Mr. Wilkinson Honored

      One of the most delightful functions
that has ever taken place at Grimsby
 Park, was held at the Lake View Hotel
on Friday evening last, when over one
hundred residents of the Park and vicinity gathered in the spacious dining
hall, to do honour to the president, W. C. Wilkinson, in the form of a birthday banquet.
Mr Wilkinson has been a constant
resident of Grimsby Park for the past wenty-one years. He has been on 
the Board of Directors for many years 
 and has been president of the company 
ever since the death of the late Noah
Phelps, therefore, it was with feelings of pride and pleasure, in their ability 
to do honour to  Mr. Wilkinson, that the 
large crowd gathered in the Lake View
Hotel on Friday night.
   	It might be thought that at a summer resort where the ratio of ladies to
men are as ten to one, that it would
not be possible to keep an affair of this
kind completely secret from the one who would be the central figure of the evening; But to the honour of the ladies, be it recorded that although the 
affair had been underwar for ten days previously and known to probably three or four hundred people, yet no
inkling of it reached the ears of Mr. Wilkinson, and no more completely
surprised man could be possibly imagined than he was on that occasion.
	Mr. St. Leger, of Toronto, was master of ceremonies, and made the arrangements, and the programme of 
the evening were carried out in a most pleasing and satisfactory manner.
	The large dining hall of the Lake 
View Hotel was taxed to its utmost
capacity to accommodate the guests,
and was beautifully decocrated for the occasion.
A central figure on the head table, was an immense cake supposed to be
the "birthday cake" bearing on its up
per story twenty one burning wax candles which were supposed to represent the twenty one years that Mr. Wilkinson has been a summer
resident at Grimsby Park, but the master 
of ceremonies declared that these
twenty-one candles really represented
the age of President Wilkinson. Our
own opinion is that while President
Wilkinson may have been born more
than twenty one years ago, yet he only in reality began to live, when he came to reside at Grimsby Park.
	Mr. and Mrs Wilkinson occupied
the seats of honour at the head of the 
chief table on either side of the toast
master, Mr. St. Leger.
	As the honoured guests of the evening were escorted up the long dining hall to their seats, the large company rose and led by Mrs. Shaver at the piano, sang with great gusto, "For they are Jolly Good Fellows, With a Hip, Hip, Hip, Hurrah."
	After a half hour was spent discussing the lunch, prepared by the ever attentive Mr. and Mrs. J.D. Strawn
the company leaned back in their chairs for the enjoyment of the most 
pleasant evening that many of them
ever had spent on Grimsby Park.
	If the Board of Directors could by
some means place before their audiences
such an array of talent, in song and
speech and story, in bright music and
sparkling wit, as was prepared for that
evening, the old temple would be far
to small too accomodate the crowds that 
would gather nightly to hear it.
	The grand and sympathetic songs of 
Ruthven McDonald appealed to every
heart. The Irish songs of Mr. Shaver,
the coon songs of Mr Woodland, and
the realistic portrayal of character, by
Mrs. Shumaker and Miss Brock, were
portions of the programme which cannot be called to mind, but with distinct 
feelings of pleasure; while the short
snappy speeches of the toast master,
the guest of teh evening, Mr. Ford,
Mr. Dougherty, Mr. Chown, Mr. Mc-
Gibbon, Dr. Saccomb, Mr Hurst and
Mr, Burley were so full of bright crisp
humor, keen repartee, and genuine
good fellowship, that all who listened
could not help but be enchanted.
The principal toasts of the evening
were "The King," the honoured guests, President Wilkinson and Mrs. Wilkinson, the "Board of Directors" and the 
ladies which were responded to by the 
several gentlemen previously mentioned.
In spite of the rules of Grimsby
Park that all demonstration should be 
over by 10:30 o'clock, the banquet was
in full swing at 12:30 and even then
the large company were loath to disperse.
	Mr. and Mrs. Wilkinson and their
family may well feel proud and honored
at the outburst of kindly feeling towards
them after the many years
spent at this beautiful summer resort,
and we hope that they may all be
spared to spend many more years at Grimsby Park.