A TRUMPET-TONGUED MESSAGE.

The strong words below are from a leading editorial in the Chronicle of December 24th, which brought new friends to our help, and new funds to our Treasury. A portion of the article found its way into the columns of the New York Tribune, from which seed-corn came a harvest of letters of inquiry, to all of which we responded, with joy.

One of the charities which ought to receive the aid of every one who has the welfare of San Francisco at heart, is the Kindergartens. The present year rounds out a decade of the existence of the Association which was first organized through the efforts of Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper. To her is also largely due the success and extraordinary growth of the system, for though wealthy patrons like Mrs. Stanford have given generously of their money to endow new schools, yet the woman who has been the life and soul of the movement has given that which millions cannot purchase—the enthusiasm in a great cause that overcomes every obstacle and that makes generosity and self-sacrifice contagious. The Tenth Annual Report of the Association is a good pamphlet to read. It shows that this training of the very young children of the poor, regarded merely from the monetary point of view, will be worth thousands to this city in the lessening of crime. The importance of moral training in early years is being recognized more and more by those who have made a study of sociology, and the lack of such culture as the Kindergartens give is seen in all our large cities, where neglected children drift naturally into crime and become a source of demoralization and expense that ends only with their lives. No more powerful picture of the far-reaching influence of a single vicious person was ever afforded than in the sketch of "The Jukes "-the notorious family in Northern New York which sprang from one abandoned girl, who became the mother of a dozen irreclaimable criminals and whose descendants ran into the hundreds. If she had been reached in tender years by kinder influences, New York prisons, jails, almshouses and insane asylums would have been saved from scores of wretched creatures, the habitual criminals, for whom there is no hope in this world.

WHAT THE "EVENING POST" SAID OF THE

CHRISTMAS FESTIVITIES.

From the Evening Post, of Dec. 19th, we clip the following bright and interesting account of some of the Christmas Festivities. The Post has proved itself a warm friend of the Kindergartens:

mania for setting fire to things, we counted him out entirely. He was deemed irresponsible, and placed in confinement to keep him from mischief. This one arrest is all we have been able to trace, among the 8,000 children we have trained, during the past eleven years.

The Golden Gate, in a review of the Tenth Annual Report, says:

We don't know when we have spent a more profitable half-hour than we did the other evening in perusing Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper's admirable Report of ten years of Kindergarten work in this city. It is not simply a detailed statement of moneys received and expended, and numbers of children bought under the benign influence of these Gardens of God, but it is full of the comment and expression of a great womanly soul devoted to humanity. From this Report we learn that ten years ago, at the close of the first year of Kindergarten work in this city, there were two Kindergartens, with a total enrollment of 109 children, and with total receipts for the year of $1,805.70. The tenth year closed with nineteen Kindergartens, an enrollment of 1,517 children, and total receipts of $25,295.92. The schools are conducted under a general incorporation, known as "The Golden Gate Kindergarten Association," with that grand humanitarian, Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper, as Superintendent. The work is carried forward wholly by private donations, Mrs. Leland Stanford being the largest contributor. She has given to this work during the last ten years, the munificent sum of $45,000. The good resulting from these schools, which in many instances are nurseries as well as schools, is simply incalculable.

KIND WORDS FROM THE "DAILY REPORT,” “BULLIETIN," "CALL," "EXAMINER," AND "NEWS LETTER."

Elsewhere in this Annual Report, will be found full and interesting: les from all the City Press, including the Daily Call, Examiner, and News Letter. So it will be ally the Kindergarten cause finds in the Press

Report, B Pen, what

San Fra

es for .

it any wonder that the work flourishes, ch rapid strides?

HAPPY TOTS.

CHRISTMAS FESTIVITIES AT the KinderGARTENS-SANTA CLAUS APPEARS TO THE CHILDREN OF THE POOR-BRIGHT FACES, MERRY SONGS AND GRATEFUL PARENTS.

To-day was Christmas day for the little 2-year-olds of Stanford Kindergartens, Nos. 1 and 2, and the Produce Exchange, Lester Norris and Huntington Memorial Kindergartens.

Rosy-cheeked children, with eager eyes and faces beaming with happiness, flocked to the school-houses to see what Santa Claus had brought them.

A Post reporter attended the exercises of the Stanford School at No. 1906 Mason street. In the cosy basement stood a large Christmas tree filled with goodies and toys, from the bleating sheep to the woolly kangaroo. A liberal use of cotton batting had decked out the branches with imitation snow, and around its base were rows and rows of prettily dressed dolls, fancy kaleido. scopes and boxes filled with candy. Around the rooms were seated the parents of the little ones and the Visiting Committee of the Association. A cheerful grate fire sputtered and burned merrily, and all eyes were turned towards the door.

At precisely 10 o'clock, ninety-six tiny scholars, dressed in their Sunday best, with green, red, blue, white and yellow paper Zouave caps upon their heads, marched into the room to the music of the piano. They were headed by a bright looking little colored boy, with a drum two sizes too large for him, upon which he pounded with vigor and skill.

Slowly the little band moved around the room, keeping perfect time and step. Suddenly the music changed, and at a signal from the Principals, Miss May Loveland and Miss Stella Stovall, ninety-six childish voices burst forth in a beautiful little song:

"We are little soldier men,

Marching all together."

The effect was very pretty, the youngsters stamping their feet and blowing their horns at intervals, while little "Jim," the colored boy, hammered away on his drum as if his very life depended upon the amount of noise he made.

At another signal the children faced the Christmas tree, while they chanted sweetly:

Look, look, look and see

What good children we can be.

Then, while the pianist touched the minor keys, the little tots closed their eyes, and clasping their hands in front of them in an attitude of prayer sang reverently and tunefully: "Father, we thank Thee for the Night."

It was a touching sight, these little waifs and strays of a great city offering up thanks to their Heavenly Father for having guarded them safely during the past night.

Then Willie Lazansky, a black-eyed, big-eyed boy of five years, sang a

song of welcome to the visitors, the rest of the children joining in the chorus, waving their little arms towards the grown folks in time to the music.

Another signal was given, and the happy toddlers all sat down on the clean white floor and formed a circle around the tree. One precocious youth of four, refused to be seated until a chair had been brought him. He explained that his mother had bought him a new suit of clothes yesterday, and he didn't want to soil them.

The teachers then distributed the presents, giving a doll to each girl and a kaleidoscope to each boy. All received large boxes of candy, and all chattered at once, as they ate the sweetmeats.

The names of the ladies who helped to make Christmas merry at this Kindergarten, were Miss Sophie G. Pierce, Misses Gerstle, Mrs. H. F. Dutton, Mrs. E. R. Lilienthal, Mrs. E. T. Allen, Miss Eliza Crocker, Mrs. Chas. S. Tilton, Mrs. A. Y. Trask, Mrs. Louis Sloss, and Mrs. Alvan Flanders.

At 1231 and 1233 Pacific street, similar exercises were held for the Lester Norris, the Produce Exchange, and the Huntington Kindergartens. Here a gorgeous Santa Claus, in flowing robes and grey hair and beard, caused the little ones to scream with delight. They sang and marched just as their fellow schoolmates had done at the Stanford schools.

Following are the names of the ladies who donated good things to the Kindergartans named above: Mrs. B. F. Norris, Miss Alice Greenwald, Miss Irene Sabin, Talbot Cyrus Walker, Mrs. Daniel Meyer, Mrs. W. C. Woodman, Mrs. L. S. Spencer, Mrs. L. Greenwald, and Mrs. Leon Sloss.

Too much praise cannot be accorded the Principals and Teachers for their faithful and conscientious work, which resulted in one of the prettiest exhibitions of childish innocence and happiness ever seen in this city,

STRONG WORDS FROM THE "ARGONAUT."

In a leading editorial of the Argonaut, Mr. Pixley, in his wonted strong and forceful language, gives his views on the work of the Kindergarten. His words are all the more highly prized, because they are the result of very close investigation. Mr. Pixley was not originally an advocate of the Kindergarten. But to his credit, be it said, he was willing to watch its outcome, and when it had proved its value, he was honest enough to admit his mistake, and to enlist as one of its strongest champions. Mr. Pixley is evidently of the same mind as Oliver Wendell Holmes, who says: "Don't be consistent,' but be simply true." This is what Mr. Pixley so strongly said of the Free Kindergarten work: