to the art of tone production
so as to bring happiness to the singer and his enwrapt listeners, be
they young or old, rich or poor, sick or dying, in the sanctuary or
for the bridal rejoicings. Vitiate not this gift with the lower
thought of the art of singing. Strive for the highest ideals and your
happiness will be tenfold greater.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

AUTHORS' CARNIVAL, 1880, PRESIDENT HAYES AND GENERAL SHERMAN PRESENT

The grand Authors' Carnival given for the Associated Charities of San
Francisco, October 18 to October 28, 1880, can well be classed as the
crowning effort of anything attempted upon so large a scale. If there
are still living in San Francisco auditors of the wonderful
performance given by the 2000 participants who were enlisted in the
great work they will corroborate my statement. The wealthy women who
managed these homes financially, were also the officers of them and
had called for aid. It was so beautiful to see the spirit of these
people in completing the arrangements for this carnival. Meetings were
held weekly until their plans had matured and it was agreed
unanimously that the Booths of All Nations should be featured with the
principal works of the world's greatest writers. Charles Crocker was
chosen as treasurer. The books were selected and the booths received
their names from the author of the books. The book that fell to our
lot of actors was Martin Chuzzlewit, by Charles Dickens. At first our
committee was inclined to refuse to act these queer characters, but we
had given our word to help and we could not go back on that. I asked
Mrs. Grove to let me take the book to see what could be done at this
late hour. All the other booths had begun their rehearsals. It was
fortunate for me that I had traveled much and seen so many odd
characters. As I read carefully I was convinced we could excel in this
very book. I went to the library and got a Dickens book illustrated by
Cruikshank. We called a meeting and found we needed thirty-two
persons. At this meeting I showed the possibilities of these seemingly
ugly characters. Parts were assigned and arrangements made for
rehearsals.

The women of the general committee on booths were more than exultant
to think we were willing to take this rejected book. We were
determined to succeed. Our costumes were the art of perfection and we
were a motley crowd of characters from Sairy Gamp to Quilp, from the
Pecksniffs to Mark Tapley. Besides studying th