Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1918-08-07
JOTTINGS FROM
MY NOTEBOOK
BY RALPH NJ. AIORPHETT
Cburchgoing and NatrimOny.

ChurchgOing and NatrimOny.
City people are learning what has
been known to the way-back coun-
try folk from time immemorial-
that churchgoing leads to love and
matrimony.
i The institutional church scheme
is proving wonderfully productive
of marriages. One church, with its
large Sunday school, its gymnasi-
UNI, athletic clubs, sociables, pic
MICS and its hundred other inter-
ests. is averaging about a dozen
marriages a month. The big choir
of $50 members has been keeping
Cupid and the parson on the Jump.
Fortunately. the law restricting
marriages of teachers does not hold
! in Sunday schools, and several have
taken advantage of the privilege.
Human nature is much the same
! in all grades of life the world over
The bashful young man of the coun-
! try whose soul is in his gaze across
the meeting house at the girl of his
choice in her Sunday best, and who
at last generates enough courage TO
| wait for her at the door and ask to
see her home, is not different either
in instinct or in temperament from
| the more polished and more bold
Young man of the big city. Love
| levels US all.
In the country and the small
towns the church is the center OF
social intercourse; and TO thous-
ands of young men and young wo-
men who have gone into the cities
to work, and have few connections
| or acduaintances there. the church
| serves the same social purpose.
The young women in city boarding
houses who have no opportunity to
meet Young men of their class, nor
any place to receive them, ind both
| in the institutional church.
| THE club and social life for the
city's young people,, says a Brock
| Ign superintendent, lis most bene-
I fetal. While I would not say that
! it is a necessity for church exist
ence in a large city, ! must say
that it is very helpful to our work
in the church and helpful as well
to the young
In these times of hasty, reckless
marrying. the church cOurtshtp eX-
| erts its beneficent influence. The
truest and most perfect unions are
| contracted through the wholesome
| friendships begun in the churches.
A CORRESPONDENT writes as
! follows: 1T is very remarkable,
wherever / go, east or west, north
or south, l hear people trying TO
sing The Star Spangled Banner.
Very few survive until the end. At
least two-thfrds are dumb before
they get far along l think these
lines are true to the facts:
OH, SAY. CAN YOU SING?
| Oh, say, can you sing, from the start
| to the end,
What so proudly you stand for when
the orchestra plays it;
When the whole congregation in
voices that blend,
| Strike up the grand tune and then
| torture and slay it,
How valiant they shout when they re
first starting out;
But the dawn's early light finds
them fioundering about
'Tis the Star Spangled Banner
they're trying to sing,
But they don't know the words Of
/ the precious, brave thing.
I Hark, the twilight's last cleaning
has some of them stopped,
But the valiant survivors press for
ward serenely
To the ramparts we watched, when
some others are dropped,
| And the loss of the leaders is man
! ifest keenly.
Then THE rockets red glare" gives
the bravest q scare,
And there's few left to face the
! bombs bursting in air."
! IT'S a thin line of heroes that man
| age to save
| The last of the verse, and the
! home of the brave