The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-10-31
The DEBT OF A DEBT RAISER.
rms rs DIR. ALONZO &. MORE
MOI SEES Auction DAY.
Tie spent So Much NJ Ills Life Raising
Money 10 Pay or Church Mort cages
That Tie Had M Time TO Look After
Himself Household Goods TO go.

In the course Of forty-slx years in the
ministry the Rev. DR. Alonzo Church More
house gained a reputation as one Of the
most successful debt raisers in the Mctho-
dist denomination But like the shoe
makers children who go barefoot, he quite
forgot to look after his own finances. and
the consequence is that there will be- an
auction sale Of his household goods and his
library This morning for debt-raising pur-
poses.
Consider ring the thousands and thousands
Of dollars which Or Morehousr has induced
people o give for the relief Of debt -burdened
churches, the amount Of his own obligation.
which for the life Of him he can't meet, seems
ptifully email Its only s5j. but that's
SIS more than he can pay.
DR. Norchou-c il past 81. and for the last
two years he has been what the Methodisis
call "-uporannuatcd" that is to say, he's
been on the retired list, trying to live on a
pension His claim ON the pension fund Is
500 "car, or $40 for each year of his active
ministry. but there isn't enough money
raised for this purpose to give the superan-
nuatci clcrgymcn their full due. 81 he's
been getting only hiN pro rata share of what
the church has to give II came this year 10
$500
DR. Warehouses; hast charge, a. the Metho-
dist phrase has il, was the Second Street
Church in Manhattan. a poor congregation
on the Fast Side When he got through
thare in April, 1900, he was through for
good. 80 he put his household furniture
and the 400 volumes of his library in Doch-
tcrnann 4 Sons storage warehouse AT 2ll
Second street and went up To live near the
yrptp, at Sipu Sing
shining, a. they call it now, for which he'd
been raising money by the thousands, in
tending to spend his twilight days there in
rest and quiet.
The storage charges on the goods az
Dochternann'- have been piling up and
DIR. Morchousc sees no prospect of being
able TO meet them, so he has determined
go let IN" warehouse people sell him out,
hoping that there may be something left
after the SIS il paid He came down from
Ossniug last Sunday and took charge of
"A seventeen anniversary service for the
Second Street Church In the course of
tho day be- told his old friends about 1900
he'd raised for the campmeeting associa-
ton since he became superannuated and
then he called their attention TO a ncces-
sitv which they'd never heard him refer
TO before and minated that if any Of them
was in need Of chairs or beds or tables or
books or a parlor organ he d be glad 10 see
them at the auction at 10 O'Clock this morn
ing. There's a similar notice in the Christian
Advocate, so the Methodist people are pretty
well informed of the situation in which
their old debt raiser finds himself. and all
that remains To be seen Is how well they'll
respond.
About seven years ago DR.. Morehouse
wrote an autobiography, which was pub
lshed by the Methodist Book Concern It
had glowing Introduction by Bishop
Newman. From one of the early chapters
Il appears that DR. Moreholise began To be-
a good giver early in life. He was a mighty
hunter in his youth up in Scfoharie county
and a mighty reader Of the Bible, too. He
made up his mind that it was his duty TO
give tithes. so exactly one-tenth of all
the proceeds of the mink, fox and muskrat
skins and the wild honey which he sold
was devoted 10 religious purposes.
That was long before he became
preacher. He was carpenter and a builder
first and a minister afterward His first
regular pastorate was at Summit, Schoharie
county, In 1850 Then he was transferred,
according to the itinerary system, TO
Boomville. Davenport, Prattsville and
Roxbury, where Jay Gould came from,
and where he preached the funeral sermon
for jay Gould's father. He had churches
also in Windham, Wappingers Falls and
North Sing Sing before he came To New
York in 1873 10 take charge of the tity
Mission Circuit
They sent him TO the Eleventh Street
Church in 1879 and he did 80 well in getting
l. out of debt that the Bishop thought he'd
be Just the man TO tackle the Forsyth Street
Church, which had a monumental debt of
$4,000. They kept him at this task for
fye years, and when lac left Forsyth street
the church was on the way to @olvency;
il eventually got there. His subsequent
services were given To the seventh street
Seventeenth Street and Second Street
churches. in this city, and the church in
Smthtown. l.. / He found them all in
debt and left them all free and clear
His personal generosity was almost a.
well known as his capacity for raising
money A. long "a he was on the East
Side he kept responding To tho petitions
If his hard-up neighbor., CARELESS of his
own fortune and his future He was a
great deal more yielding in this prlvat"
way than most of the peop" whom h"
approached for subscriptions and con-
tTibutlOus His rule of conduct was never
10 give or take No for an answer. That's
why some of his churches are - wcll-to-do,
and h" 80 poor