The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1900-01-11

rose ever before yielded to such strange
emotion of feelingY
"This affair of the shooting-you un-
derstand. You have read it. The family
lived in one of my houses. 1t is terri
BILE event. But that is not the primary
cause of my visit" He stammered and
looked anxiously into the faces Of tn 2
other two men. The bishop still looked
stern. He could not help feeling that
this elegant man Of leisure could have
done great deal to alleviate the hor-
rors in his tenements, possibly have pre-
vented this tragedy, if he had sacrificed
some of his personal ease and luxury to
better the condition of the people in his
district
Penrose turned to DR.. Bruce
Doctor" he exclaimed, and there
was almost q child's terror in his voice,
II came to say that have had an ex-
perience so unusual that nothing but
the supernatural can explain it. You
remember / was one of those who took
the pledge to do as Jesus would do. l
thought at the time, poor fool that l
was, that had all along been doing the
Christian thing. gave literally out of
my abundance TO the church and char
ity. never gave myself to cost me any
suffering. have been living in per-
feet hell of contradictions ever since !
took the pledge My little girl, Diana,
you remember. also took the pledge
with me. She has teen asking me a
great many questions lately about the
poor people and where they lived was
obliged to answer her. Two of her ques-
, tions last night touched my sore. Did
own any houses where those people
livedY Were they nice and warm like
ours? You know how child will ask
questions like these. went to bed tor
mented with what l now know to be
the divine arrows of conscience. Icould
not sleep. seemed to see the judgment
day. was placed before the Judge. l
was asked tc give account of my deeds
done in the body. How many sinful
souls had visited in priSonl What had
l done with my stewardship How
about those tenements where people
froze in winter and stifled in summers
Did give any thought to them, except
to receive the rentals from themH
Where did my suffering come in?
Would Jesus have done as l had done
and was doing. Had l broken my
pledgey How had l used the money and
the culture and the social influence ]
possessed? Had l used them to blees
humanity, to relieve the suffering, to
bring JOY to the distressed and hope to
the despondingH had received much.
How much had l givens
"All this came to me in a waking
vision as distinctly as l see you two
men and myself now. was unable to
see the end Of the vision. had a con.
fused picture in my mind Of the suffer
ing Christ pointing condemning finger
at me, and the rest was shut out by
mist and darkness. have not had sleep
for "a hours. The first thing saw this
morning was the account Of the shoot
ing at the coalyards l read the account
with a feeling Of horror I have not been
able to shake of. / am guilty creature
before God"
Penrose paused suddenly. The two
men looked at him solemnly. What
power Of the Holy Spirit moved the
soul of this hitherto self satisfied. ele-
CANT, cultured man who belonged to
the social life that was accustomed to
go its way, placidly unmindful Of the
great sorrows of a great city and prac-
tically ignorant Of what it means to
suffer for Jesus sakef
Into that room came breath such as
before swept over Henry Maxwells
church and through Nazareth Avenue,
and the bishop laid his hand ON the
shoulder of Penrose and said: "My
brother, God has been very near to you.
Let us thank him."
"Yes, yes," sobbed Penrose. He sat
down on chair and covered his face.
The bishop prayed. Then Penrose quiet
ly said, "Will you 60 with me to that
houseS"
For answer both DR.. Bruce and the
bishop put on their overcoats and went
out with him to the home Of the dead
mans family. This was the beginning
of a new and strange life for Clarence
Penrose. From the moment he stepped
into that wretched hovel Of a home and
faced for the first time in his life de-
spair and suffering such as he had read
Of, but did not know by personal con-
tact he dated a new life. 1t would be
another long story to tell how, in obedi-
ence to his pledge, he began to do with
his tenement property as he knew Jesus
would do. What would Jesus do with
tenement property il he owned 1t in
Chicago or any other great city Of the
world2 Any man who can imagine any
true answer to this question can easily
tell what Clarence Penrose began to do.
Now, before that winter reached its
bitter climax many things occurred in
the city that concerned the lives of all
the characters in this history Of the dis
ciples who promised to walk in his steps.
1t CHANGED. by one of those remark
able condolences that seem to occur