People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 September 1895 — A Letter From Rossville. [ARTICLE]

A Letter From Rossville.

To the Editor of the People’s Pilot. Rossville, Ind., Sept. 12.-Per-haps a few lines from Rossville might be of interest to your readers. This is quite a lively town for the size of it. The roads are graveled, so one may drive to Lafayette. Frankfort and surrounding towns at any time of the year without leaving the gravel. The country around is nicely drained and the farms are under good state of cultivation as far as my travels have extended. The drouth has affected the wheat, oat and hay crops seriously. The fruit crop is good, all kinds adapted to this locality being plentiful and cheap. The corn promises large returns, as the result of frequent rains which have lately fallen. There is a lack of that disposition to complain which is so apparent in many places. The people are social and jolly, accept the conditions of life about them with much better grace than is common in such cases. There are three churches here—a Baptist, Methodistand Presbyterian. All are fine looking churches and are well attended. Large attendence also at the Sunday schools of the different denominations. Rossville is made up mostly of young people. I attended the service at the M. E. church last Sunday evening and the audience, which nearlv filled the large building, was composed of the youth of this oncoming generation. The respectful attention paid to the service spoke well for the intelligence of this community. The preacher, though seeming to interest his hearers, to me was rather on the drowsy order. Perhaps my comprehension was dull. The choir, a large one, made the service attractive by the use of such songs as “The Half Has Never Y’et Been Told.” from “Finest of Wheat.” Also the rendering by the quartette of | gentlemen was fairly done. Monday morning after arranging regi ister and reports for the day ! finds me on my way to the depot to find who the 8:20 train may bring, having interest in the Commercial House. As I stand looking at this and that one alighting from the coach with great satisfaction, I behold my daughter Sadie, whom I have

not seen since that cold, frosty morning along with Messrs. Stoner. Bates and other sympathetic hearts, we laid her on a cot and bore her to the depot and placed her - in a bed on a sleeper to be conveyed to the "Home,” in Chicago, of which I had scarcely, I might say, any knowledge, and a heart full of anxious interest as to what would be the outcome of such a seemingly rash change. Sadie was informed of such a "Home” only a few hours before her departure by a lady of Rensselaer, Mrs. Stockton, a daughter of John Makeever. The decision of her physicians was that a perfect rest, and time for nature to work a restoration, was absolutely necessary to reco very. Dr. David of the firm of Ives & David, 126 State street. Chicago, told me her spine was liable to disintegrate at any time, and this after a thorough examination of the patient by himself. The doctor said the "Home” might relieve some old imaginary cases but never her's. Only a short time had elapsed when I learned that Sadie could go up and down three flights of stairs with ease; that she could bear any pressure on her spine without flinching, and her system was in good condition. I am not making a defence of Dr. Dowey’s "Healing Home” or whether there is a God that heals or not. I leave that for doctors-editors-lawyers to settle as best they may. Sadie says, like the blind man, she "Sees.” and to-day I am walking the streets of Rossville attended by her whom I expected to have conveyed to me a form to be laid in Osborne cemetery. This letter already too long, must bear my expressions of thankfulness to the many friends who contributed so much of comfort in so many ways while at her sister’s in Rensselaer: also to Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins, with whom she boarded when prostrated; to her physicians, who did all human skill, with human sympathy, was capable. Thomas Cody.