Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-10-15

erwise have gone aforementioned. 1t is
said that the services are well attend
ed but that it is not the preaching by
which it is possible to reach the sea-
men. the best work being accom-
plished by personal touch. Jack is
led to evil ways by companionshlp
of the baser sort and the influence of
the mission is used to. overcome the
tendency downward. He is visited on
the vessel, and the home atmosphere
thrown around him. Most sailors are
eager for papers and magazines to
while away the lonely hours on ship
board. A large amount was given,
last year, and the hope is entertained
for a greatly increased amount this
year.
1t is said that one of the quickest
ways found to the sailors heart is
through the comfort bag. 1t is a gift
he appreciates and .prozes. The little
tokens and useful articles it contains
whisper of loved ones at home-per
haps in the distant hills of Poland. the
mountains of Norway and Sweden. or
the little cottage up in Maine. Some
have come and begged for one of these
comfort bags. One man said that he
had been trying four years to set one.
These have been supplied chiefly
through the w. c. r. L. and Ladies'
Aid societies, but the field is expand
ing as the work is becoming known,
and it is hoped that others who read
this description of the work may con-
slider it a duty to send comfort bags
and magazines. and newspapers, which
are piling up in unused clutter about
many d home.
The good work this mission is doing
is extending to the hundreds of islands
dottng the uneven coast. where. on
specks of bare rock, sometimes with
hardly a vesti2e of vegetation. may be
found the family of fisherman drag
gins out dreary existence. In
many of these homes the children are
growing up with very little moral or
religious training says the report.
The mission has made it a business to
inquire into the needs of these people,
and it's report declares that five mis-
sionaries could find ample work along
the coast from kittery to Quoddy
Head. and yet not trespass on each
others territory.
Holman Day and other writer's have
written much of the striking phases of
life on some of the islands along the
coast Most writer's have been pleased
to term it picturesque" and have
dragged out the illiteracy and poverty
of these people who are as far away
from the progress of the world and it's
social influences, almost as if they
were in Darkest Africa, where Roose-
welt went to hunt the dix dix. Mr.
Day has d marvellous collection of
pioloSIdpIlS SHOW iiS phases OF lie al
most incredible to the people of the
prosperous central Maine farms. The
poverty some writer's have called pic
| turesque" is beyond understanding, but
| the depth of ignorance of the advance
ment of the world is even more amaz-
ing. Indeed, here is field for a great
labor on the part of the Bethel mission
or any other; or a score of missions,
for that matter and when the people
of our churches and institutions are
| fully aware of the necessities of some
| OF these coast people they will discov-
er that there is field of infinitely
greater importance to cultivate with
| their pennies and dimes, than in the
climes where the warmest clothing
| needed at any time of the year is the
| native tropic smile of content