A Holiday Feast for a Thousand Children
Tacoma businessman A.V. Fawcett hosts a massive banquet for children in need at the city's exposition building.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Tacoma, Dec. 25. Christmas passed quietly. A.V. Fawcett's Christmas dinner for children who were not furnished with a good meal by parents or guardians, and the excellent music in a majority of the churches were features of the day. Dinner was served for the children at the exposition building, in which a Christmas tree had been provided at the suggestion of the Evening News. Plates were laid for 1,025 children, and Mr. Fawcett, the host, estimated that nearly 1,000 partook of his hospitality. For two or three years he has been thinking of some sort of a holiday treat for children. Today everything favored the execution of his plan. Scores of steaming hot turkeys were being rapidly carved into portions suited to the capacities of the expectant guests. The children left the hall pictures of contentment, who appeared for once to have all they could wish. The cost of the affair was at least $1,000, exclusive of the gratuitous offerings of the generous public.
“The children left the hall pictures of contentment, who appeared for once to have all they could wish.”
This event reflects the 1890s era of private philanthropy filling gaps in social services. Today, Tacoma still grapples with food insecurity, though modern responses are largely institutionalized through food banks and public school programs rather than gala banquets for the poor.
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