THE GUILD OF UNKNOWN FRIENDS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2914, 19 January 1910, Page 80

THE GUILD OF UNKNOWN FRIENDS.

1910.

Not long since, a Wellington lady, writing °f . the position occupied by a clairvoyant spiritualistic medium, compared him to the transmitter on a telephone. Impersonal, irresponsible during trance conditions, merely an instrument tuned to transmit physchic messages. My position, to-day is in some ways not unlike that of the spiritualist medium. Impersonal, unpartial, a mere transmitter of other people’s kind thoughts and good wishes, I ask nothing better of Destiny than to be the unknown channel which distributes the sympathy and kindly interest of the Guild of Unknown Friends Beginning with Elsie and Oscar, who ask me “to accept and 1 convey to all members ° f t l ?®, C - C - C - cur warmest (perhaps cool would be a pleasanter word in this weather!) greetings and best wishes for the coming year. To tnose who have suffered in the past, our sympathy; to those who have rejoiced. our congratulations.’ 1 It is with much pleasure I pass on your greetings mv dear friends, helping myself to a generous share, and giving you hearty good wishes in exchange.

Our good friend ALASTAIR, who from , le , to time writes to assure me of his admiration, for the Otago Witness as a whole, and my page in particular, sends kindly greetings and 1 good wishes for the New Year to the Guild of Unknown Friends, especially that dear lady The Grandmother, and to the members of the C.C.C. To all of these Alastair wishes years at bright as their writings_ “in these dear e-hmms,” and all the good things that the bc ,c t of friends' desire for an© another. H© also sends a spinal

greeting to Boy and Girl friends, and! expresses the conviction that every member of the Guild of Unknown Friends will reecho my opinion that Boy Friend of all people must not allow himself to get out of touch with our little circle.

ALYS writes as follows: “dust a line to wish all the Guild of Unknown Friends a very merry Christmas and a nappy js.ew Year. Though the club did; not meet last winter I .am sure one and 'all of us often thought of the many pleasant former meetings 0 and the understanding-’ and unfailing interest of Emmeline. Please pass on my sympathy to those who are in bereavement.’’

Prom MARJORIE, long silent Marjorie, I have the following: “Just a note to wish'you and all members of Cosy Corner Club a. very merry Christmas and a bright and happy New Year. It is almost a year since I wrote to you, Emmeline, but I have often thought about you and my unknown friends, and wondered how you were all doing, as I haven’t seen a Witness for six months. Wa have ‘had a lot of trouble this year. . . . Our district is looking beautiful this year. I never saw such an abundance of blossom, since I came to live here,. and the roads are so dry you can ride a bicycle on almost any part of them. We have had such a splendid summer so far that all Nature seems to enjoy it as much as we do. When are you going to- collect for Dr Grenfell again, Emmeline? With .love and g-cod wishes to you and all members of the Guild of Unknown Friends.

I am indeed sorry, M.arjorie,, that the past year ha.s been so full of anxiety and sorrow for you. But remember, my dear natureloving friend, the diamond never .shows its brightness till it is cut by the lapidary’s unerring tools; and while the hard-working anxious days were passing your heart was learning, learning, and you wore sowing seed that must ripen into a golden ha.rvest of love and gratitude in the time to come. This very year of 1910 I hope, dear. May the now year and the return homo bring renewed health and strength to your beloved invalid. To see the country looking as you describe always seems a kind of silent, heavenly reassurance, doesn’t it? Shall be asking for help for Dr Grenfell before Easter.

GABRIEL-LE sends greetings to all her club comrades and to the Guild of Unknown Friends, especially to Boy Friend, for whom she wishes a happy year. Thank you, Gabrieli©, very much for your welcome and kindly little note. Our friendship, dear—yours and Ewe’s and mans—lies, deeper far than words I know. No; his address has been Dunedin for considerably over a year.

SWEETBRIAR, her Christmas shadowed by the illness of one beloved, finds time in her short note to express her “heartfelt sorrow for Jack and Koa’s dear children.” In another part of her letter she speaks of having “thought much on that beautiful text, ‘Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee,’ ” and adds, “I find _it true, dear Emmeline.” She also writes; "Please <*ive kind messages for me to dear Dex and Val. Rangiora, Boy Friend, and any others, especially Grandmother in Fiji.” My dear and constant friend, I thank you most heartily for your kind, Christmas present. My bookshelves are the fuller and my heart the happier for former Christmas gifts of yours, and those books are infinitely mors valuable to me, because they 'were your gift. I hope, dear Sweetbriar, that things may be brighter and more hopeful than you dare to anticipate in the now year. Our Chiistmas gifts must have passed, each other on the way. I hope yours reached you safely.

dear, it is a sweet card you cent me. so calm and peaceful; and as I have just pinned it on my bedroom wall, where I have a number of such neaceml scenes in photographs- and water-colours, I shall be constantly reminded to send' voiv lowing wishes and friendly thoughts. G-abrielle sent me a companion picture, and it is near yours. The best of luck, my dear comrade.

I was very glad to hear from SHASTA, who writes thus; “Having just read of Koa’s death, I would like to send a message of sympathy io Jack and all who loved her. Every member of the O.C.C. will be grieve ■ to hear that Ivoa has passed into the G-rea.; Silence, and will sympathise with those wh > are left to realise their loss as the slewdays pass. Your discussions on ‘Marriage' and kindred subjects have made many of us wish to spare a little time in exchanging ideas with you; but I suppose- a number, like myself, have been too busy working out the practical side of the question to have time to spare for theorising. In the main, I found myself agreeing with you, Emmeline dear. . . .It is inevitable that, while we are gaining in independence we are losing in the old-world charm of gentleness. We can’t wear Directoire frocks and Merry Widow bats and at the same time possess the graceful, clinging tenderness that went with Lavender and old lace. With Christmas and New Year greetings to all the Guild of Friends, known and unknown, and a sincere wish, for the happiness of our Emmeline.”

From GNIB I have the following interesting letter, which I give you in its entirety; “Dear Emmeline, —As something unique in a world of novelties, the Martha Washington is worth a little of our time to write about and also to read about. Ted and I were whirled to the door on our arrival in New York in one of the multitudinous taxicabs that buzz to all quarters of the city. The chief thing noticeable in the Martha Washington is the fact that it is the only hotel in the world exclusively for women. This fact is not brought home to one in force until after the coloured porter has brought your luggage in. Then, after booking a room from a lady clerk, a trim little girl in short black dress and white apron come; forward instead of the ordinary 1 buttons.' and takes up your suit case and is ready 1i show you your room, 1 . Spacious lounge rooms are crossed, where women sit reading or talking, and where ease and a feeling o 1

the lift we again come on one of the few men employed, who stops halfway up the I‘2-storey building and lets us out of the cage to follow again our trim little guide. She opens our door, turns on the electric light, and does all the little etceteras of the usual ‘bell boy,’ and departs, leaving us to survey our neat, airy room, that overlooks exactly the opposite side of the block from that which we entered, for our woman's hotel is no mean size, and cuts its way from street to street. We go to breakfast, and see women everywhere—old women, young women, women of fashion, women who look like the workers life,—and no men, no odours of cigars, for the American man smokes as he finishes his meal, regardless of the fact that others have not finished. Women wait m us, and a little girl like unto our ‘buttons’ of the night before goes to and fro calling the names and room number of anyone who may bo wanted at the telephone or by a caller. There are telephones of course for public use, and a girl to get your number .or you. A manicure parlour, a hairdresser’s establishment, a place where dresses may be cleaned; you can book your berths and cheek your luggage, and buy your paper or magazine, or have your hat remodelled and your shoes brushed while you wear them—all in the great hall, or in apartments of it on the main floor. And yet do not think it is forbidden for men to enter there. They must not stay there; that is all, but any woman can ask her men friends to come and see her, arid there are enough sitting looms for most of the dwellers to entertain their friends without disturbance. I am ratlier pressed for time, but just thought ■ hat the C.C.C. would be interested in a taw details of One little corner of New York where women. are striking cut an original line, and feel sure they would join mo in wishing continued success to the Martha Washington, whose patron saint could wish for no better monument.”

A few more personal thanks and messages f o.kw, and before . closing my duties as transmitting medium take the assurance of my keen interest, friendship and fellowship in 1910 as in all the preceding years.—Affectionately, EMMELINE.