"Forgive me; I'll be a better boy and I'll
make everything all right when I get a job. This is Mr. Ranney, the
Bowery missionary." I went in and was asked to stay for supper, and we
had an earnest talk, leading to the father giving up beer. What he was
going to drink for supper was thrown into the sink. I see these people
occasionally, and they are doing well.

THE PRODIGAL SON ON THE BOWERY

Here is a picture story of a boy who left home and took his journey to
the "far country." It is a true story.

Away up in northern New York there is a rich man whose family consists
of a wife, two sons and a daughter, all good church members. It is of
the younger boy I want to speak. He is a little wayward, but good at
heart, and would do anything to help any one.

Now, there has lately come back from New York a young man who has
started the drink habit. This man is telling all about New York, what a
grand place it is, and, if a fellow had a little money, he could make a
fortune. He succeeds in arousing the fancies of this young boy, and he
believes all the fellow says. People up the State look on a man as sort
of a hero because he has been to New York.

Tom thinks he would like to go to the city, and when he gets home he
broaches the subject to his mother. He says, "I'll get a job and make a
man of myself." The mother tells him he had better stay at home and
perhaps later on he would have a chance to start a business in the
village where he was born. No, nothing but New York will do for him. He
teases his father and mother nearly to death, until his father says,
"Well, my boy, if you will, you will." Then he gives him a couple
hundred dollars and a letter to a merchant whom he knows.

Tom packs his valise and is all ready to start. I can see the mother
putting a Testament into her boy's hand and telling him to read it once
a day and be sure to write home often. Oh, he promises all right, and is
anxious to get away in a hurry. I can see them in the railroad station
when the mother takes him to her bosom and kisses him. There's a dry
choking in the father's throat when he bids him good-by--and then the
train is off!

Now, Tom has a chum in New York, so at the first station at which they
stop he gets off and sends a telegram to his friend, saying: "Ed, I'm
coming on the 2.30 train. Meet me at the Grand Central Station." You may
be sure Ed meets him at the station--Ed is not working--and he gives him
the hello and the glad