AMONG BUSINESS MEN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19723, 14 December 1926, Page 10

AMONG BUSINESS MEN

GIPSY SMITH’S VISIT ADDRESS AT ROTARY LUNCHEON Guests at yesterday’s meeting of the Wanganui Rotary Club were Air Gipsy Smim, the evangelist, and his musical associate, Mr E. E. Young. Mr binith briefly addressed ihe gathering, and Mr Young delighted all with his piano music. In his remarks to the club members Mr Gipsy fSmith said he had enjoyed ample acquaintance with Rotary. All through Australia, and from London to .San Francisco, he had met Rotarians, and had enjoyed association with the members of many different clubs. Sailer of Pegs He could feel at home among them, as business men, because he had been a business man himself. He had been in the timber trade, selling clouhes pegs. (Laughter). As a clothes peg merchant he had been a success. He talked to the housewives until they bought pegs to get rid of him. (Laughter). He wanted them to know that he felt as keen about his job as they were about theirs. They could be proud of their business lile, as long as they were doing their tasks well, and not doing someone else. (Laughter). A voice: Quite right. The Gipsy: Yes, that’s right. I’m on your tracks. (Laughter). He went on to describe experiences in France, and stated that he had not come to New Zealand to get a reputation. He had a reputation before he came here, and anyone who had been before the British Press and the British public as he had been, for close on fifty years—he would celebrate his jubilee as an evangelist next June —• could show a clean record. No Creed in France In France, among the soldiers, there had been no suggestion of creed or class. It was need, not .creed, there, where creed was too small a thing to bo talked about. He appealed to them not to forget God in their lives, stating that this was perhaps the first chance he had had to t alk to some of them, and the last he would get. (Laughter). He reminded them that life was something more than personal cornfort —something more than a good suit of clothes, three square meals a day, and a nice automobile. They must not forget the principles of service, and keep God before their eyes. There was something else to do besides make money, and he appealed to them to look more to spiritual and less to material things. A vote of thanks to the Gipsy was proposed by the Rev. Creed Meredith, and carried with enthusiasm.