The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-07-27
An Appeal to sFammon.

one evening towards the end or January Sir Richard Gaunt took out 8 small pile of coins from his pocket and counted them carefully. There were nine pennies. four halfpennies. shilling, and two sixpences-two and eleven pence in all. He owed weeks rent, and tbere was only a piece of dry crust lying on the ,window-sill. For twelve hours he had not tasted food. He did not know how long that little store of money might have to last him. And, besides. he owed every penny of it..
 His campaign had so far resulted in nothing but ridicule. He had achieved a certain notoriety. but of a kind that did not lend dignity to any cause. His name. Father Francis. by which he was known to the world. had figured more than once in the police news. He was known as a disturber of the peace, as harmless Anarchist, as one who would upset all the conn fortable laws and conventions of so- ciety.
 If he had confined his fervent speeches to Hyde Park on Sundays he would not have placed himself in the grasp of the law. But he was too proud and ardent to be content With this. Hyde Park was the playground of people who were tolerated because of their incapacity. Blood. fire, and
 
 these orators, and the law laughed because 1t knows that nothing would follow because 1t was well assured that no single speech would ever in duce the mob of London to rise up and sack the mansions in Grosvenor Square. or blow up the Houses of Par lament, or assassinate the King. Father Francis did not wish to be identified with these harmless failures. He went to the other extreme and chose the most inconvenient and inopportune places for his denunciation of society. Tn a crowded thoroughfare. outside the door of a theatre disgorging It's vapid crowd of pleasure-seekers. among the weary watchers by the gates of the docks. in a railway station crammed with people going to some popular race-meeting-these were the sort of places he chose for the deliyerance of his message. The result was inevi- table. He was always figuring in the police courts, and though he was gen. orally let off with caution. he once received a weeks Imprisonment. The crowning indiguity came in the form of a decree that the state of his mind should be inquired into. The inquiry proved him to beNa man of sound intel feet, but the doctor, who was an hon. 1 est man, told him that religion would affect his brain if he continued to harp on 1t so necessarily
 "Father Francis Again" So ran the title of the paragraph which described his last conflict with the law. The phrase jared on his sensitive nature. It was an insult to the name he had assumed. In pub lie library he had read the story of St. Francis of Assist It had seemed to be in some way analogous to his own. St. Francis had been a youth of vicious and prohigate habits. He had sud- denly been reused to sense of his own sins. and been shown. by an extraor- dinary miracle. that there was divine work to be done In the world. Sir Richard Gaunt had assumed the title in all humility, and had prayed that his own work might prosper under the aeEis of so great a name.
 Yet what had been the result? He had only brought the name into con- tempt and ridicule.
 Nothing could be done without money. The methods of primitive times were useless for an age of high civilization. The machinery of the so- cial system changed in the ears of the idealist. Nothing could be done with out money. Where was the money to come from? That was the question of the hour.
 The man ahrank from all public ap- peal to charity. Such a course would be detrimental to the cause. Il. would arouse suspicion In the minds of the givers. The battle was to be waged against the universal worship of gold. It would hardly be wise to solicit aims in the street.
 The money would have to come from some private source. from a man who would understand the motive which prompted the request for 1t. 1t Is easy to explain things quietly to a single individual. but very dinicult to bring