Across the Prairie in a Motor Caravan: A 3,000 Mile Tour by Two Englishwomen on Behalf of Religious EducationHasell, Frances Hatton Eva
Religion
Across the Prairie in a Motor Caravan: A 3,000 Mile Tour by Two Englishwomen on Behalf of Religious Education
Hasell, Frances Hatton Eva
Missions -- Canada
The next thing to do was to find a fellow-worker for the tour; and this
was by no means easy, for she must not only have been trained at St.
Christopher's and be physically strong, but she must be prepared to pay
her own expenses, there being as yet no fund to finance the venture.
Fortunately, however, an experienced ex-student, Miss Winifred
Ticehurst, offered to go. She had trained at St. Christopher's soon
after its foundation, and had since had considerable experience in
Sunday-school and parish work.
Then came the difficulty of getting passages and passports. These would
never have been granted had we not been able to prove that we were going
out to work. After the trials consequent on a visit to Cook's agent the
following incident in the current _Punch_ seemed peculiarly apposite.
Scene: The office of a travel bureau. Clerk (helping nervous-looking
lady to fill up form): "And the address of the nearest relation to whom
the body may be sent if found dead?"
I intended to travel via New York, in order to visit some cousins. I had
heard of the fame of the U.S.A. Sunday-schools, and wished to see some
of them. I also hoped to meet Dr. Gardner, the Secretary of the
Executive Committee of the Department of Religious Education for the
American Episcopal Church. It was therefore necessary to get my passport
visaed at the American Consulate, and on presenting the customary letter
of recommendation from a clergyman I was much amused when the clerk eyed
me suspiciously and remarked: "A letter from a clergyman is nothing to
go by. They are so easily taken in."
The question of equipment had taken considerable thought, and the result
seems worth setting down, in view of its possible service to others. The
chief items were: a motorist's 1919 tent with bamboo poles,
sleeping-bags, a double Primus stove and a Tommy cooker, a ferrostate
flask and two thermos flasks, canvas buckets, clothes both for winter
and summer (landworkers' suits for driving the caravan, which,
unfortunately, the Canadians regarded as displaying an undue amount of
"limb"!). Then, for use in the prairie schools, sets of Nelson's
pictures and Sunday School Institute models (given me by the Girls'
Diocesan Association for Carlisle diocese), and a case of books of
graded lesson courses and a quantity of postcard pictures of "The Hope
of the World" and "The New Epiphany." A tip from an experienced
traveller proved most useful. This was to fasten the packing-cases with
bands of tin nailed on, instead of with ropes, as the latter frequently
break when the cases are swung aboard ship, scattering the contents on
deck.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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