LIBRARY 
 
 07 CAT.TFORN*A 
 
If Jesus 
 Came to Boston 
 
 By 
 
 Edward E. Hale 
 
 ff 
 
 VT-CRESCIT 
 
 Boston 
 
 Lamson, Wolffe, and Company 
 
 6, Beacon Street 
 
 1895 
 
 FTWTV CALIFORNIA 
 
Copyright, 1894, 
 BY J. STILLMAN SMITH & Co. 
 
 Copyright, 1895, 
 BY LAMSON, WOLFFE, & Co. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 MR. STEAD has written a valuable book, under 
 the striking title, " If Christ came to Chicago." 
 It has excited much comment and much alarm. 
 It has suggested to ill-informed people that Christ's 
 plans have failed badly, and that, as has been well 
 said, " we are all going to hell remarkably fast, 
 as we are not." We have no wish to abate the 
 force of any one of its warnings. We have no 
 desire to contrast the cities of Boston and Chicago, 
 which are, indeed, cities curiously alike in many 
 important regards, though not always thought so. 
 
 But we believe it so important that every student 
 
 * 
 of life should take all points of view, that we are 
 
 glad to be able to present another picture, as our 
 
4 PREFACE. 
 
 friend Dr. Primrose happened to see it. He had 
 noted the title of Mr. Stead's sketch, and, to some 
 notes of his week's experience with his unknown 
 friend, we venture to give the title above, " If 
 Jesus came to Boston." 
 
IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 I HAD Mr. Stead's book in my pocket one 
 afternoon when I called on Dr. Primrose. I am 
 used to advising with him, and I get good sense 
 from him, if I let him have his head and do not 
 interrupt him. I found him on the back veranda 
 of his pretty house in South Boston, high 
 enough, it stands, to overlook the whole bay. A 
 pretty sight, of an October afternoon, when the 
 yachts are all astir, and everything is sunny and 
 the sea is blue. 
 
 It is the old Fred. Ingham house, if you 
 remember it. The doctor was at home, from 
 his day's round, and was reading his " Outlook." 
 But he threw the paper down, found two chairs 
 for me, one for my body and one for my feet, 
 resumed the two in which he had made himself 
 comfortable, and bade me watch the Pilgrim as 
 she beat up the narrow channel against the south- 
 
6 IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 
 
 west wind. I did so. But I told him why I had 
 come. I took out Mr. Stead's book. I found 
 he had seen it already. 
 
 " Yes," said he, " and they took the Saviour 
 into very bad places. I could do it here. Hells 
 and slums and dives, opium, gambling, adul 
 tery, and murder, I could show it all to him 
 here, as I could have showed it to him in Jeru 
 salem or Tiberias, or as they can in Chicago now. 
 But I could show him other things, too, which I 
 could not have shown him in Jerusalem or Naz 
 areth or Bethlehem, and they could have done 
 so there." 
 
 He spoke earnestly. He turned and looked me 
 square in the face. He saw he had my attention, 
 and he went on. 
 
 " I should hardly tell you this experience of 
 mine but that you brought Stead's book. It 
 was all a little strange to me. But there was no 
 secret." 
 
 He called Ellen, and told her to bring a paper 
 bag of peaches she would find on the hall table, 
 and some knives and plates and napkins. When 
 she had done this, he bade me help myself, and 
 he began. 
 
IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 7 
 
 CHATTER II. 
 
 DR. PRIMROSE'S STORY. 
 
 IT was when I was coming home from England 
 last. We had not a full list, for it was rather early 
 in the year. But I thought I knew every man on 
 board in the first cabin. So I was a little surprised 
 one morning at breakfast, where I was always early, 
 to see a man opposite me whom I had not seen 
 before. We were then within two days of Boston ; 
 we had been on the Banks, oh, two or three days. 
 But I bowed to him, and he to me, and fell to talk, 
 no one else there. The night had been rough, 
 and they were all sick again. 
 
 There was, perhaps, the least possible accent in 
 his voice, or was there? Was it possible that 
 he spoke the English of books, or of the Bible, 
 and not that of every day? But his face was all 
 alive, his eye told what he was saying before he 
 spoke, and, in spite of you, you said your best to 
 him,' as you do when any man tells you the whole, 
 without reserve. We had not talked two minutes 
 before well, he could have got out of me all he 
 chose. He was ready to tell me all he wanted, 
 
8 IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 
 
 and he seemed to know that I should want to do 
 it. We sat long at breakfast, then we went on 
 deck to walk, and well, I stayed with him all 
 that day. This was perhaps ten o'clock. 
 
 I had guessed that he was from the east of the 
 Mediterranean, a Syrian. He had that firm, strong 
 look that you have seen among the Druses. Tall, 
 six feet high, as dark as some Italians in com 
 plexion, this charming smile I tell you of, and a 
 perfect sympathy as he listened. Strong? Yes, 
 as Julius Caesar ; but affectionate, almost caressing. 
 
 He was on a queer errand, which he fevealed 
 to me at once, because, as he said, I could help 
 him. He seemed to think that this made it sure 
 I would, and, indeed, he was right there. Why, 
 if he asked a deck-hand to go down to the steer 
 age with him, the man went at once, as my boy 
 Will there always comes with me, unless I send 
 him away. So, as I say, we walked the deck 
 together, while he told me what brought him to 
 America. 
 
 He had a brother over here, he said, " at least 
 I call him my brother," whom, oddly enough, 
 he had never seen. In fact, before we were done, 
 I came to think that this was only a half-brother, 
 or maybe some far-away cousin who was called a 
 
IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 9 
 
 brother, clearly enough, a sort of an Ishmaelite. 
 This fellow had strayed away, they did not know 
 where at first, till something turned up which 
 showed he was or had been in America ; and my 
 friend had come to look him up. I asked about 
 the family, and then he smiled with that friendly 
 smile of his. 
 
 Oh, nobody knew how many children there 
 were ! Wife? She was a sort of Arab or Edom- 
 ite of some kind; she must be dead. But he 
 knew certainly of a dozen children, boys and girls 
 both; I think he thought there were thirteen, all 
 told. Anyway, they were lost, and he was bound 
 to find them. 
 
 In my stupid way I tried to make him under 
 stand that our country is very large, and that 
 people scatter, and that we keep no statistics 
 about such people if we can help it. But he did 
 not attend much to what I said. It was clear that 
 he was used to success, and he meant to succeed. 
 " Legions of people to help, you know," he said, 
 and implied rather gently that he should not give 
 it up before he began. And I, well, if you 
 knew him you would not wonder, I " highly 
 determined " that I would not leave him till they 
 were found. 
 
IO IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 
 
 Well, that seemed to be the way right along. I 
 told him, of course, that he must come to my 
 house and stay with me here; and he said he 
 would. But actually, on the pier, after the ship 
 was made fast, waiting on the end of the steerage 
 gangway I saw Miss Burnett, the Young Travel 
 ler's Friend, and a girl, whose name I do not 
 know, with the uniform of the Salvation Army. 
 To their surprise and mine, my friend shook 
 hands with them both, and they tried to remem 
 ber where they had seen him before. I told Miss 
 Burnett that we had these people to look up ; and 
 she laughed, and said we had come to the right 
 office this time. She was here, and her friend, for 
 the exact purpose of meeting the steerage-women, 
 as they landed, to see that they got into no 
 scrapes. They had the name of a family from 
 Genoa, about whom the Army people had tele 
 graphed from Italy; and, when all the steerage 
 people had landed, she could go to the office with 
 us and hunt up our baker's dozen. 
 
 When they said " hunt them up," my friend 
 looked at me, and intimated that this thing was 
 easier than I had thought. But Eliza Burnett 
 said at once : 
 
 " But, Dr. Primrose, why do you wait? Why 
 
IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. II 
 
 not go yourself to Allen street and see if they 
 have not run across them? Then she will tele 
 phone to Miss Smith, and they will tell you what 
 they know at headquarters." " Allen street " meant 
 Mrs. Grove's house, where are lodging-rooms of 
 the "Young Traveller's Aid." 
 
 And so she took down on her book the name 
 " Ishmael Benagar," which I came to know so well, 
 nodded, and ran into the steerage with her friend, 
 to find the Genoese girl. 
 
 I and my companion went our way. I found 
 myself calling him back sometimes, where he un 
 dertook to lead ; for I did think that if I knew 
 anything, I knew about the North End streets, and 
 I did not suppose he did. He was amused at 
 my persistency in my own plans, and yet, oddly 
 enough, he seemed always to come out right in his. 
 We struck just the right boat without waiting, and 
 brought up, as we were bidden, at Allen street. 
 On a hint of theirs, we went next to the Y. W. C. A. 
 office in Berkeley street. We were shown into the 
 office, carpet rather worn, long table in the 
 middle, four or five chairs, bookcase with glass 
 doors well stocked. My friend began to look at 
 the books. But he had no time to read before 
 Miss Drinkwater, the chief, came in. It seemed 
 
12 IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 
 
 almost as if she had been waiting for us. The 
 upshot of it all was this : 
 
 Their index, for years back, showed no Benagar. 
 But every one remembered " that pretty Benaco 
 girl," and every one knew where she was, with 
 a nice family in Maiden, where she took care of 
 the little children. The people were much inter 
 ested in her, and made of her an older sister in the 
 family. The description tallied so well with my 
 friend's recollection of Benagar's mother, that he 
 took a note of the* Maiden home, sure he should 
 find it, as I noticed, and determined to go there. 
 Miss Drinkwater meanwhile had called Miss Zilpha 
 Smith, and was talking to her, at the Chardon- 
 street Bureau, through the telephone. 
 
 In my dull Western arrogance I fancied that the 
 telephone might surprise him. I did not suppose 
 they had them at Acre or at Petra. But no. He 
 took all such marvels as though they were matters 
 of course. He had to guess from what Miss 
 Drinkwater said what were Miss Smith's replies. 
 And, where he could not guess, Miss Drinkwater 
 interpreted. 
 
 "We want a family named Benagar, Syrian 
 people." " Yes." " B-e-n-a-g-a-r. If you do 
 not find that, try Benaco, B-e-n-a-c-o." " Yes." 
 
IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 13 
 
 " Yes." " Twelve children besides a girl in 
 Maiden." "Yes." "No." Then she laughed 
 and turned to us. " They have not found any 
 Benaco but ours ; they had her. But they are a 
 bright set there. They think they have them as 
 " Vinegar," but they have called a visitor to 
 Salutation alley, and they will know in a few 
 minutes." 
 
 So we waited, and my friend asked Miss Drink- 
 water how she fell in with Miriam, the girl he felt 
 sure of. It was a pretty story. 
 
 " This Miriam oh, such a pretty, graceful 
 creature found herself at a railroad station 
 alone, at ten o'clock. Her father had undertaken 
 to meet her, and was not there." 
 
 My friend bowed gravely, as if such were his 
 brother's custom. He said beneath his breath, 
 but so I could hear him, " I go, sir, and he went 
 not." Miss Drinkwater did not observe, and went 
 on with her story. 
 
 " If the child had not been frightened," she said, 
 " Mr. Parvis would have taken care of her. Or, if 
 she had met Mrs. Marceline, she would have taken 
 care of her, or, the carriage men are very good, 
 and she might have been safe in five minutes. 
 But she thought she could find her father. He 
 
14 IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 
 
 had written where he lived, and that child, at ten 
 at night, set out to find her way in Boston. Where 
 she went, the recording angel knows. Where she 
 came out was at Miss Gardner's house in Berkeley 
 street, or at the Temporary Home. They saw she 
 was all right, and they took her in." 
 
 " What do you mean when you say * all 
 right ' ? " said he gravely. 
 
 " Oh, I mean she was a stranger, and they took 
 her in. That is what they are for." 
 
 Then he turned to me, and said he thought we 
 had better go there on the way to Maiden. But 
 at this moment the telephone rang. 
 
 " Yes." " Yes." " No." " Certainly." 
 " Spell it." And then she turned to us. " There 
 is one of the children, Mahalath Vinegar, now at 
 the Hancock School. If you get there before 
 twelve you can see her. She will take you to her 
 brother's house. They know nothing of any 
 father." 
 
 My friend smiled gladly as he heard the name 
 Mahalath, and said, " That is right, that is right ! 
 I know he would have named one child for her 
 grandmother." 
 
 " But at the office they call them Egyptians. 
 They thought they were gypsies." 
 
IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 15 
 
 " Well, of course, his mother was an Egyptian." 
 
 And then, promising to come again, we left in 
 hot haste for the Hancock-Cushman School. But 
 we did not find it, for all our haste, until the 
 afternoon. 
 
 We were crossing Pleasant street, running, 
 indeed, to take a cab, when a dark-faced young 
 man, just ahead of us, slipped and fell on the wet 
 pavement. A heavy coal-cart was just turning 
 round, knocked him down, and the wheel jammed 
 his foot horribly. A fez fell from his head as he 
 fell. Quick as light, my companion was at his 
 side, and lifted him to the sidewalk. I followed, 
 as soon as I could, and I saw that they were talk 
 ing in some tongue unknown to me. I helped to 
 carry him into a shop ; but at the moment a police 
 man touched me and said he had called an ambu 
 lance, and, indeed, before we were fairly in the 
 shop, the ambulance appeared. The men had 
 stretchers with them, so that the wounded man 
 had not even to limp ; and when he was com 
 fortable in the wagon, the officer said to my 
 friend : 
 
 " I see you can speak with him. Can you go to 
 the hospital?" 
 
 And in a moment they were off. I followed, in 
 
l6 IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 
 
 a cab I called, and was there almost as soon as 
 they. I explained who I was, and was led to the 
 room where the party had arrived just before me, 
 and where the poor sufferer was already on a bed. 
 They were carefully taking off his trousers, his 
 boots were off already, and then began the ex 
 amination of the wound. 
 
 The tenderness and skill of the surgeon were 
 exquisite. The delicacy and silent precision of 
 the nurses were as perfect. I know I said to my 
 wife, when I came home, that the whole seemed to 
 me like a sacrament. In a few minutes the first 
 examination and dressing were over, the surgeon 
 looked at his watch, and said, " Dr. Cheever will 
 be here in an hour; " and then gently intimated to 
 me and my friend that we had better go. Benda- 
 oeed bent over his countryman to say a word to 
 him in Syriac, and then followed me. 
 
 "I am not sure," he whispered, " but he has just 
 the look of his grandfather." And then he begged 
 me to take him to the chief physician's office, and 
 I did so. He thanked that gentleman, with Ori 
 ental warmth, for the kindness shown to his 
 countryman. " My brother's son, perhaps," he 
 said, with feeling ; and he took out two great pieces 
 of their Eastern money. " Pray take care of him," 
 
IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. I/ 
 
 he said. "Take this, and whatever you spend 
 more, when I come again I will repay you." 
 
 But the doctor smiled and returned the coins. 
 " Not at all, dear sir. You will have enough other 
 chances to use them. This is what we are for. I 
 am glad you could see what we try to do to every 
 child of God. Your good Samaritan countryman 
 did not live in vain." 
 
 And so the Syrian and I started for the Han- 
 cock-Cushman School. It is fully two miles from 
 the hospital, you know, so I had a chance to show 
 him some of our customs, good and bad. I re 
 member he was very much touched, at Blackstone 
 square. He stopped to wet his lips at the Apple- 
 ton fountain. As he offered me the cup of cold 
 water, I took it as a sacrament, and I said to him, 
 " In the name of a disciple." As he walked on he 
 said, "That was good. Did you see the dogs 
 drinking at the lower place, while the horse drank 
 at the trough, and you and I at the running stream 
 above?" 
 
 We stopped to see Miss Zilpha Smith at the 
 Bureau of Charities, to see if she had learned any 
 thing more of the tribe of Benagar, Benaco, or 
 Vinegar. But she had almost nothing to tell us. 
 This "Vinegar" child was staying with an aunt, 
 
1 8 IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 
 
 as she was called, where there had been an acci 
 dent, and the Diet Kitchen had provided some 
 special food. That was the chance by which this 
 name was registered. 
 
 My friend asked about the registry, and Miss 
 Smith showed him the outside of it, she would 
 not let any outsider see the contents. An enor 
 mous case of cards, which had the histories of the 
 people who had been in need, for fourteen years. 
 But, as she said, if the Benagars had not come to 
 need, they would not be recorded there. Why 
 did he think they had come to need? 
 
 This waked me up, of course. I had gone off 
 at half-cock in supposing that they had. But he 
 had misled me; and even now it was quite clear 
 to me that because his kinsman had come to need 
 everywhere else, he had, naturally, taken it for 
 granted that he would here. But there I took 
 up my parable. I said that thousands on thou 
 sands of people landed here every year, and with 
 tens of thousands of children, who never came to 
 need. I told him of that New Hampshire farmer 
 who said to me that Cooke could have a fine corn 
 field, because Cooke had so many children ; and I 
 said that the country meant to take care of every 
 body who came, and did take care of most of 
 
IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 19 
 
 them without their coming near any public 
 authorities. 
 
 " I thought you understood," said I, " that this 
 is only the margin which we are handling here." 
 He intimated again that Benagar would be sure to 
 be in the margin, if there were any. But I was 
 not so sure. I told him, however, that while we 
 were there, we would see what did happen to the 
 margin, and we went downstairs to Mr. Pettee's 
 office. He is the secretary to the Overseers of the 
 Poor. 
 
 I told Mr. Bendaoeed that it would not do to 
 leave the matter to chance, and that this was 
 therefore a separate department, with almost om 
 nipotent authority, which had oversight of people 
 who came to need. Nobody is to starve while 
 the Commonwealth has a penny left. I introduced 
 him to Mr. Pettee, and he to one of the gentlemen 
 who had the oversight of separate districts. This 
 gentleman took us downstairs, that we might see 
 with our own eyes the distribution of food. A 
 tall, thin woman, meanly dressed, met us, with a 
 bag of oatmeal under her arm, and a codfish held 
 by the tail in one hand. A little girl of thirteen 
 or fourteen passed me, and I asked her to show 
 us what she had, which was an order for coal on 
 
20 IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 
 
 the coal-dealer in her district. The place had the 
 aspect of a back room in a country store, with 
 bags of oatmeal of different sizes tied up ready 
 for immediate delivery on the orders from up 
 stairs. The visitor who was with us explained 
 that it is wholly impossible to give money to any 
 one in need, unless he fall within the line of cer 
 tain pensioners, of whose characters the authorities 
 are assured. It might go for whiskey. The city 
 prefers to give the food itself, which is to go into 
 the mouth of the hungry. 
 
 Then I took my friend up to the Provident As 
 sociation, who make the largest distribution of 
 clothing to those who are in need. But my real 
 object was, that at the " Industrial Aid " I might 
 see if any Vinegar or Benaco or Benagar had ap 
 plied there that winter. 
 
 So we looked in at a room where perhaps a 
 dozen boys were sitting, waiting to be employed, 
 and ten or twelve men, and I introduced my 
 friend to Mr. Peterson. But he was quite sure 
 that he had neither of the three names on his list, 
 and they did not appear upon the various indexes. 
 
 As we went out from the building, my companion 
 said that he observed that the gentleman who had 
 gone downstairs with us, and his companion, spoke 
 
IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 21 
 
 as if one or the other of them knew all these peo 
 ple. I said it was so, that the system was such 
 that all these people came, after it had been made 
 sure that they would not sell the food given them 
 to other persons, and that they had no means of 
 earning it by the sweat of their brow. He seemed 
 to understand all this in advance ; but he said : 
 
 " But what would come to one of those poor 
 people who landed with us, for instance ; suppose 
 that in the first hour he lost his purse or his scrip, 
 suppose that he found himself hungry at one 
 o'clock, where would he be?" 
 
 I said I was glad he asked me the question just 
 there ; and then I took him up the steps of the 
 building which we were passing, and rang the 
 door-bell. The attendant knew me, for I have had 
 more than one occasion to take a stranger there, 
 and admitted us at once. I said, " Here is a gen 
 tleman from the East who wants to see what sort 
 of chowder you make." And the attendant 
 laughed and took me into the dining-room. 
 
 At the table there were seated one or two men, 
 and at another table in the next room three or four 
 women. I told him that these were exactly such 
 people as he had described. They were people 
 astray in Boston, who had nothing to eat as noon 
 
22 IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 
 
 came, and they had reported themselves to the 
 first policeman whom they saw. This policeman 
 had passed them to the next, and he to the next ; 
 or, if it were far away, he had paid the fare of one 
 or another in a street car, that he might come to 
 this central dining-place. 
 
 " Here," I said, " you see the fare is not very 
 attractive, but it answers." 
 
 This particular day it happened to be fish chow 
 der, and the men evidently ate it with good appe 
 tite. I told my friend that I wished he could 
 taste it ; but it was not for him and for me, and 
 that I never permitted myself to pass the rule of 
 the place by partaking of the food which it was 
 the duty of the city to provide for those that were 
 in need. Still, looking at my watch, and finding 
 that we were not quite at two o'cfock, I made him 
 go upstairs with me, that he might see the babies. 
 In this room were five or six children, not dressed 
 very sumptuously, but in neat cribs, with clean 
 sheets, and their mothers sitting by them, knitting, 
 gossiping, and watching the little ones. These 
 were the stray children who, with their mothers, 
 had gone adrift exactly as he thought it might be 
 possible. There were homes here and homes there, 
 where they could be received ; but it would not do 
 
IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 23 
 
 for them to be sitting upon door-steps while they 
 were waiting for those homes, and accordingly the 
 city had provided this resting-place where per 
 haps they might be three or four days, until the 
 proper letter should come and the proper arrange 
 ment be made which should place mother and baby 
 anew in a home. 
 
 He played a little with one or two of the babies, 
 all of whom took to him on the moment. He 
 talked with the mothers and then with Mrs. 
 Crockett. No, she had not kept any record for 
 a long time of the number of people she sent 
 away. The ladies downstairs, of the Industrial 
 Aid, had found homes in the last year for nearly 
 three hundred of these poor women. The truth 
 was that these women were most of them poor 
 creatures broken down with drink, or with worse 
 devils, if there are worse. But there are country 
 towns where no drink can be got, and a little group 
 of ladies, and Mrs. Crockett herself, make it their 
 business to correspond with the people in these 
 country towns. Precisely because these poor 
 women are inefficient and cannot bear temptation, 
 the people in the country can have them, and take 
 them into homes where there will not be tempta 
 tion. As I said to him, and I noticed his eye 
 
24 IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 
 
 flashed, " Lead us not into temptation " is a 
 good prayer. So is it that, back in New England 
 somewhere, five hundred people in a year take 
 five hundred of these broken-down women into 
 their homes, sometimes with their babies, and give 
 them the new chance which they do not refuse. 
 Why, they told us of a woman who had been to 
 the House of Correction ten times, whom a New 
 Hampshire postmaster not yet canonized, be 
 cause this did not happen three hundred years 
 ago had taken care of, and who is now living a 
 decent life. His face had its most heavenly lopk 
 when I told him this, and he said, " I had rather 
 take care of that sheep in the mountains than of 
 any ninety and nine that never went astray." So 
 we bade Mrs. Crockett good-by, and he gave her 
 his Syrian blessing as he went downstairs. 
 
 As we went down the street, I said, " You see 
 this is margin of the margins. It does not do to 
 feel that anybody can starve, or even that anybody 
 can be hungry. This is the provision for those 
 who are on the very edge." 
 
IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 25 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 I WAS glad we were on foot, because he saw the 
 more foreign ways of Hanover street and Salem 
 street better than if we had been in a car. I 
 pointed out to him the Hebrew signs, but found 
 they had caught his eye. In truth, after we entered 
 Salem street, there were more signs in his own lan 
 guage than in mine. He stopped once or twice, 
 and shook hands with one or another person whom 
 he recognized as of Hebrew origin, and at once 
 they would drop into speaking in the dialect which 
 I was coming to know, which I fancy was some 
 form of modern Syriac or Hebrew. So we turned 
 into Parmenter street. I rang the wrong bell by 
 mistake at first, but was directed there to the 
 larger of two school-houses, where I sent in my 
 card, with his name upon it also ; and in a moment 
 we were in the office of Mr. Button. 
 
 I told Mr. Button our errand, and at the first he 
 looked doubtful. He had not yet, perhaps, at 
 his tongue's end the names of all the twenty-one 
 hundred of his charges. He had received two 
 
26 IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 
 
 hundred and fifty girls within a few weeks, but he 
 was utterly cordial and ready to tell and to show 
 everything that he had. "The best way," he 
 said, " will be to go into the school-rooms, and 
 there we can inquire for your little girl ; " and he 
 asked how old she was. 
 
 This was just what her kinsman did not 
 know, knowing nothing about her but her name. 
 Whether Mahalath Vinegar would prove to be 
 Mahalath Benagar remained to be seen. 
 
 In the first room into which we went, a young 
 lady, who was the teacher, welcomed us with 
 charming hospitality; and on the instant my 
 friend said, " No matter what we came for. Let 
 us see what you are doing in your school." I 
 knew that he was interested in all of them just as 
 much as in the one who was conventionally called 
 his relative. The teacher explained to us that 
 not one of these fifty children could speak the 
 English language, not one of 'them was of the 
 blood of the people who settled Massachusetts or 
 who built up the original Boston. More than half 
 of them, she told him, were Hebrews ; the re 
 mainder were Christian Germans, were Italians, or 
 Portuguese, or perhaps from the east of Europe. 
 Then I asked if they had no Syrians or Arabs or 
 
IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 2/ 
 
 Egyptians ; and she said not in her room, she was 
 sure. But notwithstanding this answer, he was in 
 terested, and he remained. 
 
 The exercises which we saw were wholly for the 
 learning how to speak English. She told us that 
 while none of them could speak English now, 
 before next June they all would have learned to 
 write English intelligently, to speak it enough for 
 practical purposes, and to read the English of 
 simple books with a good understanding. I do 
 not suppose they would understand a translation 
 from Schopenhauer, and possibly they might not 
 understand an argument for free trade; but for 
 the regular work of daily life they will be able, 
 next June, to read English sufficiently well. 
 Eagerly I asked how this was done. She called 
 up a nice-looking girl, perhaps ten years old, and 
 showed to her a large box filled with every sort 
 of thing. The child picked over it gravely, and 
 then by a string lifted a little basket, and said, 
 with very clear articulation, " This is a basket." 
 The next child would say, " This is a bell ; " the 
 next child would choose a box and say, " This is 
 a box." If the articulation were not well-nigh 
 perfect, the teacher would correct, and the child 
 would repeat, until she spoke it distinctly. One 
 
28 IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 
 
 little Italian child had stopped in Paris for a year 
 on their emigration, and at some French school 
 had been taught to read English with a sufficiently 
 correct pronunciation. The only reading which 
 we witnessed in our visit was the reading of these 
 English words, quite well pronounced, by a child 
 who did not know the meaning of the words she 
 read. 
 
 What was pretty about it all was the eager in 
 terest of the children. They were clean, their 
 clothes were clean, and they were alive with inter 
 est in what was said and done. When we shall 
 see fifty boys as much interested in learning Latin 
 as these children were in learning English, it will 
 not take boys or men seven years to study the 
 Latin language, and then find out that they cannot 
 speak it intelligibly. 
 
 We went from room to room, and at last, in a 
 room where the girls had been two or three years, 
 this tall, brown, large-eyed, Arab-looking Mahalath. 
 appeared. She was called to speak with her kins 
 man, and he fairly started at the sight of her. 
 Then they went on one side, that she might tell 
 him her story, and it was clear to me that he had 
 come to a clew in his labyrinth. 
 
 The teacher asked if he would like to take her 
 
IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 2Q 
 
 away ; but he said no, that she was happy and 
 well with her countrymen where she was staying. 
 He had written down the number of their home, 
 and he would see them there. Meanwhile he 
 would not keep her longer from the work of the 
 school ; and so we came away. 
 
 He stopped Mr. Button while he could thank 
 him for the time which he had given us, and then, 
 in the same courteous way in which he had spoken 
 to Dr. Rowe at the hospital, asked if he might not 
 be permitted to leave some money in his hands for 
 the good of the poor children or those who were 
 most destitute. But, like the doctor, Mr. Button 
 told him that he must keep his money for those 
 who needed it. We explained to him that this 
 was simply the business of a Christian State, 
 that we were trying to give to these children the 
 best we could give, in training them to be of use 
 in life. We said that we were doing it for each 
 and for all ; we would not even leave the parents 
 to say whether these children should or should 
 not be trained in this way. We obliged them to 
 see to the training, in one form or another. If 
 they had no better place for them, we compelled 
 the children to come into this school, and, as he 
 saw, they seemed happy while they were there, 
 
3O IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 
 
 and he would find that they came readily and 
 promptly from day to day. 
 
 " Our business is," I said, as we came out into 
 Parmenter street, " to open the eyes of the blind 
 and the ears of the deaf, to make the lame walk, 
 and, in a word, as your Master and mine said, to 
 preach glad tidings to the poor in such way that 
 they can understand it. Nineteen centuries would 
 have been worth very little if we had not made 
 some advance in welcoming the stranger, in 
 feeding the hungry, in clothing the naked, and in 
 caring for the prisoner." 
 
 He half heard me, he did not interrupt me, 
 in fact, it was observable that he never inter 
 rupted. But when I had fairly said what I had 
 to say, he said : 
 
 "When you say ' prisoner/ I cannot help think 
 ing of my poor kinsman. You see, all you have 
 told me is about children and women. Now, 
 where is he all this time? " He said he was will 
 ing to confess to me that this Benagar was but a 
 reckless fellow. He had a passion for gambling, 
 and in their own home he wasted all his half 
 of their father's patrimony in what his brother 
 called " riotous living." " Now," said he, " I wish 
 I did not think that he were in some gambling 
 
IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 31 
 
 hell, as I believe you say, at this moment." And 
 he asked me if there were any way in which we 
 could see " one of those dens." " Dens " was a 
 word he spoke almost bitterly. 
 
 To tell you the truth, said Dr. Primrose, he had 
 me on new ground here. But, as I said, whatever 
 that man asked me to do, I did. I did not say no 
 to him once when he made any appeal to me, in 
 the days when we were together. And while he 
 made his visit to Salutation alley and to Maiden, I 
 made the preparation for our visit to a first-class 
 "hell." He said that Benagar would be in the 
 best place in Boston or the worst, and I did as I 
 am apt to do, I struck high. 
 
 Oh, no, it never occurred to me that I had no 
 business there. I wanted to seek and save what 
 was lost, as Bendaoeed had said he wanted to. 
 So I went round to the club, and, in a little, one 
 of my younger friends came in, and I told him I 
 wanted a card of introduction to the gambling- 
 house in Boston where a gentleman from the 
 Levant would be most apt to be found. He 
 laughed very heartily, that I should be the man to 
 ask such a favor ; he called one of my friends, and 
 gave me away at once. But they both honored 
 me by saying that they knew I could be trusted. 
 
32 IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 
 
 One of them gave me his card, and then went to 
 the telephone, called Buddy, the keeper of the 
 house, and told him that at sharp 10.30 two friends 
 of his would call, and that he was responsible for 
 them. Then he gave me the number of the house, 
 and the street, and went to play billiards. 
 
IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 33 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MY friend Bendaoeed met me at the reading- 
 room of the Boston Public Library. Here I was 
 glad to see that he had a few minutes to see the 
 evening entertainment that a Christian city pro 
 vides for the dirtiest, meanest, and poorest of its 
 people, white, black, or red, if they will choose 
 to come in. Hundreds of men and women were 
 reading quietly there, from the best and most 
 costly books in the world, if they had chosen to 
 ask for them, or from newspapers and magazines of 
 their own country, whatever that was. I explained 
 to him that we must not loiter, that I had promised 
 to be exactly on time. And, by the way, I had 
 noticed before this time, that he always was. 
 
 We went in at the front of the gambling-house 
 without ringing, but once within, I pressed an elec 
 tric knob, as I had been bidden. Instantly a flash 
 light from upstairs dazzled us both. Somebody 
 inspected us. In a moment a boy with buttons 
 came down, and asked my name. I gave him my 
 card and that of the gentleman who introduced me, 
 
34 IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 
 
 and we went upstairs. I noticed, as we passed two 
 doors, that both of them were well guarded by 
 men. But, once in the large parlor itself, there was 
 nothing but luxury. 
 
 It was a large club-room, taking the whole of 
 that floor of the house. There were twenty or 
 thirty young men about, one or two I recog 
 nized. I had seerf them at Cambridge, or at their 
 fathers' dining-tables. My companion explained 
 to my ignorance that the larger table was a roulette- 
 table, the smaller one a faro-table. In one corner 
 was a dining-table, elegantly served with wines, 
 other liquors, and whatever one might like to eat, 
 with two or three black waiters. Comfortable 
 chairs, and an easy lounge or two, were ready for 
 people not playing at the moment. There were a 
 few sporting newspapers, the New York papers of 
 the day, and in one corner a desk where, as we 
 entered, I happened to see a young fellow cashing 
 a check. He took a handful of bills, and some 
 chips, to use at the moment on the tables. 
 
 Bendaoeed looked not so much at the roulette 
 wheel, for which he cared no more than he had 
 cared for the telephone. He seemed to care for 
 no thing, only for man. A waiter who saw that 
 we were strangers offered me some oysters as we 
 
IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 35 
 
 looked round. Bendaoeed refused them, and I 
 could see that he was watching a group of the 
 older men at the faro-table. He bent over and 
 whispered to me : 
 
 " That tall man, with black hair, he is point 
 ing across the table." 
 
 But at that moment we heard a tremendous 
 crash on the door below. One, two heavy strokes, 
 as of the head of an axe. A man who, I after 
 ward heard, was Buddy himself, sprang from behind 
 the desk. 
 
 " My God ! how could this have happened? " 
 
 He meant that, he supposed he was under police 
 protection. He had bribed some under-officials. 
 
 Instantly the lights were turned down, the win 
 dows were flung up, and I saw the man next me 
 throw some chips out of the window. The man at 
 the entrance slid a heavy bar into place, so that 
 it should hold the door. The inmates, all as I 
 thought, excepting me and the man at the door 
 and my companion, rushed upstairs to the next 
 floor. " Bang ! bang ! " we could hear the axes be 
 low. And before the rush upstairs of the officers, 
 some one not I had pushed up the bar which 
 held us in, so that they entered easily. They put 
 handcuffs on me, on my friend, and the black 
 
36 IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 
 
 waiter. Some one found the gas-key and lighted 
 the room. The officers ran up to the roof, to meet 
 one and another prisoner ; for the roof had been 
 guarded first, and was held by a party of the 
 police. 
 
 Then there was careful handcuffing of a party 
 of more than twenty, and we were all marched to 
 the station. I expressed to my Eastern friend my 
 regret and dismay. But he said, very simply, that 
 it was no new experience with him, that we could 
 not be of use without running some risk, and that 
 our service to God was worth very little if we could 
 not go before a magistrate now and then. For his 
 part it was clear that he was more interested in 
 looking up black sheep than in " S'iety " or the 
 haunts of " S'iety." 
 
 He reminded me of John Bunyan. 
 
 So we spent the night there. It was a night I 
 shall never forget. Before two hours were over, 
 all our comrades were bailed out. It seemed it 
 was a part of the business of Buddy to provide 
 bail for them that they should appear in court the 
 next morning, and a bail commissioner was in 
 readiness. I told my friend that I supposed I 
 could wake up some friend and have him come 
 and bail us out ; but he said he had much rather 
 
IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 37 
 
 spend the night where he was. And when I saw 
 how he spent it, I did not wonder. 
 
 There was a separate room for the poor drunken 
 women who had been brought in, and others, old 
 and young, of their sex. There was a nice moth 
 erly woman who had the oversight of them, and 
 he went in and talked to them so kindly that I 
 believe that those who were sober enough to hear 
 him were other people afterward. If there is 
 casting out of seven devils nowadays, he certainly 
 did it that night with them. As for our young 
 college friends, who sat round us waiting for the 
 bail man to come, it was wonderful to see how he 
 got on with them, and I cannot think that many 
 of those fellows were found in gambling hells 
 again. 
 
 By two o'clock everybody was bailed who 
 wanted to be bailed ; and then he and I slept in 
 bunks, comfortably enough, till morning. In the 
 morning, after we had had the fare of prisoners, 
 we, and a lot of other people who had been drink 
 ing or breaking heads the night before, were put 
 into carts and carried to the Municipal Court. 
 
 I knew the judge perfectly well, and of course 
 he was surprised to see me there. But he and I 
 have met in queer places before. Gradually the 
 
38 IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 
 
 Harvard fellows began dropping in, looking a good 
 deal ashamed, to say the truth. But before our 
 case came up, we had a chance to see a pretty 
 thing, which interested the Syrian gentleman very 
 much. 
 
 It was the retiring, once and again, from the 
 court-room, of the judge with some poor woman 
 and the women's probation officer. We both 
 looked at her with great interest. The balance 
 and steadiness with which she talked with these 
 women, and the evident confidence the judge had 
 in her, could not but affect you. What she was 
 there for was explained to Bendaoeed, and how 
 she could treat one and another of these women 
 without exposing them to the shame of a public 
 prison. The three would come out, and the poor 
 crying prisoner would be made to sit on one side 
 with Miss Todd, till she could dispose of her ; and 
 you felt that mercy and justice had met together. 
 
 Our turn came. The case was explained. I 
 told the judge why we were there, and that my 
 friend was in search of a countryman of his, for 
 the purpose of taking him away. The judge said 
 aloud that men were judged by the company they 
 kept, but that he would dismiss us both, on our 
 personal recognizance to appear when we were 
 
IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 39 
 
 needed. This is a mild way of intimating that we 
 had been in a business which the law did not 
 much approve, but that they did not mean to 
 punish us. The Syrian shook hands with him 
 cordially, said he was delighted to see in practice 
 the way in which judicial affairs were conducted, 
 and we went on our way. 
 
40 IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 I MUST not talk in so much detail, and really 
 the story comes to its sudden end. We found the 
 brother, so called, of Mahalath, who was in fact only 
 some distant kinsman, and from him got a clew 
 to a child at South Boston, for whom he thought 
 he ought to inquire. I had got a side-clew to the 
 same child from Miss Zilpha Smith at the Bureau. 
 By this time I had found out that he did quite as 
 well without me as he did with me ; but even if 
 he had wanted to go without me I could not go 
 without him, so that I undertook to show him 
 through the intricacies of the South Boston 
 bridges. This brought us down on the South 
 Cove, where I took him upstairs, that we might 
 make a necessary inquiry. I tapped at a door in 
 the third story of the house, and in an instant it 
 was opened by a young woman in the Salvation 
 Army dress. She laughed good-naturedly, and 
 said, " You see I am at work." That was clear 
 enough, for she had risen from her knees, and her 
 pail and scrubbing-brush were beside her. She 
 
IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 41 
 
 had moved her patient into the next room, the 
 poor people there had made room for her till this 
 back room could be cleaned, and the " mission 
 ary " was showing that she understood her busi 
 ness, by putting the sick woman's room in order. 
 
 My friend was so pleased, that I thought for a 
 moment he would go on his knees and finish the 
 job. But she would not let him do that. She 
 said, as if she knew him better than I did, " Oh, 
 you have more important work to do, and I am 
 nearly done here ; " and then she asked me what 
 she could do for me. We got the address in a 
 minute, and went downstairs ; and as we went, he 
 said something about those people who did their 
 duty themselves, instead of commissioning other 
 people to appoint other people to suggest the 
 names of other people who should select other 
 people to do the duty. All this he said as if this 
 hand-to-hand business met his approval in a 
 special way. 
 
 I will not say that he could have got to South 
 Boston without me. In the present state of the 
 bridges, it is a science to go to South Boston. But 
 in a little we were ringing at the door-bell of the 
 house I remembered as the Home for Imbeciles, 
 to be told, what I knew perfectly well, only I 
 
42 IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 
 
 had forgotten it, that the Home had been removed 
 to Waltham six years before ! He laughed 
 heartily at me, and bade me observe that this was 
 what happened when he trusted himself to my 
 care ; and I had to confess that, though I live here 
 within a mile of them, I had taken for granted 
 their administration so entirely that I had not been 
 near them since that time. 
 
 So this time we did not go on foot. I called a 
 cab just in time to catch the Albany train ; we 
 caught an electric at West Newton on the moment ; 
 and one or two inquiries brought us to the door at 
 Waltham. 
 
 I cannot go to that Home without crying my 
 eyes out, and I am forty years older than I was 
 when I went there first. Bendaoeed did not find 
 the particular child he came for, but he found a 
 dozen boys and girls who thronged round him 
 with an eager, confiding air, well, I have hardly 
 seen it ever on other faces than on those of the 
 feeble-minded. They seem to value kindness so 
 much, and they seem to know that you want to be 
 kind to them. And he, it seemed as if he could 
 not tear himself away. It seemed as if he had 
 come to seek and to save that which was lost, and 
 as if he had met his opportunity. It was only be- 
 
IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 43 
 
 cause he had promised to be at another place at 
 another hour that he left these poor children. 
 
 Before the Fitchburg train came along, we had 
 a chance, by a late lunch, to make good the Spar 
 tan severity of our breakfast; and then by five 
 o'clock we were in town. 
 
 I do not. know how many clews he had on his 
 book. In fact, he never seemed to look at his 
 book after he had put the entries down. It seemed 
 as if any chance to help anybody was burned in 
 on his mind, so that he did not need to refresh his 
 memory. But for me, I had one thread of which 
 I had made a note, which I wanted to follow out. 
 So I made him take an electric, and we came to 
 the school-room in Cottage street. 
 
 But it was no school-room which we found there. 
 Here were, in two large rooms, groups of children, 
 of all ages, from five years old, well, perhaps to 
 fifteen. I told him that I called it " a children's 
 club," and he was very much amused and very 
 much interested. The boys and girls were all 
 reading, quite as a lot of loafing gentlemen might 
 be reading at the Union Club or the Somerset, 
 except that none of them were smoking. The 
 school-room had been cleared out, had been aired, 
 the tables had been put in order, and then Miss 
 
44 IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 
 
 Wiltse had come round and unlocked her libraries, 
 and these little witches had come thronging in 
 because these rooms were so comfortable and 
 pretty, and because Miss Wiltse made them so 
 completely at home. She 'knew what book every 
 child had the day before, or she picked out a new 
 one. She went round, explaining the pictures to 
 this child, talking to another about butterflies or 
 birds, making a third remember about her pas 
 sage from Europe ; and, in a word, petting those 
 children, playing with them, and teaching them, 
 exactly as an older sister might do. I tried to ex 
 plain that the children would have no such experi 
 ence at home, that Miss Wiltse was trying, 
 indeed, to give them a better chance than they 
 would have had at home, without taking them away 
 from the natural affection of father and mother. It 
 was clear enough that the children liked to come. 
 When the clock struck six they went away kissing 
 their friend, and with real grief. She explained to 
 us that the rooms would be aired and cleared and 
 provided with books for the older children, and 
 that after an hour had been given for supper a like 
 session would be renewed for them until nine 
 o'clock. " It is so much better than if they were 
 in the streets," she said, to which he assented, 
 and I am sure I did. 
 
IF JESUS CAME TO BOSTON. 45 
 
 When we came out on Tremont street, to my 
 surprise he did not come over here with me. He 
 only said, " Do not keep the house open. If I am 
 not with you at nine, you will not see me before 
 morning." And I came home to explain to my 
 wife why she had not seen me for thirty-six hours. 
 
 Just before nine, the bell rang, and a telegraph- 
 boy brought a despatch. I was afraid Bendaoeed 
 had come to grief again, he seemed so reckless. 
 But the despatch said : 
 
 "/ have gone to Chicago. I find I have other 
 sheep there. What you in Boston have been doing 
 to the least of these my brethren and my sisters, you 
 have done it unto me. B" 
 
 And I never saw him again. 
 
THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 RENEWED BOOKS ARE SUBJECT TO IMMEDIATE 
 RECALL 
 
 JUN 3 20W 
 
 LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS 
 
 Book Slip-Series 458 
 
N9 898935 
 
 PS1772 Hale, Edward Everett, 1822-1909. 
 
 13 If Jesus came to Boston, by Edward E. Hale. Boston, L*m 
 
 son, Wo! fife, and company, 1895. 
 
 45 p. 19J-. 
 
 L Title. 
 
 -HWOT 
 
 Library of Coa^reea >ITY D ^ r