Introducing the American Spirit

tional

after eating a piously late breakfast I spread before them New York City's rel

postolic; more than twice that number of Lutherans, separated one from the other

Episcopalians who were not Methodists but were reformed, and those wh

en those who were free and those who were just Baptists, and between those who were Bapt

Presbyterian Reformed, and United Presbyterians divided from other Presbyteria

ng Unitarians, Ethical Culturists, and could even have wors

ich contained our exotic cults, those we have imported and t

tudent in one of our colleges who, it is said, came to the librarian and asked for a book on "Wild Religions I have Met." When the librarian suggested it might be Seton Thompson's book on Wild Animals, he said

ything but a worshipful mood. I was bent upon showing that which is vastly more difficult to interpret than sky-scrapers, the Herr Director was doubtful that we had any reli

wait the stated hour of service on Sunday morning without excitement, having advertised nothing, offering no ecclesiastical bargains; content to live as the birds of the air, whom the "Heavenly Father feedeth." The street was almost deserted; here

p-windows were all artistically curtained and there was nothing to see. The Frau Directorin did not lik

s which womankind is especially prone to break, 'Thou shalt not covet.' Incidentally it proves that

re trying to save one day a week from the co

leave you: their hypocrisy. I stepped behind a curtained bar this morning and found it running at full blast. You e

right. There is about us this taint of hypocrisy; but that only shows that we are a deeply religious people, conscious of the fact th

t; while you Germans make a virtue of a certain kind of brutal frankness, which is worse than hypocrisy, since y

St. Patrick's Cathedral. The full, rich organ notes seemed to soothe the Herr Dire

diminutive ministrants. The crowd which filled every available space in that huge interior was silent and reverent. Now the tinkling of a bell, like a command from Heaven, bade all kneel, and now the same bell bade them rise. The incense

ne which soldiers could sing, and strangely enough it seemed to fit into this atmosphere as if it were the one thing which the service needed. It recalled the self-assertion of the people before their God, their m

ation." When I nodded my approval, he said: "But see how unmoved she is, this r

ing fed with the Sacrament of our Lord, and our spirits

ingly, not commandingly, and a thin stream of worshippers appeared on the Avenue, growing thinner as it divided, entering one or the

etins as yesterday we had looked into the show windows, and it was the Fra

for we were making the task of regulating and controlling them very difficult. Moreover he did not see how we could develop any kind of common, nationa

ake clear to him: That this is fundamentally a religious country, and that as a whole we are the most religious people in the world. I supported this statement b

into theaters, theaters into churches, and residences which are still perfectly good turned into sky-scrap

looked into a canyon blasted out of the rock, upon which still stood

y we improve; we go deep

retorted, "you do not go deeper, you

ooked very American and well fed and out of place, guided us to a pew in the more than half empty church, from which nothing was

ut any disquieting, spiritual agony, and the anthems were correctly sung by the picturesque boys' choir. The curate preached a sermon on manliness; a sermon so

not reply, realizing more than ever how difficult and dangerous is this task of introducing the Spir

ng found a table d'h?te in harmony with the Herr Director's national and religious i

ied to worship was reverence. He missed it everywhere and thought it

, said: "If it were not for this accursed religion I could get through without trouble;" and I called his attention to the fact that although I h

upon my back for a week, the cause being that I would not say yes to his credo. Moreover I told the Herr Director I thought all religious instruct

religious or irreligious because certain subjects are found or not found in their curricula, but because the teachers have this spiritual personality or lack it. I am conv

ent tribute to the tenderness of the breast of a Long Island duck, which they had been enjoying while I talked. As they were consequently in a lenient moo

ttendance upon chapel was made voluntary. "I understand," said a severe c

nt, "I understand that God has m

for so little money, and the Herr Director asked the waiter why they called this a Long Island duck when the portions were so short. Thus the convicti

ings liberation from toil, where cleanliness and godliness have an equally difficult task in coming or abiding; where nations and races must mingle and ca

, its bright children filling all the available space and asserting their childhood by playing in the busy street, defying its noisy tra

orrow, yet lighted by a divine radiance and as unconscious of it as were those upon whom it s

unstained character in spite of small wages and the temptations of a great city. I like them to meet the growing boys who are hungry for the

kness and no free access of air. Of the people who live within I am never ashamed, for they are the brave ones, to whom labor is prayer, and living a sacrifice. I like best to show off the

est of all I know where those Angels live, and it is there I took the Herr Director and the Frau Directorin; I was sure they would never leave the place doubting that we are a religious people. Evidently the children also knew where their Angels live for the place was in a state of siege. It is not strange that they knew, for their ancestors had wa

nd driving out the mouldy, tenement house air which clung to the little ones. There was music, and they sang-sang

ugustinian theology, might have had a chance to sing as those East Side children sang-full throated, lustil

d have heard those children recite the same Psalms, in East Side English. Yes, I have often wished that David himself might hear them; I am sure he w

idings, and no one told them to be good although they were giv

gels who gave them shed their blood, for the roses had thorns. The next week

a lovesome th

e p

ged

'd g

riest

Pea

ave to see the garde

talked about the very thing I wanted my guests to know, namely: That underneath all our

trine of our creed is "in gold we trust," and then h

t I was inclined to believe that we are less so; which of course the Herr Director stoutly denied, and I as sto

make money faster than the people of the Old World, but we also give it away faster, and I

," the Herr Director interrupted, "is that you are t

I would put on one side of it 'In Gold We Trus

nd only doctrine of our national creed which we have as

ringly, "Oh, you mean you have a place under the Sun. All nations have such a cr

ing to realize it at a greater hazard than that of being conquered by an alien enemy. We are keeping open these doors which have swung both ways freely, for nearly three hundred years, and your Old World weary ones have been coming; bringing

aning to the Old World, a larger meaning than you think. We have a place under t

ed beyond its capacity by burly Irishmen the worse for liquor, good-natured Slavs none the better for it, aggressive looking Russian Jews and sleek Chinamen. There were mothers with their crying babies, and thoughtless boys and

ll believe

elieve," and lifting my face to the star