Mr. William Thaw, vice-president of the Pennsylvania Company, writes:  “This work is wholly good, both for the men and the roads which they serve.”  Mr. C. Vanderbilt, first vice-president of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, writes:  “Few things about railroad affairs afford more satisfactory returns than these reading-rooms.”  Mr. J.H.  Devereux, of Cleveland, president of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis Railway, writes:  “The association work has from the beginning (now ten years ago) been prosecuted at Cleveland satisfactorily and with good results.  The conviction of the board of superintendents is that the influence of the room and the work in connection with it has been of great value to both the employer and the employed, and that the instrumentalities in question should not only be encouraged but further strengthened.”  Mr. John W. Garrett, president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, says:  “A secretary of the Young Men’s Christian Association, for the service of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, was appointed in 1879, and I am gratified to be able to say that the officers under whose observation his efforts have been conducted informed me that this work has been fruitful of good results.”  Mr. Thomas Dickson, president of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, writes:  “This company takes an active interest in the prosperity of the association, and will cheerfully co-operate in all proper methods for the extension of its usefulness.”  Mr. H.B.  Ledyard, general manager of the Michigan Central Railroad Company, writes:  “I have taken a deep interest in the work of the Young Men’s Christian Association among railroad men, and believe that, leaving out all other questions, it is a paying investment for a railroad company.”

[Illustration:  BUILDING OF THE Y.M.C.A.  IN CHICAGO.]

These are a few out of a great number of assurances from railroad men of the value of this organization.  In Chicago, the president of one of the leading railroads, the general superintendent of another, and other officials, are serving on the railroad committee of the Young Men’s Christian Association, and it is hoped that at every railway centre there may soon be an advisory committee of the work.  Such a committee is now forming in Boston.  This work should interest every individual, because it touches every one who ever journeys by train.  Speak as some men may, faithlessly, concerning religion, where is the man who would not feel safer should he know that the engineer and conductor of his train were Christians? men not only caring for others, but themselves especially cared for.