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July 20, 1911
THE UNION SIGNAL
5-
OUR FRIENDS IN CHRISTIAN SOCIAL SERVICE
ELIZABETH P. GORDON
It is Sunday afternoon on a hot summer day.
The large, attractive student parlor of the Lucy Rider Meyer Training School is filled with young women singing gospel hymns. It is difficult to realize that one is in the great city of Chicago. There is a hush of expectancy as Mrs. Meyer appears, and standing by the piano greets some who are guests. By request, she sings alone, in a musical contralto, a favorite hymn, the tune being her own composition. Mrs. Meyer’s modest bearing makes even more emphatic her strong, gracious personality, which is pervaded by a rare, deep spirituality.
At half past nine, the evening of the same day, two or three of the students, some of the deaconesses who have received their training in the school and the writer are at the Midnight Mission on Armour Avenue. Rev. Ernest A. Bell, the consecrated and able superintendent, offers fervent prayer in preparation for the meeting which follows.
Soon the group of workers is in the street. They surround the little organ and sing well-known gospel songs. A crowd of young men of all nationalities quickly assembles. The alluring music of the saloons mingles with the melody of the hymns, for it is the “red light district.” The hours go by, but the crowd stays. Helpful leaflets and copies of the Scriptures, in many languages, are distributed. The men and women who speak, tell the truth about the sins of drunkenness and impurity, and appeal to the men to help them stop the white slave traffic.
Keepers of the saloons, who are losing patronage, try to drown out the words of the speakers with the twaddle of a loud-voiced megaphone. Even that hindrance is finally overcome.
It is midnight and—one o’clock! The lights *are just as glaring, and the automobiles still stand waiting. Night is turned into day. The men who remain, when the meeting finally closes, are told where they will always be welcomed and be given the help they need.
The weary group of workers, on their way home, talk gratefully of the Mann bill which became a law on June 25, 1910. President Taft, in signing the bill in the presence of Congressman Mann of Illinois, said: “Now we can hope for some convictions and some results in the prosecution of this hideous monster, the white slave traffic.” Many convictions have been made.
The writer had the privilege the next morning of hearing Miss Lucy A. Hall of the Deaconess Home, lecture to the stu-
Chicago Training School
dents of the Training School. She spoke of the close relation of the liquor traffic to the white slave traffic, and said those promoting the latter saw clearly that liquor creates abnormal affections, impairs the judgment, weakens the will, lowers moral standards and captures the tempted. Dance halls and concert halls, with saloon attachments, become harvest fields for the white slavers and the sale of liquors at dances should be forbidden. Miss Hall never fails to wear her white ribbon badge. It has gleamed on her deaconess
costume in many a saloon and den of iniquity. She is recognized as one of the most sane and devoted purity workers, and was called to testify before the commission whose recent report on vice has stirred not only Chicago but all the other large cities.
Chicago’s 7,000 saloons create crime, poverty and impurity. The Lucy Rider Meyer Training School certainly is a great light in the midst of great darkness. Its 200 students are being taught “Applied Christianity”—a Christianity that believes saloons and all dens of impurity should be outlawed. It is a training school for city, home and foreign missions. “City missions” includes work for civic righteousness—a clean city for men and women whom the Training School has helped to make clean.
The school stands easily at the front in preparing women for Christian service. It has enrolled, during twenty-five years, nearly 3,000 students and sent out more than 1,500 of these into some form of active work. The Bible teaching is unusually practical, as well as scholarly. It is applied in the new and practical phases of Christian social service.
Mrs. Edith Smith Davis, who is a warm
(Continued on Page Thirteen)
Mrs. Lucy Rider Meyer
Object Description
| Title | "Our Friends in Christian Social Service" Article by Elizabeth P. Gordon, July 20, 1911 |
| Date | 1911-07-20 |
| Creator | Gordon, Elizabeth Putnam, 1851-1933 |
| Contributor | The Union Signal |
| Collection | Lucy Rider Meyer Papers (Styberg Library) |
| Description | In an article, published in the Union Signal on July 20, 1911, Elizabeth P. Gordon writes about her experience at the Chicago Training School, where music played a prominent role in daily life. A photograph of the Chicago Training School and Lucy Rider Meyer are also included. |
| Subject |
Meyer, Lucy Rider, 1849-1922 Chicago Training School for City, Home, and Foreign Missions Hymns Deaconesses Photographs |
| Collection Source | Chicago Training School Collection, Series 1.1 Box 1 Folder 13 |
| Series Title | Lucy Rider Meyer Personal Papers |
| Folder Title | Newspaperclippings and Obituaries er: Lucy Rider Meyer |
| Type | Text |
| Physical Format | Documents (other) |
| Digital Format | application/pdf |
| Language | eng |
| Rights | For permission to reproduce, distribute, or otherwise use this image, please contact The United Library by phone (847)866-3909 or email united.library@garrett.edu |
| Method of scan | HP Scanjet N6310 |
| Identifier | 01_13_14_CTS_LRM.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 1 |
| Collection | Lucy Rider Meyer Papers (Styberg Library) |
| Transcript | July 20, 1911 THE UNION SIGNAL 5- OUR FRIENDS IN CHRISTIAN SOCIAL SERVICE ELIZABETH P. GORDON It is Sunday afternoon on a hot summer day. The large, attractive student parlor of the Lucy Rider Meyer Training School is filled with young women singing gospel hymns. It is difficult to realize that one is in the great city of Chicago. There is a hush of expectancy as Mrs. Meyer appears, and standing by the piano greets some who are guests. By request, she sings alone, in a musical contralto, a favorite hymn, the tune being her own composition. Mrs. Meyer’s modest bearing makes even more emphatic her strong, gracious personality, which is pervaded by a rare, deep spirituality. At half past nine, the evening of the same day, two or three of the students, some of the deaconesses who have received their training in the school and the writer are at the Midnight Mission on Armour Avenue. Rev. Ernest A. Bell, the consecrated and able superintendent, offers fervent prayer in preparation for the meeting which follows. Soon the group of workers is in the street. They surround the little organ and sing well-known gospel songs. A crowd of young men of all nationalities quickly assembles. The alluring music of the saloons mingles with the melody of the hymns, for it is the “red light district.” The hours go by, but the crowd stays. Helpful leaflets and copies of the Scriptures, in many languages, are distributed. The men and women who speak, tell the truth about the sins of drunkenness and impurity, and appeal to the men to help them stop the white slave traffic. Keepers of the saloons, who are losing patronage, try to drown out the words of the speakers with the twaddle of a loud-voiced megaphone. Even that hindrance is finally overcome. It is midnight and—one o’clock! The lights *are just as glaring, and the automobiles still stand waiting. Night is turned into day. The men who remain, when the meeting finally closes, are told where they will always be welcomed and be given the help they need. The weary group of workers, on their way home, talk gratefully of the Mann bill which became a law on June 25, 1910. President Taft, in signing the bill in the presence of Congressman Mann of Illinois, said: “Now we can hope for some convictions and some results in the prosecution of this hideous monster, the white slave traffic.” Many convictions have been made. The writer had the privilege the next morning of hearing Miss Lucy A. Hall of the Deaconess Home, lecture to the stu- Chicago Training School dents of the Training School. She spoke of the close relation of the liquor traffic to the white slave traffic, and said those promoting the latter saw clearly that liquor creates abnormal affections, impairs the judgment, weakens the will, lowers moral standards and captures the tempted. Dance halls and concert halls, with saloon attachments, become harvest fields for the white slavers and the sale of liquors at dances should be forbidden. Miss Hall never fails to wear her white ribbon badge. It has gleamed on her deaconess costume in many a saloon and den of iniquity. She is recognized as one of the most sane and devoted purity workers, and was called to testify before the commission whose recent report on vice has stirred not only Chicago but all the other large cities. Chicago’s 7,000 saloons create crime, poverty and impurity. The Lucy Rider Meyer Training School certainly is a great light in the midst of great darkness. Its 200 students are being taught “Applied Christianity”—a Christianity that believes saloons and all dens of impurity should be outlawed. It is a training school for city, home and foreign missions. “City missions” includes work for civic righteousness—a clean city for men and women whom the Training School has helped to make clean. The school stands easily at the front in preparing women for Christian service. It has enrolled, during twenty-five years, nearly 3,000 students and sent out more than 1,500 of these into some form of active work. The Bible teaching is unusually practical, as well as scholarly. It is applied in the new and practical phases of Christian social service. Mrs. Edith Smith Davis, who is a warm (Continued on Page Thirteen) Mrs. Lucy Rider Meyer |
