The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-07-30
HONEY BEES CELEBRATE
 MISS GRIFFINS BIRTHDAY.

MISS GRIFFINs BIRTHDAY. Tine Honey Bees met last evening when Mrs Olin entertained the members ,n celebratjon of the sixtieth birthday of Miss Frances Grihin. one of their distin- ruished members. The entertainment was given in the garden at the home of Miss Griffin and Mrs. l.. F. Nix on Mon roe street. This beautiful spot was | lighted with Japenese lanterns, which were hung about in the shrubbery, which grows there in such picturesque profu- sion Rugs were spread beneath the trees and hammocks, lounges and easy chairs were placed about. The bee and his hive were in evidence among the decorations. On the long veranda, which spreads even with the lawn. piano was placed and all about it were screens and soft shaded lights. Beneath vine-covered arbor the nectar table was arranged. and there Miss Louise Nix presided. She wore toilette of white organdie and lace with clus- ter of roses. The whole scene was one of exquisitely blended picture of tropical and Oriental splendor. The program began with telling by each member and guest who his or her favorite hero was.
 Mrs. Olin, after reading a most inter esting paper. alluded as follows to Miss Griffin. She said:
 
 ious to time Hike the angels in Heaven advancing continually to the spring time of youth" (Swedenburg.) To the im- personation of this beautiful life we turn in love and admiration, and recognize in her royal nature the plan divine. Emil nent by her magnetic personality, exquis- ite wit, commanding talents, and genial nature, she is. heralded by smiles and welcome as the sun whenever 1t pleases to shine and which pleases everybody with it and with themselves. Helpful through the intellect and through the affections, the stupid become intelligent in her rare exhilaration. Her conversa- tion is a series of intoxications." In radiant effiorescence on this glad anni- versary we learn from her the art Of living so that the years bring symmetry and fragrance and beauty; and like the century-plant, gathering in. force as 1t grows, culminating into perfect fiower-a joy to earth until it reaches into the ra- diant hues of Heaven"
 Miss Grffin's reply was the following:
 Age is a movable quantity. am sure that Lady Glentworth, centenarian in the British peerage, who has lately eel ebrated her hundredth birthday, in full possession of all her faculties, would smile, if the mistake should be made of calling a chit of @ girl of only sixty summers an old woman. when she her. self was two years and half old, when Lord Nelson died, and remembers the battle of Waterloo as distinctly as re- member the battle of Seven Pines But in this Club, discretion prevails, and there is no danger of any such mistake.
 Whenever a man begins to deliver him. self to reminiscence, I give up all hope the future holds nothing for him. l shun retrospection as I would the plague, and vet an occasion like this. in which am by loving consideration brought to the fore, has many temptations difficult to resist can recall many another birth day when loving hearts wished me all manner of blessings; but the celebrations which pleased me most, occurred during the first twelve years of my life. At the end of that time I went away to school, away from my wise, good mother-and experienced my first genuine heartbreak. If the laws of the land had then recog- nized woman as joint guardian of her child my father would not have been able | to do the child, all unconsciously for him, for what. did she know about raising child?-the great injustice of depriving | her at that tender age of the most val uable teacher I ever had. an educated, loving mother. The world is taking up today some of my mothers thoughts. One of her convictions which sprang from her heart, winged by her deep love | for her children,-was, that childhood must be a perpetual school, no vacations at all, but no books after six hours of 1 the school day, no bringing home books | to study at night; no vacation, meaning a perpetual care of everything that the child hears or sees through all his walk ing hours My! wonder what she would have exclaimed had she seen her chill dren seated along the curbstone for hours, beside a slovenly nurse, whose head is as vacant as a deserted tower through which the wind whistles, and whose heart is often filled with perches for the bats and owls of iniquity! For the loving care or my mother in my young life, can never express -all the gratitude which contin- uaIly overflows my heart.
 | To my father, most dearly beloved, l am indebted for a vigorous constitution and good health; for from him l learned to question the power of drugs and to respect the laws of nature; from him, the
 determination to think my thoughts | without the vicar" the courage to form my own opinions and dare maintain them, and from his unimpeachabl chivalry I have been strengthened in my profound belief in the high virtues of women. You see, at my first birthday sixty years ago, l had need of both a father and a moth CT. as the world has need of them today
 The lack of the mother influence in the
 world is most apparent, although much
 progress has been made to correct this error.
 Because I have never made attacks up-
 on my constitution. or worse. utterly de- 1 st-oyed it and tried to live upon it's by I laws; because I have never patroniZed the drugstores except for soaps and perfumes; l because I have never put faith in any patent medicines and have believed in the l curative power of my nature; because have never been a practicing physician
 without a diploma and with my only pa tient myself, and have lived according to nature as best could-because of all this. I count upon at least forty good years l,more. If anything should happen to call me away sooner good friends, you are now assured that it will be wholly unex- pected to me In the meantime. there are
 many things to be done to which you and I must give an impulse and must catch the step of the army that bears the ban
 ners of a higher life.
 I am not able to formulate any rules
 for a guidance from experiences of mine
 for your life, l only wish l could do so.
 For many years of my life. there
 reigned over my existence a grim spectre
 of fear" In all my waking hours, there
 was that great dread that I might not be
 doing just exactly the thing l ought To
 do. in order to develop, out of the cir
 cumstances around me, the individual l called myself, to the very best state that
 1t was in my power to become. l thought
 I. of all creatures, alone, fought against
 this spirit; but when have read the con