The San Francisco call., 1898-06-19

" HE youngest mission in San
 Francisco Is but three months
 old; is strong and vigorous, and
 is worthy of special notice for at
 least two reasons. One reason
 Is that the religious belief of
 those who are supporting it and of
 those who are resident there, devoting
 themselves to caring for their needy
 and suffering brothers, differs entirely
 in at least one tenet from that of other
 Christian denominations. The other
 is that while the gospel of Christ and
 of the observance of the seventh day,
 instead of Sunday, as the Lords special
 day, are both preached and practiced ohere, another gospel also is preached 0 and practiced, and that is the gospel n of vegetarianism.
 o The hungry who would fain be fed at !, the tables of this particular refuge for the poor must needs ignore the fact that nature has given them teeth which prove them to belong to the car o nivora and be content to eat only of o vegetables as long as they remain un- q der the roof of the Helping Hand" o And the wonder of it Is that this mis- = sion, with it's meatless meals, is one of V the most popular establishments of it's o kind in the city.
 o I make my way with some little diff o culty through the center of the room, q down what is intended to be a straight o and narrow way to the chaplains of o flee. It Is narrow enough in all con- o science, but at this special time it Is as crooked as the world-famous Congo oRiver, by reason of disarranged chairs oand the hubby and protrusive knees of oseated men.
 In the office a slender dark-eyed man o welcomes me cordially, although I am O an uninvited and unexpected visitor. o He is the chaplain, he tells me, and I V look at him with genuine interest as I o wait in a comfortable chair for him to O finish adding up a portentouS column
 of figures which stands between him and instant attendance on my wishes. O He has not felt it necessary to dress a his part" at all, 1t seems, for he has put = no barrier of clerical coat and collar be- tween him and his fellow men. He o wears an ordinary cutaway suit, linen a immaculate, but in cut not at all sug- o gestive of his profession, a really V pleasing cravat, and a pointed beard o all of which, together with certain O brisk alertness and directness of man. . ner, gives him the appearance of an en- U terprising business man.
 O l like him the better that he meets o me on my own ground, which for the O nonce is purely practical one. 1 want o to see the rooms and the beds, all the different departments, and the men who o find shelter here, and as soon as the O figures are settled with he is at my . command. But before we start upon o our round he tells me of the mission it's owork and workers, and those they work Q upon.
 We take in all who come" he says except, late at night, drunkards who make a disturbance and are hard Q to manage. During the day we take
 even these in, sober them up with the Q Shower bath, put them to bed and start 0 them off straight the next morning. q For a stranger who comes in at
 night we have one invariable form of Oprocedure. First we take him down o stairs and give him a good hot bath Q with plenty of soap and clean crash