My Visit East by William Clarence White

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 15, 1883

My Visit East.

By William Clarence White

AFTER the close of the General Conference I was detained several weeks in Battle Creek. Many plans involving the interest of the Tract Societies and both Publishing Houses, were discussed thoroughly, and some measures were adopted, and improvements suggested which we are sure will meet with the hearty approval of our friends. Our books are to be advertised in some of the leading religious newspapers. Good agents of any religious denomination will be employed to sell our subscription books, and some of our standard books are to be put in more attractive binding. These efforts at improvement will encourage our agents to give these works a very wide circulation. We are already much encouraged by the rapid sales of bound books since the Conference.

An overland trip in winter is usually quite unpleasant, and this one was dreaded more than usual because of the very bad condition of my throat, which since September had been much inflamed and in a state of constant irritation. But the cold which I had feared was no worse than the dampness of Oakland; and while at Battle Creek I availed myself of the unparalleled advantages of the Medical Sanitarium; and at the end of three weeks I felt that my throat trouble had been cured; it was more free from pain and irritation than it had been for several years. Familiar as I had been with the many processes and appliances in use a year or two ago at the Sanitarium for treating all forms of disease, I was surprised to note so many new and valuable improvements. Every department shows that earnest thought has been bestowed upon it by the Medical Superintendent, that the best results may be obtained.

Sabbath, January 27, I spent with Eld. Butler at the home of Eld. Whitney, Rome, N. Y., and the following week went with them to New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, where they assisted in the selection of apparatus and furnishing goods for Healdsburg College and its boarding-house. We spent considerable time in the large publishing houses of these cities, where we found some most excellent and useful books, of which we shall speak more fully at another time.

Sabbath, February 3, and the following Sunday and Monday, we spent at South Lancaster, Mass., where we enjoyed the privilege of visiting the New England important school. This school has been in operation about eight months, and is doing a good work. Several are preparing for the ministry, and others for other branches of missionary labor. This school which begun with about twenty scholars, has grown to four times that number, and yet it retains its character as a family school. All the teachers and over fifty of the scholars are the members of one family, and an extremely industrious family it is. The young lady students do all the washing, mending, and other house-work; while the young men cultivate garden vegetables in summer, and in winter saw and split wood for the towns of South Lancaster and Clinton.

Sabbath I took dinner at the school, and Monday listened to several recitations, where I was impressed with the somewhat novel, but really practical and rapid method of teaching language, and by the interest and efficiency manifested in the missionary class. For some time Professor Bell has been studying how to make a short course in English complete and practical, and I think the present course will prove very beneficial to the class, if not entirely satisfactory to himself. The missionary class, taught by Sr. Huntley, is doing some valuable work, besides learning the theory of bookkeeping. While nearly half the time in this class is spent working out problems and making entries liable to come before librarians or district secretaries, the balance is spent in the regular work of a Vigilant Missionary Society. While reading the answers to some of the students' letters I thought, Happy New England! What a blessing a class of this sort would be to any Conference. The school as a whole bears an appearance of sober industry, quite characteristic of New England. W. C. WHITE.