Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1901-08-08
ORIGIN OF THE CRITTENTON
MOVEMENT

A paper contributed to the Midsum-
mer meeting Of the North Dakota Fed
Grafton OF Women's Clubs at Devils
Lake, N. D., July 5, 1901, by Mrs. Linda
w. Slaughter, delegate of the Florence
Crittenton Circle of Bismarck. The
question is often asked: How did the
Crittenton movement originate? l
will answer briefly, that like all great
and popular movements for the uplift-
ing of fallen humanity. it owes it's con-
ception to the providential circum-
stances that so often in life give evil
dence that the day of miracles is not
yet past, and which is SO beautifully
exemplified in the poets matchless
line,
God moves in a mysterious way his
wonders to perform"
The central idea, around wh.-- clus-
tiers the methods of this modern
Christ-like reform, is found in the
Masters words of divine pity to the re-
pentant NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. do I on
denim thee; go and sin no more"
In contemplation of the mysterious
plan of Providence we perceive that
the human instruments, through which
divine purposes are accomplished, are
first prepared for the work by the
stern hand of discipline.
Even as in ancient times Saul Of Tar
sus IN his journey to Damascus wa
suddenly arrested in his career of per-
secution against the saints by the di-
vine light of revelation that at first
Frustrated and blinded him, but which
led directly to his conversion and con-
secration as the great Apostle of
Truth; so some sixteen years ago Chas.
N. Crittenton, a successful merchant
of New York, a mar OF moral life, but
devoted wholly to business and alb
sorbed in the pursuit of wealth, was
suddenly arrested in his career of
worldliness and converted by means of
the death of his idolized little daugh-
ter, Florence.
When the stricken father rose up
from the side of her little casket, in
spired with the resolve to dedicate the
great wealth that would have been the
Inheritance of his lost daughter, if she
had lived, to the salvation of the lost
and yet living daughters of the land,
the homeless outcasts, whom men de-
spise and Cypress, and from whom
pure women turn with scorn and loath-
ing, can we not believe that his eyes
were miraculously opened and that
The light that then shone into the
darkness of his anguish and %desolation
was just as truly he~aven-sent, and as
surely fitted him to become the chosen
instrument for Gods work of pity
toward the poor unfortunates Of earth,
as the light that illumined the path
way of Saul on the road to Damascus,
prepared him for his divinely appointed
mission as the minister of Christ to
the churches he had before delighted
to prosecute.
Thenceforth Mr.. C%rittenton has de-
voted his fortune and income in the
name of his lost daughter to the
reclamation of erring girls and women
throughout the country. Sixty Flor
ence Crittenton homes have been es-
tablished in various parts of the
union. In 1889 these homes were all
banded together into a national organ
ization under the name of the National
Florence Cr%ittenton Mission, for which
the United States government has is
sued it's charter, and congress has
voted an appropriation.
Nearly half of these rescue homes
receive city or state aid. Many are
the recipients Of the liberal bounty of
the leading philanthropists of the age.
A numbes of these homes are s%elf-sup-
porting. Others are maintained by