ailroad men of
the value of this organization. In Chicago, the president of one of the
leading railroads, the general superintendent of another, and other
officials, are serving on the railroad committee of the Young Men's
Christian Association, and it is hoped that at every railway centre
there may soon be an advisory committee of the work. Such a committee is
now forming in Boston. This work should interest every individual,
because it touches every one who ever journeys by train. Speak as some
men may, faithlessly, concerning religion, where is the man who would
not feel safer should he know that the engineer and conductor of his
train were Christians? men not only caring for others, but themselves
especially cared for.
Frederick von Schluembach, of noble birth, an officer in the Prussian
army, was a leader there in infidelity and dissipation to such a degree
as to drive him to this country at the time of our Civil War. He went
into service and attained to the rank of captain. His conversion was
remarkable and he brought to his Saviour's service all the intense
earnestness and zeal that he had been giving to Satan. He joined the
Methodists and became a minister among them. His heart went out to the
multitudes of his countrymen here, and especially to the young; thus he
came in contact with the central committee and was employed by them to
visit German centres. This was in 1871, in Baltimore, where took place
the first meeting of the national bund of German-speaking associations.
At their request Mr. Von Schluembach took the field, which has resulted,
after extreme opposition on the part of the German churches, in eight
German Young Men's Christian Associations, besides an equal number of
German committees in associations. When we remember that there are more
than two million Germans in this country, and that New York is the
fourth German city in the world, we can scarcely overestimate the
greatness of this work. Mr. Von Schluembach was obliged on account of
ill health to go to Germany for a while, and, recovering, formed
associations there,--the one in Berlin being especially powerful, some
of "Caesar's household" holding official positions in it. He has now
returned, and with Claus Olandt, Jr., is again at work among his
countrymen. His first work on returning was to assist in raising fifty
thousand dollars for the German building in New York City.
Mr. Henry E. Brown has always since the war been intensely intere
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