Please accept, Mr. Ambassador, the expression of my highest esteem and my heartiest good wishes for the return of prosperity to Sicily and Calabria. Yours, sincerely, MABEL T. BOARDMAN. To this letter the Ambassador replied that the testimonial had already been completed, and he begged that no action against its acceptance be taken. [Illustration: THE ELIZABETH GRISCOM HOSPITAL AT VILLAGIO DE REGINA ELENA. IN PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTION.] A beautiful reproduction in yellow gold of the ancient civic crown of Rome, sent in a most artistic leather jewel case, was later presented to Miss Boardman, in the name of the Italian government, by the Marquis Montagliari, the Italian Charge d’Affairs, in the absence of the Ambassador. On a plate in the case is engraved: To Miss Mabel Boardman Of the American Red Cross Society. The Italian Government as a Token of Gratitude. 1908-1909. A translation of the graceful letter of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Signor Tittoni, which accompanied the gift, is given below: ROME, June 16, 1909. ILLUSTRIOUS LADY: The royal Ambassador has already expressed, and will reiterate, to you the sentiments of our gratitude for the highly generous work inspired by you, and accomplished with such intelligent love, during the terrible disaster which overwhelmed our country at the end of the last year. Now I desire to address you personally, offering to you, in the name of the government and the Italian people, an object which is inspired by our artistic traditions, and which will serve to recall to you the benefactions rendered and the memory which we preserve thereof. We have wished to see in the action, so prompt, so efficacious, so vast, and so enduring of the American Red Cross, something more than a simple evidence of human fraternity. We love to consider it a fresh proof of the spiritual ties by which the United States feel themselves bound to the Mother Italy; therefore this action has been doubly dear to us. To you belongs so large a share of the merit, allow us to see personified in yourself all the feminine grace of the institution which has known how to give expression to these ties in the form most acceptable to the grateful beneficiaries. With the most cordial regards, yours, most devotedly, TITTONI.