diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17881-8.txt | 8227 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17881-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 163609 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17881-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 1997590 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17881-h/17881-h.htm | 8857 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17881-h/images/frontis.jpg | bin | 0 -> 56030 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17881-h/images/imagep004.jpg | bin | 0 -> 114484 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17881-h/images/imagep008.jpg | bin | 0 -> 141603 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17881-h/images/imagep038.jpg | bin | 0 -> 103096 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17881-h/images/imagep050.jpg | bin | 0 -> 115938 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17881-h/images/imagep054.jpg | bin | 0 -> 148953 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17881-h/images/imagep110.jpg | bin | 0 -> 105498 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17881-h/images/imagep146.jpg | bin | 0 -> 100351 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17881-h/images/imagep238.jpg | bin | 0 -> 108188 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17881-h/images/imagep248.jpg | bin | 0 -> 128477 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17881-h/images/imagep252.jpg | bin | 0 -> 110006 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17881-h/images/imagep258a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 52981 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17881-h/images/imagep258b.jpg | bin | 0 -> 91916 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17881-h/images/imagep270.jpg | bin | 0 -> 98499 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17881-h/images/imagep276.jpg | bin | 0 -> 115025 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17881-h/images/imagep294.jpg | bin | 0 -> 113341 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17881-h/images/imagep298.jpg | bin | 0 -> 123060 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17881.txt | 8227 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17881.zip | bin | 0 -> 163578 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
26 files changed, 25327 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/17881-8.txt b/17881-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5e9294c --- /dev/null +++ b/17881-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8227 @@ +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 + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 17881-h.htm or 17881-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/8/8/17881/17881-h/17881-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/8/8/17881/17881-h.zip) + + + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + | 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*** + + +******* This file should be named 17881-8.txt or 17881-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/8/8/17881 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://www.gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: +https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/17881-8.zip b/17881-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6527559 --- /dev/null +++ b/17881-8.zip diff --git a/17881-h.zip b/17881-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..39d791c --- /dev/null +++ b/17881-h.zip diff --git a/17881-h/17881-h.htm b/17881-h/17881-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b1899a6 --- /dev/null +++ b/17881-h/17881-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8857 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of From the Bottom Up, by Alexander Irvine</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .5em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .5em; + text-indent: 1em; + } + H1 { + text-align: center; font-family: garamond, serif; /* all headings centered */ + } + H1.pg { + text-align: center; font-family: Times-Roman, serif; /* all headings centered */ + } + H5,H6 { + text-align: center; font-family: garamond, serif; /* all headings centered */ + } + H2 { + text-align: center; font-family: garamond, serif; /* centered and coloured */ + } + H3 { + text-align: center; font-family: garamond, serif; /* centered and coloured */ + } + H3.pg { + text-align: center; font-family: Times-Roman, serif; /* all headings centered */ + } + H4 { + text-align: center; font-family: garamond, serif; /* all headings centered */ + } + HR { width: 33%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + a {text-decoration: none} /* no lines under links */ + div.center {text-align: center;} + div.content {width: 69%; margin-left: auto; text-align: left;} + div.centered {text-align: center;} /* work around for IE centering with CSS problem part 1 */ + div.centered table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;} /* work around for IE centering with CSS problem part 2 */ + + .cen {text-align: center; text-indent: 0em;} /* centering paragraphs */ + .sc {font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 95%;} /* small caps, normal size */ + .noin {text-indent: 0em;} /* no indenting */ + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .note {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} /* footnote */ + .block {margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;} /* block indent */ + .right {text-align: right; padding-right: 2em;} /* right aligning paragraphs */ + .totoc {position: absolute; right: 2%; font-size: 75%; text-align: right;} /* Table of contents anchor */ + .totoi {position: absolute; right: 2%; font-size: 75%; text-align: right;} /* to Table of Illustrations link */ + .img {text-align: center; padding: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} /* centering images */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-left: 1em; font-size: smaller; float: right; clear: right;} + .tdr {text-align: right;} /* aligning cell content to the right */ + .tdrp {text-align: right; padding-right: 1em;} /* aligning cell content to the right */ + .tdc {text-align: center;} /* aligning cell content to the center */ + .tdl {text-align: left;} /* aligning cell content to the left */ + .tdlsc {text-align: left; font-variant: small-caps;} /* aligning cell content and small caps */ + .tdrsc {text-align: right; font-variant: small-caps;} /* aligning cell content and small caps */ + .tdcsc {text-align: center; font-variant: small-caps;} /* aligning cell content and small caps */ + .tr {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-top: 5%; margin-bottom: 5%; padding: 1em; background-color: #f6f2f2; color: black; border: dotted black 1px;} /* transcriber's notes */ + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + visibility: hidden; + position: absolute; right: 2%; font-size: 70%; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 90%;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: text-top; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + hr.full { width: 100%; + margin-top: 0em; + margin-bottom: 0em; + border: solid black; + height: 5px; } + pre {font-size: x-small;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h1 class="pg">The Project Gutenberg eBook, From the Bottom Up, by Alexander Irvine</h1> +<pre> +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 <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: From the Bottom Up</p> +<p> The Life Story of Alexander Irvine</p> +<p>Author: Alexander Irvine</p> +<p>Release Date: February 27, 2006 [eBook #17881]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM THE BOTTOM UP***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3 class="pg">E-text prepared by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Jeannie Howse,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (http://www.pgdp.net/)</h3> +<p> </p> +<div class="tr"> +<p class="cen" style="font-weight: bold;">Transcriber's Note:</p> +<br /> +<p class="noin">A number of obvious typographical errors have been corrected in this text.<br /> +For a complete list, please see the <a href="#TN">bottom of this document</a>.</p> +</div> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h1>FROM THE BOTTOM UP</h1> + +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="frontis" id="frontis"></a> +<div class="img" style="width: 50%;"> +<a href="images/frontis.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/frontis.jpg" width="85%" alt="Alexander Irvine, 1909" /></a><br /> +<p class="right" style="font-size: 75%; margin-top: .2em; margin-bottom: .2em;"><i>Photograph by Vanderweyde</i></p> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Alexander Irvine, 1909<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h1>FROM THE BOTTOM UP</h1> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h2>THE LIFE STORY +OF ALEXANDER IRVINE</h2> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h4>ILLUSTRATED</h4> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h5>NEW YORK<br /> +DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY<br /> +1910</h5> + +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + + +<h6>ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION<br /> +INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN<br /> +<br /> +COPYRIGHT, 1909, 1910 BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY<br /> +PUBLISHED, FEBRUARY, 1910</h6> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h4>TO<br /> +<br /> +MAUDE HAZEN IRVINE</h4> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="toc" id="toc"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span> + +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> +<br /> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="70%" summary="Table of Contents"> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp" width="10%"><span style="font-size: 70%;">CHAPTER</span></td> + <td width="80%"> </td> + <td class="tdrp" width="10%"><span style="font-size: 70%;">PAGE</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">I.</a></td> + <td class="tdl">Boyhood in Ireland</td> + <td class="tdrp">3</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">II.</a></td> + <td class="tdl">The Beginning of an Education</td> + <td class="tdrp">24</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">III.</a></td> + <td class="tdl">On Board a Man o' War</td> + <td class="tdrp">40</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV.</a></td> + <td class="tdl">Problems and Places</td> + <td class="tdrp">53</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">V.</a></td> + <td class="tdl">The Gordon Relief Expedition</td> + <td class="tdrp">63</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI.</a></td> + <td class="tdl">Beginnings in the New World</td> + <td class="tdrp">82</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII.</a></td> + <td class="tdl">Fishing for Men on the Bowery</td> + <td class="tdrp">90</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII.</a></td> + <td class="tdl">A Bunk-house and Some Bunk-house Men</td> + <td class="tdrp">105</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IX.</a></td> + <td class="tdl">The Waif's Story</td> + <td class="tdrp">119</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">X.</a></td> + <td class="tdl">I Meet Some Outcasts</td> + <td class="tdrp">126</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">XI.</a></td> + <td class="tdl">A Church in the Ghetto</td> + <td class="tdrp">144</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">XII.</a></td> + <td class="tdl">Working Way Down</td> + <td class="tdrp">156</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">XIII.</a></td> + <td class="tdl">Life and Doubt on the Bottoms</td> + <td class="tdrp">166</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">XIV.</a></td> + <td class="tdl">My Fight in New Haven</td> + <td class="tdrp">183</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">XV.</a></td> + <td class="tdl">A Visit Home</td> + <td class="tdrp">193<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">XVI.</a></td> + <td class="tdl">New Haven Again—and a Fight</td> + <td class="tdrp">207</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">XVII.</a></td> + <td class="tdl">I Join a Labour Union and Have Something to Do with Strikes</td> + <td class="tdrp">213</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">XVIII.</a></td> + <td class="tdl">I Become a Socialist</td> + <td class="tdrp">235</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">XIX.</a></td> + <td class="tdl">I Introduce Jack London to Yale</td> + <td class="tdrp">250</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">XX.</a></td> + <td class="tdl">My Experiences as a Labourer in the Muscle + Market of the South</td> + <td class="tdrp">256</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">XXI.</a></td> + <td class="tdl">At the Church of the Ascension</td> + <td class="tdrp">274</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">XXII.</a></td> + <td class="tdl">My Socialism, My Religion and My Home</td> + <td class="tdrp">285</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="toi" id="toi"></a><hr /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span> +<h3>ILLUSTRATIONS</h3> +<br /> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="70%" summary="Illustrations"> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" width="80%"><a href="#frontis">Alexander Irvine, 1909</a></td> + <td class="tdrp" width="20%"><i>Frontispiece</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdrp"><span style="font-size: 70%;">FACING PAGE</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#imagep004">Mr. Irvine's Birthplace</a></td> + <td class="tdrp">4</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#imagep008">Where Irvine Spent His Boyhood</a></td> + <td class="tdrp">8</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#imagep038">Alexander Irvine as a Marine</a></td> + <td class="tdrp">38</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#imagep050">Officers of H.M.S. "Alexandra" Ashore at Cattaro</a></td> + <td class="tdrp">50</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#imagep054">A Page from Mr. Irvine's Diary</a></td> + <td class="tdrp">54</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#imagep110">Dowling, Tinker and Colporter</a></td> + <td class="tdrp">110</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#imagep146">Alexander Irvine. From a sketch by Juliet Thompson</a></td> + <td class="tdrp">146</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#imagep238">State Convention of the Socialist Party of Connecticut</a></td> + <td class="tdrp">238</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#imagep248">The Lunch Hour in an Interborough Shop</a></td> + <td class="tdrp">248</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#imagep252">Alexander Irvine and Jack London</a></td> + <td class="tdrp">252</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#imagep258a">In Muckers' Camp in Alabama</a></td> + <td class="tdrp">258</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#imagep258b">Irvine and Three Other Muckers as They Left Greenwich + Street for the South</a></td> + <td class="tdrp">258<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</a></span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#imagep270">Irvine, Punching Logs in the Gulf of Mexico, 1907</a></td> + <td class="tdrp">270</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#imagep276">The Church of the Ascension</a></td> + <td class="tdrp">276</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#imagep294">"Happy Hollow," Mr. Irvine's Present Home Near + Peekskill, New York</a></td> + <td class="tdrp">294</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><a href="#imagep298">Happy Hollow in the Winter, Looking from the House</a></td> + <td class="tdrp">298</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1"></a></span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2"></a></span><br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span> +<h2>FROM THE BOTTOM UP</h2> + +<h3>CHAPTER I<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>BOYHOOD IN IRELAND</h4> +<br /> + +<p>The world in which I first found myself was a world of hungry people.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep004" id="imagep004"></a> +<a href="images/imagep004.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep004.jpg" width="75%" alt="Mr. Irvine's Birthplace" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Mr. Irvine's Birthplace<br />There are four different houses +in the picture. The third door from the left is that of the house in +which he was born.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span>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 <i>The Weekly Budget</i>. 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; <i>that</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Shut up yer mouth!" said my father.</p> + +<p>"It's a hymn tune," I replied.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>ex parte</i> +judgment which a look at the other fellow might have modified.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep008" id="imagep008"></a> +<a href="images/imagep008.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep008.jpg" width="80%" alt="Where Mr. Irvine Spent His Boyhood" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Where Mr. Irvine Spent His Boyhood<br />and the pig-sty that +never had a pig<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> day. My mother said I looked "purty," and kissed me as I went out +of the door.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>When I told my sister about these strange happenings of the heart, she +looked very anxiously into my eyes, and said:</p> + +<p>"'Deed, I just think ye're goin' mad."</p> + +<p>Before leaving the farm, I experienced an incident which, although of +a different character, equalled in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> its intensity and beauty my +awakening to what, for lack of a better term, I called a religious +life.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>This was the advent of a new life to me. I was taken in hand by the +head groom and fitted out with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> left +for the support of my brothers and sisters, who were still in dire +poverty.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> taste +of—a life where people had time to think, and to live a clean, +normal, human life.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span><br /> +<h3>CHAPTER II<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>THE BEGINNING OF AN EDUCATION</h4> +<br /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The depot is on the edge of the sea, and the sea<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> desire for +such amusement, and frankly told him so; but he was not to be put off.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>On learning of my plight, he laughed loudly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> 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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> +thicker, and my manner just as diffident and modest as possible.</p> + +<p>"Oh, certainly," he replied, chuckling to himself.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!"</p> + +<p>The man got up, and was somewhat more cautious,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> and +particularly pronunciation and enunciation, were preachers and +lecturers.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> 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:</p> + +<div class="block"><p style="font-size: 90%; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em;">"'What would you do, John, if you were shut up here, and had to +get over the yew hedge? You could not climb it.'</p> + +<p style="font-size: 90%; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em;">"'I know that, and therefore I should not waste time in trying.'</p> + +<p style="font-size: 90%; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em;">"'Would you give up, then?'</p> + +<p style="font-size: 90%; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em;">"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.'"</p></div> + +<p>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:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"That low man seeks a little thing to do,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Sees it and does it:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This high man with a great thing to pursue,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Dies ere he knows it.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That low man goes on adding one to one,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His hundred's soon hit;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This high man, aiming at a million,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Misses an unit."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The most powerful speaker I ever heard was Charles Bradlaugh. I +attended one of his lectures one Sunday afternoon in a large +auditorium in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> 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."</p> + +<p>He had been a soldier himself, and, I supposed, as I stood there in my +scarlet tunic, Glengarry cap in hand, Bradlaugh became reminiscent.</p> + +<p>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?"</p> + +<p>He rose from his chair, came forward, laid his hand on my shoulder, +and amid a most impressive silence, said:</p> + +<p>"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!'"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> a brother +officer who was very much interested in religious work among soldiers, +and directed me to his quarters.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> had pushed me out of one stage, and, by inviting me to +render an account of myself to him, inspired me into another.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Alexandra</i>—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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Condor</i>!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> +previous day. My heart almost stopped beating when my name was called +a second time.</p> + +<p>"A mistake was made——"</p> + +<p>The officer got no farther.</p> + +<p>"I knew it, begorra!" I exclaimed, with flushed face and beating +heart.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>I stood still, motionless, silent.</p> + +<p>"A mistake was made yesterday," he continued, "in appointing you to +the <i>Condor</i>. You are to go, instead, with a detachment to the +<i>Alexandra</i>, flagship of the Mediterranean Squadron."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep038" id="imagep038"></a> +<a href="images/imagep038.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep038.jpg" width="48%" alt="Alexander Irvine as a Marine" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Alexander Irvine as a Marine, at the Age of Nineteen<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>"Boys," I said, "here's yer last chance to oblige an Irishman!"</p> + +<p>"What is it, Pat?" half a dozen shouted in unison.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>The only answer was a loud outburst of applause and laughter.</p> + +<p>In my exuberance, I danced an Irish hornpipe, and my career in the +barrack-room was over.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a><hr /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span><br /> +<h3>CHAPTER III<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>ON BOARD A MAN O' WAR</h4> +<br /> + +<p>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 <i>Alexandra</i> 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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> 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."</p> + +<p>"Suppose the Lord should come now and find you reading that; what +would you say to Him?"</p> + +<p>My reply added to their sorrow.</p> + +<p>"I should say, 'Begorra, Yer Honour, it's a bully good story!'"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>The social centre for a portion of the rank and file was a sailors' +institute. As this was a temperance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> 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'."</p> + +<p>"What is it?" asked the sailmaker.</p> + +<p>"'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!"</p> + +<p>"Ye're all wrong!" said the sailmaker.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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!"</p> + +<p>The only answer I got was a string of vile oaths as he staggered to +his feet. I pleaded with him to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> 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:</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep050" id="imagep050"></a> +<a href="images/imagep050.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep050.jpg" width="90%" alt="Officers of H.M.S. Alexandra" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Officers of H.M.S. <i>Alexandra</i>, Ashore at Cattaro<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>"Hey, Sandy, shoot off one of them things to Mary, will ye?"</p> + +<p>And the thing was done.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> 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:</p> + +<p>"Gee, but isn't He coming with a bang!"</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a><hr /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span><br /> +<h3>CHAPTER IV<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>PROBLEMS AND PLACES</h4> +<br /> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> 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!"</p> + +<p>"Where is he going?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep054" id="imagep054"></a> +<a href="images/imagep054.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep054.jpg" width="48%" alt="A Page from Mr. Irvine's Diary" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">A Page from Mr. Irvine's Diary<br /> +Kept while serving on H.M.S. <i>Alexandra</i><span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>"Strike lower yards and top masts," was the order, "and clear the +decks for action!"</p> + +<p>"Away aloft!" he roared, as the wind soughed through the rigging, and +a moment later I heard—"Bear out on the yard-arm!"</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>"Have you a signal man by the name of Hicks—Billy Hicks—on board?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, what about him?"</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<div class="block"> +<p class="noin"><i>"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></p> +</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The most revolting, disgusting and degrading thing I ever heard talked +about on a man o' war<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>in camera</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> by which they become part +of a war machine they lose that individual freedom that is the boast +of the Anglo-Saxon race.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a><hr /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span><br /> +<h3>CHAPTER V<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>THE GORDON RELIEF EXPEDITION</h4> +<br /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>"I will give you all I possess if you will let me go in your place."</p> + +<p>"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 +<i>Bokhara</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>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!</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> godsend, for it meant either death or +relief from the game of waiting.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> 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:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So 'ere's to you, Fuzzy-Wuzzy, at your 'ome in the Soudan;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You're a pore benighted 'eathen but a first-class fightin' man;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An' 'ere's to you, Fuzzy-Wuzzy, with your 'ayrick 'ead of 'air—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You big black boundin' beggar—for you broke a British square!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>I had some books with me, but the power to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> 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!</p> + +<p>Osman Digna's men were stealthy. They hid behind the furze bushes in +the darkness so often,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> 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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> 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!</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>The journey home on a transport was a continuation of the misery of +the desert. What the desert<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"Get t'ell out of 'ere! I 'aven't won a penny since you've been +watching us."</p> + +<p>The other men laughed and I moved away,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> excusing myself as I +departed; but before I was out of hearing, one of the men addressed +the speaker and said:</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"He was missing on the field," I replied.</p> + +<p>"'E's dead," said the man.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"Tell Irvine the anchor holds!"</p> + +<p>I was moved, of course, by the recital of this story; so was the man +who told it.</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> + +<p>"What in 'ell did 'e mean by th' anchor 'oldin'?" the man asked.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>He looked at me for a moment with a stern, hard face, then he said:</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> +Balliol"—Benjamin Jowett—was the greatest and the most permanent +thing I received.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>My first lecture was given in the town hall at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"What a dastardly shame!"</p> + +<p>I gripped him by the hands, and said, "You, my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> 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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> + +<h3>CHAPTER VI<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>BEGINNINGS IN THE NEW WORLD</h4> +<br /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> to the janitor's door, but before I could +open my mouth, his wife said: "What's up?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, the job's all right," I replied, "but what I object to is the way +you do your whispering!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You look as if you thought God was dead!" he said, smiling.</p> + +<p>"He appears to be," I replied.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Did you see that big fellow in a gray suit?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Who is he?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. McBurney."</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> + +<p>"The man whose name is on your letterhead?"</p> + +<p>"The same."</p> + +<p>"Great guns! and to think that I've been monkeying all these weeks +with a man like you—pardon me, brother!"</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"Well, what did you do yesterday?"</p> + +<p>"I taught a Bible Class, led a people's meeting, and preached once," +was my reply. He looked dumbfounded.</p> + +<p>"Do you do that often?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"As often as I get a chance," I answered.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> conscience, and it would not permit him to dishonestly keep books, +which his employers wanted him to do, and he quit.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What are your qualifications?" the manager asked.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> + +<h3>CHAPTER VII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>FISHING FOR MEN ON THE BOWERY</h4> +<br /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>There were from sixty to seventy of them on the Bowery when I began my +work. These I visited<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You don't seem to know who I am," he said. I confessed my ignorance.</p> + +<p>"Well," he said, "I'm Connelly, the prize fighter!"</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> + +<p>"Then you're what your profession calls a 'bruiser'."</p> + +<p>"Sure!" he replied.</p> + +<p>"Probably you are not aware, Mr. Connelly, that the Bible has +something to say about bruisers."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"'The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head.' I suppose +you know who the woman was, Connelly."</p> + +<p>"The Holy Virgin?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> he had never seen +anything quite so bestial, so debauched and so low as the bunk-house +on Mulberry Street.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>The words had scarcely escaped my lips when a man by the name of Tim +Grogan stood up and accepted the challenge.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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—</p> + +<p>"Begorra, mister, the hardest work for sure is no work at all, at +all!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Sir," I said to the clerk, "you are unaccustomed to giving credit, I +know; but perhaps you might<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> suspend your rule for once and trust us +to the amount of five cents?"</p> + +<p>"You don't talk like a bum," he said, "but you look like one."</p> + +<p>I thanked him for the compliment to my language, but insisted on my +request.</p> + +<p>"Well, what is it?" asked the clerk with somewhat of a sneer.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>He looked curiously at me for a moment, and said with an oath:</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Nothing doing," said the floorwalker, as I asked for the job of +cleaning them; nevertheless, when he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> turned his back, I dropped on my +knees and cleaned a square foot—did it inside of a minute.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"But this one," I said, "will cost you a dime."</p> + +<p>"Why a nickle for this one and a dime for the other?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"What idea?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>"The idea that cleanliness is part of any business man's capital."</p> + +<p>"Well, go ahead."</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, indeed, yer honour," said Tim, "y're a janyus! There's no +doubt about that at all, at all! But——"</p> + +<p>"Go on," I said.</p> + +<p>"I was jist switherin'," said Tim, "what a wontherful thing ut is that +a man kin always hev worruk whin he invints ut."</p> + +<p>"Well, that's worth knowing, Tim," I said, disappointedly. "Did you +learn anything else?"</p> + +<p>"There's jist one thing that you forgot, yer honour."</p> + +<p>"What is it?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Why haven't they?"</p> + +<p>"Ach, begorra, I dunno except for the same raisin that a fish hasn't +no horns!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>This experiment taught me more than it taught<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<br /> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="50%" summary="Sunday Audiences: Trade"> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc" style="padding-bottom: .5em;"><i>Trade</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="80%">Engineer</td> + <td class="tdrp" width="20%">1</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Waiter</td> + <td class="tdrp">1</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Watchman</td> + <td class="tdrp">1</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Labourers</td> + <td class="tdrp">17</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>'Longshoremen</td> + <td class="tdrp">7</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Junkmen</td> + <td class="tdrp">3</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Mechanics</td> + <td class="tdrp">3</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Coal Heavers</td> + <td class="tdrp">18</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Street Peddlers</td> + <td class="tdrp">4</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Beer Helpers</td> + <td class="tdrp">2</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Knife Grinders</td> + <td class="tdrp">4</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Tailors</td> + <td class="tdrp">4</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Cooks</td> + <td class="tdrp">2</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Cigar Makers</td> + <td class="tdrp">2</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Upholsterer</td> + <td class="tdrp">1</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Painter</td> + <td class="tdrp">1</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Butcher</td> + <td class="tdrp">1</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Shoemakers</td> + <td class="tdrp">6</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Gardeners</td> + <td class="tdrp">3</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Gilder</td> + <td class="tdrp">1<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Jeweler</td> + <td class="tdrp">1</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Oysterman</td> + <td class="tdrp">1</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Bronzer</td> + <td class="tdrp">1</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Truckman</td> + <td class="tdrp">1</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Firemen</td> + <td class="tdrp">2</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Last Maker</td> + <td class="tdrp">1</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Farmer</td> + <td class="tdrp">1</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Thieves and Bums of various grades</td> + <td class="tdrp" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted black;">18</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td style="padding-left: 3em;">Total</td> + <td class="tdrp">108</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<br /> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="50%" summary="Sunday Audiences: Trade"> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc" style="padding-bottom: .5em;"><i>Nationality</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="80%">Germans</td> + <td class="tdrp" width="20%">52</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Americans</td> + <td class="tdrp">19</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Irish</td> + <td class="tdrp">22</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>English</td> + <td class="tdrp">4</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Swedish</td> + <td class="tdrp">2</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Austrians</td> + <td class="tdrp">2</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Scotch</td> + <td class="tdrp">2</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Welsh</td> + <td class="tdrp">1</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>French</td> + <td class="tdrp">2</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Greek</td> + <td class="tdrp">1</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Cuban</td> + <td class="tdrp" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted black;">1</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td style="padding-left: 3em;">Total</td> + <td class="tdrp">108</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + + +<br /> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="50%" summary="Sunday Audiences: Trade"> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc" style="padding-bottom: .5em;"><i>Age</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="80%">Between 20 and 30</td> + <td class="tdrp">21</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Between 30 and 40</td> + <td class="tdrp">30</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Between 40 and 50</td> + <td class="tdrp">29</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Between 50 and 60</td> + <td class="tdrp">20</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Between 60 and 70</td> + <td class="tdrp" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted black;">8</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td style="padding-left: 3em;">Total</td> + <td class="tdrp">108</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2">Average age, 41 years</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a><hr /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span><br /> +<h3>CHAPTER VIII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>A BUNK-HOUSE AND SOME BUNK-HOUSE MEN</h4> +<br /> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"Hello, bub, what's de game?"</p> + +<p>"I'm a missionary," I answered.</p> + +<p>"Ye are, eh?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. When I finish cleaning the floor, I am going to attempt to clean +up some other things around here."</p> + +<p>"Me too, hey?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; don't you think you need it?"</p> + +<p>He laughed a hoarse, gutteral laugh, and said:</p> + +<p>"Don't get bughouse, boss. Ye'd wind up just where ye begun—on the +floor."</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"What did ye tink of it, boss, hey?"</p> + +<p>"Oh," I said, "that was a very tame show, and utterly uninteresting."</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> + +<p>"Gee!" he said, "you must have been a barker at Coney Island."</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> 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!"</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep110" id="imagep110"></a> +<a href="images/imagep110.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep110.jpg" width="45%" alt="Dowling, Tinker and Colporter" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Dowling, Tinker and Colporter<br /> +A Veteran who Served in India under Havelock and Colin Campbell<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Going down Mulberry Street one morning in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>"What have you been doing?" I inquired.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> + +<p>His diary of that period is before me as I write, and I am astonished +at the great humility of this simple-minded man.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"My good woman," said Dowling, "you must be very cold, indeed, in this +condition."</p> + +<p>"Sir," she answered, "I am cold; but I am also starving of hunger. +Could you afford me one cent to get some bread?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>The diary gives all the details, the corner of the street where he met +her, the hour of the day.</p> + +<p>A servant ushered him into the parlour of his "good friend, the +servant of the Lord." Presently<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> the reverend doctor came down, +somewhat irritated, and, without shaking hands, said:</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"August 29. Sold nothing. No money for bread or lodging. <i>God is +good.</i> Night came and I was <i>so</i> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> 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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>He had letters of introduction from this rich tract society, and again +he presented them to a minister.</p> + +<p>"A very nice lady came," says the record. "I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> gave my credentials, +explained my condition and implored help.</p> + +<p>"<i>We are retired from the active ministry</i>," the woman said, "and +cannot help you. We have no further use for religious books."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> +was to preach the new vision and tinker for a living as he went along.</p> + +<p>"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.'"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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!'"</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a><hr /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span><br /> +<h3>CHAPTER IX<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>THE WAIF'S STORY</h4> +<br /> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"'Whom do you know there?'</p> + +<p>"'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.</p> + +<p>"Many days and many nights I had no food to eat, nor no place to +sleep. I did not like to beg, not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>"'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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> +The boys were sharper than I was and could cheat me out of my pennies.</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"'What's up, little 'un?'</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>"'Where's yer folks?' he said to me.</p> + +<p>"'Ain't got none,' I said.</p> + +<p>"'Where d'ye live, then?'</p> + +<p>"'I don't live nowheres.'</p> + +<p>"'Shiver my timbers,' he said, 'ye must have an anchorage in some of +these parts? Where d'ye sleep nights?'</p> + +<p>"'Wherever I be when night comes on,' I told him.</p> + +<p>"The sailor laughed, and said I was a lucky dog to be at home +anywheres.</p> + +<p>"'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—<i>Helvetia</i>. Sneak aboard, get into a scupper or a barrel or +something, and ship for America.'</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"'Put the kid to work, and if he doesn't do it, put a ten-inch hose on +him!'</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> 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."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>One evening I asked him what he knew about Jesus and he replied, +"Ain't 'ee th' bloke as they swears about?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a><hr /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span><br /> +<h3>CHAPTER X<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>I MEET SOME OUTCASTS</h4> +<br /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"I have travelled some thousands of miles in order to be alone; if you +have any kindness, any pity, leave me."</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> + +<p>"Pardon me," I said, "for intruding."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"I believe you are sent of God to guide me, and I am prepared to take +your advice."</p> + +<p>My advice was ready. He turned pale as I told him to pack his trunk +and take the next ship for England.</p> + +<p>"Face the storm like a man!" I urged, and he said:</p> + +<p>"It will kill me, but I will do it."</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> + +<p>He did it, and it swept him to prison, to shame, and to oblivion.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>He was about sixty years of age, short, rotund,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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 ——."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> proceeds to an Irishwoman to help defray the funeral +expenses of her child.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"'I am revolutionist!' he says, and we are mad to make him different.</p> + +<p>"'The King is one,' he said, 'and the people are many, and they are +oppressed.'</p> + +<p>"I hate my brother, and curse him, till in our room he weeps for +sorrow. I curse him until he leaves.</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"I inform. My brother is arrested, and in fortress is he put to be +shot.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"'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.'</p> + +<p>"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.'</p> + +<p>"But I love the King. 'No! I have no brother! I will not a traitor +kiss!'</p> + +<p>"My Gott! how my brother looks! He looks already dead—so full of +sorrow is he.</p> + +<p>"A sharp crack of guns! They chill my heart, and down dead falls my +brother.</p> + +<p>"I go away, outside glad, but in my heart I feel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> burn the fires of +hell. Father and mother in one year die for sorrow. Then I am Graf.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"One night, with the soldiers, I take much wine, for I say, 'I shall +be drunk and not hear the guns at night.'</p> + +<p>"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.'</p> + +<p>"Then creeps close the hour for the guns. My tongue is fast and cannot +move; my brow is wet and frozen is my blood.</p> + +<p>"Boom! go the guns; then thunder shakes the castle, lightning flashes +through the draperies, and I fall as dead.</p> + +<p>"Was I in a dream? I know not. I did not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"I go to France, but yet every night at the same hour freezes my blood +and I hear the death volley.</p> + +<p>"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.</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> + +<p>"One day in 'the Bend', where das Gesindel live, I see the little +girl—she of the golden hair who wiped my stain away.</p> + +<p>"But she is dead. I know for sure the face. What it means I know not. +Again I fall as dead.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"It is time for the guns—yet is my blood warm! I wait. The volley +comes not!</p> + +<p>"The hour is past!</p> + +<p>"'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!"</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> saying as he did so: "By next ship +I leave for Hamburg to take life up where I laid it down."</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;' /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Say, bub," said Gar, the bouncer, to me one day, "what ungodly hour +of the mornin' d'ye git up?"</p> + +<p>"At the godly hour of necessity," I replied.</p> + +<p>"Wal, I hev a pal I want ter interjooce to ye at six."</p> + +<p>I met the bouncer and his "pal" at the corner of Broome Street and the +Bowery next morning at the appointed hour.</p> + +<p>"Dat's Doc!" said Gar, as he laid his hand on his friend's shoulder.</p> + +<p>His friend bowed low and in faultless English, said: "I am more than +pleased to meet you."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Doc laughed and made some explanations. They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Furnished with a ticket, I went to No. 30 Hawkins<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>"Open your mouth," the superintendent said. "Where are you from?"</p> + +<p>I kept my eyes on the ground and answered a little louder, "Ireland."</p> + +<p>"You are lying," the superintendent said. "Where are you from?"</p> + +<p>"Ireland," I answered again in the same tone.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Why did I get a red card while most of the others got a green card?" +I asked.</p> + +<p>"You're lousy, boss, dat's why."</p> + +<p>"Well, what are you going to do about it?"</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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.'"</p> + +<p>"Are you a reporter?" was his first question.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;' /> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a><hr /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span><br /> +<h3>CHAPTER XI<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>A CHURCH IN THE GHETTO</h4> +<br /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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?"</p> + +<p>"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!'"</p> + +<p>I found myself drifting quietly out of old methods of church work, and +attempting, at least, to apply<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep146" id="imagep146"></a> +<a href="images/imagep146.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep146.jpg" width="47%" alt="Alexander Irvine" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Alexander Irvine<br /> +From a sketch by Juliet Thompson<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> observed and prostitution +did not exist. As between Dr. Parkhurst and the captain of the +precinct, the public was inclined to believe the captain.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> and whispered to me as I passed him: "This thing cannot last +forever."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>with</i> the people around me instead of <i>for</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> reluctantly, the undertaker told me, proceeding with his +programme as he explained that there was a "kink" in the insurance.</p> + +<p>"Well," I said, "we can fix that up all right."</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said, "you can fix it up with cash; but we are not in the +undertaking business for our health, you know."</p> + +<p>"Well, stop for a moment," I pleaded, "and let us talk it over!"</p> + +<p>"Have you got the dough?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Now, will you wait for one moment till we talk it over?"</p> + +<p>His answer was a volley of oaths. I waited until he subsided, and then +I said:</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> 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."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>The two minutes were up. I took off my coat, rolled up my shirt +sleeves and advanced toward him.</p> + +<p>"Are you going to do the decent thing?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Here is a couple that want to get married, Mr. Irvine," the +undertaker said.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>"Now, tell me, brother," I said confidentially. "Why did you bring +them to me?"</p> + +<p>A smile overspread his features.</p> + +<p>"Well," he said, "it was like this. You remember that funeral +business?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a><hr /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span><br /> +<h3>CHAPTER XII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>WORKING WAY DOWN</h4> +<br /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> New York except as +the poor saints have it by themselves.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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!"</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> + +<p>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!"</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> to cry out +continually. The protest against such conditions is a negligible +quantity.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"I giv'd 'im a song an' dance story fur weeks. One day 'e sez to me, +sez 'e, 'Chum!'—well, say<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> 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?"</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"There is just one thing lacking here."</p> + +<p>"What is it Dave?"</p> + +<p>"A white tie."</p> + +<p>"Where?"</p> + +<p>"On you."</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> square!" and if he could introduce +her to a real minister as his friend, it would enhance his chance.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"You bet your sweet life!" Dave said.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>One day Dowling was walking along the Bowery when a hand was laid +roughly on his shoulder and a voice said:</p> + +<p>"Ain't you Dowling?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"What did you do with the loot?"</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> 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:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"HE WENT ABOUT DOING GOOD"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a><hr /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span><br /> +<h3>CHAPTER XIII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>LIFE AND DOUBT ON THE BOTTOMS</h4> +<br /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Do you get tired?"</p> + +<p>"Tired? Tired as hell!"</p> + +<p>"I mean—tired of life?"</p> + +<p>"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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>These houses in the red light district were built to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>What I suffered for that resolution can never be recorded.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!"</p> + +<p>"Gee!" one of them muttered; "it's Mr. Irvine."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>I held their attention that night for four hours<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> while I told the +story of Jean Valjean. Next day we were all photographed together on a +pile of stones near the "hole."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Do it now," I suggested.</p> + +<p>"Right here?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, right where you stand."</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> and ties +and on graduating read his thesis for his Bachelor's degree collarless +and tieless.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Birthdays have meant nothing whatever to me, but I made my +thirty-second an occasion for a party on "the bottoms."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Old Mrs. Belgarde, my nearest neighbour, had whispered across the +fence to her neighbour that something was sure to happen, for she had +noticed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> 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.]</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Dear little friends," I said, "I never had a birthday party before; +and now you are going to spoil this one."</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> were there. There was a howl +from a hundred throats to take the place of the absent one.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Dear little folks," I said, "I thought you loved me!"</p> + +<p>"Do too!" whined a dozen voices.</p> + +<p>"Then if you do, go away and some day I will have a party for every +child on 'the bottoms.'"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> +a reformatory where he had learned to chew tobacco and to swear.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>These brief outlines describe the guests of my birthday party.</p> + +<p>"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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> Of things to eat there was enough and to spare. After dinner +each one was to contribute something to the entertainment.</p> + +<p>"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:</p> + +<p>"A organ-man wid a monkey."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"'Cause."</p> + +<p>Eddy said he would like to be a butcher, and as a reason gave: "Plenty +ov beef to eat."</p> + +<p>"Kaiser" preferred to be a "Reformatory boss."</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>He rushed past me into the hut, got to the table and exclaimed: "Gee +whiz! der ain't a —— scrap left!"</p> + +<p>"Look here, Franz," I said, "I want to know what you've been up to?"</p> + +<p>"Ye do, hey? Ye look skeered, too, don't yer—hey?"</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> + +<p>"Never mind how I look; tell me at once what you've been up to!"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>The skin was lying in a bloody heap outside the back door. I arranged +"Franz" for dinner and the party was complete.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a><hr /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span><br /> +<h3>CHAPTER XIV<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>MY FIGHT IN NEW HAVEN</h4> +<br /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>It was in a small town in Iowa—Avoca in Pottawattomie County; I +stayed there a year.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> 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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> time came +and with it a wave of disgust that swept over my soul.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>you</i>. If the Almighty will forgive me for such +unfaith—such meanness—I swear that I will never do it again."</p> + +<p>Then I preached. This brutal plainness created a sensation and several +tried to dissuade me, but I had made up my mind.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>I rode my bicycle from Springfield to New Haven for that interview. +When it was over I found myself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>"Is it possible," I asked a policeman, "to get a clean bed for a night +in this town for fifty cents?"</p> + +<p>"Anything's possible," he answered, "but——"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> pastorate but divided +my time between them. For the Y.M.C.A. my duties were:</p> + +<p class="noin"> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To conduct mass meetings for men in a theatre.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To organize the Bible departments and teach one of the classes.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Care and visiting of converts.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Daily office hour.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Literary work as associate editor of the weekly paper.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Writing of pamphlets.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To conduct boys' meetings.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>For the church:</p> + +<p class="noin"> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To conduct regular Sunday services.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Friday night prayer meetings.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Men's Bible class.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Visitation of sick and burial of the dead.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Class for young converts.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Children's meetings.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> "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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> + +<p>I was not particularly interested in the bath <i>per se</i>. 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>There was no ecclesiastical objection to my participation in this +movement. It was a small thing and cost little.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a><hr /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span><br /> +<h3>CHAPTER XV<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>A VISIT HOME</h4> +<br /> + +<p>My Father had been begging me for years to come home and say good-bye +to him; so, in 1901, I made the journey.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Aye," said another, "'deed ye were i' fond o' th' Bible, an' no +wundther yer a clargymaan!"</p> + +<p>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!"</p> + +<p>My sister Mary and her four children lived with my father. We shut +<i>and barred</i> the door when the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to 'kep' them," I said, and they both laughed.</p> + +<p>"Oh, heavens, don't," he said; "shure they don't 'kep' pirtas in +America!"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"We'll haave a blessin' by a rale ministher th' night," Mary said.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Shure that's what's cracking m' own skull," he said; "where th' divil +will ye sleep, anyway, at all, at all?"</p> + +<p>Then they listened and I talked—talked of what the years had meant to +me.</p> + +<p>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!"</p> + +<p>"Aye," Mary said, "but how do ye know she isn't jist around here +somewhere, anyway?"</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"What d'ye mind best about her?"</p> + +<p>"I mind a saying she had that has gone through life with me."</p> + +<p>"'Ivery day makes its own throuble?'"</p> + +<p>"No, not that; something better. She used to say so often, 'It's nice +to be nice.'"</p> + +<p>"Aye, I mind that," he said.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"'Deed, maan, she was that!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"Maan, yer changed," he said, "aren't you?"</p> + +<p>"And you?"</p> + +<p>"Och, shure, I'm th' same ould sixpence!"</p> + +<p>"Except that you're older!" There was a look of disappointment on his +face.</p> + +<p>"Maan," he said, "ye talk like quality—d'ye live among thim?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Aye," he would say occasionally, "aye, 'deed it's quare how things +turn out."</p> + +<p>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!"</p> + +<p>"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.</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> + +<p>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!"</p> + +<p>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!"</p> + +<p>We moved into the house of a friend after that.</p> + +<p>One afternoon I took him for a walk in the suburbs of the city.</p> + +<p>He rested on a rustic bench on the lawn of a beautiful villa while I +made a call.</p> + +<p>"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.'"</p> + +<p>"Her father is dead," he said. "I am her uncle."</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>The following Sunday I told my father we were going to church.</p> + +<p>"Not me!" he said.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," I coaxed; "just this once with me."</p> + +<p>"What th' divil's the use whin I haave a praycher t' m'silf."</p> + +<p>"I am to be the preacher at the church."</p> + +<p>"Och, but that's a horse ov another colour, bedad. Shure thin I'll +go."</p> + +<p>When my father saw me in a Geneva gown, his eyes were filled with +tears.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>"Och, boy, if God wud only take me now I'd be happy!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Ye couldn't stay at home awhile? Shure I'll be goin' in a month or +two."</p> + +<p>"Ah, that's impossible, father." He hung his head.</p> + +<p>"D'ye believe I'll know her whin I go? God wudn't shut me out from her +for th' things I've done—"</p> + +<p>"Of course he won't."</p> + +<p>"He wudn't be so d——d niggardly, wud He?"</p> + +<p>"Never!"</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"Ask God onct in a while to let me be with yer mother—will ye, boy?"</p> + +<p>I kissed him farewell and saw him no more.</p> + +<p>I went on to France.</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> + +<p>My objective point in France was the study of Millet and his work. I +wanted to interpret him to working people in New Haven.</p> + +<p>So to Greville on La Hague I went with a camera.</p> + +<p>Greville consists of a church and a dozen houses. Gruchy is half a +mile beyond, on the edge of the sea.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> +to me it was one of the most inspiring hours of my career.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> some of the property at Woodstock, stopping for a few +minutes at the house of Geoffrey Chaucer.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"You were in early, brother," I said. "Yes," he said modestly, "I was +in <i>first</i>." 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Does Mrs. G—— live here?" I asked the coloured woman who opened the +door.</p> + +<p>"She did, mistah—but she done gone left, dis mawnin'."</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> + +<p>"Do you know where she has gone?"</p> + +<p>"Yes'r, she done squeezed in wif ol' Mammy Jackson," and she pointed +out the tenement.</p> + +<p>As I passed down the steps I noticed a small pile of furniture on the +sidewalk. Something impelled me to ask about it.</p> + +<p>"Yes'r," the negress said, "dem's her house traps; d' landlord done +gone frow'd dem out."</p> + +<p>I found her sitting with an old negress by the stove in a second-floor +back tenement.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Do you remember the farm at Moylena?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes, of course."</p> + +<p>"And a farm boy——"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," she said, adding: "those few days on that farm were the +only happy days of my life!"</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a><hr /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span><br /> +<h3>CHAPTER XVI<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>NEW HAVEN AGAIN—AND A FIGHT</h4> +<br /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> streets," I said, "then why should a rich corporation be given an +infinitely larger use of them for nothing?"</p> + +<p>This provoked the rich men of the church, for most of them were +stockholders in the company, and two of them were officers.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>This was the first fly in the ointment, the first break in the most +cordial of relationships between me and the church.</p> + +<p>The church had been organized fifty years when this incident occurred. +We were preparing to celebrate the golden jubilee.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to tell me," I asked, "that none of you believe in +eternal punishment, and yet you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>When I spoke at the city hall they catalogued me as a Socialist, and +when Mr. Bryan called,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> 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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Now," he said, "you don't care how we raise your salary, do you?"</p> + +<p>"Of course not."</p> + +<p>"Well, the Society's hard up this year and can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> only raise $1,600; but +the church will raise the other $400, and I have one of them already +promised."</p> + +<p>This seemed a most unusual proceeding, but I was unsuspecting. A few +months afterward this man, with tears in his eyes, said:</p> + +<p>"Mr. Irvine, whatever happens you will be my friend—won't you?"</p> + +<p>He was doing their work, and wincing under the load of it.</p> + +<p>"Brother," I said, "when I know whether you are playing the rôle of +Judas or John, I will be better able to answer you."</p> + +<p>At the end of the year it all came out. I was literally fined $400 for +attending that meeting.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> gibbets. The +president's opposition to me was well known.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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, <i>legally</i>." The Society spent the money in fitting up the +parsonage for my successor.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a><hr /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span><br /> +<h3>CHAPTER XVII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>I JOIN A LABOUR UNION AND HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH STRIKES</h4> +<br /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Once again the rafters seemed to shake with the violent vibrations of +enthusiasm, and it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> some time before order was restored. My +initiation concluded, I made an address. It was as brief as the +chairman's.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>The New Haven <i>Register</i> of August 8, 1904, in its leading editorial +on an averted strike, said:</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> and wise sympathy from such men as he are +needed in labour troubles."</p> + +<p>Another New Haven paper, commenting editorially on my attitude toward +a strike carried on by the bakers' union, said:</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> for them; but I was unable to offset the bad leadership which +landed nine of them in jail.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Post</i> made the following editorial comments on it:</p> + +<br /> +<br /> + + +<div class="block"><p class="cen">"ONE CHURCH AND ITS PASTOR</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> 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.'</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"'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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> 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.'</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span> certainly not worthy of the great Teacher who +spoke of the great difficulty the rich man has in entering the +kingdom of God."</p></div> + +<br /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span> "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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>In the middle of our first year our little church<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>We missed Mr. Bennett, not only for his moral and financial help, but +because of his great business<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<br /> + +<div class="block"><p>"<span class="sc">Dear Ser</span>:</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Drop my name."</p></div> + +<br /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> figure pass +with a sack of coal on his back. The figure looked familiar.</p> + +<p>"Pardon me," I said, as I stepped out to make sure.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Do you know him?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed!" I said. "And you must know him, for he is one of our +deacons."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span> of a month I paid him a visit. He +showed me how to manipulate a patient—absent or present—and how to +charge!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span> + +<p>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, <i>sub rosa</i>: "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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Have you ever published any sermons, Mr. Irvine?"</p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> + +<p>"Yes; one, and a fine one."</p> + +<p>"Where was it published?"</p> + +<p>"Right here in New Haven!"</p> + +<p>"A volume?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Another day a professor in the Yale Medical School called to have some +books bound at the bindery.</p> + +<p>"Who is that fellow at your bench?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Irvine," the bookbinder replied.</p> + +<p>"The Socialist?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> 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:</p> + +<br /> + +<div class="block"><p>"<span class="sc">Dear Mr. Irvine</span>:</p> + +<p>"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."</p></div> + +<br /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>As I looked around, however, at the churches and the university, I +could find nothing to equal the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a><hr /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span><br /> +<h3>CHAPTER XVIII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>I BECOME A SOCIALIST</h4> +<br /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"Hello, Irvine!"</p> + +<p>"Hello, C——! Splendid weather we're having, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>I hesitated for a moment, then said: "Whatever would give you most +pleasure, brother—leaving it on or taking it off—do that!"</p> + +<p>That was all—not another word—he reported that I wanted my name +removed, and that practically<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span> ended my ministerial standing in the +Congregational ministry.</p> + +<p>The Jewish Rabbi who had taken part in our opening service met me on +the street one day.</p> + +<p>"Dr. Smyth and I are coming to see you, Irvine," he said.</p> + +<p>"I'll be mighty glad to see you both, Rabbi. What are you coming for?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Rabbi, some of your rich Jews have been after you for appearing on +our platform. Come now, isn't that so?"</p> + +<p>"Well, it's because they believe as I believe, that you are used as a +sucker."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>That made him rather furious and he said:</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>The New Haven water company managed to get what was called an "eternal +contract" passed through both chambers of the city government. Only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span> +labouring people opposed it. Naturally there was a strong suspicion of +foul play.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep238" id="imagep238"></a> +<a href="images/imagep238.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep238.jpg" width="85%" alt="State Convention of the Socialist Party of Connecticut, May 31, 1906" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">State Convention of the Socialist Party of Connecticut, May 31, 1906<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The whole agitation came back on the reformers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>The People's Church dwindled to a vanishing point. The farm produced +nothing. Autumn came and we lived largely upon apples.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>One morning I was at the top of a big apple tree, shaking it for three +Italian women whom we believed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Mother o' God," Jimmy said, "shure it's an ambulance yer +riverence shud haave."</p> + +<p>"I want you, Jimmy; pile me in."</p> + +<p>"Holy Saints," he exclaimed, "shure th' ould cyart'll jolt yer guts +out!"</p> + +<p>"Pile me in."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>"Git up now, Larry, an' be aisy wid ye."</p> + +<p>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?"</p> + +<p>I was in such agony that I sweat. Pains were shooting through every +part of my body but I usually answered:</p> + +<p>"Fine, Jimmy, fine!"</p> + +<p>So I came back within the gates of the city—rejected, defeated, +deserted, and practically a pauper.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> +declaration of principles will illustrate how thoroughly these young +men got in line with the union movement:</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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!"</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>"I think," said my wife to me, one morning at 2 A.M., "that the baby +will be born in an hour."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Ah," I said, "you know me then?"</p> + +<p>"Sure thing," he said, "don't you know me?"</p> + +<p>I shook my head.</p> + +<p>"Gee!" he said, "you're sick. You look like hell!"</p> + +<p>"I feel like it."</p> + +<p>"What's up?"</p> + +<p>"You heard me 'phone?"</p> + +<p>"Sure—aint you glad?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—but——"</p> + +<p>"Say, have a cup of hot coffee, won't you?"</p> + +<p>"Thank you, I think I will."</p> + +<p>His intuition was keen enough to perceive that the trouble was mental +and as I took the coffee he said:</p> + +<p>"Discouraged a bit, hey?"</p> + +<p>Without waiting for a reply he proceeded to tell me how a few words of +mine at one of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The Interborough Rapid Transit Company gave us permission to hold +meetings in several of their largest shops.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>The work went well for a year in the big shops; then my part in them +came to an abrupt end.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep248" id="imagep248"></a> +<a href="images/imagep248.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep248.jpg" width="85%" alt="The Lunch Hour in an Interborough Shop" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">The Lunch Hour in an Interborough Shop<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>you</i>?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a><hr /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span><br /> +<h3>CHAPTER XIX<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>I INTRODUCE JACK LONDON TO YALE</h4> +<br /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Well now, boys, here's your chance. Jack London can be had for a +lecture."</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>"They say Jack London is Socialistically inclined, Doctor," said the +youthful president of the Yale Union.</p> + +<p>"Yes, he is, rather," I answered.</p> + +<p>"Well," he added, "I suppose we will have to take our chances." The +chances seemed small then; they loomed up larger later.</p> + +<p>He hoped President Hadley would not interfere with him.</p> + +<p>"Will you introduce him, Doctor?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly."</p> + +<p>"What's his topic?"</p> + +<p>"He calls it 'The Coming Crisis.'"</p> + +<p>"Social, I suppose, eh?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, it's a suggested remedy for a lot of our troubles."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Yale," said the brilliant Phelps, "is a university, and not a +monastery; besides, Jack London is one of the most distinguished men +in America."</p> + +<p>When it was decided we could have the hall the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span> 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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>It was indignantly moved and carried that the president of the Union +introduce the speaker.</p> + +<p>"Irvine is a Socialist," the mover said, "and would spoil the show +before it began."</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep252" id="imagep252"></a> +<a href="images/imagep252.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep252.jpg" width="48%" alt="Alexander Irvine and Jack London, 1906" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Alexander Irvine and Jack London, 1906<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>might</i> 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 <i>you</i> +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!"</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The Harvard Students had played horse with London a few weeks before +this and we—the Socialists—were prepared for any sort of +demonstration.</p> + +<p>"The spectacle of an avowed Socialist," said the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span> New Haven +<i>Register</i>, "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."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a><hr /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span><br /> +<h3>CHAPTER XX<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>MY EXPERIENCE AS A LABOURER IN THE MUSCLE MARKET OF THE SOUTH</h4> +<br /> + +<p><i>Appleton's Magazine</i> published my first serious attempt at fiction. +It was a short story entitled, "Two Social Pariahs."</p> + +<p>The cry of peonage was in the air and I arranged with <i>Appleton's +Magazine</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span> 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?"</p> + +<p>When the train pulled out of the depot, I stepped up to the porter and +said:</p> + +<p>"Haven't you a law in Virginia on the separation of the races."</p> + +<p>The big black fellow grinned.</p> + +<p>"Dere sho' is, boss—but you ain't no races. You is jest Dagoes, ain't +you?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Pardon me, sir," I said, "isn't there a law in Georgia on the +separation of the races?"</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span> "White." +Then he came back through the car slowly, staring at me as he passed +but without uttering a word.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep258a" id="imagep258a"></a> +<a href="images/imagep258a.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep258a.jpg" width="70%" alt="In a Mucker's Camp in Alabama" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">In a Mucker's Camp in Alabama<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<br /> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep258b" id="imagep258b"></a> +<a href="images/imagep258b.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep258b.jpg" width="70%" alt="Irvine and Three Other Muckers" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Irvine and Three Other Muckers as They Left Greenwich +Street for the South<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span> Hungarian, Swedish and various other languages. It was +one of the excitements of camp life—to inspect and classify the +newcomers.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>chug, chug</i> of +the pumps. As we waded ankle-deep through a water alley, we heard the +warning yells<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"—— —— your souls to h—l," the foreman shouted. "Why don't you +get a move on you —— hey?"</p> + +<p>We moved a little faster.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span>"You muckers ain't goin' t' get ten cars out t'day if ye don't mend +yer licks!"</p> + +<p>We "mended our licks."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Too bad! Too bad!" he said, as he dropped the truck. I gazed into his +eyes.</p> + +<p>"Look here!" I said, "if you will look as human as that again, you may +burn the other hand!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span>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 +<i>alone</i> is needed.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span> stood beneath the big iron water-pipe and waited, but there +was no response. There was a loud laugh, then a miner asked:</p> + +<p>"Air ye posin' for yer photo, mister?"</p> + +<p>"No. What's the matter with the water?"</p> + +<p>"Fits, Buttie—it's got fits!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Beside me sat a strong, powerfully built German boy, who joked about +the age of the pork for supper.</p> + +<p>"What you guff about?" the burly steward asked.</p> + +<p>"Schmell, py gee—its tick mit bad schmell!"</p> + +<p>"Vell, you shut your —— maut or I smash your —— head, see?"</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>"Who owns these pigs?" I asked old Ransom Pope, a Negro.</p> + +<p>"One an' anoder!" he said.</p> + +<p>The gullies and the weeds were full of them and the steward found them +easy and cheap feeding.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The men were underfed and overworked and in addition were exploited in +the most shameful manner by officials from the top to the bottom.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>They were classified according to their ability to dig coal, not +according to the crimes committed.</p> + +<p>From the stockade I went to a lumber camp where some officials had +been found guilty of peonage.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep270" id="imagep270"></a> +<a href="images/imagep270.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep270.jpg" width="85%" alt="Irvine Punching Logs in the Gulf of Mexico, 1907" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Irvine Punching Logs in the Gulf of Mexico, 1907<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>In this way I got at the facts of how and why men had been decoyed +from New York and imprisoned in the forests.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Several times around a bonfire of pine knots I entertained the men of +the camp with stories of travel, history and romance.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span>In order to convince him I had to deliver an exegesis before the desk! +The cells were iron cages with stone floors.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Whatever I had to say to the men and women in that dungeon that +morning was driven from my mind and my lips.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a><hr /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span><br /> +<h3>CHAPTER XXI<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>AT THE CHURCH OF THE ASCENSION</h4> +<br /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<i>free</i>—very free—and I saw danger ahead in church work.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The danger ahead looked smaller to Mr. Grant than it did to me. He had +absolute confidence in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span> the broad-minded men of affairs around him. My +Socialism was explained and understood. Just how to fit in was the +next problem.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Who is that man?" one of the ladies at the tea table asked one night.</p> + +<p>"He is a Socialist agitator," I answered.</p> + +<p>"Why don't you ask him to talk?"</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep276" id="imagep276"></a> +<a href="images/imagep276.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep276.jpg" width="50%" alt="The Church of the Ascension" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">The Church of the Ascension<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>My nerves were so badly shattered that on the way to my room I fell +several times. The following<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span> Sunday night the Civic Federation packed +our meeting with their speakers.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The newspapers had all been "tipped off," as the <i>Herald</i> reporter +told me later. The discussion waxed so warm that fifty people were on +their feet at once, shouting for recognition.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The spiritual atmosphere is created by a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Why?" I asked one man.</p> + +<p>"—— if I know, but it took the fight out of me!"</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span> 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."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span> philosophy, but they did not come the second year and we +missed them very much.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The range of topics was as wide as the interests of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a><hr /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span><br /> +<h3>CHAPTER XXII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h4>MY SOCIALISM, MY RELIGION AND MY HOME</h4> +<br /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>Almsgiving not only degrades the recipient but the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Mr. Taft was asked in the campaign what a workless, homeless man could +do to find employment.</p> + +<p>"God knows!" was his reply.</p> + +<p>Out of this army of the unemployed the ranks of the criminals are +reinforced, and the search for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>The strength of the social chain cannot be greater than its weakest +link.</p> + +<p>Socialists are grouped around the thin places, the leakages, the +weaknesses of democracy, and engross<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What kind of a Socialist are you?" a rich man asked me the other day.</p> + +<p>"Catalogue me with the worst!" I said, "for he who numbers himself +with the transgressors is in direct apostolic succession."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span>Men striving all their lives to live—to merely live—have no time, no +opportunity for a career.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>There comes over me occasionally an idea, as I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>The apologist of the <i>status quo</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Then a man shall work and bethink him, and rejoice in the deeds of his hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor yet come home in the even, too faint and weary to stand.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Men in that time a-coming shall work and have no fear<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span> +<span class="i0">For to-morrow's lack of earning and the hunger-wolf a-near.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh, strange, new wonderful justice! But for whom shall we gather the gain?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For ourselves and for each of our fellows, and no hand shall labour in vain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then all mine and all thine shall be ours and no more shall any man crave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For riches that serve for nothing but to fetter a friend for a slave.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And what wealth then shall be left us when none shall gather gold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To buy his friend in the market and pinch and pine the sold?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nay, what save the lovely city and the little house on the hill,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the wastes and the woodland beauty and the happy fields we till,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the homes of ancient stories, the tombs of the mighty dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the wise men seeking out marvels and the poet's teaming head.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the painter's hand of wonder, and the marvellous fiddle-bow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the banded choirs of music—all those that do and know.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For all these shall be ours and all men's, nor shall any lack a share<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of the toil and the gain of living in the days when the world grows fair."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<br /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;' /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep294" id="imagep294"></a> +<a href="images/imagep294.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep294.jpg" width="85%" alt=""Happy Hollow"" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">"Happy Hollow," Mr. Irvine's Present Home Near +Peekskill, New York<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>"Is there a view of the Hudson River from any of these hills?" I asked +when buying.</p> + +<p>"Somewhere," said the owner, but she was not quite sure.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span> to cook; and as there was an abundance +of wood I instituted a wood pile!</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>The influence was baneful, subtle. None of us ever confessed to being +affected. It rather emphasized our idealism.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"Why don't you invent one?" we asked.</p> + +<p>"How can one invent anything in this slave age?" he asked, as he +glared at us between the curling puffs of smoke.</p> + +<p>"That's true," we said, and piped down.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span>He went over to the well to get a drink. The housekeeper called for +firewood. He smiled—he was a jolly good-natured chap.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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!"</p> + +<p>"Who will be the muckers under Socialism?" I asked mildly.</p> + +<p>"The dull, brainless clods who can do nothing else!" he said.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>We watched Michael and his ox-team as they lumbered lazily along the +lane.</p> + +<div class="img"><a name="imagep298" id="imagep298"></a> +<a href="images/imagep298.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/imagep298.jpg" width="85%" alt=""Happy Hollow" in the Winter" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">"Happy Hollow" in the Winter, Looking From the House<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span>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."</p> + +<p>We all straightened up, and stood at attention. He read:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Not far from turmoil, strife, the mountain-vying waves<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of life's antagonisms that delude the world—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amidst elysian valleys, slopes, majestic hills and caves<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That mark the path where ages wrought their wrath and hurled<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The crumbling sinews of the soil down to defeat,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To linger in the depth as symbols that all power<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is at the will of the Supreme—in this retreat,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Filled with the chirping music of the nightly hour,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And seeking rest from joyous toil, reward for which<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Is given by the thought that all is mine, that none<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Do rob, that love adds to each stroke its rich<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And sweetening cheer: In such rare world that I have won——"<br /></span> +</div></div> +<br /> + +<p>The housekeeper rudely broke the spell!</p> + +<p>"You comrades had better eat that poetry for dinner," she said.</p> + +<p>We all looked and all understood—all save the poet. He looked aghast, +thinking in Yiddish.</p> + +<p>"Go on," somebody said, but the poet was a sensitive youth and could +sense an atmosphere quicker than most of us.</p> + +<p>"Wood," said the housekeeper, pointing at the few sticks lying around +the block.</p> + +<p>"Ah," exclaimed the poet as he took up the axe,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span> "you shall have it, +comrade—have it good and plenty."</p> + +<p>He laid the poem in the white birch frame against a stone and +proceeded. We moved away, every man to his own place.</p> + +<p>In a community where the communers have to chop the fire-wood, canned +salmon is a good standby.</p> + +<p>That day we had salmon for dinner.</p> + +<p>Just as a matter of encouragement I had the artist of the community +print a Latin motto in fine Gothic characters:</p> + +<br /> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">"LABORARE EST ORARE"</span><br /> +</p> +<br /> + +<p>This I tacked to the block at the woodpile. We had one orator in the +community—just one.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>From the north we have had an intellectual and moral fellowship and +from the south the comradeship of the soil.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>With my family are these two comrades, the artist<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"No man is born into the world whose work<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is not born with him; there is always work<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And tools to work withal for those who will.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And blessed are the horny hands of toil!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The busy world shoves angrily aside<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The man who stands with arms akimbo set,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Until occasion tells him what to do;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he who waits to have his task worked out—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall die and leave his errand unfulfilled."<br /></span> +</div></div><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<div class="tr"> +<p class="cen"><a name="TN" id="TN"></a>Typographical errors corrected in text:</p> +<br /> +<p class="noin">Page 162: carfully replaced with carefully<br /> +Page 297: guage replaced with gauge</p> +</div> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM THE BOTTOM UP***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 17881-h.txt or 17881-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/8/8/17881">http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/8/8/17881</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution.</p> + + + +<pre> +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/license">http://www.gutenberg.org/license)</a>. + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS,' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's +eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII, +compressed (zipped), HTML and others. + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over +the old filename and etext number. The replaced older file is renamed. +VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving +new filenames and etext numbers. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org">http://www.gutenberg.org</a> + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000, +are filed in directories based on their release date. If you want to +download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular +search system you may utilize the following addresses and just +download by the etext year. + +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/</a> + + (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99, + 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90) + +EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are +filed in a different way. The year of a release date is no longer part +of the directory path. The path is based on the etext number (which is +identical to the filename). The path to the file is made up of single +digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename. For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL</a> + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** +</pre> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/17881-h/images/frontis.jpg b/17881-h/images/frontis.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6425040 --- /dev/null +++ b/17881-h/images/frontis.jpg diff --git a/17881-h/images/imagep004.jpg b/17881-h/images/imagep004.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cddb0f8 --- /dev/null +++ b/17881-h/images/imagep004.jpg diff --git a/17881-h/images/imagep008.jpg b/17881-h/images/imagep008.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0aba83c --- /dev/null +++ b/17881-h/images/imagep008.jpg diff --git a/17881-h/images/imagep038.jpg b/17881-h/images/imagep038.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3b533e8 --- /dev/null +++ b/17881-h/images/imagep038.jpg diff --git a/17881-h/images/imagep050.jpg b/17881-h/images/imagep050.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ae494b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/17881-h/images/imagep050.jpg diff --git a/17881-h/images/imagep054.jpg b/17881-h/images/imagep054.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..123b968 --- /dev/null +++ b/17881-h/images/imagep054.jpg diff --git a/17881-h/images/imagep110.jpg b/17881-h/images/imagep110.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9eb5be0 --- /dev/null +++ b/17881-h/images/imagep110.jpg diff --git a/17881-h/images/imagep146.jpg b/17881-h/images/imagep146.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..50ffff8 --- /dev/null +++ b/17881-h/images/imagep146.jpg diff --git a/17881-h/images/imagep238.jpg b/17881-h/images/imagep238.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0419425 --- /dev/null +++ b/17881-h/images/imagep238.jpg diff --git a/17881-h/images/imagep248.jpg b/17881-h/images/imagep248.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..70bc5f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/17881-h/images/imagep248.jpg diff --git a/17881-h/images/imagep252.jpg b/17881-h/images/imagep252.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ad2bffa --- /dev/null +++ b/17881-h/images/imagep252.jpg diff --git a/17881-h/images/imagep258a.jpg b/17881-h/images/imagep258a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..872a58a --- /dev/null +++ b/17881-h/images/imagep258a.jpg diff --git a/17881-h/images/imagep258b.jpg b/17881-h/images/imagep258b.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d5f2a1b --- /dev/null +++ b/17881-h/images/imagep258b.jpg diff --git a/17881-h/images/imagep270.jpg b/17881-h/images/imagep270.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3bf1cd4 --- /dev/null +++ b/17881-h/images/imagep270.jpg diff --git a/17881-h/images/imagep276.jpg b/17881-h/images/imagep276.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ef13ec9 --- /dev/null +++ b/17881-h/images/imagep276.jpg diff --git a/17881-h/images/imagep294.jpg b/17881-h/images/imagep294.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4b6adaf --- /dev/null +++ b/17881-h/images/imagep294.jpg diff --git a/17881-h/images/imagep298.jpg b/17881-h/images/imagep298.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b9f1372 --- /dev/null +++ b/17881-h/images/imagep298.jpg diff --git a/17881.txt b/17881.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..64bafec --- /dev/null +++ b/17881.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8227 @@ +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-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***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 + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 17881-h.htm or 17881-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/8/8/17881/17881-h/17881-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/8/8/17881/17881-h.zip) + + + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + | 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 naively 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 Piraeus, 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 L20 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 +cooeperating 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 a 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 x 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 Archaeology. 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 regime. 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 +Francois 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 role 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 regime. 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 deg. 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 cooeperative 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. Bruere. 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 cooeperator 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 cooeperative 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 cooeperative 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*** + + +******* This file should be named 17881.txt or 17881.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/8/8/17881 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://www.gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: +https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/17881.zip b/17881.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..091ee21 --- /dev/null +++ b/17881.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7358c9 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #17881 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17881) |
