Well, I got four requests to see the text of Miss Kalb’s prize-winning speech. Around here that constitutes a stampede so I felt I had no choice but to produce it. It’s quite a piece,certainly a lot to memorize. It’s also the product of a short and specific moment in time, when the First World War had begun but the United States was not yet in it.
Bonus: I’m sure you all noticed “Condit and Buxton, 1005 Scanlan Building” at the bottom of three of these pages. Condit and Buxton was a Houston real estate firm, known mostly for the development of Bellaire (or Westmoreland Farms as it was then called). This had once been the William Marsh Rice ranch and was actually considered as a possible site for the Rice Institute, rejected as being too far from Houston. What connection could there be to Elizabeth Kalb? All I can attest to is that her entire address on her enrollment forms is “Westmoreland Farms, Texas.”
Extra Bonus:
Did you see the plastic owl above the “Heat Advisory” sign?
No! I’ll go back.
When I was but a tyke, Westmoreland Farm Dairy delivered milk to our house in West University.
Thanks so much for posting Elizabeth’s speech. It is so eloquent and wise. Sadly, “The Problem of National Honor” seems still to be with us.
Thank you so much for posting this-I recently found out that Elizabeth was my grandmother’s first cousin, although my grandmother was adopted. Great pick-up on the Westmoreland Farms connection. It is also her mother’s address on her grandfather’s death certificate.