Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-25

character OF the family, two cans Of vege-
tables. . package OF tea or coffee. apples.
some other little thing In the way of
sweets. II waa collection on which the
average family would not go hungry either
on Christmas or the day after.
Distributing the Baskets.
Capt Bayes. who had charge of the af
fair, was busy At table checking the
tickets presented by the applicants and
matching them with the names on the
baskets. for each basket had been filled to
meet the requirements Of some particular
family. Back OF the captain there was
crowd OF willing helpers sorting and pass
Ing up the baskets. and Mrs. Bayes walked
around with baby on her arm keep ng
general supervision of the rear of the line.
There were AS baskets to 60 out and most
OF these were called for soon after noon.
The wagons were busy with the distribu-
ton OF about 200 and by the time the din
ners were all sent out and the workers had
q bit OF their own Christmas meal. ii was
entertainment for the night. This was es-
sentially a children's treat, and will care
for about 500 little ones with candies.
oranges, apples and nuts.
The Salvation Army has been preparing
for the days work since early In Novem-
Der. The contribution pots on the street
were In the care of E. r. Gray, John
Leath, Mr.. Fisher and Mrs. Currey. At
situations. the workers said that the police
had been uniformly kind and had helped
them continuously. not only in looking up
cases. but keeping an eye on contributions
which the uniformed force can be the
greatest help to any semi-public enterprise
when it chooses.
Dinner for Thousand Guests.
The dinner of the Homeward Bound Mis-
sion was of different sort altogether 1t
was a meal served to such OF the homeless
ones as could come for It, There were
about 100 baskets sent out In special cases.
and these had about the same contents as
the Salvation Army baskets, nourish!ng
and substantial food. and an addition of
English plum pudding. for Commander
Haslam OF the mission Is himself an Eng
lishman. and did not think that a Christ
mas dinner could be the real thing without
this little token.
The dinner at the mission was an inter-
esttng sight. It began at pm and prom
ised to continue till well toward Z The
mission Is an old house at 119 Pennsylvania
avenue and not over large for the accom-
mediation of such q crowd The big front
room was lined with wooden tables on
tressles and the middle room Just forward
OF the kitchen. was also laid out, SO that.
counting the children. some of whom oc-
cupied only half the space Of grown-up
person, there was room to seat them in
squads of about g. hundred each, though
somewhat crowded
The dinner, hot off the stoves consisted
Of roast beef with thick gravy, bread and
butter, two sorts Of potatoes tea coffee
and sugar, and some real English plum pud-
ding with sugar and butter sauce. There
were men and women, white and black and
very fair sprinklins OF children. It was
the biggest dinner of the day in Washing
ton and from the looks Of the diners, there
were few who did not need 1t badly Capt.
n xxyitl thoyr IA
were everywhere in evidence and keeping
peace between the younger recipients OF the
good cheer and seeing that both they and
their elders had as much to eat as they
could safely carry.
One of the features of the dinner was the
appearance at the door of Santa Claus In
regulation costume. He had a bottomless
sack from which each diner was given a
package of sweets or fruit to carry away.
There will be a special service this evening
to bid farewell to Lieut.. Lewis Gordon and
Capt. Mary Settle. who are to go to Balti-
more and to Wilmington, Del, respectively,
to take charge of the two branch missions
there.
The dinner at the Central Union Mission
was more or less of a family party. There
was prayer meeting In the forenoon I'M
der the direction of Mr. o. B. Brown of the
board of directors. After that there was
free dinner for which about 100 tickets
were issued. There was a Christmas re-
membrance for each of the thirty or forty
employees of the mission in the shape of a
small money present. The employees are
not paid much. the board cannot afford 1t,
and the Christmas gift helped to make UP
for the scanty wages during the year.
One of the events of the day, too, was
the presentation of new suit of clothes to
Rev: ]. W. Steele, the superintendent, as a
testimonial of the good will In which he is
held by his fellow workers,
At St. EIizabeth's.
There were about 5000 people provided
with special Christmas fare today at the
Government Hospital for the Insane. some
$500 of whom are inmates OF the insti-
tuition; and though 1t required the exar-
tons of a large force of kitchen employees
most of yesterday TO prepare the ingre-
dents for the sumptuous meal no effort
was spared in this direction, 1t being the
particular desire that the dinner go out
from the twelve Kitchens prepared in such
manner as to tempt, if possible, the ap-
petites of those for whom 1t was served
The menu for breakfast this morning in
cluded sausages fried hominy, hot rolls
baked to the number of 6,0O0 In the asylum
bakery, butter and coffee. For dinner,
which was served at noon, the hospital
authorities provided roast turkey, jiblet
gravey, mashed potatoes, corn, celery,
mince pie, currant jelly and damson pre-
serves 1t required 3, 800 pounds of turkey,
thirty bushels of potatoes, 1880 heads of
celery and 800 mince pies to make up the
main meal of the day. There was an effort
mates in an Attractive manner. and to this
end the various dishes We're daintiy garn-
ished. No restriction was placed on any
one as to the amount of food to be called
for. and each person ate his fill
Some good things will be given to the
hospital people this evening for supper, too,
as there Is to be a distribution of $500
bags of candy. The supper will be COM
posed OF fruit cake. TOO pounds having beei-
baked for the occasion at the asylum ap-
pie sauce, butter and tea. Oranges, grapes
and apples were supplied to the sick. In
addition to these the inmates were the
recipients of their Christmas presents from
the hospital or from friends
Children Were Happy.
1t was in those institutions that are de-
voted to the of children that the
Christmas spirit had its greatest and most
uproarious manifestation. Throughout
the District, in all kinds Of institutions,
whether designed for reformatory or sim
ply caretaking purposes the children We're
given a taste of the real holiday feeling
Christmas trees, candy, nuts, fruit and APP
propriate presents were distributed to all
The boys of the reform school were given
some slight return for their excellent serv-
ice during the recent fire, today. Liberty
from the ordinary restrictions was granted.
and in addition to religious services a
Christmas entertainment of more than