_Honorable Submission_
There was a time when the Eastern part of the United States looked upon
San Francisco as the coming New York of the Pacific Coast, but since the
disastrous earthquake in the year 1906, the stream of progress as a
great commercial center has been turned rather towards the Northern
Pacific Coast, yet San Francisco with its great harbor, the ever
increasing commercial developments and number of other advantages, still
is a magnificent attraction to the homeseeker, who for the last few
years has been very sceptical in his preference on account of existing
unfavorable conditions regarding the city's government which is the prey
of dishonest politicians. For this and many other reasons I should never
make my home within the limits of the city of San Francisco. There are
beautiful localities within short distances, desirable in every respect
and beyond the claws of the city hall of San Francisco.
Mount Tamalpais, I believe, is a most pleasant location for the lovers
of nature. Words fail, and it is beyond the ability of my pen, to even
attempt to describe, the beauties which nature has bestowed upon the
Mount of Tamalpais. Situated just across the bay of San Francisco, by
the way of Socialito, on the train to Mill Valley and whence on the
crookedest railroad in the world, climbing 2000 feet above the tide of
water, we reach the lower top of the mountain, and there we find
accommodations to entertain kings and princesses, and the most eccentric
Yankee. Yet, I am assured, that scarcely one-tenth of the visitors to
California, have ever had the exceptional privilege to spend 24 hours,
on the top of Mount Tamalpais, and thereafter all through their lives
enjoy the most wonderful recollection in all God's creation.
The Alps in Europe are too stupendous to be compared with this
majestically magnificent mount of Tamalpais. The Himalaya in Asia are
too brutish to be considered as a rival of this gentle and illustrious
sky-scraper. The Olympus and Parnassus of Greece are out of season to be
paralleled with this up-to-date marvelous throne of their Majesties the
Kings of America. There is the Tamalpais Hotel, a real palace, where the
guests can rest and from the verandas or the windows of their own rooms
observe the animating sights on the left hand side the snow-covered
top-heads of the mountains and following to the right look down upon the
valleys and behold the myriads of orange and lemon and all the
fruit-bearing trees blooming all the year around and decorated like
brides in their wedding procession, not only for a few moments, till the
law ties the knot, but forever as long as the life-giving climate of
beautiful California lasts and time shall be no more.
When I went up to the Mountain, looking for employment, because I
wanted to locate myself in such a place, if I could, till the
celebration of the Knights Templar was over, I was surprised to find
that the General Manager of the Hotel and the R. R. Station was a lady,
of a striking majestical appearance, she was the controlling power of
the whole business on Mount Tamalpais, and she was not a suffragette
either. But she was a loving mother of two beautiful children, a typical
Yankee girl, well up in her teens, supervising over the chambermaids,
and variously assisting her mother, and an active boy of sixteen, the
good-fellow of everybody, and especially to the Chinamen employed in the
kitchen. Mr. Johnson was the husband and father of this happy family,
and he occupied the position of butler of the house, receiving orders
from his beloved wife.
I presented my credentials to Mrs. Johnson and she, being satisfied, was
very kind to give me the charge of two tables to wait upon in the dining
room. It seemed as though I made good as a waiter, judging by the coins
which the customers, began to forget, beneath their plates, in leaving
the table, some call it tips, I called it real money.
September was well at hand, one day old, and Mrs. Johnson was very
anxious to have the premises well decorated, and a big arch should be
erected at the entrance, with the sign, "WELCOME," to Knights Templar,
as news came from San Francisco, that the Knights were already in
possession of the Golden Gate. Mrs. Johnson was almost in despair,
unable to find someone among that great army of employees, to have any
artistic ideas of decorating or even to make a few flower designs and
put up the arch out of some green foliage. We were all green, in that
respect. But as I always find myself at hand, wherever help is to be
rendered, I offered my services, and by what I could remember from my
friend Jack, in New York, how he could decorate everything to a good
taste, I have been able to put up a nice decoration and the third of
September, 1904, the flags of all nations were waving and everything was
ready for the reception of the Knights Templar. Mrs. Johnson was pleased
to the extent of presenting me with an extra three dollars and relieving
me from the dining room, she appointed me in charge of the pavilion, an
out-doors building, where the Knights Templar would privately entertain
their families and lady friends. In this position I was enabled to see
more of the high American life than I ever dreamed of before. The
English Lord, and the Parisien Dame de Honor, were eclipsed as they
would look like pygmies by the side of the sunshining, bright-hearted
American gentlemen, and the sweet and graceful demigoddess American
lady. But my enthusiasm reached its zenith when a gentleman from
Pittsburg, in company with his ladies, after an enjoyable dinner, at the
pavilion, he left under his plate a shining five dollar gold piece; at
the sight of the unexpected I made a sign to which the gentleman was
obliged to respond, and that settled it, there was no mistake about it,
the man and I were brothers and the coin was intended as my tip. And
afterwards the incident occurred repeatedly during the celebration of
Knights Templar in San Francisco.
Now, if everything in this world was just a procession like that of
Knights Templar in San Francisco, and everybody was happy as the people
I have seen on Mount Tamalpais, then there would be no sorrow, and there
would be no pain; in fact this world would be the paradise on earth.
But, alas! regretful as it may be, yet it is only the simple truth, that
it is only the minority that are real happy, while the vast majority of
men and women and children in this world are just a mass of suffering
humanity, and if the investigations of religious societies,
sociologists, and psychologists, are true, the cause of all misery in
this world is misconduct or misfortune, which in one word is, sin, that
brings misery. And there is where my purpose in life begins. I am out
against sin. But to fight sin, it is absolutely necessary to be a
soldier of the man who gave his life for the salvation of all mankind.
President Emeritus Eliot of Harvard University, a man of colossal
thought-machine, man, who controls the unprejudiced intellectual minds
of America, in his address on "The Religion of the Future," is quoted as
saying: "I venture to add that I am not at the hold of any proud
world--whatever; second, that such little part of the world as I am best
acquainted with loves the Lowly Nazarene--and does not hate Him;
thirdly, that I have met during my life most of the sorrows which are
accounted heaviest; fourth, that Jesus will be in the religion of the
future, not less, but more, than in the Christianity of the past." All
efforts without Jesus, trying to better the world, shall fail. It is and
will be the opinion of all sane minds for many generations yet to come.
This was my opinion and the only imposing motive that brought me down on
my knees on the 14th of October, 1904, in a poorly furnished hall where
the Salvation Army had the Sunday night's meeting. I gave my heart to
Jesus, for life and for eternity, to be his and his alone. And I knew,
there and then, that I was honorably converted.
To make the surrender complete I offered my services to the Salvation
Army, that I should use all I had, my time and my talent, to uplift the
down-fallen humanity and help to make this world better. Major Harris
Connett and Adjutant Allison Coe, were the officers in charge of the Los
Angeles Salvation Army and they received me into their ranks and for ten
months I was engaged in this wonderful organization, visiting the sick,
praying in the saloons, in the slums and everywhere doing all that I
could to promote the cause of Jesus in bringing souls into his fold. But
nothing gave me so great pleasure as the poor children of Los Angeles at
Christmas time when I was dressed in the Santa Claus clothing
distributing presents to them. I never felt happier in all my life even
in the best days as a High Priest.
After passing successfully my preparatory studies in Los Angeles, word
came from the Headquarters that they wanted me in the college Training
Home, in Chicago, to take the course of officership; and the 15th of
August, 1905, finds me sweeping the back yard at the Training Home, West
Adams St., Chicago, Illinois.
Were it possible for every man and woman who pretends to be a minister
of Jesus, to pass six months in any of the Training Colleges of the
Salvation Army, then there should be fewer ministers, but far more
useful, in the betterment of the world, than many of them that are under
the present conditions.
It is the most psychological system, in these Training Colleges that
brings out all the virtues that every heart possesses and every bit of
iniquity that may be hidden in the personal character of the man or
woman who willingly denies himself or herself of all prospects and
pleasures in this world just for the only purpose to live and love and
serve the suffering humanity. There are exceptions to the rule among the
officers of the Salvation Army, once in a great while some one will
prove unworthy to the cause, but these exceptions are common in every
human institution, and they are so few in the Salvation Army that fully
justifies the public confidence upon this marvelously developing great
movement.
I went through the theoretical and practical work for which I could make
a whole volume of the experiences in the slums of Chicago, where I had
to reprove a policeman, whom I found in a saloon drinking in full
uniform, while in the back room there was a girl not over fifteen years
old, in the company of a most reckless middle-aged man, both
exceedingly intoxicated and still drinking. I dismissed the man, and
sent the girl to the rescue home, where she would be taken care of.
The 17th of January, 1906, I received my diploma as an active member of
the National First Aid Association of America, and my commission as a
Captain in the Salvation Army, and I was appointed in charge of No. 4 in
Chicago. I went to my quarters and there was not kindling wood enough to
start a fire, and no coal; and the weather 14 degrees below zero, half
the glass panes of the windows broken, and everything in the house
frozen, and the Corps indebted to the extent of 175 dollars, that I was
expected to pay. You have to put yourself in a position of this kind in
order to appreciate the circumstances under which I was placed. Yet,
when everything seems dark, and there is no visible way out of the
difficulty, it is then that with Jesus on our side, we shall always find
some way. The first consideration in a missionary work should be to get
souls converted to God. With much prayer and great faith upon the
Almighty, I began my work, and when the Spirit spread all round that
community and the sinners began to flock into the fold of Jesus, there
was a change in a very short time. The old debt was paid, and we had
comfortable quarters to lay our heads; and the roll-call of the Corps
increased, and God was glorified, and there is a Corps, till this day,
in Chicago, which they call the big 4 of the Salvation Army.
The San Francisco disaster came and the Salvation Army called me into
its relieving department to help the sufferers. After which they
appointed me assistant to the Illinois Division, where for two years I
made a deeper and more thorough study of the various departments in
operation.
In April, 1908, I visited England with the desire to study closer and
more extensively the methods, and see for myself the great works which
the Salvation Army has accomplished in the British Isles.
On my return to the United States I was appointed divisional solicitor
for the Northern New England, where, splendid success was the result of
my efforts, and there was a great field to work in and every opportunity
to do good.
But in searching my heart's ambition I find that it was high time for me
to turn all my energies toward the people for whose Salvation I was
ordained a High Priest in the Church, and although the Church failed in
its mission, yet, to uplift my people is still the aim of my life.
After much thought and due consideration of my obligations to the
Salvation Army, I came to the conclusion that in view of the fact that
following an unsuccessful correspondence with the Salvation Army, the
National Headquarters refused to grant me a leave of absence, and
insisted that I should go back West, while I knew that the field where I
was called to fight the battle of my life was right here in New England,
the best thing for me to do remained to send in my resignation, and I
did so, thus thrusting myself entirely upon the hands of God.
And though as yet I have received no reply from the National
Headquarters, my resignation is final, and now I am free, and my work
unmolested of all denominational differences, dogmas and doctrines,
which in the light of the Ecclesiastical history has always been the
fatal cause of failure, in the Churches, to accomplish their mission in
the Salvation of the world.