Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1891-05-15
Y. M. G. A. ANNIVERSARY.

The Close Of Eight Years Work Pleas
antly Observed Last Sunday Evening"
Addresses by Workers from Massachu-
sets.
Eight years of activity and progress.
! This is what was celebrated at the Congre-
| gational church on Sunday evening. and
houseful of friends Of the cause were pres
ent to help the Young Mems Christian as
! ISOLATION in its pleasant observance. The
| evenings program included the usual de
votonal opening exercises, reports, and two
! addresses Several of the reports usually
! given being done away with by having on
the back of the printed program general
synopsis of the work in the various
branches. and the general secretary's re-
port and that of the secretary of the Wom-
ans auxiliary were the only ones read.
Secretary Fuller went back to the organ
! iZation Of the association with its % char
ter numbers. from which it has grown to
membership of above $50. The past year
was shown to have been the most prosper
GUS in many respects of any yet in the his
tory of the association, the attendance at
the rooms showing a large increase, the
physical work in every way surprising that
of former years, the educational work
undertaken having given much satisfaction,
but serious hindrance being felt in this
| line from lack of room and conveniences.
District work. which is coming to be
very important part of Y. VI. c. \ activity,
has received considerable attention the past
year, and more is planned in this direction
for the year just opening small sum
was reported in the treasury.
Mrs. w. W. Newcomb submitted the re-
| port for the auxiliary, showing that the l3l
| women whose names are enrolled as mem
/ bers are proving themselves helpers and
/ bearing their part faithfully They have
/ gone little out of the regular routine of
/ work i'm bringing about the Mary Howe
! concert, the proceeds of which went TO the
/ furnishing fund, and in contributing gen
| erously to a bazaar in Petersburg, Va. the
| object Of which was to replace Y. NJ. G.
| \. building which was burned.
Mr.. Charles \. Haskell of Boston. the
! first of the speaker, for the evening. in his
| opening remarks paid to Brattleboro and
| Vermont tribute such as is always listened
| to with pleasure and iustifiable pride 10y our
| people. The Young Mems Christian assoc
| Citations. he held are doing great work.
! because they reach young men through that
side of their nature through which so many
/ of their temptations come-the social side.
| When the doors of saloons are closed the
man is but half done: but the opening Of
| doors into safe pleasures and helpful social
/ enjoyment adds the other half. He con-
| sidercd as second to none the work the
/ church is doing today in taking sports. III
nocent in themselves but often with evil
accomplishments. and after Kidding them of
/ Objectionable features using them TO draw
| young men toward better things. He quot
/ ed Goethe a. saving that The destiny of
any nation is in the opinions of its young
mem and showed impressively how i'm
! portant it is that the young men of today
be trained 90 opinions which shall tend to
elevate and purify. The fact of 81 shrewd
business men. men who don't do things
without "A reason, having contributed over
sl,DO,OOO in sums varying from 100000
to $1,000, 10 various associations in our
country. was used as an argument in favor
of the work from a business standpoint.
and TO show the confidence which such in
tuential men feel in its mission for good.
Following Mr.. Haskell. Mr.. Henry Bond.
who is president of the Waltham Y. VI. c.
A., spoke interestingly. presenting in a
clear, terse, convincing way some of the
reasons why an association needs a build
ing of its own. He plead for the appli-
cation of business principles to this work
and strongly urged that more efforts be put
forth for the boys. He showed from sta
tiStics that building owned by an associa-
ton increased its power and widened its
scope many fold, giving an opportunity for
many branches of work impossible to be
taken up in the cramped quarters of hired
apartments. Mr. Bonds brisk, decided
manner of delivery added much force to the
facts he presented.
Music was furnished during the evening
by the choir of young people of the Con
gregational church, and by Mr.. Lane and
Miss Gregg, who gave a duet. President
j. j. Estey spoke briefly in regard 10 the
efforts made the past year by the associa-
ton to secure a suitable site for a building,
and expressed the hope that another ami
versary would witness steps taken toward
the securing for the Brattleboro Y. NJ. c.
\. building of its own
In the afternoon at o'clock Mr. Has
kell conducted the regular gospel services
IN the association rooms with good num-
Der in attendance, while at the same hour
Mr.. Bond at the Methodist church addressed
the ladies of the auxiliary and others on
Woman's work for young men. Rev. c. O.
Day presided, Rev. Mr.. Webb being de-
tanned by illness. The address was not
long, but was directly to the point and con-
tanned many good suggestions. Miss Hat
tie Williams gave solo during the exer-
cises.
II would seem from the continued and in
creasing prosperity of the association that
the citizens of the town believe in il. and
That IN the best way-with hands and hearts
and pOcket-books,