The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-02-27
Guiding Mike Cronin, an AdirOn-
dack Driver.
ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT
WHO SPOKE OF THE WORK OF PIO-
NEERS OF METHODIsM,
Their Trials and TribulatiOns, and
Paid Tribute to Their Integrity
and Zeaiousness.


mass meeting at Carnegie Hall, held Ito do
honor TO the character and labors of John
Wesley, the founder of Methodism, scholar.
missionary, philanthropist, preacher, gen.
tleman."
The meeting was held under the auspices
of the New York Thank Offering Commits
sion, which has had charge OF the local
work of the twentieth century thank offer
ing fund of $40 600 that has been raised
by the Methodists throughout the country
to celebrate the advent of the twentieth
century of the Christian era.
Samuel Bovine presided. with President
Roosevelt at his right, and on the platform
were Bishop c. d. Foss, Bishop Walden,
Bishop Goodsell, E. M. Willis. Bishop F. G.
Andrews, DR.. James r. Day, Bishop c. II.
Fowler, ]. Edgar Leaycraft, the Rev. T.. S.
Triple, executive secretary OF the New
York Thank Offering Commission; the Rev.
j. w. tombstone, pastor of the old john
street M. Z. Church; the Rev. A. d. Leon
ard, secretary of the Methodist Missionary
Society, and the Rev. J. B. Remensnyder,
of the Lutheran Church.
The hall was crowded to the doors and
hundreds were unable to gain admittance.
President Roosevelt reached the hall escort
ed by a detachment of mounted police at
$50. AS he alighted from his carriage he
was hailed by a young man who was strug-
Cling in the crowd and whom the police
were trying to force back.
I'm Mike Cronin, Mr.. President, and
want to hear you speak, he shouted. Pres
ident Roosevelt instantly recognized him as
the driver who drove him on the last stage
of his journey to North Creek to take the
train for Buffalo after being notified of the
death OF President Mckinley.
Delighted to see you, replied the Pres
ident. and. addressing the police, said, Let
that man pass
Grasping Cronin's hand, he led him into
the hall and saw that he had seat near
him on the platform. After the meeting the
President introduced Cronin to the men,
bers of his party and told them the story Of
his furious night drive along the Adiron-
dack roads to catch the train.
Cheers and hand-clapping announced the
arrival of President Roosevelt. who adj
vameed from ~ the rear Of the Platform
meeting When he had reached the front
of the stage, the President bowed slightly
and then walked over TO the seat reserved
for him behind the reading desk.
Chairman Bovine then announced the
hymn BLOW Ye the Trumpet Blow by
Charles Wesley. Bishop Cyrus d. Foss. of
Philadelphia, led the meeting in prayer,
mighty volume of voices joined. Mr..
Bovine made a short address, in which he
said that was se
on the Atlantic seaboard. In speaking of
the meeting and its purpose Mr.. Bovine
said: I'VE are just little bit ahead OF
time in this celebration, which was to have
occurred on the bicentennial of Wesley's
birth, but this day was chosen by our
president, and under the circumstances
where we are figuring in centuries few
days don't count for much. 1 regret ex-
ceedingly that we could not accommodate
all of our friends. If Andrew Carnegie had
known more of Wesley and Methodism he
would have built this hall a good dea.
larger. We will forgive Mr.. Carnegie, how
ever, II he goes on giving public libraries
and throws in a church now and them
PRESIDENT ROOSEvELT'S ADDRESS.
Mr.. Bovine then introduced President
Roosevelt, the audience rising to greet him.
President Roosevelt spoke as follows and
was attentively listened to:
Mr.. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen-I
am glad to have the chance of address
ing this representative body of the great
church which Wesley founded, on the oc-
casion of the commemoration of the two
hundreth anniversary of his birth. Ameri-
ca, moreover. has peculiar proprietary
claim on Wesley's memory, for IL Is
on our continent that the Methodist
Church has received its greatest develop
ment In the days of our colonial life
Methodism was not on the whole a great
factor in the religious and social life of
the people. The Congregationalists were
supreme throughout most of New England;
New York southwark; while the Presby-
terrain congregations were most numerous
along what was then the entire western
frontier; and the Quaker, Catholic and
velopments in special places. The great
growth of the Methodist Church. like the
great growth q. Of the Baptist Church. be-
airy war. To-day my theme Is purely Meth
odism.
'.Since the days of the Revolution not
greatly in the old communities of the thir-
teen original States. but IT has played a
peculiar and prominent part in the pioneer
growth of our country and has in con-
sequence assumed a position of immense
Importance throughout the vast region
west of the Alleghenies which has been
added to our Nation since the days when
the Continental Congress first met.
WORK OF THE PIONEERS.
For a century after the Declaration OF
Independence the greatest work of our
people. with the exception only of the work
of self-preservation under Lincoln was the
work Of the pioneers as they took posses
sion of this continent. During that century
we pushed westward from the Alleghenies
to the Pacific. southwark to the gulf and
the Rio Grande. and also took possession
Of Alaska. The work OF advancing our
boundary. of pushing the frontier across
forest and desert and mountain chain, was
the great typical work of our Nation: and
the men who did 1.-THE frontiersmen, the
pioneers, the backwoodsmen, plainsmen.
mountain men-formed class by them
selves. 1t was an iron task, which none
but men of iron soul and iron body could
do. The men who carried 1t to a successful
conclusion had characters strong alike for
good and for evil. Their rugged natures
made them powers who served light or
darkness with fierce intensity; and together
with heroic traits they had those evil and
dreadful tendencies which are but too apt
to be found in characters of heroic posi-
bilities.
such men make the most efficient serv-
ants of the Lord If their Astounding vital
ity and energy are directed Alright and il
misdirected their influence is equally DO
tent against the cause of Christianity and
true civilization In the hard and crue
life of the border, with its grim struggle
against the forbidding forces of wild Mature
and wilder men. there was much to pull the
frOntiersman down. If left TO himself
without moral teaching and moral guild
ance, without any of the influences tina,
tend toward the uplifting OF man and the
subduing of the brute within him. sad
would have been his, and therefore our
fate. From this fate We have BEEN largely
rescued by the fact that together with the
rest of the pioneers went the pioneer
preachers; and all honor be given TO the
Methodsts for the great proportion of these
pioneer preachers whom they furnished
These preachers were of the stamp nj
old Peter Cartwright-men who suffered
and overcamt every hardship in common
with their flock. and who. I'm addition
tanned the wild and fierce spirits OF their
fellow / ioneers. Ii was not task thai
could have been accomplished by men de.
T. ale -