In the Southern Conference we found also a branch organization, union in its character, and so efficiently officered that all is likely to be done that can be accomplished through it. Nowhere did I find stancher friends for our Christian educational work in the South than in this conference.
At this point a short break occurred in our Michigan tour. A rapid journey brought us to Lake City in time to spend one day at the Minnesota State Association—just to grasp the hands of our Minnesota friends and be assured of their continued helpfulness. The Woman's Home Missionary Society voted that at the next annual meeting the constitution should be reconsidered, with a view to enlarging its borders and including all the benevolent societies of our home work. The giving of a year's notice before any change can be made is required by the constitution itself.
We took up the work in Michigan again at St. Joseph, and from there went to the Kalamazoo Association. We found here, as elsewhere, that these autumn conferences are generally held with the smaller and less accessible churches, where the attendance of ladies is necessarily limited, and we must, therefore, give our message to the pastors, charging them with the responsibility of carrying it to the ladies of their churches.
Before the next conference we were able to take in our plan the central points, Jackson, Ann Arbor, Flint and Lansing, and when we went up from there to Nashville to the Marshall Conference we felt that we were meeting old friends in the pastors and people, at whose homes we had already been.
Another tour through Kalamazoo, Allegan, Owosso, Port Huron, St. Clair, Detroit, Union City and Chelsea brought us much the same experiences as before.
We came finally to the large Eastern Conference, which was to be our last place of labor in Michigan. The ladies of this Conference, though not yet organized for home work under the State society, for several years supported a missionary in the South, largely through the personal effort of one active lady, who made this special collection her care. With the closing of this Bureau visit to the ladies of Michigan the work is left in their hands—not to be forgotten by them, but to be developed and strengthened until there shall be a rich annual fruitage of effort and practical result.