The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-11-12
NO BILLIARDS IN
CHURCH BASEMENT
Congregational Church Mem
bers Refuse to Permit the
Proposed Innovation.

While nearly all the members of the
| Park Congregational church present
last evening felt that some place OF
amusement for the young men Of the
hill district ought to be fitted up some
| where in the neighborhood, the ma
jority did not favor placing bowling
alley and billiard tables in the base
ment of the church.
The petition of the Everybody club
for the use of the basement as amuse-
ment parlors for the young men was
laid upon the table by large vote, and
| it is likely to stay there.
The club, which is made up of mem
hers of the Park church, submitted the
nroposition to the members of the
! church two weeks ago, and the matter
was laid over for Investigation. The
| club desired to fit up the vacant rooms
! in the basement as club rooms Tor the
Young men of the neighborhood. 1t
was proposed, with the aid of the
church, to install bowling alleys and
put in pool and billiard tables and
other games for the amusement of the
boys. A special meeting was held last
evening to take up the matter.
Much Opposition Develops.
! The question had been pretty thor
oughly discussed when the meeting
| opened, and a large number of support
| ers of the project and many opponents
were on hand.
Miss Laura Hall, teacher in the
primary department of the Sunday
school, led the forces opposed to the
| project.
81 do not think it is right that such
things as billiard tables and bowling
| alleys should be placed in any part OF
| the church." said Miss Hall, and am
strongly opposed to any such plan. The
| church is a place which should be kept
sacred, and billiard tables will not AID
| in securing this reverence. Although
consider the game of billiards 1nno-
cent, there are many things about 1t
which make it improper to have it in
| the church 1t seems to me some other
arrangement for the boys could be
made Again, think if a young man
wants to play billiards he would not
! be likely to come here anyway, but
would go somewhere else.
"The first thing is to teach reverence
| of Gods house, and we should keep our
churches sacred as temples Of God.
There are many other ways in which
! We might devote our energies"
Rev. Alexander McGregor, pastor Of
| the church, said: 1--WE do not want
| anything in the church upon which the
whole congregation will not be united.
| Although I favored the plan at first
and think it might be good thing,
upon Investigation 7 have found that it
! did not work very well in other church.
! es, and beside a large number of our
people are opposed to it.
81 do hope. though, that there will be
some way arranged by which rooms
can be provided for the use Of the
young men of the hill district. Some
| thing ought to be done at once. 1
| think this work can best be accom-
| plished through the Y. M. G. A. or on
| some similar plan. These games are
innocent, and would no doubt attract
many young men and keep them In a
| healthy and clean influence. We must
do something for the young people"
| H. Manchester took a strong stand
against billiard tables in the church.
| Institutional churches in the East
have proven successful where there
was lots of money behind them, but
they generally have separate buildings
to carry on the work. AS we cannot
do this4I believe we ought to devote
our energies toward developing the
church, It is a disgrace that this
cturc h, with its immense membership,
! has notNa Bible class in it's Sunday
| school. This ought to be remedied i'm
| mediately. Then we ought to organize
a Christian Endeavor society, where
our boys and girls may learn some
thing more Of the Bible and learn to
| pray. T believe it is far more impor-
tant that a boy should learn to pray
| than to play billiards."
Promoter of Plan Is Disappointed.
Aid ]. w. L. Corning, president of
the Everybody's club, and one Of the
most earnest workers for the amuse-
ment plan, finding that the plan was
generally opposed by all except the
members of the club, had little to say
about the matter. IT am sorry, very
sorry" he declared, ito find this con-
dition of affairs. thought we had adj
vanced further. Our plan was simply
the installing of some innocent games
in the basement, where the boys might
find amusement during their evening
hours. There was an apt Illustration
of what l mean on the corner here to-
night. When l came in the church
about twenty boys stood there. Before
| long they will be starting for some
where else. The church ought to dc
something to stop this. If it isn't good
enough to do this, what is 1t good
enough for?
"The average boy isn't inclined to
learn to pray, and the Christian En-
deavor society will not attract many
of them into church. Get them inter-
ested through amusements and keep
them under healthy influences and then
we can bring-them within the influence
| of the church.
what we desired was simply place
where the young people might go and
amuse themselves during the evenings
instead of spending them on the cor
ners. I had hoped that we had pro-
crossed further, and I say once more
I am sorely disappointed"
The matter was then laid on the
table Rev. McGregor stated after the
meeting that some efforts would prob
ably be made soon to accomplish in a
modified way what the club advocates.
1t is possible that the residents of the
district may try and fit up number of
rooms for the young men.
STunENTS ORDERED