PEOPLE I HAVE KNOWN

...A Memorial Beneath the windows of MacDonald's early home at 3 Lincoln Inn Fields where first I saw him and his family, a beautiful memorial has been raised to his wife...

...She was to head a delegation, and her attire was made the subject of playful protests from her friends...

...MaeDonald, which indeed proved to be the case, he being the storm center of every contest, "but my wife will keep with you...

...asked...

...This was not merely the English woman's habit to cleave unto her mate...

...Thus she and her husband visited Canada and the United States, Australia, South Africa, and India, besides making many journeys to nearby pdaces...

...The eldest, Alister, is an architect, is married, and is the father of two children...

...Shiela gave a tug to one's heart-strings, but she is the farthest removed from pathetic...

...His Wife r-pvHE MacDonalds apartment in London A gave the Labor groups their first social rallying ground...

...She and her husband went up to Lossiemonth in the north of Scotland where he was born almost as soon as they were made man and wife...

...I have thought of their mother's behest as she lay dying, "Put romance into their lives,"—when I have read that MaeDonald has taken one of the girls on some of the journeys be still is making...

...MaeDonald tells of an occasion which is full ef character and likewise of humor...

...And especially she seemed to be unaware of her clothes, which gave the impression of being unaccountably hung upon her, and to be no part of her conscious being...

...He was re-elected with a heavy addition of Labor members in the House...

...He stands fairly well to the right, taking issue sharply with the Communists who look for violent changes...

...Years later, this "nobody" became the premier in his own land, and the Mac-Donalds, journeying thither, were met by the government) launch and shown every high honor...

...Presently Mr...

...and each time they returned to welcoming friends and duties, ;i»<( found their family circle unbroken...

...She has the biggest heart in the whole world...

...She died on September 8, 1911, holding her husband's hand "until those who had gone before should give her greeting...

...You will disgrace us all," \hey had said...

...I well remember her unawareness of the clutter of books and papers and toys that filled her living room...

...And he seemed as detached as she did from the lunch that was served at a table at the farther end of the living room...

...His Socialism is grounded in his intellect...

...Thereafter, wlu-rever I went I was sent with an introduction to comrades who met me at the trains, and took me in charge, and who usually kissed me at meeting and at parting, and gave me an introduction to the next town...

...At the last general election he was in the United States on a debating tour, and Ishbel took charge of his campaign for him...

...And if, in the night or among the hills you feel me, it may perhaps be me speaking to you...

...He regards society, not as a house which has been made by hands and can be altered by hands, but as a living organism which can change only by changing the thoughts of the people...

...During these years I have seen him twice,— the first time in 1920, when he was out of power and seemingly out of public life, and the second in 1924, when he and his colleagues sat in parliament on the front bench of the opposition, he a dominant figure, speaking to every issue, and laying foundations .for the policies which will surely come to prevail...

...Mrs...

...It is told that on one occasion there came a young member of a colonial parliament, lonely and lost in great London...

...At the factory gates of provincial towns I saw the workers, narrow chested, bent of shoulders, knock kneed, and dwarfed in stature,—the sorriest specimens of human kind I had ever looked upon...

...It was while she was living under these dark shadows that Mrs...

...The room, to judge from the toys, mixed with books and pamphlets and papers, piled on tables and overflowing onto chairs, apparently served as study, living room and nursery combined...

...For, neglecting to consult the glass as she put on her new garment, she had fastened it back part before...

...And again she wrote...

...There they took their children for their vacations...

...MaeDonald came in...

...I have read his protest against replacing Wren's stately arch across the Thames by a new bridge...

...When I asked Ishbel, who goes about much with her father, if she would accompany him to the United States, if he made the trip he was then considering, she...

...And on fhe sofa sat Mrs...

...She has character and quiet dignity and good looks, although not striking beauty, and I shall be surprised if she does not make a decided contribution to the new times which are in the making...

...Sheilla was born a year later...

...So for the sake of the cause, she resolved to buy herself a fine new blouse, and the next day she presented herself, proudly—the strangest figure, so it was said, that ever was seen...

...it is il...

...The little volume which he wrote under his dying wife's impulse gives her heart as well as his own...

...The bond between the two women was a very rare one...

...The girls all were dressed in dark woolen frocks buttoned well up to their chins, as is of course necessary in the chill English household, and they spoke only when spoken to...

...They kept open house for all the comrades, and their evenings will be remembered by like minded people who came to London from all across the world...

...Their Children j t T TOW have the children grown up...

...Their Home 1SENT in my introductory note, and it brought an invitation to luncheon...

...She was sure the children would be well and happy at Lossiemonth...

...Perhaps you will turn to it sometimes and find me dwelling in it...

...Ramsay MaeDonald and _| hold on to her hand...

...It is surely among the most precious documents ever penned...

...But we are worse than nobodies, in most people's eyes," had been her rejoinder...

...And they heard that in cabinet meetings he had often told of what they had done for him when he had gone, "a nobody,' to Great Britain...

...As she lay dying, she begged her husband to write about their life together, while the memory was still vivid with him...

...Meanwhile, Mary Middleton, his wife's closest friend and a woman of rare character, lay stricken by a lingering illness...

...He became the worst hated man in Great Britain...

...Are they worthy of their parents...

...answered, "Oh, no, 1 could not leave the committee," to which her father made the playful comment, "Ishbel is the Honorary Secretary and she thinks it her part to do all the work...

...When the war broke he, who for years had worked against the policies which had paved its way, refused a place in the cabinet...

...And there they used to leave them when they went on their many journeyings, for Mr...

...His Mother |T IS TOLD how MaeDonald, when first speak-* ing of love to the woman whom he was seeking as a wife, had told her of his mother, a woman-he held in profound love and esteem and who had borne herself most valiantly under the buffets of fate...

...It is since his wife's death that the dramatic chapters of MacDonald's life have been written...

...He was called the handsomest man in the House of Commons, as he still is until this day, when his hair and mustache have changed from dark to silver grey...

...It was characteristic of Ramsay MacDonald's wife that things never cumbered her...

...I shall be much engaged there," said Mr...

...Oh, no, I am the merest nobody," had been his abashed answer...

...She it was who introduced me to all th« comrades, including Mrs...

...I Bhall always be with you, if 1 urn able," so she had said...

...They arranged that I should go with them in the special car for the delegates to attend the Labor Conference, which was about to be held at Portsmouth...

...MaeDonald caught an infection from which she did not rally...

...My dear Mother, lam so glad to be able to write these three words together...

...But the people in larger and larger numbers, re covered from their war passion, were listening and thinking...

...but his wife belonged to the well placed class and brought him relief from grinding poverty...

...Beneath the trees there is a Jong curved bench, much used by mothers with their children, and above a bronze figure with arms stretched wide over groups of little <'nes...

...the one sorrow that had clouded their married life until their long parting...

...Yam- must come to us of an evening and meet our friends," said Mrs...

...She was in the University of London when her father became Prime Minister, and she left to preside at the official house in Downing Street...

...His early years had been a hard struggle...

...Mac-Donald...

...Thus it was, when H. G. Wells asked me whom I wanted to meet, I mentioned Mr...

...It was the passionate desire for another and another honeymoon...

...Death Comes to Their Household -X THE late autumn of 1909 the MaeDonald* 1 were summoned home from India by a gen oral election...

...She and Joan, perhaps fourteen and sixteen, when I last saw them, were rosy cheeked girls, preparing for the University of London...

...But likewise I saw the seeds of the New World which is in the making —the little bands of men and women all over the land, who meet together week by week all through the year, as Christians used to meet together in a far-off time, declaring that the capitalist order is in process of dissolution, and that it is for the workers to so reorganize the Commonwealth as to afford a chance for a good life to all...

...He lost his seat in the House, and the newspapers, which at first had cursed and reviled him, became closed against him...

...Bruce Glasier, .as I have told in an earlier article, and gave me the pass words which let me into the world within the world, the Labor Movement of Great Britain...

...But a few weeks later little David died, and eight days later still MacDonald's mother followed She had been like a second mother to his wife and children...

...His talk was as direct and as informal as his wife's...

...His convictions, deep grounded, never faltered when all he lived for in private and in public life seemed to have been swept away...

...Ishbel and David, then perhaps six and four, were playing in the room...

...And when in 1923, to the amazement of the great World, he was re-elected to the House from Aberavon, he took rank again, as of necessity, as leader of the Labor group which presently was made the government of Great Britain...

...And later, the elder children, Alister and Malcolm, came in from school...

...And I have come more fully to understand the mind of one who in the early years was to me chiefly a fascinating surprise...

...If you are lonely in England," a young friend had said to me, when I was about to set ^out on a voyage of discovery, "find out Mrs...

...Up and down the land he spoke in words such as only he can utter, urging a negotiated peace as against the knockout blow, and no word would be reported in the London press...

...MaeDonald was an inveterate traveler, and wherever he went his wife went too...

...They lived at 3 Lincoln Inn Fields, which is a big' square lying to the north of the Strand, and not far from the Law Courts...

...His was the rare courage of a leader who could stand alone...

...MaeDonald made me feel at home at once...

...And she has the most adorable children...

...The writing will help you," she had said...

...I always hoped that if I ever married, my husband's mother would be living and would like me," she wrote in the first letter she ever addressed to Ramsay MacDonald's mother...

...Below is carved: To Margaret Ethel MaeDonald :\ Lincoln Fields Inn...

...Thus it was that I got behind "the stately facade, which is all that most people see of England, and I saw the saddest sight in all Europe—the English people...

...MaeDonald with the kindest look I have ever seen in human eyes, and with her little Joan, then perhaps a year old, upon her knee...

...I could not love a woman who did not love and reverence her," so he had said to her, as she told a friend...

...It was printed for private circulation only, and contains pas sages which are lacking in the larger memoir which was published later...

...Two long flights of stairs and a long dark entry ushered me into a very large room lighted with three—or was it four—windows, reaching from ceiling to floor, looking out into the tops of the trees, and into which filtered pale rays of the winter sun —the first sunshine I had seen since arriving in London...

...And a few months before her birth, little David, "our boy" they spoke of him, had died...

...Malcolm is a graduate of Oxford and a candidate for Parliament from a constituency which he is said to be nursing into life...

...and Mrs...