The Newtown bee., 1894-07-27
THE GREAT CHRISTIAN ENDEAVoR CON-
 vENTIoN AT CLEVELAND, o.
ESPECIAL coRREsP oNDENcE OF THE BEE.

People who are inclined to feel super stitious about the number 13 would have had plenty of opportunity to indulge their fears at the last meeting of the Christian Endeavor hosts. It was the 18th inter- national convention. It was held with the 18th of July as one of the dates of meet ing and when the Massachusetts and Con- necticut delegations started on their re- turn trip there were 13 cars on the train from Cleveland to Niagara Falls. Yet in spite of that the convention and the trip were both great successes. Your scribe, in the last letter, left the 400 Connecticut delegates steaming into Buffalo, in the early morning, ready to seek what they might devour. The people of Buffalo at tended to their wants in truly royal man. ner. As an illustration of how widely the Connecticut people are scattered, as the scribe stepped up to the desk to pay his reckoning, the teller said, seeing the badge on his coat, From ConnecJiC ut, are you?' "Oh, yes," was the reply, tive are here 400 strong" "Well," was the answer, "I am from Connecticut, too." So we said "Shake, stranger" " and found out that this Brother Nutmeg had moved out here from New Haven. So little Connecticut is scattered about through all the land. Speaking of badges re- minds me that our Connecticut badge was peculiarly neat and suggestive, this year. It was ribbon of Yale blue, with the in- scription on it 'Connecticut-C Cleveland, '94 c. E." and beneath suspended on a white cord was nutmeg bored through from end to end. Some one suggested that the reason we had the nutmeg on was so that when the speakers at the convention got dry or prosy we might take bite and so add little spice to the occasion. Certain it was that we were a spicy crowd.
 Our trip from Buffalo to Cleveland was uneventful. The country seemed very very dry and the rivers were nothing but little rivulets. The fields were filled with vineyards on both sides of the track, off, ten as far as one could see. And, accord ing to reports, there is to be in that sec tion the largest grape crop they have ever had. It will interest our Connecti- cut farmers to know that the owners clear about $100 per acre on their grapes when they have an average yield. When we reached Cleveland about noon we were met by the appointed guides, who all wore white caps, both gentlemen and ladies. to distinguish them from the mul- titude of delegates who were gathering. They were assiduous in their attentions and soon had our party aboard the cleo tric cars enroute to the East End Bap- tist church, which was to be our head quarters. Cleveland is city of magnifi- cent distances. 1t was about five miles from the depot to our destination. They call it the Forest City" out there and it is truly named. It is well arranged for caring for the great crowd on account of
 it's street railway system, there being 175
 miles of electric and cable roads in it's
 streets. As we went bowling along Flu. cid avenue (which by the way is said tG
 be the finest street in the world) we thought of some of our Yankee cities
 with their ancient bob-tailed horse cars
 and wished that they might wake up tC
 the needs of modern civilization. There
 is one great drawback to life in Cleve
 land and that is it's coal smoke The
 beautiful stone residences and churches look dingy and in need of mop and they say that to look presentable the houses have to be painted once in two years However. the hearts of the people are no dingy one bit. They gave us cordia welcome and though we did surprise then by coming 150 more than they had ex pected we were all provided for, even i there were five in one room. When W, reached our headquarters the people O the church had dinner all ready for us
 we were assigned to our permanen
 boarding places to wash up and remov the stains of travel and to get ready fo the meetings of Wednesday evening. A each delegate registered he or she receiv i ed the badge which would admit them t the tent or hall during the meetings 0 the convention. And woe to the ma who did not wear his badgel He wa quickly picked up by 2 burly policeman and put outside the edifice, willing or un willing. The convention opened upo
 Wednesday evening by meetings at l different places at once in the varion
 churches of the city. The trustees of.th
 United Society were the speakers Rt port has it that all the churches wer
 crowded to the doors, The first genera meeting was held on Thursday morning
 and so great was the company that tsle filled the hall and tent (each seatin
 about 10000 people, and had overfio,
 meetings in two churches that woul
 hold each 2500 more. But for repo1
 of what was said ! must wait for anotfs