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Keep Sweet! |
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A Memoir by the Late Dr. Roy Sheppard Minerd - Part 2 of 12 |
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| Dr. Roy S. Minerd |
Last month: In 1915-1916, Dr. Roy Sheppard Minerd, a medical student at what is now the University of Pennsylvania, became involved with the lives of troubled orphan boys at the Northern Home in Philadelphia. A former teacher, Roy wanted to help "quiet things down" and show the boys that they might have a future if they would change their attitudes and behavior. Among the first boys to make an impression was Bill E., one of 4 brothers in the orphanage, who came "from a home of squalor and want." Roy listened one day as Bill E. excitedly described "tearing up the sheets, ripping open pillows and scattering the feathers over everything, breaking dishes and furniture etc., and disobeying all the rules..."
Then, when he had finished, I said, "Bill, come with me; I want to show you something." He consented, and I took him to a slum district, where we turned from the street into a side street and from that into a narrow alley-way off which opened a court with rickety, dismal, dark gloomy filthy houses opening off it, and there, up one, two, three flights of stairs, lived -- no, existed -- family after family of ragged dirty children. The air was dank and foul and no one wanted to run to get away the quicker. From there we went to another district, similar to it, and all the while very little was said by either of us.
Finally, when we had gotten back onto Ridge Ave., I said, "Bill, how does what you have just seen compare with the place you have been staying? Compare these dark, filthy holes, filled with dirt and disease, with the large beautiful buildings and grounds of the Home. Think of the filth of such places -- dirty broken cups and saucers on a bare greasy table, filthy floors, dirty beds and ragged bedding filled with filth and bugs, and then think of your clean painted or hard wood floors, carpeted rooms, clean table cloths, clean food on clean dishes comfortable white beds with fresh clean bedding and covers. Think of those ragged clothes half covering the shivering little bodies, pale and bony from exposure, suffering, and lack of food, and then think of yourself with two outfits of clothes all laundered each week, plenty of good well-cooked, nourishing food and a warm comfortable shelter from the winter's cold. Now consider that all this is given you absolutely free. You don't pay one cent, nor does your mother. Don't you think that after such actions as you have just told me of, you should be too much ashamed to look Miss S. in the face! How much better off would you be this moment that those wretched children we just saw if it had not been for the Home?"
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Younger boys at the Home |
Bill was thoughtfully silent. At length he said, "I never thought of that. I didn't think how much I owe the Home for what they have done for me there."
"What are you going to do about it?" I asked.
"What can I do?" he replied.
| 'Get busy and undo as far as possible what you have done ... Now get to work in the other direction and talk and work for a quieting down and a settlement of this spirit.' |
"Get busy and undo as far as possible what you have done. You have added to the mob spirit without which this would never have happened. You have given your influence to such outrageous proceedings. Now get to work in the other direction and talk and work for a quieting down and a settlement of this spirit. Will you do it?"
"I will," was his quick reply.
"Very well; go home and between now and when I come up to-night tell the boys where you have been, what you have seen and what we have talked over." And I left him.
At 7:00 that evening I found myself in front of our 60 boys seated on chairs or on the proverbial thumb in the Board room. I told them who I was and what I was doing there and then told them the [biblical] story of Joseph from a boy's standpoint, laying special stress on the ingratitude of the brothers when Joseph brought them the baked meats and pastries from his home. I dwelt especially on that and applied it to the Home. -- a dangerous thing to do under the circumstances especially when I as a stranger was endeavoring to get a hold on them.
After that I went down the playroom, took off my coat, collar and tie, and said to Miss S., "Don't be shocked at anything I may do; I'm going to get these boys."
"Feel perfectly free to do just as you please," was her reply.
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Typical busy Philadelphia street scene of the era |
And soon I had them trying all sorts of acrobatic stunts, showing, telling, coaching, etc. till I, as well as they, was out of breath. There were but two boys who held back, one a dark complexioned black eyed boy, handsome as you find 'em, whom I had had to reprove severely during the lesson period several Sundays previous. The other was a larger boy whom I had not seen before. I bade them good night and they went upstairs to their warm comfortable beds while I thought of the sights of the afternoon.
As I bade Miss S. good night, she not only asked, but insisted that I return as often as I could, especially Sunday evenings.
That was but the beginning of a series of Sunday evenings full of enjoyment and, I trust, as helpful to the boys as they were to me. Part of the evening was taken up with singing and a short talk on some practical subject, and the remainder, after a little intermission, by a varied program -- reading a few chapters from an interesting book, story telling, examining of curios, Nature study, varying as much as possible and not permitting them to know what was coming next. The boys soon became so much interested that their greatest punishment was to be deprived of the Sunday Evening Hour. Needless to say that this helped some in restoring order among them. The greatest aid in this, however, outside the very capable, kindly but firm direction of affairs by Miss S., was the securing of new caretakers -- people with hearts, in the persons of Mr. and Mrs. William B., young people, thorough Christians and interested in every phase of by life and activity.
The boys soon recognized a change of attitude towards them and adapted themselves readily to the change. And here let me remark that, while some of the children are from very low families, some of them are not, but have good blood in their veins and have ideals and ideas and habits that would put to shame some of the snobbish froth that look down on them as "Home Children."
But more of this later. So that the mischief the most of them had been up to was more from environment rather than from a natural contempt for law and order.
Late one Saturday night, while wondering what I should use for my evening, the thought of an object lesson with the aid of some simple chemical reactions occurred to me and I planned a talk on that. Weak solutions of organic acid and of alkali were made, being perfectly clear. Then an alcoholic solution of phenolphthalein was made to serve as an indicator. This is the outline of the talk:
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Nursery-age boys and girls of the Home |
A number of test tubes were partly filled with pure water and a drop of indicator added. The clear tubes were pure boys; the indicator, conscience. Then one by one the boys were spoiled by one sin or another (one taken for each) as a drop or so of alkali was added to the test tube, changing it immediately to the bright red. Altho' the sins were different the results were the same -- they were all the same color. After all were spoiled, the next thought was "Must they always remain so?" in answer to which a few drops of acid were added which cleared the solutions at once of all color, illustrating how the love of God can make our lives clean again if we but permit Him. The solutions looked just the same as before, but no one was willing to drink any of them as they were at first when there was nothing but pure water in them, for there was still there the taint of the reagents added -- the marring of sin -- which could never be removed. All were white, but all had been spoiled.
Then one tube was strongly acid and the small amounts of alkali that colored the others had effect only for a moment and was gone -- the strong clean boy to whom the temptations meant something at first, but overcame them; but constant addition of alkali finally changed the color unless more acid was added as constant temptations without constant help from above will finally cause one's downfall.
Another tube was strongly alkaline and no amount of acid that was added seemed to have any effect, but finally the color disappeared. Here was the boy naturally of an evil bent, and no amount of help or influence seemed to stir up the good there is in even the worst of us, but finally in some way after careful, patient, prayerful work, the sought for end is attained.
Still a third tube was neutral, and a drop carried it over to acidity or alkalinity -- the weakling who is "whatever he is with."
The boys, and the older folks present, as well, were very much interested, and it had its good effect. Several weeks later when Dr. L., superintendent of the Sunday School, heard of it, he asked me to give the sale talk to the whole school, which I did.
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X-rays showing wavelengths of |
Sometime later I gave them an experiment showing the deadly action of alcohol and tobacco on the heart. I cannot go into detail here but the experiment was very real and impressed the point very forcibly upon the boys. I used live frogs, aquious extract of cigarettes and killed the frog's heart in from 3 to 5 minutes. I have promised to give this talk, also, to the Sunday School in the near future.
Realizing that the boys needed something to keep them busy in order to keep them out of mischief, Miss S., Mr. and Mrs. B. and I talked over plans for some sort of organization for them early in our work there. The "Gang," the "Otherdoms" and the "Regulars" were discussed and then someone suggested the Scouts. The first three being more religious than the last, we left them till the boys should be in a better frame of mind which developed sooner than we expected. But of this we'll speak later.
The matter was brought to the attention of Mrs. K.W. who looks after these interests for the Board of managers, and she was very much in for it. It required some time and some red tape to get it started but Troop 64 is now in a flourishing condition, getting ready for Second Class test and doing very good work in Signaling and First Aid. The Board not only gave the movement their hearty support, but furnished suits and equipment. (The Board did not furnish uniforms, but made it possible for the boys to earn them.)
They are fortunate in having as Scoutmaster, their caretaker, Mr. B., who is a fine all around Scout and deeply interested. The Board did me the honor of offering it to me but on account of other work, I was forced to decline.
Next month: More of the boys reach out to Roy even as he is tending to them in the midst of their great sufferings and grief. We are introduced to Eddy O., Chas V. and Willie B. Also, Roy, teaches them the popular song, Keep Sweet!, which soon is "on the lips of everyone and ... heard in every corner."
Copyright © 2001 Mark A. Miner