188 IC UNIVERSITY OF ILL!' IS ; ! BRARY AT U - .AMPAIGN ILL HIST. SURVEY WAIFS OF THE SLUMS Waifs of the Slums and Their Way Out By LEONARD BENEDICT ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO Fleming H. Revell Company LONDON AND EDINBURGH Copyright, 1907, By J. F. ATKINSON To Waifdom Everywhere A Brief Foreword By RT. REV. SAMUEL FALLOWS, D. D., LL. D. THIS is a remarkable book, full of power and pathos, worthy of a place beside the best works of its kind. The ever pressing problem of the neglected boy and girl, with its possible solution, is presented in a graphic manner and compels an enchained attention. The Boys' Club is a discovery. Now that it is found, means will certainly be forthcoming for its rapid and beneficent development under the faithful, unselfish efforts of Mr. J. F. Atkinson and his de- voted co-labourers. Introduction BY REV. A. C. DIXON, D.D. THE boys of our streets are to be the voters of the future, and patriotism demands that we look after them. But a higher demand than patriotism presses upon the Christian, whose mission is to lead them to Christ and a life of righteousness. Every boy has a social nature, and he likes the company of other boys. The club idea appeals to him ; and if good people do not furnish him a meet- ing place, he will seek the places furnished by the bad. The statement has been made that Chicago has four thousand boy drunkards. Whether this is true or not, it is evident that the theatre and saloon are leading thousands of these boys to ruin, and Chris- tian people ought to do all that they can to rescue them. Some are without homes waifs of the street, picking up a precarious living as best they can; others with drunken or criminal parents are in places they call homes, which are really gates of hell. They go in gangs ; some of them glory in crime, not careful to escape the police, for they covet the honour of figuring in the court as criminals with a prospect of seeing their pictures in the daily papers. li 1 2 Introduction These boys are worth saving. Many of them are very bright. Their wits have been sharpened by the struggle for existence. They will share their last nickel with a comrade in distress. Not a few are eager for a better chance and will appreciate every effort that is made for their benefit. The better class of them have poor parents, sometimes invalid, for whose support they sell papers, black shoes and run errands. One of them was run over by a dray in New York and carried to a hospital to die. Among his last words were directions for finding the few pennies in his pockets, with instructions to give them to his mother, while he expressed sorrow that he had earned so little that day. The " Chicago Boys' Club " champions the cause of the boys of the street and seeks to give every one of them a chance to make a man of himself. Mr. J. F. Atkinson, the superintendent of this work, is a Christian man who cares for the souls of the boys as well as their bodies. He is glad to teach them how to make a living, but he is more anxious that they shall make a life ; and, above all, he seeks to win them to Him who at twelve years of age was " about His Father's business." He is satisfied with nothing less than the salvation of the whole boy. This work among the boys each day in the week is very much needed, for the Sunday-school touches them only an hour every Sunday, and thousands of them go to no Sunday-school. It is difficult for the church to reach them with its regular services. I hope that this book, so full of interesting facts Introduction 13 and earnest appeals, will bring about a great revival of interest in the street boys of our great cities and lead to more strenuous efforts for their salvation. Chicago, 111., April jo, 1907. March i t 7907. MR. LEONARD BENEDICT, Dear Sir : I have been asked repeatedly why I do not prepare the manuscript for a book to be published under some such title as : " Waifs of the Slums and Their Way Out." I have but one answer to the question, but it is a good one. I am not a writer. Recently a publisher said to me : " If you do not publish a book on this subject, I think I will." That remark stirred me to action. I feel of all men you are the best qualified to prepare the manu- script for such a book. Will you do this ? If you will, then I will do the rest, with the understanding that all the proceeds derived from the sale of the volume are to be dedicated to the work of the Chicago Boys' Club. Awaiting an early reply, I am, Yours very respectfully, Die. A. J. F. ATKINSON, Suft. March j, 1907. MR. J. F. ATKINSON, 262 State St., Chicago. Dear Sir: Your favour of March I duly received. Had you asked me to write a book for selfish profit or for personal honour, I should have refused ; but when you ask me to write because there is a need of writing and for the good of the great cause of waifdom, I dare not lightly treat the request. If I am at all qualified for the task, it is because of my deep interest in the subject and my great desire to be of some help to the cause. Seeing I have not much else to give, I will gladly contribute my spare time and any talent I may have, to this task. If by so doing, some one is led to a clearer insight into the lives of the children of our cities, and into a more helpful sympathy for their condition, I will feel amply repaid for whatever labour and time I may expend upon the manuscript. Faithfully yours, LEONARD BENEDICT. 14 Preface MY reason for writing this book has been to create a little more sympathy for the erring and the unfor- tunate. I have undertaken to show by many living examples that the wicked and the criminal, as a rule, are not what they are from deliberate choice, any more than you and I the most of us in fact are what we are politically or religiously entirely from choice. Have not our early surroundings and edu- cation made us, largely, what we are ? In preparing this book, I have been greatly assisted by Mr. J. F. Atkinson, the superintendent of the Chicago Boys' Club, by Mr. E. R. Colby, its indus- trial director, by Miss Katherine Taylor, one of its Friendly Visitors, and by several others who have admitted me into the storehouses of their knowledge and experience, and there allowed me to help myself to the information I desired. I am also indebted for suggestion and inspiration to certain authors, espe- cially to Jacob Riis, Ernest Poole, Owen Kildare, Josiah Strong and Miss Isabell Horton, from all of whose writings I have more or less quoted in these pages. I have also quoted freely, and that without so indi- cating, from the official organ of the Chicago Boys' Club : " Darkest Chicago and Her Waifs." It has been my attempt to make this discussion as 15 16 Preface practical as possible; not to state theories and to propound remedies for supposed evils, but rather to say what, through observation and through question- ing others, I actually know to be true, and to relate what is actually being done to meet these real and definite needs. So let it be understood that this book is not sent forth merely to entertain or even to instruct ; it is not a scientific treatise or a system of methods on boys' work, but rather a plea for a broader sympathy and a more practical helpfulness towards the unfortunate classes, especially the children. In the interests of waifdom, this book is sent out on its mission. If it arouse some to a personal, human interest, and an active, self-sacrificing helpfulness towards the needy ones anywhere, it will not have failed of its purpose. THE AUTHOR. Contents I. A UNIQUE WORK ..... 21 II. A GREAT MISSIONARY OPPORTUNITY . . 35 III. OTHER NEEDY FIELDS ..... 47 IV. THE PLAN OF ATTACK ..... 64 V. RELIGIOUS WORK WITH STREET WAIFS . . 83 VI. THE NEWSBOY AND His REAL LIFE . . 99 VII. BIDDING FOR THE BOY . . . . .116 VIII. THE GIRLS AND THEIR NEEDS . . .127 IX. WOMEN VISITORS IN THE HOMES . . 139 X. THE CURE OF THE TRAMP . . . .154 XI. AN URGENT NEED . . . .171 XII. THE SECRET OF SUCCESS IN THE WORK . .186 XIII. CONCLUSION . . . . . 200 APPENDIX ...... 207 List of Illustrations FACING PAGE Some Waifs of the Slums. . . . . . Title Headquarters of Chicago Boys' Club Leased . . 25 Waifs at Work in Carpenter Shop . . . . 29 A Typical Scene in the Alley ..... 40 (Courtesy of McCluris Magazine) Ward Map of Chicago Showing Locations of Foreigners 47 Table Showing Population of Chicago by Wards, also Number of Saloons and Churches . . -53 A Group of Boot-Blacks Absorbed in a Crap Game . 7 1 Sleep-Outs . . . . . . . .71 Scene in "de Alley " at One O'clock in the Morning 105 One of the Many Traps to Catch the Boys. Located Near the Central Building of the Chicago Boy's Club . . . . . . . .no Street Waifs Gathered in a Gospel Meeting . .122 One of a Legion of Five-cent Theatres . . .122 Wash Day in a Slum Tenement . . % 1 29 An Italian Home Showing a Child with Bound Limbs . 1 50 Waifs Gathering Food from a Garbage Can . . 164 Chart Showing the Value of Trade School Training . 1 8 1 (Courtesy of Double day, Page & C0.) Branch Club No. 1 1 . . . . . ^194 The Finished Product , . . . 204 Waifs of the Slums " Boys' Clubs are the best sub- stitutes for policemen's clubs." JacobRiis. A UNIQUE WORK " BE sure you are right," says the proverb, " and then go ahead." This sounds easy enough, but going ahead to the man who knows he is right is usually f in practical life, like a steam-engine going ahead against a snowdrift. The engine knows that the track ahead was made for it to travel upon and there to bear its load, but the snowdrift thinks differently. The engine has to demonstrate its right by plowing through the snow- bank, pushing away the obstruction, and then quietly doing the work that needs to be done. The engine succeeds in getting through because it has a mission to perform ; the snow melts away be- cause it is opposing that mission. It was a wise man who said : " If this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to naught ; but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it." The peculiar thing about the Chicago Boys' Club is that it is founded on prayer ; it is run by people 22 Waifs of the Slums who believe with the psalmist of old, that " It is bet- ter to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes." When the question of starting a boys' club in the down-town district of Chicago was first agitated, Mr. Atkinson, the promoter of the cause, was advised by parties on all sides to get in touch with such-and-such people of prominence, to pull the political wires as others were doing, or his cause would surely fail. Others objected that there was no need for such an institution, that the field was already amply provided for, and another institution would be an excres- cence. Here was the engine's snow-bank. But the wise engineer saw by faith the track running on before him underneath the snow. So he forged ahead he began to plow through not from obstinacy or be- cause he was unwilling to listen to counsel, but be- cause he knew in his soul that there his path of duty lay. He felt like Paul, that he was called to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, and " woe be unto him if he preach not the gospel." He knew that in this respect he was not usurping the rights or infringing upon the already occupied field of others. He knew, as Paul knew and it grew upon him that he was called of God to a unique work, and during the years that have followed, this call*and the assurance of it by signs and won- ders, has been ever ringing in his ears. With all this, the question comes : What was this call and in what respect was this work unique ? A Unique Work 23 The call was, like Paul's, to preach the gospel where it had not been preached, and to reach those who had not been reached, or, in fact, had not been deemed worthy of reaching. It happened that Mr. Atkinson, the founder of the " Club," had been connected for ten years or more with institutions for the saving of orphan and home- less children. For these everybody recognized the need, and for these he recognized that provision was being made; but another class, and a larger one, came before his notice, and their needs gradually stamped themselves upon his heart. This was the class of children who, having a home, are homeless ; who, having friends, are friendless ; who, though sup- posed to be provided for, are most neglected. When these needs had become deeply stamped upon his heart, and after the conditions had been thor- oughly studied and methods outlined, Mr. Atkinson in November, 1901, called together a body of settle- ment, charity, and religious workers to discuss the conditions and establish a plan. The meeting was held in the Woman's Temple. In this meeting, Mr. Atkinson stood up, and in an impassioned voice said : " The street boy is here, and it is for us to say what we will do with him. If we do not lift him up, he will pull us down. Reformatories do not reform him, doors are not open to him, neither church nor Sabbath-school is reaching him, and we cannot afford to kill him, so it remains for us to say what we will do with him." 24 Waifs of the Slums Then he brought forward his statistics. There are at least 6,000 newsboys in the city of Chicago, of whom one-fourth are found in the Central (the Levee) District. Of these fifty per cent, are Italians, thirty per cent. Jews and much less than ten per cent. Americans. The cities of New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, he said, are providing for this class of boys ; the city of London has fifty boys' clubs, but Chicago has none. The estimated cost of starting and conducting a street boys' club in the central district for one year, he said, would be $4,000. Of this, one man had promised to give $1,000 if the other three thousand were forthcoming. So in spite of opposition and criticism and con- trary advice, the work was started. At first, a small office was rented at No. 218 La Salle Street, and there the work of planning, organizing, advertising and solic- iting was begun. Early in February, 1902, the plans were far enough along so that a small upper room was rented on State Street, in an old building which had once been used as a Chinese " opium joint." Into this room the first night, three little boys typical ragged denizens of the street were invited. Here a few simple games were provided and two hours of such a time was enjoyed by those boys as they had never dreamed of before. Those boys went out on the streets that night with a new and strange feeling in their hearts ; they felt that they had a friend. A friend ! who ever heard of a boy of the Street, dirty, ragged, wicked and repulsive, having a Headquarters of Chicago Boys' Club Leased A Unique Work 25 friend, at least one outside of his own kind ? But these boys realized that there was a man who was their friend, and there was a place where a boy like themselves, with tousled hair and savage, boisterous manner, was welcome. Within three weeks after the opening of that small room, to get to which the boys had to climb up a dark, narrow stairway to the third floor, within three weeks that room was entirely overrun and overflowed with noisy urchins of the street. So the only thing to do was to spread out and to enlarge the quarters. Retraction was now impossible. So the entire floor was rented and a gymnasium and bathrooms were installed. Later as the boys swarmed in and the work increased, a drawing class was added, then a basket weaving department, then shoe-cobbling, printing, manual training and bookbinding. By the beginning of the second year, a second floor was added ; the next year, a third floor, and now, less than six years since it was started, the Chicago Boys' Club flaunts in large letters its sign on three buildings : one at No. 262 State Street, which is just on the edge of the Levee, and draws its boys from the very centre of the most contaminating influences and some of the worst dens of vice in the world, an- other at No. 404 State Street, the girls' department, and still another at No. 188 Gault Court, which is in the heart of that notorious district which is some- times dubbed Little Hell." Just around the corner from No. 262 State Street, the Club's headquarters, stands the famous Pacific 26 Waifs of the Slums Garden Mission ; back of this the unmentionable scenes of Custom House Place and South Clark Street. Four blocks west is a building, which is only the worst of many like it, where about fifty families reside, in most cases a family to a room. An average of 150 children call this building their home the year round. These children are crowded out of their " homes " on to the street, they are crowded off the street into the alley, they are crowded out of the alley into the saloons, the penny arcades, the dime museums, and the low theatres which abound on every hand ; they are crowded out of these into the reform schools, and into the jails. And still we complain at our burden of taxation. It is like a parent complaining at the payment of doctor's bills and funeral expenses and still leaving a disease-breeding pool in the door-yard. " To the source of the evil " is the cry of the age, in medicine, in sanitation and even in politics; why not in morality and in humanity ? The uniqueness of this institution lies in the fact that it is doing what no one else is doing. The churches, the Sunday-schools, and the missions do re- ligious work and reach mainly those to whom relig- ious instruction appeals ; the Y. M. C. A., the social settlements, and the athletic organizations do valuable physical and social work ; the public day schools and evening schools do educational work. There is no other agency, unless it be the Y. M. C. A., that does all of these. The Chicago Boys' Club applies the method and the principles used by the church, the settlement and the school, and at the same time A Unique Work 27 reaches a class that has heretofore been mainly un- reached by any of these agencies, viz. : the newsboy and the street waif. It can also truly be said that it is an institution, unique among boys' clubs. It has its counterpart in no other city. Mr. Atkinson has lately returned from a trip through the Eastern States, where he carefully studied the nature and extent of the work being done for street waifs in older municipalities. He found, to his disappointment, that there was none that combined a thorough industrial training with a definite religious instruction. After visiting the " Big Boys' Club " in New York city, a club with 5,000 members, he said to a friend who asked his opinion of it : "I was looking for a beehive of industry where boys were put on anvils and hammered into shape ; where they have drilled into the very fibre of their beings habits of industry ; where they are fitted and prepared for the stern realities of life. I was looking for a train- ing school and not a playhouse." In this respect, the Chicago Boys' Club is unique. Its work is not only a negative one to keep the boys off the street but a positive one to fit them in the most practical way possible " for the stern realities of life." As a writer has said, here is the method which " Puts into the man's hand the means of making a good fight, but does not remove from him the neces- sity of fighting, " For that's the old Amerikin idee, To make a man a man and let him be." 28 Waifs of the Slums The Chicago Boys' Club, however, does not " let him be " ; it rather gives the one whom it has made into a man every help that he may continue to be a man and to do a man's work. There has recently developed in the work a very important and a very necessary feature an Employ- ment Bureau. It is not enough to fit a boy for life ; we must see that he does that for which he is fitted. It is not enough to provide a good pasture for the horse ; we must see that the horse enters the pasture and that he is kept within its bounds. These ragged, dirty, and tousled youngsters could not enter an office and obtain work for themselves any more than they could, unaided, fit themselves for a life's work. They need an advocate. They need a sponsor. Such a helper they have in Mr. E. R. Colby. It is useless to put a boy who loves athletics and hates books into an office where he must sit all day over a desk ; nine cases out of ten, he will not " stick." It is also equally useless and even more destructive to the boy to be placed in a shop at grinding toil when he is made to be a creator and a leader. The boy needs some one who understands him and his powers, who will locate him in the place where he belongs, who will set him to work at the thing for which he is by nature adapted. This is the secret of his success as well as the key to his life. For this delicate and difficult task, Mr. Colby is peculiarly adapted. He is by nature a lover of boys. He has made them their ways, their thoughts, and their characters, a life study. He has worked with the boy whom he A Unique Work 29 recommends for a position hand-to-hand and heart- to-heart for a year or more before he recommends him. He knows all the ins-and-outs of that boy's life, his limitations, his tastes, and his talents. In short, he knows what the boy is made of and what he can do, and he takes every care to place him where he can work with his heart as well as his hands where he will feel that it is his business and he is a part of it. If a boy is where he belongs and his heart is in his work, he will " stick " to his job and be promoted in it ; if he is forced into a thing for which he has no liking and no aptitude, he will become a drudge and a shirk, and finally a deserter. Each boy's talent and his aptitude is discovered by long and careful study in the play-rooms and in- dustrial departments. There the boy is " put upon an anvil and hammered into shape " ; there the true metal of his life is discovered. The boy who has taken particular delight in the drawing-room at the Club is placed in a position as a designer ; the boy who has been interested in the printing department or library is located in a publishing house or printing office ; while the boy who has spent most of his time during Club hours, in the gymnasium or play-room is put at manual labour. In each one of these cases, specific instances may be cited of boys who have been located in positions according to their liking and are now doing well. The other day, Mr. Colby met on the street one of the former members who had some time before been placed in a position. When asked as to where he 30 Waifs of the Slums had been keeping himself, he responded : " I'm down to Hillman's yet. Much obleeged. My brudder's workin' too. He's obleeged too." This he said in pure street fashion, expressing more with his ac- tions than his words. In a few years, these boys will rise up in positions of trust and prominence and show how much they are " obleeged " in a more substantial way than mere words. They are already doing it. The boys are the Club's best ad- vertisement. At present, there are boys from the Club located at Marshall Field's, the Boston Store, Hillman's, Pullman Company, and in many other positions of trust where promotion is already under way. Two of the boys are studying at the Chicago Art Insti- tute ; one is a full member of the Central Depart- ment of the Y. M. C. A. ; one has been off to college, and many are changed from wild, reckless, unruly members of street gangs into quiet, orderly, industrious boys. The accomplishment of this, how- ever, has not been as easy as the telling of it. There are many factors which enter into the saving of a child. The first thing to be considered is that he has a body. This must be, in as far as possible, properly fed and clothed and kept clean. For this purpose, there are bath-rooms, a clothing dispensary, and for emergency cases, a lodging-house and free meals. There also is a visiting nurse, who goes about into the dark homes and dirty hovels of the poor, minis- tering to bodies that are sick, deformed and emaciated, A Unique Work 31 and through their bodies in many instances reaching their souls. The next thing to be considered is that these street boys have spirits and instincts like other chil- dren. They have the same yearning for affection, the same instinct for frolic and play that other chil- dren have. Here there are two ways in which affection is brought to bear on these children who have all their lives before been estranged from it: first by close, intimate contact with loving, devoted Christian teachers in the Club rooms ; and secondly, by planting, through the agency of Friendly Visitors, the seeds of love in the homes. These Friendly Visitors go into the homes, like angels of mercy; they are the messengers of peace who come to the people with "good tidings." They win, in many instances, the cooperation of the parents for the good of their children. Where there have been in the home harshness and cruelty and unnatural relations be- tween parents and child, by the love and counsels of the Friendly Visitor, peace and concord are brought about and the repugnant hovel becomes more like a home. The next thing to be noticed is that the child has talents and possibilities to be developed. The very wickedness of the boy is often a portent of his pos- sible goodness. Often the boy who has vivacity enough in him to be real bad becomes, when his energy has been controlled and directed, the best and the most promising boy. For the development of his talents, the boy is provided with tools, the 32 Waifs of the Slums training and the encouragement to make of himself, in the fullest degree, whatever nature has designed him to be. Then the boy is followed up and is kept under supervision until he is grown and is able to stand upon his own feet. Right here, most institutions stop, if indeed they go this far ; but the Chicago Boys' Club is unique in that it acts upon the principle that a boy, be he well dressed or ill, be he clean faced or grimy, be he corrigible or incorrigible, be he Jew or Gentile, " Barbarian, Scyth- ian, bond or free," has a hungering soul as well as a needy body and a sensitive mind. These soul de- sires are met also in two ways : first, by personal touch with Christian teachers and workers, and, secondly, by direct public evangelism. Of course, the " personal touch " is the more important, and the thing without which the " public evangelism " would be fruitless, if not altogether impossible. Here, good and bad, black and white, " Schenie " and " Guiney " are treated alike as lambs for whom Christ died and as " fellow heirs with the saints." It is sinners and not the righteous that Christ came to save, so these workers, commissioned by Him, are seeking those who need them most ; the outcast, the " incorrigible," the ones whom everybody else has abandoned as hopeless. It has come about so that the Juvenile Court, the Bureau of Charities, the Police force and other agencies are bringing to the Chicago Boys' Club, boys for whom they wish them to find positions and to supervise them in their work. A Unique Work 33 This work has grown, as it is natural it should, not by leaps and bounds, but in a steady, healthy way. Different features have been added as the needs re- quired and as the season has ripened the fruit. In the early years of the work, the institution was open to both boys and girls. To work the two to- gether, however, was before long found to be im- practicable. So the girls, though evidently as needy as the boys, were excluded. Yet, constantly the cry has come up from them : " Can't we come to de Club ? " or, " Can't de girls have a Club too ? " So in March, 1905, a ten-room floor was rented at No. 404 State Street, three blocks south from the boys' build- ing, and a Club was opened for the girls. This has since been equipped with kitchen and pantry for cooking classes, with kindergarten and physical culture rooms, with sewing, basket weaving and bookbinding classes, and here the darkened minds of the girls of the slums are being opened to the light of the gospel, and they are carrying with them into their dark, gloomy homes, the ray of light they have here received. Now and then boys come to the Club from other parts of the city. As the distance is too far for them to come regularly, they have many times plead for clubs to be started in their different neighbourhoods. In following up these requests, it has been found that there are many other localities in the city where the streets literally swarm with children, and where practically nothing is being done to safeguard and train them. 34 Waifs of the Slums In what seemed to be the most urgently needy of these fields, there was started in 1905, a sub-station of the work to meet these needs. At first, a gym- nasium was equipped in the basement of a large building on Gault Court, in the " Little Hell " dis- trict. After a few months of experiment in a small way, the entire building of three stories and a basement was rented at the amazingly low figure of fifty dollars per month, and the work of reaching the boys of the notorious " Little Hell " district was begun in dead earnest. Here, as in the parent work, the building is equipped on the principle that " Industrial training is the key that is to unlock the street-boy problem," and here the tough boys are being " put upon the anvil and hammered into shape." " Why is it that we run to peo- ple with the gospel in the for- eign lands, but run away from them in our own country." Anon. II A GREAT MISSIONARY OPPORTUNITY " IF I could have my choice to be born in the wilds of Africa or in a London slum, I would choose the former." This saying is credited to Mr. Huxley. In many ways the African jungle-dweller has the ad- vantage over the waif of a city slum. Here the child is not only left in ignorance and superstition, but is also thrown from its earliest childhood into the midst of contaminating influences which are entirely unknown to the heathen in Africa. Missionary problems are constantly changing. Although the needs in foreign fields are still great and the Macedonian cry is becoming ever louder for helpers in distant lands ; yet in the cities of our own land to-day the needs are becoming imperative, the conditions appalling, and the dangers for the future of our country almost unspeakable. Think of it! Almost a million foreigners, mostly of a low class, are coming into the country every year. These foreigners the most dangerous class of them at least settle almost exclusively in our cities. " This foreign population, these unchurched masses," says a writer, " with all their dreadful problems of ignorance, sin and want, constitute from one-half to three-fourths of the population of our great cities." 35 36 Waifs of the Slums The missionary opportunity and responsibility which these foreigners entail upon us are vividly shown in the words of the writer of a recent book, " The Burden of the City." She says, " We must save America for the World's sake. More and more are home and foreign missions shown to be but varying phases of one problem. The heathen are within our own gates. Idolatry and all heathenish vices are in our cities, while in Japan, India, Africa and the isles of the sea, it is American rum and English and American wickedness that offer the most serious obstacles to the progress of the missionary. Truly, ' He does most to Christianize the world who does most to Christianize America, and he does most to Christian- ize America who does most to save our cities.' " The following facts will show this standpoint to be true. A century ago, America was a nation of one blood. Then our country began to send her loyal sons and daughters to foreign lands to carry American civilization and American Christianity to the heathen abroad. Our nation continued to be practically an English-American people until 1840. Since 1820, when the first records were kept, twenty two million immigrants have landed on our shores. Almost a fourth of these have come within the last ten years. To-day the heathen are coming to us. Last year, they came more than a million strong. Within the last twenty years the floods of immi- grants have been coming more and more from Southern Europe, from Italy, from Austria- Hungary, and from Russia. A Great Missionary Opportunity 37 Mr. Whelpley, the author of " The Problem of Im- migration," says on this subject, " Like a mighty stream it finds its source in a hundred rivulets largely in Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe. It's an army moving at the rate of nearly two million each year, and is invading the civilized world. Its tongue is polyglot ; in dress, all climes from pole to equator are indicated ; all religions and beliefs enlist. There is no age limit ; young and old travel side by side. The army carries its equipment upon its back. Throughout Europe, the word America is synony- mous in all classes with freedom, prosperity and hap- piness. The desire to reach America is the first sign of awakened ambition ; the first signal of revolt against harsh environment; the dream of age and youth alike. Gaining in volume and momentum every year, the pressure of this army has already made itself felt upon communities in which it finds its destination." When these alien hordes reach America, thirty-two per cent, of them remain in New York, and crowd together like swine in its city slums. A like pro- portion go to Chicago and to the other large cities of the continent. Only the better class of the immi- grants settle in the country. An expert on the question has said, " These con- gested alien centres within our cities and states be- come a menace to physical, social, moral and polit- ical security." " These colonies," says another, " be- come hotbeds for the propagation and growth of false ideas of political and personal freedom." There is little value, however, in worrying over the 38 Waifs of the Slums damage and destruction which these heathen hordes may bring upon us. They truly are encamped against us as a great army, and we, in ourselves, have no might against them ; but let us lift up our eyes unto the hills, and we will find the horses and chariots of the Lord there ready to help us. It is a call to arms. As John Willis Baer has said : " Instead of placing undue emphasis on the menace of this invasion, I consider it a mission not only for the loyal disciple of Christianity, but a mission for every loyal Ameri- can. We must Americanize the immigrant or he will Europeanize us. We must lift him up or he will pull us down. Our hope lies in God, a strong heart, a clear head and an outstretched hand. Let the American people put their ears to the ground, and they will hear the tread of the feet of men and women from other countries in the world who are coming to our shores. Coming to help make America a greater America. Let us throw over them the stars and stripes and over Old Glory the blood-stained banner of the cross. Let us give each ' newcomer ' a man's chance." Viewed in this Christian way, the foreigners are not a menace, but an opportunity ; an opportunity of which foreign missionaries fifty or a hundred years ago never dreamed. Think of it! To-day the heathen from foreign lands are coming to us. Hitherto, we have sent our missionaries into other lands and to other peoples, to learn their language, their customs, their viewpoint A Great Missionary Opportunity 39 of life, and then try to infuse our religion and our civilization into theirs. To-day the tables are be- ing turned. Now, from these foreign lands they are coming to us : to learn our language, our cus- toms, and our viewpoint of life. Before, we have gone to teach them, and often to teach to unwilling ears ; now, they are coming to learn of us, willing, eager, expectant. The all-wise Father, seeing that we have been faithful in a few things, in sending our missionaries abroad, is committing unto us larger things. The foreigners, ignorant, childlike, teachable, who are landing on our shores in such great and ever-increas- ing numbers, are a sacred trust which the " God of hosts " has committed to our charge. Will we be faithful to the trust ? We as a nation and as a Christian church are just beginning to realize both the need and the op- portunity with which these foreigners are confront- ing us. The hope of reaching them lies in the children, the " men of to-morrow," the citizens of the coming generation. To them we must look for our states- men, our business men, and what will be in larger numbers, our working men of the future. It remains with us, with our potential influence over them, to say whether they shall fill these places, or whether they shall become the political bosses, the saloon- keepers and the criminals of the next generation. As Dr. Channing once said, " If the child is left to grow up in utter ignorance of duty, of its Maker of 4