Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1885-05-14
Raising q Million.
THE PROJECT CHAPLAIN McCABE Con
cEryEp WHILE AT SERVICE IN THIS CITY.
From the Chicago Tribune

| From the Chicago Tribune.
The man uickuamed chaplain" McCabe
IL a doctor of divinity, but he does not in ap-
pearance suggest the popular notion of .
reverend theologian. His whole expression
| /, that of tremendous power and indefatiga-
bic energy, holding himself in so as to please
others, He has big square face, dark,
warm eyes, hair and eyebrows heavy, black
as night, with closely trimmed mutton-chop
whiskers. His jaw is as square as General
| Grants and he looks as determined as Grant
ever did, but with more fire in his compost
ton. The Chaplain has tremendous scheme
on hand. He means to employ his remarka-
BILE persuasiveness in getting 81 ,000, 900 from
generous Methodists throughout the country.
He is a wonder in his way. and there lie small
doubt that his intention, unfeasible as it may
seem at glance, will be realized.
In February at the Spring Garden Street,
Church. Philadelphia, the mis- .ionary collection
footed mp $1,000. One of the contributors said
to Mr.. McCabe "Bring the collections up to a
million this year, and will double my sub
scription" The congregation were told of
this. and another made the same proposal.
These offers were mentioned elsewhere, and
every man approached on the subject respond.
ed tavorably. McCabe at once asked author
ny HUN WIG pisuOpo W uhutltnhV tuS lSdt
They have consented, and he has begun the
big job by writing to every presiding elder in
the country, soliciting support and making
dates for his personal appeals to the congre-
cations. The letters in reply are generally
favorable, though some of them advise a
postponement until better times, but he is
ready to go right ahead. He has spent a
week in figuring out what each conference
ought to give. in order to compose the aggre-
gate of million. and, lik. a runner in six
days foot race, he will try to keep up to this
| schedule. A popularity of his effort will be
that the special contributions shall be paya-
BILE only in case the entire million is pledged.
| How does Chaplain NcCabe coax money
out of the pockets of the faithful and the un,
faithful? He knows all the weapons of his
art. and long skill has made him proficient in
welding them. His voice is round and full,
and he Fever tires his hearers, except by long
speeches. This is part of his art. People
are glad at last to yield to his persistence,
give their fifty cents or $50 and go home He
wauders away from the point, apparently for
gets all about what the people and he are
there for, tells story of the remarkable self
forgetiulness and sweet unselfshness of some
struggling body of Christians who reused in
their might and paid the debt weighing down
their church, and then suddenly pounces on
his audience with the moral that they can
raise the money he is after so easily
that they will not feel it. And no one
can feel aggrieved at the application
of the moral to themselves, for he makes il
with such sweet smile. At another stage
in his discourse he drops all show OF art and
comes out with the barefaced assertion that
he wants money, not in ten-cent sums, bu
$50 or 500; and, proceeding from this, hi
will justify himself to the satisfaction of hi,
hearers Finally. when the old device Of the
subscription of $1,000, then $500, then of $3.50
and so on down is brought out and made t.
do its part, and the $50 bills are becomin,
very scarce, McCabe plumps down on
piano-stool and sings rousing song. H,
has voice both powerful and melodius
Then he begins afresh, and has never vel
: found an audience that could beat him.
Every city Methodist congregation il
America will this year have an oPportuhit,
to compare Chaplain McCabe in their owl
pulpit with the description here given of hi
manner and method