Los Angeles herald., 1908-12-26

least of these We have done II unto me-"
4 F there be one benighted person in
all of Los Angeles who holds
lingering doubt as to its being
more blessed to give than to re-
ceive it is pity indeed, that
person could not have been pres
ent and an inspired witness at
the overaowing bounty that was Law
ished with loving hands ON the tens
of hundreds of poor children al The
Herald's remarkable Christmas cele-
bration yesterday afternoon on the
roof of the palatial Y. M. @. A. build
ing on South Hope street and at Simp-
son auditorium, Immediately opposite
on the same street.
Though the joyous fete day which
commentaries the birth of the savior
is intended to be one of happiness and
of unbounded cheerfulness. there were
situations throughout the entire after
noon yesterday without number when
the heart must have been Of adamite
that did not well up with a fearful
sympathy for these 2000 haggard,
though trusting, little faces--not all OF
them freshly washed or scrubbed, By
any means-that pushed eagerly-yes,
hungrily and selfshly-into every pos
sible vantage point that promised an
extra sweetmeat, a mere plentiful
helping of turkey or a toy or game of
greater attractiveness or appearance
of greater worth.
Hungry in Land of Plenty
Moralists and philosophers there may
be who could not have dovned the
constantly recurring thought that no
good excuse should exist III this land
of wasteful plenty for these hundreds
of meagerly clad and underfed little
ones who had gathered together at the
invitation of The Herald to partake of
the spirit of the day and to enjoy the
cheer and touch the kinship that unltes
all humans into one great common
family.
But there the children were What
ever the cause. they We're hungry, they
were poorly--in many cases insut11-
ciently-clad. and the Christian cheer
that should have been theirs had BEEN
measured out to them with grinding
selfshness by slip i'm the balance Of
things that had left their stockings
mockingly empty. 1t was not a time
To study causes. 1t was a time to
treat with an effect.
The Herald, with the generous help
of it's readers, solved the Christmas day
problem and last night there went to
their humble beds between 1900 and
2000 children whose hearts had been
made lighter in immeasurable degree
and in whose youthful minds there had
been planted a confidence that some
one really loved them.
And why should this not be so. when
every idea that had loving motive be-
hind it was enlisted, when every need
that money might buy was supplied,
and when literally hundreds of kind
hearted men and tender-heartel
women were working toward one given
eud--the fiawless pleasure of the needy
little ones?
Children on the Roof
Picture If you can the wide roof Of i
great slxyscraper. projected high into
the air, overcast with beaming sun
shine. overlooking one of the most
beautiful valleys in all of natures
kingdom and swept by breezes Of pur-
est air, so sweet and invigorating that
ones eyes were unconsciOusly drawn
to the majestic snow -capped peaks
lying on the horizon as IL immutabla
proofs Of the divinity and power Of
God, the birth of whose Son was be
ing celebrated.
And if the picture lacks a touch of
humanity to arouse the interest and 10
rivet the attention of the unthinkina,
it is truth that there was more gem
uine humanity in the scenes that were
enacted on this elevated stage than
the average person crowds into his life
in a year of ordinary days.
From end to end of the fiat, pebbled
area stretched row after row of tables
of snowy white with little farlands
of Yuletide green strewn along their
centers and lanked with hundreds upon
hundreds of chairs, each containing
some poorly nourished little waif or
one of whom was
both a character study and an object
of loving pity in one-while eagcr
hands of scores of kindly faced women
WED in alacrity and in unselfish desire
to minister to the wants of those whose
daily stipend is more frequently abuse
than a kindly act.
Such Dinner
And such a dinner ii vast And why
shouldn't it have been? Consisting OF
q menu that embraces every good thing
that the mind conjures up as a Christ
mas delicacy and served by Los An
geles' admittedly best caterer. AL Levy
under his personal supervision, assist
ed by a corps of carefully selected
members of the Southern California
Cooks association. in charge of Head
Walter Valentine Morand for two
years chief chef OF the California club
why should not this splendid dinner
have been the complete success that it
was?
And with such a dinner so splendidly
served, enhanced and sWeetened by the
strains of one of the most finished or
chestras in all California consisting of
twenty pieces, under the mastery lead
ership of A. Parmegianie, a joy was
in the faces of those hundreds
of delighted children that excited min
gled feelings SO intangible in the minds
of the grown-up spectators as to be
almost indefinable, yet permeated with
the most human Of tenderness.
And with their tiny stomachs dis-
tended far beyond the point Of corn
fort and their little hearts running over
With fhn pioaSIira that 1tr.conaofo4.al.+
came to them with the thought that
some one really loved them, when the
hundreds OF little ones were piloted
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