Notes by the Way by N. Z. Town

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 21, 1916

Notes by the Way

By N. Z. Town

As one starts on a trip to any part of the world, he cannot fail to be impressed by the remarkable traveling facilities which have been brought into existence in these last days.

Leaving Washington the evening of September 14, a ride of a little over twenty hours brought us to Chicago. At 8:10 the next evening we took a train in Chicago on the Santa Fé route, and at noon the eighteenth we arrived in San Bernardino, Cal., the actual run from Washington, a distance of 2,990 miles, having been made in eighty-four hours, or three and one-half days. There are trains that do even better than this.

These means of rapid transit for the missionaries and silent messengers of the gospel have been developed at just the right time. It is interesting to read of how such possibilities were regarded just before the rise of this message. Back in the year 1828, a request was made of the school board in Lancaster, Ohio, for the use of the schoolhouse for the discussion of the question as to whether or not railroads were practical. The request was not granted, and in their refusal the school board said:—

“You are welcome to use the schoolhouse to debate all proper questions in, but such things as railroads and telegraphs are impossibilities and rank infidelity. There is nothing in the Word of God about them. If God had designed that his intelligent creatures should travel at the frightful speed of fifteen miles an hour, by steam, he would have clearly foretold it through his holy prophets. It is a device of Satan to lead immortal souls down to hell.”

Four years later, in 1832, the following notice appeared in a Philadelphia paper, said to be the first railway “ad.” ever published in this country:—

“NOTICE: The Locomotive Engine (built by M. W. Baldwin of this city) will depart DAILY when the weather is fair, with a train of passenger cars. In bad weather horse cars will run on the same schedule.”

How different now, with nearly 640,000 miles of railways in the world, a large percentage being in non-Christian lands, just where such facilities are most needed for the finishing of this work!

At San Bernardino we were met by an automobile from Loma Linda, and were soon comfortably settled in a pleasant room at the sanitarium. Here we met a fine class of young men and women, some taking the medical course, others the medical evangelistic course, and still others the nurses’ training course. There is quite a Spanish atmosphere in Southern California, and a deep interest was manifested in a stereopticon talk I gave one evening on our work in South America. The sanitarium was planning two series of health talks to be given in San Bernardino for the Spanish-speaking people in that town, the Parents and Teachers’ Association lending its cooperation

in the way of schoolhouses, lighted and heated. Dr. Newton Evans gave us the names of two young men whom he recommends for medical work in Latin America.

We were pleased to meet here Mrs. G. A. Irwin, who is now acting as matron of the sanitarium. She told us that the patronage at Loma Linda this past summer had been the best they have ever had at that season of year. Brother L. M. Bowen, the business manager, reported that the sanitarium is getting headed in the right way financially. Brother Bowen and Sister Irwin, with their associates, are doing their best to make every dollar reach as far as possible.

After being hospitably entertained at the sanitarium for three days, I left Mrs. Town there to rest and recuperate, and continued my trip. Sabbath, September 23, I spent in Mountain View, where I had the privilege of speaking to the church on the progress of our work in South America, especially among the Inca Indians.

The Pacific Press brethren were rushed with work. During 1911 they shipped out 154 tons of literature. The shipping steadily increased year by year, until in 1915 the total was 200 tons. During the first eight months of this year 215 tons were shipped, and the value of the literature sent out during this latter period is $68,000 more than for the same period in 1915. Brother C. H. Jones reported that their presses had never been so busy as this year.

At Mountain View Elder W. C. White met me to talk over the work that has been done in abridging some of Sister E. G. White’s larger books for publication in the Orient, where it would be difficult to sell the full volumes. Elders R. C. Porter and R. F. Cottrell, of China, and J. S. James, L. J. Burgess, and G. F. Enoch, of India, have united with Brother White and his associates in this work. Very careful, faithful work has been done,—work which we believe will be a blessing to the mission fields when these books are published.

Leaving San Francisco Sunday evening, September 24, I arrived at Vancouver, British Columbia, the morning of the twenty-seventh, and at noon the good ship “Makura,” on which I was booked, steamed out into Puget Sound, headed for New Zealand and Australia.

N. Z. TOWN.

Suva, Fiji.