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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, From the Bottom Up, by Alexander Irvine
+
+
+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: From the Bottom Up
+       The Life Story of Alexander Irvine
+
+
+Author: Alexander Irvine
+
+
+
+Release Date: February 27, 2006  [eBook #17881]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM THE BOTTOM UP***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Jeannie Howse, and the
+Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+(https://www.pgdp.net/)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
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+      See 17881-h.htm or 17881-h.zip:
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+
+
+    +--------------------------------------------------------------+
+    | Transcriber's Note:                                          |
+    |                                                              |
+    | A number of obvious typographical errors have been corrected |
+    | in this text. For a complete list, please see the bottom of  |
+    | this document.                                               |
+    |                                                              |
+    +--------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+
+
+
+
+FROM THE BOTTOM UP
+
+The Life Story of Alexander Irvine
+
+Illustrated
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Alexander Irvine, 1909.
+Photograph by Vanderweyde]
+
+
+
+
+New York
+Doubleday, Page & Company
+1910
+All Rights Reserved, Including that of Translation
+into Foreign Languages, Including the Scandinavian
+Copyright, 1909, 1910 by Doubleday, Page & Company
+Published, February, 1910
+
+
+
+
+         TO
+
+  MAUDE HAZEN IRVINE
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER                                                 PAGE
+    I. Boyhood in Ireland                                  3
+
+   II. The Beginning of an Education                      24
+
+  III. On Board a Man o' War                              40
+
+   IV. Problems and Places                                53
+
+    V. The Gordon Relief Expedition                       63
+
+   VI. Beginnings in the New World                        82
+
+  VII. Fishing for Men on the Bowery                      90
+
+ VIII. A Bunk-house and Some Bunk-house Men              105
+
+   IX. The Waif's Story                                  119
+
+    X. I Meet Some Outcasts                              126
+
+   XI. A Church in the Ghetto                            144
+
+  XII. Working Way Down                                  156
+
+ XIII. Life and Doubt on the Bottoms                     166
+
+  XIV. My Fight in New Haven                             183
+
+   XV. A Visit Home                                      193
+
+  XVI. New Haven Again--and a Fight                      207
+
+ XVII. I Join a Labour Union and Have Something
+       to Do with Strikes                                213
+
+XVIII. I Become a Socialist                              235
+
+  XIX. I Introduce Jack London to Yale                   250
+
+   XX. My Experiences as a Labourer in the Muscle
+       Market of the South                               256
+
+  XXI. At the Church of the Ascension                    274
+
+ XXII. My Socialism, My Religion and My Home             285
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+Alexander Irvine, 1909                        _Frontispiece_
+
+                                                 FACING PAGE
+Mr. Irvine's Birthplace                                    4
+
+Where Irvine Spent His Boyhood                             8
+
+Alexander Irvine as a Marine                              38
+
+Officers of H.M.S. "Alexandra" Ashore at Cattaro          50
+
+A Page from Mr. Irvine's Diary                            54
+
+Dowling, Tinker and Colporter                            110
+
+Alexander Irvine. From a sketch by Juliet Thompson       146
+
+State Convention of the Socialist Party of Connecticut   238
+
+The Lunch Hour in an Interborough Shop                   248
+
+Alexander Irvine and Jack London                         252
+
+In Muckers' Camp in Alabama                              258
+
+Irvine and Three Other Muckers as They Left Greenwich
+  Street for the South                                   258
+
+Irvine, Punching Logs in the Gulf of Mexico, 1907        270
+
+The Church of the Ascension                              276
+
+"Happy Hollow," Mr. Irvine's Present Home Near
+  Peekskill, New York                                    294
+
+Happy Hollow in the Winter, Looking from the House       298
+
+
+
+
+FROM THE BOTTOM UP
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+BOYHOOD IN IRELAND
+
+
+The world in which I first found myself was a world of hungry people.
+
+My earliest sufferings were the sufferings of hunger--physical hunger.
+It was not an unusual sight to see the children of our neighbourhood
+scratching the offal in the dunghills and the gutterways for scraps of
+meat, vegetables, and refuse. Many times I have done it myself.
+
+My father was a shoemaker; but something had gone wrong with the
+making of shoes. Improvements in machinery are pushed out into the
+commercial world, and explanations follow. A new shoemaker had
+arrived--a machine--and my father had to content himself with the
+mending of the work that the machine produced. It took him about ten
+years to find out what had happened to him.
+
+There were twelve children in our family, five of whom died in
+childhood. Those of us who were left were sent out to work as soon as
+we were able. I began at the age of nine. My first work was peddling
+newspapers. I remember my first night in the streets. Food was scarce
+in the home, and I begged to be allowed to do what other boys were
+doing. But I was not quite so well prepared. I began in the winter. I
+was shoeless, hatless, and in rags. My contribution to the family
+treasury amounted to about fifty cents a week; but it looked very
+large to me then. It was my first earning.
+
+Our home was a two-room cottage. Over one room was a little loft, my
+bedroom for fourteen years. The cottage floor was hard, dried mud.
+There was a wide, open fireplace. Several holes made in the wall by
+displacing of bricks here and there contained my father's old pipes. A
+few ornaments, yellow with the smoke of years, adorned the
+mantelpiece. At the front window sat my father, and around him his
+shoemaking tools. Beside the window hung a large cage, made by his own
+hands, and in which singing thrushes had succeeded one another for
+twenty years. The walls were whitewashed. There was a little partition
+that screened the work-bench from the door. It was made of newspapers,
+and plastered all over it were pictures from the illustrated weeklies.
+Two or three small dressers contained the crockery ware. A long bench
+set against the wall, a table, several stools, and two or three
+creepies constituted the furniture. There was not a chair in the
+place.
+
+[Illustration: Mr. Irvine's Birthplace.
+There are four different houses in the picture. The third door from
+the left is that of the house in which he was born.]
+
+There was a fascination about the winter evenings in that cottage.
+Scarcely a night passed that did not see some man or woman sitting in
+the corner waiting for shoes. A candlestick about three feet high, in
+which burned a large tallow candle, was set in front of my father. My
+mother was the only one in the house who could read, and she used to
+read aloud from a story paper called _The Weekly Budget_. We were
+never interested in the news. The outside world was shut off from us,
+and the news consisted of whatever was brought by word of mouth by the
+folks who had their shoes cobbled; _that_ was interesting. In those
+long winter evenings, I sat in the corner among the shoes and lasts.
+On scraps of leather I used to imitate writing, and often I would
+quietly steal up to my mother and show her these scratchings, and ask
+her whether they meant anything or not. I thought somehow by accident
+I would surely get something. My mother merely shook her head and
+smiled. She taught me many letters of the alphabet, but it took me
+years to string them together.
+
+My mother had acquired a taste, indeed, it was a craving, for strong
+drink; and, even from the very small earnings of my father, managed to
+satisfy it in a small measure, every day, except Sunday. On Sunday
+there was a change. The cobbler's bench was cleared away, and my
+mother's beautiful face was surrounded with a halo of spotless,
+frilled linen.
+
+My father's Sunday mornings were spent in giving the thrush an outing
+and in cleaning his cage. Neither my father nor mother made any
+pretensions to religion; but they were strict Sabbatarians. My father
+never consciously swore, but, within even the limitations of his small
+vocabulary, he was unfortunate in his selection of phrases. I bounced
+into the alley one Sunday morning, whistling a Moody and Sankey hymn.
+
+"Shut up yer mouth!" said my father.
+
+"It's a hymn tune," I replied.
+
+"I don't care a damn," replied my father. "It's the Lord's day, and if
+I hear you whistlin' in it I'll whale the hell out o' ye!"
+
+That was his philosophy, and he lived it. Saturday nights when the
+town clock struck the hour of midnight, he removed his leather apron,
+pushed his bench back in the corner, and the work of the week was
+over--and if any one was waiting for his shoes, so much the worse for
+him. He would wait until the midnight clock struck twelve the next
+night or take them as they were.
+
+The first tragedy in my life was the death of a pet pigeon. I grieved
+for days over its disappearance; but one Sunday morning the secret
+slipped out. Around that neighbourhood there was a custom among the
+very poor of exchanging samples of their Sunday broth. Three or four
+samples came to our cottage every Sunday morning. We had meat once a
+week, and then it was either the hoofs or part of the head of a cow,
+or the same parts of a sheep or a calf. On this particular occasion, I
+knew that there was something in our broth that was unusual, and I did
+not rest until I learned the truth. They had grown tired of nettle
+broth, and made a change on the pigeon.
+
+There was a pigsty at the end of our alley against the gable of our
+house; but we never were rich enough to own a pig. One of my earliest
+recollections is of extemporizing out of the pigsty one of the most
+familiar institutions in our town--a pawn shop. If anything was
+missing in the house, they could usually find it in pawn.
+
+At the age of ten, I entered the parochial school of the Episcopal
+Church; but the pedagogue of that period delegated his pedagogy to a
+monitor, and the monitor to one of the biggest boys, and the school
+ran itself. The only thing I remember about it is the daily rushes
+over the benches and seats, and the number of boys about my size I was
+pitted against in fistic battles. At the close of my first school day
+I came home with one of my eyes discoloured and one sleeve torn out of
+my jacket, as a result of an encounter not down on the programme. The
+ignominy of such a spectacle irritated my father, and I was thoroughly
+whipped for my inability to defend myself better. It was an _ex parte_
+judgment which a look at the other fellow might have modified.
+
+After a few weeks at school I begged my father to allow me to devote
+my mornings as well as my evenings to the selling of newspapers. The
+extra work added a little to my income and preserved my looks. If
+there was any misery in my life at this time I neither knew nor felt
+it. I was living the life of the average boy of my neighbourhood, and
+had nothing to complain of. Of course, I was in a chronic condition of
+hunger, but so was every other boy in the alley and on the street. It
+was quite an event for me occasionally to go bird-nesting with the son
+of the chief baker of the town. He usually brought a loaf along as
+toll. My knowledge of the woods was better than his, for necessity
+took me there for fuel for our hearth. Sometimes the baker's son
+brought a companion of his class. These boys were well-fed and
+well-clothed, and it was when we spent whole days together that I
+noticed the disparity. They were "quality"--the baker was called
+"Mr.," wore a tall hat on Sundays, and led the psalm singing in the
+Presbyterian Church. In the summer time, when the church windows were
+open, the leader's voice could be heard a mile away. My childish
+misgivings about the distribution of the good things of life were
+quieted in the Sunday School by the dictum: "It is the will of God."
+My first knowledge of God was that He was a big man in the skies who
+dealt out to the church people good things and to others experiences
+to make them good. The Bible was to me God's book, and a thing to
+be handled reverently. We had a copy, but it was coverless, loose and
+incomplete. Every morning I used to take it tenderly in my hands and
+pretend to read some of it, "just for luck!" My Sunday School teacher
+informed me that work was a curse that God had put upon the world and
+from what I saw around me I naturally concluded that life was more of
+a curse than a blessing--that was the theory. My father, however,
+never seemed to be able to get enough of the curse to appease our
+hunger.
+
+[Illustration: Where Mr. Irvine Spent His Boyhood and the pig-sty that
+never had a pig]
+
+The lack of class-conscious envy did not prevent an occasional
+questioning of God's arrangement of the universe; occasionally, in the
+winter time, when my feet were bleeding, cut by the frozen pavements,
+I wondered why God somehow or other could not help me to a pair of
+shoes. Nevertheless, I reverently worshipped the God who had consigned
+me to such pitiless and poorly paid labour, and believed that, being
+the will of God, it was surely for my best good.
+
+My first hero worship came to me while a newsboy. A former resident of
+the town had returned from America with a modicum of fame. He had left
+a labourer, and returned a "Mr." He delivered a lecture in the town
+hall, and, out of curiosity, the town turned out to hear him. I was at
+the door with my papers. It was a very cold night, and I was shivering
+as I stood on one foot leaning against the door post, the sole of the
+other foot resting upon my bare leg. But nobody wanted papers at a
+lecture. The doorkeeper took pity upon me, and, to my astonishment,
+invited me inside. There on a bench, with my back to the wall and my
+feet dangling six inches from the floor, I listened to a lecture about
+a "rail-splitter." It took me many years to find out what a
+rail-splitter was; but the rail-splitter's name was Lincoln, and he
+became my first hero.
+
+From the selling of papers on the streets of Antrim, I went to work on
+a farm, the owner of which was a Member of Parliament for our county,
+one James Chaine by name. My first work on the farm was the keeping of
+crows off the potato crop. Technically speaking, I was a scarecrow. It
+was in the autumn, and the potatoes were ripe. I was permitted to help
+myself to them, so three times a day I made a fire at the edge of the
+wood and roasted as many potatoes as I could eat, and for the first
+time in my life I enjoyed the pleasure of a full meal.
+
+In the solitude of the potato field came my first vision. I was a firm
+believer in the "wee people," but my visions were not entirely peopled
+with fairies. The life of the woods was very fascinating to me. I
+enjoyed the birds and the wild flowers, and the sportive rabbits, of
+which the woods were full. The bell which closed the labourer's day
+was always an unwelcome sound to me.
+
+After the ingathering of the potato crop, I was given work in the
+farmyard, attending to horses and cattle, as jack of all jobs. In the
+spring of the following year, I went again to work in the potato
+field, and later to care for the crop as before. It was during my
+second autumn as a scarecrow that I had an experience which changed
+the current of my life. It was on a Monday, and during the entire day
+I kept humming over and over two lines of a hymn I had heard in the
+Sunday School. Nothing ever happened to me that remains quite so
+vividly in my mind as that experience.
+
+I was sitting on the fence at the close of the day, a very happy day.
+I must have been moved by the colour of the sky, or by the emotion
+produced by the lines of the hymn. It may have been both. But, as I
+sat on the fence and watched the sun set over the trees, an emotion
+swept over me, and the tears began to flow. My body seemed to change
+as by the pouring into it of some strange, life-giving fluid. I wanted
+to shout, to scream aloud; but instead, I went rapidly over the hill
+into the woods, dropped on my knees, and began to pray.
+
+It was getting dark, but the woods were filled with light. Perhaps it
+was the light of my vision or the light of my mind--I know not. But
+when I came back into the open, I felt as though I were walking on
+air. As I passed through the farmyard, I came in contact with some of
+the men; and their questions led me to believe that some of the
+experience remained on my face; but I naïvely set aside their
+questions and passed on down the country road to the town.
+
+That night as I climbed to the little loft, I realized for the first
+time in my life that I had never slept in a bed, but on a pallet of
+straw. My bed covering was composed of old gunny sacks sewed together;
+and automatically, when I took my clothes off, I made a pillow of
+them. Many a night I had been kept awake by the gnawing pangs of
+hunger; but this night I was kept awake for a different reason. It was
+an indescribable ecstasy, a new-born joy. As I lay there with my head
+about a foot from the thatched roof, I hummed over and over again the
+two lines of the hymn, sometimes breaking the continuity in giving way
+to tears.
+
+The second revelation came to me the following morning. I realized the
+condition of my body. I was in rags and dirty. I shook my mother out
+of her slumber and begged her to help me sew up the rents in my
+clothes. I had no shoes, but I carefully washed my feet, combed my
+tousled, unkempt hair, and took great pains in the washing of my face.
+All of this was a mystery to my mother. She wanted to know what had
+happened to me, and a very unusual thing ended the preparations for
+the day. My mother said I looked "purty," and kissed me as I went out
+of the door.
+
+As I walked up the street that morning, I shared my joy with the first
+living thing I met--the saloon-keeper's old dog, Rover. I shook his
+paw and said, "Morrow, Rover." Everything looked beautiful. The world
+was full of joy. I was perfectly sure that the birds were sharing it,
+for they sang that morning as I had never heard them sing before. I
+resolved to let at least one person into the secret. I was sure that
+my sister would understand me. She used to visit me every noon hour,
+on the pretence of bringing my dinner. We had a secret compact that,
+whether there was any dinner to bring or not, she should come with a
+bowl wrapped in a piece of cloth, as was the custom with other men's
+sisters and wives.
+
+There was a straight stretch of road a mile long, and, as I sat on the
+roadside watching for her, I could tell a mile off whether she had any
+dinner or not. When there was anything in the bowl, she carried it
+steadily; when empty, she would swing it like a censer.
+
+When I told my sister about these strange happenings of the heart, she
+looked very anxiously into my eyes, and said:
+
+"'Deed, I just think ye're goin' mad."
+
+Before leaving the farm, I experienced an incident which, although of
+a different character, equalled in its intensity and beauty my
+awakening to what, for lack of a better term, I called a religious
+life.
+
+A young lady from the city was visiting at the home of the land
+steward, and, as I knew more about the woods and the inhabitants
+thereof than anybody else on the farm, I was often ordered to take
+visitors around. The land steward's daughter accompanied the young
+lady on her first visit to the roads; but afterward she came alone,
+and we traversed the ravine from one end to the other. We collected
+flowers and specimens, and watched the wild animals.
+
+I had never seen such a beautiful human being. Her voice was soft and
+musical. She wore her hair loosely down her back, and was a perfect
+picture of health and beauty.
+
+One day I lay at full length on my back, asleep by the edge of the
+wood. When I awoke, this city girl was standing at my side. I jumped
+to my feet and stood erect, and I remember distinctly the emotions
+that swept through me. I was startled at first, startled as I had been
+on a previous occasion when, at a sharp turn in the footpath in the
+ravine, I met a fawn. I remembered my first impulse then was for a
+word, a word of conciliation, for I was fascinated by the beauty of
+the graceful beast. Graceful as a nymph it stood there, nerves
+strained like a bow bent for the discharge of an arrow, its head
+poised in air, fire shooting from its eyes. It remained only for an
+instant, and then with a frightened plunge it cleared the clump of
+laurel bushes and disappeared.
+
+When I stood before this beautiful city girl, I remembered the fawn,
+and expected the girl instantly to vanish out of my sight. There was
+something of the fawn in her graceful form, some of the fire in her
+blue eyes, and in her girlish laugh a suggestion of the freedom of the
+mountain and glen. I think it was in that moment of intensity that I
+crossed the bridge which separates the boy from the man. An impassable
+gulf was fixed between this girl's station in life and mine. She was
+the daughter of a florist, and I was the son of a cobbler.
+
+She returned home shortly after this, and I was promoted from the
+potato field to be a groom's helper in the stables of "the master." We
+called his residence the "big house." It was like a castle on the
+Rhine. A very wonderful man was this Member of Parliament to the
+labourers around on his demesne. Not the least part of this wonder
+consisted in the tradition that he had a different suit of clothes for
+every day in the year. He was very fond of fine horses, and gloried in
+the fact that he owned a winner of the Derby. He kept a large stable
+of racing, hunting, and carriage horses.
+
+This was the advent of a new life to me. I was taken in hand by the
+head groom and fitted out with two suits of clothes, and in this
+change the first great ambition of my life was satisfied. I became the
+possessor of a hard hat. For two years, I had instinctively longed for
+something on my head that I could politely remove to a lady. The first
+night I marched down that village street, shoes well polished,
+starched linen, and hard hat, I expected the whole town to be there to
+see me. I had made several attempts at this hat business before. They
+organized a flute band in the town and I joined it for the sake of the
+hat. But it was too nice a thing to be lying around when people were
+hungry, and, as it was in pawn most of the time, I finally redeemed
+it, returned it, and quit. But this time the hat had come to stay.
+
+With my new vision still warm in my heart, I became very active in the
+parish Sunday School. My inability to read relegated me to the
+children's class; but I had a retentive memory, and before I was able
+to read, I memorized about three hundred texts from the Bible.
+
+The first outworking of my vision was on a drunken stone mason of our
+town. His family, relatives, and friends had all given him up. He had
+given himself up. I went after him every night for weeks; talked to
+him, pleaded with him, prayed for him, and was rewarded by seeing him
+make a new start. Together we organized a temperance society. I think
+it was the first temperance society in that town. I was much more at
+home in this kind of work than in the Sunday School; for, while I
+could be neither secretary, treasurer, nor president of the temperance
+society I had organized, my inability to read or write did not prevent
+me from hustling after such men as my first convert.
+
+In the Sunday School, I felt keenly the fact that I was outclassed by
+boys half my age; but I persevered and went from one class to another,
+until I had gone through the grades, and was then given the
+opportunity to organize a class of my own. This I did with the
+material on the streets, children unconnected with any school or
+institution. I taught them the Bible stories and helped them to
+memorize the texts that I had learned myself.
+
+Despite the fact that I was now clean and well groomed, I could not
+help comparing my life to the life of the horses I was attending,
+especially with regard to their sleeping accommodations. The slightest
+speck of dirt of any kind around their bedding was an indictment of
+the grooming. The stables were beautifully flagged and sprinkled with
+fine, white sand. The mangers were kept cleaner than anything in the
+houses of the poor, and, when I trotted a mount out into the yard, the
+master would take out his white silk handkerchief, run it along the
+horse's side, and then examine it. If the handkerchief was soiled in
+the slightest degree, the horse was sent back. Probably not once in a
+year was a horse returned under such circumstances. The regularity of
+meals was another point of comparison, and the daily washings,
+brushings, groomings.
+
+It meant something to be a horse in that stable--much more than it
+meant to be a groom. When these points of comparison arose, I pushed
+them back as evil and discontent with the will of God. This master man
+used to talk to his horses, but he seldom talked to his grooms.
+Sometimes I was permitted the luxury of a look at the great
+dining-hall, or the drawing-rooms. That also was another world to me,
+a world of beauty for God's good people. Even the butlers, footmen,
+and other flunkies were superior people, and I envied them, not only
+the uniform of their servitude but their intimate touch with that
+inner world of beautiful things.
+
+I spent one winter at the big house, and then the shame of my
+ignorance drove me forever from the haunts of my childhood. I entered
+the city of Belfast, seventeen miles distant, and became coachman and
+groom to a man who, by the selling of clothes, had reached the
+economic status of owning a horse. In adapting himself to this new
+condition, he dressed me in livery, and, after I had taught him to
+drive, I sat beside him in the buggy with folded arms, arrayed in a
+tall hat with a cockade. The wages in this new position were so small
+that when I had paid for my room and meagre board, I had nothing left
+for the support of my brothers and sisters, who were still in dire
+poverty.
+
+The young lady I had met on the farm lived in this city and in my
+neighbourhood; but I would have considered it a matter of gross
+discourtesy to call on her, or, indeed, do anything save lift my hat
+if I met her on the street, our social stations were so far apart. But
+she had told me the name of the church she attended, and, as I was
+thinking more about her at that time than about anybody else, I stole
+quietly into the church as soon as the doors were opened, and,
+ensconcing myself in a corner under the gallery, I scanned the faces
+eagerly as they came in. From that obscure point I saw the young lady
+once a week. At the end of three months, her family came without her.
+The third Sunday of her absence I was almost on the point of asking
+about her; but I mastered the desire, held my station, and went to
+Scotland, where I entered a coal-pit as a helper to one of my
+brothers. My pay for twelve hours a day was a dollar and fifty cents a
+week. If I had not been living in the same house with my brother, this
+would not have sustained me in physical efficiency.
+
+The contrast between my life as a groom and this blackened underworld
+was very marked, and I did not at all relish it. We were all, men and
+boys and sometimes girls, reduced to the common level of blackened
+humans, with about two garments each. The coal dust covered my skin
+like a tight-fitting garment, and coal was part of every mouthful of
+food I ate in that fetid atmosphere. I had a powerful body that defied
+the dangers of the pit; but the labour was exhausting, and my face was
+blistered every day with the hot oil dripping from the lamp on my
+brow.
+
+Sometimes I lay flat on my back and worked with a pick-axe at the coal
+overhead. Sometimes I pushed long distances a thing called "a hutch,"
+filled with coal.
+
+I left my brother's pit with the hope of getting a larger wage; but
+there was very little difference between the pits. Everywhere I went,
+labour and wages were about the same. Everywhere life had the same
+dull, monotonous round. It was a writhing, squirming mass of blackened
+humanity struggling for a mere physical existence, a bare living.
+
+The desire to learn to read and write returned to me with renewed
+intensity, and gave me keen discontent with the life in the pits. At
+the same time, the spiritual ideal sustained me in the upward look.
+There was just ahead of me a to-morrow, and my to-morrow was bringing
+an escape from this drudgery. I exulted in the thought of the future.
+I could sing and laugh in anticipation of it, even though I lived and
+worked like a beast. I was conscious that in me resided a power that
+would ultimately take me to a life that I had had a little taste
+of--a life where people had time to think, and to live a clean,
+normal, human life.
+
+I do not remember anything about labour unions in that coal region. If
+there were any, I did not know of them--I was not asked to join. In
+those same pits and at that same time worked Keir Hardie, and "wee
+Keir" was just beginning to move the sluggish souls of his fellow
+labourers to improve their condition by collective effort. My ideal
+did not lead me in that direction. I was struggling to get into the
+other world for another reason. I wanted to live a religious life. I
+wanted to move men's souls as I had moved the soul of the drunken
+stone mason in my home town.
+
+I made various attempts to learn to read, but each of them failed. I
+was so exhausted at the close of the day's work that I usually lay
+down in the corner without even washing. Sometimes I pulled myself
+together and went out into the village, praying as I went, that by
+some miracle or other I should find a teacher. Sometimes I made
+excursions into the city of Glasgow. One night I wandered accidentally
+into a mission in Possilpark, where a congregation of miners was
+listening to a tall, fine-looking young preacher. I had not sufficient
+energy to keep awake, so promptly went to sleep. I awoke at a gentle
+shake from the hand of the teacher. I returned, but succeeded no
+better in keeping awake. I returned again, and the teacher when he
+learned of my ambition, advised me to leave the pits entirely and seek
+for something else to do. There was something magnetic in that strong
+right hand, something musical and inspiring in that wonderful voice.
+And just when I was about to sink back in despair, and resign myself,
+perhaps for years, to the inevitable, this man's influence pushed me
+out into a new venture. The teacher was Professor Henry Drummond.
+
+Trusting to luck, or God, or the power of my hands, I entered the
+great, smoky, dirty city of Glasgow to look for a job. I considered it
+a great shame to be without one, and a crime to be prowling the city
+at night, homeless and workless. God at this time was a very real
+Person to me and I spent the greater part of many a night on my knees,
+in some alley, or down by the docks, praying for a chance to work--to
+be clean--to learn to read.
+
+I slept one night in a large dry-goods box on one of the docks, and,
+in searching for a place in the box to lay my head, I laid my hand on
+another human, and at daylight discovered him to be a youth of about
+my own age. We exchanged experiences, and in a few minutes he outlined
+a programme; and, having none of my own, I dropped naturally into his.
+He conducted me to a quarter of the city where the recruiting officers
+parade the streets, gayly attired in their attractive uniforms. We
+accosted one man, who had the special attraction of a large bunch of
+gay ribbons flying from his Glengarry cap. We passed the physical
+examination, "took the shilling," and were drafted, first to London,
+then to a training depot in the south of Kent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE BEGINNING OF AN EDUCATION
+
+
+The first discovery I made in the training depot was that I had not,
+as I supposed, joined the army at all, but the navy. I was a marine.
+But there was no disappointment in the discovery, for I saw in the
+marine service a better opportunity to see the world. Here at last was
+my school, and schooling was a part of the daily routine. In the daily
+exercises of the gymnasium, I was made to feel very keenly by the
+instructors the awkwardness of my body; but I was so thrilled with the
+joy of the class-room, that it took a good deal of forcing to interest
+me in the handling of guns, bayonets, the swinging of clubs, vaulting
+of horses, and other gymnasium exercises. I could think only in the
+terms of the education I most keenly desired. This was my first source
+of trouble. Whatever else a soldier may be, he is a soldier first. His
+chief business in life is to be a killer--a strong, intelligent,
+professional killer; and nearly all energies of instruction are bent
+to give him that kind of power.
+
+The depot is on the edge of the sea, and the sea breezes with six
+hours a day of drill, gave me, as it gives all recruits at that stage,
+an abnormal appetite, so that the most of the Queen's pay went for
+additional rations. I made rapid progress in school, and I attended
+all lectures, prayer meetings, religious assemblies and social
+gatherings, to exercise a talent which I already possessed, of giving
+voice to my religious beliefs. But my Irish dialect was badly out of
+place, and it took a good deal of courage to take part in these
+things.
+
+But more embarrassing than my attempts at public speech were my
+attempts to keep up with my squad in the gymnasium and on the parade
+ground. My fellow recruits were thinking in the terms of drill only,
+and I was thinking in the terms of my new-found opportunity for an
+education. My awkwardness made me the subject of much ridicule and
+good-natured jest. It also earned for me a brief sojourn in the
+awkward squad. The gymnasium was open every evening for exercise and
+amusement. The first time I ventured in to get a little extra drill on
+my own account, I had an experience of a kind that one is not likely
+to forget. My drill sergeant happened to be there. I saw him engaged
+in a whispered conference with one of the gymnasium instructors. A few
+minutes later the instructor came to me and urged me to enter the
+boxing contest which was going on in the middle of the floor, and
+which was the favourite amusement of the evening. I had no desire for
+such amusement, and frankly told him so; but he was not to be put off.
+
+He said, "There is a rule of the gym, that men who come here in the
+evening, who are very largely given their own way, are nevertheless
+obliged to do what they are told; and you may escape serious trouble
+by attending to my orders."
+
+I still demurred, but was forced to the ring side, a roped enclosure,
+with a pair of boxing gloves and an instructor to take care of the
+proceedings. When the gloves were fastened on my hands, I noticed that
+my opponent was one of the assistant instructors, and it occurred to
+me that I was in for a thrashing; and I certainly was.
+
+They must have made up their minds that a good thrashing would wake me
+up from the point of view of the parade ground, and the assistant
+instructor proceeded to administer it. I knew nothing whatever of
+boxing, and could put up but a weak defence. I was knocked down
+several times, one of my eyes partly closed, and my nose smashed, and
+one of my arms rendered almost useless.
+
+When away from the gymnasium at my barrack-room that night, I did some
+hard thinking. A room-mate whose cot was next to mine, was something
+of a boxer. He possessed two pairs of gloves. He had often urged me to
+accommodate him as an opponent, but I had steadily refused.
+
+On learning of my plight, he laughed loudly. So did my other
+room-mates as they learned of it. That night, before "taps," I bound
+myself to an arrangement by which I was to pay my room-mate two-thirds
+of my regimental pay per week for instruction in handling the gloves.
+He gave me an hour each night for six weeks. At the end of the first
+week, I had gained an advantage over him. I had a very long reach, and
+a body as lithe as a panther. I gave up prayer meetings, lectures, and
+socials, and devoted my self religiously to what is called "the noble
+art of self-defence."
+
+If my drill sergeant imagined that a thrashing would wake me up, he
+was a very good judge. It did. Incidentally, it woke others up, too.
+It woke my new instructor up, and half a dozen of my room-mates. At
+the end of my six weeks' training, by dint of perseverance and
+application to the thing in hand, I had succeeded in this new type of
+education thrust upon me.
+
+During all this time, I had not visited the gymnasium in the evening,
+but was remembered there by all who had noticed the process of my
+awakening. One night, I modestly approached the chief instructor and
+asked him if I might not have another lesson by the man who had taught
+me the first. He remembered the occasion and laughed, laughed at the
+memory of it, and laughed at the brogue and what he supposed to be the
+temerity of my asking. In asking, I had made my brogue just a little
+thicker, and my manner just as diffident and modest as possible.
+
+"Oh, certainly," he replied, chuckling to himself.
+
+The man who gave me my first lesson, a man of my own build and height,
+appeared, also laughing as he noticed who the applicant for another
+lesson was. My barrack-room instructor was on hand also, for I had
+confidentially communicated to him that evening my intention to try
+again.
+
+There is something fiendish in the Celtic nature, some beast in the
+blood, which, when aroused, is exceedingly helpful in matters of this
+kind. In less than sixty seconds, I had demonstrated to the onlookers,
+and particularly to my opponent, that I had been to school since last
+meeting him. I had not been particular about fancy touches, or the
+pointless, gingerbread style of showing off before a crowd. There was
+a positive viciousness in my attack, which was perfectly legitimate in
+such circumstances; but it was the first time I had ever felt the
+beast in my blood, and I turned him loose; and if I had been made
+Prime Minister of England by a miracle, I could not have felt
+one-hundredth part of the pride that I did, when, inside of the first
+thirty seconds, I had stretched my instructor on his back at my feet,
+and in the absolute joyfulness and ecstasy of my soul, I yelled at the
+top of my voice, "Hurry up, ye blind-therin' spalpeen, till I knock
+yez down again!"
+
+The man got up, and was somewhat more cautious, but utterly
+unprepared to be completely mastered at his own game in five minutes;
+and, when the chief instructor interfered and ordered his assistant
+out of the ring, I begged for more; and so a fresh man was put in, and
+another, and another, until six men had failed to tire me, or to
+disturb me in the least. After the first two I laughed, laughed
+loudly, in the midst of my aggressive work, and enjoyed it every
+moment of the time, and, when occasionally I was the recipient of a
+stinging blow, it merely added to my zest.
+
+Next morning I found myself a hero. In the course of the night, I had
+become famous in a small circle as a bruiser. In accomplishing this, I
+had thrown aside for the time being my religious scruples on the
+question of boxing, not only on boxing, but fighting, and I had set
+aside a good deal of my prejudice in my struggle for an education, and
+my success in the thing I started out to do almost unbalanced me.
+
+I had for the first few days after this encounter a terrific struggle,
+a struggle of the human soul, between my character and my reputation.
+Only about one hundred and fifty men saw the encounter, but, before
+parade time next morning, fifteen hundred men were acquainted with it.
+It had reached the officers' mess, and, as I went back and forth, I
+was pointed out as the new discovery. I finally reached a state of
+mind that filled me with disgust, and I took an afternoon stroll down
+the road to Walmer Castle; and just opposite the window of the room
+in which the Duke of Wellington died--on the sands of Deal beach I
+knelt on my knees and promised God that I "wudn't put th' dhirty
+gloves on again," and I kept the promise--while in the training depot.
+
+Early in 1882 I was drafted to headquarters near London--a trained
+soldier. My forenoons were spent in parades, drills, fatigue and other
+duties. In the afternoons I continued my studies. I entered into
+religious work with renewed vigour, connecting myself with a small
+independent church not far from the barracks. My thick Irish brogue
+militated against my usefulness in the church, and in expressing
+myself with warmth, I usually made it worse. In the barrack-room, my
+brogue brought me several Irish nicknames which irritated me. They
+were names usually attached to the Roman Catholic Irish, and having
+been brought up in an Ulster community, where part of a boy's
+education is to hate Roman Catholics, I naturally resented these
+names. A Protestant Irishman will tolerate "Pat," but "Mick" will put
+him in a fighting attitude in a moment. The only way out of the
+difficulty was to rid myself of the brogue, and this I proceeded to
+do.
+
+All around me were cockney Englishmen, murdering the Queen's English,
+and Scotchmen who were doing worse. I had not yet become the possessor
+of a dictionary, and my chief instructors in language, and
+particularly pronunciation and enunciation, were preachers and
+lecturers.
+
+With regard to literature, I was like a man lost in a forest. I had no
+guide. One night I attended a lecture by Dr. J.W. Kirton, the author
+of a tract called, "Buy Your Own Cherries." This tract my mother had
+read to me when a boy, and it had made a very profound impression upon
+me. The author was very kind, gave me an interview, and advised me to
+read as my first novel, "John Halifax, Gentleman." Inside of a week I
+had read the book twice, the second time with dictionary, and pencil.
+The story fascinated me, and the way in which it was told opened up
+new channels of improvement. I memorized whole pages of it, and even
+took long walks by the seaside repeating over and over what I had
+memorized.
+
+The enlargement of my opportunities in garrison life revealed to me
+something of the amount of work required to accomplish my purpose. In
+the midst of people who had merely an ordinary grammar school
+education, I felt like a child. When discouragement came, I took
+refuge in the fact that several avenues of usefulness were open to me
+in army life. I had shown some proficiency in gunnery. For a steady
+plodder who attends strictly to business there is always promotion. As
+a flunky, there was the incentive of double pay, the wearing of plain
+clothes, and some intimate touch with the aristocracy. Many a time
+one of these avenues seemed the only career open for me. I hardly knew
+what an education meant; but, whatever it meant, it was a long way off
+and almost out of reach. One day in going over my well-marked "John
+Halifax," I came across this passage:
+
+  "'What would you do, John, if you were shut up here, and had to
+  get over the yew hedge? You could not climb it.'
+
+  "'I know that, and therefore I should not waste time in trying.'
+
+  "'Would you give up, then?'
+
+  "He smiled: there was no 'giving up' in that smile of his. 'I'll
+  tell you what I'd do: I'd begin and break it, twig by twig, till I
+  forced my way through, and got out safe at the other side.'"
+
+This was a new inspiration. The difficulty was not lessened by the
+inspiration, but a new method appealed to me. It was the patient
+plodding method of "twig by twig." The quotation from "John Halifax"
+was reinforced by one of the first things I ever read of Browning:
+
+    "That low man seeks a little thing to do,
+      Sees it and does it:
+    This high man with a great thing to pursue,
+      Dies ere he knows it.
+    That low man goes on adding one to one,
+      His hundred's soon hit;
+    This high man, aiming at a million,
+      Misses an unit."
+
+The most powerful speaker I ever heard was Charles Bradlaugh. I
+attended one of his lectures one Sunday afternoon in a large
+auditorium in Portsmouth. I shall never forget that wonderful voice
+as it thrilled an audience of four thousand people. Bradlaugh was
+engaged in one of his favourite themes, demolishing God and the
+theologians. It was the most daring thing I had ever heard, and my
+mind and soul were in revolt. When the time for questions came, I
+pushed my way to the front, was recognized by the chairman, and
+mounted the platform. My lips were parched and I could scarcely utter
+a word. The big man with the homely face saw my embarrassment, and
+said, "Take your time, my boy; don't be in a hurry."
+
+He had been a soldier himself, and, I supposed, as I stood there in my
+scarlet tunic, Glengarry cap in hand, Bradlaugh became reminiscent.
+
+When I got command of my voice, I said: "I want to ask Mr. Bradlaugh a
+question. I have very little education and little opportunity to get
+more, but I have a peace in my heart; I call it 'Belief in God.' I
+don't know what else to call it and I want to ask Mr. Bradlaugh
+whether he is willing to take that away from me and deprive me of the
+biggest pleasure in my life, and leave nothing in its place?"
+
+He rose from his chair, came forward, laid his hand on my shoulder,
+and amid a most impressive silence, said:
+
+"No, my lad, Charles Bradlaugh will be the last man on the face of the
+earth to take a pleasure from a soldier boy, even though it be a
+'belief in God!'"
+
+The crowd wildly cheered, and I went out grateful and strengthened.
+This incident had a very unusual effect upon me--an intense desire to
+tell others of that belief possessed me. I was already doing this in a
+small way, but I became bolder and sought larger opportunities.
+
+About ten days later I was ordered to London as the personal bearer of
+a Government dispatch. I made requisition for seven days' leave of
+absence. My mission was to the Horse Guards, and after its
+accomplishment I went to Whitechapel and rented a small room for a
+week. I had with me a suit of plain clothes that I wore during the
+daytime, but the scarlet uniform was conspicuous and soldier
+Evangelists very rare, so in the mission halls and on the street
+corners with the Salvation Army and other open-air preachers, I
+exercised my one talent, and told the story of what I had now found a
+name for--my conversion.
+
+In the daytime I talked to costermongers, street venders, the
+unemployed, and the corner loafers. One night I put my plain clothes
+on and spent the night with the "wharf rats" on the banks of the
+Thames.
+
+For seven days and for seven nights I continuously told that simple
+story--told it in few words, closing always with an appeal for a
+change of life. I had spoken to the officer of the Horse Guards with
+whom I had business of my intention, and he told me of a brother
+officer who was very much interested in religious work among soldiers,
+and directed me to his quarters.
+
+The interview resulted in an invitation to a Sunday afternoon meeting
+at the town house of a duke. It was the most gorgeous place I had ever
+been in, and the audience was composed of the most aristocratic people
+in London. I felt very much out of place and conspicuous because of my
+uniform and station in life.
+
+The first part of the meeting partook of the nature of a reception. I
+watched the proceedings from the most obscure corner I could find.
+Somebody rapped on the table. The hum of voices ceased, and there
+stepped out, as the speaker of the afternoon, my friend of the
+Possilpark Mission, Professor Drummond.
+
+Up to that hour my theology related largely to another world, but his
+explanation of a portion of Scripture was so clear and so convincing
+to my simple mind, that I could neither miss its meaning nor avoid its
+application. The professor was telling us that religion must be
+related to life. Many years afterward I came across the treatise in
+printed form. It was entitled, "The Programme of Christianity." The
+officer of the Horse Guards by whose invitation I enjoyed this
+privilege, introduced me to the lecturer and this personal touch,
+though very slight, marked a distinct period in my development.
+Drummond had pushed me out of one stage, and, by inviting me to
+render an account of myself to him, inspired me into another.
+
+My Bible studies had given me a longing to see the Holy Land. Perhaps
+the longing was super-induced by the possibility of being drafted to
+the Mediterranean Squadron. On inquiry I learned that the flagship of
+that squadron--the _Alexandra_--had a library and a school on board,
+so I made this kind of a proposition to the Almighty. I did it, of
+course, with a humble spirit and a devout mind; but I did it in a very
+clear and positive manner: "Give me the flagship for the sake of the
+schooling I will get there, and I will give you my life!"
+
+I prayed daily and nightly, for nearly six months for that object, and
+in my anxiety over the matter I made a dicker with a man who was to
+embark at the same time--that, if he should be lucky enough to get the
+flagship and I should be appointed to some other ship, I would give
+him a money consideration and request the commander to permit us to
+exchange. This was a break in my faith, and I quickly corrected it,
+leaving the entire matter in supernatural hands.
+
+There came a time when I was sure in my mind that I would get that
+ship--a time when there was no longer zest in praying for it; and
+there entered into my praying phrases of gratitude instead of request.
+There came also a time when I confided this assurance to my closest
+friend, to whom it was all moonshine. He laughed and poked fun at the
+idea. It became a barrack-room joke and I was hurt and chagrined.
+
+The eventful morning arrived. Those for embarkation were called out
+for parade in full marching order, and the roll was called. The
+universe seemed to hang in the balance that morning. Finally the
+moment arrived. My name was called. I took one pace to the front,
+ported my arms and awaited the verdict. My name and company were
+called, and this assignment: "To Her Majesty's ship _Condor_!"
+
+My comrades giggled and were sharply rebuked: I gave vent to an
+inarticulate guttural sound and was also rebuked. After parade I went
+to my barrack-room, changed my uniform, and disappeared to escape
+ridicule.
+
+"What cheer, Condor?" were the first words that greeted me at reveille
+next morning, and my room-mates kept it up. Sometimes the ridicule
+worked overtime. Often I was on the edge of a wild outburst of passion
+and resentment, but I mastered these things and went on with my
+duties. At eleven o'clock in the forenoon of the day following my
+assignment, we "mustered kits." This is the ordinary pre-embarkation
+inspection. After inspection we packed our kits and were stood to
+attention. Several corrections were made in the instructions of the
+previous day. My heart almost stopped beating when my name was called
+a second time.
+
+"A mistake was made----"
+
+The officer got no farther.
+
+"I knew it, begorra!" I exclaimed, with flushed face and beating
+heart.
+
+The officer came close to me, looked straight into my face, and said,
+"I have a good mind to put you in the guard room."
+
+I stood still, motionless, silent.
+
+"A mistake was made yesterday," he continued, "in appointing you to
+the _Condor_. You are to go, instead, with a detachment to the
+_Alexandra_, flagship of the Mediterranean Squadron."
+
+Parade was dismissed. I went to the officer, saluted him, and begged
+the privilege of an explanation. In a few words I told him my story
+and of the hope of my life, and asked him to forgive me for the
+interruption. He looked astonished and replied very quietly, "I am
+glad you told me, Irvine. I shall be interested in your future."
+
+On the way to the barrack-room, the spirit of exuberant merriment took
+possession of me. I wanted to do something ludicrous or desperate. I
+threw my pack into a corner, quickly divested myself of my tunic,
+rolled up my shirt sleeves, and struck the table such a blow with my
+clinched fist as to make the dishes jump off. Everybody looked around.
+My face must have been a picture of facial latitude.
+
+[Illustration: Alexander Irvine as a Marine, at the Age of Nineteen]
+
+"Boys," I said, "here's yer last chance to oblige an Irishman!"
+
+"What is it, Pat?" half a dozen shouted in unison.
+
+"I want to box any three blinderin' idiots in the room, and all
+together, begorra! Come on now, ye spalpeens, and show the stuff yer
+made of!"
+
+The only answer was a loud outburst of applause and laughter.
+
+In my exuberance, I danced an Irish hornpipe, and my career in the
+barrack-room was over.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+ON BOARD A MAN O' WAR
+
+
+In January, 1883, the big troop-ship bearing reinforcements for the
+Mediterranean Squadron steamed into Malta Harbour and we were
+transferred to our respective ships. The _Alexandra_ was supposed to
+be the most powerful ship in Victoria's navy at that time. She carried
+the flag of Admiral Lord John Hay. She was a little city of the sea
+with her divisions of labour, her social distinctions, her alleys and
+her avenues. She had a population of about one thousand inhabitants.
+These were divided into officers, petty officers, bluejackets and
+marines. Around the flagship lay half a dozen other ships of the
+fleet. I was fascinated with the variety of things around me in that
+little city, and for the first few days on board spent all my leisure
+time in exploring this mysterious underwater world. Her guns were of
+the heaviest calibre. Her steel walls were decorated with ponderous
+Pallasier shot and shell. I was struck with the marvellous
+cleanliness. Her decks were white. Every inch of brasswork was
+shining; everything in order; everything trim and neat; neither
+slovenly men nor slovenly conditions.
+
+Malta Harbour is one of the finest in the world. The old City of La
+Vallette looks like an immense fortress, which it really is, and the
+next thing to explore was the Island.
+
+It seemed as if I had entered an entirely new world. My heart was full
+of joy, my mind full of hope, and my uniform for the time being was
+more the uniform of a student than of a fighter. My first great
+discovery on the ship was the thing I had prayed for--a school. I hid
+myself behind a stanchion out of sight of the instructors and took my
+bearings. Later, I found a place where I could sit within hearing
+distance, but was discovered and forced to explain. The chief
+instructor was interested in my explanation and in my story, and gave
+me valuable advice as to how to proceed in my studies. Once again my
+brogue militated against my advancement. Being the only Irishman in
+the mess, I had to bear more than my share of its humour. I made
+application to be employed as a waiter in the officers' wardroom, so
+that I might improve my pronunciation and add to my vocabulary. I had
+a little pad arranged on the inside of my jacket with a pencil
+attached, and every new word I heard I jotted down; and every night I
+gathered together these new friends, looked up their origin, meaning,
+and pronunciation. I was appointed bodyservant to the paymaster of the
+ship, a bucolic old Bourbon of the most pronounced aristocracy. This
+excused me from military and naval duty, and I was privileged to wear
+plain clothes. I attached myself to a small group of pietists called
+Plymouth Brethren, orthodox theologians, literalists in interpretation
+of the Scriptures and exceedingly straight-laced in their morality.
+They were fine Bible students, indeed, Bible experts. This was a great
+joy to me at first, but the atmosphere to a red-blooded, jubilant
+nature like mine was rather stifling after a while. I was fond of a
+good story and was full of Irish folklore and fairy stories, and I
+noticed my brethren did not relish my outbursts of laughter. It was
+explosive, spontaneous and hearty, but not contagious among them.
+Their faces assumed a rather pained expression, a kind of notice of
+emotion that a sense of humour and religious beliefs occupied
+different compartments in the human mind. It was intimated to me that
+such "frivolousness" was out of kelter with the profession of a
+Christian. It was merely by accident that I pulled out of a shelf in
+the library "Adam Bede" by George Eliot. When I was discovered eagerly
+devouring its contents under the glare of the fighting lamp one night
+after the crew had "piped down," I was upbraided for spending such
+precious time on such "worldly trash."
+
+"Suppose the Lord should come now and find you reading that; what
+would you say to Him?"
+
+My reply added to their sorrow.
+
+"I should say, 'Begorra, Yer Honour, it's a bully good story!'"
+
+The judgment of my brethren was that there was good stuff in me for a
+Christian if I had only been born somewhere else, a judgment I could
+not be expected to agree with. My disagreement with these men on
+various lines was no barrier to my participation in their propaganda.
+There was only one thing in the world to do--get men converted. Each
+man in this small group picked out another man as a subject of prayer
+and solicitation and persuasion. At our weekly meetings we reported on
+our work. Then we worked for each other. Of course, I was a subject of
+prayer myself. When these men shook hands in parting, they usually
+said, "If the Lord tarry," for the Lord was expected to come at any
+moment. This they could not get into my speech or mind. As I looked
+around me, I got the idea that there was a good deal of work to be
+done before the Lord came, and I put emphasis rather on the work than
+on the expectation. The ship was a beehive of activity, not merely the
+activity of warlike discipline or preparation, but social activity. Of
+course, this activity was largely for the officers. We had to go
+ashore for most of ours, and the social activity of the rank and file
+was rather of a questionable character ashore, but the officers had
+their dinners, their dances, and their afternoon receptions.
+
+The social centre for a portion of the rank and file was a sailors'
+institute. As this was a temperance institution, it was only
+patronized by a small percentage of them. Here we had frequent
+receptions, afternoon teas, lectures, and religious meetings. Here the
+secret societies met--the Free Masons, Odd Fellows, Foresters,
+Orangemen, etc. Thursday afternoons we had a half-holiday on board. It
+was called "Make-and-Mend-Clothes Day." The upper decks belonged to
+the crew that afternoon, and every conceivable kind of activity was in
+operation. It looked something like an Irish fair. It was a day on
+which most men wrote home; but there were sewing, boxing, fencing, and
+on this afternoon at least almost every man on the ship worked at his
+hobby. My hobby at this time was mathematics and I could not do that
+in the crowd, but on Thursday afternoons I rather enjoyed watching the
+boxing and fencing. My experience in the game had given me at least a
+permanent interest in it, and as I stood by the ropes the blood
+tingled in my veins. I was anxious many a time for a rough and tumble,
+but my religious friends saved me from this indulgence. There were
+sixteen men in my mess. It was in a corner of the main gun battery
+alongside one of the big "stern-chasers." We had a table that could be
+lowered from the roof of the gun battery, and eating three times a day
+with these men, I knew them fairly well and they knew me. Each
+man-of-war's man is allowed a daily portion of rum, and I was advised
+by the small group of Christians to follow their example and refuse
+to permit anybody else to drink my portion. It took me a long time to
+make up my mind to follow their advice. It was, of course, considered
+an old-womanish thing to do, but I finally came to the point when I
+asked the commissariat department to give me, as was the custom, tea,
+coffee, and sugar instead. I took very good care, however, not to
+indulge myself in these things. I handed them over to men on the night
+watches. This did not save me from the penalty for such an offence. It
+brought down on my head the curses of a good many men in the mess, but
+especially of one man who was a sort of a ship's bruiser. It came his
+turn to be cook about once in ten days. The cook of the mess had as
+his perquisite a little of each man's ration of rum. With the others,
+the abuse was mixed with good-humour, for on the whole I managed to
+lead a fairly agreeable life with my messmates. They looked upon me as
+a religious fanatic, but my laughter, my funny stories, and my
+willingness to oblige offset with most of them my temperance
+principles and religious fanaticism. The insults of the bruiser I
+usually met with a smile and passed off with a joke; but when they
+were long continued, they irritated me.
+
+There is a monotony in the life of the average soldier or sailor which
+has a very deadening effect upon character--seeing the same faces,
+hearing the same things, performing the same routine in the same kind
+of way every day, year in and year out, makes him a sort of automaton.
+Kipling has told us something of the effect of this thing in "Soldiers
+Three." There came a time when I broke under the strain of this man's
+continued insults. For nearly a year I got comfort from the advice of
+the brethren. We had a weekly meeting where our difficulties were
+considered and prayed over, but the consolation of my brethren finally
+refused to suffice, and, being a healthy, normal, vigorous animal with
+some little experience of looking after myself, I began to resent the
+insults and make some show of defence. This change of front incensed
+the bully, and one day he hurled an exceedingly nasty epithet at
+me--one of those vulgar but usual epithets current in army speech. The
+reference in it to my mother stirred me with indignation and I
+announced in a fit of anger my willingness to be thrashed or thrash
+him if the thing was repeated. It was not only repeated at once, but
+seizing a lump of dough, he hurled it at my head. I ducked my head and
+it hit another man on the jaw, but the gauntlet was on the floor and
+an hour afterward the port side of the gun deck was a mass of solidly
+packed sailors and marines. My brethren came to me one after another.
+They quoted scores of texts to make me uncomfortable. I tried to joke,
+but my lips were parched and my tongue unwilling to act. I was pale
+and trembling. I knew what I was up against, but determined to see it
+through. One text only I could remember in this exigency and I quoted
+it to Lanky Lawrence, the big sailmaker who was the leader of our
+sect. "Lanky, m' boy," I said to him, "I'm goin' to hing m' hat on one
+text fur the space of a good thrashin'."
+
+"What is it?" asked the sailmaker.
+
+"'As much as lieth in ye, live peaceably wid all men.' Now I have done
+that same, and bedad, I have done it to the limit and I'm goin' to
+jump into this physical continshun so that of out it I will bring
+pace!"
+
+"Ye're all wrong!" said the sailmaker.
+
+"I know it, but from the straight-lacedness of your theology I want a
+vacation, Lanky, just for the space that it takes to get a lickin' wan
+way or th' other." So the thing began. My chief endeavour was to
+escape punishment, but the space was exceedingly small between the two
+big guns and I didn't succeed very well. During the first five minutes
+I was very badly bruised and beaten. One of my ribs was broken and
+both eyes almost closed. Half the time I could not see the bully at
+all. In one of the breathing spells, the sailmaker, who, despite his
+quotations of Scripture, had remained to see the proceedings,
+whispered something in my ear. It was a point of advice. He told me
+that if I could stand that five minutes longer, my opponent would be
+outclassed. The support of Lanky was a great encouragement to me, and
+a good deal of my fear disappeared. I began to think harder, to plan,
+and to plant blows as well as to avoid them. This excited the crowd
+and it became frenzied.
+
+Up to that point it was a one-sided thing. Now, I was not only taking
+but giving; and not only giving, but giving with laughter and
+ejaculations. Our Bible study for that month was the memorizing of the
+names of the minor prophets; and once when I managed to toss my
+opponent's head to one side with a blow on the point of the chin, I
+shouted full of glee, "Take that, you cross-eyed son of a
+seacook--take it in the name of Hosea!" The crowd laughed, but above
+the roar of laughter rang out the voice of a Scotchman who was one of
+our best Bible students: "Gie him brimstone, Sandy!" A few minutes
+later I ejaculated, "And, bedad, that's for Joel!" In this new spirit
+and in this jocular way, I pounded the twelve minor prophets into him
+one after another, while the rafters of the ship rang with the cheers
+of the crew. By the time I had exhausted the minor prophets, I was
+much the stronger man of the two. My opponent was wobbling around in
+pretty bad shape. Once he was on his knees, and while waiting, I
+shouted, "I want to be yer friend, Billy Creedan. Shake hands now, you
+idiot, and behave yourself!"
+
+The only answer I got was a string of vile oaths as he staggered to
+his feet. I pleaded with him to quit, but that is not the way that
+such fights end. Men fight while their senses last, while their legs
+keep under them, and at such a moment a blood-thirsty crowd becomes
+crazed for the accomplishment of something that looks like murder. The
+injection of the minor prophets made a ludicrous ending of a thing
+that had at the beginning almost paralyzed me with fear. So the thing
+ended with the bully of the mess lying prostrate on his back. I was
+not presentable as a waiter for several days, but inside of an hour
+everybody on the ship knew what had happened, and for the second time
+in my life I was hailed as a bruiser.
+
+To impress a thousand men in such a manner creates an egotism which is
+very likely to be lasting. I had not accomplished very much in my
+studies. I was nothing in particular among my religious brethren. My
+general reputation up to this moment in the ship was that of a
+simple-minded Irish lad, who was a religious fanatic, a sort of sky
+pilot or "Holy Joe." I became flushed with the only victory worth
+while in the army or navy, and the second experience lasted twice as
+long as the first.
+
+The next thing to be done, of course, by my friends and admirers, was
+to pit me against the bruisers of other ships. Two of the officers
+wanted to know my plans. This recognition heightened my vanity.
+Prayer-meeting night came along, and I was ashamed to attend. A
+committee was sent to help me out, and the following week the
+prodigal returned. The proper thing to do on my return was to confess
+my sin and ask the brethren to pray for me; but when I failed to do
+this, I became a subject of deep concern and solicitude. I tried to
+cultivate a sense of conviction, but succeeded indifferently. The
+deference paid me by the men of the mess was not calculated to help me
+out. I felt very keenly the suspicion of my brethren, but it was
+compensated for by the fact that among the ordinary men I had now a
+hearing on matters of religious interest. I was rather diffident in
+approaching them on this subject, since, from the viewpoint of the
+pietists, I had fallen from grace. At the end of a month, a loathing
+of this cheap reputation began to manifest itself. The man I had
+beaten became one of my closest friends. I wrote his letters home to
+his mother. A few weeks later, he entrusted me with a more sacred
+mission--the writing of his love letters also.
+
+Creedan was a Lancashire man, as angular in speech as in body, and
+lacking utterly a sense of humour. As we became acquainted, I began to
+suggest some improvements, not only in his manner of writing, but in
+the matter also. I could not understand how a man could make love with
+that kind of nature. One day I suggested the idea of rewriting the
+entire epistle. The effect of it was a huge joke to Creedan. He
+laughed at the change--laughed loud and heartily. The letter, of
+course, was plastered all over with Irish blarney. It was such a huge
+success that Creedan used to come to me and say:
+
+[Illustration: Officers of H.M.S. _Alexandra_, Ashore at Cattaro]
+
+"Hey, Sandy, shoot off one of them things to Mary, will ye?"
+
+And the thing was done.
+
+The summer cruise of 1883 was up the Adriatic. All the Greek islands
+were visited. I knew the historical significance of the places, which
+made that summer cruise a fairyland to me.
+
+There were incidents in that summer cruise of more than ordinary
+interest. One morning, while our ship was anchored in the harbour of
+Chios, the rock on which our anchor lay was moved by a sudden
+convulsion: the mighty cable was snapped, and the ship tossed like a
+cork by the strain. The guns were torn from their gearing and the shot
+and shell torn from their racks. Men on their feet were flung
+prostrate, and everything loose scattered over the decks. The shrill
+blast of the bugle sounded the "still." Such a sound is very seldom
+blown from the bugles, but when it is, every man stops absolutely
+still and awaits orders. The boatswain blew his whistle which was
+followed with the Captain's order, "Port watch on deck; every other
+man to his post!" Five minutes later, on the port side of the ship, I
+saw the British Consul's house roll down the side of the hill. I saw
+the people flock around a priest who swung his censer and called upon
+God. The yawning gulf was there into which a part of the little town
+had sunk. A detachment of marines and bluejackets went ashore, not
+knowing the moment when the earth would open up and swallow them. The
+boats were lowered, and orders were given to stand ready to pack the
+ship to the last item of capacity and carry away the refugees from
+what we supposed to be a "sinking island." Of course, in a crisis like
+this, the sentiment of religion becomes dominant. Some of my comrades
+at once jumped to the conclusion that it was the coming of the Lord,
+and in the solemnity of the moment I could not resist the suggestion
+for which I was derided for months:
+
+"Gee, but isn't He coming with a bang!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+PROBLEMS AND PLACES
+
+
+In 1884 I kept a diary--kept it the entire year. It was written in the
+straggling characters of a child of ten. As I peruse it now,
+twenty-five years afterward, I am struck not so much with what it
+records, as with what it leaves unrecorded. The great places visited
+and the names of great men are chronicled, Bible studies and religious
+observations find a place--but of the fierce struggle of the human
+soul with destructive and corrupting influences, not a word!
+
+The itinerary of the year included Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Italy,
+Syria, Asia Minor, Cyprus, Crete and Sicily. Of these Syria was of the
+greatest interest to me. Of the men whose pathway crossed mine,
+General Gordon was of the most importance; of the others, the King of
+Greece and the second son of Victoria were unique, but not
+interesting. One in my position could only meet them as a flunky meets
+his master, anyway.
+
+Gordon, on his way to his doom in the Soudan, disembarked at
+Alexandria. It was early in January. There was no parade, no reception
+of any kind. Gordon was dressed in plain clothes with a cane in his
+hand. Gladstone had sent him thus to bring order out of chaos in the
+Land of the Mad Mullah. Officers with a penchant for religious
+propaganda are scarce either in the army or navy, but into whatever
+part of the world Gordon went, he was known and recognized and sought
+after by men engaged in religious work. It was an officer of the Royal
+Naval Temperance Society, who was at the same time a naval petty
+officer, who said to me on the wharf at Alexandria--"That's Chinese
+Gordon!"
+
+"Where is he going?" I asked.
+
+"Down the Nile to civilize niggers who are dressed in palm oil and
+mosquitoes," was the answer. A year later Gladstone sent an army and
+spent millions of money to bring him back, but it was too late.
+
+While lying off Piræus, the seaport of Athens, I was doing guard duty
+on deck in the first watch. I was substitute for a comrade who had
+gone to visit the ancient city. There had been an informal dinner, and
+there were whispers among the men that some high mogul was in the
+Admiral's cabin. Toward the close of the first watch I was joined on
+my beat by a man in plain clothes, who, with a lighted cigar in his
+mouth, marched fore and aft the star-board side of the ship with me.
+In anticipation of entering Greek waters, I had read for months, and
+this stranger was astonished to find a common soldier so well informed
+on the history of Greece. I had not yet been ashore, but I had
+arranged to go the following day. The gentleman, on leaving, handed me
+a card on which he had pencilled what I think was an introduction. I
+had only time to ask him his name, and he said, "George--just George."
+Next day I discovered I had been pow-wowing with a king. The effect on
+me was almost as bad as a successful go with the gloves. The Channel
+Squadron, flying the flag of the Duke of Edinburgh, entered Malta
+Harbour that year, and for some weeks the combined fleets lay moored
+alongside each other. The Royal Admiral was a frequent visitor to our
+ship. On one of these visits I had the experience of serving him with
+luncheon. He was the guest of our skipper. During the luncheon I
+handed him a note from his Flag Lieutenant. A dealer in mummies had
+come aboard with some samples. They were spread out on the
+quarter-deck. The note related the facts, but the Queen's son was not
+impressed, and said so.
+
+
+[Illustration: A Page from Mr. Irvine's Diary.
+Kept while serving on H.M.S. _Alexandra_]
+
+"Tell him," said he, "to go to ---- Oh, wait a moment"; then he
+pencilled his reply on the back of a note and handed it to me. When
+the Flag Lieutenant read it, he laughed, tore it up and handed the
+pieces to me. The Duke's reply read--"He may go to the D---- with the
+whole boiling. A."
+
+Right off the coast of Sicily, we encountered a bit of rough water,
+and Commander Campbell, a seaman of the old school, took advantage of
+it for sail drill.
+
+"Strike lower yards and top masts," was the order, "and clear the
+decks for action!"
+
+"Away aloft!" he roared, as the wind soughed through the rigging, and
+a moment later I heard--"Bear out on the yard-arm!"
+
+Something went wrong in the foretop that day, and its captain fell to
+the hatchway grating below. I was standing a few feet from the spot,
+and it took me the best part of the day to sponge his blood out of my
+clothing. We stopped the evolution for a day, and the following day
+another man was killed performing the same drill, and we buried them
+both that afternoon in the old cemetery at the base of Mt. Etna. At
+noon on the third day the ship was ordered to go through the same
+evolution. Meantime a petty officer named Hicks had been promoted
+captain of the foretop. He was one of the finest men in the ship. He
+could dance a hornpipe, sing a good song, make a splendid showing with
+the gloves or single-sticks; was something of a wag, and when he
+laughed the deck trembled. His promotion was not wholly a thing of
+joy, for the superstition of the sea gripped him tight. He was the
+third man, and to most of us the number had an evil omen. Within an
+hour after his promotion, the red flush had gone from his cheeks. He
+was silent and managed to be alone most of the afternoon and evening
+of that day. He had been a signal boy and was an expert in the
+language of flags and in flashing the electric light. He was unable
+to sleep and passed most of the night on deck with the sentries. It
+was noticed that he begged permission to "monkey" with the
+electric-light signalling apparatus aft on the poop. When we began the
+sail drill the following day, the attention of every man on the ship
+was focused on the captain of the foretop, and at the order--"Away
+aloft!" he sprang at the rigging like a cat. We stood from under.
+There was a breathless hush as the second order was given--"Bear out
+on the yard-arm!" It was the fatal order at which the other men had
+lost their nerve and their lives! As it rang out over the old ship, we
+gulped down our lumps and secretly thanked Him in the hollow of whose
+hand lie the seas. The evolution was completed, and when the man of
+the foretop descended to the deck, half a dozen men gripped Hicks, and
+hugged him and kissed him with tears in their eyes.
+
+Something really did happen in the foretop that day--something
+happened to its captain, though nobody knew just what it was. He came
+to the deck a changed man, and those who knew him best, felt it most.
+We could not analyze it--he could not himself. I got into the secret
+by accident. Some weeks later, it may have been months, an officer
+from another ship was lunching with a friend in our wardroom. I served
+the lunch and overheard the following conversation:
+
+"Have you a signal man by the name of Hicks--Billy Hicks--on board?"
+
+"Yes, what about him?"
+
+"Well," the officer said, smiling, "we were ten miles out at sea a few
+weeks ago when I noticed the signals flashing all over the heavens. I
+was officer of the deck. It was about seven bells in the first watch.
+I called my signal officer, told him to take down what he read." He
+pulled out his notebook, still smiling and, spelling out the words,
+read:
+
+"_God this is Billy Hicks. I ain't afraid of no bloomin' man nor
+devil. I ain't afraid of no Davey Jones bleedin' locker neither. I
+ain't like a bawlin baby afussin' at his dad for sweeties. I doant ask
+you for no favours but just one. This is it--when I strike the foretop
+to-morrow let me do it with the guts of a man what is clean and God
+dear God from this here day on giv me the feeling I use to have long
+ago when I nelt at my mother's knee an said Our Father. Good night
+dear God._"
+
+I went out into the pantry of the wardroom, jotted down as much of
+this as I could remember, and it gave me a splendid introduction to
+the captain of the foretop.
+
+The greatest problem of my life, and perhaps of any life at the age of
+twenty-one, was the problem of sex instinct. I have often wondered why
+that problem is discussed so meagrely. I have often wondered why, for
+instance, Kipling and Frank Bullen and W. Clark Russell, in discussing
+the life of soldiers and sailors with whom this is a specialized
+problem, have not frankly discussed the terrific battle that every
+full-blooded man must fight on this question.
+
+The moment I arrived in that foreign port I was overwhelmed with a
+sense of personal freedom. There I was, with a splendid physical
+organization that had just come into its own, and around me in the mess
+and on the ship's deck and on the streets of the cities--everywhere--I
+heard nothing else but conversation on this problem. To nine out of
+every ten men it was a joke. It was laughed at, played with, and I
+knew, of course, that young men of my own age were being smashed on the
+rocks of this problem.
+
+The British Navy serves out once or twice a week a ration, which is
+one of the biggest jokes of naval life. It is a small ration of lime
+juice, and the rumoured purpose of it is to modify in some degree this
+tremendous natural sex instinct. To most of us it was like spitting on
+a burning building--the battle went on fiercer every day of life! I
+tackled it from two points of view; first, the moral point of view. My
+religion demanded purity, continence and self-mastery. The other point
+of view--I don't think this was clear to me at the time; I don't
+believe that I intentionally pursued this course with the object in
+view that it actually accomplished; nevertheless, whether intentional
+or unintentional, planned or unplanned, the effect was produced. The
+physical work required of me was light, very light, and all my leisure
+time was spent in study. I studied so hard and so conscientiously that
+I tired not only my mind, but my body. There came a time when I was
+dimly conscious, however, that I was doing two things by hard study: I
+was preserving my body, conserving my vital energy, and at the same
+time training my mind, gathering information and equipping myself
+intellectually. At the present moment my body is as lithe, as powerful
+and as enduring as the body of a youth of twenty, and I attribute this
+wealth of health to the fact that twenty-five years ago, I tackled
+this problem of self-mastery and laid the foundations for my present
+strength.
+
+Who will give the world a novel or a book dealing with this terrific
+problem? Who will tell millions of young men around the age of twenty
+that they cannot burn their candle at both ends? With the ordinary man
+in civil life the temptation is a negligible quantity compared to the
+life of a soldier or sailor. In the army and navy it is talked
+incessantly so that a man has a double battle to fight. He fights the
+thing and he fights a multitude of suggestions that come to him every
+day of his life.
+
+The most revolting, disgusting and degrading thing I ever heard talked
+about on a man o' war was the perversion of the sex instinct--the
+unnatural use of it! This, too, is a joke and laughed at and talked
+lightly about; but the records of the British Navy, and I think of
+other navies, would reveal something along this line that would shock
+civilization. I did not believe this possible, but the first six
+months on board changed my mind.
+
+To the great credit of the British Navy, be it said that this crime is
+held almost equal to murder, and when an officer is convicted of it,
+the trial is _in camera_, and the findings kept secret; but no matter
+how high his rank, he is stripped of his standing and marched over the
+side of the ship as a degraded criminal and an outcast. A man of the
+ranks convicted of it usually spends the rest of his natural life in
+prison.
+
+The two things responsible for such perversion in the navy are: first,
+the herding of the male sex together and for long periods; second, the
+mode of dress in which little boys begin their sea life. These are the
+problems before which all others sink into utter insignificance. The
+army and navy of Great Britain, is recruited very largely from the
+slums of great cities. The most ignorant, the most brutal and most
+immoral of mankind are drafted by the incentive of a better life than
+they have ever known; but they are only changed outwardly. Their
+nature, their habits of life, their mental make-up, does not change;
+or, if it changes to the automatic action by which they become part
+of a war machine they lose that individual freedom that is the boast
+of the Anglo-Saxon race.
+
+On the other hand, I must say that in all my contact with life, I have
+never met nor been associated with a group of men more gentlemanly,
+better educated, or whose total sum of right thinking and right living
+was higher than that group of officers on that ship. I certainly
+attribute a great deal of my quickening of mind to contact with them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE GORDON RELIEF EXPEDITION
+
+
+The incarceration of Gordon in Khartoum was a matter of deep concern
+to every soldier and sailor in the British Empire, particularly to
+those of us who were in and around Egypt at the time. It has not
+always been plain to the British soldier in Egypt, why he was there;
+but he seldom asks why he is anywhere. In the matter of Gordon,
+however, the case was different. They all knew that Gladstone had sent
+him and refused to relieve him; at least, the relief was so
+long-drawn-out, so dilatory, that it was practically useless.
+
+I had made application for my discharge from the service by
+purchase--a matter of one hundred dollars--and had my plans made out
+for further study; but the plight of Gordon gripped me as it gripped
+others, and I determined to throw every other consideration aside, and
+get to the front. There was one chance in a thousand, and I took it. A
+marine officer of the ship was called for and his valet was a man who
+had almost served his time; had seen much service and was not at all
+anxious for any more. I went after him, bank-book in hand:
+
+"I will give you all I possess if you will let me go in your place."
+
+"It's a go," said this man as a gleam of joy overspread his face. The
+officer himself was glad, and the whole thing was arranged; and in
+forty-eight hours, I was on board the Peninsula and Oriental steamship
+_Bokhara_ bound for the Red Sea. The officer was the most brutal cad I
+have ever met. He strutted like a peacock, and seemed to take delight
+in humiliating, when an opportunity would present itself, anybody and
+everybody beneath him in rank--he was a captain.
+
+The trip through the Suez Canal might be considered a new stage of
+development, for I travelled as a second-class passenger. To be
+consulted as to what I should eat or to have any choice whatever, was
+not only new, but startling. In turning a curve in the Canal, we
+encountered a sunken, water-logged ship which stopped the traffic. We
+were there four or five days, and the life of ease and luxury, with
+opportunity for reading and social intercourse with well-gowned people,
+was so enjoyable that, had it not been for the fact that Gordon was in
+danger in Khartoum, and I wanted to have a hand in his relief, I should
+have enjoyed staying there a month. We disembarked at Suakim on the Red
+Sea, and we were--the officer and myself--immediately attached to the
+staff of General Sir Gerald Graham in the desert.
+
+The seven months in the desert were months of waiting--monotonous,
+deadening waiting. The greatest difficulty of that period of waiting
+was the water supply. We were served out with a pint of water a day.
+Water for washing was out of the question. Our laundry method was a
+kind of optical illusion. We took our flannel shirts, rolled them up
+as tightly as possible, tied them with strings, and then thumped them
+laboriously with the butt end of a rifle; then they were untied,
+shaken out, brushed, and they were ready for use. Most of this was a
+make-believe laundry, but the brushing was real. Being attached to the
+General Staff, I had a little more leeway in the comforts of life, but
+it was mighty little.
+
+Off in the hills, ten miles distant, was encamped the black horde
+under Osman Digna, and every night of the seven months the Arabs kept
+up small-arm firing upon us. Sometimes they were bold enough to make
+an approach in a body in the darkness, but we had powerful electric
+lights that could search the desert for miles. We got accustomed to
+this after a while, and would simply lie prostrate while the light was
+turned on them. Of course, the searching of the desert with the
+electric lights was always accompanied with the levelling of our
+artillery on whatever the light revealed. Not very much destruction
+was accomplished on either side, however. Occasionally a stray bullet
+would carry off one of our men in his sleep. Sometimes these naked
+savages would stealthily creep in upon our sentries and with their
+sharp knives would overpower them and mutilate them in an
+indescribable manner.
+
+To prevent this, we laid dynamite mines in front of our encampments. I
+watched, late one afternoon, the young engineer officer as he
+connected the wires for the night--perhaps his hand trembled as he
+made connections, or perhaps some mistake was made. Anyway, there was
+an explosion. Great masses of desert sand shot into the air like a
+cloud, and when it fell again, the mangled body of the engineer fell
+with it; but the mines were laid, connections made for the night, just
+the same, by another engineer.
+
+At other places we had broken bottles fixed in the sand, for the black
+men came barefooted, and they were more seared by broken bottles in
+the sand than they were by the musketry fire.
+
+A night of great excitement was that of the capturing of some of our
+mounted scouts in a sortie near the hills. That night we saw half a
+dozen immense bon-fires on the hilltops, and the impression we got was
+that our comrades were being burned alive. There were half a dozen
+brushes or skirmishes with the natives during my stay in the desert,
+but I did not experience what might be called a decisive battle. There
+had been decisive battles of one sort or another, but I was not
+present. They were before my time.
+
+They began the laying of a railway from Suakim to Berber, but
+afterward they pulled the rails up. The soldiers cursed Gladstone for
+the laxity of his foreign policy. Gordon, we knew, was in Khartoum,
+and hard pressed, and outside were the Mahdi and his multitude; and
+why the Government should hold us back, we could not understand. The
+desert life was so deadening that any kind of a change would have been
+welcome. Every man would have been glad of even a repetition of the
+charge at Balaklava, though only few men would come out. Anything was
+preferable to rotting in the desert!
+
+The sun was striking dead one out of every two men. I thought my time
+had come when I had a sunstroke. Being the only man on the General's
+staff stricken, I was well looked after. The General had ice, and I
+was privileged to have the luxury of it. I was also given a glass of
+the finest French brandy. I asked the attendant to put it by my side,
+and when he disappeared out of my tent--my tent was so small that it
+barely covered my body--I went through a fierce battle with my
+prejudices. I was a fanatic on the drink question. I had sworn eternal
+hostility to it, and with good reason. The use of it was partly
+responsible for my lack of early schooling. It had robbed me of a
+great deal of the life of my kind-hearted old mother, and I had
+determined to put up a tremendous fight against it. Here the thing was
+in my hands, ordered by the doctor; but I tipped it into the sand and
+made them believe that I had drunk it. I had seen so many stricken men
+with sunstroke die during the same day, that I had little hope of my
+own recovery; but inside of twelve hours, I was on my feet again, and,
+though weak, at work.
+
+It was recorded that we lost fifty per cent. of our strength by
+sunstroke and enteric fever. It was very noticeable that the men of
+intemperate habits were the first to go. They dropped like sheep in
+the heat of the day, and by sundown they lay beneath a winding sheet
+of desert sand. The actual conflict of civilized with savage forces
+was responsible for the loss of very few men. The sun was our arch
+enemy!
+
+To break the monotony, we tried whatever sport was possible in the
+sand. The national game, cricket, came in for a trial, but was more
+laughter-provoking than recreative: a bundle of rags tightly rolled up
+in a sphere served as a ball, and pieces of boards of old
+packing-cases served as bats and wickets. Leapfrog and the
+three-cornered game of "cat" were favourite pastimes, but nothing
+broke the monotony. It was depressing, and it was not an unusual sight
+to see men weeping from homesickness--utterly unable to keep back the
+tears. There were attempts at suicide also, and men eagerly sought
+opportunity to endanger themselves. Actual fighting on the desert was
+to us the greatest possible godsend, for it meant either death or
+relief from the game of waiting.
+
+Despite the fact that the love of Gordon had brought me there, I was
+not enamoured of the way in which the campaign was carried on. Of
+course, when in actual conflict, I wanted this black horde wiped off
+the face of the earth; but when I saw boys and girls, ranging from six
+to ten years of age, approaching the phalanx of British bayonets with
+their little assagais ready to do battle, I was thrilled with
+admiration for them. Some of our officers described this as
+fanaticism, and I remember a discussion that took place between two of
+them as to whether it was fanaticism or courage, and a unique
+experiment was tried. We had with us always a contingent of friendly
+natives, and in order to test the question, one of them was to bare
+his back (for a shilling) and an officer applied to it, with all his
+strength, a horsewhip. I saw the black man's body writhe for an
+instant as he puckered his mouth; but it was only for an instant--then
+he smiled and asked for another stroke for another shilling. This
+seemed to indicate to the officers that there was something more than
+fanaticism in the Soudanese. Their warriors were tall, powerfully
+built men--we used to say they were dressed in palm oil and
+mosquitoes. Their hair stood straight up, and their bodies were
+greased. I think it was the general opinion of our officers that if
+these men could be disciplined and drilled as European soldiers are,
+they would make the finest fighters in the world. Perhaps Kipling has
+described this opinion better than anybody else when he says:
+
+    So 'ere's to you, Fuzzy-Wuzzy, at your 'ome in the Soudan;
+    You're a pore benighted 'eathen but a first-class fightin' man;
+    An' 'ere's to you, Fuzzy-Wuzzy, with your 'ayrick 'ead of 'air--
+    You big black boundin' beggar--for you broke a British square!
+
+There was somewhat of a mixture of my sentiment and feeling on this
+war. I wanted Gordon released, I wanted the war ended and the
+Soudanese beaten; but when I contrasted the spirit of the campaign
+with the spirit of Jesus, I often wished that I could lend my
+assistance to these black men of the desert who were fighting for the
+thing under their feet, and the home life of their tribe. But it was
+not until I was completely out of the desert that I was possessed of a
+loathing and disgust for the game of war, as such. This disgust grew
+until I had completely ridden myself not only of the war spirit, but
+of the paraphernalia of the soldier. The officer whose servant I was,
+was so hated by everybody who knew him that if he had ever gotten in
+front of the ranks, as was the ancient custom in war, he would have
+been the first man to drop, and he would have dropped by a bullet from
+one of his own men. But leaders no longer lead on the field of
+battle--they follow!
+
+I had some books with me, but the power to interest myself in them
+had almost completely vanished. I occupied my mind very largely with
+military tactics. On a large sheet of brown paper I outlined the plan
+of campaign. On it I had the position of every regiment in our army.
+The dynamite mines, the region of broken glass, the furze bushes, fort
+and redoubts were all minutely detailed, and one night an exigency
+arose in which this paper plan of campaign was called into evidence.
+Tired of waiting, and very restive and discontented under the
+privations of the desert, Graham determined to move. The
+electric-light apparatus was out of order, and the advance forts were
+too far away to be touched with any less powerful signal of the night.
+A non-commissioned officer was ordered to take a corporal's guard and
+deliver marching orders to the advanced forts. When questioned as to
+the route he was not quite certain as to the exact location of the
+dynamite mines or broken glass, and as I overheard the entire
+conversation, I produced my brown-paper map and begged the honour of
+carrying the dispatch. This was not granted me until several others
+had been questioned and failed. I was so sure of every inch of the
+ground, that I was commissioned to take two men with me and deliver
+the orders. This made my heart leap with joy--it was a relief, an
+excitement, an opportunity!
+
+Osman Digna's men were stealthy. They hid behind the furze bushes in
+the darkness so often, and so many of our men had been hamstrung,
+that, of course, we were on the alert; but every furze bush we
+approached covered an imaginery "Fuzzy-Wuzzy," and this, often
+repeated, created an unutterable fear, so that by the time we reached
+our destination, our khaki clothing was black with sweat, and we were
+literally drenched with fear. Of course, we put on a brave front and
+smiled complacently as we delivered the orders, and when it was
+suggested that we remain overnight in the fort, I nonchalantly refused
+the offer under the pretence that we were expected back. The same
+thing happened on the return journey, and when the thing was over, we
+were the most pitiful-looking objects--fear-stricken soldiers!
+
+Some months later when it was announced to me that we had been
+mentioned in dispatches, the absurdity of the thing became for the
+first time fully apparent. According to the ethics of military life, I
+had done a brave thing--something worth mentioning; but to my own
+soul, I had been panic-stricken with physical fear, and, turn it over
+as I might, I could not discover a vestige of either courage or
+fortitude in the entire transaction.
+
+The phrase, "Everything is fair in love and war," covers a multitude
+of sins in both departments. We had a unique way of finding out
+whether the wells in the desert were poisoned. We led up to each well
+a small detachment of captives and made them drink. If they drank, we
+could drink also; if they refused, we took it for granted the wells
+were poisoned, and we hanged them. Sometimes this extreme sentence was
+mitigated, and we flogged them. Whatever we touched, we destroyed.
+What the bullet could not accomplish, the torch could. It was a
+campaign of annihilation!
+
+The news of Gordon's death cast a gloom over the entire army. This, of
+course, meant relief and return home, but no man wanted to return. We
+were seized with a fiendish impulse to proceed at all hazards to
+Khartoum to his relief. That, from the point of view of the Government
+was, of course, out of the question, and we were ordered home.
+Transport ships were lying in Suakim harbour ready for the journey
+across the sea, but this could not be accomplished with dispatch. A
+garrison had to be left to watch the seaboard. The detachment of which
+I was a part was returned to the town of Suakim, and the officers were
+quartered in an unfinished building by the seaside at the edge of the
+water. The officers' servants lived in tents pitched on the roof. We
+were permitted to bathe as often as we wished. The harbour was full of
+sharks and rather dangerous for bathing, but the Soudanese seemed to
+be not over-careful as they skimmed over the water in their
+"dug-outs."
+
+The journey home on a transport was a continuation of the misery of
+the desert. What the desert had left undone to weakened men, the
+rough voyage accomplished. The ship was overcrowded and almost every
+day dead bodies lashed to planks were pitched over the side. The sight
+(below decks) of scores of men crawling around in a dying condition,
+struck terror to the hearts of the strong. The smells were nauseating
+and the food was vile. No man knew when his turn would come. The few
+doctors were utterly unable to cope with this physical collapse of so
+many men.
+
+The condition of the ship and of the men furnished me with the best
+opportunity I had had up to that time for evangelistic work. I spent
+twenty hours of each twenty-four preaching the gospel to the men. The
+absence of a chaplain on board made the work comparatively easy. My
+work was done so quietly and unobtrusively, that it was practically
+unknown save to the sick and the dying until an incident happened that
+brought me somewhat into the light.
+
+We were in the Bay of Biscay, and those who were well were fighting
+off the atmosphere of disease. It was toward evening and four men were
+playing cards for money. I stood watching them with my hands behind my
+back. I must have been there half an hour when the man directly in
+front of me, looking around and staring me in the face, said:
+
+"Get t'ell out of 'ere! I 'aven't won a penny since you've been
+watching us."
+
+The other men laughed and I moved away, excusing myself as I
+departed; but before I was out of hearing, one of the men addressed
+the speaker and said:
+
+"Don't be too sure of what you could do to that fellow Irvine--his
+looks belie him. He's got more steam in his elbow than you have."
+
+That was all I heard, but as I was looking over the side a minute or
+two later, a hand was laid on my shoulder. I looked around. It was the
+man who had threatened me.
+
+"Say, pal," he said, "I didn't mean no 'arm. These 'ere blokes tell me
+as yer name's Irvine. Is that so?" I nodded an assent. "Did yer ever
+'ave a chum 'oose name was Creedan?" Again I nodded assent. "D'ye know
+what became ov 'im?"
+
+"He was missing on the field," I replied.
+
+"'E's dead," said the man.
+
+Then he described to me the last moments of my friend. It appeared
+that Creedan and this man fell together on the field, Creedan shot
+through the abdomen; this man, through the shoulder. An officer came
+along and offered Creedan a mouthful of water, but he refused, saying
+he was all in, but that he wanted to send a message to his chum, and
+this is the message he gave to the man who had threatened to punch my
+head:
+
+"Tell Irvine the anchor holds!"
+
+I was moved, of course, by the recital of this story; so was the man
+who told it.
+
+"What in 'ell did 'e mean by th' anchor 'oldin'?" the man asked.
+
+"Old man," I said, "I had been trying for a long time to lead Creedan
+to a religious life, and the story you tell is the only evidence that
+I ever had that he took me seriously."
+
+The man looked as if he were going to weep, and in a quivering voice
+he asked if I could help him. He was going home to marry a maiden in
+Kent whom he described as "a pure good girl." He felt unworthy, for he
+was a gambler and a periodical drunkard, and he thought that if a man
+like Creedan could be helped, he could.
+
+I struck the iron while it was hot, and said: "There is a good deal to
+be done for you, but you have to do it yourself! If you've got the
+grit in you to face these fellows and make a confession of religion
+right here and now, I will guarantee to you that you'll land on the
+shores of England a new man."
+
+He looked at me for a moment with a stern, hard face, then he said:
+
+"By God, I'll do it!" There was no profanity in this assertion. It was
+the strongest way he could put it; and we dropped on our knees on the
+deck and began to pray. In a minute or two half a dozen others joined
+us. Then it seemed as if everybody around us was on his knees; and
+then, when I felt the atmosphere of the crowd and the reverence of it,
+I called on others to pray; half a dozen others responded, and then
+this man, above the roar of the wind through the sails and the
+creaking of the boats' davits, prayed to God to make him a new man.
+
+Creedan had been drafted from the ship in a detachment for the front,
+and when we met on the desert, we entered into a compact which
+stipulated that if either of us fell on the field of battle, the
+survivor was to take charge of the deceased's effects, and visit his
+people.
+
+The arrival of the troops in England was the occasion for an unusual
+demonstration. We were banqueted and paraded, and all kinds of honours
+were showered upon us. As we marched through the streets in our
+sand-coloured uniforms, we were supposed to be heroes--heroes every
+one. What a farce the whole thing seemed to me! Nevertheless, I was
+inconsistent enough to actually enjoy whatever the others were
+getting.
+
+Having purchased my discharge by the payment of £20 I was at liberty
+to leave at my pleasure; I was offered a lucrative position in the
+officers' mess which was one of the best in the British Army. This I
+accepted and held for a year.
+
+My furlough, after a short visit to Ireland, I spent in Oxford. The
+University and its colleges and the town had a wonderful fascination
+for me, but I think, as I look back at it and try to sum up its
+influence upon me, that the personality of the "Master of
+Balliol"--Benjamin Jowett--was the greatest and the most permanent
+thing I received.
+
+I had been striving for years to slough off from my tongue a thick
+Irish brogue, and had not succeeded very well. The elegance and the
+chasteness of Jowett's English did more for me in this respect than my
+years of pruning. I have never heard such English, and behind this
+master language of a master mind, there was a man, a gentleman! I
+wrote Dr. Jowett a note one day, asking for an interview. It may have
+been the execrable handwriting that interested him; but I had a most
+polite note in return, stating the hour at which he would be glad to
+see me. I remember attempting in a very awkward, childish way to
+explain to him something of my ambition to make progress in my
+studies, and how poorly prepared I was and how handicapped in various
+ways. He rose from his seat, took down a book from a shelf, consulted
+it and put it back, and then he told me in a few words of a Spanish
+soldier who had entered the University of Paris at the age of
+thirty-three and became an influence that was world-wide. This, by way
+of encouragement. The model held up had very little effect upon me,
+but this personal interview, this close touch with the man who himself
+was a model, was a great inspiration to me, and remains with me one of
+the most pleasant memories of my life.
+
+My first lecture was given in the town hall at my home town in
+Ireland during the first week of my after-campaign furlough. The
+townspeople filled the hall, more out of curiosity than to hear the
+lecture, for when the cobbler's son had left the town a few years
+before he couldn't read his own name.
+
+The Vicar presided. Ministers of other denominations were present. The
+Young Men's Christian Association was very much in evidence at the
+lecture. School teachers of the Sunday School where I taught, were
+present. The class of little boys I had gathered off the streets was
+there; but personally I had gone after the newsboys of the town, and I
+had arranged that they should sit in a row of front seats. Indeed, I
+bribed some of them to be present.
+
+My lecture was on Gordon and Khartoum. I described our life on the
+desert and told something of the war-game as I had seen it played. At
+the close of the lecture, the usual perfunctory vote of thanks was
+moved, and several prominent men of the town made the seconding of the
+vote an excuse for a speech. Curiously enough, I had had an experience
+with one of these men when I was a newsboy, and in my reply to this
+vote of thanks I told the story:
+
+"One winter's night when I was selling papers on these streets--I
+think I was about twelve years of age--I knocked at a man's door and
+asked if he wanted a paper. The streets were covered with snow and
+slush, and I was shoeless and very cold. The man of the house opened
+the door himself, and something must have disturbed him mentally, for
+when he saw it was a newsboy, he took me by the collar and threw me
+into the gutter. My papers were spoiled and my rags soaked with slush
+and water.
+
+"I picked myself up and came back to the window through which I saw a
+bright fire on an open hearth, and around it the man's family. I don't
+think I said any bad words, nor do I think I was very angry; but I
+certainly was sad and I made up my mind at the window that that man
+would some day be sorry for an unnecessary act of cruelty. I am glad
+that the gentleman is present to-night"--a deep silence and
+breathlessness pervaded the audience--"for I am sure that he is sorry.
+But here are the newsboys of the town. They are my invited guests
+to-night. I want to say to the townspeople that the only kindly hand
+ever laid on my head was the Vicar's. It is too late now to help me--I
+am beyond your reach: but these boys are here, and they are serving
+you with papers and earning a few pennies to appease hunger or to
+clothe their bodies, and I want you to be kind to them."
+
+After the lecture the man who had thrown me in the gutter came to me.
+Of course, he had forgotten it. He had not the slightest idea he was
+the man, but he said:
+
+"What a dastardly shame!"
+
+I gripped him by the hands, and said, "You, my brother, are the man
+who did it." I tightened my grip, and said, "And I forgive you as
+fully and freely as I possibly can. You are sorry, and I am
+satisfied."
+
+I studied in the military schools for a first-class military
+certification of education, and got my promotion; but no sooner had
+the studies ceased and promotion come than the disgust with military
+life and its restrictions increased with such force that it became
+unbearable. So I left the service.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+BEGINNINGS IN THE NEW WORLD
+
+
+I came to the United States in September, 1888. I came as a steerage
+passenger. My first lodging on American soil was with one of the
+earth's saints, a little old Irish woman who lived on East 106th
+Street, New York City. I had served in Egypt with her son, and I was
+her guest.
+
+I had come here with the usual idea that coming was the only
+problem--that everybody had work; that there were no poor people in
+this country, that there was no problem of the unemployed. I was
+disillusioned in the first few weeks, for I tramped the streets night
+and day. I ran the gamut of the employment agencies and the "Help
+Wanted" columns of the papers. It was while looking for work that I
+first became acquainted with the Bowery. It was in the current of the
+unemployed that I was swept there first. It was there that I first
+discovered the dimensions of the problem of the unemployed, and my
+first great surprise in the country was to find thousands of men in
+what I supposed to be the most wonderful Eldorado on earth, workless,
+and many of them homeless.
+
+An advertisement in the morning paper calling for a
+"bed-hand"--whatever that might mean--led me to a big lodging-house on
+the Bowery. They wanted a man to wash the floors and make the beds up,
+and the pay was one dollar a day. I got in line with the applicants. I
+was about the forty-fifth man. Many a time I have wished that I could
+understand what was passing in the clerk's mind when he dismissed me
+with a wave of the hand. I thought, perhaps, that my dismissal meant
+that he had engaged a man, but that was not the case. A man two or
+three files behind me got the job.
+
+My next attempt led me to a public school on Greenwich Avenue. The
+janitor wanted an assistant. I was so weary with my inactivity, that
+any kind of a job at any kind of pay would have been acceptable. The
+janitor showed me over the school, told me what his work was. Finally,
+he took me to the cellar where he had piled up in a corner about
+twenty lots of ashes. That, of course, was the first thing to be done,
+and though the pile looked rather discouraging, I stripped to the
+work, and went at it. My task was to get the ashes outside ready for
+carting away. I was about six hours on the job, when I accidently
+overheard the janitor say to his wife: "Shut your mouth, I have just
+got a sucker of a greenhorn to get them out." That was enough. I got
+my coat and hat, went over to the janitor's door, but before I could
+open my mouth, his wife said: "What's up?"
+
+"Oh, the job's all right," I replied, "but what I object to is the way
+you do your whispering!"
+
+The lowest in the scale of all human employments is the art of
+canvassing for a sewing machine company. I did it for two weeks. My
+teacher taught me how to canvass a tenement. The janitor is the
+traditional arch enemy of the canvasser. My teaching consisted largely
+in how to avoid him, circumvent him, or exploit him. A Mrs. Smith--a
+mythical Mrs. Smith--always lived on the top floor. I was taught to
+interview her first; then I canvassed from the top down.
+
+My district was on the East Side from Fourteenth to Forty-Second
+Street. I encountered some rough work with janitors and janitresses in
+this region--so rough, indeed, that I considered it a splendid
+missionary field; and when I found, crushed in the heart of that
+tenement region, a small Methodist Church, I became interested in its
+work. I copied its "bill-of-fare" from the board outside the door, and
+began, as time permitted, to attend its services. As an offset to the
+discouragements I had experienced, I met in this small church two big
+men--big, mentally and morally. They were brothers, and during my
+twenty-one years in the United States, I have not met their superiors.
+They were Lincoln and Frank Moss, both of them leaders in the church,
+and although they had moved with the population northward, they
+remembered the struggles of their childhood, and gave to it some of
+their best manhood.
+
+Selling sewing machines was a failure, but out of it came the
+discovery of this splendid field for social and religious activity. I
+was directed to the Twenty-third Street Y.M.C.A. There, day after day,
+I inquired at the Employment Department until the secretary seemed
+tired of the sight of me.
+
+I got ashamed to look at him. One night I sat in a corner, the picture
+of dejection and despair, when a big, broad-shouldered man sat down
+beside me.
+
+"You look as if you thought God was dead!" he said, smiling.
+
+"He appears to be," I replied.
+
+He put his big hand on my shoulder, looked into my eyes, and drew out
+of me my story. I forget what he said, it was brief and perhaps
+commonplace, but I went out to walk the streets that night, full of
+hope and courage. Before leaving that night I approached the little
+man at the employment desk.
+
+"Did you see that big fellow in a gray suit?" I asked.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Who is he?"
+
+"Mr. McBurney."
+
+"The man whose name is on your letterhead?"
+
+"The same."
+
+"Great guns! and to think that I've been monkeying all these weeks
+with a man like you--pardon me, brother!"
+
+Robert R. McBurney was my friend to the day of his death. Many a time,
+when out of the pit, I reminded him of the incident. It was from the
+little man at the employment desk of the Twenty-third Street Y.M.C.A.
+that I got my real introduction to business life--if the vocation of a
+porter can be called "business."
+
+I became an under-porter in a wholesale house on Broadway at five
+dollars a week, and spent a winter at the job. The head of the house
+was a leader of national reputation in his particular denomination. I
+was sitting on the radiator one winter's morning before the store was
+opened when the chief clerk came in. It was a Monday morning, and his
+first words were:
+
+"Well, what did you do yesterday?"
+
+"I taught a Bible Class, led a people's meeting, and preached once,"
+was my reply. He looked dumbfounded.
+
+"Do you do that often?" he asked.
+
+"As often as I get a chance," I answered.
+
+An abiding friendship began that morning between us. This man might
+have been a member of the firm and a rich man by this time, but he had
+a conscience, and it would not permit him to dishonestly keep books,
+which his employers wanted him to do, and he quit.
+
+My next job was running an elevator in an office building on West
+Twenty-third Street. It was one of the old-fashioned, ice-wagon
+variety, jerked up and down by a wire cable. It gave me a good
+opportunity for study. In the side of the cage I had an arrangement
+for my Greek grammar. This of course, could not escape the notice of
+the business men, and if I was a few seconds late in answering their
+bell, they always looked like a thunder-cloud in the direction of my
+grammar. One of my passengers on that elevator was sympathetic. His
+name was Bruce Price, an architect; a tall, fine, powerfully built
+man, who had a kindly word for me every morning, and the only
+passenger who ever deigned to shake hands with me as if I were a human
+being.
+
+After that, I mounted a milk-wagon and served milk in the region of
+West Fifty-seventh Street. This drop into the cellars of the
+well-to-do gave me contact from another angle with janitors,
+janitresses, and servants. I started at four o'clock each morning. I
+did not finish until late in the afternoon, but I had all of Sunday
+off. I found my way by the touch of the hand, and very soon I seemed
+to have the eyesight of a cat to find shafts, dumb-waiters, circuitous
+turnings in the sub-cellars of large apartment houses.
+
+The life of a milkman is a busy one, but I found time to mumble my
+Greek roots as I trotted in and out of the cellars. My grammar, when
+weather permitted, was tied open to a bottle in the cart.
+
+From the milk-wagon I went to a publishing house. They had advertised
+for a man with some literary ability, and I had the effrontery to
+apply. I drove the milk-cart in front of the publishing-house door,
+and, with my working clothes bespattered with milk and grease, I
+applied personally for the job.
+
+"What are your qualifications?" the manager asked.
+
+"What kind of work do you want done?" I asked in reply. I found that
+they were going to make a new dictionary of the English language, but
+their method of making it obviated the necessity for scholarship. They
+had an 1859 edition of Webster and a lot of the newer dictionaries,
+and Webster was to be the basis of the new one, and we were to crib
+and transcribe from all the rest. I was the third man employed on the
+work.
+
+My salary to begin with was ten dollars a week. The word "salary" had
+a fine sound; it is more refined than "wages," though it was less than
+my pay as a milkman. After working a month, I had the temerity to
+outline a plan for a dictionary which would necessitate the most
+profound scholarship in America. This plan was laughed at, at first,
+but finally adopted, and it took seven years and millions of dollars,
+and hundreds of the best scholars in the United States and foreign
+countries to complete the work. They raised my salary from $10 a week
+to $100 a month; but when an opening came to work as a missionary
+among the Bowery lodging houses at $60 a month, I considered it the
+opportunity of a lifetime, and in 1890 entered my new parish--the
+Bowery.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+FISHING FOR MEN ON THE BOWERY
+
+
+The Bowery is one of the most unique thoroughfares of the world. The
+history of the cheap lodging houses, to which I was commissioned to
+carry the gospel, is one of the most interesting phases of the
+Bowery's history. Ex-inspector Thomas Byrnes has described the lodging
+house of the Bowery as "a breeding place of crime." He probably did
+not know that the cheap lodging house had its origin in a
+philanthropic effort. It was in 1872, somewhere on the edge of a
+financial panic, that the first lodging house of this type was
+organized by two missionaries--Rev. Dr. A.F. Shauffler and the Rev.
+John Dooley. The Young Men's Christian Association of the Bowery found
+a lot of young men attending its meetings who were homeless, and their
+endeavour to solve this problem resulted in the fitting up of a large
+dormitory on Spring Street. Somebody--Ex-inspector Byrnes says a Mr.
+Howe--saw a business opportunity in the philanthropy and copied the
+dormitory.
+
+There were from sixty to seventy of them on the Bowery when I began my
+work. These I visited every day of the week. There was a glamour and
+a fascination about it in the night-time that held me in its grip as
+tightly as it did others. What a study were the faces--many of them
+pale, haggard; many of them painted! How sickly they looked under the
+white glare of the arc lights that fizzled and sputtered overhead!
+Many of its shops have been "selling out below cost," for over twenty
+years.
+
+I did not confine myself to the Bowery, but went to the small side
+streets around Chatham Square. They were also filled with cheap
+lodging houses. The lowest of these were called "bunk houses." Only
+one of the bunk houses remains. That is situated at No. 9 Mulberry
+Street. It is there to-day, little altered from the day I first
+entered it over twenty years ago. The price for lodging ranges from
+seven to fifteen cents, but fifteen cents was the more usual price.
+
+My headquarters at first was the City Mission Church on Broome Street,
+called "The Broome Street Tabernacle," and to it I led thousands of
+weary feet. The minister at that time was the Rev. C.H. Tyndall, a
+splendid man with a modern mind; but I filled his tabernacle so full
+of the "Weary Willies of the Bowery" that Mr. Tyndall revolted, and as
+I look back at the circumstance now, he was fully justified in his
+revolt. Mr. Tyndall was doing a more important work than I was, more
+fundamental and far-reaching. He was touching the family life of the
+community and he saw what I did not see--that our congregations could
+not be mixed; that my work was spoiling his. I did not see it then. I
+see it now. So I betook myself to another church, and this other
+church got a credit which it did not deserve, for they had no family
+life to touch. It was a church at Chatham Square, and its usefulness
+consisted in the fact that it was situated where it could catch the
+ebb and flow of the "tramp-tide."
+
+I spent my afternoons in the lodging houses, pocket Bible in hand,
+going from man to man as they sat there, workless, homeless, dejected
+and in despair. I very soon found that there was one gospel they were
+looking for and willing to accept--it was the gospel of work; so, in
+order to meet the emergency, I became an employment agency. I became
+more than that. They needed clothing and food--and I became a junk
+store and a soup kitchen.
+
+After six months' experience in the work, I had a story to tell. It
+was very vivid, and I could always touch the tear glands of a
+congregation with it, and stir their hearts; so I went from church to
+church, uptown and out of town and anywhere, and told the story of my
+congregation on the Bowery. The result was not by any means a solution
+of my problem, nor of the tramp problem, but carloads of old clothes,
+and money to pay for lodgings. There was such a terrific tug at my
+heartstrings all the time that I never had two coats to my own back,
+or a change of clothing in hardly any department. As for money, I was,
+as they were, most of the time penniless! Everything I could beg or
+borrow went into the work.
+
+At the close of the first year, the results were rather discouraging.
+I got a number of men work, but very few had made good. Hundreds of
+men had been clothed, fed and lodged, but they had passed out of my
+reach. I knew not where they had gone. Scarcely one per cent. ever let
+me know even by a postal card what had become of them, or how they
+fared, and yet my work was called successful.
+
+Sunday afternoons, with a baby organ on my shoulder and a small group
+of converts and helpers following closely behind, I went down the
+Bowery and held meetings in about half a dozen houses. I did most of
+the speaking, but urged the converts to tell their own stories at each
+service. I have said that I was never interfered with or molested in
+the work, and the following incident can hardly be called an
+exception. A broken-down prize fighter, slightly under the influence
+of liquor, tried to prevent us from holding a meeting one afternoon. I
+reasoned with him.
+
+"You don't seem to know who I am," he said. I confessed my ignorance.
+
+"Well," he said, "I'm Connelly, the prize fighter!"
+
+"Then you're what your profession calls a 'bruiser'."
+
+"Sure!" he replied.
+
+"Probably you are not aware, Mr. Connelly, that the Bible has
+something to say about bruisers."
+
+He explained that, being a Roman Catholic, his Bible was different
+from mine, and he did not think there were any bruisers in his Bible.
+
+"Oh, you are mistaken, Mr. Connelly. This is your Bible I have with
+me"--and I produced a small Douey Bible, and turning over the pages in
+Genesis I read a passage which I thought might appeal to him:
+
+"'The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head.' I suppose
+you know who the woman was, Connelly."
+
+"The Holy Virgin?" he inquired.
+
+"Yes; and the serpent is the Devil, and he has been pouring firewater
+into you and has been making you say things you would not otherwise
+say. As for the seed of the woman, that is Jesus Christ; and this
+Douey Bible of yours tells you that Jesus Christ is able to bruise the
+head of the old serpent in you, which is the Devil." That sounded
+rather reasonable to the retired prize fighter, and he quieted down
+and we proceeded with the service.
+
+The society for which I worked, occasionally sent down visitors to be
+shown around the lodging houses, and often I took them in there
+myself; but the thing grew very distasteful to me, for I never got
+hardened or calloused to the misery and sorrow of the situation, and
+it seemed to me eminently unfair to parade them.
+
+About the last man I took around was Sir Walter Besant. I dined with
+him at the Brevoort House one night, and took him around first to one
+of the bunk-houses and then to various others, and also into the
+tenement region around Cherry Street.
+
+"Keep close to me," I told Besant as we entered the bunk house, "don't
+linger;" so we went to the top floor. The strips of canvas arranged in
+double tiers were full of lodgers. The floor was strewn with
+bodies--naked, half naked and fully clothed. We had to step over them
+to get to the other end. There was a stove in the middle of the room,
+and beside it, a dirty old lamp shed its yellow rays around, but by no
+means lighted the dormitory. The plumbing was open, and the odours
+coming therefrom and from the dirty, sweaty bodies of the lodgers and
+from the hot air of the stove--windows and doors being tightly
+closed--made the atmosphere stifling and suffocating.
+
+After stepping over the prostrate bodies from one end of the dormitory
+to the other, the novelist was almost overcome and when we got back to
+the door he begged to be taken to the open air. When we got to Chatham
+Square, he said--"Take me to a drugstore." Besant knew the underworld
+of London as few men of his generation knew it, but he had never seen
+anything quite so bestial, so debauched and so low as the bunk-house
+on Mulberry Street.
+
+It seems strange to me now that after having tramped the streets of
+New York with the unemployed and after having shared their misery,
+disappointment and despair, that I should, as a missionary, have
+entirely forgotten it, and that after years of experience among them,
+I should still be possessed of the idea that men of this grade were
+lazy and would not work if they had it. One afternoon in a bunk-house
+I was so possessed of this idea that I challenged the crowd.
+
+"You men surely do not need any further evidence of my interest in
+you," I remarked. "All that I have and am belongs to you; but I cannot
+help telling you of my conviction: that most of you are here because
+you are lazy. Now, if any man in the house is willing to test the
+case, I will change clothes with him to-morrow morning and show him
+how to find work."
+
+The words had scarcely escaped my lips when a man by the name of Tim
+Grogan stood up and accepted the challenge.
+
+I made an appointment to meet Grogan on Chatham Square at half-past
+five the next morning. Before I met him, I had done more thinking on
+the question of the unemployed than I had ever done in my life. I
+balked on the change of clothing article in the agreement--and
+furnished my own. Two or three men had enough courage to get up early
+in the morning and see Tim off--they were sceptical about my
+intention.
+
+The first thing that we did was to try the piano, soap and other
+factories on the West Side. From place to place we went, from
+Fourteenth to Fifty-ninth Street without success. Sometimes under
+pretence of business and by force of the power to express myself in
+good English, I gained an entrance to the superintendent; but I always
+failed to find a job. We crossed the city at Fifty-ninth Street and
+went down the East Side. Wherever men were working, we applied. We
+went to the stevedores on the East Side, but they were all "full up."
+"For God's sake," I said to some of them, but I was brushed aside with
+a wave of the hand. I never felt so like a beggar in my life. Tim
+trotted at my heels, encouraging me with whimsical Irish phrases, one
+of which I remember--
+
+"Begorra, mister, the hardest work for sure is no work at all, at
+all!"
+
+In the middle of the afternoon, I began to get disturbed; then I
+decided to try a scheme I had worked over for hours. "Keep close to
+me, now, Tim," I said, as I led him to a drugstore at the corner of
+Grand Street and the Bowery.
+
+"Sir," I said to the clerk, "you are unaccustomed to giving credit, I
+know; but perhaps you might suspend your rule for once and trust us
+to the amount of five cents?"
+
+"You don't talk like a bum," he said, "but you look like one."
+
+I thanked him for the compliment to my language, but insisted on my
+request.
+
+"Well, what is it?" asked the clerk with somewhat of a sneer.
+
+"I am hungry and thirsty. I have looked for work all day and have
+utterly failed to find it. Now I have a scheme and I know it will
+work. Oxalic acid eats away rust. If I had five cents' worth, I could
+earn a dollar--I know I could."
+
+He looked curiously at me for a moment, and said with an oath:
+
+"By--! I've been on the Bowery a good many years and haven't been sold
+once. If you're a skin-game man, I'll throw up my job!"
+
+I got the acid. I played the same game in a tailor-shop for five
+cents' worth of rags. Then I went to a hardware store on the Square
+and got credit for about ten cents' worth of brickdust and paste. I
+took Tim by the arm and led him across the west side of Chatham
+Square. There used to be a big drygoods store on the east side of the
+Square, with large plate-glass windows, and underneath the windows,
+big brass signs.
+
+"Nothing doing," said the floorwalker, as I asked for the job of
+cleaning them; nevertheless, when he turned his back, I dropped on my
+knees and cleaned a square foot--did it inside of a minute.
+
+"Say, boss," I said, "look here! I'm desperately hard up. I want to
+make money, and I want to make it honestly. I will clean that entire
+sign for a nickle."
+
+It was pity that moved him to give me the job, and when it was
+completed, I offered to do the other one. "All right," he said; "go
+ahead."
+
+"But this one," I said, "will cost you a dime."
+
+"Why a nickle for this one and a dime for the other?" he asked.
+
+"Well," I said, "we are just entering business. In the first case I
+charged you merely for the work done; in the second, I charge you for
+the idea."
+
+"What idea?" he inquired.
+
+"The idea that cleanliness is part of any business man's capital."
+
+"Well, go ahead."
+
+When both signs were polished I offered to do the big plate-glass
+windows for ten cents each. This was thirty cents below the regular
+price, and I was permitted to do the job. Tim, of course, took his cap
+off, rolled his shirtsleeves up and worked with a will beside me.
+After that, we swept the sidewalk, earning the total sum of
+thirty-five cents. We tried to do other stores, but the nationality of
+most of them was against us; nevertheless, in the course of the
+afternoon, we made a dollar and a half. I took Tim to "Beefsteak
+John's," and we had dinner. Then I began to boast of the performance
+and to warn Tim that on the following Sunday afternoon I should
+explain my success to the men in the bunk-house.
+
+"Yes, yes, indeed, yer honour," said Tim, "y're a janyus! There's no
+doubt about that at all, at all! But----"
+
+"Go on," I said.
+
+"I was jist switherin'," said Tim, "what a wontherful thing ut is that
+a man kin always hev worruk whin he invints ut."
+
+"Well, that's worth knowing, Tim," I said, disappointedly. "Did you
+learn anything else?"
+
+"There's jist one thing that you forgot, yer honour."
+
+"What is it?" I asked.
+
+"Begorra, you forgot that if all the brains in the bunk-house wor put
+together they cudn't think of a thrick like that--the thrick of
+cleaning a window wid stuff from a dhrugstore! They aint got brains."
+
+"Why haven't they?"
+
+"Ach, begorra, I dunno except for the same raisin that a fish hasn't
+no horns!"
+
+We retraced our steps to the drugstore and the tailor-shop and the
+hardware store, and paid our bills and I handed over what was left to
+Tim.
+
+This experiment taught me more than it taught Tim. It made a better
+student of me. I had investigated the cases of a hundred men in that
+same bunk-house--their nationality, age and occupation--and I had
+tried to find out the cause of their failure. And my superficial
+inquiry led me to the conclusion that the use of intoxicating liquor
+was the chief cause.
+
+The following table shows the trade, nationality and age of one of our
+Sunday audiences in the B---- bunk-house. The audience numbered 108,
+and were all well-known individually to the Lodging House Missionary.
+
+
+_Trade_
+
+  Engineer                                 1
+  Waiter                                   1
+  Watchman                                 1
+  Labourers                               17
+  'Longshoremen                            7
+  Junkmen                                  3
+  Mechanics                                3
+  Coal Heavers                            18
+  Street Peddlers                          4
+  Beer Helpers                             2
+  Knife Grinders                           4
+  Tailors                                  4
+  Cooks                                    2
+  Cigar Makers                             2
+  Upholsterer                              1
+  Painter                                  1
+  Butcher                                  1
+  Shoemakers                               6
+  Gardeners                                3
+  Gilder                                   1
+  Jeweler                                  1
+  Oysterman                                1
+  Bronzer                                  1
+  Truckman                                 1
+  Firemen                                  2
+  Last Maker                               1
+  Farmer                                   1
+  Thieves and Bums of various grades      18
+                                        ____
+  Total                                  108
+
+
+_Nationality_
+
+  Germans                                52
+  Americans                              19
+  Irish                                  22
+  English                                 4
+  Swedish                                 2
+  Austrians                               2
+  Scotch                                  2
+  Welsh                                   1
+  French                                  2
+  Greek                                   1
+  Cuban                                   1
+                                        ____
+  Total                                 108
+
+
+_Age_
+
+  Between 20 and 30                      21
+     "    30 and 40                      30
+     "    40 and 50                      29
+     "    50 and 60                      20
+     "    60 and 70                       8
+                                       ____
+  Total                                 108
+  Average age, 41 years
+
+Despite my experience with Tim Grogan, I diagnosed the condition of
+these men as being entirely due to strong drink. I went back over the
+ground and investigated with a little more care the causes that led
+them to drink, and this was the more fruitful of the two
+investigations. I wondered why men would not even stick at a job when
+I got them work. A careful investigation led me to the belief that,
+when a man gets out of a job once, he loses just a little of the
+routine, the continuity, the habit of work, and it is just a little
+harder to apply himself when he begins again. If a man loses a job two
+or three times in a year, it is just as many times harder to go on
+with a regular job when it comes. Lack of regular employment is the
+cause not only of the physical disintegration, but of the moral
+disintegration also; so, these men who had been out of employment so
+often, actually could not stick at a job when they got it. They were
+disorganized. A few of them had the stamina to overcome this
+disorganization. I found the same to be true in morals. When a man
+made his first break, it was easier to make the second, and it was as
+easy for him to lose a good habit as to acquire a bad one.
+
+The same thing holds good in what we call charity. A terrific
+soul-struggle goes on in every man and woman before the hand is put
+out for the first time. Self-respect is a tremendous asset, and
+people hold on to it as to their very souls; but when a hand is held
+out once and the community puts alms therein, the fabric of
+self-respect begins to totter, and the whole process of disintegration
+begins.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+A BUNK-HOUSE AND SOME BUNK-HOUSE MEN
+
+
+I made my headquarters, while a lodging-house missionary, in the
+Mulberry Street bunk-house. It was only a block from Chatham Square,
+and central. The first thing I did was to clean it. I proceeded with
+soap and water to scrub it out, dressed in a pair of overalls. While
+performing this operation, a tall gaunt figure lurched into the room
+with his hands in his pockets--a slit for a mouth, shaggy eyebrows,
+rather small eyes. He looked at me for a moment as if in astonishment,
+and then he said:
+
+"Hello, bub, what's de game?"
+
+"I'm a missionary," I answered.
+
+"Ye are, eh?"
+
+"Yes. When I finish cleaning the floor, I am going to attempt to clean
+up some other things around here."
+
+"Me too, hey?"
+
+"Yes; don't you think you need it?"
+
+He laughed a hoarse, gutteral laugh, and said:
+
+"Don't get bughouse, boss. Ye'd wind up just where ye begun--on the
+floor."
+
+This man, who was known in the bunk-house as "Gar," was known also by
+the names of "McBriarty" and "Brady." He had been in the army, but
+they could not drill him. He had spent fifteen years in State's Prison
+for various offences, but for a good many years he had been bungling
+around in cheap lodging houses, getting a living by his wits. He was
+the toughest specimen of a man I ever saw. There was a challenge in
+him which I at once accepted. It was in his looks and in his words. It
+was an intimation that he was master--that missionaries were somewhat
+feeble-minded and had to do with weak people. I was not very well
+acquainted with the bunk-house at the time, but I outlined a plan of
+campaign the major part of which was the capture of this primordial
+man. Could I reach him? Could I influence and move him to a better
+life? If not, what was the use of trying my theological programme on
+others? So I abandoned myself to the task. I knew my friends and the
+officers of the missionary society would have considered it very
+ill-advised if the details of the plan had been known to them, so I
+slept in the bunk-house and stayed with him night and day. Of course,
+I would not have done it if I had not seen beyond him: that if I could
+gain this man, I would gain a strategic point. He himself would be a
+great power in the bunk-house; first of all, because he was physically
+fit. He was selected because he could pitch any two men in the house
+out of it; and even from a missionary's point of view, that was
+important. He resented at first my interference, but gentleness and
+love prevailed, and he finally acquiesced.
+
+The hardest part of the plan was to eat with him in an underground
+restaurant where meals cost five and ten cents a piece. When he was
+"tapering off," I went with him into the saloons. He visited the cheap
+fake auction-rooms and would buy little pieces of cheap jewelry
+occasionally and sell them at a few cents' profit. These things
+nauseated me. There was no hope of finding this man any work. He did
+not want work, anyway; could not work if he had it.
+
+He tried, during the first week that I was with him, to disgust me;
+first with his language and then with his actions. He put the lights
+out in the dormitory one night, and in the darkness pulled three or
+four men out of the bunks, cuffed them on the side of the head and
+kicked them around generally. He thought this was the finishing touch
+to my vigil. When the superintendent came up and lit the lamp again,
+he had an idea that it was the bouncer and came over to his cot, which
+was beside mine, and found him snoring. When all was quiet, the
+bouncer said to me:
+
+"What did ye tink of it, boss, hey?"
+
+"Oh," I said, "that was a very tame show, and utterly uninteresting."
+
+"Gee!" he said, "you must have been a barker at Coney Island."
+
+The test of my theology on him proved a failure. The story of the
+prodigal son was a great joke to him. He said of it:
+
+"Say, bub, if you ever strike an old gazabo as soft as dat one, lemme
+know, will ye?" Prayer to him was "talking through one's hat."
+
+In a few weeks he straightened up and began to give me very fine
+assistance in the bunk-house. His change of mind and heart almost lost
+him his job, for he lost a good deal of his brutality--the thing that
+fitted him for his work. In ushering insubordinate gentlemen
+downstairs, he did it more with force of persuasion than with the
+force of his shoe. He continued my campaign of cleaning, and decorated
+the kalsomined walls with chromos that he bought at one penny apiece.
+He was a psychologist and would have probably been surprised if
+anybody had told him so. He could tell at once the moral worth of a
+lodger; so he was a very good lieutenant and picked out the best of
+the men who had reached the bottom--and the bunk-house was the bottom
+rung of the social ladder. Every day he had his story to tell--of the
+newcomers and their possibilities. His conversion was a matter of slow
+work. Indeed, I don't know what conversion meant in his case. It
+certainly was not the working out of any theological formula that I
+had preached to him.
+
+The telling of this man's story in churches helped the work a great
+deal. It was the kind of thing that appealed to the churches--rather
+graphic and striking; so, unconsciously we exploited him. We could
+have gotten a hundred dollars to help a man like this--whose life
+after all was past or nearly past--to one dollar we could get for the
+work of saving a boy from such a life!
+
+Among the most interesting characters that I came in contact with in
+those days was Dave Ranney; he is now himself a missionary to the
+Bowery lodging houses. I was going across Chatham Square one night,
+when this man tapped me on the shoulder--"touched me"--he would call
+it. He was "a puddler from Pittsburg," so he said.
+
+"Show me your hands," I replied. Instead, he stuck them deep into his
+trouser pockets, and I told him to try again. He said he was hungry,
+so I took him to a restaurant, but he couldn't eat. He wanted a drink,
+but I wouldn't give that to him. He walked the streets that night, but
+he came to me later and I helped him; and every time he came, he got a
+little nearer the truth in telling his story. Finally I got it all. He
+squared himself and began the fight of his life.
+
+Another convert of the bunk-house was Edward Dowling. "Der's an old
+gazabo here," said the bouncer to me one day, "and he's got de angel
+goods on him O.K." He was a quiet, reticent old man of sixty, an
+Irishman who had served in the British Army in India with Havelock and
+Colin Campbell. He had bought a ranch in the West, but an accident to
+one of his eyes forced him to spend all his money to save the other
+one. He drifted in to New York, penniless and without a friend. Seeing
+a tinker mending umbrellas one day on the street, he sat down beside
+him and watched the process. In that way he learned something of the
+trade.
+
+One Sunday afternoon when I was rallying a congregation in the
+bunk-house, I found him on his cot, reading the life of Buffalo Bill.
+I invited him down to the meeting, but he politely refused, saying
+that he was an Episcopalian. The following Sunday he did come, and his
+was the most striking spiritual crisis that I had ever seen. His
+conversion was clean-cut, definite and clear; it was of a kind with
+the conversion of Paul on the way to Damascus. He was an exceedingly
+intelligent man, and could repeat more classic poetry by heart than
+any man I have ever known. He came out from that brown mass of human
+flotsam and jetsam on the Sunday afternoon following his conversion,
+and told them what had happened to him.
+
+The lodgers were very much impressed. It was in the winter-time. The
+old man earned very little money at his new trade, but what he had he
+shared with his fellow-lodgers. The bouncer told me that the old
+tinker would buy a stale loaf for a few cents, then in the
+dormitory he would make coffee in tomato cans and gather half a dozen
+of the hungriest around him, and share his meal with them--plain bread
+soaked in unsweetened coffee. Sometimes he would read a few verses of
+the Bible to them, and sometimes merely say in his clear Irish voice:
+"There, now, God bliss ye!"
+
+[Illustration: Dowling, Tinker and Colporter.
+A Veteran who Served in India under Havelock and Colin Campbell]
+
+At this time he was living on a dollar a week, but every morning he
+had his little tea-party around the old stove, his word of greeting,
+and his final word of benediction to the men he had selected to share
+in his bounty as they slunk out of the bunk-house to begin the day.
+
+Later, he had a large-type New Testament out of which he read a verse
+or two every morning at the meal. Very soon the three hundred lodgers
+began to look upon him with a kind of awe. This was not because he had
+undergone a radical change, for he had always been quiet, gentle and
+civil; but because he had found his voice, and that voice was bringing
+to them something they could not get elsewhere--sympathy, cheer and
+courage.
+
+In the tenement region, particularly in the little back alleys around
+Mulberry Street, he mended pots, kettles, pans and umbrellas--not
+always for money, but as often for the privilege of reading to these
+people messages of comfort out of his large-type New Testament.
+
+Going down Mulberry Street one morning in the depth of winter, I
+happened to glance up one of those narrow alleys in "the Bend," and I
+noticed my friend standing at a window, his face close to a broken
+pane of glass and his large New Testament held in front of him a few
+inches from his face. His tinker's budget was by his feet. The door
+was closed. In a few minutes he closed the book, put it into his kit,
+and as he moved away from the window, I saw a large bundle of rags
+pushed into the hole.
+
+"What have you been doing?" I inquired.
+
+He laughed. "There, now, God bliss her," he said. "I put a rib in an
+umbrella for her, but she said the house was too dirty to read the
+Bible in, so she let me read it through the broken window."
+
+All that winter he tinkered and taught. All winter the little ragged
+audiences gathered around him in the morning; and often at eventime
+when he retreated into a quiet corner to be silent and rest, he found
+himself the centre of an inquiring group of his fellow-lodgers.
+
+Instead of uniting himself to the mission, as such men usually do
+after their conversion, I advised him to join one of the prominent
+churches of the city, in the downtown district. I thought it would be
+good for the church. But we both discovered our mistake later. He was
+utterly out of keeping with his surroundings. The church he joined was
+an institution for the favoured few--and Dowling was a tinker.
+
+His diary of that period is before me as I write, and I am astonished
+at the great humility of this simple-minded man.
+
+He had been asked by the minister of his church to call on him; but
+his modesty prevented him until hunger forced him to change his mind.
+After starving for three days, he made up his mind to accept that
+invitation, and reveal his condition to the well-to-do minister of
+this well-to-do church. He was poorly clad. It was a very cold winter
+day. The streets were covered with slush and snow. On his way he met
+an old woman with a shawl around her, a bedraggled dress and wet feet.
+
+"My good woman," said Dowling, "you must be very cold, indeed, in this
+condition."
+
+"Sir," she answered, "I am cold; but I am also starving of hunger.
+Could you afford me one cent to get some bread?"
+
+"God bliss ye, dear friend," he said, "I have not been able to taste
+food for three days myself; but I am now on the way to the house of a
+good friend, a good servant of the Lord; and if I get any help, I will
+share it with you. I am a poor tinker, but work has been very slack
+this last week. I have not earned enough to pay for my lodging."
+
+The diary gives all the details, the corner of the street where he met
+her, the hour of the day.
+
+A servant ushered him into the parlour of his "good friend, the
+servant of the Lord." Presently the reverend doctor came down,
+somewhat irritated, and, without shaking hands, said:
+
+"Dowling, I know I have asked you several times to call, but I am a
+very busy man and you should have let me know. I simply cannot see you
+this morning. I have an address to prepare for the opening of a
+mission and I haven't the time."
+
+"No handshake--no Christian greeting," records the tinker's diary; and
+the account closes with these words: "Dear Lord, do not let the demon
+of uncharitableness enter into my poor heart."
+
+He became a colporteur for a tract society, and was given as territory
+the towns on the east side of the Hudson River. Tract selling in this
+generation is probably the most thankless, profitless work that any
+human being could undertake. The poor old man was burdened with a
+heavy bundle of the worst literary trash of a religious kind ever put
+out of a publishing house. He was to get twenty-five per cent. on the
+sales; so he shouldered his kit, with his heart full of enthusiasm,
+and began the summer journey on foot. He carried his diary with him,
+and although the entries are very brief, they are to the point.
+
+"August 29. Sold nothing. No money for bread or lodging. _God is
+good._ Night came and I was _so_ tired and hungry. I went into a grove
+and with a prayer of confidence on my lips, I went to sleep. A clock
+not far away struck two. Then, rain fell in torrents and a fierce
+wind blew. The elements drove me from the grove. A constable held me
+up. 'I am a servant of God, dear friend,' I said. 'Why doesn't he give
+you a place to sleep, then?' he answered. 'God forgive me,' thinks I
+to myself, 'but that is the same unworthy thought that was in my own
+mind.' I went into a building in course of erection and lay down on
+some planks; but I was too wet to sleep."
+
+Next day hunger drove him to work early. He was turned from one door
+after another, by saints and sinners alike, until finally he was so
+weak with hunger that he could scarcely walk. Then he became desperate
+to a degree, and his diary records a call on another reverend doctor.
+
+This eminent divine had no need for religious literature, nor had he
+time to be bothered with beggars. Dowling records in his diary that he
+told the minister that he was dropping off his feet with hunger and
+would be thankful for a little bread and a glass of water. It seems
+almost incredible that in a Christian community such things could
+happen; but the diary records the indictment that those tender lips in
+life were never allowed to utter--it records how he was driven from
+the door.
+
+He had letters of introduction from this rich tract society, and again
+he presented them to a minister.
+
+"A very nice lady came," says the record. "I gave my credentials,
+explained my condition and implored help.
+
+"_We are retired from the active ministry_," the woman said, "and
+cannot help you. We have no further use for religious books."
+
+A third minister atoned for the others, and made a purchase. This was
+at Tarrytown. On another occasion, when his vitality had ebbed low
+through hunger and exposure, he was sitting on the roadside when a
+labourer said, "There is a nigger down the road here who keeps a
+saloon. He hasn't got no religion, but he wants some. Ye'd better look
+him up." And he did. The Negro saloon-keeper informed him that being a
+saloon-keeper shut him and his family from the church.
+
+"Now," he said, "I am going to get Jim, my barkeeper, to look after
+the joint while I take you home to talk to me and my family about
+God." So they entertained the tinker-preacher, and the diary is full
+of praise to God for his new-found friends. The Negro bought a
+dollar's worth of tracts, and persuaded the colporteur to spend the
+night with them.
+
+With this dollar he returned to New York, got his tinker's budget, and
+went back to his missionary field. If people did not want their souls
+cured he knew they must have lots of tinware that needed mending; so
+he combined the work of curing souls with the mending of umbrellas and
+kitchen utensils, and his period of starvation was past. His business
+was to preach the new vision and tinker for a living as he went along.
+
+"September 12," reads the diary, "I found myself by the brook which
+runs east of the mountain. I had a loaf of bread and some cheese, and
+with a tin cup I helped myself to the water of the brook. The
+fragments that remained I put in a bundle and tied to the branch of a
+tree by the roadside. On the wrapper I pencilled these words:
+'Friend--if you come across this food and you need it, do not hesitate
+to eat it; but if you don't need it, leave it for I will return at the
+close of the day. God bless you.'"
+
+At eventime he returned and was surprised at the altered shape of the
+bundle. He found that two beef sandwiches and two big apples had been
+added, with this note: "Friend: accept these by way of variety. Peace
+to thee!" This gives occasion for another address of prayer and
+gratitude to God for His bountiful care. By the brookside he took
+supper, and then began the ascent of the hill. After a few hours
+fruitless search for the road, he "got stuck," in the words of the
+diary. Finding himself in a helpless predicament, he gathered grass
+and dry leaves around him and prepared himself for the night.
+
+"Psalms IV. 8 came to my mind," he said, "and I took great comfort in
+the words--'I said, I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for
+Thou, Lord, makest me dwell in safety!'"
+
+He woke next morning and found the earth covered with hoar frost,
+which suggested to him: "Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean.
+Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."
+
+One of my duties while engaged as a missionary on the Bowery was to
+render reports of the work done for the missionary society. The
+society had a monthly magazine and it was through that medium that
+they got the greater part of their support.
+
+In one of my reports I told the story of a London waif. The story made
+such an impression upon the superintendent that he thought I was
+romancing, and said so. My best answer to that was to produce the boy,
+and I produced him. The boy told his own story. Then it was published
+in a magazine and produced a strong impression. I think an extra
+edition had to be printed to supply the demand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE WAIF'S STORY
+
+
+"I know nothing about my father," said the boy to me. "My mother
+worked in the brick-yard not far from our cottage, where we lived
+together. I went to school for two years and learned to read and
+write, a little.
+
+"Every evening I used to go to the bend in the road and meet my mother
+as she came home. She was always very tired--so tired! She carried
+clay on her head all day and it was heavy. I used to make the fire and
+boil the supper and run all the errands to the grocery.
+
+"One evening at the bend of the road I waited for my mother until it
+was dark, but she did not come. Then I went home crying. I found my
+mother lying on the bed with her clothes on. She would not wake up. I
+shook her by the arm, I rolled her from one side to the other, but she
+would not speak; then, I got on my knees and I kissed her--and her
+face was very cold. I was scared. I went for the old woman who lived
+next door. She shook her; then she cried and told me that my mother
+was dead.
+
+"My mother used to play with me at night and sometimes in the morning,
+too. When they told me she was dead, I wondered what I would do
+without her; but all the neighbours were so kind to me that I forgot a
+good deal about my mother until they put her in a box and carried her
+away. Then one of the neighbour women took me and said I must live
+with her; so I did. I sold papers, ran errands, dried the dishes,
+swept the floor for her; but after a long time she began to speak very
+crossly to me, and I often trembled with fear.
+
+"One day I decided to run away. After I sold all my papers, I came to
+the cottage and slipped all the pennies under the door, and then ran
+away as fast as I could. I did not know where I was going, but I had
+heard so much about London that I thought it must be a very great
+place and that I could get papers to sell and do lots of other things;
+so, when a man found me sitting on the side of the road and asked me
+where I was going, I said, 'To London.' He laughed and said:
+
+"'Whom do you know there?'
+
+"'Nobody,' I replied, 'but there are lots of people there and lots of
+work, and I don't like the place where I live.' The man took me to his
+house and kept me all night and paid my carfare to London next day.
+
+"Many days and many nights I had no food to eat, nor no place to
+sleep. I did not like to beg, not because I thought it wrong, but
+because I was afraid. I saw boys carrying packages along the street,
+found out how they got it to do, and imitated them, earning
+occasionally a few pennies. I saved up enough with these pennies to
+buy a stock of London papers. By saving these pennies and eating
+little food, I was able to buy a larger stock of these papers each
+day. I had good luck, and by economy I managed to live and save. In a
+few days I was able to pay thru'pence a night for a lodging. One night
+when I made a big venture in spending all my money on a big stock of
+papers, I had an accident in which they were all spoiled. I dropped
+them in a pool of water--and I was penniless again! That night, late,
+I went up the white stone steps of a big house in Westminster and went
+to sleep. I had saved a few of the driest papers and used them as a
+pillow.
+
+"'Hi, little cove!' a policeman said, as he poked his baton under my
+armpit next morning. 'What are you doing here?' I began to whimper,
+and he took pity on me and showed me the way to Dr. Barnardo's Home;
+but when I got out of his sight, I went off in another direction, for
+I had heard that many boys got whipped down there. I got among a lot
+of boys on the banks of the river. They were diving for pennies. I
+thought it was a very hard way to earn money, but I did it too, and
+got about as much as the rest. I did not stay long on the river bank.
+The boys were sharper than I was and could cheat me out of my pennies.
+
+"One night I slept under an arch. Next morning I heard the loud sound
+of factory whistles. Everybody was aroused. Some of the people lying
+around were going to work there; and I thought I might get a job also,
+so I followed them. On the way we came to a coffee stall, and as I was
+nearly fainting with hunger, I stood in front of it to get the smell
+of the coffee and fresh bread, for that does a fellow a heap of good
+when he's got nothing in his stomach. A man with a square paper hat on
+looked at me, and said:
+
+"'What's up, little 'un?'
+
+"I said nothing was up except that I was hungry. Then he stepped up to
+the coffee-man and gave him some money, and I got a bun and a mug of
+coffee. It seemed to me that I had never been so happy in all my life
+as with the feeling I got from that bun and coffee--but then, I had
+been a good many days without food.
+
+"There was no work to be had at the factory near the bridge, so I went
+back to the docks. At night I slept with a lot of other fellows under
+a big canvas cover that kept the rain from some goods lying at the
+docks ready to be shipped. I think there must have been as many
+fellows under that big cover as there were piles of goods. It was
+while there that I thought for the first time very seriously about my
+mother, and I began to cry. The other fellows heard me and kicked me
+from under the cover; but that did not help my crying, however. I
+smothered a good deal of it and walked up and down by the side of the
+river all night. My eyes were swollen, and I was feeling very badly
+when a sailor noticed me. He had been to sea and had just returned
+home. He talked a lot about life on a ship--said if he were a boy, he
+would not hang around the docks; he would go to sea.
+
+"'Where's yer folks?' he said to me.
+
+"'Ain't got none,' I said.
+
+"'Where d'ye live, then?'
+
+"'I don't live nowheres.'
+
+"'Shiver my timbers,' he said, 'ye must have an anchorage in some of
+these parts? Where d'ye sleep nights?'
+
+"'Wherever I be when night comes on,' I told him.
+
+"The sailor laughed, and said I was a lucky dog to be at home
+anywheres.
+
+"'See here, young 'un,' the sailor said, 'I've been up agin it in
+these parts myself when I was a kid, and up agin it stiff, too; and
+there ain't nothing around here for the likes of ye. Take my advice
+and get out o' here. There's a big ship down here by the
+docks--_Helvetia_. Sneak aboard, get into a scupper or a barrel or
+something, and ship for America.'
+
+"The idea of 'sneaking aboard' got very big in my mind, and I went to
+Woolwich where the ship was lying; and I met a lot of other boys who
+were trying to sneak aboard, too. I thought my chances were slim, but
+I was going to have a try, anyway. These boys that were thinking of
+the same thing, tried to get me to do a lot of things that I knew were
+not right. There was stuff to steal and they knew how I could get it.
+There were kind-hearted people around, and they wanted me to beg. When
+they said the ship was going to sail, I got aboard and hid on the
+lower deck.
+
+"Two days after that I thought the ship was going to the bottom of the
+sea, and I didn't care very much, for I had been vomiting, and it
+seemed as if my heart was breaking, and I was sick--so sick that I
+didn't care whether I was dead or alive. One of the sailors heard me
+groaning and pulled me out by the leg. Then he looked at me and swore;
+caught me by the neck and dragged me before the captain. I was so sick
+I could not stand; but the captain was not angry. He was very funny,
+for he laughed very loudly, and said:
+
+"'Put the kid to work, and if he doesn't do it, put a ten-inch hose on
+him!'
+
+"Four of us altogether had stowed away on that ship. The other boys
+laughed a good deal at me because I got the easiest job of them all.
+When I was able to stand on my feet, they made me clean a little
+brass cannon. I could clean it sitting down, and I liked the job when
+I was not sick. Every one was good to me, and I had a happy time the
+last few days of the voyage. Then I came to New York and met you."
+
+This, in briefest outline, is the story of Johnnie Walker. I met him
+at a mission on the edge of the North River, and was as touched by his
+story as others had been before me. So I took him to my home,
+introduced him to the bathroom and to a new suit of clothes, and
+Johnnie entered upon the happiest days of his life. After a few weeks
+I handed him over to the Children's Aid Society, and they sent him out
+West. He has always called me "father."
+
+One evening I asked him what he knew about Jesus and he replied,
+"Ain't 'ee th' bloke as they swears about?"
+
+His ideas of prayer were also dim, but he made an attempt. He wrote a
+letter to God and read it on his knees before going to bed.
+
+He is now a prosperous farmer in the far West, living on a quarter
+section of land given to him by the Government, and on which he has
+made good his claim to American citizenship.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+I MEET SOME OUTCASTS
+
+
+A sharp contrast to this waif of the street is the case of a statesman
+under a cloud. I was sitting on a bench near the bunk-house one day at
+twilight, when I noticed a profile silhouetted against the window. I
+had seen only one profile like that in my life, and that was when I
+was a boy. I moved closer. The man sat like a statue. His face was
+very pale and he was gazing vacantly at the walls in the rear of the
+building. Finally, I went over and sat down beside him.
+
+"Good evening," he said quietly, in answer to my salutation. I looked
+into his face--a face I knew when a boy, a face familiar to the
+law-makers of Victoria for a quarter of a century. I called him by
+name. At the sound of his own name, his paleness turned to an ashy
+yellow.
+
+"In Heaven's name," I said, "what are you doing here?" He looked at me
+with an expression of excruciating pain on his face, and said:
+
+"I have travelled some thousands of miles in order to be alone; if you
+have any kindness, any pity, leave me."
+
+"Pardon me," I said, "for intruding."
+
+That night the Ex-Club invited him to take part in their
+deliberations. He refused, and his manner showed that he considered
+the invitation an insult. I had known this man as a brilliant orator,
+a religious leader, the champion of a sect. In a city across the sea I
+had sat as a barelegged boy on an upturned barrel, part of an immense
+crowd, listening to the flow of his oratory. Next day he left the
+bunk-house. Some weeks afterward I found him on a curbstone, preaching
+to whoever of the pedestrians would listen.
+
+At the close of his address, I introduced myself again. He took me to
+his new lodging, and I put the questions that filled my mind. For
+answer he gave me the House of Commons Blue Book, which explained the
+charge hanging over him. Almost daily, for weeks, I heard him on his
+knees proclaim his innocence of the unmentionable crime with which he
+was charged. After some weeks of daily association, he said to me:
+
+"I believe you are sent of God to guide me, and I am prepared to take
+your advice."
+
+My advice was ready. He turned pale as I told him to pack his trunk
+and take the next ship for England.
+
+"Face the storm like a man!" I urged, and he said:
+
+"It will kill me, but I will do it."
+
+He did it, and it swept him to prison, to shame, and to oblivion.
+
+Nothing in the life of the bunk-house was more noticeable than the way
+men of intelligence grouped themselves together. Besides the Judge,
+there were an ex-lawyer, an ex-soldier of Victoria and a German Graf.
+I named them the "Ex-Club." Every morning they separated as though
+forever. Every night they returned and looked at one another in
+surprise.
+
+At election-time both political parties had access to the register,
+and every lodger was the recipient of two letters. Between elections a
+letter was always a matter of sensational interest; it lay on the
+clerk's table, waiting to be claimed, and every lodger inspected it as
+he passed. Scores of men who never expected a letter would pick it up,
+handle it in a wistful and affectionate manner, and regretfully lay it
+down again. I have often wished I could analyze the thoughts of these
+men as they tenderly handled these rare visitors conducted by Uncle
+Sam into the bunk-house.
+
+It was a big letter with red seals and an aristocratic monogram that
+first drew attention to a new-comer who had signed himself "Hans
+Schwanen." "One-eyed Dutchy" had whispered to some of his friends that
+the recipient of the letter was a real German Graf.
+
+He was about sixty years of age, short, rotund, corpulent. His head
+was bullet-shaped and set well down on his shoulders. His clothes were
+baggy and threadbare, his linen soiled and shabby. He had blue eyes,
+harsh red hair, and a florid complexion. When he arrived, he brought
+three valises. Everybody wondered what he could have in them.
+
+The bouncer was consumed with a desire to examine the contents, and,
+as bouncer and general floor-manager of the house, expected that they
+would naturally be placed under his care. When, however, it was
+announced that the newcomer had engaged "One-eyed Dutchy" as his
+valet, the bouncer swore, and said "he might go to ----."
+
+There was something peculiar and mysterious in a ten-cent guest of the
+Bismarck hiring a valet. The Germans called him Graf von Habernichts.
+He kept aloof from the crowd. He had no friends and would permit no
+one to establish any intercourse with him.
+
+His valet informed an intimate friend that the Graf received a check
+from Germany every three months. While it lasted, it was the valet's
+duty to order, pay for, and keep a record of all food and refreshment.
+When the bouncer told me of these things, I tried very hard to
+persuade the Graf to dine at my house; but he declined without even
+the formality of thanks. After a few months, the revenue of the
+mysterious stranger dried up and "One-eyed Dutchy" was discharged.
+
+A snowstorm found the old Graf with an attack of rheumatism, and
+helpless. Then he was forced to relinquish his ten-cent cot and move
+upstairs to a seven-cent bunk. When he was able to get out again, he
+came back dragging up the rickety old stairs a scissors-grinder.
+Several of the guests offered a hand, but he spurned them all, and
+stuck to his job until he got it up.
+
+Another snowstorm brought back his rheumatism; he got permission to
+sit indoors. The old wheel lay idle in the corner; he was hungry and
+his pipe had been empty for a day and a night; but still he sat bolt
+upright, in pain, alone, with starvation staring him in the face. The
+third day of his voluntary fast he got a letter. It contained a
+one-dollar bill. The sender was watching at a safe distance and he
+recorded that the Graf's puzzled look almost developed into a smile.
+He gathered himself together and hobbled out to a nearby German
+saloon. Next day came the first sign of surrender. He accepted a
+commission to take a census of the house. This at last helped to thaw
+him out, but it didn't last long.
+
+His rheumatism prevented him from pushing his wheel through the
+streets and I secured him a corner in a locksmith's basement. He had
+not been there many weeks when he disappeared. The locksmith told a
+story which seemed incredible. He said the old Graf had sold his wheel
+and given the proceeds to an Irishwoman to help defray the funeral
+expenses of her child.
+
+Some months later, the clerk of the bunk-house got a postal card from
+"One-eyed Dutchy." He was on the Island, and the Graf and he were
+working together on the ash gang. I secured his release from the
+Island.
+
+When he returned to the bunk-house, every one who had ever seen him
+noted a marked change. He no longer lived in a shell. He had become a
+human, and took an interest in what was going on. One night when a few
+of the Ex-Club were exchanging reminiscences, he was prevailed upon to
+tell his story. He asked us to keep it a secret for ten years. The
+time is up, and I am the only one of that group alive.
+
+"In 1849 it was; my brother and I, students, were in Heidelberg. Then
+broke out the Revolution. Two years less of age was I, so to him was
+due my father's title and most of the estate. 'What is Revolution?'
+five of us students asked. 'We know not; we will study,' we all said,
+and we did. For King and Fatherland our study make us jealous, but my
+brother was not so.
+
+"'I am revolutionist!' he says, and we are mad to make him different.
+
+"'The King is one,' he said, 'and the people are many, and they are
+oppressed.'
+
+"I hate my brother, and curse him, till in our room he weeps for
+sorrow. I curse him until he leaves.
+
+"By and by in the barricades he finds himself fighting against the
+King. In the fight the rebels are defeated and my brother escapes.
+Many are condemned and shot. Not knowing my heart, my mother writes me
+that my brother is at home.
+
+"I lie in my bed, thinking--thinking. Many students have been shot for
+treason. Love of King and Fatherland and desire to be Graf, are two
+thoughts in my heart.
+
+"I inform. My brother is arrested, and in fortress is he put to be
+shot.
+
+"Four of us students of patriotism go to see. My heart sinks to see my
+brother, so white is he and fearless. His eyes are bright like fire,
+and he stands so cool and straight.
+
+"'I have nothing but love,' he says; 'I love the cause of truth and
+justice. To kill me is not to kill the truth; where you spill my blood
+will Revolution grow as flowers grow by water. I forgive.'
+
+"Then he sees me. 'Hans!' he says, 'Hans!' He holds out his arms. 'I
+want to kiss my brother,' he says. The General he says, 'All right.'
+
+"But I love the King. 'No! I have no brother! I will not a traitor
+kiss!'
+
+"My Gott! how my brother looks! He looks already dead--so full of
+sorrow is he.
+
+"A sharp crack of guns! They chill my heart, and down dead falls my
+brother.
+
+"I go away, outside glad, but in my heart I feel burn the fires of
+hell. Father and mother in one year die for sorrow. Then I am Graf.
+
+"I desire to be of society, but society will not--it is cold. Guests
+do not come to my table. Servants do not stay. They tell that they
+hear my mother weep for sorrow in the night. I laugh at them, but in
+my heart I know them true. Peasants in the village hide from me as I
+come to them.
+
+"But my mind is worse. Every night I hear the crack of the rifles--the
+sound of the volley that was my brother's death. Soldiers I get, men
+of the devil-dare kind, to stay with me. They do not come back; they
+tell that they hear tramp, tramp, tramp of soldiers' feet.
+
+"One night, with the soldiers, I take much wine, for I say, 'I shall
+be drunk and not hear the guns at night.'
+
+"We drink in our noble hall. Heavy doors are chained, windows barred,
+draperies close arranged, and the great lamp burns dim. We drink, we
+sing, we curse God und das Gesindel. 'We ourselves,' we say, 'are
+gods.'
+
+"Then creeps close the hour for the guns. My tongue is fast and cannot
+move; my brow is wet and frozen is my blood.
+
+"Boom! go the guns; then thunder shakes the castle, lightning flashes
+through the draperies, and I fall as dead.
+
+"Was I in a dream? I know not. I did not believe in God; I did not
+believe in heaven or in hell; yet do I see my past life go past me in
+pictures--pictures of light in frames of fire: Two boys, first--Max,
+my brother, and I, playing as children; then my mother weeping for
+great sorrow; then the black walls of the great fortress--my brother
+with arms outstretched. Again my blood is frozen, again creeps my
+skin, and I hear the volley and see him fall to death. I fear. I
+scream loud that I love the King, but in my ear comes a voice like
+iron--'Liar!' A little girl, then, with hair so golden, comes and
+wipes the stain of blood from my brow. I see her plain.
+
+"Then I awake. I am alone; the light is out; blood is on my face. I am
+paralyzed with fear, so I cannot stand. When I can walk, I leave, for
+I think maybe that only in Germany do I hear the guns. For twenty
+years I live in Spain. Still do I hear the guns.
+
+"I go to France, but yet every night at the same hour freezes my blood
+and I hear the death volley.
+
+"I come to America, which I have hated, yet never a night is missed.
+It is at the same hour. What I hate comes to me. Whatever I fear is
+mine. To run away from something is for me to meet it. My estate is
+gone; money I have not. I sink like a man in a quicksand, down, down,
+down. I come here. Lower I cannot.
+
+"One day in 'the Bend', where das Gesindel live, I see the little
+girl--she of the golden hair who wiped my stain away.
+
+"But she is dead. I know for sure the face. What it means I know not.
+Again I fall as dead.
+
+"I have one thing in the world left--only one; it is my
+scissors-grinder. I sell it and give all the money to bury her. It is
+the first--it is the only good I ever did. Then, an outcast, I go out
+into the world where no pity is. I sit me down in a dark alley;
+strange is my heart, and new.
+
+"It is time for the guns--yet is my blood warm! I wait. The volley
+comes not!
+
+"The hour is past!
+
+"'My Gott, my Gott!' I say. 'Can this be true?' I wait one, two, three
+minutes; it comes not. I scream for joy--I scream loud! I feel an iron
+hand on me. I am put in prison. Yet is the prison filled with
+light--yet am I in heaven. The guns are silent!"
+
+One day a big letter with several patches of red sealing-wax and an
+aristocratic monogram arrived at the bunk-house. Nearly two hundred
+men handled it and stood around until the Graf arrived. Every one felt
+a personal interest in the contents. It was "One-eyed Dutchy," who
+handed it to the owner, and stood there watching out of his single eye
+the face of his former master. The old man smiled as he folded the
+letter and put it into his pocket, saying as he did so: "By next ship
+I leave for Hamburg to take life up where I laid it down."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The only man now living of those bunk-house days is Thomas J.
+Callahan. He has been attached for many years to Yale University and
+doing the work of a janitor. Many Yale men will never forget how "Doc"
+cared for Dwight Hall. He is now in charge of Yale Hall. The
+circumstances under which I met Doc were rather peculiar.
+
+"Say, bub," said Gar, the bouncer, to me one day, "what ungodly hour
+of the mornin' d'ye git up?"
+
+"At the godly hour of necessity," I replied.
+
+"Wal, I hev a pal I want ter interjooce to ye at six."
+
+I met the bouncer and his "pal" at the corner of Broome Street and the
+Bowery next morning at the appointed hour.
+
+"Dat's Doc!" said Gar, as he laid his hand on his friend's shoulder.
+
+His friend bowed low and in faultless English, said: "I am more than
+pleased to meet you."
+
+"I can give you a pointer on Doc," the big fellow continued. "If ye
+tuk a peaner to th' top av a mountain an' let her go down the side
+sorter ez she pleases, 'e c'u'd pick up the remains an' put thim
+together so's ye w'u'dn't know they'd been apart. Yes, sir; that's no
+song an' dance, an' 'e c'u'd play any chune iver invented on it."
+
+Doc laughed and made some explanations. They had a wheezy old organ
+in Halloran's dive, and Doc kept it in repair and played occasionally
+for them. Doc had a Rip Van Winkle look. His hair hung down his back,
+and his clothes were threadbare and green with age. His shoes were
+tied to his feet with wire, and stockings he had none. Doc had studied
+in a Medical College until the eve of his graduation. Then he slipped
+a cog and went down, down, down, until he landed at Halloran's dive.
+For twelve years he had been selling penny song-sheets on the streets
+and in saloons. He was usually in rags, but a score of the wildest
+inhabitants of that dive told me that Doc was their "good angel." He
+could play the songs of their childhood, he was kind and gentle, and
+men couldn't be vulgar in his presence.
+
+I saw in Doc an unusual man, and was able to persuade him to go home
+with me. In a week he was a new man, clothed and in his right mind. He
+became librarian of a big church library, and our volunteer organist
+at all the Sunday meetings.
+
+After two years of uninterrupted service as librarian, during which
+time Doc had been of great service in the bunk-house, I lost him. Five
+years later, crossing Brooklyn Bridge on a car, I passed Doc who was
+walking in the same direction. At the end of the bridge I planted
+myself in front of him. "Doc," I said, "you will never get away from
+me again." I took him to New Haven, where he has been ever since.
+
+It is needless to say that several years' work in the midst of such
+surroundings gives one a hopeless outlook for that kind of work. In
+1891 a movement to establish a municipal lodging house was organized,
+and I became part of it. A committee composed largely of business men
+met in the office of Killaen Van Ransellaer, 56 Wall Street. In
+discussing the plan of a municipal lodging house, the "Wayfarers
+Lodge" in Boston, an institution of the character under discussion,
+was pointed out as a model, and it was decided to send a
+representative to Boston to investigate and make a report on it.
+
+I was suspicious of the printed report of the Boston place. It spoke
+of the men getting clean bedding, clean sheets and good meals; and
+experience was teaching me that that kind of catering for the tramp
+would swamp any institution. Then, I knew something about the padding
+of charitable reports. I did not care to offer any objection to the
+sending of a representative, but I determined to go myself; so,
+dressed in an old cotton shirt with collar attached, a ragged coat, a
+battered hat and with exactly the railroad fare in my pocket, I went
+to Boston. I stopped a policeman on the street, told him I was
+homeless and hungry. "Go to the Police Station," he said, and knowing
+that at each Police Station tickets of admission were served, I
+presented myself to the Sergeant at the desk.
+
+Furnished with a ticket, I went to No. 30 Hawkins Street, and there
+fell in line with a crowd of the same kind of people I was working
+with and for on the Bowery. We had about an hour to wait. When it came
+my turn for examination, I was rather disturbed to find the
+representative of the committee sitting beside the superintendent,
+investigating the tramps as they passed. I knew he could not recognize
+me by my clothes, but I was not so certain about my voice, so I spoke
+in a low tone.
+
+"Open your mouth," the superintendent said. "Where are you from?"
+
+I kept my eyes on the ground and answered a little louder, "Ireland."
+
+"You are lying," the superintendent said. "Where are you from?"
+
+"Ireland," I answered again in the same tone.
+
+Two kinds of checks lay on the table in front of him--one pile green,
+the other red. After answering the rest of the questions, I was given
+a red check and taken to a cell where a black man stripped me to the
+skin.
+
+"Why did I get a red card while most of the others got a green card?"
+I asked.
+
+"You're lousy, boss, dat's why."
+
+"Well, what are you going to do about it?"
+
+"Steam 'em." So he tied my clothes in a bundle and put them under a
+pressure of two hundred and fifty pounds of steam, the coloured man
+remarking as he stowed them away: "What's left of 'em when they come
+out, boss, aint gwine to do no harm." Then I was marched, sockless,
+with my shoes on and a metal check strung around my neck, to the bath
+where I was taken charge of by another coloured man.
+
+"Here!" he said, as he pointed to an empty tub. I bathed myself to his
+satisfaction and then looked for the clean towels of the "Annual
+Report," but found them not. Instead, there was a pile of towels
+already used--towels made of crash--and I was told to select the
+driest of them and dry myself.
+
+"I was clean when I went into that tub," I said to the black man--"I
+am cleaner now; but if I dry myself with this sodden piece of crash, I
+will be dirtier than when I began." The black man proceeded to force
+me to do this and his attempt nearly ended the experiment, for I
+refused pointblank to do it. "No, thank you," I said, "I will walk up
+and down until I dry."
+
+When the superintendent of that department was called into counsel, my
+use of English rather surprised him, and he let it go at that. Then we
+were marched upstairs to bed; there were one hundred and fifty beds in
+a big dormitory. I looked around for the linen of the "Annual Report,"
+and was again disappointed. The cots were furnished with horse
+blankets.
+
+The method of arousing the men in the early morning was rather unique.
+A man with a stick--a heavy stick that reminded me of an Irish
+flail--thumped the bare floor, and, to my astonishment, there was a
+rush of this savage-looking, naked crowd to the door. As I knew no
+reason for the excitement, I took my time.
+
+I followed the men to the boiler-room, where, after calling out my
+number, I got the bundle corresponding to it, and it looked like a
+crow's nest. Everybody around me was hustling to get his clothes on,
+boiled or unboiled; and again I was mystified as to the hurry. When I
+arrived in the yard, I discovered the reason for this unusual activity
+of my parishioners. The first men out in the yard had a cord of wood
+each to saw, and it took twice as long to chop as it did to saw it.
+Those who were last had to chop. I took my axe and began my task. Soon
+the splinters were flying in all directions. The man next to me was
+rather put out by this activity and said that if he wanted to work
+like that he could do it outside.
+
+"This ain't no place to work like that," he said; then he began to
+expectorate over my block and annoy me in that way. I tried a few
+words of gentle persuasion on him, but it made him worse. He
+bespattered my hands and the axe handle, and I took him by the neck
+and ran him to the other end of the yard and dumped him in a corner.
+Any kind of a fuss in that yard had usually a very serious ending; but
+this had not, for the yard superintendent took my part.
+
+I think it was about eleven o'clock in the forenoon when I finished my
+wood, and went in to get breakfast, which consisted of a bowl of gruel
+and two hard biscuits. One of these biscuits I kept hanging in my
+study for two years. After breakfast I marched into the office, and
+said to the superintendent:
+
+"Brother, I want to ask you a few questions which belong to a
+domain--that mysterious domain that lies between the facts and your
+'Annual Report.'"
+
+"Are you a reporter?" was his first question.
+
+Assuring him that I was not, I asked him the necessary questions, and,
+furnished with some real information, I returned to the Wall Street
+Conference.
+
+I think John H. Finley of the City College was the representative, and
+he rendered his report. Then I stood up and told of my experience
+which differed vitally from the re-hash of the "Annual Report." The
+facts, as I found them, were all in favour of such an institution. A
+man would have to be mighty hard up to go to the Boston municipal
+lodging house; and that is exactly what was needed. The necessity for
+padding the "Annual Report" I could never find out.
+
+The municipal lodging house agitated at that time is now a fact. It
+has been duplicated. On February 19th, 1893, in the Church of the
+Covenant on Park Avenue, I made the suggestion, and it was published
+in the papers the following day, that there was a splendid
+opportunity for a philanthropist to invest a few million dollars at
+five per cent. in a few lodging houses on a gigantic scale. What
+connection the Mills Hotels bear to that suggestion, I do not know,
+but they are the exact fulfilment of it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A few years in that work gave me a terrific feeling of hopelessness,
+and I longed for some other form of church work where I could obviate
+some of the work of the Bowery. The best a man could do on the Bowery
+was to save a few old stranded wrecks; but the work among children
+appealed to me now with far greater force. I also saw the necessity of
+the preacher touching not only the spiritual side of a man, but the
+material side also. A preacher's function, as I understood it after
+these experiences, was to touch the whole round sphere of life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+A CHURCH IN THE GHETTO
+
+
+About this time the old church of Sea and Land at the corner of Market
+and Henry streets was to be put up for auction. The New York
+Presbytery wanted to sell it and devote most of the money to the
+building up of uptown churches. I was sent there by the missionary
+society to hold the place until they got a good price for it. I
+gathered the trustees around me--a splendid band of devout men, mostly
+young men--and I did not need to tell them that it was a forlorn hope.
+They already knew it.
+
+We outlined a plan of campaign to save the church for that community,
+and the result is that the church is there to-day. Of course, the
+district is largely Jewish, but there were enough Gentiles to fill a
+dozen churches.
+
+It was inevitable that we should get in touch with the Jewish
+children. We had a kindergarten, but made it known to the Jewish
+community that we were not in the business of proselyting, and that
+they need have no hesitation in sending their children to our
+kindergarten, which was a great blessing to the whole community.
+Sunday evenings in the spring and fall, I spoke to large congregations
+of Jewish people from the steps of the church, on the spirit of Jewish
+history--as to what it had done for the world and what it could still
+do.
+
+I think it was in the early part of 1893 that I began my work there.
+It was the year of the panic, and the East Side was in a general state
+of stringency and starvation. A group of ministers of various
+denominations got together and devised a plan for a cheap restaurant
+in which we were to sell meals at cost.
+
+Probably for the first time in the history of New York, a Roman
+Catholic priest, a Jewish rabbi, Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist
+pastors sat down around a table to talk over the welfare of the
+people. A committee was formed, and I nominated the Catholic priest
+for chairman. He was elected. The restaurant did not last very long,
+and probably the chief good of the thing was the getting together of
+these men. Difficulties, of course, came thick and fast. Kosher meat
+for the Jews, fish for the Catholics on Friday, and any old thing for
+the Gentiles, were the smallest of the difficulties to be overcome.
+
+I was supported in my church work by a band of young men and women,
+mostly from a distance, who gave their services freely, and in the
+course of a year or two, we managed to increase the church membership
+by a hundred or so, and occasionally we filled the structure by
+serving out refreshments to the lodging-house men of the Bowery. I had
+an opportunity to touch the social needs of the community by
+coöperating with the University Settlement which was then in its
+infancy. I opened the church edifice for their lecture course which
+included Henry George, Father McGlyn, Thaddeus B. Wakeman, Daniel de
+Leon, Charles B. Spahr, and W.J. Sullivan. Sixteen years ago these men
+were the moving spirits in their respective lines in New York City.
+The New York Presbytery was not altogether pleased by this new
+departure in church work; but we had the lectures first, and asked
+permission afterward. Most of these men filled the church to
+overflowing. In the case of Father McGlyn, hundreds had to be turned
+away.
+
+As I sat beside Father McGlyn in the pulpit, I said, "Father, how do
+you stand with the Pope, these days? What is the status of the case?"
+
+"Well, Irvine," he said, "I can best explain it by a dream that I had
+some time ago. I dreamed that a young priest visited me with the
+intention of getting me to recant. 'McGlyn,' he said, 'if you don't
+recant, you'll be damned!' And I thought for a minute or two and then
+gave the only answer that a man with a conscience could give: 'Well,
+brother, I'll be damned if I do!'"
+
+I found myself drifting quietly out of old methods of church work, and
+attempting, at least, to apply religion to the conditions around
+me. Every aspect of social life was in need of remedial treatment. Of
+course, I did not neglect the religious teaching, but what the
+situation demanded was ethical teaching, and, without making any
+splurge about my change of view, I worked at whatever my hand found to
+do in that immediate neighbourhood.
+
+[Illustration: Alexander Irvine.
+From a sketch by Juliet Thompson]
+
+The push-cart men and organ-grinders were terrorized by the policemen.
+I hired an organ-grinder one summer afternoon to play for several
+hours, so that the children of the neighbourhood might have a dance on
+the street. It was a joy to my soul to see these little bits of
+half-naked humanity dancing by the hundreds on the streets and
+sidewalks, most of them barefooted, hatless and coatless. It was on
+one of these occasions that I discovered the petty graft exercised on
+the organ-grinders. The push-cart men all paid toll to the policeman
+on the beat, and the captain of the precinct winked at it. The
+officers of the precinct looked upon the religious leaders as "easy
+marks"--every one of them. The detectives of the Society for
+Prevention of Crime went through my parish and discovered wholesale
+violations of excise laws and city ordinances by the existence of
+bawdy-houses and the selling of liquor in prohibited hours and on
+Sundays. The captain of the precinct came out with a public statement
+that these men were liars; that the law was observed and prostitution
+did not exist. As between Dr. Parkhurst and the captain of the
+precinct, the public was inclined to believe the captain.
+
+One Sunday evening after service, I dressed in the clothes of a
+labourer, took several men with me and went through the parish. The
+first place we entered was the East River Hotel, a few blocks from my
+church. We purchased whiskey at the bar. I did not drink the whiskey,
+for under oath I could not tell whether it was whiskey or not; but my
+companions were not so hampered. After paying for the liquor, we were
+invited upstairs, and there we saw one of the ghastliest, most inhuman
+sights that can be found anywhere on earth outside of Port Said. We
+counted forty women on the first floor. We saw them and their stalls,
+surroundings and companions, and we beat a hasty retreat. A cry of
+alarm was raised, and the barkeeper jumped to the door. It was secured
+by two heavy chains. No explanation was made, but a straight demand
+that he open the door, which was done, and we passed out.
+
+The grand jury, which at that time was hearing report and
+counter-report on the condition of the neighbourhood, had for a
+foreman a Tammany man who owned several saloons. We went into these
+saloons one after another, purchased liquor in bottles, and next
+morning appeared before the grand jury armed with affidavits, and the
+liquor. Dr. Parkhurst stood at the door of the jury room as I went
+in, and whispered to me as I passed him: "This thing cannot last
+forever."
+
+The first few minutes of my testimony I was unconsciously assuming the
+position of a criminal myself, and apologizing for interfering with
+these gentlemen. The assistant district attorney, instead of
+representing the people and standing for the Law, was inquiring into
+my reasons for doing such an unusual thing. I objected to the foreman
+sitting on his own case.
+
+"This man," I said, "is an habitual violator of the Law. I am here to
+testify to that; so are my companions. We have the evidence of his
+law-breaking here," and I pointed to the bottles that we had placed on
+the table.
+
+They did not move, however, and I think they rather considered the
+whole thing a joke. We proceeded to describe the East River Hotel and
+similar resorts that a few days previously had been described as
+immaculately clean by the captain of the precinct. The result of all
+this was the sustaining of the testimony of Dr. Parkhurst's
+detectives. The petty graft among the organ-grinders and the push-cart
+men went right on. Complaints were jokes and were treated as such.
+
+The change of seasons brought little change in the activities of a
+church centre like that. In the winter it was the provision of coal
+and clothes. In the summer it was fresh-air parties and doctors.
+
+I made the discovery one day in a tenement in talking to a little
+child of five, that she had never seen a green field or a tree. This
+led me to ask the missionaries assisting the church to make a search
+for a few weeks and collect as many such children as possible. We got
+together seventeen, ranging from three to seven years of age, not any
+of whom had ever seen a single aspect of the outdoor world, save the
+world of stone and brick and wood.
+
+Some friends in Montclair, N.J., arranged a lawn party for these
+little ones, and we proceeded. Nothing extraordinary happened. There
+was no open-eyed wonder, few exclamations as we intently watched the
+emotions of these children as they gazed for the first time on lawns,
+flower gardens and trees. Two-thirds of them were seasick on the train
+and the one regret of the journey was that we had not taken along half
+a dozen wet nurses.
+
+The one unique thing of the day was the luncheon. The children were
+arranged around an extemporized table where sandwiches, lemonade and
+milk were abundantly provided. At a signal from the hostess, I said,
+"Now, children, everything is ready! Have your luncheon." But there
+was no commotion. Two-thirds of them sat motionless, looking at each
+other.
+
+The sandwiches were made of ham. If I had not seen this with my own
+eyes, I would scarcely have credited the telling of it by anybody
+else. Two-thirds of the children were of Jewish parents and had been
+taught at least one thing thoroughly. The hostess did the best she
+could under the circumstances and provided other kinds of meat, cake
+and fruit, and the festal occasion had a happy ending.
+
+A certain amount of care has always to be exercised in new
+enterprises, in departures from the ordinary routine, especially if
+they involve expense; or, as I have said before, interfere with
+political or economic progress. Pulpit preaching is the smallest item
+in the entire programme of a preacher, especially in such a
+neighbourhood and in such a church. If a preacher wants an audience,
+all he has to do is to step outside his church door, stand on a box,
+and the audience is ready-made. It is miscellaneous and cosmopolitan;
+it is respectful and multitudinous. When I discovered this, I
+proceeded to act on my convictions, and copy, to the extent of getting
+an audience, at least, the Socialist propagandist; and I proceeded to
+work _with_ the people around me instead of _for_ them. There were no
+lines of demarkation to my activity. I touched the life of the
+community at every angle, sometimes entering as a fool where an angel
+would fear to tread.
+
+I was called upon to visit a poor couple who lived in a rear tenement.
+They were of the unattached; had no ecclesiastical connections
+whatever. I saw that the old man, who lay on a couch, was dying. He
+was scarcely able to speak, but managed to express a desire that I
+sing to him; so, as there was no one present but his wife and myself
+to hear it, I sang. This inspired the old man to sing himself. He
+coughed violently, tried to clear his throat, pulled himself together,
+and sang after me a line of "Jesus, Lover of my Soul." This was very
+touching, but the solemnity was severely jarred by following that line
+by the first line of: "Little Brown Jug, don't I love you!" So between
+the Little Brown Jug and the sacred poetry of the church he wound up,
+dying with his head on my knee.
+
+There was an insurance of thirty dollars on his life. I informed the
+undertaker, and did what I could to comfort the old woman who was now
+entirely alone in the world. One of the missionaries of the church
+came next day and helped to make arrangements for the funeral which
+was to take place in the afternoon. They had not been long in that
+alley and knew nobody in it, and when I arrived to conduct the funeral
+service at three o'clock in the afternoon, there was a little crowd of
+people around the door, and from the inside came agonized yells from
+the old woman.
+
+I opened the door and marched in. I found the undertaker in the act of
+taking the body out of the casket and laying it on the lounge in the
+corner. The old woman was on her knees, wringing her hands and begging
+him in the name of God not to do it. I asked for an explanation and,
+rather reluctantly, the undertaker told me, proceeding with his
+programme as he explained that there was a "kink" in the insurance.
+
+"Well," I said, "we can fix that up all right."
+
+"Yes," he said, "you can fix it up with cash; but we are not in the
+undertaking business for our health, you know."
+
+"Well, stop for a moment," I pleaded, "and let us talk it over!"
+
+"Have you got the dough?" he asked.
+
+"Not here," I replied, "but I am the pastor of that church up there on
+the corner, and surely we are good enough for the small expense of
+this funeral."
+
+By this time he had the lid on the casket and was proceeding to carry it
+out. The old woman was now on her feet and almost in hysterics. I was
+mightily moved by the situation, and asked the man to wait; but he
+jabbed the end of the casket under my arm--perhaps accidentally--pushing
+me to one side on his way to the door. I was there ahead of him however;
+locked the door and put the key in my pocket.
+
+"Now, will you wait for one moment till we talk it over?"
+
+His answer was a volley of oaths. I waited until he subsided, and then
+I said:
+
+"I will be responsible for this financially. You are wringing the
+heart's blood out of this poor old woman, and I don't propose to stand
+by and allow it." I raised my voice and continued--"I will give you
+two minutes to put that corpse back in the casket and arrange it for
+burial, and if you don't do it, there may be two to bury instead of
+one."
+
+I began to time him, making absolutely no answer to anything he said.
+I quieted the old woman, stood very close to her and put my hand on
+her head. I said, "It's all right, Mary. Everything is all right. You
+are not friendless. You are not alone."
+
+The two minutes were up. I took off my coat, rolled up my shirt
+sleeves and advanced toward him.
+
+"Are you going to do the decent thing?"
+
+There was one long look between us. Then he put the body back in the
+casket, arranged it for burial, and I opened the door and the crowd
+came in, not, however, before I had put my coat on again. I read the
+service and preached the sermon, and the undertaker did the rest.
+
+Some months afterward, I was at work in my study in the tower of the
+old church, when I heard a loud knocking at the church door--a most
+unusual thing. I came down and found that undertaker and a gentleman
+and lady, well dressed, evidently of the well-to-do class, standing at
+the door.
+
+"Here is a couple that want to get married, Mr. Irvine," the
+undertaker said.
+
+They came into the study and were married, and I shook hands with the
+three, and they went off. Next day I went to the undertaker--indeed,
+he was an undertaker's helper. I went up to his desk and laid down a
+five-dollar bill, one-fourth of the marriage fee. Without being
+invited, I pulled a chair up and sat down beside him.
+
+"Now, tell me, brother," I said confidentially. "Why did you bring
+them to me?"
+
+A smile overspread his features.
+
+"Well," he said, "it was like this. You remember that funeral
+business?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, I figured it out like this: that one of the two of us was
+puttin' up a damned big bluff; but I hadn't the heart to call it.
+Shake!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+WORKING WAY DOWN
+
+
+After some years' experience in missions and mission churches, I would
+find it very hard if I were a workingman living in a tenement not to
+be antagonistic to them; for, in large measure, such work is done on
+the assumption that people are poor and degraded through laxity in
+morals. The scheme of salvation is a salvation for the individual;
+social salvation is out of the question. Social conditions cannot be
+touched, because in all rotten social conditions, there is a thin red
+line which always leads to the rich man or woman who is responsible
+for them.
+
+Coming in contact with these ugly social facts continuously, led me to
+this belief. It came very slowly as did also the opinion that the
+missionary himself or the pastor, be he as wise as Solomon, as
+eloquent as Demosthenes, as virtuous as St. Francis, has no social
+standing whatever among the people whose alms support the
+institutions, religious and philanthropic, of which these men are the
+executive heads. The fellowship of the saints is a pure fiction, has
+absolutely no foundation in fact in a city like New York except as
+the poor saints have it by themselves.
+
+Tim Grogan jolted me into a new political economy; the crowded streets
+of the East Side on a summer night gave me a new theology. I stood one
+night in August on the tower of the old church and looked down upon
+the sweltering mass that covered the roofs, fire escapes and
+sidewalks. The roofs were littered with naked and half-naked children
+panting for breath. Down on the crowded streets thousands of little
+children darted in and out like sparrows, escaping as if by miracle
+the vehicles of all sorts and descriptions. Crowded baby-carriages
+lined the sidewalks. The stoops, too, were crowded. What a mass of
+humans! What a ganglia of living wires! As I looked on this vast
+multitude, I questioned the orthodox theology that held me in its
+grip. Most of these people belonged to another race. And I stood at
+that moment firmly rooted in the belief that this multitude was
+inevitably doomed! Let me put it frankly, even though it seems brutal:
+doomed to hell!
+
+I am unable to analyze the quick currents of thought that went through
+my mind at that instant. I cannot explain how the change came. I know
+that there came to me a bigger thought than any I had ever known, and
+that thought so thrilled me with human feeling, with love for men,
+that I said to my soul: "Soul, if this multitude is doomed to hell, be
+brave; gird up your loins and go with them!"
+
+In that tenement district people were being murdered by the tens of
+thousands by tuberculosis, by defective plumbing, by new diseases born
+of the herding of men and women like cattle. I made some feeble
+attempt to investigate, to ascertain, to acquaint myself with the
+facts, and my investigation led me to this result--a result that the
+lapse of years has not altered; that the private ownership of
+tenements--the private profits in housing--was not only the mother of
+the great white plague, but of most of the plagues down there that
+endanger health. It led me to the belief also that the struggle for
+bodily health, the struggle to survive, was so fierce as to leave
+little time for soul health or mental health! It was a source of
+continual wonder to me that people so helpless and so neglected were
+as good as they were, or as healthy as they were. It did not seem
+reasonable to lay the blame at the doors of the owners of the
+tenements. Many of them had a tenement only as a source of income--and
+to acquire the tenement had taken long years of savings, earnings and
+sacrifices. It was part of the great game of business, the game of
+"live I, die you!"
+
+The churches and synagogues are of little vital importance there,
+because they ignore social conditions, or largely ignore them. And
+there is a reason for this also, and the reason is that they are
+supported by the people--the very people who perpetuate the evils
+against which prophet, priest and pastor ought to cry out
+continually. The protest against such conditions is a negligible
+quantity.
+
+There is a protest, an outcry, but it is related neither to the church
+nor to the synagogue. The East Side has a soul, but it is not an
+ecclesiastical soul! It is a soul that is alive--so much alive to the
+interest of the people that many times I felt ashamed of myself when I
+listened to the socialistic orators on the street corners and in the
+East Side halls. They were stirring up the minds of the people. They
+were not merely making them discontented with conditions, but they
+were offering a programme of reconstruction--a programme that included
+a trowel as well as a sword.
+
+The soul of the East Side expressed itself in the Yiddish press,
+daily, weekly, and monthly, and in Yiddish literature, and in the
+spoken word of the propagandist whose ideal, though limited in
+literary expression, made him a flame of living fire. It was this soul
+of the East Side that drove me against my will to study the relation
+of politics to the condition of the people. One of the first things
+that I discovered was the grip that Tammany had on the people. Every
+saloon keeper was a power in the community. Men, of any force of
+character whatever, who were willing to hold their hands behind their
+backs for Tammany graft, were singled out by the organization for some
+moiety of honour. Small merchants found it to their advantage to keep
+on the right side of the saloon keepers and the Tammany leaders. I
+remember trying to express this thought in an uptown church to a
+wealthy congregation; and I remember distinctly, also, that I was
+rebuked by one of the leading lights of the missionary society of
+which I was a part. I was informed that my business was to "save
+souls," and in my public addresses to tell how I saved them; that
+political conditions must be left to the politicians--and it was done.
+
+To the old church at the corner of Market and Henry streets came
+Dowling. He followed me as a matter of fellowship--we loved each
+other. And came also Dave Ranney, the "puddler from Pittsburg."
+
+On the first anniversary of Dave's conversion, I gathered a hundred
+wastrels of the Bowery together and gave them a dinner at the church.
+Dave, of course, was the guest of honour. When my guests were full and
+warm, they became reminiscent, and I urged them, a few of them, to
+tell us their stories--to unfold the torn manuscripts of their lives.
+Dave told his first.
+
+"Boys," he said, "I was one of de toughest gazabos what ever hung
+aroun' de square. I met dis man an' tried t' bleed 'im, but it warn't
+no go--'e was on to de game and cudn't be touch't.
+
+"I giv'd 'im a song an' dance story fur weeks. One day 'e sez to me,
+sez 'e, 'Chum!'--well, say boys, when I went out an' had a luk at
+meself, sez I, 'Ye dhirty loafer, if a man like dat calls y' "chum,"
+why don't y' take a brace an' get on de dead level?' So I did an' I've
+been on de dead level ever since--ain't I, boss?"
+
+I was able to place Dave as janitor of the church. After he had been
+there for a while and comfortably housed in the janitor's quarters in
+the basement, he thought it a propitious time to be reconciled to his
+wife; so we arranged to have Mary come down and inspect the place. We
+put extra work into the cleaning of the quarters, furnishing it with
+some sticks of furniture. Reconciliations were getting to be an old
+story with Mary, and Dave knew he was going to have difficulty in this
+new attempt. He finally persuaded her to make a visit to the church.
+When he was ready, Dave, in a most apologetic tone, said:
+
+"There is just one thing lacking here."
+
+"What is it Dave?"
+
+"A white tie."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"On you."
+
+The white tie as ecclesiastical appendage I had avoided. I despised
+it. But Dave assured me that if Mary came down to look the church
+over, she would be more interested in my appearance than in the
+appearance of the church, because what she really wanted was an
+assurance that Dave was "on the square!" and if he could introduce
+her to a real minister as his friend, it would enhance his chance.
+
+I sent Dave to the Bowery for a five cent white string tie, and I
+borrowed a Prince Albert coat. There was an old stovepipe hat in the
+church--sort of legacy from former pastorates--and it was trotted out,
+carefully brushed and put on the study table. Then Mary appeared! Dave
+had instructed me to put up a "tall talk," so I put up the tallest
+possible. Mary inspected the church, the quarters and the minister;
+then she looked at Dave and said in an undertone--"This looks on the
+level."
+
+"You bet your sweet life!" Dave said.
+
+So Mary was installed as "the lady of the temple" at Sixty-one Henry
+Street, and for seven years ministered to the poor and the needy, and
+kept in order the House of God. After her death, Dave remained at the
+church about a year; then he became my successor as missionary to the
+lodging houses on the Bowery, where he still works--a sort of humble
+doctor of the humanities; feeding the hungry, clothing the naked,
+comforting men in despair.
+
+It seemed to me at that time that what a weak church like that most
+needed was a strong, powerful church to put its arms around it and
+give it support. I interviewed Dr. Parkhurst, as I was Chairman of a
+Committee of the City Vigilance League which he organized. The result
+was that Dr. Parkhurst's church gave it for a year support and
+absolute independence of action at the same time. Then the Rev. John
+Hopkins Dennison, who had been Dr. Parkhurst's assistant, superseded
+me in the care of the church, and was able to bring to its support
+help that I could not have touched. Mr. Dennison's service to that
+church is worthy of a better record than it has yet received. He
+performed brilliant service, intensified the life of the church and
+gathered around it a band of noble people. He transformed the tower of
+the church into a kind of modern monastery in which he lived himself,
+and in which Dowling, the old Irish tinker, had a place also, and
+which he made a centre of ten years' missionary work chiefly among the
+lodging houses where I found him.
+
+One day Dowling was walking along the Bowery when a hand was laid
+roughly on his shoulder and a voice said:
+
+"Ain't you Dowling?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What did you do with the loot?"
+
+In the Sepoy Rebellion in India, he had looted the palace of a Rajah
+with two other soldiers. The most valuable items of the booty were
+several bamboo canes stuffed with diamonds, rubies and sapphires. In
+the act of burying them for protection and hiding, one of the soldiers
+was shot dead; the other two escaped and separated, and all these
+years each of them had lived in the suspicion that the other had gone
+back for the loot, and they both discovered on the Bowery that
+neither of them had and that this valuable stuff was buried in far-off
+India. Dowling wrote to the Governor-General and told of his part in
+the affair and volunteered to come out and locate it. But by this time
+his body was wasted, his steps were tottering and his head bent.
+Five-hundred dollars were appropriated by the Indian Government to
+take him out; but Dowling was destined for another journey; and, in
+the old tower that he loved so well and where he was beloved by every
+one who knew him, he lay down and died. They buried him in Plainfield,
+N.J., and his friends put over him a stone bearing these words that
+were so characteristic of his life:
+
+  "HE WENT ABOUT DOING GOOD"
+
+My next service was in a city of a second class beyond the Mississippi
+River. I had been invited as a pulpit supply in one of its largest
+churches, but when I arrived I found them in a wrangle over the pastor
+who had just left and by whose recommendation I was to fill the
+pulpit. I arrived in the city on a Sunday morning and went from my
+hotel to the church prepared to preach. I stood for a few minutes in
+the vestibule, and what I heard led me to go straight out again, never
+to return.
+
+My first impression of the city was that it contained more vital
+democracy than any city I had ever been in. It takes an Old World
+proletarian a long time to outgrow a sense of subserviency. As a
+missionary and almoner of the rich in New York, this sense was very
+strong in me. In the West I felt this vital democracy so keenly and
+saw the vision of political independence so clearly, that my very
+blood seemed to change. Politically, I was born again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+LIFE AND DOUBT ON THE BOTTOMS
+
+
+While studying the social conditions of this city, I took a residence
+on the banks of the river among the squatters. There were about
+fifteen hundred people living in shacks on this "no man's land." My
+residence was a shack for which I paid three dollars a month. It was
+at the bottom of a big clay bank, and not far from where the city
+dumped its garbage. There was neither church nor chapel in this
+neglected district, and the people were mostly foreigners; but the
+children all spoke English.
+
+During the early part of my stay in that shack, I entered my first
+great period of doubting--doubt as to the moral order of the universe,
+doubt on the question of God. I had gone through some great soul
+struggles, but this was the greatest. It was for a time the eclipse of
+my soul. For weeks I lived behind closed doors--I was shut in with my
+soul. But the community around me called in a thousand ways for help,
+for guidance, for instruction, and I opened the door of my shack and
+invited the children in. I organized a Sunday School and taught them
+ethics and religion. I got up little entertainments for them. I
+procured a stereopticon, gave them lectures on my experience in Egypt,
+and lectures on art, biography and history. I had a peculiar method of
+advertising these lectures. I informed the little cripple boy on the
+corner. He whispered the information to a section of the huts, at the
+farthest end of which a golden-haired courier informed another
+section; so that by the time the lecture was scheduled to begin, my
+audience was ready, and most of them slid down the clay bank in front
+of my door. Later I went out through the surrounding towns and cities,
+lecturing, and raised money for a chapel, and we called it the "Chapel
+of the Carpenter."
+
+I never knew the meaning of the incarnation until I lived on "the
+bottoms" with the squatters. I talked of great characters of history;
+I reviewed great books. I travelled with these children over the great
+highways of history, science and art, and very soon we had a strong
+Sunday School, and helpers came from the city--but the door of my own
+soul was still shut. It seemed to me that my soul was dead. I was
+without hope for myself: everything around me was dark. Sometimes I
+locked the door and tried to pray, but no words came, nor
+thoughts--not a ray of light penetrated the darkness. My mind and
+intellect became duller and duller. It was at this time that I came
+across the writings of Schopenhauer; and Schopenhauer suggested to me
+a method of relief. I may be doing him an injustice, but it was his
+philosophy that made me reason that, as I did not ask to come into
+life and had no option, I had a right to go out of it. There was
+nothing spasmodic in the development of my thought along this line: it
+was cold, calm reasoning; I had determined to go out of life. So, with
+the same calm deliberation that I cooked my breakfast, I destroyed
+every vestige of my correspondence; and, one night went to the river
+to seek relief. I was sitting on the end of a log when a man, who had
+been working twelve hours in a packing-house, came out to smoke, after
+his supper. He had not washed himself. His bloody shirt stuck to his
+skin--he was haggard, pale; and we dropped naturally into
+conversation. In language intelligible to him I asked him what life
+meant to him.
+
+"The kids," he said, "that's what it means to me. I work like one of
+the things I kill every day--I kill hundreds of them, thousands of
+them every day. I go home and eat like one of them, and sleep like one
+of them, and go back to hog it again like one of them."
+
+"Do you get tired?"
+
+"Tired? Tired as hell!"
+
+"I mean--tired of life?"
+
+"Oh, no," he said, "I aint livin' the best kind of a life, but what I
+have is better than none. I don't know what's beyond--if there is any
+life or none at all; but something in me makes me stick to this one.
+Besides, if there is any chance for a better life here, he must be a
+damned coward that would go out of it and leave it undone. Good
+night."
+
+I saw him retreat to his shack among the tall weeds. I heard the door
+close. I fancied him lie down in a heap in the corner and go to sleep.
+He was a better philosopher than I was, and he had called me a coward,
+but he had not altered my determination. I began to sweat. It was like
+the action of a fever on my body, and I became very nervous; but I was
+determined to meet the crisis, and go.
+
+A sudden change in affairs was created by an unearthly scream--the
+scream of a woman. I looked around suddenly and discovered that the
+only two-story shack on "the bottoms" was in a blaze, and the thought
+occurred to me that I might be of some help and accomplish my purpose
+at the same time.
+
+In a moment I was beside the burning hut. It appeared that a lamp had
+exploded upstairs, and that three small children were hemmed in. That
+was the cause of the scream.
+
+A plank that reached to the upstairs window was lying at the wood
+pile. I pushed it against the house and climbed like a cat into the
+burning bedroom. By this time the neighbours had collected, and I
+helped the woman and lowered the three children down, one by one, and
+then deliberately groped for the stairs to get hemmed in, the smoke
+suffocating me as I did so. By the time I found the stairs, my hair
+was singed, my arms were burned, but I was gradually losing
+consciousness, and before I reached the bottom I fell, suffocated with
+the smoke. In that last moment of consciousness, my whole life came up
+in review. I had no regrets. I had played a part and it was over.
+
+When I came out of coma, I was lying on my cot in the hut, the
+neighbours crowding my little bedroom and standing outside in scores.
+One of the newspapers that had most severely criticized my
+interference in politics, gave me a pass to Colorado and return--and
+in the mountains of Colorado, the door of my soul opened again, and I
+saw the world beautiful--and opportunities that were golden for
+helpfulness and service awaiting my touch. So I returned to my hut
+with the sense of God more fully developed in me than it had ever
+been.
+
+They had a system in that city that I was very much ashamed of--that I
+thought all men ought to be ashamed of--the segregation of the "social
+evil." I discovered that the city fined these poor creatures of the
+streets, and that these fines, amounting to thousands of dollars every
+year, went straight into the public school fund, so that it could
+truly be said that the more debauched society was, the more
+efficiently it could educate its children and its youth.
+
+These houses in the red light district were built to imitate castles
+on the Rhine, and were owned by church people and politicians.
+Everybody winked at this condition. One minister of this town uttered
+a loud protest and took his children out of the public schools, but he
+had to leave the city. The Christians would not stand for such a
+protest. The newspapers would not touch it, trustees would not touch
+it, the great political parties would not touch it.
+
+I joined the Knights of Labour in that city, an organization then in
+its prime of strength, but they would not touch it. I joined the
+People's Party in the hope that there I might do something about it.
+One of the leading members of that party importuned me to nominate him
+as presiding officer of the city convention. "On one condition," I
+told him; "that you appoint me chairman of the committee on
+resolutions." And the compact was made.
+
+Five men were on that committee, and when I asked the committee to put
+in a resolution condemning the education of children from this fund,
+they refused. I could only persuade one of four to indorse my minority
+report, which, signed by two of us, condemned this remnant of Sodom
+left over; but it swept the convention and was carried almost
+unanimously. Even the three men on the resolutions committee who
+refused to sign it before, voted for it in convention. I am aware that
+it does not matter from what fund or funds the public school system
+is supported. I am aware also that one of the things we can do is to
+make that kind of thing cover up its head.
+
+What I suffered for that resolution can never be recorded.
+
+My period of inclement mental weather was followed by a period of
+poverty--destitution rather--I was physically unable to work with my
+hands and I had not yet tried to earn money by my pen. I was often so
+reduced by hunger that I could scarcely walk. At such times one feels
+more grateful for friendship. Into my life then came a few choice
+souls whose fellowship acted as a dynamic to my life. It was when
+things were at their worst that George D. Herron found me. The almost
+Jewish cast of feature, the strange, wonderful voice, the prophetic
+atmosphere of the man forced me to express the belief that I had never
+met a human being who seemed to me so like Christ. Then came George A.
+Gates, the president of Iowa College where Dr. Herron was a professor.
+About the same time came Elia W. Peattie and Ida Doolittle Fleming.
+Mrs. Fleming and her husband helped me organize a Congregational
+Church which, when organized, was a means of support.
+
+The church was in a growing section of the city but I could not be
+persuaded to live there. I lived where I thought my life was most
+serviceable--on "the bottoms."
+
+One night after a few days' involuntary fast I found in the hut two
+cents. To the city I went and bought two bananas--one I ate on the way
+back and the other I put in my hip pocket.
+
+There were no streets, no lights, no sidewalks in that region. As I
+came to a railroad arch on the edge of the squatter community I saw a
+figure emerge from the deep shadows. I knew instantly I was to be held
+up, but as life was rather cheap down there I was not sure what would
+accompany the assault. A second figure emerged and when I came to
+within a few yards of them, I whipped the banana from my pocket and
+pointing it as one would a revolver I said--"Move a muscle, either of
+you, and I'll blow your brains out!"
+
+"Gee!" one of them muttered; "it's Mr. Irvine."
+
+They belonged to a gang of young toughs who lived in a dug-out on the
+banks of the river. Some of them had brothers in my school. There were
+about a dozen of them. They had hinted several times that they would
+clean me out when they had time, but they had delayed their plan. I
+took these fellows to my hut and we talked for hours.
+
+When I produced the banana they laughed vociferously and invited me to
+their "hole." Next evening they gave a reception and, I suppose, fed
+me on stolen property. They had a stove--a few old mattresses and some
+dry-goods boxes.
+
+I held their attention that night for four hours while I told the
+story of Jean Valjean. Next day we were all photographed together on a
+pile of stones near the "hole."
+
+After that these fellows protected the chapel and made themselves
+useful in their way. In less than a year afterward half of them had
+gone to honest work; the rest went the way of the transgressor, to the
+penetentiary and the reform school.
+
+This period was one of total rejection by any means--powerful
+influences were at work to render my labour void--but they were offset
+for a time by the finer influences of life. I gave a series of
+addresses in Tabor College, Iowa, and they were the beginning of an
+awakening among the students. After the last word of the last address
+the student about whom the president and faculty were most concerned
+walked up the aisle and expressed a desire to lead a new life.
+
+"Do it now," I suggested.
+
+"Right here?"
+
+"Yes, right where you stand."
+
+The president and faculty gathered around him, making a circle; he
+stood in the midst, alone, and in that way with prayer and dedication
+from the lips of the young man and his friends began one of the most
+useful lives in the American ministry. This young man became an
+ascetic. I gave him to read the life of Francis of Assisi, and he went
+to the extreme in emulation. He divested himself of collars and ties
+and on graduating read his thesis for his Bachelor's degree collarless
+and tieless.
+
+I was in New Haven when he came there to take his Divinity degree in
+Yale. He came without either collar or tie, but after days of prayer
+and fasting he was "led" to enter the University as others entered it.
+He is now pastor of the First Congregational Church in Rockford,
+Illinois; his name is Frank M. Sheldon. Nine men have gone by a
+similar route into the ministry, but Mr. Sheldon is the only one of
+them who has kept touch with the modern demands on religious
+leadership.
+
+Birthdays have meant nothing whatever to me, but I made my
+thirty-second an occasion for a party on "the bottoms."
+
+I could only accommodate seven guests. Two were favourite boys and the
+others were selected because of their great need. The hut was the
+centre of a mud puddle that January morning. I got a long plank and
+laid it from my doorstep to the edge of the clay bank. I took
+precaution not to announce the affair, even to the guests, but a
+grocer's boy who had been sent by a friend with some oranges lost his
+way and his inquiry after me created such a sensation that when he
+found me he was accompanied by about fifty children.
+
+Old Mrs. Belgarde, my nearest neighbour, had whispered across the
+fence to her neighbour that something was sure to happen, for she had
+noticed me making unusual preparations that day. I think the origin
+of the party idea came with my first birthday gift--I mean the first I
+had ever received--it was a copy of Thomas à Kempis, given me by my
+friend the Reverend Gregory J. Powell. [I gave it later to a man who
+was to die by judicial process in the county jail.]
+
+When the hour arrived a crowd of two hundred youngsters stood in the
+mud outside. On the top of the clay bank stood parents, crossing
+themselves and praying quietly that their offspring would be lucky
+enough to get in.
+
+I had taught these children some simple rules of order, and when I
+opened the door I rang a little bell. There was absolute silence. They
+had been actually tearing each other's clothing to rags for a position
+near the door. I told them that I was so poor that I had scarcely
+enough food for myself. That the little I had I was going to share
+with seven of my special friends; of course they all considered
+themselves included in that characterization.
+
+"Dear little friends," I said, "I never had a birthday party before;
+and now you are going to spoil this one."
+
+Up to this time the crowd didn't know who the guests were. I proceeded
+to call the names. As those called made a move there was a violent
+fight for the door. Some of them I had to drag out of the clutches of
+the unsuccessful. Only six of the seven were there. There was a howl
+from a hundred throats to take the place of the absent one.
+
+"No," I said sternly; "he'll come, all right." A roar of discontent
+went up and chaos reigned. I couldn't make myself heard; I rang the
+bell and again calmed them. I was at a loss to know what to say.
+
+"Dear little folks," I said, "I thought you loved me!"
+
+"Do too!" whined a dozen voices.
+
+"Then if you do, go away and some day I will have a party for every
+child on 'the bottoms.'"
+
+That quieted the youthful mob and they departed--that is, the majority
+departed. Some stayed and bombarded the doors and windows with stones.
+There were few stones to be found, and as it didn't occur to them to
+use the same stones twice they used mud and plastered the front of the
+hut with it.
+
+This form of expression, however, did not disturb us much. I sent
+three of my guests into the back yard to wash and arrange their hair.
+They returned for inspection but didn't pass, the hair refusing to
+comply on such short notice. I put the finishing touches on each of
+their toilets and we sat down to supper. The oldest boy, "Fritz," was
+half past twelve and the youngest, "Ano," had just struck ten. Ano was
+a cripple and both legs were twisted out of shape--he hobbled about on
+crutches. "Jake" was eleven--two of his eleven years he had spent in
+a reformatory where he had learned to chew tobacco and to swear.
+
+"Eddy" was also eleven, but the oldest of all in point of wits. I had
+a claim on Eddy: one day he was amusing himself by jerking a cat at
+the end of a string, in and out of Frau Belgarde's well. She was
+stealthily approaching him with a piece of fence rail when I arrived
+and possibly prevented some broken bones. "Kaiser" was nearly twelve;
+he too had been in a reform school--he liked it and would have been
+glad to stay as long as they wanted him--for he had three meals a day
+and he had never had such "luck" outside. "Whitey" was a little
+Swedish boy whose mother worked in a cigar factory. "Kaiser" and
+"Whitey" had a "dug-out" and they spent more nights together in it
+than they spent in their huts.
+
+"Fritz," the oldest boy, began his career in the open by stealing his
+father's revolver; and, jumping on the first grocery wagon he found
+handy, he left town. Of course he was brought back and "sent up" for a
+year. "Franz," the absent one, was Ano's brother, and the toughest boy
+in the community.
+
+These brief outlines describe the guests of my birthday party.
+
+"When ye make a feast call the poor" was stretched a little to cover
+this aggregation--stretched as to the character of those invited. A
+blessing was asked, of course--by the host and repeated by the
+guests. Of things to eat there was enough and to spare. After dinner
+each one was to contribute something to the entertainment.
+
+"Beginning here on my left with 'Whitey,'" I said, "I want each boy to
+tell us what he would like to be when he becomes a man." Whitey
+without hesitation said:
+
+"A organ-man wid a monkey."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"'Cause."
+
+Eddy said he would like to be a butcher, and as a reason gave: "Plenty
+ov beef to eat."
+
+"Kaiser" preferred to be a "Reformatory boss."
+
+"Ano," the cripple, said he would like to be a minister. When pressed
+for a reason he said, "That's what m' father says--dey ain't got
+notin' to do!"
+
+In the midst of this social quiz a loud noise was heard outside.
+"Bang! Bang!! Bang!!!" The timbers of the hut shivered, the guests
+made a rush to the back door. I was there first and found Franz, the
+missing guest, his arms smeared with blood, his ragged jacket covered
+with hair of some sort and in his hand a bloody stiletto.
+
+He rushed past me into the hut, got to the table and exclaimed: "Gee
+whiz! der ain't a ---- scrap left!"
+
+"Look here, Franz," I said, "I want to know what you've been up to?"
+
+"Ye do, hey? Ye look skeered, too, don't yer--hey?"
+
+"Never mind how I look; tell me at once what you've been up to!"
+
+"Ha, ha, ha!" he laughed, "d'ye tink I kilt some ol' sucker for 'is
+money--hey? Ha, ha! Well, I hain't, see? I've bin skinnin' a dead hoss
+an brot ye d' skin for a birfday present, see?"
+
+The skin was lying in a bloody heap outside the back door. I arranged
+"Franz" for dinner and the party was complete.
+
+I told some stories; then we played games and at ten o'clock they went
+home. The moment the front door was opened, about forty children--each
+with a lighted candle in hand--sang a verse of my favourite hymn:
+"Lead, Kindly Light." They knew but one verse, but that they sang
+twice. It was a weird performance and moved me almost to tears.
+
+After they sang they came down the clay bank and shook hands, wishing
+me all sorts of things. Two nights afterward I had a different kind of
+a party. A bullet came crashing through the boards of my hut about
+midnight. Rushing to the door, I saw the fire flashes of other shots
+in a neighbour's garden. I went to the high board fence and saw one of
+my neighbours--a German--emptying a revolver at his wife who was
+dodging behind a tree.
+
+My first impulse was to jump the fence and save the woman but the man
+being evidently half-drunk might have turned and poured into me what
+was intended for his wife; and the first law of nature was
+sufficiently developed in me to let her have what belonged to her! I
+tried to speak but my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth. I was
+positively scared.
+
+The old fellow walked up to the tree, letting out as he walked a
+volley of oaths. I recovered my equilibrium, sprang over the fence,
+crept up behind and jumped on him, knocking him down and instantly
+disarming him.
+
+I went inside with them and sat between them until they seemed to have
+forgotten what had happened. Then I put them to bed, put the light out
+and went home. I examined the revolver and found it empty. Next
+morning I went back and told the old man that I would volunteer to
+give him some lessons in target practice; and that the reason I
+knocked him down was because he was such a poor shot. This old couple
+became my staunchest supporters.
+
+I interested the students of Tabor College in the people of that
+out-of-the-way community, and before I built the Chapel of the
+Carpenter which still stands there I organized a college settlement
+which was manned by students.
+
+The small church, the chapel on "the bottoms," the work of the college
+students and the increasing circle of converts and friends made the
+work attractive to me, but I had entered the political field in order
+to protest against and possibly remedy something civic that savoured
+of Sodom; and for a minister that was an unpardonable sin. The
+"interests" determined to cripple me or destroy my work. This they did
+successfully by the medium of a subsidized press and other means, fair
+and foul. It was a case of a city against one man--a rich city against
+a poor man and the man went down to defeat--apparent defeat, anyway: I
+packed my belongings and left. As I crossed the bridge which spans the
+river I looked on the little squatter colony on "the bottoms" and as
+my career there passed in review, for the second time in my life I was
+stricken with home-sickness and I was guilty of what my manhood might
+have been ashamed of--tears.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+MY FIGHT IN NEW HAVEN
+
+
+The experiences of 1894, '5 and '6 gave me a distaste--really a
+disgust--with public life I felt that I would never enter a large city
+again. I sought retirement in a country parish; this was secured for
+me by my friend, the president of Tabor College, the Rev. Richard
+Cecil Hughes.
+
+It was in a small town in Iowa--Avoca in Pottawattomie County; I
+stayed there a year.
+
+In 1897 I was in Cleveland, Ohio, in charge of an institution called
+The Friendly Inn; a very good name if the place had been an inn or
+friendly. My inability to make it either forced me to leave it before
+I had been there many months. It was in Cleveland that I first joined
+a labour union. I was a member of what was called a Federal Labour
+Union and was elected its representative to the central body of the
+union movement.
+
+Early in 1898 I was in Springfield, Mass., delivering a series of
+addresses to a Bible school there. My funds ran out and not being in
+receipt of any remuneration and, not caring to make my condition
+known, I was forced for the first time in my life to become a
+candidate for a church. There were two vacant pulpits and I went after
+both of them. Meantime I boarded with a few students who, like their
+ancestors, had "plenty of nothing but gospel."
+
+They lived on seventy-five cents a week. Living was largely a matter
+of scripture texts, hope and imagination. I used to breakfast through
+my eyes at the beautiful lotus pond in the park. We lunched usually on
+soup that was a constant reminder of the soul of Tomlinson of Berkeley
+Square. Quantitively speaking, supper was the biggest meal of the
+day--it was a respite also for our imaginations.
+
+The day of my candidacy arrived. I was prepared to play that most
+despicable of all ecclesiastical tricks--making an impression. I
+almost memorized the Scripture reading and prepared my favourite
+sermon; my personal appearance never had been so well attended to. The
+hour arrived. The little souls sat back in their seats to take my
+measure.
+
+It was their innings. I had been duly looked up in the year-book and
+my calibre gauged by the amount of money paid me in previous
+pastorates.
+
+The "service" began. My address to the Almighty was prepared and part
+of the game is to make believe that it is purely extemporaneous. Every
+move, intonation and gesture is noted and has its bearing on the final
+result. I was saying to the ecclesiastical jury: "Look here, you
+dumb-heads, wake up; I'm the thing you need here!" Sermon time came
+and with it a wave of disgust that swept over my soul.
+
+"Good friends," I began; "I am not a candidate for the pastorate here.
+I was a few minutes ago; but not now. Instead of doing the work of an
+infinite God and letting Him take care of the result I have been
+trying to please _you_. If the Almighty will forgive me for such
+unfaith--such meanness--I swear that I will never do it again."
+
+Then I preached. This brutal plainness created a sensation and several
+tried to dissuade me, but I had made up my mind.
+
+It was while I was enjoying the "blessings" of poverty in Springfield
+that I was called to New Haven to confer with the directors of the
+Young Men's Christian Association about their department of religious
+work. I had been in New Haven before. In 1892 I addressed the students
+of Yale University on the subject of city mission work and, as a
+result of that address, had been invited to make some investigations
+and outline a plan for city mission work for the students. I spent ten
+days in the slum region there, making a report and recommendations. On
+these the students began the work anew. I was asked at that time to
+attach myself to the university as leader and instructor in city
+missions, but work in New York seemed more important to me.
+
+I rode my bicycle from Springfield to New Haven for that interview.
+When it was over I found myself on the street with a wheel and sixty
+cents. I bought a "hot dog"--a sausage in a bread roll--ate it on the
+street and then looked around for a lodging.
+
+"Is it possible," I asked a policeman, "to get a clean bed for a night
+in this town for fifty cents?"
+
+"Anything's possible," he answered, "but----"
+
+He directed me to the Gem Hotel, where I was shown to a 12 × 6 box,
+the walls of which spoke of the battles of the weary travellers who
+had preceded me. I protected myself as best I could until the dawn,
+when I started for Springfield, a disciple for a day of the
+no-breakfast fad.
+
+Things were arranged differently at the next interview. I was the
+guest of the leaders in that work and was engaged as "Religious Work
+Director" for one year. I think I was the first man in the United
+States to be known officially by that title.
+
+The Board of Directors was composed of men efficient to an
+extraordinary degree. The General Secretary was a worker of great
+energy and business capacity and as high a moral type as the highest.
+He was orthodox in theology and the directors were orthodox in
+sociology. It was a period when I was moving away from both
+standpoints.
+
+To express a very modern opinion in theology would disturb the
+churches--the moral backers of the institution; to express an advanced
+idea in sociology would alienate the rich men--the financial backers.
+A month after I began my work I "supplied" the pulpit of a church in
+the New Haven suburbs called the Second Congregational Church of Fair
+Haven. The chairman of the pulpit supply committee was a member of the
+Board of Directors of the Y.M.C.A.
+
+Gradually I drifted away from the Association toward the church. The
+former was building a new home and many people were glad of an excuse
+not to give anything toward its erection. So any utterance of mine
+that seemed out of the common was held up to the solicitor. An address
+on War kept the telephone ringing for days. It was as if Christianity
+had never been heard of in New Haven. Labour men asked that the
+address be printed and subscribed money that it might be done, but an
+appeal to the teachings of Jesus on the question of war was lauded by
+the sinners and frowned upon by the saints.
+
+With the General Secretary I never had an unkind word. Though a man of
+boundless energy he was a man in supreme command of himself. We knew
+in a way that we were drifting apart and acted as Christians toward
+each other. What more can men do?
+
+Mr. Barnes, the director, who was chairman of the pulpit supply
+committee of the church, kept urging me to give my whole time to the
+church. Every day for weeks he drove his old white horse to my door
+and talked it over. I refused the call to the pastorate but divided
+my time between them. For the Y.M.C.A. my duties were:
+
+  To conduct mass meetings for men in a theatre.
+  To organize the Bible departments and teach one of the classes.
+  Care and visiting of converts.
+  Daily office hour.
+  Literary work as associate editor of the weekly paper.
+  Writing of pamphlets.
+  To conduct boys' meetings.
+
+For the church:
+
+  To conduct regular Sunday services.
+  Friday night prayer meetings.
+  Men's Bible class.
+  Visitation of sick and burial of the dead.
+  Class for young converts.
+  Children's meetings.
+
+At the same time I entered the Divinity School of Yale University,
+taking studies in Hebrew, New Testament Greek and Archæology. A little
+experience in the church taught me that intellectually I was leaving
+the ordinary type of church at a much quicker pace than I was leaving
+the Y.M.C.A.
+
+Dr. Edward Everett Hale told a friend once that he preached to the
+South Church on Sunday morning so that he might preach to the world
+the rest of the week. I told the officers of the church frankly that
+I was not the kind of man needed for their parish; but they insisted
+that I was, so I preached for them on Sunday that I might preach to a
+larger parish during the week.
+
+Two things I tried to do well for the church--conduct an evening
+meeting for the unchurched--which simply means the folk unable to
+dress well and pay pew rents--and conduct a meeting for children. I
+organized a committee to help me at the evening meeting. The only
+qualification for membership on the committee was utter ignorance of
+church work. The very good people of the community called this meeting
+"a show." Well, it was. I asked the regular members to stay away for I
+needed their space and their corner lots with cushioned knee stools. I
+made a study of the possibilities of the stereopticon. Mr. Barnes gave
+me a fine outfit. I got the choicest slides and subjects published.
+Prayers, hymns, scripture readings and illuminated bits of choice
+literature were projected on a screen. I trained young men to put up
+and take down the screen noiselessly, artistically, and with the
+utmost neatness and dispatch. I discovered that many men who either
+lacked ambition or ability to wear collars came to that meeting, and
+they sang, too, when the lights were low. When in full view of each
+other they were as close-mouthed as clams. The singing became a
+special feature. My brethren in other churches considered this a
+terrible "come-down" at first, but changed their minds later and
+copied the thing, borrowing the best of my good slides and not a few
+of the unique ideas accompanying the scheme.
+
+A Methodist brother across the river said confidentially to a friend
+that he was going to launch on the community "a legitimate
+sensation"--a boys' choir. My plans for getting the poor people to
+church succeeded. Such a thing as fraternizing the steady goers--goers
+by habit and heredity--and the unsteady goers--goers by the need of
+the soul--was impossible. The most surprising thing in these evening
+meetings to the men who financed the church was the fact that these
+poor people paid for their own extras. That goes a long way in church
+affairs.
+
+The weekly children's meeting I called "The Pleasant Hour." Believing
+that the most important work of the Church is the teaching of the
+children, it was my custom for many years in many churches to
+personally conduct a Sunday School on a week day so that the best I
+had to give would be given to the children. In my larger work for the
+city two ideas governed my action. One was to get the church people
+interested in civic problems and the other was to solve civic problems
+or to attempt a solution whether church people were interested in them
+or not.
+
+I organized a flower mission for the summer months. We called it a
+Flower House. An abandoned hotel was cleaned up. A few loads of sand
+dumped in the back yard as a sort of extemporized seashore where
+little children might play. Flowers were solicited and distributed to
+the folks who had neither taste nor room for flowers. We did some
+teaching, too, and gave entertainments. A barrel-organ played on
+certain days by the sand pile; and that music of the proletariat never
+fails to attract a crowd.
+
+The flower mission developed into a social settlement. We called it
+Lowell House. At first the church financed it, then it got tired of
+that, and when I incorporated the settlement work in my church reports
+in order to stimulate support, the settlement workers--directors
+rather--got tired of the church and went into a spasm over it. Lowell
+House is accounted a successful institution of the city now. It is
+doing a successful church work among the poor--church work with this
+exception, that its head worker--its educated, sympathetic
+priestess--lives there and shares her little artistic centre with the
+crowd who live in places not good enough for domestic animals.
+
+In 1898 New Haven's public baths consisted of a tub in the basement of
+a public school. I photographed the tub and projected the picture on a
+screen in the Grand Opera House for the consideration of the citizens.
+That was the beginning of an agitation for a public bath house--an
+agitation that was pushed until the dream became a brick structure.
+
+I was not particularly interested in the bath _per se_. It was an
+opportunity to get people to work for something this side of heaven,
+to emphasize the thought that men were as much worth taking care of as
+horses--an idea that has not yet a firm grip on the mind of the
+bourgeoisie.
+
+The bath-house bill passed the Aldermanic and Councilmanic chambers,
+was signed by the mayor and the matter of building put into the hands
+of the Board of Health. The Board forgot all about it and some time
+later the agitation began again and persisted until another city
+government and another mayor had made a second law and carried it into
+effect.
+
+There was no ecclesiastical objection to my participation in this
+movement. It was a small thing and cost little.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+A VISIT HOME
+
+
+My Father had been begging me for years to come home and say good-bye
+to him; so, in 1901, I made the journey.
+
+I hadn't been in the old home long before the alley was filled with
+neighbours, curious to have a look at "ould Jamie's son who was a
+clargymaan." I went to the door and shook hands with everybody in the
+hope that after a while they would go away and leave me with my own.
+But nobody moved. They stood and stared for several hours. "'Deed I
+mind ye fine when ye weren't th' height av a creepie!" said one woman,
+who was astounded that I couldn't call her by name.
+
+"Aye," said another, "'deed ye were i' fond o' th' Bible, an' no
+wundther yer a clargymaan!"
+
+A dozen old women "minded" as many different things of my childhood. I
+finally dismissed them with this phrase, as I dropped easily enough
+into the vernacular, "Shure, we'd invite ye all t' tay but there's
+only three cups in the house!"
+
+My sister Mary and her four children lived with my father. We shut
+_and barred_ the door when the neighbours left and sat down to "tay,"
+which consisted of potatoes and buttermilk. Mary had been trying to
+improve on the old days but I interposed, and together, we went
+through the old régime. Father took the pot of potatoes to the old tub
+in which he used to steep the leather. There he drained them--then put
+them on the fire for a minute to allow the steam to escape.
+
+"I'm going to 'kep' them," I said, and they both laughed.
+
+"Oh, heavens, don't," he said; "shure they don't 'kep' pirtas in
+America!"
+
+"I'm not in America now," I answered, as I circled as much of the
+little bare table as I could with my arms to keep the potatoes from
+rolling off. He dumped them in a heap in the centre; they rolled up
+against my arms and breast and I pushed them back. Mary cleared a
+space for a small pile of salt and the buttermilk bowls.
+
+"We'll haave a blessin' by a rale ministher th' night," Mary said.
+
+"Oh, yis, that's thrue enough," my father said, "but Alec minds th'
+time whin it was blessin' enough to hev th' murphies--don't ye, boy?"
+
+After "tay" I tacked a newspaper over the lower part of the window--my
+father lit the candle and Mary put a few turfs on the fire and we sat
+as we used to sit so many years ago. My father was so deaf that I had
+to shout to make him hear and nearly everything I said could be heard
+by the neighbours in the alley, many of whom sat around the door to
+hear whatever they could of the story they supposed I would tell of
+the magic land beyond the sea.
+
+I unbarred the door in answer to a loud knock; it was a most polite
+note from a Roman Catholic schoolmaster inviting me to occupy a spare
+room in his house. Half an hour later we were again interrupted by
+another visitor, an old friend who also invited me to occupy his spare
+bed. It was evidently disturbing the town to know where I was to
+sleep. I politely refused all invitations. Each invitation was
+explained to my father.
+
+"Shure that's what's cracking m' own skull," he said; "where th' divil
+will ye sleep, anyway, at all, at all?"
+
+Then they listened and I talked--talked of what the years had meant to
+me.
+
+The old man sighed often and occasionally there were tears in Mary's
+eyes; and there were times when the past surged through my mind with
+such vividness that I could only look vacantly into the white flame of
+the peat fire. Once after a long silence my father spoke--his voice
+trembled, "Oh," he said, "if she cud just have weathered through till
+this day!"
+
+"Aye," Mary said, "but how do ye know she isn't jist around here
+somewhere, anyway?"
+
+"Aye," the old man said as he nodded his head, "deed that's thrue for
+you, Mary, she may!" He took his black cutty pipe out of his mouth and
+gazed at me for a moment.
+
+"What d'ye mind best about her?"
+
+"I mind a saying she had that has gone through life with me."
+
+"'Ivery day makes its own throuble?'"
+
+"No, not that; something better. She used to say so often, 'It's nice
+to be nice.'"
+
+"Aye, I mind that," he said.
+
+"Then," I continued, "on Sundays when she was dressed and her nice
+tallied cap on her head, I thought she was the purtiest woman I ever
+saw!"
+
+"'Deed, maan, she was that!"
+
+When bed time came I took a small lap-robe from my suit case, spread
+it on the hard mud floor, rolled some other clothes as a pillow and
+lay down to rest. Sleep came slowly but as I lay I was not alone, for
+around me were the forms and faces of other days.
+
+Next day I visited the scene of my boyhood's vision--I went through
+the woods where I had my first full meal. I visited the old church;
+but the good Rector was gathered to his fathers. It was all a
+day-dream; it was like going back to a former incarnation. Along the
+road on my way home I discovered the most intimate friend of my
+boyhood--the boy with whom I had gathered faggots, played "shinney"
+and gone bird-nesting. He was "nappin'" stones. He did not recognize
+my voice but his curiosity was large enough to make him throw down his
+hammer, take off the glasses that protected his eyes and stare at me.
+
+"Maan, yer changed," he said, "aren't you?"
+
+"And you?"
+
+"Och, shure, I'm th' same ould sixpence!"
+
+"Except that you're older!" There was a look of disappointment on his
+face.
+
+"Maan," he said, "ye talk like quality--d'ye live among thim?"
+
+I explained something of my changed life; I told of my work and what I
+had tried to do and I closed with an account of the vision in the
+fields not far from where we sat.
+
+"Aye," he would say occasionally, "aye, 'deed it's quare how things
+turn out."
+
+When I ended the story of the vision he said: "Ye haaven't forgot how
+t' tell a feery story--ye wor i' good at that!"
+
+"Bob" hadn't read a book, or a newspaper in all those years. He got
+his news from the men who stopped at his stone pile to light their
+pipes--what he didn't get there he got at the cobbler's while his
+brogues were being patched or at the barber's when he went for his
+weekly shave. We talked each other out in half an hour. A wide gulf
+was between us: it was a gulf in the realm of mind.
+
+As I moved away toward the town, I wondered why I was not breaking
+stones on the roadside, and I muttered Bob's well-worn phrase: "How
+quare!"
+
+It became so difficult to talk to my father without gathering a crowd
+at the door that I shortened my stay and took him to Belfast where we
+could spend a few days together and alone. We had our meals at first
+in a quiet little restaurant on a side street. He had never been in a
+restaurant. As the waiter went around the table, the old man watched
+him with curious eyes. I have explained that my father never swore. He
+was mightily unfortunate in his selection of phrases and when
+irritated by the attention of the waiter to the point of explosion he
+said, in what he supposed was a whisper: "What th' hell is he dancin'
+around us like an Indian fur?" I explained. Everybody in the place
+heard the explanation; they also heard his reply: "Send him t'
+blazes--he takes m' appetite away!"
+
+We moved into the house of a friend after that.
+
+One afternoon I took him for a walk in the suburbs of the city.
+
+He rested on a rustic bench on the lawn of a beautiful villa while I
+made a call.
+
+"Twenty-five years ago," I said to the gentleman of the house, "I had
+a great inspiration from the life of a young lady who lived in this
+house, and I just called to say 'thank you.'"
+
+"Her father is dead," he said. "I am her uncle."
+
+Then he told me of the career of the city girl I had met on the farm
+and whom I had watched entering the church on Sundays.
+
+"About the time you missed her at church," he said, "she was married
+to a rich young man. He spent his fortune in liquor and finally ended
+his life. She began to drink, after his death, but was persuaded to
+leave the country. She went to America. We haven't heard from her for
+a long time."
+
+The following Sunday I told my father we were going to church.
+
+"Not me!" he said.
+
+"Oh, yes," I coaxed; "just this once with me."
+
+"What th' divil's the use whin I haave a praycher t' m'silf."
+
+"I am to be the preacher at the church."
+
+"Och, but that's a horse ov another colour, bedad. Shure thin I'll
+go."
+
+When my father saw me in a Geneva gown, his eyes were filled with
+tears.
+
+The old white-haired lady who found the place in the book for him was
+the young lady's mother. Her uncle had ushered him into her pew, but
+they had never met each other nor did the old lady know until after
+church that he was my father.
+
+He never heard a word of the sermon, but as we emerged from the church
+into the street he put his arms around my neck and kissing me said,
+"Och, boy, if God wud only take me now I'd be happy!"
+
+He had been listening with his eyes and what he saw so filled him with
+joy that he was more willing to leave life than to have the emotion
+leave him.
+
+Though he was very feeble, I took him to Scotland with me to visit my
+brothers and sisters; and there I left him. As the hour of farewell
+drew near he wanted to have me alone--all to himself.
+
+"Ye couldn't stay at home awhile? Shure I'll be goin' in a month or
+two."
+
+"Ah, that's impossible, father." He hung his head.
+
+"D'ye believe I'll know her whin I go? God wudn't shut me out from her
+for th' things I've done--"
+
+"Of course he won't."
+
+"He wudn't be so d----d niggardly, wud He?"
+
+"Never!"
+
+He fondled my hands as if I were a child. The hour drew nigher. He had
+so many questions to ask, but the inevitableness of the situation
+struck him dumb. We were on the platform; the train was about to move
+out. I made a motion; he gripped me tightly, whispering in my ear:
+
+"Ask God onct in a while to let me be with yer mother--will ye, boy?"
+
+I kissed him farewell and saw him no more.
+
+I went on to France.
+
+My objective point in France was the study of Millet and his work. I
+wanted to interpret him to working people in New Haven.
+
+So to Greville on La Hague I went with a camera.
+
+Greville consists of a church and a dozen houses. Gruchy is half a
+mile beyond, on the edge of the sea.
+
+In Gruchy Millet was born; in Greville he first came into contact with
+incentive--I photographed both places and spent a night and a day with
+M. Polidor, the old inn-keeper who was the painter's friend.
+
+Surely, never was so large a statue erected in so small a village. The
+peasant artist sits there on a bank of mosses, looking over at the old
+church that squats on the hillside. In Cherbourg I found more traces
+of his art and some stories of his life there that would be out of
+place here.
+
+I found four portraits painted while he was paying court to his first
+wife. I found them in a little shoe shop in a by-street, in possession
+of a distant relative of his first wife.
+
+From Cherbourg I went to Barbizon, where Millet spent the latter part
+of his life. I was very graciously received and entertained by his son
+François and his American wife.
+
+To browse among the master's relics, to handle the old books of his
+small library, to hold, as one would a babe of tender years, his
+palette, were small things, judged by the values of the average life:
+to me it was one of the most inspiring hours of my career.
+
+Paris was to me an art centre--little more. I followed the footsteps
+of Millet from one place to another. I sat before his paintings in the
+Louvre--I met some of his old friends and gathered material for a
+lecture on his work.
+
+From Paris I went to London. The British capital was more than an art
+centre to me. It was a centre, literary, sociological and religious. I
+was the guest of Sir George Williams one afternoon at one of his
+parties and met Lord Radstock whom I had heard preach on a street
+corner in Whitechapel twenty years before.
+
+Besides visiting and photographing the literary haunts of the great
+masters, I made the acquaintance of the leaders of the Socialist
+movement. I went to St. Albans to attend the first convention of the
+Ruskin societies. The convention was composed of men who in literature
+and life were translating into terms of life and labour the teachings
+of John Ruskin.
+
+From London I went to Oxford and spent a few weeks browsing around the
+most fascinating city in the world, to me. My visit was in
+anticipation of the British convention of the Young Men's Christian
+Association to which I was a fraternal delegate from the Young Men's
+Association of Yale University.
+
+I was invited to a garden party at Blenheim Palace while at Oxford. I
+arrived early and presented my card. Without waiting I went into the
+grounds and proceeded to enjoy the beautiful walks. Before I had gone
+far, I met a young man who seemed familiar with the place. I told him
+that I had once taken the Duchess through part of the slum region of
+New York, and expressed a hope that she was at home.
+
+"No," he said, "she is conducting a fair in London for soldiers'
+wives." My next remark was in the realm of ethics. I had heard that
+the father of the present Duke was a good deal of a rake and asked the
+young man whether that was true or not. He said he thought it was like
+the obituary notice of Mark Twain--very much exaggerated.
+
+"I have been a flunky to some of these high fliers," I said, "and I
+know how hard it is to get at the facts and also how easy it is to
+form a mistaken judgment."
+
+"Yes," he said, "that's true, but men of that type, while they are
+often worse than they are painted are more often much better than the
+best the public think of them! I am the successor of the late Duke,
+and speak with authority on at least one case."
+
+He took me through the palace, not only the parts usually open to the
+public but the private apartments also, and later in the afternoon he
+took me over some of the property at Woodstock, stopping for a few
+minutes at the house of Geoffrey Chaucer.
+
+The Rector of Exeter College had invited a group of the leaders of the
+convention to a luncheon in Exeter and, because I was the only
+American, I was asked to be present and deliver a short address.
+
+The grounds of Exeter show the good results of the four or five
+hundred years' care bestowed upon them. In my brief sojourn in Oxford
+as a student I had been chased out of the grounds of Exeter by the
+caretaker, under the suspicion that I was a burglar, taking the
+measure of the walks, windows, doors, etc.
+
+I told this story to a man with whom I later exchanged cards; he was
+an old man and his card, read "W. Creese, Y.M.C.A. secretary, June 6,
+1844."
+
+"You were in early, brother," I said. "Yes," he said modestly, "I was
+in _first_." He helped George Williams to organize the first branch of
+the Y.M.C.A. My story went the rounds of those invited to luncheon and
+prepared the way for the address I delivered.
+
+The first thing I did on my return from Europe was to visit the last
+known address of the girl friend of my youth. It was in a Negro
+quarter of the city.
+
+"Does Mrs. G---- live here?" I asked the coloured woman who opened the
+door.
+
+"She did, mistah--but she done gone left, dis mawnin'."
+
+"Do you know where she has gone?"
+
+"Yes'r, she done squeezed in wif ol' Mammy Jackson," and she pointed
+out the tenement.
+
+As I passed down the steps I noticed a small pile of furniture on the
+sidewalk. Something impelled me to ask about it.
+
+"Yes'r," the negress said, "dem's her house traps; d' landlord done
+gone frow'd dem out."
+
+I found her sitting with an old negress by the stove in a second-floor
+back tenement.
+
+"I bring you a message of love from your mother," I said, without
+making myself known. We talked for a few minutes. I saw nothing
+whatever of the girl of long ago. There was a little of the voice--the
+fine musical voice--but nothing of form, nothing of feature. Deep
+lines of care and suffering marred her face and labour had calloused
+her hands. She was poorly dressed--had been ill and out of work, and
+behind in her rent. Too proud to beg, she was starving with her
+neighbours, the black people. I excused myself, found the landlord,
+and rearranged the home she had so heroically struggled to hold
+intact.
+
+"Do you remember the farm at Moylena?" I asked.
+
+"Yes, of course."
+
+"And a farm boy----"
+
+"Yes, yes," she said, adding: "those few days on that farm were the
+only happy days of my life!"
+
+"I am that boy and I have come to thank you for the inspiration you
+were to me so long ago." She looked at me intently, perhaps searching
+for the boy as I had been searching for the girl.
+
+"There was a wide gulf between us then," she said. "In these long
+years you have crossed to where I was and I--I have crossed to where
+you were, and the gulf remains."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+NEW HAVEN AGAIN--AND A FIGHT
+
+
+In December, 1901, the New Haven Water Company applied for a renewal
+of its charter. The city had been getting nothing for this valuable
+franchise, and there was considerable protest against a renewal on the
+same terms. The Trades Council asked the ministers of the churches to
+make a deliverance on the question, but there was no answer. I was
+directly challenged to say something on the subject. I attended a
+hearing in the city hall. It was the annual meeting night of our
+church, and I closed the church meeting in the usual manner.
+
+As quickly as possible I made my way to the public hearing. The
+committee room was crowded; on one side were the labouring men and on
+the other the stockholders and officers of the company. Several
+prominent members of my church, whom I had missed at the annual
+meeting, were in the committee room.
+
+When called upon to speak, I asked the committee to hold the balance
+level. "We tax a banana vendor a few dollars a year for the use of
+the streets," I said, "then why should a rich corporation be given an
+infinitely larger use of them for nothing?"
+
+This provoked the rich men of the church, for most of them were
+stockholders in the company, and two of them were officers.
+
+The thing was talked over afterward in the back end of a small store
+where all the church policies were formulated. One of the members was
+sent to the parsonage to question and warn me. My visitor spoke of
+former pastors who had been "called of God" elsewhere for much less
+than I had done. Another man came later, and asked for a promise that
+I would keep out of such affairs in the future.
+
+This was the first fly in the ointment, the first break in the most
+cordial of relationships between me and the church.
+
+The church had been organized fifty years when this incident occurred.
+We were preparing to celebrate the golden jubilee.
+
+I gathered the officers together, and we went over the articles one by
+one. Not a man in the church believed in "everlasting damnation," but
+they voted unanimously to leave the hell-fire article just as they had
+found it. They had all subscribed to it, and it "hadn't hurt them."
+
+"Do you mean to tell me," I asked, "that none of you believe in
+eternal punishment, and yet you are going to force every man, woman,
+and child who joins your church to solemnly swear before God that they
+do believe in it?" There was a great silence. "Yes, that's exactly
+what's what," one man said.
+
+This incident illustrates the seared, calloused, surfeited condition
+of the average mind in the churches. It is glutted with sham, and
+atrophied by the reiteration of high-sounding but meaningless, pious
+phrases.
+
+I managed to persuade them to so amend their by-laws that children
+baptized into the church became by that act church members. They did
+not know that by that amendment they were setting aside two-thirds of
+their creed, because they didn't know the creed.
+
+One of my sermons at the Jubilee attracted the attention of Philo S.
+Bennett, a New York tea merchant, who made his home in New Haven. We
+became very close friends. One day Mr. Bennett and Mr. W.J. Bryan
+called at the parsonage. I happened to be out at the time, but dined
+with them that evening. Next morning a church member, who was a sort
+of cat's-paw for the rich men, called at the parsonage and informed me
+of the "disgust" of the leading members. "They won't stand for it!" he
+said vehemently.
+
+When I spoke at the city hall they catalogued me as a Socialist, and
+when Mr. Bryan called, they moved me into the "free and unlimited
+coinage of silver" column. By "they," I mean four or five men--men of
+means, who absolutely ruled the church. The deacons had nothing to
+say, the church had as little. "The Society" was the thing. The
+"Society" in a Congregational church is a sort of secular adjunct
+charged with the duty of providing the material essentials. Their word
+is law, the only law. In their estimation business and religion could
+not be mixed, nor could things of the church be permitted to interfere
+in politics. The purchase of an alderman was to them as legitimate as
+the purchase of a cow. Some of them laughed as they told me of buying
+an election in the borough. It was a great joke to them. They were
+patriotic, very loudly patriotic, and their special hobby was "the
+majesty of the law."
+
+I was to be punished for that water company affair, and a man was
+selected to administer the punishment. I had brought this man into the
+church; I had created a church office for him, and pushed him forward
+before the men. He was supposed to be my closest friend. He came to
+the parsonage one morning, to talk over casually the question of
+salary.
+
+"Now," he said, "you don't care how we raise your salary, do you?"
+
+"Of course not."
+
+"Well, the Society's hard up this year and can only raise $1,600; but
+the church will raise the other $400, and I have one of them already
+promised."
+
+This seemed a most unusual proceeding, but I was unsuspecting. A few
+months afterward this man, with tears in his eyes, said:
+
+"Mr. Irvine, whatever happens you will be my friend--won't you?"
+
+He was doing their work, and wincing under the load of it.
+
+"Brother," I said, "when I know whether you are playing the rôle of
+Judas or John, I will be better able to answer you."
+
+At the end of the year it all came out. I was literally fined $400 for
+attending that meeting.
+
+As my term of service drew to a close, the workingmen who had joined
+the church during my incumbency got together. They were in a majority.
+A church meeting was called, and a motion passed to call a council of
+the other churches. The purpose of the call was to advise the church
+how to proceed to force its own Society to pay the pastor's salary. A
+leading minister drew up the call. All ministers knew the record of
+the church: only one minister in its history had left of his own
+accord. The council met. It was composed of ministers and laymen of
+other churches. Among the laymen was the president of the telephone
+company. I had publicly criticized the company for disfiguring the
+streets with ugly cross-bars that looked like gibbets. The
+president's opposition to me was well known.
+
+The council, under such influence, struck several technical snags, and
+adjourned. The president of the council wrote me later that the
+president of the telephone company had advised him not to recall the
+council, and he had come to that decision.
+
+Concerning the defrauding me of my salary, the best people in that
+church to this day, when speaking of it, say: "Well, we didn't owe it
+to him, _legally_." The Society spent the money in fitting up the
+parsonage for my successor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+I JOIN A LABOUR UNION AND HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH STRIKES
+
+
+After the public hearing on the water contract, several labour unions
+elected me to honorary membership. The carriage makers' union had so
+elected me, and a night was set for my initiation. It was a wild
+winter's night--the streets of the city were covered with snow, and
+the thermometer registered five above zero. Few hard-working men would
+come out a night like this. Who would expect them? I was rather glad
+of the inclement weather. I was weary and tired, and hoped the thing
+would soon be over. I entered an old office building on Orange street
+and climbed to the top floor.
+
+A man met me as I reached the top of the stairs and led me to a door,
+where certain formalities were performed. There was an eye-hole in the
+door, through which men watched each other. There were whispered words
+in an unknown tongue, then a long pause. Why all this secrecy? What
+means this panther-like vigilance? It is a time of war. This body of
+craftsmen is an organized regiment. The battle is for bread. Before
+the door is opened there is a noise like the sound of far-off thunder.
+What can it mean? To what mysterious doings am I to become an
+eye-witness to-night? I became a little anxious, perhaps a little
+nervous, and regretful. An eye appeared at the hole in the door; there
+is a whispered conference and I find myself between two men marching
+up the centre of the hall to the desk of the presiding officer.
+
+My entrance was the signal of an outburst of applause such as I had
+seldom heard before. The hall was small, and it was a mystery how six
+hundred men could be packed into it. But there they were, solidly
+packed on both sides of the hall, and as I marched through them they
+seemed to shake the whole building with their cheers. The chairman
+rapped for order, and made a short speech.
+
+"I ain't what ye'd call a Christian," he said, "but I know the genuine
+article when I see it. If the Bible is true, Jesus went to the poor,
+and if the rich wanted him they'd have to look him up. Do you fellows
+ever notice the church ads in the Sunday papers? They remind me of the
+columns where ye look for a rent. They all advertise their 'modern
+improvements.' This minister is doin' th' Jesus business in th' old
+way. That's why we like him, an' that's why he's here."
+
+Once again the rafters seemed to shake with the violent vibrations of
+enthusiasm, and it was some time before order was restored. My
+initiation concluded, I made an address. It was as brief as the
+chairman's.
+
+"Reference has been made to a great Master to-night," I said. "Let me
+ask you craftsmen of New Haven to stand and with all the power of your
+lungs give three cheers for the Master Craftsman of Galilee."
+
+There was the shuffling of many feet for an instant--then a pause, a
+pause which was full of awe--then, with a roar like thunder, six
+hundred throats broke into wild applause for Jesus, whom such people
+ever gladly heard; and straightway, for the first time in the history
+of organized labour in New Haven, a union meeting was closed with the
+apostolic benediction.
+
+Other unions followed suit. I carried a union card of the "Painters,
+Paper Hangers and Decorators," and there came a time when every street
+car on the streets of New Haven carried at least two of my friends,
+for I became chaplain of the Trolleymen's Union, and took an active
+part in their work.
+
+I was a factor in the wage scale adjustments of the Trolleymen's Union
+for two years. I fought for them when they were right and against them
+when they were wrong. I fought on the inside. At first the railroad
+company looked upon me as a dangerous character; but when their spies
+in the union reported my actions, the general manager wrote me a
+letter of thanks and thereafter took me into his confidence. The
+public, also, looked upon me as inimical to the interests of business,
+but occasionally the newspapers got at the facts and published them.
+
+The New Haven _Register_ of August 8, 1904, in its leading editorial
+on an averted strike, said:
+
+"There is a general feeling in New Haven to-day of satisfaction in the
+news published in yesterday's papers, that the trolleymen's plans for
+a strike had been relegated to the ash heap.
+
+"The trolleymen were evidently satisfied with the attitude of the
+railroad managers, and satisfied that they were going to get fair
+treatment. We read with unusual pleasure the reports of 'cheers' at
+the meeting; and cheers, not for the little pleasantries of battle,
+but for the friendly propositions of peace. The sentiment shown by the
+trolleymen does full justice to their record as law-abiding and
+intelligent public servants.
+
+"One or two phases of the completion of peace negotiations in the
+local trolley situation call for particular notice here and now. We do
+not remember, for instance, to have heard for some time of the active
+participation in labour agitations of a regularly ordained clergyman
+of the Christian church. We noted, therefore, with respectful
+interest, the manner in which the Reverend Alexander Irvine took part
+in the meeting at which the final decision was made, and especially
+the influence which he brought to bear to clear the atmosphere.
+Usually hot-headed sympathizers with the cause of labour agitation are
+the principal advisers at such a time. We remember, and the trolleymen
+certainly do, that at the critical juncture several summers ago, when
+a final decision was to have been rendered by the striking trolleymen,
+an agitator from Bridgeport not only agitated, but nearly managed to
+turn the balance toward an irreparable break in negotiations. We
+remember that New Haven people absolutely lost all patience at that
+juncture, and would have stampeded from their thorough sympathy with
+the trolleymen's cause had not better wisdom finally prevailed. Mr.
+Irvine seems to have occupied that gentleman's shoes at the Saturday
+night meeting, and to have acquitted himself much more to the taste of
+the public. His interest was, we take it, purely that of any citizen
+who has studied labour questions sufficiently to arrive at a fair and
+unprejudiced point of view, and who, moreover, possessed the requisite
+balance of mind and sincerity of purpose to counsel, when his counsel
+was asked, judicially. There was absolutely lacking, in his whole
+connection with the case, any of that sky-rocket, uncertain theorizing
+that makes the attitude of so many labour 'organizers' so detrimental,
+in the public eye, to real labour benefit. New Haven has considerable
+to thank Mr. Irvine for in his attitude in the past crisis. More sound
+advice and friendly counsel and wise sympathy from such men as he are
+needed in labour troubles."
+
+Another New Haven paper, commenting editorially on my attitude toward
+a strike carried on by the bakers' union, said:
+
+"We commend to the Connecticut Railway and Lighting Company, which has
+now practically four strikes on its hands, in two Connecticut cities,
+the sentiment of the Reverend Alexander Irvine, in his sermon last
+Sunday night in reference to the striking bakers of this city who
+declared against a proposition to arbitrate with the bosses. 'If they
+have nothing to arbitrate,' said Mr. Irvine, 'they have nothing to
+strike about.' The proposition would seem to involve a sound principle
+of business ethics. An honest disagreement is always arbitrable. A
+body of workmen who make a demand which they are unwilling to submit
+to the judgment of a fair and intelligent committee deserve little
+sympathy if they lose their fight, and an employer who refuses to
+entrust his case to the honesty, fairness and justice of a committee
+of respectable citizens representing the best element of that public
+from which he derives his support, must not be surprised if he loses
+public sympathy."
+
+I was elected a member of the teamsters' union while the teamsters
+were on strike. I was in their headquarters night and day, doing what
+I could for them; but I was unable to offset the bad leadership which
+landed nine of them in jail.
+
+On May 1st, I left Pilgrim Church. My farewell sermon was a fair
+statement of the case. The sermon was published in the press. The
+Hartford _Post_ made the following editorial comments on it:
+
+  "ONE CHURCH AND ITS PASTOR
+
+  "Plain speaking is so much out of fashion that when examples of it
+  are discovered they rivet attention. Undoubtedly there was a good
+  deal in the farewell sermon of the Reverend Alexander F. Irvine,
+  who has just closed a pastorate of four and one-half years in the
+  Pilgrim Congregational Church in New Haven, that was applicable
+  only to that church, but possibly some statements have more or
+  less general application. At any rate, it is an interesting case
+  and the sermon was remarkable for its almost brutal directness,
+  its cutting satire, its searching exposition of the wholesale
+  spirit of charity mixed with kindly humour which runs through it.
+
+  "After four years and six months of labour, a clergyman is
+  certainly qualified to speak of the characteristics of the
+  pastorate. In most cases the farewell sermon is, however, a mass
+  of 'glittering generalities,' a formal, perfunctory affair. Often
+  it is omitted altogether. The pastor simply goes out, leaving the
+  church to its fate, commending it to the care of the Almighty.
+  His private views are not expressed. Mr. Irvine retired in
+  considerable turmoil, but he made his parting memorable by
+  expressing his sentiments, and his frankness was absolute.
+
+  "In reviewing his pastorate, Mr. Irvine spoke of the children's
+  services on Wednesday nights, the men's Bible class and a group of
+  sixty added to the church at its fiftieth anniversary as among the
+  happy features of his administration. But he went on to say that
+  those new members were not welcomed by the 'Society' because they
+  brought no money into the treasury. The clash that went on during
+  those four and one-half years is revealed by what the pastor said
+  on this matter. He tried to democratize the church. He wanted to
+  get in 'new blood.' He tried to interest the workingmen, as many
+  other pastors have tried to do and are trying to do, with varying
+  success. We hear a great deal about the church and the masses, how
+  they are drifting apart. Here is a minister who tried to bring
+  them together. He had services when all seats were free, and
+  workingmen were invited. He interested many of them, and many
+  joined the church. But the attempt was a failure, for the church
+  as a whole didn't take kindly to people without money. 'In the
+  making of a deacon,' said Mr. Irvine, 'goodness is a quality
+  sought after, but the qualifications for the Society's committee
+  is cash--cold cash. If there is a deviation from this rule, it is
+  on the score of patronage. Power in the case of the former is a
+  rope of sand; in the latter it is law.' Again on this line, Mr.
+  Irvine said: 'It was inevitable that these workingmen should be
+  weighed by their contributions. That is the standard of the
+  Society.'
+
+  "How true it is that this standard is applied in more churches
+  than the Pilgrim Church in New Haven those who are in the churches
+  know. It is not true, of course, universally, but this is not by
+  any means an isolated case. Possibly the organization of the
+  Congregational churches is faulty in this respect. There is the
+  church and there is the Society. The Society's committee runs the
+  business of the church. It is apt to be made up of men to whom the
+  dollar is most essential, and often the committee exercises
+  absolute power in most of the affairs of the church. In this case
+  it froze out a man who wanted to go out and bring in men from the
+  highways and byways, and now he has gone to establish what he
+  calls the church of the democracy. It is to be a church
+  independent of the rich. There are such churches--not many, to be
+  sure--but they come pretty close to the gospel of the New
+  Testament.
+
+  "'A man here may do one of three things,' said the democratic
+  clergyman in his good-bye address. 'He may degenerate and conform
+  to type. He may stay for three or four years by the aid of
+  diplomacy and much grace. He may go mad. Therefore, an essential
+  qualification for this pastorate is a keen sense of humour. If my
+  successor has this he will enjoy the community ministry for a few
+  years and will do much good among the children--he will enjoy the
+  view from the parsonage, the bay, the river, the mountains. He
+  will make friends, too, of some of the most genuinely good people
+  on earth. He must come, as I came, believing this place to be a
+  suburb of paradise, and blessed will that man be if he departs
+  before he changes his mind.'
+
+  "That is satire, and possibly out of place in the pulpit, but it
+  may be that the words could be applied without stretching the
+  truth to other pastorates. 'The preacher is their "hired man." He
+  may be brainy, but not too brainy--social, but not too
+  social--religious, but not too religious. He must trim his sails
+  to suit every breeze of the community; his mental qualities must
+  be acceptable to the contemporary ancestors by whom he is
+  surrounded, or he does not fit.' The bitterness in those words is
+  evident, but the truths they contain are important.
+
+  "It may be that more sermons with equal plain speaking would do
+  good. It may be that the conservatism, not to say the Phariseeism,
+  of the modern church requires a John the Baptist to pierce it to
+  the core, and expose its inner rottenness. The church that does
+  not welcome the poor man and his family with just as much
+  heartiness, sincerity and kindly sympathy as it does the rich man
+  and his family is certainly not worthy of the great Teacher who
+  spoke of the great difficulty the rich man has in entering the
+  kingdom of God."
+
+I have delivered about two written sermons in twenty-five years. That
+farewell message was one of them. I wanted to be careful, fair, just.
+I could not escape the belief that at least seven of my predecessors
+who had been pushed out by unfair means had left with a lie on their
+lips. Pastor and people, in dissolving relationship, had always
+assumed and often explicitly stated on the records that the departing
+minister "had been called of God" elsewhere. If God was the author of
+their methods of dismissal, He ought to be ashamed of Himself.
+
+There was no interregnum. The Sunday following that farewell sermon I
+preached my first sermon as pastor of the newly organized People's
+Church of New Haven. About thirty people left the old church and
+joined the new. Among them was a saintly woman, who had been a member
+for half a century of Pilgrim Church. We had one man of means--Philo
+Sherman Bennett, the friend of Mr. Bryan. The opening meeting was in
+the Hyperion Theatre. The creed was simple, and brevity itself: "This
+church is a self-governing community for the worship of God and the
+service of man." A Jewish Rabbi read the Scriptures, a Universalist
+minister made an address, and a judge of the city led in prayer. Part
+of my address was a series of serious questions: "Will this movement
+raise the tone of society? Will it increase mutual confidence? Will it
+diminish intemperance? Will it find the people uneducated and leave
+them educated? Will the voice of its leader be lifted in the cause of
+justice and humanity? Will it tend after all to elevate or lower the
+moral sentiments of mankind? Will it increase the love of truth or the
+power of superstition or self-deception? Will it divide or unite the
+world? Will it leave the minds of men clearer and more enlightened, or
+will it add another element of confusion to the chaos? These are the
+tests we put to this new church and to our personal lives."
+
+We had an old hall in the outskirts of the city, on a railroad bank.
+There we opened our Sunday School and began our church activities. I
+got a band of Yale men to go to work at the hall. The son of Senator
+Crane, of Massachusetts, became head of the movement, but that plan
+was spoiled by a man of the English Lutheran persuasion, who was an
+instructor in Yale. It appeared that the church of which this man was
+a member had been trying to rent this old hall and, not succeeding in
+that, they claimed the community. This instructor complained to the
+Yale authorities, and without a word to me the Yale band was
+withdrawn. A few weeks after the Lutherans claimed another community,
+and went to work in it.
+
+In the middle of our first year our little church received a
+staggering blow in the death of Mr. Philo S. Bennett. We had become
+very intimate. I dined with him once a week. He was about to retire
+from business, and after a rest he was to give his time to the church
+idea. He inquired about buildings, and he had fixed his mind on a
+$25,000 structure. He spoke to others of these plans, but in Idaho,
+that summer, he was killed in an accident. Mrs. Bennett sent for me
+and I took charge of the funeral arrangements. Mr. Bryan came on at
+once and helped. After the funeral he read and discussed the will. I
+was present at several of these discussions. The sealed letter written
+by the dead man was the bone of contention. Then the lawyers came in
+and the case went into the courts. The world knew but a fragment of
+the truth. It looked to me at first as if a selfish motive actuated
+Mr. Bryan, but as I got at the details one after another, details the
+world can never know, I developed a profound respect for him. He was
+the only person involved that cared anything for the mind, will or
+intention of the dead man, and his entire legal battle was not that he
+should get what Mr. Bennett had willed him, but that the designs of
+his friend should not be frustrated: not merely with regard to the
+fifty thousand--he offered to distribute that--but with regard to the
+money for poor students.
+
+We missed Mr. Bennett, not only for his moral and financial help, but
+because of his great business ability. During the coal strike of
+1902, for instance, when coal was beyond the reach of the poor, we
+organized among the working people a coal company. The coal dealers
+blocked our plans everywhere. We were shut out. Then the idea came to
+us to charter a shipload and bring it from Glasgow. It was the keen
+business ability of Mr. Bennett that helped us to success. We needed
+$15,000 to cable over. I laid the plans before Mr. Bennett; he went
+over them carefully and put up the money. Before we needed it,
+however, we had sold stock at a dollar a share, and the coal in
+Scotland brought in an amount beyond our immediate needs. This, of
+course, was "interfering with business men's affairs," and the dealers
+in coal were not slow to express themselves. I was a director of the
+coal company for some time. The newspapers announced that I was going
+into the coal business to make a living; but I had neither desire nor
+ability in that direction. It was a great day in New Haven when our
+ship entered the harbour and broke the siege. We sold coal for half
+the current price.
+
+The idea of a church building had held a number of people in our
+little church for a long time, but after Mr. Bennett's death that hope
+seemed to die, and those to whom a church home was more than a church,
+left us; those of that mind that didn't leave voluntarily were lured
+away by ministers who had a building. The amount of ecclesiastical
+pilfering that goes on in a small city like New Haven is surprising.
+Conversion is a lost art or a lost experience, and the average
+minister whose reputation and salary depend upon the number of people
+he can corral, usually has two fields of action: one is the Sunday
+School and the other is the loose membership of other churches. The
+theft is usually deliberate.
+
+When my income was about forty dollars a month, subscribed by very
+poor people, a pastor who had been building up his church at the
+expense of his neighbours, wrote me that he was trying to persuade one
+of our members to join his church. It was the most brazen thing I had
+ever known. He felt that our dissolution was a matter of time, and he
+wanted his share of the wreckage. He went after the only person in our
+church who had an income that more than supplied personal needs.
+Afterward, this same minister entered into a deal with the trustees of
+the hall we used, by which the hall and the Sunday School were handed
+over to him. Of course, we made no fight over the thing--we just let
+him take them. This is called "bringing in the Kingdom of God."
+
+We were not free from dissension within our own ranks, either. Mr.
+Bryan came to lecture for us in the largest theatre in town. Admission
+was to be by ticket, on Sunday afternoon. The committee of our church
+that took charge of the tickets began to distribute seats--the best
+seats and boxes--to their personal friends. Thousands were clamouring
+for tickets. It was an opportunity to give the city a big, helpful
+meeting, and to do it democratically and well. But the committee would
+brook no interference.
+
+I announced in the papers that all tickets were general admissions,
+and "first come, first served" would be our principle. Sunday morning,
+when I was half-way through my discourse, one of the committee handed
+me a note. I did not open it until I finished. It was a threat that if
+I did not call off the democratic order, the committee would leave the
+church. The meeting was a great success, and the committee made good
+its threat. What the writer of the following letter expected of me I
+have no idea, nor did his letter enlighten me:
+
+  "DEAR SER:
+
+  "Wen I gave my name for a church member it was fer a peeples
+  church, not a fol-de-rol solo and labour union church.
+
+  "Drop my name."
+
+We had at our opening a solo by the finest singer in the city, and I
+had thanked the labour unions for their help. His name was dropped.
+
+An educated woman thought she saw in our simple creed an open door she
+had been seeking for years. She joined us with enthusiasm. One day I
+was calling on her, and as I sat by the door I saw a dark figure pass
+with a sack of coal on his back. The figure looked familiar.
+
+"Pardon me," I said, as I stepped out to make sure.
+
+"Hello, Fritz!" I called. The coal heaver had only trousers and an
+undershirt on, and looked as black as a Negro. Sweat poured over his
+coal-blackened face. We gripped hands. The lady watched us with
+interest.
+
+"Do you know him?" she asked.
+
+"Yes, indeed!" I said. "And you must know him, for he is one of our
+deacons."
+
+She never came back. Democracy like that was too much for her. The
+deacon himself left our church a few months later because he
+discovered that I did not believe in a literal hell of "fire and
+brimstone," whatever that is.
+
+The chairman of our trustees was a business man who was very much
+engrossed with the New Thought. He saw a great future for me if I
+would get "in tune with the infinite." I was more than willing. He
+expounded to me the wonders of the new régime. Would I take lessons in
+healing? Certainly! He paid an American Yogi a hundred dollars to
+teach me. I was unaware of the cost. At first it was by
+correspondence. His chirography looked like a plate of spaghetti. I
+was instructed how to take a bath and when. The second letter ordered
+me to sleep with my head to the East. I was "a Capricorner, buoyant,
+lucky," so he said. At the end of a month I paid him a visit. He
+showed me how to manipulate a patient--absent or present--and how to
+charge!
+
+The correspondence was taken verbatim from a ten-cent book on
+astrology; I got tired, and handed the letters over to my wife. She
+took them seriously, and when she had made what she thought was
+progress she inadvertently told the chairman of the trustees. That
+settled him. He resigned forthwith, and we saw him no more.
+
+I thought we had reached the point where there was nothing further to
+lose; but I was mistaken. I had been charged with being a Socialist,
+and, curious to know what a Socialist was, I began to study the
+subject. What I feared came upon me: I announced myself a Socialist.
+That settled the Single Taxers; they left in a bunch! No, hardly in a
+bunch; for two of them remained.
+
+The Universalists invited us to use their church for our Sunday night
+meetings. We thought that a fortunate windfall. We were to pay five
+dollars a night. We did so until one week we had nothing to eat and we
+let the rent wait. The trustees of the Universalist Church met and
+passed a resolution something like this: "Resolved, that in order that
+the good feeling existing between the People's Church and the
+Universalist Church be maintained, that the People's Church be
+requested to pay the rent after each service." We paid up and quit.
+
+The most intelligent man in our church was a young draftsman in the
+Winchester Arms Company. He was a man of boundless energy and great
+courage. He lost his job. No reason was given. His wife, before her
+marriage, had been a trained nurse, and in her professional life had
+nursed the wife of a bank president, who was a director in the gun
+company. One day these ladies met, and the lady of the bank said she
+would find out why the husband of her former nurse was discharged. The
+director got at the facts, and gave them to his wife, _sub rosa_: "He
+belongs to Irvine's church--and Irvine is an anarchist." The young man
+got another job in another city. After a few discharges of that kind,
+men who did not want to leave the city got scared and gave me a wide
+berth.
+
+I looked around for something to do to earn a living. I found a young
+bookbinder in a commercial house, and as he was a master craftsman, I
+advised him to hang out a shingle and work for himself. He did so.
+When I was casting around for a new method of earning a living I
+thought of him, and asked him to take me as an apprentice. He did so,
+and I put an apron on and began to work at his bench. One day, when
+the reporters were hard up for news, one of them called for an
+interview.
+
+"Have you ever published any sermons, Mr. Irvine?"
+
+"Yes; one, and a fine one."
+
+"Where was it published?"
+
+"Right here in New Haven!"
+
+"A volume?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+I went to my case and produced a book--I had sewed it, backed it,
+bound and tooled it. It was my first job, and I was proud of it. I am
+proud of it now. It is the best sermon I ever preached.
+
+Another day a professor in the Yale Medical School called to have some
+books bound at the bindery.
+
+"Who is that fellow at your bench?" he asked.
+
+"Mr. Irvine," the bookbinder replied.
+
+"The Socialist?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+He took the young man aside and told him that he could expect no
+recognition from the "best citizens" as long as he kept me. Off came
+my apron, and I looked around again.
+
+I was very fond of Dr. T.T. Munger. In his vigorous days his was a
+great intellect, and when in his study one day he told me that I had
+no gospel to preach, I felt deeply the injustice of the charge. I
+could not argue. I would not defend myself. I valued his friendship
+too highly. I hit upon a plan, however. I had published in a labour
+paper seventeen sermons for working people. I went to a printer and
+told him that, if he would print them in a book, I would peddle them
+from door to door until I got the printer's bill. They were printed in
+a neat volume, entitled "The Master and the Chisel." I paid the
+printer's bill, and gave the rest away. I sent one to Dr. Munger; and
+this is what he said of it:
+
+  "DEAR MR. IRVINE:
+
+  "Many thanks for the little book you sent me. I have read nearly
+  all the brief chapters, and this would not be the case if they
+  were dull. That they certainly are not. Nor would they have held
+  my interest if they did not in the main strike me as true. I can
+  say more, namely, that they seem to me admirably suited to the
+  people you have in charge, and good for anybody. They have at
+  least done me good, and often stirred me deeply. Their strong
+  point is the humanity that runs along their pages--along with a
+  sincere reverence. I hope they will have a wide circulation."
+
+The tide was ebbing, but it was not yet out. The announcement that I
+was a Socialist brought, of course, the members of the party around
+me, but on Sunday nights, when they came, expecting a discourse on
+economic determinism and found me searching for the hidden springs of
+the heart, and the larger personal life, as well as the larger social
+life, they went away disappointed and never came back.
+
+As I looked around, however, at the churches and the university, I
+could find nothing to equal the social passion of the socialists--it
+was a religion with them. True, they were limited in their expression
+of that passion, but they were live coals, all of them, and I was more
+at home in their meetings than in the churches.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+I BECOME A SOCIALIST
+
+
+I soon joined the party and gave myself body, soul and spirit to the
+Socialists' propaganda. The quest for a living took me to a little
+farm on the outskirts of the city. There were eighteen acres--sixteen
+of them stones.
+
+Gradually I began to feel that my rejection was not a mere matter of
+being let alone, of ignoring me; it was a positive attitude. There was
+a design to drive me out of the city. On the farm I was without the
+gates in person but my influence was within, among the workers. We
+spent every penny we had on the farm. I hired a neighbouring farmer to
+plow my ground and plant my seed, for I had neither horse nor
+machinery. I told him I had a little cottage in the woods in
+Massachusetts that I was offering for sale and I would pay him out of
+the proceeds. At first he believed me and did the work.
+
+It took me two months to get that cottage sold and get the money for
+it. The farmer's son camped on my doorstep daily. Every day I met him,
+in the fields or on the road. I spoke in such soft tones and promised
+so volubly every time he approached me that he got the impression
+that I had no cottage--that I was a fraud and cheating his father. He
+spread that impression. He began after a while to insult me, to make
+fun of me. I debated with myself one afternoon whether when he again
+repeated his insults I should thrash him or treat him as a joke. I
+decided on the former. Meantime the check for the cottage came and
+relieved the situation. Despite my inability to become a Yogi, I
+believed in the New Thought. My wife and I used to "hold the thought,"
+"make the mental picture," and "go into the silence." We did this
+regularly.
+
+I had an old counterfeit ten-dollar bill for a decoy. I shut my eyes
+and imagined myself stuffing big bundles of them into the pigeon-holes
+of my desk.
+
+I got an incubator, filled it with Buff Orpington eggs and kept the
+thermometer at 103° F. My knees grew as hard as a goat's from watching
+it. In the course of events, two chickens came. We had pictured the
+yard literally covered with them. These poor things broke their legs
+over the eggs. My wife was more optimistic than I was.
+
+"Wait," she said, "these things are often several days late." So we
+waited; waited ten days and then refilled the thing and began all over
+again.
+
+We lost an old hen that was so worthless that we never looked for her.
+In the fullness of her time she returned with a brood of fourteen! She
+had been in "the silence" to some purpose!
+
+"Well, let's let the hens alone," my wife said with a sigh; "they know
+this business better than we do." But we kept on monkeying with mental
+images--it was great fun.
+
+During our stay on that farm I did four times more pastoral work than
+I had ever done in my life. I was the minister of the nondescript and
+the destitute. I presided over funerals, weddings, baptisms, strikes,
+protests, mass meetings. Nobody thought of paying anything. To those I
+served I had a sort of halo, a wall of mystery; to me it was often the
+halo of hunger--of the wolf and the wall--yes, a wall, truly, and very
+high that separated me from my own.
+
+An incident will show what my brethren thought of my service to the
+poor. I was in the public library one day when the scribe of the
+ministerial association to which I belonged accosted me:
+
+"Hello, Irvine!"
+
+"Hello, C----! Splendid weather we're having, isn't it?"
+
+"Splendid," replied C----; and in the same breath he said, "say, you
+don't come around to the association; do you want your name kept on
+the roll?"
+
+I hesitated for a moment, then said: "Whatever would give you most
+pleasure, brother--leaving it on or taking it off--do that!"
+
+That was all--not another word--he reported that I wanted my name
+removed, and that practically ended my ministerial standing in the
+Congregational ministry.
+
+The Jewish Rabbi who had taken part in our opening service met me on
+the street one day.
+
+"Dr. Smyth and I are coming to see you, Irvine," he said.
+
+"I'll be mighty glad to see you both, Rabbi. What are you coming for?"
+
+"Well, we think it's too bad that the labour gang use you as a sucker
+and we want to see if we can't get a place in some mission for you."
+
+"Rabbi, some of your rich Jews have been after you for appearing on
+our platform. Come now, isn't that so?"
+
+"Well, it's because they believe as I believe, that you are used as a
+sucker."
+
+"I don't like your word, Rabbi; but there are fifty ministers in town.
+If Capital has forty-nine suckers, why not let Labour have one?"
+
+That made him rather furious and he said:
+
+"You remind me of Jesus, a fanatic. He died at 33 when he might have
+lived to a good old age and done some good!"
+
+"That," I said, "is the highest compliment I have ever received." I
+bared my head at the word and then left him on the sidewalk.
+
+The New Haven water company managed to get what was called an "eternal
+contract" passed through both chambers of the city government. Only
+labouring people opposed it. Naturally there was a strong suspicion of
+foul play.
+
+[Illustration: State Convention of the Socialist Party of Connecticut,
+May 31, 1906]
+
+A year afterward a man came to me with a grip-sack full of documents.
+He had been expert book-keeper for the water company, and knew the
+facts and figures for twenty-five years.
+
+Among them were two cancelled checks--one for a thousand, which was
+made out by and to the president, and dated the day a certain
+committee was to meet to go over the terms of the contract. The other
+was made out to a shyster lawyer and was for fifteen thousand. He
+expected to create a sensation. The thing had worked on his conscience
+until it became unbearable. He came to me because of what he had
+learned of me at the water company office. It takes a civic conscience
+to deal with such a problem and New Haven had no such thing at that
+time.
+
+He took the documents from one place to another--to ministers,
+lawyers, judges, legislators, etc. Nothing could be done. They were
+all the personal friends of the officials.
+
+The papers wouldn't print anything about it. The book-keeper said he
+thought he knew why "editors never had any water bills." Some radicals
+got the big check printed in facsimile and scattered it abroad. The
+aldermen had been bought; there was no doubt of that, but it was a
+matter of business.
+
+The whole agitation came back on the reformers like a boomerang.
+Leading politicians determined to do something to vindicate the
+leading citizen who had been accused. They elected him to the State
+Senate! A city of a hundred thousand can by either a positive or a
+negative process, destroy the usefulness of any man who would be its
+servant.
+
+I felt my loneliness very keenly--indeed, so much so that it was often
+as though I had committed a great crime. Always, however, at the
+breaking-point came a word of cheer--a note of approval.
+
+Bishop Lines of Newark, New Jersey, who was then Rector of St. Paul's
+church, sent me a note, that reached me in a dark hour.
+
+"I do not suppose," he said, "that I look at things as you do, in all
+respects, but I would like to assure you of my great regard for you
+and of my implicit faith in your sincerity and goodness. I know that
+the world's great sorrow rests upon your heart and that many men who
+feel it not sit in judgment upon you."
+
+The People's Church dwindled to a vanishing point. The farm produced
+nothing. Autumn came and we lived largely upon apples.
+
+"Make a break!" my wife said, but it seemed like running away from the
+fight. The fight was already over and I was beaten--beaten, but
+unaware of defeat.
+
+One morning I was at the top of a big apple tree, shaking it for three
+Italian women whom we believed to be worse off than ourselves. A
+branch broke and I fell on my back on a boulder. I lay as one dead. My
+wife found me there and hailed a passing grocer's wagon. The boy
+whipped up his horse to bring a doctor, but on the way spread the news
+that I had been killed by a fall. Among the first callers after the
+accident were Donald G. Mitchell and his daughter, my neighbours. I
+lay on a mattress on the lawn all afternoon in great agony.
+
+Although it was with the greatest difficulty that we scraped together
+the twenty-five dollars a month for the farm, my wife, putting her
+philosophy of the New Thought to the test, had rented a house in the
+city at seventy dollars a month. When she rented it, we hadn't seventy
+cents. We were to move into it the day of the accident. I insisted
+that we proceed.
+
+"Send for Jimmy Moohan," I said. Jimmy was a genial old Irish
+expressman whose stand was at the New Haven Green. Jimmy came and
+looked me over. Then came Bob Grant, a foreman from a near-by
+manufacturing concern, and after him four Socialist comrades on their
+way home from work.
+
+"Ah, Mother o' God," Jimmy said, "shure it's an ambulance yer
+riverence shud haave."
+
+"I want you, Jimmy; pile me in."
+
+"Holy Saints," he exclaimed, "shure th' ould cyart'll jolt yer guts
+out!"
+
+"Pile me in."
+
+So they lifted me on the mattress and laid me in the express wagon.
+Bob Grant sat beside me; the four comrades steadied it--two on each
+side.
+
+"Git up now, Larry, an' be aisy wid ye."
+
+When the wagon wheel mounted a stone, Jimmy blamed Larry and swore at
+him. Occasionally he would turn around and say: "How's it goin', yer
+riverence?"
+
+I was in such agony that I sweat. Pains were shooting through every
+part of my body but I usually answered:
+
+"Fine, Jimmy, fine!"
+
+So I came back within the gates of the city--rejected, defeated,
+deserted, and practically a pauper.
+
+It had been a long fight but the city had conquered. A few more
+attempts at work; a few more appeals for fair play, a few more
+speeches for the propaganda; but as baggage in Jimmy Moohan's express
+wagon I was down and out!
+
+At a regular meeting of the Trades Council of New Haven a member moved
+that a letter of sympathy be sent to me. A week after my fall, another
+was made and carried to make me a member of the council and a third to
+send me a check for fifty dollars. This was the only money I ever
+received for my services to labour and as it arrived a few hours
+before the agent called for his rent, it was very welcome.
+
+It seemed odd to all sorts of people that, after being starved out, I
+should bob up again in one of the largest houses on Chapel Street--I
+couldn't quite understand it myself. My wife could, however. She said
+the whole business of life was a matter of mental attitude and she
+only laughed when I asked whether there was any chance of my being
+kicked to death by a mule for the next month's rent!
+
+I made another attempt to interest the students of Yale in the human
+affairs of New Haven. Ten years previous to this, when there was some
+suggestion that I take charge of Yale's mission work, I was astounded
+to be told by the leaders of the Yale Y.M.C.A. that the chief end in
+view was not the work but the worker. Yale's mission was to give the
+student practice. Missions were to be laboratories--the specimens were
+to be humans. The eternal questions of sin and poverty were to be
+answered by the pious phrases and the cast-off junk of immature
+students. I gave a series of talks on labour unions to a selected
+group of students who were leaders.
+
+I was a social evangelist then and, after the talks, took stock of the
+results. Many fell by the wayside, but a group of strong men formed
+themselves into a "University Federal Labour Union." Dick Morse,
+captain of the 'Varsity crew, became president of it. Representative
+union constitutions were studied. The following sentences from the
+declaration of principles will illustrate how thoroughly these young
+men got in line with the union movement:
+
+"We believe it inconsistent and unworthy that a wage-worker should
+take the benefits that accrue to a craft as a direct result of
+organization and at the same time hold himself aloof from the
+responsibilities and from his share of the expenses of that
+organization.
+
+"We believe that union men whenever possible should demand the union
+label as a guarantee that the goods were manufactured under conditions
+fair to labour. We believe that eight hours should constitute a day's
+work."
+
+In the preamble was this statement: "We do not look upon the labour
+union as an ultimate conception of labour, but we believe that
+whatever progress has been made in the lot of the labourer has been
+due wholly to the organization of the wage-workers!"
+
+The preamble concludes with this paragraph: "Believing, therefore, in
+the cause of labour and desiring to add according to our ability to
+the support of the union movement, we pledge ourselves to study it
+intelligently and to support it loyally."
+
+Here was the beginning of a splendid mission work among the students;
+but the New Haven labour movement wasn't big enough to take it in; nor
+was the American Federation of Labour. The labour men would have no
+dealings whatever with the students. We managed to keep the big house
+for a year, but we kept little else during that period. Twice we lost
+the mental image of the monthly rent. Sam Read supplied it the first
+time and Anson Phelps Stokes the other. These were my only borrowings
+in New Haven. In that house I had one of the most bitter experiences
+of my life.
+
+"I think," said my wife to me, one morning at 2 A.M., "that the baby
+will be born in an hour."
+
+The announcement chilled me. There was but five cents in the house and
+that was needed to telephone for the family physician. As I walked
+down Chapel Street it seemed as if my heart was a nest of scorpions
+spitting poison.
+
+There was no breakfast in the house for the mother of the new-born
+babe. The churches, the homes of the wealthy and the university filled
+me with unutterable hate as I passed them. I was in the frame of mind
+in which murder, theft, violence are committed.
+
+I had held my integrity intact until that exigency. Then I only lacked
+opportunity to smash my ideals--to bend my head, my back, my morals!
+
+Cold sweat covered my body, my teeth chattered and my hands twitched.
+My Socialist philosophy told me that society was in process of
+evolution. Democracy at heart was correcting its own evils and like a
+snake sloughing off its outworn skin. I was part of that process.
+Reason pounded these things in on me but hate pushed them aside and
+demanded something else. I wondered that morning whether after all
+there weren't more reforms wrapped up in a stick of dynamite than in a
+whole life of preaching and moralizing. In that fifteen-minute walk
+there passed through my mind and heart all the elements of hell.
+
+It was a new experience to me--I had not travelled that way before. I
+went into a little restaurant to use the 'phone. I laid the nickel on
+the counter, when I had finished, and as I did so the waiter said,
+"It's a 'phone on me, Mr. Irvine;" and he rang up five cents in the
+cash register.
+
+"Ah," I said, "you know me then?"
+
+"Sure thing," he said, "don't you know me?"
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"Gee!" he said, "you're sick. You look like hell!"
+
+"I feel like it."
+
+"What's up?"
+
+"You heard me 'phone?"
+
+"Sure--aint you glad?"
+
+"Yes--but----"
+
+"Say, have a cup of hot coffee, won't you?"
+
+"Thank you, I think I will."
+
+His intuition was keen enough to perceive that the trouble was mental
+and as I took the coffee he said:
+
+"Discouraged a bit, hey?"
+
+Without waiting for a reply he proceeded to tell me how a few words of
+mine at one of the trolleymen's midnight meetings had changed his
+life. He went into details and as he went on I saw a look of
+contentment on his face and as I watched, it changed the look on my
+own.
+
+I could not drink his coffee but I shared his comradeship and as I
+went back home I became normal. Hate left my heart. I was beaten, in a
+way; but the love of mankind was a fundamental thing and the other was
+a mental storm that passed over and left no ill results.
+
+Things took a new turn that morning. We saw a rift in the clouds and
+were encouraged. It became clear that my work in New Haven was ended.
+
+I took a commission from the Young Men's Christian Association on West
+57th Street to open up meetings in some of the big shops and factories
+of New York.
+
+Mr. Charles F. Powlison, who is one of the largest minded and noblest
+hearted men in the Association, is special secretary there, and it was
+through his faith and confidence that the work came to me.
+
+The Interborough Rapid Transit Company gave us permission to hold
+meetings in several of their largest shops.
+
+I enjoyed the work very much--these big crowds of men in jumpers and
+overalls had a fascination for me. The work in the Interborough went
+well for a year. I reviewed great books, I gave the biographies of the
+world's greatest men, I talked of ethics, science, art and religion.
+I taught the truth as I understood it; but it was all utterly
+unsectarian and universal. In one shop the company cleaned out the
+junk and replaced it with a restaurant: the superintendent told me it
+was the result of my work there. My talks were never over fifteen
+minutes long and seldom over ten. I was always assisted by a musician
+of some sort.
+
+The work went well for a year in the big shops; then my part in them
+came to an abrupt end.
+
+The board of directors at the West Side Y.M.C.A. is composed of
+representative men of affairs in New York--men of big responsibilities
+and large wealth; as splendid a set of men as ever governed an
+institution.
+
+This particular Y.M.C.A. was a pioneer institution in a big way. It
+stood for large things when those things were unpopular. It was a
+heretic in a way. In ten years the procession came up and the
+institution seemed to stand still.
+
+It had given the Y.M.C.A. world a larger outlook in religion and it
+may be that it will yet become a pioneer in giving it a larger
+sociology.
+
+I was one of two men to address the board of directors one night and I
+stated the case at more length than I do here.
+
+"What shall I tell those workingmen you stand for?" I asked. "Do you
+believe in the right of the workers to organize? If you do, say so,
+and, as your representative, let me tell them that you do."
+
+[Illustration: The Lunch Hour in an Interborough Shop]
+
+The next time I addressed a big shop meeting I gave the musician all
+the minutes save three. Several hundreds of men stood around
+me--disorganized, poorly paid men.
+
+"Men," I said, "there is in this city a thing called the Civic
+Federation. Its leaders are directly the owners of this shop. In it
+are also leaders of labour, Mitchell and Gompers. There are several
+bishops of various beliefs. Now the Civic Federation tells us--tells
+the world--that it believes in labour unions. What I want to suggest
+is this: A dozen of you get together; write a note to your masters and
+ask them if that belief applies to _you_?"
+
+Of course I knew it didn't apply to them, but I got very tired merely
+telling the slaves to be good, and ended my service there in that way.
+A spy at once informed the superintendent, and I was told--the
+Y.M.C.A. was told--that I could never enter their shops again. The man
+who succeeded me as a speaker at that shop, the following week, went
+much further; he positively advised them to organize, for hardly in
+the United States could one find greater need of organization.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+I INTRODUCE JACK LONDON TO YALE
+
+
+The last piece of work in New Haven was a master stroke. It was an
+inoculation. Jack London was in the East and I persuaded him to pay
+the comrades in New Haven a visit and make a speech. The theatres were
+all engaged, so were the halls.
+
+The new Y.M.C.A. hall could not be rented--for London. There was only
+one hope left--Yale. I knew a student who was a Socialist. We outlined
+a plan. London was a literary man; Yale had probably heard of him. The
+Yale Union was canvassed. It was a Freshman debating society.
+Certainly; they had read London's books--"The Call of the Wild," "The
+Sea Wolf," etc.
+
+"Well now, boys, here's your chance. Jack London can be had for a
+lecture."
+
+The Union had no money and Woolsey Hall cost fifty dollars. "That's
+easy," I suggested, though I didn't have fifty cents at the time. That
+seemed fine. "Of course," I said, as I remembered the empty Socialist
+treasury, "we'll have to charge an admission fee of ten cents." That,
+too, was all right. In case of frost or failure I promised to make
+good so that the Union would have no responsibility. I meekly
+suggested that as compensation for "risk involved" I would take the
+surplus--if there was any.
+
+"They say Jack London is Socialistically inclined, Doctor," said the
+youthful president of the Yale Union.
+
+"Yes, he is, rather," I answered.
+
+"Well," he added, "I suppose we will have to take our chances." The
+chances seemed small then; they loomed up larger later.
+
+He hoped President Hadley would not interfere with him.
+
+"Will you introduce him, Doctor?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"What's his topic?"
+
+"He calls it 'The Coming Crisis.'"
+
+"Social, I suppose, eh?"
+
+"Yes, it's a suggested remedy for a lot of our troubles."
+
+The Socialist student had a few rounds with Lee McClung, the Yale
+treasurer. "Mac" didn't know Irvine from a gate-post but took Billy
+Phelps's word for it that London was a literary man and let it go at
+that--let the hall go, I mean.
+
+"Yale," said the brilliant Phelps, "is a university, and not a
+monastery; besides, Jack London is one of the most distinguished men
+in America."
+
+When it was decided we could have the hall the advertising began.
+Streets, shops and factories were bombarded with printed
+announcements. Next morning--the morning after securing the hall--Yale
+official and unofficial awoke to find tacked to every tree on the
+campus the inscription, "Jack London at Woolsey Hall."
+
+Max Dellfant painted a flaming poster that gripped men by the eyes. In
+it London appeared in a red sweater and in the background the lurid
+glare of a great conflagration. Yale and New Haven had never been so
+thoroughly informed on such short notice. The information was in red
+letters.
+
+The first thing done was to run down the officers of the Yale Union.
+They had previously run each other down. The boys were thoroughly
+scared, explanations were in order all around.
+
+The wiseacres of Yale got busy and the new Yale took a hand also.
+Professor Charles Foster Kent--the Henry Drummond of Yale--and
+Professor William Lyon Phelps counselled a square deal and fair play.
+
+The Yale Union had a stormy meeting. A real sensation was on their
+hands; there was possible censure and probable glory and every man in
+the Union went after his share.
+
+It was indignantly moved and carried that the president of the Union
+introduce the speaker.
+
+"Irvine is a Socialist," the mover said, "and would spoil the show
+before it began."
+
+[Illustration: Alexander Irvine and Jack London, 1906]
+
+They next discussed the topic. One boy suggested that London be asked
+to cut out all mention of Socialism. That was tabooed because no one
+knew that he would mention it anyway.
+
+The day of the lecture I got this note from the Socialist student:
+"Yale Union and many of the faculty are sweating under the collar for
+fear London _might_ say something Socialistic. The Union realizes that
+it would be absolutely useless to ask him to smooth over his lecture
+and cut out anything which sounds radical. Also they have decided that
+it would be a shock to the university and the public to have _you_
+appear upon the platform in any way, shape or manner. They are going
+to ask you to cancel your engagement to introduce London. In this I
+think they are unwise, but as they are determined it must be so. I
+advise you to agree to whatever arrangement they suggest. This done,
+they will 'take the chances' that London will express Socialistic
+ideas. Now I fear there will be the devil to pay for the lecture--the
+university is going to be surprised, the faculty shocked beyond
+measure and the Yale Union severely criticized!"
+
+This is how the president of the Union expressed the situation in a
+note to me on the day of the lecture. "At a meeting of the executive
+committee of the Yale Union it was voted that the president of the
+Union introduce the speaker of the evening as it would tend to
+identify the Union more conspicuously and also to give it prominence
+before the student body. For this reason--wholly beyond my power and
+opposed to my opinion--I shall be forced to forego our little plan
+which I thought by far the best," etc., etc.
+
+Some small portion of prosperity having come our way I was able to
+dine a small group with Jack London as the chief guest. Professor
+Charles Foster Kent of Yale, and Charles W. De Forrest, a business
+man, were among the guests.
+
+It was a Socialist innings at Woolsey Hall that night. The big crowd
+gave the Yale Union an idea--this time it was a financial
+idea--twenty-eight hundred people paid admission--the officers swept
+down on the box office; but there was a Socialist inside playing
+capitalist. Socialists are not familiar enough with the game to play
+it successfully, but in this instance we played in strict accordance
+with the rules. We furnished the capital, took the risks and bagged
+the pot! We conceded nine points out of ten--the tenth was a financial
+one. The audience represented every phase of life in the city. Over a
+hundred of the faculty and ten times as many students. Citizens of all
+classes were there.
+
+The Harvard Students had played horse with London a few weeks before
+this and we--the Socialists--were prepared for any sort of
+demonstration.
+
+"The spectacle of an avowed Socialist," said the New Haven
+_Register_, "one of the most conspicious in the country, standing upon
+the platform of Woolsey Hall and boldly advocating the doctrines of
+revolution was a sight for gods and men."
+
+Jack London talked for over two hours to that packed hall and received
+a most unusual attention. After the lecture he was taken to a
+students' dormitory where he answered questions till midnight. Then he
+was escorted by a smaller group to Mory's for supper and at one
+o'clock we held a reception at the big house which was known as "the
+Socialist Parsonage."
+
+For over twenty years I have been a contributor to newspapers and
+religious periodicals, but not until I met Jack London did it ever
+occur to me that I could earn a living by my pen. London made me
+promise to write. My first story I mailed to California for his
+criticism and suggestion, but before it returned I had entered the
+field.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+MY EXPERIENCE AS A LABOURER IN THE MUSCLE MARKET OF THE SOUTH
+
+
+_Appleton's Magazine_ published my first serious attempt at fiction.
+It was a short story entitled, "Two Social Pariahs."
+
+The cry of peonage was in the air and I arranged with _Appleton's
+Magazine_ for a series of articles on the subject. Dressed as a
+labourer I went to the muscle market of New York and got hired. To do
+this I had to assume a foreign accent and look as slovenly as
+possible. With a picturesque contingent of Hungarians, Finns, Swedes
+and Greeks, I was drafted for the iron mines of the Tennessee Coal and
+Iron Company. The mines are near Bessemer, Ala. At every turn of the
+road south we were herded and handled like cattle.
+
+It was a big, black porter who led us into the car at Portsmouth, Va.
+I was the leader of the contingent, and the porter addressed us for
+the most part by signs, and when he spoke at all he called me
+"Johnny." When inside, he arranged us in our seats, putting his hands
+on some of our shoulders to press us down into them. I did not realize
+that I was in a Southern state until I saw a big yellow card in this
+car marked "Coloured." Then I knew instantly that we were in a Jim
+Crow car. A coloured woman sat next to the window in my seat and by
+her look and little toss of the head and a quick nervous movement she
+seemed to say, "What are you doing here?"
+
+When the train pulled out of the depot, I stepped up to the porter and
+said:
+
+"Haven't you a law in Virginia on the separation of the races."
+
+The big black fellow grinned.
+
+"Dere sho' is, boss--but you ain't no races. You is jest Dagoes, ain't
+you?"
+
+At Atlanta we changed cars and were again driven into the Jim Crow
+car. This time I made a more intelligent attempt to solve my race
+problem. The conductor, faultlessly dressed in broadcloth and covered
+with gold lace, strode into our car with the air of an admiral of the
+fleet. He went straight through the car, collecting the block ticket
+for our gang from the boss, and as he returned I stepped into the
+aisle in front of him, blocking his passage.
+
+"Pardon me, sir," I said, "isn't there a law in Georgia on the
+separation of the races?"
+
+Without a word, he removed the glasses from his nose, stared at me for
+a moment, then turned sharply, walked to the end of the car, removed
+the card which read "Coloured" and reversed it. It then read "White."
+Then he came back through the car slowly, staring at me as he passed
+but without uttering a word.
+
+Our particular destination was "Muckers Camp" at Readers. A group of
+three buildings on the brow of a hill--the hill where the blacks live.
+The first of these buildings is a kitchen and dining room, the second
+is a big dormitory and the third is a wash-house. This was our new
+home. The dormitory was originally intended for a series of small
+rooms but the work was arrested before completion. The uprights
+marking the divisions of the rooms were still standing--bare and
+uncovered. The floor of the big dormitory was littered with
+rubbish--miners' cast-off clothing, shoes, broken lamps, and in a
+corner there was a junk-heap of broken bedsteads, slats, army blankets
+and sodden mattresses. We were told to make ourselves "at home." There
+was room enough and plenty of bedding. All we had to do was to fish
+for what we needed and put it in order. Everything was red--red with
+ore that men carried out of the mines on their bodies.
+
+The junk heap in the corner played an important part in the movements
+of my gang. The thought of having to sleep in the sodden stuff chilled
+me to the bones, but I kept silent. Whatever the previous condition of
+the men had been, they felt as I did as they pulled their bedding out
+piece by piece. They had gone to spend the winter in the mines of
+the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company; they knew the work, conditions
+and pay; they had refused to be bribed on the way down, but as they
+tugged at the junk, a change came over them! They swore in half a
+dozen languages--they gritted their teeth and vowed that they wouldn't
+be treated like pigs.
+
+[Illustration: In a Mucker's Camp in Alabama]
+
+[Illustration: Irvine and Three Other Muckers as They Left Greenwich
+Street for the South]
+
+We went to the wash-house and the outlook was less encouraging. There
+was a long, narrow trough in the centre. It was half full of red ore.
+The floor was wet and covered with ore, rags, old papers and other
+rubbish. There were compartments intended for shower-baths, but there
+again the work had been arrested and was incomplete. We washed, made
+our beds, ate dinner and proceeded to the company store to be fitted
+out.
+
+Each man was furnished with a number. By that number he was to be
+known while in the company's employ. Each man showed his number and
+drew what he needed--overalls, lamps, and heavy boots. There was
+nothing niggardly in the credit. The deeper the debt the tighter the
+grip on the debtor. The goods cost just one hundred per cent. more
+than anywhere else. The company paid wages once a month. If a labourer
+borrowed of his own within that time, he paid ten per cent. on the
+loan.
+
+As we came back from the store, the miners were just leaving the mines
+and it was interesting to see them gaze into our faces and address us
+in Russian, Hungarian, Swedish and various other languages. It was
+one of the excitements of camp life--to inspect and classify the
+newcomers.
+
+One of the men had a wheezy accordion and he relieved the monotony of
+the evening with some German airs. The big shed was unlighted, save as
+each man was his own lamp-post. Each made his own bed by the light of
+the lamp on his cap. As he undressed, the cap was the last article to
+be set aside and the extinguishing of the smoky, flickering blaze the
+last act of the night.
+
+As the first streak of the gray dawn came in through the bare windows,
+four of our gang dressed and deliberately marched out of the
+camp--never to return.
+
+The first number in the programme of a "mucker's" toilet is to adjust
+his cap with his lamp in it, trimmed and burning. The second is to
+light his pipe; then he dresses.
+
+It was half-past five and still dark, when those nude, shaggy men with
+heads ablaze with smoky, flickering lamps, began to move around. They
+looked grotesque--unearthly--denizens of some underground pit. They
+were good-humoured and full of boisterous laughter.
+
+A breakfast of pork, beans, potatoes, bread and coffee--plenty of
+each--and we went off with dinner pails over the hill to the valley,
+where five tall, smoking chimneys marked the entrances to as many
+mines.
+
+Each mine has a complete outfit of men and machinery, and a certain
+number of chambers or pockets in which, with blast and hammer and
+hand, the red hills are made to disgorge their treasures of iron ore.
+
+Three of us perched ourselves on the rear end of the "skip"--a big
+iron-ore disgorger--and began the half-mile descent. It was a 45 per
+cent. grade, and the skip, at the end of a powerful wire cable, went
+down by jerks. One of my companions was Franz, the Hungarian, the
+other was a German. The big square mouth of the mine became smaller
+and smaller as we bumped into the bowels of the earth. In a few
+minutes it looked like a small window-pane, and then disappeared
+altogether and we were left in the darkness.
+
+Each mine is like a little town. It has a main street and side
+alleys--"pockets," they are called. There are "live" and "dead"
+pockets--the dead are the worked out.
+
+At the first of the live pockets the skip was stopped by some
+invisible hand and we clambered over the side to a platform where a
+foreman met and conducted us to the task of the day.
+
+The mine was filled with red dust. We could see but a few feet ahead
+of us. The lamps on men's brows looked like fire-flies dancing in the
+red mist. There was a sound of rushing water and the _chug, chug_ of
+the pumps. As we waded ankle-deep through a water alley, we heard the
+warning yells of a foreman. A charge of dynamite was about to burst
+and the men were flying out of danger. We were whisked into a cleft
+for safety. Half a dozen old miners were squeezed in beside us. Our
+scarcely soiled caps told the story of our newness and the old hands
+watched us closely.
+
+Boom! The hills shivered like the deck of a warship as she discharges
+a broadside. Franz shivered too. His eyes bulged and he stared,
+loose-jawed, at the men around us, who laughed at his fright.
+
+The explosion was in our alley; it had torn up the car-tracks like
+strips of macaroni; it was the salute of dynamite to our soft, flabby
+muscles, to our white caps and new overalls; it was a stick of
+concentrated power throwing down the gauntlet to men in the raw.
+
+We had a foreman who superintended our compartment, "a driller," who
+with a steam drill sat all day boring holes for dynamite, and we were
+the "muckers"--miner's helpers--who carried away with muscular power
+the effects of the explosion. Each alley had similar crews.
+
+"Mule boy!" I roared with all my vocal power into what looked like an
+ugly rent in the rocks. A moment later, I saw a glimmer of light, then
+a mule shot up out of a hole and a black boy brought up the rear,
+clinging to the tail of "Emma," the mule, our sure-footed locomotive.
+
+We were handed a huge sledge-hammer each and the work began. My hammer
+bounded off the rocks as if it were an air ball. It bounded for a
+dozen heavy strokes.
+
+"Turn that rock over and look for the grain!" the foreman shouted in
+my ear. Then he took the hammer, turned the huge boulder over on its
+side, struck it twice or thrice and it flew into splinters.
+
+We acquired the knack of things quickly, and instinctively struck the
+working pace. It was the limit of human strength and endurance. My
+jacket came off first, then my overalls, then my shirt, leaving
+trousers and undershirt only. The others followed suit. The sweat
+oozed out of every pore of my body. We smashed, filled and ran out the
+full cars. We worked silently, doggedly and at top speed. Several
+hundred men were doing likewise in other pockets; they were less
+bloody, perhaps, but the work was the same and they did it without
+knowing that it was brutally hard. There was a halt of fifteen minutes
+for dinner. Then we went at it again. Our best fell short of the
+demand. For every car of ore blasted, the foreman got fifty cents and
+for running out each car, we got twenty cents--a little over six cents
+each.
+
+"---- ---- your souls to h--l," the foreman shouted. "Why don't you
+get a move on you ---- hey?"
+
+We moved a little faster.
+
+"You muckers ain't goin' t' get ten cars out t'day if ye don't mend
+yer licks!"
+
+We "mended our licks."
+
+He looked like a wild beast. Short of stature, but his arms were
+hardened and under the red skin the muscles were hard as whip-cords
+and taut as a drum. His eyebrows were heavy and bushy and over his
+strong chest grew shaggy masses of black hair. Our car slipped the
+track once and when he heard the smash he came thundering along,
+ripping out a string of oaths as he came. Putting his powerful body to
+the lever, he lifted the car almost alone. As he did so, his lamp came
+in contact with my hand. Unable to let go, I screamed to him to move.
+As he did so, he saw the seared flesh.
+
+"Too bad! Too bad!" he said, as he dropped the truck. I gazed into his
+eyes.
+
+"Look here!" I said, "if you will look as human as that again, you may
+burn the other hand!"
+
+The human moles who empty these pockets of ore are inured. Life down
+there is normal to them. After a few years' work, the skin becomes
+calloused and tough. The hands become claws or talons--broken and
+disfigured. The muckers laughed at us. They saw we were concerned
+about trifles. Bloody sweat and hot oil held the red dust around us
+like a tight-fitting garment. Our scanty clothing was glued to our
+bodies. Our shoes were filled with water, but that was a luxury--it
+was cool.
+
+What a hades of noise and dust! The continual noise and clatter of the
+pumps, the rattle of the drillers, the hissing of steam and the
+ear-splitting roar of the dynamite explosions are matters that one
+gets accustomed to in time. The frenzied desire to get cars filled and
+run out leaves little time for novel sensations--for that, brute force
+_alone_ is needed.
+
+At the end of the first day we had filled and run out ten cars. Our
+pay for that was sixty-six cents apiece. During the same time, Philo,
+the mule boy, made seventy-five cents and Emma--she had earned what
+would enable her to return to-morrow to repeat the work of to-day.
+
+About five o'clock in the afternoon we were sandwiched into the big
+iron skip with a score of others--black and white. Eight hours had
+taken our newness away. We were as others in colour and condition. We
+looked into their faces and felt their hot breath. Then a signal was
+given and the panting, squirming mass was jerked to the surface.
+
+As we passed over the hill to the camp I was in an ecstasy. The sense
+of relief under the open sky was intense. Others seemed to have
+it--for they joked and laughed boisterously over trifles as we went
+"home."
+
+Seven of us together went to the big wash-house. It was rather
+crowded. I marvelled that nobody was using the shower-baths. I soaped
+myself, stood beneath the big iron water-pipe and waited, but there
+was no response. There was a loud laugh, then a miner asked:
+
+"Air ye posin' for yer photo, mister?"
+
+"No. What's the matter with the water?"
+
+"Fits, Buttie--it's got fits!"
+
+There was plenty of food, of a kind. The supper, at the close of the
+day was a brief function, but brutal as it was brief. It was something
+of a shock, the first night we were in camp, but at the close of my
+first day's work I found myself on a level with the grossest. The
+finer instincts were blunted or gone and I was in the clutch of a
+hunger like that of the jungle, where might and cunning rule. At a
+signal from the cook, we rushed in, crushed by main force into a seat,
+seized whatever was nearest and began. Scarcely a word was
+spoken--heads down, hands and jaws at top speed. The disgusting
+spectacle lasted but a few minutes, then up and out to smoke and talk.
+
+Beside me sat a strong, powerfully built German boy, who joked about
+the age of the pork for supper.
+
+"What you guff about?" the burly steward asked.
+
+"Schmell, py gee--its tick mit bad schmell!"
+
+"Vell, you shut your ---- maut or I smash your ---- head, see?"
+
+The boy laughed, then the steward removed his plate and refused to
+give any more. Nobody took any notice. We were too busy and too
+brutally selfish to interfere. The steward was the camp bully and the
+men were afraid of him. They must not even laugh at his provisions. We
+had pork for breakfast, we took pork chops to the mines for dinner,
+and the staple article--the standby--of every supper was pork. Pigs in
+Alabama are like turnips in Scotland--there are no property rights in
+them. They breed and litter in the tall dog-fennel; they root around
+the shanties and cover the landscape.
+
+"Who owns these pigs?" I asked old Ransom Pope, a Negro.
+
+"One an' anoder!" he said.
+
+The gullies and the weeds were full of them and the steward found them
+easy and cheap feeding.
+
+"You come yere for breakfast to-morrow an' I smash your dam head!" the
+steward said to the boy, as we left the dining room. There was no
+reply. Each man went his way. They were tired--too tired to think.
+Though a stranger to even the taste of liquor, I had an intense
+craving for it and it seemed as if I had used it all my life. An hour
+after supper, I lay down on my sodden pile and went to sleep.
+
+I was awakened next morning by a Norwegian mucker who was organizing a
+strike over the incident of the tainted pork. Five minutes later,
+every man in the shed was around the stove in an impromptu indignation
+meeting. It was agreed that Max, the German boy, should go in first;
+if the steward put him out, we were all to leave with him and refuse
+to work. He was allowed to take breakfast but was refused a dinner
+pail. We dropped ours and marched to the office in a body. An
+investigation was made and it was discovered that the steward was
+feeding us on his neighbour's pork and charging it to the company. He
+was discharged and we went back to the camp to make merry for the rest
+of the forenoon. The fun, for most of them, consisted of an extra
+demand on their physical force--rough horse-play, leap-frog and
+wrestling. One man went to town for extra stimulants. Another, a big
+Swede, stripped nude, drained at a single draught a bottle of whiskey
+and lay down to sleep himself drunk and sober again before his next
+call to the pits. At the close of the day he lay there--a big, shaggy
+animal, wallowing.
+
+The mines were shut down on Sunday and we had an opportunity to look
+around. Though a place of one thousand inhabitants, it has no
+post-office. There are ditches but no drains; wide, deep gullies, but
+no streets. The moon shines there in her season, but there are no
+street lamps. The hogs are somewhat tame and we fed them as we went
+along. There is a church but it's for black folks--it's essential to
+them. The whites fare not so well. If they want one, they travel for
+it. They do likewise for a school, for the little school beside the
+church is for coloured children. The only "modern convenience" was an
+ancient style of hydrant, around which the children were organizing
+fire companies and extinguishing imaginary fires.
+
+After visiting the mule boy in Rat Hollow on Sunday, I returned to the
+camp. The men were lounging around the stove, smoking, and exchanging
+experiences. In one corner, a German sailor was playing his wheezy
+accordion, and in another, to a group of Slavs, a Russian soldier was
+singing a love song. It was my last day with the muckers. Many of my
+gang had already gone--the rest would follow. It wasn't a matter of
+wages or hours--it was a question of muck. Once in it, men lived,
+moved, and had their being in it, but even the most brutalized quailed
+at the junk pile in the corner of the shed.
+
+The sun was setting behind the red hills. Save for a long, yellow
+streak just above the horizon, the sky was a mass of purple billows.
+The yellow changed to amber and later to a blood red. Then rays of
+sun-fire shot up and splashed the purple billows; the purple and gold
+later gave place to black clouds through which the stars came one by
+one, while the muckers were settling down for the night.
+
+It seemed at first as if I would have to commit some crime to get
+admission to the stockade where the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company
+had their largest convict labour force. I was seedy-looking--my beard
+had grown and I was still in blue shirt and overalls. I approached the
+chaplain--told him my story and gained admission to his night school;
+and for three weeks moved in and out among the socially damned of that
+horrible stockade.
+
+In that time I got the facts of the life there and I became so
+depressed by what I saw that I had to fight daily to keep off a sense
+of hate that pressed in upon me every time I went into that
+atmosphere.
+
+Here were eight hundred men, seven hundred of them coloured. They had
+committed crimes against persons and property. The state of Alabama
+hired them out to the corporation at so much a head and the
+corporation proceeded, with state aid, to make their investment pay.
+
+The men were underfed and overworked and in addition were exploited in
+the most shameful manner by officials from the top to the bottom.
+
+For the slightest infraction of the rules they were flogged like
+galley slaves. Women were flogged as well as men. What the lash and
+the labour left undone tuberculosis finished. Unsanitary conditions,
+rotten sheds, sent many of them into eternity, where they were better
+off.
+
+They were classified according to their ability to dig coal, not
+according to the crimes committed.
+
+From the stockade I went to a lumber camp where some officials had
+been found guilty of peonage.
+
+[Illustration: Irvine Punching Logs in the Gulf of Mexico, 1907]
+
+I got a job as a teamster and took my place in the camp among the
+labourers as if I had spent my life at it.
+
+In this way I got at the facts of how and why men had been decoyed
+from New York and imprisoned in the forests.
+
+I was so much at home in my work and so disguised that no one ever for
+a moment suspected me. I obtained photographs of the bosses, the
+bloodhounds and the camp box cars in which the lumber Jacks lived.
+
+Several times around a bonfire of pine knots I entertained the men of
+the camp with stories of travel, history and romance.
+
+If I had been discovered, if the purpose of my presence had been known
+I would have been shot like a dog; for life is as cheap in a Southern
+lumber field as in any part of the world.
+
+From the lumber camp I went to one of the big turpentine camps where
+conditions are as primitive and as inhuman as in the stockades.
+
+My next and last job in the South was punching logs in Pensacola
+harbour for a dollar and six "bits" a day. There I got material for
+several stories of peons who had escaped from the woods.
+
+While in Pensacola I made a visit, one Sunday morning, to the city
+jail and asked permission to address the prisoners. The jailer, of
+course, wanted to know what an unkempt labourer had to say to his
+charges.
+
+In order to convince him I had to deliver an exegesis before the desk!
+The cells were iron cages with stone floors.
+
+A young Englishman, who had just landed after a long sea voyage the
+night before, was the first man to whom I talked. He claimed to have
+been drugged and robbed in a saloon. The fact of his incarceration was
+a small thing to him; what made him swear was the condition of his
+cage. The excrements of probably half a dozen of his predecessors in
+the cell lay around him, nauseating and suffocating him. Fire shot
+from his eyes as he pointed to it. He was bitter, sarcastic, sneering,
+and with evident and abundant cause.
+
+Whatever I had to say to the men and women in that dungeon that
+morning was driven from my mind and my lips.
+
+The young man pushed all the resentment of his soul over into mine! I
+spent that Sunday in working out a plan by which I could help
+Pensacola to clean up this social ulcer.
+
+There was a Tourist Club there and I offered to lecture for them. It
+was arranged for the following Sunday afternoon. I called on the mayor
+and he promised to preside. I interviewed several aldermen and they
+promised to attend. I lectured for forty minutes on my experiences as
+a labourer in the camps of the South, and for ten minutes at the close
+described what I had seen in the city jail.
+
+It was a somewhat heroic method of treatment, and I did not remain
+long enough to see the effect, but I at least deprived them of the
+plea of ignorance.
+
+I found in Florida two Government officials who had done splendid work
+in behalf of labour. I mean the labourers who were decoyed by false
+promises and brutally abused on their arrival in the camps. They were
+both modest men--men unlikely to enter politics for personal
+advancement. I cut my articles out of the magazine and sent them to
+President Roosevelt, calling his attention to the conditions and
+commending these men to his notice. The result was that they were both
+promoted to positions where their usefulness was increased and the
+cause of labour considerably helped.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+AT THE CHURCH OF THE ASCENSION
+
+
+A group of literary people with whom I was acquainted had rented No. 3
+Fifth Avenue, and were operating a coöperative housekeeping scheme. I
+became part of the plan and it was there that I first met the Rector
+of the Church of the Ascension, the Rev. Percy Stickney Grant.
+
+Naturally, we talked of the church and its work. I was so impressed
+with Mr. Grant's bigness that I volunteered to devote some of my spare
+time to the work of his parish. A few weeks later I got a letter from
+him inviting me to become a member of his staff. This was a surprise
+to me, but I made no immediate decision. I was earning a comfortable
+living and devoting my spare time to the Socialist propaganda. I was
+_free_--very free--and I saw danger ahead in church work.
+
+I had several interviews with Mr. Grant and went over the situation. I
+wasn't a man with Socialistic tendencies; I was a Socialist--a member
+of the party.
+
+The danger ahead looked smaller to Mr. Grant than it did to me. He had
+absolute confidence in the broad-minded men of affairs around him. My
+Socialism was explained and understood. Just how to fit in was the
+next problem.
+
+The mission of the church is at No. 10 Horatio Street. It was without
+a minister in charge. For a few Sunday evenings I conducted the
+service. The audience was composed of half a dozen parishoners and a
+dozen of my personal friends. Mr. Grant knew nothing of my ability in
+public address. I took his place one night in the church and that
+ended my career at the chapel. I had discarded an ecclesiastical title
+I possessed but never used; I became a lay reader in the Episcopal
+Church--the church of my youth--the church in which I was baptized and
+confirmed.
+
+The conference and discussion following the service was an
+afterthought. The audiences steadily grew. It was and is the most
+cosmopolitan audience I ever saw. I wanted to get acquainted with the
+people and suggested a sort of reception in the chapel. The ladies of
+the church provided refreshments.
+
+"Who is that man?" one of the ladies at the tea table asked one night.
+
+"He is a Socialist agitator," I answered.
+
+"Why don't you ask him to talk?"
+
+The man was Sol Fieldman and I asked him to speak for five minutes. He
+did so and from that time the character of the after-meeting changed.
+The first few evenings after the change the speaking was very
+informal: any one of note who happened to be in the meeting was asked
+to speak. Later, the invitation was enlarged and any one who desired
+to speak could do so. Then came a time limit. A workingman asked that
+the refreshments be cut out. The table took up valuable space and the
+time consumed in "serving" was "a pure waste," so he said. Then we
+arranged for a formal presentation of a topic and a discussion to
+follow it.
+
+The Socialists were always in the majority. Every Socialist is a
+propagandist--not always an intelligent propagandist. Intelligent and
+leading Socialists are generally engaged Sunday evenings, so the
+majority of those who came to us were of the hard-working
+kind--limited, very limited, in the literary expression of the social
+soul flame that so passionately moves them.
+
+Some of our church officers who took an active part in the first
+year's meetings were somewhat alarmed at the brusqueness of these men
+and women, and undertook to correct their manners.
+
+The Rector understood. And with great patience and tact he heard all.
+The Church of the Ascension has in its membership some of the
+country's biggest leaders in industry; some of these men came to the
+meetings. What they saw and heard was different to what they expected.
+They fraternized with the men of toil. It was a fraternity utterly
+devoid of patronage. There were free exchanges of thought. The
+average labouring man is incapable of such conference, for no matter
+how many years a member of a labour union it is only when he becomes a
+Socialist that he becomes an intelligent advocate of anything.
+
+[Illustration: The Church of the Ascension]
+
+The Rector and I tried to avoid the notice of the newspapers and for
+about six months we succeeded. Then came the explosion of the bomb on
+Union Square and we were at once thrown into the limelight. I was on
+the Square that afternoon.
+
+It was designed to be a mass meeting of the unemployed. The unemployed
+are not usually interested in any sort of propaganda; the more
+intelligent of the labour men are, and the Socialists are more so.
+
+So the promoters of the mass meeting for the unemployed were
+Socialists. It was at this meeting that a police official declared to
+a man who had the temerity to question him that the policeman's club
+was mightier than the Constitution of the United States.
+
+No permit was given and no mass meeting held, but the multitude was
+there and when the police began to disperse it the people who were
+neither Socialists nor unemployed resented being driven off the
+streets. I saw men clubbed and women deliberately ridden over by the
+mounted police. I kept moving: I wanted to be where it was most
+dangerous. I suffered for months with a bruised arm that I got as I
+went with the crowd in front of the horses: it was a blow aimed at a
+man's head; I was clubbed on the back for not moving fast enough. At
+every turn, at every angle of the Square, the police were as brutal as
+any Cossack that ever wielded a knout.
+
+Late on that afternoon the police opened the Square--that is, the
+people were permitted to cross it in all directions. My study was at
+No. 75 Fifth Avenue, and I was moving in that direction past the
+fountain when the explosion took place. I was hurled off my feet; that
+is, the shock to my nervous system was so great that I collapsed. My
+first flash of thought was of the battle-field!
+
+Fifteen feet in front of me two men staggered. It seemed to me that
+one of them had been ripped in twain. He fell and the other fell on
+top of him. Instantly the policemen around me seemed crazed: as I
+staggered to my feet one of them struck me a terrific blow with his
+club. The blow landed between my shoulders, but glanced upward,
+striking me on the back of the head. I tumbled over, dazed, but the
+thought that his next blow would murder me seemed to give me
+superhuman strength and I ran. As I turned he attacked another man and
+I thought I was free. I was mistaken, however, for he gave chase and
+if I had not escaped into the crowd I would have fared badly at his
+hands.
+
+My nerves were so badly shattered that on the way to my room I fell
+several times. The following Sunday night the Civic Federation packed
+our meeting with their speakers.
+
+Mr. Gompers's representative in New York was the first man put up. He
+was furnished with quotations from alleged Socialist writers on the
+question of religion. Then a woman from Boston who had once been a
+Socialist, sent a note to me--I was presiding--asking for extended
+time. I was the only Socialist in the place who knew what was going
+on.
+
+The newspapers had all been "tipped off," as the _Herald_ reporter
+told me later. The discussion waxed so warm that fifty people were on
+their feet at once, shouting for recognition.
+
+Humour in such a situation is a tremendous relief. I managed to inject
+some into the discussion and it was like grease to a cartwheel. In a
+humorous way I turned the light on the Civic Federation and the
+audience laughed. Next day every newspaper in New York had an account
+of the meeting. From that time until the end of the first year of the
+meeting the papers reported not only what happened but much that never
+happened. Most of them were humorous in their treatment. The Marceline
+of the press gave us much space in its characteristic style.
+
+The result was that we were forced to have policemen guard the door so
+that when the chapel was full the crowd unable to gain admittance
+could be dispersed. We admitted by ticket for some weeks, but the
+plan didn't work well. Of course, many who came were moved solely by
+curiosity, but for two years the chapel has been filled at every
+meeting. On the wildest winter nights it looked sometimes as if the
+choir was to be my only audience, yet when the after-meeting opened,
+the place was as full as usual.
+
+The Sunday evening service is designed to be of special helpfulness to
+working people; it is an extra service permitted by the canons of the
+church, and in this instance directed to helpful and constructive
+social criticism. The discourses have not been theological in any
+sense, but I have seen men and women converted, experiencing a change
+of heart in exactly the same manner as people are converted in revival
+meetings. The same energies of the soul were released and the same
+results obtained with this extra consideration, that the change was a
+new attitude toward society as well as a change of heart.
+
+Men and women who had not been in church since they were children have
+found an atmosphere--a spiritual atmosphere--that has been a distinct
+help to them during the week. There have been unique examples of this
+that cannot be recorded or catalogued. If we were padding a year-book,
+bolstering a creed or attracting men merely to put our tag on them the
+meetings would have waned long ago, for the class of people who attend
+are quick to discover undercurrents or ulterior motives.
+
+The spiritual atmosphere is created by a combination of forces. The
+picture of the Ascension by La Farge has contributed not a little to
+it--even to people to whom the circumstance was a myth. The
+architecture and music contributed much.
+
+We held the after-meeting in the church one night--to accommodate
+hundreds of people who couldn't get into the chapel. The meeting was a
+failure. The most radically minded men told me that they couldn't talk
+in the church.
+
+"Why?" I asked one man.
+
+"---- if I know, but it took the fight out of me!"
+
+It took the fight out of all. So we went back to the chapel. One man
+whom I have known for years as a Socialist agitator who fought the
+intellectuals in his party and was a materialist of the most radical
+kind made this statement at the last meeting of the first year:
+
+"I appreciate the courage of Mr. Grant in opening this church to the
+people and opening its pulpit to a representative of the people. I am
+grateful for the fine fellowship, the freedom of discussion, the
+music, the beautiful architecture and the inspiration that comes from
+such contact, but these are the smallest of what has come to me during
+the past winter. I am the son of an orthodox Rabbi but I have been an
+atheist all my life. I have been over-bitter and destructive in my
+addresses. I have learned something here. I did not expect nor did I
+want to, but I have. I am now a believer in the immortality of the
+soul and I look forward to life instead of death. This has influenced
+my work, my life. Instead of a hundred words against human slavery to
+one for human freedom I speak a hundred for human freedom to one
+against human slavery. That may seem small to you. It's big to
+me--it's a new psychology."
+
+A school teacher, a brilliant young Jewess, said: "The inspiration of
+that service in the church lasts all week with my scholars. I am worth
+twice as much as I was to the public schools."
+
+A letter from a trained nurse says: "I am going away for the summer,
+but before I go I want you to know how much of a blessing your service
+has been to me, and to both physicians and nurses in this hospital,
+for we have all been at one time or another, and we have always talked
+over your topics with interest and profit."
+
+During the first year we had a tremendous stimulus in the meetings
+from the active participation of four of the most prominent
+theosophists in the country--two of whom are members of the vestry.
+They sharpened the line between spiritual and material things. They
+brought to the notice of working-class Socialists the essential things
+of the soul. They made the meetings a melting-pot in which the finest,
+best and most permanent things were made to stand out distinctly. The
+world affords not a better field either for the testing or propagating
+of their philosophy, but they did not come the second year and we
+missed them very much.
+
+There was a good deal of misunderstanding about the meetings, arising
+from garbled newspaper reports. The newspaper reporter has a bias for
+things off colour--buzzard-like, he sees only the carrion--at least he
+is trained to report only the carrion--this always against his will.
+So we were kept explaining to men and women of the church who had not
+been able to attend and see for themselves. There was not only
+misunderstanding but prejudice. I came in contact with it in quarters
+the most unlikely. The people of independent means in the Church of
+the Ascension have social ideals, those of the working class who are
+in the church have none--none whatever, and what prejudice I found
+came from those who had never contributed anything to the church but
+their presence, and to whom the church from their childhood had been
+an almshouse, a hospital, and a place of amusement.
+
+These were the people, baptized and confirmed Christians, who spoke
+with bitterness and a sneer of the evening meetings because the
+majority of the attendants were Jews. The other phase of their
+prejudice was against Socialism--which they supposed to be a process
+of "dividing up." My chief encouragement came from the richest people
+in the church, the sneer came from the poorest.
+
+The range of topics was as wide as the interests of human life. The
+speakers were the leading men of New York and distinguished visitors
+from other lands. One of the earliest speakers was Mrs. Cobden
+Sanderson, the daughter of Richard Cobden and the intimate friend of
+William Morris. Capitalism was represented by Professor J.B. Clark,
+Dr. Thomas R. Slicer and Herman Robinson of the American Federation of
+Labour. There were many others, of course, but these were the best
+known. The Socialist leaders were W.J. Ghent, Rufus Weeks, Gaylord
+Wilshire and R.W. Bruére. Exponents of individualism were many, and
+most of them were brilliant. The most powerful address on behalf of
+labour was made by R. Fulton Cutting. There has been no attempt to
+bait an ecclesiastical hook to catch the masses. We have tried to make
+men think and to act on their best thought.
+
+This venture in ecclesiology is not the democratization of a church.
+It is the leadership of a rector--Mr. Grant is an ecclesiastical
+statesman--he has a strong cabinet in his vestry. Men who, having made
+big ventures in the business world, are not averse to an occasional
+venture in matters not directly in their line. He has enough reaction
+among them to keep the balance level.
+
+The Church of the Ascension is the real Cathedral of New York. What
+matters it about Canon, Chapter, Dean and Prebend? A cathedral is a
+church of the people--all the people!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+MY SOCIALISM, MY RELIGION AND MY HOME
+
+
+My vision spiritual came to me out of the unknown. The facts and
+experiences of life led me to Socialism. In each case it was a
+rebirth.
+
+"The Way" of Jesus was at first a state of mind; it had no relation to
+a book; it had no connection with a church. Socialism is a passion for
+the regeneration of society, it is a state of mind, a point of view.
+The religion of the peasant Saviour and the movement for industrial
+democracy expand as they are understood. Both thrive under opposition
+and are retarded only by unfaithful friends. I caught the spirit, then
+studied the forms. I got tired of doling out alms. It became degrading
+to me either to take them from the rich or to give them to the poor.
+Almsgiving deludes the one and demoralizes the other. I had
+distributed the crumbs that fall from rich men's tables until my soul
+became sick. I expected Lazarus the legion to be grateful; I expected
+him to become pious, to attend church, to number himself with the
+saved, and he didn't.
+
+Almsgiving not only degrades the recipient but the medium also. The
+average minister or missionary is looked upon by the middle and upper
+classes as a sort of refined pauper himself. So, like a mendicant he
+goes to the merchant and trades his piety for a rebate of ten per
+cent.; or he travels on a child's fare on the railroads. I have scores
+of times given away my own clothes and have gone to the missionary
+"Dorcas Room" and fitted myself out with somebody's worn-out garments;
+and I, too, was expected to be grateful and to write of my gratitude
+to the person who, "for Jesus' sake," had cleaned out his cellar or
+garret. In the West I have been the recipient of Home Missionary
+barrels packed in some rich church in New York or New England--annual
+barrels in which there is usually a ten-dollar suit for the
+missionary, bought by some dear old lady to whom all men were
+alike--in size. This whole process is hoary, antiquated, stupid and
+degrading.
+
+My Socialism is the outcome of my desire to make real the dreams I
+have dreamed of God. It came to me, not through Marx or Lassalle, but
+by the way of Moses and Jesus. Twenty years' experience in reform
+movements taught me the hopelessness of reformation from without. It
+was like soldering up a thousand little holes in the bottom of a
+kettle.
+
+For a hundred years men and women have been begging the industrial
+lords to spare the little children of the poor. Have they? Ask the
+census taker. Millions of them are the victims of the sweater--the
+dealer in human endurance. The cure for child labour is justice to the
+father, and justice to the father is his full share of the good things
+of life. As long as he has to pay tribute to a horde of non-producers,
+who have merely invested in his endurance, so long will he be unable
+to keep his child at school.
+
+It is the daughters of the poor that become the victims of
+middle-class lust--Fantine is the daughter of a working man. She is
+multiplied by tens of thousands on the streets of great cities,
+selling her soul for a morsel of bread. We are hardened to that and we
+think we are meriting the approbation of angels when we start a rescue
+mission for her special class.
+
+How pure in the sight of God is poor Fantine when compared with the
+cowards who will not smash the mill of which she is the mere grist.
+Just so long as there is a cash consideration in her life must
+capitalism bear the burden of her sin!
+
+There were millions of men out of work last winter. The political
+parties took no notice. The leaders knew the minds of the electors.
+They knew that those millions of unemployed were too stupid to see any
+connection between government and work.
+
+Mr. Taft was asked in the campaign what a workless, homeless man could
+do to find employment.
+
+"God knows!" was his reply.
+
+Out of this army of the unemployed the ranks of the criminals are
+reinforced, and the search for creature comforts recruits the ranks
+of women who are not fallen, but knocked down. The supreme function of
+the state is to make it easy for citizens to live in harmony with one
+another and hard to be out of joint.
+
+Poverty is the mother curse of the ages. No man suffering from her
+withering, blighting touch can be in harmony with the best. Socialism
+tackles the master job of abolishing it. Not by any fantastic plan of
+redistribution but by giving to the creator all that he creates and to
+the social charges, pensioners and cripples an assurance of life
+without the stigma of pauperism.
+
+Socialism asks for the application of science to the disease of
+poverty. Science has chained the lightning and harnessed the ether
+waves, it has filled the world with horseless carriages and is now
+filling the air with machines that fly like birds. The inventions of
+the last twenty years are modern miracles but the sunken millions of
+our fellowmen never speak through a telephone, never ride in an
+automobile, never send a telegram, never read good books, or see good
+plays! They make all these things. They make them all possible for
+others, but the enjoyment of them is beyond their wildest dreams!
+
+The strength of the social chain cannot be greater than its weakest
+link.
+
+Socialists are grouped around the thin places, the leakages, the
+weaknesses of democracy, and engross themselves in making them
+strong. The propaganda in times past wielded only a sword; now it has
+a trowel. Socialism is a positive force; it is leaven in the lump.
+
+The party has a discipline which often hampers its own progress, but
+in the regimentation of an idea discipline can not be dispensed with.
+There are Socialists who see only the goal--are not willing to see
+anything else or less. There are others who see every step of the way
+and emphasize each step.
+
+"What kind of a Socialist are you?" a rich man asked me the other day.
+
+"Catalogue me with the worst!" I said, "for he who numbers himself
+with the transgressors is in direct apostolic succession."
+
+The Socialists are the only people who seem to have the Bible idea of
+work. The scriptures make no provision for parasites. In the
+commonwealth of Israel everybody worked. When there was a departure
+from this ideal, came the prophet to speak for God and the divine
+order.
+
+Socialists are doing for America what the prophets did for Israel
+thousands of years ago: we are pointing the way to simple and right
+living, to justice, brotherhood and religion. Socialism is not an
+ultimate conception of society: it only paves the way for a divine
+individualism. When the fear of hunger is vanished men will have a
+chance to be individuals.
+
+Men striving all their lives to live--to merely live--have no time, no
+opportunity for a career.
+
+Opposition to the democratic ideal of Socialism is based on ignorance.
+Opponents ask for a mechanical contrivance that will wind up and go
+like a clock. We are asked questions that only our great-grandchildren
+can answer. We are told by the good people that the ideal leaves out
+God. The British Parliament proclaimed that bloodhounds and scalping
+were "means that God and nature had given into its hand." A coal baron
+of Pennsylvania declares that God has entrusted a few men with untold
+wealth and consigned a multitude to degrading poverty--that kind of a
+God the democratic ideal does leave out. He is a God spun out of the
+fertile brain of the materialist. Critics of Socialism assume and
+herald their own patriotism, their devotion to law and order, but they
+are usually men who distrust any extension of the functions of the
+state not directly beneficial to their personal interests.
+
+The Socialists of to-day know that their ideal can not be realized
+during their lifetime; they are people of vision; they are not saying,
+"Lord, Lord," but they are bringing in His Kingdom.
+
+The early Socialists met their worst opposition in a corrupt church
+and their writings were coloured by the conflict. We are asked to
+stand sponsor for all they said. One might as well charge 20th century
+Christians with the horrors of the Inquisition!
+
+We are not even willing to stand sponsor for their economics. Many of
+their prophecies are yet unfulfilled, the currents of thought and
+action are not flowing in the direction they anticipated, but the
+facts they faced have altered little and we moderns have made our own
+diagnosis, and we have decided on a remedy. The remedy is not
+revolution in the historic sense; it is not a cataclysm, it has no
+room for hatred. Its method is evolutionary; its watch-word is
+solidarity, its hope is regeneration.
+
+The process levels up, not down. It has an upward look. It will
+abolish class struggles and divisions. It will usher in a reign of
+peace. Just at present it is a class struggle, a struggle on behalf of
+that social group of labourers on whose back are borne the world's
+heaviest burdens, but it is no more a labour movement than the
+emancipation of the slaves was a Negro movement.
+
+The man who enunciated the doctrine of the class struggle belonged
+only by soul contact to the struggling class. The Socialist appeal is
+made directly to that class, for until it is awakened to its own peril
+and its own need little progress can be made.
+
+Changes in society are like changes in human character: they must have
+their origin in the heart and work outward. It is at the heart of
+things we place our hope and the secret of the social passion to me is
+the knowledge that I am a coöperator with God.
+
+There comes over me occasionally an idea, as I look into the future,
+that the fact may become the mockery of the dream. Our temples are
+built with hands, they are fair to look upon even in the dream, but
+other builders will come and build on other foundations temples of the
+soul more fair, more enduring. Socialism the fact will have the higher
+individualism as the dream; but the conflict will be lifted from the
+sordid plane of the stomach to the realm of mind, heart, and soul.
+
+The apologist of the _status quo_ is of all things the most pitiful.
+If a politician, he has no dream; if a business man, he has no vision;
+if a preacher, he lives in a mausoleum of dead hopes. To these the ten
+commandments sum up the moral order of the universe. The eleventh
+commandment shares the fate of the seed that fell on stony ground.
+
+The worst that a man can do against the democratic ideal is not to
+work for it. He might as well fight against the stars in their
+courses. What does it matter who brings it to pass or how it comes?
+
+To work for it is the thing. To feel the thrill of a
+world-comradeship, a world-endeavour, to be in line with the workers
+and touch hands with men of all creeds, all classes, this is social
+joy, this is incentive for life!
+
+    "Then a man shall work and bethink him, and rejoice in the deeds
+      of his hand,
+    Nor yet come home in the even, too faint and weary to stand.
+    Men in that time a-coming shall work and have no fear
+    For to-morrow's lack of earning and the hunger-wolf a-near.
+    Oh, strange, new wonderful justice! But for whom shall we gather
+      the gain?
+    For ourselves and for each of our fellows, and no hand shall labour
+      in vain.
+    Then all mine and all thine shall be ours and no more shall any
+      man crave
+    For riches that serve for nothing but to fetter a friend for a slave.
+    And what wealth then shall be left us when none shall gather gold
+    To buy his friend in the market and pinch and pine the sold?
+    Nay, what save the lovely city and the little house on the hill,
+    And the wastes and the woodland beauty and the happy fields we till,
+    And the homes of ancient stories, the tombs of the mighty dead,
+    And the wise men seeking out marvels and the poet's teaming head.
+    And the painter's hand of wonder, and the marvellous fiddle-bow,
+    And the banded choirs of music--all those that do and know.
+    For all these shall be ours and all men's, nor shall any lack a share
+    Of the toil and the gain of living in the days when the world grows
+      fair."
+
+In the very advent of my spiritual life I gravitated toward the
+church. There I added to my faith a theology. A theologian is a
+fighter--a doctrinaire. Every item of knowledge I got I sharpened into
+a weapon to confound the Catholics.
+
+Before my nakedness was wholly covered I was shouting with my sect for
+"Queen and Constitution," and I could discuss the historic Episcopate
+before I could write my own name. Then came a hidebound orthodoxy. I
+measured life by a book and for every ill that flesh is heir to I had
+an "appropriate" text. I had a formula for the salvation of the race.
+I divided humanity into two camps--the goats and the sheep. I had a
+literal hell for one crowd and a beautiful heaven for the other. The
+logical result of this was a caste of good (saved) people for whom I
+became a sort of an ecclesiastical attorney. Naturally one outgrows
+such obsolescence. Such archaism has an antidote: it is an open-minded
+study of the life of Jesus. The result of such a study to me was a
+rediscovery of myself, that I think is what Jesus always does for an
+inquiring soul. He is the Supreme Individualist, the Master of
+Personality.
+
+I did not ask him what to wear or how to vote. I did not even ask him
+what was moral or immoral, for these things change with time and place
+and circumstance.
+
+I asked him the old eternal questions of life and death and
+immortality, of God and my neighbour, of sin and service. The answers
+stripped me of fear and gave me a scorn of consequences. The secret of
+Jesus is to find God in the soul of humanity. The cause of Jesus is
+the righting of world wrongs; the religion of Jesus the binding
+together of souls in the solidarity of the race.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Three miles north of Peekskill and two miles east of the Hudson river
+lies this farm place that I have named Happy Hollow. It looks to me as
+if God had just taken a big handful of earth out from between these
+hills of Putnam County and made a shelter here for man and beast.
+
+[Illustration: "Happy Hollow," Mr. Irvine's Present Home Near
+Peekskill, New York]
+
+The Hollow is meadow-land through which runs a brook. Across the
+meadow in front of the house, rises almost perpendicularly a hill five
+hundred feet high. It is clothed now in autumnal glory. On the summit
+there are several bare patches of granite rock surrounded by tall dark
+green cedars that look like forest monks, from my study window. There
+are over two hundred acres, two-thirds of them woodland. Through the
+woods there are miles and miles of old lumber roads over which my
+predecessors have hauled lumber since the days of the Revolution.
+
+"Is there a view of the Hudson River from any of these hills?" I asked
+when buying.
+
+"Somewhere," said the owner, but she was not quite sure.
+
+One day I was exploring the fastnesses and came upon a rock ledge
+standing a hundred feet high. I walked to the edge, pushed the
+branches of the elder bushes aside and out there in front of me lay
+that glorious valley and beyond the valley over the top of my house
+lay the mighty river like an unsheathed sword!
+
+On that ledge I have built a platform of white birch and behind the
+platform a bungalow from the window of which I have a full view of the
+valley, the Westchester County hills and the river. I have named the
+ledge "Ascension Point" in memory of the valued friendships formed at
+the church on Fifth Avenue.
+
+On the edge of the amphitheatre-shaped meadow, beside the old road
+that leads to the river, stands the farmhouse. It is sheltered from
+winter winds by the hills and from summer sun by elm, maple and walnut
+trees.
+
+There is nothing to boast of in the arrangement; it was built quickly
+and not over-well. If the man who planned it had any more taste than a
+cow he must have expressed it on the building of the barn, not on the
+house. It had been heated with stoves for years, but I tore away the
+boards that covered the open fireplaces. I built a cistern on the hill
+and a cesspool down in the meadow, and between them, in a large room
+in the house, arranged a bathroom, a big bathroom, big enough to swing
+a cat around.
+
+I am now knocking a wall down here and there, wiping some outbuildings
+off the map, and by degrees making it habitable throughout the year.
+
+There is a five-acre orchard on the hill east of the house and through
+it runs a brook that can be turned to good account.
+
+I had a population of twenty-five during the summer. They were
+encamped within a few hundred yards of each other in tents, overhauled
+barns, etc. We were all hand-picked Socialists--dreamers of dreams.
+
+Of course we had to eat and as the raw-food fad did not appeal to us
+we had to have a fire on which to cook; and as there was an abundance
+of wood I instituted a wood pile!
+
+To any one about to form a coöperative community I can recommend this
+institution as an infinitely better gauge of human character than
+either the ten commandments or the royal eight-fold pathway! We didn't
+need much wood and there were plenty of men. We had good tools and--I
+was going to say, "wood to burn."
+
+"It was jolly good fun, don't you know," to hack up about three
+sticks; then the woodcutter would have a story to tell or he "had
+something he had left undone for days." There was an atmosphere around
+the pile that affected us as the hookworm affects its victims in some
+Southern communities--we grew listless, dull, flaccid.
+
+The influence was baneful, subtle. None of us ever confessed to being
+affected. It rather emphasized our idealism.
+
+"In the future," said one comrade as he laid the axe down after his
+second stick, "wood will be cut by machinery!" We looked interested.
+"Yes," he said as he rolled a cigarette, "there will be a machine that
+will cut a cord a second!"
+
+"Why don't you invent one?" we asked.
+
+"How can one invent anything in this slave age?" he asked, as he
+glared at us between the curling puffs of smoke.
+
+"That's true," we said, and piped down.
+
+He went over to the well to get a drink. The housekeeper called for
+firewood. He smiled--he was a jolly good-natured chap.
+
+"Keep cool, comrades," he said gently, "it'll be all the same in a
+thousand years!" The axe was blunt. He took it to the grindstone--a
+new patent, with a bicycle seat on it, and there he sat puffing and
+grinding until a neighbour's cow broke into our corn. He dropped the
+axe and went after the cow.
+
+The housekeeper kept calling for wood. Another comrade was pressed
+into the killing ether and he smashed and hacked for five minutes;
+then he straightened himself up and, said, with a look of disgust on
+his face, "That's a mucker's job!"
+
+"Who will be the muckers under Socialism?" I asked mildly.
+
+"The dull, brainless clods who can do nothing else!" he said.
+
+Just then our neighbour's hired man, a Russian muzik, passed with his
+ox-team. He wore a smock of his own making and a pair of shoes he had
+made of hickory bark.
+
+"That," said the comrade at the block in a stage whisper, "is the type
+that will do the rough work. You couldn't wake that thing up with a
+plug of dynamite!"
+
+We watched Michael and his ox-team as they lumbered lazily along the
+lane.
+
+[Illustration: "Happy Hollow" in the Winter, Looking From the House]
+
+We had one poet in our midst--just one. He had lately completed a poem
+on the glories of our valley. Two men stooped to pick up the axe.
+Gaston and Alphonse like, they stooped together. As they did so the
+poet came along with a beaming face. "Stop!" he said; "listen, boys,
+listen."
+
+We all straightened up, and stood at attention. He read:
+
+    "Not far from turmoil, strife, the mountain-vying waves
+      Of life's antagonisms that delude the world--
+    Amidst elysian valleys, slopes, majestic hills and caves
+      That mark the path where ages wrought their wrath and hurled
+    The crumbling sinews of the soil down to defeat,
+      To linger in the depth as symbols that all power
+    Is at the will of the Supreme--in this retreat,
+      Filled with the chirping music of the nightly hour,
+    And seeking rest from joyous toil, reward for which
+      Is given by the thought that all is mine, that none
+    Do rob, that love adds to each stroke its rich
+      And sweetening cheer: In such rare world that I have won----"
+
+The housekeeper rudely broke the spell!
+
+"You comrades had better eat that poetry for dinner," she said.
+
+We all looked and all understood--all save the poet. He looked aghast,
+thinking in Yiddish.
+
+"Go on," somebody said, but the poet was a sensitive youth and could
+sense an atmosphere quicker than most of us.
+
+"Wood," said the housekeeper, pointing at the few sticks lying around
+the block.
+
+"Ah," exclaimed the poet as he took up the axe, "you shall have it,
+comrade--have it good and plenty."
+
+He laid the poem in the white birch frame against a stone and
+proceeded. We moved away, every man to his own place.
+
+In a community where the communers have to chop the fire-wood, canned
+salmon is a good standby.
+
+That day we had salmon for dinner.
+
+Just as a matter of encouragement I had the artist of the community
+print a Latin motto in fine Gothic characters:
+
+  "LABORARE EST ORARE"
+
+This I tacked to the block at the woodpile. We had one orator in the
+community--just one.
+
+Next morning, when the motto stared him in the face, he said: "Gee
+whiz! that's great--Labour is oratory!" It was a blow at a venture in
+the interpretation of Latin and instead of wood to cook the breakfast
+we had a speech on the labour of the orator!
+
+The idea that I was giving land away got noised abroad, and a thousand
+letters of inquiry came to me. Most of the inquirers asked if I gave
+"deeds" to the land.
+
+Others got an idea that I had a coöperative colony and all they had to
+do was to come and plant themselves on the land. I never intended to
+organize a colony but I did invite some families to enjoy the summer
+on the farm.
+
+I shall not ask as many next year for I have no talent as a manager
+and it takes more management than I imagined to look after even half a
+dozen families.
+
+I had a number of parties from the city during the summer--the largest
+being from the Church of the Ascension and the Cosmopolitan Church.
+From Ascension Church came a young men's club on Decoration day. I
+introduced the boys to their first experience in archery.
+
+The people from the Cosmopolitan Church came on a Sunday and I took
+them over the hill to call on my friends, the Franciscan monks, of the
+society of the Atonement. The Franciscans are my nearest neighbours on
+the north and on the south is my neighbour Mr. Epstein, a Russian
+Jewish farmer.
+
+From the north we have had an intellectual and moral fellowship and
+from the south the comradeship of the soil.
+
+To Mr. Epstein's bull we are indebted for the element of excitement--a
+very necessary element if one could get it in any sort of orderly
+arrangement.
+
+The bull objected to Mr. Epstein interfering in what might be called
+his (the bull's) family affairs. He tossed his owner into the air
+three times one afternoon in my meadow and, but for the timely
+interference of a dog, would have gathered the farmer to his fathers.
+Several of our community saw the incident, but the vibrations had a
+more enervating effect than even those around the woodpile, and being
+armed only with the first law of nature they left the honours of the
+incident to the dog.
+
+The following Sunday morning I saw a crowd in Mr. Epstein's orchard.
+It looked like a small county fair. A cow doctor had been imported to
+perform an operation on the bull. Mr. Epstein and his muzik, Michael,
+almost came to blows in trying to decide which of them should put the
+yoke on the bull's neck. No decent farmer will stand aloof in such a
+crisis: so I threw my coat off and offered my services. The patient
+made serious objections to me, but permitted the yoke to be adjusted
+by a day labourer named Harvey Outhouse.
+
+This Holstein aristocrat had a terrible come-down. He used to stalk
+around as if he owned the earth, but now he is a common "hewer of wood
+and drawer of water" like ourselves.
+
+I see him occasionally, now, pulling a heavy load of stones or hay
+past our place as meekly and quiet as the dull ox by his side, and
+involuntarily I exclaim: "How are the mighty fallen!"
+
+I have a horse and a cow. The artist of the community, who remains as
+one of my family, took charge of the cow and the care of the horse was
+distributed among the rest of us. The house is made comfortable and
+snug for the winter and I have settled down here for the remainder of
+my life.
+
+With my family are these two comrades, the artist and the mechanic,
+and we are in complete harmony in work and ideals. I have been a gypsy
+most of my life. I am to have a respite now. Here in this corner of
+Putnam County I have found my happy hills of rest. My work will always
+be in the city but here my home is to me and here I am to do my
+writing, thinking, living. In the solitude of these woods I am to find
+inspiration and quiet, here I am to dream my dreams and see my
+visions. I am forty-seven years of age now, but I have the health and
+vigour of a boy and I feel that for me life has just really begun. I
+have but one ambition: it is not wealth, or fame, or even rest. It is
+to be of service to my fellow-men; for that is my highest conception
+of service to God.
+
+This memoir is but a catalogue of events--a series of milestones that
+I have passed. My life has been at times such a tempest and at other
+times such a calm, and between these extremes I have failed so often
+and my successes have been so phenomenal that the world would not
+believe a true recital of the facts, even though I were able to write
+them.
+
+The conflicts of the soul, the scalding tears that bespeak the
+breaking heart, can not be reduced to print. Nevertheless, I hope that
+what I have written may be of encouragement to my fellow-travellers
+along the highway of life, especially men who mistakenly imagine they
+have been worsted in the fight.
+
+There is a great truth in the doctrine of the economic interpretation
+of history but there is also truth, and a mighty truth, in the
+spiritual interpretation of life. The awakened human soul is
+indissolubly inknit with the warp and woof of things divine. It fights
+not alone, it is linked with God.
+
+    "No man is born into the world whose work
+    Is not born with him; there is always work
+    And tools to work withal for those who will.
+    And blessed are the horny hands of toil!
+    The busy world shoves angrily aside
+    The man who stands with arms akimbo set,
+    Until occasion tells him what to do;
+    And he who waits to have his task worked out--
+    Shall die and leave his errand unfulfilled."
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+    +--------------------------------------------------------------+
+    | Typographical errors corrected in text:                      |
+    |                                                              |
+    | Page 162: carfully replaced with carefully                   |
+    | Page 297: guage replaced with gauge                          |
+    +--------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM THE BOTTOM UP***
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