The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-12-13
YULETIDE CHEER
FOR CITY'S POOR
SALVATION ARMY DINNERS.
FIVE HUNDRED TO BE FED By
CORPS CHRISTMAS DAY.

Immense Quantities of Food Neces-
sary for the Event-COntributed BY
the CharitabIe-BasIetP Plan to Pre-
vail This season-WiI BE no Dim
ner at Headqunrters-Tick to BE
Given Out Good for One Basket.
what Each Basket Will Contain.
Contrary to custom there will be no
Chris tmas feast spread at Salvation
Army headquarters this Yuletide.
But this does not mean the larders
of the impoverished will go unprovid-
ed for. 1t means a new plan is to be
put into effect whereby the waste of
former Christmas celebrations will not
prevail.
This year the dinners will be given
out in market baskets entirely, where
as it has been the custom to feed
half at headquarters at dinner and
half by the basket plan. The dinner
has inevitably resulted in much waste
and so unsatisfactory has it proven
that from national headquarters down
no spread is to be made this year. At
national headquarters $4,000 people
have usually been fed. At local head
quarters 500 people are annually CIV
en- their Christmas dinner.
Capt. and Mrs. H. f. Harmon and
assistant are busy arranging the de-
tails of the great task of feeding this
large number. One hundred baskets
containing food sufficient to satisfy
five persons are to be made up and
i e
proportions.
Much Goes Into Basket.
What does a Salvation Army Christ
mas basket contain?
When this question is answered it
will lead to the still more puzzling one
of how the contents are gathered to-
gether by three people who are con-
Quoting work reliant upon the char
ity of the city. This is what Sal
walton Army basket contains if made
up as planned:
Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, ba-
nanas, cabbage, one chicken, package
of coffee, butter, sugar, can of con-
densed milk, can of fruit of some kind,
can of vegetables, perhaps two loaves
of bread, and a pie.
This is packed in a half bushel mar
ket basket and it is expected some one
will donate the necessary 100 baskets
To get the great quantity of articles
Capt. Harmon and assistants solicit
from every quarter. They do not So
licit articles of food alone, but ask for
money, too. 1t would be a hopeless
quest to seek out such a vast amount
of contributions and some of it is pur-
chased so that money is at all times
welcome.
What Must be Secured.
To fill the baskets as they have been
planned will require the following:
Two hundred pounds of beef, ten
bushels of potatoes, ten bushels of
sweet potatoes, 200 loaves of bread,
fifty pounds of crackers, 100 small
cakes, fifty pounds of sugar. thirty
pounds of coffee, 100 cans of condensed
milk, thirty pounds of butter, 100 large
pies, 100 chickens, 100 heads of cab
bage, fifty cans of corn, fifty cans of
tomatoes, 100 cans of peaches, 100 bot
ties of pickles, two barrels of apples
and 600 bananas.
The baskets are to be given out be-
ginning at II o'clock Saturday morn
ing, Dec. "a. Tickets are issued to
each family and these will be taken
up as presented and bear the name
with street address of the party aided
Letters of appeal to residents of the
city are being sent out and all who
know of worthy poor are requested
to send in the street address of the
family.
The work of the Salvation corps
does not end with the giving out of
the baskets. To those who are sick
and unable to call for their Christmas
dinner it will be carried or sent. So
great is the task of distribution that
no special services have been planned
for the day at the headquarters, for
there will be no time to devote to
them.
Many Calls Are Made.
Many persons are daily calling at the
headquarters and leaving their names
and it is a pathetic procession that
marches by the scarlet banded uniform
Of the patient captain. Many pitiful
stories of poverty he hearst but to
none Is his ear deaf, though his own
Christmas promises to be as meager
as that of those who come to him for
help. But this is the cause in which
he has enlisted. and the work has it's
rewards ahead, he will say.
woman clad in black had Just
steps leading to the street. when a
entered the hall. She had told a tale
of a cherries Preside and of distress
ing poverty.
Il, myself, am just about as poor"
said the captain. "Since my illness /
have been trying to buy some shoes,
but l have drawn only 81 salary in
several months. Even where our wood
Is to come from to cook our own
Christmas dinner do not know.
Strange, that despite this, / am still
able TO hrinQ rQliaf IN such she -