The daily sentinel., 1908-01-22
AkhCIE BY REV. BECKER
AND THE HUBBARD BOOST
A Strong and Interesting Article on
Lyceum Work, From the Pen
Of Local Minister, Appears
in Great Magazine.

OF Local Mln1sters appears
in Great Magazine.
There appears in the january num-
ber Of the Lyceumite T. Talent, the
leading journal Of the lyceum and
lecture world, published in Chicago.
and with almost a worldwide circu-
IatiOn, a most interesting article
dealing with the many practical adj
vantages that have been obtained
from able lecture courses provided
for Grand Junction and that are in
reach Of every town and city having
n lecture course. The article Is writ
ten Ly. Rev. James A. Becker Of this
city, organizer and manager Of the
Grand Junction lecture course.
The article Is given much promi
nence by the magazine. AS an intro
duction the magazine editors repeat
a statement made In its October
number to the effect that "Grani
Junction, Colo. a town of 5000 peo-
pie boasts of the finest lyceumr course
west of Chicago. 1t is to be doubt
ed IL even Chicago or any other city
has a finer course" The list of at
fractions provided for this city this
season is given.
This statement then follows:
This course has been managed
for several years by Rev. James A.
Becker, pastor of the Grand Junction
Congregational church. Mr.. Becker
| Is an earnest believer In the power
of the lyceum and the good it is do
ing His testimony on this subject
is interesting"
The magazine also gives publica-
ton to extracts from Elbert Hub
bards writeup in the Philistine of
Grand Junction and the valley.
The article by Rev. Becker fol-
lows:
"a became interested In lyceum
work eleven years ago when l was
pastor of a small missionary church
in the Black hills in South Dakota.
few years work convinced me that
my efforts to convert people and get
them into the church was largely
counteracted SO long as their minds
were fed upon the vicious trash
which came to them under the name
of entertainment. The young peo-
pie, especially. craved some sort of
recreation-'some place to go to-
and the cheap theater and fourth
class minstrel show were supplying
the demand. This was what came
to them from the outside world. and
with its glamour and viciousness ii-
rected their ambitions and formed
their ideals. The church. being
| local institution, and the pastor a
prophet, without honor. was almost
powerless to counteract the evil ten
dencies.
1T was hard work to get foothold
| for anything better In these mining
and cattle towns. BY persistent ef-
fort l secured the cooperation of
committees In four other towns for
a small. but well selected lecture
course. Al the end of four years
we had nine towns in our organiza-
| tion. / think the result was best
summed up by the president of the
miners union at Terry. town with
a population of 1000. one-half of
which was foreign. He was also
manager OF the opera house which
had been donated by the union for
the course at the urgent solicitation
i of the principal of the public school
and myself. He said to me at the
close OF the last number on the
course: Well. you've done us lot
of damage financially, but l don't
care. It's been mighty good thing
!, for my family. We never can run in
cheap shows here again, for the peo-
: pie won't stand for it after this. and
there was where we made our mon
ey.
81 think we owed much of the 5uc.
cess of this movement to the fact
that for the first year we secured the
. services of Isabel Garghill BeecheI
and VIM. Hawley Smith. They com
, bined the qualities of entertainment
and instruction In such happy way
that people we're made to realize tina,
'humor' was not necessarily vulgar
and that lectures were not necessar
lily dry
"Since then I have always man
aged n lecture course as part o
the missionary work of my church
, and l know of nothing that has ac
complished better results. Our
course ia always run without profit
r and In handling over 100 attractions
we have never had but four tina
: could be called poor and three O.
those were substitutes.
Two years ago a. company o
young men came to me and said: Il
you will double the number OF at
Z fractions of your course we vii
stand back of you financially. You
stun is always good and we wan
about so many places to go during
the winter. We can get 1t of you fol
half the price we pay at the oper;
house and run no chances of gettin.
something bum The number of at
fractions was doubled forthwith and
though the size of ouraudi torium ne
cessitated selling our season ticketi
at SIS, we have paid ont each year.
"The personnel of our lyceum peo
Pile is SO high, with few exceptions
that community Is brought in toucf
not only with the best thought o.
our country from an educationa
standpoint. but with men and womer
whose lives and utterances count fol
the most morally. No communit,
can AFFORD to neglect its lyceun
course, whatever be Its cost in effor