12

FAREWELL TO MRS. PEATTIE
Large Reception Tendered Her
at the Commercial Club
Last Evening.
Friends in the Sundown and Woman's
Club Present Her With a Very
Elegant Present.
W.H. Alexander Makes the Presentation Speech
-Nearly Five Hundred People Present-
Decorations Graceful and Pretty.
The reception given Mrs. Peattie last
evening at the Commercial club rooms
by the old Sundown and the Woman's
clubs fell not short of being an ovation.
The house and home committee of the
Woman's club had in charge the deco-
ration of the rooms which was graceful
and unostentatious. Pals and ferns
arranged to form a background to punch
table, at which were seated the women
of the committee. The line of receiving
ladies was formed of ex-presidents and
vice presidents of the club. Mrs. Peattie
received in a simple white gown and
was very pretty, with a red rose in her
hair. With her were Mrs. Towne, Mrs.
A. B. Somers, Mrs. F. F. Ford, and as-
sisting about the rooms were Mesdames
Draper Smith, Hoobler, E. E. Bryson,
F. F. Porter, B. F. Weaver, C. E. Squires,
Frank Marsh, Wagner, Robson, J. J.
Dickey, Alexander, Tukey, Keyser, Lyle
Dickey, Mary Fairbrother, and Summer.
MR. ALEXANDER'S REMARKS.
Before 9 o'clock the rooms were com-
pletely filled and nearly 500 people were
present. At this time there was a lull
in the small talk and Mr. W. H. Alexan-
der in the following graceful speech pre-
sented Mrs. Peattie with and oak chest,
gold mounted, of silver for the table:
There are some good-bys, from the sad-
ness of which the heart never recovers.
There are others, weighted for the moment
with sorrow, because of the ties they are
breaking, which, spoken at the threshold
of happier scenes, are really God-speeds in
disguise.
When the anxious disciples were met on
the Mount of Ascension, fearful of losing
their Lord, they were cheered by the prom-
ise that his going away would bring them
the comforter. These friends who are
gathered about you tonight, and for whom
I am speaking, are prone to believe that
you are standing on your Mount of Ascen-
sion; that your future is budded and wait-
ing to blossom, and that some time soon
we shall catch the fragrance of the opened
flowers and rejoice in your new exaltation.
It does not seem very long since you first
came amongst us and began, without os-
tentation, to impress upon this community
a unique and delightful personality.
Gifted beyond most women, with con-
spicuous intellectual graces, you have
awakened the interest and challeneged the
approval of the brightest minds in the
counntry. You have done more than this,
forgetful of personal convenience, you
have ever been ready for service. in the
church, in the school, in the club room,
wherever your voice and your pen could be
useful to others, they have both been em-
ployed. It will give you some pleasure, we
are sure, when you stand on the heights of
the future and turn your thoughts back to
your Omaha home and your Omaha friends
to know that for all of this service they
were grateful. You are going away tomor-
row, but the poet says that absence makes
the heart grow fonder, and the earnest
wish and prayer of your friends here will be
that Time, that hoary old knoght of the
glass and the sickle, will deal gently eith
you and with yours.
And, now, Mrs Peattie, as an evidence,
but in no sense a measure of esteem, we
have something to give you.
On behalf of the Woman's club of Omaha,
that splendid institution whose 600 mem-
bers in honoring you with its presidency,
equally honored themselves; on behalf of
the Sundown club, which your husband
had the honor of starting; on behalf of the
personal friends who have added their mite
to the occasion, and on behalf of the legion
of others who would wish me to bid you
Godspeed, I am pleased to present for you
acceptance this beautiful token of regard,
and may God add his blessing to ours.
MRS. PEATTIE'S REPLY
At its close Mrs. Peattie said:
"You cannot expect me, Mr. Alexan-
der and ladies of the club and members
of the Sundown club, to speak. I can-
not tell in words how your presence
here tonight has affected me more thank
this beautiful gift - and it is beautiful.
It is the prettiest thing that I have. I
shall feel, when I leave Omaha, like a
barnacle rubbed off a ship."
Among the many who filled the rooms
these prominent people were noticed:
Mr. Z. T. Londsey and Miss Lindsey,
Judge Wakeley, Miss Wakeley, Judge
and Mrs. Ferguson, Rev. John Will-
iams, Colonel Chase, Miss Fannie But
terfield, Miss Julia Knight, Rev. Mary
Andrews, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Charlton,
Mrs. M. H. Kincaid