“6 NORTH: SHORE! BRERZE 
OSTON society was out in force Wednesday afternoon 
for the tea given by Miss Anne Means of Common- 
wealth avenue, Boston, for her niece, Miss Agnes Means, 
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James Means of Manchester. 
Palms and quantities of flowers sent to the debutante 
were near the receiving party, and on the tea tables were 
centre pieces of pink roses and heather. The tea was 
given in the ballroom of the Tuileries, which was beauti- 
fully decorated with pink roses and garlands of smilax. 
The tea room was in charge of Miss Anne Means, 2d, a 
cousin, and Miss Isabella Councilman. 
Pe Se 
of Boston and Newton, and who has 
* at Pride’s Crossing, reached 
the age of ninety-three years Wednesday. He quietly 
spent his birthday anniversary at his home in Newton. 
Mir. Ayer enjoys excellent health and is a man of unusual 
activity for his years, Every day, when the weather per- 
mits, he comes into Botson and goes to his business offices 
and he still keeps up his favorite exercise of riding and 
is out from day to day on his horse. He is fond also of 
Frederick Ayer 
4 summer estate, ‘Avalon, 
walking. Mr. Ayer was born on Dec. 8, 1822, at Led- 
yard, Conn. 
Oo 8 ¢ 
Among the late departures from Manchester this 
Wood and daughter, Miss Elizabeth 
Wood, who are now settled at their winter home, in 
Cypress st., Brookline. Miss Wood has not been enjoying 
the best of health of late. As regent of Governor John 
A, Andrews Chapter, Daughters of the Union, she pre- 
sided at the meeting of the chapter held at the Colonial 
Fiouse Tuesday afternoon. 
fall was Edward lL, 
‘levely flowers sent by friends to Miss Houghton. 
* Manchester. 
Dee. 10, 1915. 
Mrs. Clement S$. Houghton’s reception in the ball- 
‘room of the Hotel Somerset, Boston, last Saturday after- 
noon to present her daughter, Miss Elizabeth Houghton, 
-was one of the largest affairs which have been given this 
season for.a debutante. The ballroom was decorated with 
ereenery and smilax, and the group of young girls who 
assisted at the tea tables were beautifully gowned. Mrs. 
toughton and her daughter received amidst masses of 
‘The 
gown worn by Mrs. Houghton was of dark blue brocaded 
cliffon, with trimmings of black tulle and silver lace. 
Miss Houghton, who is one of the prettiest of the debu- 
tantes, wore a charming gown of heavy white taffeta with 
white tulle and a garniture of silver lace which was dis- 
tinguished for its simplicity. Mrs. Houghton had as 
guests over the event Mrs. James D. Colt, grandmother of 
the debutante; Mrs: Frederick Crane of Dalton, Mr. and 
Mrs. Henry L. Dawes of Pittsfield and Miss Anne Kilby 
of Alabama, who was one of the pourers. Miss Margaret 
Allen and Miss Ellen Rollins were in charge” of the 
pourers. : 
oN & 
Mr. and Mrs. Sewell H. Fessenden will present their 
daughter, Miss Harriet Fessenden, at a small dance which 
they are giving on Jan. 14, at the Hotel Somerset, Boston. 
Before the dance Miss Fessenden’s aunt, Mrs, “Reginald 
Gray, will entertain at dinner. Mr. and Mrs. Fessenden 
and their family moved into town from Chestnut Hill last 
week, and are occupying their house at 1 Raleigh st., for 
the winter. Their summer home is at Coolidge’s Point, 
The Speech That Tickled President Wilson 
REEZE readers generally will doubtless be interested 
to read the now famous speech of Patrick Francis 
Murphy, which made President Wilson fairly shriek with 
laughter. It was-delivered at the Manhattan club ban- 
quet on Nov. 4, and the president was so entertained by 
its wit, humor and satire that he immediately sent for a 
verbatim copy of it to read on the train, and he laughed 
himself half way to Washington over it. 
“Nowhere do things happen so strangely as in this 
sabes There are, as Hamlet says, many things which 
slosophy cannot explain. Even the church cannot ex- 
piain this world and therefore strongly recommends the- 
LExt. 
“In life nothing happens except the unexpected. A 
man starts out in search of one thing and finds another. 
A man may be too proud to fight and yet finds himself 
in a serious engagement. 
“Until this war we never appreciated the foresight 
of our forefathers in emigrating from Europe. Nobox ly 
complains now that the Atlantic is 3000 miles wide. 
Geographically immune, we are from a continent where 
everybody is doing what everybody disap proved of, for 
the benefit of somebody else who doesn’t exist. 
“Humanity is the first of virtues. It endangers sym- 
pathy. Sympathy is the quiet satisfaction one takes in 
being better off than others, and with an intent to keep so. 
So, by the genius of our forefathers in calculating. fut- 
urity, the opportunity of usefully and conspicuously dying 
for our country is fortunately not frequent. But the 
opportunity of usefully and inconspicuously living for 
our country has never been denied us. 
“His Excellency recently said that the future of this 
sountry depends on the dispositions of Americans to put 
native > 
America first. Many years ago it was the observation of 
a Hibernian philosopher that-every man should love his 
land, whether he was born there or not, ' Thus 
clever people and other people makes the same: ‘observa- 
tions only in different words. 
“The characteristic of American nconie is that, ex- 
cept in opinion, they do not disagree. *. The delight of 
politics is the pleasure it affords of differing from others. 
Some would rather be different than: right.: Some with 
Democratic tendencies ~ call “themselves Republicans ; 
others with Republican leanings march gayly under the 
Democratic banner; they thus enjoy the additional penned 
of differing from their own party. 
“There are others who have no creed ahi the bhai 
leaf between the Old and New Testaments: “They ‘main- 
tain that Republicans have become enamored’ of existiag 
evils, as distinguished from» Democrats who wish to re- 
place those evils with others—so they stand outside both 
parties with a pail of cold water. Thus everybody carries 
the main part of their entertainment with them. 
“Lincoln once said ‘Every one knows more than 
any one,’ so President Wilson is attuned to public opin- 
ion. As an upholder of order, public opinion is stronger 
than laws. Laws have to be executed; public opinion 
executes itself, and Often keeps people more virtuous than 
the laws themselves. The fear of the neighbor is the 
beginning of wisdom. . oan 
“Laws are made for people who break them. As 
women are the more law-abiding of the sexes, so the law 
holds they are unfit to govern. 
there is a false standard of living among women. They 
are abstemious—live on scanty food—in order to wear 
fine clothes, But good clothes do not lead to indigestion, 
— 
It has been observed that - 
2 a et 
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