SWEDES IN BOSTON by James Sawyer

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 25, 1877

SWEDES IN BOSTON.

By James Sawyer

I LEFT Lansing, Mich., after the camp-meeting, and arrived in Boston, Tuesday evening. On Wednesday I found Bro. Wood, from whom I obtained English, Danish, and Swedish publications. A respectable-looking Swedish family gave me a cordial welcome, and were thankful for tracts and papers. I sent the TIDENDE to a Dane of whom I learned. One man decided to take the SVENSK HAROLD a while, and said if he was pleased with it he would pay for it.

They thought it singular that a Yankee should learn to speak their language. They said they knew of but one who had done so before. These Swedes had been long in Boston, and usually conversed in English; probably out of curiosity they urged me to converse in the Swedish. The gentleman who carried on the conversation was the superintendent of the “Leather Exchange.” He had lived in Boston thirteen years. He said there were over two thousand Swedes in the city.

I took the steamer for Bangor, Me., but we had gone only three hours on our passage when a storm came on, which compelled the captain to return to Boston harbor to anchor. As we were to remain in Boston another day, I took tracts and books and called upon the shipowners and business men along the wharf. The first one I met laid aside his paper and examined “Plain Facts,” and then purchased it. In conversation, the word Sabbath drew his attention, and he remarked, “We are not keeping the day the Bible enjoins.” He also said that the pope was the means of the change. I was surprised to hear him express these ideas, and I asked him if he would like to read on this subject. He said he would. I gave him the tract, “Who Changed the Sabbath?”

I again visited the Swedish friends on Hanover St. I saw the superintendent of the Leather Exchange, who, when he heard that I sometimes spoke in public, offered me the hall in the Exchange building if I would speak in Swedish. He also introduced me to a Swede from East Boston, where are about five hundred Swedes. This gentleman said he owned a hall there which I could have any time to speak on any subject. Another hall on Hanover St. was offered me. I had my ticket for Bangor, and could not accept any of these invitations; but I hope some one may hereafter improve these openings, and that the truth may be proclaimed in that place. JAMES SAWYER.