These establishments require, of course, the most methodical, orderly and careful management, with capable matrons at the head of each, and a steward or superintendent to make intelligent purchases.  At the “Model Coffee-House,” there are nearly fifty employees, and, excepting three or four men, they are girls and women.  The upper rooms of the building are for the lodgings, offices, laundry and drawing-room, for the use of the employees.  The girls, who are mostly of country birth and training, are thus furnished with a good and safe home, where they have books and music, large and well-furnished chambers, a good table—­they dine at one family table in their own dining-room—­and have their washing and ironing done in the house.  They are required to be neat and tidy in appearance, respectable and discreet in character and manner.

THE GOOD DONE.

The good that is done through an instrumentality like this can never be fully known.  Of those who are drawn into paths of safety, we do not so often hear as of those who are led astray.  But enough is already known of the good done by these two coffee-houses to give large encouragement for their establishment in other localities and other cities.  Hundreds of young men who had fallen into the dangerous habit of taking a glass of beer every day with their lunch, now take a fragrant cup of coffee instead, and find themselves better for the change; hundreds more who had begun to feel the insidious encroachments of appetite, have been able to get out of the way of temptation.

The question that naturally arises with all who look practically at this matter is, whether there is any profit in the business of keeping a cheap temperance coffee-house?  Can a pint of coffee, with sugar, milk and a two-ounce roll of bread, be furnished for five cents and leave any margin for profit?  Mr. Baily’s experiment has proved that it can.

FRIENDLY INNS.

But not alone in Philadelphia is the cheap coffee-house to be found.  There are hundreds of them in our various towns and cities, though none on so large a scale as here; and they are rapidly multiplying and doing good.  “The Friendly Inn,” and “The Holly-Tree Inn,” are places somewhat similar in character, but partaking more of the nature of an “inn” than a simple eating-house.  These have, usually, a pleasant parlor, with light, and warmth, and books, into which, any one may come and pass the evening, instead of drifting into a saloon, and where cheap meals and lodgings can be had if needed.  In Cleveland, Ohio, Christian temperance work, which is very large and effective, is carried on almost entirely in connection with “Friendly Inns,” of which there are five.  A chapel, reading-room, sleeping apartments and a cheap restaurant are maintained in connection with each of these inns.  The women engaged in the cause of Gospel temperance in that city regard them as most valuable auxiliaries to the spiritual work in which they are engaged.  In a large number of cases, they have been the direct means of bringing men in whom few traces of goodness could at first be discerned in such contact with religious influences as to win them over to a better life.