CHAPTER II.

CHRISTIAN WORK IN "WATER STREET—THE STORY OF JERRY
McAULEY'S LIFE TOLD BY HIMSELF —A CAREER OF WICK¬
EDNESS AND CRIME —THE MISSION NOW.

The Historic Five Points — Breeding-Ground of Crime — Dirty Homes and
Hard Faces— " The Kind God Don't Want and the Devil Won't Have"
-Jerry McAuley—The Story of His Life Told by Himself —Born in
a New York Slum — A Loafer by Day and a River Thief by Night —
Prizefighter, Drunkard, Blackleg, and Bully—A Life of Wickedness
and Crime — Fifteen Years in Prison — His Prison Experiences — Un¬
expected Meeting with "Awful" Gardner — Jerry's First Prayer—He
Hears a Voice — Released from Prison — His Return to Old Haunts
and Ways — Signing the Pledge — His Wife—Starting the Water Street
Mission — An Audience of Tramps and Bums — Becomes an Apostle to
the Roughs — Jerry's Death — Affecting Scenes — Old Joe Chappy — The
Hadley Brothers — A Mother's Last Words — A Refuge for the Wicked
and Depraved.

THE Five Points was once the terror of every policeman, as
well as of every decent citizen who realized its existence.
It was for years the breeding-ground of crime of every order,
and thus the first workers in City Mission work naturally
turned to it as the chief spot for purification. Here the Water
Street Mission was begun just after the Civil War, and here it
still continues its work. Its story has often been told, yet the
interest in it seems no less fresh than at the time of its incep¬
tion. For years it was headed by Jerry McAulej^, a man whose
absolutely unique personality has stamped itself forever in the
minds of all who dealt with him in person. It is to him that
every mission of the same general order owes its standard of
effort, and the knowledge of methods without which such work
is powerless; a,nd though personally he never claimed this
place, all who knew him would accord it unhesitatingly.

I have often talked with Jerry and his wife on the origin of

(68)