The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1916-05-05
An Interesting Gathering Was
Held at Swedish Lutheran
Sanctuary
sram fridays Daily.

T6llSlOHt 10 lnelT wives, mOtlleTS anu
daughters, at a meeting of the men
of the Swedish Lutheran church in
the church parlors, Fourth and Main
streets, last evening. The meeting
was called in the interest of the prof.
ect of getting men to take more
active part in the affairs of the
church. The pastor, Rev. o. j. Ar
thur, expressed the hope that the
gathering and the addresses would
result in the formation Of a mems So
city within the congregation.
The hall was beautifully and pro-
fusely decorated. American flags were
to be seen everywhere. On the back
wall there was a large Swedish nag.
This flag has history 1t was Or
dered sent from Chicago to Mankato
forty years ago. 1t was carried in
the parade which took place in Man
kato on the Fourth of July of the year
1876 in celebration of the centennial
of the signing of the Declaration OF
Independence. Twenty-four local citi-
Zens sent for this flag. Among them
was John Nyquist, who was at the
banquet last evening. Another sur
vivor of that twenty-four is Gust Tu-
berg of GlenWO0d avenue.
Pretty Table Decorations.
The table decorations included pink
and white carnations and ferns. A
splendid supper was served Every
body felt that the gathering had been
highly successful in every way. 1t
was managed by committee con-
eisting of Theodore Lindholm, Oscar
anderson and Fred Strom. At the
eight~of the meeting the attendance
yas about seventy five.
Between the speeches there were
musical numbers nearly all of which
were songs in the Swedish language.
Several of these were rendered by a
chorus of eight persons, led by Will
liam Johnson. The others were Gust
Pearson, Andrew Flo, Harold Wass,
Henry Gustafson, Oscar Anderson,
Julius Carlson and John Nyquist So
los were sung by julius Carlson, Mr..
Johnson playing the Accomplishments
at the organ,
John Anderson, the photographer,
took flashlight picture of the whole
aggregation.
Rev. o. ]. Arthrw, who presided, in
troduced Senator Henry Benson of
ST. Peter the principal speaker of the
evening. Rev. Arthur told how he
had first heard Senator Benson
speak, when he himself was at Gus
tavus Adolphus college, and he had
determined that he would try to be-
come, if possible, as fluent talker as
Mr. Benson.
Splendid Work Accomplished.
Senator Benson spoke of the splen-
did work that had been accomplished
years ago by the congregation of the
Swedish Lutheran church of Man.
kato, and how brave and success
full struggle was made to produce the
church building in the year 1890.
The senator referred to Rev. Ar
thur as an example of what the great
educational institution at st. Peter
can do. and he gave a before and
after" description of the present pas
tor of this Mankato church.
The speaker gave a history of the
movement to stir up church activi-
ties on the part of the men of his
own congregation, the English Lu-
theran, at st. Peter. He told how
there as elsewhere the men were in
the habit of leaving the church activi
ties in the hands of the women But
all this was changed now. The men
had been active and they showed that
they could do things in the church
just as the women could.
The senator spoke of the older
members of the foreign speaking
congregations, who loved the old
mother tongue, whereas the young
people preferred the English lam
guage. Each ought to give up some
thing for the other and all work to-
gether for the interest of the church.
Give the Young Something 70 Do.
He said the way to keep the young
people in the church was to give them
something to do. He told how a great
deal had been accomplished in his
church by having social meetings,
outlining certain projects and as
signing separate tasks to the differ
ent societies.
Rev. Arthur following the thought
that in American churches, the wom-
en- were carrying too large share of
the burden, told of what he heard
from woman missionary from In
dia, who, on visiting America, was
surprised at seeing every congrega-
ton so largely composed of girls and
women, whereas in India only the
men went to church. She said that
in her travels over the United States
she only found single congregation,
where there were more men than
women and that was in the Nebraska
penitentiary.
Scored the Men.
= Attorney Harry Johnson also scored
the men for carrying religion in their
wives names. He referred to a state
ment made by Senator Benson that
the men had cigars at their church
meetings. He saw no objection to
that He did not believe in the
church people being too straight
laced. He thought it was all right for
the church people to attend good
moving picture show or good play
Many people made sweeping con-
demnation of theatres. Such people
in many cases did not go to the the
aires. How could they Judge?
Mr. Johnson said some ministers
by criticisms that We're hardly di-
rected in the right spirit tended to
drive people away from their con-
gregations, rather than bring them in.
l. ILL