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to an accomplishment which might beautify their homes, rather
than to the cook stove where there was probably little
to cook. Elizabeth C. Davis read Alfred Austin's birthday
ode to the Queen saying that if it had not emanated from
such a high source she might have thought some lines too
long and some too short. Most of her hearers apparently
shared her estimate of the efforts of Alfred the less who if
he had not experienced the ill-luck to succeed the greater
Alfred might have been more highly appreciated.

Margaret S. Hallowell gave from Friends Intelligencer
a beautiful memoir of our former valued member
Mary Willis Kirk: eight of her pupils were present and most
of them recalled some pleasant incident of schooldays
at old Fair Hill or testified to the sterling worth of
character of their departed teacher.

Sally Bond said she hesitated to give a little domestic
scrap next but she finally told us of the value of a
cleaning powder known as "Gold Dust", it was especially
good for lamp chimneys and soiled paint. Margaret S. Hallowell
advocated giving children pets and inducing boys to cultivate
flowers as a softening influence. A very suggestive
essay read by Mary T. Bond declared small farming a
refuge from poverty and deplored the fact that so many of
the working class make no effort to thus enhance the
beauty of their homes as well as the comfort and health of
their families. Sarah E. Stabler's selection "Too little
Rest" was a plea for the mother who was said to be
more valuable as a counsellor than as seamstress or
cook, and women were urged to attempt less and
thus achieve better results in important directions.