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Mary T. Bond read of the undeveloped natural
wealth of Panama, especially in beautiful woods,
mahogany and ebony abound and the rare
rosewood is there also, as well as camphor and
rubber trees. Eliza N. Moore gave a sketch of
Mr. Ade of the State Department who is called
"the Indispensable". He has composed more Proclamations
than any other man living or dead,
being especially gifted in those for Thanksgiving.
The Presidents, for a number of Administrations
have depended on him in such public documents.

Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale originated the idea of
having a Thanksgiving Day set apart, but it
took long years of persistent effort to persuade
the different States to adopt it. Some Governors
declared it was an [inimration] and a menace
to personal rights. Ellen Farquhar interested all
by reminiscences of the artist Howard Pyle, who
was well-known to some members of the Sandy
Spring [colony] in Wilmington, Delaware.
He seems to have been an admirable man
as good as he was gifted. Elizabeth T. Stabler
nearly administered an electric shock by a
proposition to make a Calendar of 13 months
of 28 days each. This was followed by a fairy story from
Germany dedicated to Mr. Harvey [Milee.] Four flies were in
a pantry, the flour was adulterated with Plaster of Paris, the
sugar with white lead, the syrup with a deadly dye. Three
of the flies ate and succumbed, the fourth drank fly poison,
but as that was also adulterated he survived.

Lydia Haviland told us of a new and interesting biography of
Mrs. Humphrey Ward and then gave this lovley little poem. -
"If love were always laughter, and grief were always tears,
With nothing to come after, to mark the waning years.
I'd pray a life of love to you, sent down from Heaven above to you,
And never grief come near to you, to spread its shadow, dear, to you
If love were always laughter
And grief were always tears.
But grief brings often laughter, and love, ah love, brings tears,
And both leave, ever after, their blessings on the years.
So I, dear heart, would sue for you
A mingling of the two for you,