964 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15. 



Notes of Travel 



FROM A. I. ROOT. 



But tlie fruit of the Spiiit is love, joy, peace, loug'- 

 sutt'ering:, geatleness, goodness, faith, meekness, 

 temperance: ag'ainst sucli there is no law. — Gal. 

 5:22,23. 



MITCHELL, SOUTH DAKOTA. 



Nov. 22. — Inconsequence of delayed trains I 

 reached here Sunday morning, just before day- 

 light. Of course, I do not propose to travel on 

 Sunday: but when a train is late, we sometimes 

 have to travel a little. I confess I was tired, 

 and somewhat homesick. The latter was caus- 

 ed, probably, by the profanity and blasphemy 

 of some of my fellow-travelers who seemed to 

 think it a fitting way to usher in God's holy 

 day. As it is bleak winter here, I got a room 

 with a fire in it, slept two hours, then took a 

 bath, and dressed for church. I was almost the 

 first comer at the bright new Congregational 

 church, and the pleasant "good - morning" 

 from the janitor made me feel at home and 

 among friends. Dear reader, are you looking 

 out for the stranger when you attend your place 

 of worship? Oh what a nice lot of people came 

 there that morning to worship! How their 

 faces and their ways contrasted with those I 

 had met with the day before! I had decided 

 this time not to push myself forward, but to 

 wait and see whether the Holy Spirit would 

 make it plainly manifest that I was wanted 

 among these people who were all entire stran- 

 gers. In the Bible-class, a lady who sat oppo- 

 site looked hard at me several times, and her 

 face seemed in some strange way more or less 

 familiar. After meeting I found that she and 

 her husband, C. M. Peck, were from Medina Co., 

 O. He is in the employ of the American Sun- 

 day-school Union, and goes all over South Da- 

 kota, starting Sunday-schools, holding meetings 

 in schoolhouses, reviving the weak schools, 

 starting them when they have run down and 

 been stopped, and, when destitution prevails in 

 winter time, he distributes clothing, shoes, etc., 

 and sometimes food as well. He is, in fact, a 

 general missionary, going everywhere in his 

 field doing good, and finding out the general 

 condition of affairs. Is it at all strange that he 

 Is a man generally loved and respected ?— one 

 of God's anointed ones, is the way I should tell 

 it. While eating my dinner after our pleasant 

 Sunday-school, the genial young proprietor of 

 the Mitchell Hotel laid his hand on my shoul- 

 der in a homelike way, and whispered that I 

 was asked to address the 4 o'clock meeting at 

 the Y. M. C. A. rooms. I talked 40 minutes, 

 mainly in regard to the damaging effects of 

 profanity and blasphemy on any town or com- 

 munity, and upon its ruinous results to both 

 soul and body. Some of my hearers told me 

 afterward I had not been doing quite justice to 

 Mitchell, and Dakota in general. Like Iowa, 

 the State is under prohibition, and there is not 

 only no saloon in their pretty town, but not 

 even an indication of one. and no sort of bar 

 anywhere about any of the principal hotels. 



Years ago a pleasant-looking man came to 

 me one Sunday morning and asked permission 

 to go with me to jail. Of course. I gladly as- 

 sented, and, when there, I asked him to talk to 

 my class of prisoners. I shall never forget that 

 talk; and when I found that this brother held 

 an important govei-nment office here in the city 

 I felt glad again. R. N. Kratz is a "twin 

 brother." if I may be allowed the expression, of 

 brother Peck. As there is nobody in jail in 

 Mitchell, and, for that matter, in the country 

 round about, friend K. talks to the boys who 

 are not in jail. Come to think of it, I giiess he 



gets them heforc the jail does, and takes them 

 to the Y. M. C. A. rooms instead. Everybody 

 around Mitchell seems to delight in speaking 

 well of him; and although the government gives 

 him quite a large salary, it was whispered to 

 me that he uses nearly if not quite half of it in 

 working for Christ Jesus. Will some of the 

 good brothers who read Gi.eaxixgs make a 

 note of the fact that not all the men who hold 

 offices that give good salaries are b«((?men'? 

 Well, a revival is going on now at the Method- 

 ist church here. It really does seem as if these 

 Methodist people were aiivays having a revival. 

 Well, what do you think? Why, the minister 

 sent word to me that he would like to have me 

 conduct the work in the vnquiry room in the 

 Methodist chui'ch. toward the close of the ser- 

 vice that evening. I don't know whether he 

 knew I was a Congregationalist or not — may be 

 he thought it didn't matter. Well, brother 

 Peck got into that I'oora in some way, and he is 

 a Congregationalist too. mind you, and a good 

 one, and he followed my exhortation with the 

 most earnest pei'sonal work, first with one 

 of the seekers and then another; and then 

 bi'other Kratz, who is a real Methodist, backed 

 us both up. Well, I tell you it was a grand 

 Methodist revival. A young man who was 

 near me said he could not", fully surrender," 

 and I told him to surrender all he could, and 

 trust Christ Jesus for the rest. His pastor 

 came up behind me and indorsed what I said, 

 and our young brother was soon happy, and 

 smiling through his tears. Almost every one 

 who came into the room gave their names to 

 the minister, to be taken into the church. 

 When we disbanded I was astonished to find it 

 was 10 o'clock; but the pastor had 20 names of 

 young people on his paper, but I believe it in- 

 cluded a few who received baptism in the morn- 

 ing. It seems a little funny, but my last Sun- 

 day evening in Medina was spent in a Meth- 

 odist revival meeting. 



When I awoke this morning my next-door 

 neighbor in the hotel was singing softly to him- 

 self. "Other refuge have I none." I found a 

 young lawyer sitting by the stove i-eading " Ben 

 Hur," and Mrs. Peck says every Sunday morn- 

 ing he goes through the hotel office and invites 

 all to come to church; and he "gets them " too. 

 frequently a whole long seat full. Now, dear 

 reader, if one were inclined, and in the mood, 

 he might hnd fault — yes, a good cZeat of fault 

 with several things around here — yes, even 

 with the Methodist revival, and with a good 

 many things your humble servant said and did; 

 but people here are not in a fault-finding mood 

 just now, for don't you hiunv — "the fruit of 

 the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering. gen- 

 tleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temper- 

 ance "? 



GETTING TURNED AROUND. 



I came into Mitchell in the night, and all day 

 Sunday was cloudy, so it is not strange that I 

 got north south, and vice versa. Everybody 

 told me my mistake, but it did no good, and I 

 went all over the city, and took " landmarks," 

 as we say of the bees when they take their first 

 flight. Monday moi'ning friend Peck took his 

 Sunday-school horse, '" Maud," and carried me 

 out in the country. When the sun came up. 

 that straightened me. I believed the sun, when 

 I couldn't believe anybody else. Well, we 

 came into the town from a new direction, and 

 I took new " landmarks" with the sun in the 

 east, where it should be. I visited many peo- 

 ple, and stores and offices, and learned location; 

 but, alas! when I crossed the territory I had ex- 

 plored on Sunday, there seemed to be two 

 Mitchells, or two A. I. Roots, and I couldn't ex- 

 actly say which. The depot is at the end of the 

 street; but as I sit here writing I can not ac- 



