Religion: The Bible Givers

Though U.S. hotels and motels now come equipped with TV, swimming pools and cellophane-wrapped drinking glasses, one thing about them is still the same: in the top desk drawer of each room, there is almost sure to be a black-bound King James Bible. Last week the organization that puts most of the Bibles there, Gideons International, wound up its 63rd annual convention in Pittsburgh, happily celebrating a major milestone. Since the Gideons first began to "Bible" the nation in 1908, they have given away more than 50 million copies to hotels, hospitals, prisons, trains, ships and schools. They passed out over 3,000,000 last year.

The Gideons are the brainchildren of two traveling salesmen, John Nicholson and Samuel Eugene Hill, who as they shared a Boscobel, Wis., hotel room one night in 1898 discovered a common interest in spreading God's word, later decided to organize a society of Christian salesmen. Membership now includes professional men as well as drummers, and the 20,000 Gideons come from 59 countries, distribute Bibles in 20 languages.

The Gideons do some preaching for their cause in Protestant churches, but giving away the Bible remains their principal means of evangelism. "It costs a dollar to place a Bible in a hotel room," says new President Jacob Stam, 62, a Paterson, N.J., lawyer. "An average of 200 people occupy a hotel room in a year. A Bible lasts an average of seven years. That means a Bible is exposed to 1,400 people during its lifetime. I'd say that's a good investment."