New-York tribune., 1905-11-19
?. N. G.. A.'S GREAT GROWIH
Founder LiUed to See Remdrk-
able Development.

S''OA---Oo
for Christi"
"1 am"
Out of this question and answer spoken by
two young clerks sixty-one years ago on Black
frfars Bridge, London, has arisen an organlZa-
ton as great as the cities of Buffalo and San
Francisco combined, and with ramifcahons that
worldwide. It's members may be met not
only in the streets of New-York, but in the
frozen north of Europe, in tropic Africa, in the
islands of the Pacific Indeed, wherever young
men congregate for one cause or another there
you are likely to find representative of this
order In the New England college, the Penn
sylvania coal mine the Carolina cotton mill,
the British warship. the Japanese fort the
hostel" or boarding house of India, there are
men still asking their fellows if they are will
ing to make a sacrifice for Christ" And every
where they get the answer, Il am"
Tremendous is the growth of the Young
Mems Christian Association, it has all been
complished within the span of single life. It's
founder, Sir George Williams died in London
only the other day. 1t he who first sug
gested such a society to his friend Edward
Beaumont when crossing Blackfriars Bridge;
and it in a room in the drygoods establish
ment where he worked that he and eleven
others on June 6, 1874 held the first meeting
of the society.
A few contrasts will show still more clearly
how this handful of men has reached out to
the ends of the earth Instead of twelve men,
bers the association has 100000. Instead
of limiting its efforts to a small district in
single city the Young Mems Christian Associa-
ton IS now represented by workers in the cities
and villages of thirty-nine different countries
throughout the world. And, unlike many
good things in this world, this association has
prospered. The first twelve Young Mems
Christian Association men spent so cents week
rent for a meeting room. At the present time
the organization owns in various parts Of the
world about nine hundred buildings, worth
s37, 600 600. Every three weeks, on an average,
1t puts up a structure, so that in the course
Of twenty years more at this rate it viii have
room to house the whole of the present city of
New-York.
Originally the Young Mems Christian Asso-
citation appealed only to London clerks. In the
40's of the last century the condition of these
deplorable. In those days, as W. H.
Mills secretary of the English National Coun-
ell, once said, Young men were herded togeth-
er ten to fifteen in room at night. They were
literally driven from the shops to their beds
and from their beds to the shops by a person
called a shop walker. There was no sitting
room, no social comfort. library. They re-
Tained until they were taken i'll. and then they
were discharged at moments notice. Away
they went, many of them the workhouse and
numbers Of them used to die prematurely.'
The association changed all this 1t proved
10 employers that by granting more leisure time
to their men to be used in social enioyments
lean sports or spiritual eyotions they could
get more and better work from them.
At the present time this organization is taking
into its fold not London clerks alone hut the
members OF every class and caste. of everv
trade and profession, ana of every race It's
members who students would populate a
city Of 1900 inhabitants Its railroad men
would form army 72,O00 strong. It's clerks
and mechanics, soldiers and sailors would form
a procession of 100000 men. which, marching
six abreast in close formation. would STREET h
Pver twenty-six miles 1t has also among it's