Appendix
657
secure for the Seventh-day Adventist young men the privileges granted
to members of religious denominations who were conscientiously op-
posed to bearing arms—of being assigned to noncombatant service in
hospital duty or in caring for freed men. Before a serious crisis was
reached, these efforts were successful. In a few cases Seventh-day
Adventist young men were drafted into the army and were assigned to
hospital work or other noncombatant service. Whatever their assign-
ment, they tried to let their light shine. Regularly for several months
there ran through the columns of the Review and Herald a listing of
receipts for a soldier’s tract fund to furnish literature for distribution
among the men
.
The experiences of Seventh-day Adventists in connection with the
Civil War led them to take steps that secured for them a recognized
status as noncombatants, which at the same time enabled them to
follow the Scriptural injunctions regarding their relationships to “the
powers that be,” which “are ordained of God.”
Pages 421, 456, Dress Reform—The dresses generally worn by
women in America at the time this was written (1863, 1867), were
very deleterious to health. They were especially objectionable because
of their extreme length, the constriction of the waist by the corset, and
the weight of the heavy skirts which were suspended from the hips.
About a decade earlier a few women of national prominence initiated
a movement to adopt a new style of dress that would be free from
these serious objections. The new mode of dress was somewhat like
the Turkish costume worn by men and women alike. The movement
became so popular that for a time “dress reform” conventions were
held annually
.
“The American costume,” here referred to by Mrs. White, was
a modification of the earlier style and was sponsored by Dr. Harriet
Austin of Dansville, New York. It combined the short skirt, “reach-
ing about halfway from the hip to the knee,” with mannish-looking
trousers, coat, and vest. See description on page 465. This “so-called
reform dress” was in 1864 shown to Mrs. White to be unsuitable for
adoption by God’s people
.
In 1865 Mrs. White, through How to Live, No. 6, appealed to our
sisters to adopt a style of dress which was both modest and healthful.
The next year the newly opened Health Reform Institute in Battle
Creek took steps to design a pattern of dress that would correct the