Mrs. Hester M. Poole, 94 years of age, and said to be the oldest clubwoman in the United States and probably in the world, was a special guest at the final lecture given by Swami Yogananda in the Washington Auditorium Wednesday evening, January 26th, and following the lecture she was introduced to the Swami.

She is the last of that notable group of women, including Susan B. Anthony, Frances Willard, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Clara Barton and Anna Howard Shaw, who pioneered for woman suffrage many years ago. She has met many of the strong vigorous personalities of the country both because of her suffrage work and because she was one of the first women writers of the United States. She is one of the original members of Sororis, the first woman’s club founded in America.

"I know all about pioneering," said Mrs. Poole reminiscently "for I was a pioneer myself. We women who had to fight for suffrage were combating prejudice and fixed ideas. We were not conquering and subduing savages and the wilds of primeval lands but we were just as much pioneers as those who laid the material foundations of America."

When asked about her opinion of Swami Yogananda she said: "Having been for many years a student of the philosophy of the Oriental Sages I am glad to lay my little tribute at the feet of the exponent of Yogoda, Swami Yogananda, whose lecture on ‘Highest Science of Super-Concentration and All-Round Success—Yogoda,’ I found so inspiring. I think he is a magnificent world teacher for whose teachings this century is ripe. He seems to me to be a liaison officer between the efficiency of this country and the spirituality of the East. Each needs the other and each must have the mingling of the two.

"Tremendously the world is going onward, through confusion and restlessness, toward a comprehension of what this portion of immortal life means. Such a leader as Swami Yogananda is sorely needed, such an interpreter as he is, is inspiring. How greedily his instructions are absorbed is evidenced by the crowds he nightly thrills.

"His philosophy appeals to the thinker, to those unsatisfied by materialism, who are weary of the evanescent, the unreal, which flee like shadows before the light of truth.

"We in the West," concluded Mrs. Poole, "are like children in regard to spiritual themes compared with the deep, quiet, Oriental student, who takes hold of the higher eternal laws under which evolution is carried onward."

Though in her body she has the infirmities and weaknesses of very great age, Mrs. Poole is still vigorous mentally. She keeps abreast of the times in her reading and looks toward the future of the world with zest.