New-York tribune., 1921-05-24
MARY WHITE
(WiG,am Alon Whic IN The Emporie
GdsettcJ

heve hooted at thatl She never fell
from a horse in her life Horses have
fallen on her and with her--"I'm al
ways trying to hold 'em in ny lap"
she used to say. But she was proud
of few things, and Que was that she
could ride anything that had four legs
and hair, Her death resulted not from
a fall, but from blow on the head
which fractured her skull, and the blow
came from the limb OF an overhanging
tree on the parking
| The last hour Of her life was typical
OF it's happiness. She came home from
a days work at school, topped off by
hard grind with the copy on the High
School Annual and felt that a ride
would refresh her. She climbed into
her khakis, chattering to her mother
about the work she was doing, and
hurried to get her horse and be out
on the dirt roads for the country air
and the radiant green fields Of the
spring. As she rode through the town
on an easy gallop she kept waving at
rassersby. She knew every one in
town. For a decade the little figure
with the long pigtail and the red hair
ribbon has been familiar on the streets
of Emporia, and she got in the way
OF speaking to those who nodded at
! her. She passed the Kerrs, walking
the horse, in front of the Normal Lii
brary, and waved at them; passed an
other friend few hundred feet fur
ther on, and waved at her. The horse
was walking and, as she turned into
North Merchant Street, she took off her
cowboy hat, and the horse swung into
| lope. She passed the Tripletts and
waved her cowboy hat at them, still
moving gayly north on Merchant Street.
Gazette CARRIE passed--a High
School boy friend and she waved at
him, but with her bride hand; the
| horse veered quickly. plunged into the
parking where the low hanging limb
faced her, and, while she still looked
back waving, the blow came. But she
did not fall from the horse; she slipped
| of, dazed bit, staggered and fell in
mfaint. She never quite recovered con-
sciousness.
But she did not fall from the horse,
neither was she riding fast. A year or
But that habit was broken, and she
used the horse to get into the open to
set fresh, hard exercise and TO work
oil certain surplus energy that
wellcd up in her and needed physical
outlet. Ihas need had been in her heart
for years II WAS back Of the impulse
| that kept the dauntless, little brown
clad figure on the streets and country
roads cf tho community and built into a
strong, muscular body what had been a
Trail and sickly frame during the first
years OF her life. But the riding gave
her more than body. It released gay
and hardy soul. She was the happlest
( thing in the world. And sac was happy
because she was enlarging the horizon
She came to know ali sorts ana condi-
| tions of men; Charley O'Bren, the
| traffic cop, was one Of her best friends
W. l.. Holtz, the Latin teacher, Was an
other. Tom O'Connor, farmer-poli-
tician, and Rev j. II. j. Rice, preacher
and police judge, and Frank Beach, mu-
| sic master, were her special friends
and all the girls, black and white,
above the track and below the track,
IN Pepville and StringtoWn. were among
her acquaintance. And she brought
home riotoua stories of her adventures.
She loved to Tollicl<; perslfage was her
natural expression at home. Her hu-
NOR was continual bubble of joy. She
seemed to think in hyperbole and meta
phor. She was mischievous without
malice, as full OF faults as an old shoe.
No angel was Mary White, but an easy
girl to live with, for she never nursed
d crouch five minutes in her life.
She hungered and thirsted for right
eousness; and was the most impious
creature in the world She Joined the
Congregational Church without con-
sulting her parents; not particularly
for her souls good. She never had a
thrill of piety in her life, and would
even as q little child she felt the
church was an agency for helping peo-
pie to more OF ife's abundance, and
she wanted to help She never wanted
help for herself. Clothes meant little
to her. 1t was fight to get a new rig
on her; but eventually harder fight
.to get 1t off. She never wore a jewel
and had no ring but her High School
class ring, and never asked for any
to have her hair up; though she was
nearly seventeen. ''Mother," she pro-
tested. you don't know how much I
get by with, in my braided pigtails
that | could not with my hair up"
Above every other passion Of her life
was her passion not TO grow up, to be
child The tomboy in her, which
was big. seemed to loathe to be Pat
away forever in skirts She was
Peter Pan, who refused to grow up.
For hex 9s!lbearers only her friends
were chosen; her Latin teacher~-W. /.
Holtz; her High School principal, Rice
Brown; her doctor, Frank Foncannon;
l.er friend w. W. Finney; her pal at
the Gazette oftice, Walter Hughes; and
her brother Bill 1t would haze made
her smile to know that her friend,
Charley C'Brien, the traffic cop, had
been transferred from Sixth and Com
mercial to the corner near the church
to direct her friends who came to bid
her goodby.
rift IN the clouds in a gray day
threw a shaft Of sunlight upon her
coffin as her nervous, energetic little
body sank to its last sleep. But the
soul of her, the glowing, gorgeous, fer
vent soul OF her, surely was flaming
in eager JOY upon some other dawn
Cribbing imporfectly from Gilbert
and Sullivan, men have gone miles to
see much less lovely spinal possessions.
Town Topics
In day when so much is cribbed
without acknowledgement, it is encour-
aging to see this admission of indebted
ness, while the inclusion of Sir Arthur
Sullivan borders on prodigshty.
The Trans Harlem Housing Problem
LFrom The Bronx Home Newsl
WIDOW wishes TO board . respectable men
share room hcmeke. Box 635. Syouy