The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1903-06-04
Birmingham Flower
Mission Open Today.

The flower mission will be opened today
under the auspices of the charity and
help committee of the Epworth league Of
the First Methodist church.
Flowers may be sent to the parlors Of
the First Methodist church, where men,
bers of the committee will receive them
from until 4 o'clock, and who will dis
tribute them in the charity wards of the
hospitals and among the sick in the poor
districts of the city.
Thursdays of each week will be set
aside for the distribution of flowers and
magazines. and Miss Blanche Weller, the
chairman of the charity and help COM
mittee, requests that all those who desire
to assist in this work will send flowers
and papers and magazines to the First
Methodist church every Thursday and
they will be distributed under the aus
pices of the committee.
The charity and help committee was
recently organized in the Epworth league.
aBesides Miss Weller, the efficient chair
man, the committee includes Mrs. ~ d.
Smith, Mr. j.. Grubbs, Mrs. Won L.
Thompson and Miss Beulah Winton.
The work of the committee will be
directed principally to the sick in the poor
districts and the hospitals and will bring
a message of good cheer wherever 1t be-
comes known.
That the flower mission win accomplish
in Birmingham what it has elsewhere
there can be no doubt and the senti-
ment, the thought inspiring the move
ment indicates that Birmingham does not
intend to overlook those who are de-
pendent upon others for the ray of sun
shine. 1t is not only one who thinks of
the districts where the poor are i'll and
dying or of the wan faces on the white
cots in the charity wards. There are such
conditions to be seen every day. They
are not found only in the cities where
the flower missions have been in existence
for years
The members of the charity and help
committee know these localities. They
will distribute the flowers and magazines
where they are most needed, where flow
ers are seldom seen except, perhaps, when
shivering figure has looked longingly
through the shop windows at the beautiful
flowers on winters day, or when a little
ragged figure looks wishfully at the
flowers blooming IN the parks.
The conyalescent in the tenement where
the sun shines for a short time will be
cheered by package of papers and mag
azines, and the flowers left for the little
sick girl in the room below will bring a
smile to her colorless lips.
In addition to the flower mission, which
opens today, the charity and help com
mittee will open an employment bureau
about the middle of June.
The plan is to secure the cooperation
of the business firms of the city by ar
ranging to supply them with saeswomen
who are compelled to earn their own liv-
| lihood, and who are possibly the sol|
means of support for their families. FREE
! quently there are destitute cases where
| 1t is impossible for the breadwnner to
secure position, and the employment
! bureau will reach a class in need of i'm
mediate assistance. Its methods will be
| in line with the most practical ideas now
advanced by all thinking people; that
is not giving Unfortunately, and there
by easing ones conscience, but bringing
a definite aim into the lives of those to
whom existence has hitherto been mat
ter of dependence.