It was on one of my visits to this same field that I made some of our own dear people very cross over a little verse, purely original, which I wrote on the blackboard. Nearly everybody used tobacco in some form. Many of the women were snuff dippers, and smoked the pipe, while nearly all the men either chewed or smoked, or did both. The stanza ran thus: Who can chew the dirty stuff, In the sacred place of prayer? Who can smoke or rub snuff, And feel that God is there? Years afterward, I was told that some were still talking about that bit of poetry. The district paid a salary of $496.53 to the elder. Out of this he paid for house rent and car fare, $110. The thirty-seven pastors of the conference received an average of $140 each. The highest salary, $480, was received by Rev. R. A. Hitt, on Parkersburg Station, $100 of which was put into rent. The good Lord only knows how he managed to keep his family in respectability, entertain his many visitors, and meet other legitimate expenses, on the pittance of $380. And the same query may be raised in the case of nearly all his colaborers; but they somehow succeeded in making ends meet. As one of them expressed it, “When my wife scrapes the bottom of the flour barrel, God always takes notice.” “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” In addition to the aggregate salary received, the “presents” amounted to $1,276.28, or about $34, upon an average, to each pastor. The net increase in the membership of the conference was 564, an excellent showing. But the most vexing problem was financial. Times were hard, money scarce, and the people generally poor. Yet we believed and wrought in expectation of larger things. Thank God, they are coming. Pennsboro was the seat of the next conference session. Bishop Weaver presided. Perhaps the most striking event of the occasion was the presence of Dr. Lewis Davis, of Union Biblical Seminary. It was his first appearance among us. Probably the wide difference between his views and those of the conference on the secrecy question had kept him from making an earlier visit; but his presence was highly appreciated by us all, and in turn he greatly enjoyed the courtesies accorded him by the brethren. As I bade him good-by at the train, he said, “Didn’t we have a glorious time? I am glad I came. Wish I had come long ago.”