but of the other small mills and through the mountains of Arkansas, looking after these neglected people. In the largest mill town which his company represents, they have built a beautiful building, fitted up in modern style, with electric lights and electric fans, comfortable seats for the church services, splendid schoolroom, a a hall where entertainments might be given, lodge room and game room, of which any town of 1,000 population or more might be proud. The company united with the people in the support of a minister who gives his entire time to the work at that mill town. At the logging-camp, or "Front" they have built a Chapel car, which is used for school purposes as well as Sunday-school and preaching services. It is useless to say that the people greatly appreciate the help this company has been to them.

Another company has taken up the full support of a man who gives his time to all their mill towns and, they further unite in assisting in the support of other men who do general missionary work among the people. They also put up suitable buildings and build Chapel cars for use in the logging-camps. These cars are very plainly built, usually on the trucks of an ordinary flat car and can be put on a side track, leaving them there for three months, six months, or a longer period. When the logging-camp is moved on, the car goes with them. This has proven a very attractive and

inexpensive way of helping the people educationally as well as religiously.

In four mill towns in southwestern Louisiana, they have united together in the support of a missionary, who looks after the Sunday school and religious interests of these towns and their "Fronts." In each place they have buildings built by the companies where services may be held, but in all these cases, the work has been under the charge of the American Sunday School Union, as the companies feel that the work must be done on the union basis for the present until these towns shall become established as permanent homes for people who will follow the lumber interests in agricultural pursuits.

One company has taken up the matter of developing the lands where the timber has been taken off. They are running an experimental farm, which is proving quite a success and attracting a great deal of interest, as they are raising many kinds of grain, as well as fruits and vegetables. If this proves to be a success, and the land can be made fertile, it will soon be settled by a good class of farmers and the work can be turned over to the denominations.

WHAT A MISSIONARY CAN DO.

Another one of the missionaries says: "I went into a logging-camp, where more than 250 people were living; the condition of

things in that camp was appalling. One man and two women found out who I was and my business there. They said to me, with tears streaming from their eyes, 'We are glad that you have come to us. No preacher has ever been in this camp. We have nothing here but drinking, gambling and all kinds of wickedness.'

"I organized a Sunday school in a boarding car where there were two young men, fine fellows, but not Christians. They were very enthusiastic for the Sunday school and joined.

Two weeks later I received a letter from one of the teachers, saying, 'N. died very suddenly, and W. is lying very low, and not expected to live. Please come and give us some encouragement.' The next day I received a message that W. was also dead. Oh, how the cry is coming from all points, 'Bring us the Message of comfort and encouragement.'"

But for this missionary there would have been no one to conduct even a funeral service. Many are buried without those rites among these neglected people in our home land.

T

HE lumber region of the Adirondacks, like other lumber regions, has peculiarities of its own as regards the methods of work, location of operations, character and nationality of the men, and other strictly local conditions.

Notwithstanding these peculiarities, many of the conditions and necessities of religious

work are the same. Probably the vast majority of the "lumber jacks" of the Adirondacks have no affiliation with any Protestant church, and yet, despite this fact, many of them listen readily to the gospel if it is brought to them. Very few of them will make any effort to reach any place for the purpose of hearing the gospel preached.

FRENCH CANADIANS-ITALIANS-SWEDES.

A large percentage of the lumbermen are French Canadians, and to a man, almost, nominally Roman Catholics. Another considerable percentage of the men are Italians, and the same is true of them. I think, however, that the Italians are more susceptible to Protestant influence than the French.

In the case of the Italians, it is almost a necessity that the missionary should be of their own race, or at least able to converse fluently in their language to win any great influence with them.

There are some Swedes in the camps, who are usually of the Lutheran belief, but as a rule very little attention is paid to religious matters, in the woods, by any of these. There are also men in the camps of American, Irish, or English parentage. Occasionally one will find a man of fine education who for some reason, usually drink, has drifted away from his natural place in society, and taken to the life of the woods.

ADIRONDACK LUMBERING CONDITIONS.

A large part of the lumbering in the Adirondacks is done from camps built of logs, roofed with boards and tar paper, or with spruce bark. Or they may be built of boards throughout, and lined in many cases with building paper. Many of these camps are really quite comfortable places to live in. The food that is served to the men is usually good. Few of these camps are so far removed from civilization that supplies, including fresh meat, can not be readily procured. In this respect they are radically different from some sections of the country. The work is practically continuous throughout the year. Many of the men stay in the camps for long periods. Like all lumbermen, they are addicted to the use of liquor. As usual this is a curse to them. Many times have I known men to stay in camps for months; and then draw their pay, go to some resort, and spend it in as many days, returning to the same camp with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

The number of men engaged in this work

must number well up into the thousands for the entire Adirondack region. They are largely single men, or married men who have left their families in the nearby towns. Many of the camps have men cooks, so that there is no woman about the camp. The number of men to a camp will vary from five or six up to about fifty. Usually there are from twelve to twenty. Sometimes there will be a number of camps on a single job. The work is usually done by contract, each jobber or sub-contractor having a camp of his own. The men are usually paid in bank checks or currency. thus obviating the trouble of "time checks" which must be cashed at a commissary.

The large number of small camps and the widespread zone of operations are a handicap to missionary work, as but comparatively few men can be got together to any service. As a rule, preacher or priest is treated with great respect. It is comical to hear the expressions of men who have allowed themselves to break out into profanity in the presence of a clergyman. When a missionary can get a group of these men together, he is listened to, and in many cases, appreciated. But he has to go to the men, and wait on their convenience to secure a hearing.

A MISSION FIELD.

It

There is a great field for work here. requires men of untiring patience, and adaptability to the special conditions. The harvest is meager, and the times of sowing and reaping are far removed one from the other. There are many men of sterling worth in these camps who are well worth saving.

Our Savior assured his disciples that their seed sowing should not fail of results. In the Adirondack region there is a great field to be sown. We may not be able to see an immediate harvest from this sowing. But this is often true. And sometimes, also, the seed that springs up quickly will not stand the test of time, and in the end the result is small. The good seed dropped into good ground will unfailingly bear fruit for the Kingdom.

L

ET no one think that having summered in the Adirondacks, he knows the Adirondack people. They are modest, retiring, not caring to be observed, not easily drawn into conversation. Quite a few may be found in the summer at the resorts, but while guests are enjoying the pleasures which the forest and streams afford, they are busy behind the scenes quietly preparing meals. In such surroundings at the best the visitor gains an entirely inadequate idea of their nature and habits. To know the people you must see them in the winter when they have gone back into their own little villages and settlements and where, no longer restrained by the presence of the summer visitor, they hold their own gatherings and maintain their normal social life. Their life is very simple. They have few advantages. Their little schools are far apart and sometimes hard of access. People living in the city would think they would die in such "loneliness," and yet while there is not the variety of temptation as is found in the cities, what there is is strong and subtle. Much evil emanates from what is called the "quiet little dance," sometimes held in a hotel, liquor always having a part of its own in the event. The youth, constantly surrounded by intemperance, are soon led astray to live a Godless life.

A DEGENERATED COMMUNITY.

Some four miles from my station there is a lumbermen's hotel which for years has born a deservedly bad reputation. It is what might be called a necessary nuisance; necessary in that it provides the wayfarer with needed shelter; a nuisance in that ignorance and vice provide only a bar-room with its sinful accessories to satisfy the social instincts of the

men.

Around this hotel are grouped several homes, but the hotel is the central fact of the settlement. Under its baneful shadow children are growing up without hope in the world. When pay-day comes, the lumbermen flock in and make this place the center of rollicking, boisterous, drunken brawls. So the years have rolled on, one very much like another, each bearing into eternity its tale of blasted lives, wasted vigor and lost souls; no church, no minister, no God; but whiskey, drunkenness, vice, stupidity and hell.

OUT OF DEATH CAME LIFE.

But amid the laughter and cursing, where no one thought of God or eternity, the hand of death came and took one away. In his room he lay, an old man bent with years; sin had left its mark upon his sallow countenance. There was something very pitiful in his appeal, as with his last breath he called out: "God have mercy!" In response to an urgent message, I half walked, half ran the four miles and was soon by his bedside. His wife, his children, his friends were there, but there was none to help, save God for whom all through his life he had no use. Words of ,comfort were spoken, the way of life explained and gradually peace replaced terror. In a firm, calm voice he confessed Christ, and afterward appeared to be sleeping. That night he died and over his wasted body I conducted a simple funeral ceremony. Rough lumbermen and toil-worn women wept as they listened to a sermon for the first time in years. And now every week the minister walks the four miles and return to hold a meeting in the tiny white schoolhouse where these same people and their neighbors gather to hear the words of life to which they were led by the presence of death.