Ruth made a special point of being nice to children. He would visit them in orphanages and hospitals. Later in life, when he was seriously ill himself, he expressed sympathy for youngsters who were suffering. His
friends often remarked that Ruth seemed most at ease with children, feeling no need at all to prove himself
to them, perhaps because in some ways he was almost "one of them." Or as he himself once put it," I got as
much of a kick out of them as they seemed to receive from their meetings with me.