speak in various cities. Young men write for
advice: One with the commercial instinct strongly developed, wants to
know if the ministry pays? Still another letter is from a patent
medicine house, asking if the preacher will not write an endorsement of
a new cure for rheumatism. Other writers take the preacher to task for
some utterance in the pulpit that did not please them. Either he was too
lenient or too severe. A young man wants to get married and writes to
know what it will cost to tie the knot. A New York actress, who has been
an attendant for several Sundays at the Tabernacle, writes to say that
she is so well pleased with the sermons that she would be glad if she
could come earlier on Sunday morning, but she is so tired when Saturday
night comes that she can't get up early. Would it be asking too much to
have a seat reserved for her until she arrived!"

A maid in a "white cap" comes to the door and informs me that a "roomful
of people" are waiting to see me downstairs. It is the usual routine of
my morning's work, when I receive all who come to me for advice and
consolation. The reporter regards it, however, as an event, and writes
about it in this way:--

"Visitors to the Talmage mansion are ushered through a broad hall into
the great preacher's back parlour. They begin to arrive frequently
before breakfast, and the bell rings till long after the house is closed
for the night. There are men and women of all races, some richly
dressed, some fashionably, some very poorly. Many of them had never
spoken a word to Dr. Talmage before. They think that Talmage has only to
strike the rock to bring forth a stream of shining coins. He steps into
their midst pleasantly.

"'Well, young man,' he says to a youth of seventeen, who stands before
him. He offers the boy his hand and shakes it heartily.

"'I don't suppose you know me,' says the lad, 'but I'm in your Sunday
School. Mother thinks I should go to work and I have come to you for
advice.'

"Then follows in whispers a brief conversation about the boy himself,
his parents, his education and mode of life.

"'Now,' says the preacher, leading him by the hand to the door, 'get a
letter from your mother, and also one from your Sunday School teacher,
and one from your Day School teacher, and bring them to me. If they are
satisfactory I will give you a letter to a warm friend of mine who is
one of the largest dry goods merchants in New York. If you are able,
bright, and