If Isabella Alden were alive today, there’s no doubt she would be a very tech-savvy person. From telephones to indoor plumbing, from typewriters to motor cars, she embraced new devices and technologies and incorporated them into her stories and her daily life.
In 1909 Isabella wrote a short story titled “Midnight Callers,” which was published in a Christian magazine. It’s a wonderful story about a young woman toiling in the Lord’s vineyard and wondering if her efforts make a difference.
Miss Rachel Holland is a weary Christian mission worker who can’t help questioning the impact of her tireless labor. But her world changes one night when a hopeless ruin of a man stumbles into her office, desperate for help. Will she stand by her faith and summon the energy to serve her heavenly Master yet again?
But “Midnight Callers” is also a story that shows us a snapshot of the world in which Isabella lived. Her characters in the story don’t live in a dusty old past we can’t relate to; instead, they live in a very “modern” world (by 1909 standards).
Rachel Holland, the heroine of the story, writes with a fountain pen, which was a newly popular writing instrument in 1909.
Another character, the Rev. Dr. McKenzie, uses a telephone closet to call “Blue two double O”—a reference to an era of manual telephone exchanges and party lines.
Although fountain pens have long since been replaced by keyboards and “Blue two double O” is now a touch-key on our smart phone contact list, the core of “Midnight Callers” still has relevance for readers today.
The story reminds us that while technology may change, our human need for hope—and help from the “present Power” that never fails—is eternal.
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You can learn more about how Isabella embraced and used new technologies and inventions in these posts:
Typewriters and Writing Machines
Isabella Alden 