Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 133, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 December 1904 — CHURCHES JOIN TO SAVE BOYS. [ARTICLE]

CHURCHES JOIN TO SAVE BOYS.

Reign of Crime in .Brooklyn Starts Unique Religions Crusade. The misdeeds of hundreds of young men connected with well-known families in the Bedford section of Brooklyn, N. Y., which began several years ago by the formation of the “Bedford and finally led to many of them and their recruits being connected with criminal cases, much to the disgust of residents in that quarter, has caused the inauguration of a remarkable religious campaign for the purification of the youths who passed their time about the street corners. The first night of the “campaign of evangelization,” ns it is called, began with a street parade in which tramped 2,000 men with banners, with the band of the Twenty-third regiment playing hymns at the fore. The mile of frockcoated pnraders moved through Bedford avenue to Hancock street, where hung a great banner. There they held an openair meeting. Ministers from fifty churches of all Protestant denominations were in attendance and many of them made short addresses. Every church in the district ia joining in the movement. The street corner meeting ended, tha brass band again beaded the procession, and it marched to the Ceutral Presbyterian church, where a meeting for men had been called. The church has a capacity of 1,500. Every seat was taken and hundreds were turned away. Six ministers made short addresses, telling the purposes of the movement, which, it was announced, will continue throughout the winter.