A Glimpse of Our Chicago Institutions
By David Paulson
In the year of the World's Fair there was opened at 28 Thirty-third Place, near Cottage Grove Avenue, a Chicago Branch of the Battle Creek Sanitarium. This was made possible by the gift of forty thousand dollars from the Wessels Brothers of South Africa, on the condition that the earnings should be used for the development of charitable and philanthropic work in Chicago. A short time after this, a free laundry, baths, and a medical missionary dispensary were opened on Custom House Place, near Van Buren Street. Thousands of the sick and needy among the destitute classes availed themselves of this opportunity. As the work developed, a workingmen's home soon became a necessity, where poor men could procure wholesome meals at actual cost, where a clean bed could be furnished for a few cents, where they could wash their clothing, and have it disinfected during the night. Multitudes of struggling men have gladly availed themselves of these privileges. It soon became apparent that there was a wide field for definite evangelistic work, so a suitable hall was secured at 436 State Street; inspiring mottoes were hung upon the wall, the room was made as cheerful and attractive as possible, and this was the beginning of the now well-known Life Boat Mission. In this place the spiritual and physical gospel is proclaimed in a most effective manner every night in the year, and as a result hundreds of men have been transformed, so that instead of being moral wrecks, they are now leading useful, sober, and moral lives. Since then a well-equipped hospital has been opened at the corner of Cottage Grove Avenue and Thirty-third Place, where all classes of medical and surgical cases are received at just the cost of caring for them. A successful missionary training school for nurses is maintained in connection with this institution and the Branch Sanitarium. An excellent medical missionary dispensary has been established at 3558 Halsted Street, where sanitarium physicians and nurses are constantly giving medical attention to the large number who are unable to avail themselves of the advantages of either the hospital or the sanitarium. The free visiting nurses have their headquarters at this place. Every day they are busy searching out those who are in extreme suffering and want in this needy portion of the city. Their training enables them to make use of the natural remedies that are within reach of almost every home, no matter how poor and wretched it may be. At 442 South Clark Street is located the Life Boat Rest for girls, where loving hearts and willing hands are winning back to the path of virtue and happiness those who have gone astray. Recently the Branch Sanitarium has opened Hygienic Dining Rooms near the University of Chicago, so that all the students who desire to do so may have the benefit of a wholesome dietary. The Life Boat is an illustrated monthly magazine, of twenty-four pages, devoted to the interests of health and charitable and philanthropic work. It was established in 1898 with a circulation of five hundred. It has now a circulation of nearly twenty thousand. Each number vividly portrays the scenes which are constantly brought before the mission worker in his efforts to help the various classes of humanity in our large cities. The subscription price is only twenty-five cents a year. Address The Life Boat, 28 Thirty-third Place. The American Medical Missionary College was organized about seven years ago. It is the only medical college in America which has for its sole object the training of medical missionaries. It has a regular four years' course, furnishing all the privileges of medical education in the best medical schools, and in addition gives special prominence to physiological remedies and the development of the missionary spirit in the hearts and lives of its students. At present the total number of students is a little more than a hundred. Most of the theoretical work and laboratory work covering the first two years is done in Battle Creek, while the major part of the last two years' work, when special attention is given to the clinical work and to hospital opportunities, is given in Chicago. DAVID PAULSON.