be received." The Alliance motto, already widely copied, is." Helping Men to Help Themselves."

Society generally dismisses this class of men as hopeless" because," it says, "they will not work." This assertion, however, was quickly disproved. The building was in a most degraded locality, and in a deplorable condition. Men began at once to apply for shelter and employment. Those that were received were set to work to put the house in order. The cheerful zeal they displayed in this very hard labor, in an unheated building in a winter month, proved conclusively that, however hopeless their permanent reformation might seem, they were not only willing but anxious to work. The word "industrial" has kept away the men who would rather beg than work.

A small broom factory was started in a neighboring loft. This was chosen as the pioneer industry because the work is light and easily learned, suitable to the large percentage of applicants unfit for immediate hard labor; weak from dissipation and privation, or convalescents from hospitals. There is also a ready market for the product. It was difficult to secure competent foremen. Superlative tact is required to manage these "crooked sticks." They may be led, but not driven. To one they believe to be a genuine friend they return love for strict discipline; but they are quick to resent injustice. On our first Christmas a man came asking for dinner, who has often since said: "When I came they did not ask me if I was a Christian; they asked me if I was hungry. I was, and they took me to dinner. After dinner they inquired about my life and what had brought me to my miserable condition; then they told me of a better way. Hope long dead entered my soul, and from that time I have been endeavoring to lead a Christian life." This man, a fair type of numbers who come to the Alliance, was born of a fine English family, had been well educated, and an officer in the English navy, but he had drifted to Bowery lodging houses, and was compelled finally to seek our aid. After a brief experience with incompetent superintendents this man begged to be allowed to try to run the broom factory. He was given the chance, and has since carried on, with rare intelligence and devotion, that entire branch of the business;-the purchase of the raw materials, the manufacturing, the supervision of the selling, and the collections.

The work of the Alliance was prosecuted at Macdougal street for seventeen months, when the premises were found to be inadequate to a fair trial of the experiment, and the home was removed to its present headquarters, No. 170 Bleecker street.

The new home is located in what was once fashionable New York, now in the slums; it was originally a splendid mansion with solid mahogany doors and carved Italian fireplaces, but had become a low tenement barracks. This wreck, twenty-five feet by a hundred, five stories, and basement and cellar, housed more than sixty Italian families. In a hall bed-room on the top floor lived a man with a pig and several chickens. There was no water above the first floor, where there was but one faucet. Of sanitary

are.

HOME OF THE ALLIANCE, 170 BLEECKER STREET.

This ruin has been entirely rebuilt by the employes of the Alliance. The task was enormous, and it has been heart-warming to notice not only the faithful labor of the men, but their satisfaction in doing it. They are often reminded that they may not long enjoy the comforts of the new home, but that many men to come after them will be blessed by their endeavors.

The basement is occupied by a People's Five-cent Restaurant, a steam kitchen with a capacity of 25,000 meals a day, and a laundry. In this restaurant 6,046 men were fed on New Year's day, and an average of about 2,000 a day during last winter. The steamheating plant, and store and drying rooms are in the cellar. The street floor contains the general offices, and a large chapel where nightly public mission services are held. On the second floor are the carpenters', shoemakers' and tailors' shops; the third floor is the "Social Hall," comprising sitting, reading and writing rooms, library and study, with living rooms for assistant superintendent, housekeeper and librarian. The two top floors are dormitories, baths and washrooms. In each bathroom is a small laundry tub where a man having but one undershirt, one pair of socks or one handkerchief can wash it at night and have it dry in the morning. These are pathetic little washings, hung out by men long-time strangers to cleanliness, but now animated by reawakened selfrespect. This building accommodates one hundred men, while about the same number are lodged and employed in other buildings occupied by the Alliance.

The main-spring of the work is spiritual. It does a man little good to merely feed, lodge and clothe him for a time. If he goes out into the world with the same appetites and passions that forced him to seek the Alliance, he is almost sure to go back to the old life and to the old want. Therefore, it is our constant aim to send men forth with new hopes, new ideals, and with spiritual strength. A delightful feature of the religious life is the daily noon prayer meeting, led by one of the officers and attended by all the men. The Scriptures are read responsively, many take part in prayer, and "Old Hundred " is sung with warmth and vigor. The men usually are responsive to religious influences. When a man is received into the home, he is not asked whether he is a Christian or if he wants to be. Such queries too often make hypocrites of men for the sake of a fifteen-cent lodging, or a ten-cent meal. It is enough for us to know that he is a man in sore need, that he desires to do better, and is willing to help himself. Our first question is: "Are you hungry?" He always is, and we feed him. It is wonderful how much a good hot meal will prepossess a starving, shivering man in favor of your religion-especially if he has starved long enough on husks and has said to himself, "I will arise and go to my father."

The work is unsectarian in theory and practice. One of the underlying redemptive principles of the. Alliance is to trust men. All of its work, except that of Secretary and Superintendent, is done by homeless, characterless men from the street. They are our assistant superintendents, book-keepers, cashiers and collectors. More than fifty different men have collected, for brooms and in the People's Fivecent Restaurants, over $70,000, with a loss to us of but $82.90. A collector said to me one night: "For weeks I have been crazy to go to Denver; to-day I have collected $90; enough to pay my way and buy my outfit. I have hurried back to get the money out of my pocket. You have trusted me so much that I could not do it." The steward of last winter's Relief Work received and distributed between $30,000 and $40,000 worth of provisions. We did not lose so much as a grain of rice by him. This man, fifty years of age, had slept in Washington square for some time before seeking our shelter. His father was a New England member of Congress in the thirties, and my mother was the best woman that ever walked God's earth." O, that magic word "mother!" The rules governing the home are very simple, and were constructed by a committee of the employes. A house committee of the employes is charged with much of the administration. This increases their personal interest in the work. No such institution can be successful unless loyalty pervades rank and file. The largest possible liberty is allowed. Men are counseled, not compelled. The use of intoxicants is forbidden. Their use means expulsion. Tobacco may be used outside the Alliance buildings. It has been found necessary to deny reinstatement to men who have been expelled, unless there are peculiarly mitigating reasons. The reverse policy, long tried,

proved a failure. Regular wages are paid, the unit being the weekly cost to the Alliance of a man's food, lodging and laundry. An account is kept with each man, in which he is credited with his services, and charged with everything he gets. Men are advanced on merit, the increase being paid in clothing, with a small accumulation in money, paid good men (on leaving the home) for the purchase of tools, or to keep them till their first pay comes in. The home, the employment, the remuneration, must not be made too attractive. Numbers of unambitious men, good workmen and reliable characters, are content to spend their lives in a comfortable institution, for a bare living and 25 or 50 cents a week for spending money. Many men, too, who have often tried and failed to stem the current of temptation, fear to venture from the protection they have found with strong and kindly brethren.

Men are sent to permanent situations as quickly as possible after they have earned good characters. The

average term of residence is about forty days, but each case requires individual treatment, and the length of stay varies.

A surprisingly large number turn out well. Thanksgiving day one of our "graduates" called to say that he could not remain to dinner as he had brought his family, from whom he had been separated thirteen years, from Germany, and that his first Thanksgiving dinner must be eaten at home. This man came to us a pitiable object. He had just tramped from Texas and was a drunkard. He was a chemist with a German university education, and now for nearly two years has been one of the most trusted chemists in the largest manufacturing laboratory in America.

There is another side to the story. Many men

prove treacherous and ungrateful. These are usually those for whom the most has been done. Others fail wretchedly after making a hopeful start in the new life. But frequently in this drift of human débris we find a jewel, sometimes a rare jewel-and Jesus came to seek and to save the lost.

Careful individual records are kept, showing: First, that foreigners or sons of foreigners do not predominate. Second, that few men apply for help who have learned a trade-the prolonged discipline a boy receives in learning a trade compels regular habits, which become a bulwark against shiftlessness and the devils that attend it. Third, that the men who demand most deserve least. Fourth, that boys born in the slums may become "toughs" or criminals, but outcast beggars rarely; their boyhood's fierce fight for existence develops self-reliance. Fifth. A sorrowfully large proportion have begun life brilliantly, with every advantage of birth and education.

Until last year the men in the home were characterized as "inmates," but, as the first principle of the work is to eliminate the idea of charity, the term was changed to "employes," a change gratifying to the men, touchingly and instantly manifested in a generally increased self-respect.

Can such a work be self-supporting?

You here touch a vital question. Because of the word "industrial" people are apt to think the Alliance should pay its way. It ought, however, to be regarded in much the same light as a school, or a church. The investment it asks from society will pay a high rate of interest in decreased charity and criminal charges. It is impossible to sweep in from the streets a hundred men of all trades, and of no trade, and provide employment that will make them profitable laborers in the few days or weeks they may be in the Alliance. The redemptive part of the work must be paramount. If the object were to make money, the work could be made self-supporting at once by encouraging the most skillful and most reliable men to remain with us until we had a skilled corps of workmen. Our aim, however, is to rescue men, not to make money. If the friend who reads this should ask us to-morrow for a man to do a certain kind of work we would send him the best man we have, even should it take the most necessary man from the shop. The Industrial Christian Alliance exists to help men to help themselves; not to educate them into dependents. Therefore as fast as possible they are placed in a position to rely solely on their own efforts. Nothing is less helpful, nothing is more harmful to men than to allow them to depend on an institution a moment longer than is necessary. Our industrial departments, however, are beginning to pay, and they promise an immediate large expansion of profits, and a greater variety of employments. Aside from these profits the Alliance is supported by voluntary contributions.

The most interesting venture that the Alliance has yet made is its Relief Work. At the opening of last winter the workless multitudes were confronted with a season of acute distress. Unusual numbers of men

supplying the deserving poor with cheap food. The Alliance could furnish with utmost economy the varied labor required, but was not equipped to investigate cases of distress. This being done by pastors, missionaries, teachers and others, the Alliance opened a wide field of usefulness, well protected against fraud.

Nine "People's Five-cent Restaurants and Groceries" were established. To be eaten in the restaurant, an abundant meal of hot meat-stew, coffee and bread, all of excellent quality, perfectly cooked, and well served, was given for 5 cents: while to be carried away for home consumption, 5 cents bought enough to give a good meal to a family of three, and yet returned the cost of the uncooked provisions. Essential groceries, also, were sold in 5-cent parcels. That we might not compete with small dealers, groceries were sold only on a non-transferable certificate, signed by a responsible person that the holder was entitled to relief. Experienced charitable workers agree that by this system a person can eat well at from 30 to 35 cents a week. The central depot was at the Alliance building on Bleecker street, where all the cooking was done and from which all goods were distributed to the other depots. Hot food was shipped in ten-gallon cans encased in woolen, and upon delivery was placed on hot ranges. Five-cent tickets were issued, bearing the addresses of all the restaurants and redeemable at any. These were bought in large quantities by charitable societies, churches and individuals. The committee's contribution to the charity was the expense of fitting up and running the various stations. The cost of the raw provisions was returned by the purchasers. Sixteen hundred thousand meals were thus furnished between December 1 and June 1.

The entire expense for the six months, for rents, fixtures, salaries, printing, etc., was $10,982.62, against which the committee had ranges, fixtures and utensils worth about $3,000, bringing the net cost to less than $8,000. There was spent for provisions $21,673.86, making the total expenditure $32,656.46. This provided not only 1,600,000 meals, but paid wages to the employes (in food, lodging, clothing and money) valued at $18,000; though, because of the peculiar frugality of the work, it cost the committee but a tithe of this sum.

All this relief work was splendidly and devotedly done by the employes of the Alliance. For months they worked incredibly long hours at excessively hard work. The only spur used was to impress them that, as God had rescued them from want, the best return they could make for His goodness was to turn about and help others less fortunate.

What measure of success the work has attained is due to the spirit of helping others that has been breathed into it.

The Five-cent Restaurants proved formidable rivals to the saloon free lunch counter, hitherto the only place where a few mouthfuls of food could be had for 5 cents, and then only with a glass of liquor. They were a Godsend to men and women who make their living from odd jobs. They furnished the benevolent with a convenient, safe and economical vehicle of charity. They made the scanty pennies of the poor go twice or thrice as far as usual. They gave several months' employment and another chance in life to a hundred homeless men who would otherwise have been objects of street charity. The ticket system obviated the necessity of giving money in the street, and furnished a square meal at a hitherto unheard-of price. The surprising fact was developed that by serving several hundred a day, the single five-cent meal eaten in the restaurant returned a small profit, after paying every expense of rent, fuel, light, provisions, wages, etc.

A number of "People's Five-cent Restaurants and Groceries" are continued this winter, with coal and wood added.

The chief lesson, perhaps, gleaned from the experience of these years is that men can be helped and saved only when we are able to reach right down through all the strata of sin and degradation, and in the name and spirit of the Saviour touch into life that remaining vestige of the Divine image in which men were created. In my experience with thousands, in now something more than five years of rescue work, I have met not more than two or three in whom it was not possible to arouse a desire and determination to do better. Vice and dissipation, however, had often so corroded their moral nature, and destroyed their will, that after a few feeble steps in the right way they tottered and fell; yet it is none the less true that a trace of the Divine image was

there, and that it could be revived into something of life. True are the words of the hymn:

"Down in the human heart, crushed by the tempter, Feelings lie buried that grace can restore. Touched by a loving heart, wakened by kindness, Chords that were broken will vibrate once more." Can something larger be done for these men? Yes! Society must do all in its power to abolish and restrict those social evils which produce so many of these wrecks. I would not be understood as charging them all to these causes. Natural depravity, evil environments, lack of parental care and discipline, and innate laziness and shiftlessness, provide fertile soil for vice and crime. Society should apprehend every beggar. The infirm and helpless should be humanely provided for. The able-bodied should be sent to municipal, state or institutional farms and shops, where they would be under strong religious influences and skillful manual training, and be compelled to realize the original injunction, quite as imperative as any of the commandments, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." Those who are willing to do right and to work should be promptly passed out into the ranks of regular labor. For the able-bodied it should be "work or starve." This would soon settle the "tramp problem."

Among the men who have founded and are active supporters of the work of the Industrial Christian Alliance are: President, George D. Mackay; VicePresident, James G. Beemer: Treasurer, James E. Ware; William L. Strong, Mayor of New York; Joseph S. Auerbach, Bowles Colgate, R. R. Bowker, John S. Huyler, John E. Andrus, Edwin Packard, George W. Taylor, William Justus Boies, Henry H. Pike, and Rev. Drs. R. S. MacArthur, David James Burrell, James M. King, Joachim Elmendorf, Henry M. Storrs, Amory H. Bradford, J. Macnaughtan, W. R. Richards and A. H. Lewis.

As to the future: We are satisfied that the principles of the work are sound, but feel that we have only rough-hewn a few foundation stones. A farm colony is a hope which we trust will be realized in the near future. Many men can best be helped by country life and farm work.

Prime difficulties are to provide profitable employ. ment for men during their period of probation; to find permanent situations for good men; and to secure executives who combine large knowledge of business, sound common sense, and great capacity for work, with a broad knowledge of human nature, and a tender, compassionate love for unfortunate, vicious, and all too frequently, ungrateful men. We read that Jesus is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. A man who would lift men up must not demand perfection of his unhappy brothers who are painfully struggling to their feet. He must himself stand on a lofty plane, yet be touched with the feeling of their infirmities.

F our fellow Americans should be invited by the who would seem to them to belong most unmistakably to the whole English speaking world, we can be sure that the name of James Bryce would stand at

THE RIGHT HON. JAMES BRYCE.

the head of a large majority of the lists. A few years ago that of James Russell Lowell would certainly have been included, and only a few days ago that of the lamented Robert Louis Stevenson would have secured an unquestioned place. Mr. Gladstone and Oliver Wendell Holmes would have been included in most of the lists, and Dwight L. Moody and Miss Frances Willard would have found places if the poll had been extended through the realms of English speech. But James Bryce would have stood first on the lists prepared by a majority of intelligent Americans. We are a sensitive but a candid people; and there is nothing we like so well as approval that is discriminating and intelligent from a foreign critic of authoritative rank.

Mr. Bryce has brought to bear upon his study of

American life and institutions a more complete range of qualifications than any other observer has ever possessed, who could view our conditions with an outsider's perspective. He is of Scotch rather than of English origin, born and reared in the North of Ireland, and educated at Oxford, where his scholarly attainments won the highest recognition. He studied law and jurisprudence, and in the course of time attained the dignities of the Regius Professor of Civil Law in the University of Oxford, a position which carries with it an exceedingly high prestige. He had always been notably free from the insular bias and limitations of the typical Briton, and his openness of mind and powers of comparison in matters of institutional development were greatly aided by the studies which resulted in his first great literary achievement. His "Holy Roman Empire" is an historical work of the highest philosophical value, and if Mr. Bryce had not written anything else his reputation as one of the first political scientists of his generation would have been secure. But the study of the mediæval German Empire and its curious permutations, traced from the decay of the old Roman Empire down to the Franco-Prussian war and the new German imperial fabric, gave Mr. Bryce a knowledge of political institutions and a grasp both of practical and theoretical considerations which formed the best conceivable preparation for an elaborate study of the United States. A high order of literary talent and an exceptionally authoritative acquaintance with the religious, social, and educational history and characteristics of the English-speaking peoples everywhere, together with a broad sympathy and a fine judicial capacity, rounded out an unequaled list of rare qualifications. Mr. Bryce meanwhile had traveled much on the continent of Europe, had visited Asia, had become the recognized English authority upon Armenia and the Oriental Christian sects, and had stepped into the arena of practical politics, serving in the House of Commons while maintaining his university post and professional connections.

So much for the evolution of a great publicist. Mr. Bryce's visits to the United States were begun perhaps about the year 1870, and it was not until 1888 that he ventured to publish his great masterpiece entitled "The American Commonwealth," in two elaborate volumes. He had not been constantly at work upon it, but the project had been growing in his mind, his materials had been in process of assemblage, his acquaintance with the men whose advice and suggestions could aid him had become very wide, and he was at length in position to proceed rapidly to fill in the framework he had laid down. The volumes were an immediate and unquestioned success. No solid political book in any wise