The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-10-31

in every big city. Generally, with it's other perpleXities, it is a financial
 problem, but that isn't the case with this Church of All Hallows- on- the l Wall. From a rectorial tithe on the business blocks around it and from certain other sources of income it was formerly worth to the rector over ten thousand dollars year. But by an or
 der in council, i. e., Her Majesty's privy
 council which seems to have authority
 in such matters, more than half this in- ] come was diverted a few years ago.
 and was then conferred as an endow- ment upon three churches in the East of London which had large parishes
 and little or no revenue This howev- CT, still leaves the rector of All Hal l lows with an income of four thousand | dpllars which is trifling, to be sure, to what some get, but in contrast with | the stipends of the great mass of l Church of England cergymen is almost princely. One-half of the fourteen I thousand benefices in the Established church yield an income of less than
 seven hundred and fifty dollars a year. l There are besides, fifteen hundred l "livings" that yield less than five hum dred dollars, three hundred that fall as l low as two hundred and fifty dollars year, and I know of one diocese alone in which there are sixty churches
 whose "livings," so called, do not reach
 the two hundred and fifty dollar mark
 and might more appropriately there
 fore be called "starvings"
 But the Rev. Montague Fowler who
 is carrying on so novel a. work at All
 Hallows- on- the Wall, is far removed
 from conditions like these. The pro
 blem he meets in his regular church
 work is not lack of funds, but
 dearth of people. His parish is right
 of the Romans, where, as I have said,
 people today do not live, but only trade,
 You wouldn't think there was any scar
 city of either people or vehicles in that
 locality if you tried to make quick
 crossing of the street at noon time or
 wore elbowing your way through the
 crowded sidewalks for quick lunch.
 But at night it is different, "All told
 said the Rev. Montague Fowler, there
 are one hundred and sixty-four people living in this parish, including babies"
 And" said he "the men all have the
  takers of large buildings" Naturally too,' he went on, the population is decreasing, for occasionally several buildings are removed to make room for single larger one, and that means a reduction in the number of caretak CTS" Let me tell you something else" he said, and I was glad to have him, for what he said would throw light, I felt sure, upon London church problems. There isn't a man residing in my parish who pays rates There fore, not one who is eligible for the of l flee of church warden. So we have to press in some of the city merchants 1 who do business near by but live in | the country, and the situation at All | Halows is unique in enc respect, for it | happens that both our church wardens l are Non- Conformists, who never come here to church, but go to chapel some where
 One is not surprised that the rector of a church whose average Sunday au- dience is twenty-five should have cast | about him to see if there were not some other use to which he could put his plant and energies beside the eonven- tional one of holding service twice | unday, with sometimes only his wife and a few other sisters to listen to the Dearly beloved brethren" of the Church of England Prayer Book. Still, to worship at All Hallows- on the Wall must mean not a little to one who can enter into the spirit of the place. This church stands close against the wall of old London, and it is only in this and q few other spots that portion of that ancient barricade still remains. I thought of this when I sat that morn ng as a privileged onlooker in that congregation of London work ng girls who were waiting for the hour to begin their daily labor, and meanwhile, after variously occupying themselves with reading, sewing, etc, were at last, just after eight o'clock, istening reverently while the rector 'ecited the ten commandments, and gave, here and there, a few words of Sindly exhortation. Against that i'm Dregnable Roman wall enemies vainly hrew themselves as early as in the ourth century, and here l thought, fifteen centuries later was an effort on he same spot to build a wall of pro- ection equally secure around the ex- ,osed life of London's present-day toil- ITS, both men and women.
 All Hallows is one of the churches hat escaped the great London fire. | But falling into ruin later, it was re- ,uilt as 1t stands at present, hun l red and forty years ago. It is gene ally believed that upon the same site here has been church for at least a years, but the parish records 10 back only to the fifteenth century. sare indeed the church in his country | hat hasn't in it's annals some story of lerical eccentricity, and oftener than ot it Is a story of self denial. One arsh that I know cherishes the tradi- ion that an ancient rector was so anX- 1us to increase the living or income of he church for those who might succee i'm that he labored thirty-five years fithout taking a penny of the salary, ! ubssting most of the time on dry | read and herrings. Self-denial almost qual to this is recorded to the credit or therwise of Sir Simon, an Anchorite, rho was rector of All Hallows in the ! fteenth century. All Hallows abutted eainst one of the bastians of the city ! all, and in this bastian he made him. I elf a cave. Here during the intervals r