MRS. RAMSAY MACDONALD.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1378, 2 March 1912, Page 10

MRS. RAMSAY MACDONALD.

A TRIBUTE. A touching and beautiful record of tho late Mrs. liamsay Macdonald. (writes tho London correspondent of tho "Sydner Morning Herald") has been printed for P"Yf, to circulation among her friends. \\ntteu by the person who know lier best m the world, it is marked by deep sincerity and artless simplicity, and reveals to many tho nobility of character of a great personality. Of tho unselfish ami derated labours of Mrs. .Macdonald on behalf of .working women this memoir conveys a. vivid impression. There is no commoner delusion than that which imagines that men and women who giro themselves to public work like,the glar» of publicity. In fact, many of them love tho lifo domestic, crave for tho simplicity and tho happy obscurity of placid firesides, and aro only drawn into public lif« by an overmastering senso of duty and u, passionate desire for service. Mrs. Jl actional! believed in woman's suffrage, but took no prominent part in the movement. She had no sympathy with what sho called tho "selfish middle and upper class yieiy u that everything, should be. brought to'a -standstill Hlf 'tub'.We was gained.".' Womanhood to lier was something elusive, almost sacred, the homo a temple; dining out,' as society means it, most distasteful. Womanhood in ajl its aspects and expressions held a snered place in her mind. Margaret Macdonald has been described as a champion of women workers, and "In. plus charmante fcnime du mondc. A woman testifies of her: "Wherever sh« wont she carried an influence that daunted and shamed selfishness, pettiness, and evory unworthiness in public life and public work." It is Kid to think of so precious n lifo being cut short at il. But fha memory of it remains like a benediction. It was a lifo nobly lived to its last moment, dedicated from girlhood to high and unselfish ideals, and consecrated to tin Bervicc of humanity.