As all the members had become greatly interested in the project, they felt keenly disappointed when it became evident that it would be necessary to abandon the undertaking.  Desiring, however, to take some part in this useful work, and being informed that the concession that had been granted for a similar purpose was in need of funds to enable it to employ additional nurses and make it possible to care for more children, on July 14, 1904, at their midsummer meeting, the board passed the following resolution: 

Be it resolved, That the board of lady managers set apart, and turn over, to the persons in charge of the Model Play Ground, Nursery, and Lost Children work the sum of $5,000 to assist in carrying on these projects on the exposition grounds.

Mrs. John M. Holcombe was made chairman of the committee having this appropriation in charge, and her final report is as follows: 

The members of the board of lady managers were from the beginning of their organization deeply interested in the need of caring for little children at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, and various plans were under consideration at an early date.

    To have a model creche was the desire of the president and
    members of the board, and it was with great satisfaction that
    arrangements were made for a very perfect equipment.

    A practical philanthropy in full working order would prove also
    an exhibit of the most approved and up-to-date methods—­at once
    a charity, an example, an inspiration.

The Exposition Company made a generous appropriation, the sum of $35,000 being allowed for the building and furnishing, and very beautiful designs were made and accepted.  Here infants were to be cared for by trained nurses, receiving attention and consideration possible only to babies of the twentieth century, and altogether in advance of the simple and natural conditions of baby life prior to the closing years of the nineteenth century.  Special foods specially treated, specially constructed bottles—­in fact everything special and disinfected, from the nurse and crib down to the smallest minutiae.

The charge was to be 50 cents a day, and estimates formed on experience went to show that on this basis the creche would be self-sustaining when once established and started in running order.

Shortly before the opening of the fair, however, and at a moment when the Exposition Company was passing through most trying experiences and needed all possible funds, it was found that unfavorable aspects had arisen.  At the March meeting of the board, 1904, and only a few weeks prior to the opening of the exposition, it was learned that two concessions of a nature similar to the creche had been made, where the charge for children would be but 25 cents a day.  Already the board had heard some buzz of criticism that 50 cents was