Show p 7 S r Merry May lIag Collins t e r Q 15 1 jear ear old Girl I Salvation Army 0 Who While Her Ier f t a vat ion Parents and Police SI ere T ere Searching All AllOver k Over Broadway for Her Ifer Was just 49 r 1 f It around the corner t Sunshine t Having Her t Rheba f Harmless Fling 11 ess mg Little wv f A f a Tried Crawford to Save ft ho L o Broad Broadways Broadway's road ya ways way's S e Y I g ig s f Soul 4 f t Ci N S 1 f While h I I e the l h e Police P 0 l ICe Combed C om b e d Broadway B foa d way f I I. I 5 S r 5 f o 1 r for fi or the t h e Runaway R una way Blue ue Bonnet B onne t 5 n t 1 t LI LJ J O j i i Girl She Was in In Her Het Hideaway 0 1 t l. l L l- l i. 0 w WA WAa tit J t I Yearning I 7 earnIng for fi or the l h e Nome Home nome u to N k lJJ s l Which She Returned J f Finally A. A J I v J 1 I x A i AA w I A r J I I t r q V S. S 9 r i I iA I e i I If f Ut i I L. L S I fV r 7 t i r I fl P f I r r A 4 h NY fro 51 S r f F v R c. c tP I I ti a t L v t m w I u ERRY Y MAY MAI COLLINS 15 MEnry year year old old Salvation Army Arm A r m y t i 0 girl was missing for two 3 weeks Her family was w s distracted of The Missing Persons Bureau Dureau at Po Po- Police L J lice Headquarters New York City was mystified What had become of this trus sedate little soldier of salvation The mystery was soon cleat cleared ed up I 14 and by May herself She appeared one evening en e ng at her he he home only too I glad to be taken back to love and forgiveness and forgiveness and quiet I I wanted to dance and have good times like other girls girl she explained i I I wanted to go out nights Cut But my x I aunt wouldn't wouldn t let me I 1 had a chum whose parents patents let her do anything thing she wanted to So I decided to run away and live with her All unconsciously May Ma had expressed the sentiments of the three little school school girls girls in the Gilbert and Sullivan Mikado whose refrain rt it was Wai that Youth of course must have its its fling So pardon us so pardon us j And dont don't in girlhoods girlhood's happy spring Be De hard on us be hard on us If H were we're designed to dance and find sing sing May desire was a perfectly normal one She wanted good times and pretty things and a certain certain ta tain n amount of freedom whereas her desires were held in check by a kindly kindl but firm rela the five who believed that in restricting the girl she sh was doing doiny doin the be best t thing May 1 was not inordinately inordinately frisky She was a quiet little girl with imps of mischief peeping from her gray eyes eyes eyes- imps that could not be subdued even by tho the sombre Salvation Army uniform which she donned Why had May Alay been drawn into the Salvation I Army Through any religious fen fervor or If Ie so why had she not entered with ith the same enthusiasm enthusiasm into the church organizations of her own denomination 7 They were too conservative too conservative too sober sober and and May wanted music and bright lights and excite excite- I ment The Army held its meetings on garish street corners sang joyful hymns to the accompaniment accompaniment jf brass and a tinkling tambourine I Crowds would stop and listen to the and singing Sr undoubtedly many commented on the pretty face beneath the sedate blue bonnet Ma May head buried in devotion or rl eyes e es up up- upturned upturned turned toward dreams of a golden gol en crown or rJ L perhaps a diamond tiara tiari was not as unconscious as she ehe seemed of this admiration It fed her youth her vanity her love of gaiety and life t l J But Jut soon this was not enough May had read t I j o v vi i. romances had seen een movies movies She went to and ind from the thc Sal Sal- Salvation r. Army meetings unes unes- unescorted unescorted No handsome youth routh ever el LIr f waited wai for or her in in the parlor at herr her home to take her for a dance or even a stroll and bid her sweetly senti senti- sentimental sentimental sentimental mental good nights goodnights nights at her door Ex- Ex Existence Existence lacked romance and she craved d it Natural and uninhibited she sought it in the only channel open to her herShe She was the eldest of many children quartered in a tiny home There was never much privacy no excessive independence so to her parents agreed to let her go to live with an aunt not far from from then their home at 1822 1522 East New York Avenue Brooklyn This had been a poor solution as May soon found out Her lIer activities were more curtailed at nt her aunts aunt's home she thought than they had been at the home of her parents At the latter she had been one of many and although she had felt greatly hampered by the tho cramped living quarters she at least had possessed a certain amount of freedom With her er aunt however the guardian eye was focused solely on her That worthy lady felt in m perfect good faith that her niece must be guarded from all alt the pitfalls of youth and impressed them upon Mays May's unsophisticated unsophisticated mind as snares to be avoided which avoided which sometimes makes things glitter glamorously She did the only thing she could have done done done- she ran away She had a girlfriend girl girl no prettier than hc lie but the girl friend friend went to dances and ard parties and had jolly Sunday afternoons in her front parlor with boys b s 's who seemed to May de de- delightfully delightfully like the movie heroes of whom she dreamed When it was made possible for her to togo togo togo go to live v with ith her friend she seized the Then she the too went to parties wore her friends friend's pretty retty clothes and had her hei fling at being gay and popular May was only a youngster youngster old old enough to want to dance and sing but young oung enough to want a good goodnight good night kiss from her mother and be tucked into her little low bed at home hone This feeling was instinctive The inexplicable bond tugged her home but she didn't dare go She SIle SheL I L r. r y a x xi i r Christmas r rat at Salvation Army Head Headquarters quarters Many Presents Are a Distributed with the i lid id of Wealthy Persons Ier ons i iWho Who Lend Their Cars b and Chauffeurs for the Delivery of Packages i was afraid of the reproaches and recriminations she might encounter So she stayed with her chum her ncr her parents and police officials mean mean- meanwhile meanwhile meanwhile while combing the city for her Her flee mother and father were broken broken They magnified the evils which might be menacing their daughter They never thought of searching for her to so near neat their home They thought of her as having gone to Manhattan and mingled in and perhaps been engulfed by the stream of life on Broadway Every night herr het father worn out from a n hard days day's work would don his Sunday suit and hope hope- hopelessly hopelessly hopelessly lessly travel to Manhattan to scan each passing face Thousands of faces but no particular one Detectives assigned to the case aided him search search- searching searching searching ing cabarets and places of amusement The elder Collins had heard somewhere of a street comer corner in m Paris Pans where if y you ou ou sit long enough you may maysee maysee see the world go by That had stuck in his mind and when May suddenly disappeared he looked toward glittering Broadway as the street that had swallowed up and would eventually c return his little girl girlAnd And all nit the time May was just around the corner having ing her little fling One night turning the corner comer quickly as ns he returned from work Collins ran right into the Future Thousands of faces but hut no particular one T when Collins turned to Broadway as the street treet that had swallowed up and would eventually e return his little girl object of his lus 1 s search May looked startled Despi t Her first impulse had l J been to run but she shei i i. i tit f stood as though glued j to the spot waiting for the in inevitable in- in evitable torrent of wrath But Dut it did not come Mr Nr Col Col- Collins Collins' Coli i f r lins' lins joy could find no expression I. I V. V sion sion By lly all precedents of fic lie fiction fiction tion a tearful touching scene y should have haye followed It J Sobbing truths should have answered an an- answered anxious questions They didn't The pair should not have stood in m silence gazing timidly at each other They did aid Mr 1 Collins reached out and taking h his i s daughters daughter's arm tucked it carefully under his own own wn She yielded willingly and together they walked in silence to their home In the living room one flight up over a de de- deserted deserted de- de deto paint shop explanations and glad tear followed The parents patents heard her story in silent self judgment They had been blind to their daughters daughter's starvation in in their poverty of pleasure In caring carin for her physical needs nee s had they ther they t ey asked themselves entirely neglected the demands de de- demands demands mands of the s spirit pint They The considered thank thank- thankfully thankfully thankfully fully that they had been lucky that m in in their blindness their daughter had come to no great reat harm That night one little girl was tucked carefully into bed bcd and two parents talked over o their good fortune The story has a moral all too clear but let Captain John H Ayres Ares Ay res of the Missing Persons Bureau elucidate it it The captain ca taut in charge of the department di at Police Headquarters which shepherds the strays of this great city knows all about the girl who wanders He should yearly his organization seeks more than 2500 girls under twenty who have strayed from and and finds 98 39 per cent of them by the way Generalizing on the runaway theme Captain Ay Ayres res said Running away is is often attributable to parents being too strict When youngsters are growing crowing into manhood or womanhood they should I ry t e t I. I Merry May blay I 9 Merry lorry Merrye Still e o the Sombre Garb Which She Adopted as a o Crusader of the Salvation Army rm I. I be allowed a little more liberty and not be treated like children chil ren Most lost of the Mays lays and Ethels and Mildreds I return home hom wiser and sometimes sadder Some j l of them do not return at nt all all all-a a problem for parents to over prayerfully Unlike the story of little Salvation May is is the 1 tale of another Salvation Army Girl who sought bright lights not to frolic in them but to uncover un un- uncover cover er some of the wickedness cloaked by their I brilliance br She was known as Sunshine Rheba Craw Craw- Crawford I and she tried ford the Angel of Broadway to fight salvations salvation's battles and her own in m the heart of the wickedest street in the f world Born Dorn in the Army and dedicated to its cause from fromn babyhood she took command of the Broad Broadway way y Corps when she was only twenty two twenty two after every other minister and agent of religion in including in- in including I 1 eluding the Army's s own had failed to get a foot foot- foothold foothold foothold hold in in the Roaring Forties For lor two years rears she fought for Broadways Broadway's s soul She won For the first time in its hi history tory Broadway stopped and listened to a n religious message shouted by a girl in a blue uniform and bonnet But Dut hers was a Pyrrhic victory victor It brought I down clown on her first the hand of the police sec sec- second second second ond a n nervous collapse e and third a break with 1 the policy of the Army that led to her resignation resigns resigns- tion Released from rom her long lon connection with the Uie 1 Salvation Army she revealed the whole story of her crusade her fight not only her intense crusade against dope drink gambling violation v of the Com Com- Commandments Commandments Commandments and other sins of the Great White WhiteWay Way W y but against official red tape insults jeal jeal- jealousy jealousy jealousy personal danger and slander actuated by her beauty attacking her sincerity and circulated regardless of hep he evangelical mission So Sunshine Rheba went back to brighten bri the little corner whence she had coir cor ai Aid It'd d live out the e eLike rest of her days in peaceful Like the other little Salvation Army girl Broadways Broadway's Broad Broad- Broadways Broadway's ways way's white lights were too strong for her hei |