The Prescott daily news. (Prescott, Ark.) 1907-1941, 1914-04-04
JACKSONVILLE EXPECTS
FROM $4,000 TO 150, 900
Beautiful Florida City is Making Very
Elaborate Arrangements for En-
tertainment of Con. Veter-
ans Many 5, 6, and 7.

Jacksonville. Fla, April 4.-South-
ern social circles are again taking an
interest in the great social military
and sentimental annual meeting that
brings together crowd of from u.s.
600 to 10000 people to do honor to
ion of the survivors of the Confed-
crate armies.
The reunion is to be held this year
at Jacksonville, Fla, May 6, 7, s, in
elusive. 1t is the first time that the
ex-Confederates have selected Florida
as the reunion state, and uncommon
interest attaches to the meeting here
and throughout the south. Owing to
the comparatively early date of the
reunion, the divisions, brigades and
camps made their appointments of
sponsors and maids early, and these
ladies compose the social side of the
reunion. They are known as the off
cial ladies of the meeting, entertained
as such, and courted by the entire So
clal fabric OF the South.
The origin of the sponsors and
maids custom at Confederate reun-
ions is familiar Twenty odd years
ag Mississippi camp of Confeder-
ate veterans appointed Miss Winnie
Davis, daughter of Jefferson Davis,
sponsor at a reunion. Miss Davis, in
turn, appointed couple of her young
friends to be her maids of honor. This
incident, intended at the time as a
temporary honor for the family of
Jefferson Davis, became custom,
and now every organization in the
United Confederate Veterans Asso-
citation, appoints sponsors and maids
of honor. The young ladies must have
an older female head along with them,
and each organization appoints q
chaperon and matron of honor.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans.
following in the footsteps Of their
fathers, maintain organizations in
every southern state, and hold their
reunions on the same dates They APP
point sponsors and maids of honor.
The two organizations, closely allied
therefore, send to each Confederate
reunion several hundred official ladies.
selected from the best families of the
south, that stand high in the social
scale In their communities. No meet
ing anywhere in the world brings to-
gether at one time so large number
of handsome and accomplished ladies
to be entertained by the city in which
the reunion is held. The entertain
ment of these ladies is one of the
difficult but pleasant duties of a relin-
ion city. A committee is appointed by
every reunion city to entertain the
maids and sponsors, and upon this
committee falls the duty of seeing
that the ladies are provided with
everything necessary to their pleasure
and comfort.
Mapping out social program,
therefore, for a Confederate reunion is
task that demands the best of tai
ent in the entertainment line. There
must be dinners, receptions, balls.
trips, to points of interest around the
reunion cities and anything else in
the line of social entertainment the
committee may devise. The crown
ing event of the week in society, how
ever, is the annual ball for maids and
sponsors If the reunion is held in a
city where a hall large enough to ac-
commodate several hundred dancing
couples at once can not be secured a
dancing pavilion is constructed for
the occasion. This pavilion consists
of large canvas tent, well fioored an
and lighted; it is also supplied with
comfortable seats on the grandstand
order, where several thousand specta-
tors may witness the ball If a read
er has not seen one of these annual
balls at Confederate reunion he has
but a limited idea of it's size and
brilliancy. Nothing to equal it in
splendor can be seen in the United
States, unless it be the inauguration
ball at the national capital, now fall
len into social desuetude. If the in
auguration ball is put out of the con-
test, the annual ball of the Confed-
crate reunion, at which the maids and
sponsors hold sway, is the greatest So
cial function of the United States.
The ladies and gentlemen who parti-