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 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
TWENTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL EEPOET 
 
 OF THE 
 
 MINISTRY AT LARGE, 
 
 IN THE CITY OF PROVIDENCE, 
 
 PRESENTED AND BEAD AT 
 
 A PUBLIC MEETING 
 
 HELD IN THE 
 
 WESTMINSTER CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, 
 
 Sunday Evening, January 23, 1870. 
 By EDWHNT M.STONE 
 
 l 
 
 PRO VIDENCE: 
 HAMMOND, ANGELL & CO., PRINTERS. 
 
 1870. 
 1/ 
 

MINISTRY AT LAKGE. 
 
 ^O-NIGHT, the Ministry at Large commemo- 
 rates its twenty- eighth anniversary. In relat- 
 ing the story of another year, all the brevity 
 consistent with an intelligent presentation of its 
 work and results will be observed. 
 
 The year now closed has been marked by a 
 varied experience. The routine of duties which 
 attach to this form of the Christian ministry 
 has been comprised in the regular Sunday min- 
 istrations of the pulpit, the superintendence of the Sunday 
 School,- conducting social religions meetings, making parochial 
 visits, distributing religious tracts and papers and relieving the 
 wants of the destitute. In the discharge of these duties I have 
 been made acquainted with much that awakened painful emo- 
 tions, and that showed how large still is the class needing a 
 confidential counsellor and friend. Sorrows have found utter- 
 ance in words of anguish, wrongs have been revealed that stag- 
 ger one's faith in the rectitude of human nature, and depriva- 
 tions have been discovered that prove how much and how long 
 self-respect will endure before yielding to the stern necessity 
 of making known individual and family privations. 
 
 The cash receipts and expenditures for the relief of destitu- 
 tion, reported monthly to the Board, amount to $688.31. 
 This sum has been expended for fuel, food, cloth, shoes, rents, 
 
Thanksgiving, sickness and funeral expenses. Besides this, I 
 have distributed nearly 500 articles of wearing apparel, sup- 
 plied by the Ladies' Sewing Circles of the First Congregational 
 and the Westminster Congregational Societies, the Benevolent 
 Committee for Christian Work, and by several thoughtful 
 friends. To the visitors of the Children's Mission I have been 
 indebted, as in previous years, for the ready relief of cases re- 
 ferred to their care. 
 
 Of the numerous applications for assistance, 230 were new 
 cases. These were carefully investigated and decided upon 
 according to their respective merits. In each instance where 
 aid was bestowed, it was to meet a temporary need or to en- 
 courage self-endeavor. In addition to all this, a considerable 
 amount of time has been devoted to seeking employment for 
 those who asked no other assistance. In the work of the year 
 its burdens have been greatly lightened by the cordial co- 
 operation of the faithful and interested helpers associated with 
 me. To the several Dispensary Physicians I would express 
 grateful acknowledgments for their prompt and kind attention 
 to the sick in whose behalf I have solicited their professional 
 services. To the Managers of the Fuel Society I would also 
 return thanks in the name of many worthy families assisted by 
 my request. I desire likewise to make a similar expression of 
 appreciation to the ladies and gentlemen who kindly jdelded 
 to a request to give an amateur entertainment at Harrington's 
 Opera House in aid of this Ministry.* With the income of 
 the Mauran fund, together with the contributions of several 
 thoughtful friends, I was enabled to make fifty families happy 
 on Thanksgiving Day. No occasional duty assigned me is 
 fraught with more pleasant circumstances than this. 
 
 It would be impossible, in the time allotted to this report, 
 to describe all the good accomplished by this distribution of 
 your bounty. Sunlight has penetrated many dark and cheer- 
 less homes, courage has been revived in many drooping 
 
 * This entertainment took place on Friday evening, December 17, 1869. The 
 several parts were finely rendered, and the occasion was one of unmingled 
 gratification to the large audiencejnresent. 
 
hearts, faith, in a better future has been strengthened in many 
 doubting souls, and cheerful endeavor has been made to take 
 the place of a spirit yielding to despair. Few whom fortune 
 has blest with the abundance of material prosperity can 
 realize the anguish felt by one who has known " fullness of 
 bread," but by unavoidable misfortune has been brought low, 
 and can see nothing in prospect but a still lower deep ; — nor 
 can such fully comprehend the reactionary power of hope that 
 an unexpected expression of sympathy, made tangible by 
 material aid, will produce. " I tell you the truth," said not 
 long since a worthy mother who had. experienced a cluster- 
 ing of woes, — and she said it in tones of sadness that no words 
 of mine can convey to another's ear, — "I tell you the truth, 
 when I say I know not which way to turn." And when the 
 word of sympathy was endorsed by material relief, had you 
 seen the instantaneous transition from the expression of utter 
 desolation to that of gratitude and ret aiming trust, you would 
 have exclaimed, as I did within myself, " How blessed is the 
 mission of a dollar ! " But it is not in solitary instances like 
 this that we witness grateful manifestations. They are nu- 
 merous as the days of the year. Nor are we to suppose that 
 the heart ordinarily goes oat of its normal condition when the 
 helping hand is no longer needed. Gratitude is a deep-seated 
 feeling inseparable from an incorrupt nature, and is kept 
 active by memory long after the occasion for its expression 
 has passed away. To illustrate this statement, permit me to 
 read to you an extract of a letter from one who came from a 
 foreign home to this city a stranger, and in an hour of sorrow 
 and need was met and ministered to as a brother and friend. 
 At the elate of his communication he was in a distant State, 
 hoping to make a comfortable home for his family. 
 
 " Rev. and Dear Sir : — 
 
 " I take the liberty of writing to you, gratefully thanking you for the 
 many kindnesses to my family during my absence from Providence. 
 Believe me, dear sir, it makes tears start from my eyes every time I 
 think (which is very often) of the kind treatment we have received 
 since we arrived in this country; and I assure you I thank God for 
 
6 
 
 giving you the kindness of heart that makes you feel for the poor and 
 needy. This, dear sir, is no light thing for me to say; I, who for 
 seven long years of apprenticeship, was brought up and taught all the 
 infamous doctrines of socialism, chartism, and the new-fangled name 
 for infidelity, free thought; but what man with any brains could live, 
 much more die, with such detestable doctrines, though I must confess, 
 to my shame, that I was two years in manhood before I could throw 
 them off; but by God's help, (and in a common workshop conversa- 
 tion,) all infidelity was thoroughly eradicated from my mind, and I 
 was a free man. 
 
 " If, sir, there were the lingering embers of infidelity, the thought of 
 that religion which could prompt and teach you so many of the real 
 precepts of the Great Teacher who respected all alike, without regard 
 to country or color, those embers would be extinguished by your 
 example, a*nd the good advice I received whilst sitting under you in 
 the good city of (the aptly-named) Providence. I sincerely thank 
 you, and the ladies under you, for your kind and substantial care and 
 help during my youngest child's sickness, and I assure you, if I can- 
 not repay you, I can do the next best thing, and that is, to imitate 
 your example and live a godly life, and do for others as far as possible 
 what you and other kind friends have done for us. My wife wishes 
 me to thank you for her, and the children tell me not to forget to tell 
 Mr. Stone that they would rather be in Providence, though it is a 
 nice school they now attend. Accept my thanks once more, and I 
 hope you will live long to make others as happy as yours, 
 
 Truly and hopefully, 
 
 And such, my friends, is the character of the work done by 
 your contributions the past year. The bread of blessing you 
 have cast upon the waters through your chosen agency has 
 returned not after many days, but early, to give you gladness 
 in the consciousness of having lifted a heavy burden from 
 many over-taxed natures, and sending them on the great 
 highway of life, beneath the bright heaven of self-reliance. 
 The open winter upon which we have entered has been favor- 
 able to the poor in the matter of fuel, though an offset is 
 found in the diminished demand for labor. The high cost of 
 the prime articles of food, as well as of rents, bears hard upon 
 the laboring classes. But the sorest trial, perhaps, comes upon 
 
persons of culture and capacity, against whom the tide of mis- 
 fortune has long set, who shrink from a revelation of their 
 situation, and who, with a loan of $100 for six months or a 
 year, could establish themselves in an honorable employment, 
 educate their children and become contributors to the material 
 wealth of our city, — but who, for the want of such temporary 
 aid, are doomed to struggle for a bare subsistence, with the 
 grim reality of disappointment ever dancing before them. In 
 all the years of my ministry here I have never known more 
 frequent opportunities to do good in this manner or felt more 
 deeply the need of money with which to accomplish it. 
 
 Our Sabbath worship presents no feature that essentially 
 distinguishes it from previous years. The stated ordinances 
 have been observed with spiritual profit. The seed of the 
 word, it is believed, has found lodgment in some hearts. The 
 church has had an addition to its numbers, and Baptism has 
 been administered to one adult and nine infants and children. 
 Upwards of 150 children have been influenced to attend pub- 
 lic worship with a good degree of regularity, forming a habit 
 (in the midst of an increasing Sunday desecration in this city) 
 to which it is hoped they will adhere as life advances. 
 
 As in previous years, I have continued my correspondence 
 with individuals and families who were formerly members of 
 our congregation and church, and to whom I have sent tracts 
 and papers for their own reading and for distribution. Both 
 letters and papers have been acknowledged with expressions 
 of pleasure, and afford evidence of unabated attachment to 
 their old religious home. One, in the far west, writes thanks 
 for papers received, adverts to the "many happy hours" 
 spent in the Sunday worship in the Chapel, and hopes we 
 shall soon have the so much needed new church and separate 
 Sunday School room. Another writes: " I don't forget you 
 nor any of the Chapel people. Things come to memory that 
 happened long ago, and then I am brought back to my girl- 
 hood days. When, in imagination, I again sit in my class 
 with old familiar faces and my teacher by my side, I can 
 hardly realize I am not still with you. Oh, that I had listened 
 
8 
 
 to the lessons more attentively. Had I done so, how mnch 
 better would my thought now serve me as I read the holy 
 book in which I find my present comfort." Still another 
 writes : "I received a copy of the Monthly Journal for Octo- 
 ber last week. We are grateful to you for it, and also for 
 other journals and papers we have received. It makes us glad 
 to think we are still remembered by our old friends. I think 
 often 6T you and of friends at the Chapel, and I sometimes 
 feel sad that I am so far away from where I have had so many 
 happy associations," Many pages could be filled with ex- 
 tracts similar to these, showing the strength of the ties here 
 formed, as well as illustrating the missionary labors carried on 
 in distant fields by those who go out from the home-fold of 
 this Ministry. 
 
 "With our Sunday and Sewing Schools the year has been 
 one of unqualified prosperity. The whole number of pupils 
 registered is upwards of 300, and the average attendance is 
 larger than at any former period in its history. Thirty- eight 
 teachers are engaged in the responsible work of moral and 
 religious instruction with a devotion never excelled, and that 
 beautifully illustrates the Christian doctrine of self-abnegation. 
 The infant class, registering eighty pupils, is an interesting 
 and important feature of the school, while from the teachers 
 of advanced classes pupils are receiving blessed influences 
 whose effects are to endure forever. If, with all the disad- 
 vantages of insufficient room, uncomfortable seats and poor 
 ventilation, the spirit and success of our school has been aug- 
 mented, we feel sure that when the contemplated new accom- 
 modations are furnished, a new and increased prosperity will 
 also be realized. 
 
 By the courteous invitation of the Sunday School of the 
 First Congregational Society, our school enjoyed a summer 
 day excursion to Eocky Point. It was a season of unmingled 
 pleasure, and is treasured among the delightful memories of 
 the year. By the generous contributions of the First Congre- 
 gational and Westminster Congregational Societies, the teach- 
 
9 
 
 ers of the Sunday and Sewing Schools were enabled to 
 prepare an attractive Christmas festival for about 400 pupils. 
 The Christmas tree, tastefully decorated with presents, was 
 of course a chief object of interest, both to the children and 
 to the crowd of spectators who witnessed the scene. All the 
 arrangements were judiciously made. The devotional exer- 
 cises, and a brief Christmas poem recited by a pupil, were 
 appropriate to the occasion, and at a seasonable hour the joy- 
 ous throng were dismissed to their homes, there to renew the 
 pleasures of the evening by an examination of gifts expressive 
 of personal regard, and symbolizing the richer gift to the 
 world of (rod's well beloved Son. 
 
 The Sewing School has closed another year of usefulness, 
 with highly encouraging prospects for the future. The record 
 of this department of philanthropy is one that earnest and 
 faithful teachers may look upon with satisfaction. The im- 
 portance of their work as a formative element in feminine life, 
 cannot be over-estimated. 
 
 The Library still continues to be one of the more valuable 
 features of our work. The eagerness with which its privileges 
 are sought is well illustrated by the fact that upwards of 
 10,000 volumes have been issued during the year. The 
 Parish Library has also been more resorted to than ever be- 
 fore, and it has been gratifying to notice that the books most 
 in quest in both libraries, are those adapted to minds of ad- 
 vanced intelligence. Few libraries, it may be safe to affirm, 
 are more thoroughly read than these, and an addition of the 
 best class of works of recent date would greatly enhance their 
 usefulness. The librarian, Mr. Leonard Draper, has dis- 
 charged his duties with great faithfulness, and kept the books 
 in excellent order. Besides this use of the libraries, two hun- 
 dred copies of the Sunday School Gazette have been distri- 
 buted semi-monthly among the pupils, — making an aggregate 
 for the year of 4,800 copies. These papers have been read 
 with much interest, and have proved a valuable auxiliary to 
 Sunday instruction. 
 
 2 
 
io 
 
 The question is sometimes asked, why, after so many years 
 of active labor on the part of charitable institutions, poverty 
 and destitution still prevail undiminished among us ? The 
 answer is a simple and obvious one. Were human needs to 
 comprise a specific number of objects at a given time, and 
 no additions were afterwards to occur, the efforts of philan- 
 thropic individuals and of organized charities would in a few 
 years cany the entire list of needy ones through the trials of 
 deprivation, and place them in the desirable condition of self- 
 support — thus closing up the work of humanity for want of 
 subjects on which to expend substantial sympathy. But the 
 truth is, and it should not be overlooked, that while hundreds 
 in our city every year pass over the bridge that leads them 
 from dependence to independence of necessary relief, hun- 
 dreds of others coming from abroad, or separated from the 
 prosperous masses of our native population by misfortune or 
 other causes, take their places. So that each year comes 
 freighted with a burden of want and woe that distinguished 
 its predecessor. This state of things is inseparable from our 
 local condition. A city so essentially manufacturing as this, 
 will necessarily attract to it large numbers in search of employ- 
 ment, and of those who obtain it a considerable per centage 
 will be persons who have exhausted their means in getting 
 here, and whose wages at first are inadequate to supply the 
 wants of their families. Then, there are widows left in desti- 
 tution, with the charge of children for whom they can but 
 partially provide. Then, again, there are single persons of 
 both sexes, of unexceptionable character, incapacitated for 
 long continued labor by the debilitating effects of incipient 
 consumption. For all these, as also for other classes no less 
 worthy of sympathy, something must be done, in the quiet and 
 fraternal manner pursued by this ministry, to lighten the bur- 
 den of one, to relieve the overtaxed energies of another, to 
 renew the waning courage of a third, to cheer the sick cham- 
 ber of a fourth, or to smooth the descent of a fifth to the 
 grave. Until Christianity has effected its perfect work, there 
 will be a condition of society calling for the constant exercise 
 
11 
 
 of a judicious philanthrophy. The intimate relation that un- 
 cared for destitution holds to vice and pauperism, renders it 
 imperative to the social purity, industry and material pros- 
 perity of a community, that all tendencies to degradation and 
 moral corruption be neutralized, or what is better, destroyed, 
 by the prompt and persistent outflow of humanity. That will 
 be a prosperous city in the noblest form of the expression, 
 and the grandest illustration of the great Christian idea of 
 brotherhood, in which wealth and poverty are brought into 
 conditions of mutual sympathy. 
 
 My observation during the past year sadly confirms the 
 tales of previous years, that intemperance is a chief cause of 
 extreme poverty and of pauperism among us. Were the 
 drinking habits of society within the line of abstinence, there 
 would be little cause for mourning the presence of what has 
 become a gigantic evil. Of all wives and mothers who come 
 to me to make known their destitution, a large per centage 
 trace it to inebriate husbands. That excess in the use of intox- 
 icating liquors is increasing is obvious to even a superficial 
 observer. Never before have so many persons been seen in 
 our streets bearing the marks of free indulgence, or in a state 
 of intoxication. No more painful story can be told of the 
 tempted and fallen than is to be found in the records of the 
 Police daily spread before our citizens. But for the woe of 
 which I speak, the Dexter Asylum would have few inmates, 
 and the State Farm few occupants. How long this evil shall 
 be suffered to do its work of ruin is for the good people of 
 this city to decide. What existing laws will do to remove it 
 remains to be seen. But in the meantime the course of per- 
 sonal duty is plain. No one who comprehends the actual 
 condition of society should set a social example that the weak- 
 est and most easily enticed may not follow with perfect safety. 
 No organized body of men on festive occasions should en- 
 courage a habit that has been so terrible a destroyer. It is 
 not what one or another with strong nerves and iron will can 
 do, or think they can do, with impunity, that should constitute 
 the rule of conduct in this particular, but what others, of 
 
12 
 
 highly sensitive organization, free social nature and feeble self- 
 control, cannot, with safety, do. Every man is, in some sense, 
 his brother's keeper, and no one is justified in putting a 
 "stumbling block or an occasion to fall," in his way. Now, 
 more than ever, does humanity appeal to all that is noble in 
 man to apply the Pauline principle of self-denial for the sake 
 of others.* 
 
 There are other evils, common to all cities, prevalent here, 
 to which attention has been called in past years, and which I 
 am sorry to say do not appear to have been diminished. Of 
 these, gambling is a prominent one. Its victims are not solely 
 a class that have come to make it a profession, but comprise 
 many of youthful age and of mature years, who have yielded 
 (thoughtlessly perhaps) to its seductive charms. What shall 
 be done to remove this evil is a question demanding profound 
 consideration. And the same may be said of another vice 
 that I cannot here discuss. 
 
 Vagrancy among boys and girls of suitable age to attend 
 school is on the 'increase, and the street instruction they daily 
 receive is preparing them for the discipline of the Eeform 
 School or for jail birds in adult years. It is a misfortune to 
 this dangerous class that we have no practicable law to inter - 
 
 * The Report of the Chief of Police for the past year presents some very 
 suggestive statistics. The whole number of arrests was 5,944. Of these, 871 
 were females. The causes of arrest were as follows : — 
 Drunkenness, ......... 2896 
 
 "Reveling, occasioned mostly by excessive drinking, .... 520 
 
 Common drunkards, ........ 36 
 
 Bum nuisances, ........... 42 
 
 Selling intoxicating liquors without license, ..... 102 
 
 Keeping intoxicating liquors for sale, ...... 156 
 
 Assault and Battery, mostly stimulated by intoxicating liquors, . . 311 
 
 Larceny, .......... 343 
 
 Stubborn children, , . . . . . . . .62 
 
 Vagrancy, ....... , 324 
 
 Other causes are divided among disorderly houses, gambling houses and 
 gamblers, violation of Sunday law, prize fighting, disturbing public schools, 
 robbery, picking pockets, etc. 3933 disturbances, occasioned mainly by excess 
 in drinking, have been suppressed. There are 246 places where intoxicating 
 liquors are sold, the use of which, the Chief reports " is indisputably the 
 greatest evil which afflicts our city." 
 
13 
 
 cept tliem before they reach the point of positive crime. All 
 the reasons assigned in former reports in favor of an Industrial 
 or Farm School remain in full force. 
 
 We have special cause to be anxious about the character of 
 our population, for the reason that immigration is bringing 
 annually to our shores, large accessions from the overstocked 
 portions of the Old World. Of these, a large class " are unfit, 
 mentally and bodily, for good settlers or good citizens. " They 
 bring with them habits that soon injuriously affect our native 
 born. With these are mingled many paupers and criminals, 
 who in some instances have their passage paid by the public 
 authorities of their own countries, as the cheapest method of 
 getting rid of them. To have the almshouses and prisons of 
 Europe emptied upon our shores, is doubtless an agreeable 
 relief to the eleemosynary and penal institutions of trans-atlan- 
 tic countries. But to us it is a sore evil, as is but too manifest 
 on all public occasions that attract large numbers of people to 
 our city. I suppose the State at present can do but little to 
 prevent this wrong, and towns and cities can only pass on, from 
 place to place, those who are likely to become a public charge, 
 while detectives can feel no certainty that burglars and pick- 
 pockets may not by superior skill escape them. How far the 
 Federal Government can interpose to arrest this flagrant viola- 
 tion of national comity, I am not advised ; but with the fact 
 staring us in the face, that between 200,000 and 300,000 immi- 
 grants annually seek homes in the United States, the subject 
 assumes an importance far greater than appears hitherto to 
 have been attached to it. 
 
 Good homes are essential to the good morals of a commu- 
 nity. A family occupying by necessity for a length of time, 
 a miserable tenement, with low and repulsive surroundings, 
 will gradually sink down, in social and moral tone to the 
 level of the character of their habitation. It is practically 
 impossible to train up children in the virtues of a true life, or 
 to inspire parents with a becoming self-respect, whose eyes rest 
 upon nothing within or without that appeals to their ambition 
 to rise. The half underground habitation, damp, dark, and 
 
14 
 
 filled with offensive odors, or the dwelling above-ground, des- 
 titue of paint, paper, or any culinary conveniences, with win- 
 dows broken, doors dilapidated, and cracks and crevices in 
 floors and walls, admitting in winter currents of cold air that 
 defy the neutralizing power of caloric, are not merely genera- 
 tors of disease, but stultifiers of social elevation. As I have 
 made my daily rounds in certain sections of the city, and 
 breathed the impure atmosphere of these forbidding dwellings, 
 I have ceased to wonder that vice and immorality prevail. 
 Indeed, it is a moral puzzle to know how the tenants of such 
 tenements can be virtuous, or maintain even the outward de- 
 cencies of life. 
 
 A great need of our city at the present time is comfortable 
 and convenient tenements, at rents such as laboring men and 
 persons of small means can afford to pay. This class of 
 dwellings falls so short of the demand, that families are often 
 forced into neighborhoods of moral corruption, where children 
 soon become familiar with forms of sin they should never 
 know, at least until strong enough in principle to resist its 
 temptations. A Ehode Island Peabody could render no bet- 
 ter service to the industrial interests and the social life of 
 Providence than by erecting a block or blocks of tenements 
 such as here referred to ; and while the manners and morals 
 of the community would thereby be improved, and the ends 
 of philanthropy secured, the investment under suitable regu- 
 lations could be made to yield satisfactory returns. This 
 subject is engaging attention in many of the principal cities of 
 our country ; both from a material and moral stand-point. It 
 is every year assuming a more commanding importance, and 
 appeals with corresponding force to the practical judgment 
 and wise sympathy of all who see an inseparable connexion 
 between a high-toned community and the safety of property.* 
 
 It has been correctly said, that "the mere relief of suffering 
 and poverty, without reference to the effect upon the individ- 
 
 *I have been for some time engaged in making investigations on this sub- 
 ject, and when completed propose to lay the results before the public. 
 
15 
 
 ual, is now regarded as unwise and useless. The exercise of 
 the feelings of humanity or the promptings of duty, — though 
 these are the foundation of all systems of charity, — are seen to 
 be injurious, unless controlled by an enlightened judgment, in 
 accordance with a wide experience. There is, therefore, a 
 science of charit}~, which must embrace education and prac- 
 tical training among its objects, as well as a judicious relief of 
 existing poverty and suffering. * * * * The great 
 aim of both public and private charity should be the elevation 
 of its objects, and making them self-dependent. To this end 
 we need employment, education, and training to some indus- 
 trial pursuit, as well as the enforcement of the principles of 
 temperance, honesty and industry." It is upon this sound 
 principle that the Ministry at Large has been, for the whole 
 period of its existence, conducted. It has recognized the trite 
 fact, that prevention is better and cheaper than cure, and that 
 help should come in as a temporary necessity and an encour- 
 agement to individual exertion. In attempting to meet the 
 varied conditions of society, it has also recognized the vital 
 relations of the physical, intellectual and moral or spiritual 
 in man — and that for the attainment of a perfected society, 
 these are to be developed in harmonious proportions. In a 
 word, that mankind are to be made useful and capable of get- 
 ting their own living, as well as intelligent and moral. Hence, 
 this Ministry supplemented the ordinary ministries with its 
 Sabbath worship, its social religious meetings, and its Sunday 
 school. Hence it opened its Sewing School, which has lived 
 to see similar organizations springing up and doing a success- 
 ful work, under the auspices of different denominations of 
 Christians, and to witness the introduction of needle-work into 
 the public schools as a part of female education. Hence, its 
 evening school, continued until an impulse had been given to 
 public sentiment, that ultimated in establishing six of this 
 class of educational agencies as a permanent feature of the 
 public school system of our city — a class of schools now 
 springing up, under the action of the E. I. Educational Union, 
 all over the State, and that are destined to produce an intel- 
 
16 
 
 lectual revolution among the hitherto unreached masses.* 
 Hence, too, the efforts of the minister in his daily walks and 
 visits, to influence children tending to vagrancy, to attend 
 school ; and still again, the devoting a portion of his time, to 
 procuring work for the unemployed, and to nameless other 
 services designed to elevate the lowly to a higher social plane. 
 
 The need of an institution that does not exist among us is 
 coming every year to be more sensibly felt. I refer to a Home 
 for Aged Men, to be established essentially upon the princi- 
 ples of that excellent charity — the Home for Aged "Women. 
 Attention has for several years been turned to the establish- 
 ment of a Free Public Library. Such an institution is called 
 for by the growth of our city and the spirit of the age. It is 
 to be hoped that in the midst of increasing material activity 
 and prosperity, a measure so calculated to advance the intel- 
 ligence and refinement of the community, will not for a mo- 
 ment be lost sight of, and that at no distant day it may be 
 consummated on a scale honorable to the wealth and public 
 spirit of our city. 
 
 Since the last annual meeting, John D. Jones, Esq., a mem- 
 ber of the Board of Managers of this Ministry, has deceased. 
 He was from the beginning a steadfast and earnest friend of 
 our mission. He sympathized warmly in every measure cal- 
 culated to promote its prosperity, and gave freely of his time 
 and substance to secure it. As a personal friend of the Min- 
 ister, his memory will ever be tenderly cherished, while his 
 genial spirit, his business integrity, and his faithful and con- 
 scientious discharge of public duties as a member of the muni- 
 cipal government, will perpetuate in this community a uni- 
 versal respect. Within a few days a shadow has again fallen 
 upon our hearts, as it also rests upon the hearts of many 
 others here and elsewhere. One identified with the founding 
 
 *As a director in the Board of the Rhode Island Educational Union, the Min- 
 ister at Large has been made familiar with its operations, and takes pleasure 
 in here bearing testimony to the valuable labors of its agent, Mr. Samuel 
 Austin. Twenty-five Evening Schools are in successful operation this winter 
 in various parts of the State, affording the means of education to large num- 
 bers precluded attending day schools. 
 
17 
 
 of our Sunday School, and who for the six years following, 
 consecrated an energetic nature to building up and giving a 
 broad scope to this Ministry, has been translated to a higher 
 sphere. Among the first to welcome the Minister to his new 
 and untried duties, and to act as a guide in his explorations 
 of an important field, he remembers with the freshness of yes- 
 terday the scenes of squalid poverty and of domestic sorrow 
 to which he was introduced, found alike in basement and 
 attic homes. He remembers, too, the cheery voice and the 
 words of encouragement that infused new life into many fal- 
 tering spirits ; and when he recalls the varied incidents that 
 checkered the first years of his labors here, as well as the 
 constant and valuable co-operation, he received, he would do 
 injustice to his feelings and to the feelings of surviving asso- 
 ciates, did he not bear this tribute to the Christian worth of 
 Mrs. Harriet Bowen Cheney. She died at her home in South 
 Manchester, Connecticut, January 12th. 
 
 In reviewing our work for the year it gives me pleasure to 
 say, that our prospects for usefulness were never more prom- 
 ising. More than 300 families are directly and indirectly 
 reached by our several methods of action, and we believe a 
 good has been accomplished not to be estimated by any mer- 
 cantile standard. This good we wish to extend. "With an 
 increase of means we can do so indefinitely. For such means 
 we ask, — believing that the favor of the past may be accepted 
 as an earnest of continued friendship and support. 
 
THE PUBLIC MEETING. 
 
 The exercises were opened with a select piece by the choir. The 
 13th chapter of St. Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians was read and 
 a prayer offered hy Eev. Mr. Woodbury. A hymn was then sung, 
 after which the report was read. At the conclusion of the report, 
 His Excellency Governor Padelford, President of the Board of Man- 
 agers of the Ministry, addressed the meeting. TTe have been told, 
 he said, this evening, that this is the twenty-eighth anniversary of the 
 Ministry at Large. Those who have been acquainted with this min- 
 istry during its existence know what was the character of that section 
 of the city where it was located. We also know the inrproveinents 
 that has taken place since its organization. I attribute it mainly to 
 the influence of this ministry. Its faithful and devoted band of Sun- 
 day school teachers, its evening school and sewing school have been 
 the means of doing great good. A large amount of labor has been 
 performed and a large amount of sin has been prevented. There have 
 been times when the mission needed more pecuniary aid and stronger 
 sympathy of the community. It needs it at this moment. The Sun- 
 day School wants more room. Its limited accommodations are well 
 known. A large lot has been procured and mostly paid for. I hope 
 that the day is not far distant when a house of worship suited to the 
 wants of the Sunday School and members of the ministiy will be 
 erected. I hope that when the mission calls upon you for pecuniary 
 aid from time to time, that it will be cheerfully given. May God bless 
 this mission in the future as it has in the past; its faithful Sunday 
 School teacher and devoted minister; all who give towards it or make 
 any sacrifice that will aid the efforts of the society in its endeavors to 
 do good. 
 
 His Honor Mayor Clarke then addressed a few words of encourage- 
 ment in support of the ministry. I am here, said he, because I can- 
 not help feeling a deep interest in any society or organization whose 
 object is the prevention of vagrancy and crime. You cannot measure 
 by any pecuniary standard the influence for good which an institution 
 
19 
 
 like this has exerted for a quarter of a century. The civilized world 
 has not yet arrived at a full knowledge of the best method of dealing 
 with crime or criminals, or the causes which lead to the commission 
 of evil. Our jails, prisons and houses of correction yield but poor and 
 pitiful results. How few who enter those institutions graduate from 
 them any better than when they entered. The great difficulty seems 
 to be, that when a boy or girl commits a crime and is sent to one of 
 these institutions, it is too late to do much towards his or her reforma- 
 tion. The reforming period has past, and there is small chance for 
 recovery. Society has to mourn the loss in consequence of the want 
 of prevention of these j^outhful indiscretions which send so many chil- 
 dren to our reformatory institutions, who, perhaps, had they been 
 properly taken care of and educated, would make good citizens and be 
 ornaments of society. The deepest philosophy as well as practical 
 Christianity unite in urging us to support the influence exerted by this 
 society — prevention. Thousands of dollars have been spent by society 
 in the punishment of crime, but here is an institution in our midst 
 which has been laboring during the past quarter of a century for the 
 prevention of crime. This mission ought certainly to meet with gen- 
 erous and unstinted support. Look at the expense of crime in this 
 city alone. Our police department is costing at least one hundred and 
 fifty thousand dollars a year, to say nothing of the expenses of the 
 expenses of the courts, trial by jury, and other matters, that must be 
 paid for. From the annual report of the Rhode Island Educational 
 Union, we learn the startling statement that there are upwards of 
 fifteen thousand persons beyond the school age who can neither read 
 nor write. Ten thousand cannot read even. In this city of Provi- 
 dence we have twenty thousand children under fifteen years of age 
 who are not found in the public schools. Undoubtedly, some portion 
 of them go to private schools, but a larger portion are to be found in 
 the streets learning vice, which eventually leads them to the Reform 
 School. The State had better pay the expenses of every young man 
 at the highest college in the land than to have them graduates of the 
 State prison at a great deal less cost. We have thousands around us 
 uneducated, and we cannot help reaping the fruits of such a popula- 
 tion. 
 
 There could be a great deal said upon this subject. Circumstances 
 have a great deal to do with the commission of crime. Early influ- 
 ences have much to do with it, and it seems to me we should look with 
 compassion upon those who are surrounded by such associations. I 
 can only hope that this and other similar institutions may receive the 
 hearty and generous support which they fully deserve. They must 
 receive it, or we shall have to suffer every woe. I am happy to hear 
 that so much good has been accomplished, and earnestly hope that 
 
20 
 
 sufficient pecuniary means will be given this mission to enable it to 
 continue the good work. 
 
 The Kev. Arthur May Knapp, pastor of the First Congregational 
 Church, next addressed the meeting. He called attention to the want 
 of accommodations for the large Sunday School, and entered an 
 earnest plea for a new house of worship, providing the necessary con- 
 veniences for the schools and congregation, to be erected at an early 
 day. 
 
 The services concluded with the singing of the doxology by the 
 choir, and the benediction by Rev. Mr. "Woodbury.