covered with these embryo Bible depositories, which are intended to occupy the place until permanent Bible societies and auxiliaries can be formed. In no way is the benevolent and missionary work of the Society more manifest than in this advance supply of new and sparselysettled regions of our country, where even colporteurs would find it impossible to do the work as thoroughly as these pastors.

Some colporteur work has been done during the year. In Wilson, Woodson, Smith, and Shawnee Counties quite an extensive canvass has been made, especially in the latter, where the work has been very thorough. The work in Miami and Kingman Counties has just commenced.

I have been received with uniform cordiality and courtesy wherever I have gone in the discharge of my official duties. Where I have visited ecclesiastical bodies I have been cordially received and ample opportunity given to me to represent the work of the Society.

Special favors have been extended to the District Superintendent by the Union Pacific, the Santa Fe, the Rock Island, the Fort Scott and Memphis, the Frisco, the St. Joe and Grand Island, and the Hutchinson and Southern Railroad Companies.

With gratitude to God for his preserving care and continued blessing, I close this report.

Books sent to Kansas, 14,445; of these, 4,317 were consignments for colportage or grants.

KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE.-It will be seen from the following report that the Rev. George S. Savage, of Winchester, Ky., who has served the Society for so many years, still prosecutes his work with unabated vigor:

The labors of the District Superintendent for the year have kept up to about the usual standard :

From the beginning, the canvass and supply work have claimed the attention of the American Bible Society.

The following counties have been canvassed by auxiliaries in Kentucky Bourbon, Gallatin, and Nicholas, and Marion in part. Counties where there are no auxiliaries, that have been canvassed by the American Bible Society in Kentucky, are Elliott, Leslie, Morgan, and Marshall.

In Tennessee the Parent Society has canvassed McNairy, Chester, and Hardeman, while Claiborne, Decatur, Jefferson, Polk, and Sullivan Counties are now being canvassed.

The following are the aggregate figures of the canvassers: Families visited, 25,924; found destitute, 3,305; destitute families supplied, 2,790; other individuals supplied, 690. The cities of Louisville, Ky., and Memphis, Tenn., have had county agents employed consecutively for several years, and the work is still in progress.

"The great undertaking "-the work now engaging the Societyviz., "A Bible in the hands of every child who can read, with special reference to Sunday school use," has continued to receive the careful attention of the Superintendent.

The use of the Bible in the Sunday school is being restored in some places. The uninterrupted and constant use of the Sunday school literature in the school recitations has so long, in a measure, supplanted the use of the Bible that its restoration is by many regarded as an innovation. Still, progress has been made. The resolution passed at the International and World's Sunday School Conventions in St. Louis last fall, for "The wider use of the Bible as a text-book, in class study of the lesson during the Sunday school hour," has proven an educator among Sunday school workers. Quite a number of Sunday schools are using the Bible exclusively in recitations, and very satisfactorily.

While the reports have not been very complete, it is safe to say that the Bible has been placed in the hands of over three thousand children as their own book in and out of the Sunday schools in the two States. Rev. J. H. Nichols, of the Tennessee Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church, South, placed over six hundred Bibles in the hands of children and young persons on his circuit during the past year. A number of them have read the Bible through, many have memorized whole chapters, and there has been quite a revival in Bible reading and study. The preachers of the Dickson district, of the same Conference, have resolved to place a Bible in the hands of every child that can read in that district.

The winnowing process among the auxiliaries is exerting an influence in auxiliary work. The active and efficient are becoming more reliable, and a number of the others will have to be stricken off the list. Out of one hundred and twenty-three auxiliaries in the field, no reports have been received from fifty-four of them.

The financial panic has not occasioned as great a falling off of receipts as was feared; still we have realized its depleting effects.

The ecclesiastical bodies are becoming more deeply interested in the Society and its work, and consequently more churches are taking collections.

The collections and donations from auxiliaries show an increase over the previous year. Upon the whole, under the circumstances, the outlook for the work is encouraging.

The Society is under particular obligations to the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company, in the two States, as well as to the Chesa

peake and Ohio (Eastern and Western divisions), the Midland, and the Louisville, St. Louis, and Texas Railways in Kentucky; and the Superintendent is under ever-increasing obligations to friends for hospitalities and attentions during his travels and sojournings.

Books sent to Kentucky, 16,921; of these, 3,642 were consignments to colporteurs or grants. Books sent to Tennessee, 23,483; of these, 7,302 were consignments to colporteurs or grants.

LOUISIANA AND MISSISSIPPI.-Rev. J. McLaurin, of New Orleans, La., gives the following view of the condition of his field:

There are multitudes in Louisiana and Mississippi who are yet without the Holy Scriptures, and it is to be feared that they will remain in this sad condition for some time to come, unless the American Bible Society is furnished with the means to enable it to send colporteurs to supply them with the sacred treasure. As yet, I am sorry to say, the auxiliary societies in the district cannot be relied on to do any colportage work. All they are undertaking to do at present is to keep depositories, and quite a number of them do not even do this as it ought to be done. Some of them do not even order books, except when they are stirred up to do so by the District Superintendent. We are hoping for better things concerning them, and we trust that the time is not far distant when some of them at least will. awake to a sense of their obligation in regard to the great work of furnishing the needy with the word of life, and then go forth in the full discharge of their duties.

The work among the children has not progressed as we hoped. One thousand will cover the whole number of children supplied in my field during the year. It is my purpose, however, to continue to press this all-important work, trusting the time will come when a copy of the Holy Bible will be possessed by every child in the land.

The amount contributed by the two States which constitute my field during the year for Bible distribution falls a little short, I am sorry to say, of the amount secured last year. This falling off, however, is not to be attributed to a wavering interest in the great work, but to the financial stringency and the continued low price of cotton, which is the chief money crop of this section of country, and to. destructive floods and storms, which greatly damaged the crops and destroyed a great deal of property.

To the following railroad companies the American Bible Society and its representative are under obligations for special favors: The Illinois Central, the Queen and Crescent, the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley, the

Mobile and Ohio, the Georgia Pacific, the Kansas City, Memphis, and Birmingham, and the Watkins, Gulf, and Kansas City.

Books sent to Louisiana, 5,431; of these, no less than 4,101 were sent for colportage or as grants. Books sent to Mississippi, 1,903; of these, 222 were grants.

MAINE. Mr. E. B. Stilson, the agent of the Bible Society of Maine, has forwarded advance sheets of the report of that auxiliary, from which the following paragraphs are taken :

As a local organization we rejoice in the stupendous work done by our American Bible Society during the past year. We have had some small part in its matchless victories. We have, however, never contributed more than $1,000 in any one year, and of late years, we regret to state, our offerings have been but drops, as we have been tilling the home field. We recognize that no local Bible society has any moral right to ignore its constitutional vows of loyal co-operation with the National Bible Society.

The importance of the work the Bible Society of Maine is doing here in the churchless homes of the rural districts cannot be overestimated. The children in these neglected sections, into whose hands and whose homes the society should year by year be placing the Scriptures, are going out into our cities to act as leaders of corrupt rings of thieves and criminals, or as leaders of the mightiest reforms of the age. If a local Bible society is to be faithful to its sacred trust, it must see to it that every home within its territory is visited by trained workers once in every four or five years, and it is the purpose of the society thus to till this field.

Our efforts are becoming more fruitful among the Roman Catholics. There is a French family living in Yarmouth who are now members of the Baptist Church in that town. But a little while ago they were among the superstitious and firm adherents of the Roman Catholic Church in Lewiston. A New Testament was given them by the Bible Society of Maine, and they destroyed it. A second copy was given, and this was destroyed. A third was given them, and this was the means of their conversion.

A pastor of a Methodist Church in Cape Elizabeth states that a family who are now among the most active and useful members of his church were Irish Roman Catholics less than one year ago. The pas

tor is confident that the presence of this family in his church was the result of a visit and the gift of a Bible by a colporteur of the Bible Society of Maine. A few weeks after the family appeared at the church saying, "If you Protestants believe what this Bible teaches we want to come and worship with you."

We have had twelve laborers under commission for different periods of time. They have toiled in six different counties, visiting 102 towns and cities. They have entered 24,012 homes, representing about 120,000 persons. They found and supplied 445 Bibleless households. We have sold and donated 5,553 copies of the Scriptures, amounting to $3,013 61. During the last three months of the year, notwithstanding the financial depression, there was a surprising response to our request for increased contributions. Offerings came from churches, Sunday schools, Young People's Societies, and individuals of different denominations from every part of our State. We are now able to report the society's finances to be in a far better condition than ever before in all its history, notwithstanding that within the last few years we have called at every home within the large territory committed to our care. The contributions from all sources amounted this year to $7,201 09. Income from invested funds, including $100 from a legacy, $412 74. Total, $7,613 83.

The expenditures for salaries and expenses of those engaged in the work, $4,763 77. Cost of books donated, printing, and express bills, $868 75. Donated to the National Bible Society, $200. Total, $5,732 52. The number of copies of the Scriptures sent into Maine was 8,170.

MARYLAND. The Rev. Thomas Myers, agent of the Maryland Bible Society, has forwarded the following condensed statement of the work of that auxiliary for the past year:

The work of the society has been attended with gratifying success. In the city of Baltimore we have employed one man and two women the entire year. They visited 54,891 persons and distributed 3,372 volumes, at a cost of $653 68. Rev. C. Reinhold distributed 563 volumes among the shipping, at a cost of $78 51. Ten colporteurs were employed in the summer in ten counties. They made 28,833 visits and distributed 4,238 volumes. Of these, sales were made to the value of $849 32, and donations to the value of $908 34. The total issues of the year were 20,509 volumes, at a cost of $8,539 11, as follows: Donated through colporteurs and at the Bible House, 11,505 volumes, at a cost of $2,900; sold, 9,004 volumes, at a cost of $5,559 11. During the past year we have received three legacies amounting to $2,758 29. Notwithstanding the "hard times," we have nearly equalled the past.

The number of volumes sent into Maryland was 19,853, only 2 of which were donated by this Society.

MASSACHUSETTS.-The eighty-fifth report of the Mas