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 I 
 
 A VIEW OF THE BAY FROM HUDSON PARK 
 
Today and Yesterday 
 in New Rochelle 
 
 BY 
 
 GAYLORD JOEL PETTIT 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 WILLIAM R. JENKINS COMPANY 
 
 SIXTH AVENUE at FORTY-EIGHTH STREET 
 
/\/^rv— r:^ 
 
 Copyright, 1913 by 
 GAYLORD JOEL PETTIT 
 
 Press of 
 
 WILLIAM R. JENKINS COMPANY 
 
 Sixth Avenue at 48th Street 
 
 New York 
 
 If. 
 
 ©Ci.A350i87 
 
My sincere thanks are due 
 
 Charles F. Canedy, D.D. 
 
 ReVj James F. Drisgoll 
 
 Robert G. McGregor, D.D. 
 
 Albert Leonard, Ph.D. 
 
 and 
 
 Henry M. Lester 
 
 for their kind words of encouragement, and 
 
 their assistance in procuring suitable 
 
 illustrations for this work. 
 
 Author. 
 
FOREWORD. 
 
 It is hoped that this little volume of essays 
 will tend to draw the thoughts of those who 
 read them, to some things that are higher and 
 nobler than the material things about which 
 so many spend their time to-day. 
 
 To thoughts of Love and Sympathy, and 
 to the contemplation of Beauty, whether we 
 see the shimmer of her hair in the gold-dust 
 of the sunbeams, or the blue of her eyes in the 
 sky, or the ruby of her lips in the sunset, or the 
 whiteness of her hand in the fleecy clouds, for, 
 after all, of these things is the "Joy o^ Life." 
 GAYLORD JOEL PETTIT. 
 
 New Rochelle, New York, 
 April 15, 1913. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter 
 
 I. Facts Regarding Gen. Washington 
 
 II. North Avenue Presbyterian Church 
 
 III. St. John's Methodist Episcopal 
 Church ...... 
 
 IV. St. Paul's Episcopal Church 
 V. Stray Thoughts of Echo Bay 
 
 VI. First Presbyterian Church 
 
 VII. The High School . . . 
 
 VIII. Salem Baptist Church . . 
 
 IX. The Blessed Sacrament Church 
 
 X. The Church of St. Gabriel 
 
 XI. Masonic Temple . . . 
 
 XII. Autumn in Hudson Park 
 
 XIII. Trinity Church . . . 
 
 XIV. Reveries at the Bay 
 XV. Music ..... 
 
 XVI. Gifts at Christmas . . 
 
 XVII. Joseph and his Brethren 
 
 XVIII. Youth and Beauty . . 
 
 XIX. Easter Thoughts . . 
 
 XX. Tom Paine .... 
 
 Page 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 13 
 17 
 21 
 25 
 31 
 37 
 43 
 49 
 53 
 59 
 63 
 67 
 73 
 79 
 85 
 91 
 99 
 103 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 View of Bay from Hudson Park 
 
 {Frontispiece) 
 
 North Avenue Presbyterian Church 
 
 The High School 
 
 The Church of St. Gabriels 
 
 Trinity Church 
 
 Bonnefoi Point 
 
 Tom Paine's House 
 
TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 IN NEW ROCHELLE 
 
 FACTS REGARDING GENERAL 
 WASHINGTON. 
 
 I will not tell a lie, neither would Uncle 
 George, but he really couldn't. I can, but 
 I won't. Uncle George came to New Rochelle 
 because he wanted to. He landed on Long 
 Island first, but the mosquitoes were very 
 thick there, and constantly annoying him, 
 the ground was low and marshy and the fogs 
 were so thick and heavy that the soldiers of 
 the American army cut slices of them to fry 
 with the bacon they had for breakfast. In 
 fact the slices of fog were sometimes all 
 they had to fry for breakfast. The aforesaid 
 mosquitoes were armed with sharp bills and 
 they were of a peculiar color, so peculiar that 
 they were often called "redcoats." Taking all 
 
2 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 these facts into consideration, Uncle George 
 made up his mind to leave the vicinity, and 
 so he crossed over the East river, one foggy 
 night, with his entire army, neglecting to in- 
 form the "red coats" of his change of locality. 
 The isle of Manhattan also proved to be 
 unhealthy at that time, and calling to mind 
 the fact that the prices of the necessaries of 
 life were lower in the country, and knowing 
 that his old friend, Abe Sicard, had a house 
 above the Harlem river, he, after having had 
 "a hot time in New York," came to New 
 Rochelle. Now Abe's house was small and 
 Uncle George was large, consequently he 
 passed most of his time outdoors under the 
 trees. His stay, however, was but short, for 
 he had urgent business to transact at White 
 Plains. So much by way of history. The old 
 house occupied by the Father of his Country 
 still stands, but it is not in good repair. In- 
 stead of fixing up the place and making it hal- 
 lowed ground, instead of being able to put up 
 signs saying "Keep off the grass," we can only 
 put up signs saying Jonathan Lightening, 
 
IN NEW ROCHELLE 3 
 
 Electrician and Hiram Biffler, Contractor and 
 Builder. Where the Father of the Country 
 sat and softly swore at the dust kicked up by 
 the horses as they marched past, I sat and 
 loudly complained at the dust swirled up by 
 the automobiles as they went by every 10 
 seconds at the rate of 3 miles a minute. In 
 Newburgh-on-the-Hudson a great many pains 
 are taken to keep Washington's Headquar- 
 ters in repair, while in New Rochelle, it gives 
 travellers a great many pains to see how the 
 Headquarters are allowed to silently fall to 
 min. How those walls could talk if they had 
 the power of speech. They would tell of cold 
 and hunger endured by the soldiers, of rain 
 and fog, of midnight councils and fireless 
 cooks, instead of fireless cookers, of ill trained 
 soldiers and masterly retreats. Oh, nobody 
 worked like Father George to keep the army 
 together and to save the Country. And yet, we 
 who ought to be glad to do what little we can 
 to beautify the ground made sacred by the 
 tread of these great ones of the revolution, 
 v;e have forgotten. 
 
4 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 No, not forgotten, but neglected, to do that 
 which we ought. "Lest we forget." Ah, Rud- 
 yard, what happy chance caused those words 
 to flow from thy pen ! I love to see old land- 
 marks kept in mind. In these days of hurry 
 and worry, of dollars and dubbs, we are apt 
 to forget Washington, Irving, Paine and Jef- 
 ferson, and the other worthies who made 
 living in this great country possible for us. 
 The hills and dales of Westchester county 
 have echoed and re-echoed the footsteps of 
 great men of the 18th century, and grate men 
 men of the 20th century. While the footsteps 
 of the red man did not give rise to a great 
 many echoes, as he carried his belt of wam- 
 pum over the King's Highway, the sputter 
 of the cut out on the gasolene push wagon 
 echoes and re-echoes until the sound is car- 
 ried across the Sound, and T. R. moves un- 
 easily in his sleep and dreams of the steam 
 roller. The world does really need more 
 kindness, as our friend Hubbard says, but it 
 also needs more sentiment. Let us pause 
 occasionally and look back to the time when 
 
IN NEW ROCHELLE 5 
 
 great men lived here, whose courage was 
 undoubted and whose lives were offered up as 
 living sacrifices upon the altars of their coun- 
 try. When men thought more of honor than 
 of money and women thought more of virtue 
 than of votes. 
 
II 
 
 NORTH AVENUE PRESBYTERIAN 
 CHURCH. 
 
 It is a fact that beauty is a great asset. It 
 is so much so, that it is a duty incumbent 
 upon us to make ourselves attractive in a 
 reasonable way. It is a duty of womankind, 
 especially, to employ all the legitimate means 
 possible, to make themselves pleasing to the 
 eye; and if this is so, how much more is it 
 incumbent upon us to beautify the surround- 
 ings of those places where we gather on the 
 Sabbath Day, to listen to the teachings of 
 that most beautiful collection of literary jew- 
 els, "The Gospel of Christ." 
 
 Happy, indeed, are the people who possess 
 a church both beautiful in form and beauti- 
 ful in surroundings ; but thrice blessed are 
 they when the atmosphere of love surrounds 
 and envelops all. 
 
8 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 The word "Welcome" on a church door 
 produces the same effect upon the passing 
 stranger, that the sign of the American con- 
 sul does when he sees it in a foreign coun- 
 try. 
 
 It quickens his heart beats and he hastens to 
 enter, for there he feels he can get news of 
 home; he can tell his troubles and, if neces- 
 sary, receive assistance. 
 
 And so, let us pass the portals of the church 
 of John Calvin, hoping that we may be 
 cheered and refreshed by so doing. John 
 Calvin we are told was a stern man, yet, let 
 us hope that under that outer shell he was as 
 kindly as those men of Scottish blood who 
 took up and followed his teachings for so 
 many, many years. They, too, were often 
 austere and forbidding in appearance; still, 
 under the crust, so to speak, their hearts 
 throbbed warm and tender. And so, as we 
 sit in the pews waiting for the services to 
 begin, a hush falls upon us all, a feeling of 
 awe, a feeling of expectancy, a feeling as if 
 we should do as Moses did, "put off our 
 
IN NEW ROCHELLE ^ 
 
 shoes from our feet, for the place in which 
 we are seems holy." We feel as if almost at 
 any moment we might hear the rush of wings, 
 and when the quiet tones of the organ begin 
 to steal through our senses we realize, in- 
 deed, that the Spirit of God is here. And 
 somehow, as I sit and listen, the Spirit of him 
 who wrote, 'The Cotter's Saturday Night," 
 seems to come and sit beside me, and I feel 
 as though the minister should begin the ser- 
 vice by saying, **Let us worship God." And 
 then when the music dies upon the air and 
 the sermon begins, the Spirit beside me seems 
 to warm and brighten the atmosphere around 
 us, and the same kindly sympathy that made 
 its home in the heart of Burns, seems to per- 
 vade and take possession of the hearts of all 
 the congregation. 
 
 It is not at all infrequent either, to observe in 
 the sermon a sparkle of humor like that with 
 which Robert Burns was blessed; and when 
 at the time of one of those sentences in lighter 
 vein, I see a tiny spider on the pew in front 
 of me I almost expect the unforseen com- 
 
10 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 panion beside me to say, "Ha! whare ye 
 gaun ye crawlin' ferlie?" Burns was, and is 
 yet loved by the Scottish people, mostly, be- 
 cause he was very human, and because each 
 of his admirers knew that he was cut from the 
 same kind of cloth they were, although, per- 
 haps, from a coarser weave than some. 
 
 The same fibres run through us all and 
 though we try to gloss over our natural tastes 
 and desires, it is only a mere gloss after all, 
 so "Gently scan your brother man." No great 
 blame can be attached to the memory of the 
 man who wrote, "The Mountain Daisy," and 
 as Time goes on we appreciate more and more 
 the tender nature of the poet. Sorrow was 
 often the companion of Burns and we know 
 that after the acuteness of grief has passed, 
 sorrow sometimes leaves a sweetness that 
 pleasure cannot give, and that sweetness Rob- 
 ert Burns had. 
 
 And so as the spirit of the beloved poet and 
 I sit and listen to the words, "Lay not up 
 your treasures upon earth," I resolve to live 
 better and to do better and to lay up, not 
 
IN NEW ROCHELLE 11 
 
 gold and silver, but love, kindness, sympathy, 
 and pity, that they may be my treasures in 
 a world where moth and rust do not corrupt. 
 And as I think how many, many times I have 
 failed *'to make good," as the modern phrase 
 goes, the spirit beside me whispers, 
 "Who made the heart 'tis He alone 
 Decidedly can try us," 
 and as I listen to the closing words of the 
 sermon I know that the speaker thinks as I 
 do, that the "Greatest Thing in the World is 
 Love," and that its home is not in the head, 
 but in the heart of man. Thousands of years 
 ago one of the wise men of the East knew he 
 was right when he said, "Keep well thy heart 
 above all that thou guardest for out of it are 
 the issues of life." 
 
Ill 
 
 SAINT JOHN'S METHODIST EPISCO- 
 PAL CHURCH. 
 
 St. John's Church certainly produces a re- 
 markable effect upon the passer by. As you 
 go eastward upon Main street it bursts sud- 
 denly upon the view from behind some other 
 tall buildings and it seems to say from its 
 commanding position, "Attention, friend, go 
 quietly, here is a Church of God!" The beauty 
 of its architecture and the peculiar color of 
 the material of which it is built, both add to 
 the harmony of the scene, and especially in 
 the summer when the lawn is so green and 
 the trees around it are in full leaf. The un- 
 broken harmony of the whole would agree 
 well, no doubt, with the artistic ideas of one 
 of the great founders of the M. E. Church. 
 When I was a small boy my father, although 
 not at that time a member of any church, 
 
 13 
 
14 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 insisted upon the whole family going regu- 
 larly to Divine worship, and the fact that his 
 parents were regular attendants at the M. E. 
 Church influenced him to select that church 
 as the object of our Sunday journeys. There 
 were four of us boys in the family, and it was 
 generally arranged for a boy to enter the pew 
 first, then mother, next two more boys, then 
 father, and lastly, the other boy. It was a 
 matter of considerable rivalry as to which one 
 should sit at the end of the pew, and I have 
 been told that the neighboring pew-holders 
 were never at a loss for amusement no matter 
 how dry the sermon. 
 
 That which impresses me most, in this 
 church, is its active militantism. There is 
 that spirit of triumphant enthusiasm which 
 admits of no doubt, no hesitancy, no opposi- 
 tion. You are going to be saved, if you are 
 willing, all right; if not, you are going to be 
 anyway. Those of you who have read that 
 good old book, "The Circuit Rider," will 
 understand what I mean. Charles Wesley was 
 a noted musician and the religion he insti- 
 
IN NEW ROCHELLE IS 
 
 tuted is, perhaps, like his music a living, 
 breathing composition of warm throbbing 
 human feeling, capable of overcoming all ob- 
 stacles around it. 
 
 His church impresses one as a place where 
 warm, active, throbbing life can find its oppor- 
 tunity to lift its attendants to higher planes, 
 to carry them, may be in spite of themselves, 
 to heights of Love and Beauty. 
 
 A warm heart, a poetic spirit and a beauti- 
 ful sense of music were natural to Charles Wes- 
 ley, and this his church should never forget. 
 Music is the rose in the garden of the soul. 
 Like that beautiful flower it buds and blos- 
 soms and blossoming lays its heart bare to its 
 beloved. Its perfume rises, rises, always rises, 
 until, like a cloud of incense, it floats about 
 the feet of the Creator of Love and Beauty. 
 So in the M. E. Church the soul of Charles 
 Wesley, the poet, the musician, shall carry 
 ever onward, ever upward, the church that was 
 brought into being by him. Like a billow of 
 beautiful music, it shall go rolling onward 
 and upward until it shall burst upon the shore 
 
16 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 of Eternity at the feet of the Great Creator. 
 Those who love music possess a greater deli- 
 cacy, a more subtle refinement and a truer 
 sense of harmony than those who do not. God 
 pity those who do not understand it at all. 
 
 In a quiet churchyard in this State, lie the 
 bodies of my paternal grandfather and grand- 
 mother, my father and mother and one 
 brother. With patience they await the time 
 when the other boys shall join them in their 
 earthly resting place. The sun warms the 
 earth above them and in the summertime the 
 green grass forms their coverlid. The happy 
 birds make music in the trees around therri 
 and the blue sky forms their poetic canopy. 
 There they await the rewards due to long 
 lives of loving work in the church of their 
 choice ; a church of orderliness, of method and 
 of live works. May God in his great mercy 
 bless their spirits and ever look with loving 
 care upon the church which meant so much to 
 them. 
 
IV 
 
 ST. PAUL'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 
 
 A good many of the residents of New 
 Rochelle do not know just where this church 
 is located, and a good many who have heard 
 of its location do not know just how to find 
 it. To such, I will point out the way. 
 
 Most people in the city know where the 
 beautiful Mayflower school house is, at the 
 corner of North avenue and Mayflower ave- 
 nue. The "Mayflower," like a great castle, 
 stands facing North avenue, guarded, in front 
 by four great maple trees. Three of the trees 
 are arranged like a troop of soldiers in 
 echelon, facing North avenue, their captain, 
 the fourth tree, standing in front of them. 
 Across the street from the south end of the 
 school building embowered in the verdure of 
 many trees, like a diamond set with emeralds, 
 and nearly out of sight from North avenue, 
 is St. Paul's Church. 
 
 17 
 
18 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 It is certain that the size of a man does not 
 always count in proportion to his achieve- 
 ments, for oftentimes men, who are small and 
 mean in appearance, accomplish great results. 
 I am particularly reminded of this when I 
 attend church at St. Paul's, for Paul himself 
 was said to have been small in stature, afflicted 
 with some physical deformity, and not pleas- 
 ant to look at from the standpoint of beauty. 
 No man, however, has accomplished more 
 than St. Paul and many great churches have 
 been built to his name. Tender and sympa- 
 thetic, he yet would brook no interference 
 with his religious teachings, and we all feel 
 that his judgment was perfect. Many great 
 and lasting results are due to small begin- 
 nings and I have no doubt that a great parish 
 will be built up around the St. Paul's Church 
 to be, in New Rochelle, for a high and lofty 
 eminence has been acquired upon which a 
 beautiful edifice is shortly to be built just 
 south of the present church. 
 
 I sometimes think it would be better to 
 build churches in the valleys rather than on 
 
IN NEW ROCHELLE 19 
 
 high hills, for it is sometimes hard for sin- 
 ners to climb up hill, but it is easy for them 
 to go down hill, and if any member of a 
 household should not feel like exerting him- 
 self to go to church, he would only have to 
 travel to the edge of the valley and roll to 
 the bottom. A good hard push from some 
 interested party might often add to the 
 attendance at church. It would be easier to 
 get to church and harder to get away from it. 
 
 But seriously, we all feel better for going 
 to church. Religions may change, but the 
 God's do not and it never hurts anyone to be 
 told to do right, even if they do not follow 
 the teaching. Pure air leads to pure bodies, 
 and pure bodies to pure minds, and with a 
 great and beautiful church on the top of the 
 mountain with a wise and gentle shepherd for 
 the flock, "a church whose windows are open 
 to the west, towards Jerusalem," it is beyond 
 all question, in this instance, that great results 
 will follow small beginnings. 
 
 If we only have faith not only shall moun- 
 
20 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 tains be moved to the sea, but great churches 
 shall appear on the tops of the mountains. 
 
 St. Paul, you remember, had a great deal to 
 say about faith, hope and charity. But what 
 is faith ? It is a loving trust in the Father of 
 all mankind like the trust of a little child in 
 the goodness of its earthly father. And hope ? 
 Hope is that Divine spark which carries us 
 ever onward and upward to the end of life, 
 doubting not that all will sometime, somehow, 
 somewhere, be well. And charity? Ah, 
 charity is the pity and sympathy one soul has 
 for another in the Battle of Life. Charity is 
 kindness and suffereth long. "Faith, Hope 
 and Charity these three, but the greatest of 
 these is Charity." , 
 
STRAY THOUGHTS OF ECHO BAY. 
 
 An echo is something which comes back 
 to us from other shores, is it not? And 
 thoughts, are they not mental echoes that 
 come back to us from other worlds, enlarged 
 and beautified? So as I sit on the shore 
 of Echo Bay, with its two portals which we 
 may call Love and Beauty, through which 
 pass out to other climes and other shores 
 those who sail out into the Great Future, 
 many thoughts come to me. Long, long ago, 
 one of my ancestors went out through the 
 open door of Echo Bay never to return. He 
 was one of these hardy mariners "who go 
 down to the sea in ships," but the sea, never 
 satisfied, always craving new victims, swal- 
 lowed him up and his wife and child never 
 heard of him again. 
 
 What a great picture could be painted of 
 
 21 
 
22 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 Echo Bay with its blue waters and rocky 
 shores, its green lawns and shady trees. But 
 where is the artist that can do it justice? 
 Hour after hour I can sit and watch the white 
 sails flit out and in and in and out. The 
 white sails and the blue water. The white 
 the symbol of Purity and the blue the symbol 
 of Truth. And how graceful the sails skim 
 out and in and in and out, while I sit just 
 within the portals of the harbor door and 
 watch the larger boats pass by, going to and 
 from the great city just a little farther on. 
 And I wonder where those are from that are 
 going to that city, and to where those are 
 going that are coming from it, and what they 
 all carry, and how goes it with their human 
 freight. Some are travelling towards happi- 
 ness and some towards sorrow. Some are in 
 danger and some in fear; and all the time I 
 am thinking these thoughts, the white sails 
 flit in and out, out and in between the portals. 
 And the white clouds sail across the blue sky 
 just as the white sails skim over the blue 
 water. 
 
IN NEW ROCHELLE 23 
 
 The portals, Love and Beauty, bar none, but 
 welcome all who come, giving freely of their 
 care and protection. And as I think of the 
 beauty of the scene, I am carried upward, in 
 thought, to the portals of that greater harbor 
 of the unseen world. To the blue and the 
 white, the true and the pure, and I see, in 
 spirit, the souls flitting to their eternal harbor. 
 Some have passed through sorrow and some 
 through shame; some have fought and won 
 and some have been beaten in the Battle of 
 Life. Yet all come. Some are only tiny little 
 craft who have sailed only a little way ; others 
 have come from far, after long and stormy 
 voyages. Some have lost the whiteness of the 
 sails they started out with, yet all come to 
 have the Great Captain judge of their seaman- 
 ship. Beautiful Echo Bay ! Does she not give 
 all who enter a chance to refit? A chance to 
 put on new spars and new ropes ? A chance to 
 bend new white sails where old ones are torn 
 and soiled? And can they not cover up the 
 scars on the hulls with fresh white paint? 
 And the Great Captain! Will He not allow 
 
24 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 his wayward and tempest-tossed children to 
 refit and be dressed again in the white of 
 Purity and the blue of Truth ? 
 
 But my thoughts again return to material 
 things and I see the white sails still flitting 
 in and out and out and in. But while I gaze 
 and think these rambling thoughts, the warder 
 hauls down the flag, the sun sinks slowly 
 behind the trees and from far across the water 
 comes the boom of the sunset gun at Fort 
 Slocum. 
 
 The blue and the white of Earth and sky 
 fade away, and though Beauty is lost in the 
 dusk of evening, Love lights the lamps of the 
 harbor and prepares to watch through the 
 night over the bobbing boats, just as the 
 Great Captain lights the lamps in the sky and 
 watches over his restless human souls. 
 
VI 
 
 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 It is strange how many excuses can be made 
 for not going to church, especially in warm 
 weather. We often hear some one say, "Oh, 
 I'm too tired to go to church this morning," 
 or, "This is the only morning I can sleep as 
 long as I want to," or, "I was up late last 
 night and I have not had enough sleep," or, 
 "It will be so hot in church to-day," or, "I 
 want to go to Rye Beach." How easy it is 
 to think these things, or to say them, or to 
 manufacture some other flimsy pretext. Never 
 yet have I overcome any of them without be- 
 ing glad of it. Never yet have I gone to 
 church without feeling better for it. I enjoy 
 hearing a good sermon and I love to hear good 
 music. Maybe I am predestined to go to 
 church, even if I am not predestined to go 
 where churches are no more needed. So when 
 
 25 
 
26 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 a few friends and myself went to the "First 
 Church," as it is sometimes spoken of, we 
 were richly rewarded for going. 
 
 The First Presbyterian Church stands al- 
 most covered with ivy, at the "parting of the 
 ways." To the right, as you stand facing 
 the church, is Main street, the direct road. 
 To the left Huguenot street somewhat deviat- 
 ing in its direction. And as the church stands 
 at the fork of the earthly roads, so stands con- 
 science at the parting of the ways of Life, 
 pointing out the direct and indirect paths 
 which lead to another existence. As on the 
 streets of our beautiful city mistakes are made 
 in choosing the way, so in the "Journey of 
 Life" some take the wrong road. It may be 
 owing to the darkness of the night, it may be 
 that the ear does not hear the directions 
 aright ; it may be there is too much haste, or, 
 what are thought to be unsurmountable ob- 
 stacles, are in the way. But whatever the rea- 
 son I am loath to believe that any, who do 
 go the wrong way, do so deliberately. I do 
 not believe that any, knowing of the pitfalls 
 
IN NEW ROCHELLE 27 
 
 existing there, intentionally choose the wrong 
 way. We mistake the signals, we fail to see 
 or hear aright, but we do not willingly choose 
 the wrong way, knowing the rough places 
 which abound in it. 
 
 So here stands this picturesque old church, 
 covered with ivy, at the "parting of the ways," 
 and the ivy clings lovingly and tenderly to 
 its mate, covering up the stains of Time, filling 
 up depressions and smoothing over rough 
 spots, and trying, in its modest way, to shelter 
 and protect its partner from the rude winds 
 and severe storms that sometimes threaten it. 
 So very much like a tender, faithful wife, 
 clinging to her coarser husband through all 
 the storms of life, and though depending upon 
 him for support and the ability to stand up- 
 right, yet striving to shield him from the 
 little worries and irritations of life and the 
 rude assaults of his enemies, for she, if he 
 falls, must go down with him. And if his ruin 
 is complete, yet she covers up the ruins with 
 the mantle of charity, just as the ivy with its 
 leaves of green covers over the ruins of the 
 
28 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 material building when the storms have done 
 their worst. And as the ivy clings to the 
 "First Church," so its congregation clings to 
 the Redeemer. Through storms and sunshine, 
 through evil and good report, still the mem- 
 bers hold to their faith. 1688—1788—1888— 
 1912 still they are found at their post. Is it 
 not a proud record? And yet there is a note 
 of sadness in this chord of exultation, for the 
 people and their pastor have also arrived at 
 the "parting of the ways." The outcome rests 
 with Him who has watched over their united 
 efforts for so many years. Though the bless- 
 ings of God may be divided, yet we feel that 
 each is predestined to receive a share. 
 
 I love to think that we are all predestined 
 to come at last to a place where we shall be 
 happy. We may be predestined to trouble as 
 long as we travel in the wrong road, but if 
 we sometime get on the right path, will 
 we not then be predestined to happiness ? Just 
 as Main street and Huguenot street separate 
 where the church stands, and one goes direct 
 while the other rambles a bit, yet it comes 
 
IN NEW ROCHELLE 29 
 
 back after a while to the straight way. So he 
 who picks out the wrong road travels farther 
 than the one who picks out the right one, 
 and he travels over a rougher road, yet he, 
 too, after much tribulation may come at last 
 to the same place, purified and chastened by 
 sorrow. It is better to travel on the right 
 road. It is better to walk the straight and 
 narrow path than to ramble along over rough 
 roads where tender feet may be bruised and 
 where loving hearts may be broken. It is 
 better, is it not, to listen to the voice of con- 
 science and be good and true, than to do 
 wrong and be untrue to ourselves and others. 
 And so the congregation of this ivy covered 
 church, and its pastor, and I, put our trust 
 in the wisdom of the sentence upon the glass 
 in a window of the church, "I have yet to see 
 the righteous forsaken, or his seed begging 
 bread." 
 
VII 
 
 THE HIGH SCHOOL. 
 
 Do you know, it is a fact that some people 
 impress me as being larger than they really 
 are, and there are some who impress me as 
 being smaller than they really are. Also I am 
 sure, that this peculiarity is not confined to 
 people alone, for there are certain buildings 
 which do the same thing. 
 
 The High School building always looks 
 higher and wider to me than it really is, per- 
 haps owing to the style of architecture. It 
 is an edifice of which we all should be very 
 proud, for does it not belong to us all ? Every 
 one of the residents of this city should draw 
 from it more or less knowledge and inspira- 
 tion, either directly or indirectly. And as I 
 stand and look at it, a vision of the teachings 
 of 2,000 years ago comes to me, and I seem 
 to see a little man of shabby appearance, toil- 
 
 31 
 
32 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 ing painfully along the road leading from the 
 Piraeus to Athens. On every side he sees 
 signs of profound learning and many temples 
 for the worship of the Gods, even to an altar 
 erected for the worship of "The Unknown 
 God." And as he nears the great city, there 
 stands ever in view and gradually appearing 
 greater a hill, upon which glistens in the sun- 
 light, the Acropolis. 
 
 Then the vision fades away, and I notice 
 how our High School building suggests the 
 thought of that great piece of work, with its 
 flight of steps and its great pillars. And we 
 have placed above our building the eagle, that 
 noble bird emblematical of freedom of living 
 and freedom of thought. The eagle stands 
 with wings partly spread, alert and expectant, 
 in the attitude a young man might take when 
 some great and overpowering thought burst 
 suddenly on his mind. And as I gaze, again 
 the vision comes, and I see a great teacher sit- 
 ting on the porch of the Acropolis with his 
 listeners, men of all ages, sitting at his feet 
 upon the steps below him, and drinking greed- 
 
IN NEW ROCHELLE 23 
 
 ily in the ideas he imparts to them, most of 
 which he has learned in the hard school of ex- 
 perience. 
 
 And as I listen I seem to hear him say, 
 ''Knowledge is power, and with it almost any- 
 thing can be done. We must have knowledge 
 in order to get our living, and the main pur- 
 pose of all learning is to teach us how to get 
 the necessaries of life honestly, that we may 
 eat, and drink, and be clothed. And sec- 
 ondarily we need it to teach us how to use 
 these things for our best advantage, that we 
 may be happy and propagate our species. 
 
 But first we must lay a foundation, and the 
 greatest foundation for all knowledge is 
 knowledge of self. Know thyself. Be sure 
 to be honest with yourself and then do not 
 try to be false to any one. If, then, you ap- 
 pear greater than you really are, it is your 
 fortune ; if you appear smaller than you really 
 are, it is only your misfortune. Yet, beware, 
 lest knowledge seduce you into believing that 
 it is of more account than it really is, for over 
 some things knowledge has no power. Some- 
 
34 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 times the more of it you have, the more trouble 
 you will have, and it has been said that "Much 
 knowledge is a weariness of the flesh." We 
 have many institutions of learning and many 
 beautiful temples in which to worship the 
 Gods." 
 
 And then, as the teacher ceased, the trav- 
 eller who had entered the group some time 
 before, and who had been quietly listening, 
 arose and as he arose he seemed to be much 
 larger than he really was, and a peculiar 
 brightness seemed to shine forth from his 
 face as he said, "But teacher, 'God dwelleth 
 not in temples made with hands.' It may be 
 well for us to have a certain amount of learn- 
 ing, but knowledge alone is cold, and as for 
 material things "Seek ye first the kingdom of 
 God and then all these shall be added unto 
 you." To knowledge of self, and its wants, 
 must be added knowledge of the wants of 
 others, and to cold learning must be added 
 warm, vivifying love, for over love knowl- 
 edge has no power, and love really rules the 
 world. Knowledge alone cannot satisfy the 
 
IN NEW ROCHELLE 35 
 
 cravings of the human heart, it may poison 
 the soul, and it may bring to the hemlock its 
 most devoted followers, even yourself. Love 
 alone has power to save." 
 
 Again the vision fades and I see before me 
 only the handsome structure called the High 
 School. I am glad, very glad we have such a 
 building and such a school. There, may all 
 the branches of justice be taught to our chil- 
 dren, at the same time teaching them that 
 Mercy is greater than Law. Let us teach them 
 all schools of medicine, but let it be known that 
 it is Nature that does the healing. Let us 
 teach them the theology of all denominations, 
 remembering that the heart of theology is 
 Christianity. Let them be taught all the ways 
 of commerce, but warn them that God rules 
 the wind and the waves and that, "In Him 
 we live, and move, and have our being." 
 
VIII 
 
 SALEM BAPTIST CHURCH. 
 
 One Sunday, not so very long ago, a few of 
 us congenial spirits decided to attend Divine 
 Worship at the Salem Baptist Church, and as 
 we walked along Main street we came to the 
 corner where the church stands waiting. 
 
 I say waiting, because it seems to be so very 
 inviting. It is not alone the beauty of its 
 architecture, but the convenience of its plan 
 as well, that is noticeable. The steps come 
 right down to the angle of the sidewalk as 
 if to meet you and the Spirit of the Church 
 seems to say, "Come right in, you see we 
 have brought the steps down where it will be 
 easy for you to enter. Our church has been 
 built with a view to your comfort and ease. 
 Come in and let us show you a pew." 
 
 Sure enough we were shown some good 
 seats and I know I gave a sigh of content- 
 
 37 
 
38 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 ment, for the seat and the cushion seemed to 
 be just right and I leaned back with consid- 
 erable satisfaction while I listened to the sweet 
 strains of the organ. The sermon was about 
 shellfishness, or selfishness, much the same 
 thing, in a way, and it rubbed a little on my 
 conscience here and there, but I shall probably 
 not remember that part of it very long, more's 
 the pity. Surely St. John the Baptist was a 
 great genius. He was so occupied with the 
 seriousness of his work that he let his hair and 
 beard grow long and neglected some other 
 arts so dear to the privileged classes. But he 
 knew that to see any particular political or 
 religious situation clearly, it is necessary to 
 withdraw from its immediate vicinity and go 
 to a distance, where there is solitude and 
 silence. So he went to the Great Silence of 
 the desert where the sun shows its terrific 
 power by day and the moon and stars their 
 great beauty by night. There his mind was 
 freed of all other thoughts that the ideas of 
 the Great Intelligence might come and dwell 
 with him. There are some men of genius who 
 
IN NEW ROCHELLE 39 
 
 tower head and shoulders above their fellow- 
 men, who tower above all man made laws, 
 who look only to the Great Father for their 
 guidance and whose only mother is Nature 
 herself. Such a man was John the Baptist, and 
 from the lessons of the desert he drew the 
 thoughts from which his teachings were 
 formed. He himself wanted nothing, there- 
 fore he depended on no man for anything and 
 this made him absolutely fearless. 
 
 I think it is Elbert Hubbard who speaks of 
 the Great Intelligence, and of its being attain- 
 able to all men who put themselves in a posi- 
 tion to receive knowledge. It is certain that, 
 to the man who does not want to learn, no 
 knowledge will come. Elbert Hubbard would 
 make an ideal prophet. He wears the long 
 hair and the simple dress, and he has the 
 ability to see our faults and the wit to make 
 his criticisms sink in like the sting of the 
 bee. He is also able to gather his share of 
 the locusts. But how about the wild honey? 
 No one enjoys reading Elbert Hubbard's writ- 
 ings more than I do and yet, I feel that there 
 
40 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 is something missing from them. I find the 
 locusts and the bees, but the sweet honey of 
 Christian kindliness, that delicacy that would 
 not willingly wound a living soul, how about 
 that? 
 
 I cannot help but think that sometime El- 
 bert will change a little in his ideas. It has 
 always seemed to me as if something like the 
 following conversation took place when Col. 
 Ingersoll arrived at the Pearly Gates, for I have 
 no doubt whatever that he did arrive there. 
 "Robert, we are glad to see you. We know 
 that you never meant any harm. We know 
 that your great, big, honest heart, was right. 
 It was all a mistake, wasn't it. Bob, my boy? 
 Come in and have a chair." And when El- 
 bert arrives I imagine there will be some- 
 thing said like this, "Elbert, you did not 
 expect a big reception like this, did you ? You 
 did not think we were really here and glad to 
 see you. Come in we want you. Take a 
 chair just a little behind Bishop Goodkind, 
 there. You have worked hard, Bert, and need 
 a rest. Your heart is just a little behind your 
 
IN NEW ROCHELLE 41 
 
 head in growth and we want you to give it a 
 chance to catch up. No man has a finer in- 
 tellect, or one more penetrating than you, but 
 your heart, my son, must be coaxed up a little. 
 Stay here for a thousand years, and then we 
 want you to go out again, and then these 
 little things that have troubled you vv^ill have 
 disappeared, and you will have forgotten the 
 small, mean things of life, and will only write 
 about the good things, which alone are worthy 
 of you. Sit down and rest awhile, Bert, and 
 try again bye and bye." 
 
 John the Baptist's words, two thousand 
 years ago rang like a trumpet through Pales- 
 tine and awoke the people from a hypnotic 
 dream of sin and shame and using, as a means 
 of impressing the fact of their repentence upon 
 them forever, the baptism by immersion, he 
 showed us all that a great shock to the physi- 
 cal system is sometimes necessary to put us 
 to rights spiritually. If necessary let us use 
 the most effective way of teaching, let us work 
 hard while the day lasts and get together as 
 many measures of locusts as we may wish, 
 
42 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 but in all this may we never forget that Chris- 
 tian gentleness, which in our dealings with 
 others, adds so much to the wild honey of 
 life. 
 
IX 
 
 THE BLESSED SACRAMENT CHURCH. 
 
 Do you know last Sunday I went back home 
 to visit Mother Church. And Mother received 
 me with a smile of welcome, just as she al- 
 ways does. 
 
 Though she grows older, She looses none of 
 Her good looks, and Her beauty and sweet- 
 ness and charm grow greater, if anything, as 
 the years fly by. Though She has raised a 
 large family of children, some of whom have 
 repudiated Her, some of whom have been only 
 on speaking terms with Her for a long, long 
 time, yet Mother is just as forgiving and just 
 as kind to them as She is to her obedient ones. 
 Have they been naughty? If they confess. 
 Mother overlooks their faults. Are they 
 felons? She forgives and forgets and gives 
 them a helping hand when they reform and 
 take up anew the duties of life. Have they 
 
 43 
 
44 . TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 taken human life? Yet She prays for them, 
 and as She took part in their life, so She re- 
 mains with them until death. And above all 
 and through all She punishes not, but prays, 
 leaving them to the tender mercies of a just 
 God who alone knows the secrets of each 
 human heart. 
 
 And so when I attended worship at *'The 
 Blessed Sacrament," I felt like a son who had 
 taken advantage of a holiday to go back home 
 to see his mother. The Church itself, with its 
 delicacy of architecture and its spire ever 
 pointing upward, stands like a beautiful wo- 
 man dressed in white lace and jewels with her 
 finger pointing toward heaven. The interior 
 is not less beautiful than the exterior, the 
 white marble altar representing the heart of 
 a woman, pure and true, and the lighted 
 tapers are emblematical of the fires of Love, 
 eternally burning. For me, the church had no 
 reproaches but only a charming smile, which 
 seemed to say, "My son, never forget that, 
 like your earthly mother who always wel- 
 comed you, I stand waiting and hoping until 
 
IN NEW ROCHELLE 45 
 
 death. Have you neglected me ? Come. Have 
 you injured me? Come. Have you injured 
 others? Come. Have you been untrue to 
 yourself? Yet come. It is my part not to 
 punish, but to pray." 
 
 Dear Mother Church, who for a thousand 
 years and m.ore, was the only Christian 
 Church, and to which those old Crusaders, 
 those Great Templars belonged. Those men 
 vv^ho swore to protect the innocent, the desti- 
 tute, the helpless, and the Christian religion. 
 To such men a part of anything will not 
 suffice. Whether of sweet or bitter, the cup 
 must be drained to the dregs, and to such the 
 Roman Catholic Church offers all there is of 
 religion. To its followers, it is their all. To 
 Her they bring all their joys and sorrows. 
 She officiates over their birth, accompanies 
 them through life and death, and prays for 
 them after they have gone from Earth. And 
 for this She asks only their complete trust; 
 that they be humble and obedient. Years 
 ago, on the morning I started for medical 
 college, I was walking up Lexington avenue 
 
46 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 in New York City, when my attention was 
 attracted by something on the sidewalk. I 
 picked up the object and found it to be a 
 girl's rosary which had been blessed at a 
 Mission. I took it for a good omen and it has 
 ever since been one of my most cherished pos- 
 sessions. 
 
 The Roman Catholic Church officially rec- 
 ognizes women and first of all The Virgin, 
 so it is pre-eminently the religion of the female 
 sex. And are not all of our hopes founded 
 upon women? Beginning at birth woman's 
 hand is upon ours through life. In joy? She 
 is there. In health? She is our companion. 
 In sickness? It is her hand that smoothes 
 our pillow and it is her loving fingers that 
 close our eyelids when death allows us no 
 longer to recognize her, and it is her heart that 
 will ache the longest when we are gone. She 
 was last at the Cross and last at the Tomb and 
 she was the first to whom Jesus appeared after 
 His Agony. And can we not trust her with 
 the ballot? When we trust her with Life and 
 Death, can she not help to steer our political 
 
IN NEW ROCHELLE 47 
 
 bark? With her our safety lies, not with this 
 or that political platform, these are as Shake- 
 speare says, **But tales told by an idiot, full of 
 sound and fury, signifying nothing." Trust 
 her with the ballot? God bless her! Yes! 
 or with my respect, my love, my life, and all 
 honor to the Great Church that reveres and 
 loves the memory of the sweetest of all 
 women, "The Virgin Mary." 
 
X 
 
 THE CHURCH OF ST. GABRIEL. 
 
 Far, far away across the water, in a little 
 country bordering on the Mediterranean Sea, 
 a beautiful song was once heard. No matter 
 how many songs have been sung there since, 
 or how many will be heard there in the future, 
 this particular one will echo down the halls 
 of time as long as the Dawn of the morning 
 shall sing to the Day. As long as the golden 
 canary shall trill to the sun, as long as the 
 nightingale shall pour out her love-song to 
 the stars, so long shall the splendid strains 
 of the Magnificat stir the hearts of men and 
 of angels. And as long as the Magnificat 
 endures, so long shall the name of Gabriel be 
 associated with it, for it was his voice, and 
 his tidings, that caused the beautiful maiden 
 called Mary, to break forth into this glorious 
 song of praise and exultation. 
 
 49 
 
50 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 And this utterance from a full heart came 
 not from one belonging to the favored classes, 
 not from among those who possessed power 
 and riches, not from among those who were 
 well fed and well clothed, but it came from 
 one whose place was among the lowly, the 
 cold, and the hungry. Pride availed not, the 
 rich were passed by, the ambitious were not 
 noticed, and the mighty were put down that 
 she, who feared the Lord and gave herself to 
 Him in the innocence of her youth, might be 
 exalted. And before such innocence, absolute 
 innocence of mind and body, the deepest dyed 
 criminal bows down in abject fear. There is 
 something so overpowering in the look of 
 true innocence and purity, that sin and dis- 
 ease immediately recognize it and flee away 
 in terror. 
 
 "Deposuit potentes 
 De sede, et exaltavit humiles." 
 
 Yes, and He not only has put down, but is 
 putting down, and shall put down, the mighty 
 from their seat when they prove themselves 
 unworthy, for the people, the lowly ones, who 
 
W 
 
 o 
 
 h 
 
 o 
 
 X 
 u 
 
 D 
 
 u 
 
 w 
 
 h 
 
IN NEW ROCHELLE 51 
 
 have stood abuse, and hunger, and cold, they 
 are arising all over the land, and they shall 
 continue to arise until the chains which have 
 bound them shall be broken and they shall 
 be free, physically and morally. And let each 
 demagogue, each tyrant beware, lest when the 
 people do arise, great shall be their fall. 
 Where shall they hide when the people shall 
 arise in their righteous wrath and take the 
 things that have heretofore been denied them ? 
 St. Gabriel's stands like a beautiful nun 
 dressed in gray, demure and sweet, amid the 
 green trees, a lasting remembrance of the 
 bright angel of glad tidings. The interior is 
 not only exceedingly beautiful, but cosey and 
 homelike as well, and as I stand and watch 
 the shadows of the colors in the stained glass 
 windows play upon the floor, I know that 
 here, at any rate, is to be found peace and 
 quietness as well as innocence and purity. 
 That here can be found that trustfulness in 
 the loving care of the Virgin Mary that car- 
 ries so many safely through the troubles and 
 vexations of this life. And as I stand, as 
 
52 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 King Robert of Sicily stood (in that remark- 
 able poem of Longfellow's) I, too, hear the 
 priests chant the refrain, "He has exalted 
 them of low degree." 
 
 Here in this church of St. Gabriel's the rich 
 and the poor shall mingle their prayers, and 
 the mighty and the lowly shall pour out the 
 praise of their hearts. Here may the shafts 
 of the morning light first strike, and here may 
 the golden rays of the setting sun longest 
 linger, and when I die, may it be Gabriel, the 
 Beloved, the patron of this Church, who shall 
 come to me to tell me that the doors of Death 
 are about to be opened to me, that I may take 
 my place in that great choir whose chorus 
 shall ever be, "My soul doth magnify the 
 Lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my 
 Saviour." 
 
XI 
 
 MASONIC TEMPLE. 
 
 There is a great deal said and written about 
 goats. There is no doubt that all goats are 
 much slandered, from those that roam the 
 wilds of Harlem, to those drawn by Mr. Pow- 
 ers for the New York American, but the goats 
 that have their home in the Masonic Temple, 
 are the least understood by the public at 
 large. 
 
 We often hear the expression, "You get 
 my goat," but this is not the real thing. In 
 the Temple a great many do really get the 
 goat, and although there are not as many 
 there as imagination might cause the outside 
 world to believe, still, there are a good many, 
 so called, who meet their friends there in an 
 abrupt manner. 
 
 Now this subject of goats interests nearly 
 everybody, for there is one night every two 
 
 53 
 
54 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 weeks, anyway, that "father" does not work 
 and that night he spends with the goat. 
 
 The Masonic Temple shelters many so- 
 cieties each of which has its own goat and 
 although the goats are all fed on about the 
 same principles, still, the way in which they 
 expound those principles, is somewhat varied. 
 These goats outsiders never get. The outsid- 
 ers who become insiders, do get them, and 
 they get them mostly on the outside. 
 
 The impression they make on these outsid- 
 ers outside makes a lasting impression on 
 their insides. The insiders watch those who 
 are becoming insiders get the goats on the 
 outside, and it makes a joyous impression on 
 their insides. Those who get them on the 
 outside, can sometimes tell that they are about 
 to get them before they can see them, and 
 sometimes they cannot see them no matter 
 how close they may be to them. So much for 
 the goats. 
 
 The Masonic Temple is a beautiful build- 
 ing. There is an appearance of strength and 
 solidity about it, and an air of wisdom and 
 
IN NEW ROCHELLE 55 
 
 mystery hovers around it ; above all, however, 
 it impresses the beholder with its look of 
 secrecy. The main part of the edifice sets 
 back, as it were, behind the massive columns 
 in front, as if there was something it wished 
 to conceal or protect from the gaze of a too 
 inquisitive world. The building is in good 
 company, too, for it is close to St. John's 
 Church and to the Salem Baptist Church. It 
 stands with them, so to speak, just as the so- 
 cieties it shelters stand with and help to hold 
 up, the Christian religion, for Masonry, at any 
 rate, is Religion's handmaid. Within the 
 walls of this Temple men of all races and all 
 creeds, the President, the ex-President, and 
 the College Professor, meet upon the level, 
 act by the plumb and part upon the square. 
 Here the great words Liberty, Equality, and 
 Fraternity, have a real meaning. Here, as well 
 as in the churches, we are taught the Father- 
 hood of God and the Brotherhood of man. We 
 are taught that Truth is about all, and that 
 the soul of man is immortal. 
 
 Be not afraid, women of New Rochelle, 
 
56 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 that when "father" goes to lodge he wastes 
 his time, for it is as much for your good as 
 his own, that he goes, and although there may 
 be some things said and done there in lighter 
 vein, these are only the by-products of the 
 great objects of Fraternity. There, the mem- 
 bers are taught Fortitude, that noble posses- 
 sion of the soul, that great virtue which en- 
 abled our ex-President to stand before an 
 audience and finish his message to them while 
 his life-blood ebbed away. And this is the 
 one bright spot in an otherwise dark cloud 
 of political turmoil and confusion. How de- 
 lightful it is to enter a Temple such as ours, 
 to leave the noisy and turbulent populace be- 
 hind, and enter into the calm and quiet of the 
 Sanctuary. And all the fuss and feathers of 
 politics is so vain, too, for whether one or 
 another is elected, Uncle Trusty will probably 
 see that the price of pork and potatoes does 
 not change materially. 
 
 But brotherly love, relief and truth, which 
 are taught here, are they not worth while? 
 And while the cares of Church and State 
 
IN NEW ROCHELLE 57 
 
 occupy many, we work, in the Temple, for the 
 relief of the destitute and the welfare of the 
 fatherless. There is no real war between 
 secret societies and the Christian religion, for 
 they are all founded upon the Holy Bible. 
 
 Let us be proud of our Masonic Temple 
 and may we know, that although it shelters 
 many secret societies, the secrets are not 
 secrets that will ever do one single human be- 
 ing the least harm. 
 
XII 
 
 AUTUMN IN HUDSON PARK. 
 
 I sometimes go down to Hudson Park in 
 the morning, when the sun shines bright in 
 the blue sky, and just sit tight and drink in 
 the sunshine, as it filters down through the 
 clear autumn air. 
 
 How beautiful it all is, and how quiet, for 
 all the summer crowds have gone and only a 
 few stragglers walk around over the rocks 
 and sit upon the beach. Peace, "like to that 
 which passeth all understanding," comes to 
 me, and in imagination I feel Her hand on my 
 shoulder, light and soft, like the hand of a 
 tender maiden, and She whispers to me that 
 "some time all the days will be like this." 
 That anxiety and care, which now add to the 
 unpleasant things of life, shall fade away, just 
 as the morning mist fades from off Echo Bay, 
 and that only love and sympathy will re- 
 main. 
 
 59 
 
60 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 That envy and jealousy shall be destroyed 
 and only the faith and trust of childhood's 
 hour, will be permanent. 
 
 And the sunshine of His face shall flood 
 the ether, just as the gold-dust of the sunshine 
 sparkles in the morning air. 
 
 When Time itself shall be no more and we 
 may go here and there at will, or swing lazily 
 at anchor, just as the boats anchored here in 
 the harbor, swing to and fro with the tides. 
 
 Hymns of praise shall spring unbidden to 
 our lips for we shall, like the happy birds, 
 burst involuntarily into song. It may be nec- 
 essary for our future life that sorrow should 
 tinge our earthly way with shadow, but There, 
 it will be all unnecessary, and only joy will 
 enter our existence. 
 
 And so, as I sit and drink in the beauty of 
 the scene, the blue of the sky and the water, 
 and the white of the clouds and the boats, I 
 watch the water creeping, slowly but surely 
 creeping towards me as the tide comes in; 
 each little ripple coming just a little bit fur- 
 ther than the one before it. Just so the days 
 
IN NEW ROCHELLE 61 
 
 of my life keep coming, coming, each one 
 bringing nearer, just a little bit nearer, that 
 other existence which I shall experience on 
 the shores of Eternity. And so as I sit and 
 dream with the white hand of Peace upon my 
 shoulder, with the perfume of her presence, 
 like the influence of a sweet and tender wo- 
 man, around me, I know that there will be 
 a future life. No amount of argument, no 
 amount of unbelief in others could have a 
 feather's weight with me against such a be- 
 lief, for that is the one thing I am sure of. 
 That we shall know each other there, that we 
 shall be with those we love and with those who 
 love us, and that all differences and doubts 
 shall be done away with, of these things I am 
 sure. So many proofs have come to me, dur- 
 ing my life, of loving care and watchfulness 
 that I know could not have come from anyone 
 on earth, that I shall never doubt for the 
 future. 
 
 The old ideas of a heaven of gold and 
 silver and of a hell of fire and brimstone 
 are passing away. Like dark clouds they have 
 
62 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 obscured the real heaven, and as they roll 
 away we find that heaven is a place where 
 kindness and sympathy reign and the only 
 hell there is, is the one we make by our mis- 
 takes. And as I stand at the water's edge 
 looking out toward that other shore, but 
 faintly outlined in the distance but which I 
 know to be there, my soul stands peering out 
 over the vast spaces of the infinite to those 
 other shores, also but faintly outlined yet 
 surely there, while Peace in her dulcet tones 
 whispers in my ear, "Let not your heart be 
 troubled." "In my Father's house are many 
 mansions ; if it were not so, I would have told 
 you." 
 
XIII 
 
 TRINITY CHURCH. 
 
 Dear, peaceful, Old Trinity, with its stained- 
 glass windows through which the sunlight 
 lazily filters, and its old bell, stained by the 
 fingers of time, and yet highly honored with 
 a place just under the pulpit. 
 
 Trinity, with its yard filled with the graves 
 of the quiet dead, whose tombstones are also 
 stained and weatherbeaten by time. Some are 
 standing straight and some awry, showing us 
 that they, like the sleepers below them, had 
 hard work sometimes to keep upright. 
 ''Dearly beloved brethren, the scripture 
 moveth us in sundry places." Dearly beloved 
 brethren, both ye who are within the church 
 and ye who are lying out there in the quiet 
 churchyard (for they who have gone before 
 can also hear the voice of love) the scripture 
 moveth us. Yes, it moves us to gather here 
 
 63 
 
64 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 in storm and in sunshine, in sorrow and in 
 joy. Especially in sorrow, for "a, broken and 
 contrite heart, oh God thou wilt not despise." 
 Oh, in sorrow when the heart is torn with 
 anguish, when earthly friends seem distant 
 and even the brightest day seems dark, in sor- 
 row to lay our troubles at the foot of the cross, 
 is a priceless privilege. No one can comfort 
 like the unseen, but ever present, Spirit of the 
 Most High. Ever when we seek we find that 
 "The Lord is in His Holy Temple," tremble, 
 oh Earth, and "Keep silent before Him." A 
 great peace, a profound calm shall come over 
 the troubled spirit who kneels at the altar and 
 confesses its "manifold sins and wickedness." 
 Remember, "all ye who pass by" that "from 
 the rising of the sun, even unto the going 
 down of the same His name shall be great." 
 
 If you can spare a few minutes from the 
 hurry and confusion of Life to step into Old 
 Trinity, do so and see how, in a few steps, you 
 can pass from the busy mart of the city to the 
 quiet and peace of the Temple where Time 
 seems no longer to exist. 
 
IN NEW ROCHELLE 65 
 
 Dear Old Trinity, just over the border line 
 of one of the greatest cities of the world. Just 
 over the line from a great deal of paganism, 
 of greed, of heartlessness, and of crime. Just 
 out of sight of the Great White Way, yet here 
 we honor our ancestors, we revere the Con- 
 stitution they gave us, we adore the beautiful, 
 we believe in the true, in our churches we still 
 worship, and here the pure in heart still see 
 God. Here the prayer of the unhappy queen, 
 ''Oh, God, make others great, but keep me 
 innocent," is still repeated, and here we still 
 look for "the resurrection of the dead and the 
 life of the World to come." 
 
XIV 
 
 REVERIES AT THE BAY. 
 
 A few days ago I took a small bundle of 
 thoughts, tied them up with a pink ribbon, 
 and went down to the edge of the bay to write. 
 I looked around for a seat, but they had all 
 been gathered in so that the snow and ice, 
 which will be coming bye and bye;, could not 
 harm them, so I looked around for the soft 
 side of a rock which I soon found. 
 
 When I had obtained a seat, I shook out 
 my bundle of thoughts, but none of them 
 seemed ready for use. I looked up to the trees 
 and they were nearly bare of leaves, the rocks 
 were bare and cold, the boats in the bay were 
 mostly stripped of their outfits and even the 
 men working about seemed rather bearish in 
 their answers to a few questions I asked them. 
 The bathhouse was bare, inside and outside, 
 in fact the place was lonesome. I could hardly 
 
 67 
 
68 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 bear it myself, and the ideas that I wanted 
 would not come to me. 
 
 I looked out upon the water, and it was 
 streaked with blue and white ; it reminded me 
 of the pork the son of Erin possessed. Some- 
 one asked Pat how he managed to feed his 
 pigs so that their meat would run that way 
 so nicely, and he said, "He fed them one 
 week a whole lot, and the next week he did 
 not feed them at all." Well, the water looked 
 streaked, and, so to speak, oily and greasy, 
 rather hypocritical like. 
 
 It is strange how deceitful the water can 
 be, how innocent looking at times and yet if 
 you trust yourself to it, it will finish your 
 earthly journey very quick, and only take a 
 couple of minutes to do the job. When you 
 get in it, it clings to you and it seems to hold 
 you back when you attempt to get out of it, 
 as if it did not want to let you go. 
 
 Ah, treacherous water, so beautiful, so 
 alluring at times and yet ready to take your 
 life the minute you relax your watchfulness. 
 And when you stand and watch it when it is 
 
IN NEW ROCHELLE 69 
 
 rough, it seems to jump at you in anger, like 
 an ugly dog chained to a post, and it seems to 
 rage and fume because it cannot quite reach 
 you. And when you stand and look out over 
 it at night when it is dark, a nameless horror 
 seems to come up out of it and close around 
 you, and you hurriedly seek again the lights 
 and company you left. Not afraid, oh no, 
 not at all, but somehow from out there in 
 the deep the souls of those who have been 
 lost there seem to be calling, calling to you, if 
 not for you. 
 
 But still, above all this, there is in me, any- 
 way, that wild love of the sea, a love of the 
 tempest, of the shrieking of the cordage in 
 the wind, and of the crackling of the masts, 
 and it fills me with an exultation that noth- 
 ing else can do. Most of my maternal an- 
 cestors were sea captains and loved to brave 
 the storms at sea. I have heard my grand- 
 father tell how he and his brothers would have 
 to go out at night, when his father was ashore, 
 and throw water against the side of the house 
 so the old man could sleep. But to-day the 
 
70 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 water is quiet and smooth, and its streak of 
 white and streak of blue also remind me of the 
 days of life, some quiet and restful and inno- 
 cent, and others stormy and perilous and 
 fraught with danger. 
 
 But if they were all alike how should we 
 be aware of the good and the bad days? 
 Would we not tire of the monotony, and is it 
 not necessary for the making of good sea- 
 men that they encounter storms and rocks in 
 their course? 
 
 So I sit and look out over the water and 
 try to get together some ideas from my bundle 
 of thoughts, but nothing much comes, so I 
 roll them up again, tie them with a blue rib- 
 bon, crank up and chug my way noisily home- 
 ward. 
 
 And then when I get home I begin to feel 
 ashamed of the way I have slandered the sea 
 and there comes to my mind the remembrance 
 of the beauty of the water, and I think of the 
 waves playing with each other and tossing 
 their crests high in air, of the beautiful colors 
 in the drops as they glisten in the sunlight and 
 
BONNEFOI POINT 
 
IN NEW ROCHELLE 71 
 
 of the lifegiving perfume of the spray. How 
 clean and free from all taint the sea is. There 
 out on the deep, on its restless bosom, is sur- 
 cease from worry and care, a place where pas- 
 sions may be quenched and where the soul can 
 commune with the great forces of nature and 
 be restored to its pristine clearness and purity 
 Where beauty may be worshipped, for every 
 minute a new Venus is born at the top of the 
 wave, and where, like tired children, we may 
 go for rest and peace and have health and 
 happiness restored to us as we are ''Rocked in 
 the cradle of the Deep." 
 
XV 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 Last Sunday I attended service at two 
 churches. In the morning I heard the choir 
 sing in the North Avenue Presbyterian 
 Church, and in the evening I listened to the 
 double quartet at the Salem Baptist Church, 
 and believe me I heard some music. I gath- 
 ered in so much of it, that I can't hold it all, 
 and so I am going to spill a little of it, trans- 
 formed into prose, out on to the unsuspecting 
 public, for it is just possible that there is some 
 one who did not attend church at all on Sun- 
 day, and consequently did not hear any sacred 
 music. 
 
 It is a great privilege to be able to go to 
 church. Among all peoples we find some form 
 of religious worship, and a gathering of peo- 
 ple anywhere, for that purpose, may be called 
 a church, whether in some particular place, or 
 
 73 
 
74 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 building, or whether out of doors with only 
 the blue sky for a roof. There is a crying 
 need in each human heart for a place in which 
 to worship God, safe from interference, and 
 safe from the curiosity of those who are not 
 in sympathy. 
 
 Of course God may be worshipped any- 
 where and at any time, but it makes a deeper 
 impressions on our minds and in much more 
 satisfactory, when we worship in a place set 
 apart especially for that purpose, than it does 
 when we worship in any other place. 
 
 The sermons we hear there, always edify 
 and teach us, and not only teach us, but show 
 us the way in which we ought to carry out 
 those teachings, and of course they are the 
 most important part of the service; neverthe- 
 less, they do not always put us in touch with 
 Divine things. The services laid down by the 
 Church for us to follow are a great help, and 
 are necessary for our complete satisfaction 
 and the well-rounding out of the whole, but 
 where is the church that, no matter how per- 
 
IN NEW ROCHELLE 75 
 
 feet these portions of the service are, can get 
 along without music. 
 
 The regular church services are very dear 
 to all, the sermons are very necessary and 
 instructive, and of course they are the meat, 
 so to speak, of the whole, but music, oh, 
 music at once puts us in touch with the di- 
 vine. 
 
 It softens the hearts of all and draws the 
 soul of each one upward, upward until it 
 touches the great Oversoul of all things. It 
 speaks to all nations, for it is the same in all 
 languages. No race is so ignorant that some 
 power of music is not understood among them, 
 and no person is so hardened that music can- 
 not soften his, or her, heart. It is the one 
 thing held in common by all people, that 
 tends to affect, ^n one way or another, the 
 human soul. 
 
 The sermon and the ceremonials correspond 
 to the study hour, while the music corresponds 
 to the play hour, or the hour of prayer, as the 
 case may be. So among those who understand 
 its loving tones there is, is there not, a closer 
 
n TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 fellowship, a finer sympathy, than among 
 others? Are they not more sensitive than 
 those who do not understand, and do they not 
 respond to finer impressions than others do ? 
 
 Music is almost the soul of sound, is it not, 
 and may we not believe, that just as the choir 
 in most churches is placed in the chancel near 
 the minister, or priest, so will those who make 
 up the great choir celestial be placed just a 
 little bit nearer, "The great white throne" 
 than the rest; just a little nearer Him whose 
 face shall illumine the music they shall hold 
 in their hands, and cause the notes they utter 
 to swell into an anthem that shall be heard 
 throughout the universe. 
 
 Many times have I seen an expression on 
 the faces, of singers, that I know would not 
 be there if their souls were not raised above 
 earthly things and in touch with "The great- 
 est thing in the world," or out of it for that 
 matter, "Unselfish Love," and I have seen 
 in a great cathedral in New York City five 
 thousand people kneeling, and in tears, while 
 the beautiful voice of a singer, with tears in 
 
IN NEW ROCHELLE 11 
 
 her heart, offered her soul to God through 
 the medium of her voice. 
 
 Music is inspiring, yes, and it may lift the 
 human soul to great deeds of wisdom and pur- 
 pose, but it seems sweetest to me when it 
 comes quietly and gently, falling from the air 
 just as the dew falls from heaven upon the 
 flowers in the stillness of the starry night. 
 When it comes as the words of mercy come to 
 heal the wounded heart. When it comes as 
 the tender voice of sympathy comes to the sor- 
 rowing spirit, and when it falls upon the ear 
 like a benediction after prayer. 
 
XVI 
 
 GIFTS AT CHRISTMAS. 
 
 Yes, the morning after the day before, the 
 house may seem cold and cheerless and empty. 
 Those who made merry, and were merry, the 
 day before, may have gone, and only Mary 
 may be up and around, perhaps, sweeping up 
 the empty shells that found their way to the 
 carpet. Shells that gave freely their all, to 
 the Christmas feast, just as the home gave up 
 its best to the merrymakers, and life has 
 started to go on again just as before it had 
 done. No, not just as before, for as we have 
 made others happy, we have been made happy, 
 or just as we have forgotten others, we may 
 have been forgotten. If our hearts have been 
 made to swell with generosity, or contract 
 with greed, just so shall we be made better 
 or worse for the season's deeds, and each 
 Christmas tide makes us just a little bit more 
 generous, or a little bit more miserly. 
 
 79 
 
so TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 It is a beautiful custom to make merry on 
 December 25th, to fill up the physical body 
 with Turkey and Greece — I mean turkey and 
 gravy, — for the turkey furnishes the fuel and 
 the gravy oils the machinery and sets us 
 going smoothly again; and a little wine, "for 
 the stomach's sake," tends to set our wits 
 a-sparkling and warms our blood, and gives 
 us, temporarily at least, an added zest with 
 which to enjoy the good things of life. It is 
 a beautiful custom to hang up the mistletoe, 
 even if the males of the party do not have the 
 courage to honor the custom for which it is 
 used, more's the pity, and if they can make 
 Mary stand still under it long enough, and do 
 have the courage, what can send the warm 
 blood dancing through her veins like a red- 
 hot kiss from Tom, or Jerry, or Tom-and- 
 Jerry. And shall we not make Mary a present 
 on Christmas Day ? 
 
 There is a society being formed, in the 
 great city next door, for the purpose of doing 
 away with Christmas giving; they say, "with 
 useless Christmas giving," but I am afraid it 
 
IN NEW ROCHELLE 81 
 
 will result in no giving at all; its only an 
 excuse. No one need give costly presents if 
 they do not want to, but just a remembrance, 
 just enough to show that there is a generous 
 impulse in that dry old heart, can do no harm. 
 Just to show to others that you do not belong 
 to the Old Scrooge class. Just to show that 
 one human heart treasures a kindly thought 
 for somebody else. 
 
 A generous thought really does expand the 
 heart of the giver, and an added force sends 
 the blood along its way. Whether the gift is 
 thankfully received or not, has no bearing, 
 whatever, on- the matter. It has done the 
 giver good, and it relaxes the tense nervous 
 system of the man of affairs and he laughs to 
 himself to think what a surprise he has on 
 the recipient. 
 
 Just think of the empty little stockings 
 hanging to the mantle, for there are many, 
 many little ones whose hearts will beat 
 heavily in their breasts, when they find that 
 Santa Claus did not have time to call. Many 
 motherless ones there are, who will look in 
 
82 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 vain for just one little present. Many father- 
 less ones, who will never know what Christ- 
 mas really means. Many lonesome ones, 
 larger and older, who long for their sympathy 
 of one thoughtful heart expressed in an in- 
 expensive gift. Many who will look in vain 
 for a remembrance from one they love, who 
 has been too busy to remember, or who has 
 joined a society, — God save the mark, — to do 
 away with Christmas giving. 
 
 Oh, may we all allow the kindly impulses 
 of our hearts to break through the crusts that 
 keep them in during the rest of the year, and 
 give each friend some little token at Christ- 
 mas, for I believe there is in each heart a 
 tender spot in which will arise sympathetic 
 thoughts of others, if we only give them a 
 chance. Just as under the crust of ice and 
 snow on the earth, the violets are beginning 
 to whisper to each other of the warm and 
 gentle Springtime that is coming later on, 
 so the sympathy under the crust of one heart 
 calls to that under the crusts of others, and 
 if a generous impulse springs from one bosom, 
 
IN NEW ROCHELLE 83 
 
 it shall call forth kindly impulses from others. 
 There is a way to touch the hardest heart and 
 a sympathetic word, or act, may break the 
 crust of years, and even tears may rise to the 
 eyes of those hearts which have been hardened 
 by the sin and selfishness of a cold and un- 
 feeling world. 
 
 God pity those in whose breasts arise no 
 generous impulses, no desire to give to others, 
 but only a desire to receive, for there is more 
 pleasure in giving than in receiving, after all. 
 Then let us give something, at least to those 
 we love, e'er warm, vivid life is over and the 
 cold hand of death has gripped our hearts, or 
 their hearts, in a tighter clasp than selfish- 
 ness, and then, not the "ghost of Christmas 
 present," but the ghosts of Christmas pres- 
 ents, will come back to us in kindly words, or 
 deeds, when we least expect it, from some 
 lonely hearts that we have remembered to 
 cherish. 
 
XVII 
 
 JOSEPH AND HIS BRETHREN. 
 
 Yes, the Play was exceptionally fine. 
 
 The author and the actors, the stage-man- 
 ager and the scene-painters, all conspired to 
 extract from the audience the highest amount 
 of praise, and it was generously given. Of 
 course, as most of the' plays do, it brought 
 out what purported to be, "great moral les- 
 sons," but as I looked at the changing scenes, 
 I saw that, after all, its great object was to 
 bring out in its many varieties, human love. 
 First, there was the mother love. The love of 
 the mother for her first and only child, bone 
 of her bone, flesh of her flesh, yes, and soul of 
 her soul. 
 
 Then came the love of the father for his 
 child, a reflection of the great love which he 
 had for the mother, and as he looks upon his 
 boy he sees in him the image of the mother 
 when she was young and beautiful. 
 
 85 
 
86 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 Then appears the snake in this garden of 
 Eden, envy. It has its seat in the hearts of 
 the older brothers because of the partiality 
 shown to the youngest and best loved child. 
 Then comes the love of a strong souled pas- 
 sionate woman, an overpowering desire for 
 the love of youth and strength. But love can- 
 not compel love, and this longing was destined 
 to be unsatisfied. To what heights may warm, 
 throbbing, human love, not carry us when it 
 is rightly directed and rightly requited, and 
 the children born of such unions, how great 
 may they not become, aye, masters of men, 
 head and shoulders above other mortals, for 
 they are born with the strength and vigor of 
 great human passions, through which we 
 attain the divine. 
 
 But when such love is unrequited, it may 
 bring to the one who harbors it, as well as 
 to the one who is its object, death; for jeal- 
 ousy, that monster of the passions, may turn 
 love to hate and hate to murder. Those who 
 cherish it, may be consumed by it as by a 
 scorching fire, and all those around them 
 
IN NEW ROCHELLE 87 
 
 may be made unhappy. And to think that 
 often the suspicious ones have no ground 
 whatever for their thoughts, and that the 
 victims may be entirely innocent. Then there 
 was the tender love of the gentle maiden, 
 who was willing to sacrifice herself that her 
 lover might be made happy ; and this is the 
 highest type of love, and the scarcest, and 
 from such mothers come the great ones, not 
 of the earth, but of heaven. Then came the 
 love of the dainty maiden, who with gleam- 
 ing limbs and twinkling toes, dances right into 
 the hearts of the spectators ; just as a butterfly 
 flits from flower to flower and sips a little 
 honey here and a little there, and who joys in 
 the sunshine of life, and who either knows 
 not yet real love, or who hides under a cheer- 
 ful manner, a breaking heart. 
 
 Love makes its votaries suffer, be they 
 high or low, rich or poor. Whether their love 
 be pure or impure, mild or gentle, or wild and 
 passionate. And they who have really loved, 
 have entered into a kingdom, a kingdom, not 
 of this world, which makes them different 
 
88 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 from other mortals, whether their love be re- 
 quited or not. 
 
 Whether love carries the worshippers up- 
 ward or downward, whether it makes them 
 free or confines them in a cage where they die 
 beating their wings against the gilded bars, 
 love makes a greater change in them than 
 everything else in the world combined. We 
 cannot tell, sometimes, until we try, whether 
 affection in any one case will last, but we do 
 know that it can last until Time shall be no 
 more and the sands of the desert shall no more 
 be whirled by the wind through trackless 
 ether. 
 
 Love does, sometimes, seem to make sport 
 of its human plaything, and it is sometimes 
 entirely out of our control. Though we may 
 have some power over the details of life, Des- 
 tiny shapes the beginning and the ending, and 
 presides over the greater events, and from its 
 mandates, there is no escape. There is no such 
 thing as free human will, or free human choice, 
 for the choice we make and the thing we do, 
 is influenced by the hundreds and thousands 
 
IN NEW ROCHELLE 89 
 
 of years through which we have passed as a 
 family, or as a nation, or as a race; and our 
 environment and our studies, also, help to 
 mold our minds. 
 
 And then comes the last act of the Play, 
 and here we see the fraternal love which has 
 at last displaced envy and jealousy. And 
 Joseph tells his brethren that it was not their 
 doings, at all, which caused these things to 
 come to pass, but it was God working through 
 them all for the accomplishment of great 
 works. And it was God, also, who made 
 Potiphar's wife as well as the brethren of 
 Joseph. But the Play is ended, the curtain is 
 down and we go out into the business of life, 
 where the men and women are only actors 
 upon a larger stage and in a more fateful 
 play. 
 
XVIII 
 
 YOUTH AND BEAUTY. 
 
 If you look close enough, you may find my 
 text in the first verse, of the first chapter, of 
 the book accorded to Pharaoh, ''Never lose 
 an opportunity to see anything beautiful, for 
 beauty is God's handwriting." So when I 
 received an invitation to attend a classical 
 dance matinee, I accepted it with great joy, 
 and if you will bear with me awhile, I will 
 take the opportunity to bring before you 
 some thoughts respecting youth and beauty 
 and grace, which were so charmingly brought 
 to my attention by the dancing of Violet 
 Romer, whose name really should have been 
 Rose, for that flower is much more typical of 
 her. 
 
 There is nothing so much regretted, by the 
 older ones among us, as the loss of our youth, 
 and as the loss of youth with most people 
 
 91 
 
92 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 means the loss of a certain amount of beauty, 
 the loss of youth is doubly crushing. We are 
 all deeply impressed by youth and beauty 
 when we see them in others, and their power 
 over all kinds and classes of men and women 
 is absolute and irresistible; so as I sat and 
 viewed the charming gyrations of the dainty 
 dancer, I wished even as you might have 
 wished, to be once more, young and beautiful 
 and graceful. We speak of the beauty of 
 music and the beauty of motion just as we 
 speak of a beautiful landscape, a beautiful 
 sunset, a beautiful picture, a beautiful statue, 
 or a beautiful woman; so we see that beauty 
 is not confined to any especial person or thing. 
 It may be in something pleasing to the eye, 
 or to the ear, or to any of the other senses, 
 and not to the senses wholly but also to that 
 other, that mysterious part of us, who sits 
 within our minds in awful sovereignty. So in 
 this accomplishment of dancing the beauty 
 in the music, which ordinarily is only under- 
 stood by means of the ear, is made plain to 
 the sight, also, and the joyousness of the 
 
IN NEW ROCHELLE 93 
 
 Valse, the yearning wistfulness of the An- 
 dante, and the mischievousness of the Hama- 
 dryad, becomes plain to all. 
 
 It is seldom, however, that any particular 
 person or thing is beautiful in all its parts. 
 There is nearly always some part, or parts, 
 not as perfect as the rest. Artists tell me that 
 often a number of women must serve as mod- 
 els during the painting of one female figure, 
 as one will be perfect in one part and another 
 in another part, and so on. It does seem as 
 if we were not to reach absolute perfection in 
 anything, on this earth. I know that there 
 have been painters who have taken years to 
 imitate the beauty of one human form, and 
 there have been sculptors who have taken 
 a lifetime to release from a rough block of 
 marble, one almost perfect figure, and in this 
 work of dancing, it takes a long, long time, 
 to make fit, the one who becomes accom- 
 plished in it. To be successsful in its highest 
 meaning, a person must first love the work in 
 which they are engaged, and if we notice 
 closely we shall find that the highest types of 
 
94 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 the artist's labors have been brought forth 
 when there was present love for the model as 
 well as for the work, for only love can see all 
 the beauties that are present; for love can 
 draw out, as nothing else can do, the beauties 
 of form and feature. Only the lover sees in 
 his mistress all of the charms which nature 
 sometimes seems to try to hide lest their 
 beauty may be too overpowering for unaccus- 
 tomed eyes to behold, or unsympathetic spir- 
 its to know. 
 
 And in women beauty reaches her height. 
 The waving cypress may be beautiful, but 
 woman's silky hair puts the cypress to shame. 
 The blue of the ocean is deep, but deeper far 
 and yet more blue, is the color in those twin 
 lakes through which her spirit looks out upon 
 us, for the distance from which it looks, is 
 Eternity. The petals of the rose are soft and 
 delicate; but softer far and yet more sensi- 
 tive are her lips in their dewy freshness, and 
 the perfume of her presence is greater than 
 the scent of attar of roses. 
 
 And so as I watched the dancer with the 
 
IN NEW ROCHELLE 95 
 
 rose, I thought of old Omar and how he said, 
 "And then came Spring and rose in hand. 
 My threadbare penitence apiece tore." 
 Penitence, yes, but not penitence for loving 
 either the rose or the one who bore it, for he 
 knew that God made both. Much too long 
 indeed have we been kept under the dark 
 cloud of cant. Much too long have we been 
 taught that the human body was shameful and 
 sinful and that to save the soul we must keep 
 out of sight the body, which was made by 
 God, as well as the soul. It is important that 
 the body should be well taken care of and 
 kept clean and pure, for it is the home, for the 
 time being, of the soul, and a soul cannot be 
 healthy in an unhealthy body any more than 
 a mind can be kept pure in an impure body. 
 God made both and knew when He made 
 them the needs and desires of both. Yes, we 
 have been taught by hypocrites and mummies 
 to be ashamed of our bodies, but God be 
 thanked we are coming into a new era, in 
 which, along with votes for women and jus- 
 tice for children, we shall be allowed to study, 
 
96 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 without reproach, the beautiful, for the beau- 
 tiful is the good. 
 
 And after all no body can be beautiful 
 without a beautiful soul in it, and Beauty, 
 or perfection, for they are the same, compels 
 us to worship, and not with selfishness, but 
 with awe and reverence. 
 
 If the dear people who are calling just at 
 present so loudly for eugenics, would only 
 stop to think, they would know that the surest 
 way of making a race stronger and more 
 beautiful is to show to its future fathers and 
 mothers the most beautiful pictures and the 
 most perfect statues we possess, and, yes, the 
 most perfect human bodies we know of, and 
 keep out of sight the ugly and the deformed 
 and the vile, for they, having become ac- 
 quainted with these forms which are as near 
 perfect as we can expect on this earth, will 
 never waste a second glance upon the dis- 
 torted or imperfect. The best way to do, is 
 to do away with all imperfections, to not talk 
 about, or look at, or listen to them. Some- 
 
IN NEW ROCHELLE 97 
 
 time we hope to attain absolute perfection 
 somewhere. And that word "hope." 
 
 In her beautiful dance of Pandora, the 
 dancer found Hope at the bottom of the box, 
 and so may we if all else fails yet be buoyed 
 up by Hope. And may we know that through 
 the worship of beautiful bodies, we are 
 brought to the worship of beautiful souls, and 
 that beautiful bodies and beautiful souls are, 
 after all, only those which are perfect, and 
 that the perfect is the good. 
 
XIX 
 
 EASTER THOUGHTS. 
 
 Easter, as we call it, has again come and 
 gone, but still, the perfume of its flowers and 
 the incense that we offered, haunts us. Christ 
 has again arisen amid songs of praise and 
 tears of joy, and we have had a glimpse, just 
 a glimpse of that fairer world to which He 
 went. We have had a breath of that purer 
 air, wafted to us from the other side of those 
 gates of Death, which, for an instant, were 
 opened to let Him through. We have had 
 just a fleeting impression of those beauties 
 which "no mortal man can look upon and 
 live." Of course, we all believe that Christ 
 arose from the dead, and we all believe that 
 we, too, shall arise from the dead as He did. 
 For are we not all children of the selfsame 
 God, and have we not also trod, in pain, the 
 paths He followed? 
 
 99 
 
100 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 It is fitting, then, that at Easter time we 
 should look forward to another home be- 
 yond. Beyond that "valley of the shadow,'* 
 and it is proper that we offer up, as incense, 
 the best thoughts we have in us, and the most 
 beautiful music we know. Just as the flow- 
 ers offer up to Him who gave them their 
 dress, their sweetest perfume, and bare to Him 
 their souls of spotless white. We can do no 
 less than the flowers; and we should try to 
 restore our souls as near as possible to their 
 pristine purity, and clear them of all evil. 
 Should we not take this time to open the 
 doors of our hearts just a little bit, at any 
 rate, to our friends, that they may catch just 
 a glimpse, just a breath, to show them that 
 we really, in our inmost thoughts, do love and 
 cherish them? 
 
 Yes, as we praise Him who, in His good- 
 ness, cares for us, let us bare to Him our in- 
 most thoughts and desires, and thank Him 
 who drank for us the bitter cup, that we 
 might do for each other that which He did 
 for us. Let us, therefore, send greetings to 
 
IN NEW ROCHELLE 101 
 
 those we love, and show them just enough of 
 our hearts to convince them that we are sin- 
 cere, and mean to be kind and sympathetic. 
 And we shall find that there will be an answer 
 from each one to whom we send a greeting. 
 
 Just a hand clasp, or a word, may show to 
 another that we are sympathetic and drive out 
 from his mind all uncertainty and doubt. And 
 when the curtains are again drawn the thought 
 remains, that there is one friend, at least, who 
 cares. We are all sensitive and in our hearts 
 we hide many little graves of dead hopes, of 
 bitter disappointments and of cherished things 
 we have loved, and which only the resurrec- 
 tion of love can bring back to us. 
 
 And so, at this Eastertime, as we celebrate 
 again the ascension of Christ in all its beauty, 
 let us take a fresh hold upon our old belief 
 in Him and in ourselves. As He rose and is 
 awaiting, in a fairer clime, those who love 
 Him ; as He awaits those who suffer and who 
 die, let us remember that only those who have 
 suffered can really sympathize, can really be 
 kind. Let us purify our souls to make them 
 
102 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 fit places for truth and sincerity to dwell, 
 remembering that the soul, only, goes beyond, 
 that the body remains as the worn and use- 
 less husk which returns to the earth as it 
 was. 
 
XX 
 
 TOM PAINE. 
 
 So you want to see the Tom Paine house? 
 Well, come with me and I will show it to you. 
 You see it stands in a beautiful spot at the 
 foot of a hill, close to a little lake, which 
 nestles in the hollow surrounded by hills, like 
 a diamond mirror in an emerald frame. 
 
 It is an old weather beaten cottage with old- 
 fashioned shutters. Close by it, stands the 
 old schoolhouse, where children of a by-gone 
 age were taught to read, write and spell. 
 
 Let us enter the old house. On every side 
 we see evidences of times long past, and a 
 peculiar awe steals over us, as if we were in 
 the presence of the unknown. Here is a cane 
 General Jackson used to carry. It is large and 
 heavy, knotted and gnarled; in fact it is just 
 as typical of him as is this other one of the 
 man who carried it. This other one is straight 
 
 103 
 
104 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 and slender. It has an ivory top, in fact it 
 looks as if it had belonged to a gentleman; 
 it has belonged to a gentleman ; it is the cane 
 Henry Clay owned. There, are a lot of old 
 coins and some old Indian relics, and the fur- 
 niture is old-fashioned and so are the carpets. 
 
 Sh! I thought I heard a footfall in the 
 next room! 
 
 Let's look and see who is there. Why, 
 there's no one! This is the sittingroom. 
 What are you jumping at? Are you afraid? 
 Its nothing but the creaking of the floor; 
 floors always do that in an old house. (I'll 
 swear I saw that rocking chair move.) Now 
 let's go up the stairs. How narrow and steep 
 they are. What did you say ? You didn't say 
 anything? I thought you spoke. What queer 
 little rooms, and what a funny old bedstead 
 that is. I do believe there is somebody in 
 this house. I certainly hear someone talking. 
 Don't hold my hand so tight. Yes, I'm get- 
 ting nervous myself. Open that door, gently 
 now; yes, there is a man there. Hush! he is 
 talking ! 
 
IN NEW ROCHELLE 105 
 
 "When it shall be said in any country, *My 
 poor are happy; neither ignorance nor dis- 
 tress is to be found among them; my jails 
 are empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars ; 
 the aged are not in want, the taxes are not 
 oppressive; the rational world is my friend 
 because I am a friend of its happiness/ When 
 these things can be said, then may that coun- 
 try boast of its constitution and its govern- 
 ment." 
 
 Why, that's Mr. Paine himself. Don't dis- 
 turb him, but let us go quietly down stairs 
 and he will not know that we heard him. And 
 then when we get out of doors again the spell 
 is broken, and we know that we are living in 
 the 20th century, and that what we thought 
 was Thomas Paine, was only a waxen image ; 
 and that the lips that gave utterance to the 
 immortal thoughts just quoted, have been cold 
 in death for a hundred years; and that even 
 the place in which they repose is unknown. 
 The soul of Thomas Paine was swept by tur- 
 bulent passions. Faults? Of course, who 
 does not have them, but his did him more harm 
 
106 TODAY AND YESTERDAY 
 
 than they did any one else. To-day his in- 
 tellectual greatness is alone remembered, his 
 faults have been forgotten. Philosophy did 
 much for Thomas Paine as it did for Thomas 
 Jefferson ; but it did not go far enough. The 
 solace of philosophy is insufficient. Only a 
 belief in the teachings of Christ can enable a 
 man to "drink that darker drink" and lie 
 down upon his couch in peace, to die. 
 
JUH 2& I'^^S 
 
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 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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