Show 9 n > v i Y 1 1 r t S i TilE DEACONESSES Initiation Work of the ITlictlners nUll f That Resulted The Primitive Order of Deaconesses was revived after more than a thousand years of oblivion by Theodore Flieduer the pastor of the Lutheran Church in Kaiser werth Germany in the first half of the century Today the Kaiserwerth work possesses schools reformatories orphanages orphan-ages lunatic asylums servants training schools drug stores bakeries and all the necessary accessories for a great philanthropic philan-thropic business There arc twentyfive affiliated houses with deaconesses trained t at Kaiserwerth scattered over Germany Italy England Asia Minor Syria North Afriqa and even in America The t deaconesses receive no pay anywhere Wherever they may be their support and their blue uniform comes from the Mother r House in Kavserwerth and it is to Kai sirwerth they will return to spend their old cge or when illness comes Florence Nightingale and Agues Jones were both pupils of the Kaiserwerth training school DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DEACONESSES II AXD PISTERS Canon Street makes thisdestinction be j glasses of the women assembling If the bushels of unused jewely belonging to the women of our church today the surplus castoff trinkets laid away in jewel cases if these could be brought how quickly could the foundations of our building be laid in them Thousands of dollars worth trinkets have since come to the Deaconesses home to be turned into money These women whose expense ex-pense for clothing food and pocket i I I I DEACONESS HOME money is never allowed to exceed 2CO a I year have organized among themselves a I L Without Band When they can i walk and save 5 cents for car fare they I P 0 l Ji j t r i p I c L dEACONESSES IN STREET AND NURSE DRESSESPOrTRAIT OF MRS LUCY RYD MEYER tween a sister and a deaconess deaconess is a general officer of the church while a sister is not A deaconess deacon-ess may or may not live in a community 1 of those likeminded a sister must do sol The vows of a deaconess are not for life while those of a sister usually are A deaconess dea-coness retains full control of her own property which a sister usually does not iaisterhoods are often entered by women for the retired life possible therein while a deaconess enter the life solely for the work to which it leads hA deaconess takes absolutely no vows She is not ordained until she has had the experience of three years THE FOUNDER OF THE CHICAGO DEACONESSES DEA-CONESSES To Dr Lucy Ryder Meyer in Chicago belongs the credit of doing in the Methodist i Meth-odist Episcopal church in America what FJiedner did in the Lutheran in Germany Mrs Meyer does not allow herself any credit for the deaconess organization She says it was a natural growth springing spring-ing from prepared soil Mrs Meyer was born on a small hillfarm in Vermont Her parents were religious people The little girls dreams were of converting picturesque congregations on Indias coral strand She grew up and made preparations to carry out her idea even to the point of taking a course in medicine medi-cine that she might be admitted to the Zenanas Mrs Meyer says that the called together d j to-gether three friends upon whose sympathy sympa-thy they could count A deaconess home committee was formed A flat of two rooms was rented and tho two deaconesses began their independent life They had one months rent some secondhand furniture fur-niture and a barrel of flour The support came at first from friends interested in the training school Some of the churches paid their street car fare when the deaconesses worked in their parishes Wherever the deaconesses work came under the notice of a person with any philanthropic instincts there rose the desire to help Young women coming into the training school to prepare as Mrs Meyer herself had done for yorkin other countries by some means perceived themiserable sick i suffering human beings at their door ana resolved to stay in their own land HOW THE MOTHER HOUSE WAS BUILT By the time the deaconesses had numbered r num-bered a dozen they felt that they must have a house The building nest to the training school was for sale at 12000 rO the surprise of the deaconesses a woman who had known of the work brought them 5000 But for a long time the rest of the money came in bits mostly dimes Sometimes anonymous anon-ymous gifts of money aswell as delicacies S for the sick were lelt ut the door One night there was a violent ring and a man entered asked for pen and inc at the hall table wrote a large check and abruptly departed But still there was not enough Then Mrs Meyer made an address at a Chicago preachers meeting in which was t this paragraph When the tabernacle I was built thirtyfonr centuries ago the people came as many as were willing heartet and brought bracelets and earrings I ear-rings anft rings all jewels of gold And hey made the layer of brass of the looking Q I walk and the money goes into the fund They do without milk in their coffee Not to discipline their own bodies and souls but that some patient in the slums may I have clean sheets There are fortytwo deaconesses at work in this mother house in Chicago and there are twentynine Deaconesses homes scattered over the United States Last years report from the Chicago Mother House shows that its deaconesses made 21426 visits They taught in the Industrial school 11958 pupils They gave away 11030 garments It may be of interest to the practical philanthropist to know that they gave away 102 Bibles But it is by the mercy of their lives that they teach their religion In their little paper the Message they publish what they call Field Notes Incidents that come up from day to day Told thc re in the simplest sim-plest way a mere record of facts are stories that in pathos exceed any written by masters of fiction But the hardest sorrows they see they never tell Often they enter a house to nurse infectious diseases and scrub the floor if there is no money in the emergency fund to pay a scrub woman or none found who will run the risk Often they go into homes where disgrace that is worse than death has come places where the unsympathetic unsympa-thetic hired nurse would be but an added sting to bear ANNA LEACH |