Sunshine 



E V er y Day 



the Year 



[AH communications relating to "Sunshine" should be addressed to Mrs. Jessie Macken- 

 zie Walker, 1943 North Eleventh street, Kansas City, Kansas.] 



DECEMBER is, in a sense, the birth 

 month of Sunshine. Mrs. Alden's 

 "passing on" of the pretty Christmas 

 cards presented her by friends and fellow 

 workers was the modest beginning of the 

 now powerful International Sunshine So- 

 ciety. Although Sunshine was not the orig- 

 inal name of the society, "to bring the 



REV. HENRY BURTON, AUTHOR OF "PASS IT ON" 



sunlight of happiness into the greatest num- 

 ber of lives" has always been the object of 

 the organization. 



"Have you had a kindness shown? 



Pass it on; 

 'Twas not given for thee alone. 



Pass it on; 

 Let it echo down the years, 

 Let it wipe another's tears. 

 Till in heaven it disappears — 



Pass it on." 



It was while looking about for a motto 

 which would embody the spirit of Sunshine 

 that Mrs. Alden came across the poem "Pass 

 It On," the first verse of which is inscribed 



on thousands of Sunshine banners, and is 

 carrying inspiration to unnumbered thou- 

 sands in Sunshine ranks. 



The story connected with the writing of 

 "Pass It On" is good enough to be passed on 

 here. The Rev. Henry Burton, its author, 

 writes that the circumstances to which it 

 owes its origin occurred in the life of his 

 brother-in-law, the well-known preacher and 

 writer, Mark Guy Pearse, when he was a 

 lad returning home from school in Holland. 

 With youthful inexperience the lad thought 

 that his steamboat ticket paid for meals 

 while aboard. He troubled not at all that 

 it took his last sixpence until the steward 

 confronted him with a bill for mealr. Then 

 he was wretched enough, and made more so 

 when the steward declined to release his 

 luggage, and demanded his name and ad- 

 dress. As the lad gave his name and address 

 the steward's manner changed at once. He 

 took off his cap, offered his hand, and at 

 once released the luggage. The explanation 

 was that the lad's father had shown kindness 

 to the steward's widowed mother some years 

 before. When the lad reached home and 

 related his adventure, his father said, "See 

 how a bit of kindness lives! Now he has 

 passed it on to you. You remember that if 

 you meet anybody who needs a friendly 

 hand, you must pass it on to him." 



Years afterward, when about to purchase 

 a ticket at a railway station, the lad — now 

 grown to manhood — noticed a gentlemanly- 

 looking boy struggling to keep back his 

 tears as he pleaded with the ticket seller. 

 Inquiry developed the fact that the boy 

 lacked a few pence of the sum needed to 

 buy his ticket, and that he was begging the 

 ticket agent to trust him, that he would 

 surely pay the money back. Instantly his 

 own experience and his father's words 

 flashed upon Mr. Pearse. Here was his 

 chance to "pass it on." He gave the boy 

 the sum needed, and, getting into the rail- 

 way carriage with him, told him the story 

 of the kindness shown him in his own hour 

 of need. "Now, today, I pass it on to you," 

 he said. "Remember if anybody needs a 

 kindly hand you must pass it on to them." 

 "I will, I will!" cried the lad, and the last 

 sight the man had of him was his handker- 

 chief fluttering from the carriage window, as 

 if to say, "It's all right, sir, I will pass it on." 



