The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-02-28

"Sir. I think I done somethin'," he
replied shortly. Instantly the great
hearted Colonel had smothered the
ruffed. trembling and of the poor
drunkard in both of his. exclaiming:
Young man. do you know that Jesus
loves YOU and SO do IL"
That" said Monroe. in telling the
story To me. that was the thing that
put me out of business. Can | pray
with your says he. Says I. Yes, sir
We went up to the old mourners'
bench. and the old gentleman began
TO pray.
We'll. / thought prayer was a
moCkery. / prayed because he asked
me to and out of respect to his in
tercst. However, this is a fact. that
when l got m my knees I concluded
that il was the right thing whether
any result came or not. 1t was cold
hlooded; it was right to be there
whether results followed or whether
they did not.
And on my knees that night /
promised him that IL he would help
me | would undertake to live right.
! idnt have any great experience. as
| hear people talking about. That
didn't strike me at all. What I got
was just the determination to do
right and the conviction that God
would help me. I just said, Sir, from
tonight l am going to live right"
But there was no laughter in the
soul nor OF the lips of Harry Monroe
as he set a trembling foot on the stony
cohbles of Van Buren, street that night.
lie was entering upon the grimmest
fight of his career. The hooks of hell
had hold upon him hat night, and
he knew it..
He got a room in a lodging house,
hut he dared not go TO bed. The thirst
for drink came over him. They had
given him a New Testament at the
mission. All night he sat and pored
over that Testament. The thirst
gripped harder. and he read n
prayed the harder. But at ; o'clock
in the morning he was again upon the
streets. A brewery wagon rumbled
by. Monroe was so thirsty that he
wanted to lick the dew off the hoops
on the kegs. He felt that if Lake
Michigan had been one vast sea of
foaming. lathery lager. he still could
have drained it dry.
BY $3.50 o'clock he stood at the corr
ner Of Clark and Van Buren, streets.
hcsitating. The crisis had come. He
was debating in his mind whether he
would take a drink or not. whether all
that had transpired would be for MOTH
ing. The very quality Of the icked
ness Of his past life came to the
rescue.
He was a man who had never run
away from a fight He had a1u.a x,c
gone the limit; had got what he went
after. Twelve hours before he had
started after a sober life, and now.
though all the pains and racks of al
coholic thirst We're torturing him, he
would not be defeated. To himself
then he almost shouted: NO, l am
going to stick"
And he did stick. The battle was
a terrible one. 1t lasted six or seven
weeks; but he won, and from telling
about it in the mission to becoming
Col. Clark's assistant in that work
was really not such a very long step,
considering the very remarkable talent
for ~soul-handling that the young
roistorer now reformed so rapidly de-
veloped.
My visit to Pacific Garden Mission
happened to fall upon the night of
the thirty-siXth anniversary of its
founding, and | looked about me with
wonder upon that dingy room out
Of wlich such marvellous influences
are proceeding. Monroe was leading
the singing with a tenor voice, now
somewhat frayed but still effective.
The spirit of the gathering was not
what one ordinarily associates with
a meeting in a rescue mission.
Monroe was moving to and fro Upon
the little platform, now reading the
Bible, now praying or calling upon
some one else to do so; now crack
ing a joke or telling a touching story,
or perhaps singing a Verse of song
and motioning To the audience to Join
m the chorus. lie appeared to be
enjoying himself hugely. So did every
one else, excepting that NUT fringe
at the back of men who, as they say
at the mission, We're apparently "all
IN with sin"
II was some time before ! appre-
ciated the skill and the method with
which Monroe was leading. The
s~pontaneity, the rapid alienation of
touches of sympathy, humor, light
ness n pathos were all skilfully
engineered by him. When the at
mosphcrc threatened to become SOM
hre he threw "A joke in or "A slang
remark that brought a smile. When
h lcvity appeared about to prevail
he called for a touching solo or got
n man on his feet who sounded a
serious note, and then turned him
of just in tim" To keep the spirit and
The interest OF the meeting poised