Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-12-20
A FACTORY G1RL TALKs.
rya,,ev Junction Express.1

One of the evangeliStS with the
Chapman party has been holding
meetings in saloons, jails and other
places where it was supposed that lis
teners could be found who would not
be likely to go to the regular meetings.
Factories have been chosen as places
In which to talk to the operatives dur
ing the noon hour. The attention at all
Of them has been good. and 1t must
be allowed that the tone of the preach
ing has been good Yet it all has the
look Of patronizing and insinuation.
At one factory, at which large num-
Der of girls are employed. he talked
while they We're eating their lunch, and
at the conclusion Of his remarks a
young woman worked her way up 70
the speaker and Informed him. with the
indicated appreciation Of the rest or
the workers, that they were very glad
to hear what he had to say, that they
were all glad TO hear anything that
could be of any use to them, but she
wanted to ask in all sincerity why he
came to them to have 1t reported In
the papers. just as 1t was reported that
he had gone to the saloons, the jails,
and other places that might be worse,
thus giving out the plain intimatfon
that factory girls were what she
termed ga hard lot" She said all the
girls in the factory were honest, re-
spectacle young women. that they all
tried to live decent, orderly lives, and
really did not do anything very bad,
not nearly as bad as the all night
dances among the Swell residents out
hn r6n6 RI
know why he considered it necessary
to come to them in this unusual way,
as tho they were really on lower
moral level than more fortunate peo-
pie, and why he thus Disseminated be-
tween them and the wealthy and aris-
.tocratic. She told him that If he
would go out on Grand avenue and
preach to the all night revelers at the
fashionable balls, he would at least be
treating all of the people without dis
elimination The report indicates that
she spoke with much feeling, and while
her flow Of words was not entirely
classic, she was terribly in earnest, and
the rest of the factory girls expressed
approval of what she said.
OF course, the evangelist was aston
ished but he had too much sense and
too much piety to reply by way Of re-
proof. He was simply left without any
thing to say.
The incident goes far enough to
show what is often complained of by
preachers that working people, mean
ing wage workers, have little sympa-
thy with and respect for the church.
Is it hard to see why? Would that
evangelist, tho convinced that an all
night ball on Grand avenue was being
pushed to a demoralizing extreme, go
to the place and ask them to suspend
their Sound Of revelry by night" for
thirty minutes while he preached to
them and told them that Jesus came to
seek and save such as they? Not on
your life!
That factory girl has furnished a
good explanation for the Indifference of
the working people towards the church.
No such discrimination can be found in
the discourses of Jesus. He condemn
ed sin without respect to the stations
of sinners. His scathing denunciations
of the rich and powerful, the high in
ecclesiastical authority. for wicked
lives, are matters of record in the only
record we nave VI Ills WOIuS. 4SCIlllC1
did he apologize or condone the sin of
a poor or unimportant sinner, and "the
common people heard him gladly"
There is altogether too much of this
theological snobbery in the air. One
can occasionally find people in Valley
Junction who are wont to apologize for
this being "a railroad town." There
have been attempts to hold services
Especially for railroad men" They
need no special services different from
other people. They are human beings,
with the sympathies and feelings OF
other human beings. There are some
rough men among them. So there are
in other callings. There are, ALSO both
among them and among the men of
other callings, plenty Of smooth. out
wardly well behaved people, who are
merely "whited sepulchres."
"a mans man for a. that and a
that"