Letter from Belle L. James to Lucy Rider Meyer, June 5, 1914

              My dear Mrs. Meyer:-
I am sure you are very eager to know all about the festival of yesterday. It was such a constant grief that you were not here and so many spoke of it. It did not seem at all natural not to have you as the moving spirit and between you and me and Uncle Sam I am very sure that some things might have been a little different if you had been at the helm.
Miss Horton came Wednesday night. As I wrote you.
Miss Reeves had invited me to the luncheon and Miss Horton and I left about eleven o’clock. The following were there for it;
Miss Grant, Miss Byers of New York, Miss Jefferson, Miss JuJson, Miss Barber, Mrs. Phillips and myself. The luncheon was served in the main dining room and the old folks were all in gala attire. Miss Reeves had been presented with a number of bouquets which added much to the beauty of the room. After the old folks were seated we went down, occupying a special table in the center of the room.
I sent you one of the menu cards yesterday. After luncheon we went to the chapel and the program was given there. The first number was Lohengrin's Wedding March. Miss Reeves had called this her twenty- fifth wedding anniversary and the rears operating the victrola put on this record. Miss Judson read parts of letters from Mrs. McLaughlin, Miss Fisk, Mrs. Hanger, Miss Hibbard, Miss Adron, Miss Lunn, Miss Palmer, Miss Betts, Miss Logan, Miss Jordan read your telegram and also the poem of Bishop McIntyre's. Old Mr. Waterman, the singing evangelist, ninety-two years of age, sang “The Land where we never grow old”. It was most effective. Miss Reeves spoke then and introduced Miss Jefferson and Miss Beyers who gave some reminiscences of their early associations with Miss Reeves. Miss Jefferson brought
out in her remarks that Miss Reeves was actually the first one to receive the deaconess license because of the position in which she stood in the line at the time the three were licensed. The exercises closed with a prayer by ”Aunt Phoebe” over ninety- years of age,
We left about five for down town. It rained very hard as we were on the way but it stopped by the time we reached the hotel. The arrangements at the hotel were most satisfactory I believe. There were, I presume, something over one hundred present. If the affair had been more widely advertised I believe they would have had a much larger company. At the speakers table were, begin- ning with one end, Dr. Odgers, Dr. Jackson, Mrs. Jackson, Dr. Frost,
Mr. Howell, Mr. and Mrs. Boynton, Dr. Oneill, Miss Reeves, Bishop McDowell, Mrs. McDowell, Dr. Stewart, Mrs. Stewart, MissJJefferson, Miss Horton, Mrs. Andrews, and Mr. Meyer. The quartette of the First Methodist Church gave several very fine selections. If I was going to use slang and wished to be disrespectful of those high in authority in the church I would say that Dr. Stewart was punk. I never heard him when I thought he said so little. He did