SPEAKER CHAMP CLARK
Rather an amusing incident occurred when our cleaning was most strenuous. We have a large number of good women who will do good work if I lead, so on one occasion I took a tin bucket with rags, soap, scrub-brush, etc., and went to help on work rather out of my line. I started to return with the bucket in hand. When I came to the car I saw the Hon. Champ Clark, who had then very recently been elected Speaker, at the front of the car. I was careful to take the back seat, hoping he would not see me. I had barely got seated when he came back and took a seat beside me. I tried to apologize for my appearance and impedimenta. He said, “Oh, bother! Never mind. What fault are you Republicans finding with me now?” and we went at the Reciprocity Bill, then before the House, with hammer and tongs. When I got off at Second Street, S. E., the Speaker carried the bucket and handed it to me in his gallant way, still talking of the measure before Congress. I doubt if he recognized whether it was an old tin bucket or a jewel case which he transferred to me.
As long as this is a faith chapter, I shall here insert a statement of how God sent the last $300 on our annual payment and semi-annual interest due and paid May 7, 1913.
This is from the June, 1913, number of Gospel Tidings:
HOW THE LORD PAID THE DEBT
Mrs. Monroe's Letter in Lutheran Observer of May 16:
“On May 1 (1913), we were owing at the Gospel Mission on the building $15,500 with $406 semi-annual interest. We have agreed to pay $1750 each year, so we were responsible for $2156 on May 1; by special agreement it was not paid until the 7th. I want to tell my friends who have prayed with me in this struggle how the Lord led us.
“At the Board meeting, Tuesday, April 29, we had $1140 in the treasury. By Wednesday morning we had $1200. Thursday we had $1300, and on Friday, at Dr. Stearns's class, I reported $1400 in the treasury and requested God's children to ask for the $756 yet due. By Sunday, May 4, we had $1659, when Hon. B. H. Warner subscribed $200, bringing our fund to $1859. A small bill reduced it to $1856.
“The gentleman who held the note telephoned from Baltimore that he would not come for his money until Wednesday, May 7. At the Tuesday evening meeting five of us prayed definitely for $300. On Wednesday morning, just after breakfast, a friend telephoned, 'Please come up at once.' Now, that is my writing day, and I felt I could hardly go, but my times are in His hands, and if He said 'Go,' then that was my orders. I went at once, and my friend said, 'I feel you are needing $300 on your debt, and the Lord woke me up to tell me to hand you $300, and I am prepared to pay it.'
“To say how grateful we all are cannot be put into words. But at this time, when the city was being scoured for $300,000 for the Emergency Hospital, when the Ohio sufferers had claimed all we thought we could spare, for the Board of a little mission, dependent mostly on the poor, as the poor man's church, to pray down from heaven $2156 of a special fund, besides the running expenses, which are always very heavy, means more than money to us. It seems to be the divine seal of God's approval on our work. I had subscribed $500 for myself and friends. He graciously paid through me $656, and now, with the $300, He has made my share $956.