Omaha daily bee., 1885-01-28
HEAD AND HEART.
larry Curtis ACCSuHt Of The Literary
and Social Entertainment Of thS
Y. NJ. C. A.
Some Practical Points.

Curtis, was requested to prepare a paper
on that subject for the benefit of the
state association. AT the meeting # the
association held in Ced,r Rapids he &C.
C ,rdinoly performed that du y, giving
The folio wing interesting account of this
feature of III, work FIR the young men
here. he said:
"Io pre- snting this paper, l exp,ct to
be severely cri i1ised. l do not know
now the plan would work In other a,so.
citations, out l an prepared TO say that 1t
mas been the means of bringing ours to
It's present CONDITION., and if 1T we're to
die now, we would regard 1t IS having
done a tr ,nder work than any effort we
have yet pus forth.
For eight years l have been almost
continually in liter Try societies, and have
seen them open up like spring-time YER
dure, ard die like autumn leaves In a
regu'ar literary society there are always
q faithful few, who ct and by it until Its
last breath dies out. j speak now of So
~cieties ou's'de of co leyes. In
q college, regular wo,k k of this kind is
one of the branches that a student Is ex
pected to attend to. Men, in general,
can't st and eli icism. Severe C i ic sn
has can ed the death of thousands of
hsse 8, %cleties. When l c,me W 81 l was
determined that no literary sec ETY. should
be held in connection with my 2 stion.
| We 30 IN fou, d, no Seve~, a dema d On the
part of the boys, foe $ me,hipg of a lit
ersry nature, 60 Nc announced that If
| A, II, :, - ,pa,,ll 1n htu port ond roraa
o1t the rext week, we would Try for one
night only.
TIE evenir G came; q number were pres
ent. At the opening of The meeting it
was stated that no criticism would be
allowed, AID that every person might
RAJ, sing, spesk ordeclaim as hs saw fit
Everything was to bs informal and 81
must De brief. Brevity we insist upon in
this as well as in our regular meetir gs.
Al seemed so we'll pless d with the first
fort that 1t was decided to h Id one
m re. That night we had several exec.
clses similar to the week before with an
additional talk upon the ''stove"-seven
or eight say ing something about it All
wanted another, and from the night It
has been regarded IS permanent. The
ladies' helped US first with the music and
lat r with the gel eral exercises.
A committee noted for er sat activity
was appointed to have charge of the ar
r, ngements, aud a he,lthy gtoWth be-
gan. No regular set SYST IN was adopted,
out each week the programme was varied.
About the 10Th of May the celebrated
tr al, "Tootle VS. Hazeluns," came off
One hundred and fifty persons came out
l. wa, a breach of promise suit, and much
interest was sho Sn by people out:iie;
also by our own boys.
Olcsa mon'h we have a debate upon
some live ques,ion, but never allowing
The debate to take more han one-half
of the evening A rect 81 has been held
nta the m ddle of each met ting, aad
during that time an eff ,rt is made to get
a qusintad with all strangers present
From this we derived the last part # the
name, IS cisl." We use all means to
make 1t JUS what the name indicates.
Amtnsle tares that we have presented
are general talks on different subjtcis
F,r example, my first eff rts at making
a fortune" Quite a number spoke,
stating the difficulties experienced in
starring out In the world another elm.
prove mente," each person taking some
article and speaking of the improve
ments made on that one thing: another,
"Sociabler," each giving his idea of a
socis bic.
Two newspaper men have given prsc
tiosl ta'ks-ore on "What l know Of
journalism" the other on Education
and Fashion" n
We have Utilized all the musical talent
of every kind that we could find among
our regular at%tenoants, and have had
mary fine sopgs, duets etc. We regard
such instruments as the bones, tsmb ur-
ines, banj ,s, organs, concertinss, harmo-
meas etc lat in the right place when
we get them in our roo ms.
Essays of comic get-up ss we'll as Of
solid information have been presented.
We have a plaza for all. Reel atoms
80 a range that Il ely, if ever, Is there
monotony.
FIR qoenly we Rave he question box.
AfCer the Chic go convention We held
one to iomina Q cent drea for the presi.
dency aid we pre- depcy of the United
Sta-es. Ali were eLtau. last C as at Chi
csgo.
The "Prc fe'slonal Iowwow" ard
"Whi-t'eologicsl ola' q" caused a G eat
d.al f sle,ul, ton N the part of pc s,ns
r. adiog III ad er'is m mt
The orgsniztron OF u COIL mining com.
psny as one f the n, st inc sti " ex,
erc,t es G ,,ten up. 1t was 20 d acted ts
follows: A person had trsv | d the world
over ina the hest mil ing rig on He
returned and reported on Pc n ylv,na
C al la, d. 1hjs WIS describ, d III an en-
It u,i,s ic spe oh. A O mp ny WIS Or
G IL z d sna $500 900 NO f sock s Id.
Inc Nook v n4ress was found to Dr. 30
popular that we could not accommodate
it In our roons, 30 We secured a large
hal. More than four hundred pers,ns
were present, NJ d all pleased.
l close by summing up r'solts:
We have given p ,ortunity for ~litersry
dev.l ppment We nave drawn to u
r ons large numbers Of Young men VIII
could never have he u indu ED To come
TO the re 'dir 6 room, ZACH :ss to the re
ligious u eetlogs.
The attendance at the gospel servi'e
has been doubled, snd the young msn's
meeting tni Bible stody encouraged.
out of fifty five n'w m 'mbers tweDty
nine are direct results T this meeting.
Two young men who are now active
Chris aus feared the II ms Y Nj @ A,
but were approached bS psrsonal frien6s
Sho invited them to the slit. r,ry."
Tho avAraoa Mt tlifty of