Show SOUTHERN STATES MISSION on ie returning turning from an extensive tour of the conferences comprising the northern states mission I 1 feel it my duty to state through your columns something of my trip and for the beste fit of those interested in the mis mill si narles and their labors to give an account of our doings and pros pacts pec ta we held a very successful series of meetings at littleton a small town on tate B 0 railroad in northern west virginia that being the headquarters of the pennsylvania conference E elder ider W H freeman the president Jent of that conference having just been released by instruCt instruction IOD ficz from president woodruff owing to sickness in his family his bis presence was missed but elder hyrum F thomas thomae the clerk of the conference was in charge and still re mains acting president until the spirit shall suggest a permanent president for that conference we held six conference meetings and a priesthood meeting in g in in i the largest room of the school house bouse and although the weather was stormy part of the time there was no diminution in the attendance it i rained very hard sunday evening and was so dark and the roads so bad that but little bead headway way could be made mad wj without th lanterns and yet when I 1 arrived at the school house I 1 found them bringing extra benches from the other rooms and it was with some difficulty we could seat the congregation during the conference nine elders besides basi tea myself addressed the people and the best of et feelings prevailed now new fields are being opened up in that conference and by letter from elder denio just received I 1 learn that since conference there has been great inquiry and a re quest made by a settlement of people near burton for conference to be held beld there next time promising every accommodation for the elders duriex the gathering elder denlo denio chope health has baa been somewhat affected on long island though well cared for by bv the there has now in this new region entirely rec recovered vered and can cah again use his lungs lunge with freedom elder keetch was debarred debarres de barred from attending conference as his hia health had been feeble and had not sufficiently recuperated led to admit of the long journey from his field especially as aa much of it would have had to be performed on foot elder meeks meeke has baa been appointed to labor with him and I 1 think will matte mafie a good companion the other elders throughout the miss mission loxi are iri in excellent health from little ton ten I 1 made my way via grafton W va cincinnati 0 and Loui louisville evilie ky to taswell indiana traveling on the baltimore and ohio obio Liui Lui aville eville and nashville and the air line railroads and thence in private conveyance to a place bearing the somewhat appetising appetizing appe name dame of Du dumpling miling creek where conference was to be held saturday and sunday your readers must not imagine that this place takes its name dame from any discovery of dumplings dump lings in the creek or anywhere else that I 1 could discern but from the rather forlorn fact fac t that a brutal husband given to drinking not water from the creek apparently coming home to supper to in a fit of drunken anger at there being nothing but a saucepan sauce pan of dumpling dump linga ig for the meal compelled his bis wife who had done the cooking to eat cat the whole of dumplings dump lings and you know that dumplings dump lings and prairie biscuits are satisfying but not at over attract attractive ivo articles of diet especially chov 4 aa horace I reeley Greeley says they are hard as bullets and twice as dangerous 0 the legend does not state the result of af this io la voluntary gastric performance on the part of the submissive wife e but the cruel act of the foolish husband Is permanently handed down to poet posterity briw in the name of the locality where it to is said to have occurred at this point were assembled twelve elders including thomas A nixon president of the indiana conference who has since returned home having been succeeded by elder rober J duke elder nixon was able with his hia corps of elders to report an excellent work in the states comprising that conference and we held six general meetings and a priesthood Priest bood meeting in the spacious school house at that place we had a fine turn out of peo pie and at rome ome of the meetings we could not seat beat all the congregation many encouraging words were spoken to the elders by those who heard the discourses and baptisms commenced immediately after the conference ended the labors in that field beld are about to be extended exten jed led into illinois and already a very good work is being done in ohio where the headquarters bead quarters are now located from this point I 1 went and visited some frie ds do of our people who had been burned out and as I 1 had been authorized zed to do rendered them some relief anti and found that already the elders had rallied round them and rebuilt their house these people had bad given our elders a home when they first appeared in that region and mado them comfortable so when their home fell a prey to the beatt octive element elders corbett and antl jones jone and others who M e carpenters tools turned in and helped those of their outside friends who ho had offered assistance and finished lp ap the house bouse and I 1 found them moved OV ajl and very thankful I 1 had already foot them some funds but on my aril 1 val ival there I 1 found that they had exi ended most of the m ney in buying s and bedding and furniture to l ke the eiders another re some borne foolish fellow told them the ithe burning was a heavenly t von for entertaining the elders but 1 e results do not show this to be the 1 afis that same name poor fellow was waa himi alf elf dying of the grip when I 1 was 1 libere abere two years previous 1 I 1 had bad to a member of this jM nily ily a little grandson whom the gave up to die of scrofula and from that time he began to recover recover HID he rao ran up to me on this last visit as S w wella wa boy as ever breathed and his hid 1 father and mother who had bad been quite bitter against our people were f awaiting favorable weather to h b baptized and are now among our most enthusiastic friends yawl d advocates thus fulfilling a prof diction which I 1 felt to make when I 1 first visited them from here bore I 1 went to missouri and visited some parties I 1 among whom the elders eldera had labored last hist year but I 1 did nut not find any ready 1 tor baptism or in fact willing to con veree very much on the gospel religion coils its fol 8 s wound its members and de bands r sueh such close and rigid 1 discipline that some feel always con deemed to co have listened to anything upside their own creed still I 1 was well treated through personal friends hip ofila but coult coul make no advance to i peak of ou our r matters of doctrine whence thence I 1 traveled on the chicago rock aock island railroad to belleville cansas where I 1 found president 0 W porter and eight other elders new fields have been opened up in hals is the lowa iowa conf conference irence head quarters have been moved from coun W sll bluffs to belleville and many were with a view to joining the church intelligent ladies and gentlemen attended our series ot of five betings in the opera house herband here and we the addresses seemed to impress them agite favorably I 1 learned that threats aad been made to mob us curing Ur ilg conference but not the lightest haest demonstration was waa made an that direction during any of our jaee I 1 met one very nice gentle jamn aan at the hotel after the meetings on uday he having attended the three bold eld on that day and in conversation with rith him and the host of the hotel they both expressed themselves ad of our people and of their efforts in the west to corn that bat the elements and bring the prairie under cultivation one of them commented vaen ted on the st statements te ments of president eliot and of some other leading people who had been to utah and showed through the press what the latter day saints had bad accomplished the host of the hotel a mr palmer said 1 I knew brigham you young W well 11 11 1 I said where in cin in 29 a jai he here re plied 1 I knew the mormons cormons when they hud had to cross crom the river and they had to wait till it froze over too if ever any people were outraged those people were anti anil I 1 have often thought that a ILL set of people who go out in that wild country where the government offered for the first bushel of corn and make a territory and build up settlements and make it possible to live there for other people could not be a bad community J much more in the same sam e strain was said d urine during our interview aud and I 1 could seethaa see that prejudice was gradually giving way to a more thoughtful thought fu I 1 and common sense view of our cause I 1 traveled tor for some little time making my journey from kansas into nebraska on the union pacific railroad thence to chicago on the milwaukee and st paul a very excellent line thence on michigan central to buffalo and from buffalo to now new york on the famous empire train miles in minutes this train is now run on the new york contra central railroad and is intended to compete with the other two great lines to chicago the B 0 and the pennsylvania both of which make excellent time and are elegantly equipped I 1 in fact no one need complain now of tbt th accommodations in traveling along any or of the great highways it is only in the remote country places where the traveling makes one tired there being no competition and the traffic being largely of a class clan that does not demand anything but the rudest modes of travel any kind cf f a car propelled by steam As is better than to take a lumber wagon or go afoot 11 as most people do they walk simply because where there aro areno railroads running immediately past their firms and letting them off at convenient places they can go quicker than with a team over such roads as they make or rather suffer to go unmade and on foot they can go across fields jump fencer fencee and creeks and then make better time than even on horseback by the road which is usually muddy rough crooked hilly and sometimes miry enough to endanger the rider our utah canyons are park pleasure drives compared with most of those I 1 have seen men A driver wh can take four persons with a brisk team six miles in two hours Is regarded as a jehu cebu for swiftness and really is apt to hurt his team owing to the very steep bills I 1 fancy this was the reason so many ancients walked it was the easiest way to travel when railroading was unknown CHAS W STAYNER |