Evening star., 1922-12-23
CHEER
GIVEN WIDE RANGE
DWeIlers in Government
Hotels on Capitol Plaza Dis
pensers of BenevoIence.

There are hundreds of presents
from back home" flooding the Gov
ernment Hotels on the Capitol-Union
| Stations plaza these days, but probably
none of them, individually, nor all of
them collectively. will give the re-
cipients the pleasure that each now
enjoys as being one of those who
handed $500 to the moor and needy
children and old folks of Washington.
The woman employees of the gov
ernment have kept very quiet about
what they have done. Although there
are about $500 of them, not 4 word
has come out regarding the broad
scope of their charitable work this
Christmas. and 1t was only by acci-
dent that the story is made public.
a newspaper man met Miss Susan
MacLean Boyd, one of the agents for
the board of children's guardians.
and, emulating a dentist, extracted
portions of the account from her with
as much ease as the average dentist
extracts superdevelopsd and stub
born molar.
beginning of the Story.
To start at the beginning. This
| CHARITY work has gone on for three
years. Each season in the recreation
hall at the Government Hotels a
series of dances is given, and from
the proceeds of these dances per-
centage is laid away for Christmas
activities
Since each building from ABB 10
W-A. has regular government, with
president, treasurer. and all the other
official requisites, each house admin
istration took charge Of its own fund.
al Of tot oil ln1
was found that nest egg of $500
was in the various treasures
Having this cash. the residents of the
hotels began casting about for worthy
ways In which to expend it. Miss. Boyd
happened to know something about the
guardians They're all needy and most
of them worthy children. Wherefore.
she took the names of 225 youngsters
who are being kept by foster parents
throughout the District. wrote per-
sonal paragraph about the likes and dis
likes of each, SO far as she knew them.
and turned the names into numbers.
Then she handed the list to the ones who
were ready to dispense a bit of Christ
mas beneficence.
Every one of them has been taken
| care Of The scientific manner in which
the project was handled guaranteed
that each child got something that he
or she wanted Santa to bring.
An Unexpended Balance.
A batch of money was still left TO
| be expended. In such institutions as
| the coiored Industrial Home Schoo! for
Boys, at Blue Plains, D. c., Christmas
rolls around every year very differently
| from the manner IN which it approaches
homes in Washington. 1t doesn't bring
Santa with it all the time. And for
this reason the treasurer of one of the
| houses walked into music store and
purchased talking machine with an
abundance OF records. The machine got
| there yesterday. and ninety youngsters
are going to listen to Christmas music.
! reCreational music, educational music
! and all the other types of that art dur
! ing the Christmas holidays.
And Still some money was left over
: There are ten youngsters-ali boys
Under the care OF 4 family at Hern-
don, Va. They got radio outfit. The
girls at the House of Mercy were not
forgotten. A number OF the presents
! that girls are crazy about" were dis
patched to them. The girls at the
Colored Industrial Home School. a;
Lincoln Heights. also were taken car,
of, and the total number of young
sters directly benefited amounted to
eractiy 367.
Still a Fund Remains.
And still some money was left
Building CD. therefore. held 4 chill
dren's party, with all the trimmings
that could be mustered, with Il por-
tion of that which was left
1t remained for TX building t,
think of the old folks, however. and
the committee from that building en-
, tertained some thing like thirty two
venerable ladies. Another house goi
list of needy persons from the AS
sociated Charities and packed away
a new crisp bill of considerable de-
/: nomination for each of them
precursory survey of the situa-
ton shows the impossibility of print
! ing the names of all those concerned
Besides there wouldn't be sufficient
space left for other items.
Miss Boyd's Request.
Miss Boyd didn't want this printed
unless all the names possible were
used, but she was assured that hers
only would be given to add definite
reference to the article, and she was
told that the girls that handed ou,
all this pleasure probably didn't wan,
to take credit for it in the publc's
eyes anyhow.
That's the reason why there's prob
ably plenty of happiness at the dormi.
tories this year-even without the
hundreds of packages from back
home. that are keeping clerks work
ing overtime there today.