The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-11-20
DISCUSSED COMMUNITY HOUSE.
Marked Enthusiasm Shown at Meeting
Last Evening.

Over two hundred people gathered at
the Episcopal vestry last evening to
enjoy a chicken supper served there.
Nearly all of the crowd who enjoyed
the bountiful repast remained to the
informal meeting which was held inn
mediately after the supper to consider
community house project.
From the spirit of the meeting hast
evening it would be very easy to draw
the conclusion that the meeting may
be spoken of as an event in Barre. Ger
tainly no congregation representing all
sects, societies and churches could be
more harmonious than was the case
IN the meeting last evening. Every
man and woman seemed to see and
feel the great need of the things of the
city as were spoken of last evening.
1t being the purpose of the meeting
to discuss the community house, several
able speakers were called upon to give
their opinion and advice as to the mat
ter. i. G, Rowland acted as chair
man. At first he centered the atten-
ton of the audience on the man who
has talked this matter to the Barre
people so much in the last few days,
and introduced Walter Parker of Los
Angeles, Cal, who described the werk
in brief manner reserying as much
time for other speakers as he could and
attempting to cut his talk short but
was interrupted near the close by Mr.
Rowland, who spoke the minds of the
audience urging him to take more time,
which he did in a most useful way.
Mr.. Parker is to start the thing on a
very small basis and then let the idea
grow on its own merits He spoke of
how like organizations had been started
with large funds, but had failed; this,
he stated, must be started with plenty
of people ready to do, rather than help
raise big amount of money to begin
the great work. He spoke of the
churches and societies in connection
with the work and emphasized that
they must act in most broad minded
manner and not work it out from, a
standpoint of their church or societS,
but let the church be just a place to re-
charge the soul so as to be able to min
lister in the work Mr. Rowland then
introduced Miss Louise NJ Gridley, who
has worked qntiringly in her position
as social worker and who has worked
in the past with Mr.. Reardon so that
the work of the overseer of the poor
and the work of the social worker de-
veloped into one office She read from
letter, which is soon to be presented
to the heads of societies, and gave a
short outline Of the social work. She
also stated that the people have the
house and if lights, furniture and heat
can be procured the community house
can start Immediately. Miss Gridley's
manner in presenting the plans seemed
most inspiring and reused no little en-
thusiasm which several speakers kept
up for over an hour.
Mr. Howland introduced several
speakers who spoke highly of the work
and showed their Endorsement of it by
their keen interest Rev. +. L. Good
speed, Rev b. y Lehigh, Rev William
Men. kittredge, Captain Frye of the
Salvation Army, Mrs. w, r. Shepard,
O. r. HOLSTER and Rev u. c. Hunting
ton.
Mr.. Parker finished the evening by
passing slips of papers to the audience
and asked them to sign up what they
could spare for furnishing parts Of the
community house He read number
of the papers, which showed that there
was no little enthusiasm among the
audience. The prevailing spirit during
the evening seemed to be, as DR..
Goodspeed expressed, ME, too" and
It's a 60"
On next Friday evening, Nov 81, DR..
Goodspeed has invited the public to go
to the Congregational church TO discuss
and plan the community house further.