Visit to Scandinavia
At the close of the meetings at Basle the question was raised as to
when we should visit the Scandinavian missions. I was weary with
labor, and needed rest, having spoken twenty-two times through an
interpreter, besides writing many pages. We knew that it was late in
the season for a visit to these northern countries; June was said to be
the best time to travel in the North, and it was planned to hold the
Conferences for the next year in that month. But we were not sure
that we should remain in Europe till that time, and we felt that the
safest course was to visit the leading churches in Scandinavia at the
earliest opportunity. The condition of some of these churches had been
presented to me in years past, with many things showing that Denmark,
Norway, and Sweden were promising fields for labor. We knew that a
great work lay before the missionaries in this field. They desired our
counsel about the different branches of the work, and we felt that we
could advise with them to much better advantage after making them
a visit. It seemed unwise to postpone till another summer this part
of the work which we had made the long journey from America to
accomplish.
We left Basle Tuesday evening, October 6. There were four in our
party,—my son William and myself, Sister McEnterfer my attendant
and stenographer, and Sister Cecilie Dahl of Christiania, who had
remained after the Conference to be our guide and interpreter. We
could not afford to patronize the sleeping car, which is more expensive
here than in the United States, but we were very fortunate in securing
a compartment to ourselves, and by the use of our blankets, were
enabled to rest quite comfortably. The plan of the European car is
quite favorable to a comfortable night’s travel, when it is not crowded.
There is a great diversity in the railway carriages on the roads
in Switzerland, Germany, and Scandinavia. On some roads they are
divided, like those in England, into small compartments between which
there is no communication; on other roads, especially in Switzerland,
they are more like our American coaches, where they are entered at the
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