Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1864-06-30
Festival AZ rnirhnysn .

Festival at Fairhavsn.
Ea'sw Ratia,a H~aS A Strawberry
and Floral Festival, for the benefit of
the Soldiers Aid Society was held at the
Town Hall in this village last evening.
A more pleasant social and charitable
gathering has rarely II ever occurred
among US.
The hall, festooned with evergreens
above, was tastefully adorned ON every
wall, around and over all the windows,
with beautiful landscape paintings, por-
traits, engravings, medallions and mot
toes, of which our citizens possess a
considerable number and variety of no
mean character. Many of the oil paint
ings are the works of female artists
among us, such as Mrs. Davey, Mrs. Ad-
ans, Mrs. Allen, and Miss Allen, and
are such that their merits will not suf-
fer in comparison with the productions
Of very many of our best American art
lists.
At the east end Of the hall was an en-
craving of our nations great hero, en-
circled by the stars and stripes, and in
scribed underneath, Omitted States
Grant" &c propose to fight it out on
this line If it takes all summer" IMAM
other place in the room was this motto,
Grant-us victory"
Though we are without gas-there
were but one or two short public speech
es--the hall was brilliantly Illuminated
from three large chandeliers and many
lesser lights; and there were, presume,
many brilliant and witty speeches, not
taken down for the HERALD, from the
lips of the young men and prettily
dressed maidens.
In the centre of the hall was q table
of boquets to be sold by six little misses
who, with tiny baskets in their hands,
and flower wreaths on their heads, went
among the crowd of strangers and
friends, vending their fragile, fragrant
wares. By the little time lit took those
Juvenile merchants to dispose of some
two hundred or more of those boquets,
it may be inferred that many thought
them as good as heads of Franklin and
Jefferson on paper.
Around the hall were elegant displays
of wit and beauty, of silver and gold
except in the money Golfers, and one was
disposed to ask, if not all-absorbed in
Strawberries ice cream, and sweet cake,
lst, How came our people by so much
silver ware when silver is so scarce
and, I'd, Has the assessor or tax gatherer
been aroundl .-..,
At the opportune moment the occa-
sion was enlivened by two patriotic
songs, from our first musicians.
Altogether the scene was very beauti-
full, and to cap the climax, over two
hundred dollars were received at the
door and at the tables, seven eighths of
which will go, through the ladies and
the benevolent society, to relieve the
sufferings Of our gallant soldier boys,
not those only from our state and town,
but any and all who may belong to the
great army of the nation. 1t is pleas
ant to contemplate such exhibitions of
philanthropy and christian charity of
our age and country. The war may af-
ter all prove a great good. Churches
and sects pale before the christianity of
the Sanitary Commission, for this is
catholic, like those "Angels of Buena Wis.,
ta," catholic in name as well as deed, of
whom Whittier sings,
But the noble Mexic women still their holy task
pursued,
Through that long, dark night of sorrow, worn
and faint and lacking food;
Over weak and suffering brothers. with tender
care they hung,
And the dying foernan blessed them, in q strange
and northern tongue"
Eoirho I,y