Evening star., 1900-12-22
Building to Be Constructed in This
City at an Early Day.
DESIGNED As 4 MEMORIAL EDIFICE
Will Be an Adjunct Of Lucy Webb
Hayes Training School.
UNDER CARE OF Me CHURCH

near the corner of North Capitol and Pierce
streets, to be known Rust Hall, and
which will be in the nature of memorial
to the late Mrs. r. S. Rust for many years
corresponding secretary of the Womans
Home Missionary Society of the Methodist
Episcopal Church. The building will be
used for the purposes of the Lucy Webb
Hayes Training School, an institution
which, from very small beginning less
than quarter OF a century ago, has be-
come national in its character, and is SO
regarded by the membership Of that de-
nomination throughout the country. Re
ferring to the work of this training school,
one Of those most closely allied with the
management said it was founded by the
Woman's Home Missionary Society of the
Methodist Episcopal Church for the special
training of deaconesses. missionaries and
other workers in its fields Of operation, yet
admitting all other women whose zeal in
clfnes them to practical activity In its
work. 1t has. from small beginnings. stead
lily increased in resources, numbers. eff
cheney and comprehensiveness Of instruc-
ton.
The Womans Home Missionary Society,
an official said, is itself Of comparatively
recent origin. 1t was called into being un-
der the profound conviction that the moral
and religious peris that threaten our land
so acute that the active cooperation
of every Christian woman is necessary to
guide it through them. Selecting for the
field of its operations chiefly, on the one
hand, the foreign peoples who throng our
ports, crowd our cities work our mines,
and who are introducing habits, traditions,
customs, religious and political opinions so
dissimilar to our own, and, on the other
hand, the ignorant, superstitious, inapt,
semi civilized masses in the south, the So
ciety is fulfilling mission at once patriot
tic and evangelical by bringing these mot
ley elements into harmony and accord with
our national and Christian ideas.
Needed of Skilled Workers.
Very early in its history the society
came to feel the need Of trained and skilled
workers in its fields, and began to plan
for a school where deaconessses and mis-
sionaries could be fitted for their response
BILE tasks.
The resolution Of the society to name
the school in honor of Mrs. Hayes was fol-
lowed by the gift of building in this city,
which secured through the appeals of
Mrs. George O. Robinson of Detroit. Mich,
and this fixed the site Of the school in the
national capital.
Beginning with eight scholars the school
has grown until during the last school year
there We're sixty-one in attendance, nearly
all of whom had volunteered to enter the
deaconess work, number which, while it
exhausted the accommodations of the
school, fell far short of the demand for
tneSe workers. Durlng lne past year lne
Woman's Home Missionary Society has
purchased and paid for additional ground
which. with the exception of two small
lots, will give rectangular site 2}7 by 12I
feet, fronting on North Capitol. Pierce and
NJ streets. respectively. Subscriptions
amounting at this time to $4,000 have
been secured toward the erection of a new
school building. to be known as Rust Hall,
"a stated, work upon which will soon be
begun.
What is a deaconess? is the question
often asked. A deaconess is a woman who
gives herself and her time wholly to the
work of benevolence and religion. She re-
ltnquishes all other pursuits and makes
this her only employment. After a proba-
ton Of two years, in which deaconesses
pursue 6. course Of study prescribed by the
Book Of Discipline of the NJ. E. Church.
they are, If over twenty-three years of
age. entitled to apply for a license from a
board Of nine appointed for that purpose
IN each conference. If so licensed they
are regarded as part OF the ministry
and their character and work must as In
the case Of the preachers, be reported every
year in open conference.
Mission of a Deaconess
Next to that of the ordained ministry
the mission Of a deaconess Is the noblest
that can be conceived. She has in her
keeping the solution of some Of the most
vexing questions of society and the church.
She presents religion to tho world in
form the most attractive and persuasive
and that can be appreciated by all. She
Is the almoner of the church. dispensing
charity with a discretion that helps with
out harming, a patience that never wearies
and a kindness that touches the heart The
aid she renders Is not the cold and official
bounty which Is doled out by the dead
hand OF some pious, but ong-forgotten,
founder, but warmed into life by contact
with her living hand And her work often
differs from the humanitarian and phi
a nj ay,tn IN f1o< -
specifically on religion.
The introduction Of woman's talents into
the work Of the church is no new thing
It has been attempted again and again
The duties prescribed to the deaconess are
evangelical, missionary, benevolent She
Is not to supersede or supplant any other
officer of the church She is not to be a
preacher, nor. save exceptionally, class
leader nor a teacher. Every church is
expected to supply its needs from its own
resources in these directions. The work OF
deaconess is additional to all Others not
substitutional to any of them. Her proper
sphere is not inside the fields Of the church.
but in the untitled and barren commons of
life among the neglected, outcast, un-
churched, ignorant, the children of sorrow,
vice and crime whose laborers are few and
harvests are plenty.
In the Lucy Webb Hayes National Train
ing School fully one-half Of the time Is
given to the teaching of the Bible while
the study of ethics. of sociology, of kin
sic, elocution industrial teaching AM
methods of visitation and charity dtstri-
button occupy most of the remaining hours
Combining theory with practice, the stu.
dents conduct mission kindergartens, Sun
day schools and industrial schools; make
thousands of visits as pastors direct sup
ply the needy with garments, dispense aims
distribute Bibles, Testaments and tracts.
ard find employment for those willing to
work.
The graduates from the training school
already form a numerous body. They are
assigned to work in the various fields If
the Woman's Home Missionary Society
north and south and from the Atlantic to
the Pacific. There is scarcely a deaconess
home under the direction of the society
which is not furnished wholly in part
with the alumnae of the school, and one
graduate is now doing mission work in
Porto Rico. And 1t may be safely said
that those who have received the training
of the Lucy Webb Hayes school compare
favorably with Christian workers any
where both in the spirit which animates
their lives and the thoroughness of the
work done by them.
Memorial Hospital.
Associated with the National Training
School, contiguous to 1t in location, and
under the same board Of managers, is Sib.
ley Memorial Hospital, the only institution
of It's kind under the control Of the M. E.