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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/15174-8.txt b/15174-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1ddc006 --- /dev/null +++ b/15174-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6026 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Memories and Anecdotes, by Kate Sanborn + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Memories and Anecdotes + +Author: Kate Sanborn + +Release Date: February 25, 2005 [EBook #15174] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEMORIES AND ANECDOTES *** + + + + +Produced by Janet Kegg and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + + + + + + + + +MEMORIES AND ANECDOTES + + +By + +KATE SANBORN + +AUTHOR OF +"ADOPTING AN ABANDONED FARM," "ABANDONING AN +ADOPTED FARM," "OLD-TIME WALL PAPERS," ETC. + + +_WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS_ + + +G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS +NEW YORK LONDON +The Knickerbocker Press +1915 + + +[Illustration, _Frontispiece_: + GREETINGS AND WELCOME TO EVERY READER + (KATE SANBORN)] + + + + + To + + ALL MY FRIENDS EVERYWHERE + + ESPECIALLY TO MY BELOVED + "NEW HAMPSHIRE DAUGHTERS" IN MASSACHUSETTS, + MY PUPILS IN SMITH COLLEGE, + ALSO AT PACKER INSTITUTE, BROOKLYN, + AND ALL THOSE WHO HAD THE PATIENCE TO LISTEN TO MY + LECTURES, + + WITH GRATEFUL REGARDS TO THOSE DARTMOUTH GRADUATES + WHO, LIKING MY FATHER, WERE ALWAYS GIVING HIS + AMBITIOUS DAUGHTER A HELPING HAND + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I + +My Early Days--Odd Characters in our Village--Distinguished Visitors +to Dartmouth--Two Story-Tellers of Hanover--A "Beacon Light" and a +Master of Synonyms--A Day with Bryant in his Country Home--A Wedding +Trip to the White Mountains in 1826 in "A One-Hoss Shay"--A Great +Career which Began in a Country Store + + +CHAPTER II + +A Friend at Andover, Mass.--Hezekiah Butterworth--A Few of my Own +Folks--Professor Putnam of Dartmouth--One Year at Packer Institute, +Brooklyn--Beecher's Face in Prayer--The Poet Saxe as I Saw +him--Offered the Use of a Rare Library--Miss Edna Dean Proctor--New +Stories of Greeley--Experiences at St. Louis + + +CHAPTER III + +Happy Days with Mrs. Botta--My Busy Life in New York--President +Barnard of Columbia College--A Surprise from Bierstadt--Professor +Doremus, a Universal Genius--Charles H. Webb, a truly funny "Funny +Man"--Mrs. Esther Herman, a Modest Giver + + +CHAPTER IV + +Three Years at Smith College--Appreciation of Its Founder--A +Successful Lecture Tour--My Trip to Alaska + + +CHAPTER V + +Frances E. Willard--Walt Whitman--Lady Henry Somerset--Mrs. Hannah +Whitehall Smith--A Teetotaler for Ten Minutes--Olive Thorn +Miller--Hearty Praise for Mrs. Lippincott (Grace Greenwood.) + + +CHAPTER VI + +In and near Boston--Edward Everett Hale--Thomas Wentworth +Higginson--Julia Ward Howe--Mary A. Livermore--A Day at the Concord +School--Harriet G. Hosmer--"Dora Distria," our Illustrious Visitor + + +CHAPTER VII + +Elected to be the First President of New Hampshire's Daughters in +Massachusetts. Now Honorary President--Kind Words which I Highly +Value--Three, but not "of a Kind"--A Strictly Family Affair--Two +Favorite Poems--Breezy Meadows + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +GREETINGS AND WELCOME TO EVERY READER +(KATE SANBORN) _Frontispiece_ + +THE STREET FRONTING THE SANBORN HOME AT HANOVER, N.H. + +MRS. ANNE C. LYNCH BOTTA + +PRESIDENT BARNARD OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE + +PROFESSOR R. OGDEN DOREMUS + +SOPHIA SMITH + +PETER MacQUEEN + +SAM WALTER FOSS + +PINES AND SILVER BIRCHES + +PADDLING IN CHICKEN BROOK + +THE ISLAND WHICH WE MADE + +TAKA'S TEA HOUSE AT LILY POND + +THE LOOKOUT + +THE SWITCH + +HOW VINES GROW AT BREEZY MEADOWS + +GRAND ELM (OVER TWO HUNDRED YEARS OLD) + + + + +MEMORIES AND ANECDOTES + + + + +CHAPTER I + +My Early Days--Odd Characters in our Village--Distinguished Visitors +to Dartmouth--Two Story Tellers of Hanover--A "Beacon Light" and a +Master of Synonyms--A Day with Bryant in his Country Home--A Wedding +Trip to the White Mountains in 1826 in "A One Hoss Shay"--A Great +Career which Began in a Country Store. + + +I make no excuse for publishing these memories. Realizing that I have +been so fortunate as to know an unusual number of distinguished men +and women, it gives me pleasure to share this privilege with others. + +One summer morning, "long, long ago," a newspaper was sent by my +grandmother, Mrs. Ezekiel Webster, to a sister at Concord, New +Hampshire, with this item of news pencilled on the margin: + +"Born Thursday morning, July 11, 1839, 4.30 A.M., a fine little girl, +seven pounds." + +I was born in my father's library, and first opened my eyes upon a +scenic wall-paper depicting the Bay of Naples; in fact I was born just +under Vesuvius--which may account for my occasional eruptions of +temper and life-long interest in "Old Time Wall-papers." Later our +house was expanded into a college dormitory and has been removed to +another site, but Vesuvius is still smoking placidly in the old +library. + +Mine was a shielded, happy childhood--an only child for six years--and +family letters show that I was "always and for ever talking," asking +questions, making queer remarks, or allowing free play to a vivid +imagination, which my parents thought it wise to restrain. Father felt +called upon to write for a child's paper about Caty's Gold Fish, which +were only minnows from Mink Brook. + +"Caty is sitting on the floor at my feet, chattering as usual, and +asking questions." I seem to remember my calling over the banister to +an assembled family downstairs, "Muzzer, Muzzer, I dess I dot a +fezer," or "Muzzer, come up, I'se dot a headache in my stomach." I +certainly can recall my intense admiration for Professor Ira Young, +our next door neighbour, and his snowy pow, which I called "pity wite +fedders." + +As years rolled on, I fear I was pert and audacious. I once touched +at supper a blazing hot teapot, which almost blistered my fingers, and +I screamed with surprise and pain. Father exclaimed, "Stop that noise, +Caty." I replied, "Put your fingers on that teapot--and don't +kitikize." And one evening about seven, my usual bedtime, I announced, +"I'm going to sit up till eight tonight, and don't you 'spute." I know +of many children who have the same habit of questions and sharp +retorts. One of my pets, after plying her mother with about forty +questions, wound up with, "Mother, how does the devil's darning needle +sleep? Does he lie down on a twig or hang, or how?" "I don't know, +dear." "Why, mother, it is surprising when you have lived so many +years, that you know so little!" + +Mr. Higginson told an absurd story of an inquisitive child and wearied +mother in the cars passing the various Newtons, near Boston. At last +the limit. "Ma, why do they call this West Newton?" "Oh, I suppose for +fun." Silence for a few minutes, then, "Ma, what _was_ the fun in +calling it West Newton?" + +I began Latin at eight years--my first book a yellow paper primer. + +I was always interested in chickens, and dosed all the indisposed as: + + Dandy Dick + Was very sick, + I gave him red pepper + And soon he was better. + +In spring, I remember the humming of our bees around the sawdust, and +my craze for flower seeds and a garden of my own. + +Father had a phenomenal memory; he could recite in his classroom pages +of Scott's novels, which he had not read since early youth. He had no +intention of allowing my memory to grow flabby from lack of use. I +often repeat a verse he asked me to commit to memory: + + In reading authors, when you find + Bright passages that strike your mind, + And which perhaps you may have reason + To think on at another season; + Be not contented with the sight, + But jot them down in black and white; + Such respect is wisely shown + As makes another's thought your own. + +Every day at the supper table I had to repeat some poetry or prose and +on Sunday a hymn, some of which were rather depressing to a young +person, as: + + Life is but a winter's day; + A journey to the tomb. + +And the vivid description of "Dies Irae": + + When shrivelling like a parched scroll + The flaming heavens together roll + And louder yet and yet more dread + Swells the high Trump that wakes the dead. + +Great attention was given to my lessons in elocution from the best +instructors then known, and I had the privilege of studying with +William Russell, one of the first exponents of that art. I can still +hear his advice: "Full on the vowels; dwell on the consonants, +especially at the close of sentences; keep voice strong for the close +of an important sentence or paragraph." Next, I took lessons from +Professor Mark Bailey of Yale College; and then in Boston in the +classes of Professor Lewis B. Monroe,--a most interesting, practical +teacher of distinctness, expression, and the way to direct one's voice +to this or that part of a hall. I was given the opportunity also of +hearing an occasional lecture by Graham Bell. Later, I used to read +aloud to father for four or five hours daily--grand practice--such +important books as Lecky's _Rationalism_, Buckle's _Averages_, Sir +William Hamilton's _Metaphysics_ (not one word of which could I +understand), Huxley, Tyndall, Darwin, and Spencer, till my head was +almost too full of that day's "New Thought." + +Judge Salmon P. Chase once warned me, when going downstairs to a +dinner party at Edgewood, "For God's sake, Kate, don't quote the +_Atlantic Monthly_ tonight!" I realized then what a bore I had been. + +What a treat to listen to William M. Evarts chatting with Judge Chase! +One evening he affected deep depression. "I have just been beaten +twice at 'High Low Jack' by Ben the learned pig. I always wondered why +two pipes in liquid measure were called a hogshead; now I know; it was +on account of their great capacity." He also told of the donkey's +loneliness in his absence, as reported by his little daughter. + +I gave my first series of talks at Tilden Seminary at West Lebanon, +New Hampshire, only a few miles from Hanover. President Asa D. Smith +of Dartmouth came to hear two of them, and after I had given the whole +series from Chaucer to Burns, he took them to Appleton & Company, the +New York publishers, who were relatives of his, and surprised me by +having them printed. + +I give an unasked-for opinion by John G. Whittier: + + I spent a pleasant hour last evening over the charming little + volume, _Home Pictures of English Poets_, which thou wast kind + enough to send me, and which I hope is having a wide + circulation as it deserves. Its analysis of character and + estimate of literary merit strike me as in the main correct. + Its racy, colloquial style, enlivened by anecdote and citation, + makes it anything but a dull book. It seems to me admirably + adapted to supply a want in hearth and home. + +I lectured next in various towns in New Hampshire and Vermont; as St. +Johnsbury, where I was invited by Governor Fairbanks; Bath, New +Hampshire, asked by Mrs. Johnson, a well-known writer on flowers and +horticulture, a very entertaining woman. At one town in Vermont I +lectured at the large academy there--not much opportunity for rest in +such a building. My room was just off the music room where duets were +being executed, and a little further on girls were taking singing +lessons, while a noisy little clock-ette on my bureau zigzagged out +the rapid ticks. At the evening meal I was expected to be agreeable, +also after the lecture to meet and entertain a few friends. When I at +last retired that blatant clock made me so nervous that I placed it at +first in the bureau drawer, where it sounded if possible louder than +ever. Then I rose and put it way back in a closet; no hope; at last I +partially dressed and carried it the full length of the long hall, and +laid it down to sleep on its side. And I think that depressed it. In +the morning, a hasty breakfast, because a dozen or more girls were +waiting at the door to ask me to write a "tasty sentiment" before I +left, in their autograph albums, with my autograph of course, and +"something of your own preferred, but at any rate characteristic." + +My trips to those various towns taught me to be more humble, and to +admire the women I met, discovering how seriously they had studied, +and how they made use of every opportunity. I remember Somersworth, +New Hampshire, and Burlington, Vermont. I lectured twice at the Insane +Asylum at Concord, New Hampshire, invited by Dr. Bancroft. After +giving my "newspaper wits" a former governor of Vermont came up to +shake hands with me, saying frankly, "Miss Sanborn, your lecture was +just about right for us lunatics." A former resident of Hanover, in a +closed cell, greeted me the next morning as I passed, with a torrent +of abuse, profanity, and obscenity. She too evidently disliked my +lecture. Had an audience of lunatics also at the McLean Insane Asylum, +Dr. Coles, Superintendent. + +I think I was the first woman ever invited to make an address to +farmers on farming. I spoke at Tilton, New Hampshire, to more than +three hundred men about woman's day on the farm. Insinuated that +women need a few days _off_ the farm. Said a good many other things +that were not applauded. Farmers seemed to know nothing of the +advantages of co-operation, and that they were as much slaves (to the +middlemen) as ever were the negroes in the South. They even tried to +escape from me at the noise of a dog-fight outside. I offered to +provide a large room for social meetings, to stock it with books of +the day, and to send them a lot of magazines and other reading. Not +one ever made the slightest response. Now they have all and more than +I suggested. + +When but seventeen, I was sent for to watch with Professor Shurtleff, +really a dying man, and left all alone with him in the lower part of +the house; he begged about 2 A.M. to be taken up and placed in a +rocking-chair near the little open fire. The light was dim and the +effect was very weird. His wig hung on one bedpost, he had lost one +eye, and the patch worn over the empty eye socket had been left on the +bureau. My anxiety was great lest he should slip from the chair and +tip into the fire. I note this to mark the great change since that +time. Neighbours are not now expected to care for the sick and dying, +but trained nurses are always sought, and most of them are noble +heroines in their profession. + +Once also I watched with a poor woman who was dying with cancer. I +tried it for two nights, but the remark of her sister, as I left +utterly worn out, "Some folks seem to get all their good things in +this life," deterred me from attempting it again. + +Started a school a little later in the ell of our house for my friends +among the Hanover children--forty-five scholars in all. Kept it going +successfully for two years. + +I dislike to tell a story so incredible and so against myself as this. +One evening father said, "I am going to my room early tonight, Katie; +do not forget to lock the back door." I sat reading until quite late, +then retired. About 2.30 A.M., I was startled to hear someone gently +open that back door, then take off boots and begin to softly ascend +the stairs, which stopped only the width of a narrow hall from my +room. I have been told that I said in trembling tones, "You're trying +to keep pretty quiet down there." Next moment I was at the head of the +stairs; saw a man whom I did not recognize on the last step but one. I +struck a heavy blow on his chest, saying, "Go down, sir," and down he +tumbled all the way, his boots clanking along by themselves. Then the +door opened, my burglar disappeared, and I went down and locked the +back door as I had promised father I would. I felt less proud of my +physical prowess and real courage when my attention was called to a +full account of my assault in the college papers of the day. The young +man was not rooming at our house, but coming into town quite late, +planned to lodge with a friend there. He threw gravel at this young +man's window in the third story to waken him, and failing thought at +last he would try the door, and if not locked he would creep up, and +disturb no one. But "Miss Sanborn knocked a man all the way +downstairs" was duly announced. I then realized my awful mistake, and +didn't care to appear on the street for some time except in recitation +hours. + +The second time I lectured in Burlington, I was delayed nearly half an +hour at that dreadful Junction, about which place Professor Edward J. +Phelps, afterwards Minister to England, wrote a fierce rhyme to +relieve his rage at being compelled to waste so much precious time +there. I recall only two revengeful lines: + + "I hope in hell his soul may dwell, + Who first invented Essex Junction." + +Oh, yes, I do remember his idea that the cemetery near the station +contained the bodies of many weary ones who had died just before help +came and were shovelled over. + +It happened that Mrs. Underwood, wife of the demented governor, who +had alluded so truthfully to my lecture, was in the audience, and +being gifted with genuine clairvoyant powers, she rose and begged the +audience not to disperse, as she could distinctly see me pacing +nervously up and down the platform at the Junction in a long sealskin +coat and hat trimmed with band of fur. I arrived at last with the +sealskin and the hat, proving her correct, and they cheered her as +well as myself. + +Our little village had its share of eccentric characters, as the old +man who was impelled by the edict of the Bible to cut off his right +hand as it had "offended him." But lacking surgical facilities, the +effort left one hand hanging limp and useless. His long white beard, +how truly patriarchal! + +Poor insane Sally Duget--a sad story! Her epitaph in our cemetery is +pathetic. With all her woe she was quick at repartee. A man once asked +her, "Shall you ever marry, Sally?" "Well, yes, if you and I can make +a bargain." + +Elder Bawker with his difficulties in locomotion. + +Rogers, who carried the students' washing home to his wife on Sunday +afternoons for a preliminary soak. The minister seeing him thus +engaged, stopped him, and inquired: + +"Where do you think you will go to if you so constantly desecrate the +Holy Sabbath?" + +"Guess I'll go right on doing laundry work for the boys." + +The aged janitor who, in a brief scare about smallpox, was asked if he +had ever had it: "No, but I've had chances." + +An old sinner who, being converted, used to serve as a lay evangelist +at the district schoolhouse where in winter religious meetings were +held. Roguish lads to test him sprinkled red pepper, a lot of it, on +the red hot stove. He almost suffocated, but burst out with: "By God, +there's enemies to religion in this house! Hist the winders!" + +The rubicund butcher of that period (we had no choice) was asked by a +long-time patron how he got such a red face. "Cider apple sass." The +same patron said, "You have served me pretty well, but cheated me a +good deal." "Yes, sir, but you have no idea how much I've cheated +you." + +Our one milliner, positively brilliant in her remarks, when a lady +sent back her bonnet twice on the ground that it was not becoming, +said, "Remember you have your face to contend with." + +Our only and original gravedigger, manager in general of village +affairs. + +After the death of a physician, his wife gave a stained-glass window +to the Episcopal Church of St. Luke, the beloved physician. She asked +Jason if he liked it. He said, "It don't strike me as a particular +speaking likeness of Dr. Tom." + +To one of the new professors who ventured to make a few suggestions, +"Who be yaou anyway?" + +He enjoyed buttonholing people he met in our "graveyard" and pointing +out where they "must shortly lie." + +Our landlord--who that ever saw Horace Frary could forget him? If a +mother came to Hanover to see her boy on the 2.30 P.M. train, no meal +could be obtained. He would stand at the front door and explain, +"Dinner is over long ago." He cared personally for about thirty oil +lamps each day, trimmed the wicks with his fingers, and then wiped +them on his trousers. Also did the carving standing at the table and +cleaning the dull knife on the same right side--so the effect was +startling. One day when he had been ill for a short time his wife +said: "Dr. Dixi Crosby is coming this way now, I'll call him in." +"Don't let him in now," he begged, "why d---- it, I'm _sick_!" + +I must not omit the strictly veracious witness who was sworn to +testify how many students were engaged in a noisy night frolic at +Norwich. "As fur as I know, there was betwixt six and seven." + +"Webb Hall," who today would figure as a "down and out," made many +amusing statements. "By the way I look in these ragged clothes, you +might take me for a Democrat, but I'm a red hot Republican." + +He was obsessed by the notion that he had some trouble with a judge in +Concord, New Hampshire. He said fiercely, "I will buy two guns, go to +Concord, kill Judge Stanton with one, and shoot myself with the other, +or else wait quietly till spring and see what will come of it." A +possible precursor of President Wilson's Mexican policy. + +He was accused by a woman of milking a cow in her pasture; pleaded +guilty, but added, "I left a ten-cent piece on the fence." + +An East Hanover man is remembered for his cheek in slyly picking +lettuce or parsley in the gardens of the professors and then selling +them at the back door to their wives. + +And a farmer from Vermont who used to sell tempting vegetables from +his large farm. He was so friendly he cordially greeted the ladies who +bought from him with a kiss. Grandmother evaded this attention by +stating her age, and so was unmolested. The names of his family were +arranged in alphabetical order. "Hannah A., give Miss Kate another cup +of coffee; Noah B., pass the butter; Emma C., guess you better hand +round the riz biscuit." + +Life then was a solemn business at Hanover. No dancing; no cards; no +theatricals; a yearly concert at commencement, and typhoid fever in +the fall. On the Lord's Day some children were not allowed to read the +_Youth's Companion_, or pluck a flower in the garden. But one old +working woman rebelled. "I ain't going to have my daughter Frances +brought up in no superstitious tragedy." She was far in advance of her +age. + +I have always delighted in college songs from good voices, whether +sung when sitting on the old common fence (now gone) at the "sing out" +at the close of the year, or merrily trolling or tra-la-laing along +the streets. What a surprise when one glorious moonlight night which +showed up the magnificent elms then arching the street before our +house--the air was full of fragrance--I was suddenly aroused by +several voices adjuring me, a lady of beauty, to awake. I was +bewildered--ecstatic. This singing was for me. I listened intently and +heard the words of their song: + + Sweet is the sound of lute and voice + When borne across the water. + +Then two other sweets I could not quite catch, and the last lines sung +with fervor: + + But sweeter still is the charming voice + Of Professor Sanborn's daughter. + +Two more stanzas and each with the refrain: + + The prettiest girl on Hanover Plain is + Professor Sanborn's daughter. + +Then the last verse: + + Hot is the sun whose golden rays + Can reach from heaven to earth, + And hot a tin pan newly scoured + Placed on the blazing hearth, + And hot a boy's ears boxed for doing + That which he hadn't orter, + But hotter still is the love I bear + For Professor Sanborn's daughter. + +with chorus as before. + +I threw down lovely flowers and timidly thanked them. They applauded, +sang a rollicking farewell, and were gone. If I could have removed my +heart painlessly, I believe that would have gone out too. They had +gone, but the blissful memory! I leaned on the window sill, and the +moon with its bounteous mellow radiance filled my room. But listen, +hark! Only two doors beyond, the same voices, the same melodious +tones, and alas, yes, the same words, every verse and the same +chorus--same masculine fervour--but somebody else's daughter. + +A breakfast comment: "It's a terrible nuisance this caterwauling in +the middle of the night in front of the house!" For once I was silent. + +Many distinguished men were invited to Dartmouth as orators at +commencement or on special occasions, as Rufus Choate, Edward Everett, +John G. Saxe, Wendell Phillips, Charles Dudley Warner, and Dr. Holmes, +whom I knew in his Boston study, overlooking the water and the gulls. +By the way, he looked so young when arriving at Hanover for a few +lectures to the Medical School that he was asked if he had come to +join the Freshman class. + +There were also Edwin P. Whipple, the essayist, and Walt Whitman, who +was chosen one year for the commencement poet. He appeared on the +platform wearing a flannel shirt, square-cut neck, disclosing a +hirsute covering that would have done credit to a grizzly bear; the +rest of his attire all right. Joaquin Miller was another genius and +original. + +Another visitor was James T. Fields of Boston, the popular publisher, +poet, author, lecturer, friend, and inimitable raconteur, who was +always one of my best friends. + +When Mr. and Mrs. Fields were invited to Hanover, he and his beautiful +wife were always guests at our home. Their first visit to us was an +epoch for me. I worked hard the morning before they were to arrive, +sweeping, dusting, polishing silver, and especially brightening the +large, brass andirons in father's library. I usually scoured with +rotten stone and oil, but on this great occasion, adopting a receipt +which I had happened to see in a newspaper, I tried vinegar and +powdered pumice-stone. The result at first was fine. + +I had barely time after all this to place flowers about the house and +dress, and then to drive in our old carryall, with our older horse, to +the station at Norwich, just across the Connecticut River, to meet the +distinguished pair and escort them to our house. As I heard the train +approaching, and the shrill whistle, I got nervous, and my hands +trembled. How would they know me? And what had I better say? My aged +and spavined horse was called by father "Rosinante" for Don Quixote's +bony steed, also "Blind Guide" and "Heathen Philosopher." He looked +it--and my shabby carryall! But the train was snorting for a stop, +and the two guests soon came easily to my vehicle, and Mr. Fields +seemed to know me. Both shook hands most cordially and were soon in +the back seat, full of pleasant chat and the first exciting ordeal was +over. At tea table Mr. and Mrs. Fields sat on either side of father, +and the stories told were different from any I had ever heard. I found +when the meal was over I had not taken a mouthful. Next we all went to +the College Church for the lecture, and on coming home we had an +evening lunch. All ate heartily but me. I ventured to tell one story, +when Mr. Fields clapped his hands and said, "Delightful." That was +food to me! I went to bed half starved, and only took enough breakfast +to sustain life. Before they left I had written down and committed to +memory every anecdote he had given. They have never been printed until +now, and you may be sure they are just as my hero told them. My only +grief was the appearance of my andirons. I invited our guests to the +open fire with pride, and the brass was covered with black and +green--not a gleam of shine. + +Often Mr. Fields's jokes were on himself--as the opinion of a man in +the car seat just beyond him, as they happened to be passing Mr. +Fields's residence on the Massachusetts coast. The house was pointed +out on "Thunderbolt Hill" and his companion said, "How is he as a +lecturer?" + +"Well," was the response, "he ain't Gough by a d----d sight." + +How comically he told of a country druggist's clerk to whom he put the +query, "What is the most popular pill just now?" And the quick answer, +"Schenk's--they do say the Craowned Heads is all atakin' of 'em!" + +Or the request for his funniest lecture for the benefit of a hearse in +a rural hamlet! + +His experience in a little village where he and Mrs. Fields wanted to +find a boarding-house: The lady of the house demurred; she had "got +pretty tired of boarders," but at last capitulated with, "Well, I'll +let you come in if you'll do your own stretching." This proved to mean +no waitress at the table. + +The morning after their arrival, he went out for a long walk in the +mountain air, and returning was accosted by his host: "I see you are +quite a predestinarian." As he was resting on one of the wooden +chairs, the man said: "I got those chairs for piazzary purposes," and +enlarged on the trouble of getting good help in haying time: "Why, my +neighbour, Jake Stebbins, had a boy in his gang named Henry Ward +Beecher Gooley. He was so dreadful pious that on extra hot mornings +he'd call 'em all together at eleven o'clock and ask 'em to join in +singing, 'Lord, Dismiss us with Thy Blessing.'" + +All these anecdotes were told to me by Mr. Fields and I intend to give +only those memories which are _my own_. + +Mr. Fields was wonderfully kind to budding authors. Professor Brown +sent him, without my knowledge, my two-column appreciation of dear Tom +Hood, after his memorials were written by his son and daughter. And +before many weeks came a box of his newest books for me, with a little +note on finest paper and wide margin, "hoping that your friendship may +always be continued towards our house." + +I cannot speak of Mr. Fields and fail to pay my tribute of loving +admiration to his wife, Annie Fields. When I first met that lady in +her home at 148 Charles Street, she was so exquisitely dainty, +refined, spirituelle, and beautiful, I felt, as I expressed it, +"square-toed and common." She was sincerely cordial to all who were +invited to that sacred shrine; she was the perfect hostess and +housekeeper, the ever-busy philanthropist, a classic poet, a strong +writer of prose when eager to aid some needed reform. Never before had +I seen such a rare combination of the esthetic and practical, and she +shone wherever placed. Once when she was with us, I went up to her +room to see if I could help her as she was leaving. She was seated on +the floor, pulling straps tightly round some steamer rugs and a rainy +day coat, and she explained she always attended to such "little +things." As one wrote of her, after her death, she made the most of +herself, but she made more of her husband. Together they went forward, +side by side, to the last, comrades and true lovers. + +Two of all the wonderful literary treasures in their drawing-room +produced a great impression on me, one a caricature of Thackeray's +face done by himself with no mercy shown to his flattened, broken +nose. A lady said to him: "There is only one thing about you I could +never get over, your nose." "No wonder, madam, there is no bridge to +it." The other was an invitation to supper in Charles Lamb's own +writing, and at the bottom of the page, "Puns at nine." + +Two famous story-tellers of the old-fashioned type were Doctor Dixi +Crosby of Hanover, and his son "Ben," who made a great name for +himself in New York City as a surgeon, and also as a brilliant +after-dinner speaker. Doctor Crosby's preference was for the +long-drawn-out style, as this example, which I heard him tell several +times, shows: + +A man gave a lecture in a New England town which failed to elicit much +applause and this troubled him. As he left early next morning on the +top of the stage-coach, he interviewed the driver, who seemed not +anxious to talk. "Did you hear much said about my lecture last night? +Do you think it pleased the audience?" + +"Oh, I guess they were well enough satisfied; some were anyway." + +"Were there any who expressed dissatisfaction?" + +"I would not pry into it, stranger; there wasn't much said against it +anyhow." + +"Now you have aroused my curiosity. I must beg you to let me know. Who +criticized it, and what did they say? It might help me to hear it." + +"Well, Squire Jones was the man; he does not say much one way or +other. But I'll tell you he always gets the gist of it." + +"And what was his verdict?" + +"If you must know, Squire Jones he said, said he, he thought +'twas--awful shaller." + +Doctor Ben's Goffstown Muster was a quicker tempo and had a better +climax. 'Twas the great occasion of the annual military reviews. He +graphically described boys driving colts hardly broken; mothers +nursing babies, very squally; girls and their beaux sitting in the +best wagon holding hands and staring about (as Warner said to me, +"Young love in the country is a solemn thing"); the booths for sale of +gingerbread, peanuts, cider, candies, and popcorn; the marshal of the +day dashing here and there on his prancing steed. All was excitement, +great crowds, and the blare of the band. Suddenly an aged pair, +seemingly skeletons, so bony and wan were they, were seen tottering +toward the fence, where they at last stopped. They had come from the +direction of the graveyard. The marshal rushed forward calling out, +"Go back, go back; this is not the general resurrection, it is only +the Goffstown Muster." + +Doctor Ben Crosby was one of the most admirable mimics ever known and +without a suspicion of ill-nature. Sometimes he would call on us +representing another acquaintance, who had just left, so perfectly +that the gravest and stiffest were in danger of hysterics. This power +his daughter inherited. + +John Lord, the historical lecturer, was always a "beacon light" (which +was the name he gave his lectures when published) as he discussed the +subjects and persons he took for themes before immense audiences +everywhere. His conversation was also intensely interesting. He was a +social lion and a favourite guest. His lectures have still a large +annual sale--no one who once knew him or listened to his pyrotechnic +climaxes could ever forget him or them. It was true that he made nine +independent and distinct motions simultaneously in his most intense +delivery. I once met him going back to his rooms at his hotel carrying +a leather bag. He stopped, opened it, showing a bottle of Scotch +whiskey, and explained "I am starting in on a lecture on Moses." There +was a certain simplicity about the man. Once when his right arm was in +a sling, broken by a fall from a horse, he offered prayer in the old +church. And unable to use his arm as usual, he so balanced his +gyrations that he in some way drifted around until when he said "Amen" +his face fronted the whitewashed wall back of his pulpit. He turned to +the minister standing by him, saying in a very audible whisper, "Do +you think anybody noticed it?" + +He was so genuinely hospitable that when a friend suddenly accepted +his "come up any time" invitation, he found no one at home but the +doctor, who proposed their killing a chicken. Soon one was let out, +but she evaded her pursuers. "You shoo, and I'll catch," cried the +kind host, but shrank back as the fowl came near, exclaiming: "Say, +West, has a hen got teeth?" At last they conquered, plucked, and +cooked her for a somewhat tardy meal, with some potatoes clawed up in +the potato field. Once, when very absent-minded, at a hotel table in a +country tavern, the waitress was astonished to watch him as he took +the oil cruet from the castor and proceeded to grease his boots. + +Doctor John Ordronaux, Professor of Medical Jurisprudence at Dartmouth +and various other colleges and medical schools, was another erudite +scholar, who made a permanent impression on all he met. While yet at +college, his words were so unusual and his vocabulary so full that a +wag once advertised on the bulletin board on the door of Dartmouth +Hall, "Five hundred new adjectives by John Ordronaux." + +He was haunted by synonyms, and told me they interfered with his +writing, so many clamouring for attention. He was a confirmed bachelor +with very regular habits; wanted his bed to be left to air the entire +day, he to make it himself at precisely 5.30 P.M., or as near as +possible. His walk was peculiar, with knees stiffly bent out and +elbows crooked as if to repel all feminine aggression, "a progressive +porcupine" as someone described his gait. His hour for retiring was +always the same; when calling leaving about 9.30. Rallied about his +methodical habits, he was apt to mention many of his old friends who +had indulged themselves in earthly pleasures, all of whom he had the +sad pleasure of burying. + +He was a great admirer of my mother for her loveliness and kind +interest in the students; after her death he was a noble aid to me in +many ways. I needed his precautions about spreading myself too thin, +about being less flamboyantly loquacious, and subduing my excessive +enthusiasm and emotional prodigality. Once after giving me a drive, he +kindly said, as he helped me out, "I have quite enjoyed your cheerful +prattle." Fact was, he had monologued it in his most sesquipedalian +phraseology. I had no chance to say one word. He had his own way of +gaining magnetism; believed in associating with butchers. Did you ever +know one that was anæmic, especially at slaughtering time? From them +and the animals there and in stables, and the smell of the flowing +blood, he felt that surely a radiant magnetism was gained. Those he +visited "thought he was real democratic and a pleasant spoken man." He +told of an opportunity he once had for regular employment, riding on +the stage-coach by the side of a farmer's pretty daughter. She +suggested that he might like a milk route, and "perhaps father can +get you one." So formal, dignified, and fastidious was he that this +seems improbable, but I quote his own account. + +Doctor Ordronaux visited at my uncle's, a physician, when I was +resting there from overwork. After his departure, uncle received a +letter from him which he handed to me saying, "Guess this is meant for +you." I quote proudly: + + I rejoice to have been permitted to enjoy so much of Miss + Sanborn's society, and to discover what I never before fully + appreciated, that beneath the scintillations of a brilliant + intellect she hides a vigorous and analytic understanding, and + when age shall have somewhat tempered her emotional + susceptibilities she will shine with the steady light of a + planet, reaching her perihelion and taking a permanent place in + the firmament of letters. + +Sounds something like a Johnsonian epitaph, but wasn't it great? + +I visited his adopted mother at Roslyn, Long Island, and they took me +to a Sunday dinner with Bryant at "Cedarmere," a fitting spot for a +poet's home. The aged poet was in vigorous health, mind and body. +Going to his library he took down an early edition of his +_Thanatopsis_, pointing out the nineteen lines written some time +before the rest. Mottoes hung on the wall such as "As thy days so +shall thy strength be." I ventured to ask how he preserved such +vitality, and he said, "I owe a great deal to daily air baths and the +flesh brush, plenty of outdoor air and open fireplaces." What an +impressive personality; erect, with white hair and long beard; his +eyebrows looked as if snow had fallen on them. His conversation was +delightfully informal. "What does your name mean?" he inquired, and I +had to say, "I do not know, it has changed so often," and asked, "What +is the origin of yours?" "Briant--brilliant, of course." He told the +butler to close the door behind me lest I catch cold from a draught, +quoting this couplet: + + When the wind strikes you through a hole, + Go make your will and mind your soul; + +and informing me that this advice was found in every language, if not +dialect, in the world. He loved every inch of his country home, was +interested in farming, flowers, the water-view and fish-pond, fond of +long walks, and preferred the simple life. In his rooms were many +souvenirs of early travel. His walls were covered with the finest +engravings and paintings from the best American artists. He was too +willing to be imposed upon by young authors and would-be poets. He +said: "People expect too much of me, altogether too much." That Sunday +was his last before his address on Mazzini in Central Park. He +finished with the hot sun over his head, and walking across the park +to the house of Grant Wilson, he fell down faint and hopelessly ill on +the doorstep. He never rallied, and after thirteen days the end came. +An impressive warning to the old, who are selfishly urged to do hard +tasks, that they must conserve their own vitality. Bryant was +eighty-four when killed by over-exertion, with a mind as wonderful as +ever. + +I will now recount the conditions when Ezekiel Webster and his second +wife took their wedding trip in a "one hoss shay" to the White +Mountains in 1826. + +Grandma lived to be ninety-six, with her mind as clear as ever, and +two years before her death she gave me this story of their experiences +at that time. My mother told me she knew of more than thirty proposals +she had received after grandfather's death, but she said "she would +rather be the widow of Ezekiel Webster, than the wife of any other +man." The following is her own description. + + The only house near the Crawford Notch was the Willey House, in + which the family were living. A week before a slide had come + down by the side of the house and obstructed the road. Mr. + Willey and two men came to our assistance, taking out the horse + and lifting the carriage over the débris. + + They described the terrors of the night of the slide. The rain + was pouring in torrents, the soil began to slide from the tops + of the rocks, taking with it trees, boulders, and all in its + way; the crashing and thundering were terrible. Three weeks + later the entire family, nine in number, in fleeing to a place + of refuge, were overtaken by a second slide and all buried. + + The notch was then as nature made it; no steam whistle or car + clatter had intruded upon its solitude. The first moving object + we saw after passing through was a man in the distance. He + proved to be Ethan Crawford, who kept the only house of + entertainment. He was walking leisurely, drawing a rattlesnake + along by its tail. He had killed the creature and was taking it + home as a trophy. He was a stalwart man, who had always lived + among the mountains, and had become as familiar with the wild + beasts as with the cat and dog of his own home. He said that + only a few days before he had passed a bear drinking at a + spring. He led the way to his house, a common farmhouse without + paint, or carpet, or cushioned seat. The landlady was spinning + wool in the kitchen. + + Mr. Crawford supplied the table when he could by his gun or + fishing-rod; otherwise the fare was meagre. When asked for + mustard for the salt meat, they said they had none, at least in + the house, but they had some growing. + + A young turkey halted about in the dining-room gobbling in a + noisy way, and the girl in attendance was requested by Mr. + Webster, with imperturbable gravity, either to kindly take it + out or to bring its companion in, for it seemed lonely. She + stood in utter confusion for a minute, then seized the + squawking fowl and disappeared. + + When Mr. Crawford was asked if ladies ever went up Mount + Washington, he said two had been up, and he hoped never to see + another trying it, for the last one he brought down on his + shoulders, or she would have never got down alive. + + The first night I asked for a change of bed linen. No attention + was paid to my request, and after waiting a long time I found + the landlady and asked her if she would have the sheets + changed. She straightened up and said she didn't think the bed + would hurt anybody, for only two ministers from Boston had + slept in it. We stayed some days and although it was the height + of the season, we were the only guests. Nothing from the + outside world reached us but one newspaper, and that brought + the startling news of the death of Adams and Jefferson on the + fourth of July, just fifty years after their signing the + Declaration of Independence. + +The large leghorn bonnet which Mrs. Webster wore on that eventful +journey hangs in my collection of old relics. She told me it used to +hit the wheel when she looked out. And near it is her dark-brown +"calash," a big bonnet with rattans stitched in so it would easily +move back and forward. Her winter hood was of dark blue silk, warmly +wadded and prettily quilted. + +Who would not wish to live to be a hundred if health and mental +vigour could be retained? This rare old lady wrote lively, interesting +letters on all current topics, and was as eager to win at whist, +backgammon, or logomachy as a child. Her religion was the most +beautiful part of her life, the same every day, self-forgetting, +practical Christianity. She is not forgotten; her life is still a +stimulus, an inspiration, a benediction. The love and veneration of +those who gathered about her in family reunions were expressed by her +nephew Dr. Fred B. Lund, one of the most distinguished surgeons of +Boston: + + To her who down the pathway of the years + Serene and calm her blessed way she trod, + Has given smiles for smiles, and tears for tears, + Held fast the good in life, and shown how God + + Has given to us His servants here below, + A shining mark to follow in our strife, + Who proves that He is good, and makes us know + Through ten decades of pure and holy life + + How life may be made sweeter at its end, + How graces from the seasons that have fled + May light her eyes and added glory lend + To saintly aureole about her head. + + We bring our Christmas greeting heartily, + Three generations gathered at her feet, + Who like a little child has led, while we + Have lived and loved beneath her influence sweet. + + [Illustration: THE STREET FRONTING THE SANBORN HOME AT HANOVER, N.H.] + +Levi Parsons Morton, born at Shoreham, Vermont, May 16, 1824, was +named for his mother's brother, Levi Parsons, the first American +missionary to Palestine. He was the son of a minister, Reverend Daniel +Morton, who with his wife Lucretia Parsons, like so many other +clergymen, was obliged to exist on a starvation salary, only six +hundred dollars a year. Among his ancestors was George Morton of +Battery, Yorkshire, financial agent in London of the _Mayflower_. Mr. +L.P. Morton may have inherited his financial cleverness from this +ancestor. + +After studying at Shoreham Academy, he entered a country store at +Enfield, Massachusetts, and was there for two years, then taught a +district school, and later entered a general store at Concord, New +Hampshire, when only seventeen. His father was unable to send him to +college, and Mr. Estabrook, the manager of the store, decided to +establish him in a branch store at Hanover, New Hampshire, where +Dartmouth College is located, giving him soon afterward an interest in +the business. Here he stayed until nearly twenty-four years old. Mr. +Morton immediately engaged a stylish tailor from Boston, W.H. Gibbs, +or as all called him, "Bill Gibbs," whose skill at making even cheap +suits look smart brought him a large patronage from the college +students. Once a whole graduating class were supplied with dress suits +from this artist. Mr. Morton had a most interesting store, sunny and +scrupulously clean, with everything anyone could ask for, and few ever +went out of it without buying something, even if they had entered +simply from curiosity. The clerks were trained to be courteous without +being persistent. Saturday was bargain day, and printed lists of what +could be obtained on that day at an absurdly cheap rate were widely +distributed through the neighbouring towns. People came in large +numbers to those bargains. Long rows of all sorts of odd vehicles were +hitched up and down the street. A man would drop in for some smoking +tobacco and buy himself a good straw hat or winter cap. A wife would +call because soda was offered so cheaply and would end by buying a +black silk dress, "worth one dollar a yard but selling for today only +for fifty cents." Mr. Morton was perhaps the original pioneer in +methods which have built up the great department stores of the present +day. If he had received the education his father so craved for him he +would have probably had an inferior and very different career. + +Mr. Morton greatly enjoyed his life at Hanover; he was successful and +looking forward to greater openings in his business career. My +father, taking a great fancy to this enterprising, cheery young man, +invited him to dine each day at our house for nearly a year. They were +great friends and had a happy influence upon each other. There were +many jolly laughs and much earnest talk. He met Miss Lucy Kimball of +Flatlands, Long Island, at our house at a Commencement reception, and +they were soon married. She lived only a few years. + +Mr. Morton was next in Boston in the dry-goods house of James Beebe +Morgan & Company, and was soon made a partner. Mr. Morgan was the +father of Pierpont Morgan. It is everlastingly to Mr. Morton's honour +that after he failed in business in New York he was able before long +to invite his creditors to dinner, and underneath the service plate of +each creditor was a check for payment in full. + +Preferring to give money while living, his whole path has been marked +by large benefactions. My memory is of his Hanover life and his +friendship with my father, but it is interesting to note the several +steps in his career: Honorary Commissioner, Paris Exposition, 1878; +Member 46th Congress, 1879-81, Sixth New York District; United States +Minister to France, 1881-85; Vice-President of the United States, +1889-93; Governor of New York, 1895-6. + +Mr. Morton recently celebrated at his Washington home the ninety-first +anniversary in a life full of honours, and what is more important--of +honour. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A Friend at Andover, Mass.--Hezekiah Butterworth--A Few of my Own +Folks--Professor Putnam of Dartmouth--One Year at Packer Institute, +Brooklyn--Beecher's Face in Prayer--The Poet Saxe as I Saw +him--Offered the Use of a Rare Library--Miss Edna Dean Proctor--New +Stories of Greeley--Experiences at St. Louis. + + +Next a few months at Andover for music lessons--piano and organ. A +valuable friend was found in Miss Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, who had +just published her _Gates Ajar_. She invited me to her study and +wanted to know what I meant to accomplish in life and urged me to +write. "I have so much work called for now that I cannot keep up my +contributions to _The Youth's Companion_. I want you to have my place +there. What would you like to write about?" + +"Don't know." + +"Haven't you anything at home to describe." + +"No." + +"Any pets?" + +"Why I have a homely, ordinary dog, but he knows a lot." + +And so I was roused to try "Our Rab and His Friends," which was +kindly mailed by Miss Phelps to Mr. Ford, the editor, with a wish that +he accept the little story, which he did, sending a welcome check and +asking for more contributions. I kept a place there for several years. + +In Miss Phelps's case, one must believe in heredity and partly in +Huxley's statement that "we are automata propelled by our ancestors." +Her grandfather, Moses Stuart, was Professor of Sacred Literature at +Andover, a teacher of Greek and Latin, and a believer in that stern +school of theology and teleology. It was owing perhaps to a +combination of severity in climatic and in intellectual environment +that New England developed an austere type of scholars and +theologians. Their mental vision was focused on things remote in time +and supernatural in quality, so much so that they often overlooked the +simple and natural expression of their obligation to things nearby. It +sometimes happened that their tender and amiable characteristics were +better known to learned colleagues with whom they were in intellectual +sympathy, than to their own wives and children. Sometimes their finer +and more lovable qualities were first brought to the attention of +their families when some distinguished professor or divine feelingly +pronounced a funeral eulogy. + +It's a long way from the stern Moses Stuart, who believed firmly in +hell and universal damnation and who, with Calvin, depicted infants a +span long crawling on the floor of hell, to his gifted granddaughter, +who, although a member of an evangelical church, wrote: "Death and +heaven could not seem very different to a pagan from what they seem to +me." Her heart was nearly broken by the sudden death of her lover on +the battlefield. "Roy, snatched away in an instant by a dreadful God, +and laid out there in the wet and snow--in the hideous wet and +snow--never to kiss him, never to see him any more." Her _Gates Ajar_ +when it appeared was considered by some to be revolutionary and +shocking, if not wicked. Now, we gently smile at her diluted, +sentimental heaven, where all the happy beings have what they most +want; she to meet Roy and find the same dear lover; another to have a +piano; a child to get ginger snaps. I never quite fancied the +restriction of musical instruments in visions of heaven to harps +alone. They at first blister the fingers until they are calloused. The +afflicted washerwoman, whose only daughter had just died, was not in +the least consoled by the assurance that Melinda was perfectly happy, +playing a harp in heaven. "She never was no musicianer, and I'd rather +see her a-settin' by my tub as she used to set when I was a-wringin' +out the clothes from the suds, than to be up there a-harpin'." Very +different, as a matter of fact, were the instruments, more or less +musical, around which New England families gathered on Sunday evenings +for the singing of hymns and "sacred songs." Yet there was often real +faith and sincere devotion pedalled out of the squeaking old melodeon. + +Professor Stuart's eldest daughter, Elizabeth Stuart, married Austin +Phelps in 1842; who was then pastor of Pine Street Church in Boston. +Their daughter was born in Boston in 1844, and named Mary Gray Phelps. +They moved to Andover in 1848, where two sons were born. Mrs. Phelps, +who died when Mary was seven years old, was bright, interesting, +unusual. She wrote _Tales of New England_, chiefly stories of clerical +life; also _Sunnyside Sketches_, remarkably popular at the time. Her +_nom de plume_ was "Trusta." Professor Phelps married her sister Mary, +for his second wife. She lived only a year, and it was after her death +that Mary changed her name to that of her mother, Elizabeth Stuart +Phelps. Professor Phelps had a most nervous temperament, so much so +that he could not sleep if a cricket chirped in his bedroom, and the +stamping of a horse in a nearby stable destroyed all hope of slumber. + +Miss Phelps inherited her mother's talent for writing stories, also +her humour and her sensitive, loving nature, as is seen by her works +on _Temperance Reforms_, _Abuses of Factory Operators_, and her +arraignment of the vivisectionist. Later, when I was living at the +"Abandoned Farm," she had a liking for the farm I now own, about half +a mile farther on from my first agricultural experiment. She called on +me, and begged me as woman for woman in case she bought the +neighbouring farm, to seclude all my animals and fowls from 5 P.M. +till 10 A.M. each morning, as she must get her sleep, for, like her +father, she was a life-long sufferer from insomnia. I would have done +this if it were possible to repress the daybreak cries natural to a +small menagerie which included chickens, turkeys, ducks, and geese, +besides two peacocks and four guinea fowls. + +But to return to the _Youth's Companion_. When I found it impossible +to write regularly for Mr. Ford, he made a change for the better, +securing Mr. Hezekiah Butterworth, a poet, historian, and author of +the _Zigzag Series_, which had such large sales. Happening to be in +Boston, I called at the office and said to Mr. Ford: "It grieves me a +bit to see my column taken by someone else, and what a strange pen +name--'Hezekiah Butterworth.'" + +"But that is his own name," said the editor. + +"Indeed; I am afraid I shall hate that Hezzy." + +"Well, just try it; come with me to his work-room." + +When we had gone up one flight, Mr. Ford opened a door, where a +gentle, sweet-faced young man of slender build was sitting at a table, +the floor all around him literally strewn with at least three hundred +manuscripts, each one to be examined as a possible winner in a contest +for a five-hundred-dollar prize story. Both English and American +authors had competed. He was, as De Quincey put it, "snowed up." Then +my friend said with a laugh, "Miss Sanborn has come to see Hezzy whom +she fancies she shall hate." A painfully awkward introduction, but Mr. +Butterworth laughed heartily, and made me very welcome, and from that +time was ever one of my most faithful friends, honouring my large +Thanksgiving parties by his presence for many years. + +I shall tell but two stories about my father in his classroom. He had +given Pope's _Rape of the Lock_ as subject for an essay to a young man +who had not the advantage of being born educated, but did his best at +all times. As the young man read on in class, father, who in later +years was a little deaf, stopped him saying, "Sir, did I understand +you to say Sniff?" "No, sir, I did not, I said Slyph." + +In my father's Latin classes there were many absurd mistakes, as when +he asked a student, "What was ambrosia?" and the reply was, "The gods' +hair oil," an answer evidently suggested by the constant advertisement +of "Sterling's Ambrosia" for the hair. + +I will now refer to my two uncles on my father's side. The older one +was Dyer H. Sanborn, a noted educator of his time, and a grammarian, +publishing a text-book on that theme and honouring the parts of speech +with a rhyme which began-- + + A noun's the name of anything, + As hoop or garden, ball or swing; + Three little words we often see + The articles, a, an, and the. + +Mrs. Eddy, of Christian Science fame, spoke of him with pride as her +preceptor. He liked to constitute himself an examining committee of +one and visit the schools near him. Once he found only five very small +children, and remarked approvingly, "Good order here." He, +unfortunately, for his brothers, developed an intense interest in +genealogy, and after getting them to look up the family tree in +several branches, would soon announce to dear brother Edwin, or dear +brother John, "the papers you sent have disappeared; please send a +duplicate at once." + +My other uncle, John Sewall Sanborn, graduated at Dartmouth, and after +studying law, he started for a career in Canada, landed in Sherbrooke, +P.Q., with the traditional fifty cents in his pocket, and began to +practise law. Soon acquiring a fine practice, he married the +strikingly handsome daughter of Mr. Brooks, the most important man in +that region, and rose to a position on the Queen's Bench. He was +twelve years in Parliament, and later a "Mr. Justice," corresponding +with a member of our Federal Supreme Court. In fact, he had received +every possible honour at his death except knighthood, which he was +soon to have received. + +My great-grandfather, on the paternal side, was always called +"Grandsir Hook," and Dr. Crosby assured me that I inherited my fat, +fun, and asthma from that obese person, weighing nearly three hundred +pounds. When he died a slice had to be cut off, not from his body, but +from the side of the house, to let the coffin squeeze through. I +visited his grave with father. It was an immense elevation even at so +remote a date. David Sanborn married his daughter Hannah Hook, after +a formal courtship. The "love" letters to "Honoured Madam" are still +preserved. Fortunately the "honoured madam" had inherited the sense of +humour. + +A few words about Mr. Daniel Webster. I remember going to Marshfield +with my mother, his niece, and sitting on his knee while he looked +over his large morning mail, throwing the greater part into the waste +basket. Also in the dining-room I can still recall the delicious meals +prepared by an old-time Southern mammy, who wore her red and yellow +turban regally. The capital jokes by his son Fletcher and guests +sometimes caused the dignified and impressive butler to rapidly +dart behind the large screen to laugh, then soon back to duty, +imperturbable as before. + +The large library occupied one ell of the house, with its high ceiling +running in points to a finish. There hung the strong portraits of Lord +Ashburton and Mr. Webster. At the top of his own picture at the right +hung his large grey slouch hat, so well known. In the next room the +silhouette of his mother, and underneath it his words, "My excellent +mother." Also a portrait of Grace Fletcher, his first wife, and of his +son Edward in uniform. Edward was killed in the Mexican War. + +There is a general impression that Mr. Webster was a heavy drinker +and often under the influence of liquor when he rose to speak; as +usual there are two sides to this question. George Ticknor of Boston +told my father that he had been with Webster on many public occasions, +and never saw him overcome but once. That was at the Revere House in +Boston, where he was expected to speak after dinner. "I sat next to +him," said Ticknor; "suddenly he put his hand on my shoulder and +whispered, 'Come out and run around the common.'" This they did and +the speech was a success. There is a wooden statue of Daniel Webster +that has stood for forty years in Hingham, Massachusetts. It is larger +than life and called a good portrait. It was made more than sixty +years ago as a figurehead for the ship _Daniel Webster_ but never put +on. That would have been appropriate if he was occasionally half seas +over. Daniel's devotion to his only brother "Zeke" is pleasant to +remember. By the way, there are many men who pay every debt promptly +and never take a drop too much, who would be proud to have a record +for something accomplished that is as worth while as his record. When +Daniel Webster entered Dartmouth College as a freshman directly from +his father's farm, he was a raw specimen, awkward, thin, and so dark +that some mistook him for a new Indian recruit. He was then called +"Black Dan." His father's second wife and the mother of Zeke and Dan +had decidedly a generous infusion of Indian blood. A gentleman at +Hanover who remembered Webster there said his large, dark, resplendent +eyes looked like coach lanterns on a dark night. + +Mrs. Ezekiel Webster told me that her husband asked her after their +marriage to allow his mother to come home to them at Boscawen, New +Hampshire. She said she was a strikingly fine-looking woman with those +same marvellous eyes, long straight black hair, high cheekbones; a +tall person with strong individuality. Mrs. Webster was sure where the +swarthy infusion came from. This mother, who had been a hard worker +and faithful wife, now delighted in sitting by the open fire evenings +and smoking an old pipe she had brought with her. + +Webster saved his Alma Mater, and after the favourable decision on the +College Case, Judge Hopkinson wrote to Professor Brown of Dartmouth +suggesting an inscription on the doors of the college building, +"Founded by Eleazer Wheelock, refounded by Daniel Webster." These +words are now placed in bronze at the portals of Webster Memorial +Hall. + +To go back, as I did, from Andover to Hanover, I pay my tribute to +Professor John Newton Putnam, Greek Professor at Dartmouth. His +character was perfect; his face of rare beauty shone with kind and +helpful thought for everyone. I see him, as he talked at our mid-week +meetings. One could almost perceive an aura or halo around his classic +head; wavy black hair which seemed to have an almost purple light +through it; large dark eyes, full of love. What he said was never +perfunctory, never dull. He was called "John, the Beloved Disciple." +Still he was thoroughly human and brimming over with fun, puns, and +exquisitely droll humour, and quick in seeing a funny condition. + +It is said that on one occasion when there happened to be a party the +same night as our "Thursday evening meeting," he was accosted by a +friend as he was going into the vestry with the inquiry, "Are you not +to be tempted by the social delights of the evening?" To which he +replied, "No, I prefer to suffer affliction with the people of God, +rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." The college +inspector reported to him that he was obliged to break into a room at +college where a riot was progressing and described a negro's efforts +to hide himself by scurrying under the bed. + +"But how unnecessary; all he had to do was to keep dark." + +Once he was found waiting a long time at the counter of a grocery +store. A friend passing said, "You've been there quite a while, +Putnam." + +"Yes, I'm waiting all my appointed time until my change doth come." + +Expecting "Help" from Norwich, he was gazing in that direction and +explained, "I'm looking unto the hills whence cometh our help." + +We often diverted ourselves at his home with "Rounce," the duplicate +of euchre in dominoes. And we were startled by a Madonna dropping to +the floor, leaving its frame on the wall. Instantly Professor Putnam +remarked: "Her willing soul would not stay 'in such a frame as this.'" +And when called to preside at the organ when the college choir was +away, he whispered to me, "Listen to my interludicrous performance." + +How sad the end! A delicate constitution conquered by tuberculosis. +With his wife he sought a milder climate abroad and died there. But no +one can compute the good accomplished even by his unconscious +influence, for everything was of the purest, highest, best. + +Soon after my return from St. Louis, I received a call from Packer +Institute in Brooklyn, to teach English Literature, which was most +agreeable. But when I arrived, the principal, Mr. Crittenden, told me +that the woman who had done that work had decided to remain. I was +asked by Mr. Crittenden, "Can you read?" "Yes, I think so." "Then come +with me." He touched a bell and then escorted me to the large chapel +capable of holding nearly twelve hundred, where I found the entire +faculty assembled to listen to my efforts. I was requested to stand up +in the pulpit and read from a large Bible the fourteenth chapter of +John, and the twenty-third psalm. That was easy enough. Next request, +"Please recite something comic." I gave them "Comic Miseries." "Now +try a little pathos." I recited Alice Cary's "The Volunteer," which +was one of my favourite poems. Then I heard a professor say to Mr. +Crittenden, "She recites with great taste and expression; what a pity +she has that lisp!" And hitherto I had been blissfully unaware of such +a failing. One other selection in every-day prose, and I was let off. +The faculty were now exchanging their opinions and soon dispersed +without one word to me. I said to Mr. Crittenden, as I came down the +pulpit stairs, "I do not want to take the place." But he insisted that +they all wanted me to come and begin work at once. I had large +classes, number of pupils eight hundred and fifty. It was a great +opportunity to help young girls to read in such a way that it would be +a pleasure to their home friends, or to recite in company, as was +common then, naturally and without gestures. I took one more class of +little girls who had received no training before in that direction. +They were easy to inspire, were wholly free from self-consciousness, +and their parents were so much pleased that we gave an exhibition of +what they could do in reading and recitation in combination with their +gymnastics. The chapel was crowded to the doors. A plump little German +girl was the star of the evening. She stood perfectly serene, her +chubby arms stuck out stiffly from her sides, and in a loud, clear +voice she recited this nonsense: + + If the butterfly courted the bee, + And the owl the porcupine; + If churches were built on the sea, + And three times one were nine; + If the pony rode his master, + And the buttercups ate the cows; + And the cat had the dire disaster + To be worried, sir, by a mouse; + And mamma, sir, sold her baby, + To a gypsy for half a crown, + And a gentleman were a lady, + This world would be upside down. + But, if any or all these wonders + Should ever come about, + I should not think them blunders, + For I should be inside out. + +An encore was insisted on. + +I offered to give any in my classes lessons in "how to tell a story" +with ease, brevity, and point, promising to give an anecdote of my own +suggested by theirs every time. This pleased them, and we had a jolly +time. The first girl who tried to tell a story said: + + I don't know how; never attempted any such thing, but what I am + going to tell is true and funny. + + My grandfather is very deaf. You may have seen him sitting on a + pulpit stair at Mr. Beecher's church, holding to his ear what + looks like a skillet. Last spring we went to the country, + house-hunting, leaving grandfather to guard our home. He was + waked, in the middle of the night as he supposed, by a noise, + and started out to find where it came from. It continued; so he + courageously went downstairs and cautiously opened the kitchen + door. He reached out his skillet-trumpet before him through the + partly opened door and the milkman poured in a quart of milk. + +This story, I am told, is an ancient chestnut. But I used to see the +deaf grandfather with his uplifted skillet on the steps of Beecher's +pulpit, and the young lady gave it as a real happening in her own +home. Did anyone hear of it before 1868 when she gave it to our +anecdote class? I believe this was the foundation or starter for +similar skillet-trumpet stories. + +The girl was applauded, and deserved it. Then they asked me for a milk +story. I told them of a milkman who, in answer to a young mother's +complaint that the milk he brought for her baby was sour, replied: +"Well, is there anything outside the sourness that doesn't suit you?" +And Thoreau remarked that "circumstantial evidence is sometimes +conclusive, as when a trout is found in the morning milk." + +This class was considered so practical and valuable that I was offered +pay for it, but it was a relief, after exhausting work. + +We had many visitors interested in the work of the various classes. +One day Beecher strolled into the chapel and wished to hear some of +the girls read. All were ready. One took the morning paper; another +recited a poem; one read a selection from her scrapbook. Beecher +afterward inquired: "Whom have you got to teach elocution now? You +used to have a few prize pumpkins on show, but now every girl is doing +good original work." Mr. Crittenden warned me at the outset, "Keep an +eye out or they'll run over you." But I never had anything but +kindness from my pupils. I realized that cheerful, courteous requests +were wiser than commands, and sincere friendship more winning than +"Teachery" primness. I knew of an unpopular instructor who, being +annoyed by his pupils throwing a few peanuts at his desk, said, "Young +men, if you throw another peanut, I shall leave the room." A shower of +peanuts followed. + +So, when I went to my largest class in the big chapel, and saw one of +my most interesting girls sitting on that immense Bible on the pulpit +looking at me in merry defiance, and kicking her heels against the +woodwork below, I did not appear to see her, and began the exercises, +hoping fervently that one of the detectives who were always on watch +might providentially appear. Before long I saw one come to the door, +look in with an amazed expression, only to bring two of the faculty to +release the young lady from her uneasy pre-eminence. + +I hardly knew my own name at the Packer Institute. The students called +me "Canary," I suppose on account of my yellow hair and rather high +treble voice; Mr. Crittenden always spoke to me as Miss "Sunburn," and +when my laundry was returned, it was addressed to "Miss Lampoon." + +Beecher was to me the clerical miracle of his age--a man of +extraordinary personal magnetism, with power to rouse laughter and +right away compel tears, I used to listen often to his marvellous +sermons. I can see him now as he went up the middle aisle in winter +wearing a clumsy overcoat, his face giving the impression of heavy, +coarse features, thick lips, a commonplace nose, eyes that lacked +expression, nothing to give any idea of the man as he would look after +the long prayer. When the audience reverently bowed their heads my own +eyes were irresistibly drawn toward the preacher. For he prayed as if +he felt that he was addressing an all-powerful, omnipresent, tender, +loving Heavenly Father who was listening to his appeal. And as he went +on and on with increasing fervour and power a marvellous change +transfigured that heavy face, it shone with a white light and +spiritual feeling, as if he fully realized his communion with God +Himself. I used to think of that phrase in Matthew: + + "And was transfigured before them, + And his face did shine as the sun." + +I never heard anyone mention this marvellous transformation. But I +remember that Beecher once acknowledged to a reporter that he never +knew what he had said in his sermon until he looked at the résumé in +Monday's paper. + +During the hard days of Beecher's trial a lady who was a guest at the +house told me she was waked one morning by the merry laughter of +Beecher's little grandchildren and peeping into their room found Mr. +Beecher having a jolly frolic with them. He was trying to get them +dressed; his efforts were most comical, putting on their garments +wrong side out or buttoning in front when they were intended to fasten +in the back, and "funny Grandpa" enjoying it all quite as sincerely as +these little ones. A pretty picture. + +Saxe (John Godfrey) called during one recess hour. The crowds of girls +passing back and forth interested him, as they seemed to care less for +eating than for wreathing their arms round each other, with a good +deal of kissing, and "deary," "perfectly lovely," etc. He described +his impressions in two words: "Unconscious rehearsing." + +Once he handed me a poem he had just dashed off written with pencil, +"To my Saxon Blonde." I was surprised and somewhat flattered, +regarding it as a complimentary impromptu. But, on looking up his +poetry in the library, I found the same verses printed years before: + + "If bards of old the truth have told, + The sirens had raven hair; + But ever since the earth had birth, + They paint the angels fair." + +Probably that was a habit with him. + +When a friend joked him about his very-much-at-home manner at the +United States Hotel at Saratoga, where he went every year, saying as +they sat together on the upper piazza, "Why, Saxe, I should fancy you +owned this hotel," he rose, and lounging against one of the pillars +answered, "Well, I have a 'lien' on this piazza." + +His epigrams are excellent. He has made more and better than any +American poet. In Dodd's large collection of the epigrams of the +world, I think there are six at least from Saxe. Let me quote two: + + AN EQUIVOCAL APOLOGY + + Quoth Madame Bas-Bleu, "I hear you have said + Intellectual women are always your dread; + Now tell me, dear sir, is it true?" + "Why, yes," answered Tom, "very likely I may + Have made the remark in a jocular way; + But then on my honour, I didn't mean you!" + + + TOO CANDID BY HALF + + As John and his wife were discoursing one day + Of their several faults, in a bantering way, + Said she, "Though my _wit_ you disparage, + I'm sure, my dear husband, our friends will attest + This much, at the least, that my judgment is best." + Quoth John, "So they said at our marriage." + +When Saxe heard of a man in Chicago who threw his wife into a vat of +boiling hog's lard, he remarked: "Now, that's what I call going too +far with a woman." + +After a railroad accident, in which he received some bruises, I said: +"You didn't find riding on the rails so pleasant?" "Not riding on, but +riding off the rail was the trouble." + +He apostrophized the unusually pretty girl who at bedtime handed each +guest a lighted candle in a candlestick. She fancied some of the +fashionable young women snubbed her but Saxe assured her in rhyme: + + "There is not a single one of them all + Who could, if they would, hold a candle to you." + +He was an inveterate punster. Miss Caroline Ticknor tells us how he +used to lie on a couch in a back room at the Old Corner Bookstore in +Boston, at a very early hour, and amuse the boys who were sweeping and +dusting the store until one of the partners arrived. I believe he +never lost a chance to indulge in a verbal quibble. "In the meantime, +and 'twill be a very mean time." + +I often regret that I did not preserve his comical letters, and those +of Richard Grant White and other friends who were literary masters. +Mr. Grant White helped me greatly when I was doubtful about some +literary question, saying he would do anything for a woman whose name +was Kate. And a Dartmouth graduate, whom I asked for a brief story of +Father Prout, the Irish poet and author, gave me so much material that +it was the most interesting lecture of my season. He is now a most +distinguished judge in Massachusetts. + +Saxe, like other humourists, suffered from melancholia at the last. +Too sad! + +After giving a lecture in the chapel of Packer Institute at the time I +was with Mrs. Botta in New York, I was surprised to receive a call the +next morning from Mr. Charles Storrs of 23 Monroe Place, Brooklyn, +asking me to go to his house, and make use of his library, which he +told me Horace Greeley had pronounced the best working and reference +library he had ever known. A great opportunity for anyone! Mr. Storrs +was too busy a man to really enjoy his own library. Mrs. Storrs and +Miss Edna Dean Proctor, who made her home with them, comprised his +family, as his only daughter had married Miss Proctor's brother and +lived in Peoria, Illinois. Mr. Storrs had made his own fortune, +starting out by buying his "time" of his father and borrowing an old +horse and pedlar's cart from a friend. He put into the cart a large +assortment of Yankee notions, or what people then called "short +goods," as stockings, suspenders, gloves, shoestrings, thread and +needles, tape, sewing silk, etc. He determined to make his own fortune +and succeeded royally for he became a "merchant prince." His was a +rarely noble and generous nature with a heart as big as his brain. +Several of his large rooms downstairs were crammed with wonderfully +beautiful and precious things which his soul delighted in picking up, +in ivory, jade, bronze, and glass. He was so devotedly fond of music +that at great expense he had a large organ built which could be played +by pedalling and pulling stops in and out, and sometimes on Sunday +morning he would rise by half-past six, and be downstairs in his shirt +sleeves hard at work, eliciting oratorio or opera music for his own +delectation. A self-made man, "who did not worship his creator." He +was always singularly modest, although very decided in his opinions. +Men are asking of late who can be called educated. Certainly not a +student of the ancient Assyrian or the mysteries of the Yogi, or the +Baha, or the Buddhistic legends, when life is so brief and we must +"act in the living present." But a man who has studied life and human +nature as well as the best form of books, gained breadth and culture +by wide travel, and is always ready for new truths, that man _is_ +educated in the best sense, although entirely self-educated. Greeley +used to say, "Charles Storrs is a great man." + +Greeley used to just rest and enjoy himself at Mr. Storrs's home, +often two weeks at a time, and liked to shut himself into that +wonderful library to work or read. Once when he returned unexpectedly, +the maid told Miss Proctor that Mr. Greeley had just come in from the +rain and was quite wet, and there was no fire in the library. He did +not at first care to change to Mr. Storrs's special den in the +basement. But Miss Proctor said "It is too cold here and your coat is +quite wet." "Oh, I am used to that," he said plaintively. But his +special desk was carried down to a room bright with an open fire, and +he seemed glad to be cared for. + +Whitelaw Reid was photographed with Greeley when he first came on from +the West to take a good share of the responsibility of editing the +_Tribune_. He stood behind Greeley's chair, and I noticed his hair was +then worn quite long. But he soon attained the New York cut as well as +the New York cult. Both Reid and John Hay were at that time frequent +guests of Mr. Storrs, who never seemed weary of entertaining his +friends. Beecher was one of his intimate acquaintances and they often +went to New York together hunting for rare treasures. + +I have several good stories about Mr. Greeley for which I am indebted +to Miss Proctor who told them to me. + +1. He used to write way up in a small attic in the _Tribune_ building, +and seldom allowed anyone to interrupt him. Some man, who was greatly +disgusted over one of Greeley's editorials, climbed up to his sanctum, +and as soon as his head showed above the railing, he began to rave and +rage, using the most lurid style of profanity. It seemed as if he +never would stop, but at last, utterly exhausted and out of breath and +all used up, he waited for a reply. + +Greeley kept on writing, never having looked up once. This was too +much to be endured, and the caller turned to go downstairs, when +Greeley called out: "Come back, my friend, come back, and free your +mind." + +2. Mr. Greeley once found that one of the names in what he considered +an important article on the Board of Trade had been incorrectly +printed. He called Rooker, the head man in the printing department, +and asked fiercely what man set the type for this printing, showing +him the mistake. Rooker told him, and went to get the culprit, whom +Greeley said deserved to be kicked. But when he came, he brought Mr. +Greeley's article in his own writing, and showed him that the mistake +was his own. Mr. Greeley acknowledged he was the guilty one, and +begging the man's pardon, added, "Tom Rooker, come here and kick _me_ +quick." + +3. Once when Greeley was making one of his frequent visits to Mr. and +Mrs. Storrs, the widow of the minister who used to preach at +Mansfield, Connecticut, when Mr. Storrs was a boy, had been invited by +him to spend a week. She was a timid little woman, but she became so +shocked at several things that Greeley had said or written in his +paper that she inquired of Miss Proctor if she thought Mr. Greeley +would allow her to ask him two or three questions. + +Miss Proctor found him in the dining-room, the floor strewn with +exchange papers, and having secured his consent, ushered in the lady. +She told me afterward that she heard the poor little questioner speak +with a rising inflection only two or three times. But Mr. Greeley was +always ready to answer at length and with extreme earnestness. He said +afterwards: "Why that woman is way back in the Middle Ages." + +When she came away from the interview, she seemed excited and dazed, +not noticing anyone, but dashed upstairs to her room, closed the door, +and never afterward alluded to her attempt to modify Mr. Greeley's +views. + +4. A little girl who was visiting Mr. Storrs said: "It would never +do for Mr. Greeley to go to Congress, he would make such a +slitter-slatter of the place." + +Miss Proctor published _A Russian Journey_ after travelling through +that country; has published a volume of poems, and has made several +appeals in prose and verse for the adoption of the Indian corn as our +national emblem. She is also desirous to have the name of Mount +Rainier changed to Tacoma, its original Indian name, and has a second +book of poems ready for the press. + +When I first met her at the home of Mrs. Storrs, I thought her one of +the most beautiful women I had ever seen--of the Andalusian type--dark +hair and lustrous starry eyes, beautiful features, perfect teeth, a +slender, willowy figure, and a voice so musical that it would lure a +bird from the bough. She had a way all her own of "telling" you a +poem. She was perfectly natural about it, a recitative semi-tone yet +full of expression and dramatic breadth, at times almost a chant. With +those dark and glowing eyes looking into mine, I have listened until +I forgot everything about me, and was simply spellbound. Mr. Fields +described Tennyson's reciting his own poems in much the same way. +Whittier once said to a friend, "I consider Miss Proctor one of the +best woman poets of the day," and then added, "But why do I say _one_ +of the best; why not _the_ best?" + +Miss Proctor has always been glad to assist any plan of mine, and +wrote a poem especially for my Christmas book, _Purple and Gold_. Mr. +Osgood, the publisher, when I showed him the poem, said, "But how do I +know that the public will care for your weeds?" (referring to the +asters and goldenrod). He said later: "The instant popularity and +large sale of that booklet attested the happiness of Miss Sanborn's +selection, and the kind contributions from her friends." Miss +Proctor's contribution was the first poem in the book and I venture to +publish it as it has never been in print since the first sale. My +friend's face is still beautiful, her mind is as active as when we +first met, her voice has lost none of its charm, and she is the same +dear friend as of yore. + + GOLDENROD AND ASTERS + + The goldenrod, the goldenrod, + That glows in sun or rain, + Waving its plumes on every bank + From the mountain slope to the main,-- + Not dandelions, nor cowslips fine, + Nor buttercups, gems of summer, + Nor leagues of daisies yellow and white, + Can rival this latest comer! + + On the plains and the upland pastures + Such regal splendour falls + When forth, from myriad branches green, + Its gold the south wind calls,-- + That the tale seems true the red man's god + Lavished its bloom to say, + "Though days grow brief and suns grow cold, + My love is the same for aye." + + And, darker than April violets + Or pallid as wind-flowers grow, + Under its shades from hill to meadow + Great beds of asters blow.-- + Oh plots of purple o'erhung with gold + That need nor walls nor wardens, + Not fairer shone, to the Median Queen, + Her Babylonian gardens! + + On Scotia's moors the gorse is gay, + And England's lanes and fallows + Are decked with broom whose winsome grace + The hovering linnet hallows; + But the robin sings from his maple bow, + "Ah, linnet, lightly won, + Your bloom to my blaze of wayside gold + Is the wan moon to the sun!" + + And were I to be a bride at morn, + Ere the chimes rang out I'd say, + "Not roses red, but goldenrod + Strew in my path today! + And let it brighten the dusky aisle, + And flame on the altar-stair, + Till the glory and light of the fields shall flood + The solemn dimness there." + + And should I sleep in my shroud at eve, + Not lilies pale and cold, + But the purple asters of the wood + Within my hand I'd hold;-- + For goldenrod is the flower of love + That time and change defies; + And asters gleam through the autumn air + With the hues of Paradise! + EDNA DEAN PROCTOR. + +Shortly before the Civil War, I went with father to St. Louis, he to +take a place in the Washington University, while I was offered a +position in the Mary Institute to teach classes of girls. Chancellor +Hoyt of the university had been lured from Exeter, New Hampshire. He +was widely known in the educational world, and was one of the most +brilliant men I ever knew, strong, wise, witty, critical, scholarly, +with a scorn of anything superficial or insincere. + +I had thought of omitting my experience in this city, to +me so really tragic. Just before we were to leave Hanover, a +guest brought five of us a gift of measles. I had the +confluent-virulent-delirious-lose-all-your-hair variety. When +convalescent, I found that my hair, which had been splendidly thick +and long, was coming out alarmingly, and it was advised that my head +be shaved, with a promise that the hair would surely be curly and just +as good as before the illness. I felt pretty measly and "meachin" and +submitted. The effect was indescribably awful. I saw my bald pate +once, and almost fainted. I was provided with a fearsome wig, of +coarse, dark red hair, held in place by a black tape. Persons who had +pitied me for having "such a big head and so much hair" now found +reason for comment "on my small head with no hair." The most expensive +head cover never deceived anyone, however simple, and I was obliged to +make my début in St. Louis in this piteous plight. + +We then had our first taste of western-southern cordiality and +demonstrativeness. It occurred to me that they showed more delight in +welcoming us than our own home folks showed regret at our departure. +It was a liberal education to me. They all seemed to understand about +the hideous wig, but never showed that they noticed it. One of our +first callers was a popular, eloquent clergyman, who kissed me "as +the daughter of my mother." He said, "I loved your mother and asked +her to marry me, but I was refused." Several young men at once wanted +to get up a weekly dancing class for me, but I was timid, fearing my +wig would fall off or get wildly askew. Whittier in one of his poems +has this couplet, which suggests the reverse of my experience: + + "She rose from her delicious sleep, + And laid aside her soft-brown hair." + +At bedtime my wig must come off and a nightcap take the place. In the +morning that wig must go on, with never one look in the glass. Soon +two persons called, both leaders in social life, one of them a +physician, who had suddenly lost every spear of hair. I was invited by +the unfortunate physician and his wife to dine with them. And, in his +own home, I noticed in their parlour a portrait of him before his +experience. He had been blessed with magnificently thick black hair, a +handsome face, adorned with a full beard and moustache. It was an +April evening and the weather was quite warm, and after dinner the +doctor removed his wig, placing it on a plaster head. He was now used +to his affliction. He told me, as he sat smoking, looking like a +waxwork figure, how several years ago he awoke in the dead of the +night to find something he could not understand on his pillow. He +roused his wife, lit the gas, dashed cold water on his face to help +him to realize what had happened and washed off all the rest of his +hair, even to eyebrows and eyelashes. That was a depressing story to +me. And I soon met a lady (the Mayor's wife) who had suffered exactly +in the same way. She also was resigned, as indeed she had to be. I +began to tremble lest my own hair should never return. + +But I should be telling you about St. Louis. We were most cordially +received by clergymen from three churches and all the professors at +the university, and the trustees with their wives and daughters. Wyman +Crow, a trustee, was the generous patron of Harriet Hosmer, whose +_Zenobia_ was at that time on exhibition there. The Mary Institute was +founded in remembrance of Rev. Dr. Eliot's daughter Mary, who while +skating over one of the so-called "sink-holes," then existing about +the city, broke the ice, fell in, and the body was never recovered. +These sink holes were generally supposed to be unfathomable. + +Since I could not dance, I took to art, although I had no more +capacity in that direction than a cow. I attempted a bunch of dahlias, +but when I offered the result to a woman cleaning our rooms she +looked at it queerly, held it at a distance, and then inquired: "Is +the frame worth anything?" + +I acknowledge a lifelong indebtedness to Chancellor Hoyt. He was +suffering fearfully with old-fashioned consumption, but he used to +send for me to read to him to distract his thoughts. He would also +criticize my conversation, never letting one word pass that was +ungrammatical or incorrectly pronounced. If I said, "I am so glad," he +would ask, "So glad that what? You don't give the correlative." He +warned against reliance on the aid of alliteration. The books read to +him were discussed and the authors praised or criticized. + +St. Louis was to me altogether delightful, and I still am interested +in that city, so enlarged and improved. I used to see boys riding +astride razor-back hogs in the street, where now stately limousines +glide over smooth pavements. + +I have always had more cordiality towards strangers, homesick students +at Dartmouth, and the audiences at my lectures, since learning a +better habit. Frigidity and formality were driven away by the sunshine +that brightened my stay at St. Louis. + +I do not wish to intrude my private woes, but I returned from the West +with a severe case of whooping-cough. I didn't get it at St. Louis, +but in the sleeping-car between that city and Chicago. I advise +children to see to it that both parents get through with all the +vastly unpleasant epidemics of childhood at an early age. It is one of +the duties of children to parents. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +Happy Days with Mrs. Botta--My Busy Life in New York--President +Barnard of Columbia College--A Surprise from Bierstadt--Professor +Doremus, a Universal Genius--Charles H. Webb, a truly funny "Funny +Man"--Mrs. Esther Hermann, a Modest Giver. + + +I was obliged to give up my work at Packer Institute, when diphtheria +attacked me, but a wonderful joy came to me after recovery. + +Mrs. Vincenzo Botta invited me to her home in West Thirty-seventh +Street for the winter and spring. Anne C. Lynch, many years before her +marriage to Mr. Botta, had taught at the Packer Institute herself, and +at that time had a few rooms on West Ninth Street. She told me she +used to take a hurried breakfast standing by the kitchen table; then +saying good-bye to the mother to whom she was devoted, walked from +Ninth Street to the Brooklyn ferry, then up Joralemon Street, as she +was required to be present at morning prayers. Her means were limited +at that time and carfare would take too much. But it was then that she +started and maintained her "Saturday Evenings," which became so +attractive and famous that N.P. Willis wrote of them that no one of +any distinction thought a visit to New York complete without spending +a Saturday evening with Miss Lynch. People went in such numbers that +many were obliged to sit on the stairs, but all were happy. Her +refreshments were of the simplest kind, lemonade and wafers or +sandwiches. It has often been said that she established the only salon +in this country, but why bring in that word so distinctively belonging +to the French? + +Miss Lynch was just "at home" and made all who came to her happy and +at their best. Fredrika Bremer, the celebrated Norwegian writer, was +her guest for several weeks at her home in Ninth Street. Catherine +Sedgwick attended several of her receptions, wondering at the charm +which drew so many. There Edgar Poe gave the first reading of "The +Raven" before it was printed. Ole Bull, who knew her then, was a +life-long friend to her. Fanny Kemble, Bryant, Halleck, Willis were +all devoted friends. + +After her marriage to Professor Vincenzo Botta, nephew of the +historian Botta, and their taking a house in Thirty-seventh Street, +she gathered around her table the most interesting and distinguished +men and women of the day, and the "Saturday Evenings" were continued +with increasing crowds. She had a most expressive face and beautiful +blue eyes. Never one of the prodigious talkers, dressed most quietly, +she was just herself, a sweet-faced, sincere woman, and was blessed +with an atmosphere and charm that were felt by all. + +At one of her breakfasts I recollect Emerson, who often visited there, +Bryant, Bayard Taylor, and Grace Greenwood. At another, John Fiske, +President Andrew D. White, and other men interested in their line of +thought. I must mention a lady who in the midst of their inspiring +conversation broke forth in a loud tone to Mrs. Botta: "I found a +splendid receipt for macaroni; mix it, when boiled, with stewed +tomatoes and sprinkle freely with parmesan cheese before baking." + +One evening Whitelaw Reid brought John Hay. He beckoned to me to come +to him, and presenting Mr. Hay said: "I want to make a prediction in +regard to this young man. If you live long enough you will hear of him +as the greatest statesman and diplomat our country has ever had." A +few evenings after, at a Dramatic Club of great talent, I saw Mr. Hay +figuring as Cupid in Mrs. Jarley's wax-work show. He looked and acted +his part, turning gracefully on his toes to show his wings and quiver +of arrows. And Mr. Reid, mounted on a step-ladder behind a draped +clothes-horse, represented the distressed Lord Ullin whose daughter +was seen eloping in a boat with her Highland chief, the tossing waves +being sheets in full motion. + +For years it seemed as if this were the one truly cosmopolitan +drawing-room in the city, because it drew the best from all sources. +Italy and England, France and Germany, Spain, Russia, Norway and +Hungary, Siam, China, India, and Japan sent guests hither. Liberals +and Conservatives, peers and revolutionists, holders of the most +ancient traditions, and advocates of the most modern theories--all +found their welcome, if they deserved it, and each took away a new +respect for the position of his opponent. + +Madame Ristori, Salvini, Fechter, Campanini, and Madame Gerster were +honoured with special receptions. Special receptions were also given +in honour of George P. Marsh, on the occasion of his appointment as +Minister to Turin in 1861, and to the officers of the Royal Navy of +Italy when they came to this country to take possession of two +frigates built by an American ship-builder for the Italian Government. + + [Illustration: MRS. ANNE C. LYNCH BOTTA] + +Emerson appreciated Mrs. Botta as a hostess. He enjoyed being in her +home, saying it "rested him." "I wish that I could believe that in +your miles of palaces were many houses and house-keepers as excellent +as I know at 25 West 37th Street, your house with the expanding +doors." He speaks of her invitation as "one of the happiest rainbows." +"Your hospitality has an Arabian memory, to keep its kind purpose +through such a long time. You were born under Hatem Yayi's own star, +and like him, are the genius of hospitality." (Haten Yayi was a +celebrated Oriental whose house had sixteen doors.) + +And Mrs. Botta was greatly cheered by Emerson. She wrote: + + I always wish I had had my photograph taken when Mr. Emerson + was staying in my house. Everyone felt his influence, even the + servants who would hardly leave the dining-room. I looked like + a different being, and was so happy I forgot to see that he had + enough to eat. + +Early in her time some of her friends--such as Ripley, Curtis, and +Cranch--had joined a small agricultural and educational association, +called the "Brook Farm," near Roxbury, Massachusetts. She visited them +once or twice, and saw Mr. Curtis engaged in washing dishes which had +been used by "The Community." She remarked to him that perhaps he +could be better employed for the progress of his fellow-men than in +wasting his energy on something more easily done by others. + +At one time she invited Bronson Alcott, one of the leaders of a +similar movement, to preside over some _conversazioni_ in her +parlours, where he could elucidate his favourite subject. On one +occasion, a lady in the audience, impressed by some sentiments uttered +by the lecturer, inquired of him if his opinion was that we were gods. +"No," answered Mr. Alcott, "we are not gods, but only godlings," an +explanation which much amused Mrs. Botta, who was always quick in +perceiving the funny side of a remark. (I timidly suggest that _s_ be +substituted for _d_.) + +Mrs. Botta having promised to see Mr. Greeley, and urge him to give a +favourable notice in the _Tribune_ of the concert where a young singer +was to make her début, went down to his office to plead for a lenient +criticism. But not one word appeared. So down she went to inquire the +reason. She was ushered into the Editor's Sanctum, where he was busily +writing and hardly looked up. She asked why he was so silent; it was +such a disappointment. No reply. She spoke once more. Then came the +verdict in shrill tones: "She can't sing. She can't sing. She can't +sing." + +New Year's calls were then the custom, and more than three hundred +men paid their respects to Mr. and Mrs. Botta on the New Year's Day I +spent with them. And everyone looked, as Theodore Hook said, as if he +were somebody in particular. At one of these "Saturday Evenings," a +stranger walked through her rooms, with hands crossed under his coat +and humming execrably as he wandered along. The gentle hostess went to +him with her winning smile and inquired, "Do you play also?" That +proves her capacity for sarcasm and criticism which she seldom +employed. She conversed remarkably well, but after all it was what she +did not say that proved her greatness and self-control. + +Mrs. Botta had talent in various directions. She made portrait busts +in plaster that really were like the subjects, with occasionally an +inspired success, and that without any teaching. She showed genius in +this work. When a bust of her modelling was sent to Rome to be put +into marble, the foremost of Italian sculptors, not knowing the maker, +declared that nothing would be beyond the reach of the artist if _he_ +would come to Rome and study technique for a year. Mrs. Botta asked me +to let her try to get my face. That was delightful. To be with her in +her own studio and watch her interest! Later some discouragement, and +then enthusiasm as at last the likeness came. She said she took the +humorous side of my face. The other side she found sad. My friends not +only recognized my face, but they saw my mother's face inwrought. + +Mrs. Botta had talent in various directions. She published a large +book, _The Hand Book of Universal Literature_, once used at Harvard +and other colleges, and hoped to prepare one of similar style on +_Universal History_. She also wrote a small volume of poems, but her +days were given to the needs of others. Only a few mornings were we +able to work on her _Universal History_. There were too many calls for +advice, sympathy, or aid; the door-bell rang too often. I heard a +young girl once say of her: "She is great enough to have been an +inspired prophetess of olden times, and tender enough to have been the +mother of our Dear Saviour." Such were the words of impassioned praise +that fell from the lips of a young, motherless, Roman Catholic girl, +one of the many whom Mrs. Botta had taught and befriended. Once, when +reading to Mrs. Botta in connection with her "History," a man called +to see her about getting material for her biography. To my surprise, +she waved her hand to me saying, "This young lady is to be my +biographer." As I felt entirely unable to attempt such a work I told +her it should be made up of letters from a host of friends who had +known her so well and so long. This pleased her, and after her death +her husband wrote me urging me to edit such a composite picture, but +knowing his superior fitness for the work, I thanked him for the +compliment, but declined. What a delightful result was accomplished by +his good judgment, literary skill, and the biographical notes gladly +given by her intimate friends. I will give a few quotations from the +tributes: + + To me--as to others--her conversation was singularly inspiring; + it suggested to a man his best trains of thought; it developed + in him the best he had; it made him think better of himself and + of mankind; it sent him away stronger for all good work. + + + She seemed to me capable of worshipping in equal fervour with + Roman Catholics or with Unitarians--in a cathedral or in a + hovel; and this religious spirit of hers shone out in her life + and in her countenance. Very pleasant was her optimism; she + looked about her in this world without distrust, and beyond her + into the next world without fear. + + + She had a delightful sense of humour--so sweet, so delicate, so + vivid. She had a gift of appreciation which I have never seen + surpassed. + + + If Mrs. Botta found more in society than most persons do, it + was because she carried more there. + +Horace Greeley once said to me, "Anne Lynch is the best woman that +God ever made." + + Few women known to me have had greater grace or ease in the + entertainment of strangers, while in her more private + intercourse, her frank, intelligent, courteous ways won her the + warmest and most desirable friendships. + + + The position of the Bottas in the literary and artistic world + enabled them to draw together not only the best-known people of + this country, but to a degree greater than any, as far as I + know, the most distinguished visitors from abroad, beyond the + ranks of mere title or fashion. No home, I think, in all the + land compared with theirs in the number and character of its + foreign visitors. + + + I should like to introduce you to her home as it was--the hall, + with its interesting pictures and fragrant with fresh flowers; + the dining-room, the drawing-rooms, with their magnetized + atmosphere of the past (you can almost feel the presence of + those who have loved to linger there); her own sanctum, where a + chosen few were admitted; but the limits of space forbid. The + queens of Parisian salons have been praised and idealized till + we are led to believe them unapproachable in their social + altitude. But I am not afraid to place beside them an American + woman, uncrowned by extravagant adulation, but fully their + equal--the artist, poet, conversationist, Anne C. L. Botta. + +She was absolutely free from egotism or conceit, always avoiding +allusion to what she had accomplished, or her unfulfilled longings. +But she once told me: + + Sandy (short for old, red sand stone), I would rather have had + a child than to have made the most perfect statue or the finest + painting ever produced. [She also said]: If I could only stop + longing and aspiring for that which is not in my power to + attain, but is only just near enough to keep me always running + after it, like the donkey that followed an ear of corn which + was tied fast to a stick. + +Mrs. Botta came of a Celtic father, gay, humorous, full of impulsive +chivalry and intense Irish patriotism, and of a practical New England +mother, herself of Revolutionary stock, clear of judgment, careful of +the household economy, upright, exemplary, and "facultied." In the +daughter these inherited qualities blended in a most harmonious +whole. Grant Allen, the scientific writer, novelist, and student of +spiritualistic phenomena, thinks that racial differences often combine +to produce a genius. + +I often think of that rarely endowed friend in full faith that she now +has the joys denied her here, and that her many-sided nature is +allowed progress, full and free and far, in many directions. I am also +sure that Heaven could not be Heaven to Mrs. Botta if she were not +able to take soul flights and use wireless telegraphy to still help +those she left behind, and hope that she can return to greet and +guide us as we reach the unknown land. + +Through the kind suggestions of Mrs. Botta, I was asked to give talks +on literary matters at the house of one of New York's most influential +citizens. This I enjoyed immensely. Soon the large drawing-rooms were +too small for the numbers who came. Next we went to the Young Women's +Christian Association, to the library there, and later I decided to +engage the church parlours in Doctor Howard Crosby's Church, Fourth +Avenue and Twenty-second Street, New York. When I realized my +audacious venture, I was frightened. Ten lectures had been advertised +and some not written! + +On the day for my first lecture the rain poured down, and I felt sure +of a failure. My sister went with me to the church. As we drew near I +noticed a string of carriages up and down the avenue. "There must be a +wedding or a funeral," I whispered, feeling more in the mood of the +latter, but never dreaming how much those carriages meant to me. As I +went timidly into the room I found nearly every seat full, and was +greeted with cordial applause. My sister took a seat beside me. My +subject was "Spinster Authors of England." My hands trembled so +visibly that I laid my manuscript on the table, but after getting in +magnetic touch with those before me, I did not mind. + +The reading occupied only one hour, and afterwards I was surrounded by +New Hampshire women and New Yorkers who congratulated me warmly. There +were reporters sent from seven of the best daily papers, whom I +found sharpening their pencils expectantly. They gave correct and +complimentary notices, and my success was now assured. + +Mr. James T. Fields not only advised his New York friends to hear me, +but came himself, bringing my father who was deeply gratified. Mr. +Fields told father that I had a remarkably choice audience, among the +best in the city. My father had felt very deeply, even to tears, the +sharp, narrow and adverse criticism of one of his associates who +considered that I unsexed myself by daring to speak in public, and who +advised strongly against encouraging me in such unwomanly behaviour. + +I was a pioneer as a lecturer on literature quite unconsciously, for I +had gone along so gradually that I did not realize it--taken up and +set down in a new place with no planning on my part. + +Invited by many of the citizens of Hanover, New Hampshire, my old +home, to go there and give my lecture on "Lady Morgan," the Irish +novelist, for the purpose of purchasing a new carpet for the +Congregational Church, I was surprised to feel again the same stern +opposition; I was not permitted to speak in the church, but +immediately was urged to accept the large recitation hall of the +Scientific School. It was crowded to the doors and the college boys +climbed up and swarmed about the windows. The carpet, a dark red +ingrain, was bought, put down, and wore well for years. + +Now came a busy life. I was asked to lecture in many places near New +York, always in delightful homes. Had a class of married ladies at the +home of Dr. J.G. Holland, where I gave an idea of the newest books. +Doctor Holland gave me a department, "Bric-à-brac," in his +magazine--_Scribner's Magazine_; and I was honoured by a request from +the editors of the _Galaxy_ to take the "Club Room" from which Mark +Twain had just resigned. Meeting him soon after at a dinner, he said +with his characteristic drawl: "Awful solemn, ain't it, having to be +funny every month; worse than a funeral." I started a class in my own +apartment to save time for ladies who wanted to know about the most +interesting books as they were published, but whose constant +engagements made it impossible to read them entirely for themselves. I +suggested to the best publishers to send me copies of their +attractive publications which I would read, condense, and then talk +them over with these friends. All were glad to aid me. Their books +were piled on my piano and tables, and many were sold. I want to say +that such courtesy was a rare compliment. I used to go to various book +stores, asking permission to look over books at a special reading +table, and never met a refusal. I fear in these days of aiding the war +sufferers, and keeping our bodies limber and free from rheumatism by +daily dancing, this plan would not find patrons. + +I was often "browsing," as they call it, at the Mercantile Library. At +first I would sit down and give the names of volumes desired. That +took too long. At last I was allowed to go where I liked and take what +I wanted. I sent a pair of handsome slippers at Christmas to the man +who had been my special servitor. He wrote me how he admired them and +wished he could wear them, but alas! his feet had both been worn to a +stub long ago from such continuous running and climbing to satisfy my +seldom-satisfied needs. He added that several of the errand boys had +become permanently crippled from over-exertion. I then understood why +he had married a famous woman doctor. It is hard to get the books +asked for in very large libraries. Once I was replying to an attack on +Miss Elizabeth Stuart Phelps's style by Miss Dodge, well known under +the pen name Gail Hamilton, and I gave this order: "Complete works of +Miss Abigail Dodge--and please hurry." After intolerable waiting, two +boys appeared looking very weary, bearing the many sermons and heavy +memoirs of the Reverend Narcissus Dodge. + +In my special class at home I begged my friends to ask questions in an +off-hand way, and to comment upon my opinions. That was stimulating to +all. One morning my theme was "Genius and Talent." I said Genius was +something beyond--outside of--ourselves, which achieved great results +with small exertion. Not by any means was it a bit of shoemakers' +wax in the seat of one's chair (as Anthony Trollope put it). Talent +must work hard and constantly for development. I said: "Genius +is inspiration; Talent is perspiration." I had never heard that +definition and thought it was mine. Of late it has been widely quoted, +but with no acknowledgment, so I still think it is mine. Are there any +other claimants--and prior to 1880? + +There were many questions and decided differences of opinion. At last +one lady said: "Please give us examples of men who possess genius +rather than talent." As she spoke, the door opened, and in walked +Mrs. Edmund Clarence Stedman, wife of the poet, and with her a most +distinguished-looking woman, Mrs. William Whitney. I was a little +embarrassed, but replied sweetly, "Sheets and Kelley," meaning "Keats +and Shelley." Then followed a wild laugh in which I joined. + +Dr. John Lord once told me he had a similar shock. He spoke of +"Westford and Oxminster," instead of "Oxford and Westminster," and +never again could he get it correctly, try as he would. Neither his +twist nor mine was quite as bad as that of the speaker who said: "I +feel within me a half-warmed fish; I mean a half-formed wish." + + All genius [continued Lady Henrietta], whether it is artistic, + or literary, or spiritual, is something given from outside. I + once heard genius described as knowing by intuition what other + people know by experience. + + Something, or, I should say, somebody, for it involves + intelligence and knowledge, tells you these things, and you + just can't help expressing them in your own particular way, + with brush, or pen, or voice, whatever your individual + instrument may be. + + From _Patricia_ by Hon. Mrs. ROBERT HAMILTON. + +It was a pleasure to see that my theory of Genius was the same as Lady +Henrietta's in that charming book _Patricia_. I have enough collected +on that subject to give me shivers of amazement as I read the mass of +testimony. The mystery of Inspiration has always enthralled me. + +I was invited to so many evenings "at home," dinners and luncheons, +that I decided to reciprocate and be surely at home on Tuesday +evenings. These affairs were very informal and exceedingly enjoyable. +There were many who gladly entertained us by their accomplishments. +Champney the artist, sent after blackboard and chalk, and did +wonderfully clever things. Some one described a stiff and stupid +reception where everyone seemed to have left themselves at home. Those +who came to me brought their best. Mrs. Barnard, wife of President +Barnard of Columbia College, urged me to give three lectures in her +parlour. I could not find the time, but her house was always open to +me. To know Mr. Barnard was a great privilege. When called to +Columbia, it was apparently dying from starvation for new ideas, and +stagnant from being too conservative and deep in set grooves. His +plans waked up the sleepers and brought constant improvements. Though +almost entirely deaf, he was never morose or depressed, but always +cheerful and courageous. I used to dine with them often. Tubes from +each guest extended into one through which he could hear quite well. +He delighted in discussion of current events, historical matters, +politics of the day, and was apparently well informed on every +question. Unlike Harriet Martineau, who always put down her trumpet +when anyone dared to disagree with her opinions, he delighted in a +friendly controversy with anyone worthy of his steel. He fought with +patience and persistence for the rights of women to have equal +education with men, and at last gained his point, but died before +Barnard College was in existence. Every student of Barnard ought to +realize her individual indebtedness to this great educator, regarding +him as the champion of women and their patron saint. + + [Illustration: PRESIDENT BARNARD OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE] + +He was blessed in his home life. Mrs. Barnard was his shield, +sunshine, and strength. + + * * * * * + + Studio, 1271 Broadway, + corner 32d Street. + April 8, 1887. + + DEAR MISS SANBORN: + + I send you "Ovis Montana" or Mountain Sheep, who never enjoyed + the daily papers or devoured a scrap of poetry. The only + civilized thing he ever did was to give his life for a piece of + cold lead and got swindled at that. + + To be grafted in your Album is immortality. + + Sincerely yours, + ALBERT BIERSTADT. + +This gift was a big surprise to me. I was then corresponding with two +Boston papers and one in the West. I thought it discourteous in the +artists of the new Impressionist school, to sneer a little at +Bierstadt's great paintings, as if he could ever be set back as a +bye-gone or a has-been. And it gave me great pleasure to say so. I +sent several letters to him, and one day I received a card asking me +to call at his studio to look over some sketches. He said he wanted me +to help him to select a sketch out of quite a pile on the table, as he +wished to make a painting of one for a friend. I assured him I did not +know enough to do that, but he insisted he was so busy that I must +tell him which I thought would be most effective. I looked at every +one, feeling quite important, and at last selected the Mountain Sheep +poised on a high peak in a striking pose. A rare sight then. + +At Christmas that splendid picture painted by Bierstadt was sent to +our apartment for me. Never before had I received such appreciation +for my amateur scribbling. + +Ah, me! I was both complimented and proud. But my humiliation soon +came. When I called to thank the kind donor and speak of the fine +frame the mountain big-horn was now in, I was surprised to have Mr. +Bierstadt present to me a tall, distinguished-looking foreigner as +Munkacsy, the well-known Hungarian artist. He was most cordial, saying +in French that he was glad to meet an American woman who could +doubtless answer many questions he was anxious to ask. I could only +partially get his meaning, so Bierstadt translated it to me. And I, +who could read and translate French easily, had never found time to +learn to chat freely in any language but my own. I could have cried +right there; it was so mortifying, and I was losing such a pleasure. I +had the same pathetic experience with a Russian artist, Verestchagin, +whose immense picture, revealing the horrors of war, was then on +exhibition in New York. + +Again and again I have felt like a dummy, if not an idiot, in such a +position. I therefore beg all young persons to determine to speak and +write at least one language beside their own. + +Tom Hood wrote: + + "Never go to France + Unless you know the lingo + If you do, like me, + You'll repent by jingo." + +But it's even worse to be unable in your own country to greet and talk +with guests from other countries. + +I should like to see the dead languages, as well as Saxon and +Sanscrit, made elective studies every where; also the higher +mathematics, mystic metaphysics, and studies of the conscious and +subconscious, the ego and non-ego, matters of such uncertain study. +When one stops to realize the tragic brevity of life on this earth, +and to learn from statistics what proportion of each generation dies +in infancy, in childhood, in early maturity, and how few reach +the Biblical limit of life, it seems unnecessary to regard a +brain-wearying "curriculum" as essential or even sensible. Taine gives +us in his work on English Literature a Saxon description of life: "A +bird flying from the dark, a moment in the light, then swiftly passing +out into the darkness beyond." + +And really why do we study as if we were to rival the ante-diluvians +in age. Then wake up to the facts. I have been assured, by those who +know, that but a small proportion of college graduates are successful +or even heard of. They appear at commencement, sure that they are to +do great things, make big money, at least marry an heiress; they are +turned out like buttons, only to find out how hard it is to get +anything to do for good pay. One multi-millionaire of Boston, whose +first wages he told me were but four dollars a month, said there was +no one he so dreaded to see coming into his office as a college man +who must have help,--seldom able to write a legible hand, or to add +correctly a column of figures. There is solid food for thought. + + * * * * * + +Lowell said that "great men come in clusters." That is true, but it is +equally true that once in a great while, we are vouchsafed a royal +guest, a man who mingles freely with the ordinary throng, yet stands +far above them; a man who can wrest the primal secrets from nature's +closed hand, who makes astounding discoveries, only to gladly disclose +them to others. + +Such an unusual genius was Professor Robert Ogden Doremus, whose +enthusiasm was only matched by his modesty. In studying what he +accomplished, I wonder whether he was not sent from the central yet +universal "powers that be" to give us answers to some of the riddles +of life; or had he visited so many planets further advanced than our +own--for as Jean Paul Richter wrote "There is no end"--that he had +learned that the supposedly impossible could be done. He assisted John +W. Draper in taking the first photograph of the human face ever made. +Science with him was never opposed to religion. His moving pictures +and spectral analysis were almost miracles at that time. He delighted +to show how the earth in forming was flattened at the poles, and he +would illustrate the growth of the rings of Saturn. As a lecturer he +was a star, the only chemist and scientist to offer experiments. His +lectures were always attended by crowds of admirers. As a toxicologist +he was marvellous in his accuracy; no poisoner could escape his exact +analysis. His compressed cartridges, made waterproof and coated with +collodion, were used in the blasting operations at the Mont Cenis +tunnel through eight miles of otherwise impenetrable stone, solid +Alpine rock, between France and Italy. + +When the obelisk in Central Park showed signs of serious decay, he +saved the hieroglyphics by ironing it with melted parafine. He makes +us think of the juggler who can keep a dozen balls in the air as if it +were an easy trick, never dropping one. + + [Illustration: PROFESSOR R. OGDEN DOREMUS] + +But I forget to give my own memories of Dr. and Mrs. Doremus in their +delightful home on Fourth Avenue between 18th and 19th Streets,--a +home full of harmony, melody, peace, and love. Vincenzo Botta called +Dr. Doremus the "Mæcenas of New York," and his beautiful wife, the +ideal wife and mother, was named by her adoring husband the "queen +of women." Mrs. Doremus was prominent in New York's various societies +and charities, but the interests of her own family came first. One of +her sons said: "She never neglected her children; we were always loved +and well cared for." Both Dr. Doremus and his wife were devoted to +music, always of the best. He was the first president of the +Philharmonic Society who was not a musician by profession. All the +preceding presidents had been selected from the active musicians in +the society. One evening he was serenaded by the Philharmonic Society +under the leadership of Carl Bergman, the recently elected president +of the society. After the classic music had ceased, Dr. Doremus +appeared and thanked the society for the compliment. All were invited +into the house, where a bountiful collation was served and speeches +made. If you could see the photograph of the Philharmonic Society +serenading Dr. and Mrs. Doremus at their home, you would get a rare +insight into the old New York life, as compared with the present, in +which such a thing would be impossible. He said that his mother used +to take a cup of tea at the Battery afternoons with her sons. + +He was a lifelong friend of Christine Nilsson whom he considered the +greatest vocal and dramatic genius of the age. He wrote: "Never did +mortal woman sing as she sang that simple song that begins: + + 'Angels, Angels, bright and fair, + Take, O take me to thy care!'" + +I saw Nilsson and Parepa introduced there, who were to sail on the +same steamer in a few days. Nilsson made the banjo fashionable in New +York society, accompanying herself charmingly. All the famous opera +singers regarded the house of Dr. Doremus a place where they were +thoroughly at home, and always welcome. Ole Bull was for many years +his most devoted friend. Dr. Doremus writes: + + I recall that once when I was dining with Ole Bull, at the + house of a friend, our host said: 'Doctor, I don't think much + of Ole Bull's fiddling; you know what I mean--I don't think + much of his fiddling as compared with his great heart.' + +Mr. Edwin Booth, once walking with me, dropped my arm and exclaimed +with a dramatic gesture: "Ole Bull wasn't a man--he was a god!" + +The last time I had the privilege of listening to Ole Bull's witchery +with his violin, he gave an hour to Norwegian folk-songs, his wife at +the piano. She played with finish, feeling, and restraint. She first +went through the air, then he joined in with his violin with +indescribable charm. Critics said he lacked technique. I am glad he +did: his music went straight to the heart. At the last he told us he +would give the tune always played after a wedding when the guests had +stayed long enough--usually three days--and their departure was +desired. We were to listen for one shrill note which was imperative. +No one would care or dare to remain after that. + +Dr. Doremus showed me one evening a watch he was wearing, saying: + + In Ole Bull's last illness when he no longer had strength to + wind his watch, he asked his wife to wind it for him, and then + send it to his best friend, saying: 'I want it to go ticking + from my heart to his.' + +That watch magnetized by human love passing through it is now in the +possession of Arthur Lispenard Doremus, to whom it was left by his +father. It had to be wound by a key in the old fashion, and it ran in +perfect time for twenty-nine years. Then it became worn and was sent +to a watchmaker for repairs. It is still a reliable timekeeper, quite +a surprising story, as the greatest length of time before this was +twenty-four years for a watch to run. + +I think of these rare souls, Ole Bull and Dr. Doremus, as reunited, +and with their loved ones advancing to greater heights, constantly +receiving new revelations of omnipotent power, which "it is not in the +heart of man to conceive." + + LINES + + Read at the Celebration of the Seventieth Birthday + of DOCTOR R. OGDEN DOREMUS, January + 11th, 1894, at 241 Madison Avenue, + by LUTHER R. MARSH. + + + What shall be said for good Doctor Doremus? + To speak of him well, it well doth beseem us. + Not one single fault, through his seventy years, + Has ever been noticed by one of his peers. + + How flawless a life, and how useful withal! + Fulfilling his duties at every call! + Come North or come South, come East or come West, + He ever is ready to work for the best. + + In Chemics, the Doctor stands first on the list; + The nature, he knows, of all things that exist. + He lets loose the spirits of earth, rock or water, + And drives them through solids, cemented with mortar. + + How deftly he handles the retort and decanter! + Makes lightning and thunder would scare Tam O'Shanter; + Makes feathers as heavy as lead, in a jar, + And eliminates spirits from coal and from tar. + + By a touch of his finger he'll turn lead or tin + To invisible gas, and then back again; + He will set them aflame, as in the last day, + When all things are lit by the Sun's hottest ray. + + With oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen,--all-- + No gas can resist his imperative call-- + He'll solidify, liquefy, or turn into ice; + Or all of them re-convert, back in a trice. + + Amid oxides and alkalies, bromides and salts, + He makes them all dance in a chemical waltz; + And however much he with acids may play, + There's never a drop stains his pure mortal clay. + + He well knows what things will affect one another; + What acts as an enemy, and what as a brother; + He feels quite at home with all chemic affinities, + And treats them respectfully, as mystic Divinities. + + His wisdom is spread from far Texas to Maine; + For thousands on thousands have heard him explain + The secrets of Nature, and all her arcana, + From the youth of the Gulf, to the youth of Montana. + + In Paris, Doremus may compress'd powder compound, + Or, at home, wrap the Obelisk with paraffine round; + Or may treat Toxicology ever anew, + To enrich the bright students of famous Bellevue. + + He believes in the spirits of all physical things, + And can make them fly round as if they had wings; + But ask him to show you the Spirit of Man-- + He hesitates slightly, saying, "See!--if you can." + + Wherever he comes there always is cheer; + If absent, you miss him; you're glad when he's near; + His voice is a trumpet that stirreth the blood; + You feel that he's cheery, and you know that he's good. + + No doors in the city have swung open so wide, + To artists at home, and to those o'er the tide; + As, to Mario, Sontag, Badiali, Marini, + To Nilsson and Phillips, Rachel and Salvini. + + Much, much does he owe, for the grace of his life, + To the influence ever of his beautiful wife; + She, so grand and so stately, so true and so kind, + So lovely in person and so charming in mind! + +I had the pleasure of being well acquainted with Mr. Charles H. Webb, +a truly funny "funny man," who had homes in New York and Nantucket. +His slight stutter only added to the effect of his humorous talk. His +letters to the New York _Tribune_ from Long Branch, Saratoga, etc., +were widely read. He knew that he wrote absolute nonsense at times, +but nonsense is greatly needed in this world, and exquisitely droll +nonsensical nonsense is as uncommon as common sense. The titles of his +various books are inviting and informing, as _Seaweed and What We +Seed_. He wrote several parodies on sensational novels of his time. +_Griffith Gaunt_, he made fun of as "Liffith Lank"; _St. Elmo_, as +"St. Twelmo." _A Wicked Woman_ was another absurd tale. But I like +best a large volume, "_John Paul's Book_, moral and instructive, +travels, tales, poetry, and like fabrications, with several portraits +of the author and other spirited engravings." This book was dedicated, +"To the Bald-Headed, that noble and shining army of martyrs." When you +turn to look at his portrait, and the illuminated title page, you find +them not. The Frontispiece picture is upside down. The very +ridiculosity of his easy daring to do or say anything is taking. He +once wrote, in one of those trying books, with which we used to be +bored stiff, with questions such as "What is your favourite hour of +the day? He wrote dinner hour; what book not sacred would you part +with last? My pocket-book. Your favourite motto? When you must,--you +better." I especially liked the poem, "The Outside Dog in the Fight." +Here are two specimens of his prose: + + The fish-hawk is not an eagle. Mountain heights and clouds he + never scales; fish are more in his way, he scales + them--possibly regarding them as scaly-wags. For my bird is + pious; a stern conservator is he of the public morals. Last + Sunday a frivolous fish was playing not far from the beach, and + Dr. Hawk went out and stopped him. 'Tis fun to watch him at + that sort of work--stopping play--though somehow it does not + seem to amuse the fish much. Up in the air he poises + pensively, hanging on hushed wings as though listening for + sounds--maybe a fish's. By and by he hears a herring--is he + hard of herring, think you? Then down he drops and soon has a + Herring Safe. (Send me something, manufacturers, immediately.) + Does he tear his prey from limb to limb? No, he merely sails + away through the blue ether--how happy can he be with + either!--till the limb whereon his own nest is built is + reached. Does the herring enjoy that sort of riding, think you? + Quite as much, I should say, as one does hack-driving. From my + point of view, the hawk is but the hackman of the air. + Sympathize with the fish? Not much. Nor would you if you heard + the pitiful cry the hawk sets up the moment he finds that his + claws are tangled in a fish's back. Home he flies to seek + domestic consolation, uttering the while the weeping cry of a + grieved child; there are tears in his voice, so you know the + fish must be hurting him. The idea that a hawk can't fly over + the water of an afternoon without some malicious fish jumping + up and trying to bite him! + + If a fish wants to cross the water safely, let him take a + Fulton ferryboat for it. There he will find a sign reading: + + "No Peddling or Hawking allowed in this cabin." Strange that + hawking should be so sternly prohibited on boats which are + mainly patronized by Brooklynites chronically afflicted with + catarrh! + + + Never shall it be said that I put my hand to the plow and + turned back. For that matter never shall it be said of me that + I put hand to a plow at all, unless a plow should chase me + upstairs and into the privacy of my bed-room, and then I should + only put hand to it for the purpose of throwing it out of the + window. The beauty of the farmer's life was never very clear to + me. As for its boasted "independence," in the part of the + country I came from, there was never a farm that was not + mortgaged for about all it was worth; never a farmer who was + not in debt up to his chin at "the store." Contented! When it + rains the farmer grumbles because he can't hoe or do something + else to his crops, and when it does not rain, he grumbles + because his crops do not grow. Hens are the only ones on a farm + that are not in a perpetual worry and ferment about "crops:" + they fill theirs with whatever comes along, whether it be an + angleworm, a kernel of corn, or a small cobblestone, and give + thanks just the same. + + + THE OUTSIDE DOG IN THE FIGHT + + You may sing of your dog, your bottom dog, + Or of any dog that you please, + I go for the dog, the wise old dog, + That knowingly takes his ease, + And, wagging his tail outside the ring, + Keeping always his bone in sight, + Cares not a pin in his wise old head + For either dog in the fight. + + Not his is the bone they are fighting for, + And why should my dog sail in, + With nothing to gain but a certain chance + To lose his own precious skin! + There may be a few, perhaps, who fail + To see it in quite this light, + But when the fur flies I had rather be + The outside dog in the fight. + + I know there are dogs--most generous dogs + Who think it is quite the thing + To take the part of the bottom dog, + And go yelping into the ring. + I care not a pin what the world may say + In regard to the wrong or right; + My money goes as well as my song, + For the dog that keeps out of the fight! + +Mr. Webb, like Charles Lamb and the late Mr. Travers, stammered just +enough to give piquancy to his conversation. To facilitate enunciation +he placed a "g" before the letters which it was hard for him to +pronounce. We were talking of the many sad and sudden deaths from +pneumonia, bronchitis, etc., during the recent spring season, and then +of the insincerity of poets who sighed for death and longed for a +summons to depart. He said in his deliciously slow and stumbling +manner: "I don't want the ger-pneu-m-mon-ia. I'm in no ger-hurry to +ger-go." Mrs. Webb's drawing-rooms were filled with valuable pictures +and bronzes, and her Thursday Evenings at home were a delight to many. + +How little we sometimes know of the real spirit and the inner life of +some noble man or woman. Mrs. Hermann was a remarkable instance of +this. I thought I was well acquainted with Mrs. Esther Hermann, who, +in her home, 59 West fifty-sixth Street New York, was always +entertaining her many friends. Often three evenings a week were given +to doing something worth while for someone, or giving opportunity for +us to hear some famous man or woman speak, who was interested in some +great project. And her refreshments, after the hour of listening was +over, were of the most generous and delicious kind. Hers was a lavish +hospitality. It was all so easily and quietly done, that no one +realized that those delightful evenings were anything but play to her. +She became interested in me when I was almost a novice in the lecture +field, gave me two benefits, invited those whom she thought would +enjoy my talks, and might also be of service to me. There was never +the slightest stiffness; if one woman was there for the first time, +and a stranger, Mrs. Hermann and her daughters saw that there were +plenty of introductions and an escort engaged to take the lady to the +supper room. Mrs. Hermann in those early days, often took me to drive +in the park--a great treat. We chatted merrily together, and I still +fancied I knew her. But her own family did not know of her great +benefactions; her son only knew by looking over her check books, after +her death, how much she had given away. Far from blazoning it abroad, +she insisted on secrecy. She invited Mr. Henry Fairfield Osborn to +call, who was keenly interested in securing money to start a Natural +History Museum, he bringing a friend with him. After they had owned +that they found it impossible even to gain the first donation, she +handed Mr. Osborn, after expressing her interest, a check for ten +thousand dollars. At first he thought he would not open it in her +presence, but later did so. He was amazed and said very gratefully: +"Madam, I will have this recognized at once by the Society." She said: +"I want no recognition. If you insist, I shall take back the +envelope." Her daughter describes her enthusiasm one very stormy, cold +Sunday. Stephen S. Wise, the famous rabbi, was advertised to preach in +the morning at such a place. "Mother was there in a front seat early, +eager to get every word of wisdom that fell from his lips." Mr. Wise +spoke at the Free Synagogue Convention at three o'clock P.M. "Mother +was there promptly again, in front, her dark eyes glowing with intense +interest." At eight P.M. he spoke at another hall on the other side of +the city, "Mother was there." At the close, Mr. Wise stepped down from +the platform to shake hands with Mrs. Hermann, and said, "I am +surprised at seeing you at these three meetings, and in such bad +weather." She replied, + +"Why should you be surprised; you were at all three, weren't you?" + +She had a long life of perfect health and never paid the least +attention to the worst of weather if she had a duty to perform. + +There was something of the fairy godmother in this large-hearted +woman, whose modesty equalled her generosity. She dropped gifts by the +way, always eager to help, and anxious to keep out of sight. Mrs. +Hermann was one of those women who sow the seeds of kindness with a +careless hand, and help to make waste places beautiful. She became +deeply interested in education early in life, and her faith was +evidenced by her work. She was one of the founders of Barnard College. +Her checks became very familiar to the treasurers of many educational +enterprises. She was one of the patrons of the American Association +for the Advancement of Sciences, and many years ago gave one thousand +dollars to aid the Association. Since then she has added ten thousand +dollars as a nucleus toward the erection of a building to be called +the Academy of Science. With the same generous spirit she contributed +ten thousand dollars to the Young Men's Hebrew Association for +educational purposes. It was for the purpose of giving teachers the +opportunity of studying botany from nature, that she gave ten +thousand dollars to the Botanical Garden in the Bronx. + +Her knowledge of the great need for a technical school for Jewish boys +preyed on her mind at night so that she could not sleep, and she felt +it was wrong to be riding about the city when these boys could be +helped. She sold her carriages and horses, walked for three years +instead of riding, and sent a large check to start the school. It is +pleasant to recall that the boys educated there have turned out +wonderfully well, some of them very clever electricians. + +I could continue indefinitely naming the acts of generosity of this +noble woman, but we have said enough to show why her many friends +desired to express their appreciation of her sterling virtues, and +their love for the gentle lady, whose kindness has given happiness to +countless numbers. To this end, some of her friends planned to give +her a a testimonial, and called together representatives from the +hundred and twenty-five different clubs and organizations of which she +was a member, to consider the project. This suggestion was received +with such enthusiasm that a committee was appointed who arranged a +fitting tribute worthy of the occasion. + +The poem with which I close my tribute to my dear friend, Mrs. +Hermann, is especially fitting to her beautiful life. Her family, even +after they were all married and in happy homes of their own, were +expected by the mother every Sunday evening. These occasions were +inexpressibly dear to her warm heart, devoted to her children and +grandchildren. But owing to her reticence she was even to them really +unknown. + +I had given at first many more instances of her almost daily +ministrations but later this seemed to be in direct opposition to her +oft-expressed wish for no recognition of her gifts. "We are spirits +clad in veils," but of Mrs. Hermann this was especially true and I +love her memory too well not to regard her wishes as sacred. + + GNOSIS + + Thought is deeper than all speech, + Feeling deeper than all thought; + Souls to souls can never teach + What unto themselves was taught. + + We are spirits clad in veils; + Man by man was never seen; + All our deep communing fails + To remove the shadowy screen. + + Heart to heart was never known; + Mind with mind did never meet; + We are columns left alone + Of a temple once complete. + + Like the stars that gem the sky, + Far apart, though seeming near, + In our light we scattered lie; + All is thus but starlight here. + + What is social company, + But the babbling summer stream? + What our wise philosophy + But the glancing of a dream? + + Only when the sun of love + Melts the scattered stars of thought, + Only when we live above + What the dim-eyed world hath taught, + + Only when our souls are fed + By the fount which gave them birth, + And by inspiration led + Which they never drew from earth. + + We, like parted drops of rain, + Swelling till they meet and run, + Shall be all absorbed again, + Melting, flowing into one. + + CHRISTOPHER PEARSE CRANCH (1813-1892). + +Cranch's own title for this poem was "Enosis," not "Gnosis" as now +given; "Enosis" being a Greek word meaning "all in one," which is +illustrated by the last verse. + +It was first published in the _Dial_ in 1844. "Stanzas" appeared at +the head, and at the end was his initial, "C." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +Three Years at Smith College--Appreciation of Its Founder--A +Successful Lecture Tour--My Trip to Alaska. + + +"There is nothing so certain as the unexpected," and "if you fit +yourself for the wall, you will be put in." + +I was in danger of being spoiled by kindness in New York and the +surrounding towns, if not in danger of a breakdown from constant +activity, literary and social, with club interests and weekend visits +at homes of delightful friends on the Hudson, when I was surprised and +honoured by a call from President L. Clark Seelye of Smith College, +Northampton, Massachusetts, who invited me to take the position of +teacher of English Literature at that college. + +I accepted, and remained at Northampton for three years, from +1880-1883. It was a busy life. I went on Saturday afternoons to a +class of married ladies at Mrs. Terhune's (Marion Harland) in +Springfield, Massachusetts, where her husband was a clergyman in one +of the largest churches in that city. I also published several books, +and at least two Calendars, while trying to make the students at Smith +College enthusiastic workers in my department. + +Mrs. Terhune was a versatile and entertaining woman, a most practical +housekeeper; and she could tell the very best ghost story I ever +heard, for it is of a ghost who for many years was the especial +property of her father's family. + +When I gave evening lectures at Mrs. Terhune's while at Smith College, +I was accustomed to spend the night there. She always insisted upon +rising early to see that the table was set properly for me, and she +often would bring in something specially tempting of her own cooking. +A picture I can never forget is that of Doctor Terhune who, before +offering grace at meals, used to stretch out a hand to each of his +daughters, and so more closely include them in his petition. + +I used no special text-book while at Smith College, and requested my +class to question me ten minutes at the close of every recitation. +Each girl brought a commonplace book to the recitation room to take +notes as I talked. Some of them showed great power of expression while +writing on the themes provided. There was a monthly examination, +often largely attended by friends out of town. I still keep up my +interest in my pupils of that day. One of them told me that they +thought at first I was currying popularity, I was so cordial and even +affectionate, but they confessed they were mistaken. + +Under President Seelye's wise management, Smith College has taken a +high position, and is constantly growing better. The tributes to his +thirty-seven years in service when he resigned prove how thoroughly he +was appreciated. I give a few extracts: + + We wish to record the fact that this has been, in a unique + degree, your personal work. If you had given the original sum + which called the College into being, and had left its + administration to others, you would have been less truly the + creator of the institution than you have been through your + executive efficiency. Your plans have seldom been revised by + the Board of Trustees, and your selection of teachers has + brought together a faculty which is at least equal to the best + of those engaged in the education of women. You have secured + for the teachers a freedom of instruction which has inspired + them to high attainment and fruitful work. You, with them, have + given to the College a commanding position in the country, and + have secured for it and for its graduates universal respect. + The deep foundations for its success have been intellectual and + spiritual, and its abiding work has been the building up of + character by contact with character. + + + Fortunate in her location, fortunate in her large minded + trustees, fortunate in the loyal devotedness of her faculty and + supremely fortunate has our College been in the consecrated + creative genius of her illustrious president. Bringing to his + task a noble ideal, with rare sagacity as an administrator; + with financial and economic skill rarely found in a scholar and + idealist, but necessary to foster into fullest fruitfulness the + slender pecuniary resources then at hand; with tact and suavity + which made President Seelye's "no," if no were needed, more + gracious than "yes" from others; with the force which grasps + difficulties fearlessly; with dignified scholarship and a + courtly manner, the master builder of our College, under whose + hand the little one has become a thousand and the small one a + strong republic, has achieved the realization of his high ideal + and is crowned with honour and affection. + + + He has made one ashamed of any but the highest motives, and has + taught us that sympathy and love for mankind are the traits for + which to strive. The ideals of womanly life which he instilled + will ever be held high before us. + + + There are many distinguished qualities which a college + president must possess. He must be idealist, creator, executor, + financier, and scholar. President Seelye--is all these--but he + had another and a rarer gift which binds and links these + qualities together, as the chain on which jewels are + strung--President Seelye had immense capacity for work and + patient attention for details. It is this unusual combination + which has given us a great College, and has given to our + president a unique position among educators. + +I realize that I must at times have been rather a trying proposition +to President Seelye for I was placed in an entirely new world, and +having been almost wholly educated by my father, by Dartmouth +professors, and by students of the highest scholarship, I never knew +the mental friction and the averaging up and down of those accustomed +to large classes. I gained far more there than I gave, for I learned +my limitations, or some of them, and to try to stick closely to my own +work, to be less impulsive, and not offer opinions and suggestions, +unasked, undesired, and in that early stage of the college, +objectionable. Still, President Seelye writes to me: "I remember you +as a very stimulating teacher of English Literature, and I have often +heard your pupils, here and afterwards, express great interest in your +instruction." + +The only "illuminating" incident in my three years at Smith College +was owing to my wish to honour the graduating reception of the Senior +class. I pinned my new curtains carefully away, put some candles in +the windows, leaving two young ladies of the second year to see that +all was safe. The house was the oldest but one in the town; it +harboured two aged paralytics whom it would be difficult, if not +dangerous, to remove. Six students had their home there. As my +fire-guards heard me returning with my sister and some gentlemen of +the town, they left the room, the door slammed, a breeze blew the +light from the candles to the curtains, and in an instant the curtains +were ablaze. + +And now the unbelievable sequel. The room seemed all on fire in five +minutes. Next, the overhead beam was blazing. I can tell you that the +fire was extinguished by those gentlemen, and no one ever knew we had +been so near a conflagration until three years later when the kind +lady of the house wrote to me: "Dear Friend, did you ever have a fire +in your room? In making it over I found some wood badly scorched." I +have the most reliable witnesses, or you would never have believed it. +In the morning my hostess said to the girls assembled at breakfast: +"Miss Sanborn is always rather noisy when she has guests, but I never +did hear such a hullabaloo as she made last evening." + +It is certain that President Seelye deserves all the appreciation and +affectionate regard he received. He has won his laurels and he needs +the rest which only resignation could bring. The college is equally +fortunate in securing as his successor, Marion LeRoy Burton, who in +the coming years may lead the way through broader paths, to greater +heights, always keeping President Seelye's ideal of the truly womanly +type, in a distinctively woman's college. + +As the Rev. Dr. John M. Greene writes me (the clergyman who suggested +to Sophia Smith that she give her money to found a college for women, +and who at eighty-five years has a perfectly unclouded mind): "I want +to say that my ambition for Smith College is that it shall be a real +women's college. Too many of our women's colleges are only men's +colleges for women." + +I desire now to add my tribute to that noble woman, Sophia Smith of +Hatfield, Massachusetts. + +On April 18, 1796, the town of Hatfield, in town meeting assembled, +"voiced to set up two schools, for the schooling of girls four months +in the year." The people of that beautiful town seemed to have heard +the voice of their coming prophetess, commissioned to speak a word for +woman's education, which the world has shown itself ready to hear. + +In matters of heredity, Sophia Smith was fortunate. Her paternal +grandmother, Mary Morton, was an extraordinary woman. After the death +of her husband, she became the legal guardian of her six sons, all +young, cared for a large farm, and trained her boys to be useful and +respected in the community. + +Sophia Smith was born in Hatfield, August 27, 1796; just six months +before Mary Lyon was born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, about seventeen +miles distant. Sophia remembered her grandmother and said: "I looked +up to my grandmother with great love and reverence. She, more than +once, put her hands on my head and said, 'I want you should grow up, +and be a good woman, and try to make the world better.'" And her +mother was equally religious, efficient, kind to the poor, sympathetic +but not impulsive. Sophia lived in a country farmhouse near the +Connecticut River for sixty-eight years. She was sadly hampered +physically. One of the historians of Hatfield writes me: + + Her infirmity of deafness was troublesome to some extent when + she was young, making her shy and retiring. At forty she was + absolutely incapable of hearing conversation. She also was lame + in one foot and had a withered hand. In spite of this, I think + she was an active and spirited girl, about like other girls. + She was very fond of social intercourse, especially later in + life when my father knew her, but this intercourse was confined + to a small circle. Doctor Greene speaks of her timidity also. I + know of no traditions about her girlhood. As an example of the + thrift of the Smiths, or perhaps I should say, their exactness + in all business dealings, my father says that Austin Smith + never asked his sisters to sew a button or do repairs on his + clothing without paying them a small sum for it, and he + always received six cents for doing chores or running errands. + No doubt this was a practice maintained from early youth, for + when Sophia Smith was born, in 1796, the family was in very + moderate circumstances. The whole community was poor for some + time after the Revolution, and everyone saved pennies. + +As to her education, she used to sit on the doorsteps of the +schoolhouse and hear the privileged boys recite their lessons. She +also had four or five months of instruction in the schoolhouse, and +was a student in Hopkins Academy for a short time and, when fourteen +years old, attended school at Hartford, Connecticut, for a term of +twelve weeks. + + [Illustration: SOPHIA SMITH] + +Then a long, uneventful, almost shut-in life, and in 1861 her brother +Austin left her an estate of about four hundred and fifty thousand +dollars. + +Hon. George W. Hubbard of Hatfield was her financial adviser. He +advised her to found an academy for Hatfield, which she did; and after +Doctor Greene had caused her to decide on a college for women, Mr. +Hubbard insisted on having it placed at Northampton, Massachusetts, +instead of Hatfield, Massachusetts. With her usual modesty, she +objected to giving her full name to the college, as it would look as +if she were seeking fame for herself. She gave thirty thousand dollars +to endow a professorship in the Andover Theological Seminary at +Andover, Massachusetts. + +She grew old gracefully, never soured by her infirmities, always +denying herself to help others and make the world better for her +living in it. + +Her name must stand side by side with the men who founded Vassar, +Wellesley, and Barnard, and that of Mary Lyon to whom women owe the +college of Mt. Holyoke. + +As Walt Whitman wrote: + + I am the poet of the woman the same as the man, + And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man, + And I say there is nothing greater than the mother of men. + +She was a martyr physically, and mentally a heroine. Let us never fail +to honour the woman who founded Smith College. + +Extracts from a letter replying to my question: "Is there a +full-length portrait of Sophia Smith, now to be seen anywhere in the +principal building at Smith College, Northampton?" + + How I wish that some generous patron of Smith College might + bestow upon it two thousand dollars for a full-length portrait + of Sophia Smith to be placed in the large reading room, at the + end of which is a full-length portrait of President Seelye. The + presence of such a commanding figure seen by hundreds of girls + every day would be a subtle and lasting influence. + +I like to nibble at a stuffed date, but do not enjoy having my memory +stuffed with dates, though I am proud rather than sensitive in regard +to my age. + +Lady Morgan was unwilling her age should be known, and pleads: + + What has a woman to do with dates--cold, false, erroneous, + chronological dates--new style, old style, precession of the + equinoxes, ill-timed calculation of comets long since due at + their station and never come? Her poetical idiosyncrasy, + calculated by epochs, would make the most natural points of + reference in woman's autobiography. Plutarch sets the example + of dropping dates in favour of incidents; and an authority more + appropriate, Madame de Genlis, who began her own memoires at + eighty, swept through nearly an age of incident and revolution + without any reference to vulgar eras signifying nothing (the + times themselves out of joint), testifying to the pleasant + incidents she recounts and the changes she witnessed. I mean to + have none of them! + +I hesitate to allude to my next experience after leaving Smith +College, for it was so delightful that I am afraid I shall scarcely be +believed, and am also afraid that my readers will consider me a "swell +head" and my story only fit for a "Vanity Box." Yet I would not leave +out one bit of the Western lecture trip. If it were possible to tell +of the great kindness shown me at every step of the way without any +mention of myself, I would gladly prefer to do that. + +After leaving Smith College, I was enjoying commencement festivities +in my own home--when another surprising event! Mr. George W. +Bartholomew, a graduate of Dartmouth, who was born and brought up in a +neighbouring Vermont town, told me when he called that he had +established a large and successful school for young ladies in +Cincinnati, Ohio, taking a few young ladies to live in his pleasant +home. He urged me to go to his school for three months to teach +literature, also giving lectures to ladies of the city in his large +recitation hall. And he felt sure he could secure me many invitations +to lecture in other cities. + +Remembering my former Western experience with measles and +whooping-cough, I realized that mumps and chicken-pox were still +likely to attack me, but the invitation was too tempting, and it was +gladly accepted, and I went to Cincinnati in the fall of 1884. + +Mrs. Bartholomew I found a charming woman and a most cordial friend. +Every day of three months spent in Cincinnati was full of happiness. +Mrs. Broadwell, a decided leader in the best social matters, as well +as in all public spirited enterprises, I had known years before in +Hanover, N.H. Her brother, General William Haines Lytle, had been +slain at Chickamauga during the Civil War, just in the full strength +and glory of manhood. He wrote that striking poem, beginning: "I am +dying, Egypt, dying." Here are two verses of his one poem: + + As for thee, star-eyed Egyptian! + Glorious sorceress of the Nile, + Light the path to Stygian horrors + With the splendors of thy smile. + Give the Cæsar crowns and arches, + Let his brow the laurel twine; + I can scorn the Senate's triumphs, + Triumphing in love like thine. + + I am dying, Egypt, dying; + Hark! the insulting foeman's cry, + They are coming! quick, my falchion! + Let me front them ere I die. + Ah! no more amid the battle + Shall my heart exulting swell-- + Isis and Osiris guard thee! + Cleopatra, Rome, farewell! + +He was engaged to Miss Sarah Doremus, a sister of Professor Doremus of +New York. After the terrible shock of his sudden death she never +married, but devoted her life to carrying out her sainted mother's +missionary projects, once taking a trip alone around the world to +visit the missionary stations started by her mother. + +As soon as I had arrived at Mr. Bartholomew's, Mrs. Broadwell gave me +a dinner. Six unmarried ladies and seven well-known bachelors were the +guests, as she wished to give me just what I needed, an endorsement +among her own friends. The result was instant and potent. + +Everyone at that dinner did something afterwards to entertain me. I +was often invited to the opera, always had a box (long-stemmed roses +for all the ladies), also to dinner and lunches. If anyone in the city +had anything in the way of a rare collection, from old engravings to +rare old books, an evening was devoted to showing the collection to me +with other friends. One lady, Miss Mary Louise McLaughlin, invited me +to lunch with her alone. Her brother, a bachelor lawyer, had at that +time the finest private library in the city. She was certainly the +most versatile in her accomplishments of anyone I have ever known. She +had painted the best full-length portrait of Judge Longworth, father +of the husband of Alice Roosevelt. She was a china painter to beat the +Chinese, and author of four books on the subject. She was an artist +in photography; had a portfolio of off-hand sketches of street gamins, +newsboys, etc., full of life and expression. She brought the art of +under glaze in china-firing to this country and had discovered a +method of etching metal into fine woods for bedroom furniture. She was +an expert at wood-carving, taking lessons from Ben Pitman. Was fond of +housekeeping and made a success of it in every way. Anything else? +Yes, she showed me pieces of her exquisite embroidery and had made an +artistic and wholly sane "crazy-quilt" so much in vogue at that time. +Her own beautiful china was all painted and finished by herself. As I +left her, I felt about two feet high, with a pin head. And yet she was +free from the slightest touch of conceit. + +Miss Laura MacDonald (daughter of Alexander MacDonald, the business +man who took great risks with Mr. John D. Rockefeller in borrowing +money to invest largely in oil fields) was my pupil in the school, and +through her I became acquainted with her lovely mother, who invited me +to her home at Clifton, just out of Cincinnati, to lecture to a select +audience of her special friends. + +My lectures at Mr. Bartholomew's school were very well attended. Lists +of my subjects were sent about widely, and when the day came for my +enthusiastic praise of Christopher North (John Wilson), a sweet-faced +old lady came up to the desk and placed before me a large bunch of +veritable Scotch heather for which she had sent to Scotland. + +In Cleveland, where I gave a series of talks, President Cutler, of +Adelbert University, rose at the close of the last lecture and, +looking genially towards me, made this acknowledgment: "I am free to +confess that I have often been charmed by a woman, and occasionally +instructed, but never before have I been charmed and instructed by the +same woman." + +Cleveland showed even then the spirit of the Cleveland of today, which +is putting that city in the very first rank of the cities not only of +the United States but of the world in civic improvement and municipal +progress, morally and physically. Each night of my lectures I was +entertained at a different house while there, and as a trifle to show +their being in advance of other cities, I noticed that the ladies wore +wigs to suit their costumes. That only became the fashion here last +winter, but I saw no ultra colours such as we saw last year, green and +pink and blue, but only those that suited their style and their +costume. + +At Chicago I was the guest of Mrs. H.O. Stone, who gave me a dinner +and an afternoon reception, where I met many members of various +clubs, and the youngest grandmothers I had ever seen. At a lunch given +for me by Mrs. Locke, wife of Rev. Clinton B. Locke, I met Mrs. Potter +Palmer, Mrs. Wayne MacVeagh, and Mrs. Williams, wife of General +Williams, and formerly the wife of Stephen Douglas. Mrs. Locke was the +best _raconteur_ of any woman I have ever heard. Dartmouth men drove +me to all the show places of that wonderful city. Lectured in Rev. Dr. +Little's church parlors. He was not only a New Hampshire man, but born +in Boscawen, New Hampshire, where my grandfather lived, and where my +mother lived until her marriage. + +It is pleasant to record that I was carried along on my lecture tour, +sometimes by invitation of a Dartmouth man, again by college girls who +had graduated at Smith College; then at Peoria, Illinois; welcomed +there by a dear friend from Brooklyn, New York, wife of a business man +of that city. I knew of Peoria only as a great place for the +manufacture of whisky, and for its cast-iron stoves, but found it a +city, magnificently situated on a series of bold bluffs. And when I +reached my friend's house, a class of ladies, who had been easily +chatting in German, wanted to stay and ask me a few questions. These +showed deep thought, wide reading, and finely disciplined minds. Only +one reading there in the Congregational Church, where there was such a +fearful lack of ventilation that I turned from my manuscript and +quoted a bit from the "Apele for Are to the Sextant of the Old Brick +Meetinouse by A. Gasper," which proved effectual. + +I give this impressive exhortation entire as it should be more +generally known. + + A APELE FOR ARE TO THE SEXTANT + + BY ARABELLA WILSON + + O Sextant of the meetinouse which sweeps + And dusts, or is supposed to! and makes fiers, + And lites the gas, and sumtimes leaves a screw loose, + In which case it smells orful--wus than lampile; + And wrings the Bel and toles it, and sweeps paths; + And for these servaces gits $100 per annum; + Wich them that thinks deer let 'em try it; + Gittin up before starlite in all wethers, and + Kindlin fiers when the wether is as cold + As zero, and like as not green wood for kindlins, + (I wouldn't be hierd to do it for no sum;) + But o Sextant there are one kermodity + Wuth more than gold which don't cost nuthin; + Wuth more than anything except the Sole of man! + I mean pewer Are, Sextant, I mean pewer Are! + O it is plenty out o dores, so plenty it doant no + What on airth to do with itself, but flize about + Scatterin leaves and bloin off men's hats; + In short its jest as free as Are out dores; + But O Sextant! in our church its scarce as piety, + Scarce as bankbills when ajunts beg for mishuns, + Which sum say is purty often, taint nuthin to me, + What I give aint nuthing to nobody; but O Sextant! + You shet 500 men women and children + Speshily the latter, up in a tite place, + Sum has bad breths, none of em aint too sweet, + Sum is fevery, sum is scroflus, sum has bad teeth + And sum haint none, and sum aint over clean; + But evry one of em brethes in and out and in + Say 50 times a minnet, or 1 million and a half breths an hour; + Now how long will a church full of are last at that rate? + I ask you; say fifteen minnets, and then what's to be did? + Why then they must brethe it all over agin, + And then agin and so on, till each has took it down + At least ten times and let it up agin, and what's more, + The same individible doant have the privilege + Of brethin his own are and no one else, + Each one must take wotever comes to him. + O Sextant! doant you know our lungs is belluses + To bio the fier of life and keep it from + Going out: and how can bellusses blo without wind? + And aint wind are? I put it to your konshens, + Are is the same to us as milk to babies, + Or water is to fish, or pendlums to clox, + Or roots and airbs unto an Injun doctor, + Or little pills unto an omepath. + Or Boze to girls. Are is for us to brethe. + What signifize who preaches ef I can't brethe? + What's Pol? What's Pollus to sinners who are ded? + Ded for want of breth! Why Sextant when we dye + Its only coz we cant brethe no more--that's all. + And now O Sextant! let me beg of you + To let a little are into our cherch + (Pewer are is sertin proper for the pews); + And dew it week days and on Sundys tew-- + It aint much trobble--only make a hoal, + And then the are will come in of itself + (It loves to come in where it can git warm). + And O how it will rouze the people up + And sperrit up the preacher, and stop garps + And yorns and fijits as effectool + As wind on the dry boans the Profit tels + Of. + +I went as far as Omaha, and then was asked if I were not going West. +The reason for this charming reception was that it was a novelty then +to hear a young woman talk in a lively way on striking themes which +had been most carefully prepared, and a light touch added, with +frequent glints of humour. Byron declared that easy writing was very +hard reading. I reversed that method, always working hard over each +lecture. For instance, I spent two months in preparing "Bachelor +Authors," cramming and condensing, and passing quickly over dangerous +ground. With my vocal training I could easily be heard by an audience +of five hundred. + +A friend was eager to go to Alaska by Seattle; then, after our return, +visit Yellowstone Park and San Francisco. She urged me so eloquently +to accompany her, that I left my home in Metcalf, Massachusetts, +taking great risks in many ways, but wonderful to relate, nothing +disastrous occurred. + +We scurried by fastest trains across the country to Seattle, just in +time to take the Steamer _Topeka_ from Seattle on August 8, 1899, the +last boat of the season, and the last chance tourists ever had to see +the Muir Glacier in its marvellous glory, as it was broken badly +before the next summer. + +My friend advised me kindly to ask no questions of the captain, as she +knew well what a bore that was. I promised to be exceedingly careful. +So, next morning, when that tall and handsome Captain Thompson came +around the deck, with a smiling "Good morning," and bowing right and +left, I was deeply absorbed in a book; the next time I was looking at +a view; another time I played I was fast asleep. He never spoke to me, +only stopped an instant before me and walked on. At last, a bow-legged +pilot came directly from the captain's office to my open window, +bringing to Miss Sanborn a bowl of extra large and luscious +strawberries from Douglas Island, quite famous on account of the size +and sweetness of this berry. With this gift came a note running thus: + + DEAR MISS SANBORN: + + I am a little puzzled by your frigid manner. Have you any + personal prejudice against me? Walter Raymond wrote me before + he sailed, to look you up, and do what I could for you, as you + were quite a favourite on the Eastern coast, and any kindness + shown to you would be considered a personal favour to him, and + that he only wished he could take the trip with us. + +I was amazed and mortified. I had obeyed my directions too literally, +and must and did explain and apologize. After that, such pleasant +attentions from him! Invited to call at his office with my friends, to +meet desirable passengers, something nice provided for refreshment, +and these gentlemen were always ready for cards or conversation. But +the great occasion was when I had no idea of such an honour, that the +captain said: + +"We are soon to pass through the Wrangel Narrows, a dangerous place, +and the steering through zigzag lines must be most careful. I am going +to smuggle you on to the bridge to see me steer and hear me give my +orders that will be repeated below. But as it is against the rule to +take a woman up there at such a time, promise me to keep perfectly +silent. If you make one remark you lose your life." + +I agreed and kept my mouth shut without a muzzle. That "memory" is as +clear today as if it had happened yesterday. + +One day while reading in my fine stateroom, a lady came to the open +door and asked me if I would go out with her on the deck that pleasant +afternoon and meet some friends of hers. I thanked her, but refused as +I was reading one of Hon. Justin McCarthy's books, and as I had the +honour of meeting him and his most interesting wife in New York City +at the home of Mrs. Henry M. Field, I was much engrossed in what he +wrote. Again, another person came and entreated me to go to the deck; +not suspecting any plot to test me, I went with her, and found a crowd +gathered there, and a good-looking young man seemed to be haranguing +them. He stopped as we came along and after being introduced went on +with: "As I was saying, Miss Sanborn, I regard women as greatly our +inferiors; in fact, essentially unemotional,--really bovine. Do you +really not agree to that?" I almost choked with surprise and wrath, +but managed to retort: "I am sorry to suppose your mother was a cow, +but she must have been to raise a calf like you." And I walked away to +the tune of great applause. It seems someone had said that I was never +at a loss when a repartee was needed, and it was proposed to give me +an opportunity. Next surprise: a call as we were nearing Seattle from +a large and noticeable lady who introduced herself saying: + +"I am the president of a club which I started myself, and feel bound +to help on. I have followed you about a good deal, and shall be much +obliged if you will jot down for me to read to this club everything +you have said since you came on board. I know they will enjoy it." I +was sorry my memory failed me entirely on that occasion. Still it was +a great compliment! + +But the Muir Glacier! We had to keep three and a half miles away, lest +the steamer be injured by the small icebergs which broke off the +immense mass into the water with a thunderous roar. A live glacier +advances a certain distance each day and retreats a little. Those who +visited the glacier brought back delicate little blue harebells they +found growing in the clefts of ice. No description of my impressions? +Certainly not! Too much of that has been done already. + +We saw curious sights along the way, such as the salmon leaping into a +fenced-in pool to deposit their spawn; there they could be easily +speared, dried, and pitched into wagons as we pitch hay in New +England. I saw the Indians stretching the salmon on boards put up in +the sun, their color in the sun a brilliant pinkish red. + +I saw bears fishing at the edge of water, really catching fish in +their clumsy paws. Other bears were picking strawberries for their +cubs. As I watched them strolling away, I thought they might be +looking for a stray cow to milk to add flavour to the berries. + +We stopped at Wrangel to look at the totem poles, many of which have +since been stolen as the Indians did not wish to sell them; our usual +method of business with that abused race. Totem poles are genealogical +records, and give the history of the family before whose door they +stand. No one would quietly take the registered certificates of +Revolutionary ancestors searched for with great care from the Colonial +Dames or members of the New England Society, and coolly destroy them. +I agree with Charles Lamb who said he didn't want to be like a potato, +all that was best of him under ground. + +At Sitka the brilliant gardens and the large school for Indian girls +were the objects of interest. It is a sad fact that the school which +teaches these girls cleanly habits, the practical arts of sewing, and +cooking simple but appetizing dishes, has made the girls unwilling to +return to their dirty homes and the filthy habits of their parents. +That would be impossible to them. So they are lured to visit the dance +halls in Juneau, where they find admirers of a transient sort, but +seldom secure an honest husband. + +We called at Skagway, and the lady who was known by us told us there +was much stress there placed upon the most formal attention to rigid +conventionalities, calls made and returned, cards left and received at +just the right time, more than is expected in Boston. And yet that +town was hardly started, and dirt and disorder and chaos reigned +supreme. + +A company of unlucky miners came home in our steamer; no place for +them to sleep but on deck near the doors of our stateroom, and they +ate at one of the tables after three other hungry sets had been +satisfied. A few slept on the tables. All the poultry had been killed +and eaten. We found the Chinese cooks tried to make tough meat +attractive by pink and yellow sauces. We were glad to leave the +steamer to try the ups and downs of Seattle. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +Frances E. Willard--Walt Whitman--Lady Henry Somerset--Mrs. Hannah +Whitehall Smith--A Teetotaler for Ten Minutes--Olive Thorne +Miller--Hearty Praise for Mrs. Lippincott (Grace Greenwood). + + +I was looking over some letters from Frances E. Willard last week. +What a powerful, blessed influence was hers! + +Such a rare combination of intense earnestness, persistence, and +devotion to a "cause" with a gentle, forgiving, compassionate spirit, +and all tempered by perfect self-control. + +Visiting in Germantown, Pennsylvania, at the hospitable home of Mrs. +Hannah Whitehall Smith, the Quaker Bible reader and lay evangelist, +and writer of cheerful counsel, I found several celebrities among her +other guests. Miss Willard and Walt Whitman happened to be present. +Whitman was rude and aggressively combative in his attack on the +advocate of temperance, and that without the slightest provocation. He +declared that all this total abstinence was absolute rot and of no +earthly use, and that he hated the sight of these women who went out +of their way to be crusading temperance fanatics. + +After this outburst he left the room. Miss Willard never alluded to +his fiery criticism, didn't seem to know she had been hit, but chatted +on as if nothing unpleasant had occurred. + +In half an hour he returned; and with a smiling face made a manly +apology, and asked to be forgiven for his too severe remarks. Miss +Willard met him more than half-way, with generous cordiality, and they +became good friends. And when with the women of the circle again she +said: "Now wasn't that just grand in that dear old man? I like him the +more for his outspoken honesty and his unwillingness to pain me." + +How they laboured with "Walt" to induce him to leave out certain of +his poems from the next edition! The wife went to her room to pray +that he might yield, and the husband argued. But no use, it was all +"art" every word, and not one line would he ever give up. The old poet +was supposed to be poor and needy, and an enthusiastic daughter of +Mrs. Smith had secured quite a sum at college to provide bed linen and +blankets for him in the simple cottage at Camden. Whitman was a great, +breezy, florid-faced out-of-doors genius, but we all wished he had +been a little less _au naturel_. + +To speak once more of Miss Willard, no one enjoyed a really laughable +thing more than she did, but I never felt like being a foolish trifler +in her presence. Her outlook was so far above mine that I always felt +not rebuked, but ashamed of my superficial lightness of manner. + +Just one illustration of the unconscious influence of her noble soul +and her convincing words: + +Many years ago, at an anniversary of Sorosis in New York, I had half +promised the persuasive president (Jennie June) that I would say +something. The possibility of being called up for an after-dinner +speech! Something brief, terse, sparkling, complimentary, +satisfactory, and something to raise a laugh! O, you know this agony! +I had nothing in particular to say; I wanted to be quiet and enjoy the +treat. But between each course I tried hard, while apparently +listening to my neighbour, to think up something "neat and +appropriate." + +This coming martyrdom, which increases in horror as you advance with +deceptive gayety, from roast to game, and game to ices, is really one +of the severest trials of club life. + +Miss Willard was one of the honoured guests of the day, and was +called on first. When she arose and began to speak, I felt instantly +that she had something to say; something that she felt was important +we should hear, and how beautifully, how simply it was said! Not a +thought of self, not one instant's hesitation for a thought or a word, +yet it was evidently unwritten and not committed to memory. Every eye +was drawn to her earnest face; every heart was touched. As she sat +down, I rose and left the room rather rapidly; and when my name was +called and my fizzling fireworks expected, I was walking up Fifth +Avenue, thinking about her and her life-work. The whole experience was +a revelation. I had never met such a woman. No affectation, nor +pedantry, nor mannishness to mar the effect. It was in part the +humiliating contrast between her soul-stirring words and my silly +little society effort that drove me from the place, but all petty +egotism vanished before the wish to be of real use to others with +which her earnestness had inspired me. + +One lady told me that after hearing her she felt she could go out and +be a praying band all by herself. Indeed she was + + A noble woman, true and pure, + Who in the little while she stayed, + Wrought works that shall endure. + +She was asked who she would prefer to write a sketch of her and her +work and she honoured me by giving me that great pleasure. The book +appeared in 1883, entitled _Our Famous Women_. + +Once when Miss Willard was in Boston with Lady Henry Somerset and Anna +Gordon, I was delighted by a letter from Frances saying that Lady +Henry wanted to know me and could I lunch with them soon at the +Abbottsford. I accepted joyously, but next morning's mail brought this +depressing decision: "Dear Kate, we have decided that there will be +more meat in going to you. When can we come?" I was hardly settled in +my house of the Abandoned Farm. There was no furnace in the house, +only two servants with me. And it would be impossible to entertain +those friends properly in the dead of the winter, and I nearly ready +to leave for a milder clime. So I told them the stern facts and lost a +rare treat. + +This is the end of Miss Willard's good-bye letter to me when returning +to England with Lady Henry: + + Hoping to see you on my return, and hereby soliciting an + exchange of photographs between you and Lady Henry and me, + + I am ever and as ever + Yours, + FRANCES WILLARD. + +While at Mrs. Smith's home in Germantown, both she and Miss Willard +urged me to sign a Temperance Pledge that lay on the table in the +library. I would have accepted almost anything either of those good +friends presented for my attention. So after thinking seriously I +signed. But after going to my room I felt sure that I could never keep +that pledge. So I ran downstairs and told them to erase my name, which +was done without one word of astonishment or reproof from either. + +I wish I knew how to describe Hannah Whitehall Smith as she was in her +everyday life. Such simple nobility, such tenderness for the tempted, +such a love for sinners, such a longing to show them the better way. +She said to me: "If my friends must go to what is called Hell I want +to go with them." When a minister, who was her guest, was greatly +roused at her lack of belief in eternal punishment and her infinite +patience with those who lacked moral strength, he said: "There are +surely some sins your daughters could commit which would make you +drive them from your home." "There are no sins my daughters could +commit which would not make me hug them more closely in my arms and +strive to bring them back." Wherewith he exclaimed bitterly: "Madam, +you are a mere mucilaginous mess." She made no reply, but her husband +soon sent him word that a carriage would be at the door in one hour to +convey him to the train for New York. + + * * * * * + +"If you do not love the birds, you cannot understand them." + +I remember enjoying an article on the catbird several years ago in the +_Atlantic Monthly_, and wanting to know more of the woman who had +observed a pair of birds so closely, and could make so charming a +story of their love-affairs and housekeeping experiences, and thinking +that most persons knew next to nothing about birds, their habits, and +homes. + +Mrs. Olive Thorne Miller, who wrote that bird talk, is now a dear +friend of mine, and while spending a day with me lately was kind +enough to answer all my questions as to how and where and when she +began to study birds. She is not a young woman, is the proud +grandmother of seven children; but her bright face crowned with +handsome white hair, has that young, alert, happy look that comes with +having a satisfying hobby that goes at a lively pace. She said: "I +never thought of being anything but a housekeeping mother until I was +about thirty-one and my husband lost all his property, and want, or a +thousand wants, stared us in the face. Making the children's clothes +and my own, and cooking as well, broke down my health, so I bethought +me of writing, which I always had a longing to do." + +"What did you begin with?" + +"Well, pretty poor stuff that no one was anxious to pay for; mostly in +essay form expressing my own opinions on various important subjects. +But it didn't go. I was complaining of my bad luck to a plain-spoken +woman in charge of a circulating library, and she gave me grand +advice. 'No one cares a snap for your opinions. You must tell +something that folks want to know.'" + +"Did you then take up birds?" + +"O no; I went into the library, read some of Harriet Martineau's talks +on pottery, and told children how a teacup was made and got one dollar +for that. But those pot-boilers were not inspiring, and about ten +years later a second woman adviser turned my course into another +channel." + +"How did that come about?" + +"I had a bird-loving friend from the West visiting me, and took her to +Prospect Park, Brooklyn, to see our birds. She pointed out several, +and so interested me in their lives that from that day I began to +study them, especially the wood-thrush and catbird. After I had +studied them for two years, I wrote what I had seen. From that time +my course has seemed marked out for me, and my whole time has been +given to this one theme. I think every woman over forty-five ought to +take up a fad; they would be much happier and better off." + +"You told me once that three women had each in turn changed your +career. Do give me the third." + +"Well, after my articles and books had met with favour (I have brought +out fifteen books), invitations to lecture or talk about birds kept +pouring in. I was talking this over with Marion Harland (Mrs. +Terhune), declaring I could never appear in public, that I should be +frightened out of my wits, and that I must decline. My voice would all +go, and my heart jump into my mouth. She exclaimed, 'For a sensible +woman, you are the biggest fool I ever met!' This set me thinking, and +with many misgivings I accepted an invitation." + +"And did you nearly expire with stage fright?" + +"Never was scared one bit, my dear. All bird-lovers are the nicest +kind of folks, either as an audience or in their own homes. I have +made most delightful acquaintances lecturing in fifteen different +States; am now booked for a tour in the West, lecturing every day and +taking classes into the fields and woods for actual observation. +Nesting-time is the best time to study the birds, to know them +thoroughly." + +"Do you speak about dead birds on hats?" + +"Yes, when I am asked to do so. Did you ever hear that Celia Thaxter, +finding herself in a car with women whose head-gear emulated a +bird-museum, was moved to rise and appeal to them in so kindly a way +that some pulled off the feathers then and there, and all promised to +reform? She loved birds so truly that she would not be angry when +spring after spring they picked her seeds out of her 'Island Garden.'" + +"Have you any special magnetic power over birds, so that they will +come at your call or rest on your outstretched finger?" + +"Not in the least. I just like them, and love to get acquainted with +them. Each bird whose acquaintance I make is as truly a discovery to +me as if he were totally unknown to the world." + +We were sitting by a southern window that looks out on a +wide-spreading and ancient elm, my glory and pride. Not one bird had I +seen on it that cold, repellent middle of March. But Mrs. Miller +looked up, and said: "Your robins have come!" Sure enough I could now +see a pair. + +"And there are the woodpeckers, but they have stayed all winter. No +doubt you have the hooting owls. There's an oriole's nest, badly +winter-worn; but they will come back and build again. I see you feed +your chickadees and sparrows, because they are so tame and fearless. +I'd like to come later and make a list of the birds on your place." + +I wonder how many she would find. Visiting at Deerfield, +Massachusetts, I said one day to my host, the artist J.W. Champney: +"You don't seem to have many birds round you." + +"No?" he replied with a mocking rising inflection. "Mrs. Miller, who +was with us last week, found thirty-nine varieties in our front yard +before breakfast!" Untrained eyes are really blind. + +Mrs. Miller is an excellent housekeeper, although a daughter now +relieves her of that care. But, speaking at table of this and that +dish and vegetable, she promised to send me some splendid receipts for +orange marmalade, baked canned corn, scalloped salmon, onion _à la +crème_ (delicious), and did carefully copy and send them. + +She told me that in Denmark a woman over forty-five is considered +gone. If she is poor, a retreat is ready for her without pay; if rich, +she would better seek one of the homes provided for aged females who +can pay well for a home. + +Another thing of interest was the fact that when Mrs. Miller eats no +breakfast, her brain is in far better condition to write. She is a +Swedenborgian, and I think that persons of that faith have usually a +cheerful outlook on life. She was obliged to support herself after +forty years of age. + +I would add to her advice about a hobby: don't wait till middle age; +have one right away, now. Boys always do. I know of one young lady who +makes a goodly sum out of home-made marmalade; another who makes +dresses for her family and special friends; another who sells three +hundred dozen "brown" eggs to one of the best groceries in Boston, and +supports herself. By the way, what can you do? + +Mrs. Lippincott had such a splendid, magnetic presence, such a +handsome face with dark poetic eyes, and accomplished so many unusual +things, that, knowing her as I did, I think I should be untrue to her +if I did not try to show her as she was in her brilliant prime, and +not merely as a punster or a _raconteur_, or as she appeared in her +dramatic recitals, for these were but a small part of the many-sided +genius. + +When my friend, Mrs. Botta, said one evening to her husband: "Grace +writes me that she will be here tomorrow, to spend the Sabbath," and +then said to me, "Grace Greenwood, I mean; have you ever met her?" my +heart beat very quickly in pleasant anticipation of her coming. Grace +Greenwood! Why, I had known her and loved her, at least her writings, +ever since I was ten years old. + +Those dear books, bound in red, with such pretty pictures--_History of +My Pets_ and _Recollections of My Childhood_, were the most precious +volumes in my little library. Anyone who has had pets and lost them +(and the one follows the other, for pets always come to some tragic +end) will delight in these stories. + +And then the _Little Pilgrim_, which I used to like next best to the +_Youth's Companion_; and in later years her spirited, graceful poetry; +her racy magazine stories; her _Haps and Mishaps of a Tour in Europe_; +her sparkling letters to the _Tribune_, full of reliable news from +Washington, graphic descriptions of prominent men and women, capital +anecdotes and atrocious puns;--O how glad I should be to look in her +face and to shake hands with the author who had given me so much +pleasure! + +Well, she came, I heard the bell ring, just when she was expected, +with a vigorous pull, and, as the door opened, heard her say, in a +jolly, soothing way: "Don't get into a passion," to the man who was +swearing at her big trunk. And then I ran away, not wishing to +intrude, and waited impatiently for dinner and an introduction to my +well-beloved heroine. + +Grace--Mrs. Lippincott--I found to be a tall, fine-looking lady, with +a commanding figure and a face that did not disappoint me, as faces so +often do which you have dreamed about. She had dark hair, brown rather +than black, which was arranged in becoming puffs round her face; and +such eyes! large, dark, magnetic, full of sympathy, of kind, cordial +feelings and of quick appreciation of fun. She talked much and well. +If I should repeat all the good stories she told us, that happy +Saturday night, as we lingered round the table, you would be convulsed +with laughter, that is, if I could give them with her gestures, +expressions, and vivid word-pictures. + +She told one story which well illustrated the almost cruel persistent +inquiries of neighbours about someone who is long in dying. An +unfortunate husband was bothered each morning by repeated calls from +children, who were sent by busy mothers to find out "Just how Miss +Blake was feeling this morning." At last this became offensive, and he +said: "Well, she's just the same--she ain't no better and she ain't no +worse--she keeps just about so--she's just about dead, you can say +she's dead." + +One Sunday evening she described her talks with the men in the +prisons and penitentiaries, to whom she had been lately lecturing, +proving that these hardened sinners had much that was good in them, +and many longings for a nobler life, in spite of all their sins. + +No, I was not disappointed in "G.G." She was just as natural, hearty, +and off-hand as when some thirty years ago, she was a romping, +harum-scarum, bright-eyed schoolgirl, Sara Clarke, of western New +York, who was almost a gypsy in her love for the fields and forests. +She was always ready for any out-door exercise or sport. This gave her +glorious health, which up to that time she had not lost. + +Her _nom de plume_, which she says she has never been able to drop, +was only one of the many alliterative names adopted at that time. Look +over the magazines and Annuals of those years, and you will find many +such, as "Mary Maywood," "Dora Dashwood," "Ella Ellwood" "Fanny +Forrester," "Fanny Fern," "Jennie June," "Minnie Myrtle," and so on +through the alphabet, one almost expecting to find a "Ninny Noodle." +Examining one of Mrs. Lippincott's first scrapbooks of "Extracts from +Newspapers," etc., which she had labelled, "Vanity, all is Vanity," I +find many poems in her honour, much enthusiasm over her writings, and +much speculation as to who "Grace Greenwood" might really be. The +public curiosity was piqued to find out this new author who added to +forceful originality "the fascination of splendid gayety and brilliant +trifling." John Brougham, the actor and dramatist, thus expressed his +interest in a published letter to Willis: + + The only person that I am disposed to think, write or talk + about at present is your dazzling, bewitching correspondent, + "Grace Greenwood." Who is she? that I may swear by her! Where + is she? that I may fling myself at her feet! There is a + splendour and dash about her pen that carry my fastidious + soul captive by a single charge. I shall advertise for her + throughout the whole Western country in the terms in which they + inquire for Almeyda in Dryden's _Don Sebastian_: "Have you + seen aught of a woman who lacks two of the four elements, who has + nothing in her nature but air and fire?" + +And here is one of the poetical tributes: + + If to the old Hellenes + Thee of yore the gods had given + Another Muse, another Grace + Had crowned the Olympian heaven. + +Whittier at that time spoke most cordially of her "earnest +individuality, her warm, honest, happy, hopeful, human heart; her +strong loves and deep hates." + +E.P. Whipple, the Boston critic and essayist, when reviewing her +poems, spoke of their "exceeding readableness"; and George Ripley, +then of the New York _Tribune_, said: + + One charm of her writings is the frankness with which she takes + the reader into her personal confidence. She is never formal, + never a martyr to artificial restraint, never wrapped in a + mantle of reserve; but, with an almost childlike simplicity, + presents a transparent revelation of her inmost thoughts and + feelings, with perfect freedom from affectation. + +She might have distinguished herself on the stage in either tragedy or +comedy, but was dissuaded from that career by family friends. I +remember seeing her at several receptions, reciting the rough Pike +County dialect verse of Bret Harte and John Hay in costume. Standing +behind a draped table, with a big slouch hat on, and a red flannel +shirt, loose at the neck, her disguise was most effective, while her +deep tones held us all. Her memory was phenomenal, and she could +repeat today stories of good things learned years ago. + +Her recitation was wonderful; so natural, so full of soul and power. I +have heard many women read, some most execrably, who fancied they were +famous elocutionists; some were so tolerable that I could sit and +endure it; others remarkably good, but I was never before so moved as +to forget where I was and merge the reader in the character she +assumed. + +Grace Greenwood probably made more puns in print than any other woman, +and her conversation was full of them. It was Grace Greenwood who, at +a tea-drinking at the New England Woman's Club in Boston, was begged +to tell one more story, but excused herself in this way: "No, I cannot +get more than one story high on a cup of tea." + +Her conversation was delightful, and what a series of reminiscences +she could have given; for she knew, and in many cases intimately, most +of the leading authors, artists, politicians, philanthropists, +agitators, and actors of her time in both her own land and abroad. In +one of her letters she describes the various authors she saw while +lounging in Ticknor's old bookstore in Boston. + + Here, many a time, we saw Longfellow, looking wonderfully like + a ruddy, hearty, happy English gentleman, with his full lips + and beaming blue eyes. Whittier, alert, slender and long; half + eager, half shy in manner; both cordial and evasive; his + deep-set eyes glowing with the tender flame of the most humane + genius of our time. + +Emerson's manner was to her "a curious mingling of Athenian +philosophy and Yankee cuteness." + +Saxe was "the handsome, herculean punster," and so on with many +others. + +She resided with Miss Cushman in Rome, and in London she saw many +lions--Mazzini, Kossuth, Dickens and Talfourd, Kingsley, Lover, the +Howellses, Miss Mitford, Mrs. Muloch Craik, George Eliot, etc. + +She was the first Washington correspondent of her sex, commencing in +1850 in a series of letters to a Philadelphia weekly; was for some +years connected with the _National Era_, making her first tour in +Europe as its correspondent, and has written much for _The Hearth and +Home_, _The Independent_, _Christian Inquirer_, _Congregationalist_, +_Youth's Companion_; also contributing a good deal to English +publications, as _Household Words_ and _All the Year Round_. + +She was the special correspondent from Washington of the New York +_Tribune_, and later of the _Times_. Her letters were racy, full of +wit, sentiment, and discriminating criticism, plenty of fun and a +little sarcasm, but not so audaciously personal and aggressive as some +letter-writers from the capital. They attracted attention and were +widely copied, large extracts being made for the _London Times_. + +She lectured continually to large audiences during the Civil War on +war themes, and subjects in a lighter strain; was the first woman +widely received as a lecturer by the colleges and lyceums. With a +commanding presence, handsome face, an agreeable, permeating voice, a +natural offhand manner, and something to say, she was at once a +decided favourite, and travelled great distances to meet her +engagements. She often quoted that ungallant speech from the Duke of +Argyle: "Woman has no right on a platform--except to be hung; then +it's unavoidable"; and by her eloquence and wit proved its falsity and +narrowness. Without the least imitation of masculine oratory, her +best remembered lectures are, "The Heroic in Common Life," and +"Characteristics of Yankee Humour." She always had the rare gift of +telling a story capitally, with ease, brevity, and dramatic effect, +certain of the point or climax. I cannot think of any other woman of +this country who has caused so much hearty laughter by this enviable +gift. She can compress a word-picture or character-sketch into a few +lines, as when she said of the early Yankee: "No matter how large a +man he was, he had a look of shrinking and collapse about him. It +looked as if the Lord had made him and then pinched him." And a woman +who has done such good work in poetry, juvenile literature, +journalism, on the platform, and in books of travel and biography, +will not soon be forgotten. There is a list of eighteen volumes from +her pen. + +She never established a _salon_, but the widespread, influential daily +paper and the lecture hall are the movable _salon_ to the women of +genius in this Republic. + +This is just a memory. After all, we are but "Movie Pictures," seen +for a moment, and others take our place. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +In and Near Boston--Edward Everett Hale--Thomas Wentworth +Higginson--Julia Ward Howe--Mary A. Livermore--A Day at the Concord +School--Harriet G. Hosmer--"Dora D'Istria," our Illustrious Visitor. + + +Edward Everett Hale was kind to me, as he was to all who came within +his radius. He once called to warn me to avoid, like poison, a +rascally imposter who was calling on many of the authors in and near +Boston to get one thousand dollars from each to create a publishing +company, so that authors could have their books published at a much +cheaper rate than in the regular way. This person never called on me, +as I then had no bank account. He did utterly impoverish many other +credulous persons, both writers, and in private families. All was +grist that came to his mill, and he ground them "exceeding small." + +I met Mr. Hale one early spring at Pinehurst, North Carolina, with his +wife and daughter. He always had a sad face, as one who knew and +grieved over the faults and frailties of humanity, but at this time +he was recovering from a severe fall, and walked with a slow and +feeble step. When he noticed me sitting on the broad piazza, he came, +and taking a chair beside me, began to joke in his old way, telling +comical happenings, and inquired if I knew where Noah kept his bees. +His answer: "In the Ark-hives, of course." Once when I asked his +opinion of a pompous, loud-voiced minister, he only said, "Self, self, +self!" + +I wonder how many in his audiences or his congregation could +understand more than half of what he was saying. I once went to an +Authors' Reading in Boston where he recited a poem, doubtless very +impressive, but although in a box just over the stage, I could not get +one word. He placed his voice at the roof of his mouth, a fine +sounding board, but the words went no farther than the inside of his +lips. I believe his grand books influence more persons for better +lives than even his personal presence and Christ-like magnetism. + +Mr. Thomas Wentworth Higginson never failed me. Once only I ventured +alone into the Authors' Club Saturday meeting, and none of my own +friends happened to be there. Evidently I was not known. Mr. Higginson +saw the situation at once, and coming quickly to me escorted me to a +comfortable seat. He ordered two cups of tea with wafers, and +beckoned to some delightful men and women to whom he introduced me as +his friend Miss Sanborn, thus putting me at my ease. He was also ever +patient about my monomania of trying to prove that women possess both +wit and humour. He spoke of his first wife as the wittiest woman he +had ever known, giving convincing proof. A few men were on my side, +but they could be counted on one hand omitting the thumb. But I worked +on this theme until I had more than sufficient material for a +good-sized volume. If a masculine book reviewer ever alluded to the +book, it was with a sneer. He generally left it without a word, as men +still ignore the fact when a woman wins in an essay-writing +competition against men in her class or gets the verdict for her +powers in a mixed debate. At last Mr. Higginson wrote me most kindly +to stop battering on that theme. "If any man is such a fool as to +insist that women are destitute of wit or humour, then he is so big a +fool that it is not worth while to waste your good brains on him. T.W. +Higginson." That reproof chilled my ardour. Now you can hardly find +any one who denies that women possess both qualities, and it is +generally acknowledged that not a few have the added gift of comedy. + +As most biographers of Mrs. Julia Ward Howe dwell on her other gifts +as philanthropist, poet, and worker for the equality of women with +men, I call attention to her effervescent, brilliant wit. Julia Ward +Howe was undeniably witty. Her concurrence with a dilapidated +bachelor, who retained little but his conceit, was excellent. He said: +"It is time now for me to settle down as a married man, but I want so +much; I want youth, health, wealth, of course; beauty, grace--" "Yes," +she interrupted sympathetically, "you poor man, you do want them all." + +Of a conceited young man airing his disbelief at length in a magazine +article, she said: "Charles evidently thinks he has invented atheism." +After dining with a certain family noted for their chilling manners +and lofty exclusiveness, she hurried to the house of a jolly friend, +and, seating herself before the glowing fire, sought to regain a +natural warmth, explaining: "I have spent three hours with the Mer de +Glace, the Tête-Noire, and the Jungfrau, and am nearly frozen." + +Pathos and humour as twins are exemplified by her tearful horror over +the panorama of Gettysburg, and then by her saying, when urged by Mrs. +Livermore to dine with her: "O no! my dear, it's quarter past two, and +Mr. Howe will be wild if he does not get--not his burg--but his +dinner." + +Mrs. Howe's wit never failed her. I once told her I was annoyed by +seeing in big headlines in the morning's paper, "Kate Sanborn +moralizes," giving my feeble sentiments on some subject which must +have been reported by a man whom I met for the first time the evening +before at a reception, though I was ignorant of the fact that I was +being interviewed. She comforted me by saying: "But after all, how +much better that was than if he had announced, 'Kate Sanborn +demoralizes.'" Or when Charles Sumner refusing to meet some friends of +hers at dinner explained languidly: "Really, Julia, I have lost all my +interest in individuals." She retorted, "Why, Charles, God hasn't got +as far as that yet!" Once walking in the streets of Boston with a +friend she looked up and read on a public building, "Charitable Eye +and Ear Infirmary." She said: "I did not know there were any +charitable eyes and ears in Boston." She showed indomitable courage to +the last. A lady in Boston, who lived opposite Mrs. Howe's home on +Beacon Street, was sitting at a front window one cold morning in +winter, when ice made the steps dangerous. A carriage was driven up to +Mrs. Howe's door to take her to the station to attend a federation at +Louisville. She came out alone, slipped on the second step, and rolled +to the pavement. She was past eighty, but picked herself up with the +quickness of a girl, looked at her windows to see if anyone noticed +it, then entered the carriage and drove away. + +Was ever a child as unselfish as Mary Rice, afterwards Mary Livermore? +Sliding on ice was for her a climax of fun. Returning to the house +after revelling in this exercise, she exclaimed: "Splendid, splendid +sliding." Her father responded: "Yes, Mary, it's great fun, but +wretched for shoes." + +Those words kept ringing in her ears, and soon she thought how her +father and mother had to practise close economy, and she decided: "I +ought not to wear out my shoes by sliding, when shoes cost so much," +and she did not slide any more. There was no more fun in it for her. + +She would get out of bed, when not more than ten years old, and +beseech her parents to rise and pray for the children. "It's no matter +about me," she once said to them, "if they can be saved, I can bear +anything." + +She was not more than twelve years old, when she determined to aid her +parents by doing work of some kind; so it was settled that she should +become a dressmaker. She went at once into a shop to learn the trade, +remained for three months, and after that was hired at thirty-seven +cents a day to work there three months more. She also applied for +work at a clothing store, and received a dozen red flannel shirts to +make up at six and a quarter cents a piece. When her mother found this +out, she burst into tears, and the womanly child was not allowed to +take any more work home. We all know Mrs. Livermore's war record and +her power and eloquence as an orator. + +I would not say she was a spiritualist, but she felt sure that she +often had advice or warning on questions from some source, and always +listened, and was saved from accidents and danger. And she said that +what was revealed to her as she rested on her couch, between twilight +and dusk, would not be believed, it was so wonderful. + +Mrs. Livermore had a terrible grief to bear,--the lifelong illness of +her daughter from a chronic and incurable disease. She told me, when I +was at her house, that she kept on lecturing, and accepting +invitations, to divert her mind somewhat. She felt at times that she +could not leave her unfortunate child behind, when she should be +called from earth, but she was enabled to drive that thought away. +From a child, always helping others, self-sacrificing, heroic, endowed +with marvellous energy and sympathy, hers was a most exceptional life; +now "Victor Palms" are her right. + +I spent one day at the famous Concord School of Philosophy during its +first season. Of course I understood nothing that was going on. + +Emerson, then a mere wreck of his former self, was present, cared for +by his wife or his daughter Ellen. Alcott made some most remarkable +statements, as: "We each can decide when we will ascend." Then he +would look around as if to question all, and add: "Is it not so? Is it +not so?" I remember another of his mystic utterances: "When the mind +is izzing, it is thinking things. Is it not so? Is it not so?" Also, +"When we get angry or lose our temper, then fierce four-footed beasts +come out of our mouths, do they not, do they not?" + +After Mr. Harris, the great educational light, had closed his remarks, +and had asked for questions, one lady timidly arose and inquired: "Can +an atom be said to be outside or inside of potentiality?" + +He calmly replied that "it could be said to be either inside or +outside potentiality, as we might say of potatoes in a hat; they are +either inside or outside the hat." That seemed to satisfy her +perfectly. + +Mr. Frank B. Sanborn read his lecture on American Literature, and I +ventured to ask: "How would you define literature?" + +He said: "Anything written that gives permanent pleasure." And then +as he was a relative, I inquired, but probably was rather pert: "Would +a bank check, if it were large enough, be literature?" which was +generally considered as painfully trifling. + +Jones of Jacksonville was on the program, and talked and talked, but +as I could not catch one idea, I cannot report. + +It was awfully hot on that hill with the sun shining down through the +pine roof, so I thought one day enough. + +As I walked down the hill, I heard a man who seemed to have a lot of +hasty pudding in his mouth, say in answer to a question from the lady +with him: "Why, if you can't understand that, you can have no idea of +the first principles (this with an emphatic gesture) of the Hegelian +philosophy." + +Alcott struck me as a happy dreamer. He said to me joyously: "I'm +going West in Lou's chariot," and of course with funds provided by his +daughter. + +An article written by her, entitled "Transcendental Wild Oats," made a +great impression on my mind. + +It appeared in a long-ago _Independent_ and I tried in vain to find it +last winter. Houghton and Mifflin have recently published Bronson +Alcott's "_Fruitlands_," compiled by Clara Endicott Sears, with +"Transcendental Wild Oats" by Louisa M. Alcott, so it is brought to +the notice of those who will appreciate it. + +I called once on Miss Hosmer, who then was living with relatives in +Watertown, Massachusetts, her old home; the house where she was born +and where she did her first modelling. Recently reading in Miss +Whiting's record of Kate Field's life, of Miss Hosmer as a universal +favourite in Rome, a dearly loved friend of the Brownings, and +associated with the literary and artistic coterie there, a living part +of that memorable group, most of whom are gone, I longed to look in +her eyes, to shake her hand, to listen to her conversation. Everyone +knows of her achievements as a sculptor. + +After waiting a few minutes, into the room tripped a merry-faced, +bright-eyed little lady, all animation and cordiality as she said: "It +is your fault that I am a little slow in coming down, for I was +engrossed in one of your own books, too much interested to remember to +dress." + +The question asked soon brought a flow of delightful recollection of +Charlotte Cushman, Frances Power Cobbe, Grace Greenwood, Kate Field, +and the Brownings. "Yes," she said, "I dined with them all one winter; +they were lovely friends." She asked if we would like to see +some autograph letters of theirs. One which seemed specially +characteristic of Robert Browning was written on the thinnest of paper +in the finest hand, difficult to decipher. And on the flap of the +envelope was a long message from his wife. Each letter was addressed +to "My dearest Hattie," and ended, "Yours most affectionately." There +was one most comical impromptu sent to her by Browning, from some +country house where there was a house party. They were greatly grieved +at her failure to appear, and each name was twisted into a rhyme at +the end of a line. Sir Roderick Murchison, for instance, was run in +thus: + + As welcome as to cow is fodder-rick + Would be your presence to Sir Roderick. + +A poor pun started another vein. "You must hear some of Miss Cobbe's +puns," said Miss Hosmer, and they were so daringly, glaring bad, as to +be very good. When lame from a sprain, she was announced by a pompous +butler at a reception as "Miss Cobble." "No, Miss Hobble," was her +instant correction. She weighed nearly three hundred pounds and, one +day, complaining of a pain in the small of her back her brother +exclaimed: "O Frances, where _is_ the small of your back?" + +Miss Hosmer regarded Grace Greenwood (Mrs. Lippincott) as one of the +best _raconteurs_ and wittiest women she had known. She was with her +at some museum where an immense antique drinking cup was exhibited, +large enough for a sitz bath. "A goblet for a Titan," said Harriet. +"And the one who drained it would be a tight un," said Grace. + +She thought the best thing ever said about seasickness was from Kate +Field, who, after a tempestuous trip, said: "Lemonade is the only +satisfactory drink on a sea voyage; it tastes as well coming up as +going down." + + * * * * * + +The last years of this brilliant and beloved woman were devoted to +futile attempts to solve the problem of Perpetual Motion. I wish she +had given us her memories instead. + + + Helen Ghika was born at Bucharest, Wallachia, the 22nd of + January, 1829. The Ghika family is of an ancient and noble + race. It originated in Albania, and two centuries ago the head + of it went to Wallachia, where it had been a powerful and + ruling family. In 1849, at the age of twenty, the Princess was + married to a Russian, Prince Koltzoff Massalsky, a descendant + of the old Vikings of Moldavia; her marriage has not been a + congenial one. + + A sketch of the distinguished woman, Helen Ghika, the Princess + Massalsky, who, under the _nom de plume_ of Dora D'Istria, has + made for herself a reputation and position in the world of + letters among the great women of our century, will at least + have something of the charm of novelty for most American + readers. In Europe this lady was everywhere known, beloved by + many personal friends, and admired by all who had read her + works. Her thought was profound and liberal, her views were + broad and humane. As an author, philanthropist, traveller, + artist, and one of the strongest advocates of freedom and + liberty for the oppressed of both sexes, and of her suffering + sisters especially, she was an honour to the time and to + womanhood. The women of the old world found in her a powerful, + sympathizing, yet rational champion; just in her arguments in + their behalf, able in her statements of their needs, and + thoroughly interested in their elevation and improvement. + + Her works embrace a vast range of thought, and show profound + study and industry. The subjects are many. They number about + twenty volumes on nationality, on social questions more than + eight, on politics eighteen or twenty. Her travels fill fifteen + books, and, beside all this, she wrote three romances, numerous + letters and articles for the daily papers, and addresses to be + read before various learned societies, of which she was an + honoured member. M. Deschanel, the critic of the _Journal des + Débats_, has said of her that "each one of her works would + suffice for the reputation of a man." As an artist, her + paintings have been much admired. One of her books of travel, + _A Summer on the Banks of the Danube_, has a drawing by its + author, a view of Borcia in Roumania. From a notable exhibition + at St. Petersburg she received a silver medal for two pictures + called "The Pine" and "The Palm," suggested to her by Heine's + beautiful little poem: + + "A pine-tree sleeps alone + On northern mountain-side; + Eternal stainless snows + Stretch round it far and wide. + + "The pine dreams of a palm + As lonely, sad, and still, + In glowing eastern clime + On burning, rocky hill." + + This princess was the idol of her native people, who called + her, with the warm enthusiasm of their race, "The Star of + Albania." The learned and cultivated also did her homage. Named + by Frederika Bremer and the Athenians, "The New Corinne," she + was invested by the Greeks with the citizenship of Greece for + her efforts to assist the people of Candia to throw off the + oppressor's yoke, this being the first time this honour had + ever been granted to a woman. + + The catalogue of her writings fills several pages, the list of + titles given her by learned societies nearly as many more and, + while born a princess of an ancient race and by marriage one + also, she counted these titles of rank as nothing compared with + her working name, and was more widely known as Dora D'Istria + than as the Princess Koltzoff Massalsky. + + There is a romantic fascination about this woman's life as + brilliant as fiction, but more strange and remarkable in that + it is all sober truth--nay, to her much of it was even sad + reality. Her career was a glorious one, but lonely as the + position of her pictured palm-tree, and oftentimes only upheld + by her own consciousness of the right; she has felt the trials + of minds isolated by greatness. Singularly gifted by nature + with both mental and physical, as well as social superiority, + the Princess united in an unusual degree masculine strength of + character, grasp of thought, philosophical calmness, love of + study and research, joined to an ardent and impassioned love of + the grand, the true, and the beautiful. She had the grace and + tenderness of the most sensitive of women, added to mental + endowments rare in a man. Her beauty, which had been + remarkable, was the result of perfect health, careful training, + and an active nature. Her physical training made her a fearless + swimmer, a bold rider, and an excellent walker--all of which + greatly added to her active habits and powers of observation in + travelling, for she travelled much. Only a person of uncommon + bodily vigour can so enjoy nature in her wildest moods and + grandest aspects. + + +This quotation is from a long article which Mrs. Grace L. Oliver, of +Boston, published in an early number of _Scribner's Magazine_. I never +had known of the existence of this learned, accomplished woman, but +after reading this article I ventured to ask her to send me the +material for a lecture and she responded most generously, sending +books, many sketches of her career, full lists of the subjects which +had most interested her, poems addressed to her as if she were a +goddess, and the pictures she added proved her to have been certainly +very beautiful. "She looked like Venus and spoke like Minerva." + +My audience was greatly interested. She was as new to them as to me +and all she had donated was handed round to an eager crowd. In about +six months I saw in the papers that Dora D'Istria was taking a long +trip to America to meet Mrs. Oliver, Edison, Longfellow, and myself! + +I called on her later at a seashore hotel near Boston. She had just +finished her lunch, and said she had been enjoying for the first time +boiled corn on the cob. She was sitting on the piazza, rather shabbily +dressed, her skirt decidedly travel-stained. Traces of the butter used +on the corn were visible about her mouth and she was smoking a large +and very strong cigar, a sight not so common at that time in this +country. A rocking chair was to her a delightful novelty and she had +already bought six large rocking chairs of wickerwork. She was sitting +in one and busily swaying back and forward and said: "Here I do repose +myself and I take these chairs home with me and when de gentlemen and +de ladies do come to see me in Florence, I do show them how to repose +themselves." + +Suddenly she looked at me and began to laugh immoderately. "Oh," she +explained, seeing my puzzled expression, "I deed think of you as so +_deeferent_, I deed think you were very tall and theen, with leetle, +wiggly curls on each side of your face." + +She evidently had in mind the typical old maid with gimlet ringlets! +So we sat and rocked and laughed, for I was equally surprised to meet +a person so "different" from my romantic ideal. Like the two Irishmen, +who chancing to meet were each mistaken in the identity of the other. +As one of them put it, "We looked at each other and, faith, it turned +out to be nayther of us." + +The Princess Massalsky sent to Mrs. Oliver and myself valuable tokens +of her regard as souvenirs. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +Elected to be the First President of New Hampshire Daughters in +Massachusetts and New Hampshire--Now Honorary President--Kind Words +which I Highly Value--Three, but not "of a Kind"--A Strictly Family +Affair--Two Favourite Poems--Breezy Meadows. + + +On May 15, 1894, I was elected to be the first president of the New +Hampshire Daughters in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and held the +position for three years. Was then made Honorary President. + + * * * * * + +Some unsolicited approval: + + Hers was a notable administration, and brought to the + organization a prestige which remains. Rules might fail, but + the brilliant president never. She governed a merry company, + many of them famous, but she was chief. They loved her, and + that affection and pride still exist. + + + A daughter of the "Granite State," who can certainly take front + rank among business women, is Kate Sanborn, the beloved + president of New Hampshire's Daughters. + + + Another thing that has occupied Miss Sanborn's time this + summer aside from farming and writing is the program for the + coming winter's work for the Daughters of New Hampshire. It is + all planned, and if all the women's clubs carry such a program + as the one which Miss Sanborn has planned, and that means that + it will be carried out, the winter's history of women's clubs + will be one of unprecedented prosperity. + + + If New Hampshire's daughters now living out of their own State + do not keep track of each other, and become acquainted into the + bargain, it will not be the fault of their president, who has + carried on correspondence with almost every one of them, and + who has planned a winter's work that will enable them to learn + something about their own State, as well as to meet for the + promoting of acquaintance. + + + OUR FIRST MEETING + + This meeting was presided over by our much loved + First-President, Kate Sanborn, and it was the most informal, + spontaneous, and altogether enjoyable organization meeting that + could be imagined, and the happy spirit came that has guided + our way and helped us over the rough places leading us always + to the light. + + Our first resolve was to enjoy to the utmost the pleasure of + being together, and with it to do everything possible to help + our native State. To these two objects we have been steadfastly + true in all the years; and how we have planned, and what we + have done has been recorded to our credit, so that we may now + say in looking back, "We have kept the faith and been true." + + At this time there are so many memories, all equally precious + and worthy of mention here, but we must be brief and only a few + can be recalled. + + In our early years _our_ Kate Sanborn led us through so many + pleasant paths, and with her "twin President," Julia K. Dyer, + brought the real New Hampshire atmosphere into it all. + + That was a grand Dartmouth Day, when the good man, Eleazar + Wheelock, came down from his accustomed wall space to grace our + program and the Dartmouth Sons brought their flag and delighted + us with their college songs. + + Since then have come to us governors, senators, judges, mayors, + and many celebrities, all glad to bring some story with the + breath of the hills to New Hampshire's Daughters. Kate + Sanborn first called for our county tributes, to renew old + acquaintances and promote rivalry among the members. We adorned + ourselves with the gold buttercup badges, and adopted the grey + and garnet as our colors. + + + NEW HAMPSHIRE'S DAUGHTERS + + _Members of the Society Hold an Experience Meeting._ + + The first meeting of the season of New Hampshire's Daughters + was held at the Hotel Vendome, Boston, Saturday afternoon, and + was a most successful gathering, both in point of attendance + and of general interest. The business of the association was + transacted under the direction of the president, Miss Kate + Sanborn, whose free construction of parliamentary law and + independent adherence to common sense as against narrow + conventionality, results in satisfactory progress and rapid + action. The 150 or more ladies present were more convinced than + ever that Miss Sanborn is the right woman in the right place, + although she herself indignantly repudiates the notion that she + is fitted to the position. + + + The Daughters declare that the rapid growth of the organization + is due to Miss Sanborn more than to any other influence. Her + ability, brightness, wit, happy way of managing, and her strong + personality generally are undoubtedly at present the mainstays + of the Daughters' organization. She is ably assisted by an + enthusiastic corps of officers. + + + MY DEAR KATE SANBORN: + + Your calendar about old age is simply _au fait_. After reading + it, I want to hurry up and grow old as fast as I can. It is the + best collection of sane thoughts upon old age that I know in + any language. Life coming from the Source of Life must be + glorious throughout. The last of life should be its best. + October is the king of all the year. A man should be more + wonderful at eighty than at twenty; a woman should make her + seventieth birthday more fascinating than her seventeenth. + Merit never deserts the soul. God is with His children always. + + Yours for a long life and happiness, + PETER MacQUEEN. + + [Illustration: PETER MacQUEEN] + + DEAR KATE SANBORN: + + The "Indian Summer Calendar" is the best thing you have done + yet. I have read it straight through twice, and now it lies on + my desk, and I read daily selections from it, as some of the + good people read from their "Golden Treasury of Texts." + + MARY A. LIVERMORE. + + + DEAR MISS SANBORN: + + It gives me pleasure to offer my testimonial to your unique, + original, and very picturesque lectures. The one to which I + recently listened, in the New England Conservatory of Music, + was certainly the most entertaining of any humorous lecture to + which I have ever listened, and it left the audience _talking_, + with such bright, happy faces, I can see it now in my mind. And + they _continued_ to repeat the happy things you said; at least + my own friends did. It was not a "plea for cheerfulness," it + _was_ cheerfulness. I hope you may give it, and make the world + laugh, a thousand times. "He who makes what is useful + agreeable," said old Horace of literature, "wins every vote." + You have the wit of making the useful agreeable, and the spirit + and genius of it. + + Sincerely, + HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH. + +I published a little volume, _A Truthful Woman in Southern +California_, which had a large sale for many years. Women tourists +bought it to "enlarge" with their photographs. Stedman wrote me, after +I had sent him my book: + + MY DEAR KATE SANBORN: + + I think it especially charming that you should so remember me + and send me a gift-copy of Truthful Kate's breezy and + fascinating report of Southern California. For I had been so + taken with your adoption of that Abandoned Farm that I had + made a note of your second book. Your chapters give me as vivid + an idea of Southern California as I obtained from Miss Hazard's + watercolors, and that is saying a good deal. We all like you, + and indeed who does not? And your books, so fresh and + sparkling, make us like you even more. Believe that I am + gratified by your unexpected gift, and by the note that + convoyed it. + EDMUND C. STEDMAN. + + + New York Public Library, + Office of Circulation Department, + 209 West 23rd Street, + February 19,1907. + + MISS KATE SANBORN, + Metcalf, Mass. + + DEAR MISS SANBORN: + + You may be interested to know that your book on old wall-papers + is included in a list of books specially recommended for + libraries in Great Britain, compiled by the Library Association + of the United Kingdom, recently published in London. As there + seems to be a rather small proportion of American works + included in the list, I think that this may be worthy of note. + + With kindest regards, I remain, + Very truly yours, + ARTHUR E. BOSTWICK. + _Chief of the Circulation Department_. + + + MY DEAR MISS KATE SANBORN: + + How kind and generous you are to my books, and therefore, to + me! How thoroughly you understand them and know why I wrote + them! + + When a book of mine is sent out into the cold world of + indifferent reviewers, I read their platitudinous words, trying + to be grateful; but waiting, waiting, knowing that ere long I + shall get a little clipping from the _Somerville Journal_, + written by Kate Sanborn; and then I shall know what the book + is. If it's good, she'll say so, and if it isn't, I think she + would say so; but that alternative never has come to me. But I + would far rather have her true words of dispraise than all + machine-made twaddle of nearly all the book columns of our + great American press. + + It is such generous minds as yours that have kept me writing. I + should have stopped long ago if I had not had them. + + ALICE MORSE EARLE. + + + It is impossible to give you a perfect pen picture of Breezy + Meadows or of its mistress, Kate Sanborn, just as it is + impossible to paint the tints of a glorious sunset stretching + across the winter sky. Breezy Meadows is an ideal country home, + and the mistress of it all is a grand woman--an honor to her + sex, and a loyal friend. Her whole life seems to be devoted to + making others happy, and a motto on one of the walls of the + house expresses better than I can, her daily endeavour: + + "Let me, also, cheer a spot, + Hidden field or garden grot, + Place where passing souls may rest, + On the way, and be their best." + BARBARA GALPIN. + + + As a lecturer, Miss Kate Sanborn is thoroughly unique. Whatever + her topic, one is always sure there will be wit and the + subtlest humour in her discourse, bits of philosophy of life, + and the most practical common sense, flashes of laughable + personal history, and gems of scholarship. It is always certain + that the lecture will be rendered in inimitably bright and + cheery style that will enliven her audience, which, while + laughing and applauding, will listen intently throughout. No + wonder she is a favourite with lecture goers, for few can give + them so delightful an evening as she.--MARY A. LIVERMORE. + + + There is only one Kate Sanborn. Her position as a lecturer is + unique. In the selection and treatment of her themes she has no + rival. She touches nothing that she does not enliven and adorn. + Pathos and humour, wit and wisdom, anecdote and incident, the + foibles, fancies, freaks, and fashions of the past and present, + pen pictures of great men and famous women, illustrious poets + and distinguished authors, enrich her writings, as if the ages + had laid their wealth of love and learning at her feet, and + bidden her help herself. With a discriminating and exacting + taste, she has brought together, in book and lecture, the + things that others have overlooked, or never found. She has + been a kind of discoverer of thoughts and things in the + by-paths of literature. She also understands "the art of + putting things." But vastly more than the thought, style, and + utterance is the striking personality of the writer herself. It + is not enough to read the writings of Miss Sanborn, though you + cannot help doing this. She must be heard, if one would know + the secret of her power--subtle, magnetic, impossible of + transfer to books. The "personal equation" is everything--the + strong, gifted woman putting her whole soul into the + interpretation and transmission of her thought so that it may + inspire the hearts of those who listen; the power of + self-radiation. It is not surprising that Miss Sanborn is + everywhere greeted with enthusiasm when she speaks.--ARTHUR + LITTLE. + + + Miss Kate Sanborn is one of the best qualified women in this + country to lecture on literary themes. The daughter of a + Dartmouth professor, she was cradled in literature, and has + made it in a certain way the work of her life. There is + nothing, however, of the pedantic about her. She is the + embodiment of a woman's wit and humour; but her forte is a + certain crisp and lively condensation of persons and qualities + which carry a large amount of information under a captivating + cloak of vivacious and confidential talk with her audience, + rather than didactic statement. + + J.C. CROLY, "Jenny June." + +One of the friends I miss most at the farm is Sam Walter Foss. He was +the poet, philosopher, lecturer and "friend of man." His folk songs +touched every heart and even the sombre vein lightened with pictures +of hope and cheer. He was humorous and even funny, but in every line +there is a dignity not often reached by writers of witty verse or +prose. Mr. Foss was born in Candia, N.H., in June, 1858. Through his +ancestor, Stephen Batcheller, he had kinship with Daniel Webster, John +Greenleaf Whittier, and William Pitt Fessenden. + +Mr. Foss secured an interest in the Lynn _Union_, and it was while +engaged in publishing that newspaper that he made the discovery that +he could be a "funny man." The man having charge of the funny column +left suddenly, and Mr. Foss decided to see what he could do in the way +of writing something humorous to fill the column. He had never done +anything of this kind before, and was surprised and pleased to have +some of his readers congratulate him on his new "funny man." He +continued to write for this column and for a long time his identity +was unknown, he being referred to simply as the "Lynn _Union_ funny +man." His ability finally attracted the attention of Wolcott +Balestier, the editor of _Tit-Bits_, who secured Mr. Foss's services +for that paper. Before long he became connected with _Puck_, _Judge_, +and several other New York periodicals, including the New York _Sun_. + +Mr. Foss's first book was published in 1894, and was entitled _Back +Country Poems_ and has passed through several editions. _Whiffs from +Wild Meadows_ issued in 1896 has been fully as successful. Later books +are _Dreams in Homespun_, _Songs of War and Peace_, _Songs of the +Average Man_. + + [Illustration: SAM WALTER FOSS] + +He had charge of the Public Library at Somerville, Massachusetts, +and his influence in library matters extended all over New England. + +His poems are marked by simplicity. Most of his songs are written in +New England dialect which he has used with unsurpassed effect. But +this poetry was always of the simplest kind, of the appealing nature +which reaches the heart. Of his work and his aim, he said in his first +volume: + + "It is not the greatest singer + Who tries the loftiest themes, + He is the true joy bringer + Who tells his simplest dreams, + He is the greatest poet + Who will renounce all art + And take his heart and show it + To any other heart; + Who writes no learnèd riddle, + But sings his simplest rune, + Takes his heart-strings for a fiddle, + And plays his easiest tune." + +Mr. Foss _always_ had to recite the following poem when he called +at Breezy Meadows + + THE CONFESSIONS OF A LUNKHEAD + + I'm a lunkhead, an' I know it; 'taint no use to squirm an' talk, + I'm a gump an' I'm a lunkhead, I'm a lummux, I'm a gawk, + An' I make this interduction so that all you folks can see + An' understan' the natur' of the critter thet I be. + + I allus wobble w'en I walk, my j'ints are out er gear, + My arms go flappin' through the air, jest like an el'phunt's ear; + An' when the womern speaks to me I stutter an' grow weak, + A big frog rises in my throat, an' he won't let me speak. + + Wall, that's the kind er thing I be; but in our neighborhood + Lived young Joe Craig an' young Jim Stump an' Hiram Underwood. + We growed like corn in the same hill, jest like four sep'rit stalks; + For they wuz lunkheads, jest like me, an' lummuxes and gawks. + + Now, I knew I wuz a lunkhead; but them fellers didn't know, + Thought they wuz the biggest punkins an' the purtiest in the row. + An' I, I uster laff an' say, "Them lunkhead chaps will see + W'en they go out into the worl' w'at gawky things they be." + + Joe Craig was a lunkhead, but it didn't get through his pate; + I guess you all heerd tell of him--he's governor of the state; + Jim Stump, he blundered off to war--a most uncommon gump-- + Didn't know enough to know it--'an he came home General Stump. + + Then Hiram Underwood went off, the bigges' gawk of all, + We hardly thought him bright enough to share in Adam's fall; + But he tried the railroad biz'ness, an' he allus grabbed his share,-- + Now this gawk, who didn't know it, is a fifty millionaire. + + An' often out here hoein' I set down atween the stalks, + Thinkin' how we four together all were lummuxes an' gawks, + All were gumps and lunkheads, only they didn't know, yer see; + An' I ask, "If I hadn' known it, like them other fellers there, + Today I might be settin' in the presidential chair." + + We all are lunkheads--don't get mad--an' lummuxes and gawks, + But us poor chaps who know we be--we walk in humble walks. + So, I say to all good lunkheads, "Keep yer own selves in the dark; + Don't own to reckernize the fact, an' you will make your mark." + +Next is the poem which is most quoted and best known: + + THE HOUSE BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD + + "He was a friend to man, and lived in a house + by the side of the road."--HOMER. + + There are hermit souls that live withdrawn + In the peace of their self-content; + There are souls, like stars, that dwell apart, + In a fellowless firmament; + There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths + Where highways never ran;-- + But let me live by the side of the road + And be a friend to man. + + Let me live in a house by the side of the road, + Where the race of men go by-- + The men who are good and the men who are bad, + As good and as bad as I. + I would not sit in the scorner's seat, + Or hurl the cynic's ban;-- + Let me live in a house by the side of the road + And be a friend to man. + + I see from my house by the side of the road, + By the side of the highway of life, + The men who press with the ardour of hope, + The men who are faint with the strife. + But I turn not away from their smiles nor their tears-- + Both parts of an infinite plan;-- + Let me live in my house by the side of the road + And be a friend to man. + + I know there are brook-gladdened meadows ahead + And mountains of wearisome height; + That the road passes on through the long afternoon + And stretches away to the night. + But still I rejoice when the travellers rejoice, + And weep with the strangers that moan, + Nor live in my house by the side of the road + Like a man who dwells alone. + + Let me live in my house by the side of the road + Where the race of men go by-- + They are good, they are bad, they are weak, they are strong, + Wise, foolish--so am I. + Then why should I sit in the scorner's seat + Or hurl the cynic's ban?-- + Let me live in my house by the side of the road + And be a friend to man. + +Mr. Foss's attribution to Homer used as a motto preceding his poem, +"The House by the Side of the Road," is, no doubt, his translation of +a passage from the _Iliad_, book vi., which, as done into English +prose in the translation of Lang, Leaf and Myers, is as follows: + + Then Diomedes of the loud war-cry slew Axylos, Teuthranos' son + that dwelt in stablished Arisbe, a man of substance dear to his + fellows; _for his dwelling was by the road-side and he + entertained all men_. + + * * * * * + + SAM WALTER FOSS + + Sam Walter Foss was a poet of gentle heart. His keen wit never + had any sting. He has described our Yankee folk with as clever + humour as Bret Harte delineated Rocky Mountain life. Like + Harte, Mr. Foss had no unkindness in his make-up. He told me + that he never had received an anonymous letter in his life. + + Our American nation is wonderful in science and mechanical + invention. It was the aim of Sam Walter Foss to immortalize the + age of steel. "Harness all your rivers above the cataracts' + brink, and then unharness man." He told me he thought the + subject of mechanics was as poetical as the song of the lark. + "The Cosmos wrought for a billion years to make glad for a + day," reminds us of the most resonant periods of Tennyson. + + "The House by the Side of the Road," is from a text of Homer. + "The Lunkhead" shows Foss in his happiest mood: gently + satirizing the foibles and harmless, foolish fancies of his + fellow-men. There is a haunting misty tenderness in such a poem + as "The Tree Lover." + + "Who loves a tree he loves the life + That springs in flower and clover; + He loves the love that gilds the cloud, + And greens the April sod; + He loves the wide beneficence, + His soul takes hold of God." + + We have too little love for the tender out-of-door nature. "The + world is too much with us." + + It was a loss to American life and letters when Sam Walter Foss + passed away from us at the height of his strong true manhood. + Later he will be regarded as an eminent American. + + He was true to our age to the core. Whether he wrote of the + gentle McKinley, the fighting Dewey, the ludicrous schoolboy, + the "grand eternal fellows" that are coming to this world after + we have left it--he was ever a weaver at the loom of highest + thought. The world is not to be civilized and redeemed by the + apostles of steel and brute force. Not the Hannibals and Cæsars + and Kaisers but the Shelleys, the Scotts, and the Fosses are + our saviours. They will have a large part in the future of the + world to heighten and brighten life and justify the ways of God + to men. + + These and such as these are our consolation in life's thorny + pathway. They keep alive in us the memory of our youth and many + a jaded traveller as he listens to their music, sees again the + apple blossoms falling around him in the twilight of some + unforgotten spring. + + PETER MacQUEEN. + +Peter MacQueen was brought to my house years ago by a friend when he +happened to be stationary for an hour, and he is certainly a unique +and interesting character, a marvellous talker, reciter of Scotch +ballads, a maker of epigrams, and a most unpractical, now-you-see-him +and now-he's-a-far-away-fellow. I remember his remark, "Breakfast is a +fatal habit." It was not the breakfast to which he referred but to the +gathering round a table at a stated hour, far too early, when not in a +mood for society or for conversation. And again: "I have decided never +to marry. A poor girl is a burden; a rich girl a boss." But you never +can tell. He is now a Benedict. + +I wrote to Mr. MacQueen lately for some of his press notices, and a +few of the names which he called himself when I received his letters. + + MY DEAR KATE SANBORN:--Yours here and I hasten to reply. Count + Tolstoi remarked to me: "Your travels have been so vast and you + have been with so many peoples and races, that an account of + them would constitute a philosophy in itself." + +Theodore Roosevelt said, "No other American has travelled over our new +possessions more universally, nor observed the conditions in them so +quickly and sanely." + +Kennan was _persona non grata_ to the Russians, especially after his +visit to Siberia, but Mr. MacQueen was most cordially welcomed. + +What an odd scene at Tolstoi's table! The countess and her daughter in +full evening dress with the display of jewels, and at the other end +Tolstoi in the roughest sort of peasant dress and with bare feet. At +dinner Count Tolstoi said to Mr. MacQueen: "If I had travelled as much +as you have, I should today have had a broader philosophy." + +Mr. MacQueen says of Russia: + + During the past one hundred years the empire of the Czar has + made slow progress; but great bodies move slowly, and Russia + is colossal. Two such republics as the United States with our + great storm door called Alaska, could go into the Russian + empire and yet leave room enough for Great Britain, Germany, + and Austria. + + +Journeys taken by Mr. MacQueen: + + 1896--to Athens and Greece. + + 1897--to Constantinople and Asia Minor. + + 1898--in the Santiago Campaign with the Rough + Riders, and in Porto Rico with General + Miles. + + 1899--with General Henry W. Lawton to the + Philippines, returning through Japan. + + 1900--with DeWet, Delarey, and Botha in the + Boer Army; met Oom Paul, etc. + + 1901--to Russia and Siberia on pass from the Czar, + visiting Tolstoi, etc. + + 1902--to Venezuela, Panama, Cuba, and Porto + Rico. + + 1903--to Turkey, Macedonia, Servia, Hungary, + Austria, etc. + + +In the meantime Mr. MacQueen has visited every country in Europe, +completing 240,000 miles in ten years, a distance equal to that which +separates this earth from the moon. + +Last winter he was four months in the war zone, narrowly escaping +arrest several times, and other serious dangers, as they thought him +a spy with his camera and pictures. I gave a stag dinner for him just +after his return from his war experiences, and the daily bulletins of +war's horrors seemed dull reading after his stories. + +Here is an extract from a paper sent by Peter MacQueen from Iowa, +where he long ago was in great demand as a lecturer, which contained +several of the best anecdotes told by this irresistible _raconteur_, +which may be new to you, if not, read them again and then tell them +yourself. + + Mr. MacQueen, who is to lecture at the Chautauqua here, has + many strange stories and quaint yarns that he picked up while + travelling around the globe. While in the highlands of Scotland + he met a canny old "Scot" who asked him, "Have you ever heard + of Andrew Carnegie in America?" "Yes, indeed," replied the + traveller. "Weel," said the Scot, pointing to a little stream + near-by, "in that wee burn Andrew and I caught our first trout + together. Andrew was a barefooted, bareheaded, ragged wee + callen, no muckle guid at onything. But he gaed off to America, + and they say he's doin' real weel." + +While in the Philippines Mr. MacQueen was marching with some of the +colored troops who have recently been dismissed by the President. A +big coloured soldier walking beside Mr. MacQueen had his white +officer's rations and ammunition and can-kit, carrying them in the +hot tropical sun. The big fellow turned to the traveller and said: +"Say, there, comrade, this yere White Man's Burden ain't all it's +cracked up to be." + + In the Boer war Mr. MacQueen, war correspondent and lecturer, + tells of an Irish Brigade man from Chicago on Sani river. The + correspondent was along with the Irish-Americans and saw them + take a hill from a force of Yorkshire men very superior in + numbers. Mr. MacQueen also saw a green flag of Ireland in the + British lines. Turning to his Irish friend, he remarked: "Isn't + it a shame to see Irishmen fighting for the Queen, and Irishmen + fighting for the Boers at the same time?" "Sorra the bit," + replied his companion, "it wouldn't be a proper fight if there + wasn't Irishmen on both sides." + +Here's hoping that during Mr. MacQueen's long vacation from sermons, +lectures, and tedious conventionalities in the outdoors of the darkest +and deepest Africa, the wild beasts, including the man-eating tiger, +may prove the correctness of Mrs. Seton Thompson's good words for them +and only approach him to have their photos taken or amiably allow +themselves to be shot. The cannibals will decide he is too thin and +wiry for a really tempting meal. + + * * * * * + +Doctor Edwin C. Bolles has been for fifteen years on the Faculty of +Tufts College, Massachusetts, and still continues active service at +the age of seventy-eight. + +His history courses are among the popular ones in the curriculum, and +his five minutes' daily talks in Chapel have won the admiration of the +entire College. + +He was for forty-five years in active pastoral service in the +Universalist ministry; was Professor of Microscopy for three years at +St. Lawrence University. Doctor Bolles was one of the pioneers in the +lecture field and both prominent and popular in this line, and the +first in the use of illustrations by the stereopticon in travel +lectures. + +The perfection of the use of microscopic projection which has done so +much for the popularization of science was one of his exploits. + +For several years his eyesight has been failing, an affliction which +he has borne with Christian courage and cheerfulness and keeps right +on at his beloved work. + +He has been devoted to photography in which avocation he has been most +successful. His wife told me they were glad to accept his call to New +York as he had almost filled every room in their house with his +various collections. One can appreciate this when he sees a card +displayed on the door of Doctor Bolles's sanctum bearing this motto: + +"A man is known by the Trumpery he keeps." + +He has received many honorary degrees, but his present triumph over +what would crush the ambition of most men is greater than all else. + + * * * * * + +Exquisite nonsense is a rare thing, but when found how delicious it +is! I found a letter from a reverend friend who might be an American +Sidney Smith if he chose, and I am going to let you enjoy it; it was +written years ago. + +Speaking of the "Purple and Gold," he says: + + I should make also better acknowledgments than my thanks. But + what can I do? My volume on _The Millimetric Study of the Tail + of the Greek Delta, in the MSS. of the Sixth Century_, is + entirely out of print; and until its re-issue by the Seaside + Library I cannot forward a copy. Then my essay, "Infantile + Diseases of the Earthworm" is in Berlin for translation, as it + is to be issued at the same time in Germany and the United + States. "The Moral Regeneration of the Rat," and "Intellectual + Idiosyncracies of Twin Clams," are resting till I can get up my + Sanscrit and Arabic, for I wish these researches to be + exhaustive. + +He added two poems which I am not selfish enough to keep to myself. + + GOLDEN ROD + + O! Golden Rod! Thou garish, gorgeous gush + Of passion that consumes hot summer's heart! + O! yellowest yolk of love! in yearly hush + I stand, awe sobered, at thy burning bush + Of Glory, glossed with lustrous and illustrious art, + And moan, why poor, so poor in purse and brain I am, + While thou into thy trusting treasury dost seem to cram + Australia, California, Sinai and Siam. + +And the other such a capital burlesque of the modern English School +with its unintelligible parentheses: + + ASTER + + I kissed her all day on her red, red mouth + (Cats, cradles and trilobites! Love is the master!) + Too utterly torrid, a sweet, spicy South + (Of compositæ, fairest the Aster.) + Stars shone on our kisses--the moon blushed warm + (Ursa major or minor, Pollux and Castor!) + + How long the homeward! And where was my arm? + (Crushed, crushed at her waist was the Aster!) + + No one kisses me now--my winter has come: + (To ice turns fortune when once you have passed her.) + I long for the angels to beckon me home (hum) + (For dead, deader, deadest, the Aster!) + + [Illustration: PINES AND SILVER BIRCHES] + + +Doctor Bolles has very kindly sent me one of his later humorous poems. +A tragic forecast of suffragette rule which is too gloomy, as almost +every woman will assure an agreeable smoker that she is "fond of the +odour of a good cigar." + + DESCENSUS AD INFERNUM + + When the last cigar is smoked and the box is splintered + and gone, + And only the faintest whiff of the dear old smell hangs on, + In the times when he's idle or thoughtful, + When he's lonesome, jolly or blue, + And he fingers his useless matches, + What is a poor fellow to do? + + For the suffragettes have conquered, and their harvest is + gathered in; + From Texas to Maine they've voted tobacco the deadliest sin; + A pipe sends you up for a year, a cigarette for two; + In this female republic of virtue, + What is a poor fellow to do? + + He may train up his reason on bridge and riot on afternoon tea, + And at dinner, all wineless and proper, a dress-suited guest he + may be; + But when the mild cheese has been passed, and the chocolate mint + drops are few, + And the coffee comes in and he hankers, + What is a poor fellow to do? + + It's all for his good, they say; for in heaven no nicotine + grows, + And the angels need no cedar for moth-proofs to keep their + clothes; + No ashes are dropped, no carpets are singed, by all the saintly + crew; + If _this_ is heaven, and he gets there, + What is a poor fellow to do? + + He'll sit on the golden benches and long for a chance to break + jail, + With a shooting-star for a motor, or a flight on a comet's tail; + He'll see the smoke rise in the distance, and goaded by memory's + spell, + He'll go back on the women who saved him, + And ask for a ticket to _Hell_! + +An exact description of the usual happenings at "Breezy" in the +beginning, by my only sister, Mrs. Babcock, who was devoted to me and +did more than anyone to help to develop the Farm. I feel that this +chapter must be the richer for two of her poems. + + LIGHT AND SHADE AT "BREEZY MEADOWS" FARM + + This charming May morning we'll walk to the grove! + And give the dear dogs all a run; + Over the meadows 'tis pleasant to rove + And bask in the light of the sun. + + Last night a sly fox took off our best duck! + Run for a gun! there a hen hawk flies! + We always have the very worst of luck, + The anxious mistress of the chickens cries. + + We stop to smell the lilacs at the gate, + And watch the bluebirds in the elm-tree's crest-- + The finest farm it is in all the state, + Which corner of it do you like the best? + + Just think! a rat has eaten ducklings two, + Now isn't that a shame! pray set a trap! + The downiest, dearest ones that ever grew, + I think this trouble will climax cap! + + At "Sun Flower Rock," in joy we stand to gaze; + The distant orchard, flowering, show so fair: + Surely my dear, abandoned farming pays, + How heavenly the early morning air! + + Now only see! those horrid hens are scratching! + They tear the Mountain Fringe so lately set! + Some kind of mischief they are always hatching, + Why did I ever try a hen to pet? + + Here's "Mary's Circle," and the birches slender, + And Columbine which grows the rocks between, + Red blossoms showing in a regal splendour! + We must be happy in this peaceful scene. + + The puppies chew the woodbine and destroy + The dainty branches sprouting on the wall! + How can the little wretches so annoy? + There's Solomon Alphonzo--worst of all! + + Now we will go to breakfast--milk and cream, + Eggs from the farm, surely it is a treat! + How horrid city markets really seem + When one can have fresh things like these to eat! + + What? Nickodee has taken all the hash? + And smashed the dish which lies upon the floor! + I thought just now I heard a sudden crash! + And it was he who slammed the kitchen door! + + By "Scare Crow Road" we take our winding way, + Tiger and Jerry in the pasture feed. + See, Mary,--what a splendid crop of hay! + Now, don't you feel that this is joy indeed? + + The incubator chickens all are dead! + Max fights with Shep, he scorns to follow me! + Some fresh disaster momently I dread; + Is that a skunk approaching?--try to see! + + Come Snip and Snap and give us song and dance! + We'll have a fire and read the choicest books, + While the black horses waiting, paw and prance! + And see how calm and sweet all nature looks. + + So goes the day; the peaceful landscape smiles; + At times the live stock seems to take a rest. + But fills our hearts with worry other whiles! + We think each separate creature is possessed! + + MARY W. BABCOCK. + + [Illustration: PADDLING IN CHICKEN BROOK] + + THE OLD WOMAN + + The little old woman, who wove and who spun, + Who sewed and who baked, did she have any fun? + + In housewifely arts with her neighbour she'd vie, + Her triumph a turkey, her pleasure a pie! + + She milked and she churned, and the chickens she fed, + She made tallow dips, and she moulded the bread. + + No club day annoyed her, no program perplext, + No themes for discussion her calm slumber vexed. + + By birth D.A.R. or Colonial Dame, + She sought for no record to blazon her fame-- + + No Swamies she knew, she cherished no fad, + Of healing by science, no knowledge she had. + + She anointed with goose grease, she gave castor oil, + Strong sons and fair daughters rewarded her toil. + + She studied child nature direct from the child, + And she spared not the rod, though her manner was mild. + + All honour be paid her, this heroine true, + She laid the foundation for things we call new! + + Her hand was so strong, and her brain was so steady, + That for the New Woman she made the world ready. + + MARY W. BABCOCK. + + [Illustration: THE ISLAND WHICH WE MADE] + +Here is one of the several parodies written by my brother while +interned in a log camp in the woods of New Brunswick, during a severe +day's deluge of rain. It was at the time when Peary had recently +reached the North Pole, and Dr. Cook had reported his remarkable +observations of purple snows: + + DON'T YOU HEAR THE NORTH A-CALLIN'? + + Ship me somewhere north o' nowhere, where the worst + is like the best; + Where there aren't no p'ints o' compass, an' a man can + get a rest; + Where a breeze is like a blizzard, an' the weather at + its best; + Dogs and Huskies does the workin' and the Devil does + the rest. + + On the way to Baffin's Bay, + Where the seal and walrus play, + And the day is slow a-comin', slower + Still to go away. + + There I seen a walrus baskin'--bloomin' blubber to + the good; + Could I 'it 'im for the askin'? Well--I missed 'im where + he stood. + Ship me up there, north o' nowhere, where the best is like + the worst; + Where there aren't no p'ints o' compass, and the last one + gets there first. + + Take me back to Baffin's Bay, + Where the seal and walrus play; + And the night is long a-comin', when it + Comes, it comes to stay. + + [Illustration: TAKA'S TEA HOUSE AT LILY POND] + + THE WOMAN WITH THE BROOM + + _A Mate for "The Man With The Hoe."_ + + (Written after seeing a farmer's wife cleaning house.) + + Bowed by the cares of cleaning house she leans + Upon her broom and gazes through the dust. + A wilderness of wrinkles on her face, + And on her head a knob of wispy hair. + Who made her slave to sweeping and to soap, + A thing that smiles not and that never rests, + Stanchioned in stall, a sister to the cow? + Who loosened and made shrill this angled jaw? + Who dowered this narrowed chest for blowing up + Of sluggish men-folks and their morning fire? + + Is this the thing you made a bride and brought + To have dominion over hearth and home, + To scour the stairs and search the bin for flour, + To bear the burden of maternity? + Is this the wife they wove who framed our law + And pillared a bright land on smiling homes? + Down all the stretch of street to the last house + There is no shape more angular than hers, + More tongued with gabble of her neighbours' deeds, + More filled with nerve-ache and rheumatic twinge, + More fraught with menace of the frying-pan. + + O Lords and Masters in our happy land, + How with this woman will you make account, + How answer her shrill question in that hour + When whirlwinds of such women shake the polls, + Heedless of every precedent and creed, + Straight in hysteric haste to right all wrongs? + How will it be with cant of politics, + With king of trade and legislative boss, + With cobwebs of hypocrisy and greed, + When she shall take the ballot for her broom + And sweep away the dust of centuries? + + EDWARD W. SANBORN. + + NEW HAMPSHIRE DAUGHTERS + + New Hampshire Daughters meet tonight + With joy each cup is brimmin'; + We've heard for years about her men, + But why leave out her wimmin? + + In early days they did their share + To git the state to goin', + And when their husbands went to war, + Could fight or take to hoein'. + + They bore privations with a smile, + Raised families surprisin', + Six boys, nine gals, with twins thrown in, + O, they were enterprisin'. + + Yet naught is found their deeds to praise + In any book of hist'ry, + The brothers wrote about themselves, + And--well, that solves the myst'ry. + + But now our women take their place + In pulpit, court, and college, + As doctors, teachers, orators, + They equal men in knowledge. + + And when another history's writ + Of what New Hampshire's done, + The women all will get their due, + But not a single son. + + But no, on sober second thought, + We lead, not pose as martyrs, + We'll give fair credit to her sons, + But not forget her Darters. + + KATE SANBORN. + + + [Illustration: THE LOOKOUT] + +A little of my (not doggerel) but pupperell to complete the family +trio. + +Answer to an artist friend who begged for a "Turkey dinner." + + Delighted to welcome you dear; + But you can't have a Turkey dinner! + Those fowls are my friends--live here: + To eat, not be eat, you sinner! + + I like their limping, primping mien, + I like their raucous gobble; + I like the lordly tail outspread, + I like their awkward hobble. + + Yes, Turkey is my favourite meat, + Hot, cold, or réchauffée; + *But my own must stay, and eat and eat; + You may paint 'em, and so take away. + + KATE SANBORN. + + [*Metre adapted to the peculiar feet of this bird.] + + SPRING IN WINTER + + _A Memory of "Breezy Meadows"_ + + 'Twas winter--and bleakly and bitterly came + The winds o'er the meads you so breezily name; + And what tho' the sun in the heavens was bright, + 'Twas lacking in heat altho' lavish in light. + And cold were the guests who drew up to your door, + But lo, when they entered 'twas winter no more! + + Without, it might freeze, and without, it might storm, + Within, there was welcome all glowing and warm. + And oh, but the warmth in the hostess's eyes + Made up for the lack of that same in the skies! + And fain is the poet such magic to sing: + Without, it was winter--within, it was spring! + + Yea, spring--for the charm of the house and its cheer + Awoke in us dreams of the youth of the year; + And safe in your graciousness folded and furled, + How far seemed the cold and the care of the world! + So strong was the spell that your magic could fling, + We _knew_ it was winter--we _felt_ it was spring! + + Yea, spring--in the glow of your hearth and your board + The springtime for us was revived and restored, + And everyone blossomed, from hostess to guest, + In story and sentiment, wisdom and jest; + And even the bard like a robin must sing-- + And, sure, after that, who could doubt it was spring! + + DENIS A. McCARTHY. + + _New Year's Day_, 1909. + +Mr. McCarthy is associate editor of _The Sacred Heart_, Boston, and a +most popular poet and lecturer. + +His dear little book, _Voices from Erin_, adorned with the Irish harp +and the American shield fastened together by a series of true-love +knots, is dedicated "To all who in their love for the new land have +not forgotten the old." There is one of these poems which is always +called for whenever the author attends any public function where +recitations are in order, and I do not wonder at its popularity, for +it has the genuine Irish lilt and fascination: + + "Ah, sweet is Tipperary in the spring time of the year, + When the hawthorn's whiter than the snow, + When the feathered folk assemble and the air is all a-tremble + With their singing and their winging to and fro; + When queenly Slieve-na-mon puts her verdant vesture on, + And smiles to hear the news the breezes bring; + When the sun begins to glance on the rivulets that dance; + Ah, sweet is Tipperary in the spring!" + +I have always wanted to write a poem about my own "Breezy" and the +bunch of lilacs at the gate; but not being a poet I have had to keep +wanting; but just repeating this gaily tripping tribute over and over, +I suddenly seized my pencil and pad, and actually under the +inspiration, imitated (at a distance) half of this first verse. + + How sweet to be at Breezy in the springtime of the year, + With the lilacs all abloom at the gate, + And everything so new, so jubilant, so dear, + And every little bird is a-looking for his mate. + +There, don't you dare laugh! Perhaps another time I may swing into +the exact rhythm. + +The Rev. William Rankin Duryea, late Professor at Rutgers College, New +Brunswick, was before that appointment a clergyman in Jersey City. His +wife told me that he once wrote some verses hoping to win a prize of +several hundred dollars offered for the best poem on "Home." He dashed +off one at a sitting, read it over, tore it up, and flung it in the +waste basket. Then he proceeded to write something far more serious +and impressive. This he sent to the committee of judges who were to +choose the winner. It was never heard of. But his wife, who liked the +rhythm of the despised jingle, took it from the waste basket, pieced +it together, copied it, and sent it to the committee. It took the +prize. And he showed me in his library, books he had long wanted to +own, which he had purchased with this "prize money," writing in each +"Bought for a Song." + + 1 + + Dark is the night, and fitful and drearily + Rushes the wind like the waves of the sea, + Little care I as here I sing cheerily, + Wife at my side and my baby on knee; + King, King, crown me the King! + Home is the Kingdom, and Love is the King. + + 2 + + Flashes the firelight upon the dear faces + Dearer and dearer as onward we go, + Forces the shadow behind us and places + Brightness around us with warmth in the glow + King, King, crown me the King! + Home is the Kingdom, and Love is the King. + + 3 + + Flashes the love-light increasing the glory, + Beaming from bright eyes with warmth of the soul, + Telling of trust and content the sweet story, + Lifting the shadows that over us roll; + King, King, crown me the King! + Home is the Kingdom, and Love is the King. + + 4 + + Richer than miser with perishing treasure, + Served with a service no conquest could bring, + Happy with fortune that words cannot measure, + Light-hearted I on the hearthstone can sing, + King, King, crown me the King! + Home is the Kingdom, and Love is the King. + + WM. RANKIN DURYEA, D.D. + + [Illustration: THE SWITCH] + +Breezy Meadows, my heart's delight. I was so fortunate as to purchase +it in a ten-minute interview with the homesick owner, who longed to +return to Nebraska, and complained that there was not grass enough on +the place to feed a donkey. I am sure this was not a personal +allusion, as I saw the donkey and he did look forlorn. + +I was captivated by the big elms, all worthy of Dr. Holmes's +wedding-ring, and looked no further, never dreaming of the great +surprises in store for me. As, a natural pond of water lilies, some +tinted with pink. These lilies bloom earlier and later than any others +about here. + +An unusual variety of trees, hundreds of white birches greatly adding +to the beauty of the place, growing in picturesque clumps of family +groups and their white bark, especially white. + + [Illustration: HOW VINES GROW AT BREEZY MEADOWS] + +Two granite quarries, the black and white, and an exquisite pink, and +we drive daily over long stretches of solid rock, going down two or +three hundred feet--But I shall never explore these for illusive +wealth. + +A large chestnut grove through which my foreman has made four +excellent roads. Two fascinating brooks, with forget-me-nots, +blue-eyed and smiling in the water, and the brilliant cardinal-flower +on the banks in the late autumn. + +From a profusion of wild flowers I especially remark the +moccasin-flower or stemless lady's-slipper. + +My _Nature's Garden_ says--"Because most people cannot forbear picking +this exquisite flower that seems too beautiful to be found outside a +millionaire's hothouse, it is becoming rarer every year, until the +picking of one in the deep forest where it must now hide, has become +the event of a day's walk." Nearly 300 of this orchid were found in +our wooded garden this season. + +In the early spring, several deer are seen crossing the field just a +little distance from the house. They like to drink at the brooks and +nip off the buds of the lilac trees. Foxes, alas, abound. + +Pheasants, quail, partridges are quite tame, perhaps because we feed +them in winter. + +I found untold bushes of the blueberry and huckleberry, also enough +cranberries in the swamp to supply our own table and sell some. Wild +grape-vines festoon trees by the brooks. + +Barberries, a dozen bushes of these which are very decorative, and +their fruit if skilfully mixed with raisins make a foreign-tasting and +delicious conserve. + +We have the otter and mink, and wild ducks winter in our brooks. Large +birds like the heron and rail appear but rarely; ugly looking and +fierce. + +The hateful English sparrow has been so reduced in numbers by sparrow +traps that now they keep away and the bluebirds take their own boxes +again. The place is a safe and happy haven for hosts of birds. + +I have a circle of houses for the martins and swallows and wires +connecting them, where a deal of gossip goes on. + +The pigeons coo-oo-o on the barn roof and are occasionally utilized in +a pie, good too! + + [Illustration: GRAND ELM + (OVER TWO HUNDRED YEARS OLD)] + + "I wonder how my great trees are coming on this summer." + + "Where are your trees, Sir?" said the divinity student. + + "Oh, all around about New England. I call all trees mine that I + have put my wedding ring on, and I have as many tree-wives as + Brigham Young has human ones." "One set's as green as the + other," exclaimed a boarder, who has never been identified. + "They're all Bloomers,"--said the young fellow called John. (I + should have rebuked this trifling with language, if our + landlady's daughter had not asked me just then what I meant by + putting my wedding-ring on a tree.) "Why, measuring it with my + thirty-foot tape, my dear, said I.--I have worn a tape almost + out on the rough barks of our old New England elms and other + big trees. Don't you want to hear me talk trees a little now? + That is one of my specialties." + + "What makes a first-class elm?" + + "Why, size, in the first place, and chiefly anything over + twenty feet clear girth five feet above the ground and with a + spread of branches a hundred feet across may claim that title, + according to my scale. All of them, with the questionable + exception of the Springfield tree above referred to, stop, so + far as my experience goes, at about twenty-two or twenty-three + feet of girth and a hundred and twenty of spread." + +Three of my big elms easily stand the test Dr. Holmes prescribed, and +seem to spread themselves since being assured that they are worthy of +one of his wedding-rings if he were alive, and soon there will be +other applicants in younger elms. + + * * * * * + +I am pleased that my memory has brought before me so unerringly the +pleasant pictures of the past. But my agreeable task is completed. + +The humming-birds have come on this fifteenth of July to sip at early +morn the nectar from the blossoms of the trumpet-vine, now beginning +its brilliant display. That is always a signal for me to drop all +indoor engagements and from this time, the high noon of midsummer +fascinations, to keep out of doors enjoying to the full the +ever-changing glories of Nature, until the annual Miracle Play of +the Transfiguration of the Trees. + + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Memories and Anecdotes, by Kate Sanborn + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEMORIES AND ANECDOTES *** + +***** This file should be named 15174-8.txt or 15174-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/1/7/15174/ + +Produced by Janet Kegg and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Memories and Anecdotes + +Author: Kate Sanborn + +Release Date: February 25, 2005 [EBook #15174] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEMORIES AND ANECDOTES *** + + + + +Produced by Janet Kegg and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div style="height: 8em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<a name="image-0001"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/sk-img01.jpg" width="323" height="450" +alt="Greetings and Welcome to Every Reader +(Kate Sanborn)" /> +</center> +<h5>GREETINGS AND WELCOME TO EVERY READER<br /> + (KATE SANBORN)</h5> + +<hr class="long" /> +<h1> + MEMORIES AND +</h1> +<h1> ANECDOTES +</h1> + <h4>BY</h4> + +<h2>KATE SANBORN</h2> +<p class="center"> +AUTHOR OF +"ADOPTING AN ABANDONED FARM," "ABANDONING AN<br /> +ADOPTED FARM," "OLD-TIME WALL PAPERS," ETC. +</p> +<br /> +<p class="center"> +<i>WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS</i> +</p> +<h5> +G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS<br /> +NEW YORK LONDON<br /> +The Knickerbocker Press<br /> +1915 +</h5> +<hr class="long" /> + + <h5> To </h5> + <h4>ALL MY FRIENDS EVERYWHERE</h4> + +<p class="center"> + ESPECIALLY TO MY BELOVED</p> +<p class="center"> + "NEW HAMPSHIRE DAUGHTERS" IN MASSACHUSETTS, </p> +<p class="center"> + MY PUPILS IN SMITH COLLEGE, </p> +<p class="center"> + ALSO AT PACKER INSTITUTE, BROOKLYN, </p> + <p class="center"> + AND ALL THOSE WHO HAD THE PATIENCE TO LISTEN TO MY + LECTURES, </p> + +<p class="center"> + WITH GRATEFUL REGARDS TO THOSE DARTMOUTH GRADUATES<br /> + WHO, LIKING MY FATHER, WERE ALWAYS GIVING HIS<br /> + AMBITIOUS DAUGHTER A HELPING HAND +</p> + +<br /> + + +<hr class="long"/> + + +<a name="2H_TOC"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h3> + CONTENTS +</h3> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0001"> +CHAPTER I +</a></p> + <p class="subchap">My Early Days—Odd Characters in our Village—Distinguished Visitors + to Dartmouth—Two Story-Tellers of Hanover—A "Beacon Light" and a + Master of Synonyms—A Day with Bryant in his Country Home—A Wedding + Trip to the White Mountains in 1826 in "A One-Hoss Shay"—A Great + +Career which Began in a Country Store +</p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0002"> +CHAPTER II +</a></p> +<p class="subchap">A Friend at Andover, Mass.—Hezekiah Butterworth—A Few of my Own +Folks—Professor Putnam of Dartmouth—One Year at Packer Institute, +Brooklyn—Beecher's Face in Prayer—The Poet Saxe as I Saw +him—Offered the Use of a Rare Library—Miss Edna Dean Proctor—New +Stories of Greeley—Experiences at St. Louis +</p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0003"> +CHAPTER III +</a></p> +<p class="subchap"> +Happy Days with Mrs. Botta—My Busy Life in New York—President +Barnard of Columbia College—A Surprise from Bierstadt—Professor +Doremus, a Universal Genius—Charles H. Webb, a truly funny "Funny +Man"—Mrs. Esther Herman, a Modest Giver +</p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0004"> +CHAPTER IV +</a></p> +<p class="subchap"> +Three Years at Smith College—Appreciation of Its Founder—A + Successful Lecture Tour—My Trip to Alaska +</p> + <p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0005"> +CHAPTER V +</a></p> +<p class="subchap">Frances E. Willard—Walt Whitman—Lady Henry Somerset—Mrs. Hannah + Whitehall Smith—A Teetotaler for Ten Minutes—Olive Thorn + Miller—Hearty Praise for Mrs. Lippincott (Grace Greenwood.) +</p> + <p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0006"> +CHAPTER VI +</a></p> +<p class="subchap">In and near Boston—Edward Everett Hale—Thomas Wentworth + Higginson—Julia Ward Howe—Mary A. Livermore—A Day at the Concord + School—Harriet G. Hosmer—"Dora Distria," our Illustrious Visitor +</p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0007"> +CHAPTER VII +</a></p> +<p class="subchap"> +Elected to be the First President of New Hampshire's Daughters in + Massachusetts. Now Honorary President—Kind Words which I Highly + Value—Three, but not "of a Kind"—A Strictly Family Affair—Two + Favorite Poems—Breezy Meadows. + </p> + +<br /> +<hr /> + +<a name="2H_ILL"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 2em;"><br /><br /></div> + +<h3>ILLUSTRATIONS</h3> +<p class="ilist"><a href="#image-0001"> +Greetings and Welcome to Every Reader <br /> +(Kate Sanborn) <i>Frontispiece</i> +</a></p> +<p class="ilist"><a href="#image-0002"> +The Street Fronting the Sanborn Home at Hanover, N.H. +</a></p> +<p class="ilist"><a href="#image-0003"> +Mrs. Anne C. Lynch Botta +</a></p> +<p class="ilist"><a href="#image-0004"> +President Barnard of Columbia College +</a></p> +<p class="ilist"><a href="#image-0005"> +Professor R. Ogden Doremus +</a></p> +<p class="ilist"><a href="#image-0006"> +Sophia Smith +</a></p> +<p class="ilist"><a href="#image-0007"> +Peter MacQueen +</a></p> +<p class="ilist"><a href="#image-0008"> +Sam Walter Foss +</a></p> +<p class="ilist"><a href="#image-0009"> +Pines and Silver Birches +</a></p> +<p class="ilist"><a href="#image-0010"> +Paddling in Chicken Brook +</a></p> +<p class="ilist"><a href="#image-0011"> +The Island Which We Made +</a></p> +<p class="ilist"><a href="#image-0012"> +Taka's Tea House at Lily Pond +</a></p> +<p class="ilist"><a href="#image-0013"> +The Lookout +</a></p> +<p class="ilist"><a href="#image-0014"> +The Switch +</a></p> +<p class="ilist"><a href="#image-0015"> +How Vines Grow at Breezy Meadows +</a></p> +<p class="ilist"><a href="#image-0016"> +Grand Elm (over Two Hundred Years Old) +</a></p> + +<br /> +<hr class="long" /> + +<a name="2H_4_0001"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + MEMORIES AND ANECDOTES +</h2> +<a name="2HCH0001"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + + +<h2> + CHAPTER I +</h2> +<p class="cont"> +My Early Days—Odd Characters in our Village—Distinguished Visitors +to Dartmouth—Two Story Tellers of Hanover—A "Beacon Light" and a +Master of Synonyms—A Day with Bryant in his Country Home—A Wedding +Trip to the White Mountains in 1826 in "A One Hoss Shay"—A Great +Career which Began in a Country Store. +</p> +<p> +I make no excuse for publishing these memories. Realizing that I have +been so fortunate as to know an unusual number of distinguished men +and women, it gives me pleasure to share this privilege with others. +</p> +<p> +One summer morning, "long, long ago," a newspaper was sent by my +grandmother, Mrs. Ezekiel Webster, to a sister at Concord, New +Hampshire, with this item of news pencilled on the margin: +</p> +<p> +"Born Thursday morning, July 11, 1839, 4.30 A.M., a fine little girl, +seven pounds." +</p> +<p> +I was born in my father's library, and first opened my eyes upon a +scenic wall-paper depicting the Bay of Naples; in fact I was born just +under Vesuvius—which may account for my occasional eruptions of +temper and life-long interest in "Old Time Wall-papers." Later our +house was expanded into a college dormitory and has been removed to +another site, but Vesuvius is still smoking placidly in the old +library. +</p> +<p> +Mine was a shielded, happy childhood—an only child for six years—and +family letters show that I was "always and for ever talking," asking +questions, making queer remarks, or allowing free play to a vivid +imagination, which my parents thought it wise to restrain. Father felt +called upon to write for a child's paper about Caty's Gold Fish, which +were only minnows from Mink Brook. +</p> +<p> +"Caty is sitting on the floor at my feet, chattering as usual, and +asking questions." I seem to remember my calling over the banister to +an assembled family downstairs, "Muzzer, Muzzer, I dess I dot a +fezer," or "Muzzer, come up, I'se dot a headache in my stomach." I +certainly can recall my intense admiration for Professor Ira Young, +our next door neighbour, and his snowy pow, which I called "pity wite +fedders." +</p> +<p> +As years rolled on, I fear I was pert and audacious. I once touched +at supper a blazing hot teapot, which almost blistered my fingers, and +I screamed with surprise and pain. Father exclaimed, "Stop that noise, +Caty." I replied, "Put your fingers on that teapot—and don't +kitikize." And one evening about seven, my usual bedtime, I announced, +"I'm going to sit up till eight tonight, and don't you 'spute." I know +of many children who have the same habit of questions and sharp +retorts. One of my pets, after plying her mother with about forty +questions, wound up with, "Mother, how does the devil's darning needle +sleep? Does he lie down on a twig or hang, or how?" "I don't know, +dear." "Why, mother, it is surprising when you have lived so many +years, that you know so little!" +</p> +<p> +Mr. Higginson told an absurd story of an inquisitive child and wearied +mother in the cars passing the various Newtons, near Boston. At last +the limit. "Ma, why do they call this West Newton?" "Oh, I suppose for +fun." Silence for a few minutes, then, "Ma, what <i>was</i> the fun in +calling it West Newton?" +</p> +<p> +I began Latin at eight years—my first book a yellow paper primer. +</p> +<p> +I was always interested in chickens, and dosed all the indisposed as: +</p> +<p class="verse"> + Dandy Dick <br /> + Was very sick, <br /> + I gave him red pepper <br /> + And soon he was better. +</p> +<p> +In spring, I remember the humming of our bees around the sawdust, and +my craze for flower seeds and a garden of my own. +</p> +<p> +Father had a phenomenal memory; he could recite in his classroom pages +of Scott's novels, which he had not read since early youth. He had no +intention of allowing my memory to grow flabby from lack of use. I +often repeat a verse he asked me to commit to memory: +</p> +<p class="verse"> + In reading authors, when you find <br /> + Bright passages that strike your mind, <br /> + And which perhaps you may have reason <br /> + To think on at another season; <br /> + Be not contented with the sight, <br /> + But jot them down in black and white; <br /> + Such respect is wisely shown <br /> + As makes another's thought your own. +</p> +<p> +Every day at the supper table I had to repeat some poetry or prose and +on Sunday a hymn, some of which were rather depressing to a young +person, as: +</p> +<p class="verse"> + Life is but a winter's day; <br /> + A journey to the tomb. +</p> +<p> +And the vivid description of "Dies Irae": +</p> +<p class="verse"> + When shrivelling like a parched scroll <br /> + The flaming heavens together roll <br /> + And louder yet and yet more dread <br /> + Swells the high Trump that wakes the dead. +</p> +<p> +Great attention was given to my lessons in elocution from the best +instructors then known, and I had the privilege of studying with +William Russell, one of the first exponents of that art. I can still +hear his advice: "Full on the vowels; dwell on the consonants, +especially at the close of sentences; keep voice strong for the close +of an important sentence or paragraph." Next, I took lessons from +Professor Mark Bailey of Yale College; and then in Boston in the +classes of Professor Lewis B. Monroe,—a most interesting, practical +teacher of distinctness, expression, and the way to direct one's voice +to this or that part of a hall. I was given the opportunity also of +hearing an occasional lecture by Graham Bell. Later, I used to read +aloud to father for four or five hours daily—grand practice—such +important books as Lecky's <i>Rationalism</i>, Buckle's <i>Averages</i>, Sir +William Hamilton's <i>Metaphysics</i> (not one word of which could I +understand), Huxley, Tyndall, Darwin, and Spencer, till my head was +almost too full of that day's "New Thought." +</p> +<p> +Judge Salmon P. Chase once warned me, when going downstairs to a +dinner party at Edgewood, "For God's sake, Kate, don't quote the +<i>Atlantic Monthly</i> tonight!" I realized then what a bore I had been. +</p> +<p> +What a treat to listen to William M. Evarts chatting with Judge Chase! +One evening he affected deep depression. "I have just been beaten +twice at 'High Low Jack' by Ben the learned pig. I always wondered why +two pipes in liquid measure were called a hogshead; now I know; it was +on account of their great capacity." He also told of the donkey's +loneliness in his absence, as reported by his little daughter. +</p> +<p> +I gave my first series of talks at Tilden Seminary at West Lebanon, +New Hampshire, only a few miles from Hanover. President Asa D. Smith +of Dartmouth came to hear two of them, and after I had given the whole +series from Chaucer to Burns, he took them to Appleton & Company, the +New York publishers, who were relatives of his, and surprised me by +having them printed. +</p> +<p> +I give an unasked-for opinion by John G. Whittier: +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + I spent a pleasant hour last evening over the charming little + volume, <i>Home Pictures of English Poets</i>, which thou wast kind + enough to send me, and which I hope is having a wide + circulation as it deserves. Its analysis of character and + estimate of literary merit strike me as in the main correct. + Its racy, colloquial style, enlivened by anecdote and citation, + makes it anything but a dull book. It seems to me admirably + adapted to supply a want in hearth and home. +</p> +<p> +I lectured next in various towns in New Hampshire and Vermont; as St. +Johnsbury, where I was invited by Governor Fairbanks; Bath, New +Hampshire, asked by Mrs. Johnson, a well-known writer on flowers and +horticulture, a very entertaining woman. At one town in Vermont I +lectured at the large academy there—not much opportunity for rest in +such a building. My room was just off the music room where duets were +being executed, and a little further on girls were taking singing +lessons, while a noisy little clock-ette on my bureau zigzagged out +the rapid ticks. At the evening meal I was expected to be agreeable, +also after the lecture to meet and entertain a few friends. When I at +last retired that blatant clock made me so nervous that I placed it at +first in the bureau drawer, where it sounded if possible louder than +ever. Then I rose and put it way back in a closet; no hope; at last I +partially dressed and carried it the full length of the long hall, and +laid it down to sleep on its side. And I think that depressed it. In +the morning, a hasty breakfast, because a dozen or more girls were +waiting at the door to ask me to write a "tasty sentiment" before I +left, in their autograph albums, with my autograph of course, and +"something of your own preferred, but at any rate characteristic." +</p> +<p> +My trips to those various towns taught me to be more humble, and to +admire the women I met, discovering how seriously they had studied, +and how they made use of every opportunity. I remember Somersworth, +New Hampshire, and Burlington, Vermont. I lectured twice at the Insane +Asylum at Concord, New Hampshire, invited by Dr. Bancroft. After +giving my "newspaper wits" a former governor of Vermont came up to +shake hands with me, saying frankly, "Miss Sanborn, your lecture was +just about right for us lunatics." A former resident of Hanover, in a +closed cell, greeted me the next morning as I passed, with a torrent +of abuse, profanity, and obscenity. She too evidently disliked my +lecture. Had an audience of lunatics also at the McLean Insane Asylum, +Dr. Coles, Superintendent. +</p> +<p> +I think I was the first woman ever invited to make an address to +farmers on farming. I spoke at Tilton, New Hampshire, to more than +three hundred men about woman's day on the farm. Insinuated that +women need a few days <i>off</i> the farm. Said a good many other things +that were not applauded. Farmers seemed to know nothing of the +advantages of co-operation, and that they were as much slaves (to the +middlemen) as ever were the negroes in the South. They even tried to +escape from me at the noise of a dog-fight outside. I offered to +provide a large room for social meetings, to stock it with books of +the day, and to send them a lot of magazines and other reading. Not +one ever made the slightest response. Now they have all and more than +I suggested. +</p> +<p> +When but seventeen, I was sent for to watch with Professor Shurtleff, +really a dying man, and left all alone with him in the lower part of +the house; he begged about 2 A.M. to be taken up and placed in a +rocking-chair near the little open fire. The light was dim and the +effect was very weird. His wig hung on one bedpost, he had lost one +eye, and the patch worn over the empty eye socket had been left on the +bureau. My anxiety was great lest he should slip from the chair and +tip into the fire. I note this to mark the great change since that +time. Neighbours are not now expected to care for the sick and dying, +but trained nurses are always sought, and most of them are noble +heroines in their profession. +</p> +<p> +Once also I watched with a poor woman who was dying with cancer. I +tried it for two nights, but the remark of her sister, as I left +utterly worn out, "Some folks seem to get all their good things in +this life," deterred me from attempting it again. +</p> +<p> +Started a school a little later in the ell of our house for my friends +among the Hanover children—forty-five scholars in all. Kept it going +successfully for two years. +</p> +<p> +I dislike to tell a story so incredible and so against myself as this. +One evening father said, "I am going to my room early tonight, Katie; +do not forget to lock the back door." I sat reading until quite late, +then retired. About 2.30 A.M., I was startled to hear someone gently +open that back door, then take off boots and begin to softly ascend +the stairs, which stopped only the width of a narrow hall from my +room. I have been told that I said in trembling tones, "You're trying +to keep pretty quiet down there." Next moment I was at the head of the +stairs; saw a man whom I did not recognize on the last step but one. I +struck a heavy blow on his chest, saying, "Go down, sir," and down he +tumbled all the way, his boots clanking along by themselves. Then the +door opened, my burglar disappeared, and I went down and locked the +back door as I had promised father I would. I felt less proud of my +physical prowess and real courage when my attention was called to a +full account of my assault in the college papers of the day. The young +man was not rooming at our house, but coming into town quite late, +planned to lodge with a friend there. He threw gravel at this young +man's window in the third story to waken him, and failing thought at +last he would try the door, and if not locked he would creep up, and +disturb no one. But "Miss Sanborn knocked a man all the way +downstairs" was duly announced. I then realized my awful mistake, and +didn't care to appear on the street for some time except in recitation +hours. +</p> +<p> +The second time I lectured in Burlington, I was delayed nearly half an +hour at that dreadful Junction, about which place Professor Edward J. +Phelps, afterwards Minister to England, wrote a fierce rhyme to +relieve his rage at being compelled to waste so much precious time +there. I recall only two revengeful lines: +</p> +<p class="verse"> + "I hope in hell his soul may dwell, <br /> + Who first invented Essex Junction." +</p> +<p class="noindent"> +Oh, yes, I do remember his idea that the cemetery near the station +contained the bodies of many weary ones who had died just before help +came and were shovelled over. +</p> +<p> +It happened that Mrs. Underwood, wife of the demented governor, who +had alluded so truthfully to my lecture, was in the audience, and +being gifted with genuine clairvoyant powers, she rose and begged the +audience not to disperse, as she could distinctly see me pacing +nervously up and down the platform at the Junction in a long sealskin +coat and hat trimmed with band of fur. I arrived at last with the +sealskin and the hat, proving her correct, and they cheered her as +well as myself. +</p> +<p> +Our little village had its share of eccentric characters, as the old +man who was impelled by the edict of the Bible to cut off his right +hand as it had "offended him." But lacking surgical facilities, the +effort left one hand hanging limp and useless. His long white beard, +how truly patriarchal! +</p> +<p> +Poor insane Sally Duget—a sad story! Her epitaph in our cemetery is +pathetic. With all her woe she was quick at repartee. A man once asked +her, "Shall you ever marry, Sally?" "Well, yes, if you and I can make +a bargain." +</p> +<p> +Elder Bawker with his difficulties in locomotion. +</p> +<p> +Rogers, who carried the students' washing home to his wife on Sunday +afternoons for a preliminary soak. The minister seeing him thus +engaged, stopped him, and inquired: +</p> +<p> +"Where do you think you will go to if you so constantly desecrate the +Holy Sabbath?" +</p> +<p> +"Guess I'll go right on doing laundry work for the boys." +</p> +<p> +The aged janitor who, in a brief scare about smallpox, was asked if he +had ever had it: "No, but I've had chances." +</p> +<p> +An old sinner who, being converted, used to serve as a lay evangelist +at the district schoolhouse where in winter religious meetings were +held. Roguish lads to test him sprinkled red pepper, a lot of it, on +the red hot stove. He almost suffocated, but burst out with: "By God, +there's enemies to religion in this house! Hist the winders!" +</p> +<p> +The rubicund butcher of that period (we had no choice) was asked by a +long-time patron how he got such a red face. "Cider apple sass." The +same patron said, "You have served me pretty well, but cheated me a +good deal." "Yes, sir, but you have no idea how much I've cheated +you." +</p> +<p> +Our one milliner, positively brilliant in her remarks, when a lady +sent back her bonnet twice on the ground that it was not becoming, +said, "Remember you have your face to contend with." +</p> +<p> +Our only and original gravedigger, manager in general of village +affairs. +</p> +<p> +After the death of a physician, his wife gave a stained-glass window +to the Episcopal Church of St. Luke, the beloved physician. She asked +Jason if he liked it. He said, "It don't strike me as a particular +speaking likeness of Dr. Tom." +</p> +<p> +To one of the new professors who ventured to make a few suggestions, +"Who be yaou anyway?" +</p> +<p> +He enjoyed buttonholing people he met in our "graveyard" and pointing +out where they "must shortly lie." +</p> +<p> +Our landlord—who that ever saw Horace Frary could forget him? If a +mother came to Hanover to see her boy on the 2.30 P.M. train, no meal +could be obtained. He would stand at the front door and explain, +"Dinner is over long ago." He cared personally for about thirty oil +lamps each day, trimmed the wicks with his fingers, and then wiped +them on his trousers. Also did the carving standing at the table and +cleaning the dull knife on the same right side—so the effect was +startling. One day when he had been ill for a short time his wife +said: "Dr. Dixi Crosby is coming this way now, I'll call him in." +"Don't let him in now," he begged, "why d—— it, I'm <i>sick</i>!" +</p> +<p> +I must not omit the strictly veracious witness who was sworn to +testify how many students were engaged in a noisy night frolic at +Norwich. "As fur as I know, there was betwixt six and seven." +</p> +<p> +"Webb Hall," who today would figure as a "down and out," made many +amusing statements. "By the way I look in these ragged clothes, you +might take me for a Democrat, but I'm a red hot Republican." +</p> +<p> +He was obsessed by the notion that he had some trouble with a judge in +Concord, New Hampshire. He said fiercely, "I will buy two guns, go to +Concord, kill Judge Stanton with one, and shoot myself with the other, +or else wait quietly till spring and see what will come of it." A +possible precursor of President Wilson's Mexican policy. +</p> +<p> +He was accused by a woman of milking a cow in her pasture; pleaded +guilty, but added, "I left a ten-cent piece on the fence." +</p> +<p> +An East Hanover man is remembered for his cheek in slyly picking +lettuce or parsley in the gardens of the professors and then selling +them at the back door to their wives. +</p> +<p> +And a farmer from Vermont who used to sell tempting vegetables from +his large farm. He was so friendly he cordially greeted the ladies who +bought from him with a kiss. Grandmother evaded this attention by +stating her age, and so was unmolested. The names of his family were +arranged in alphabetical order. "Hannah A., give Miss Kate another cup +of coffee; Noah B., pass the butter; Emma C., guess you better hand +round the riz biscuit." +</p> +<p> +Life then was a solemn business at Hanover. No dancing; no cards; no +theatricals; a yearly concert at commencement, and typhoid fever in +the fall. On the Lord's Day some children were not allowed to read the +<i>Youth's Companion</i>, or pluck a flower in the garden. But one old +working woman rebelled. "I ain't going to have my daughter Frances +brought up in no superstitious tragedy." She was far in advance of her +age. +</p> +<p> +I have always delighted in college songs from good voices, whether +sung when sitting on the old common fence (now gone) at the "sing out" +at the close of the year, or merrily trolling or tra-la-laing along +the streets. What a surprise when one glorious moonlight night which +showed up the magnificent elms then arching the street before our +house—the air was full of fragrance—I was suddenly aroused by +several voices adjuring me, a lady of beauty, to awake. I was +bewildered—ecstatic. This singing was for me. I listened intently and +heard the words of their song: +</p> +<p class="verse"> + Sweet is the sound of lute and voice <br /> + When borne across the water. +</p> +<p class="noindent"> +Then two other sweets I could not quite catch, and the last lines sung +with fervor: +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>But sweeter still is the charming voice<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of Professor Sanborn's daughter.<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p class="noindent"> +Two more stanzas and each with the refrain: +</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>The prettiest girl on Hanover Plain is<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Professor Sanborn's daughter.<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p class="noindent"> +Then the last verse: +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span> Hot is the sun whose golden rays<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Can reach from heaven to earth,<br /></span> +<span>And hot a tin pan newly scoured<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Placed on the blazing hearth,<br /></span> +<span>And hot a boy's ears boxed for doing<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That which he hadn't orter,<br /></span> +<span>But hotter still is the love I bear<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For Professor Sanborn's daughter.<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p class="noindent"> +with chorus as before. +</p> +<p> +I threw down lovely flowers and timidly thanked them. They applauded, +sang a rollicking farewell, and were gone. If I could have removed my +heart painlessly, I believe that would have gone out too. They had +gone, but the blissful memory! I leaned on the window sill, and the +moon with its bounteous mellow radiance filled my room. But listen, +hark! Only two doors beyond, the same voices, the same melodious +tones, and alas, yes, the same words, every verse and the same +chorus—same masculine fervour—but somebody else's daughter. +</p> +<p> +A breakfast comment: "It's a terrible nuisance this caterwauling in +the middle of the night in front of the house!" For once I was silent. +</p> +<p> +Many distinguished men were invited to Dartmouth as orators at +commencement or on special occasions, as Rufus Choate, Edward Everett, +John G. Saxe, Wendell Phillips, Charles Dudley Warner, and Dr. Holmes, +whom I knew in his Boston study, overlooking the water and the gulls. +By the way, he looked so young when arriving at Hanover for a few +lectures to the Medical School that he was asked if he had come to +join the Freshman class. +</p> +<p> +There were also Edwin P. Whipple, the essayist, and Walt Whitman, who +was chosen one year for the commencement poet. He appeared on the +platform wearing a flannel shirt, square-cut neck, disclosing a +hirsute covering that would have done credit to a grizzly bear; the +rest of his attire all right. Joaquin Miller was another genius and +original. +</p> +<p> +Another visitor was James T. Fields of Boston, the popular publisher, +poet, author, lecturer, friend, and inimitable raconteur, who was +always one of my best friends. +</p> +<p> +When Mr. and Mrs. Fields were invited to Hanover, he and his beautiful +wife were always guests at our home. Their first visit to us was an +epoch for me. I worked hard the morning before they were to arrive, +sweeping, dusting, polishing silver, and especially brightening the +large, brass andirons in father's library. I usually scoured with +rotten stone and oil, but on this great occasion, adopting a receipt +which I had happened to see in a newspaper, I tried vinegar and +powdered pumice-stone. The result at first was fine. +</p> +<p> +I had barely time after all this to place flowers about the house and +dress, and then to drive in our old carryall, with our older horse, to +the station at Norwich, just across the Connecticut River, to meet the +distinguished pair and escort them to our house. As I heard the train +approaching, and the shrill whistle, I got nervous, and my hands +trembled. How would they know me? And what had I better say? My aged +and spavined horse was called by father "Rosinante" for Don Quixote's +bony steed, also "Blind Guide" and "Heathen Philosopher." He looked +it—and my shabby carryall! But the train was snorting for a stop, +and the two guests soon came easily to my vehicle, and Mr. Fields +seemed to know me. Both shook hands most cordially and were soon in +the back seat, full of pleasant chat and the first exciting ordeal was +over. At tea table Mr. and Mrs. Fields sat on either side of father, +and the stories told were different from any I had ever heard. I found +when the meal was over I had not taken a mouthful. Next we all went to +the College Church for the lecture, and on coming home we had an +evening lunch. All ate heartily but me. I ventured to tell one story, +when Mr. Fields clapped his hands and said, "Delightful." That was +food to me! I went to bed half starved, and only took enough breakfast +to sustain life. Before they left I had written down and committed to +memory every anecdote he had given. They have never been printed until +now, and you may be sure they are just as my hero told them. My only +grief was the appearance of my andirons. I invited our guests to the +open fire with pride, and the brass was covered with black and +green—not a gleam of shine. +</p> +<p> +Often Mr. Fields's jokes were on himself—as the opinion of a man in +the car seat just beyond him, as they happened to be passing Mr. +Fields's residence on the Massachusetts coast. The house was pointed +out on "Thunderbolt Hill" and his companion said, "How is he as a +lecturer?" +</p> +<p> +"Well," was the response, "he ain't Gough by a d——d sight." +</p> +<p> +How comically he told of a country druggist's clerk to whom he put the +query, "What is the most popular pill just now?" And the quick answer, +"Schenk's—they do say the Craowned Heads is all atakin' of 'em!" +</p> +<p> +Or the request for his funniest lecture for the benefit of a hearse in +a rural hamlet! +</p> +<p> +His experience in a little village where he and Mrs. Fields wanted to +find a boarding-house: The lady of the house demurred; she had "got +pretty tired of boarders," but at last capitulated with, "Well, I'll +let you come in if you'll do your own stretching." This proved to mean +no waitress at the table. +</p> +<p> +The morning after their arrival, he went out for a long walk in the +mountain air, and returning was accosted by his host: "I see you are +quite a predestinarian." As he was resting on one of the wooden +chairs, the man said: "I got those chairs for piazzary purposes," and +enlarged on the trouble of getting good help in haying time: "Why, my +neighbour, Jake Stebbins, had a boy in his gang named Henry Ward +Beecher Gooley. He was so dreadful pious that on extra hot mornings +he'd call 'em all together at eleven o'clock and ask 'em to join in +singing, 'Lord, Dismiss us with Thy Blessing.'" +</p> +<p> +All these anecdotes were told to me by Mr. Fields and I intend to give +only those memories which are <i>my own</i>. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Fields was wonderfully kind to budding authors. Professor Brown +sent him, without my knowledge, my two-column appreciation of dear Tom +Hood, after his memorials were written by his son and daughter. And +before many weeks came a box of his newest books for me, with a little +note on finest paper and wide margin, "hoping that your friendship may +always be continued towards our house." +</p> +<p> +I cannot speak of Mr. Fields and fail to pay my tribute of loving +admiration to his wife, Annie Fields. When I first met that lady in +her home at 148 Charles Street, she was so exquisitely dainty, +refined, spirituelle, and beautiful, I felt, as I expressed it, +"square-toed and common." She was sincerely cordial to all who were +invited to that sacred shrine; she was the perfect hostess and +housekeeper, the ever-busy philanthropist, a classic poet, a strong +writer of prose when eager to aid some needed reform. Never before had +I seen such a rare combination of the esthetic and practical, and she +shone wherever placed. Once when she was with us, I went up to her +room to see if I could help her as she was leaving. She was seated on +the floor, pulling straps tightly round some steamer rugs and a rainy +day coat, and she explained she always attended to such "little +things." As one wrote of her, after her death, she made the most of +herself, but she made more of her husband. Together they went forward, +side by side, to the last, comrades and true lovers. +</p> +<p> +Two of all the wonderful literary treasures in their drawing-room +produced a great impression on me, one a caricature of Thackeray's +face done by himself with no mercy shown to his flattened, broken +nose. A lady said to him: "There is only one thing about you I could +never get over, your nose." "No wonder, madam, there is no bridge to +it." The other was an invitation to supper in Charles Lamb's own +writing, and at the bottom of the page, "Puns at nine." +</p> +<p> +Two famous story-tellers of the old-fashioned type were Doctor Dixi +Crosby of Hanover, and his son "Ben," who made a great name for +himself in New York City as a surgeon, and also as a brilliant +after-dinner speaker. Doctor Crosby's preference was for the +long-drawn-out style, as this example, which I heard him tell several +times, shows: +</p> +<p> +A man gave a lecture in a New England town which failed to elicit much +applause and this troubled him. As he left early next morning on the +top of the stage-coach, he interviewed the driver, who seemed not +anxious to talk. "Did you hear much said about my lecture last night? +Do you think it pleased the audience?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, I guess they were well enough satisfied; some were anyway." +</p> +<p> +"Were there any who expressed dissatisfaction?" +</p> +<p> +"I would not pry into it, stranger; there wasn't much said against it +anyhow." +</p> +<p> +"Now you have aroused my curiosity. I must beg you to let me know. Who +criticized it, and what did they say? It might help me to hear it." +</p> +<p> +"Well, Squire Jones was the man; he does not say much one way or +other. But I'll tell you he always gets the gist of it." +</p> +<p> +"And what was his verdict?" +</p> +<p> +"If you must know, Squire Jones he said, said he, he thought +'twas—awful shaller." +</p> +<p> +Doctor Ben's Goffstown Muster was a quicker tempo and had a better +climax. 'Twas the great occasion of the annual military reviews. He +graphically described boys driving colts hardly broken; mothers +nursing babies, very squally; girls and their beaux sitting in the +best wagon holding hands and staring about (as Warner said to me, +"Young love in the country is a solemn thing"); the booths for sale of +gingerbread, peanuts, cider, candies, and popcorn; the marshal of the +day dashing here and there on his prancing steed. All was excitement, +great crowds, and the blare of the band. Suddenly an aged pair, +seemingly skeletons, so bony and wan were they, were seen tottering +toward the fence, where they at last stopped. They had come from the +direction of the graveyard. The marshal rushed forward calling out, +"Go back, go back; this is not the general resurrection, it is only +the Goffstown Muster." +</p> +<p> +Doctor Ben Crosby was one of the most admirable mimics ever known and +without a suspicion of ill-nature. Sometimes he would call on us +representing another acquaintance, who had just left, so perfectly +that the gravest and stiffest were in danger of hysterics. This power +his daughter inherited. +</p> +<p> +John Lord, the historical lecturer, was always a "beacon light" (which +was the name he gave his lectures when published) as he discussed the +subjects and persons he took for themes before immense audiences +everywhere. His conversation was also intensely interesting. He was a +social lion and a favourite guest. His lectures have still a large +annual sale—no one who once knew him or listened to his pyrotechnic +climaxes could ever forget him or them. It was true that he made nine +independent and distinct motions simultaneously in his most intense +delivery. I once met him going back to his rooms at his hotel carrying +a leather bag. He stopped, opened it, showing a bottle of Scotch +whiskey, and explained "I am starting in on a lecture on Moses." There +was a certain simplicity about the man. Once when his right arm was in +a sling, broken by a fall from a horse, he offered prayer in the old +church. And unable to use his arm as usual, he so balanced his +gyrations that he in some way drifted around until when he said "Amen" +his face fronted the whitewashed wall back of his pulpit. He turned to +the minister standing by him, saying in a very audible whisper, "Do +you think anybody noticed it?" +</p> +<p> +He was so genuinely hospitable that when a friend suddenly accepted +his "come up any time" invitation, he found no one at home but the +doctor, who proposed their killing a chicken. Soon one was let out, +but she evaded her pursuers. "You shoo, and I'll catch," cried the +kind host, but shrank back as the fowl came near, exclaiming: "Say, +West, has a hen got teeth?" At last they conquered, plucked, and +cooked her for a somewhat tardy meal, with some potatoes clawed up in +the potato field. Once, when very absent-minded, at a hotel table in a +country tavern, the waitress was astonished to watch him as he took +the oil cruet from the castor and proceeded to grease his boots. +</p> +<p> +Doctor John Ordronaux, Professor of Medical Jurisprudence at Dartmouth +and various other colleges and medical schools, was another erudite +scholar, who made a permanent impression on all he met. While yet at +college, his words were so unusual and his vocabulary so full that a +wag once advertised on the bulletin board on the door of Dartmouth +Hall, "Five hundred new adjectives by John Ordronaux." +</p> +<p> +He was haunted by synonyms, and told me they interfered with his +writing, so many clamouring for attention. He was a confirmed bachelor +with very regular habits; wanted his bed to be left to air the entire +day, he to make it himself at precisely 5.30 P.M., or as near as +possible. His walk was peculiar, with knees stiffly bent out and +elbows crooked as if to repel all feminine aggression, "a progressive +porcupine" as someone described his gait. His hour for retiring was +always the same; when calling leaving about 9.30. Rallied about his +methodical habits, he was apt to mention many of his old friends who +had indulged themselves in earthly pleasures, all of whom he had the +sad pleasure of burying. +</p> +<p> +He was a great admirer of my mother for her loveliness and kind +interest in the students; after her death he was a noble aid to me in +many ways. I needed his precautions about spreading myself too thin, +about being less flamboyantly loquacious, and subduing my excessive +enthusiasm and emotional prodigality. Once after giving me a drive, he +kindly said, as he helped me out, "I have quite enjoyed your cheerful +prattle." Fact was, he had monologued it in his most sesquipedalian +phraseology. I had no chance to say one word. He had his own way of +gaining magnetism; believed in associating with butchers. Did you ever +know one that was anæmic, especially at slaughtering time? From them +and the animals there and in stables, and the smell of the flowing +blood, he felt that surely a radiant magnetism was gained. Those he +visited "thought he was real democratic and a pleasant spoken man." He +told of an opportunity he once had for regular employment, riding on +the stage-coach by the side of a farmer's pretty daughter. She +suggested that he might like a milk route, and "perhaps father can +get you one." So formal, dignified, and fastidious was he that this +seems improbable, but I quote his own account. +</p> +<p> +Doctor Ordronaux visited at my uncle's, a physician, when I was +resting there from overwork. After his departure, uncle received a +letter from him which he handed to me saying, "Guess this is meant for +you." I quote proudly: +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + I rejoice to have been permitted to enjoy so much of Miss + Sanborn's society, and to discover what I never before fully + appreciated, that beneath the scintillations of a brilliant + intellect she hides a vigorous and analytic understanding, and + when age shall have somewhat tempered her emotional + susceptibilities she will shine with the steady light of a + planet, reaching her perihelion and taking a permanent place in + the firmament of letters. +</p> +<p class="noindent"> +Sounds something like a Johnsonian epitaph, but wasn't it great? +</p> +<p> +I visited his adopted mother at Roslyn, Long Island, and they took me +to a Sunday dinner with Bryant at "Cedarmere," a fitting spot for a +poet's home. The aged poet was in vigorous health, mind and body. +Going to his library he took down an early edition of his +<i>Thanatopsis</i>, pointing out the nineteen lines written some time +before the rest. Mottoes hung on the wall such as "As thy days so +shall thy strength be." I ventured to ask how he preserved such +vitality, and he said, "I owe a great deal to daily air baths and the +flesh brush, plenty of outdoor air and open fireplaces." What an +impressive personality; erect, with white hair and long beard; his +eyebrows looked as if snow had fallen on them. His conversation was +delightfully informal. "What does your name mean?" he inquired, and I +had to say, "I do not know, it has changed so often," and asked, "What +is the origin of yours?" "Briant—brilliant, of course." He told the +butler to close the door behind me lest I catch cold from a draught, +quoting this couplet: +</p> +<p class="verse"> + When the wind strikes you through a hole, <br /> + Go make your will and mind your soul; +</p> +<p class="noindent"> +and informing me that this advice was found in every language, if not +dialect, in the world. He loved every inch of his country home, was +interested in farming, flowers, the water-view and fish-pond, fond of +long walks, and preferred the simple life. In his rooms were many +souvenirs of early travel. His walls were covered with the finest +engravings and paintings from the best American artists. He was too +willing to be imposed upon by young authors and would-be poets. He +said: "People expect too much of me, altogether too much." That Sunday +was his last before his address on Mazzini in Central Park. He +finished with the hot sun over his head, and walking across the park +to the house of Grant Wilson, he fell down faint and hopelessly ill on +the doorstep. He never rallied, and after thirteen days the end came. +An impressive warning to the old, who are selfishly urged to do hard +tasks, that they must conserve their own vitality. Bryant was +eighty-four when killed by over-exertion, with a mind as wonderful as +ever. +</p> +<p> +I will now recount the conditions when Ezekiel Webster and his second +wife took their wedding trip in a "one hoss shay" to the White +Mountains in 1826. +</p> +<p> +Grandma lived to be ninety-six, with her mind as clear as ever, and +two years before her death she gave me this story of their experiences +at that time. My mother told me she knew of more than thirty proposals +she had received after grandfather's death, but she said "she would +rather be the widow of Ezekiel Webster, than the wife of any other +man." The following is her own description. +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + The only house near the Crawford Notch was the Willey House, in + which the family were living. A week before a slide had come + down by the side of the house and obstructed the road. Mr. + Willey and two men came to our assistance, taking out the horse + and lifting the carriage over the débris. +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + They described the terrors of the night of the slide. The rain + was pouring in torrents, the soil began to slide from the tops + of the rocks, taking with it trees, boulders, and all in its + way; the crashing and thundering were terrible. Three weeks + later the entire family, nine in number, in fleeing to a place + of refuge, were overtaken by a second slide and all buried. +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + The notch was then as nature made it; no steam whistle or car + clatter had intruded upon its solitude. The first moving object + we saw after passing through was a man in the distance. He + proved to be Ethan Crawford, who kept the only house of + entertainment. He was walking leisurely, drawing a rattlesnake + along by its tail. He had killed the creature and was taking it + home as a trophy. He was a stalwart man, who had always lived + among the mountains, and had become as familiar with the wild + beasts as with the cat and dog of his own home. He said that + only a few days before he had passed a bear drinking at a + spring. He led the way to his house, a common farmhouse without + paint, or carpet, or cushioned seat. The landlady was spinning + wool in the kitchen. +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + Mr. Crawford supplied the table when he could by his gun or + fishing-rod; otherwise the fare was meagre. When asked for + mustard for the salt meat, they said they had none, at least in + the house, but they had some growing. +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + A young turkey halted about in the dining-room gobbling in a + noisy way, and the girl in attendance was requested by Mr. + Webster, with imperturbable gravity, either to kindly take it + out or to bring its companion in, for it seemed lonely. She + stood in utter confusion for a minute, then seized the + squawking fowl and disappeared. +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + When Mr. Crawford was asked if ladies ever went up Mount + Washington, he said two had been up, and he hoped never to see + another trying it, for the last one he brought down on his + shoulders, or she would have never got down alive. +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + The first night I asked for a change of bed linen. No attention + was paid to my request, and after waiting a long time I found + the landlady and asked her if she would have the sheets + changed. She straightened up and said she didn't think the bed + would hurt anybody, for only two ministers from Boston had + slept in it. We stayed some days and although it was the height + of the season, we were the only guests. Nothing from the + outside world reached us but one newspaper, and that brought + the startling news of the death of Adams and Jefferson on the + fourth of July, just fifty years after their signing the + Declaration of Independence. +</p> +<p> +The large leghorn bonnet which Mrs. Webster wore on that eventful +journey hangs in my collection of old relics. She told me it used to +hit the wheel when she looked out. And near it is her dark-brown +"calash," a big bonnet with rattans stitched in so it would easily +move back and forward. Her winter hood was of dark blue silk, warmly +wadded and prettily quilted. +</p> +<p> +Who would not wish to live to be a hundred if health and mental +vigour could be retained? This rare old lady wrote lively, interesting +letters on all current topics, and was as eager to win at whist, +backgammon, or logomachy as a child. Her religion was the most +beautiful part of her life, the same every day, self-forgetting, +practical Christianity. She is not forgotten; her life is still a +stimulus, an inspiration, a benediction. The love and veneration of +those who gathered about her in family reunions were expressed by her +nephew Dr. Fred B. Lund, one of the most distinguished surgeons of +Boston: +</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>To her who down the pathway of the years<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Serene and calm her blessed way she trod,<br /></span> +<span>Has given smiles for smiles, and tears for tears,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Held fast the good in life, and shown how God<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Has given to us His servants here below,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A shining mark to follow in our strife,<br /></span> +<span>Who proves that He is good, and makes us know<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Through ten decades of pure and holy life<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>How life may be made sweeter at its end,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">How graces from the seasons that have fled<br /></span> +<span>May light her eyes and added glory lend<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To saintly aureole about her head.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>We bring our Christmas greeting heartily,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Three generations gathered at her feet,<br /></span> +<span>Who like a little child has led, while we<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Have lived and loved beneath her influence sweet.<br /></span> +</div></div> +<a name="image-0002"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/sk-img02.jpg" width="346" height="450" +alt="The Street Fronting the Sanborn Home at Hanover, N.H." /> +</center> + +<h5>THE STREET FRONTING THE SANBORN HOME AT HANOVER, N. H.</h5> + +<p> +Levi Parsons Morton, born at Shoreham, Vermont, May 16, 1824, was +named for his mother's brother, Levi Parsons, the first American +missionary to Palestine. He was the son of a minister, Reverend Daniel +Morton, who with his wife Lucretia Parsons, like so many other +clergymen, was obliged to exist on a starvation salary, only six +hundred dollars a year. Among his ancestors was George Morton of +Battery, Yorkshire, financial agent in London of the <i>Mayflower</i>. Mr. +L.P. Morton may have inherited his financial cleverness from this +ancestor. +</p> +<p> +After studying at Shoreham Academy, he entered a country store at +Enfield, Massachusetts, and was there for two years, then taught a +district school, and later entered a general store at Concord, New +Hampshire, when only seventeen. His father was unable to send him to +college, and Mr. Estabrook, the manager of the store, decided to +establish him in a branch store at Hanover, New Hampshire, where +Dartmouth College is located, giving him soon afterward an interest in +the business. Here he stayed until nearly twenty-four years old. Mr. +Morton immediately engaged a stylish tailor from Boston, W.H. Gibbs, +or as all called him, "Bill Gibbs," whose skill at making even cheap +suits look smart brought him a large patronage from the college +students. Once a whole graduating class were supplied with dress suits +from this artist. Mr. Morton had a most interesting store, sunny and +scrupulously clean, with everything anyone could ask for, and few ever +went out of it without buying something, even if they had entered +simply from curiosity. The clerks were trained to be courteous without +being persistent. Saturday was bargain day, and printed lists of what +could be obtained on that day at an absurdly cheap rate were widely +distributed through the neighbouring towns. People came in large +numbers to those bargains. Long rows of all sorts of odd vehicles were +hitched up and down the street. A man would drop in for some smoking +tobacco and buy himself a good straw hat or winter cap. A wife would +call because soda was offered so cheaply and would end by buying a +black silk dress, "worth one dollar a yard but selling for today only +for fifty cents." Mr. Morton was perhaps the original pioneer in +methods which have built up the great department stores of the present +day. If he had received the education his father so craved for him he +would have probably had an inferior and very different career. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Morton greatly enjoyed his life at Hanover; he was successful and +looking forward to greater openings in his business career. My +father, taking a great fancy to this enterprising, cheery young man, +invited him to dine each day at our house for nearly a year. They were +great friends and had a happy influence upon each other. There were +many jolly laughs and much earnest talk. He met Miss Lucy Kimball of +Flatlands, Long Island, at our house at a Commencement reception, and +they were soon married. She lived only a few years. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Morton was next in Boston in the dry-goods house of James Beebe +Morgan & Company, and was soon made a partner. Mr. Morgan was the +father of Pierpont Morgan. It is everlastingly to Mr. Morton's honour +that after he failed in business in New York he was able before long +to invite his creditors to dinner, and underneath the service plate of +each creditor was a check for payment in full. +</p> +<p> +Preferring to give money while living, his whole path has been marked +by large benefactions. My memory is of his Hanover life and his +friendship with my father, but it is interesting to note the several +steps in his career: Honorary Commissioner, Paris Exposition, 1878; +Member 46th Congress, 1879-81, Sixth New York District; United States +Minister to France, 1881-85; Vice-President of the United States, +1889-93; Governor of New York, 1895-6. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Morton recently celebrated at his Washington home the ninety-first +anniversary in a life full of honours, and what is more important—of +honour. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0002"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER II +</h2> +<p class="cont"> +A Friend at Andover, Mass.—Hezekiah Butterworth—A Few of my Own +Folks—Professor Putnam of Dartmouth—One Year at Packer Institute, +Brooklyn—Beecher's Face in Prayer—The Poet Saxe as I Saw +him—Offered the Use of a Rare Library—Miss Edna Dean Proctor—New +Stories of Greeley—Experiences at St. Louis. +</p> +<p> +Next a few months at Andover for music lessons—piano and organ. A +valuable friend was found in Miss Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, who had +just published her <i>Gates Ajar</i>. She invited me to her study and +wanted to know what I meant to accomplish in life and urged me to +write. "I have so much work called for now that I cannot keep up my +contributions to <i>The Youth's Companion</i>. I want you to have my place +there. What would you like to write about?" +</p> +<p> +"Don't know." +</p> +<p> +"Haven't you anything at home to describe." +</p> +<p> +"No." +</p> +<p> +"Any pets?" +</p> +<p> +"Why I have a homely, ordinary dog, but he knows a lot." +</p> +<p> +And so I was roused to try "Our Rab and His Friends," which was +kindly mailed by Miss Phelps to Mr. Ford, the editor, with a wish that +he accept the little story, which he did, sending a welcome check and +asking for more contributions. I kept a place there for several years. +</p> +<p> +In Miss Phelps's case, one must believe in heredity and partly in +Huxley's statement that "we are automata propelled by our ancestors." +Her grandfather, Moses Stuart, was Professor of Sacred Literature at +Andover, a teacher of Greek and Latin, and a believer in that stern +school of theology and teleology. It was owing perhaps to a +combination of severity in climatic and in intellectual environment +that New England developed an austere type of scholars and +theologians. Their mental vision was focused on things remote in time +and supernatural in quality, so much so that they often overlooked the +simple and natural expression of their obligation to things nearby. It +sometimes happened that their tender and amiable characteristics were +better known to learned colleagues with whom they were in intellectual +sympathy, than to their own wives and children. Sometimes their finer +and more lovable qualities were first brought to the attention of +their families when some distinguished professor or divine feelingly +pronounced a funeral eulogy. +</p> +<p> +It's a long way from the stern Moses Stuart, who believed firmly in +hell and universal damnation and who, with Calvin, depicted infants a +span long crawling on the floor of hell, to his gifted granddaughter, +who, although a member of an evangelical church, wrote: "Death and +heaven could not seem very different to a pagan from what they seem to +me." Her heart was nearly broken by the sudden death of her lover on +the battlefield. "Roy, snatched away in an instant by a dreadful God, +and laid out there in the wet and snow—in the hideous wet and +snow—never to kiss him, never to see him any more." Her <i>Gates Ajar</i> +when it appeared was considered by some to be revolutionary and +shocking, if not wicked. Now, we gently smile at her diluted, +sentimental heaven, where all the happy beings have what they most +want; she to meet Roy and find the same dear lover; another to have a +piano; a child to get ginger snaps. I never quite fancied the +restriction of musical instruments in visions of heaven to harps +alone. They at first blister the fingers until they are calloused. The +afflicted washerwoman, whose only daughter had just died, was not in +the least consoled by the assurance that Melinda was perfectly happy, +playing a harp in heaven. "She never was no musicianer, and I'd rather +see her a-settin' by my tub as she used to set when I was a-wringin' +out the clothes from the suds, than to be up there a-harpin'." Very +different, as a matter of fact, were the instruments, more or less +musical, around which New England families gathered on Sunday evenings +for the singing of hymns and "sacred songs." Yet there was often real +faith and sincere devotion pedalled out of the squeaking old melodeon. +</p> +<p> +Professor Stuart's eldest daughter, Elizabeth Stuart, married Austin +Phelps in 1842; who was then pastor of Pine Street Church in Boston. +Their daughter was born in Boston in 1844, and named Mary Gray Phelps. +They moved to Andover in 1848, where two sons were born. Mrs. Phelps, +who died when Mary was seven years old, was bright, interesting, +unusual. She wrote <i>Tales of New England</i>, chiefly stories of clerical +life; also <i>Sunnyside Sketches</i>, remarkably popular at the time. Her +<i>nom de plume</i> was "Trusta." Professor Phelps married her sister Mary, +for his second wife. She lived only a year, and it was after her death +that Mary changed her name to that of her mother, Elizabeth Stuart +Phelps. Professor Phelps had a most nervous temperament, so much so +that he could not sleep if a cricket chirped in his bedroom, and the +stamping of a horse in a nearby stable destroyed all hope of slumber. +</p> +<p> +Miss Phelps inherited her mother's talent for writing stories, also +her humour and her sensitive, loving nature, as is seen by her works +on <i>Temperance Reforms</i>, <i>Abuses of Factory Operators</i>, and her +arraignment of the vivisectionist. Later, when I was living at the +"Abandoned Farm," she had a liking for the farm I now own, about half +a mile farther on from my first agricultural experiment. She called on +me, and begged me as woman for woman in case she bought the +neighbouring farm, to seclude all my animals and fowls from 5 P.M. +till 10 A.M. each morning, as she must get her sleep, for, like her +father, she was a life-long sufferer from insomnia. I would have done +this if it were possible to repress the daybreak cries natural to a +small menagerie which included chickens, turkeys, ducks, and geese, +besides two peacocks and four guinea fowls. +</p> +<p> +But to return to the <i>Youth's Companion</i>. When I found it impossible +to write regularly for Mr. Ford, he made a change for the better, +securing Mr. Hezekiah Butterworth, a poet, historian, and author of +the <i>Zigzag Series</i>, which had such large sales. Happening to be in +Boston, I called at the office and said to Mr. Ford: "It grieves me a +bit to see my column taken by someone else, and what a strange pen +name—'Hezekiah Butterworth.'" +</p> +<p> +"But that is his own name," said the editor. +</p> +<p> +"Indeed; I am afraid I shall hate that Hezzy." +</p> +<p> +"Well, just try it; come with me to his work-room." +</p> +<p> +When we had gone up one flight, Mr. Ford opened a door, where a +gentle, sweet-faced young man of slender build was sitting at a table, +the floor all around him literally strewn with at least three hundred +manuscripts, each one to be examined as a possible winner in a contest +for a five-hundred-dollar prize story. Both English and American +authors had competed. He was, as De Quincey put it, "snowed up." Then +my friend said with a laugh, "Miss Sanborn has come to see Hezzy whom +she fancies she shall hate." A painfully awkward introduction, but Mr. +Butterworth laughed heartily, and made me very welcome, and from that +time was ever one of my most faithful friends, honouring my large +Thanksgiving parties by his presence for many years. +</p> +<p> +I shall tell but two stories about my father in his classroom. He had +given Pope's <i>Rape of the Lock</i> as subject for an essay to a young man +who had not the advantage of being born educated, but did his best at +all times. As the young man read on in class, father, who in later +years was a little deaf, stopped him saying, "Sir, did I understand +you to say Sniff?" "No, sir, I did not, I said Slyph." +</p> +<p> +In my father's Latin classes there were many absurd mistakes, as when +he asked a student, "What was ambrosia?" and the reply was, "The gods' +hair oil," an answer evidently suggested by the constant advertisement +of "Sterling's Ambrosia" for the hair. +</p> +<p> +I will now refer to my two uncles on my father's side. The older one +was Dyer H. Sanborn, a noted educator of his time, and a grammarian, +publishing a text-book on that theme and honouring the parts of speech +with a rhyme which began— +</p> +<p class="verse"> + A noun's the name of anything, <br /> + As hoop or garden, ball or swing; <br /> + Three little words we often see <br /> + The articles, a, an, and the. +</p> +<p class="noindent"> +Mrs. Eddy, of Christian Science fame, spoke of him with pride as her +preceptor. He liked to constitute himself an examining committee of +one and visit the schools near him. Once he found only five very small +children, and remarked approvingly, "Good order here." He, +unfortunately, for his brothers, developed an intense interest in +genealogy, and after getting them to look up the family tree in +several branches, would soon announce to dear brother Edwin, or dear +brother John, "the papers you sent have disappeared; please send a +duplicate at once." +</p> +<p> +My other uncle, John Sewall Sanborn, graduated at Dartmouth, and after +studying law, he started for a career in Canada, landed in Sherbrooke, +P.Q., with the traditional fifty cents in his pocket, and began to +practise law. Soon acquiring a fine practice, he married the +strikingly handsome daughter of Mr. Brooks, the most important man in +that region, and rose to a position on the Queen's Bench. He was +twelve years in Parliament, and later a "Mr. Justice," corresponding +with a member of our Federal Supreme Court. In fact, he had received +every possible honour at his death except knighthood, which he was +soon to have received. +</p> +<p> +My great-grandfather, on the paternal side, was always called +"Grandsir Hook," and Dr. Crosby assured me that I inherited my fat, +fun, and asthma from that obese person, weighing nearly three hundred +pounds. When he died a slice had to be cut off, not from his body, but +from the side of the house, to let the coffin squeeze through. I +visited his grave with father. It was an immense elevation even at so +remote a date. David Sanborn married his daughter Hannah Hook, after +a formal courtship. The "love" letters to "Honoured Madam" are still +preserved. Fortunately the "honoured madam" had inherited the sense of +humour. +</p> +<p> +A few words about Mr. Daniel Webster. I remember going to Marshfield +with my mother, his niece, and sitting on his knee while he looked +over his large morning mail, throwing the greater part into the waste +basket. Also in the dining-room I can still recall the delicious meals +prepared by an old-time Southern mammy, who wore her red and yellow +turban regally. The capital jokes by his son Fletcher and guests +sometimes caused the dignified and impressive butler to rapidly +dart behind the large screen to laugh, then soon back to duty, +imperturbable as before. +</p> +<p> +The large library occupied one ell of the house, with its high ceiling +running in points to a finish. There hung the strong portraits of Lord +Ashburton and Mr. Webster. At the top of his own picture at the right +hung his large grey slouch hat, so well known. In the next room the +silhouette of his mother, and underneath it his words, "My excellent +mother." Also a portrait of Grace Fletcher, his first wife, and of his +son Edward in uniform. Edward was killed in the Mexican War. +</p> +<p> +There is a general impression that Mr. Webster was a heavy drinker +and often under the influence of liquor when he rose to speak; as +usual there are two sides to this question. George Ticknor of Boston +told my father that he had been with Webster on many public occasions, +and never saw him overcome but once. That was at the Revere House in +Boston, where he was expected to speak after dinner. "I sat next to +him," said Ticknor; "suddenly he put his hand on my shoulder and +whispered, 'Come out and run around the common.'" This they did and +the speech was a success. There is a wooden statue of Daniel Webster +that has stood for forty years in Hingham, Massachusetts. It is larger +than life and called a good portrait. It was made more than sixty +years ago as a figurehead for the ship <i>Daniel Webster</i> but never put +on. That would have been appropriate if he was occasionally half seas +over. Daniel's devotion to his only brother "Zeke" is pleasant to +remember. By the way, there are many men who pay every debt promptly +and never take a drop too much, who would be proud to have a record +for something accomplished that is as worth while as his record. When +Daniel Webster entered Dartmouth College as a freshman directly from +his father's farm, he was a raw specimen, awkward, thin, and so dark +that some mistook him for a new Indian recruit. He was then called +"Black Dan." His father's second wife and the mother of Zeke and Dan +had decidedly a generous infusion of Indian blood. A gentleman at +Hanover who remembered Webster there said his large, dark, resplendent +eyes looked like coach lanterns on a dark night. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Ezekiel Webster told me that her husband asked her after their +marriage to allow his mother to come home to them at Boscawen, New +Hampshire. She said she was a strikingly fine-looking woman with those +same marvellous eyes, long straight black hair, high cheekbones; a +tall person with strong individuality. Mrs. Webster was sure where the +swarthy infusion came from. This mother, who had been a hard worker +and faithful wife, now delighted in sitting by the open fire evenings +and smoking an old pipe she had brought with her. +</p> +<p> +Webster saved his Alma Mater, and after the favourable decision on the +College Case, Judge Hopkinson wrote to Professor Brown of Dartmouth +suggesting an inscription on the doors of the college building, +"Founded by Eleazer Wheelock, refounded by Daniel Webster." These +words are now placed in bronze at the portals of Webster Memorial +Hall. +</p> +<p> +To go back, as I did, from Andover to Hanover, I pay my tribute to +Professor John Newton Putnam, Greek Professor at Dartmouth. His +character was perfect; his face of rare beauty shone with kind and +helpful thought for everyone. I see him, as he talked at our mid-week +meetings. One could almost perceive an aura or halo around his classic +head; wavy black hair which seemed to have an almost purple light +through it; large dark eyes, full of love. What he said was never +perfunctory, never dull. He was called "John, the Beloved Disciple." +Still he was thoroughly human and brimming over with fun, puns, and +exquisitely droll humour, and quick in seeing a funny condition. +</p> +<p> +It is said that on one occasion when there happened to be a party the +same night as our "Thursday evening meeting," he was accosted by a +friend as he was going into the vestry with the inquiry, "Are you not +to be tempted by the social delights of the evening?" To which he +replied, "No, I prefer to suffer affliction with the people of God, +rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." The college +inspector reported to him that he was obliged to break into a room at +college where a riot was progressing and described a negro's efforts +to hide himself by scurrying under the bed. +</p> +<p> +"But how unnecessary; all he had to do was to keep dark." +</p> +<p> +Once he was found waiting a long time at the counter of a grocery +store. A friend passing said, "You've been there quite a while, +Putnam." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I'm waiting all my appointed time until my change doth come." +</p> +<p> +Expecting "Help" from Norwich, he was gazing in that direction and +explained, "I'm looking unto the hills whence cometh our help." +</p> +<p> +We often diverted ourselves at his home with "Rounce," the duplicate +of euchre in dominoes. And we were startled by a Madonna dropping to +the floor, leaving its frame on the wall. Instantly Professor Putnam +remarked: "Her willing soul would not stay 'in such a frame as this.'" +And when called to preside at the organ when the college choir was +away, he whispered to me, "Listen to my interludicrous performance." +</p> +<p> +How sad the end! A delicate constitution conquered by tuberculosis. +With his wife he sought a milder climate abroad and died there. But no +one can compute the good accomplished even by his unconscious +influence, for everything was of the purest, highest, best. +</p> +<p> +Soon after my return from St. Louis, I received a call from Packer +Institute in Brooklyn, to teach English Literature, which was most +agreeable. But when I arrived, the principal, Mr. Crittenden, told me +that the woman who had done that work had decided to remain. I was +asked by Mr. Crittenden, "Can you read?" "Yes, I think so." "Then come +with me." He touched a bell and then escorted me to the large chapel +capable of holding nearly twelve hundred, where I found the entire +faculty assembled to listen to my efforts. I was requested to stand up +in the pulpit and read from a large Bible the fourteenth chapter of +John, and the twenty-third psalm. That was easy enough. Next request, +"Please recite something comic." I gave them "Comic Miseries." "Now +try a little pathos." I recited Alice Cary's "The Volunteer," which +was one of my favourite poems. Then I heard a professor say to Mr. +Crittenden, "She recites with great taste and expression; what a pity +she has that lisp!" And hitherto I had been blissfully unaware of such +a failing. One other selection in every-day prose, and I was let off. +The faculty were now exchanging their opinions and soon dispersed +without one word to me. I said to Mr. Crittenden, as I came down the +pulpit stairs, "I do not want to take the place." But he insisted that +they all wanted me to come and begin work at once. I had large +classes, number of pupils eight hundred and fifty. It was a great +opportunity to help young girls to read in such a way that it would be +a pleasure to their home friends, or to recite in company, as was +common then, naturally and without gestures. I took one more class of +little girls who had received no training before in that direction. +They were easy to inspire, were wholly free from self-consciousness, +and their parents were so much pleased that we gave an exhibition of +what they could do in reading and recitation in combination with their +gymnastics. The chapel was crowded to the doors. A plump little German +girl was the star of the evening. She stood perfectly serene, her +chubby arms stuck out stiffly from her sides, and in a loud, clear +voice she recited this nonsense: +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>If the butterfly courted the bee,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And the owl the porcupine;<br /></span> +<span>If churches were built on the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And three times one were nine;<br /></span> +<span>If the pony rode his master,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And the buttercups ate the cows;<br /></span> +<span>And the cat had the dire disaster<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To be worried, sir, by a mouse;<br /></span> +<span>And mamma, sir, sold her baby,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To a gypsy for half a crown,<br /></span> +<span>And a gentleman were a lady,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">This world would be upside down.<br /></span> +<span>But, if any or all these wonders<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Should ever come about,<br /></span> +<span>I should not think them blunders,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For I should be inside out.<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p> +An encore was insisted on. +</p> +<p> +I offered to give any in my classes lessons in "how to tell a story" +with ease, brevity, and point, promising to give an anecdote of my own +suggested by theirs every time. This pleased them, and we had a jolly +time. The first girl who tried to tell a story said: +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + I don't know how; never attempted any such thing, but what I am + going to tell is true and funny. +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + My grandfather is very deaf. You may have seen him sitting on a + pulpit stair at Mr. Beecher's church, holding to his ear what + looks like a skillet. Last spring we went to the country, + house-hunting, leaving grandfather to guard our home. He was + waked, in the middle of the night as he supposed, by a noise, + and started out to find where it came from. It continued; so he + courageously went downstairs and cautiously opened the kitchen + door. He reached out his skillet-trumpet before him through the + partly opened door and the milkman poured in a quart of milk. +</p> +<p> +This story, I am told, is an ancient chestnut. But I used to see the +deaf grandfather with his uplifted skillet on the steps of Beecher's +pulpit, and the young lady gave it as a real happening in her own +home. Did anyone hear of it before 1868 when she gave it to our +anecdote class? I believe this was the foundation or starter for +similar skillet-trumpet stories. +</p> +<p> +The girl was applauded, and deserved it. Then they asked me for a milk +story. I told them of a milkman who, in answer to a young mother's +complaint that the milk he brought for her baby was sour, replied: +"Well, is there anything outside the sourness that doesn't suit you?" +And Thoreau remarked that "circumstantial evidence is sometimes +conclusive, as when a trout is found in the morning milk." +</p> +<p> +This class was considered so practical and valuable that I was offered +pay for it, but it was a relief, after exhausting work. +</p> +<p> +We had many visitors interested in the work of the various classes. +One day Beecher strolled into the chapel and wished to hear some of +the girls read. All were ready. One took the morning paper; another +recited a poem; one read a selection from her scrapbook. Beecher +afterward inquired: "Whom have you got to teach elocution now? You +used to have a few prize pumpkins on show, but now every girl is doing +good original work." Mr. Crittenden warned me at the outset, "Keep an +eye out or they'll run over you." But I never had anything but +kindness from my pupils. I realized that cheerful, courteous requests +were wiser than commands, and sincere friendship more winning than +"Teachery" primness. I knew of an unpopular instructor who, being +annoyed by his pupils throwing a few peanuts at his desk, said, "Young +men, if you throw another peanut, I shall leave the room." A shower of +peanuts followed. +</p> +<p> +So, when I went to my largest class in the big chapel, and saw one of +my most interesting girls sitting on that immense Bible on the pulpit +looking at me in merry defiance, and kicking her heels against the +woodwork below, I did not appear to see her, and began the exercises, +hoping fervently that one of the detectives who were always on watch +might providentially appear. Before long I saw one come to the door, +look in with an amazed expression, only to bring two of the faculty to +release the young lady from her uneasy pre-eminence. +</p> +<p> +I hardly knew my own name at the Packer Institute. The students called +me "Canary," I suppose on account of my yellow hair and rather high +treble voice; Mr. Crittenden always spoke to me as Miss "Sunburn," and +when my laundry was returned, it was addressed to "Miss Lampoon." +</p> +<p> +Beecher was to me the clerical miracle of his age—a man of +extraordinary personal magnetism, with power to rouse laughter and +right away compel tears, I used to listen often to his marvellous +sermons. I can see him now as he went up the middle aisle in winter +wearing a clumsy overcoat, his face giving the impression of heavy, +coarse features, thick lips, a commonplace nose, eyes that lacked +expression, nothing to give any idea of the man as he would look after +the long prayer. When the audience reverently bowed their heads my own +eyes were irresistibly drawn toward the preacher. For he prayed as if +he felt that he was addressing an all-powerful, omnipresent, tender, +loving Heavenly Father who was listening to his appeal. And as he went +on and on with increasing fervour and power a marvellous change +transfigured that heavy face, it shone with a white light and +spiritual feeling, as if he fully realized his communion with God +Himself. I used to think of that phrase in Matthew: +</p> +<p class="verse"> + "And was transfigured before them, <br /> + And his face did shine as the sun." +</p> +<p class="noindent"> +I never heard anyone mention this marvellous transformation. But I +remember that Beecher once acknowledged to a reporter that he never +knew what he had said in his sermon until he looked at the résumé in +Monday's paper. +</p> +<p> +During the hard days of Beecher's trial a lady who was a guest at the +house told me she was waked one morning by the merry laughter of +Beecher's little grandchildren and peeping into their room found Mr. +Beecher having a jolly frolic with them. He was trying to get them +dressed; his efforts were most comical, putting on their garments +wrong side out or buttoning in front when they were intended to fasten +in the back, and "funny Grandpa" enjoying it all quite as sincerely as +these little ones. A pretty picture. +</p> +<p> +Saxe (John Godfrey) called during one recess hour. The crowds of girls +passing back and forth interested him, as they seemed to care less for +eating than for wreathing their arms round each other, with a good +deal of kissing, and "deary," "perfectly lovely," etc. He described +his impressions in two words: "Unconscious rehearsing." +</p> +<p> +Once he handed me a poem he had just dashed off written with pencil, +"To my Saxon Blonde." I was surprised and somewhat flattered, +regarding it as a complimentary impromptu. But, on looking up his +poetry in the library, I found the same verses printed years before: +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="ih">"If bards of old the truth have told,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The sirens had raven hair;<br /></span> +<span>But ever since the earth had birth,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">They paint the angels fair."<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p class="noindent"> +Probably that was a habit with him. +</p> +<p> +When a friend joked him about his very-much-at-home manner at the +United States Hotel at Saratoga, where he went every year, saying as +they sat together on the upper piazza, "Why, Saxe, I should fancy you +owned this hotel," he rose, and lounging against one of the pillars +answered, "Well, I have a 'lien' on this piazza." +</p> +<p> +His epigrams are excellent. He has made more and better than any +American poet. In Dodd's large collection of the epigrams of the +world, I think there are six at least from Saxe. Let me quote two: +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4"><small>AN EQUIVOCAL APOLOGY</small><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Quoth Madame Bas-Bleu, "I hear you have said<br /></span> +<span>Intellectual women are always your dread;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Now tell me, dear sir, is it true?"<br /></span> +<span>"Why, yes," answered Tom, "very likely I may<br /></span> +<span>Have made the remark in a jocular way;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But then on my honour, I didn't mean you!"<br /></span> +<span> </span> +</div></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i5"><small>TOO CANDID BY HALF</small><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>As John and his wife were discoursing one day<br /></span> +<span>Of their several faults, in a bantering way,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Said she, "Though my _wit_ you disparage,<br /></span> +<span>I'm sure, my dear husband, our friends will attest<br /></span> +<span>This much, at the least, that my judgment is best."<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Quoth John, "So they said at our marriage."<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p> +When Saxe heard of a man in Chicago who threw his wife into a vat of +boiling hog's lard, he remarked: "Now, that's what I call going too +far with a woman." +</p> +<p> +After a railroad accident, in which he received some bruises, I said: +"You didn't find riding on the rails so pleasant?" "Not riding on, but +riding off the rail was the trouble." +</p> +<p> +He apostrophized the unusually pretty girl who at bedtime handed each +guest a lighted candle in a candlestick. She fancied some of the +fashionable young women snubbed her but Saxe assured her in rhyme: +</p> +<p class="verse"> + "There is not a single one of them all <br /> + Who could, if they would, hold a candle to you." +</p> +<p> +He was an inveterate punster. Miss Caroline Ticknor tells us how he +used to lie on a couch in a back room at the Old Corner Bookstore in +Boston, at a very early hour, and amuse the boys who were sweeping and +dusting the store until one of the partners arrived. I believe he +never lost a chance to indulge in a verbal quibble. "In the meantime, +and 'twill be a very mean time." +</p> +<p> +I often regret that I did not preserve his comical letters, and those +of Richard Grant White and other friends who were literary masters. +Mr. Grant White helped me greatly when I was doubtful about some +literary question, saying he would do anything for a woman whose name +was Kate. And a Dartmouth graduate, whom I asked for a brief story of +Father Prout, the Irish poet and author, gave me so much material that +it was the most interesting lecture of my season. He is now a most +distinguished judge in Massachusetts. +</p> +<p> +Saxe, like other humourists, suffered from melancholia at the last. +Too sad! +</p> +<p> +After giving a lecture in the chapel of Packer Institute at the time I +was with Mrs. Botta in New York, I was surprised to receive a call the +next morning from Mr. Charles Storrs of 23 Monroe Place, Brooklyn, +asking me to go to his house, and make use of his library, which he +told me Horace Greeley had pronounced the best working and reference +library he had ever known. A great opportunity for anyone! Mr. Storrs +was too busy a man to really enjoy his own library. Mrs. Storrs and +Miss Edna Dean Proctor, who made her home with them, comprised his +family, as his only daughter had married Miss Proctor's brother and +lived in Peoria, Illinois. Mr. Storrs had made his own fortune, +starting out by buying his "time" of his father and borrowing an old +horse and pedlar's cart from a friend. He put into the cart a large +assortment of Yankee notions, or what people then called "short +goods," as stockings, suspenders, gloves, shoestrings, thread and +needles, tape, sewing silk, etc. He determined to make his own fortune +and succeeded royally for he became a "merchant prince." His was a +rarely noble and generous nature with a heart as big as his brain. +Several of his large rooms downstairs were crammed with wonderfully +beautiful and precious things which his soul delighted in picking up, +in ivory, jade, bronze, and glass. He was so devotedly fond of music +that at great expense he had a large organ built which could be played +by pedalling and pulling stops in and out, and sometimes on Sunday +morning he would rise by half-past six, and be downstairs in his shirt +sleeves hard at work, eliciting oratorio or opera music for his own +delectation. A self-made man, "who did not worship his creator." He +was always singularly modest, although very decided in his opinions. +Men are asking of late who can be called educated. Certainly not a +student of the ancient Assyrian or the mysteries of the Yogi, or the +Baha, or the Buddhistic legends, when life is so brief and we must +"act in the living present." But a man who has studied life and human +nature as well as the best form of books, gained breadth and culture +by wide travel, and is always ready for new truths, that man <i>is</i> +educated in the best sense, although entirely self-educated. Greeley +used to say, "Charles Storrs is a great man." +</p> +<p> +Greeley used to just rest and enjoy himself at Mr. Storrs's home, +often two weeks at a time, and liked to shut himself into that +wonderful library to work or read. Once when he returned unexpectedly, +the maid told Miss Proctor that Mr. Greeley had just come in from the +rain and was quite wet, and there was no fire in the library. He did +not at first care to change to Mr. Storrs's special den in the +basement. But Miss Proctor said "It is too cold here and your coat is +quite wet." "Oh, I am used to that," he said plaintively. But his +special desk was carried down to a room bright with an open fire, and +he seemed glad to be cared for. +</p> +<p> +Whitelaw Reid was photographed with Greeley when he first came on from +the West to take a good share of the responsibility of editing the +<i>Tribune</i>. He stood behind Greeley's chair, and I noticed his hair was +then worn quite long. But he soon attained the New York cut as well as +the New York cult. Both Reid and John Hay were at that time frequent +guests of Mr. Storrs, who never seemed weary of entertaining his +friends. Beecher was one of his intimate acquaintances and they often +went to New York together hunting for rare treasures. +</p> +<p> +I have several good stories about Mr. Greeley for which I am indebted +to Miss Proctor who told them to me. +</p> +<p> +1. He used to write way up in a small attic in the <i>Tribune</i> building, +and seldom allowed anyone to interrupt him. Some man, who was greatly +disgusted over one of Greeley's editorials, climbed up to his sanctum, +and as soon as his head showed above the railing, he began to rave and +rage, using the most lurid style of profanity. It seemed as if he +never would stop, but at last, utterly exhausted and out of breath and +all used up, he waited for a reply. +</p> +<p> +Greeley kept on writing, never having looked up once. This was too +much to be endured, and the caller turned to go downstairs, when +Greeley called out: "Come back, my friend, come back, and free your +mind." +</p> +<p> +2. Mr. Greeley once found that one of the names in what he considered +an important article on the Board of Trade had been incorrectly +printed. He called Rooker, the head man in the printing department, +and asked fiercely what man set the type for this printing, showing +him the mistake. Rooker told him, and went to get the culprit, whom +Greeley said deserved to be kicked. But when he came, he brought Mr. +Greeley's article in his own writing, and showed him that the mistake +was his own. Mr. Greeley acknowledged he was the guilty one, and +begging the man's pardon, added, "Tom Rooker, come here and kick <i>me</i> +quick." +</p> +<p> +3. Once when Greeley was making one of his frequent visits to Mr. and +Mrs. Storrs, the widow of the minister who used to preach at +Mansfield, Connecticut, when Mr. Storrs was a boy, had been invited by +him to spend a week. She was a timid little woman, but she became so +shocked at several things that Greeley had said or written in his +paper that she inquired of Miss Proctor if she thought Mr. Greeley +would allow her to ask him two or three questions. +</p> +<p> +Miss Proctor found him in the dining-room, the floor strewn with +exchange papers, and having secured his consent, ushered in the lady. +She told me afterward that she heard the poor little questioner speak +with a rising inflection only two or three times. But Mr. Greeley was +always ready to answer at length and with extreme earnestness. He said +afterwards: "Why that woman is way back in the Middle Ages." +</p> +<p> +When she came away from the interview, she seemed excited and dazed, +not noticing anyone, but dashed upstairs to her room, closed the door, +and never afterward alluded to her attempt to modify Mr. Greeley's +views. +</p> +<p> +4. A little girl who was visiting Mr. Storrs said: "It would never +do for Mr. Greeley to go to Congress, he would make such a +slitter-slatter of the place." +</p> +<p> +Miss Proctor published <i>A Russian Journey</i> after travelling through +that country; has published a volume of poems, and has made several +appeals in prose and verse for the adoption of the Indian corn as our +national emblem. She is also desirous to have the name of Mount +Rainier changed to Tacoma, its original Indian name, and has a second +book of poems ready for the press. +</p> +<p> +When I first met her at the home of Mrs. Storrs, I thought her one of +the most beautiful women I had ever seen—of the Andalusian type—dark +hair and lustrous starry eyes, beautiful features, perfect teeth, a +slender, willowy figure, and a voice so musical that it would lure a +bird from the bough. She had a way all her own of "telling" you a +poem. She was perfectly natural about it, a recitative semi-tone yet +full of expression and dramatic breadth, at times almost a chant. With +those dark and glowing eyes looking into mine, I have listened until +I forgot everything about me, and was simply spellbound. Mr. Fields +described Tennyson's reciting his own poems in much the same way. +Whittier once said to a friend, "I consider Miss Proctor one of the +best woman poets of the day," and then added, "But why do I say <i>one</i> +of the best; why not <i>the</i> best?" +</p> +<p> +Miss Proctor has always been glad to assist any plan of mine, and +wrote a poem especially for my Christmas book, <i>Purple and Gold</i>. Mr. +Osgood, the publisher, when I showed him the poem, said, "But how do I +know that the public will care for your weeds?" (referring to the +asters and goldenrod). He said later: "The instant popularity and +large sale of that booklet attested the happiness of Miss Sanborn's +selection, and the kind contributions from her friends." Miss +Proctor's contribution was the first poem in the book and I venture to +publish it as it has never been in print since the first sale. My +friend's face is still beautiful, her mind is as active as when we +first met, her voice has lost none of its charm, and she is the same +dear friend as of yore. +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4"><small>GOLDENROD AND ASTERS</small><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>The goldenrod, the goldenrod,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That glows in sun or rain,<br /></span> +<span>Waving its plumes on every bank<br /></span> +<span class="i1">From the mountain slope to the main,—<br /></span> +<span>Not dandelions, nor cowslips fine,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor buttercups, gems of summer,<br /></span> +<span>Nor leagues of daisies yellow and white,<br /></span> +<span class="i1" >Can rival this latest comer!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>On the plains and the upland pastures<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Such regal splendour falls<br /></span> +<span>When forth, from myriad branches green,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Its gold the south wind calls,—<br /></span> +<span>That the tale seems true the red man's god<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Lavished its bloom to say,<br /></span> +<span>"Though days grow brief and suns grow cold,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My love is the same for aye."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>And, darker than April violets<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or pallid as wind-flowers grow,<br /></span> +<span>Under its shades from hill to meadow<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Great beds of asters blow.—<br /></span> +<span>Oh plots of purple o'erhung with gold<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That need nor walls nor wardens,<br /></span> +<span>Not fairer shone, to the Median Queen,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Her Babylonian gardens!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>On Scotia's moors the gorse is gay,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And England's lanes and fallows<br /></span> +<span>Are decked with broom whose winsome grace<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The hovering linnet hallows;<br /></span> +<span>But the robin sings from his maple bow,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">"Ah, linnet, lightly won,<br /></span> +<span>Your bloom to my blaze of wayside gold<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Is the wan moon to the sun!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>And were I to be a bride at morn,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ere the chimes rang out I'd say,<br /></span> +<span>"Not roses red, but goldenrod<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Strew in my path today!<br /></span> +<span>And let it brighten the dusky aisle,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And flame on the altar-stair,<br /></span> +<span>Till the glory and light of the fields shall flood<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The solemn dimness there."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>And should I sleep in my shroud at eve,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Not lilies pale and cold,<br /></span> +<span>But the purple asters of the wood<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Within my hand I'd hold;—<br /></span> +<span>For goldenrod is the flower of love<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That time and change defies;<br /></span> +<span>And asters gleam through the autumn air<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With the hues of Paradise!<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p class="au"> Edna Dean Proctor. +</p> +<p> +Shortly before the Civil War, I went with father to St. Louis, he to +take a place in the Washington University, while I was offered a +position in the Mary Institute to teach classes of girls. Chancellor +Hoyt of the university had been lured from Exeter, New Hampshire. He +was widely known in the educational world, and was one of the most +brilliant men I ever knew, strong, wise, witty, critical, scholarly, +with a scorn of anything superficial or insincere. +</p> +<p> +I had thought of omitting my experience in this city, to +me so really tragic. Just before we were to leave Hanover, a +guest brought five of us a gift of measles. I had the +confluent-virulent-delirious-lose-all-your-hair variety. When +convalescent, I found that my hair, which had been splendidly thick +and long, was coming out alarmingly, and it was advised that my head +be shaved, with a promise that the hair would surely be curly and just +as good as before the illness. I felt pretty measly and "meachin" and +submitted. The effect was indescribably awful. I saw my bald pate +once, and almost fainted. I was provided with a fearsome wig, of +coarse, dark red hair, held in place by a black tape. Persons who had +pitied me for having "such a big head and so much hair" now found +reason for comment "on my small head with no hair." The most expensive +head cover never deceived anyone, however simple, and I was obliged to +make my début in St. Louis in this piteous plight. +</p> +<p> +We then had our first taste of western-southern cordiality and +demonstrativeness. It occurred to me that they showed more delight in +welcoming us than our own home folks showed regret at our departure. +It was a liberal education to me. They all seemed to understand about +the hideous wig, but never showed that they noticed it. One of our +first callers was a popular, eloquent clergyman, who kissed me "as +the daughter of my mother." He said, "I loved your mother and asked +her to marry me, but I was refused." Several young men at once wanted +to get up a weekly dancing class for me, but I was timid, fearing my +wig would fall off or get wildly askew. Whittier in one of his poems +has this couplet, which suggests the reverse of my experience: +</p> +<p class="verse"> + "She rose from her delicious sleep, <br /> + And laid aside her soft-brown hair." +</p> +<p class="noindent"> +At bedtime my wig must come off and a nightcap take the place. In the +morning that wig must go on, with never one look in the glass. Soon +two persons called, both leaders in social life, one of them a +physician, who had suddenly lost every spear of hair. I was invited by +the unfortunate physician and his wife to dine with them. And, in his +own home, I noticed in their parlour a portrait of him before his +experience. He had been blessed with magnificently thick black hair, a +handsome face, adorned with a full beard and moustache. It was an +April evening and the weather was quite warm, and after dinner the +doctor removed his wig, placing it on a plaster head. He was now used +to his affliction. He told me, as he sat smoking, looking like a +waxwork figure, how several years ago he awoke in the dead of the +night to find something he could not understand on his pillow. He +roused his wife, lit the gas, dashed cold water on his face to help +him to realize what had happened and washed off all the rest of his +hair, even to eyebrows and eyelashes. That was a depressing story to +me. And I soon met a lady (the Mayor's wife) who had suffered exactly +in the same way. She also was resigned, as indeed she had to be. I +began to tremble lest my own hair should never return. +</p> +<p> +But I should be telling you about St. Louis. We were most cordially +received by clergymen from three churches and all the professors at +the university, and the trustees with their wives and daughters. Wyman +Crow, a trustee, was the generous patron of Harriet Hosmer, whose +<i>Zenobia</i> was at that time on exhibition there. The Mary Institute was +founded in remembrance of Rev. Dr. Eliot's daughter Mary, who while +skating over one of the so-called "sink-holes," then existing about +the city, broke the ice, fell in, and the body was never recovered. +These sink holes were generally supposed to be unfathomable. +</p> +<p> +Since I could not dance, I took to art, although I had no more +capacity in that direction than a cow. I attempted a bunch of dahlias, +but when I offered the result to a woman cleaning our rooms she +looked at it queerly, held it at a distance, and then inquired: "Is +the frame worth anything?" +</p> +<p> +I acknowledge a lifelong indebtedness to Chancellor Hoyt. He was +suffering fearfully with old-fashioned consumption, but he used to +send for me to read to him to distract his thoughts. He would also +criticize my conversation, never letting one word pass that was +ungrammatical or incorrectly pronounced. If I said, "I am so glad," he +would ask, "So glad that what? You don't give the correlative." He +warned against reliance on the aid of alliteration. The books read to +him were discussed and the authors praised or criticized. +</p> +<p> +St. Louis was to me altogether delightful, and I still am interested +in that city, so enlarged and improved. I used to see boys riding +astride razor-back hogs in the street, where now stately limousines +glide over smooth pavements. +</p> +<p> +I have always had more cordiality towards strangers, homesick students +at Dartmouth, and the audiences at my lectures, since learning a +better habit. Frigidity and formality were driven away by the sunshine +that brightened my stay at St. Louis. +</p> +<p> +I do not wish to intrude my private woes, but I returned from the West +with a severe case of whooping-cough. I didn't get it at St. Louis, +but in the sleeping-car between that city and Chicago. I advise +children to see to it that both parents get through with all the +vastly unpleasant epidemics of childhood at an early age. It is one of +the duties of children to parents. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0003"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER III +</h2> +<p class="cont"> +Happy Days with Mrs. Botta—My Busy Life in New York—President +Barnard of Columbia College—A Surprise from Bierstadt—Professor +Doremus, a Universal Genius—Charles H. Webb, a truly funny "Funny +Man"—Mrs. Esther Hermann, a Modest Giver. +</p> +<p> +I was obliged to give up my work at Packer Institute, when diphtheria +attacked me, but a wonderful joy came to me after recovery. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Vincenzo Botta invited me to her home in West Thirty-seventh +Street for the winter and spring. Anne C. Lynch, many years before her +marriage to Mr. Botta, had taught at the Packer Institute herself, and +at that time had a few rooms on West Ninth Street. She told me she +used to take a hurried breakfast standing by the kitchen table; then +saying good-bye to the mother to whom she was devoted, walked from +Ninth Street to the Brooklyn ferry, then up Joralemon Street, as she +was required to be present at morning prayers. Her means were limited +at that time and carfare would take too much. But it was then that she +started and maintained her "Saturday Evenings," which became so +attractive and famous that N.P. Willis wrote of them that no one of +any distinction thought a visit to New York complete without spending +a Saturday evening with Miss Lynch. People went in such numbers that +many were obliged to sit on the stairs, but all were happy. Her +refreshments were of the simplest kind, lemonade and wafers or +sandwiches. It has often been said that she established the only salon +in this country, but why bring in that word so distinctively belonging +to the French? +</p> +<p> +Miss Lynch was just "at home" and made all who came to her happy and +at their best. Fredrika Bremer, the celebrated Norwegian writer, was +her guest for several weeks at her home in Ninth Street. Catherine +Sedgwick attended several of her receptions, wondering at the charm +which drew so many. There Edgar Poe gave the first reading of "The +Raven" before it was printed. Ole Bull, who knew her then, was a +life-long friend to her. Fanny Kemble, Bryant, Halleck, Willis were +all devoted friends. +</p> +<p> +After her marriage to Professor Vincenzo Botta, nephew of the +historian Botta, and their taking a house in Thirty-seventh Street, +she gathered around her table the most interesting and distinguished +men and women of the day, and the "Saturday Evenings" were continued +with increasing crowds. She had a most expressive face and beautiful +blue eyes. Never one of the prodigious talkers, dressed most quietly, +she was just herself, a sweet-faced, sincere woman, and was blessed +with an atmosphere and charm that were felt by all. +</p> +<p> +At one of her breakfasts I recollect Emerson, who often visited there, +Bryant, Bayard Taylor, and Grace Greenwood. At another, John Fiske, +President Andrew D. White, and other men interested in their line of +thought. I must mention a lady who in the midst of their inspiring +conversation broke forth in a loud tone to Mrs. Botta: "I found a +splendid receipt for macaroni; mix it, when boiled, with stewed +tomatoes and sprinkle freely with parmesan cheese before baking." +</p> +<p> +One evening Whitelaw Reid brought John Hay. He beckoned to me to come +to him, and presenting Mr. Hay said: "I want to make a prediction in +regard to this young man. If you live long enough you will hear of him +as the greatest statesman and diplomat our country has ever had." A +few evenings after, at a Dramatic Club of great talent, I saw Mr. Hay +figuring as Cupid in Mrs. Jarley's wax-work show. He looked and acted +his part, turning gracefully on his toes to show his wings and quiver +of arrows. And Mr. Reid, mounted on a step-ladder behind a draped +clothes-horse, represented the distressed Lord Ullin whose daughter +was seen eloping in a boat with her Highland chief, the tossing waves +being sheets in full motion. +</p> +<p> +For years it seemed as if this were the one truly cosmopolitan +drawing-room in the city, because it drew the best from all sources. +Italy and England, France and Germany, Spain, Russia, Norway and +Hungary, Siam, China, India, and Japan sent guests hither. Liberals +and Conservatives, peers and revolutionists, holders of the most +ancient traditions, and advocates of the most modern theories—all +found their welcome, if they deserved it, and each took away a new +respect for the position of his opponent. +</p> +<p> +Madame Ristori, Salvini, Fechter, Campanini, and Madame Gerster were +honoured with special receptions. Special receptions were also given +in honour of George P. Marsh, on the occasion of his appointment as +Minister to Turin in 1861, and to the officers of the Royal Navy of +Italy when they came to this country to take possession of two +frigates built by an American ship-builder for the Italian Government. +</p> +<a name="image-0003"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/sk-img03.jpg" width="300" height="400" +alt="Mrs. Anne C. Lynch Botta" /> +</center> + +<h5>MRS. ANNE C. LYNCH BOTTA</h5> + +<p> +Emerson appreciated Mrs. Botta as a hostess. He enjoyed being in her +home, saying it "rested him." "I wish that I could believe that in +your miles of palaces were many houses and house-keepers as excellent +as I know at 25 West 37th Street, your house with the expanding +doors." He speaks of her invitation as "one of the happiest rainbows." +"Your hospitality has an Arabian memory, to keep its kind purpose +through such a long time. You were born under Hatem Yayi's own star, +and like him, are the genius of hospitality." (Haten Yayi was a +celebrated Oriental whose house had sixteen doors.) +</p> +<p> +And Mrs. Botta was greatly cheered by Emerson. She wrote: +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + I always wish I had had my photograph taken when Mr. Emerson + was staying in my house. Everyone felt his influence, even the + servants who would hardly leave the dining-room. I looked like + a different being, and was so happy I forgot to see that he had + enough to eat. +</p> +<p> +Early in her time some of her friends—such as Ripley, Curtis, and +Cranch—had joined a small agricultural and educational association, +called the "Brook Farm," near Roxbury, Massachusetts. She visited them +once or twice, and saw Mr. Curtis engaged in washing dishes which had +been used by "The Community." She remarked to him that perhaps he +could be better employed for the progress of his fellow-men than in +wasting his energy on something more easily done by others. +</p> +<p> +At one time she invited Bronson Alcott, one of the leaders of a +similar movement, to preside over some <i>conversazioni</i> in her +parlours, where he could elucidate his favourite subject. On one +occasion, a lady in the audience, impressed by some sentiments uttered +by the lecturer, inquired of him if his opinion was that we were gods. +"No," answered Mr. Alcott, "we are not gods, but only godlings," an +explanation which much amused Mrs. Botta, who was always quick in +perceiving the funny side of a remark. (I timidly suggest that <i>s</i> be +substituted for <i>d</i>.) +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Botta having promised to see Mr. Greeley, and urge him to give a +favourable notice in the <i>Tribune</i> of the concert where a young singer +was to make her début, went down to his office to plead for a lenient +criticism. But not one word appeared. So down she went to inquire the +reason. She was ushered into the Editor's Sanctum, where he was busily +writing and hardly looked up. She asked why he was so silent; it was +such a disappointment. No reply. She spoke once more. Then came the +verdict in shrill tones: "She can't sing. She can't sing. She can't +sing." +</p> +<p> +New Year's calls were then the custom, and more than three hundred +men paid their respects to Mr. and Mrs. Botta on the New Year's Day I +spent with them. And everyone looked, as Theodore Hook said, as if he +were somebody in particular. At one of these "Saturday Evenings," a +stranger walked through her rooms, with hands crossed under his coat +and humming execrably as he wandered along. The gentle hostess went to +him with her winning smile and inquired, "Do you play also?" That +proves her capacity for sarcasm and criticism which she seldom +employed. She conversed remarkably well, but after all it was what she +did not say that proved her greatness and self-control. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Botta had talent in various directions. She made portrait busts +in plaster that really were like the subjects, with occasionally an +inspired success, and that without any teaching. She showed genius in +this work. When a bust of her modelling was sent to Rome to be put +into marble, the foremost of Italian sculptors, not knowing the maker, +declared that nothing would be beyond the reach of the artist if <i>he</i> +would come to Rome and study technique for a year. Mrs. Botta asked me +to let her try to get my face. That was delightful. To be with her in +her own studio and watch her interest! Later some discouragement, and +then enthusiasm as at last the likeness came. She said she took the +humorous side of my face. The other side she found sad. My friends not +only recognized my face, but they saw my mother's face inwrought. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Botta had talent in various directions. She published a large +book, <i>The Hand Book of Universal Literature</i>, once used at Harvard +and other colleges, and hoped to prepare one of similar style on +<i>Universal History</i>. She also wrote a small volume of poems, but her +days were given to the needs of others. Only a few mornings were we +able to work on her <i>Universal History</i>. There were too many calls for +advice, sympathy, or aid; the door-bell rang too often. I heard a +young girl once say of her: "She is great enough to have been an +inspired prophetess of olden times, and tender enough to have been the +mother of our Dear Saviour." Such were the words of impassioned praise +that fell from the lips of a young, motherless, Roman Catholic girl, +one of the many whom Mrs. Botta had taught and befriended. Once, when +reading to Mrs. Botta in connection with her "History," a man called +to see her about getting material for her biography. To my surprise, +she waved her hand to me saying, "This young lady is to be my +biographer." As I felt entirely unable to attempt such a work I told +her it should be made up of letters from a host of friends who had +known her so well and so long. This pleased her, and after her death +her husband wrote me urging me to edit such a composite picture, but +knowing his superior fitness for the work, I thanked him for the +compliment, but declined. What a delightful result was accomplished by +his good judgment, literary skill, and the biographical notes gladly +given by her intimate friends. I will give a few quotations from the +tributes: +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + To me—as to others—her conversation was singularly inspiring; + it suggested to a man his best trains of thought; it developed + in him the best he had; it made him think better of himself and + of mankind; it sent him away stronger for all good work. +</p> + +<hr /> +<p class="bquote"> + She seemed to me capable of worshipping in equal fervour with + Roman Catholics or with Unitarians—in a cathedral or in a + hovel; and this religious spirit of hers shone out in her life + and in her countenance. Very pleasant was her optimism; she + looked about her in this world without distrust, and beyond her + into the next world without fear. +</p> + +<hr /> +<p class="bquote"> + She had a delightful sense of humour—so sweet, so delicate, so + vivid. She had a gift of appreciation which I have never seen + surpassed. + +</p> +<hr /> +<p class="bquote"> + If Mrs. Botta found more in society than most persons do, it + was because she carried more there. +</p> +<p> +Horace Greeley once said to me, "Anne Lynch is the best woman that +God ever made." +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + Few women known to me have had greater grace or ease in the + entertainment of strangers, while in her more private + intercourse, her frank, intelligent, courteous ways won her the + warmest and most desirable friendships. + +</p> +<hr /> +<p class="bquote"> + The position of the Bottas in the literary and artistic world + enabled them to draw together not only the best-known people of + this country, but to a degree greater than any, as far as I + know, the most distinguished visitors from abroad, beyond the + ranks of mere title or fashion. No home, I think, in all the + land compared with theirs in the number and character of its + foreign visitors. +</p> +<hr /> +<p class="bquote"> + I should like to introduce you to her home as it was—the hall, + with its interesting pictures and fragrant with fresh flowers; + the dining-room, the drawing-rooms, with their magnetized + atmosphere of the past (you can almost feel the presence of + those who have loved to linger there); her own sanctum, where a + chosen few were admitted; but the limits of space forbid. The + queens of Parisian salons have been praised and idealized till + we are led to believe them unapproachable in their social + altitude. But I am not afraid to place beside them an American + woman, uncrowned by extravagant adulation, but fully their + equal—the artist, poet, conversationist, Anne C. L. Botta. +</p> +<p> +She was absolutely free from egotism or conceit, always avoiding +allusion to what she had accomplished, or her unfulfilled longings. +But she once told me: +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + Sandy (short for old, red sand stone), I would rather have had + a child than to have made the most perfect statue or the finest + painting ever produced. [She also said]: If I could only stop + longing and aspiring for that which is not in my power to + attain, but is only just near enough to keep me always running + after it, like the donkey that followed an ear of corn which + was tied fast to a stick. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Botta came of a Celtic father, gay, humorous, full of impulsive +chivalry and intense Irish patriotism, and of a practical New England +mother, herself of Revolutionary stock, clear of judgment, careful of +the household economy, upright, exemplary, and "facultied." In the +daughter these inherited qualities blended in a most harmonious +whole. Grant Allen, the scientific writer, novelist, and student of +spiritualistic phenomena, thinks that racial differences often combine +to produce a genius. +</p> +<p> +I often think of that rarely endowed friend in full faith that she now +has the joys denied her here, and that her many-sided nature is +allowed progress, full and free and far, in many directions. I am also +sure that Heaven could not be Heaven to Mrs. Botta if she were not +able to take soul flights and use wireless telegraphy to still help +those she left behind, and hope that she can return to greet and +guide us as we reach the unknown land. +</p> +<p> +Through the kind suggestions of Mrs. Botta, I was asked to give talks +on literary matters at the house of one of New York's most influential +citizens. This I enjoyed immensely. Soon the large drawing-rooms were +too small for the numbers who came. Next we went to the Young Women's +Christian Association, to the library there, and later I decided to +engage the church parlours in Doctor Howard Crosby's Church, Fourth +Avenue and Twenty-second Street, New York. When I realized my +audacious venture, I was frightened. Ten lectures had been advertised +and some not written! +</p> +<p> +On the day for my first lecture the rain poured down, and I felt sure +of a failure. My sister went with me to the church. As we drew near I +noticed a string of carriages up and down the avenue. "There must be a +wedding or a funeral," I whispered, feeling more in the mood of the +latter, but never dreaming how much those carriages meant to me. As I +went timidly into the room I found nearly every seat full, and was +greeted with cordial applause. My sister took a seat beside me. My +subject was "Spinster Authors of England." My hands trembled so +visibly that I laid my manuscript on the table, but after getting in +magnetic touch with those before me, I did not mind. +</p> +<p> +The reading occupied only one hour, and afterwards I was surrounded by +New Hampshire women and New Yorkers who congratulated me warmly. There +were reporters sent from seven of the best daily papers, whom I +found sharpening their pencils expectantly. They gave correct and +complimentary notices, and my success was now assured. +</p> +<p> +Mr. James T. Fields not only advised his New York friends to hear me, +but came himself, bringing my father who was deeply gratified. Mr. +Fields told father that I had a remarkably choice audience, among the +best in the city. My father had felt very deeply, even to tears, the +sharp, narrow and adverse criticism of one of his associates who +considered that I unsexed myself by daring to speak in public, and who +advised strongly against encouraging me in such unwomanly behaviour. +</p> +<p> +I was a pioneer as a lecturer on literature quite unconsciously, for I +had gone along so gradually that I did not realize it—taken up and +set down in a new place with no planning on my part. +</p> +<p> +Invited by many of the citizens of Hanover, New Hampshire, my old +home, to go there and give my lecture on "Lady Morgan," the Irish +novelist, for the purpose of purchasing a new carpet for the +Congregational Church, I was surprised to feel again the same stern +opposition; I was not permitted to speak in the church, but +immediately was urged to accept the large recitation hall of the +Scientific School. It was crowded to the doors and the college boys +climbed up and swarmed about the windows. The carpet, a dark red +ingrain, was bought, put down, and wore well for years. +</p> +<p> +Now came a busy life. I was asked to lecture in many places near New +York, always in delightful homes. Had a class of married ladies at the +home of Dr. J.G. Holland, where I gave an idea of the newest books. +Doctor Holland gave me a department, "Bric-à-brac," in his +magazine—<i>Scribner's Magazine</i>; and I was honoured by a request from +the editors of the <i>Galaxy</i> to take the "Club Room" from which Mark +Twain had just resigned. Meeting him soon after at a dinner, he said +with his characteristic drawl: "Awful solemn, ain't it, having to be +funny every month; worse than a funeral." I started a class in my own +apartment to save time for ladies who wanted to know about the most +interesting books as they were published, but whose constant +engagements made it impossible to read them entirely for themselves. I +suggested to the best publishers to send me copies of their +attractive publications which I would read, condense, and then talk +them over with these friends. All were glad to aid me. Their books +were piled on my piano and tables, and many were sold. I want to say +that such courtesy was a rare compliment. I used to go to various book +stores, asking permission to look over books at a special reading +table, and never met a refusal. I fear in these days of aiding the war +sufferers, and keeping our bodies limber and free from rheumatism by +daily dancing, this plan would not find patrons. +</p> +<p> +I was often "browsing," as they call it, at the Mercantile Library. At +first I would sit down and give the names of volumes desired. That +took too long. At last I was allowed to go where I liked and take what +I wanted. I sent a pair of handsome slippers at Christmas to the man +who had been my special servitor. He wrote me how he admired them and +wished he could wear them, but alas! his feet had both been worn to a +stub long ago from such continuous running and climbing to satisfy my +seldom-satisfied needs. He added that several of the errand boys had +become permanently crippled from over-exertion. I then understood why +he had married a famous woman doctor. It is hard to get the books +asked for in very large libraries. Once I was replying to an attack on +Miss Elizabeth Stuart Phelps's style by Miss Dodge, well known under +the pen name Gail Hamilton, and I gave this order: "Complete works of +Miss Abigail Dodge—and please hurry." After intolerable waiting, two +boys appeared looking very weary, bearing the many sermons and heavy +memoirs of the Reverend Narcissus Dodge. +</p> +<p> +In my special class at home I begged my friends to ask questions in an +off-hand way, and to comment upon my opinions. That was stimulating to +all. One morning my theme was "Genius and Talent." I said Genius was +something beyond—outside of—ourselves, which achieved great results +with small exertion. Not by any means was it a bit of shoemakers' +wax in the seat of one's chair (as Anthony Trollope put it). Talent +must work hard and constantly for development. I said: "Genius +is inspiration; Talent is perspiration." I had never heard that +definition and thought it was mine. Of late it has been widely quoted, +but with no acknowledgment, so I still think it is mine. Are there any +other claimants—and prior to 1880? +</p> +<p> +There were many questions and decided differences of opinion. At last +one lady said: "Please give us examples of men who possess genius +rather than talent." As she spoke, the door opened, and in walked +Mrs. Edmund Clarence Stedman, wife of the poet, and with her a most +distinguished-looking woman, Mrs. William Whitney. I was a little +embarrassed, but replied sweetly, "Sheets and Kelley," meaning "Keats +and Shelley." Then followed a wild laugh in which I joined. +</p> +<p> +Dr. John Lord once told me he had a similar shock. He spoke of +"Westford and Oxminster," instead of "Oxford and Westminster," and +never again could he get it correctly, try as he would. Neither his +twist nor mine was quite as bad as that of the speaker who said: "I +feel within me a half-warmed fish; I mean a half-formed wish." +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + All genius [continued Lady Henrietta], whether it is artistic, + or literary, or spiritual, is something given from outside. I + once heard genius described as knowing by intuition what other + people know by experience. +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + Something, or, I should say, somebody, for it involves + intelligence and knowledge, tells you these things, and you + just can't help expressing them in your own particular way, + with brush, or pen, or voice, whatever your individual + instrument may be. +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + From <i>Patricia</i> by Hon. Mrs. R<small>OBERT</small> H<small>AMILTON</small>. +</p> +<p> +It was a pleasure to see that my theory of Genius was the same as Lady +Henrietta's in that charming book <i>Patricia</i>. I have enough collected +on that subject to give me shivers of amazement as I read the mass of +testimony. The mystery of Inspiration has always enthralled me. +</p> +<p> +I was invited to so many evenings "at home," dinners and luncheons, +that I decided to reciprocate and be surely at home on Tuesday +evenings. These affairs were very informal and exceedingly enjoyable. +There were many who gladly entertained us by their accomplishments. +Champney the artist, sent after blackboard and chalk, and did +wonderfully clever things. Some one described a stiff and stupid +reception where everyone seemed to have left themselves at home. Those +who came to me brought their best. Mrs. Barnard, wife of President +Barnard of Columbia College, urged me to give three lectures in her +parlour. I could not find the time, but her house was always open to +me. To know Mr. Barnard was a great privilege. When called to +Columbia, it was apparently dying from starvation for new ideas, and +stagnant from being too conservative and deep in set grooves. His +plans waked up the sleepers and brought constant improvements. Though +almost entirely deaf, he was never morose or depressed, but always +cheerful and courageous. I used to dine with them often. Tubes from +each guest extended into one through which he could hear quite well. +He delighted in discussion of current events, historical matters, +politics of the day, and was apparently well informed on every +question. Unlike Harriet Martineau, who always put down her trumpet +when anyone dared to disagree with her opinions, he delighted in a +friendly controversy with anyone worthy of his steel. He fought with +patience and persistence for the rights of women to have equal +education with men, and at last gained his point, but died before +Barnard College was in existence. Every student of Barnard ought to +realize her individual indebtedness to this great educator, regarding +him as the champion of women and their patron saint. +</p> +<a name="image-0004"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/sk-img04.jpg" width="320" height="425" +alt="President Barnard of Columbia College" /> +</center> + +<h5>PRESIDENT BARNARD OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE</h5> + +<p> +He was blessed in his home life. Mrs. Barnard was his shield, +sunshine, and strength. +</p> +<hr /> +<p class="ar3"> + Studio, 1271 Broadway, <br /> + corner 32d Street.<br /> + April 8, 1887. +</p> + +<p class="blsmcap"> + Dear Miss Sanborn: +</p> + +<p class="bquote"> + I send you "Ovis Montana" or Mountain Sheep, who never enjoyed + the daily papers or devoured a scrap of poetry. The only + civilized thing he ever did was to give his life for a piece of + cold lead and got swindled at that. +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + To be grafted in your Album is immortality. +</p> +<p class="closing"> + Sincerely yours,<br /> + A<small>LBERT</small> B<small>IERSTADT</small>. +</p> +<p> +This gift was a big surprise to me. I was then corresponding with two +Boston papers and one in the West. I thought it discourteous in the +artists of the new Impressionist school, to sneer a little at +Bierstadt's great paintings, as if he could ever be set back as a +bye-gone or a has-been. And it gave me great pleasure to say so. I +sent several letters to him, and one day I received a card asking me +to call at his studio to look over some sketches. He said he wanted me +to help him to select a sketch out of quite a pile on the table, as he +wished to make a painting of one for a friend. I assured him I did not +know enough to do that, but he insisted he was so busy that I must +tell him which I thought would be most effective. I looked at every +one, feeling quite important, and at last selected the Mountain Sheep +poised on a high peak in a striking pose. A rare sight then. +</p> +<p> +At Christmas that splendid picture painted by Bierstadt was sent to +our apartment for me. Never before had I received such appreciation +for my amateur scribbling. +</p> +<p> +Ah, me! I was both complimented and proud. But my humiliation soon +came. When I called to thank the kind donor and speak of the fine +frame the mountain big-horn was now in, I was surprised to have Mr. +Bierstadt present to me a tall, distinguished-looking foreigner as +Munkacsy, the well-known Hungarian artist. He was most cordial, saying +in French that he was glad to meet an American woman who could +doubtless answer many questions he was anxious to ask. I could only +partially get his meaning, so Bierstadt translated it to me. And I, +who could read and translate French easily, had never found time to +learn to chat freely in any language but my own. I could have cried +right there; it was so mortifying, and I was losing such a pleasure. I +had the same pathetic experience with a Russian artist, Verestchagin, +whose immense picture, revealing the horrors of war, was then on +exhibition in New York. +</p> +<p> +Again and again I have felt like a dummy, if not an idiot, in such a +position. I therefore beg all young persons to determine to speak and +write at least one language beside their own. +</p> +<p> +Tom Hood wrote: +</p> +<p class="verse"> + "Never go to France <br /> + Unless you know the lingo <br /> + If you do, like me, <br /> + You'll repent by jingo." +</p> +<p> +But it's even worse to be unable in your own country to greet and talk +with guests from other countries. +</p> +<p> +I should like to see the dead languages, as well as Saxon and +Sanscrit, made elective studies every where; also the higher +mathematics, mystic metaphysics, and studies of the conscious and +subconscious, the ego and non-ego, matters of such uncertain study. +When one stops to realize the tragic brevity of life on this earth, +and to learn from statistics what proportion of each generation dies +in infancy, in childhood, in early maturity, and how few reach +the Biblical limit of life, it seems unnecessary to regard a +brain-wearying "curriculum" as essential or even sensible. Taine gives +us in his work on English Literature a Saxon description of life: "A +bird flying from the dark, a moment in the light, then swiftly passing +out into the darkness beyond." +</p> +<p> +And really why do we study as if we were to rival the ante-diluvians +in age. Then wake up to the facts. I have been assured, by those who +know, that but a small proportion of college graduates are successful +or even heard of. They appear at commencement, sure that they are to +do great things, make big money, at least marry an heiress; they are +turned out like buttons, only to find out how hard it is to get +anything to do for good pay. One multi-millionaire of Boston, whose +first wages he told me were but four dollars a month, said there was +no one he so dreaded to see coming into his office as a college man +who must have help,—seldom able to write a legible hand, or to add +correctly a column of figures. There is solid food for thought. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +Lowell said that "great men come in clusters." That is true, but it is +equally true that once in a great while, we are vouchsafed a royal +guest, a man who mingles freely with the ordinary throng, yet stands +far above them; a man who can wrest the primal secrets from nature's +closed hand, who makes astounding discoveries, only to gladly disclose +them to others. +</p> +<p> +Such an unusual genius was Professor Robert Ogden Doremus, whose +enthusiasm was only matched by his modesty. In studying what he +accomplished, I wonder whether he was not sent from the central yet +universal "powers that be" to give us answers to some of the riddles +of life; or had he visited so many planets further advanced than our +own—for as Jean Paul Richter wrote "There is no end"—that he had +learned that the supposedly impossible could be done. He assisted John +W. Draper in taking the first photograph of the human face ever made. +Science with him was never opposed to religion. His moving pictures +and spectral analysis were almost miracles at that time. He delighted +to show how the earth in forming was flattened at the poles, and he +would illustrate the growth of the rings of Saturn. As a lecturer he +was a star, the only chemist and scientist to offer experiments. His +lectures were always attended by crowds of admirers. As a toxicologist +he was marvellous in his accuracy; no poisoner could escape his exact +analysis. His compressed cartridges, made waterproof and coated with +collodion, were used in the blasting operations at the Mont Cenis +tunnel through eight miles of otherwise impenetrable stone, solid +Alpine rock, between France and Italy. +</p> +<p> +When the obelisk in Central Park showed signs of serious decay, he +saved the hieroglyphics by ironing it with melted parafine. He makes +us think of the juggler who can keep a dozen balls in the air as if it +were an easy trick, never dropping one. +</p> +<a name="image-0005"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/sk-img05.jpg" width="287" height="400" +alt="Professor R. Ogden Doremus" /> +</center> + +<h5>PROFESSOR R. OGDEN DOREMUS</h5> + +<p> +But I forget to give my own memories of Dr. and Mrs. Doremus in their +delightful home on Fourth Avenue between 18th and 19th Streets,—a +home full of harmony, melody, peace, and love. Vincenzo Botta called +Dr. Doremus the "Mæcenas of New York," and his beautiful wife, the +ideal wife and mother, was named by her adoring husband the "queen +of women." Mrs. Doremus was prominent in New York's various societies +and charities, but the interests of her own family came first. One of +her sons said: "She never neglected her children; we were always loved +and well cared for." Both Dr. Doremus and his wife were devoted to +music, always of the best. He was the first president of the +Philharmonic Society who was not a musician by profession. All the +preceding presidents had been selected from the active musicians in +the society. One evening he was serenaded by the Philharmonic Society +under the leadership of Carl Bergman, the recently elected president +of the society. After the classic music had ceased, Dr. Doremus +appeared and thanked the society for the compliment. All were invited +into the house, where a bountiful collation was served and speeches +made. If you could see the photograph of the Philharmonic Society +serenading Dr. and Mrs. Doremus at their home, you would get a rare +insight into the old New York life, as compared with the present, in +which such a thing would be impossible. He said that his mother used +to take a cup of tea at the Battery afternoons with her sons. +</p> +<p> +He was a lifelong friend of Christine Nilsson whom he considered the +greatest vocal and dramatic genius of the age. He wrote: "Never did +mortal woman sing as she sang that simple song that begins: +</p> +<p class="verse"> + 'Angels, Angels, bright and fair,<br /> + Take, O take me to thy care!'" +</p> +<p> +I saw Nilsson and Parepa introduced there, who were to sail on the +same steamer in a few days. Nilsson made the banjo fashionable in New +York society, accompanying herself charmingly. All the famous opera +singers regarded the house of Dr. Doremus a place where they were +thoroughly at home, and always welcome. Ole Bull was for many years +his most devoted friend. Dr. Doremus writes: +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + I recall that once when I was dining with Ole Bull, at the + house of a friend, our host said: 'Doctor, I don't think much + of Ole Bull's fiddling; you know what I mean—I don't think + much of his fiddling as compared with his great heart.' +</p> +<p> +Mr. Edwin Booth, once walking with me, dropped my arm and exclaimed +with a dramatic gesture: "Ole Bull wasn't a man—he was a god!" +</p> +<p> +The last time I had the privilege of listening to Ole Bull's witchery +with his violin, he gave an hour to Norwegian folk-songs, his wife at +the piano. She played with finish, feeling, and restraint. She first +went through the air, then he joined in with his violin with +indescribable charm. Critics said he lacked technique. I am glad he +did: his music went straight to the heart. At the last he told us he +would give the tune always played after a wedding when the guests had +stayed long enough—usually three days—and their departure was +desired. We were to listen for one shrill note which was imperative. +No one would care or dare to remain after that. +</p> +<p> +Dr. Doremus showed me one evening a watch he was wearing, saying: +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + In Ole Bull's last illness when he no longer had strength to + wind his watch, he asked his wife to wind it for him, and then + send it to his best friend, saying: 'I want it to go ticking + from my heart to his.' +</p> +<p> +That watch magnetized by human love passing through it is now in the +possession of Arthur Lispenard Doremus, to whom it was left by his +father. It had to be wound by a key in the old fashion, and it ran in +perfect time for twenty-nine years. Then it became worn and was sent +to a watchmaker for repairs. It is still a reliable timekeeper, quite +a surprising story, as the greatest length of time before this was +twenty-four years for a watch to run. +</p> +<p> +I think of these rare souls, Ole Bull and Dr. Doremus, as reunited, +and with their loved ones advancing to greater heights, constantly +receiving new revelations of omnipotent power, which "it is not in the +heart of man to conceive." +</p> + + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i9">LINES<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Read at the Celebration of the Seventieth Birthday<br /></span> +<span class="i2">of D<small>OCTOR</small> R. O<small>GDEN</small> D<small>OREMUS</small>, January<br /></span> +<span class="i2">11th, 1894, at 241 Madison Avenue,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">by L<small>UTHER</small> R. M<small>ARSH</small>.<br /></span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span>What shall be said for good Doctor Doremus?<br /></span> +<span>To speak of him well, it well doth beseem us.<br /></span> +<span>Not one single fault, through his seventy years,<br /></span> +<span>Has ever been noticed by one of his peers.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>How flawless a life, and how useful withal!<br /></span> +<span>Fulfilling his duties at every call!<br /></span> +<span>Come North or come South, come East or come West,<br /></span> +<span>He ever is ready to work for the best.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>In Chemics, the Doctor stands first on the list;<br /></span> +<span>The nature, he knows, of all things that exist.<br /></span> +<span>He lets loose the spirits of earth, rock or water,<br /></span> +<span>And drives them through solids, cemented with mortar.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>How deftly he handles the retort and decanter!<br /></span> +<span>Makes lightning and thunder would scare Tam O'Shanter;<br /></span> +<span>Makes feathers as heavy as lead, in a jar,<br /></span> +<span>And eliminates spirits from coal and from tar.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>By a touch of his finger he'll turn lead or tin<br /></span> +<span>To invisible gas, and then back again;<br /></span> +<span>He will set them aflame, as in the last day,<br /></span> +<span>When all things are lit by the Sun's hottest ray.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>With oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen,—all—<br /></span> +<span>No gas can resist his imperative call—<br /></span> +<span>He'll solidify, liquefy, or turn into ice;<br /></span> +<span>Or all of them re-convert, back in a trice.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Amid oxides and alkalies, bromides and salts,<br /></span> +<span>He makes them all dance in a chemical waltz;<br /></span> +<span>And however much he with acids may play,<br /></span> +<span>There's never a drop stains his pure mortal clay.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>He well knows what things will affect one another;<br /></span> +<span>What acts as an enemy, and what as a brother;<br /></span> +<span>He feels quite at home with all chemic affinities,<br /></span> +<span>And treats them respectfully, as mystic Divinities.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>His wisdom is spread from far Texas to Maine;<br /></span> +<span>For thousands on thousands have heard him explain<br /></span> +<span>The secrets of Nature, and all her arcana,<br /></span> +<span>From the youth of the Gulf, to the youth of Montana.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>In Paris, Doremus may compress'd powder compound,<br /></span> +<span>Or, at home, wrap the Obelisk with paraffine round;<br /></span> +<span>Or may treat Toxicology ever anew,<br /></span> +<span>To enrich the bright students of famous Bellevue.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>He believes in the spirits of all physical things,<br /></span> +<span>And can make them fly round as if they had wings;<br /></span> +<span>But ask him to show you the Spirit of Man—<br /></span> +<span>He hesitates slightly, saying, "See!—if you can."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Wherever he comes there always is cheer;<br /></span> +<span>If absent, you miss him; you're glad when he's near;<br /></span> +<span>His voice is a trumpet that stirreth the blood;<br /></span> +<span>You feel that he's cheery, and you know that he's good.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>No doors in the city have swung open so wide,<br /></span> +<span>To artists at home, and to those o'er the tide;<br /></span> +<span>As, to Mario, Sontag, Badiali, Marini,<br /></span> +<span>To Nilsson and Phillips, Rachel and Salvini.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Much, much does he owe, for the grace of his life,<br /></span> +<span>To the influence ever of his beautiful wife;<br /></span> +<span>She, so grand and so stately, so true and so kind,<br /></span> +<span>So lovely in person and so charming in mind!<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p> +I had the pleasure of being well acquainted with Mr. Charles H. Webb, +a truly funny "funny man," who had homes in New York and Nantucket. +His slight stutter only added to the effect of his humorous talk. His +letters to the New York <i>Tribune</i> from Long Branch, Saratoga, etc., +were widely read. He knew that he wrote absolute nonsense at times, +but nonsense is greatly needed in this world, and exquisitely droll +nonsensical nonsense is as uncommon as common sense. The titles of his +various books are inviting and informing, as <i>Seaweed and What We +Seed</i>. He wrote several parodies on sensational novels of his time. +<i>Griffith Gaunt</i>, he made fun of as "Liffith Lank"; <i>St. Elmo</i>, as +"St. Twelmo." <i>A Wicked Woman</i> was another absurd tale. But I like +best a large volume, "<i>John Paul's Book</i>, moral and instructive, +travels, tales, poetry, and like fabrications, with several portraits +of the author and other spirited engravings." This book was dedicated, +"To the Bald-Headed, that noble and shining army of martyrs." When you +turn to look at his portrait, and the illuminated title page, you find +them not. The Frontispiece picture is upside down. The very +ridiculosity of his easy daring to do or say anything is taking. He +once wrote, in one of those trying books, with which we used to be +bored stiff, with questions such as "What is your favourite hour of +the day? He wrote dinner hour; what book not sacred would you part +with last? My pocket-book. Your favourite motto? When you must,—you +better." I especially liked the poem, "The Outside Dog in the Fight." +Here are two specimens of his prose: +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + The fish-hawk is not an eagle. Mountain heights and clouds he + never scales; fish are more in his way, he scales + them—possibly regarding them as scaly-wags. For my bird is + pious; a stern conservator is he of the public morals. Last + Sunday a frivolous fish was playing not far from the beach, and + Dr. Hawk went out and stopped him. 'Tis fun to watch him at + that sort of work—stopping play—though somehow it does not + seem to amuse the fish much. Up in the air he poises + pensively, hanging on hushed wings as though listening for + sounds—maybe a fish's. By and by he hears a herring—is he + hard of herring, think you? Then down he drops and soon has a + Herring Safe. (Send me something, manufacturers, immediately.) + Does he tear his prey from limb to limb? No, he merely sails + away through the blue ether—how happy can he be with + either!—till the limb whereon his own nest is built is + reached. Does the herring enjoy that sort of riding, think you? + Quite as much, I should say, as one does hack-driving. From my + point of view, the hawk is but the hackman of the air. + Sympathize with the fish? Not much. Nor would you if you heard + the pitiful cry the hawk sets up the moment he finds that his + claws are tangled in a fish's back. Home he flies to seek + domestic consolation, uttering the while the weeping cry of a + grieved child; there are tears in his voice, so you know the + fish must be hurting him. The idea that a hawk can't fly over + the water of an afternoon without some malicious fish jumping + up and trying to bite him! +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + If a fish wants to cross the water safely, let him take a + Fulton ferryboat for it. There he will find a sign reading: +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + "No Peddling or Hawking allowed in this cabin." Strange that + hawking should be so sternly prohibited on boats which are + mainly patronized by Brooklynites chronically afflicted with + catarrh! +</p> +<hr /> +<p class="bquote"> + Never shall it be said that I put my hand to the plow and + turned back. For that matter never shall it be said of me that + I put hand to a plow at all, unless a plow should chase me + upstairs and into the privacy of my bed-room, and then I should + only put hand to it for the purpose of throwing it out of the + window. The beauty of the farmer's life was never very clear to + me. As for its boasted "independence," in the part of the + country I came from, there was never a farm that was not + mortgaged for about all it was worth; never a farmer who was + not in debt up to his chin at "the store." Contented! When it + rains the farmer grumbles because he can't hoe or do something + else to his crops, and when it does not rain, he grumbles + because his crops do not grow. Hens are the only ones on a farm + that are not in a perpetual worry and ferment about "crops:" + they fill theirs with whatever comes along, whether it be an + angleworm, a kernel of corn, or a small cobblestone, and give + thanks just the same. +</p> +<br /> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i3"><small>THE OUTSIDE DOG IN THE FIGHT</small><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>You may sing of your dog, your bottom dog,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or of any dog that you please,<br /></span> +<span>I go for the dog, the wise old dog,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That knowingly takes his ease,<br /></span> +<span>And, wagging his tail outside the ring,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Keeping always his bone in sight,<br /></span> +<span>Cares not a pin in his wise old head<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For either dog in the fight.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Not his is the bone they are fighting for,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And why should my dog sail in,<br /></span> +<span>With nothing to gain but a certain chance<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To lose his own precious skin!<br /></span> +<span>There may be a few, perhaps, who fail<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To see it in quite this light,<br /></span> +<span>But when the fur flies I had rather be<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The outside dog in the fight.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>I know there are dogs—most generous dogs<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Who think it is quite the thing<br /></span> +<span>To take the part of the bottom dog,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And go yelping into the ring.<br /></span> +<span>I care not a pin what the world may say<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In regard to the wrong or right;<br /></span> +<span>My money goes as well as my song,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For the dog that keeps out of the fight!<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p> +Mr. Webb, like Charles Lamb and the late Mr. Travers, stammered just +enough to give piquancy to his conversation. To facilitate enunciation +he placed a "g" before the letters which it was hard for him to +pronounce. We were talking of the many sad and sudden deaths from +pneumonia, bronchitis, etc., during the recent spring season, and then +of the insincerity of poets who sighed for death and longed for a +summons to depart. He said in his deliciously slow and stumbling +manner: "I don't want the ger-pneu-m-mon-ia. I'm in no ger-hurry to +ger-go." Mrs. Webb's drawing-rooms were filled with valuable pictures +and bronzes, and her Thursday Evenings at home were a delight to many. +</p> +<p> +How little we sometimes know of the real spirit and the inner life of +some noble man or woman. Mrs. Hermann was a remarkable instance of +this. I thought I was well acquainted with Mrs. Esther Hermann, who, +in her home, 59 West fifty-sixth Street New York, was always +entertaining her many friends. Often three evenings a week were given +to doing something worth while for someone, or giving opportunity for +us to hear some famous man or woman speak, who was interested in some +great project. And her refreshments, after the hour of listening was +over, were of the most generous and delicious kind. Hers was a lavish +hospitality. It was all so easily and quietly done, that no one +realized that those delightful evenings were anything but play to her. +She became interested in me when I was almost a novice in the lecture +field, gave me two benefits, invited those whom she thought would +enjoy my talks, and might also be of service to me. There was never +the slightest stiffness; if one woman was there for the first time, +and a stranger, Mrs. Hermann and her daughters saw that there were +plenty of introductions and an escort engaged to take the lady to the +supper room. Mrs. Hermann in those early days, often took me to drive +in the park—a great treat. We chatted merrily together, and I still +fancied I knew her. But her own family did not know of her great +benefactions; her son only knew by looking over her check books, after +her death, how much she had given away. Far from blazoning it abroad, +she insisted on secrecy. She invited Mr. Henry Fairfield Osborn to +call, who was keenly interested in securing money to start a Natural +History Museum, he bringing a friend with him. After they had owned +that they found it impossible even to gain the first donation, she +handed Mr. Osborn, after expressing her interest, a check for ten +thousand dollars. At first he thought he would not open it in her +presence, but later did so. He was amazed and said very gratefully: +"Madam, I will have this recognized at once by the Society." She said: +"I want no recognition. If you insist, I shall take back the +envelope." Her daughter describes her enthusiasm one very stormy, cold +Sunday. Stephen S. Wise, the famous rabbi, was advertised to preach in +the morning at such a place. "Mother was there in a front seat early, +eager to get every word of wisdom that fell from his lips." Mr. Wise +spoke at the Free Synagogue Convention at three o'clock P.M. "Mother +was there promptly again, in front, her dark eyes glowing with intense +interest." At eight P.M. he spoke at another hall on the other side of +the city, "Mother was there." At the close, Mr. Wise stepped down from +the platform to shake hands with Mrs. Hermann, and said, "I am +surprised at seeing you at these three meetings, and in such bad +weather." She replied, +</p> +<p> +"Why should you be surprised; you were at all three, weren't you?" +</p> +<p> +She had a long life of perfect health and never paid the least +attention to the worst of weather if she had a duty to perform. +</p> +<p> +There was something of the fairy godmother in this large-hearted +woman, whose modesty equalled her generosity. She dropped gifts by the +way, always eager to help, and anxious to keep out of sight. Mrs. +Hermann was one of those women who sow the seeds of kindness with a +careless hand, and help to make waste places beautiful. She became +deeply interested in education early in life, and her faith was +evidenced by her work. She was one of the founders of Barnard College. +Her checks became very familiar to the treasurers of many educational +enterprises. She was one of the patrons of the American Association +for the Advancement of Sciences, and many years ago gave one thousand +dollars to aid the Association. Since then she has added ten thousand +dollars as a nucleus toward the erection of a building to be called +the Academy of Science. With the same generous spirit she contributed +ten thousand dollars to the Young Men's Hebrew Association for +educational purposes. It was for the purpose of giving teachers the +opportunity of studying botany from nature, that she gave ten +thousand dollars to the Botanical Garden in the Bronx. +</p> +<p> +Her knowledge of the great need for a technical school for Jewish boys +preyed on her mind at night so that she could not sleep, and she felt +it was wrong to be riding about the city when these boys could be +helped. She sold her carriages and horses, walked for three years +instead of riding, and sent a large check to start the school. It is +pleasant to recall that the boys educated there have turned out +wonderfully well, some of them very clever electricians. +</p> +<p> +I could continue indefinitely naming the acts of generosity of this +noble woman, but we have said enough to show why her many friends +desired to express their appreciation of her sterling virtues, and +their love for the gentle lady, whose kindness has given happiness to +countless numbers. To this end, some of her friends planned to give +her a a testimonial, and called together representatives from the +hundred and twenty-five different clubs and organizations of which she +was a member, to consider the project. This suggestion was received +with such enthusiasm that a committee was appointed who arranged a +fitting tribute worthy of the occasion. +</p> +<p> +The poem with which I close my tribute to my dear friend, Mrs. +Hermann, is especially fitting to her beautiful life. Her family, even +after they were all married and in happy homes of their own, were +expected by the mother every Sunday evening. These occasions were +inexpressibly dear to her warm heart, devoted to her children and +grandchildren. But owing to her reticence she was even to them really +unknown. +</p> +<p> +I had given at first many more instances of her almost daily +ministrations but later this seemed to be in direct opposition to her +oft-expressed wish for no recognition of her gifts. "We are spirits +clad in veils," but of Mrs. Hermann this was especially true and I +love her memory too well not to regard her wishes as sacred. +</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i5"><small>GNOSIS</small><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Thought is deeper than all speech,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Feeling deeper than all thought;<br /></span> +<span>Souls to souls can never teach<br /></span> +<span class="i1">What unto themselves was taught.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>We are spirits clad in veils;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Man by man was never seen;<br /></span> +<span>All our deep communing fails<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To remove the shadowy screen.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Heart to heart was never known;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Mind with mind did never meet;<br /></span> +<span>We are columns left alone<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of a temple once complete.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Like the stars that gem the sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Far apart, though seeming near,<br /></span> +<span>In our light we scattered lie;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">All is thus but starlight here.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>What is social company,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But the babbling summer stream?<br /></span> +<span>What our wise philosophy<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But the glancing of a dream?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Only when the sun of love<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Melts the scattered stars of thought,<br /></span> +<span>Only when we live above<br /></span> +<span class="i1">What the dim-eyed world hath taught,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Only when our souls are fed<br /></span> +<span class="i1">By the fount which gave them birth,<br /></span> +<span>And by inspiration led<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Which they never drew from earth.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>We, like parted drops of rain,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Swelling till they meet and run,<br /></span> +<span>Shall be all absorbed again,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Melting, flowing into one.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +</div></div> +<p class="au2">Christopher Pearse Cranch (1813-1892).</p> + +<p> +Cranch's own title for this poem was "Enosis," not "Gnosis" as now +given; "Enosis" being a Greek word meaning "all in one," which is +illustrated by the last verse. +</p> +<p> +It was first published in the <i>Dial</i> in 1844. "Stanzas" appeared at +the head, and at the end was his initial, "C." +</p> +<a name="2HCH0004"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER IV +</h2> +<p class="cont"> +Three Years at Smith College—Appreciation of Its Founder—A +Successful Lecture Tour—My Trip to Alaska. +</p> +<p> +"There is nothing so certain as the unexpected," and "if you fit +yourself for the wall, you will be put in." +</p> +<p> +I was in danger of being spoiled by kindness in New York and the +surrounding towns, if not in danger of a breakdown from constant +activity, literary and social, with club interests and weekend visits +at homes of delightful friends on the Hudson, when I was surprised and +honoured by a call from President L. Clark Seelye of Smith College, +Northampton, Massachusetts, who invited me to take the position of +teacher of English Literature at that college. +</p> +<p> +I accepted, and remained at Northampton for three years, from +1880-1883. It was a busy life. I went on Saturday afternoons to a +class of married ladies at Mrs. Terhune's (Marion Harland) in +Springfield, Massachusetts, where her husband was a clergyman in one +of the largest churches in that city. I also published several books, +and at least two Calendars, while trying to make the students at Smith +College enthusiastic workers in my department. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Terhune was a versatile and entertaining woman, a most practical +housekeeper; and she could tell the very best ghost story I ever +heard, for it is of a ghost who for many years was the especial +property of her father's family. +</p> +<p> +When I gave evening lectures at Mrs. Terhune's while at Smith College, +I was accustomed to spend the night there. She always insisted upon +rising early to see that the table was set properly for me, and she +often would bring in something specially tempting of her own cooking. +A picture I can never forget is that of Doctor Terhune who, before +offering grace at meals, used to stretch out a hand to each of his +daughters, and so more closely include them in his petition. +</p> +<p> +I used no special text-book while at Smith College, and requested my +class to question me ten minutes at the close of every recitation. +Each girl brought a commonplace book to the recitation room to take +notes as I talked. Some of them showed great power of expression while +writing on the themes provided. There was a monthly examination, +often largely attended by friends out of town. I still keep up my +interest in my pupils of that day. One of them told me that they +thought at first I was currying popularity, I was so cordial and even +affectionate, but they confessed they were mistaken. +</p> +<p> +Under President Seelye's wise management, Smith College has taken a +high position, and is constantly growing better. The tributes to his +thirty-seven years in service when he resigned prove how thoroughly he +was appreciated. I give a few extracts: +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + We wish to record the fact that this has been, in a unique + degree, your personal work. If you had given the original sum + which called the College into being, and had left its + administration to others, you would have been less truly the + creator of the institution than you have been through your + executive efficiency. Your plans have seldom been revised by + the Board of Trustees, and your selection of teachers has + brought together a faculty which is at least equal to the best + of those engaged in the education of women. You have secured + for the teachers a freedom of instruction which has inspired + them to high attainment and fruitful work. You, with them, have + given to the College a commanding position in the country, and + have secured for it and for its graduates universal respect. + The deep foundations for its success have been intellectual and + spiritual, and its abiding work has been the building up of + character by contact with character. +</p> +<hr /> +<p class="bquote"> + Fortunate in her location, fortunate in her large minded + trustees, fortunate in the loyal devotedness of her faculty and + supremely fortunate has our College been in the consecrated + creative genius of her illustrious president. Bringing to his + task a noble ideal, with rare sagacity as an administrator; + with financial and economic skill rarely found in a scholar and + idealist, but necessary to foster into fullest fruitfulness the + slender pecuniary resources then at hand; with tact and suavity + which made President Seelye's "no," if no were needed, more + gracious than "yes" from others; with the force which grasps + difficulties fearlessly; with dignified scholarship and a + courtly manner, the master builder of our College, under whose + hand the little one has become a thousand and the small one a + strong republic, has achieved the realization of his high ideal + and is crowned with honour and affection. +</p> +<hr /> +<p class="bquote"> + He has made one ashamed of any but the highest motives, and has + taught us that sympathy and love for mankind are the traits for + which to strive. The ideals of womanly life which he instilled + will ever be held high before us. +</p> +<hr /> +<p class="bquote"> + There are many distinguished qualities which a college + president must possess. He must be idealist, creator, executor, + financier, and scholar. President Seelye—is all these—but he + had another and a rarer gift which binds and links these + qualities together, as the chain on which jewels are + strung—President Seelye had immense capacity for work and + patient attention for details. It is this unusual combination + which has given us a great College, and has given to our + president a unique position among educators. +</p> +<p> +I realize that I must at times have been rather a trying proposition +to President Seelye for I was placed in an entirely new world, and +having been almost wholly educated by my father, by Dartmouth +professors, and by students of the highest scholarship, I never knew +the mental friction and the averaging up and down of those accustomed +to large classes. I gained far more there than I gave, for I learned +my limitations, or some of them, and to try to stick closely to my own +work, to be less impulsive, and not offer opinions and suggestions, +unasked, undesired, and in that early stage of the college, +objectionable. Still, President Seelye writes to me: "I remember you +as a very stimulating teacher of English Literature, and I have often +heard your pupils, here and afterwards, express great interest in your +instruction." +</p> +<p> +The only "illuminating" incident in my three years at Smith College +was owing to my wish to honour the graduating reception of the Senior +class. I pinned my new curtains carefully away, put some candles in +the windows, leaving two young ladies of the second year to see that +all was safe. The house was the oldest but one in the town; it +harboured two aged paralytics whom it would be difficult, if not +dangerous, to remove. Six students had their home there. As my +fire-guards heard me returning with my sister and some gentlemen of +the town, they left the room, the door slammed, a breeze blew the +light from the candles to the curtains, and in an instant the curtains +were ablaze. +</p> +<p> +And now the unbelievable sequel. The room seemed all on fire in five +minutes. Next, the overhead beam was blazing. I can tell you that the +fire was extinguished by those gentlemen, and no one ever knew we had +been so near a conflagration until three years later when the kind +lady of the house wrote to me: "Dear Friend, did you ever have a fire +in your room? In making it over I found some wood badly scorched." I +have the most reliable witnesses, or you would never have believed it. +In the morning my hostess said to the girls assembled at breakfast: +"Miss Sanborn is always rather noisy when she has guests, but I never +did hear such a hullabaloo as she made last evening." +</p> +<p> +It is certain that President Seelye deserves all the appreciation and +affectionate regard he received. He has won his laurels and he needs +the rest which only resignation could bring. The college is equally +fortunate in securing as his successor, Marion LeRoy Burton, who in +the coming years may lead the way through broader paths, to greater +heights, always keeping President Seelye's ideal of the truly womanly +type, in a distinctively woman's college. +</p> +<p> +As the Rev. Dr. John M. Greene writes me (the clergyman who suggested +to Sophia Smith that she give her money to found a college for women, +and who at eighty-five years has a perfectly unclouded mind): "I want +to say that my ambition for Smith College is that it shall be a real +women's college. Too many of our women's colleges are only men's +colleges for women." +</p> +<p> +I desire now to add my tribute to that noble woman, Sophia Smith of +Hatfield, Massachusetts. +</p> +<p> +On April 18, 1796, the town of Hatfield, in town meeting assembled, +"voiced to set up two schools, for the schooling of girls four months +in the year." The people of that beautiful town seemed to have heard +the voice of their coming prophetess, commissioned to speak a word for +woman's education, which the world has shown itself ready to hear. +</p> +<p> +In matters of heredity, Sophia Smith was fortunate. Her paternal +grandmother, Mary Morton, was an extraordinary woman. After the death +of her husband, she became the legal guardian of her six sons, all +young, cared for a large farm, and trained her boys to be useful and +respected in the community. +</p> +<p> +Sophia Smith was born in Hatfield, August 27, 1796; just six months +before Mary Lyon was born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, about seventeen +miles distant. Sophia remembered her grandmother and said: "I looked +up to my grandmother with great love and reverence. She, more than +once, put her hands on my head and said, 'I want you should grow up, +and be a good woman, and try to make the world better.'" And her +mother was equally religious, efficient, kind to the poor, sympathetic +but not impulsive. Sophia lived in a country farmhouse near the +Connecticut River for sixty-eight years. She was sadly hampered +physically. One of the historians of Hatfield writes me: +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + Her infirmity of deafness was troublesome to some extent when + she was young, making her shy and retiring. At forty she was + absolutely incapable of hearing conversation. She also was lame + in one foot and had a withered hand. In spite of this, I think + she was an active and spirited girl, about like other girls. + She was very fond of social intercourse, especially later in + life when my father knew her, but this intercourse was confined + to a small circle. Doctor Greene speaks of her timidity also. I + know of no traditions about her girlhood. As an example of the + thrift of the Smiths, or perhaps I should say, their exactness + in all business dealings, my father says that Austin Smith + never asked his sisters to sew a button or do repairs on his + clothing without paying them a small sum for it, and he + always received six cents for doing chores or running errands. + No doubt this was a practice maintained from early youth, for + when Sophia Smith was born, in 1796, the family was in very + moderate circumstances. The whole community was poor for some + time after the Revolution, and everyone saved pennies. +</p> +<p> +As to her education, she used to sit on the doorsteps of the +schoolhouse and hear the privileged boys recite their lessons. She +also had four or five months of instruction in the schoolhouse, and +was a student in Hopkins Academy for a short time and, when fourteen +years old, attended school at Hartford, Connecticut, for a term of +twelve weeks. +</p> +<a name="image-0006"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/sk-img06.jpg" width="293" height="400" +alt="Sophia Smith" /> +</center> +<h5>SOPHIA SMITH</h5> + +<p> +Then a long, uneventful, almost shut-in life, and in 1861 her brother +Austin left her an estate of about four hundred and fifty thousand +dollars. +</p> +<p> +Hon. George W. Hubbard of Hatfield was her financial adviser. He +advised her to found an academy for Hatfield, which she did; and after +Doctor Greene had caused her to decide on a college for women, Mr. +Hubbard insisted on having it placed at Northampton, Massachusetts, +instead of Hatfield, Massachusetts. With her usual modesty, she +objected to giving her full name to the college, as it would look as +if she were seeking fame for herself. She gave thirty thousand dollars +to endow a professorship in the Andover Theological Seminary at +Andover, Massachusetts. +</p> +<p> +She grew old gracefully, never soured by her infirmities, always +denying herself to help others and make the world better for her +living in it. +</p> +<p> +Her name must stand side by side with the men who founded Vassar, +Wellesley, and Barnard, and that of Mary Lyon to whom women owe the +college of Mt. Holyoke. +</p> +<p> +As Walt Whitman wrote: +</p> +<p class="verse"> + I am the poet of the woman the same as the man, <br /> + And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man, <br /> + And I say there is nothing greater than the mother of men. +</p> +<p> +She was a martyr physically, and mentally a heroine. Let us never fail +to honour the woman who founded Smith College. +</p> +<p> +Extracts from a letter replying to my question: "Is there a +full-length portrait of Sophia Smith, now to be seen anywhere in the +principal building at Smith College, Northampton?" +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + How I wish that some generous patron of Smith College might + bestow upon it two thousand dollars for a full-length portrait + of Sophia Smith to be placed in the large reading room, at the + end of which is a full-length portrait of President Seelye. The + presence of such a commanding figure seen by hundreds of girls + every day would be a subtle and lasting influence. +</p> +<p> +I like to nibble at a stuffed date, but do not enjoy having my memory +stuffed with dates, though I am proud rather than sensitive in regard +to my age. +</p> +<p> +Lady Morgan was unwilling her age should be known, and pleads: +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + What has a woman to do with dates—cold, false, erroneous, + chronological dates—new style, old style, precession of the + equinoxes, ill-timed calculation of comets long since due at + their station and never come? Her poetical idiosyncrasy, + calculated by epochs, would make the most natural points of + reference in woman's autobiography. Plutarch sets the example + of dropping dates in favour of incidents; and an authority more + appropriate, Madame de Genlis, who began her own memoires at + eighty, swept through nearly an age of incident and revolution + without any reference to vulgar eras signifying nothing (the + times themselves out of joint), testifying to the pleasant + incidents she recounts and the changes she witnessed. I mean to + have none of them! +</p> +<p> +I hesitate to allude to my next experience after leaving Smith +College, for it was so delightful that I am afraid I shall scarcely be +believed, and am also afraid that my readers will consider me a "swell +head" and my story only fit for a "Vanity Box." Yet I would not leave +out one bit of the Western lecture trip. If it were possible to tell +of the great kindness shown me at every step of the way without any +mention of myself, I would gladly prefer to do that. +</p> +<p> +After leaving Smith College, I was enjoying commencement festivities +in my own home—when another surprising event! Mr. George W. +Bartholomew, a graduate of Dartmouth, who was born and brought up in a +neighbouring Vermont town, told me when he called that he had +established a large and successful school for young ladies in +Cincinnati, Ohio, taking a few young ladies to live in his pleasant +home. He urged me to go to his school for three months to teach +literature, also giving lectures to ladies of the city in his large +recitation hall. And he felt sure he could secure me many invitations +to lecture in other cities. +</p> +<p> +Remembering my former Western experience with measles and +whooping-cough, I realized that mumps and chicken-pox were still +likely to attack me, but the invitation was too tempting, and it was +gladly accepted, and I went to Cincinnati in the fall of 1884. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Bartholomew I found a charming woman and a most cordial friend. +Every day of three months spent in Cincinnati was full of happiness. +Mrs. Broadwell, a decided leader in the best social matters, as well +as in all public spirited enterprises, I had known years before in +Hanover, N.H. Her brother, General William Haines Lytle, had been +slain at Chickamauga during the Civil War, just in the full strength +and glory of manhood. He wrote that striking poem, beginning: "I am +dying, Egypt, dying." Here are two verses of his one poem: +</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>As for thee, star-eyed Egyptian!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Glorious sorceress of the Nile,<br /></span> +<span>Light the path to Stygian horrors<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With the splendors of thy smile.<br /></span> +<span>Give the Cæsar crowns and arches,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Let his brow the laurel twine;<br /></span> +<span>I can scorn the Senate's triumphs,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Triumphing in love like thine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>I am dying, Egypt, dying;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Hark! the insulting foeman's cry,<br /></span> +<span>They are coming! quick, my falchion!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Let me front them ere I die.<br /></span> +<span>Ah! no more amid the battle<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Shall my heart exulting swell—<br /></span> +<span>Isis and Osiris guard thee!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Cleopatra, Rome, farewell!<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p> +He was engaged to Miss Sarah Doremus, a sister of Professor Doremus of +New York. After the terrible shock of his sudden death she never +married, but devoted her life to carrying out her sainted mother's +missionary projects, once taking a trip alone around the world to +visit the missionary stations started by her mother. +</p> +<p> +As soon as I had arrived at Mr. Bartholomew's, Mrs. Broadwell gave me +a dinner. Six unmarried ladies and seven well-known bachelors were the +guests, as she wished to give me just what I needed, an endorsement +among her own friends. The result was instant and potent. +</p> +<p> +Everyone at that dinner did something afterwards to entertain me. I +was often invited to the opera, always had a box (long-stemmed roses +for all the ladies), also to dinner and lunches. If anyone in the city +had anything in the way of a rare collection, from old engravings to +rare old books, an evening was devoted to showing the collection to me +with other friends. One lady, Miss Mary Louise McLaughlin, invited me +to lunch with her alone. Her brother, a bachelor lawyer, had at that +time the finest private library in the city. She was certainly the +most versatile in her accomplishments of anyone I have ever known. She +had painted the best full-length portrait of Judge Longworth, father +of the husband of Alice Roosevelt. She was a china painter to beat the +Chinese, and author of four books on the subject. She was an artist +in photography; had a portfolio of off-hand sketches of street gamins, +newsboys, etc., full of life and expression. She brought the art of +under glaze in china-firing to this country and had discovered a +method of etching metal into fine woods for bedroom furniture. She was +an expert at wood-carving, taking lessons from Ben Pitman. Was fond of +housekeeping and made a success of it in every way. Anything else? +Yes, she showed me pieces of her exquisite embroidery and had made an +artistic and wholly sane "crazy-quilt" so much in vogue at that time. +Her own beautiful china was all painted and finished by herself. As I +left her, I felt about two feet high, with a pin head. And yet she was +free from the slightest touch of conceit. +</p> +<p> +Miss Laura MacDonald (daughter of Alexander MacDonald, the business +man who took great risks with Mr. John D. Rockefeller in borrowing +money to invest largely in oil fields) was my pupil in the school, and +through her I became acquainted with her lovely mother, who invited me +to her home at Clifton, just out of Cincinnati, to lecture to a select +audience of her special friends. +</p> +<p> +My lectures at Mr. Bartholomew's school were very well attended. Lists +of my subjects were sent about widely, and when the day came for my +enthusiastic praise of Christopher North (John Wilson), a sweet-faced +old lady came up to the desk and placed before me a large bunch of +veritable Scotch heather for which she had sent to Scotland. +</p> +<p> +In Cleveland, where I gave a series of talks, President Cutler, of +Adelbert University, rose at the close of the last lecture and, +looking genially towards me, made this acknowledgment: "I am free to +confess that I have often been charmed by a woman, and occasionally +instructed, but never before have I been charmed and instructed by the +same woman." +</p> +<p> +Cleveland showed even then the spirit of the Cleveland of today, which +is putting that city in the very first rank of the cities not only of +the United States but of the world in civic improvement and municipal +progress, morally and physically. Each night of my lectures I was +entertained at a different house while there, and as a trifle to show +their being in advance of other cities, I noticed that the ladies wore +wigs to suit their costumes. That only became the fashion here last +winter, but I saw no ultra colours such as we saw last year, green and +pink and blue, but only those that suited their style and their +costume. +</p> +<p> +At Chicago I was the guest of Mrs. H.O. Stone, who gave me a dinner +and an afternoon reception, where I met many members of various +clubs, and the youngest grandmothers I had ever seen. At a lunch given +for me by Mrs. Locke, wife of Rev. Clinton B. Locke, I met Mrs. Potter +Palmer, Mrs. Wayne MacVeagh, and Mrs. Williams, wife of General +Williams, and formerly the wife of Stephen Douglas. Mrs. Locke was the +best <i>raconteur</i> of any woman I have ever heard. Dartmouth men drove +me to all the show places of that wonderful city. Lectured in Rev. Dr. +Little's church parlors. He was not only a New Hampshire man, but born +in Boscawen, New Hampshire, where my grandfather lived, and where my +mother lived until her marriage. +</p> +<p> +It is pleasant to record that I was carried along on my lecture tour, +sometimes by invitation of a Dartmouth man, again by college girls who +had graduated at Smith College; then at Peoria, Illinois; welcomed +there by a dear friend from Brooklyn, New York, wife of a business man +of that city. I knew of Peoria only as a great place for the +manufacture of whisky, and for its cast-iron stoves, but found it a +city, magnificently situated on a series of bold bluffs. And when I +reached my friend's house, a class of ladies, who had been easily +chatting in German, wanted to stay and ask me a few questions. These +showed deep thought, wide reading, and finely disciplined minds. Only +one reading there in the Congregational Church, where there was such a +fearful lack of ventilation that I turned from my manuscript and +quoted a bit from the "Apele for Are to the Sextant of the Old Brick +Meetinouse by A. Gasper," which proved effectual. +</p> +<p> +I give this impressive exhortation entire as it should be more +generally known. +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i3"><small>A APELE FOR ARE TO THE SEXTANT</small><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i5"><small>BY ARABELLA WILSON </small><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>O Sextant of the meetinouse which sweeps<br /></span> +<span>And dusts, or is supposed to! and makes fiers,<br /></span> +<span>And lites the gas, and sumtimes leaves a screw loose,<br /></span> +<span>In which case it smells orful—wus than lampile;<br /></span> +<span>And wrings the Bel and toles it, and sweeps paths;<br /></span> +<span>And for these servaces gits $100 per annum;<br /></span> +<span>Wich them that thinks deer let 'em try it;<br /></span> +<span>Gittin up before starlite in all wethers, and<br /></span> +<span>Kindlin fiers when the wether is as cold<br /></span> +<span>As zero, and like as not green wood for kindlins,<br /></span> +<span>(I wouldn't be hierd to do it for no sum;)<br /></span> +<span>But o Sextant there are one kermodity<br /></span> +<span>Wuth more than gold which don't cost nuthin;<br /></span> +<span>Wuth more than anything except the Sole of man!<br /></span> +<span>I mean pewer Are, Sextant, I mean pewer Are!<br /></span> +<span>O it is plenty out o dores, so plenty it doant no<br /></span> +<span>What on airth to do with itself, but flize about<br /></span> +<span>Scatterin leaves and bloin off men's hats;<br /></span> +<span>In short its jest as free as Are out dores;<br /></span> +<span>But O Sextant! in our church its scarce as piety,<br /></span> +<span>Scarce as bankbills when ajunts beg for mishuns,<br /></span> +<span>Which sum say is purty often, taint nuthin to me,<br /></span> +<span>What I give aint nuthing to nobody; but O Sextant!<br /></span> +<span>You shet 500 men women and children<br /></span> +<span>Speshily the latter, up in a tite place,<br /></span> +<span>Sum has bad breths, none of em aint too sweet,<br /></span> +<span>Sum is fevery, sum is scroflus, sum has bad teeth<br /></span> +<span>And sum haint none, and sum aint over clean;<br /></span> +<span>But evry one of em brethes in and out and in<br /></span> +<span>Say 50 times a minnet, or 1 million and a half breths an hour;<br /></span> +<span>Now how long will a church full of are last at that rate?<br /></span> +<span>I ask you; say fifteen minnets, and then what's to be did?<br /></span> +<span>Why then they must brethe it all over agin,<br /></span> +<span>And then agin and so on, till each has took it down<br /></span> +<span>At least ten times and let it up agin, and what's more,<br /></span> +<span>The same individible doant have the privilege<br /></span> +<span>Of brethin his own are and no one else,<br /></span> +<span>Each one must take wotever comes to him.<br /></span> +<span>O Sextant! doant you know our lungs is belluses<br /></span> +<span>To bio the fier of life and keep it from<br /></span> +<span>Going out: and how can bellusses blo without wind?<br /></span> +<span>And aint wind are? I put it to your konshens,<br /></span> +<span>Are is the same to us as milk to babies,<br /></span> +<span>Or water is to fish, or pendlums to clox,<br /></span> +<span>Or roots and airbs unto an Injun doctor,<br /></span> +<span>Or little pills unto an omepath.<br /></span> +<span>Or Boze to girls. Are is for us to brethe.<br /></span> +<span>What signifize who preaches ef I can't brethe?<br /></span> +<span>What's Pol? What's Pollus to sinners who are ded?<br /></span> +<span>Ded for want of breth! Why Sextant when we dye<br /></span> +<span>Its only coz we cant brethe no more—that's all.<br /></span> +<span>And now O Sextant! let me beg of you<br /></span> +<span>To let a little are into our cherch<br /></span> +<span>(Pewer are is sertin proper for the pews);<br /></span> +<span>And dew it week days and on Sundys tew—<br /></span> +<span>It aint much trobble—only make a hoal,<br /></span> +<span>And then the are will come in of itself<br /></span> +<span>(It loves to come in where it can git warm).<br /></span> +<span>And O how it will rouze the people up<br /></span> +<span>And sperrit up the preacher, and stop garps<br /></span> +<span>And yorns and fijits as effectool<br /></span> +<span>As wind on the dry boans the Profit tels<br /></span> +<span>Of.<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p> +I went as far as Omaha, and then was asked if I were not going West. +The reason for this charming reception was that it was a novelty then +to hear a young woman talk in a lively way on striking themes which +had been most carefully prepared, and a light touch added, with +frequent glints of humour. Byron declared that easy writing was very +hard reading. I reversed that method, always working hard over each +lecture. For instance, I spent two months in preparing "Bachelor +Authors," cramming and condensing, and passing quickly over dangerous +ground. With my vocal training I could easily be heard by an audience +of five hundred. +</p> +<p> +A friend was eager to go to Alaska by Seattle; then, after our return, +visit Yellowstone Park and San Francisco. She urged me so eloquently +to accompany her, that I left my home in Metcalf, Massachusetts, +taking great risks in many ways, but wonderful to relate, nothing +disastrous occurred. +</p> +<p> +We scurried by fastest trains across the country to Seattle, just in +time to take the Steamer <i>Topeka</i> from Seattle on August 8, 1899, the +last boat of the season, and the last chance tourists ever had to see +the Muir Glacier in its marvellous glory, as it was broken badly +before the next summer. +</p> +<p> +My friend advised me kindly to ask no questions of the captain, as she +knew well what a bore that was. I promised to be exceedingly careful. +So, next morning, when that tall and handsome Captain Thompson came +around the deck, with a smiling "Good morning," and bowing right and +left, I was deeply absorbed in a book; the next time I was looking at +a view; another time I played I was fast asleep. He never spoke to me, +only stopped an instant before me and walked on. At last, a bow-legged +pilot came directly from the captain's office to my open window, +bringing to Miss Sanborn a bowl of extra large and luscious +strawberries from Douglas Island, quite famous on account of the size +and sweetness of this berry. With this gift came a note running thus: +</p> +<p class="blsmcap"> + Dear Miss Sanborn: +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + I am a little puzzled by your frigid manner. Have you any + personal prejudice against me? Walter Raymond wrote me before + he sailed, to look you up, and do what I could for you, as you + were quite a favourite on the Eastern coast, and any kindness + shown to you would be considered a personal favour to him, and + that he only wished he could take the trip with us. +</p> +<p> +I was amazed and mortified. I had obeyed my directions too literally, +and must and did explain and apologize. After that, such pleasant +attentions from him! Invited to call at his office with my friends, to +meet desirable passengers, something nice provided for refreshment, +and these gentlemen were always ready for cards or conversation. But +the great occasion was when I had no idea of such an honour, that the +captain said: +</p> +<p> +"We are soon to pass through the Wrangel Narrows, a dangerous place, +and the steering through zigzag lines must be most careful. I am going +to smuggle you on to the bridge to see me steer and hear me give my +orders that will be repeated below. But as it is against the rule to +take a woman up there at such a time, promise me to keep perfectly +silent. If you make one remark you lose your life." +</p> +<p> +I agreed and kept my mouth shut without a muzzle. That "memory" is as +clear today as if it had happened yesterday. +</p> +<p> +One day while reading in my fine stateroom, a lady came to the open +door and asked me if I would go out with her on the deck that pleasant +afternoon and meet some friends of hers. I thanked her, but refused as +I was reading one of Hon. Justin McCarthy's books, and as I had the +honour of meeting him and his most interesting wife in New York City +at the home of Mrs. Henry M. Field, I was much engrossed in what he +wrote. Again, another person came and entreated me to go to the deck; +not suspecting any plot to test me, I went with her, and found a crowd +gathered there, and a good-looking young man seemed to be haranguing +them. He stopped as we came along and after being introduced went on +with: "As I was saying, Miss Sanborn, I regard women as greatly our +inferiors; in fact, essentially unemotional,—really bovine. Do you +really not agree to that?" I almost choked with surprise and wrath, +but managed to retort: "I am sorry to suppose your mother was a cow, +but she must have been to raise a calf like you." And I walked away to +the tune of great applause. It seems someone had said that I was never +at a loss when a repartee was needed, and it was proposed to give me +an opportunity. Next surprise: a call as we were nearing Seattle from +a large and noticeable lady who introduced herself saying: +</p> +<p> +"I am the president of a club which I started myself, and feel bound +to help on. I have followed you about a good deal, and shall be much +obliged if you will jot down for me to read to this club everything +you have said since you came on board. I know they will enjoy it." I +was sorry my memory failed me entirely on that occasion. Still it was +a great compliment! +</p> +<p> +But the Muir Glacier! We had to keep three and a half miles away, lest +the steamer be injured by the small icebergs which broke off the +immense mass into the water with a thunderous roar. A live glacier +advances a certain distance each day and retreats a little. Those who +visited the glacier brought back delicate little blue harebells they +found growing in the clefts of ice. No description of my impressions? +Certainly not! Too much of that has been done already. +</p> +<p> +We saw curious sights along the way, such as the salmon leaping into a +fenced-in pool to deposit their spawn; there they could be easily +speared, dried, and pitched into wagons as we pitch hay in New +England. I saw the Indians stretching the salmon on boards put up in +the sun, their color in the sun a brilliant pinkish red. +</p> +<p> +I saw bears fishing at the edge of water, really catching fish in +their clumsy paws. Other bears were picking strawberries for their +cubs. As I watched them strolling away, I thought they might be +looking for a stray cow to milk to add flavour to the berries. +</p> +<p> +We stopped at Wrangel to look at the totem poles, many of which have +since been stolen as the Indians did not wish to sell them; our usual +method of business with that abused race. Totem poles are genealogical +records, and give the history of the family before whose door they +stand. No one would quietly take the registered certificates of +Revolutionary ancestors searched for with great care from the Colonial +Dames or members of the New England Society, and coolly destroy them. +I agree with Charles Lamb who said he didn't want to be like a potato, +all that was best of him under ground. +</p> +<p> +At Sitka the brilliant gardens and the large school for Indian girls +were the objects of interest. It is a sad fact that the school which +teaches these girls cleanly habits, the practical arts of sewing, and +cooking simple but appetizing dishes, has made the girls unwilling to +return to their dirty homes and the filthy habits of their parents. +That would be impossible to them. So they are lured to visit the dance +halls in Juneau, where they find admirers of a transient sort, but +seldom secure an honest husband. +</p> +<p> +We called at Skagway, and the lady who was known by us told us there +was much stress there placed upon the most formal attention to rigid +conventionalities, calls made and returned, cards left and received at +just the right time, more than is expected in Boston. And yet that +town was hardly started, and dirt and disorder and chaos reigned +supreme. +</p> +<p> +A company of unlucky miners came home in our steamer; no place for +them to sleep but on deck near the doors of our stateroom, and they +ate at one of the tables after three other hungry sets had been +satisfied. A few slept on the tables. All the poultry had been killed +and eaten. We found the Chinese cooks tried to make tough meat +attractive by pink and yellow sauces. We were glad to leave the +steamer to try the ups and downs of Seattle. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0005"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER V +</h2> +<p class="cont"> +Frances E. Willard—Walt Whitman—Lady Henry Somerset—Mrs. Hannah +Whitehall Smith—A Teetotaler for Ten Minutes—Olive Thorne +Miller—Hearty Praise for Mrs. Lippincott (Grace Greenwood). +</p> +<p> +I was looking over some letters from Frances E. Willard last week. +What a powerful, blessed influence was hers! +</p> +<p> +Such a rare combination of intense earnestness, persistence, and +devotion to a "cause" with a gentle, forgiving, compassionate spirit, +and all tempered by perfect self-control. +</p> +<p> +Visiting in Germantown, Pennsylvania, at the hospitable home of Mrs. +Hannah Whitehall Smith, the Quaker Bible reader and lay evangelist, +and writer of cheerful counsel, I found several celebrities among her +other guests. Miss Willard and Walt Whitman happened to be present. +Whitman was rude and aggressively combative in his attack on the +advocate of temperance, and that without the slightest provocation. He +declared that all this total abstinence was absolute rot and of no +earthly use, and that he hated the sight of these women who went out +of their way to be crusading temperance fanatics. +</p> +<p> +After this outburst he left the room. Miss Willard never alluded to +his fiery criticism, didn't seem to know she had been hit, but chatted +on as if nothing unpleasant had occurred. +</p> +<p> +In half an hour he returned; and with a smiling face made a manly +apology, and asked to be forgiven for his too severe remarks. Miss +Willard met him more than half-way, with generous cordiality, and they +became good friends. And when with the women of the circle again she +said: "Now wasn't that just grand in that dear old man? I like him the +more for his outspoken honesty and his unwillingness to pain me." +</p> +<p> +How they laboured with "Walt" to induce him to leave out certain of +his poems from the next edition! The wife went to her room to pray +that he might yield, and the husband argued. But no use, it was all +"art" every word, and not one line would he ever give up. The old poet +was supposed to be poor and needy, and an enthusiastic daughter of +Mrs. Smith had secured quite a sum at college to provide bed linen and +blankets for him in the simple cottage at Camden. Whitman was a great, +breezy, florid-faced out-of-doors genius, but we all wished he had +been a little less <i>au naturel</i>. +</p> +<p> +To speak once more of Miss Willard, no one enjoyed a really laughable +thing more than she did, but I never felt like being a foolish trifler +in her presence. Her outlook was so far above mine that I always felt +not rebuked, but ashamed of my superficial lightness of manner. +</p> +<p> +Just one illustration of the unconscious influence of her noble soul +and her convincing words: +</p> +<p> +Many years ago, at an anniversary of Sorosis in New York, I had half +promised the persuasive president (Jennie June) that I would say +something. The possibility of being called up for an after-dinner +speech! Something brief, terse, sparkling, complimentary, +satisfactory, and something to raise a laugh! O, you know this agony! +I had nothing in particular to say; I wanted to be quiet and enjoy the +treat. But between each course I tried hard, while apparently +listening to my neighbour, to think up something "neat and +appropriate." +</p> +<p> +This coming martyrdom, which increases in horror as you advance with +deceptive gayety, from roast to game, and game to ices, is really one +of the severest trials of club life. +</p> +<p> +Miss Willard was one of the honoured guests of the day, and was +called on first. When she arose and began to speak, I felt instantly +that she had something to say; something that she felt was important +we should hear, and how beautifully, how simply it was said! Not a +thought of self, not one instant's hesitation for a thought or a word, +yet it was evidently unwritten and not committed to memory. Every eye +was drawn to her earnest face; every heart was touched. As she sat +down, I rose and left the room rather rapidly; and when my name was +called and my fizzling fireworks expected, I was walking up Fifth +Avenue, thinking about her and her life-work. The whole experience was +a revelation. I had never met such a woman. No affectation, nor +pedantry, nor mannishness to mar the effect. It was in part the +humiliating contrast between her soul-stirring words and my silly +little society effort that drove me from the place, but all petty +egotism vanished before the wish to be of real use to others with +which her earnestness had inspired me. +</p> +<p> +One lady told me that after hearing her she felt she could go out and +be a praying band all by herself. Indeed she was +</p> +<p class="verse"> + A noble woman, true and pure, <br /> + Who in the little while she stayed, <br /> + Wrought works that shall endure. +</p> +<p> +She was asked who she would prefer to write a sketch of her and her +work and she honoured me by giving me that great pleasure. The book +appeared in 1883, entitled <i>Our Famous Women</i>. +</p> +<p> +Once when Miss Willard was in Boston with Lady Henry Somerset and Anna +Gordon, I was delighted by a letter from Frances saying that Lady +Henry wanted to know me and could I lunch with them soon at the +Abbottsford. I accepted joyously, but next morning's mail brought this +depressing decision: "Dear Kate, we have decided that there will be +more meat in going to you. When can we come?" I was hardly settled in +my house of the Abandoned Farm. There was no furnace in the house, +only two servants with me. And it would be impossible to entertain +those friends properly in the dead of the winter, and I nearly ready +to leave for a milder clime. So I told them the stern facts and lost a +rare treat. +</p> +<p> +This is the end of Miss Willard's good-bye letter to me when returning +to England with Lady Henry: +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + Hoping to see you on my return, and hereby soliciting an + exchange of photographs between you and Lady Henry and me, +</p> +<p class="closing"> + I am ever and as ever <br /> + Yours, <br /> + F<small>RANCES</small> W<small>ILLARD</small>. +</p> +<p> +While at Mrs. Smith's home in Germantown, both she and Miss Willard +urged me to sign a Temperance Pledge that lay on the table in the +library. I would have accepted almost anything either of those good +friends presented for my attention. So after thinking seriously I +signed. But after going to my room I felt sure that I could never keep +that pledge. So I ran downstairs and told them to erase my name, which +was done without one word of astonishment or reproof from either. +</p> +<p> +I wish I knew how to describe Hannah Whitehall Smith as she was in her +everyday life. Such simple nobility, such tenderness for the tempted, +such a love for sinners, such a longing to show them the better way. +She said to me: "If my friends must go to what is called Hell I want +to go with them." When a minister, who was her guest, was greatly +roused at her lack of belief in eternal punishment and her infinite +patience with those who lacked moral strength, he said: "There are +surely some sins your daughters could commit which would make you +drive them from your home." "There are no sins my daughters could +commit which would not make me hug them more closely in my arms and +strive to bring them back." Wherewith he exclaimed bitterly: "Madam, +you are a mere mucilaginous mess." She made no reply, but her husband +soon sent him word that a carriage would be at the door in one hour to +convey him to the train for New York. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +"If you do not love the birds, you cannot understand them." +</p> +<p> +I remember enjoying an article on the catbird several years ago in the +<i>Atlantic Monthly</i>, and wanting to know more of the woman who had +observed a pair of birds so closely, and could make so charming a +story of their love-affairs and housekeeping experiences, and thinking +that most persons knew next to nothing about birds, their habits, and +homes. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Olive Thorne Miller, who wrote that bird talk, is now a dear +friend of mine, and while spending a day with me lately was kind +enough to answer all my questions as to how and where and when she +began to study birds. She is not a young woman, is the proud +grandmother of seven children; but her bright face crowned with +handsome white hair, has that young, alert, happy look that comes with +having a satisfying hobby that goes at a lively pace. She said: "I +never thought of being anything but a housekeeping mother until I was +about thirty-one and my husband lost all his property, and want, or a +thousand wants, stared us in the face. Making the children's clothes +and my own, and cooking as well, broke down my health, so I bethought +me of writing, which I always had a longing to do." +</p> +<p> +"What did you begin with?" +</p> +<p> +"Well, pretty poor stuff that no one was anxious to pay for; mostly in +essay form expressing my own opinions on various important subjects. +But it didn't go. I was complaining of my bad luck to a plain-spoken +woman in charge of a circulating library, and she gave me grand +advice. 'No one cares a snap for your opinions. You must tell +something that folks want to know.'" +</p> +<p> +"Did you then take up birds?" +</p> +<p> +"O no; I went into the library, read some of Harriet Martineau's talks +on pottery, and told children how a teacup was made and got one dollar +for that. But those pot-boilers were not inspiring, and about ten +years later a second woman adviser turned my course into another +channel." +</p> +<p> +"How did that come about?" +</p> +<p> +"I had a bird-loving friend from the West visiting me, and took her to +Prospect Park, Brooklyn, to see our birds. She pointed out several, +and so interested me in their lives that from that day I began to +study them, especially the wood-thrush and catbird. After I had +studied them for two years, I wrote what I had seen. From that time +my course has seemed marked out for me, and my whole time has been +given to this one theme. I think every woman over forty-five ought to +take up a fad; they would be much happier and better off." +</p> +<p> +"You told me once that three women had each in turn changed your +career. Do give me the third." +</p> +<p> +"Well, after my articles and books had met with favour (I have brought +out fifteen books), invitations to lecture or talk about birds kept +pouring in. I was talking this over with Marion Harland (Mrs. +Terhune), declaring I could never appear in public, that I should be +frightened out of my wits, and that I must decline. My voice would all +go, and my heart jump into my mouth. She exclaimed, 'For a sensible +woman, you are the biggest fool I ever met!' This set me thinking, and +with many misgivings I accepted an invitation." +</p> +<p> +"And did you nearly expire with stage fright?" +</p> +<p> +"Never was scared one bit, my dear. All bird-lovers are the nicest +kind of folks, either as an audience or in their own homes. I have +made most delightful acquaintances lecturing in fifteen different +States; am now booked for a tour in the West, lecturing every day and +taking classes into the fields and woods for actual observation. +Nesting-time is the best time to study the birds, to know them +thoroughly." +</p> +<p> +"Do you speak about dead birds on hats?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, when I am asked to do so. Did you ever hear that Celia Thaxter, +finding herself in a car with women whose head-gear emulated a +bird-museum, was moved to rise and appeal to them in so kindly a way +that some pulled off the feathers then and there, and all promised to +reform? She loved birds so truly that she would not be angry when +spring after spring they picked her seeds out of her 'Island Garden.'" +</p> +<p> +"Have you any special magnetic power over birds, so that they will +come at your call or rest on your outstretched finger?" +</p> +<p> +"Not in the least. I just like them, and love to get acquainted with +them. Each bird whose acquaintance I make is as truly a discovery to +me as if he were totally unknown to the world." +</p> +<p> +We were sitting by a southern window that looks out on a +wide-spreading and ancient elm, my glory and pride. Not one bird had I +seen on it that cold, repellent middle of March. But Mrs. Miller +looked up, and said: "Your robins have come!" Sure enough I could now +see a pair. +</p> +<p> +"And there are the woodpeckers, but they have stayed all winter. No +doubt you have the hooting owls. There's an oriole's nest, badly +winter-worn; but they will come back and build again. I see you feed +your chickadees and sparrows, because they are so tame and fearless. +I'd like to come later and make a list of the birds on your place." +</p> +<p> +I wonder how many she would find. Visiting at Deerfield, +Massachusetts, I said one day to my host, the artist J.W. Champney: +"You don't seem to have many birds round you." +</p> +<p> +"No?" he replied with a mocking rising inflection. "Mrs. Miller, who +was with us last week, found thirty-nine varieties in our front yard +before breakfast!" Untrained eyes are really blind. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Miller is an excellent housekeeper, although a daughter now +relieves her of that care. But, speaking at table of this and that +dish and vegetable, she promised to send me some splendid receipts for +orange marmalade, baked canned corn, scalloped salmon, onion <i>à la +crème</i> (delicious), and did carefully copy and send them. +</p> +<p> +She told me that in Denmark a woman over forty-five is considered +gone. If she is poor, a retreat is ready for her without pay; if rich, +she would better seek one of the homes provided for aged females who +can pay well for a home. +</p> +<p> +Another thing of interest was the fact that when Mrs. Miller eats no +breakfast, her brain is in far better condition to write. She is a +Swedenborgian, and I think that persons of that faith have usually a +cheerful outlook on life. She was obliged to support herself after +forty years of age. +</p> +<p> +I would add to her advice about a hobby: don't wait till middle age; +have one right away, now. Boys always do. I know of one young lady who +makes a goodly sum out of home-made marmalade; another who makes +dresses for her family and special friends; another who sells three +hundred dozen "brown" eggs to one of the best groceries in Boston, and +supports herself. By the way, what can you do? +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Lippincott had such a splendid, magnetic presence, such a +handsome face with dark poetic eyes, and accomplished so many unusual +things, that, knowing her as I did, I think I should be untrue to her +if I did not try to show her as she was in her brilliant prime, and +not merely as a punster or a <i>raconteur</i>, or as she appeared in her +dramatic recitals, for these were but a small part of the many-sided +genius. +</p> +<p> +When my friend, Mrs. Botta, said one evening to her husband: "Grace +writes me that she will be here tomorrow, to spend the Sabbath," and +then said to me, "Grace Greenwood, I mean; have you ever met her?" my +heart beat very quickly in pleasant anticipation of her coming. Grace +Greenwood! Why, I had known her and loved her, at least her writings, +ever since I was ten years old. +</p> +<p> +Those dear books, bound in red, with such pretty pictures—<i>History of +My Pets</i> and <i>Recollections of My Childhood</i>, were the most precious +volumes in my little library. Anyone who has had pets and lost them +(and the one follows the other, for pets always come to some tragic +end) will delight in these stories. +</p> +<p> +And then the <i>Little Pilgrim</i>, which I used to like next best to the +<i>Youth's Companion</i>; and in later years her spirited, graceful poetry; +her racy magazine stories; her <i>Haps and Mishaps of a Tour in Europe</i>; +her sparkling letters to the <i>Tribune</i>, full of reliable news from +Washington, graphic descriptions of prominent men and women, capital +anecdotes and atrocious puns;—O how glad I should be to look in her +face and to shake hands with the author who had given me so much +pleasure! +</p> +<p> +Well, she came, I heard the bell ring, just when she was expected, +with a vigorous pull, and, as the door opened, heard her say, in a +jolly, soothing way: "Don't get into a passion," to the man who was +swearing at her big trunk. And then I ran away, not wishing to +intrude, and waited impatiently for dinner and an introduction to my +well-beloved heroine. +</p> +<p> +Grace—Mrs. Lippincott—I found to be a tall, fine-looking lady, with +a commanding figure and a face that did not disappoint me, as faces so +often do which you have dreamed about. She had dark hair, brown rather +than black, which was arranged in becoming puffs round her face; and +such eyes! large, dark, magnetic, full of sympathy, of kind, cordial +feelings and of quick appreciation of fun. She talked much and well. +If I should repeat all the good stories she told us, that happy +Saturday night, as we lingered round the table, you would be convulsed +with laughter, that is, if I could give them with her gestures, +expressions, and vivid word-pictures. +</p> +<p> +She told one story which well illustrated the almost cruel persistent +inquiries of neighbours about someone who is long in dying. An +unfortunate husband was bothered each morning by repeated calls from +children, who were sent by busy mothers to find out "Just how Miss +Blake was feeling this morning." At last this became offensive, and he +said: "Well, she's just the same—she ain't no better and she ain't no +worse—she keeps just about so—she's just about dead, you can say +she's dead." +</p> +<p> +One Sunday evening she described her talks with the men in the +prisons and penitentiaries, to whom she had been lately lecturing, +proving that these hardened sinners had much that was good in them, +and many longings for a nobler life, in spite of all their sins. +</p> +<p> +No, I was not disappointed in "G.G." She was just as natural, hearty, +and off-hand as when some thirty years ago, she was a romping, +harum-scarum, bright-eyed schoolgirl, Sara Clarke, of western New +York, who was almost a gypsy in her love for the fields and forests. +She was always ready for any out-door exercise or sport. This gave her +glorious health, which up to that time she had not lost. +</p> +<p> +Her <i>nom de plume</i>, which she says she has never been able to drop, +was only one of the many alliterative names adopted at that time. Look +over the magazines and Annuals of those years, and you will find many +such, as "Mary Maywood," "Dora Dashwood," "Ella Ellwood" "Fanny +Forrester," "Fanny Fern," "Jennie June," "Minnie Myrtle," and so on +through the alphabet, one almost expecting to find a "Ninny Noodle." +Examining one of Mrs. Lippincott's first scrapbooks of "Extracts from +Newspapers," etc., which she had labelled, "Vanity, all is Vanity," I +find many poems in her honour, much enthusiasm over her writings, and +much speculation as to who "Grace Greenwood" might really be. The +public curiosity was piqued to find out this new author who added to +forceful originality "the fascination of splendid gayety and brilliant +trifling." John Brougham, the actor and dramatist, thus expressed his +interest in a published letter to Willis: +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + The only person that I am disposed to think, write or talk + about at present is your dazzling, bewitching correspondent, + "Grace Greenwood." Who is she? that I may swear by her! Where + is she? that I may fling myself at her feet! There is a + splendour and dash about her pen that carry my fastidious + soul captive by a single charge. I shall advertise for her + throughout the whole Western country in the terms in which they + inquire for Almeyda in Dryden's <i>Don Sebastian</i>: "Have you + seen aught of a woman who lacks two of the four elements, who has + nothing in her nature but air and fire?" +</p> +<p> +And here is one of the poetical tributes: +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>If to the old Hellenes<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thee of yore the gods had given<br /></span> +<span>Another Muse, another Grace<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Had crowned the Olympian heaven.<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p> +Whittier at that time spoke most cordially of her "earnest +individuality, her warm, honest, happy, hopeful, human heart; her +strong loves and deep hates." +</p> +<p> +E. P. Whipple, the Boston critic and essayist, when reviewing her +poems, spoke of their "exceeding readableness"; and George Ripley, +then of the New York <i>Tribune</i>, said: +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + One charm of her writings is the frankness with which she takes + the reader into her personal confidence. She is never formal, + never a martyr to artificial restraint, never wrapped in a + mantle of reserve; but, with an almost childlike simplicity, + presents a transparent revelation of her inmost thoughts and + feelings, with perfect freedom from affectation. +</p> +<p> +She might have distinguished herself on the stage in either tragedy or +comedy, but was dissuaded from that career by family friends. I +remember seeing her at several receptions, reciting the rough Pike +County dialect verse of Bret Harte and John Hay in costume. Standing +behind a draped table, with a big slouch hat on, and a red flannel +shirt, loose at the neck, her disguise was most effective, while her +deep tones held us all. Her memory was phenomenal, and she could +repeat today stories of good things learned years ago. +</p> +<p> +Her recitation was wonderful; so natural, so full of soul and power. I +have heard many women read, some most execrably, who fancied they were +famous elocutionists; some were so tolerable that I could sit and +endure it; others remarkably good, but I was never before so moved as +to forget where I was and merge the reader in the character she +assumed. +</p> +<p> +Grace Greenwood probably made more puns in print than any other woman, +and her conversation was full of them. It was Grace Greenwood who, at +a tea-drinking at the New England Woman's Club in Boston, was begged +to tell one more story, but excused herself in this way: "No, I cannot +get more than one story high on a cup of tea." +</p> +<p> +Her conversation was delightful, and what a series of reminiscences +she could have given; for she knew, and in many cases intimately, most +of the leading authors, artists, politicians, philanthropists, +agitators, and actors of her time in both her own land and abroad. In +one of her letters she describes the various authors she saw while +lounging in Ticknor's old bookstore in Boston. +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + Here, many a time, we saw Longfellow, looking wonderfully like + a ruddy, hearty, happy English gentleman, with his full lips + and beaming blue eyes. Whittier, alert, slender and long; half + eager, half shy in manner; both cordial and evasive; his + deep-set eyes glowing with the tender flame of the most humane + genius of our time. +</p> +<p> +Emerson's manner was to her "a curious mingling of Athenian +philosophy and Yankee cuteness." +</p> +<p> +Saxe was "the handsome, herculean punster," and so on with many +others. +</p> +<p> +She resided with Miss Cushman in Rome, and in London she saw many +lions—Mazzini, Kossuth, Dickens and Talfourd, Kingsley, Lover, the +Howellses, Miss Mitford, Mrs. Muloch Craik, George Eliot, etc. +</p> +<p> +She was the first Washington correspondent of her sex, commencing in +1850 in a series of letters to a Philadelphia weekly; was for some +years connected with the <i>National Era</i>, making her first tour in +Europe as its correspondent, and has written much for <i>The Hearth and +Home</i>, <i>The Independent</i>, <i>Christian Inquirer</i>, <i>Congregationalist</i>, +<i>Youth's Companion</i>; also contributing a good deal to English +publications, as <i>Household Words</i> and <i>All the Year Round</i>. +</p> +<p> +She was the special correspondent from Washington of the New York +<i>Tribune</i>, and later of the <i>Times</i>. Her letters were racy, full of +wit, sentiment, and discriminating criticism, plenty of fun and a +little sarcasm, but not so audaciously personal and aggressive as some +letter-writers from the capital. They attracted attention and were +widely copied, large extracts being made for the <i>London Times</i>. +</p> +<p> +She lectured continually to large audiences during the Civil War on +war themes, and subjects in a lighter strain; was the first woman +widely received as a lecturer by the colleges and lyceums. With a +commanding presence, handsome face, an agreeable, permeating voice, a +natural offhand manner, and something to say, she was at once a +decided favourite, and travelled great distances to meet her +engagements. She often quoted that ungallant speech from the Duke of +Argyle: "Woman has no right on a platform—except to be hung; then +it's unavoidable"; and by her eloquence and wit proved its falsity and +narrowness. Without the least imitation of masculine oratory, her +best remembered lectures are, "The Heroic in Common Life," and +"Characteristics of Yankee Humour." She always had the rare gift of +telling a story capitally, with ease, brevity, and dramatic effect, +certain of the point or climax. I cannot think of any other woman of +this country who has caused so much hearty laughter by this enviable +gift. She can compress a word-picture or character-sketch into a few +lines, as when she said of the early Yankee: "No matter how large a +man he was, he had a look of shrinking and collapse about him. It +looked as if the Lord had made him and then pinched him." And a woman +who has done such good work in poetry, juvenile literature, +journalism, on the platform, and in books of travel and biography, +will not soon be forgotten. There is a list of eighteen volumes from +her pen. +</p> +<p> +She never established a <i>salon</i>, but the widespread, influential daily +paper and the lecture hall are the movable <i>salon</i> to the women of +genius in this Republic. +</p> +<p> +This is just a memory. After all, we are but "Movie Pictures," seen +for a moment, and others take our place. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0006"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER VI +</h2> +<p class="cont"> +In and Near Boston—Edward Everett Hale—Thomas Wentworth +Higginson—Julia Ward Howe—Mary A. Livermore—A Day at the Concord +School—Harriet G. Hosmer—"Dora D'Istria," our Illustrious Visitor. +</p> +<p> +Edward Everett Hale was kind to me, as he was to all who came within +his radius. He once called to warn me to avoid, like poison, a +rascally imposter who was calling on many of the authors in and near +Boston to get one thousand dollars from each to create a publishing +company, so that authors could have their books published at a much +cheaper rate than in the regular way. This person never called on me, +as I then had no bank account. He did utterly impoverish many other +credulous persons, both writers, and in private families. All was +grist that came to his mill, and he ground them "exceeding small." +</p> +<p> +I met Mr. Hale one early spring at Pinehurst, North Carolina, with his +wife and daughter. He always had a sad face, as one who knew and +grieved over the faults and frailties of humanity, but at this time +he was recovering from a severe fall, and walked with a slow and +feeble step. When he noticed me sitting on the broad piazza, he came, +and taking a chair beside me, began to joke in his old way, telling +comical happenings, and inquired if I knew where Noah kept his bees. +His answer: "In the Ark-hives, of course." Once when I asked his +opinion of a pompous, loud-voiced minister, he only said, "Self, self, +self!" +</p> +<p> +I wonder how many in his audiences or his congregation could +understand more than half of what he was saying. I once went to an +Authors' Reading in Boston where he recited a poem, doubtless very +impressive, but although in a box just over the stage, I could not get +one word. He placed his voice at the roof of his mouth, a fine +sounding board, but the words went no farther than the inside of his +lips. I believe his grand books influence more persons for better +lives than even his personal presence and Christ-like magnetism. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Thomas Wentworth Higginson never failed me. Once only I ventured +alone into the Authors' Club Saturday meeting, and none of my own +friends happened to be there. Evidently I was not known. Mr. Higginson +saw the situation at once, and coming quickly to me escorted me to a +comfortable seat. He ordered two cups of tea with wafers, and +beckoned to some delightful men and women to whom he introduced me as +his friend Miss Sanborn, thus putting me at my ease. He was also ever +patient about my monomania of trying to prove that women possess both +wit and humour. He spoke of his first wife as the wittiest woman he +had ever known, giving convincing proof. A few men were on my side, +but they could be counted on one hand omitting the thumb. But I worked +on this theme until I had more than sufficient material for a +good-sized volume. If a masculine book reviewer ever alluded to the +book, it was with a sneer. He generally left it without a word, as men +still ignore the fact when a woman wins in an essay-writing +competition against men in her class or gets the verdict for her +powers in a mixed debate. At last Mr. Higginson wrote me most kindly +to stop battering on that theme. "If any man is such a fool as to +insist that women are destitute of wit or humour, then he is so big a +fool that it is not worth while to waste your good brains on him. T.W. +Higginson." That reproof chilled my ardour. Now you can hardly find +any one who denies that women possess both qualities, and it is +generally acknowledged that not a few have the added gift of comedy. +</p> +<p> +As most biographers of Mrs. Julia Ward Howe dwell on her other gifts +as philanthropist, poet, and worker for the equality of women with +men, I call attention to her effervescent, brilliant wit. Julia Ward +Howe was undeniably witty. Her concurrence with a dilapidated +bachelor, who retained little but his conceit, was excellent. He said: +"It is time now for me to settle down as a married man, but I want so +much; I want youth, health, wealth, of course; beauty, grace—" "Yes," +she interrupted sympathetically, "you poor man, you do want them all." +</p> +<p> +Of a conceited young man airing his disbelief at length in a magazine +article, she said: "Charles evidently thinks he has invented atheism." +After dining with a certain family noted for their chilling manners +and lofty exclusiveness, she hurried to the house of a jolly friend, +and, seating herself before the glowing fire, sought to regain a +natural warmth, explaining: "I have spent three hours with the Mer de +Glace, the Tête-Noire, and the Jungfrau, and am nearly frozen." +</p> +<p> +Pathos and humour as twins are exemplified by her tearful horror over +the panorama of Gettysburg, and then by her saying, when urged by Mrs. +Livermore to dine with her: "O no! my dear, it's quarter past two, and +Mr. Howe will be wild if he does not get—not his burg—but his +dinner." +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Howe's wit never failed her. I once told her I was annoyed by +seeing in big headlines in the morning's paper, "Kate Sanborn +moralizes," giving my feeble sentiments on some subject which must +have been reported by a man whom I met for the first time the evening +before at a reception, though I was ignorant of the fact that I was +being interviewed. She comforted me by saying: "But after all, how +much better that was than if he had announced, 'Kate Sanborn +demoralizes.'" Or when Charles Sumner refusing to meet some friends of +hers at dinner explained languidly: "Really, Julia, I have lost all my +interest in individuals." She retorted, "Why, Charles, God hasn't got +as far as that yet!" Once walking in the streets of Boston with a +friend she looked up and read on a public building, "Charitable Eye +and Ear Infirmary." She said: "I did not know there were any +charitable eyes and ears in Boston." She showed indomitable courage to +the last. A lady in Boston, who lived opposite Mrs. Howe's home on +Beacon Street, was sitting at a front window one cold morning in +winter, when ice made the steps dangerous. A carriage was driven up to +Mrs. Howe's door to take her to the station to attend a federation at +Louisville. She came out alone, slipped on the second step, and rolled +to the pavement. She was past eighty, but picked herself up with the +quickness of a girl, looked at her windows to see if anyone noticed +it, then entered the carriage and drove away. +</p> +<p> +Was ever a child as unselfish as Mary Rice, afterwards Mary Livermore? +Sliding on ice was for her a climax of fun. Returning to the house +after revelling in this exercise, she exclaimed: "Splendid, splendid +sliding." Her father responded: "Yes, Mary, it's great fun, but +wretched for shoes." +</p> +<p> +Those words kept ringing in her ears, and soon she thought how her +father and mother had to practise close economy, and she decided: "I +ought not to wear out my shoes by sliding, when shoes cost so much," +and she did not slide any more. There was no more fun in it for her. +</p> +<p> +She would get out of bed, when not more than ten years old, and +beseech her parents to rise and pray for the children. "It's no matter +about me," she once said to them, "if they can be saved, I can bear +anything." +</p> +<p> +She was not more than twelve years old, when she determined to aid her +parents by doing work of some kind; so it was settled that she should +become a dressmaker. She went at once into a shop to learn the trade, +remained for three months, and after that was hired at thirty-seven +cents a day to work there three months more. She also applied for +work at a clothing store, and received a dozen red flannel shirts to +make up at six and a quarter cents a piece. When her mother found this +out, she burst into tears, and the womanly child was not allowed to +take any more work home. We all know Mrs. Livermore's war record and +her power and eloquence as an orator. +</p> +<p> +I would not say she was a spiritualist, but she felt sure that she +often had advice or warning on questions from some source, and always +listened, and was saved from accidents and danger. And she said that +what was revealed to her as she rested on her couch, between twilight +and dusk, would not be believed, it was so wonderful. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Livermore had a terrible grief to bear,—the lifelong illness of +her daughter from a chronic and incurable disease. She told me, when I +was at her house, that she kept on lecturing, and accepting +invitations, to divert her mind somewhat. She felt at times that she +could not leave her unfortunate child behind, when she should be +called from earth, but she was enabled to drive that thought away. +From a child, always helping others, self-sacrificing, heroic, endowed +with marvellous energy and sympathy, hers was a most exceptional life; +now "Victor Palms" are her right. +</p> +<p> +I spent one day at the famous Concord School of Philosophy during its +first season. Of course I understood nothing that was going on. +</p> +<p> +Emerson, then a mere wreck of his former self, was present, cared for +by his wife or his daughter Ellen. Alcott made some most remarkable +statements, as: "We each can decide when we will ascend." Then he +would look around as if to question all, and add: "Is it not so? Is it +not so?" I remember another of his mystic utterances: "When the mind +is izzing, it is thinking things. Is it not so? Is it not so?" Also, +"When we get angry or lose our temper, then fierce four-footed beasts +come out of our mouths, do they not, do they not?" +</p> +<p> +After Mr. Harris, the great educational light, had closed his remarks, +and had asked for questions, one lady timidly arose and inquired: "Can +an atom be said to be outside or inside of potentiality?" +</p> +<p> +He calmly replied that "it could be said to be either inside or +outside potentiality, as we might say of potatoes in a hat; they are +either inside or outside the hat." That seemed to satisfy her +perfectly. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Frank B. Sanborn read his lecture on American Literature, and I +ventured to ask: "How would you define literature?" +</p> +<p> +He said: "Anything written that gives permanent pleasure." And then +as he was a relative, I inquired, but probably was rather pert: "Would +a bank check, if it were large enough, be literature?" which was +generally considered as painfully trifling. +</p> +<p> +Jones of Jacksonville was on the program, and talked and talked, but +as I could not catch one idea, I cannot report. +</p> +<p> +It was awfully hot on that hill with the sun shining down through the +pine roof, so I thought one day enough. +</p> +<p> +As I walked down the hill, I heard a man who seemed to have a lot of +hasty pudding in his mouth, say in answer to a question from the lady +with him: "Why, if you can't understand that, you can have no idea of +the first principles (this with an emphatic gesture) of the Hegelian +philosophy." +</p> +<p> +Alcott struck me as a happy dreamer. He said to me joyously: "I'm +going West in Lou's chariot," and of course with funds provided by his +daughter. +</p> +<p> +An article written by her, entitled "Transcendental Wild Oats," made a +great impression on my mind. +</p> +<p> +It appeared in a long-ago <i>Independent</i> and I tried in vain to find it +last winter. Houghton and Mifflin have recently published Bronson +Alcott's "<i>Fruitlands</i>," compiled by Clara Endicott Sears, with +"Transcendental Wild Oats" by Louisa M. Alcott, so it is brought to +the notice of those who will appreciate it. +</p> +<p> +I called once on Miss Hosmer, who then was living with relatives in +Watertown, Massachusetts, her old home; the house where she was born +and where she did her first modelling. Recently reading in Miss +Whiting's record of Kate Field's life, of Miss Hosmer as a universal +favourite in Rome, a dearly loved friend of the Brownings, and +associated with the literary and artistic coterie there, a living part +of that memorable group, most of whom are gone, I longed to look in +her eyes, to shake her hand, to listen to her conversation. Everyone +knows of her achievements as a sculptor. +</p> +<p> +After waiting a few minutes, into the room tripped a merry-faced, +bright-eyed little lady, all animation and cordiality as she said: "It +is your fault that I am a little slow in coming down, for I was +engrossed in one of your own books, too much interested to remember to +dress." +</p> +<p> +The question asked soon brought a flow of delightful recollection of +Charlotte Cushman, Frances Power Cobbe, Grace Greenwood, Kate Field, +and the Brownings. "Yes," she said, "I dined with them all one winter; +they were lovely friends." She asked if we would like to see +some autograph letters of theirs. One which seemed specially +characteristic of Robert Browning was written on the thinnest of paper +in the finest hand, difficult to decipher. And on the flap of the +envelope was a long message from his wife. Each letter was addressed +to "My dearest Hattie," and ended, "Yours most affectionately." There +was one most comical impromptu sent to her by Browning, from some +country house where there was a house party. They were greatly grieved +at her failure to appear, and each name was twisted into a rhyme at +the end of a line. Sir Roderick Murchison, for instance, was run in +thus: +</p> +<p class="verse"> + As welcome as to cow is fodder-rick <br /> + Would be your presence to Sir Roderick. +</p> +<p class="noindent"> +A poor pun started another vein. "You must hear some of Miss Cobbe's +puns," said Miss Hosmer, and they were so daringly, glaring bad, as to +be very good. When lame from a sprain, she was announced by a pompous +butler at a reception as "Miss Cobble." "No, Miss Hobble," was her +instant correction. She weighed nearly three hundred pounds and, one +day, complaining of a pain in the small of her back her brother +exclaimed: "O Frances, where <i>is</i> the small of your back?" +</p> +<p> +Miss Hosmer regarded Grace Greenwood (Mrs. Lippincott) as one of the +best <i>raconteurs</i> and wittiest women she had known. She was with her +at some museum where an immense antique drinking cup was exhibited, +large enough for a sitz bath. "A goblet for a Titan," said Harriet. +"And the one who drained it would be a tight un," said Grace. +</p> +<p> +She thought the best thing ever said about seasickness was from Kate +Field, who, after a tempestuous trip, said: "Lemonade is the only +satisfactory drink on a sea voyage; it tastes as well coming up as +going down." +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +The last years of this brilliant and beloved woman were devoted to +futile attempts to solve the problem of Perpetual Motion. I wish she +had given us her memories instead. +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + Helen Ghika was born at Bucharest, Wallachia, the 22nd of + January, 1829. The Ghika family is of an ancient and noble + race. It originated in Albania, and two centuries ago the head + of it went to Wallachia, where it had been a powerful and + ruling family. In 1849, at the age of twenty, the Princess was + married to a Russian, Prince Koltzoff Massalsky, a descendant + of the old Vikings of Moldavia; her marriage has not been a + congenial one. +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + A sketch of the distinguished woman, Helen Ghika, the Princess + Massalsky, who, under the <i>nom de plume</i> of Dora D'Istria, has + made for herself a reputation and position in the world of + letters among the great women of our century, will at least + have something of the charm of novelty for most American + readers. In Europe this lady was everywhere known, beloved by + many personal friends, and admired by all who had read her + works. Her thought was profound and liberal, her views were + broad and humane. As an author, philanthropist, traveller, + artist, and one of the strongest advocates of freedom and + liberty for the oppressed of both sexes, and of her suffering + sisters especially, she was an honour to the time and to + womanhood. The women of the old world found in her a powerful, + sympathizing, yet rational champion; just in her arguments in + their behalf, able in her statements of their needs, and + thoroughly interested in their elevation and improvement. +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + Her works embrace a vast range of thought, and show profound + study and industry. The subjects are many. They number about + twenty volumes on nationality, on social questions more than + eight, on politics eighteen or twenty. Her travels fill fifteen + books, and, beside all this, she wrote three romances, numerous + letters and articles for the daily papers, and addresses to be + read before various learned societies, of which she was an + honoured member. M. Deschanel, the critic of the <i>Journal des + Débats</i>, has said of her that "each one of her works would + suffice for the reputation of a man." As an artist, her + paintings have been much admired. One of her books of travel, + <i>A Summer on the Banks of the Danube</i>, has a drawing by its + author, a view of Borcia in Roumania. From a notable exhibition + at St. Petersburg she received a silver medal for two pictures + called "The Pine" and "The Palm," suggested to her by Heine's + beautiful little poem: +</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="ih" >"A pine-tree sleeps alone<br /></span> +<span class="i1">On northern mountain-side;<br /></span> +<span>Eternal stainless snows<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Stretch round it far and wide.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="ih">"The pine dreams of a palm<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As lonely, sad, and still,<br /></span> +<span>In glowing eastern clime<br /></span> +<span class="i1">On burning, rocky hill."<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p class="bquote"> + This princess was the idol of her native people, who called + her, with the warm enthusiasm of their race, "The Star of + Albania." The learned and cultivated also did her homage. Named + by Frederika Bremer and the Athenians, "The New Corinne," she + was invested by the Greeks with the citizenship of Greece for + her efforts to assist the people of Candia to throw off the + oppressor's yoke, this being the first time this honour had + ever been granted to a woman. +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + The catalogue of her writings fills several pages, the list of + titles given her by learned societies nearly as many more and, + while born a princess of an ancient race and by marriage one + also, she counted these titles of rank as nothing compared with + her working name, and was more widely known as Dora D'Istria + than as the Princess Koltzoff Massalsky. +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + There is a romantic fascination about this woman's life as + brilliant as fiction, but more strange and remarkable in that + it is all sober truth—nay, to her much of it was even sad + reality. Her career was a glorious one, but lonely as the + position of her pictured palm-tree, and oftentimes only upheld + by her own consciousness of the right; she has felt the trials + of minds isolated by greatness. Singularly gifted by nature + with both mental and physical, as well as social superiority, + the Princess united in an unusual degree masculine strength of + character, grasp of thought, philosophical calmness, love of + study and research, joined to an ardent and impassioned love of + the grand, the true, and the beautiful. She had the grace and + tenderness of the most sensitive of women, added to mental + endowments rare in a man. Her beauty, which had been + remarkable, was the result of perfect health, careful training, + and an active nature. Her physical training made her a fearless + swimmer, a bold rider, and an excellent walker—all of which + greatly added to her active habits and powers of observation in + travelling, for she travelled much. Only a person of uncommon + bodily vigour can so enjoy nature in her wildest moods and + grandest aspects. +</p> +<p> +This quotation is from a long article which Mrs. Grace L. Oliver, of +Boston, published in an early number of <i>Scribner's Magazine</i>. I never +had known of the existence of this learned, accomplished woman, but +after reading this article I ventured to ask her to send me the +material for a lecture and she responded most generously, sending +books, many sketches of her career, full lists of the subjects which +had most interested her, poems addressed to her as if she were a +goddess, and the pictures she added proved her to have been certainly +very beautiful. "She looked like Venus and spoke like Minerva." +</p> +<p> +My audience was greatly interested. She was as new to them as to me +and all she had donated was handed round to an eager crowd. In about +six months I saw in the papers that Dora D'Istria was taking a long +trip to America to meet Mrs. Oliver, Edison, Longfellow, and myself! +</p> +<p> +I called on her later at a seashore hotel near Boston. She had just +finished her lunch, and said she had been enjoying for the first time +boiled corn on the cob. She was sitting on the piazza, rather shabbily +dressed, her skirt decidedly travel-stained. Traces of the butter used +on the corn were visible about her mouth and she was smoking a large +and very strong cigar, a sight not so common at that time in this +country. A rocking chair was to her a delightful novelty and she had +already bought six large rocking chairs of wickerwork. She was sitting +in one and busily swaying back and forward and said: "Here I do repose +myself and I take these chairs home with me and when de gentlemen and +de ladies do come to see me in Florence, I do show them how to repose +themselves." +</p> +<p> +Suddenly she looked at me and began to laugh immoderately. "Oh," she +explained, seeing my puzzled expression, "I deed think of you as so +<i>deeferent</i>, I deed think you were very tall and theen, with leetle, +wiggly curls on each side of your face." +</p> +<p> +She evidently had in mind the typical old maid with gimlet ringlets! +So we sat and rocked and laughed, for I was equally surprised to meet +a person so "different" from my romantic ideal. Like the two Irishmen, +who chancing to meet were each mistaken in the identity of the other. +As one of them put it, "We looked at each other and, faith, it turned +out to be nayther of us." +</p> +<p> +The Princess Massalsky sent to Mrs. Oliver and myself valuable tokens +of her regard as souvenirs. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0007"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER VII +</h2> +<p class="cont"> +Elected to be the First President of New Hampshire Daughters in +Massachusetts and New Hampshire—Now Honorary President—Kind Words +which I Highly Value—Three, but not "of a Kind"—A Strictly Family +Affair—Two Favourite Poems—Breezy Meadows. +</p> +<p> +On May 15, 1894, I was elected to be the first president of the New +Hampshire Daughters in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and held the +position for three years. Was then made Honorary President. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +Some unsolicited approval: +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + Hers was a notable administration, and brought to the + organization a prestige which remains. Rules might fail, but + the brilliant president never. She governed a merry company, + many of them famous, but she was chief. They loved her, and + that affection and pride still exist. +</p> +<hr /> +<p class="bquote"> + A daughter of the "Granite State," who can certainly take front + rank among business women, is Kate Sanborn, the beloved + president of New Hampshire's Daughters. + +</p> +<hr /> +<p class="bquote"> + Another thing that has occupied Miss Sanborn's time this + summer aside from farming and writing is the program for the + coming winter's work for the Daughters of New Hampshire. It is + all planned, and if all the women's clubs carry such a program + as the one which Miss Sanborn has planned, and that means that + it will be carried out, the winter's history of women's clubs + will be one of unprecedented prosperity. +</p> +<hr /> +<p class="bquote"> + If New Hampshire's daughters now living out of their own State + do not keep track of each other, and become acquainted into the + bargain, it will not be the fault of their president, who has + carried on correspondence with almost every one of them, and + who has planned a winter's work that will enable them to learn + something about their own State, as well as to meet for the + promoting of acquaintance. +</p> +<hr /> + <p class="center"> OUR FIRST MEETING</p> + +<p class="bquote"> + This meeting was presided over by our much loved + First-President, Kate Sanborn, and it was the most informal, + spontaneous, and altogether enjoyable organization meeting that + could be imagined, and the happy spirit came that has guided + our way and helped us over the rough places leading us always + to the light. +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + Our first resolve was to enjoy to the utmost the pleasure of + being together, and with it to do everything possible to help + our native State. To these two objects we have been steadfastly + true in all the years; and how we have planned, and what we + have done has been recorded to our credit, so that we may now + say in looking back, "We have kept the faith and been true." +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + At this time there are so many memories, all equally precious + and worthy of mention here, but we must be brief and only a few + can be recalled. +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + In our early years <i>our</i> Kate Sanborn led us through so many + pleasant paths, and with her "twin President," Julia K. Dyer, + brought the real New Hampshire atmosphere into it all. +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + That was a grand Dartmouth Day, when the good man, Eleazar + Wheelock, came down from his accustomed wall space to grace our + program and the Dartmouth Sons brought their flag and delighted + us with their college songs. +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + Since then have come to us governors, senators, judges, mayors, + and many celebrities, all glad to bring some story with the + breath of the hills to New Hampshire's Daughters. Kate + Sanborn first called for our county tributes, to renew old + acquaintances and promote rivalry among the members. We adorned + ourselves with the gold buttercup badges, and adopted the grey + and garnet as our colors. +</p> +<hr /> +<p class="center"> + NEW HAMPSHIRE'S DAUGHTERS +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + <i>Members of the Society Hold an Experience Meeting.</i> +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + The first meeting of the season of New Hampshire's Daughters + was held at the Hotel Vendome, Boston, Saturday afternoon, and + was a most successful gathering, both in point of attendance + and of general interest. The business of the association was + transacted under the direction of the president, Miss Kate + Sanborn, whose free construction of parliamentary law and + independent adherence to common sense as against narrow + conventionality, results in satisfactory progress and rapid + action. The 150 or more ladies present were more convinced than + ever that Miss Sanborn is the right woman in the right place, + although she herself indignantly repudiates the notion that she + is fitted to the position. +</p> +<hr /> +<p class="bquote"> + The Daughters declare that the rapid growth of the organization + is due to Miss Sanborn more than to any other influence. Her + ability, brightness, wit, happy way of managing, and her strong + personality generally are undoubtedly at present the mainstays + of the Daughters' organization. She is ably assisted by an + enthusiastic corps of officers. +</p> +<hr /> +<p class="blsmcap"> + My Dear Kate Sanborn: +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + Your calendar about old age is simply <i>au fait</i>. After reading + it, I want to hurry up and grow old as fast as I can. It is the + best collection of sane thoughts upon old age that I know in + any language. Life coming from the Source of Life must be + glorious throughout. The last of life should be its best. + October is the king of all the year. A man should be more + wonderful at eighty than at twenty; a woman should make her + seventieth birthday more fascinating than her seventeenth. + Merit never deserts the soul. God is with His children always. +</p> +<p class="closing"> + Yours for a long life and happiness, <br /> + P<small>ETER</small> M<small>AC</small>Q<small>UEEN</small>. +</p> +<a name="image-0007"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/sk-img07.jpg" width="313" height="400" +alt="Peter MacQueen" /> +</center> +<h5>PETER MACQUEEN</h5> + +<p class="blsmcap"> + Dear Kate Sanborn: +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + The "Indian Summer Calendar" is the best thing you have done + yet. I have read it straight through twice, and now it lies on + my desk, and I read daily selections from it, as some of the + good people read from their "Golden Treasury of Texts." +</p> + + <p class="ar"> Mary A. Livermore. +</p> + + <hr /> +<p class="blsmcap"> + Dear Miss Sanborn: +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + It gives me pleasure to offer my testimonial to your unique, + original, and very picturesque lectures. The one to which I + recently listened, in the New England Conservatory of Music, + was certainly the most entertaining of any humorous lecture to + which I have ever listened, and it left the audience <i>talking</i>, + with such bright, happy faces, I can see it now in my mind. And + they <i>continued</i> to repeat the happy things you said; at least + my own friends did. It was not a "plea for cheerfulness," it + <i>was</i> cheerfulness. I hope you may give it, and make the world + laugh, a thousand times. "He who makes what is useful + agreeable," said old Horace of literature, "wins every vote." + You have the wit of making the useful agreeable, and the spirit + and genius of it. +</p> +<p class="closing"> + + Sincerely,<br /> + H<small>EZEKIAH</small> B<small>UTTERWORTH</small>. +</p> +<p> +I published a little volume, <i>A Truthful Woman in Southern +California</i>, which had a large sale for many years. Women tourists +bought it to "enlarge" with their photographs. Stedman wrote me, after +I had sent him my book: +</p> +<p class="blsmcap"> + My Dear Kate Sanborn: +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + I think it especially charming that you should so remember me + and send me a gift-copy of Truthful Kate's breezy and + fascinating report of Southern California. For I had been so + taken with your adoption of that Abandoned Farm that I had + made a note of your second book. Your chapters give me as vivid + an idea of Southern California as I obtained from Miss Hazard's + watercolors, and that is saying a good deal. We all like you, + and indeed who does not? And your books, so fresh and + sparkling, make us like you even more. Believe that I am + gratified by your unexpected gift, and by the note that + convoyed it. +</p> +<p class="ar"> + Edmund C. Stedman. +</p> +<hr /> +<p class="ar3"> + New York Public Library, <br /> + Office of Circulation Department, <br /> + 209 West 23rd Street, <br /> + February 19,1907. +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + M<small>ISS</small> K<small>ATE</small> S<small>ANBORN</small>, <br /> + Metcalf, Mass. <br /> + D<small>EAR</small> M<small>ISS</small> S<small>ANBORN</small>: +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + You may be interested to know that your book on old wall-papers + is included in a list of books specially recommended for + libraries in Great Britain, compiled by the Library Association + of the United Kingdom, recently published in London. As there + seems to be a rather small proportion of American works + included in the list, I think that this may be worthy of note. +</p> +<p class="closing"> + + With kindest regards, I remain, <br /> + Very truly yours, +</p> +<p class="ar"> + Arthur E. Bostwick. +</p> +<p class="ar2"> + <i>Chief of the Circulation Department</i>. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="blsmcap"> + My Dear Miss Kate Sanborn: +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + How kind and generous you are to my books, and therefore, to + me! How thoroughly you understand them and know why I wrote + them! +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + When a book of mine is sent out into the cold world of + indifferent reviewers, I read their platitudinous words, trying + to be grateful; but waiting, waiting, knowing that ere long I + shall get a little clipping from the <i>Somerville Journal</i>, + written by Kate Sanborn; and then I shall know what the book + is. If it's good, she'll say so, and if it isn't, I think she + would say so; but that alternative never has come to me. But I + would far rather have her true words of dispraise than all + machine-made twaddle of nearly all the book columns of our + great American press. +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + It is such generous minds as yours that have kept me writing. I + should have stopped long ago if I had not had them. +</p> +<p class="ar"> + Alice Morse Earle. +</p> + +<hr /> +<p class="bquote"> + It is impossible to give you a perfect pen picture of Breezy + Meadows or of its mistress, Kate Sanborn, just as it is + impossible to paint the tints of a glorious sunset stretching + across the winter sky. Breezy Meadows is an ideal country home, + and the mistress of it all is a grand woman—an honor to her + sex, and a loyal friend. Her whole life seems to be devoted to + making others happy, and a motto on one of the walls of the + house expresses better than I can, her daily endeavour: +</p> +<p class="verse"> + "Let me, also, cheer a spot, <br /> + Hidden field or garden grot, <br /> + Place where passing souls may rest, <br /> + On the way, and be their best." +</p> +<p class="ar"> + Barbara Galpin. +</p> +<hr /> +<p class="bquote"> + As a lecturer, Miss Kate Sanborn is thoroughly unique. Whatever + her topic, one is always sure there will be wit and the + subtlest humour in her discourse, bits of philosophy of life, + and the most practical common sense, flashes of laughable + personal history, and gems of scholarship. It is always certain + that the lecture will be rendered in inimitably bright and + cheery style that will enliven her audience, which, while + laughing and applauding, will listen intently throughout. No + wonder she is a favourite with lecture goers, for few can give + them so delightful an evening as she.—M<small>ARY</small> A. L<small>IVERMORE</small>. +</p> +<hr /> +<p class="bquote"> + There is only one Kate Sanborn. Her position as a lecturer is + unique. In the selection and treatment of her themes she has no + rival. She touches nothing that she does not enliven and adorn. + Pathos and humour, wit and wisdom, anecdote and incident, the + foibles, fancies, freaks, and fashions of the past and present, + pen pictures of great men and famous women, illustrious poets + and distinguished authors, enrich her writings, as if the ages + had laid their wealth of love and learning at her feet, and + bidden her help herself. With a discriminating and exacting + taste, she has brought together, in book and lecture, the + things that others have overlooked, or never found. She has + been a kind of discoverer of thoughts and things in the + by-paths of literature. She also understands "the art of + putting things." But vastly more than the thought, style, and + utterance is the striking personality of the writer herself. It + is not enough to read the writings of Miss Sanborn, though you + cannot help doing this. She must be heard, if one would know + the secret of her power—subtle, magnetic, impossible of + transfer to books. The "personal equation" is everything—the + strong, gifted woman putting her whole soul into the + interpretation and transmission of her thought so that it may + inspire the hearts of those who listen; the power of + self-radiation. It is not surprising that Miss Sanborn is + everywhere greeted with enthusiasm when + she speaks.—A<small>RTHUR</small> L<small>ITTLE</small>. +</p> +<hr /> +<p class="bquote"> + Miss Kate Sanborn is one of the best qualified women in this + country to lecture on literary themes. The daughter of a + Dartmouth professor, she was cradled in literature, and has + made it in a certain way the work of her life. There is + nothing, however, of the pedantic about her. She is the + embodiment of a woman's wit and humour; but her forte is a + certain crisp and lively condensation of persons and qualities + which carry a large amount of information under a captivating + cloak of vivacious and confidential talk with her audience, + rather than didactic statement. +</p> +<p class="ar2"> + J. C. C<small>ROLY</small>, "Jenny June." +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +One of the friends I miss most at the farm is Sam Walter Foss. He was +the poet, philosopher, lecturer and "friend of man." His folk songs +touched every heart and even the sombre vein lightened with pictures +of hope and cheer. He was humorous and even funny, but in every line +there is a dignity not often reached by writers of witty verse or +prose. Mr. Foss was born in Candia, N.H., in June, 1858. Through his +ancestor, Stephen Batcheller, he had kinship with Daniel Webster, John +Greenleaf Whittier, and William Pitt Fessenden. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Foss secured an interest in the Lynn <i>Union</i>, and it was while +engaged in publishing that newspaper that he made the discovery that +he could be a "funny man." The man having charge of the funny column +left suddenly, and Mr. Foss decided to see what he could do in the way +of writing something humorous to fill the column. He had never done +anything of this kind before, and was surprised and pleased to have +some of his readers congratulate him on his new "funny man." He +continued to write for this column and for a long time his identity +was unknown, he being referred to simply as the "Lynn <i>Union</i> funny +man." His ability finally attracted the attention of Wolcott +Balestier, the editor of <i>Tit-Bits</i>, who secured Mr. Foss's services +for that paper. Before long he became connected with <i>Puck</i>, <i>Judge</i>, +and several other New York periodicals, including the New York <i>Sun</i>. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Foss's first book was published in 1894, and was entitled <i>Back +Country Poems</i> and has passed through several editions. <i>Whiffs from +Wild Meadows</i> issued in 1896 has been fully as successful. Later books +are <i>Dreams in Homespun</i>, <i>Songs of War and Peace</i>, <i>Songs of the +Average Man</i>. +</p> +<a name="image-0008"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/sk-img08.jpg" width="293" height="400" +alt="Sam Walter Foss" /> +</center> +<h5>SAM WALTER FOSS</h5> + +<p> +He had charge of the Public Library at Somerville, Massachusetts, +and his influence in library matters extended all over New England. +</p> +<p> +His poems are marked by simplicity. Most of his songs are written in +New England dialect which he has used with unsurpassed effect. But +this poetry was always of the simplest kind, of the appealing nature +which reaches the heart. Of his work and his aim, he said in his first +volume: +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="ih">"It is not the greatest singer<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Who tries the loftiest themes,<br /></span> +<span>He is the true joy bringer<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Who tells his simplest dreams,<br /></span> +<span>He is the greatest poet<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Who will renounce all art<br /></span> +<span>And take his heart and show it<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To any other heart;<br /></span> +<span>Who writes no learnèd riddle,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But sings his simplest rune,<br /></span> +<span>Takes his heart-strings for a fiddle,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And plays his easiest tune."<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p> +Mr. Foss <i>always</i> had to recite the following poem when he called +at Breezy Meadows +</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i5"><small>THE CONFESSIONS OF A LUNKHEAD</small><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>I'm a lunkhead, an' I know it; 'taint no use to squirm an' talk,<br /></span> +<span>I'm a gump an' I'm a lunkhead, I'm a lummux, I'm a gawk,<br /></span> +<span>An' I make this interduction so that all you folks can see<br /></span> +<span>An' understan' the natur' of the critter thet I be.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>I allus wobble w'en I walk, my j'ints are out er gear,<br /></span> +<span>My arms go flappin' through the air, jest like an el'phunt's ear;<br /></span> +<span>An' when the womern speaks to me I stutter an' grow weak,<br /></span> +<span>A big frog rises in my throat, an' he won't let me speak.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Wall, that's the kind er thing I be; but in our neighborhood<br /></span> +<span>Lived young Joe Craig an' young Jim Stump an' Hiram Underwood.<br /></span> +<span>We growed like corn in the same hill, jest like four sep'rit stalks;<br /></span> +<span>For they wuz lunkheads, jest like me, an' lummuxes and gawks.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Now, I knew I wuz a lunkhead; but them fellers didn't know,<br /></span> +<span>Thought they wuz the biggest punkins an' the purtiest in the row.<br /></span> +<span>An' I, I uster laff an' say, "Them lunkhead chaps will see<br /></span> +<span>W'en they go out into the worl' w'at gawky things they be."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Joe Craig was a lunkhead, but it didn't get through his pate;<br /></span> +<span>I guess you all heerd tell of him—he's governor of the state;<br /></span> +<span>Jim Stump, he blundered off to war—a most uncommon gump—<br /></span> +<span>Didn't know enough to know it—'an he came home General Stump.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Then Hiram Underwood went off, the bigges' gawk of all,<br /></span> +<span>We hardly thought him bright enough to share in Adam's fall;<br /></span> +<span>But he tried the railroad biz'ness, an' he allus grabbed his share,—<br /></span> +<span>Now this gawk, who didn't know it, is a fifty millionaire.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>An' often out here hoein' I set down atween the stalks,<br /></span> +<span>Thinkin' how we four together all were lummuxes an' gawks,<br /></span> +<span>All were gumps and lunkheads, only they didn't know, yer see;<br /></span> +<span>An' I ask, "If I hadn' known it, like them other fellers there,<br /></span> +<span>Today I might be settin' in the presidential chair."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>We all are lunkheads—don't get mad—an' lummuxes and gawks,<br /></span> +<span>But us poor chaps who know we be—we walk in humble walks.<br /></span> +<span>So, I say to all good lunkheads, "Keep yer own selves in the dark;<br /></span> +<span>Don't own to reckernize the fact, an' you will make your mark."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p> +Next is the poem which is most quoted and best known: +</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i3"><small>THE HOUSE BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD</small><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>"He was a friend to man, and lived in a house<br /></span> +<span>by the side of the road."—H<small>OMER</small>.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>There are hermit souls that live withdrawn<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In the peace of their self-content;<br /></span> +<span>There are souls, like stars, that dwell apart,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In a fellowless firmament;<br /></span> +<span>There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where highways never ran;—<br /></span> +<span>But let me live by the side of the road<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And be a friend to man.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Let me live in a house by the side of the road,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where the race of men go by—<br /></span> +<span>The men who are good and the men who are bad,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As good and as bad as I.<br /></span> +<span>I would not sit in the scorner's seat,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or hurl the cynic's ban;—<br /></span> +<span>Let me live in a house by the side of the road<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And be a friend to man.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>I see from my house by the side of the road,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">By the side of the highway of life,<br /></span> +<span>The men who press with the ardour of hope,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The men who are faint with the strife.<br /></span> +<span>But I turn not away from their smiles nor their tears—<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Both parts of an infinite plan;—<br /></span> +<span>Let me live in my house by the side of the road<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And be a friend to man.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>I know there are brook-gladdened meadows ahead<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And mountains of wearisome height;<br /></span> +<span>That the road passes on through the long afternoon<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And stretches away to the night.<br /></span> +<span>But still I rejoice when the travellers rejoice,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And weep with the strangers that moan,<br /></span> +<span>Nor live in my house by the side of the road<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Like a man who dwells alone.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Let me live in my house by the side of the road<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where the race of men go by—<br /></span> +<span>They are good, they are bad, they are weak, they are strong,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Wise, foolish—so am I.<br /></span> +<span>Then why should I sit in the scorner's seat<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or hurl the cynic's ban?—<br /></span> +<span>Let me live in my house by the side of the road<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And be a friend to man.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p> +Mr. Foss's attribution to Homer used as a motto preceding his poem, +"The House by the Side of the Road," is, no doubt, his translation of +a passage from the <i>Iliad</i>, book vi., which, as done into English +prose in the translation of Lang, Leaf and Myers, is as follows: +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + Then Diomedes of the loud war-cry slew Axylos, Teuthranos' son + that dwelt in stablished Arisbe, a man of substance dear to his + fellows; <i>for his dwelling was by the road-side and he + entertained all men</i>. +</p> +<hr /> +<p class="center"> + SAM WALTER FOSS +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + Sam Walter Foss was a poet of gentle heart. His keen wit never + had any sting. He has described our Yankee folk with as clever + humour as Bret Harte delineated Rocky Mountain life. Like + Harte, Mr. Foss had no unkindness in his make-up. He told me + that he never had received an anonymous letter in his life. +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + Our American nation is wonderful in science and mechanical + invention. It was the aim of Sam Walter Foss to immortalize the + age of steel. "Harness all your rivers above the cataracts' + brink, and then unharness man." He told me he thought the + subject of mechanics was as poetical as the song of the lark. + "The Cosmos wrought for a billion years to make glad for a + day," reminds us of the most resonant periods of Tennyson. +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + "The House by the Side of the Road," is from a text of Homer. + "The Lunkhead" shows Foss in his happiest mood: gently + satirizing the foibles and harmless, foolish fancies of his + fellow-men. There is a haunting misty tenderness in such a poem + as "The Tree Lover." +</p> +<p class="verse"> + + "Who loves a tree he loves the life <br /> + That springs in flower and clover; <br /> + He loves the love that gilds the cloud, <br /> + And greens the April sod; <br /> + He loves the wide beneficence, <br /> + His soul takes hold of God." +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + We have too little love for the tender out-of-door nature. "The + world is too much with us." +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + It was a loss to American life and letters when Sam Walter Foss + passed away from us at the height of his strong true manhood. + Later he will be regarded as an eminent American. +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + He was true to our age to the core. Whether he wrote of the + gentle McKinley, the fighting Dewey, the ludicrous schoolboy, + the "grand eternal fellows" that are coming to this world after + we have left it—he was ever a weaver at the loom of highest + thought. The world is not to be civilized and redeemed by the + apostles of steel and brute force. Not the Hannibals and Cæsars + and Kaisers but the Shelleys, the Scotts, and the Fosses are + our saviours. They will have a large part in the future of the + world to heighten and brighten life and justify the ways of God + to men. +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + These and such as these are our consolation in life's thorny + pathway. They keep alive in us the memory of our youth and many + a jaded traveller as he listens to their music, sees again the + apple blossoms falling around him in the twilight of some + unforgotten spring. +</p> +<p class="ar">Peter MacQueen. +</p> +<p> +Peter MacQueen was brought to my house years ago by a friend when he +happened to be stationary for an hour, and he is certainly a unique +and interesting character, a marvellous talker, reciter of Scotch +ballads, a maker of epigrams, and a most unpractical, now-you-see-him +and now-he's-a-far-away-fellow. I remember his remark, "Breakfast is a +fatal habit." It was not the breakfast to which he referred but to the +gathering round a table at a stated hour, far too early, when not in a +mood for society or for conversation. And again: "I have decided never +to marry. A poor girl is a burden; a rich girl a boss." But you never +can tell. He is now a Benedict. +</p> +<p> +I wrote to Mr. MacQueen lately for some of his press notices, and a +few of the names which he called himself when I received his letters. +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + M<small>Y</small> D<small>EAR</small> K<small>ATE</small> S<small>ANBORN</small>:—Yours here and I hasten to reply. Count + Tolstoi remarked to me: "Your travels have been so vast and you + have been with so many peoples and races, that an account of + them would constitute a philosophy in itself." +</p> +<p> +Theodore Roosevelt said, "No other American has travelled over our new +possessions more universally, nor observed the conditions in them so +quickly and sanely." +</p> +<p> +Kennan was <i>persona non grata</i> to the Russians, especially after his +visit to Siberia, but Mr. MacQueen was most cordially welcomed. +</p> +<p> +What an odd scene at Tolstoi's table! The countess and her daughter in +full evening dress with the display of jewels, and at the other end +Tolstoi in the roughest sort of peasant dress and with bare feet. At +dinner Count Tolstoi said to Mr. MacQueen: "If I had travelled as much +as you have, I should today have had a broader philosophy." +</p> +<p> +Mr. MacQueen says of Russia: +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + During the past one hundred years the empire of the Czar has + made slow progress; but great bodies move slowly, and Russia + is colossal. Two such republics as the United States with our + great storm door called Alaska, could go into the Russian + empire and yet leave room enough for Great Britain, Germany, + and Austria. + +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +Journeys taken by Mr. MacQueen: +</p> +<p class="t-list"> +1896—to Athens and Greece. +</p> +<p class="t-list"> +1897—to Constantinople and Asia Minor. +</p> +<p class="t-list"> + 1898—in the Santiago Campaign with the Rough + Riders, and in Porto Rico with General + Miles. +</p> +<p class="t-list"> +1899—with General Henry W. Lawton to the + Philippines, returning through Japan. +</p> +<p class="t-list"> +1900—with DeWet, Delarey, and Botha in the + Boer Army; met Oom Paul, etc. +</p> +<p class="t-list"> +1901—to Russia and Siberia on pass from the Czar, + visiting Tolstoi, etc. +</p> +<p class="t-list"> +1902—to Venezuela, Panama, Cuba, and Porto + Rico. +</p> +<p class="t-list"> +1903—to Turkey, Macedonia, Servia, Hungary, + Austria, etc. +</p> +<p> +In the meantime Mr. MacQueen has visited every country in Europe, +completing 240,000 miles in ten years, a distance equal to that which +separates this earth from the moon. +</p> +<p> +Last winter he was four months in the war zone, narrowly escaping +arrest several times, and other serious dangers, as they thought him +a spy with his camera and pictures. I gave a stag dinner for him just +after his return from his war experiences, and the daily bulletins of +war's horrors seemed dull reading after his stories. +</p> +<p> +Here is an extract from a paper sent by Peter MacQueen from Iowa, +where he long ago was in great demand as a lecturer, which contained +several of the best anecdotes told by this irresistible <i>raconteur</i>, +which may be new to you, if not, read them again and then tell them +yourself. +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + Mr. MacQueen, who is to lecture at the Chautauqua here, has + many strange stories and quaint yarns that he picked up while + travelling around the globe. While in the highlands of Scotland + he met a canny old "Scot" who asked him, "Have you ever heard + of Andrew Carnegie in America?" "Yes, indeed," replied the + traveller. "Weel," said the Scot, pointing to a little stream + near-by, "in that wee burn Andrew and I caught our first trout + together. Andrew was a barefooted, bareheaded, ragged wee + callen, no muckle guid at onything. But he gaed off to America, + and they say he's doin' real weel." +</p> +<p> +While in the Philippines Mr. MacQueen was marching with some of the +colored troops who have recently been dismissed by the President. A +big coloured soldier walking beside Mr. MacQueen had his white +officer's rations and ammunition and can-kit, carrying them in the +hot tropical sun. The big fellow turned to the traveller and said: +"Say, there, comrade, this yere White Man's Burden ain't all it's +cracked up to be." +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + In the Boer war Mr. MacQueen, war correspondent and lecturer, + tells of an Irish Brigade man from Chicago on Sani river. The + correspondent was along with the Irish-Americans and saw them + take a hill from a force of Yorkshire men very superior in + numbers. Mr. MacQueen also saw a green flag of Ireland in the + British lines. Turning to his Irish friend, he remarked: "Isn't + it a shame to see Irishmen fighting for the Queen, and Irishmen + fighting for the Boers at the same time?" "Sorra the bit," + replied his companion, "it wouldn't be a proper fight if there + wasn't Irishmen on both sides." +</p> +<p> +Here's hoping that during Mr. MacQueen's long vacation from sermons, +lectures, and tedious conventionalities in the outdoors of the darkest +and deepest Africa, the wild beasts, including the man-eating tiger, +may prove the correctness of Mrs. Seton Thompson's good words for them +and only approach him to have their photos taken or amiably allow +themselves to be shot. The cannibals will decide he is too thin and +wiry for a really tempting meal. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +Doctor Edwin C. Bolles has been for fifteen years on the Faculty of +Tufts College, Massachusetts, and still continues active service at +the age of seventy-eight. +</p> +<p> +His history courses are among the popular ones in the curriculum, and +his five minutes' daily talks in Chapel have won the admiration of the +entire College. +</p> +<p> +He was for forty-five years in active pastoral service in the +Universalist ministry; was Professor of Microscopy for three years at +St. Lawrence University. Doctor Bolles was one of the pioneers in the +lecture field and both prominent and popular in this line, and the +first in the use of illustrations by the stereopticon in travel +lectures. +</p> +<p> +The perfection of the use of microscopic projection which has done so +much for the popularization of science was one of his exploits. +</p> +<p> +For several years his eyesight has been failing, an affliction which +he has borne with Christian courage and cheerfulness and keeps right +on at his beloved work. +</p> +<p> +He has been devoted to photography in which avocation he has been most +successful. His wife told me they were glad to accept his call to New +York as he had almost filled every room in their house with his +various collections. One can appreciate this when he sees a card +displayed on the door of Doctor Bolles's sanctum bearing this motto: +</p> +<p> +"A man is known by the Trumpery he keeps." +</p> +<p> +He has received many honorary degrees, but his present triumph over +what would crush the ambition of most men is greater than all else. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +Exquisite nonsense is a rare thing, but when found how delicious it +is! I found a letter from a reverend friend who might be an American +Sidney Smith if he chose, and I am going to let you enjoy it; it was +written years ago. +</p> +<p> +Speaking of the "Purple and Gold," he says: +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + I should make also better acknowledgments than my thanks. But + what can I do? My volume on <i>The Millimetric Study of the Tail + of the Greek Delta, in the MSS. of the Sixth Century</i>, is + entirely out of print; and until its re-issue by the Seaside + Library I cannot forward a copy. Then my essay, "Infantile + Diseases of the Earthworm" is in Berlin for translation, as it + is to be issued at the same time in Germany and the United + States. "The Moral Regeneration of the Rat," and "Intellectual + Idiosyncracies of Twin Clams," are resting till I can get up my + Sanscrit and Arabic, for I wish these researches to be + exhaustive. +</p> +<p> +He added two poems which I am not selfish enough to keep to myself. +</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i7"><small>GOLDEN ROD</small><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>O! Golden Rod! Thou garish, gorgeous gush<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of passion that consumes hot summer's heart!<br /></span> +<span>O! yellowest yolk of love! in yearly hush<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I stand, awe sobered, at thy burning bush<br /></span> +<span>Of Glory, glossed with lustrous and illustrious art,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And moan, why poor, so poor in purse and brain I am,<br /></span> +<span>While thou into thy trusting treasury dost seem to cram<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Australia, California, Sinai and Siam.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p> +And the other such a capital burlesque of the modern English School +with its unintelligible parentheses: +</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i9"><small>ASTER</small><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>I kissed her all day on her red, red mouth<br /></span> +<span class="i1">(Cats, cradles and trilobites! Love is the master!)<br /></span> +<span>Too utterly torrid, a sweet, spicy South<br /></span> +<span class="i1">(Of compositæ, fairest the Aster.)<br /></span> +<span>Stars shone on our kisses—the moon blushed warm<br /></span> +<span class="i1">(Ursa major or minor, Pollux and Castor!)<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>How long the homeward! And where was my arm?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">(Crushed, crushed at her waist was the Aster!)<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>No one kisses me now—my winter has come:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">(To ice turns fortune when once you have passed her.)<br /></span> +<span>I long for the angels to beckon me home (hum)<br /></span> +<span class="i1">(For dead, deader, deadest, the Aster!)<br /></span> +</div></div> +<a name="image-0009"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/sk-img09.jpg" width="500" height="351" +alt="Pines and Silver Birches" /> +</center> +<h5>PINES AND SILVER BIRCHES</h5> + +<p> +Doctor Bolles has very kindly sent me one of his later humorous poems. +A tragic forecast of suffragette rule which is too gloomy, as almost +every woman will assure an agreeable smoker that she is "fond of the +odour of a good cigar." +</p> + +<p class="center"><small>DESCENSUS AD INFERNUM</small> +</p> + +<div class="poem2"><div class="stanza"> + <span>When the last cigar is smoked and the box is splintered and gone,<br /></span> +<span>And only the faintest whiff of the dear old smell hangs on,<br /></span> +<span>In the times when he's idle or thoughtful,<br /></span> +<span>When he's lonesome, jolly or blue,<br /></span> +<span>And he fingers his useless matches,<br /></span> +<span>What is a poor fellow to do?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>For the suffragettes have conquered, and their harvest is gathered in;<br /></span> +<span>From Texas to Maine they've voted tobacco the deadliest sin;<br /></span> +<span>A pipe sends you up for a year, a cigarette for two;<br /></span> +<span>In this female republic of virtue,<br /></span> +<span>What is a poor fellow to do?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>He may train up his reason on bridge and riot on afternoon tea,<br /></span> +<span>And at dinner, all wineless and proper, a dress-suited guest he may be;<br /></span> +<span>But when the mild cheese has been passed, and the chocolate mint drops are few,<br /></span> +<span>And the coffee comes in and he hankers,<br /></span> +<span>What is a poor fellow to do?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>It's all for his good, they say; for in heaven no nicotine grows,<br /></span> +<span>And the angels need no cedar for moth-proofs to keep their clothes;<br /></span> +<span>No ashes are dropped, no carpets are singed, by all the saintly crew;<br /></span> +<span>If <i>this</i> is heaven, and he gets there,<br /></span> +<span> is a poor fellow to do?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>He'll sit on the golden benches and long for a chance to break jail,<br /></span> +<span>With a shooting-star for a motor, or a flight on a comet's tail;<br /></span> +<span>He'll see the smoke rise in the distance, and goaded by memory's spell,<br /></span> +<span>He'll go back on the women who saved him,<br /></span> +<span>And ask for a ticket to <i>Hell</i>!<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p> +An exact description of the usual happenings at "Breezy" in the +beginning, by my only sister, Mrs. Babcock, who was devoted to me and +did more than anyone to help to develop the Farm. I feel that this +chapter must be the richer for two of her poems. +</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1"><small>LIGHT AND SHADE AT "BREEZY MEADOWS" FARM</small><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>This charming May morning we'll walk to the grove!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And give the dear dogs all a run;<br /></span> +<span>Over the meadows 'tis pleasant to rove<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And bask in the light of the sun.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Last night a sly fox took off our best duck!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Run for a gun! there a hen hawk flies!<br /></span> +<span>We always have the very worst of luck,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The anxious mistress of the chickens cries.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>We stop to smell the lilacs at the gate,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And watch the bluebirds in the elm-tree's crest—<br /></span> +<span>The finest farm it is in all the state,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Which corner of it do you like the best?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Just think! a rat has eaten ducklings two,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Now isn't that a shame! pray set a trap!<br /></span> +<span>The downiest, dearest ones that ever grew,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I think this trouble will climax cap!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>At "Sun Flower Rock," in joy we stand to gaze;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The distant orchard, flowering, show so fair:<br /></span> +<span>Surely my dear, abandoned farming pays,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">How heavenly the early morning air!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Now only see! those horrid hens are scratching!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">They tear the Mountain Fringe so lately set!<br /></span> +<span>Some kind of mischief they are always hatching,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Why did I ever try a hen to pet?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Here's "Mary's Circle," and the birches slender,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And Columbine which grows the rocks between,<br /></span> +<span>Red blossoms showing in a regal splendour!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">We must be happy in this peaceful scene.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>The puppies chew the woodbine and destroy<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The dainty branches sprouting on the wall!<br /></span> +<span>How can the little wretches so annoy?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">There's Solomon Alphonzo—worst of all!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Now we will go to breakfast—milk and cream,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Eggs from the farm, surely it is a treat!<br /></span> +<span>How horrid city markets really seem<br /></span> +<span class="i1">When one can have fresh things like these to eat!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>What? Nickodee has taken all the hash?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And smashed the dish which lies upon the floor!<br /></span> +<span>I thought just now I heard a sudden crash!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And it was he who slammed the kitchen door!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>By "Scare Crow Road" we take our winding way,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Tiger and Jerry in the pasture feed.<br /></span> +<span>See, Mary,—what a splendid crop of hay!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Now, don't you feel that this is joy indeed?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>The incubator chickens all are dead!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Max fights with Shep, he scorns to follow me!<br /></span> +<span>Some fresh disaster momently I dread;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Is that a skunk approaching?—try to see!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Come Snip and Snap and give us song and dance!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">We'll have a fire and read the choicest books,<br /></span> +<span>While the black horses waiting, paw and prance!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And see how calm and sweet all nature looks.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>So goes the day; the peaceful landscape smiles;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">At times the live stock seems to take a rest.<br /></span> +<span>But fills our hearts with worry other whiles!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">We think each separate creature is possessed!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="au">Mary W. Babcock.</p> + +<a name="image-0010"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/sk-img10.jpg" width="319" height="450" +alt="Paddling in Chicken Brook" /> +</center> + +<h5>PADDLING IN CHICKEN BROOK</h5> + +<br /> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i7"><small>THE OLD WOMAN</small><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>The little old woman, who wove and who spun,<br /></span> +<span>Who sewed and who baked, did she have any fun?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>In housewifely arts with her neighbour she'd vie,<br /></span> +<span>Her triumph a turkey, her pleasure a pie!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>She milked and she churned, and the chickens she fed,<br /></span> +<span>She made tallow dips, and she moulded the bread.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>No club day annoyed her, no program perplext,<br /></span> +<span>No themes for discussion her calm slumber vexed.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>By birth D.A.R. or Colonial Dame,<br /></span> +<span>She sought for no record to blazon her fame—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>No Swamies she knew, she cherished no fad,<br /></span> +<span>Of healing by science, no knowledge she had.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>She anointed with goose grease, she gave castor oil,<br /></span> +<span>Strong sons and fair daughters rewarded her toil.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>She studied child nature direct from the child,<br /></span> +<span>And she spared not the rod, though her manner was mild.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>All honour be paid her, this heroine true,<br /></span> +<span>She laid the foundation for things we call new!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Her hand was so strong, and her brain was so steady,<br /></span> +<span>That for the New Woman she made the world ready.<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p class="au">Mary W. Babcock.</p> + + +<a name="image-0011"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/sk-img11.jpg" width="500" height="359" +alt="The Island Which We Made" /> +</center> +<h5>THE ISLAND WHICH WE MADE</h5> + +<p> +Here is one of the several parodies written by my brother while +interned in a log camp in the woods of New Brunswick, during a severe +day's deluge of rain. It was at the time when Peary had recently +reached the North Pole, and Dr. Cook had reported his remarkable +observations of purple snows: +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i5"><small>DON'T YOU HEAR THE NORTH A-CALLIN'?</small><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Ship me somewhere north o' nowhere, where the worst is like the best;<br /></span> +<span>Where there aren't no p'ints o' compass, an' a man can get a rest;<br /></span> +<span>Where a breeze is like a blizzard, an' the weather at its best;<br /></span> +<span>Dogs and Huskies does the workin' and the Devil does the rest.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">On the way to Baffin's Bay,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Where the seal and walrus play,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And the day is slow a-comin', slower<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Still to go away.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>There I seen a walrus baskin'—bloomin' blubber to the good;<br /></span> +<span>Could I 'it 'im for the askin'? Well—I missed 'im where he stood.<br /></span> +<span>Ship me up there, north o' nowhere, where the best is like the worst;<br /></span> +<span>Where there aren't no p'ints o' compass, and the last one gets there first.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">Take me back to Baffin's Bay,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Where the seal and walrus play;<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And the night is long a-comin', when it<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Comes, it comes to stay.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<a name="image-0012"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/sk-img12.jpg" width="500" height="374" +alt="Taka's Tea House at Lily Pond" /> +</center> +<h5>TAKA'S TEA HOUSE AT LILY POND</h5> +<br /> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4"><small>THE WOMAN WITH THE BROOM</small><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span><i>A Mate for "The Man With The Hoe."</i><br /></span> + +<span>(Written after seeing a farmer's wife cleaning house.)<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Bowed by the cares of cleaning house she leans<br /></span> +<span>Upon her broom and gazes through the dust.<br /></span> +<span>A wilderness of wrinkles on her face,<br /></span> +<span>And on her head a knob of wispy hair.<br /></span> +<span>Who made her slave to sweeping and to soap,<br /></span> +<span>A thing that smiles not and that never rests,<br /></span> +<span>Stanchioned in stall, a sister to the cow?<br /></span> +<span>Who loosened and made shrill this angled jaw?<br /></span> +<span>Who dowered this narrowed chest for blowing up<br /></span> +<span>Of sluggish men-folks and their morning fire?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Is this the thing you made a bride and brought<br /></span> +<span>To have dominion over hearth and home,<br /></span> +<span>To scour the stairs and search the bin for flour,<br /></span> +<span>To bear the burden of maternity?<br /></span> +<span>Is this the wife they wove who framed our law<br /></span> +<span>And pillared a bright land on smiling homes?<br /></span> +<span>Down all the stretch of street to the last house<br /></span> +<span>There is no shape more angular than hers,<br /></span> +<span>More tongued with gabble of her neighbours' deeds,<br /></span> +<span>More filled with nerve-ache and rheumatic twinge,<br /></span> +<span>More fraught with menace of the frying-pan.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>O Lords and Masters in our happy land,<br /></span> +<span>How with this woman will you make account,<br /></span> +<span>How answer her shrill question in that hour<br /></span> +<span>When whirlwinds of such women shake the polls,<br /></span> +<span>Heedless of every precedent and creed,<br /></span> +<span>Straight in hysteric haste to right all wrongs?<br /></span> +<span>How will it be with cant of politics,<br /></span> +<span>With king of trade and legislative boss,<br /></span> +<span>With cobwebs of hypocrisy and greed,<br /></span> +<span>When she shall take the ballot for her broom<br /></span> +<span>And sweep away the dust of centuries?<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p class="au">Edward W. Sanborn.</p> + +<br /> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2"><small>NEW HAMPSHIRE DAUGHTERS</small><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>New Hampshire Daughters meet tonight<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With joy each cup is brimmin';<br /></span> +<span>We've heard for years about her men,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But why leave out her wimmin?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>In early days they did their share<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To git the state to goin',<br /></span> +<span>And when their husbands went to war,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Could fight or take to hoein'.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>They bore privations with a smile,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Raised families surprisin',<br /></span> +<span>Six boys, nine gals, with twins thrown in,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O, they were enterprisin'.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Yet naught is found their deeds to praise<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In any book of hist'ry,<br /></span> +<span>The brothers wrote about themselves,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And—well, that solves the myst'ry.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>But now our women take their place<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In pulpit, court, and college,<br /></span> +<span>As doctors, teachers, orators,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">They equal men in knowledge.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>And when another history's writ<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of what New Hampshire's done,<br /></span> +<span>The women all will get their due,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But not a single son.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>But no, on sober second thought,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">We lead, not pose as martyrs,<br /></span> +<span>We'll give fair credit to her sons,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But not forget her Darters.<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p class="au">Kate Sanborn. </p> + +<a name="image-0013"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/sk-img13.jpg" width="500" height="352" +alt="The Lookout" /> +</center> +<h5>THE LOOKOUT</h5> + +<p> +A little of my (not doggerel) but pupperell to complete the family +trio. +</p> +<p> +Answer to an artist friend who begged for a "Turkey dinner." +</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>Delighted to welcome you dear;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But you can't have a Turkey dinner!<br /></span> +<span>Those fowls are my friends—live here:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To eat, not be eat, you sinner!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>I like their limping, primping mien,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I like their raucous gobble;<br /></span> +<span>I like the lordly tail outspread,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I like their awkward hobble.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Yes, Turkey is my favourite meat,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Hot, cold, or réchauffée;<br /></span> +<span>*But my own must stay, and eat and eat;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">You may paint 'em, and so take away.<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p class="au">Kate Sanborn. </p> + +<p class="center"> +<sup>*</sup>Metre adapted to the peculiar feet of this bird. +</p> +<br /> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i5"><small>SPRING IN WINTER</small><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span ><i>A Memory of "Breezy Meadows"</i><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>'Twas winter—and bleakly and bitterly came<br /></span> +<span>The winds o'er the meads you so breezily name;<br /></span> +<span>And what tho' the sun in the heavens was bright,<br /></span> +<span>'Twas lacking in heat altho' lavish in light.<br /></span> +<span>And cold were the guests who drew up to your door,<br /></span> +<span>But lo, when they entered 'twas winter no more!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Without, it might freeze, and without, it might storm,<br /></span> +<span>Within, there was welcome all glowing and warm.<br /></span> +<span>And oh, but the warmth in the hostess's eyes<br /></span> +<span>Made up for the lack of that same in the skies!<br /></span> +<span>And fain is the poet such magic to sing:<br /></span> +<span>Without, it was winter—within, it was spring!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Yea, spring—for the charm of the house and its cheer<br /></span> +<span>Awoke in us dreams of the youth of the year;<br /></span> +<span>And safe in your graciousness folded and furled,<br /></span> +<span>How far seemed the cold and the care of the world!<br /></span> +<span>So strong was the spell that your magic could fling,<br /></span> +<span>We <i>knew</i> it was winter—we <i>felt</i> it was spring!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Yea, spring—in the glow of your hearth and your board<br /></span> +<span>The springtime for us was revived and restored,<br /></span> +<span>And everyone blossomed, from hostess to guest,<br /></span> +<span>In story and sentiment, wisdom and jest;<br /></span> +<span>And even the bard like a robin must sing—<br /></span> +<span>And, sure, after that, who could doubt it was spring!<br /></span> +</div></div> + <p class="au1">Denis A. McCarthy.</p> +<p class="note"><i>New Year's Day</i>, 1909.</p> + +<p> +Mr. McCarthy is associate editor of <i>The Sacred Heart</i>, Boston, and a +most popular poet and lecturer. +</p> +<p> +His dear little book, <i>Voices from Erin</i>, adorned with the Irish harp +and the American shield fastened together by a series of true-love +knots, is dedicated "To all who in their love for the new land have +not forgotten the old." There is one of these poems which is always +called for whenever the author attends any public function where +recitations are in order, and I do not wonder at its popularity, for +it has the genuine Irish lilt and fascination: +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="ih">"Ah, sweet is Tipperary in the spring time of the year,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">When the hawthorn's whiter than the snow,<br /></span> +<span>When the feathered folk assemble and the air is all a-tremble<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With their singing and their winging to and fro;<br /></span> +<span>When queenly Slieve-na-mon puts her verdant vesture on,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And smiles to hear the news the breezes bring;<br /></span> +<span>When the sun begins to glance on the rivulets that dance;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ah, sweet is Tipperary in the spring!"<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p> +I have always wanted to write a poem about my own "Breezy" and the +bunch of lilacs at the gate; but not being a poet I have had to keep +wanting; but just repeating this gaily tripping tribute over and over, +I suddenly seized my pencil and pad, and actually under the +inspiration, imitated (at a distance) half of this first verse. +</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>How sweet to be at Breezy in the springtime of the year,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With the lilacs all abloom at the gate,<br /></span> +<span>And everything so new, so jubilant, so dear,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And every little bird is a-looking for his mate.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p> +There, don't you dare laugh! Perhaps another time I may swing into +the exact rhythm. +</p> +<p> +The Rev. William Rankin Duryea, late Professor at Rutgers College, New +Brunswick, was before that appointment a clergyman in Jersey City. His +wife told me that he once wrote some verses hoping to win a prize of +several hundred dollars offered for the best poem on "Home." He dashed +off one at a sitting, read it over, tore it up, and flung it in the +waste basket. Then he proceeded to write something far more serious +and impressive. This he sent to the committee of judges who were to +choose the winner. It was never heard of. But his wife, who liked the +rhythm of the despised jingle, took it from the waste basket, pieced +it together, copied it, and sent it to the committee. It took the +prize. And he showed me in his library, books he had long wanted to +own, which he had purchased with this "prize money," writing in each +"Bought for a Song." +</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i7">1<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Dark is the night, and fitful and drearily<br /></span> +<span>Rushes the wind like the waves of the sea,<br /></span> +<span>Little care I as here I sing cheerily,<br /></span> +<span>Wife at my side and my baby on knee;<br /></span> +<span>King, King, crown me the King!<br /></span> +<span>Home is the Kingdom, and Love is the King.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i7">2<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Flashes the firelight upon the dear faces<br /></span> +<span>Dearer and dearer as onward we go,<br /></span> +<span>Forces the shadow behind us and places<br /></span> +<span>Brightness around us with warmth in the glow<br /></span> +<span>King, King, crown me the King!<br /></span> +<span>Home is the Kingdom, and Love is the King.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i7">3<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Flashes the love-light increasing the glory,<br /></span> +<span>Beaming from bright eyes with warmth of the soul,<br /></span> +<span>Telling of trust and content the sweet story,<br /></span> +<span>Lifting the shadows that over us roll;<br /></span> +<span>King, King, crown me the King!<br /></span> +<span>Home is the Kingdom, and Love is the King.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i7">4<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Richer than miser with perishing treasure,<br /></span> +<span>Served with a service no conquest could bring,<br /></span> +<span>Happy with fortune that words cannot measure,<br /></span> +<span>Light-hearted I on the hearthstone can sing,<br /></span> +<span>King, King, crown me the King!<br /></span> +<span>Home is the Kingdom, and Love is the King.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + <p class="au">Wm. Rankin Duryea, D.D.</p> + +<a name="image-0014"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/sk-img14.jpg" width="322" height="450" +alt="The Switch" /> +</center> +<h5>THE SWITCH</h5> + +<p> +Breezy Meadows, my heart's delight. I was so fortunate as to purchase +it in a ten-minute interview with the homesick owner, who longed to +return to Nebraska, and complained that there was not grass enough on +the place to feed a donkey. I am sure this was not a personal +allusion, as I saw the donkey and he did look forlorn. +</p> +<p> +I was captivated by the big elms, all worthy of Dr. Holmes's +wedding-ring, and looked no further, never dreaming of the great +surprises in store for me. As, a natural pond of water lilies, some +tinted with pink. These lilies bloom earlier and later than any others +about here. +</p> +<p> +An unusual variety of trees, hundreds of white birches greatly adding +to the beauty of the place, growing in picturesque clumps of family +groups and their white bark, especially white. +</p> +<a name="image-0015"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/sk-img15.jpg" width="500" height="350" +alt="How Vines Grow at Breezy Meadows" /> +</center> +<h5>HOW VINES GROW AT BREEZY MEADOWS</h5> + +<p> +Two granite quarries, the black and white, and an exquisite pink, and +we drive daily over long stretches of solid rock, going down two or +three hundred feet—But I shall never explore these for illusive +wealth. +</p> +<p> +A large chestnut grove through which my foreman has made four +excellent roads. Two fascinating brooks, with forget-me-nots, +blue-eyed and smiling in the water, and the brilliant cardinal-flower +on the banks in the late autumn. +</p> +<p> +From a profusion of wild flowers I especially remark the +moccasin-flower or stemless lady's-slipper. +</p> +<p> +My <i>Nature's Garden</i> says—"Because most people cannot forbear picking +this exquisite flower that seems too beautiful to be found outside a +millionaire's hothouse, it is becoming rarer every year, until the +picking of one in the deep forest where it must now hide, has become +the event of a day's walk." Nearly 300 of this orchid were found in +our wooded garden this season. +</p> +<p> +In the early spring, several deer are seen crossing the field just a +little distance from the house. They like to drink at the brooks and +nip off the buds of the lilac trees. Foxes, alas, abound. +</p> +<p> +Pheasants, quail, partridges are quite tame, perhaps because we feed +them in winter. +</p> +<p> +I found untold bushes of the blueberry and huckleberry, also enough +cranberries in the swamp to supply our own table and sell some. Wild +grape-vines festoon trees by the brooks. +</p> +<p> +Barberries, a dozen bushes of these which are very decorative, and +their fruit if skilfully mixed with raisins make a foreign-tasting and +delicious conserve. +</p> +<p> +We have the otter and mink, and wild ducks winter in our brooks. Large +birds like the heron and rail appear but rarely; ugly looking and +fierce. +</p> +<p> +The hateful English sparrow has been so reduced in numbers by sparrow +traps that now they keep away and the bluebirds take their own boxes +again. The place is a safe and happy haven for hosts of birds. +</p> +<p> +I have a circle of houses for the martins and swallows and wires +connecting them, where a deal of gossip goes on. +</p> +<p> +The pigeons coo-oo-o on the barn roof and are occasionally utilized in +a pie, good too! +</p> +<a name="image-0016"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/sk-img16.jpg" width="318" height="450" +alt="Grand Elm (over Two Hundred Years Old)" /> +</center> +<h5>GRAND ELM <br /> +<small>(OVER TWO HUNDRED YEARS OLD)</small></h5> + +<p class="bquote"> + "I wonder how my great trees are coming on this summer." +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + "Where are your trees, Sir?" said the divinity student. +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + "Oh, all around about New England. I call all trees mine that I + have put my wedding ring on, and I have as many tree-wives as + Brigham Young has human ones." "One set's as green as the + other," exclaimed a boarder, who has never been identified. + "They're all Bloomers,"—said the young fellow called John. (I + should have rebuked this trifling with language, if our + landlady's daughter had not asked me just then what I meant by + putting my wedding-ring on a tree.) "Why, measuring it with my + thirty-foot tape, my dear, said I.—I have worn a tape almost + out on the rough barks of our old New England elms and other + big trees. Don't you want to hear me talk trees a little now? + That is one of my specialties." +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + "What makes a first-class elm?" +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + "Why, size, in the first place, and chiefly anything over + twenty feet clear girth five feet above the ground and with a + spread of branches a hundred feet across may claim that title, + according to my scale. All of them, with the questionable + exception of the Springfield tree above referred to, stop, so + far as my experience goes, at about twenty-two or twenty-three + feet of girth and a hundred and twenty of spread." +</p> +<p> +Three of my big elms easily stand the test Dr. Holmes prescribed, and +seem to spread themselves since being assured that they are worthy of +one of his wedding-rings if he were alive, and soon there will be +other applicants in younger elms. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +I am pleased that my memory has brought before me so unerringly the +pleasant pictures of the past. But my agreeable task is completed. +</p> +<p> +The humming-birds have come on this fifteenth of July to sip at early +morn the nectar from the blossoms of the trumpet-vine, now beginning +its brilliant display. That is always a signal for me to drop all +indoor engagements and from this time, the high noon of midsummer +fascinations, to keep out of doors enjoying to the full the +ever-changing glories of Nature, until the annual Miracle Play of +the Transfiguration of the Trees. +</p> + +<h5>THE END</h5> + +<div style="height: 6em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Memories and Anecdotes, by Kate Sanborn + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEMORIES AND ANECDOTES *** + +***** This file should be named 15174-h.htm or 15174-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/1/7/15174/ + +Produced by Janet Kegg and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Memories and Anecdotes + +Author: Kate Sanborn + +Release Date: February 25, 2005 [EBook #15174] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEMORIES AND ANECDOTES *** + + + + +Produced by Janet Kegg and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + + + + + + + + +MEMORIES AND ANECDOTES + + +By + +KATE SANBORN + +AUTHOR OF +"ADOPTING AN ABANDONED FARM," "ABANDONING AN +ADOPTED FARM," "OLD-TIME WALL PAPERS," ETC. + + +_WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS_ + + +G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS +NEW YORK LONDON +The Knickerbocker Press +1915 + + +[Illustration, _Frontispiece_: + GREETINGS AND WELCOME TO EVERY READER + (KATE SANBORN)] + + + + + To + + ALL MY FRIENDS EVERYWHERE + + ESPECIALLY TO MY BELOVED + "NEW HAMPSHIRE DAUGHTERS" IN MASSACHUSETTS, + MY PUPILS IN SMITH COLLEGE, + ALSO AT PACKER INSTITUTE, BROOKLYN, + AND ALL THOSE WHO HAD THE PATIENCE TO LISTEN TO MY + LECTURES, + + WITH GRATEFUL REGARDS TO THOSE DARTMOUTH GRADUATES + WHO, LIKING MY FATHER, WERE ALWAYS GIVING HIS + AMBITIOUS DAUGHTER A HELPING HAND + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I + +My Early Days--Odd Characters in our Village--Distinguished Visitors +to Dartmouth--Two Story-Tellers of Hanover--A "Beacon Light" and a +Master of Synonyms--A Day with Bryant in his Country Home--A Wedding +Trip to the White Mountains in 1826 in "A One-Hoss Shay"--A Great +Career which Began in a Country Store + + +CHAPTER II + +A Friend at Andover, Mass.--Hezekiah Butterworth--A Few of my Own +Folks--Professor Putnam of Dartmouth--One Year at Packer Institute, +Brooklyn--Beecher's Face in Prayer--The Poet Saxe as I Saw +him--Offered the Use of a Rare Library--Miss Edna Dean Proctor--New +Stories of Greeley--Experiences at St. Louis + + +CHAPTER III + +Happy Days with Mrs. Botta--My Busy Life in New York--President +Barnard of Columbia College--A Surprise from Bierstadt--Professor +Doremus, a Universal Genius--Charles H. Webb, a truly funny "Funny +Man"--Mrs. Esther Herman, a Modest Giver + + +CHAPTER IV + +Three Years at Smith College--Appreciation of Its Founder--A +Successful Lecture Tour--My Trip to Alaska + + +CHAPTER V + +Frances E. Willard--Walt Whitman--Lady Henry Somerset--Mrs. Hannah +Whitehall Smith--A Teetotaler for Ten Minutes--Olive Thorn +Miller--Hearty Praise for Mrs. Lippincott (Grace Greenwood.) + + +CHAPTER VI + +In and near Boston--Edward Everett Hale--Thomas Wentworth +Higginson--Julia Ward Howe--Mary A. Livermore--A Day at the Concord +School--Harriet G. Hosmer--"Dora Distria," our Illustrious Visitor + + +CHAPTER VII + +Elected to be the First President of New Hampshire's Daughters in +Massachusetts. Now Honorary President--Kind Words which I Highly +Value--Three, but not "of a Kind"--A Strictly Family Affair--Two +Favorite Poems--Breezy Meadows + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +GREETINGS AND WELCOME TO EVERY READER +(KATE SANBORN) _Frontispiece_ + +THE STREET FRONTING THE SANBORN HOME AT HANOVER, N.H. + +MRS. ANNE C. LYNCH BOTTA + +PRESIDENT BARNARD OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE + +PROFESSOR R. OGDEN DOREMUS + +SOPHIA SMITH + +PETER MacQUEEN + +SAM WALTER FOSS + +PINES AND SILVER BIRCHES + +PADDLING IN CHICKEN BROOK + +THE ISLAND WHICH WE MADE + +TAKA'S TEA HOUSE AT LILY POND + +THE LOOKOUT + +THE SWITCH + +HOW VINES GROW AT BREEZY MEADOWS + +GRAND ELM (OVER TWO HUNDRED YEARS OLD) + + + + +MEMORIES AND ANECDOTES + + + + +CHAPTER I + +My Early Days--Odd Characters in our Village--Distinguished Visitors +to Dartmouth--Two Story Tellers of Hanover--A "Beacon Light" and a +Master of Synonyms--A Day with Bryant in his Country Home--A Wedding +Trip to the White Mountains in 1826 in "A One Hoss Shay"--A Great +Career which Began in a Country Store. + + +I make no excuse for publishing these memories. Realizing that I have +been so fortunate as to know an unusual number of distinguished men +and women, it gives me pleasure to share this privilege with others. + +One summer morning, "long, long ago," a newspaper was sent by my +grandmother, Mrs. Ezekiel Webster, to a sister at Concord, New +Hampshire, with this item of news pencilled on the margin: + +"Born Thursday morning, July 11, 1839, 4.30 A.M., a fine little girl, +seven pounds." + +I was born in my father's library, and first opened my eyes upon a +scenic wall-paper depicting the Bay of Naples; in fact I was born just +under Vesuvius--which may account for my occasional eruptions of +temper and life-long interest in "Old Time Wall-papers." Later our +house was expanded into a college dormitory and has been removed to +another site, but Vesuvius is still smoking placidly in the old +library. + +Mine was a shielded, happy childhood--an only child for six years--and +family letters show that I was "always and for ever talking," asking +questions, making queer remarks, or allowing free play to a vivid +imagination, which my parents thought it wise to restrain. Father felt +called upon to write for a child's paper about Caty's Gold Fish, which +were only minnows from Mink Brook. + +"Caty is sitting on the floor at my feet, chattering as usual, and +asking questions." I seem to remember my calling over the banister to +an assembled family downstairs, "Muzzer, Muzzer, I dess I dot a +fezer," or "Muzzer, come up, I'se dot a headache in my stomach." I +certainly can recall my intense admiration for Professor Ira Young, +our next door neighbour, and his snowy pow, which I called "pity wite +fedders." + +As years rolled on, I fear I was pert and audacious. I once touched +at supper a blazing hot teapot, which almost blistered my fingers, and +I screamed with surprise and pain. Father exclaimed, "Stop that noise, +Caty." I replied, "Put your fingers on that teapot--and don't +kitikize." And one evening about seven, my usual bedtime, I announced, +"I'm going to sit up till eight tonight, and don't you 'spute." I know +of many children who have the same habit of questions and sharp +retorts. One of my pets, after plying her mother with about forty +questions, wound up with, "Mother, how does the devil's darning needle +sleep? Does he lie down on a twig or hang, or how?" "I don't know, +dear." "Why, mother, it is surprising when you have lived so many +years, that you know so little!" + +Mr. Higginson told an absurd story of an inquisitive child and wearied +mother in the cars passing the various Newtons, near Boston. At last +the limit. "Ma, why do they call this West Newton?" "Oh, I suppose for +fun." Silence for a few minutes, then, "Ma, what _was_ the fun in +calling it West Newton?" + +I began Latin at eight years--my first book a yellow paper primer. + +I was always interested in chickens, and dosed all the indisposed as: + + Dandy Dick + Was very sick, + I gave him red pepper + And soon he was better. + +In spring, I remember the humming of our bees around the sawdust, and +my craze for flower seeds and a garden of my own. + +Father had a phenomenal memory; he could recite in his classroom pages +of Scott's novels, which he had not read since early youth. He had no +intention of allowing my memory to grow flabby from lack of use. I +often repeat a verse he asked me to commit to memory: + + In reading authors, when you find + Bright passages that strike your mind, + And which perhaps you may have reason + To think on at another season; + Be not contented with the sight, + But jot them down in black and white; + Such respect is wisely shown + As makes another's thought your own. + +Every day at the supper table I had to repeat some poetry or prose and +on Sunday a hymn, some of which were rather depressing to a young +person, as: + + Life is but a winter's day; + A journey to the tomb. + +And the vivid description of "Dies Irae": + + When shrivelling like a parched scroll + The flaming heavens together roll + And louder yet and yet more dread + Swells the high Trump that wakes the dead. + +Great attention was given to my lessons in elocution from the best +instructors then known, and I had the privilege of studying with +William Russell, one of the first exponents of that art. I can still +hear his advice: "Full on the vowels; dwell on the consonants, +especially at the close of sentences; keep voice strong for the close +of an important sentence or paragraph." Next, I took lessons from +Professor Mark Bailey of Yale College; and then in Boston in the +classes of Professor Lewis B. Monroe,--a most interesting, practical +teacher of distinctness, expression, and the way to direct one's voice +to this or that part of a hall. I was given the opportunity also of +hearing an occasional lecture by Graham Bell. Later, I used to read +aloud to father for four or five hours daily--grand practice--such +important books as Lecky's _Rationalism_, Buckle's _Averages_, Sir +William Hamilton's _Metaphysics_ (not one word of which could I +understand), Huxley, Tyndall, Darwin, and Spencer, till my head was +almost too full of that day's "New Thought." + +Judge Salmon P. Chase once warned me, when going downstairs to a +dinner party at Edgewood, "For God's sake, Kate, don't quote the +_Atlantic Monthly_ tonight!" I realized then what a bore I had been. + +What a treat to listen to William M. Evarts chatting with Judge Chase! +One evening he affected deep depression. "I have just been beaten +twice at 'High Low Jack' by Ben the learned pig. I always wondered why +two pipes in liquid measure were called a hogshead; now I know; it was +on account of their great capacity." He also told of the donkey's +loneliness in his absence, as reported by his little daughter. + +I gave my first series of talks at Tilden Seminary at West Lebanon, +New Hampshire, only a few miles from Hanover. President Asa D. Smith +of Dartmouth came to hear two of them, and after I had given the whole +series from Chaucer to Burns, he took them to Appleton & Company, the +New York publishers, who were relatives of his, and surprised me by +having them printed. + +I give an unasked-for opinion by John G. Whittier: + + I spent a pleasant hour last evening over the charming little + volume, _Home Pictures of English Poets_, which thou wast kind + enough to send me, and which I hope is having a wide + circulation as it deserves. Its analysis of character and + estimate of literary merit strike me as in the main correct. + Its racy, colloquial style, enlivened by anecdote and citation, + makes it anything but a dull book. It seems to me admirably + adapted to supply a want in hearth and home. + +I lectured next in various towns in New Hampshire and Vermont; as St. +Johnsbury, where I was invited by Governor Fairbanks; Bath, New +Hampshire, asked by Mrs. Johnson, a well-known writer on flowers and +horticulture, a very entertaining woman. At one town in Vermont I +lectured at the large academy there--not much opportunity for rest in +such a building. My room was just off the music room where duets were +being executed, and a little further on girls were taking singing +lessons, while a noisy little clock-ette on my bureau zigzagged out +the rapid ticks. At the evening meal I was expected to be agreeable, +also after the lecture to meet and entertain a few friends. When I at +last retired that blatant clock made me so nervous that I placed it at +first in the bureau drawer, where it sounded if possible louder than +ever. Then I rose and put it way back in a closet; no hope; at last I +partially dressed and carried it the full length of the long hall, and +laid it down to sleep on its side. And I think that depressed it. In +the morning, a hasty breakfast, because a dozen or more girls were +waiting at the door to ask me to write a "tasty sentiment" before I +left, in their autograph albums, with my autograph of course, and +"something of your own preferred, but at any rate characteristic." + +My trips to those various towns taught me to be more humble, and to +admire the women I met, discovering how seriously they had studied, +and how they made use of every opportunity. I remember Somersworth, +New Hampshire, and Burlington, Vermont. I lectured twice at the Insane +Asylum at Concord, New Hampshire, invited by Dr. Bancroft. After +giving my "newspaper wits" a former governor of Vermont came up to +shake hands with me, saying frankly, "Miss Sanborn, your lecture was +just about right for us lunatics." A former resident of Hanover, in a +closed cell, greeted me the next morning as I passed, with a torrent +of abuse, profanity, and obscenity. She too evidently disliked my +lecture. Had an audience of lunatics also at the McLean Insane Asylum, +Dr. Coles, Superintendent. + +I think I was the first woman ever invited to make an address to +farmers on farming. I spoke at Tilton, New Hampshire, to more than +three hundred men about woman's day on the farm. Insinuated that +women need a few days _off_ the farm. Said a good many other things +that were not applauded. Farmers seemed to know nothing of the +advantages of co-operation, and that they were as much slaves (to the +middlemen) as ever were the negroes in the South. They even tried to +escape from me at the noise of a dog-fight outside. I offered to +provide a large room for social meetings, to stock it with books of +the day, and to send them a lot of magazines and other reading. Not +one ever made the slightest response. Now they have all and more than +I suggested. + +When but seventeen, I was sent for to watch with Professor Shurtleff, +really a dying man, and left all alone with him in the lower part of +the house; he begged about 2 A.M. to be taken up and placed in a +rocking-chair near the little open fire. The light was dim and the +effect was very weird. His wig hung on one bedpost, he had lost one +eye, and the patch worn over the empty eye socket had been left on the +bureau. My anxiety was great lest he should slip from the chair and +tip into the fire. I note this to mark the great change since that +time. Neighbours are not now expected to care for the sick and dying, +but trained nurses are always sought, and most of them are noble +heroines in their profession. + +Once also I watched with a poor woman who was dying with cancer. I +tried it for two nights, but the remark of her sister, as I left +utterly worn out, "Some folks seem to get all their good things in +this life," deterred me from attempting it again. + +Started a school a little later in the ell of our house for my friends +among the Hanover children--forty-five scholars in all. Kept it going +successfully for two years. + +I dislike to tell a story so incredible and so against myself as this. +One evening father said, "I am going to my room early tonight, Katie; +do not forget to lock the back door." I sat reading until quite late, +then retired. About 2.30 A.M., I was startled to hear someone gently +open that back door, then take off boots and begin to softly ascend +the stairs, which stopped only the width of a narrow hall from my +room. I have been told that I said in trembling tones, "You're trying +to keep pretty quiet down there." Next moment I was at the head of the +stairs; saw a man whom I did not recognize on the last step but one. I +struck a heavy blow on his chest, saying, "Go down, sir," and down he +tumbled all the way, his boots clanking along by themselves. Then the +door opened, my burglar disappeared, and I went down and locked the +back door as I had promised father I would. I felt less proud of my +physical prowess and real courage when my attention was called to a +full account of my assault in the college papers of the day. The young +man was not rooming at our house, but coming into town quite late, +planned to lodge with a friend there. He threw gravel at this young +man's window in the third story to waken him, and failing thought at +last he would try the door, and if not locked he would creep up, and +disturb no one. But "Miss Sanborn knocked a man all the way +downstairs" was duly announced. I then realized my awful mistake, and +didn't care to appear on the street for some time except in recitation +hours. + +The second time I lectured in Burlington, I was delayed nearly half an +hour at that dreadful Junction, about which place Professor Edward J. +Phelps, afterwards Minister to England, wrote a fierce rhyme to +relieve his rage at being compelled to waste so much precious time +there. I recall only two revengeful lines: + + "I hope in hell his soul may dwell, + Who first invented Essex Junction." + +Oh, yes, I do remember his idea that the cemetery near the station +contained the bodies of many weary ones who had died just before help +came and were shovelled over. + +It happened that Mrs. Underwood, wife of the demented governor, who +had alluded so truthfully to my lecture, was in the audience, and +being gifted with genuine clairvoyant powers, she rose and begged the +audience not to disperse, as she could distinctly see me pacing +nervously up and down the platform at the Junction in a long sealskin +coat and hat trimmed with band of fur. I arrived at last with the +sealskin and the hat, proving her correct, and they cheered her as +well as myself. + +Our little village had its share of eccentric characters, as the old +man who was impelled by the edict of the Bible to cut off his right +hand as it had "offended him." But lacking surgical facilities, the +effort left one hand hanging limp and useless. His long white beard, +how truly patriarchal! + +Poor insane Sally Duget--a sad story! Her epitaph in our cemetery is +pathetic. With all her woe she was quick at repartee. A man once asked +her, "Shall you ever marry, Sally?" "Well, yes, if you and I can make +a bargain." + +Elder Bawker with his difficulties in locomotion. + +Rogers, who carried the students' washing home to his wife on Sunday +afternoons for a preliminary soak. The minister seeing him thus +engaged, stopped him, and inquired: + +"Where do you think you will go to if you so constantly desecrate the +Holy Sabbath?" + +"Guess I'll go right on doing laundry work for the boys." + +The aged janitor who, in a brief scare about smallpox, was asked if he +had ever had it: "No, but I've had chances." + +An old sinner who, being converted, used to serve as a lay evangelist +at the district schoolhouse where in winter religious meetings were +held. Roguish lads to test him sprinkled red pepper, a lot of it, on +the red hot stove. He almost suffocated, but burst out with: "By God, +there's enemies to religion in this house! Hist the winders!" + +The rubicund butcher of that period (we had no choice) was asked by a +long-time patron how he got such a red face. "Cider apple sass." The +same patron said, "You have served me pretty well, but cheated me a +good deal." "Yes, sir, but you have no idea how much I've cheated +you." + +Our one milliner, positively brilliant in her remarks, when a lady +sent back her bonnet twice on the ground that it was not becoming, +said, "Remember you have your face to contend with." + +Our only and original gravedigger, manager in general of village +affairs. + +After the death of a physician, his wife gave a stained-glass window +to the Episcopal Church of St. Luke, the beloved physician. She asked +Jason if he liked it. He said, "It don't strike me as a particular +speaking likeness of Dr. Tom." + +To one of the new professors who ventured to make a few suggestions, +"Who be yaou anyway?" + +He enjoyed buttonholing people he met in our "graveyard" and pointing +out where they "must shortly lie." + +Our landlord--who that ever saw Horace Frary could forget him? If a +mother came to Hanover to see her boy on the 2.30 P.M. train, no meal +could be obtained. He would stand at the front door and explain, +"Dinner is over long ago." He cared personally for about thirty oil +lamps each day, trimmed the wicks with his fingers, and then wiped +them on his trousers. Also did the carving standing at the table and +cleaning the dull knife on the same right side--so the effect was +startling. One day when he had been ill for a short time his wife +said: "Dr. Dixi Crosby is coming this way now, I'll call him in." +"Don't let him in now," he begged, "why d---- it, I'm _sick_!" + +I must not omit the strictly veracious witness who was sworn to +testify how many students were engaged in a noisy night frolic at +Norwich. "As fur as I know, there was betwixt six and seven." + +"Webb Hall," who today would figure as a "down and out," made many +amusing statements. "By the way I look in these ragged clothes, you +might take me for a Democrat, but I'm a red hot Republican." + +He was obsessed by the notion that he had some trouble with a judge in +Concord, New Hampshire. He said fiercely, "I will buy two guns, go to +Concord, kill Judge Stanton with one, and shoot myself with the other, +or else wait quietly till spring and see what will come of it." A +possible precursor of President Wilson's Mexican policy. + +He was accused by a woman of milking a cow in her pasture; pleaded +guilty, but added, "I left a ten-cent piece on the fence." + +An East Hanover man is remembered for his cheek in slyly picking +lettuce or parsley in the gardens of the professors and then selling +them at the back door to their wives. + +And a farmer from Vermont who used to sell tempting vegetables from +his large farm. He was so friendly he cordially greeted the ladies who +bought from him with a kiss. Grandmother evaded this attention by +stating her age, and so was unmolested. The names of his family were +arranged in alphabetical order. "Hannah A., give Miss Kate another cup +of coffee; Noah B., pass the butter; Emma C., guess you better hand +round the riz biscuit." + +Life then was a solemn business at Hanover. No dancing; no cards; no +theatricals; a yearly concert at commencement, and typhoid fever in +the fall. On the Lord's Day some children were not allowed to read the +_Youth's Companion_, or pluck a flower in the garden. But one old +working woman rebelled. "I ain't going to have my daughter Frances +brought up in no superstitious tragedy." She was far in advance of her +age. + +I have always delighted in college songs from good voices, whether +sung when sitting on the old common fence (now gone) at the "sing out" +at the close of the year, or merrily trolling or tra-la-laing along +the streets. What a surprise when one glorious moonlight night which +showed up the magnificent elms then arching the street before our +house--the air was full of fragrance--I was suddenly aroused by +several voices adjuring me, a lady of beauty, to awake. I was +bewildered--ecstatic. This singing was for me. I listened intently and +heard the words of their song: + + Sweet is the sound of lute and voice + When borne across the water. + +Then two other sweets I could not quite catch, and the last lines sung +with fervor: + + But sweeter still is the charming voice + Of Professor Sanborn's daughter. + +Two more stanzas and each with the refrain: + + The prettiest girl on Hanover Plain is + Professor Sanborn's daughter. + +Then the last verse: + + Hot is the sun whose golden rays + Can reach from heaven to earth, + And hot a tin pan newly scoured + Placed on the blazing hearth, + And hot a boy's ears boxed for doing + That which he hadn't orter, + But hotter still is the love I bear + For Professor Sanborn's daughter. + +with chorus as before. + +I threw down lovely flowers and timidly thanked them. They applauded, +sang a rollicking farewell, and were gone. If I could have removed my +heart painlessly, I believe that would have gone out too. They had +gone, but the blissful memory! I leaned on the window sill, and the +moon with its bounteous mellow radiance filled my room. But listen, +hark! Only two doors beyond, the same voices, the same melodious +tones, and alas, yes, the same words, every verse and the same +chorus--same masculine fervour--but somebody else's daughter. + +A breakfast comment: "It's a terrible nuisance this caterwauling in +the middle of the night in front of the house!" For once I was silent. + +Many distinguished men were invited to Dartmouth as orators at +commencement or on special occasions, as Rufus Choate, Edward Everett, +John G. Saxe, Wendell Phillips, Charles Dudley Warner, and Dr. Holmes, +whom I knew in his Boston study, overlooking the water and the gulls. +By the way, he looked so young when arriving at Hanover for a few +lectures to the Medical School that he was asked if he had come to +join the Freshman class. + +There were also Edwin P. Whipple, the essayist, and Walt Whitman, who +was chosen one year for the commencement poet. He appeared on the +platform wearing a flannel shirt, square-cut neck, disclosing a +hirsute covering that would have done credit to a grizzly bear; the +rest of his attire all right. Joaquin Miller was another genius and +original. + +Another visitor was James T. Fields of Boston, the popular publisher, +poet, author, lecturer, friend, and inimitable raconteur, who was +always one of my best friends. + +When Mr. and Mrs. Fields were invited to Hanover, he and his beautiful +wife were always guests at our home. Their first visit to us was an +epoch for me. I worked hard the morning before they were to arrive, +sweeping, dusting, polishing silver, and especially brightening the +large, brass andirons in father's library. I usually scoured with +rotten stone and oil, but on this great occasion, adopting a receipt +which I had happened to see in a newspaper, I tried vinegar and +powdered pumice-stone. The result at first was fine. + +I had barely time after all this to place flowers about the house and +dress, and then to drive in our old carryall, with our older horse, to +the station at Norwich, just across the Connecticut River, to meet the +distinguished pair and escort them to our house. As I heard the train +approaching, and the shrill whistle, I got nervous, and my hands +trembled. How would they know me? And what had I better say? My aged +and spavined horse was called by father "Rosinante" for Don Quixote's +bony steed, also "Blind Guide" and "Heathen Philosopher." He looked +it--and my shabby carryall! But the train was snorting for a stop, +and the two guests soon came easily to my vehicle, and Mr. Fields +seemed to know me. Both shook hands most cordially and were soon in +the back seat, full of pleasant chat and the first exciting ordeal was +over. At tea table Mr. and Mrs. Fields sat on either side of father, +and the stories told were different from any I had ever heard. I found +when the meal was over I had not taken a mouthful. Next we all went to +the College Church for the lecture, and on coming home we had an +evening lunch. All ate heartily but me. I ventured to tell one story, +when Mr. Fields clapped his hands and said, "Delightful." That was +food to me! I went to bed half starved, and only took enough breakfast +to sustain life. Before they left I had written down and committed to +memory every anecdote he had given. They have never been printed until +now, and you may be sure they are just as my hero told them. My only +grief was the appearance of my andirons. I invited our guests to the +open fire with pride, and the brass was covered with black and +green--not a gleam of shine. + +Often Mr. Fields's jokes were on himself--as the opinion of a man in +the car seat just beyond him, as they happened to be passing Mr. +Fields's residence on the Massachusetts coast. The house was pointed +out on "Thunderbolt Hill" and his companion said, "How is he as a +lecturer?" + +"Well," was the response, "he ain't Gough by a d----d sight." + +How comically he told of a country druggist's clerk to whom he put the +query, "What is the most popular pill just now?" And the quick answer, +"Schenk's--they do say the Craowned Heads is all atakin' of 'em!" + +Or the request for his funniest lecture for the benefit of a hearse in +a rural hamlet! + +His experience in a little village where he and Mrs. Fields wanted to +find a boarding-house: The lady of the house demurred; she had "got +pretty tired of boarders," but at last capitulated with, "Well, I'll +let you come in if you'll do your own stretching." This proved to mean +no waitress at the table. + +The morning after their arrival, he went out for a long walk in the +mountain air, and returning was accosted by his host: "I see you are +quite a predestinarian." As he was resting on one of the wooden +chairs, the man said: "I got those chairs for piazzary purposes," and +enlarged on the trouble of getting good help in haying time: "Why, my +neighbour, Jake Stebbins, had a boy in his gang named Henry Ward +Beecher Gooley. He was so dreadful pious that on extra hot mornings +he'd call 'em all together at eleven o'clock and ask 'em to join in +singing, 'Lord, Dismiss us with Thy Blessing.'" + +All these anecdotes were told to me by Mr. Fields and I intend to give +only those memories which are _my own_. + +Mr. Fields was wonderfully kind to budding authors. Professor Brown +sent him, without my knowledge, my two-column appreciation of dear Tom +Hood, after his memorials were written by his son and daughter. And +before many weeks came a box of his newest books for me, with a little +note on finest paper and wide margin, "hoping that your friendship may +always be continued towards our house." + +I cannot speak of Mr. Fields and fail to pay my tribute of loving +admiration to his wife, Annie Fields. When I first met that lady in +her home at 148 Charles Street, she was so exquisitely dainty, +refined, spirituelle, and beautiful, I felt, as I expressed it, +"square-toed and common." She was sincerely cordial to all who were +invited to that sacred shrine; she was the perfect hostess and +housekeeper, the ever-busy philanthropist, a classic poet, a strong +writer of prose when eager to aid some needed reform. Never before had +I seen such a rare combination of the esthetic and practical, and she +shone wherever placed. Once when she was with us, I went up to her +room to see if I could help her as she was leaving. She was seated on +the floor, pulling straps tightly round some steamer rugs and a rainy +day coat, and she explained she always attended to such "little +things." As one wrote of her, after her death, she made the most of +herself, but she made more of her husband. Together they went forward, +side by side, to the last, comrades and true lovers. + +Two of all the wonderful literary treasures in their drawing-room +produced a great impression on me, one a caricature of Thackeray's +face done by himself with no mercy shown to his flattened, broken +nose. A lady said to him: "There is only one thing about you I could +never get over, your nose." "No wonder, madam, there is no bridge to +it." The other was an invitation to supper in Charles Lamb's own +writing, and at the bottom of the page, "Puns at nine." + +Two famous story-tellers of the old-fashioned type were Doctor Dixi +Crosby of Hanover, and his son "Ben," who made a great name for +himself in New York City as a surgeon, and also as a brilliant +after-dinner speaker. Doctor Crosby's preference was for the +long-drawn-out style, as this example, which I heard him tell several +times, shows: + +A man gave a lecture in a New England town which failed to elicit much +applause and this troubled him. As he left early next morning on the +top of the stage-coach, he interviewed the driver, who seemed not +anxious to talk. "Did you hear much said about my lecture last night? +Do you think it pleased the audience?" + +"Oh, I guess they were well enough satisfied; some were anyway." + +"Were there any who expressed dissatisfaction?" + +"I would not pry into it, stranger; there wasn't much said against it +anyhow." + +"Now you have aroused my curiosity. I must beg you to let me know. Who +criticized it, and what did they say? It might help me to hear it." + +"Well, Squire Jones was the man; he does not say much one way or +other. But I'll tell you he always gets the gist of it." + +"And what was his verdict?" + +"If you must know, Squire Jones he said, said he, he thought +'twas--awful shaller." + +Doctor Ben's Goffstown Muster was a quicker tempo and had a better +climax. 'Twas the great occasion of the annual military reviews. He +graphically described boys driving colts hardly broken; mothers +nursing babies, very squally; girls and their beaux sitting in the +best wagon holding hands and staring about (as Warner said to me, +"Young love in the country is a solemn thing"); the booths for sale of +gingerbread, peanuts, cider, candies, and popcorn; the marshal of the +day dashing here and there on his prancing steed. All was excitement, +great crowds, and the blare of the band. Suddenly an aged pair, +seemingly skeletons, so bony and wan were they, were seen tottering +toward the fence, where they at last stopped. They had come from the +direction of the graveyard. The marshal rushed forward calling out, +"Go back, go back; this is not the general resurrection, it is only +the Goffstown Muster." + +Doctor Ben Crosby was one of the most admirable mimics ever known and +without a suspicion of ill-nature. Sometimes he would call on us +representing another acquaintance, who had just left, so perfectly +that the gravest and stiffest were in danger of hysterics. This power +his daughter inherited. + +John Lord, the historical lecturer, was always a "beacon light" (which +was the name he gave his lectures when published) as he discussed the +subjects and persons he took for themes before immense audiences +everywhere. His conversation was also intensely interesting. He was a +social lion and a favourite guest. His lectures have still a large +annual sale--no one who once knew him or listened to his pyrotechnic +climaxes could ever forget him or them. It was true that he made nine +independent and distinct motions simultaneously in his most intense +delivery. I once met him going back to his rooms at his hotel carrying +a leather bag. He stopped, opened it, showing a bottle of Scotch +whiskey, and explained "I am starting in on a lecture on Moses." There +was a certain simplicity about the man. Once when his right arm was in +a sling, broken by a fall from a horse, he offered prayer in the old +church. And unable to use his arm as usual, he so balanced his +gyrations that he in some way drifted around until when he said "Amen" +his face fronted the whitewashed wall back of his pulpit. He turned to +the minister standing by him, saying in a very audible whisper, "Do +you think anybody noticed it?" + +He was so genuinely hospitable that when a friend suddenly accepted +his "come up any time" invitation, he found no one at home but the +doctor, who proposed their killing a chicken. Soon one was let out, +but she evaded her pursuers. "You shoo, and I'll catch," cried the +kind host, but shrank back as the fowl came near, exclaiming: "Say, +West, has a hen got teeth?" At last they conquered, plucked, and +cooked her for a somewhat tardy meal, with some potatoes clawed up in +the potato field. Once, when very absent-minded, at a hotel table in a +country tavern, the waitress was astonished to watch him as he took +the oil cruet from the castor and proceeded to grease his boots. + +Doctor John Ordronaux, Professor of Medical Jurisprudence at Dartmouth +and various other colleges and medical schools, was another erudite +scholar, who made a permanent impression on all he met. While yet at +college, his words were so unusual and his vocabulary so full that a +wag once advertised on the bulletin board on the door of Dartmouth +Hall, "Five hundred new adjectives by John Ordronaux." + +He was haunted by synonyms, and told me they interfered with his +writing, so many clamouring for attention. He was a confirmed bachelor +with very regular habits; wanted his bed to be left to air the entire +day, he to make it himself at precisely 5.30 P.M., or as near as +possible. His walk was peculiar, with knees stiffly bent out and +elbows crooked as if to repel all feminine aggression, "a progressive +porcupine" as someone described his gait. His hour for retiring was +always the same; when calling leaving about 9.30. Rallied about his +methodical habits, he was apt to mention many of his old friends who +had indulged themselves in earthly pleasures, all of whom he had the +sad pleasure of burying. + +He was a great admirer of my mother for her loveliness and kind +interest in the students; after her death he was a noble aid to me in +many ways. I needed his precautions about spreading myself too thin, +about being less flamboyantly loquacious, and subduing my excessive +enthusiasm and emotional prodigality. Once after giving me a drive, he +kindly said, as he helped me out, "I have quite enjoyed your cheerful +prattle." Fact was, he had monologued it in his most sesquipedalian +phraseology. I had no chance to say one word. He had his own way of +gaining magnetism; believed in associating with butchers. Did you ever +know one that was anaemic, especially at slaughtering time? From them +and the animals there and in stables, and the smell of the flowing +blood, he felt that surely a radiant magnetism was gained. Those he +visited "thought he was real democratic and a pleasant spoken man." He +told of an opportunity he once had for regular employment, riding on +the stage-coach by the side of a farmer's pretty daughter. She +suggested that he might like a milk route, and "perhaps father can +get you one." So formal, dignified, and fastidious was he that this +seems improbable, but I quote his own account. + +Doctor Ordronaux visited at my uncle's, a physician, when I was +resting there from overwork. After his departure, uncle received a +letter from him which he handed to me saying, "Guess this is meant for +you." I quote proudly: + + I rejoice to have been permitted to enjoy so much of Miss + Sanborn's society, and to discover what I never before fully + appreciated, that beneath the scintillations of a brilliant + intellect she hides a vigorous and analytic understanding, and + when age shall have somewhat tempered her emotional + susceptibilities she will shine with the steady light of a + planet, reaching her perihelion and taking a permanent place in + the firmament of letters. + +Sounds something like a Johnsonian epitaph, but wasn't it great? + +I visited his adopted mother at Roslyn, Long Island, and they took me +to a Sunday dinner with Bryant at "Cedarmere," a fitting spot for a +poet's home. The aged poet was in vigorous health, mind and body. +Going to his library he took down an early edition of his +_Thanatopsis_, pointing out the nineteen lines written some time +before the rest. Mottoes hung on the wall such as "As thy days so +shall thy strength be." I ventured to ask how he preserved such +vitality, and he said, "I owe a great deal to daily air baths and the +flesh brush, plenty of outdoor air and open fireplaces." What an +impressive personality; erect, with white hair and long beard; his +eyebrows looked as if snow had fallen on them. His conversation was +delightfully informal. "What does your name mean?" he inquired, and I +had to say, "I do not know, it has changed so often," and asked, "What +is the origin of yours?" "Briant--brilliant, of course." He told the +butler to close the door behind me lest I catch cold from a draught, +quoting this couplet: + + When the wind strikes you through a hole, + Go make your will and mind your soul; + +and informing me that this advice was found in every language, if not +dialect, in the world. He loved every inch of his country home, was +interested in farming, flowers, the water-view and fish-pond, fond of +long walks, and preferred the simple life. In his rooms were many +souvenirs of early travel. His walls were covered with the finest +engravings and paintings from the best American artists. He was too +willing to be imposed upon by young authors and would-be poets. He +said: "People expect too much of me, altogether too much." That Sunday +was his last before his address on Mazzini in Central Park. He +finished with the hot sun over his head, and walking across the park +to the house of Grant Wilson, he fell down faint and hopelessly ill on +the doorstep. He never rallied, and after thirteen days the end came. +An impressive warning to the old, who are selfishly urged to do hard +tasks, that they must conserve their own vitality. Bryant was +eighty-four when killed by over-exertion, with a mind as wonderful as +ever. + +I will now recount the conditions when Ezekiel Webster and his second +wife took their wedding trip in a "one hoss shay" to the White +Mountains in 1826. + +Grandma lived to be ninety-six, with her mind as clear as ever, and +two years before her death she gave me this story of their experiences +at that time. My mother told me she knew of more than thirty proposals +she had received after grandfather's death, but she said "she would +rather be the widow of Ezekiel Webster, than the wife of any other +man." The following is her own description. + + The only house near the Crawford Notch was the Willey House, in + which the family were living. A week before a slide had come + down by the side of the house and obstructed the road. Mr. + Willey and two men came to our assistance, taking out the horse + and lifting the carriage over the debris. + + They described the terrors of the night of the slide. The rain + was pouring in torrents, the soil began to slide from the tops + of the rocks, taking with it trees, boulders, and all in its + way; the crashing and thundering were terrible. Three weeks + later the entire family, nine in number, in fleeing to a place + of refuge, were overtaken by a second slide and all buried. + + The notch was then as nature made it; no steam whistle or car + clatter had intruded upon its solitude. The first moving object + we saw after passing through was a man in the distance. He + proved to be Ethan Crawford, who kept the only house of + entertainment. He was walking leisurely, drawing a rattlesnake + along by its tail. He had killed the creature and was taking it + home as a trophy. He was a stalwart man, who had always lived + among the mountains, and had become as familiar with the wild + beasts as with the cat and dog of his own home. He said that + only a few days before he had passed a bear drinking at a + spring. He led the way to his house, a common farmhouse without + paint, or carpet, or cushioned seat. The landlady was spinning + wool in the kitchen. + + Mr. Crawford supplied the table when he could by his gun or + fishing-rod; otherwise the fare was meagre. When asked for + mustard for the salt meat, they said they had none, at least in + the house, but they had some growing. + + A young turkey halted about in the dining-room gobbling in a + noisy way, and the girl in attendance was requested by Mr. + Webster, with imperturbable gravity, either to kindly take it + out or to bring its companion in, for it seemed lonely. She + stood in utter confusion for a minute, then seized the + squawking fowl and disappeared. + + When Mr. Crawford was asked if ladies ever went up Mount + Washington, he said two had been up, and he hoped never to see + another trying it, for the last one he brought down on his + shoulders, or she would have never got down alive. + + The first night I asked for a change of bed linen. No attention + was paid to my request, and after waiting a long time I found + the landlady and asked her if she would have the sheets + changed. She straightened up and said she didn't think the bed + would hurt anybody, for only two ministers from Boston had + slept in it. We stayed some days and although it was the height + of the season, we were the only guests. Nothing from the + outside world reached us but one newspaper, and that brought + the startling news of the death of Adams and Jefferson on the + fourth of July, just fifty years after their signing the + Declaration of Independence. + +The large leghorn bonnet which Mrs. Webster wore on that eventful +journey hangs in my collection of old relics. She told me it used to +hit the wheel when she looked out. And near it is her dark-brown +"calash," a big bonnet with rattans stitched in so it would easily +move back and forward. Her winter hood was of dark blue silk, warmly +wadded and prettily quilted. + +Who would not wish to live to be a hundred if health and mental +vigour could be retained? This rare old lady wrote lively, interesting +letters on all current topics, and was as eager to win at whist, +backgammon, or logomachy as a child. Her religion was the most +beautiful part of her life, the same every day, self-forgetting, +practical Christianity. She is not forgotten; her life is still a +stimulus, an inspiration, a benediction. The love and veneration of +those who gathered about her in family reunions were expressed by her +nephew Dr. Fred B. Lund, one of the most distinguished surgeons of +Boston: + + To her who down the pathway of the years + Serene and calm her blessed way she trod, + Has given smiles for smiles, and tears for tears, + Held fast the good in life, and shown how God + + Has given to us His servants here below, + A shining mark to follow in our strife, + Who proves that He is good, and makes us know + Through ten decades of pure and holy life + + How life may be made sweeter at its end, + How graces from the seasons that have fled + May light her eyes and added glory lend + To saintly aureole about her head. + + We bring our Christmas greeting heartily, + Three generations gathered at her feet, + Who like a little child has led, while we + Have lived and loved beneath her influence sweet. + + [Illustration: THE STREET FRONTING THE SANBORN HOME AT HANOVER, N.H.] + +Levi Parsons Morton, born at Shoreham, Vermont, May 16, 1824, was +named for his mother's brother, Levi Parsons, the first American +missionary to Palestine. He was the son of a minister, Reverend Daniel +Morton, who with his wife Lucretia Parsons, like so many other +clergymen, was obliged to exist on a starvation salary, only six +hundred dollars a year. Among his ancestors was George Morton of +Battery, Yorkshire, financial agent in London of the _Mayflower_. Mr. +L.P. Morton may have inherited his financial cleverness from this +ancestor. + +After studying at Shoreham Academy, he entered a country store at +Enfield, Massachusetts, and was there for two years, then taught a +district school, and later entered a general store at Concord, New +Hampshire, when only seventeen. His father was unable to send him to +college, and Mr. Estabrook, the manager of the store, decided to +establish him in a branch store at Hanover, New Hampshire, where +Dartmouth College is located, giving him soon afterward an interest in +the business. Here he stayed until nearly twenty-four years old. Mr. +Morton immediately engaged a stylish tailor from Boston, W.H. Gibbs, +or as all called him, "Bill Gibbs," whose skill at making even cheap +suits look smart brought him a large patronage from the college +students. Once a whole graduating class were supplied with dress suits +from this artist. Mr. Morton had a most interesting store, sunny and +scrupulously clean, with everything anyone could ask for, and few ever +went out of it without buying something, even if they had entered +simply from curiosity. The clerks were trained to be courteous without +being persistent. Saturday was bargain day, and printed lists of what +could be obtained on that day at an absurdly cheap rate were widely +distributed through the neighbouring towns. People came in large +numbers to those bargains. Long rows of all sorts of odd vehicles were +hitched up and down the street. A man would drop in for some smoking +tobacco and buy himself a good straw hat or winter cap. A wife would +call because soda was offered so cheaply and would end by buying a +black silk dress, "worth one dollar a yard but selling for today only +for fifty cents." Mr. Morton was perhaps the original pioneer in +methods which have built up the great department stores of the present +day. If he had received the education his father so craved for him he +would have probably had an inferior and very different career. + +Mr. Morton greatly enjoyed his life at Hanover; he was successful and +looking forward to greater openings in his business career. My +father, taking a great fancy to this enterprising, cheery young man, +invited him to dine each day at our house for nearly a year. They were +great friends and had a happy influence upon each other. There were +many jolly laughs and much earnest talk. He met Miss Lucy Kimball of +Flatlands, Long Island, at our house at a Commencement reception, and +they were soon married. She lived only a few years. + +Mr. Morton was next in Boston in the dry-goods house of James Beebe +Morgan & Company, and was soon made a partner. Mr. Morgan was the +father of Pierpont Morgan. It is everlastingly to Mr. Morton's honour +that after he failed in business in New York he was able before long +to invite his creditors to dinner, and underneath the service plate of +each creditor was a check for payment in full. + +Preferring to give money while living, his whole path has been marked +by large benefactions. My memory is of his Hanover life and his +friendship with my father, but it is interesting to note the several +steps in his career: Honorary Commissioner, Paris Exposition, 1878; +Member 46th Congress, 1879-81, Sixth New York District; United States +Minister to France, 1881-85; Vice-President of the United States, +1889-93; Governor of New York, 1895-6. + +Mr. Morton recently celebrated at his Washington home the ninety-first +anniversary in a life full of honours, and what is more important--of +honour. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A Friend at Andover, Mass.--Hezekiah Butterworth--A Few of my Own +Folks--Professor Putnam of Dartmouth--One Year at Packer Institute, +Brooklyn--Beecher's Face in Prayer--The Poet Saxe as I Saw +him--Offered the Use of a Rare Library--Miss Edna Dean Proctor--New +Stories of Greeley--Experiences at St. Louis. + + +Next a few months at Andover for music lessons--piano and organ. A +valuable friend was found in Miss Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, who had +just published her _Gates Ajar_. She invited me to her study and +wanted to know what I meant to accomplish in life and urged me to +write. "I have so much work called for now that I cannot keep up my +contributions to _The Youth's Companion_. I want you to have my place +there. What would you like to write about?" + +"Don't know." + +"Haven't you anything at home to describe." + +"No." + +"Any pets?" + +"Why I have a homely, ordinary dog, but he knows a lot." + +And so I was roused to try "Our Rab and His Friends," which was +kindly mailed by Miss Phelps to Mr. Ford, the editor, with a wish that +he accept the little story, which he did, sending a welcome check and +asking for more contributions. I kept a place there for several years. + +In Miss Phelps's case, one must believe in heredity and partly in +Huxley's statement that "we are automata propelled by our ancestors." +Her grandfather, Moses Stuart, was Professor of Sacred Literature at +Andover, a teacher of Greek and Latin, and a believer in that stern +school of theology and teleology. It was owing perhaps to a +combination of severity in climatic and in intellectual environment +that New England developed an austere type of scholars and +theologians. Their mental vision was focused on things remote in time +and supernatural in quality, so much so that they often overlooked the +simple and natural expression of their obligation to things nearby. It +sometimes happened that their tender and amiable characteristics were +better known to learned colleagues with whom they were in intellectual +sympathy, than to their own wives and children. Sometimes their finer +and more lovable qualities were first brought to the attention of +their families when some distinguished professor or divine feelingly +pronounced a funeral eulogy. + +It's a long way from the stern Moses Stuart, who believed firmly in +hell and universal damnation and who, with Calvin, depicted infants a +span long crawling on the floor of hell, to his gifted granddaughter, +who, although a member of an evangelical church, wrote: "Death and +heaven could not seem very different to a pagan from what they seem to +me." Her heart was nearly broken by the sudden death of her lover on +the battlefield. "Roy, snatched away in an instant by a dreadful God, +and laid out there in the wet and snow--in the hideous wet and +snow--never to kiss him, never to see him any more." Her _Gates Ajar_ +when it appeared was considered by some to be revolutionary and +shocking, if not wicked. Now, we gently smile at her diluted, +sentimental heaven, where all the happy beings have what they most +want; she to meet Roy and find the same dear lover; another to have a +piano; a child to get ginger snaps. I never quite fancied the +restriction of musical instruments in visions of heaven to harps +alone. They at first blister the fingers until they are calloused. The +afflicted washerwoman, whose only daughter had just died, was not in +the least consoled by the assurance that Melinda was perfectly happy, +playing a harp in heaven. "She never was no musicianer, and I'd rather +see her a-settin' by my tub as she used to set when I was a-wringin' +out the clothes from the suds, than to be up there a-harpin'." Very +different, as a matter of fact, were the instruments, more or less +musical, around which New England families gathered on Sunday evenings +for the singing of hymns and "sacred songs." Yet there was often real +faith and sincere devotion pedalled out of the squeaking old melodeon. + +Professor Stuart's eldest daughter, Elizabeth Stuart, married Austin +Phelps in 1842; who was then pastor of Pine Street Church in Boston. +Their daughter was born in Boston in 1844, and named Mary Gray Phelps. +They moved to Andover in 1848, where two sons were born. Mrs. Phelps, +who died when Mary was seven years old, was bright, interesting, +unusual. She wrote _Tales of New England_, chiefly stories of clerical +life; also _Sunnyside Sketches_, remarkably popular at the time. Her +_nom de plume_ was "Trusta." Professor Phelps married her sister Mary, +for his second wife. She lived only a year, and it was after her death +that Mary changed her name to that of her mother, Elizabeth Stuart +Phelps. Professor Phelps had a most nervous temperament, so much so +that he could not sleep if a cricket chirped in his bedroom, and the +stamping of a horse in a nearby stable destroyed all hope of slumber. + +Miss Phelps inherited her mother's talent for writing stories, also +her humour and her sensitive, loving nature, as is seen by her works +on _Temperance Reforms_, _Abuses of Factory Operators_, and her +arraignment of the vivisectionist. Later, when I was living at the +"Abandoned Farm," she had a liking for the farm I now own, about half +a mile farther on from my first agricultural experiment. She called on +me, and begged me as woman for woman in case she bought the +neighbouring farm, to seclude all my animals and fowls from 5 P.M. +till 10 A.M. each morning, as she must get her sleep, for, like her +father, she was a life-long sufferer from insomnia. I would have done +this if it were possible to repress the daybreak cries natural to a +small menagerie which included chickens, turkeys, ducks, and geese, +besides two peacocks and four guinea fowls. + +But to return to the _Youth's Companion_. When I found it impossible +to write regularly for Mr. Ford, he made a change for the better, +securing Mr. Hezekiah Butterworth, a poet, historian, and author of +the _Zigzag Series_, which had such large sales. Happening to be in +Boston, I called at the office and said to Mr. Ford: "It grieves me a +bit to see my column taken by someone else, and what a strange pen +name--'Hezekiah Butterworth.'" + +"But that is his own name," said the editor. + +"Indeed; I am afraid I shall hate that Hezzy." + +"Well, just try it; come with me to his work-room." + +When we had gone up one flight, Mr. Ford opened a door, where a +gentle, sweet-faced young man of slender build was sitting at a table, +the floor all around him literally strewn with at least three hundred +manuscripts, each one to be examined as a possible winner in a contest +for a five-hundred-dollar prize story. Both English and American +authors had competed. He was, as De Quincey put it, "snowed up." Then +my friend said with a laugh, "Miss Sanborn has come to see Hezzy whom +she fancies she shall hate." A painfully awkward introduction, but Mr. +Butterworth laughed heartily, and made me very welcome, and from that +time was ever one of my most faithful friends, honouring my large +Thanksgiving parties by his presence for many years. + +I shall tell but two stories about my father in his classroom. He had +given Pope's _Rape of the Lock_ as subject for an essay to a young man +who had not the advantage of being born educated, but did his best at +all times. As the young man read on in class, father, who in later +years was a little deaf, stopped him saying, "Sir, did I understand +you to say Sniff?" "No, sir, I did not, I said Slyph." + +In my father's Latin classes there were many absurd mistakes, as when +he asked a student, "What was ambrosia?" and the reply was, "The gods' +hair oil," an answer evidently suggested by the constant advertisement +of "Sterling's Ambrosia" for the hair. + +I will now refer to my two uncles on my father's side. The older one +was Dyer H. Sanborn, a noted educator of his time, and a grammarian, +publishing a text-book on that theme and honouring the parts of speech +with a rhyme which began-- + + A noun's the name of anything, + As hoop or garden, ball or swing; + Three little words we often see + The articles, a, an, and the. + +Mrs. Eddy, of Christian Science fame, spoke of him with pride as her +preceptor. He liked to constitute himself an examining committee of +one and visit the schools near him. Once he found only five very small +children, and remarked approvingly, "Good order here." He, +unfortunately, for his brothers, developed an intense interest in +genealogy, and after getting them to look up the family tree in +several branches, would soon announce to dear brother Edwin, or dear +brother John, "the papers you sent have disappeared; please send a +duplicate at once." + +My other uncle, John Sewall Sanborn, graduated at Dartmouth, and after +studying law, he started for a career in Canada, landed in Sherbrooke, +P.Q., with the traditional fifty cents in his pocket, and began to +practise law. Soon acquiring a fine practice, he married the +strikingly handsome daughter of Mr. Brooks, the most important man in +that region, and rose to a position on the Queen's Bench. He was +twelve years in Parliament, and later a "Mr. Justice," corresponding +with a member of our Federal Supreme Court. In fact, he had received +every possible honour at his death except knighthood, which he was +soon to have received. + +My great-grandfather, on the paternal side, was always called +"Grandsir Hook," and Dr. Crosby assured me that I inherited my fat, +fun, and asthma from that obese person, weighing nearly three hundred +pounds. When he died a slice had to be cut off, not from his body, but +from the side of the house, to let the coffin squeeze through. I +visited his grave with father. It was an immense elevation even at so +remote a date. David Sanborn married his daughter Hannah Hook, after +a formal courtship. The "love" letters to "Honoured Madam" are still +preserved. Fortunately the "honoured madam" had inherited the sense of +humour. + +A few words about Mr. Daniel Webster. I remember going to Marshfield +with my mother, his niece, and sitting on his knee while he looked +over his large morning mail, throwing the greater part into the waste +basket. Also in the dining-room I can still recall the delicious meals +prepared by an old-time Southern mammy, who wore her red and yellow +turban regally. The capital jokes by his son Fletcher and guests +sometimes caused the dignified and impressive butler to rapidly +dart behind the large screen to laugh, then soon back to duty, +imperturbable as before. + +The large library occupied one ell of the house, with its high ceiling +running in points to a finish. There hung the strong portraits of Lord +Ashburton and Mr. Webster. At the top of his own picture at the right +hung his large grey slouch hat, so well known. In the next room the +silhouette of his mother, and underneath it his words, "My excellent +mother." Also a portrait of Grace Fletcher, his first wife, and of his +son Edward in uniform. Edward was killed in the Mexican War. + +There is a general impression that Mr. Webster was a heavy drinker +and often under the influence of liquor when he rose to speak; as +usual there are two sides to this question. George Ticknor of Boston +told my father that he had been with Webster on many public occasions, +and never saw him overcome but once. That was at the Revere House in +Boston, where he was expected to speak after dinner. "I sat next to +him," said Ticknor; "suddenly he put his hand on my shoulder and +whispered, 'Come out and run around the common.'" This they did and +the speech was a success. There is a wooden statue of Daniel Webster +that has stood for forty years in Hingham, Massachusetts. It is larger +than life and called a good portrait. It was made more than sixty +years ago as a figurehead for the ship _Daniel Webster_ but never put +on. That would have been appropriate if he was occasionally half seas +over. Daniel's devotion to his only brother "Zeke" is pleasant to +remember. By the way, there are many men who pay every debt promptly +and never take a drop too much, who would be proud to have a record +for something accomplished that is as worth while as his record. When +Daniel Webster entered Dartmouth College as a freshman directly from +his father's farm, he was a raw specimen, awkward, thin, and so dark +that some mistook him for a new Indian recruit. He was then called +"Black Dan." His father's second wife and the mother of Zeke and Dan +had decidedly a generous infusion of Indian blood. A gentleman at +Hanover who remembered Webster there said his large, dark, resplendent +eyes looked like coach lanterns on a dark night. + +Mrs. Ezekiel Webster told me that her husband asked her after their +marriage to allow his mother to come home to them at Boscawen, New +Hampshire. She said she was a strikingly fine-looking woman with those +same marvellous eyes, long straight black hair, high cheekbones; a +tall person with strong individuality. Mrs. Webster was sure where the +swarthy infusion came from. This mother, who had been a hard worker +and faithful wife, now delighted in sitting by the open fire evenings +and smoking an old pipe she had brought with her. + +Webster saved his Alma Mater, and after the favourable decision on the +College Case, Judge Hopkinson wrote to Professor Brown of Dartmouth +suggesting an inscription on the doors of the college building, +"Founded by Eleazer Wheelock, refounded by Daniel Webster." These +words are now placed in bronze at the portals of Webster Memorial +Hall. + +To go back, as I did, from Andover to Hanover, I pay my tribute to +Professor John Newton Putnam, Greek Professor at Dartmouth. His +character was perfect; his face of rare beauty shone with kind and +helpful thought for everyone. I see him, as he talked at our mid-week +meetings. One could almost perceive an aura or halo around his classic +head; wavy black hair which seemed to have an almost purple light +through it; large dark eyes, full of love. What he said was never +perfunctory, never dull. He was called "John, the Beloved Disciple." +Still he was thoroughly human and brimming over with fun, puns, and +exquisitely droll humour, and quick in seeing a funny condition. + +It is said that on one occasion when there happened to be a party the +same night as our "Thursday evening meeting," he was accosted by a +friend as he was going into the vestry with the inquiry, "Are you not +to be tempted by the social delights of the evening?" To which he +replied, "No, I prefer to suffer affliction with the people of God, +rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." The college +inspector reported to him that he was obliged to break into a room at +college where a riot was progressing and described a negro's efforts +to hide himself by scurrying under the bed. + +"But how unnecessary; all he had to do was to keep dark." + +Once he was found waiting a long time at the counter of a grocery +store. A friend passing said, "You've been there quite a while, +Putnam." + +"Yes, I'm waiting all my appointed time until my change doth come." + +Expecting "Help" from Norwich, he was gazing in that direction and +explained, "I'm looking unto the hills whence cometh our help." + +We often diverted ourselves at his home with "Rounce," the duplicate +of euchre in dominoes. And we were startled by a Madonna dropping to +the floor, leaving its frame on the wall. Instantly Professor Putnam +remarked: "Her willing soul would not stay 'in such a frame as this.'" +And when called to preside at the organ when the college choir was +away, he whispered to me, "Listen to my interludicrous performance." + +How sad the end! A delicate constitution conquered by tuberculosis. +With his wife he sought a milder climate abroad and died there. But no +one can compute the good accomplished even by his unconscious +influence, for everything was of the purest, highest, best. + +Soon after my return from St. Louis, I received a call from Packer +Institute in Brooklyn, to teach English Literature, which was most +agreeable. But when I arrived, the principal, Mr. Crittenden, told me +that the woman who had done that work had decided to remain. I was +asked by Mr. Crittenden, "Can you read?" "Yes, I think so." "Then come +with me." He touched a bell and then escorted me to the large chapel +capable of holding nearly twelve hundred, where I found the entire +faculty assembled to listen to my efforts. I was requested to stand up +in the pulpit and read from a large Bible the fourteenth chapter of +John, and the twenty-third psalm. That was easy enough. Next request, +"Please recite something comic." I gave them "Comic Miseries." "Now +try a little pathos." I recited Alice Cary's "The Volunteer," which +was one of my favourite poems. Then I heard a professor say to Mr. +Crittenden, "She recites with great taste and expression; what a pity +she has that lisp!" And hitherto I had been blissfully unaware of such +a failing. One other selection in every-day prose, and I was let off. +The faculty were now exchanging their opinions and soon dispersed +without one word to me. I said to Mr. Crittenden, as I came down the +pulpit stairs, "I do not want to take the place." But he insisted that +they all wanted me to come and begin work at once. I had large +classes, number of pupils eight hundred and fifty. It was a great +opportunity to help young girls to read in such a way that it would be +a pleasure to their home friends, or to recite in company, as was +common then, naturally and without gestures. I took one more class of +little girls who had received no training before in that direction. +They were easy to inspire, were wholly free from self-consciousness, +and their parents were so much pleased that we gave an exhibition of +what they could do in reading and recitation in combination with their +gymnastics. The chapel was crowded to the doors. A plump little German +girl was the star of the evening. She stood perfectly serene, her +chubby arms stuck out stiffly from her sides, and in a loud, clear +voice she recited this nonsense: + + If the butterfly courted the bee, + And the owl the porcupine; + If churches were built on the sea, + And three times one were nine; + If the pony rode his master, + And the buttercups ate the cows; + And the cat had the dire disaster + To be worried, sir, by a mouse; + And mamma, sir, sold her baby, + To a gypsy for half a crown, + And a gentleman were a lady, + This world would be upside down. + But, if any or all these wonders + Should ever come about, + I should not think them blunders, + For I should be inside out. + +An encore was insisted on. + +I offered to give any in my classes lessons in "how to tell a story" +with ease, brevity, and point, promising to give an anecdote of my own +suggested by theirs every time. This pleased them, and we had a jolly +time. The first girl who tried to tell a story said: + + I don't know how; never attempted any such thing, but what I am + going to tell is true and funny. + + My grandfather is very deaf. You may have seen him sitting on a + pulpit stair at Mr. Beecher's church, holding to his ear what + looks like a skillet. Last spring we went to the country, + house-hunting, leaving grandfather to guard our home. He was + waked, in the middle of the night as he supposed, by a noise, + and started out to find where it came from. It continued; so he + courageously went downstairs and cautiously opened the kitchen + door. He reached out his skillet-trumpet before him through the + partly opened door and the milkman poured in a quart of milk. + +This story, I am told, is an ancient chestnut. But I used to see the +deaf grandfather with his uplifted skillet on the steps of Beecher's +pulpit, and the young lady gave it as a real happening in her own +home. Did anyone hear of it before 1868 when she gave it to our +anecdote class? I believe this was the foundation or starter for +similar skillet-trumpet stories. + +The girl was applauded, and deserved it. Then they asked me for a milk +story. I told them of a milkman who, in answer to a young mother's +complaint that the milk he brought for her baby was sour, replied: +"Well, is there anything outside the sourness that doesn't suit you?" +And Thoreau remarked that "circumstantial evidence is sometimes +conclusive, as when a trout is found in the morning milk." + +This class was considered so practical and valuable that I was offered +pay for it, but it was a relief, after exhausting work. + +We had many visitors interested in the work of the various classes. +One day Beecher strolled into the chapel and wished to hear some of +the girls read. All were ready. One took the morning paper; another +recited a poem; one read a selection from her scrapbook. Beecher +afterward inquired: "Whom have you got to teach elocution now? You +used to have a few prize pumpkins on show, but now every girl is doing +good original work." Mr. Crittenden warned me at the outset, "Keep an +eye out or they'll run over you." But I never had anything but +kindness from my pupils. I realized that cheerful, courteous requests +were wiser than commands, and sincere friendship more winning than +"Teachery" primness. I knew of an unpopular instructor who, being +annoyed by his pupils throwing a few peanuts at his desk, said, "Young +men, if you throw another peanut, I shall leave the room." A shower of +peanuts followed. + +So, when I went to my largest class in the big chapel, and saw one of +my most interesting girls sitting on that immense Bible on the pulpit +looking at me in merry defiance, and kicking her heels against the +woodwork below, I did not appear to see her, and began the exercises, +hoping fervently that one of the detectives who were always on watch +might providentially appear. Before long I saw one come to the door, +look in with an amazed expression, only to bring two of the faculty to +release the young lady from her uneasy pre-eminence. + +I hardly knew my own name at the Packer Institute. The students called +me "Canary," I suppose on account of my yellow hair and rather high +treble voice; Mr. Crittenden always spoke to me as Miss "Sunburn," and +when my laundry was returned, it was addressed to "Miss Lampoon." + +Beecher was to me the clerical miracle of his age--a man of +extraordinary personal magnetism, with power to rouse laughter and +right away compel tears, I used to listen often to his marvellous +sermons. I can see him now as he went up the middle aisle in winter +wearing a clumsy overcoat, his face giving the impression of heavy, +coarse features, thick lips, a commonplace nose, eyes that lacked +expression, nothing to give any idea of the man as he would look after +the long prayer. When the audience reverently bowed their heads my own +eyes were irresistibly drawn toward the preacher. For he prayed as if +he felt that he was addressing an all-powerful, omnipresent, tender, +loving Heavenly Father who was listening to his appeal. And as he went +on and on with increasing fervour and power a marvellous change +transfigured that heavy face, it shone with a white light and +spiritual feeling, as if he fully realized his communion with God +Himself. I used to think of that phrase in Matthew: + + "And was transfigured before them, + And his face did shine as the sun." + +I never heard anyone mention this marvellous transformation. But I +remember that Beecher once acknowledged to a reporter that he never +knew what he had said in his sermon until he looked at the resume in +Monday's paper. + +During the hard days of Beecher's trial a lady who was a guest at the +house told me she was waked one morning by the merry laughter of +Beecher's little grandchildren and peeping into their room found Mr. +Beecher having a jolly frolic with them. He was trying to get them +dressed; his efforts were most comical, putting on their garments +wrong side out or buttoning in front when they were intended to fasten +in the back, and "funny Grandpa" enjoying it all quite as sincerely as +these little ones. A pretty picture. + +Saxe (John Godfrey) called during one recess hour. The crowds of girls +passing back and forth interested him, as they seemed to care less for +eating than for wreathing their arms round each other, with a good +deal of kissing, and "deary," "perfectly lovely," etc. He described +his impressions in two words: "Unconscious rehearsing." + +Once he handed me a poem he had just dashed off written with pencil, +"To my Saxon Blonde." I was surprised and somewhat flattered, +regarding it as a complimentary impromptu. But, on looking up his +poetry in the library, I found the same verses printed years before: + + "If bards of old the truth have told, + The sirens had raven hair; + But ever since the earth had birth, + They paint the angels fair." + +Probably that was a habit with him. + +When a friend joked him about his very-much-at-home manner at the +United States Hotel at Saratoga, where he went every year, saying as +they sat together on the upper piazza, "Why, Saxe, I should fancy you +owned this hotel," he rose, and lounging against one of the pillars +answered, "Well, I have a 'lien' on this piazza." + +His epigrams are excellent. He has made more and better than any +American poet. In Dodd's large collection of the epigrams of the +world, I think there are six at least from Saxe. Let me quote two: + + AN EQUIVOCAL APOLOGY + + Quoth Madame Bas-Bleu, "I hear you have said + Intellectual women are always your dread; + Now tell me, dear sir, is it true?" + "Why, yes," answered Tom, "very likely I may + Have made the remark in a jocular way; + But then on my honour, I didn't mean you!" + + + TOO CANDID BY HALF + + As John and his wife were discoursing one day + Of their several faults, in a bantering way, + Said she, "Though my _wit_ you disparage, + I'm sure, my dear husband, our friends will attest + This much, at the least, that my judgment is best." + Quoth John, "So they said at our marriage." + +When Saxe heard of a man in Chicago who threw his wife into a vat of +boiling hog's lard, he remarked: "Now, that's what I call going too +far with a woman." + +After a railroad accident, in which he received some bruises, I said: +"You didn't find riding on the rails so pleasant?" "Not riding on, but +riding off the rail was the trouble." + +He apostrophized the unusually pretty girl who at bedtime handed each +guest a lighted candle in a candlestick. She fancied some of the +fashionable young women snubbed her but Saxe assured her in rhyme: + + "There is not a single one of them all + Who could, if they would, hold a candle to you." + +He was an inveterate punster. Miss Caroline Ticknor tells us how he +used to lie on a couch in a back room at the Old Corner Bookstore in +Boston, at a very early hour, and amuse the boys who were sweeping and +dusting the store until one of the partners arrived. I believe he +never lost a chance to indulge in a verbal quibble. "In the meantime, +and 'twill be a very mean time." + +I often regret that I did not preserve his comical letters, and those +of Richard Grant White and other friends who were literary masters. +Mr. Grant White helped me greatly when I was doubtful about some +literary question, saying he would do anything for a woman whose name +was Kate. And a Dartmouth graduate, whom I asked for a brief story of +Father Prout, the Irish poet and author, gave me so much material that +it was the most interesting lecture of my season. He is now a most +distinguished judge in Massachusetts. + +Saxe, like other humourists, suffered from melancholia at the last. +Too sad! + +After giving a lecture in the chapel of Packer Institute at the time I +was with Mrs. Botta in New York, I was surprised to receive a call the +next morning from Mr. Charles Storrs of 23 Monroe Place, Brooklyn, +asking me to go to his house, and make use of his library, which he +told me Horace Greeley had pronounced the best working and reference +library he had ever known. A great opportunity for anyone! Mr. Storrs +was too busy a man to really enjoy his own library. Mrs. Storrs and +Miss Edna Dean Proctor, who made her home with them, comprised his +family, as his only daughter had married Miss Proctor's brother and +lived in Peoria, Illinois. Mr. Storrs had made his own fortune, +starting out by buying his "time" of his father and borrowing an old +horse and pedlar's cart from a friend. He put into the cart a large +assortment of Yankee notions, or what people then called "short +goods," as stockings, suspenders, gloves, shoestrings, thread and +needles, tape, sewing silk, etc. He determined to make his own fortune +and succeeded royally for he became a "merchant prince." His was a +rarely noble and generous nature with a heart as big as his brain. +Several of his large rooms downstairs were crammed with wonderfully +beautiful and precious things which his soul delighted in picking up, +in ivory, jade, bronze, and glass. He was so devotedly fond of music +that at great expense he had a large organ built which could be played +by pedalling and pulling stops in and out, and sometimes on Sunday +morning he would rise by half-past six, and be downstairs in his shirt +sleeves hard at work, eliciting oratorio or opera music for his own +delectation. A self-made man, "who did not worship his creator." He +was always singularly modest, although very decided in his opinions. +Men are asking of late who can be called educated. Certainly not a +student of the ancient Assyrian or the mysteries of the Yogi, or the +Baha, or the Buddhistic legends, when life is so brief and we must +"act in the living present." But a man who has studied life and human +nature as well as the best form of books, gained breadth and culture +by wide travel, and is always ready for new truths, that man _is_ +educated in the best sense, although entirely self-educated. Greeley +used to say, "Charles Storrs is a great man." + +Greeley used to just rest and enjoy himself at Mr. Storrs's home, +often two weeks at a time, and liked to shut himself into that +wonderful library to work or read. Once when he returned unexpectedly, +the maid told Miss Proctor that Mr. Greeley had just come in from the +rain and was quite wet, and there was no fire in the library. He did +not at first care to change to Mr. Storrs's special den in the +basement. But Miss Proctor said "It is too cold here and your coat is +quite wet." "Oh, I am used to that," he said plaintively. But his +special desk was carried down to a room bright with an open fire, and +he seemed glad to be cared for. + +Whitelaw Reid was photographed with Greeley when he first came on from +the West to take a good share of the responsibility of editing the +_Tribune_. He stood behind Greeley's chair, and I noticed his hair was +then worn quite long. But he soon attained the New York cut as well as +the New York cult. Both Reid and John Hay were at that time frequent +guests of Mr. Storrs, who never seemed weary of entertaining his +friends. Beecher was one of his intimate acquaintances and they often +went to New York together hunting for rare treasures. + +I have several good stories about Mr. Greeley for which I am indebted +to Miss Proctor who told them to me. + +1. He used to write way up in a small attic in the _Tribune_ building, +and seldom allowed anyone to interrupt him. Some man, who was greatly +disgusted over one of Greeley's editorials, climbed up to his sanctum, +and as soon as his head showed above the railing, he began to rave and +rage, using the most lurid style of profanity. It seemed as if he +never would stop, but at last, utterly exhausted and out of breath and +all used up, he waited for a reply. + +Greeley kept on writing, never having looked up once. This was too +much to be endured, and the caller turned to go downstairs, when +Greeley called out: "Come back, my friend, come back, and free your +mind." + +2. Mr. Greeley once found that one of the names in what he considered +an important article on the Board of Trade had been incorrectly +printed. He called Rooker, the head man in the printing department, +and asked fiercely what man set the type for this printing, showing +him the mistake. Rooker told him, and went to get the culprit, whom +Greeley said deserved to be kicked. But when he came, he brought Mr. +Greeley's article in his own writing, and showed him that the mistake +was his own. Mr. Greeley acknowledged he was the guilty one, and +begging the man's pardon, added, "Tom Rooker, come here and kick _me_ +quick." + +3. Once when Greeley was making one of his frequent visits to Mr. and +Mrs. Storrs, the widow of the minister who used to preach at +Mansfield, Connecticut, when Mr. Storrs was a boy, had been invited by +him to spend a week. She was a timid little woman, but she became so +shocked at several things that Greeley had said or written in his +paper that she inquired of Miss Proctor if she thought Mr. Greeley +would allow her to ask him two or three questions. + +Miss Proctor found him in the dining-room, the floor strewn with +exchange papers, and having secured his consent, ushered in the lady. +She told me afterward that she heard the poor little questioner speak +with a rising inflection only two or three times. But Mr. Greeley was +always ready to answer at length and with extreme earnestness. He said +afterwards: "Why that woman is way back in the Middle Ages." + +When she came away from the interview, she seemed excited and dazed, +not noticing anyone, but dashed upstairs to her room, closed the door, +and never afterward alluded to her attempt to modify Mr. Greeley's +views. + +4. A little girl who was visiting Mr. Storrs said: "It would never +do for Mr. Greeley to go to Congress, he would make such a +slitter-slatter of the place." + +Miss Proctor published _A Russian Journey_ after travelling through +that country; has published a volume of poems, and has made several +appeals in prose and verse for the adoption of the Indian corn as our +national emblem. She is also desirous to have the name of Mount +Rainier changed to Tacoma, its original Indian name, and has a second +book of poems ready for the press. + +When I first met her at the home of Mrs. Storrs, I thought her one of +the most beautiful women I had ever seen--of the Andalusian type--dark +hair and lustrous starry eyes, beautiful features, perfect teeth, a +slender, willowy figure, and a voice so musical that it would lure a +bird from the bough. She had a way all her own of "telling" you a +poem. She was perfectly natural about it, a recitative semi-tone yet +full of expression and dramatic breadth, at times almost a chant. With +those dark and glowing eyes looking into mine, I have listened until +I forgot everything about me, and was simply spellbound. Mr. Fields +described Tennyson's reciting his own poems in much the same way. +Whittier once said to a friend, "I consider Miss Proctor one of the +best woman poets of the day," and then added, "But why do I say _one_ +of the best; why not _the_ best?" + +Miss Proctor has always been glad to assist any plan of mine, and +wrote a poem especially for my Christmas book, _Purple and Gold_. Mr. +Osgood, the publisher, when I showed him the poem, said, "But how do I +know that the public will care for your weeds?" (referring to the +asters and goldenrod). He said later: "The instant popularity and +large sale of that booklet attested the happiness of Miss Sanborn's +selection, and the kind contributions from her friends." Miss +Proctor's contribution was the first poem in the book and I venture to +publish it as it has never been in print since the first sale. My +friend's face is still beautiful, her mind is as active as when we +first met, her voice has lost none of its charm, and she is the same +dear friend as of yore. + + GOLDENROD AND ASTERS + + The goldenrod, the goldenrod, + That glows in sun or rain, + Waving its plumes on every bank + From the mountain slope to the main,-- + Not dandelions, nor cowslips fine, + Nor buttercups, gems of summer, + Nor leagues of daisies yellow and white, + Can rival this latest comer! + + On the plains and the upland pastures + Such regal splendour falls + When forth, from myriad branches green, + Its gold the south wind calls,-- + That the tale seems true the red man's god + Lavished its bloom to say, + "Though days grow brief and suns grow cold, + My love is the same for aye." + + And, darker than April violets + Or pallid as wind-flowers grow, + Under its shades from hill to meadow + Great beds of asters blow.-- + Oh plots of purple o'erhung with gold + That need nor walls nor wardens, + Not fairer shone, to the Median Queen, + Her Babylonian gardens! + + On Scotia's moors the gorse is gay, + And England's lanes and fallows + Are decked with broom whose winsome grace + The hovering linnet hallows; + But the robin sings from his maple bow, + "Ah, linnet, lightly won, + Your bloom to my blaze of wayside gold + Is the wan moon to the sun!" + + And were I to be a bride at morn, + Ere the chimes rang out I'd say, + "Not roses red, but goldenrod + Strew in my path today! + And let it brighten the dusky aisle, + And flame on the altar-stair, + Till the glory and light of the fields shall flood + The solemn dimness there." + + And should I sleep in my shroud at eve, + Not lilies pale and cold, + But the purple asters of the wood + Within my hand I'd hold;-- + For goldenrod is the flower of love + That time and change defies; + And asters gleam through the autumn air + With the hues of Paradise! + EDNA DEAN PROCTOR. + +Shortly before the Civil War, I went with father to St. Louis, he to +take a place in the Washington University, while I was offered a +position in the Mary Institute to teach classes of girls. Chancellor +Hoyt of the university had been lured from Exeter, New Hampshire. He +was widely known in the educational world, and was one of the most +brilliant men I ever knew, strong, wise, witty, critical, scholarly, +with a scorn of anything superficial or insincere. + +I had thought of omitting my experience in this city, to +me so really tragic. Just before we were to leave Hanover, a +guest brought five of us a gift of measles. I had the +confluent-virulent-delirious-lose-all-your-hair variety. When +convalescent, I found that my hair, which had been splendidly thick +and long, was coming out alarmingly, and it was advised that my head +be shaved, with a promise that the hair would surely be curly and just +as good as before the illness. I felt pretty measly and "meachin" and +submitted. The effect was indescribably awful. I saw my bald pate +once, and almost fainted. I was provided with a fearsome wig, of +coarse, dark red hair, held in place by a black tape. Persons who had +pitied me for having "such a big head and so much hair" now found +reason for comment "on my small head with no hair." The most expensive +head cover never deceived anyone, however simple, and I was obliged to +make my debut in St. Louis in this piteous plight. + +We then had our first taste of western-southern cordiality and +demonstrativeness. It occurred to me that they showed more delight in +welcoming us than our own home folks showed regret at our departure. +It was a liberal education to me. They all seemed to understand about +the hideous wig, but never showed that they noticed it. One of our +first callers was a popular, eloquent clergyman, who kissed me "as +the daughter of my mother." He said, "I loved your mother and asked +her to marry me, but I was refused." Several young men at once wanted +to get up a weekly dancing class for me, but I was timid, fearing my +wig would fall off or get wildly askew. Whittier in one of his poems +has this couplet, which suggests the reverse of my experience: + + "She rose from her delicious sleep, + And laid aside her soft-brown hair." + +At bedtime my wig must come off and a nightcap take the place. In the +morning that wig must go on, with never one look in the glass. Soon +two persons called, both leaders in social life, one of them a +physician, who had suddenly lost every spear of hair. I was invited by +the unfortunate physician and his wife to dine with them. And, in his +own home, I noticed in their parlour a portrait of him before his +experience. He had been blessed with magnificently thick black hair, a +handsome face, adorned with a full beard and moustache. It was an +April evening and the weather was quite warm, and after dinner the +doctor removed his wig, placing it on a plaster head. He was now used +to his affliction. He told me, as he sat smoking, looking like a +waxwork figure, how several years ago he awoke in the dead of the +night to find something he could not understand on his pillow. He +roused his wife, lit the gas, dashed cold water on his face to help +him to realize what had happened and washed off all the rest of his +hair, even to eyebrows and eyelashes. That was a depressing story to +me. And I soon met a lady (the Mayor's wife) who had suffered exactly +in the same way. She also was resigned, as indeed she had to be. I +began to tremble lest my own hair should never return. + +But I should be telling you about St. Louis. We were most cordially +received by clergymen from three churches and all the professors at +the university, and the trustees with their wives and daughters. Wyman +Crow, a trustee, was the generous patron of Harriet Hosmer, whose +_Zenobia_ was at that time on exhibition there. The Mary Institute was +founded in remembrance of Rev. Dr. Eliot's daughter Mary, who while +skating over one of the so-called "sink-holes," then existing about +the city, broke the ice, fell in, and the body was never recovered. +These sink holes were generally supposed to be unfathomable. + +Since I could not dance, I took to art, although I had no more +capacity in that direction than a cow. I attempted a bunch of dahlias, +but when I offered the result to a woman cleaning our rooms she +looked at it queerly, held it at a distance, and then inquired: "Is +the frame worth anything?" + +I acknowledge a lifelong indebtedness to Chancellor Hoyt. He was +suffering fearfully with old-fashioned consumption, but he used to +send for me to read to him to distract his thoughts. He would also +criticize my conversation, never letting one word pass that was +ungrammatical or incorrectly pronounced. If I said, "I am so glad," he +would ask, "So glad that what? You don't give the correlative." He +warned against reliance on the aid of alliteration. The books read to +him were discussed and the authors praised or criticized. + +St. Louis was to me altogether delightful, and I still am interested +in that city, so enlarged and improved. I used to see boys riding +astride razor-back hogs in the street, where now stately limousines +glide over smooth pavements. + +I have always had more cordiality towards strangers, homesick students +at Dartmouth, and the audiences at my lectures, since learning a +better habit. Frigidity and formality were driven away by the sunshine +that brightened my stay at St. Louis. + +I do not wish to intrude my private woes, but I returned from the West +with a severe case of whooping-cough. I didn't get it at St. Louis, +but in the sleeping-car between that city and Chicago. I advise +children to see to it that both parents get through with all the +vastly unpleasant epidemics of childhood at an early age. It is one of +the duties of children to parents. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +Happy Days with Mrs. Botta--My Busy Life in New York--President +Barnard of Columbia College--A Surprise from Bierstadt--Professor +Doremus, a Universal Genius--Charles H. Webb, a truly funny "Funny +Man"--Mrs. Esther Hermann, a Modest Giver. + + +I was obliged to give up my work at Packer Institute, when diphtheria +attacked me, but a wonderful joy came to me after recovery. + +Mrs. Vincenzo Botta invited me to her home in West Thirty-seventh +Street for the winter and spring. Anne C. Lynch, many years before her +marriage to Mr. Botta, had taught at the Packer Institute herself, and +at that time had a few rooms on West Ninth Street. She told me she +used to take a hurried breakfast standing by the kitchen table; then +saying good-bye to the mother to whom she was devoted, walked from +Ninth Street to the Brooklyn ferry, then up Joralemon Street, as she +was required to be present at morning prayers. Her means were limited +at that time and carfare would take too much. But it was then that she +started and maintained her "Saturday Evenings," which became so +attractive and famous that N.P. Willis wrote of them that no one of +any distinction thought a visit to New York complete without spending +a Saturday evening with Miss Lynch. People went in such numbers that +many were obliged to sit on the stairs, but all were happy. Her +refreshments were of the simplest kind, lemonade and wafers or +sandwiches. It has often been said that she established the only salon +in this country, but why bring in that word so distinctively belonging +to the French? + +Miss Lynch was just "at home" and made all who came to her happy and +at their best. Fredrika Bremer, the celebrated Norwegian writer, was +her guest for several weeks at her home in Ninth Street. Catherine +Sedgwick attended several of her receptions, wondering at the charm +which drew so many. There Edgar Poe gave the first reading of "The +Raven" before it was printed. Ole Bull, who knew her then, was a +life-long friend to her. Fanny Kemble, Bryant, Halleck, Willis were +all devoted friends. + +After her marriage to Professor Vincenzo Botta, nephew of the +historian Botta, and their taking a house in Thirty-seventh Street, +she gathered around her table the most interesting and distinguished +men and women of the day, and the "Saturday Evenings" were continued +with increasing crowds. She had a most expressive face and beautiful +blue eyes. Never one of the prodigious talkers, dressed most quietly, +she was just herself, a sweet-faced, sincere woman, and was blessed +with an atmosphere and charm that were felt by all. + +At one of her breakfasts I recollect Emerson, who often visited there, +Bryant, Bayard Taylor, and Grace Greenwood. At another, John Fiske, +President Andrew D. White, and other men interested in their line of +thought. I must mention a lady who in the midst of their inspiring +conversation broke forth in a loud tone to Mrs. Botta: "I found a +splendid receipt for macaroni; mix it, when boiled, with stewed +tomatoes and sprinkle freely with parmesan cheese before baking." + +One evening Whitelaw Reid brought John Hay. He beckoned to me to come +to him, and presenting Mr. Hay said: "I want to make a prediction in +regard to this young man. If you live long enough you will hear of him +as the greatest statesman and diplomat our country has ever had." A +few evenings after, at a Dramatic Club of great talent, I saw Mr. Hay +figuring as Cupid in Mrs. Jarley's wax-work show. He looked and acted +his part, turning gracefully on his toes to show his wings and quiver +of arrows. And Mr. Reid, mounted on a step-ladder behind a draped +clothes-horse, represented the distressed Lord Ullin whose daughter +was seen eloping in a boat with her Highland chief, the tossing waves +being sheets in full motion. + +For years it seemed as if this were the one truly cosmopolitan +drawing-room in the city, because it drew the best from all sources. +Italy and England, France and Germany, Spain, Russia, Norway and +Hungary, Siam, China, India, and Japan sent guests hither. Liberals +and Conservatives, peers and revolutionists, holders of the most +ancient traditions, and advocates of the most modern theories--all +found their welcome, if they deserved it, and each took away a new +respect for the position of his opponent. + +Madame Ristori, Salvini, Fechter, Campanini, and Madame Gerster were +honoured with special receptions. Special receptions were also given +in honour of George P. Marsh, on the occasion of his appointment as +Minister to Turin in 1861, and to the officers of the Royal Navy of +Italy when they came to this country to take possession of two +frigates built by an American ship-builder for the Italian Government. + + [Illustration: MRS. ANNE C. LYNCH BOTTA] + +Emerson appreciated Mrs. Botta as a hostess. He enjoyed being in her +home, saying it "rested him." "I wish that I could believe that in +your miles of palaces were many houses and house-keepers as excellent +as I know at 25 West 37th Street, your house with the expanding +doors." He speaks of her invitation as "one of the happiest rainbows." +"Your hospitality has an Arabian memory, to keep its kind purpose +through such a long time. You were born under Hatem Yayi's own star, +and like him, are the genius of hospitality." (Haten Yayi was a +celebrated Oriental whose house had sixteen doors.) + +And Mrs. Botta was greatly cheered by Emerson. She wrote: + + I always wish I had had my photograph taken when Mr. Emerson + was staying in my house. Everyone felt his influence, even the + servants who would hardly leave the dining-room. I looked like + a different being, and was so happy I forgot to see that he had + enough to eat. + +Early in her time some of her friends--such as Ripley, Curtis, and +Cranch--had joined a small agricultural and educational association, +called the "Brook Farm," near Roxbury, Massachusetts. She visited them +once or twice, and saw Mr. Curtis engaged in washing dishes which had +been used by "The Community." She remarked to him that perhaps he +could be better employed for the progress of his fellow-men than in +wasting his energy on something more easily done by others. + +At one time she invited Bronson Alcott, one of the leaders of a +similar movement, to preside over some _conversazioni_ in her +parlours, where he could elucidate his favourite subject. On one +occasion, a lady in the audience, impressed by some sentiments uttered +by the lecturer, inquired of him if his opinion was that we were gods. +"No," answered Mr. Alcott, "we are not gods, but only godlings," an +explanation which much amused Mrs. Botta, who was always quick in +perceiving the funny side of a remark. (I timidly suggest that _s_ be +substituted for _d_.) + +Mrs. Botta having promised to see Mr. Greeley, and urge him to give a +favourable notice in the _Tribune_ of the concert where a young singer +was to make her debut, went down to his office to plead for a lenient +criticism. But not one word appeared. So down she went to inquire the +reason. She was ushered into the Editor's Sanctum, where he was busily +writing and hardly looked up. She asked why he was so silent; it was +such a disappointment. No reply. She spoke once more. Then came the +verdict in shrill tones: "She can't sing. She can't sing. She can't +sing." + +New Year's calls were then the custom, and more than three hundred +men paid their respects to Mr. and Mrs. Botta on the New Year's Day I +spent with them. And everyone looked, as Theodore Hook said, as if he +were somebody in particular. At one of these "Saturday Evenings," a +stranger walked through her rooms, with hands crossed under his coat +and humming execrably as he wandered along. The gentle hostess went to +him with her winning smile and inquired, "Do you play also?" That +proves her capacity for sarcasm and criticism which she seldom +employed. She conversed remarkably well, but after all it was what she +did not say that proved her greatness and self-control. + +Mrs. Botta had talent in various directions. She made portrait busts +in plaster that really were like the subjects, with occasionally an +inspired success, and that without any teaching. She showed genius in +this work. When a bust of her modelling was sent to Rome to be put +into marble, the foremost of Italian sculptors, not knowing the maker, +declared that nothing would be beyond the reach of the artist if _he_ +would come to Rome and study technique for a year. Mrs. Botta asked me +to let her try to get my face. That was delightful. To be with her in +her own studio and watch her interest! Later some discouragement, and +then enthusiasm as at last the likeness came. She said she took the +humorous side of my face. The other side she found sad. My friends not +only recognized my face, but they saw my mother's face inwrought. + +Mrs. Botta had talent in various directions. She published a large +book, _The Hand Book of Universal Literature_, once used at Harvard +and other colleges, and hoped to prepare one of similar style on +_Universal History_. She also wrote a small volume of poems, but her +days were given to the needs of others. Only a few mornings were we +able to work on her _Universal History_. There were too many calls for +advice, sympathy, or aid; the door-bell rang too often. I heard a +young girl once say of her: "She is great enough to have been an +inspired prophetess of olden times, and tender enough to have been the +mother of our Dear Saviour." Such were the words of impassioned praise +that fell from the lips of a young, motherless, Roman Catholic girl, +one of the many whom Mrs. Botta had taught and befriended. Once, when +reading to Mrs. Botta in connection with her "History," a man called +to see her about getting material for her biography. To my surprise, +she waved her hand to me saying, "This young lady is to be my +biographer." As I felt entirely unable to attempt such a work I told +her it should be made up of letters from a host of friends who had +known her so well and so long. This pleased her, and after her death +her husband wrote me urging me to edit such a composite picture, but +knowing his superior fitness for the work, I thanked him for the +compliment, but declined. What a delightful result was accomplished by +his good judgment, literary skill, and the biographical notes gladly +given by her intimate friends. I will give a few quotations from the +tributes: + + To me--as to others--her conversation was singularly inspiring; + it suggested to a man his best trains of thought; it developed + in him the best he had; it made him think better of himself and + of mankind; it sent him away stronger for all good work. + + + She seemed to me capable of worshipping in equal fervour with + Roman Catholics or with Unitarians--in a cathedral or in a + hovel; and this religious spirit of hers shone out in her life + and in her countenance. Very pleasant was her optimism; she + looked about her in this world without distrust, and beyond her + into the next world without fear. + + + She had a delightful sense of humour--so sweet, so delicate, so + vivid. She had a gift of appreciation which I have never seen + surpassed. + + + If Mrs. Botta found more in society than most persons do, it + was because she carried more there. + +Horace Greeley once said to me, "Anne Lynch is the best woman that +God ever made." + + Few women known to me have had greater grace or ease in the + entertainment of strangers, while in her more private + intercourse, her frank, intelligent, courteous ways won her the + warmest and most desirable friendships. + + + The position of the Bottas in the literary and artistic world + enabled them to draw together not only the best-known people of + this country, but to a degree greater than any, as far as I + know, the most distinguished visitors from abroad, beyond the + ranks of mere title or fashion. No home, I think, in all the + land compared with theirs in the number and character of its + foreign visitors. + + + I should like to introduce you to her home as it was--the hall, + with its interesting pictures and fragrant with fresh flowers; + the dining-room, the drawing-rooms, with their magnetized + atmosphere of the past (you can almost feel the presence of + those who have loved to linger there); her own sanctum, where a + chosen few were admitted; but the limits of space forbid. The + queens of Parisian salons have been praised and idealized till + we are led to believe them unapproachable in their social + altitude. But I am not afraid to place beside them an American + woman, uncrowned by extravagant adulation, but fully their + equal--the artist, poet, conversationist, Anne C. L. Botta. + +She was absolutely free from egotism or conceit, always avoiding +allusion to what she had accomplished, or her unfulfilled longings. +But she once told me: + + Sandy (short for old, red sand stone), I would rather have had + a child than to have made the most perfect statue or the finest + painting ever produced. [She also said]: If I could only stop + longing and aspiring for that which is not in my power to + attain, but is only just near enough to keep me always running + after it, like the donkey that followed an ear of corn which + was tied fast to a stick. + +Mrs. Botta came of a Celtic father, gay, humorous, full of impulsive +chivalry and intense Irish patriotism, and of a practical New England +mother, herself of Revolutionary stock, clear of judgment, careful of +the household economy, upright, exemplary, and "facultied." In the +daughter these inherited qualities blended in a most harmonious +whole. Grant Allen, the scientific writer, novelist, and student of +spiritualistic phenomena, thinks that racial differences often combine +to produce a genius. + +I often think of that rarely endowed friend in full faith that she now +has the joys denied her here, and that her many-sided nature is +allowed progress, full and free and far, in many directions. I am also +sure that Heaven could not be Heaven to Mrs. Botta if she were not +able to take soul flights and use wireless telegraphy to still help +those she left behind, and hope that she can return to greet and +guide us as we reach the unknown land. + +Through the kind suggestions of Mrs. Botta, I was asked to give talks +on literary matters at the house of one of New York's most influential +citizens. This I enjoyed immensely. Soon the large drawing-rooms were +too small for the numbers who came. Next we went to the Young Women's +Christian Association, to the library there, and later I decided to +engage the church parlours in Doctor Howard Crosby's Church, Fourth +Avenue and Twenty-second Street, New York. When I realized my +audacious venture, I was frightened. Ten lectures had been advertised +and some not written! + +On the day for my first lecture the rain poured down, and I felt sure +of a failure. My sister went with me to the church. As we drew near I +noticed a string of carriages up and down the avenue. "There must be a +wedding or a funeral," I whispered, feeling more in the mood of the +latter, but never dreaming how much those carriages meant to me. As I +went timidly into the room I found nearly every seat full, and was +greeted with cordial applause. My sister took a seat beside me. My +subject was "Spinster Authors of England." My hands trembled so +visibly that I laid my manuscript on the table, but after getting in +magnetic touch with those before me, I did not mind. + +The reading occupied only one hour, and afterwards I was surrounded by +New Hampshire women and New Yorkers who congratulated me warmly. There +were reporters sent from seven of the best daily papers, whom I +found sharpening their pencils expectantly. They gave correct and +complimentary notices, and my success was now assured. + +Mr. James T. Fields not only advised his New York friends to hear me, +but came himself, bringing my father who was deeply gratified. Mr. +Fields told father that I had a remarkably choice audience, among the +best in the city. My father had felt very deeply, even to tears, the +sharp, narrow and adverse criticism of one of his associates who +considered that I unsexed myself by daring to speak in public, and who +advised strongly against encouraging me in such unwomanly behaviour. + +I was a pioneer as a lecturer on literature quite unconsciously, for I +had gone along so gradually that I did not realize it--taken up and +set down in a new place with no planning on my part. + +Invited by many of the citizens of Hanover, New Hampshire, my old +home, to go there and give my lecture on "Lady Morgan," the Irish +novelist, for the purpose of purchasing a new carpet for the +Congregational Church, I was surprised to feel again the same stern +opposition; I was not permitted to speak in the church, but +immediately was urged to accept the large recitation hall of the +Scientific School. It was crowded to the doors and the college boys +climbed up and swarmed about the windows. The carpet, a dark red +ingrain, was bought, put down, and wore well for years. + +Now came a busy life. I was asked to lecture in many places near New +York, always in delightful homes. Had a class of married ladies at the +home of Dr. J.G. Holland, where I gave an idea of the newest books. +Doctor Holland gave me a department, "Bric-a-brac," in his +magazine--_Scribner's Magazine_; and I was honoured by a request from +the editors of the _Galaxy_ to take the "Club Room" from which Mark +Twain had just resigned. Meeting him soon after at a dinner, he said +with his characteristic drawl: "Awful solemn, ain't it, having to be +funny every month; worse than a funeral." I started a class in my own +apartment to save time for ladies who wanted to know about the most +interesting books as they were published, but whose constant +engagements made it impossible to read them entirely for themselves. I +suggested to the best publishers to send me copies of their +attractive publications which I would read, condense, and then talk +them over with these friends. All were glad to aid me. Their books +were piled on my piano and tables, and many were sold. I want to say +that such courtesy was a rare compliment. I used to go to various book +stores, asking permission to look over books at a special reading +table, and never met a refusal. I fear in these days of aiding the war +sufferers, and keeping our bodies limber and free from rheumatism by +daily dancing, this plan would not find patrons. + +I was often "browsing," as they call it, at the Mercantile Library. At +first I would sit down and give the names of volumes desired. That +took too long. At last I was allowed to go where I liked and take what +I wanted. I sent a pair of handsome slippers at Christmas to the man +who had been my special servitor. He wrote me how he admired them and +wished he could wear them, but alas! his feet had both been worn to a +stub long ago from such continuous running and climbing to satisfy my +seldom-satisfied needs. He added that several of the errand boys had +become permanently crippled from over-exertion. I then understood why +he had married a famous woman doctor. It is hard to get the books +asked for in very large libraries. Once I was replying to an attack on +Miss Elizabeth Stuart Phelps's style by Miss Dodge, well known under +the pen name Gail Hamilton, and I gave this order: "Complete works of +Miss Abigail Dodge--and please hurry." After intolerable waiting, two +boys appeared looking very weary, bearing the many sermons and heavy +memoirs of the Reverend Narcissus Dodge. + +In my special class at home I begged my friends to ask questions in an +off-hand way, and to comment upon my opinions. That was stimulating to +all. One morning my theme was "Genius and Talent." I said Genius was +something beyond--outside of--ourselves, which achieved great results +with small exertion. Not by any means was it a bit of shoemakers' +wax in the seat of one's chair (as Anthony Trollope put it). Talent +must work hard and constantly for development. I said: "Genius +is inspiration; Talent is perspiration." I had never heard that +definition and thought it was mine. Of late it has been widely quoted, +but with no acknowledgment, so I still think it is mine. Are there any +other claimants--and prior to 1880? + +There were many questions and decided differences of opinion. At last +one lady said: "Please give us examples of men who possess genius +rather than talent." As she spoke, the door opened, and in walked +Mrs. Edmund Clarence Stedman, wife of the poet, and with her a most +distinguished-looking woman, Mrs. William Whitney. I was a little +embarrassed, but replied sweetly, "Sheets and Kelley," meaning "Keats +and Shelley." Then followed a wild laugh in which I joined. + +Dr. John Lord once told me he had a similar shock. He spoke of +"Westford and Oxminster," instead of "Oxford and Westminster," and +never again could he get it correctly, try as he would. Neither his +twist nor mine was quite as bad as that of the speaker who said: "I +feel within me a half-warmed fish; I mean a half-formed wish." + + All genius [continued Lady Henrietta], whether it is artistic, + or literary, or spiritual, is something given from outside. I + once heard genius described as knowing by intuition what other + people know by experience. + + Something, or, I should say, somebody, for it involves + intelligence and knowledge, tells you these things, and you + just can't help expressing them in your own particular way, + with brush, or pen, or voice, whatever your individual + instrument may be. + + From _Patricia_ by Hon. Mrs. ROBERT HAMILTON. + +It was a pleasure to see that my theory of Genius was the same as Lady +Henrietta's in that charming book _Patricia_. I have enough collected +on that subject to give me shivers of amazement as I read the mass of +testimony. The mystery of Inspiration has always enthralled me. + +I was invited to so many evenings "at home," dinners and luncheons, +that I decided to reciprocate and be surely at home on Tuesday +evenings. These affairs were very informal and exceedingly enjoyable. +There were many who gladly entertained us by their accomplishments. +Champney the artist, sent after blackboard and chalk, and did +wonderfully clever things. Some one described a stiff and stupid +reception where everyone seemed to have left themselves at home. Those +who came to me brought their best. Mrs. Barnard, wife of President +Barnard of Columbia College, urged me to give three lectures in her +parlour. I could not find the time, but her house was always open to +me. To know Mr. Barnard was a great privilege. When called to +Columbia, it was apparently dying from starvation for new ideas, and +stagnant from being too conservative and deep in set grooves. His +plans waked up the sleepers and brought constant improvements. Though +almost entirely deaf, he was never morose or depressed, but always +cheerful and courageous. I used to dine with them often. Tubes from +each guest extended into one through which he could hear quite well. +He delighted in discussion of current events, historical matters, +politics of the day, and was apparently well informed on every +question. Unlike Harriet Martineau, who always put down her trumpet +when anyone dared to disagree with her opinions, he delighted in a +friendly controversy with anyone worthy of his steel. He fought with +patience and persistence for the rights of women to have equal +education with men, and at last gained his point, but died before +Barnard College was in existence. Every student of Barnard ought to +realize her individual indebtedness to this great educator, regarding +him as the champion of women and their patron saint. + + [Illustration: PRESIDENT BARNARD OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE] + +He was blessed in his home life. Mrs. Barnard was his shield, +sunshine, and strength. + + * * * * * + + Studio, 1271 Broadway, + corner 32d Street. + April 8, 1887. + + DEAR MISS SANBORN: + + I send you "Ovis Montana" or Mountain Sheep, who never enjoyed + the daily papers or devoured a scrap of poetry. The only + civilized thing he ever did was to give his life for a piece of + cold lead and got swindled at that. + + To be grafted in your Album is immortality. + + Sincerely yours, + ALBERT BIERSTADT. + +This gift was a big surprise to me. I was then corresponding with two +Boston papers and one in the West. I thought it discourteous in the +artists of the new Impressionist school, to sneer a little at +Bierstadt's great paintings, as if he could ever be set back as a +bye-gone or a has-been. And it gave me great pleasure to say so. I +sent several letters to him, and one day I received a card asking me +to call at his studio to look over some sketches. He said he wanted me +to help him to select a sketch out of quite a pile on the table, as he +wished to make a painting of one for a friend. I assured him I did not +know enough to do that, but he insisted he was so busy that I must +tell him which I thought would be most effective. I looked at every +one, feeling quite important, and at last selected the Mountain Sheep +poised on a high peak in a striking pose. A rare sight then. + +At Christmas that splendid picture painted by Bierstadt was sent to +our apartment for me. Never before had I received such appreciation +for my amateur scribbling. + +Ah, me! I was both complimented and proud. But my humiliation soon +came. When I called to thank the kind donor and speak of the fine +frame the mountain big-horn was now in, I was surprised to have Mr. +Bierstadt present to me a tall, distinguished-looking foreigner as +Munkacsy, the well-known Hungarian artist. He was most cordial, saying +in French that he was glad to meet an American woman who could +doubtless answer many questions he was anxious to ask. I could only +partially get his meaning, so Bierstadt translated it to me. And I, +who could read and translate French easily, had never found time to +learn to chat freely in any language but my own. I could have cried +right there; it was so mortifying, and I was losing such a pleasure. I +had the same pathetic experience with a Russian artist, Verestchagin, +whose immense picture, revealing the horrors of war, was then on +exhibition in New York. + +Again and again I have felt like a dummy, if not an idiot, in such a +position. I therefore beg all young persons to determine to speak and +write at least one language beside their own. + +Tom Hood wrote: + + "Never go to France + Unless you know the lingo + If you do, like me, + You'll repent by jingo." + +But it's even worse to be unable in your own country to greet and talk +with guests from other countries. + +I should like to see the dead languages, as well as Saxon and +Sanscrit, made elective studies every where; also the higher +mathematics, mystic metaphysics, and studies of the conscious and +subconscious, the ego and non-ego, matters of such uncertain study. +When one stops to realize the tragic brevity of life on this earth, +and to learn from statistics what proportion of each generation dies +in infancy, in childhood, in early maturity, and how few reach +the Biblical limit of life, it seems unnecessary to regard a +brain-wearying "curriculum" as essential or even sensible. Taine gives +us in his work on English Literature a Saxon description of life: "A +bird flying from the dark, a moment in the light, then swiftly passing +out into the darkness beyond." + +And really why do we study as if we were to rival the ante-diluvians +in age. Then wake up to the facts. I have been assured, by those who +know, that but a small proportion of college graduates are successful +or even heard of. They appear at commencement, sure that they are to +do great things, make big money, at least marry an heiress; they are +turned out like buttons, only to find out how hard it is to get +anything to do for good pay. One multi-millionaire of Boston, whose +first wages he told me were but four dollars a month, said there was +no one he so dreaded to see coming into his office as a college man +who must have help,--seldom able to write a legible hand, or to add +correctly a column of figures. There is solid food for thought. + + * * * * * + +Lowell said that "great men come in clusters." That is true, but it is +equally true that once in a great while, we are vouchsafed a royal +guest, a man who mingles freely with the ordinary throng, yet stands +far above them; a man who can wrest the primal secrets from nature's +closed hand, who makes astounding discoveries, only to gladly disclose +them to others. + +Such an unusual genius was Professor Robert Ogden Doremus, whose +enthusiasm was only matched by his modesty. In studying what he +accomplished, I wonder whether he was not sent from the central yet +universal "powers that be" to give us answers to some of the riddles +of life; or had he visited so many planets further advanced than our +own--for as Jean Paul Richter wrote "There is no end"--that he had +learned that the supposedly impossible could be done. He assisted John +W. Draper in taking the first photograph of the human face ever made. +Science with him was never opposed to religion. His moving pictures +and spectral analysis were almost miracles at that time. He delighted +to show how the earth in forming was flattened at the poles, and he +would illustrate the growth of the rings of Saturn. As a lecturer he +was a star, the only chemist and scientist to offer experiments. His +lectures were always attended by crowds of admirers. As a toxicologist +he was marvellous in his accuracy; no poisoner could escape his exact +analysis. His compressed cartridges, made waterproof and coated with +collodion, were used in the blasting operations at the Mont Cenis +tunnel through eight miles of otherwise impenetrable stone, solid +Alpine rock, between France and Italy. + +When the obelisk in Central Park showed signs of serious decay, he +saved the hieroglyphics by ironing it with melted parafine. He makes +us think of the juggler who can keep a dozen balls in the air as if it +were an easy trick, never dropping one. + + [Illustration: PROFESSOR R. OGDEN DOREMUS] + +But I forget to give my own memories of Dr. and Mrs. Doremus in their +delightful home on Fourth Avenue between 18th and 19th Streets,--a +home full of harmony, melody, peace, and love. Vincenzo Botta called +Dr. Doremus the "Maecenas of New York," and his beautiful wife, the +ideal wife and mother, was named by her adoring husband the "queen +of women." Mrs. Doremus was prominent in New York's various societies +and charities, but the interests of her own family came first. One of +her sons said: "She never neglected her children; we were always loved +and well cared for." Both Dr. Doremus and his wife were devoted to +music, always of the best. He was the first president of the +Philharmonic Society who was not a musician by profession. All the +preceding presidents had been selected from the active musicians in +the society. One evening he was serenaded by the Philharmonic Society +under the leadership of Carl Bergman, the recently elected president +of the society. After the classic music had ceased, Dr. Doremus +appeared and thanked the society for the compliment. All were invited +into the house, where a bountiful collation was served and speeches +made. If you could see the photograph of the Philharmonic Society +serenading Dr. and Mrs. Doremus at their home, you would get a rare +insight into the old New York life, as compared with the present, in +which such a thing would be impossible. He said that his mother used +to take a cup of tea at the Battery afternoons with her sons. + +He was a lifelong friend of Christine Nilsson whom he considered the +greatest vocal and dramatic genius of the age. He wrote: "Never did +mortal woman sing as she sang that simple song that begins: + + 'Angels, Angels, bright and fair, + Take, O take me to thy care!'" + +I saw Nilsson and Parepa introduced there, who were to sail on the +same steamer in a few days. Nilsson made the banjo fashionable in New +York society, accompanying herself charmingly. All the famous opera +singers regarded the house of Dr. Doremus a place where they were +thoroughly at home, and always welcome. Ole Bull was for many years +his most devoted friend. Dr. Doremus writes: + + I recall that once when I was dining with Ole Bull, at the + house of a friend, our host said: 'Doctor, I don't think much + of Ole Bull's fiddling; you know what I mean--I don't think + much of his fiddling as compared with his great heart.' + +Mr. Edwin Booth, once walking with me, dropped my arm and exclaimed +with a dramatic gesture: "Ole Bull wasn't a man--he was a god!" + +The last time I had the privilege of listening to Ole Bull's witchery +with his violin, he gave an hour to Norwegian folk-songs, his wife at +the piano. She played with finish, feeling, and restraint. She first +went through the air, then he joined in with his violin with +indescribable charm. Critics said he lacked technique. I am glad he +did: his music went straight to the heart. At the last he told us he +would give the tune always played after a wedding when the guests had +stayed long enough--usually three days--and their departure was +desired. We were to listen for one shrill note which was imperative. +No one would care or dare to remain after that. + +Dr. Doremus showed me one evening a watch he was wearing, saying: + + In Ole Bull's last illness when he no longer had strength to + wind his watch, he asked his wife to wind it for him, and then + send it to his best friend, saying: 'I want it to go ticking + from my heart to his.' + +That watch magnetized by human love passing through it is now in the +possession of Arthur Lispenard Doremus, to whom it was left by his +father. It had to be wound by a key in the old fashion, and it ran in +perfect time for twenty-nine years. Then it became worn and was sent +to a watchmaker for repairs. It is still a reliable timekeeper, quite +a surprising story, as the greatest length of time before this was +twenty-four years for a watch to run. + +I think of these rare souls, Ole Bull and Dr. Doremus, as reunited, +and with their loved ones advancing to greater heights, constantly +receiving new revelations of omnipotent power, which "it is not in the +heart of man to conceive." + + LINES + + Read at the Celebration of the Seventieth Birthday + of DOCTOR R. OGDEN DOREMUS, January + 11th, 1894, at 241 Madison Avenue, + by LUTHER R. MARSH. + + + What shall be said for good Doctor Doremus? + To speak of him well, it well doth beseem us. + Not one single fault, through his seventy years, + Has ever been noticed by one of his peers. + + How flawless a life, and how useful withal! + Fulfilling his duties at every call! + Come North or come South, come East or come West, + He ever is ready to work for the best. + + In Chemics, the Doctor stands first on the list; + The nature, he knows, of all things that exist. + He lets loose the spirits of earth, rock or water, + And drives them through solids, cemented with mortar. + + How deftly he handles the retort and decanter! + Makes lightning and thunder would scare Tam O'Shanter; + Makes feathers as heavy as lead, in a jar, + And eliminates spirits from coal and from tar. + + By a touch of his finger he'll turn lead or tin + To invisible gas, and then back again; + He will set them aflame, as in the last day, + When all things are lit by the Sun's hottest ray. + + With oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen,--all-- + No gas can resist his imperative call-- + He'll solidify, liquefy, or turn into ice; + Or all of them re-convert, back in a trice. + + Amid oxides and alkalies, bromides and salts, + He makes them all dance in a chemical waltz; + And however much he with acids may play, + There's never a drop stains his pure mortal clay. + + He well knows what things will affect one another; + What acts as an enemy, and what as a brother; + He feels quite at home with all chemic affinities, + And treats them respectfully, as mystic Divinities. + + His wisdom is spread from far Texas to Maine; + For thousands on thousands have heard him explain + The secrets of Nature, and all her arcana, + From the youth of the Gulf, to the youth of Montana. + + In Paris, Doremus may compress'd powder compound, + Or, at home, wrap the Obelisk with paraffine round; + Or may treat Toxicology ever anew, + To enrich the bright students of famous Bellevue. + + He believes in the spirits of all physical things, + And can make them fly round as if they had wings; + But ask him to show you the Spirit of Man-- + He hesitates slightly, saying, "See!--if you can." + + Wherever he comes there always is cheer; + If absent, you miss him; you're glad when he's near; + His voice is a trumpet that stirreth the blood; + You feel that he's cheery, and you know that he's good. + + No doors in the city have swung open so wide, + To artists at home, and to those o'er the tide; + As, to Mario, Sontag, Badiali, Marini, + To Nilsson and Phillips, Rachel and Salvini. + + Much, much does he owe, for the grace of his life, + To the influence ever of his beautiful wife; + She, so grand and so stately, so true and so kind, + So lovely in person and so charming in mind! + +I had the pleasure of being well acquainted with Mr. Charles H. Webb, +a truly funny "funny man," who had homes in New York and Nantucket. +His slight stutter only added to the effect of his humorous talk. His +letters to the New York _Tribune_ from Long Branch, Saratoga, etc., +were widely read. He knew that he wrote absolute nonsense at times, +but nonsense is greatly needed in this world, and exquisitely droll +nonsensical nonsense is as uncommon as common sense. The titles of his +various books are inviting and informing, as _Seaweed and What We +Seed_. He wrote several parodies on sensational novels of his time. +_Griffith Gaunt_, he made fun of as "Liffith Lank"; _St. Elmo_, as +"St. Twelmo." _A Wicked Woman_ was another absurd tale. But I like +best a large volume, "_John Paul's Book_, moral and instructive, +travels, tales, poetry, and like fabrications, with several portraits +of the author and other spirited engravings." This book was dedicated, +"To the Bald-Headed, that noble and shining army of martyrs." When you +turn to look at his portrait, and the illuminated title page, you find +them not. The Frontispiece picture is upside down. The very +ridiculosity of his easy daring to do or say anything is taking. He +once wrote, in one of those trying books, with which we used to be +bored stiff, with questions such as "What is your favourite hour of +the day? He wrote dinner hour; what book not sacred would you part +with last? My pocket-book. Your favourite motto? When you must,--you +better." I especially liked the poem, "The Outside Dog in the Fight." +Here are two specimens of his prose: + + The fish-hawk is not an eagle. Mountain heights and clouds he + never scales; fish are more in his way, he scales + them--possibly regarding them as scaly-wags. For my bird is + pious; a stern conservator is he of the public morals. Last + Sunday a frivolous fish was playing not far from the beach, and + Dr. Hawk went out and stopped him. 'Tis fun to watch him at + that sort of work--stopping play--though somehow it does not + seem to amuse the fish much. Up in the air he poises + pensively, hanging on hushed wings as though listening for + sounds--maybe a fish's. By and by he hears a herring--is he + hard of herring, think you? Then down he drops and soon has a + Herring Safe. (Send me something, manufacturers, immediately.) + Does he tear his prey from limb to limb? No, he merely sails + away through the blue ether--how happy can he be with + either!--till the limb whereon his own nest is built is + reached. Does the herring enjoy that sort of riding, think you? + Quite as much, I should say, as one does hack-driving. From my + point of view, the hawk is but the hackman of the air. + Sympathize with the fish? Not much. Nor would you if you heard + the pitiful cry the hawk sets up the moment he finds that his + claws are tangled in a fish's back. Home he flies to seek + domestic consolation, uttering the while the weeping cry of a + grieved child; there are tears in his voice, so you know the + fish must be hurting him. The idea that a hawk can't fly over + the water of an afternoon without some malicious fish jumping + up and trying to bite him! + + If a fish wants to cross the water safely, let him take a + Fulton ferryboat for it. There he will find a sign reading: + + "No Peddling or Hawking allowed in this cabin." Strange that + hawking should be so sternly prohibited on boats which are + mainly patronized by Brooklynites chronically afflicted with + catarrh! + + + Never shall it be said that I put my hand to the plow and + turned back. For that matter never shall it be said of me that + I put hand to a plow at all, unless a plow should chase me + upstairs and into the privacy of my bed-room, and then I should + only put hand to it for the purpose of throwing it out of the + window. The beauty of the farmer's life was never very clear to + me. As for its boasted "independence," in the part of the + country I came from, there was never a farm that was not + mortgaged for about all it was worth; never a farmer who was + not in debt up to his chin at "the store." Contented! When it + rains the farmer grumbles because he can't hoe or do something + else to his crops, and when it does not rain, he grumbles + because his crops do not grow. Hens are the only ones on a farm + that are not in a perpetual worry and ferment about "crops:" + they fill theirs with whatever comes along, whether it be an + angleworm, a kernel of corn, or a small cobblestone, and give + thanks just the same. + + + THE OUTSIDE DOG IN THE FIGHT + + You may sing of your dog, your bottom dog, + Or of any dog that you please, + I go for the dog, the wise old dog, + That knowingly takes his ease, + And, wagging his tail outside the ring, + Keeping always his bone in sight, + Cares not a pin in his wise old head + For either dog in the fight. + + Not his is the bone they are fighting for, + And why should my dog sail in, + With nothing to gain but a certain chance + To lose his own precious skin! + There may be a few, perhaps, who fail + To see it in quite this light, + But when the fur flies I had rather be + The outside dog in the fight. + + I know there are dogs--most generous dogs + Who think it is quite the thing + To take the part of the bottom dog, + And go yelping into the ring. + I care not a pin what the world may say + In regard to the wrong or right; + My money goes as well as my song, + For the dog that keeps out of the fight! + +Mr. Webb, like Charles Lamb and the late Mr. Travers, stammered just +enough to give piquancy to his conversation. To facilitate enunciation +he placed a "g" before the letters which it was hard for him to +pronounce. We were talking of the many sad and sudden deaths from +pneumonia, bronchitis, etc., during the recent spring season, and then +of the insincerity of poets who sighed for death and longed for a +summons to depart. He said in his deliciously slow and stumbling +manner: "I don't want the ger-pneu-m-mon-ia. I'm in no ger-hurry to +ger-go." Mrs. Webb's drawing-rooms were filled with valuable pictures +and bronzes, and her Thursday Evenings at home were a delight to many. + +How little we sometimes know of the real spirit and the inner life of +some noble man or woman. Mrs. Hermann was a remarkable instance of +this. I thought I was well acquainted with Mrs. Esther Hermann, who, +in her home, 59 West fifty-sixth Street New York, was always +entertaining her many friends. Often three evenings a week were given +to doing something worth while for someone, or giving opportunity for +us to hear some famous man or woman speak, who was interested in some +great project. And her refreshments, after the hour of listening was +over, were of the most generous and delicious kind. Hers was a lavish +hospitality. It was all so easily and quietly done, that no one +realized that those delightful evenings were anything but play to her. +She became interested in me when I was almost a novice in the lecture +field, gave me two benefits, invited those whom she thought would +enjoy my talks, and might also be of service to me. There was never +the slightest stiffness; if one woman was there for the first time, +and a stranger, Mrs. Hermann and her daughters saw that there were +plenty of introductions and an escort engaged to take the lady to the +supper room. Mrs. Hermann in those early days, often took me to drive +in the park--a great treat. We chatted merrily together, and I still +fancied I knew her. But her own family did not know of her great +benefactions; her son only knew by looking over her check books, after +her death, how much she had given away. Far from blazoning it abroad, +she insisted on secrecy. She invited Mr. Henry Fairfield Osborn to +call, who was keenly interested in securing money to start a Natural +History Museum, he bringing a friend with him. After they had owned +that they found it impossible even to gain the first donation, she +handed Mr. Osborn, after expressing her interest, a check for ten +thousand dollars. At first he thought he would not open it in her +presence, but later did so. He was amazed and said very gratefully: +"Madam, I will have this recognized at once by the Society." She said: +"I want no recognition. If you insist, I shall take back the +envelope." Her daughter describes her enthusiasm one very stormy, cold +Sunday. Stephen S. Wise, the famous rabbi, was advertised to preach in +the morning at such a place. "Mother was there in a front seat early, +eager to get every word of wisdom that fell from his lips." Mr. Wise +spoke at the Free Synagogue Convention at three o'clock P.M. "Mother +was there promptly again, in front, her dark eyes glowing with intense +interest." At eight P.M. he spoke at another hall on the other side of +the city, "Mother was there." At the close, Mr. Wise stepped down from +the platform to shake hands with Mrs. Hermann, and said, "I am +surprised at seeing you at these three meetings, and in such bad +weather." She replied, + +"Why should you be surprised; you were at all three, weren't you?" + +She had a long life of perfect health and never paid the least +attention to the worst of weather if she had a duty to perform. + +There was something of the fairy godmother in this large-hearted +woman, whose modesty equalled her generosity. She dropped gifts by the +way, always eager to help, and anxious to keep out of sight. Mrs. +Hermann was one of those women who sow the seeds of kindness with a +careless hand, and help to make waste places beautiful. She became +deeply interested in education early in life, and her faith was +evidenced by her work. She was one of the founders of Barnard College. +Her checks became very familiar to the treasurers of many educational +enterprises. She was one of the patrons of the American Association +for the Advancement of Sciences, and many years ago gave one thousand +dollars to aid the Association. Since then she has added ten thousand +dollars as a nucleus toward the erection of a building to be called +the Academy of Science. With the same generous spirit she contributed +ten thousand dollars to the Young Men's Hebrew Association for +educational purposes. It was for the purpose of giving teachers the +opportunity of studying botany from nature, that she gave ten +thousand dollars to the Botanical Garden in the Bronx. + +Her knowledge of the great need for a technical school for Jewish boys +preyed on her mind at night so that she could not sleep, and she felt +it was wrong to be riding about the city when these boys could be +helped. She sold her carriages and horses, walked for three years +instead of riding, and sent a large check to start the school. It is +pleasant to recall that the boys educated there have turned out +wonderfully well, some of them very clever electricians. + +I could continue indefinitely naming the acts of generosity of this +noble woman, but we have said enough to show why her many friends +desired to express their appreciation of her sterling virtues, and +their love for the gentle lady, whose kindness has given happiness to +countless numbers. To this end, some of her friends planned to give +her a a testimonial, and called together representatives from the +hundred and twenty-five different clubs and organizations of which she +was a member, to consider the project. This suggestion was received +with such enthusiasm that a committee was appointed who arranged a +fitting tribute worthy of the occasion. + +The poem with which I close my tribute to my dear friend, Mrs. +Hermann, is especially fitting to her beautiful life. Her family, even +after they were all married and in happy homes of their own, were +expected by the mother every Sunday evening. These occasions were +inexpressibly dear to her warm heart, devoted to her children and +grandchildren. But owing to her reticence she was even to them really +unknown. + +I had given at first many more instances of her almost daily +ministrations but later this seemed to be in direct opposition to her +oft-expressed wish for no recognition of her gifts. "We are spirits +clad in veils," but of Mrs. Hermann this was especially true and I +love her memory too well not to regard her wishes as sacred. + + GNOSIS + + Thought is deeper than all speech, + Feeling deeper than all thought; + Souls to souls can never teach + What unto themselves was taught. + + We are spirits clad in veils; + Man by man was never seen; + All our deep communing fails + To remove the shadowy screen. + + Heart to heart was never known; + Mind with mind did never meet; + We are columns left alone + Of a temple once complete. + + Like the stars that gem the sky, + Far apart, though seeming near, + In our light we scattered lie; + All is thus but starlight here. + + What is social company, + But the babbling summer stream? + What our wise philosophy + But the glancing of a dream? + + Only when the sun of love + Melts the scattered stars of thought, + Only when we live above + What the dim-eyed world hath taught, + + Only when our souls are fed + By the fount which gave them birth, + And by inspiration led + Which they never drew from earth. + + We, like parted drops of rain, + Swelling till they meet and run, + Shall be all absorbed again, + Melting, flowing into one. + + CHRISTOPHER PEARSE CRANCH (1813-1892). + +Cranch's own title for this poem was "Enosis," not "Gnosis" as now +given; "Enosis" being a Greek word meaning "all in one," which is +illustrated by the last verse. + +It was first published in the _Dial_ in 1844. "Stanzas" appeared at +the head, and at the end was his initial, "C." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +Three Years at Smith College--Appreciation of Its Founder--A +Successful Lecture Tour--My Trip to Alaska. + + +"There is nothing so certain as the unexpected," and "if you fit +yourself for the wall, you will be put in." + +I was in danger of being spoiled by kindness in New York and the +surrounding towns, if not in danger of a breakdown from constant +activity, literary and social, with club interests and weekend visits +at homes of delightful friends on the Hudson, when I was surprised and +honoured by a call from President L. Clark Seelye of Smith College, +Northampton, Massachusetts, who invited me to take the position of +teacher of English Literature at that college. + +I accepted, and remained at Northampton for three years, from +1880-1883. It was a busy life. I went on Saturday afternoons to a +class of married ladies at Mrs. Terhune's (Marion Harland) in +Springfield, Massachusetts, where her husband was a clergyman in one +of the largest churches in that city. I also published several books, +and at least two Calendars, while trying to make the students at Smith +College enthusiastic workers in my department. + +Mrs. Terhune was a versatile and entertaining woman, a most practical +housekeeper; and she could tell the very best ghost story I ever +heard, for it is of a ghost who for many years was the especial +property of her father's family. + +When I gave evening lectures at Mrs. Terhune's while at Smith College, +I was accustomed to spend the night there. She always insisted upon +rising early to see that the table was set properly for me, and she +often would bring in something specially tempting of her own cooking. +A picture I can never forget is that of Doctor Terhune who, before +offering grace at meals, used to stretch out a hand to each of his +daughters, and so more closely include them in his petition. + +I used no special text-book while at Smith College, and requested my +class to question me ten minutes at the close of every recitation. +Each girl brought a commonplace book to the recitation room to take +notes as I talked. Some of them showed great power of expression while +writing on the themes provided. There was a monthly examination, +often largely attended by friends out of town. I still keep up my +interest in my pupils of that day. One of them told me that they +thought at first I was currying popularity, I was so cordial and even +affectionate, but they confessed they were mistaken. + +Under President Seelye's wise management, Smith College has taken a +high position, and is constantly growing better. The tributes to his +thirty-seven years in service when he resigned prove how thoroughly he +was appreciated. I give a few extracts: + + We wish to record the fact that this has been, in a unique + degree, your personal work. If you had given the original sum + which called the College into being, and had left its + administration to others, you would have been less truly the + creator of the institution than you have been through your + executive efficiency. Your plans have seldom been revised by + the Board of Trustees, and your selection of teachers has + brought together a faculty which is at least equal to the best + of those engaged in the education of women. You have secured + for the teachers a freedom of instruction which has inspired + them to high attainment and fruitful work. You, with them, have + given to the College a commanding position in the country, and + have secured for it and for its graduates universal respect. + The deep foundations for its success have been intellectual and + spiritual, and its abiding work has been the building up of + character by contact with character. + + + Fortunate in her location, fortunate in her large minded + trustees, fortunate in the loyal devotedness of her faculty and + supremely fortunate has our College been in the consecrated + creative genius of her illustrious president. Bringing to his + task a noble ideal, with rare sagacity as an administrator; + with financial and economic skill rarely found in a scholar and + idealist, but necessary to foster into fullest fruitfulness the + slender pecuniary resources then at hand; with tact and suavity + which made President Seelye's "no," if no were needed, more + gracious than "yes" from others; with the force which grasps + difficulties fearlessly; with dignified scholarship and a + courtly manner, the master builder of our College, under whose + hand the little one has become a thousand and the small one a + strong republic, has achieved the realization of his high ideal + and is crowned with honour and affection. + + + He has made one ashamed of any but the highest motives, and has + taught us that sympathy and love for mankind are the traits for + which to strive. The ideals of womanly life which he instilled + will ever be held high before us. + + + There are many distinguished qualities which a college + president must possess. He must be idealist, creator, executor, + financier, and scholar. President Seelye--is all these--but he + had another and a rarer gift which binds and links these + qualities together, as the chain on which jewels are + strung--President Seelye had immense capacity for work and + patient attention for details. It is this unusual combination + which has given us a great College, and has given to our + president a unique position among educators. + +I realize that I must at times have been rather a trying proposition +to President Seelye for I was placed in an entirely new world, and +having been almost wholly educated by my father, by Dartmouth +professors, and by students of the highest scholarship, I never knew +the mental friction and the averaging up and down of those accustomed +to large classes. I gained far more there than I gave, for I learned +my limitations, or some of them, and to try to stick closely to my own +work, to be less impulsive, and not offer opinions and suggestions, +unasked, undesired, and in that early stage of the college, +objectionable. Still, President Seelye writes to me: "I remember you +as a very stimulating teacher of English Literature, and I have often +heard your pupils, here and afterwards, express great interest in your +instruction." + +The only "illuminating" incident in my three years at Smith College +was owing to my wish to honour the graduating reception of the Senior +class. I pinned my new curtains carefully away, put some candles in +the windows, leaving two young ladies of the second year to see that +all was safe. The house was the oldest but one in the town; it +harboured two aged paralytics whom it would be difficult, if not +dangerous, to remove. Six students had their home there. As my +fire-guards heard me returning with my sister and some gentlemen of +the town, they left the room, the door slammed, a breeze blew the +light from the candles to the curtains, and in an instant the curtains +were ablaze. + +And now the unbelievable sequel. The room seemed all on fire in five +minutes. Next, the overhead beam was blazing. I can tell you that the +fire was extinguished by those gentlemen, and no one ever knew we had +been so near a conflagration until three years later when the kind +lady of the house wrote to me: "Dear Friend, did you ever have a fire +in your room? In making it over I found some wood badly scorched." I +have the most reliable witnesses, or you would never have believed it. +In the morning my hostess said to the girls assembled at breakfast: +"Miss Sanborn is always rather noisy when she has guests, but I never +did hear such a hullabaloo as she made last evening." + +It is certain that President Seelye deserves all the appreciation and +affectionate regard he received. He has won his laurels and he needs +the rest which only resignation could bring. The college is equally +fortunate in securing as his successor, Marion LeRoy Burton, who in +the coming years may lead the way through broader paths, to greater +heights, always keeping President Seelye's ideal of the truly womanly +type, in a distinctively woman's college. + +As the Rev. Dr. John M. Greene writes me (the clergyman who suggested +to Sophia Smith that she give her money to found a college for women, +and who at eighty-five years has a perfectly unclouded mind): "I want +to say that my ambition for Smith College is that it shall be a real +women's college. Too many of our women's colleges are only men's +colleges for women." + +I desire now to add my tribute to that noble woman, Sophia Smith of +Hatfield, Massachusetts. + +On April 18, 1796, the town of Hatfield, in town meeting assembled, +"voiced to set up two schools, for the schooling of girls four months +in the year." The people of that beautiful town seemed to have heard +the voice of their coming prophetess, commissioned to speak a word for +woman's education, which the world has shown itself ready to hear. + +In matters of heredity, Sophia Smith was fortunate. Her paternal +grandmother, Mary Morton, was an extraordinary woman. After the death +of her husband, she became the legal guardian of her six sons, all +young, cared for a large farm, and trained her boys to be useful and +respected in the community. + +Sophia Smith was born in Hatfield, August 27, 1796; just six months +before Mary Lyon was born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, about seventeen +miles distant. Sophia remembered her grandmother and said: "I looked +up to my grandmother with great love and reverence. She, more than +once, put her hands on my head and said, 'I want you should grow up, +and be a good woman, and try to make the world better.'" And her +mother was equally religious, efficient, kind to the poor, sympathetic +but not impulsive. Sophia lived in a country farmhouse near the +Connecticut River for sixty-eight years. She was sadly hampered +physically. One of the historians of Hatfield writes me: + + Her infirmity of deafness was troublesome to some extent when + she was young, making her shy and retiring. At forty she was + absolutely incapable of hearing conversation. She also was lame + in one foot and had a withered hand. In spite of this, I think + she was an active and spirited girl, about like other girls. + She was very fond of social intercourse, especially later in + life when my father knew her, but this intercourse was confined + to a small circle. Doctor Greene speaks of her timidity also. I + know of no traditions about her girlhood. As an example of the + thrift of the Smiths, or perhaps I should say, their exactness + in all business dealings, my father says that Austin Smith + never asked his sisters to sew a button or do repairs on his + clothing without paying them a small sum for it, and he + always received six cents for doing chores or running errands. + No doubt this was a practice maintained from early youth, for + when Sophia Smith was born, in 1796, the family was in very + moderate circumstances. The whole community was poor for some + time after the Revolution, and everyone saved pennies. + +As to her education, she used to sit on the doorsteps of the +schoolhouse and hear the privileged boys recite their lessons. She +also had four or five months of instruction in the schoolhouse, and +was a student in Hopkins Academy for a short time and, when fourteen +years old, attended school at Hartford, Connecticut, for a term of +twelve weeks. + + [Illustration: SOPHIA SMITH] + +Then a long, uneventful, almost shut-in life, and in 1861 her brother +Austin left her an estate of about four hundred and fifty thousand +dollars. + +Hon. George W. Hubbard of Hatfield was her financial adviser. He +advised her to found an academy for Hatfield, which she did; and after +Doctor Greene had caused her to decide on a college for women, Mr. +Hubbard insisted on having it placed at Northampton, Massachusetts, +instead of Hatfield, Massachusetts. With her usual modesty, she +objected to giving her full name to the college, as it would look as +if she were seeking fame for herself. She gave thirty thousand dollars +to endow a professorship in the Andover Theological Seminary at +Andover, Massachusetts. + +She grew old gracefully, never soured by her infirmities, always +denying herself to help others and make the world better for her +living in it. + +Her name must stand side by side with the men who founded Vassar, +Wellesley, and Barnard, and that of Mary Lyon to whom women owe the +college of Mt. Holyoke. + +As Walt Whitman wrote: + + I am the poet of the woman the same as the man, + And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man, + And I say there is nothing greater than the mother of men. + +She was a martyr physically, and mentally a heroine. Let us never fail +to honour the woman who founded Smith College. + +Extracts from a letter replying to my question: "Is there a +full-length portrait of Sophia Smith, now to be seen anywhere in the +principal building at Smith College, Northampton?" + + How I wish that some generous patron of Smith College might + bestow upon it two thousand dollars for a full-length portrait + of Sophia Smith to be placed in the large reading room, at the + end of which is a full-length portrait of President Seelye. The + presence of such a commanding figure seen by hundreds of girls + every day would be a subtle and lasting influence. + +I like to nibble at a stuffed date, but do not enjoy having my memory +stuffed with dates, though I am proud rather than sensitive in regard +to my age. + +Lady Morgan was unwilling her age should be known, and pleads: + + What has a woman to do with dates--cold, false, erroneous, + chronological dates--new style, old style, precession of the + equinoxes, ill-timed calculation of comets long since due at + their station and never come? Her poetical idiosyncrasy, + calculated by epochs, would make the most natural points of + reference in woman's autobiography. Plutarch sets the example + of dropping dates in favour of incidents; and an authority more + appropriate, Madame de Genlis, who began her own memoires at + eighty, swept through nearly an age of incident and revolution + without any reference to vulgar eras signifying nothing (the + times themselves out of joint), testifying to the pleasant + incidents she recounts and the changes she witnessed. I mean to + have none of them! + +I hesitate to allude to my next experience after leaving Smith +College, for it was so delightful that I am afraid I shall scarcely be +believed, and am also afraid that my readers will consider me a "swell +head" and my story only fit for a "Vanity Box." Yet I would not leave +out one bit of the Western lecture trip. If it were possible to tell +of the great kindness shown me at every step of the way without any +mention of myself, I would gladly prefer to do that. + +After leaving Smith College, I was enjoying commencement festivities +in my own home--when another surprising event! Mr. George W. +Bartholomew, a graduate of Dartmouth, who was born and brought up in a +neighbouring Vermont town, told me when he called that he had +established a large and successful school for young ladies in +Cincinnati, Ohio, taking a few young ladies to live in his pleasant +home. He urged me to go to his school for three months to teach +literature, also giving lectures to ladies of the city in his large +recitation hall. And he felt sure he could secure me many invitations +to lecture in other cities. + +Remembering my former Western experience with measles and +whooping-cough, I realized that mumps and chicken-pox were still +likely to attack me, but the invitation was too tempting, and it was +gladly accepted, and I went to Cincinnati in the fall of 1884. + +Mrs. Bartholomew I found a charming woman and a most cordial friend. +Every day of three months spent in Cincinnati was full of happiness. +Mrs. Broadwell, a decided leader in the best social matters, as well +as in all public spirited enterprises, I had known years before in +Hanover, N.H. Her brother, General William Haines Lytle, had been +slain at Chickamauga during the Civil War, just in the full strength +and glory of manhood. He wrote that striking poem, beginning: "I am +dying, Egypt, dying." Here are two verses of his one poem: + + As for thee, star-eyed Egyptian! + Glorious sorceress of the Nile, + Light the path to Stygian horrors + With the splendors of thy smile. + Give the Caesar crowns and arches, + Let his brow the laurel twine; + I can scorn the Senate's triumphs, + Triumphing in love like thine. + + I am dying, Egypt, dying; + Hark! the insulting foeman's cry, + They are coming! quick, my falchion! + Let me front them ere I die. + Ah! no more amid the battle + Shall my heart exulting swell-- + Isis and Osiris guard thee! + Cleopatra, Rome, farewell! + +He was engaged to Miss Sarah Doremus, a sister of Professor Doremus of +New York. After the terrible shock of his sudden death she never +married, but devoted her life to carrying out her sainted mother's +missionary projects, once taking a trip alone around the world to +visit the missionary stations started by her mother. + +As soon as I had arrived at Mr. Bartholomew's, Mrs. Broadwell gave me +a dinner. Six unmarried ladies and seven well-known bachelors were the +guests, as she wished to give me just what I needed, an endorsement +among her own friends. The result was instant and potent. + +Everyone at that dinner did something afterwards to entertain me. I +was often invited to the opera, always had a box (long-stemmed roses +for all the ladies), also to dinner and lunches. If anyone in the city +had anything in the way of a rare collection, from old engravings to +rare old books, an evening was devoted to showing the collection to me +with other friends. One lady, Miss Mary Louise McLaughlin, invited me +to lunch with her alone. Her brother, a bachelor lawyer, had at that +time the finest private library in the city. She was certainly the +most versatile in her accomplishments of anyone I have ever known. She +had painted the best full-length portrait of Judge Longworth, father +of the husband of Alice Roosevelt. She was a china painter to beat the +Chinese, and author of four books on the subject. She was an artist +in photography; had a portfolio of off-hand sketches of street gamins, +newsboys, etc., full of life and expression. She brought the art of +under glaze in china-firing to this country and had discovered a +method of etching metal into fine woods for bedroom furniture. She was +an expert at wood-carving, taking lessons from Ben Pitman. Was fond of +housekeeping and made a success of it in every way. Anything else? +Yes, she showed me pieces of her exquisite embroidery and had made an +artistic and wholly sane "crazy-quilt" so much in vogue at that time. +Her own beautiful china was all painted and finished by herself. As I +left her, I felt about two feet high, with a pin head. And yet she was +free from the slightest touch of conceit. + +Miss Laura MacDonald (daughter of Alexander MacDonald, the business +man who took great risks with Mr. John D. Rockefeller in borrowing +money to invest largely in oil fields) was my pupil in the school, and +through her I became acquainted with her lovely mother, who invited me +to her home at Clifton, just out of Cincinnati, to lecture to a select +audience of her special friends. + +My lectures at Mr. Bartholomew's school were very well attended. Lists +of my subjects were sent about widely, and when the day came for my +enthusiastic praise of Christopher North (John Wilson), a sweet-faced +old lady came up to the desk and placed before me a large bunch of +veritable Scotch heather for which she had sent to Scotland. + +In Cleveland, where I gave a series of talks, President Cutler, of +Adelbert University, rose at the close of the last lecture and, +looking genially towards me, made this acknowledgment: "I am free to +confess that I have often been charmed by a woman, and occasionally +instructed, but never before have I been charmed and instructed by the +same woman." + +Cleveland showed even then the spirit of the Cleveland of today, which +is putting that city in the very first rank of the cities not only of +the United States but of the world in civic improvement and municipal +progress, morally and physically. Each night of my lectures I was +entertained at a different house while there, and as a trifle to show +their being in advance of other cities, I noticed that the ladies wore +wigs to suit their costumes. That only became the fashion here last +winter, but I saw no ultra colours such as we saw last year, green and +pink and blue, but only those that suited their style and their +costume. + +At Chicago I was the guest of Mrs. H.O. Stone, who gave me a dinner +and an afternoon reception, where I met many members of various +clubs, and the youngest grandmothers I had ever seen. At a lunch given +for me by Mrs. Locke, wife of Rev. Clinton B. Locke, I met Mrs. Potter +Palmer, Mrs. Wayne MacVeagh, and Mrs. Williams, wife of General +Williams, and formerly the wife of Stephen Douglas. Mrs. Locke was the +best _raconteur_ of any woman I have ever heard. Dartmouth men drove +me to all the show places of that wonderful city. Lectured in Rev. Dr. +Little's church parlors. He was not only a New Hampshire man, but born +in Boscawen, New Hampshire, where my grandfather lived, and where my +mother lived until her marriage. + +It is pleasant to record that I was carried along on my lecture tour, +sometimes by invitation of a Dartmouth man, again by college girls who +had graduated at Smith College; then at Peoria, Illinois; welcomed +there by a dear friend from Brooklyn, New York, wife of a business man +of that city. I knew of Peoria only as a great place for the +manufacture of whisky, and for its cast-iron stoves, but found it a +city, magnificently situated on a series of bold bluffs. And when I +reached my friend's house, a class of ladies, who had been easily +chatting in German, wanted to stay and ask me a few questions. These +showed deep thought, wide reading, and finely disciplined minds. Only +one reading there in the Congregational Church, where there was such a +fearful lack of ventilation that I turned from my manuscript and +quoted a bit from the "Apele for Are to the Sextant of the Old Brick +Meetinouse by A. Gasper," which proved effectual. + +I give this impressive exhortation entire as it should be more +generally known. + + A APELE FOR ARE TO THE SEXTANT + + BY ARABELLA WILSON + + O Sextant of the meetinouse which sweeps + And dusts, or is supposed to! and makes fiers, + And lites the gas, and sumtimes leaves a screw loose, + In which case it smells orful--wus than lampile; + And wrings the Bel and toles it, and sweeps paths; + And for these servaces gits $100 per annum; + Wich them that thinks deer let 'em try it; + Gittin up before starlite in all wethers, and + Kindlin fiers when the wether is as cold + As zero, and like as not green wood for kindlins, + (I wouldn't be hierd to do it for no sum;) + But o Sextant there are one kermodity + Wuth more than gold which don't cost nuthin; + Wuth more than anything except the Sole of man! + I mean pewer Are, Sextant, I mean pewer Are! + O it is plenty out o dores, so plenty it doant no + What on airth to do with itself, but flize about + Scatterin leaves and bloin off men's hats; + In short its jest as free as Are out dores; + But O Sextant! in our church its scarce as piety, + Scarce as bankbills when ajunts beg for mishuns, + Which sum say is purty often, taint nuthin to me, + What I give aint nuthing to nobody; but O Sextant! + You shet 500 men women and children + Speshily the latter, up in a tite place, + Sum has bad breths, none of em aint too sweet, + Sum is fevery, sum is scroflus, sum has bad teeth + And sum haint none, and sum aint over clean; + But evry one of em brethes in and out and in + Say 50 times a minnet, or 1 million and a half breths an hour; + Now how long will a church full of are last at that rate? + I ask you; say fifteen minnets, and then what's to be did? + Why then they must brethe it all over agin, + And then agin and so on, till each has took it down + At least ten times and let it up agin, and what's more, + The same individible doant have the privilege + Of brethin his own are and no one else, + Each one must take wotever comes to him. + O Sextant! doant you know our lungs is belluses + To bio the fier of life and keep it from + Going out: and how can bellusses blo without wind? + And aint wind are? I put it to your konshens, + Are is the same to us as milk to babies, + Or water is to fish, or pendlums to clox, + Or roots and airbs unto an Injun doctor, + Or little pills unto an omepath. + Or Boze to girls. Are is for us to brethe. + What signifize who preaches ef I can't brethe? + What's Pol? What's Pollus to sinners who are ded? + Ded for want of breth! Why Sextant when we dye + Its only coz we cant brethe no more--that's all. + And now O Sextant! let me beg of you + To let a little are into our cherch + (Pewer are is sertin proper for the pews); + And dew it week days and on Sundys tew-- + It aint much trobble--only make a hoal, + And then the are will come in of itself + (It loves to come in where it can git warm). + And O how it will rouze the people up + And sperrit up the preacher, and stop garps + And yorns and fijits as effectool + As wind on the dry boans the Profit tels + Of. + +I went as far as Omaha, and then was asked if I were not going West. +The reason for this charming reception was that it was a novelty then +to hear a young woman talk in a lively way on striking themes which +had been most carefully prepared, and a light touch added, with +frequent glints of humour. Byron declared that easy writing was very +hard reading. I reversed that method, always working hard over each +lecture. For instance, I spent two months in preparing "Bachelor +Authors," cramming and condensing, and passing quickly over dangerous +ground. With my vocal training I could easily be heard by an audience +of five hundred. + +A friend was eager to go to Alaska by Seattle; then, after our return, +visit Yellowstone Park and San Francisco. She urged me so eloquently +to accompany her, that I left my home in Metcalf, Massachusetts, +taking great risks in many ways, but wonderful to relate, nothing +disastrous occurred. + +We scurried by fastest trains across the country to Seattle, just in +time to take the Steamer _Topeka_ from Seattle on August 8, 1899, the +last boat of the season, and the last chance tourists ever had to see +the Muir Glacier in its marvellous glory, as it was broken badly +before the next summer. + +My friend advised me kindly to ask no questions of the captain, as she +knew well what a bore that was. I promised to be exceedingly careful. +So, next morning, when that tall and handsome Captain Thompson came +around the deck, with a smiling "Good morning," and bowing right and +left, I was deeply absorbed in a book; the next time I was looking at +a view; another time I played I was fast asleep. He never spoke to me, +only stopped an instant before me and walked on. At last, a bow-legged +pilot came directly from the captain's office to my open window, +bringing to Miss Sanborn a bowl of extra large and luscious +strawberries from Douglas Island, quite famous on account of the size +and sweetness of this berry. With this gift came a note running thus: + + DEAR MISS SANBORN: + + I am a little puzzled by your frigid manner. Have you any + personal prejudice against me? Walter Raymond wrote me before + he sailed, to look you up, and do what I could for you, as you + were quite a favourite on the Eastern coast, and any kindness + shown to you would be considered a personal favour to him, and + that he only wished he could take the trip with us. + +I was amazed and mortified. I had obeyed my directions too literally, +and must and did explain and apologize. After that, such pleasant +attentions from him! Invited to call at his office with my friends, to +meet desirable passengers, something nice provided for refreshment, +and these gentlemen were always ready for cards or conversation. But +the great occasion was when I had no idea of such an honour, that the +captain said: + +"We are soon to pass through the Wrangel Narrows, a dangerous place, +and the steering through zigzag lines must be most careful. I am going +to smuggle you on to the bridge to see me steer and hear me give my +orders that will be repeated below. But as it is against the rule to +take a woman up there at such a time, promise me to keep perfectly +silent. If you make one remark you lose your life." + +I agreed and kept my mouth shut without a muzzle. That "memory" is as +clear today as if it had happened yesterday. + +One day while reading in my fine stateroom, a lady came to the open +door and asked me if I would go out with her on the deck that pleasant +afternoon and meet some friends of hers. I thanked her, but refused as +I was reading one of Hon. Justin McCarthy's books, and as I had the +honour of meeting him and his most interesting wife in New York City +at the home of Mrs. Henry M. Field, I was much engrossed in what he +wrote. Again, another person came and entreated me to go to the deck; +not suspecting any plot to test me, I went with her, and found a crowd +gathered there, and a good-looking young man seemed to be haranguing +them. He stopped as we came along and after being introduced went on +with: "As I was saying, Miss Sanborn, I regard women as greatly our +inferiors; in fact, essentially unemotional,--really bovine. Do you +really not agree to that?" I almost choked with surprise and wrath, +but managed to retort: "I am sorry to suppose your mother was a cow, +but she must have been to raise a calf like you." And I walked away to +the tune of great applause. It seems someone had said that I was never +at a loss when a repartee was needed, and it was proposed to give me +an opportunity. Next surprise: a call as we were nearing Seattle from +a large and noticeable lady who introduced herself saying: + +"I am the president of a club which I started myself, and feel bound +to help on. I have followed you about a good deal, and shall be much +obliged if you will jot down for me to read to this club everything +you have said since you came on board. I know they will enjoy it." I +was sorry my memory failed me entirely on that occasion. Still it was +a great compliment! + +But the Muir Glacier! We had to keep three and a half miles away, lest +the steamer be injured by the small icebergs which broke off the +immense mass into the water with a thunderous roar. A live glacier +advances a certain distance each day and retreats a little. Those who +visited the glacier brought back delicate little blue harebells they +found growing in the clefts of ice. No description of my impressions? +Certainly not! Too much of that has been done already. + +We saw curious sights along the way, such as the salmon leaping into a +fenced-in pool to deposit their spawn; there they could be easily +speared, dried, and pitched into wagons as we pitch hay in New +England. I saw the Indians stretching the salmon on boards put up in +the sun, their color in the sun a brilliant pinkish red. + +I saw bears fishing at the edge of water, really catching fish in +their clumsy paws. Other bears were picking strawberries for their +cubs. As I watched them strolling away, I thought they might be +looking for a stray cow to milk to add flavour to the berries. + +We stopped at Wrangel to look at the totem poles, many of which have +since been stolen as the Indians did not wish to sell them; our usual +method of business with that abused race. Totem poles are genealogical +records, and give the history of the family before whose door they +stand. No one would quietly take the registered certificates of +Revolutionary ancestors searched for with great care from the Colonial +Dames or members of the New England Society, and coolly destroy them. +I agree with Charles Lamb who said he didn't want to be like a potato, +all that was best of him under ground. + +At Sitka the brilliant gardens and the large school for Indian girls +were the objects of interest. It is a sad fact that the school which +teaches these girls cleanly habits, the practical arts of sewing, and +cooking simple but appetizing dishes, has made the girls unwilling to +return to their dirty homes and the filthy habits of their parents. +That would be impossible to them. So they are lured to visit the dance +halls in Juneau, where they find admirers of a transient sort, but +seldom secure an honest husband. + +We called at Skagway, and the lady who was known by us told us there +was much stress there placed upon the most formal attention to rigid +conventionalities, calls made and returned, cards left and received at +just the right time, more than is expected in Boston. And yet that +town was hardly started, and dirt and disorder and chaos reigned +supreme. + +A company of unlucky miners came home in our steamer; no place for +them to sleep but on deck near the doors of our stateroom, and they +ate at one of the tables after three other hungry sets had been +satisfied. A few slept on the tables. All the poultry had been killed +and eaten. We found the Chinese cooks tried to make tough meat +attractive by pink and yellow sauces. We were glad to leave the +steamer to try the ups and downs of Seattle. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +Frances E. Willard--Walt Whitman--Lady Henry Somerset--Mrs. Hannah +Whitehall Smith--A Teetotaler for Ten Minutes--Olive Thorne +Miller--Hearty Praise for Mrs. Lippincott (Grace Greenwood). + + +I was looking over some letters from Frances E. Willard last week. +What a powerful, blessed influence was hers! + +Such a rare combination of intense earnestness, persistence, and +devotion to a "cause" with a gentle, forgiving, compassionate spirit, +and all tempered by perfect self-control. + +Visiting in Germantown, Pennsylvania, at the hospitable home of Mrs. +Hannah Whitehall Smith, the Quaker Bible reader and lay evangelist, +and writer of cheerful counsel, I found several celebrities among her +other guests. Miss Willard and Walt Whitman happened to be present. +Whitman was rude and aggressively combative in his attack on the +advocate of temperance, and that without the slightest provocation. He +declared that all this total abstinence was absolute rot and of no +earthly use, and that he hated the sight of these women who went out +of their way to be crusading temperance fanatics. + +After this outburst he left the room. Miss Willard never alluded to +his fiery criticism, didn't seem to know she had been hit, but chatted +on as if nothing unpleasant had occurred. + +In half an hour he returned; and with a smiling face made a manly +apology, and asked to be forgiven for his too severe remarks. Miss +Willard met him more than half-way, with generous cordiality, and they +became good friends. And when with the women of the circle again she +said: "Now wasn't that just grand in that dear old man? I like him the +more for his outspoken honesty and his unwillingness to pain me." + +How they laboured with "Walt" to induce him to leave out certain of +his poems from the next edition! The wife went to her room to pray +that he might yield, and the husband argued. But no use, it was all +"art" every word, and not one line would he ever give up. The old poet +was supposed to be poor and needy, and an enthusiastic daughter of +Mrs. Smith had secured quite a sum at college to provide bed linen and +blankets for him in the simple cottage at Camden. Whitman was a great, +breezy, florid-faced out-of-doors genius, but we all wished he had +been a little less _au naturel_. + +To speak once more of Miss Willard, no one enjoyed a really laughable +thing more than she did, but I never felt like being a foolish trifler +in her presence. Her outlook was so far above mine that I always felt +not rebuked, but ashamed of my superficial lightness of manner. + +Just one illustration of the unconscious influence of her noble soul +and her convincing words: + +Many years ago, at an anniversary of Sorosis in New York, I had half +promised the persuasive president (Jennie June) that I would say +something. The possibility of being called up for an after-dinner +speech! Something brief, terse, sparkling, complimentary, +satisfactory, and something to raise a laugh! O, you know this agony! +I had nothing in particular to say; I wanted to be quiet and enjoy the +treat. But between each course I tried hard, while apparently +listening to my neighbour, to think up something "neat and +appropriate." + +This coming martyrdom, which increases in horror as you advance with +deceptive gayety, from roast to game, and game to ices, is really one +of the severest trials of club life. + +Miss Willard was one of the honoured guests of the day, and was +called on first. When she arose and began to speak, I felt instantly +that she had something to say; something that she felt was important +we should hear, and how beautifully, how simply it was said! Not a +thought of self, not one instant's hesitation for a thought or a word, +yet it was evidently unwritten and not committed to memory. Every eye +was drawn to her earnest face; every heart was touched. As she sat +down, I rose and left the room rather rapidly; and when my name was +called and my fizzling fireworks expected, I was walking up Fifth +Avenue, thinking about her and her life-work. The whole experience was +a revelation. I had never met such a woman. No affectation, nor +pedantry, nor mannishness to mar the effect. It was in part the +humiliating contrast between her soul-stirring words and my silly +little society effort that drove me from the place, but all petty +egotism vanished before the wish to be of real use to others with +which her earnestness had inspired me. + +One lady told me that after hearing her she felt she could go out and +be a praying band all by herself. Indeed she was + + A noble woman, true and pure, + Who in the little while she stayed, + Wrought works that shall endure. + +She was asked who she would prefer to write a sketch of her and her +work and she honoured me by giving me that great pleasure. The book +appeared in 1883, entitled _Our Famous Women_. + +Once when Miss Willard was in Boston with Lady Henry Somerset and Anna +Gordon, I was delighted by a letter from Frances saying that Lady +Henry wanted to know me and could I lunch with them soon at the +Abbottsford. I accepted joyously, but next morning's mail brought this +depressing decision: "Dear Kate, we have decided that there will be +more meat in going to you. When can we come?" I was hardly settled in +my house of the Abandoned Farm. There was no furnace in the house, +only two servants with me. And it would be impossible to entertain +those friends properly in the dead of the winter, and I nearly ready +to leave for a milder clime. So I told them the stern facts and lost a +rare treat. + +This is the end of Miss Willard's good-bye letter to me when returning +to England with Lady Henry: + + Hoping to see you on my return, and hereby soliciting an + exchange of photographs between you and Lady Henry and me, + + I am ever and as ever + Yours, + FRANCES WILLARD. + +While at Mrs. Smith's home in Germantown, both she and Miss Willard +urged me to sign a Temperance Pledge that lay on the table in the +library. I would have accepted almost anything either of those good +friends presented for my attention. So after thinking seriously I +signed. But after going to my room I felt sure that I could never keep +that pledge. So I ran downstairs and told them to erase my name, which +was done without one word of astonishment or reproof from either. + +I wish I knew how to describe Hannah Whitehall Smith as she was in her +everyday life. Such simple nobility, such tenderness for the tempted, +such a love for sinners, such a longing to show them the better way. +She said to me: "If my friends must go to what is called Hell I want +to go with them." When a minister, who was her guest, was greatly +roused at her lack of belief in eternal punishment and her infinite +patience with those who lacked moral strength, he said: "There are +surely some sins your daughters could commit which would make you +drive them from your home." "There are no sins my daughters could +commit which would not make me hug them more closely in my arms and +strive to bring them back." Wherewith he exclaimed bitterly: "Madam, +you are a mere mucilaginous mess." She made no reply, but her husband +soon sent him word that a carriage would be at the door in one hour to +convey him to the train for New York. + + * * * * * + +"If you do not love the birds, you cannot understand them." + +I remember enjoying an article on the catbird several years ago in the +_Atlantic Monthly_, and wanting to know more of the woman who had +observed a pair of birds so closely, and could make so charming a +story of their love-affairs and housekeeping experiences, and thinking +that most persons knew next to nothing about birds, their habits, and +homes. + +Mrs. Olive Thorne Miller, who wrote that bird talk, is now a dear +friend of mine, and while spending a day with me lately was kind +enough to answer all my questions as to how and where and when she +began to study birds. She is not a young woman, is the proud +grandmother of seven children; but her bright face crowned with +handsome white hair, has that young, alert, happy look that comes with +having a satisfying hobby that goes at a lively pace. She said: "I +never thought of being anything but a housekeeping mother until I was +about thirty-one and my husband lost all his property, and want, or a +thousand wants, stared us in the face. Making the children's clothes +and my own, and cooking as well, broke down my health, so I bethought +me of writing, which I always had a longing to do." + +"What did you begin with?" + +"Well, pretty poor stuff that no one was anxious to pay for; mostly in +essay form expressing my own opinions on various important subjects. +But it didn't go. I was complaining of my bad luck to a plain-spoken +woman in charge of a circulating library, and she gave me grand +advice. 'No one cares a snap for your opinions. You must tell +something that folks want to know.'" + +"Did you then take up birds?" + +"O no; I went into the library, read some of Harriet Martineau's talks +on pottery, and told children how a teacup was made and got one dollar +for that. But those pot-boilers were not inspiring, and about ten +years later a second woman adviser turned my course into another +channel." + +"How did that come about?" + +"I had a bird-loving friend from the West visiting me, and took her to +Prospect Park, Brooklyn, to see our birds. She pointed out several, +and so interested me in their lives that from that day I began to +study them, especially the wood-thrush and catbird. After I had +studied them for two years, I wrote what I had seen. From that time +my course has seemed marked out for me, and my whole time has been +given to this one theme. I think every woman over forty-five ought to +take up a fad; they would be much happier and better off." + +"You told me once that three women had each in turn changed your +career. Do give me the third." + +"Well, after my articles and books had met with favour (I have brought +out fifteen books), invitations to lecture or talk about birds kept +pouring in. I was talking this over with Marion Harland (Mrs. +Terhune), declaring I could never appear in public, that I should be +frightened out of my wits, and that I must decline. My voice would all +go, and my heart jump into my mouth. She exclaimed, 'For a sensible +woman, you are the biggest fool I ever met!' This set me thinking, and +with many misgivings I accepted an invitation." + +"And did you nearly expire with stage fright?" + +"Never was scared one bit, my dear. All bird-lovers are the nicest +kind of folks, either as an audience or in their own homes. I have +made most delightful acquaintances lecturing in fifteen different +States; am now booked for a tour in the West, lecturing every day and +taking classes into the fields and woods for actual observation. +Nesting-time is the best time to study the birds, to know them +thoroughly." + +"Do you speak about dead birds on hats?" + +"Yes, when I am asked to do so. Did you ever hear that Celia Thaxter, +finding herself in a car with women whose head-gear emulated a +bird-museum, was moved to rise and appeal to them in so kindly a way +that some pulled off the feathers then and there, and all promised to +reform? She loved birds so truly that she would not be angry when +spring after spring they picked her seeds out of her 'Island Garden.'" + +"Have you any special magnetic power over birds, so that they will +come at your call or rest on your outstretched finger?" + +"Not in the least. I just like them, and love to get acquainted with +them. Each bird whose acquaintance I make is as truly a discovery to +me as if he were totally unknown to the world." + +We were sitting by a southern window that looks out on a +wide-spreading and ancient elm, my glory and pride. Not one bird had I +seen on it that cold, repellent middle of March. But Mrs. Miller +looked up, and said: "Your robins have come!" Sure enough I could now +see a pair. + +"And there are the woodpeckers, but they have stayed all winter. No +doubt you have the hooting owls. There's an oriole's nest, badly +winter-worn; but they will come back and build again. I see you feed +your chickadees and sparrows, because they are so tame and fearless. +I'd like to come later and make a list of the birds on your place." + +I wonder how many she would find. Visiting at Deerfield, +Massachusetts, I said one day to my host, the artist J.W. Champney: +"You don't seem to have many birds round you." + +"No?" he replied with a mocking rising inflection. "Mrs. Miller, who +was with us last week, found thirty-nine varieties in our front yard +before breakfast!" Untrained eyes are really blind. + +Mrs. Miller is an excellent housekeeper, although a daughter now +relieves her of that care. But, speaking at table of this and that +dish and vegetable, she promised to send me some splendid receipts for +orange marmalade, baked canned corn, scalloped salmon, onion _a la +creme_ (delicious), and did carefully copy and send them. + +She told me that in Denmark a woman over forty-five is considered +gone. If she is poor, a retreat is ready for her without pay; if rich, +she would better seek one of the homes provided for aged females who +can pay well for a home. + +Another thing of interest was the fact that when Mrs. Miller eats no +breakfast, her brain is in far better condition to write. She is a +Swedenborgian, and I think that persons of that faith have usually a +cheerful outlook on life. She was obliged to support herself after +forty years of age. + +I would add to her advice about a hobby: don't wait till middle age; +have one right away, now. Boys always do. I know of one young lady who +makes a goodly sum out of home-made marmalade; another who makes +dresses for her family and special friends; another who sells three +hundred dozen "brown" eggs to one of the best groceries in Boston, and +supports herself. By the way, what can you do? + +Mrs. Lippincott had such a splendid, magnetic presence, such a +handsome face with dark poetic eyes, and accomplished so many unusual +things, that, knowing her as I did, I think I should be untrue to her +if I did not try to show her as she was in her brilliant prime, and +not merely as a punster or a _raconteur_, or as she appeared in her +dramatic recitals, for these were but a small part of the many-sided +genius. + +When my friend, Mrs. Botta, said one evening to her husband: "Grace +writes me that she will be here tomorrow, to spend the Sabbath," and +then said to me, "Grace Greenwood, I mean; have you ever met her?" my +heart beat very quickly in pleasant anticipation of her coming. Grace +Greenwood! Why, I had known her and loved her, at least her writings, +ever since I was ten years old. + +Those dear books, bound in red, with such pretty pictures--_History of +My Pets_ and _Recollections of My Childhood_, were the most precious +volumes in my little library. Anyone who has had pets and lost them +(and the one follows the other, for pets always come to some tragic +end) will delight in these stories. + +And then the _Little Pilgrim_, which I used to like next best to the +_Youth's Companion_; and in later years her spirited, graceful poetry; +her racy magazine stories; her _Haps and Mishaps of a Tour in Europe_; +her sparkling letters to the _Tribune_, full of reliable news from +Washington, graphic descriptions of prominent men and women, capital +anecdotes and atrocious puns;--O how glad I should be to look in her +face and to shake hands with the author who had given me so much +pleasure! + +Well, she came, I heard the bell ring, just when she was expected, +with a vigorous pull, and, as the door opened, heard her say, in a +jolly, soothing way: "Don't get into a passion," to the man who was +swearing at her big trunk. And then I ran away, not wishing to +intrude, and waited impatiently for dinner and an introduction to my +well-beloved heroine. + +Grace--Mrs. Lippincott--I found to be a tall, fine-looking lady, with +a commanding figure and a face that did not disappoint me, as faces so +often do which you have dreamed about. She had dark hair, brown rather +than black, which was arranged in becoming puffs round her face; and +such eyes! large, dark, magnetic, full of sympathy, of kind, cordial +feelings and of quick appreciation of fun. She talked much and well. +If I should repeat all the good stories she told us, that happy +Saturday night, as we lingered round the table, you would be convulsed +with laughter, that is, if I could give them with her gestures, +expressions, and vivid word-pictures. + +She told one story which well illustrated the almost cruel persistent +inquiries of neighbours about someone who is long in dying. An +unfortunate husband was bothered each morning by repeated calls from +children, who were sent by busy mothers to find out "Just how Miss +Blake was feeling this morning." At last this became offensive, and he +said: "Well, she's just the same--she ain't no better and she ain't no +worse--she keeps just about so--she's just about dead, you can say +she's dead." + +One Sunday evening she described her talks with the men in the +prisons and penitentiaries, to whom she had been lately lecturing, +proving that these hardened sinners had much that was good in them, +and many longings for a nobler life, in spite of all their sins. + +No, I was not disappointed in "G.G." She was just as natural, hearty, +and off-hand as when some thirty years ago, she was a romping, +harum-scarum, bright-eyed schoolgirl, Sara Clarke, of western New +York, who was almost a gypsy in her love for the fields and forests. +She was always ready for any out-door exercise or sport. This gave her +glorious health, which up to that time she had not lost. + +Her _nom de plume_, which she says she has never been able to drop, +was only one of the many alliterative names adopted at that time. Look +over the magazines and Annuals of those years, and you will find many +such, as "Mary Maywood," "Dora Dashwood," "Ella Ellwood" "Fanny +Forrester," "Fanny Fern," "Jennie June," "Minnie Myrtle," and so on +through the alphabet, one almost expecting to find a "Ninny Noodle." +Examining one of Mrs. Lippincott's first scrapbooks of "Extracts from +Newspapers," etc., which she had labelled, "Vanity, all is Vanity," I +find many poems in her honour, much enthusiasm over her writings, and +much speculation as to who "Grace Greenwood" might really be. The +public curiosity was piqued to find out this new author who added to +forceful originality "the fascination of splendid gayety and brilliant +trifling." John Brougham, the actor and dramatist, thus expressed his +interest in a published letter to Willis: + + The only person that I am disposed to think, write or talk + about at present is your dazzling, bewitching correspondent, + "Grace Greenwood." Who is she? that I may swear by her! Where + is she? that I may fling myself at her feet! There is a + splendour and dash about her pen that carry my fastidious + soul captive by a single charge. I shall advertise for her + throughout the whole Western country in the terms in which they + inquire for Almeyda in Dryden's _Don Sebastian_: "Have you + seen aught of a woman who lacks two of the four elements, who has + nothing in her nature but air and fire?" + +And here is one of the poetical tributes: + + If to the old Hellenes + Thee of yore the gods had given + Another Muse, another Grace + Had crowned the Olympian heaven. + +Whittier at that time spoke most cordially of her "earnest +individuality, her warm, honest, happy, hopeful, human heart; her +strong loves and deep hates." + +E.P. Whipple, the Boston critic and essayist, when reviewing her +poems, spoke of their "exceeding readableness"; and George Ripley, +then of the New York _Tribune_, said: + + One charm of her writings is the frankness with which she takes + the reader into her personal confidence. She is never formal, + never a martyr to artificial restraint, never wrapped in a + mantle of reserve; but, with an almost childlike simplicity, + presents a transparent revelation of her inmost thoughts and + feelings, with perfect freedom from affectation. + +She might have distinguished herself on the stage in either tragedy or +comedy, but was dissuaded from that career by family friends. I +remember seeing her at several receptions, reciting the rough Pike +County dialect verse of Bret Harte and John Hay in costume. Standing +behind a draped table, with a big slouch hat on, and a red flannel +shirt, loose at the neck, her disguise was most effective, while her +deep tones held us all. Her memory was phenomenal, and she could +repeat today stories of good things learned years ago. + +Her recitation was wonderful; so natural, so full of soul and power. I +have heard many women read, some most execrably, who fancied they were +famous elocutionists; some were so tolerable that I could sit and +endure it; others remarkably good, but I was never before so moved as +to forget where I was and merge the reader in the character she +assumed. + +Grace Greenwood probably made more puns in print than any other woman, +and her conversation was full of them. It was Grace Greenwood who, at +a tea-drinking at the New England Woman's Club in Boston, was begged +to tell one more story, but excused herself in this way: "No, I cannot +get more than one story high on a cup of tea." + +Her conversation was delightful, and what a series of reminiscences +she could have given; for she knew, and in many cases intimately, most +of the leading authors, artists, politicians, philanthropists, +agitators, and actors of her time in both her own land and abroad. In +one of her letters she describes the various authors she saw while +lounging in Ticknor's old bookstore in Boston. + + Here, many a time, we saw Longfellow, looking wonderfully like + a ruddy, hearty, happy English gentleman, with his full lips + and beaming blue eyes. Whittier, alert, slender and long; half + eager, half shy in manner; both cordial and evasive; his + deep-set eyes glowing with the tender flame of the most humane + genius of our time. + +Emerson's manner was to her "a curious mingling of Athenian +philosophy and Yankee cuteness." + +Saxe was "the handsome, herculean punster," and so on with many +others. + +She resided with Miss Cushman in Rome, and in London she saw many +lions--Mazzini, Kossuth, Dickens and Talfourd, Kingsley, Lover, the +Howellses, Miss Mitford, Mrs. Muloch Craik, George Eliot, etc. + +She was the first Washington correspondent of her sex, commencing in +1850 in a series of letters to a Philadelphia weekly; was for some +years connected with the _National Era_, making her first tour in +Europe as its correspondent, and has written much for _The Hearth and +Home_, _The Independent_, _Christian Inquirer_, _Congregationalist_, +_Youth's Companion_; also contributing a good deal to English +publications, as _Household Words_ and _All the Year Round_. + +She was the special correspondent from Washington of the New York +_Tribune_, and later of the _Times_. Her letters were racy, full of +wit, sentiment, and discriminating criticism, plenty of fun and a +little sarcasm, but not so audaciously personal and aggressive as some +letter-writers from the capital. They attracted attention and were +widely copied, large extracts being made for the _London Times_. + +She lectured continually to large audiences during the Civil War on +war themes, and subjects in a lighter strain; was the first woman +widely received as a lecturer by the colleges and lyceums. With a +commanding presence, handsome face, an agreeable, permeating voice, a +natural offhand manner, and something to say, she was at once a +decided favourite, and travelled great distances to meet her +engagements. She often quoted that ungallant speech from the Duke of +Argyle: "Woman has no right on a platform--except to be hung; then +it's unavoidable"; and by her eloquence and wit proved its falsity and +narrowness. Without the least imitation of masculine oratory, her +best remembered lectures are, "The Heroic in Common Life," and +"Characteristics of Yankee Humour." She always had the rare gift of +telling a story capitally, with ease, brevity, and dramatic effect, +certain of the point or climax. I cannot think of any other woman of +this country who has caused so much hearty laughter by this enviable +gift. She can compress a word-picture or character-sketch into a few +lines, as when she said of the early Yankee: "No matter how large a +man he was, he had a look of shrinking and collapse about him. It +looked as if the Lord had made him and then pinched him." And a woman +who has done such good work in poetry, juvenile literature, +journalism, on the platform, and in books of travel and biography, +will not soon be forgotten. There is a list of eighteen volumes from +her pen. + +She never established a _salon_, but the widespread, influential daily +paper and the lecture hall are the movable _salon_ to the women of +genius in this Republic. + +This is just a memory. After all, we are but "Movie Pictures," seen +for a moment, and others take our place. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +In and Near Boston--Edward Everett Hale--Thomas Wentworth +Higginson--Julia Ward Howe--Mary A. Livermore--A Day at the Concord +School--Harriet G. Hosmer--"Dora D'Istria," our Illustrious Visitor. + + +Edward Everett Hale was kind to me, as he was to all who came within +his radius. He once called to warn me to avoid, like poison, a +rascally imposter who was calling on many of the authors in and near +Boston to get one thousand dollars from each to create a publishing +company, so that authors could have their books published at a much +cheaper rate than in the regular way. This person never called on me, +as I then had no bank account. He did utterly impoverish many other +credulous persons, both writers, and in private families. All was +grist that came to his mill, and he ground them "exceeding small." + +I met Mr. Hale one early spring at Pinehurst, North Carolina, with his +wife and daughter. He always had a sad face, as one who knew and +grieved over the faults and frailties of humanity, but at this time +he was recovering from a severe fall, and walked with a slow and +feeble step. When he noticed me sitting on the broad piazza, he came, +and taking a chair beside me, began to joke in his old way, telling +comical happenings, and inquired if I knew where Noah kept his bees. +His answer: "In the Ark-hives, of course." Once when I asked his +opinion of a pompous, loud-voiced minister, he only said, "Self, self, +self!" + +I wonder how many in his audiences or his congregation could +understand more than half of what he was saying. I once went to an +Authors' Reading in Boston where he recited a poem, doubtless very +impressive, but although in a box just over the stage, I could not get +one word. He placed his voice at the roof of his mouth, a fine +sounding board, but the words went no farther than the inside of his +lips. I believe his grand books influence more persons for better +lives than even his personal presence and Christ-like magnetism. + +Mr. Thomas Wentworth Higginson never failed me. Once only I ventured +alone into the Authors' Club Saturday meeting, and none of my own +friends happened to be there. Evidently I was not known. Mr. Higginson +saw the situation at once, and coming quickly to me escorted me to a +comfortable seat. He ordered two cups of tea with wafers, and +beckoned to some delightful men and women to whom he introduced me as +his friend Miss Sanborn, thus putting me at my ease. He was also ever +patient about my monomania of trying to prove that women possess both +wit and humour. He spoke of his first wife as the wittiest woman he +had ever known, giving convincing proof. A few men were on my side, +but they could be counted on one hand omitting the thumb. But I worked +on this theme until I had more than sufficient material for a +good-sized volume. If a masculine book reviewer ever alluded to the +book, it was with a sneer. He generally left it without a word, as men +still ignore the fact when a woman wins in an essay-writing +competition against men in her class or gets the verdict for her +powers in a mixed debate. At last Mr. Higginson wrote me most kindly +to stop battering on that theme. "If any man is such a fool as to +insist that women are destitute of wit or humour, then he is so big a +fool that it is not worth while to waste your good brains on him. T.W. +Higginson." That reproof chilled my ardour. Now you can hardly find +any one who denies that women possess both qualities, and it is +generally acknowledged that not a few have the added gift of comedy. + +As most biographers of Mrs. Julia Ward Howe dwell on her other gifts +as philanthropist, poet, and worker for the equality of women with +men, I call attention to her effervescent, brilliant wit. Julia Ward +Howe was undeniably witty. Her concurrence with a dilapidated +bachelor, who retained little but his conceit, was excellent. He said: +"It is time now for me to settle down as a married man, but I want so +much; I want youth, health, wealth, of course; beauty, grace--" "Yes," +she interrupted sympathetically, "you poor man, you do want them all." + +Of a conceited young man airing his disbelief at length in a magazine +article, she said: "Charles evidently thinks he has invented atheism." +After dining with a certain family noted for their chilling manners +and lofty exclusiveness, she hurried to the house of a jolly friend, +and, seating herself before the glowing fire, sought to regain a +natural warmth, explaining: "I have spent three hours with the Mer de +Glace, the Tete-Noire, and the Jungfrau, and am nearly frozen." + +Pathos and humour as twins are exemplified by her tearful horror over +the panorama of Gettysburg, and then by her saying, when urged by Mrs. +Livermore to dine with her: "O no! my dear, it's quarter past two, and +Mr. Howe will be wild if he does not get--not his burg--but his +dinner." + +Mrs. Howe's wit never failed her. I once told her I was annoyed by +seeing in big headlines in the morning's paper, "Kate Sanborn +moralizes," giving my feeble sentiments on some subject which must +have been reported by a man whom I met for the first time the evening +before at a reception, though I was ignorant of the fact that I was +being interviewed. She comforted me by saying: "But after all, how +much better that was than if he had announced, 'Kate Sanborn +demoralizes.'" Or when Charles Sumner refusing to meet some friends of +hers at dinner explained languidly: "Really, Julia, I have lost all my +interest in individuals." She retorted, "Why, Charles, God hasn't got +as far as that yet!" Once walking in the streets of Boston with a +friend she looked up and read on a public building, "Charitable Eye +and Ear Infirmary." She said: "I did not know there were any +charitable eyes and ears in Boston." She showed indomitable courage to +the last. A lady in Boston, who lived opposite Mrs. Howe's home on +Beacon Street, was sitting at a front window one cold morning in +winter, when ice made the steps dangerous. A carriage was driven up to +Mrs. Howe's door to take her to the station to attend a federation at +Louisville. She came out alone, slipped on the second step, and rolled +to the pavement. She was past eighty, but picked herself up with the +quickness of a girl, looked at her windows to see if anyone noticed +it, then entered the carriage and drove away. + +Was ever a child as unselfish as Mary Rice, afterwards Mary Livermore? +Sliding on ice was for her a climax of fun. Returning to the house +after revelling in this exercise, she exclaimed: "Splendid, splendid +sliding." Her father responded: "Yes, Mary, it's great fun, but +wretched for shoes." + +Those words kept ringing in her ears, and soon she thought how her +father and mother had to practise close economy, and she decided: "I +ought not to wear out my shoes by sliding, when shoes cost so much," +and she did not slide any more. There was no more fun in it for her. + +She would get out of bed, when not more than ten years old, and +beseech her parents to rise and pray for the children. "It's no matter +about me," she once said to them, "if they can be saved, I can bear +anything." + +She was not more than twelve years old, when she determined to aid her +parents by doing work of some kind; so it was settled that she should +become a dressmaker. She went at once into a shop to learn the trade, +remained for three months, and after that was hired at thirty-seven +cents a day to work there three months more. She also applied for +work at a clothing store, and received a dozen red flannel shirts to +make up at six and a quarter cents a piece. When her mother found this +out, she burst into tears, and the womanly child was not allowed to +take any more work home. We all know Mrs. Livermore's war record and +her power and eloquence as an orator. + +I would not say she was a spiritualist, but she felt sure that she +often had advice or warning on questions from some source, and always +listened, and was saved from accidents and danger. And she said that +what was revealed to her as she rested on her couch, between twilight +and dusk, would not be believed, it was so wonderful. + +Mrs. Livermore had a terrible grief to bear,--the lifelong illness of +her daughter from a chronic and incurable disease. She told me, when I +was at her house, that she kept on lecturing, and accepting +invitations, to divert her mind somewhat. She felt at times that she +could not leave her unfortunate child behind, when she should be +called from earth, but she was enabled to drive that thought away. +From a child, always helping others, self-sacrificing, heroic, endowed +with marvellous energy and sympathy, hers was a most exceptional life; +now "Victor Palms" are her right. + +I spent one day at the famous Concord School of Philosophy during its +first season. Of course I understood nothing that was going on. + +Emerson, then a mere wreck of his former self, was present, cared for +by his wife or his daughter Ellen. Alcott made some most remarkable +statements, as: "We each can decide when we will ascend." Then he +would look around as if to question all, and add: "Is it not so? Is it +not so?" I remember another of his mystic utterances: "When the mind +is izzing, it is thinking things. Is it not so? Is it not so?" Also, +"When we get angry or lose our temper, then fierce four-footed beasts +come out of our mouths, do they not, do they not?" + +After Mr. Harris, the great educational light, had closed his remarks, +and had asked for questions, one lady timidly arose and inquired: "Can +an atom be said to be outside or inside of potentiality?" + +He calmly replied that "it could be said to be either inside or +outside potentiality, as we might say of potatoes in a hat; they are +either inside or outside the hat." That seemed to satisfy her +perfectly. + +Mr. Frank B. Sanborn read his lecture on American Literature, and I +ventured to ask: "How would you define literature?" + +He said: "Anything written that gives permanent pleasure." And then +as he was a relative, I inquired, but probably was rather pert: "Would +a bank check, if it were large enough, be literature?" which was +generally considered as painfully trifling. + +Jones of Jacksonville was on the program, and talked and talked, but +as I could not catch one idea, I cannot report. + +It was awfully hot on that hill with the sun shining down through the +pine roof, so I thought one day enough. + +As I walked down the hill, I heard a man who seemed to have a lot of +hasty pudding in his mouth, say in answer to a question from the lady +with him: "Why, if you can't understand that, you can have no idea of +the first principles (this with an emphatic gesture) of the Hegelian +philosophy." + +Alcott struck me as a happy dreamer. He said to me joyously: "I'm +going West in Lou's chariot," and of course with funds provided by his +daughter. + +An article written by her, entitled "Transcendental Wild Oats," made a +great impression on my mind. + +It appeared in a long-ago _Independent_ and I tried in vain to find it +last winter. Houghton and Mifflin have recently published Bronson +Alcott's "_Fruitlands_," compiled by Clara Endicott Sears, with +"Transcendental Wild Oats" by Louisa M. Alcott, so it is brought to +the notice of those who will appreciate it. + +I called once on Miss Hosmer, who then was living with relatives in +Watertown, Massachusetts, her old home; the house where she was born +and where she did her first modelling. Recently reading in Miss +Whiting's record of Kate Field's life, of Miss Hosmer as a universal +favourite in Rome, a dearly loved friend of the Brownings, and +associated with the literary and artistic coterie there, a living part +of that memorable group, most of whom are gone, I longed to look in +her eyes, to shake her hand, to listen to her conversation. Everyone +knows of her achievements as a sculptor. + +After waiting a few minutes, into the room tripped a merry-faced, +bright-eyed little lady, all animation and cordiality as she said: "It +is your fault that I am a little slow in coming down, for I was +engrossed in one of your own books, too much interested to remember to +dress." + +The question asked soon brought a flow of delightful recollection of +Charlotte Cushman, Frances Power Cobbe, Grace Greenwood, Kate Field, +and the Brownings. "Yes," she said, "I dined with them all one winter; +they were lovely friends." She asked if we would like to see +some autograph letters of theirs. One which seemed specially +characteristic of Robert Browning was written on the thinnest of paper +in the finest hand, difficult to decipher. And on the flap of the +envelope was a long message from his wife. Each letter was addressed +to "My dearest Hattie," and ended, "Yours most affectionately." There +was one most comical impromptu sent to her by Browning, from some +country house where there was a house party. They were greatly grieved +at her failure to appear, and each name was twisted into a rhyme at +the end of a line. Sir Roderick Murchison, for instance, was run in +thus: + + As welcome as to cow is fodder-rick + Would be your presence to Sir Roderick. + +A poor pun started another vein. "You must hear some of Miss Cobbe's +puns," said Miss Hosmer, and they were so daringly, glaring bad, as to +be very good. When lame from a sprain, she was announced by a pompous +butler at a reception as "Miss Cobble." "No, Miss Hobble," was her +instant correction. She weighed nearly three hundred pounds and, one +day, complaining of a pain in the small of her back her brother +exclaimed: "O Frances, where _is_ the small of your back?" + +Miss Hosmer regarded Grace Greenwood (Mrs. Lippincott) as one of the +best _raconteurs_ and wittiest women she had known. She was with her +at some museum where an immense antique drinking cup was exhibited, +large enough for a sitz bath. "A goblet for a Titan," said Harriet. +"And the one who drained it would be a tight un," said Grace. + +She thought the best thing ever said about seasickness was from Kate +Field, who, after a tempestuous trip, said: "Lemonade is the only +satisfactory drink on a sea voyage; it tastes as well coming up as +going down." + + * * * * * + +The last years of this brilliant and beloved woman were devoted to +futile attempts to solve the problem of Perpetual Motion. I wish she +had given us her memories instead. + + + Helen Ghika was born at Bucharest, Wallachia, the 22nd of + January, 1829. The Ghika family is of an ancient and noble + race. It originated in Albania, and two centuries ago the head + of it went to Wallachia, where it had been a powerful and + ruling family. In 1849, at the age of twenty, the Princess was + married to a Russian, Prince Koltzoff Massalsky, a descendant + of the old Vikings of Moldavia; her marriage has not been a + congenial one. + + A sketch of the distinguished woman, Helen Ghika, the Princess + Massalsky, who, under the _nom de plume_ of Dora D'Istria, has + made for herself a reputation and position in the world of + letters among the great women of our century, will at least + have something of the charm of novelty for most American + readers. In Europe this lady was everywhere known, beloved by + many personal friends, and admired by all who had read her + works. Her thought was profound and liberal, her views were + broad and humane. As an author, philanthropist, traveller, + artist, and one of the strongest advocates of freedom and + liberty for the oppressed of both sexes, and of her suffering + sisters especially, she was an honour to the time and to + womanhood. The women of the old world found in her a powerful, + sympathizing, yet rational champion; just in her arguments in + their behalf, able in her statements of their needs, and + thoroughly interested in their elevation and improvement. + + Her works embrace a vast range of thought, and show profound + study and industry. The subjects are many. They number about + twenty volumes on nationality, on social questions more than + eight, on politics eighteen or twenty. Her travels fill fifteen + books, and, beside all this, she wrote three romances, numerous + letters and articles for the daily papers, and addresses to be + read before various learned societies, of which she was an + honoured member. M. Deschanel, the critic of the _Journal des + Debats_, has said of her that "each one of her works would + suffice for the reputation of a man." As an artist, her + paintings have been much admired. One of her books of travel, + _A Summer on the Banks of the Danube_, has a drawing by its + author, a view of Borcia in Roumania. From a notable exhibition + at St. Petersburg she received a silver medal for two pictures + called "The Pine" and "The Palm," suggested to her by Heine's + beautiful little poem: + + "A pine-tree sleeps alone + On northern mountain-side; + Eternal stainless snows + Stretch round it far and wide. + + "The pine dreams of a palm + As lonely, sad, and still, + In glowing eastern clime + On burning, rocky hill." + + This princess was the idol of her native people, who called + her, with the warm enthusiasm of their race, "The Star of + Albania." The learned and cultivated also did her homage. Named + by Frederika Bremer and the Athenians, "The New Corinne," she + was invested by the Greeks with the citizenship of Greece for + her efforts to assist the people of Candia to throw off the + oppressor's yoke, this being the first time this honour had + ever been granted to a woman. + + The catalogue of her writings fills several pages, the list of + titles given her by learned societies nearly as many more and, + while born a princess of an ancient race and by marriage one + also, she counted these titles of rank as nothing compared with + her working name, and was more widely known as Dora D'Istria + than as the Princess Koltzoff Massalsky. + + There is a romantic fascination about this woman's life as + brilliant as fiction, but more strange and remarkable in that + it is all sober truth--nay, to her much of it was even sad + reality. Her career was a glorious one, but lonely as the + position of her pictured palm-tree, and oftentimes only upheld + by her own consciousness of the right; she has felt the trials + of minds isolated by greatness. Singularly gifted by nature + with both mental and physical, as well as social superiority, + the Princess united in an unusual degree masculine strength of + character, grasp of thought, philosophical calmness, love of + study and research, joined to an ardent and impassioned love of + the grand, the true, and the beautiful. She had the grace and + tenderness of the most sensitive of women, added to mental + endowments rare in a man. Her beauty, which had been + remarkable, was the result of perfect health, careful training, + and an active nature. Her physical training made her a fearless + swimmer, a bold rider, and an excellent walker--all of which + greatly added to her active habits and powers of observation in + travelling, for she travelled much. Only a person of uncommon + bodily vigour can so enjoy nature in her wildest moods and + grandest aspects. + + +This quotation is from a long article which Mrs. Grace L. Oliver, of +Boston, published in an early number of _Scribner's Magazine_. I never +had known of the existence of this learned, accomplished woman, but +after reading this article I ventured to ask her to send me the +material for a lecture and she responded most generously, sending +books, many sketches of her career, full lists of the subjects which +had most interested her, poems addressed to her as if she were a +goddess, and the pictures she added proved her to have been certainly +very beautiful. "She looked like Venus and spoke like Minerva." + +My audience was greatly interested. She was as new to them as to me +and all she had donated was handed round to an eager crowd. In about +six months I saw in the papers that Dora D'Istria was taking a long +trip to America to meet Mrs. Oliver, Edison, Longfellow, and myself! + +I called on her later at a seashore hotel near Boston. She had just +finished her lunch, and said she had been enjoying for the first time +boiled corn on the cob. She was sitting on the piazza, rather shabbily +dressed, her skirt decidedly travel-stained. Traces of the butter used +on the corn were visible about her mouth and she was smoking a large +and very strong cigar, a sight not so common at that time in this +country. A rocking chair was to her a delightful novelty and she had +already bought six large rocking chairs of wickerwork. She was sitting +in one and busily swaying back and forward and said: "Here I do repose +myself and I take these chairs home with me and when de gentlemen and +de ladies do come to see me in Florence, I do show them how to repose +themselves." + +Suddenly she looked at me and began to laugh immoderately. "Oh," she +explained, seeing my puzzled expression, "I deed think of you as so +_deeferent_, I deed think you were very tall and theen, with leetle, +wiggly curls on each side of your face." + +She evidently had in mind the typical old maid with gimlet ringlets! +So we sat and rocked and laughed, for I was equally surprised to meet +a person so "different" from my romantic ideal. Like the two Irishmen, +who chancing to meet were each mistaken in the identity of the other. +As one of them put it, "We looked at each other and, faith, it turned +out to be nayther of us." + +The Princess Massalsky sent to Mrs. Oliver and myself valuable tokens +of her regard as souvenirs. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +Elected to be the First President of New Hampshire Daughters in +Massachusetts and New Hampshire--Now Honorary President--Kind Words +which I Highly Value--Three, but not "of a Kind"--A Strictly Family +Affair--Two Favourite Poems--Breezy Meadows. + + +On May 15, 1894, I was elected to be the first president of the New +Hampshire Daughters in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and held the +position for three years. Was then made Honorary President. + + * * * * * + +Some unsolicited approval: + + Hers was a notable administration, and brought to the + organization a prestige which remains. Rules might fail, but + the brilliant president never. She governed a merry company, + many of them famous, but she was chief. They loved her, and + that affection and pride still exist. + + + A daughter of the "Granite State," who can certainly take front + rank among business women, is Kate Sanborn, the beloved + president of New Hampshire's Daughters. + + + Another thing that has occupied Miss Sanborn's time this + summer aside from farming and writing is the program for the + coming winter's work for the Daughters of New Hampshire. It is + all planned, and if all the women's clubs carry such a program + as the one which Miss Sanborn has planned, and that means that + it will be carried out, the winter's history of women's clubs + will be one of unprecedented prosperity. + + + If New Hampshire's daughters now living out of their own State + do not keep track of each other, and become acquainted into the + bargain, it will not be the fault of their president, who has + carried on correspondence with almost every one of them, and + who has planned a winter's work that will enable them to learn + something about their own State, as well as to meet for the + promoting of acquaintance. + + + OUR FIRST MEETING + + This meeting was presided over by our much loved + First-President, Kate Sanborn, and it was the most informal, + spontaneous, and altogether enjoyable organization meeting that + could be imagined, and the happy spirit came that has guided + our way and helped us over the rough places leading us always + to the light. + + Our first resolve was to enjoy to the utmost the pleasure of + being together, and with it to do everything possible to help + our native State. To these two objects we have been steadfastly + true in all the years; and how we have planned, and what we + have done has been recorded to our credit, so that we may now + say in looking back, "We have kept the faith and been true." + + At this time there are so many memories, all equally precious + and worthy of mention here, but we must be brief and only a few + can be recalled. + + In our early years _our_ Kate Sanborn led us through so many + pleasant paths, and with her "twin President," Julia K. Dyer, + brought the real New Hampshire atmosphere into it all. + + That was a grand Dartmouth Day, when the good man, Eleazar + Wheelock, came down from his accustomed wall space to grace our + program and the Dartmouth Sons brought their flag and delighted + us with their college songs. + + Since then have come to us governors, senators, judges, mayors, + and many celebrities, all glad to bring some story with the + breath of the hills to New Hampshire's Daughters. Kate + Sanborn first called for our county tributes, to renew old + acquaintances and promote rivalry among the members. We adorned + ourselves with the gold buttercup badges, and adopted the grey + and garnet as our colors. + + + NEW HAMPSHIRE'S DAUGHTERS + + _Members of the Society Hold an Experience Meeting._ + + The first meeting of the season of New Hampshire's Daughters + was held at the Hotel Vendome, Boston, Saturday afternoon, and + was a most successful gathering, both in point of attendance + and of general interest. The business of the association was + transacted under the direction of the president, Miss Kate + Sanborn, whose free construction of parliamentary law and + independent adherence to common sense as against narrow + conventionality, results in satisfactory progress and rapid + action. The 150 or more ladies present were more convinced than + ever that Miss Sanborn is the right woman in the right place, + although she herself indignantly repudiates the notion that she + is fitted to the position. + + + The Daughters declare that the rapid growth of the organization + is due to Miss Sanborn more than to any other influence. Her + ability, brightness, wit, happy way of managing, and her strong + personality generally are undoubtedly at present the mainstays + of the Daughters' organization. She is ably assisted by an + enthusiastic corps of officers. + + + MY DEAR KATE SANBORN: + + Your calendar about old age is simply _au fait_. After reading + it, I want to hurry up and grow old as fast as I can. It is the + best collection of sane thoughts upon old age that I know in + any language. Life coming from the Source of Life must be + glorious throughout. The last of life should be its best. + October is the king of all the year. A man should be more + wonderful at eighty than at twenty; a woman should make her + seventieth birthday more fascinating than her seventeenth. + Merit never deserts the soul. God is with His children always. + + Yours for a long life and happiness, + PETER MacQUEEN. + + [Illustration: PETER MacQUEEN] + + DEAR KATE SANBORN: + + The "Indian Summer Calendar" is the best thing you have done + yet. I have read it straight through twice, and now it lies on + my desk, and I read daily selections from it, as some of the + good people read from their "Golden Treasury of Texts." + + MARY A. LIVERMORE. + + + DEAR MISS SANBORN: + + It gives me pleasure to offer my testimonial to your unique, + original, and very picturesque lectures. The one to which I + recently listened, in the New England Conservatory of Music, + was certainly the most entertaining of any humorous lecture to + which I have ever listened, and it left the audience _talking_, + with such bright, happy faces, I can see it now in my mind. And + they _continued_ to repeat the happy things you said; at least + my own friends did. It was not a "plea for cheerfulness," it + _was_ cheerfulness. I hope you may give it, and make the world + laugh, a thousand times. "He who makes what is useful + agreeable," said old Horace of literature, "wins every vote." + You have the wit of making the useful agreeable, and the spirit + and genius of it. + + Sincerely, + HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH. + +I published a little volume, _A Truthful Woman in Southern +California_, which had a large sale for many years. Women tourists +bought it to "enlarge" with their photographs. Stedman wrote me, after +I had sent him my book: + + MY DEAR KATE SANBORN: + + I think it especially charming that you should so remember me + and send me a gift-copy of Truthful Kate's breezy and + fascinating report of Southern California. For I had been so + taken with your adoption of that Abandoned Farm that I had + made a note of your second book. Your chapters give me as vivid + an idea of Southern California as I obtained from Miss Hazard's + watercolors, and that is saying a good deal. We all like you, + and indeed who does not? And your books, so fresh and + sparkling, make us like you even more. Believe that I am + gratified by your unexpected gift, and by the note that + convoyed it. + EDMUND C. STEDMAN. + + + New York Public Library, + Office of Circulation Department, + 209 West 23rd Street, + February 19,1907. + + MISS KATE SANBORN, + Metcalf, Mass. + + DEAR MISS SANBORN: + + You may be interested to know that your book on old wall-papers + is included in a list of books specially recommended for + libraries in Great Britain, compiled by the Library Association + of the United Kingdom, recently published in London. As there + seems to be a rather small proportion of American works + included in the list, I think that this may be worthy of note. + + With kindest regards, I remain, + Very truly yours, + ARTHUR E. BOSTWICK. + _Chief of the Circulation Department_. + + + MY DEAR MISS KATE SANBORN: + + How kind and generous you are to my books, and therefore, to + me! How thoroughly you understand them and know why I wrote + them! + + When a book of mine is sent out into the cold world of + indifferent reviewers, I read their platitudinous words, trying + to be grateful; but waiting, waiting, knowing that ere long I + shall get a little clipping from the _Somerville Journal_, + written by Kate Sanborn; and then I shall know what the book + is. If it's good, she'll say so, and if it isn't, I think she + would say so; but that alternative never has come to me. But I + would far rather have her true words of dispraise than all + machine-made twaddle of nearly all the book columns of our + great American press. + + It is such generous minds as yours that have kept me writing. I + should have stopped long ago if I had not had them. + + ALICE MORSE EARLE. + + + It is impossible to give you a perfect pen picture of Breezy + Meadows or of its mistress, Kate Sanborn, just as it is + impossible to paint the tints of a glorious sunset stretching + across the winter sky. Breezy Meadows is an ideal country home, + and the mistress of it all is a grand woman--an honor to her + sex, and a loyal friend. Her whole life seems to be devoted to + making others happy, and a motto on one of the walls of the + house expresses better than I can, her daily endeavour: + + "Let me, also, cheer a spot, + Hidden field or garden grot, + Place where passing souls may rest, + On the way, and be their best." + BARBARA GALPIN. + + + As a lecturer, Miss Kate Sanborn is thoroughly unique. Whatever + her topic, one is always sure there will be wit and the + subtlest humour in her discourse, bits of philosophy of life, + and the most practical common sense, flashes of laughable + personal history, and gems of scholarship. It is always certain + that the lecture will be rendered in inimitably bright and + cheery style that will enliven her audience, which, while + laughing and applauding, will listen intently throughout. No + wonder she is a favourite with lecture goers, for few can give + them so delightful an evening as she.--MARY A. LIVERMORE. + + + There is only one Kate Sanborn. Her position as a lecturer is + unique. In the selection and treatment of her themes she has no + rival. She touches nothing that she does not enliven and adorn. + Pathos and humour, wit and wisdom, anecdote and incident, the + foibles, fancies, freaks, and fashions of the past and present, + pen pictures of great men and famous women, illustrious poets + and distinguished authors, enrich her writings, as if the ages + had laid their wealth of love and learning at her feet, and + bidden her help herself. With a discriminating and exacting + taste, she has brought together, in book and lecture, the + things that others have overlooked, or never found. She has + been a kind of discoverer of thoughts and things in the + by-paths of literature. She also understands "the art of + putting things." But vastly more than the thought, style, and + utterance is the striking personality of the writer herself. It + is not enough to read the writings of Miss Sanborn, though you + cannot help doing this. She must be heard, if one would know + the secret of her power--subtle, magnetic, impossible of + transfer to books. The "personal equation" is everything--the + strong, gifted woman putting her whole soul into the + interpretation and transmission of her thought so that it may + inspire the hearts of those who listen; the power of + self-radiation. It is not surprising that Miss Sanborn is + everywhere greeted with enthusiasm when she speaks.--ARTHUR + LITTLE. + + + Miss Kate Sanborn is one of the best qualified women in this + country to lecture on literary themes. The daughter of a + Dartmouth professor, she was cradled in literature, and has + made it in a certain way the work of her life. There is + nothing, however, of the pedantic about her. She is the + embodiment of a woman's wit and humour; but her forte is a + certain crisp and lively condensation of persons and qualities + which carry a large amount of information under a captivating + cloak of vivacious and confidential talk with her audience, + rather than didactic statement. + + J.C. CROLY, "Jenny June." + +One of the friends I miss most at the farm is Sam Walter Foss. He was +the poet, philosopher, lecturer and "friend of man." His folk songs +touched every heart and even the sombre vein lightened with pictures +of hope and cheer. He was humorous and even funny, but in every line +there is a dignity not often reached by writers of witty verse or +prose. Mr. Foss was born in Candia, N.H., in June, 1858. Through his +ancestor, Stephen Batcheller, he had kinship with Daniel Webster, John +Greenleaf Whittier, and William Pitt Fessenden. + +Mr. Foss secured an interest in the Lynn _Union_, and it was while +engaged in publishing that newspaper that he made the discovery that +he could be a "funny man." The man having charge of the funny column +left suddenly, and Mr. Foss decided to see what he could do in the way +of writing something humorous to fill the column. He had never done +anything of this kind before, and was surprised and pleased to have +some of his readers congratulate him on his new "funny man." He +continued to write for this column and for a long time his identity +was unknown, he being referred to simply as the "Lynn _Union_ funny +man." His ability finally attracted the attention of Wolcott +Balestier, the editor of _Tit-Bits_, who secured Mr. Foss's services +for that paper. Before long he became connected with _Puck_, _Judge_, +and several other New York periodicals, including the New York _Sun_. + +Mr. Foss's first book was published in 1894, and was entitled _Back +Country Poems_ and has passed through several editions. _Whiffs from +Wild Meadows_ issued in 1896 has been fully as successful. Later books +are _Dreams in Homespun_, _Songs of War and Peace_, _Songs of the +Average Man_. + + [Illustration: SAM WALTER FOSS] + +He had charge of the Public Library at Somerville, Massachusetts, +and his influence in library matters extended all over New England. + +His poems are marked by simplicity. Most of his songs are written in +New England dialect which he has used with unsurpassed effect. But +this poetry was always of the simplest kind, of the appealing nature +which reaches the heart. Of his work and his aim, he said in his first +volume: + + "It is not the greatest singer + Who tries the loftiest themes, + He is the true joy bringer + Who tells his simplest dreams, + He is the greatest poet + Who will renounce all art + And take his heart and show it + To any other heart; + Who writes no learned riddle, + But sings his simplest rune, + Takes his heart-strings for a fiddle, + And plays his easiest tune." + +Mr. Foss _always_ had to recite the following poem when he called +at Breezy Meadows + + THE CONFESSIONS OF A LUNKHEAD + + I'm a lunkhead, an' I know it; 'taint no use to squirm an' talk, + I'm a gump an' I'm a lunkhead, I'm a lummux, I'm a gawk, + An' I make this interduction so that all you folks can see + An' understan' the natur' of the critter thet I be. + + I allus wobble w'en I walk, my j'ints are out er gear, + My arms go flappin' through the air, jest like an el'phunt's ear; + An' when the womern speaks to me I stutter an' grow weak, + A big frog rises in my throat, an' he won't let me speak. + + Wall, that's the kind er thing I be; but in our neighborhood + Lived young Joe Craig an' young Jim Stump an' Hiram Underwood. + We growed like corn in the same hill, jest like four sep'rit stalks; + For they wuz lunkheads, jest like me, an' lummuxes and gawks. + + Now, I knew I wuz a lunkhead; but them fellers didn't know, + Thought they wuz the biggest punkins an' the purtiest in the row. + An' I, I uster laff an' say, "Them lunkhead chaps will see + W'en they go out into the worl' w'at gawky things they be." + + Joe Craig was a lunkhead, but it didn't get through his pate; + I guess you all heerd tell of him--he's governor of the state; + Jim Stump, he blundered off to war--a most uncommon gump-- + Didn't know enough to know it--'an he came home General Stump. + + Then Hiram Underwood went off, the bigges' gawk of all, + We hardly thought him bright enough to share in Adam's fall; + But he tried the railroad biz'ness, an' he allus grabbed his share,-- + Now this gawk, who didn't know it, is a fifty millionaire. + + An' often out here hoein' I set down atween the stalks, + Thinkin' how we four together all were lummuxes an' gawks, + All were gumps and lunkheads, only they didn't know, yer see; + An' I ask, "If I hadn' known it, like them other fellers there, + Today I might be settin' in the presidential chair." + + We all are lunkheads--don't get mad--an' lummuxes and gawks, + But us poor chaps who know we be--we walk in humble walks. + So, I say to all good lunkheads, "Keep yer own selves in the dark; + Don't own to reckernize the fact, an' you will make your mark." + +Next is the poem which is most quoted and best known: + + THE HOUSE BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD + + "He was a friend to man, and lived in a house + by the side of the road."--HOMER. + + There are hermit souls that live withdrawn + In the peace of their self-content; + There are souls, like stars, that dwell apart, + In a fellowless firmament; + There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths + Where highways never ran;-- + But let me live by the side of the road + And be a friend to man. + + Let me live in a house by the side of the road, + Where the race of men go by-- + The men who are good and the men who are bad, + As good and as bad as I. + I would not sit in the scorner's seat, + Or hurl the cynic's ban;-- + Let me live in a house by the side of the road + And be a friend to man. + + I see from my house by the side of the road, + By the side of the highway of life, + The men who press with the ardour of hope, + The men who are faint with the strife. + But I turn not away from their smiles nor their tears-- + Both parts of an infinite plan;-- + Let me live in my house by the side of the road + And be a friend to man. + + I know there are brook-gladdened meadows ahead + And mountains of wearisome height; + That the road passes on through the long afternoon + And stretches away to the night. + But still I rejoice when the travellers rejoice, + And weep with the strangers that moan, + Nor live in my house by the side of the road + Like a man who dwells alone. + + Let me live in my house by the side of the road + Where the race of men go by-- + They are good, they are bad, they are weak, they are strong, + Wise, foolish--so am I. + Then why should I sit in the scorner's seat + Or hurl the cynic's ban?-- + Let me live in my house by the side of the road + And be a friend to man. + +Mr. Foss's attribution to Homer used as a motto preceding his poem, +"The House by the Side of the Road," is, no doubt, his translation of +a passage from the _Iliad_, book vi., which, as done into English +prose in the translation of Lang, Leaf and Myers, is as follows: + + Then Diomedes of the loud war-cry slew Axylos, Teuthranos' son + that dwelt in stablished Arisbe, a man of substance dear to his + fellows; _for his dwelling was by the road-side and he + entertained all men_. + + * * * * * + + SAM WALTER FOSS + + Sam Walter Foss was a poet of gentle heart. His keen wit never + had any sting. He has described our Yankee folk with as clever + humour as Bret Harte delineated Rocky Mountain life. Like + Harte, Mr. Foss had no unkindness in his make-up. He told me + that he never had received an anonymous letter in his life. + + Our American nation is wonderful in science and mechanical + invention. It was the aim of Sam Walter Foss to immortalize the + age of steel. "Harness all your rivers above the cataracts' + brink, and then unharness man." He told me he thought the + subject of mechanics was as poetical as the song of the lark. + "The Cosmos wrought for a billion years to make glad for a + day," reminds us of the most resonant periods of Tennyson. + + "The House by the Side of the Road," is from a text of Homer. + "The Lunkhead" shows Foss in his happiest mood: gently + satirizing the foibles and harmless, foolish fancies of his + fellow-men. There is a haunting misty tenderness in such a poem + as "The Tree Lover." + + "Who loves a tree he loves the life + That springs in flower and clover; + He loves the love that gilds the cloud, + And greens the April sod; + He loves the wide beneficence, + His soul takes hold of God." + + We have too little love for the tender out-of-door nature. "The + world is too much with us." + + It was a loss to American life and letters when Sam Walter Foss + passed away from us at the height of his strong true manhood. + Later he will be regarded as an eminent American. + + He was true to our age to the core. Whether he wrote of the + gentle McKinley, the fighting Dewey, the ludicrous schoolboy, + the "grand eternal fellows" that are coming to this world after + we have left it--he was ever a weaver at the loom of highest + thought. The world is not to be civilized and redeemed by the + apostles of steel and brute force. Not the Hannibals and Caesars + and Kaisers but the Shelleys, the Scotts, and the Fosses are + our saviours. They will have a large part in the future of the + world to heighten and brighten life and justify the ways of God + to men. + + These and such as these are our consolation in life's thorny + pathway. They keep alive in us the memory of our youth and many + a jaded traveller as he listens to their music, sees again the + apple blossoms falling around him in the twilight of some + unforgotten spring. + + PETER MacQUEEN. + +Peter MacQueen was brought to my house years ago by a friend when he +happened to be stationary for an hour, and he is certainly a unique +and interesting character, a marvellous talker, reciter of Scotch +ballads, a maker of epigrams, and a most unpractical, now-you-see-him +and now-he's-a-far-away-fellow. I remember his remark, "Breakfast is a +fatal habit." It was not the breakfast to which he referred but to the +gathering round a table at a stated hour, far too early, when not in a +mood for society or for conversation. And again: "I have decided never +to marry. A poor girl is a burden; a rich girl a boss." But you never +can tell. He is now a Benedict. + +I wrote to Mr. MacQueen lately for some of his press notices, and a +few of the names which he called himself when I received his letters. + + MY DEAR KATE SANBORN:--Yours here and I hasten to reply. Count + Tolstoi remarked to me: "Your travels have been so vast and you + have been with so many peoples and races, that an account of + them would constitute a philosophy in itself." + +Theodore Roosevelt said, "No other American has travelled over our new +possessions more universally, nor observed the conditions in them so +quickly and sanely." + +Kennan was _persona non grata_ to the Russians, especially after his +visit to Siberia, but Mr. MacQueen was most cordially welcomed. + +What an odd scene at Tolstoi's table! The countess and her daughter in +full evening dress with the display of jewels, and at the other end +Tolstoi in the roughest sort of peasant dress and with bare feet. At +dinner Count Tolstoi said to Mr. MacQueen: "If I had travelled as much +as you have, I should today have had a broader philosophy." + +Mr. MacQueen says of Russia: + + During the past one hundred years the empire of the Czar has + made slow progress; but great bodies move slowly, and Russia + is colossal. Two such republics as the United States with our + great storm door called Alaska, could go into the Russian + empire and yet leave room enough for Great Britain, Germany, + and Austria. + + +Journeys taken by Mr. MacQueen: + + 1896--to Athens and Greece. + + 1897--to Constantinople and Asia Minor. + + 1898--in the Santiago Campaign with the Rough + Riders, and in Porto Rico with General + Miles. + + 1899--with General Henry W. Lawton to the + Philippines, returning through Japan. + + 1900--with DeWet, Delarey, and Botha in the + Boer Army; met Oom Paul, etc. + + 1901--to Russia and Siberia on pass from the Czar, + visiting Tolstoi, etc. + + 1902--to Venezuela, Panama, Cuba, and Porto + Rico. + + 1903--to Turkey, Macedonia, Servia, Hungary, + Austria, etc. + + +In the meantime Mr. MacQueen has visited every country in Europe, +completing 240,000 miles in ten years, a distance equal to that which +separates this earth from the moon. + +Last winter he was four months in the war zone, narrowly escaping +arrest several times, and other serious dangers, as they thought him +a spy with his camera and pictures. I gave a stag dinner for him just +after his return from his war experiences, and the daily bulletins of +war's horrors seemed dull reading after his stories. + +Here is an extract from a paper sent by Peter MacQueen from Iowa, +where he long ago was in great demand as a lecturer, which contained +several of the best anecdotes told by this irresistible _raconteur_, +which may be new to you, if not, read them again and then tell them +yourself. + + Mr. MacQueen, who is to lecture at the Chautauqua here, has + many strange stories and quaint yarns that he picked up while + travelling around the globe. While in the highlands of Scotland + he met a canny old "Scot" who asked him, "Have you ever heard + of Andrew Carnegie in America?" "Yes, indeed," replied the + traveller. "Weel," said the Scot, pointing to a little stream + near-by, "in that wee burn Andrew and I caught our first trout + together. Andrew was a barefooted, bareheaded, ragged wee + callen, no muckle guid at onything. But he gaed off to America, + and they say he's doin' real weel." + +While in the Philippines Mr. MacQueen was marching with some of the +colored troops who have recently been dismissed by the President. A +big coloured soldier walking beside Mr. MacQueen had his white +officer's rations and ammunition and can-kit, carrying them in the +hot tropical sun. The big fellow turned to the traveller and said: +"Say, there, comrade, this yere White Man's Burden ain't all it's +cracked up to be." + + In the Boer war Mr. MacQueen, war correspondent and lecturer, + tells of an Irish Brigade man from Chicago on Sani river. The + correspondent was along with the Irish-Americans and saw them + take a hill from a force of Yorkshire men very superior in + numbers. Mr. MacQueen also saw a green flag of Ireland in the + British lines. Turning to his Irish friend, he remarked: "Isn't + it a shame to see Irishmen fighting for the Queen, and Irishmen + fighting for the Boers at the same time?" "Sorra the bit," + replied his companion, "it wouldn't be a proper fight if there + wasn't Irishmen on both sides." + +Here's hoping that during Mr. MacQueen's long vacation from sermons, +lectures, and tedious conventionalities in the outdoors of the darkest +and deepest Africa, the wild beasts, including the man-eating tiger, +may prove the correctness of Mrs. Seton Thompson's good words for them +and only approach him to have their photos taken or amiably allow +themselves to be shot. The cannibals will decide he is too thin and +wiry for a really tempting meal. + + * * * * * + +Doctor Edwin C. Bolles has been for fifteen years on the Faculty of +Tufts College, Massachusetts, and still continues active service at +the age of seventy-eight. + +His history courses are among the popular ones in the curriculum, and +his five minutes' daily talks in Chapel have won the admiration of the +entire College. + +He was for forty-five years in active pastoral service in the +Universalist ministry; was Professor of Microscopy for three years at +St. Lawrence University. Doctor Bolles was one of the pioneers in the +lecture field and both prominent and popular in this line, and the +first in the use of illustrations by the stereopticon in travel +lectures. + +The perfection of the use of microscopic projection which has done so +much for the popularization of science was one of his exploits. + +For several years his eyesight has been failing, an affliction which +he has borne with Christian courage and cheerfulness and keeps right +on at his beloved work. + +He has been devoted to photography in which avocation he has been most +successful. His wife told me they were glad to accept his call to New +York as he had almost filled every room in their house with his +various collections. One can appreciate this when he sees a card +displayed on the door of Doctor Bolles's sanctum bearing this motto: + +"A man is known by the Trumpery he keeps." + +He has received many honorary degrees, but his present triumph over +what would crush the ambition of most men is greater than all else. + + * * * * * + +Exquisite nonsense is a rare thing, but when found how delicious it +is! I found a letter from a reverend friend who might be an American +Sidney Smith if he chose, and I am going to let you enjoy it; it was +written years ago. + +Speaking of the "Purple and Gold," he says: + + I should make also better acknowledgments than my thanks. But + what can I do? My volume on _The Millimetric Study of the Tail + of the Greek Delta, in the MSS. of the Sixth Century_, is + entirely out of print; and until its re-issue by the Seaside + Library I cannot forward a copy. Then my essay, "Infantile + Diseases of the Earthworm" is in Berlin for translation, as it + is to be issued at the same time in Germany and the United + States. "The Moral Regeneration of the Rat," and "Intellectual + Idiosyncracies of Twin Clams," are resting till I can get up my + Sanscrit and Arabic, for I wish these researches to be + exhaustive. + +He added two poems which I am not selfish enough to keep to myself. + + GOLDEN ROD + + O! Golden Rod! Thou garish, gorgeous gush + Of passion that consumes hot summer's heart! + O! yellowest yolk of love! in yearly hush + I stand, awe sobered, at thy burning bush + Of Glory, glossed with lustrous and illustrious art, + And moan, why poor, so poor in purse and brain I am, + While thou into thy trusting treasury dost seem to cram + Australia, California, Sinai and Siam. + +And the other such a capital burlesque of the modern English School +with its unintelligible parentheses: + + ASTER + + I kissed her all day on her red, red mouth + (Cats, cradles and trilobites! Love is the master!) + Too utterly torrid, a sweet, spicy South + (Of compositae, fairest the Aster.) + Stars shone on our kisses--the moon blushed warm + (Ursa major or minor, Pollux and Castor!) + + How long the homeward! And where was my arm? + (Crushed, crushed at her waist was the Aster!) + + No one kisses me now--my winter has come: + (To ice turns fortune when once you have passed her.) + I long for the angels to beckon me home (hum) + (For dead, deader, deadest, the Aster!) + + [Illustration: PINES AND SILVER BIRCHES] + + +Doctor Bolles has very kindly sent me one of his later humorous poems. +A tragic forecast of suffragette rule which is too gloomy, as almost +every woman will assure an agreeable smoker that she is "fond of the +odour of a good cigar." + + DESCENSUS AD INFERNUM + + When the last cigar is smoked and the box is splintered + and gone, + And only the faintest whiff of the dear old smell hangs on, + In the times when he's idle or thoughtful, + When he's lonesome, jolly or blue, + And he fingers his useless matches, + What is a poor fellow to do? + + For the suffragettes have conquered, and their harvest is + gathered in; + From Texas to Maine they've voted tobacco the deadliest sin; + A pipe sends you up for a year, a cigarette for two; + In this female republic of virtue, + What is a poor fellow to do? + + He may train up his reason on bridge and riot on afternoon tea, + And at dinner, all wineless and proper, a dress-suited guest he + may be; + But when the mild cheese has been passed, and the chocolate mint + drops are few, + And the coffee comes in and he hankers, + What is a poor fellow to do? + + It's all for his good, they say; for in heaven no nicotine + grows, + And the angels need no cedar for moth-proofs to keep their + clothes; + No ashes are dropped, no carpets are singed, by all the saintly + crew; + If _this_ is heaven, and he gets there, + What is a poor fellow to do? + + He'll sit on the golden benches and long for a chance to break + jail, + With a shooting-star for a motor, or a flight on a comet's tail; + He'll see the smoke rise in the distance, and goaded by memory's + spell, + He'll go back on the women who saved him, + And ask for a ticket to _Hell_! + +An exact description of the usual happenings at "Breezy" in the +beginning, by my only sister, Mrs. Babcock, who was devoted to me and +did more than anyone to help to develop the Farm. I feel that this +chapter must be the richer for two of her poems. + + LIGHT AND SHADE AT "BREEZY MEADOWS" FARM + + This charming May morning we'll walk to the grove! + And give the dear dogs all a run; + Over the meadows 'tis pleasant to rove + And bask in the light of the sun. + + Last night a sly fox took off our best duck! + Run for a gun! there a hen hawk flies! + We always have the very worst of luck, + The anxious mistress of the chickens cries. + + We stop to smell the lilacs at the gate, + And watch the bluebirds in the elm-tree's crest-- + The finest farm it is in all the state, + Which corner of it do you like the best? + + Just think! a rat has eaten ducklings two, + Now isn't that a shame! pray set a trap! + The downiest, dearest ones that ever grew, + I think this trouble will climax cap! + + At "Sun Flower Rock," in joy we stand to gaze; + The distant orchard, flowering, show so fair: + Surely my dear, abandoned farming pays, + How heavenly the early morning air! + + Now only see! those horrid hens are scratching! + They tear the Mountain Fringe so lately set! + Some kind of mischief they are always hatching, + Why did I ever try a hen to pet? + + Here's "Mary's Circle," and the birches slender, + And Columbine which grows the rocks between, + Red blossoms showing in a regal splendour! + We must be happy in this peaceful scene. + + The puppies chew the woodbine and destroy + The dainty branches sprouting on the wall! + How can the little wretches so annoy? + There's Solomon Alphonzo--worst of all! + + Now we will go to breakfast--milk and cream, + Eggs from the farm, surely it is a treat! + How horrid city markets really seem + When one can have fresh things like these to eat! + + What? Nickodee has taken all the hash? + And smashed the dish which lies upon the floor! + I thought just now I heard a sudden crash! + And it was he who slammed the kitchen door! + + By "Scare Crow Road" we take our winding way, + Tiger and Jerry in the pasture feed. + See, Mary,--what a splendid crop of hay! + Now, don't you feel that this is joy indeed? + + The incubator chickens all are dead! + Max fights with Shep, he scorns to follow me! + Some fresh disaster momently I dread; + Is that a skunk approaching?--try to see! + + Come Snip and Snap and give us song and dance! + We'll have a fire and read the choicest books, + While the black horses waiting, paw and prance! + And see how calm and sweet all nature looks. + + So goes the day; the peaceful landscape smiles; + At times the live stock seems to take a rest. + But fills our hearts with worry other whiles! + We think each separate creature is possessed! + + MARY W. BABCOCK. + + [Illustration: PADDLING IN CHICKEN BROOK] + + THE OLD WOMAN + + The little old woman, who wove and who spun, + Who sewed and who baked, did she have any fun? + + In housewifely arts with her neighbour she'd vie, + Her triumph a turkey, her pleasure a pie! + + She milked and she churned, and the chickens she fed, + She made tallow dips, and she moulded the bread. + + No club day annoyed her, no program perplext, + No themes for discussion her calm slumber vexed. + + By birth D.A.R. or Colonial Dame, + She sought for no record to blazon her fame-- + + No Swamies she knew, she cherished no fad, + Of healing by science, no knowledge she had. + + She anointed with goose grease, she gave castor oil, + Strong sons and fair daughters rewarded her toil. + + She studied child nature direct from the child, + And she spared not the rod, though her manner was mild. + + All honour be paid her, this heroine true, + She laid the foundation for things we call new! + + Her hand was so strong, and her brain was so steady, + That for the New Woman she made the world ready. + + MARY W. BABCOCK. + + [Illustration: THE ISLAND WHICH WE MADE] + +Here is one of the several parodies written by my brother while +interned in a log camp in the woods of New Brunswick, during a severe +day's deluge of rain. It was at the time when Peary had recently +reached the North Pole, and Dr. Cook had reported his remarkable +observations of purple snows: + + DON'T YOU HEAR THE NORTH A-CALLIN'? + + Ship me somewhere north o' nowhere, where the worst + is like the best; + Where there aren't no p'ints o' compass, an' a man can + get a rest; + Where a breeze is like a blizzard, an' the weather at + its best; + Dogs and Huskies does the workin' and the Devil does + the rest. + + On the way to Baffin's Bay, + Where the seal and walrus play, + And the day is slow a-comin', slower + Still to go away. + + There I seen a walrus baskin'--bloomin' blubber to + the good; + Could I 'it 'im for the askin'? Well--I missed 'im where + he stood. + Ship me up there, north o' nowhere, where the best is like + the worst; + Where there aren't no p'ints o' compass, and the last one + gets there first. + + Take me back to Baffin's Bay, + Where the seal and walrus play; + And the night is long a-comin', when it + Comes, it comes to stay. + + [Illustration: TAKA'S TEA HOUSE AT LILY POND] + + THE WOMAN WITH THE BROOM + + _A Mate for "The Man With The Hoe."_ + + (Written after seeing a farmer's wife cleaning house.) + + Bowed by the cares of cleaning house she leans + Upon her broom and gazes through the dust. + A wilderness of wrinkles on her face, + And on her head a knob of wispy hair. + Who made her slave to sweeping and to soap, + A thing that smiles not and that never rests, + Stanchioned in stall, a sister to the cow? + Who loosened and made shrill this angled jaw? + Who dowered this narrowed chest for blowing up + Of sluggish men-folks and their morning fire? + + Is this the thing you made a bride and brought + To have dominion over hearth and home, + To scour the stairs and search the bin for flour, + To bear the burden of maternity? + Is this the wife they wove who framed our law + And pillared a bright land on smiling homes? + Down all the stretch of street to the last house + There is no shape more angular than hers, + More tongued with gabble of her neighbours' deeds, + More filled with nerve-ache and rheumatic twinge, + More fraught with menace of the frying-pan. + + O Lords and Masters in our happy land, + How with this woman will you make account, + How answer her shrill question in that hour + When whirlwinds of such women shake the polls, + Heedless of every precedent and creed, + Straight in hysteric haste to right all wrongs? + How will it be with cant of politics, + With king of trade and legislative boss, + With cobwebs of hypocrisy and greed, + When she shall take the ballot for her broom + And sweep away the dust of centuries? + + EDWARD W. SANBORN. + + NEW HAMPSHIRE DAUGHTERS + + New Hampshire Daughters meet tonight + With joy each cup is brimmin'; + We've heard for years about her men, + But why leave out her wimmin? + + In early days they did their share + To git the state to goin', + And when their husbands went to war, + Could fight or take to hoein'. + + They bore privations with a smile, + Raised families surprisin', + Six boys, nine gals, with twins thrown in, + O, they were enterprisin'. + + Yet naught is found their deeds to praise + In any book of hist'ry, + The brothers wrote about themselves, + And--well, that solves the myst'ry. + + But now our women take their place + In pulpit, court, and college, + As doctors, teachers, orators, + They equal men in knowledge. + + And when another history's writ + Of what New Hampshire's done, + The women all will get their due, + But not a single son. + + But no, on sober second thought, + We lead, not pose as martyrs, + We'll give fair credit to her sons, + But not forget her Darters. + + KATE SANBORN. + + + [Illustration: THE LOOKOUT] + +A little of my (not doggerel) but pupperell to complete the family +trio. + +Answer to an artist friend who begged for a "Turkey dinner." + + Delighted to welcome you dear; + But you can't have a Turkey dinner! + Those fowls are my friends--live here: + To eat, not be eat, you sinner! + + I like their limping, primping mien, + I like their raucous gobble; + I like the lordly tail outspread, + I like their awkward hobble. + + Yes, Turkey is my favourite meat, + Hot, cold, or rechauffee; + *But my own must stay, and eat and eat; + You may paint 'em, and so take away. + + KATE SANBORN. + + [*Metre adapted to the peculiar feet of this bird.] + + SPRING IN WINTER + + _A Memory of "Breezy Meadows"_ + + 'Twas winter--and bleakly and bitterly came + The winds o'er the meads you so breezily name; + And what tho' the sun in the heavens was bright, + 'Twas lacking in heat altho' lavish in light. + And cold were the guests who drew up to your door, + But lo, when they entered 'twas winter no more! + + Without, it might freeze, and without, it might storm, + Within, there was welcome all glowing and warm. + And oh, but the warmth in the hostess's eyes + Made up for the lack of that same in the skies! + And fain is the poet such magic to sing: + Without, it was winter--within, it was spring! + + Yea, spring--for the charm of the house and its cheer + Awoke in us dreams of the youth of the year; + And safe in your graciousness folded and furled, + How far seemed the cold and the care of the world! + So strong was the spell that your magic could fling, + We _knew_ it was winter--we _felt_ it was spring! + + Yea, spring--in the glow of your hearth and your board + The springtime for us was revived and restored, + And everyone blossomed, from hostess to guest, + In story and sentiment, wisdom and jest; + And even the bard like a robin must sing-- + And, sure, after that, who could doubt it was spring! + + DENIS A. McCARTHY. + + _New Year's Day_, 1909. + +Mr. McCarthy is associate editor of _The Sacred Heart_, Boston, and a +most popular poet and lecturer. + +His dear little book, _Voices from Erin_, adorned with the Irish harp +and the American shield fastened together by a series of true-love +knots, is dedicated "To all who in their love for the new land have +not forgotten the old." There is one of these poems which is always +called for whenever the author attends any public function where +recitations are in order, and I do not wonder at its popularity, for +it has the genuine Irish lilt and fascination: + + "Ah, sweet is Tipperary in the spring time of the year, + When the hawthorn's whiter than the snow, + When the feathered folk assemble and the air is all a-tremble + With their singing and their winging to and fro; + When queenly Slieve-na-mon puts her verdant vesture on, + And smiles to hear the news the breezes bring; + When the sun begins to glance on the rivulets that dance; + Ah, sweet is Tipperary in the spring!" + +I have always wanted to write a poem about my own "Breezy" and the +bunch of lilacs at the gate; but not being a poet I have had to keep +wanting; but just repeating this gaily tripping tribute over and over, +I suddenly seized my pencil and pad, and actually under the +inspiration, imitated (at a distance) half of this first verse. + + How sweet to be at Breezy in the springtime of the year, + With the lilacs all abloom at the gate, + And everything so new, so jubilant, so dear, + And every little bird is a-looking for his mate. + +There, don't you dare laugh! Perhaps another time I may swing into +the exact rhythm. + +The Rev. William Rankin Duryea, late Professor at Rutgers College, New +Brunswick, was before that appointment a clergyman in Jersey City. His +wife told me that he once wrote some verses hoping to win a prize of +several hundred dollars offered for the best poem on "Home." He dashed +off one at a sitting, read it over, tore it up, and flung it in the +waste basket. Then he proceeded to write something far more serious +and impressive. This he sent to the committee of judges who were to +choose the winner. It was never heard of. But his wife, who liked the +rhythm of the despised jingle, took it from the waste basket, pieced +it together, copied it, and sent it to the committee. It took the +prize. And he showed me in his library, books he had long wanted to +own, which he had purchased with this "prize money," writing in each +"Bought for a Song." + + 1 + + Dark is the night, and fitful and drearily + Rushes the wind like the waves of the sea, + Little care I as here I sing cheerily, + Wife at my side and my baby on knee; + King, King, crown me the King! + Home is the Kingdom, and Love is the King. + + 2 + + Flashes the firelight upon the dear faces + Dearer and dearer as onward we go, + Forces the shadow behind us and places + Brightness around us with warmth in the glow + King, King, crown me the King! + Home is the Kingdom, and Love is the King. + + 3 + + Flashes the love-light increasing the glory, + Beaming from bright eyes with warmth of the soul, + Telling of trust and content the sweet story, + Lifting the shadows that over us roll; + King, King, crown me the King! + Home is the Kingdom, and Love is the King. + + 4 + + Richer than miser with perishing treasure, + Served with a service no conquest could bring, + Happy with fortune that words cannot measure, + Light-hearted I on the hearthstone can sing, + King, King, crown me the King! + Home is the Kingdom, and Love is the King. + + WM. RANKIN DURYEA, D.D. + + [Illustration: THE SWITCH] + +Breezy Meadows, my heart's delight. I was so fortunate as to purchase +it in a ten-minute interview with the homesick owner, who longed to +return to Nebraska, and complained that there was not grass enough on +the place to feed a donkey. I am sure this was not a personal +allusion, as I saw the donkey and he did look forlorn. + +I was captivated by the big elms, all worthy of Dr. Holmes's +wedding-ring, and looked no further, never dreaming of the great +surprises in store for me. As, a natural pond of water lilies, some +tinted with pink. These lilies bloom earlier and later than any others +about here. + +An unusual variety of trees, hundreds of white birches greatly adding +to the beauty of the place, growing in picturesque clumps of family +groups and their white bark, especially white. + + [Illustration: HOW VINES GROW AT BREEZY MEADOWS] + +Two granite quarries, the black and white, and an exquisite pink, and +we drive daily over long stretches of solid rock, going down two or +three hundred feet--But I shall never explore these for illusive +wealth. + +A large chestnut grove through which my foreman has made four +excellent roads. Two fascinating brooks, with forget-me-nots, +blue-eyed and smiling in the water, and the brilliant cardinal-flower +on the banks in the late autumn. + +From a profusion of wild flowers I especially remark the +moccasin-flower or stemless lady's-slipper. + +My _Nature's Garden_ says--"Because most people cannot forbear picking +this exquisite flower that seems too beautiful to be found outside a +millionaire's hothouse, it is becoming rarer every year, until the +picking of one in the deep forest where it must now hide, has become +the event of a day's walk." Nearly 300 of this orchid were found in +our wooded garden this season. + +In the early spring, several deer are seen crossing the field just a +little distance from the house. They like to drink at the brooks and +nip off the buds of the lilac trees. Foxes, alas, abound. + +Pheasants, quail, partridges are quite tame, perhaps because we feed +them in winter. + +I found untold bushes of the blueberry and huckleberry, also enough +cranberries in the swamp to supply our own table and sell some. Wild +grape-vines festoon trees by the brooks. + +Barberries, a dozen bushes of these which are very decorative, and +their fruit if skilfully mixed with raisins make a foreign-tasting and +delicious conserve. + +We have the otter and mink, and wild ducks winter in our brooks. Large +birds like the heron and rail appear but rarely; ugly looking and +fierce. + +The hateful English sparrow has been so reduced in numbers by sparrow +traps that now they keep away and the bluebirds take their own boxes +again. The place is a safe and happy haven for hosts of birds. + +I have a circle of houses for the martins and swallows and wires +connecting them, where a deal of gossip goes on. + +The pigeons coo-oo-o on the barn roof and are occasionally utilized in +a pie, good too! + + [Illustration: GRAND ELM + (OVER TWO HUNDRED YEARS OLD)] + + "I wonder how my great trees are coming on this summer." + + "Where are your trees, Sir?" said the divinity student. + + "Oh, all around about New England. I call all trees mine that I + have put my wedding ring on, and I have as many tree-wives as + Brigham Young has human ones." "One set's as green as the + other," exclaimed a boarder, who has never been identified. + "They're all Bloomers,"--said the young fellow called John. (I + should have rebuked this trifling with language, if our + landlady's daughter had not asked me just then what I meant by + putting my wedding-ring on a tree.) "Why, measuring it with my + thirty-foot tape, my dear, said I.--I have worn a tape almost + out on the rough barks of our old New England elms and other + big trees. Don't you want to hear me talk trees a little now? + That is one of my specialties." + + "What makes a first-class elm?" + + "Why, size, in the first place, and chiefly anything over + twenty feet clear girth five feet above the ground and with a + spread of branches a hundred feet across may claim that title, + according to my scale. All of them, with the questionable + exception of the Springfield tree above referred to, stop, so + far as my experience goes, at about twenty-two or twenty-three + feet of girth and a hundred and twenty of spread." + +Three of my big elms easily stand the test Dr. Holmes prescribed, and +seem to spread themselves since being assured that they are worthy of +one of his wedding-rings if he were alive, and soon there will be +other applicants in younger elms. + + * * * * * + +I am pleased that my memory has brought before me so unerringly the +pleasant pictures of the past. But my agreeable task is completed. + +The humming-birds have come on this fifteenth of July to sip at early +morn the nectar from the blossoms of the trumpet-vine, now beginning +its brilliant display. That is always a signal for me to drop all +indoor engagements and from this time, the high noon of midsummer +fascinations, to keep out of doors enjoying to the full the +ever-changing glories of Nature, until the annual Miracle Play of +the Transfiguration of the Trees. + + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Memories and Anecdotes, by Kate Sanborn + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEMORIES AND ANECDOTES *** + +***** This file should be named 15174.txt or 15174.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/1/7/15174/ + +Produced by Janet Kegg and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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