Excerpt from Clara Torrey's diary, September 13, 1902, September 9, 1902

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Excerpt from Clara Torrey's diary, September 13, 1902, September 9, 1902

This is a transcript pf Clara Torrey's diary for September 13, 1902. It captures her delight with her visit to New Zealand and all she was discovering. This entry was written during her stay in Christchurch. During her husband's evangelistic meetings, she would serve as a counselor to women wand children who came forward afterward to give their lives to Christ or to learn more about the Christian faith. Notes in brackets [] were added by the archivist.

Saturday, September 13. A beautiful, bright day. At about eleven a drag [a large heavy sled drawn by horses.] came and we went out for a long drive with fourteen others. We drove to a small village where we had dinner at a hotel and drove back reaching home about five o'clock. The people all came in and had tea in Mrs. Kaye's dining room. The table was very pretty, with five satin pondlilies in the centre + a glass vase of flowers in the center of each lily.

The drive was delightful. The Alps showed up beautifully. [The South Alps of New Zealand's South Island.] The country is flat. The gorse hedge in full bloom with bright yellow flowers was one feature of the scenery. The gorse is a native of England. I have been told that it blooms all the year around. And an old saying is "When the gorse is out of bloom, kissing is out of fashion." I saw some in bloom in Australia two months ago.

Candy, apples, bananas + oranges were passed [around] during the drive, yet we all did justice to the dinner.

We saw some beautiful, tall + nicely trimmed evergreen hedges also. It has been a day to be remembered.

Little Magie came in this morning before we started and I told her some stories. She is a sweet child + very pretty.

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