Alderwoman

Manhattan last week celebrated by electing to its city council, its first alderwoman. She is not the widow of a politician. Instead she is a local political leader, the wife of a financier, the mother of five children, and a society woman. Her husband is John T. Pratt, Amherst '96, son of Charles Pratt who was one of the Standard Oil men; he is a lawyer, the director of a few railroads, and rates himself as a financier.

For two years Mrs. Ruth Pratt has been associate Republican leader of her District, the 15th. It is normally Republican. She ran against James A. O'Gorman Jr., son of the late Senator from New York. They did not sling any mud at each other. The Republican slogan was "Put Our Ruth Over." She lived in her house on 61st Street, just off Fifth Avenue, but she went all the way over to the little shops on Third Avenue canvassing for votes. Her son came down from Harvard to cast his first vote for her. And she got 10,000 out of about 17,000 votes, running 700 votes ahead of her ticket.

Said The Club Fellow*: "Ruth Pratt is a wonder! Other mothers of growing sons and daughters marvel at her energy. Fancy a woman running for Alderman of the 15th District and between runs preparing for the debut of a daughter! Yet the dance at which Sally Pratt will make her bow to society on December the Thirteenth will be as spiffy as the party given for any other girl launched during the holidays."

*Imitation. of Town Topics,