376 RURAL MICHIGAN 



spirituality. Dcmonstratious of the worshipers 

 might take forms that, to the undevout, seemed 

 grotesque and ridiculous, but this did not detract 

 from their appeal to the country folk whose daily 

 life was one of drudgery and severest toil. The cir- 

 cuit-rider, making his round of many miles, on foot, 

 on horseback or by boat, gathered and disseminated 

 the news at a time when newspapers were seldom 

 encountered, and at the same time ministered to 

 the religious life of his scattered flock for a 

 meager recompense save of hardship. His worldly 

 goods were bound up in his saddle-bags and included 

 his Bible, his hymnal and his church discipline with 

 a few clothes and personal belongings. His cash 

 returns might amount to $100 per annum, but en- 

 tertainment was free, if rough and meager. Services 

 were held in the homes of the settlers, sometimes in 

 the school-house, the court-house, or a barn. Epis- 

 copal visitations were attended with great difficulties 

 and there are records of amusing, if trying, experi- 

 ences of reverend gentlemen deposited in muddy 

 abysses on the "highways" that should have conveyed 

 .them to their expectant flocks in the interior. Even 

 yet there are remote communities in which such 

 pioneer conditions still obtain to a degree. There 

 are still clergymen who eke out a precarious liveli- 

 hood by farming, or other pursuits tliat have more 

 reference to the necessities of this life than of the 

 next. There is Eev. William Maltas, a former 

 Methodist circuit-rider, now associated with the 

 Episcopal Church in ChipiJewa County of the Upper 



