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Fifty tables for the Red Cross
The Bend Bulletin · April 28, 1917
In the story: 4. Emblematic measles, 1917–1922.
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The first war work in the building, and it raised real money.
The United States declared war on April 6, 1917. A meeting to organise a Bend branch of the American Red Cross was held at Mrs. H. K. Brooks's house on April 18, and it decided on the spot to hold a card party at the Emblem club the following Monday, admission twenty-five cents, tables reserved by telephoning the club between nine and noon.
Fifty tables is two hundred players. Two hundred and eighty dollars in 1917 is real money — more than a month's wages for most of the men drilling in the same hall on Monday and Friday nights.
It is the smallest kind of item and it does a particular job in this archive, which has plenty of evidence that the club entertained and very little that the building was put to work. Within a fortnight it would be a barracks; within eighteen months the club would offer it to the library for the duration of the war.
From the source
Red Cross Benefit — About 50 tables of cards were arranged at the Emblem club Monday evening for the benefit of the Red Cross society. A charge was made for admission, and cakes were auctioned during the evening. The profits totaled about $280.00. The general interest taken by all was very pleasing to the committee in charge of the party. Sandwiches and coffee were served.