_New York to California_
When I was but a little boy, I can well recollect, a nice little pond in
the hollow of two hills beautifully situated, near the school house
where the pupils would enjoy the intervals of their school time. How I
would wonder at the experiment of throwing a stone in the pond and
watching anxiously the circles of water growing larger and larger till
reaching the banks of the pond and there they would break, as though in
despair for the limitations of their enlarging tendencies. It seems to
me, now, a parallel despair threatens my heart, for being obliged to
compact this story of my conversion. Yet, in view of the fact that the
American reader is a greater admirer of quality rather than quantity, I
must content myself by giving a brief account on the practical side of
my personal experience as a Christian worker, among the rich and the
poor, the high and the low classes and masses, in cities and towns,
sunshine or clouds, rain or snow, by day or by night; I made myself
servant unto all men, that I might by all means save some, and this I do
for the Gospel's sake. And, it is only proper, to confess, publicly,
that I am prepared to suffer all things, for the love which I feel in my
heart to be of some service to my own people, an historical race of
people they are, drifting away from God, blindly allowing blind priests
to lead them into the ditch. There is a cheering prospect about this
people, for whose salvation I have devoted my life, that when Christ
enters into the heart of a Greek, there is very little hope left for the
devil to induce him to be a backslider. A truly converted Greek soul is
worthy of all the joy that the angels in heaven rejoice over one sinner
that repenteth. How much more rejoicing shall be there, if we get
converted all the Greeks that are living in the United States and use
them as a kindling matter to start the fire of salvation in the hearts
of the millions of people under the Greek and Russian church slavery,
all round the Mediterranean countries?
With this and many other social and industrial problems laying upon my
heart, I find the atmosphere, in New York, too close for any opening and
very little encouragement for a beginning. And the atmosphere grew more
asphyxiating every day with the arguments of my friend George N. He
never had any sympathy with the subject so dear to my own heart, his
highest ambition being money-making, for which end he relinquished the
Presbyterian pulpit, after being duly graduated from a Presbyterian
Seminary for ministerial ordination. It was only natural that our
thoughts and our ambitions should face each other suspiciously from the
diametrical opposite ends. And with all due respect to my old teacher
and gratefully acknowledging his hospitality for entertaining me many a
day, I find out that at the best I had to be in his mercy, as long as I
was not able to explain myself, to the American people, speaking in
their own language. And, as difficulties have always had a peculiar
effect upon my personal character; to face them, and fight them out with
one object in view to die or to win, I left New York right after
Christmas of 1903, in the midst of an unusually severe winter, rather a
wanderer; but determined to ramble among the American people and learn
the language by ear, which proved in my case, and I believe, it is in
every case, to be the best school for learning the correct pronunciation
of any language you might desire to speak, and be not laughable when you
address the natives of that language.
Where should I direct my wandering steps, it was the all important
question, under my consideration in the first place. Boston: I had been
scouring the ground before, and from a thorough-going I was convinced
that to begin in a place where the most superstitious, if not fanatic,
Greeks are situated, at all appearances it should be a wonderful failure
without any dose of wisdom in it; while I was not able to take my stand
before the people, whose sympathies I needed in judging my purposes and
my efforts. In the great wild West, way out there, where some of the
best easterners by leaving their homes and their comforts therein, and
enduring all the hardships of pioneering life they succeeded at last to
put a solid foundation of a new and permanent civilization
astonishingly wonderful not only in the development of this great land
of liberty but revolutionizing the whole commercial and social system of
the world.
Who hath known the mind of the Lord? We have been taught, that His
purpose is to glorify Himself through human agency, and we know that all
the great movements in history were originated in an insignificant way
by insignificant persons at the beginning. Who could say, at the time,
when the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river, and
there she drew out of the water an ark with a child in it, that that
child would be the chosen one of God to deliver his people from the
Egyptian bondage? Or, when, a poor carpenter with his wife went up from
Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea in a small village of
Bethlehem, and Mary brought forth her first-born son, and wrapped him in
swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room
for them in the inn; that that baby was the King of Kings, Christ the
Lord and Saviour of all mankind?
That, humble fishermen would be the heralds of glad tidings, to those
who accept Christ as their Saviour? That an altruist monk should leave
his monastery, thus violating his vows to Pope and the church, to be the
mouthpiece of the Truths of Christ's Gospel, and become the father of a
Reformation that brought down the Romish pride, for all time and raised
the banner of personal liberty in Him who is the Only One to save every
soul that cometh unto Him without the necessity of a priest? That such
men as John Wesley, Moody, and a number of others, to accomplish great
things for the advancement of God's kingdom? And the greatest religious
living man, General William Booth, who, with his ingenious and prototype
system, is doing more for God and humanity, than all religious bodies
put together? Their beginning was insignificant.
These names, a few of the many, I thought to mention for the
encouragement of those who always try to find some excuse, for not doing
all they can, to realize that for which they every day pray, "Thy
Kingdom come." As for me, I know, that there is nothing impossible with
Jesus, and it is only according to our faith, and the work which we put
in it, that we reap the results of our efforts.
When I left New York, I made a short stop-over at New Jersey, and one
snowy morning I went to the R. R. station and purchased my ticket for
Athens, Ohio, because, in studying geography, I noticed that there are
quite a number of towns in the United States by the name of Athens, and
I was very desirous to visit the Athens, Ohio, and see if there was any
Acropolis or monuments to compare with the Athens, Greece. The train
arrived at Athens, Ohio, R. R. station just on time, not to miss my
dinner at a nearby restaurant, where I inquired if there were any Greek
people in the town. A very gentle young lady, waiting on the table gave
me instructions to find a candy store kept by a Greek, where she took
her ice cream. I found the place and the Greek who was a real good
natured middle-aged man and his family living on the floor above the
store. He received me kindly and after a short conversation he said he
thought I could make a suitable help for him and he offered me the job
without asking any questions as to my identification. I had no thought
of staying at that place and declined the offer. By the same Greek I was
glad to learn that Athens, Ohio, though there is no Acropolis and no
Socrates there; yet, she is a nice little college town and the Greek was
doing a rushing business with the students. The next train was for St.
Louis, Missouri, and I was very anxious to see the Mississippi river, so
I went on that train. The great bridge on the Mississippi river and the
Union station at St. Louis are two buildings that could make honor to
any city in the world. I left my luggage at the parcel-room and started
out to find a hotel, where I could have the best accommodations for the
smallest amount of money. When I located myself the best that I could,
the next thing I thought to look around for a job, as I liked to stay in
St. Louis till the opening of the World's Fair in the year 1904. I
bought a newspaper: I could then read some English, but speak very
little yet. The advertisement which attracted my attention was a short
one "Wanted young man willing to work, apply, at given number and
street." It was Saturday yet I was anxious and willing to work, so, I
went to answer the ad. By asking in every corner some man in uniform,
not knowing at the time if they were policemen or conductors in the
electric cars, I find the street and presently I saw the number above
the door of a great big livery stable. I looked over the newspaper, and
the number was correct. I was not prepared for the surprise and for a
moment I hesitated to enter. The thoughts came to me by bunches: for the
first time in my life I was looking for an honest work to make an honest
living, and the first place, God's Providence, brought me, was a stable;
and what a big stable that was. I never knew anything about stables and
horses: what could I do there? Instantly my feet began to move backwards
when a thought came as a lightning: what do you care if it is a stable,
or a dowager's palace? It is work that you want, and it is much more
honorable to work in a stable and be right with God, than to live in the
luxuries as a High Priest and be an hypocrite. Labor, it has always been
an object of my admiration, though, labor is set forth as a part of the
primeval curse, "in the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread" and
doubtless there is a view of labor which exhibits in it reality as a
heavy, sometimes a crueling burden. But labor is by no means exclusively
an evil, nor is its prosecution a dishonor.
These impressions, false though they are, have wrought a vast and
complicated amount of harm to men, especially to the industrious
classes, causing these classes, that is, the great majority of our
fellow-creatures, to be regarded, and consequently to be treated even in
Christian lands, as a parish caste, as hereditary "hewers of wood and
drawers of water" doomed by Providence, if not primarily by the Creator
himself, to a low and degrading yoke, and utterly incapable of
entertaining lofty sentiments, or rising to a higher position; to be
restrained therefore in every manifestation of impatience lest they
should temporarily gain the upper hand, and lay waste the fair fields of
civilization; and to be kept under for the safety of society, if not for
their own safety, by social burdens and the depressing influences of
disregard and contempt.
A better feeling, however, regarding labor and laborers, is beginning to
prevail: these motions, which breathe the very spirit of slavery whence
they are borrowed, are in a word dishonored, while they are gradually
losing their hold on the heart, and their influence on the life.
Individuals arising from time to time from the lowest levels of social
life to take, occupy, and adorn its loftiest posts, have irresistibly
shown that there is no depression in society which the favors of God may
not reach. Especially has a wider and more humane spirit begun to
prevail since man has learned more accurately to know, and more
powerfully to feel, the genius and the spirit of the Gospel, whose
originator was a carpenter's son, and whose heralds were Galilean
fishermen. Reason and experience too, in this as in all cases, have come
to revealed truth, tending forcibly to show that labor, if under certain
circumstances it has a curse to inflict, has also many priceless
blessings to bestow. Yet, when it fell to my lot, to submit myself in
that class and be a laborer and earn my bread by the sweat of my brow,
it was a critical moment to decide upon. And just at this moment a man
of small stature came out of the stable, and as I looked suspiciously,
he asked me if I wanted anything. I want this job said I, showing to him
the ad in the paper. With a few sharp glances at me standing now like a
marble; all right, he said; you just put on your working clothes and
come here on Monday morning at 5 a. m., and we will have something for
you to do. I left him and on my way back home I entered the first
clothing store and purchased an outfit of working-man's clothes. The
next day was Sunday and I spent the day in my room, praying that God
would sustain me in my new career. At night I had very little sleep,
making my plans for the future, or building my castles in the air, and
early Monday morning I was at the stable before 5 a. m. Soon the little
man appeared and after the customary ceremony in taking my name and
address, he led the way into the inner part of the stable in front of a
huge heap of horse manure. There, he says, you just shovel that out of
the window, and handing to me a big fork, for the operation, he
disappeared.
There are certain happenings in our lives indelibly written in our
memory, which cannot be effaced by the stream of time, and one week's
experience in this stable was sufficient to engrave the deepest lines in
my heart of sympathy and mercy for sinful, suffering humanity. It has
been said in the old Greek mythology that the greatest achievement of
Hercules was when he undertook to clean the stable of the king Augeus
at Argos. But should Hercules lived in this stable for one week, I doubt
that his name would ever appear in the list of demigods.
[Illustration: REV. M. GOLDEN
Captain of the Salvation Army]
It is beyond the limits of self respect to even attempt a brief account
of all that took place in that stable, but sufficient to say that I went
in there one individual and by Saturday I came out ten thousand strong.
And I had to put up in St. Louis one more week in a bath house, with
much work and expense to get back into my one individual, and hasten my
wandering steps towards Chicago, with a stop-over at Springfield,
Illinois, where I had references to meet a gentleman, professor of the
Greek language in one of the colleges there. When I arrived at the house
of the dear professor, he, began to speak to me from a book, in an
exameter homerean tone, and I understood about as much as the faithful
who goes to church and the priest reads the mass in Latin. At
Springfield I lost my satchel and with it my Greek documents, which
might have been very interesting to the reader, yet, I hope in my next
publication to have reproductions of those documents from the original,
which I can easily obtain from Athens.
Chicago is my next stop. The Babylon of the West. Last week of January,
1904, the weather 12 degrees below zero. All the idles of Chicago hired
by the city hall could not keep control of the snow on the streets. I
located myself in a furnished room on Wabash Avenue, and bought a paper
to find a job, but my experience in the stable at St. Louis, took away
from me all the courage to select any kind of work from the paper, yet I
was very anxious to settle for a while in Chicago, in that third
cosmopolitan city of the world, London and New York being respectively
first and second.
Chicago offers great opportunity to a student of religious, industrial
and social conditions, and when, by chance, I secured employment in a
leading warehouse, a very good paying position, under the circumstances,
I devoted all my spare time visiting the Greek quarters, incognito, and
studying everything that came within my observation, and attending all
kinds of public meetings of various denominations and societies, which
proved a great help to me in learning the proper pronunciation of the
English words, in fact for five years I did not speak five times in the
Greek language.
One morning I read in the paper the following announcement: "The Knights
Templar of the United States have made their plans to celebrate the 29th
triennial conclave of Knights Templar to be held in San Francisco, Cal.,
September 4 to 9. The occasion will be of universal character,
representatives from all the world; and Great Britain will send to this
imposing ceremony the highest officials that control the affairs of the
chivalric order of Freemasonry in the British Isles. The Earl of Euston,
most eminent and supreme grand master of great priory of England and
Wales and the dependencies of the British crown, were coming with
credentials to represent Edward VII, the king of England." I was
looking forward to my visit to California, since I left New York, but I
never expected the time for me to go there would come so soon as it did.
I was longing to see a great gathering of Freemasons, of this class of
men, that, in every country represents the highest ideals of good
citizenship.
With a few days preliminary preparations, I bade good-bye to my
employer, and well supplied with recommendations from some influential
friends and acquaintances which I had made in Chicago, I saw myself off
to California, on the forenoon train, the 25th of June, 1904.
The trip was uneventful, excepting the unbearable heat and dust,
especially going through the States of Oklahoma, Arizona and New Mexico,
and the number of Indians, which, for the first time in my life I beheld
in their own skin living and moving contented as though they still were
the dominating race on the continent, with their square faces painted in
various colors, wrapped in their blankets, and bare-footed, their feet
being very much like those of a mud turtle, they were the real thing.