Harriet Earhart Monroe

“ In this labyrinth of beauty, known as the Library of Congress, I believe a man would see no fault. But women, except as allegorical characters, such as imaginary figures of history, science, pomology, art, etc., have no share in the scheme of ornamentation. But men of all ages, of all branches of art, science, commerce, and literature, are memorialized in painting, sculpture, writing, or suggestion of some kind, either concrete or abstract. It is true, Sappho (whom I suppose the artist thought was a man) , grown dim in the long vista of years, is a lone woman among the world’s élite. ”

“ The actors here are the representatives of 85,000,000 of people. The spectators are all the peoples of the world, to be succeeded by those of all future ages.
If this experiment in self-government should fail, all other republics will surely perish; but we believe that the Republic of the United States of America has taken its place as a fixed star in the galaxy of great nations, and that the stars on its flag will not be dimmed till dimmed in the blaze of humanity’s millennium. ”

“ THE NEED OF RESCUE WORK “Washington is a dreadful place for a man out of work. The city having no manufactories, and all rough work, such as excavating, is let by contract to men who prefer Italians or Negroes as diggers, while stores and offices have room for only the efficient young person, so that, when from age, inefficiency or lack of political influence, people are dropped from the government service, we are often at our wit's end to provide means of subsistence for these worthy persons most anxious to labor. We have some old men whose working days are over. ”

“ Dolly Madison was probably the greatest social genius that has ever occupied the White House. The papers of that day declare “Mrs. Madison is the most popular person in the United States.”
Washington social life yet abounds in pleasing legends of her graceful, courteous kindness, not only to the gentlemen and ladies of the legations, but to the ignorant and socially unskilled who were among her worshipers. ”

“ The Church is doing the real Christian work of the world in keeping people from going wrong. Missions and their branches only hope to catch the driftwood of humanity before it floats out into the great ocean of eternity.
But every church in the land should have an investment in money or personal representatives in the nearest city rescue mission. The young people of the churches should be the choirs of the missions. They will get inspiration as to how to do work for God in securing the conversion of every soul committed to their care in the church and community work. ”

“ In the evening a service, at which the old, old story of love is told, heart-broken men are redeemed, and we all go home wondering at the never-ending miracle of the gospel, which takes tongues which blaspheme and makes them sing God's praises, feet that walk in the ways of sin and makes them run in the ways of righteousness, hands that steal and makes them do God's service. ”

“ When a man or a woman has been four or five years in a clerical government office, he or she is scarcely fit for any other kind of place. In that time has been lost ingenuity, resourcefulness, adaptation, how to placate or please the public, and, above all, confidence to fight in the great battle of industries; consequently, when dismissed, the former place-holder hangs about Washington, hoping for another situation. One can see more forlorn, vanquished soldiers of fortune in the national capital than in any other city of its size in the world. ”

“ I have met the college women of almost every European country. I do not find American women in any way mentally superior to the women of Europe. But American women accomplish much more than their sisters east of the Atlantic simply because of our men. Now here in England your husband and brothers insist on silence, but with us if a woman sings or talks well it is the hand of her husband or father that leads her to the front, and it is the kindness of our men that starts us on our public life, helps us at hard places, and encourages us everywhere. ”

“ I was given a wonderful taste of the ups and downs in New York City, especially the downs. I certainly am grateful to Providence for subjecting me to that awful experience in New York City, for in that way I learned to know human nature. I learned to know that the so-called submerged masses were composed of human beings, not brainless individuals; that, as a matter of fact, there are better people, especially morally, among the poor than among the so-called society people. ”

“ I remember one occasion at the Breakfast Association, Philadelphia, at the twilight service, New Year's Eve, I saw five hundred men stand for prayer at one time. Our Mission is much smaller, but on New Year's Eve and during New Year's Day, when we have a continuous service from 12 o'clock midday to 9.30 P.M., with an entire change of leaders and musicians each hour, I have seen your nominal Christian, the toper, the criminal, all so overcome by the convicting power of the Holy Spirit that social differences melted away and they knelt side by side at the mercy seat ”

“ In no other place than Washington can one better see the fact illustrated that once in each generation the wheel of fortune makes a complete revolution, turning down those at the top and turning up those who are down. In the departments are now many widows and daughters of men who were prominent in Civil War times. One woman eighty-two years of age was during the war the wife of a great general. She now sits at a department desk from nine to four daily, and no one does better work. ”

“ Bishop Simpson, even in his day, eloquently described the mission of the Church in the world: “The Church must grope her way into the alleys and courts and purlieus of the city, and up the broken staircase, and into the bare room and beside the loathsome sufferer; she must go down into the pit with the miner, into the forecastle with the sailor, into the tent with the soldier, into the shop with the mechanic, into the factory with the operative, into the field with the farmer, into the counting-room with the merchant. Like the air, the Church must press equally on all the surfaces of society ”

“ The erection of a great National Capitol occurs but once in the life of a nation. The opportunity such an event affords is an important one for the expression of patriotic elevation, and the perpetuation, through the arts of painting and sculpture, of, that which is high and noble and held in reverence by the people; and it becomes them as patriots to see to it that no taint of falsity is suffered to be transmitted to the future upon the escutcheon of our national honor in its artistic record. ”

“ The greatest evil in New York City is, as everywhere, the saloon. The majority of you men present here this evening must admit if it were not for the saloon you would not be here as applicants for bodily assistance. There are evil spirits in us and around us to lead us astray; the devil's worst temptation is whisky or any other intoxicating drink. Man was made in the image of God; when a man gets drunk he is worse than a beast. A man will get drunk again and again, a beast will not, having seemingly more sense than a man. The saloon is the greatest foe to the spread of the gospel. ”

“ If the government would, at least twice each year, publish in each county the names of persons receiving pensions, the amount paid, and the alleged cause of disability, it would bring the blush of shame to the face of many a liar who now draws a handsome sum from his government. The money is largely paid into the United States Treasury not by the rich of our country, but by the laboring class of men and women. ”

“ We have learned to know that the same emotional fires may be kindled when religion is not the theme. A great crowd, an orator of fluent and persuasive speech, music filling the air with the imaginary shouts of an “Io triumphe” come to stay—it matters very little what may be the occasion that has called these people together, the emotional part of their campaign has been achieved. But, whether in religion or in politics, it would be stupidly unwise to conclude that the excitement itself was the end to be attained—emotion being set down as the deed itself ”

“ Root may do many splendid things before the farmer, who only reads his weekly paper and to whose brain new things come slowly, forgives him for rudeness to a man of the people, whose merit has placed him at the head of the army. Any one who thinks he wins favor by calling General Miles “old fuss and feathers,” as some newspapers do, quite forgets that the American people like fuss and feathers. ”

“ When a friend looked in on that crowd of superior business men helping distribute clothing and saying words of consolation to the broken men, he said, “I believe in my soul you would order in the President of the United States to help at the Gospel Mission.” “Oh, no!” I replied, “President Taft, good man as he is, would not be permitted to drive so much as a tack at the Gospel Mission. He does not recognize Jesus as His Saviour; only orthodox Christians who can tell the sinner of the redeeming power of Jesus the Christ can successfully work in a rescue mission like this.” ”

“ The United States Naval Observatory, north of Georgetown, will interest lovers of astronomy, while every square, circle, and triangle of Washington City has some reminder of those whose heroic deeds, spiritual devotion, or literary and scientific achievement have beautified, ennobled, and glorified the world, and made it more beautiful because of their lives. ”

“ If people will come before daylight in the winter, or at that early hour in the summer for coffee, without cream or sugar, and a quarter of a loaf of bread, we believe they need it, and we gladly give it, not as a charity, but as a visible token of our sympathy. Now, the fact that 22,800 fewer people took bread and coffee free in the year 1912 to 1913, compared with the preceding year, can only be accounted for that when a man has a few pennies in his pocket he could buy a satisfactory breakfast, and gladly did so rather than to line up for an unrequited kindness. ”

“ Then would follow that man whose life grows radiant in the strong search-light of history—John Quincy Adams; that Adams, who could truthfully say at the close of a long, brilliant, and useful life, in the words of an old Roman: “I have rendered to my country all the great service she was willing to receive at my hand, and I have never harbored a thought concerning her which was not divine.” With him would be his compeers, Madison, Monroe, Burr, Clay, Webster, Jackson, John Randolph, the elder Bayard, and Calhoun. ”

“ The people of the Mission had been more or less in prayer from three o'clock to eight when this man came in. He saw religion in action in the person and speech of redeemed men. But even if these testimonies were factors it was the Holy Spirit that did the work. It was the divine spark to human tinder, or, as Henry Drummond better puts it, “The spiritual world reached down and carried this worldly soul into the world above it.” “He that hath the Son hath life, he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” Life depends upon contact with life, it cannot develop out of anything that is not life. ”

“ The most popular examination for women is that of stenographers and typewriters. “Good stenographers” is the ceaseless demand of the department official—not mediocre, but good par excellence.
Government work is well paid only when well done. Promotions are at least sometimes the reward of merit. A very striking illustration of this occurred last winter, when a young woman was made chief of one of the divisions in the Post-Office Department because she knew more about the work of that particular division than any other employee in it. ”

“ Those tender feelings which enter so largely into the deeper currents of our domestic and social life—love, pity, joy, hope, the striking of the glad hand, comradeship locking arms under the same great banner to do deeds of heroism in the same great cause—religion calls them all up, and fires them all with a conquering zeal. ”

“ Through it all runs a real practical teaching in morality—that good work is truth, bad work is untruth. Work in any one is the measure of character.
You remember President Roosevelt, in his New York speech concerning missions, spoke of the great underpaid army of faithful clergymen all over this land who, in obscure places, hold up the correct models of morality, who keep the ideals of the nation to honest, simple, earnest, true daily living. ”

“ He did not take a seat, but marched to the front and prostrated himself at the altar, crying, “God be merciful to me, a sinner.” In such cases, no difference what we are doing, all formal program is suspended and we go at once to prayer. Jake was in deep earnest, men and women acquainted with God kneeled all about him, presenting his case to the Saviour of men. We did not then know his special need, but a soul in the depth of conviction wanted God, not for one sin, but he needed cleansing from all the sins of his past life. It must have been an hour before that soul received light. ”

“ Men of the United States army have always been noted for their high standard of honor. The country believes in the integrity of the officers of the regular army. When any of them fail themselves and betray the trust imposed in them, it causes a shock to public feeling such as malfeasance in no other official position ever produces. To an unusually large extent they have been worthy of the trust reposed in them by a great nation. ”

“ Dan Crawford, the great missionary to Africa, says not Livingstone, not Taylor, not Dan Crawford, are the real pioneer missionaries, but the Spirit of God Himself, and when the word is brought to a prepared soul it is a spark of powder. ”