Evening star., 1936-07-19

the social, the professional and the
political world Of its day.
Friendship House is not Just q job
or a profession with Miss Burklin but
the entire absorption of her life, the
sum and substance of her existence,
hence ones feeling that its work has
no particular hours but Is a continu.
ing force day and night.
Little Poem Guided Life.
When I asked her what forces had
been the determining ones in causing
her to devote her life to the motiva-
ton of the ideals Of Friendship House,
she paused for several moments before
she replied, 81 believe it must have
been a little verse which I learned as
a very tiny girl at my grandmothers
knee which is to this effect.
when ere take my walk abroad,
how many poor see.
What shall I render to my God for all
his gifts to me?
While I am clothed from head to foot.
others beg from door to door.
What shall I render TO my God for all
his gifts to me?"
Continuing, Mrs. Burklin added,
my father was a Government em-
ploye struggling with limited in
come which had to suffice for large
household, so we frequently had to
live in neighborhoods which we're rot
exactly those to which my mother
had been accustomed. We were, Of
necessity, very intimately aware Of
the cost of running our home and the
reason for having every penny do its
full duty. yet grandmother, who WAS
one of the most wisely visioned women
that have ever known, somehow
always managed to convey to us that
we must look upon ourselves as a
fortunate group. possessed of bless
ings to share with others. Even now
I can hear her say. A joy always
doubles itself. and shared sorrow
loses its sting Perhaps that has been
the motto that has carried us over
some of the toughest shedding at
Friendship House when we we're hay-
ing desperate struggles to have one
dollar do the work of not two, but
three or four, and wondering where
We were going to get it at that"
Agency of Chest.
Today Friendship House Is an
agency of the Community Chest and
when asked my last question of an
old colored man in the neighborhood
as to whether I were still headed in
the right direction, his reply was,
the yard of that big old house. which
is the onliest one dat still looks as II
dequ3lity wuz around heah'
AS I was tearing myself away from
. my self-imposed visit, the historical
| background of the famous past Of this
old house passed in sequence before
me. Somehow one better visuali7ed
DR.. Frederick May. the physician ard
able citizen. who has left his indelibIa
imprint upon our city by the Medical
Society which he founded. One saw
clearly. too, Mayor Smallwood Of
, Washington, man Of many business
affairs, who yet found time to serve
his community with vision and ability.
OF him it is said his erudition lay not
in books in cases, but in his knovl-
edge OF their contents which he so
well kept in his head" A letter Of the
British Minister, Sir Stratford Can
ming. written to a kinsmar across
the Atlantic in 1921, challenges the
Judgment of Mayor Smallwood, which
he quotes, concerning the future de-
velopment of the Capital City yet tima
has proven the mayors contention.
The last act of Mayor Smallwood's
ltfe, we find. was the framing Of a
resolution, afterward signed by Presi-
dent Monroe, providing that suitable
arrangements be forthwith made for
the erection of a city hall in Judiciary
Square"
In his old home at 324 Virginia ave-
nue. southeast there still survives un-
touched in the Lafayette ROOM the
noble proportions, fine old mantels. |
arched doorways and windows and
fan-shaped doorway of that addition
to his home which the mayor built
especially in honor of the French gen.
erals visit to Washington during his
term of Office, that he might more
suitable receive the distinguished
visitor. Alas, for his plans, tbs
mayors home was visited by small.
pox and the room was never used for
the noble visitors reception. At the
present time, upon walls where once
hung, fine in frames" the mayors
copies of the Declaration of In
dependence and the portrait of Gen.
Washington, there is an exhibition Of
paintings sponsored by the National
Federation of Women's Clubs. e..
The Lafayette room is now the
general meeting place of the com.
munity groups that meet in Friendship
House from time to time. Who shall
say that it has not after all fulfilled
the intent Of that Mayor Smallwood,
who planned it for reception to the
people of Washington so many years
ago? For Friendship House is not a
charity. but an exemplification OF
what community friendship can do in
sharing the joys and sorrows that srs
common to it. Thereby has it proved
itself an effective agency in the up
building Of that type of good citizen.
ship which makes for a better
| America.
EnI1cATIQNAI