The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1921-03-21
RESCUED DERELICTS
EXTOL DEAD FRIEND
Funeral Services Of John Wy
burn at Jerry McAuley's Mis-
sion Bring Out Host.

| Funeral services We're held at the
terday for John Wyburn, for many years
a drunkard and for the last thirty years
a mission worker among the down and
outs. and Immediately afterward there
was a testimonial meeting at which the
men with whom Mr.. Wyburn worked
during the fifteen years he was super
intendent of the mission told the audi
ence what he bad done for them. Few
of them. prosperous and happy now
but once broken and poor. We're able
to look without a tear upon the black
coffin in the front of the little altar,
with flowers banked soldily behind it.
Inside the chapel, with its texts paint
ed on the walls, and with tablets to
Jerry McAuley, TO s. II. Hadley, to
Franklin Smith. as unusual an assembly
of people as ever came together In the
city was gathered. There were men
and women whose shining limousines
had brought them from their residences
uptown, others who had come by street
car or subway from comfortable homes,
and others who had no homes to come
from.
Outside, sitting along the curb oppo-
site the building. were homeless men
who had sbeen fed at the mission and
had been permitted to see their friend
for a last time before the services.
There was no room in the chapel for
most of these But of those in the
chapel, rich and poor alike, great
majority had actually been converted
there. and whose who had not were
John Wyburn's associates in the work
of reclaiming the derelicts of the city.
Work OF Reclamation Goes On.
The hymns that We're sung during the
funeral service were sung with even
greater enthusiasm and voice than usual,
even in the McAuley Mission, where re-
ligion is not tempered by the habitual
repressions of the polite world. They
were fairly roared out by the converts
old and new.
DR.. Edgar w. Work, pastor of the
Fourth Presbyterian Church. told of the
ceaseless efforts Of John Wyburn and
his wife in keeping an open door and
| open hearts for drunkards and down
and cutters, work. he said, which did
not cease with his death, since his men,
DRY and his influence will carry II on
John Wyburn he said would not wish
that time be spent in praising him when
I1eTt WIS mission WORK 10 De done,
therefore the regular Sunday afternoon
testimonial meeting followed Immediate
ly. in fact was a part of the funeral
service. Men who had started upward
from the gutter ten, twenty, and even
twenty-five years ago told their stories
six years, seven months and twenty
one days ago John Wyburn brought me
to the real life.7 said one man whose
| face still showed signs of rough living.
/ ~ 4. IL. a. 4 -
missions for twenty-seyen years. and l
had never entered the doors Of one to
get what ! said / come for. Many a
| time I've come forward and said, May
| Got be merciful to me, q sinner What
did do 1t for? Did do II for the love
/ Of God? No, / done 1t for what there
was in 1t for me, meal and bed
1 ticket / hated the people who ran the
missions. never thought they'd get
me But John Wyburn got me and he
made a man out of me-"
Stories OF Conversions.
| when came here Ave years ago"
young man prosperous in appearance
said, II had lost position after position.
had no friends left, but / had a fam
| fly, and that family would have been
| better off with me In the river. He put
me on the right road and I've got them
all back now, position, friends, and wire
4 and daughter and son. and I've some
| thing even better than that"
Carlton Park. superintendent Of the
Williamsburgh Rescue Mission. told his
| story of his conversion.
1T was just ten years, eleven months
| and twenty-five days ago that | stag
| gered into this mission with four cents
and a bed ticket OF the Salvation In my
pocket. an empty stomach and brain
| befuddled with whiskey. John Wyburn
took me in. And when told him had
known God once. but now was far away
from Him and could never return, he
came to me and talked 10 me until at
| last I said I'm coming home Well
miss John Wyburn when we celegrate
next month the tenth anniversary Of the
little mission he helped ME 10 found"
And man after man. prosperous and
humble, arose to tell just what John
| wyburn had done for him.
The funeral will take place to-day.