At 9.30 Mrs. Haweis will join the assembly.

I am particularly delighted with this last feature in the preliminary announcement.  It is a proof of the high regard in which the estimable and gifted lady who shares her husband’s labors is held by the people of their congregation, and the friends who share in their feelings.  It is such a master stroke of policy, too, to keep back the principal attraction until the guests must have grown eager for her appearance:  I can well imagine how great a saving it must have been to the good lady’s nerves, which were probably pretty well tried already by the fatigues and responsibilities of the busy evening.  I have a right to say this, for I myself had the honor of attending a meeting at Mr. Haweis’s house, where I was a principal guest, as I suppose, from the fact of the great number of persons who were presented to me.  The minister must be very popular, for the meeting was a regular jam,—­not quite so tremendous as that greater one, where but for the aid of Mr. Smalley, who kept open a breathing-space round us, my companion and myself thought we should have been asphyxiated.

The company was interested, as some of my readers maybe, to know what were the attractions offered to the visitors besides that of meeting the courteous entertainers and their distinguished guests.  I cannot give these at length, for each part of the show is introduced in the programme with apt quotations and pleasantries, which enlivened the catalogue.  There were eleven stalls, “conducted on the cooperative principle of division of profits and interest; they retain the profits, and you take a good deal of interest, we hope, in their success.”

Stall No. 1.  Edisoniana, or the Phonograph.  Alluded to by the Roman Poet as Vox, et praeterea nihil.

Stall No. 2.  Money-changing.

Stall No. 3.  Programmes and General Enquiries.

Stall No. 4.  Roses.

A rose by any other name, etc.  Get one.  You can’t expect to smell one without buying it, but you may buy one without smelling it.

Stall No. 5.  Lasenby Liberty Stall. (I cannot explain this.  Probably articles from Liberty’s famous establishment.)

Stall No. 6.  Historical Costumes and Ceramics.

Stall No. 7.  The Fish-pond.

Stall No. 8.  Varieties.

Stall No. 9.  Bookstall. (Books) “highly recommended for insomnia; friends we never speak to, and always cut if we want to know them well.”

Stall No. 10.  Icelandic.

Stall No. 11.  Call Office.  “Mrs. Magnusson, who is devoted to the North Pole and all its works, will thaw your sympathies, enlighten your minds,” etc., etc.

All you buy may be left at the stalls, ticketed.  A duplicate ticket will be handed to you on leaving.  Present your duplicate at the Call Office.

At 9.45, First Concert.

At 10.45, An Address of Welcome by Rev. H. R. Haweis.