Quarters for the Bowery Mission
bahaistories.com archive · Read original
When in Bahá'í history
New York (today: New York, USA)
In April 1912 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was staying at the Ansonia hotel in New York City. On 16 April He agreed to speak at the Bowery Mission. “I want to give them some money,” He said to Juliet Thompson. “I am in love with the poor.” He asked her to take a thousand-franc note (at the time about $250) and have it changed into quarters and put in a bag. He handed another thousand-franc note to Edward Getsinger with the same instructions.
On 19 April, after He had spoken at the Mission, the Master stood at the end of the aisle with Juliet and Edward on either side of Him holding the bags, while some three hundred men filed past. Juliet wrote: “Into each palm, as the Master clasped it, He pressed His little gift of silver: just a symbol and the price of a bed. Not a man was shelterless that night.”
Source: The Diary of Juliet Thompson, entries for 16 April 1912 (p. 251) and for the Bowery Mission visit of 19 April 1912.
Collected from bahaistories.com (Subject: generosity).
Cite this story
Various. *bahaistories.com archive*. https://bahaistories.com/subject/generosity
Record yourself reading this story
Recording stays on this device only. Nothing is uploaded.
Related stories
Quarters at the Bowery Mission
In April 1912 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke to several hundred men at the Bowery Mission and placed coins in each hand. The quarters left over He gave to a chambermaid, who later came to thank Him and to ask Him to pray for her.
At the Bowery Mission
At the Bowery Mission in New York, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá addressed some four hundred of the city’s poorest men, shook every hand and placed coins in each palm; back at His hotel a moved chambermaid resolved to give as He had given.
He Gave Away His Trousers
In Dublin, New Hampshire, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá called back a ragged old man passing the inn, stepped into a shadow, and gave him His own trousers with a blessing.
The Master Gives His Own Clothes
Early one morning at an inn in Dublin, New Hampshire, 'Abdu'l-Bahá called in a ragged old man, cheered him, and gave him His own trousers, then went back to His dictation as if nothing had happened.