Children as Canvassers

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Apr 14, 1904

Children as Canvassers

THE following on this subject is from a recent issue of The Haskell Home Appeal, published in Battle Creek:—

“During the medical missionary council held in this city last spring, when the work in the Southern field was under discussion, Elder J. E. White introduced the little book, ‘Story of Joseph,’ which he suggested might be sold as a means of helping the work in the South. Several individuals took a number of copies of the book to sell, the Haskell Home ordering a quantity for the children to dispose of.

“The books came in due time, and all through the summer months we looked at the packages, saying one to another, ‘We must get them out before the holiday season.’ After the school had opened, and the children were well under way again with their studies, the teachers took up the subject, and laid plans for a canvassing campaign with the ‘Story of Joseph.’ The children were divided into groups, each group under the direction of a teacher, or some other trusty person. The city was divided among these groups, and the young canvassers made their first effort with fear and trembling. Of course they had studied the book, and had had some instruction as to how to use it. The first effort resulted in placing about twenty-five or thirty books, as the combined efforts of the different groups.

“Then a meeting of the children was called by the principal of the school, Miss Foster, at which the children told of their various experiences, and received further instruction and suggestions as to how to introduce the book. Again they went out, and came back radiantly happy, having more than doubled the number of books sold.

“While the enthusiasm of the day’s work was still fresh, another meeting was called. As the principal, who presided, called on one after another who had sold books to tell how he did it, the children rose, with glowing faces, and told simply and naturally, with scarcely a trace of embarrassment, their various experiences. Some took the work very seriously; some had seen a humorous side to it, and unconsciously gave pictures of human nature as they had met it. Some had made the work individually a subject of prayer, and felt that God had helped them. One small boy, entering a shop, found himself confronted by a large man in a white apron, armed with a long knife, and surrounded by carcasses of meat. It was too much for him, and he turned and fled without offering his book. Coming to himself on the street afterward, he visited several shops (it was mainly a business street), and sold a few copies.

“A group of primary children missed the residence street to which they had been assigned, and found themselves in a busy factory district. They persevered, however, and made several sales.

“One young girl, as she approached a house, heard the house-mother tell her child to shut the door in her face; but she courteously asked if she might go in to get warm, and was permitted to do so. While sitting by the fire, she showed her book to the child, who became so interested in it that on her father’s coming in he bought it for her. Another child had the door shut in her face as the woman saw her book; but as she quietly turned away to leave, the woman, ashamed perhaps of her rudeness, recalled her, and purchased the book.

“Some of the children, on announcing that they were from the Haskell Home, were minutely questioned as to the Home and their life there, to their great amusement.

“In some cases they found people who literally ‘knew not Joseph,’ and they had to tell them something of the story, interesting their hearers to the point of making a sale of their book.

“All through the recital, as individual experiences were told, the teacher helped by suggestions for future work. At the close of the meeting she remarked, ‘We want to go-again, do we not?’ And from all sides the response came, ‘Yes, we do.’”

“The boys were highly favored by having as their director a young brother who is a successful canvasser, and who not only conducted them, but gave them practical illustrations, taking them by twos to call at a house, and showing them how. Boys who had failed in their first efforts profited by his instruction, so that they afterward sold a number of books, and were eager to go again.

“On these books the children had no profit, gaining nothing out of it but experiences as the entire proceeds go to the Southern field, but the lessons they have learned are valuable. They have thus far sold about two hundred books, devoting three sessions of school time to the work. They meet in their respective schoolrooms at school time to have a little season of prayer with their teachers, and to receive any suggestions that may be given for their work, returning in time for dinner, and with keen appetites for it. They take with them what books they can conveniently carry, but in a number of instances have not had enough, and have returned afterward to deliver books that had been ordered.

“Probably not all of these children will make successful canvassers, but some of them may get a start that will make them of use in this department of the work as they grow older, and their instructors have had the future in mind as well as the present in their work with them.”