Tárogató, 1939-1940 (2. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1939-10-01 / 4. szám
TÁROGATÓ 15 I became mentor of the Terriers. There are eleven in the group, and not a single one smokes. We don’t moralize about the matter; it’s just part of our training for life as well as for athletics.” Thus writes Mr. Martin Terry, mentor of the Terriers Tuxis group of a mission in Winnipeg, in reply to a letter of inquiry about his group. They had distinguished themselves by their athletic feats, and this prompted the inquiry. But now, with a brief history of the group at hand, their Dominion title in the National Athletic Contest (Tuxis and senior division, 1938) seems a curiously natural occurence, typical of these Terriers. It is about what one would expect from such a group. Back of the Terriers stands a rich and varied racial heritage. Five of the eleven boys are Ukrainian, three Anglo-Saxon, two Rumanian, and one Polish. The Mentor himself is Ukrainian, and, if one rightly reads between the lines, he stands behind the group in a powerful way. But they worked for it. Mr. Terry coached them in track and field athletics four consecutive years. They won the Winnipeg championship in their division every year of the four, the Manitoba championship twice, and, in their last year as Tuxis Boys, crowned their achievements by winning the Dominion title. The Dominion shield, known as the Gordon Hignell Memorial Shield, appears in the picture with the Terriers. Officially, a Tuxis group is known as a Square—the name deriving from the foursquare programme based on St. Luke 2: 52 (“And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and man”), and from the ideal of four-square growth (intellectual, physical, devotional and social) for each boy. The Terriers qualify as a Square—and Mr. Terry as mentor of a Square. He also coached them in basketball, taught their lesson on Sunday, and led them in their week-day meetings. Two of the eleven boys could never take part in athletics, the one being tubercular (he died not long ago) and the other having a bad heart. But the remaining nine are active in such games as lacrosse, football, baseball and hockey. Playing as a team, the Terriers have placed as high as second in the Sunday School Basketball League of Winnipeg. Three of the boys give leadership to younger boys, as did Louis Shaw, the boy whose death the group mourns. A fifth Terrier stepped immediately into Louis’ lace as a leader. All the Terriers had high school training, although only one is still at school. By the time these lines appear in print, they will have become a young men’s club, graduates from Tuxis. Their excellent record will long be an inspiration to other Tuxis groups. Surely there is not a Tuxis group anywhere in Canada which would not benefit from an attempt to emulate the champion Terriers. Two Bible Society colporteurs travelled five thousand miles in Brazil, carried their packs for two hundred and fifty miles, were chased by leopards and bandits, and twice came near death crossing huge waterfalls—but they sold seven thousand Bibles. COLLATERAL In this title you will at once recognize two Latin words, which make the word mean “that which lies beside or with.” Mary Lyon, who founded Mount Holyoke Seminary, a famous school for girls, gave this advice, more than one hundred years ago: “In all pursuits, do not neglect the collateral means of improvement.” Perhaps she realized that it seems difficult for a girl to find time for all the important things. School work, music practice and clothes require regular hours, but time must be found for conversation that says something, for the cultivation of the sense of beauty through studying works of art, for enjoying nature, participating in music as performer or audience, and taking time to think about those things that are “pure, lovely, and of good report.” She knew, however, it could be done because she had proved it. We are told that at the age of sixteen, Mary Lyon was housekeeper for her brother, who paid her one dollar a week for her services. Her time was worth much more than that small amount, and she used every possible moment to read and study. Perhaps it was at this time she was forming the ideals and ideas which later led her to establish Mount Holyoke Seminary. After her death, among her papers was found a statement of seven practices which waste time. They were worded as follows: Indefinite musings, anticipating needlessly, idle speculations, indulging in reluctance to begin a duty, not deciding doubtful cases at once, musing on what has been said or done or what may be, and spending time in reverie which should be spent in prayer. If these things are guarded against, there will be time for “the collateral means of improvement.” Have you noticed how misshapen and grotesque a tree or flower becomes when it falls to develop equally on all sides at the same time? We are told that Jesus “increased in T
