ar--that's what you'll find, begun before this
reaches you, carrying all good wishes from

Yours affectionately,

W.H.P.

To Edwin A. Alderman

Garden City, New York,

January 26, 1913.

MY DEAR ED ALDERMAN:

This has been "Board" [10] week, as you know. The men came from all
quarters of the land, and we had a good time. New work is opening;
old work is going well; the fellowship ran in good tide--except
that everybody asked everybody else: "What do you know about
Alderman?" Everybody who had late news of you gave a good report.
The Southern Board formally passed a resolution to send
affectionate greetings to you and high hope and expectation, and I
was commissioned to frame the message. This is it. I shall write no
formal resolution, for that wasn't the spirit of it. The fellows
all asked me, singly and collectively, to send their love. And we
don't put that sort of a message under _whereases_ and
_wherefores_. There they were, every one of them, except Peabody
and Bowie. Mr. Ogden in particular was anxious for his emphatic
remembrance and good wishes to go. The dear old man is fast passing
into the last stage of his illness and he knows it and he soon
expects the end, in a mood as brave and as game as he ever was. I
am sorry to tell you he suffers a good deal of pain.

What a fine thing to look back over--this Southern Board's work!
Here was a fine, zealous merchant twenty years ago, then
fifty-seven years old, who saw this big job as a modest layman. If
he had known more about "Education" or more about "the South,
bygawd, sir!" he'd never have had the courage to tackle the job.
But with the bravery of ignorance, he turned out to be the wisest
man on that task in our generation. He has united every real, good
force, and he showed what can be done in a democracy even by one
zealous man. I've sometimes thought that this is possibly the
wisest single piece of work that I have ever seen done--_wisest_,
not smartest. I don't know what can be done when he's gone. His
phase of it is really done. But, if another real leader arise,
there will doubtless be another phase.

The General Board doesn't find much more college-endowing to do. We
made only one or two gifts. But we are trying to get the country
school task right