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luncheon, served on small tables. If our hostess has
the recipe in writing, for the best scalloped oysters we
ever tasted she can blot it out henceforth!

Margaret C. Bancroft presided. The sentiment for the
day from an unknown source, advised us if we would
keep our friends “to approach them with a telescope & never
with a microscope.” The Association endorsed
unanimously a request of the Co. Federation that our
Representatives in Congress be urged to pass the Sheppard
Towner bill for the public protection of maternity &
infancy, & to Sec’y was empowered to report this action,
which was done. Sallie R. Janney gave a sketch
of the late philanthropist, Nobel, who left a large fortune
to be given each year, to a few people who had done some
creditable work for humanity. Elise Hutton read
from “The Editors Easy Chair” in Harper’s, a bright article
which declared, “it is not always what people say that
counts, but what goes on in the back of their heads.”
Getting ready for election was thought to be an appaling
employment that disturbs everything & makes people cross,
but when over they say – “we did what we could,” & go about
their business as usual. We were asked to vote upon a
“Natural Tree” for our country. The oak was chosen by 14,
the elm by 4, the apple, walnut & tulip poplar each 1, & the maple 2.
Sarah T. Adams had an
extract from a recent speech delivered upon Caunous'
birth-day by Mr. Sherwood. Pope Leo 13th, John Adams,
& Henry Gassaway Davis were active in body & mind
after passing the 90th milestone, George Bancroft, Tennyson,
Michelangelo, Thomas Jefferson, Talleyrand, Voltaire,
Gladstone, Humboldt & Victor Hugo were in their prime,
intellectually, at 80. We think the name of our frequent
visitor, Ellen Stabler, might be placed on above list as
she has knit & sent across the water, 131 caps for the
poor little children of Europe. India Downey
read a fine creed, “I resolve to take care of the present
& to let the past & future take care of themselves. In
other words to live each day as tho’ it were my last; to
be thankful for each new day & to put into it & to
get out of it all the good I can.” Ellen Farquhar
shared with us a letter from an old pupil, Minnie
Harper, who described an exquisite garden in Mexico,
but said she was living “in a land of bandits.” We
trust it is no worse than our own has been lately.