Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-11-08
AS ONE N SEES N
Some "reminiscences Of Mrs. Kirk
bride, Wife Of Great Alisnist.
The Work She Did for
School Children
BY SARAH ID. LOwRIE

~ AVNNEshH
JOINING out of the voting booth the other
morning the woman who had cast her
ballot--or marked II rather-in the adjoin.
ing booth to mine joined me as left the
place and tucking her arm into mine said In
much surprise:
DO you know, ! feel rather moved |"
l suppose the majority of us felt that way,
tor after all 1t was symbolic of a great
change, not only in ourselves, but in our
men.
I confess that I had no special citation for
myself. I could not help thinking Of all the
ardent souls who had wished for this day
and had gone oct of lie without sharing II
with US.
OF course one does not feel they are miss.
ing anything; Il is only that we miss them.
One person I felt would have given the
uay a distinction and grace by the mere fact
OF her voting died just a years ago with the
splendor of the future shining in her eyes.
COMBINES this old town Ia grnced by a
man OF woman of another strain and
fiber from those of us who are born and bred
mere, and who, to our establishment and
secret pride, adopts us and the town as his
or her own.
We always felt that Mrs. Kirkbride had
made our environment hers rather than
found 1t rcndymadc. She changed us more
than we changed her.
Her people, the Buffers, were and still
are n brilliant family lin New York, Of the
a glow and ~vivacity and rxpcrimentalncss
about them quite unlike our matter Of fact
practically.
They were sensitive where we are firmly
opinionated. and like an argument upon
things we had never permitted two opinions
to be voiced.
Mrs. Kirkbridc must have found us a
stiff necked lot when she married our great
alienist, Thomas Kirkbridc. and came to his
house out at the hospitu! to live. But If she
did. she never told us SO, nor did she try to
change us by anything so obnoxious as n pre-.
cept. though she was a shining example OF
charming behavior all her fifty three years
in our midst.
DR KIRKBRIDE was enough, no doubt,
~ to reconcile his wife to any change In
environment. His greatness Of vision along
the lines he had devoted his life to clarity
ing must have made him as good and charm
ing az he was, remarkable. TO the end OF
her long life Mrs. kirkbride followed the
working oct Of his theories by his successors
with an eagerness that was the nearest APP
proach to a personal bias that she, the most
unbiased Of human beings, ever displayed.
In fact, the thing about her that rather
bafied her contemporaries was her complete
open .mindedness to the possibilities of good.
For. that reason children found her less
astonishing. less pcrplexing than most
grown
uER greatest work was for the children
IL in the public schools whom she taught
to be citizens.
Thousands of them who heard her little
speeches and looked cheerful and uncom-
pretending and bright eyed up into her
bright eyes are gradually bringing to re.
meinbrancc'' whnt she said to them and
comprehcnding the spirit of her meaning.
Thousands of them will be better citizens
are already beginning to be, because of
her.
What she did for the rest Of us is less
easily measured. for we were less pliable
subjects. but by her wide and warm yet
always ceremonious hospitality she gave us
an ideal. at her table. Of real conversation.
Gossip died an untimcly death-she made
1t seem dull-and prejudice was just a step.
ping stone to getting at the truth. She did
not make bigotry exactly foolish, she made
1t quaint.
Her beautiful speaking voice and the
bright glow on her face led one on to agree
ing, even when one only half caught her
meaning. Some one once accused her of
speaking lin tongues She very certainly
used thoughts as commonplaces of expert
ence. which most of us are incapable Of
focusing for very long upon. much less ex-
pressing in the common coin Of words.
One did not expect her to die or ever grow
old. She managed to accomplish both acts
without loss of charm or of vitalness.
The last dinner she went to was one given
by the suffrage lenders to Governor SprOul
to celebrate the ratification Of the amend
ment by the Legislature Of Pennsylvania.
Even In her varied and remarkable life she
felt that occasion to be a remarkable and
beautiful one.
She wished to fulfill her lifelong convic-
ton Of the justice of equal franchise by vot-
ing.
No wonder |, and many like me who had
known her. thought Of her this first second
Of November!