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Disbro. The conference will combine the inspira
tional and technical side of the work, and special
study will be made of the different departments, each
one having its special presentation.
Miss Dunn has prepared a series of stereoMicon
views showing buildings and cafeterias in different
sections of the country, and through this display
some idea of the Economic Department of the work
will be given.
Recognizing that the best methods of teaching
how things are done is to DO them, the Industrial
and Extension Woik of the Association will be re
viewed by those who have actually accomplished
results in these fields and who have worked out some
of its most difficult problems.
Board Members’ Council.
In addition to the city conference, a meeting of
Board members is held which will enable such mem
bers to meet and solve many of the problems regu
larly occurring to all board members. Miss Ellen
McAlpin, of Savannah, Ga., prepared a comprehen
sive program for this department, and the work done
must prove of great service.
The Student Conference.
Yet another feature of special work is the Stu
dent Conference, -which considered practical methods
for making the Student Associations more effective.
Short talks on college living were given, and the
conference was led by Miss Theresa Wilbur and the
following state secretaries: Miss Mabie K. Staf
ford, of the Gulf States; Miss Inez Kinney, of the
Carolinas; Miss Emily Huntington, of Kentucky and
Tennessee, and Miss Helen Coale, of the Virginias.
Conference Speakers.
Mr. Robert E. Speer, of New York City, Rev.
Floyd Tompkins, of Philadelphia, Dean Edward I.
Bosworth, of Oberlin, Ohio, Rev. Alfred H. Moment,
D. D., of Raleigh, N. C., and Miss Ellen M. Stone,
formerly of Bulgaria, are among the prominent
speakers who addressed the conference.
A sad incident of the session was the sudden death
of Mrs. George H. Atkinson, of Monroe, N. C., who
was taken ill while on the platform at the opening
meeting, and who died next morning from heart
failure. Mrs. Atkinson was State Chairman for
the'-Commit tee of the Carolinas, and as Miss Frances
Bridges, of Conklin, N. .Y, she had been for three
years secretary of the American Committee of the
Y. W. C. A. She was married to Rev. George 11.
Atkinson during December of last year, and since
that time had lived in Monroe, N. C. Her passing
cast a gloom over the conference which its leaders
found difficult to dispel.
The Outdoor Meetings.
Which w T ere held from seven to eight p. m., were
beautiful and inspiring occasions, when prayer and
praise services, as well as helpful talks from noted
men and women were given.
The Twelfth Annual Session of the Southern Con
ference has now passed into the history of the as
sociation, but its influence is being widely dissemi
nated throughout the length and breadth of the
South, and the return of the various committees to
the home organizations will infuse fresh life and
renewed enthusiasm into the workings of these
bodies.
While considering the special feature of the South
ern Conference, it seems pertinent to glance in a
general way at
The Work of the Y. W. C. A. in America.
As has already been shown, The American Com
mittee is actively engaged in furthering the inter
ests of the Association along the most advanced
lines, and from the annual report of this committee,
it is seen that there has been a phenomenally rapid
development in the twenty-four state organizations.
It is a development, however, not so much in num
bers as in the amount and extension of work done.
New associations have been formed in colleges, mill
towns and small communities, and recently there has
been a movement for the formation of associations
among trained nurses and training schools for
nurses in the principal hospitals. It has been de-
The Golden Age for June 91, 1906.
monstrated that such associations in no way inter
fere with the work of the hospital and the Junior
Class of Nurses in the Allegheny Training School,
which hrs organized an association and begun a
course of three years’ systematic Bible study to be
followed at the close by an examination as rigid as
that given in other branches of regular hospital
work. The Michigan State Committee reports the
formation of similar classes in the Ann Arbor thri
ve] sity Hospital and also in Grace and Harper Hos
pitals, both prominent Michigan institutions. It is
believed that nurses need the helpful inspiration of
Bible training more urgently, perhaps, than any
other class of women workers.
Industrial Training.
But the Y. W. C. A. makes a special effort to bring
within the realm of working women the practical
assistance and material physical help which can only
be effectively rendered by organized effort. This is
demonstrated by the increased facilities in all the
local organizations for study, as well as for indus
trial and mechanical training. Classes in dress
making, in stenography and typewriting, in cooking,
in home nursing and in ordinary educational
branches are held regularly, and the fees are so
small as to bring these within the reach of every
working woman who desires the help so offered.
In the majority of cities suitable and handsome
buildings are erected for the use of women members
of the Y. W. C. A., and in most of these, rooms
and board can be had at a nominal rate for the
working woman. This feature alone would recom
mend the association to the kindly consideration of
the general public, for it solves a great problem as
to the proper, disposition of the working woman in
the matter of a home. It is especially pertinent
when considering the positon of young women from
the rural districts who flock in large numbers to the
principal cities without adequate funds or knowledge
to provide themselves with a suitable Christian
home.
The Young Woman’s Christian Association, like
the Young Men’s Christian Association, has grown
into a power in the social and religious life of a
community, and its various departments require the
most careful administration. To meet this need,
therefore, there has been founded
A Train ng Institute for Secretaries
Which although itself a separate organization, is
federated with the World’s Y. W. C. A. and the
World’s Student Christian Association. This in
stitute is equipped with every requirement for the
proper training of secretaries which will enable
them to serve in distant communities.
The Institute is situated at 297 Ashland Boulevard
in the most desirable residence district of Chicago.
The house contains a lecture room, reception room,
office and residence for students and two instruc
tors.
Miss Charlotte 11. Adams is the resident Bible
teacher, whose work correlates the lectures by non
resident Bible teachers. The course of Bible study
is thorough and complete, and it, as well as the other
special features, serves to prepare young women for
immediate sei vice as secretaries. “Attendance at
the Institute is required in order that a young wo
man may become familiar with the principles and
methods of the movement in which she is expected
to be a leader and that she may gain experience in
harmony with this preparation, and further, that
the committee may know her qualifications and her
personality in order that recommendations may lie
based upon actual knowledge.”
The tuition and other expenses of the training are
exceedingly reasonable, and the career may appeal
potent to undertake work of this kind.
The work of the Y. W. C. A., which has here been
most briefly outlined, is considered one of the most
extensive and best organized efforts for the educa
tion and cultivation of the Christian young woman,
and it is hoped that the summer session may waken
interest in the Association in the hearts of these who
may not have been Tully informed as to the broad
purpose of an organization planned solely to benefit
in the highest and holiest sense the young women of
the civilized world.
News of General Interest.
The House of Representatives has voted in favor
of a lock canal at Panama.
An airship -was navigated a few days ago all
around Washington, circling the monument and pass
ing over the Capitol.
Walter Wellman will soon make an attempt to
discover the north pole in an airship. The ship
will be the largest dirigible balloon ever built, and
will carry five men, besides food and all equipment.
Last week was “Home Coming” week in Ken
tucky. A monument was unveiled to Stephen Col
lins Foster, author of “My Old Kentucky Home” at
Louisville, and one day was set apart as Daniel
Boone day. The Foster statue is the gift of the
school children of Kentucky.
A recent convention of learned men at Berlin
have decided to advise the government to establish
two kinds of lyeeums for girls, one covering a period
of eight years, vhich shall correspond to our high
schools, and the other covering a period of four
years similar to our universities.
The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel
Workers have done a good work for temperance by
refusing to sanction a strike of three hundred skilled
men on account of the discharge of a puddler for
going into a saloon during working hours. This holds
up the hands of employers in their efforts to repress
drinking by their employes.
Rabbi Wolinsky, 102 years old, boasts the largest
family in New York, as he can count 104 lineal de
scendants. Os this number 54 are living in New
York City, 34 are still in Russia, 15 are dead, and
there is an infant grandson. Os this number 27
are children and the remainder grandchildren and
great grandchildren. No “race suicide” in the Wo
linsky family I
The Indian Missionary Society, a most important
organization, has been started by native Indian
Christians. This is a most important movement
commenced by the native Christians. “It ds (1)
interdenominational, different districts to be handed
over to different bodies; (2) its agents Indian; (3)
its money Indian; (4) its control in the hands of
Indians, with the advice of a few missionaries till
well under way.”
It is stated that Dr. Torrey and Mr. Alexander
will conduct a great revival in Nashville, Tenn.,
during next October. A committee of gentlemen
from Nashville, consisting of laymen and ministers,
visited Atlanta to invite the revivalists to meet in
Nashville, and at a meeting of the Nashville Ep
worth League on Friday night last, it was stated
that this invitation had been accepted.
Lieutenant General Stephen D. Lee and Major
General 0. 0. Howard are considering the writing of
a collaborated history of the Civil War. The record
would be unique in combining both points of view,
as General Howard is a noted Union Army man,
and, of course, General lee is famous in Confed
erate circles. They are both students and graduates
of West Point at the same time, and never ceased
being warm personal friends, even when they com
manded hostile forces.
Lewis Nixon, a former naval officer and a grad
uate of Annapolis, has recently invented a new sub
marine destroyer, the essentials of which have been
kept secret because of the valuable patent rights
that must'be preserved. It is said that it will he
built wholly of steel of the thinnest possible plates;
that it will be run by a safely protected gasoline
motor and that if can hit the mark 150 feet below
the surface, while submarines now in use cannot
possibly work with safely more than forty or fiftv
feet below. The use of this new submarine will
practically revolutionize naval warfare.