p. 74 | Hygienic Festival

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 22, 1871

Hygienic Festival.

EARLY the present season, the increasing numbers of patients at the Health Reform Institute, made it necessary that extensive additions should be made to the main building, and that several of the other buildings should be improved, and all refitted. This done, the rooms in all the cottages were in fine condition, six new, elegant ones were made in the second story of the main building, and fourteen feet in length were added to both the lecture hall, and the dining room.

It was then suggested that, at this important era in the history of the Institute, it, with its enlargements and improvements, should be rededicated by the especial friends of health reform at the Institute, and others in this city, with a service of speaking and music, the entertainment to close with a dinner. Committees were therefore chosen, and preparations commenced. But the friends of the reform began to feel desirous that their worthy neighbors, who take no especial interest in health reform, should be present to hear, and to participate in this hygienic festival. And so the committee extended invitations by printed, enveloped notices to the principal families in this city and vicinity, which called together not far from eight hundred people, representing a very large share of the real intelligence of the city.

The preparations for the occasion, made by the joint action of those directly connected with the Health Institute, and a large number of practical health reformers in the city and vicinity, were ample, and in many respects truly beautiful and grand. And our neighbors, in the liberality of their feelings, were disposed to make the best of what they heard from those with whom they had long been acquainted, however poorly they were qualified to address them.

But the dinner was a grand success. The tables stood along side of each other, sufficient to seat seven hundred persons, loaded with a proper representation of the diet at the Institute, and at the homes of reformers generally in this city. This called for tons of crockery. More than one crockery store in this city was literally emptied to set these tables. And, then, the speaking continuing till past one, all were prepared to enjoy food with an uncommon relish, which caused comparative silence for about the space of half an hour. Gentlemen forgot their steak, butter, and condiments, and the ladies seemed not to think of their tea. This was the principal success of the day, and the delight of all true health reformers, to see their neighbors enjoy a simple, healthful, hygienic dinner. Here we must close our hasty sketch of this interesting social festival with our numerous, respected friends in this community.

But that our friends abroad may know how the Health Reform Institute is viewed at home by the citizens of our place and vicinity, we give the following candid statement from the editor of the Battle Creek Journal, who is universally respected as a scholar, and very much of a gentleman.

Health Reform Convention.

ON Thursday, July 27, on the spacious and beautiful grounds of the Health Institute in this city, there was held a Health Reform Convention or Hygienic Festival, which was attended by

ABOUT 800 PERSONS,

chiefly assembled from Battle Creek and the towns in the vicinity. The day was one of the finest of the season, and as the people began arriving about 11 o’clock in the forenoon, they found the amplest preparations made for their reception.

On the south side of the grounds were five tables—each 128 feet in length, the total length being 640 feet—all set in the neatest style and appropriately decorated with vases of flowers, while on the north side a large platform had been fitted up for a speakers’ stand, with seats arranged in front of it for the accommodation of the guests during the speaking. A variety of

MOTTOES

upon small banners in the vicinity of the stand indicated the character of the occasion, and suggested the leading principles of the reform which the convention was called to promote. Among these we noticed the following: “Health Reform the Basis of All Reform,” “Nature the Best Physician,” “Cleanliness next to Godliness,” “Our Materia Medica, Pure Air, Light, Proper Diet, Pure Soft Water, Proper Clothing, Exercise, Cheerfulness, Rest, and Sleep,” “Obey and Live,” and “Nature’s Laws are God’s Laws.” In the reception room of the Institute was displayed conspicuously upon the wall, wrought in letters of evergreen and surrounded with a wreath, the word “Welcome,” and also the maxim, “Vis Medicatrix Naturæ,” in letters of the same material.

At the stand before dinner, besides music by the choir of the Seventh-day Adventist church, and by Mr. and Mrs. McAllaster, Miss Ella Skinner, and B. T. Skinner, who favored the company with their services, and who all performed their part in the most admirable manner, there were

ADDRESSES

on Health and Dress Reform by the Rev. James White, and also by Mrs. White. They were both listened to with close attention, as they with remarkable force and clearness set forth the principles of the new system of hygiene, and presented the reasons for their adoption. The former dwelt with peculiar emphasis upon the scriptural injunction forbidding the use of pork as an article of food, holding that the divine command was a statement of a physical law, equally binding upon man in all countries and in all ages. Eld. White also presented many facts and statistics corroborative of his general position in regard to health reform, and closed with a vigorous appeal in behalf of a theory which he claimed to have been most fully and conclusively tested by experience. Mrs. White was then introduced by Dr. Russell, who presided at the public exercises, and she proceeded to discuss the topics which would naturally possess a special interest on the part of the ladies of her audience. Her remarks upon living in accordance with nature, rather than in the slavery of fashion, were most able, and evidently produced a deep impression. The duties of the family and home circle were enforced with a practical eloquence, which must have convinced her hearers that many if not all her admonitions and suggestions were worthy of serious attention, and that the world would be much better, if they were carried out in actual practice in all the homes of the land.

At the conclusion of Mrs. White’s address,

DINNER

was announced, and there was immediately a movement for the tables, on the part of the numerous crowd in attendance. The strictest order and regularity were observed; and at the five tables, some 675 persons found themselves seated before a display of eatables, truly tempting to the appetite. The following was the bill of fare:—

VEGETABLES.

New Ripe Potatoes, Green Beans, Green Corn, Beets, Squash, Green Peas, Baked Beans.

BREAD, CAKE, &c.

Gems, Raised Bread, Hard Biscuit, Buns, Fruit Cake (Graham), Sponge Cake (Graham), Apple Pie (Graham), Oatmeal Pudding, Manioca Pudding with fruit, Rice Pudding with fruit.

FRUIT.

Peaches, Prunes (dried), Figs (dried), Dates (dried), Apples, Whortleberries, Blackberries.

It is to be noticed that butter, grease of all kinds, tea, coffee, spice, pepper, ginger, and nutmeg, were wholly discarded in the cookery, and were not in use upon the tables. Salt was provided for those who desired it. After the invocation of the divine blessing, the dinner was served in a most capital manner, and was

RELISHED AND UNIVERSALLY COMMENDED

by the vast company of guests, most of whom for the first time sat at a public dinner got up on the hygienic plan.

The business of dining being over, for those who had seats at the first table, the company were invited to take a minute and detailed view of

THE HEALTH REFORM INSTITUTE,

the various rooms of the building being thrown open for the inspection of the public. Everything was in the most satisfactory condition, order and neatness prevailing upon all sides. There was a general exclamation on the part of our citizens present, both ladies and gentlemen, that the success of the institution exceeded their expectations, and that it had worked its way to a condition of present usefulness and future promise, which rendered it a just

OBJECT OF PRIDE

to the people of Battle Creek, and should in every proper way receive their earnest encouragement.

When the Institute had been thoroughly inspected, the signal was given for the re-assembling of the crowd to the speakers’ stand, where instructive, and very interesting, addresses were again made by Eld. White and Mrs. White. The speakers entered upon a somewhat different field of discussion from that occupied in the forenoon, and elucidated their views by an additional array of figures and facts, and by the presentation of many pointed exemplifications of the utility and importance of the new health system which they advocated. Eld. W. especially elicited attention, while he related his own wonderful restoration from the borders of the grave in

the practice of this system, by paying proper attention to diet and exercise. Mrs. W. addressed herself in the afternoon, in a more particular manner to the subject of Dress Reform, illustrating the style of dress approved by her, not alone by the costume worn by herself upon the platform, but by presenting in contrast, two little girls who were each respectively arrayed in the ordinary and in the reform fashion. She attracted a most diligent and thoughtful hearing throughout her address, as did also her husband in the preceding speech.

At the close of the meeting, Dr. I. J. Meachem rose from among the crowd of listeners and expressed his great gratification with what he had heard, and with the excellent provisions made for the visitors at the dinner table, and stated that he would presume also to express his thanks in behalf of the audience. At the conclusion of his remarks, upon suggestion, he moved

A RESOLUTION OF THANKS

to those who had furnished so generous and so excellent an entertainment, as also to the speakers who had so ably set forth the reasons and principles of Health Reform. Dr. Russell also expressed in behalf of the Institute, thanks to W. Jeffs & Co. for the use of the superior organ used on the occasion, and to the singers for the admirable performances, by which they had enlivened and given additional interest to the meeting of the convention. About four o’clock P. M. the meeting was adjourned, with the benediction, and the assemblage dispersed, evidently greatly gratified with the entire proceedings of the day. The Institute, it is needless to add, has gained greatly by this convention, in having its aims and objects, as well as its actual condition and prospects brought more fully before the public at large.—Health Reformer.