The King's Daughters.

Evening Star, Issue 7185, 13 April 1887, Page 2

The King's Daughters.

At a dinner recently given in Fifth Avenue a lady wore on her corsage a small Maltese cross of silver attached to a bit of purple ribbon. The gentleman sitting next to her asked what was the meaning of the badge. She answered: "It means that lam the daughter of a king." " The daughter of a king ?" repeated the young man. "Yes," the lady replied. "I belong to an order of Christian women called * The King's Daughters,' and the cross and ribbon are our badge. On this aide the cross are the letters 'I.H.N,,' meaning 'ln HU Name,' and on the other is the year of the formation of the order, 1886."

This modest sisterhood numbers among its members hundreds of the prominent society girls of New York city. It is almost without organisation, and in one sense almost without a definite purpose, " and yet," said a lady in speaking of it, " in real truth it has underlying its name and motto the most far-reaching, wide* sweeping o! all purposes, and in its results is the most truly benefioent of any society of the day." The organisation is the outgrowth of the drawing-room Bible readings of Mrs F. Bottoms. They laid down no rules or regulations for their work. They specified no particular line of work, but comprehended their whole desire and all possible future Bervice in their mottoes— Look np and not down, Look forward and not b&ok, Look out and not in, Lend a hand. And since Christ, their elder Brother, lived these mottoes for their example, they took for their watchword " In His Name." The King's Daughters are responsible only to the King, and hence there is no needless organisation to cumber their service. Each one of the ten vied with her sisters in forming other tens, and in o, litfle time hundreds of women and girls were drawn into them. Each ten chooses its own work and its way and time of doing it. One circle of the ten desired to visit the sick children in the hospitals, and choso that as their work. Arrangements were made for them at the Hahnemann Hospital, and now detachments of the ten take turns in assisting tho institution regularly, bringing dolls, picture-books, and toys of all sorts for the little ones. Another ten undertake to teach a class of poor working girls to sew and cook. Another circle call themselves the "musical ten," and siug in hospitals, at sick beds, or in drawing-room concerts for the benefit of the needy. Another ten aid the Home and foreign missions, and still another choose the difficult duty of trying to help people to tell the truth. They were troubled at the carelessness manifested by themselves and their friends in this respect, and determined to root out the evil as far as they themselves were concerned, and to warn and remind their friends of it. There is an association called the Shut In Society, composed mainly of invalids who have been confined to the house for many years. One little circle of ten determined to try to bring some light and joy into the lives of these invalids, end each of them took a list of names, and now corresponds regularly with the sick ones, sending books aud other reading matter, and sometimes worsted and silks to be woven into pretty form.

There is scarcely a branch of philanthropic work which these circles do not touch upon, and the good they do themselves is said to be as great as that which they do to others. One fashionable boarding school resolved itself into tens, and, because the girls were too much occupied with their studies for outside work, they decided to pledge themselves not to speak unkindly of any schoolmate or friend and to assist each other by little acts of kindness whenever possible. The principal of the school has since 1 informed Mrs Bottome that the whole atmosphere of the institution has changed. •■■ Circles have been organised in -Maine, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Florida; and even England is taking the idea up now. Mr Moody's school, at Northfield, and Smith College have resolved themselves into tens, and wear the cross and ribbon. Miss Helen Gould, daughter of the millionaire, is one of the workers, and this summer did work among the village girls near her country home. • i ' .- ! Not long ago a woman, whose fortune reaches far into the millions, was buying at a counter of a large dry goods store. Noticing that the shop girl wore- a purple ribbon and bit of silver on her breast, she said "Is not that a badge yon wear ?" " 0 yes," quickly replied the girl; "I am one of the King's Daughters." The lady opened her cloak, and on her own breast lay another silver cross and royal ribbon. "Thenwe are sisters," she said, and held out hot hand across the counter. '