The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1915-08-05
A PRACTICAL DOWN
AND CUTTERS" CLUB
What Rev. MeHeary Of Philadelphia is
Doing With the Help Of a New Idea
In Putting the "Boozer" on the Water
Wagon. Conversion is Secondary in
Curing Men Of Drink Habit.
By Le,ois Donaldson in Grit.

By LeloiS Donaldson IN Grit.
The big city down-and- outer" is
usually a man who has at one time
enjoyed more than an ordinary de-
gree of prosperity. In many cases,
prosperity has started him on his
descent from position of industrial
or commercial responsibility to a
condition which drives him to stand
at night in a bread line and accept
free coffee and bread. The down
and OUTER is a gradual growth. He
is not made in one night of revelry.
nor does one dose of habit-form-
ing drug send him to the bread line.
The one-time prosperous business
man who has reached the bottom Of
the social ladder. as a general rule,
has gone down by gradual steps,
very slowly at first. but with great
rapidity as John Barleycorn has sue
ceeded in Tightening his almost un-
breakable grip upon his victim. The
average business. professional. or
industrial "down-and- outer" is able
to tell of hundreds of nights spent
Down Where the Wurtzberger
Flows" hundreds of nights spent at
cards. over the pool table, in the
gay restaurants, or the saloons, un-
til he lost job after job. and, finally,
how. with drink his master. the
slums and the bread lines got a
bum"
There are thousands of down
and-outers'' in the cities of the US.
who stay down when they get down,
thousands who are yearly buried in
potters' fields or whose bodies are
grabbed up for dissecting purposes
by the medical colleges. There are
many "down-and outers," however,
who come back" to certain ex-
tent, when they get the chance,
come back'' to save themselves
from the potters' field, come back"
to help their families, to get again
into the business or industrial world,
and to earn their daily bread by
hand or brain. There are men who
have had wide experience with
down-and-outers" who take into
account the shyness of the fail
ures" who haunt the slum sections
and low saloons of the large cities.
One of these men, who has had a
wide experience with inmates in
various Pennsylvania jails and PEN
itentiaries, is the Rev. H. Cresson
McHenry, Of Philadelphia. an
Episcopal clergymen who has made
it his life work to help men help
themselves out of the gutter. The
Rev. Mr.. McHenry conceived the
idea of creating club for down.
nd-outers," a club for men worsted
by booze, human club in which the
faults of these men would not be
thrown up to them by word of ofmouth
or bv over-zealous reformers, a club
in which chronic boozers, through
there own strength of character,
might bring about their own reform
alton. Accordingly, Mr.. McHenry
started the st. Paul's club in the
region down by the river front
where down and -outers" congre-
gate in large numbers. That club,
started through private subscrip-
tions from men and women who
were sure Mr.. McHenry had the
right idea of how to treat hopeless
drunkards, has become self-support-
ing; itsentire running expenses, and
they are considerable, being paid by
the members who have been put on
their feet by means of the clubs in
fluences.
The club is in every sense of the
word mans club. To be sure,
many of its members have been first
attracted to the club by the free
coffee and rolls dispenced late at
night. food and warm drink well
coined by the down-and-outers''