From "Saint Sara" by Pravrajika Prabuddhaprana, pp. 91-92, 93

"Swami Vivekananda's first talk at Greenacre was on Friday, August 3 in the large tent. His subject was 'The Reality of God.' On August 11, Sara Bull's report of it was published in "The Boston
Evening Transcript"...

...A storm, one of the grandest electrical displays ever seen in the vicinity, threatened at one time to entirely destroy the camp. There were tents torn down...

...Swami Vivekananda described it from his own point of view:

'It is a 'queer' gathering...Yesterday there was a tremendous cyclone, which gave a good 'treatment,' to the tents. The big tent under which they had the lectures had developed so much spirituality, under the 'treatment,' that it entirely disappeared from mortal gaze, and about two hundred chairs were dancing abou the grounds under spiritual ecstasy!...You will be astounded at the liberty they enjoy in the camps, but they are good and pure people there--a little erratic and that is all...

The other night the camp people went to sleep beneath a pine tree under which I sit every morning a la Hindu and talk to them. Of course I went with them, and we had a nice night under the stars, sleeping on the lap of mother earth, and I enjoyed every bit of it. I cannot describe to you the night's glories after a year of brutal life that I have led, to sleep on the ground, to meditate under the tree in the forest!

.....If you had seen them yesterday, when the rain was falling in torrents and the cyclone was over-turning everything, hanging by their tent strings to keep them from being blown down, and standing on the majesty of their souls, these brave ones, it would have done your hearts good. I will go a hundred miles to see the like of them.'"

Location: New Bern, NC