UNIVERSITY OF
ILLINOIS LIBRARY
AT URBANA CHAMPAIGN
Miracles in the Slums
OR
THRILLING STORIES
Of Those Rescued from the Cesspools of Iniquity, and Touch-
ing Incidents in the Lives of the Unfortunate
By SETH COOK REES
Author of "The Ideal Pentecostal Church" " Fire from
Heaven,'' and the "Holy War."
"He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim lib-
erty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are
bound." Isaiah 61 : i.
SETH COCK REES, PUBLISHER
4.350 Lowell Ave.
CHICAGO
COPYRIGHT, 1905,
BY SETH COOK REES.
>K?}
DEDICATION.
To three hundred and fifty thousand of my
fallen sisters in America: to three million home-
less, friendless, tramping men: to one hundred
thousand men and boys in penitentiaries, work-
houses, and jails: to one hundred thousand news-
boys : to one hundred thousand bootblacks : to the
sick, destitute, and unfortunate everywhere, is
this book tenderly dedicated, with the Christian
love of the author.
May 2O,
PREFACE.
As the time has come to send forth this book
to the reading public, I have a very keen sense
of the fact that it but faintly .portrays the awful
situation as found in our great centers of popu-
lation. While some of our statements will be re-
garded by many as extravagant, and our word-
pictures as overdrawn, yet as I think of it now,
I have a deep and growing conviction that in our
setting forth these pages we have not approx-
imated a fair description of the real state of things
as they exist to-day.
There are some things that can not be exag-
gerated. No newspaper reporter has ever yet
been able in his description to overdraw a real
cyclone, and if you have ever been in one, you
are quite ready to agree with me. The slime,
squalor, and crime of our slimiest slums baffles
all. power of description; in fact, we would not,
if we could, attempt to describe much that we
have found of unnameable sin, shame, and crime.
For more than a quarter of a century I have at
times been greatly burdened for the neglected,
fallen, and poverty-stricken of this world. When
but a youth I was often melted to tears and moved
7
8 PREFACE.
to deep feelings of compassion in reading the
stories of London's poor, or the street urchins of
our great American cities. In all these years
the story of a fallen woman has simply broken
my heart, but I never imagined that God would
ever honor me with the glorious privilege of being
connected in any small way with a movement for
the accomplishment of such an exalted work.
My primary object in setting forth these pages
is the honor of God by showing positively, and
with emphasis, the power of Christ to save the
lowest of the low, to renew the most ruined and
wrecked lives, and revive and restore the most
blasted hopes.
Second, to reach the unreached, unwashed, and
unchurched, and lead them to the Christ who
has wrought such marvelous transformation in
the lives of those whose history is given here.
Third, to give an incentive to the faith and holy
activity of good people everywhere, many of
whom have never been sufficiently aroused to the
sense of the magnitude of sin, or the possibilities
of grace. I sincerely pray Almighty God, in the
name of Jesus Christ, His Son, and my Saviour,
to use this book as a means to this end. Ten thou-
sand blessings upon all who read these pages.
SETH COOK REES.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
A MARKET FOR GIRLS 13
LITTLE MAY HER CAPTURE AND RESCUE 21
A NATION'S SHAME 25
ORPHA FROM THE BROTHEL TO THE PULPIT 29
A NIGHT IN " LITTLE HELL " 37
DICIE THE SPORTING MADAM 43
"A SLUMMY SLUM " 49
MARGARET THE BARREL-HOUSE SPORT 55
AMONG THE TOMBS 61
AN ARTLESS GIRL 65
FROM AN ATTIC TO A MANSION 69
FROM A SALOON TO HELL 73
A " BUMMY BUM " 79
LULU A STRANGE STORY 89
LITTLE ELLA FROM THE OPIUM DEN TO THE SACRED
DESK 93
THANKSGIVING IN CHICAGO SLUMS 99
RESCUED FROM CHICAGO JAIL 103
CHRISTINE A BROKEN-HEARTED GIRL 107
A SLUM FEAST 113
LILLIE A FRIENDLESS CHILD 119
Miss M 127
BERNIE 133
LULU L. FROM DRUNKENNESS TO WOMANHOOD 143
MABEL HER RUIN AND REDEMPTION 147
BERTHA AND ESTHER TWIN SISTERS 151
A SALOONKEEPER'S DAUGHTER : 155
MYRTLE 159
PETE'S PLACE A Low DIVE 165
JULIA 169
A GLIMPSE IN THE SLUMS 179
9
10 TABLE OF CONTENTS.
LUCY A WHITE SLAVE 185
POWER OF THE GOSPEL 191
LITTLE H 211
CHRIST IN THE SLUMS 217
B ; 221
PEARL A MARVELOUS TRANSFORMATION 227
RESCUED FROM AWFUL SIN 231
A CONVERTED SALOONKEEPER 235
A MISSIONARY IN A DIVE TESTIMONY OF J. A. S.. . 239
TESTIMONY OF BROTHER K . 243
A DONATION 247
DOES RESCUE WORK PAY ? > 249
CHILDREN IN THE SLUMS 257
JUDGMENT IN THE SLUMS 261
FANNY THE NOTORIOUS HIGH-LIFE SPORT 265
RESCUE WORK 273
A WEDDING IN REST COTTAGE 279
TESTIMONY OF ONE OF OUR BEST GIRLS 283
MAY JENSEN 289
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
THE AUTHOR Frontispiece
MRS. SETH C. REES, OUR FIRST SLUM MISSIONARY. . . 12
LITTLE MAY 20
ORPHA 28
DICIE 42
CUSTOM-HOUSE PLACE, CHICAGO 48
A CHICAGO HOUSE 52
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. n
MARGARET 54
HALLIE 64
GROUP OF GIRLS AND MISSIONARIES 68
A BUMMY BUM 78
LULU 88
ELLA 9 2
THANKSGIVING IN CHICAGO SLUMS 98
RESCUED FROM CHICAGO JAIL 102
CHRISTINE 106
A SLUM FEAST 112
THREE SLUM MISSIONARIES 118
Miss M 126
REST COTTAGE 132
LULU L 142
MINNIE, Now ASSISTANT MATRON, AND " DODO ". . . . 146
TEXAS REST COTTAGE 150
REST COTTAGE, CHICAGO 154
FOUR MISSIONARIES '. 164
JULIA 168
A GROUP OF CHICAGO GIRLS 178
LUCY 184
NEW ENGLAND REST COTTAGE, PROVIDENCE, R. 1 190
FAITH COTTAGE, ASHEVILLE, N. C. 210
PICKING COAL 216
REST COTTAGE, No. 3, GREENSBOROUGH, N. C 226
BELLA 230
CARL, THE CONVERTED BAR-TENDER 234
EVA 246
ANNA 256
FANNY 264
FEMALE PRISONERS EATING CHRISTMAS DINNER 272
RESCUE HOME AT COLUMBUS, OHIO 278
MRS. S. C. REES, OUR FIRST SLUM MISSIONARY.
A MARKET FOR GIRLS.
WE are often confronted by those who persist in
discrediting and denying the existence of a well-
organized commercial trade in girls in this coun-
try. But as certainly as cattle and hogs are bought
and sold in the stockyards in Chicago, so certainly
are thousands of pure, artless, innocent girls pro-
cured from every State in the Union and sold in
the market in " Custom House Place," " Little
Hell," " Black Lane," " Tenderloin District," or
some such precincts of sin. These commercial
devils of both sexes as really own and hold the
girls in their possession as any Southern slave-
holder ever controlled the negroes owned by him.
These poor girls are behind closed doors of
shame, and walls thicker than any penitentiary
walls. Held in bondage to the brutal passions of
beastly men, their slavery is more infernal than any
slavery of this or any other country.
Hundreds of these American daughters are in-
carcerated where their sobs and groans are never
heeded, and their midnight cries are never heard.
The public seemed temporarily shocked when
three of these pure country girls who had been
allured from Canadian homes, were recovered
13
14 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
from one of these haunts of shame, in Chicago, and
returned to their parents and native homes.
They were induced to leave home under the
promise of easy employment and large pay, never
dreaming they were as lambs going to their slaugh-
ter. At the depot they were met and ushered into
a closed carriage, driven to a certain number in a
certain street; the door opened, they were ushered
in, the door closed. Alas! they were in the
vestibule of hell. Placed in an inner court, their
screams and cries could not be heard to the street.
Robbed of their virtue, they were ruined for life,
and for two long weeks suffered untold torture.
Eternity alone can. reveal the agony and horror
of those awful days, and " awfuller " nights. At
the end of two strange, black weeks, days so ray-
less, and nights so starless, that to these pure
country girls it seemed like hell itself, a little col-
ored girl who scrubbed the front steps dropped
a word to a passing policeman, and the chief sent
a posse of officers with shotguns, and the enslaved
daughters were rescued and returned to their dis-
tracted parents.
But they were ruined, their names were
tarnished, their lives withered, blighted, and
damned, and it is not likely that the commercial
agent received more than seventy-five dollars for
A MARKET FOR GIRLS. 1 5
the three of them. We have never found a higher
market for the most attractive and desirable than
thirty dollars a head. Many of our girls who are
now wonderfully saved were sold in the market
for five dollars, and some of them went as low as
two dollars a head.
Mother, what value do you place upon your
daughter? You probably value her very highly,
but she has another value a commercial value,
in this commercial world, and it is probably some-
where from five to twenty-five dollars. If she has
a fine form, a beautiful face, and is in every way
attractive, and should be put on a bullish market,
she might bring twenty-five or thirty dollars; but
if she is an ordinary girl, no difference how much
you love her, she will not bring as much if sold by
the pound as well-fatted hogs are worth in the
Union Stockyards of Chicago. This is the value
placed on your darling by this licentious rum-
soaked world. I am not dealing in sentimental-
ism. I am not pessimistic, and yet I pity the man
who feels forced to be an optimist in these days
of thickening gloom.
I am dealing with great, rugged, bald, craggy
facts, bare hard facts that you had just as well
face. In one of the most popular American cities
we found a liquor dealer with his stock pens in the
16 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
\
same building where his saloon was situated. The
market pen was screened off with lattice from the
floor to the ceiling, or so high that escape was im-
possible. The girls were turned into that en-
closure, and men looked them over through that
wire screen and made their choice just as they
would select any other article of merchandise.
One of our Chicago missionaries has finally suc-
ceeded in one of the most difficult undertakings
of gaining admittance into a Japanese sporting
house, or a house where only Japanese girls are
kept. The most beautiful and innocent-looking
Japanese girls that can be found in the empire are
bought and shipped to this country for such pur-
poses of cruelty and shame. The house, while it
is kept by an American woman, is after the Jap-
anese style, and in elegance and splendor, baffles
description. The house is patronized only by
wealthy, aristocratic, American men. The girls
are all small and, dressed in the finest silks, they
look like beautiful dolls. Think of their heart-
aches and sorrows strangers among strangers.
The same infernal commercial business is carried
on by shipping our American girls in droves to
the foreign lands to receive the same treatment.
One of our friends, a missionary in Bombay,
India, was notified that on a certain steamer there
A MARKET FOR GIRLS. i?
were twenty-six American girls, who had been
shipped under promise of employment with a cer-
tain great corporation, with good pay, but that
they were shipped to an agent for the sporting
market. The missionary, as well as the agent, was
on the lookout for them. But the vessel came a day
earlier than the agent expected, and he was not at
the wharf. The missionary was there, and when
those twenty-six girls stood on the wharf, and were
informed what they were in India for, they wept
and sobbed, and even screamed aloud. Thank
God! she had a place to take them to, and rescued
them all from ruin. But it breaks our hearts to
think of the thousands who are less fortunate. One
of the most adroit methods used in this fiendish
merchandise of souls is the " mock marriage."
Elegantly dressed demons in human form, gallant
in manners, attentive to a fault, with the most de-
ceptive words, gain the confidence, then the affec-
tions, of the most innocent and artless of American
daughters.
Mock licenses are obtained, the services of a
mock preacher are secured, and the parsonage
proves to be a house of ill fame, and this introduces
my first story the relation of which is intended to
not only glorify God, and magnify the grace of
His dear Son, but to warn parents and daughters
1 8 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
everywhere, for this dark misfortune comes not
only to those in the ordinary walks of life, but to
the palatial homes, boulevards, and avenues.
LITTLE MAY.
" LITTLE MAY."
A COMMERCIAL agent traveling in the interest
of one of the well-known houses of shame in Cin-
cinnati, was making a business trip through the
South. He approached a certain town, registered
in a good hotel, and started out in search of vic-
tims.
As soon as his eyes fell upon the attractive form
and beautiful face of " Little May," he began lay--
ing plans for her ruin. He had made a study of
human nature, and saw in her a fine specimen of
womanhood. He promptly embraced what he
knew to be a rare opportunity. He was most care-
ful of all "his movements. At first his point was
merely to meet her every few days, and every time
so polite as to soon make her feel she was some-
what acquainted with him, and then when re-
ceived into her home it was always in the pres-
ence of her parents. He so completely covered
his tracks that nothing appeared out of the way.
He secured her confidence, won her affections,
and in a short time proposed marriage. It seemed
impossible for her to decline the offer. Her
parents were Christians, and had strange impres-
sions about it all, but seemed unable to dissuade
21
22 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
her from her purpose. The villain had completely
captured her affectionate nature; she loved him,
and would go with him to the ends of the earth.
Having succeeded thus far, he gave plausible rea-
sons why they should be married in Cincinnati.
To this her parents stoutly objected, but to no
purpose. When in Cincinnati, a license was
secured (she supposed it was a license), and they
went to the " parsonage " ( ?) (she was told it was
a parsonage), where they would be joined in a
happy union. She was only seventeen, and her
young, confiding heart was full of hope. When
the parsonage ( ?) door was opened and they were
ushered in, she found herself amid strange sur-
roundings. Very soon her supposed husband ex-
cused himself with the promise that he would re-
turn soon.
Little May was overwhelmed by the strange
actions about her, and when her supposed hus-
band's return seemed delayed, there came a great
lump in her throat, and with streaming eyes, and
a forlorn look, she sat there one of the purest
of girls amid the vilest of earth. But, oh! who can
imagine her feelings when the madam told her he
would never return that she had just paid him
thirty dollars for her.
Her anguish and grief seemed too much for any
" LITTLE MAY." 23
human frame. No pen can describe it it can
never be expressed. She was only told that it was
not worth while to weep, that it was an easy way of
making money, and she would soon overcome those
feelings. .
Little do fathers and mothers think as their little
brood gather about the evening fireside in the
childish glee of a happy home, that such a fate
should ever come to them. But, alas! the plun-
derer's hand is abroad the destroyer is in the
land! It was two or three months before Little
May's escape was possible. One day one of our
faithful missionaries forced an entrance into that
haunt of vice, and Little May was recovered and
brought to one of our Rescue Homes.
It was not long till she was wonderfully saved
from all sin, and after a short time we returned her
to her heart-broken parents in the South. They
had wept and prayed and cried to God day and
night for some clue to their precious darling who
seemed lost to them forever.
Can you imagine their joy when she re-entered
the old home and rested her throbbing head just
where it used to rest on her mother's breast?
When her father planted kiss after kiss just where
he used to plant them in her childhood days?
You ask if rescue work pays? Beloved, if Link
24 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
May had been my daughter, don't you suppose
I would think it pays? If May had been your
daughter, would you have ever asked the ques-
tion?
I am often asked what per cent of the girls
rescued really get saved, and stand true. I have
just had a report from one of our Homes which
includes an answe^r to that question. It is, that
eighty-five per cent of all who have come into that
Home have proved true. Where is an evangelist
that can show such proportionate results in
churches? Who can show sixty per cent, forty per
cent, or ten per cent, of their converts at the end of
a year? Jesus always thought it would pay to
save the fallen, and I know of no investment equal
to it anywhere. To Him be all the glory for the
power of the Gospel in the slums.
A NATION'S SHAME.
" I AM not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ."
There is much to be ashamed of in these days, both
in the Church and State. The Church should be
ashamed that she is utterly failing to evangelize
the world. While all Christendom made three
million professed converts to Christianity, in the
foreign field the heathen increased two hundred
million. In the face of this fact she should be
ashamed to listen to her high salaried, ease-loving,
time serving preachers, announcing that the world
is getting better, and that we are approaching a
millennium of righteousness. She should be
ashamed of her tall steeples, thundering organs,
thick carpets, and salaried singers, with no con-
verts. She should be ashamed that her church
fairs, festivals, bazaars, and shows are thronged
with people, and the prayer-meeting can hardly be
sustained. At a little country Quaker church, there
were fifty to the social one night, and only one to
the prayer-meeting the next. My information
leads me to believe that this is a common propor-
tion in Protestantism.
The State should be ashamed of the hundreds
of ship loads of distilled damnation she is shipping
25
26 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
into the ports of less enlightened nations, to wreck
their homes, widow their wives, make orphans of
their children, and damn their souls in an eternal
hell. This government should be ashamed that in
the very heart of the nation, there are three million
mountaineers, who are most of them unable to
either read or write, and are practically without
the Gospel of Christ
She has three million homeless, friendless,
tramping men. Most of people fear and dread
them, and no one scarcely loves them. You may
have given some of them a sandwich at the back
door to get rid of them, but who invites them in
and points them to Jesus? Who gets them on
their knees for prayer? There are a hundred
thousand newsboys and one hundred thousand
bootblacks, but few of them have ever been prayed
for by name. Who knows their names? Many
of them have no name except " Dick," " Tut,"
" Jim," " Bob," " Toad," or " Jack." Many of
them sleep in goods' boxes, cellar ways, box-cars,
or dark alleys. Nobody to tuck them in, and no
one to say " good-night."
There are a hundred thousand men and boys in
penitentiaries, workhouses and jails, who are there
on account of a legalized traffic in wholesale. dam-
nation, This infernal trade is not only made possi-
A NATION'S SHAME. 27
ble by the ballot of the American people, but re-
ceives the sanction of a so-called Christian nation.
But worst of all there are three hundred and
fifty thousand of most beautiful American girls
behind sealed doors and walls thicker than any
penitentiary walls slaves to the brutal passions
of beastly men. Their sobs, groans, and midnight
cries are unheeded, and their sorrow is unknown
to the world. This should certainly make a nation
blush with shame, and send the Christian church to
her knees with prayers and tears.
Thank God for something of which we are never
ashamed. It is the Gospel of Christ a gospel
for the poor, the fallen, and the hopeless, and if you
read this book, you will not wonder at its title, or
at our convictions.
ORPHA, THE CIGARETTE FIEND.
IT would seem that God is going out of His
way, in these last days, to lift up and save poor,
lost, wrecked, and ruined lives. He has always
loved the fallen, but the truly observing can hardly
fail to notice that the Holy Ghost is giving special
attention to the neglected and submerged classes.
It would be wise as well as pious for us to give
more attention to those to whom the Lord is show-
ing special attention.
Christ was a traveling Saviour; He journeyed
from city to city, from village to village and from
hamlet to hamlet. When He was rejected at one
place, He went to another; and He commanded
His followers to do the same. He is just the same
to-day. Educational and ecclesiastical seminaries
of the world have had their opportunity and in the
early part of the last century great revivals of
Bible salvation broke out in many of the colleges
and universities of America; and many of the
churches enjoyed great out-pourings of grace,
but having been rejected and often insulted, the
blessed Spirit seems to have gone outside of the
city walls, under the hedges, through the valleys,
and to the grimy lanes of life to seek the fallen,
and they seem much more anxious to have Him
29
30 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
than those Scribes and Pharisees or doctors of the
law.
Orpha, the subject of this sketch, was born in
Ohio. Her father was a wicked man; her mother,
a godly, praying woman, went to heaven when
Orpha was fifteen years old --just at the time
when she most needed the protection and counsel
of a mother. A stepmother soon turned her
father against his children and the poor girl was
homeless. She worked in a shoe factory, the pay
was not large and she had a hard time.
O, how my heart breaks over the thousands of
friendless girls in mills, shops, and cotton factor-
ies, struggling for food and clothes and exposed to
awful temptation to sin and ruin! These girls feel
keenly the need of some one to love and care for
them. Thousands of women are bestowing their
affections on a poodle dog or a sleepy old cat, who
ought to rise up and take these girls into their
homes and hearts.
Orpha's first break into sin was not until she was
twenty years old and then under promise of mar-
riage. How shall the daughters of our land be
warned against the scoundrels who with good
clothes and fair promises are ruining whole regi-
ments of girls? When deserted by the one who
had sworn to support her, there seemed nothing
ORPHA, THE CIGARETTE FIEND. 31
to open before her but a life of shame. She went to
church, but they did not have salvation to save
her; the saloon and brothel were wide open to her.
A well-dressed man, a demon in human form,
came to the country village and under promise of
good clothes and a nice home with light work, he
allured the tired girl to Cincinnati and sold her to
a house of shame. Her cries and groans were un-
answered; she was lost to the world and woman-
hood and there was nobody to care. The man was
a professional procurer, and in this case received
only two dollars each for the girls above their
traveling expenses.
Mother, how much is your daughter worth?
Have you a daughter under twenty years of age?
Would you sell her for two dollars? Father, what
do you think of a man who would allure your
daughter away, and then sell her for two dollars
to be a slave to the brutal passions of beastly men?
The sweet, pure child who has climbed into your
lap, and fondly stroked your whiskers so many
times; perhaps she is sitting on your knee while
you read this sketch ; she may yet be exposed to this
hellish scheme. There are hundreds of men
abroad in the land to-day whose business is to pro-
cure pure, handsome country or village girls for
sporting houses of our great cities. I can not write
32 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
this sketch without uttering a warning against this
infernal traffic.
This slave-driver, the villain that he was, told
Orpha afterward that he would give anything in
the world if he had never brought her to this place
of shame; withered, blighted, paralyzed as his soul
was, it still seemed awful to him to see her in that
horrid bondage where her midnight cries were
never answered and where there was not a ray of
hope of escaping. How then, must it seem to a
pure, sensitive nature? When all was lost, she
went lower and lower, smoking and drinking until
she was a perfect sot. From one sporting house to
a lower class house and to another and another,
down and down until she often wished she was
dead and really felt that hell could be no worse.
She secured a revolver and was just about to kill
herself when some one learned of the plan and
broke down the door of her room and took the gun
from her just in time to save her life.
It was in this forlorn, hopeless condition that a
voice spoke to her in the night and said, " Get up
and pray, there is coming a change in your life."
The voice was so plain and so oft repeated that she
obeyed, and while she did not know how to pray or
how to get salvation, from that hour she was seized
ORPHA, THE CIGARETTE FIEND. 33
with conviction and could never get rid of it; and
although she was not converted, the conviction was
so strong that she quit smoking and the desire for
cigarettes was all taken away. She told the madam
of the house that she could not smoke any more,
and although she did not quit sin and, of course,
was not converted, she would weep by the hour
and talk about Jesus in the brothel and many times
would get down and pray right among the girls
and with the keeper of the house, and they would
weep with her, but they did not know how to get
saved. Then she would drink and drink for weeks
and drown her conviction and as soon as she would
sober off, she would pray and weep and preach
Jesus to those in the house, until the conviction was
so great that they told her she would have to leave
if she did not stop it, but she could not stop and
they could do nothing with her.
She was arrested eight times in the month of
April, and served five weeks in the workhouse and
all this time she was weeping and praying and
struggling to find the light of God.
When she heard music which reminded her of
her mother and her mother's warnings, she would
weep and weep, and almost went wild. Again she
attempted suicide, but her plans were thwarted,
34 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
and she was brought to Hope Cottage, where she
heard that Jesus could save her from all sin. and
keep her true to God always.
As soon as she was told how, the poor, tired,
heart-broken girl gave her heart to God, and He
wonderfully saved her from sin, and all desire for
sin. Her conversion was so wonderful that she
declared that she was sanctified wholly, and would
listen to nothing else, until God showed her inbred
sin, and then she sought with all her heart the
second blessing, and was sanctified wholly. She
feels called to do mission work among those of
her own kind. Before she was saved, she would
not work; now she is delighted to engage in hon-
est labor; will wash and iron all day. and give
of her means to spread the Gospel. She says,
" I am free from all passions and sinful desires:
I am settled and esablished, and no one can
make me doubt it. If all the sanctified people
were to go back on the Lord, I know He has
sanctified me, and I want to do missionary work
for Him."
Orpha has since been ordained as a deaconess,
and is one among our most successful mission-
aries. Again and again she has stood like a
princess in the same court room, and before the
same Judge, where her ragged form was dragged
ORPHA, THE CIGARETTE FIEND. 35
from the cell before the bench, morning after
morning; but now she stands there dressed like a
Christian lady, pleading for the release of other
girls, and commanding the profoundest respect of
the court, and of the officers who so often secured
her arrest. One day she entered the court, dressed
in a handsome black suit, with white collar and
cuffs, as you see her in this picture. The judge
rose to his feet, invited her forward, and when
he and the officers had taken her by the hand in
congratulation, said. " Georgia (for that was her
sporting name), we are all very glad indeed of
your reformation." Immediately Orpha turned
on him and said, " Judge, I want you to know it
is not reformation, but salvation through Jesus
Christ." She has since rescued many poor girls,
among them Fannie, whose story is found in this
book. She is also the missionary referred to in
the article, " Judgment in the Slums." The fol-
lowing is a clipping from a newspaper:
BEGS FOR CHANCE TO REFORM SHOPLIFTER.
WOMAN MISSIONARY, ONCE PRISONER IN POLICE STATION,
PLEADS TO SAVE YOUNG GIRL.
CINCINNATI, JAN. 7. A sensation was created in police
court circles yesterday by the reappearance of Georgia
Kline, who came in the interest of Lauretta Daul, of Tren-
36 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
ton, N. J., a nineteen-year-old girl, who confessed to Chief
Crawford that she had been for months shoplifting. A few
months ago Georgia Kline was a physical and moral wreck.
Addicted to liquor and drugs, her ragged form was dragged
from the cell to the rail before the bench, morning after morn-
ing. Yesterday her appearance was a revelation of reform.
Dressed. in a handsome tailor-made suit of broadcloth, black
from toe to crown, and heavily veiled, she was a picture of
prosperity and decorum. " I am a missionary now, Judge ;
let me have that little girl ; let me take her to my new home,
and we, I and those who have helped me, will reform her."
Judge Leuders promptly gave Lauretta Daul over to the ap-
plicant.
Beloved, it is " the gospel which is the power
of God unto salvation," that has done this. To
Him we give all the honor and glory forever.
Beloved, when I know that forty-six thousand of
such girls are captured every year, is it any won-
der that I ask your prayers, and in every way your
assistance to rescue these for the Lord? Orpha
is a good preacher of the Word, and a real soul
winner, as trusty and trusted as an old veteran
of the Cross. Her shining face is a living testi-
mony to the power of the gospel, and a constant
rebuke to sin. Let all who read these lines dis-
tinctly understand that we are careful to give all
the glory to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Praise the Lord!
A NIGHT IN "LITTLE HELL."
" LITTLE HELL " is one of the darkest sections
of Chicago, North Side, and noted more for mur-
ders and robberies than for houses of prostitution,
though every conceivable form of sin abounds
there. The streets are narrow, dark, filthy, and
abound with dirty, ragged children.
Just at dark one wet, cold night, one of our
missionaries received a message asking her to take
two other missionaries and go to a certain street
and number in this benighted district to care for
a man who was dying with delirium tremens.
They were warned that it was not at all safe for
them to enter that precinct at night, but feeling
that the Lord would have them respond to the
call, without the least hesitation proceeded on
their journey. The rain was falling, the night
was dismal, and the distance was several miles.
When they reached the doomed neighborhood, a
horror of darkness and spiritual depression settled
down on their souls, and it seemed as if brimstone
was in the air, and regiments of devils confronted
them.
These girls, naturally as timid and shrinking
as children, pressed their way through a long dark
37
38 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
street, then turned into a darker, grimy lane, and
after a lengthy journey, wet and cold, they found
the slummy little house surrounded with dilap-
idation, presenting just such an appearance as you
would expect to find around a drunkard's home.
They were received by the drunkard's heart-
broken wife into a little room, with a bed, an old
lounge, a small table, and some chairs. The only
light was by a dingy little lamp with a smoky
chimney. On the bed was a man supposed to be
dying with tremens. For six weeks he had not
slept an hour. His groans, screams, and delirium
had worn everybody out who had been with him.
Some of his worthless neighbors had been in, but
would not stay. Money will do almost anything,
but one thing it will not do, it will not hire peo-
ple to stay and see a man die with delirium tre-
mens, and listen to his unearthly screams when
devils are after him, and snakes crawling all over
him. No one seems to want money bad enough
to endure this. But the grace of God will operate
when everything else has failed.
The girls told the poor tired woman that she
might go to bed; that there were three of them,
and they were not afraid, promising that if he
grew worse they would call her. Very soon the
man rose right up in bed, as thin as a ghost. With
A NIGHT IN " LITTLE HELL." 39
eyes like a flame of fire, he screamed, "Snakes!
Snakes! " Pointing at the wall, first in one direc-
tion, then another, he would cry, " Cant you see
the snakes? The room is full of devils." The
missionaries would just cry, " Jesus, Jesus, blessed
Jesus! " and at the mention of the name of Jesus
he would fall back on his pillow and remain
quiet perhaps two or three minutes, and then
scream again as before. This was repeated a
number of times. The man was so emaciated
that he seemed only skin and bones, and yet in
the strength of the demons he would jump out
of bed, take the lounge in his arms, and run at
the missionaries. They would just fall on their
knees, and cry out, " Jesus, blessed Jesus," and he
would drop the lounge and get back in bed. After
these awful scenes were repeated many times, the
missionaries agreed about midnight that they
must get down and get complete victory for this
man. God wonderfully blessed them in prayer,
and while they were crying to Jesus, the devils
were all cast out, and that satanic feeling left the
room. Yes, the devils went out, and the angels
came in, and the glory of God filled and lighted
that dismal room. The man began to pray for
himself, and definitely gave himself to God.
While he was praying, he fell asleep with the
40 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
name of Jesus on his lips, and slept like a baby
for eight hours.
When that frantic lunatic woke next morning,
he was like a child, and was blessedly saved and
in his right mind. O, glory to the Christ that is
able to cast out devils and heal the sick.
The missionaries were so blessed in their souls,
and lifted above this world, they seemed to hardly
touch the sidewalks. As they went home next
morning they were so filled with the glory of God
that they stopped wagons on the street, and
preached Jesus to the drivers. They stopped
men on their way to their work, and women with
pitchers or buckets of beer, and warned them of
the coming judgment, and preached salvation to
all. That was once the devil suffered awful de-
feat in " Little Hell."
When the missionaries returned a week later,
they found the man saved and healed, and look-
ing for work. All glory to Jesus, at the mention
of whose name the demons must flee.
DICIE.
DICIE, OR THE SPORTING MADAM!
DlClE was a madam of a well-furnished house
of shame. At the age of twenty-four she was a
confirmed drunkard. For six years she was a
cigarette fiend, using morphine and cocaine, and
in fact all the drugs commonly used by sporting
women. Her beautiful, attractive face was bloated
and greatly marred by every abominable excess.
If we could show you a picture of her face as it
was when she left sin, the contrast between the
two portraits would appear very striking.
The slum missionaries entered her home and
were permitted to pray in her house, and from
that hour conviction for sin fell upon D like
a stroke. She was urged to give up sin, and come
to Rest Cottage, but was so firmly held in the
mighty grip of appetite, passion, and habit that
release seemed impossible. Some time later she
'came to the Home just for a day to look it over
and see what the matron and missionaries were
like. The saints wept, prayed, and pleaded with
her, but she returned to her place of shame at
night.
A few weeks later she came to the matron and
said, " I am so tired and sick of sin. I want to
43
44 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
break up my house, bring part of my furnishings
to Rest Cottage, give my heart to God, and if pos-
sible, find salvation from sin."
After a few days in the Home, much of her time
spent in seeking God, she felt that before He
would save her soul, she must apologize to a man
in the slums, whom I have no doubt was many
times worse than herself; but she felt that she had
wronged him, and must make it right. She was
not willing to trust herself down in town alone,
so asked the matron if she could not send a mis-
sionary with her. The missionaries were all busy.
The matron said, " I will send Anna with you."
Anna was pne of the inmates of the Home, who
had been rescued, and so wonderfully saved that
she was very trusty. D - had been used to the
protection of a revolver, but instead they each took
a Bible under their arms as a sort of testimony,
as well as protection from sin.
When she had seen the villain, and told him
she had quit sin, broken up her house, and was
seeking God, she exhorted him to do the same.
When she had finished her errand and reached
the street, she said to Anna, " There is a certain
bartender in a saloon down here that I feel that
I should speak to."
They entered the saloon, and after informing
DICIE, OR THE SPORTING MADAM! 45
him what she had done, she stood in that dirty
saloon and preached Jesus to that bartender till
he was put under the direst conviction. She was
not yet converted herself, but warned him of a
coming judgment, and exhorted him to come to
God. She finally insisted that he should get down
on his knees and she would pray with him on that
saloon floor. She had not only given up sin, but
had more concern for lost souls before she was
converted at all than most of professing Christians
have ever known.
The bartender insisted that it was hardly the
proper place to pray. His customers were com-
ing and going, and greatly embarrassed, he ex-
cused himself, taking from her a mission card,
and promised that he would come down to the
mission. Soon after the girls returned to the
home, the physical and mental reaction set in with
poor D . The sudden abandonment of all
drugs and nicotine proved too great a shock to
her system, and she was thrown into temporary
insanity. This was an awful blow to us all. For
days the matron was forced to hide every knife,
and the scissors, and watch her day and night.
She would crawl through the coal scuttle in the
basement, or in any way steal out and roll in the
snow drifts to quench the burning thirst for strong
46 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
drinks and cigarettes. She finally became so dan-
gerously violent that it looked as if she would
break up the Home. But the matron refused to
turn her over to the authorities, who would have
taken her to a padded cell. They fasted, prayed,
and wept before God until the drug and tobacco
devils were cast out of her, as really as they were
in Bible times, and the dear girl was clothed and
in her right mind. Oh, it was simply wonderful,
beyond all description.
We soon learned that she had a mother living
in a distant state, a beautiful Christian, who on
learning of the situation, promptly came to Chi-
cago. D 's wonderful deliverance was before
her mother reached us, and from the hour of her
deliverance to this day she has never shown a trace
of her insanity. Who can imagine the inexpres-
sible joy of a Christian mother on the occasion
of the return of such a prodigal daughter? They
are living happily together in her mother's home,
and D - is a missionary of the Cross, seeking
lost souls in the slums of her own city. Let every-
thing that hath breath praise the Lord!
"A SLUMMY SLUM."
IT is exceedingly difficult for those living in
rural districts to credit any statement that approx-
imates a fair description of the real condition
of the " slummiest slums " of our largest cqnters
of population. We will not soon forget ourselves
how we were appalled when we first came in touch
with a solid block of sin, squalor, and crime, one-
half mile square, located in the heart of a city of
two million people.
It is safe, I think, to say it is a cube of sin, for
certainly the infernal fumes from two hundred
and forty-one saloons, besides brothels, dance
halls, and low-grade theaters reach more than half
a mile high. This dreadful precinct of sin, crime,
and vice is without the restraint even of churches
or Sunday-schools, and is a law unto itself. A
stranger should cease to place any value upon his
own life before he passes through some of the
streets at high noon.
In this accompanying picture you have a view
down through Custom House Place, where for
block after block every single house on both sides
of the street is a house of shame. It looks very
quiet in the picture, but if you could see it at
4 49
50 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
midnight, it is filled with activity and the most
glaring sin and atrocious crime.
On the following page is the picture of a single
house occupied by ninety families, and but one
of them known to be married. Whites and blacks
promiscuously raising families without marriage.
This' is given as a testimony of the janitor of the
building. What a field for mission work! Pray
ye the Lord of the harvest to send forth more
laborers into the vineyard. The gospel of Christ
would transform this veritable hell into an Eden
of grace, and fill it with flowers, smiles, sunshine,
and purity.
MARGARET.
MARGARET, THE BARREL-HOUSE
SPORT.
MARGARET , of Canadian birth, came of
godly ancestors. She was born on Owens' Sound,
Ontario. Her father, an intelligent man, broke
away from his religious training, and became a
brute through strong drink. His devoted wife
became discouraged, and entirely disheartened,
and poor M - grew wilful and disobedient.
She had a great love for books, and for a time did
good w r ork in school. Her father, who was nearly
always drunk, determined to keep her from secur-
ing an education, and at an early age, she was
forced to go out as a servant, in a private family.
She gave good satisfaction, and a lady in Sault
Ste. Marie testifies that she never had a better
girl; but, alas! one of the devil's many agents won
the confidence of this beautiful, artless girl, and
allured her to the outskirts, and when he could
accomplish his fiendish purpose in no other way,
drugged, and robbed her of her womanhood.
Margaret was never strong from a child, and now-
thinking she had committed the unpardonable
sin, became heart-broken and miserable beyond
description. When she returned home, it was >nly
55
56 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
to be turned out in the cold and darkness by a
drunken father.
How distressingly dark is the night when a
ruined, heart-broken girl is thrust out and cast off
by those who should guard and protect her!
There was no beacon light in any direction. It
was during that starless night of unbearable
darkness, that a seemingly kind-hearted woman
proposed that Margaret go with her where she
could have a fine time and support herself with-
out work. The unsuspecting girl so sorely in
need of sympathy and kindness, was induced to
go with the woman for a ride. That proved to be
a long ride. The decline was alarmingly rapid
The whirling wheels of that black chariot carried
her over declivities, rugged ways, and awful prec-
ipices, almost to the very gates of death and end-
less night. To poor Margaret it was like a stage
driver going down the mountain, unable to get
his foot on the brake. When she called a halt,
there was nothing before her but the morgue, the
potter's field, a nameless grave, and a Christless
hell.
The first glass of strong drink proved that she
had inherited her father's appetite for rum, and
she was soon entirely beyond self-control. By the
use of strong drink and cigarettes, she made a vig-
MARGARET, THE BARREL- HOUSE SPORT. 57
orous effort to stifle her conscience, never wholly
at ease. The first few times she was led into sa-
loons she called for " soft drinks," and the bar-
tender, a demon in human clothes, would say,
" You are no good if you can't drink whisky."
The devil rose up in her, and she said, " I will
not be behind my companions."
She fell to hard drinking, and for months was
intoxicated day and night, never sober except when
in jail. She said, "At first I would have times of
feeling awfully bad about my life of sin, but I
soon got so I did not care."
When in jail she was under awful conviction,
but did not know what was the matter, or that
there was a remedy. It was while she was in
prison that she made up her mind to try and do
better. Some one gave her a Bible and a hymn
book, and she attempted to read the Bible, but
the other prisoners would make all manner of
sport of her; they would throw pillows, cups, or
anything at her so that she could not read. She
even asked the turnkey to put her in a cell alone
where she could read her Bible, but no one could
tell her the way of salvation. After she might
have been released, she was held in the witness-
cell for twenty-three days as a witness against a
man who kept a house of shame.
5 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
She had become such a vicious character thai
in a drunken row with a man who drew a knife
upon her, she in turn took a bottle, conquered
him, and took the knife from him. You could
hardly believe it, for she is one of the most timid,
modest, reticent girls we have ever had in the
Home, but it was the whisky devil that possessed
her. Her career in dissipation was comparatively
short, but she went with such a whirl that the
last six months of her life of sin was almost
without a sober breath. She was among that
lowest class that lounges about saloons and barrel
houses of the lowest kind.
A self-denying missionary found her in jail;
and she was soon weeping over her sins, and
through the instrumentality of the missionary she
was led to Christ there in prison, but she was
held several weeks, together with a number of
more hardened prisoners through whose influence
she lost her hope. After she was released from
prison, the missionary came with her to Rest
Cottage in Chicago, a distance of nearly six hun-
dred miles.
Here Margaret wept her way back to the Cross,
but so terrible were her appetites and passions for
sin, that twice she broke away and went down,
but she was followed by many prayers and tears,
MARGARET, THE BARREL-HOUSE SPORT. 59
and one morning when one of our missionaries
entered the police court in pursuit of another girl,
poor Margaret sprang into her arms and said,
" Sister Freeman, I have been arrested."
She had drifted into a very low house, and the
house had been raided by the officers, and the
madam and all the girls had been arrested. The
missionary sat down by her during the session of
the court. When sentence was passed, an old
woman, the mother of the madam, stepped up and
paid the fines for all of them. When court had
adjourned and almost all had left the court room,
the woman who paid the bill, which was only a
dollar a head, together with the madam, stepped
up to Margaret and said, " Come on now, we have
paid your fine; you must go with us."
The missionary said, " No, Margaret, you don't
have to go with them; you can go with me to
Rest Cottage, if you like." The old woman,
possessed with the devil and filled with rage,
shook her fist in the missionary's face, and used
language most unbecoming; her attitude was not
only vicious, but apparently dangerous. But the
missionary held her ground, and stood firmly at
her post. Presently an officer came in, and
demanded an explanation of the disturbance.
When informed of the situation he turned to the
6o MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
madam and her mother and said. " Get out of
here, every one of you, or I will have you arrested
again in five minutes." They lost no time in dis-
appearing, and Margaret was again brought to
Rest Cottage.
She very soon returned to the Lord, and found
an establishment in grace that she had never
known. For more than a year she has been a
successful missionary, testifying to the power of
Christ to save, leading public meetings, and turn-
ing men and women to God. When she stands in
the jail and relates to the prisoners the story of
her redemption, their hardened hearts are broken
to pieces. She has many strong and faithful
friends, and is leading a pure and beautiful life.
Again we are made to exclaim, " I am not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the
power of God unto salvation to every one that
believeth." To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
be all the glory forever!
" The day will soon be over,
When digging will be done
With no more Gems to gather,
So let us still press on.
When Jesus comes to call us,
And says it is enough,
The rough ones will be shining,,
No longer in the rough."
"AMONG THE TOMBS."
IT was on a Sabbath afternoon that we entered
the famous Harrison Street Police Prison, to find
about seventy prisoners, male and female, who
were most of them arrested Saturday night, and
thrown into jail to spend the Lord's day. The
cells are in the basement, with but little light or
ventilation, presenting the most forlorn and dis-
mal spectacle I have ever found in any jail. The
cells are about six by ten feet in size, furnished
with absolutely nothing except a wooden bench
on one side running the length of the cell. In one
cell of this size there were eight men and boys,
in another seven, and in another six, etc. An
inmate in the cell where there were six, told us
there had been eight in their cell.
Now two of these might manage in some sort of
way to lie on that bench, but the other six must
either stand for two nights and a day, or lie on
that filthy stone floor. The only sanitary accom-
modations is a stream of water running through
an open groove in the stone floor, across ; the
rear end of the cells. The odor was stifling, and
the vermin and squalor \ve do not care to describe.
The prisoners' diet consists of bread and water;
61
62 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
the bread is served by placing a loaf the right
size to fit tight between the bars. The water is
in an old wooden pail, and sits on the corridor
floor just outside the cell. When the prisoner
wants water, he has an old rusty, oblong, tin cup
which he can slip between the bars and reach the
water in the pail. I am told that the great Nor-
way rats drink out of the same pail of water, and
eat off the same loaf of bread with the prisoners.
Here we found heart-broken boys in the same
cells with hardened criminals. Here was just a
child, the only support of his widowed mother
she standing outside the iron gate, convulsed with
sorrow, and the heart-broken boy inside sobbing
himself sick. He had been accused of carrying
away a piece of brass from the foundry where
he worked, but there was no brass in his inno-
cent look, and no trace of crime in his childish
face.
We felt that some of the officers beat the
drunken, almost delirious prisoners unmercifully.
An officer entered a cell and knocked a man
down with his club, while we were standing at the
cell door holding religious service.
It was wonderful how the power of God fell
upon the place as we preached Jesus to those
poor unfortunate creatures. In one ward there
AMONG THE TOMBS. 63
were perhaps twenty young men, who at first
seemed hard and defiant, but their hearts melted,
and they wept like rain as they all fell on their
knees in prayer. Some of them professed that
day to find Christ as their Saviour from sin. One
beautiful girl seemed to receive the clear witness
to salvation.
If the Christ of Calvary would walk through
those dingy corridors, enter those grimy cells, and
transform the lives of such unfortunate inmates,
certainly there are no sinks or haunts of vice,
where the power of the gospel is not able to save.
HALLIE.
AN ARTLESS GIRL.
HALLIE'S parents died when she was small.
No friendly hand was offered her, and the poor
child was thrown out into this cold world to be
tossed about and to make her own way. It is not
easy for a friendless, homeless child to stem the
rising tides of sin, beat back the billows of temp-
tation, and ride on in purity with unsullied gar-
ments.
The child was taking the cows to pasture, when
a married man, and a church member, captured
and ruined her. There seemed to be no one to
care; she had never had a mother to teach her
the true sacredness of womanhood, and in her
artlessness and innocence, she was an easy prey
to this beast of the field.
When a girl has fallen, the devil almost invari-
ably says to her, " Well, you know you are ruined;
everybody will cast you off; you will be kicked
out of society; your name is tarnished, and no
body will care; you had just as well go into sin,
and get all out of life you can." Poor Hallie, like
a crippled lamb among a pack of wolves, with
aching head and breaking heart, yields to the
snare of the devil in human form.
5 65
66 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
Living in a Virginia country village, she did
not know the practices of sin as carried on in the
great centers of vice. At the age of fifteen she
made a vigorous effort to get saved and longed
to live a good life, but she knew nothing of the
way of salvation, and every effort on the part of
others was to drag her down. If it had been a
horse or a mule that had fallen, they would have
been given another chance, but there was no one
to help her to her feet. She had never heard a
real gospel sermon in her life till she came to
the Rescue Home, and the first time the poor
girl was told that God loved her, it broke her
heart. She very soon sought and found Christ
in His great Salvation.
Beloved, do you imagine that our joy is small
when the Lord permits us to give these friendless
girls the gospel the first time they have heard the
real truth? Can you imagine the inexpressible
pleasure it is to see them embrace Christ and
devour the truth as fast as it can be given to
them? Many of these dear girls are not only
beautiful, but smart and intelligent; and after
they are saved become so polished and refined in
both manners and appearance that you would
never think for a moment that they had ever
known sin.
AN ARTLESS GIRL. 67
Hallie is of a most beautiful, modest Christian
spirit. She is an example to all around her. Some
time since when she was on her knees scrubbing
the kitchen floor, and at the same time praying
and praising God for what He had done for hen
she raised up, sat back on the floor, and received
her call to be a missionary. It was an appro-
priate place for her to receive the call, for mis-
sionaries find much scrubbing to do. May the
blessed Holy Ghost qualify, and send her forth
as a flaming herald of the same wonderful gospel
which has so gloriously saved her. Reader, can
she have your sympathy and prayers?
To the Lord be all the glory.
FROM AN ATTIC TO A MANSION.
A SLUM missionary turned into a certain street
in Chicago, then through a narrow passageway
to outside stairs, which led her up to a low,
studded, dingy attic, where a young widow was
lying on her deathbed. Her four little children
and her aged mother all slept in that one little
room. She was dying with cancer, without God,
and without hope. They were destitute of food,
only as it was carried to them.
Since the death of her husband, two years
before, she had left the little ones through the day
with their old grandmother, and she had earned
their meager support with her needle in a " sweat
shop." The washing, ironing, and sewing for
her own family of six, she would do during the
night, while her babies were asleep, and when her
weary body should have rested. This she kept
up till she was forced to take her bed. Then
with no means of support, she had " rifled " away
her husband's watch to get bread, and had dis-
posed of all that was marketable. The wolf had
entered the house, and Death was just outside the
door.
She had been confined to her room about a
69
70 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
month before the missionary found her way up
those narrow stairs. Food, flowers, kind words,
and sunshine were poured into those cheerless
rooms, and on the missionary's third visit, the
poor woman was gloriously converted to Christ.
God gave her the unmistakeable witness that her
sins were all forgiven, and her name was written
in the Book of Life. The glory of God filled the
attic, and the radiance of heaven was on the sick
woman's face. How everything was changed in
those dingy quarters! The thing she had most
dreaded was to leave her darlings in this cold,
friendless world, with no relatives who would
take interest in them; but now she calmly com-
mitted them to Jasus, and felt assured that He
would care for them. From that hour she was
unspeakably happy, and a few hours later she
passed triumphantly through the " Gates of
Pearl."
Two of our missionaries were present at that
midnight hour, when the angels climbed those
stairs, and carried her blood-washed spirit from
a stuffy little attic to a mansion in the skies. While
she was dying, the missionaries fell on their knees,
and just before she breathed her life out", her old
mother gave her heart to God, and was blessedly
saved.
FROM AN ATTIC TO A MANSION. 71
That was a strange scene of mingled joy and
sorrow. The little eight-year-old sat through
those dark hours of the night and watched her
mother die, and then got down on her knees and
gave her own heart to God. That was a striking
midnight scene in town. Chicago was as quiet
as she ever gets, but there was a great jubilee on
high.
When the children who were sleeping in the
little bed were aroused and moved out into the
little kitchen, the three-year-old said, " I want my
mamma I want my mamma;" then the others
took it up, and such a wailing and weeping for
mamma has seldom ever been witnessed. It was
most pathetic, and even heart-rending. Four of
the slum missionaries, all ladies, were the pall-
bearers, and the funeral was most beautiful.
What a transformation! What a transportation!
How transcendently glorious!
But what if there had been no missionaries, or,
what if they had not found her? " Pray ye the
Lord of the harvest to send forth more laborers
into the harvest."
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord:
though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as
snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as
wool. Isa. i : 18.
FROM A SALOON TO HELL.
A BRIGHT, intelligent girl listened attentively
to the gospel at one of our Sunday night street
meetings in the slums. Her face indicated that
she belonged to good society, but her clothes
revealed that all was lost, and that she was ?.
victim of the slums.
At the close of the service she asked one of the
missionaries if she could have a private interview
with her about her soul. She was told about Rest
Cottage, and invited to come at once, to which,
she replied, " If I go, you must first go with me
for my jacket."
Several of the missionaries went with her. She
led them into an alley dark enough to make one's
flesh crawl. They instinctively drew near to each
other as they groped their w r ay through the rayless
narrow pass. Finally they reached the dismal
den; a place about seven by ten feet, and not
suitable for dogs to live in. The room contained
a bed, chair frame, with bottom out, an old broken
cook stove, and a dingy lamp on a shelf. On the
bed was an old negro man, and standing in the
center of the room was a white American woman,
whose very appearance showed that she was once
73
74 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
a lady, but sin had done its worst, and there was
nothing left but the shadow of the past.
Maggie said to the woman, " I am tired of sin,
and I am going with these missionaries," and
asked her to go also, but she declined. From
there she led them to another house to get her
hat, as she was bareheaded. After climbing two
flights of filthy stairs, they entered a room where
the tobacco smoke was so dense that at first they
could hardly distinguish a man from a woman.
In this dismal haunt there proved to be one
woman, and four men. Some of them white (?),
and some of them negroes.
Here Maggie repeated what she had said in
the other dive. It was not long till she was com-
fortably situated in Rest Cottage. There has
never been a more modest, humble, reserved
lovable girl in the Home than was Maggie. Her
bearing and deportment was that of a lady in
every respect. She was a high-school graduate,
and a niece of a United States Senator, but the
leprosy of sin had devoured her womanhood, and
the power of appetite, passion, and habit had
dragged her down to the level of negro brutes.
Think of her on commencement day, in her
beautiful graduating suit, covered all over with
beautiful bouquets, thrown at her by a large circle
FROM A SALOON TO HELL. 75
of admiring friends and relatives! Then think
of her in the crime and squalor of a negro brothel.
" How are the ' beautiful ' fallen! "
" Once she was pure as the snow, but she fell,
Fell like the snowflakes from heaven to hell ;
Fell to be tramped like the filth of the street ;
Fell to be scoffed, to be spit on and beat.
Pleading, cursing, dreading to die,
Selling her soul to whoever may buy.
Dealing in shame for a morsel of bread,
Hating the living, yet fearing the dead.
Merciful God ! has she fallen so low ?
And yet she was once like the beautiful snow.
Once she was fair as the beautiful snow ;
Eyes like its crystals a heart like its glow ;
Once she was loved for her innocent grace,
Flattered and sought for the charm of her face.
Father, mother, sisters and all,
God and herself she has lost by her fall.
Wickedest wretch that goes shivering by,
Takes a wide sweep lest she wander too nigh ;
All of her vileness we read and we know,-
There's naught that is pure but the beautiful snow."
She came to the Home expressly for salvation,
and made a determined, desperate fight to conquer
her appetite for strong drink, but the smoldering
fires of rum would break out again and again,
76 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
and perhaps while preparing a meal, she would
suddenly rush to the matron and say, " Oh, I want
to go out and get a drink. I am burning up
inside."
On one of these occasions they fell on their
knees, and although the very atmosphere seemed
charged with the power of hell, they cried to
God for deliverance till the answer came. When
Maggie attempted to pray, it was more like the
screech of an animal than a human voice. Con-
vulsed with the raging appetite for drink, she
fought her way through a regiment of devils,
and touched God for deliverance.
For a time she seemed to walk in great victory,
but later, circumstances arose which divulged her
association with a negro man. The humiliation
seemed too great, and she broke away, and took
to drink.
This was the chance of her life to confess all
and get right with God, but she stifled her con-
victions, and forever lost her opportunity. Sins
confessed, are forgiven and forgotten; but sins
covered, never die, but will dog your steps till
the day of your death, take you by the throat
when you are dying, and lock you up in hell when
you are dead. Poor Maggie had her last chance.
FROM A SALOON TO HELL. 77
It was not long till her brains were dashed out by
a negro man in a saloon. Her brains were
shoveled up off that floor like so much sawdust;
her body sent to the morgue, and a nameless grave
in the potter's field, and her soul to hell.
A DUMMY BUM.
A BUMMY BUM.
THE subject of this sketch challenges all skep-
ticism and unbelief a? to the power of the gospel
to renew and reconstruct the most wrecked and
ruined life and furnishes a marvelous example of
how broken and scattered homes may be made
whole, and blasted hopes may be restored.
Reared among the hills of southern Ohio in a
religious home where there was no salvation, he
formed a strong disrelish for a mere form or
empty profession of religion. He was often
under direst conviction for sin, but there was no
one to tell him the way of real salvation. His
childish heart often longed for deliverance. He
wept and sobbed many a lone hour, but no one
ever told him how to get rid of sin.
At the age of thirteen he left home and started
out to see this great lost world. He had no
difficulty in finding it, but it was all so cold his
young heart hardened and his feet took hold of
the ways of death. When a young man starts
down, he finds many to push him lower, but very
few are ready to help him on his feet again. He
sank lower and lower in sin until life was a great
burden. Many times he stood on the border of
79
8o MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
eternity with nothing in the world to hold him
back from suicide but the fear of hell.
After years of wandering and dissipation in
drunkenness and revelry, God made a vigorous
attempt to turn him back from this awful life by
the death of his father. Over the casket he
promised God with tears that he would turn and
be a better man, but before the day was ended he
was trying to drink consolation from a jug of
whisky. It was impossible for him to keep his
vows, he was bound with fetters of strong drink
until there was no earthly power that could free
him.
A second time God warned him by the death
of his precious little boy. He says, "As the frozen
clods covered the baby casket from my view once
more God's Spirit pleaded with me and again I
said, ' I will be a better man.' But the chains of
sin bound me and there was no power that could
break them, it was impossible. Within fourteen
hours after the funeral, I was drinking as before.
A few weeks later my wife, disgusted and dis-
couraged, took our little girl, then three and one-
half years old, and went back to her mother.
Without her knowledge I loaded all our house-
hold goods in a box car, shipped them to another
state, sold them at auction for fifteen dollars aod
A BUMMY BUM. 81
went and got drunk. I have never seen my loved
ones since; it has been almost five years, and in
my sober moments my heart has often longed for
the fellowship of my wife and baby. I wandered
on as a man lost in a trackless desert, until I
became a common tramp and brought up in the
slimiest slums of Chicago among the bummiest
dens of sin, without home, without wife, friends
or loved ones and only clothes enough to answer
for an excuse, hatless and shoeless, without a gar-
ment fit to put on a cur dog, shivering with the
winter cold, I was ready for the morgue and the
suicide's grave in the potter's field."
After being absent from church for years, he
sought relief by attending church services, but all
in vain. , He went into a Presbyterian church,
hoping to find food for his soul, but the preacher
preached that night on "McKinley," and his poor
starving soul found no food. If the minister had
preached " Jesus " instead of " McKinley," the
young man would doubtless have been saved. He
went into church after church hoping to find help,
but nothing was offered but husks. He finally
went into the Trinity Methodist church of Cin-
cinnati, oh, so hungry, thinking certainly he would
get soul food here, but to his dismay the learned
doctor lectures on his " trip through Europe," and
6
82 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
the young tramp turned away from all churches
in despair. How little the preachers of these
times know who is listening when they are lectur-
ing, instead of preaching the gospel! In a recent
conversation he said, " I never saw one who was
really saved until I was more than twenty years
old, not one, preachers not excepted."
He loved his wife and children tenderly, but
the demon drink caused him to neglect and desert
them. His wife was true to him and remained
with him as long as there was hope of bread and
water. At one time he braced up long enough to
save one hundred and eighty-seven dollars, intend-
ing to send for his wife and children, hoping to
have a home again, but came to Chicago and in
two weeks it was all gone. Each time he went
lower and lower in sin. One time he put on good
clothes and secured employment in a certain large
firm, but stole a large sum of money and fled to
another city.
Tired of tramping, he once took employment at
a freight house on the dock where ships were
unloaded in Chicago. It was night work and late
in the autumn and sometimes not much to do.
He said : " My conviction for sin was so great
that many a time I have rolled on the dirty cement
floor of that old freight house and wept and cried
A DUMMY BUM. 83
for mercy by the hour, but I did not know how to
find relief."
One night he was wandering down State Street
when he heard one of our preachers preaching
the gospel and a sister sang " There is wonderful
power in the Blood." He listened enough to hear
that there was hope and as the man closed his re-
marks he announced that there were Apostolic
noon meetings held every day at the corner of
Clark and Washington Streets at noon. For sev-
eral days he went around and stood at the foot of
the stairs, but afraid to go inside where the serv-
ices were being held. Finally he ventured in,
took a back seat, and for the first time in his life
heard the full gospel. His heart was somewhat
tendered, but he was powerless to move. He said,
" If the papers had been made out, signed, sealed,
and delivered for me to go to hell, I could not
have gone forward." The meeting closed and he
turned away in despair.
For weeks he wandered through the streets,
homeless and friendless. It was coming on winter,
his feet were on the ground, his clothes were not
sufficient to protect him from freezing. He again
thought to commit suicide, but something
restrained him.
Standing on the Van Buren Street bridge about
84 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
four o'clock on the morning of December aoth,
his eyes were attracted to a card lying at his
feet. He picked it up and scraped off enough of
the frozen mud to enable him to read : " The
wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord." He turned
it over and read : " Come unto me all ye that
labor and are heavy laden and I will give you
rest. 499 State Street, Apostolic Mission." He
stood there in the cold and wept like a broken-
hearted child. Sin had blasted his life. The
world had nothing to offer him. He attempted
to cry to God, but could receive no answer. When
he attempted to pray, Satan said : " It is too late,
you have crossed the dead line, here you are a
drunken bum with no place to lay your head, no
one will ever take you in." But again something
repeated the words of the card: " I will give you
rest."
How little our missionary thought when she
dropped the card the day before who would read
it! That night he went to the mission and three
nights later found himself at the penitent form
where God gloriously saved him. It was
Christmas eve and the most wonderful Christmas
eve he had ever seen. For years he had not passed
a Christmas without drunkenness, but here he
A BUMMY BUM. 85
found the gift of God, the Saviour of the world.
Hear his testimony: " He who saved the dying
thief has saved me. I was a living thief, at the age
of twenty-eight a drunkard, a gambler, a thief, a
tramp and at last a common bum, and He has
saved me from all my sins."
He very soon found employment in the yards
of the Rock Island Railroad Company. After
a few weeks they asked him to work on Sunday,
but by this time he was seeking the experience
of entire sanctification and said: "No, I can
not work on Sunday." The result was he was
thrown out of employment. He soon obtained
work in a cooper shop, but after a few days they
put him to make wine-casks and he said : " I have
been emptying wine-casks for years and I can
not aid in making them," and again he was out of
a job.
In the meantime, he received the baptism of
the Holy Ghost and was sanctified wholly. From
that hour God put the message of full salvation
upon his lips and he went to preaching the gospel
that had so wonderfully saved him from a life
of sin. He said: " Brother Rees, I am going to
North Dakota where I can get work on the farm
and earn honest money and keep the Sabbath." In
two or three weeks I received a letter from the
86 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
trustees of the University buildings of the Uni-
versity of North Dakota, stating that a certain
Chase Hall had applied for the position of janitor-
ship and had given me as reference. Many would
have thought it impossible to recommend such a
drunken scoundrel, but I told them the truth and
said that I considered him perfectly trusty as long
as he remained as well saved as when he left us.
The next thing I heard was that he had the posi-
tion and was preaching on the street from three
to five times a week. God has marvelously blessed
him as a street preacher of the gospel of Jesus
Christ.
This is a sample of what God is doing in the
slums. He is taking both men and women from
saloons, dance halls and brothels, saving, sanctify-
ing, and healing them, and sending them back
into those same districts to preach this gospel
which is the power of God in the slums.
To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost be all the
glory forever.
J-ULU.
LULU-- A STRANGE STORY.
LULU - - was born and brought up in New
York City. Her mother died when she was four
years old. Her father was a pronounced infidel,
and she was thoroughly schooled in this unreason-
able heresy. She had no knowledge of the truth
and had never heard the real gospel of Jesus
Christ until she came to the Rescue Home.
She was an unusually bright child. She
finished grammar school at the age of fifteen and
went out to work, first as a nurse girl, then as a
housekeeper. She was welcomed back home only
when she could turn in a good sum of money from
her earnings. This she 6 rew tired of and obtained
a position as a traveling agent for a humane
society. It was in one of the public parks of
Chicago that she met a man who with flattering
words and fair speeches led her into sin under
promise of marriage. Then to shield himself and
the name of his family, he insisted that she must
put the baby away for a year or two, and after they
had been married for a time they would adopt
the child as from an orphanage. She loved the
child and said she would not desert it under any
circumstances, Her mother instinct, true to
89
90 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
womanhood, would rather have the child and
suffer the shame than to have the man who would
desert his own.
While she was in the city hospital, a girl in the
same ward received a letter ,from the Rescue
Home. She told her about the place and the kind-
ness of the good ladies there and Lulu determined
to find the place if possible. Infidel that she
was, she was saved within two days after she
entered the home. She went on fine for a time and
could hardly see the need of a second work of
grace. She was having such a royal good time
with her first experience that a second to her
would seem almost superfluous.
But one day, under provocation, she grew angry
and was at once convicted for sanctification. This
conviction deepened until it was most distressing.
Finally her soul hunger increased and the black-
ness of darkness became so unbearable she said
" something must be done." She was cook that
day and was making pumpkin pies. They were
all filled and ready for the oven, when she could
endure it no longer. She said she was sick, called
for another cook, went upstairs, threw herself on
the floor and never arose until she was sanctified
wholly.
LULU A STRANGE STORY. 91
As soon as the fire fell upon her soul, she ran
downstairs and sat down on the floor and told
the matron all about it. It was most thrilling.
Already the Spirit had been talking to her about
change in her dress and manner of life. She had
a worldly dress that cost her thirty-five dollars.
One day she had worn it to the service. She said
she saw the preacher look at it and she interpreted
his look to mean she must never wear that dress
to the service again.
She has changed in all her manner of life and
has become conformed to the will and image of
the Lord, until she is a marvelous exhibition of
divine grace. She writes and reads German as
well as English, but best of all, she knows the
language of Canaan, and testifies that she is saved
and sanctified wholly. We will never cease to
praise the Lord for her beautiful life.
To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost be all the
glory-
ELLA.
LITTLE ELLA, OR FROM THE OPIUM
DEN TO THE SACRED DESK.
LITTLE Ella, the subject of this sketch, was born
in an Iowa country home. It seems that nature
was all against her. Her disposition was con-
temptible from a child; no one could live with
her in any satisfaction. She was a natural liar,
and it seemed she could hardly tell the truth. Her
mother died when she was five years old. She
was whipped and abused by a stepmother, and
was utterly without moral or religious training.
She can hardly remember when she began to use
strong drink, but became a drunkard very young,
and for years was under the influence of liquor
whenever it could be obtained.
At the age of fifteen she was sent to Chicago
in the company of a Chicago cab driver. She
came under the promise of employment with good
wages. She knew but little of the world and sin,
except as it existed in small country places. She
knew absolutely nothing of the dens of vice in a
great city like Chicago.
On arriving in the city, she was asked to enter
a boarding house as the cab driver's wife. Against
this her whole being revolted, but with threats
93
94 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
indescribable she was forced to surrender. Against
all his satanic assaults she stood out for a whole
day and night, but a lonely girl in a strange city,
without a friend, having never had the counsel of
a mother, the pressure was too great, and she went
down.
She was so ignorant of the ways of sin that she
did not know it was possible for her to make sin
remunerative ; she was utterly unacquainted with
the consequences of such a life. Having once
fallen, it was easy for her to go down lower and
lower. She sank until she found herself friend-
less and homeless in a saloon, where she was kept
intoxicated all night long.
A number of times she determined to do better,
and made earnest efforts to get on her feet, but
with nobody to help, her efforts were in vain. She
was finally sold to the keeper of a sporting house
for the sum of five dollars, and went from bad to
worse until she found herself in one of the lowest
opium dens of our great city. There were times
when it seemed there was nothing too bad for her
to do. She even stooped to hustling in the saloons.
Yet, all this time there was something nobler
struggling for supremacy in her heart and life.
At one time she was seeking a better way, and
walking the streets of the city when sh< was ap-
LITTLE ELLA. 95
preached by an old villain whose form was bend-
ing with years, from whom she received the vilest
propositions. Nobody ever said a kind word, no-
body ever talked to her about her soul, she did
not know she had any friends.
When her frail body became so weakened by
disease that she was no longer serviceable in the
haunts of vice, she was carried off to the public
hospital. It was here she was found by one who
was her real friend, and who brought her to Rest
Cottage. Very soon she was gloriously converted,
and a little later received the baptism of the Holy
Ghost and fire. But the habit of lying had so fast-
ened its fangs upon her that she told one lie after
she was saved, which has given the poor girl great
pain, and her repentance has been with tears and
bitterness. God has touched her sick body, and
she has been made a real benediction. She has
been instrumental in leading souls to the " Foun-
tain of cleansing," and although through all her
earlier years all her natural tendencies seemed to
be against her, she is most conscientious, and has
come to be a lover of truth, integrity and upright-
ness, carrying great reservoirs of sunshine wher-
ever she goes, and has been a great benediction to
the Home.
After hours of weeping and praying she re-
96 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
ceived what she felt to be a clear call to the mis-
sion fields of China. God opened the way, and
we placed her in the Bible school. God has made
her an efficient preacher of His Word. She is
such a Quakeress that she will preach whenever
the Spirit comes upon her, whether on the street
or electric car or in public parks. One summer
afternoon Sister Knapp took the girls for an after-
noon in River Park. Public preaching is pro-
hibited here by law, but Little Ella did not know
this, and feeling the Spirit of the Lord come upon
her, she lifted up her voice and began to preach.
The crowds assembled, the boatman on the river
drew up to the shore, and climbed upon the bank
to listen. After a time the officer on the opposite
side of the park heard her voice, came over, and
taking her by the arm said: " See here, you are
not allowed to preach in this park." Little
Lizzie, who had also been rescued from a life of
sin, stood near, and turning to the policeman said:
" Is there any law against our preaching to you? "
Surprised, embarrassed, and confused, the officer
said: "No, I do not know that there is." Little
Ella turned to him and finished her sermon. It
was a real victory for the gospel.
At the close of her message, a brilliant young
Jew stepped up and said: "I have never read
LITTLE ELLA. 97
your Bible, I have only heard a little. Will you
tell me the story from the manger to the cross? "
and sat down on the grass at her feet while she
told him of the birth, suffering, death, resur-
rection and ascension of Jesus. His eyes were
filled with tears, and he seemed deeply touched.
It is the salvation of such girls as these that en-
courages our hearts in hard places to push this
battle to the gate, and makes us feel that we must
rescue others from the same fate. Will not all
who read these lines pray earnestly that Little Ella
may be made a missionary of the cross, and that
the rescue work may be greatly enlarged through-
out our borders?
Ten thousand blessings on all who pray for or
contribute to this much neglected work.
THANKSGIVING IN CHICAGO SLUMS.
THIS was one of the greatest days of my life.
After our missionaries had sent out well-lilled
baskets of food to twenty-seven families of the
worthy poor, we all loaded ourselves down with
roasted turkey and all the " fixings " that go with
a turkey dinner and started to the Harrison Street
Police Station. We had sent some of the workers
and provisions on ahead to be cooked in the jail,
but we were still loaded until we attracted the
attention of the public on the streets and in the
cars. For once we were a gazing stock, but joy
so flooded our souls that it had no effect on us.
The officials of the prison were very kind and in
a short time the table was loaded with a steaming
dinner. The chief matron of the Chicago force
was there to greet and assist us. It was a sight I
will never forget. One poor girl not more than
fifteen years old said she had dreamed of turkey
the night before, but, of course, had no hope of
seeing one. Some of the girls wept and sobbed
so they could hardly eat. Poor girls, the memory
of other thanksgivings rushed in upon them and
broke their hearts.
When they were all at the table, we had prayer
99
100 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
and while one of the missionaries played the
organ and sang "The day will soon be over, the
digging will be done," the police matron, a noble-
hearted woman wept with us over this touching-
scene. Several gave their hearts to God during
the day.
We overheard some of the men who were fed in
their cells, talking about the great kindness of
those who had remembered them, and they were
deeply touched. We have rescued five girls within
one week, and four of them are beautifully saved.
I tell this to the glory of God and to the comfort
of those all over the land who are giving to the
support of this work.
To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost be all the
glory forever.
RESCUED FROM CHICAGO JAIL.
RESCUED FROM CHICAGO JAIL.
MANY who will read these lines have been
deeply interested in the poor, starving family
which was rescued from the witness cell in the
Harrison Street Police Station. The cut accom-
panying this sketch is from a picture made after
their condition was somewhat improved, but still
showing the lines of starvation.
When we determined to take them, and trust
God for the means of support, the police authori-
ties said " That is real charity," and proposed to
send them to the depot, and then telephoned to
the Austin patrol to meet the train at Austin
Station and convey them to the home we had
provided for their care.
Of course, one of our missionaries must accom-
pany them to see them safely through their
journey. When they were lifted into the patrol,
the missionary climbed in with them and the
police exclaimed with astonishment: "You are
not going to ride in the patrol, are you? " " Cer-
tainly," she said, " why not? " That is what full
salvation does. Followed by a curious throng
through the streets, she was made a spectacle to
angels and men.
103
104 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
The baby sitting in its mother's lap was too
far gone. After two weeks it went to be with
Jesus. The remainder of the family recovered
and after a few weeks we set them up to house-
keeping in a small way. How grateful they
seemed for all the kindness shown them! There is
a joy that comes from' helping others that is never
known by those who think only of themselves.
" He that giveth to the poor lendeth to the
Lord." What an investment it must be to place
funds with Him. He will certainly see that the
returns are ample.
CHRISTINE.
CHRISTINE, A BROKEN-HEARTED
GIRL.
CHRISTINE - - was born of Christian parents
in the State of Wisconsin. Her mother died when
she was twelve years old. It was not very long
until a step-mother made it very unpleasant for
the poor girl in the home. She determined that
the only way to keep peace in the family was for
her to leave home. She found employment as a
saleslady, first in Milwaukee and then in Chicago.
Brought up in the church, she was a great
worker in the Epworth League, on the Social
Committee, regular at all church services, faith-
ful in all the church entertainments, was a mem-
ber of the popular quartet and most diligent in
her efforts to increase the attendance of the church
services.
Finally the influence of the church socials gave
her a liking for more worldly entertainments and
she soon found herself in circles of worldliness
and sin. Now and then she found it convenient
to take a glass of wine. On Thanksgiving eve
she was in attendance at a party where she thought
her womanhood and virtue were in perfect safety.
107
io8 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
But late in the evening a drug was slipped into
her glass of wine and she was soon unconscious.
When she awoke the next day, it was only to
disappointment and sorrow, for she found herself
forever hopelessly ruined. There is no language
to express the feelings of this poor heart-broken
girl as the real situation dawned upon her. She
had gradually step by step deviated from her early
training and she now found herself helpless and
hopeless in the embrace of ruin.
Filled with unutterable sorrow and with not a
ray of hope for anything worth living for, she
turned upon the guilty party and with words
almost too strong for us to repeat told him that
there was not a place in hell hot enough for him.
She says, " If I had been capable of murder, I
would have killed him on the spot."
Her next impression was to commit suicide, but
God mercifully withheld her from this awful
deed. The world was a wilderness of blackness
and darkness, and about that time her father, her
only earthy friend was taken home to heaven.
Homeless, friendless and sick, she was thrown
into the Cook County Hospital. It was here a
kind lady told her of Rest Cottage and of Jesus
who was able to save. She was brought to the
CHRISTINE. 109
Rescue Home in Chicago, but seemed slow to
yield to the convictions of the Spirit.
She was listening to a sermon on the fifty-third
chapter of Isaiah, when suddenly she seemed to
see Jesus dying on the cross for her. All she
would have to surrender loomed up before her.
All she seemed to have in the world was her dar-
ling baby, which she loved tenderly. When she
saw that she frnust give her all, including the
baby, to Jesus she hesitated; it seemed the hardest
thing of her life to give up her only comfort. But
late at night, she was induced to say, " Yes, my
baby and all, I yield to God forever." The peace
and happiness that came streaming into her soul
was something beyond all expression. When she
retired, the baby was in usual health and her soul
was flooded with the sunlight of glory. When
she awoke the next morning, her darling baby was
dead on her arm, but the glory of God was still
in her soul and she said, " What I did last night in
giving my baby to the Lord stands forever."
That was a most touching funeral. She had no
thought when she said yes to God that He would
so soon take her darling, but her soul never drew
back. From that day, she made rapid advance
in divine grace. She soon received a distinct call
I io MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
to God's work, and the burning, passionate love
for fallen girls has so consumed her whole being
that it seems at times that she will die if she is
not able to save the lost.
It was made so plain to us that the hand of the
Lord was upon her in preparation for soul win-
ning that we have sent her to the Bible School to
be trained for this work of rescuing the perishing.
In the school she proved herself worthy of
her calling, and she will soon go forth to the
great harvest field to labor for souls.
Praise the Lord.
"A SLUM FEAST."
A FEW years ago my attention was called to
Luke 14: 13, where Jesus was teaching the divine
principles of New Testament salvation. Here I
made the startling discovery that very few of
us are practically "Bible Christians." Many years
ago I had covenanted to be a Bible Christian, and
to walk in all the light received. This seemed
to me like a new revelation. " When thou makest
a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor
thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich
neighbors ; lest they also bid thee again. But when
thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed,
the lame, the blind; and thou shalt be blessed;
for they can not recompense thee; for thou shalt
be recompensed at the resurrection of the just."
Here I was convicted to practice, literally,
the contents of this Scripture. Christmas was
approaching. Chicago was spending fourteen
million dollars for gifts alone, and everybody who
could were making preparations for Christmas'
turkey dinners. I said to my family, we will not
have turkey this Christmas, we will defer our
dinner and spend Christmas in the slums. We
announced that at twelve o'clock on Christmas
8 113
114 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
Day the Mission in the slums on lower State
Street would be opened, and a free dinner would
be furnished to all homeless men.
Long before twelve o'clock, the street war
thronged. The bums, thugs, tramps, and red
nosed drunkards of every description, in tattered
garments, rags, and vermin, waited in zero
weather for the door to open. Many of them
were college bred. Doctors, lawyers, merchants,
mechanics, and some from the best of homes, and
in fact they were there from almost every walk
of life. When the door was opened, with
uncovered heads they marched in as orderly as
a congregation of Quakers or Presbyterians.
When the Mission was rilled to the utmost
capacity, the doors were closed. When all were
seated at the long, well-filled tables, they politely
bowed their heads while we asked God's blessing
upon the food.
While a dozen of our mission workers served
them with hot coffee and a palatable dinner, we
preached to them the gospel of Christ. Many
were the touching and pathetic scenes as their eyes
filled with tears on account of the kindness shown
them by the Christian workers.
When all were satisfied, we were forced to turn
them out in the cold, and filled the Mission a
"A SLUM FEAST." H5
second time with those who had stood out in the
wintry blast. This was done a third, fourth, and
fifth time. Each Mission full were prayed with,
and preached to, and satisfied with the good things
of the table.
Strong men as well as boys were seen choking
with vivid recollections of their mothers and
sisters, as our young women so freely served them.
Many eyes were wet with tears at the remem-
brance of other Christmas days, their well-filled
stockings in the " old chimney corner," and the
sweet voices ringing out, " I wish you a Merry
Christmas."
Most people say it is folly to feed such worthless
wretches, but as a result of that one dinner, seven
of those men were brought to God that day. That
dinner proved a wonderful quickening to the
spiritual life of the Mission, and a wonderful
incentive to activity in service.
That dinner cost about thirty-five dollars out
side of some donations of food. That was five
dollars a head for the souls that were saved that
day. You may say that a " Bum " is not worth
five dollars, but if he should be standing inside the
"Gates of Pearl " to greet us when we arrive in
heaven, we will think then that he is worth it. It
was the kindness that broke their hearts. They
ii6 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
were accustomed to everything else. You could
not phase them with a policeman's club, or sub-
due them with a seven shooter, but kind words and
deeds melted and conquered the most hardened
hearts.
One of the men who was converted that day was
an atheist, said he never had believed in God or
religion, but when he saw the kindness shown to
fallen men that day, he said there must be some-
thing in it, and sought and found God.
Beloved, those fellows do not need to be told
about the " fall of man," " original sin," or an
" endless hell," they have acres of hell in their own
hearts. They need some one to love them, and
tell them there is hope. Beloved, are you a Chris-
tian? Are you not a member of some orthodox
church? Then who is invited when there is a feast
in your home? Who is it that eats turkey with you
at Thanksgiving and at Christmas time? Who
is present at your birthday dinners and wedding
anniversaries? Is it your children, and their
children? Or your neighbors, who are as able to
make a feast as yourselves?
When did the poor, the lame, and the outcasts
of earth feast with you?
THREE SLUM MISSIONARIES.
LILLIE, A FRIENDLESS GIRL.
SOME of the most clinging, dependent charac-
ters are found among the fallen girls of this land.
Their very lovely, loving, clinging dispositions
have been the avenue through which Satan has
performed his subtle, fiendish work. Many a girl
is so artless and innocent that she is led into sin
almost before she is aware of it. One of the
noblest characteristics of womanhood is the
strength of her affectionate nature. The affections
of a young girl, between the ages of thirteen and
eighteen are easily won by kindness and flattery
and a man who will trifle with a woman's affec-
tions is destitute of true manhood, and has little
more soul than a brute. But " wicked men and
seducers are waxing worse and worse," and hun-
dreds of beastly men play with a woman's affec-
tions as if they were of small consequence.
It was one of these heartless demons in human
form that led our dear Lillie to the slaughter.
How much kinder it would have been for him to
have shot her head off with a gun. Her mother
died when she was four years old; her father was
a gambling, drinking man, and gambled away two
or three good homes. Her stepmother disliked
119
120 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
her because she looked like her mother. She
endured the unpleasantness at home and remained
in school until at the age of seventeen her father
refused to clothe her and in an awful fit of anger
swore that he would do nothing more for her.
She was forced out in the cold world to make her
own way.
She obtained employment, first at seventy-five
cents per week, and out of her small earnings
managed to send some money home each week,
which her father gambled and drank up. When
her little half-sister died, there was no money to
bury her and Lillie buried the child and worked
out the price of the funeral outfit by the week.
The villain who ruined her was the mayor's son.
He met her first in the round dance. It was to her
the dance of death. It has proven thus to thou-
sands of American daughters. What a hot-bed of
lust is the parlor dance, indulged in by so many
so-called Christians (?). The fruits of dancing,
and the experience of tens of thousands prove that
men do not have women in their arms in the round
dance without having impure feelings. Many
a mother has planned the dancing-party in her
own parlor that has started her children into a life
of impurity. Many a man will dance with hun-
LILLIE, A FRIENDLESS GIRL. 121
dreds of women, but when he comes to marry, he
does not want a dancing wife. Why? Because
he does not want a wife who has been in the arms
of all of the men of the neighborhood. It is time
the girls of America were demanding the same
standard of purity in their husbands, as is
demanded of them. Sister, why should you con-
sent to marry a man who has hugged and waltzed
with all the dancing- women in town?
Many a time Lillie longed to be a Christian,
but she came in contact with so much sham re-
ligion, and never met the genuine, that she knew
not the way of salvation. She worked in the home
of a minister who not only drank beer and was
mean in his family, but made such advances
toward her as to make her know that he was a bad
man.
When ruined and deserted by those who should
have protected her, she attempted suicide by turn-
ing on the gas, but was rescued just in time to
save her life. She lived in a Hoosier city, but
when the mayor and his son had turned her down,
everybody who knew her turned from her. Not
an earthly friend did she have who stood by her.
The mayor seemed especially averse to this friend-
less girl whom his son had ruined. Everybody
122 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
took the side of the young villain, as is commonly
the case. The poor, heart-broken child started
out, she hardly knew where.
When she arrived in Chicago, she walked the
streets a perfect stranger, among two million peo-
ple; she wept and wrung her hands and sobbed
aloud. She walked block after block; some would
stop and look, but it was only a woman in trouble,
and nobody had time even to ask a question. She
saw a policeman, and thought she would tell him
her story, and ask his advice, but he was such a
vicious-looking officer that the poor girl was
afraid of him. She walked on, and wept and
wrung her hands, and tried to pray, but she
knew not the way of salvation. She saw another
officer, and he was not quite so cross-looking, and
weeping as if her heart would break, she told him
her story, and begged him to do something for
her. He pressed a button and called the patrol,
and she was thrown into the famous Harrison
Street Police Station, and there she lay in that
dingy jail from Sunday till Wednesday.
The matron of the station is a noble-hearted
woman, and is a warm friend of our rescue work.
She sent word to our missionaries, and one of them
went to the station, and Lillie says from the mo-
LILLIE, A FRIENDLESS GIRL. 123
ment she looked upon her face, she saw she had
something she had never seen in any one's face
before. When asked if she would come to Rest
Cottage, she said, "Certainly; I have no other
place to go." That very night she stood up in a
public meeting, and with streaming eyes requested
prayer. It was not long until she was wonder-
fully saved. She has since been sanctified wholly,
clearly called, and is a divinely qualified mission
worker.
We placed her in the Bible School until she felt
she must go into the slums to preach Jesus to the
fallen. She is now a regular ordained deaconness
of the International Apostolic Holiness Union,
and has been a most successful missionary in the
slums. For some months she has traveled as an
evangelist, and God has marvelously blessed her
labors in the salvation of souls. Whole families
have turned to God, erected a family altar, and
have thrown wide open their hearts and doors and
offered Lillie a home. Whether she stands in
the pulpit facing five hundred people, or in the
court room facing a stern-looking judge and a
jury of twelve men, she always brings the house
down, when with streaming eyes she tells them
her own story. It is enough to melt a heart of
stone.
124 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
The following are a few incidents of her expe-
rience in the slums :
" I visited a mother and children in poverty.
She had kept her children from starvation by
securing the crumbs from the tables 01 a restau-
rant. The little baby had had no milk for two
days; its hands and face were pinched with hun-
ger. I gave them a little relief, and prayed with
them." How much can be accomplished with a
very little means in the slums. A hod of coal, a
three-cent loaf of bread, or a pint of milk for the
baby, may bring tears of gratitude to their eyes,
and tide them over a crisis.
" I found a poor sick woman and little children
entirely destitute. I handed her some money, and
began talking to her about the salvation of her
soul. She laid the money on the table, and her
hungry soul listened to every word. She soon
fell upon her knees and wept her way to Calvary.
God wonderfully saved her soul. When she arose
from her knees, I called her attention to the fact
that the children were playing with the money.
She said, ' I had forgotten all about it. I needed
the money, but I needed salvation so much more,
and I've got it now.' Glory to God.
LILLIE, A FRIENDLESS GIRL. 125
\
" I felt led to go to a certain house of shame,
but was refused admittance. I went several times,
but was never permitted to enter. One day while
working in another part of the city, I suddenly
felt led to turn and go to that house again. When
I stood at the door the madam said to the girl
who opened it, ' Yes, tell them they are welcome
to-day.' Satan instantly suggested that they
wanted me for a purpose, and that I would never
get out, but the courage of God rose up in my
soul, and I fearlessly walked in. When I told
them my experience, what a discouraged,
wrecked life I had lived, and that Jesus had saved
me, all five of -them broke down and wept under
the power of God. We are welcome in that
house."
It is the power of the gospel in the slums.
MISS M-
MISS M .
PREACHING to the female prisoners in the Chi-
cago jail, I observed a girl about nineteen years
of age, with an unusual face and symmetrical
form, elegantly dressed in silk, for whom I was
especially drawn out in prayer. Her manner and
bearing were in striking contrast with all the sur-
roundings. Everything indicated that she was
from the better walks of life. At first she was de-
fiant, and showed signs of an attempt to lead the
prisoners in a bit of sport. I silently breathed
one short prayer, " Blessed Holy Ghost, save that
girl, and make her a missionary." Within a few
minutes she was on her knees, and in tears crying
out to God for mercy.
After a little conversation with her, I went to
the chief matron and said, " What can I do for
M ? " She answered, " There is nothing you
can do. Her crime is grand larceny, and she must
go to the State's prison." I said, " It is too bad;
I wish I could do something for her." She in-
sisted there was nothing I could do.
When I returned the following Sabbath, to
my surprise M - was still there. According to
the usual custom she should have been removed
127
128 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
to the county jail. The captain said it was a mis-
take. I saw in it a divine providence. After
another opportunity of prayer and conversation
with the poor heart-broken girl, I felt sure that
she had had her lesson, and that Christ could and
would save her. The second time I went to the
matron, and said, " I want to do something for'
M -; " but, as before, she said, " There is noth-
ing you can do."
I went to the captain ; he seemed like a gentle-
man, but said he was powerless. He sent me to
the detective who had made the arrest. He re-
ceived me kindly, but sent me to the chief of the
Bureau of Detectives, who was not very approach-
able, and seemed to me quite heartless in his atti-
tude toward the girls. He said, " Such girls are
no good; you had just as well let her go to the
penitentiary." But I begged that she might have
another chance. He finally sent me to the Judge
of the court, and he referred me to another judge.
I thought I saw that it was to get rid of me, but
did not feel at liberty to give up the chase.
I went home tired out, and tried to think that
I had done my duty, but the next morning I found
myself on the path to secure that girl. The sec-
ond judge had referred me to the clerk of the
court, and he had no more to do with it than I
MISS M . 129
had, but he assured me the state's attorney was
the man I wanted to see. The state's attorney sent
me to the grand jury, and the grand jury refused
to see me. I finally saw that if I obtained her at
all, it must be under suspended sentence, so I asked
that her case be brought into court; but the only
promise that I could secure was, that I would be
notified when her case was to come up.
Just then I was compelled to go to Boston to
hold a convention. I charged my head mission-
ary to appear in the court, and plead for M
as she would for an own sister. The missionary
at that time was not as familiar with judges and
juries as she is to-day. When the notice was
received, she went into her closet and prayed, and
went into court and preached Jesus until they were
glad to give her the girl, to get rid of her. You
may imagine that my heart leaped with joy when
the message reached me that M was safe in
the Home.
She soon began writing letters of apology,
making wrongs right by returning stolen articles,
until finally God wonderfully saved her soul.
Poor girl! How she suffered with remorse. She
soon felt called to missionary work, and we sent
her to the Bible Training School instead of to the
penitentiary. Do you not think that was far bet-
9
130 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
ter? In the Bible School she conducted herself
in a very commendable manner, and made good
progress in her studies. But the power of habit
was so strong that she made one break and went
down. But God put her on her feet again. Soon
after leaving the Bible School she was taken ill,
and for sixteen long weeks lay in the hospital a
great sufferer. But here God talked to her about
His will for her in the future, and she was led
into a depth and solidity of Christian experience
which she had not known.
When she recovered her strength sufficiently,
the Lord opened the way for her to take a posi-
tion as assistant matron of a Rescue Home for
girls. How God does honor those who honor
Him, regardless of what they have been.
After a time she was sent to a Deaconess' Train-
ing School in Washington, D. C., for further prep-
aration for the work. When she was through
her course of study, she went into the slums of
New York City, where she is a faithful missionary
of the Cross to-day. Her spirit is covered with
the radiance of heaven, and her face is glowing
with the splendors of divine grace. To Father,
Son and Holy Ghost be all the glory forever.
BERNIE.
THE subject of this sketch baffles all human
imagination, and all power of description. Her
unselfish nature would, out of respect for her
relatives whom she feels she has greatly injured,
withhold her name from the reading public. She
submits to publication this strange story of her
life only to glorify God, and magnify the grace
of His Son, who has saved her from all sin, and
whom she worships and adores above all others.
Beloved, it gives me great pleasure to testify that
this daughter of sorrow is unwavering in her
devotion, loyalty, and fidelity to Christ.
Born of a typical aristocratic southern family,
at one time a daughter of wealth, she was naturally
very proud, but kind and affectionate. After her
father's death, through some designing agent, the
wealth was swept away, and she was left to the
mercy of her two half-brothers. She was greatly
loved and favored by all the older members of the
family, and her widowed mother gave her a most
guarded training. She did not want for proper
discipline, and her devoted mother gave her all
the religious light she herself had. Bernie says,
" I attach no blame to my mother's training, but
134 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
like many other poor girls, his Satanic Majesty
got too strong hold on me, and like a dew-drop I
fell from heaven to hell."
Her fall was not because of weakness of charac-
ter or volition, as is often the case. She had an
iron will, and when pursuing her chosen subject,
it seemed impossible to turn her from it. Her
passionate love for books and music, and her fixed
determination to spend her life in teaching was
always apparent. She entered school at the age of
four, and completed a teachers' course at sixteen,
with the one all-absorbing ambition to teach.
Her soul's interest was nothing to her, and she
had little use for the Bible or Christianity. At
one time she read the Bible and with her reasoning
turn of mind thought she gave it a fair test and
proved to her satisfaction that it would not stand
the test of reason ; and she became an infidel. But
this gave her no satisfaction ; there was always an
inexpressible longing for something she did not
find.
She taught five years in her home school, going
from the primary to the principalship, successful
beyond her most sanguine expectations. She had
several good offers of marriage, but she refused
all. It was not long till her health failed. Many
of the best physicians were consulted. They all
BERNIE. 135
told her that her only hope of health was married
life. This her whole being revolted from. She
cared only to succeed in her chosen profession.
Her life was blameless, and her reputation
untarnished. She lived above suspicion. Dancing
was the only worldly amusement she was particu-
larly fond of, and that was regarded in her com-
munity as perfectly innocent, but has proved the
broadest and one of the most alluring and glitter-
ing roads to hell.
A rapid decline of health caused her many
bitter hours, and finally she was held back from
her work temporarily. Being a confirmed infidel
as to a future existence, she decided to commit
suicide. No act of her life was more calmly and
deliberately planned than was this atrocious
crime. She determined to give her brother, who
was a student, a minute description of all the
effects and sensations caused by taking poison.
The drug was purchased and set on the table in
her room. She seated herself at the table with
pencil and tablet, and addressed a letter to her
brother, telling him what she was about to do,
and that she would describe all the symptoms and
sensations as they came while consciousness lasted.
She coolly and collectedly swallowed the drug,
and began to write. She described symptom after
symptom, until finally she said, "My sight is grow-
136 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
ing dim; I can no longer see the lines." and with
a few irregular strokes, showing a vigorous
attempt to continue, she dropped the pencil, and
soon became unconscious. After lying in an
unconscious state about two hours, she partially
returned to consciousness, and then lapsed back
to insensibility, in which state she remained till 7
A. M., at which time she was found in her room
with a death-like look, and jaws set.
The family physician was called, restoratives
used, and consciousness returned. It was greatly
to her disappointment and dismay. It is very
clear that it was only God who held her back from
death. Unbelievable as it is, she then resolved to
become some man's wife, in all but name, and if
there was any truth in the physicians, she would
cover her tracks, and continue her life-work as a
teacher.
She soon accepted a call to teach in the northern
part of the State, and it was there she met her
doom. Here she met one of the leading men of
the place. His Christianity was never questioned;
he was trusted, loved, and revered by all who
knew him. She little thought that the plans
matured in her heart, and of which only God
knew, would be carried out only too well here,
and against her will. It was while boarding in
BERNIE. 13 7
his home she was brought under his strange,
satanic, mesmeric power, and led to ruin as a lamb
to slaughter.
When her ruin was accomplished and she
awoke to the situation, she was plunged into the
blackness and darkness of an awful horror. The
dreadful anguish she suffered seemed unbearable.
It would seem that it took this dreadful misfor-
tune to wake her to the fact that she had a soul,
and to the awfulness of sin. But O, how the poor
girl suffered now! When she knew she must be
a mother, without home, friends, a name, or quali-
fication for such a responsibility, her grief became
terrific. For the first time she felt she must have
a God. If there was a God anywhere, she must
have His assistance.
She began searching the Scriptures. One morn-
ing she stood and looked at the Book vaguely for
a long time, and wondered if after all it were true.
She picked it up, began to read, and for nearly
three hours it held her spellbound. She was per-
fectly fascinated; the more she read, the more
she believed, and God was slowly but surely melt-
ing her proud stubborn heart.
A holy woman placed in her hand a copy of a
full salvation paper, and in this way she heard
for the first time in her life of Rescue Work. She
138 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
was entirely ignorant of the common vice in our
great cities, and was greatly puzzled to know what
could induce people who had never been down
to devote their lives to the rescue of such unfor-
tunate creatures. The poor girl asked what was
done with the inmates, and how the Homes were
supported. To her utter astonishment the lady
answered. " The Lord takes care of them." This
almost staggered her. She said no more, but felt
deep in her soul that it was so. The good lady
told her how the Lord could sanctify a human
soul and keep it from sin. Again she was shocked,
but said nothing, and kept on reading the Bible.
The great yearning hunger to know God grew
intense.
The time came for her to go to the hospital,
and the loneliness of those dismal days seemed
unbearable. She cried out, " O God, you must
do something for me." While spending a night
with a friend, overwhelmed with indescribable
waves of desolation, she cried, " O God, if there
is a God, you must reveal yourself to me to-night."
A little real faith began to spring up in her heart
as she continued in prayer, until suddenly, a bur-
den as the weight of the world, rolled off her
soul, and the glory and presence of God covered
her, until the room, that was without natural light.
BERNIE. 139
was really lighted with the radiance of His pres-
ence. She says : -
" I had not slept for months, but when I finished
my prayer, I fell asleep, and for twelve hours
rested like a child. I- returned to my brother's
home, and determined to go to Chicago; I did
not know how I could enter the Home; I wrote
to the Superintendent and asked him about it.
His prompt reply will ring in my ears for time
and eternity. The letter read, ' Dear sister, yes,
come, certainly come' and closed with the words,
' Your brother.' No words can describe my aston-
ishment. For him to address me as ' Dear sister,'
and sign himself as * Your brother;' it seemed not
of this world, but of heaven. When I arrived in
Chicago, I was met by a missionary and conducted
to the Rescue Home. Oh, the peace and quietude
throughout the whole place! The Holy Spirit
reigned supreme, having entire charge of all. It
was so new, so sweet, and holding out such hope
to all! For the first few weeks I would not have
been surprised to have met Christ face to face in
any of the rooms. I did not say much, but with
keen scrutiny I watched their lives, and if I had
seen a single act contrary to what they professed,
the chances are I w r ould never have been sancti-
fied; but all their practice corresponded with their
140 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
profession. Through all the trials and severe
testings, they were kept by the power of God."
Sister B was soon wonderfully sanctified
by the baptism of the Holy Ghost. She has gone
on commanding the respect and holding the con-
fidence of all who know her. She is one of our
most trusty and trusted assistant matrons, giving
her soul and life to the work of lifting up the
fallen. To the God of the Bible be all the honor
and glory forever.
LULU L .
LULU L , OR FROM DRUNKENNESS
TO WOMANHOOD.
LULU L furnishes a marvelous exception
to all rules in a life of sin and her salvation fur-
nishes one of the most extraordinary exhibitions
of grace we have ever witnessed in rescue work.
Few have ever gone so low in sin and very seldom
has one ever made such rapid strides in divine
grace. Her deliverance is wonderful beyond
description.
She was an Ohio girl. At eight years of age
she was left without a mother's love and counsel
and a father's protection. She made a noble fight
for a life of virtue and integrity, but the odds
were against her. She had no education, and every
possible advantage was taken of her. At the age
of seventeen she was ruined under promise of
marriage.
After she was ruined, she came to the city and
for two whole years withstood all inducements
to go into a life of open shame. But having once
been down, the pressure was too great. She finally
sank to rise no more until Christ with His tender
touch lifted her from the cesspool of sin to the
heights of redemption. By public picnics, thea-
143
144 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
ters, and finally dance-halls, she was led on step
by step until she was not only a confirmed drunk-
ard and a public character, but a manager of a
house of ill-fame.
At first she drank not so much for the love of
liquor, as to keep equal with her associates, but as
the steps in sin are always downward, she rapidly
grew worse and scores and scores of times was
beastly drunk. Her drunken debauches grew in
length and her appetite for nicotine became almost
vicious, For months at a time she would not draw
a sober breath. Her iron constitution stood the
strain of this awful life for more than a dozen
years, while the average life of a woman in sin is
less than half that time.
She had no more than crossed the threshhold
of Hope Cottage when the Holy Ghost put her
under pungent conviction for sin. She did not
have to be converted to abandon sin. She gave
up rum and tobacco and turned her back on a
whole life of wickedness several days before she
was saved. She says: " I never desired rum or
tobacco from the hour I entered the home." Hear
it, you church members who are still using the
weed, waiting for light or more conviction. Re-
member if you are not convicted for the use of
tobacco, is it not because your heart is harder than
FROM DRUNKENNESS TO WOMANHOOD. 145
was hers? She was not only shown that it was
wrong, but she was delivered from the appetite
and all desire for them was taken away before she
was converted at all. Brother, do you not see
that if you still use the weed, you are not as far
along as a convicted harlot, for she gladly gave
it up. She says : " I hate rum and tobacco."
Thank God she is not only saved but sanctified,
healed, and living a most beautiful, exemplary
Christian life. The grace and power of the gos-
pel has so changed, subdued, and mellowed her
life that she is a benediction to all who come
under her influence. What a miracle of heaven!
What an exhibiton of divine grace!
I call on every one who shall ever read these
lines to aid me in giving glory to God for the
wonderful display of His power and matchless
mercy. Praise the Lord.
10
MABEL, HER RUIN AND REDEMPTION.
MABEL - - was born in - , 111., of Metho-
dist parents, and brought up in a Methodist Sun-
day-school a bright, beautiful child, furnishing
sunshine and good cheer to the home, and making
fine progress in school. Her form was slight,
but well shaped; her face was innocent, beautiful
and attractive. Reared in a country home, she
had known nothing of the ways of sin. But be-
fore she was sixteen, she was permitted to keep
company and buggy ride late at night with one
who robbed her of her virtue and ruined her for
life.
If this well-dressed brute had cut her throat
from ear to ear, and covered her body with leaves
in some lonely wooded spot, it would have been
a great kindness compared with robbing her of
her virtue, smirching her fair name, and leaving
her with the burden and responsibility of being
a mother, when she was only a child herself.
Father, suppose she was your daughter! Mother,
what if she were your darling? How would you
then feel toward those who are ever planning the
ruin and overthrow of innocent girls?
147
148 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
Mabel came to us at Rest Cottage in Chicago,
a poor heart-broken and discouraged child, know-
ing nothing of salvation. O, what a scene ! Words
can never portray the sorrow and anguish of those
awful days. We satisfied ourselves that she had
never consented to her terrible ruin, and before
God had never really lost her innocence or virtue,
and yet she is the victim of a shame that will last
for all time. In convulsions of grief and floods
of tears, she says : " I must ever be treated as if
I were guilty."
What a grewsome, dark side there is to sin
that the world will never forgive.
But how transcendently glorious it is to know
that we have a Christ who will gladly go out of
His way to forgive and forget the darkest sins
ever committed, when approached by a penitent
soul. It was not long after she entered Rest Cot-
tage until the dear child found the Saviour. It
was easy for her hungry, broken heart to yield
to the touch of love, and it was His greatest delight
to spring to her side, blot out all her sins, comfort
and sustain her as only a divine Christ can do.
Her name may never be found on the tablets of
Christian fame, but it is carved deep in the hand
of the compassionate God of Love. By her beau-
MABEL, HER RUIN AND REDEMPTION. 149
tiful spirit and Christian life, she has imbedded
herself in our affections forever, and as mission-
aries and gospel workers, we shall never cease to
love and stand by her.
Beloved, if she were your daughter, you would
never ask the question again, " Does Rescue Work
pay?"
To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, be all the
glory forever.
BERTHA AND ESTHER THE TWIN
SISTERS.
BERTHA and Esther Huling are twins. Their
parents died when they were very young, and
they were placed in an Orphans' Home. When
they were only five years old, a man sixty years of
age took them from the orphanage and raised
them for shame. He ruined them both before
they were women. When he saw that Bertha at
the age of thirteen was going to become a mother,
the scoundrel put them on the train at Ozark,
Ark., and sent them to Denton, Texas, where they
were put off the train, thinly clad, penniless, help-
less, and friendless.
A holy woman found them in the street, the
picture of forlorn despair. Our missionaries went
after them, and saved them from drifting into a
house of shame, by bringing them to Texas Rest
Cottage, at Pilot Point, Texas. Bertha was
blessedly converted to Christ the first night, and
Esther very soon gave her heart to God.
It was my unspeakable pleasure to be in their
company and hear them testify to the power of
God to save. If our Texas Home had never done
152 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
more than to save those beautiful children, it
would pay us a thousand times over. But many
are there who have been wonderfully saved and
sanctified, and a number have been healed through
the prayer of faith. Praise the Lord.
A SALOONKEEPER'S DAUGHTER.
To save one daughter such as the subject of
this sketch is well worth all the money expended
since the movement was launched. She is in her
nineteenth year, and can not remember when she
did not drink strong drink. Her father was a
saloonkeeper, and whisky was like water in her
home. Her mother died when she was nine years
old, and she soon found herself in the hands of a
heartless stepmother. At the age of eleven years
she was forced out into this cold world to earn
her own living among strangers. She sometimes
tried to do right; but her earnings were taken to
support others who were living in sin, and she
received encouragement from no one.
Though she knew nothing of the way of salva-
tion, she at one time determined to reform; but
when she came home and declared her intentions,
some of the family made sport of it, and her step-
mother used such abusive language and called
her such vile names that she turned away and went
to drinking harder than before to drown her sor-
row. She went from bad to worse, and was im-
prisoned time and again. At one time she spent
five months and five days in the workhouse. It
156 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
was here she acquired the habit of cigarette
smoking.
In the workhouse she was sick three months,
four days unconscious. The family were notified,
but they refused to come to see her, but said she
might go to hell. Their written message was so
horrific and inhuman that the authorities refused
to let the poor girl know the worst. She went in
an unmanageable character, she came out far
worse. She spent her eighteenth birthday in the
workhouse. The last three months before she
came to Rest Cottage she paid $120 in fines, ob-
taining her money without work. The last four
weeks before she was found in the police station
she had not drawn a sober breath. Now that is
enough of the dark side of her life, and it is with
a sigh of relief that I turn to the bright side of
her story. The moment she crossed the threshold
of this homelike " Home," new hope sprang up
in her soul. It was only a few hours until she
gave her heart to God and was gloriously con-
verted.
In her regeneration all sinful desires and all
acquired unholy appetities were taken away ex-
cept two, a thirst for drink and a desire for dress.
For the past four months she has been a great
joy and comfort in the Home. A few times she
A SALOONKEEPER'S DAUGHTER. 157
failed to control her temper, but in the main, has
lived a beautiful, exemplary Christian life even
before she was sanctified wholly. She has re-
turned stolen money and articles of jewelry, has
written twelve letters at a time -making wrongs
right, knowing, too, that some of her confessions
might send her to the state's prsion, she fearlessly
told it all. It is wonderful how grace has removed
all traces of sin, and her face is radiant with heav-
enly light.
Since leaving the Home she has married, and
we are assured that she is faithfully doing her part
to make home happy and life worth living. God
bless her forever.
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn
of me ; for I am meek and lowly in heart ; and ye shall find
rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden
is light. Matt. 1 1 : 28-30.
MYRTLE.
MYRTLE was the daughter of a Christian min-
ister. Her father died when she was four years
of age. The support of six children, three of
them very small, fell upon her grief-stricken
mother. When Myrtle was eight years old, she
was sent to live with a married sister. With but
few advantages, she grew to womanhood. At
the age of thirteen she was forced out into this
C9
cold world to earn her own living. Being indus-
trious and ambitious, she worked hard, returning
home only once a year. In 1903, broken in health,
she visited a relative in Texas. When convales-
cent, she was induced to take a position as a com-
panion to a lady who was an invalid. It was here
she met the honored member of the Y. M. C. A.
who proved her ruin. He was much older than
she, consequently she had almost no conversation
with him. She says:
" One night I said my prayers as usual, and fell
asleep like the innocent child I then was. How
can I tell of that awful moment, when this man,
crazed by drink, rudely awakened me from that
childish slumber. The memory of it can never
fade from my mind. I wept, pleaded, and even
i59
i6o MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
prayed, but to no avail. He told me that if I
called for help, they would never believe me,
and powerless in his strength, I was degraded,
robbed of my virtue, and left in hopeless despair,
desiring only to die.
" For five weeks I was delirious almost all the
time, and my conscious moments were indescrib-
ably awful. Once I took morphine, thinking to
end it all, but God interfered, and I woke to the
bitter knowledge that I was still in this world."
When she was able to be moved, she was sent
home to her mother. She had succeeded in bury-
ing her sorrow in her own heart. Soon observing
she was to become a mother, and determined to
hide her disgrace from her people, she left home
and wandered from place to place.
As she was walking down the street in Texar-
kanna, Brother F , a rescue missionary, read
the lines of trouble in her face, and asked if she
was not in distress. At first she denied it, and he,
apologizing, was about to pass on, when he felt
strangely led to turn and speak to her a second
time. And almost before she realized what she
had done, the secret which she had concealed
from all others, was told out to him.
He insisted on her going to our Rescue Home,
but her pride resented the suggestion. When he
MYRTLE. 161
had charged her if she ever needed assistance to
write to him, he passed on. It was not long till
he heard from her, and he wired her a ticket. But
again the devil aroused her pride, and she re-
turned it. Such a war as was waging in her mind!
Her sorrow-stricken heart was fairly reeling
under the awful load.
That same day she met her betrayer, and told
him her situation. The villain, anxious to cover
his own shame and infamy, promised to protect
her. She boarded at a first-class place, and kept
up the deceitful part of a young lady on a vaca-
tion, until at last her early training, prompted by
the Holy Spirit, asserted itself, and she resented
the vile suggestions of this professed Christian.
She said to herself and to him, " I have never
willingly degraded myself, and I never shall."
Here she was thrown under the direst conviction.
She lay on her face all night long, weeping, and
saying over and over, " If God is just, why has
He permitted me to be disgraced without my con-
sent, and exiled from all my people? " Despite
the protest of the one who should have been will-
ing for her to do right, she determined to find God
if possible, and came to the Rescue Home. She
says, " When I entered the Home, and Sister Mil-
ler took me in her arms and I laid my weary head
ii
162 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
just where I used to rest it on mother's shoulder,
I would not have left the Home for millions of
money. God wonderfully saved and sanctified
me. In about three months my precious little one
was born, and in one short week God took her
from my arms to His beautiful home in heaven.
Now that my darling is in heaven, I have only
Jesus to live for."
This noble, brave girl is making a valiant sol-
dier of the cross, and is battling for God and souls.
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it
is the power of God unto salvation to every one
rhat believeth. Praise the Lord.
'PETE'S PLACE" -A LOW DIVE.
PETE'S PLACE is one of the most notorious dives
in the precincts of sin on the West Side. His
saloon, or barrel house, has a brothel in the rear,
and an opium den in the basement. To approach
this place at high noon is not without danger; for
here murders are common. It has been said they
average about one a week; but it is about mid-
night when our missionaries come into this haunt
of vice and crime. A number of poor unfortunate
girls are crouching in the rear of this dark, dismal
den. In their midst is a woman, the most prom-
inent figure in the company, no, not a woman,
one who has drifted through stratum after stratum
of the vilest society, until she has reached depths
of sin, degradation, and crime, where womanhood
is entirely forgotten.
As soon as the missionaries approached the
little group of girls, this vicious character came
rushing to them, and struck one of them in the
stomach with her clenched fist, then with a wild
look, rushed madly to the other one, and gave her
a stunning blow in her face. The saloonkeeper
and his wife sought to appease her anger, and
avert her assaults, but she was not easily turned
165
166 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
aside from her purpose. There can be no doubt
but that just here an unseen presence stepped in
and protected the lives of those missionaries of
the Cross.
They were not frightened, and did not turn
from their purpose, but after talking salvation to
the girls, and distributing some tracts and gospel
papers among them, they felt led to take hold of
one drunken girl, and take her bodily out of this
den of sin, and this they did under the most fero-
cious protest of this angered woman. She fol-
lowed them to the door, and did all in her power
to prevent their rescue of this poor girl.
They assisted the unfortunate specimen to the
elevated station; they literally dragged her up
the stairs, and into the train, where they found
the car filled with Nabob passengers of Oak Park,
who were returning from the late theaters. She
was intoxicated just enough to furnish sport for
the passengers, who were inclined to make the
most of the occasion. But when one of the mis-
sionaries passed about among them, gave out the
booklet called, " Four Sermons on Hell," told
them about the Rescue Home, and about what
they were doing for such unfortunate women, the
crowd soon sobered down.
" PETE'S PLACE " - A LOW DIVE. 167
Mary (for that was her name) lodged in Rest
Cottage, soon sobered off, and was gloriously
saved. This is what we call pulling people out
of the fire, and again we glorify God for the grace
and power of the gospel in the slums.
JULIA.
JULIA.
THE strange and thrilling story of the life of
Julia is almost unbelievable. But we have satis-
fied ourselves that it is all true, and much more
than we shall attempt to record. She was first to
enter Hope Cottage as a guest.
When it became known to the citizens of Mount
Auburn, of Cincinnati, that the property now
known as " Hope Cottage " had been purchased
to be used as a home for erring girls, our enemies
were enraged, and an injunction was placed on
the property to prevent our opening it. Never
will I forget the first time when I prayed with
this homeless, friendless girl. It was while we
were waiting for the trial to come off, or the lift-
ing of the injunction. We had no place for her
except a little corner curtained off in one of the
large rooms, then the dining-room of the Bible
School.
No such institution can ever be launched with-
out facing regiments of living foes. We felt the
energy of the Holy Ghost urging us on to disre-
gard the restrictions, and open and dedicate the
home. The day was set, the doors were unlocked,
and Julia entered this place of blessing. From
169
1 70 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
the hour the doors were opened the place has
been one of great grace, power, and glory. If
the injunction was ever lifted, I have never been
so informed, but the power and glory of God has
been so great and the success so phenomenal with
this restriction hanging over us that I would be
afraid to ask for its removal.
Julia was born in Springfield, 111. Her father
was not only a notorious drunkard, but vicious
and brutal in his family. She was the youngest of
five children, and was often frightened by his
cursing and fighting, and sometimes shooting or
using a knife. When she was four years old, her
mother, her only friend, was seized by a fatal sick-
ness, and, on account of the drunkenness and abuse
of her father, she was taken away from home and
then buried by strangers. Julia grew up without
education, and felt most keenly the loss of her
mother. In her father's drunken sprees he seemed
determined to take Julia's life, and it was often
with great effort he was restrained.
As she grew up, she was often without shoes or
decent clothing. He would mortify the poor girl
by compelling her to wear her stepmother's old
shoes, which were very broad, and entirely too
large. When but a child of thirteen or fourteen,
she was compelled to go out and do heavy wash-
JULIA. *7i
ings for a living. She was a strong girl, and
would wash and iron all day for fifty cents, and
at night she would be so tired it seemed she could
hardly get home, and then only to be cursed and
abused by a drunken father. She went on in this
way until her health gave way, and she became a
great sufferer. She could no longer do heavy
work, and, discouraged and heart-broken, she said,
" I must make a living."
Nothing seemed to open to her but a life of sin.
She deplored such a life, and her whole being
revolted from it. But what was she to do? There
was no one to lend a helping hand; there was no
one even to advise her, or care what she did. It
was thus she was forced into the paths of shame.
She had inherited from her father an appetite
for strong drink, but did not know it until she
had taken her first glass, which aroused her slum-
bering appetite and fired her whole being with
a burning thirst which couW not be satisfied, and
was never absent until three years ago, when Jesus
saved her and took away all unholy appetites.
When once down, she was soon smoking and
drinking to awful excess, and though she had a
horror for the brothel, and during the fifteen years
she spent in sin she had her own private rooms,
and never went on the streets to solicit patronage,
172 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
or even dressed in an immodest way. The gaudy
attractive attire worn by sporting girls generally
was distasteful to her, and no one would ever sus-
picion from her appearance that she was living
in sin. Her visitors were all known and well-re-
spected business men, generally married men, and
often with an excellent wife and grown daughter
at home. This awful condition of things is com-
ing into practice more and more, and is now very
common. She seldom received strange callers,
never unless they appeared as perfect gentlemen,
but the steps of sin are always downward, and
Julia soon became a confirmed drunkard, and for
ten years she was hardly ever sober, day or night.
When she was not too much intoxicated, she
was under conviction for sin; but this only added
to her torment, for she did not understand it until
after she was converted. She was without any
knowledge as to how to get saved. She would
weep and groan and wish a thousand times that
she was dead. She finally came to Cincinnati,
and was five months in a sporting house. She
underwent serious operations in the hospital at
least four times, and when she would go on the
table she would be so in hopes that she would die
in the operation that it would make her really
happy. She knew she would go to hell, but she
JULIA. 173
felt so sure that hell was not so bad as the life she
was living that she longed for the change. When
she would return to consciousness, she would be
so discouraged that she would be for days filled
with sadness. This repeated over and over, she
determined to kill herself by drinking, and many
a time she would drink until she was unconscious,
with the hope she would die intoxicated.
After spending many a night in an unconscious
state, and always coming out greatly disappointed,
she determined to commit suicide by drinking
poison. She was drinking in a saloon when the
thought seized her that this was the opportunity.
She ran across the street to a drug store, secured
morphine, and swallowed it before any one dis-
covered the object she had in view. She was soon
unconscious, and fell on the sidewalk as dead,
and was carried into a house, supposed to be a
corpse. But it was discovered there was still life
in her body. Those in charge used such means
as threw her into paroxysms of vomiting, and next
morning at eight o'clock she returned to con-
sciousness, greatly to her dismay and discourage-
ment.
When she would walk the streets, merely to
pass a church would put her under such conviction
that she would cry and wring her hands, and some-
174 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
times almost go wild. At the age of twenty-five
she was married, but her husband was worse than
a brute, and would club and beat her until he
was arrested again and again. Sometimes he
would beat her almoti: to death; she would be
weeks recovering from her injuries, and yet she
went on in her drunken career until she reached
the place where, if whisky or strong drink could
not be secured, the hot water would rise in her
mouth, and the torture was something indescrib-
able. It is hardly worth while to undertake to
picture the feelings of torment of one who is
afflicted with the appetite for strong drink.
The average life of a woman in sin is little more
than five years ; but here is one with such a strong
constitution that she has struggled through almost
fifteen years of indescribable anguish and sorrow.
When she was brought to us, she was not only
soaked with rum, morphine, and nicotine, but
her mind seemed impaired, and her will was so
weakened that she was powerless almost as an
infant.
It was in this condition that Jesus found her,
and that God for Christ's sake forgave all her
sins. The transformation began at once not only
in her heart but in her face and life. The work
JULIA. 175
of Christ has gone on with greater rapidity than
did the work of sin, and if her awful black record
was* a miracle of hell, her present condition is a
most marvelous miracle of grace. She has been
delivered not only from rum and tobacco, but
morphine, and all desire for uncleanness, and is
to-day a noble exemplary Christian, and a great
benediction to all who are in the home, scattering
sunshine to all who come and go.
Her body is so wrecked that she had no desire
to get well, and for a long time no one seemed to
have faith for her restoration to health. We are
told that one lung is entirely gone and the other
much reduced. How she lives at all seems a mys-
tery, but she does live and lives beautifully to the
glory of God. Her heart is as tender as a child's,
and her head a fountain of tears. She weeps over
the lost, fasts and prays for the unsaved, and God
has made her a real soul winner. Sometimes we
have thought the Lord would translate her soon,
and then she would recover her strength, and go
on working and smiling for the Lord.
Sometime ago she sent me the following mes-
sage: "Brother Rees, I want you to preach my
funeral sermon, and I don't want it like other
funerals. I want it to be a praise meeting, and
1 76 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
a meeting to give glory to God and the gospel to
the unsaved."
The influence of her life and the grace she has
manifested during the last two years will be as
lasting as eternity itself.
A GLIMPSE INTO THE SLUMS.
A Tramp Converted. Many have thought it
was money thrown away to give a poor tramp a
night's lodging, even if he professed to get saved,
but when a poor, friendless, penniless bum bowed
at our altar there was little in sight to hope from.
A night's lodging cost only ten cents, and with it
a cup of coffee and a roll, so we gave him a ticket.
The next day he hunted work, but found none,
but at the mission he testified to a new-found joy,
which eclipsed all he had ever known. We of-
fered him another lodging, to which he replied:
" I will pay it all back when I get work." The
next day he found work, and on his first pay day
brought the twenty cents to pay for the two nights'
shelter from the cold. From the first hour he has
gone straight on as an earnest Christian. Reader,
do you think this was a poor investment? Have
you your money invested where it brings better
returns?
The saints from all over the land have sent us
tons of cast-off clothing. They come to the Res-
cue Home in barrels and boxes, and then must be
carried in bundles to be distributed among the
worthy poor.
179
i8o MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
Clothing Distributed. Two of our saved
young men were aiding the missionaries one
wintry day, in distributing the bundles. They
each had two large bundles strapped on their
backs and a great package under each arm. On
attempting to board an electric car with these
loads, the conductor said, " You can not get on
this car with all that freight," to which the
young man replied, " I am taking this to the
poor suffering people, and you ought to let me
ride." The conductor said: "Certainly, get on
here, and when you dispose of what you have,
come to my house and I will give you a lot more,"
So he took the conductor's address, and gained
another bundle. Brother, are you* dead enough
to go along the streets with great bundles on your
back for the Lord's poor?
A Prayer of Thanksgiving. When Jim -
was saved in our mission, he had nothing but rags
and vermin. A box of cast-off clothing was
opened, and he was soon fitted out from top to
toe. They were only such as many of my readers
have thrown away, but when the garments were
handed him he rolled them up in a bundle and
laid them down on the mission floor, and got down
on his knees by the bundle and prayed and thanked
God for them. It was a most touching sight.
A GLIMPSE INTO THE SLUMS. 181
A Sad Death.- Our missionaries failed to find
this poor family among the starving and shiver-
ing of Chicago. Three little children were de-
pending upon an old grandfather for support.
He had exhausted his means and all efforts to se-
cure fuel had failed. It was zero weather, and al-
most night. A blinding storm was raging. The
old man bundled up as best he could and left the
shivering little ones in the house while he started
down the railroad track to see if he could pick
up a few pieces of coal to make a blaze. Blinded
by the flying snow, he failed to see the limited ex-
press and was instantly hurled into eternity. If
some one could have taken them a hod of coal,
and have told him about Jesus and His power to
save, this life might have been redeemed and the
children saved this awful sorrow.
In Danger of Freezing. A young man who
had walked the streets seeking work until it
seemed that he would freeze, determined that
shelter of some kind he must have. He made just
enough of an attempt to rob a paint store to get
arrested. In court he said: "It is cold, and I
might as well be in jail as freeze to death hunting
work." He said to the jury: " It is my first time
in jail, but I do not like to freeze." Think of it in
a city like Chicago, boasting that she has just ex-
1 82 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
pended fourteen million dollars for Christmas
presents, and yet thousands suffer with cold and
hunger and their souls are perishing for the bread
and water of eternal life. Beloved, pray that God
may touch the hearts of those who have, that they
may give to those that have not, and that He will
send more divinely qualified missionaries.
Converted on the Street. A party of our mis-
sionaries were doing midnight work in the slums.
They met a young man nineteen years old on the
street. They told him about Jesus. Conviction
seized him, and they all knelt down on their knees
on the sidewalk, and the boy gave his heart to
God. A few days later, one of the missionaries
was walking the street, when a young man hailed
her and said, " Don't you remember me? " " No,"
replied the missionary, " I do not remember you."
" I am the boy that was converted on the street at
midnight." He had a job, and was rejoicing in
his new-found life.
A Detective Converted. A detective came
down to the mission one night to secure the arrest
of a certain criminal. He was a fine-looking gen-
tleman, with a Prince Albert coat and beaver hat.
During the sermon, the Holy Ghost arrested him.
When the altar call was made, he bowed at the
penitent form and gave his heart to God, and giv-
A GLIMPSE INTO THE SLUMS. 183
ing his testimony he said : " I came in here to make
an arrest, but the Holy Ghost has arrested me,"
and in that one service he was arrested, convicted,
pardoned, and set free.
A Fireman Saved.- A fireman of a railroad
locomotive came into the mission one night. The
power of the gospel put him under such convic-
tion that he fell at the altar, but knew not how to
pray. When asked to cry out to God, he said: " I
never prayed in my life; I do not know how to
pray only that little prayer my mother taught me."
We said, " Well, pray that." He prayed, " Now
I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul
to keep ; if I should die before I wake, I pray the
Lord my soul to take; " and while he was praying
that prayer, the Lord converted him, and he rose
up and testified to the forgiveness of sins.
LUCY.
LUCY, A WHITE SLAVE.
LUCY was born of religious parents, and reared
in a Christian home. Her father and mother
loved her fondly. She was a beautiful girl, with
fair, clear complexion, rosy cheeks, and hair al-
most golden. Her life was so guarded that at the
age of fifteen she knew almost nothing of the ways
of sin, and was ignorant of the wiles of Satan. At
this age her parents moved from the Hoosier state
to Chicago. As they were in limited circum-
stances, she sought employment, that she might
aid in the support of the family. Her eyes fell on
an advertisement in the newspaper, " Girls
wanted." She was out looking for employment,
and on her way home a man about thirty years old
met her on the street, who asked her a number of
questions, which she, child-like, answered. At-
tracted by her beautiful face, he determined to
capture her for a life of sin. The villain that he
was wore good clothes, was of fair speech, and
with flattering words made a number of proposi-
tions, all of which she resented; but finally he of-
fered her such inducements and made her such
promises of nice clothes and a beautiful home,
'85
1 86 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS,
etc., that she went with him to see the place. He
took her to a room over a saloon, where he himself
was bartender. When she was once inside the
room, the door was locked, and the poor girl was
ruined. For two days and nights the child was
locked in that room, with nothing to eat except
one small steak and a few raw oysters. There
were two men who had access to her room, and
she had no way of escape. She had not the re-
motest idea when she went that she was going into
sin.
On the third day she was removed to a negro
sporting house, and placed in the charge of a
negro madam, and was instructed to receive call-
ers, white or black, and turn the proceeds over to
the villain w r ho had placed her in this house of
shame. He told her if she did not obey his in-
structions he would shoot her, and thus the girl
suffered untold agony.
God must have touched the madam's heart, for
next morning she made it possible for the poor
girl to escape. As soon as she was out of the house,
she fairly ran to an officer and told him her story.
She was at oace taken to jail, and there held for
three weeks. She herself was tried under the
charge of running away from home, and then held
LUCY, A WHITE SLAVE. 187
as a witness against the two men who had ruined
her. Five times the child was taken into court
and compelled to tell the whole story. The attor-
ney on the opposite side did all he could in cross-
questioning her to destroy her testimony, but she
told it the same every time, and with such frank
open face and clear, firm voice that she won the
confidence and sympathy of all the officers. In
the fifth and last trial something had to be done
with the girl. Just as the judge was giving the
sentence to five and one-half years in the reform
school, two of our missionaries stepped up and
asked the Court to send her to Rest Cottage. The
judge first asked a few questions, then said, " Yes,
I know that place," and within ten minutes she was
turned over to us. Within two days after she en-
tered Rest Cottage, she was gloriously converted
to Christ. She wrote to her heart-broken mother
that she was saved, and the joy in that home is
simply indescribable.
It is truly wonderful what the gospel of Jesus
Christ will do. To the Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost be all the glory forever. Lucy was most
congenial in the home, gave the matron no trouble,
and received most remarkable answers to prayer.
When she was returned to her heart-broken
1 88 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
- *
mother, she bore the impress of heaven upon her
face, and the message of salvation upon her lips.
She is now teaching a Sunday School class of
.nineteen scholars.
Let everything that hath breath join us in prais-
ing the Lord for His matchless grace, and the
marvelous manifestations of power in the rescue
and salvation of this precious daughter.
THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL.
" I AM not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for
it is the power of God unto salvation to every one
that believeth." Romans i : 16.
We are deeply touched with the words we have
just heard (a touching rescue song which has just
been sung) ; but my heart leaps with joy when I
remember that Christ is able to save from the
worst of sin, from all vice, crime, and iniquity of
every kind; that there are no cases so hopeless but
that this gospel may reach them, and, if they will
turn to God, they may be saved. It is man, not
God, that grades sin. In the sight of God, sin
is sin; and it is awful; and it is all awful. Sin is
as black as hell from whence it came. God with
His great heart of compassion makes no differ-
ence. " We have all sinned and come short of
the glory of God;" but He has loved us and given
His Son for us, and Christ has laid down His life
that we might be saved. This is a great comfort
to us in these days when there are so many people
and so many nice people that object to the truth,
and turn away from the gospel, and do not want
to be saved. Thank God, the poor outcast, the
hungry, the people that are down and can not get
191
192 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
up, God loves them, Jesus died for them and wants
to save them. It was when I had no one to help me
that God took me in. I used to weep and wring
my hands and run my fingers through my hair
and walk through the woods and look up through
the twinkling stars and wonder and weep and sob
and there seemed to be no hope, but when I
turned to Christ, He saved me; all glory to His
namel
We are greatly comforted this morning to know
that we have a gospel that is able to reach the
deepest depths of sin, vice, and crime, as well as
the highest mountains of pride and rebellion
against God. These are times when God seems
to take great pleasure in saving people that nobody
else would think is worth saving. The Lord is
delighted to take in poor wandering outcasts, dis-
couraged, disappointed as many of us have been.
I remember going to bed many and many a time
realizing if I should die before morning I would
wake up in hell. I supposed this was the only
possible result. I did not suppose there was a
way for a wretched man like me to be saved.
Sometimes I became in a manner contented with
the situation and thought if I was in hell it could
not be much worse than this. I was without God
and without hope in the world, but thank God,
THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 193
this gospel was preached to me, I heard about
the Christ who could save to the uttermost all that
come unto God by Him. He saved me, and this
is why my life is given to the salvation of others.
This is why I seek especially the neglected; the
people that other folks turn from and I somehow
feel God has called me to give them special atten-
tion. The churches do not care for them and
many think they are not savable, but the gospel
of my text can reach the worst.
A few years ago I preached in the slums of New
York. One morning there were twenty-eight girls
sat in front of me, twenty-six of whom were con-
firmed drunkards. I preached this gospel in a
very simple way, telling of the love of Jesus and
His power to save and twenty-four out of the
twenty-eight girls turned to God and seemed
clearly converted to Christ. Where else can you
get that proportion of the unsaved to turn to God?
You must go to the slums where people are tired
of sin to reap anything like a large harvest.
God is moving mightily in these days to pick
up anybody that will leave sin and turn to Him.
A great deal of time and money is spent on people
who do not seem to want the Lord. There is so
much begging and pleading with people to get
them to come and seek the Lord and then so much
13
194 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
of the religious effort and labor of our evangelists
is spent in reclaiming backsliders over and over
again. Why do we not push out to where people
really want God? I know of places where if you
tell them of a Saviour's love, they will break down
and cry like children, fall on their faces and ask
God for Christ's sake to forgive them.
We ought to find out where God is giving His
special attention and go there. Our hearts ought
to be so like His, that we will run where He runs
and that we will pass by the people that He passes
over, that we will lift up people that He is trying
to lift. God purposes that we shall select, in these
last days, those who will accept His grace, obey
His voice, and honor His name forever, and He
wants us to steer clear of the multitudes of relig-
ionists who do not want Christ, who do not want
experimental religion and do not purpose in their
hearts to obey God and keep His commandments.
My heart goes out to the poor, unfortunate, home-
less, fallen men and women, whom Satan is seek-
ing to destroy, for I know that Jesus loves them
and God can save them.
You meet a tramp on the street, and many a
time there is a heart beneath those rags that is
tired of sin; a heart that is discouraged; a heart
that wants to know something better. Many of
THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 195
them have been educated, have filled places of
trust, many of them have been members of respect-
able families, but they have lost their footing, and
have gone down and down, and if you will go to
the lowest dregs of society to-day, you will find
thousands that came from the best walks of life,
humanly speaking. College-bred men who have
had everything that heart could wish, but they
have gone down and lost all hope. Thank God,
there is a gospel that will save them; there is
power in Jesus Christ, His blood can cleanse
from all sin.
A few years ago I preached in a certain north-
ern city, known for its sin and vice and crime -
a rum-soaked, priest-ridden city. The preachers
met again and again to discuss ways and means
to reach the masses with the gospel. Long,
flowery essays were read, speeches made, and
everything suggested but the real old-fashioned
gospel and nothing was accomplished. In that
city was an old disreputable theater a licen-
tious, filthy old place that would hold eight hun-
dred or one thousand people; and there was a
drunken outlaw, a man that had been in sin until
his body and mind were wrecked as a result of
every possible excess. He had been in prison
twenty-seven times. The people would have been
196 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
glad if he was dead, but he was not considered
worth killing. God said, " I will take that man,"
and he saved him and sanctified him wholly and
healed his body and he went and opened that old
theater, and cleaned it out, and cleaned it up, and
brought in the gospel ; and God saved more souls
in that old disreputable opera-house than in all the
churches put together. These are days when God
is moving mightily on the lowest hopeless ma-
terial. He is making some strange selections. It
would seem sometimes that He is taking pleasure
in making something out of nothing, that He
might show the world what grace can do.
There was a river thief of long standing in
lower New York, an awful criminal; everybody
dreaded him; nobody seemed to love him. Some-
how the gospel got to him, he heard about my
text, and he turned to the Lord, and Jesus saved
him. He opened a mission in Water Street and
from the time the door was opened to this hour
it has been a place of salvation. Perhaps there is
not a spot in America where more homeless,
friendless, penniless men have found salvation
than at that place. He preached, and prayed, and
sang, and shouted and God blessed him and multi-
tudes turned to the Lord. Strange and pathetic
are the stories of that work. He had the gospel
THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 197
of my text. He went a little further uptown and
found a saloon, called the Cremorne Saloon, and
rented a room beside it and named his mission for
the saloon, " The Cremorne Mission." Men
smiled; the devil hissed through his teeth; it
seemed like child's play for a man who had been
a drunken outlaw, to start a mission beside a
famous saloon and expect to accomplish anything;
but it was only a short time until the saloon was
no more and the Cremorne Mission stands to-day
and has been a place of the salvation of hundreds
and hundreds of souls, not because of any human
wisdom or might, but because Jerry McAuley
had the gospel of Christ, which is " the power of
God unto salvation, unto every one that believeth."
A man staggered into the Water Street Mission
who had drunk forty-five glasses of liquor within
forty-eight hours, hopeless and friendless. He was
a man of brains, was educated, had been a good
lawyer in other days, but the devil had dragged
him down until he was a wreck, lying around in
filth and vermin, drinking and smoking whatever
he could secure, homeless and hopeless. But one
night he heard the gospel of this text and he said,
" Is that so, can He do that for me? " They said,
" Yes." He believed in Jesus and God saved him
from sin. He soon had a good suit of clothes on
198 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
his back and money in his pockets. He soon
opened a mission, and another and another until
he had opened thirty-five rescue missions in
America and saved seventeen thousand drunkards,
because he had the power of my text, " the gospel,
which is the power of God unto salvation."
O beloved, we must not be disheartened. We
must not sit down; we must remember that God
loves this great lost world and He is glad to take
in the lowest of the low. He says there is no differ-
ence. The people who live on Fifth Avenue and
the boulevards in great mansions are no more to
Him than the poor tramps and harlots and jail-
birds. He would do just as much for the tramps
and bums and unfortunate girls as those who live
in palatial homes and drive through the best streets
with rubber-tire carriages. My heart is with the
lowest of the low and I have no apology to offer
for being where I am.
Three hundred and fifty thousand fallen girls
in this country in sin, unnameable sin, sin that
does not differ in the sight of God from other sin.
There is no difference between the fallen woman
and the fallen man; if any difference, she is the
better of the two. The world brands her with
everlasting disgrace and will scarcely turn a hand
to help her, while the scoundrel who ruined her
THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 199
is allowed to go free and is often welcomed into
the society and homes of respectable people. I
want to say that the gospel of Jesus Christ does
away with all this nonsense and gross injustice.
Sin is sin wherever you find it, and unless the
sinner repents, he is lost forever.
While preaching in the slums of New York,
one of my frail little sisters, who at the age of
twenty-six had spent thirteen years in street life,
stepped up to me and said, " Brother Rees, I feel
somehow that I ought to open a shelter for fallen
girls. My few friends have discouraged me, not
one of them has given me any encouragement."
I knew God had saved and sanctified her and
healed her frail body; I heard her story and then
slipped into her hand a little offering and said,
" Open up a home in the name of the Lord and
trust Him to supply the needs." She went down
into what was then known as Mulberry Bend and
opened two rooms with some pallets of straw 7 , some
soap-boxes and some broken stools; no beds, no
chairs, no bureaus, no furnishings, just an old
rickety table and a few things like that; but the
place was packed with girls. At that time I
was making regular visits to the slums every fort-
night. When I returned, my sister came to me
and said, "My two rooms are filled and more girls
200 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
want to come." " Well," I said, "take more room
in the name of the Lord." She took more rooms,
got some more straw, some more soap-boxes, and
broken stools and packed the place full of girls
and salvation. When I returned in two weeks
more, she said, " Brother Rees, I have got to have
a house." I said, " Take it in the name of the
Lord." She took a whole house and furnished
it and packed it full of girls and salvation and
that was the way one of the most famous shelters
for fallen girls was opened. No committee of a
dozen women in their silks, no board of trustees.
It did not take much money to rent the rooms and
it took less to furnish them, but the girls were
there and Jesus was there and they found salva-
tion.
God is, in these days, reaching to the uttermost
corners of the earth to save the poor, unfortunate
people. I can say with the venerable old apostle,
" I am not ashamed of this gospel, and I am not
ashamed of my Christ, and I am not ashamed of
the fish we catch; many of them, it is true, have
been unfortunate and have been down very low,
but when they are saved and filled with the Holy
Ghost, they are going to rank with the best of
society in heaven.
Only two years ago I was preaching in a cer-
THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 201
tain district of one of our western cities and there
strolled into the meeting a discouraged, heart-
broken, hopeless man and sat down away back by
the door. I did not know him, but God loved
him and there was a gospel to save him. He
threw his head down on the back of the bench
in front of him and wept freely. He had been
converted only a short time before, but had had
so little to encourage him and nobody seemed to
be his friend and he was hopelessly discouraged.
Finally, he came forward to the altar. Little did
I know what there was in him. He was. the most
notorious burglar perhaps in the Mississippi
valley. There was not a rogues' gallery in the
country without his picture. At the age of thirty-
five he had spent twenty years behind prison bars.
All the detectives and officers of the land knew
him. I did not know him, but God knew him
and reclaimed and blessed his soul that night. A
few days after, he came to the altar and received
the baptism with the Holy Ghost; but though
saved and sanctified, how could he get employ-
ment? Nobody, much, had confidence in him.
Thank God, there was a sanctified lumber-dealer
in the city. He said, " I will give him employ-
ment." Think of it. A burglar, a thief, an out-
law. Yes, sanctified people will trust men when
202 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
nobody else will. He gave him employment. A
few weeks later I was in the city and went around
to the lumber yard. I said to the employer, who
is a personal friend of mine, " How is ? "
He said, " Of the twenty men in the yard, I have
not one more trusty." After he was saved, the
policemen would meet him on the streets and
say, " Hello, , what religious dodge is this
you are trying to give us? We know you, and it
won't be long before we will have you back in
jail." After he had walked straight for eight
months, one day he was walking through the
streets of Cincinnati when a detective and two
policemen stepped up to him and said, " Hello,
, we have been watching you for these eight
months and we believe in you, and if you will
go with us up here to the rogues' gallery, we will
ask them to take your picture out." Well, it made
but little difference to him, but he went with them
and they took his picture out and in a few weeks
he heard they had taken it out in Indianapolis, St.
Louis, Chicago, Louisville, and all through the
Mississippi valley, because the power of my text
had saved him from all sin. There are no hope-
less cases, God is able; I wish we might give Him
a chance. A few weeks ago I was passing through
Indianapolis and ran down to the lumber-yard.
THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 203
I found my friend foreman of the whole gang of
the shipping department. He was giving orders
and they were being respected as if he had never
been behind bars in his life. He has since married
a beautiful sanctified girl and recently I have
been honored with one of the greatest privileges
of my life, that of breaking bread in his Christian
home, a veritable heaven on earth. I do not know
when I have been so blessed. Glory to God,
forever.
In speaking of the work of lifting up the fallen,
people say to me, " O, it does not pay." I want
to say to you, there is no investment that pays as
well. If people would put their time and strength
and money in getting the Gospel to those who are
down instead of spending it on dead churches
where they do not want the gospel, they would
reap far greater results in the salvation of souls.
I hardly feel comfortable in steeple houses any
more, in too many cases they do not want salva-
tion. It is in outside places, the highways and
hedges, the people who are hopeless and helpless,
who are hungry for God.
In the city of Chicago, God put it on our hearts
to open a Home for fallen girls. A place for
them to rest and get saved and receive the Holy
Ghost and begin life over again. We took our
204 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
offering in August and on the first of October, we
opened the Home. It would probably have taken
a church board two years for careful deliberation
and discussing of plans to raise money, but when
the Holy Ghost gets hold of any matter, it does
not take Him long to make it a success. It is
truly wonderful; we are careful to give Him all
the glory. Our business is to pull men out of the
fire and to save women from sin and from hell.
There is in the slimiest slums of Chicago a solid
block of sin, one-half a mile square, in which there
are two hundred and forty-one saloons, besides
brothels, dance-halls, low-grade theaters, etc., and
only one little chapel, or place of worship.
The other day we decided we would give the
poor hungry men a dinner. So we bought a thou-
sand fresh buns, made a thousand cups of coffee,
secured a barrel of apples and other things in pro-
portion and spread a table. Most of the people
do not believe in feeding tramps; they are afraid
to give a man a meal or a poor old worn-out gar-
ment, for fear they will give to somebody who is
not worthy. Beloved, I would rather help a dozen
that are not worthy, than to fail to help somebody
that is worthy and is needing assistance. The
dinner .only cost us about thirty-five dollars in
cash, and at the close of the day, there were seven
THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 205
men who had been gloriously saved. Some of
them testified it was because of the extended kind-
*
ness of the saints. One man said he had not be-
lieved in religion before. There has been a stream
of salvation in that place ever since. There were
seven souls for thirty-five dollars. Can you invest
money in these aristocratic churches and have it
bring results like that? In many of them there
have been thousands of dollars spent with not a
single soul saved. Five dollars a head is not
expensive for souls, though sometimes we get them
at the rate of one dollar each. When you and I
come to the judgment and see things in the light
of eternity, we will wish we had put more money
where it will count for God and souls.
Well, on October ist, we opened the Home with
five or six rooms and in the midst of much oppo-
sition. The devil is sure to butt against anything
that there is any real good in, but the first year,
we rescued and sheltered about fifty girls. If the
Christian people were awake to this work, we
might give almost everybody a chance, but few
know the real condition of things in this country
and fewer know the power of my text. Thank
God, " it is the power of God unto salvation to
every one that believeth." I could give you touch-
ing incident after touching incident, I could tell
206 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
you things that would make you cry, but that is
not enough, that is not just what we are after; we
want to get conviction from God. We want to
know that God is moving on us in these days in
the rescuing of perishing souls. Down in the
slums of Chicago, there are people who have not
a pound of coal in the house; people are just dying
for food. Right here in Chicago in the midst of
plenty, where people boast of expending nineteen
million dollars for Christmas presents, the poor
are starving for bread, and when somebody starves
or freezes to death, the notice of it occupies about
three lines in the newspaper and the world hurries
on to hell.
The other day I was in the Harrison Street
Police Station and I found a man in a filthy cell
who was arrested for stealing two lumps of coal,
perhaps neither weighing more than five pounds,
and his wife and children were shivering with
the cold. Men steal their thousands and on
account of the rottenness of politics and municipal
government no arrest is made, but the poor are
oppressed and are becoming poorer every day.
The poor are practically without a gospel.
The aristocratic churches do not want these
people, even after we get them saved and sancti-
fied. In Chicago we have had to organize a
THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 207
church where these would be welcome and where
the best pews are opened to those who have been
among the lowest.
We found a starving family of five in the Harri-
son Street Jail. They were shipped from Ala-
bama to Chicago. You know how states quarrel
over their poor; nobody wants the poor; Alabama
did not want them; Chicago did not want them, so
they were thrown into the witness cell of the Har-
rison Street Police Station, all sick and all starv-
ing. The hospitals did not want them, they will
not take people unless they are nearly dead, the
county refused them; they were Germans, but the
German consul would do nothing for them. We
took them Thanksgiving day as a Thanksgiving
present. God let us furnish them a home. One
of the children was too near gone and after two
weeks went to heaven. The others recovered and
were grateful for the kindness. How I thank God
that we could care for that little child the last
three weeks of its life and that it did not die in
that dingy cell. And yet thousands are dying in
the dingiest and dampest corners of this earth, not
only without food and raiment, but without the
gospel and without hope. Beloved, my whole
soul is in this work. I want no more Thanksgiving
days after the old fashion the self-centered, self-
208 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
ish way of gathering a few of our friends together
and stuffing stomachs, and neglecting the poor.
I prefer to go down and eat with the bums and
tell them of a Christ who can save to the uttermost.
Beloved, I can ask you one or two questions that
ought to enable you to determine how Christ-like
you are in your life. Who eats at your house
when you have a feast? Who eats turkey on
Thanksgiving or Christmas in your home? When
there is a birthday or anniversary feast, who is it
that sits at your table? Who did Christ say should
eat with you?
Are you living a Christ-like life? God help
us and give us the compassion that He had and
let us possess and practice the spirit that He mani-
fested in His work. Some day we will look back
and remember our trials and pains as nothing and
rejoice that we were ever counted worthy to suffer
shame for His name.
LITTLE H .
LITTLE H is not yet sixteen years old. She
was born of godless parents and reared in a home
where beer was on the table as far back as she can
remember. Her father was always intoxicated
and very abusive in his family, her mother a
moderate drinker, and the whole household with-
out any knowledge of salvation. Scolding, quar-
reling, fighting, the home was a miniature hell
on earth. Reader, is it any wonder to you that
girls reared in such homes go astray? Are you
sure you would have done better under such cir-
cumstances? I wonder if you appreciate your
Christian homes and training as you should?
Before she was fourteen years old, her virtue
was gone and she was in unnameable sin. She
never found any pleasure in this life of sin, but a
combination of circumstances forced her to it.
Men would take her into rooms and force her to
drink. She would feel so badly afterward that
she would lament and weep over her sins, but
there was no one to offer relief. There were scores
ready to drag her down, but not a man to lift her
up.
211
212 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
She would resolve that she would break away
from this life. She would go and get housework
to do that she might make an honest dollar, but
again and again her hopes were blasted and there
was none to help. How the poor child needed
some one to tell her about Jesus Christ and the
power of His gospel to break and cancel the
power of sin! She went from bad to worse until
one night she met a girl friend of hers, who was
not much older than herself, but more experienced
in sin, who was beastly drunk and all that night
they reveled in sin and shame.
Next morning they felt so badly that they de-
cided not to go back to their employment. Under
the influence of strong drink and nicotine, the
devil suggested to them to do some thieving. They
stole a guitar, gold ring, and a revolver and found
a young man who consented to pawn the articles
for them. They spent the day in sin and disposed
of about all the money. As evening came on.
they knew it would not do to go home, so they took
shelter in a house where they thought they would
not be found. But late that night a messenger
came for them. They jumped out of a back win-
dow and ran around through and across the rail-
road tracks and among the box cars and thus made
LITTLE H . 213
their escape. They found an old empty house and
crawled into it and slept until morning.
H had heard of the Rescue Home, but she
knew but little about it, except that it was a place
where poor lost girls could stay. She knew the
direction and that it was two or three miles from
where they were, but did not know how to find
it. But they were determined to make a search and
when they were in the immediate neighborhood,
they inquired of the post-man who guided them
and they were soon standing at the door of " Rest
Cottage."
The door was opened and they came in. No
one is ever refused at " Rest Cottage " even if they
have to sleep on the floor. They tried hard to get
saved and confessed all but their thieving; they
so dreaded the penitentiary that this they tried to
cover. But, of course, they could not find salva-
tion with sin covered any more than can you, my
dear reader.
In about two weeks an officer came and arrested
and put them in jail. They lay in jail from
Thursday until Tuesday afternoon. They were
called into court at least four times during their
stay in prison. Our missionaries stood with them
in the court room and pleaded for their release in
214 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
the name of the Lord. On the fifth day the judge
turned them back to us. Never were girls more
delighted and soon gave themselves over to the
Lord and found real salvation.
H , who is the subject of this sketch, has
since been sanctified wholly and went to the Bible
school for better preparation to tell poor lost girls
the way to salvation.
Beloved, it is truly wonderful what God is doing
for these poor girls. All glory to His name for-
ever.
CHRIST IN THE SLUMS.
ON Pacific Avenue, there stands an old leaning,
unpainted, dilapidated house. Newspapers were
in the windows instead of glass; no carpet on the
floor, no table, and not a whole piece of furniture
in the house. The furnishings consisted of a small
rusty shop stove, an old half bed, broken and
ready to fall; and two broken chairs. The pantry
consisted of an orange box standing on end, con-
taining three or four cracked dishes. The only
articles of food in the house was a third of a loaf
of stale bread. On the rickety bed was a woman
not less than fifty years of age. The ragged mat-
tress was indescribably filthy, and everything pre-
sented the most unhappy and distressing appear-
ance.
The family consisted of a helpless old woman,
with her hands and feet all drawn out of shape
with rheumatism brought on by exposure to
cold and wet, while earning her bread by the sale
of newspapers on the street, and two little boys.
The older child secured their only means of
support since his mother's sickness by selling
papers at the corner of State and VanBuren
Streets, earning from twenty to forty cents a day.
217
218 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
The younger boy was cook, nurse, and general
housekeeper. He slept with his sick mother on
the half-bed, and Ben, the newsboy, slept on a cot
which w r as out in the kitchen, but which he was
forced to bring into his mother's room every night
on account of the great hungry rats that had taken
possession of the old shed.
Ben had brought home thirty cents the night
before, and Jimmie had bought a loaf of stale
bread, and a couple of pork chops such as you
can purchase in a butcher shop in the slums. By
the use of the last pound of coal, the little cook
had fried the chops not more than half done, and
that was all the boys and sick mother had had to
eat that day. The third of the loaf of bread she
had ordered saved for little Ben when he came
home hungry, in case he had not had a good day
with his papers.
The woman had been a Roman Catholic, but a
missionary had given her a copy of the New Tes-
tament, and while reading it she had been glori-
ously converted to Christ. Her spirit was all
aglow, and her face was radiant with heavenly
sunshine. I have never seen so much content-
ment, happiness, and sunshine in any room so
dark and destitute as I found here.
There was not a single complaint; no trace of
CHRIST IN THE SLUMS. 219
murmuring; she was satisfied with everything;
and was praising the Lord continually.
The hovel was owned by a Catholic priest, and
the rent had been two dollars and fifty cents per
month; but when he heard that she was reading
a Protestant Bible, he sent the agent to say that the
rent would be six dollars per month.
We prayed, wept, and shouted as best we could
under the circumstances, but our shouts choked us,
and we felt that on our part, practice would be
more appropriate than preaching or shouting.
You know now what would come next. The bed
and bedding were fired to the dump; the place
was renovated, fumigated, and irrigated. The
missionaries who were once filled with pride,
bought pails, soap, and brushes, and then laughed,
wept, and shouted while on their knees scrubbing
that miserable filthy floor.
They were so blessed in their souls that they felt
they would be glad to scrub another one. This is
a part of what the power of the gospel does in the
slums. All glory to the Christ who entered and
transformed that hovel into a little heaven.
He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a
stone at her. John 8 : 7.
B .
B is one of our first trophies in the Rescue
Work. She was born and brought up in Virginia.
Her parents both died when she was very small.
By a noble struggle she resisted sin and main-
tained her virtue till she was twenty-one years of
age. Then, through the most adroit means, she
was ruined by a relative. When she had taken
her first misstep, all of her kinfolks turned her
down with emphasis.
Although it was one of them that led her to the
slaughter, they all positively refused to recognize
her in any way. They did not even answer a tele-
gram when she was thought to be dying. No one
seemed to care for her, and there was no place to
go. The door to a life of sin is always open, and
the broad road to hell offers many inducements,
and makes many promises.
When once started down, how rapidly their
feet take hold of death. It is not far from a home
of purity and peace, to the morgue, the potter's
field, and a nameless grave. Forty-six thousand
of these girls fill unmarked graves every year, and
since forty-six thousand are going to the potter's
field this year, forty-six thousand pure, strong,
healthy girls must march up to take their places.
221
222 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
Think of it, parents, where are the forty-six
thousand girls to come from next year? And
forty-six thousand the year following? They must
come from somewhere. They will most of them
come from the country and country villages;
manv of them from Christian homes and the Sun-
./
day-schools. I ask you to look at this dark proces-
sion marching to the altar almost a thousand a
week, just like the cattle march down to death in
the stockyards in Chicago. What if some one is
solicited from your home? What are your feel-
ings? What is your attitude? And let me ask
you, are you doing your whole duty in the pro-
tection of the virtue of our j'outh? Are not the
foregoing facts enough to arouse the sympathy,
and start the slumbering conscience of the people
of American Protestantism?
B - was drafted into this great army, and
had to go. The rigor of the service no pen can
describe. The pain and anguish it is impossible
for us to conceive. It was only through the gospel
that she was brought out of this worse than
Egyptian bondage. This was her only fire-escape
from a burning hell.
Soon after coming to the Rescue Home, she
made several vigorous attempts to get saved, but
she made the mistake so common of misrepresent-
B . 223
ing the situation. These poor girls have been sc
cast off and put down by everybody that it seerns
almost impossible for them to believe that we will
forgive and love them if they will tell us the worst.
So they often cover their lives in part, and are
loth to confess their real name. Her child was in
her arms, but she represented she was married, and
that her husband had deserted her.
But with sin covered, she could never get an
experience that would stick. It was an awful
struggle, and almost killed the poor girl ; but when
she had confessed it all out, and sent home some
things she had stolen, and confessed to a woman,
with whose husband she had lived in sin, God
gloriously saved her.
Let me diverge enough to say that this
crime among married men, and even among
church members in high standing, is becoming
terrifically alarming. It was this married man, a
church member in good standing, w r ho brought
her to the city, and after some weeks deserted her;
and has doubtless gone on ruining and deserting
others, God in heaven open the eyes of parents
to the dangers of these awful times! Is it not
time that the pulpit was thundering out a Sinai
gospel of hell and eternal damnation for all such
satanic hypocrites?
224 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
The dear girl has gone on beautifully in her
Christian experience, and feels heart-broken as
the time approaches when she must go out to make
her way in this friendless world again. It breaks
our hearts to part from these precious girls, who
have been saved and transformed until their na-
tures seem almost angelic, but they must go to
make room for others.
Thank God! She does not go out alone. The
Holy Spirit will go with her, and a host of true
friends will follow her with their prayers. Praise
the Lord.
PEARL A MARVELOUS TRANSFOR-
MATION.
ONE wintry November night, the wind was
blowing and the snow flying, when a beautiful
young girl of nineteen stood at the door with a
six-weeks' old baby in her arms, seeking shelter
from the storm. She was not only a sinner, but
so possessed and so completely controlled by the
devil, that nobody could live with her. Her
ungovernable temper made her unmanageable.
She had been in one or two Rescue Homes, but
they could do nothing with her. She would not
only break up the furniture, but break up the folks
if they did not get out of her way.
Our doors are open to such girls day and night.
She was given a warm welcome, and kindly
treated. She was very soon found on her knees,
weeping over her sins. As is common, she came
to us with a string of lies on her lips, but under
conviction, she confessed that she had never been
married and gave her correct name. One confes-
sion after another was made, and wrongs were
righted, until at last God forgave her sins and
wonderfully saved her soul.
It was not long till she was seeking the baptism
227
228 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
of the Holy Ghost, and when she unconditionally
gave her all to God for time and eternity, He
gave her the blessing in her heart and she was
unspeakably happy. The glory of God rilled her
soul, and the shine of heaven was on her face.
How the complexion of everything in her life was
changed! No more fits of anger no more slam-
ming doors or knocking over chairs no more
hard words or angry looks. All was changed to
the placidity of grace and heavenly quietude.
Pearl soon found employment in a public laun-
dry. Before she went out to work, she had said
to me, " I feel called to missionary work, and
want to go to the Bible School for preparation."
I had sent a number of girls to school, but some
way did not feel led to give her much encourage-
ment in that direction.
The first time she came home from her work,
she said, " Brother Rees, I have seventeen dollars
laid up for paying my way to the Bible School."
I said, " That is good," but did not yet say much;
but I found that she had been tithing her income
and had bought Bibles, and given to the other
girls in the laundry.
When she came home a second time, she said,
u I have twenty-five dollars toward my support in
the Bible School." By this time I saw there was
good mettle in her and said, " That will be
PEARL A MARVELOUS TRANSFORMATION. 229
enough; go and get your outfit, and I will take
care of the rest."
Please note the power of the gospel. That sinful
girl, almost insane at times with inflamed anger,
boisterous, and most aggravating in her manner,
entered the Bible School and lived a most ex-
emplary life for a whole year. The following is
the testimony of her room mate, given at the end
of the year: "I have lived with Pearl all this
school year; have seen her under the most trying
and provoking circumstances; I have never heard
an unkind word fall from her lips, or seen her
when her spirit was the least ruffled." This is
one of the miracles of the gospel in the slums.
Praise the Lord.
DELLA.
RESCUED FROM AWFUL SIN.
DELLA - - is twenty-one years old. She was
born in a typical Methodist home in the State
of Alabama. She was brought up religious, but
without salvation. At the age of fourteen she
was ruined under the promise of marriage. The
villain was a married man, though he had con-
cealed this fact from her. When once ruined,
every door to sin and perdition was wide open to
her. Under the promise of ease and luxury she
was induced to go into a house of shame. Here
she was assigned a room and compelled to pay
twelve and one-half dollars a week for her board.
After more than five years in sin, she testifies
that nearly all the girls she has ever met have
been forced into sin for the sake of a livelihood.
In this haunt of vice she was expected to drink
with all the company she received. Some have
wondered why nearly all the sporting girls be-
come confirmed drunkards. The madams of
these houses keep liquor and wine, and gentlemen
callers are expected to pay for all the liquor con-
sumed. So the more a girl will drink, the more
profit to the madam, and the better she is pleased
with the girl. To stand in with her mistress and
231
232 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
hold her place the poor girls are almost compelled
to drink and smoke.
Delia and her sister were in sin in the same
house. One day Brother B , a holiness
preacher of Alabama, together with a missionary,
went into this house and held a service. When
the brother prayed, Delia's sister was seized with
conviction, and she could never shake it off until
she was saved. Ten days after she was converted,
the Lord took her to heaven. She went shouting
through the gates into the city of gold. What a
transformation, from a brothel, from that awful
place of shame, to the " Celestial City of Light! "
" Verily I say unto you, that the publicans and
the harlots go into the kingdom of God before
you."
Before she died she made Delia promise to quit
sin and get saved. The funeral was on Friday,
and the following Sunday Delia was gloriously
converted to Christ. She came to Hope Cottage
for shelter, and was soon sanctified wholly. Thank
God she has gone as straight as a string from that
very hour. She is supporting herself by honest
labor, and praising the Lord for full salvation.
She has not the least desire for drink or tobacco
and no disposition to go back to the old life. Two
more miracles in the slums. O glory to God,
forever.
CARL, THE CONVERTED BAR-TENDER.
A CONVERTED SALOONKEEPER.
AND just here I must tell you about the saloon-
keeper whose name is Carl, and whose picture ac-
companies this sketch. He was born in Germany,
and came to this country four years ago, at the
age of twenty-two. He was a machinist, earning
eighteen dollars per week until there came one
of those miserable strikes, when he was forced
out of employment. He was induced to take the
position as porter in a saloon, and was then pro-
moted downward to the position of bartender.
And it was there he was standing, dealing out dis-
tilled damnation, when Dicie and Anna stood be-
fore him and preached Jesus and salvation to him.
He had sometimes been under conviction, but
did not know what was the matter with him.
One night he was serving the drinks to a man
who threw down a twenty-dollar gold piece, and
was so intoxicated that he was hardly capable of
counting or caring for the change. The change
was put on the counter, but the poor man was so
overcome that he would take only a couple of
dollars at a time, and would stand and talk, and
hardly knew enough to care what became of the
money. The owner of the dive was present, and
235
236 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
winked at Carl to brush the money into the till.
When he saw that his boss wanted him to steal
the money, the devil overdid himself, and he said.
" That is going too far," and from that hour con-
viction deepened in his heart, so that when Dicie,
who was not yet converted, and Annette, who had
but recently been saved from a life of sin, both
with Bibles in their hands, stood in that saloon
and told the bartender about Jesus and His sal-
vation, and begged him to get down on his knees
and pray with them, although he was not ready
to take that bold step, they found him fully pre-
pared for their message, and ready to promise that
he would come to the mission.
The following Wednesday night he paid a man
one dollar and a half to sell whisky in his place
while he went to the mission to get salvation.
That very night he fell at the altar, and God glo-
riously saved his soul. , With radiant face and
blood-washed spirit he stood up and confessed
that God for Christ's sake had forgiven all his
sins.
He never went back to the saloon, not even for
his back pay. He soon obtained employment at
his former trade, and a few weeks later was sanc-
tified wholly. He is a living, walking miracle,
A CONVERTED SALOONKEEPER. 237
getting remarkable answers to prayer, and win-
ning souls to Jesus. He is one of our best street
preachers, and feels called as a missionary to
Japan.
All glory to the all-conquering Christ forever.
Verily I say unto you, that the publicans and the harlots
go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came
unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him
not : but the publicans and the harlots believed him : and
ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye
might believe'. Matt. 21:31, 32.
A MISSIONARY IN A DIVE --TESTI-
MONY OF J. A. S.
SHORTLY after our Rescue Home in Chicago
was opened, I became acquainted with a young
girl in the slums. I was very much interested
in her. She was a beautiful young girl, but
steeped in sin. I lost track of her, and felt led
of the Lord to go at midnight, a party of us, to
search the slums, and find this lost girl. Our
friends told us that such a search was useless in
a city of two million people, but what seemed im-
possible with man was possible with God.
We went about midnight, and for about an hour
our labor seemed almost useless. As we were
going home I felt God turning me around toward
the " Red Light " district, a district where a
policeman is scarcely ever seen, and where peo-
ple hardly consider it safe to walk in the day-
time. I was strongly impressed to enter a certain
dive, known by all to be one of the very worst
dives of the city. I felt like that was the place,
opened the door, and walked in, and the party
that was with me followed, and there I found
the very girl I was looking for.
. It would have made your heart almost break
to have heard her as she cried out, " O Miss S ,
239
240 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
O Miss S ! Did you come at last to take me
away? " And she put her arms around me, and
hugged me, and said, " O, take me away from this
place, this awful place!" It was a negro dive,
and the woman who kept it was a great big negress
weighing about two hundred and fifty pounds.
Her eyes glowed like flames of fire, and she seemed
like the very demon himself, as she saw the girl
with her arms around me. In this awful dive only
white girls were kept, beautiful white girls, pat-
ronized by those awful negroes. The woman said
to me, " What do you want, what are you here
for? Don't you know what this place is?" I
never answered, and God just poured strength
into my soul. She said, " You get out of here just
as quick as you can. You are here at the risk of
your life."
Do you suppose I could have left that place
with that young girl hanging round my neck, beg-
ging me to save her? Never! I made up my
mind that the woman would have to walk over
my dead body before I would leave without ac-
complishing the purpose for which God had sent
me there. I turned to the negro woman and said,
" I will never leave this place until this girl goes
out with me." She became greatly enraged,
cursed me, and poured forth a perfect torrent of
A MISSIONARY IN A DIVE. 241
abuse, but I scarcely heard her. The angels were
just hovering over, the glory of God rilled my
soul, and it seemed like I was in heaven itself.
She said to the others who were with me, " You
get out of here," and they went out, and I was
left alone, after midnight, in that negro dive, but
there was not a fear in my soul, no, not one. I
believe I felt a little like Daniel in the lions' den;
the lions were all around, but the Son of God was
standing by me.
Finally the woman said to me, " I see you are
not going to get out." I did not answer her; I
did. not have to; but I turned to her and said, " I
want you to go to your wardrobe and pick me out
a nice dress and coat and hat, and fix this girl up
for street wear." Then I turned upon her, and
told her she was on the road to destruction, and
was damning the souls of these girls, and dragging
them down to hell. God poured the message
through my lips, and as dark as that woman was,
she actually turned pale in the face. I led the
way upstairs and said, " Now you get the clothes
to fix this girl up; " and she obeyed me like a little
child. We dressed that girl, and got her ready,
then we came down where the other girls were,
and I said to her, " Now you go around and tell
the girls good-by," and I spoke to them of Jesus,
16
242 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
and they broke down and wept, and God had right
of way in that awful den. I brought that girl to
Rest Cottage, and it seemed to me that I hardly
touched the sidewalk. I just walked on air. It
was two o'clock at night, and there were no street
cars, and it was a long way to walk. The girl was
black and blue from blows she had received, but
there was such hope in her face she was going
to Rest Cottage.
By three o'clock she was settled in a clean room,
and the next day she gave her heart to Jesus. Talk
about rescue work! Does it pay? It pays as no
other work in the world pays. These precious
girls! When you give them a chance, they never
get over it. They never get over the lives of the
missionaries. Even if they go back into sin, the
prayers of the saints follow them, and are never
forgotten.
There were two girls in our Home who had
been saved, but the devil was tempting them to go
back into sin. We pleaded with them not to go,
but the devil was pressing them, and they went.
A little later they came back, and said that as they
went to open the door of a house of sin, they could
hear the wails and prayers of the Christians in
Rest Cottage. They could not go in, they could
not stand our prayers, and so they came back.
J. A. S.
TESTIMONY OF BROTHER K-
" WE were looking after the interests of Res-
cue Work in the Indian Territory. We found a
poor girl in the Durant Jail. Her mother had
died when she was quite small. She was placed
in the care of her brother-in-law, who led her
into sin before she reached womanhood, and when
he found that the matter was going to bring dis-
grace upon his home, he turned her out of doors.
She had nowhere to go, slept in box-cars, and
roamed about from place to place, until finally
she landed in the Durant Jail in the month of
February, and had to walk the floor to keep from
freezing. She was invited to the Rescue Home.
The city authorities remanded her fine, and turned
her over to our care. When she arrived at the
Home, Sister Roberts, who was then matron but
has since been called home to heaven, met her
at the door, kissed her, and gave her a warm wel-
come. The poor girl said, " This is the first time
such a thing has happened since my mother's
death." She was soon blessedly converted to
Christ, is earning her living in an honorable way,
and is happy in the Lord. Some have asked me,
'" Does Rescue Work pay? " For six years I have
243
244 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
been engaged in evangelistic work, and holding
many rescue meetings. It is certainly the most
paying work I have ever known anything about,
and one which God's special blessing rests upon.
During the last year I have seen more than three
hundred souls saved or sanctified: have raised one
thousand one hundred dollars for Rescue Work,
and have had more money for myself than ever
before. B. M. K.
EVA.
A DONATION.
IN direct answer to prayer, there came a barrel
to Rest Cottage sent by express, and prepaid. It
was filled with the most beautiful clothes for chil-
dren and babies. Just what the Home was need-
ing at the time. It also contained a bag of break-
fast food, one of dried apples, and nearly one-half
gallon of jelly. These had been carefully packed
by loving hands, prompted by pious hearts. But
the most touching part of all was in the very cen-
ter of the barrel a little bag with forty cents in
it from a little child, to be used for coal and food
for some poor family. .
Who can doubt that the Lord hears and answers
the cry of those who are in need, and God is al-
ways willing to use even a child to bless and help
fallen humanity.
There was more gospel in that barrel, and more
real piety and devotion in that little bag from that
little child, than can be found in many loud house-
topped professions in these days. How we need a
revival of that kind of gospel for the slums.
347
And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him
that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come.
And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
Rev. 22: 17.
Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the
week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom
he had cast seven devils. And she went and told them that
had been with him, as they mourned and wept. Mark
16:9, 10.
DOES RESCUE WORK PAY?
THIS is the question sometimes raised, but al-
ways by those whose hearts are not in the work.
We grant that a great deal of the so-called rescue
work has failed. Scores of homes have been
opened by unspiritual churches, or by some of
their members, who are so in bondage to it that
they allow it to be held under the authority of
the church, and the backslidden minister manip-
ulates all, just as he does in the church, and in a
few months it is closed ; and the impression is
made on the people that the girls can not be held
from their lives of sin. O, what a mistake, all for
the want of the blessed Holy Ghost! Where He
is in charge, failure is impossible. He never knows
defeat. All we need is to understand that the
battle is the Lord's. There is not one girl in ten
in the haunts of shame who is there of choice.
Most of them hate the life with a perfect hatred.
They would rather be dead, thousands of them,
than to go on in a life of sin. But they are help-
less; they are down, and there is no one to help
them up. They are ruined forever, ruined for
everything else.
If a mule falls down in the street, there are
249
250 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
twenty men ready to help him up and give him
another chance; but if a woman falls there are
twenty people ready to kick her and send her
lower.
Thousands of pure country girls are allured
into our great cities and led into houses of disre-
pute through so-called employment agencies. Let
me sound a note of warning to the country girls
all over the land: Do not respond to the adver-
tisement of an employment agency, though it may
be published in your church paper, unless you
have some means of knowing that it is a reliable
firm.
Three hundred and fifty thousand women and
girls in the United States alone are in sin and
shame, and most of them brought up in country
homes. They do not want to go to church; the
churches do not want them. Shall we let them die
and be carried to the morgue, fill nameless graves
in the potter's field, and be lost forever, or shall
we give them the gospel and give them another
chance, let them begin life over again, and furnish
them a home until they are saved and sanctified,
then place them in Christian families, where it
will be possible for them to become true wives
and pure mothers?
With all the power of my being I repudiate the
DOES RESCUE WORK PAY? 251
idea so often expressed by the words, " The bird
with the broken wing can never fly so high again."
The sentiment is of the devil. Thank God we
have a gospel which can repair all broken wings,
broken limbs, broken hearts, broken hopes, broken
homes, and wrecked and ruined lives, and make
them better than they ever were.
" Where sin abounded grace did much more
abound." "And I will restore unto you the years
that the locusts hath eaten, the canker-worm, and
the caterpillar, and the palmer-worm." O, glory
to God, I know it is so. Thank God, we may re-
deem the time wasted in sin. "All things are pos-
sible with God, and all things are possible to him
that believeth."
Let me give you a sample. F - was a bar-
tender, a gambler, a pugilist, and a drunkard. His
skill in mixing fine drinks always secured him a
good salary, but sin had made him more of a
brute than a man, and one Sunday our prison
corps found him locked up in a little dingy cell
in the Harrison Street Police Station. They
preached Jesus to him, but he seemed as hard as a
stone. One of our missionaries extended her hand
through the bars and pleaded with him to give his
heart to Jesus. He ordered her to leave his cell
door, but instead she dropped down on the stone
252 MIRACLES- IN THE SLUMS.
floor and wept and wept and prayed to God for
him. She handed him a card announcing our
services; and to get rid of her he promised her
that when his fine was paid he would come to the
mission.
He had no thought of keeping his promise, but
some days later he was walking the streets and put
his hand in his pocket for a piece of tobacco and
drew out this card. He remembered his promise,
came to the church, and was gloriously converted
that night. It was winter and the snow was a
slush.
After the service, about eleven o'clock at night,
he went back into a dark alley in the rear of the
church and knelt down in the snow and said: " O
God, this is too good to be true, but if I am really
converted and You want me to serve You, take
away this appetite for whisky and tobacco." Right
there in the snow and water God removed all de-
sire for strong drink and tobacco, and after a year
he testifies that he has never wanted it since.
He soon obtained a position with small pay.
Liquor-dealers came and offered him large wages.
He was working for six dollars a week, and they
offered him twenty-two or more to stand behind
the bar, but he stoutly refused and always testified
that he was saved and that God had saved him
253
from all sin. His ungodly friends did their worst
to throw him off the track, but he lived a happy
Christian life for eleven months without a break,
and then a man who knew him well boasted that
he would make him angry. He knew what a
fighter F was, and that he had a hasty tem-
per. One day he came to where F was at
work and insulted him. He endured it all like a
Christian until the man finally slandered his
mother. Like a flash the old man rose up in him,
and grabbing the man by the throat with one hand
he was just about to strike him with the other,
when he remembered that he was a Christian, and
he did not strike, but looked at him and said:
" You know that if you had talked that way to me
eleven months ago I would have knocked you
down," but turned away and felt just as badly as
if he had struck the man.
He came to the church broken-hearted, and
said: " What can I do to get rid of this unmanage-
able temper? " We had told him about sanctifi-
cation, but he had been so wonderfully saved he
had never felt the need of it. Now he said: " I
know what you mean; I must have the experi-
ence," and with diligence he sought until he was
sanctified wholly.
With what telling effect he stands in the corri-
254 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
dors of that old jail and preaches Jesus to the
prisoners, pointing out to them the very cell in
which he was locked up when the missionaries*
brought the gospel to him! He never has any
trouble in getting their attention, and the effect is
most blessed. It is now more than two years, and
he is going on, working for the salvation of souls.
ANNA.
CHILDREN IN THE SLUMS.
A Child Missionary. Lester is thirteen years
of age, and is a faithful slum mission worker in
the jails and among the fallen. When he was only
eight years old, he was the instrument in the hands
of God in rescuing his drunken father from a life
of sin and shame. Now his father is a Christian
worker, and the child accompanies him almost
every Sabbatrr through the jails and among the
lost, preaching the gospel of Christ to the hope-
less. "And a little child shall lead them."
A Child in Jail. On October 27, I spent some
time in a certain Chicago police station. In one
of its dingiest cells I found a little boy, perhaps
five years old, with his father who was awaiting
trial. It was one of those sad cases of a wrecked
home and scattered family, and there seemed to
be no other provision made for the child. The
little fellow had slept two nights on that hard
wooden bench without pillow or covering. The
father told me that the child was very unhappy
the first night, but was settling down to prison life.
17 257
258 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
Wrongs Made Right. Little Phil, who was
not brought up, but just " came " up in the slums,
heard the gospel, and was wonderfully converted
to Christ He very soon felt that some wrongs
must be made right. The little fellow had been
riding to his work of mornings with the engineer
on a certain railroad instead of paying his fare;
but after he was saved, the Lord showed him that
he must make it right with the railroad company.
This he was only too glad to do, as his little heart
was fairly bounding in the love of Christ.
Another Case. Little C , a slum urchin,
was at the altar seeking the forgiveness of his sins.
After praying and weeping for a time he rose up
and said frankly, " I can't get religion; it is no
use for me to try." Some one asked why. He
said, " Well, I have been stealing rides on the
electric cars, and every time I try to pray, these
things come up."
He was asked if he was willing to make it right,
to which he promptly responded, " Why, yes, if
I only knew how." " How many times do you
suppose you have ridden without paying your
fare?" After a moment's thoughtfulness, he said,
" I think it was about three times, but to be sure,
I'll call it five."
CHILDREN IN THE SLUMS. 259
After receiving some instruction he put twenty-
five cents in an envelope and sent it to the presi-
dent of the Traction Company. He very soon
received a beautiful letter from the head of the
great Union Traction Company of Chicago, conv
mending him for his course. But long before he
received a response to his letter, he received a tele-
gram from the Throne announcing that all his sins
were forgiven, and he was made unspeakably
happy.
Cruelty to Children in the Slums.-^-The power
of the gospel not only reaches hardened adult sin-
ners, but ignorant little children are often bless-
edly and clearly converted to Christ. Little tots
who have been trained from their infancy to steal,
lie, and deceive, are con verted^ in to beautiful little
Christians. They have been sent to the saloon for
beer ever since they were large enough to carry a
quart pail. Some of them have aided in the sup^
port of the family by gathering cigar and cigarette
butts from the street. But when they are con-
verted, they seem to as instinctively turn away
from sin as do those who are older. A little fel-
low who had been converted at the service re-
turned to his home and said, " Papa, I am a Chris-
tian, and I can't gather cigar stubs for you any
260 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
more," and instantly his father knocked him
sprawling across the room.
A little girl said, " Mamma, I have given my
heart to Jesus, and I can't go to the saloon for any
more beer," and immediately she was beaten and
bruised in a most cruel manner. In some cases
parents have been so abusive that their children
have had to be taken from them. But in almost
every case these little folks stand true to Jesus.
Little Anna was at the altar weeping and sob-
bing one night, when we said to her, "Anna, what
is the matter? " She said, " My parents have
whipped me, and kicked me, and pounded me, and
shut me up in a dark room, all because I was a
Christian, until I thought perhaps it would be
better for me to give it up; but when I did, I was
so miserable that I have made up my mind that
no difference how much I am whipped, or kicked,
or cuffed, I will stand it all for Jesus if He will
only come back into my heart." Of course He
came back, and she rose from the altar, her face
radiant with heavenly glory.
JUDGMENT IN THE SLUMS.
ONE of our missionaries who had herself been
a drunkard for many years, and was familiar with
all the haunts of vice and dives of iniquity in a
certain great city, was doing missionary work in
the slums.
When she entered a saloon which she used to
frequent, the new bartender protested against her
doing missionary work, and said, " You are going
to break up this man's business," and ordered her
out of the saloon. She said, " No, I don't want to
break up his business, but I want God to do it."
She knew the proprietor well, and watched for
an opportunity when he would be in. Entering
the saloon one night, she said to the proprietor,
who seemed very glad to see her, " Harry, it is all
right for me to distribute tracts, and tell the girls
in the saloon about Jesus, is it not? "
He said, "Yes, Georgia; I wish all the girls
were as you are to-day." He gave her perfect lib-
erty in his place, for he knew so well what she
had been, and what a marvelous change the Lord
had wrought in her life.
When she was through, Harry followed her,
and the missionary who was with her, outside,
261
262 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
and stood on the curbstone and wept like a child
while she preached Jesus to him. She said,
" Harry, you should go back into that saloon and
knock the head out of those barrels, pour out all
that rum, and close up that house."
With great tears running down his face he said,
" I know that is just what I should do." The great
strong, nice-looking man, twenty-nine years old,
stood on the street with streaming eyes, and said
more than once, " I feel afraid to go back into that
saloon." The missionary felt it might be his last
chance, and warned him faithfully. The last thing
he said to her was, " I don't know but I will do as
you say," and she bade him good-night.
As soon as she was gone, he stifled his convic-
tions, or failed in his courage to do what he knew
was right. About a week later he was sitting in
his place of business, his favorite girl, about whom
he and another man had had trouble, was sitting
by his side, when the angered man entered the sa-
loon, and shot him all to pieces, shot him six times
after he was dead. This was clearly the judgment
of God on the place.
The result was, the saloon was closed and three
of the eight girls in the house were sent to the Res-
cue Home, one of them being the beautiful girl
JUDGMENT IN THE SLUMS. 263
over whom poor Harry lost his life. She has since
been wonderfully saved.
A further result of this awful tragedy was that
the Chief of Police had all the saloons raided and
closed, that had girls connected with them. All
these scores of girls were arrested and sent to the
House of Detention. Many of them were girls
who had never been arrested before. Some of
them had parents who knew nothing of their
whereabouts, and such a scene of weeping and
wailing in the prison has seldom ever been wit-
nessed. The authorities kept sending them to our
Rescue Home, until we had seven more than we
could comfortably accommodate.
How marvelously the missionary's prayer was
answered, that " God would break up the busi-
ness."
FANNY.
FANNY, THE NOTORIOUS HIGH-LIFE
SPORT.
WHAT awful tales of woe are poured into our
ears in these awful days of misfortune, vice, and
crime! Our hearts are broken again and again,
and we sincerely hope that we will never become
so accustomed to these stories of sorrow that we
will not be deeply grieved and touched with com-
passion for earth's unfortunate and neglected.
Fanny B - was born in the Cincinnati Hos-
pital in 1869. She was a legitimate child, but her
father was in jail, and there was no other place for
her to be born. Owing to trouble between her
parents, she was deserted and thrown into the
Children's Home.*
When twenty-one months old, she was adopted
by a whisky dealer who had no children of his
own. Being unusually bright, she took to school-
ing, and was educated, especially in music.
Her adopted father became a professional gam-
bler, and deserted his family entirely. With broken
home and broken hearts, Fanny and her foster-
mother were forced to support themselves by tak-
ing in washing. Some years later he returned
265
266 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
and took Fanny's hard earnings, and set up in the
saloon business, where he is to-day.
She struggled against awful odds, and main-
tained her virtue until at the age of seventeen she
married a railroad man, and thought to have a
good home and live a happy life. But alas! he
was not a man, but a villain. The scoundrel soon
proposed that her pretty face, fine form, and at-
tractive manners might become the means of their
support, and insisted upon her selling her body
for bread. It seems clear beyond the utmost
stretch of human thought of what atrocious, dia-
bolical men can be capable. How little our
pure daughters know what they are in the pres-
ence of, when they meet these well-dressed demons
in society, many of them appearing most amiable,
affable, and gallant, but they are commissioned re-
cruiting officers of hell.
Fanny was soon made acquainted with a number
of cattle shippers and wealthy business men. She
received one lesson after another in the school of
vice and crime, until she became an expert in
alluring men with money into attractive haunts
of shame, to be ejected from these assignation
houses a few hours later without a dollar. At
one time she and her husband grew tired of this
life, straightened up, moved to another city, and
A NOTORIOUS HIGH -LIFE SPORT. 267
for a time lived comparatively respectable. Dur-
ing this time a beautiful daughter was born to
them; but it was not long until his black heart
broke over all restraint, and he became a thieving
gambler, abusing Fanny until it was impossible to
live with him. After threatening her life until
she was compelled to appeal to the authorities, he
stole the little girl and absconded.
Heart sick, and broken in health, she despaired
of life. But about that time a wealthy Kentucky
man offered her great inducements to become his
mistress. He provided all he promised. He lav-
ished upon her diamonds, pearls, emeralds, and
rubies until she fairly glittered. She wore the best
gowns that money could buy. He bought her a
house of eleven rooms, carpeted and furnished
with the best material. Very soon she opened
one of the finest houses of ill-fame in all Cincin-
nati. Everything she touched turned to money,
but it was blood money, and was no object to her.
Many a time she and Orpha (who was with her
for five years at this period of her history) , would
start out of an evening with a thousand dollars or
more in their pockets, and think nothing of spend-
ing a hundred of it in a single place, drinking,
smoking, and sporting.
At one time her husband returned and robbed
268 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
her of more than a thousand dollars' worth of jew-
els, and stole the daughter a second time. She
says, " Then it was I thought I would go crazy."
She then drank to excess, smoked cigars and cig-
arettes, took morphine and cocaine, and often
tried to take enough to make her sleep forever.
But the hand of God held her on earth, and she
would awake to awful disappointment when she
found she was not dead.
While she was madam of a high-toned house of
shame, owned her own property, and run her own
saloon, her house was patronized by high-toned
church members, wealthy married business men,
who had beautiful wives and grown daughters at
home, who spent their money in this way.
Her husband drifted to Little Rock, and mar-
ried another man's wife while he was away from
home. The husband coming home, in a rage,
overpowered him and killed him with his own
revolver.
Excessive drinking caused Fanny to lose her
house, fortune, and business. She says: "I pos-
itively know that for five years I drank from one
quart to three pints of whisky every day, besides
wine, beer, and mixed drinks:"
Readers, listen: That beautiful woman drifted
from that palace with all its elegance, from dia-
A NOTORIOUS HIGH-LIFE SPORT. 269
monds, rubies, seal skins, and elaborate and expen-
sive gowns, down and down, until she became a
common drunkard. She is not able to tell the
number of terms she served in the workhouse.
She went lower and lower, until she was a com-
mon beggar in the streets. She sat up many a
night in bar rooms, and for a whole week at a
time would not have a bed. Tired, sick, and
starved, she did not have a cent. She was arrested
time after time, till the officers and judge were
tired of seeing her. But let her speak a moment:
" When I had plenty of money, running an open
house without license, I was never arrested. Every
month I went around to the saloons, and paid
the whisky bill of all the policemen who traveled
our district, and as long as I would do that, I was
never molested."
It was when she had reached the bottom in pov-
erty and degradation, while begging whisky in a
low-grade saloon, she was found by her old friend
and comrade, Orpha, who has been saved from
a life as dark as Fanny's, but who is now a mission-
ary of the Cross. She was brought to the Rescue
Home, where she very soon turned to the Lord,
and sought salvation. Her testimony is as follows :
"Well, praise the Lord! Glory! Glory! Glory!
Praise Him for His wonderful kindness to me.
270 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
He has lifted me out of the pit. Glory to His
name forever! I praise Him for answering
prayer. I want to learn enough of God's Word to
preach the gospel to my fallen sisters." To God
be ail the glory forever.
1/3
s
g
5
K
RESCUE WORK.
FOR many years I have felt a strange drawing
toward the slums of the great centers of our popu-
lation. In the spring and summer of 1901, God
laid upon my heart the burden of this awful need
in this great sin-ridden city of Chicago. Though
I met with much to discourage me, I felt an un-
seen hand urging me to open a rescue home for the
fallen girls and women and to secure missionaries
to go through the dives and lanes and brothels
and fish them out of the cesspools of sin and help
them into the " fountain for cleansing."
At camp-meeting at Portsmouth, where I had
held camp-meetings for ten years, I stood up and
asked my friends to give me fifteen hundred dol-
la,rs to start a rescue home in Chicago. They
granted my request before I sat down, and on the
first day of October I opened the home at 1541
Franklin Boulevard, and dedicated it with tears
and shouts for joy and victory. A great cloud of
His glory settled down on the home that first day,
and thank God, it has never lifted for an hour.
The home we named " Rest Cottage." The power
of God in the home is so great that the girls are
273
274 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
often converted before they have been in the house
twenty-four hours.
A number of our girls have been called to mis-
sionary work; others of them are already real soul
winners, and others are in the Bible School in
preparation to enter the field, and I" believe He
will make them mighty soul winners in the very
haunts of vice from which they have been taken.
The work in the police stations and jails has
been crowned with phenomenal success. What
a great joy it is to see beautiful, shining charac-
ters standing true to Jesus and preaching to others,
who were themselves only a few months since in
the depths of sin. How can we expect these poor
girls to leave their sporting houses and give up
sin before they have a place to go? Some of them
have been robbed of their virtue by some murder-
ous villain, and then dumped into a whirlpool of
sin and shame. Shall we leave them to die and
fill nameless graves and a devil's hell, or shall we
take off our gloves and reach down and help them
up where they can stand on the " Rock of Ages "
and sing the song of redemption?
I was never more certain of any calling than
that I am commissioned of Heaven to lift up the
fallen and save these friendless, homeless girls
from an endless burning hell.
RESCUE WORK. 2 75
May God abundantly bless the many friends
who have aided and contributed so nobly toward
this work. They have greatly helped me by their
prayers; many have helped by money, clothing,
bedding, provisions, etc. God bless every one of
them. Tons of cast-off clothing and provisions
have come in from all over the country, which has
greatly aided the missionary in relieving the suf-
fering among the poor. I wish those who have
so nobly contributed could look upon some of the
scenes of suffering and sorrow and then witness
the joy and childish glee caused by their liberality.
My soul revels with the glory of God, and my
heart fairly bounds with delight every time I visit
Rest Cottage. In no other place am I more
blessed of the Lord than in the jails and prisons,
preaching and praying with the lowest of the low.
I often long for another opportunity.
When I am in Chicago, I scarcely ever fail to
spend my Sunday in Harrison Street Police Sta-
tion. True, I return from these revolting sights
sick at heart, unable to eat or sleep, but it keeps
me in touch with humanity and a compassionate
Christ. I w r eep over the lost, and my head is a
fountain of tears. The world is dying for a more
tearful religion. May God keep us tender
276 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
hearted and enough like our Master to be always
moved at the sight of suffering and always ready
to bless and help those who are in distress.
RESCUE HOME AT COLUMBUS, OHIO.
A WEDDING IN REST COTTAGE.
THE strange story of Origene and Mable is
almost unbelievable. Some real facts read like a
romance, and are stranger than fiction.
Mable, a beautiful girl nineteen years old, of
German and French extraction, was found by a
missionary in one of the barrel houses of the
" Red Light " district of Chicago. Without re-
luctance she turned from the haunt of sin and
came to Rest Cottage. She said, " I was brought
up a Catholic. My father was a very ungodly
man. I was forced to leave school at the age of
fourteen, and at fifteen was pushed out into this
friendless world to make my own way. Life was
a struggle. One year ago I met Origene, who is
now my husband. He is in the Marine Hospital,
sick with pneumonia. We loved each other, and
went to a Catholic priest to be married, but his
charges were more than we could pay, so we have
lived together without marriage until he grew
sick, then I had no place to go.
Origene w r as of French and Spanish descent;
was educated for a Catholic priest. He was ten
years in a convent, and "wore the robe three years.
A number of times he was put on bread and water
279
280 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
diet, because he dared to speak to a woman. The
last time he was thus afflicted, he leaped from a
second-story window, and made his escape. He
beat his way to Mobile, and shipped to South
America as a cabin boy; from thence to Australia,
then back to Liverpool, and on to Boston. He was
made steward, and came to the great lakes. When
he met and fell in love with Mable, she obtained
a position on his boat as second cook, and thus they
followed the water until he was taken sick.
Mable was not long in Rest Cottage until she
was gloriously converted to Christ, and confessed
that they were not married. As soon as he was
discharged from the hospital, she preached Jesus
to him until he was wonderfully saved from rum
and tobacco, all sin, and all desire for it.
He had never prayed, except by the use of Cath-
olic forms, but under Mable's fiery exhortations,
he was made to cry out in desperation for deliver-
ance from sin. With trembling voice, and breast
heaving with emotion, he prayed through to vic-
tory. When the struggle was over, his very lips
were white, and his face \vas radiant with holy
joy. His eyes fairly sparkled when he said, " It is
all gone." His sins were rolled off of his soul, and
his heart was dancing with delight. They said,
" Now we want to be married," and the matron,
A WEDDING IN REST COTTAGE. 281
who is also an ordained minister, had the priv-
ilege of joining them in holy wedlock in the Res-
cue Home.
That was a simple but Pentecostal wedding.
The power of God was so felt that there was no
doubt but that Jesus was at that wedding, and
again turned water into wine. It was a time of
holy joy. They have both walked in loyalty to
Christ, giving faithful testimony of His power
to save from all sin.
He said, " I was brought up to a form of relig-
ion, but never until recently have I known God.
I have given up the use of tobacco. At a sailors'
meeting, a sailor offered me a cigar. I declined
it, and said I did not smoke any more. He re-
plied, ' Your liver must be out of fix.' I said, ' No,
I am a Christian. I have quit serving the devil ;
am now serving God.' '
They are now a happy couple, journeying to
the city of God. They may sail some high seas,
but they have taken Jesus as their pilot, and the
Bible as their chart, and we shall expect to see
them sail into the heavenly ports with flags flying
high. All glory to God! It is another of the mir-
acles of the gospel in the slums. Praise the Lord.
And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee :
go, and sin no more. John 8: n.
TESTIMONY OF ONE OF OUR BEST
GIRLS.
DEAR FATHER REES: The Lord has certainly
dealt graciously with me, for I have not only
sinned greatly, but have sinned against light.
In the first place, God wonderfully blessed me
with a Christian mother, one who was not only
justified, but also sanctified and anointed with the
Holy Ghost fire. When I was but seven years old
I got under deep conviction from her godly life,
seeing her go about her work with a shine on her
face, the praises of God on her lips, and singing
the songs of Zion, always rejoicing in the Lord
though passing through severe trials.
I was so convicted that I went to her three times
and said, " Mama, I want the same kind of relig-
ion you have." Each time she knelt down and
prayed with me, and one night in the middle of
the night the Spirit wonderfully revealed Jesus to
me as my Saviour. How I shouted, prayed, and
sang that old song, " Blessed assurance, Jesus is
mine." I have often said I had a prayer meeting
with the angels.
I walked in the light of my conversion until I
was eleven, and got under conviction for sanctifi-
iQ 283
284 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
cation, and. was sanctified and baptized with the
Holy Ghost at home. I saw the vision of an angel
come in at the door, and it seemed the angel just
lifted me up, up above the world, and what power
and glory lilled every fiber of my being! How I
shouted and sang, " The half has never been told."
But the night after I was sanctified I joined a
dead, formal church, the members of which did
not believe in sanctification, divine healing, or
saying much about Jesus or this salvation, but said
they believed in just living their religion.
Of course I believed every one that said, " Lord,
Lord," were the saints of God, and entered the
church all on fire for God, and for the church,
too. They thought me very peculiar because I tes-
tified in the midweek prayer meeting the year
round (for the young workers in the church never
testified, only in the revival meetings, when espe-
cially urged by the pastor). But I had real sal-
vation, and could not keep the good news to my-
self. I became more puzzled all the time trying
to agree with the church members, because when
I read the Word of God it plainly taught me
things they did not believe in, and condemned
things they did, and yet they were doing the work
of God, and when they died expected to go sweep-
ing through the pearly gates to glory.
TESTIMONY OF ONE OF OUR BEST GIRLS. 285
I often heard the minister bring in Hebrew and
Greek when preaching, so sometimes I would
think perhaps I could not understand the Bible
because I did not understand Hebrew and Greek.
So by trying to agree with these church mem-
bers I began to compromise, and therefore was
overcome, and lost the grace of God out of my
heart, became disgusted with churches and church
people, and quit going to church. Having other
things to discourage me, and having a longing for
something to satisfy my soul, and seeing others
seemingly satisfied with the pleasures of the world
and sin, I determined to try and find a satisfying
portion there, and plunged into sin and worldly
pleasure.
I found Satan a hard task-master, and how he
bound me to sin. I got into trouble, brought dis-
grace to myself and family, but was determined
if I could not run away and hide it all from my
mother and folks I would take my life. But God
began to lead me otherwise. I had no one I could
or would go to in my trouble, so unworthy as I
was, I began pleading with God, and repenting
of my sins.
I will never forget how I felt when I first real-
ized I had lost the joys of my salvation. One even-
ing my mother asked me to sing some songs about
286 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
living in the land of Canaan and being baptized
with the Holy Ghost. I sang them, but there, was
no response in my heart, and no glad hallelujahs
welling up in my soul.
I had never heard of the Revivalist people, but
a lady gave us one of the papers, and I saw the pic-
ture of the two Rescue Homes in it. I wrote them,
asking if I could come to one of the Homes, and
they answered kindly, saying for me to come.
When I entered the Home I was thrilled with joy
to see the young women (as missionaries) sing-
ing, shouting, praying, weeping over lost souls
(even fallen girls), preaching, testifying on the
streets, everywhere talking about Jesus and the
glad tidings of great joy. I felt I had been right,
that I had understood the Bible aright, and that it
was for the young as well as the old to give up all
worldly and carnal things and enjoy this full sal-
vation, and be firebrands for God. My conviction
began to deepen; indeed, I felt as if I were on the
very brink of hell. I took a Bible, got on my
knees, and prayed the very prayer David prayed
when he had sinned against God, and longed for
the joys of His salvation to be restored unto him. I
felt I needed some one to pray with me, so I asked
God to put it on one of the missionaries to come
and help pray me through, and He sent Miss
TESTIMONY OF ONE OF OUR BEST GIRLS. 287
Stromberg. So one morning at morning prayers
Miss Stromberg began praying for me, and how I
wept over my sins for they seemed to rise as moun-
tains. But the ever-loving, compassionate Saviour
heard my cries, and they all disappeared in the
fountain. Miss Stromberg sang,
" Blessed quietness, holy quietness,
What assurance in my soul."
And indeed it was so. I felt I just wanted to be
real quiet, and have nothing disturb that blessed,
holy quietness.
Soon after I was sanctified, felt clean and empty,
but the Holy Ghost did not come in until after I
came home. Bless the Lord, " the Lion of Judah
broke every chain, and has given me the victory
again and again."
Then saith he to his servants, the wedding is ready, but
they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore
into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the
marriage. So those servants went out into the highways,
and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad
and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.
Matt. 22:8-10.
MAY JENSEN.
MAY was left motherless at two years of age.
Adopted by a Danish family, she had moral train-
ing and ordinary church privileges until she was
thirteen years old, at which time her own father
allured her from her foster home with promises
of a pleasure trip to Denver, fine clothes, etc. He
was the first to rob her of her purity, and then
force her out into a life of open shame. How
atrocious and diabolical! It baffles all imagina-
tion. She secured a position as waitress in a res-
taurant, and thought she would do better, but the
position, with its attending evils, only threw her
with questionable associates. She changed her
name as often as she changed places, that her brutal
father might find no trace of her. Her life of
shame went on from bad to worse, and she became
a hard drinker. In her testimony she said, " I
have tried everything in the way of sin." She
served several terms in the city workhouse. After
four years of this life, her frail body gave way
under the awful strain, and she was taken to the
city hospital sick with pneumonia. After a severe
illness she was discharged before she was fully
recovered. With no other place to go, she
289
290 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
returned to the haunts of shame, but being no
longer a source of revenue to the managers there,
she Trent to the Humane Office, and was returned
to the hospital. She said, " How I longed for
friends, for some one to help me, but there was
no voice to comfort, or no hand to help." It was
at the hospital that she heard of Rest Cottage,
and a missionary brought her to the Home. Her
poor, emaciated body was only a shadow of what
had once been a beautiful girl; her large dark
eyes and her wavy black hair were still beautiful.
Her clothing was not suitable for the ragbag, her
body covered with vermin, and her frame bend-
ing with the load of sin, she sighed for deliverance.
The very next morning she was blessedly and con-
sciously saved during prayers. Her life from that
hour gave clear evidence of transition from death
to life, and she never once doubted her acceptance
with God. She always referred to her past with
great sorrow. Her physical suffering increased
as the days went by, but her marvelous faith held
her as a cable to the " Rock of Ages."
She was very happy amid all her sufferings. It
was soon apparent that she was rapidly approaqh-
ing the end of her earthly stay. On the twenty-
ninth of March, in a fainting condition, she was so
near the heavenly shores that she gazed on eternal
realities, and saw the angels coming for her; but
MAY JENSEN. 291
later when she revived she told the matron that
they refused to take her. This gave the matron
great concern, for she knew that they were only
waiting for May's sanctification. She read the
Word, and prayed with her, and in a day or two,
May had the clear witness to her entire sanctifi-
cation. She said, " Why, I did not know that God
could take all sin out of our hearts." Previous to
this it was with difficulty that she spoke, but now
with supernatural strength she praised God for
about an hour. Her decline was gradual, but on
April 20 she was taken much worse. In her
paroxysm of pain, her submission to God was
beautiful. All day Friday her life hung in the bal-
ance, but visions of rapture from the glory world
bore her up in her hours of extreme pain, and she
would often exclaim, " Jesus wants me; I am going
to be home with Jesus. I am so glad I know He
will take me; I want to see Him first of all." She
often tried to sing, " I am nearer, drawing nearer."
She was very appreciative of all that was done for
her. At midnight she put her arms around the
matron's neck and exclaimed, " Oh, Sister M ,
what would I do if it were not for you; you are so
kind. And little Anna, too." (Little Anna was
one of the girls in the Home who so patiently
waited on her.) She would often say, " I am not
going to stay long, and I am ready to go." Sister
292 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
F was reading to her the twenty-third Psalm,
and May repeated with her, " Yea, tho' I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil ; Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort
me." Then when she came to, " Thou anointest
my head with oil, my cup runneth over," she re-
peated it with heavenly unction. Her heart was
burdened to the last for the lost girls in the slums.
While one of the rescued girls was praying,
little May, without a struggle, breathed her last,
and slipped away to be with Jesus. Like the after-
glow of a beautiful sunset, the glory of God lin-
gered long in the room, and the radiance of the
skies fell back on her beautiful, silent face. Thank
God! She has passed beyond the foul touch of
Satan to where sin, sickness, and pain are never
known.
The funeral was held at Rest Cottage, and the
rescued girls were the pall-bearers. What a sacred
sight to see her sisters from the slums bearing her
body to a Christian burial. How different from
a funeral in the potter's field ! It was a most touch-
ing occasion, and the power of God was over all.
What a Christ! What miracles of grace! Think
of it from the cesspools and sewers of vice and
crime to a place on the best boulevard in the heav-
enly city.
THE NEEDS OF THE WORK.
First. We need twenty-five more thoroughly
qualified and equipped slum missionaries. They
must be thoroughly consecrated, and fire-baptized.
They must be willing to suffer all sorts of self-
denial, and lay down their lives for the lost. You
can hardly imagine the perils of the slums. Be-
sides, they are exposed to all sorts of vermin, and
every contagious disease known to the climate.
We need at least two hundred and fifty dollars
a year for the support of each missionary, and
even then they have to practice great economy and
self-denial. With tired feet they walk many a
long walk when five cents for car fare would re-
lieve the situation. Brother, sister, have you ever
thought what a glorious privilege it would be if
God would allow you to support a slum mission-
ary? To have a representative preaching the gos-
pel in the slums and pulling souls out of the fire.
What a reward in Heaven for every soul saved.
While you are asleep at midnight she is going
through the dives, brothels, barrel-houses, and
joints, telling the sweet story of Jesus and His
power to save from sin. Beloved, at least pray
about it, and ask God to send us the needed means.
293
294 MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS.
Second. There are two of the Homes we ought
to buy. They are offered very low, and if we are
unable to buy them, it will not be long until we
will have to move. For this we need ten thousand
dollars ($10,000). Will all who read this report,
pray earnestly that God may touch hearts and pro-
vide the means?
Third. Our funds for relieving the worthy poor
are entirely exhausted. Our missionaries have a
remarkable capacity for making a few dollars go
a long way among the poor. For three cents they
can give a family of hungry children a loaf of
bread, and it is worth many times that to see them
devour it. For fifteen cents they can furnish a
hod of coal which will keep them from freezing
through the night.
We have used tons and tons of cast-off clothing,
and are able to use an almost unlimited quantity.
Some have asked us to say what is needed or what
we could use in the Homes. We can use anything
that you could use in your home. Provisions, bed-
ding, table linen, toweling, and everything that is
used in a home will be thankfully received as
from the Lord.
THE NEEDS OF THE WORK.
FORM FOR PLEDGE.
Believing this rescue movement to be of God,
and desiring to aid in saving the fallen, I hereby
promise to give within one year the sum of
Dollars.
$ Date IQO
Name
Address
" Give and it shall be given unto you." Luke 6 : 38.
" He which soweth sparingly shall also reap sparingly."
2 Cor. 9 : 6.
"He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack." Prov.
28 : 27.
Money to be sent to
SETH C. BEES, 4356 LOWELL AVE., CHICAGO.
CLEAR SCRIPTURAL HELPFUL
THE HOLY WAR
A New book. By SETH COOK REES
Most wars are unholy. They are fought with carnal weapons and
are the result of human depravity. But this book tells of the war of
Truth against Error, of Right against Wrong, of the Holy Spirit against
the powers of Darkness and Hell.
S. Henry Bolton says: " ' Holy War ' contains the very essence of
the gospel, and will edify God's saints, inspiring them to fight on ' more
than victors ' in every conflict. Each chapter is worth the price of the
book. Just so long as God's people keep their eyes en the Captain oi
their salvation, and march in step with His commands, there will be
victorious saints. ' Holy War ' gives the secret of ' Holy Living.' ''
CONTENTS
1. THE HOLY WAR. 8. LABORERS WITH GOD.
2. THE SPIRIT OF THE GOSPEL. 9. JOY AND STRENGTH.
3. MONARCH BORN IN a. STABLE. ro. HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD.
4. THE BESETTING SIN. n. THE GOOD SPIRIT OF TH LORD
5. THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN. 12. RESURRECTION.
6. MESSENGER OF THE COVENANT. 13. THE PERFECTION WHICH Gor
7. OUR FATHER'S CARE. REQUIRES.
Price, 80 Cents. Four Copies Postpaid for $2.20. Special
Kates by the Quantity. Agents Wanted
SETH COOK REES
4356 Lowell Ave. CHICAGO, ILL.
THE IDEAL PENTECOSTAL CHURCH
By SETH COOK REES
One writer says, "It is a treatise on the characteristics and qualities of the
Pentecostal Church, i. e., that part of the Church which has received her Pentecost.
Our author writes not as a theorist but as one who, having received the baptism with
the Holy Ghost and fire, has proven himself ' a workman that needeth not to be
ashamed,' and has witnessed under his own ministry the striking characteristics of a
Pentecostal Church. In putting this work before the public he seeks only the glory
of God." This book sets forth the qualities and characteristics of the real New
Testament Church in seventeen chapters, together with a half-dozen sermons and
the author's experience.
CONTENTS
Chapter i. Opening Words. 2, The Pentecostal Church is Composed of Regei*
crated Souls. 3, A Clean Church. 4, A Powerful Church. 5, A Powerful Church,
continued. 6, A Witnessing Church. 7, Without Distinction as to Sex. 8. A
Liberal Church. 9, A Demonstrative Church. 10, An Attractive Church Draws the
People Together, n. Puts People under Conviction. 12, Will have Healthy Con-
verts. 13, A Joyful Church. 14, A Unit. 15, The Power of the Lord Is Present to
Heal the Sick. 16, A Missionary Church. 17, Out of Bondage. 18, Entering into
Canaan. 19, The Land, and Its Resources. 20, Sampson. 21. Power above the
Power of the Eenemy. 22, Compromise, and Its Evil Effects. 23, A Sermon. 24,
The Author's Experience.
FROM MANY TESTIMONIALS WE SELECT A FEW:
IV. B. Godbey: "The Pentecostal Church, by Rev. Seth C. Rees, the fire-baptized
Quak. r is a Niagara from beginning to end. It is orthodox and full of experimental
truth r.nd Holy Ghost fire. You can not afford to do without it. I guarantee you
will b~ delighted and electrified from Heaven's batteries."
Christian Standard : "It is safe, sound and evangelical, uncontroversial and
admirably adapted to circulation among all believers."
Michigan Christian Advocate: "He writes in a sweet and attractive spirit. We
could wish it a wide circulation."
Religious Telescofe; "It is written in clear, nervous English and glows through-
out with the evangelical fervor of its author."
Rev. George Hughes. Editor of the Guide to Holiness: "I like it; it is square out,
and that suits me. It ought to have a good sale." ^
Rev. John M, Pike, Editor of Way of Faith: "The book glows and burns with
Holy Ghost fire, and has stirred our spirtual being to its very depths."
T. J. Hoskinson: "A faithful presentation of the truth. There is nothing better
in print."
L.Milton Williams: "I know of no othsr man in the holiness movement, whose
books and preaching have been of more blessing to my own soul than those of
Brother Seth C. Rees."
Price, Postpaid, 50 Cents. Four Copies Postpaid for the
Price of Three. Special Rates by the Quantity
SETH COOK REES
4356 Lowell Ave.
CHICAGO, ILL.
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA
MIRACLES IN THE SLUMS, OR, THRILLING STO
