The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-04-29
HISTORIC HOUSE WILL BE OPENED FOR APRON SALE W.. Nichols Home on North Avenue Scene of Bazaar
 For Widows Society. GREAT DAMAGE
 BY COLD WEATHER Potato Campaign is to Open
 Tomorrow-Demon-
 strations All Day

The William J. Nichols homestead where the annual sale and donation day of the Widows society will be held on May 3, is an interesting place both on it's own account and for it's historical setting-for it was in this vicinity that our now world-famed city of Bridgeport had it's beginning as the little settlement of Strat- field.
 North avenue. which passes the homestead on the north, was the old post road between New York and Boston laid out by Benjamin Franklin and diagona1ly across the street is the little, park which in the early days was a part of the training ground for the patriots of those days, and back of this lies the old burial ground where their dead were buried To the east, at the intersection of the old post road and what is now Park ave nue, was built the first church of the little settlement and so of Bridge port.
 The Nichols property at one time belonged to Jessup Banks, a wealthy farmer, and the house was built for his daughter, Mrs. William Leigh, some of whose children are now well known residents here.
 The place was bought by MT. Mich ols about twenty-five years ago, who remodeled the interior quite extens- lively. It is one of the spacious and q f Yn afSV Ia Nf os4 been the scene of many brilliant so- cial functions, as well as many af- fairs in the interest of a charity, as MT. and Mrs. Nichols are both gra- cious entertainers and public spirited citizens.
 Tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock the Potato Campaign will open and it will present a great opportunity for the women of the city to famil- iarize themselves with the various ways in which the potato may be used. There will be demonstrations every day from 10 in the morning until 5 in the afternoon. Tomor- row Miss Elizabeth AngelI, food emergency expert for Fairfield county, will be in charge.
 She will demonstrate the use of the potato in bread, pancakes, corn meal and potato mullins, chocolate potato cake, potato and nut loaf, and potaato cookies. The store which the campaigners secured is at I'll Fairfield avenue just west of the Rowland Dry Goods Co. Under the direction of Miss Mary Jackson, a number of posters advertising the campaign, have been made by school children and these will be on exhi- bition at the headquarters. Prizes are to be awarded for the two best designs.
 It is estimated that the damage caused by the severe winter to the ornamental trees and shrubs about the city amounts to about S10,000 Some think that this is low estimate but others who are familiar with the cost of these plants and the numbers | of them that have been placed about the city say that figure is low if any thing. A glance at the lawns in diff ferent parts of the city will reveal | these shrubs as dirty brown in color and practically lifeless.
 The cold weather was also respon- sible for a great decrease in the num- Der of that destructive bird, the Eng. | fish sparrow. The snow and ice re- 1 mained on the ground for so long a period of time and the cold was SC very severe that these birds could not l find food enough to keep them alive | Curiously enough the number o1 starlings, equally undesirable citizens seems to have increased. There are more robbins abroad this spring thar l for several seasons. They are plumt fine looking birds.
 In Beardsley park the little grey squirrels are exceptionally tame Usually they are rather wild, especi. ally when they first make their ap- pearance in the spring. Now they will come directly up to anyone whe offers them anything in the shape o1 food and appear to have lost all the timidity that is usually their mos
 marked characteristic. They come up to you and take food from youl hand and some of them, bolder thar | the rest, will climb up onto youl shoulders. The Park Department fed them as well as it could but the snow and ice covered up the food a;
 we'll as preventing the squirrels from l getting at the stores they had bur | jed. It is thought that nearly hal1 the squirrels perished from hun. | ger.
 The Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Congregational church
 Fairfield, will hold a Camouf1age Tea
 on Wednesday afternoon, May 1, at
 3:30 o'clock at the house of Mrs. w
 B. Glover, when Dr. Karmarkar of Bombay, India, will be the speaker
 Brought up at home under Christian influence, and wanting to do some
 thing to help her own people, Dr. Karmarkar, in 1889, came to America
 with her husband to study; he to be in the theological collage at Yale, and she to to attend the Woman's Med icaI College in Philadelphia, where
 she graduated, and in 1892 they botf
 returned to India, where they were appointed missionaries, and Dr. Kar. narkar at once opened a dispensary
 on the island of Salsette. Her tende
 sympathy soon overcame all prejudice
 and distrust on the part of the people