le and singers came. It was good to see them. Some
of them told me what a god-send such a thing was to them, homeless by
profession. A lot of them brought their wives and babies. One father was
playing Romeo in Newark, his wife was playing Little Eva in Harlem, and
their daughter was playing Camille on Broadway. You should of seen them
rejoicing round the Kansas tree!

About midnight the big refreshment hall was opened and everybody that
could squeeze in set down to long tables where I had supper served.
I had some of the best after-dinner speakers in town come in, and you
should of heard some of the funny stories--it would of brought back dear
old childhood memories. Mayor McClellan gave us all a welcome, and then
there was Chauncey Depew, of course, and Simeon Ford, and Augustus
Thomas, and Wilton Lackaye, and Job Hedges, and Lemuel Ely Quigg, and
General Horace Porter, and a passel of others.

They all made the most surprising allusions to your poor old husband.
They called me Daddy and sang about me being a jolly good fellow. And
one of them christened me "Santy Crockett." Why, my ears burned so hot
I near set my collar on fire! It sure was worth all I spent, and I had
a terrible time to keep from blubbering. I must of swallowed about four
hundred and eleven Adam's apples.

Finally they called on me for a speech. I just kind o' gibbered--I don't
know what. The papers say I said: "Merry Christmas, my childern! This
old world sure is some comfortable, after all. The only trouble is that
the right people can't seem to get together at the right time often
enough. But this here Christmas supper tastes to me terrible much like
More. I'm going to try it again. And I hereby invite you all that ain't
in any better place or any better world to meet me here a year from
to-night. And so God bless you all, and--and God bless everybody!"

Then after a lot of song-singing and hand-wringing we all went home,
tears in every eye and smiles on every mouth. The remnants of food
and toys made more than the twelve baskets full of Scripture. I sent
them round to the Hospitals and Orphant Asylums. I've engaged the
Garden again for next Christmas and paid a deposit down. It ain't the
extravagance it looks, either, for while the expenses was high--twelve
thousand-odd dollars--they took in at the door nearly eighteen thousand
dollars. I sent the profit to the Salvation Army and the Volunteers, and
now I'm being prayed for and hallelooyied