"You said one day that in America we had but two cla.s.ses, the ma.s.ses and the a.s.ses. That sentence cost the church a thousand dollars in pew-rents. I think such a.s.sertions blasphemous."
"Well, it"s true."
"I don"t think so; and if it were, it don"t pay to say such things."
"Am I only to preach the truths that pay?"
"We hired you to preach the simple gospel of Christ."
"Pardon me, Deacon; I am not your hired man. I chose this church as the instrument through which I could best give my message to the world. I answer to G.o.d, not to you. The salary you pay me is not the wage of a hireling. My support comes from the free offerings laid on G.o.d"s altar."
"We call them pew-rents. You are trying to abolish this system, as old as our life, and allow a mob of strangers to push and crowd our old members out of their pews."
"I believe the system of renting pews un-Christian and immoral-a mark of social caste."
"And that"s why I think you"re a little crazy. Even your best friends say you"re daft on some things."
"So did Christ"s."
The Deacon"s face clouded and his black eyes flashed.
"From denouncing private pews you have begun to denounce private property. Our church is becoming a Socialist rendezvous and you a firebrand." "Deacon, you have allowed your commercial habits to master your thinking, your religion and your character. In your home, you are a good man. In Wall Street," he smiled, "pardon me, you are a highwayman, and you carry the ideals and methods of the Street into your duties as a churchman."
"Pretty far apart for a pastor and deacon, then, don"t you think?"
"You ran the preacher away who preceded me, too," mused Gordon.
The Deacon"s eyes danced at this acknowledgment of his power.
"He was a little slow for New York. You are rather swift."
Gordon rose and looked down good-naturedly on the shining bald head as he took his leave.
"I suppose we will have to fight it out?"
"It looks that way. My kindest regards to Mrs. Gordon."
CHAPTER V
THE CRY OF THE CITY
Kate Ransom entered the church with enthusiasm. Even Van Meter, learning that she lived on Gramercy Park and was a woman of wealth, congratulated Gordon on the event.
She organized a working-girls" club and became its presiding genius.
Her beauty and genial ways won every girl with whom she came in contact. Her club became at once a force in Gordon"s work, absolutely loyal to his slightest wish. She formed a corps of visitors and asked to be allowed to help in his pastoral work.
"Before we begin," she said, "let me be your a.s.sistant for a day.
I wish to see the city as you see it, that I can direct my girls with intelligence."
On the day fixed, she acted as usher for his callers at the church.
The President of his boys" club was admitted first to tell him a saloon had been opened next door to their building in spite of their protest to the Board of Excise.
Gordon frowned.
"It"s no use to waste breath on the Board. They know that saloon is within the forbidden number of feet from our church. But as the Governor of New York has recently said, "Give me the vote of the saloons; I don"t mind the churches," go down to this lawyer and tell him to insist on an indictment of Crook, the Chairman of the Board, for the violation of his oath of office."
"It"s no use, sir," said Anderson, his a.s.sistant. "I"ve been to see him. He tells me there were three indictments for penitentiary offenses pending against Crook when the Mayor promoted him to be Chairman of the Board. Three courts have p.r.o.nounced him guilty, but the new Legislature is going to pa.s.s an ex-post facto law to relieve him of his term in prison."
"Then try him with one more indictment and include the whole Board of Excise this time. We will let them know we are alive."
Kate ushered in a slatternly little woman, dirty, ugly, cross-eyed and her face red from weeping. "Please, Doctor, come quick. They"ve got Dan. They knocked him in the head, dragged him down the stairs and flung him in the wagon. He"s in jail, and they say they"ll have him in Sing Sing in a week. He ain"t done a thing. You"re the only friend we"ve got in the world."
"On what charge did they arrest him, Mrs. Hogan?"
"Just a lot o" policemen charged on him with billies!"
"But why did they do it?"
"It"s the policeman on the beat who"s got a grudge agin him. He swore he"d land him in Sing Sing. And if you can"t stop him, he"ll do it."
Gordon wrote a note to a lawyer and handed it to her.
"Go to this lawyer and tell him to take the case."
"Dan"s a friend of mine," he explained to Kate. "I"ve taken him out of the hospital three times from delirium tremens, and found work for him a dozen times. But he can"t hold his job. Everything seems against him.
""It"s me face, Doctor," he tells me in despair. "When they see me they won"t stand me. Me wife"s cross-eyed, or she"d "a" never married me. I was tin years prowlin" up an" down the earth seekin"
a woman. But I couldn"t catch one. She"d "a" got away from me if she could "a" seed straight.""
Kate laughed and ushered in a young woman with blond hair and an ill-fitting dress. She walked as in a dream, and there was a strange look in her eye.
"I hope you are feeling better to-day, Miss Alice."
She made no reply, but seated herself wearily, while Gordon drew a cheque for fifty dollars and handed it to her. She placed it mechanically in her purse.
"I hope you are making progress in your art now that you have a comfortable studio," he said kindly.
"I want to see him," she replied in a low voice.