The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1906-06-29
LEAGUERS RALLY IN COPELAND
NORTON DISTRICT EPWORIH
Morning, Afternoon and Evening Ses-
sIOns for Two Days Monday
and Tuesday.

Not since 1S93-thirteen years ago
when the northwest Kansas confer
ence Of the Methodist church was
held in GOOdland, has the attention Of
spiritual things, as by the annual con-
vention OF the Norton district Ep-
worth League, held here Monday and
Tuesday, June p and 20 More than
a hundred delegates, representing the
Leagues Of the district which COM
prises the counties Of Cheyenne, Raw
Inns, Decatur, Norton, Phillips, Sher-
man, Thomas, and a part Of Smith
and Sheridan counties, were in attend
ance, together with such nOtables as
Rev Robert Ward, D. D., Of BarOda,
India, and his Hindu wife; and Don
". Nichols, D. D, OF Sanila, returned
missionary from China but now I'm
ancfaI secretary Of the Kansas Wes-
convention were held in the Methodist
church excepting on Monday and
Tuesday evenings, when il was found
necessary, on account Of special fea-
lures Of the program, to secure the
opera house
The convention was bright with re-
ligfOuS OptOmism and warm with the
fervOr Of Christian fellowship The
weather was beautiful; indeed the en-
virOnment Of all the sessions Of the
convention was 50 prOpitiOus that the
delegates declared that this was the
best meeting the Leaguers Of the dis
trict ever held. The fine climate of
GOOdland, sparkling DCre water. ever
increasing capacity OF the town 20
handle transients and the general hos
pitality OF our people, will in the fu-
ture naturally point out GOOdland as
a fine convention city"
If the Christian life does not stand
for riches, it certainly stands for that
lesser degree We CalI thrift, and for
helpfulness in every good cause. So,
more than one fhnTSa mi dollars was
raised from among the delegates for
missionary and educational purposes.
From the standpoint of things re-
igiOus, the program carried two COLI
spicuOus performances, the story Of
the India famine u 1870. by Rev.
Robert Ward on Monday evening; and
the educational address by Don w
Nichols on Tuesday eV ening.
Rev Ward, an English missionary
to British India, who is travelling in
this country for the cause Of missions,
was heard at the opera house by an
immense crowd He is small of stat
ure but one of Gods heroic doors Of
the word in a land where pestilence
breaths out its danger, where mission
aries are not only prey to an inhOS-
pitable climate and ferOciOus beasts
Of the jungle, but q prey to the pre-
JUDGED and sometimes murderOus
-HinduS and MOhamedianS. Wards
ability to get himself out Of tight
places where men are his enemies is
due not to his fighting qualities at ALL
but to his cool diplomacy and faSci-
mating speech. He is an artist in the
use of English, and his description
and narration in his story Of that ter
rible famine literally pulled his lis
teners forward in rapture for the man
and his mission in the world.
1T was tradition in that country, q"
said the speaker, that the annual
typhOOn had never failed in three
hundred years. It was the lifting Of
a stupendOus weight Of water from
the sea by the tOrrid heat, and ac-
cOmpanying wind carrying it inland
TO the parched plains and bringing
life to the plant and subsistence to
the bodies of innumerabIe people. In
1900 this typhOOn formed and its inky
blaCkneSs Of water passed over the
land like a huge umbrella held alOft
by the OmnipOtent hand of the Al
mighty, leaving no life giving water
upon the fields of India"
That in a few words was the cause
OF the famine, and some idea of the
starving peoples condition can be i'm
agined when they were forced to
drink water from a drying lake foul
from purifying vegetable and animal
matter This gave rise to a siege OF
cholera, an attack Of which Mr.. Ward
suffered, lingering between earth and