In Alabama the Tuscaloosa Female College was a successful and popular boarding school for girls aged six through sixteen.
In addition to classroom studies, the school offered students a variety of different clubs they could join; one club that was available to the youngest students was a chapter of The Pansy Society.
Isabella created The Pansy Society of Christian Endeavor as a children’s version of the Christian Endeavor program that had taken teens and young adults by storm in the 1880s.
She wrote about The Pansy Society in stories and articles she published The Pansy magazine. Children who joined the society pledged to do good works and live their daily lives “For Jesus’ sake.”
That motto—For Jesus’ Sake—was a motto the students at the Tuscaloosa Female College took to heart. Under the mentorship of teacher Eloise Hemphill, the school’s Pansy Society chapter took a special interest in some newspaper articles written by a local reporter about an orphanage in Tuskegee that was in need of help.
So when it came time for the school’s Pansy Society to perform their annual Christmas cantata, they invited the same reporter who wrote the articles to attend so he could write about their performance for the newspaper.
Unfortunately, the reporter arrived late, after much of the performance was over, and after Santa Claus had distributed all of the presents under the Christmas tree. So he was very surprised when, as soon as he arrived, the students immediately halted the program and called him up on the stage.
Wary, he did as he was asked, expecting to “receive a ten-cent comic toy placed on the tree by some little girl, to have a good laugh at his expense.”
“Imagine, therefore, his surprise and gratification when old Santa Claus handed him an envelope, tied with a piece of pink floss, with the following inscription:
“A Christmas offering of five dollars to the orphans of Tuskegee; presented by the Pansy Society in the Primary Department of the Tuskaloosa [sic] Female College, December 25, 1887.”
In 1887, five dollars was a lot of money for little girls to raise; it was the equivalent of about $160 in today’s economy.
The reporter was so surprised and gratified, the gesture caused him “to lose his head and eyesight at the same time” as he stammered out his thanks.
Of course the editor of The Tuskaloosa Gazette printed the story of the evening’s events, and added:
“Miss Eloise Hemphill and the sweet little Pansy Society have acted nobly. Out of their own little savings, in the midst of the festivities of Christmas, these little girls have contributed the handsome sum of five dollars for the little orphans whom God hath bereft of father and mother. It was one of the most delicate little acts of kindness it has ever been our pleasure to witness.”
The editor added:
“The seeds of charity that have this Christmas been planted in their hearts by their noble teacher, Miss Eloise Hemphill, will take root and grow and bloom as they develop into lovely womanhood, until, like angels of mercy, they will go about doing good as long as they live.”
Isabella encouraged every member of The Pansy Society to plant similar “seeds of charity.” Each Christmas she asked them to pause amid the merry bustle of the season to “make some little gift as a loving reminder to one who otherwise would have none,” and to do it “For Jesus’ Sake.”
Do you have a similar Christmas tradition of giving a christmas gift to someone who otherwise wouldn’t have one?
What’s your favorite way to share a small act of kindness “For Jesus’ Sake”?
You can read more about The Pansy Society of Christian Endeavor in these posts:
Isabella Alden 