Misfortunes of the Texas Tract Society.
By Robert M. Kilgore
ELD. R. M. KILGORE writes to the Review as follows:— At the council meeting of the directors and Conference Committee last month, it was decided that our State depository should be moved to Denton, the county seat of Denton County. To obtain a suitable building, it was decided to purchase rather than to rent; and as one building, a brick 20x40, was proffered us for $1,000, we concluded to take it, as we thought it was a bargain, and could be sold at any time with a prospect of an advance in price. On last Thursday the first payment was made, notes given for the balance, and the deed received. Brother Eldridge, who was the acting agent, immediately took out an insurance policy of $500 on the building. On Friday night the large block with which it was connected, took fire, and on Sabbath morning ours, with the others, was but a mass of ruins. In the providence of God, our stock of books, etc., which had just been invoiced at $1,369.94, besides over $200 worth just arrived from Battle Creek, were, for some unaccountable reason, left at the depot, and therefore escaped destruction. The order was given to the cartman to place them in the building, but it was countermanded. We have grieved much over the sad misfortune which came upon us last August, when our Secretary, Sister Kittie Stevenson, who is not yet able to walk alone, was so badly burned, as to cause her so much suffering, and to paralyze the workings of the Tract Society; and now, as we were just shaping matters and arranging the affairs of the society to enter more largely into the work and extend our field of operations, this calamity overtakes us, from which it will take a great effort to rally. But we think it is wiser and better to "strengthen our hands for this good work," and to "rise and build," than "to let this house lie waste" and to suffer the loss and the "reproach" by not building.