Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-12-27

that il might be possible to comfort
ably til Memorial Hall. But Smith
upset all plans when he wrote back
that he had no message for Il mixed
audience, and that he would rather
tax to q small crowd OF men only
THAI 10 several thousand men ana
women. The Dayton executive com
mittee had by that time prepared it
self fer a difficult task and in eompl-
anee with Smiths letter decided 10
make IT men only, and to exert
maximum effort III trying to fill the
great haul The result was that men
seemed to gather spontaneously and
hearing band smith looked from his
room in the Algonquin Hotel at 10 A..
NJ and saw 1900 men in line marching
from they. NJ. c. \. to the Hall. 4
half hour later the meeting was
started and the great hall was packed
To the very doors. More than hun
bred men stepped out that meeting
and entered on the Christian life and
a collection Of considerably more than
$500 was taken for the Associated
Charities OF the city.
The last meeting of the week was
National Theatre. Eighteen hundred
men crowded that house. Roberson's
TrareIogue pictures and lectures had
filled Memorial Hall and the Elks had
filled Victoria Theatre with their am
naisl memorial services. But there
was crowd enough for all and Charles
Drum in his address, An Honest
MAN. swayed his audience at will.
finally bringing 1870 men to a point
where they stood up and later signed
cards accepting Christ.
Rnt the great mass meetings did
not constitute the real Men and Re-
iigion Forward Movement. There
were 100 scheduled meetings on the,
complete program. which. by the way,
was carried out TO the most minute
detail without the necessity of a sin
gle change-place. time or speaker,
all % which were set forth for every
event.
Nine hundred men attended the in
stitutes. all of the experts, Fred Smith
and others, agreeing that there had
never before been such a large in
sti.ute attendance in any city.
The convention for out-of-town dele
SdttS vi ihtSNhS W N'the-NN'''"
was attended by an average of near
ly 800 men. the attendance and the in
tercst being maintained throughout.
The platform meetings increased in
attendance every evening, the meeting
at the First Baptist church dhe most
centrally located) starting With an
attendance Of 425 and gradually work
ing up to approximately $50 the clos
ing evening. The average attendance
at the other platform meetings was
about half this figure.
However, the figures indicate the
participation. The work following the
campaign indicates the inspiration
that has sbeen left behind. The plans
and the methods in which men were
instructed for future work afford an
opportunity for profitable expression
of the inspii alton that was left in the
heart of the Dayton men.
DAYTON church men are rearettins
that they cannot look forward to an
other campaign year hence. They
churches would get double the bene-
fit at a second campaign, for they
would put more than twice the con-
fidence in it and they would look for
ward to it as one of the parest of OPP
portnnities instead of another expert
ment'' as too many viewed it in adj
vance this time
DAYTON churches seem to have taken
new grip on things and, whereas
there We're duties for which there
We're no worker in the past there are
now an abundance of workers with
definite idea of the thing which they
wish to accomplish in the most seien-
tific way