equipping a reading-room for them. Though there were some disappointing features in this labor, one bright particular case is so happy in results that it seems ample reward for all the effort put forth.
Mrs. Heald was for five years the efficient president of the Beecher Club, whose study was evolution; and she has been on the executive board of many of the well-known Portland associations, including the Women's Literary Union. At one time she belonged to fourteen organizations. She is now State president of the Maine division of the International Sunshine Society, an office that is no sinecure, since she is usually called to write no less than sixty letters a week. Attracted to the Sunshine columns in. the papers some time ago, she took hold of the York with such grasp that she was soon appointed its leader in Maine. This society is "not a charity, Init an interchange of kindly greetings and the passing on of good cheer." There are about a hundred and fifty daily and weekly papers reporting "Sunshine" news. The society was founded by Mrs. Cynthia Westover Alden in 1896. Its object is to incite its members to the performance of kind and helpful deeds, and to thus bring the sunshine of happiness into the greatest possible number of hearts and homes. Its active membership consists of people who are desirous of brightening life by some thought, word, or deed.
In a letter to the Journal the president-general, Mrs. Cynthia Westover Alden, writes: "Every week, regularly, your paper comes to Sunshine headquarters, and we read it with continued and renewed interest, especially the Sunshine work in your State. I write now to particularly thank you for your kindness, and trust that you are going to continue liking us forever and ever.
"With your energetic president, Mrs. Heald, of Portland, the State is becoming thoroughly organized. In fact, it is the best organized in Sunshine work of any State in the Union. There are now two thousand and sixty-six well-organized Sunshine branches reporting regularly, not counting the many branches that are formed, but sent! in their reports irregularly."
Mrs. Heald has incorporated the State of Maine division of the International Sunshine Society, and at this writing a petition to the Legislature for an approjiriation for the amelioration of the condition of the cripples in the State is in preparation. Names of men and women of influence have been secured, and it is reasonably hoped that it will succeed. If in the future attention is given these hopeless, helpless sufferers, it will be due to her untiring efforts in their behalf. Through her personal efforts several cripples have already enjoyed the services of a specialist. Her experience and observation have developed in an unusual degree all that is tender and lovable in her nature. Her quick sympathy with all suffering, both physical and mental, renders her ministrations doubly sweet. Her heart and hands are ready for all appeals for aid: to none is .she indifferent. She is eminently adapted to be at the head of an organization whose watchword is good cheer, for she is of pleasant address, and her greeting, even to the stranger, is always warm-hearted and gracious.
GERTRUDE FRANKLIN SALISBURY, better known to the musical world as Gertrude. Franklin and in private life as Virginia Beatty Salisbury, is one of the most widely and favorably known of Boston's vocal teachers. She was born in Baltimore, Md., September 4, 1858, and belongs to a wealthy and aristocratic family. Her father, Mr. John Beatty, of Baltimore was the son of the late Mr. James Beatty, an eminent merchant of Baltimore, who held positions of great trust under President Madison. Her mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Jackson Beatty, was the daughter of the Rev. William Jackson, a native of England. Among other distinguished ancestors was her great-grandfather, Gunning Bedford, who for a short time in the Revolutionary War was aide-de-camp to General .Washington. He represented Delaware in the Continental Congress, 1783 to 1786, and was a prominent member of the convention that framed the Constitution of the United States. Miss Franklin's parents removed to Boston
