The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-11-20
ALABAMIANS SHOW EXCELLENT RECORD In Birmingham 50 Per Cent Attend Some Church OPELlKA IS BANNER TOWN Sunday School canv--s Shows That 30 Per Cent of the Population At.
 tend Sunday School
 Regularly.
oPELIKA IS BANNER TOWN

Montgomery, November 19,-(special)- The work of the Alabama Sunday School association is being pushed vigorously at this time and some interesting results are being obtained. The house to house can vass plan is doing much to increase the attendance at all schools. In recent months many cities and towns have been canvassed and some of the figures obs tained are interesting.
 In the city e Montgomery S47G persons were visited, including S4S Jews and l2S5 Catholics. There were seen, therefore H. ssS Protestants. Of the latter 6176 attend- ed church at least once a month. many oftener, wnieh was 54 per cent of the Sunday se1ool was 3O62 or 27 per cent. while 4165 of the H. 39S were under IS years of age.
 In Birmingham the canvass showed 15,- 514 visited, with 5s per cent attending some church and 2S per cent in the Sun day school In this Birmingham makes better showlne than Montgomery, with 1 per cent advantage in Sunday school att tendance and 1 per cent in church.
 Opelika Makes Good Showing.
 For the grade of towns of the larger size below cities, Troy, Tuscumbia and Opelika are good examples, though ope- lka presents so good a showing as to put it out of the average class in any conten- ton, having 80 per cent of it's popula- tion in Sunday school. Troy comes next with the following record: Protestants visited 1884, attending church 1176 or 64 per cent; attending Sunday school. 674, or SC per cent. Tuscumbia had 164O visited with S26 or h03 per cent attending church and AS or 2 per cent in Sunday school
 Clanton is a small town in the list filling out ;hree classes of communities, the cities. the larger towns and the small towns. Clan .ons list of visited numbered 556 with 293 or 52.7 per cent in church, l46 or 2625 per cent in Sunday school.
 The office of Judge Joseph Carthel sec- retary of the State Sunday School asso- citation is in this city. He and his assist ant, MT. Leon P. Palmer, are kept busy looking after the many duties of the work Mir. Palmer is engaged now in writing over the state in the interest of the house to house canvass. He gave the Montgomery correspondent of the Age Herald the following interview concern ing the plans and work:
 Plans Are Outlined.
 "One of the latest developments oi the Sunday school movement which has been perfected by organized Sunday school work is the house to house can vass. This is an old plan found greatly effective in late years. In the gospel ae- cording to St. Luke, chapter 10, verse 1 when Jesus sent out the seventy, ht sent them two and two, into every city whther He Himself would come The house to house canvass is based upor the same principle, but extending fur tber because 1t is an effort to reach al the people. The purposes of the canvass are:
 First. To show the interest which ths church has in the unsaved. We sincere ly desire to give every man, woman ant child an opportunity to know the trutl for himself and to accept Jesus Chris and escape from the wrath to come. l is a sad thing for any one to feel al the Psalmlst did, that No man care' for his soul Often, without intending il the churches neglect the stranger an, the careless and indifferent ones. M are interested in our friends, we are in terested in each other, and in manifest ing our interest we some times beeom so engrossed with them that we over look the stranger.
 Second To invite them to attend tn church and Sunday school of their choice This is a movement In which all tn churches la.te. It is for the upbuildin of every church in the community. Whel the invitation is extended, 1t is that tn person shall attend the sunday schoo and church of his choice. He Is invite to attend next Sunday and every Sunday
 Third To make a record of every fam ilv visited. This Is done because we wan to reach every family and we want als to let the church know the relationshi toward 1t of each family. This record 1 kept so that the superintendent and oth CT workers can follow up this work an do it in an effective and systematic way with the least expenditure of time an effort.
 Fourth To reveal to the Christians c each community the conditions Of tn same Many Christians are satisfied wit present conditions, because they do nc realize how bad they are, and when thei attention is called to the facts they hay in many places gone to work to improv them.
 Divided Into Districts.
 'The work is done by dividing the tel ritory in districts, over which suitabl person is put in charge. These district in a town or city are subdivided int blocks containing from forty to fit homes, and :. sufficient number of visitor secured to visit the said blocks. The vii itors go two by two, representing dii ferent denominations, and experienC shows that they can visit from forty sixty houses within three hours. I'll advantage of a visitation by the who community over that by a single d. nomination are that by united effort