St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1882-03-17
v. M. e. A. Work.

Mr.. Sage, the general secretary OF
the Y. NJ. c. A, has furnished us with
the following account of Association
work accomplished during the past
seven weeks. 1t will be interesting to
those who looked upon the special eff
fort recently made in that direction as
an experiment:
At meeting of the Board of Direct
Ors of the Association, Jan. Is, it was
decided to have a canvass.made of this
town. The village was divided into
eleven districts and a committee was
appointed for each district. Every
member of this committee filled out a
blank giving the name, residence, age
and religious preference of each per-
son in his district between 3 and As
years of age. 1t was found by this
canvass that there were over 575
young men and boys in st. Johnsbury.
The secretary, having the details
which the committee were enabled to
furnish him, sent letter to every
young man land to the larger bOys)
whose names were on these lists, and
invited them to visit the rooms, meet
ings, etc. The rooms were first open
ed to the public Feb. I'd. These two
rooms were visited by a committee of
ladies from the different churches, and
in few days there was a new carpet
on the parlor floor, a rng in the read
ing room; pictures, notices, etc, on
the walls; plants in the windows and
many things about the rooms which
made them cheerful and attractive.
Since they were opened we have had
many articles sent in, and for these we
give hearty thanks, assuring those who
have thus aided us in making our
rooms cosy and inviting, that they are
certainly cOunteracting the influence
of billiard rooms and worse places.
We have in our reading room over p
papers and magazines, daily, weekly
and monthly, representing the differ
GU llltl
views of the day. The following pa
pers are furnished gratuitOusly and
we improve this opportunity to thank
the publishers for favoring us: Gale
DOMAIN, Index, Educator, Newport
Express & Standard, Orleans County
Monitor and the Montpelier Argus &
Patriot-the latter through the kind
ness of Mr.. E. E. Sargent of this place
We have had 1900 visitors since the
rooms were opened.
We have held 90 Association meet
ings since Jan. Nth, with an attend
ance of about 100. Besides the regu
lar Saturday evening and Sunday A
NJ. meetings and an occasional service
at the jail, meeting is now regularly
held every noon, for half an hour, il
the Association rooms. The need wal
felt of a meeting for young men only
and a few weeks ago we commenced 4;
service in the Association Hall Sun
days at half past five; every Thursda!
night a prayer meeting is held at thu
poor house; also at the jail Sundays
and might add a "clOsing-up" meet
ing when we lock the rooms for tn
night. Very few persons have thu
far come to the noon meeting. TIL
young mems meeting has increase,
greatly in attendance. A deep inter
est is manifested and many Christian
, young men have pledged themselve
to do more active work for the Master
while others have begun the new life
The poor house meeting is growing il
} numbers and interest the inmates en-
joy the service very much-especiall,
those who cannot attend church. Al
, though there is but one man in jail
still the service is held. Several @
; our members have been holding gos
pei meetings in a neighbOring town
, and number of souls have been lie
to the Master.
) Every Saturday night "A cOmmitte
r visit each of our hotels, secure til
name of every man stopping over Sun