The Wichita daily eagle., 1894-01-18
CHURCH BOYS IN BLUE.
Military Drill Among Sunday School
Youth.
inception and Growth of the Boys Brig.
ade-t,ver I,2oO Chicago Lads Already
Earoued-Designed to Interest the
Boys in Church Work.

In dozen Protestant churches in
Nhlcago there are lockers containing
rifles as deadly Us the effective Enfield
Or Remington, and regularly each
week the boys attached to the several
Sunday schools go through the move
xnents and manual of the regular tao
tics of the United States army. 1t is
safe to say that at least twelve hun.
dred Sunday school boys of Chicago
are embraced in these quasi military
organizations.
1t is claimed that the boys are not
drilled with view of giving them a
martial spirit, but simply because it
has been found by experience that
nothing will interest them in church
work so much as to give that work a
military aspect. A well-known church.
man. who is greatly interested in the
movement. said recently:
The spirit of Americanism-inde
pendence or individual liberty-which
comes to every native citizen by in
heritance and is inhaled with every
breath, SO that even foreigners are
soon infected with it, has borne un-
welcome fruitage in tho restlessness
under restraint, the defiance of dis
cipline and the general irreverence
which children of the present age
usually manifest. This is particularly
50 with boys. The result naturally is
that whether at home or at school. at
church or at college, the question Of
control is a perplcxing one.
"a careful student of child nature
discovered one form of discipline which
Is the most thorough conceivable and
which is actually congenial to the boy
nature. This was military organiza-
ton, for which boys have natural
aptitude. Instead of scolding, or say
ing with an injured air, Now bows,
behave yourselves the command at
tention is given with explosive effect,
and the 'privates' are discipled into
rigid statues. The youngster can be
kept marching, countermarching
marking time. or performing other
evolutions until the powers of nerve
and muscle which incite the boy to
1awlessness have been brought under
control and made to minister to his
best good. When equipped with mill
tary uniform, cap, and belt, the trans
formation is complete and the private
is ready to be taught obedience, rever-
ence, and manliness without being con-
scious of it, and almost in the form of
an amusement.
The first experiment in this direc-
ton in connection with Sunday school
work was made in Glasgow, Scotland,
by w. A. Smith, of the Lanark rifles,
in October, 1889. As result, the work
. one winter transformed the school.
was perfect, manners were
acquired, the physical bearing was i'm
proved, the moral character was
and the foundations of
religious principles were laid, and all
this was accomplished by boys of an
aere in which the natural drift is away
from, rather than toward, religious in
1uences. This success caused the
to spread, and ten years later
there were 595 companies, with 2.025 |
officers and 26,O33 members reported. !
In 1890 the first company in the United |
States was organized in San Francisco |
by Rev. John Quincy Adams, and fifty |
70 ore were soon formed in the imme- !
liate vicinity. A national organiza |
tion was then formed, and companies |
in Kansas City, Chicago, Gin |
Detroit and other cities. Since |
then the growth has been very rapid. |
As result, the boys have been elevated
and educated. and Sunday schools and +!
reading rooms hitherto empty have /
been filed.
"In July, 1892. there were % compa-
MES in the United States, per cent. of
which were Presbyterian, 25 per cent. /
Il per cent Methodist, /
md l6 per cent. Baptist One year
ater 23a organiza tions were reported. /
In July, 1892, there were only two bat !
.alions in the Organiza ton, composed /
Of from two to ten companies. One
year later there were twelve or thir-
zen fully organized battalions. The
average membership per company is 80.
The first organizations in Chicago were
'ormed by Rev. Howard Russell. at the
Armour mission. Since that time two
# the best drilled companies in the
have been organized at
he Evanston Avenue Congregational
,hurch. which is known as the Church
If the Redeemer. and a numb ber of other
have been formed.
The Navy Pay Corps.
The course of promotion in the navy
,ay CORPS is illustrated by the eases of