Interesting Talks on Famine Relief and an Absorbing Paper on Opera The American Woman's Club held on Tuesday afternoon at the Carlton Cafe was under the direction of the Music. Department and the progvammie, arranged by Mrs. 'D. W. Stedman, was one of the most. interesting of the year. Tea was served as usual at four o'clock after which the meeting was introdu.cd by a short talk on famine relief given by Mrs. O. M. Green, who is at the head of the Woman's Famine Relief Society of Shanghai.
Mrs. Green—described _how, since the Women's Famine Relief Society was started on November 24 last, they had sent away 295 cases, full of over 3,000 padded garments and old clothing. The latter goes to Honan, where the Society sends money to have work parties of Chinese women formed, who, at the rate of $2 a month, remodel the garments. Appeals are pouring in, from all quarters. Mrs. Green specially mentioned the claims of the maternity hospital at Changteho, Honan. Women tramp in four days' journey through the snow, to have their babies, and the W. F. R. S. is sending up clothing for the babies. This one hospital is dealing with hundreds of cases and each mother gets $2 a month after she goes out, to keep her baby, but must bring the baby back every month for the doctors to see. From $2 to $3 a month, will save a life.
Clothing can be! got by the Society at from $2.20 for a man's two-piece padded garment to 80 cents for a baby's. "We have sent away about 4,000 suits, and have another 2.000 on order," enid Mrs. Green. We need money to carry on.""
Dr. J. ©. Ferguson, who is an Adviser to the Chinese Government and whose wife was a charter member and at one time president of the American Woman's Club, gave some very interesting details about the famine work as it is actually being done.
Mr. R. B. Hurry on Opera anp THE ANGLO-Saxon.
In Mr. Hurry's paper on "Opera and the Anglo-Saxon," he traced the recurring cycle of the art from its simplest form, unadorned by orchestra or scenic effects, through various stages of expansion aad addition into a burdensome conventionality to a final breakdown and thus back to simplicity again. He showed how the history of opera has been the turning of this wheel and, how the start of every fresh revolution of it has coincided with the appearance of a dramatic and musical genius. Opera had its beginnings long before the Christian Era. The story of its infancy is read in the history of Ancient Greece. It was nurtured at Athens with Aeschylus and Sophocles as
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.