Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1756-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities external link and the Library of Congress. Learn more
Image provided by: University of California, Riverside; Riverside, CA
Newspaper Page Text
San Francisco Sunday Call One Good Deed; Thanks Worth a Million Frederick Townsend Martin. Frederick Townsend Martin KTPHERE is nothing in my social J> world that gives me such a thrill of joy as the knowledge that 1 have tried to pull up somebody who is down, some one who is discouraged," said Frederick Townsend Martin to his guests at a recent dinner party in New York City. No, it was not on Fifth avenue; his guests had not rolled up in limousines to the canopied portal of a mansion; they were not in evening clothes and diamonds; no French chef had pre pared the menu. This dinner was on Kind Deeds Bless the Doers of Them IF every man and every woman, irrespective of their station in life, should begin to morrow the doing of one good act each day, should begin each day stepping aside from their daily routine and out of their complacent self satisfaction to perform one kindly deed for some fellow human being, the immediate efftct would be wonderful It would be a salve for all our sorrows and an emollient of national importance. Its effect would be bland and soothing on all human nature. This would be less irritable and more kindly. It would make (every day I say over to myself that ouplet of John Boyle O'Reilly's: indly act is a kernel sown will grow to a goodly tree, [ding its fruit when time has flown n the gulf of Eternity." idest deeds always put man in touch with :y for his own betterment There is no n the world equal to the stimulus of necessity. One who must work works well, and thereby gains in strength and efficiency. the New York Bowery; Mr. Martin's guests had come on foot; many of them were weary and unwashed; none of them had more clothes than those he was wearing; the menu was made up of sandwiches, bologna sausage, roils, crullers and coffee—and plenty of each. For Frederick Townsend Martin was entertaining the men of the bread line and the Park benches, 300 of them, in the Bowery Mission. Not only was he filling their empty stomachs but he was stretching out the hand of fel lowship to them, speaking encourag ing words, asking their friendship and urging them to come personally to him for help. Frederick Townsend Martin is doing his best to put into practice the motto that Gen. Baden-Powell gave to the Boy Scouts: Do one kind deed a day. He is not satisfied with being a leader of society and spending his wealth on himself and the people of his own set. After that dinner he chatted simply and unaffectedly about the pleasure to be derived from acts of kindness to one's fellow man. "That 'one kind deed a day' motto for the Boy Scouts was a splendid idea," he said. "This habituating young boys to perform one good act a \ day, instead of devoting all their thought and energy to gratifying their own desires and seeking their own pleasure was a stroke of far-seeing genius. For one act of -kindness leads to another, the pleasure derived from each being an incentive to further efforts. "Gen. Baden-Powell's idea was to drill the boys morally as well as physically. He wanted to lead them into the habit of doing something for others. Had he urged them to do many acts of kindness a day thes«» children would have been bored at the thought and would never have begun. For most boys have spent their lives By Judge Warren W. Foster of the Court of General Sessions, New York. • Judge Warren W. Foster the helping hand are mainly of the so-called middle class. Ihe rullest flower of manhood is the middle class. The very poor are ground down by their miseries. Their minds cannot expand; with empty stomachs they cannot take a kindly view of the world. The very rich arc overweighted by their respon sibilities. The care of their own affairs absorbs all their time, and their financial height above the rest of humanity destroys their perspective. The poor and the rich cannot take a correctly balanced view. thinking only of themselves and only gradually can they be led to think more of others. But once a boy—or a man either—has experienced the joy of helping some other fellow he is eager to repeat the sensation." "How could the average American perform one good deed a day?" he was "Why American?" he asked in reply. "Is there any reason why the doing ol I deeds should be confined to ricaus? Talking about it in that seems to limit an idea that should be limited. Every man, woman child in all the world can do a uess every day, at home, at work /ell, what can the average man— -ich man, the poor man, the man is neither rich nor poor—what health and poverty have nothing > with kindness," replied Mr. Mar "You don't have to be rich to be , nor need the fact that you are be an impediment to your good :s. It is easier for the poor man » kind deeds than it is for the rich, people have no idea of the habit kindness of the tenement house, genuine unselfishness of the poor eople is something that would as i most of the wealthy. These Here's a Formula for Attaining the Brother hood in a Generation. It Is the Gospel of Daily Helpfulness Propounded by Frederick Townsend Martin, Author, Philanthropist, Society Leader. latter do not know what I know, that no matter how poor a family may be they cannot sit down to their frugal meal if they know that the family next door or the floor above is without food. The poorest of the poor are al ways ready to share their last loaf or their last scuttle of coal with others as poor as themselves. There is a beautiful spirit of genuine and sincere unselfishness among the poor, a spirit that is unknown among the rich and which the rich might do well to take to heart. "The children of the poor grow up accustomed to seeing and doing acts of kindness; the children of the rich are too often brought up in selfishness, with everything done for them, their every whim gratified; opportunities for good deeds are not brought to their attention. This makes the children of the poor people easier to train into the habit of kindness than those of the rich. "But the rich are worse off than the poor, for they have not known the su preme satisfaction that comes from an unselfish act—at least the majority of them have not." "You do not mean to say that a rich man cannot do a good deed every day?" Mr. .Martin thought a moment. Through the windows of his face you could read that his mind was quoting the text, "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." Apt as the quotation was, Mr. Martin did not say it out loud, but went on: "The only hope of getting a rich man to do kind deeds lies in subjecting him to some influence hitherto un known to him that will induce him to do some one a good turn. Let his heart and his sympathies be touched suddenly and unexpectedly and he may impulsively perform a generous If every day we would find an oppor tunity to help some one of our fellow men or women to develop and improve himself or her self we should be doing a real charity and making the world a better place to live in. But from such prac tical charity as this the greatest benefit is de rived by the doer, for all charity blesses the giver more than the receiver. The percentage of people who now do good deeds daily because of a genuine desire to help humanity is negligible. Very few people give any thought to it Those who do extend act. The glow of satisfaction he feels afterward when he thinks of how he has held out a helping hand to a suffering brother gives him such a pleasure that he is almost sure to want to do it again. And when a man wants to do a kindness the opportun ity is never lacking. "Many a rich man has begun witL one impulsive, generous deed and hat gone on to a career of kindness. Sucl. a man realizes for the first time in his life what true happiness is to be found in helping others. He wakes up to the tremendous responsibilities his wealth lays upon him, and to the vast possibilities for good it contains. And no matter how selfish a person ma; have become —whether through lack o: early training in consideration for others or through concentration upon wealth-getting—once he turns aside tc do a kindness he is started on a road so full of happiness that he is likely to pursue it the rest of his days. And the time will surely come when he will bless the man or woman who started him. "The most pitiable object in this world is the person who knows no; the pleasure of doing good except tc himself. He is missing half the joy oi life." "Has the rich man more opportuni- ties to do kind deeds than the poor man or the man of moderate means?" "Not more opportunities, but a wider scope. His money makes it possible for him to do things on a larger scale. A good deed, you know, does not al ways consist in doing something that involves the expenditure of much money. Nor does it necessarily in volve self-sacrifice. Some of the great est acts of kindness are performed without money; they are not the aid given to the physical irian. Words of encouragement to those who are dis couraged; cheer to the cheerless, hope to the hopeless; the relief of mental burdens, such as sorrows and worries —these are often greater kindnesses than the giving of food or clothes or the paying of overdue rent. . "Among the wealthy, in the so-called world of fashion, I think there is far more mental suffering than there is among the middle classes —though I don't like that word here in America— or even among the poor. It is some times more difficult to relieve such suffering than it is to relieve physical ills, and the man or woman who does it is performing a genuine act of kine ness. Any deed or word or look that gives relief to another, physically, mentally or morally, and brings hap piness where happiness did not exist before is a good act and well worth while." "What, precisely, do you mean by happiness?" "People's ideas of happiness differ so widely that it is not possible to make any comprehensive definition; but nothing is true happiness that does not bring peace of mind." To his guests at that Bowery dinner party Mr. Martin had said: "No one is really happy who does not earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. Be he rich or poor, a man is a better and a happier man for honest labor. My unhappiness has been in that great social life into-which I have been hurled, that life in which peo ple seem to have everything and have nothing. Instead of gold their hearts are only brass. The only happiness in life is to do for others. My greatest happiness I find right among you men." What he meant was that he wab getting more happiness out of trying to help these unfortunate fellows than he had ever got out of association witn those who needed no help. And then he told them of the pleasures he had derived from buying for $50 a hut in which an aged Scutch woman had been living and from which she was about to be evicted. He said her thanks were worth about $1,000,000 to him. "Is it better to let others know about the good things one does or to try to keep them secret?" he was asked. "One must never think whether a good action will make him conspicu ous or not. People sometimes say: Why does he go and make himself so conspicuous?" My answer is: I will do anything, conspicuous or not con spicuous, if I can relieve any one of worries or unhappiness. Some people are restrained from doing kind acts by the fear of being made conspicuous. They should never think about that. All they should care about is the prin ciple of the deed; if it can be done secretly, well and good; if it can be done more effectually in public, they should dare to be conspicuous, even if this makes them targets for the ar rows of envy or the spears of criti cism. Ridicule will never prevent me from doing what I think to be right." "Could an average man set himself one good deed a day, say for a week Frederick Townsend Martin's one good deed for one day. Illustration reproduced from a London paper showing Mr. Martin surrounded by the members of a poor * English family whose blankets he had just redeemed from the pawnshop. One Kind Act a Day Is Not Nearly Enough By Commander Evangeline Booth i_^, t g. of the Salvation Army in America ONE kind act a day is far below our standard of one's duty to man, Christian or otherwise. It is a standard below the ani mal standard. Watch the cattle or any of the beasts; you will find them frequently helping their kind. No professing Chris tian considers that one kind act a day is suffi cient to discharge his duty to his fellows. Sai- vationists would have hard work to find one act that doesn't serve some one else. If we could get man kind—society, .the wealthy, the poor, the learned, the illiterate, the wicked as well as the good, irrespective of any religious beliefs to make a sacred vow to God, their Maker, and to then own hearts that whatever and whenever oppor tunity confronted them of rendering a service to their fellows they would use it, did that use consist of but a word, or a warm handshake, or even less than this, a smile or an encouraging look, then indeed a wave of uplift would sweep over the cities and towns of this great nation, smoothing the stormy waters, brightening the dark skies, making easy the rough paths to tens and tens of thousands of hearts. As a worker in the slums, where I have lived and toiled among the very poorest, I might say that there is little more astounding than the kind nesses these poorest show one to another. How quick they are to express their sympathy over Eher's "hard luck," although they themselves be even more sorrowfully situated 1 Howl y they share their crusts!__ 1 or for a month?" , "That is not the way to do it. A man need only determine that this day shall not pass without the doing of one good deed, and, no matter who he be, old or young, rich or poor, the oc casion will meet him before many hours have passed." "What opportunieies has a hard working laborer, for example, to do kindnesses to others?" "He may lend a helping hand to a tired fellow workman. He may take by the hand a man who Is struggling with the drink habit, encourage him, give him a cheering word. He may speak a word of sympathy to some one in distress; comfort a crying child with a kiss; help a woman across the street with her baby. Anything that goes from heart to heart will serve." "And a very busy merchant, lawyer or broker?" "His opportunities are the same as the laborer's, only te is probably blessed with more means with which to relieve material suffering. And the satisfaction he derives from giving a moment of his time to others than himself will hearten him to going on with his own work more energetically than before." "And is the field of kindness as open to women as it is to men?" "Of course it is. Sex has nothing to do with it." "Some people say women are more selfish than men. Do you think so?" "It is unfortunately true that many women spend so much time, care and money on their dress, their toilet, their personal appearance, that they cannot give the attention that is due to their homes and families. This leads some people to say women are more selfish than men. I don't know whether they are or not. They are certainly more Jterests are but sec ldary considerations, it to be thought of hen another's interests ■ another's good are in ie question. If this era of good ;eds is to come, first :n must become awak -11 around them. This awakening can be brought about only by shaking themselves rid of the self-centred spirit which deafens and blinds them to the multitude of evi dences of human need and suffering. > Second, conscience must be awakened tc our individual responsibility—to give help where help is needed when we have that help at our disposals r . _ By all means stir men up to one kindly act a day, but please remember that in my opinion this is a contemptibly small goal for which to strive. Stir men up to use their opportunities as they come along—picking each fadeless flower of kindness as they come to it—and you, will find that a very much greater number of kind acts than one will have been recorded by eventide. Anyway, if men would serve their brotheis they would find that at the "eventide of life it would be light. H* Commander Evangeline Booth •-i impulsive and and you can generally arouse selfish people by an appeal to their emotions more effec tually than by an appeal to their prin ciples." "Is there not a possibility of neglect ing the home when one Is constantly seeking for opportunities to do kind acts?" "There are plenty of opportunities for kindness at home. The first duty of men and women is to their own peo ple. Working and striving for one's family involves a great amount of self sacrifice. A man thus working and striving for those who are dearest to him becomes less and less selfish as time goes on. The man who is work ing for himself alone grows more sel fish." The conversation turned to Mr. Mar tin's doings and sayings in Europe last summer and to the cablegrams that brought word of them to America. His suggestion of national government run pawnshops was mentioned. "Every one who goes near a pawn shop and watches it must feel the mis ery and the heartaches and the woe of those who are driven to cross its threshold. It is terrible to me to think that some persons have built up for tunes on these sufferings, misfortunes and agonies. If a pawnshop be nec essary as a means of tiding people over their difficulties it should be con trolled by the Government and run at actual cost. No one should be per mitted to make a profit ou: of the mis fortunes of others. "It was this pawnshop matter that took me into the East End of London. I received a letter about a woman whose only blankets were in pawn and who was ill and suffering from the cold. I receive many such letters. Each case that seems to ring true i fortune has blessed with comforts, love and hap piness might perhaps underworld than from any other source. The ruling principle in the Salvation Army is service to others. It ls impossible to remain :n its ranks without be coming the servant of humanity. Our young officers are taught above investigate, either personally or through my secretary. I am fortunate in having the leisure in which to do tnib. some people cannot tpare the time. They are obliged to do their charitable work through the societies organized for that purpose. 1 can do mine personally, and there is far more satisfaction in coming into personal touch with those you are helping. There may be a certain amount of sel fishness in this also, for it does give me so much pleasure to feel that I am helping those I know really need help. So it was that I found this woman whose blankets w T ere in pawn. I bought the pawn tickets, and her gratitude far more than repaid me. "That reminds me of the case of a waiter who had seen my name in the papers. He wrote me from a hospital at the East End of London, saying his clothes were in pawn, he was about to be discbarged'and it would be impossi ble to find a place without the clothes. There seemed to be the ring of truth in the letter. I investigated and found this waiter about to be discharged from the hospital, but in the predica ment of having his evening clothes and white shirts in pawn. I got the things out for him; he secured the place that would have been impossible without them and he wrote me a letter of grati tude that was worth to me far more than the few dollars I had laid out on him. Every penny I make in writing for magazines and newspapers goes in a similar way." "In charity?" "I don't like the word charity. It goes to help others. 1 enjoy it; I get genuine pleasure out of it and that, I think, is why I have been so successful* Some of my friends say it is all non sense and sentiment. To which I re ply, What is life without sentiment?"