Part 14 (1/2)
This exhibition should be made as a big annual event, if possible, such as will attract all manner of persons and make friends for the county a.s.sociation. In its ideal arrangement the money expense will be kept down to a minimum. Also keep out the idea of premiums. The contest plan of promotion will some day receive its desired consideration and lose its place as a means of promoting social and spiritual well-being. As a matter of fact it fosters much envy, ill-feeling, and bitter strife and thus strikes at the root of the good-fellows.h.i.+p which you are striving to encourage. _But, urge every boy to bring something for the sake of the help he may contribute and let the honor of this service and the approbation of his fellows be his high reward._
One boy may come with a mammoth pumpkin; another with a device of his own invention for catching ground squirrels; still another with a new method of tying a knot; another with a bushel of highly bred corn; others with farm and garden produce of the same attractive nature; others with wild gra.s.ses, curios, or geological specimens; others with the parts of a miniature menagerie. One boy may have caught a badger alive; another a coyote; another a jack rabbit; another a huge turtle.
Another may bring a cage of rattlesnakes or a box full of snakes of all sorts; another a set of original plans and specifications--for an ideal farmhouse, or farm barn and surroundings; for making the well sanitary; for a milk house; for keeping flies out of the house or barn; a recipe for driving ants and other insects from the house. The boys in one family may come with a lot of samples of soil, showing how differently each must be treated for the same general crop results. Others may bring specimens of ”cheat” and noxious weeds, and the like, with a scheme for destroying them. Another may have a plan for a patent churn or a labor-saving device in the kitchen.
Thus there may be brought to the boys' fair an interesting and most instructive variety of objects, plans, and devices, all looking toward the improvement of home conditions. Such a gathering as this will bring not only the parents and other adults from the home county, but great flocks of outsiders will also come in and learn and become deeply interested in the affairs of the County Young Men's Christian a.s.sociation.
SPIRITUALITY NOT LOST SIGHT OF
It ought to be easy for the average thinker to appreciate the fact that all the foregoing rough-and-ready work in the lives of the boys can be made a practical means of the salvation of their souls as well as of their bodies and intellects. Spiritual perfection is not reached at a bound. There must be much doing of the crude yet worthy things which grow naturally out of his inner nature before the boy can finally achieve a degree of spiritual development that may prove a permanent and fixed part of his adult life. Yes, there will be some Bible study, an occasional short prayer, and now and then a real sermonette in connection with the work of the organization, but much more frequently the Christian life and character will come as a sort of discovery in the boy's life and that through his own conduct.
Through all this wholesome exercise of his better and cleaner interests, the youth will gradually be led away and kept away from those things which contaminate both the body and the spirit and introduce the individual to a coa.r.s.e, debauched life. In other words, Christianity will be a thing achieved and that through the young man's efforts rather than a thing instantly caught in some emotional revival meeting only gradually to waste away in the months immediately following. One well-built specimen of Christian manhood--a character of the sort which the ideal work of the County Y.M.C.A. may finally construct--is worth a dozen of those suddenly converted men whose secret lives are so often embittered with the consciousness of backsliding and following ever after the old evil ways.
It will be observed at a glance that in the foregoing outline there is an avoidance of the heavier work-a-day tasks and problems. It is the thought of the author that the boys have quite enough of such labor as it is and that the County Y.M.C.A. can do its best service if it provides a set of new activities of a more recreative sort. The central idea--second to the perfection of his spiritual nature--is that of giving the boy a larger amount of social experience through self-training in matters that will bring out his latent unselfishness and his self-reliance. The heavier problems of an economic sort suitable for discussion among the boys and the girls of the country districts will have due consideration in another chapter.
In planning the various parts of the county work and the club life of the boys, there must be extreme care not to arrange for too many and too frequent meetings. It is especially to be desired that the boy do not acquire the runabout habit, even though he may in every case go to a desirable place. Therefore, in arranging the programs it will be seen to that the meetings are held somewhat infrequently, but that on each occasion the meeting be continued until some intensive work has been done. For example, it would be much preferable to have all or a major part of one afternoon and evening of the week for the exercises rather than to have brief evening meetings a number of times during the week.
WORK IN A SPa.r.s.eLY SETTLED COUNTRY
The following statement will show what was achieved during the first year in the Y.M.C.A. of Was.h.i.+ngton County, Kansas, which has a rural population of about ten thousand people.
_General Statement_:--
181 boys enrolled in Bible-study groups, meeting weekly.
35 men give time to the supervision and planning of the work.
236 boys attended ten boys' banquets.
51 out-of-town delegates attended the county convention.
175 men and boys attended the convention banquet.
161 boys took part in the relay race.
91 men and boys on baseball teams.
24 boys played basketball.
56 men attended 10 leaders' conferences.
65 men conducted one day financial canva.s.s.
200 boys given physical examination.
26 took part in the annual athletic meet.
13 young men's Sundays conducted by secretary.
6000 miles (approx.) traveled by secretary.
283 citizens back of work.
_Financial Statement_:--