Make the Work Intensive 143 



ice 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. There- 

 fore, 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 SPARSELY SETTLED COUNTRY 



The following statement will show what was 

 achieved during the first year in the Y.M.C.A. of 

 Washington County, Kansas, which has a rural 

 population of about ten thousand people. 



