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FIFTY-THIRD YEAR.
ORGAN OF THE NORTH CAROLINA CONFERENCE.
NUMBER 19.
A LETTER FROM BILL) AD AKERS.
There are some little sections in Bildad Alters'
nature which we have never been able to ex
plore. He is not a credulous being. No one is so
quick as he to detect the false note in another.
Y(!t P.ildad is deluded into believing that his spell
ing is at par. He claims no special knowledge of
mannnar, but he does not relish an adverse criti
cism of his spelling.
An old-fashioned personality, even boasting at
times of moss, he manages to have a modern out
look on life. He is a lively number in a decorous
w;iy among the boys. Yet this question comes in
to perplex us: Why does Bildad, with his high
appreciation of epistolary experience, persist in
using an old goose quill, mere scraps of paper,
and the palest of pale ink, when he writes to the
Advocate? His letters, written on stationery of
divers hues and sizes and shapes, would shame
even Professor Teufelsdroch.
It is a labor to decipher his cryptographic hand
writing. We do not publish his letters as they
are received and written. The best we can do is
to string their fragments together on a kind of
editorial string.
This we do with his last letter received a few
clays ago. He begins by apologizing for his long
silence, saying that it is the first letter that he
has "writ sence Confear-ance." He alludes in a
reminiscential way to certain experiences at Rocky
Mount, not forgetting to mention the few votes
which he received for the editorship. Bildad actu
ally rolls that memory as a "sweet morsel under
his tongue." Well, so be it. If we were to see
things as they really are, a great deal of life'3
glamour would be gone. Let memory have her
fads and follies. The stern things that are suffice
to drive away the , ultra-sentimental which truly
deceives and weakens.
What Bildad has to say in connection with the
subject of the weather is really pertinent and
practical. What more practical subject could be
discussed just now? It is refreshing to note that
his words have no pessimistic ring, as is evident
in the following extract:
Bildad and Hie Weather.
Well, Ivry, Proverdence is tryin the grit of we
l'ore farmers these days. Craps is backard, mity
hackard. Corn, cotton, and sich looks the same
to me as pore leettle childer which is tryin to keep
from Lein hcngry and cold. When I think about
it, tho, I allers plunk my thoughts down on the
torrerd yeers we have had. Last yeer was the
n-erdest yeer, to be sure.
I was jest cum in frum drappin corn tother day
and was settin on a log nigh the spring when ole
Peler McGillis cum up frum his pastur. He sat
uwn side o' me and I seed at once that he was
m Ule dumps. His lights, I know, was a blew as a
huckt'lherry. The blew run in streeks thru his
tav,n- If a Methodis stewart ever cum nigh to
fussin the wether, Pete was the feller. I tole
'hu he had orter be shamed of himself. I axed
'u el he had ever starved to deth. He almost
" 'Ucd to make me beleev he hed on severial
'Hons, but I knowed better. I axed him ef he
1111 (l ever H
seen a yeer without sum kind o' craps?
to tawkin about 1816, and I tole him he
never seed that yppi t sprl "Pete, von ole
b in-flint, you had orter to be shamed of
lu-d
RALEIGH, N. C, THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 1907.
yourself. You're wun of the stripe that God has
bin so good to that you want to take all that lie
has got and more. You are like a hawg which
chomps his corn all rite as long as the yeers are
throwed to him, but ef he has to wait a leetle,
why then he hollers. Why, Pete, you hev got the
same kind of faith as a hawg. Can't you trust in
Proverdence enuff to believe that the corn'll bo
throwed to you in good time. Cheer up, ole man,
and go to work like me. This is the third time
Ive drapped this corn. I'm goin to do my part,
and I jest know Proverdence will do his'n."
"No," Bruther Ivry, Bildad continues, "its goin
to take a site more'n onlikely wether to turn
my lites blew and make me slip my hold on God."
A Sunday School's Winter Quarters.
I allers fout the idee of our Sunday-scool shet
tin up arter the big meetin in the fall and not
openin ontil spring, or jist afore the summer
meetins. But it doesn't do no good. The super
intender is allers agin me. He sez evergreen
scools are all rite when peepul is used to havin
of em, but they never knowed sich a thing at our
meetin house, and its bad to have a sudden t
change. It's nuthin but simon-pure laziness and
no countness with our school, as I'll show you.
You know them hot days in March? Well, it
was sartinly sizzlin for the sholeder of the yeer
down in these parts. The trees begun to bud and
the gals put on their white frocks and Ike Smith
got out his straw hat which he bawt in Rally en
durin the Fusion campane. It did look like sum
mer time, and afore I knowed it, they had allowd
that it was time to start Sunday scool agin. They
helt scool two Sundays, and I hed got a peart class.
Well, the next Sunday was cold and drizzly, then
cum them frosty nites, and Ivry, shores as guns
iurn, the very next Sunday they allowed they hed
tempted Proverdence by starten the scool afore its
time, an they tuk a vote not to start the scool
ontil they could have rale ole summer weather.
Did you ever hear o' sich doins? How is God
goin to bless such a hard-headed, lazy no-count
passel of Sunday scoolers? Tother day a thinkin
about it I jest made up my mind that scool is goin
to run all next winter ef Ive got to tromp snow
evry Sundy.
Bildad Goes to Trinity Commencement.
It was no surprise to us when we learned that
Bildad had attended the commencement of Trin
ity College. He feels a deep interest in his church
and her every enterprise and institution. He
writes as follows:
"Lizy got to rarin last Mundy when she seed
me workin with my ole carpet bag, and a dustin
up in gineral, fer I sed to her, 'Lizy, I'm goin to
the exbition at Trinity Colege. I beleeve they
call em Comensments.' She lowed I'd be a purty
site up thar amung the big bugs.
"But I sed, 'Lizy, Trinity scool is an institoo
shun of my church. I aint no bennyfactur, I aint
no trusty, but that scool belongs to me as much
as to enny of them fellers. I aint got no use for
any Methodist which dont show no intrust in his
own property, and I'm agwine to Durham to see
what they are doin.'
"But I went, and I aint sorry a bit. They treat
ed me like I was a shore enuff bennyfactor or a
trusty. I enjide every minit I was thar. I kept
my eyes skinned, too. I seed evrythin run as
smooth as an otter slide. One man of them fel
lers of the teechin squod tended to one thing;
another feller tended to another. There wasn't
no hitch. Theyve got the properest congregations
you ever seed. Wun nite them electrissity lites
blowed out and everything was as black as a
swamp at inidnite. But the meetin went rite on.
They didnt strike no maches and it pea red as if
the peepul was ashamed even to brethe out loud.
Then when Jedge Bruin was makin his speech
he spoke so low that them that was settin in (ho
rare eend couldnt hear. Hut they didnt get on
restless, but sat with their eyes glued on tho
Jedge.
"I was mity glad to hear Mr. Southgit, the head
of the trustys, tell of the number of pore boys
the college is helpin. The college has giv away
$30,000 in eddication in the last ten years. I
was mighty glad to meet Mr. Southgit. They say
he's got a kind of bunkin place all by hisself nigh
Durhams. Now, I call that a sizzlin shame. Why
don't he git married and carry some good woman
there to his house in the woods. I saw Mr. Killgo.
He joked me like I was a kid, and there aint noth
in hifalutin about him. What I seed showed mo
he was tendin to his pach mity well.
"I hearn the boys speak. I noticed that when
I would meet one on the scool yard ho would razo
his hat to me. Jt made me feel like they was
trailed rite. But I tell you, Ivry, I didn't like them
pigeon taled cotes they wore. Sum how it didn't
jest set rite in my mind. Ive seed em before, and
they always make me think that them that wears
em has been raned on. Sich lixins is too new for
Bildad Akers."
A good deal more followed about the Com
mencement. Bildad was evidently enthusiastic
oer what he saw of the "scool." He is a strong
believer in Trinity College, and wants every "stew
art" to go and see for himself.
But we will have to dismiss for the present our
old philosopher in the hope that soon wo may
have the pleasure of seeing his face in the office.
I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.
I breathed a song into tho air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song?
Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.
"The Arrow and tho Song."
At the meeting of the Board of Trustees of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, held in Nash
ville, Tenn., May 17th, Rev. John R. Stewart, Sec
retary and Treasurer of the Superannuate Endow
ment Fund, made a gratifying report from which
we extract the following ..general statement to May
1907": Total assets, $197,018.3 4; cash assets,
$102,139.62. The Board adopted a resolution re
questing each of the Annual Conferences to assume
a "voluntary assessment for this fund equal to at
least 1 per cent of the salary paid the pastor dur
ing the year."
The Southern Methodists of Berkeley, Cali
fornia, are presenting their claims for the Train
ing School tin Evko-.i.'onul C :nmission decided to
start on the Pacific Coast.