“A HOUSE OF HAPPINESS” FOR THE GREAT WHITE WAY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18446, 6 January 1922, Page 10

“A HOUSE OF HAPPINESS” FOR THE GREAT WHITE WAY.

"Bensonising the Church is a mighty good thing,” recently wrote a Broadway actor after a visit to Union Methodist, Church, which embraces in its programme music-teaching, free shower-baths, a cheap luncheon, a “social clinic” for the discouraged and inept, homes for boys and girls, and a children’s playground, everything beings open to all, “regardless of creed, nationality, or social standing in New York’s ‘White Light’ district." As briefly mentioned in these/pkges last November, Union Church advertises itself to Broadway by means of a blazing cross over the entrance, and .ft makes an especial appeal to strangers by arranging personal conveniences for them and caring for those in need. As the actor is further quoted in the New York Christian Advocate (Methodist), he was much surprised that “all other people iri the church are not alike, but that if one goes far enough into it he will find a’ lot of straightforward, decent-living, clean-thinking .folks that any red-blooded man would love to associate with.” The church is known a a “a House of Happiness” because of the cheer it has brought to many unfortunates.“ One of the first things Dr John G. Benson did after coming to Union Church,” writes Laura Comstock Dunlap in the New York Globe, “was to open to the public without charge, the showerbaths which had been installed Tor the benefit of the soldiers who were welcomed at the church during the war. Then 'he utilised the culinary arrangements which had been a canteen feature ,to furnish .luficheon to the public at the moderate 'price of 35 cents.” Now “about 200 persons are fed evepy day,. seated in a , pleasant diking room with regular waiters.” More important, perhaps, is that- “ Next, Dr Benson fprmed what he calls his -‘social clinic,’ Every afternoon he de< votes two hours to listening to those in need of help or advice, and often ends by turning them over to his specialists, a lawyer, a ( business -adviser, a doctor, or a dentist, who form his cabinet. While these local plans were being worked out, Dr Benson was quietly forming a group of associate members all over' the United States, now numbering 1000. They are those who,- by the payment, of sdol a year or more, became identified with the movement. In return they have a church home when they come to the city. They may send their baggage to the parish house, to/ bo held pending their choice of a location. The office staff will hold mail,-receipt for telegrams, secure tickets for places of amusement, and map out an itinerary for shopping or sightseeing. On the other hand the associates may be very useful to the church. No fewer than 50 runaway girls have been returned to their friends or suitably located in New York in the year since Dr Benson caine to the work, most of them from the west. In communicating with their friends the good pastor often makes use of the nearest associate to reassure the frightened parents or call them to the rescue. The lure of Broadway brings many young people to this particular part of New York;,, and Dr Benson has made known his desire to be of service to the stranded and distressed to all the traffic officers for blocks around. The result is the kindly ‘cops’ turn the footsteps of wanderers to this church of the open door, where they receive a warm welcome. “It is, m fact, for the benefit of boys and girls out of work dr alone in the *citv that the Union Church is putting forth, its most strenuous efforts at present. Two houses next the church have been purchased, thrown together, and fitted up for the use of the girls. The parlour of one house has been made a memorial by Oscar J. Dennis, and under the name of the Dennis Parlour will be used as a reception room where girls may receive callers. It will have wicker furniture, a library, little desks,. a telephone, and every convenience. In the basement the old-fashioned kitchen will be supplied with an electric laundry machine where the girls may ! do their washing, and on the capacious range they mav cook their breakfasts or indulge in candy-making to their hearts’ content. The back parlour of this house will bo used for Dr Benson’s clinic. Both houses are now practically full, but rooms are always reserved for ‘transients,’ meaning the stranger or girl out of work. To her no charge -is made for the room except the performance .of such duties as may bo assigned her until she has the position which Dr Benson is wonderfully successful in obtaining for her. It is desired to extend this feature of the work, and next winter vocational classes, including printing, will be started to fit the girl for earning her living. At present a good many are placed in families as domestic help. Meantime the boys ore not forgotten. For them several floors of the parish house have been fitted up into dormitories, and the boy, like the girl, is not charged till he gets a job. During the summer a slanting roof of the house is to be raised so that in all about 100 young men may be accommodated in the four floors of the building. The front rooms are to bo devoted the vocational work.’ These, wo are told, r.re only a few of the plans of “ this wizard "in modern church activities,” which has so impressed Broadway and won for him a testimonial from men “of every religion and none.” While he believes in salvation in “the good old Methodist way,” Dr Benson has also a word for “salvation through music, the arts, or whatever arouses the beet and holiest instincts of man.” —At the bottom- of the deep oceans icecold currents creep about unceasingly, mounting gentle slopes and gliding down into hollows filled with the gloom of endless night. Sometimes they pour over great submarine cliffs, at whoso base they resumo their slow progress over the bed of old Ocean, three, four, or five miles below the surface. A vast quantity of ice-water comes from the Polar regions, especially from the Antarctic, and is the chief cause of the depths of tho sea being' so cold. There is no doubt that if tho immense ciuffnLities of ice at the North and South Poles were melted the sea would in time become warmer. Tho bod of the ocean is not equally cold everywhere. In the neighbourhood of tho Poles, for example, tho temperature of tho bottom is just below freezing-point, whilst over nearly the whole of tho North Atlantic and a good deal of the Pacific Ocean it ia well above freezingpoint. When wo leave tb* very deep seas and consider tho oKattowor waters of the hottest parts of (h» gloß', we find that the water at tho bottom i.« much warmer. The really cold and LoavW wrier has drifted down to the lower depths, where not the faintest ray of ui.nlight -ryor penetrates, and where even ‘ho mud js «o cold that it cannot be bandied wikwr.it discomfort.