By Train Across the Alps

Mrs. White celebrated her fifty-eighth birthday, Thursday, November 26, 1885, by beginning the interesting journey into Italy. With her she took Mary K. White, leaving Sara McEnterfer behind to care for Ella. Martha Bourdeau accompanied them.EGWE 137.1

The trip by rail through the famous St. Gotthard pass and “along the borders of the beautiful Lake Maggiore” had brought the party to Turin in northwest Italy. The train ride through the Alps fascinated Mrs. White, and she wrote at length about the uniqueness of the mountains. “The Alps of Europe are its glory. The treasures of the hills send their blessings to millions. We see numerous cataracts rushing from the tops of the mountains into the valleys beneath.”—Manuscript 29, 1885.EGWE 137.2

At Turin the party spent a pleasant night in a hotel, and Friday morning at an early hour they were on their way again to the quaint little town of Torre Pellice. Mrs. White described the journey:EGWE 137.3

“About thirty miles west of Turin we left the vast plains which ‘stretch like a garden for two hundred miles along the foot of the Alps,’ and passing through a narrow opening in a low range of mountains, entered the Piedmont valleys. Only one of these valleys ... is traversed by the railroad. Soon after entering this valley, several others spread out like a fan, some at our right and some at our left. But it is in this central and largest valley at the terminus of the railroad, that Torre Pellice is situated.”—Historical Sketches of the Foreign Missions of the Seventh-day Adventists, 230, 231.EGWE 137.4

And she commented, Thither our course is directed that, if possible, we may encourage the little company there who are striving under great difficulties to obey God.—Ibid.EGWE 137.5

When the travelers reached Torre Pellice, A. C. Bourdeau was there to meet them and was particularly happy to see his wife, Martha, again.EGWE 137.6