A New Christianizing Agency.
By Editor
THE San Francisco Young Men’s Christian Association has lately introduced a new feature, it being nothing less than a bowling alley. This, we are informed, has been approved by the majority of the directors of that association. One of the members, a deacon in a prominent church, has advocated still further “improvements,” including a billiard table. Mr. John Thomas Waterhouse, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, makes a vigorous “Protest to the Y. M. C. A.,” against the use of such means to Christianize the young men of the city. He states that these amusements, and the gymnasium, make simply a lounging place for hoodlums, so that the youth who go there are led directly into the temptations against which the Association should shield them. Mr. Waterhouse protests that the bowling alley is an outrage and a wrong to those who have pledged so liberally for the support of the institution, and says:— “The Lord’s work on the top and the devil’s trap below will not be successful in a religious sense, and will, in the end, prove a failure. ‘Ten-pins’ is introduced because ‘nine-pins’ is against the law, and such an evasion is not in keeping with Christian sentiment.” Bowling alleys and billiard tables have truly a converting influence, but it will be found when the conversion is complete that it has all been the wrong way. We do not think that places of amusement are so scarce nowadays that it is necessary for Christians to add to the number.