Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1926-03-11
BELINCTON HAS
A KIWANIS CLUB
Organization Completed Last Friday
Evening. Important Factor in the
Community. The President Makes
His Address.

The Kiwanis Club completed its or
ganization last Friday evening March
5th, at it's luncheon held in the Luz
zerene Hotel, having secured the al
lotted thirty-five members as required
by the International, and the club,
now known as "Belington Kiwanis
Club" takes it's place along with the
other organizations of the town as
an important factor in the better
ment of the community. The presi-
Ient, c.. A. Blakeslee, made an inter
sesting address; this was responded to
by members of the Civic League. Mr..
Blakeslee's address follows:
Fellow Kiwanians and our Invited
Guests-About twenty five years ago
| was sent up into the mountain coun-
try in Cameron county of Pennsyl-
vania to reconnoiter tract of land,
that the parties that employing me
had bought at tax sale. 1t was
thought to contain coal and l was to
lOOh II ONCA W oCS IlA1 SOLAiiAOiSAeAA
possibilities of mining the coal, if in
deed coal was found. | was given a
letter of introduction to Phil Merrill
the manager of the company that
was cutting out the timber and also
a crude map Of the lands in question.
On meeting with Mr.. Merrill, explain
! ing my purpose and showing him the
map / had, he stated that he had a
map that would much better serve my
purpose, and that | might take it with
me if would surely get it back to
him, as it was the only copy he had.
/ took it with me, and discovered that
it contained a lot of valuable data
to my clients should they ever open
up and develop the coal that was
later found. So on completing my
survey, | asked of Mr.. Merrill per-
mission to take the map with me to
Dubois for the purpose of making a
tracing. The permission was grac-
iously given and when / returned the
map to him | wrote him thanking him
for the use of it, and stated that
hoped that at some future time
might reciprocate with a favor. Mr..
Merrill acknowledged the receipt and
said IN his letter "If you can't do
ME the favor, do it to the other fell
iow'' This made deep impression
Oh me and pass it on to you, as it
seems to me to represent the spirit
upon which rests the Kiwanis and
similar service clubs.
Sin our modern civilization we are
all dependent upon our fellows, no
man can live by himself alone the
blessings of civilization.
Phillips Brooks once said "The
Universal Blunder of this world is in
thinking that there are certain per-
sens put into this wor d to govern and
certain others DO obey. Every
body is in this world to govern and
everybody to obey. There are no
benefactors and no benificiaries in
distinct classes. Every good deed you
do you ought to thank your fellow
man for the opportunity of doing it
and he should thank you for doing the
deed. Certain people may work for
you and you may pay them wages
but that does not make you superior
You pay them wages and they in
turn pay you in service
"The curse of wealth is that it des-
troys this spirit of service The man
who loafs because he has enough to
live on comfortably, is no better than
the man who does nothing because
he can beg and smoke his pipe by