November, 1918
EVERYBODY’S FRIEND
3
Recollections
The other evening as I was feeding the horse
and the cow, my eye fell on the wooden stirrup
of my old saddle—a well worn relic of Kentucky
days. This recalled some experiences in this
saddle, and especially a setting out from home
one February day nearly eleven years ago, and
of the three weeks that followed.
The previous November the child saving work
had been organized ond chartered by authority
of the District Meeting. This was easy to do,
and did not cost much. Then the question
came, “What next?” Something had to be done
or the work would be still-born, and never re-
vive. Something must be done to awaken sen-
timent in favor of saving the homeless child.
With the advice of elders we started the Friend,
then a little eight-page paper. To make this a
success we must have subscribers, and must
have money.
The other members of the Board excused
themselves, so it fell on me to go out and labor
in the churches. I had already visited a few,
and found some opposition, and not very much
encouragement, to the plan proposed to save
the children. The church which responded
most liberally raised ten dollars. This convinc-
ed us that we had to practice the closest econo-
my to raise the funds we must have.
To save traveling exepenses I started out in
the saddle on Daisy, a gray mare, strong and
willing. She is with us still, and is our faithful
buggy animal now. The object was to visit the
members, isolated and others, as well as the
churches in north western Oklahoma, and to get
them interested.
Perhaps never since the time Don Quixote
started out to find foes to conquer has a man
ventured forth on a quest apparently more for-
lorn and hopeless than this. To those whe un-
derstood the condition fully, it must have seem-
ed useless and foolhardy. We had no homeless
children in our care, but expected to find some;
we knew of no one that wanted a child, but
hoped to find them. The members were all
poor and where they bad meeting houses they
were in debt. What little they could spare was
urgently desired by the Home Mission Board.
Fortunately I did not see all this then, and
sometimes temporary blindness may be a bless-
ing. I only saw the duty placed upon me when
the church said, “Do this,” and went forth in
full confidence that the Spirit had guided the
church, and that the Lord would bless this work
to his glory. It has been the implicit trust that
the Lord was directing the work which has sus-
tained in many a discouraging hour.
I left home on a pleasant winter day, but it
soon became colder and stormy, and in a few
days a very severe blizzard snow-bound us for
several days. Later on a heavy rain fell which
was followed by a soft snow. This made the
roads heavy and hard to travel.
I visited many members in their homes, and
four churches, holding one or more meetings in
each, where the proposed work and its impor-
tance were explained, a collection taken, and
one appointed to act as agent. On two Sundays
we had three meetings, and one of them they
were at three different places and it required
thirty miles traveling to reach the points. On
this trip I rode two hundred and fifty miler
horseback, besides long distances I was taken
in buggies.
On the way home I saw Enid for the first
time, entering from the north wes|; and going
east on Broad St. Enid was already a goodsize
city. On the east I passed within a stone’s
throw of where our Receiving Home now stands,
but it was open field then.
Before I started on this trip I was asked to
find a good Brethren home for a boy of four-
teen, which I did. He remained there four
years, and then went to college. He now has a
home of his own, and is doing well, but he still
looks on this place as “home. ”
I also visited seven different familier which
afterwards took a child into their home.
In immediate results this trip was not very
encouraging, as I took in less than forty dollars
in mony. But I secured many subscriptions to
the Friend that have been faithful readers ever
since The seed that was sown has been bear-
ing fruit all these y<ars, and the end is not yet.
One of these fanylli.es donated as much some
years as the four churches did on that first
visit.