Litchfield enquirer., 1878-08-22
WAYS AND MEANS.


 needn't ask me for particulars of time, place or circumstance. 1 am not going to tell where | our town is on the map or whether we held our fair for the benefit of the A. B. C. F. M., or the P. o. T. A., or any other national, al phabetical OF charitable machine. Neither shall 1 tell what, if any, local interest in- duced our Heading women" to turn shop-keep- CTS ill their best clothes. It might have been to carpet the church parlors or to fresco the church itself or to get up an Old Woman's
 Home, or an Orphans Refuge; or it might have been to save an old historic landmark from vandalism of church greed and trade mo- nopoly. Whatever it was, our cause was good one and we made plenty of money.
 But-such a time as we had on the last eve ming of our fair! That is what am going to l tell you about.
 In order that you may understand it must | tell you first about our leading women, for, Of course, it was the women that made the fair. Men never do such things. 1 have noticed, however, that they take funds raised that way very readily from the Ladies Auxiliaries."
 We'll, our President was Mrs. Lesley and she is the grandest woman 1 ever knew. Still you can't feel really comfortable and happy with her always. Every once in while she will make you feel just as mean and small as | have only just been living like other folks. Our Secretary was Mrs. Gray-she is Mrs. Lesleys husbands sister-and they made me, | Mrs. BusvbOdy. Treasurer We three really did the work. The rest of the Executive Con- mittee said yes or no just as we told them, and helped to carry out our plans And if 1 do say it, neither of the others worked as hard as 1 did. For John-that's my husband ain't as rich as their husbands are, and hire only one girl and do almost all my own sewing Of course don't have car Irior fo lriu md in, fhnyYH do md streets are dreadfully muddy in bad weather. Such tramps as toek on that fair business John says shall not get over it all winter.
 Well when we met to talk over the matter at first the Executive Committee went to Mrs. Lesleys house. I saw that our President and l Secretary were not likely to agree about the management of things Although they are so closely connected by marriage they are just as unlike as it is possible for two women to be who both have seal-skin sacques and camels hair shawls Mrs. Gray is beauty, and can be charming. She is very naughty though brides herself on her family and position. She is very benevolent always gives the most of anybody to our Missionary Society. But don't believe she would have woman for friend who worked for her living on any ac- count. It is hard work for her to treat me as I want.her to. But she likes to come over to my house to got me to show her about fancy work and 1 often trim up her parlors when | she has company she says do it better than a florist, and Mrs. Gray has exquisite taste. l Besides, have cousin who lives in Paris, and l have just the choicest patterns of any woman in Blanktown, if l am not rich. always like to lend, and help plan dresses and all that so on the whole Mrs. Gray calls me her Every dear friend, Mrs. Busy -body-such valuable person." see through her we'll enough, but l like her in spite of her selfishness she is SO capable and shrewd, and can put anything through she undertakes just elegantly.
 Mrs. Lesley is called peculiar. She dees not 1 go very much into society, although she enter tains guests for weeks at her house, and any quantity of them. She picks her friends just where she chooses Her most intimate ac- | quaintance in Blanktown is the Kindergarten teacher who lives next door to me, and she even invites shop-girls to tea.
 Well, when we began to talk about the fair, the difference in these two women showed it. self plainly enough. I can't stop to tell you | just now. You'll see when get to that last | evening" l, you must know, stood rather be- tween them, and things went as turned the scales, sometimes according to the Presidents wish, and sometimes according to the Secreta- l ry's. The truth is 1 can get up the kind of enthusiasm for moral principles, that Mrs. Lesley talks so much about, as quickly as any one can and always when she is making her l splendid little speeches Ibelieve every word she says. But when find, as we did in this fair business, that being so particular takes off all the profits, aad sometimes seems to block up the way entirely, confess veer around a | little. 1 am quite apt in such cases to side with Mrs. Gray, who does always have con- mon sense to rest on, and who said very forci- ply. thought, at our stormiest committee 1 meeting that, 'when people were devoting | themselves to great patriotic or benevolent ! work they must waive some of their personal | scruples if they wish success"
 You see the question was Should we have rallies, and guess-prizes and all that sort of phatic manner. She claimed that such things | were gambling, and we should never be able l to urge young men to be honorable in their | dealings if we encouraged the gambling spirit | in the community.
 Mrs. Gray thought ''her dear sister"-she always calls her sis-in-law that when she feels hateful towards her-''very much exaggerated l the moral importance of the question. This was practical matter of methods, and the le- gitimate inquiry was how could we raise the largest sum in aid of SO and so, in the quickest | and easiest matter. If we had a fair at all, and wished it to be successful, we must manage it | as other great fairs had been managed. As for herself, she had already begged handsome sleigh, and set of furniture, and other costly | gifts which could not be disposed of except by raffie. Of course, if our President, ,"-O al- | ways did think Mrs Gray thought she ought to have been made President, and I was sure of it now by the emphasis that she put on Presi- dent)-''vetoed railing, she should be un- der the painful necessity of returning to the donors these valuable gifts"
 Mrs. Lesley looked over to me and asked l what thought about it. felt miserably un- decided when she appealed to me. 1 really l believed just as she did, that we ought to set | good example in this business if we were going into it. But, on the other hand, I had set my heart on making money at the fair, and knew it would cripple us fearfully if Mrs. | Gray should get offended Besides, she did seem rigLt about the practical part, if not the moral. So did what always makes me feel like fool just stood on the fence, mumbled | over something about honoring the Presidents scruples, and sharing them to some extent, but ! still feeling that our cause demanded money l and we must sacrifice everything for it. Mrs. Lesley looked over at me in the most | piercing way and said: ''So I understand Mrs. Busybody to mean that eur cause de- mands of us the sacrifice of our principles 2" Of course I said no, but still rather threw the influence on Mrs. Gray's side.
 We'll. we decided to have rallies And we did have them on scale beyond anything I I
 Our fair lasted whole week. Poor John didn't have one of his favorite buildings for month. But John is the best man in the world. He never said one complaining word till the very last day, as slipped my coffee at the breakfast table-I was too tired to eat a morsel-he says: kitty, is this the last day | of the fair ?''
 "Yes," said I, ''thank Heaven! I believe another day would kill me-"
 l Well, he returned, am not quite clear about Johnny's mother having right to kill herself over fair. And shall not be sorry to have awife once more, of an evening, my self'
 | was so tired and nervous burst right out crying at that. And John tried to comfort me, bless his heart He said he didn't mean to blame me, and was just as good as he always is when have been doing and doing until Pm all worn out.
 was net the only tired woman in Blank