THE RED CROSS TRIUMPHANT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8306, 10 June 1907, Page 3

THE RED CROSS TRIUMPHANT.

One lesson of Hospital Saturday in Sydney seems to be that success in a movement like this depends largely on custom and experience. In Christcliurch the public are not accustomed to give to street collectors, nor have the collectors themselves acquired confidence in putting forward the claims of the object of their mission. In Sydney Hospital Saturday is a recognised institution. The public have learned to expect to be asked to give and the collectors to use all their persuasive with the result that this year the amount collected was £5546, compared with £1675 on the first Saturday thirteen years ago. The organisation was so perfect that no passer-by could escape. "The girl who would never think of exerting the fascinations with which nature, had endowed her at ordinary times, r.ow melted the pockets of strangers with smiles that ai pealed to the vanity of those same strangers, and made them think that they were the only men the collector bad ever loved." Collectors boarded tramcars in defiance of regulations and emptied the pockets of men bound for business in the city. "You mustn't do that," said one corductor, apprehensive of an inspector, to a pre'tty collector. "Then you'd better arrest me," she said with her best smile, the conductor was routed, and she got a fine harvest from the appreciative passengers. A splenclid example of the resource of the collectors came from a suburb. Two men in a spring cart came rattling down the road at a smart jjace. At a signal from one of the girls, half a dozen of them stretched across the road in a line, the cart had to pull up, and the spoils were to the victors. A grave old lady, addressing a square-jawed young man, pointed out to him that the strongest is ever in danger of accident. "Yair," he admitted, "a bloke shot a bottle at me onst." The face of the , collector brightened. "Then," she remarked, "you had an opportunity of participating in the blessings that these institutions provide." He shook his head gravely. "Neouw fear, lady," he corrected, "it was him they took ter the 'orspital." But the collector was in no wise disconcerted. She observed that next time the aim of the bottlethrower might be more accurate. The logic was convincing,

and the penny was forthcoming. The giving was freer than it had been before, and in not a single case did anyone presume upon the latitude of the day.