The San Francisco call., 1909-12-13
MERRYMAKING TO
AID SICK BABIES
Mardi Gras Ball Planned for
February Will Be Brilliant
Social Event

Get your costumes ready for the
mardi gras balll
1t is to be for San Franciscos favor
ite charity-the Childrens hospital
and will be the most brilliant affair
given in many a long year. In fact,
this ball will rival the one given long
ago by the Art association, when the
entire orchestra of the old Grand opera
house was floored over and society en-
joyed an evening that has never been
duplicated.
MERRYMAKING FOR SUFFERERS
At that time the mardi gras merry
making was for art and fun This
timeHit will be specifically for the
building fund of the Children's hospi-
tai. 1t will be given by The Auxiliary.
the first of the suborganizations work
ing for the afflicted children.
The Auxiliary is composed of a group
of young matrons and girls who organ
lied it originally to read for the Grip
pied children and to make them partic-
ularly happy on Christmas and Thanks
giving and every other holiday. As
time passed and the girls became more
responsible they commenced TO give
large entertainments every other year
to raise money for their work. The
last one was the big society vaudeville
at the Chutes.
The coming mardi gras ball viii be
given at Dreamland rink. There Will
be an invitation list, to be sure. Who
could successfully give such an affair
without one? But there will be well
come that evening for every repre-
sentative man or woman in San Fran
cisco who is minded to add something
to the cause of the strapped and
weighted babies in their white cots
and at the same time to participate in
one of the most brilliant affairs ever
given in San Francisco or any other
great city for that matter. Every de-
tail of the ball viii contribute TO the
magnificent spectacle, and there will
be a large number of prizes so unusual
and beautiful that competition for them
must be keenly enthusiastic.
SOCIAL LEADERS INTERESTED
When The Auxiliary decided that no
form of entertainment would be quite
so good as a mardi gras ball the COM
mittee in charge called upon Mrs. c. O..
Alexander, who had announced the
second and last of the colonial balls
for February s, Shrove Tuesday. Upon
hearing that the proposed ball was for
the benefit of the Childrens hospital
Mrs. Alexander decided to change the
January %, feeling that all the mem
bers would be as enthusiastic as she
in contributing to the success of a
mardi gras ball for the desperately
sick children. In speaking of this re-
arrangement of the colonial date Mrs.
Worthington Ames of The Auxiliary
said:
we hardly know how to thank Mrs.
Alexander We could not have given
lite Io1 ha hod
erous."
Mrs Laurence Scott is president of
The Auxiliary. The committee ap-
pointed by her to take charge of the
ball is composed of Mrs. Worthington
Ames, Mrs. Walter Martin, Mrs. George
Cameron, Mrs. Silas Palmer and Mrs.
Latham McMullin.
QUAKE INCREASED BURDEN
If the Children's hospital had not
sustained such serious loss through
the earthquake the mana gers would
have had endless responsibilities to
handle in the every day administra-
ton Now they have to consider the
absolute need of a building to take
the place of the main structure, which
had to be torn down after the April
calamity. Since that time the little
crippled babes have been deprived of
their sunroom this comfortable place
having been filled with cribs. The eye
and ear building has been diverted
from its purposes, and many of the
attendants, including internes, have
been living in refugee shacks on the
site of the original building. All told
the directors have been working at
the greatest disadvantage, unable to do
half the needed service for the blighted
bits of humanity-the babies who will
never be free from pain and discom-
fort while they live.
All the moneys from recent endeav-
ors for the Children's hospital have
gone into the building fund. When the
lines are ruled off on the mardi gras
accounts The Auxiliary hopes to have
large part of the $4,000 still needed
to complete the building, the plans for
wbicb are raadv