Manuscripts and Memories of Minneapolis

ALL THINGS ARE READY

The Minneapolis Adventists Have Completed Preparations for the Gathering of Leading Lights of Their Sect To-Day. MMM 570.1

The preparations for the opening of the Adventist general conference to-day have gone on steadily, and now in a wordly [sic] as well as a spiritual way all things are in readiness for the reception of the visitors and delegates. A large attendance is looked for, and preparations have been made accordingly. The army tents pitched in regulation style in the vacant lot adjoining the dining hall, have been floored and yesterday were provided with cots, chairs, cooking stoves, a small mirror for each, and a few other of the d juncts [adjuncts] to temporary housekeeping. Tables are set in the dining room for 200 persons. Each table is covered with a bright red cloth, and the attendants are comely young ladies from church society. Everything in and about the culinary department looks as neat as a pin, and an especially appetizing odor of good, wholesome home-cooked food pervades the establishment. MMM 570.2

The large basement of the church will be used as a reception room. In this are long tables, surrounded with chairs and a couple of extemporized toilet rooms, and in the center a roaring wood fire gives the room a genial warmth. Here is gathered all the reading matter published under the auspices of the conference, including both home and foreign synods, periodicals, pamphlets and general literature concerning Adventist work. Adjoining the church is the office of the international tract association, and this, with the reception room, will be the rendezvous of the delegates when the meetings are not in session. MMM 570.3

The regular preparatory meetings were continued yesterday, the talks and discussions being on theological subjects. The first meeting of the conference will be held at 9 o’clock this morning. Elder S. M. [sic] Haskell, second member of the executive committee, will preside in the absence of Elder Butler, the president, who is detained by sickness. The first business will be the appointment of the committee on credentials and its subsequent report. This, with the appointment of the other committees, it is expected will occupy most of the day. In the evening there will be preaching by some one of the elders. MMM 571.1