Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-10-19


pose to the members to take any such
pledge as the one he's proposed here and
see how quick the people would laugh
at him for fool or crank or a fanatic.
Oh, moi That's not the remedy. That
can't ever amount to anything. We've
got to have a new start in the way of
government The whole thing needs re-
form worth anything to como ont of
the churches. They are not with the
people. They are with the aristocrats,
with the men of money. The trusts and
monopolies have their greatest men in
the churches. The ministers as class
are their slaves. What we need is "a
system that shall start from the com
mon basis of socialism founded on the
rights of the common people,
Carlson had evidently forgotten all
about the three minute rule and was
launching himself into regular ora
ton that meant, in his usual surround
ings, before his usual audience, an hour
at least, when the man just behind him
pulled him down unceremoniously and
rose. Carlson was angry at first and
threatened little disturbance, but the
bishop reminded him of the rule, and
he subsidized, with several mutterings
in his beard, while the next speaker be-
gan with a very strong eulogy on the
value of the single tax as genuine
remedy for all the social ills. He was
followed by man who made bitter
attack on the churches and ministers
and declared that the two great obsta-
Giles in the way of all true reform were
the courts and the ecclesiastical ma
chimes,
When he sat down, a man who bore
every mark of being street laborer
sprang to his feet and poured out per
feet torrent of abuse against the corpor-
ations, especially the railroads. The
minute his time was mp big brawny
fellow who said he was a metal worker
by trade claimed the floor and declared
that the remedy for the social wrong.
was trades unionism. This, he said
would bring on the millennium for la
bor more than anything else The next
man endcavorcd to give some reason.
why so many persons We're out of en-
ployment and condemned inventions a.
the works of the devil. He was loudly
applauded by the rest of the company.
Finally the bishop called time on thu
"frce for all and asked Rachel to sing
Rachel Winslow had grown into {
very strong, healthful, humble Chris
tian during that wonderful year il
Raymond dating from the Sunday
when she first took the pledge to do "a
Jesus would do, and her great talent Of
song had been fully consecrated to the
service Of her Master. When she begal
to sing tonight at this settlement meet
ing, she had never prayed more deeply
for results to come from her voice-thc
voice which she now regarded as tn,
Master s. to he used for him.
Certainly her prayer was being an
swered as she sang. She had chosen tn,
words:
Hark the voice Of Jesus calling,
Follow me, follow me-
APsin Henry Maxwell, sitting there
was reminded of his first night at tn,
Rectangle in the tent when Rachel sans
the people into quiet The effect wa
the same here. What wonderful powe
| a good voice consocrated to the Master
service always is Rachel's great nat
ural ability would have made her on,
of the foremost opera singers of the age
Surely this audience had never befor
| heard such melody. How could it? TIL
men who had drifted in from the stree
sat entranccd by voice which "bacl
in the world never could be heard b,
the common people because the owne
of it would charge 50 or So for tn
privilege. The song poured out through
| the hall as free and glad as if it were
foretaste of salvation itself,
Carlson, with his great black beardet
face, absorbed the music with the dee
love of it peculiar to his nationality
and tear ran over his cheek and glis
tened in his beard as his face softenc
and became almost noble in its aspect
The man out of work who had wanto
to know what Jesus would do in hi
place sat with grimy hand on the bac
of the bench i'll front of him, with hi
mouth partly open, his great TRACED
for the moment forgotten. The son
while it lasted was food and work an
warmth and union with his wife an
babies once more. The man who ha
spoken SO tiercely against the churche
and the ministers sat with his hea
erect at first, with a look of stolid IT
sistance, as if he stubbornlv resente
the introduction into the exercises {
anything that was even remotely cor
nected with the church or its form {
worship, but gradually he yielded {
the power that was swaying the heart
of all the persons in that room, and
look of sad thoughtfulness crept owe
his face.
The bishop said to himself that nigh
while Rachel was singing that if TIL
world of sinful, diseased, depraved 10.
humanity could only have the gosp,
preached to it by consecrated prim
donnas and professional tenors and alto
and bassos he believed it would haste
the coming of the kingdom quickt
than any other one force "Why, oil
why" he cried in his heart as he lii
tened, ''has the world great treasure
song been so often held far from I'll
poor because the personal possessor {
voice or fingers capable of stirring d
vinest melody has so often regarded II
gift as something with which to NAL
| Shnn H.