THE COUNTRY CHURCH 437 



various tests of strength, swiftness, and athletic ability. No 

 chances are sold, no money demanded. Every one spends what 

 he wishes and feels sure that he gets full value for the money 

 he pays. 



One word must be said about the buildings. The school has 

 two adjoining rooms separated by a movable partition. The 

 larger room may readily be used as an auditorium, as a movable 

 stage can be erected in the smaller room, the partition removed, 

 the school desks taken to the basement of the school and chairs 

 put in their places. Thus the school is changed into an audi- 

 torium with a stage complete in all its appointments. After the 

 performance is over, the stage is taken down and stored away, and 

 the desks replaced, the whole not requiring more than two or 

 three hours of work. 



The basement of the church has a furnace and fuel room, a 

 large kitchen furnished with everything needed in the line of 

 cooking utensils and desks, a large dining-room with large dining 

 tables and three hundred chairs. The dining-room and the 

 kitchen are never used for any other purpose, and are therefore 

 always in readiness. 



RURAL WORK OF THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN 

 ASSOCIATION * 



ALBERT E. ROBERTS AND HENRY ISRAEL 



THE county work, or rural department of the Young Men's 

 Christian Association seeks to unite in a -town, village, rural com- 

 munity, or in the open country the vital forces of young man- 

 hood for self-improvement, physically, socially, mentally, and 

 spiritually, and to give expression to these resources in com- 

 munity life for the betterment of others. 



It considers its legitimate field to include all communities that 

 are too small to maintain the city type of Young Men 's Christian 

 Association work, generally conceded to include towns of four 

 thousand and under. Experience has proved that its best work 

 is done, however, in communities in which the rural environment 



i Adapted from Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social 

 Science, March, 1012, pp. 140-0. 



