The Newtown bee., 1908-02-21
The Newtown Bee.
 NewtoWn, Friday February q, lss'
THE HOME CIRCLE
 ON THE FIRST TRAIN. Rev Haniord Livingston Russell in the Spirit of Missions.

of Missions, is Rev Hanford L. Russell, now a clergyman in the missionary field of South Dakota. He was at one time editor of the Ridgefeld Press, and has many friends in this part of Fairfield county, who will read his let ter with much personal interest,
 South Dakotal
 Those words,l am sure, quicken the imagination of many readers of The Spirit of Missions. It is but little over four years ago since left New York city for this land of big things-in spir- itual, as we'll as material resources, and l know how a story of missionary work in South Dakota reads like TO. nance.
 It is not of any phase of our saintly Bishop Hare's work among the Indians that l am to tell you. It is not of the nearly thirty-fve years of heroic, self sacrificing service he has given, with
 all its wealth of experiences, that l am to write. Nor am I to speak of his
 white clergy in the Indian fields, of
 the Rev Messrs Cleveland, Burt, Ash
 ley, Robinson, Cook or Flockhart, with
 their long terms of devotion to duty
 and notable achievements; or of the sterling native clergy Bishop Hare has ordained for the Masters work among their own people-the eloquent former chief, Philip Deloriia, the witty Walk CT, the sturdy Ross, the tactful Holmes, the hearty Goodteacher, or the gentle
 Lambert.
 Let me try to tell of an exploring trip took recently with our vigilant bishop assistant, Dr Frederick Foote Johnson. In two busy years Bishop Johnson has won for himself his own place; not alone in the heart of Bish- op Hare. whose hands he has indeed
 held up in continued blessing to us all, but in the hearts of thousands of citizens throughout the state, who have come to know and admire him.
 "On the first train!'
 1t is not often the Church can Ego along with" and not follow the tides of travel in the great Northwest. Here we have, in very truth, history in the For years the Church has been sending her missionaries over "the trails" midst the cattle ''upon the thousand hills." But only those who have been over some of these western trails can realize how long and winding they are and how vast is the area of land they traverse.
 It is easy to say-South Dakota; but when one remembers that this state can easily hold all New England and still have room enough left for two more Massachusetts, one can begin to comprehend the size and extent of this and of the great cattle herds and farms.
 For years the central counties have been the paradise of ranchers. To cross from the east and the south of he state, to the railroad terminus at Pierre, the capital, in the center, to he richest one hundred miles square ,f mineral land in the world"-the Black Hills-meant riding a broncho ,r driving wiry team of Indian po- lies for rear ly 200 miles across the everlasting hill'' along the famous Oeadwood Trail, or making a wide ,ircle out of the state through Me- braska and back into the state to reach ,ne's destination.
 After twenty years of waiting, long ng and despairing. the "old settlers" pioneers, trappers; ranchers and "cow- from the Bad Lands to Fort | Pierre, from Blunt to the Grindstone i 3uttes, awoke one morning to find parties advancing from both | ,nds of this unlinked stretch of prairie, Irving back the wild cattle and horses, and putting the connecting link to the Coast" through the Bad River Valley.
 Progress" (as the cowboy said,) has sure come!" and the great "wild- of central South Dakota has ,een opened, by the Pierre and Rapid Jity Railroad, to easy settlement by he vast army of ambitious young American homesteaders, seeking the 'ich opportunities offered farmers in his thriving land of promise. Up the ,ends of fertile bottom lands, follow ng the course of the Teton River (the indian name for "bad'') in and out be- ween picturesque buttes, the new rail- oad climbs to the Hills" crossing 10 less than seventy-three bridges in ts short stretch of 135 miles.
 It was on the first regular train sent | cross this newly-opened country that
 had the privilege of accompanying l Bishop Johnson on this pioneering mis- ionaiy trip. We both had been over most of this section nv team. aft yari- |