The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1899-10-19
MODERN RELIGION.

MODERN RELIGION.
Especial to the Chicago Times Herald.)
NEW YORK, Oct. 16.-At the fifteenth |
annual convention of the Christian and |
Missionary Alliance, held this morning in |
the Gospel Tabernacle, Eighth avenue near |
sion was THE Worlds Need" Rev Wilbur |
Meninger. of Chicago, gave an account of |
the religious situation in that city from his
view point.
There are" he said. 900 churches and |
1000 saloons in Chicago. You can stand in
and throw a stone through the window Of
the apartments of some disorderly woman.
"Out of 100000 persons in that city only
$4,000 ever step foot inside a church, And
those who go to church go only once ON
Sunday, and they get a mighty small dose
then. l happened to be at the service IN
one fashionable church recently, and the
pastor apOlOgized for preaching so long. l
timed him, and the sermon took exactly %
minutes. Yet all the great preachers and
professors go to church and we have lots of
silver tOngued pulpit orators of our own. I
think some of them must have tongues of
gold, they cost so much. IT.
II went to another church not long ago. a
magnificent stone pile with any number of
millionaires in the congregation. There
was fine choir. and the leader beat time
with kid gloved hands. 1t was all in the
time. There'll be nothing of that in eter-
nifty. And the pastor of that church told
his congregation that was the day to take
up collection for foreign missions. He
begged them not to humiliate him as they
had done last year, when they failed to
make up the thousand dollars for which
they were assessed. God will never let
that congregation clear for less than
million year.
But that church has lot of reformers in
1t. There are SO many reformers in Chicago
that they fall over one another looking for
jobs They recently started campaign
against the dives, and wound up by arrest
ing two poor Italians who sold books with
bad pictures in them. You can buy those
lishments in Philadelphia and New York
1 believe the devil laughs at reform-move-
ments. You can't regulate the devil"
Isn't it wise and right to kill off few
thousand Filipinos in order to confer
upon the remainder the blessing ST such
a religion as is depicted in the foregoing
extract?
How the devil must grin as he wit
nesses such piety-60O CHURCHES
AND 1000 SALOONS! 1900, 900 -fnhab-
itants in Chicago, and only 10000 ever
set foot In a church!
Would it not be a good idea to recall
our missionaries from foreign lands and
set them at work to convert our own
people to Christianity?
And whichever way we turn we find
nothing but fraud and rascality in this
degenerate age.
In a recent letter from Washington
to the Minneapolis Journal, dated Oct.
13, we find the following:
It is likely that the coming congress will
consider. among other things, some meas
ures for the relief of local conditions at Hot
Springs, Ark, where the government owns
reservation Of the highest value a
health resort and Is in honor bound to
protect it's patrons from extortion and fraud.
Year after year the superintendent has re-
ported on abuses practiced there and made
recommendations for their amendment, but
congress has simply turned it's face the
other way and let things drift. There is
reason for thinking however, that infor-
nation which has recently reached some
of the senators may have it's effect in
procuring at least a part of the legisla-
ton imperatively demanded.
The most crying of all the evils to be
remedied is the "touting' or drumming
practice. This was swel1ed to the dimen-
sions of an independent trade, systemati-
proprietors, bath house lessees, druggists
and even physicians. The superintendent
has done what he could, by SUCH means
as revising the rules for the government
of the reservation to bring this business
under control and reduce it materially. He
admits, however, that it is an uphill strug
gle in view Of the active competition be-
tween seekers for public patronage In
his report for the year just ended he says
that there are Is bath houses. at Hot
Springs, each contending for a lions share
of the business. The drummers are un-
scupulous in finding means to create the
impression that one bath house proprietor
is paying more money to his drummers
than another, so as to bring the other up
to the point of paying more himself, and
drumming physician will sometimes send
all his patients to one particular bath house
30 as to make the proprietors of the others
believe that he is getting commission
on the business he commands. 1T Is a
standing disgrace to their profession. which
the honest and self-respecting doctors re-
sent bitterly, that out of some 80 persons
practicing medicine In Hot Springs, at least
As employ drummers and resort to other
unprofessional tactics. and with shame
less freedom and publicity found scarcely
anywhere else. The superintendent recon-
mends that a board of medical examiners
be appointed under some provision of law
to pass upon the qualifications of every per-
the Hot Springs reservation. BY cooper
alton with the state authorities It. is be-
lieved that the practice throughout Hot
Springs-including both the federal reser-
walton and that part which falls fully with
in the Jurisdiction of the state-could be
effectually regulated and the quacks and
touting doctors driven out.
But this is not the worst of 1t. Read
the following: st
man whose dress and appearance indi-
Gated that he might be q we'll do farmer
was captured by a drummer and taken to
his medical patron. The drummer "sized
him up and limited to the doctor how
big a charge the man would probably
ment the stranger paid his bill; which
was reasonable. with some expression of
gratitude to the physician, but in doing
SO exposed a roll of bank notes which the
physician roughly estimated to contain $500
or $500. The man had SCARCELY said fare
well and started away when the physician
hastily summoned his drummer. you made
a bad break on that fellow" said he; '.he
has big wad of bills with him. Catch
him before he leaves town; tell him that
I feel still very uneasy about his case and
would like to make another. examination,
and get him back here by hook or by
crook" The drummer did as directed The
physician made another examination, told
the man that he ~'waS~~ now convinced of
what he had FIRST only suspected, and that
there was tumur0us growth hidden in his
body which must be extracted at once or
It would spread and kill him. The fright
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