W. C. White to G. B. Starr, August 24, 1933

I am glad for what you have said about the strange story told by Fannie Bolton in which she claimed that she saw Mrs. White eating oysters, and cheese.FBS 119.3

Regarding the beefsteak story, I will tell you in a few words the facts. There were about 35 of us going from Battle Creek to Oakland in 1884 in two skeleton sleeping cars. These cars were attached to freight trains and we were many days on the journey.FBS 119.4

Sister White began the journey after much wearisome labor in general meeting, and on the journey she had done some writing and had spoken several times to passengers on the train who gathered into our car to hear her.FBS 119.5

As we approached to the border line between Nevada and California, it was found that our provisions were running low. Some of us were able to make good meals out of the dried things that were left in our lunch boxes, but Sister White’s appetite failed.FBS 119.6

We were in a country where fresh fruit was very expensive and so one morning at a station where our train had stopped for half an hour, I went out and purchased two or three pounds of beefsteak and this was cooked by Sister McEnterfer on an alcohol stove, and most of the members that composed Sister White’s party partook of it.FBS 119.7

For years the White family had been vegetarians, but not teetotalers. We had always reckoned that in a case of emergency, it was justifiable to eat sparingly of clean meats, and especially so if we had the conviction that the animals were healthy.FBS 119.8

When I bought the beefsteak, I reasoned that freshly killed ox from this cattle country, would probably be a healthy animal and that the risk of acquiring disease would be very small. This was eight or nine years before Sister White decided at the time of the Melbourne camp meeting to be a teetotaler as regards the eating of flesh foods.FBS 119.9

When I see you, I will tell you more about the instances in which the White family partook of flesh meats on long journeys and on camp meeting expeditions.FBS 119.10

You will find in Sister White’s writings several instances where she says flesh meats do not appear on our table and this was true. During a number of years when on rare occasions a little meat was used, [it] was considered to be an emergency.FBS 119.11

I regard the story about Sister White eating oysters in a railway restaurant as an unwarranted fabrication.FBS 120.1