Andress Floyd

“ So you see in Jersey, as well as in Russia, a beard may be only proof of honor.... The cleanly shaven man who knocks at your side door and wins the unsuspecting wife’s confidence with that time-worn platitude of Vagabondia, ‘Lady, all I want is work,’ may have a weapon concealed upon his person, while the unshaven wanderer, the sight of whom makes the women folks bolt doors, may be a homeless fellow who really wants work, and would rather be unkempt in appearance than chance a prison-term for carrying a razor. ”

“ We know intuitively that much of the past must [47] be condemned, but that which concerns us vitally is the life we aim to live to-day.
Night closes on the sorrows of yesterday. Dawn is radiant with the promise of a better day.
Our friend, “Slippery Jim,” tried to believe all this, and to look with hope towards the future, but he kept much to himself. He would take long walks into the woods.
It disturbed me to see him so slow to take the boys into his confidence.
“I never see you reading with the other men in the evening,” I told him. “Men who love solitude are either very good or very bad.” ”

“ The hope comes when one turns one’s thought from the destructive to the constructive, and lives in the sight of the new born faith until wisdom lifts the darkened veil and freedom follows as its rightful legacy. ”

“ I am a coward, I’m beaten and I know it, but I’m glad Big Jean got the job—honestly, Boozer, I am—you see it isn’t all my fault—he’s so damned good looking.”
[145]
Boozer put his face close to that of Little Jean and held out his paw to the discouraged boy. You see when you live your life at the Self Masters you sense the inner thought of broken men. Boozer—who knows no other life—understands the heart of the discouraged. ”

“ Some men can never throw off the thought of their imprisonment. It rules their life. They think only of prison and the crimes that follow such thinking. There is no hope for them. Can’t you see it is your ideals that enslave or make you free? Can’t you see you are free?”
“It’s mighty hard,” he said, "but I want to forget. My friend sent me to you. He said you knew the path to freedom, and would help me. Days and days I have waited for you to come to [44] me. My father would not have me at home, my friends left me, my money grew less and less—my clothes went, my razor—everything. ”

“ But everything is a success that ends happily, and the delayed lunch made the visitors more than ever in sympathy with the Work. Whoever loves us for our mistakes, shall become more endeared to us as they know us better. The diners—who had not dined—saw humor in our embarrassment, and assured us of their best wishes as they drove merrily away, leaving us stupidly asking ourselves why the waiter had left his guests unserved. ”

“ But despite the denial, it was plain to see that my old German was the anarchist that my committee had decided him to be. So I sent out word that the boys should redouble their kindness to their half-crazed friend. It was an opportunity to try our simple methods upon a man who felt that the sad old world and its many peoples were as utterly lost as a man may become who believes that there is no good within himself. Men who feel themselves to be evil, they work evil. ”

“ When a man has lived months and years enslaved by some vicious habit—self-destructive and careless of consequences—his sub-conscious mind is a sensitive matrix on which the sordid history is deeply engraved. The certain change can come only as the man learns values and respects them by a right life. ”

“ I have made up my mind to play square. You may not believe it. You have heard too many mission testimonies to believe much in them. But if I live right—it isn’t because my heart is softened, my heart is cold and hard as a paving block. ”

“ The boys themselves made two wooden beds, and fitted up a room for the Baby, while the mother in turn helped the young men in the kitchen.
The Baby has grown strong and well. She likes her big brothers with all their noise and horseplay, and they like their Baby. To see rough homeless men sing lullabies to an infant-in-arms, congratulating themselves when she falls asleep soothed by the monotonous humming of some [31] cradle song that they themselves thought they had forgotten long ago, might renew one’s faith in the kindly humanity that lives in every heart. ”

“ It is—we believe—the only book in which a writer has received his facts for his stories direct from a life-experience with outcast men.
Not alone that, but the volume is printed, bound and illustrated by the unexpected guests—the Itinerant Monks of whom the tales are told, and who make their home in our so-called Monastery.
The day approaches when broken men shall have beautiful, though simple, homes of their own making, modeled after the group idea of The Self Master Colony. ”

“ Big Jean spent his spare hours studying English and talking with the other boys. Little Jean made friends with the chickens, the pigs, the cow and the horse, while Boozer—the Colony dog—and he were inseparable chums.
“Boozer,” Little Jean told me, “knows the heart of outcast boys and men. He meets the new arrivals at the gate and escorts them to the house. He may challenge the lawless approach of the rich man in his auto, and warn the household of possible danger impending, but the most unkempt ‘knight of the road’ will find Boozer quick to make friends with him.” ”

“ Hardly had a fortnight passed before our good anarchist caught the spirit of the place and began to feel that kindly sympathy that dwells even in the hearts of stranded men. The young men grew really fond of him. ”

“ I said, immediately realizing that I had no right to ask of him the question and that my thoughtlessness had caused the boy to answer falsely. The outcast, distrustful of his fellow, frequently seeks safety in falsehood until friendship disarms suspicion and Love calls forth the Truth for which it has not asked. ”

“ As we approached the Colony House we passed several of the boys who had evidently seen us at a distance, for they appeared deeply interested in the setting sun, their faces turned from us. Finally one fellow who, like a good Pullman porter, can laugh at you without changing his facial [61] expression, only if you watch closely you may note that the muscles at the back of the neck dance in uncontrolled merriment—came forward and said to us: “A beautiful sunset.” ”

“ EDISON’S EVENING STAR
“Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion: The Lord is his name.”
—Bible.
[127]
Edison’s Evening Star
Hamlet: “Ay, marry, why was he sent into England?”
First Clown: “Why, because he was mad: he shall recover his wits there; or, if he do not, it’s no great matter there.”
Hamlet: “Why?”
First Clown: “‘Twill not be seen in him there; there the men are as mad as he.”
—Shakespeare.
To be dull of wit is sadly unfortunate, but to be dull of wit and be compelled to live in a Colony made up of more or less reckless young men is doubly unfortunate. ”

“ We are ostensibly a young men’s colony—men and boys trying to get to their feet and become independent and self-supporting. But if anyone comes to us hungry, we like to give them something more edible than a card to a professional charity. ”

“ What man half ill with worry cares to listen to some ambitious pupil say, ‘Teacher, shall I shave the right side of his face up, or shave it down?’—and, ‘Teacher, how do you shave the upper lip without cutting it?’ and, ‘Teacher, if I do cut it, shall I disinfect it with carbolic or peroxide before I put on the new skin?’—No Barbers’ School for me. It is better to turn philosopher on the instant—the old philosophers and prophets grew long beards.... ”

“ Talk about getting next to Nature in about three days after a man has sold his razor, Nature will get next to him, and if he is not as beardless as an American Indian, he will be convinced when he sees himself in a mirror, of the truth of the Darwinian theory.”
“In Russia,” I said, “the beard is the patriarch’s badge of sanctity.”
“So it is in Jersey and several other States,” he replied. "Many a so-called hobo with two [41] weeks’ growth of beard on his face may be at heart only a conscientious respecter of the law—for it is a misdemeanor in New Jersey to carry a razor. ”

“ You have treated me much better than I have deserved.”
“It is something to have even simple food when one is hungry,” I said, severely. “You have also more courage than when you came. In your work you know courage is quite important. You will soon be able to go back to your old life.” ”

“ Had Hunger delayed her coming another week, Our Baby and her mother might have been driven to ask food and shelter on Christmas Eve. As it was, they came to us on December 19th, at ten o’clock in the evening. They had no place in which to sleep except the local police station, and [29] that is not the place for a little baby—even strong men weaken in the chill of its hospitality.
So, on their arrival, the boys who were retiring for the night, held a conference. Our supply of beds and bedding did not even equal the demand made upon it by the boys themselves. ”

“ The boy worked industriously about the place and in a few weeks had earned sufficient money to settle satisfactorily for the bicycle. He is now working on a neighbor’s farm and says that he is determined to make something worth while out of his life.
“Do you know,” said the old attorney to me recently, "if anyone ever charges us with having compounded a felony in the case of this boy [103] and his bicycle we can defend ourselves on the technical ground that the bicycle was of such slight value that the stealing of it was only a petty crime." ”

“ The members of the Colony are no exception to this rule.
“Tell us more,” the boys asked of the Moon-Struck-One, one evening after the day’s work was done, “about the inhabitants of Mars, which you see in your trances.”
And then he—the Moon-Struck-One—would explain in detail the strange people he had seen in his dreams.
“These planets,” he told them, “are all being made ready for the coming race of Man.... After Cycles and Cycles, we move on to newer and better worlds.... Each of the mystic Seven Planets are at the service of the human race. ”

“ My observation of a father’s attitude towards his prodigal son is that the moment the son desires to live as he ought, not only do closed doors open, but the father stands ready with outstretched [52] arms to receive him. This supposedly harsh father, when he was convinced that his Jim had worked faithfully at the Colony for several months, was anxious that his son return home. Even the boy’s old employer expressed sympathy and offered a position to him. ”

“ His friend who had met him walking aimlessly up and down Broadway assured him that there was always a coffee pot boiling on the old-fashioned [20] cook stove in the boys’ kitchen—that the Colony House never locked its doors.
To a man who feels that every door in the world is locked against him there is comfort in the thought that there is really one place where he may find a welcome. His friend had said that there would be no questions asked him on his arrival—no investigation. ”

“ In the group eccentricities are quickly discouraged. The grouch, the crank, the bully, if he would remain and live in harmony must learn his lesson in democracy—the individualist is given short shift. ”

“ The parliamentary rules governing the debate will be the same as govern a “catch-as-catch-can” wrestling match.
No slugging will be permitted until forensic effort has proven ineffective. When further argument has become useless, the three-ounce boxing gloves, recently donated to us, may be used to force a decision. In fact, several of the boys who talk but little, are practising with the gloves, so that they may become factors in the final settlement of the problem. ”

“ THE BABY’S FATHER
Now, this Baby has a father. He has lived in Russia and came to America to earn money. One of his older brothers was already located in New York State, and from his letters sent over the sea, it was plain that the opportunities for wealth in the States were most promising.
The older brother had grown rich—very rich—working on the railroad. He never earned less than nine dollars a week, and now that he spoke English, he earned twelve. ”

“ Many a poor rascal against whom a charge of vagrancy could not be maintained has found it so much the worse for him, and has been forced to go to prison for carrying concealed weapons in the form of a razor. ”

“ Old Man, if you had ever had any of that Self Control in your make-up you would not be a Knight of the Dusty Road!... You had better go back to the East Side where you know the land; where no man cares whether you live decently or not—if you can buy. ”

“ The sub-conscious self takes on a complete reformation slowly. An evil habit does not gain mastery over the man upon the instant nor once in control is its grip broken by any feeble affirmation or miraculous phenomenon. ”

“ The good lady told me all this in such a serious manner that I felt I must accept it seriously, and when she suggested that I drive over to a neighboring village to meet the boy at the train, because, being unaccustomed to travel, he could never find his way alone to the Colony, I arranged to meet him.
There are simple-minded men—mental defectives—who are oftentimes helpless as children, [72] and I was inclined to put this boy in that class. ”

“ Some mighty arguments have been put out that it is the distilled liquors that do all the mischief; that light wine and malt liquors are no more harmful than tea. And here you are in our camp to disprove this contention. ”

“ I asked.
“Yes, for many years, I have studied the German books on astronomy. It is my pleasure.”
From that day our respect for Fritz was established. There is an aristocracy of learning; we doff our hats to even the beggar who knows.
The visitors were all interested in Fritz’s queer looking sun-dial, made out of a square board and piece of telegraph wire. Automobiles halted by the roadside to look at it. The children insisted on setting their Ingersolls by its falling shadow. A well known physician stood examining the dial one day. ”

“ I remarked, “held back the thought: habit is a strong force for good or evil, for it perpetuates itself by a form, as it were, of auto-suggestion. You know all suggestions are powerful.”
“It is good pie, isn’t it?” he asked, irrelevantly.
[75]
FRITZ AND HIS SUN DIAL
“The small task—well performed—opens the door to larger opportunity.” ”

“ It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a ‘down-and-out’ man to convince Professional Charity that he is really hungry. I think they would have given me a ‘hand-out’ when they investigated me the last time if I could have told them what town my mother was born in. ”

“ Of course the dull of wit should be given immunity at all times, and in theory he is, but in real practice even the most gentle hearted man [128] will have his little joke at the expense of the man less alert mentally. ”

“ So Jean—Little Jean, the boys called him—went through a pantomime for the enlightenment of the Russian youth whose name was also Jean. Finally the larger boy understood that I had given them permission to remain, for he turned to me and said simply: “Nice,” and then he [143] bowed gracefully. Little Jean was right—Big Jean was good looking.
“I wish I was big and strong like him,” said Little Jean, admiringly....
... The weeks pass quickly when one has his work to do, and the two Jeans grew to know the Colony. ”