The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-11-24
Prospect for Wants Ungratified
on Thanksgiving Day.
Confidential Exchange Over
WheImed with Calls for Help.
UNABLE TO MEET DEMANDS
Outlook Is for Many Untitled
Baskets at Present.
Time Is Here for Persons of
Means to Get Busy.

Around about shabby little white
house were cans and all manner OF
rubbish. Inside a mother lay on the
! bed. There was no color on he1
cheeks and at her side was her baby
| three months old. A boy of four was
| feeding bits of board from the side
walk to dying fire. The father
ture that State Journal reporter met
| in Topeka yesterday and this is the
| picture in which four hundred To-
| pekans will have a part on Thursday
pekans come to the rescue and make
the day day of thanks for the four
hundred.
Every charitable organization in the
city has jumped into the breach and
| assumed its share of the responsibility
of driving gloom out of every home in
the city, Thursday. But the task that
they assumed is bigger one than they
anticipated. Although the Organiza-
tons have volunteered to distribute
hundreds of baskets, no provision has
yet been made for more than a hum
dred families in which there are from
one to seven children.
For years local societies have dis
tributed Thanksgiving day baskets.
But there was no cooperation among
the various agencies that sought to
should have something to feel thank
full for. So it was that some homes
were visited several times during the
day while others were never ap-
preached.
Plan to Reach Everyone.
Then the organizations got together
and decided that this Thanksgiving
day would be one in which no one
would be missed. A complete canvass
of the city was made for worthy per-
sons who were to be supplied with
thank day edibles. The results of that
sc.s h. eyfeo he oh
ity workers who had been engaged in
work of this type for years.
Enrolled in the ranks of those for
whom the Confidential Exchange is
trying to obtain Thanksgiving day
dinners are hundreds of persons who
have never before been visited by
charity workers and who will prob
ably never again seek assistance. There
are invalidS who crave delicacieS that
their meager incomes make impos-
sible of attainment. Widows whose
backs are bent over wash tubs and
tots whose fathers can't earn enough
to pay for the few additional things
fruit, celery, nuts or chicken-that go
to make up a meal for Thanksgiving,
are included among them. Children
VINO are counting the moments until
Thursday-the twenty-fifth = arrives
and with it the basket that the Elk
change has promised them are num-
bered by the hundreds.
just One More Day.
eff the people of Topeka only real
lied the situation, L am certain they
wouldn't hesitate for a moment to
lend their assistance Miss Adams,
secretary of the Exchange, declared
today. 81 only wish 1 could make
the situation clear to them"
Just one more day remains until
Thursday day is here.
Today and tomorrow morning, only,
can big hearted Topekans come for
ward with the edibles that will make
some family remember that this is
the day when all are rejoicing Tor
what they have.
The contents of the baskets are left
altogether to the doner. Those dis
tributed by the Provident association
will include a fat chicken, II bag of
cranberries. two pounds of sugar, one
pound of butter, one peck of Irish
and sweet potatoes, one peck of APP
pies, bunch of celery, a bag of nuts,
a ten-cent loaf of bread, jelly, fruit
cake and a can of corn or tomatoes.
How do you think a feast like that
will be welcomed in the little house
where mother lies in bed and a
dying fire is fed with bits of wood
from the sidewalk?