New-York tribune., 1915-12-04
CITY MISSION GUIDE
TO POOR "a YEARS
Organized When Episcopal
Church Was Aristocratic, II
Has Ever Aided Needy.


In those days when the City Of New
York was still young, the congregation
of Gods poor" was very small, although
perhaps relatively no smaller nor more
perplexing than it is to-day. Then the
city's dependents were housed in one
building. which was where the City
Hall now stands. Here the innocent
and the criminal, the sane and the IN,
sane, the sick and the well, were nerded
together under one roof like so many
cattle. They had reached the scrap,
heap Of civilization in America-and
had been thrown upon II, because the
age OF conservation had not yet ar
rived.
Subsequently, when the Almshouse
was removed TO the foot OF East lwen-
ty-sixth Street, where Bellevue Hos
pital now stands, division was made,
so that the insane could be taken TO
separate island in the East River. But
the rest Of the human rubbish"-inno-
cent and blsmeworthy-w still mem
bers OF the one "poorhouse" family and
governed by one law.
Meanwhile the Protestant Episcopal
a Church Of one class. And the press
rallied loudly at them as the Church OF
the moneyed aristocracy without love
for the extra-parochial poor. No free
pews or sittings were to be had in any
Episcopal Church of this period. There
was no place in them where a middle
class mechanic could feel he had q
church home. Therefore the popular
accusation stung.
The answer was the formation of
the New York Protestant Episcopal
City Mission Society eighty-four years
ago. Chspels were built in the crowd
ed districts Of lower New York, where
the seats were free and where the new
Americans were made to feel at home.
Such a spirit Of brotherhood was bound
to spread and TO permeate to a greater
or less extent all churches. According
ly, a new democracy has been fostered
chiefly through the influence Of this
city mission through three genera
tions.
The 120 missionaries of the Episco-
pal City Mission are called upon TO
minister to $4,000 persons a day, pa
tients In our public and semi-private
hospitals, inmates Of insane asylums,
prisoners In all the penitentiaries and
jails, immigrants at Ellis Island, en-
bryonic citizens In our settlements OF
the East and West sides, and conva-
lescent women and children discharged
from the hospitals into the roofess
world without any equipment to keep
soul and body together.
Thus the mission becomes the good
Samaritan to the poor of the city, state
and nation During the stress Of un-
employment last winter IL found
itself equipped to give work to
the idle women of the East Side fac
tories. The discharged prisoner re-
ceived his first Gift" at this door. All
summer the poor are searched out
from the crime districts, where the
humble and respectable poor are COM
PEELED TO live. These mothers and
children, numbering about 500, get ten
days In the country and at The seaside.
With their old environment for the
moment forgotten, the young inhabi-
tants Of New York's worst acres grow
near to nature and nearer to natures
laws. Afterward the old, corrupting
life Of the city has less power over
them.
This benevolent society stands at the
gateway OF the nation and creates
cheer and guidance to the bewildered
and homesick alien. II follows the
new American to mis- home and pre-
pares him for citizenship. In each pub
lie hospital It binds up the wounds OF
the most friendless heart, while the
city is spending millions to heal his
body. In jail II discovers the road TO
hope and sets the offending pilgrim on
the way to It. In the city homes for
the aged and infrm it steadies the tot
tering gait and the mind Of those who
have seen better days. These, by the
sign of the Cross, find the path to the
crown. The last report of the chaplain
Of the Blackwell's Island Home for the
Aged and Infrm said that 375 out of
a census Of his 700 Protestant inmates
regularly partook Of the Holy Com
ynunion