Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-10-12
tribute to Mrs. pershins--coutinued.,

Tribute to Mrs. Pershing-Continued.)
There was one other tribute to
Mrs. Pershing by Prof. Sophie c.
Hart of Wellesley. 1t read:
AT the Wellesley, rally in San
Francisco last August there were
many noteworthy speeches, but,
among them all, ] was impressed
by the touchingly beautiful tribute
which Frances Warren Pershing
paid to her alma mater. Her topic
was. What College Had Meant To
Me-
II can see her still, as she stood
across the room, her face all soft
cned and spiritualized, as she told
the meaning of college to her. She
began by saying that, as undergrad
yates, they all>seemed care-free and
happy go-lucky and full of pranks,
as if the teaching Of college, per-
haps, -glides lightly off in the aban-
don of youth. --,.
Caught in Transom.
"She recalled the fun of those
college days when, as she was
climbing over the transom of room
in the college hall in the excitement
of Tree day secrets, she suddenly
found her dangling leg firmly grasp
ed by Miss Pendleton, then the
head of the house, who demanded
what she was trying to do.
"1 called back to Pendleton,
from the other side of the transom
where my head was, that | wanted
to get into that room to take
tutoring lesson in mathematical
After speaking of the good times
of college as background against
which the deepening inner life of
the girls went on so quietly and
often SO unobserved, she passed
with a note Of genuine feeling to
the things college had given, tested
by the years since.
Saved Jap Palace.
"'But besides the personal and
human satisfactions, college quick
ened the desire to know; something
struck fire here and there in our ma
lures and made us aware of many
things we should afterward like to
explore. But more than this she
added, college gives us all ability to
lay hold of knowledge, to get at
what we need and desire, and, best
of all, it gives a latent sense of pow
er to meet situations. 1t has helped
me in every kind of crisis, great
or small, from the time they brought
me and lay in my arms my first
baby to the time / backed out of an
audience with the emperor of Japan,
in a train Il yards long. so as not
to knock down the paper walls of
the palace. ;" -..
"She looked very noble as she
stood speaking i'll a voice that had
rich, sweet notes, and | realized,
for the first time, what a marked
gift for public speaking she had, in
the quality of her voice, i'll her utter
of self, in her con-
and simple genuneness..
Her Last Night.
This was her last complete night
in this life, for between 4 and S in
the morning of the day following
she and her three little girls per-
ished in a fire which cut off their
escape from second-story bed
rooms. Only her little 5-year-old
son, Warren Pershing, was rescued.
AT the table OH the evening of
the rally there sat with her, Polly
Storm Walthall who had lived in
the same college house with her, and
Ann Orr Boswell. who was one OF
her bridesmaids, and who with her
two children was rescued from the
Pershing house during the fire, Miss
Hazard, Marian Kenny Brookings,
Mabel Pierce and Mary LOOMS.
Many weeks before this converse
ton l was in Laclede, Mo, Per
shing's old home, and Mayor Ed
mund B. Allen of that town. speak
ing of Mrs. Pershing's death, had |
handed me a card-a card written
by Pershing acknowledging the
sympathy of Laclede folks.
Dear Ed" it began, lit was fine
of you and other Laclede friends to
ME at a time when it |
takes more than mortal courage to
continue. ! want to bring my little
boy down to Missouri some time
soon. Much love, (Signed) John"
= Such was the big tragedy Of |
Pershing's life. |