New Britain herald., 1916-01-13
THE GREATEST OF
 THESE IS CHARITY
Organization Had Plenty of Work
 to Do During December

N Britain Charity Organization was held last evening. The past month was one of the most tedious in the year for the officials, occasioned by the hard work that usually confronts them during the holiday season, but the manner in which it was handled Was particularly gratifying to the di- rectors.
 An innovation was tried this year by having a Christmas tree, and it is likely that the experiment will be made an annual event, judging from the success attained this year. The directors feel deeply indebted to the Abbe Hardware company for it's sistance in making the tree such pron bounced success, and it's. beautiful electrical trimmings were due to the kindness of the Butler Electric con1- pany.
 Miss Elsie E. Osborn proved to be the woman of the hour" during tho holidays and her work in the in terests of the poor of the city, showed a painstaking study of local condi- tions.
 Miss OSborn's Report.
 To the Directors of the Charity Or
 Sanlzat1On:
 /-~.sTee, but that's Q dandy tree" said more than one small urchin when he walked into our front office, for this year the Charity Organization tried the experiment of having a Christmas tree. It began in this way: Two little children, whose parents We tided over hard period last summer, came down one stormy day before Christ ha dragging a little cedar tree to give us for a Christmas present It looked very brown and shabby, though of course we trimmed it for the children's sake and the more we looked at it the more We wished for really, truly Christmas tree. So we advertised for one and the advertise n1ent disclosed several people ready to give us a tree.
 The Abbe Go. provided standard and the Butler Electric Go. furnished the electrically lighted figures which charmed the children. Most of the ornaments did duty on the City Mis- sion and Boys club tree before com ing to us. Many people responded to our advertisement by sending or anges and candy to give to the young sters who came to inspect our tree. Half a dozen children helped us to adjust our ornaments and others brought little trinkets which they asked us to put on the tree. !, We took care to have it large and shapely and I well trimmed because in most of the 1 homes we visit there is little enough l of beauty and we wanted to have this 1 tree create real impression.
 Some of the down and out" home less men apparently derived as much pleasure from it as the children Mothers came and brought whole families. Big brothers and sisters brought smaller children mot once, but several times and altogether sev- eral.shundred pairs. of eyes must have Inspected our tree and several hun dred pairs of hands squeezed every ball and pulled every tinsel chain. Although count was kept of our visi- tors for the first few days, later it was given up as hopeless. E..
 We really kept open house for our friends during the holidays, and the life of the tree was lengthened from December 22 to New . Years Day. Twelfth Night, the Russian Christmas when our small Russian friends called, until January 11-then. we re- luctantly parted with it. The hap piness and good will it stimulated | made it more than worth while and we hope to have another next year.
 As usual we made confidential com 1 parisons of Christmas dinner lists of | all the churches and societies. not so | much to prevent duplication, as to see | that no worthy family was neglected. ] Tn some instances it actually seemed | to us that the very poor were pro- | vided with a far better Christmas l than those who are clinging to the ragged edge of independence and self support. -s -.>~1
 Many times those who brought us the Christmas lists remarked on the lessened need this winter due to bet ter industrial conditions. Many peo- i pie take this to mean that there is not enough to keep the Charity Agents busy, but this is not true. The | Iact is that last winter Charity Or | ganization societies all over the coun- | try were swamped with requests for i Lid that crippled their resources. This l year we find that conditions are very much as they were two or three years , LEO, although in our own case there ! s steadily increasing demand for pur services that makes this years fgures closely approach those of last year and keeps us "snowed under'' with work all of the time.
 Whereas last winter twenty-nine of