EMORABLE
IN THE LARGER BENZONIA PARISH BY
THEIR PRESENCE, AND BY THEIR
KINDLY AND HELPFUL INTEREST IN ITS
WORK, AND TO WHOM THIS STORY
OWES ITS SUGGESTION AND INSPIRATION,
IT IS MOST GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

FOREWORD BY NEWELL DWIGHT HILLIS ix

INTRODUCTION xiii

KEY TO MAP xvii

DESCRIPTION OF THE MAP xviii

I THE HISTORICAL SETTING OF THE STORY 1

II SOME CONVICTIONS OUT OF WHICH THE VISION CAME 12

III HOW THE VISION CAME 25

IV HOW THE VISION BECAME A REALITY 36

V THE METHODS OF THE LARGER PARISH 59

VI THINGS YET TO BE DONE 97

VII SOME RESULTANT CONCLUSIONS 113

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

FROM BEULAH TO BENZONIA Frontispiece

MAP SHOWING THE LARGER PARISH xvi

CRYSTAL LAKE AND BEULAH FROM BENZONIA 10

THE PLATT LAKE CHAPEL 72

THE BENZONIA CHURCH 104

FOREWORD

For many years lovers of the republic have been warning our people as to
the perils of modern city life. In 1800 one person out of thirteen lived
in the city; to-day nearly every other citizen lives in a large town, or a
great city. The city is the home of wealth, commerce, and finance; the
home of music, art, and eloquence. Once each year all the great leaders
come for a stay, long or short, to the metropolis. The birds leave the
desert to seek the oasis, with its palm trees and springs of water. Young
men, for two generations, have been deserting the farm and the village, to
make their home in the great city. Many unexpected perils have sprung up
from this massing of population. Among these dangers are the tenements,
saloon, gambling houses, dens of vice, the tendency to anarchy, incident
to the contrast between the palaces on the avenues and the rookeries on
the Bowery. Insane people, defective children, men and women wrecked
through drink and drugs, are some of the incidental results of congested
populations. Innumerable addresses have been given upon the perils of the
city life, and innumerab