpheum in lavish display of +gaudy posters advertising pictures that were "coming to-morrow," and in +two weeks of observation the investigators learned what sort of moving +pictures Delafield demanded, or, at least what sort it got. They took +note of the Amethyst Coterie's Saturday night dances--"Wardrobe, 50 +cents, Ladies Free"--and of the boys and girls who patronized the place. +The various cigar and pocket-billiards combinations were quietly +observed, some of the observers learning for the first time that young +men are so determined to get together that they are not to be deterred +by dirt or bad air or foul and brainless talk. + +The candy stores with soda fountains and some of the drug stores which +served refreshments took on a new importance. Instead of being no more +than handy purveyors of sweets, of soft drinks and household remedies, +they were seen to be also social centers, places for "dates" and +telephone flirtations and dalliance. Much of their doings was the merest +silly time-killing, but generally the youthful patrons welcomed all this +because it was a change from the empty dullness of homes that had missed +the home secret, and from the still duller and wasting monotony of +uninteresting toil. + +It was Pastor Drury who suggested the explanation for all these forms of +profitless and often dangerous amusement. He was chatting with the whole +group one night, and merely happened to address himself first to J.W., +Jr. + +Your great namesake, J.W., was so much a part of his day that he +believed with most other great religious thinkers of his time that play +was a device of the devil. His belief belonged to eighteenth-century +theology and psychology. But even more it grew out of the vicious +diversions of the rich and the brutalizing amusements of the poor. Both +were bad, and there was not much middle ground. But here on Main Street +we see people, most of them young, who feel, without always +understanding why, that they simply must be amused. They feel it so +strongly that they will pay any price for it if circumstances won't let +them get it any other way. And Main Street is ready to oblige them. +There could be no amusement business if people were not clamoring to be +amused. And we know now why we have no right to say that all this clamor +is the devil's prompting. Isn't it queer that the church is only now +beginning to believe in the genuineness and wholesomeness of the play +instinct, though it is a proper and natural human hunger? Literally +everybody wants to play. + +"People pay more for the gratification of this hunger than they do for +bread or shoes or education or religion. They take greater moral risks +for it than they do for money. We have seen people who undoubtedly are +going to the devil by the amusement route, unless something is done to +stop them. They go wrong quicker and oftener in their play than in their +work. Are we going to be content with denouncing the dance hall and the +poolroom and the vile pictures and the loose conduct of the soft-drink +places and Electric Park? Haven't we some sort of duty to see that every +young person in Delafield has a chance at first-hand, enjoyable, and +decent play?" + +All agreed that the pastor was right, though they were not so clear +about what could be done. + +But commercialized amusement was not all they found in their quiet +voyages of discovery up and down Main Street. + +The chain stores had come to Delafield--not the "5 and 10" only, but +stores which specialized in groceries, tobacco, shoes, dry goods, drugs, +and other commodities. Alongside of them were the locally owned stores. +Altogether, Main Street had far too many stores to afford good service +or reasonable prices. With all this duplication on the one hand, and +absentee-control on the other, Main Street was a street of +underlings--clerks and salespeople and delivery men. That condition +produced low wages and inefficient methods, many of the workers being +too young to be out of school and too dense to show any intelligence +about the work they were supposed to do. Cheap help was costly, and the +efficient help was scarcely to be found at any price. + +The investigators were frankly dismayed at the extent and complexity of +the situation. They had thought to find occasional cases calling for +adjustment, or even for the law. But instead they had found a whole +fabric of interwoven questions--amusements, wages, competition, +cooperation, ignorance, vulgarity, vice, cheapness, trickery, "business +is business." True, they had found more honest businesses than shady +ones, more faithful clerks than shirkers, more decent people in the +pleasure resorts than doubtful people. But the total of folly and evil +was very great; could the church do anything to decrease it? + +And that question led the little company of inquisitive Christians into +yet wider reaches of inquiry. J.W. and Joe and Marcia at Mr. Drury's +suggestion agreed to be a sort of unofficial committee to find out about +the churches of Delafield. He told them that this was first of all a +work for laymen. The preachers might come in later. + +Joe invited the others to the new Carbrook home on the Heights into +which his people had lately moved. The Heights was a new thing to +J.W.--a rather exclusive residential quarter which had been laid out +park-wise in the last four or five years; with houses in the midst of +wide lawns, a Heights club house and tennis courts and an exquisite +little Gothic church. + +"When our folks first talked about moving out here I thought it was all +right; and I do yet, in some ways," explained Joe. "But the Heights is +getting a little too good for me; I'm not as keen about being exclusive +as I used to be. I've thought lately that exclusiveness may be just as +bad for people inside the gates, as for the people outside. But here we +are, as the Atlantic City whale said when the ebb tide stranded it in +front of the Board Walk. What are we up to, us three?" + +"We're up to finding out about the town churches," said J.W. "Maybe they +can help the town more than they do, but we don't know how, and so far +we haven't found anybody else who knows how." + +And Marcia said: "At least we know some things. We have the figures. +About one Delafield citizen in seven goes to church or Sunday school on +Sunday. Church membership is one in ten. And as many people go to the +movies and the Columbia vaudeville and the dance halls and poolrooms on +Saturday as go to church on Sunday, to say nothing of the crowds that go +on the other five days." + +Joe Carbrook whistled. "That's a tough nut to crack, gentle people," he +said, "because you've simply got to think of those other five days. The +chances are that four times as many people in Delafield go to other +public places as go to church and Sunday school." + +"What can the churches do?" asked J.W. "You can't make people go to +church." + +"No," assented Marcia, "and if you could, it would be foolish. We want +to make people like the churches, not hate them. One thing I believe our +churches can do is to put their public services more into methods and +forms that don't have to be taken for granted or just mentally dodged. +Half the time people don't know what a religious service really stands +for." + +"Meaning by that----?" Joe queried, as much to hear Marcia talk as for +the sake of what she might say. + +"Well, they have seen and heard it since they were children. When they +were little they didn't understand it, and now it is so familiar that +they forget they don't understand it," Marcia responded, not wholly +oblivious of Joe's strategy, but too much in earnest to care. "I've +heard of a successful preacher in the East who seems to be making them +understand. He says he tries to put into each service four +things--light, music, motion; that is, change--and a touch of the +dramatic. Why not? I think it could be done without destroying the +solemnity of the worship. They did it in the Temple at Jerusalem, and +they do it in Saint Peter's at Rome and in Westminster Abbey and Saint +John's Cathedral in New York. Why shouldn't we do it here in our little +churches?" + +"Make a note of it, J.W.," ordered Joe. "It's worth suggesting to some +of the preachers." + +J.W. made his note, rather absently, and offered a conclusion of his +own: + +"The church must take note of the town's sore spots too. I've found out +that crowding people in tenements and shacks means disease and +immorality. Isn't that the church's affair? Angus MacPherson has taught +me that when the jobs are gone little crimes come, followed by bigger +ones; and sickness comes too, with the death rate going up. Babies are +born to unmarried mothers, and babies, with names or without, die off a +lot faster in the river shacks and the east side tenements than they do +up this way. Maybe the church couldn't help all this even if it knew; +but I'm for asking it to know." + +"I'll vote for that," Joe asserted, "if you'll vote for my proposition, +which is this: our churches must quit trying just to be prosperous; they +must quit competing for business like rival barkers at a street fair; +they must begin to find out that their only reason for existence is the +service they can give to those who need it most; they've got to believe +in each other and work with each other and with all the other town +forces that are trying to make a better Delafield." + +"That's right," said J.W. "I was talking to Mr. Drury this morning, and +I asked him what he would think of our starting a suggestion list. He +said it ought to be a fine thing. But he wants us to do it all +ourselves. Just the same, we can take our suggestions to him, and then, +if he believes in them, he can talk to the other preachers about them, +and, of course, about any ideas of his own. Because you know, I'm pretty +sure he has been thinking about all this a good deal longer than we +have." + +It was agreed that the list should be started. Marcia was not willing +to keep it to themselves; she wanted to have it talked about in League +and Sunday school and prayer meeting, and then, when everybody had been +given the chance to add to it, and to improve on it--but not to weaken +it--that it be put out for general discussion among all the churches. + +"And then," said Joe Carbrook, "we might call it 'The Everyday Doctrines +of Delafield,' If we stick to the things every citizen will admit he +ought to believe and do, the churches will still have all the chance +they have now to preach those things which must be left to the +individual conscience." + +That was the beginning of a document with which Delafield was to become +very familiar in the months which followed; never before had the town +been so generally interested in one set of ideas, and to this day you +can always start a conversation there by mentioning the "Everyday +Doctrines of Delafield," The Methodist preacher gave them their final +form, but he took no credit for the substance of them, though, secretly, +he was vastly proud that the young people, and especially J.W., should +have so thoroughly followed up his first suggestion of a civic creed. + +THE EVERYDAY DOCTRINES OF DELAFIELD + +1. Every part of Delafield is as much Delafield as any other +part We are citizens of a commonwealth, and Delafield should +be in fact as well as name a democratic community. + +2. Whenever two Delafield citizens can better do something +for the town than one could do it, they should get together. +And the same holds good for twenty citizens, or a hundred, or +a thousand. One of the town's mottoes should be, "Delafield +Is Not Divided." + +3. Everything will help Delafield if it means better people, +in better homes, with better chances at giving their children the +right bringing-up, but anything which merely means more people, +or more money, or more business is likely to cost more than it +comes to. We will boost for Delafield therefore, but we will +first be careful. + +4. Every part of Delafield is entitled to clean streets and plenty +of air, water, and sunlight. It is perhaps possible to be a Christian +amid ugliness and filth, but it is not easy, and it is not +necessary. + +5. Every family in Delafield has the right to a place that can +be made into a home, at a cost that will permit of family self-respect, +proper privacy, and the ordinary decencies of civilized living. +Every case of poverty in Delafield should be considered as +a reflection on the town, as being preventable and curable by +remedies which any town that is careful of its good name +can apply. + +6. Delafield believes that beauty pays better than ugliness. +Therefore she is for trees and flowers, green lawns, and clean +streets, paint where it properly belongs, and everybody setting +a good example by caring for his own premises and so inciting +his neighbor to outdo him. + +7. The only industries Delafield needs are those which can +provide for their operation without forcing workers to be idle +so much of the time as to reduce apparent income, and so to +cause poverty, sickness, and temptation to wrongdoing. The +standard of income ought to be for the year, and not by the +day; in the interest of homes rather than in the interest of lodging +houses and lunch rooms. + +8. Delafield can support, or should find ways to support, the +workers needed in her stores, shops, and factories, at fair pay, +without making use of children, who should continue in school, +and without reckoning on the desperation of those made poor +by their dependence on a job. + +9. Amusements in Delafield can be and ought to be clean, +self-respecting, and available for everybody. This calls for playgrounds +and weekday playtime, as well as plenty of recreational +opportunities provided by the churches, without money-making +features. + +10. The forms of amusement provided for pay can be and +should be influenced by public opinion, positively expressed, +rather than by public indifference. Any picture house would +rather be praised for bringing a good picture to town than condemned +for showing a bad one. Picture people enjoy praise as much as preachers +do. + +11. Delafield's many organizations should tell the whole town +what they are trying to do, so that unnecessary duplication of +plan and purpose may first be discovered and then done away with. + +12. Whenever a Delafield church, or club, or society, proposes +to engage in a work that is to benefit the town, the plan ought +to be made known, and in due time the results should be published +as widely as was the plan. This will help us to learn by +our Delafield failures as well as by our Delafield successes. + +13. The churches of Delafield are Delafield property, as the +schools are, though paid for in a different way. Neither schools +nor churches exist for their own sakes, but for Delafield, and +then some. + +14. Every church in Delafield should have a definite parish, +and every well-defined section or group should have a church. +The churched should lead in providing for the unchurched, and +the overchurched might spare out of their abundance of workers +and equipment some of the resources that are needed. + +15. The first concern of all the churches should be to reach +the unchurched and to make church friends of the church-haters. +This goes for all the churches; it is more important to get the +sense of God and principles of Jesus into the thought of the +whole town than to set Protestant and Roman Catholic in mutually +suspicious and hateful opposition; devout Jew and sincere +Christian must realize that righteousness in Delafield cannot be +attended to by either without the other. + +16. The churches of Delafield believe that all matters of social +concern--work, wages, housing, health, amusement, and morals--are +part of every church's business. Therefore they will not +cease to urge their members always to deal with these matters as +Christian citizens, not merely as Christians. + +17. Every child and young person in Delafield ought to be in +the day school on weekdays, and in Sunday school on Sunday. +Delafield discourages needless absence from one as much as +from the other. + +18. Delafield wants the best possible teachers teaching in all +her schools. She insists on trained teachers on week days, and +needs them on Sundays. Therefore she believes that teacher-training +is part of every church's duty to Delafield. + +"There's one thing about all this that bothers me," said J.W. when they +had finished the final draft of the Every Day Doctrines, "not that it's +the only one; but some of these Doctrines stand small chance of being +put into practice until the church people are willing to spend more +money on such work. It can't be done on the present income of the +churches, or by the usual money-raising methods." + +"That's a fact," Joe Carbrook agreed. "I'd already made up my mind that +the Carbrooks would have to dig a little deeper, and so must everybody +else who cares." + +"Yes, but how to get everybody else to care; that's the trouble," J.W. +persisted. "Dad's one of the stewards, you know, and they find it no +easy job to collect even what the church needs now. They have a deficit +to worry with every year, almost." + +Marcia Dayne was the only other member of the "Let's Know Delafield" +group who happened to be present at this last meeting. She had been +waiting for a chance to speak. "I'm surprised at you two," she said. +"Don't you know the only really workable financial way out?" + +"Well, not exactly," J.W. admitted. "I suppose if we could only get +people to care more, they would give more. It's a matter of letting them +know the need and all that, I guess. For instance--" + +Marcia was not ready for his "for instances." "John Wesley, Jr.," she +interrupted with mock severity, "as a thinker you have shone at times +with a good deal more brilliance than that. If you had said it just the +other way 'round you would have been nearer right. People _will_ give if +they care, of course, but it is even more certain that they will care if +they give. The thing we need is to show them how to give." + +Joe Carbrook broke into an incredulous laugh. "In other words, my fair +Marcia, you want Christians to give before they care what it is they are +giving to, or even know about it. Don't you think our church will be a +long time financing the Every Day Doctrines on that system?" + +Joe and Marcia never hesitated to take opposite sides in a discussion, +and always with good-humored frankness. So Marcia came back promptly: "I +know you think it unreasonable," she said, "but there's a condition you +overlook. We became Christians long before any of us thought about +studying Delafield's needs. And if we and all the rest of the Christians +of the town had accepted our financial relation to the Kingdom and had +acted on it from the start, there would always be money enough and to +spare." + +"Oh, yes," Joe said understandingly, "I see now. You mean the tithe." + +Marcia knew, no matter how, that Joe had begun to think about tithing, +and this seemed the opportune time to stress it a little more. It could +help the Every Day Doctrines, and both Joe and J.W. were keen for that. + +So Marcia admitted that she did mean the tithe. "I don't pretend to know +how it began, any more than I know how real homes were established after +the Fall, or how keeping Sunday began; I do know these began long before +there was any fourth or fifth commandment, or any Children of Israel. +And I've gone over all the whole subject with Mr. Drury--he has a lot of +practical pamphlets on the tithe. I believe that it is the easiest, +surest, fairest and cheerfulest way of doing two Christian things at +once--acknowledging God's ownership of all we have, and going into +partnership with God in his work for the world, what the books sometimes +call Christian Stewardship." + +"I'd like to see those pamphlets," said J.W. + +"It's queer you haven't seen them before this," said Marcia. "Mr. Drury +has distributed hundreds of them. But maybe that was when you were away +at Cartwright. Anyway, I'll get some for you." + +Joe was holding his thought to the main matter. "Marcia," said he, "if +you can make good on what you said just now, pamphlets or no pamphlets, +I'll agree to become a tither. First, to start where you did, how is +tithing easier than giving whenever you feel like giving?" + +Now, though Marcia expected no such challenge, she was game. "I'm not +the one to prove all that, but I believe what I said, and I'll try to +make good, as you put it. But please don't say 'give' when you talk +about tithing, or even about any sort of financial plan for Christians. +The first word is 'pay,' Giving comes afterward. Well, then; tithing is +the easiest way, because when you are a tither you always have tithing +money. You begin by setting the tenth apart for these uses, and it is no +more hardship to pay it out than to pay out any other money that you +have been given with instructions for its use." + +"Not bad, at all," said Joe. "Now tell us why it is the surest way of +using a Christian's money." + +By this time Marcia was beginning to enjoy herself. "It is the surest +because it almost collects itself. No begging; no schemes. You have +tithing money on hand--and you have, almost always--therefore you don't +need to be coaxed into thinking you can spare it. If the cause is a real +claim, that's all you need to find out. And when you begin to put money +into any cause you're going to get interested in that cause. Besides, +when all Christians tithe there will be more than enough money for every +good work." + +J.W. had not thought much of the tithe except as being one of those +religious fads, and he knew that every church had a few religious +faddists. But he had long cherished a vast respect for Marcia's good +sense, and what she was saying seemed reasonable enough. He wondered if +it could be backed up by evidence. + +Joe smilingly took up the next excellence of the tithe which Marcia had +named. "Let me see; did you say that the tithe is the fairest of all +Christian financial schemes?" + +"Not that, exactly," Marcia corrected. "I said it was the fairest way of +acknowledging God's ownership and of working with him in partnership. +And it is. It puts definiteness in the place of whim. It is proportional +to our circumstances. It is not difficult. Mr. Drury says that forty +years' search has failed to find a tither who has suffered hardship +because of paying the tithe." + +"Well, Joe," J.W. put in, "if Marcia can produce the evidence on these +three points, you may as well take the fourth for granted. If tithing is +the easiest, surest and fairest plan of Christian Stewardship, seems to +me it's just got to be cheerful. I'm going to look into it, and if she's +right, as I shouldn't wonder, it's up to you and me to get our finances +onto the ten per cent basis." + +Joe was never a reluctant convert to anything. When he saw the new way, +his instinct was for immediate action. "Let's go over to Mr. Drury's," +he proposed, "and see if we can't settle this thing to-day. I hope +Marcia's right," and he looked into her eyes with a glance of something +more than friendly, "and if she is I'm ready to begin tithing to-day." + +Pastor Drury, always a busy man, reckoned interviews like this as urgent +business always. Not once nor twice, but many times in the course of a +year, his quiet, indirect work resulted in similar expeditions to his +study, and as a rule he knew about when to expect them. He produced the +pamphlets, added a few suggestions of his own, and let the three young +people do most of the talking. They stayed a long time, no one caring +about that. + +As they were thanking the pastor, before leaving, Joe said with his +usual directness, "Marcia _was_ right, and here's where I begin to be a +systematic Christian as far as my dealings with money are concerned." + +J.W., not in the least ashamed to follow Joe's lead, said, "Same here. +Wish I'd known it sooner. Now we've got to preach it." + +And Joe said to Mr. Drury, in the last moment at the door, "Mr. Drury, +if we could all get a conscience about the tithe, and pay attention to +that conscience, half the Everyday Doctrines would not even need to be +stated. They would be self-evident. And the other half could be put into +practice with a bang!" + +The Delafield _Dispatch_ got hold of a copy of the "Everyday Doctrines" +and printed the whole of it with a not unfavorable editorial comment, +under the caption "When Will All This Come True?" + +But Walter Drury, when he saw it, said to himself, "It has already come +true in a very real sense, for John Wesley, Jr., and these others +believe in it." And he knew it marked one more stage of the Experiment, +so that he could thank God and take courage. + + + +CHAPTER V + + +HERE THE ALIEN; THERE THE LITTLE BROWN CHURCH + +It was all very well to work out the "Everyday Doctrines of Delafield." +To secure their adoption and application by all the churches of +Delafield was another matter. The unofficial committee scattered, for +one thing. Joe Carbrook went back to medical school, and Marcia to the +settlement and the training school. Marty was traveling his circuit. J. +W. and the pastor and a few others continued their studies of the town. +Nobody had yet ventured to talk about experts, but it began to be +evident that the situation would soon require thoroughgoing and skilled +assistance. Otherwise, all that had been learned would surely be lost. + +One day in the late fall a stranger dropped in at the Farwell Hardware +Store and asked for Mr. J.W. Farwell, Jr. He had called first on Pastor +Drury, who was expecting him; and that diplomat had said to him, "Go see +J.W. I think he'll help you to get something started." + +J.W., with two of the other clerks, was unloading a shipment of +stovepipes. The marks of his task were conspicuous all over him, and he +scarcely looked the part of the public-spirited young Methodist. But +the visitor was accustomed to know men when he saw them, under all +sorts of disguises. + +J.W., called to the front of the store, met the visitor with a +good-natured questioning gaze. + +"Mr. Farwell, I am Manford Conover, of Philadelphia. Back there we have +heard something of the 'Everyday Doctrines of Delafield,' and I've been +sent to find out about them--and their authors." + +"Sent?" J.W. repeated. "Why should anybody send you all the way from +Philadelphia to Delafield just for that?" He could not know how much +pastoral and even episcopal planning was back of that afternoon call. + +"Don't think that we reckon it to be unimportant, Mr. Farwell," said Mr. +Conover, pleasantly. "You see I'm from a Methodist society with a long +name and a business as big as its name--the Board of Home Missions and +Church Extension. The thing some of you are starting here in Delafield +is our sort of thing. It may supply our Board with new business in its +line, and what we can do for you may make your local work productive of +lasting results, in other places as well as here." + +J.W. did not quite understand, but he was willing to be instructed, for +he had found out that the effort to promote the "Everyday Doctrines" was +forever developing new possibilities and at the same time revealing new +expanses of Delafield ignorance and need. Anybody who appeared to have +intelligence and interest was the more welcome. + +They talked a while, and then, "I'll tell you what," proposed J.W. +"How long do you expect to be in town?" Mr. Conover replied that as yet +he had made no arrangement for leaving. + +"Then let's get together a few people to-night after prayer meeting. Our +pastor, of course, and the editor of the _Dispatch_--he's the right +sort, if he does boost 'boosting' a good deal; and Miss Leigh, of the +High School--she's all right every way; and Mrs. Whitehill, the +president of the Woman's Association of our church--that's the women's +missionary societies and the Ladies' Aid merged into one--she's a +regular progressive; and Harry Field, who's just getting hold of his job +in the League; and the Sunday school superintendent. That's dad, you +know; he's had the job for a couple of years now, and he's as keen about +it as Harry is over the League." + +They got together, and out of that first simple discussion came all +sorts of new difficulties for Delafield Methodism to face and master. + + * * * * * + +Manford Conover was a preacher with a business man's training and +viewpoint. He may have mentioned his official title, when he first +appeared, but nobody remembered it. When people couldn't think of his +name he was "the man from the Board," which was all the same to him. + +After that first night's meeting Conover gave several days to walks +about Delafield. J.W. had found the shacks and the tenements, and Joe +Carbrook had introduced J.W. to Main Street, but it was left to +Conover to show him Europe and Africa in Delafield. + +There's a certain town in a Middle Western State, far better known than +Delafield, rich, intelligent, highly self-content. Its churches and +schools and clubs are matters for complacent satisfaction. And you would +be safe in saying that not one in five of its well-to-do people know +that the town has a Negro quarter, an Italian section, a Bohemian +settlement, a Scandinavian community, a good-sized Greek colony, and +some other centers of cultures and customs alien to what they assume is +the town's distinctive character. + +They know, of course, that such people live in the town--couldn't help +knowing it. Their maids are Scandinavian or Negro. They buy vegetables +and candy from the Greeks. They hear of bootlegging and blind tigers +among certain foreign groups. The rough work of the town is done by men +who speak little or no English. But all this makes small impression. It +is a commonplace of American town life. And scarcely ever does it +present itself as something to be looked into, or needing to be +understood. + +So Conover found it to be with Delafield. The "Everyday Doctrines" were +well enough, but he knew a good deal of spade work must be done before +they could take root and grow. He fronted a condition which has its +counterpart in most American towns, each of which is two towns, one +being certain well-defined and delimited areas where languages and +Braces live amid conditions far removed from the American notion of +what is endurable, and the other the "better part of town," sometimes +smugly called "the residence section," where white Americans have homes. + +Conover and Pastor Drury compared notes. They were of one mind as to the +conditions which Conover had found, conditions not surprising to the +minister, who knew more about Delafield than any of his own people +suspected. + +One afternoon they met J.W. on the street, and he led them into a candy +store for hot chocolate. + +As they sipped the chocolate they talked; J.W., as usual, saying +whatever he happened to think of. + +"Say, Mr. Conover," he remarked, "I notice in all your talk about the +foreigner in America you haven't once referred to the idea of the +melting pot. Don't you think that's just what America is? All these +people coming here and getting Americanized and assimilated and all +that?" + +"I'd think America was the melting pot if I could see more signs of the +melting," Conover answered. "But look at Delafield; how much does the +melting pot melt here?" + +Then he looked across the store. "Do you know the proprietor, Mr. +Farwell?" he asked. + +"Yes, indeed; Nick and I are good friends," answered J.W. + +"Then I wish you'd introduce me," returned Conover. + +"Oh, Nick," J.W. called, "will you come over here a minute?" + +Nick came, wiping his hands on his apron. + +"Nick," said J.W., doing the honors, "you know Mr. Drury, the pastor of +our church. And this is Mr. Conover from Philadelphia, a very good +friend of ours. He's been looking around town, and wants to ask you +something." + +Nick's brisk and cheerful manner was at its best, for he liked J.W., +besides liking the trade he brought. + +"Sure," said he, "I tell him anything if I know it. Glad for the +chance." + +"Mr. Dulas," said Conover--he had taken note of the name on the window, +"you know the East Side pretty well, do you? Then, you know that many +Italians live just north of Linden Street, and there's a block or so of +Polish homes between Linden and the next street south?" + +"Sure I do," said Nick, confidently, "I live on other side of them +myself. See 'em every day." + +"Very well," Conover went on. "What I want to know is this: how do the +Italians and the Poles get along together?" + +"They don't have nothing much to do with one another," Nick replied. +"It's like this, the Poles they talk Polish, and maybe a little English. +The Italians, they speak Italian, and some can talk English, only not +much. But Poles they can't talk Italian at all, and Italians can't talk +Polish. So how could they get together?" + +"That's just the question, Mr. Dulas," Conover agreed. "I'm telling +these gentlemen that it is harder for the different foreign-born people +to know one another and to be friendly with one another than it is for +them to know and associate with Americans." + +"Sure, Mister," Nick said, with great positiveness. "Sure. Before I +speak English I know nobody but Greeks, and when I start learning +English I got no time to learn Polish, or Italian, or whatever it is. +English I got to speak, if I run a candy store, but not those other +languages." + +And he went off to serve a customer who had just entered. + +"There you have that side," said Conover to the minister and J.W. "The +need of English as an Americanizing force, and the meed of it as a +medium of communication between the different foreign groups. Looks as +though we've got to bear down hard on English, don't you think?" + +"As Nick says, 'Sure I do,'" Mr. Drury assented. "It will come out all +right with the children, I hope; they're getting the English. But it +makes things hard just now." + +"What can the church do?" J.W. put in. "Should it undertake to teach +English, as that preacher taught Phil Khamis, you remember, Mr. Drury; +or Americanization, or what?" + +"I think it should do something else first," said Conover. "Why should +we Americans try to make Europeans understand us, unless we first try to +understand them? Isn't ours the first move?" + +"But this is the country they're going to live in," returned J.W. "They +can't expect us to adjust ourselves to European ways. They've got to do +the adjusting, haven't they?" + +"Why?" Conover came back. "Because we were here first? But the Indian +was here before us. We told him he needn't do any adjusting at all, and +see what we've made of him. Maybe these Europeans can add enriching +elements to our American culture." + +"I guess so, but"--and J.W. was evidently at a loss--"but they've got +to obey our laws, you know, and fit into our civilization. The Indian +was different. We couldn't make Indians of ourselves, and he wouldn't +become civilized." + +"Americanized, you mean?" and Conover laughed a little at the irony of +it. + +"No, no; not that. But he wouldn't meet us half way, even," J.W. said. + +"I think," suggested Pastor Drury, "that what Mr. Conover means is that +we'd better be a little less stiff to newcomers than the Indian was to +us. Am I right?" + +"Exactly right," returned Conover. "Europe is in a general way the +mother-land of us all. But many of her children were late in getting +here. The earlier ones have made their contributions; why may not the +later ones also bring gifts for our common treasure?" + +"Well, what in particular do you mean?" asked J.W., who was finding +himself adrift. He had been quite willing in the Institute days to be an +admirer of Phil Khamis, and to forget that Phil was of alien birth; but +this was something more complicated. + +"Particulars are not so simple," Conover said. "But, for instance: some +European peoples have a fine musical appreciation. Some delight in +oratory. Some are mystical and dreamy. Some are very children in their +love of color. Some are almost artists in their feeling for beauty in +their work. Some do not enjoy rough play, and others cannot endure to be +quiet. Some have inherited a passionate love of country, and great +traditions of patriotism." + +"We can't value all these things in just the way they do, but at least +we can believe that such interests and instincts are worth something to +America. Then our Americanization work will be not only more intelligent +but far more sympathetic." + +"If I may turn to the immediate business," Mr. Drury said with a smile +of apology, "suppose you tell J.W. what your Board has to suggest for us +here in Delafield, Mr. Conover?" + +Conover turned to J.W. "I wonder if you know anything about Centenary +Church?" he asked. + +"That little old brick barn over in the East Bottoms? Why, yes, or I +used to; if was quite a church when I was a youngster, but I haven't +been that way lately. I guess it's pretty much run down, with all those +foreigners moving in. Most of the old members have probably moved away. +I know there were two Methodist boys with me in high school who lived +down there, but they've moved up to the Heights. One of them lives next +to the Carbrooks." + +"Mr. Drury should take you down that way one of these days," said +Conover, "and you'd find that when your friends moved out of the church +the foreigners who live nearby did not move in. Centenary Church is run +down, as you say." + +Mr. Drury added, "And the few members who are left don't know which way +to turn. They have a supply pastor, who isn't able to do much. He gets a +pitiful salary, but they can't pay more, and there's no money at all, +nor any accommodations, for any special attention to the newcomers." + +"Well," said Conover, "I'm instructed to tell you Delafield Methodists +that the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension is ready to help +make a new Centenary Church, for the people who now live around it. We +have a department that pays special attention to immigrant and alien +populations. Our workers know, in general, what is needed. We can put +some trained people into Centenary, with a pastor who knows how to +direct their work. I should not be surprised to see a parish house +there, and a modernized church building, and a fine array of everyday +work being done there." + +"My, but that sounds great, Mr. Drury, doesn't it?" asked J.W., in a +glow of enthusiasm. Then he checked himself. "It sounds well enough," he +said, "but all that means a lot of money. Where's the money to come +from?" + +"From you, of course," Conover replied, "but not all or most from you. +My Board is a benevolent board--that is to say, it is the whole church +at work in such enterprises as this. That's one way in which its share +of the church's benevolent offerings is used" + +"But you don't mean to tell us," said J.W., incredulously, "that you can +drop in on a place like Delafield, make up your mind what is needed, and +then dump a lot of money into a played-out church, just like that?" + +"Oh, it's not so informal as all that," Conover said, "The thing has to +go through the official channels, of course. Your district +superintendent and Brother Drury and the Bishop and several others have +had a hand in it already. All concerned have agreed as to the needs and +possibilities. But Delafield is also a good place to put on a +demonstration, an actual, operating scheme. I have been making ready for +a survey of the whole East Side, just a preliminary study, and before +anything positive is done we must make a more thorough inquiry. We +expect to find out everything that needs to be known." + +"There was only one anxiety I had about it," Pastor Drury said, "and +that has been all taken away. I was keen to have this be a truly +Christian demonstration--not just a settlement or a parish house or +night school classes, but a real demonstration of Christian service +among people who now know little about it. In some places these +activities are being set going because church people know they ought to +do something, and it is easier to give money and have gymnasiums and +moving pictures than to make real proof of partnership with Christ by +personal service and sacrifice. Take your old friend Martin Luther +Shenk, J.W.--do you know that he's working at this very difficulty? And +I hear he's finding, even in the country, that some people will really +give themselves, while others will give only their money and their +time." + +J.W. thought of Win-My-Chum week, and how he had had to drive himself to +speak to Marty, so he knew the pastor was right. And he went home with +all sorts of questions running through his mind, but with no very +satisfying answers to make them. + +Coming back in a wakeful night to Mr. Drury's casual mention of Marty, +the thought of his chum set him to wondering how that sturdy young +itinerant was making it go on the Ellis and Valencia Circuit, just as +the pastor guessed it might. To wonder was to decide. He would take a +long-desired holiday. A word or two with his father in the morning gave +him the excuse for what he wanted to do. Then he got Valencia on the +long distance, and the operator told him she would find the "Reverend" +Shenk for him in a few minutes. He had started out that morning to visit +along the State Line Highway, as it was part of her business to know. At +the third try Marty was found, and he answered J.W.'s hail with a shout. + +After the first exchange of noisy greetings, "Say, Marty, dad's asked me +to run down in your part of the world and look at some new barn +furniture that's been put in around Ellis--ventilators and stanchions +and individual drinking cups for the Holsteins--not like the way we used +to treat the cows on our farm, hey? Well, what do you say if I turn +fashionable for once and come down for the week-end--not this week, but +next?" + +No need to ask Marty a question like that. "Come on down. Make it Friday +and I'll show you the sights. We've got something doing at the Ellis +Church, something I want you to see." + +Then Marty thought of a few books that he had left at home--"And--hello, +J.W., are you listening? Well, how'd you like to go out to the farm +before you come down here? Jeanette has gathered a bundle of my books, +and I need 'em. Won't you get 'em for me and bring them along?" + +Certainly, J.W. would. The farm was home to both the boys, and J.W. was +almost as welcome there as Marty; to one member of the family quite so, +though she had never mentioned it. + +On the next Sunday morning J.W. drove out of town in time to get to the +little old church of his childhood for morning service. Then he would go +home with the Shenks for dinner, spend the afternoon, get the books and +come home when he was ready. There was no hurry. J.W., Sr., had given +him two Sundays' leave of absence from Sunday school. The next Sunday +would be his and Marty's, but this would be his and Jeannette's. + +Not that he needed to make any special plans for being with Jeannette +Shenk; of late he had found the half hour drive down to the old farm the +prelude to a pleasant evening. Sometimes he would make the round trip +twice, running out to bring Jeanette into town, when something was +going on, and taking her home afterward in the immemorial fashion. + +As J.W. turned to the church yard lane leading up to the old horseshed, +he noticed that there were only two cars there besides his own--and one +old-time sidebar buggy, battered and mud-bedaubed, with a decrepit and +dejected-looking gray mare between the shafts. + +It was time for meeting, and he contrasted to-day's emptiness of the +long sheds with the crowding vehicles of his childhood memories. In +those days so tightly were buggies and surries and democrats, and even +spring wagons and an occasional sulky wedged into the space, that it was +nothing unusual for the sermon to be interrupted by an uproar in the +sheds, when some peevish horse attempted to set its teeth in the neck of +a neighbor, with a resultant squealing and plunging, a cramping of +wheels and a rattle of harness which could neutralize the most +vociferous circuit rider's eloquence. + +At the door, J.W. fell in with the little group of men, who, according +to ancient custom, had waited in the yard for the announcement of the +first hymn before ending their talk of crops and roads and stock, and +joining the women and children within. + +Inside the contrast with the older day was even more striking. The +church, small as it was, seemed almost empty. The Shenks were there, +including Jeannette, as J.W. promptly managed to observe. Father Foltz +and his middle-aged daughter stood in their accustomed place; they had +come in the venerable sidebar buggy, just as for two decades past. +Mother Foltz hadn't been out of the house in years, and among J.W.'s +earliest recollections were those of the cottage prayer meetings that he +had attended with his father in Mrs. Foltz's speckless sickroom. Then +there were the four Newells, and Mrs. Bellamy, and Mr. and Mrs. Haggard +with their two little girls, and a few people J.W. did not know--perhaps +twenty-five altogether. No wonder the preacher was disheartened, and +preached a flavorless sermon. + +Where were the boys and girls of even a dozen years ago? where the +children who began their Sunday school career in the little recess back +of the curtain? and where the whole families that once filled the place? +Surely, old Deep Creek Church had fallen on evil days. + +It was a dismal service, with its dreary sermon and its tuneless hymns. +After the benediction J.W. shook hands with the preacher, whom he knew +slightly, and exchanged greetings with all the old friends. + +"Well, John Wesley," said Father Foltz, with glum garrulity, "this ain't +the church you used to know when you was little. I mind in them times +when you folks lived on the farm how we thought we'd have to enlarge the +meetinghouse. But it's a good thing we never done it. There's room +enough now," and the old man indulged in a mirthless, toothless grimace. + +The Shenks didn't invite him to dinner; their understanding was finer +than that. Pa Shenk just said, "Let me drive out first, John Wesley; +I'll go on ahead and open the gate," And J.W. said to Jeannette, "Jump +into my car, Jean; it isn't fair to put everybody into Pa Shenk's Ford +when mine's younger and nearly empty." + +So that was that; all regular and comfortable and proper. If Mrs. Newell +smiled as she watched them drive away, what of it? She was heard to say +to Mrs. Bellamy, "I've known for three years that those two ought to +wake up and fall in love with each other, and they've been slower than +Father Foltz's old gray mare. But it looks as though they were getting +their eyes open at last." + +At the farm Mrs. Shenk hurried to finish up the dinner preparations, +with Jeannette to help. Ben and little Alice contended for J.W.'s favor, +until he took Alice on his knee and put one arm about her and the other +about her brother, standing by the chair. And Pa Shenk talked about the +church. + +"I reckon I shouldn't complain, John Wesley," he said, "seeing that our +Marty is a country preacher, and maybe he'll be having to handle a job +like this some time. But I can't believe he will. His letters don't read +like it." + +"But, Pa Shenk," said J.W., "don't you suppose the trouble here in Deep +Creek is because you're so near town? Nine miles is nothing these days, +but when you first came to the farm there was only one automobile in the +township. Now everybody can go into town to church." + +"They can, boy," Pa Shenk answered, "but they don't. Not all of 'em. +Some don't care enough to go anywhere. One-year tenants, mostly, they +are. Some go to town, all right enough, but not to church. A few go to +church, I admit, but only a few." + +J.W. started to speak, hesitated, then blurted it out. "Maybe dad and +others like him are responsible for some of the trouble. They've pulled +out and left just a few to carry the load. You're all right, of course; +you really belong here. But a lot of the farmers who have moved to town +have rented their places to what you call one-year tenants, and it seems +to me that's a poor way to build up anything in the country, churches or +anything else. Tenants that are always moving don't get to know anybody +or to count for anything. It's not much wonder they are no use to the +church." + +"There's a good deal in that, John Wesley," said Pa Shenk. "Your father +and me, we get along fine. We're more like partners than owner and +tenant. But it isn't so with these short-term renters. The owner raises +the rent as the price of land rises, and the tenant is mostly too poor +to do anything much after he's paid the rent. Besides, he's got no stake +in the neighborhood. Why should he pay to help build a new church, when +he's got to move the first of March? And the church has been as careless +about him as he has been about the church." + +"That's what bothers me," J.W. commented. "But even so, I should think +something could be done to interest these folks. They've all got +families to bring up." + +"Something can be done, too," said Pa Shenk. "You remember when the +people on upper Deep Creek used to come here to church, four miles or +so? Well, now they are going to Fairfield Church--owners, renters, +everybody. It's surprising how Fairfield Church is growing. That's going +away from town, not to it, and they're as near to town as we are." + +"Then," persisted J.W., "how do you account for it?" + +"Only one way, my boy," said Pa Shenk. "I'm as much to blame as any, but +we've had some preachers here that didn't seem to understand, and then +lately we've had preachers who stayed in town all the time except on +preaching Sunday, and we scarcely saw or heard of 'em all the two weeks +between. They haven't held protracted meetings for several years, and I +ain't blaming 'em. What's the use of holding meetings when you know +nobody's coming except people that were converted before our present +pastor was born?" + +"You say some people are going over to Fairfield?" asked J.W. "Why do +they go there, when they could go to town about as easy?" + +"Well, John Wesley," Pa Shenk answered, soberly. "I think I know. But +you say you're going to spend next Sunday with Marty. From what Marty +writes I've a notion it's much the same on his work as it is at +Fairfield, except that Marty has two points. Wait till next week, and +then come back and tell us how you explain the difference between Deep +Creek Church and Ellis." + +In the afternoon Jeannette and J.W. took a ride around the +neighborhood, whose every tree and culvert and rural mail-box they knew, +without in the least being tired of seeing it. Their talk was on an old, +old subject, and not remarkable, yet somehow it was more to them both +than any poet's rhapsody. And their occasional silences were no less +eloquent. + +But in a more than usually prosaic moment Jeannette said, "John Wesley, +I wonder if there's any hope to get the Deep Creek young people +interested in church the way they used to be? I'm just hungry for the +sort of good times the older boys and girls used to have when you and +Marty and I were nothing but children. They enjoyed themselves, and so +did everybody else. What's the matter with so many country churches, +nowadays?" + +To which question J.W. could only answer: "I don't know. I didn't +realize things were so bad here. Maybe I'll get some ideas about it next +Saturday and Sunday. Your father seems to think Marty is getting started +on the right track. And that reminds me; don't let me go away without +those books he wants, will you?" + +This is not a record of that Sunday afternoon's drive, nor of the many +others which followed on other Sundays and on the days between. Some +other time there may be opportunity for the whole story of Jeannette and +J.W. + + * * * * * + +As J.W. drove up to Ellis Corners post office late the next Friday +afternoon Marty waylaid him and demanded to be taken aboard. "Drive a +half-mile further east," he said after their boisterous greetings. +"That's where we eat to-night--at Ambery's. Then just across the road to +the church. We've got something special on." + +"A box supper," asked J.W., "or a bean-bag party?" But he knew better. + +Marty told him to wait and see. Supper was a pleasant meal, the Amberys +being pleasant people, who lived in a cozy new house. But J.W. was +mystified to hear Marty speak of Henry Ambery as a retired farmer. He +knew retired farmers in town, plenty of them, and some no happier for +being there. But in the country? + +"Oh," said Marty, "that's easy. Our church is the social hub of all this +community, and I told the Amberys that if they built here they would be +as well off as in town. I'm right too. They bought two acres for less +than the price of a town lot, and they have most of the farm comforts as +well as all the modern conveniences. You didn't notice any signs of +homesickness, did you?" + +No, J.W., hadn't, though he knew the retired-farmer sort of homesickness +when he saw it. + +"And the Amberys are worth more to the church than they ever were," +Marty added. "I'm thinking of a scheme to colonize two or three other +retiring farmers within easy reach of this church. Why not? They've got +cars, and can drive to the county seat in an hour if they want to. +That's better than living there all the time, with nothing to do." + +By this the two were at the church, a pretty frame building, L-shaped, +with a community house adjoining the auditorium. People were beginning +to arrive in all sorts of vehicles--cars, mostly. J.W. looked for signs +of a feed, but vainly. No spread tables, no smell of cooking or rattle +of dishes from the kitchen. + +"What is it, Marty?" he asked. And Marty laughed as he answered, +"Old-fashioned singing school, with some new-fashioned variations, +that's all." Certainly it was something which interested the +countryside, for there was every indication of a crowded house. + +J.W. heard the singing and noted with high approval the variations which +modernized the old order. He thought the idea plenty good enough even +for Delafield, which, for him, left nothing more to be said. And there +_was_ a feed, after all; but it was distinctly light refreshments, such +as J.W. was used to at Delafield First Church. + +On the way back to the Amberys', and well into the night in Marty's +room, they talked about the circuit and its work. + +"It isn't a circuit, rightly, you know," Marty said. "I preach every +Sunday at both places, and for the present"--J.W. grinned--"I can get +across the whole parish every day if necessary. But I'm working it a +little more systematically than that." + +"You must be. I can hardly believe even what I've seen already," J.W. +replied. "When I was at Deep Creek last Sunday I was sure it was all +off with the country church, and on the way down here I passed three +abandoned meetinghouses. So I made up my mind to persuade you out of it. +You know I wasn't much in favor of your coming here in the first place. +But maybe that's a bigger job than I thought." + +"You're right, John Wesley, about that. I don't budge, if I can make +myself big enough for the job. It's too interesting. And things are +happening. There's no danger of this church being abandoned." + +"But what do you do, Marty, to make things happen? I know they don't +just happen. I'm from the country too, remember that." + +"What do I do? Not 'I' but 'we.' Well, we work with our heads first, and +our hearts. Then we get out and go at it. Take our very first social +difficulty; in Delafield you have a dozen places to go to. Here it's +either the church or the schoolhouse--that's all the choice there is. +And the schoolhouse has its limitations. So our folks have decided to +make the church, both here and at Valencia, the center of the community. +That explains the social hall; we call it 'Community House.' Everything +that goes on, except the barn dances over east that we can't do much +with so far, goes on in the church, or starts with the church, or ends +at the church. That's the first scheme we put over. It was fairly easy, +you know, because all our country people are pretty much one lot. We +have no rich, and no really poor. And they're not organized to death, +either, as you are in Delafield." + +"Do you try to have something going on every night, and nearly every +day, as Brother Drury does with us?" J.W. asked. + +"Not quite," replied Marty; "we can't. We're too busy growing the food +for you town folks. But we keep up a pretty stiff pace, for the +preacher; I have no time hanging on my hands." + +"I should think not," J.W. commented, "if you try to run everything. +Mr. Drury always seems to have lots of time, just because he makes the +rest of us run the works in Delafield First." + +"Oh, he does, does he?" said Marty, shortly, who knew something of the +older minister's strategy. "That's according to how you look at it. I'm +not above learning from him, and I don't run everything, either. But I'm +there, or thereabouts, most of the time." + +"How do you get time for your study and your sermons, then," queried J. +W., "if you're on the go so much?" + +Marty turned a quizzical look at J.W. "My beloved chum, how did you and +I get time for our studies at Cartwright?" he said. "Besides, I'm making +one hand wash the other. The social life here, for instance, used to be +pretty bad, before Henderson came--that's the preacher whose place I +took. It was pulling away from the church; now it draws to the church. +Henderson started that. The people who are my main dependence in the +other affairs are mostly the same people I can count on in the Sunday +school and League and the preaching service. The more we do the better +it is for what we do Sundays." + +"Then, there's another Because these people and I know one another so +well, I couldn't put on airs in the pulpit if I wanted to. I've just got +to preach straight, and I won't preach a thing I can't back up myself. I +use country illustrations; show them their own world. It's one big white +mark for the Farwell farm, as you might suppose, that I know the best +side of country life, though I don't advertise your real estate." + +"I know," said J.W. "But don't you find country people pretty hard to +manage? That's our experience at the store. They are particular and +critical, and think they know just what they want." + +"They do too," Marty asserted, "Why shouldn't they? I believe I can tell +you one big difference between the city boy and the country. You've been +both; see if I'm right. The country boy minds his folks, and his +teacher. But everything else minds him. He is boss of every critter on +the place, from the hens to the horses, whenever he has anything to do +with them at all. So he learns to think for them, as well as for +himself. In the city the boy has no chance to give orders--he's under +orders, all the time; the traffic cop, the truant officer, the boss in +the shop or the office, the street car conductor, the janitor--everybody +bosses him and he bosses nothing, except his kid brothers and sisters. +So he may come to be half cringer and half bully. The country boy is not +likely to be much afraid, and he soon learns that if he tries to boss +even the boys without good reason it doesn't pay. Maybe that's the +reason so many country boys make good when they go to the city." + +"And the reason why a city boy like me," suggested J.W., "would be a +misfit in the country." + +"Oh, you," scoffed Marty. "You don't count. You're a half-breed. But, as +I meant to say, you're right about country folks. They are a little +close, maybe. They are more independent in their business than town +people, but they learn how to work together; they exchange farm work, +and work the roads, and they are fairly dependent on one another for all +social life." + +"On Deep Creek the tenant farmers are the biggest difficulty, your dad +told me last Sunday," said J.W. "They go to town when they go anywhere, +and not to church, either." + +"I know," said Marty. "And I don't much blame 'em, from all I hear. But +Henderson changed that considerably in this community. He found out that +the tenants were just as human as the others, only they had the idea +that nobody cared about them, because they might be here to-day and gone +to-morrow. And, what do you think? I find tenant farmers around here are +beginning to take longer leases; one or two are about like dad's been +with your father--more partners than anything else. Every renter family +in this neighborhood comes to our church, and only three or four fight +shy of us at Valencia." + +"All right," said J.W., drowsily. "Go to sleep now; I've got to inspect +that Holstein hotel in the morning, and I know what country hours are." + +The next day J.W. drove off toward the big barns of his customer, and +left Marty deep in the mysteries of Sunday's sermon. Marty was yet a +very young preacher, and one sermon a week was all he could manage, as +several of his admirers had found out to his discomfiture, when one +Sunday they followed him from Ellis in the morning to Valencia at night. +But the "twicers" professed to enjoy it. + +J.W.'s farmer was quite ready to talk about the new barn equipment and +how it was working, and he had remarkably few complaints, these more for +form's sake than anything else. That business was soon out of the way. + +But Farmer Bellamy was interested in other things besides ventilators +and horse-forks. + +"So you're a friend of our preacher," he said, in the questioning +affirmative of the deliberate country. "Well, he's quite a go-ahead +young fellow; you never get up early enough to find him working in a +cold collar. Maybe he's a mite ambitious, but I don't know." + +J.W., as always, came promptly to Marty's defense. "He's not ambitious +for himself, Mr. Bellamy; I'll vouch for that. But I shouldn't wonder he +is ambitious about his work, and maybe that's not a bad thing for a +country preacher in these days." + +"That's so," Mr. Bellamy assented. "But I doubt we keep him. He'll be +getting a church in town before long." + +Now J.W. had no instructions from Marty, but he thought he might +venture. And he had been introduced to a few ideas that he had never met +in the days when he objected to Marty's taking a country circuit. + +"I'll tell you something, Mr. Bellamy," he said. "Marty is a farmer's +boy who loves the country. If he has the right sort of backing, I +shouldn't wonder he stayed here a good long time. He's got enough plans +ahead for this circuit of his." + +Mr. Bellamy laughed. "He has that; if he waits to get 'em all going +we're sure of him for a while. Why, he wants to make the church the most +important business in the whole neighborhood; and, what's more, he's +getting some of us to see it that way too." + +"Yes, I guess that's his dream," J.W. said. "And it's so much better +than the reality up around where I used to live that I wouldn't head him +off if I were you." + +"Head him off!" Mr. Bellamy laughed again. "Why, do you know what he did +in the fall, when some of us told him we couldn't do much for missions? +He phoned all over the neighborhood the day before he set out with a +ton-and-a-half truck he had hired for the job. Told us to put into the +truck anything we could spare. And what do you think? Before night he +drove into Hill City with a big overload, even for that truck, of wheat, +corn, butter, eggs, chickens, sausage, apples, potatoes, and dear knows +what. Sold the lot for sixty-nine dollars. He paid nine dollars for the +truck--got a rate on it--and turned in for missions sixty dollars. We've +never given more than twenty, in cash." + +"But that wasn't all. Next Sunday he reported, and before any of us +could say 'Praise the Lord!' says he, 'Don't think the Lord's giving any +of us much credit for that stuff. We owe him a good deal more than a few +eggs that we'll never miss. I just wanted to show you that when we +country people really start paying our tithe to the Almighty our +missionary and other offerings will make that truckload look like the +crumbs from our tables. I've proved that we're rich, instead of being +too poor to provide for missions. And it's all our Father's, you know. +When we pay him our tithe we admit that in the only practical way,' +Funny thing was the whole business had been so queer, nobody got mad +over his plain talk. Some of us have begun to tithe, and to enjoy it. +Yes; that young feller is quite a go-ahead young feller." + +J.W. rather admired the tale of the truck; it was like Marty, right +enough, to get his tithing talk illustrated with a load of produce; but +there was more than a hint of a new Marty, with a new directness and +confidence. + +So he asked, "What else is he doing that's making a difference?" + +And the floodgates were lifted. The Bellamy gift of utterance had a +congenial theme. For an hour the stream ran strong and steady, and when +it would have stopped none could tell. But J.W. remembered he had +promised to be back with Marty for dinner, and so, in the midst of a +story about Marty's Saturday afternoon outings with the boys, highly +reminiscent of their own old-time Saturdays in the Deep Creek timber, +J.W. made his excuses and hurried away. + +In that hour he had heard of the observing of special days, Thanksgiving +and Christmas particularly; of the rage for athletic equipment on every +farm which had youngsters, so that the usual anaemic croquet outfit had +given place to basketball practice sets, indoor-outdoor ball, +volley-ball nets, and other paraphernalia. Some of it not much used now, +since winter had come, but under Marty's leadership, a skating rink +construction gang had thrown up a dirt embankment in a low spot near the +creek and then cut a channel far enough upstream to flood about four +acres of swamp. Mr. Bellamy told about the skating tournaments every +afternoon of the cold weather for the school children, and Saturday +afternoons for the older young folks. More people went than skated too, +the garrulous farmer asserted. It was just another of that young +preacher's sociability schemes, and there was no end to 'em, seemed like +to him. + +There was even more on the business side of country life: how Marty had +joined forces with the Grange and the county agent and the cooperators +of the creamery and the elevator and the school teachers. And so on, and +so on. + +J.W. would be the last to worry about such a program; it just fitted +his ideas. But it made him a little more interested in the Sunday +services. Would Marty's preaching match his community work? + +But before Sunday morning came J.W. had other questions to ask. He put +them to Marty in intervals of the skating races; and again after supper, +before going over to the church to meet a little group of Sunday-school +folk--"my teacher-partners" Marty called them--who were learning with +him how to adapt Sunday school science and the teaching art to the +conditions of the open country. + +All of J.W.'s questions were really one big question: "Say, Marty, boy, +I always knew you had something in you that didn't show on the surface, +but I never thought it was exactly the stuff they need to make +up-to-date country preachers. How does it happen that you've blossomed +out in these few months as a Moses to lead a 'rural parish'--if that's +the right scientific name--out of such a wilderness as I saw at Deep +Creek last Sunday?" + +Marty made a pass at his chum in the fashion of the Cartwright days, and +waited for the return punch before answering. "Don't you 'Moses' me, +John Wesley. Besides, this circuit was no wilderness. Henderson, the +preacher who was here before me, was just the man for this work. He knew +the country, and believed it had the makings of even more attractive +life than the town. Too bad he had to quit. But he started these folks +thinking the right way. And then, don't you remember I wrote last +summer that I was spending two weeks at a school for rural ministers?" + +"Oh, yes, I remember that," J.W. answered, "but that's no explanation. I +spent four years at a college for town and country boys, and now look at +me! Two weeks is a little too short a course to produce miracles, even +with such an intellect as yours, notwithstanding your name is bigger +than mine, Martin Luther! Now, if you'd said four weeks, I might almost +have believed you, but two weeks--well, it just isn't done, that's all!" + +"Make fun of it, will you!" said Marty, with another short-arm jab. +"Now, listen to me. That thing is simple enough. First off, I'd been +thinking four years about being a preacher. On top of that, I'd been a +country boy for twenty-three years. I know the Deep Creek neighborhood +better than you do, because I had to live there. You were just visiting +the farm your father paid taxes on. When I came here I found that +Henderson had set things going. He told me what his dream was. So, when +I went to that two-weeks' school I was ready to take in every word and +see every picture and get a grip on every principle. Maybe you don't +know that it was one of many such schools set up by the rural work +leaders of our Home Missions Board, and it was a great school. They had +no use for rocking-chair ruralists, so the faculty, instead of being +made up of paper experts, was a bunch of men who _knew_. It was worth a +year of dawdling over text-books. You see, I knew I could come back here +and try everything on my own people. It was like the Squeers school in +'Nicholas Nickleby,' 'Member? When the spelling class was up, Squeers +says to Smike, the big, helpless dunce, 'Spell window,'" And Smike says, +'W-i-n-d-e-r,' 'All right,' Squeers says, 'now go out and wash 'em,' +Well, I hope I got the spelling a little nearer right, but I came home +and began washing my windows. That's all. + +J.W. said "Huh!" and that stood for understanding, and approval, and +confidence. + +As to Marty's preaching, it was a boy's preaching, naturally, but it was +preaching. And the people came for it; J.W., remarked to himself the +contrast between the close-parked cars around Ellis church and the +forlornly vacant horse-sheds he had seen at Deep Creek the Sunday +before. + +The hearty singing of people glad to be singing together, the contagious +interest of a well-filled house, and the simple directness of the +preacher were all of a piece. Here was no effort to ape the forms of a +cathedral, but neither was there any careless, cheap slovenliness. And +assuredly there were no religious "stunts." + +Marty preached the Christian evangel, not moralized agriculture. He made +the gospel invitation a social appeal, without blinking its primary +message to the individual to place himself under the authority of +Christ's self-forgetting love. He put first things in front--"Him that +cometh unto me," and then with simple illustrations and words as simple +he showed that they who had accepted Christ's lordship were honor bound +to live together under a new sort of law from that of the restless, +pushing, self-centered world: "It shall not be so among you." Besides, +he told them they could not separate service from profit. They knew, for +instance, that their farm values were a third higher because of the +presence of the church and its work, but they would find that the profit +motive was not big enough to keep the church going. They had to love the +work, and do it for love of it. + +That afternoon the friends drove over to Valencia, where at night Marty +would preach again this his one sermon of the week; and J.W. left him +there, turning his car homeward for the fifty-two miles to Delafield. + +As they parted, J.W. gripped Marty's hand and said: "Old man, I own up. +I thought you ought not to bury yourself in the country, but I had no +need to worry. I know preachers who are buried in town all right; you +have a bigger field and a livelier one than they will ever find. And +I'll never say another word about your two-weeks' school. If the Home +Missions Board had nothing else to do, such work as it showed you how to +do would be worth all the Board costs. I'm going to make trouble for Mr. +Drury and the district superintendent and the bishop and the Board and +anybody else I can get hold of, until Deep Creek gets the same sort of +chance as this circuit of yours. If only they knew where to find another +Martin Luther Shenk--that's the rub!" And with a last handclasp the +chums went their separate ways. + +On Monday J.W. called up Pastor Drury and gave that gentleman, who was +expecting it, a five-minute summary of his day with Marty. "I'm awfully +glad I happened to think of going over there," he said, "not only for +the sake of being with the old boy again, but because I've got some new +notions about the country church, and about what we Methodists are +beginning to do for the places where Methodism got its start." + +And Walter Drury said, "Yes, I'm glad, too." So he was; he could put +down a new mark on the credit side of the Experiment. + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +"IS HE NOT A MAN AND A BROTHER?" + +The colored Methodists of Delafield, who called their church "Saint +Marks," had always been on good terms with their white co-religionists. +Mr. Drury and the pastor of Saint Marks found many occasions of helping +each other in their work. The single way in which these two showed +themselves conscious of the color line was that while the pastor of +First Church often "preached" in Saint Marks, when the pastor of Saint +Marks appeared in the pulpit of First Church, it was "to speak on some +aspect of his work." + +J.W. knew Saint Marks of old. In his high-school days that church had +for its preacher one of a fast-vanishing race, a man mighty in +exhortation, even though narrowly circumscribed in scholastic equipment. +His preaching was redolent of the camp meeting, and he counted that +sermon lost which did not evoke a shout or two from the front benches. + +A few of First Church's younger people often went to sing at Saint Marks +on special occasions, and went all the more cheerfully because of the +chance it afforded to hear Brother King Officer preach. Where he got +that name is not known, but he had no other. + +Do not think the young people either went to scoff or remained to pray. +If at times they were amused at Brother Officer's peculiarities, so +were some members of his own flock, and Brother Officer was wise enough +to assume that no disrespect was intended. And if the white visitors +treated his fervent appeals to the unconverted and backsliders as part +of the program, but having no slightest application to them, this was +also the regular thing, and nobody was troubled thereat. + +But while J.W. was away at college a new pastor had come to Saint Marks, +a college and seminary graduate. And he had come just in time. Brother +Officer was getting old, but the determining factor which made the +change necessary was that Delafield happened to be near one of the +general routes by which thousands of colored people were moving +northward. "Exoduses" have been before; Kansas still remembers the +exodus from Tennessee of forty years ago; but this latest exodus had no +one starting-point nor any single destination. It was a vast shifting of +Negro populations from below Mason and Dixon's line, and it swept +northward toward all the great industrial centers. Its cause and +consequences make a remarkable story, for which there is no room in this +chronicle. + +Delafield thought it could not absorb many more Negroes, but before the +exodus movement subsided the stragglers who had turned aside at +Delafield had more than doubled the Negro population of the town. + +A heavy burden of new responsibility was on the young pastor of Saint +Marks. The newcomers had no such alertness and resourcefulness as his +own people. They were helpless in the face of new experiences. Soon +they became a worry and an enigma to the town authorities; but +especially and inevitably they turned to the churches of their own +color, of which Delafield could boast but two, a Methodist and a +Baptist. So Saint Marks and its pastor found both new opportunity and +new troubles. + +One day in the early spring Mr. Drury dropped in to the Farwell store +and asked J.W. if he would be busy that night. The road to Deep Creek +was at its spring worst, and J.W. had nothing special on. He said as +much, and answering his look of inquiry the pastor said, "There's a man +speaking at Saint Marks to-night who's a Yale graduate and a Negro. He's +also a Methodist. Does the combination interest you?" + +"Why, yes," J.W. answered, "it might. You know I used to go with the +bunch to Saint Marks when Brother Officer was pastor, but I haven't been +since he left. I'd like to see what the new preacher is doing, and it +ought to be worth something to hear a Negro alumnus of Yale." + +William Hightower, it seemed, was the speaker's name--a strong-voiced; +confident man in his thirties. As J.W., soon discovered, Hightower was a +distinctively modern Negro. Where King Officer had been almost cringing, +Hightower's thought, however diplomatically spoken, was that of an +up-standing mind; where Officer accepted as part of the social order the +colored man's dependence on the white, Hightower spoke of something he +called racial solidarity. It was plain that he meant his Negro hearers +to make much of the Negro's capacity for self-direction. + +There was little bitterness and no radicalism in the speech, but to J.W. +it had a queer, new note. He said as much to Mr. Drury, on the way home. +"Why, that Hightower hardly ever mentioned the church, although he was +speaking at a church meeting. And how independent he was!" + +"So you noticed that, did you?" the pastor responded. "To me it is one +of the signs of a new day." + +"But do you think it is a good day, Mr. Drury?" queried J.W. + +"Yes--perhaps; I don't know. Anyhow, it is new, and some of the blame +for it is on our shoulders. The way the Negro thinks and feels to-day is +a striking proof of the fact, often forgotten, that when you settle old +questions you raise new ones." + +"Maybe," said J.W. doubtfully, "but I didn't know we had settled the +Negro question." + +"Nor I," agreed Mr. Drury. "What we--I mean, we Methodists--settled when +we began to deal with the Negro right after emancipation was not the +race question. It was not even a missionary question, in the old sense, +but it was the question of the nature of the education we should give +the young colored people. For we set out deliberately to give them +schooling first, with evangelism as an accompaniment. The stress was on +education, and we decided at the outset on a certain sort of education." + +"I should think," ventured J.W., "that any old sort of education would +serve; the first teachers had to begin at the bottom, didn't they?" + +"Yes, and lower than any beginnings you know anything about," the pastor +replied. "Our first workers began without equipment, without +encouragement, and without everything else except a great pity for the +freedman. Did you notice, by the way, that the speaker to-night never +said 'freedman' or mentioned slavery? It is a new day, I tell you." + +"I wish you'd explain just what you mean by that, Mr. Drury," J.W. said. +"I don't seem to get it." + +"I mean," said Mr. Drury, "that as soon as our church had decided to do +something for the emancipated slaves, it began to work out a scheme of +Negro education. That was before Tuskegee, and even before Hampton +Institute. Maybe we never thought of the Booker Washington idea, or +purely industrial education, but at any rate we went on the theory that +the Negro deserved and in time could take as good an education as any +other American. So we started academies and colleges and even +universities for him, and a medical school and a theological seminary." + +"I can see myself that there's a difference between that and the +industrial idea," said J.W. + +"Decidedly, there is," answered the minister; "all the difference which +has helped to bring this new day I'm talking about, and to produce such +Negro leaders as William Hightower. You see, J.W., it's this way: Booker +Washington believed that after the Negro had been taught to read and +write and cipher, his next and greatest educational need was to learn +to make a living." + +"Well, what's the matter with that?" retorted J.W. "Seems to me it's +common sense." + +"Possibly," Mr. Drury answered, dryly. "But what would you say was the +first thing needed in the fight against the almost total illiteracy of +the freedmen?" + +"Why, teachers, I suppose," said J.W. "And it would sure take a lot of +teachers, even to make a start." + +Mr. Drury said, "That's exactly the fact. It has called for so many that +to this day there isn't anything like enough teachers, although some of +our schools and those of other churches have been at work for fifty +years. And, remember, that practically all of these teachers, except in +a few advanced schools, must be black teachers, themselves brought up +out of ignorance." + +"Well," said J.W., "that's my point. The quicker we could teach the +teachers, the sooner they would be ready to teach others." + +"That is to say," Mr. Drury interpreted, "the less we taught them, the +better? Seems to me I heard something of a small revolt in your time at +Cartwright because it seemed necessary that a young tutor should be +temporarily assigned to the class in sophomore English." + +J.W. chuckled. "It was my class. Why, that fellow was never more than +two jumps ahead of the daily work. We knew he had to study his own +lesson assignments before he could hear a recitation. We weren't +getting anything out of it except the bare text. So some of the boys +made things lively for a few days, and he asked to be relieved." + +"Quite so. Your class had every imaginable advantage over the colored +boys and girls in our schools--just one teacher below par. And yet you +think it would be all right to have all colored teachers no more than +two jumps ahead of their pupils." + +"Well, yes, I see," J.W. said, with a touch of thoughtfulness. "I +suppose a good teacher needs more than the minimum text-book knowledge. +Is that the Methodist theory?" + +"Now you're talking like yourself," Mr. Drury told him. "Yes, that's the +Methodist theory. For the fifty years of the old Freedmen's Aid +Society--now the Board of Education for Negroes--it has run these +schools, eighteen of them now, with five thousand seven hundred and two +earnest students enrolled, on a double theory. The first part of the +theory is that every child--black, white, red or yellow--ought to have +all the education he can use. Anything less than that would be as good +as saying that America cares to develop its human resources only just so +far, and not to the limit. The other part of the theory is that the last +person in the world to be put off with half an education is a preacher +or a teacher. The best is just good enough for all teachers, whether +they teach from a desk or from a pulpit." + +"I guess that's so too," said J.W. "You're getting me interested. Now go +on and tell me some more." + +"The new pastor of Saint Marks told me," said Mr. Drury, irrelevantly, +"that they would be wanting some new roofing for the barn they're +turning into a community house. I shouldn't be surprised if you sold the +church a nice little bill of goods. And while you are at it, you might +talk to the pastor--Driver's his name--about this thing from his side of +the road. He knows more than I do." + +J.W. said he would. And, though he would have meant it in any case, the +hint about roofing made certain that "Elder" Driver would have a call in +the morning from a rising young hardware salesman. + +By this time they were at the Farwell gate, and J.W. said goodnight. Mr. +Drury walked home, but before he got ready for his beloved last hour of +the day, with its easy chair and its cherished book, he called up his +colored colleague, and they had a brief talk over the 'phone. + +Now, Walter Drury had taken no one into his confidence about the +Experiment, nor did he intend to; he had the best of reasons for keeping +his own counsel, through the years. So Elder Driver could not know the +true inwardness of this telephone call; indeed, it was so casual that he +did not even think to mention it to J.W. when that alert roofing +specialist turned up next morning. + +"I heard you were going to put new roofing on that barn you are fixing +up, Mr. Driver, and I thought I might get your order for the job. Maybe +you know that we do a good deal of that sort of work, and we can give +you expert service; the right roofing put on to stay, and to stay put." + +Yes, they were thinking of that roof; had to, because it leaked like a +market basket, and they needed the place right now, what with the many +colored Methodists who had come to town and had no home--only rooms in +the little houses of the colored settlement that had been too small for +comfort even before the exodus. But the place would be worth a lot to +their work when they got it. + +"About how much do you think of spending, Mr. Driver?" J.W. asked. +Knowing the limited means of Saint Marks, he expected to supply the +cheapest roofing the Farwell Hardware Company had in stock, but Pastor +Driver had a surprise for him. + +"Why," he said, "we want the best there is. That building was a barn, +I'll admit, but it is strongly built, and we expect to fix it pretty +thoroughly. We have a gift from the Board of Home Missions and Church +Extension, and we match that with as much again of our own money, enough +in all to swing the building around off the alley, put it on a new +foundation next to the church, and remodel it for our needs." + +"That's news to me," said J.W., "though of course I'm glad to hear it. +But I didn't know that the Board put money into such work as this. +Somehow I supposed you were under the Board of Education for Negroes." + +"No, not for this sort of church work," the colored pastor answered. "I +was 'under' the Board of Education for Negroes, as you put it, for a +long time myself, in the days when it was called the Freedmen's Aid +Society. And so was my wife. But now we're doing missionary work, and +that's the other Board's job." + +"Oh, yes," J.W. assented. "I might have known that. And you mean that +you were under the Freedmen's Aid Society when you were going to +school--is that it?" + +"That's it," said Pastor Driver, with a gleaming smile. "I was in two of +the schools. Philander Smith College, at Little Rock, Arkansas, and +Clark University, at Atlanta, Georgia. Then I got my theological course +at Gammon, on the same campus as Clark." + +"You say your wife was in school too?" + +"Yes"--with an even brighter smile--"she was at Clark when I met her. +Like me, she attended two schools on that campus. The other was Thayer +Home, a girls' dormitory, supported by the Woman's Home Missionary +Society." + +"A home? Then how could it be a school?" J.W. asked. + +"That's just it, Mr. Farwell," the minister explained. "It was a school +of home life, not only cooking and sewing and scrubbing, and what all +you think of as domestic science, but a school of the home spirit--just +the thing my people need. Thayer was, and is, a place where the girl +students of Clark University learn how to make real homes. And in the +college classes they learn what you might suppose any college student +would learn. That's why I said Mrs. Driver went to two schools." + +J.W. recalled the Hightower speech of the night before, and the +discussion with Mr. Drury on the way home. He wanted to go into it all +with this pastor, who wasn't much past his own age, and evidently had +some ideas. For the first time he wondered too how it happened that in +that draft of the Everyday Doctrines of Delafield they had altogether +ignored the Negro. Was that a symptom of something? Then he remembered +his errand, and the work which was waiting up at the store. + +So he said: "Excuse me, Mr. Driver, for being so inquisitive. I've never +thought much about our church's colored work, but what I heard at last +night's meeting started me. Rather curious that I should be here talking +about it with you the very next morning, isn't it? But about that +roofing, now. Of course you'll look around and get other estimates, but +anyway I'd be glad to take the measurements and give you our figures. I +promise you they'll be worth considering." + +"I'm sure of that, Mr. Farwell," said the other, heartily, "and if I +have any influence with the committee--and I think I have--you needn't +lose any sleep over any other figures we might get. As for being +inquisitive about our work here, I wish more of this town's white +Methodists would get inquisitive. And that reminds me: there's to be an +Epworth League convention here week after next, and I've been told to +invite one of the League leaders in your church to make a short address +on the opening night. You're a League leader, I know, and the first one +I've thought about. So I'm asking you, right now. Will you come over and +speak for us?" + +Now, though J.W. always said he was no speaker, he had never hesitated +to accept invitations to take part in League conventions. But this was +different. He made no answer for a minute. And in the pause his mind was +busy with all he knew, and all he had acquired at second hand, about the +relations of colored Christians and white, and particularly about what +might be thought and said if it should be announced that he was to speak +at a Negro Epworth League convention. And then he had the grace to +blush, realizing that this colored pastor, waiting so quietly for his +answer, must infallibly have followed his thoughts. In his swift +self-blame he felt that the least amends he could make for his unspoken +discourtesy was a prompt acceptance of the invitation. + +So he looked up and said, hurriedly: "Mr. Driver, forgive me for not +speaking sooner. I'll do the best I can"; and then, regaining his +composure, "Have you any idea as to the subject I'm supposed to talk +about?" + +"Yes," the colored minister replied, not without a touch of curious +tenseness in his voice. "The committee wanted me to get a representative +from your Chapter to make a ten-minute address of welcome on behalf of +the Epworthians of First Church!" + +Again J.W. was forced to hesitate. Here he was an Epworthian, but +knowing nothing at all about the work of these other young Methodists. +Until to-day he scarcely knew they existed. And now he was asked to +welcome them to town in the name of the League! + +But once again shame compelled him to take the bold course. With an +apologetic smile he said, "Well, that's the last subject I could imagine +you'd give to any of us at First Church. Your young people and ours have +hardly been aware of each other, and it seems queer that you should ask +me to make an address of welcome in your church. But as I think of it, +maybe this is just what somebody ought to do, and I might as well try +it. Trouble is, what am I going to say?" + +"We'll risk that, Mr. Farwell," said Pastor Driver, confidently. "Just +say what you think, and you'll do all right." + +J.W. was by no means sure of that, and the more he thought about his +speech in the next few days, the more confused he became. Any ordinary +speech of welcome would be easy--"Glad you were sensible enough to come +to Delafield," "make yourselves at home," "freedom of the city," "our +latch strings are out," "command us for anything we can do," +"congratulate you on the fine work you are doing," "know when we return +this visit and come to the places you represent you will make us +welcome"--and so on. But it was plainly impossible for him to talk like +that. It wouldn't be true, and it would certainly not be prudent. + +He put the thing up to J.W., Sr. "What'll I say, dad?" he asked. "You +know we haven't had much to do with the people of Saint Marks, and maybe +it wouldn't be best for us to make any sudden change as to that, even +if some of us wanted to. But I've got to talk like a Christian, whether +I feel like one or not." + +"My son," his father answered him, sententiously, "it's your speech, not +mine. But if an old fogy may suggest something, why not forget all about +the usual sort of welcome address? Why not say something of the whole +program of our church as it affects our colored people? It touches the +young folks more than any others. Welcome them to that." + +"That's all very fine," J.W. objected. "Everybody who's on for an +address of welcome is advised by his friends to cut out the old stuff, +but it means work. And you know that I don't know the first thing about +what you call the whole program of our church for the colored people. +That man Driver knows, but I can't ask him." + +"Of course not," assented J.W., Sr., "but you can ask somebody else. +I'll venture Mr. Drury can tell you where to find all you would want to +talk about. Ask him. You're never bothered by bashfulness with him, if I +remember right." + +J.W. admitted he had already thought of that. "He and I were talking +about this very thing the night before I went to see about that roofing. +But here's the point--I'm not to represent the pastor, but the young +people. And I'm not so sure that what Mr. Drury might give me, if he +were willing, could be made to fit into a League speech, under the +circumstances." + +"I'd try it anyway," said the elder Farwell. "He's nearly always +willing, seems to me, and a pretty safe adviser most of the time." + +"All right," agreed J.W., "I'll see him, but he'll probably tell me to +find things out for myself. He's a good scout, is Mr. Drury; the best +pastor I ever knew or want to know, but sometimes he has the queerest +streaks; won't help a fellow a little bit, and when you're absolutely +sure he could if he would. It won't be enough to see him, though; even +if he is in a generous mood and gives me more dope than I can use. I'd +better talk to some of the League people." And still he gravitated +toward the pastor's study. It was the easiest way. + +The pastor was always in a more generous mood than J.W. gave him credit +for. It was only that he never supplied crutches when people needed to +use their legs, nor brains when they needed to use their heads, nor +emotions when they needed to use their hearts. + +He told J.W. to rummage through the one bookshelf in the study which +held his small but usable collection of books and pamphlets on the +Negro, and see what he might find. And, as always, they talked. + +"I can tell by that preacher at Saint Marks," said J.W., "how I had the +wrong end of the argument that night we came from Hightower's address. A +man with a big job like his has to be a pretty big man, and he needs all +the education he can get." + +"There's a principle in that, J.W.," suggested Mr. Drury; "see if this +seems a reasonable way to state it: In dealing with any people, the +more needy they are, the better equipped and trained their leaders +should be." + +"Yes, sir, it sounds reasonable enough," J.W. admitted. "And yet I never +thought of it until now. But you said something the other night that I +don't see yet." + +"That may be no fault of yours, my boy," said the minister, with a +laugh. "What was it?" + +"Why, you said men like Hightower are inclined to overlook the work of +the church, and that it was the church's own fault; something about +raising new questions when you settle old ones." + +"Oh, yes," said Mr. Drury, "I remember. Maybe saying it's the church's +own fault is not just the way to put it. Say instead that you can't +educate children, nor yet races that are developing, and expect them to +turn out exactly according to your notions of the future. Because, when +their minds are growing they are developing, not according to something +in you, but according to something in them. So every teacher, and I +suppose every parent, has moments of wondering how it ever happens that +young people learn so much that is not taught them. And it's the same +way with races." + +"You mean," inquired J.W., "that Hightower is like that?" + +"I mean," Pastor Drury replied, "that everybody is like that. If we had +given the Negro no education at all, we could probably have kept him +contented for a good many years with just being 'free.' If we had given +no Negro anything but a common-school chance, the race would have been +pretty slow to develop discontent. But Hightower went to Yale, and Du +Bois went to Harvard and Germany, and Pickens went to Yale, and so on. +Thousands of colored men and women have been graduated from colleges of +liberal arts. And so they are not satisfied with conditions which would +have been heavenly bliss to their grandfathers and grandmothers." + +"I know I'm stupid," said J.W., a trifle ruefully, "but I've always +supposed that education was good for everybody. Now you seem to say that +education makes people discontented." + +"Of course it does," said Mr. Drury, "that's the reason it is good for +them. Would you be content to call a one-room shack home, and live as +the plantation hand lives? If you would, the world's profit out of you, +and your own profit out of yourself, wouldn't be much. Real education +does exactly mean discontent. And the people who are discontented may be +uncomfortable to live with, if we think they ought to be docile, but +they get us forward." + +"Maybe you're right," J.W. conceded, "and the church is not to be +blamed. Still, if our work for the black man has made him troublesome, +and given him ideas bigger than he can hope to realize, how does that +fit in with our Christianity? Shouldn't the church be a peacemaker, +instead of a trouble-maker?" + +"Now, John Wesley, Jr.," the other said, in mock protest, "that sermon +of mine on 'Not Peace, but a Sword' must have been wasted on you. Our +Lord most certainly came to make peace, and he spoke a great blessing on +peacemakers. But he was himself the world's greatest disturber. Peace +while there is injustice, or ignorance, or any sort of wickedness, has +nothing to do with Christ's intentions. I know that the old-time +slave-traders of the North, and the more persistent slave-buyers of the +South, were always asking for that sort of peace. But they couldn't have +it. Nobody ever can have it, so long as Jesus has a single follower in +the world." + +"Well, what has all this to do," asked J.W., "with our church's special +work for the colored people?" + +"Ah, yes," the pastor answered, "that's the very thing you must find out +before you make that address of welcome." + +By this time J.W. had gathered up a pile of books, pamphlets, reports, +and papers--enough, he thought, to serve as the raw material of a Ph.D. +thesis, and he said to Mr. Drury, "Would you mind if I took this home? +I'll bring it all back, and it's not likely I'll damage it much.". + +The asking was no more than a form; for years the people of First Church +had known themselves freely welcome to any book in the preacher's +shelves. An interest in his books was passport to his special favor. His +own evident love for books had been the best possible insurance that +these particular borrowers would be more scrupulous than the general. +This bit of pastoral work, it should be said, with the frequent +book-talk that grew out of it, was not least among all the reasons why +First Church people thought their bachelor minister just the man for +them. + +So off went J.W. with his armful, and for a week thereafter you might +have supposed he was cramming for a final exam of some sort. Early in +his preparation he decided that his father's advice was wise, and he put +the stress of his effort on the church's work and how Negro youth had +responded to it. The other matter was too delicate, he felt, for his +amateur handling, and, besides, he was not altogether sure even of his +own position. + +On the convention night Saint Marks was crowded with young colored +people, some of whom came from places a hundred miles away. They were +badged and pennanted quite in the fashion to which J.W. was accustomed. +But for their color, and, to be frank, for a little more restraint and +thoughtfulness in their really unusual singing, they were just young +Methodists at a convention, not different from Caucasian Methodists of +the same age. + +When J.W.'s turn came to speak, the chairman introduced him in the +fewest possible words, but with the courtesy which belongs to +self-respect, saying, "Mr. Farwell will make the delegates welcome in +the name of the First Church Epworthians." + +And he did. He had his notes, pretty full ones, to which he made +frequent references, but the quality in his speech which drew the +convention's cheers was its frank and natural simplicity. + +"I would have begged off from this duty, if I could," he began, "but I +knew from the moment I was asked that I had no decent excuse. But I knew +so little of what I ought to say that it was necessary for me to dig, +just as I used to do at school." + +The result of my digging is that I know now and I want you to know that +I know, why First Church young people should join in welcoming you to +Delafield. Some of them don't know yet, any more than I did ten days +ago; but I intend to enlighten them the first chance I get. + +We First Church Epworthians might welcome you for many reasons, but I +have decided to stick to two, because, as I have said, I have just been +learning something about them. + +We welcome you, then, because you represent the most eager hunger for +complete education that exists in America to-day, unless our new Hebrew +citizens can match it. No others can. The record of our church's schools +for your race prove that it simply is not possible to keep the Negro +youth out of school. They will walk further, eat less, work harder, and +stay longer to get an education than for anything else in the world. + +Not so many days ago I ignorantly thought that the 'three R's' was all +that ought to be offered, partly because the need is so great. I hope +you will forgive me that thought, when I tell you that now I know what +ignorance it revealed in me. The great need is the strongest argument +for the highest education. Because of your great numbers, and because +of your ever intenser racial self-respect, the Negro must educate the +Negro, be physician for the Negro, preach to the Negro, nurse the Negro, +lead the Negro in all his upward effort. Otherwise these things will be +done badly, or patronizingly, or not at all. + +But if you are to do your own educational work, your educators must be +fully equipped. It is not possible to send the whole race to college, +but it is possible to send college-trained youth to the race. For this +reason our church has established normal schools, colleges of liberal +arts, professional schools, homes for college girls, so that the coming +leaders of your people may have access to the best the world offers in +science and literature, in medicine and law, in business and religion. + +You will not mistake my purpose, I am sure, in saying that you know +better than we can guess how your people, through no fault of theirs, +have been long in bondage to the unskilled hand, the unawakened mind, +and the uninspired heart. But it is more and more an unwilling bondage. + +And our church, your church, has set up these schools and these +training homes I have mentioned, as though she were saying, in the words +of one of your own wonderful songs, 'Let my people go!' And the results +are coming. Your two bishops, one in the South and one in Africa, your +leaders in the church's highest councils, your educators, your +far-seeing business men, your great preachers, are part of the answer +to your church's passion to give full freedom to all her people. + +For you are _her_ people, the people of the Christian Church; we are +all God's people. It seems to me that just now God is interested in +bringing to every race in the world the chance of liberty for hand and +head and heart. God has greater things for us all to do than we can now +understand, but all his purposes must wait on our getting free from +everything that would defeat our work. + +Our First-Church young people welcome you because with all else you +represent a great purpose to make religion intelligent. You know, as we +do, that piety to be vital must be mixed with sound learning. You have +the missionary spirit, which never thrives in an atmosphere of +resistance to education. You are 'fellow Christians,' fellow workers. We +are sharers with you in personal devotion to our Lord, and in the common +purpose to make him Master of all life. + +And, finally, let me say it bluntly, we welcome you because we believe +in your pride of race, and honor it in you as we honor it in our fellow +citizens of other races. They and you have some things in common, but +you will not misunderstand me when I congratulate you on what is +peculiar to you. You have been fully Americanized for more generations +than most other Americans. You have no need to strive after the American +spirit. I have a friend of Greek birth, who thinks pridefully back to +the Golden Age of Greece, and I envy him his glorying. But your pride +of race, turning away from the unhappy past, sees your Golden Age in +the days to come, not in the dim yesterdays. You are the makers, not the +inheritors, of a great destiny. + +"For that noble future which is to be yours in our common America, you +do well to hold as above price the purity and strength of your racial +life. Better than we of Caucasian stock, you know that only so may all +the values be fully realized which are to be Africa's contribution to +the spiritual wealth of America and the world." + +There was a moment of silence, for the implications of the last sentence +were not as plain as they might have been. But when the audience caught +J.W.'s somewhat daring appeal to its racial self-respect it broke into +such cheers as are not given to the polite phraser of conventional +commonplaces. + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +THE FIRST AMERICAN CIVILIZATION + +The full record of J.W.'s commercial career must he left to some other +chronicler, but an occasional reference to it cannot be omitted from +these pages. + +Pastor Drury's brother Albert, a Saint Louis business man who knew the +old city by the Mississippi from the levees to the University, was a +citizen who loved his city so well that he did not need to join a +Boosters' Club to prove it. The two Drurys saw each other, as both +averred, all too seldom. On the infrequent occasions when they met, as, +for instance, during a certain church federation gathering which had +brought the minister down to Saint Louis from Delafield, their +"visiting" was a joyous thing to see. + +Lounging in the City Club one day after lunch, with every other subject +of common interest at least touched on, Brother Albert turned to Brother +Walter: "And how goes the church and parish of Delafield? You told me +long ago that you wanted to stay there ten years; it's more than eight +now. Does the ten-year mark yet stand?" + +"Yes, Al., it still stands, if nothing should interfere," said Walter. +He had never told his brother the reason back of that ten-year mark, and +he was not ready, even yet, for that. Of late he had taken to wondering +when and how the Experiment would come to its crisis. He wanted some +help just now, and here might be an opening. So he went on, "I've been +working away at several special jobs, as you know I like to do, and one +of them has a good deal to do with a young fellow named Farwell, John +Wesley Farwell, Jr., who'll be the mainstay of the best hardware store +in Delafield before long if he sticks to it. Everybody calls him 'J.W.,' +and he's the sort of boy that has always interested me, he's so +'average,'" He paused; his thoughts busy with the Experiment. + +"Well," his brother broke in, after a moment, "what's this young John +Wesley Methodist been doing?" + +"It isn't altogether what he has been doing, but it's what I'd like to +see him get a chance to do," explained the preacher. "He's tied to the +store and to Delafield, so far, and I've reasons for wanting him to see +some parts of this country he'll never see from Main Street in our +town." + +"Well, brother mine, maybe he could be induced to leave that particular +Main Street. There's where we get the best citizens of this village. Has +he any objections to making a change--to travel, for instance?" + +"I don't know," said Walter; "probably not. He's young, and has a pretty +good education. I do know that he's ambitious to make himself the best +hardware man in our section, and I believe he'll do it, in time. +Personally, I _want_ him to travel. But how would anybody go about +getting him the chance?" + +Albert Drury laughed. "That's easy, only a preacher couldn't be +expected to see it. If any country boy really knows the stuff he +handles, whether it is hardware or candy or hides, he can get the chance +all right. This town wants him. Don't you know that the big wholesale +houses recruit their sales forces by spotting just such boys as your +John Wesley Farwell may be? But what do you mean by calling him average, +if he's such a keen judge of hardware?" + +"Oh, well, he _is_ more than average on hardware, but he's so +beautifully average human; one of those chaps who do most of the real +work of the world." + +"All right, old man; I'm not sure that I follow you; but, anyway, I may +be of some use. I'll tell you what I'll do; I know the very man. Peter +McDougall, who's a friend I can bank on, is sales manager of the +Cummings Hardware Corporation. Nothing will come of it if Peter is not +impressed, but all I need to do is to tell him there's a prospective +star salesman up at Delafield, and his man who has that territory will +be looking up your John Wesley before you have time to write another +sermon. By the way," he added, "what part of the country did you say you +wanted young Farwell to see?" + +"I didn't say," the preacher admitted, "but I would like him to see +something of the Southwest. I want to see what will happen when he bumps +up against the sort of civilization that followed the Spanish to +America." + +"Well, of course, you know that wholesale hardware houses don't run +salesmen's excursions to help Methodist preachers try out the effect of +American history on their young parishioners, no matter how lofty the +motive," and Albert Drury poked his brother in the ribs. "But supposing +this boy is otherwise good stuff he'll be in the right place, if he goes +with the Cummings people. A big share of their business is in that end +of the world." + +If J.W. had been told of this conversation, which he wasn't, he might +not have been quite so mystified over the letter from the great Peter +McDougall, which came a few weeks after the preacher's return from Saint +Louis. McDougall he knew well by reputation, having heard about him from +every Cummings man who unpacked samples in Delafield. And to be invited +to Saint Louis by the great man, with the possibility of "an opening, +ultimately, in our sales force," was a surprise as interesting as it was +unexpected. Naturally, J.W. could not know how much careful +investigation had preceded the writing of that letter. The Cummings +Corporation did not act on impulse. But he would have accepted the +invitation in any case. + +And that is enough for the present purpose of the story of J.W.'s first +business venture away from Delafield. Not without some hesitation did he +close with the Cummings offer; but after he had talked it all over with +the folks at home, and then all over again out at Deep Creek with +Jeannette Shenk, who was both sorry and proud, it was settled. Reaching +Saint Louis, the canny McDougall looked him over and thought him worth +trying out; so over he went to the stock department. Then followed busy +weeks in the buildings of the Cummings Hardware Corporation down by the +river, learning the stock. He discovered before the end of the first day +that he had never yet guessed what "hardware" meant; he wandered through +the mazes of the vast warehouses until his legs ached much and his eyes +ached more. + +At last came the day when he found himself on the road, not alone, of +course, but in tow of Fred Finch, an old Cummings salesman who had +occasionally "made" Delafield. The Cummings people did not throw their +new men overboard and let them swim if they could. They had a careful +training system, of which the stockroom days were one part, and this +personally conducted introduction to the road was another. + +Albert Drury had been sufficiently interested in his brother's wish to +drop a hint to McDougall, to which that hard-headed executive would have +paid no attention if it had not fitted in just then with the +requirements of his sales policy. But the hint sent J.W. out with Finch +over the longest route which the house worked for trade. On the map this +route was a great kite-shaped thing, with its point at Saint Louis, and +the whole Southwest this side of the Colorado River included in the +sweep of its sides and top. + +To Fred Finch it was a weary journey, but J.W. gave no thought to its +discomforts. He was seeing the country, as well as learning to sell +hardware, and both occupations were highly absorbing. Before long he +found too that he was seeing a new people. Storekeepers he knew, as +being of his own guild; the small towns were much like Delafield, when +you had become used to their newer crudeness of architecture and their +sprawling planlessness; and the people who used hardware were very much +like his customers at home. + +He had no fear of failing to become a salesman, after the first few +experiences under Finch's watchful eye; his father had taught him a sort +of salesmanship which experience could only make more effective. He knew +already never to sell what he could see his customer ought not to buy, +and he knew always to contrive as much as possible that the customer +should do the selling to himself. The elder Farwell used to say, "Let +your customer once see the advantage that buying is to him, and he won't +care what advantage selling is to you." + +Now, as has been said before, this is not a salesman's story. Let it +suffice to say that before the two got back to Saint Louis J.W. knew he +had found his trade. He was a natural salesman, and so Fred Finch +reported to Peter McDougall. "If it's hardware," he said, "that boy can +sell it, and I don't care where you put him. He can sell to people who +can't speak English, and I believe he could sell to deaf mutes or the +blind. He knows the line, and they know he knows it. Why, this very +first trip he's sold more goods on his own say-so than on the house +brand. Said he knew what the stuff would do, and people took that who +usually want to know about the guarantee." All of which Peter McDougall +filed where he would not forget it. + +But to go back to the trip itself. Along the railway in Kansas J.W. +began to see box-cars without trucks, roughly fitted up for dwellings. +Dark-skinned men and women and children were in occupation, and all the +household functions and processes were going on, though somewhat +primitively. + +"Mexicans," said Finch, as J.W. pointed out the cars. "Section hands; +when I first began to make this territory you never saw them except +right down on the border, but they have moved a long way east and north. +I saw lots of them in the yards at Kansas City last time I was there." + +J.W. watched the box-car life with a good deal of curiosity. Here and +there were poor little attempts at color and adornment; flowers in +window boxes and bits of lace at the windows. Delafield had plenty of +foreigners, but these were foreigners of another sort. They seemed to be +entirely at home. + +"I suppose," he said to Finch, "these Mexicans have come to the States +to get away from the robbery and ruin that Mexico has had instead of +government these last ten years and more." + +"Yes," Finch answered, "thousands of 'em. But not all. Some of these +Mexicans are older Americans than we are. We took 'em over when we got +Texas and New Mexico and California from Old Mexico. They were here +then, speaking the Spanish their ancestors had learned three hundred +years ago and more. But they're all the same Mexicans, no matter on +which side of the Rio Grande they were born. Of course those born on +this side have had some advantages that the peons never knew." + +"But do you mean," J.W. wanted to know, "that they are not really +American citizens?" + +Fred Finch said no, he didn't mean exactly that. Certainly, those born +on this side were American citizens in the eyes of the law, and those +who came across the Rio Grande could get naturalized. But that made +little real difference. A Mexican was a Mexican, and you had to deal +with him as one. + +J.W. was not quite satisfied with that explanation, but he preferred to +wait until he had seen enough so that he could ask his questions more +intelligently. So he kept relatively still, but his eyes did not cease +from observing. + +As the trip progressed, and the jumps between towns became longer, the +young salesman had time to see a good deal. In the far Southwest he +became aware that the increasingly numerous Mexican population was no +longer a matter of box-car dwellers, more or less migratory. It was a +settled people. Its little adobe villages, queer and quaint as they +seemed to Middle-Western eyes, were centers of established life. And he +discovered that in these villages always one building overshadowed all +the rest. + +One day as they were headed towards El Paso he ventured to mention this +to his traveling companion. "Seems to me," he said, "that none of these +little mud villages is too poor to have a church, and mostly a pretty +good church too. How do they manage it?" + +Now Finch was no student of church life, but he did know a little about +the country. "That's the way it is all over this Southwest, my boy, and +across the line in Old Mexico it's a good deal more so. My guess is that +the churches and the priests began by teaching the people that whatever +else happened they had to put up for the church, and from what I've +noticed I reckon that now nothing else matters much to the church. It +has become a kind of poor relation that's got to be fed and helped, +whether it amounts to anything or not. But it's a long way from being as +humble and thankful as you would naturally expect a poor relation to +be." + +During the El Paso layover the two of them took a day across the +International Bridge. J.W. had watched the Mexicans coming over, and he +wanted to see the country they came from. + +"You'll not see much over there," a friendly spoken customs official +told him. "It's a pretty poor section of desert 'round about these +parts. You ought to get away down into the heart of the country." + +"Yes, I suppose so," J.W. responded, "but there isn't time on this trip. +Are such people as these coming over to the United States right along?" + +"I should say they are," said the man of authority with emphasis. "In +the last four or five years the Mexican population of the United States +has about doubled; three quarters of a million have crossed the Rio +Grande somewhere, or the border further west. You people from the East +make a big fuss over immigration from Europe, but you hardly seem to +know that a regular flood has been pouring in through these southwestern +gateways. You will some day." + +What they saw on the Mexican side of the bridge was, as the customs man +had said, nothing much. But J.W. came away with a strange sense of +depression. He had never before seen so much of the raw material of +misery and squalor; what he had observed with wondering pity in the +villages on the American side was as nothing to the unrelieved +hopelessness of the south bank of the river. + +That night in the hotel lobby J.W. noticed a fresh-faced but rather +elderly man whom he recognized as one whom he had seen over in Mexico +earlier in the day. With the memory of what he had seen yet fresh upon +him, J.W. ventured a commonplace or two with the stranger, and found him +so genial and interesting that they were still talking long after Fred +Finch had yawned himself off to bed. + +"I thought I remembered seeing you over there," said the unknown, "and +you didn't look like a seasoned traveler; more like the amateur I am +myself, though I do get about a little." + +"I'm no seasoned sightseer," said J.W.; "this is my first time out. And +that's maybe the reason I've developed so much curiosity about the +people we saw to-day. Do you know much about them?" + +"Who? the Mexicans?" The other man smiled, and then was suddenly +serious. "My friend, I begin to think I'm making the Mexicans my hobby. +I don't know who you are, but if you are really interested in the +Mexicans as human beings I'd rather tell you what I know than do +anything else I can think of to-night. It isn't often I find a traveling +man who cares." + +"Well, I do care," J.W. asserted, stoutly. "They're people, folks, +aren't they? And it looks as though they could stand having somebody get +interested in them a little." + +"Ah, I see now what you are; you are that remarkable combination, a +traveling man and a Christian. Am I right?" + +"Why, I suppose so," said J.W., with a smile and a touch of the old +boyish pride in his name. "My initials, as you might say, are 'John +Wesley,' and I'm not ashamed of them." + +"And that means you are not only a Christian, but a Methodist? My dear +man, we must shake on that. I'm a Methodist myself, as the stage robber +said to Brother Van, with the romantic name of Tanner. Got my first +interest in Mexico and the Mexicans when my daughter married a young +Methodist preacher and they went down there as missionaries. I make a +trip to see them and the babies about once a year. But now I am getting +interested in these people as an American and, I hope, a Christian who +tries to work at the business. What did you say your other name was?" + +J.W. hadn't said, but now he did, and the two settled to their talk. +This William Tanner, some sort of retired business man, certainly seemed +to know his Mexico. And he had that most subtle of all stimulants +to-night, a curious and sympathetic hearer. By consequence he was eager +to give all that J.W. would take. + +Before long J.W. had edged in a question about the church. He said, "You +know, Mr. Tanner, we have a pretty good Roman Catholic church in my home +town, though Father O'Neill doesn't tie up much to what the other +churches are trying to do, and some of his flock seem to me pretty wild, +for sheep. Now, these churches down here are all Roman Catholic too, yet +they certainly don't look any kin to Saint Ursula's at Delafield. Are +they?" + +It was the sort of question which William Tanner had asked himself many +a time when he first came to Mexico. "This is the way of it, Mr. +Farwell," he said. "The church came to Mexico, and to all Latin America, +from Spain and Portugal. It had a few great names, we must acknowledge, +in those early times. But in a little while it settled down to two +activities--to make itself the sole religious authority and to get rich. +It was a church of God and gold, and as a matter of course it preached +that it was the supreme arbiter of life and death in matters of faith, +and extended its authority into every relation of life. It brought from +the lands of the Inquisition the idea of priestly power, and there was +none to dispute it in Latin America, as there was in the colonies of our +own country. It gave the people little instruction, and no +responsibility or freedom. It made outward submission the test of piety +and faith. And so when Spain lost its grip on the western hemisphere the +church found itself with nothing but its claim of power to fall back on. +Well, you know that would work only with the ignorant and the +superstitious." + +"Mexico, and all Latin America for that matter, clear to the Straits of +Magellan, is a land of innumerable crosses, but no Christ. The church +has had left to it what it wanted; that is, the priestly prerogatives; +it marries, baptizes, absolves, buries, where the people can pay the +fees, and the people for various reasons have not cared that this is +all. If they are afraid, or want to make a show, they call in the +church; if they don't care, or if they are poor, they go unbaptized, +unmarried, unshriven, and do not see that it makes any difference. They +have no understanding of the church as a Christian institution; in fact, +I think it would puzzle most of them to tell what a true church ought to +be. Now, all this is the church's reward for its ancient choice, which, +so far as I can see, is still its choice. To the average Latin American +the church is, and in the nature of things must be, a demander of pay +for ceremonial, and a bitterly jealous defender of all its old +autocratic claims. That is of the nature of the church." + +"But I don't understand," interposed J.W. "If the people have no real +use for the church, why do they support it? It certainly is supported." + +"That, Mr. Farwell, is the tragedy of the church in all these lands," +said Mr. Tanner, soberly. "The church began by looking to its own +interests first. It wanted great establishments and a docile people. It +found the gospel hard to preach to the natives--the real gospel, I mean. +The cruelties and greed of the conquest had made impossible any +preaching of a ministering, merciful, and unselfish Christ. In fact, the +vast majority of the priests who came over from Europe brought with them +no such ideas. The church was ruler, not missionary. And so far as it +dares it sticks stubbornly to that notion even to this day. So it has +had to make practical compromise with the paganism and superstition it +found here. Many of its religious observances are the aboriginal pagan +practices disguised in Christian dress and given Christian names. The +church has sold its birthright for the privilege of exploiting the +credulity and the fears of the people. It has made merchandise of all +its functions. Now, after the centuries have come and gone, both church +and people through long custom are willing to have it so. The people +have their great churches, with incense and lights and all the pomp of +medaeival days. But they have no living Christ and no thought of him. The +priests have their trade in ceremonial and their perquisites, but they +have no power over the hearts of men." + +As his new acquaintance paused for breath after this long answer to a +short question, J.W., remembering something Fred Finch had said, brought +the remark in: "The man who is showing me the ropes as a hardware man +tells me that all over Latin America the church is likely to be the one +real building in every town and village. Is that also something that +the people are so used to that they don't notice it any more?" + +"Oh, yes," Mr. Tanner assented. "I suppose the contrast between the +church and the miserable little hovels around it never occurs to any of +them. It has always been so. The church has built itself up out of the +community, and for the most part it puts very little back. It conducts +schools, to be sure; and yet eighty per cent of the Mexican people are +illiterate, it has some few institutions of help and mercy; but the +whole land cries out for doctors and teachers and friendly human +concern." + +"Is that really so?" J.W. asked. "Do the people really want our +missionaries, or are we Protestants just shoving ourselves in? I can see +that something is desperately wrong, but we are mostly Saxon, and they +are Latins. Do these people want what to them must seem a queer religion +and a lot of strange ideas?" + +"So long as they do not understand what we come for, naturally they are +suspicious. When they find out, they take to mission work and +missionaries with very little urging. I wish you would meet my +son-in-law," Mr. Tanner said with positiveness. "Why, the one tormenting +desire of that man's life is to see more missionaries sent down into +Mexico; more doctors, more teachers, more workers of every sort. He +writes letters to the Board of Foreign Missions that would make your +heart ache. The church at home couldn't oversupply Mexico with the sort +of help it desperately needs if it should turn every recruit that way, +and disregard all the rest of the world's mission fields." + +"Do you mean," asked J.W., who was seeing new questions bob up every +time an earlier one was answered, "do you mean that so many missionaries +could be used on productive Christian work right away? Or is it that we +ought to have a big force to prepare for the long future of our work in +Mexico?" Now, J.W. was not so sure that this was an intelligent +question, but he had heard that in some mission fields it was necessary +to wait years for real and permanent results. + +His companion saw nothing out of the way in the question. It was part of +the whole problem. "I mean it both ways," he said. "What I've seen of +our Methodist work down in these parts, particularly its schools and one +wonderful hospital, makes me sure we could get big harvests of interest +and success right off. We're doing it already, considering our +relatively small force and our limited equipment." + +"But all Latin American work takes patience. I've made one trip down as +far as Santiago de Chile, and what is true in Mexico is, I guess, about +as true in other parts. The Roman Catholic Church has been here four +hundred years, and its biggest result is that the people who don't fear +it despise it. Latin America is called Christian, but it is a world in +which what you and I call religion simply does not count. Well, then, +that's what makes me talk about the need of persistence and patience. +The bad effects of three or four hundred years of such religion as has +been taught and practiced between the Rio Grande and Cape Horn can't be +got rid of in a hurry. Wait till Mexico has had a real chance at the +Christ of the New Testament for three hundred years, and then see!" + +J.W. had yet another question to ask before he was ready to call it a +day. "If all that you say is so--and I believe it is, Mr. Tanner--why +should so many of the Mexicans hate the United States? They do, for I've +heard it spoken of a good deal lately, and I remember what was always +said when some one proposed that we should intervene to make peace and +restore order in Mexico. It would take ten years and a million men, and +all Mexico would unite to oppose us. You talk about how much the +Mexicans need us and want us. But a great many of them surely don't want +us at all." + +"I know what that means," Mr. Tanner admitted. And it is true. We are +all influenced by the past. Look at the history of our dealings with +Mexico. The very ideas we fought to establish as the charter of our own +freedom we repudiated when we dealt with Mexico three quarters of a +century ago. We had every advantage, and what we wanted we took. +Certainly, we have done better by it than Mexico might have done, but I +never heard that reason given in a court of law to excuse the same sort +of transaction if it touched only private individuals. Then, in late +years big business has gone into Mexico. It has had to take big chances. +It has paid better wages than the peon could earn any other way. It has +a lot to its credit; but it has been much like big business in other +places, and, anyway, the admitted great profits have enriched the +foreigner, not the Mexican. + +"Besides, Mexico is not the States. As you say, it is Latin in its +civilization, not Saxon. It does not want our sort of culture. And some +of our missionaries, both of the church and of industry, have thought +that the Mexican ought to be 'Americanized.' That's a fatal mistake in +any mission field outside the States. All in all, you can see that it +isn't entirely inevitable that the Mexican should understand our +motives, or appreciate them when he does understand. But that's all the +more reason for bearing down hard on every form of genuine missionary +work. It's the only thing that we Americans can do in Mexico with any +hope of avoiding suspicion or of our presence being acceptable to the +Mexicans in the long run. We've got to fight the backfire of our +American commercialism, and the prejudice which is as real on the Texas +side of the river as it is on the other; for if the Mexican thinks in +terms of 'gringo,' the American of the Southwest is just as likely to +think in terms of 'greaser.'" + +When J.W. and Mr. Tanner parted for the night it was with the mutual +promise that they would have another talk some time the next day, but +the promise could not be kept. The retired business man heard from some +of his business in the early morning, and had just time to say a hurried +farewell. As he put it, "I thought I had retired, but unless I get back +to look after this particular affair I may have to get into the harness +again, and that is not a cheerful prospect at my age. So I go to +business to avert the danger of going back to business." + +A little later the two hardware salesmen were in El Paso again, after a +couple of side trips. J.W. took advantage of a long train wait to hunt +up the city library. He wanted to know whether Mr. Tanner was right in +saying that the Latin-American question was much the same everywhere. + +He wrote a letter to Mr. Drury that night, having thus far used picture +postcards until he was ashamed. In the letter he took occasion to +mention his talk with the "missionary father-in-law," and his own bit of +reading up on the subject. + +Said he: "I guess that man Tanner was right. He did not speak much of +the difference between the people of one country and those of another, +which rather surprised me. He said nothing of the two great classes, the +rulers with much European blood, and the peons, largely or altogether +Indian. There must be all sorts of Latin Americans, rich and poor, mixed +blood of many strains, Castilian and Aztec and Inca, and whatever other +people were here when Columbus set the fashion for American voyages. But +this is where this 'missionary father-in-law' hit the heart of the +trouble: Latin America has all sorts and conditions of men, but +everywhere it has the same church. And it is a church that can't ever +make good any more. It might, at the beginning, but it can't now. It has +a reputation as fixed as Julius Caesar's. I'm hardly ready to set up as +an expert observer, being only a cub salesman on his first trip, but, +Mr. Drury, I believe I can see already that the only chance for these +people to get religion and everything else which religion ought to +produce, is for us to send it to them. Maybe that would stir up the +church down here, and help to give it another chance at the people's +confidence, though I'm not sure." + +Our church ought to send doctors; the amount of fearful disease that +flourishes among the poorer people is just frightful. If Joe Carbrook +were not so set on going to the Orient, he could do a big work here, and +so could a thousand other doctors. It would be so much more than mere +doctoring; it would be the biggest kind of preaching. + +And the church should send teachers. You know I believe in conversion; +but if the Mexicans I have seen are samples of Latin America's common +people, they need teachers who have the patience of Christ a good deal +more than they need flaming evangelists who make a big stir and soon +pass on. Because these folks have just _got_ to be made over, in their +very minds. They are not ready for the preaching of the gospel until +they have seen it lived. Long experience has made them doubtful of +living saints, though plenty of them pray to dead ones. + +This is the whole trouble, Mr. Drury, it seems to me. They've known +only a church that had got off the track. Any religious work that +reaches them now has almost to begin all over again. It has to undo +their thinking about prayer and faith and God's love and human conduct +and nearly every other Christian idea. They have a Christian vocabulary, +but it means very little. They think they can buy religion, if they want +it--any kind they want. And if they can't afford it, or don't want it, +they don't quite think they'll be sent to hell for that, in spite of +what the priest says. They think enough to be afraid, but not enough to +be sure of anything. The missionaries have to teach them a new set of +religious numerals, if you get what I mean, before it is any use to +teach them the arithmetic of the gospel. + +"I'm beginning to see that everything among the Latin Americans runs +back to the need of Christian living. The wrong notion of religion has +got them all twisted. I know Delafield is a long way from being +Christian, but the difference between Delafield and such a pitiful mud +village as I've seen lately has more to do with the sort of Christianity +each place has been taught than with anything else whatever. But I never +thought of that before." + +As Pastor Drury read that letter his heart warmed within him. He said to +himself, "John Wesley, Jr., is 'beginning to see,' he says. Please God +he musn't stop now until he gets his eyes wide open. The thing is +working out. He's groping around for something, and some day he'll find +it." + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +CHRIST AND THE EAST + +For a first trip the Southwestern expedition under Fred Finch's tutelage +had been something of an exploit. Finch's report to Peter McDougall was +more than verified by the order sheets, and the observant Peter, keeping +track of things during the succeeding weeks, noticed with quiet +satisfaction that not a single order Was canceled. + +To himself he said, "The lad's a find, I'm thinking. From Finch's talk I +should say he has not only a natural knack of selling, but he sells for +keeps. And that's the idea, Peter. Anybody can sell if the buyer means +to call off the order by the next mail. This John Wesley boy may go far, +and I'll have to tell Albert Drury the next time I see him that he's +done the house of Cummings a real favor." + +The months went by. J.W. kept his wits about him, and on the road he +stuck to his salesman's faith that goods are better sold by those who +know exactly how they may be used and that they are never sold until +they are bought. So he found favor in the sight of Peter McDougall. The +proof of that is easy. Peter gave him a week off before the end of his +first year. + +Delafield looked better to the homecoming salesman than it had to the +boy coming back from college. And the town was glad to see him. He +meant something to not a few of its people, altogether outside the +interest of the Farwells--and Pastor Drury--and Jeannette! + +Deep Creek was his first port of call, after his first half-day at home. +He had been welcomed with deep, quiet gladness by the home folks, and he +had talked a little over the telephone with the preacher. Then time was +a laggard until he could head the Farwell car toward Deep Creek and the +old farm. + +Jeannette's welcome was all that even he could ask, though, of course, +just precisely what it was is none of our business. In the car, and by +the fireplace in the Shenk living room, and around the farm, they +considered many things, some of them not so personal as others. J.W. +told the story of his life in Saint Louis and on the road; Jeannette +listening like another Desdemona to the recital. And once again it was +not the adventure which supplied the thrill, but the adventurer. + +And Jeannette told him the news of Delafield. How Joe Carbrook and +Marcia Dayne's wedding had been the most wonderful wedding ever seen in +Delafield, with the town as proud of its one-time scapegrace as it was +of the beautiful bride. How brother Marty had been finding many excuses +of late for driving up from his circuit, and how he managed to see Alma +Wetherell a good deal. How Alma was now head bookkeeper and cashier of +the Emporium, the town's biggest store, and how she was such a dear +girl. How Pastor Drury and Marty had become great friends. How the +minister was not so well as usual, and people were getting to be a +little worried about him. How the Delafield church had taken up tithing, +and was not only doing a lot better financially, but in every other way. +How Deep Creek was going to have a new minister, a friend whom Marty had +met at the summer school for rural ministers, who would try to help the +Deep Creek people get an up-to-date church building and learn to use it. +How the Everyday Doctrines of Delafield had been first boosted and then +forgotten, and now again several of them were being practiced in some +quarters. And much more, though never to the wearing out of J.W.'s +interest. Certainly not, the news being just what he wanted to know, and +the reporter thereof being just the person he wanted to tell it to him. + +One bit of news Jeannette did not tell, for the sufficient reason that +she did not know it. Pastor Drury and Brother Marty _had_ become great +friends, but what Jeannette could not tell was the special bond of +interest which was back of the fact. Marty had long been aware that for +some reason the Delafield pastor was peculiarly concerned about J.W. +Never did he guess Walter Drury's secret, but he knew well enough there +was one. + +These two, the town preacher and the young circuit rider, read to each +other J.W.'s letters, and talked much about him and his experiences, and +made J.W. in general the theme of many discussions. + +"It has been good for the boy that he has had that border trip," said +the pastor to Marty a few days before J.W. got back. "Don't you think +so?" + +Marty was, as ever, J.W.'s ardent and self-effacing chum. "I certainly +do," he said. "He's growing, is J.W., and growing the right way. We need +business men of just the quality that's showing in him." + +The pastor hesitated a moment. Then he spoke: "Marty, when J.W. comes +home I hope something will set him thinking about the outer world that +has no word of our Christ. He hasn't seen it yet, not clearly; and you +know that there isn't any hope for that world to get out of the depths +until it gets the news of a Helper. I'm counting on you to help me with +J.W. if the chance comes. Just between ourselves, you know." + +"I'll do all I can, Mr. Drury; you may be sure of that," said Marty. And +he did. + +J.W.'s holiday brought several young people together who had not met for +a long time. Marty came up again, and spent the day with J.W., all over +town, from the store to the house and back again. In the evening Mrs. +Farwell made a feast, to which, besides Marty, Jeannette and Alma and +Pastor Drury were bidden. Mrs. Farwell was much more to Delafield than +the best cook and the most remarkable housekeeper in the place, but her +son insisted that she was these to begin with. Certainly, she had not +been experimenting on the two J.W.'s all these years for nothing. + +After dinner--talk. No need of any other game in that company at such a +time. There was plenty to talk about, and all had their reasons for +enjoying it. Naturally, J.W. must tell about himself. Letters are all +very well, but they are no more than makeshifts, after all. He was +modest enough about it, not having any special exploits to parade before +their wondering eyes, but quite willing. His Western experiences being +called for, he was soon telling, not of desert and cactus and +irrigation, but of the people who had so taken his attention, the +Mexicans. + +"I believe," said he, "that we can do something really big down there. +And it's our business. Nobody except American Christians will do it; +nobody else can. Besides, the Mexicans are Christians in name, now. What +they need is the reality. They are not impossible--just uncertain. All I +heard and what little I saw made me believe they are suffering from bad +leadership and ignorance more than from anything hopelessly wrong. They +seem easy to get along with. The women are the most patient workers I +ever heard of. And the poor Mexicans, the 'peons,' do want an end to +fighting and banditry." + +"Well, J.W.," Marty asked, "what's the first thing we ought to think +about for Mexico?" + +"I told you I don't know anything about Mexico, except at second-hand. +But, I should say, schools. Schools are good for any land, don't you +think, Mr. Drury? And in Mexico they are such great disturbers of the +old slouching indifference. They will make the right kind of +discontent. Schools bring other things; new ideas of health and +sanitation, home improvement, social outlook, and all that. Then, with +the schools, I guess, the straight gospel. The Mexicans won't get +converted all at once, and they won't become like us, ever. But I'm +about ready to say that whether missions are needed anywhere else or +not, they surely are needed in Mexico. And Mexico is the first +stepping-stone to South America; which is next on my list of the places +that ought to have the whole scheme of Christian teaching and life." + +"Yes," said Alma, "and you know, I suppose, that the beginning of our +Panama Mission was an Epworth League Institute enterprise? Well, it was. +California young people assumed the support of the first missionary sent +there, and later he went on down to South America, with the same young +people determined to take him on as their representative, just as they +did in Panama." + +"Where did you get that story?" J.W. wanted to know. + +"Oh, I forgot," Alma answered him, laughing. "You haven't had time to +read The Epworth Herald in Saint Louis." + +"Yes, I have, young lady," J.W. retorted, "but I missed that. Anyway, +it's on the right track. I think we've got to change the thinking of all +Latin America about Christianity, if we can. Most of the men, they say, +are atheists, made so very largely by their loss of faith in the church; +and many of the women substitute an almost fierce devotion to the same +church for what we think of as being genuine religion." + +The minister spoke up just here. "I should think it would be pretty +difficult to treat our United States Mexicans in one way, and those +across the Rio Grande in another. We must evangelize on both sides of +the river, but only on this side can we even attempt to Americanize." + +"That's right," J.W. affirmed. "And even on this side we can't do what +we may do in Delafield. The language is a big question, and it has two +sides. But no matter what the difficulties, I'm for a great advance of +missions and education, starting with Mexico and going all the way to +Cape Horn." + +"That's all very fine," interposed Marty, "but what about the rest of +the world, J.W.? What about the world that has not even the beginning of +Christian knowledge?" Marty had put the question on the urge of the +moment, and not until it was out did he remember that Mr. Drury had +asked him to help raise this very issue. + +"Well," J.W. answered, slowly, "maybe that part of the world is worse, +though I don't know. But we can't tackle everything. Latin America is an +immense job by itself, and we have some real responsibility there; a +sort of Christian Monroe Doctrine. Ought we to scatter our forces? The +non-Christian world has its own religions, and has had them for +hundreds, maybe thousands of years. What's the hurry just now? If we +could do everything, we Protestant Christians, I mean, in this country +and Britain, it might be different, but we can't. Why not concentrate?" + +"Yes," Marty came back, "but not because Latin America is so nearly +Christian. What about this atheism and superstition and ignorance; isn't +it just a non-Christian civilization with Christian labels on some parts +of it?" + +"One thing I've heard," put in Jeannette, not that she wanted to argue, +but she felt she ought to say something on J.W.'s side if she could, +"that the religions of the Orient, at least, are really great religions, +more suited to the minds of the people than any other. 'East is East, +and West is West,' you know. But, of course, the people don't live up to +the high levels of their beliefs. Americans don't, either." + +Mr. Drury shot an amused yet admiring glance at Jeannette. What a loyal +soul she was! Then said he: "The religions of the East _are_ great +religions, Jeannette. They represent the best that men can do. The +Orient has a genius for religion, and it has produced far better systems +than the West could have done. Some of the truth that we Western people +get only in Christianity the thinkers of Asia worked out for themselves. +But God was back of it all." + +That suited J.W.'s present mood. "All right, then; let's clean up as we +go--Delafield, Saint Louis, the Southwest, Mexico, Latin America; that's +the logical order. Then the rest of the world." + +Marty put in a protest here: "That won't do, old man. Your logic's lame. +You want us to go into Mexico now, with all we've got. Your letters +have said so, and you've said it again to-night. But we're not 'cleaning +up as we go.' Look at Delafield; the town you've moved away from. Look +at Saint Louis; the town where you make your living. Are they +Christianized? Cleaned up? Yet you are ready for Mexico. No; you're all +wrong, J.W. I don't believe the world's going to be saved the way you +break up prairie sod, a field at a time, and let the rest alone. We've +got to do our missionary work the way they feed famine sufferers. They +don't give any applicant all he can eat, but they try to make the supply +go 'round, giving each one a little. Remember, J.W., the rest of the +world is as human as our western hemisphere." + +"I know," admitted J.W. "And I don't say I've got the right of it. I'd +have to see the Orient before I made up my mind. But those countries +have waited a long while. A few more years wouldn't be any great +matter." + +Alma Wetherell now joined the opposition. It looked as though J.W. and +Jeannette must stand alone, for the old people said nothing, though they +listened with eager ears. Said Alma, "I think it would matter a lot. The +more we do for one people, while ignoring all the others, the less we +should care to drop a developing work to begin at the bottom somewhere +else." + +"There's something in that," J.W. conceded. "I'm not meaning to be +stubborn. But I've had just a glimpse of the size of the missionary job +in one little corner of the world. Even that is too big for us. We could +put our whole missionary investment into Mexico without being able to do +what is needed." + +"The missionary job, as you call it, is too big, certainly, for our +present resources," said the pastor. "Everybody knows that." + +"Yes," said Marty, who wondered if Mr. Drury had forgotten their compact +about J.W., "but why limit ourselves to our present resources? They are +not all we could get, if the church came to believe in the bigness of +her privilege. I'd like to see for myself, as J.W. says, but I can't. +Why don't you get a real traveling job, and go about the world looking +things over for us, old man?" + +"Me?" J.W. said, sarcastically; "yes, that's a likely prospect. Just as +I'm getting over being scared by a sample case. I'll do well to hold the +job I've got." + +Alma didn't know what Marty's game was, but she played up to his +suggestion. "Why shouldn't you go?" she asked. "You've told us that +Cummings hardware and tools are sold all over the world. Doesn't that +mean salesmen? And aren't you a salesman? They have to send somebody; +why shouldn't they pick on you some time?" + +J.W. rose to the lure, for the moment all salesman. "Nothing in it, +Alma; no chance at all. But I would like to show the world the +civilizing values of good tools, and I'd go if I got the chance." + +Jeannette's reaction was quicker than thinking; "Would you go half way +around the world just for that?" she asked, with a hint of alarm. + +"Why, yes, I would," said J.W., "that is, if you were willing." + +Whereupon everybody laughed but Jeannette, whose pale cheeks flamed into +sudden rosiness. + +The minister came to her rescue. "It would be a good thing every way, if +more laymen would see the realities of Oriental life and bring back an +impartial report. Suppose you should be right, J.W., and we found that +the Orient could wait until the western hemisphere had been thoroughly +Christianized. Think how many thousands--perhaps millions--of dollars +could be directed into more productive channels. I can see what a great +influence such reports would have if they came from Christian laymen. We +have learned to expect stories of complete failure when the ordinary +traveler comes back; and maybe the missionaries have their bias too. But +business men with Christian ideals--that would be different." + +Now, all this was far from unpleasant to J.W. He detested posing, but +why wouldn't it be worth something to have laymen report on missionary +work? Of course, though, if the time ever came when the firm was willing +to trust him abroad, he wouldn't have much chance to study missions. +Business would have to come first. It was no less a dream for being an +agreeable one. + +"There's no danger of my going," he told them. "The Cummings people are +not sending cub salesmen to promote their big Asiatic trade. What could +they make by it?" + +Then the talk drifted to the Carbrooks. Marty said, "Well, we've spoiled +your scheme a little, J.W., right here in Delafield. Joe Carbrook and +Marcia are in China by now, and I'd like to see both of 'em as they get +down to work. You can't keep all our interest on this side of the +Pacific so long as those two are on the other." + +"No," said J.W., warmly, "and I don't want to. I'll help to back up +those two missionaries wherever they go." And his thoughts went back to +camp fire night at Cartwright Institute, when he had said to Joe +Carbrook without suspecting the consequences, "Say, Joe; if you think +you could be a doctor, why not a missionary doctor?" + +Then he asked the company, "Just where have these missionary infants +been sent?" + +Nobody knew, exactly. They had the name of the town and the province, +but the geography of China is not as yet familiar even to those who +support the missions and missionaries of that vast, mysterious land. + +The pastor thought it was two or three hundred miles inland from +Foochow. "Anyhow," said he, "it is a good-sized town, of about one +hundred thousand people or more, and Joe's hospital is the only one in +the whole district. The man whose place he takes is home on furlough, +and I've looked up his work in the Annual Report of the Foreign Missions +Board. Six or eight years ago the hospital was a building of sun-dried +brick, with a mud floor and accommodations for about seventy-five +patients. He was running it on something like five dollars a day. But it +is better now, costs more too. And there's a school attached, where +Marcia has already begun to make herself necessary, or I'm much +mistaken." + +So the talk ran on, until the evening was far spent, and everybody +wished there could be half a dozen such evenings before J.W. must go +back to Saint Louis and the road. + +No other opportunity offered, however, and all too soon for some people +J.W. was gone again from Delafield. + +Walter Drury, seeing his chance, set himself to follow up the talk of +that one evening. It had given him a lead as to the next phase of the +Experiment, and he wanted to try out the idea before anything else might +happen. + +So he wrote to his brother Albert in Saint Louis. "I know I'm a bother +to you," the letter ran, "but you have always been generous, being your +own unselfish self. It's about young Farwell, 'John Wesley, Jr.,' you +know. I judge he's a boy with a fine business future, and I've found out +from his father some of the reasons why he is making good. Now, I don't +know much about business, but it seems to me that the very qualities +which make J.W. a good salesman for a beginner would be profitable to +his company if they sent him to their Oriental trade. He's young enough +to learn something over there. My own interest is not on that side of +the affair, but I know it would be out of the question to suggest his +going unless the Cummings people could see a business advantage in it. +If you think it is not asking too much, I wish you would talk to Mr. +McDougall about it. Tell him what I have written, and what I told you +long ago about J.W." + +Albert Drury had unbounded confidence in his brother's sincerity and +sense, so he lost no time in getting an interview with his friend +McDougall. + +"See here, Peter," said he, "I'll be frank with you; I know you think +I'd better be if I'm to get anywhere." + +"That's very true," said McDougall, with assumed severity. + +"Well, then, read my brother's letter; and then tell me if he's wanting +the impossible." + +Peter McDougall read the letter twice. "No," he said, when he handed it +back, "he's not wanting the impossible. He's given me an idea. I owe you +something already, for finding this young fellow, and I'll tell you what +I'm thinking of. Of course the boy isn't seasoned enough yet, but he's +getting there fast. A couple of long trips, a few months under my own +eye here in the office, and he'll be ready. Now, your brother has hinted +at exactly what young Farwell is good for. That boy sells goods by +getting over onto the buyer's side. And he knows tools--knew 'em before +we hired him. Well, then, here's the idea; one big need of our foreign +trade is to show our agencies what can really be done with American +hardware and tools. It takes more than a salesman; and Farwell has the +knack. So there you are. Tell your brother the boy shall have his +chance." + +A few months later McDougall sent for J.W. and put the whole proposal +before him. + +"But I'm not an expert, Mr. McDougall," J.W. protested. "I haven't the +experience, and I might fall down completely in a new field like that." + +"We're not looking for an expert," said McDougall, shortly. "You know +what every user of our stuff ought to know; you can put yourself in his +place; and you'll be a sort of missionary. How about it?" + +At the word J.W.'s memory awoke, and he heard again what had been said +in the living room at Delafield when he was last at home. A missionary! +And here was the very chance they had all talked about. + +"Of course I should like to go, if you think I'll do," he said. + +Peter looked at him more kindly than was his wont. "My boy," he said, "I +know something about you outside of business, though not much. And I +think you'll do. Mind you, your missionary work will be tools and +hardware, not the Methodist Church. You will have to show people who +have their own ideas about tools how much more convenient our goods are; +handier, lighter, more adaptable. What they need over there is modern +stuff. It will help them to raise more crops and do better work and earn +a better income. You've nothing to do with selling policies, finance, +credits, and all that. Just be a tool and hardware missionary." + +"Where had you thought of sending me?" asked J.W., still somewhat +dazed. + +"Oh, wherever we have agencies that you can use as bases: China, the +Philippines, Malaysia, India. You will have to figure on a year or +nearly that. And you mustn't stick to the ports or the big cities. Get +hold of people who'll show you the country; the places where our goods +are most needed and least known. Study the people and their tools. Work +out better ways of doing things. Don't try to hustle the East, but +remember that the East is doing a little hustling on its own account +these days. And talk turkey to our agencies--when you're sure you have +something to talk about." + +The rest is detail. The trip determined on, preparations were hastened. +A month before the date of starting J.W. had time for no more than a +hurried visit to Delafield, to say good-by to the home folk and to the +preacher whom he had come to think of as Timothy might have thought of +Paul. Then he had something else to say to Jeannette. His prospects were +becoming so promising that he could ask her a very definite question, +and he dared to hope for a definite answer. + +Jeannette, troubled at the thought of his long absence in strange lands, +consoled herself by her promise, which was his promise also. As soon as +he came home again they would be married. Brother Drury should +officiate, assisted by "the Rev. Martin Luther Shenk, brother of the +charming bride," as J.W. put it. + +Walter Drury was not his usual alert self, J.W. thought, and it hurt him +to see his much-loved friend touched even a little by the years. But +the pastor brightened up, and grew visibly better as J.W. told him all +his plans. + +"Just think, Mr. Drury," he said with animation, "I'm to be a +missionary, after all. Once long ago I remember you suggested I might go +to China and see for myself the difference between their religion and +ours; and now I'm going to China. Who knows, maybe I'll see Joe Carbrook +at his work. And then I'm to go all over the East, to preach the gospel +of better tools." Then he became thoughtful. "Don't you think that's +almost as good as the gospel of better bodies--Joe's gospel?" + +"Surely, I do," said the pastor, "if you and Joe preach in the same +spirit, knowing that China won't be saved even by hospitals and modern +hardware. They help. But remember our understanding; you have your +chance now to see the religions of the East. Going right among the +people, as you will, you can find out more in a week than the average +tourist ever discovers. I'll give you the names of some people who will +gladly help you. And we shall want a full report when you come back. God +bless you, J.W." + +It was a tired preacher who went to bed that night. This new adventure +of his boy's; what would it mean to the Experiment? He had done his best +to keep that long-ago pledge to himself. Not always had the project been +easy; he could not control all its circumstances, but in the main it had +gone well. + +And now J.W. was in the last stage of the Experiment Walter Drury had +contrived to shape its larger conditions, with the help of many friendly +but unsuspecting conspirators. This tour in the interest of better tools +was due mainly to his initiative. But he could do nothing more. The +event was now out of his hands. The relaxed tension made him realize +that his nerves were shaky, and he had a sense of great depression. But +before he went to bed he pulled himself together long enough to write to +five missionaries, including Joe Carbrook, whose fields were on or near +the route J.W. would travel. He had told J.W. that he would let these +men know of his coming, but he did more. To each one he said a word of +appeal. "Don't argue much with this boy of mine; I want him to see it +without too many second-hand opinions. Explain all you please, and let +him get as near as he can to the people you are dealing with. If, as I +hope, he gets a glimpse of the work's inner meaning, I shall be +satisfied." + + * * * * * + +The first day which J.W. spent in Shanghai was a big day for him. Even +amid the strangeness of the scene he felt almost at home. The people who +had the Cummings agency had received their instructions, and were +prepared to help him every way. He could begin an up-country trip at +once if he wished. Then he met the first of the men to whom Pastor Drury +had written, Mark Rutledge, and at once he saw that this well-groomed, +alert young missionary, who used modern speech in deliberate but direct +fashion, would be of immense service to him. + +Rutledge received J.W.'s gospel of tools with almost boyish +enthusiasm. "I've always said," he exclaimed, "that if the other +business men of America had as much sense as the tobacco folks they +would hasten the Christianizing of China by many a year. Not that +tobacco is helping; far from it. But it's the idea of fitting their +product to this particular market. And your house has evidently caught +that idea. You must have a real sales manager in Saint Louis! Of course +I'll help you all I can." + +Some of the help which Mark Rutledge gave him was of a sort that J.W. +could not rightly estimate at the time, but he knew it was good. As long +as he stayed in Shanghai, and as often he came back to the city as a +base, he and Rutledge were pretty frequently together. The missionary +kept his own counsel as to the Drury letter, merely dropping a hint now +and then, or a suggestion which fitted both the Cummings agency's +program and the pastor's desire. + +The inland trips for business purposes kept J.W. busy for weeks; he +found himself in so utterly novel a situation that he saw he could not +work out anything without careful study and expert Chinese cooperation. +As he came and went he saw, under Rutledge's guidance, much of the +inside of mission work. In Shanghai he found a Methodist publishing +house, sending out literature all over China, as well as two monthly +papers, one in Chinese and one in English. Many missionary boards had +headquarters here. From Shanghai as a business center every form of +missionary work was being promoted, reaching as far as the foothills of +the Thibetan plateau. Hospital equipment was distributed, and school +equipment, and supplies of every variety. He saw that it was the +financial center too, and mission finance is a special science. Shanghai +seemed to J.W. to be one of the great capitals of the missionary world. + +Rutledge's own work, many sided as J.W. saw it was, had two aspects of +special significance. Rutledge was sending back to America all the +information he could gather from the whole field. With the skill of a +trained reporter he showed the missionaries how to write so as to make a +genuine story seem convincing, and how to subordinate the details to the +importance of making a clear and single impression. + +The other work of Rutledge's which caught J.W.'s eye was his activity +in behalf of the young people of China. Until lately nothing at all had +been done comparable to the specialized development of young people's +work in America, but now the Epworth League was beginning to be utilized +and adapted to Chinese ways. Funds were available--not much, but a +beginning. Leaders were being trained. A larger measure of local, +Chinese help was being employed. + +J.W. asked Mark Rutledge about all this one day. "Isn't it going to +make a difference with the work by and by, if you get so many natives +into places of responsibility? Are they ready for it?" + +"No," said Rutledge, "they're not. But we must make them ready. You +haven't begun to see China yet, but already you can see that the +country could never be 'evangelized,' even in the narrowest use of that +word, by foreign missionaries. And it ought not to be." + +"You mean that we Americans ought to consider our work in China as +temporary?" J.W. asked. + +Rutledge answered, "Frankly, I do, if you let me put my own meaning into +'temporary,' We must start things. And much that must be done in the +long run has not yet been started. We must stay here beyond my life +expectation or yours. But China will be Christianized by the Chinese, +not by foreigners. As far ahead as we can see the work will have help +from outside, but I honestly want the time to come when we missionaries +will be looked upon as the foreign helpers of the Chinese Church; not, +as now, controlling the work ourselves and enlisting the services of +'native helpers.'" + +"Then tell me another thing," J.W. persisted. "Is our Christianity, as +the Chinese get it, any advance on their own religion? Or is their +religion all right, if they would work it as we hope they may work the +Christian program?" + +"That's two questions," said Rutledge, dryly, "but, after all, it is +only one. Our Christianity as the Chinese get it is far ahead of the +best they have, in ideals, in human values, everything, even if they +were more consistent in responding to its claims than Christians are. +The old religions--and China has several--are helpless. We are not +killing off the old faiths. If we should get out to-morrow these would +none the less die out in time, but then China would be left without any +religion at all. Instead, she's going to have the Christian faith in a +form that will accord with the genius of the Chinese mind. That's my +sure confidence, or I wouldn't be here." + +It was necessary that J.W. should run down the coast to Foochow, the +base for his next operations in the hardware adventure. "I know I'm +green," he said to Rutledge, "and I may be thinking of impossibilities, +but do you suppose there'll be any chance for me to get up to Dr. +Carbrook's place from Foochow? I've told you about him and his wife, and +I'd rather see those two than anybody else in all the East." + +"It's not impossible at all," Rutledge assured him. "Carbrook's post is +not so very far from Foochow, as distances go in China, and Ralph Bellew +at the college will help you." + +"Yes, my pastor at home told me to be sure and call on him," said J.W., +and took his leave of a man he would long remember. + +The call of Professor Bellew was not delayed long after J.W. had found +his bearings in Foochow, and the Professor's welcome was even more +cordial than that of the Cummings agency, though these gentlemen were, +of course, the soul of courtesy. If they were not so sure as Peter +McDougall that J.W. or any other American could teach them anything +about selling the Cummings line in China, at least they would not put +anything in his way. + +One important interior town, Yenping, they had hoped J.W. might visit, +but unfortunately there was no one connected with the agency who could +be sent with him. They understood that some of his missionary friends +were ready to help him in the general enterprise, and perhaps they might +be able to suggest something. + +When the difficulty was stated to Professor Bellew he said: "Why, that's +one of our stations. It is a little out of the way to go up to Dr. +Carbrook's place on the way to Yenping, but we'll see that you get to +both towns." + +"That's certainly good of you, Professor," said J.W., gratefully. "I've +told you about Joe Carbrook, and I can hardly wait until I get to him." +As a matter of fact, he had told everybody about Joe Carbrook. + +Professor Bellew was sympathetic. "I know," he said, "and I understand. +When you come back, if we can manage the dates, you may find something +here which you ought to see." + +The Carbrook Hospital--it has another name in the annual reports, but +this will identify it sufficiently for our purposes--spread itself all +over the compound and beyond in its welcome to J.W. Joe and Marcia were +first, and joyfullest. The school turned out to the last scholar, and +even the hospital's "walking cases" insisted on having a share in the +welcome to the foreign doctor's friend. + +"Tell us what you are up to," said the Carbrooks, when they were back in +the house after a sketchy inspection of the whole establishment; +hospital, dispensary, school, chapel, and so forth. And, "Tell me what +you are doing with it, now that you have the hospital you have been +dreaming about so long," said J.W. + +But J.W. told his story first, just to get it out of the way, as he +said. Then he turned to Marcia and said, "How about it, 'Mrs. +Carbrook'?" + +"Well, J.W.," said Marcia, "that name is not so strange as it was. I'm +feeling as if I had been married a long time, judging by the +responsibilities, that are dumped on me just because I am the doctor's +wife. And this doctor man of mine hardly knows whether to be happy or +miserable. He's happy, because he has found the very place he wanted. +And he's miserable because he ought to be learning the language and +can't get away from the work that crowds in on him." + +"And you yourself, Marcia," J.W. asked, "are you happy or miserable, or +both?" + +"She's as mixed up as I am, old man," Joe answered for her. "Talk about +the language! I don't hanker after learning it, but I've got to, some +time. If they would just let me be a sort of deaf-mute doctor I'd be +much obliged. The work is fairly maddening. You know, it was a question +of closing up this hospital or putting me in as a green hand. Of course +there are the nurses, and a couple of students. But I'm glad they put me +in; only, look at the job! Never a day without new patients. A steady +stream at the out-clinic. Why, J.W., I've done operations alone here +that at home they'd hardly let me hold sponges for. Had to do 'em." + +"Well," J.W. commented, "isn't that what you came for?" + +"It is," Marcia answered--these two had a queer way of speaking for each +other--"and it would be a good plenty if the hospital were all. But we +are putting up a new building to take the place of an adobe horror, and +Joe has to buy bricks and deal with workmen and give advice and dispense +medicine and do operations, all with the help of a none too sure +interpreter. He's the busiest man, I do believe, between here and +Foochow." + +J.W. wanted to draw Dr. Joe out about the work in general. What of the +evangelistic work, and the educational work, and all the rest. + +But Dr. Joe would not rise to it. "I'll tell you honestly, J.W., I just +don't know. Haven't had time to find out. When I got here I found people +standing three deep around the hospital doors, some wanting help for +themselves, and some anxious to bring relatives or friends. I was at +work before anything was unpacked except my instruments. And I've been +at it ever since. Everything else could wait, but all this human misery +couldn't. And I don't know much of what the evangelistic value of it all +will be. We have a Bible woman and a teacher in the school who are very +devoted. They read and pray every day with the patients, and as for +gratitude, I never expected to be thanked for what I did as I have been +thanked here. I'll tell you one thing; I didn't dream a man could be so +content in the midst of such a hurricane of work. I'm done to a +standstill every day; I bump into difficulties and tackle +responsibilities that I hadn't even heard of in medical school, though I +haven't killed anybody yet. And all the time I remember how I used to +wish I might be the only doctor between Siam and sunrise. I'm plenty +near enough to that, in all conscience. The only doctor in this town of +one hundred thousand, and a district around us so big that I'm afraid to +measure it. On one side the next doctor is a good hundred miles away. +Now, do you know how I feel? Oh, yes; insufficient until it hurts like +the toothache, yet somehow as though I were carrying on here, not in +place of the man who has gone home on furlough, but in place of Jesus +Christ himself. You know I'm not irreverent; I might have been, but this +has taken all of the temptation out of me. It is his work, not mine." + +J.W. turned to Marcia again. "I thought you said this Joe of yours was +miserable, I've seen him when he was enjoying himself pretty well, but I +never saw him like this." + +"I know," Marcia admitted, "and I didn't mean he was really unhappy. But +it is a big strain, and there's no sign of its letting up until the +regular doctor gets back." + +The next day J.W. watched his old friend amid the press of duties which +crowded the hours, and he marveled as much as the wretchedness of the +patients as he did at the steady resourcefulness of the man whom he had +known when he was Delafield's adventurous and spendthrift idler. + +As he looked on, J.W. could understand something which had been a closed +book to him before. No one could stand by and see this abjectness of +need, this helplessness, this pathetic faith which was almost fatalistic +in the foreign doctor's miraculous powers--it recalled that beseeching +cry in the New Testament story, "Lord, if thou _wilt_ thou +_canst_"--without being deeply, poignantly glad that there were such men +as Joe Carbrook. It was all very well to talk at long range about +letting China and other places wait. But on the spot nobody could talk +that way. + +The visit might have lasted two weeks, instead of two days, and then the +Carbrooks would have hung on and besought him to stay a little longer. +Torture would not have drawn any admission from them, but back of all +the joy in the work was a something that left them without words as J.W. +and his little group from Foochow set out for the next stopping place. +Just before the last silent hand-grips, J.W. told his friends about +Jeannette and himself, and promised Joe a wedding present. "You see," he +said, "I never sent you one when you were married, and I'd like to send +you a double one now, for yourselves and for us. You send me word what +it is you most need for the hospital, an X-ray outfit, or a sterilizer, +or a thingamajig for making cultures, microscope included, and Jeannette +and I will see that you get it. I'm a tither, you know, and my salary's +been raised, and I want to do something to show what a fool I was before +I knew what sort of a business you were really in out here. So don't be +modest; you can't hurt my feelings!" + +Back at Foochow in the course of the slow days which Chinese travel +gives to those who go aside from the beaten path, Professor Bellew +welcomed J.W. with eager warmth. "You're back just in time, if you can +stay a few days; the celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the +college begins to-morrow." + +J.W. had at least a week's business with the Cummings agents. He had +found some conditions on his inland journey which called for much +discussion. So he had time for sharing in a good deal of the +celebration. It was something to marvel at, that a Christian college had +been at work in this great city for forty years. + +The president of the college and his wife started the proceedings with a +formal reception, at which a Chinese orchestra furnished music outside +the house, and Western musicians rendered more familiar selections in +the parlors. Alumni flocked to the reception, men of every variety of +occupation, but all one in their devotion to their Alma Mater. The next +afternoon was given over to athletics, and the evening to a lecture, +quite in the American fashion. + +The third day being Sunday, J.W. listened to an American missionary in +the morning, who spoke boldly of the prime need for a college like this +if the youth of China were to be trained for the highest service to +their country. At night he sat through nearly three hours of the most +amazing testimony meeting he had ever seen. It was led by a Chinese who +had been graduated from the college thirty years before. The eagerness, +almost impatience, to confess what Jesus Christ and Christian education +had meant to these Chinese leaders--for it was evident they _were_ +leaders--was a thing to stir the most sluggish Christian pulse. J.W.'s +mind took him back to a memorable love feast at Cartwright Institute, +when Joe Carbrook had made his first confession of and surrender to +Jesus Christ, and it seemed to him that the likeness between these two +so different gatherings was far more real than all their contrasts. + +On Monday the anniversary banquet brought the American consul, a +representative of the provincial governor, and many other dignitaries. +And on Tuesday the students put on a pageant which illustrated in +gorgeousness of color and costume and accessories the history of the +college. Besides all this pomp and circumstance there was a wonderful +industrial exhibit. The president of China sent a scroll, as did also +the prime minister. Former students in the cities of China, from Peking +to Amoy, sent subscriptions amounting to twenty-five thousand dollars +for new buildings, and other old students in the Philippines sent a +second twenty-five thousand dollars. + +All of which stirred J.W. to the very soul. Here was a Christian college +older than many in America. Its results could not be measured by any +visible standards, yet he had seen graduates of the school and students +who did not stay long enough to graduate, men of light and leading, men +of wealth and station, officials, men in whom the spirit of the new +China burned, Christian workers; and all these bore convincing testimony +that this college had been the one great mastering influence of their +lives. A Christian college--in China! + +J.W. thought of it all and said to himself: "I wonder if I am the same +individual as he who not so many months ago was talking about the good +sense of letting China wait indefinitely for Christ? Anyhow, somebody +has had better sense than that every day of the last forty years!" + +The "tour of the tools" was teaching J.W. more than he could teach the +merchants of Asia. And yet he was doing no little missionary work, as +evidenced both in his own reports to Peter McDougall, and still more in +the reports which went to that observant gentleman after J.W. had moved +on from any given place. The Cummings Hardware Corporation may be +without a soul, as corporations are known to be, but it has many eyes. + +These eyes followed J.W.'s progress from Shanghai to Foochow, to Hong +Kong, to Manila. They observed how he studied artisans and their ways +with tools, and the ways of builders with house fittings, and the +various devices with which in field and garden the toilers set +themselves to their endless labor. As the eyes of the Cummings +organization saw these things, the word went back across the water to +Saint Louis, and Peter McDougall took credit to himself for a +commendable shrewdness. + +But the ever-watchful eyes had no instructions to report on the tool +missionary's other activities, and therefore no report was made. None +the less they saw, and wondered, and thought that there was something +back of it all. There was more back of it than they could have guessed. + +For J.W. had come to a new zest for both of his quests. The business +which had brought him into the East was daily becoming more fascinating +in its possibilities and promise. In even greater measure the interests +which belong especially to this chronicle were taking on a new +importance. Everywhere he went he sought out the missions and the +missionaries. He plied the workers with question on question until they +told him all the hopes and fears and needs and longings which often they +hesitated to put into their official letters to the Boards. + +In Manila he saw, after a little more than two decades of far from +complete missionary occupation, the signs that a Christian civilization +was rising. The schools and churches and hospitals and other +organization work established in Manila were proof that all through the +islands the everyday humdrum of missionary service was going forward, +perhaps without haste, but surely without rest. + +When he came to Singapore, that traffic corner to which all the sea +roads of the East converge, he heard the story of a miracle, and then +he saw the miracle itself, the Anglo-Chinese College. + +They told him what it meant, not the missionaries only, but the Chinese +merchants who controlled the Cummings line for all the archipelago, and +Sumatra planters, and British officials, and business men from Malaysian +trade centers whose names he had never before heard. + +The teacher who put himself at J.W.'s service was one of the men to +whom Pastor Drury had written his word of appeal on J.W.'s behalf. He +respected it altogether, and the more because he well knew that here was +no need for mere talk. A visitor with eyes and ears could come to his +own conclusions. If the college were not its own strongest argument, no +words could strengthen it. + +The college had been started by intrepid men who had no capital but +faith and an overmastering sense of duty. That was a short generation +ago. Now J.W. saw crowded halls and students with purposeful faces, and +he heard how, at first by the hundreds and now by thousands, the product +of this school was spreading a sense of Christian life-values through +all the vast island and ocean spaces from Rangoon to New Guinea, and +from Batavia to Sulu. + +But it may as well be told that, even more than China, India made the +deepest impress on the mind and heart of our tool-traveler. From the +moment when he landed in Calcutta to the moment when he watched the low +coasts of the Ganges delta merge into the horizon far astern, India +would not let him alone. He saw poverty such as could scarcely be +described, and religious rites the very telling of which might sear the +tongue. If China's poor had a certain apathy which seemed like poise, +even in their wretchedness, not so India's, but, rather, a slow-moving +misery, a dull progress toward nothing better, with only nothingness and +its empty peace at last. + +Once in Calcutta, and his business plans set going, he started out to +find some of the city's Christian forces. They were not easy to find. As +in every Oriental city, missionary work is relatively small. Indeed, J. +W. began to think that this third city of Asia had little religion of +any sort. + +He had been prepared in part for the first meager showing of mission +work. On shipboard he had encountered the usual assortment of missionary +critics; the unobservant, the profane, the superior, the loose-living, +and all that tribe. The first of them he had met on the second day out +from San Francisco, and every boat which sailed the Eastern seas +appeared to carry its complement of self-appointed and all-knowing +enemies of the whole missionary enterprise. While steaming up the Bay of +Bengal, the anti-mission chorus appeared at its critical best. J.W. was +told as they neared Calcutta that the Indian Christian was servile, and +slick and totally untrustworthy. Never had these expert observers seen a +genuine convert, but only hypocrites, liars, petty thieves, and +grafters. + +In spite of it all, at last he found the Methodist Mission, and it was +not so small, when once you saw the whole of it. By great good fortune +his instructions from home ordered him up country as far as Cawnpore. +And to his delight he met a Methodist bishop, one of the new ones, who +was setting out with a party for the Northwest. So, on the bishop's most +cordial invitation, he joined himself to the company, and learned in a +day or two from experts how to make the best of India's rather trying +travel conditions. + +Benares, Allahabad, Cawnpore, Lucknow--J.W. came to these cities with a +queer feeling of having been there before. Long ago, in his early Sunday +school days, the names of these places and the wonders of them had been +the theme of almost the only missionary book he had at that age cared to +read. + +At Allahabad, said his companions of the way, an All-India Epworth +League convention was to be held, and J.W. made up his mind that a +League convention in India would be doubly worth attending. He did +attend it too, but it left no such memory as another gathering in the +same city; a memory which he knows will last after every other picture +of the East has faded from his recollection. + +The party had reached Allahabad at the time of the Khumb Mela, a vast +outpouring of massed humanity too great for any but the merest guesses +at its numbers. This "Mela," feast, religious pilgrimage, whatever it +might mean to these endless multitudes, is held here at stated times +because the two sacred rivers, the Jumna and the Ganges, come together +at Allahabad, and tradition has it that a third river flows beneath the +surface to meet the others. So the place is trebly sacred, its waters +potent for purification, no matter how great one's sin. + +With the others J.W. set out for an advantageous observation point, on +the wall of the fort which stands on the tongue of land between the two +streams. On the way J.W. assured himself that if Calcutta seemed without +religion, here was more than enough of it to redress the balances. In +the throng was a holy man whose upraised arm had been held aloft until +it had atrophied, and would never more swing by his side. And yonder +another holy one sat in the sand, with a circle of little fires burning +close about him. The seeker after he knew not what who made his search +while lying on a bed of spikes was here. And once a procession passed, +two hundred men, all holy after the fashion of Hindu holiness, all +utterly naked, with camels and elephants moving in their train. As if to +show how these were counted men of special sanctity, the people fell on +their faces to the ground beside them as they passed, and kissed their +shadows on the sand. + +The point of vantage reached, J.W.'s bewildered eyes could scarce make +his brain believe what they saw. He was standing on a broad wall, thirty +feet above the water, and perhaps a hundred feet back from it. Up and +down the stream was an endless solid mass of heads. J.W. looked for some +break in the crowd, some thinning out of its packed bodies, but as far +as he could see there was no break, no end. Government officials had +estimated the number of pilgrims at two millions! + +A signal must have been given, or an hour had come--J.W. could not tell +which--but somehow the people knew that now was the opportunity to enter +the water and gain cleansing from all sin. A mighty, resistless movement +carried the human stream to meet the river. Inevitably the weaker +individuals were swept along helpless, and those who fell arose no more. +Horrified, J.W. stood looking down on the slow, irresistible movement +of the writhing bodies, and he saw a woman drop. A British police +officer, standing in an angle of the wall beneath, ordered a native +policeman to get the woman out But the native, seeing the crush and +unwilling to risk himself for so slight a cause, waited until his +superior turned away to another point of peril, and then, snatching the +red-banded police turban from his head, was lost in the general mass. + +The woman? Trampled to death, and twenty other men and women with her, +in sight of the stunned watchers on the wall, who were compelled to see +these lives crushed out, powerless to help by so much as a finger's +weight. + +What was it all for? J.W. asked his companions on the wall. And they +said that the word went out at certain times and the people flocked to +this Mela. They came to wash in the sacred waters at the propitious +moment. Nothing else mattered; not the inescapable pollution of the +rivers, not the weariness and hunger and many distresses of the way. It +was a chance, so the wise ones declared, to be rid of sin. Certainly it +might not avail, but who would not venture if mayhap there might be +cleansing of soul in the waters of Mother Ganges? + +On another day J.W. came to a temple, not a great towering shrine, but +a third-rate sort of place, a sacred cow temple. Here was a family which +had journeyed four hundred miles to worship before the idols of this +temple. They offered rice to one idol, flowers to another, holy water +from the river to a third. No one might know what inner urge had driven +them here. The priest, slow to heed them, at length deigned to dip his +finger in a little paint and with it he smeared the caste mark on the +foreheads of the worshipers. It was heartless, empty formality. + +J.W. watched the woman particularly. Her face was an unrelieved +sadness; she had fulfilled the prescribed rites, in the appointed place, +but there was no surcease from the endless round of dull misery which +she knew was her ordained lot. Thought J.W.: "I suppose this is a sort +of joining the church, an initiation or something of that sort. Not much +like what happened when I joined the church in Delafield. Everybody was +glad there; here nobody is glad, not even the priest." + +At Cawnpore J.W. was able to combine business with his missionary +inquiries. Here he found great woollen and cotton mills, not unlike +those of America, except that in these mills women and children were +working long hours, seven days a week, for a miserable wage. It was +heathenism plus commercialism; that is to say, a double heathenism. For +when business is not tempered by the Christian spirit, it is as pagan as +any cow temple. + +In these mills was a possible market for certain sorts of Cummings +goods, as J.W. learned in the business quarter of the city. He wanted +more opportunity to see how the goods he dealt in could be used, and, +having by now learned the path of least resistance, he appealed to a +missionary. It was specially fortunate that he did, for the missionary +introduced him to the secretary of the largest mills in the city, an +Indian Christian with a history. + +Now, this is a hint at the story of--well, let us call him Abraham. His +own is another Bible name, of more humble associations, but he deserves +to be called Abraham. Thirty years ago a missionary first evangelized +and then baptized some two hundred villagers--outcasts, untouchables, +social lepers. Being newly become Christians, they deposed their old +village god. The landlord beat them and berated them, but they were done +with the idol. Now, that was no easy adventure of faith, and those who +thus adventured could not hope for material gain. They were more +despised than ever. + +Yet inevitably they began to rise in the human scale. The missionary +found one of them a young man of parts. Him he took and taught to read, +to write, to know the Scriptures. He began to be an exhorter; then a +local preacher; and at last he joined the Conference as a Methodist +itinerant at six dollars a month. Now this boy was the father of +Abraham. + +As a preacher he opened village schools, and taught the children their +letters, his own boy among them. Abraham learned quickly. A place was +found for him in a mission boarding school. Thence he moved on and up to +Lucknow Christian College. It was this man who escorted J.W. through the +great mills of which he was an executive. He had a salary of two hundred +dollars a month. If his father had been an American village preacher at +twelve hundred dollars a year, Abraham's salary, relatively, would need +to be twenty or thirty thousand dollars. + +Abraham was the superintendent of a Sunday school in Cawnpore. He was +giving himself to all sorts of betterment work which would lessen the +misery of the poor. He had a seat in the city council. A hostel for boys +was one of his enterprises. Here was a man doing his utmost to +Christianize the industry in which thousands of his country men spent +their lives; a second-generation Christian, and a man who must be +reckoned with, no longer spurned and despised as a casteless nobody. + +J.W. followed Abraham about the mills with growing admiration. Inside +the walls, light, orderly paths, flowers, cleanliness. Outside the gate, +to step across the road was to walk a thousand years into the past, +among the smells and the ageless noises of the bazaar, with its +chaffering and cheating, its primitive crudities, and its changeless +wares. Certainly, a Cawnpore mill is not the ideal industrial +commonwealth, but without men like Abraham to alleviate its grimness the +coming of larger opportunities through work like this might well lay a +heavier burden on men's lives than the primitive and costly toil which +it has displaced. + +There was just time for a visit to Lucknow, a city which to the British +is the historic place of mutiny and siege; to American Methodists a +place both of history and of present-day advance. J.W. worshiped in the +great Hindustani Methodist church, the busy home of many activities. In +the congregation were many students, girls from Isabella Thoburn +College, and boys from Lucknow Christian College. Lifelong Methodist as +he was, J.W. quickly recognized, even amid these new surroundings, the +familiar aspects of a Methodist church on its busy day. The crowding +congregations were enough to stir one's blood. A noble organ sounded out +the call to worship and led the choir and people in the service of +praise. There was a Sunday school in full operation, and an Epworth +League Chapter, completely organized and active. His guide confided to +J.W. that this church had yet another point of resemblance to the great +churches at home; it was quite accustomed to sending a committee to +Conference, to tell the bishop whom it wanted for preacher next year! + +J.W. was not quite satisfied. The days of his wanderings must soon be +over, but before he left India he wanted to see the missionary in actual +contact with the immemorial paganism of the villages, for he had +discovered that the village is India. How was the Christian message +meeting all the dreary emptinesses and limitations of village life? + +Once more he appealed to his missionary guide; this latest one, the last +of the five men to whom Pastor Drury had written before J.W. had set out +on his travels. Could he show his visitor a little of missionary work in +village environment? + +"Surely. Nothing easier," the district superintendent said. "We'll jump +into my Ford--great thing for India, the Ford; and still greater for us +missionaries--and we'll go a-villaging." + +The village of their quest once reached, the Ford drew up before a neat +brick house built around three sides of a courtyard, with verandas on +the court side. This was no usual mud hut, but a house, and a parsonage +withal. Here lived the Indian village preacher and his family. The +preacher's wife was neatly dressed and capable; the children clean and +well-mannered. The room had its table, and on the table books. That +meant nothing to J.W., but the superintendent gave him to understand +that a table with books in an Indian village house was comparable in its +rarity to a small-town American home with a pipe organ and a butler! + +The lunch of native food seemed delicious, if it was "hot," to J.W.'s +healthy appetite, and if he had not seen over how tiny a fire it had +been prepared he would have credited the smiling housewife with a +lavishly equipped kitchen. + +People began to drop in. It was somewhat disconcerting to the visitor, +to see these callers squatting on their heels, talking one to another, +but watching him continually out of the corners of their eyes. One of +them, the chaudrie, headman of the village, being introduced to J.W., +told him, the superintendent acting as interpreter, how the boys' school +flourished, and how he and other Christians had gone yesterday on an +evangelizing visit to another village, not yet Christian, but sure to +ask for a teacher soon. + +The preacher, in a rather precise, clipped English, asked J.W. if he +cared to walk about the village. "We could go to the _mohulla_ [ward], +where most of our Christians live. They will be most glad to welcome +you." + +The way led through dirty, narrow streets, or, rather, let us say, +through the spaces between dwellings, to the low-caste quarter. Here +were people of the bottom stratum of Indian life, yet it was a Christian +community in the making. The little school was in session--a group of +fifteen or twenty boys and girls with their teacher. It was all very +crude, but the children read their lessons for the visitor, and did sums +on the board, and sang a hymn which the pastor had composed, and recited +the Lord's Prayer and the Twenty-third psalm. + +"These," said the pastor, "are the children of a people which for a +thousand years has not known how to read or write. Yet see how they +learn." + +"Yes," the superintendent agreed, "but that isn't the best of it, as you +know. They are untouchables now, but even caste, which is stronger than +death, yields to education. Once these boys and girls have an education +they cannot be ignored or kept down. They will find a place in the +social order." + +"I can see that," J.W. said, thinking of Abraham. "But education is not +a missionary monopoly, is it? If these children were educated by Hindus, +would not the resulting rise in their condition come just the same?" + +"It would, perhaps," the missionary answered, "but your 'if' is too big. +For the low caste and the out-caste people there is no education unless +it is Christian education. We have a monopoly, though not of our +choosing. The educated Hindu will not do this work under any +circumstances. It has been tried, with all the prestige of the +government, which is no small matter in India, and nothing comes of it. +Not long ago the government proposed a wonderful scheme for the +education of the 'depressed classes.' The money was provided, and the +equipment as well. There were plenty of Hindus, that is, non-Christians, +who were indebted to the government for their education. They were +invited to take positions in the new schools. But no; not for any money +or any other inducement would these teachers go near. And there you are. +I know of no way out for the great masses of India except as the gospel +opens the door." + +"Is there no attempt of any sort on the part of Indians who are not +Christians? Surely, some of them are enlightened enough to see the need, +and to rise above caste." J.W. suspected he was asking a question +which had but one answer. + +"Yes, there is such an effort occasionally," the superintendent +admitted. "The Arya Samaj movement makes an attempt once in a while, but +it always fails. If a few are bold enough to disregard caste, they are +never enough to do anything that counts. The effort is scarcely more +than a gesture, and even so it would not have been made but for the +activities of the missionaries." + + * * * * * + +And so ended J.W.'s Indian studies. Before many days he was retracing +his way--Calcutta, Singapore, Hongkong, Shanghai, Yokohama. And then on +a day he found himself aboard a liner whose prow turned eastward from +Japan's great port, and his heart was flying a homeward-bound pennant +the like of which never trailed from any masthead. + + + +THIS EXPERIMENT TEACHETH--? + +For the first day or so out from Japan J.W. behaved himself as does any +ordinary American in similar case; all the sensations of the journey +were swallowed up in the depths of his longings to be home. The voyage +so slow; the Pacific so wide! + +But shortly he resigned himself to the pervading restfulness of +shipboard, and began to make acquaintances. Of them all one only has any +interest for us--Miss Helen Morel, late of Manila. Her place was next +to his at the table. Like J.W., she was traveling alone, and before they +had been on board twenty-four hours they had discovered that both were +Methodists; he, from Delafield in the Middle West, she from +Pennsylvania. J.W. found, altogether to his surprise, that she listened +with flattering attention while he talked. For J.W. is no braggart, nor +is he overmuch given to self-admiration; we know him better than that. +But it was pleasant, none the less, on good days to walk up and down the +long decks, and on other days to sit in comfortable deck chairs, with +nothing to do but talk. + +Miss Morel, being a teacher going home after three years of steady, +close work in a Manila high school, was ready to talk of anything but +school work. She found herself immensely interested in J.W.'s +experiences. He had told her of the double life, so to say, which he +had led; preaching the good news of better tools, and studying the work +of other men and women, as truly salesmen as himself, who preached a +more arresting and insistent gospel. + +"I'm glad to meet some one who knows about missions at first hand," Miss +Morel began one morning, as they stepped out on the promenade deck for +their constitutional. "You know, I think people at home don't understand +at all. They are so absorbed with their little parish affairs that they +can't appreciate this wonderful work that is being done so far from +home." + +J.W. agreed, though not without mental reservations. He knew how true +it was that many of the home folks did not rightly value mission work, +but he was not so sure about their "little parish affairs." He watched +to see if Miss Morel meant to expand that idea. + +But she evidently had thought at once of something else. Said she, +"Sometimes I think that if the gossip about missionaries and missions +which is so general in the Orient gets back home, as it surely does in +one way or another, it must have a certain influence on what people +think about the work." + +"Oh, that," said J.W., with no little scorn. "That stuff is always +ignorant or malicious, and I doubt if it gets very far with church +people. Of course it may with outsiders. I've heard it, any amount of +it; you can't miss it if you travel in the East And there's just enough +excuse for it to make it a particularly vicious sort of slander. You +could say as much about the churches at home, and a case here and there +would not be lacking to furnish proof." + +"Certainly," said the teacher. "And yet missions are so wonderful; so +much more worth while than anything that is being done at home, don't +you think?" + +There it was again. "I'm afraid I don't follow you, Miss Morel," J.W. +said, with a puzzled air. "Do you mean that the churches at home are not +onto their job, if you'll excuse the phrase?" + +His companion laughed as she answered, "Maybe not quite as strong as +that. But they are doing the same old thing in the same old way. Going +to church and home again, to Sunday school and home again, to young +people's meeting and home again. But out here," and her hand swung in a +half circle as though she meant to include the whole Pacific basin, "out +here men and women are doing such splendid pioneer work, in all sorts of +fascinating ways." + +"True enough," J.W. assented. "I've seen that, all right. But the home +church isn't so dead as you might think. Just before I left Delafield to +go to Saint Louis, for instance, a new work for the foreign-speaking +people of our town was being started, with the Board of Home Missions +and Church Extension backing up the local workers. They were planning to +make a great church center for all these people, and I hear that it is +getting a good start." + +"Oh, yes, I can well believe that, Mr. Farwell," Miss Morel hastened to +say. "I think work for the immigrant is so very interesting, don't you? +But, of course, that's not quite what I meant. The usual dull things +that churches do, you know." + +"Well, take another instance that I happen to remember," J.W. had a +touch of the sort of feeling he used to delight in at Cartwright, when +he was gathering his material for a debate. "My first summer after +leaving college, a few of us in First Church got busy studying our own +town. We found two of the general church boards ready to help us with +facts and methods. The Home Missions people gave us one sort of help, +and another board, with the longest name of them all, the Board of +Temperance, Prohibition, and Public Morals, showed us how to go about an +investigation of the town's undesirable citizens and their influence. It +is in that sort of business for all of us, you know." + +"That must have been exciting," said Miss Morel. "I know I should enjoy +such work. What did you find out, and what could you do about it?" + +That was a question not to be glibly answered, J.W. knew. But he meant +to be fair about it. "We found out plenty that surprised us; a great +deal," he added, "that ought to be done, and much more that needed to be +changed. We even went so far as to draw up a sort of civic creed, 'The +Everyday Doctrines of Delafield,' The town paper printed it, and it was +talked about for a while, but probably we were the people who got the +most out of it; it showed us what we church members might mean to the +town. And that was worth something." + +Miss Morel was sure it was. But she came back to her first idea about +the home churches. "Don't you think that much of the preaching, and all +that, is pretty dull and tiresome? I came from a little country church, +and it was so dreary." + +J.W. thought of Deep Creek, and said, "I know what you mean; but even +the country church is improving. I must tell you some time about Marty, +my chum. He's a country preacher, helped in his training by the Rural +Department of the Home Missions Board, and his people come in crowds to +his preaching. Country churches are waking up, and the Board people at +Philadelphia have had a lot to do with it." + +"Well, I'm glad. But anyway, home missions is rather commonplace, +haven't you noticed?" and Miss Morel looked almost as though she were +asking a question of state. + +"I can't say I've found it so," J.W. said, stoutly, "I was some time +learning, but I ran into a lot of experiences before I left home. Take +the work for colored people, for instance. I had to make a speech at a +convention, and I found out that our church has a Board of Education for +Negroes which is doing more than any other agency to train Negro +preachers and teachers and home makers, and doctors and other leaders. +That's not so very commonplace, would you say so?" + +"Well, no," the young lady admitted. "It is very important work, of +course; and I'd dearly love to have a share in it. I am a great +believer in the colored races, you know. But you are making me begin to +think I am all wrong about the church at home. I don't mean to belittle +it. Perhaps I appreciate it more than I realized. Anyway, tell me +something else that you have found out." + +"There isn't time," J.W. objected. "But if you won't think me a +nuisance, maybe I can tell you part of it. For example, Sunday school. +Long ago I discovered that the whole church was providing for Sunday +school progress through a Board of Sunday Schools, and there isn't a +modern Sunday school idea anywhere that this Board doesn't put into its +scheme of work. I was a very small part of it myself for a while, so I +know." + +"Yes, and even I know a little about the Sunday School Board," confessed +Miss Morel. "It has helped us a lot in the Philippines. And so I must +admit that the church does try to improve and extend Sunday school work. +What else?" + +J.W. told about his experiences on the Mexican border, where home +missions and foreign missions came together. Then, seeing that she was +really listening, he told of his and Marty's college days, how Marty had +borrowed money from the Board of Education, and how the same Board had a +hand in the college evangelistic work. He told about the deaconesses who +managed the hospital at Manchester, and the training school which Marcia +Dayne Carbrook had attended when she was getting ready to go to China. +That school had sent out hundreds of deaconesses and other workers. + +The thought of Marcia made him think of Joe, and he told what he knew of +how the Wesley Foundation at the State University had helped Joe when he +could easily have made shipwreck of his missionary purpose. Of course +the story of his visit to the Carbrooks in China must also be told. + +Miss Morel changed the subject again. "Tell me, Mr. Farwell," she asked, +"were you in the Epworth League when you were at home?" + +"I surely was," said J.W. "That was where I got my first start; at the +Cartwright Institute." And the story jumped back to those far-off days +when he was just out of high school. + +As he paused Miss Morel said, "I was an Epworthian, too, and in the +young women's missionary societies. We had a combination society in our +church, so I was a 'Queen Esther' and a 'Standard Bearer' as well. Those +organizations did me a world of good. You know, when I think of it, the +women's missionary societies have done a wonderful work in America and +everywhere." + +"I guess they have," said J.W. "I know my mother has always been a +member of both, and she's always been the most intelligent and active +missionary in the Farwell family." + +The talk languished for a while, and then Miss Morel exclaimed, "I know +why we've stopped talking; we're hungry. It is almost time for luncheon, +and if you have an appetite like mine, you're impatient for the call." + +J.W. looked at his watch and saw that there was only ten minutes of the +morning left. So they separated to get ready against the sounding of the +dinner gong. + +But J.W. was not hungry. He was struggling with an old thought that to +him had all the tantalizing quality of novelty. The talk of the morning +had become a sort of roll-call of church boards. How did it happen that +the church was busy with this and that and the other work? Why a Board +of Hospitals and Homes? Why a Deaconess Board, even though deaconess +work happened to be merciful and gentle and Christlike? What was the +church doing with a Book Concern? How came it that we had that board +with the long name--Temperance, Prohibition, and Public Morals? He had +traveled from Yokohama to Lucknow and back, and everywhere he had found +this same church doing all sorts of work, with no slightest suspicion +but that all of it was her proper business. + +So picture after picture flickered before his mind's eye, as though his +brain had built up a five-reel mental movie from all sorts of memory +film; a hundred feet of this, two hundred of that, a thousand here, +there just a flash. It had all one common mark; it was all "the church," +but the hit-and-miss of it, its lightning change, bewildered him. The +pictures leaped from Cartwright to Cawnpore, from the country church at +Ellis to Joe Carbrook's hospital in China; from New York and +Philadelphia and Chicago and Cincinnati and Washington to the ends of +the country and the ends of the earth; and in and through it all, swift +bits of unrelated yet vivid hints of _Advocates_ and _Heralds_, of +prayer meetings and institutes, of new churches and old colleges, of +revivals and sewing societies, of League socials and Annual Conferences, +of deaconesses visiting dreary homes, and soft-footed nurses going about +in great hospitals; of beginners' departments and old people's homes; of +kindergartens and clinics and preparatory classes. There seemed no end +to it all, every moment some new aspect of the church's activity showed +itself and then was gone. + +It was a most confused and confusing experience; and all through the +rest of the day J.W. caught himself wondering again and again at the +variety and complexity of the church's affairs. + +Why should a church be occupied with all this medley? Why should it be +so distracted from its main purpose, to be a Jack of all trades? Why +should it open its doors and train its workers and spend its money in +persistent response to every imaginable human appeal? + +Perhaps that might be it; "_human_." Once a philosopher had said, "I am +a man, and therefore nothing human is foreign to me." What if the church +by its very nature must be like that? what if this really were its main +purpose--all these varied and sometimes almost conflicting activities no +more than its effort to obey the central law of its life? + +J.W. was in his stateroom; he paced the narrow aisle between the +berths--three steps forward, three steps back, like a caged wild thing. +Something was coming to new reality in his soul; he was scarce conscious +of the walls that shut him in. Once he stopped by the open port. He +looked out at the tumbling rollers of the wide Pacific. And as he looked +he thought of the vastness of this sea, how its waters washed the icy +shores of Alaska and the palm-fronded atolls of the Marquesas; how they +carried on their bosom the multitudinous commerce of a hundred peoples; +how from Santiago to Shanghai and from the Yukon to New Zealand it was +one ocean, serving all lands, and taking toll of all. + +In spite of all the complexities and diversities of the lands about this +ocean, they had one possession which all might claim, as it claimed +them--the sea. It gave them neighbors and trade, climate and their daily +bread. In the sociology and geography and economics of the Orient this +Pacific Ocean was the great common denominator. _And in the geography +and economics and sociology of the kingdom of God? Might it not be--must +it not be, the church_! + +Not only the Pacific basin, but the round world was like that, every +part of it dependent on all the rest, and growing every day more and +more conscious of all the rest. Railways helped this process, and so did +steamships and air routes and telegraph and wireless. More than that, +all the world was becoming increasingly related to the life of every +part. With raw material produced in Brazil to make tires for the +limousines of Fifth Avenue and the Lake Shore Drive, what of the new +kinship between the producers in Brazil and the users in the States? All +good was coming to be the good of all the earth; and all evil was able +to affect the lives of unsuspecting folk half the earth's circumference +away. + +In such a time, what an insistent call for the program and power of the +Christian faith! And the call could be answered. J.W. had seen the +church applying the program as well in a Chinese city and in an Indian +village as in his home town and on the Mexican border. He was sure that +the power that was in the Christian message could heal all the hurts of +the world, and bring all peoples into "a world-commonwealth of good +will." + +This was what Jesus meant to do; not just to save here and there a +little group for heaven out of the general hopelessness, but to save and +make whole the heart of mankind. The church was not, first of all, +seeking its own enlargement, but extending the reach of its Founder's +purpose. It did all its many-sided work for a far greater reason than +any increase in its own numbers and importance; in a word, for the +Christianizing of life, Sunday and every day, in Delafield as well as in +the forests of the Amazon and the huddled cities of China. + +J.W. sat on the edge of his berth. In the first glow of this new +understanding his nerves had steadied to a serenity that was akin to +awe. Yet he knew he had made no great discovery. The thing he saw had +been there all the time. + +Then his mind set to work again on that motley procession of pictures +which he had likened to a patchwork film. Was it as disjointed as it +seemed? Could it not be so put together as to make a true continuity, +consistent and complete? + +Why not? In the events of his own life, strangely enough, he had the +clue to its right arrangement. By what seemed to be accidental or +incidental opportunity it had been his singular fortune to come in +contact with some aspect or another of all the work his church was +doing. And every element of it, from the beginners' class at Delafield +to the language school at Nanking, from the college social in First +Church to the celebration at Foochow--it was all New Testament work. Its +center was always Jesus Christ's teaching or example, or appeal. There +was in its complexity a vast simplicity; each was a part of all, and all +was in each. + +"John Wesley Farwell, Jr.," said that young man to himself, "this thing +is not your discovery--but how does that bit of Keats' go?" + +'Then felt I like some watcher of the skies + When a new planet swims into his ken; +Or like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes + He stared at the Pacific--and all his men +Looked at each other with a wild surmise-- + Silent, upon a peak in Darien,' + +There you have it! But I might have known. Cortez, if it _was_ Cortez, +could not have guessed the Pacific. He had nothing to suggest it. But I +might have guessed the singleness of the church's work. What is my name +for, unless I can appreciate the man who said 'The world is my parish,' +and who would do anything--sell books, keep a savings bank, open a +dispensary--for the sake of saving souls? That's the single idea, the +simple idea. It makes all these queer activities part of one great +activity; and rests them all on one under-girding truth--'The Church's +one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord.' + +But the wonderful thing to me is that, after all this time, I should +suddenly have found this out for myself! + +"What a story to take home to Delafield! Pastor Drury is going to have +the surprise of his life!" + + * * * * * + +Three people met J.W. as his train pulled in to the station at +Delafield. The other two were his father and mother. + +After the first tearfully happy greetings, J.W. looked around the +platform. "I rather thought Brother Drury might have come too," he said. + +The others exchanged meaning glances, and his father asked, "Then you +didn't get my second letter at San Francisco?" + +"No," said J.W., in vague alarm, "only the one. What's wrong? Is Mr. +Drury--" + +"He's at home now, son," said the elder Farwell, gravely. "He came home +from our Conference hospital at Hillcrest two weeks ago. We hope he's +going to gain considerable strength, but he's had some sort of a +stroke, we don't rightly know what, and he's pretty hard hit. He's +better than he was last week, but he can't leave his room; sits in his +easy chair and doesn't say much." + +J.W.'s heart ached. Without always realizing it, he had been counting +on long talks with the pastor; there was so much to tell him. And +especially so since that wonderful day out in the middle of the Pacific, +when he had seen what he even dared to call his 'vision' of the church. + +So he said, "You and mother drive on home; I'll walk up with Jeannette." + +For lovers who had just met after a year's separation these two were +strangely subdued. They had everything to say to each other, but this +sudden falling of the shadow of suffering on their meeting checked the +words on their lips. + +"Will he get better?" J.W. asked Jeannette. + +"They fear not," she answered. "The doctors say he may live for several +years, but he will never preach again. He just sits there; he's been so +anxious to see you. You must go to-day." + +"Of course. And what shall I say about the wedding? If he can't leave +his room----" + +Jeannette interrupted him: "If he can't leave his room, it will make no +difference. Church wedding or home wedding I should have chosen, as I +have told you; but you and I, John Wesley, are going to be married by +Walter Drury, wherever he is, if he's alive on our wedding day." + +"Why, yes," said J.W., with a little break in his voice, "it wouldn't +seem right any other way. We can have the dinner, or breakfast or +whatever it is, just the same, but we'll be married in his room. I'm +glad you feel that way about it too; though it's just like you." + +And it was so. J.W. went up to the study as soon as he could rid himself +of the dust of the day's travel, more eager to show Walter Drury he +loved him than to tell his story or even to arrange for the wedding. + +As to that ceremony, the plans had long ago been understood; nothing +more was needed than to tell Walter Drury his study afforded a better +background and setting for this particular wedding than a cathedral +could provide. + +J.W. was prepared for a great change in Pastor Drury, but he noticed no +such signs of breakdown as he had expected to see. He did not know that +the beloved pastor was keyed up for this meeting. He could not guess +that the beaming eye, the old radiant smile, the touch of color in a +face usually pale, were on special if unconscious display because the +pastor's heart was thanking God that he had been permitted to welcome +home his son in the gospel. + +Those had been dreary days, in the hospital, despite the ceaseless +ministries of nurses and doctors and friends from Delafield. This +hospital was a place of noble service, one of many such places which +have arisen in the Methodism of the last forty years. It was a hospital +through and through--the last word in equipment and competence, but not +at all an "institution." It was at once a home for the sick and a +training school of the Christian graces, where the distressed of body +and mind could be given the relief they needed--all of it given gladly, +in Christ's name. + +Walter Drury was not unmindful of the care and skill which the hospital +staff lavished on him, though no more faithfully on him than on many an +unknown or unresponsive patient. But he was in a pitifully questioning +mood. The doctors had told him he could not expect to preach again. When +the district superintendent had come to visit him, he carried away with +him Walter Drury's request for retirement at the coming session of the +Annual Conference. + +In his quiet moments--there were so many of them now--the broken man +counted up his years of service, all too few, as it seemed to him, and +lacking much of what they might have shown in outcomes for the church +and the kingdom. His Conference was one of the few which paid the full +annuity claim of its retired preachers, but even so he had not much to +look forward to. His twenty-five years in the active ranks meant that he +could count on twenty-five times $15 a year, $375, on which to live, +when he gave up his work. + +Perhaps he could live on this, with what little he had been able to put +aside; at any rate he could be glad now that there was none but himself +to think about. But was it worth all he had put into his vocation? His +brother in Saint Louis, not remarkably successful in his business, had +been able at least to make some provision for his old age. He too might +have been a moderately successful business or professional man. Truly it +was more than the older preachers had, this Conference annuity, which +would keep him from actual want; so much, surely, had been gained by the +church's growing sense of responsibility for its veterans. + +But had it really paid? Was all the gentle efficiency of the hospital, +and all the church's money which would come to him from the Conference +funds and the Board of Conference Claimants, enough to compensate him +for the long years when he had been spendthrift of all his powers for +the sake of his work? + +He knew, of course, the answer to his questions; no one better. But he +was a broken-down preacher, old before his time; and knowing the answer +was not at all the same as _having_ the answer. So he had been brought +home from Hillcrest, mind-weary and much cast down. Nor did he regain +any of his old buoyancy of spirit until the day when they told him J. W, +would be home next week. + +It was then that he told himself, "If J.W. has come back with only a +story to tell"--and gloom was in his face; "But if he has come back with +_the_ story to tell"--and his heart leaped within him at the thought. + +The pastor and J.W. were soon talking away with the old familiarity, +but mostly about inconsequentials. Neither was quite prepared for more +intimate communion; and, of course, the returning traveler had much to +do. The wedding was near at hand, and everybody but himself had been +getting ready this long time. So the call was too brief to suit either +of them, with the longer visits each hoped for of necessity deferred to +a more convenient season. + +J.W. must make a hurried journey to Saint Louis to turn in his report +to Peter McDougall, which report Peter was much better prepared to +receive than J.W. suspected. And a highly satisfactory arrangement was +made for J.W.'s continued connection with the Cummings Hardware +Corporation. + +Doubtless all weddings are much alike in their ceremonial aspects; short +or long, solemn-spoken ancient ritual or commonplace legal form, the +essence of them all is that this man and this woman say, "I will." So it +was in Walter Drury's study. And then the little group seated itself +about the pastor; Marty with Alma Wetherell, soon to become Mrs. Marty; +all the Shenks, the elder Farwells, John Wesley, Jr., and Jeannette. The +dinner would not be for an hour yet, and this was the pastor's time. + +Pastor Drury could not talk much. He had kept his chair as he read the +ritual, and now he sat and smiled quietly on them all. But once and +again his eye sought J.W. and the look was a question yet unanswered. + +"What sort of a voyage home did you have?" Mrs. Farwell asked her son, +motherlike, using even a query about the weather to turn attention to +her boy. + +"A good voyage, mother," said J.W. "A fine voyage. But one day--will +you let me tell it here, all of you? I've hardly been any more eager +for my wedding day than for a chance to say this. I won't tire you, Mr. +Drury, will I?" + +"You'll never do that, my boy," said the preacher. "But don't bother +about me, I've long had a feeling that what you are going to say will be +better for me than all the doctors." For he had seen the eager glow on +J.W.'s face, and his heart was ready to be glad. + +Thus it was that J.W. told the story of his great moment; how he had +talked with Miss Morel one morning of the many-sided work of the church, +and how in the afternoon he had looked through the open port of his +stateroom and had seen an ocean that looked like the church, and a +church that seemed like the ocean. + +"I shall remember that day forever, I think," he said. "For the first +time in my life I could put all the pieces of my life together; my home, +my church, the Sunday school, the League, college, the needy life of +this town, your country work, Marty, Mexico, China, India--everything; +and I could see as one wonderful, perfect picture, every bit of it +necessary to all the rest. Our church at work to make Jesus Christ Lord +of all life, in my home and clear to the 'roof of the world' out yonder +under the snows of Tibet. Can you see it, folks? I think _you_ always +could, Mr. Drury!" and he put his hand affectionately on the pastor's +knee. + +Pastor Drury's face was even paler than its wont, but in his eyes glowed +the light that never was on sea or land. He was hearing what sometimes +he had feared he might not last long enough to hear. The Experiment was +justified, and he was comforted! + +He picked up the Bible that lay near his hand, and turned to the Gospel +by Luke. "I hope none of you will think _I_ wrest the Book's words to +lesser meanings," he said, "but there is only one place in it that can +speak what is in my heart to-day." And he read the song of Simeon in the +temple: "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine +eyes have seen thy salvation," and so to the end. + +It was very still when his weak voice ceased; but in a moment the +silence was broken by a cry from J.W. + +"Why, Mr. Drury, it has been _you_, all these years!" + +"What do you mean, J.W.?". said Marty, somewhat alarmed and thoroughly +mystified. + +"Exactly what I say, Marty. Can't you see it too? Can't all of you see +it?" and J.W. looked from one face to another around the room. +"Jeannette, _you_ know what I mean, don't you?" + +And Jeannette, at once smiling and tearful, said, "Yes, J.W., I've +thought about it many times, and I know now it is true." + +Marty said, "Maybe so; but what?" for he was still bewildered. + +"Why," J.W. began, with eager haste, "Mr. Drury planned all this--years +and years ago. Not our wedding, I don't mean that," and he paused long +enough to find Jeannette's hand and get it firmly in his own, "we +managed that ourselves, didn't we, dear? But--I don't know why--this +blessed minister of God began, somewhere far back yonder, to show me +what God was trying to do through our church, and, later, through the +other churches. He saw that I went to Institute. He steered me through +my Sunday school work. He showed me my lifework. He made me want to go +to college. He introduced me to the Delafield that is outside our own +church. He got me my job in Saint Louis--don't you dare to deny it," as +the pastor raised a protesting hand. "I've talked with our sales +manager; he put the idea of the Far Eastern trip into Mr. McDougall's +mind--and, well, it has been Pastor Drury all these years, _and he knew +what he was doing_!" + +Pastor Drury had kept his secret bravely, but there was no need to keep +it longer, and now he was well content that these dear friends should +have discovered it on such a day of joy. After all, it had been a +beautiful Experiment, and not altogether without its value. So he made +no more ado, and in his heart there was a great peace. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of John Wesley, Jr., by Dan B. 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