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MANCHESTER WOMAN’S CLUB 
Lecture— Pagoda Land Presented 
The January meeting of the Man- 
chester Woman’s Club was held 
Tuesday afternoon at the chapel. 
It was an open meeting—therefore 
was largely attended, the gather- 
ing numbering 117. Mrs. Emma E. 
Stanley, the president, presided. 
During the business session re- 
ports of the Visiting Nurse Asso- 
ciation for the past year were read 
by Mrs. E. 8. Knight, which in- 
cluded the announcement of the re- 
ceipt of $100 for the work from 
Mrs. W. B. Walker: Mrs. R. C. AI- 
Jen asked in behalf of Miss Eva Me- 
Leod, visiting nurse, that the ladies 
contribute old cotton and linen. 
Miss Ellen Clarke, secretary of 
the committee also made a report. 
In part Miss Clarke stated that the 
visiting nurse was now a_ well- 
established philanthropy which it 
was hoped would continue to flour- 
‘ape ‘Three nurses have been em- 
ployed during the year. Miss 
Laura Carney served from Decem- 
ber 1910. to May 1911; Miss Vir- 
ginia Sutherland, May to Septem- 
ber and since the latter month Miss 
Eva McLeod of South Manchester, 
Ct., has been the visiting nurse. 
During the summer the Metropoli- 
tan Life Insurance company pro- 
posed: that its clients receive the 
care of the nurse when needed, the 
company to be responsible for fees. 
Later in the autumn the school com- 
mittee offered to employ the nurse 
during part of the time. These of- 
fers were accepted. The question 
of. funds for the continued work is 
a matter for future club considera- 
tion. 
The financial report of the Visit- 
ing Nurse Association as given 
by Mrs. Knight was_ receipts: 
$1,388.02 and expenditures, $960.71, 
leaving a balance on hand, Decem- 
ber 1; 1911, of $427.31. There have 
been 695 visits made during the 
year to 89 patients. 
At the close of the business ses- 
sion the High School orchestra 
opened the entertainment program. 
They gave a fine rendition of the 
Poet and Peasant overture. They 
were followed by Sumner R. Vin- 
ton, who presented his finely illus- 
trated leeture on ‘‘Pagoda Land.’’ 
To the uninitiated ‘‘ Pagoda 
Land ’’ seemed a foreword of China 
or Japan, but after Mr. Vinton ap- 
peared.in Burmese costume and al- 
Iuded to his long residence in Bur- 
ma as the son of a missionary, the 
audience settled to listen to a dis- 
course. on a somewhat unfamiliar 
locality. 
In a clear concise style, Mr. Vin- 
ton most interestingly introduced 
bis hearers by descriptive remarks 
and pictures to the steamer trip 
from Penang to Rangoon, the Delta 
scenery, native life, the bamboo and 
thatched abodes of the natives 
raised on stilts to protect from the 
‘‘underflood’’ of the Burmese rainy 
season. The Burmese women were 
shown in native costume also the 
Karens of the hills. Burma is most 
cosmopolitan. Sixty-seven different 
languages are spoken there. | 
Rangoon with its 300,000 people, 
its advancement due to the English 
occupation, its great business inter- 
ests of $100,000,000 capital, its hos- 
pital and religious communities of 
all denominations were most in- 
structively demonstrated. 
Burma is 86 per cent Buddhist. 
Thus came the introduction of the 
Pagodas, shrines of great beauty, 
value and unique character for the 
worship of the traditional Burmese 
deity. 
The great worship day of all the 
year for the Burmese followers of 
Budda is in October. on-the full of 
the moon. Then takes. place a. pil- 
grimage of 90,000 people to these 
great shrines made of wonderfully 
carved teak wood, Mosaic — glass, 
gold and jewels, when offerings of 
water, flowers and. leaflet prayers. 
are made. Pictures of these great 
temples and shrines with the na- 
tives at worship formed_one .of. the 
most 
ture. r 
The great rice mills owned and 
managed by natives, the teak wood, 
oil and ruby industries were shown, 
also the elephants, the great beast 
of burden of the country. The 
Burmese women. are. the_ better 
business people of the country than 
the men and have quite the most 
unique position in that respect than 
any other women of the world. 
A most arduous task performed 
in Burma is the transplanting by 
hand of 7 1% million acres of rice 
for the great rice crop. 
The 1800 miles of railroad, the 
strong English influence and the 
cosmopolitan religious influence is 
having a. great bearing on prog- 
ress in Burma. . 
At the close of the lecture, the 
orchestra gave a most pleasing and 
rythmie interpretation of the waltz, 
‘‘Dream Kisses.’’ 
A rising vote of thanks was ten- 
dered to the orchestra and Mr. Vin- 
ton for their very entertaining con- 
tributions to the afternoon’s enjoy- 
ment. ‘: 
During the social — session, Miss 
interesting and _ picturesque. 
groups of illustrations of the lec-. 
W ORT Ohad | BRE Bic 5 
Clara Winthrop of Boston and 
West Manchester presided over the 
tea room. Assisting her at the tea- 
table as pourers were: Mrs. F. P. 
Tenney and Miss Martha C. Knight. 
- The lecturer for January 16th 
will be’ Rev. (Mrs.). N. W. P. 
Smith. She will discuss the ‘‘Ideal 
Woman of the Twentieth Century.’’ 
Mrs. Wm. Hooper will serve as hos- 
tess. 
One on Gardner 
Washington always reads with 
special interest the speeches of 
President Taft, because among 
other things they are so frankly 
outspoken and indicate frequently 
how important machinery is work- 
ing and also because of the delight- 
ful humor with which the President 
frequently illuminates his remarks, 
making him one of the best after 
dinner speakers in the country. So 
in particular Washington took de- 
light in hearing of what he had said 
at the diuner of the New England 
society in Brooklyn where he was a 
guest. In his genial way the Pres- 
ident poked lots of fun at the New 
Englanders and he narrated a good 
one on Congressman Gardner which 
probably some people of Gloucester 
heartily believe in:— 
‘“‘T go to New England in the 
summer along the North Shore,’’ 
Mr. Taft said. ‘‘It’s a great place 
that North Shore, with the Win- 
throps and the Peabodys. The 
congressman from that district is 
Augustus Peabody Gardner. He 
told me once about going to see an 
old man in one of the towns of his 
district. The old man came _ hob- 
bling out to meet him and said: 
‘They tell me you are a grandson 
of Capt. Joseph Peabody!’ Mr. 
Gardner said no, he was the cap- 
tain’s great-grandson. ‘Well, sir,’ 
said the old man, ‘be you as mean a 
man as he was?’ ’’ 
And the President also told one 
on himself. 
‘‘Last. summer,”’ he said, ‘‘I was 
visiting the home of  ex-Gov. 
Draper. ‘‘I’m always visiting in 
New England. But this time my 
host took me out to the town of 
Mendon, one of the second rank of 
towns that were pushed out against 
the Indians, and my host showed 
me a boulder where the names of 
27 men who had been there to live 
between 1650 and 1680 were in- 
seribed. I found upon examination 
that I was descended from exactly 
17 of these men. You can make 
fun of New England ancestry but 
you cannot deny it, if you can prove 
it.’’—Boston Record. 
