The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1921-01-23
McAlester, Okla, Jan. Is, 1921.

McAlester, Okla. Jan. 10. 1921.
The Daily Arimoreite
Ardmore, Okla.
My Dear Mr.. Easley:
1t is indeed kind and gracious
compliment which you have paid me
by inviting me 10 be one of the con-
tributors TO the series of letters yos
plan to publish under the caption of
Evenings with Former Ardmore Citf.
zens." 1 esteem it a genuine pleasure
to accept the invitation, and to- take
this means for 81 moment of renewed
fellowship with cherished friends of
the old Ardmore days, the dearest
| friends 1 have in the world. AS
write there rises before me a. vivid
and graphic picture of the town, not
the new and splendid ArSinore which
has risen so magnificenty from the
ruins of the explosion a few years ago,
nut the less superb community Of
former times which was the mother of
this greater Ardmore, and which sup
Piled the courage and faith that made
possible the rebuilding of the city on
so grand and aspiring u scale that she
is known everywhere as THE City OF
Beautiful Homes" Yes, as | write,
see the old Ardmore that was my
home, and amid the beloved scenes
move the form and faces whose
lifelike photographs are indelbly fixed
in my memory.
1t is more than ten years now since
| left Ardmore to take mp the work
with the State Prison at McAlester,
the work in which / am still engaged.
l am still near enough that few days
pass without the coming in of some
old Ardmore friends to see me, and
two or three times in the decade since
my moving from there, l have been
able TO get away from my work for
n few days, and come back on a briet
visit. Ny work here, as supervisor
of the woman's department in the
prison has been in many respects
arduous and difficult. ii is work
which brings me face to face with
some OF the most tragic phases of hu-
man depravity and shame. Among
the women with whom I have had to
deal in this institution have been
some who have fallen as far below
our finer conceptions OF womanhood
as any imagination could picture. But
there have been others whose error
sprang rather from folly than from
viciousness, and even in those who
seemed most fallen have always
found in time much that was good and
lovable, much that gave me faith in
the possible redemption of the mis-
guided life. I have refused ever to
believe that any woman sent to my
department was beyond hope, and it
Is, my greatest compensation for these
years of service to remember that
many q woman who came here brand
ed "a hopeless incorrigible" has gone
back into the world to take her place
among women, and proved herself
worthy to resume such sacred obliga-
tions as wifehood and motherhood.
They write me letters from every
quarter OF the Continent. telling of
how their stay in this department
brought them TO the dawn of a new
life, and those letters are my assur-
ance that / have not wrought in vain.
From our first coming here. Nc
Alester gave TO us warm and un-
feigned welcome. II is a thriving town
in IT'S commercial life. for 1t is the
business center for the greatest coal
field Of the southwest. Its schools
and churches would do credit TO n
far larger city. and among it's splend-
ID people, We have found some dear
and trusted friends. Yet / confess
that after more than n decades resi-
ience here, / still ghink of Ardmore
as home. There our children grew |