“Beloved: I ask this favor of all Christian Scientists. Do not give me on, before, or after the forthcoming holidays, aught material except three tea jackets. All may contribute to these. One learns to value material things only as one needs them, and the costliest things are those that one needs least. Among my present needs material are these three jackets. Two of darkish heavy silk, the shade appropriate to white hair. The third of heavy satin, lighter shade, but sufficiently sombre. Nos. 1 and 2 to be common sense jackets for Mother to work in, and not over trimmed by any means. No. 3 for best, such as she can afford for her drawing room. “Mary Baker Eddy.” When this “Card” was published Mrs. Eddy must have believed that there were upwards of a million Christian Scientists, for years before she had said, “In 1883 a million of people acknowledge and attest the blessings of this mental system of treating disease.” So she must have expected approximately a million people to make some response to her request. It will be noted that the “Card” doesn’t ask for tea jackets; it asks for contributions for tea jackets. Mrs. Eddy had no expectation that a million or more garments would be received in response to her statement that she needed two of heavy silk, the shade appropriate to white hair, and one of heavy satin lighter shade but sufficiently sombre. If she had wanted the tea jackets and not contributions, she would have given waist and bust measurements, with length of sleeve and skirt. No, there was no room for doubt that what she wanted from _all_ her “Beloved” was contributions and not jackets, and as she hadn’t designated anyone to receive the contributions, _all_ were asked to make for Mother’s benefit, there was nothing to do but send the contributions straight to Mother. _All_ had contributed many times and _all_ were given another precious chance to show how “easy” they were. There was never any publicity given to contributions received for the two common sense jackets for Mother to work in, and the more elaborate one such as she could afford for her drawing-room; but who, that has any familiarity with the exceeding eagerness of Mrs. Eddy’s followers to contribute, can have any doubt that none would think of sending her less than five dollars. How lovely! There were not more than fifty thousand Christian Scientists at this time, but, if each chipped in five dollars toward Mother’s jackets, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars dropped into her lap. I am only giving my interpretation of Mrs. Eddy’s strange request, when I say that clearly what she wanted was not tea jackets, but money to finance her very elaborate and expensive preparations to contest Mrs. Woodbury’s suits. She wanted money, she wanted it at once, and so she asked for it immediately. The request was made for a Christmas present, and it was made four days before Christmas.