Through the efforts
of Mr. John T. Bell I entered the carriage and was driven to the Hotel
Touraine, where a banquet had been prepared. When I arrived the
committee and members of the chorus were seated at the tables. I was
escorted to the table at the end of the hall, decorated with
blossoms, flags and streamers and twelve uniformed soldiers standing
guard. During the banquet the band played patriotic airs and afterward
there were short speeches by prominent men. At the close of the
banquet the master of ceremonies asked the assemblage to rise and give
a tribute of three cheers for Mrs. Blake-Alverson, the patriotic
singer of Oakland. This was given with a will and the band played
America in which we all joined. With this song the celebration was
over and my career as a public singer for sixty-five years for the
people of California in the Golden State by the Golden Gate of the Far
West, the grandest state of all the galaxy of states, was ended.

[Illustration: ENVELOPES OF PATRIOTIC DESIGN USED DURING THE CIVIL
WAR, 1861

CO. K, 7th CALIFORNIA VOLUNTEERS, CAPT. O.P. SLOAT, FROM SAN
BERNARDINO

At the Presidio, En Route to the Philippines, 1898]

While this closed my public life, as far as these holiday observances
went, I did not give up my music altogether, as I had no other way to
support myself and was still in possession of my voice and my ability
to teach was established. I went right on in the even tenor of my way
and did what I could toward making it possible for my pupils to take a
place with those who had succeeded in the beautiful art of music and
song. I had now taught in Oakland fifteen years and felt no uneasiness
as to the result, so I went bravely on doing what I could. My friends,
the soldiers of the G.A.R., felt their memorials and installations
were not complete without their Daughter of the Regiment who had never
denied them since 1861. Persons make a mistake who think they cannot
do much if they fail in the great achievements of life, but I contend
that the small things are not to be despised. I shall not be able to
put one-sixteenth part of my engagements in this book, but I will
illustrate with the G.A.R. and tell how often I have sung for that
organization alone. The reader will then realize the amount of work I
have done for churches, fraternal societies, missions, art classes,
sewing classes, functions of all kinds, club functions, singing
classes, holiday festivals, assistance to the yo