1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



741 



that their minister was a comparatively new 

 man, but he was very interesting, and the 

 church was always full. You see God, in his 

 infinite mercy and love, had in store for me 

 something to correct my impressions during 

 the fore part of the day, and there I was plan- 

 ning to leave my coat and valise to go by ex- 

 press, and /to go flying across the country in 

 mj' shirt-sleeves in place of going to church. 



I was on hand early at that Baptist church, 

 and got into a very bright active Endeavor 

 society. In fact, the little church was pretty 

 well filled with young people and those too 

 who remember that iron-clad pledge to take 

 part in every meeting. That little country 

 place, not much more than a four corners, fur- 

 nished a larger attendance at the Endeavor 

 meeting than the great First Congregational 

 Church in Toledo. After the Endeavor meet- 

 ing, a real live Christian minister gave us a 

 home talk of twenty or twenty-five minutes. 

 He took his theme from the text of the En- 

 deavor meeting, and he asked the young men 

 and women if they were looking out that 

 mother had an easy time when so many peo- 

 ple are getting tired out in consequence of 

 the heat. He gave some glimpses of home 

 life that almost made me think he had been 

 peeping into our own home ; and by the way 

 the young people exchanged glances I knew 

 he had struck on a point that needs to be 

 touched on in almost every home in the land. 

 Look out for the dear mother, and see that 

 too many burdens are not allowed to fall on 

 her shoulders. In this little countrj' town the 

 people came out until the church was crowd- 

 ed almost to overflowing. The windows were 

 opened wide, there were plenty of fans, and 

 it was not so uncomfortable after all. If our 

 great cities are in danger of being spoiled by 

 wealth and every thing it can furnish in the 

 way of conveniences for worship, thank God 

 the little towns are holding fast to Bi Ue teach- 

 ings, and making a good use of the plain hum- 

 ble little churches, many of them that were 

 built by our fathers years ago. Thank God 

 for the couritry, for the small towns, and for 

 the plain country people. 



Just one more picture. Not long ago I at- 

 tended a great picnic. There were steamboat 

 loads of men, women, and children. I was 

 with the crowd, although I did not much ap- 

 prove of the place where we were going. As 

 the train swept past a little country town I 

 saw another crowd of picnickers. They were 

 loaded on an old-fashioned lumber-wagon. 

 There was not any style about it, and the 

 children were not dressed as expensively as 

 many of the children on the train ; but right 

 up in the center of the group on that lumber- 

 wagon was a little home made banner ; and 

 on that banner was some rude printing which 

 read, "Our Siinda}'-school ; " and it seemed 

 to me then that there was probably more real 

 integrity in that little wagonload than in the 

 whole great crowd that filled the two great 

 steamers. Yes, I should sooner expect to find 

 the child that may some time be worthy to he- 

 come president of the United States, among 

 those humble hard - working people, than 

 among the thousands that go out from cities. 



NOTES OF TRAVLl, 



r BY A. I. ROOT - ■ 



A TRIP TO NORTHERN MICHIGAN. 



My impression is that few of the friends re- 

 alize how much it helps a man in business to 

 have a printed letter-head, so that whenever 

 he writes a letter to anybody he tells the 

 world, or whoever may get hold of it, some- 

 thing about what his business is in life. As 

 for myself, it always pleases me to see some- 

 thing printed on any letter I get, indicating 

 who the writer i"?, or what he is, besides where 

 he lives. One day my eye was caught by a 

 printed letter - head reading as follows : 

 "James Hilbert, Elmwood Fruit-farm. Spe- 

 cialties : Strawberries, maple syrup, and hon- 

 ey."* Well, now, all of these things interest- 

 ed me, and just then they interested me still 

 more. When I was up in Muskoka having 

 such a good time I told my friends I owned 

 40 acres of land in the northern part of Mich- 

 igan ; and by looking on the map we found it 

 was just about as far north as Muskoka ; and 

 I remembered, too, it was called a great place 

 for hot-weather excursions and summer re- 

 sorts. My land is a few miles north of Trav- 

 erse City ; and this letter-head that attracted 

 me came from the postoffice nearest to my 

 property. Of course I soon scraped acquaint- 

 ance with friend Hilbert, and talked about 

 making him a visit. Well, one day I noticed 

 that on the 21st of August there would be an 

 excursion from a station near by, to Traverse 

 City and return, for only $6 80 At first I 

 thought it must be a mistake, but I soon found 

 out it was correct. The regular fare one way 

 would be over $10.00. When we are finding 

 fault with the railroad companies would it 

 not be well to remember these special privi- 

 leges they give us every little while ? 



On very short notice I was in Traverse City, 

 and called up friend Hilbert by telephone. 

 While I was waiting for him to come after me 

 I rented a wheel and got out in sight of my 

 property. In fact, I would have ridden clear 

 over to Mr. Hilbert's, but feared he might go 

 to town by some other road, and so I should 

 miss him. As a rule, the roads are sandj' in 

 this locality ; but the one I found along Trav- 

 erse Bay was a very fair and certainly a very 

 pretty wheel route. 



I soon noted that thi« peninsula was a great 

 place for growing potatoes In due time friend 

 Hilbert appeared with a smart span of ponies 

 and a light buggy, and we were off over the 

 sandy hills. His letter head did not say any 

 thing about growing potatoes ; but he might 

 well have " potatoes " among his specialties, 

 for he has about 17 acres of his own ; and 

 when we got on top of a pretiy good-sized 

 hill I could see potatoes in every direction — 

 not only acres of them, but miles. You see 

 this cooler climate, while it is not just the 

 thing for corn, is just right for poiat( es. 

 They do not stand hot weather ; and I believe 



* James Hilbert, Bingham, I,eelanau Co., Mich. 



