The St. Mary banner., 1905-09-30
THE ENTERTAINMENT.

I
The entertainment given by the
ladies of Franklin last Tuesday
for the benefit of the Patterson
yellow fever fund exceeded all
expectations. 1t was glorious
success both in its financial re-
suit and in the spontaneous and
sympathetic eagerness displayed
by all the people OF our great
hearted community in united
and laudable effort to respond
most generously to the cause OF
suffering humanity. Never before
in the history Of Franklin has a
scene been displayed SO grandly
typical of the purer and loftier
impulses of our human nature. In
this era of selfishness and unsym-
pathetic judgment-this era OF
hard d-heartedness and unspeaka BILE
unconcerned, that scene shonc
forth brightly in its unique ten
derness, giving for the moment
new life and beauty to that heas-
enly touch of human nature which
males all the peoples Of the earth
akin.
Dinner was served from noon
until three o'clock in the after
noon. And we are proud to be
able to state that no other regular
dinner was served in any home in
Franklin that day. If there were
perchance one, it should never be
recorded. The whole town SEEM
ingly dined at the Opera House.
The hotel-keepers and the
strangers they entertained; the
merchants and the clerks they en-
ploy; the old and the young; the
rich and the poor; the busy man
and the idier; the politician and
the office-holder, all patronized
cheerfully the only dining room
open to the hungry that day.
1t was a matter of course-the
ladies said it ought to be so-and
the men, their loyal subjects,
made it SO triumphantly and sue
cessfully.
At three o'clock in the afternoon
the children's party commenced,
and what lovely party it was-a
living, moving picture Of childish
Innocence and beauty. Their
sweet little voices filled the big
hall with mirth, and their faces
beamed with conscious JOY, as
baby fingers placed their offerings
upon the altar OF the sweetest and
gentlest Of all the human virtues.
Hundreds of them were there,
from the tiny little tot to the ra-
diant little maiden of whom the
poet so sweetly sang:
"A loving being she, scarcely formed
or moulded.
A rose with all its sweetest leaves yet
folded
And they were so gleefully busy
and SO cunpingly sweet in being
happy, and in making other peo-
pie happy.
The entertainment closed with a
grand ball which continued until
the small hours of the morning
continued until everything which
had been provided, had been sold,
and until the receipts had reached
the splendid sum OF six hundred
and nineteen dollars.
The credit for it all-for its hu-
name conception-for its brilliant
success-its bountlful and mani
fold results, is all due, and only
due to the united efforts of the
splendid women Of Franklin and !,
Of the country surrounding il.
These gentle women knew that
their neighbors were in distress;
and with them, to know was to
act, and to extend the hand of
tender sympathy and material as
sistance. What they did was not
done in response to special plea
Tor aid-the good people Of Pat
,erson had made no such an ap-
peal. With pride and courage
yrandly commendable, for two
ong weary months, they had been
alone and uncomplaining, engag-
ID in heroic and terrific struggle
With the dreaded destroyer from
he tropics.
That pure Christian spirit, which
caches Us to Glove our neighbor
IS ourselves, alone actuated
hese noble women in giving SYM
'athy for their neig.loors' sorrow,
md answering back to them in
heir trouble ''uear for tear"
In doing this, they were but re-
'eating what their sisters in all
he ages had done--strictly and
weetly fulfilling the true mission
t woman upon the earth: Y,
To sooth and to solace, to help and
to heal,
he sick world that leans on her,
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