Fraternity-Testvériség, 1960 (38. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1960-09-01 / 9. szám

2

FRATERNITY

and, to be sure, the moral, in literature. Nor was the world too much with either woman. Mme. Ruttkay’s retirement was only breached by very occasional visitors to her ménage in Turin and by two great patriotic gestures to her brother on his eightieth and ninetieth birthdays. Miss Kenyon’s life was taken up almost entirely with study, contemplation, her seminary, and a few cerebral friendships.

Van Wyck Brooks has drawn a fine portrait of Miss Kenyon’s quiet but in many ways beautiful life in his Scenes and Portraits (New York, 1954), and we shall not refer further to her in this study. It is sufficient to say that Mme. Ruttkay found in Miss Kenyon a sympathetic spirit to whom she could communicate on any level, from the mundane matters of her kitchen-in-exile to the highest flights of philosophy. It is because of this that these letters are so revealing of the mind of a truly unusual woman.

Of course, the matter closest to Mme. Ruttkay’s heart was her brother, Louis Kossuth, and his life in exile in Turin. After the death of Louis’s wife, Mme. Ruttkay left the United States for Italy to take charge of his household in Turin. She attended to these duties from 1875 through 1894 when Louis died. Then she returned to Hungary where she died at the age of 87 on October 13, 1903.

Arriving in Italy in September 1875, she was received affectionately by Kossuth and asked to promise not to leave him again. She wrote,

“it is a great satisfaction to me to know that my presence is a comfort to him.” Five years later, in 1880, she wrote that she was living a secluded monotonous life, but that she was free of the oppresive care of want and that her presence in the household was necessary for her brother, whose time was taken up to the fullest by his work, which included the writing of his memoirs. At that time, the second volume was being published.

Later, Mme. Ruttkay became her brother’s secretary, a task which

was imperiled by certain pitfalls. With Louis more than ninety years old, many Hungarian political figures did not wish to burden him directly with correspondence when they desired his advice or opinion, so they wrote to Mme. Ruttkay to intercede with him. She wrote, “You can well understand what a difficult correspondence this is for me —

to write to men occupying political positions, members of parliament,

literary men.” Kossuth would give his sister short, brusk messages that she could not transmit without “smoothing over with some kindness.” Difficulties followed when some of the letters were published in Hungarian newspapers, and, at times, her brother would find his published words different from what he had dictated. “Then he reproaches me,” she complained.

Caring for her brother, however, required more work in the kitchen than in the library. Louis was very partial to Hungarian cooking, and Mme. Ruttkay had her troubles with Italian servants who could not or would not acquire the knack of Hungarian ways in the culinary arts. “Constant vigilance” was required with the servants. This was distasteful to her, since it was inseparable from bad odors and “great spots” on her dress, in addition to being disadvantageous to the pursuits of the mind. Household economics were her province, as well, and she had