The Altar Society’s High-Stakes Carnival

There was no end of social comfort and merriment in the festively decorated reception rooms of the Catholic church Wednesday and Thursday evenings at the medley of entertainment given by the ladies of the Altar and Rosary societies for the benefit of their reserve fund. The great feature of the entertainment was the ingenious schemes devised by the ladies for acquiring their funds at the greatest possible expense to the latter. They were highly successful. One young man even attempted to put up his gold watch at the ice cream counter, and good Father Prefontaine, just back from an expensive Old World tour, was inveigled into all the frivolities and rendered penniless. At a pretty booth, bedecked with evergreens and blossoms, Miss Emma Collins and Miss Marguerite Koarrman dispensed frozen cream. In a corner of the room, a pair of high-cost gypsy women had pitched their tent. Some said they had come straight from the Soudan; others, that they were Miss Marguerite McKinney and Miss Annie Shannon; anyhow, they were wondrous fortune tellers, adepts in palmistry, and there was a constant passage to their camp. The soothsayers gave straight tips on estate and love affairs, and already many of their predictions have been verified. The festival netted a sum of $250 and over, which was far beyond their expectations.