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Missionary in China in the 1870's Letter - Coolville Circuit and his horse
Near Coolville, O.
Dear Sister Rose: I received Wm.'s letter, and was very glad to hear once more from home. I suppose father must have come home again, but Wm. didn't tell me how long he had been away or how he succeeded where he was or if he is going back again or anything else. I hope when you write you won't be so afraid of going into particulars. My health was never better, I don't think, and I am losing my loss of appetite, which is quite an agreeable symptom. Charley, however, ("the puir baste") is just getting over the distemper, which he caught in somebody's stable, and has the windgalls, the lampers, and I don't know what else. He can eat like a horse, and wherever I go with him that's all he wants -- something to eat, eat, eat. I often get provoked at his insatiable appetite, and his utter lack of desire for any higher gratification than mere indulgence in eating and drinking. I have been trying to teach him some sense, but have utterly failed. I had him a short term at Athens, but it didn't do him a bit of good. I have given up all hopes of ever making an intelligent horse out of him. If he meets another horse along the road, he has an unendurable propensity to stop and stare, instead of going quietly by on his dignity; and if I happen to have no whip, I am compelled to let him, or else by strapping and kicking to remind him that though he is a horse -- or pretends to be -- I am the rider. Lest Joe should take offence at this discreditable description of his equine property, I will only add that if I had Fan I suppose it would be a good deal worse.Bro. Griffith and I are getting along extremely well with our work. We hardly ever get together without jawing each other about some trifling matter. Our Missionary collection has been taken up. They said down at Reedville appointment, on the Ohio river, that I had preached the biggest Missionary sermon ever preached in that Church. Bro. Griffith has threatened to leave the circuit. He gave me six appointments to raise $100, while he took the other six to raise another $100 from. At the close of our first day's work I had raised $32 from 3 appointments, and he had raised $35. I told him I was going to come out 12 or 15 dollars ahead of him, for he had been at his best appointments and I hadn't. He told me to "go ahead." The next Sunday we started out again, and at my first appointment I took up a subscription of $30. Now, thinks I, Bro. Griffith, you'll see who'll come out best in this game. At the close of the day I counted up all I had raised, and found it amounted to near $80. But Bro. Griffith had got spunky when he heard how I had done at Reedville, and he went out to his two appointments, Lawrence & Asbury, and got up such an excitement that $30 was raised at each place -- a subscription I suppose without a parallel in the annals of Coolville Circuit. Thus he had $95 missionary money raised, and one appointment yet to go to, while I had been at all of mine. When we came to "compare notes," instead of being able to rally him on my superior success, I was compelled with as good a grace as possible to keep a perfectly still tongue. I suppose he is as popular a preacher on the work as they ever had here. Last Sabbath Tupper's Plains was the last of my afternoon appointments. I staid all night at Dr. Tiffany's. The Dr. & his wife are exceedingly fine and clever people, and their house is elegantly furnished. But the chief attraction about it is their adopted daughter Frank, of whom you have doubtless heard Bro. McLaughlin speak often (if you haven't, just mention her name to him the first opportunity you get). She is a lady, if ever there was one, and her great delight is her piano, on which she can play with surpassing skill. I had the Fresh Leaves with me, and she played all the nice pieces, many of which she had never seen before. After a couple of hours spent in this way she took up her army pieces and sung and played several of them, among others, "Just before the Battle, Mother," "Tramp, tramp, tramp," "Who will care for mother now?" and "Sleeping for the Flag." You may be sure I was delighted beyond expression, especially with the last. It is that beautiful piece beginning "When our boys come home in triumph." I wish you could have been there -- you would have been charmed. I would be very glad indeed if there were any way for you to make Frank's acquaintance. I heard her render a storm on the piano, and the roar of the tempest and the deep rolling thunder were presented so graphically that I never heard it excelled by either Philip Phillips or T. C. O'Keane. I am getting to like the Circuit more and more, but in less than two months I must leave. I don't see hardly how I can go away and leave the many warm friends and genuine Methodist homes I have found here. I expect to come home about the 1st of September. I am glad you are doing so well in the S. School. You needn't be afraid that you are living a worthless life so long as you have a place there to work. Those pieces on the 7th & 62d pages of the Fresh Leaves are not very nice. There are nice ones on the 32d & 44th pages. Learn that one on the 5th page. It is full of music, and very easy. The first three notes are sol. The piece must be sung very fast to sound right nice. Nothing more at present. Your aff. brother, |