It was a stirring service, and to have taken part in it was the event of a lifetime, and not likely to be repeated. Services of like nature were held in all the churches.
Tuesday evening, July 26th, a number of kindly volunteers, under the auspices of the Relief Committee, gave an entertainment in the Armory, which netted about $150. It was an excellent one, combining serio-comic drama with highly cultured singing and pleasing tableaux. The names of these devoted friends were as follows: "A Quiet Family," Messrs. George H. Whitman, James A. Morgan, Mrs. Mary Davis, Miss Lizzie Davis; orchestra, Mr. Louis Baxter and others; Grace Church choir, Mr. Charles H. Sunderland, leader, Mrs. T.N. Glover, Mrs. McAvoy, Mrs. Sunderland, the Misses D. Stevens, B. Stevens, Fanton, Williams, Reece, Johnstone, Smith, Elliott, Semken, Cosse and Haywood, and Messrs. Douglass, Barrows, Elliott, MacAdee, Parker, Critchley, Ahrens, Burns, Brown, Green, Shaw and Wilkins; tableaux: Miss Maude MacHarg, Mr. Wilkin Bookstaver and the rest of the company.
Another entertainment took place Thursday, July 28, which was very successful, the net proceeds being $91, and was sent to Jacksonville to provide better food for the sick of the company. The entertainment was managed by Mrs. W.E. Fullagar, who took considerable interest in the welfare of the company (she and her husband being with us at Jacksonville and Pablo Beach for nearly a month). Those taking part deserve to have a place in this narrative, and they follow: Mrs. M. Casta, Mr. Louis Baxter, Miss Mae Games Amery, Mr. L. Botting, Miss Nettie Dannheim, Mr. Arthur H. Hargrave, the Concordia Maennerchor of Carlstadt, Miss Mabel Taylor King, and six members of the Kirmess "Hornpipe Dance." Captain Ely, home on furlough, told anecdotes of camp life, which were very interesting. Another entertainment took place the week we arrived home, the proceeds of which were given to the Relief Committee.
One year had passed when the company again assembled upon the anniversary of its return from camp life; old friendships were renewed, and yarns spun, while the good things disappeared at the well-spread table.
September 30th, 1899, the company paraded through the streets of New York on the occasion of the welcome to Admiral George Dewey, and all along the line patriotic citizens gave its enthusiastic endorsement of the manly devotion to the flag which L Company maintained through five months of trying camp life in Southern climes.