Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-16

| average visitor viii almost certainly think
| leads to the coal store or tool house. 1t is
really the entrance to the chapel in which
the members of Oxford House worship every
morning. Lift the latch and you are within
what is surely the smallest house OF worship
in the world. Its dimensions certainly do
not exceed 20 feet by 10, and there is room
only for dozen chairs. At the further end
is tinv altar bright with brass fittings,
and to the lett is diminutive desk where
the master of the house reads the lessons.
On the wall is fastened a very small brass
tablet which serves to emphasize the les
son learned from the life's history of Her
bert Ross Webbe, that missionary martyr
dom can be purchased in London as well
as in the wilds of Africa. The tablet is to
the memory of Philip Moor, member Of
the House, who died in 1887 at the age Of
"a. The familiar story of o strong, brave
spirit, delicate body, harrassing work,
foul air and premature death. As you read
you instinctively turn to the pale, frail look
ing handsome young associate whois doing
the honors of the humble place with quiet
dignity and courtesy. Hecame to the house
last September, he tells you, and can re-
main only until next June, because he will
then take holy orders. He hopes to obtain
a curacy somewhere IN the slums, an aspira-
ton the oddity of which may be gauged by
the fact that the young fellow was born to
wealth and high position.
The associates of Oxford House, after
morning prayers, devote the earlier hours of
the day to study. In the afternoon they
visit the hospitals and infrmaries and the
sick poor in their homes. Far from taking
any fee or reward for their labors, they give
freely from their private purses, and even
pay fixed weekly sum (about 81 for their
board and lodging at the House. There are
no narrow ordinances to which their philan-
thropy must conform-each is Tree to do
good in his own way, thus giving the fullest
play to individual energy. Their hardest
work is in the evening. From z until II
o'clock, and on Saturdays from until 11:30
their hands are full with the various classes,
educational and recreative, connected with
the house. There are two large rooms at
tached to Oxford House in which plenty
such work is carried on every evening, but
the operations of the mission are now GEN.
tralized in the Oxford University Club,
capacious block of buildings pleasantly sit
uated off the main road hard by the Beth
mel Green Museum, half q mile away.
WHAT IS BEING DONE.
As I left the house en- route to the club I
passed clamorous crowd of ragged boys
and girls, each armed with pot or basin,
who were waiting to be served with penny
dinner. The meal, which is given out daily
at l o'clock, usually consists of nutritious
soup and pudding, and it is often the only
meal worthy of the name that the little ones
or their parents ever have the chance of eat
ing in the course of "a hours.
The Oxford University Club is the center
of intellectual and social activity in the
Bethnal Green district Of the east end of
London. 1t has manifold attractions, most
of which may be enjoyed for the weekly sub
scription of 1,penny. There are at present
800 members, and there is cause for won
der that there are not 5000. Most of them
are artisans and mechanics; the very poorest
will not join the club-they have to be
reached by the personal efforts of the asso-
ciates-and the depraved and dissolute are
not wanted. Glasses for drawing, bookkeep-
ing, singing, writing, etc., are held regular
ly and there are no fees. There are also ath-
letic clubs. Concerts are given In the large
hall, and lectures and religious services
occur on Sunday. The club has also we'll
gymnasium, and to crown all,
no fewer than five billiard and ten
bagatelle boards. Add to these attractions
a cooperative store at which members may
purchase everything required for their
households at wholesale prices, and one
would think no workingman could resist the
temptation of joining the Oxford University
Club. As a matter of fact the public house
is still more attractive to the masses, and
the Oxford house associations with all their
personal zeal and unselfsh devotion and
with all the material benefits they are able
to provide, have not yet succeeded in max
ing more than a superficial impression upon
the mass of misery, degradation and vice
which surges around them.
The work is terribly depressing, and few
are able to endure it for more than a few
months at time. But the ranks are always
kept fairly filed by enthusiastic recruits
fresh from classic Oxford content to SOW the
seed, even it they are not destined to reap
the harvest. BLAKELY HALL.