Quarters for the Bowery Mission

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.

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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.”

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