The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-01-21

never made an appeal for money-no mat | tetr how large an amount-without meet | ing instant response St. Bartholomew's S | is the church home of the Vanderbilt family which has always been greatly in | terested in it, and in it's parish work, | having contributed considerably more than $5O0,OOO to the parish work, which has resulted in converting slum district on the eastern side. of the city into a section where quiet good citizenship and other moral influences are well demon- strated.
 SELLING CHURCH PROPERTY Presumably St. Bartholomews church will sell it's present property, and for price which will fairly represent the ap- preciation of real estate in that vicinity for it stands almost face to face with the new Grand Central terminal and is surrounded by some of the large and luxurious hotels, f1anking also the new banking center, of which Forty-second street and Fifth avenue are the best known streets.
 Very likely the sale of this church prop erty will furnish no small part of the 8, ,00O, 900 needed for the new work. If that is accomplished, St. Barthol6mews will only follow the example set by other churches which have been able to sell their real estate for prices which have made it possible for them to buy land up- town and to build upon it modern church structures, leaving also a considerable sum for permanent endowment. The latest example of this was the sale by the Rev pr. Wilton Merle Smith, the pastor of the Central Presbyterian church. of that property, which is within stone s throw of Carnegie hall, for money enough to make it possible to buy another church property on Madison avenue, near Fifty ninth street, and to have a sum large enough left over to liquidate mortgage of $40O, 900.
 One of the largest of individual con-
 tributors to church purposes is Thomas F. Ryan, who paid for the entire con struction of the Roman Catholic church of St. Jean Baptiste, Seventy sixth street
 and Lexington avenue. which cost up-
 ward of S1,000,000.
 EDISON GUEST OF HONOR
 At the annual dinner of the Ohio so- ciety of New York, Thomas A. Edison
 was the guest of honor, and Myron T. Herrick would have been the chief speak
 CT had he not been compelled at the last
 moment to send word that he was unable
 to be present. Edison expected greatly
 to enjoy himself at this banquet. He
 knew that he would be in constant com munication by telegraph with distin- guished company of electricians. who
 were to have telegraph apparatus placed
 upon table in the center of the banquet
 hall with wires running to Edison so that they could send messages to him and he could reply with his accustomed speed and accuracy
 But it was observed that SEdison was
 very grave and at times much preoccu- pied. In fact. there seemed to be some dampening of enthusiasm, all due to the report which reached the members of the
 society shortly before they sat down to the banquet of the explosion, with fatal
 results. on the submarine E-2, at the
 Brooklyn navy yard. For Edison this ac- cident meant much. It was apparent that
 his mind was instantly concentrated upon the study of the possible cause and also
 upon the subject of possible remedies and preventives, if it were true that the acci- dent was caused by defect in his batteries.
 The Secretary of the Navy, Josephus Daniels, who was guest at the dinner, was in his manner so grave and so seri- ously concerned that it was apparent that
 he, too. clearly understood the serious nature of this tragic accident. Men of
 science are persuaded that the accident, when it's cause is dscoyered, will not im- pair the value of the Edison batteries, and if investigation shows that the ex- plosion was not due to any fault of the
 batteries, all the naval experts will be