The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1909-02-18
A MASS MEETING Of MEN
They Gathered at the City HALL and
Listened to an Address by Sec
Rotary Parsons.

which assembled I'M the city hall
Sunday afternoon in response to an
invitation of the y. NJ. G. A., over
which Chairman a Benthuysen
presided. A short song service was
lead by Ray Dixon. Mr.. Hobbs made
a brief appeal for subscriptions to
the two monthly publications of the
association, and suggested that a
collection be taken up for the bene-
fit of the state committee to aid in
! paying the expenses for the work.
A very liberal response was made.
The address of the afternoon was
made by Secretary Parsons, of Min
neapolis. who looks after the work
in this state, and he devoted the
time to an exposition of the purity
in the lives of young men. Mr.. Par
sons said he was looking over the
records of the early work of the as
ISOLATION in this city and among the
charter members that started it in
this city some twenty-five years ago,
he discovered the name of Fred B..
Smith, who is now the leading work.
er in the Y. NJ. C.. A. of this country,
and with one exception, this young
man had spoken to more men than
any other speaker in the United
States. Mr.. Parsons said that Mitch
ell association should indeed be
proud of the mar who had been a
charter member, and in connection
with Mr.. Smith he spoke of the work
of Ethan I. Cotton, now an interna-
tional secretary. Mr.. Parsons felt
that Mitchell was entitled to quite
a good deal of distinction with two
such prominent men in the interna-
tional work of the association.
Mr.. Parsons devoted his discus
sion to the vices of young men,
speaking with special reference to
the purity which should be a part of
their lives. AS We SOW also shall We
reap said Mr.. Parsons, was an alb
solutely true statement. Many young
men thought that this was not so,
and that they could indulge in the
lust of the flesh and escape future
Judgment; but the law was there
and though years might pass by the
speaker said that the mfraction
would have to be accounted for in
some way before the enc of life, and
sometimes with compound interest.
Comparatively few men live up to
the proper standard of morality, and
yet the speaker was free to say that
many young men drift into doing
these things unconsciously or
thoughtlessly. He held that by young
men yielding to these sins that they
were undermining their moral and
physical condition, which fact had
been demonstrated times without
number.
To illustrate the point that retri-
button m for yielding to the
drink habit, the speaker referred TO
the case of the son of John Hay. The
young man INDUCED in drinking to
a mild extent While in college,: the
habit grew; he left college and was
sent on a mission to a foreign coun-
try by the government; he returned
to this country N Joined a group
of his old college friends. The wine
glass was introduced and young Hay
fell into the old habit and the day
following he closed up his business
affairs and threw himself from N
of the large buildings in New York.
Mr.. Parsons spoke on the sin of pro-
family, and said that the American
young man was characterized as
having this habit the worst of any
country on earth. He urged the dis
use of this unnecessary mode of ex-
preston in taking the name of the
Lord in vain.
Proceeding along the line of bet
tering the moral condition, he re-
ferred to the two standards between
men and women, and insisted that
this was not right, that a man should
be as generous to other women as
he would want men to be to his wife,
his sister or his daughter. Every man
in the room endorsed the sentiment
when the secretary called for an ex-
preston.
Mr.. Parsons spoke with much
earnestness in setting forth the
things which are undermining the
young men of the country, and he
gave the statement of a business
man to the effect that the young
men of the cities, as a general rule,
We're, at the age Of % years, unfit
to meet the requirements of the bust
ness needs of the world, and that
, young men from the country have
to be brought in to fill these places.
Sunday at the Baptist Church.
At the Sunday morning service
} in the Baptist church., Professor