AMBULANCE SATURDAY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 34, 4 November 1907, Page 3

AMBULANCE SATURDAY.

AN IRRESISTIBLE APPEAL. OVER £300 COLLECTED. Prosaic city streets had become smileenchanted gardens, when toilers sallied forth on Saturday morning. Every corner had its flowers, radiant in their new spring brightness, slightly tremulous at iirst in their new surroundings, yet not to be.overlooked. Itwas Ambulance Saturday, ami for u whole day the city's fairest were to he the city's cynosure, that a good cause might be helped.The shyness of the hundred ladies with collecting boxes was soon dissipated by the public's pleased response. "He that loves a rosy check. Or a coral lip admires," lias Legion for his name, and there.was no resisting this appeal, even when it was sometimes mute. Shillings and half-crowns, dredged from the far depths of mysterious pockets, surprised the fair solicitors by their gleam, as the.y slid into the sounding box. The splendid morning shower cheered flowers that had been drooping, and tlie.re.after the ladies laughed and (solicited, brought smile and quip to bear, gave pretty chase to obdurate Adonises that would have hastened by, and made, long after sunset, a sunshine in the city that was worth £300 to their good movement.

How People Cave. " The people are so generous," replied one fair tax-gatherer to a Dominion representative's inquiries. "I think that everyone is giving, and some have given half a dozen times. And they tre not all ' thrcepennies.' I have plenty of half-crowns, and there have been two half-sovereigns." This was before noon, and afterwards the response was not so lavish, though it continued liberal. " Whom do I find give the most? Oh, the men!" declared another lady, with conviction. "I do not like to say it" —(with a grieved air) —" but women are not generous. They will give us pennies. But then"—(as if consoled by the reflection)—" I think perhaps women arc more responsible for their money. They have to meet the bills. "I very seldom ask people. I just fix them with my eye, and hold out the box, and then they generally give. Oh, I think old men arc the best. I can nearly always charm an old man." So that it is not true that— The reddest lips that ever were kissed, The brightest eyes that ever have shone, May pray and whisper, and we not list. The, Lioness and the Lamb.' A timid little nurse, hunting in couple with an Australian lady, who had " been thr/'e before," furnished some entertaining confessions. " This modal that I wear." she. said, "has been worth a,lot to me. People want to know what it is, and then they don't like to go away without giving anything. Oh, yes, I was nervous at : first. And a gentleman made mo go all round a city bil-liard-room. My heart went pit-a-pat, but I got 7s. 6d." , ■ .- "She went in by herself," indicating with admiration her companion, who was just out of earshot. " But she is as courageous as a lion. She has done this before, in Australia, and it's my first time." "I'm going over into that hotel!" said the Australian heroine. In she went, < with her companion's box, and returned five minutes later with a triumphant announcement of "Five shillings! " I A passing friend attracted the nurse's attention at this stage. Salutations, cordial and restrained, a short tharp contest of argument/the rattle of a coin, and the assailant returns, flushed, victorious. "I wasn't going to let a nurse escape,'' she explains. The Australian was the only canvasser our representative could find who had mot with the least instance of rudeness. " I said to one man, ' Penny for the Ambulance, please,' and the said, D —- the Ambulance' 1 thought that was funny." There are 591110 Pharaohs in the world. A 'charming girl at one cf the most frequented corners of the city spied a male acquaintance crossing the road quickly in an opposite direction. With a laugh to her companions that plainly meant " You see! ,, she grasped her skirt and ran, at a nimble pace, to catch :him up. A small crowd watched the chase with curiosity and admiration. Breathless,' at the end of three chains, the, maiden reached her quarry, and accosted him. He turned, with a set face, glanced at the protruded box, and strode on without dropping in a penny. Spectators muttered their opinions, and the girl came, crestfallen, hack. _ Ttioro wore very few.who did not give. A little newsboy brought three pennies, unsolicited, a charwoman, with her bag, who was grieved, at first, that this was too big a cause for her to give to, made the same offering when reassured; wharf labourers gave their tribute, almost without exception, and smiling business men, when asked for pennies, answered, " Do you take, halfcrowns?" If young men possibly gave the most they often took the longest time to give. It is not every day a man can have a smile, a pout, and then another smile ior a silver coin. The Workers. Lady Plunket gave her patronage to the cause.; Lady Stout, with a 'collecting box, was an, active worker, as well as organiser; Nurse M'Kinnon, a visitor to the city, was her ally 111 the campaign, and Mesdamos S. A. Rhodes and T. \V. Hislop wore general supervisors. All the arrangements were admirably planned, the only pity being that there were not more ladies, to extend the canvas to the suburbs. Johnsonviile war, attacked and rendered tribute, ami ■Pot-one and the Lower Hutt will bo approached in a fortnight. A mangled victim in a go-cart, bleeding from more wounds than Oiesar, bandaged from brow to feet, and returning with" a stony glaro the curious or pitying glances of the passcrs-hy, excited much attention as he was wheeled through tlie busy streets. More than one lady turned away from the nauseating spectacle of his wounds, crimson with good red-ink. His peregrinations were a device of Messrs. J. Mollis, O. V. Dixon, and L'. Hulbert, members of the Manawatu Ambulance brigade, to attract attention to the object of tho day's cancass, and increase its revenue with a collecting box. ' Mr. A. Crow, who helped to organise the Christchurch campaign a year ago, and hastaken part in several Duncdin collections, gave the benefit of ■ his 'experience fo the promoters. Afterwards he expressed himself as highly pleased with the manner in which everything had gone. Counting up the Money. It was a contented band of ladies, " weary but undishoiioured," who gathered at the day's end in the committee room, whib

boxes were unscrewed mid their contents assessed. The total came to £309 16s. 2d., surpassing everyone's anticipations. Included wore four sovereigns, ten half-sove-reigns, £0.3 in sixpences, £61) in threepences, and £26 IDs. ojd. in coppers, besides several car coupons and postage stamps. There arc still seven boxes to eonie in, Which were left at the' Working lien's Club, the City and Caledonian Hotels, and with different nurses. Their contents may add £5 to the fund, which will be devoted to the purchase of a modern ambulance waggon, and the assistance of the nursing division. Covered with a Union Jack, the hard-won wealth was borne away through the now quiet streets on Cwsar's litter, and lodged in a friend's strong-room. r

A BIG BEQUEST.

The late 11 r. M'Menamen, of Terawhiti, bequeathed £500 to the St. John Ambulance Association', to be invested to provide "funds for the employment or a nurse among the sick poor.

Last year, at its first canvass, Christchurch collected £276.