El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-01-20


| done with my stewardship? How
about those tenements where people
froze in winter and stified in summer {?
Did give any thought to them, except
to receive the rentals from them
Where did my suffering come in {?
Would Jesus have done as / had done
and was doing? Had | broken my
pledge2 How had | used the money and
the culture and the social influence
possessed? Had | used them to bless
humanity, to relieve the suffering, to.
bring JOY to the distressed and hope to
the desponding7 1 had received much.
How much had l given?
''All this came to me in a waking.
vision as distinctly as l see you two
men and myself now. L was unable to
see the end of the vision. 1 had con-
fused picture in my mind of the suffer.
ing Christ pointing condemnlng finger
at me. and the rest was shut out by
mist and darkness 1 have not had sleep
for "a hours The first thing l saw this
morning was the account of the shoot
ing at the coalyards. read the account
with feeling of horror have not been
able to shake off. 1 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 sake?
into that room came a breath such as
before swept over Henry Maxwell's
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 rs thank him.
YES. yes" sobbed Penrose, He sat
down on a chair and covered his face.
The bishop prayed Then Penrose quiet
ly said, will you go with me to that
house,
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 new and strange life for Clarence
Penrose. From the moment he stepped
into that wretched howell of 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 if he owned it in
Chicago or any other great city of the
world? 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
preternaturally, that one afternoon, just
as Felicia came out of the settlement
with basket which she was going to
leave as a sample with a baker in the
Penrose district. Stephen Clyde opened
the door of the carpenter shop in the
basement and came out of the lower
door in time to meet Felicia as she
reached the sidewalk.
Let me carry your basket, please
he said
why do you say please? - asked
Felicia, handing over the basket
II would like to say something else, -
replied Stephen. glancing at her shyly
and yet with boldness that frightened
him. for he had been loving Felicia
more every day since he first saw her,
and especially since she stepped into the
shop that day with the bishop, and for
weeks now they had been in many ways
thrown into each others company.
what else?" asked Felicia innocent
ly, falling into the trap.
"Why," said Stephen, turning his
fair. noble face full toward her and
eying her with the look of one who
would have the best of all things in the
universe, 81 would like to say, Let me
carry your basket, dear Felicia. -
Felicia never looked so beautiful in
her life She walked on little way
without even turning her face toward
him. 1t was no secret with her own
heart that she had given it to Stephen
some time ago. Finally she turned and
said shyly, while her face grew rosy
and her eyes tender. ''Why don't you
say it, then2''
''May II" cried Stephen, and he was
SO careless for a minute of the way he
held the basket that Felicia exclaimed:
"Yesl But, oh. don't drop my goodiesl"
"Why, 1 wouldn't drop anything SO
precious for all the world, dear Fee
,icia, y said Stephen, who now walked
on air for several blocks, and what else
was said during that walk is private
correspondence that we have no right
to read, only it is matter of history that
day that the basket never reached it's
destination and that over in the other
direction late in the afternoon the
bishop walking along quietly in