The Oskaloosa herald., 1904-08-04
PENN BOYS HUSTLING.
College Students Are Thriving Out
in the Dakotas.

F1rgal, MI, july zo.--L hAoW mohJ
of the Herald readers will wonder
why / have not written before, but
the reason is, we have been too busy.
OF late we have been having fine
weather and when man works all
week and breaches twice on Sunday,
there is not much time left. We left
Parkinson last Monday, after staying
there five weeks, and are now at Fir
gal This is one of the large" Da-
kota towns with population of about
400. There are no churches here, and
Sunday / was nearly lost at the
thought of being in town with no.
religious services. I learned later
that the Congregational folks held
services in the school house each Sun
day evening.
The first few weeks of our canvass
ing was very difficult, owing to the
rain and mud, but we soon conquered
that and success crowned our efforts.
1t is the subduing Of difficulties that
brings success; not giving in to them.
We are doing fine business now.
Chas. Fisher, $140.50; F. Gordon,
$3.50; Ed Chestnut, $72.50; W.White
$3.50; Carl Scoles, $3.50; Ray Lew
is, $4,000; Fred Klein, $4,000; H. r.
Jennings, $43.50. Judge for yourself
if the business is paralyzed or not.
A few weeks ago Bert Noel and his
crowd spent Sunday with us. Bert
has a crowd of men from I. S. U. at
Iowa City.
H. r. Jennings is a new man who
joined us two weeks ago, coming all
the way from Maine. He has been at
tending school at Harvard with Will
Berry.
While in Hankinson / preached
each Sunday for the Congregational
folks, that being the only English
speaking church in the village. They
seemed to enjoy my Methodist way Of
doing things, so much so that they
asked me to take the work there, as
they are without a pastor. OF course
l couldn't think of doing a thing like
that at present, for I must finish my
WOTh dI COllSSSs oluSC IhCh hno
another call to go to Wheaton, Mimi,
but had to refuse This is a great
country for every profession and es-
pecially the ministry. I find many
religious families through the coun-
try, who are always glad to have me
spend the evening with them. The
other day I attended Sunday school
picnic and had fine time.
The Norwegians are, as a rule4 a
religious class of people. They util-
ize the country school houses during
the summer months to give theik
,l>sisI4 S,lies.s.@s .-S-i->:..ss. ~. NspssI
make good farmers and are a pe&e
one can do business with. We h$
been working among them for tile
last few weeks.
Condition of Crops.
The farmers are very jubilant over
the prospect of the crops. The wealth
er for the past three weeks has been
very favorable and with a continue
ton of the same for another week or
so, harvesting will commence in earn
est. In some places they are cutting
barley already Oats are rather late
in most places and corn will only
make fodder. In Red River Valley
the crops will be anything but good.
In the low places around here there
are many acres under water.
There is a great demand for labor
ers and unless hundreds of men
come up here soon the farmers will
have trouble in harvesting their
crops.
1t is interesting to notice the build
ing that is going on through the coun-
try. Nearly every farmer is building,
preparing to build, or has just finish
ed building. They are putting up
large barns and granaries. The lum-
Der men have trouble in keeping up
with the demand made upon them.
This speaks well for the country.
Mosquitoes.
Did you say mosquitoes? Well,
they grow wild up here and they near
ly made us go wild several weeks
ago, but they have been fed and are
now sleeping, never to wake again l
hope. 1 don't know how to tell you
about them so you will not think I
am stretching the truth. They go in
f1ocks like bees, and it was impossible
to get away from them. The large
ones I would knock down with my
picture roll. At times our hands and
necks would bleed from the bites. On
my coat there are many little holes.
Some think the crickets eat them, but
you can't tell me anything like that,
for am sure it was the mosquitoes.
They would bite clear through my
coat. Some of them have bills long
er than the hotel man. The boys had
to wear gloves and a net over their
heads in order to travel. Nearly all
travellers wear mosquito bar around
their heads. They trouble us but
very little now.
Mirth-Provoking Incidents.
While at Parkinson Gordon's Sun
day hat walked away and the most