--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 6 number: 1 published: 1902-11 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "A Slighted Opportunity," *Improvement Era* 6, no. 1 (November 1902): 59.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0601unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera0601unse start_page: 59 end_page: 59 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1902-11) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0601unse publication_year: 1902 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1902, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # A Slighted Opportunity — TALKS TO THE YOUNG MEN. 59 Look at your education, and see the vast field for your industry, in reading good books, in attending school. The question will be, once you learn to be industrious, how you can ever find time for all the good things that clamor to be done. Idleness, the mother of vice; the feeder of reform schools, prisons, saloons; the instiga- tor of crime and debauchery, will flee frightened from your pres- ence, and leave you free with industry to build your character. A SLIGHTED OPPORTUNITY. While in Berlin last week, President Francis M. Lyman, to- gether with Presidents Hugh J. Cannon and Levi E. Young, had an interview with United States Ambassador Andrew D. White. Af- ter the business was concluded, Mr. Whita entered into friendly conversation with them. * * * After describing his visit to Salt Lake City, in 1892, with Mr. Andrew Carnegie, he said he wished to tell them a little story that had never been told to any "Mormon" before. When a boy, he lived in Syracuse, New York, where his father was cashier of a bank. The clerks of the establishment belonged to a club, organized for mutual entertainment and development, and here they used to meet together and discuss topics of the day. One evening, they had prepared themselves for the discussion of "Mormonism." Some took one side of the question, and spoke in favor of the new] religion, and others opposed it. While the de- bate was in progress, a stranger entered. He was dressed in gray clothes, and had a traveling bag in his hand. Sitting down in the back of the room, he listened attentively. At a convenient time, he arose and asked the chairman if he might speak on the subject. Finding that the by-laws gave only members of the club the right to speak, this pridlege was refused. The man in gray resumed his seat, and listened quietly until the discussion was over, and then departed. Next day the club men found that their visitor was no less a personage than Joseph Smith, the "Mormon" prophet, and then they were sorry indeed that they had not suspended the rules and allowed him to speak, but the opportunity was gone. Millennial Star, Aug. 28, 1902.