Dave Ranney: Or, Thirty Years on the Bowery; An AutobiographyRanney, Dave
Religion
Dave Ranney: Or, Thirty Years on the Bowery; An Autobiography
Ranney, Dave
American Tract Society
We went up to Washington Heights, around 165th Street, and found the
place. We got there about six o'clock. I went in and knocked at the
door, which opened very quickly. The mother and father came forward;
they had been crying, I could see that. "Oh, has anything happened to my
boy!" she cried, when I asked if she had a son. "Tell me quick, for
God's sake!" I told them that Eddie was all right, and I called to him.
He came in, and like a manly boy, after kissing his mother, he turned to
his stepfather and said, "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!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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