The white rabbit with the pink eyes, who "actually took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket" peered over her shoulder and muttered once again: "Dear, dear! I shall be too late!"; the Cheshire Cat grinned monotonously at the miraculous steel disc, and the walrus discussed, as it always has, many things. And Lewis Carroll himself spoke into the microphone in words written long ago, when Alice read three Carroll letters and a rhyme, believed to have been hitherto unpublished.

Mrs. Reginald Liddell Hargreaves of Lyndhurst, England, who seventy years ago as a demure 10-year-old Alice was the inspiration for Lewis Carroll's whimsical creations, seemed almost as excited with her newest adventures in the wonderland of New York as she was in 1862 when [? - unclear] Dodgson, an Oxford Don, spun for her amusement his imperishable nonsense.

Probably because of her lifetime of association with the Mad Hatter, Father William and the sanguinary Queen, who insisted: "Off with their heads!" Mrs. Hargreaves has become quite accustomed to the elfish tricks one is likely to encounter in looking-glass land, but the express elevators in the tallest building in the world and the rumble of Fifth Avenue traffic can still give her a thrill despite her gray hair and her eighty years, lacking two days.

The pace of New York seemed to have tired her and her voice trembled somewhat with the fatigue and the excitement of it as she faced the little quivering disc that seventy years ago would have been as much of a miracle as a rabbit with a waistcoat pocket.

"Coming here," she said - after her son, Captain Caryl Hargreaves, formerly of the Scots Guards, had introduced her - "coming here is an adventure overseas instead of underground.

"America and New York City are such exciting places that to visit them takes me back to Wonderland."

Her voice wavered as it sped out over the WABC-Columbia network to thousands of eager ears.

"Express elevators don't give me much time to take things off the shelves, however," she added.

Her voice trembled again.

"If the children expect to see a girl like me - I mean a young girl such as I was, like the one in the books - I am afraid they will be disappointed. After all, if they had seen me in the boat in 1862, they would probably have thought my sisters and I were just like other children. Then, if they hesitated a minute, they might have noticed the kind-looking parson who was stroking the oar, and if they had stopped to listen to what he was saying, they might have looked at us again, wondering whether we were quite ordinary children going down rabbit holes and having tea with the Dormouse.

"I should like to take all the children who want me to go down the rabbit hole with me again," Alice continued, "but as I cannot do that, I am going to read you some letters which Lewis Carroll wrote me in later life. In these letters you will notice the great interest he took in helping children's hospitals and homes. And in this connection it is interesting to hear of the funds that are being collected both in New York and London for that purpose at the present time. In New York they propose to endow a memorial library to be attached to the Children's Hospital, and in London they hope to get enough money to build a children's ward onto the St. Mary's Hospital, Paddington.

New York Times

Herald Tribune

from the Herald Tribune, Thurs May 5 1932:

Carroll's Alice Praises Him in Centenary Talk

---

Mrs. Hargreaves Gets Ovation From 2,000 Attending Columbia Ceremony

---

She Marks 80th Birthday

---

Calls 'Very Retired Parson' Ideal Childhood Friend

---

On her eightieth birthday Mrs. Alice Liddell Hargreaves, the original Alice of "Alice in Wonderland," was the guest of honor yesterday at Columbia University at special exercises celebrating both her own anniversary and the centenary of Lewis Carroll, author of the famous story.

Two thousand persons rose to their feet as the now frail figure of the story's heroine appeared on the platform - Alice walking slowly with the aid of a cane and smiling shyly in response to the applause that swept the room.

Pays Homage to Carroll

The words of her brief speech were all in tribute to the memory of the young professor of mathematics, who on a summer afternoon in 1862 invented the White Rabbit, the Duchess and the Cheshire Cat to please a little girl who loved a story with nonsense in it.

"I beg to thank you," she said, "for your great kindness in inviting me to attend this celebration of the centenary of my childhood friend. He was the ideal friend of childhood."

Here her voice quivered and broke for an instant, but she rallied quickly and continued: "I often wonder how many wonderful stories may have been lost to the world, because he never wrote anything down until I teased him into doing it. I believe, however, the best of his stories are all embodied in the two books, for when I read them I remembered many old stories and found them there again, that he used to tell us in the boat or sitting on the bank of the river. Least of all persons he did not dream - that very retired parson - (I can even remember a curious stutter in his speech) - that because of those stories he used to tell us I would be coming here in 1932 to celebrate the centenary of his birth.

"I am very pleased to be here, and to thank you for your very kind reception to the book and to me. I thank you again and again."

Is Given Second Ovation

Finishing her speech amid another burst of applause, Mrs. Hargreaves looked at the terrifying microphones and sat down with the serenity of the little girl who faced so many other queer things seventy years ago. A decorative panel over her head recalled some of those queer things - the Duchess, Tweedledum and Tweddledee, the White Rabbit. In the center was Alice herself, with the flamingo in her arms.

All these wonderland creatures were explained later in the chief address of the afternoon, delivered by Professor Harry Morgan Ayres, of the university's English department, who analyzed Alice's adventures as an allegory of every child's progress to maturity, beset by hostile and incomprehensible personages.

"Alice herself," he said, "had a quality which I do not notice much in children nowadays - an overwhelming desire to please - it is the keynote of her character."

Mrs. Hargreaves joined in the laughter which followed this sally.

"Poor little Alice was ill prepared to cope with this world. Every word she uttered seemed to give offense. She was betrayed on all sides.

"It was not until she learned to speak up for herself, that she entered the alluring garden of further adventures. Humpty-Dumpty taught her a further lesson, namely, to become lord of words and their meanings, not their slave."

Says Carroll Was White Knight

"The White Knight," he said, "was Carroll himself. He is the one creature in the book who shows a touch of human affection for the little girl. With his odd little inventions for making life more convenient and entertaining, the White Knight is certainly Carroll's satire upon himself, explaining, as he falls from his horse that the great art of riding is to keep your balance properly."

Professor Ayres paid tribute to Mrs. Hargreaves as "one of the great heroines of literature, who if she had not always been as wise as her great and kindly teacher strove to make her, at least has the consolation of knowing that the painful travels of her immortal quest have been the cause of much wisdom in others and of that kind of mirth that is wisdom's fairest offering."

Mrs. Hargreaves was introduced by Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, president of the university.

The glee clubs of Barnard and Hunter Colleges sand selections from the suite "Alice in Wonderland," assisted by the Columbia University orchestra.

Relatives Share Honors

Seated beside Mrs. Hargreaves were her son, Captain Caryl Hargreaves; her sister, Miss Rhoda Liddell; Professor J. Enrique Zanetti, chairman of the Lewis Carroll Centenary Committee, and Gerald Campbell, Consul General of Great Britain.

Mrs. Hargreaves was wearing a gown of brown lace and a brimmed hat of brown straw, edged with pale yellow.

The tonic of the New York climate has benefitted her, it was said, and now that the strain of the public ceremony has ended, her hosts anticipate that she will want to see the sights of the city.