Chapter 38—Food Sales
Church-sponsored Food Sales Not Condemned—When the
State fair was held in Battle Creek, our people took with them onto
the grounds three or four cooking stoves and demonstrated how good
meals might be prepared without the use of flesh meat. We were told
that we set the best table on the ground. Whenever large gatherings
are held, it is your privilege to devise plans whereby you can provide
those who attend with wholesome food, and you are to make your
efforts educational.—
Manuscript 27, 1906
.
A Unique Experience in Health Education—It was on the oc-
casion of the visit of Barnum’s great menagerie to this city on the 28th
of June [1877], that the ladies of the Woman’s Christian Temperance
Union struck a telling blow for temperance and reform by organiz-
ing an immense temperance restaurant to accommodate the crowds
of people who gathered in from the country to visit the menagerie,
thus preventing them from visiting the saloons and groggeries, where
they would be exposed to temptation. The mammoth tent, capable of
holding five thousand people used by the Michigan Conference for
camp meeting purposes, was tendered for the occasion. Beneath this
immense canvas temple were erected fifteen or twenty tables for the
accommodation of guests.
By invitation the sanitarium set a large table in the center of the
great pavilion, bountifully supplied with delicious fruits, grains, and
vegetables. This table formed the chief attraction and was more largely
patronized than any other. Although it was more than thirty feet long,
[285]
it became so crowded that it was necessary to set another about two
thirds as long, which was also thronged.—
Testimonies for the Church
4:275
.
Planning for a Banquet—Yesterday I had a two hours’ conver-
sation with A and his wife, who are working at the sanitarium here.
I think that the interview was a profitable one. They spoke of a plan
that they have in mind—to have a banquet at the sanitarium and to
invite the prominent residents of St. Helena—lawyers, bankers, and
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