Knapp, C. The Story of Mollie Malone; or, Brands from the Burning. A Book for Children. New York: Loizeaux Brothers, Bible Truth Depot, 1918. First Edition. [2172]
1918 gift inscription on ffep. Green cloth hardcover with black & gilt illustration, 4 1/2 x 7 inches, 102 clean pp., tight. Minor shelfwear to binding. Very good. Hardcover.
Illustrated, some from photographs, including photo plates of "The Mission" with children in front of the building; The Tenement; "On the Hudson," a photo of the steamboat Horicon; and a plate of a drawing, "In the Prison."
Golden-Rod Series. The author relates true accounts of children in the New York City tenements, and the mission's work among them. They are woven together to make one story, based upon several true incidents.
The author says that this is not a work of fiction, but rather a compilation of true accounts. He was woven some side stories, such as The Story of the Gambler's Child, into the narrative of the story of Mollie Malone. These are told as stories within the story. This is an instructive account of the life of vagabond children in the worst tenements of New York city. It includes the murder of Mollie & Aggie's mother by their father, who stabbed their mother in a drunken rage. He is converted to the Protestant faith (from Catholicism) while in prison, and returns home a new man.
Christopher Knapp (1870-1945), born on a farm near Albany, NY, to German immigrants. Raised in Reformed theology, Knapp was converted and joined with the Plymouth Brethren while studying for the Presbyterian ministry in South Bend, Indiana. An energetic and somewhat restless man, Knapp ministered in New York, Minnesota, the Honduras, Florida, the Bahamas, in Honduras, in Quebec, and finally, in later life, settled near his original home near Albany, NY. Knapp ministered with Dr. Harry Ironside for a time in Bethlehem, PA. - see plymouthbrethren website.