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#"
ipdllNENT
WOMEN" OF THE AGE ;
BUNG NABRAltVm 01
THE LITES AND DEEDS
or
Most Prominent Women of the Present Generation.
JAMISJ^TOir, RORAOS QRBELET, T. W. HieOIKBOM, J. 8. 0. ABBOTT,
Pmt. JAMSB M. HOPPIN, WILLIAM WDTTXR, THBODOBB TILTON, FANMT IBRN,
OftAGl GBKENWOOD, Mag. B. C. STANTON, BTO.
I 1^1
^T^\i^U lUtts^steji) toiii^ ^avixUm Sittl €nQXKbingn.
■ 1^1 1
HARTFORD, CONN.:
S. M. BETT8 & CX)MPANY.
W. H. BOOTHROTD, DBTROIT, MICH
GIBBS & NICHOLS, CHICAGO, ILL.
H. H. BANCROFT & CO., SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.
1869.
■£5-
Entered according to Act or Congreu, in thejear 1868, bj
' a M. BETTS & CO.,
In the Cterk's Offloe of the Diatrict Court of the United ScatM for Hm
DiBOict or CoDitecticnt
LIST OF ENGEAYIEGS.
PAO.
1. RbSA BONHEUR, ; . . . . Fbosttispiecb.
2. FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE, Vionbttb Title.
3. LYDIA H. SIGOURNEY, 85
4. EUGENIE, Emprkss of the Faehch, 128
5. MARGARET FULLER OSSOLI, 173
6. ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING, 221
7. MRS. EMMA WILLARD, 273
8. MRS. ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, 332
9. LUCRETIA MOTT, 371
10. VICTORIA, Qi7EEir of England, . . . « 465
11. ADELAIDE RISTORI, 440
12. ANNA E. DICKINSON, 479
13. MRS. C. S. LOZIER^ M. D 517
14. HARRIET a HOSMER, 56«
/
PREFACE.
Thb world is full <^ books that narrate the deeds and utter the^
praisea of men. The lives of eminent men of our own time are
made familiar to as in newspapers and magazines, in individual '
akelches and autobiographies, as well as in histories, dictionaries id
biography, cyclopedias and other works of greater or less range of
subject and extent of information. But, while many things have
been written both by and for women, and much information has been
published in one form and another in respect to eminent women of
oar age, there is not in existence, so far as the publishers are aware,
any work, or series of works, which supplies the information con-
tained in this volume, or preoccupies its field.
And it appears to the publishers that \here is a demand ibr this
very work. The discussions of the present day in regard to the
elevation of wgman, her duties, and the position which she is fitted
to occupy, seem to call for some authentic and attractive record of
the lives and achievements of those women of our time who have
distinguished themselves in their various occupations and conditions
in life. The knowledge of what has been attempted and accom-
plished by eminent women of our time is fitted to make an imprea-
sioD for good upon the young women of our land, and upon the
whole American public It will tend to develop and strengthen cor-
rect ideas respecting the infinence of woman, and her share in the
privileges and responsibilities of human life.
In selecting the subjects for the sketches here presented, r^^rd
has been had not only to individual excellence or eminence, but also
to a proper representation of the various proft^ssions in which women
have distinguished themselves. For obvious reasons, also, the selec-
tion has been confined chiefly to American women.
In selecting tiie vriters for the variouB sketches, the publishera
have chosen those only whom thej knew to be thorongfaly qualified
for the partit^lar taskj* assigned thero, and so interested in the sub-
JQCta of their sketches as to be prepared to do them fuU justice.
; Great attention has been given to the collection of materials which
should be at once interesting and aathentic. Variety and ireshneBs
of interest are secured by obtaining slj^tches from a lai^ number of
able writers, and by arranging their contributions so that no two con-
secutive chapters are the production of the same person. Aa it waa
impossible, oq acccnnt of the laA of space, to give extended sketch-
es of all who ought to be noticed in this Tolume, and in some cases,
4r also, the requisite materials for such sketches could not be procured,
, briefer notices have been prepared of certain groups, which, it is
believed, will be no unacceptable addition to the more elaborate
chapters.
Tbia work aims to present in its literary department, as well as in
ita engravings, an attractive series of accurate and life-like pictures.
As a literary production, cont^ning the best essays and &iest
thoughts of many of the finl writers of the day, it must be a source
of profit and pleasure to every reader of critical taste. The engrav-
ings, like the written sketches, are no creations of fancy, but trust-
worthy delineations of the features of those whom Ihey profess to
represenU
The publishers have spared neither time nor expense in the prep-
oration of the present work, and they confidently believe that the
importance of the field which it occupies, the ability and reputation
of its writers, the freshness and reliableness of its facts, and the ex-
cellence of its engravings and typography, will justify the praises
already bestowed upon its plan and execution by men and women of
discernment, and insure to it a wide-spread and lasting popularity.
Habtfood, Julf 16, 1868.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAOL
1. FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE, . By James Paxtoit, .... 1 1
2. LYDIA MARIA CHILD, . . . By T. W. Hxooxnboh, ... 38
3. FANNY FERN,— MRS. PARTON,
Bj Gracb Ghsbmwood, . . 66
4. LYDIA H. SIGOURNEY, ... By Rev. £. B. Huntikoton, 85
5. MRS. FRANCES ANNE KEMBLE,
By James Parton, .... 102
6. EUGENIE, EMPRESS OF THE FRENCH,
By John S. C. Abbott, . . 128
7. GRACE GREENWOOD,— MRS. LIPPINCOTT,
By Joseph B. Ltmak, . . . 147
8. ALICE AND PHEBE CARY, . By Hosacx Gseelbt, ... 164
9. MARGARET FULLER OSSOLI, By T. W. Hiooihsow, ... 173
10. GAIL HAMILTON,— MISS DODGE,
By FAHinr Fesn, .... 202
11. ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING,
ByEDWABD Y. HiKCKS, . . 221
12. JENNY LIND GOLDSCHMIDT, By James Pabtok, .... 250
CUB PIONEER EDUCATORS,
By Rev. E. B. Huhtiwoton, *72
13. Mb8. Emma WillAbd. | 14. Mes. Maxiaitnx P. Dasoomb.
TABLS or COiriZlfTS.
IS. HABBIET
It. HB8. ELIZ.
STOWE, By Rbt. E. F. Famxeb, .
CADT STANTON,
Bf Thiooou Tiltok, .
Bj EuziBKia Cadt STAtrroit,
IT. Sabah Aini ANQBLurA Qkiios.
18. Abbx Kbllbt.
19. liUxT Gbsw.
10. Amnb Grbbns Fbiixifb.
>i. looketia mott.
sa: Cakouxb M. Sevebahok.
S3. Fkamou D. Oaox.
24. Abbt HoTcatnon.
as. Autoirsttb Browx.
26. Lcci Stohb,
27. Hb». Cabouhb H. Dau.
SS. Mbb. C. I. H. Nichols.
29. Sdsak B. Awtbokt.
30. Oltmpia Bbowm.
31. VlCTOaiA, QOEEN OF ENGLAHD,
Sj Jaus Faxtos,
EMINENT WOMEN OF THE DRAMA,
By Wjluam Winter, ....
3S. A9XI.AIDB BiSTORI.
33. EUFHBOaTHE PaBEFA BotA.
M. Elleb Tsbe, — Mrs. Coables Keah.
3S. Claba Locisa KiujOoo.
U. Kate BATBXAjf,— Mbs. Qeobob Cboifb.
37. OxixK Faccit,— Hsa. Tubomwi Habtib.
TABLX OF C0NTBNT8. iz
8& A2SSA ELIZABETH DICKINSON,
By Mbs. Elizabeth Cadt Stibton, 479
WOMAN AS PHYSICIAN.
By Ret. H. B. Eluot, 513
39. Mbs. Clemencb S. Lozier, M. D.
40. Miss Euzaoeth Blackwell, Bi. D.
41. Miss Harriot K. Hunt, M. D.
42. Mxs. Hannah £. Longshore, M. D.
43. Miss Ann Preston, M. D.
44. CAMILLA URSO, By Mart A. Bbtts, ... 551
45. HARRIET G. HOSMER, ... By Ret. R. B. Thurston, . 566
46. ROSA BONHEUR, By Prof. James M. Hoppin, 599
47. MBS. JULIA WARD HOWE,
By Mbs. Lvoia Gilbert Calhoun, 621
EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
■ ♦ ■
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE.
BT JAMES PABTON.
Florence NiGHnNGALE is one of the fortunate of the earth.
Inheriting from nature a striking and beneficent talent, she
was able to cultiyate that talent in circumstances the most
favorable that could be imagined, and, finally, to exercise it
on the grandest scale in the sight of all mankind. Whatever
difficulties may have beset her path, they were placed in it
not by untoward fortune ; they existed in the nature of her
work, or were inseparable from hmnan life itself. She has
L«id the happiness, also, of laboring in a purely disinterested
spirit, and has been able to do for love what money could
neither procure nor reward.
The felicity of both her names, Florence and JSfightingale^
has often been remarked ; and it appears that she owes both
of them to accident. Her father is William Edward Shore,
ai) English gentleman of an ancient and wealthy Sheffield
femily, and her mother is a daughter of William Smith, who
was for many years a member of Parliament, where he was
particularly distinguised for his advocacy of the emancipation
of the slaves in the British possessions. In 1815, her father
inherited the estates of his grand-uncle, Peter Nightingale,
on the condition expressed in his uncle's will, of his assuming
the name of Nightingale. It so happened that she first saw
12 EMIKEKT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
the light whfle the family were residuig at the beautiful city
of Florence, and to this fact she is indebted for her first
name. The family consists of but four members, father,
mother, and the two daughters, Parthenope and Florence.
The date oi the birth of the younger sister, Florence, is
variously given in the slight accounts which have been pub-
lished of her life ; but it was said in the public prints, at the
time when her name was on every tongue, that she was bom
in the same year as Queen Victoria, which was 1819.
Her father is a well-informed and intelligent man, and it
was imder his guidance that she attained a considerable
proficiency in the Latin language and in mathematics, as
well as in the usual branches and accomplishments of female
education. Early in life she was conversant with French,
German, and Italian ; she became also a respectable performer
upon the piano ; and she had that general acquaintance with
science, and that interest in objects of art, which usually
mark the intelligent mind.
Even as a little girl she was observed to have a particular
fondness for nursing the sick. She had the true nurse's
touch, and that ready sympathy with the afflicted which
enables those who possess it to divine their wants before
they are expressed. In England, as in most other densely
peopled countries, poverty and disease abound on every side,
in painful contrast to the elegance and abundance by which
persons of the rank of Miss Nightingale are surrounded.
One consequence of this is, that the daughters of affluence,
unless they are remarkably devoid of good feeling, employ
part of their leisure in visiting the cottages of the poor, and
nunistering to the wants of the infirm and the sick. It was
thus that Florence Nightingale began her voluntary appren-
ticeship to the noble art of mitigating human anguish. Not
content with paying the usual round of visits to the cottages
near her father's estate, and giving, here a little soi^p, and
I'LOBENCE NIGHTINGALE. 13
there a flannel petticoat, and at another place a poor man's
plaster, she seriously studied the art of nursing, visited hos-
pitals in the neighborhood, and read with the utmost eager-
ness whatever she could find in her father's library relating to
the treatment of disease, aiid the management of asylums.
This was no romantic fancy of her youth. Miss Nightin-
gale is a truly intelligent and gifted woman, — as far as pos-
sible removed from the cast of character which is at once
described and stigmatized by the word romantic. She ear-
nestly desired to know the best manner of mitigating the suf-
ferings of the sick, the wounded, and the infirm ; and she
studied this beautiful science as a man studies that which he
truly and ardently wishes to understand.
As it is the custom of wealthy families in England to spend
part of every year in London, Miss Nightingale was enabled
to extend the sphere of her observation to the numberless
hospitals and asylums of that metropolis. These institutions
are on the grandest scale, and were liberally endowed by
the generosity of 'former ages ; but at that time many of
them abounded in abuses and defects of every description.
Everywhere she saw the need of better nurses, women trained
and educated to their work. Excellent surgeons were to be
found in most of them ; but in many instances the admirable
skill of the surgeon was balked and frustrated by the blun-
dering ignorance or the obstinate conceit ei the nurse.
Thos^ who observed this elegant young lady moving softly
about the wards of the hospitals, little imagined, perhaps,
that from her was to come the reform of those institutions.
Miss Nightingale may almost be said to have created the
art of which she is the most illustrious teacher ; but she *
was yet far fix)m having perfected herself; many years
were still to elapse before she was prepared to speak with the
authority of a master. Mrs. Gamp still flourished for a while,
although her days were numbered.
14 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AQE.
It must not be supposed that ibis noble-minded ladj de-
nied herself the pleasures proper to her age, sex, and rank.
She enjoyed society and the pleasures of society, both in the
country and in town. Without beibg strictly beautiful,
her face was singularly pleasing in its expression, and she
had a slight, trim, and graceful figure. Her circle of friends
and acquaintances was large, and among them she was always
welcome ; but, like most properly constituted persons of ^ our
Saxon blood, the happiest spot to her on earth was her own
home. The family connection of the Nightingales in England
is numerous, and she had friends enough for all the purposes
of life among her own relations.
About 1845, in company with her parents and sister, she
made an extensive tour in Germany, France, and Italy, visit-
ing everywhere the hospitals, infirmaries, and asylums, and
watching closely the modes of treatment practised in them.
The family continued their journey into Egypt, where they
resided for a considerable time, and where the gifts of Miss
Nightingale in nursing the sick were, for the first time, called
into requisition beyond the circle of her own family and do-
pendauts. Several sick Arabs, it is said, were healed by her
during this journey, which extended as far as the farthest
cataracts of the Nile. Her tour was of eminent use to her in
many ways. It increased her familiarity with the languages
of Europe, and gave her a certain knowledge of the world
and of men, as well as of her art, which she turned to such
admirable account a few years later. Betuming to Eugl?.nd,
she resumed her ordinary life as the daughter of a country
gentleman ; but not for a long time.
Miss Nightingale, born into the Church of England, was
then, and has ever since remained, a devoted member of Jt.
In her religion, however, there is nothing bigoted nor exces-
sive ; she is one of those who manifest it chiefly bj*^ cheerful-
ness, charity, and good-living; nor does her attachment ta
VLOBSNCE KIOHTINGALB. 15
her own church blind her to the excellences of others. In
her trayelB upon the continent of Europe, she had often met
the Sisters of Charity, and members of other Catholic Orders^
serving in the hospitals and asylums, and serving, tbo, with
a fidelity, constancy^ and skill, which excited in her the
highest admiration and the profoundest respect. It was a
fisivorite dream of her youth, that, perhaps, there might one
day be among Protestants some kind of Order of Nurses, —
a band of women devoted, for a time, or for life, to the holy
and arduous work of alleviating the anguish of the sick-bed.
About the year 1848, she heard that there was something of
the kind in Germany, under the change of a benevolent lady
and a venerable Lutheran pastor. She hastened to enter this
school of nurses, and spent six months there, acquiring val-
uable details of her art. In the hospital attached to it she
served as one of the regular corps of nurses, among whom
she was greatly distinguished for her skill and thoroughness.
Upon her return to England, an opportunity was speedily
furnished her for exercising her improved skill.
A very numerous class in England are family governesses.
English people are not so well aware, as we are, how much
better it is for children to go to a good school than to pursue
their education at home, even under the most skilful private
teacher. Consequently, almost every family in liberal cir*
cnmstances has a resident governess, an unhappy being, who
auffers many of the inconveniences attached to the lot of a
servant, without enjoying the solid advantages which ought
to accompany servitude. Upon salaries of twenty or thirty
pounds a year, many of these ladies are required to make a
presentable appearance, and associate, upon a sort of equal-
ity, with persons possessing a hundred times their revenue.
Unable to save anything for their declining years, nothing
can be conceived more pitiable than the situation of a friend-
less English governess whom age or infirmities have deprived
16 EMIKBNT WOMEK OF THS AGS.
of employment and of home. For tbe benefit of sncli, an
asylum was established in London several years ago, which,
however, had but a feeble life and limited means. Miss
Nightingale, on her return from Germany, was informed that
the institution was on the point of being given up, owing to
its improper management and the slenderness of its endow-
ment. Her aid was sought by the friends of the asylum.
She accepted the laborious post of its superintendent, and
she left her beautiful abode in the country, and took up her
residence in the establishment in London, to which she gave
both her services and a large part of her income. For many
months she was seldom seen at the entertainments, public
and private, which she was formerly in the habit of enjoying ;
for she was in her place by the bedside of sick, infirm, or
dying inmates of the governesses' hospital. She restored
order to its finances ; she increased the number of its friends ;
she improved the arrangements of the interior ; and when her
health gave way under the excessive labors of her position,
and she was compelled to retire to the country, she had the
satisfaction of leaving the institution firmly established and
well regulated.
But the time was at hand when her talents were to be em-
ployed upon a grander scale, and when her country was to
reap the full reimlt of her study and observation. The war
with Russia occurred. In February and March, 1854, ship-
loads of troops were leaving England for the seat of war,
and the heart of England went with them.
Tn all the melancholy history of warlike expeditions, there
is no record of one which was managed with such cruel in-
efficiency as this. Everything like foresight, the adaptation
of means to ends, knowledge of the climate, knowledge of
the human constitution, seemed utterly wanting in those who
had charge of sending these twenty-five thousand British
troops to the shores of the Black Sea. The first rendezvous
TLOBENCJE KIGHTINGAt'*;. V 17
was at Malta, an island within easy reach of many of the
most prod active parts of two continents; but even there
privation and trouble began. One regiment would find it-
self destitute of fuel, but overwhelmed with candles. In one
part of the island there was a superfluity of meat, and no
biscuit ; while, elsewhere, there was an abundant supply of
food for men, but none for horses. It afterwards appeared
that no one had received an}i;hing like exact or timely infor-
mation, either as to the number of troops expected to land
upon the island, or as to the time when they would arrive.
A curious example of the iron rigidity of routine in the
British service was this : In the old wars it took eight weeks
for a transport to sail from England to Malta ; but although
these troops were all conveyed in steamers, every steamer
earried the old allowance of eight weeks' supply of medicines
and wines. The chief physician of the force had been forty
years in service, and the whole machinery of war worked
stiffly from long inaction.
When the troops reached Gallipoli, on the coast of the.
Sea of Marmora, their sufferings really began. No one had
thought to provide interpreters ; there were neither carts nor
draught animals ; so that it frequently happened that a regi-
ment would be on shore several days without having any
meat. It does not appear to have occurred to any one that
men could ever suffer from cold in a latitude so much more
southern than that of England. The climate of that regioa
is, in fact, very similar to that of New York or Philadelphia.
There are the same intense heats in summer, the same occa-
sional deep snows, excessive cold, and fierce, fireezing rains^
of winter ; — one of those climates which possess many of the
inconveniences both of the torrid and the frigid zones, and
demand a systematic provision against both. In the middle of
April, at Gallipoli, the men began to suffer much from cold.
Many of them had no beds, and not a soldier in the army
18 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AOE.
had more than the one regulation blanket. Instead of un-
dressing to go to bed, they put on all the clothes they had,
and wrapped themselves in anything they could find. There
was a small supply of blankets, but there was no one at hand
who was authorized to sei*ye them out, and it was thought a
wonderful degree of courage in a senior stajQT-suvgeon when
he actually took the responsibility of appropriating some of
these blankets for the use of the sick in the temporary hos-
pital. The very honesty of the English stood in their way.
** These French Zouaves," wrote Dr. Russell, the celebrated
correspondent of the London Times, ^ are first-rate foragers.
You may see them in all directions laden with eggs, meat,
fish, vegetables (onions), and other good things, while our
fellows can get nothing. Sometimes, our servant is sent out
to cater for breakfast or dinner ; he returns with the usual
' Me and the Colonel's servant has been all over the town, and
can get nothing but eggs and onions, sir ; ' and lo 1 round the
corner appears a red-breeched Zouave or Chasseur, a bottle
pf wine under his left arm, half a lamb under the other, and
poultry, fish, and other luxuries dangling round him. 'I'm
sure, I don't know how these French manages it, sir,* says
the crestfallen Mercury, and retires to cook the eggs."
Some of the general officers, instead of directing their
energies to remedying this state of things, appear to have
been chiefly concerned in compelling men to shave everyday,
and to wear their leathern stocks on parade. One of the
generals, it is said, hated hair on the heads and faces of sol-
diers with a kind of mania. ^ Where there is much hair,"
said he, *' there is dirt, and where there is dirt there will be
disease ; " forgetting that hair was placed upon the human
head and face to protect it against winds and weather such
as these soldiers were experiencing. It was not until the
army had been ten weeks in the field, and were exposed to
the blading heat of summer, that the Queen's own guards
I'LOBSKCS KiaHTIKGALE. 19
were permitted to leave off those terrible stocks, and they
celebrated the joyful event by three as thundering cheers as
ever issued from the emancipated throats of men. After six
months' service, the great boon was granted of permitting the
men to wear a mustache, but not a beard. It was not until
almost all order was lost and stamped out of sight in the
mire and snow of the following winter, that the general in
command allowed his troops to enjoy the protection of the
full beard. Nor were the private habits of the men con-
ducive to the preservation of their health. Twenty soldiers
of one regiment were in the guard-house on the sumo day for
drunkenness, at Gallipoli. As late as the middle of April
there was still a lamentable scarcity of everything required
for the hospital. ''There were no blankets for tlie sick,"
wrote Dr. Russell, ** no beds, no mattresses, no medicjil com-
forts of any kind; and the invalid soldiers had to lie for
several days on the bare boards, in a wooden house, with
nothing but a single blanket as bed and covering."
Every time the army moved it seemed to get into worse
quarters, and to be more wanting in necessary supplies.
The camp at Aladyn, where the army was posted at the end
of June, was a melancholy example of this truth. The camp
was ten miles from the sea, in the midst of a country utterly
deserted, and the only communication between the camp and
the post was furnished by heavy carts, drawn by buffaloes, at
the rate of a mile and a half an hour ; and by this kind of trans-
portation an army of twent^'-five thousand men, and thirteen
thousand horses, had to be fed. The scene can be imagined, as
well as the results upon the comfort and health of the troops.
In July the cholera broke out, and carried off officers and
men of both armies in considerable numbers. July the 24th,
it suddenly appeared in the camp of the light division, and
twenty men died in twenty-four hours. A sergeant attacked
at seren, a. k., w;is dead at noon. What was, at once,
20 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AOE.
remarkable and terrible in this disease, it was often quite
painless. And yet, in the midst of all this horror and death,
the soldiers of both armies exhibited a wonderful reckless-
ness. "You find them,*' wrote Dr. Russell, ** lying drunk in
the kennels, or in the ditches by the roadsides, under the
blazing rays of the sun, covered with swarms of flies. You
see them in stupid sobriety, gravely paring the rind off
cucumbers of portentous dimensions, and eating the deadly
cylinders one atler another, to the number of six or eight, —
all the while sitting in groups, in the open streets ; or, fre-
quently, three or four of them will make a happy bargain
with a Greek, for a large basketful of apricots, water-melons,
wooden pears, and green gages, and then they retire beneath
the shades of a tree, where they divide and eat the luscious
food till nought remains but a heap of peels, rind, and
stones. They dilute the mass of fruit with peach brandy,
and then straggle home, or go to sleep as best they can."
Think of the military discipline which could compel the
wearing of stocks, forbid the growth of a beard, and permit'
such heedless suicide as this, of men appointed to maintain
the honor of their country's flag on foreign soil 1 How in-
credible it would be,' if we had not abundant proof of the
fact, that, at this very time, a lieutenant-general issued an
order directing cavalry officers to lay in a stock of yellow
ochre and pipe day^ for the use of the men in rubbing up
their uniforms and accoutrements I
On the 13th of September, 1854, twenty-seven thou-
sand British troops were landed upon the shores of the
Crimea, and marched six miles into the country. There was
not so much as a tree for shelter on that bleak and destitute
coast. The French troops who landed on the same day had
small shelter tents with them ; but in all the English host
there was but one tent. Towards night the wind rose, and
it began to rain. At midnight, the rain fell in torrents, and
FLOBENCE NIGHTINGALE, 21
continued to do so all the rest of the night, penetrating the
blankets and overcoats of the troops, and beating pitilessly
down upon the aged generals, the young dandies, the steady-
going gentlemen, as well as upon the private soldiers of the
English army, who slept in puddles, ditches, and water-
courses, without fire, without grog, and without any certain
prospect of breakfast. One general slept under a cart, and
the Duke of Cambridge himself was no better accommodated.
This was but the beginning of misery. On the following
day, signals were made on the admiral's ship for all the
vessels of the great fleet to send their sick men on board, the
Kangaroo. Thoughtless order I In the course of the day,
this vessel was surrounded by hundreds of boats filled with
sick soldiers and sailors, and it was soon crowded to suffoca-
tibn. Before night closed in, there were fifteen hundred
sick on board of her, and the scene was so full of hon*or that
the details were deemed unfit for publication. The design
was that these sick men should be conveyed on the Kangaroo
to the neighborhood of Constantinople, to be placed in
hospital. But when she had been crammed with her miser-
able freight, she was ascertained to be unseaworthy, and all
the fifteen hundred had to be transferred to other vessels.
Many deaths occurred during the process of removal. On
the same day men were dying on the beach, and did actually
die, without any medical assistance whatever. When the
hospital was about to b^ established at Balaklava, some days
after, sick men were sent thither before the slightest prepar*
ation for them had been made, and many of them remained
in the open street for several hours in the rain.
Winter came on, — such a winter as we are accustomed to
in and near the city of New York. It began with that
terrible hurricane, which many doubtless remember reading
of at the time. The whole army were still living in tents.
Ko adequate preparation had been made, of any kind, for
22 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
protecting the troops against such snows, and cold, and rain,
as they were certain to experience. This hurricane broke
upon the camp early in the morning of November the four-
teenth, an hour before daylight, the wind bringing T^ith it
torrents of rain. The air was filled with blankets, coats,
hats, jackets, quilts, bedclothes, tents, and even with tables
and chairs. Wagons and ambulances were overturned by
the force of the wind. Almost eveiy tent was laid prostrate.
The cavalry horses, terrified at the noise, broke loose, and
the whole country, as far as the eye could reach, was covered
with galloping horses. During the day the storm continued
to rage, while not a fire could be lighted, nor any beginmng
made of repairmg the damage. Towards night it began to
snow, and a driving storm of snow and sleet tormented the
army durmg the night. This storm proved more deadly to
sea than on shore, and many a ship, stored with warm
clothing, of which these troops were in perishing need, went
to the bottom of the Black Sea.
A few days after, Doctor Russell wrote : ^ It is now pour-
ing rain, — the skies are black as ink, — the wind is howling
over the staggering tents, — the trenches are tiuned into
dykes, — in the tents the water is sometimes a foot deep, —
our men have not either warm or water-proof clothing,
— they ai'e out for twelve hours at a time in the trenches, —
they are plunged into the inevitable miseries of a winter
campaign, — and not a soul seems to care for their comfort,
or even for their lives. These are hard truths, but the
people of England must hear them. They must know that
the wretched beggar, who wanders about the streets of Lon-
don in the rain, leads the life of a prince compaixjd with the
British soldiers who are fighting out here for their country,
and who, we are complacently assured by the homo authori-
ties, are the best appointed army in Europe. Tliey are well
fed, indeed, but they have no shelter, no rest, and no defence
FLOBENCE NI0HTIK6ALE. 23
against the w^eather. The tents, so long exposed to the blaze
of a Bulgarian sun, and now contmually drenched by torrents
of rain, let the wet through Mike sieves,* and are perfectly
useless as protections against the weather."
Never was there such mismanagement. While the army
were in this condition they suddenly found themselves reduced
to a short allowance of food, and for nine days there was no
tea or coffee. The reason was, that the country roads, by
which the provisions were brought from the seaside, seven
miles distant, had become almost impassable. Every one
could have foreseen that this would be the case during the
iainy season. Every one could also see that the whole
country was covered with small stones, just fit for making
good roads ; but nothing was done, and, for many miserable
weeks, it was all that the commissary officers could do to
keep the army alive. As for the port itself, — Balaldava, —
it was such a scene of filth and horror as the earth has seldom
exhibited. Indeed, it was said, at the time, that all the
pictures ever drawn of plague and pestilence, whether in
works of fact or of fiction, fell far short of the scenes of
disease and death which abounded in this place. In the
hospitals the dead lay side by side with the living, and both
were objects appalling to look upon. There was not the
least attention paid to cleanliness or decency, and men died
without the least effort being made to save or help them.
* There they lie," records a writer, *' just as they were let
gently down on the ground by their comrades, who brought
tiiem on their backs from the camp with the greatest tender-
ne89, but who are not allowed to remain with them. The
sick appear to be tended by the sick, and the dying by the
dying." The four-footed creatures suffered not less than
their masters* "Two hundred of your horses have died,"
said a Turk one morning to a British officer. ** Behold 1 what
I have said is the truth ; " and, as he said these words, ho
. j
24 EMIKEKT WOKEK OF THS AGE
emptied a sack upon the floor, and there were four hundred
horses' ears heaped up before the eyes of the wonderii^
officer.
lu January deep snows came to aggravate all this misery.
At one time there were three feet of sno'v upon the ground.
On tne 8tb of January, 1855, one regiment could only
muster seven men fit for duty ; another had thirty ; a freshly
landed company was reduced from fifty-six to fourteen in a
few days ; and a regiment of Guards, which had had in all
fiileen hundred and sixty-two men, could muster but two
hundred and ten. What wonder I On that same eighth day
of January bome of Queen Victoria's own Household Guards
were walking about in the snow, and going into action at
night, without soles to their shoes ! Many men were frozen
stiff in their tents ; and as late as January the 19tli, When
there were drifts of snow six feet deep, sick men were
lying in wet tents with only one blanket 1 No one, therefore,
will be surprised at the statement that on the 10th of Feb-
ruary, out of a total of 44,948 British troops, 18,177 were
in hospital.
The word hospital, when used in reference to the Crimean
war, only conjures up scenes of horror. Two scenes, select-
ed from mapy such, will suffice to convey to the reader a
vivid idea of the hospitals of the Crimea before an Angel
went from England to reform them. January the 25th
the suigeon of a ship, appointed to convey the sick to the
general hospital at Scutari, went on shore at Balaklava and
applied to an officer in charge of stores for two or three stoves
to put on board his ship to warm the sick and dying troops.
** Three of my men," said he, ^ died last night from choleraic
symptoms brought on by the extreme cold of the ship, and
I fear more will follow them from the same cause.*' '* Oh,"
said the storekeeper, " you must make your requisition in
due form, send it up to head-quarters, and get it signed prop-
7L0BBNCB NIQHTINGALB. 25
ferfy, and retarned, and then I will let you have the stoves."
" But my men may die meantime.** " I can't help that ; I
must have the requisition." **It is my firm belief that there
are men now in a dangerous state whom another night will
certainly kill." *I really ca^ do nothing; I must have a
requisition properly signed before I can give one of thoso
stoves away." " For God's sake, then, lend tiie some ; I'll
be responsible for their safety." ^ I really can do nothing of
the kind." ^But, consider, this requisition will take time to
be filled up and signed, and meantime these poor fellows will
go." •• I cannot help that." ** I'll be responsible for any
thing you do." * Oh, no, that can't be'done. " •' Will a requi-
sition signed by the post medical officer of this place be
of any use ? " ^ Ifo." ^ Will it answer if he takes on him-
self the responsibility?" ** Certainly not." The surgeon
went ofiT in sorrow and disgust, knowing well that brave men
were doomed to death by the obstinacy of this keeper of her
Majesty's stores.
Another fisict: In the middle of this terrible winter
there was a period of three weeks when the hospitals nearest
the main body of the army were totally destitute of medi-
cines for the three most frequent diseases of an army in win-
ter quarters ; namely, fever, rheumatism, and diarrhoea. The
most agonizing circumstance was, that the government had
provided everything in superabundance. But one hospital
would have a i^odigious superfluity of fuel, and no mattresses.
Another would have tons of pork, and no rice. Another
would have plenty of the materials for making soup, but no
vessels to make it in. Here, there would be an abundance
of cofiee, but no means of roasting it; and, there, a hundred
chests of tea, and not a pound of sugar to put in it. Again,
there would be 9 house full of some needed article, and no
officer within miles who had authority to serve it out. The
surgeons did their best ; but what could the few surgeous of
2G EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
fifty regiments do with twenty thousand sick men ? As foi
nurses, there was hardly a creature worthy of the name in
the Crimea. In view of such facts as these no one can be
surprised that the great hospitals at Scutari were in such a
condition, that, probably, they, were the direct means of kill-
ing ten men for every one whom they saved from death. It
had perhaps been better if the poor fellows had been wrapped
in blankets and laid upon a sheet of India-rubber on the
snow in the open air, fed now and then, and left to take their
chance.
England heard of all this with amazement and consterna-
tion. It was the **Tim(?s'* newspaper through which it learned
the details, and people began spontaneously to send sums of
moniey to the editor of that journal for the relief of the sol-
diers. The proprietors of the ^ Times ^ consented, at length,
to receive and appropriate money for this object, and in thir-
teen days the sum of fifteen thousand pounds sterling was
sent in. With this money thousands of shirts, sheets, stock-
ings, overcoats, flannels, and tons of sugar, soap, ari'ow-root,
and tea, and great quantities of wine and brandy, were pur-
chased, and a commissioner was sent out to superintend their
distribution. But the great horror was, the neglect of the
sick in the hospitals, and a cry arose for a corps of skilful,
educated nurses.
There was but one woman in England fitted by charactei ,
position, and education, to head such a band* Sidney Her-
bert, a member of the British cabinet, was an old friend
of Florence Nightingale's father. Mr. Herbert was thus
acquainted with the peculiar bent of Miss Nightingale's dispo-
sition, and the nature of her training. By a curious coinci-
dence, and yet not an unnatural one, she wrote to him offering
her services, and he wrote to her asking he#aid, on the same
day. Other ladies of birth and fortune volunteered to ac-
company her, to whom were added some superior professional
PLOBENCB NIGHTINQALE. 27
nurses. October the 24th, 1854, Florence Nightingale,
accompanied by a clerical friend and his wife, and by a corps
of thirty-seven nurses, left England for the Crimea, followed
by the benedictions of millions of their countrymen.
They travelled through France to Marseilles. On their
journey the ladies were treated with more than the usual
politeness of Frenchmen ; the inn-keepers and even the ser-
vants would not take payment for their accommodation, and
all ranks of people appeared to be in most cordial sympathy
with their mission. Among other compliments paid Miss
Nightingale by the press, one of the newspapers informed the '
public that her dress was charming, and that she was almost
as graceful as the ladies of Paris.
From Marseilles they were conveyed in a steamer to Scu-
tari, where the principal hospitals were placed, which they
reached on the 5th of November. In all the town, crowded
with misery in every form, there were but five unoccupied
rooms, which had been reserved for wounded officers of high
rank ; these were assigned to the nurses, and they at once
entered upon the performance of their duty. They came
none too soon. In a few hours wounded men in great num-
bers began to be brought in from the action of Balaklava,
and, ere long, thousands more arrived from the bloody field
of Inkermann. Fortunately, the ** Times " commissioner was
present to supply Miss Nightingale's first demands. Some
days elapsed, however, before men ceased to die for want of
stores, which had been supplied, which were present in the
town, but which could not be obtained at the place and moment
required. One of the nurses reported that, during the first
night of her attendance, eleven men died before her eyes,
whom a little wine or arrow-root would almost certainly have
saved.
Miss Nightingale at once comprehended that it was no time
to stand upon trifles. On the second day after her arrival
28 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AQE.
six hundred wounded men were brought in, and the number
increased until there were three thousand patients under her
immediate chaise. Miss Nightingale, one of the gentlest and
tenderest of women, surveyed the scene of confnsion and an-
guish with unruffled mind, and issued her orders with the
calmness that comes of certain knowledge of what is best to
be done. If red tape interposed, she quietly cut it. If there
was no one near who was authorized to unlock a storehouse,
she took a few Turks with her, and stood by while they broke
Jt open. During the first week her labors were arduous be-
yond what would have been thought possible for any one ;
she was known to stand for twenty hours directing the labors
of men and women. Yet, however fatigued she might be,
her manner was always serene, and she had a smile or a com-
passionate word for the suffering as she passed them by.
As soon as the first needs of the men were supplied, she
established a washing-house, which she found time herself to
superintend. Before that was done, there had been a wash-
ing contract in existence, the conditions of which were so
totally neglected by the contractor, that the linen of the whole
hospital was foul and rotten. She established a kitchen,
which she also managed to inspect, in which hundreds of
gallons of beef-tea, and other liquid food, were prepared every
day. She knew precise^ how all these things should be
done ; she was acquainted with the best apparatus fur doing
them ; and she was thus enabled, out of the rough material
around her, — that is to say, out of boards, camp-kettles,
camp-stores, and blundering Turks, — to create laundries and
kitchens, which answered the purpose well, until better could
be provided. She also weU understood the art of husbanding
skilful labor. When a few nurses could be spared from the
wards of the hospital, she set them to preparing padding for
amputated limbs, and other surgical appliances ; so that when
a thousand wounded suddenly arrived from the battle-field.
FLO&£KCE KIGHTINGAIiB. 29
men no longer perished for the want of some trifling but in-
dispensable article, which foresight could have provided.
The •* Times'* commissioner wrote: "She is a minister-
iDg angel in these hospitals ; and, as her slender form glides
qoietly along each corridor, every poor fellow's face softens
with gratitude at the sight of her. When all the medical
officers have, retired for the night, and silence and darkness
have settled down upon those miles of prostrate sick, she may
be observed alone, with a little lamp in her hand, making her
iiolitary rounds." •
What a picture is this !
The same writer continues: "The popular instinct was
Dot mistaken which, when she set out from England on her
mission of mercy, hailed her as a heroine. I trust that she
may not earn her title to a higher though sadder appellation.
Ko one who has* observed her fragile figure and delicate
health can avoid misgivings lest these should fail. With the
heart of a true woman, and the manners of a lady, accom-
plished and refined beyond most of her sex, she combines a
surprising calmness of judgment, and promptitude, and de-
cision of character."
Incredible as it now seems, the arrival of these ladies was
fiu* from being welcomed either by the medical or military
officers, and it required all the firmness and tact of a Florence
Nightingale to overcome the obstacles which were placed or
left in her way. Several weeks passed before the hospital
iQtfaorities cordially co-operated with her. Still more incred-
ible is it, that some cruel bigots in England severely criticised
her conduct in accepting the services of some of the Sisters
of Charity from Dublin. Hiere was much discussion as to
whether she was herself a Catholic or a Protestant ; which led
a witty clergymBn to remark : ** She belongs to a sect which
Qofortnnately is a very rare one, — the sect of the Good Sa-
laaritana." One of the chaplains who labored with her, added^
80 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
with reference to another charge equally heartless and absard :
^ If there is any blame in looking for a Roman Catholic priest
to attend a dying Catholic, — let me share it with her, for
I did it again and again.''
The same excellent and liberal-minded chaplain, the Rev.
S. G. Osborne, in his work on the Hospitals of Scutari,
describes, in the most interesting manner, the appearance
and demeanor of Miss Nightingale. ^In appearance,'' he says,
" she is just what you would expect in any other well-bred
woman wfco may have seen, perhaps, rather more than thirty
years of life ; her manner and countenance are prepossessing,
and this without the possession of positive beauty ; it is a face
not easily forgotten, pleasing in its smile, with an eye be-
tokening great self-possession, and giving, when she pleases,
a quiet look of firm determination to every feature. Her
general demeanor is quiet and rather reserved ; still, I am
much mistaken if she is not gifted with a very lively sense
of the ridiculous. In conversation, she speaks on matters
of business with a grave earnestness one would not expect
from her appearance. She has evidently a mind disciplined
to restrain, under the pressure of the action of the moment,
every feeling which would interfere with it. She has trained
herself to command, and learned the value of conciliation
towards others and constraint over herself. I can conceive
her to be a strict disciplinarian ; she throws herself into a
work as its bead, — as such she knows well how much suc-
cess must depend upon literal obedience to her every order.
She seems to understand business thoroughly. Her nerve is
wonderful I I have been with her at very severe operations :
she was more than equal to the trial. She has an utter disre-
gard of contagion. I have known her spend hours over men
dying of cholera or fever. The more awful to every sense
any particular case, especially if it was that of a dying man,
her slight form would be seen bending over him, administor
VLOBBNCB HIQHTIHQALS. 81
ing to his ease in every way in her power, and seldom quit-
ting his side till death released him."
What wonder that the troops idolized her I One of the
soldiers said : ** She would speak to one and to another,
and nod and smile to as many more ; but she cotildn't do it
to all, you know; we lay there by hundreds; but we could
kiss her shadow as it fell, and lay our heads on the pillow
again content." Another soldier said: ** Before she came,
there was such cussin' and swearin* ; and after that it was as
holy as a church."
All through that winter s^e toiled at her post, and all
through the spring until the middle of May. Then she was
taken down with the camp fever, and for four or five days
her condition excited much alarm. She passed the crisis, how-
ever, and the whole army was soon rejoiced by hearing that
she was convalescent. In her little book, published since
her return home, upon nursing, there are but two allusions
to her services in the Crimea. One is, that she had seen ^
death in more forms than any other woman in Europe. The
other is a touching reference to this convalescence. Speaking
of the delight which the sick take in flowers, she says : ^ I
have seen in fevers (and felt when I was a fever patient my-
self) the most acute suffering produced, from the patient (in
a hut) not being able to see out of window, and the knots
in the wood being the only view. I shall never forget the
rapture of fever patients over a bunch of bright-colored
flowers. I remember (in my own case) a nosegay of wild
flowers beicj sent me, and from that moment recovery be-
coming more rapid."
By this time, excursionists and yachtsmen began to arrive
at the Crimea, one of whom lent her a yacht, the use of
which much aided her recovery. When she first sailed in it,
she had to be carried to the vessel in the arms of men.
She remained in the Crimea a year and ten months, and
32 EMIHEKT UrOMEN OF THE AGE.
reached home again in safety, but an invalid for life, on the
8th of September, 1856. All England felt that something
must bo done to mark the national gratitude, and perpetuate
the memory of it forever. Fifty thousand pounds were
raised, almost without an effort, and it was concluded at
length, to employ this fund in enabling Miss Nightingale to
establish an institution for the training of nurses. She sane*
tioned and accepted this trust, and has been chiefly employed
ever since in labors connected with it. The Sultan of Turkey
sent her a magnificent bracelet. The Queen of England gave
her a cross beautifully formed, .and blazing with gems. The
queen invited her also to visit her in her retreat at Balmoral,
and Miss Nightingale spent some days there, receiving the
homage of the royal family.
Not the least service which this noble lady has rendered
the suffering sons of men has been the publication of the
work just referred to, entitled ** Notes on Nursing ; what it
is, and what it is not,'' — one of the very few little books of
which it can be truly said that a copy ought to be in every
house. In this work she gives tiie world, in a lively, vigorous
manner, the substance of all that knowledge of nursing,
• which she has so laboriously acquired. Her directions are
admirably simple, and atill more admirably wise. « The
chief duty of a nurse," she says, ^ is simply this : to keep the
air xohich the patient breathes as pure as the external air, but
without chilling him.'' This, she insists, is the main point,
and is so important that if you attend properly to that you
may leave almost all the rest to nature. She dwells most
forcibly upon the absolute necessity, and wonderfully curative
power, of perfect cleanliness and bright light. Her little
diapter upon Noise in the Sick Room, in which she shows
how necessary it is for a patient never to be startled, dis-
turbed, or fidgeted, is most admirable and affecting. She
seems to have entered into the very soul of sick people, and
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 33
to have as lively a sense of how they feel, what they like,
what gives them pain, what hinders or retards their recovery,
as though she werp herself the wretch whose case she is
describing. If she had done nothing else in her life but
produce this wise, kind, and pointed little work,. she would
deserve the gratitude of suffering man.
The book, too, although remarkably free from direct
allusions to herself, contains much biographical material.
TVe see the woman on every page, — the woman who takes
notiiing for granted, whom sophistry cannot deceive, who
looks at things with her own honest eyes, reflects upon them
with her own fearless mind, and speaks of them in good,
downright, Nightingale English. She ever returns to hex
grand, fundamental position, the curative power of firesh,
pure air. Disease, she remarks, is not an evil, but a blessing ;
it is a reparative process^ — an effort of nature to get rid of
something hostile to life. That being the case, it is of tho
first importance to remove what she considers the chief cause
of disease, — the inhaling of poisonous air. She laughs to
scorn the impious cant, so often employed to console be-»
reaved parents, that the death of children is a ^mysterious
dispensation of Providence.'' No such thing. Children
perish, she tells us, because they are packed into unventilated
school-rooms, and sleep at night in unventilated dormito-
ries.
"An extraordinary fallacy,'* she says, ''is the dread of
night air. What air can we breathe at night but night air?
The choice is between pure night air from without and foul
night air from within. Most people prefer the latter. An
unaccountable choice ! An open window, most nights in the
year, can never hurt any one." Better, she remarks, shut
the windows all day than aU night. She maintains, tooj
that the reason why people now-a-days, especially ladies, are
leas robust than they were formerly, is because they pass the
8
34 EMINENT WOMBK OF THE AGE.
greater part of their lives in breathing poison. Upon this
point she expresses herself with great force : —
^ The houses of the grandmothers and great grandmothers
of this generation (at least, the country houses) , with front
door and back door always standing open, winter and sum-
mer, and a thorough draft always blowing through, — with
all the scrubbing, and cleaning, and polishing, and scouring,
which used to go on, — the grandmothers, and, still more,
the great-grandmothers, always out of doors, and never with
a bonnet on except to go to church; these things entirely
account for a fact so often seen of a great-grandmother who
was a tower of physical vigor, descending into a grandmother,
perhaps a little less vigorous, but still sound as a bell, and
healthy to the core, into a mother languid ai^l confined to
her carriage and her house, and lastly into a daughter sickly
and confined to her bed. For, remember, even with a
general decrease of mortality, you may oft)en find a race thus
degenerating, and still oftener a family. You may see poor,
little, feeble, washed-out rags, children of a noble stock,
sulSering, morally and physically, throughout their useless,
degenerate lives ; and yet people who are going to marry and
to bring more such into the world, will consult nothing but
their own convenience as to where they are to live or how
they are to live.''
On the subject of contagion she has decided and important
opinions. ^ I was brought up," she says, " both by scientific
men and ignorant women, distinctly to believe that small-
pox, for instance, was a thing of which there was once a first
specimen in the world, which went on propagating itself in a
perpetual chain of descent, just as much as that there was a
first dog (or a first pair of dogs), and that small-pox would
not begin itself any more than a new dog would begin with-
out there having been a parent dog. Since then, I have seen
witli my eyes, and smelt with my nose, smalUjpox growing
VLOBEKCB HIQHTINGALB. 85
up in first specimens^ either in close rooms or in overcrowded
wards, where it could not by any j^ossibility have been
caught, but must have begun I Nay, more. I have seen
diseases begin, grow up, and pass into one another. Now,
^ogs do not pass into cats. I have seen, for instance, with a
little overcrowding, continued fever grow up ; and, with a
little more, typhoid fever ; and, with a little more, typhus ;
and all in the same ward or hut. Would it not be far better,
truer, and more practical, if we looked upon disease in this
light P**
** Again,'' she says, addressing parents, **why must a chOd
have measles ? If you believed in and observed the laws for
preserving the health of houses, which inculcate cleanliness,
ventilation, whitewashing, and other means (and which, by
the way, are laws) as implicitly as you believe in the popular
opinion (for it is nothing more than an opinion) that your
child must have children's epidemics, don't you think that,
upon the whole, your child would be more likely to escape
altogether?"
Miss Nightingale is an enemy of crinoline, the wearing of
which she styles ^an absurd and hideous custonv" ^The
dress of women," she adds, **is daily more and more unfitting
them for any mission or usefulness at all. It is equally un-
fitted for all poetic and all domestic purposes. A man is
now a more handy and far less objectionable being in a sick-
room than a woman. Compelled by her dress, every woman
now either shuffles or waddles; only a man can cross the
floor of a sick-room without shaking it I What has become
of woman's light step, — the firm, light, quick step we have
been asking for?**
She has a very pleasing and suggestive passage upon the
kind of conversation which is most beneficial to the sick.
•A sick person," she observes, "does so enjoy hearing good
news ; for instance, of a love and courtship while in progress
36 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
to a good ending. If you tell him only when the marriage
takes place, he loses half the pleasure, which, God knows,
he has little enough of; and, ten to one, but yon have told
him of some love-making with a bad ending. A sick person also
intensely enjoys hearing of any material good, any positive o^
practical success of the right. He has so much of books and
fiction, of principles, and precepts, and theories ! Do, instead
of advising him with advice he has heard at least fifty times
before, tell him of one benevolent act which has really suc-
ceeded practically; it is like a day's -health to him. You
have no idea what the craving of the sick, with undiminished
power of thinking, but little power of doing, is to hear of
good practical action, when they can no longer partake in it.
Do observe these things with the sick. Do remember how
their life is to them disappointed and incomptete. You see
them lying there with miserable disappointments, from which
they can have no escape but death, and you can*t remember
to tell them of what would give them so much pleasure, or
at least an hour's variety. They don't want you to be
lachrymose and whining with them; they like you to be
fresh, an^ active, and interesting; but they cannot bear
absence of mind ; and they are so tired of the advice and
preaching they receive from everybody, no matter whom it
is, they see. There is no better society than babies and sick
people for one another. Of course you must manage this so
that neither shall suffer from it, which is perfectly possible.
If you think the air of the sick-room bad for the baby, why
it is bad for the invalid, too, and therefore you will of course
correct it for both. It freshens up the sick person's whole
mental atmosphere to see *the baby.' And a very young
child, if unspoiled, will generally adapt itself wonderfully to
the ways of a sick person, if the time they spend together is
not too long."
These passages give us a more correct conception of the
FLOltEKCE KI6HTIN6ALB. 37
mind and character of Florence Nightingale than any narra-
tive of her life which has yet been given to the public.
There has been nothing of chance in her career. She gained
her knowledge, as it is always gained, by faithful and
laborious study, and she acquired skill in applying her
knowledge by careful practice.
There can be no doubt that the example of Miss Night-
ingale had much to do in calling forth the exertions of
American women during our late war. As soon as we had
wounded soldiers to heal, and military hospitals to serve, the
patriotic and benevolent ladies of America thought of
Florence Nightingale, and hastened to offer their assistance ;
and, doubtless, it was the magic of her name which assisted
to open a way for them, and broke down the prejudices
which might have proved insurmountable. When Florence
Nightingale overcame the silent opposition of ancient surgeons
and obstinate old sergeants in the Crimea, she was also
smoothing the path of American women on the banks of the
Potomac and the Mississippi. Her name and example belong
to the race which she has honored; but to us, whom she
served in the crisis of our fate, and thus associated her name
with the benevolent and heroic ladies of our land, she will
ever be peculiarly dear.
38 SMINBfiTT WOMEN OT TlaB AGX«
LYDIA MARIA CHILD.
BY T. W. HIGGINSON,
To those of U3 who are by twenty years or more the juniors
of Mi's. Child 9 she presents herself rather as an object of love
than of cool criticism, even if we have rarely met her face
to face. In our earliest recollections she comes before us
less as author or philanthropist than as some kindly and
omnipresent aunt, beloved forever by the heart of childhood,
— some one gifted with all lore, and furnished with un-
fetthomable resources, — some one discoursing equal delight
to all members of the household. In those days she seemed
to supply a sufficient literature for any family through her
own unaided pen. Thence came novels for the parlor,
cookery-books for the kitchen, and the ** Juvenile Mis-
cellany " for the nuvpery. In later years the intellectual pro-
vision still continued. We learned, from her anti-slavery
writings, where to find our duties; from her ** Letters from
New York,'* where to seek our purest pleasures; while her
"Progress of Beligious Ideas ^ introduced us to those pro-
founder truths on which pleasures and duties alike rest. It
is needless to debate whether she has done the greatest or
most permanent work in any especial department of litera-
ture, she has done work so valuable in many. She has
shown memorable independence in repeatedly leaving beaten
paths to strike out for herself new literary directions, and
has combined the authorship of more than thirty books and
LYDIA MARIA CHILD. 39
pamphlets with a singular devotion both to public and private
philanthropies, and with almost too exacting a faithfulness to
the^ humblest domestic duties. Sero in ccelum. May it be
long before her full and final eulogy is written ; but mean-
while it would bo wrong to attempt oven a sketch of her
career without letting sympathy and love retain a large share
in the service.
Lydia Maria Francis was born at Medford, Mass., Febru-
ary 11th, 1802. Her ancestor, Richard Francis, came from
England in 1636, and settled in Cambridge, where his tomb-
stone may still be seen in the burial-ground. Her paternal
grandfather, a weaver by trade, was in the Concord fight,
and is said to have killed five of the enemy. Her father.
Con vers Francis, was a baker, first in West Cambridge,
then in Medford, where he first introduced what are still
called " Medford crackers.'* He was a man of strong char-
acter and great industry. Though without much cultivation,
he had uncommon love of reading ; and his anti-slavery con-
victions were peculiarly zealous, and must have influenced
his children's later career. He married Susannah Rand, of
whom it is only recorded that **she had a simple, loving
heart, and a spirit busy in doing good."
They had six children, of whom Lydia Maria was the
youngest, and Convers the next in age. Convers Francis
was afterwards eminent among the most advanced thinkers
and scholars of the Unitarian body, at a time when it
probably suipassed all other American denominations in the
intellectual culture of its clergy. He had less ideality than
his sister, less enthusiasm, and far less moral counige ; but
he surpassed most of his profession in all these traits. He
was Theodore Parker's first learned friend, and directed his
studies in preparation for the theological school. Long
after, Mr. Parker used still to head certain pages of his
journal, •'Questions to ask Dr. Francis." The modest
4:0 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
•* study ^ at Watertown was a favorite bead-quarters of what
were called ^ the trauscendentalists " of those days. Emerson,
Margaret Fuller, Ripley, and the rest came often thithej:, in
the days when the ^ Dial " was just emancipating American
thought from old-world traditions. Afterwards, when Dr.
FranciB was appointed to the rather responsible and con-
servative post of professor in the Cambridge Theological
School, he still remained faithful to the spirit of those days,
never repressing free inquiry, but always rejoicing to en-
courage it. He was a man of rare attainments in a variety
of directions, and though his great reading gave a desultory
habit to his. mind, and his thinking was not quite in pro-
portion to his receptive power, he still was a most valuable
instructor, as he was a most delightful friend. In face and
figure he resembled the pictures of Martin Luther, and his
habits and ways always seemed to mo like those of some
genial German professor. With the utmost frugality in
other respects, he spent money almost profusely on books,
and his library — part of which he bequeathed to Harvard
College — was to me the most attractive I have ever seen, — »
more so than even Theodore Parker's. His sister had un- .
doubtedly the superior mind of the two; but he who in-
fluenced others so much must have influenced her still more.
^ A dear good sister has she been to me ; would that I had
been half as good a brother to her I ^ This he wrote, in self-
depreciation, long after. While he was fitting for college,
a process which took but one year, she was his favorite com-
panion, though more than six years younger. They read
together, and she was constantly bringing him Milton and
Shakespeare to explain. He sometimes mystified her, — as
brothers will, in dealing with maidens ninA years old, — and
once told her that ^ the raven down of darkness," which was
made to smile, was but the fur of a black cat that sparkled
when stroked; though it still perplexed her smiU brain.
LTDIA MABIA CHILD. 41
why far should be called down. This bit of leviiy from tho
future Professor of Theology I find in the excellent sketch
of Dr. Francis, by Rev. John Weiss, his successor, — a little
book which gives a good impression of the atmosphere in
which the brother and sister were reared.
Their earliest teacher was a maiden lady, named Elizabeth
Francis, — but not a relative, — and known universally as
** Ma^am Betty." She is described ad ** a spinster of supernat-
ural shyness, the never-forgotten calamity of whose life was
that Dr. Brooks once saw her drinking water from the nose
of her tea-kettle." She kept school in her bedroom ; it was
never tidy, and she chewed a great deal of tobacco ; but the
cbildren were fond of her, and always carried her a Sunday
dinner. Such simple kindnesses went forth often from that
thrifty home. Mrs. Child once told me that always, on the
night before Thanksgiving, all the humble friends of the
household, — ** Ma'am Betty," the washerwoman, the berry-
woman, the wood-sawj'cr, the joumeymcn-bakers, and so
on, — some twenty or thirty in all, were summoned to a pre-
liminary entertainment. They there partook of an immense
chicken-pie, pumpkin-pies (made in milk-pans), and heaps
of doughnuts. They feastecl«in the large old-foshioued kitch-
en, and went away loaded with crackers and bread by the
father, and with pies by the mother, not forgetting " turn-
overs" for their children. Such plain applications of the
doctrine " It is more blessed to give than to receive " may
have done more to mould the Lydia Maria Child of maturer
years than all the faithful labors of good Dr. Osgood, to
whom she and her brother used to repeat the Westminster
Assembljr's Catecliism once a month.
Apart from her brother's companionship the young girl
had, as usual, a very unequal share of educational opportu-
nities ; attending only the public schools, with one year at
the private seminary of Miss Swan, in Medford. Her mother
42 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AQE.
died in 1814, after which the family removed for a time to
the State of Maine. In 1819, Con vers Francis was ordained
oyer the First Parish in Watertown, and there occurred in
his study, in 1824, an incident which was to determine the
whole life of his sister.
Dr. J. G. Palfrey had written in the ** North American
Review" for April, 1821, a review of the now forgotten poem
of ^ Yamoyden,'* in which he ably pointed out the use that
might be made of early American history for the purposes
of fictitious writing. Miss Francis read this article, at her
brother's house, one summer Sunday noon. Before attending
the afternoon service, she wrote the first chapter of a novel.
It was soon finished, and was published that year, — a thin
volume of two hundred pages, without her name, under the
title of " Hobomok ; a Tale of Early Times. By an American."
In judging of this little book, it is to be remembered that
it appeared in the very dawn of American literature. Ir-
ving had printed only his '* Sketch Book " and " Bracebridge
Hall;" Cooper only "Precaution," ** The Spy," ''The Pio-
neers," and " Th^ Pilot ; " Miss Sedgwick only " The New
England Tale," and possibly " Redwood." This new product
tion was the hasty work of a young woman of twenty-two,
inspired by these few examples. When one thinks how little
an American author finds in the influences around him, even
now, to chasten his style or keep him up to any high literary
standard, it is plain how very little she could then have found.
Accordingly ^ Hobomok " seems very crude in execution, very
improbable in plot, and is redeemed only by a certain ear-
nestness which carries the reader along, and by a sincere at-
tempt after local coloring. It is an Indian "Enoch Arden,"
with important modifications, which unfortunately all tend
away from probability. Instead of the original lover who
heroically yields his place, it is to him that the place is given
up. The hero of this self-sacrifice is an Indian, a man of
XTDIA MABIA CHILD. 43
nigh and noble character, whose wife the heroine had con-*
sented to become, when almost stunned with the false tidinsrs
of her lover's death. The least artistic things in the book
are these sudden nuptials, and the equally sudden resolution
of Hobomok to abandon his wife and child on the reappear-
ance of the original betrothed. As the first work whose scene
was laid in Puritan days, '* Hobomok'* will always have a
historic interest ; but it must be read in very early youth to
give it any other attraction.
The success of this first effort was at any rate such as to
encourage the publication of a second tale in the following
year. This was ^ The Rebels ; or, Boston before the Revolu-
tion. Ey the author of Hobomok." It was a great advance
on its predecessor, with more vigor, more variety, more pic-
turesque grouping, and more animation of stylo. The his-
torical point was well chosen, and the series of public and
private events well combined, with something of that ten-
dency to the over-tragic which is common with young authors,
— it is so much easier to kill off superfluous characters than
to do anything else with them. It compared not unfavorably
with Cooper's revolutionary novels, and had in one respect a
remarkable success. It contained an imaginary sermon by
Whitefield and an imaginary speech by James Otis. Both of
these were soon transplanted into ^School Readers" and
books of declamation, and the latter, at least, soon passed for
a piece of genuine revolutionary eloquence. I remember
learning it by heart, under that impression, and was really
astonished, on recently reading " The Rebels " for the first
time, to discover that the high-sounding periods which I had
always attributed to Otis were really to be found in a young
lady's romance.
This book has a motto from Bryant, and is ** most respect-
fully inscribed " to George Ticknor. The closing paragraph
states with some terseness the author's modest anxieties : —
44 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.'
"Many will complain that I have dwelt too much on politi-
cal scenes, familiar to every one who reads our history ; and
others, on the contrary, will say that the character of the
book is quite too tranquil for its title. I might mention many
doubts and fears still more important ; but I prefer silently to
trust this humble volume to that futurity which no one can
foresee and every one can read.**
'The fears must soon have seemed useless, for the young
novelist soon became almost a fashionable lion. She was an
American Fanny Barney, with rather reduced copies of Burke
and Johnson around her. Her personal qualities soon ce-
mented some fi'iendships, which lasted her life long, ex-
cept where her later anti-slavery action interfered. She
opened a private school in Watertown, which lasted from
1825 to 1828. She established, in 1827, the "Juvenile Mis-
cellany," that delightful pioneer among children's magazines
in America ; and it was continued for eight years. In Oc-
tober, 1828, she was married to David Lee Child, a lawj^er
of Boston.
In those days it seemed to be held necessary for American
women to work their passage into literature by first compiling
a cookerj^-book. They must be perfect in that preliminary
requisite before they could proceed to advanced standing. It
was not quite as in MarvelFs satire on Holland, " Invent a shovel
and be a magistrate," but, Give us our dinner and then, il
you please, what is called the intellectual feast. Any career
you choose, let it only begin from the kitchen. As Charlotte
Hawes has since written, ** First this steak and then that
stake." So Mrs. Child published in 1829 her " Frugal House-
wife," a book which proved so popular that in 1836 it had
reached its twentieth edition, and in 1855 its thii'ty-third.
The " Frugal Housewife " now lies before me, after thirty
years of abstinence from its appetizing pages. The words
seem as familiar as when we children used to study them be-
LTDIA MABIA CHILD. 45
Eide fhc kitchen fire, poring over them as if their very
descriptions had power to allay an unquenchcd appetite or
prolong the delights of one satiated. There were the ani-
mals in the frontispiece, sternly divided by a dissecting-kuife
of printer's ink, into sections whose culinary names seemed
as complicated as those of surgical science, — chump and
spring, sirloin and sperib, — for I faithfully follow the origi-
nal spelling. There we read with profound acquiescence that
** hard gingerbread is good to have in the family," but de-
murred at the reason given, "it keeps so well.'* It never
kept well in ours ! There we all learned that one should bo
governed in cookery by higher considerations than mere
worldly vanity, knowing that *' many people buy the upper
pai-t of the sparcrib of pork, thinking it the most genteel ;
but the lower part is more sweet and juicy, and there is more
meat in proportion to the bone."
Going beyond mere carnal desires, we read also the whole-
some directions ** to those who are not ashamed of economy."
We were informed that ^ childi'cn could early learn to take
care of their own clothes," — a responsibility at which we shud-
dered ; and also that it was a good thing for children to pick
blackberries, — in which we heartily concurred. There, too,
we were tjiught to pick up twine and paper, to write on the
backs of old letters, like paper-sparing Pope, and if we had
a dollar a day, which seemed a wild supposition, to live on
seventy-five cents. We all read, too, with interest, the hints
on the polishing of furniture and the education of daughters,
and got our first glimpses of political economy from the
" Reasons for Hard Times." So varied and comprehensive
was the good sense of the book that it surely would have
seemed to our childish minds infallible, but for one fatal ad-
mission, which through life I have recalled with dismay, —
the assertion, namely, that " economical people will seldom use
preserves." " They are unhealthy, expensive, and useless to
46 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
those who are well." This was a sumptuary law, against
which the soul of youth revolted. Beally the line of ascet*
icism must be drawn somewhere. If preserves were to be
voted extravagant, economy had lost its charms ; let us imme-
diately become spendthrifts, and have a short life and a merry
one.
The wise counsels thus conveyed in this more-than-cookery-
book may naturally have led the way to a "Mother's Book,"
of more direct exhortation. This was published in 1831, and
bad a great success, reaching its eighth American edition iv
1845, besides twelve English editions and a German transla-
tion. Probably it is now out of print, but one may still find
at the bookstores the •* Girl's Own Book," published during
tlie same year. This is a capital manual of indoor games,
and is worth owning by any one who has a houseful of chil-
dren, or is liable to serve as a Lord of Misrule at Christmas
parties. It is ijlustrated with vignettes by that wayward
child of genius, Francis Graeter, a German, whom Mrs. Child
afterwards described in the "Letters from New York." He
was a personal friend of hers, and his pencil is also traceable
in some of her later books. Indeed the drollest games which
he has delineated in the " Girl's Own Book " are not so amus-
ing as the unintentional comedy of his attempt at a " Ladies'
Sewing Circle," which illustrates American life in the " His-
tory of Woman." The fair laborers sit about a small round
table, with a smirk of mistimed levity on their faces, and one
feels an irresistible impulse to insert in their very curly hair
the twisted papers employed in the game of " Genteel lady,
always genteel," in the " Girl's Own Book."
The "History of Woman" appeared in 1832, as one of a
series projected by Carter & Hendee, of which Mrs. Child
was to be the editor, but which was interrupted at the fifth
volume by the failure of the publishers. She compiled for
this the "Biographies of Good Wives," the "Memoirs" of
LTDIA MARIA CHILD. 47
Madame De Stael and Madame Roland, those of Lady Rus-
sell and Madame Guion, and the two volumes of " Woman."
All these aimed at a popular, not a profound, treatment. She
was, perhaps, too good a compiler, showing in such work the
traits of her brother's mind, and carefully excluding all thoso
airy flights and bold speculations which afterwards seemed
her favorite element. The "History of Woman," for instance,
was a mere assemblage of facts, beginning and ending abruptly,
and with no glimpse of any leading thought or general phi-
lofiophy. It was, however, the first American storehouse of
information upon that whole question, and no doubt helped
the agitation along. Its author evidently looked with distrust,
however, on that rising movement for the equality of the
sexes, of which Frances Wright was then the rather formida«
ble leader.
The •* Biographies of Good Wives'* reached a fifth edition
in the course of time, as did the "History of Woman." I
have a vague, childish recollection of her next book, "The
Coronal," published in 1833, which was of rather a fugitive
description. The same year brought her to one of those bold
steps which made successive eras in her literary life, the pub-
lication of her "Appeal for that Class of Americans called
Africana."
The name was rather cumbrous, like all attempts to include
an epigram in a title-page, — but the theme and the word
" Appeal " were enough. It was under the form of an " Ap-
peal " that the colored man, Alexander Walker, had thrown
a firebrand into Southern society which had been followed by
Nat Turner's insurrection ; and now a literary lady, amid the
cultivated circles of Boston, dared also to " appeal." Only
two years before (1831) Garrison had begun the "Libera-
tor," and only two years later (1835) he was destined to be
dragged through Boston streeets, with a rope round his neck,
by " gentlemen of property and standing," as the newspapers
48 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AdE.
said uext day. It was just at the most daogerons moment of
the rising storm that Mrs. Child appealed.
Miss Martineau in her article, ** The Martyr Age in Amer*
lea,'* — published in the "London and Westminster Review**
in 1839, and at once reprinted in America, — gives by far the
most graphic picture yet drawn of that perilous time. She
describes Mrs. Child as " a lady of whom society was exceed-
ingly proud before she published her Appeal, and to whom
\ / society has been extremely contemptuous ever since." She
adds : " Her works were bought with avidity before, but fell
into sudden oblivion as soon as she had done a greater deed
than writing any of them."
It is evident that this result was not unexpected, for the
preface to the book explicitly recognizes the probable dissat-
isfaction of the public. She says : —
** I am fully aware of the unpopularity of the task I have
undertaken ; but though I expect ridicule and censure, I can-
not fear them. A few years hence, the opinion of the world
will be a matter in which I have not even the most transient
interest ; but this book will be abroad on its mission of hu-
manity long after the hand that wrote it is mingling with the
dust. Should it be the means of advancing, even one single
hour, the inevitable progress of truth and justice, I would not
exchange the consciousness for all Rothschild's wealth, or Sir
Walter's fame."
These words have in them a genuine ring ; and the book
is really worthy of them. In looking over its pages, after the
lapse of thirty years, it seems incredible that it should have
drawn upon her such hostility. The tone is calm and strong,
the treatment systematic, the points well put, the statements
well guarded. The successive chapters treat of the history
of slavery, its comparative aspect in different ages and na-
LTDIA MARIA CHILP. 49
tions, its influence on politics, the profitableness of emanci-
pation, the evils of the colonization scheme, the intellect
of negroes, their morals, the feeling against them, and the
duties of the community in their behalf. As it was the first
anti-slavery work ever printed in America in book form, so
I have always thought it the ablest ; that is, it covered the
whole ground better tjian any other. I know that, on reading
it for the* first time, nearly ten years after its first appearance,
it had more formative influence on my mind, in that direction,
than any other, although of course the eloquence of public
meetings was a more exciting stimulus. It never surprised
me to hear that even Dr. Channing attributed a part of his ^
own anti-slavery awakening to this admirable book. He took
pains to seek out its author immediately on its appearance,
and there is in his biography an interesting account of the
meeting. His own work on slavery did not appear until 1835.
Undaunted and perhaps stimulated by opposition, Mrs.
Child followed up her self-appointed task. During the next
year she published the " Oasis," a sort of anti-slavery annual,
the precursor of Mrs. Chapman's "Liberty Bell," of later
years. She also published, about this time, an "Anti-slavery ^i
Catechism," and a small book called "Authentic Anecdotes
of American Slavery." These I have never seen, but find
them advertised on the cover of a third pamphlet, which, with
them, went to a second edition in 1839. *'The Evils of Sla-
very and the Cure of Slavery ; the first proved by the opin-
ions of Southerners themselves, the last shown by historical
evidence.** This is a compact and sensible little work.
While thus seemingly absorbed in reformatory work she
still kept an outlet in the direction of pure literature, and was
employed for several years on her "Philothea," which ap-
peared in 1833. The scene of this novel was laid in ancient
Greece. It appeared with her name on the title-page, was
inscribed to her brother, and the copyright was taken out
50 SMINENT WOMEN 07 THE AQE.
«
by Park Benjamin, a literary friend residing in New York.
The preface to the book has so much the character of auto-
biography, that it must be inserted without abridgment.
*' This volume is purely romance ; and most readers will
consider it romance of the wildest kind. A few kindred
spirits, prone to people space 'with life and mystical pre-
dominance,* will perceive a light within the Grecian Temple.
^ For such I have written it. To minds of different mould,
who may think an apology necessary for what they wijl deem
so utterly useless, I have nothing better to offer than the
simple fact that I found delight in doing it.
" The work has been four or five years in its progress ; for
the practical tendencies of the age, and particularly of the
country in which I lived, have so continually forced me into
the actual, that my mind has seldom obtained freedom to rise
into the ideal.
** The hope of extended usefulness has hitherto induced a
strong effort to throw myself into the spirit of the times ;
which is prone to neglect beautiful and fragrant flowers, unless
their roots answer for vegetables, and their leaves for herbs.
But there have been seasons when my soul felt restless in this
bondage, — like the Pegasus, of German fable, chained to a
plodding ox, and offered in the market ; and as that rash
steed when he caught a glimpse of the far blue sky, snapped
the chain that bound him, spread his wings, and left the earth
beneath him, — so I, for awhile, bid adieu to the substantial
fields of utility, to float on the clouds of romance.
" The state of mind produced by the alternation of thoughts,
in their nature so opposite, was oddly pictured by the follow-
ing dream, which came before me in my sleep, with all the
distinctness of reality, soon after I began to write this work.
•*I dreamed that I arose early in the morning and went into
my garden, eager to see if the crocus had yet ventured to
LTBIA HABIA CHILD. 51
peep above tire ground. To my astonishment, that little
spot, which, the day before, had worn the dreary aspect of
winter, was now filled with flowers of every form and hue.
With enthusiastic joy I clapped my hands, and called aloud
to my husband to come and view the wonders of the garden.
He came ; and we passed from flower to flower, admiring
their marvellous beauty. Then, with a sudden bound, I said,
*Now come and see the sunshine on the water !*
" We passed to the side of the house $ where the full sea pre-
sented itself in all the radiance of the morning. And as we
looked, lo, there appeared a multitude of boats with sails like
the wings of butterflies, which now opened wide and re-
posed on the sur&ce of the water ; and now closed like the
motions of weary insects in July ; and ever as they moved,
the gorgeous colors glittered in the sunshine.
** I exclaimed, * These must have come from fairyland!'
As I spoke, suddenly we saw among the boats, a multitude
of statues, that seemed to be endowed with life ; some large
and majestic, some of beautiful feminine proportions, and an
almost infinite variety of lovely little cherubs. Some were
diving, some floating, and some undulating on the surface of
the sea ; and ever as they rose up, the water-drops glittered
like gems on the pure white marble.
" We could find no words to express our rapture while
gazing on a scene thus clothed with the beauty of other
worlds. As we stood absorbed in the intensity of delight, I
heard a noise behind me, and, tiurning round, saw an old
woman with a checked apron, who made an awkward cour-
tesy, and said, * Ma'am, I can't aSbrd to let you have that
brisket for eight pence a pound.'
** When I related this dream to my husband, ho smiled and
said, * The first part of it was dreamed by Philotheai the last,
by the Frugal Housewife/ **
52 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
I well rememBer the admiration with which this romance
was hailed ; and for me personally it was one of those de-
lights of boyhood which the criticism of maturity cannot dis-
turb. What mattered it if she brought Anaxagoras and
Plato on the stage together, whereas in truth the one died
about the year when the other was bom? What mattered it
if in her book the classic themes were treated in a romantic
spirit? That is the fate of almost all such attempts ; compare
for instance the choruses of Swinburne's " Atalanta," which
might have been written on the banks of the Bhine, and very
likely were. But childhood never wishes to discriminate,
only to combine ; a period of life which likes to sugar its
bread-and-butter prefers also to have its classic and romantic
in one.
"Philothea" was Mrs. Child's first attempt to return, with her
anti-slavery cross still upon her, into the ranks of literature.
Mrs. S. J. Hale, who, in her '^Woman's Record," reproves
her sister writer for " wasting her soul's wealth " in this radi-
calism, and " doing incalculable injury to humanity," seems
to take a stem satisfaction in the fact that "the bitter feelings
engendered by the sti-ife have prevented the merits of this
remarkable book from being appreciated as they deserve."
This was perhaps trae ; nevertheless it went through three
editions, and Mrs. Child, still keeping up the full circle of
her labors, printed nothing but a rather short-lived ^* Family
Nurse" (in 1837) before entering the anti-slavery arena
again.
In 1841, Mr. and Mrs. Child were engaged by the Ameri-
can Anti-slavery Society to edit the ** Anti-slavery Standard,"
a weekly newspaper then and now published in New York.
Mr. Child's health being impaired, his wife undertook the
task alone, and conducted the newspaper in that manner for
two years, after which she aided her husband in the work,
remaining there for eight years in all. She was very success-
ITDIA MABIA CHILD. 53
iiil as an editor, her management being brave and efficient,
while her cultivated taste made the *' Standard" attractive to
many who were not attracted by the plainer fare of the '' Lib-
erator.'* The good judgment shown in her poetical and
literary selections was always acknowledged with especial
gratitude by those who read the " Standard " at that time.
During all this period she was a member of the family of the
well-known Quaker philanthropist, Isaac T. Hopper, whose
biographer she afterwards became. This must have been the
most important and satisfactory time in Mrs. Child's whole
life. She was placed where her sympathetic nature found
abundant outlet, and plenty of co-operation. Dwelling in a
home where disinterestedness and noble labor were as daily
breath, she had great opj)ortunities. There was no mere
almsgiving there, no mere secretiiryship of benevolent socie-
ties ; but sin and sorrow must be brought home to the fireside
and to the heart ; the fugitive slave, the drunkard, the out-
cast woman, must be the chosen guest of the abode, — must
be taken and held and loved into reformation or hope. Since
the stem tragedy of city life began, it has seen no more effi-
cient organization for relief, than when dear old Isaac Hop-
per and Mrs. Child took up their abode beneath one roof in
New York.
For a time she did no regular work in the cause of perma-
nent literature, — though she edited an anti-slavery Almanac
m 1843, — but she found an opening for her best eloquence
in writing letters to the " Boston Courier,*' then under the
charge of Joseph T. Buckingham. This was the series of
"Letters from New York" that afterwards became famous.
They were the precursors of that modern school of newspaper
correspondence, in which women have so large a share, and
which has something of the charm of women's private letters,
— a style of writing where description preponderates over
9rgument, and statistics make way for fancy and enthusiasm.
51 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
Many have 8in(ie followed in this path, and perhaps Mra.
Child's letters would not now be hailed as they then were.
Others may have equalled her, but she gave us a new sensa-
tion, and that epoch was perhaps the climax even of her
purely literary career.
Their tone also did much to promote the tendency, which
was showing itself in those days, towards a fresh inquiry into
the foundations of social science. The ** Brook Farm *' ex-
periment was then at its height ; and though she did not call
herself an " Associationist," yet she quoted Fourier and Swe-
denborg, and other authors who were thought to mean mis-
chief; and her highest rhapsodies about poetry and music
were apt to end in some fervent appeal for some increase of
harmony in daily life. She seemed always to be talking
radicalism in a greenhouse ; and there were many good peo-
ple who held her all the more dangerous for her perfumes.
There were young men and maidens, also, who looked to her
as a teacher, and were influenced for life, perhaps, by what
she wrote. I knew, for instance, a young lawyer, just enter-
ing on the practice of his profession under the most flattering
auspices, who withdrew from the courts forever, — wisely or
unwisely, — because Mrs. Child's book had taught him to
hate their contests and their injustice.
It was not long after this that James Russell Lowdl, in his
^ Fable for Critics," — that strange me*dley of true wit and
feeling intermingled with sketches of celebrities that are for-
gotten, and of personal hostilities that ought to be, — gave
himself up to one impulse of pure poetry in describing Mrs.
Child. It is by so many degrees the most charming sketch
ever made of her, that the best part of it must be inserted
hero.
" There comes Philothea, her ftice aU aglow,
She has Just been dividing some poor creature's woe,
LTDIA MABIA CHILD. 65
Aiid can't tell which pleases her most, to relieve
His want, or his story to hear and believe ;
• • . • • • • •
« The pole, science tells as, the magnet controls.
Bat she is a magnet to emigrant Poles,
And folks with a mission that nobody knows
Throng thickly aboat her, as bees roand a rose ;
She can fill np the carets in such, make their scope
Converge to some focus of rational hope.
And with sympathies fresh as the morning, their gall
Can transmate into honey, — but this is not all;
Not only for these she has solace, oh, say.
Vice's desperate nursling adrift in Broadway,
Who cliugest with all that is left of thee human
To the last slender spar from the wreck of the woman.
Hast thou not found one shore where those tired drooping fbet
Could reach firm mother earth, one fhll heart on whose beat
The soothed head in silence reposing could hear
The chimes of far childhood throb thick on the ear?
Ah, there's many a beam from the fountain of day
That to reach as unclouded, most pass on its way,
Through the soul of a woman, and hers is wide ope
To the influence of Heaven as the blue eyes of Hope ;
Yes, a great soul is hers, one that dares to go in
To the pri*ion, the slave-hut, the alleys of sin,
And to bring into each, or to find there, some line
Of the never completely out-trampled divine;
If her heart at high floods swamps her brain now and then,
"Tis but richer for that when the tide ebbs again.
As after old Kile has subsided, his plain
Overflows with a second broad deluge of grain;
What a wealth would it bring to the narrow and ^our,
Could they be as a Child but for one little hoar ! "
The two series of ** Letters" appeared in 1843 and 1845,
and went through seven or more editions. They were fol-
lowed in 1846 by a collection of Tales, mostly reprinted,
entitled "Fact and Fiction." The book was dedicated to
"Anna Loring, the child of my heart," and was a series of
powerful and well-told narratives, some purely ideal, but
' mostly based upon the sins of great cities, especially those
of man against woman. She might have sought more joyous
V
56 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
themes, but non^ which at that time lay so near her heart.
There was more sunshine in her next literary task, for, ia
1852, she collected three small volumes of her stories from
the " Juvenile Miscellany," and elsewhere, under the title of
*• Flowers for Children."
In 1853 she published her next book, entitled *' Isaac T.
Hopper ; a True Life." This gave another new sensation to the
public, for her books never seemed to repeat each other, and
belonged to almost as many different departments as there
were volumes. The critics complained that this memoir
was a little fragmentary, a series of interesting stories with-
out sufficient method or unity of conception. Perhaps it
would have been hai-d to make it otherwise. Certainly, as
the book stands, it seems like the department of "Benev-
olence" in the "Percy Anecdotes," and serves as an encyclo-
paedia of daring and noble charities.
Her next book was the most arduous intellectual labor of
her life, and, as often happens in such cases, the least profit-
able in the way of money. "The Progress of Religious
Ideas through successive Ages " was published in three large
volumes, in 1855. She had begun it long before, in New
York, with the aid of the Mercantile Library and the Com-
mercial Library, then the best in the city. It was finished
in Wayland, with the aid of her brother's store of books, and
with his and Theodore Parker's counsel as to her course of
reading. It seems, from the preface, that more than eight
years elapsed between the planning and the printing, and for
six years it was her main pursuit. For this great labor she
had absolutely no pecuniary reward ; the book paid its
expenses and nothing more. It is now out of print, and not
easy to obtain.
This disappointment was no doubt due partly to the fact
that the book set itself in decided opposition, unequivocal*
though gentle, to the prevailing religious impressions of the
LYDIA MARIA CHILD. 57
community. It may have been, also, that it was too learned
for a popular book, aud too popular for a learned one.
Learning, indeed, she distinctly disavowed. "If readers
complain of want of profoundness, they may perchance bo
willing to accept simplicity and clearness in exchange for
depth." "Doubtless a learned person would have performed
the task far better, in many respects ; but, on some accounts,
my want of learning is an advantage. Thoughts do not
range so freely^ when the store-room of the brain is over-
loiuled with furniture." And she gives at the end, with her
usual frankness, a list of works consulted, all being in Eng-
lish, except seven, which are in French. It was a bold thing
to base a history of religious ideas on such books as Enfield's
Philosophy and Taylor's Plato. The trouble was not so much
that the learning was second-hand, — for such is most learn-
ing,— as that the authorities were second-rate. The stream
could hardly go higher than its source ; and a book based on
such very inadequate researches could hardly bo accepted,
even when tried by that very accommodating standard,
Americdn scholarship.
Apart from this, the plan and spirit of the work deserve
much praise. It is perhaps the best attempt in our
language to bring together in a popular form, or indeed in
any form, the religious symbols and utterances of different
ages, pointing out their analogies and treating all with
respect. Recognizing all religions as expressions of one
universal and ennobling instinct, it was impossible that sho
should not give dissatisfaction to many sincere minds ; had it
been possible to avoid this, she would have succeeded. Not
only is there no iiTCverence, but the author is of almost too
sympathetic a nature to be called even a rationalist. The
candor is perfect, and if she has apparently no prejudice in
favor of the Christian religion, sho has certainly what is rare
among polemics who tend in her direction, — no prejudice
58 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
against it. Sho takes pains — some readers would say
exaggerated pains — to point out its superiority to all
others.
In 1857, Mrs. Child published a volume entitled ** Au-
tumnal Leaves ; Tales and Sketches in Prose and Khjme."
It might seem from this title that she regarded her career of
action as drawing to a close. If so, she was soon undeceived,
and the attack of Captain John Brown upon Harper's Ferry
aroused her, like many others, from a dream of peace.
Immediately on the arrest of Captain Brown she wrote
him a brief letter, asking permission to go and nurse him, as
ho was wounded and among enemies, and as his wife was
supposed to be beyond immediate reach. This letter she
enclosed in one to Governor Wise. She then went home
and packed her trunk, with her husband's full api^roval, but
decided not to go until she heard from Captain Brown, not
knowing what his precise wishes might be. She had heard
that he had expressed a wish to have the aid of some lawyer
not identified with the anti-slavery movement, and she
thought he was entitled to the same considerations of policy
in regard to a nurse. Meantime Mrs. Brown was sent for,
and promptly arrived ; while Captain Brown wrote Mi's.
Child one of his plain and characteristic letters, declining her
offer, and asking her kind aid for his family, which was
faithfully given.
But with his letter came one from Governor Wise, —
courteous, but rather diplomatic, — and containing some re-
proof of her expressions of sympathy for the prisoner. To
this she wrote an answer, well-worded, and quite effective,
which, to her great surprise, soon appeared in the*' New York
Tribune." She wrote to the editor (Nov. 10, 1859) : "I was
much surprised to see my correspondence with Governor
Wise published in your columns. As I have never given
LTDIA MABIA CHILD. 59
t
any person a copy, I presume you must have obtained it
from Virginia."
This correspondence soon led to another. Mrs. M. J. C.
Mason, wrote from ** Alto, King George's County, Virginia,''
a formidable demonstration, beginning thus: ^*Do you read
your Bible, Mrs. Child? If you do, read there, * Woe unto
you hypocrites,' and take to yourself, with twofold damna-
tion, that terrible sentence; for, rest assured, in the day of
judgment, it shall be more tolerable for those thus scathed
by the awful denunciations of the Son of God than for you."
This startling commencement — of which it must be calmly
asserted that it comes very near swearing, for a lady — leads
to something like bathos at the end, where Mrs. Mason adds
in conclusion, **no Southerner ought, after your lettera to
Governor Wise, to read a line of your composition, or to
touch a magazine which bears your name in its list of con-
tributors." To begin with doubly-dyed future torments, and
come gradually to the climax of ** Stop my paper," admits of
no other explanation than that Mrs. Mason had dabbled in
literature herself, and knew how to pierce the soul of a sister
in the trade.
But the great excitement of that period, and the general
loss of temper that prevailed, may plead a little in vindica-
tion of Mrs. Mason's vehemence, and must certainly enhance
the dignity of Mrs. Child's reply. It is one of the best
things she ever wrote. She refuses to dwell on the in-
vectives of her assailant, and only ^ wishes her well, both in
this world and the next." Nor will she even debate the
specific case of John Brown, whose body was in charge of
the courts, and his reputation sure to be in charge of pos-
terity. " Men, however great they may be," she says, ''are
of small consequence in comparison with principles, and the
principle for which John Brown died is the question at issue
between us."
60 EMINENT WOMEN 07 THE AGE.
t
She accordingly proceeds to discass this question, first
scriptural ly (folio wiug the lead of her assailant) , then on gen-
eral principles ; and gives one of her usual clear summaries
of the whole argument. Now that the excitements of the
hour have passed, the spirit of her whole statement must
claim just praise. The series of letters was published in
#
pamphlet form in I860, and secured a wider circulation than
anything she ever wrote, embracing some three hundred
thousand copies. In return she received many private letters
from the slave States, mostly anonymous, and often grossly
insulting.
Having gained so good a hearing, she followed up her
opportunity. During the same year she printed two small
tracts, *'The Patriarchal Institution," and "The Duty of Dis-
obedience to the Fugitive Slave Law ; " and then one of her
most elaborate compilations, entitled ^ The Eight Way the
Safe Way, proved by Emancipation in the British West
Indies and elsewhere.** This shows the same systematic and
thorough habit of mind with its predecessors ; and this busi-
ness-like way of dealing with facts is hard to reconcile with
the dreamy and almost uncontrolled idealism which she else-
where shows. In action, too, she has usually shown the same
practical thoroughness, and in case of this very book, for-
warded copies at her own expense to fifteen hundred persons
in the slave States.
In 1864 she published "Looking towards Sunset,** — a very
agreeable collection of prose and verse, by various authors,
all bearing upon the aspects of old age. This was another
of those new directions of literary activity with which she so
often surprised her friends. The next year brought still an-
other in the " Freedmen's Book," — a collection of short tales
and sketches suited to the mental condition of the Southern
freedmeu, and published for their benefit. It was sold for
that purpose at cost (sixty cents), and a good many copies
LTDIA MABIA CHILD. 61
are still being distributed through teachers and missiona-
ries.
Her latest publication , and perhaps (if one might venture
to guess) her favorite among the whole series , appeared in
1867,— ''A Bomance of the Eepublic." It was received
with great cordiality, and is iu some respects her best ficti-
tious work. The scenes are laid chiefly at the Sooth, where
she has given the local coloring in a way really remarkable
for one who never visited that region, — while the results of
slavery are painted with the thorough knowledge of one who
had devoted a lifetime to their study. The leading charac-
ters are of that type which is now becoming rather common
in fiction, because American society affords none whose
situation is so dramatic, — young quadroons educated to a
high grade of culture, and sold as slaves after all. All the
scenes are handled in a broad spirit of humanity, and betray
no trace of that subtle sentiment of caste which runs through
and through some novels written ostensibly to oppose caste.
The characterization is good, and the events interesting and
vigorously handled. The defect of the book is a common
one, — too large a framework, too mapy vertebrae to the plot.
Even the established climax of a wedding is a safer experi-
ment than to prolong the history into the second generation,
as here. The first two-thirds of the story would have been
more effective without the conclusion. But it will 'always
possess value as one of the few really able delineations of
slavery in fiction, and the author may well look back with
pride on this final offering at that altar of liberty where so
much of her life had been already laid.
I have now enumerated all of Mrs. Child's writings, bo far
as I can ascertain them, — some having been attributed to her
which she did not write, — and have mentioned such of her
public acts as are inseparable from her literary career. Be-
yond this it is not now right to go. It is now nearly twenty
62 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE. '
years since she left not only the busy world of New York,
but almost the world of society, and took up her*abode (after
a short residence at West Newton), in the house bequeathed
to her by her father, at Wayland, Massachusetts. In that
quiet village she and her husband have peacefully dwelt,
avoiding even friendship's intrusions. Into the privacy of
that home I have no right to enter. Times of peace have no
historians, and the later career of Mrs. Child has had few of
what the world calls events. Her domestic labors, her stud-
ies, her jSowers, and her few guests keep her ever busy. She
has no children of her own, — though, as some one has said,
a great many of other people's, — but more than one whom
she has befriended has dwelt with her since her retirement,
and she comes forth sometimes to find new beneficiaries.
But for many of her kindnesses she needs not to leave home,
since they are given in the form least to be expected from a
literary woman, — that of pecuniary bounty. If those who
labor for the freedmen, in especial, were to testify, they could
prove that few households in the country have contributed on
a scale so very liberal, in proportion to their means. During
the war this munifio^ce was still farther enhanced in the
direction of the soldiers. But it is not yet time for the left
hand to know what these right hands have done, and I for-
bear.
One published letter, however, may serve As a sample of
many. It was addressed to the last Antinslavery Festival at
Boston, and not only shows the mode of action adopted by
Mr. and Mi's. Child, but their latest opinions as to public
affairs : —
«* Wayland, Jan. Ist, 1868.
"Dear Fbiend Phillips : — ^We enclose |50 as our subscrip-
tion to the Anti-slavery Society. If our means equalled our
wishes, wo would send a sum as large as the legacy Francis
Jackson intended for that purpose, and of which the society
LTDIA MAHIA CHILD. Qi
was deprived, as we think, by an unjust legal decision. If
our sensible and judicious friend could speak to us from the
other side of Jordan, we doubt not he would say that the
vigilance of the Anti-slavery Society was never more needed
than at the present crisis, and that, consequently, he was
never more disposed to aid it liberally.
** Of course the rancorous pride and prejudice of this coun- .
try cannot be cured by any short process, not even by lessons
BO sternly impressive as those of our recent bloody conflict.
There is cause for great thankfulness that * war Abolitionists'
were driven to perform so important a part in the great pro-
g^mme of Providence ; but their recognition of human broth-
erhood is rarely of a kind to be trusted in emei^cncies. In
most cases, it is not * skin deep.' Those who were Aboli-
tionists in the teeth of popular opposition are the only ones
who really made the case of the colored people their own;
therefore they are the ones least likely to be hoodwinked by
sophistry and false pretences now.
*• To us the present crisis of the country seems more dan-
greous than that of '61. The insidiousness of oppressors is
always more to be dreaded than their open violence. There
can be no reasonable doubt that a murderous feeling toward
the colored people prevails extensively at the South ; and we
are far from feeling very sure that a large party could not bo
rallied at the North in favor of restoring slavery. We have
no idea that it ever ca7i be restored ; but if we would avert
the horrors of another war, more dreadful than the last, we
must rouse up and keep awake a public sentiment that will
compel politicians to do their duty. This we consider the
appropriate and all-important work of the old Anti-slavery
Society.
" The British Anti-slavery Society deserted their post too
soon. If they had been as watchful to protect the freed peo-
ple of the West Indies as they were zealous to emancipate
6i EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
them, that horrid catastrophe in Jamaica might have been
avoided. The state of things in those islands warns us how
dangerous it is to trust those who have been slaveholders,
and those who Labitually sympathize with slaveholders, to
frame laws and regulations for liberated slaves. As well
might wolves be trusted to guard a sheepfold,
'* We thank God, friend Phillips, that you are preserved and
strengthened to be a wakeful sentinel on the watch-tower,
ever ready to warn a drowsy nation against selfish, timid
politicians, and dawdling legislators, who manifest no trust
either in God or the people.
'^ Yours faithfuUy,
** David L, Child,
'^L, Maria Child.'*
This is all of Mrs. Child's biography that can now be writ-
ten ; and it is far more than her sensitive nature — shrinking
from publicity even when she brings it on herself — would
approve. She is one of those prominent instances in our lit-
erature, of persons born for the pursuits of pure intellect,
whose intellects were yet balanced by their hearts, and both
absorbed in the great moral agitations of the age. " My
natural inclinations," she once wrote to me, " drew me much
more strongly towards literature and the arts than towards
reform, and the weight of conscience was needed to turn the
scale." She has doubtless gained in earnestness far more
than she has lost in popularity, in wealth, or even in artistic
culture ; the first two losses count for little, and the last may
not be due to her advocacy of reforms alone, but to the crude
condition, as respects even literary art, which yet marks us
all. In a community of artists, she would have belonged to
that class, for she had that instinct in her soul. But she was
placed where there was as yet no exacting literary standard ;
she wrote better than most of her contemporaries, and well
I.TDIA MABIA CHILD. 65
enough for her public. She did not, therefore, win that intel-
lectoal immortality which only the very best writers command,
and which few Americans have attained. But she w on a meed
wfaidi she would value more highly, -i-that warmth of syui-
pathy, that mingled gratitude of intellect and heart which
men give to those who have faithfully served their day and
generation. No rural retirement can hide her from the prayers
of those who were ready to perish, when they first knew her ;
and the love of those whose lives she has enriched from child-
hood will follow her finding eyes as they look towards sunset,
and, after her departxng, will keep her memoiy green.
5
66 XKINSNT WOMSS OV THB AGB.
FANNY FERN-MRS. PARTON
■•o*-
BT OEACE GBEENWOOD.
Saba Patson Willis, daughter of Nathaniel and San
Willis, was bom in Portland, Maine, in midsummer of the
year of our Lord 1811. In that fine old town, in that fine old
State, where as she says, ^ the timber and the human beings
are sound,'' she spent the first six years of her life. During
those years, our country passed through a troublous time,
— a supplementary grapple with the old country, — final, let
us hope, and eminently satisfactory in its results, to one party
at least. But it is not probable that the shock and tumult of
war seriously disturbed the little Sara, sphered apart from its
encounters, sieges, conflagrations, and unnatural griefs, in the
fairy realm of a happy childhood. Whether we made a cow-
ardly surrender at Detroit, or incarnadined Lake Erie with
British blood, — whether we conquered at Chippewa, or re-
hearsed Bull Run at Bladensburg, — whether our enemy
burned the Capitol at Washington, or was soundly thrashed
at New Orleans, — it was all the same to her. However the
heart of the noble mother may have been pained by the ti-ag-
cdies, privations and mournings of that time, it brooded over
the little baby-life in sheltering peace and love ; — as the robin,
when her nest rocks in the tempest, shields her unfledged
darlings with jealous care.
I have a theory, flanked by whole columns of biographical
history, that no man or woman of genius was ever bom ol
an inferior, or common-place woman. The mother of Na«
thaniel, Richard, and Sara Willis was a large-brained, as well
as great-hearted woman. The beautiful tributes of her poet-
aon made all the w;orld aware of her most lovable qualities
— her faithful, maternal tenderness and broad, sweet charitr|r;
but to these were added rare mental power and character of
lingular nobility and weight.
From a private letter, addressed by the subject of this
biographical sketch to a friend, in answer to some questions
concerning this noble mother, I am pennitted to take the fol-
lowing touching tribute : " All iny brother's poetry, all the
capability for wriiing which I possess — be it little, or much —
came from her. She had correspondence with many clergy*
men of the time and others, and, had she lived at this day,
would have been a writer worthy of mention. In those days
women had nine children — her number and stifled their souls
under baskets of stockings to mend and aprons to make. She
made every one who came near her better and happier for
having seen her. She had a heart as wide as the world, and
charity to match. Oh, the times I have thrown my arms
wildly about me and sobbed * Mother I' till it seemed shoi
mtist come ! I shall never be * weaned,' never I She under-
stood me. Even now, I tcant her, every day and hour.
Blessed be eternity and inmxoiiality I That is what my
mother was to me. God bless her ! ^
In 1817 Mr. Willis removed to Boston, where he for many
yearsi edited the "Recorder," a religious journal, and '^The
Youth's Companion," a juvenile paper, of blessed memory.
In Boston, Sara spent the remainder of her childhood ; and a
grand old town it is to be reared in, notwithstanding the east
wind, its crooked, cow-path streets, and general promiscu-
ousness, — notwithstanding its exceeding self-satisfisiction, its
sociid frigidity, its critical narrowness and its contagious
isms; among the most undesirable of which count conven^
68 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
tionalism and dilcttanteism ; and it is an admirable town to
emigrate from, because of these notwithstandings.
The stern Puritan traditions and social prejudices of the
place seem not to have entered very strougly into the charac-
ter of Sara Willis. She probably chased butterflies on Bos-
ton Common, or picked wild strawberries (if they grew there)
on Bunker Hill, without much musing on the grand and
heroic associations of those places. She doubtless tripped by
Faneuil Hall occasionally, without doing honor to it, as the
august cradle of liberty. She must have been an eminently
happy and meny child ; indulging in her own glad fancies
in the bright present, with little reverence for the past, or
apprehension for the future, — much given to mischief and
mad little pranks of fun and adventure.
Sara was educated at Hartford, in the far-famed Seminary
of Miss Catharine Beecher. At that time, Harriet Beecher,
Mrs. Stowe, was a teacher in this school. She was amiable
and endearing in her ways, and was recognized as a decidedly
clever young lady, with a vein of quiet humor, a sleepy sort
of wit, that woke up and flashed out when least expected ;
but of a careless, unpractical turn of mind. She was not
thought by any means the equal in mental power and weight
of her elder sister, whose character was full of manly energy,
who was a clear thinker, an excellent theologian, a good, great,
high-hearted woman, with a strong will and remarkable exec-
utive abilities. Of all his children, Dr. Beecher is said to
have most highly respected Catharine.
Sara Willis must here have laid an excellent foundation for
successful authorship, though probably nothing was farther
from her thoughts at the time than such a profession. It
would have seemed too quiet and thought-compelling a career
for her, with her heart as full of frolic as a lark's breast is of
singing.* There are yet traditions in that staid old town of
Hartford, of her merry school-girl escapades, her ^ tricks and
PANNY PERN— MRS. FARTOK. 69
her manners,'' that draw forth as hearty laughter as the witty
sallies, humorous fancies, and sharp strokes of satire thatgive
to her writings their peculiar sparkle and dash.
If she grappled with the exact sciences it is not probable
Hiat they suffered much in the encounter. For Geometry she
is said to have had an eppccial and inveterate dislike. In-
deed, her teacher, Mrs. Stowe, still tells a story of her hav-
ing torn out the leaves of her Euclid to curl her hair with.
So BJie laid herself down to mathematical dreams, her fair
head bristling with acute angles, in parallelogrammatic and par-
alellopipedonic papiUoteSj — in short, with more Geometry
outside than in. A novel way of getting over ** the dunce
bridge," by taking that distasteful Fifth Proposition not only
inwardly, but as an outward application ; so that it might have
read thus : ^ The angles at the base of an isosceles triangle
are equal to one another ; and if the equal sides be produced
in curl papers, the angles on the other side of the 08 fronlis
are also equal."
But in the laughing, high-spirited girl there must have ex-
isted unsuspected by those about her, almost unsuspected by
herself, the courage and energy, the tenderness, the laige
sympathy, the reverence for the divine and the human, which
love and sorrow, the trials and stress of misfortune, were to
evolve from her nature, and which her genius was to reveal.
A seer that might have perceived towering above the ringleted
head of her absent-minded young teacher, a dark attendant
spirit, benignant, but mournful, — poor, grand, oldworld-
bewept, polyglotted Uncle Tom, — might also have seen in
the few shadowy recesses of her young pupil's sunny char-
acter, the germs of those graceful " Fern Leaves " that were
to bring to the literature of the people new vigor and ver-
dure, the odors of woodlands, and exceeding pleasant pic-
tures of nature.
Ifrmust have been while Sara was at school in Hartfordi
70 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGBi
that her brother Nathaniel began to be famous as a poet. In
that unlikely place, Yale College, he seems to havo had a
period of religious enthusiasm, or sentiment, and his scrip-
tural poems were the result. They have always continued to
be his most popular productions, but they are far from being
his best. They are Scripture diluted, though diluted with
rose-water. The young school-girl must have had a sister's
pride in this handsome, brilliant brother, in the golden dawn
of his fame. And here, let one whom he once befriended
add this slight tribute to the poet's memory : What though
his life did not wholly fulfil the promise of its fair morning ?
It was a life marked by many a generous act, though beset by
more than ordinary temptations to utter worldliness and ego-
tism, — a life that gladdened with its best thoughts and most
brilliant fancies lives less fortunate, and yet perhaps less sad.
His genius delighted us long; for his faults, who, standing
over his grave, feels true and earnest and blameless enough
to sternly condemn him ?
Miss Willis, soon after leaving school, married Mr. El-
dridge, of Boston, and for several years lived in ease and
comfort, and, what was &r better, in domestic happiness.
Three daughters were bom to her, and the wondrous experi-
tace of mofberhood must have come to her to exalt, yet sub-
due the passionate impulses and the undisciplined forces of
her nature. Doubtless life with the new gladness, put on
new solemnity; with tlie new riches, must have come hn-
mility.
Love had done much for Sara Eldridge, maternity more ;
but she needed yet another heavenly teacher and helper, —
one no less benignant than they, but stem of aspect, myste-
rious, relentless, — Death. He descended on that happy little
household, **the angel with the amaranthine wreath," and the
husband and father ^ was not." Again he descended and
bore away the first bom, — a lovely, spiritual little girl,* who
PANNT FEBK— MBS. PABTON. 71
in numbering over her bright, blameless years, could only
say, ^ Seven times one are seven."
Then came a weary beating out against the heavy sea of
sorrow, of that dismantled pleasure-boat of a life, with one
poor, grieving, inexperienced soul at the oars, and still such
a precious freight of helpless love and childish dependence I
Behind was the lee-shore of despair ; beneath cold, bitter,
merciless want, and very faintly in the horizon shone the
fiur, firm land.
It is not for me to paint the cruel anxieties and perplexities
of the widowed mother, — of a proud, independent woman,
who could not ask for the help, withheld with what seemed
to her unnatural indifference. The experience doubtless in-
fused into a nature generous and frank, but strongly passion-
ate in both its loves and resentments, an element of defiant,
almost* fierce, bitterness and hate, which c^iused it to be con-
demned by some whose good opinion would have been worth
the gaining, and applauded by others whose praise brought
no honor. But such an infusion of deadly night-shade juice
as misanthropy and estrangement from friends once held
most dear, could not long poison a mental organization so
healthy as hers ; it had a quick, fiery run through her blood,
struck, once or twice, with deadly effect, and was gone.
It must be that her clear reasonable mind, seeing the swift,
stem flight of the unrecallable days,' must soon have felt that
** Life is too short for such things as these," as poor Douglas
Jerrold said,, when extending his hand to a friend from whom
he had been for some time separated by a misunderstanding,
— **an estrangement for which," said that noble friend, Charles
Dickens, with generous tenderness, "/was the one to blame."
In 1851 ** Fanny Fern" was bom into literary life. As;
essay was penned by the widowed mother, on whose heart
lay a great burden of loving care. That care was her inspi-
latign, her desperate hope. Her muses were a couple of
72 EMINENT WOMEN OP THE AGE.
> •
curly-haired little maidens, in short frocks, who, in that gay
unconsciousness of young girlhood, so charming, yet so exas-
perating, called innocently for new frocks, cloaks, and hats,
kid gloves, slippers, ribbons, and French candles. So an
essay was penned, — a little essay it was, I believe, measured
. by paragraphs and lines, but it was in reality ^ big with the
fate " of Fanny and her girls. It was a venture quite as im-
portant to its author as was the first ^ Boz " sketch to Charles
Dickens, or as was ** Jane Eyre " to Charlotte Bronte. After
a patient trial and many rebuffs, she found, in a great city, an
editor enterprising, or charitable, enough^ to publish this es-
say, and to pay for it, — for he was a just man, who held that
verily ^ the laborer is worthy of his hire,** — ■ to pay for it —
Jifli/ cents/ It is to be hoped this Maecenas found himself
. none the poorer for his liberality at the end of the year.
The essay proved a hit, "a palpable hit," and was- widely
copied and conunented on. It was followed by others, writ>-
ten in the same original, fearless style, which were gladly
received by the public, and a little better paid for by pub-
lishers. A few months more of patient perseverance and
earnest effort in her new field, and Fanny Fern could com-
mand her own price for her labor. Her head was above
water, never again to be submerged, let us trust.
The winds of good fortune scattered those first ^Fem
Leaves " far and wide, till the country was green with them
everywhere. Their peculiar dash and electrical vitality made
for the unknown author thousands of eager, questioning ad-
mirers, and literary curiosity almost mobbed the publication
office from which they emanated. Critics were not wanted,
— oh, not by any means ! — critics who charged the new
story-writer and essayist with eccentricity, flippancy, cyni-
cism, irreverence, masculinity, — with every conceivable sin
of authorship except sentimentality, pbarisaism, and pfosiness.
There was .an unprofessional freedom and fearlessness in her
TANNT TEEN— MRS. PAETON. 73
ctyle that made her very faults acceptable to th&t indefiuilc in-
dividual, "the general reader,'' — an honest easy-going fellow,
who is little inclined to raise fine points in regard to an au-
thor's manner of expression, provided the feeling be all right.
I remember thinking that this bold rival was poaching a
little on my own "merrie " Greenwood preserves ; but as I
watched her cool proceedings, saw how unerring was her
aim, and with what an air of proprietorship she bagged her
g:ime, I declined to prosecute, and went to Europe. When
I returned I found she had the whole domain to herself, and
she has kept it to this day. So mote it be I
A most astonishing instance of literary success was the first
book of '*Fern Leaves," of which no less than seventy thou-
sand copies were sold in this country alone I I would not
seem to detract in the slightest degree from the genius of our
author, — I would not rob her chaplet of one Fern Leaf, —
but I must say she was extremely fortunate in her publisher.
Had she made choice of some aristocratic houses, for in-
stance, her books would have borne the envied Athenian
stamp, but then, regarding copies sold, the reader of this ve-
racious biography would have read for thousands — hundreds.
But Fanny Fern, with her rare business sagacity and practi-
cal good sense, did not choose her publisher as young Toots
chose his tailor, — "Burgess & Co., fash'nablc, but very dear."
Then followed ''Little Ferns, for Fanny's Little Friends,"
— whose names seem to have been Legion, for there were no
less than tliirty-two thousand of these young Fern gatherers.
Then came a "Second Series of Fern Leaves," in number
thirty thousand. Total, — one hundred and thij-ty-two thou-
mndl I write it out carefully, for not having a head for
figures, I am almost sure to make some mistake if I meddle
with them. Moreover, these American Ferns, fresh and odor-
ous with the freedom and spirit of the New World, took
quick root in England, and spread and flourished like the
74 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AOB.
American rhododendron. The mother country took for Brit-
ish home consumption forty-eight thousand copies, and much
good did they do our little cousins, I doubt not.
In 1854 ''Euth Hall" (I had almost said Suth-less Hall)
«
was published. In 1857 "Rose Clarke," — a kindlier bdok.
These are, I believe, the only novels of Fanny Fern. They
were eagerly read, much commented upon, and had, like the
** Leaves," a large sale. They were translated into French
and German.
In 1856 Fanny Fern was married to Mr. James Parton, of
New York ; a man of brilliant, but eminently practical, abil-
ity as a writer. It was a marriage that seemed to the world
to promise, if not happiness of the most romantic type, much
hearty good fellowship, with mutual aid and comfort. Both
were authors whose pi'ovinces bordered on Bq^emia. They
had apparently many tastes and characteristics in common ;
they were both acute, independent thinkers, rather than stu-
dents or philosophers; they were rather special pleaders
than reasoners, — rather wits than logicians. The style of
each writer has decidedly improved of late years ; yet neither
has lost in individuality by this happy consolidation of prov-
inces. Mr. Parton's style has gained much in nerve and
terseness, and even more in polish. Mrs. Paiton's has more
softness than of old, with no less vigor; it shows a surer
grasp on, yet a more delicate handling of, thought ; she does
not startle as frequently as in her first essays, but she oftener
pleases.
Five years ago sorrow came again to this brightened and
prosperous life. It came like a relentless ploughshare, and
every smiling hope and ripe ambition went under for a time.
It came like a volcanic sea-rise on a fair day, sweeping over
the firm land of assured good fortune. A beloved daugh-
ter, a young wife and mother,' died suddenly, leaving an in-
fant child, for whose dear sake that brave soul gathered up all
VANNT PEEN— MRS. PARTON. 75
itfl forces and staggered up, and on. To this young life,
** bought with a price," this frail flower, bom in anguish and
nurtured with tears, Fanny Fern has since devoted herself
with more than a mother's tender solicitude. In this work,
as in household duties, she has been efficiently aided and
supported by her sole remaining daughter.
Mrs. Parton has been frotn the first a most acceptable writer
for children. Her motherhood, a true motherhood of the
heart, has given her the clue to the most mysterious, angel-
guarded labyrinths of a child's soul. She is the faithful in-
terpreter of children, from the poor ** tormented baby," on its
nurse's knee, trotted, and tickled, and rubbed, and smothered,
and physicked, — all the way up through the perils, difficult
ties, and exceeding bitter sorrows of childhood, out of short
frocks and roupdabouts, into the rosy estate of young woman-
hood and the downy-lipped dignity of young manhood.
Having a heart of perennial freshness, full of spontaneous
sympathies and enthusiasms, she never gets so far away from
her own youth that she cannot feel a thrill of kindred delight in
looking on the pleasures of the young, — on their bright, glad,
eager faces. Bulwer says, ** Young girls are very charming
creatures, except when they get- together and fall argiggling."
Now I will venture to say this is just the time when Fanny
Fern likes them best, — unless, indeed, the giggling is ill-
timed, and therefore ill-mannered. In a scene of festal light,
bloom, and music, of glancing and dancing young figures,
she would never stand aside in th^ gloom of dark shrubbery,
hard and cold and solemnly envious, like the tomb in a cer-
tain landscape of Poussin, bearing the inscription, ^* I also
once lived amid the delights of Arcadia."
Yet, while ready to rejoice in the innocent mirth and ex-
ultant hopes of youth, this true woman can also feel a tender
charity for its follies, and a yearning pity for its errors. No
poor unfortunate in her utmost extremity of shame and mad
76 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
abandonment, need fear from her lips a word of harsh rebuke,
from her eyes a look of lofty scorn or merciless condemna-
tion. But for the heartless wrong-doer, for the betrayer of
an innocent, though ever so foolish, trust, — for the despoiler
of hearts and homes, she has rebukes that scathe like flame,
and scorn that bites like frost.
With a healthy reverence for all truly devout souls, all ear-
nest, humble, practical Christians, — for all things essentially
pure and venerable, — Fanny Fern has an almost fierce ha-
tred of cant, of empty pomp and formalism, assuming the
name of religion. She valiantly takes sides with God's poor
ag!iinst the most powerful and refined pharisaism. She would
evidently rather sit down to worship with the " old salts," in
Father Taylor's Seaman*8 Chapel, than in the most gorgeously
upholstered pew, under the most resplendent stained win-
dows, in the highest high church on Fifth Avenue. Not that
she is wanting in a poet's sensuous delight in bright colors,
rich textures, beautiful, refined faces, grand music and noble
church-architecture, but that in the lives of the poor, color-
less, homely, ungraceful, almost blindly aspiring and devout,
there is something that moves her heart more tenderly and
yet more solemnly. In "the low, sad music of humanity'*
there is something that touches a higher than the poetic sense ;
and to her the humblest Christian soul, simpltj and ignorant,
but trusting and loving, is a grander temple of God than the
Cathedral of Milan, with its wondrous Alp-like peaks of
snowy architecture, sentinelled with sculptured saints.
Another noticeable characteristic of Fanny Fera is her
hearty contempt for all pretensions, affectations, and dainty
sillinesses ; be they social, literary, or artistic. She is emi-
nently a woman *'with no nonsense about her." She detests
shams of all sorts, and sentimentality, French novels and
French phrases. Almost as "fiercely as she hates cant, she
bates snobbery. Hei honest American blood boils at the
PANNT PERN-MRS. PARTON. 77
fdght of a snob, and she never fails soundly to *^ chastise him
with the valor of her tongue." For that unnatuml little mon-
ster, that anomaly and anachronism, an Americ3n flunkey,
even her broadest charity can entertain no hope, either for
here, or hereafter.
Though whole-hearted in her patriotism, Fanny Fern is not
a political bigot. She probably does not aver that she wad
bom in New England at her ^ own particular request ; " she
has found that life is endurable out of Boston ; she would
doubtless admit that it can be borne with Christian philoso-
phy outof Gotham, — even in small provincial towns, in which
the ^ Atlantic Monthly " and ** New York Ledger " are largely
subscribed for. When here, she was enough of a cosmopoli-
tan to praise our great city market, — uttering among some
pleasant things, this rather dubious compliment: "^What
have these Philadelphians done, that they should have such
butter ? *• Done ? — lived virtuously, dear Fanny, — refused to
naturalize the ** Black Crook," or to send prize-fighters to
Congress.
But to return. Not because of the happy accident of her
birth, does Fanny Fern stand gallantly up for our America ;
but because it is what it is, — the hope, the refuge, the sure
rock of defence for the poor and oppressed of all nations, —
their true Ul Jboradoj their promised land.
Mrs. Parton is now, if parish registers, family records, and
biographers do not lie, fifty-seven years old. But time which
has done " its spiriting gently " with the style of the writer,
softening and refining it, cannot have touched the woman
roughly, or drawn very heavy drafts on her energy and vital-
ity ; for they who have seen her within a late period, speak of
her as yet retaining all the spirit and wit of what are called
* a woman's best days," but which were, to her, days of care,
trial, and toil, that would have borne down a heart less brave,
and prostrated an organization less healthftil. She must have
78 EMIKSKT WOMEN OF THE AGS.
had from the first a rare amount of ^ muscular Christianity"
— must have been a conscientious self-care-taker — must have
lived wisely and prudently, - in short, must have kept heiv
self well ^ in hand," or she would have gone down in some of
the ugly ditches, or stuck in some of the hurdles she has
had to leap in this desperate race of a quarter of a century.
Some New York paragraphist tells of haying encountered
her on Broadway, a short time since, — not as usual, walking
with a hurried and haughty tread, the elastic step of an Indian
princess, of the school of Cooper, — but pausing, after a man*
m
ner quite as characteristic, to talk to a lovely baby in its
nurse's arms ; and, our amiable Jenkins relates, her face then
and there shone with the very rapture of admiration and un-
forgotten maternal tenderness, melting through its mask of
belligerent pride and harshness, and in that wonderful trans-
figuring glowisecmed to wear the very look of the time when
it first hung over a little cradle, or nestled down against a
little baby-face, in the happy long ago. . Yet it had looked on
many a dear coffined face since then. *
Fanny Fern has been the subject of many piquant and
amusing anecdotes, some of them, perhaps most of them,
having a foundation in fact, — for she is a person of too much
spirit and character not to have noteworthy things happening
to her and round about her rather frequently. ' Hers is a stir-
ring, breezy life, to which anything like a dead calm is im
possible. She is too swift and well freighted a croft not to
leave a considerable wake behind her. She sails with all her
canvas spread, by a chart of her own, so occasionally dashes-
saucily athwart the bows of steady-going old ships of the
Ime, or right under the guns of a heavy man-of-war. As
an author and woman, she consults neither authority, nor
precedent, fashion, nor policy. As woman and author, she
has always defied and despised that petty personal criticism,
that paltry gossip which is the disgrace of American journal-
ITANNT TEBK-MB8. PABTOIT. 79
16111 ; which insists on discussing Ihe aulhor's or artist's most
private and intimate life, — his domestic relations, his holiest
affections, his most sacred hmnan Weaknesses and virtues,
on unveiling every sanctuary of sorrow, and following a poor
.wounded soul into its last fiistnesses of decent reserve.
Among the most spicy anecdotes of my subject ever set
floating about the country, is one of her having smashed, wkh
her own vengeful hand, the china-set in her room, at the Gir-
ard House in Philadelphia, — because, after honorably report-
ing the accidental breaking of a bowl, she found herself
charged a round sum for the entire toilet-set. This story we
of a fun-loving and justice-loving household, have laughed
over many times ; but, as poor Beatrice Cenci says, ^ We
shall not do it any more ; " for alas, the story isnt true I —
that is, as to the grand dramatic denouement. Wishing to
chronicle only the exact truth in a matter of so much impor-
tance, I addressed to Mrs. Parton a letter of inquiry, and re-
ceived in reply the following succinct statement : —
^ Mr. Parton and I had been stopping at the Girard House,
and just as we were about starting for the cars, I said, * Wait
till I wash my hands.' As I 'did so, the bowl slipped from
my soapy Angers, and was broken. I said, * Report that when
you i)ay the bill, lest the blame should come upon the poor
chambermaid ; ' whereupon, to my intense disgust, the land-
lord charged for the whole toilet-set I Then, in my indigna^
tion, I did say to Mr. Parton, * I have a good mind to send
all the rest of the set flying out of the window I ' His less
impetuous hand staj'^ed me. I assure you it was no virtue
of mine. My blood is quick and warm."
" This frank account spoils an excellent story, and shows us
how meanness. and injustice again went unpunished, after the
manner of this miserable, mismanaged world,which it will take
many a Fanny Fern and much crockery-smashing to SQt I'lght.
80 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
Fourteen years ago Fanny Fern made an engagement with
Mr. Bonner, of the ** New York Ledger," to furnish an arti-
cle every week for his journal, — that giant among liteniry
weeklies, but by no means a weakly giant, of the Picklesou
order, with a "defective circulation," nor even of the style of ♦
the seven league-booter, and freebooter of fairy lore ; but
rather of the type of the Arabian genii, who were anywhere
and everywhere at once.
Fourteen years ago, Fanny Fern made an engagement with
Mr. Bonner, to furnish an article every week for the "Ledger,"
and "thereby hangs a tale," the most wonderful fact in this
veracious biography : Behold I from dial time to this^ she
has never failed one week to produce the stipulated article^ on
timet Think, my reader, what this fact proves ! what habits
of industry, what system, what thoughtfiilness, what business
integrity, what super-woman punctuality, and O Minerva —
Hygeial what health I
Aspasia was, Plato says, the preceptress of Socrates ; she
formed the rhetoric of Pericles, and was said to have com-
posed some of his finest orations ; but she never furnished an
article every week for the " Ledger " for fourteen years.
Hypatia taught mathematics and the Philosophy of Plato,
in the great school of Alexandria, through most learned and
eloquent discourses ; but she never furnished an ailicle foi
the " Ledger " every week for fourteen years.
Elena Lucrezia Comoso Piscopia, — eminently a woman
of letters, — manfully mastered the Greek, Latin, Arabic,
Hebrew, Spanish, and French; wrote astronomii^al and
mathematical dissertations, andreceived a doctor's degree from
the University of Padua; Laura Bassi, Novella d'Andrea,
and Matelda Tambroni were honored with degrees, and filled
professors' chairs in the University of Bologna ; but as fiir
as I have been able to ascertain, by the most careful re-
searches, not one of these learned ladies ever furnished an
PaNNT FEBN — MBS. PARTON. 81
article for the ** Ledger** every week for fourteen years.
Corinna, for her improvisations, was crowned at the Capitol
in Home with the sacred laurel of Petrarch and Tasso ; biit
she never furnished an article eveiy week for the ** Ledger **
for fourteen years.
Miss Bumey, Miss Porter, Mrs. Badcliffe, Miss Austin,
Miss Baillie, Miss Mitford, Miss Landon, Mrs. Hemans, Mrs.
Marsh, Mrs. Gaskell, and the Brontes did themselves and
their sex great honor by their literary labors ; but not one
of them ever furnished an article for the ** Ledger** every
week for fourteen years. Neither Mrs. Lewes nor Mrs*
Stowe could do it, George Sand wouldn't do it, and Heaven
forbid that Miss Braddon should do it !
Why, to the present writer, who is given to undertaking a
good deal more than she can ever accomplish ; who is always
surprised by publication-day ; who postpones eveiy literary
work till the last hour of grace, and then, a little longer ; who
requires so much of self-coaxing and backing, to get into the
traces, after a week or so of freedom and grass, — all this
systematic purpose, this routine, and rigid exactitude, is simply
amazing, — it verges on the marvellous, — it is Ledger-de-
main.
Ah, Fanny, is then your Pegasus always saddled, and bri-
dled, and whinnying in the court? Is the steam always up
in that tug-boat of a busy brain ? Is the wine of your fancy
never on the lees? Are there no house-cleaning days in your
calendar? Don't your country friends ever come to town and
drop in on your golden working-hours ? Are there no auto-
graph-hunters about your doors ? Do not fond mammas
ever send in their babies to deliciously distract you on a
" Ledger " day ? Do your dear five hundred friends always
respect it, and postpone their weddings, musical matinees
and other moiunful occasions ? Does the paper-hanger never
put you to rout ? Do you never have a bout with your sew-
6
82 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AQE/
ing-maclime and get your temper ruffled? Does not that
" wonderful wean,** that darling grandchild, dainty little Effie,
ever have a fit of naughtiness, or whoopmg-cough, or a tum-
ble downstairs, on that day? Don't you ever long, on just
that day, to lie on the sofa and read Thackeray? Ah, do not
wars and influenzas, national crises and kitchen imbroglios,
disappointed hopes and misfitting dresses, an instinctive
rebellion against regulations and resolutions, even of yoiu:
own making, ever interfere with your writing for the Ticdg-
er"? Doubtless you have been tempted, in times of hurry,
or languor, in journey ings and dog-day heats, to break your
agreement ; but an honest fealiy to a generous publisher has
hitherto constrained you to stand by ; and we like you for it.
Other publishers may be ftow, but he is Bonner. So you do
not demean yourself by following the triumphal chariot of his
fortunes (Dexter's trotting wagon) like Zenobia in chains,
— since the chains are of gold.
As a writer of brief essays and slight sketches, Fanny
Fern excels. She seems always to have plenty of small
changq in the way of thoughts and themes. She knows well
how to begin without verbiage, and to end without abrupt-
ness. She starts her game without much beating about the
bush. She seems to measure accurately the subject and the
occasion, and wastes no words, — or, as poor Artemus Ward
used to say, never ''slops over.** As a novelist, she is some-
what open to the charge of exaggeration, and she is not suf-
ficiently impersonal to be always artistic. Her own fortunes,
loves, and hates live again in her creations, — her heroines are
her doubles. As a moralist, she is liable to a sort of unchari-
table charity and benevolent injustice. In her stout cham-
pionship of the poor, of the depressed and toil-worn many,
she seems to harden her heart against the small, but intelli-
gent, rich but respectable, portion of our population, known
as '*Upper-tendom." Can any good thing come out of Fifth
PANNT FERN—MBS. PABTON. 83
•
ATcnue? is the spirit of many of her touching little sketches.
She seems to think that the scriptural comparison of the diffi-
cult passage of the camel through the eye of the needle set-
tled the case of Mr. Crcesus. Her tone is sometimes a little
severe and cynical when treating of the shortcomings of the
world of fashion. It is so easy to criticise from the safe
position of a philosopher or poet; but how many of us
would dare to answer for our Spartan simplicity and modera-
tion, and our Christian charity and benevolence, — virtues
which of course we all nowpossess in abundance, — should for-
tune take a sudden turn, open for us her halls of dazzling light,
provide for us ample changes of purple and fine linen, of the
fiishionable cut, wine and strong drink, and terrapin sup-
pers, chariots, and horses, yachts, opera-boxes, diamonds,
and French bonnets?
Fanny Fern herself regrets that she has not been able to
give more careful study to her writing, — to concentrate here,
and elaborate there, — to be, in short, always the artist. She
has done many things well, — she might have done a few things
surpassingly well. But she has, I doubt not, written out of
an honest heart always, earnestly and fearlessly, — written
tales, sketches, letters, essays spiced with odd fancies, satire,
and humor, — some exquisitely tender and pitiful, some
defiant and belligerent in tone; but none with a doubtful
moral ring about them. She has chosen to feed the multitude
on the plain with simple, wholesome food, rather than to pour
nectar for the Olympians. Her genius is practical and demo-
cratic, and so has served the people well, and received a
generous reward in hearty popular favor. She has probably
not accomplished the highest of which she is capable, but all
that the peculiar exigencies of her life have permitted her to
accomplish. In faithfully doing the work nearest to her hand
she may be consoled by the consciousness that art has been
fihouldcicd aside by duty alone. Speaking of her little
.84 EMINENT WOMEN OP THE AGE.
grand-daugbteT, in a private letter, she says : " Our liide
Effie baa never been left witb a servant, and, altbongh to carry
out sucb a plan has mvolved a eacrifice of mueb literaiy work ,
or its unsatis&ctoiy incompleteneaa, I am not and never ehall
be sorry. She ie my poem."
By tbese thinga we may eee that whatever masks of manly
independence, pride, or mocking miscbief Fanny Fcm may
put on, sbe is, at the core of her nature, "pure womanly."
. I have written this article with little more personal knowl-
edge of Mrs. Parton than I have been able to obtain from
brief biographical sketches, and the recollections and impres-
sions of friends. Not from choice have I so done, ^ter the
manner of the critic, who made it a rule not to read a book ■
before reviewing it, for fear of being " prejudiced ; " but be-
cause I have never been so fortunate as to cross orbits with
my brilliant, but somewhat erratio subject. Her life has
been attempted many times ; indeed, literaiy biographers seem
to be under the impression that " the oftener this wonderful
woman is repeated the better," to quote from the immortal
Toots. May that life have years enough and fame and pros-
perity enough to justify manj other sketches, worthier than
this, before the coming of that
■■ Lut scene of all,
Tbat ends this etrange eventftU Ustorj."
And may that scene come with tender gradations of purple
twilight shades, deepening into a night, star-lit with hope,
and sweet with love — all balm, and rest, and peace; "the
peace of God which paseetli aU understanding."
I.TDIA H. SIQOUBNXT.
85
■1 .
t>*
» t '.
1
'..!'
1
\
i
IiTDIA H. SIOOUBNXT/ 85
LYDIA H. SIGODRNEY.
-•o*-
BY EEV. B. B. HUNTINGTON.
Were any intelligent American citizen now asked to name
the American woman, who, for a quarter of a century before
1855, held a higher place in the respect and affections of the
American people than any other woman of the times had
secured, it can hardly be questioned that the prompt reply
would be, Mks. Ltdia Huntley Sigoubney.
And this would be the answer, not simply on the ground
of her varied and extensive learning ; nor on that of her
acknowledged poetic gifts; nor on that of her voluminous
contributions to our current literature, both in prose and
verse ; but rather, because with these gifts and this success,
she had with singular kindliness of heart made her very life-
work itself a constant source of blessing and joy to others.
Her very goodness had made her great. Her genial good-
will had given her power. Her loving friendliness had mado
herself and her name everywhere a charm. So that, granted
that other women could be named, more gifted in some en-
dowments, more learned in certain branches, and even moro
ably represented in the literature of the times ; still, no one
of them, by universal consent, hud succeeded in winning so
largely the esteem and admiration of her age.
It is of this woman that we need not hesitate to write,
when we would make up our list of the representative women
of our t'mes. She was a woman so rare, we nbed not ^esi-
86 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
tate to claim it, for her native gifts, and still more, so genial
and lovable, in deed and spirit, that her very life seemed a
sort of divine benediction upon our age. And who, more
woithily than she, can represent to us the best and highest
type of cultivated womanhood?
Lydia Howabd Huntley, the only child of Ezekiel and
Sophia (Wentworth) Huntley, was boYn in Norwich, Con-
necticut, Sept. 1, 1791. In her parentage and birthplace we
have no indistinct prophecy of her future life. Their lessons,
wrought into the very texture of her sensitive soul, served as
the good genius of her long and bright career. She could
never forget or deny them. Their precious memory was to
her a perpetual and exceeding joy.
Witness this sweet picture of her early home, drawn by her
own child-hand, yet, even so early, foreshowing the lifelong
brightness of her loving spirit : —
i< -^j gentle kitten at my footstool sings
Her song, monotonous and tuVL of Joy.
Close by my side, my tender mother sits,
Industriously bent — her brow still bright
With beams of llDgering youth, while he, the sire.
The faithful guide, indulgently doth smile."
What but a blessed influence over her could such a home
have had? And we shall not wonder, when, fifty years later,
we find her filial hand sketching, so exquisitely, the ** beam-
ing smile,'* and ^ the love and patience sweet," with which
those dear names were embalmed. Few, very few, have
borne with them through life, so freshly and so lovingly, the
forms and the affections of their home-friends. The impres-
sion they made upon her must have been exceedingly precious
to her heart ; and so her affectionate love kept fiiithful vigil
over these dearest treasures of her memory.
Hardly less forceful than these home-influences, must have
been the beautiful and rpmantic sceneries, and the genial
LYDIA H. SIGOUBNET. 87
social life of her native town. It could but have stuTed and
educated such a soul as hers to have spent her childhood
amid such scenes: —
" Rocks, gray rocks, with their cayems dark«
Leaping rllls, Uke the diamond spark*
Torrent voices, thundering by,
Where the f ride of the vernal floods sweUed high.**
It is her own testimony which reveals to us the power of
these home^harms over her life, — a testimony given, when,
to use her own felicitous figure, she was now "journeying
towards the gates of the West": —
''Yet came there forth from its beauty a silent, secret in-
fluence, moulding the heart to happiness, and love of the
beneficent Creator/'
And still again she records their power : —
'* We have garnered those charms and attractions that bring
A speU o*er our soals when existence was yonng."
So nurtured, we can imderetand the secret of that love for
Norwich and its scenery which she never failed to show to
her latest day. It only needed an invitation to her to revisit
the ^ dear old places " of her childhood, to kindle anew the
fervors of more than her childhood joy : —
*« We accept, we will come, wheresoever we rove,
And wreathe ronnd thy birthday our honor and love.
We love thee, we love thee ; thy smile, like a star,
Hath gleamed in our skies, thoagh our homes were afkr."
Added to the affection of her parents, and to these sweet
charms of her native town, was still another, and a veiy
marked home-influence, which was destined to prove educa-
tional to her. Madame Lathrop, one of the noblest of the
many worthy Norwich matrons of that day, a daughter of
Governor Talcott, of Hartford, and widow of Daniel Lathrop,
88 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
a wealthy and accomplished citizen of Norwich, had made
her own elegant and hospitable home that also of the Huiltley
family. She took great interest in Lydia, and drew strongly
to her own the heart of the sensitive girl. And did she not,
in the daily communing of their souls, leave somewhat of her
own noble spirit of self-denial and rich charity as fruitfid
seed in that j'oung heart? What other proof do we need
than tha'' wbich comes from the oft-repeated testimony of the
child herself, even down to her latest years ? Let her sketch
for us, in her own sweet way, the record of this blessed influ-
ence over her character and life : —
"A fair countenance, a clear blue eye, and a voice of music
return to me as I recall the image of that venerated lady over
whom more than threescore and ten years had passed ere I
saw the light. Her tall, graceful form, moving with elastic
step through the parterres whose niunerous flowers she super-
intended, and her brow raised in calm meditation from the
sacred volume she was reading, were to me beautiful. The
sorrowful came to be enlightened by the sunbeam that dwelt
in her spirit, and the children of want to find bread and a
garment. The beauty of the soul was hers that waxeth not
old. Love was in her heart to all whom God had made. At
her grave I learned my first lesson of a bursting grief that
has never been forgotten. Let none say that the aged die
unloved or unmoomed by the young.**
It must have been an influence of great power which such
a character wielded over such a nature ; and we cannot won-
der that, long years after that hallowed intimacy, we find the
grateful child thus recording her remembrance of it: *'The
cream of all my happiness was a loving intercourse with ven-
erable old age." Nor can we deny her the dutiful joy of
dedicating one of her earliest publications, as *^an ofToring
LTDIA H. SIGOUBNET. 89
of gratitude to her whose influence, like a golden thread, had
rufi through the whole woof of my life."
It was under influences like these that her life had its
dawning. Exceedingly sensitive and impressible, she readily
responded to their power. They found her a keen observer,
and a very rapid learner. Her infancy seems to have been
like the later childhood of most girls, and her girlhood wore
the thoughtfulness and reached the attainments of ordinary
womanhood.
The insight into this earliest period of her life, which her
** Letters of Life*' so artlessly give us, is one of the most
curious pages in our autobiographic literature. We have
hei'e, perhaps, tbe most unaffected and childlike prattle
a1>out child-life, in the language of doting old age. Possibly
there may be something excessive in the coloring given to
the whole picture ; but surely we can aflbrd to let the pen of
old age use the freedom which a warm heart, warming anew
amid the scenes and play-placcs of its young life, might dic-
tate. Let the venerated authoress, if in her deep joy she
recalls the events which seemed so important to her young
fimcy, tell the whole story, which once she might have hesi-
tated to do, and which other authors, more careful to prune
their thoughts to the accepted proprieties, would not assur-
edly have done. It certainly cannot harm us to be made, once
in our lives, familiar in letters with the very precocities, if
you will, which are so often seen in bright children, yet
which we do not usually elevate to the dignity of the printed
page.
If she speaks of the little attempts at conversation made in
tbe first year of her life, have we not all heard and been charmed
with hearing the same thing in our own little ones? If she
details even the prattle, and the occasional wise and over-
scholarly sayings or fancies of her third summer among the
flowers, why not give her credit for what, tho*igh perhaps not
90 EMINENT WOMEN OP THE AGE.
very common, is still plainly possible to a child of j;ifts,
especially if she has spent her first three years under the
most helpful of influences? It need not be counted an oflTence
if she tell us over what nobody else will be likely to tell us,
— the whole story of her doll-teaching and training. It is a
pretty picture which that same scene makes when acted in all
of our homes, and why should not its sketch, whether by the
pencil of the artist or the pen of the writer, charm us too ?
But is there not, also, in this the very best of sense ? How
it aids us to understand the woman, to see the little one with
her dolls around her, and hear her begin there her work of
persuasion and authority ! It instructs as well as charms us
to visit the artless child in her ^ spacious garret ; " to note her
curious search among its gathered household treasures; to
^nd her settling herself down like the bee to its flower-food,
as she finds an old hymn-book there ; to see her heaily love
for the *' large black horse," " the red-coat cows,*' ** the crow-
ing, brooding, and peeping poultry," and the ^pliant pussy"
which sat in her lap or sported by her side, and which was
•* as a sister " to her. It will instruct us, where we shall need
light, to roam awhile with the laughing babe and child, "from
garden to garden ; " to run with hor " at full speed through
the alleys;" to recline by her side, "when wearied, in some
shaded recess," or even on the "mow of hay in the lai^ge,
lofty barn," where we can together "watch the quiet cows over
their frasri'ant food ; " and then to sit down with her at the
family table, and taste with her of the bread so sweet, "made
in capacious iron basins." Suppose, in this way, we learn
how early and how regular her meals were ; how uniform and
simple the diet on which she was reared ; and how exact and
respectful and decorous the behavior of that hour. Do not
all of these lessons explain the character which they so cer-
tamly help to form ? And so we may well thank the authoress
of seventy years that she allowed herself to recall, for our
IiTDIA H, SIGOURNET. 91
delight and instruction, those germinal forces of hei favored
childhood.
Let us now follow this child, as she prepares herself for
the life-work before her. At four years of age we find her
in the school nearest to the house of her parents ; and we
only learn of that first school, that its ** spelling-classes" were
the chief delight of the child. Trivial as this fact is, it gives
us no unmeaning hint. Her second teacher, a gentleman,
perhaps the teacher of the winter school, won the child to the
use of the pen, and laid the foundation of that distinct, print-
like chirograpby which was so serviceable to her whole future
career. Next, the teacher of needle-work does her good
service by starting her well in this feminine art, of which she
made later the best of use. And now comes the young
ladies' school, under an English lady of varied accomplish-
ment ; and here she makes a good beginning in music and
painting and embroidery. And here, too, we get valuable
hints, and it would well repay us, had we time, to watch the
child in the beginning of her art-life. It was full of mean-
ing,— that extemporized studio at home, that *^ piece of gam-
boge," that ** fragment of indigo, begged of the washer-
woman," those cofiee-grounds to give the ambered brown, and
those child-experiments, again and again repeated, to secure
desired tints. We may note, too, about this time, how the
literary taste and enthusiasm of the child was aroused. How
life-like was its beginning I She started a story, which the
record does not finish ; for they all said it was too much for
her. She was ''only just eight years old."
Next we find her in the school of a graduate of Dublin,
and here she makes rapid progress in mathematics. Her next
step forward, in the school on the Green, under an educated
and veteran teacher, places her at the head of the reading-
classes. Then, under the training of Mr. Pelatiah Perit, who
became so eminent among the business men of the country.
92 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
she spent another }'ear of successful study. Pursuing still
the English classics and Latin, she finished in her fourteenth
year her school-life at home. Then followed a course of
domestic training in the duties of house-keeping, yet not so
pressingly as to hinder the private study of the Latin. For
the higher ornamental branches she spent parts of two years in
Hartford ; and, with more than ordinary mental activity and
attainment, she takes leave of her school-life. Yet, such
was her thirst for learning, that nothing could hinder her
studies ; and wo find her, with the enthusiasm of a scholar,
devoting her later girlhood to the study of even the original
Hebrew of the Christian Scriptures.
And now begins her career as teacher, — a life which she
seems to have chosen scarcely more for want of something
to do than from love of teaching itself. Her first experiment
had been made in her father's house, and the result confirmed
her purpose to make it her life-work. In her nineteenth
year, in company with Miss Nancy M. Hyde, a very intimate
friend, she opened a select school for girls in Chelsea, now
Norwich City. Her interest in the work was very great, and
her success no less so. We can readily accept her later tes-
timony that she found her daily employment ^ less a toil than
j^rivilege." But, through the influence of Mr. Daniel Wads-
worth, of Hartford, she was induced to establish for herself
a private school for girls in that city ; and, in 1811, she en-
tered upon its duties.
During the five years she remained in this school she won
a twofold reputation. Her success as teacher was well-nigh
unparalleled for the times, and deservingly so; while her
influence over the social circles of the city had become no
less marked. Her influence over her pupils was something
wonderful. They loved her with a love which nothing could
repress ; and their devotion was as true and lasting as their
love. What testimony to the strength of her hold upon
LTDIA H. SIGOURNET. 93
them those annual reunions on their commencement day
furnishes ! Even long years after they had become scattered
over the land, those days were held sacred in their hearts.
And when their little ones began to gather about them, they,
too, were taken to the hallowed place, that on them also
might fall the sweet influence which had so long blessed their
mothers.
But, from the very beginning of her life in Hartford, she
made for herself a place in the confidence and affections of
the people, which every successive year only served to con-
firm. She became, in the just language of as high authority
as the venerable S. G. Goodrich, "the presiding genius of its
young social circle," and she was never called in her long
career to vacate that post of honor.
It was while thus winning her way as teacher that she also
began her public literary life. At the urgent request of her
friend, Mr. Wads worth, she consented to issue her first
volume, entitled, "Pieces in Prose and Verse.** This work
was printed in 1815, at the expense of Mr. Wadsworth.
And the list of subscribers, which was also printed, indicates
thus early the reputation which newspaper publicity had
given her.
But another event soon interrupts her career as teacher.
Charles Sigoumey, a merchant of the city, a gentleman of
wealth and literary culture and high social position, solicits
and wins her hand. Their marriage was celebrated in the
Episcopal church of her native town, in the early summer of
1819. Mr. Sigoumey, of Huguenot descent, was already a
communicant in the Episcopal church ; and, on her marriage,
Mrs. Sigoumey, who, since 1809, had been a devoted Chris-
tian and a member of the Congregational church, felt it to be
her privilege and duty to transfer her membership to t^fe
church to which her husband belonged.
This marriage threw upon Mrs. Sigoumey the care of the
94 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
three children of her husband by a former wife ; and that
care was assumed with a singular devotion to their com-
fort and welfare ; and in this field only did she find room
henceforth for her gifts as teacher. But both her posi-
tion at the head of the first circle in the leading metropolis
of the State, and her means, and the culture of her husband,
conspired to encourage her in the literary field in which she
was now winning such a triumph. Besides the volume printed
in 1815, in 1816 she had publisued her ''Life and Writings
of Nancy Maria Hyde," an interesting tribute to the memory
of her most intimate friend and fellow-teacher ; and during
the year of her marriage appeared, also, ''The Square Table,**
a pamphlet designed as a corrective of what were deemed
the harmful tendencies of "Arthur's Round Table," which
was then exciting considerable attention in the community.
From this date to that of her deatli our record must be
that of an earnest woman, filling up every hour of her day
with its allotted duty, cheerfully and nobly done. Few
women have been so dilisrent workers, few have maintained
such fervency of spirit, and few have, in all their working,
BO faithfully served the Lord.
Her position, that of second wife and step-mother, has not
always been found an easy one to fill ; yet, even with the
temptations which her literary tastes might be supposed to
ofler, she could never be justly reproached for neglecting any
home-duty. Bound to her friends with no ordinary ties of
affection, she lived, first of all, for them. Even her literary
life is most crowded with its witnesses to her home-love, and
indeed was largely its result. She worked, and v/rote, and
prayed, that she might faithfully meet this prime claim upon
her heart and life.
We cannot follow, in detail, this busy and painstaking
career. '"We find her at the head of her household, which at
'times was large, shrieking from no burden or self-denial
LTDIA H. SIGOUBKET. 95
needed in her work, — living to see her two step-daughters
educated and settled in life, and their brother, at the age of
forty-five, consigned to a consumptive's grave ; to educate
her own daughter and son, and then, just on the verge of a
promising manhood, to follow him, too, to his grave ; to care
for both her own parents, until, in a good old age, she might
tenderly hand them down to their last rest ; to follow her
beloved and honored husband to his grave ; to give her own
only daughter away in acceptable marriage ; and then to set-
tle herself down, joyful and trustful yet; in her own home,
vacated indeed of her loved ones, but filled still with precious
mementos of their love, until her own change should come.
These forty-six years, between her marriage and her death,
were mainly spent at her home in Hartford. Her travels
were chiefly those of brief journeys through the Eastern and
Middle States. Once she visited Virginia, and once crossed the
Atlantic, visiting within the year the chief points of attraction
in England, Scotland, and France. The rest of those forty-
six years were most industriously employed in her own loved
home, filled up with domestic duties or with literary and
benevolent work ; and it is safe to say that few women have
ever worked to better account. She won universal respect
and love. The poor and the rich, the ignorant and the edu-
cated, alike found in her that which delighted and charmed
them ; and so she came to occupy a place in their affections
which they accorded to no other.
But, doubtless, it will be as a literary woman that she will
be most widely known. And no estimate of her career
which leaves out of the account the character and value of
her writings can do justice to her memory. Beginning in
1815, and closing with her posthumous •* Letters of Life" in
1866, her published writings numbered fifty-seven volumes.
Besides these, our newspaper and magazine literature must
have furnished nearly as much more. Her correspondence^
96 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
not published, amouDting to nearly one thousand seven hun-
dred letters annually for several years, must have excee^ded
largely these printed writings ; so that she must have beea
one of the most voluminous writers of her age.
We have not space for a critical analysis of her writings.
We would simply indicate their aim and success. Whatever
may be said of their artistic execution, of one thing we are
sure, that their spirit and aim are as noble as ever inspired
human literature ; and the world has already accepted them
as a worthy offering. A sharp critical judgment must agree
with Mrs. Sigourney's own decision, that she wrote too much
for highest success, both in invention and style. But when
we stop to ask why she wrote so much, we shall find our
answer in the very elements of her character, which contrib-
uted most to her eminence. Her first published volume
reveals with great clearness at least these two qualities of the
writer: the strength of her affections, and her equally strong
sense of duty to others. We feel that she wrote what her
kind heart prompted, that she might please or aid those who
seemed to her to have just claims upon her. Instead of
using the precious moments on the mere style of her expres-
sion, she was ever htirrying along on some urgent call of
affection or duty. She could not stop to think of her litera-
ry reputation when some dear friend was pleading at her
heart, or some sorrowing soul needed to be comforted. More
than almost any other writer of the day, she wrote not for
herself, but for others. And it is precisely here that we find
the real key, both to whatever faults of style her writings
may betray, and to the very best success of her life. For,
while she. greatly blessed the multitudes for whom she so
rapidly wrote, wo cannot but notice, also, how in her succes-
sive works, she is gaining both in the force and beauty of her
style.
We see on almost every page of her writings how tender
LTDIA H. SIGOURNEY. 97
her spirit, how sensitive her sympathy was. From the be-
ginning, her affections, sanctified by a Christian purpose, took
the lead. Wc know that it was her greatest*
• " joy to ralBe
The trembler ttom the shade,
To bifid the broken, and to heal
The wounds she never made."
But we must not dwell on these charming witnesses to the
tenderness of her loving heart. It is easy to see that one so
ruled, would not regard the mere style of her expression of
highest value. And yet it would do injustice to Mrs. Sig-
oiirney, to leave out of the account the care and painstaking,
with which she sought to make her writings most effective.
ATc know she must have sought ease and fluency as well as
exactness and vigor of expression. Her writings abound in
wituesses innumerable to these graces. The call made upon
ber pen from the first magazines of the day, and from the
more solid works issuing from our best publishing-houses,
of itself testifies to the great merit even of her style.
No critic can read that beautiful poem on the ^ Death of an
In&nt," commencing with
" Death found strange beauty on that polished brow.
And dashed It oat,"
^thout feeling that none but a true poet, practised in the
»rt, could have written it. We might instance her ** Scottish
Weaver," •'Breakfast," ** Birthday of Longfellow,'* •'My
Stuffed Owl," •* Niagara," and hundreds of other poems, in
*11 of which may be found passages of great beauty and
power. We are sure we cannot afford, these many years,
to let those graceful, and at times exquisite, gems, drop out
of our literature ; nor can we doubt that their author will
continue to rank high even among the poets of her .age.
7
98 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
Without space for repeating the entire list, even of her
poetic works, it is due to our readers to indicate those which
shall best exhibit the merits and the extent of her poetic
writings, and we believe we shall do this by naming the eight
following vohimes, with their dates: —
Her Poems, 1827, pp. 228 ; Zinzendorf, and other Poems,
1835, 2d edition, pp; 300 ; Pocahontas^ and other Poems,
1841, pp. 284 ; London edition, 1841, pp. 348 ; Select Poems,
1842, pp. 324, fourth edition, of which eight thousand copies
had been already sold; Illustrated edition, 1848, pp. 408;
"Western Home, and other Poems, 1854, pp. 360 ; and Glean-
ings, 1860, pp. 264.
Of her prose works we can only indicate that which roost
clearly establishes the writer's rank among our very best prose-
writers of the ago. Her "Past Meridian," given to the world '
in her sixty-fifth year, which has now reached its fourth
edition, is one of our most charming classics. One cannot
I'ead those delightful pages, without gratitude that the gifted
author was spared to give us such a coronal of her useful
authorship. It were easy to collect quite a volume of the
most enthusiastic commendations of this charming work ; but
we must leave it, with the assurance that it gives a new title
to its beloved author to a perpetual fame in English literature.
And what a testimony we also have in the reception our
authoress has received among even our best critics I It cer-
tainly was no mean praise, which Hart, in his selections from
the Female Prose Writers gives us, when he so graphically
and truthfully says of her writings, that they " are more like
the dew than the lightning." Peter Parley pronounced her,
** next to Willis, the most successful and liberal contributor
to the Token." Professor Cleveland, in his Compeud of
English Literature, could not more truthfully have charaoter-
ized her writings than he did, as " pure, lofty, and holy in
tendency and influence." C. W. Everest, in his Connecticut
LTDIA H. SIGOURNET. 90
Poets, only repeats the common judgment in his decision,
"Love and religion are the unvarying elements of her song."
E. P. Whipple, the very Nestor of our critics, was obliged to
bear testimony to the popularity of her works. He speaks
of her facility in versification, and her fluency both in thought
and language ; and only claims, what all critics will easily
allow, that from the very quantity of her writing, she ** hardly
does justice to her real powers."
But we need not pursue our citations of critical approval
iurtber.
We acknowledge the skill with which Mrs. Sigourney used
our flexible English tongue ; but we still more admire, and
would never fail to honor, the deep undertone of "the still,
8ad music of humanity," which hallowed all her song. We
will let her, though unwittingly, while describing the noble
devotion of the pleading Queen Philippa, sketch herself: —
** The advocate of sorrow, and the friend
Of those whom all forsake.**
We cannot but return to this ruling spirit of her life,
equally unaffected and controlling in her girlhood and her
latest years. Her gifts of diairity and love often exceeded the
sllowance of her income which she saved for herself.
What monuments ^he thus built for herself in grateful
hearts I Witness her frequent visits to the Reform School in
Meriden. Those delighted boys cannot soon forget that
beautiful orchard, whose thrifty trees she gave as her bless-
ing to them ; nor that last gift, the generous Easter cake,
which made that festival so joyous to them ; nor, most of all,
that beautiful smile of hers, always so radiant with her hearty
goo8*will and hope. Oh, there was a blessing in that pres-
ence, even for young lives that have been tempted down into
the dark shadows of a premature disgrace !
Or who shall make her presence good to the pupils of the
loo EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
Deaf and Dumb Asylum in her own city, on whose mute joy
her very looks beamed a more eloquent sympathy than our
best words can express? Or when will the poor orphans of
the asylums she so loved to visit forget her tenderness and
love ?
Hear this good woman, even amid the pain and exhaustion
of her last sickness, thoughtful still of the suffering ones who
might miss her timely charity, tenderly asking, morning after
morning, ''Is there any gift for me to send to-day?" More
touchingly still, as you stand over her on the very last night
of her stay on earth, you will hear this faintly, yet clearly
uttered wish of the dying woman, ** I would that I might live
until morning, that I may, with my own hand, do up that
little lace cap for that dear little babe." And so she left us,
with her thought of love still on those whom she was to leave
behind. Blessed departure, that I And did she not find how
true her own sweet verse proved : —
" And thy good-momiDg sliaU be spoke
By sweet-Yoiccd angels, that shall bear thee home
To the dlTlne Bedeemer "?
And how appropriate the ladt lines of the last poem that
she was permitted to write on earth, — the beautiful image
of her soul to leave for us to look on forever : —
^ ** Heaven's peace be with yon all I
Farewell I Farewell ! *•
Saturday morning, June 10, 1866, was the date of her
death. Her funeral was itself a witness to us of all that we
have claimed for her in the city where she lived and died.
Specially fitting was it, that those "children of silence " to
whom she had loved to minister, and those now doubly
orphaned little ones from the asylum, should have their place
in that mourning throng.
LTDIA H. SIGOUBNEY. 101
And after the funeral, when the papers of the city attempted
to sum up the city's loss, it was specially fitting that from the
pen of a neighbor we should have this testimony : **For fifty
years this good lady has blessed our city."
To these abundant witnesses to Mrs. Sigoumcy's noble
goodness, we can only add that of her pei*sonal friend, S. G.
Groodrich, who was, also, extensively acquainted with the
best characters of the generation to which she belonged : ^ No
one whom I know can look back upon a long and earnest
career of such unblemished beneficence.'*
And how can we better close this too brief sketch of this
honored woman, than in the words in which she so well
has announced the imperishable fame of the gifted Mrs*
Hemans : —
" Therefore, we wUl not say
PareweU to thee ; for every nnbom age
8haU mix thee with its household charities.
The sage shall greet thee with his benison.
And woman shrine thee as a vestal flame
In aU the temples of her sanctity;
And the young chUd shaU take thee by the baM
And travel with a sorer step to heaven*"
102 EMINENT WOMEN OB' THB AG!
MRS. FRANCES ANNE EEHBLE.
BT JAMES PABTOK.
Thebe was excitement and expectation among the play*
goera of New York, in the early days of September, 1832.
Stars, new to the firmament of America, were about to ap-
pear,—^a great event in those simple days, when Europe
supplied us with almost all we ever had of public pleasure.
Charles Kemble, brother of Mrs. Siddons the peerless, and of
John Kemble the magnificent, was coming to America, accom-
panied by his daughter, ^'Ff^nny Kemble,** the most brilliant
of the recent acquisitions to the London stage. Charles
Kemble was then an exceedingly stout gentleman, of fifty-
seven, fitter to shine in Falstaff than in Hamlet ; yet such is
the power of genuine talent to overcome the obstacles which
nature herself puts in its way, that he still played with fine
effect some of the lightest and most graceful characters of the
drama. He played Hamlet well, and Benedick better, when
he must have weighed two hundred and fifty pounds ; and
people forgot, in admiring the charm of his manner, and the
noble beauty of his face, that he had passed his prime. His
daughter, at this period, was just twenty-one years of age,
and stood midway in her brief and splendid theatrical career,
which had begun two years before, and was to end two years
after.
The play selected for the first appearance of the young
actress in America was Fazio. The old Park theatre was
HBS. FBANCES AKKE SEM3LE. 103
the placo. It was the evening of Tuesday, September the
18th, 1832. Charles Kemble had appeared the night before
to a crowded house in his favorite part of Hamlet, which he
performed with that, finish and thoroughness charactcristLc of
all the family of the Kembles. On this evening the house
was still more crowded, and the weather was oppressively
warm. At half past six Miss Kemble went to the theatre to
prepare for the ordeal before her. To give time for the audi-
ence to assemble and settle in their seats, the farce of Fop-
ping the Question was first performed. It was a night of
mishaps. When she reached the theatre, she discovered that
the actor (a novice from London) who was to play the prin-
cipal male part in the tragedy of Fazio was so completely
terror-stricken at the prospect before him thai he gasped for
breath, and he excited the pity, even more than the alarm, of
the lady whose performance he was about to mar. She did her
best'to reassure him, but with small success. When they were
about to take their place upon the stage just before the cur-
tain rose, he was in au absolute panic, and appeared to be
choking with mere fright. She hastily brought him some
lemonade to swallow, and was immediately obliged to take
her place with him in the scene.
According to the custom of actresses who play the chief
part in Fazio, she sat with her back to the audience. The
curtain rose. As the back of one young lady bears a striking
resemblance to that of another, and as tiie was dressed with
perfect plainness, the audience did not recognize her, and re-
mained silent. The actor supportitig her, who had calculated
npon the usual noisy reception, and was still in the last extrem-
ity of terror, stood stock still gazing at the heroine, evidently
waiting for the audience to do their part before he began his.
The hint was taken at length, or, probably, some friends of
the lady recognized her, and then the whole assembly clapped
their hands and used their voices, according to the established
104 EMINENT WOMEN OP THE AGE.
custom on such occasions. Her reception, indeed, was in the
highest degree cprdial, — such as New York has ever de-
lighted to bestow upon distinguished talent, from wbateyer
part of the world it may have come.
The play began. The frightened actor broke down in his
second speech. Miss Kemble prompted him, but he was too
completely terrified to understand her, and he spoiled the
situation. This happened so frequently that the great actress
was prevented, not merely from exerting her powers, but
from fixing her mind upon her part at all ; for, what with
prompting her distracted Fazio, and his total obliviousness
of what aetora call ^the business'' of the scene, she became
at length almost as much frightened as he was, and she
thought that her total and ignominious failure was inevitable.
It is a curious thing, however, that a performer upon the
stage may be enduring a martyrdom of this kind, and scarcely
a soul in the audience suspect it. I remember once being
close to the stage when Edwin Booth was playing Hamlet, and
the king was so intoxicated that it was with real difficulty
that he kept himself upright upon his throne, and he had to
be prompted at every other word. Mr. Booth was on the
rack during the whole of the first scene in which he appears,
and kept up a running fire of the most emphatic observations
upon the conduct of his royal uncle. It was with the great-
est difficulty that the scene was carried on ; and yet, I was
informed by persons in front of the house, that they had not
observed anything extraordinary, except that the king was a
very bad actor, which in'^a^ part is as far as possible from
being extraordinary.
And so it was with Miss Kemble. She struggled through
the first two acts with her miserable Fazio. She was rid of
him at the beginning of the third act, and from that time
began to play with freedom and effect. Her success was cora-
olete. Every point of that intense and passionate perform-
MBS. FRAKCES ANNE KEMBLE. 105
ance was heartily applauded, and when the curtain went
down at the close of the fifth act, she was summoned to reap-
pear as vociferously as heart could wish. This was the be-
ginning of a most bi'illiant and successful engagement in New
York. Here, as everywhere, her crowning triumph was in
tlie part of Julia, in Sheridan Knowles' play of the Hunch-
back, a play which was written expressly for her, and in
ivhich she gained her greatest London success. Most of
those telling "points,*' which are repeated by every actress
whenever this play is perfonned, were originated by Miss
Eemblc, and never failed, or can fail, to produce a powerful
effect upon an audience whenever they are respectably
made.
This young lady came rightly by her dramatic talent. Sho
was a member of a family which, for three generations, had
contributed to the English stage its brightest ornaments.
Boger Kemble, the first of the family who is known to fame,
born in 1721, himself an actor and manager, was the father
of twelve children, five of whom embraced his profession and
became eminent in it. His eldest child, Sarah Kemble, mar-
ried at the age of eighteen an actor of a country company,
named Siddons, and became the gi^atest actress that ever
lived. John Philip Kemble, the oldest son of Roger, was
perhaps, upon the whole, the greatest actor of modern times.
George Stephen Kemble, another son of the country manager,
was also an excellent actor, and is now remembered chiefly
for his performance of Falstaff, which he was fat enough to
play without stuffing. Elizabeth Kemble, a sister of Mrs.
Siddons, married an actor named Whitlock, with whom she
came to the United States, where she rose to the first posi-
tion on the stage, and had the honor of performing before
Geuenil Washington and the other great men of that day.
She made a fortune in America, and retired to Eiigland in
1807 to enjoy it. Finally, there was Charles Kemble, the
106 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
youngest child of Bogcr except one, an actor of great note on
the English stage for many years.
It was by no means the intention of Bogcr Kemble that
all his children should pnrsue his own laborious vocation.
On the contrary he was much opposed to their going upon
the stage, and in some instances took particular pains to pre-
vent it. This was the case with Charles, who received an
excellent education, and for whom a place was procured in
the London post-office. But it seemed as natural for a Kem-
ble to act, as it is for an eagle to soar. They all appear to
have possessed just that combination of form, feature, voice,
presence, and temperament, which are fitted to charm and im-
press an audience. Charles Kemble was soon led to try the
stage, upon which he rose gradually to a high, but never to
the highest, position. He was the best light comedian of his
time, and has perhaps never been surpassed in such charac-
ters as Benedick, Fetruchio, Charles Surface, Cassio, Faulcon-
bridge, Edgar, and Marc Antony. He was also an excellent,
though not a great, Hamlet. In due time he married a popu-
lar actress, Miss De Camp, who began her dramatic career
as a member of the ballet troupe of the Italian Opera House
in London. Two daughters were the fruit of this union, —
Frances Anno Kemble, the subject of this memoir, and Ade-
laide Kemble, — both of whom, after a short but striking
career upon the stage, married gentlemen of fortune and
retired to private life.
Six weeks before the evening on which Miss Kemble made
her first appearance in London, neither she nor her parents
had ever thought of her attempting the stage. Charles Kem-
ble was then manager of Co vent Garden Theatre, one of the
two great theatres of London. The plays which ho presented
did not prove attractive; the season threateued to end iu
disaster; and he looked anxiously about him fur the means
of restoring to the theatre its former prestige. His eldest
XSS. FBANCES ANNE KEMBLE. 107
daughter, Frances, was then eighteen years of age. Except
that she had frequently heard her aunt, Mrs. Siddons, read
the plays of Shakespeare, and had lived from her infancy in
a fitmily of actors, she had made no special preparation
for the stage. She inherited, however, that fine presence,
that admirable self-possession, that magnificent and flexible
voice, for which the Kembles were distinguished. It sud-
denly occurred to the family that this brilliant aud saucy
girl, perhaps a little spoiled by parental fondness, might
prove a great actress and save the failing fortunes of the fam-
ily. The experiment was tried. In October, 1829, she
made her first appearance. The play selected for the occa-
Bion was Bomeo and Juliet, in which her fiither played the
part of Romeo, her mother that of the nurse, and herself,
Juliet. Her success was so remarkable, it was so evident
that she possessed in an eminent degree the talent of the
fiunily, that, when the curtain descended at the close of the
erening, she was felt to be, both before and behind the cur-
tam, an established favorite. Her first success was followed
by other triumphs. As Portia, in the Merchant of Venice,
asBianca, in the tragedy of Fazio, as Lady Teazle, in the
School for Scandal, and in other parts of similar calibre, she
flhono without a rival ; since, whatever may have been want-
ing in the artist was amply atoned for, in the public mind, by
the youthful grace and beauty of the woman. The house
was nightly filled to overflowing. Her father was saved from
bankruptcy, and the old popularity of the theatre was fuUy
restored. A play which she had written in her seventeenth
year, entitled Francis the First, was produced, and attained
« certain success. Sheridan Knowles, then at the height of
his renown as a dramatist, and in the full vigor of his powers,
wrote for her his master-piece, the Hunchback, in which her
popularity was almost beyond precedent.
It was after two years of such a life as this, when she was
108 EMINENT WOMEN OT THE AGE.
twenty-one years of age, that her father and herself crossed
the Atlantic to make the usual tour of the American theatres.
New York, as we have seen, gave her a cordial welcome, and
sent her forth to the other cities 'relieved of all anxiety, to
continue a career which was nothing but triumph.
Fortunately for our present purpose, she kept a diary of
this tour, the publication of which, in 1835, was one of the
agreeable literary events of the year. Thirty-five years ago !
The lifetime of but a single generation I And yet, what a
different country does this diaiy reveal to us from the United
States of to-day 1 What a different person, too, was the
dashing, vivacious, and spoiled child of the public of 1832,
from the patient, mature, and lofty character which Mrs.
Kcmble has since attained I
Her diary was amusing when it was published, but it is to-
day a lesson in history. She lived, during her first engage-
ment in New York, at the American Hotel, on the comer of
Barclay Street and Broadway, which was then considered the
most elegant hotel in the city. She gives nevertheless a
sorry account of it : The rooms were ** a mixture of French
finery and Irish disorder and dirt,'' and there was a scarcity,
not only of servants, food, and space, but even of such com-
mon articles as knives and forks. ^ The servants," she adds,
** who were just a quarter as many as the house required, had
no bedrooma allotted to them^ but slept about anywhere in
the public rooms, or on sofas, in drawing-rooms let to private
families. In short, nothing can exceed the want of order,
propriety, and comfort in this establishment, except the enor-
mity of the tribute it levies upon pilgrims and wayfarers
through the land."
To give the reader an idea, at once, of the character of
Miss Kemble's style at the time, and of the startling changes
which time has wrought in the country, I will here transcribe
the accoimt she gives of her first journey from New York to
HBS. EBANCES ANKE KEMBLE. 109
Phfladelphia, which occurred on the 8th of October, 1832.
The steamboat started from the foot of Barclay Street at half-
past six in the morning, which obliged the young lady and
her father to get up long before daylight. This steamboat,
which excited the special wonder of the party from its mag«
nitude and splendor, conyeyed tiiem as far as Perth Amboy.
**At about half-past ten," she continues, ^we reached the
place where we leave the river, to proceed across a part of
the State of New Jersey, to the Delaware. The landing was
beyond measure wretched; the shore shelved down to the
Trater's edge ; and its marshy, clayey, sticky soil, rendered
doubly soft and squashy by the damp weather, was strown
over with broken potsherds, stones, and bricks, by way of
pathway; these, however, presently failed, and some slip-
pery planks, half immersed in mud, were the only roads to
the coaches that stood ready to receive the passengers of the
steamboat. Oh, these coaches I English eye hath not seen,
English ear hath not heard, nor hath it entered into the heart
of Englishmen to conceive, the surpassing clumsiness and
wretchedness of these leathern inconveniences I They are
shaped something like boats, the sides being merely leathern
pieces removable at pleasure, but which in bad weather are ,
buttoned down to protect the inmates from the wet. There
are three seats in this machine; the middle one having a
movable leather strap, by way of a dossier^ which runs be-
tween the carnage doors, and lifts away, to permit the egress
and ingress of the occupants of the other seats. Into the
one facing the horses D and I put ourselves ; presently,
two young ladies occupied the opposite one ; a third lady
and a gentleman of the same party sat in the middle seat, into
which my father's huge bulk was also squeezed; finally,
another man belonging to the same party ensconced himself
between the two young ladies. Thus the two seats were
110 EMINBKT WOMEN OT THE AGK.
filled each witix three persons, and there should by rights have
been a third on ours ; for this nefarious black hole on wheels
is intended to carry nine. However, we profited little l^y the
space ; for, letting alone that there is notreally and truly room
for more than two human beings of common growUi and pro-
portions on each of these seats, the third place was amply
filled up with baskets and packages of ours, and huge ti»-
double-up coats and cloaks of my father's.
•^For the first few minutes I thought I must have famted
from the intolerable sensation of smothering which I experi-
enced. However, the leathers having been removed, and a
little more air obtained, I took heart of grace and resigned
myself to my fate. Away waUoped the four horses, trotting
with their front and galloping with their hind legs ; and away
went we after them, bumping, jumping, thumping, jolting,
shaking, tossing, and tumbling, over the wickedest road, I
do think, the cruekst, heard-heartedest road that ever wheel
rumbled upon. Through bog, and marsh, and ruts, wider
and deeper than any Christian ruts I ever saw, with the roots
of trees protruding across our path, their boughs every now
and then giving us an affectiobate scratch through the win-
dows ; and, more than once, a half-demolished trunk or stump
lying in the middle of the road lifting us up, and letting us
down again, with most awful variations of our poor coach-
body from its natural position. Bones of me I what a road I
Even my father's solid proportions could not keep their level,
but were jerked up to the roof and down again evexy three
minutes.
^ Our companions seenoed nothing dismayed by these won-
drous 'performances of a coach and four, but laughed and
talked incessantly, the young ladies at the very top of their
voices and with the national nasal twang. The conversation
was much of the genteel shopkeeper kind, the wit of the ladies
and the gallantry savoring strongly of tapes and yard me^is-
MBS. FBANCES AKKE EEMBLE. HI
ores, and the shrieks of laughter of the whole set enough to
drive one into- a frenzy. The ladies wore all pretty ; two of
thcin particularly so, with delicate, fair complexions, and
heautiful gray eyes. How I wish they could have held their
tongues for two minutes ! We had not long been in the
coach before one of them complained of being dreadfully
sick. This, in such a place and with seven near neighbors I
Fortunately, she was near the window, and, during our whole
fourteen miles of purgatory, she alternately leaned from it,
ovei-coroe with sickness, then reclined languishingly in the
arms of her next neighbor, and then starting up with amazing
vivacity, joined her voice to the treble duct of her two
pretty companions, with a superiority of shrillness that might
have been the envy and pride of Billingsgate. 'Twas enough
to bother a rookery I
"The country through which we passed was woodland ; flat
and withbut variety, save what it derived from the wondrous
richness and brilliancy of the autumnal foliage. Here, in-
deed, decay is beautiful; and nature appears more gorgeously
clad in this her fading mantle, than in all the summer's flush
of bloom in our less favored climates. I noted several beau«
tiful wild-flowers growing among the underwood, some of
^hich I have seen adorning with great dignity our most cul-
tivated gardens. None of the trees had any size or appear*
auce of age ; they are the second growth, which have sprung
from the soil once possessed b}** a mightier race of vegetables.
The quantity of mere underwood, and the number of huge
black stumps, rising in every direction a foot or two from the
Boil, bear witness to the existence of fine forest timber. The
few cottages and farm-bouses which we passed reminded me
of similar dwellings in France and Ireland ; yet the peasantry
bore have not the same excuse for disorder and dilapidation
as either the Irish or French. The farms had the same de&*
okte, untidy, untended look ; the gates broken, the fencea
112 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
carelessly put up or ill-repaired; the farming utensils slut-
tishly scattered about a littered yard, where the pigs seem to
preside by undisputed right; house-windows broken and
stuffed with paper or clothes ; dishevelled women and bare-
footed, anomalous-looking human young things. None of the
stirring life arid activity which such places present in Englaufl
and Scotland; above all, none of the enchanting mixture of
neatness, order, and rustic elegance and comfoil, which ren-
der so picturesque the surroundings of a farm, and the vari-
ous belongings of agricultural labor in my own dear country.
The fences struck me as peculiar. I never saw any such in
England. They are made of rails of wood placed horizon-
tally, and meeting at obtuse angles, so forming a zigzng wall
of wood, which runs over the country like the herring-bone
seams of a flannel petticoat. At each of the angles, two
slanting stakes, considerably higher than the rest of the
fence were driven into the ground, crossing each other at the
top so as to secure the horizontal rails in their position.
There was every now and then a soft, vivid sti'ip of turf
along the roadside that made me long for a horse. Indeed,
the whole road would have been a delightful ride, and was a
most bitter drive.
" At the end of fourteen miles, we turned into a swampy
field, the whole fourteen coachfuls of us^ and by the help of
heaven, bag and baggage were packed into the coaches that
stood on the railway ready to receive us. The carriages
were not drawn by steam, like those on the Liverpool rail-
way, but by horses, with the mere advantage in speed
afforded by the iron ledges, which, to be sure, compared
with our previous progress through the ruts, was considera-
ble. Our coachful got into the first carriage of the train,
escaping, by way of especial grace, the dust which one's
predecessors occasion. This vehicle had but two seats in the
usual fashion, each of which held four of us. The whole in-
ITBS. PRANCES ANNE EEMBLE. 113
Bido was lined with blazing, scarlet leather, and the windows
shaded with stuff curtains of the same refreshing color ;
which, with full complement of passengers, on a fine, sunny,
American summer's day, must make as pretty a little minia-
ture hell as may be, I should think. The baggage-wagon,
which went before us a little, obstructed the view. The road
was neither pretty nor picturesque, but still fringed on each
side with the many-colored woods, whose rich tints made
variety even in sameness. This railroad is an infinite bless-
ing ; 'tis not yet finished, but shortly will be so, and then
the whole of that horrible fourteen miles will be performed in
comfort and decency in less than half the time.
**In about an hour and a half, we reached the end of our
railroad pait of the journey, and found another steamboat
waiting for us, when we all embarked on the Delaware.
Again, the enormous width of the river, struck me with as-
tonishment and admiration. Such huge bodies of water mark
out the country through which they run as the future abode
of the most extensive commerce and greatest maritime power
in the universe. The banks presented much the same feat-
ures as those of the Baritan, though they were not quite so
flat, and more diversified with scattered dwellings, villages,
and towns. We passed Bristol and Burlington, stopping at
each of them to take up passengers. I sat working, having
fimshed my book, not a little discomfited by the pertinacious
staring of some of my fellow-travellers. One woman in par*
ticular, after wandering round me in every direction, at last
came and sat down opposite me, and literally gazed me out
of countenance.
•* One improvement they have adopted on board these boats
is, to forbid smoking, except in the forepart of the vessel.
I wish they would suggest that if the gentlemen would re-
frain from spitting about, too, it would be highly agreeable to
the female part of the community. The universal practice
3
114: EMINENT WOMEN OIT THE AOB.
here of this disgusting trick makes me absolutely sick ;
every place is made a perfect piggery of, — street, stairs,
steamboat, everywhere, — and behind the scenes, and on the
stage at rehearsal. I have been shocked and annoyed beyond
expression by this horrible custom. To-day, on board the
boat, it was a perfect shower of saliva all the time ; and I
longed to be relieved from my fellowship with these veiy
obnoxious chewers of tobacco. At about four o'clock we
reached Philadelphia, having performed the journey between
that and New York (a distance of a hundred miles) , in less
than ten hours, in spite of bogs, ruts, and all other impedi-
ments. The manager came to look after us and our goods,
and we were presently stowed into a coach which conveyed us
to the Mansion House, the best reputed inn in Philadelphia.**
Such was travelling in the United States, between our two
largest cities, only thirty-five years ago! Such was Miss
Eemble in the twenty-second year of her age I
Some of the incidents of her tour in America were very
amusing. Being exceedingly fond of riding on horseback,
she gave a great impetus to the fashion of ladies' indulging
in that pleasure. Particularly at Philadelphia, there was
great hunting for good saddle-horses, which. Miss Kemble
assures us in her diary, scarcely existed in the country at that
time. A particular cap which she wore when riding was
imitated and sold as "* the Eemble cap." She appears, at that
time, to have had a contempt for the beautiful art which she
m
practised, and by which her family had become so distin-
guished. ** How I do loathe the stage I " she exclaims. ^ These
wretched, tawdry, glittering rags flung over the breathing
forms of ideal loveliness ; these miserable, poor, and pitiful
substitutes for the glories with which poetry has invested her
magnificent and fair creations. What a mass of wretched,
mumming mimicry acting is I Pasteboard and paint, for
HB8. FBANCES ANNE EEMBLE. 115
fhe thick breathing orange-groves of the* south ; green silk
and oiled parchment, for the solemn splendor of her noon of
night ; wooden platforms and canvas curtains, for the solid
marble balciinies and rich dark draperies of Juliet's sleeping
chamber, tliat dirine of love and beauty ; rouge, for the star-
tied life-blood in the cheek of that young passionate woman ;
an actress, a miznicker, a sham creature, me, in fact, or any
other one, for that loveliest and most wonderful conception,
in which all that is true in nature and all that is exquisite in
fency are moulded into a living form 1 To act this I To act
Bomeo and Juliet I Horror ! horror I How I do loathe my
most impotent and unpoetical craft I "
Ah 1 how necessary it is to know precisely in what mood,
and in what circumstances, a passage was written, before we
can tell how far it expresses the author's real and habitual
sentiment. The sentences just quoted signify, chiefly, thai
she had been just playing Juliet to a most awkward and
abominable Romeo. In the last scene of the play, she telb
ns, she was so mad with the mode in which all the other scenes
had been performed, that, lying over Romeo's dead body, and
fumbling for his dagger, which she could not find, she thus
addressed her dead lover : —
•* Why, where the devil is your dagger, Mr. .*•
In truth, she was not a little proud of her honorable and
arduous vocation. She was not insensible to the magic of
that art which enables an audience to forget that they are
looking upon pasteboard and rouge, and to forget, also, that
it is not the veritable Juliet who is moving them to rapture
and to tears. Some of the best passages in Miss Kemble'F
diaiy are subtle disquisitions upon the art of acting.
She liad anotiier mishap with her Romeo at Baltimore.
The play went off pretty well on this occasion, she says in
her humorous way, ^^ except that they broke one num's collar
bone, aijd nearly dislocated a woman's shoulder, by flinging
116 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
the sceneiy about/ She gives the following absurd Account
of the conclusion of the play : —
^^Mj bed was not made in time, and when the scene drew,
half a dozen carpenters, in patched trowsers and tattered
shirt-sleeves, were discovered smoothing down my pillows
and adjusting my draperies. The last scene is too good not
to be given verbatim : —
'< * Borneo. Rise, rise, my Juliet,
And from this care of death, this house of horror,
Quick let me snatch thee to thy Romeo's arms.*
**Here he pounced upon me, plucked me up in his arms like
an uncomfortable bundle, and staggered down the stage with
me.
•* Juliet (aside). Oh, youVe got me up horridly I tfaatU
never do ; let me down, pray let me down t
" * Borneo. There, breathe a vital spirit on thy li]Ni,
And call thee back, my soul, to life and love ! *
** Juliet (aside) . Pray put me down ; youll certainly throw
me down if you don't set me on the ground directly.
^ In the midst of * cruel, cursed fate,' his dagger fell o\it of
his dress ; I, embracing him tenderly, crammed it back again,
because I knew I should want it at the end.
" Borneo, * Tear not our heart-strings thus t
They crack I they break I JuUetlJuliet! QUesy
^Juliet (to corpse). Ami smothering you?
** Corpse (to Juliet). Not at all ; cotild you be so kind, do
you think, as to put my wig on for me? it has fallen off.
** Juliet (to corpse) . Tm a&ald I can't, but Fll throw my
muslin veil over it. You've broken the phial, haven't you?
** ( Corpse nodded) .
KBS. PRANCES ANNE EEMBLE. 117
•'Juliet (to corpse). Where's your dagger?
* Corpse (to Juliet) . Ton my soul, I don*t know.**
It is curious to notice how prompt this young lady, who
sometimes affected such a horror of the stage, was to defend
it when attacked by another. She had a long conversation
once witti Dr. Channing on this subject, who thought that
detached scenes and passages well declaimed could serve as
a good substitute for the stage. The young actress at once
took fire. •'My horror," she says, "was so unutterable at
this proposition, and my amazement so extreme that he should
make it, that I believe my replies were all but incoherent.
What I take one of Shakespeare's plays bit by bit, break it
piecemeal, in order to make recitals of it I Destroy the mar-
vellous unily of one of his magnificent works to make patches
of declamation I ... I remember hearing my Aunt Siddons
read the scenes of the witches in Macbeth, and while doing
so was obliged to cover my eyes, that her velvet gown, mod-
em cap, and spectacles might not disturb the wild and sublime
images that her magnificent voice and recitation were conjur-
ing up around me."
Miss Eemble's dramatic career in the United States was
troubled by only one disagreeable incident, which occurred
whOe she was playing an engagement at Washington. On
returning to her hotel, one evening, from her usual ride, she
found a man sitting with her father, and her father in a tower-
ing passion.
"There, sir," said Mr. Eemble, when she came in, "there
is the young lady to speak for herself."
And truly the young lady did so in a highly spirited man*
ner.
"Fanny," continued her father, "something particularly
disagreeable has occurred ; pray can you call to mind any-
thing yon said during the course of your Thursday's ride
118 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AOE.
which was likely to bo offensive to Mr. , or anythmg
abusive of this country?^
Miss Kemble, who comprehended the situation at a glance,
Yintied her bonnet, and replied, with haughty nonchalance,
that she did not recollect a word she had said during her whole
ride, and should certainly not give herself any trouble to do
8o.
** Now, my dear,** said her father, his own eyes flashing fire,
" don't put yourself into a passion ; compose yourself and
recollect. Here is a letter I have just received.**
He read the letter, which proved to be a ridiculous and
dastardly anonymous one, to the effect, that Miss Kemble
had said during the ride in question, that she did not choose
to ride an American gentleman's horse, and had offered the
owner two dollars for the hire of it, and had otherwise spoken
most disrespectfully of the American people. The letter
proceeded to state that, unless something was done in the way
of explanation or apology, she should be hissed off the stage
that night the moment she appeared.
The evening came. The pit was littered with handbills
from the same malicious and cowardly hand. The only effect
was, that every time she appeared during the play the audi-
ence received her with a perfect uproar of applause. At the
end of the second act, one of the handbills was brought to
Mr. Kemble, who inunediately went with it before the audi-
ence, and denounced it as an infamous falsehood. The play
proceeded, and, when Miss Kemble next came upon the scene,
the audience rose to their feet, waved their hats, and gave a
succession of such thimdering cheers, that she burst into
tears, and had extfeme difficulty in going on with her part.
Nor was this all. The public, justly indignant at this con-
temptible act of inhospitality to eminent artists from a foreign
land, crowded the theatre during the rest of their engage-
ment, and gave them two benefits of such an overwhelming
MBS. FRANCES ANNE EEMBLE. 119
character, that a smart Yankee remarked, ^He shouldn't won-
der if Mr. Kemble had got up the whole thing himself."
This visit to America had more important and lasting con-
sequences than Miss Kemble had anticipated. Among the
most ardent of her American admirers was a young gentle-
man of large fortune and ancient family, residing in a spacious
mansion in Philadelphia. Pierce Butler was his name. He
was a descendant of the famous Pierce Butler of South Car-
olina, whose history was so familiar to the public seventy
years ago, but has long since been forgotten. Major Pierce
Butler came to America before the Eevolutionary war with
one of the regiments sent over by the toiy government to
overawe rebellious Boston. He was on Irishman by de-
scent, a scion of the ancient family, the head of which was
the Duke of Ormond. Instead of assisting an obstinate and
ignorant king to subdue the most loyal of his subjects, he
had the good sense to embrace their cause. He resigned his
commission, sold his property in Great Britain, and settled
in South Carolina, where he purchased a very large estate in
lands suited to the culture of rice and cotton. There he lived
and flourished, a leading .planter and politician, from about
the year 1780 until the time of his death in 1822. He was a
democrat of the most decided type, a warm adherer of Jeffer-
son, and a main stay of successive democratic administrations.
It was the son of this distinguished man, the heir of his
name and his estates, who was captivated by Miss Kemble's
talents. His admiration of the actress became, at length, a
passion for the woman, and he offered her his hand. Accord-
ing to the usual English view of such matters, it was a bril-
liant offer; for, in England, no splendor of talent or fame,
no worth of character, no extent of learning, nothing ^ is con-
sidered to place an individual on a par with one who possesses
a large quantity of inherited land. This young man was at
the head of society at Philadelphia. His estates Jn South
120 EMINENT WOMEN OP THE AGE.
Carolina he visited but seldom, and he lived at the Quaker
capital the life of elegant and inglorious ease which is so
captivating to the imagination of the toiling and anxious mul-
titude. Miss Eemble was so little acquainted with him and
his affairs that she did not know the nature of his property.
She did not know that he derived his whole income from the
unrequited toil of slaves, extorted from them by the lash.
She did not know that he owned one slave.
It so happened that she had brought with her fix>m her
English home a particular abhorrence of slavery, and the
feeling was increased in America by what she casually heard
of the condition and treatment of the negroes. Several pas-
sages in her diary, written before she ever saw the face of this
Pierce Butler, prove her utter detestation of slavery. But
who can avoid his destiny? In an evil hour, she turned her
back upon her noble art, upon the public that admired and
honored her, upon her country, too, and gave her hand to
this democratic lord of seven hundred slaves. All the world
congratulated her. She was thought to have made a most
brilliant match, — she, the woman of genius aiid feeling, the
heir of an illustrious name, which she had proved herself
worthy to bear I
For a time, all went well. Qiildren were bom. Women
of a certain calibre are not long in discovering like quality of
their husbands ; and it is highly probable, that Frances Anne
Kemble had taken the measure of Pierce Butler before the
events occurred which led to their estrangement. In the
fourth year of their marriage, in December, 1838, th<5 family,
for the first time since the marriage, went together to spend
ihQ winter upon the Butler plantations in South Carolina.
She recorded her impressions at the time in a diary, accord-
ing to her custom, whicn diary has been recently published.
What a contrast between this work, written in 1839, ar d her
otherdiaiywritteninl832andl833 I Inthe first, there is i ^t>od
KBS. VBANCBS ANKE KEMBLE. 121
deal of immaturityy a little affectatioiiy perhaps, and, occasion-
ally, a certain lack of the refinement and dignity which be-
long to the well-bred woman. We see the fayorite actress
a little spoiled by her sudden and great celebrity, though full
of the elements of all that is high and great in the character
of woman. In the second diary, we find those elements
developed. Disappointment, — the greatest a woman can
]piow, — the discoveiy that her mate is not her equal, had im-
parted a premature maturity and an unusual depth of reflec-
tion to the matron of twenty-seven. Her record of this
winter's residence in South Carolina, among her husband's
slaves, is the best contribution ever made by an individual, to
our knowledge, of the practical working of the slave system
in the United States. One of her friends cautioned her not
to go down to her husband's plantation ^ prejudiced " against
what she was to find there.
* Assuredly," she replied, ^lam going prejudiced against
slaveiy, for I am an Englishwoman, in whom the absence of
such a prejudice would be disgraceful. Nevertheless, I go
prepared to find many mitigations in the practice to the gen-
eral injustice and cruelty of the system, — much kindness on
the part of the masters, much content on that of the slaves."
She was disappointed. She discovered that slavery was
aU cruelty. The very kindness shown to slaves did but ag-
gravate their sufierings, because that kindness was necessarily
fitful and capricious, and was liable at any moment to termi-
nate. With those fresh and honest eyes of hers she looked
through all the sophistry of the masters, and saw the system
exactly as it was. They told her, for example, that the large
fiunilies of the slaves were a proof of their good treatment
and welfare.
•* No such thing," she replied. ^ K you will reflect for a
moment upon the oversown families of the half-starved Irish
peasantry and English manufacturers, you irill agree with me
122 EMINENT WOMEN 01* THE AGS.
that iliese prolific shoots by no meaos necessarily spring from
a rich or healthy soil. Peace and plenty are certainly causes
of human increase, and so is recklessness; and this, I take
it, is the impulse in the instance of the English manufacturer,
the Irish peasant, and the negro slave. • • None of the cares»
— those noble cares, that holy thoughtfulness which lifts the
human above the brute parent, — are ever incurred here by
cither father or mother. The relation indeed resembles, af
far as circumstances can possibly make it do so, the short-
lived connection between the animal and its young. The
father, having neither authority, power, responsibility, nor
chaige in his children, is, of course, as among brutes, the
least attached to his ofl^pring ; the mother, by the natural
law which renders the infant dependent on her for its first
year's nourishment, is more so ; but, as neither of them is
bound to educate or to support their children, all the unspeak-
able tenderness and solemnity, all the rational, and all the
spiritual grace and glory of the connection is lost, and it be-
comes mere breeding, bearing, suckling, and there an end.
But it is not only the absence of the conditions which God
has affixed to the relation which tends to encourage the reck-
less increase of the race ; they enjoy, by means of numerous
children, certain positive advantages. In the Sist place,
every woman who is pregnant, as soon as she chooses to make
the fact known to the overseer, is relieved of a certain por-
tion of her work in the field, which lightening of labor con-
tinues, of course, as long as she is so burdened. On the
birth of a child certain additions of clothing and an additional
weekly ration are bestowed on the family ; and these matters,
small as they may seem, act as powerful inducements to
creatures who have none of the restraining influences actuat-
ing them which belong to the parental relation among all
other people, whether civilized or savage. Moreover, they
have all of them a most distinct and perfect knowledge of
MBS. PBANCSS ANNE KEMBLE. 123
r
their value to their owners as property ; and a woman tMaks,
and not much amiss» that the more frequently she adds to the
number of her master's live-stoQ^ by bringing new slaves into
the world, the more claims she will have upon his considera-
tion and good-will. This was perfectly evident to me from
the meritorious air with which the women always made haste
to inform me of the number of children they had borne » and
the frequent occasions on which the older slaves would direct
my attention to their children, exclaiming, * Look, missis I
Little niggers for you and massa; plenty little niggers for
you and little missis I ' A very agreeable apostrophe to me,
indeed, as you will believe.''
Of the cruelty committed upon this estate she gives ample
details, which need not be repeated here. Her husband's
negroes were considered fortunate by those upon surroundiug
plantations, and yet almost everything that she saw and heard
during her residence among them filled her with grief and
horror. What surprised her very much was, the low phys^
wd condition of the colored people, and the great mortality
among the children. This was partly owing to insufficient
and innutritions food, but chiefly to the incessant child-
bearino: of the women. She found mothers who were fifteen
years of age, and grandmothers who were thirty. She
found women in middle life who had borne from twelve to
sixteen children. One cause of intense misery was compel-
ling the women to return to their labor in the field three
Weeks after confinement. In short, the whole system, and
all its details and circumstances, excited in her nothing but
the most profound and passionate repugnance.
Qut of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak,
and, especially, a woman's mouth I She remoiisti-ated with
her husband upon the cruelties practised almost in his very
presence. She might as well have addressed her remon-
strances to one of his own palmetto-trees. Once, when 8h«
124: EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AQB.
had related to him a peculiarly aggravated atrocity commib*
ted upou the mother of a family, he replied, that, no doubt,
the punishment inflicted upoi^tho woman waa ** disagreeable"
At other times, ho would say, " Why do you listen to Bucb
stuff? Why do you believe such trash? Don't you know
the Diggers ore all d d liars?" At length, he commanded
her never to speak to him upon the subject again, never to
try to stand between a defenceless female slave and the over-
seer's withering lash.
This was almost beyond bearing. Bead one passage from
her diary : —
" I have had an uninterrupted stream of women and
children flowing iu the whole morning to say, *Ha, de missis.'
Among others, a poor woman called Mile, who could hardly
stand for pain and swelling in her limbs ; she had had flfl»en
children ; nine of her children had died ; for the last three
years she had become almost a cripple with chronic rheuma-
tism, yet she is driven every day to work in the field. She
hold my hands, and stroked them iu the most appealing way,
while she exclaimed, ' O my missis I my missis 1 me neber
sleep till day for de pain,' and with the day her labor must
again be resumed. I gave her flannel and sal-volatile to rub
ber poor swelled limbs with; rest I could not give her, — rest
from her labor and her pain, — this mother of fifteen children.
" I went out to try and walk ofl" some of the weight of
horror and depression which I am beginning to feel daily
more and more, surrounded by all this misery and degrada-
tion that I can neither help nor hinder."
In addition to all this, she could not bo ignorant that her
young husband degraded himself and dishonored her, as the
young pkntei'S of the South were accustomed to degrade
themselves, and disjiouor their wives.
MBS. FBANCES A13NE KEMBLS. 125
I shall Dot dwell here upon what followed. The differ-
ence of opinion, or rather of feeling, upon this subject of
slayeiy — so vital to them as slave-owners — ended at last
in complete and bitter estrangement. A separation followed.
Mrs. Kemble retired to the beautiful village of Lennox in
Massachusetts, where she occasionally had the pleasure of
associating with her children, and where she was the delight
and ornament of a large circle. Nor was the public entirely
deprived of the benefit of her talen|». Inheriting from her
father an amplitude of person which time did not diminish,
she was no longer fitted to resume her place upon the stage.
She has given, however, as every one knows, series of read-
iiigs from Shakespeare and other authors, in the principal
cities of the United States and Great Britain. One happy
year she spent in Italy, and, according to her habit, made
her residence there the subject of a volume of poetry and
prose, which she entitled ''A year of Consolation." During
our late civil war she resided in England. She was true to
the country of her adoption, and rendered to it the most
timely and valuable services. In the midst of the hostility
against the North which prevailed among the educated
classes in England, she wrote a most eloquent and powerful
Tindication of the United States for the ** London Times ; **
and, about the period when the question of Emancipation was
agitating all minds, she gave to the public her Southern diary,
which bad been in manuscript more than twenty years. The
last two sentences of this work will serve to show that at the
darkest period of the war, when all but the stoutest hearts
felt some misgivings as to the final resillt, this brave and
higli-minded woman had undiminished faith in the final
triumph of the right. They are these : —
** Admonished by its terrible experience, I believe the
nation will reunite itself under one government, remodel the
126 EMINENT WOMEN 01 THE AGS.
Constitution, and again address itself to fulfil its glorions
destiny. I believe that the country sprung from ours — of
all our just subjects of national pride the greatest — will
resume its career -of prosperity and power, and become the
noblest as well as the mightiest that has existed among the
nations of the earth."
Mrs. Kemble is now fifty-seyen years of age, but neither
the vigor of her body nor the brilliancy of her talents has
imdergone any perceptible diminution. Her readings have
been, for nearly twenty years, among the most refined and
instructive pleasures accessible to the public, and they still
attract audiences of the highest character. I had the pleasure
of hearing her read in the city of New York, in March,
1868. It was the coldest night of the year; the streets
were heaped high with snow, and a cutting north-west wind
was blowing. Notwithstanding these adverse circumstances,
which thinned every place of amusement in the city, more
than a thousand people assembled in Steinway Hall to listen
once more to this last and best of the Kembles. The play
was Coriolanus, one of the most eflTective for her purpose, in
the whole range of the drama. When she presented herself
upon the platform and took her usual seat behind a small low
table, she looked the very picture of one of the noble Koman
matrons whose grand and passionate words she was about to
utter. As she sat, she appeared- to be above the usual stature
of women, although in fact she is not. Her person, although
finely developed, has in no degree the appearance of corpu-
lence. Her hair, naturally dark, has been so delicately
touched by time, that the frost of years looks like a sprinkling
of the powder which has lately been in fashion again. Her
face is full and ruddy, indicating high health, and her features
are upon that large and grand scale for which her family have
been always remarkable, and which call to mind the fact that
ICBS. TBAKCE8 AKKB KEMBLS. 127
Ihe Homans once ruled in England. Her voice is exceed-
mgly fine, being ample in quantity a% well as harmonious and
flexible. On this occasion, she was attired in a dress of plain
black silk, relieved only by a narrow lace collar around the
Deck, which was fastened by a small plain gold pin. Nothing
can exceed the force, beauty, and variety of her reading ;
she is perhaps the only person, who has yet practised this art,
that can hold a large audience attentive and satisfied during
the reading of a play.
Like all genuine artists, Mrs. Kemble marks an habitual
respect for the public whom she serves. Her low courtesy
to the audience, and her pleasant, respectful way of addressing
them when she has occasion to do so, are in striking contrast
with the ridiculous and insolent airs which some of the spoiled
children of the opera sometimes give themselves. Her dress
varies with the play she is to read. When the Midsummer
Nighf 8 Dream is the play, she wears a bridal dress of white
silk adorned with lace. Her self-possession in the presence
of an audience is complete, and although she exerts herself
to please them with far more than the energy of a novice, no
one is aware of tiie fieu^t, and she seems to enchant us without
in effort.
V&i EMIHXKT WOHiH OF THB AOB.
EUGENIE, EMPRESS OF THE FRENCH.
BY JOHN 8. C. ABBOTT.
The city of Malaga, in Spain, was the birthplace of Euge-
nie, the Empress of the French. This quaint old Moorish
town, containing about sixty thousand inhabitants, is situated
on the shores of the Mediterranean, at the head of a bay
which constitutes so fine a harbor that the city has been, for
centuries, one of the* most important seaports of the Spanish
peninsula. Bleak, barren, rugged mountains encircle the
city, approaching so near to the sea that there is scarcely
room for the streets of massive, lofty stone houses, which are
spread along the shore. These streets, as in all the old Moor-
ish towns, are very narrow, many of them being not more
than six or eight feet wide. The houses are large and high,
and are built around a court-yard. The ruins of ancient for-
tifications and the battlements of a fine old Moorish castle
add to the picturesque beauties of the crags, which rise sub-
limely in the rear of the town.
The climate is almost tropical, and the market abounds
with all the fruits and vegetables which ripen beneath an
equatorial sun. Though most of the city presents but a laby-
rinth of intricate and narrow streets, there is one sqiiare
around which the buildings are truly magnificent. This
square, or public walk, called the Alameda, is the favorite
resort of all the ffishion and gayety and pleasure-seeking of
the city.
^.'
. <v.- ^
12«
EHIKBNT WOHiH Off THX AOK
■••'j ■ V C- ?:. I-e-ius » ~
EUGENIE, ,BMPEESS OF THE FREBTCH. 129
Id the street of St. Joan de Dios, of Malaga, there was, in
the early part of the present centuiy, a wealthy, intelligent,
and very attractive family residing in one of the most stately
siansions. The master of the house was an opulent merchant
from England, William Kirkpatrick, a Scotchman by bu*th.
He had been the English consul at Malaga, and had married
a young lady of Malaga, of remarkable beauty both of form
and feature, Francisca Gravisne, the daughter of one of the
ancient Spanish families.
They had three daughters, all of whom inherited the beauty,
grace, and yivacity of their mother, blended with the strong
sense and solid virtues of the father. The eldest of these
daughters, Maria, was a young lady of extraordinary beauty.
She was tall, with features as if chiselled by a Grecian sculp-
tor, beaming with animation, with brilliant eyes, ready wit>
and possessing perfect command of all the graces of language
and the attractions of manner. Blended Saxon and Spanish
blood circled in her veins and glowed in her cheeks. Her
exquisitely moulded form is represented to have been perfect.
Her two younger sisters, Carlotta and Henriquetta, were
also far-famed for beauty, grace, intelligence, and all those
virtues which give attractions to the social circle. Mr. Kirk-
patrick was engaged in extensive commerce with England and
America. His circle of acquaintance was consequently very
extensive. All' foreigners of distinction were welcomed to
his hospitable board ; and it was also the resort of the most
refined and aristocratic native society of Malaga.
Among the guests who visited in this attractive family
there was a Spanish noble, alike illustrious for his exalted
birth, his large fortune, and his military prowess. A scar
upon his face and a crippled limb were honorable wounds,
which gave him additional claims to pre-eminence. He had
joined the arriiy of Napoleon, in the endeavor to liberate Spain
from the despotism of the Bourbons. He was then known
9
130 IIMIKENT WOMEN 07 THE AGS.
by the name of Cipriano Palafox, Count of Theba. A strong
attachment sprang up between this member of one of the old
Spanish families and Senorita Maria Kirkpatrick, the daugh-
ter of the wealthy English merchant. They were married
in 1819.
This marriage secured for the beautiful and highly accom-
plished Maria all the advantages which wealth and rank could
confer. The count took his young and lovely bride, who
was some years younger than himself, to Madrid, and pre-
sented her at court. She had enjoyed the advantages of both
a Spanish and an English education. Her beauty, intelli-
gence, and varied accomplishments rendered her a great fa-
vorite with the queen, Maria Christina, and she was elevated
to the most influential post among the feminine offices, —
that of first lady of honor.
Her husband, Count Theba, soon received additional wealth
and honor, inheriting from a deceased brother the title and
^estates of the Count of Montijo. Maria's sister, Carlotta, soon
after married an English gentleman, her cousin Thomas, the
son of her father's brother, John Kirkpatrick. This gentle-
man had accompanied Wellington to Spain, and had served
as paymaster to the English army until 1814. As Maria's
husband had espoused the cause of Napoleon, and had shed
his blood in fighting against Wellington, the two extremes of
political antagonism were represented in the Family ; and yet,
BO far as we can learn, hannoniously represented, for the pas-
sions which had inflamed that deadly conflict yielded to the
ties of family affection. Both Thomas and his wife are now
dead.
The^third daughter, Henriquetta, married Count Cabarras,
a very wealthy Spanish sugar-planter, residing near Velez
Malaga. Her lot has been peculiarly tranquil and happy.
She is probably, at the time of this writing, residing in pleas-
ant retirement, with her husband, on their beautiful estate
SUGEKIE, EMFBESS OF THE FBENCH. 131
iu the south of sunnj Spain, in the enjoyment of opulence
and high position.
The Empress Eugenie is the daughter of the elder sister,
Maria Kirkpatrick, and of Cipriano Palafox, double Count
of Theba and of Montijo, She was born the 5th of May,
1826. English and Spanish- blood are mingled in her veins.
She has enjoyed all the advantages of an English, a French,
and a Spanish education. She is familiar with the literature
and the best society of the three realms, and in her person and
features there are blended, in a remarkable degree, the gnice
and beauty of the highest specimens of the Spanish and Saxon
races. «
The death of her father, a few weeks before her birth, left
Eugenie an orphan in her earliest infancy. But she was blest
with the training of a veiy excellent and highly educated
mother. It is said that a part of her education was acquired
in England, and that she has enjoyed the advantages of the
best schools in France. Thus she speaks English, Spanish,
and French with equal fluency. There is no court in Europe
where the claims of etiquette are more rigidly observed than
in the royal palaces of Madrid. Eugfenie, from childhood,
has been so accustomed to all these forms, that she moves
through the splendors of the Tuileries with ease and grace
which charm every beholder.
John Kirkpatrick, who had married Eug£nie*s aunt, Car-
lotta, became subsequently a banker in Paris. In the yeai
1851, Maria the Countess of Montijo, with her daughter Eu-
genie, the Countess of Theba, visited Paris. The marvellous
loveliness' of Eugenie, the ease, grace, and perfect polish of
her address, and her vivacity and wide intelligence, sur-
rounded her with admirere. The classical regularity of her
features, her exquisitely moulded form, her rich, soft auburn
hair, and her large, expressive black eyes, arrested the atten-
tion of ev ery observer. Equally at home in several languages*
132 EMINENT WOMBN OF THE AGS.
and endowed with great powers of conversation and of fasci«
nation, the most distinguished, of all lands, gathered around
her, rendering her that homage which genius everywhere
yields to the perfection of feminine charms* One fSEuniliar
with her has said : —
^ Her beauty was delicate and fair, from her English anceB-
try ; while her grace was all Spanish, and her wit all French.
These made her one of tiie most remarkable women in the
French capital, though her independence of character and her
(English habits imparted to her more liberty of action thaa
the restraints imposed on French demoiseUe^oHoWf and tliere-
fore exposed her to remark. There is not one well authenti-
cated adventure which can be told to her disadvantage. The
empress, besides her brilliant qualities, which make-her the
most lovely sovereign in Europe, is kind and generous ; and
in the few opportunities to test her higher qualities has dis^
played great courage and sense.**
The emperor did not escape the fascination which all alike,
felt. The countess became the most brilliant ornament of
the gay assemblies of the Tuileries; and when she rode
along the Boulevards or the Champs Elysde, all eye^ were
riveted upon her. It is to the present day alike the testimony
of all, who are favored with her acquaintance, that she is as
amiable and as lovely in character as she is beautiful in
.person. No one can behold her countenance, beaming with
intelligence, and witness her sweet smile, without the assur-
ance that Eugenie is richly endowed with the most attractive
graces which can adorn humanity.
The Ountess of Theba, Eugenie, had been educated a
Catholic, and was reputed an earnest Christian of the Fenelon
type. God only can judge the heart; but externally she
manifested the utmost devotion to the claims of religion, and
BUGBNIE, BMPBBSS OP THE FRENCH. 133
was scrupulous in the observance of the rites of the church.
The cavillers said, ^ she is a very rigid Catholic." The de-
vout said, ''she is a very earnest Christian." All alike ac- •
knowledged that she was the foe of irreligion in every form,
and that the prosperity of the Church, in that great branch of
Christianity to which she belonged, was dear to her heart.
It is reported that the Emperor of the French had previ-
ously met Eugenie, and admired her in the court circles of
London, when he was an exile from his native land. He gave
her a cordial welcome at the palace of the Tuileries, and
friendship soon ripened into love. The marked religious
character of Eugenie awakened sympathy in the bosom of
the emperor. He had often taken occasion to say, in his
public addresses, that while others had sustained Christianity
as a ** measure of state," as a *^ political necessity," he sup-
ported Christianity from a full conviction of its divine origin^
and as thus indispensable to the welfare of nations and of men.
It is probable that the emperor, more familiar with' the
world, and having studied the workings of Protestant forms
of Christianity in England and America, is more liberal in
his denominational views. Still he regards Catholicism as
the religion of France, and, while advocating the most per-
fect freedom of conscience, recognizes the papal church as
the denomination to which he belongs, and to which he should
give his fostering care. Thus the emperor and Eugenie
found a bond of union in their religious convictions.
On the 22d of Januaiy, 1853, liie emperor, in the follow-
ing conmiunication to the Senate, announced that Eugenie,
the Countess of Theba, had consented to share with him the
throne, in becommg his partner for life : —
** Gentlemen : — I yield myself to the wish so often man-
ifested by the country in announcing to you my marriage.
The union I contract is not in accord with the traditions of
134 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
the ancient policy. In that is its advantage. France, by her
Buccessiye revolutions, is always rudely separated from the
rest of Europe. Every sensible government should seek to
introduce her to the bosom of the old monarchies. But this
result will be much more surely attained by a policy just and
frank, and by loyalty of transactions, than by royal alliances
which create false security and often substitute the interest
of families for the national interest. Moreover the examples
of the past have left upon the minds of the people supersti-
tious impressions. They have not forgotten that, for seventy
years, foreign princes have ascended the steps of the throne,
only to see their race dispersed or proscribed by war or by
revolution. One woman only has seemed to bring happiness
to France, and to live, more than others, in the memory of
the people ; and that woman, Josephine, the modest and excel-
lent wife of General Bonaparte, was not of royal blood.
** We must, however, admit that the marriage, in 1810, of
Napoleon Bonaparte with Maria Louisa was a great event.
It was a pledge for the future, a true satisfaction to the na»
tional pride, since the ancient and illustrious house of Aus-
tria, with which we had so long waged war, was seen to
solicit an alliance with the elected chief of a new empire.
Under the last reign, on the contrary, did not the self-love
of the country suffer when the heir of the crown solicited, in
vain, during many years, the alliance of a royal house, and
obtained, at last, a princess, accomplished, undoubtedly, but
only in the secondary ranks, and of another religion?
"When, in the face^ of ancient Europe, one is borne, by
the force of a new principle, to the height of the ancient dyn-
asties, it is not in endeavoring to give antiquity to his her-
aldry, and in seeking to introduce himself, at whatever cost,
into the family of kings, that one can make himself accepted.
It is much more, in ever remembering his origin, in main-
taimng his appropriate character, and in taking, frankly, in
EUGENIE, EMPBESS OF THE FRENCH. 135
(be face of Europe, the position of a parvenu ^ — a glorious
title when one attains it by the free suffrage of a great people.
"Thus obliged to turn aside from the precedents, followed
until this day, my marriage becomes but a private affair.
There remains only the choicie of the person. The one who
has become the object of my preference is of elevated birth.
French in heart, and by the recollection of the blood shed by
her £ither in the cause of the empire, she has, as a Spaniard,
the advantage of not having, in France, a family to whom it
might be necessary to give honors and dignities. " Endowed
with all the qualities of the mind, she will be the ornament
of the throne, as, in the day of danger, she will become one
of its most courageous supports. Catholic and pious, she
will address the same prayers to Heaven with me for the
happiness of France. By her grace and her goodness she
will, I firmly hope, endeavor to revive, in the same position,
the virtues of the Empress Josephine.
**! come then, gentlemen, to say to France, that I have
preferred the woman whom I love, and whom I respect, to
one who is unknown, whose alliance would have advantages
mingled with sacrifices. Without testifying disdain for any
one, I yield to my inclinations, after having consulted my
reason and my convictions. In dne, by placing independence,
the qualities of the heart, domestic happiness, above dynastic
prejudices and the calculations of ambition, I shall not be
less strong because I shall be more free.
•* Soon, in repairing to Notre Dame, I shall present the
empress to the people and to the army. The confidence
they have in me assures me of their sympathy. And you,
gentlemen, on knowing her whom I have chosen, will agree
that, on this occasion again « I have been guided by Provi-
dence."
In France, marriage is regarded both as a civil and a relig-
136 XMINENT WOMEir OF THE AGE.
ioua rite, and both ceremoaies are often accompanied with
great solemnity and pomp. The marriage of the Emperor
and Eugenie, the Countess of Theba, was celebrated at the
Tuileriea, on tho 27tb of Janiiaiy, 1853. The next day,
which was Sunday, the religioua ceremonies took place, with
great splendor, at the Cathedral of Notre Dame. The Arch-
bishop of Paris officiated. Probably a more brilliant assem-
bly was never convened in France, or in the world, than the
throng which then filled, to its utmost capacity, that venera-
ble and cupacious edifice. All the courts of Europe were
represented, and nothing was wanting which wealth and rank
and power and taste could give to contribute to the attrac-
tions of the spectacle.
" All the pomp of the Catholic service, nil the opulence of
tho capital, all the beauty and brilliance of the court, all the
grim majesty of tho military, whatever was illustrious in
science and art, every resource of celebrity, fuscination, and
lavish luxury were exhausted on the incidents and displays
, of this felicitous day. The imperial couple sat on two thrones
erected in front of the high altar. Sublime and heavenly
melody resounded beneath the lofty arches of the ancient
pile. A numerous and gorgeous array of priests assisted.
The great represeutatives of the army, of the senate, of the
municipal authorities, of the diplomatic corps, delegations
from the great cities of France, and tlic most brilliant and
beautiful female Icadera of fashion in the capital, — all were
there. The agitation of the young empress, the focus of so
many inquisitive eyes, during tho ceremony, was extreme.
It was neocssarj' for the emperor to soothe aud all^y her emo-
tions. All passed off happily and f!ivoi-at»ly ; and everybody,
except the fierce and implacable leaders of the dark and des-
perate factions, rejoiced at the consummation of the imperial
nuptials."
These were nuptials inspired on both sides by Section anil
BUQENIft, EMPBESS OP THE PRENCH. 137
r
esteem, and they have been followed, apparently, with far
more happiness than has usually been found in a palace.
The union of tiie emperor and Eugenie was a union of
hearts. The emperor signalized his marriage by granting
amnesty to nearly iSve thousand persons who were in banish-
ment for political offences. The empress has proved herself
all that France could desire in one occupying her exalted
position. The nation is proud of the giuce, beauty, and ac-
complishments which have now for fifteen years rendered
Eogenie not only the brightest ornament of the Tuileries, but
the most conspicuous queen of Europe. A sincere Christian,
devotedly attached to the recognized Christian £uth of France^
— the faith in which she was born and educated, — she secured
the homage of all the millions who bow before the supremacy
of the Catholic religion ; and her influence, in the coiu*t, has*
ever been ennobliug and purifying.
In more than one scene of danger Eugenie has proved her-
self the possessor of that heroism which sheds such an addi
tional lustre upon one destined to the highest walks of earthly
life. Asa wife, as a mother, and as an empress, history must
award to Eugenie a very high position of merit. The city
of Paris voted the empress, upon the occasion of her mar-
riage, a large sum — we think about six hundred thousand dol-
lars— for the purchase of diamonds. It was a matter even
of national pride that the Empress of France, the bride of
the people^s emperor, should be splendidly arrayed. But
there was no one who could more easily forego these adom-
ings than Eugenie. The glitter of gems could add but little
to that loveliness which captivated all beholders. Eugfinie
had ample wealth of her own. The emperor had a well-filled
purse. There was no danger that her jewel caskets would be
empty.
Gratefully Eugenie accepted the munificent gift, having
6rst obtained the consent of the donors that she should devote
138 EMINENT WOMEN OP THE AGE.
it to foundiog a charitable institution for the educatdon of
young girls belongiog to the working clasees. Here ehe
watches over her sisters of humbler birth, with heartfelt sym-
pathy, alike interested in their physical, mental, and reUgioua
lulture.
In the year 1855 the emperor and Eugenie visited the court
of Queen Victoria. They were received with every possible
demonstration of enthusiasm. England seemed to wish to
blot out the memoiy of Waterloo, and to atone for the wrongs
she had inflicted upon the first Napoleon, by the cordiality
with which she greeted and the hospitality with which she
entertained lis successor and heir. There was English blood
in the veins of Eugenic, and English traits adorned her char-
acter. It is not too much to say that she was universally ad-
mired in the court of St. James. The London journals of
that day were full of expressions of admiration. It was said
that Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle were never hon-
ored with the presence of a guest more truly queenly. In
purity of character, in sincerity of Christian faith, Eugenie
and Victoria must have foimd mutual sympathy, though one
was a communicant of the Church of England, and the other
of the Church of Rome.
Eugenie loved England. Her grandfather was an English-
man. Many of her dciircst relatives were English ; much of
her education was English. The emperor, a man of warm
affections, could not foi^et tlie hospitable welcome he had re-
ceived in London, nhen an exile, banished by Bourbon law
from his own country, simply because his name was Napoleon
Bonaparte. The emperor baa also ever been ready to render
the tribute of bis admiration to the institutions of England.
Thus hoth Louis Kapoleon and Eugenie could be happy as
the guests of Queen Victoria. There was moral sublimity in
the event itself. It constituted a new era in the history of
the rival nations. The Emperor of France and the Queen
XIJQSNIE, EMPRESS 07 THE FjREKCH 139
of England met iu the palaces of the British kings, and
France lefl a kiss upon the cheek of England. The kiss was
given and received in perfect sincerity. On both sides it
expressed the hope that war should be no more, — that hence-
forth France and England should live in peace, in co-opera-
tion, in friendship.
This visit of the emperor and empress to the court of
England's queen is said to have been the first instance in the
world in which a reigning French monarch set foot upon the
soil of his hereditary foes. Not long after this Queen Victo*
ria and Prince Albert returned the compliment, and England's
queen became the guest of Eugenie at the Tuileries, St.
Cloud, and Fontainebleau. Victoria was received by the Pa-
risian population, in the Champs Elys^e and along the Boule-
Tards, with the same enthusiasm, with the same tumultuous
and joyful acclaim with which Eugenie had been received
in the streets of Loudon. There is no city in the world so
well adapted to festal occasious as Paris. All the resources
of that brilliant capital were called into requisition to invest
the scene with splendor. The pageant summoned multitudes
to Paris from all the courts of Europe.
On the 16th of March, 1856, the Empress Eugenie gave
birth to her first and only child. The young prince received
the baptismal name of Napoleon Eugene Louis Jean Joseph.
His birth caused great joy throughout France, as it would
leave the line of succession undisputed. This gave iucreasing
assurance that France, upon the decease of the emperor, would
be saved from insurrection and the conflict of parties. From
all parts of France congratulations were addressed to the
emperor. In the emperor'-s reply to the Senate he said : —
•'The Senate has shared my joy on learning that Heaven
has given me a son; and you have hailed, as a propitious
event, the birth of a child of France. It is intentionally that
140 EMINENT WOMEN OP THE AGE.
I 036 that expression. It is because, gentlemen, when an
heir is born, who is destined to perpetuate a national system,
that child is not only the scion of a family, but he is, also, in
truth, the son of the whole country, and that name indicates
his duties. If this were true under the ancient monarchy,
which represented more exclusively the privileged classes,
how much more is it so now, when the sovereign is the elect
of the nation, the first citizen of the country, and the repre-
sentative of the interests of all. I thank you for the prayers
you have offered for the child of France and for the empress."
To the congratulations of the Legislative Corps the em^
peror responded: —
" I have been much affected by the manifestation of your
feelings at the birth of the son whom Providence has so kindly
granted me. You have hailed in him the hope, so eagerly
entertained, of the perpetuity of a system which is regarded
as the surest guaranty of the general interests of the country.
But the unanimous acclamations which surround his cradle do
not prevent me from reflecting on the destiny of those who
have been in the same place, and under similar circumstances.
If I hope that his lot may be more happy, it is, in the first
place, because, confiding in Providence, I cannot doubt its
protection, when, seeing it raise up, by a concurrence of
extraordinary circumstance, all that which Providence was
pleased to cast down forty years ago ; as if it had wished to
strengthen, by martyrdom and by suffering, a new dynasty
springing from the ranks of the people.
" This child, consecrated in its cradle by the peace now at
hand, and by the benedictions of the Holy Father, brought By
telegraph an hour after his birth ; in fine, by the acclamations
of the French people, whom the emperor loved so wellf — this
filJQXNIE, EMPBESS OP THE FRENCH. 141
child I hope will prove worthy of the destinies which await
him/'
Ko man can be in power without baring bitter enemies.
There have been a few attempts at the assassination of Louis
Napoleon. The most desperate was that of Orsini, an Italian
refugee. This wretch and his two confederates, with their
murderous hand-grenades, hesitated not to strike dbwn in
bloody death scores of gentlemen and *Iadies crowding the
ftvenues to the opera, if they could thus reach the single yic-
iim at whom they aimed. On the evening of the 14th of
January, 1858, as the emperor and empress were approach-
ing the Grand Opera in their carriage, accompanied by many
of the dignitaries of the court, and followed and preceded by
a crowd of carriages, just as they drew near the openi house,
where the throng was greatest and the speed of the horses
was checked into a slow walk, these assassins threw beneath
the imperial carriage several bombs, or hand-grenades of terr
rific power. These balls, each about the size of an ostrich's
egg, were ingeniously constructed so as to burst by the con-
cussion of their fall.
The explosion was dreadful in power and deadly in its ef-
fects. The street was immediately strown for quite a distance
with the dead and the mutilated bodies of men and horses.
The imperial carriage was tossed and rocked as if upon the
billoTRi of a stormy sea. The glasses were shivered and the
wood-work splintered ; and yet, as by a miracle, both the em-
peror and empress escaped without any serious injury.
The Empress Eugenie manifested, in the midst of this tumult,
ft spirit of calmness and heroism worthy of her exalted posi-
tion. Shrieks and groans resounded all around her. She
knew not but that the emperor was mortally wounded. But
without any outcry, without any fainting, she seemed to for-
get herself entirely, in anxiety for her spouse. When some
142 SMIKETTT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
persons attempted to break open the door of the shattered
vehicle, Eugenie, supposing them to be the assassins, with'
their poniards in their hands, thew herself before the emper-
or, that with her own body she might protect him fix)m the
dagger-thrusts.
Before this attempt at assassination Euginie was greatly
beloyed by all France. But the heroism which she muiifest-
ed on this occasion added to that love emotions of profound
homage and admiration. Even the imperial throne was
strengthened by the conviction that the empress was equal to
any emergency ; and that, should disaster darken upon the
empire, as in the past, Eugenie, imlike Maria Louisa, the
*• daughter of the Csesars," would develop the imperial nature
with which God had endowed her, and would be equal to her
responsibilities, however weighty they might be.
On the 3d of May, 1859, the emperor announced to the
French people that he was about to leave France, to take
command of the army of Italy. In the announcement be
said : —
^ The object of this war is to restore Italy to herself, and
not to cause her to change roasters. We shall then have,
upon our frontiers, a friendly people who will also owe to ut
their independence.**
On the 10th of May the emperor, after having appointed
the Empress Eugenie regent during his absence, and having
solemnly confided her and also their son to the valor of the
army, the patriotism of the national guard, and to the love and
devotion of the entire nation, was prepared to leave the Tuil-
eries for his Italian campaign.
It was five o'clock in the afternoon of a beautiful May day.
The carriage of the emperor, an open barouche, stood before
the grand entrance of the palace. A brilliant retinue of car-
riages, filled with the military household of the emperor, was
also in line in the court-yard. A mounted squadron of the
EUGENIE, EMPBESS OE THE FRENCH. 143
guards, glittering with burnished helmets and coats of mail,
was gathered there, in military array, to escort the cortege
through the Rue Rivoli, the Place de la Bastile, and the Rue de
Lyon to the railway station for Marseilles. An immense
crowd of the populace was gathered in the court-yard to wit-
ness the departure of the emperor.
A few minutes after five o'clock several officers of the em-
peror's household descended the stairs, followed immediately
by the emperor, with the empress leaning upon his arm.
They were followed by several ladies and gentlemen of the
court. As soon as the emperor and empress appeared the air
was rent with shouts of ** Vive I'Empereur," which burst fix>m
the lips of the crowd. The emperor uncovered his head and
waved his hat in response to this cordial greeting. Then,
bidding them adieu, and shaking hands with several of the
ladies, he handed the empress into the carriage and took a
seat by her side. The imperial cortege then left the court-
yard, passing out through the triumphal arch. The emperor
was in a simple travelling dress, and wore a cap which per-
mitted every expression of his countenance to be distinctly
seen. He was apparently calm, and a smile was upon his
lips as he met the ever-increasing enthusiasm of the crowd.
But the eyes of Eugenie were red and swollen, and she could
not conceal the tears which rolled down her cheeks. With
one hand she lovingly clasped the hand of the emperor, while
with the other she frequently wiped away the tears which •
would gush from her eyes.
The guards followed the carriage, but did not surround it.
The crowd was so great that the horses could only advance
on the slow walk. Consequently the people came up to the
very steps of the carriage and many addressed words to the
emperor, of sympathy and affection. It was a very touching
scene. The crowd was immense. The windows of all the
houses, the balconies, the roofs even, along the whole line of
144: EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
the route were filled with spectators. The streets were hung
with flags and decorated with garlands of flowers ; while on
all sides shouts ascended-of "Vive TEmpereur ! " "" Victoire I ""
•* Dieu vous garde 1 "
At the Place de la Bastile the populace, in their enthusi-
asm, began to take the horses from the carriage that thej
might triumphantly draw the emperor themselves. For a
moment the emperor was quite overcome with emotion in
view of these proofs of confidence and love. Standing up in
the carriage, he addressed the multitude, saying, ^ My friends^
do not delay me ; time is precious.** Instantly they desisted,
with renewed shouts of " Vive I'Empereur 1 ** The crowd now
gathered so closely around the carriage that the emperor
reached out both hands and cordially grasped all the hands
which were extended towards him. The afiecting and the
ludicrous were 'Singularly blended in the remarks which were
addressed to the emperor and the empress. One said, ^ Sire,
you have victory in your eyes." Another said, ^ If you want
more soldiers, don't forget us." A woman, noticing the tears
streaming down the cheeks of the empress, exclaimed, sooth-
ingly, "Don't cry, don't cry; he will soon come back again."
A sturdy man endeavored to add to the words of solace as he
leaned his head into the carriage, saying tenderly to the
empress, ^ Don't cry ; we will take care of you and the
boy."
At the station of the Lyons railroad many of the cabinet
ministers and a large number of distinguished members of
the court, gentlemen and ladles, were present. Prince Na-
poleon, son of Jerome, was there with his young bride,
Princess Clotilde, daughter of Victor Emanuel. The Princess
Matilda, Prince and Princess Murat were also there.
''It was a touching scene," writes Julie de Marguerittes;
^ the waiting-room crowded with mothers, wives, sisters, and
EUGENIE, EMPRESS OF THE FBENCH. 145
friends, — tears and sobs making their way spite of imperial
example, spite of court etiquette. At length the moment of
departure arrived. The emperor again embraced the em-
press and entered the car amidst the deafening shouts of en-
thusiasm. All was ready. The chief director went up to
the imperial car and asked if he might give the signal to de-
part. The emperor answered in the affirmatiye. And so
amidst the shouts of the multitude, which echoed far along the
road, the car bearing the fortunes of France, left the cap-
ital.''
The empress returned to the palace, where she reigned as
Regent of France -until the return of the emperor. The fol-
lowing was the form of the Imperial announcement of the
regency : —
9
" Napoleon, by the grace of God and the national will. Em-
peror of the French,
•* To all present and to come, greeting.
"Wishing to give to our well-beloved wife, the empress,
marks of the great confidence we repose in her, and, see-
ing that we intend to take the head of the army of Italy, we
have resolved to confer, as we do confer, by these presents,
on our well-beloved wife, the empress, the title of Regent, that
she may exercise its functions during our absence, in conform-
ity with our instructions and orders, such as we shall have
made known in the general order of the service that we shall
have established, which will be copied into the book of state.
** We desire that the empress shall preside, in our name,
over the Privy Council and the Council of Ministers," etc.
All the decrees and state papers were presented to Eu-
gi^nie, who appended to them her signature in these terms : —
10
146 XUINENT WOMEN 07 TEB J.QE.
" For the emperor, and in virtue of the power bj him con-
ferred. " EnOENIE."
The emperor entered Genoa od the 12th. "So language
can do justice to the enthusiasm with which he was received.
On the day of his arrival at Genoa, the wife of the Sardiutan
minister, at Paris, presented Eugenie with a magnificent
bouquet, which had arrived, in perfect preservatioa, from the
Indies in Genoa. It came from the most distinguished ladies
of the city. In the accompanying address they said : — ■ ■
" The ladies of Genoa entreat your Majesty, who so nobly
partakes in the rangnanimoiis feelings of the emperor, to ac-
cept these flowers, which they would have strewed on your
path had you accompanied your august husband on the en-
trance into Genoa. May these flowers be the symbols of the
immortal wreaths of victory which history will twine round
the brow of Xapoleou III., and will bequeath to his son aa
the most precious ornaments of the imperial diadem."
Our brief sketch of the empress must here terminate. We
would gladly speak of her devotion to institutions of learning
and benevolence ; of her visits to the hospitals where the sick
languish, and to the asylums where the deitf gaze lovingly
upon her smiles, and where the blind listen almost entranced
to the melody of her loving voice, France has had two em-
presses who will ever be graf efully romcnibered by the nation,
Josephine and Eugenie. Neither of them were of royal
lilood, but both of them wtre endowed, richly endowed, with
that nobility which comes from God alone. Both were
crowned by mortal hands on earth ; we cannot doubt that
one has already received, and that the other will yet receive,
that diadem of immortality which God pLtces upon the vio-
tor's brow.
OBACB GBXX3rWOOD-MB8. LIPPIKCOTT. 147
GRACE GREENWOOD-MRS. LIPPINCOTT
-•o^
BT JOSEPH B. LTMAN.
About thirty years ago, when Andrew Jackson and Martin
Van Buren lived in the White House ; when questions of
a national bank and a protective tariff interested without
arousing the popular mind ; when the great and glorious
valley of the Mississippi still gave homes to the red man
and haunts to wild beasts ; when Bryant was fresh from those
native hills, broad, round, and green, where he dreamed the
Thanatopsis ; when visions of Absalom and Jephthah's daugh-
ter were floating fresh and sacred before the eyes of Willis,
— a traveller through Ponipey, one of the youthful towns of
western New York, might have turned in his saddle to take
a second look at the lithe figure and the glowing face of a
village romp. Could such tourist have known that, in the
bright-eyed school-girl with rustic dress and touseled hair,
he saw one of the rising lights of the coming ago ; a letter-
writer who should charm a million readers by the piquant
dash and spicy flavor of her style ; a delightful magazinist ; a
poetess, the melody and ring of whose stanzas should remind
us of the most famous lyres of the world ; a woman who,
standing calm, graceful, and self-poised before great audi-
ences, and thrilling them by noble aud earnest words spoken
in the deep gloom of national disaster, should call up rich
memories of the Soman matron in her noblest form, or of the
brightest figures that move on the storied page of France, —
148 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
could he have foreseen all that as in the future of this village
beauty, the traveller would have done more than turn for a
second look. He would have halted, and talked with the
young Corinne ; he would have lingered to hear her speak of
wild flowers, and birds' nests, of rills and rocks and cas*
cades ; he might have gone with her to her father's door, and
caught a glimpse of silvered hair and a noble forehead, and
he would have observed upon that face lineaments that have
for two hundred years been found in all the high places of
American thought and character. For the father of this
little Sara was Dr. Thaddeus Clarke, a grandson of President
Edwards. Fortunate it is, and a blessing to the race, when
a man so rarely and royally gifted as was this great theolo-
gian, with everything that makes a human character noble, is
so wisely mated that he can transmit to the coming age, not
only the most valuable thinking of his time, but a family
of children, blessed with sound constitutions, developed by
harmonious fireside influences, and endowed with vigorous
understandings. In doing that^ Jonathan Edwards did more
to stir thought than when he wrote the history of the Great
Awakening ; he did more to establish the grooves of religious
and moral thinking, and to fix the model of fine character,
than he could ever accomplish by his Treatise on the Will.
In mature life, the great-grand-daughter has shown many of
the traits of the Edwards family. She has rejected the iron-
hooped Calvinism of her ancestor, but she is indebted to
him for an unflagging and ever-fresh interest in nature ; for
ceaseless mental fecundity, that finds no bottom to its cruse
of oil, and for a toughness of intellectual fibre that fits her
for a life of perpetual mental activity.
There was not a gayer or more active girl in Onondaga
County than Sara Clarke. The bright Alfarata was not
fonder of wild roving. No young gipsy ever took more
naturally to the fields. She loved the forests, the open pas-
6BACS GREENWOOD-MRS. LIPPINCOTT. 149
tnres, the strawberry-lots, and the spicy knolls, where the
scarlet leaves of the wintergreen nestle under the dainty
sprigs of ground pine and the breezy hill-sides, where the
purple fingers and painted lips attest the joy of huckleberry-
ing. She says of herself that she was a mighty hunter of
wild fruits. At this early age, she developed a taste which,
at a later age, gave her name a piquant flavor of romance ;
the taste for horseback riding, and the ability to manage
with fearless grace the most spirited steeds. Her figure was
lithe and wiry, her step elastic, her eye cool, and her nerves
firm. At ten years of age she was given to escapades, in
which she found few boys hardy and fearless enough to rival
ber. She would go into an open pasture with a nub of corn,
call up a frolicsome young horse, halter him, and then jump
on his back. No saddle or bridle wants the little Amazon.
She had seen bold riding at the circus, and in the retirement
of the woods she could surpass it. So she would toss off
her shoes, and stand upright on the creature's back, with a
foot on each side of the spine. At first she was content to
let the animal walk with his spirited little burden ; then she
would veuture into a gentle amble, and finally into full gal-
lop. As she grew older, the deep woods had a perpetual
charm for her. She loved to wander afar into dim shades,
and listen to the wild, sweet song of the wood-lark, and to
watch the squirrels gambolling on the tops of beech-trees, or
leaping from one oak to the other. It is not possible to say
how much she/ and every other active and finely tempered
genius, gains by such a childhood. A love of nature and a
habit of enjoying nature is thus rooted in the spirit, so deeply
that no flush of city life can destroy it. The glare of palaces
and the roar of paved streets seem, for a lifetime, tiresome
and false ; the world-weary spirit evermore long? for the
music of the west wind blowing through the tree-tops, the
melodies of the forest, the splash of waterfalls, the ring of
150 EMIKENT WOMEN 07 THE AGE.
the mower's steel , the swayuig of the golden wheat fields,
the songs of the whippoorwills, and the glancmg of the fire-
flies. Such a childhood gives a firmness of health, a yigor
and a hardihood, a power of recorering from fatigue, and a
capacity for constant labor without exhaustion, that are a
greater blessing than the wealth of a Girard or a Stewart.
At the age of twelve Sara Clarke went to Rochester to at-
tend school. Her home was with an elder brother, and she
entered with zeal and with success on the studies of a regular
education. Like many others who, in after life, have written
that which^ the world will not willingly let die, she did not
excel in mathematical studies. The multiplication table was
no labor of love. The Eule of Three was a hopeless conun-
drum. Interest had no interest for her. But whatever re-
lated to the graceful expression of fine thought, whatever un-
sealed the ancient fountains of song and of story, was easy,
harmonious, and attractive ; this was native air.
Nothing is harder than to say just what faculty or group-
ing of faculties makes the writer. One may be witty, viva-
cious, charming in the parlor, or at the dinner-table, yet no
writer. Many have the faculty of expressing a valuable
thought in appropriate language ; but that does not endow one
with the rights, the honors, and the fame of authorship. Give
Edward Lytton Bulwer three hours of leisure daily, and in
a year he will give the world three himdred and sixty-five
chapters of unequalled story-telling, in a style that never grows
dull, never j)alls upon the taste, that is perpetually fresh,
clear-cut, and brilliant.
Charles Dickens will sit down by any window in London,
or lounge through any street in London, and describe the
characters that pass before him, in a way that will charm the
reading public of two continents, in paragraphs for eveiy one
of which his publishers will gladly pay him a guinea before
the ink is dry. Sara Clarke was not three years in her teens
GBACB GEBBNWOOD— MBS. LIPPIKCOTT. 151
before the Bochester papers were glad to get her composi-
tions. They were fresh, piquant, racy. It was impossible
to guess whether she had read either Whately or Blair, but
it was clear that she had a rhetoric trimmed by no pedantic
niles. It was nature's own child talking of nature's charms,
her pen, like a mountain rill, neither running between walls
of chiselled stone, nor roofed with Eoman arches, but wander-
ing between clumps of willows, and meandering at its own
sweet will through beds of daisies and fields of blooming
clover. There was nothing remarkable about her education.
When she left school in 1843, at the age of nineteen, she
knew rather more Italian and less algebra, more of English
and French history, and less of differential and integi-al cal-
culus, than some recent graduates of Oberlin and Vassar ;
but perhaps she was none the worse for that. Indeed, aus-
tere, pale-faced Science would have chilled the blood of this
free, bomiding, elastic, glorious girl. Meantime, Dr. Clarke
had removed from Onondaga County to New Brighton, in
Western Pennsylvania. This village is nestled between the
hills among which the young Ohio, fresh from the shaded
springs and the stony brooks of the Alleghanies, gathers up its
bright waters for a long journey to the far-off Southern Gulf.
Not long after she went home, in 1845 and 1846, the lit-
erary world experienced a sensation. A new writer was
abroad. A fresh pen was moving along the pages of the
MonthUes. Who might it be? Did Willis know? Could
Creneral Morris say? Whittierwas in the secret ; but he told
no talcs. And her nom de plume, so appropriate and ele-
gant I This charming Grace Greenwood, so natural, so chat-
ty, so easy, chanting her wood-notes wild. Ah me ! those
were jocund days. We Americans were not then in such grim
earnest as we are now. The inimitable, much imitated pen,
that in the early part of the century had given us '' Knicker-
bocker '' and the ^ Sketch Book,** was still cheerfully busy at
152 BMIKEKT WOMEN OF THB AGB.
Sunny Side. Willis, beginning with the sacred and nibbling
at the profane, was in the middle of his genial, lounging,
graceful career. Poe's Raven was pouring out those weird,
melodious croakings. Ik Marvel was a dreaming bachelor,
gliding about the picture-galleries of Europe. Bryant was a
hard-working editor, but when he lifted up those poet eyes
above the smoke of the great city, he saw the water-fowl, and
addressed it in lines that our great-grandchildren will know
by heart. William Lloyd Garrison was sometimes pelted
with bad eggs. Horace Greeley had just started the '*New
York Tribune.** Neither Clay, Calhoun, nor Webster had
grown tired of scheming forty years for the presidency.
That gi-eat thunder-cloud of civil war, that we have seen cov-
ering the whole heavens, was but a dark patch on the glow-
ing sky of the South. In these times, and among theso
people, Grace Greenwood now began to live and move, and
have a part, and win a glowing fame. For six or eight years
her summer home was New Brighton. In winter she was in
Philadelphia, in Washington, in New York, writing for Whit-
tier or for Willis and Morris, or for ^^NeaFs Gazette," or for
" Godey." She was the most copious and brilliant lady cor-
respondent of that day, wielding the gracefuUest quill, giving
the brightest and most attractive column. It is impossible,
without full extracts, to give the reader a full idea of these
earlier writings of Grace Greenwood. They had the dew of
youth, the purple light of love, the bloom of young desire.
As well think of culling a handful of moist clover-heads, in
the hope of reproducing the sheen and fragrance, the luxuri-
ance and the odor of a meadow, fresh bathed in the Paphian
wells of a June moniing ! In 1 850 many of these sketches
and letters were collected and republished by Ticknor & Fields,
under the name of Greenwood Leaves. The cotemporary
estimate given to these writings by Rev. Mr. Mayo is so just
and so tasteful that no reader will regret its insertion here : —
6BACE GBKENWOOD — MBS LIPPINCOTT. 153
"The authoress is fhe heroine of the book; not that she
writes about herself always, or often, or in a way that cq.n
offend. But her personality gets entangled with every word
dlie utters, and her generous heart cannot be satisfied without
ft response to all its loves, and hopes, and misgivings, and as-
pirations. There is extravagance in the rhetoric, yet the de-
licious extravagance in which a bounding spirit loves to vin-
dicate its freedom from the rules laid down in the * Aids of
Composition,' and the * Polite Letter Writer.* There is a
delightful absurdity about her wit, into which only a genuine
woman could fall. And one page of her admiring criticism of
books and men, with all its exaggerations, ia worth a hundred
volumes of thq intellectual dissection of the critical professors.
** Yet the most striking thing in her book is the spirit of joy-
ous health that springs and frolics through it. Grace Green-
wood is not the woman to be the president of a society for
the suppression of men, and the elevation of female political
rights. She knows what her sisters need, as well as those who
spoil their voices and temper in shrieking it into the ears of
the world ; but that knowledge does not cover the sun with
a black cloud, or spoil her interest in her cousin's love affair,
or make her sit on her horse as if she were riding to a public
execution. She can love as deeply as any daugh*«r of Eve.
Yet she would laugh in the face of a sentimental j'^oung gen-
tleman till he >vishcd her at the other side of the woild. She
loves intensely, but not with that silent, brooding intensity
which takes the color out of the cheeks and the joy out of
the soul. Hers is the effervescence, not the corrosion, of the
heart. And it is no small thing, this health of which I now
speak. In an age when to think is to run the risk of scep-
ticism, and to feel is to invite sentimentalism, it is charming
to meet a girl who is not ashamed to laugh and cry, and etold
and joke, and love and worship, as her grandmother did be-
fore her."
154: EMINENT WOHEK 07 THE AGE.
But this is not a review of Grace Greeawood's writings.
Ziilera scripta tnanet. Those who wish to see the cream of
our magaztne writings from 1845 to 1852, will fiud it iu
" GreeoH'ood Leaves," first and second series. About this
time, her Poems were published. To say that Ihey are Beau-
tiful is not enough. Though redolent of the open country,
where most of them were written ; though composed while
doing housework, as was "Ariadne ; " or in the saddle, like
the " Horseback Kide," — the best element in them is the fmnk,
generous, cordial, winning persouality which pervades them
all. We find, too, evidences, that below the dashing and
piquant exterior there was growing up an intense sympathy
with the most earnest and strenuous spirits., Already the
mutterings of the distant thunder were heard, mellowed by
distance, but clear enough to hush the chattering of the bob-
oliuka, and the scream of the bhie-jays. Thus the lines
" To One Afar " close with the following admirable stan-
zas:—
" Troth's earnest seeker thoa, I fancy's rovert
Th; lift 1b lihe a rlrer, deep aod wide :
I bat the light- winged wild bird passing over.
One moment mirrored In the rushing tide.
" Tbns are we parted ; thon Btill onward hasting,
Fonrlng the great flood of Ibat life along;
WliUe I on snnny slopes am careless, wasting
The little summer or m; time of song."
But before this gay creature of the elements becomes an
earnest woman, as we foresee she must, let us picture in
outline the New Brighton life ; let us see our heroine, not as
a magaziuist, or a correspondent, but in a character more
admirable and charming than either, — as a fine, handsome,
brilliant, fearless young lady. No whit spoiled by a winter
of adulation, by the gracefullest of letters from Mr. Willis,
GBACE GBEENTTOOD — MBS. LIPPINCOTT. 155
by the wannest and the truest appreciation from Whittier,
by a colonnade of kindliest notices from the great dailies, the
braider of Greenwood chaplets has come back to her cottage-
home amid the swelling hills, and beside the glancing river.
As plain Sara Clarke, she had helped her mother through the
morning work, sweeping, dusting, watering flowers, feeding
chickens, sitting down for a few moments to read two stanzas
to that white-haired father of hers, his head as clear and cool
as ever it was, and as able to give his daughter the soundest
judgments and the most valuable criticisms she ever enjoyed.
In the heat of midday she seeks her chamber, gazes for a few
moments with the look of a lover upon the glorious land-
scape, then dashes off a column for the ** Home Journal " or
the ** National Press." Now, as the shadows of the hills are
beginning to stretch eastward, we hear a quick, elastic step
on the stair, and the responsive neigh from the hitching-post
in the yard tells us that the ^ Horseback Ride " is to be re-
hearsed ; and horse and heroine alike feel that
" Kor the swift regatta, nor merry chase,
Nor mral dance on the moonlight shore,
Can the wild and thrilling Joy exceed
Of a fearless leap on a fiery steed."
She must tell, as nobody else can, how quick and marvel-
lous is the change, when she feels the bounding and exuberant
animal life of the steed rejoicing in the burden ; exulting in
the free rein, devouring the long reach of the grassy lane
with his gladsome leaps : —
** As I spring to his back, as I seize the strong rein,
The strength to my spirit retnmeth again I
The bonds are all broken that fettered my mind,
And my cares borne away on the wings of the wind ;
My pride lifts Its head, for a season bowed down.
And the qneen In my nature now pats on her crown."
156 SMIKENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
Now our gentle and poetic Peuthesilea has gained the
woodland cool and dim. On they press, horse and rider
alike enthused, till they reach some retired valley, a seques-
tered nook, where no profane eyes may look. Lady and
pony are going to have a grand equestrian frolic. Pony likes
it as well as lady. What prancing and pawing I what rear-
ing and backing I Now a swift gallop, as if in the ring of
some fairy circus. But this is no vulgar horse-opera ; no
saw-dust or tan-bark here ; nothing for show, since the blue-
jays have no eye for horse-flesh, nor can squirrels be made
envious by such exploits. At length pony acts as though
the game had been carried as far as he cared to have it ; and
Grace leaps to the greensward and lets him breathe, and get
a drink, and bite the sod. Will he not start for home? Not
he. His fetters are silken ; but his mistress has that rare
gift, unusual among men, and very uncommon with the softer
sex, the faculty of controlling animals. He obeys her word
like a spaniel ; goes and comes at her bidding ; stands on his
hind feet, if she tells him to ; lies down ; gets up again ; fol-
lows her up the steps of the piazza. In fact, if such a thing
could be, he would carry out the nursery rhyme and go after
her •• upstairs, downstairs, in the lady's chamber.**
The ride home is somewhat more gentle ; for, in the cool
of the evening dusk, our heroine has turned poetess again,
and is chiselling out Pygmalion word by word, or indulging
in such spirit-longings as this : —
'< I look upoD life's glorious things,
The deathless themes of song,
The grand, the proud, the beautlAil,
The wild, the tree, the strong ;
And wish that I migut take a part
Of wliat to them belong."
After the evening meal, and an hour of quiet chat, while
6BACE GREENWOOD — MRS. LIPPINCOTT. 157
flecks of rooonbeam dance on the gallery floor, we might
suppose the day ended, and these hours of beautiful life
would now be rounded by a sleep. Not yet. This fearless
and ardent lover of nature delights in every rich sensation
that earth, or air, or water can impart.
She glides away across the pasture to have a glorious
swim in
« Yon lake of heavenly blae ;
The long hair, anconflned, '
Is flung, like some yonng Nereid's now
To tossing wave and wind."
This is no timid, frightened bather. Had she been Hero
on the shores of Hellespont, she would have plunged in and
met Leander half-way between the continents. None but an
assured swimmer could have written this stanza : —
*' And now when none are nigh to save,
While earth grows dim behind ;
I lay my cheek to the kissing wave,
And langh with the frolicsome wind.
'* On the billowy swell I lean my breast,
And he fondly beareth me ;
I dash the foam from his sparkling crest,
In my wild and careless glee."
What a pity her bathing-place was not the fountain of per-
petual youth ! No matter how ably a woman writes, or how
eloquently she speaks> — and there are very few of her sex
so able or so eloquent to-day as Grace Greenwood, — we can
but endorse this sentiment of one of her earliest admirers.
In a letter to Morris, written when Miss Clarke was living
this life, and writing these lines, he says : ** Save her from
meriting the approbation of dignified critics. Leave this
fairest blossom on the rose-tree of woman for my worship,
158 XUINENT WOHBir OV TEE AOZ.
■Dcl the admEratioa of the few who, like me, can appreciate
the value of an elegant nselessneBS, and perceive the &scina-
tioD of splendid gayetj and brilliant trifling. Adieu, and
Bend me more Qrace Greenwoods."
But uo woman, with an acute brain and a warm heart,
could live in eucb a land oa ours, and in the nineteenth ccnh
tiiry, and remain long a writer of splendid gayeties. The
timea called for earnest thinking and vigorous writing. The
age of rose-tinted album-leaves, covered with graceful im-
promptus, was past. Willis, and his elegant "Home Jour-
nal," went into the mild oblivion of June roses. Great ques-
tions agitated the public mind ; and we heard hoarse voices
and blasts of brazen trumpets on the slopes of Parnassus.
Meantime Miss Clarke went to Europe. This was in 1853.
She spent a little over a year abroad, which, in the dedica-
tion to her daughter of one of her juvenile books, she calls
" the golden year of her life." Perhaps America has never sent
to the shores of the Old "World a young lady traveller, who
was a better specimen of what the New World can do in the
way of producing a fine woman. She was a flower from a
virgin soil, and n new form of civilization ; but rivalling, in
the delicacy of its tints, and the richness of its perfume,
anything from older and longer cultivated parterres. Wifb
one of those felicitous memories that has its treasures ever
at command, and can always remember the right thing at
the right time and place ; fully stored by wide readings in
belles-lettres ; with the spirit of an enthusiast for everything
beautiful, or good, or famous ; in the joyous overflow of nn-
broken health and unflagging spirits, the trip was to her one
long gala-day, crowded with memorable sights, with sensa-
tions which enrich the whole of one's afler-Iife.
Harriet Beecher Stowe has written as well in her
"Sunny Memories of Other Lands," but no lady tourist from
America has eurpafised Grace Greenwood in the warm tinting
GBACIB GBEEKWOOD — MBS. LIPPIKCOTT. 159
and gorgeous rhetoric of her descriptions, and in the viva^
cious interest which she felt herself, and which she conrey
to others in her letters^ This correspondence was collected
immediately after her return, and published under the title
of **Hap8 and Mishaps of a Tour in Europe."
Nobody has described the marble wondera of the Vatican
with finer appreciation than can be seen in the following
passage : —
•'Of all the antique statues I have yet seen, I have .been
by far the most impressed by the Apollo Belvidere, and
the Dying Gladiator, — the one the striking embodiment of
the pride, and fire, and power, and joy of life ; the other of
the mournful majesty, the proud resignation, the * conquered
agony ' of death. In all his triumphant beauty and rejoicing
strength, the Apollo stands forth as a pure type of immortal-
ity— every inch a god. There is an Olympian spring in the
foot which seems to spurn the earth, a secure disdain of
death in the very curve of his nostrils, — a sunborn light on
his brow ; while the absolute perfection of grace, the super-
nal majesty of the figure, now, as in the olden time, seem to
lift it above the human and the perishing, into the region of
the divine and the eternal. Scarcely can it be said that the
worship of this god has ceased. The indestructible glory
of the lost divinity lingers about him still ; and the deep,
almost solemn emotion, the sigh of unutterable admiration,
with which the pilgrims of art behold him now, differ little,
perhaps from the hushed adoration of his early worshippers.
I have never seen any work of art which I had such difficulty
to realize as a mere human creation, born in an artist's
struggling brain, moulded in dull clay, and from thence trans-
ferred, by the usual slow and laborious process, to marble.
Nor can I ever think of it as having according to old poetio
&Dcy, pre-existed in the stone, till the divinely directed
160 EMINENT WOMEN 07 THE AGS.
chisel of the sculptor cut dowo to it. Ah, so raethiuks, the
very marble must have groaned, in prescience of the god it
held. To me it rather seems « glowing, divine conception,
struck instautly into stone. It surely embodies the very
Bout aud glory of the ancient mythology, and, with kindred
works, forms, if not a fair justification of, at least a noble
apology for, a religion which revelled in ideas of besaty and
grace, which had ever something lofty and pure even iu its
refined sensuality ; and for the splendid arrogance of that
g^Dius which boldly chiselled out its own grand conceptions,
and named them gods. The Apollo I should like to ece
every day of my life. I would have it near me ; and every
morning, as the darkness is lifted before the sun, and the
miracle of creation is renewed, I would wish to lift a curbiin,
and gaze on that transcendent image of life and light, — to
receive into my own being somewhat of the euer^y and joy
of existence with which it so abounds, — to catch some
gleams of the glory of the fresh and golden moruing of
poetry and art yet rajing from its brow. One could drink
in strength, as from a fountain, from gazing on that attitude
of pride and grace, so- light, yet firm, and renew one's
wasted vigor by the mere sight of that exulting and effortless
action."
What a gem of description we have here at the end of a
letter, written from Naples on the 18th of April : —
"We drove to Naples this morning over a road, which, for its
varied scenery and picturesque views, seems to mo only com-
parable with the Cornice leading to Genoa. It was with heart*
felt retuctance tliat we left Sorrento, which must ever seem to
me one of the loveliest places on earth. O pride and darling
of this delicious shore, — like a young festive queen, rose-
crowucd, sittmg in the shade of oranges and myrtles, watched
GRACE GREENWOOD — MRS. LIPPINCOTT. 16t
over with visible tenderness by the olive-clad hills, gently
caressed and sung to by the capricious sea, — bright, balmy,
bewitching Sorrento, adieu I "
But the finest piece of writing in the volume is a bravura
on the ^oman Catholic Religion. It occurs in a long and
splendid description of High Mass, at St. Peter's on Christ
mas morning: —
•* To my eyes, the beauty and gorgeousness of the
scene grew most fitting and holy ; with the incense floating
to me from the altar, I seemed to breathe in a subtile, sub-
duing spirit; and to that music my heart hushed itself
in my breast, my very pulses grew still, and my brain swam
in a new, half-sensuous, half-spiritual emotion. For a mo-
ment I believe I understood the faith of the Roman Catho-
lic,— for a moment I seemed to taste the ecstasy of the
mystic, to burn with the fervor of the devotee, and felt in
wonder, and in fear, all the poetry, mystery, and power of
the Church. Suddenly rose before my mind vivid wayside
and seaside scenes, — pictures of humblest Judean life, when
the ' meek and lowly * Author of our faith walked, minister-
ing, and teaching, and comforting among the people, —
humblest among the humble, poorest among the poor, most
sorrowful among the sorrowful, preaching peace, good-will,
purity, humility, and freedom, — and thtn, all this magnifi-
cent mockery of the divine truths he taught, this armed and
arrogant spiritual despotism, in the place of the peace and
liberty of the gospel, faded from before my disenchanted
eyes, and even my ear grew dull to that pomp of sound,
swelling up as though to charm his ear against the sighs of
the poor, and the groanings of the captive.
" O Cleopatra of religions, throned in power, glowing and
gorgeous in all imaginable splendors and luxuries, — proud
11
162 fillllTBirT WOMEN OP THE AX3tW.
Victor of victors, — in the 'infinite variety' of thy resources
and enchantments more attractive than glory, resistless as
fate; now terrible in the dusky splendors of thy imperious
beauty ; now softening and subtile as moonlight, and music,
and poet dreams; insolent and humble, stormy though ten*
derl alluring tyranny, beautiful falsehood, fair and fatal
enchantress, sovereign sorceress of the world I the end is not
yet, and the day may not be far distant when thou shalt lay
the asp to thine own bosom, and die."
• ■•-■.•
Since her marriage to Leander K. Lippincott, Grace
Greenwood's pen has been employed chiefly iii writings for
the young. She edits the ** Little Pilgrim," a monthly de*
voted to the amusement, the instruction, and the well-being
of little folks. Its best articles are her contributions. These
have been collected from time to time, and published by
Ticknor & Fields, and make a juvenile library, numbering
nearly a dozen volumes. Though intended for children, none
of these books but will charn^ older readers, with the ele*
gance and freshness of their style, their abounding vivacity
atid harmless wit, and the hopeful and sunny spirit which
they breathe. They are remarkable for the felicitous manner
in ivhich they convey historical information. No child cau
fail to be drawn on to wider readings of the storied past, and
to know more of old heroes., ancient cities, and famous lands;
Soon after its establishment, Mrs. Lippincott became acon^
tributor to the " Independent," and during the war a lecturer
to soldiers and at sanitary fairs. Her last book is tnade up
from articles in the "Independent,** and passages from lectures*
It shows the fire of her youthful zeal, and the glowing rhe1>
oric of twenty-five no whit abated. On the contrary, there
are evidences in her later productions of a full grasping of
the significance of the heroic and stormy times in which we
live.
GBACJi QREE^NIV-OOD-^MBS. LIPPIKC^^TT. 16B
There appear in the writings of Grace Greenwood three
phases of development, three epochs of a literary career.
The first lasted from the days of the boarding-school till mar
riage, — from the first merry chit-chat and fragrant Green-
wood Leaves beyond the Allcghauies, to the full-rounded,
mellow, golden prime, as displayed ipt thQ' letters from
Europe. Then follows a decade, during which story-writing
for children has principally occupied her pen. With the wai*
commences the third period, — years ** vexed with the drums
and tramplings,** the storms and dust-clouds of middle life ;
a great republic convulsed by a giant stniggle ; woman gliding
from the sanctity of the fireside, going out to do, to dare^
and to suffer at the side of her war-worn brother, attacking
social wrongs, doing all that woman can do to cbeer^ to adorn,
to raise the downfallen, to proclaim libert}'' to the captive, to
open the prison to those that are bound. Up to the full sumr
mit level of such a time her spirit rises. She brings tp the
requirements of this epoch faculties polished by long and
diligent culture ; a heart throbbing with every fine sensibility,
and evety generous emotion; a large, warm, exuberant
nature ; a ripe and glorious womanhood.
For snch a character in such a wondrous mother age,
there lies open a long career of strenuous exertion, worthy
achieyement, and lastin^r fame.
164: XMIKENT WOMEN OJ THS AGS.
ALICE AND PHEBE CART
BY HORACE GREELEY.
Years ago — a full score, at least — the readera ot some
religious, and those of many rural, newspapers first noted
the fitful appearance, in the poet's corner of their respective
gazettes, of verses by Alice Gary. Two or three years
later, other such — like, and yet different — also irradiated,
from time to time, the aforesaid corner, purporting to be
from the pen of Phebe Gary. Inquiry at length elicited the
fact that the writers were young sisters, the daughters of a
plain, substantial farmer, who lived on and cultivated his
own goodly but not superabundant acres, a few miles out of
Cincinnati, Ohio. He was a Universalist in faith, and they
grew up the same, — writing oftener for the periodicals of their
own denomination, though their effusions obtained wide cur-
rency through others, into which they were copied. I do
not know, but presume, that Alice had written extensively,
and Phebe occasionally, for ten years, before either had asked
or been proffered any other consideration therefor than the
privilege of being read and heard.
This fiimily of Garys claim kindred with Sir Robert Gary,
a stout English knight, who, in the reign of Henry V., van-
quished, after a long and bloody struggle, a haughty chevalier
of Arragon, who challenged any Englishman of gentle blood
to a passage-at-arms, which took place in Smithfield, London,
as is chronicled in *^ Burke's Heraldry." Henry authorized
ALICE AND PHEBE CABT. 165
the victor to bear the arms of his vaDquished antagonist, and
the crest is still worn by certain branches of the family. The
genealogy is at best unverified, nor does it matter. From
Walter Gary — a French Huguenot, compelled to flee his
country, upon the revocation by Louis XIV. of tlie great
Henry's Edict of Nantes, and who, with his wife and son,
settled in England, where his son, likewise named Walter,
was educated at Cambridge — the descent of the Ohio Carys
is unquestioned. The younger Walter migrated to America,
very soon after the landing of the ''Mayflower" pilgrims,
and settled at Bridgewater, Mass., only sixteen miles from
Plymouth Bock, where he opened a "grammar school,'*
claimed to have been the earliest in America. Walter was
duly blest with seven sons, whereof John settled in Windham,
Connecticut ; and of his five sons, the youngest, Samuel,
was great-grandfather to the Alice and Phebe Cary of our
day.
Samuel, educated at Yale, becoming a physician, settled
and practised at Lyme, where was bom, in 1763, his son
Christopher, who, at eighteen years of age, entered the
armies of the Revolution. Peace was soon achieved ; when,
in default of cash, the young soldier received a land grant or
warrant, and located therewith the homestead in Hamilton
County, Ohio, whereon was born his son Robert, who in due
time married the wife who bore him a son, who died young,
as did one daughter. Two more daughters have since passed
away, and three remain, of whom the two who have not
married are the subjects of this sketch. Their surviving
sister, Mrs. Camahan, is a widow, and lives in Cincinnati.
Two brothers, sturdy, thrifty farmers, live near the spot
where they first saw the light.
Alice Gary was born in 1820, and was early called to
mourn the loss of her mother, of whom she has written :
^ My mother ^vas of English descent, — a woman of superior
16jS EMINBUT WOMJIN OP THE AGE.
intellect, and of a good, well-ordered life. In my memoiy,
she stands apart from all others, — wiser, purer, doing more,
and living better, than any other woman." Phebe was bom
in 1825 ; and there were two younger sisters, of whom one
died in youth, greatly beloved and lamented. A few weeks
before her departure, and while she was still in fair health,
she appeared for some minutes to be plainly visible in broad
daylight to the whole family, across a little ravine from their
residence, standing on the stoop of a new house they were
then building, though she was actually asleep, at that mo-
ment, in a chamber of their old house, and utterly uncon-
scious of this ^'counterfeit presentment" at some distance
from her bodily presence. This appearance naturally con-
nected itself with her death, when that occurred soon after-
ward; and thenceforth the family have lent a ready ear
to narrations of spiritual (as distinguished from material)
presence, which to many, if not most, persons are simply
incredible.
• The youngest of the family, named Elmina, was a woman
of signal beauty of mind and person, whose poetic as well
as her general capacities were of great promise ; but she
married, while yet young, Mr. Swift, a Cincinnati merchant,
and thenceforward, absorbed in other cares, gave little atten-
tion to literature. She was early marked for Its victim by
Consumption, — the scourge of this, with so many other
families, — and yielded up her life while still in the bloom
of early womanhood, three or four years since. I believe
her marriage, and the consequent loss of her society, had a
share in determining the elder sisters to remove to New
York, which they did in 1850.
Alice had begun to write verses at eighteen, Phebe at sev-
enteen, years of age. Their father married a second time,
and thence lived apart from, though near, the cottage wherein
I first greeted the sisters in 1849 ; and, when the number
ALICE AND PHEBE CAST. 167
was reduced to two by the secession of Elmina, Alice and
Pliebe meditated, and finally resolved on, a removal to the
great emporium.
Let none rashly conclude to follow their example who have
not their securities against adverse fortune. They were in
the flush of youth and strength ; they were thoroughly, in-
alienably devoted to each other ; they had property to the
value, I think, of some thousands of dollars ; they had been
trained to habits of industry and frugality ; and they had not
merely the knack of writing for the press (which so many
mistakenly imagine sufficient), but they had, through the
last ten or twelve years, been slowly but steadily winning
attention and appreciation by their voluntary contributions
to the journals. These, though, uncompensated in money^
had won for them what was now money's worth. It would
pay to buy their effusions, though others of equal intrinsic
merit, but whose writers had hitherto won no place in the
regard of the reading public, might pass unread and uncon-
sidered.
Being already an acquaintance, I called on the sisters soon
after they had set up their household gods among us, and
met them at intervals thereafter nt their home, or at the
houses of mutual friends. Their parlor was not so largo as
some others, but quite as neat and cheerful ; and the few
literary persons or artists who occasionally met, at their in-
formal invitation, to discuss with them a cup of tea and the
newest books, poems, and events, might have found many
more pretentious, but few more enjoyable, gatherings. I
have a dim recollection that the first of these little tea-pailie^
was held up two flights of stairs, in one of the less fashionable
sections of the city ; but good things were said there, that I
recall with pleasure even yet ; while of some of the com-
pany, on whom I have not since set eyes, I cherish a pleasant
and grateful remembrance. As their circumstances gradu-
168 EMINENT WOMEN OP THE AGE.
ally though slowly improvetl, by dint of diligent industry
and judicious economy, they occupied more eligible quarters ;
and the modest dwelling they have for some yeara owned
and improved, in the very heart of this emporium, has long
been known to the literary guild as combining one of the best
private libraries, with the sunniest drawiug-room (even by
gaslight) to bo found bettreen King's Bridge and th»
Battery.
Their first decided literary venture — a joint volume of
poems, most of which had already appeared in sundry jour-
nals— was published in Philadelphia early in 1850, before
they had abandoned " Clovernook," their rural Western home,
for the brick-and-mortur whirl of the American Babel. Prob-
ably the heartiness of its welcome fortified, it did not stimu-
late, their resolve to migrate eastward; though it is a safe
gness that no direct pecuniary advanL-igo accrued to them
from its publication. But the next year witnessed the
".coming out" of Alice's first series of "Clovernook Papers;"
prose sketches of characters and incidents drawn from obser-
vation and experience, which won immediate and decided
popularity. The press heartily recognized their fresh sim-
plicity and originality, while the public bought, read, and
admired. Several goodly editions were sold in this country,
and at least one in Great Britain, where their merits wera
generously appreciated by the critics. A second seiies, pub-
lished in 1853, was equally successful. "The Clovernook
Children" — issued in 1854 by Ticknor & Fields, and ad-
dressed more especially to the tastes and wants of younger
readers — has been hardly less commended or less popular.
"Lyra and other Poems," published by Redfield in 1853,
was the first volume of verse wherein Miss Cary challenged
the judgment of critics independently of her sister. That it
was a decided success is sufficiently indicated by the fact
that a more complete edition, including all the contents of
ALICE AND PHEBE CART. 169
Redfield's, with much more, was issued by Ticknor & Fields
in 1855. "The Maiden of Tlascala,** a narrative poem of
seventy-two pages, was first given to the public in this Boston
edition.
Her first novel — ^'Hagar; a Story of To-Day" — was
written for and appeared in "The Cincinnati Commercial,**
appearing in a book form in 1852. "Married, liot Mated,"
followed in 1856, and "The Bishop's Son," her last, was
issued by Carleton, in 1867. Each of these have had a good
reception, alike from critics and readers ; though their pecu-
niary success has, perhaps, been less decided than that of
her poems and shorter sketches.
Of her "Pictures of Country Life," brought out by Derby &
Jackson in 1859, "The Literary Gazette*' (London), which
is not accustomed*to flatter American authors, said : —
"Every tale in this book might bo selected as evidence of
some new beauty or unhackneyed grace. There is nothing
feeble, nothing vulgar, and, above all, nothing unnatural or
melodramatic. To the analj'^tical subtlety and marvellous
naturalness of the French school of romance she has added
the purity and idealization of the home affections and home
life belonging to the English ; giving to both the American
richness of color and vigor of outline, and her own individual
power and loveliness."
Except her later novels, Miss Cary's works have in good
part appeared first in periodicals, — "The Atlantic Magazine,"
"Harpers'," "The New York Ledger," and "The Independent ;"
but many, if not most of them, have generally been afterward
issued in her successive volumes, along with others not pre-
viously published. "Lyrics and Hymns," issued in 1866 by
Hurd & Houghton, "The Lover's Diary," admirably brought
out by Ticknor & Fields in 1867, and "Snow Berries; a
170 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AQE.
Book for Yoiiug Folks," by the same house, are her latest
volumes. Nearly all of ber prose works have been reprinted
iti London, and have tbere, as well aa here, received a cor-
dial and iDteliigent welcome.
Few Amoi'ican women have written nioro than Miss Cary,
and still fewer have written more successfully. Yet she
does not write rapidly nor recklessly, and ber works evhice
conscientious, painstaking effort, rather than transcendent
genius or fitful inspiration. Ill-health has of Late interrupted,
if not an'ested, her labors; but, in the intervals of relative
exemption from weakness and euifering, her pen is still busy,
and her large circle of admiring readers may still confidently
hope that her melody will not cease to flow till song and
Binger are together hushed in the silence of the grave.
From her many poems that I would gladly quote, I choose
this as the shortest, not the best : —
" We are tlic mariDera, and God the sea;
And, thoDgh ne make fhlac reckonings, and run
Wide or a rlghteoos course, and are ondoDe,
Oat of hU deeps or love ne cannot be.
" For, by those heavy strokes we misname Ul,
ThroDgh the fierce fire of sla, through tempering doubt,
Onr natures more and more are beaten oat
To perfccter rc'ectlans of his wUl 1 "
Phebe has written far less copiously than Alice ; in fact,
she has for years chosen to bear alone the burden of domestic
cares, in order that her more distinguished sister should feel
entirely at liberty to devote all her time and strength to
literature. And, though she had been widely known as the
author of good newspaper prose, as well as far more verse, I
think the critical public was agreeably surprised by the
quality of her "Poems of Faith, Hope, and Love," recently
issufid by Kurd & Houghton. There are one hundred picoe?
ALICE AND PHEBB CABY. 171
•
m all; covering two hundred and forty-nine pages; and
hardly one of the hundred could well be spared, while there
surely is no one of them which a friend would wish she had
omitted from the collection. There are a buoyant faith, a
8unny philosophy evinced throughout, with a hearty inde-
pendence of thought and manner, which no one ever suc-
ceeded in affecting, and no one who possesses them could
afford to barter for wealth or fame. The following verses,
already widely copied and relished, are here given, as afford-*
ing a fair chapter of wholesome, bracing autobiography : - -
, t
"A WOMAN'S CONCLUSIONS.
**I said, if I might go back again
To the very hour and place of mj birth ;
Might have my life whatever I chose,
And live it in any part of the earth ; —
** Pat perfect sunshine into my sky,
Banish the shadow of sorrow and donbt ;
Have aU my happiness multiplied,
And aU my suffering stricken out ;
" If I could have known, in the years now gone^
The best that a woman comes to know ;
Could have had whatever will make her bledt,
Or whatever she thinks wiU make her so;
*' Have found the highest and purest bliss
That the bridal wreath and ring enclose ;
And gained the one out of aU the world
That my heart as well as my reason chose ;
"And If this had been, and I stood to-night
By my children, lying asleep in their beds,
And could count in my prayers, for« rosary,
The shining row of their golden heads ; —
''Yea! I said, if a miracle such as this
Could be wrought for me, at my bidding, sttU
I would choose to have my past as it Ls,
And to let my Ititure come as it wiUI
172 EUINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
" I wonld not make the path I hare trod "^
More pleasant or eren, more straight or vld«t
Nor ch&nse my coarse the breadth of a h&ir.
This waj or that way, to either side.
" Mj past Is mine, and I take It all ;
Its weakness — its foll7, if yon please)
fiaj, even my sins. If yon come to that.
May hare been my helps, not hindrances!
" If I saved my body from the flames
Because that once I bad burned my hand}
Or kept mysclT ftom a greater sin
By doing a less — yon will nnderstaod ;
" It was better I snllbred a Utile pato,
Better I sinned tot a little time,
If the smarting warned me back from death.
And the sting of sin withheld frxim crime.
" Who knows Its strength by trial, will know
What strength must be set against a sin;
And how temptation Is overcome
He has learned, who has felt its power within I
"And who knows how a lift at Uie last may show?
Why, look at the moon from where we stand I
Opaqoe, nneren, yon say; yet it shines,
A Inminous sphere, complete and grand I
" So let my post stand, Just as It stands.
And let me now, as I may, grow old ;
I am what I am, and my life fOr me
Is the beat— or It had not been, I bold."
If I have written aright this hasty sketch, there are hope
and comfort therein for those who are just entering uiion
rcspoDBible lifd with no more than average opportunities and
advantages. If I have not shown this, read the works of
Alice and Fhebo Gary, and find it there I
( <l
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I
k
r'
': UABaABBT TULLEB OSSOLI. 173
I
«H«H
4
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J
MABOABET FULLSB OSSOLI. 173
MARGARET FULLER OSSOLI.
BY T. W. HIGOINSON.
Tbatellino by rail in Michigan, some ten years ag I, I
found myself seated next to a young Western girl, wiih a
very intelligent face, who soon began to talk with me about
literary subjects. She afterwards gave me, as a reason for
her confidence, that I ^looked like one who would enjoy
Margaret Fuller's writings," — these being, as I found, the
object of her special admiration. I certainly took the remark
for a compliment ; and it was, at any rate, a touching tribute
to the woman whose intellectual influence thus brought
strangers together.
Margaret Fuller is connected, slightly but firmly, with my
earliest recollections. We were bom and bred in the sama
town (Cambridge, Massachusetts), and I was the playmate
of her younger brothers. Their family then lived at the old
*• Brattle House," which still stands behind its beautiful lin-
dens, though the great buildings of the University Press now
cover the site of the old-fashioned garden, whose formal fish-
ponds and stone spring-house wore an air of European state-
liness to our home-bred eyes. There I dimly remember the
discreet elder sister, book in hand, watching over the gambols
of the lovely little Ellen, who became, long after, the wife
of my near kinsman, Ellery Channing. This later connection
cemented a new tie, and led to a few interviews in maturer
years with Margaret Fuller, and to much intercourse with
174. BMlKENT W^aMEH OF *fiB'l:*B.
others of the family. It is well to mention even such slight
ties of association as these, for they unconsciously influence
one's impressions ; and, after all, it is the personal glimpses
which make the best part of biography, great or small, and
indeed of all literature. How refreshing it is, amid the
chaff of Aulas Gellius, tcr come- upon a. reference 4o Vireil's
own copy of the .^neid, which the writer had once seen,
^ quern ipsius Virgilii fuisse credebat ;" and nothing in aU
Lord Bacon's works ever stirred me like that one magic sen-
tence, ^ When I was a child, and Queen Elizabeth was in the
flower of her years." I can say that when I wa^ a chfld,
Margaret Fuller was the queen of Cambridge, though trouble^
with a large minority of rather unwilling and insurrectionary
subjects.
Her mother I well remember as one of the sweetest and
most sympathetic of women ; she was tall and not unattrao-
tive in person, refined and gentle, but with a certain physical
awkwardness, proceeding in part from extreme nearsighted-
ness. Of the father I have no recollection, save that he was
mentioned with a sort of respect, ad being a lawyer and hav-
ing been a congressman. But his daughter has described
him, in her fragment of autobiography, with her accustomed
frankness and precision : —
^ My father was a lawyer and a politician. He was a man
largely endowed with that sagacious energy which the state
of New England society for the last half century has been so
well fitted to develop. His father was a clergyman, settled
as pastor in Princeton, Massachusetts, within the bounds of
whose parish farm was Wachusett. His means were small,
and the great object of his ambition was to send his sons to
college. As a boy, my father was taught to think only of
preparing himself for Harvard University, and, when there,
of preparing himself for the profession of law. As a lawyer,
MARGAEri PuiiLEB dSSO£i: 175
again, the ends constantly presented were to work for dis-
tinction in the community, and for the means of supporting
a family. To be an honored citizen and to have a home on
earth were made the great aims of existence. To open tho
deeper fountains of the soul, to regard life here as the pro-i>
phetic entrance to immortality, to develop his spirit to per*
fection, — motives like these had never been suggested to
him, either by fellow-beings or by outward circumstancesi
The result was a character, in its social aspect, of quite the
common sort. A good son and brother, a kind neighbor, an
active man of business,' — in all these outward relations, he
was but one of a class which surrounding conditions have
made the majority among us. In the more delicate and in->
dividual relations he never approached but two mortals, my
mother and myself.
''His love for my mother was the green spot on which he
stood apart from the commonplaces of a mere bread-winning,
bread-bestowing existence. She was one of those fair and
flower-like natures which sometimes spring up even beside
the most dusty highways of life, — a creature not to be shaped
into a merely useful instrument, .but bound by one law with
the blue sky, the dew, and the frolic birds. Of all persons
whom I have known she had in her most of the angelic, -^
of that spontaneous love for every living thing, for man, and
beast, and tree, which restores the golden age.''
Sarah Margaret Fuller was bom May 23, 1810 ; the eldest
child of Timothy Puller and Margaret Crane. Her birth-
place was a house on Cherry Street, in Cambridge, before
whose ^oor still stand the trees planted by her father on the
year when she saw the light. The family afterwards removed
to the **Dana House," which then crowned, in a stately way,
the hill between Old Cambridge and Cambridgeport. It was
later still that they resided in the ** Brattle House,'' as I have
176 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
described. This was Margaret Fuller^s home until 1833,'
exept that she spent a year or more at the school of the
Misses Prescott, in Groton, Mass., where she went through
that remarkable experience described by herself, under the
assumed character of Mariana, in ^ Summer on the Lakes.*'
In 1826 she returned to Cambridge.
The society of that University town had then, as it still
has, great attractions for young people of talent. It offers
something of that atmosphere of culture for which such per-
sons yearn, — tinged, perhaps, with a little narrowness and
constraint. She met there in girlhood the same persons who
were afterwards to be her literaiy friends, colaborers, and
even biographers. It was a stimulating and rather perilous
position, for she found herself among a circle of highly cul-
tivated young men, with no equal female companion ; al-
though she read Locke and Madame de Stael with Lydia
Maria Francis, afterwards better known as Mrs. Child. Car-
lyle had just called attention to the rich stores of German
literature; all her friends were exploring them, and some
had just returned from the German universities. She had
the college library at command, and she had that vast and
omnivorous appetite for books which is the most common sign
of literary talent in men, but is for some reason ex-
ceedingly rare among women. At least I have known but
two young girls whose zeal in this respect was at all compar-
able to that reported of Margaret Fuller, these two being
Harriet Prescott and the late Charlotte Hawes.
In 1833 her father removed to Groton, Mass., much to her
regret. Yet her life there was probably a good change in
training for one who had been living for several years in an
atmosphere of mental excitement. In March, 1834, she
wrote thus of her mode of life : —
^ Marcht 1834. — Four pupils are a serious and fatiguing
HABGABET PULLEB OSSOLI. 177
charge for one of my somewhat ardent and impatient dispo-
sition. Five days in the week I have given daily lessons in
three languages, in geography and history, besides many
ol^er exercises on alternate days. This has consumed often
eight, always five hours of my day. There has been also a
great deal of needle-work to do, which is now nearly finished,
80 that I shall not be obliged to pass my time about it when
eveiything looks beautiful, as I did last summer. We have
had very poor servantB, end, for some time past, only one.
My mother has been often ill. My grandmother, who passed
the winter with us, has been ill. Thus you may imagine, as
I am the only grown-up daughter, that my time has been con-
glderably taxed.
^ But as, sad or merry, I must always be learning, I laid
down a course of study at the beginning of winter, compris-
ing certain subjects, about which I had always felt deficient.
These were the History and Greography of modem Europe,
beginning the former in the fourteenth century ; the Elements
of Architecture ; the works of Alfieri, with his opinions on
them ; the historical and critical works of Goethe and Schil-
ler, and the outlines of history of our own country.
**I chose this time as one when I should have nothing ti>
distract or dissipate my mind. I have nearly completed this
course, in the style I proposed, — not minute or thorough, I
confess, — though I have had only three evenings in the
week, and chance hours in the day for it. I am very glad I
hare undertaken it, and feel the good effects already. Oc^
casionally I try my hand at composition, but have not com-
pleted anything to my own satisfaction.''
On September 23, 1835, her father was attacked by chol-
era, and died within three days. Great as must have been
the blow to the whole family, it was greatest of all to
Margaret. The tie between them had been very close » and
178 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AQE.
this sudden death threw the weight bf the whole household
upon the eldest child. It came at what had seemed to her
the golden moment of her whole life ; for she was about to
visit Europe with her constant friends, Professor and Mrs.
Farrar, and with their friend Harriet Martineau, who was
just returning home. But all this must be at once aban-
doned. Mr. Fuller had left barely property enough to
support his widow, and to educate the younger children,
with the aid of their elder sister. Mrs. Fuller was in del-
icate health, and of a more yielding nature than Margaret,
who became virtually head of the house. Under her strong
supervision, two out of the five boys went honorably through
Harvard College, — a third having previously graduated, —
while the young sister was sent to the best schools, where
she showed the family talent.
In the autumn of 1836, Margaret Fuller went to Boston,
where she taught Latin and French in ^r. Alcott's school,
and had classes of young ladies in French, German, and
Italian. She also devoted one evening in every week to
translating German authors into English, for the gratifica-
tion of Dr. Channing, — their chief reading being in De
Wette and Herder. The following extract will show how
absorbing were her occupations: —
** And now let me try to tell you what has been done. To
one class I taught the German language, and thought it good
success, when, at the end of three months, they could read
twenty pages of German at a lesson, and very well. This
class, of course, was not interesting, except in the way of
observation and analysis of language.
** With more advanced pupils I read, in twenty-four weeks,
Schiller's Don Carlos, Artists, and Song of the Bell, besides
giving a sort of general lecture on Schiller ; Goethe's Her-
mann and Dorothea; Goetz von Berlichingen ; Iphigenia;
MAROABBT FULLEB OSSOLI. 179
first part of Faueit, — three weeks of thorough study this,
as valuable to me as to them; and Clavigo, — thus com-
prehending samples of all his efforts in poetry, and bringing
forward some of his prominent opinions ; Lessing's Nathan,
Minna, Emilia Galeotti; parts of Tieck's Phantasus, and
nearly the whole first volume of Eichter's Titan.
^ With the Italian class, I read parts of Tasso, Petrarch, —
whom they came to almost adore, — Ariosto, Alfieri, and the
whole hundred cantos of the Divina Commedia, with the aid
of the fine AthensBom copy, Flaxman*s designs, and all the
best commentaries. This last piece of work was and will
be truly valuable to myself."
She was invited, in 1837, to become a teacher in a private
school just organized, on Mr. Alcott's plan* in Providence,
R. I. •* The proposal is,*' she wrote, " that I shall teach the
elder girls my favorite branches for four hours a day, —
choosing my own hours and arranging the course, — for a
thousand dollars a year, if upon trial I am well pleased
enough to stay." This was a flattering offer, and certainly
shows the intellectual reputation she had won. She accepted
it, for the sake of her fisimily, though it involved the neces-
sity of leaving the friends and advantages which Boston had
given. She had also to abandon her favorite literary project,
the preparation of a Life of Goethe for Mr. Eipley's series
of translations from foreign literature. It was perhaps
as a substitute for this that she translated '* Eckermann's
Conversations with Goethe," though it did not appear till
after her removal to Jamaica Plain, in 1839. It is an admi-
rable version, and there is after all no book in English from
which one has so vivid and familiar impression of Goethe.
Her preface is clear, moderate, and full of good points,
though less elaborate than her subsequent essay on the same
tnbiect. No one, I fimcy, has ever compressed into one
180 EMINENT WOMEN 07 THE AOE.
sentence a sharper analysis of this great writer than when
she says of him in the preface, ^I think he had the artist's
eye and the artist's iiand, but not the artist's love of struc-
ture."
^ She took a house in Jamaica Plain, on her own responsi-
bility, in the spring of 1839, and removed thither the family,
of which she was practically the head. The next year they
returned once more to Cambridge, liying in a small house
near her birthplace.
In the autumn of 1839, she instituted that remarkable con-
versational class, which so stimulated the minds of the more
cultivated women of Boston, that even now the leaders of
thought and intellectual society date back their first enlight-
enment to her, and wish that their daughters might have such
guidance. The very aim and motive of these meetmgs
showed her clear judgment. She held that Women were at
a disadvantage as compared with men, because the former
were not called on to test, apply, or reproduce what they
learned ; while the pursuits of life supplied this want to
men. Systematic conversations, controlled by a leading
mind, would train women to definite statement, and con-
tinuous thought ; they would make blunders and gain by
their mortification ; they would seriously compare notes with
each other, and discover where vague impression ended and
clear knowledge began. She thus states, in her informal
prospectus, her three especial aims : —
^ To pass in review the departments of thought and knowl-
edge, and endeavor to place them in due relation to one
another in our minds. To systematize thought, and give a
precision and clearness, in which our sex are so deficient, —
chiefly, I think, because they have so few inducements to
test and classify what they receive. To ascertain what pur-
suits are best suited to us, in our time and state of society.
MABGABET FULLEB OSSOLI. 181
and how we may make best use of our meaus for building
up the life of thought upon the life of action."
These couversations lasted during several successive win-
ters, with much the same participants, numbering from
twenty to thirty. These were all ladies. During one brief
series, the experiment of admitting gentlemen was tried,
and it seems singular that this should have failed, since
many of her personal friends were of the other sex, and
certainly men and women are apt to talk best when together.
In this exceptional course, the subject was mythology, and it
was thought that the presence of those trained in classical
studies might be useful. But an exceedingly able historian
of the enterprise adds, " All that depended on others entire-
ly failed. • . . Even in the point of erudition on the
subject, which Margaret did not profess, she proved the best
informed of the party, while no one brought an idea, except
herself. Take her as a whole," adds this lady, ^ she has the
most to bestow upon others by conversation of any person I
have ever known. I cannot conceive of any species of vanity
living in her presence. She distances all who talk with her."
It is said by all her friends that no record of her conver-
sation does it any justice. I have always fEincied that the
best impression now to be obtained of the way she talked
when her classes called her " inspired," must be got by read-
ing her sketch of the Eoman and Greek characters, in her
autobiographic fragment. That was written when her con-
versations most flourished, in 1840, and a marvellous thing it
is. It is something to riead and re-read, year after year, with
ever new delight. Where else is there a statement, so vivid,
BO brilliant, so profound, of the total influence exerted on a
thoughtful child by those two mighty teachers ? No attempt-
ed report of her conversation gives such an impression of
wha^. it must have been, as this self-recorded reverie. If on
182 EUIHENT WOMEN 07 TEE AGS,
tiie trit«st of all aubjects, she could bo easily write something
admirable, what must it have been when the restraints of the
pen — to her most distasteful — were removed ?
On the last day of these meetings — which were closed
only by her departure for New York — she wrote thus : —
"April 28, 1844. It was the last day with my class.
How noble has been my experience of such relation now for
six years, and with bo many and so various minds ! Life is
worth living, — is it not? We had a most animated meeting.
On bidding me good-by, they all and always show so much
good-will and love that I feel I must really have become a
friend to them. I was then loaded wit^ beautiful gifts, ac-
companied with those little delicate poetic traits, which I
should delight to t«ll you of, if you were near."
While thus serving women, she aided men also, by her
editorship of the "Dial." This remarkable quarterly, estab-
lished in 1840, by a circle of her Mends, was under her ex-
clusive charge for two years, and these the most characteristic
years of its existence. It was a time of great seething In
thought and many people had their one thing to say, which
being said, they retired into the ranks of common meu. The
less instructed found their outlet in the radical conventions,
then so abundaat; the more cultivated uttered themselves
in the " Dial." The contributors, who then thronged around
Margaret Fuller, -:- Emerson, Alcott, Parker, Thoreau, £ip-
ley, Hedge, Clarke, W. H. Channing, — were the true
founders of American literature. They emancipated the
thought of the nation, and also its culture, though their
mode of utterance was ofl«n crude and cumbrous from ex-
cess of material. These writers are all now well known,
and some are famous ; but at that time not one of them was
popular, save Theodore Parker, whose vigorous commou'
MABQABET FULLEB OSSOLI. 183
sense soon created for itself a wide public. It was his
articles, as Mr. Emerson has since told me, that sold the
nombers; that is, as far as they did sell, which was not
very far. The editor was to have had two hundred dollars
as her annual salary, but it hardly reached that sum, and I
beUeve that the whole edition was but five hundred copies.
I can testify to the vast influence produced by this periodi-
cal, even upon those who came to it a year or two after its
first appearance, and it seems to me, even now, that in spite
of its obvious defects, no later periodical has had so fresh
an aroma, or smacked so of the soil of spring. When the
unwearied Theodore Parker attempted, half a dozen years
jfter, to embody the maturer expression of the same phase
of thought in the *^ Massachusetts Quarterly Review,'' he pre-
dicted that the new periodical would be ^*The Dial, with
a beard." But the result was disappointment. It was all
beard, and no ^^Dial."
During the first year of the •* Dial's " existence, it contained
but little from the editor, — four short articles, the "Essay on
Critics,'* " Dialogue between Poet and Critic," "The Allston
Exhibition," and " Menzel's View of Goethe," — and two of
what may be called fantasy-pieces, " Leila," and " The Mag-
nolia of Lake Pontchartrain." The second volume was richer,
containing four of her most elaborate critical articles, —
"Goethe," "Lives of the Great Composers," "Festus," and
"Bettine Brentano." Few American writers have ever pub-
lished in one year so much of good criticism as is to be
found in these four essays. She wrote also, during this
period, the shorter critical notices, which were good, though
uniequal. She was one of the first to do hearty justice to
Hawthorne, of whom she wrote, in 1840, " No one of all our
imaginative writers has indicated a genius at once so fine and
80 rich." Hawthorne was at that time scarcely known, and it
is singular to read in her diary, four years earlier, her ao-
184 EMINENT WOMEN OE THE AGE.
count of reading one of his •* Twice-told Tales,** under the
impression that it was written by ** somebody in Salem," whom
she took to be a lady.
I find that I underscored in my copy of the ** Dial," with
the zeal of eighteen, her sympathetic and wise remark on
Lowell's first volume. *' The proper critic of this book would
be some youthful friend to whom it has been of real yalue
as a stimulus. The exaggerated praise of such an one would
be truer to the spiritual fact of its promise than accurate
measure of its performance." This was received with delight
by us ardent Lowellites in those days, and it still seems to
me admirable.
In the third volume of the " Dial," she wrote of ^ Beetho-
ven," •* Sterling," ''Romaic and Bhine Ballads," and other
themes. In the fourth volume she published a remarkable
article, entitled, "The Great Lawsuit; Man versus Men,
Woman versus Women." It was a cumbrous name, for which
even the vague title, " Woman in the Nineteenth Century,"
was hailed as a desirable substitute, when the essay was re-
printed in book-form. In its original shape, it attracted so
much attention that the number was soon out of print ; and
it is not uncommon to see sets of the " Dial " bound up with-
out it.
She printed, in 1841, another small translation from the
German, — a portion of that delightful book, the correspond-
ence between Bettine Brentano and her friend Giinderode.
One-fourth of this was published in pamphlet form, by way
of experiment ; and it proved an unsuccessful one. Long
after, her version was reprinted, the work being completed
by a fer inferior hand. Margaret Fuller was one of the best
of translators, whether in reproducing the wise oracles of
Goethe, or the girlish grace and daring originality of Bet-
tine and her friend. She says of this last work, in a spirit
worfliy the subject : " I have followed as much as possible
MABGARET FULLEB OSSOLI. 185
the idiom of the writer as well as her truly girlish punctua-
tion. Commas and dashes are the only stops natural to girls ;
their sentences flow on in little minim ripples, unbroken as
the brook in a green field unless by some slight waterfall or
jet of Ohs and Ahs.** I know of no other critic who has
ever done exact justice to the wonderful Bettine, recognizing
fully her genius and her charms, yet sternly pointing out the
ineritable failure of such self-abandonment and the way in
which the tree which defies the law mars its own growth.
During the summer of 1843, she made a tour to the West
with her friends James Freeman Clarke and his artist-sister.
The result of this was her first original work, " Summer on the
Lakes," — a book which, with all artistic defects upon its head,
will yet always remain delightful to those who first read it in
its freshness. To this day it is almost the only work which
presents Western life in any thoughtful or ideal treatment, — •
which is anything more than a statistical almanac or a treatise
on arithmetical progression. Though most of its statements
of fact are long since superseded, it yet presents something
which is truer than statistics, — the real aroma and spirit of
Western life. It is almost the only book which makes that
great region look attractive to any but the energetic and exec-
utive side of man's nature. In this point of view even her
literary episodes seem in place ; it is pleasant to think that
Buch books as she describes could be read upon the prairies.
In the narrative of most travellers it would seem inappropri-
ate to say that they stopped in Chicago and read a poem. It
woidd seem like being ofiered a New York ** Tribune" at
Poestum. But when Margaret Fuller reads "Philip Van
Artevelde," by the lake shore, just in the suburbs of the busy
city, all seems appropriate and hannonized, and the moral
that it yields her is fit to be remembered for years.
"In Chicago I read again * Philip Van Artevelde,' and
186 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
certain passages in it will always be in my mind associated
with the deep sound of the lake, as heard in the night. I
used to read a short time at night, and then open the blind to
look out.. The moon would be full upon the lake, and the
calm breath, pure light, and the deep voice harmonized well
with the thought of the Flemish hero. When will this coun-
tiy have such a man? It is what she needs; no thin ideal-
isly no coarse realist^ hut a man whose eye reads the heavens^
while his feet step firmly on the ground ^ and his hands are
strong and dexterotts for the use of human implements.^*
What was that power in Margaret Fuller which made her
words barbed arrows, to rem^n in the hearts of young peo-
ple forever? For one I know that for twenty years that sen-
tence has haunted me, as being, more than any other, the true
formula for the American man, the standard by which each
should train himself in self-education. I fancy that the
secret of my allegiance to this woman lies in the shaping
influence of that one sentence. Others have acknowledged
the same debt to other stray phrases she uses, — her ''lyric
glimpses," as Emerson called them. Thus William Hunt,
the artist, acknowledged that a wholly new impulse of aspira-
tion was aroused in him by a few stray words she had pen-
cilled on the margin of a passage in Mrs. Jameson's '^ Italian
Painters."
Even the narrative in this book, and its recorded conver-
sations, show that she exerted on travelling acquaintances this
stimulating and unlocking power. This showed itself wdth
the Illinois farmers, "the large first product of the soil," and
especially with that vanishing race, who can only be known
through the sympathy of the imagination, the Indians.
There is no book of travels, except, perhaps, Mrs. Jameson's,
which gives more access to those finer traits of Indian charac-
ter that are disappearing so fSstst amid persecution and demoral-
MABGABET FULLEB 0880LI. 187
ization. Bat the book as a whole, is very fra^entary and
episodical 9 and in this respect, as well as in the wide range
of merit and demerit in the verses here and there inter-
spersed, it reminds one of Thoreau's *• Week on the Concord
and Merrimack Bivers." It is hardly possible, however, to
regret these episodes, since one of them contains that rare
piece of childish autobiography, ^ Mariana ; " which is how-
ever separated from its context in her collected works.
In 1844 she removed to New York. It is not the least
of Horace Greeley's services to the nation, that he was
willing to entrust the literary criticisms of the ^ Tribune ** to
one whose standard of culture was so far above that of his
readers or his own. Nevei*theles8, there she remained for
nearly two years, making fearless use of her great oppor*
tunity of influence. She was dogmatic, egotistic, and liable
to err ; but in this she did not differ from her fellow-critics.
The point of difference was in the thoroughness of training
to which she had submitted, — at least in certain dkections,
— the elevation of her demands, her perfect independence,
and her ready sympathy. With authors who demanded
flattery on the one side, and a public on the other which
demanded only intellectual substance, and was almost in-
different to literary form, she bravely asserted that litera-
ture was to be regarded as an art. Viewing it thus, she
demanded the highest ; reputations, popularity, cliques, to
her were nothing; she might be whimsical, but she was
always independent, and sought to try all by the loftiest
standard. If she was ever biased by personal considera-
tions,— and this rarely happened, — it was always on the
chivalrous side.
Of all Americans thus far, she seems, to me to have been born
for a literary critic. One of her early associates said well " that
she was no artist ; she could never have written aiv epic, or
romance, or drama ; yet no one knew better the qualities
188 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
which go to tiie making of these ; and, though catholic as to
kind, DO one was more rigidly exacting as to quality." She
puts this still better in her own journal : " How can I ever
write, with this impatience of detail? I shall uoTer be an
artist. I have no patient love of execution. I am delighted
with my sketch, but if I try to finish it, I am chilled. Never
was there a great sculptor who did not love to chip the mar^
blc."
But the very fact that she was able to make this discrim-
ination shows her critical discernment. There are not a
dozen prose-writers in America who " love to chip the mar-
ble ; " but so long as we do not discover the defect, we can
neither do good work ourselves nor appreciate that of another.
All Margaret Fuller's books are very defective as to form ;
but because she saw the fault, she was able to criticise the
books of others.
She had also the rare quality of discerning both needs of
the American mind, — originality aud culture, — and no one,
except Emerson, has done so much to bridge the passage
from a tame and imitative epoch to a truly indigenous litera-
ture. Most of US are either effeminated by education, or are
left crude and rough by the want of it. She who so exquis-
itely delineated the Greek and Roman culture in her frag-
ment of autobiography, had yet the discernment to write
in an essay, " It was a melancholy praise bestowed on the
German Iphigenia, that it was an echo of the Greek mind.
Ob, give us something rather than Greece more Grecian, so
new, so universal, so individual I "
It was, therefore, an event in the history of our literature,
when a woman thus eminently gifted became the literary
critic of the New York "Tribune," — then, and perhap?
still, the journal possessing the most formative influence
over the most active class of American mind?. There were,
of course, drawbacks upon her fitness. She was sometimes
MAB6ABET EULLEB OSSOLI. 189
ftntastic in her likings ; so are most fastidious people ; so is
Emerson. She might be egotistical and overbearing. But
she was honest and true. It was apt to be the strong, not
the weak, whom she assailed. Her greatest errors were com-
mitted in vindicating those whom others attacked, or in de-
throning popular favorites to make room for obscurer merit.
A different course would have made her life smoother and
her memory less noble.
In her day, as now, there were few well-trained writers in
the country, and they had little leisure for criticism ; so that
work was chiefly left to boys. The few exceptions were
cynics, like Poe, or universal flatterers, like Willis and
Griswold. Into the midst of these came a woman with no
gifts for conciliation, with no personal attractions, with a
habit of saying things very explicitly and of using the first
person singular a good deal too much. In her volume of
"Papers on Literature and Art,'' published in 1846, there is
a preface of three pages in which this unpleasant grammat-
ical form occurs just fifty times. This is very characteristic ;
she puts the worst side foremost. The preface once ended,
the rest of the book seems wise and gentle, and only
egotistic here and there.
Or at least, nothing need be excepted from this claim,
except the article on "American Literature" — the only
essay in the book which had not been previously published.
Gentle this was not always, nor could it be ; and she further-
more apologized for it in the preface (wisely or unwisely), as
prepared too hastily for a theme so difficult, and claimed only
that it was ^ written with sincere and earnest feelings, and
from a mind that cares for nothing but what is permanent
and essential." ** It should, then," she adds, ^have some
merit, if only in the power of suggestion." It certainly has
such merit. It is remarkable, after twenty years, to see how
many of her judgments have been confirmed by the public
190 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
mind. How well, for instance, she bronght forth from
obscurity the then forgotten genius of Charles Brockden
Brown ; how just were her delineations of Bryant, Willis,
Dana, Halleck ; how well she described Prescott, then at his
culmination, — his industry, his wealth of material, his clear
and elegant arrangement, and his polished tameness I So
much the public could endure. It was when she touched
Longfellow and Lowell that her audience, or that poition
of it which dwelt round Boston, grew clamorously in-
dignant.
In reverting, after twenty years, to these criticisms, one
perceives that the community must have grown more frank or
less sensitive. There seems no good reason why they should
have made so much stir. There is no improper personality
in them, and, though they may be incorrect, they are not
unfair. She frankly confesses to ^ a coolness towards Mr.
Longfellow, in consequence of the exaggerated praise be-
stowed upon him. When we see a person of moderate
powers receive honors which should be reserved for the
highest, we feel somewhat like assailing him and taking from
him the crown which should be reserved for grander brows.
And yet this is perhaps ungenerous.*^ She then goes on to
point out the atmosphere of overpraise which has always
surrounded this poet, — sa}*s that this is not justly chargeable
on himself, but on his admirers, publishers, and portrait-
painters ; and adds in illustration that the likeness of him in
the illustrated edition of his works suggests the impression
of a ^ dandy Pindar." This phrase, I remember, gave great
offence at the time ; yet, on inspection of that rather smirk-
ing portrait, it proves to be a fair description; and she
expressly disclaims all application of the phrase to the poet
himself. She defends him from Poe's charges of specific
plagiarism, and points out, very justly, that these accusations
x)nly proceed from something imitative and foreign in many
HABGABET FULLEB OSSOLI. 191
of his images and in the atmosphere of much of his verse.
She says, as many have felt, that he sees nature, whether
human or external, too much through the windows of litera-
ture, and finally assigns him his place as ** a man of cultivated
taste, delicate though not deep feeling, and some, though not
much, poetic force/' This may not be an adequate statement
of the literary claims of Longfellow ; but it certainly does
not differ so widely from the probable final award as to give
just ground for complaint against the critic. It is also re-
corded by Mr. Greeley that she only consented to review
Longfellow's poems with the greatest reluctance, and at the
editor's particular request, *• assigning the wide divergence
of her views of poetry from those of the author and his
school as the reason."
Towards Lowell she showed more asperity. Yet there was
nothing personal in her remarks, even here; there was
simply an adverse literary criticism, conveyed with a slight
air of 'arrogance. To preface an opinion with ''We must
declare it, though to the grief of some friends and the disgust
of more," was undoubtedly meant for a deprecatory and
regretful expression ; but it had a sort of pompous effect
that did not soften the subsequent brief verdict. She
declared him "absolutely wanting in the true spirit and
tone of poesy," with the addition that ^'his interest in the
moral questions of the day had supplied the want of vitality
in himself." Even this last statement was far too strong, no
doubt. Yet it will now be admitted by Lowell's warmest
admirers that his poetic phases have been singularly coincident
with his phases of moral enthusiasm. His early development
of genius was united with extreme radicalism of position ; then
followed many years, comprising the prime of his life, when
both his genius and his enthusiasm seemed quiescent. It
was the unforeseen stimulus of the war which made him
again put on his singing robes, for that ^* Commemoration
192 EMINENT WOMiTn OY THE AOE.
Ode," which is incomparably the greatest of his poems. All
this vindicated in some degree the discernment, though it
could not justify the sweeping manner of Margaret Fuller's
criticism ; and her tone of arrogance is more than counter-
balanced by the fierce personalities with which the poet re-
taliated upon her in the ^ Fable for Critics."
The criticisms on English poets in this collection seem to
me singularly admirable; they take rank with those of
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, in her ^ Essays on the Poets.**
There are many single phrases that are unsurpassed in
insight and expression, as where she speaks of the ^ strange,
bleak fidelity of Crabbe." "Give Coleridge a canvas," she
says, "and he will paint a picture as if his colors were made
of the mind's own atoms." " The rush, the flow, the delicacy
of vibration in Shelley's verse can only be paralleled by the
waterfall, the rivulet, the notes of the bird and of the insect
world." ''It is as yet impossible to estimate duly the effect
which the balm of his [Wordsworth's] meditations has had
in allaying the fever of the public heart, as exhibited in
Byron and Shelley." This is a rare series of condensed
criticisms, on authors about whom so much has been written,
and her remarks on the new men — Sterling, Henry Taylor,
and Browning — were almost as good. She was one of the
first in America to recognize the genius of Browning, and,
while his " Bells and Pomegranates " was yet in course of
publication, she placed liim at the head of contemporary
English poets.
There is much beside, in these rich volumes ; a brief criticism
on "Hamlet," for instance, in one of the dialogues, which is
worthy to take rank with those of Mrs. Jameson ; and an essay
on "Sir James Mackintosh," which, in calm completeness and
thorough workmanship, was her best work, as it was one of
her latest. Indeed, the "Papers on Literature and Art"
always seemed to me her best book ; far superior to the
MARGARET FULLER OSSOLI. 193
''Woman in the Nineteenth Century " (published two years
previously), which was. perhaps framed on too large a scalo
for one who had so little constructive power. It was nobl**
in tone, enlightened in its statements, and full of suggestion ;
yet after all it was crude and disconnected in its execution.
But the " Papers " have been delightful reading, to me at least,,
for twenty years, and I could quote many a sentence which
has passed into my bone and marrow, as have those of Emei^
son. " Tragedy is always a mistake." " The difference betweea
heartlessness and the want of a deep heart." ^ We need to*
hear the excuses men make to themselves for their worthless-
neas." "It needs not that one of deeply thoughtful mind be
passionate, to divine all the secrets of passion. Thought is.
a bee that cannot miss those flowers." And so on.
The only complaint I should make in regard to this book
is founded on its title," Papers on Literature and Art." With*
art, save as included in literature, she should not have med-
dled. At least, she should have dealt only with the biogra-
phy and personal traits of artists, — not with their work. One
of her early friends said that the god Terminus presided over
her intellect ; but to me it seems that she did not always rec-
ognize her own limits. A French wit said that there were
three things he had loved very much, without knowing any-
thing about them, — music, painting, and women. Margaret
Fuller loved all three, and understood the last.
If, however, she was thus tempted beyond her sphere, itr
was less perhaps from vanity than because she yielded to the
demand popularly made on all our intellectual laborers, that,
they should scatter themselves as much as possible. Literary
work being as yet crude and unorganized in America, the
public takes a vague delight in seeing one person do a great
many different things. It is like hearing a street musician
perform on six instruments at once ; he plays them all ill, but
it is so remarkable that he should play them together. If we^
18
194 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
have a stirring pulpit orator, he most try his hand on a novel ;
if a popular editor, he must wiite a history of the rebellion.
Margaret Fuller, under the same influence, wrote on painting
and music, and of course wrote badly.
As to this whole charge of vanity, indeed, there have cer-
tainly been great exaggerations. She had by inheritance
certain unpleasant tricks of manner, which gave the impres-
sion, as Emerson said, of '*a rather mountainous Me.'' She
was accustomed to finding herself among inferiors, and lorded
it a little in her talk. She was also obliged, as a woman, to
fight harder than others, first for an education and then for a
career. All these influences marred her, in some degree ;
and those whom her criticisms wounded, made the most of
the result. But though her most private diaries and letters
have been set before the public, I do not see that anything
has been produced which shows a petty or conceited disposition,
while she has certainly left on record many noble disclaim-
ers. A woman who could calmly set aside all the applauses
she received for her wonderful conversation by pointing out
to herself that this faculty "bespoke a second-rate mind,"
could not have had her head turned by vanity. At another
time she wrote in her diary, ** When I look at my papers, I
feel as if I had never had a thought that was worthy the at-
tention of any but myself; and 'tis only when, on talking
with people, I find I tell them what they did not know, that
my confidence at all returns."
In truth, she was not made of pure intellect ; if that quality
marks men (which I have never discovered), then she
was essentially a woman. ^ Of all whom I have known,"
wrote one of her female friends, ^ she was the largest woman,
and not a woman who wished to be a man." And 'one of her
friends of the other sex wrote of her, " The dry light which
Lord Bacon loved she never knew ; her light was life, was
love, was warm with sympathy, and a boundless enei^ of
MABGABET FULLBB OSSOLI. 195
tffecfion and hope." The self-devotion of her closing years
brought no surprise to those who remen4>9red how she had sacri-
ficed her most cherished plans for the sake of educating her
brothers ; and how she had through all her life been ready to
spend money and toil for those around her, when she had little
money and no health. She gave to the community, also, the
better boon of moral courage ; it showed itself most conspic-
uously in the telling of unwelcome truth ; but it was man-
ifested also in heroic endurance, since she was, as Mr.
Emerson has testified, ^ all her life the victim of disease and
pain.'*
Her life thus did more for the intellectual enfranchisement
of American women than was done by even her book on the
subject, though that doubtless did much, exerting a perma-
Hent influence on many minds. ISo one has ever given so
compact a formula for the requirements of woman. She
claims for her sex " not only equal power with man, — for of
that onmipotent nature will never permit her to be defrauded,
— but a chartered power, too fully recognized to be abused."
Never were there ten words which put the whole principle of
impartial suflrage so plainly aa these. And even where her
statements are less clear, they always rest on wise reflection,
not on any one-sided view. Thus, for instance, she showed
better than most her faith in the eternal laws which make
woman unlike man, — for she w^ ready to trust these laws
instead of legislating to sustain them. She knew that there
was no fear of woman's unsexing herself. ** Nature has
pointed out her ordinary sphere by the circumstances of her
physical existence. She cannot wander far. . . . Achilles
had long plied the distaff as a princess, yet at first sight of a
irword, he seized it. So with woman, — one horn* of love
would teach her more of her proper relations than all your
formulas.''
After twenty months of happy life and labor in New York,
196 EMINENT WOMEN OP THE AGE.
ahe sailed for Europe, thus fulfilling the design abaadoaed
eleven years before, when her home duties demanded the sac-
rifice. She published in the "Tribune'' (Aug. 1, 1846), a
cordial and almost enthusiastic ** Farewell to New York,"
thanking the great city for all it had been to her. She had
found no more of evil there than elsewhere, she said, and
more of sympathy, and there was at least nothing petty or
provincial. Perhaps, after visiting Eiu*ope, she thought dif-
ferently. New York does not at first seem provincial to a
Bostonian, nor Paris to a New Yorker ; but all great cities
bOon show themselves provincial, by their disproportioned
self-estimate, their tiresome local gossip, and their inability
to tolerate real independence. Still it was good for one, who
lived her life as strongly as Margaret Fuller, to seek the
largest atmosphere she could find, and win her own emanci-
pation at last.
Over the tragic remainder of her life I shall pass but light-
ly, for I have preferred to reverse the proverb and be the
historian of her times of peace alone. It is because they
were not really her times of peace, but only her training for
final action ; besides, it was during those years that she was
most misconstrued and maligned ; and it is more interesting
to dwell on this period than to add a garland where all men
praise. Enough to say that in that later epoch all the undue
self-cultiu'e of her earlier life was corrected, and all its self-
devotion found a surer outlet. That '^hour of love" of
which she had written came to her, and all succeeding hours
were enriched and ennobled. Throwing herself into the
struggle for a nation's life, blending this great interest with
the devotion due to her Italian husband, she lived a career
that then seemed unexampled for an American woman, though
our war has since afibrded many parallels. During the siege
of Rome, in 1848, the greater part of her time was passed in
the hospital ^ dei Pellegrini j^ which was put under her spe-
MARGARET PULLER OSSOLI. 197
cial direction. ^ The weather was intensely hot ; her health
was feeble and delicate ; the dead and dying were around her
in every stage of pain and horror ; but she never shrank from
the duty she had assumed.'* **! have seen," wrote the Amer-
ican consul, Mr. Cass, " the eyes of the dying, as she moved
among them, extended on opposite beds, meet in commenda-
tion of her universal kindness.'*
She was married in Italy, during the year 1847, to Giovan-
ni Angelo, Marquis Ossoli, — a man younger than herself,
and of less intellectual culture, but of simple and noble nature.
He had given up rank and station in the cause of the Roman
Republic, while all the rest of his family had espoused the
other side ; and it was this bond of sympathy which first
united them. Their child, Angelo Philip Eugene Ossoli, was
bom at Rieti, September 5th, 1848. After the %11 of the
republic it was necessary for them to leave Rome, and this
feet, joined with her desire to print in America her history
of the Italian struggle, formed the main reasons for their re-
turn to this country. They sailed from Leghorn, May 17th,
1850, in the barque Elizabeth, Captain Hasty.
Singular anticipations of danger seem to have hung over
their departure. "Beware of the sea" had been a warning
given Ossoli by a fortune-teller, in his youth, and he had
never before been on board a ship. ** Various omens have
combined," wrote his wife, "to give me a dark feeling." "In
case of mishap, however, I shall perish with my husband and
child." Again she wrote, " It seems to me that my future
on earth will soon close." " I have a vague expectation of
Bome crisis, I know not what. But it has long seemed that
in the year 1850 I should stand on a plateau in the ascent of
life^ where I should be allowed to pause for awhile and tiike a
more clear and commanding view than ever before. Yet my
life proceeds as regularly as the fates of a Greek tragedy,
and I can but accept the pages as they turn."
198 EMINENT WOMEN 07 THE AQE.
As they were leaving Florence at the last moment, letters
arrived which would probably have led them to remain in
Italy, had not all preparations been made. And on the very
day of sailing, in Leghorn, Margaret lingered for a final
hour on shore, almost unable to force herself to embark. It
seemed as if there were conflicting currents in their destiny,
which held them back while they urged them forward.
Their voyage was very long, and the same shadow still
appeared to hang over them. The captain of the barque, in
whom they had placed the greatest confidence, soon sickened
and died of malignant small-pox, and was buried off Gibral-
tar. They sailed thence on June 9th. Two days after,
the little Angelo was attacked with the same fearful disease,
and only recovered after an illness that long seemed hopeless.
On July 15th, they made the New Jersey coast at noon, and
stood to the north-east, the weather being thick, and the
wind south-east. The passengers packed their trunks, as-
sured that they should be landed at New York the next
morning. By nine o'clock the wind had risen to a gale, and
this, with the current, swept them much farther (o the north
than was supposed. At two and a half, a. m., the mate in
command took soundings, found twenty-one fathoms of wa-
ter, pronounced all safe, and retired to his berth. One hour
afterwards, the bark struck on Fire Island beach, just off
Long Island.
The main and mizen masts were at once cut away, but the
ship held by the bow, and careened towards the land, every
wave sweeping over her, and carrying away every boat.
She was heavily laden with marble and soon bilged. The
passengers hastily left their berths and collected in the cabin,
which was already half full of water. They braced them- ^
selves as well as they could, against the windward side.
Little Angelo cried, the survivors say, until his mother sang
him to sleep, while Ossoli quieted the rest with prayer.
MARGARET FULLER OSSOLI. 199
The crew were at the forwai-d end of the vessel ; and when
the wreck seemed ready to go to pieces, the second mate,
Mr. Davis, came aft to the cabin with two sailors, and helped
the passengers to a safer place. This transfer was made
terribly dangerous by the breaking surf. The paptaiii's wife,
who went first, was once swept away, and was caught only
by her hair. Little Angelo was carried in a canvas bag,
bung round the neck of a sailor.
Passengers and crew were now crowded round the fore-
mast, as the part likely to last longest. Here they re-
mained for several hours. Men were seen collectins: on
the beach, but there was no life-boat. After a time, two
sailors succeeded in reaching the shore, the one with a life-
preserver, the other with a spar. Then Mr. Davis, the cour-
ageous mate, bound the captain*s wife to a plank, and swam
with her to the shore, where she arrived almost lifeless.
The distance was less than a hundred yards, but the surf
was fearful. Madame Ossoli was urged to attempt the pas-
sage as Mrs. Hasty had done, but steadily refused to be
separated from her husband and child. Time was passing ;
the tide was out; the sea grew for the time a little calmer.
It was impossible to built a raft, and there was but this one
chance of escape before the tide returned. Still the husband
and wife declined to be parted; and, seeing them resolute,
the first mate ordered the crew to save themselves, and most
of them leaped overboard. It was now past three o'clock ;
they had been there twelve hours. At length the tide turned,
and the gale rose higher.
The after part of the vessel broke away, and the foremast
shook with every \^ave. From this point the accounts vary,
as is inevitable. It seems however to be agreed, that the
few remaining sailors had again advised the Ossolis to leave
the wreck ; and that the steward had just taken little Angelo
in his arms to try to bear him ashore, when a more powerful
200 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
sea swept over, and the mast fell, carrying with it the deck,
and all on board. Ossoli was seen to catch for a moment at
the rigging, and then to sink. The last recorded glimpse of
Margaret was when she was seated at the foot of the mast, in
her white night-dress, with her hair fallen loose about her
shoulders.
Their bodies were never found ; but that of the little An-
gelo was cast upon the beach twenty minutes after, aud was
reverently buried among the sand-hills by the sailors, one
of whom gave his chest for a cofiSn. The remains were
afterwards transferred to Mount Auburn cemetery, near
Boston, and there reinterred in presence of weeping kins-
folk, who had never looked upon the living beauty of the
child.
It was the expressed opinion of one who visited the scene,
a few days after, that seven resolute men could have saved
all on board the ** Elizabeth." The life-boat from Fire
Island light-house, three miles off, was not brought to the
beach till noon, and was not launched at all. For a time the
journals were, full of the tragedy that had taken away a life
whose preciousness had not been fully felt till then. But
now, looking through the vista of nearly twenty years, even
this great grief appears softened by time. The very fore-
bodings which preceded it seem now to sanctify that doom
of a household, and take from its remembrance the sting.
Three months before, in planning her departure, this wife
and mother' had thus unconsciously accepted her coming
fate : " Safety is not to be secured by the wisest foresight.
I shall embark more composedly in our merchant-ship, pray-
ing fervently, indeed, that it may not be my lot to lose my
boy at sea, either by unsolaced illness or amid the howling
waves ; or, if so, that Ossoli, Angelo, and I may go together,
and that the anguish may be brief." Her prayer was ful-
filled.
. MARGABET FULLER OS SOLI. 201
The precious manuscript, for whose publication her friends
and the friends of Italy had looked with eagerness, was lost '
in the shipwreck. Her remaining works were reprinted in
Boston, a few years later, under the careful editorship of her
brother Arthur ; — that " Chaplain Fuller," who had been
educated by her self-sacrifice, and who afterwards gained a
place beside hers, in the heart of the nation, by his heroic
death at Fredericksburg, during the late rebellion. Her
biography has also been amply written by the friends whom
she would most readily have selected for the task, Messrs.
Emerson, Clarke, and Channing.
Since her day, American literature has greatly widened its
base, but has raised its summit no higher. There is a mul-
tiplicity of books and magazines, and a vast increase of un-
trained literary activity. Yet, not only has she had no
successor among women, but we still miss throughout our
criticism her culture, her insight, her fearlessness, her
generous sympathies, and her resolute purpose to apply the
highest artistic standard to the facts of ^merican life. It is
this sense of loss that is her true epitaph. It was said to
have been Fontenelle's funeral oration, when the most bril-
liant woman in France, having uttered after his death a
witticism too delicate for her audience, exclaimed sadly,
"Fontenelle ! where are you?" And so every American
author, who has a higher aim than to amuse, or a nobler test
of merit than bis publishers' account, must feel that some-
thing is wanting while Margaret Fuller's place remains
unfilled.
5X)2 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
GAIL HAMILTON— MISS DODGE.
BY FANNY FERN.
•* Will I write a sketch of Gail Hamilton ? "" Will I touch
off a Parrott gun? I thought, and will it "kick" if I do?
However, I ventured to send the following missive : —
*• My deab Miss Dodge, otherwise Gail Hamilton : — A
book is in prospect. Many of our well-known literary peo-
ple are to write for it. Its title is to be 'Eminent Women
of the Time.' You and I are* to be in it. I am to do you.
Who is to serve aae up, the gods only know. Will you be
good enough to inform me at your earliest convenience, when
and where you cut your first tooth, whether you had the •
measles before the mumps, or the mumps before the measles ;
also, any other interesting items about yourself.
^ Writing about you will be a labor of love with me ; for
although a stranger to you, save through vour writings, I
rejoice every day in your existence.
^ Please send an early answer.
** Yours, etc.,
** Fanny Fern.*
In a few days I received the following reply : —
*My dear Mrs. Fern: — The coolness of you New
Yorkers is astonishing. You are about to burn me at the
GAIL HAMILTON. 203
stake, and will I have the goodness to send on shavings and
dry wood by the next mail ?
^ Thank you, ma'am, I will.
"LIFE AND SUFFERINGS OP
" GAIL HAMILTON.
•• WJUITKN BT rrSXLF. AND WITH FORBfER TRANBLATIOITS DILIOBNTLr
COMFABED ASD BEVISED.
"To the best of my knowledge and belief, I was bom in
the *New York Independent,' some time during the latter half
of the present century, and before the * Independent' had been
annexed to the domains of Theodore, King of Abyssinia,
against whom the great powers have just advanced an expe-
dition. Simultaneously, or thereabouts, I was also bom in the
* National Era.' So I must be twins. On that ground it has
never been satisfactorily settled, whether I am myself or Mrs.
Simpson, of Washington. If I am Mrs. Simpson, I am the
wife of an officer, who, to his infinite regret, was not killed in
the late unpleasantness, and am a lineal descendant of that
Simple Simon, who once went a-fishiug f<9r to catch a whale,
though all the water thai he had was in his mother's pail.
If I am not Launcelot, nor another, but only my own self, I
am like Melchisedec, without father, without mother, with-
out descent, and my enemies fear, also, I have no end of life.
On one point commentators are agreed, — that I am not an
'Eminent Woman' of my time, and therefore have no part
nor lot in your book. In fact I am
*' Neither man nor woman,
I ain neither bmte nor haman,
I'm a ghoul I
••And all that I ask is to be let alone. From the 'Inde-
pendent' I graduated into the ' Congregationalist,' of blessed
memory ; and from the ' Era ' I paddled over into the ' At-
lantic' I flourish in immortal vigor on the cover of ' Our
204 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
Young Folks/ and at sundry times, and in divers other man*
ners and places, have, I fear, contributed to the deterioration
of our youth. I sadly confess, also, that 1 am guilty of as
many books as Mrs. Rogers had small children ; but being
written in love, and in the spirit of meekness, they are held
in high esteem, especially of men. Whereuuto I also add,
like St. Paul, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of
all the churches.
** Such, unhappy fellow-sufferer, is my thrilling story. If
any one shall add unto these things, let him tremble lest I
imprecate upon him all the plagues of the Apocalypse ; and
if any person shall dare saddle any other man or woman with
the sins which I alone have perpetrated, I say prophetically
to such saddler, * Lord Angus, thou hast '
"Thanking you for your friendly words, and rejoicing, like
King David in his great strait, that I am not to fall into the
bands of maUf
** I am very respectfully,
** Gail EL^milton.
•* Respectfully , that is, if you respect my rights; but I
shall have a lifelong quarrel even with you, if you spread be-
fore the public anything which I myself have not given to
the public. I have really very strong opinions on that point ;
and, notwithstanding its commonness, I consider no crime
more radically heinous than the violation of privacy. You
must have suffered from it too severely yourself to be sur-
prised at any abhorrence of it on my part. I most heartily
wish you could find it in your plan to leave me out in the
cold. Of course, if you judge from my writings that I am
a woman, you can say what you please about that woman,
that writer, and I have neither the wish nor the right to say
you nay. So much of the woman as appears in an author's
writings is public property by her own free will. All tbe
GAIL HAMILTON. 205
rest belongs to her reserved rights. I pray you speak, if
speak you must, so wisely as to make this clear. Launch
thunderbolts, or sing songs, as you find fit ; but read the pref-
ace of my first book, * Country Living and Country Think-
ing,' and govern yourself accordingly ; and I shall be, without
any condition, and positively the last time,
•* Yours very truly,
" Gail Hamilton.'*
Upon the receipt of this I wrote again, requesting per-
mission to give the public the above characteristic epistle ;
which I told her was altogether too good to be buried in my
desk ; adding that, if she wanted me to behave prettily, she
should not threaten me, as a threat always made me '* balky ;**
that it was quite useless also, because I wished and intended
to handle her as tenderly as would her own " mammy." I
received a reply, of which this is a part : —
" Deab Fannt : — Do whatever you like with the letter ; I
don't care, and don't think you * must handle me tenderly.'
Say anything and everything you like ; storm or shine within
your ' sphere.' You don't like threats : strange, — but I will
give you one more. If you do write a paper on me, and do
not put in any of those impertinences which are so common
in newspapers, but confine yourself to that which is common
and lawful plunder, I shall not only put you a notch higher
than the general run of people, but I shall keep a select cor-
ner for you in my private regard and gratitude, where you
can come and take a nap by yourself, any time. Now ^balk'
if you dare I
''Gail Hamilton."
This, dear reader, by way of preface. Now allow me to say
ttiflt there are only two things in this world I am afraid of, — *
206 EMINENT WOMEN UF THE AGE.
one is a mouse, the other is a woman. My first impulse on
being brought face to face with either, is to jump upon the
nearest chair or table. Judge, then, how dear the public must
seem, in my eyes, when, ignoring this my chronic terror, I
boldly march up to the indomitable lady, whose name graces
the head of this article, and attempt to sketch her : A lady,
at whose mention stalwart men have been known to tremble,
and hide in comers ; who " keeps a private graveyard " for
the burial of those whom she has mercilessly slain ; who
respects neither the spectacles of the judge, nor the surplice
of the priest ; who holds the mirror up to men's failings
till they hate their wives merely because they belong to her
sex; this lady who blushes not to own that she is **a
Ghoul," — who lately impaled the Rev. Dr. Todd on the
point of her lance, and left him writhing without so much as
pouring a drop of oil on to his wounds, or bathing his very
soft head ; this lady who keeps defiantly doing it, although
she has been told that notwithstanding she has amassed sev-
eral pennies, the fruits of these wicked promulgations, and
deposited the same in banks for a rainy day, the sex whom she
defies may, contrary to their usual custom in such cases^ refuse
Aven to nibble at tJiat bait, and doom her to die, without a
chance to sew on shirt-buttons, or '^seat" a pair of trowsers.
One naturally inquires how such a female monster came
to exist? In other and more elegant phrase, '* what did Uf^
Was she, like Romulus and Remus, suckled by a she-wolf in
her infancy? Were vipers her cherished toys in childhood?
Was her youth defrauded of the usual sugar-plums that she
keeps on making mouths at her fellow-creatures in this way?
Or, what is still more important to ascertain, is there any way
she could be pacified, or bought off, or " shut up," from this
infernal attempt to set women upon their feet, and to trip
men from off theirs.
To convince you how pertinent is my question, I will
GAIL HAMILTON. 207
quote in this connection a few of her most incendiary pas-
sages:—
^It costs a woman just as much to live as it does a man.
If men were willing to practise the small economies that
women practise, they could live at no greater expense."
" Man is a thief, and holds the bag, and if women do not
like what tliey get, so much the better. They will be all the
more willing to become household drudgps."
^ Make a man understand that he shall eat his dinner like
a gentleman, or he shall have no dinner to eat. If he will
be crabbed and gulp, let him go down into the coal-bin and
have it out alone ; but do not let him bring his Feejee-ism into
the dining-room, to defile the presence of his wife, and cor-
rupt the manners of his children."
**A woman should dress so as to be grateful to her hus-
band's eye, I grant; nay, I enjoin ; and he is under equally
strong obligations to dress so as to be grateful to her eye. I
have heard a woman say variety in dress is necessaiy in order
that her husband may not be wearied. But does a man ever
think of having several winter coats, or summer waistcoats,
so that his wife may not weary of him? And if a man buys
his clothes, and wears them according to his needs, why shall
not a woman do the same ? Is there any law or gospel forc-
ing a woman to be pleasant to her husband, while the hus-
band is left to do that.which is right in his own eye ? Or are
the visual organs of a man so much more exquisitely arranged
than those of a woman, that special adaptations must be made,
to them, while a woman may see whatever happens to be a Za
mode? Or has a mans dress intrinsically so much more
beauty and character than a woman's that less pains need he
taken to make it charming?"
"" Take example from the toad ," Gail says to her sisters ;
* swallow your dress, not precisely in the same sense, but as
208 EMINENT WOMEN OP THE AGE.
effectually. Overpower, subordinate your dress, till it shall
be only a second cuticle, not to be distinguished from your-
self, but a natural element of your universal harmony."
^ Women's work is a round of endless detail. Little in-
significant, provoking items, that she gets no credit for doing,
but fatal discredit for leaving undone. Nobody notices
that things are as they should be ; but if things are not as
they should be, it were better for her that a millstone were
hanged about her neok."
^ The best women, the brightest women, the noblest women,
are the very ones to whom house-keeping is the most irksome.
I do not mean house-keeping with well-trained servants ; for
that is general enough to admit ' a brother near the throne,'
but that alas I is almost unknown in the world wherein I have
lived ; and a woman who is satisfied with the small economies,
the small interests, the constant contemplation of small things
which a household demands, is a very small sort of woman.
I make the assertion both as an inference and as an observa-
tion. A noble discontent, not a peevish complaining, bat
a universal and a spontaneous protest, is a woman's safeguard
against the deterioration which such a life threatens, and her
proof of capacity, and her note of preparation for a higher.
Such a woman does not do her work less well, but she i-ises
superior to her work."
** Men do not believe, so much as they profess to, this menial
gi'avitation. If they did they would never lecture women so
much about it. The very frenzy and frequefvcy of their ex-
hortations are suspicious.^*
** Some men dole out money to their wives as if it were a
gift, a charity, something to which the latter have no right,
but which they must receive as a favor, and for which they
must be thankful. Now a man has no more right to his earn-
ings than his wife has ; they belong to her as much as to him.
As a general rule the fate and fortunes of the family lie in* her
GAIL HAMILTON. 209
hands as much as in his. What absurdity to pay him his
vsages and to give her money to go shopping with I
^ The money should be regularly and mechanically supplied
to her as the dinner, exciting no more comment, and needing
no more argument. Whether it is kept in her pocket or his
may be of small moment ; but as she does not lock up the
dinner in the cupboard, and then stand at the door and
dole it out to him by the plateful, but sets it on the table for
him to help himself, so it is better and more pacific that he
should deposit the money in an equally neutral and accessible
locality. I portray to myself the flutter which such a propo-
sition would raise in many marital bosoms. Would that they
might be soothed. It is well known among farmers that hens
will not eat so much if you set a measure of com where they
can pick whenever they choose, as they will if you only fling
a handful now and then, and keep them continually half-
starred. At the same time they will be in better condition.
So, looking at thg matter from the very lowest stand-point, a
woman who has free access to the money will not be half so
likely to lavish it, as the woman who is put off with scanty
and infrequent sums. «
'^It is marvellous to see the insensibility with which men
manage these delicate matters. It is impossible for a man to
be too scrupulous, too chivalrous, too refined, in his bearing
towards his wife. The very act of receiving money from him
puts her in a position so equivocal that the utmost affection
and attention should be brought into play to reassure her.
Yet men will deliberately, iu the presence of their wives,
io their wives, groan over the cost of living. They do not
mean extravagant purchases of silk and velvet which might
be a wife's fault or thoughtlessness, and furnish an excuse
for rebuke ; but the butcher's bill, and the grocer's biD, and
the joiner's bill. Man, when a woman is married, do you
thmk she loses all personal feeling? Do you think your
14
210 EMINENT WOMEN OB THE AGB.
glum look over the expenses of house-keeping is a fulfilment
of your promise to love and cherish ? Does it bring suashiue,
and l^hten toil, and bless her with knightly grace? Do you
not know that it is only a way of regretting that you married
her? You go out to your shop, or sit down to your newspa-
per, and forget all about it. She sits down to her sewing, or
stands over her cooking-stove, and meditates upon it with in-
describable p^. These veiy men, who complain because it
costs so much to live, will lose by bad debts more than their
wives spend ; they will, by sheer negligence, by a selfish
reluctance to present a bill to a disagreeable person, by a
cowardly fear lest insisting on what is due should alienate a
customer, — by indorsinga not«, or lending money, through
mere want of courage to sayKo, — lose money enough to foot
up a dozen bills. They waste money in cigars ; in sending
packages by express, rather than have the trouble to take
them themselves ; in buying luxuries which they were bet-
ter without. A man is persistently, perversely, and with
malice aforethought, extravagant. He is so, in spite of ad-
monition and remonstrance. Where his jiersonal comfort or
interest is concerned, he scorns a sacrifice. He laughs at the
eu^estion that such a little thing makes any difference one
way or another."
This is a long extract from Miss Hamilton, but evety word
is solid gold, and should be printed and filmed and hung up
in every husband's well, wheresoever he keeps his cigars,
so that he would be sure to see it. 1 myself have heard a
man ask a wife who had borne them twelve children, and who
was an economical, painstaking, thrifty house-keeper, "What
she did with the leut dollar he gave her ?" True, men do not
like to see this unpleasant reflection of themselves in our au-
thor's glisB ; but that ia no reason why she should smash it.
And 8S she once remarked to a married lady, who told her
GAIL HAMILTON. 211
that her husband was greatly incensed at her mention of such
things: *^Well, — let him rasp, — he is no husband of
mine 1 **
At this safe distance, thisParrott gun of a woman explodes
the following, for which I confess a hearty relish : —
"A father goes into the nursery, and has aSnerry romp
with his children; but when he is tired, or they take too
many liberties, he goes out, and thinks his children very
charming. When papa comes in, the children are often hur-
ried out of sight and sound, for they will * disturb papa.*
This kind woman shuts them up carefully within her own
precincts. They may overrun her without stint. They may
climb her chair, pull her work about, upset her basket, scratch
the bureau, cut the sofa, turn to her for healing in eveiy lit-
tle heartache ; but no matter. They are kept from ' disturb-
ing papa I ' I am amazed at the folly of women 1 Kept from
disturbing papa I Bather hound them on I Put the crying
baby in his arms the moment he enters the house, and be
sure to run away at once beyond reach, or, with true mascu-
line ingenuity, he will be sure at the end of five minutes to
find some pretext for delivering the young orator back into
your care. He ought to experience their obviousness^ their
inconvenience 9 tlieir distraction. Let him come into dose con^
tact with his children^ and see what^they are^ and what they
do, and he will have far more just ideas of the whole subject
than if he stands far off, and from old theories on the one side,
and ten minutes of dean apron and bright faces on the other,
pronounces his euphonious generalizations. His children will
elicit as much love and interest, together toith a great deal
more knowledge, and a great deal less silly, mannish sentimen*
talism."
I itrlicize the last sentence, as one of the choicest and most
212 EMINENT WOMEN 07 THE AQE.
sensible verses in Miss Gail's new gospel. I really fhink I
couldn't have done better myself I
Bea^ ihisy too : —
**Men often bave too much confidence in their measuring-
lines. They fancy they have fathomed a soul's depths when
they have but sounded its shallows. They think they have
circumnavigated the globe, when they have only paddled in a
cove. They trim their sails for other seas, leaving the
priceless gems of their own undiscovered. Many a wife is
wearied and neglected into moral shabbiness, who, rightly
entreated, would have walked sister and wife of the gods."
As our author's books are for sale, perhaps I should re-
member the hctf and curb my desire to copy all her very
just and very intrepid sayings ; but here is one which every
husband should pin into the crown of his hat : —
**Men, — you to whose keeping a woman's heart is en-
trusted,— can you heed this simple prayer, Love me, and teU
me 80 sometimesf "
Our author has probably heard husbands reply to this:
^ Why, that is of course understood ; it \a childish to wish or
expect such a thing put into words." Now, without stopping
to discuss the " childishness " of it, if it makes a wife hap-
pier, is it wise, or best, for a husband to overlook that fact?
And sure I am, many a wife loses all heart for her monoto-
nous round of duties for the want of it; beside, when
men the world over have promulgated the fact that women
are but "grown-up children," where's the harm of being
« childish?"
Does not Gail Hamilton see anything commendable, or vir-
tuous, or honorable, or manly in men ? is the question som^
GAIL HAMILTON, 213
times propounded by them ; after which follows this slung-
shot : •* She must have been very unfortunate in her selection
of male acquaintances.''
Leaving this last unworthy slur in the kennel where it
belongs, listen to the following from the lady in question : —
•* Every-day occurrences reveal in men traits of disinter-
estedness, consideration, all Christian virtues and graces.
My heart misgives me when I think of it all, — their loving
kindness, their forbearance, their unstinted service, their in-
t^liify, and of the not sufficiently unfrequent instances in
which women, by fretfiilness, folly, or selfishness, irritate
and alienate the noble heart which they ought to prize above
rubies. Considering the few good husbands there are in the
world, and how many good women there are, who would
have been to them a crown of glory had the coronation been
effected, but who instead are losing all their piu'e gems down
the dark, unfathomed caves of some bad man's heart ; con-
sidering this, I account that woman to whom has been al-
lotted a good husband, and who can do no better than to spoil
him and his happiness by her misbehavior, guilty, if not of
tbe unpardonable sin, at least of unpardonable stupidity. I
could make out a long list of charges against women, and of
excellences to be set down to the credit of men. But women
have been stoned to death, or at least to coma, with charges
already ; and when you would extricate a wagon from a
fioughf you put your shoulder first and heaviest to the wheel
thai is the deepest in tJie mud; especially if the other wheel
would hardly he in at aU unless this one had pulled it in/^*
There — after this who shall speak ? Not I. It is a fitting
finale to the whole subject. Gail Hamilton needs no lawyer
when her case appears in court. But there may exist be-
nighted human beings who have not read her smnmings up *
iii4t EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
or have declined reading them, because it is so much easier to
decide upon a question when you only look at one side of it.
For their benefit I have culled a few nettles, whose whole-
some pricking may let out some bad blood, and prepare foi
them a more healthful mental and moral condition. There is
no necessity for thanks on their part, as the work has ideally
been its own reward.
Now, if my readers suppose that there is " no fun " in our
author, or that she looks only at the shady side of every
8i;Lbject, let them read the following extract from her ^ Gala-
Days": —
^I don't know how it is, but in all the novels that I have
read, the heroines always have delicate, spotless, exquisite
gloves, which are continually lying about in the garden paths,
and which lovers are constantly picking up, and pressing to
their hearts and lips, and treasuring in little golden boxes
or something, and saying how like that soft glove, pure and
sweet, is to the beloved owner ; and it is all very pretty,— but
I cannot think how they manage it. I am sure I should be
very sony to have my lovers go about picking up my gloves.
I don't have them a week before they change color; the
thumb gapes at the base, the little finger rips away from the
next one, and they all burst out at the ends ; a stitch drops
in the back, and slides down to the wrist before you know it
is started. You can mend, to be sure^ but for every dam
you've twenty holes. I admire a dainty glove as much as
any one ; I look with enthusiasm not unmingled with despair,
at these gloves of romance ; but such things do not depend
entirely upon taste, as male writers seem to think. A pair of
gloves cost a dollar and a half, or two dollars, and when you
have them, your lovers do not find them in the sununer-
house. Why not? Because they are lying snugly wrapped
in oiled silk in the upper bureau-drawer, only to be taken out
GAIL HAMILTON. 215
on great occasions. You would as soon tbiuk of wearing
Victoria's crown for a head-dress as those gloves on a picnic.
So it happens that the gloves your lovers find will be sure to
be Lisle thread, and dingy and battered at that ; for how can
you pluck flowers, and, pull vines, and tear away mosses,
without getting them dingy and battered ? And the most
fSG^tidious lover in the world cannot expect you to buy a new
pair every time. For me, I keep my gloiKs as long as the
backs hold together, and go around for forty-five weeks
of the fifty-two with my hands clenched into fists to cover
omissions."
And now you will naturally say to me, — This is all very
well ; but tell us something about her personally. Where
does she live ; and how? Is she single or wedded? Is she
tall or short? Plain or pretty? Has she made money as
well as made mouths ? In short, let us have a little gossip.
That's what we are after.
Don't I know it? I should think I had been laid on the
gridiron times enough myself to understand your appetite.
Well — here goes. "Gail Hamilton's" real name is Mary
Abigail Dodge. Her birthplace is in Hamilton, Massachu-
setts. She is unmarried, a Calvinist, and an authoress from
choice. Her father was a farmer. Her mother produced
Grail Hamilton ; that is sufiicient as far as she is concerned.
She had a brother, who Mrs. Grundy declares is the " Hali«
camassus " mentioned in her books, and whom the men she
has flagellated in her writings call ^ poor devil I " supposing
him to be her Jiusbandl
She was brought up as New England girls are generally
brought up in the country — , simply, healthfully, purely;
with plenty of fences for gymnastics ; with plenty of berries,
and birds, and flowers, and mosses, and clover-blossoms, and
fruit, in the sweet, odorous summers; with plenty of romping
216 EMINENT WOMEN 07 THE AGE.
companions, not subjects for early tombstones and obituary
notices, but with broad chests, sun-kissed faces, and nimble
limbs and tongues, — children who behaved naturally for their
age ; who twitched away books and balls from their owners,
and pouted, and sometimes struck, and often got mad, and
strutted when they wore fine clothes, and told lies, — **real
whoppers," — and took the biggest half of the apple, and
were generally aggravating, as exuberant, healthy childhood
always is.
Then little Mary had other companions less aggressive in
the birds, the bees, and the grasshoppers. She went
Maying, too, on May mornings, as every true-born New
England child should, as I myself have done, whether the sky
were blue or black ; whether she shivered or was warm in a
white gown ; whether the May-flowers were in blossom for
May-day wreaths, or the snow-flakes were coming down
instead. She had chickens, too, and when they first came,
she fed them with soaked and sweetened cracker ; later, she
made fricassees of them, and omelets of their eggs. She
had three cats; one, named Molly after herself; another, a
hideous, saffron-colored, forlorn, little wretch, that was
abandoned by an Irish family, and which she felicitously
baptized Rory O'More. This cat one day crept into the oven.
Mary, ignorant of the fact, shut the door, wishing to retain
the heat. Hearing a stifled ^^mew," she opened it, and out
flew the cat and plunged through the house outside into the
nearest snow-bank, from whence she emerged, with true Irish
elasticity, right-end up, and as good as new. The third cat
little Mary housed was a perfect savage ; her mistress never
being able to catch sight of her save in her fierce and light-
ning-like transits through the house. These cats fought each
other, scratched, and made the fur fly, stole chickens, and
gave that zest and excitement to her childish days which
might well astonish our city-prisoned urchins, —shut up with
GAIL HAMILTON. 217
a cross French nurse, to keep fheir silk dresses clean, in a
nursery, from whose windows the only view is a dead brick
wall.
Then she rode to mill in an old wagon, with mammoth
wheels, painted green outside and drab within, with a mov-
able seat, on which was placed a buffalo-robe for a cushion.
After little Mary had taken her seat, the wagon was backed
up to the gate, the " tailboard " let down, and huge bags of
tow-cloth filled with shelled com were placed in the cart to
be ground, then transformed into Johnny-cakes, brown bread,
and Indian puddiug. As they were put beside her, this
imaginative little girl fancied that they might resemble those
of Joseph's brethren, mentioned in the Bible, which were
carried down into Egypt, with plenty of room in every sack's
mouth for a silver cup and coru-money.
When all these bags were safely deposited in the mill,
and little Mary and the old, horse started for home, who
happier than she? The rough gates, which opened to let
them through, seemed to turn on goldeq hinges. Her quick
eye noted the branches of feathery fern, the panting cows,
standing knee-deep in the cool water, and even the stagnant
pool which she knew would by and by blossom forth with
pure white lilies ; while the yellow blossoms of the barberry
hedge would ripen to crimson clusters in the crisp days of
the coming autumn ; this barberry bush, around which she
joined hands with her little romping companions, and sang : — -
<* As we go round the barberry bnsh,
The barberry, barberry, barbeny bush;
As we go round the barberry bush,
So early in the morning ;
This is the way we wash our clothes,
We wash, we wash, we wash our clothes;
This is the way we wash our clothes,
So early in the morning.
218 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
Then Maiy and her companions would imitate the washing of
clothes and the ironing, and woe to her who should first lose
breath in doing it.
Then there were the lovely New England country Sundays,
heralded by the song of birds, and odor of blossoms, and
creeping away of mist from valley and mountain, as the
warm sun gladdened every living thing. Every New Eng-
lander knows what that is without further preface.
Sundays to little Mary, under these conditions, were not
prisons or chains. They were best clothes, with a pleasant,
clovery smell in them when they were taken out of the
drawer to be worn. Sunday was baked beans, and a big,
red Bible with the tower of Babel in it full of little bells,
and a lovely walk two miles through a lane full of sweet-
ness and bird-singing ; over the bars, through ten acres, over
another pair of bars, through a meadow, over another pair
of bars, by a hill, over a wall, through another meadow,
through the woods, over the ridge, by Black Pond, over a
fencci across a railroad, over another fence, through a pasture,
through the long woods, through another gate, out upon the
high road at last.
Then, as our little girl was no diseased, embryo saint,
during the long service, which she could not understand, she
looked at the people and the fine bonnets around her, and
never was she willing to stay at home, be the service ever so
long. Then she went to Sunday school, where the children
on coming out used to say, '* I think your ribbon is prettier
than mine." ^ Is your veil like Susy's?" ^ Why don't you
wear your blue dress to meeting?" "Do you know Joe
got fourteen perch yesterday?" 'And she read the library-
books and ate gingerbread in the interim, and then came the
afternoon service, and then the long, pleasant ride home, and
then the catechism in the evening, and the unfiuling big red
GAIL HAMILTOK. 219
Bible. And thia is the brilliant tribute of her maturor years
to Uie New England, much-reviled Sabbaths : —
**0 Puritan Sabbaths I doubtless you were sometimes
stormy without and stormy within ; but, looking back upon
you from a&r, I see no clouds, no snow, but perpetual sun-
shine and blue sky, and ever eager interest and delight;
wild roses blooming under the old stone wall ; wild bees
bumming among the blackberry bushes; tremulous, sweet
columbines skirting the vocal woods ; wild geraniums start-
ling their shadowy depths ; and I hear now the rustle of
dry leaves, bravely stirred by childish feet, just as they used
to rustle in the October afternoons of long ag». Sweet
Puritan Sabbaths ! breathe upon a restless world your calm,
still breath, and keep us from the evil I "
ToKlay, Gail Hamilton is not only independent in thought
and expression, but I am happy to say, in pocket. She
is also a living, breathing, brilliant refutation of the absurd
notion that a woman with brains must necessarily be ignorant
of, or disdain, the every-day domestic virtues. When she
writes of house-keeping and kindred matters, she knows what
she is talking about. All the New England virtues of
thrift, executiveness, thoroughness — in short, ^f amity ^^ — are
exemplified in her daily practice. Well may there be sun-
shine inside her house ; well may the flowers in her garden
bloom, and the fruits ripen, skilfully tended by 9uch fin-
gers I
One piece of advice before I close I will volunteer to the
male sex who ^ desire to keep clear of a woman like that."
Let them consider it a heaven-sent impulse ; as several rash
gentlemen, who, to my personal knowledge, disregarded it,
have with base ingratitude towards the tame of her species.
220
EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGS.
who fully endorsed their setaphic qualities, not only npon
personal acquaintance with her, forgiven her for smiting them
on one cheek, but voluntarily and lovingly have turned the
other. Forewarned •^—forearmed I
XLIZABXTH BABBSTT BBOWNING. 221
1 r. '
J
\
J
i
BLIZABXTH BABBSTT BBOWKING. 221
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.
■•09-
BT BDWABD T. HINCKS.
Thbbb has probably lived within the past oentury no wo-
man whose genius, character, and position are more fall of
interest than Mrs. Browning's. She was not only far above
all the female poets of her age, but ranked with the first
poets. She was not only a great poet, but a greater woman.
She loved and honored art, but she loved and honored hu-
manity more* Borti and reared in England, her best affec-
tions were given to Italy, and her warmest friends and most
enthusiastic admirers are found in America. And when to
her rare personal endowments is added the fact that she was
the wife of a still greater poet than herself, what is needed to
make her the most remarkable woman of this, perhaps of any,
age?
And, as there is no woman in whose life and character we
may naturally take a greater interest, so there is none whom
we have better facilities of knowing. Of the ordinary ma-
terials out of which biographies are made, her life indeed
furnishes few. Its external incidents were not many nor
marked. The details of her family life have been very prop-
erly kept from the public. The publication of her letters
has been deferred until after her husband's death. But what
Mrs. Browning thought, felt, and was, is revealed with almost
unexampled clearness in her writings. With all her genius
she possessed in full measure the artlessness of her sex. Her
222 BMINENT WOl^Eir OF TftS AGS.
theory of poetry, too, was that it was but the expression of
the poet's inner nature. Hence, as might be expected, her
poems are but transparent media for the revelation of herself.
Her queenly soul shines through them as wine through a crys-
tal vase. Her friendships, her love, her gnef, her patriotism,
her philanthropy, her religion — all are in them simply and
unaffectedly revealed to us. To obtain a correct conception of
Mrs. Browning, therefore, we must study her character as re-
vealed in her poems, aided, of course, by the light which our
scanty knowledge of the events of her outward life will afford.
As the result of our study we shall find that whatever fault we
may be compelled to find with the artist, we cannot withhold
our entire and hearty admiration for the character of the wo-
man. We shall find that her genius, far from marring, ex-
alted and ennobled her womanhood. We shall feel that the
poet was greater than her poems.
Elizabeth Barrett Barrett was bom in London, in 1809.
Her father was a private gentleman in opulent circumstances.
Her early life was passed partly in London, pai-tly in the
county of Herefordshire, in sight of the Malvern Hills. One
of her minor poems, ^ The Lost Bower," describes with her
peculiar power of graphic picturing the scenefy surrounding
her early home.
" Green the land is where my daily
Steps in Jocund chUdhood played,
Dimpled close with hUi and vaUey,
Dappled very close with shade ;
Summer snow of apple blossoms nmning up from glade to glade.
"Far out, kindled by each other.
Shining hills on hills arise,
Close as brother leans to brother,
When they press beneath the eyes
Of some flither praying blessings
From the gifts of Paradise."
ELIZABEfH BABBETT BBOWNING. 223
The whole poem, which is one of its author's simplest and
sweetest, is well worthy of study for its autobiographical in-
terest. It gives us the picture of a dreamy and thoughtful,
but not morbiif child, loving to ramble in the wild woods,
which her fancy peopled with the heroes and heroines of old.
Mrs. Browning was a child of remarkable precofcity. She
wrote verses at ten, and appeared in print at the age of fifteen.
In the dedication to her father of the edition of her poems
which appeared in 1844, she pleasantly speaks " of the time
far off when I was a child and wrote verses, and when I dedi-
cated them to you who were my public and my critic.'* This
childish precocity was not an indication of early ripening
genius.' Her powers matured slowly. She wrote very
crudely when past thirty. She never attained her full ma-
turity. Miss Barrett's education was such as a woman rarely
receives. She was taught in classics, philosophy, and science.
Her aoquaintance with Greek literature was very extensive.
It embraced, not only the great classic authors, but also
many of the fathers, and the Greek Christian* poets. She
studied Greek under the instruction of her blind friend, the
Kev. Hugh Stuart Boyd, to whom she afterward dedicated
the poem entitled ** The Wine of C^rprus," in which she thus
pleasantly alludes to the hours they had spent together : —
" And I think of those long mornings
Which my thooght goes far to seek,
When, betwixt the folio's tamings,
Solemn flowed the rhythmic Greek.
. Fast the pane the mountain spreading
Swept the sheep-bell's tinkUng noise.
While a girUsh voice was reading,
Somewhat low for oii and oci."
And then she goes on to give in a word or two, with that
happy facility in hitting off the leading features of a great
genius in a smgle phrase, which is one of her most no«
221 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
ticeable characteristics, the impression made upon teacher and
pupil by each author as they read.
But she was not merely a passive recipient of knowledge ;
** For we sometimes gently wrangled,
Yeiy gently, be it said.
Since oar thoughts were disentangled
By no breaking of the thread!
And I charged yon with extortions
On the nobler fiimes of old;
Ay, and sometimes thought yoar Forsons
Stained the purple they would fold."
But it may be doubted whether Mrs. Browning was a thor-
ough and scientific student of the Greek language. * If she
had been so» the effect of such study would have been to cor-
rect her taste 9 and render much of her language less obscure.
Indeed, in spite of her wide reading, one can but form the im-
pression from perusing her writings that she did not receive
a thorough and systematic mental training. Had she been
able to receive the drill of the grammar school and university
she might have used her extraordinary natural gifts to far
greater advantage.
Miss Barrett's first published volume was a small book en-
titled ** An Essay upon Mind and other Poems," published in
1826. The ** Essay on Mind" was an ambitious and imma-
ture production, in heroic verse, which the author omitted from
the collection of her poems which she afterward made, and
which is in consequence rarely to be found. A critic in the
^Edinburgh Review" speaks of it as neither possessing much
intrinsic merit nor giving great promise of originality, but as
^ remarkable for the precocious audacity with which it deals
with the greatest names in literature and science."
In 1833 she published a translation of the ^Prometheus
Bound" of JEschylus. This translation was severely criti-
cised at the time of its publication, and Miss Barrett herself
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING. 223
was BO dissatisfied with it that she executed an entirely new
version, which was included in a subsequent collection of her
poems.
In 1835 she formed an acquaintance with Mary Kussell
Mitford, which soon ripened into intimacy. To this intimacy
the public are indebted for Mrs. Browning's charming little
poem, addressed "To Flush, my Dog" (Flush was a gift
from Miss Mitford),aud for the oft^juoted description of
Miss Barrett as a young lady in her friend's ^ Recollections of
a Literary Life."
This sketch is so graphic, and gives so much information
not elsewhere to be found, that we must quote from it a few
extracts.
Miss Mitford thus describes her friend as she appeared at
the age of twenty-six : —
^ Of a slight, delicate figure, with a shower of dark curls
fidling on either side of a most expressive face, large, tender
ey^s, richly fringed by dark eyelashes, a smile like a sun-
beam, and such a look of youthfulness that I had some diffi-
culty in persuading a friend that the translatress of the * Pro-
metheus' of ^schylus, the authoress of the *£ssay on Mind,^
was old enough to be introduced into company."
The next year Mrs. Browning met with that unfoi-tunato
accident which, with the yet sadder casualty of which it was
the indistinct occasion, cast a dark shadow over her life. A
blood-vessel was ruptured in one of her lungs. A milder
climate being deemed necessary for her recovery, she went,
in company with her eldest and favorite brother, to Torquay.
There she remained nearly a year, and was rapidly gaining
in vigor, when that sad event occurred which nearly killed
her by its shock, and saddened much of her future life. Her
brother was drowned while on a sailing excursion, within
16
226 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGS.
Bight of the windows of the house in which she lived. Even
his body was never found.
•*This tragedy," writes her friend, •* nearly killed Elizabeth
Barrett. She was utterly prostrated by the horror and the
grief, and by a natural but most unjust feeling that she had
been in some sort the cause of this great misery
She told me herself that, during the whole winter, the sounds
of the waves rang in her ears like the moans of one dying.*'
The depth of her anguish may be ima^ned from the fact that,
as another friend tells us, when about to be married ten years
after, she exacted from her husband a promise never to refer
to her brother's death. So prostrated in body was she by
this calamity that a year elapsed before she could be removed
by slow stages to her father*s house in London. There she
lived for seven years, confined to a darkened room, at times so
feeble that life seemed almost extinct, but struggling against
debility and suffering with almost unexampled heroism. There
she continued her studies, having a Plato bound like a novel
to deceive her physician, who feared that mental application
would react injuriously upon her enfeebled frame. There she
wrote, while lying on a couch, unable to sit erect, the poem
of "Lady Greraldine's Courtship" in twelve houra, in order
that the volume of her poems to be published in this country
might be completed in season to catch the steamer. From
that sick chamber went forth poems sufficient in quantity to
be the result of industrious application on the part of one in
good health. And though these poems bear marks of the
peculiar circumstances in which they were written, in a some-
what morbid tone, they show no trace of debility in thought
or imagination. Mrs. Browning has written no ** In Memo-
riam" to tell in melodious notes the story of her grief. No
direct allusion to it is made, if we mistake not, in her poems.
She does not, like most of the poets of her sex, brood plain-
tively over her woes, and sing over and over again, in slightly
ELIZABETH BARBETT BROWNING. 227
altered form, the melancholy strain, "I am bereft, and life is
dark.** Her nature was too strong thus to allow grief to take
possession of it. Sorrow deepened and elevated her nature,
instead of mastering it. There was in her none of the egotism
of grief. She threw her whole soul with redoubled ardor
into her high vocation, finding consolation where great souls
have always found it — in noble work. And yet, though
there is not the least trace in her writings of an egotistical
brooding over grief, there is abundant evidence in them of the
deep suffering through which she passed. It would be diffi-
cult to find a nobler expression of great sorrow, bravely en-
dured, than is afforded by her sonnets on ''Comfort," *' Sub-
stitution," ^ Bereavement, " and ^ Consolation." These simple
but majestic records of her grief are far more affecting, be-
cause they are far less labored and artistic, and seem to come
more directly from the heart, than the mournful beauty of the
•*In Memoriam."
In 1838 Mrs. Browning published ''The Seraphim and
other Poems," and in 1844 a collection of her Poems in two
volumes, including the "Drama of Exile." The reception
with which these poems met in England was, though not
highly flattering, certainly very far from discouraging. Their
faults were severely but not unjustly criticised, and full
recognition wasgiveu to their merits. The " Quarterly Review "
for 1840 concludes an article in which are criticised the works
of nine female poets, who are now nearly or quite all forgot-
ten, except Mrs. Browning, in these words: "In a word,
we consider Miss Barrett to be a woman of undoubted genius
and most unusual learning, but that she has indulged her in-
clination for themes of sublime mystery, not certainly with-
out great power, yet at the expense of that clearness, truth,
and proportion which are essential to beauty.
At about this time Leigh Hunt speaks of her in the follow^
ing language : —
V
228 XMIKENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
** Miss Barrett, whom we take to be the most imaginative
poetess that has appeared iu England, perhaps in Europe, and
who will grow to great eminence if the fineness of her vein
can but outgrow a certain morbidity."
In our own country Mr. E. P. Whipple wrote, that, —
^ Probably the greatest female poet that England has ever
produced, and one of the most unreadable, is Elizabeth B.
Barrett. In the works of no woman have we ever observed
so much grandeur of imagination, disguised as it is in an
elaborately infelicitous style. She has a large heart and a
large brain, but many of her thoughts are hooded eagles."
It seems to us that these critics dealt very justly with Mrs.
Browning. The faults of the two largest poems which she
had published were glaring and extremely offensive to a cor-
rect taste. ** The Seraphim " is a dialogue between two angels
who are witnessing the crucifixion, and giving utterance to
their emotion as they gaze upon the awful spectacle.
The very theme of the poem is enough to show that it must
be a failure. The task of depicting the feelings which that
stupendous sacrifice awakened in seraphic souls, is one which
no one of our race should attempt. What do we know of
the workings of angelic natures ? If, as Mrs. Browning so
often tells us, truth is au essential quality of poetry, how can
we look for poetry where there is no basis on which truth can
rest? A poet of imperial imagination, like Milton or Dante,
may successfully introduce angels as actors in an epic poem,
where the interest centres in what is done, and in which there
is a groundwork of human action, and the most prominent
actors are men ; but is not this far different from attempting
to depict dramatically/ the working of angelic natures ?
As might naturally be expected, therefore, the ^ Seraphim " is
a failure. It is extravagant, mystical, and» in some places.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING. 229
very unpleasant, by reason of its efforts to depict what should
be forever left unattempted by human pencil.
To speak plainly, the freedom with which Mrs. Browning
in these earlier poems attempts to describe the Deity is ex-
ceedingly shocking to a reverent soul. Of course this free-
dom is merely an error of taste, and is rather the attempt of
a vivid faith and ardent love to realize their object, than of a
self-confident spirit to win praises for itself by vividly setting
forth the glories of its Maker ; but good taste and a true rev-
erence alike protest against it.
The ^ Drama of Exile ** shows greater imaginative power
and deals with a more approachable subject than the ^Ser-
aphim," but is hardly less open to criticism. It is based upon
the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden.
The following is an outline of its plot : The poem opens
with an exulting soliloquy by Lucifer, which is interrupted
by the entrance of Gabriel. In the colloquy which ensues
between them the fallen angel exults over his success, and
Gabriel meets his taunts with pitying scorn, and bids him de-
part and *^ leave earth to God." The scene then changes.
Adam and Eve appear in the distance, flying across the glare
made by the flaming sword, and are followed in their flight
by a lamentation and farewell, chanted by a chorus of Eden
spirits ; the spirits of the trees, the rivers, the birds and the
flowers each in turn taking up the song. The scene now
changes to the outer extremity of the light cast by the flaming
sword. There Adam and Eve stand and look forward into
the gloom. Eve, in an agony of remorse, throws herself
upon the ground, and begs her husband to spurn her, his se-
ducer, from him forever. Adam raises and comforts her, and
assures her of his foi^iveness and continued love. A chorus
of invisible angels, who had ministered to their pleasure in
Eden, then chant the exiles a "faint and tender" farewell.
Lucifer now appears upon the scene, and taunts his victims
230 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
upou their ruin, until he is interrupted and driven away by a
lament coming from his lost loye, the morning star.
In the next sceue Adam and Eve have advanced farther
into a wild, open country. As they stand lamenting their
fate, they are confronted by twelve shadowy creatures, which
are the projections of the signs of the Zodiac, — the ram, the
bull, the crab, the scorpion, etc. To let the poet state her
own obscure conception ; —
'* Not a star pricketh the flat gloom of heaven ;
Bat girdllDg close our nether wUdemess,
The zodiac figures of the earth loom slow,
Drawn out as sulteth with the place and time
In twelve colossal shapes Instead of stars."
Their attention is drawn from these by two spirits, of
whom one calls itself ** the spirit of the harmless earth," and
the other " the spirit of the harmless beasts," who mourn the
ruin that man has brought upon them, and, joined and as-
sisted by Lucifer, revile the wretched pair for the curse they
have brought upou God's fair creation. When they have
driven Adam and Eve to a frenzy of agony, Christ appears,
rebukes the earth-spirits and commands them to become man's
comforters and ministers, foretells the redemption which He
will accomplish for the race, and bids our first parents, —
«* In which hope move on,
First sinners and first mourners ; love and Uve,
Doing both nobly because lowUly."
The earth-spirits promise obedience and disappear. A
chorus of augels then chants the promise of immortal life to
mortals, and thus the drama ends.
We have given the plot of the ^ Drama of Exile " at some
length, that the reader may judge for himself of the justice
ELIZABETH BAEEETT BEOWNING. 231
of our criticism when we say that, as a whole, the poem is
titrained, extravagant, and unequal to its theme.
There are some subjects which are set apait for the great
creative intellects of the race, and with which it is useless for
any others of lesser grasp, however brilliant their powers may
be within their own range, to attempt to grapple. Anything
short of complete success in their treatment is failure. Their
successful handling requires a sustained and steady elevation
of imagination, as well as an occasional lofty flight ; it requires
also the power of construction and arrangemeut, as well as
of originating single great conceptions. Neither of these was
given to Mrs. Browning. Her imagination could soar very
high, but it could not, like Milton's, float tranquilly, support-
ed by its strong pinion, in the clear upper air. Her genius
seemed rather to emit brilliant flashes than to shed a steady
radiance. The ^* Drama of Exile" contains many noble pas-
sages. Some of its conceptions give evidence of great origi-
nality and power. But passages in a poem written upon such
a subject, which excite a reader's laughter by their extrava-
gance, are fatal to its claims to be considered a great work of
the imagination. Homer sometimes nods, but he never rants.
It has been the unanimous voice of criticism, and cannot fail
to be the opinion of every candid and intelligent reader, that
in the "Drama of Exile " Mrs. Browning very often and very
laughably rants.
But those seven years of solitude and illness bore other and
better fruit than the "Drama of Exile." Many of those
beautiful short poems, on which Mrs. Browning's claims to our
gratitude chiefly rest, are the fruit of that stern and protract-
ed contest with extreme physical weakness and mental suflbr-
ing. Then was written " Lady Isobel's Child ; " a poem which
combines more of Mrs. Browning's peculiar powers, — her
tenderness, her clear vision into the spiritual world, her abil-
ity to describe with wonderful vividness the ^appearances of
232 SUINEKT WOUBH Or THE AGE.
nature, and her skill in using the pictures which she paiuts to
heighten emotional effect, — with fewer faults than almost
any of her other poems. Theo, also, was writteo "Bertha
ia the Lane," — the isimplest aud sweetest of her poems; and
the "Rime of the Duchess May," — a poem whose vigor of
movement aud graphic picturing no woman has equalled and
few men have surpassed.
Then was written the "Cry of the Children," which will
rank with those few noble poems, in which genius utters, ia
its own thrilling tones, the c:^ of ahumble aud neglected clasa
for relief.
Then was written " The Dead Pan," — a poem full of noble
truth as well as beauty ; a poem which gladly bids farewell
to the old classic fables in which beauty was once enshrined)
because a higher beauty is found in the truth and spiritual
Oluntination of to-day.
What nobler creed for a poet than this : —
" What Is true and Just and honest,
Wb&t is lovely, what Is pore, —
All or praise that bath odmonlstied
All of rlrtae, shall endure;
These are thsntes for poets' oses,
Stirring nobler than the mases.
Ere Pan was dead."
We cannot find a more suitable place than this in which to
speak of a prose work of Mrs. Browning's, published after
her death, but originally printed in the "London Atbemsum"
in 1842, entitled "Essays on the Greek Christian Poets
and the English Poets." It is written in a terse and vigor-
ous style, disfigured here and there by a harsh or unpleasimt
figure or struined metaphor, but possessing sufficient merit to
show that their author might have attained a high rank as a
prose writer. Their most noticeable merit is a certain felicity
in putting subtle spiritual thought into language. Tbey
ELIZABETH BABBETT BBOWNING. 233
are of especial interest to the student of Mrs. Browning's
poetry, as giying, in connection with her judgment upon most
English poets, her theory of the true nature of the poetic art.
This theory, which is closely allied to the theory of the real-
ists in paiqting, may be stated as follows : There is poetry
wherever God is and the works of God are. There is as true
poetry in man and whatever pertains to man, of whatsoever
grade of society or degree of cultivation, as in the grandest
objects of nature. The poet must delineate what he sees
and express what he feels.
As Mrs. Browning herself afterward finely says in ** Aurora
Leigh": —
** 'Seyer fliiich,
Bat still, anscrapnloasly epic, catch
Upon the bamiDg lava of a song,
The fUU-veined, heaving, double-breasted age,
That when the next shall come the men of that
Hay touch the impress with reverent hand and say,
Behold, — behold the paps we aU have sacked.
This is living art.
Which thas presents and thas records trae life."
' And again, with reference to that part of the poet's office
which has to do with the expression of his inner nature, she
says: —
'* The arUst's part Is both to be and do,
Transfixing with a special, central power
The flat experience of the common man.
And taming oatward with a sadden wrench,
Half agony, half ecstasy, the thing
He feels the inmost."
Describe what you see and tell what you feel, is, then, the
sum of Mrs. Browning's poetic creed. We can but think
that this theory of the poetic art leaves out of view one of its
23^ EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
most important features, which is the elaborating thoughts
and conceptions into symmetrical form; using them as the
plastic material out of which to construct a polished, perfect
work of art. The old Greek conception is right : the poet is
the maker, not the reflector. We have a right to demand
more of the poet than a fiiithful record of the impressions
made upon any or all of his sensibilities. We have a right to
demand melody, clearness, symmetry of design, proper join-
ing of parts, — all the results of the severest taste guided by
unremitting diligence. A poem should not be an incoherent
and rugged rhapsody ; it should join to all the freshness of
nature the smoothness of the highest art.
In 1846 Mrs. Browning left her sick-room (she was liter-
ally assisted from her couch) to become the wife of Bobert
Browning. We have not the space to enter into any discus-
sion of Mr. Browning's rank as a poet. It is sufficient for
our purpose to say that, though his poems find a much nar-
rower circle of readers than those of his wife, the most cul-
tivated and appreciative critics pronounce them to be of a
higher order of merit than hers, and in many of the rarer and
finer qualities of poetry superior to the works of any living
poet. It is enough for those who have learned to love Mrs.
Browning through her writings to know that those who have
known and loved both husband and wife pronounce the bus*
band not unworthy in nobility of soul as well as in depth of
intellect of such a wife. And not to be unworthy of such a
woman's love is indeed to be great I
In a series of sonnets, slightly disguised by their title,
^ Sonnets from the Portuguese,'* written to her husband before
their marriage, she has poured out the wealth of her love, and
at the same time displayed the loftiness and delicacy of her
nature. Whoever wishes to know Mrs. Browning should
study carefully these beautiful and artless poems, which tell
the most sacred feelings of a woman's heart with such sim*
SLIZABETH BABBETT BBOWKINQ. 235
plidty and truthfulness and freedom from false shame that
the most fastidious taste cannot be offended by their recital.
Nor are they interesting alone from the insight which they
give us into the heail of their author. They are of unique
interest, because they give us the revelation of a great
woman's love. They set before us an affection which com-
bines, with the passionate fervor of man*s devotion, a clinging,
self-renouncing tenderness which is peculiar to woman. They
reveal to us a love unselfish in its essence, distrusting only
its own worthiness and sufficiency to satisfy its object, and
louging to be swallowed up in his larger nature. How false
in the presence of such desire for self-renunciation on the
part of so highly-gifted a nature appears the common cant
that culture and genius and strong thought injure the finer
qualities of a woman's soul I What better refutation tor this
theory than such lines as these : —
** A heavy heart, beloved, have I worn.
From year to year, until I saw thy ftu^e,
And sorrow after sorrow took the pUice
Of aU those natural Joys as Ughtly worn
As the stringM pearls, — each lifted In its torn *
By a beating heart at dance-time. Hopes apace
Were changed to long despairs, tlU God's own graca
Coold scarcely lift above the world forlorn
My heavy heart. Then thou didst bid me bring
And let it drop adown thy calmly great
Deep bein^ Fast it sinketh, as a thing
Which its own nature doth precipitate,
WhUe thine doth close above it, mediating
Betwixt the stars and the unaccomplished flite."
"From their wedding day,** writes a friend, ** Mrs. Brown-
ing seemed to be endowed with new life. Her health visibly
improved, and she was enabled to make excursions in Eng-
land prior to her departure for the land of her adoption, —
Italy, — where she found a secoiid and a dearer home.''
23G EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
She lived some time at Pisa, and thence removed to Flor-
ence, where the remainder of her life was passed.
^'For nearly fifteen years," says the writer from whom we
have quoted above, ^ Florence and the Brownings were one
in the thoughts of many English and Americans."
Mrs. JJrowuing's poems, for many years before her death,
were more widely and heartily admu*ed by American than
by English readers. Her love of liberty and generous sym-
pathy with all efforts to elevate the race made America dear
and Americans welcome to her. Her conversational powers
were of the highest order. It was but natural, therefore, that
her house should attract many American travellers to discuss
with this little broad-browed woman those ^ great questions
of the day," which we are told **were foremost in her
thoughts and, therefore, oftenest on her lips.''
Mrs. Browning's affections soon took root in Italy. The
depth and fervor of the love which she bore her adopted
country was such as man or woman have rarely borne for
native land. It had the intensity of a personal attachment
with a moral elevation such as love for a single person
never has. It glows like fire through all her later poems.
Would that we had had a poet who had sung the heroism
and suffering of the late war in strains of such power and
pathos as those in which ^ she sang the song of Italy."
Her love for her adopted country was not a mere romantic
attachment to its beauty and treasures of art and historic
associations. It was a practical love for its men and women.
She longed to see them elevated, and therefore she longed to
see them free.
Her affection for Italy found its first expression in ^ Casa
Guidi Windows," which was published in 1851. ''This
poem," says the preface, ''contains the impressions of the
writer upon events in Tuscany of which she wjis a witness.
It is a simple story of personal impressions
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING. 237
whose only value is in the intensity with which they wore re-
ceived, as proving her warm affection for a beautiful and un-
fortunate country, and the sincerity with which they were
related, as indicating her own good faith and freedom from
partisanship."
The poem consists of two parts, the former of which
(written in 1848) describes the popular demonstrations in
Florence occasioned by the promise of Duke Leopold II.
to grant a constitution to Padua. It goes on from this to
call upon Italy to free her conscience from priestly domina-
tion, and her person from Austrian rule. It calls for a de-
liverer to break the fetters of priestcraft and tyranny. It
asks the sympathy of all European nations, each of which is
so deeply indebted to Italy for literature and art : — .
"To thts great cause of southern men, who strive
In God's name for man's rights, and shaU not faU.**
The second part of the poem, written three years after-
ward, when Leopold had proved false, and the constitutional
party had been crushed, describes the return of the Duke to
Florence under the protection of Austrian bayonets, and
gives utterance to the execrations of the despairing patriots
of Italy against ''false Leopold," a treacherous pope, and a
lying priesthood. The poet then goes on in a magnificent
strain to accuse the nations who were then jQojking to the
"World's Fair" in London of gross materialism and insensi-
bility to the sufferings of their own oppressed and miserable,
and the wrongs of outraged Italy. She concludes thus : —
« Let us go.
We will trust God. The bUnk interstices
Hen take for ruins he will buUd into
238 EMINENT WOMEN OT TEE AQK.
With pinared marble rare, or knit bctoss
With generous archea, till the bne's coraptete."
In 1848 Mrs. Browning's son and only child was born. As
before, she had thrown the Borrow of her early life, and the
love which had followed and superseded it into her poetry, eo
this new and crowning affection found its fit and full exprcs-
sion in her Terse. Before, it was the wife who wrote ; now,
it is the wife and mother. Her love for her child deepened
and tntensiSed her love for bumaDity, It strengthened her
faith ID God. It made her love him with that lore which
only mothers know. And as her poetry was the expression
of what was noblest and deepest in her nature, it could but
foUott' that it should be full of the evidences of this its best
affection.
In the " Casa Gutdi Windows," speaking of perjured Duke
licopold, she says : —
" I saw the man among his little sons ;
His lips were warm with kisses TrhUe he swont
And I, because I am a woman, I,
Who f^lt my own child's coming life before
The prescience of my soul, and held fUth high, —
I could not bear to think, whoever bore,
That lips, so warmed, could shape so cold a lie."
The world has seen many greater poets, but it has never
seen one who thus clothed noble womanhood in noble verse.
And in the same strain is the apostrophe to her little son in
the last part of the poem, of which we would gladly quote
the whole, but aro obliged to coateut ourselves with these few
lines ! —
" stand oat my blna-eyed prophet, thon, to whom
The earliest world-daylight that ever flowed
Throogh Casa Ouldl windows chanced to cornel
Aod be Qod's witness that the elemeotal
BLIZABBTH BARBETT BROWNING. 239
New springs of life are gushing everywhere,
To cleanse the water-conrses and prevent all
Concrete obstmctlons which infest the air I "
Had Mrs. Browning died childlees, she never coutd have
written that noble poem entitled '^ Mother and Poet,** in
which she has expressed so powerfully the anguish of that
Italian poetess, whose two sons fell fighting for Italian liberty.
Nor could she have written ^ Only a Curl," that touching, ex-
quisite poem written to console two bereaved friends in
America. Those who are fond of making comparisons will
find a good opportunity for the exercise of their ingenuity in
comparing this little poem with that of Tennyson entitled
''To J. S.," likewise written to comfort an afflicted friend.
That of the laureate is a fiir more beautiful work of art ;
after reading its melodious lines Mrs. Browning's verses
sound rugged and harsh. Its writer's sympathy and love
are expressed with exquisite delicacy and pathos. Its meta-
phors are full of beauty. Under ordinary circumstances one
would read it with far more pleasure than'* Only a Curl.''
But the latter poem, if it gratifies less the sense of beauty, ia
more richly fraught with consolation to a sorrowing soul. Its
sympathy seems the more heartfelt for being less graceful. It
does more than express sympathy. It carries the bereaved
to the source of all comfort. It inspires him with the writer's
lofty faith. It lets a ray of heavenly light into his soul.
The contrast between the two poems can be best exhibited by
quoting a verse of each. One of the concluding verses of
Tennyson's poem is this : —
** Sleep sweetly, tender heart, In peace,
Sleep, holy spirit, blessed soul;
VThile the stars bam the winds inciease.
And th& great ages onward roll."
That of Mrs. Browning :—
£40 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
** So look up, Mends ! yon wbo indeed
Have possessed In yoar house a sweet piece
Of the Heaven which men strive for, must need
Be more earnest than others are, speed
Where they loiter, persist where they cease.**
It is easy to decide which of the two stanzas is more beau-
tiful ; and it is not difficult to determine which is in its essen-
tial tontents the nobler.
In 1856 ^Aurora Leigh" was published. This poem,
which Mrs. Browning calls ** the most mature of my works,
and that into which my highest convictions upon life and art
have entered," was finished in England, under the roof of the
writer's cousin and friend, John Kenyon, — to whom it is
dedicated. Mr. Kenyon was a genial and cultivated gentle-
man, the author of several graceful poems. He died in 1858,
leaving his cousin a considerable addition to her fortune.
•'Aurora Leigh " is a social epic, — a sort of novel in blank
verse. The following is a brief outline of its plot : Aurora
Leigh, the heroine, who is represented as telling the story of
her life, is a lady of Italian birth, the daughter of an English
gentleman, jvho, while making a brief visit to Florence, fell
in love with and married a beautiful Italian woman.
Aurora lived in Italy until thirteen years old, when, her
parents having both died, she was taken to England, to live
with her father's sister. This aunt, a prim, rigid, and stony
person, endeavors, by subjecting Aurora to rigid discipline
and the orthodox young lady's education, to eradicate the
Italian nature which she had inherited from her mother, and
mould her into a correct, accomplished, and commonplace
Englishwoman. Aurora, though outwardly submissive, is se-
cretly rebellious, .and determines that her aunt shall neither
crush out her life, nor make of her the flat, tame woman she
designs her niece to become.
ELIZABETH BABBETT BBOWNINO. 241
Haying found in a garret a box of her father's books, she
studies them secretly with great zeal. Fired by reading the
poets, she determines to become one of their number. Lead-
ing thus a double life, outwardly submissive and demure,
but secretly enjoying intellectual and spiritual freedom, she
reaches the age of twenty.
Then her cousin, Bomney Leigh, a young man of talent
and worth, whose soul is bent upon schemes for improving
the physical condition of the poor, asks her to become his
wife. Suspecting that a desire for an assistant in his philan
thropic labors, rather than love, has caused him to make this
offer, she declines his hand. At this point, her aunt, who is
determined that she. shall marry Romney, suddenly dies.
Bomney renews the offer of his hand, and, this being refused,
generously and delicately offers a large part of his fortune to
his cousin, whom her father's foreign marriage has prevented
firom inheriting his estates. She refuses this also, and goes
to London to write poems and live by their sale. In course
of time she obtains celebrity. She has no direct communica-
tion with Romney, but learns, by occasional information de-
rived from their common friends, that be is devoting himself
with great zeal to lessening the sum of human misery. At
length she is told that her cousin is about to marry a young
girl of the lowest origin, whom he has met with while carry-
ing on his philanthropic labors.
She visits this young lady, and finds her to be, in spite of
her low origin, winning and refined. At her rooms she meets
with Romney. lie explains to her his design in marrying
this Marian Erie, which is to protest against the insuperable
barrier which custom has raised between the different classes
of society. To increase the effect of this strange union,
Somney gives public notice that the marriage will take place
in a London church. At the appointed hour the church is
crowded ^th a mixed assemblage, composed of curious people
16
212 SMIKEKT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
of fashion, and a large and foul delegation from the class to
which the bride belongs. The hour arrives, but no bridal
party appears. After some delay, Romney enters alone, and
announces that his intended bride has fled. The mob swear
that she has been abducted by Bomney's friends, to prevent
the marriage, and a riot ensues, which is quelled by the police.
Some time after Marian's flight, a report is circulated and
generally believed by his friends that Bomney has formed an
engagement of marriage with Lady Waldemar, — a lady of
wealth, i*ank, and beauty, but whose character is utterly de-
void of moral principle.
In the full belief of this report, Auvora Leigh, having
published a poem which contains the full expression of her
genius, starts for Italy. Stopping at Paris on the way, she
meets upon the street Marian Erie. Accompanying her home
she hears her story. . Lady Waldemar (who had long cher-
ished a secret love for Eomney Leigh) had persuaded Marian
that her aflianced husband entertained no real affection for
her, but was, in marrying her, sacrificing his own happiness
on the altar of his social theories ; and that it was her duty
to prevent him from performing this rash act by flight. Ac-
cordingly she fled the country, under the care of a servant
of Lady Waldemar, who conveyed her to a vile den in
some French seaport, where she was drugged and outraged.
Escaping them, she made her way to Paris, where a child
is born to her.
Aurora, after writing this story in a letter to a common friend
of Komney and herself in England, taking Marian and her
child with her, continues her journey to Italy. The party
make their home in Florence. After some months had passed,
Romney imexpectedly appears at their house. He tells
Aurora what had happened in her absence. He had turned
his country-seat into a phalanstery. It had bi^en set on fire
and burned to the ground. In rescuing one of hi^ patients.
SLIZABETH BABBETT BBOWNINQ. 243
he had been stricken down by a falling beam. The injury
had made him hopelessly blind. On hearing the story of
Marian's innocence and betrayal, he has hastened to Italy, —
come to fulfil his former contract of marriage with Marian.
But Marian's love has been killed by the sorrow and shame
through which she has passed, and she refuses to marry him.
And so, as Romney has loved Aurora with unabated affection
since his former offer of marriage, and as Aurora discovers
that she has all the time unconsciously loved her cousin, thej
are married.
Of course a very imperfect conception of the poem can be
obtained from this meagre outline of the plot. This is the
mere skeleton, which is to be covered with flesh and blood,
and into which the breath of life is to be breathed. But a
symmetrical body cannot be built upon a deformed skeleton.
A great poem cannot be constructed upon an absurd and
improbable plot. Its characters must act as human beings
in the same circumstances might naturally be expected to do.
They must talk like men and women, making allowance for
the limitations under which the artist works. They must not
be used as puppets, to express the thoughts of the writer,
but whatever they say must be the natural expression of their
own personality. And especially should this be the case
when the scene of the poem is laid, not in the mj'thical past,
but in the broad, clear light of to-day. An epic of the social
life of our own time should faithfully reflect that life, by
making probable characters talk and act in a natural manner.
Almost its first requisite is that the story should be naturally
put together, and pleasingly told ; that the characters should'
produce an impression of reality ; that the interest and power
of the narrative should increase as the poem advances ; and
that the whole story should tend toward one consummation,
and leave upon the mind, when its perusal has been finished,
the effect of a connected and symmetrical whole.
244 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
Judged by this standnrd, Aurora Leigh cannot be pro-
nounced a great poem. The plot is awkward and improbable.
I'he author trifles with her readers by making Aurora declare
iu the early part of the poem : —
" I attest
The conscioas skies and all their daily snns,
I think I loved him not ; nor then ; nor since ;
Nor ever.**
And at the close of the poem : —
" Now I know
I loved you always, Bomney."
The events of the story are improbable and clumsily con-
nected. They do not seem to flow out of each other, as do
tlie occurrences of real life. They have not the semblance
of probability. The adventures of Marian Erie, after her
flight from England, are as absurd as they are disgusting.
Bomney Leigh, with his sublime disregard of self, his wil-
lingness to contract engagements of marriage to further his
noble schemes, his ugly Juggernaut of philanthropy, under*
M hich he would crush the nobler affections of his own and
other people's lives, — is a very absurd character, if he can be
C'illed a character and not a walking abstraction.
It is not too much to say that the story and characters of
Aurora Leigh seem like a very clumsy and ill-coutrived piece
of mechanism intended to serve as a vehicle to convey the
writer's impressions of the social life of to-day. But the poem
only fails of the accomplishment of what is or should be its
main design, — it is full of sins against taste. Disagreeable
conceits abound in it. Much of it is but distorted and quaintly
expressed prose.
It tells of disgusting crimes with ofiensive frankness.
There is a class of crime upon which even philanthropy can-
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING. 245
not gaze too closely. We have certainlj a right to ask that
crime of this sort, if introduced into a work of the imagina>
tion, shall be so veiled as neither to shock our tatste nor
wound our sensibilities.
But, notwithstanding all the faults which disfigure '^Aurora
Leigh," it is full of genius and power. It is not a great poem,
but many of its passages are great. It contains much vigor-
ous thought ; many profound spiritual truths delicately and
forcibly expressed ; much noble description of natural scen-
ery. It is a book to be read by detached passages rather
than as a single work of art ; and to one reading it thus it
is full of interest and profit. Though not worthy of being
the great work of Mrs. Browning's life, it must hold a high
rank among the poems which the present century has pro-
duced.
In 1859 Mrs. Browning published a little book entitled
"Poems before Congress." These poems, which contained
eulogies upon Louis Napoleon for the assistance which he
had rendered to Italy in her struggle for independence, and
blamed England for lukewarmness toward the new nation
struggling into freedom, were severely criticised by the
English press. She was called disloyal to her native land,
and was said to have prostituted her genius to eulogizing a
tyrant and usurper. How far her opinions as to Napoleon's
character and motives in assisting Italy to freedom were cor-
rect is a question into which we will not enter here. Had
she been living in the fall of 1867, she would probably have
found occasion to modify her opinion. But of the nobility
of the motives which actuated her to write as she did, the
following extract from a letter which she wrote to a friend
affords ample evidence : —
•* My book," she wrote, ^ has had a veiy angry reception in
my native country, as you probably observe ; but I shall be
1
246 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
forgirea one day ; and meaDwhile, forgiren or unforgiven, il
is eatisfactoiy to one's own soul to have spoken the truth as
one apprehends the truth."
It may readily be supposed that Mrs. Browning's deep
loTB of liberty would have led her to take a deep interest in
America. That this was indeed the case, her own writings
and the testimoHy of her friends give us abundant evidence.
"Her interest in the American anti-slavery struggle," says
Mr. Tilton, " was deep and earnest. She was a watcher of
ita progress, and afar off mingled her soul with its struggles.
She corresponded with ita leaders, and entered into the fel-
lowship of their thoughts."
She wrote for a little bonk, which the Abolitionists pub-
lished in 1848, called the "Liberty Bell," a poem entitled "A
Curse for a Nation." Of this we will quote a single verte a
a specimen : —
« Because jonrselrea are standliig straight
Id the state
Of Freedom's fbremost acolyte.
Yet keep calm footlog all tbe time
On writhing bond-slaves — for tbis crime
This Is the curse— write. "
Many years after she wrote to an American friend cou-
oerning this poem : —
"Never say that I have cursed your country. I only de-
clared the connequences of the evil in her, and which has siiice
developed itself in thunder and flame. I feel with more paiu
than many Americans do the sorrow of this transition time ;
but I do know that it is transition ; that it is crisis, and that
you will coma out of the fire purified, stainless, having bad
the angel of a great cause walking with you in the furnace,"
But she did not live to see her prophecy verified. Tbe
disease against which she liad so long struggled, broke out
BLIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING. 247
^•ith new violence in the spring of 1861. So rapid was its
progress that her friends did not realize her danger until
death was near. She wasted away in rapid consumption, and
died on the morning of the 29th of June. Her last words,
or rather her first words when the heavenly glory burst upon
her vision, were, "It is beautiful.**
Twenty-three days after Cavour's death plunged Italy in
mourning, and saddened the friends of liberty through the
world. The impassioned poet and the heroic statesman of
the new nation were both taken from it while it was on the
very threshold of its life. Had they both lived, the one would ,
by his resistless energy and far-sighted wisdom, have given the
land so dearly loved by both a far nobler history for the other
to sing. The death of both was hastened, their friends tell
us, by their grief at the peace of Villafranca. Such a poet
and such a statesman were worthy of a nobler people.
Mrs. Browning was buried in the English burying-ground
at Florence. The municipio have placed over the doorway
of Casa Guidi a white marble tablet, on which is inscribed
the following beautiful tribute to her memory : —
•* Here vrrote and died E. B. Browning, who in the heart
of a woman united the science of a sage and the spirit of a
poet, and made with her verse a golden ring binding Italy
and England.
"Grateful Florence placed this memorial, 1861."
•* To those who loved Mrs. Browning,** says a friend m a
letter published in the ** Atlantic Monthly **for September, 1861 ,
* (and to know her was to love her) , she was singularly at-
tractive. Hers was not the beauty of feature ; it was the
loftier beauty of expression. Her slight figure seemed hardly
to contain the great heart that beat so powerfully within, and
the soul that expanded more and more as one year gave place
248 BMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
to another. It was difficult to believe that such a fairy hand
could pen thoughts of such a ponderous weight, or that such
a ' still, small voice ' could utter them with equal force. But
it was Mrs. Browning's face upon which one loved to gaze, —
that face and head which almost lost themselves in the thick
curls of her dark-brown hair. ' That jealous hair could noi
hide the broad, fair forehead, Iroyel with the truth,' as smooth
as any girl's, and
" * Too large for wreath of modem wont.'
"Her large brown eyes were beautiful, and were, in truth,
the windows of her soul. They combined the confidingness
of a child with the poet-passion of heart and of intellect, and
in gazing into them it was easy to see why Mrs. Browning
wrote. God's inspiration was her motive-power, and in her
eyes was the reflection of this higher light." >
The same friend continues : —
** Mi-s. Browning's conversation was most interesting. • . .
All that she said was always worth hearing ; a greater compli-
ment could not be paid her. She was a most conscientious lis-
tener, giving you her mind and heart, as well as her magnetic
eyes. Though the latter spoke an eager language of her own,
she conversed slowly, \^ith a conciseness and point, which,
added to a matchless earnestness that was the predominant trait
of her conversation as it was of her character, made her a most
delightful companion. J^ersons were never her theme, unless
public characters were under discussion, or friends who were to
be praised, which kind office she frequently took upon hereelf.
One never dreamed of frivolities in Mrs. Browning's pres-
ence, and gossip felt itself out of place. Tburself, not Aer-
self, was always a pleasant subject to her, calling out her best
sympathies in joy, and yet more in sorrow. Books and hu-
manity, great deeds, and, above all, politics, which iu'^lude
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING. 249
all the grand questions of the day, were foremost in her
thoughts y and therefore oftenest on her lips I speak not of
religion, for with her everything was religioii."
We have expressed our opinion so fully regarding the
merits and defects of Mrs. Browning's poetry, in the progress
of this sketch, that we need do no more at its close thac
briefly sum up what has been said. Rarely have so rich a ge-
nius, such an affluent and powerful imagination, such an acute
and original mind, such a passionate devotion to the poetic
art, been so withheld from producing their worthy fruit, by
want of suitable elaboration and chaste and simple expression.
Had Mrs. Browning's constructive faculty been equal to the
wealth of her originating powers, and had she studied lu-
minous expression, she might have given to the world one of
those poems which are its perennial delight and inspiration.
As it is, though she has written much that is full of beauty
and power, her longest poems are least successful, and her
fame must rest chiefly on her humbler efibrts. But in many
respects she is the noblest poet of our time. In her poems
as in no other does an intense love for God and man throb
and palpitate. They glow as do no others with the ** enthu-
siasm of humanity.*' Whether thev sing of Italian patriots,
or the ragged children of London, or the fugitive slaves of
America, they have an intense moral earnestness, springing
from an intense love of the race. And as we lament that the
author's genius is inadequately expressed in her works, we
thank God for the woman's soul wnose greatness no poems
can express
250 XMIKSHT WOMSH OV THS AGS
JENNY LIND GOLDSCHMIDT.
BY JAMES PABTON.
Thebe are those who think it unjust that we should bestow
upon the children of song honors such as are seldom given
to the most illustrious servants of their kind.
What a scene does the interior of an opera-house present
when a great singer comes upon the stage » or leaves it after a
brilliant display of her talent ! In Italy the whole audience
spring to their feet, and give cheer upon cheer, continuing
their vociferation for several minutes ; and it has occasionally
happened that a great crowd has rushed round to the stage
door and drawn home the vocalist in her own carriage. In
these colder climes we bestow less applause, but more money.
The favorite of the public who enchants us upon the operatic
stage receives a larger income in the northern nations of
Europe and America than England bestowed upon Welling-
ton for maintaining her honor in the field, and larger than any
nation has ever bestowed upon its savior.
There may be some injustice in this. It is not, however,
a part of the general scheme that the greatest sum of money
shall be the reward of the greatest merit ; and we are gener-
ally inclined to pay a far higher price for pleasure than for
more substantial benefits. Life needs cheering. Among the
thousands of our countrymen who gave three dollars, or five,
or ten, to hear Jenny Lind sing four songs, who does not now
feel that he received the worth of his money ? and who would
JBNKT IiIKD 00LD8CHMIDT. 251
not gladly pay the sum again to enjoy that rapture once
more? These song birds, too, are among the rarest of na-
ture's rarities, and rarities are ever costly. Before a great
singer can be produced, there must exist a combination
of gifts and circumstances. A fine voice is only one of the
requisites. The possessor of that Toice must have received
from nature an extraordinary physical stamina and a great
power of sustained effort, as well as a considerable degree of
taste and intelligence. The training of a great vocalist is one
of the severest trials of human endurance, — so severe that
no creature would submit to it unless compelled to do so by
necessity or an overmastering ambition.
I have heard young ladies try their powers upon the
operatic stage, who had had what is called in New York a
thorough musical education, and who had received from na-
ture a sufficient voice. Before they had been three minutes
upon the stage their incapacity would become so apparent as
to be painful to the listener. They had every requisite for
success except a five years' drill from some crabbed and un-
relenting old Italian master. When, therefore, Vfe burst into
wild applause after the execution of a fine aria, and when we
pay for its execution a thousand dollars, it is not the mere
accidental possession of a voice which we so bountifully com-
pensate ; it is culture, toil, years of self-denial, as well. The
singers may be reaping the late reward of the greater part of
a lifetime of most arduous exertion.
To no singer who has ever delighted the public are these
remarks more applicable than to the subject of this memoir.
The gift that nature bestowed upon her was beautiful, but
imperfect, and a culture which we may well style heroic was
necessary to perfect it.
Jenny Lind is a native of Sweden. She was bom at
Stockholm, October 6, 1821. Her parents were respect-
able, laborious, and poor — her father a teacher of laa«
J
252 BUINENT WOMEN 07 THE AGE.
gtiages, her mother a sohool-mistresa. Jenny was the fint
child of their marriage, and there was aflerwarda bom to
them a boo named John. There is a great difference in
children aa to the age when they can first sing a tune ; some
cbildrea being unable to sing ft bar of one until they are sii
or seven years of age. Jenny Lind, it need scarcely be said,
was not one of these. She could aing the airs of her native
land with correctness, and eren with some expression, when
she was but twenty months old. By the time she was three
years of age singing waa her delight ; she was always sing,
ing ; and she had the facul^ of catching every song she
heard, and repeating it with remarkable exactness. She was
a lonely and timorous child. The absence of her father, who
was abroad all day pursuing his vocation, and the constant
occupation of her mother in her school, left her very much
alone ; and during her solitary hours, her voice and her music
were the unfailing solace of her existence. The first nine
years of her life were marked by no particular event. The
Swedes are a musical people, and many children in Stock-
holm, besides Jeuuy Ltnd, were fond of sin^ng.
When she waa about nine years of age the silvery tones
of her voice chanced to catch the ear of an actress, named
Lundberg, who at once discerned its capabilities. Madame
Lundberg went to the parents and told them how delighted
she had been with the singing of their child, and advised
them to have her educated for the opera. It so happened
that the mother of the child, being a rather strict Lutheran,
had a prejudice against the drama, and r^arded going upon
the stage as something dishonorable, if not disreputable. The
talents of the child, however, were so remarkable that her
scruples were in part overcome, and she consented to leave
the matter to the decision of Jenny herself. The child wu
more than willing, and very soon Madame Lundbei^ had tiie
pleasure of conducting her to one of the most noted musio-
JBNNT LIND GOLDSCHMIDT. 253
masters of Stockholm. M. Croelius — for such was the name
of this teacher — was an old man ; and nothing delights a good
old music-teacher more than to have a docile and gifted pupil.
He soon became an enthusiast respecting his new acquisition,
and at length he resolved to present her to Count Piicke, man-
ager of the King's Theatre.
It is a custom in Europe for the conductors of royal opera-
houses to educate and train promising pupils, and there is
sometimes a school attached to the theatre for the purpose.
When the opera-house in New York was built, something of
the same kind was contemplated, and consequently the edifice
was named "Academy of Music," — a title which it retains
without having done anything to merit it.
When the enthusiastic Croelius presented Jenny Lind to the
manager of the royal opera, that potentate saw before him a
pale, shrinking, slender, under-sized child, between nine and
ten years of age, attired with Sunday stiffness in a dress of
black bombazine. The count, we are told, gazed upon her
with astonishment and contempt.
"You ask a foolish thiug," said he. "What shall we do
with that ugly creature ? See what feet she has ! and then
her face I She will never be presentable. No, we cannot
take her. Certainly not I "
The old music-teacher was too confident of the value of the
talent which the child possessed to be abashed by this un-
gracious reception.
"Well," said he, with some warmth, " if you will not take
her, I, poor as I am, will take her myself, and have her edu-
cated for the stage."
The old man's enthusiasm piqued the curiosity of the noble
manager, and he consented at length to hear her sing. Un-
developed as her voice then was, it already had some of that
rapture-giving power which it afterwards possessed in such
an eminent degree. The count changed his mind, and Jenny
254 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AQB.
vaa at onoe admitted to the training-school attached to, the
royal opera.* There ahe bad the benefit of highly compe-
tent instructors, as well as the inspiring companionship of
children engaged in the aanie pursuits.
The pupils of the training-school were required, now and then
during the season, to perform in little plays written and arranged
expressly for them. It was in one of these, in the eleventh
year of her age, that Jenny Lind made her first appearance
in public. The part assigned her was that of a beggar-girl,
— a character which her pallid countenance and slight person
fitted her to represent. She acted with so much simplicity
and truth, and rang her songs with such intelligent expres-
sion, as to secure the favor of the audience in a high degree.
She made what we now call a hit. Other children's plays
were written for her, in which for two winters she delighted
the people of Stockholm, who regarded her as a prodigy. At
the height of her transient celebrity, her brilliant prospects
clouded over. She observed with alarm that her upper
notes grew weaker, and that her other tones were losing
their pleasure-giving quality. By the time she was thir-
teen years of age her upper notes had almost censed
to exist, and no efforts of her teachers could restore thorn.
It was as though the heiress of a great estate were suddenly
informed that her guardian had squandered it, and that she
must prepare to eam her livetiliood by ordinary labor. Tbe
Bchemo of educating her for the opera was given up, thon<rh
she continued for four years longer to be an assiduous mem-
ber of the school, studying instrumental music, and tbe
theory of composition. One of tbe severest of her trials was
being forbidden to use her voice, except for a very short
Ume every day in very simple music.
Her seventeenth birthday came round. The master of the
• ThU ftii«odut« ud •am
BtcD Cmthonie ClkjtoD:
JENKT LIND GOLDSCHMIDT. 255
training-school was about to give at the theatre a grand con-
cert, in order to display the talents and improvement of his
pupils. The chief part of this concert was to consist of the
celebrated fourth act of "Robert le Diable," in which Alice
has but one solo assigned to her, and that is not a favorito
with singers. When all the parts had been distributed
except that of the undesirable Alice^ the director thought of
poor Jenny Lind, and offered it to her. She accepted it and
began to study the music. She had become a woman since
she had last looked the terrible public in the face, and she bo-
came so anxious as the time approached for her reappearance,
that she began to fear the total suspension of her powers. A
strange thing happened to her that night. When the moment
came for her to sing the solo attached to her part, she rose
superior to the fright under which she had been suffering, and
began the air with a degree of assurance which surprised her-
self. Wonderful to relate, her upper notes suddenly re-
turned to her in all their former brilliancy, and every note in
her voice seemed at the same moment to recover its long-
lost sweetness and power. No one had anticipated anything
from the Alice of that evening, and thunders of applause
greeted the unexpected triumph. Except herself no one was
so much surprised as the director of the school, whoso pupil
she had been for six years. Besides warmly congratulating her
that evening, he told her on the following morning that she was
cast for the important part of Agatha in " Der Frieschiitz."
Great was the joy of the modest girl, conscious of her powers,
upon learning that Agatha^ the very character towards which
she had long felt herself secretly drawn, but to which of late
she had hardly dared to aspire, was the one appointed for her
first appearance at the royal opera. At the last rehearsal, it
is said, she sang the music with so much power and expres-
sion that the musicians laid down their instruments to give
her a round of applause.
256 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
The evening* came. We have an account of her dibut
from the pen of her friend and kindred genius, Frederika
Bremer : —
** I saw her at the evening representation. She was then
in the spring of life, fresh, bright, and serene as a morning
in May; perfect in form; her hands and her arms pecu-
liarly graceful, and lovely in her whole appearance. She
seemed to move, speak, and sing without effort or art. All
was nature and harmony. Her singing was distinguished
especially by its purity, and the power of soul which seemed
to swell in h»r tones. Her * mezzo voice' was delightful.
In the night scene, where Agatha, seeing her lover coming,
breathes out her joy in rapturous song, our young singer, on
turning from the window at the back of the stage to the spec-
tators again, was pale for joy ; and in that pale joyousness
she sang with a burst of outflowing love and life, that called
forth, not the miith, but the tears of the auditors."
But her probation was not yet finished. After this dazzling
success, she remained for a while the favorite of the Stock-
holm public, adding new characters to her list and striving in
every way known to her to remedy certain serious defects in
her voice and vocalization. Miss Clayton informs us that
her voice was originally wanting in elasticity, which pre-
vented her from holding a note, and made it difficult for her
to execute those rapid passages and those brilliant effects upon
which the reputation of an operatic singer so much depends.
Who could imagine this when hearing that wonderful execu-
tion of her later years? In her efforts to improve her voice
while performing at the opera she overstrained it, and the
public of Stockholm, limited in number and fastidious in
taste, left her to sing to empty boxes. She felt the necessity
of better instruction than her native city afforded. Grarcia
JENNY LIND GOLDSCHMIDT. 257
was then living at Paris, at the height of his reputation as a
trainer of vocalists. She desired to place herself under his
instruction ; but although she had been a leading performer
at the Stockholm opera for a year and a half, she was still
unable to afford the expense of a residence in Paris. To raise
the money she gave concerts, accompanied by her father, in
the principal towns of Sweden and Korway. Her concerts
were successful, according to the standard of Sweden ; never-
theless, she was compelled to make the journey alone, while
her parents pursued their ordinary labors at homo. Her first
interview with Garcia was disheartening in the extreme.
"My good girl," said he, after hearing her sing, "you
have no voice ; or, I should rather say, that you had a voice ,
but are now on the point of losing it. Your organ is strained
and worn out ; and the only advice I can offer you is to rec-
ommend you not to sing a note for three months. At the
end pf that time, come to me again, and I will do my best
for you."
Few readers can conceive of the dejection and tedium of
such a period spent by this lonely girl, far from her home
and country, and denied the consolation of exercising her
talent.
"I lived," said she once, "on my tears and my thoughts
of home."
At the appointed time she stood again in the master's pres-
ence. He told her that her voice was improved by rest and
capable of culture. She placed heraelf under his instruction,
and profited by it ; but, strange to say, Garcia never predict-
ed for her a striking success, either because her voice had not
yet regained its freshness, or the old master's ear had lost its
acuteness. He used to say that if she had as much voice as
she had intelligence, she would becomedhe greatest singer in
Europe, and that she would have to sing second to many who
bad not half her ability.
17 »
258 EUINSNT WOMEN 07 THB AQB.
During her residence at Paris, she hnd the honor of singing
hefore Meyerbeer, who instantly perceived the peerless qual-
ity of her Toice. He arranged a grand rebenrsal for her,
with a full orchestra, when she sang the three most difficult
scenes from three favorite operas. She delighted tlie com-
. pany of musicians and the great master who heard lier, and she
narrowly escaped being engaged at once for the Grand Opera
of Paris.
Her musical education was now complete. Returning
home, she gave a series of performances atStockholm, which
enraptured the public, carried her local reputation to the
highest point, and secured for her apressing invitation to sing
at Copenhagen. It seems that she was still distrustful of her
powers, and shrank from the ordeal of appearing in a country
not her own. Her scruples at length gave way, and she ap-
peared before the Danes in the part of Alice, in "Robert le
Diable." We have an interesting account of her success at
Copenhagen, in the autobiography of Hans Christian Ander-
sen, who not only heard her sing, but became acquainted with
her. He says: —
"It was like a new revelation in the realms of art.
The youthful, fresh voice forced Itself into evety heart;
here reigned truth and nature, and evei^lhing was full of
meaning and intelligence. At one concert she sang her
Swedish songs. There was something so peculiar in this, so
bewitching, people thought nothing about the concert-rooni j
popular melodies, executed by a being so purely femiuiae,
and bearing the universal stamp of genius, exercised an om-
uipotent sway. All Copenhagen was in raptures."
The students of Ae nniversity gave her a serenade by
torchlight, and she was }be first to whom such a compltmeDt
was paid. Her success incited her to fresh exertions. An-
JENNY LIND GOLDSCHMIDT. 259
dcrsen, "who was with her when this serenade was given,
records, that after it was over she said, while her cheek was
still wet with tears : —
"Yes! yes I I will exert myself; I will endeavor ; I will
be better qualified when I again come to Copenhagen I"
It was at Copenhagen that she began to taste the noblest
fruit of her exertions, — the delight of doing good. Ander-
sen relates the first occasion of her singing for a benevolent
obiect: —
"On one occasion, only," ho says, "did I hear her express
her joy in her talent and her self-consciousness. It was
during h^r I'esidence in Copenhagen. Almost every evening
she appeared either in the opera or at concerts ; every hour
was in requisition. She heard of a society, tho object of
which was to assist unfortunate children, and to take them
out of the hands of their parents, by whom they were mis-
used and compelled to beg or steal, and to place them in other
and better circumstances. Bpnevoleut people subscribed an-
nually a small sum each for their support ; nevertheless, the
means for this excellent purpose were very limited. *But
have I not still a disengaged evening?' said she; Met me
give a night's performance for the benefitof those poorchildren :
but we will have double prices ! ' Such a performance was
given, and returned large proceeds. When she was informed
of this, and that, by this means, a number of poor children
would be benefited for several years, her countenance beamed,
and the tears filled her eyes.
***It is, however, beautiful,' said she, *that I can sing
bo!"'
From this time forward, she knew little but triumph.
When she le^ Stockholm again to enter upon an engagement
260 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
at Berlin, the streets were crowded with people to bid her
farewell. At Berlin, the Countess Rossi (Madame Sontag)
pronounced her *' the best singer in Europe." At Hamburg,
a silver wreath was presented to her at the end of a most
brilliant engagement. At Vienna, her success was beyond
all precedent, and when she reappeared at Berlin the enthu-
siasm was such that it became a matter of great difficulty to
procure admission to the theatre. We have heard much our-
selves lately of speculation in tickets. After she had per-
formed a hundred nights in Berlin, the manager found it
necessary to issue the following notice : —
** Tickets must be applied for on the day preceding that for
which they are required, by letter, signed by the applicant's
proper and Christian name, profession, and place of abode,
and sealed with wax, bearing the writer's initials with his
arms. No more than one ticket can be granted to the same
person ; and no person is entitled to apply for two consecu-
tive nights of the enchantress's performance."
After four years of such success as this, her popularity
ever increasing, she accepted an engagement to sing in Lon-
don. Her departure from her native city was attended by
most extraordinary demonstrations. Her last concert in Stock-
holm was given in aid of a charitable institution founded bj
herself, and the tickets were sold at auction at prices unheard
of before in frugal Sweden. Many thousand persons, it is
said, were upon the wharf when she sailed, and she wont on
board the steamer amid the cheers of the people and the
music of military bands. She reached London in April,
1847, and soon began her rehearsals at the Queen's Theatre.
When her voice was first heard in that spacious edifice at a
rehearsal, no one was so enchanted as Lablache, the cele*
bmted basso.
JENNY LIND GOLDSCHMIDT. 2G1
"Every note," he exclaimed, ** is like a pearl ! "
She was pleased with the simile, and when they had be-
come better acquainted, she reminded him of it in a very
agreeable manner. She came pp to him one morning at re-
hearsal, and said to him : —
" Will you do me the favor, Signer Lablache, to lend me
your hat?"
Much surprised, he nevertheless handed her his hat, which
she took with a dpep courtesy, and, tripping away with it to
the back part of the stage, began to sing an air into it. She
then brought back the hat to Lablache, and, ordeiing that
portly personage to kneel, she returned it to him with the
remark : —
•» I have now made yon a rich man, signor, for I have given
you a hat full of pearls I "
Everything which a favorite does seems graceful and pleas-
ant. This trifling act delighted the whole company.
Three weeks elapsed before she appeared in London, during
which the excitement of the public rose to fever heat, and
when the eventful evening came the theatre was crammed to
its utmost capacity. The Queen, Prince Albert, and many
of the leading personages in England were present. She
sang the part of Alice, in ''Robert le Diable." Nervous, as
she really was, she succeeded so completely in controlling
herself, that she appeared to the audience remarkably self-
possessed, and by the time she had completed her first aria
every one present felt that the greatest singer of the time, if
not of any time, was this stranger from Stockholm.
"At its conclusion," said one of the critics, "she gave the
•Roulade' in full voice, limpid and deliciously sweet, and
finished with a shake so delicate, so softly executed, that each
one held his breath to listen, and the torrent of applause at
the end baffled description."
Every succeeding effort was a new triumph, and when the
2G2 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AOE.
performance closed the audience were in such raptures that
they behaved more like Italians than Englishmen. Her act«
ing, tooy at this time was greatly admired, and there was an
air of simplicity and goodness about her which won eyery
heart.
It is not necessary for us to dwell upon her career in Eng-
land, because there is nothing to say of it except that, every-
where and in every character, she appeared to have all the
success and gloiy which the stage afibrds. Such was the
struggle for tickets that persons were known to come hun-
dreds of miles to London on purpose to hear her sing, and,
after spending several days in fruitless attempts to gain ad-
mission to the opera house, return home without having heard
her. At Edinburgh a concert was given, for performing in
which she received a thousand pounds sterling, Lablache two
hundred, and another singer one hundred and fifty, and yet
the managers cleared twelve hundred pounds. Her charities
constantly increased in number and amount. In almost every
place she gave a part of her gains to charitable institutions.
After two years of continual triumph, she resolved to take
her leave of the stage, and to sing thenceforth only in the
concert-room. Her last performance was in May, 1849, when
she played the part of Alice, in the presence of the Queen of
England and an immense multitude of the most distinguished
personages in England.
Her fame had long ago crossed the Atlantic. In October,
1849, Mr. P. T. Barnum, who had recently returned home
after a three years' tour with the famous General Tom Thumb,
conceived the happy idea of bestowing upon his countrymen
the delight of hearing the voice of the Swedish Nightingale.
"I bad never heard her sing," he tells us. **IIer reputa-
tion was sufficient for me.*' He cast about him at once for a
fit person to send to Europe to engage the songsti-ess, and
soon pitched upon the right person, Mr. John Hall Wiltoa,
JENNY LIND GOLDSCHMIDT. 263
who had bad some experience in the business of entertaining
the public. He was instructed to engage Jenny Lind on
fibares, if be could ; but he was authorized, if he could do no
better, to offer her a thousand dollars a night for one hundred
and fifty nights. Besides this, all her expenses were to be
paid, including servants, carriages, and secretary, and she
was to have the privilege of selecting three professional per-
sons to accompany lier. Mr. Barnum further agreed to place
the whole amount of money for the hundred and fifty nights
in the hands of a London banker before she sailed. When
Mr. Wilton reached Europe he discovered that four persons
were negotiating with her for an American tour. All of these
mdividuals, however, merely proposed to divide with her the
profits, and none of them were in a position to guarantee her
against loss. She frankly said to Wilton, after she had sat-
isfied herself respecting Mr. Barnum's character : —
*'A8 those who are trying to treat with me are all anxious
that I should participate in the profits or losses of the enter-
prise, I much prefer treating with you, since your principal
is willing to assume all the responsibility, and take the entire
management and chances of tlie result upon himself."
The negotiation did not linger. Mr. Barnum gives a lu-
dicrous account of the manner in which he received the news
that Jenny Lind had signed the desired agreement. He re-
ceived the telegraphic dispatch in Philadelphia which an-
nounced Wilton's arrival in New York with the agreement in
his pocket, and that Mademoiselle Lind was to begin her
concerts in the following September.
*'I was somewhat startled," he tells us, *'by this sudden
announcement, and feeling that the time to elapse before her
arrival was so long that it would be policy to keep the en-
gagement private for a few months, I immediately telegraphed
Wilton not to mention it to any person, and that I would
264 EMINENT WOMEN '07 THE AGE.
meet him the next day in New York. The next day I started
for that city. On arriving at Prioceton we met the cara, and,
purchasing the morning papers I was overwhelmed with sur-
prise and dismay to find iu them a full account of my engage-
ment with Jenny. However, this premature announcement
could not be recalled, and I put the best face upon tlie matter.
Being anxious to learn bow this commanication would strike
the public mind, I informed the gentlemanly conductor (whom
I well knew) that I had made an engagement with Jenny
Lind, and that she would surely visit this countiy in the fol-
lowing Augast.
"'Jenny Lind I Is she a dancer?' asked tbo conductor.
" I informed the conductor who and what &be was, but his
question had 6hilled me as if his words were ice I Really,
thought I, if this is all Uiat a man in the capacity of a rail-
road conductor between Philadelphia and New York knows
of the greatest songstress in the world, I am not sure that
six months will be too long a time for me to occupy in en-
lightening the entire public iu regard to her merits."
How well Mr. Barnum employed that time, most of ns
remember. Long before the great songstress landed all
America was on the quivive. On Sunday, September 1,
1850, at twelve o'clock, the steamer "Atlantic," with Jenny
Lind on board, came to opposite the quarantine ground, and
Mr. Barnum, who had been on the island since the evening
before, was soon on board.
"But where did you hear me sing?" Jenny Lind asked
him, as soon as the first compliments bad been exchanged.
"I never had the pleasure of hearing you before in my
life," said the manager.
' "How is it possible," she rejoined, "that you dared risk so
much money on a person you never heard sing?"
" I risked it on your reputation," he replied, " which in
JENNY LIND GOLDSCHMIDT. 265
mnsical matters I Ttrould much rather trust than my 'own
judgment."
Mr. Barnum had made ample provision for her landing.
The wharves and ships were covered with thousands of people
on that pleasant Sunday afternoon to see her step on shore*
A large bower of green trees and two triumphal arches cov-
ered with flags and streamers, were seen upon the wharf, —
the work of Mr. Bamum's agents. The carriage of that en-
terprising person conveyed her to the Irving House, which
was surrounded all that afternoon and evening with crowds
of people. Mr. Barnum tells us that he had the pleasure
of dining with her that afternoon, and that during the meal
she invited him to take a glass of wine with her. He re-
plied : —
"Miss Lind, I do not think you can ask any other favor on
earth which I would not gladly grant ; but I am a teetotaler,
and must beg to be permitted to drink your health and hap-
piness in a glass of cold water.**
Nineteen days elapsed before her first appearance in pnbllc,
during which she was the centre of attraction, and the theme
of every tongue. The acute and experienced Barnum, per-
ceiving that his enterprise was an assured success, endeav-
ored to guard against the only danger which could threaten it.
Two days after the arrival of the nightingale he told her that
he wished to make a little alteration in their agreement.
•* What is it?** she asked, much surprised.
•* I am convinced,'* replied he, ^ that our enterprise will be
much more successful than either of us anticipated. I wish,
therefore, to stipulate that you shall always receive a thousand
dollars for each concert, besides all the expenses, and that
after taking fifty-five hundred dollars per night, for expenses
and my services, the balance shall be equally divided between
us.**
Jenny Lind was astonished ; and supposipg that the propo-
2C6^ EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
sitioQ was dictated by a sense of justice, she grasped fhe
manager by the hand, and exclaimed : —
**Mr. Barnum, you are a gentleman of honor! You are
generous. I will sing for you as long as you please. I will
sing for you in America, — in Europe, — anywhere 1 **
Mr. Bamum hastens to let us know that the change in the
agreement was not the dictate of pure generosity. He feared
that envious persons would create discontent in her mind,
and he thought ^ it would be a stroke of policy to prevent
the possibility of such an occurrence."
The tickets for the first concert were sold at aiiction, and
produced the astonishing sum of $17,864. Jenny Liud in-
stantly resolved to give her portion of the proceeds to the
charitable institutions of the city.
The eventful evening came. Five thousand persons
assembled at Castle Garden, who had paid for the privilege
sums which varied from two dollars to two hundred and
twenty-five. It was the largest audience before which she
had ever appeared, and she was considerably agitated. When
the conductor of the concert led her forward, attired in
white, with a rose in her hair, the audience rose and gave her
three thundering cheers, and continued for several seconds to
clap their hands and wave their hats and handkerchiefs. She
had a singularly pleasing way of acknowledging the applause
of an audience. She had a timid, shrinking look, which ap-
pealed powerfully to popular sympathy, and inflamed the
enthusiasm of the spectators to the highest degree. The
orchestra began to play the prelude to "Casta Diva," — a
piece which displayed all the power, all the thrilling sweet-
ness, and some of the defects of her wonderful organ. Never
had an assembly come together with such high-wrought
expectations. Nevertheless, those expectations seemed to
be more than realized, and the last notes of the song were
lost in the irrepressible acclamations of the people.
jenny' LIND GOLDSCHMIDT. 267
This success was the beginning of a splendid caieer in
America. Under Mr. Barnum's management, she gave
ninety-five concerts. The total receipts were 1712,161.
The average receipts of each concert were |7,496. The
sum received by Jenny Lind was $176,675. Mr. Barnum's
receipts, after paying her, were $535,486. Some of the
tickets brought remarkable prices. The highest price paid
for a ticket in New York was 1225 ; in Boston, $625 ; in
Providence, $650 ; in Philadelphia, $625 ; in New Orleans,
$240 ; in St. Louis, $150 ; in Baltimore, $100. The price
of seats, not sold by auction, ranged from three dollars to
seven dollars.
After enchanting the United States it remained for Jemfjr
Lind to conquer the fastidious and difBcult public of Havana.
A striking scene occurred on the occasion of her first appear-
ance in Havana. The people, it seems, were much offended by
the unusual prices chargedfor admission, and came to the con-
cert determined not to be pleased, — a circumstance of which
Jenny Lind was ignorant. The scene was thus described at the
time in the New York Tribune : —
•^ Jenny Lind appeared, led on by Signor Belletti. Some
three or four hundred persons clapped their hands at her ap-
pearance ; but this token of approbation was instantly silenced
by at least two thousand five hundred decided hisses. Thus,
having settled the matter diat there should be no forestalling
of public opinion, and that if applause was given to Jenny
Lind in that house it should first be incontestably earned^ the
most solemn silence prevailed. I have heard the Swedish
nightingale often in Europe as well as America, and have
ever noticed a distinct tremulousness attending her first ape
peamnce in any city. Indeed, this feeling was plainly mani-
fested in her countenance as she neared the foot-lights ; but
when she witnessed the kind of reception in store for her, —
268 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AQE.
80 different from anything she had reason to expect, — her
countenance changed in an instant to a haughty eclf-posses-
sion, her eye flashed deGance, and, becoming immovable as a
Btatue, she stood there, perfectly calm and beautiful. She
was satisGed that she now had an ordeal to pass and a victory
to gain wortliy of her powers. In a moment her eyo scanned
the immense aitdience, the music began, and then followed —
how can I describe it? — such heavenly strains as I verily
believe mortal never breathed except Jenny Liud, and mortal
never heard except from her lips. Some of the oldest Gis-
tilians kept a frown upon their brow and a curling sneer upon
their lip ; their ladies, however, and most of the audience began
to look surprised. The gushing melody flowed on, increasing
in beauty and glory. The cabaUeros, the aeitoras, and
seRoritas began to look at each other; nearly all, however,
kept their teeth clenched and their lips closed, evidently de-
termined to resist to the last. The torrent flowed faster and
faster, the lark flew higtier and higher, the melody grew
richer aud richer; still every lip was compressed. By and
by, as the rich notes camo dashing in rivers upon our enrap-
tured c;irs, one poor critic involuutarily whispered a ' brava.'
This outbursting of the soul was instantly hissed down. The
stream of harmony rolled on till, at the close, it made a clean
sweep of every obstacle, and carried all before it. Not a
vestige of opposition remained, bi;t such a tremendous shout
of applause as went up was never before heard.
"The triumph was most complete. And how was Jenny
Lind affected ? She, who stood a few moments previous like
adamant, now trembled like a reed in the wind before the
storm of enthusiasm which her own simple notes had pro-
duced. Tremblingly, slowly, and almost bowing her face
to the ground, she withdrew. The roar and applause of
victory increased. Encore! encore/ encore! came from
every lip. She again appeared, and, courtesying low, again
JENNT LIND GOLI>SCHMIDr 269
withdrew; but again, again, and again did they call her
forth, and at every appearance the thunders of applause rang
louder and louder. « Thus five times was Jenny Lind called
out to receive their unanimous and deafening plaudits."
Mr. Bamum gives his version of the story : —
*I cannot express,** he says, " what my feelings were as I
watched this scene from the dress circle. . When I wit-
nessed her triumph, I could not restrain the tears of joy that
rolled down my cheeks ; and, rushing through a private box, I
reached the stage just as she was withdrawing after the fifth
encore. ^
"'God bless you! Jenny, you have settled them,' I ex-
claimed.
*** Are you satisfied?' said she, throwing her arms around
my neck. She, too, was crying with joy, and never before
did she look so beautiful in my eyes as on that evening."
In Havana, as in every other large city in America, she
bestowed immense sums in charity, and gave charity concerts
which produced still larger benefactions. During her resi-
dence in America, she gave away, in all, about fifty-eight
thousand dollars.
The precaution which Mr. Bamum had taken against the
intermeddling of envious persons proved to be insufficient,
and, after the ninety-fifth concert, Jenny Lind desired the
contract to be annulled, and to give concerts on her own
account. The manager gladly absented, and they separated
excellent friends.
Mr. Horace Greeley, in one of his recent contributions to
the *• New York Ledger," adds an anecdote of Mademoiselle
270 EMINENT WOMEN 07 THE AGE.
Lind's stay among na. It was at the time when the " Ruch'
ester Kiiockings " were a topic of interest.
"I called," said Mr. Greeley, " on Mademoiselle Jenny
Lind, then a new-comer among us, and was coaversing about
the current marvel with the late N. F. Will U, while
Mtidemoiselle Lind was devoting herself more es[>ectally to
some other callers. Our conversation caught jM:idomoisellfl
L.'s ear and arrested her attention ; so, after making some
inquiries, she asked if she could witness the so-called 'Mao-
IfeHtatious.' I answered that she could do so by coming to
my house in the heart of the city, as Katy Fox was then
staying with us. She assented, and a time was fixed for her
call ; at which time she appeared, with a considerable retinue
of total strangers. All were soon seated around a table, and
the 'ruppings' were soon auJible and abundant. 'Take
your hands from under the table I* Mademoiselle Jenny
called across to me in the tone and manner of au in-
differently bold ai-chduchess. 'What?' I asked, not dis-
tinctly comprehending her. 'Take your bands from under
tiio table I' she imperiously repeated ; and I now understood
that she suspected me of causing, by some legerdemain, the
puzzling concussions. I instantly clasped my bands over my
head, and there kept them until the sitting closed, as it did
very soon. I need not add, this made not the smallest
differences with the 'rappings;* but I was thoroughly and
finally cured of any desire to exhibit or commend them to
strangers."
Jenny Lind, like Miss Kemb1e,metherdestiny in America.
Among the performers at hor concerts was Mr. Otto Gold-
Gchmidt, a pianist and composer, whom she had formerly
known in Germany, and with whom she had pursued her
musical studies. Her friendship for this gentleman ripened
into a warmer attachment, and ended in their marriage at
JENNY LIND GOLDSCHMIDT. 271
Boston, in 1851. . After residing some time at Northampton,
in Massachusetts, they returned to Europe, where they have
ever since resided. Occasionally, Madame Goldschmidt has
appeared in public concerts, accompanied by her husband.
She is now forty-^even years of age, and her voice is said to
retain a considerable degree of its former brilliancy and
power. Living, as she does, in great privacy, little is known
of her way of life ; but that little is honorable to her. Her
charities, it is said, are* still bountiful and continuous, and
abo is as estimable a member of society as she is a shining
ornament to it. The great secret of her success as an artist
was well expressed by her friend, Jules Benedict : —
^ Jenny Lind makes ^ conscience of her art."
272 EMISBST WOUSS'Ot THE AQE.
OCR PIONEER EDUCATORS.
B? BKV. E. B. HUJJTKGTON.
To woman rather than to man, and to woman in this cen-
tury rather than in any former one, belongs the credit of
preparing the way for the future liberal educatiou of women. ,
Heretofore the aids to her education have been few awl de-
fective. A really liberal education for her has hardly been
posBible. Collegiate and University courses have been closed
against her ; bo that if occasionally a woman has succeeded
in gaining the reputation of a scholar, it has been mainly due
to her own unaided exertions, — a triumph of her personal
genius and will. We have reached a state of public senti-
ment now, however, which, partially, at least, accords to
woman (he right to enter any field of literature or art, wbicb
she maychoose ; and, to a certain extent, we are fumishiDg
her with such aids as for generations have been furnished for
her brothers.
Already we are gathering excellent fruits from this ad-
vance made in our theory and system of woman's cnlturo.
Our multiplied young ladies' seminaries and collegiate insti-
tutions, and still more our colleges and professional schools
in which the two sexes are, to their mutual benefit, prosecut-
ing together the studies which were formerly confined to only
OQO of them, are important results already attained. Still
msturer fruit we have, in the increasing numbers of
MBS. EICMA WILLARD.
273
fhoTOUghly educated women wlio are now prepared to oc-
~«i
MBS. EHMA WILLARD. 273
ihoronghly educated women wlio are now prepared to oc-
cupy chairs of iostruction, once filled only by the most hon-
ored alumni of our best universities. We are coming to
welcome woman's taste, and tact, and power,, into every de-
partment of onr educational work, and we have much to-
hope from the new element thus introduced. Without at-
tempting to name, even, the many eminent women whose
personal attainments and services have contributed largely
towards this result, we shall, in this chapter, briefly sketch
the career of only two of them, who, by common consent,,
must be held to rank as pioneers in this most excellent work*.
MRS. EMMA WILLARD.
First among the women, still living, who have attained!
high rank as professional educators, must stand the name at
the head of this sketch. And this position Mrs. Willard
deserves, whether we regard her as a pioneer, creating for
lierself, and her sex, a new place and rank among educators,
or simply as an earnest and skiliiil worker, rendering eminent
service in this field. That she is fairly entitled to this em-
inence among the gifted women of our day, a very brief
sketch of her career will fully show. The story itself is a
true epic, needing only the simplest recital, — its main facts,
being more exciting 'than any fiction we should dare tO'
invent.
HER BIRTH AND« CHILDHOOD.
February 23, 1787, is the date of her birth ; Samuel and'
Lydia (Hinsdale) Hart, her parents ; and a quiet country farm-
house in the parish of Worthington, in Berlin, Connecticut, her
birthplace. Bom of the best New England stock, she in«
herited the noblest qualities of her parentage. Her father,
a itaan of unusual strength of intellect and will, was self-^
lb
274 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
reliant, and well-read, in, at least, the English literatui'e of
the times; and her mother a quiet and practical woman,
gifted with native tact and shrewdness, gentle, firm, and
efficient. The home they made for their children was jnst
the home in which gifted children would like to be reared.
And this home, more than anything else determined the
character and success of Emma, their sixteenth child, whose
record we are now to trace. Being one of seventeen of her
father's children, and one of the ten whom her own mother
had borne him, she early found in this large circle one im-
portant means of her training.
Let us enter that rural home. We will take an early
evening hour, about mid-winter, and for the date it may be
anywhere between her birthday and the year 1804, the date
of her first attempt to teach. The scene we shall witness
will best prepare us for what we are to learn of the great
work of her future life.
The children have already spent their six hours in their
school. They have severally done up the chores which, in-
those primitive times, our children were supposed able to
do. They had just finished with thanksgiving their relish-
ful supper. The youngest of them have already dropped
away into the sweet sleep of their night's rest. The huge
wood fire glows warmly upon that happy home-circle gather-
ing around it. The older children, all aglow with a joyful
interest, finish the little story of their day's fun, and frolic,
and work, and successively test their skill in reading aloud a
few well-chosen passages from the selectest authors of the
day. Then father and mother, no less joyful, add the bene-
diction of their few words of approval, and their timely
hints for correction. And now, for another half hour, or
hour, if this be deemed needed, the father and mother —
blessed mentors they 1 — read, in their turn, aloud, and with
the skill which long practice has given them, their lessons for
MBS. EMMA WILLARD. 275
themselves and their little flock. Milton chances, it may be,
to be the classic now in hand ; and, as the magnificent word-
picture opens before them, the very youngest of the group is
stirred with fancies and thoughts which shall be to them the
germs of thought for many a year to come.
Happy, blessed group, for whose early years such a home
is furnished I What child of gifts could fail of largest fruit-
age, whose bloom is amid such home sunshine and warmth ?
Let us take one more lesson from that Worthington home ;
and let the mother of the family be our teacher. Notice
with what womanly ingenuity she makes their slender re-
sources ample for all the^r home wants, and even for the
gratification of a cultivated home 'taste. Notice how thought-
fully she provides for the poor family out under the hill, to
whom the warm breakfast she sends them, makes the only
glad hour of their poverty-stricken home. And then, when
all these home and neighborhood duties are so skilfully dis-
charged, she is not satisfied until she has given her children
a lesson of thoughtful kindness to the little birds that are to
sing for them. The refuse wool, which can be of no use to
the family, she teaches her little ones how to leave about on
the bushes for a hint to the charming warblers to build their
fleece-lined nests near to the human home which she would
have blest by their sweet singing.
And thus, this admirable home-training, with some two
years of study in the village academy, then just opened un-
der a skilful teacher, brought Emma forward to the begin-
ning of her life-work. She had used her opportunities well.
She had been required to think and plan for herself. Her
powers of observation and her practical judgment had beeu
equally taxed and improved ; and it is not too much to say,
that, in literary attainment, and still more, in ability to learn,
she had exceeded her years. A young lady of fourteen, who,
on a cold night in mid-winter, wrapping herself in her cloak,
5¥76 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
With the horse-block for her observatory, could there by
moonlight master the lesson of astronomy, which the merry
song-singers in the house would leave her no opportunity
there to learn, has already some elements of character which
are the best pledges of success.
HER EXFEBIMENTAL CAREER.
She has now just passed her seventeenth birthday. Through
the friendly solicitation of a neighbor, an intelligent lady,
who, though more than twice her age, had found in her an
equal, she was installed as teacher of one of the village
schools. Her first day's experience here settled many a
principle for her future course. The tact with which she
began would well have crowned the end of another teacher's
professional career. With her, a difficulty once encouiitered
was mastered forever. Discarding the rod as a means of
discipline, after the second day's trial, she sought and found
her way so directly to the hearts of her pupils ; she so skil-
fully planned their exercises and their sports; she so soon
and so thoroughly excited their interest in their school duties,
•and so made this interest itself the only needed discipline,
that her first school soon reported itself in all the neighbor-
hood as a marvel of the times. She found herself, even thus
early in her mere girlhood, crowned with the laurels of her
first success. And now, for three years, in learning and
teaching, a part of which time was spent in the excellent
schools of Mrs. Royce and the Misses Patten, in Hartford,
she was fast preparing herself for entering upon the great
work of her life. And what was of especial value to her was
the habit, then established, of prosecuting her own advanced
studies while engaged in teaching those already mastered.
Such success soon attracted attention. The spring of 1807
brings to her calls from three important schools, in West*
field, Massadiusetts ; Middlebuiy, Vermont; and Hudson»
MBS. EMMA WILLABD. 277
New York. She accepted the Westfield call ; and as assist-
ant teacher in the excellent academy of that town, she at
once won for herself a good name. But Miss Hart was not
the person to fill long a subordinate place. Before her first
season was over, she had decided to accept the call from
Middlebury ; and midsummer of the same year finds her at
the head of her new school there. A year of *' brilliant
success " crowns this third experiment, and settles the ques-
tion of her fitness for the work she had chosen. Local
jealousies soon spring up, and the school, iA spite of her
great popularity, suffers; yet even this opposition had its
influence in training and disciplining her for. a better and
stronger work.
While in this struggle, a new call is made upon her. Dr.
John Willard, of Middlebury, a physician of good repute,
and a man of solid political merit, had discovered the gifts
and graces of the young teacher. Nor was he long in win-
ning his way to her heart and hand. They were happily
married in August, 1809, when, for a few years, her work
of teaching was interrupted.
Pecuniary reverses soon came upon them ; and to aid in
retrieving their fortune, Mrs. Willard, in 1814, proposed to
return to her chosen profession. She opened iu Middlebury
a boardingHSchool for girls. But she was also preparing for
something more. She had, even then, detected how low and
unworthy were the aims and results of that class of schools.
She was especially struck with the difference between the
collegiate course of a young man, and the highest culture .
which the best schools of the day furnished for young
women ; and the discovery had been to her a summons to
a new work.
With what enthusiasm she entered upon that work I Care-
fully reviewing the whole subject of woman's education, she
drew up her plan for an enlarged course of study, corre-
278 £MIKEKT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
spondiDg, as nearly as the different sexes would indicate, wiA
the collegiate course for young men. But she found herself
in advance of the age. The leaders in public opinion were
not yet ready for such a change. She fortunately finds her
husband in full sympathy with her, and so takes heart again,
as she goes on testing its feasibility. Working daily, ten,
twelve, or even fifteen hours in her school duties, she still
takes time to master new studies herself that she may in due
time carry her pupils through them. And so, by exploring
new fields of science and literature herself; by teaching and
drilliug her classes, as few classes of young ladies had ever
before been 4rilled; by adding to the old course new studies,
and submitting the proficiency of her pupils to the criticism
of the most learned men of the day; and by skilfully win-
ning over to her new ideas a few leading minds, she Wiis pre-
paring the way for a new era in woman*s education ; making
possible the establishment and support of the great collegiate
institutions in which women may take rank in all literature
with their most scholarly brothers.
Some four years were spent in this preparation. Mean-
while the unwonted stimulus thus furnished to her own board-
ing-school had worked greatly in her favor. The fame of
her experiment had gone far and wide ; and she was now
prepared to take the first steps towards a permanent institu-
tion in which her enlarged views and hopes could be more
fully realized. The very location of the institution was a
matter of careful thought ; and for it, the State of New York,
and of that State, the neighborhood of the head-waters of the
Hudson, was chosen.
HEB GREAT WORK.
And now, in 1818, she is prepared for her work. She has
matured her plans, and secured strength for their execution.
MBS. EMMA WILLABD. 279
She submits her proposals to the large-minded Governor Clin-
ton, of *New York, with a special pica that he would hiy the
matter in due form, and with the weight of his approval, before
the legislature. The very plan, which in 1814 had begun to
shape itself to her eager search, sketched and resketchgd
even to the seventh time, was thus, in 1818, submitted to the
judgment of those who make and sustain the institutions of
their age. Of the details of that plan we have not space to
treat. It is due, however, to say, that down to this day,
nothing has been contributed to our educational literature
which exceeds either the wisdom of its details or the elo-
quence of its plea. The governor heartily approved the
measures which it recommended. The legislature so far en-
dorsed them as to incorporate an academy at Waterford, New
York, in which the founder might still more clearly show
their feasibility.
A still more important end secured by this movement was
an acknowledgment, on the part of the legislature, that the
academics in the State, designed for the education of women,
were entitled to the same pecuniary aid as institutions of
leaiiiiug for the other sex ; and a vote was accordingly passed
appropriating their proportion of the literature fund to
academies for girls.
We cannot but feel that it was most fortunate for Mrs.
Willard that such a man as Governor Clinton was ready to
second her aims. And yet, it is very cei*tain, we think, that
but for Mrs. Willard herself, her years of patient and zealous
and skilful working, we have no reasons for believing, that for
at least another quarter of a century, such concessions would
have been made, even to so just a demand.
In the spring of 1819, thus encouraged by the legislature,
Doctor and Mrs. Willard opened their new school in a rented
building in Waterford, New York. Their success was such
280 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
as to justify Governor Clinton, in his message of I82O9 to al-
lude to4t in these terms : —
** I cannot omit to call your attention to the Academy for
Female Education, which was incorporated last session at
Waterfordy and which, under the superintendence of distin-
guished teachers, has already attained great usefulness and
prosperity. As this is the only attempt ever made in this
country to promote the education of the female sex by the
patronage of government ; as our first and best impressions
are derived from maternal affections ; and as the elevation of
the female character is inseparably connected with happiness
at home, and respectability abroad ; I trust that you will not
be deterred, by commonplace ridicule, from extending your
munificence to this meritorious institution."
The citizens of Troy, attracted by the success oif^'the
Waterford school, proposed to furnish a building with buita-
ble grounds for a larger institution there, if Mrs. WiUard
would consent to a removal. On the expiration of their lease
in Waterford, this proposal from Troy was accepted, and in
May, 1821, they took possession of the Troy property, which
since that date has been used for the Troy Seminary thus es-
tablished.
The same industry and zeal in her profession, and the 8am«
progress in her personal culture marked the course of Mrs.
WiUard here as in her former schools. To the studies she
had already added to the » ordinary curriculum of the schools
for young ladies of that day, she now, after thoroughly mas«
tering them herself, adds the higher mathematics, geometry,
including trigonometry, algebra, conic sections, and Enfield's
natural philosophy. With all this working she still found
time for remodelling the science of geography and history ;
and the results of this painstaking to furnish heraelf suitable
MBS. SMMA WILLABD. 281
implements of her profession we had in Willard and Wood-
bridge's popular Geography in 1821, and Mrs, Willard s " Tem-
ple of Time and Clironographer of Ancient History." This
ingenious design received a medal at the World's Eair in
1851. The certific^^ of testimonial, signed by Prince Al-
bert, was no empty tribute to the eminent author, but rather
a tribute to the substantial contribution to our aids in learning
and teaching what ought to be the most fascinating, yet what
had notoriously become the most uninteresting, of all our
studies. •
In entering upon her enlarged sphere of labors in Troy,
Iklrs. Willard found the gain of her preceding work. The
young ladies whom she had taught, and who had caught
something of the inspiration of her aims and zeal, were now
already trained for her help. Her experience and practice
bad made the work of classification and management easy to
her, and her great reputation, of itself, would go far towards
making her success a certainty.
She had scarcely settled herself to her work when an un-
foreseen trial came upon her. Her husband, who, as head of
the family, as physician and financial manager of the large
household, and as her constant and intelligent adviser, had
been a real partner and sharer of her work, after a painful
sickness, died in 1825. On her rested now the great burden
which he had borne for her.
Yet, with a resolution more than we look for in woman,
she did not hesitate. Bearranging her school terms, simpli-
fying and methodizing her work, she could even add to her
former duties the financial management of her school. She
neither neglected the claim of the humblest pupil under her
charge, nor any important item of business in managing the
large establishment. Down to 1838, she thus continued the
motive power and main spring of that first of American
schools for young women.
282 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AOE.
And her revranl Was not long delayeil. It came id tbe
triumph of her owd school. It came in the iQcrcaaed stiuiu-
lus she had given to the cause of woman's education. It
came in the readier facilities accorded to young women in our
collegiate institutions ; and still more signally in those Iiirge
institutions expressly for women which her success had made
possible. We can now readily see how much South Hadley,
Oberlin, Antioch, Packer, and Vaasar are indebted to her
pioneer work.
While achieving this success at home, she had not been
unmindful of the claims of woman abroad. In 1830 she had
sought a'broad the rest and health which her home duties re-
quired, and the relief from her professional work gave her
the opportunity to examine the educational condition of
women in other lands. Her womanly heart was touched
with the report which came to her of the degraded condition
of woman in classic Greece, and on her return she organized
a society in Troy to aid iu establishing a school in Athens for
educating native teachers. She prepared a volume of ber
European tour, giving the benefit of its profits to the Greek
school.
But the time at length came when it was necessary for her
to retire from the pressure of these great burdens upon her.
Her eon, Mr. John H. Willard, who had grown up under a
training which had specially fitted him for it, and his wife,
who for nineteen years bad been with her as pupil , or teacher,
or vice^principal, now accepted the trust, and relieved her of
its further care.
But Mrs. Willard all these years had been not simply the
practical teacher, but also a most unwearied student, and the
opportunity is now afforded her of prosecuting ber studies
with new zeal. She bad been testing Dr. William Harvey's
tbeory of the circulation of the blood, in which the heart is
made the motive power, and she soon detected its fallacy.
MBS. EMMA WILLARD. 283
She now sets herself to the more careful study of this inter-
esting problem. With all the enthusiasm of a professiouat
anatomist and physiologist, she explores thoroughly the entire
field, and the result was a work on the ''Motive Powers which
produce the Circulation of the Blood.'' This treatise, pub-
lished in 1846» arrested the attention of the medical faculty,
and won for its author the reputation of a successful discov-
erer.
At the same time these investigations were going on, her
feelings became deeply interested in the public schools of her
native State. While on a visit to Berlin, she was asked to
furnish her views on the subject of common-school education,
to be submitted to the citizens of her native town assembled
in an educational meeting. The paper she submitted showed
8o much wisdom, and indicated so true an interest in the com-
mon schools, that the parish, by vote, put their schools for
the year under her care. Her success in managing them was
a marvel, and the schools, thus skilfully superintended, were
referred to by Mr. Barnard, then as now, a prince among
educators, as witnesses to what skilful management will do
for schools.
And so, by study and writing, even to twelve and fourteen
hours daily ; by stirring up educators and schools to more
skilful and earnest working, both in Connecticut and New
York ; by suggesting new plans and methods of teaching ; by
projecting normal schools before the day of normal schools
had come, — this woman, thoroughly alive to all that promised
to advance her race, used more diligently her years of rest
than most workers do the hours of their busiest working.
And if the question is raised, how could one with only a
woman's strength sustain such efforts, the answer will only
lead us to still another field of her unwearied and painstak-
inrg labor. She worked for it. She studied carefully the
condition and wants of her physical nature, and provided for
284 EHINEKT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
both. She trained even her muscles to their healthful and
self-siistaiDing work. She wishes a clear, vigorous, lifcful
brain, and she uses the only methods she could discover tliat
promised it. See her, early in the morning, at her honest,
earnest, muscular work. And when she has entered upon the
mental labor of the day, see her, at the end of each two
hours through the day, resting her toiling brain by vigorous
physical exercise, until the equilibrium is restored. You need
not fear for her, as she drops the sash of her study window,
and facing the fresh cold breeze stands there exercising the
muscles of her chest until her lungs have been satisfied with
their needed food, and her blood freshly pours its health-tides
throughout her now reinvigorated fmme. She has now
worked her whole system up to working trim, and you need
not wonder if, when she seats herself at her papers, she should
record a thought or a theory which shall henceforth change
and rule the thoughts and theories of men. It is really no
marvel that one with such a physical and mental constitution
as she inherited, with such skilful training as her very neces-
sities had imposed on her younger life, and with the care
which her maturer years had exercised over both her body
and brain, should at fifty 3'ears of age give to the world her
Troy SemiLary ; at sixty, her original demonstration on the
^ Motive Powers in the Circulation of the Blood ; " at sixty-
two, her treatise on ^ Respiration and its Effects ; " and at
sixty-five, a work on astronomy, which even the masters in
the science were ready to endorse. It is no marvel, that,
after having had an important part in the training of more
than five thousand young ladies, she still found time and
strength to become the teacher of the teachers of men. It
is no marvel that at fifty-eight she could, in a journey of eight
thousand miles, traverse a continent, rejoicing everywhere
equally in the joy of her pupils and in the prosperity of the
schools for j'ouug ladies which her influence had contributed
MBS. EMMA WILLARD. 285
to foand ; nor that at sixty-seven she could cross the ocean,
and mingle in the exercises and enjoy the honors of the
World's Educational Convention, and thence make the tour of
France, Switzerland, Oermany, and Belgium tributary still
to her zeal for observation and learning.
But not alone in these literary and educational works has
Mrs. Willard used her great powers. Her religious charac-
ter has been also as carefully educated, and an effective Chris-
tian culture has been a constant aim and triumph in her work.
Uniting with the Episcopal church in Burlington, she has
ever since been a devout and worthy communicant. In all
her study and work, her appeal has been to God's word for
her standard and law. She spoke with great deliberation in
her weighty charge to those whom she would commission with
the solemn trust of teachers, when she said to them, in all the
seriousness of her earnest convictions : " So far, however,
from depending on set times for the whole discharge of the
duty of training the young to piety and virtue, you are, dur-
ing all your exercises, to regard it as the grand object of your
labors."
Of her active and wide-reaching benevolence the record
has been a private one. l^et many and timely have been her
benefactions which the angel has recorded on high. We know
this much, that scores of the young women whom she has
aided to secure the education, which, without such aid, they
could not have secured, are still grateful for her quick sym-
pathies and generous aid. It is safe to say that twenty thou-
sand dollars would not now make Mrs. Willard's exchequer
good for these offerings to the cause of woman's education.
But we cannot linger longer on these lessons of her useful
and honored life. Mrs. Willard is still living, and as we
might, from all we have learned of her former life, expect,
her latest years are not without their rich and worthy fruits.
. The serene dignity of age well befits now the form which
286 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
forty years ago was radiant with womanly beauty. Under
the shadow in her own dear seminary, she can but rejoice in
this proud monument of her life.
Here, surrounded with the trophies of her life-work, em-
bosomed in the love of those whose young affections she
drew to herself, and cheered by that precious religious hope
which has purified her life, long may she yet enjoy with us
the rewards of her long life, so nobly and worthily spent for
her sex and race I
MRS. MARIANNE P. DASCOMB.
Hardly less positive need we be in assigning the second
place on our list of educational pioneers to the excellent
aiid popular principal of the Ladies' Department of Oberlin
College. Since 1835, she has held, in this Western institu-
tion, a place of great responsibility, and during all those
years she has shown herself every way worthy the confidence
she has inspired. True she has never presumed to claim for
herself any such position ; yet for {his very reason she is all
the worthier of it. True she may not have arrested the gaze
o^ the world ,^ like many another woman whose life has been
a glittering show, yet we shall find her to be one of those
quiet and silent forces, which are noiselessly working out the
most useful and even the grandest problems of the age and
race.
Who has not noticed how men and women of exceed-
ingly defective character, and even of very limited ability,
are often lifted, in spite of themselves, into notoriety, and,
for a while at least, enjoy a reputation for goodness and
power, for which the unthinking world do not fail to honor
them ? Or who has failed to see how othersy of great natiT^
MRS. MABIANKE P. DASCOMB. 287
ability and of rarest excellence of character, have been so
retiring and modest, or so overshadowed by showier pre-
sumers, as scarcely during their lifetime to attract our atten-
tion ? Has not noisy and blaring pretence always seemed at
least to win its way more readily than highest merit? — even
as the lightning^s flash is more sure of wmning your attention
than the most genial sunbeam of the loveliest morning. And,
still, who has not also seen how certainly Providence at
length reverses all this seeming experience of life ? He lifts
the lowliest to the loftiest place. He makes the weakest the
strongest. He confounds what men call wisdom, by establish-
ing what they have pronounced folly. He, at length, brings
worthy merit out of its obscurity into the clearest light ; and,
over the dsizzle and glory of all mere gilded radiance, sooner
or later spreads the pall which covers all its empty shams.
And when this rectification comes, who does not see how real
was the merit before undiscovered, and how exceedingly
thin and worthless the gilding which so dazzled the eye?
Possibly the sketch we here attempt may justify these
reflections. We shall have to speak of a character which has
never courted the world's notice, yet one to which the world
is certainly under no small obligation. With no brilliant
display of personal charms, no parade of talents, no exciting
incidents to kindle to an impassioned glow our admiration,
we shall still find, at every step in our review, ample reason
for the place we have assigned to one of the world's true and
faithful and successful workers. As a pioneer in establishing
and sustaining the fullest curriculum of studies for woman
yet reached, embracing a mental discipline as severe and
thorough as that which has been required of young men, —
especially, as pioneer in a movement which has done so much
towards supplying our broad West with their great and
efficient institutions for the advanced culture of woman, — she
certainly deserves well of her sex and her race. Very com-
288 SMIKEKT WOMBK OT THB AQB.
petent authority, Mrs. Caroline H. Dall, of Boston, has well
characterized her fitness for the post of lady principal at
Oberlin. "The splendid endowment of Vassar College,"
she says, ** could not give to Oberlin a woman better suited
to this purpose than Mrs. Dascomb."
Let us, then, briefly trace the educational career of this gifted
and successful woman. We must do this, in full knowledge
of two special hindrances to our attempt, — the extreme
modesty of Mrs. Dascomb's character, which shrinks sensi-
tively from all public exhibition and criticism ; and the fact
that her entire educational life has been so intimately asso-
ciated with that of so many other educators, so that it may
be difficult to decide of any particular result, how much of it
is due to her agency, or what part of it she should share
with her associates.
Marianne Parker, a child of Christian parents, of good
New England stock, which itself was of best English puritan
blood, was born in Dunbarton, N. H., in 1810. She wasthe
seventh of eight children, five daughters and three pons,
whom her mother, Martha Tenney, had borne to her father,
William Parker. At the early age of four she became
fatherless; and with a. large family of children, and but a
small patrimony, was left to such care and culture as her
mother, who was an excellent woman, could supply. The
children were therefore, of necessity, early taught the lessons
of economy and mutual helpfulness. The elder members of
the family cheerfully fitted themselves to aid their mother in
caring for the younger ; and these in their turn were trained
in habits of thoughtful and helpful industry. It was thus
that that interesting group were best disciplined and trained
to lives of great usefulness. Those days of preparation were
well and wisely spent. The physical and social culture then
furnished was of incalculable value to them all. The necessi-
ties which imposed such burdens may have been trying to
MRS. MABIANNE P. DASCOMB. 289
both the mother and her young charge ; but its fruits in after
years even until now have proved an exceeding reward.
We cannot wonder when, in later years, we find how all of
that group have worked themselves up into positions of
honored usefulness, such as only earnest and intelligent
workers can fill. How like the story of how many New
England families of fifty years ago it reads I
Three of the sisters in due time became the wives of three
ministers, and the fourth that of a professional and useful
teacher. Of the brothers, the eldest, after graduating at
college, became a successful teacher; the second, on whom
the care of the home and widowed mother fell, has done good
service in the church and world ; and the third is still, as for
the last quarter of a century, an approved minister of Christ.
A whole family thus given to the cause of learning and
religion is just the source from which we might expect a
pioneer and leader, or at any rate an efficient promoter, of
some needed movement in education or in ethics.
And such a character we believe we have in the subject of
this sketch. From the first she gave indications of possessing
large native ability. To her natural inquisitiveness was added
cl«ar and quick perception, with a corresponding fulness of
the reasoning faculty; and so, under the stimulus of the
home and early school culture which she enjoyed, she made
rapid progress in acquiring knowledge. Nor was she deficient
in such social and affectional qualities as are needed to consti-
tute one the best and most serviceable of friends ; or to give
one the firmest hold on the confidence and affections of others,
and so the most efficient power for good or evil over them*
In early girlhood she is reported to us as " one of the best of
playmates," and in maturer years we find her as sympathetic
and affectionate and persuasive as then; while to these
merely companionable qualities she has added the power and
authority of a dignified and matronly grace.
1Q
290 BMINENT WOMEN OP THE AOH.
Her enrly school education was mucb like tb.it of the nu-
jorily of girls of that day. Specially favorable to her prog-
ress was the influence over her of Misa Chase, a sister of our
present Chief Justice Chase, who was in her thirteenth year
her teaclicr ; and also thai of her brother-in-law. Rev. Thomas
Tenney, who had charge of the Hampton Aciideniy. After
leaving the Hampton Academy, she prosecuted her cdncation
in various schools as pupil or teacher, until, anxious to lay
deeper and broader foundations for what she was coming to
loolc upon ns her future profession,— teaching, — she entered
the Ipswich Academy, then in charge of Miss Grant, one of
the ablest of our lady teachers of that day. Here she grad-
uated in 1833, ranking high in her class, and ready for any
good service in almost any field of woman's work which might
open before her. Nor had she long to watt. She entered
with enthusiasm the firiit field open to her, — a school in
Boscaweu, Kew Hampshire, and was there making full proof
of the wisdom of her choice of pnrsuits, when another call was
made upon her.
Dr. James Dascomb, a yonng physician, well fitted for hia
profession, — a Christian gentleman, longing to find the field la
which be might do best service for bis race, — had then just
offered himself to the American Board of Commissioners for
Foreign Missions, as a missionary physician to some heathen
field. Whilo looking forwai'd to such service, he became
acquainted with Miss Parker. He waa not long in detecting,
in the spirit and character of the yonng and ardent teacher,
the qualities which would be most fitting for one who should
bo his helpmeet in such a life-work. Nor was she long \a
reciprocating his confidence and afiection.
Pending bis negotiation with the American Board, Provi-
dence was preparing for him another field and service. A
movement had been started to establish at the West a school
of collegiate rank for both sexes, in which, by manual labor,
MRS. MARIANNE P. DASCOMB. 291
tho students could at once promote tbeir health and contribute
towards their support. In the forests of Northern Ohio a
site had been found for the attempt, and the earnest and hirge-
hearted men who had projected the movement commenced
their work, naming both tho institution and the town, of
which it w^as to be the beginning and life, from Obcrlin, the
Christian pastor and teacher, and civilizer of tho rndo peas*
antry of the Ban de la Roche, in Switzerland. In this novel
movement, started in tho interests of literature, religion, and
humanity, the young physician was now invited to take part ;
and, after a consultation with Miss Parker, they mutually and
heartily accepted the post. Resigning the school she had just
opened in Canajoharie, New York, into other hands. Miss Par-
ker was married in tho spring of 1834 ; and with her husband
entered at once upon the work which has never yet been
intermitted. For thirty-four years they have wrought to-
gether on that field, apparently so forbidding, — the husband
risking step by step in scholarship and professional popularity,
until now, and the wife to a post of responsibility and use-
fulness, second, perhaps, to none in tho country, which
woman has been called to fill. They have lived to see the
old forest give way to an institution which more than any
other in tho West has made itself a power among the noblest
movements of the age.
On connecting herself with the young college, Mrs. Das-
comb was appointed the principal of the ladies' department.
Her strength then proving unequal to the burden, at the end
of the j'ear she resigned, not, however, without having mado
full proof of her many admirable qualifications for tho post.
She was immediately transferred to the Ladies' Board of
Managers, where, for years, her good sense was of incalcula-
ble service to the board. In 1852 she was urged to resume
the post of principal of the ladies' department, and again,
tlvough hesitatmgly, she accepted the charge. . In this post
292 EMINENT WOMEN OP THE AGE.
she bas remained until now. Her office, calling as it doeJ
for large executive and administrntive ability, has been most
worthily and .acceptably 6llccl, The trustees of the college
are unanimous in their admiration of her signal success. Tbcy
cheerfully accept her counsel, in all matters relating to her
department, as law ; and they never find her counsels or her
plans to fail. Under her judicious management, and, owing
to this perhaps as mneh as to any one agency, the college at
Oberlin has practically shown the safety and wisdom of educat-
ing, even through the college course, the two sexes together,
It has, also, proved the ability of woman to prosecute credit*
ably all the studies of the college course, and to compete
successfully with men in any field of literature.
But precisely how much of the success at Oberlin has been
duo to any one of the agencies employed, it may be difficult
to decide. There have been in the work some of the ablest
men our country has produced. Certainly, no more earnest
workers have anywhere used to the utmost all their resonrces
to sustain aod build up any institution of the age. The on-
terprise, itself, was hopeless to any hut a strong faith and
resolute heart. And they who took the work in hand worked
on together with good heart and hope. Its three presidents —
Mahan, Finney, and Fairchild — have all done the work of
strong and fearless men. Their associates in the Faculty, of
their own aex, have worked with them, under the glow anil
inspiration of the snmo enthusiasm. Nor could the institu-
tion have been established and sustained without such agency.
With it, Oberlin has attained a good rank among the literaiy
institutions of the land.
But for the successful attainment of its special aim, that of
the co-education of the two sexes, even through the entire
college course, another style of educational agency was
needed. If young women were to be admitted and carried
through the course, the presence of woman would be iudis-
tfBS. MABIANNE P. DASCOMB. 293
pensable in the faculty. Her intelligence and tact, her sym-
pathy and taste, aud her quick sense of social proprieties
would all bo a necessity. Her control and acithority would
reach and regulate, as man's could not, these now college
relations.
Especially also, was the aid of wotnan needed, to secure
another leading idea of the Oberlin movement. The founders
wished to organize a community, as well as establish a col-
lege, — a community in thorough sympathy with their own
Christian work. The town itself was to be the home for
their college, and its families were to feel themselves, in
some sort, identified with the aims and interests of the col-
lege. It must be a community in which young men aud
women could be Christiauly educated, and from whose nur-
ture they should be thoroughly prepared to go forth to their
own earnestly aggressive Christian work. But to aid in
organizing such a community, the presence and culture aud
grace of Christian women would be requisite.
Most fortunate, was it, then, that, when such a movement
was projected, this needed agency was not wanting. To
make no mention of other gifted Christian women, who were
counted worthy to engage in such a work, — though such
names as those of Mrs. Shipherd, and Mahan, and Finney,
and Cowles, may well claim no small share in this noblo
enterprise, — it was peculiarly providential that such a woman
as Mrs. Dascomb was then ready, both in literary attainment,
and in every most needed social quality, to give herself to
the work. And it is not saying too much that she was ready
also for the consecmtion. Without reservation she entered
the service, which, with no abatement of zeal, she has pur-
sued and honored until now.
Nor is it claiming too much to say that her reward has
been great. Of about five hundred young ladies who are
annually under her instruction or influence, very few can be
294 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
found who do not regard her with a feeling akin to filial
affection. Of the thousands who have gone out from Oherlin,
of both sexei!, we have but one uniform testimony to the
high esteem with which they regard her. Her associates ia
the work tell us the same etory of their dependence upon
her, and their great indebtedness to her influence.
Nor is it difficult to detect the secret of her power. It
lies both in her temperament and character. She is Ufcful
snd cheerful. She shows good sense and judgment. She
nbounJs in hopefulness, which gives her conlideuce and cour-
age. She has no misgivings lest duty should prove iuex-
pcdient; and so her faith in the results of duty never fails
her. She is self-sacrificing, — doing cheerfully for others,
what she would gladly he excused from doing on her own
account. She is conscientious, anxious only to do the right
thing herself, and solicitous only to aid others in seeing what b
right, and doing it. One of the most sensitively gentle of wo-
men, uhc has still the firmest strength of will, holding herself
and holding others, as by inevitable law, to truth and duty. She
could not compromise principle, though a world were to be
won. With her the first question and the last is, not, Will it
pay? not. Is it fashionable? not. Will it please the world?
but. Is it right? She has the courage to face sneers and
danger even, if in the path of duty. In the day when to
befriend a fugitive negro was to arouse a storm of popular
rage and vengeance, she never hesitated to recognize tho
fugitive's claim. She acknowledged no misnamed patriotism,
which required her to prove faithless to the plain call of
humanity. Higher than all human enactments, she held and
holds the claims and the law of the only God.
And so, by her gentle and patient kindness; by her fer-
vent zeal in duty; by her disinterested love and service for
others; by her uncompromising devotion to what is true and
light, — she has made forheiijelf a place of power in the cum-
MRS MARIANNE P. DASCOMB. 295
mumty where she has lived, and especially in the hearts and
minds she has aided in educatin^: for the service of the church
and world. And still, as for so many years, she is prosecut-
ing the same good work, with the same success. Witliout
denying the claims of her own family and home, — in which she
ha3 reared to womanhood the two adopted, the only children
given to her to rear, — she is still laboriously employed in the
duties of her great charge at the college. In her daily work
of personal interview and consultation with pupils and teach-
ers, and the matrons of the homes in which the pupils reside ;
in assigning daily exercises and studies ; in familiar lectures
to the young ladies on all topics, outside of the general course
of instruction in the classes, on which they need instruction
and advice, — Mi's. Dascomb is still adding to the reputation
she has already won, as a woman of eminent ability and ser-
vice. But, pre-eminently, her best record is yet to be writ-
ten. It must be traced in the career of the many gifted
young women whom she has aided in fitting for service,
good and great, like her own. Their success, when its
causes are fully known, will add new lustre to the crown,
which she now so unconsciously wears.
296 SUINENT WOMEN OF THE AGS.
HARRIET BEEGHER STOWE
•o*
BY REV. E. P. PARKER.
Harriet Beegher, daughter of Rev. Lyman Beecfaer,
D.D., was born in the town of Litchfield, in the State of
Connecticut, on the 14th day of Juno, in the 3'^car of our
Lord 1812. Her father, than whom no man of his gen-
eration is more reverently and affectionately remembered,
was one of the sturdiest and grandest men that New England
has produced. Among American divines his position as ft
theologian was one of distinction, and as a pulpit orator he
stood full abreast with the most eloquent. There have been
DO more powerful preachers in our country than he.
In the year 1799 he married Roxana Foote, whose father,
Eli Foote, was a genial and cultivated man, aiid, notwith-
standing he was a royalist and churchman, was universally
respected and honored. She was also the grand-daughter
of General Ward, who served under Washington in the
Revolutionary war. This union was blessed with eight
children: — Catharine, William, Edward, Mary, George,
Harriet, Henry Ward, and Charles. Dr. Beecher had sworn
never to many a weak woman; nor, in marrying Roxana
Foote, did he forswear himself. In one of the Mayflower
sketches, in the character of Aunt Mary, and later, in a letter
contributed to the "Autobiography of Lyman Beecher*
(vol. I., page 301), Mrs. Stowe herself describes her
HABBIET BEECHEB STOWE. 297
mother. She was a woman of extraordinary talents, rare
cultui*e, fine taste, sweet and gentle temper; full of the
Holy Ghost and of that power which comes not with obser-
Tatlon, but whose exercise is alike unconscious and irre-
sistible.
She died when Harriet was not quite four years old, but
** her memor}' and example had more influence in moulding
her family, in deterring froui evil and exciting to good, than
the living presence of many mothers."
Mra. Stowe relates that when, in her eighth year, she lay
dangerously ill of scarlet fever, she was awakened one
evening just at sunset h^ the voice of her father praying at
her bedside, and heard him speaking of '^her blessed mother,
who is a saint in heaven ! " The passage in Uncle Tom,
where St. Clair describes his mother's influence, is simply a
reproduction of the influence of Mrs. Stowe's own mother, a^
it had always been in her family.
All who have read the '* Minister's Wooing" must remember
the beautiful letter which Mary wrote to the Doctor. That
letter is one which, years before, Mrs. Beecher had written,
and was copied by Mrs. Stowe into the pages of her story.
Immediately after her mother's death, Harriet was taken to
live with her mother's sister, in whose well-ordered house the
little girl found a happy home, the tenderest care, and the
benefits of an unusually wholesome moral discipline and in-
tellectual companionship. Her mother had been a quiet but
devout churchwoman who, at her marriage with Dr. Beecher,
conformed herself to the simpler manners of the Congrega-
tional churches, and bent her steps to the ways in which her
husband walked, but not without cherishing an ineradicable
love of the better way in which her fathers walked and wor-
sliipped. Something of this feeling Harriet may have in-
herited. Having had such a mother, she found herself, in the
circle of her mother's relatives, surrounded by those who
298 EMINKNT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
believed in the Church, and walked after its ordinances only,
with nil their hearts. Nor is it nnlikely that these fuels fur-
nish a sufficient explanatioD of that prcfcrei;ce fur the mode
of divine worship which obtains in the Episcopalian Church,
which, in tbcso later years, Mrs. Stowe has publicly mani-'
fested.
Of her pleasant life ia the farm-house at Nutplains ; of
the good old grandma with bright white hair, who took her —
the little motherlcsa — into her arms, and held her elose, and
wept over her; who read the evening service, after supper,
fromagrcat prayer-book, with such impress! veness as touched
the child's heart with a feeling of its intrinsic simplicity and
beauty which she never outgrew; and who also, in the sin-
cerity of her toryism, often read over, with trembling voice,
the old prayers for king, queen, and royal family, grieving
'that they should have been omitted in all the churches ; of
her energetic, precise, smart, orderly Aunt Harriet, who was
one of the women who contrive to bring all their plans to
pass and to have their ways perfectly, — a splendid specimen
of the best kind of a genuine Yankee woman, believing in
the Church with a faith in which disdain of all Meeting-house
religion was so farmingled that, when on a visit to Litchfield,
flhe conld not bring herself to listen to Dr. Beechcr, of whom
she was very proud and fond, but must needs go to Church,
where all things were "done decently and in order," — who
did more than encourage little Harriet to " move gently, to
speak softly and prettily, to say *ycs, ma'am' and 'no,
ma'am,'" to keep her clothes clean, and knit and sew at
regular hours, to go to Church on Sundays and make all the
responses, and como home and be thoroughly drilled in the
catechism ; of her Uucle George who was a great reader,
and full of poetry, and had Burns and'Scott at his tongue's
end, and whose recitations of Scott's ballads were tlic first
poems she ever heard ; of the house stored with all manner
HARRIET BEECHEB STOWE. 299
of family relics, and also with all manner of strange a.id
wonderful things brought by a sea-faring uncle, from the
uttermost parts of the earth, — supplied moreover with what
were exceedingly rare things in those days, a well-selected
library, and a portfolio of fine engravings, — of all these
things Mrs. Stowe tells us in one of her pleasantest letters,
and adds, **The little white farm--house under the hill was a
Paradise to us, and the sight of its chimneys after a day^s
ride was like a vision of Eden I "
Nearly two years passed by, and Harriet, now again in her
father's house, wonders at " a beautiful lady, very fair, with
bright-blue eyes, and soft auburn hair," who comes into .the
nursery where she with her younger brothers are in bed, and
kisses them, and tells them she loves them and will be their
mother. This fair stranger was Dr. Beecher's second wife,
Harriet Porter, of Portland, Maine ; and of little Harriet she
writes to her friends very handsomely : •'Harriet and Henry
• • . . are as lovely children as I ever saw, amiable, affect ioii-
ate, and very bright.'' She speaks also of "the great familiarity
and great respect subsisting between parent and children," and
of the household as ^ one of great cheerfulness and comfort.*'
*Our domestic worship is very delightful. We sing a good
deal, and have reading aloud as much as we can. It seems
the highest happiness of the children to have a reading circle."
These observations afford us glimpses of that inner domestic
life amid whose healthful and quickening influences Mrs.
Stowe's child-life developed itself. Her sister Catharine
writes of her when she was five years of age : '* Harriet is a
very good girl. She has been to school all this summer, and
has learned to read very fluently. She has committed to
memory twenty-seven hymns and two long chapters in the
Bible. She has a remarkably retentive memory, and will
make a good scholar." She very early manifested a great
eagerness for books, and ''read everything she could lay
300 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
hands on." Her young mind drank eagerly at every available
literary spring, and such was the inspiration of Dr. Beecber's
presence among his children, that they daily lived and
breathed in a bracing intellectual atmosphere, and their wits
were kept constantly in exercise.
One incident from Mrs. Stowe's ^ Early Remembrances "
of Litchtield well illustrates his ^ inspiring talent/' and not
only that, but the unusual degree of intellectual activity
which characterized the whole domestic life. One of the
famous occasions in the course of the year was the apple*
cutting season, in the autumn, when a barrel of cider apple-
sauce had to be made. ^ The work was done in the kitchen,
— an immense brass kettle hanging over the deep fire-
place, a bright fire blazing and snapping, and all hands,
children and servants, employed on tlie full baskets of apples
and quinces which stood around. I have the image of my
father still, as he sat working the apple-peeler. 'Come,
George,' he said, Til tell you what we'll do to make tho
evening go off. You and I'll take turns, and see who'll tell
the most out of Scott's novels ' ! And so they took them,
novel by novel, reciting scenes and incidents, which kept the
eyes of the children wide open, and made the work go on
without flagging." Dr. Beecher was very fond, too, of setting
all manner of discussions on foot, into which he would dmvr
the children, arguing with them, correcting them in their
logical slips, and so not only putting them in the way of
acquiring new knowledge, but what was far better, arousing
their minds, sharpening their wits, and teaching them how to
think and reason. Allusion has been made to Harriet's
eagerness to read. But the light literature which, in our days,
is to be found in such abundance even in parsonages, to say
nothing of Sunday-school libraries, was wanting in her father's
library, and she was hardly ready to satisfy her hunger as
one young lady of our acquauitance oacc attempted to do, by
HARRIET BEECHER 8T0WE. 301
beginning at one end of the library and reading it throdgh,
book by book. She had found, and for a while had revelled
in, a copy of the "Arabian Nights;" and afterward, in her
desperate search among sermons, tracts, treatises, and essays,
she turned up a dissertation or commentary on Solomon's
Song, which she read with avidity, '* because it told about the
same sort of things she had read of in the " Arabian Nights.''
She was again rewarded for her several hours' toil in what she
calls ^ a weltering ocean of pamphlets," by bringing to light
a fragment of "Don Quixote," which seemed to her like an
" enchanted island rising out of an ocean of mud " !
This was the time when the names of Scott, Byron, Moore,
and Irving were comparatively new, and yet not so ne\^ as
not to be in the mouths of all intelligent people. The Salma-
gundi papers were recent publications. Byron had not quite
finished his course. Scott had written his best poems, and the
"Lay of the Last Minstrel," and "Marmion," were familiar to
people of intelligence, the world over ; but the "Tales of my
Landlord," and" Ivanhoe," had just made their appearance.
Now the novel, in those days, was regarded, by all pious people
at least, as an unclean thing. It was not tolerated, and, in-
deed, it had become really unclean and intolerable in the
*hands of the previous generation of writers of fiction.
Great was the joy in that household when an exception was
made to the prohibitory law under which all works of fiction
were excluded from well-ordered households, as only so much
trash and abomination, and Dr. Beecher said, "George, you
may read Scott's novels. I have always disapproved of
novels as trash, but in these are real genius and real culture,
and you may read them " 1 This generous license was im-
proved, for in one summer Harriet and George "went
through * Ivanhoe' seven times," so that they could recite
several of the scenes from beginning to end I In the next
house to the one in which Dr. Beecher lived, and but a few
802 EMINENT WOMEN 07 THE AOB.
steps distant, dwelt •^Aunt Esther/' — a woman of strong
mind, ready wit, and large information, to whose keeu
criticism Dr. Beecher frequently submitted his sermons and
articles, and whose geniality and inexhaustible fund of enter-
taining information made her room a favorite resoi-t of the
children. From her hands Harriet one day received a volume
of Byron's poems containing the ** Corsair." This she read
with wonder and delight, and thenceforth listened eagerly
to whatever was said in the house concerning Byron. Not
long after, she heard her father say sorrowfully, ^ Bj- ron is
dead, — gone "/ •* I remember," she says, " taking my basket
for strawberries that afternoon, and going over to a straw-
berry field on Chestnut Ilill. But I was too dispirited to do
anything; so I lay down among the daisies, and looked
up into the blue sky, and thought of that great eternity into
which Byron had entered, and wondered how it might be
with his soul" 1 Harriet was then eleven years old, but was
sufficiently precocious to appreciate the genius that was
exhibited in Byron's passionate poetry, and to share in the
enthusiasm which that genius has everywhere created.
Not only in her father's house, and in the family circle, bat
in the society and schools of Litchfield as well, was her mind
enriched and stimulated to independent thought. The towa
of Litchfield was celebrated in those days for the unusual
number of cultivated, scholarly, and professional men who
resided there, and for the high literary character of its society.
•* A delightful village, on a fruitful hill, richly endowed with
schools both professional and scientific, with its venerable
governors and judges, with its learned lawyers, and senators,
and represeutatjives both in the national and state depart-
ments, and with a population enlightened and respectable,
Litchfield," says Mrs. Stowe, ''was now in its glory."
The high reputation of Miss Pierce's school for young
ladies brought a goodly number of fair women into the town,
HABBIET BEECHER STOWE. 303
while the excellent law-school of Judofe Reeve attracted
tbitlier brave J'oiing men from all quarters.
Mibs Catbariuo Beecher relates that when Mrs. Stowe was
at Paris, she was repeatedly visited hy an aged French gentle-
man of distinction, who in youth had spent some years in
L itchGeld ns a student at the law school, and, in his conversa-
tions with Mrs. St )we, he frequently referred to, and dwelt
with enthusiasm upon, the society of Litchfield, which he
declared was the most charming in the world. In such a
home, and in &uch a society, Harriet Beecher passed the first
twelve years of her life. She was a pupil in the school
taught by Miss Pierce and Mr. Brace. Of Mr. Brace, Mrs.
Stowe speaks in terms of the highest praise, as a gentleman
of wide information, well-read in the English classics, of
singular conversational powers, and a most "stimulating and
inspiring instructor." Her own simpler lessons were neg-
lected and forgotten as she sat listening intently, hour after
hour, to the recitations of the older classes, and to the con-
Tei-sations of Mr. Brace with them, in moral philosophy,
liietoric, and history. In this school particular attention
was given to the writing of compositions. An ambition
was kindled in the minds of the scholars to excel in this
exercise.
Harriet was but nine y^Brs old, when, roused by Mr.
Brace's inspiration, she volunteered to write a composition
every week. The theme for the first week was sufficiently
formidable, — The Difference between the Natural and the
Moral Sublime. But so great was the interest which the
preparatory discussions had awakened in her mind, that she
found herself in labor with the subject, felt sure that she had
some clear distinctions in mind, and, although she could
hardly write legibly or spell correctly, brought forth her first
composition upon that question. Persevering in her eflforts,
the was soon publicly commended for her progress* and two
304 EMINENT WOHBN OP THB AOB.
years later received the honor of an appointtneut to be one
of the writcirs at the annual exhibition of the school. On
that distinguished occasion she argued the negative of the
following question : Can the Immortality of the Soul be
proved by the Light of Nature? Wo may smile at the idea
of an argument on such a topic by a girl in her twelfth year,
but Ehe shall describe the eceue of her first public triumph : — ■
"I remember the scene at that exhibition, — to me so
eventful. The hall was crowded with the literati of Litch-
field. Before them all our compositions were read aloud.
When mine was read, I noticed that father, who was eltting
on high by Mr. Brace, brightened and looked interested ;
and, at the close, I heard bim say, ' Who wrote that com>
position?' ' Yovr daughter, sir/' was the answer. It was
the proudest moment of my life."
The conditions and circumstances of Mrs. Stowe's early
life, the scenes and surroundings of her childhood, and the
nature of that domestic and social life in which her own life
was rooted, and from which some, at least, of its peculiar
qualities must have been derived, deserve a much more care-
ful and complete representation than the limits of this sketch
■will allow ; for they reveal where and how the solid foun-
dations of her future fame were laid, and by what subtile but
potent infiucnces her intellectual powers were quickened, licr
character moulded, and her whole history happily predeter-
mined in its course of development.
At about twelve years of age, Harriet went to ILii-tford,
where her sister Catharine had opened a school for young
ladies. She was one of a brilliant class which numbered
among its members several ladies whose names are well and
widely known. She was known as an absent- miuded, intro-
spective, reticent, and somewhat moody youu^ lady, odd in
HABBIET BEECHER STOWE. 305
her manners and habiiSy bat a fine scholar, a great reader,
and exceedingly clever in her compositions, whether of
poetry or of prose. Even then she displayed something of
that fondness and aptitude for delineating the peculiarities
of New England manners and character, for Which, in later
years, both she and her brother Henry Ward have been dis-
tinguished. Children of New England, bom and reared
under its clearest skies, and amid its loveliest scenes, per-
fectly familiar with every phase of its social life, full of its
native spirit of independence, — whose home, also, and
family relations were such as were sufficient to inspire thenoL
with an ardent enthusiasm for the land of their fathers, they
have revelled in charming reminiscences and descriptions of
it ; and have never written more graphically, and as if under
a genuine inspiration, than in those pages of the ^May-
flower,'* of ''The Minister's Wooing," of "The Pearl of Orr'a
Island," and of "Norwood," where they have led their read-
ers to and fro over its peaceful hills, and among its peculiar
people of long ago.
For a season Harriet was an associate teacher in the Hart*
ford Seminary ; but, on the failure of Miss Beecher's health,
both she and her sister sought rest in their father*s house,
which, since the year 1832, had been located in the environs-
of Cincinnati. Here, also, after a brief respite, they opened
a school, of which — and particularly of the religious influ-
ence of which, and of a Bible class in Old Testament history^
which Harriet Bcecher conducted — we have heard one of
the pupils speak in terms of high praise.
lAias Beecher at length gave herself up to the organizationi
of larger educational enterprises, — to the furtherance of
which her whole life has been nobly devoted. And on the 5th
day of January, in the year 1836, Harriet married Professor
Calvin E. Stowe, a man of learning and distinction, and, at
20
306 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AQE.
a
that time, Professor of Biblical Literature in Lane Theo-
logical Seminary.
For several years previous to her marriage, however, Mrs.
Stowe had occasionally made her appearance, both in private
circles and in the periodical literature of the day, as a writer
of no little promise. Some of her productions of that period
have not }'et passed out of public notice.
It now becomes necessary to refer to certain literary asso-
ciations into which Mrs. Stowe was happily drawn, and
which had no little influence in awakening in her a con-
sciousness of her powers, and furnished her with opportuni-
ties, motives, and encouragements to make trial of those
powers. Out of the good fellowship which prevailed among
many of the literary men and women of that vicinity, — a
fellowship which was fostered by the hospitality of several
gentlemen of culture and property, — a remarkable series of
social and literary reunions were established under the name
of the "Semicolon Club." At the meetings of the club,
which were under just enough of regulation to prevent con-
fusion and dissipation of time, without hindering perfect
freedom of discussion and intercourse, essays, sketches,
reviews, stories, and poems were read, discussions and con-
versations were carried on, and music came in to enliven and
•diversify the exercises.
Many of those who wore accustomed to participate in these
reunions have since distinguished themselves in their re-
spective vocations. Among these we may mention Judge
Hall, editor of the ** Western Monthly Magazine," and a critic
of no little reputation; Miss Catharine Beecher, and her
sister Harriet; Prof. Hentz and his wife, Caroline Lee
Hentz, a novelist of popularity, and a woman of distin-
guished grace ; E. P. Cranch, whose exquisite humor flowed
from either pen or pencil with equal facility ; James H. Per-
kins, a man of extraordinary talents; Col. E. D. Mansfield;
HABBIET BEECHEB STOWE. 307
Prof. J. W. Ward ; CJharies W. Elliot, the New England
historian ; Daniel Drake, a medicttl professor and author of
celebrity; William Greene; three Misses Blackwell, two
of whom have gained distinction as physicians ; Prof. C. E.
Stowe, widely known, both in Europe and America, as a
scholar and author ; and Professor, and subsequently Major-
General O. M. Mitchell, whom the nation remembers as one
of its most accomplished scientific men, and mourns as oi?.e
of its noblest martyrs in ii\p cause of liberty.
In this brilliant circle Mrs. Stowe's genius soon began to
shine conspicuously. Some of her contributions to these
reunions were received with unaffected wonder and delight.
The portraiture of old Father Mills, of Torringford, Conn.,
which appears in the ** Mayflower** under the title of "Father
Morris,** was greeted with uproarious applause. But her
"Uncle Tim,** written in 1834 for the ''Semicolon Club,**
»d read at one of its sessions, made the deepest impression.
And this same sketch, which is still one of the most charming
and chaiftcteristic productions of her pen, published first in
Judge Hairs Magazine, and afterward in the ''Mayflower,'*
first attracted public attention to her as a writer of great
▼ersatility and promise.
In this " Semicolon Club ** the woman of genius seems to
have first become really conscious of her powers ; in it she
received also recognition, sympathy, and an impulse, and by
it found a way for herself out beyond the circle of private
fellowships into the wider circles of the great world. Mean-
while she was an occasional contributor to the Western
Magazine, to Godey*8 Magazine, and perchance to other
periodicals. And not long after her marriage the "May-
flower ** was published, which contained, beside some of the
best of her "Semicolon** papers, several new sketches of
New Englaad life and character. Thenceforward her life
flowed on in purrly domestic channels for several years, with-
308 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
out putting forth any decided signs of its future fhiitfulness.
And now we are brought 'to the threshold of that great arena
on which her mightiest works were done, and her great tri-
umph was achieved, while the whole world looked on and
applauded. Uneventful as the next few years of her life
seemed then to be, they were years of peculiar trial and disci-
pline, wherein God himself was secretly preparing and fur-
nishing her for the fulfilment of his great purposes.
She had always felt a deep interest in the slaves, and, when-
ever opportunities occurred, had always manifested a practical
benevolence towards them. By journeys into the adjoining
State of Kentucky, by visits at the homes of her pupils from
that State, she had made herself perfectly familiar with the
different aspects of plantation life. For years she bad enjoyed
and improved excellent opportunities of studying the negro
character, and also the operations of the slavery system. Fear-
ful examples of the evils and miseries, of the unspeakable
wrongs and crimes and shames of slavery, were ever and anon
laid at her very door. She was at the very point where the
great anti-slavery conflict raged most fiercely, — in the midst
of the border warfare of abolitionism. Fugitive slaves were
frequently concealed in her house. Children of fugitives
were harbored and instructed there. Hard by was the Wal-
nut Hills under-groimd railroad, of which her husband had
the credit of being an active director. One day her two lit-
tle children were going to the bam to play. The elder, to
frighten his sister into some submission, cried, ^ The black
man will catch you I " whereupon four burly fugitives, who
were resting and hiding in the hay till nightfall, thinking
themselves discovered, started up and ran away, to the infi-
nite terror of both children. Sometimes quite a family would
be secreted in the house, and the great di£^culty, says Prof*
Stowe, **was to keep the little pickaninnies from sticking
HABBIET BEECHEB STOWE. 309
their heads oat of the windows, and so betraying theii
retreat."
Often at dead of night the rattle of wagons bearing escaped
slaves onward to the land of promise, and afterwardis the
ominous tramp of hard-ridden horses were heard, telling of
rapid flight and hot pursuit.
The actual spiriting away from her piu^uers of a poor col-
ored girl by Mrs. Stowe's husband and her brother Charles,
who, trusting first to God, and secondly to a sagacious old
black horse, carried the fugitive away under cover of a
starless night and over a perilous road to a place of safety
in honest old Van Zandt's cabin, needed only a little dis-
guising in the description to fit it for the pages of " Uncle
Tom." Amid all the anti-slavery discussions and tumults, —
amid all the excitements and outrages and sufferings of which
she had personal knowledge, and when mob-violence threat-
ened the safety of the roof that sheltered her, Mrs. Stowe
manifested no unusual intensity of feeling on the subject.
Amid the earnest voices that argued and described and de-
nounced the iniquities of slavery her voice was not heard.
She was a silent but close observer of passing events. Mate-
rials for her future work were unconsciously accumulating as
she watched, and waited, and hoped, and prayed.
The seminaiy in which her husband was a prominent in-
structor became at length the scene of a painful and disastrous
struggle between the two great &rces of the age. Conserva-
tism triumphed, but in its blind zeal pulled down some of the
strongest columns on which the institution rested. The semi-
nary was seriously crippled, and, after protracted labors to
restore its prosperity, finding his health failing, Prof. Stowe
retired to accept a professorship in Bowdoin College, in
Brunswick, Maine, and in the year 1850 he entered upon his
duties there. Just at this time the fugitive slave law was
pavsed, and Mrs. Stowe was one of those whose souls were
310 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
*
•
kindled with indignation at this irifamous piece of legislation.
In the light of that political act which converted the people
of a great and free nation into so many compulsory negro-
catchers, she saw clearly that the policy of inaction was no
longer right nor safe, and that slavery was an insatiable mon-
ster that threatened not simply the dishonor, but the utter ruin,
of the coantry. One single, definite purpose arose out of her
dftep convictions, and took possession of her mind. The
whole system of slavery must be shown up as it really was I
This simple and all-controlling conviction was the corner-
stone of •* Uncle Tom's Cabin " 1
Mrs. Stowe herself says z —
^ For many years the author avoided all reading upon, and
all allusion to, the subject of slavery, considering it too pain-
ful to be inquired into, and one which advancing light and
civilization would certainly live down. But since the act of
1850, when she heard with consternation Christian and hu-
mane people actually recommending the remanding escaped
fugitives into slavery, as a duty binding on all good citizens ;
when she heard, on all sides, from kind, compassionate, and
estimable people, in the free States of the North, deliberations
and discussions as to what Christian duty could be on this
head, she could only think, these men and Christians do not
know what slavery is; and from that arose a desire to exhibit
it in a living^ dramatic reality^/
Mrs. Stowe had, then, a perfectly clear idea of what was
necessary to be done, and also a just appreciation of the most
effective literary instruments and the best artistic methods
for the accomplishment of the work.
But as yet there was no definite plan of proceeding. In-
deed, •* Uncle Tom's Cabin " was not so much put together
and built up, like a house, according to a complete, pre-
HABRIBT BBBCHER 8T0WE. 311
existent design, as developed, like a tree, from one high, holy,
and controlling idea.
Topsy*s solutioii of the problem of her own personal ex-
istence is the most satisfactoiy explanation of the production
of this story. It grew I While as yet the form and plan of
the work lay undeveloped in her mind, she made a beginning,
which, instead of a beginning, wiis a stroke at the very heart
of her whole story.
One day, on entering his wife's room in Brunswick, Prof.
Stowe saw several sheets of paper lying loosely here and
there, which were covered with her handwriting. He took
them up in curiosity and read them. The death of Unde
Tom was what he read. That was first written, and it wa9
all that had then been written. ^ You can make something
out of this," said he. **! mean to do so," was the reply.
Soon after, Mr. Bailey, who was then publishing an anti-
slavery paper in Washington, solicited Mrs. Stowe to write a
series of articles for its columns.
The way was open, and she was ready, and, being called
of Grod, by faith she went forth, not knowing whither she
went I Her Unde Tom should have a history, of which his
death-scene should be the logical consequence and culmina-
tion. As she mused the fire burned. The true stai-ting-point
was readily found, and gradually a most felicitous story-form
was conceived, in which a picture of slavery as it is might be
exhibited, — a web was laid, into which she might weave,
with threads of gold and silver and purple, her brave designs.
* Uncle Tom" began to be published in the "National Era,"
as a serial, in the Summer of 1851, and was continued from
week to week until its conclusion in March, 1852.
It was not a product of leisure hours. She
" Wrought with a sad sincerity/*
and under most grievous burdens and disadvantages. Her
312 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
health was delicate. Her cares were great. In charge of a
large family, and compelled by the sternest of all neceseities
to make the most of very little and poor help in her house-
hold labors, much of this wonderful book was actually writ-
ten by Mrs. Stowe, as she sat, with her portfolio upon her
knee, by the kitchen fire, in moments snatched from her
domestic cares. We may be pardoned for saying that if the
cuisine was half as well managed as the composition, those
who sat at Mrs. Stowe's table, as well as those other innu-
merable ones who have feasted upon the fruits of her literary
toil, were fortunate indeed. •^The book," as Prof. Stowe
finely says, ** was written in sorrow, in sadness, and obscu-
rity, with no expectation of reward save in the prayers of the
poor, and with a heart almost broken in view of the suffer-
ings which it described, and the still greater sufferings which
it dared not describe."
Our older readers need not to be told with what avidity
the weekly instalments of this serial were caught up and
devoui'ed by the readers of the ** National Era." The writei
of this article was then a little boy in one of the remoter vil-
lages of Maine, but remembers how ^ Uncle Tom's Cabin" was
the theme of universal discussion, and how those in his own
home, and all through the village too, who, had never before
bowed down to any idols of fiction, nor served them, were so
completely demoralized by this novel, that they not only read
it, but read it to their children ; and how the papers whjch
contained it, after being nearly worn out in going through so
many hands in so many different homes, were as carefully
folded up and laid away as if the tear-stains on them were
sacred, as indeed they were. We were all, from the baby
upward, converted into the most earnest kind of abolitionists.
Strangely enough, •however, when, after its publication in the
••Era," Mrs. Stowe proposed its republication in book-form to
Messrs. Phillips and Sampson of Boston, the proposition was
' HABBIET BESCHSB STOWB. 313
respectfully declined. That, she thought, was the end of it.
A woman's shrewdness had something to do with securing
its publication. The wife of Mr. Jewett, of Boston, had
read the story, and advised her husband to publish it, if pos-
sible. It was offer.ed to him, and he remarked to Prof. Stowe
that it would bring his wife ** something handsome I " On
returning home, his success and the remark of Mr. Jewett
were reported to Mrs. Stowe, who, with an eye-twinkle, and
a tone in which a little hope, more joy, and still more incredu-
lity were expressed, replied, that she hoped it would bring
her enough to purchase what she had not possessed for a long
time, — a new silk dress/
She was not obliged to wait long for that very desirable
article, nor to limit herself very rigidly in the gratification
of so legitimate a desire ; for only a few months after its
republication, Mr. Jewett made his first settlement with Prof.
Stowe, and placed the sum of ten thousand dollars in his
bauds ; — " More money," says the professor, "than I had ever
seen in my life I " Large as were these first fruits, and enor-
mous as was the sale of the book, for some reasons which do
not require to be set forth here, the entei*prise was far more
remunerative to the publishers than to the author, and Mrs.
Stowe was not made rich by her story.
The popularity of the book was unbounded, and its circu-
lation was unprecedented. No work of fiction in the English
language was ever so widely sold. Within six months, over
one hundred and fifty thousand copies were sold in America,
and within a few years it reached a sale of nearly five hundred
thousand copies. The first London edition was published in
May, 1852. The next September, the publishers furnished to
one house alone, ten thousand copies each day for four weeks ;
making a sale of two hundred and forty thousand ^opies in one
month. Before the end of the year 1852, the book had been
translated into the Spanish, Italian, French, Danish, Swedish,
314: EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
Dutch, Flemish, GrermaD, Polish, and Magyar languages. Ere
long it was translated into every European language, and also
into Arabic and Armenian. There is a bookcase in the British
Museum, filled with its various translations, editions, and ver^
sions. In Italy, the ** powers that be " published an edition in
which all allusions to Christ were changed to theVirgin Mary,—
a piece of craftiness that argues better for the book than for
its mutilators.
But remarkable as was the literary popularity of .the book,
its political and moral influence was hardly less so. Said
Lord Palmerston to one from whose lips the remark was
taken as it here stands, ^ I have not read a novel for thirty
years ; but I have read that book three times, not only for
the story, but for the statesmanship of itt^ Lord Cockbam
said, ^ She has done more for humanity than was ever before
accomplished by any single book of fiction." No political
pamphlet or discussion directed against the Fugitive Slave
Law could have dealt that sacred iniquity so deadly a blow
as did this book. Not only the reading, but the acting of
" Uncle Tom,'* — and particularly the thrilling scene of Bliza's
passage of the Ohio River, — in New York, for one hundred
and fifty successful nights, operated mightily to awaken pop-
ular sympathy for the fugitive, and to make negro-hunting
contemptible. The friends of slavery instinctively felt the
danger, and arose in all their wrath and cunning to hinder
the operation of the power that was going forth in that book
among all people. They ridiculed its pretensions, denied its
statements, abused the author as a malevolent caricaturist
and wilful disturber of the peace ; and, reinforced by time-
servers from the North, among whom many Doctors of Divin-
ity were not ashamed to be seen, they went forth, a great
multitude, terrible with banners and eager for the labor,
armed and equipped also with brooms, and mops, and sundry
other such suitable implements, to sweep back from all oar
HABBIET BEECHEB STOWL*. 315
coasts the rising tide of abolitionism, to which Mrs. Stowe's
book had given such an irresistible impulse. Everywhere
there was heard the noise of endless splasbings, and an infi-
nite confusion, but the tide had its way, — the same tide,
which, a few years later, broke over all barriers, swept over
ihe whole country, and washed it clean of its old defilement
and curse. ** Uncl^ Tom's Cabin " was the honored instrument
of that new and noble impulse which was given to public
opinion and feeling throughout all Christendom against the
infamous slavery system. It was an indirect but most pow-
erful cause of the great political revolution which soon after
culminated in the organization of the great anti-slavery party
of the country, at whose triumph, slavery, in the recklessness
of its wrath, and in the haughtiness of its pride, rose up in
rebellion, only to be utterly cast down and destroyed. Mrs.
Stowe was violently assailed as the author of an anti-Chris-
tian book, and as herself an infidel disorganizer and agitator;
and even religious newspapers joined in the assault. True,
her gospel brought not peace but a sword, because it was the
old Gospel of Jesus Christ/ She was an agitator, as are the
great winds that blow all abroad, and give us a pure atmos-
phere to breathe ; — as every power is, whether it be of earth
or of heaven. But she was an agitator, not like the woman of
heathen fable, who flung the apple of discord down into an har-
monious company, so wantonly provoking strife ; but like that
other woman of Christian parable, who took a little leaven and
hid it in three measures of meal until the whole was leavened.
Aside from its political influence, " Uncle Tom " was a mighty
power in the world as a witness for Christ, and was no less a
contribution to the cause of Christianity than to the cause of
emancipation and to American literature. One peculiarity
of it is, that the inevitable pair of lovers, the history of whose
crooked love-courses forms the staple of most novel writing,
are hardly to be found in it. It is a picture of social life, ia
316 EMINENT WOMEN OT THE AGE.
which the development of individual fortunes and the histoiy
of personal relations are included, but subordinated.
Again, it confuted the oft-repeated calumny, that none but
infidels, and lawless, godless people, were abolitionists. On
every page of ^ Uncle Tom," there are the breathings of a ten-
der, earnest piety, and the manifestations of an ardent loyalty
to the Christian faith. What wonderful use of the Scriptures
is made in it ! Mrs. Stowe's quiver is full of arrows, drawn
from the word of God, not one of which fails her. Not only
with the facility of perfect acquaintance, but with equal felic-
ity and legitimacy, she quotes and applies the Scriptures to
prove, or illustrate, or emphasize her positions. In Paris,
the reading of '* Uncle Tom " created a great demand among the
people for Bibles ; and purchasers eagerly inquired if they
were buying the real Bible — Uiide Tom's Bible/ The same
result was produced in Belgium, and elsewhere. Could the
most eloquent preacher do better than this? What more
triumphant vindication of its Christian character and influence
could the bookiiave than these facts furnish?
It was a perfectly natural, thoroughly honest, truly religious
story, with nothing unwholesome in its marvellous fascinations,
but contrariwise, fairly throbbing in every part with a genuine
Christian feeling. No wonder that ministers, and deacons,
and quiet Quakers too, and all the godly folk who had always
been accustomed to frown with holy horror upon novels, did
unbend themselves to read, and diligently to circulate the
words of this woman whom the Lord had so evidently
anointed to '* preach deliverance unto the captives, to set at
Wyerty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year
of the Lord.**
To search out the causes of this remarkable literary success
would take us too fisir, in several directions, from the main
road in which this sketch must travel. To meet a great popu-
lar necessity, to serve the cause df truth and humanity in >
HABBIET BfiSCHEB 8T0WE. 317
time when good men's minds were darkened, and when the
powers of evil were coming in upon the nation like a flood,
a story was written.
The writer thoroughly understood her subject; was per-
fect master of the literary instruments she employed ; was a
Christian woman of genius, and not only brought all the
powers of a splendid intellect to the task, but poured out her
whole heart in the work. This book was written, as we have
said, *'in sorrow, in sadness, in obscurity, and with the heart
almost broken in view of the sufferings it describes I " Here,
surely, is one secret of its power. David long ago revealed
it. ^ He that goeth forth, weeping, beariug precious seed,
shall doubtless return again with songs, bringing his sheaves
with him." So she went forth, and so returned.
Charles Dickens said, ^ A noble book with a noble purpose ! "
In ** Uncle Tom'' we have a charming story, abd an unanswer-
able argument. And the artistic idea, and the moral purpose
are coordinately developed and finally fulfilled in perfect
harmony.
With no other theme, even had it been treated with equal
ability, would Mrs. Stowe have attained equal success. On
the other hand, the subject of slavery could never have com-
manded the attention of the world as this book has done, had
it been treated in some undramatic method and with less
artistic skill. There is a tremendous movement (argument is
too cold a word) in the book which, to one who only suffers
himself to be once caught in it, is perfectly fascinating and
irresistible. And such is the consummate ait by which this
movement is set on foot, and guided, and led on, that all the
while one is being swept along by it, whether or no, his
keenest interest is awakened in every change of scene and
circumstance, and in every one of the many persons with
whom he is made acquainted. Great statesmen like Mr.
Sewaid aad Mr. Sumner had argued the question of slaveiy.
318 EMIKENT WOMEN 07 THE AGE.
Able divines had given the testimony of the Scriptures upon
it. Eloquent platform orators , and vigorous writers had dis-
cussed all its aspects and relations. And still a mist of ro-
mance, and an atmosphere of sanctity, or at least of privi-
lege, enveloped and concealed its real features. Mrs. StoVe
treated the subject, not as a question of law, or of logic, or
of political economy, or of biblical interpretation, but as a
simple question of humanity; not as an ** abstract theory of
social relations, but as a concrete reality of human life.^
She does not tellf but shows us what it is. She does not
analyze, or demonstrate, or describe, but, by a skilful man-
ner of indirection, takes us over the plantation, into the
master's house, into the slave's cabin, into the fields, —
through the whole Southern country in fact, — and shows us
not only the worst but the best phases of the slavery system,
and allows us to see it as it really is. And all the while the
power of her own intense sympathy for the oppressed millions
whose cause she pleads, is felt throbbing in every line of the
narrative.
In the year 1852, Mrs. Stowe took up her residence m
Andover, Massachusetts, her husband having already accepted
a call to the Professorship of Sacred Literature in the Theo-
logical Seminary there located. Soon after she published the
" Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin," wherein the accuracy of the
statements, and the substantial truth of the representations
she had made in her recent story, were fully vindicated.
For a long while her health had been delicate, but now it
was very seriously impaired. Her severe toil and the great
excitement under which her labor had be^ performed had
exhausted her strength, and she was almost prostrated. This
fact determined her to accept the very urgent and flattering
invitations she had received, from various parts of England
and Scotland, to cross the sea and visit the mother countiy;
HABBIET BEECHES 8T0WE. 819
and, accordingly, she embarked with her husband, hei
brother, and one or two personal friends, and arrived in
Liverpool on the 11th day of April. She was everywhere
welcomed with surprising enthusiasm and cordiality. Great
assemblies gathered about her, at almost every step in her
journey, to do her honor. One and the same feeling was
everywhere expressed. The same enthusiasm pervaded all
ranks of society. On the third day after her arrival in Eng-
land, at a public meeting in Liverpool, the chairman, in the
name of the associated ladies of Liverpool, presented Mrs.
Stowe with a most signal testimonial of the esteem in which
she was universally held, both as a woman of genius who had
written a story of world-wide renown, and as an instrument
in the hands of God of arousing the slumbering sympathies
of England in behalf of the suffering slave. Great public
meetings were held in Glasgow, in Edinburgh, in Aberdeen,
and in Dundee; there were receptions, and dinners, an^
addresses, and scarcely an end to the public manifestations
of affectionate enthusiasm towards her.
Perhaps the general feeling that prompted and found ex-
pression in all these outward demonstrations may be most
satisfactorily described by a few extracts fVom an address*
which was presented to Mrs. Stowe at a public meeting in
Dundee, by Mr. Gilfillan, in behalf of the Ladies' Anti*
Slavery Association : —
•* We beg permission to lay before you the expressions of
a gratitude and an enthusiasm in some measure commensu-
rate with your transcendent literary merit and moral worth.
We congratulate you on the success of the chef^d^oRUvre of
your genius, — a success altogether unparalleled in the his-
tory of literature. We congratulate you in having, in that
tale, supported with matchless eloquence and pathos the
cause of the crushed, the forgotten, and the injured. We
320 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE. •
recognize, too, with delight, the spirit of enlightened and
evangelical piety which breathes through your work, and
serves to confute the calumny that none but infidels are in<-
terested in the cause of abolition."
These three points were made and emphasized in almost
every speech or address that was offered in her honor. She
had given the world a most charming and wonderful work of
fiction. She had shot, with her own tender hand, the arrow
that had pierced the joints of the armor wherewith the system
of slavery was clad, and had given the monstrous evil a mor-
tal wound. She had furnished, in her ''Uncle Tom," ''one
of the most beautiful embodiments of the Christian relisfion
that was ever presented to the world." And if these last
words, which were uttered by no other than the well-known
Bev. John Angell James, seem extravagant praise, we have
only to remind the reader that the celebrated critic, Heinrich
Heine, whom no one can suspect of partiality in such a mat-
ter, after describing his gropings and flounderings amid the
uncertain and unsatisfactory speculations of German philoso-
phy, tells us how at length he came to quit Hegel, and to
* quote the Bible with Uncle Tom^ — came, too, to see that
there was a higher wisdom in the poor slave's simple faith
than in the great philosopher's dialectics, and found peace and
satisfaction in "kneeling with his praying brother," U^ide
Tom.
After various excursions, to Paris, to Switzerland, to Gkr-
many, Mrs. Stowe returned to England and re-embarked for
America on the 7th of September. In the following year
she published an account of these European experiences,
in the form of letters written to friends at home, under the
title of " Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands," to which her
husband contributed an introduction, in which some account
is given of the public meetings which were held in her honor
HARBIET BEECHER STOWB. 321
during the tour through England and Scotland. About this
time a new and enlarged edition of the " Mayflower " was
also published.
Established in her home once more, and restored in health,
Mrs. Stowe's literary labors were resumed ; and in the year
1856, shortly after another foreign tour, her second anti-
slavery novel was published, under the title of "Dred; a
Tale of the Dismal Swamp." In the preface, the author de-
clares her great purpose to be the same as that of her previous
story. Once more she endeavors to do something towards
revealing to the people the true character of the system of
slavery. The book inevitably comes into comparison with
its predecessor ; and whatever may be truly said in its praise,
it cannot be questioned that, both as a work of art and as an
effective revelation of slavery, it falls far below " Uncle Tom.*'
The chief defects of the book, and those which hindered the
completest fulfilment of its noble purpose, are its lack of
unity, and ever and anon a departure from the simplicity
of a narrative or representation, into the disenchantments
of discussion and argument, by which the reader is disturbed
in his pleasant dream and vision, and the reality of the scenes
that move before him is explained away. The panorama
does not move on without an interruption and in silence, as
in the case of •* Uncle Tom," interpreting itself, and silently
but powerfully unfolding its purpose or moral, but stops now
and then to give place to the voice of the delineator in ex*
planations or vindications.
In writing "Uncle Tom," the author seems never to have
thought that her representations would be called in question^
and accordingly she did not so much as think of foi*tifying
herself as she advanced, or of throwing in justifications and
ailments, or of going aside for facts to substantiate her
narrative, but kept faitl^fully to the simplicity of her purpose
to exhibit slavery as she had seen and known it. But, ia
'si
322 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AQB.
writing ''Drcd," she seems to have labored under the em-
barrassment of feeling that her exhibitions needed to be ex-
plained, or justified and substantiated here and there ; and as
often as the artist ceased painting, and began declaiming or
defining ; or, in other words, by as much as Mrs. Stowe at-
tempted to give us, with "Dred," a "Key" to it also, she
violated the most fundamental artistic conditions of success.
Thus, also, the whole exposition of slavery was more posi-
tive, and formal, and dogmatic than in "Uncle Tom." The
story did not grow like ''Uncle Tom," but was put together,
and is rather a series of sketches than one, organic, indivis-
ible story.
Dred himself, if not imperfectly conceived, is a conception
so diflBcult of realization, and, in fact, so imperfectly created,
that he fails to excite our sympathies. He is an unreal
presence, — a dark, gloomy, ghostly being, at whose appari-
tions we wonder, at whose sufferings we are not very much
moved, and over whose fate it is impossible to fetch a tear,
— hardly a sigh, and that of relief. The fact that in a re-
cent edition of this story the title is changed from ''Dred"
to "Nina Gordon," is suggestive. But there are unsurpass-
able passages and characters in "Dred." Tiff, Aunt Milltft
Nina Gordon^ Jekyl^ and Auni Nesbit are personages that
demonstrate Mrs. Stowe's matchless power in delineating and
differentiating individual characters. Uncle Tiff, so perfectly
devoted to " dese y'er chiren," so noble arid simple of heart,
and yet so irresistibly droll in his manners ; — who wants to
be " ordered round Yore folks," to maintain the family dig-
nity ; who, when his fire goes out immediately after it was
kindled, exclaims, "Bress do Lord, got all de wood lefil'^ —
who sits by the bed of his dying mistress, with his big spec-
tacles on his upturned nose, and a red handkerchief pinned
about his shoulders, comforting the sick, darning a stocking,
rocking the cradle, singing to himself, and talking to the
HARRIET BEECHER STOWE. 323
baby, all at once, — is a character in which the earnestness of
Uncle Tom and the jollity of Mark Tapley are blended.
That scene at the bedside of his mistress, and his diaioo^ue
frith Fanny ^ wherein revival preaching is so finely criticised,
and his famous lecture to the young ladies on their manners,
are passages in which the relationship of pathos and humor
is made manifest in the happiest possible manner. And
what more powerful chapter has Mrs. Sfowe ever written
than that in which Aunt Milly tells to Nina Gordon the
tragic, the terrible story of her life?
Not long after the publication of "Dred," Mrs. Stowo be-
gan to write another story, which was published as a serial
in the columns of the ''Atlantic Monthly,*' in the year 1859.
The "Minister's Wooing," a tale of New England life in the
latter part of the eighteenth century, has not unfrequently
been pronounced by literary men to be the ablest of all the
books which Mrs. Stowe has writttm. This opinion was ex-
pressed by so competent a critic as the Rev. Henry Alford,
D.D., Dean of Canterbury. In it the author quits the subject
of her previous stories, and returns again to that New Eng-
land life, of which she has so genuine an appreciation, and is
60 fond and admirable an interpreter. But while this story
was universally acknowledged to be one of great ability, and
one in which the author gained new reputation, it was some-
what bitterly criticised on several grounds. Many very
proper people professed the utmost disgust at the treat-
pent which the celebrated Dr. Hopkins received at the
hands of the author. It was declared to be an unpardonable
sin to have brought so dignified, august, and venerable a
divine down to the common level of lovers in a love story.
Dr Hopkins, or any other orthodox and exemplary doctor
of divinity, should unquestionably have been far above
any such worldliness and weakness as falling in love, especially
with a young and pretty woman. He certainly should have
324 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AOJB.
»
chosen eorae elderly, thin, angular, solemn, uncomfortable
Calvinistic spinster, and so manifested his willingness to be
damned for the glory of God. But, unfortunately, in a
moment of inexplicable weakness, Dr. Hopkins did allow his
affections to fix upon and twine about a young and beautiful
maiden, and with him as he was, and not as he undoubtedly
ought to have been, Mrs. Stowe dealt, — not without causing
the great divine to appear somewhat diviner, to carnal eyes,
at least, by her revelation of human feelings (frailties, if you
please) that still remained uncrucified in his bosom. Indeed,
after having read his ponderous treatises, and also an exhaust-
ive biography of him, written by able hands, we had regarded
him somewhat as we might have regarded a statue, by Michael
Angelo, of the ideal theologian. That he had ^ parts " seemed
probable; but that he had "passions" we hardly dreamed.
Mrs. Stowe told us that this cold, hard, colossal theological
image was, after all, a great, simple-mipded, honest, powerful,
tender-hearted man, clad in Calvinism as in a cumbrous coat
of mail, and armed therewith as with a weaver's beam, but
lovins: and lovable withal as a little child. We felt grateful to
the image-breaker, and thanked her for showing us the man
underneath the theologian, — the Christian underneath and
more glorious than the Calvinist ; but as between those who
were gratified and those who were horrified, who could
judge, save the great reading public; and has not their
judgment been rendered?
Moreover the book was supposed by many watchmen on
the walls of Zion to be heterodox in its tendencies, and to be
well adapted, if not expressly designed, to bring what is called
New England theology into contempt. That a woman of
strong will, and of quick and ardent temperament, who had
put her convictions under the rigid theology of that age and
region, — on receiving the news of the sudden death at sea
of the son of her love, who had never given evidence of
HARRIET BEEOHER STOWE. 325
the effectual calling of God, and was therefore to be given
over as among the lost, — should rise up, in the inten-
sity of her anguish, in a momentary rebellion against the God
of her creed, and utter wild and even wicked cries, and show
herself intractable to the common arts, and insensible to the
ordinary platitudes of consolation, and be quite beside her-
self in fact, seemed strange to these suspicious watchmen.
Had they never read of Job, or of Peter ? Is it then an easy
thing for a mother to give up her only God, or her only son?
And is it not quite enough to drive an earnest soul into tem-
porary madness to be shut up to such a dreadful alternative ?
It seemed strange also to these watchmen that poor old Cart"
dace J an ignorant but Christian colored woman, should have
been brought forward, rather than Dr. Hopkins^ to soothe
and quiet and comfort and bring back to reason this distracted
mother. But Candace had tact, and a woman's instinctive
comprehension of the case in hand, neither of which the the-
ologian possessed. Did they never read that ^ God bath
chosen the weak things of this world to confound the things
that are mighty, and base things of the world, and things
that are despised, hath God chosen . . to bring to naught
things that are ; that no flesh should glory in his presence *'?
The critical watchmen took it very hardly that Miss Prissy
should free her mind in such a shockingly latitudiuarian man-
ner. That estimable but garrulous young lady yentured to
say, •* We don't ever know what God's grace has done for
folks ; " and that she hoped that the Lord made ** Jim one of
the elect ; " and proceeded to quote what a certiiin woman
once said to a certain other woman w^hose wild son had fallen
from the mast-head of a vessel, to the effect that "from
the mast-head to the deck was time enough for divine
grace to do its work." But Miss Prissy is certainly a very
pure and consistent Calviuist in all she says. Taking into ac-
count the doctrines of an unconditional and absolute personal
326 EMINENT WOMEN OP THE AGE.
election, and together with it that of an instantaneous regen-
eration by a divine power that descends irresistibly upon
each elect individual at the predestinated moment, it seems
as though Miss Prissy was simply making a practical applica-
tion of the Ilopkinsiau theology, and. giving poor Jim the
benefit of it.
The twenty-third chapter, entitled *' Views of Divine Gov-
ernment," is the heart of the book. Her description of New
England, at the date of her story, "as one vast sea, surging
from depths to heights with thought and discussion on the
most insoluble of mysteries ; " her noble characterization of
the early ministry of New England ; her representation of
the preaching of that time, and of the current views both
of human existence and of religious doctrines ; her vivid
statement of the fearful issues which the theological systems
presented to the mind, and of the different effects produced
thereby, so that "while strong spirits walked, palm-crowned,
with victorious hynms, along these sublime paths, feebler and
more sensitive ones la}^ along the track, bleeding away in life-
long despair," — all this is set forth with great clearness and
power.
Mrs. Marvyriy whose probably unregenerate son had been
lost at sea, as was reported, was bound up in the logical con-
sequences of her rigorous creed. Her brave, beautiful boy
was lost ! She broke out in a strain of wild despair to Mary.
She could not be reconciled, simply because, according to
her theology, there was nothing in God or in his government
to attract or comfort.
The poor woman was well-nigh crazy, and no wonder, with
nothing but the sharp points of her unsuspected conceptions
of divine sovereignty to fall back upon.
" I am a lost spirit," she cried ; " leave me alone ! "
At that moment poor old Candace^ who had never been
able to understand theology at all, but knew the God and the
HARhlET BEECHER STOWE. 327
Saviour of the gospel, having anxiously overheard the dread-
ful monologue, burst into the room.
•^Come, ye poor little lamb," she said, walking straight
up to Mrs. Mai-vyn, "come to old Candace I " — and with
that she gathered the pale form to her bosom, and sat down
and began rocking her, as if she had been a babe. " Honey,
darlin', ye a'u't right, — dar's a dreadful mist^iko somewhar.
Why, de Lord a'n'tlike what ye tink. — He loves ye, honey !
why, jes' feel how /loves ye, — poor ole black Candace, —
an' I a'n't better'n Him as made me. ! Who was it wore de
crown o' thorns, lamb? — who was it sweat great drops o*
blood ? — who was it said, 'Father forgive dem'? Say, honey,
wasn't it de Lord dat made ye? Dar, dar, now ye'r cry in' !
— cry away, and ease yer poor little heart. He died for
Mass'r Jim, — loved him and died for him, — jes' give up
bis sweet, precious body and soul for him on de cross ! Laws,
jes' leave him in Jesus' hands 1 Why, honey, dar's do very
print o' de nails in hfs hands now I "
The flood-gates were rent; and healing sobs and tears
shook the frail form, as a faded lily shakes under the soft
rains of summer. All in the room wept together.
**Now, honey," said Candace, "I know our Doctor's a
mighty good man, an' larned, — an* in fair weather I ha'n't no
'bjection to yer hearin' all about deso yer great an* mighty
tings he's got to say. But, honey, dey won't do for yer now.
Sick folks mus'n't hab strong meat ; an' times like dese, dar
jes' u'n't but one ting to come to, an' dat ar's Jesus. Look
right at Jesus I Tell ye, honey, ye can't live no other way
now. Don't ye 'member how He looked on his mother, when
she stood faintin' an' tremblin' under de cross, jes' like you?
He knows all about mothers' hearts. He won't break yours.
328 EMINENT WOMEN OF. THE AGE,
It was jes' 'cause He know'd we'd come into straits like dis yer,
dat He went through all dese tings, — Him, de Lord o
Glory 1 Is dis Him you was a-talkin' about? Him you can't
love? Look at Him, an' see if you can't! Look an' see
what. He is I — don't ask no questions, an' don't go to no
reasonin's, — jes' look at Him^ hangin' dar, so sweet and pa-
tient on de cross I All dey could do couldn't stop his lovin'
'em ; be prayed for 'em wid all de breath he had. Dar's a
God you can love, a'n't dar? Caudace loves Him, — poor,
old, foolish, black, wicked Candace, — and she knows He
loves her."
And here Caridace broke down into torrents of weeping.
" They laid the mother, faint and weary, on her bed, and
beneath the shadow of that sufferin;; cross came down a heal-
ing sleep on those weary eyelids.'
Could anything be more beautiful than the irrepressible
outburst of this simple woman's Christian sympathy and love,
as she took her mistress into her arms, and offered her up to
God on the altar of her own heart, and bore her griefs and
carried her sorrows, and drew her gently away from her
theories of the divine purposes and government, and laid her
tenderly down beneath the cross, in the shelter of the central
fact of Christianity, where she might feel the love of God,
and weep her madness away, and find comfort and peace?
It is perfectly clear that Mrs. Stowe is no blind believer in
the old New England theology. She believes in the theology
of the feelings as well as in that of the intellect. Poor old
Candace^ with her tender, sympathetic representations of the
love of Jesus, is needed quite as much as the strong divine
with his theory of underived virtue and his metaphysical
subtleties concerning it. And while ** The Minister's Wooing "
is precisely what its name indicates, a love-story, and both a
HABBIET BEECHEB STOWE. 329
charming and powerful one, it contains also a free and bold
handling of the traditional orthodoxy of New England, and
a masterly exhibition of both its strong and its weak points,
its wholesome and its pernicious effects. We are led to think
of it somewhat as James Marvyn thought of Dr. Hopkins
himself: " He is a gi'eat, grand, large pattern of a man, —
a man who isn't afraid to think, and to speak anything he
does think ; but then I do believe, if he would tiike a voyage
round the world in the forecastle of a whaler, he would
know more about what to say to people than he does now ;
it would certainly give him several now points to be consid-
ered I " It is not unlikely that many of the systems and
bodies of divinity that have been compacted and elaborated
with wonderful skill in the secluded work-shops of our great
theologians, might have been modified in some of their parts,
and on the whole greatly improved by such a voyage as young
Marvyn suggests. " The Minister's Wooing," apart from the
mere story which is told in it, was rightly regarded as a'subtle
and masterly piece of theological criticism. As such it was
no less warmly welcomed than bitterly assailed. But what*
ever may be thought of its soundness and merit, there can
be no doubt of its great influence. Few books that have
been published within the last twenty years have done more
to confirm the popular suspicion that the most perfectly com-
pacted dogmatic systems of theology are of all things the
most imperfect, inadequate, and unsatisfactory, and to
strengthen what may be called the liberal evangelical party
of New England.
Immediately after the publication of "The Minister's Woo-
ing" in book-form, Mrs. Stowe visited Europe again, sojourn-
ing for the most part in Italy, where she wrote her next stoiy,
•' Agnes of Sorrento," which also appeared as a serial in the
•'Atlantic Monthly," during the year 1862.
For many years Mrs. Stowe had been an occasional contrib-
330 EMINENT WOMEN OP THE AGE.
utor to the "New York Independent," — a religious new spa*
per of great reputation and large circulation throughout the
country. In the year 1862 she began to write for its columns
"The Pearl of Orr's Island," — a pleasant story, whose scene
is laid on the beautiful coast of Maine, at Harpswell, not far
from Brunswick, where she formerly resided, and whose plan
turns upon certain traditions of that seaside community.
Summer tourists still visit Orfd Island, and inspect the shell
of a house in which the pretty I^earl grew. For many years
Mrs. Stowe has been one of the able corps of writers whose
articles have enriched the columns of the "Atlantic Month-
ly," and no one of them has done more to give that maga*
zine its large circulation and high reputation than she. "Little
Foxes " and " Chimney Comer " papers were written for it,
and both these series of piquant essays have had a large sale
at home and abroad. The " Queer Little People," whom Mrs.
Stowe described to the readers of " Our Young Folks," were
people of so much interest that her papers concerning them
were gathered into a volume and scattered through the land
to the delight of thousands of people both big and little.
Throughout her literary career Mrs. Stowe has been known
by her friends, and in later years has become known to the
public, as a poet whose songs, in certain tender and plaintive
keys, have a peculiar charm and power. Within a few years
a goodly number and a judicious selection of her poems have
been published. They are chiefly of a religious character,
and are the rhythmical breathings of a deep and almost mys-
tic piety. Their music is like the sounds that come up out
of the heart of the sea in peaceful summer days when one is
by himself on the shore, — sadly sweet and sweetly sad. One
of the most beautiful of all these poems is the following which
has found a place in many of the hy mnologies of our churches,
and has gone out, indeed, through all the world : —
*
I
HABHIET BEECHEB STOWK. 331
•* When winds are raging o'er the upper ocean.
And billows wild contend with angry roar,
Tis said, far down bentrath its wild commotioni
That peaceful stillness reigneth evermore.
*'Far, fkr beneath, the noise of tempests dieth.
And silver waves chime ever peacefully,
And no rude storm, how fierce soe'er it flieth.
Disturbs the Sabbath of that deeper sea.
*' So, to the heart that knows thy love, 0 Forest,
There is a temple, sacred evermore,
And all the babble of llfe*s angry voices
Dies in hushed stillness at its peacefhl door.
'Tar, far away the roar of passion dieth,
And loving thoughts rise calm and peacefblly.
And no rude storm how fierce soe*er it flieth.
Disturbs the soul that dwells, 0 Lord, in thee.
*' O rest of rest I O peace, serene, eternal I
Thou ever livest, and thou changest never;
And in the secret of thy presence dwelleth
Fulness of Joy, forever and forever."
In the year 1864 Mrs. Stowe built a beautiful house in the
city of Hartford, where she has since resided, surrounded by
& large circle of family friends, and both admired and loved
ty all who enjoy the honor of her acquaintance.
In the midst of whatever can minister to comfort, or invite
to leisure and repose, her years are still years of literary labors,
and also of rich fruits in their season. Late may she rest
from those labors I
332 EMINENT WOKEN 07 THE AGE.
f
MRS. ELIZABETH CADY STANTON.
-•Ol
BY THEODORE TILTON.
I ONCE watched an artist while he tried to transfer to hifl
cauvas the lustre of a precious stone. His picture, after bis
utmost skilly was dull. A radiant and sparkling woman, full
of wit, reason, and fancy, is a whole crown of jewels. A
poor, opaque copy of her is the most that one can render ia
a biographical sketch.
Elizabeth Cady, daughter of Judge Daniel Cady and
Margaret Livingston, was born November 12th, 1816, in
Johnstown, New York, — forty miles north of Albany.
Birthplace is a secondary parentage, and transmits charac-
ter. Elizabeth*s birthplace was more famous half a century
ago than since ; for then, though small, it was a marked in-
tellectual centre; and now, though large, it is an uumarked
manufacturing town. Before her birth, it was the vice-ducal
seat of Sir William Johnson, the famous English negotiator
with the Indians. During her girlhood, it was an arena for
the intellectual wrestlings of Kent, Tompkins, Spencer,
Elisha Williams, and Abraham Van Vechten, who, as lawyers,
were among the chiefest of their time. It is now devoted
mainly to the fabrication of steel springs and buckskio gloves.
So, like Wordswjprth's early stiir, " it has faded into the ligW
of common day."
A Yankee said that his chief ami ition was to become inoi«
332 EMINENT WOKEN 07 THE AGE.
^w ±^^A^y.<i ijUAVA tixui, liio cjuci ituiiiitiou was CO oecome moro
MRS. ELIZABETH CAI>r STANTON. 333
famous than his native town : Mrs. Stanton has lived to
see her historic birthplace shrink into a mere local repute,
while she herself has been quoted, ridiculed, and abused into
a national fame.
But Johnstown still retains one of its ancient splendors, — a
gloiy still as fresh as at the foundation of the world. Stand-
ing on its hills, one looks off upon a comitry of enamelled
meadow lands, that melt away southward toward the Mohawk,
and northward to the base of those g^and mountains which
are God's monument over the grave of John Brown. In *
sight of six different counties in clear weather, Elizabeth
Cady, a child of free winds and flowing brooks, roamed at
will, frolicking with lambs, chasing butterflies, or, like
Proserpine, gathering flowers, "herself a fairer flower." As
Hanson Cox, standing under the pine tree at Dartmouth
College, and gazing upon the outljnng landscape, exclaimed,
*This is a liberal education I " so Elizabeth Cady , in addition
to her books, her globes, her water-colors, and her guitar,
was an apt pupil to skies and fields, gardens and mead-
ows, flocks and herds. Happy the child whose foster-parents
are God and Nature 1
The one person who, more than any other, gave an intellect-
ual bent to her early life, even more than her father and
mother, was her minister. This was the Rev. Simon Hosack, —
a good old Scotchman, pastor for forty years of a Presbyterian
church in which the Cady family had always been members,
and of which Mrs. Stanton (though she has long resided else-
where) is a member to this very day; — a fact which her
present biographer takes special pains to chronicle, lest, other-
wise, the world might be slow to believe that this brilliant,
audacious, and iconoclastic woman is actually an Old School
Presbyterian. The venerable Scotch parson — snowy-haired,
heavy-browed, and bony-cheeked — was generally cold to most
of his parishioners, but always cordial to Elizabeth. A great
334 SMIKENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
affection existed between this shepherd and his lamb. What
she could not say to either father or mother, she unbosomed
to him. Full of the sorrows which all imaginative natures
suffer keenly in childhood, she found in this patriarch a
fatherly confessor, who tenderly taught her how to bear her
little burdens of great weight, or, still better, how to suffer
them and be strong. Biding his parish rounds, he would
take Elizabeth into his buggy, give the reins into her hands,
and, while his fair charioteer vainly whipped the mild-man-
nered mare, the good man would put on his spectacles, and read
aloud from some book or foreign review, or, when not reading,
would talk. The favorite subject, both for reading and talking,
was religion, — never the dark, but always the bright side of it.
Indeed, religion has no dark side. The fancied shadow is
not in the thing seen, but in the eye seeing. "If the light
that is in thee be darkness, bow great is that darkness!"
Seeking to fill the girl's mind with sunshine and glory, her
minister kept always painting, to her young fancy, fair pictures
of paradise and happy saints. Peregrinating in his antique
vehicle, the childless old man, fathering this soulful child,
taught her that the way to heaven was as lovely as a
country road fringed with wild roses and arched with summer
blue.
"My father," she says in one of her letters, "was tnily
great and good, — an ideal judge ; and to his sober, taciturn,
and majestic bearing, he added the tenderness, purity, and
refinement of a true woman. My mother was the soul of in-
dependence and self-reliance, — cool in the hour of danger,and
never knowing fear. She was inclined to a stern military
rule of the household, — a queenly and magnificent sway; hut
my father's great sense of justice, and the superior weight of his
greater age (for he was many years her senior) , so modified
the domestic goveniment that the children had, in thein^n,
a pleasant childhood."
MRS. ELIZABETH CABT STANTON. 335
The child is not only father of the man, but also mothor of
the woman. Thjs large-brained, inquisitive, and ambitious
girl, who early manifested a meditative tendency, soon found
her whole nature sensibly jarred with the first inward and
prophetic stirrings toward the great problem to which she has
devoted her after years, — the elevation and enfranchisement
of woman.
m
•*In my earliest girlhood," she says, ''I spent much time in
my father's office. There, before I could understand much
of the talk of the older people, I heard many sad complaints,
• made by women, of the injustice of the laws. We lived in a
Scotch neighborhood, where many of the men still retained
the old feudal ideas of women and property. Thus, at a man's
death his property would descend to his eldest son, and the
mother would be left with nothing in her own right. It was
not unusual, therefore, for the mother, who had probably
brought all the property into the family, to be made an un-
happy dependent on the bounty of a dissipated son. The
tears and complaints of these women, who came to ray
father for legal advice, touched my heart ; and I would often
childishly inquire into all the particulars of their sorrow, and
would appeal to my father for some prompt remedy. On one
occasion, he took down a law-book, and tried to show me that
something called Hhe laws' prevented him from putting a stop
to these cruel and unjust things. In this way, my head was
filled with a great anger against those cruel and atrocious laws.
After which the students in the office, to amuse themselves by
exciting my feelings, would always tell me of any unjust laws
which they found during their studies. My mind was thus so
aroused against the barbarism of the laws thus pointed out,
that I one day marked them with a pencil, and decided to
take a pair of scissors and cut them out of the book, — suppos-
ing that my fattier and his library were the beginning and
3o6 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
end of the law 1 I thought that if I could only destroy those
laws, those poor women would have no. further trouble. But
when the students infonned my father of my proposed muti-
lation of his YolumeSy he explained to me how fruitless my
childish vengeance would have been, and taught me that bad
laws were to be abolished in quite a different way. As soon
as I fairly understood how the thing could be accomplished,
I vowed that, when I became old enough, I would have such
abominable laws changed. And I have kept my vow."
After the failure of Elizabeth's novel and original plan of
amending the laws with her scissors, another equally strange
ambition took possession of her mind.
"I was about ten years old," she says, ''when my only
brother, who had just graduated at Union College with high
honors, came home to die. He was my father's pride and
joy. It was easily seen that, while my fatlier was kind to us
all, the one son filled a larger place in his affections and future
plans than the five daughters together. Well do I remember
how tenderly he watched the boy in that last sickness ; how
he. sighed, and wiped the tears from his eyes, as he slowly
walked up and down tlie hall ; and how, when the last sad
moment came, and all was silent in the chamber of death, he
knelt and prayed for comfort and support. I well remember,
too, going into the large, dark parlor to look at my brothert
corpse, and finding my father there, pale and immovable, sit-
ting in a great arm-diair by his side. For a long time my
father took no notice of im. At last I slowly approached him
and climbed upon his knee. He mechanically put his arm
about me, and, with my head resting against his beating
heart, we sat a long, long time in silence, — he, thinking of
the wreck of all his hopes in the loss of his dear son, and
I fully feeling the awful void death had made. At length,
he heaved a deep sigh and said, * O my daughter, I wish you
MRS. ELIZABETH CADT STANTOK. 337
were a boy I* * Then IwiU be a boy* said I, * and will do all
that my brother did.'
" All that day, and far into the night, I pondered the prob-
lem of boyhood. I thought the chief thing was, to be learned
and courageous, as I fancied all boys were. So I decided to
learn Greek, and to manage a horse. Having come to that
conclusion, I fell asleep. My resolutions, unlike most mado
at night, did not vanish in the morning. I rose early, and
hastened to put them into execution. They were resolutions
never to be forgotten, — destined to mould my whole future
character. As soon as I was dressed, I hastened to meet our
good pastor in his garden, which joined our own. Finding
him at work thei'e as usual, I said, 'Doctor, will you teach
me Greek?' *Yes,' he replied. 'Will you give me a lesson
now?' 'Yes, to be sure,' he added. Lajdng down his hoe,
and taking my hand, 'Come into my study,' said he, 'and we
will begin at once.' As we walked along, I told him all'
my thoughts and plans. Having no children, he loved me
very much, entered at once into the sorrow which I had felt
on discovering that a girl was less in the scale of being than
a boy, and praised my determination to prove the contrary..
The old grammar which he had studied in the University of
Glasgow, was soon in my hand, and the Greek article learned
before breakfast.
"Then came the sad pageantry of death, — the weepmg
friends, the dark rooms, the ghostly stillness, the ftmeral
cortege, the prayer, the warning exhortation, the mournful
chant, the solemn tolling bell, the burial. How my flesh.
crawled during those three sad days ! ^Vliat strange, unde-
fined fears of the unknown took possession of me !
"For months afterward, at the twilight hour, I went
with my father to the new-made grave. Near it stood a tall
poplar, against which I leaned, while my father threw him-
self upon the grave with outstretched anns, as if to embrace
22
338 BMINBKT WOMEK 07 THE AGE.
his child. At last the frosts and storms of November came,
and made a chilling barrier between the living and the dead,
and we went there no more.
*^ During all this time, the good doctor and I kept up our
lessoiis ; and I learned, also, how to drive and ride a horse,
and how (on horseback) to leap a fence and ditch. - I taxed
every power, in hope some day to make my fether say, 'Well,
a girl is as good as a boy, after all ! ' But he never said it.
When the doctor would come to spend the evening with us,
I would whisper in his ear, 'Tell my father how fast I get
on.' And he would tell him all, and praise me too. But my
father would only pace the room and sigh, *Ah, she
should have been a boy I * And I, not knowing why, would
hide my head on the doctor's shoulder, and often weep with
vexation.
^At length, I entered the academy, and, in a class mainly
of boys, studied Mathematics, Latin, and Greek. As two
prizes were oflTered in Greek, I strove for one, and got it.
How well I remember my joy as I received that prize!
There was no feeling of ambition, rivalry, or triumph over
my companions, nor any feeling of satisfaction in winning
my honors in presence of all the persons assembled in the
academy on the day of exhibition. One thought alone occu-
pied my mind. * Now,' said I, * my father will be happy,—
be will be satisfied.' As soon as we were dismissed, I
hastened home, rushed into his office, laid the new Greek
Testament (which was my prize) on his lap, and exclaimed,
^ There, I have got it I ' He took the book, looked through
it, asked me some questions about the class, the teachers, aud
the spectators, appeared to be pleased, handed the book back
to me, and, when I was aching to have him say something
which would show that he recognized the equality of the
daughter with the son, kissed me on the forehead, and ex-
claimed with a sigh, * Ah, you sbpuld have been a boy^'
MBS. ElilZABETH CADT 8TAKTQH; 389
That eitded my pleasure. I hastened to my room, flung the
book across the floor, and wept tears of bitterness.
**But the good doctor, to whom I then went, gave me
hope and courage. What a debt of gratitude I owe to that
dear old man I I used to visit him every day, tell him the
news, comb his hair, read to him, talk with him, and listen
with rapture to his holy words. Oh, how often the memoiy
of many things he has said has given me comfort and strength
in the hour of darkness and struggle I One day, as we sat
alone, and I held his hand, and he was ill, he said, * Dear
child, it is your mission to help mould the world anew. May
good angels give you thoughts, and move you to do the work
which they want done on earth. You must promise me one
thing, and that is, that you will always say what you think.
Your thoughts are given you to utter, not to conceal ; and if
you are true to yourself, and give to others all you see and
know, God will pour more light and truth into your own
soul. My old Greek lexicon, testament, and grammar,
which I studied forty years ago, and which you and I have
thumbed so often together, I shall leave to you when I die ;
and, whenever you see them, remember that I am watching
you from heaven, and that you can still come to me with all
your sorrows, just as you have always done. I shall be ever
near you.'
. ** When the last sad scene was over, and his will was
opened, sure enough, there was a clause in it, saying, ^ My
Greek lexicon, testament, and grammar, I give to Elizabeth
Cady.'
** Great was the void which the doctor's death made In
my heart. But I slowly transferred my love to the books.
When I first received tiiem they were all falling to pieces.
So T had them newly bound in black morocco and gilt.
Deal ar^ ihoy to me to this day, and dear will continue to be as
340 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AOB.
long as I live. I never look at them without thanking God
that he gave me, in my childhood, so nobl§ a frieud.**
At the time of Dr. Hosack's death, which was in Eliza-
beth's fifteenth year, her term at the Johnstown Academy
was drawing to a close. Among the scholars, whether girls
or boys, none could recite better, or run faster, than herself;
none missed fewer lessons, or frolics ; none were oftener at
the head of recitations, or mischiefs. If she was detained
from the class, the teacher felt the loss of her cheery com-
pany ; if she was absent from the out-door games, the boys
said that half the sport was gone. She who had been the
loved companion of a sedate theologian had, at the same time,
remained the ringleader of a beyy of mad romps. A school-
house is a kingdom ; and Elizabeth was a school-house queea.
After graduating at the head of her class, a sudden blow
fell upon her heart, and left a grievous wound. She had
secretly cherished the hope, that as she had kept ahead of
the boys, and thus shown at least her equality with the
domineering sex, she would bo sent (as Johnstown boys were
then usually sent) to Union College at Schenectady.
The thought never occurred to her, that this institution,
like most other colleges, was not so wise and liberal as to
educate both sexes instead of one. There will come a time
when any institution that proposes to educate the sexes sopr
arately, will be voted too ignorant of human nature to be
trusted with moulding the minds of the sons and daughters
of the republic. To shut girls and boys out of each other's
sight during the four most impressible years of life is one
of the many conventional interferences with natural law
which society unwittingly ordains to its own great harm. It
is a happiness to see that most of the new colleges, particu-
larly in the Western States, have been based on a more sen*
Bible theory.
MRS. ELIZABBTH CADY STANTON. 341
Just when Elizabeth Cady's heart was most set on Union
College, — whither she would have gone had she pleased her
father by being a boy, — she was told that she must go instead
to Afrs, Willard's Female Seminary in Troy because she had
disappointed him by being a girl. Great was her indignation
at this announcement, impetuous her protest against this phiu.
The stigma of inferiority thus cast upon her on account of
her sex, and on account of her sex alone, was galling to a
maiden who had already distanced all her competitors of the
opposite sex. At every step of her journey to Troy she
seemed to herself to be treading jon her pride, and crushing
out her life. Exasperated, mortified, and humbled, she
began, in a sad frame of mind, a boarding-school career. ''If
there is any one thing on earth," she says, " from which I
pray God to save my daughters, it is a girls' seminary. The
two years which I spent in a girls' seminary were the dreariest
years of my whole life." Nevertheless, nothing remained for
the disappointed child but to make the best of a bad situa-
tion. So she beguiled her melancholy by playing mischiev-
ous pranks. For instance, in the seminary, a big hand-bell
was rung downstairs every morning, as a call to prayer, and
upstaii*s every night, as a call to bed. After the nightly
ringing, the bell was set down on the upper floor in an angle
of the wall. One night, at eleven o'clock, after the inmates
bad been an hour in bed, Elizabeth furtively rose, stole out
of her dormitory in the drapery of a ghost, and solemnly
kicked the bell step by step down every flight of stairs to the
ground floor I Although everybody in the house was wakened
by the noise, and many of the doors were opened, she glided
past all the peeping eyes lite a phantom, to the general terror
of the whole house, and was never afterwards suspected as
the author of the mischief.
Soon, however, the merry frightener of others was solemnly
frightened herself. The Rev. Charles G. Finney, — a pulpit
342 EMINENT WOMEN OJf THE AGS.
orator who, as a terrifier of human souls, has proved himself
the equal of Savonarola, — made a visit to Troy, and preached
in the Rev. Dr. Beman's Presbyterian church, where Eliza-
beth and her school-mates attended. ^ I can see him now,"
she says (describing Mr. Finney's preachiug), "his great
eyes rolling round the congregation, and his arms flying in
the air like a windmill. One evening he described Hell and
'the Devil so vividly, that the picture glowed before my eyes
in the dark for months afterwards. On another occasion,
when describing the damned as wandering in the Inferno,
and inquiring their way through its avenues, he suddenly
pointed with his finger, exclaiming, " There I do you not see
them ? " and I actually jumped up in church and looked round,
— his description had been such a reality.
In quoting this allusion to Mr. Finney, I cannot forbear
saying that, although high respect is due to the intellectual,
moral, and spiritual gifts of the venerable ex-president of
Oberlin College, such preaching works incalculable hiU'm
to the very souls which it seeks to save. It worked harm to
Elizabeth. The strong man struck the child as with a liou's
paw. Fear of the judgment seized her soul. Mental anguish
prostrated her health. Visions of the lost haunted her
dreamt. Dethronement of her reason was apprehended oy
her friends. Flinging down her books, she suddenly fled
home.
The good minister of Johnstown, her revered counsellor,
was in his grave. His successor was a stranger whom she
could not approach. In her despair, she turned to ber
father. " Often," said she, " I would rise out of ray bed,
hasten to his chamber, kneel at his side, and ask him to pray
for my soul's salvation, lest I should be cast into hell before
morning." At last, she regained her wonted composure of
spirits, and joined the Johnstown church. " But I was never
happy," she writes, "in that gloomy faith which dooms to
MBS. ELIZABETH CADT STANTON. 343
eternal misery the greater part of the human family. It was
no comfort to me to be saved with a chosen few, while the
multitude, and those too who had suffered most on earth,
were to have no part in heaven."
The next seven years of her life she spent at Johnstown,
dividing her time between book-delving and horse-taming,
and, having an almost equal relish for each, she conquered the
books in her father's library, and the horses in her father's
stable. In fact, she would sometimes ride half the day over
hill and meadow, like a fox-hunter, and then study law-books
half the night, like a jurist. When she was busy at her
embroidery or water-colors, her father, who had a poor opinion
of such accomplishments, would bring to her the "Revised
Statutes," and say, " My daughter, here is a book which, if
you read it, will give you something sensible to say to Mr.
Spencer and Mr. Williams when they next make us a visit."
Mr. Spencer and Mr. Williams were legal magnates, who
made Judge Cady's dinner-table a frequent arena for the dis-
cussion of nice points of law. So Elizabeth, with a fine
determination to make herself the peer of the whole table,
diligently began and pursued that study of the laws of her
country, which has since armed and equipped her, as from
an arsenal of weapons, for her struggle against all oppressive
legislation concerning woman. As to her horse-riding, she
has of late years discontinued it, for the reason — if I may be
so ungallant as to hint it — that a lady of very elegant but
also very solid proportions is somewhat more at her ease in
a carriage than on a saddle.
In 1839, in her twenty-fourth year, while on a visit to her
distinguished cousin, Gerrit Smith, at Peterboro', in the
central part of New York State, she made the acquaintance
of Mr. Henry B. Stanton, then a young and fervid orator,
who had won distinction in the anti-slavery movement. The
acquaintances speedily became friends ; the friends grew into
344 EMINENT WOMEN OJf THE AGE.
lovers ; and the lovers, after a short courtship, msrriedi and
immediately set sail for Europe.
This voyage was undertaken, not merely for pleasure and
sight-seeing, but that Mr. Stanton might fulfil the mission
of a delegate to the " World's Anti-slavery Convention," to
be held in London in 1840. Many well-known American
women were delegates, but, on presenting their credentials,
were denied membership on account of their sex. Lucretia
Mott, Sarah Pugh, Emily Winslow, Abby Kimber, Mary
Grew, and AnnQGreenePhillips, — who had no superiors in
all England for moral worth, — found, to their astonishment,
that, after having devoted their lives to the anti-slavery
cause, they were repulsed from an anti-slavery convention
which they had gone three thousand miles to attend. Wen-
dell Phillips argued manfully for their admission, but in vain.
William Lloyd Garrison — who, having crossed in a tardy
ship, did not arrive till after the question had been decided,
and decided unjustly — refused to present his credentials,
took no part in the proceedings, and sat a silent spectator in
the gallery, — one of the most chivalrous acts of his life.
Beaten in the committee, the ladies transferred the question
to the social circles. Every dinner-table at which they were
present grew lively with the theme. At a dinner-table in
Queen Street, Mrs. Lucretia Mott — then in the prime of
her intellectual powers, and with a head which Combe, the
phrenologist, pronounced the finest he had ever seen on a
woman — replied so skilfully to the arguments of a dozen
friendly opponents, chiefl}'' clergymen, that she was the ac-
knowledged victor in the debate. It was then and there
that Mrs. Stanton, for the first time, saw, heard, and became
acquainted with Lucretia Mott. Often and often, during her
maidenly years, Elizabeth Cady had pondered the many-
sided question of woman's relations to society, to the State»
to the industrial arts, and particularly to the laws of property.
HB8. ELIZABETH CADY STANTON. 345
But, in thinking these thoughts, she had hitheito supposed
herself to be alone in the world. Now, however, during a
six weeks' constant and familiar companionship with Mrs.
Mott, she wonderingly heard the whole cyclopedia of her
own hidden and secretly cherished convictions openly con-
fessed by another's lips. All the women with whom Mrs.
Stanton had ever associated in America had, without excep-
tion, belonged to the circle of conservative opinion. Mrs.
Mott was the first liberal thinker on womanhood whom she
had ever encountered. Elizabeth's delight at thus finding a
woman who had thought farther than herself, on some of the
most vital questions affecting the human soul, was as glow-
ing and enchanting as if she had suddenly discovered a
cavern of hid treasures. It is not too much to say that the
influence of the elder of these women on the younger was
greater than the combined influence of everything else which
that younger saw and heard during her foreign tour. This is
Bot an exaggerated statement. I once asked her the ques-
tion, ''What most impressed you in Europe?" and she in-
stantly replied, *'Lucretia Mott 1 " One day, as a party of a
dozen or more friends were visiting the British Museum,
Mrs. Mott and Mrs.. Stanton, who were of the company, had
hardly entered the building when they sat down and began
to talk to each other. The rest went forward, made the cir-
cuit of the curiosities, and came back to the entrance, to find
that the two talkers still sat with their heads together, never
having stirred from their places. The sympathetic twain had
found more in each other than either cared to look for in the
whole British Museum. Mrs. Stanton's enthusiasm for Mrs.
Mott continues still as fresh and warm as then. And no
wonder I. For, in the same sense in which the greatest man
ever produced in this country was Benjamin Franklin, the
greatest woman ever produced in this country is Lucretia
Mott.
346 BMIKEKT WOMEN OV THE AOfl.
Od returning to America, Mr. Stanton began the practice
of law in Boston, where, with his wife and family, he resided
for five years. The east winds, always unfriendly to his
throat, at last drove him to take shelter in the greater kind-
liness of an inland climate. Accordingly he transferred his
household and business to Seneca Falls, in the State of
New York.
The first '* Woman's Rights Convention ** (known to his-
tory by that name) was held July 19th and 20th, 1848, in
the Wesleyan Chapel at Seneca Falls. Copies of the official
report of the proceedings are now rare, and will one day be
hunted for by antiquarians, — a petite pamphlet, about the
size of a man's hand, resembling in letter (though hardly in
spirit) an evangelical tract by the American Tract Society.
My own copy has become yellow-tinted by time. With a
reverential interest I look back on this modest chronicle of a
great event. That convention little thought it would be his-
toric. But it was the first of a chain of similar conventions
which, like the links round a Leyden Jar, have since girdled
half the world with the brightness of a new idea. The chief
agent in calling the convention was Mrs. Stanton. It met in
the town of her residence. Its resolutions and declarations
of sentiment were the ofiTspring of her pen. Its one great
leading idea — the elective franchise — was a suggestion of
her brain. I do not know of any public demand for woman's
sufifrage, made by any organized convention, previous tc
Mrs. Stanton's demand for it in the following resolution:
** Resolved, that it is the duty of the women of this country
to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective
franchise." I am aware that women long before had voted
(for a short time) in New Jersey. But woman's political
rights had already been slumbering for years when Mrs.
Stanton jarred them into sudden wakefulness. This she did
to the consternation of her best friends. The convention at
I
A
XBS. ELIZABETH CADT STANTOK 347
Seneca Falls was called, as the advertisement phrased it, ''to
discuss the social, civil, and religious condition of woman.^
Nothing was here said of woman's political condition, ex«
cept so far as that might he ambiguously included in her
civil. Probably very few of the delegates, on going to the
meeting, carried to it any such idea as woman's suffrage.
When Mrs. Stanton privately proposed to introduce the res-
olution which I have quoted, even Lucretia Mott — who (as
the report characterizes her) was *' the ruling spirit of the
occasion " — attempted to dissuade the bold innovator. But
the innovator would not be dissuaded. She offered her reso-
lution, and, in support of it, made, for the first time in her
life, a public speech. Not a natural orator, she at first
shrank from taking the floor. But a sense of duty impelling
her to utter her thought, she conquered her bewilderment,
stated her views, answered the convention's objections, fought
a courageous battle, and carried her proposition. No Amer-
ican woman ever rendered a more signal service to her
country than was, on that day, bashfully, yet gracefully and
triumphantly, performed by Mrs. Stanton.
That convention, and, above all, its demand for woman'fi
suffrage, excited the universal laughter of the nation. Won-
der-stricken people asked each other the question, ''What
sort of creatures could those women at Seneca Falls have
been ? " It was never suspected by the general public that
they were among the finest ladies in the land. Even their
own relatives and friends, who knew their personal virtues,
lamented their public eccentricities and joined the general
crowd of critics and satirists. Judge Cady, on hearing of
what his daughter had done, fancied her crazy, and immedi-
ately journeyed from Johnstown to Seneca Falls to learn for
himself whether or not that brilliant brain had been turned.
" After my father's arrival," says she, " he talked with me a
whole evening till one o'clock in the morning, trying to
348 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
reason me oat of my position. At length, kissing me good*
nighty he said, *My child, I wish you had waited till I was
under the scd, before you had done this foolish thing P But
I replied, laughing, 'Ah, sir, don't you remember how you
used to give me law-books to read in order that I might have
•something sensible to say to your friends, Mr. Spencer and
Mr. Williams, when they came to dine with us? It was by
reading those lawbooks that I found out the injustice of our
American laws toward women. I might never have known
anything on the subject except for yourself. ' " The good
man before his death (which occurred several years after-
ward), although he had never relaxed his opposition to his
daughter's views, nevertheless had come to cherish a secret
pride at the skill, vigor, and eloquence with which she
maintained them against all antagonists.
From the day of the Seneca Falls Convention to the
present, Mrs. Stanton has been one of the representative
women of America. At a similar convention, held at Cleve-
land, Ohio, in 1853, Lucretia Mott proposed the adoption
of the declaration of sentiments put forth at Seneca Falls in
1848. "She thought," says the official report, ''that this
would be but a fittinor honor to her who initiated these move-
ments in behalf of the women of our country, Elizabeth
Cady Stanton."
I have seen the old and tattered manuscript of the first
"set speech" which Mrs. Stanton ever delivered. It was
a lyceum lecture, ably and elaborately written ; and was
repeated at several places in the Interior of the State of New
York, during the first months that followed the first conven-
tion. The manuscript, unaccountably slipping out of the
author's hands, was passed from friend to friend, fi-om town
to town, and from State to State, until she not only last
sight of it for the lime, but gave up all hope of ever seeing it
again. Eighteen years afterward, it was returned to her,
HBS. ELIZABEIjI CADf STABTON. 349
somewhat the worse for wear. It had, meanwhile, travelled
I know not how many hundreds of miles^ and been read by
I know not how qiany hundreds of persons. On recovering
the lost scroll, she penned on its margin this inscription,
addressed to her daughters : —
•*Dear Maggie and Hattie, this is my first speech. It was
delivered several times immediately after the first Woman's
Rights Convention. It contains all I knew at that time. I
did not speak again for several years. The manuscript has,
ever since, been a wanderer through the land. Now, after a
separation of nearly eighteen years, I press my first-born to
my heart once more. As I recall my younger days, I weep
over the apathy and indifference of women concerning their
own . degradation. I give this manuscript to my precious
daughters, in the hope that they will finish the work which I
have begun."
Miss Susan B. Anthony — a well-known, indefatigable and
life-long advocate of temperance, anti-slavery, and woman's
rights — has been, since 1850, Mrs. Stanton's intimate as-
sociate in reformatory labors. These celebrated women are of
about equal ages, but of the most opposite characteristics, and
illustrate the theoiy of counterparts in affection by entertain-
ing for each other a friendship of extraordinary strength.
Mrs. Stanton is a fine^writer, but poor executant ; Miss Anthony
is no writer at all, but a thorough manager. Both have large
brains and great hearts; neither has any selfish ambition
for celebrity ; but each vies with the other in a noble en-
thusiasm for the cause to which they are devoting their lives.
Nevertheless, to describe them critically, I ought to say that,
opposites though they be, each does not so much supplement
the other's deficiencies as augment the other's eccentricities.
Thus, they often stimulate each other's aggressiveness, and
350 BHIlffSNT WOMEN OF TH9 AGK.
at the same time diminish each other's disoreti^i. But what-
ever may be the imprudent utterances of the one, or the im-
politio methods of the other, the animating motives of both,
judged by the highest moral standards, are evermore as
white as the light. The good which they do is by design ;
the harm, by accident. These two women, sitting together
in their parlor, have, for the last fifteen years, been diligent
forgers of all manner of projectiles, from fireworks io
thunderbolts, and have hurled them, with unexpected ex-
plosion, into the midst of all manner of educational, reforma-
tory, and religious conventions — sometimes to the pleasant
surprise and half- welcome of the members ; more often to the
bewilderment and prostration of numerous victims ; and, in a
few signal instances, to the gnasliing of angry men's teeth. I
know of no two more pertinacious incendiaries in the whole
countiy I Nor will they themselves deny the charge. In
fact, this noise-making twain are the two sticks of a drum for
keeping up what Daniel Webster called **the rub-a-dub of
agitation."
The practice of going before a legislature to present fiie
claims of an unpopular cause has been more common in many
other States than in New York ; most common, perhaps, in
Massachusetts. With the single exception of Mrs. Lucy
Stone, — ^ a noble and gifted woman, to whom her sisterhood
owe an affectionate gratitude, not merely for an eloquenoe
that has charmed thousands of ears, but /or practical efforts
in abolishing laws oppressive to their sex, — I believe that
Mrs. Stanton has appeared oftener before a State legislatare
than can be said of any of her co-laborers. She has re-
peatedly addressed the Legislature of New York at Albany,
and, on these occasions, has always been honored by the
presence of a brilliant audience, and has always spoken with
dignity and ability. Her chief topics have been the needful
ohanges in the laws relating to intemperaace, educatioPi
MB9. ELIZABETH CADT STANTON. 351
divorce, slavery, and suffrage. ** Yes, gentlemen," said she,
in her address of 1854, ^we, the daughters of the revolu-
tionary heroes of 76, demand at your hands the redress of
our grievances, — a revision of your State constitution, — a
new code of laws.''
At the close of that grand and glowing argument, a lawyer
who had listened to it, and who knew and revered Mrs.
Stanton's father, shook hands with the orator and said,
** Madam, it was as fine a production as if it had been made
and pronounced by Judge Cady himself." This, to the
daughter*s ears, was sufiiciently high praise.
I have carefully read several of Mrs. Stanton's other ad-
dresses before the New York Legislature, and have felt, in
reading them, that so able a woman ought long ago to have
been eligible to membership in a body whom she thus so
admirably addressed. But there will come a day — and
Heaven speed it I — when a legislature, or a congress, will
not be considered as representing the whole people of a State,
or of a nation, until women as well as men shall sit a^ its
duly chosen members, — until women as well as men shall bo
expected to make, as they now are to obey, the laws of
the land, — :>until women as well as men shall be held politi-
cally responsible for the moral and Christian government of
the republic. **Ye are members one of another," says the
wise book ; and the saying is no more true of the family than
of society, — no more true of the church than of the state. It
has taken a terrific contest (and not yet completed) to
achieve the political rights of American citizens without
distinction of color. But from this point onward — without
an appeal to arms, and without a testimony of blood — a
more peaceful but not less victorious struggle is in due time
to achieve the political rights of American citizens without
distinction of sex.
352
BMIKENT WOMEK 07 THS AQE.
In a cabinet of curiosities, I bare laid away, as an interesting
^lic, a little white ballot, two inches square, and inscribed :
For Bepresentative in Congress,
EUZABISTH CaDY STAIITON.
Mrs. Stanton is the only woman in the United States who,
as yet, has been a candidate for Congress. In conformity
with a practice prevalent in some parts of this country, and
very prevalent in England, she nominated herself. The
public letter in which she proclaimed herself a candidate was
as follows : —
** TO THE ELECTORS OF THE EIGHTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT.
*' Although, by the Constitution of the State of New York,
woman is denied the elective franchise, yet she is eligible to
office ; therefore I present myself to you as a candidate for Rep-
resentative to Congress. Belonging to a disfranchised class,
I have no political antecedents to recommend me to your sup-
port, but my creed is free ^eech^fvee press, free men, and
free tmde, — the cardinal points of Democracy. Viewing all
questions from the stand-point of principle rather than expe-
diency, there is a fixed uniform law, as yet unrecognized by
either of the leading parties, governing alike the social aud
political life of men and nations. The Republican party has oc-
casionally a clear vision of personal rights, though in its pro-
tective policy it seems wholly blind to the rights of property
and interests of commerce. While it recognizes the duty of
benevolence between man and man, it teaches the narrowest
selfishness in trade between nations. The Democrats, on the
contrary, whUe holding sound and liberal principles in trade
MBS. ELIZABETH CADY STANTOK. 353
and commerce, have ever in their political affiliations main*
tained the idea of class and caste among men, — an idea
wholly at variance with the genius of our free institutions and
fatal to a high civilization. One party fails at one point and
one at another. In asking your suffrages— believing alike
in free men and free trade — I could not represent either
party as now constituted.
^Nevertheless, as an Independent Candidate, I desire an
election at this time, as a rebuke to the dominant party for
its retrogressive legislation in so amending the Constitution
as to make invidious distinctions on the ground of sex.
''That instrument recognizes as persons all citizens who
obey the laws and support the State, and if the Constitutions
of the several States were brought into harmony with the
broad principles of the Federal Constitution, the women of
the nation would no longer be taxed without representation,
or governed without tiieir consent. One word should not be
added to that great charter of rights to the insult or injury of
the humblest of our citizens. I would gladly have a voice
and vote in the Fortieth Congress to demand universal suf-
frage^ that thus a republican form of government might be
secured to every State in the Union.
"Kthe party now in the ascendency makes its demand for
•negro suffrage ' in good faith, on the ground of natural right,
and because the highest good of the State demands that the
republican idea be vindicated, on no principle of justice or
safety can the women of the nation be ignored.
" In view of the fact that the Freedmen of the South and
the millions of foreigners now crowding our Western shores,
most of whom represent neither property, education, nor civ-
ilization, are all, in the progress of events, to be enfranchised,
the best interests of the nation demand that we outweigh this
incoming pauperism, ignorance, and degradation, with the
wealth, education, and refinement of the women of the re-
88
354 EMINENT WOMEN OE THE AGE.
public. Ou the high ground of safety to the nation and ju8«
tice to its citizens, I ask your support in the coming election.
** Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
"New York, October 10, 1866."
The ''New York Herald" — though, of course, with no
sincerity, since that journal is never sincere in anything-^
warmly advocated Mrs. Stanton's election. ''A lady of fine
presence and accomplishments in the House of Representa-
tives," it said (and said truly), ''wo^Id wield a wholesome
influence over the rough and disorderly elements of that
body." The "Anti-slavery Standard," with genuine com-
mendation, said, ^ The electors of the Eighth District would
honor themselves and do well by the country in giving her a
triumphant election." The other candidates in the same dis-
trict were Mr. James Brooks, Democrat, and Mr. LcGrand
B. Cannon, Republican. The result of the election was as
follows : Mr. Brooks received thirteen thousand eight hundred
and sixteen votes, Mr. Cannon eight thousand two hundred
and ten, and Mrs. Stanton tweniy-four. It will be seen that
the number of sensible people in the district was limited ! The
excellent lady, in looking back upon her successful dt^feat,
regrets only that she did not, before it became too late, pro-
cure the photographs of her two dozen unknown friends.
In the summer of 1867, the people of Kansas were to debate,
and in the autumn to decide, the most novel, noble, and beau-
tiful question ever put to a popular vote in the United Stjxtes, —
the question of adopting a new Constitution whose peculiarity
was that it extended the elective franchise not merely to
* white male citizens," but to those of what Frederick D0U5:-
lass calls " the less fashionable color," and to those also of
what Horace Greeley calls "the less muscular sex." Mrs.
Lucy Stone and Miss Olympia Brown — helped by other
ladies less fiimous, and by several earnest men, including the
Hon. Samuel C« Pomeroy, Senator of the United States r—
MRS. ELIZABETH CADY STANTON. 355
made public speeches at prominent places in tUat State, urg*
ing the people to give the new idea a hospitable welcome at
the polls. This canvass was as chivalrous as a tournament,
and abounded, from beginning to end, with romantic inci-
dents. To hear from the lips of Mrs. Stone (in that delight-
ful eloquence of conversation which she has never surpassed
on the platform), a recital of the most serious or the most
comical of these, is as pleasant an entertainment as a supper-
table chat can well afford. Toward the close of that memo-
rable campaign, Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony, like a
reserved force, joined themselves to the general battle.
Accidentally associated with them (first with Misa Anthony and
afterwards with Mrs. Stanton) was Mr. George Francis Train,
— soldier of fortune, hero of Feniauism, martyr to creditors,
guest of jails, and candidate for the presidency. The ** Trib-
une" has admiringly called Mr. Train "a charlatan and
blatherskite.'* Ampler justice compels me to add that he is,
nevertheless, of all mountebanks the most amiable, and of all
clowns the most innocent. These women of substance and
this man of froth formed in Kansas a coalition which pro-
voked their opponents to smiles, and their friends to regrets.
Anxious watchers of the progress of the good cause were ap-
prehensive that the flightiness of Mr. Train's speeches would
bring the new question into disrepute. But the history of
reforms in all countries, and especially in this, has shown
that neither the wildest friends nor the fiercest enemies of a
great idea can any more trample it under their feet than if
they had trodden on a sunbeam. The result of the vote on
the new Constitution was flattering beyond the most sanguine
expectation. No wise observer of the signs of the times had
looked for the adoption of that radical instrument, but only
for a generous minority in its support. The figures stood nine
thousand for, and nineteen thousand against. I have never
met any student of Ameririm politics who was not greatly sur
356 EMINENT WOMEN 01 THE AQE
prised thus to. find that one-third of the voters in any State of
the Union were sufBciently advanced in opinion to demand at
the ballot-box the political equality of the sexes. If the anti-
slavery party in Massachusetts, like the woman's suffrage party
in Kansas, had received, on a first trial at the polls, one-third
of the votes cast, the early abolitionists would have shouted
for joy, and have rung their church-bells for a jubilee.
Whether the vote in Kansas was increased or diminished by
Mr. Train's harangues, I am unable to say. But it is proper
to say that the anti-slavery movement, gathering, as it did, to
its annual platforms, many of the greatest as well as some of the
shallowest of ^uman brains ; and the woman's suffrage move-
ment, constantly repeating, as it doea^ these same phenomena,
thereby furnish to the world a magnificent proof of the uni-
versality of those great ideas which thus make known their
power upon all classes of human beings, great and small, wise
and simple, sane and crazy. God has ordained that the noble
army of reformers, while marshalled by the choicest spirits
of the age, should give honorable rank also to Tag, Eag, and
Bobtail. I can see no reason why the gifted and anointed
leaders of great movements should decline to make common
cause with any and all who are willing to work for the com-
mon end.
After the election in Kansas » Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony,
and Mr. Train made a slow progress eastward, stopping at
the chief cities on their way, and addressing public meetings
on woman's rights. These meetings provoked merited criti-
cism on account of the performances of Mr. Train, who
amused his audiences with the capers of a harlequin. The
previous substantial reputation of the two ladies, as earnest
reformers, was, on this account, greatly shaken. And yet
their own speeches, on all these occasions, were grave, ear*
nest, and impressive, — always worthy of their authors and
of the cause. It was, therefore, supposed that the grotesque
MES. ELIZABETH CADY STANTON. 357
•
partnership would be only temporary, but it proved to be
permanent. By the time the three travellers had reached
New York, they had projected a weekly journal, which made
its appearance at the beginning of 1868, under the topsy*
turvying title of ** The Revolution ; ^ edited by Elizabeth
Cady Stanton and Parker Pillsbury, and published by Susan
B. Anthony. Like Jupiter Tonans in the rainy season, this
sheet always thunders. It is the stormiest of journals. Its
pages, as one turns them over, seem to crinkle, flutter, and
snap with electric heats. Examine almost any number of
^The Bevolution," and it will be found the strangest mixture
of sense and nonsense known anywhere in American journal-
ism, — a rag-bag of the most incongruous topics. The arti- *
cles signed ** E. C. S." and " P. P.'' are full of force and
fire, — seldom commonplace or tame. Mr. Pillsbury has a
gorgeous and sombre imagination, which, when it plays about
any subject that can bear its strong colors, makes some of
his best essays truly magnificent. Mrs. Stanton, who is
always in high animal spirits, and who, like a ripe grape,
carries a whole summer's sunshine in her blood, fills her
most serious articles with fun, frolic, and satire, and, even in
her most humorous escapades, shows a rare vein of tender-
ness, pathos, and eloquence. She so abounds in metaphors
and pithy phrases that a characteristic article from her pen
is like a Chinese jar of chow-chow, — filled with little lumps
of citron, apricot, and ginger, all swimming in a sweet and
biting syrup. The political disquisitions of this co-working
yet non-assimilating pair are sometimes grand and just,
sometimes visionary and absurd, and sometimes outrageous
and wicked. Mr. Train and his money-writers dance up and
down through one-third of each week's space in the paper,
and hold a high carnival of balderdash. One particular con-
tribution, kept up every week, is made so to coruscate with
outlandish notions, comments, and criticisms, that it remiudsi
358 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
one of an old barn-door in a dark night, scrawled over, in
phosphorusy with **gorgous, hydras, and chimeras dire.**
But in speaking thus freely of this conglomerate sheet, — a
journal, which, on its present plan, can never take a respect-
able rank among the influential presses of the country, — I
must honorably say, on the other band, that some of the
noblest thoughts and utterances pertinent to this day and
generation, — ringing words for liberty, justice, and woman-
hood,— glowing rebukes of false customs, social tyrannies,
and degrading conventionalities, — eloquent appeals for a more
liberal civil polity, and a more equitable social order, — fervid
aspirations toward whatever dignifies human nature and
purifies the immortal soul, — these, too, ^thoughts that
breathe and words that burn," — are spread week by week upon
the pages of " The Revolution," and from no brain ofbeuer than
from the fiery, wayward, scornful, sympathetic, and Christiaa
soul of Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
I may now paint her features, and sum up her character.
Mrs. Stanton'^ face is thought to resemble Martha Wash-
ington's, but is less regular and more animated; her hair —
early gray, and now frosty white — falls about her head in
thick clusters of curls ; her eyes twinkle with amiable mis-
chief; her voice, though hardly musical, is mellow and
agreeable ; her figure is of the middle height, and just stout
enough to suggest a preference for short walks rather than
for long. In reality, however, she can walk like an English-
woman, — though, if, during a stroll in the street, some jest sets
her to laughing, she is forced to halt, cover her countenance
with her veil, and shake contagiously till the spasm be past.
The costume that most becomes her (and in which her his-
toric portrait ought to bo garmented) is a blue silk dress and
a red India shawl, — an array, which, topped with her mag-
nificent white hair, makes her a patriotic embodiment of ** red,
white, and blue."
MRS. ELIZABETH CABY 8TAKT0N. 359
Her gift of gifts is conversation. Her throne of queeusbip
is not the oiBcial chair of the Woman's Rights Convention
(though she always presides with dignity and ease) , but is
rather a seat at the social board y where the company are
elderly conservative gentlemen, who combine to argue her
down. I think she was never ai^ued down in her life. Go
into a fruit-orchard, jar the ripe and laden trees one after
another, and not a greater shower of plums, cherries, and
pomegranates will fall about your head, than the witticisms,
anecdotes, and repartees which this bounteous woman sheds
down in her table-talk. House-keeping and babies, free trade
and temperance, woman's suffrage and the ^ white male citi-
Een, " — these are her favorite themes. Many a person, on
spending a delightful evening in her societj^ has gone away,
saying, " Well, that is Madam de Stael alive again."
Never a human being had a kindlier nature than Mrs. Stan-
ton's. Pity is her chief vice ; charity, her besetting sin. She
has not the heart to see a chicken killed, or a child punished.
If robbed of all her property, she could not endure to have
sentence passed on the thief. When a wretch does wrong,
she is apt to think his act not so much his own fault, as the
fault of the law under which he lives. A judge punishes the
offender, and lets the law go uncondemned ; but this judge
of judges lets the offender go free, and condemns the law in-
stead. On the one hand, her sense of justice is so sensitive,
and, on the other, her tender-heartedness is so excessive, that
she compounds for pardoning the criminal by attacking all
those usages of society which have conspired to lure him to
his crime. Thus, seeing a man drunken in the streets, she
does not chide the culprit so much as she denounces the sale
of liquor ; seehig a seamstress underpaid, she does not de-
nounce the meanness of the employer s© much as the narrow
range of women's employments ; seeing a widow cheated out
of her inheritance, she would not so eagerly seek to punish
360 EMINENT WOMEN 07 THE AGE.
the scoundrel as to secure woman's suffrage for woman's self
protection.
^ It is a settled maxim with me," she says, **that the exist-
ing public sentiment on any subject is wrong." Accordingly,
as against the customary, stringent laws of divorce, she holds
to the doctrine of John Milton; as against the prevailing
tariffs, she argues vehemently for free trade ; as against old-*
fashioned religious opinions, she inclines to an unchecked
free-thinking ; and as against the common notion of what
constitutes woman's sphere, she holds that woman's sphere is
to bo widened unto equal greatness with man's.
If it be supposed that, in all f bis, she desires to make woman
less womanly, such a suppositic n is unjust. It is because, under
the present canons of society , woman's nature is denied its
true growth, defrauded of its true liberty, and defeated of its
true end and aim, that Mrs. Stanton, being a woman herself,
so earnestly tries to take woman's feet out of the Chinese
shoes of dwarfing custom, — to rescue her from her present
constrained position in a restrictive social order, — to inspire
her toward a fairer ideal of womanhood, — to restore her to ber
own truer self, — and to present her back once more to God.
Mrs. Stanton's knowledge of human nature in its various
ranges, and of human life in its various experiences, has been
as rich, varied, and profound as often falls to the lot of any
human being. The sacred lore of motherhood is to her a
familiar study. Five sous and two daughters sit around ber
table, all as proud of their mother as if she were a queen of
Fairyland, and they her pages in waiting. Drinking not
seldom at the fountain of sorrow, she has found, in its bitter
waters, strength for her soul. Keligious and worshipful by
constitution, she has cast off in her later life the superstitions
of her earlier, but h^^ never lost her childhood's faith in God.
Society being (as she looks at it) full of hollowness and
falsity, she sometimes yearns for its reformation as if bel
KKS. ELIZABETH CADY STANTON. 361
heart would break, — the cause of woman's elevation being
with her not merely a passion but a religion. She would
willingly give her body to be burned, for the sake of seeing
her sex enfranchised. But over all this aching and restless
earnestness of her inward life nature has kindly drawn a
countenance of sunny smiles, a perpetual good*humor, and an
irresistible flow of spirits ; so that, as she faces the world, she
is one of the most fascinating, exhaustless, and perennial of
companions ; and, as she turns away from it, and faces God
alone, she offers to him a soul whose very sorrows, disap-
pointments, and hopes deferred have long ago wrought within
her a solemn, cheerful, and immoi-tal peace. Nothing in
her outward career — nothing in her representative position —
nothing in her gayety and wit — nothing in the whole cluster of
those fine intellectual faculties that make her one of the ablest
women of our day — nothing in any part of her mind, character,
or life is so truly admirable as the one, central characteristic
quality of moral energy, which, like a hidden and glowing
ember, ignites within her a fiery indignation against all forms
of oppression, a sacred love of liberty and justice, a proud rev-
erence for human nature, even in its lowliest fortunes, and a
perpetual and defiant appeal from the falseness of society to
the justice of God.
362 ZUINXKT WOMEN OF THE AGS.
THE WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT AND ITS
CHAMPIONS IN THE UNITED STATES.
•^o^
BT EUZABETH CADY STANTON.
We may date the Woman's Bights cause proper, from
the division in the anti-slavery organization in 1840 ; though
before that time, Frances Wright, an Englishwoman of rare
gifts both as a vnriter and speaker, had visited this country,
and addressed large audiences, demanding at that early day
all that the champions of woman's rights now claim.
She was followed by Ernestine L. Bose, a native of Poland,
— - a woman of great beauty, refinement, and cultivation, — of
generous impulses, liberal views, and oratorical power. She
came to this country in 1836, addressed large audiences in
Charleston, South Carolina, and in Detroit, Michigan, on **The
Science of Government^'' When it was announced in those
cities, that a woman was to speak on such a them*e, men made
themselves merry at her presumption ; but, after listeniug to
her able exposition of the republican idea, leading men came
to her, and, with marked respect, complimented her success-
ful effort. She was among the first who agitated the property
rights of married women in the State of New York. As
early as 1838 she circulated petitions on that subject, which
were presented by Judge Hertell in the Legislature. She
has been one of the leaders in the Woman's Bights movemeut
8ABAH AND ANGELINA GRIMKE. 363
since that time, and spoken at all the annual conventiuns.
The active part the women of this country had taken in the
anti-slavery cause, beginning in 1830, had prepared them for
this new demand.
In those early organizations woman had an equal voice
with man. She did more than sew pincushions, and ask
alms ; she proclaimed the living truths of the gospel of free-
dom, in public assemblies, as well as at the hearthstone, — to
grave and reverend seniors in halls of legislation, as well as
to her husband at home.
SARAH AND ANGELINA GRIMKE.
In 1836 Sarah and Angelina Grimk£, daughters of a
wealthy planter in South Carolina, emancipated their slaves,
and came North to lecture on the evils of slavery. They
were high-toned, noble women, well educated, of keen moral
perceptions, and deeply religious natures. The one desire in
their childhood and youth had been to escape the daily tor-
ture of witnessing the cruelties inflicted upon the slave ; to get
beyond the abominations they saw no way to end.
Angelina, the younger sister, was a natural orator. Fresh
from the land of bondage, there was a fervor in her speech
that electrified her listeners, and drew crowds wherever
she went. She was tall, delicately organized, with a sad,
thoughtful face, dark hair and eyes, with great depth of
expression. Her voice was rich, clear, and strong, and could
easily fill any hall.
Both sisters were ready writers, and, while lecturing through
the North, wrote for the press, on slavery and woman's
rights. Sarah published a book reviewing the Bible argu-
ments, which the clergy were then making in all our pulpits,
to prove that the degradation of the slave and woman were
364 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
alike iu harmony with the expressed will of God. In May,
1837, a National Woman's Anti-slavery Convention was called
in New York, in which eight States were represented by
seventy-one delegates. The meetings were ably sustamed
through two days. The different sessions were opened by
prayer and reading of the Scriptures, by the women them-
selves, and a devout, earnest, and Christian spirit pervaded
all the proceedings. The debates, resolutions, speeches, and
appeals were fully equal to those in any conventions held
by the men of that period.
Angelina Grimke was appointed in this convention to pi^
pare au appeal for the slaves to the people of the free States,
and a letter to John Quincy Adams, thanking him for his
services in defending the right of petition for women and
slaves, qualified with the regret that, by expressing himself
** adverse to the abolition of slavery in the District of Colum-
bia," he did not sustain the cause of freedom and of God.
What man has done as the result of war, women asked to
prevent war thirty years ago. In 1838 she was married to
Theodore D. Weld, and settled in New Jersey. She is the
mother of one daughter and two sons. Among those who
took part in the debates of that convention, we find the names
of Lydia Maria Child, Mary Grew, Henrietta Sargent, Sarah
Pugh, Abby Kelley, Mary S. Parker, of Boston, who was
president of the convention, Anne Weston, Deborah Shaw,
Martha Storrs, Mrs. A. L. Cox, Rebecca B. Spring, and
Abigail Hopper Gibbons^ a daughter of that noble Quaker,
Isaac T. Hopper. Though early married, and the mother of
several children, her life has been one of constant activity
and self-denial for the public good. Those who know her
best can testify to her many acts of benevolence and mercy,
working alike for the unhappy slave, the unfortunate of her
own sex, the children on Randall's Island, and the suffering
soldiers iu our late war.
ABBY KBLLMT. — MARY ORBW. 365
ABBYKELLEY,
A young Quakeress, made her first appearance on the
anti-slavery platform. She was a tall, fine-looking girl, with
a large, well-shaped head, regular features, dark hair, blue
eyes, and a sweet, expressive countenance. She was a
person of clear moral perceptions, and deep feeling. She
spoke extemporaneously, always well, at times with great
eloquence and power. As soon as the rare gifts as orators,
that both she and Angelina Orimk6 displayed in the women's
meetings, were noised abroad, the men, one by one, asked
permission to come into their meetings, and- thus, through man's
curiosity, they soon found themselves speaking to promiscuous
audiences. For a period of thirty years Abby Kelley has
spoken on the subject of slavery. She has travelled up and
down the length and breadth of this land, — alike in winter's
cold and summer's heat, mid scorn, ridicule, violence, and
mobs, suffering all kinds of persecution, — still speaking,
whenever and wherever she gained audience, in the open air, in
school-house, bam, depot, church, or public hall, on week-
day, or Sunday, as she found opportunity.
In 1845 she married Stephen S. Foster, and soon after,
they purchased a farm in Worcester, Massachusetts, where,
with an only daughter, she has lived several years in retire-
ment. Having lost her voice by constant and severe use, she
gave up lecturing while still in her prime.
MARY GREW,
The daughter of Rev. Henry Grew, of Philadelphia, has
been for thirty years one of the ablest and most faithful
workers both in the anti-slavery and woman's rights cause.
She is a cousin of Wendell Phillips. Being a woman of
sound judgment, and great general information, she has been
366 SMIKENT WOMEN OF THE AGS.
one of his most reliable friends and counsellors, in planning
and executing his lifelong work. She is one of the most
terse and finished writers of the age. Her anti-slavery re-
ports made out annually, and published in **The Anti-slaveiy
Standard," are concise and comprehensive statements of facts
and principles governing them. She is a woman of vigoroun
thought, and high moral principle. Grentle, refined, unob-
trusive in manner, she is still a woman of great independence,
and self-reliance of character. Being one of the delegates to
the World's Antinslavery Convention, I met her for the first
time in London in 1840. I remember how charmed I was to
hear her laud our republican institutions, in the presence of
boasting Englishmen, and, in her keen, sarcastic way, express
the utmost contempt for the sham and tinsel, the pomp and
ceremony of the Old World. I was especially pleased with a
little incident that occurred one day, at a large dinner p^rtj,
at Samuel Gurney's, — a wealthy banker who had a beautifal
country-seat near London. Lord Morpeth and the Duchess of
Sutherland had been invited to meet a party of Americans there,
as they had expressed a wish to see the American abolitionists.
As it was a warm, pleasant afternoon in June, we wont out oa
the smooth green lawn, under the shade of some majestic old
trees, to hear Lord Morpeth read the reports to the
British government from Jamaica. Most of us had beea
formally presented to the Lord and Lady, but Mr. Grew, hav-
ing come late, had not yet had the honor of an introduction.
Having formed ourselves into a semicircle round his lordship
during the reading, at the close Miss Grew took her fatiier's
arm, and, in a cool, self-possessed manner, walked across the
intervening space, and introduced her father to the Duchess
of Sutherland, then mistress of the robes > with the safflfl
air as she would have presented two plain republicans in her
own country. Standing near the daughter of Sir Fo^ell
Buxton, she said to me, " What are you American girls w^^
MABT GREW. 367
of ? Not a girl in all England would have presumed to intro-
duce a commoner, to one of such rank as her Grace." "Ah I
madam," I replied, ** you forget that in our country we are all
of noble blood, all heirs apparent to the throne."
The women who devoted themselves to the anti-slavery
cause in the early days, endured the double odium of being
abolitionists, and ^ women out of their sphere ; " hence the
men who were engaged in the same cause little knew all the
peculiar aggravations and trials of their position. The ad-
miration such women as Angeline Orimk6, Abby Kelley, and
Lucretia Mott, commanded by their presence and eloquence,
was well tempered by ridicule and denunciation. The press
and the pulpit exhausted the English language to find adjec-
tives to express their detestation of so horrible a revelation
as "a woman out of her sphere." A clerical appeal was is-
sued and sent to all the clergymen in New England, calling
on them to denounce in their pulpits this unwomanly and un-
christian proceeding. Sermons were preached portraying in
the darkest colors the fearful results to the church, the
State, and the home, in thus encouraging women to enter
public life. It was the opposition of the clergy to woman's
speaking and voting in their meetings, that occasioned the
first division in "The American Anti-slavery Society."
The reports of the meeting held in New York, May, 1840,
are worthy the perusal of every philosophical thinker, to see
how ridiculously even good common-sense men can talk and
act when moved by prejudice rather than principle.
The question under debate on that occasion was, whether
woman should speak and vote in all business matters in their
meetings. Men opposed to this went through the audience
urging every looman who agreed with (hem to vote against it,
thus calling on them to do then and there what, with (eivid
eloquence, on that very occasion, they had declared a sin
tgainst nature and Scripture for them to do anywhere. It
863 EMIKENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
was a stormy meeting held that day by the friends of the
slave, and, though he still groaned in bondage, it was urged
by many that woman's voice should not be heard in his be-
half. Whilst with one hand they strove to loose the chains
that clanked on the rice plantations in Georgia, with the other
they tried to force woman back into the narrow niche where
barbarism had found her. So partially does truth illumine
some minds that even the colored man was found voting to
exclude woman from an anti-slavery organization. History,
however, records that William Lloyd Garrison, ever sound on
questions of human rights, carried the resolution by one hun-
dred majority in favor of woman's right to speak and vote in
their meetings. At this crisis a World's Anti-slavery Conven-
tion was called to meet in London. Several American orsrani-
zations saw fit to send women as delegates to represent them
in that august assembly. But, after going three thousand
miles to attend a World's Convention, it was discovered that
woman formed no part of the constituent elements of the
moral world.
In summoning the friends of the slave from all parts of the
two hemispheres, to meet in London, John Bull never dreamed
that woman, too, would answer to his call, though the idea of
immediate emancipation was first published by Elizabeth Her-
rick, an English woman, in a well-reasoned pamphlet in 1824.
Accordingly, on the opening of the convention in London,
June 12th, 1840, the delegates from the Massachusetts and
Pennsylvania societies were denied their seats. The delega-
tion consisted of Lucretia Mott, Mary Grew, Abby Kimber,
Elizabeth Neale, Sarah Pugh, from Peunsylvania ; Emily
Winslow, Abby Southwick, and Anne Greene Phillips, from
Massachusetts. This sacrifice of human rights, by men who
bad assembled from all quarters of the globe to proclaim
universal emancipation, was offered up in the presence of
such women as Lady Noel Byron, Harriet Martineau, Eliza-
ANNE GBEENE PHILLIPS. 369
beth Fry, Maiy Howitt, and Anna Jamieson. The delegates
had been persuasively asked to waive their claims that the
harmony of the convention might not be disturbed by a ques-
tion of such minor importance. But through then champion,
Wendell Phillips (who was then a young man, and brave
too, I thought, to advocate so unpopular an idea almost alone in ^
such an assembly) , they maintained that as they had beea
delegated by large and influential organizations, they must,
press their claims and thus discharge their duty, not only to
those whom they represented, but to the speechless victims
of American slavery. Thus the debate on this question was
forced upon them, and many distinguished gentlemen of
France, England, and America took part in the discussion,,
which lasted through one entire day.
ANNE GREENE PHILLIPS.
As we stood in the vestibule of Freemason's Hall that,
morning, talking over the coming event, I saw the wife of
Wendell Phillips for the first time. Her earnest, impressive
manner arrested my attention at once. She had just returned,
from her bridal tour on the continent, and was in the zenith
of her beauty. She had a profusion of dark-brown hair,
large, loving blue eyes, and regular features. She was tall,
graceful, and talked with great fluency and force. Her whole
soul seemed to be in the pending issue. As we were about
to enter the convention she laid her hand most emphatically
on her husband's shoulderand said, ** Now, Wendell, don't be
simmy-sammy to-day, but brave as a lion ;" and he obeyed the
injunction. Most of the speeches that day wore narrow and
bigoted, setting forth men's prejudices without touching the
principle under consideration, and, when the vote was taken,,
among the few who stood by principle, were Daniel O'Con-
24
370 EMINENT WOMEN 07 THE AGE.
nell, Dr. Bowring, Henry B. Stanton, Geoi^e Tbompsou,
and Wendell Phillips. William Lloyd Garrison did* not reach
England until the third day of the convention, having been
unfortunately becalmed at sea. When he learned that Mas-
sachusetts women had been denied their rights in the conven-
tion he declined to take his seat as a member of that body.
His anti-slavery principles being too broad to restrict human
rights to color or sex, he took his seat in the gallery, and,
through all those days looked down on the convention.
Thomas Clarkson was chosen president, but be being too old
and feeble to endure the fatigue, Joseph Sturge, the cele-
brated Quaker merchant, presided over the deliberations.
Sitting near Mrs. Mott in the convention, I mischievously
suggested to her one day a dangerous contingency. ^ With a
Quaker in the chair," said I, ^ suppose, in spite of the vote of
excommunication, the spirit should move you to speak, what
could the chairman do, and which would you obey, — the spir-
it, or the convention? •* She promptly replied, ** Where the
spirit of God is, there is liberty." The general indignation
felt by the advanced minds among the women of England,
France, and America, and the puerile tone of the debates on
this question, gave birth to what is called the Woman's Righto
movement on both continents. The women of England soon
after established a Woman's Rights journal, and petitioned
Parliament for their rights of propeity • Their demands were
ably maintained by Lord Brougham in the House of Peers.
The French women, too, soon after established a journal, so
liberal and republican in its sentiments, that they were com-
pelled to publish it in Italy, though it was clandestinely cir-
culated in France. At the same time Frederika Bremer, ia
her popular novels, was ridiculing the creeds and codes and
customs of her country, and thus undermining the laws of
Sweden in regard to women, which, in many particulars, wen
Boon after essentially modilSed .
.1
;
I
V
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LTJCBBTIA MOTT. 371
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LTJCBBTIA MOTT. 371
LUCRETIA MOTT.
It was in Loadon that I first met Lucretia Mott. We
chanced to stop at the same house, with a party of Amer-
icans, who had come to attend the ** World's Convention. **
Seated by her at the dinner-table I was soon oblivious to
everything but the lovely Quakeress, though a bride, with
my husband by my side. She was then in her prime, small
in stature, slightly built, with a large head, high, square fore-
head, remarkably fine face, regular features, dark hair and
eyes. She was gentle and refined in her manners, and con-
versed with earnestness and e<ise. There were several cler-
gymen at the table that day, who, in the course of conversa-
tion, rallied Mrs. Mott on her views of woman. She calmly
parried all their attacks, — now by her quiet humor turning the
laugh on them, and then by her earnestness and dignity silenc-
ing their ridicule and sneers. Though a stranger, I could not
resist saying all the good things I thought on her side of the
question, and I shall never •forget the look of recognition she
gave me when she saw that I already comprehended the prob-
lem of woman's rights and wrongs. She was the first liberal-
minded woman I had ever met, and nothing in all Europe
interested me as she did. We were soon fast friends, and
were often rallied on our seeming devotion to each other. I
was never weary listening to her conversation. On one
occasion, with a large party, we visited the British Museum,
where it is supposed all people go to see the wonders of the
world. On entering, Mrs. Mott and myself sat down near the
door to rest for a few moments, telling the party to go on,
that we would follow. They accordingly explored all the
departments of curiosities, supposing we were slowly follow-
ing at a distance ; but when they returned to the entrance,
after an absence of three hours, there we sat in the same
H72 EMINENT WOMEN OP THE AGE.
spot, having seen nothing but each other, wholly absorbed in
questions of theology and social life. She had told me of
the doctrines and divisions among Quakers, of the inward
light, of Elias Hicks, of Channing, of a religion of life, and
of Maiy WoUstonecraft and her social theories. I had been
reading Combe's Constitution of Man, and Moral Philosophy,
and Cbanning's Works, and had already thought on all these
questions ; but I had never beard a woman talk what, as a
Scotch Presbyterian, I had scarcely dared to think. Gn the
following Sunday I went to hear Mi*s. Mott preach in a
Unitarian church. Though I had never heard a woman speak,
yet I had long believed she had the right to do so, and had
often expressed the idea in private circles ; but when at last
I saw a woman rise up in the pulpit and preach as earnestly
and impressively as Mrs. Mott always does, it seemed to me
like the realization of an oft-repeated happy dream.
The day we visited the Zoological Gardens, as we were
admiring the gorgeous plumage of some beautiful birds, one
of the gentlemen remarked : —
*' You see, Mrs. Mott, our Heavenly Father believes in
bright colors. How much it would take from our pleasure
if all the birds were dressed in drab I "
^ Yes," said she, •' but immortal beings do not depend oa
their feathers for their attractions. With the infinite variety
of the human face and form, of thought, feeling, and affec-
tion, we do not need gorgeous apparel to distinguish us.
Moreover, if it is fitting that woman should dress in every
color of the rainbow, why not man also ? Clergymen with their
black clothes and white cravats are quite as monotonous as
the Quakers."
Owing to her liberal views, Mrs. Mott was shunned by the
Orthodox Quakers of England, though courted by the liter-
ati and nobility. I have seen her by the side of the Duch-
ess of Sutherland, conversing on the political questiooi
LUCBETIA MOTT. 373
of the time with a grace and eloquence that proved her in
manners the peer of the first woman in England, though ed-
ucated in Quaker austerity, under our plain republican insti-
tutions. From the following extracts from Mrs. Mott's
memoranda, the reader will get an insight into the moving
and governing principles of her calm, consistent, and beauti«
ful Ufe.
EXTRACTS FBOM MEMORANDA, BY LUCRETIA MOTT.
*• A native of the Island of Nantucket, — of the CofBns and
Macys on the father's side, and of the Folgers on the moth-
er's ; through them related to Dr. Franklin.
•'Born in 1793. During childhood was made actively use-
ful to my mother, who, in the al^sence of my father, on a
long voyage, was engaged in mercantile business, often going
to Boston and purchasing goods in exchange for oil and
candles, the staple of the island. The exercise of women's
talents in this line, as well as the general care which de-
volved upon them in the absence of their husbands, tended
to develop their intellectual powers and strengthen them
mentally and physically.
" In 1804 my father's family removed to Boston, and in the
public and private schools of that city I mingled with all
classes without distinction. My parents were of the relig-
ious society of Friends, and endeavored to preserve in their
children the peculiarities of that sect, as well as to instil its
more important principles. My father had a desire to make
his daughters useful. At fourteen years of age I was placed
with a younger sister, at the Friends' Boarding-School, in
DutchessCounty , State of New York, and continued there for
more than two years without returning home. At fifteen,
one of the teachers leaving the school, I was chosen as an
assistant, in her place. Pleased with the promotion, I strove
•\
374 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
hard to give satisfaction, and was gratified, on leaving the
school, to have an offer of a situation as teacher, if I was
disposed to remain, and informed that my services should
entitle another sister to her education without charge. Mj
father was, at that time, in successful business in BostoD ;
but with his views of the importance of training a woman to
usefulness, he and my mother gave their consent to another
year being devoted to that institution. In the spring of
1809, 1 joined our family in Philadelphia, after their removal
there. At the early age of eighteen, I married James
Mott, of New York, — an attachment formed while at the
boarding-school. He came to Philadelphia and entered in-
to business with my father. The fluctuation in the commer-
cial world for several years following our marriage, owing
to the embargo, and the war of 1812, the death of my
father, and the support of a family of five children devolving
on my mother, sun*ounded us with difficulties. We resorted
to various modes of obtaining a comfortable living ; at one
time engaged in the retail dry goods business, then resumed
the charge of a school, and for another year was engaged in
teaching. These trials, in early life, were not without their
good effect in disciplining the mind, and leading it to set a
just estimate on worldly pleasures. I, however, always
loved the good, in childhood desired to do the right, and
had no faith in the generally received idea of human deprav-
ity. My sympathy was early enlisted for the poor slave, by
the class-books read in our schools, and the pictures of the
slave-ship, as published by Clarkson. The ministry of
Elias Hicks and others, on the subject of the unrequited
labor of slaves, and their' example in refusing the prod-
ucts of slave labor, all had their effect* in awakening a
strong feeling in their behalf. The unequal condition of
woman in society also early impressed my mind. Learning,
while at school, that the charge for the education of girls was
XUCBETIA MOTT. 876
the same as that for boys, and that when they became teach-
ers, women received but half as much as men for their ser-
vices, the injustice of this was so apparent, that I early
resolved to claim for my sex all that an impartial Creator
had bestowed. At twenty-five years of age, suiTounded
with a little family and many cares, I felt called to a more
public life of devotion to duty, and engaged in the ministry
in our Society, receiving every encouragement from those
in authority, until a separation among us, in 1827, when my
convictions led me to adhere to the sufficiency of the light
within us, resting on truth as authority, rather than ^taking
authority for truth.' The popular doctrine of human de-
pravity never commended itself to ipy reason or conscience.
I * searched the Scriptures daily,' finding a construction of
the text wholly different from that which was pressed upon
our acceptance. The highest evidence of a sound faith being
the practical life of the Christian, I have felt a far greater
interest in the moral movements of our age than in any
theological discussion.
** The temperance refomi early engaged my attention, and
for more than twenty years I have practised total abstinence
from all intoxicating drinks. The cause of peace has had a
share of my efforts, leading to the ultra non-resistance
gi*ound, — that no Christian can consistently uphold, and
actively engage in and support a government based on the
sword, or relying on that as an ultimate resort. The
Oppression of the working-classes by existing monopolies,
and the lowness of wages, often engaged my attention ; and
I have held many meetings with them, and heard their
appeals with compassion, and a great desire for a radical
change in the system which makes the rich richer and the
poor poorer. The various associations and communities
tending to greater equality of condition have had from me a
hearty God-speed. But the millions of down-trodden slaves
376 EMINENT WOMEN OP THE AGE.
in our land being the greatest suJSerers, the most oppressed
class, I have felt bound to plead their cause , in season and
out of season, to endeavor to put my soul in their souls'
stead, and to aid, all in my power, in every right effort for
their immediate emancipation. This duty was impressed
upon me at the time I consecrated myself to that gospel
which anoints *to preach deliverance to the captive,' 'to set
at liberty them that are bruised/ From that time the duty
of abstinence as far as practicable from slave-grown products
was so clear, that I resolved to make the effort * to provide
things honest ' in this respect. Since then our family has
been supplied with free-labor groceries, and, to some ezteot,
with cotton goods unstained by slavery. The labors of the
devoted Benjamin Lundy, and his * Genius of Universal
Emancipation ' published in Baltimore, added to the untiring
exertions of Clarkson, Wilberforce, and others in England,
including Elizabeth Heyrick, whose work on slavery aroused
them to a change in their mode of action, and of William
Lloyd Garrison, in Boston, prepared the way for a conven-
tion in Philadelphia, in 1833, to take the ground of imroe-
diate, not gradual, emancipation, and to impress the duty of
unconditional liberty, without expatriation. In 1834 the
Philadelphia Female A. S. Society was formed, and, being
actively associated in the efforts for the slaves' redemption, I
have travelled thousands of miles in this country, holding
meetings in some of the slave States, have been in the midst
of mobs and violence, and have shared abundantly in th^
odium attached to the name of an uncompromising modem
abolitionist, as well as partaken richly of the sweet return
of peace attendant on those who would *undo the heavy
burdens and let the oppressed go free, and break every
yoke.'
*• In 1840, a World's Anti-slavery Convention was called in
liondon. Women from Boston, New York, and Phila-
LUCRETIA MOTT. 377
delphia, were delegates to that convention. I was one of the
number ; but, on our arrival in England, our credentials were
not accepted because we were women. We were, however,
treated with great courtesy and attention, as strangers, and
as women, were admitted to chosen seats as spectators and
listeners, while our right of membership was denied, — we
were voted out. This brought the Woman question more
into view, and* an increase of interest in the subject has been
the result. In this work, too, I have engaged heart and hand,
as m}'' labors, travels, and public discourses evince. The mis-
representation, ridicule, and abuse heaped upon this, as well
as other reforms, do not, in the least, deter me from my
duty. To those, whose name is cast out as evil for the truth's
Bake, it is a small thing to be judged of man's judgment.
^ This imperfect sketch may give some idea of the mode of
life of one who has found it ^ good to be always zealously
affected in a good thing.'
^ My life, in the domestic sphere, has passed much as that
of other wives and mothers in this country. I have had six
children. Not accustomed to resigning them to the care of a
nurse, I was much confined to them during their infancy
and childhood. Being fond of reading, I omitted much un-
necessary stitching and ornamental work, in the sewing for
my family, so that I might have more time for this indul-
gence, and for the improvement of the mind. For novels
and light reading I never had much taste. The * Ladies
Department,' in the periodicals of the day, had no attraction
for me."
While walking in the streets of London, Mrs. Mott and I
lesolved on a Woman's Convention, as soon as we returned
to America. Accordingly, in the summer of 1848, while
she was on a visit to her sister, Martha Wright, of Auburn,
I proposed to her, to call a Woman's Rights Convention, at
378 BMINENT WOMIN OS* THE AGE.
Seneca Falls, where I tlien lived. She consented, and the
call was immediately issued in the coanty papers, and we at
once prepared resolutions, speeches, and a declaration of
sentiments. After much consultation over the declaration,
finding that our fathers had similar grievances to our own,
and the same number, we decided to adopt the immortal dec-
laratio.n of '76 as our model. James Mott — one of nature's
noblemen, both in character and appearance, the husband of
Lucretia — presided at this first convention. Among those
who took part in the discussions were Frederick Douglass,
Thomas and Mary Ann McClintock, and their two daughters,
Ansel Bascom, Catharine Stebbins, Amy Post, and Martha
Wright. It continued through two days, was well attended,
and. extensively reported. The declaration was published in
nearly every paper in the country, and the nation was con-
vulsed with laughter, from Maine to Louisiana, though our
demands for sufirage, the right to property, work, and wages
were the same that wise men accept to-day, the same that
Henry Ward Beecher preaches in his pulpit, and John Stuart
Mill presses on the consideration of the British Parliament.
Martha Wright, the sister of Lucretia, took an active part in
this convention, and has presided over nearly every conven-
tion that has been hold in later days. She is a woman of
fine presence, much general information, and rare common
sense. Though not a public speaker, she has been a most
efficient worker in our cause. In a recent letter to me,
speaking of her sister, soon after the death of Mr. Mott, she
says, ^^ The striking traits of Lucretia's character are remark-
able energy, that defies even time, unswerving conscientious-
ness, and all those characteristics that are summed up in the
few words, love to man, and love to God.** ^ Though much
broken by the heavy affliction, that has come to her so unex-
pectedly, for, frail as she is, she never thought she should
survive her strong and vigorous husband, she has borne it
GABOLINE M. SEYSBANCE. 379
' than we anticipated.'* Our next convention was held
^Chester, a few weeks later. Mrs. Amy Post and Mrs.
dl Bush made the arrangements, and Mrs. Bush presided
3 occasion. Mrs. Mott and I were opposed to a woman
)sident, ^- this was a step we were not quite prepared for,
ye a woman call a promiscuous assembly to order,
ver, we were out-voted, and we were compelled to admit,
) close, that Mrs. Bush did us all great credit. The
Qgs were held in the Unitarian church, and created
interest in the city. One very interesting incident oc-
1 during the morning session. A newly married couple,
ifler the convention opened, walked slowly up the aisle
altar, when the groom stepped forward, and asked the
lent, in a low tone, if the lady with him might have the
tunity to speak. " Passing through the city," he said,
heard of the convention, and having but an hour before
g town, she would like to add her voice in favor of
n's rights." She was accordingly introduced at once,
oade a most eloquent and finished speech of twenty
es. Whilst she was speaking, the groom remained
ng near the altar, hat and cane in hand, reverently gaz-
i his beautiful bride. When she finished, a profound
3 reigned, and they disappeared as quietly and suddenly
3y came. Who they were, whence they came, or
jr going, we never knew.
L850 and 1851 several State Conventions were held in
la and Ohio. At the convention held at Indianapolis,
oving spirits were Frances D. Gage, and Caroline M.
mce. In a brief sketch of
CAROLINE M. SEVERANCE
nnot do better, than to give the reader, what, in her easy,
1 way, she writes in a letter to me of herself. I wrote
880 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
to her asking for facts of her life, telling her there was no
escape, that nolens volens she was to be sketched, and it
rested with her, whether it should be based wholly on such
an objective view, as one could take hundreds of miles away,
or on a subjective view, such as I could get in being en rap-
port with herself. She chose the latter, as the least of two
evils, and frankly tells me what she knows of herself.
*^Dear Friend, — Isn't this an interesting dilemma to
find one's self in? — to be exhibited whether we will or no!
One who has arrived at years of discretion, surely, in our
free land, to have no chance of a choice, whether to remain
incog., or be set on high for all the daws to peck at I *But
to this it seems we have come at last,' and, in my extremity,
if I may choose nothing else, I surely shall snatch at the
chance to say by whom this most undesirable service shall
be performed, and I gladly submit to, you.
^* I have done so little to justify my years, that I might
shrink from such a sketch as you propose, with better reason
than could influence many of our sex. But lest you should
think my humility affectation, I frankly avow that I was
born in Canandaigua, N. Y., in January, 1820, if you con-
sider date and birthplace important to the sketch, of neither
••poor or pious parents," although cultivated, conscientious
persons. My father's name was Orson Seymour, a banker,
my mother's name was Caroline M. Clark. I was married
in 1840, at Auburn, New York, to T. C. Severance, a banker of
Cleveland, Ohio. Neither the world nor my historian would
have any particular interest in what I said, or did, after tiiat
remarkable event of January 20th, and the good sense of
choosing so beautiful a portion of the earth's surface for a
birthplace, until the mother of five children, with little
experience in life, and less in society, having devoted myself
to home and books, I was chosen, in 1853, to read before
CAfiOLINE M. 8EyjfiBANC£. 381
the Mercantile Library Association, the first lecture ever
delivered by a woman, in Cleveland, Ohio, where I had
resided since marriage. I had been already identified with
the Woman's Rights movement, having attended conventions
in Indiana, Ohio^ and New York; and this accounts for my
invitation on this occasion. I cannot tell vou how lonsr I
hesitated to accept this invitation ; the more \ plead my unfit-
ness, the more I was pressed with a sense of my duty, and at
last I wrote the most exhaustive essay I could on the subject,
to make sure, for once, that my city should have all that could
be said on the subject. An immense audience listened, through
an hour and three quarters, with becoming silence and respect.
This lecture I repeated several times, in different parts of the
State. After that, the Woman's Rights Association asked
me to prepare a tract for their circulation. Later I waa
appointed to present a memorial to the Legislature, asking
suffrage, and such amendments to the State laws of Ohio as
should place woman on a civil equality with man. In 1855
we came to Massachusetts, the home of my heart always, and
here I have done nothing, deserving the punishment of public
exposure, that I now remember against myself, until, as one
of the lecture committee of the Fraternity Association, it
became my duty to assist in securing lecturers for the course.
•
We invited Mrs. Stanton, but, she failing us at the last mo-
ment, I was not able to resist the entreaties of the committee,
and the obligation I felt myself under, to make good her
place, so far as in me lay. That was, I believe, the first
lecture ever delivered in Boston before a Lyceum Association
by a woman. I will not tell you how prosy and dull I fear
it was, but I know it was earnest, and well considered, and
dear Mrs. FoUen's, and Miss Peabody's beaming eyes, kept
me in heart all through, as they glowed with interest before
me from below the platform of Tremont Temple Htill. Since
then, from want of health and voice, I have not spoken much
382 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE ACE.
in public, though I have given soul service, in many direo-
tioQS, standing as corresponding secretary for the Anti-slaveij
Society, oae of the Board of Managers to the New England
Female Medical Oollege, and reading a course of private lec-
tures on practical ethics, before Dio Lewis' school of girls.
These lectures cover the relations of the young woman to the
school, the Stat%, the home, and her own complete develop-
ment. As a mother, I am happy to say that my sons and
daughters have never disgraced, and I see no reason to believe,
ever will disgrace* my name, or bring in question, my influence
over them, or my fidelity to them. Pure in heart, noble in
all their tastes and tendencies, they are my joy in the present,
my hope in the future, and my best legacy to it. Here you
h^ve me, my good friend, in a nutshell. Not muUum tn
parvOf it must be confessed.
*' Tours, sincerely, C. M. S."
Mrs. Severance now resides in West Newton, Massacha-
setts, where she is living a quiet life, in a beautiful home.
She is using her pen in a way she hopes will some day prove
a means of broader influence. In manners and appearance,
Mrs. Severance is very attractive. She has a handsome face
and figure, dignified carriage, and fine conversational powers.
She is an amiable, affectionate, conscientious woman, faithful
alike in her private and public duties,
FRANCES D. GAGE.
Bom October 12th, 1808, in Marietta, Washington County,
on the banks of the Muskuigum, Ohio. Her father, Joseph
Barker, was a native of New Hampshire, and an early pioneer
to the western wilds. Through her mother, Elizabeth Dana,
she was allied to the distinguished Massachusetts families of
Dana and Bancroft. A log cabin in the woods, was the
seminary where Frances Barker acquired the rudiments of
FBAKCES B. QaGB. 383
«
education. And, though she had few early advantages, she
became a sound thinker, a good writer of both prose and
verse, and one of the most ejQTective speakers in the country.
She was born with a sound mind in a sound body. Her
large, well-balanced head, and strong physical development
made learning and hardships alike easy for her to surmount.
Her father waa a farmer and cooper, and the duties of a far-
mer's daughter, in a new country, were all cheerfully and
easily disposed of by her. She assisted her father in making
barrels, and I have heard her often tell that, as she would
roll out a well-made barrel, her father would pat her on the
head, and say, ** Ah, Fanny, you should have been a boy ! **
Fanny had a kind and loving nature, and early felt the most
intense sympathy for the fugitives from slaveiy. Her ten-
derness and charity for these despised people often subjected
her to the ridicule of her young companions. She became
familiarized with their sufierings and wants, in her frequent
visits to her grandmother, Mrs. Maiy Bancroft Dana, whose
home was on the Ohio River, opposite Blennerhasset's Island.
At the age of twenty-one she married James L. Gage, a
lawyer of McConnellsville, Ohio, — a man of great humanity
and moral integrity. With a family of eight children, and
all the hardships of that Western life, Mrs. Gage still found
time, through all those years, to read, and write for leading
journals, and often to speak, too, on temperance, slavery,
and woman's rights. As she stood almost alone on these
questions, she was often subject to ridicule and persecution.
Those who have never advocated an unpopular idea — who
havcf not made principle, rather than policy, their guiding
star — cannot appreciate the peculiar trials of those who are
true in word and action to their enlightened conscientious
opinions.
In 1851, Mrs. Gage attended a ** Woman's Rights Conven-
tion," in Akron, Ohio, and was chosen president of the
^84 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
meeting. Her opening speech, on that occasion, is remark-
able for its common sense, and a pathos peculiarly her own.
In 1853 she moved to St. Louis. Those who fou<;ht the
anti-slavery battle in Massachusetts cannot realize the danger
of such a warfare in a slave-holding State. With her usual
frank utterances of opinions, she was soou branded as an
abolitionist, her articles excluded from the journals, and she
from " good society," with daily threats of violence to her
person and the destruction of her property. Three disas-
trous fires — the work of incendiaries, no doubt — greatly
reduced the resources of the family. Owing to her husband's
ill health, and failure in business, she took the post of assist-
ant editor of an agricultural paper in Columbus, Ohio ; but
as the breaking out of the war soon destroyed the circulatioo
of the paper, and four of her sons had gone into the army,
her thoughts turned to the scenes of conflict in the Southern
States. The "suffering freedmen" and the ^'boys in blue"
appealed alike to her loving heart for kindness and help ; and,
without appointment or salary, she went to Port Royal in
1862. She remained in Beaufort, Paris, and Fernandina
thirteen months, ministering alike to the soldiers and freed-
men, as opportunity offered. Pages might be written on the
heroism of Mrs. Gage and her daughter Mary during this
period. Oppressed with the magnitude of the work to be ac-
complished there, she returned North, to give her experienaes
acqifired among the freedmen, hoping to rouse others,
younger and stronger than herself, to go down and tench
those neglected people the A B C of learning and social
life.
During this year she travelled through many of the north-
em States, speaking nearly every evening to Soldiers* Aid
Societies. She worked without pay, only asking enough to
defray her expenses. When the summer days made lectur-
ing impossible, she went as an unsalaried agent of the Sani«
inSARCES B. GAGE. 385
tary Commission down the Mississippi, to Memphis, Vicks
burg, and Natchez. In the month of September she was
overturned in a carriage at ijralesburg, Illinois, which crippled
her for that year. As soon as she recovered she was em-
ployed and well paid by various temperance organizations
to lecture for that cause ; and she was thus occupied, when
her plans for future activity and usefulness were suddenly
terminated by a stroke of paralysis, in August, 1867. She
has since been confined to her room, though able to walk
about, read, and write. A visit to her sick-room is always
pleasant and profitable, and everything from her pen breathes
a sweet spirit of love to man and trust in God. In appear-
ance, Mrs. Gage is large and vigorous, has a good, benevo-
lent face, easy manners, and a varied fund of conversation.
She is capable, as her life shows, of great self-denial and
heroism. She is an extemporaneous speaker, — a talker
rather than an orator, — and never fails to interest and hold
an audience. There is no woman in the country who can
speak so readily, without preparation, on so many different
subjects, as Mrs. Gage. She has taken a prominent part in
most of the National Woman's Bights Conventions, and, but
for her illness, would have spoken all through Kansas in
the last campaign.
In reply to my letter, asking her for some facts relating
to our Woman's Bights movement, she writes me from her
sick-room: —
««459 Sixth Avexue, New York.
''Dear Mrs. S., — Your letter is before me I
have little to say ; yet I remember the first convention. I
was travelling East, with my husband, and was at Buffalo
that very day, and longed to be with you. The next con-
ventions were held in Indiana and in Ohio in 1850. I re-
member, too, emanating from the Salem Convention was a
25
386 EMIKEKT WOMEN OF THE AGS.
memorial, drawn up by IMary Ann Johnson, asking that the
words Svhite male' should be emitted from the constitu-
tion, which was that year to be given to the State. I also
drew up a memorial, asking for the equal rights of woman
before the law, and that the words * white male ' should be
stricken from the constitution. I did not know Mrs. John-
son, and we had no communication with each other. Those
memorials were presented by the member from my district;
the subject was vehemently discussed, and voted upon. Nine
votes were given for striking out the word *male' and
eleven for striking out * white.' I think this was the first
memorial ever presented in any State asking suffrage for
woman. From 1849 to 1855 I lectured on this subject in
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Louisiana, Mas.<^
chusetts, Pennsylvania, and New York, and wrote volumes
for the press. Many of the most earnest spirits in Kansss
were from Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, and Illinois, and helped to
form the public opinion that gave woman, in that State, a
right to vote on temperance and education, and laid the
foundation for its present advanced position. Excuse mf
palsied hand and brain. I am still very feeble, and write
with difficulty.
** Yours,
"Frances D. Gage."
•
Under the nomme de plume of *' Aunt Fanny," Mrs. Gage
has written many beautiful stories for children, stanzas, and
sketches of social life. She was an early contributor to the
■' Saturday Visitor," edited by Jane G. Swisshelm, and has
lately written for the New York " Independent.** A volume
of poems, and a temperance tale, '^ Elsie Magoon,** are the
last of her published works. By her own efforts, Mrs. Gage
has accumulated enough to secure to herself and her children
a pleasant home for her old age.
aBBY HUTCHINSON. 387
In Aprili 1850, a convention was held in Salem, Ohio.
J. Elizabeth Jones, Mary Ann Johnson, and Josephine
Griffing were the leading spirits, — all women of high
moral character and intellectual cultivation. Murj Ann
Johnson had lectured to lar^^e audiences throus:hout the
country on physiology. Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Griffing were
both able writers and speakers. These women circulated
petitions in that State, and addressed the Legislature de-
manding woman's right to her property, wages, children,
and the elective franchise. In the reports of this convention
wo find mention made of Maria L. Giddings, daughter of
Joshua R. Giddings, who presented an able report on the
laws; of Sojourner Truth, Mrs. Stowe's Lybiau Sybil, for
forty years a slave in New York, and of the Hutchinson fam-
ily, who enlivened the occasion with their songs.
Among the representative women of the nineteenth century,
ABBY HUTCHINSON
deserves a passing notice. She was born in Milford, >icw
Hampshire, one of a large family of children. Early in
the anti-slavery cause, she, with four brothers, be-
gan to sing in the conventions. In all those stormy days
of mob violence the Hutchinson family was the one har-
monizing element. Like oil on the troubled waters, their
sweet songs would soothe to silence those savages whom
neither appeal nor defiance could awe. Abby made her first
appearance in public at an early age. Anti-slavery, woman's
ri'^hts, temperance, peace, and democracy have been her
themes, — singing alike in the Old World and the New. To
farmers on New England's granite hills, to pioneers on
the far-off prairies, to merchant princes in crowded cities,
and to kings, queens, and nobles, in palaces and courts, have
those girlish lips sung the republican anthem, ''AH men are
created equal." She was a girl of strong character and a nica
388 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
sense of propriety in all things. Although until her marriage
her life was wholly a public one, yet she never lost the
modesty, delicacy, and refinement so peculiarly her own.
She was slightly forn^d, graceful, with a bright, happy face,
and most pleasing manners. She had a fair complexion, dark
eyes and hair, teeth like rows of pearls, and in fact might be
called beautiful. Her voice, though not of great compass and
variety, was full, rich, deep, and well modulated.
All admit that ^ the Hutchinson family ** have acted well
\h6ir part in the cause of reform, and a second generation
is singing still. When A^by retired from the stage her
mantle fell on her niece Viola, who, having just married, will
probably share the fate of her aunt, being according to
Blackstone, wholly absorbed in another, and we shall hear
from her no more.
The first national convention was held in Brinley Hall, Wor-
cester, Massachusetts, October 23d, and 24th, 1850. This was
the first thoroughly organized, and ably sustained convention,
for which extensive preparations were made, as the women
of the country had learned by that time what was necessary
to make a convention a success. Above three hundred per-
sons, men and women, enrolled their names as members.
Among them we find William H. Channlng, E. D. Draper,
Frederick Douglass, Thomas Earle, Wendell Phillips,
William Lloyd Garrison, Parker Pillsbury, Charles Bur-
leigh, Hannah Darlington, Sarah Tyndall, Sarah R. May,
S. C. Sargent, C. M. Shaw, Ellen and Marion Blackwell,
Mary Adams, and Sojourner Truth. The proceedings of this
convention were remarkable for their earnestness and ability.
The reports, published both in England and America, in all
the leading journals, first drew the attention of Mrs. John
Stuart Mill to this subject, and prompted her able article in the
" Westminster Review " on " The enfranchisement of women.?*
Paulina Wright Davis was chosen president of the convett-
ANTOINETTE BBOWN. 889
tion. Her openiog adclresSy an hour ia length, was a very con
cise, and able presentation of the work to be done, and the
manner of doing it.
In this convention every phase of the question was dis-
cussed,— work, wages, property, education, and suffrage, —
by the ablest men and women in the country. After this,
National Women's Kights Conventions were held annually
in the different States of New York, Pennsylvania, Massa-
chusetts, and Ohio, and as the result the laws in these States
were essentially though slowly modified. This simultaneous
movement in every State, the unanimity of thought and feel-
ing among the ablest women in the country, the striking
similarity in the appeals, petitions, resolutions, and speeches,
all prove this claim for woman to be one of those great ideas
that mark an era in human progress, and not the idiosyn-
crasy of a few unbalanced minds*
ANTOINETTE BROWN
"Was bom in Henrietta, Monroe County, New York,
May 20th, 1825. At the age of nine years she joined
the Congregational church, and sometimes spoke and prayed
in the meetings. In childhood she often expressed the
wish that she might become a preacher. At the age of six-
teen, she taught school during the summer, and attended tbo
academy in Henrietta during the winter. In 1844 she went
to Oberlin performing alone her first journey by canal and
stage, to begin the experience of college life. While there
she taught several branches in the seminary, in order to pay
the expenses of her collegiate course. In 1846 she taught
in the academy in Bochester. There her first lecture was
delivered, in accordance with the custom of the mcUe teachers^
to address the pupils and visitors at the close of the terms.
Her vacations at Oberlin had been passed in extra study of
390 EMINEK1S WOMEN OF THK AGE.
Greek and Hebrew. It was here she and Lucy Stone had
first met, and formed a friendship that has strengthened with
their years. Here they fought together the battles of woman's
rights with the students and professors, and sustained each
other under all the peculiar hardships of their position. As
they afterwards married brothers, and purchased homes in
New Jersey, their lives have moved on harmoniously together.
In 1846 she returned to Oberlin to go through a three
years' course in theology. For some time the Bible argu-
ment on the ministrations of woman had been with her a
subject of serious and prayerful consideration. It was cus-
tomary for the students to receive a license to preach, and
before finishing their course they would often speak in the
pulpits of the neighborhood.
When Miss Brown asked this license, the professors were
grievously exercised. But after much thought and consul-
tation they decided ** that she was a resident graduate, pur-
suing the theological course, but not a member of the theo-
logical depaiiment, and, consequently, she needed no license
from the institution, but must preach or be silent on her
own responsibility.''
Like General Jackson, she took the responsibility, and
preached often in difi*erent parts of Ohio, while pursuing her
theological course of studies.
After quitting Oberlin she spent four years in private read-
ing and study, preaching and lecturing on various reforms.
In 1850 she attended the convention in Worcester, Massacba-
setts, and made a speech on the enfranchisement of woman.
She preached whenever and wherever opportunity offered,
without regard to sect, — alike in the church at Andover,
Music Hall, in Boston, or public halls in Worcester, Cincin-
nati, and New York. In 1853 she was ordained pastor of a
Congregational church in South Butler, Wayne County, Xew
York, The Rev. Luther Lee, Wesleyan minister of SjTa-
ANTOINETTE BROWN. 391
ease, preached the ordination sermon. Gerrit Smith and
Samuel J. May took part in the ceremonies.
^•Then," says Mrs. Blackwell, in a note to me recently,
"Dr. Cheever openly branded me and my South Butler
Church as infidels ; and the New York * Independent ' sus-
tained him, and would only publish a crumb of my reply."
We are happy to say that our noble young friend, Theo-
dore Tilton, was not then editor of that journal.
Miss Brown remained in South Butler but one year, owing
to ill health from excessive labor, and painful doubts con-
cerning theological doctrines. As soon as she was re-estab-
lished in health of body and mind she lectured on reformatory
subjects in Cincinnati and elsewhere, and investigated the
diaracter and causes of vice in New York, with especial refer-
ence to its bearing on woman. The year 1855 was spent in
this interesting though painful work, and she published in the
"New York Tribune" a number of sketches from life, under
the title " Shadows of our Social System."
In 1854 she was a delegate from the Wayne County So-
ciety to the World's Temperance Convention, at which Neal
Dow presided, in New York. But she was denied her seat,
simply because she was a woman. Wendell Phillips and
William H. Channing made eloquent speeches in favor of
her admission, and she took the platform herself and es-
sayed to speak, but such was the noise and confusion with
tongues and canes, and the swaying of the audience to and
fro, that all attempts on her pai-t were unavailable.
From the liberal state of public sentiment to-day one can
hardly believe it possible that, thirteen years ago, men claim-
ing to be Christian ministers could have so rudely treated a
beautiful, highly-educated young girl, a member of the same
church with themselves, because she asked that her name
might be enrolled with theirs in a World's Temperance Con-
392 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
yentiou, — that she, too, might raise her voice in the metropohs
of the nation against the vice of drunkenness.
In January, 1856, IMiss Brown married Samuel Blackwell.
Though she occasionally speaks, still most of her time i»
passed at home in the care of a family of daughters. It is
said she is writing on theological questions for future publi«
cation. Mrs. Blackwell is a close, untiring student. She
writes and speaks with ease, has a logical and well-stored
mind, and is a woman of pleasing manners and address.
LUCY STONE
Was the first speaker who really stirred the nation's heart on
the subject of woman's wrongs. Young, magnetic, eloquent,
her soul filled with the new idea, she drew immense audiences,
and was eulogized everywhere by the press. She spoke ex-'
temporaneously, having no special talent as a writer. Her
style of speaking was earnest, fluent, impassioned appeal
rather than argument. She excelled in telling touching inci-
dents and amusing anecdotes. I well remember my pleasure
the first time I heard her. It was at a Temperance Conven-
tion in Rochester, in 1853. A resolution was before the con-
vention, asking of the Legislature a law granting divorce for
drunkenness. Lucy took the affirmative; and, although tiie
question was ably debated in the negative by Mrs. C. H. !•
Nichols and Antoinette Brown, yet Lucy carried the audi-
ence with her.
She was bom in West Brookfield, Massachusetts. Her
parents were rigid Presbyterians, and trained up their chil-
dren in an austere manner. She, however, early queried with
herself as to the wisdom of existing laws, customs, and opin-
ions. She could not see the justice of her brother's being
sent to college to enjoy all the advantages of cdr icati<m, while
LTTCT STONK. 393
she and her sisters remained at home to work on the farm.
The yoke on her own neck galled her to action. She decided
that she, too, would go to college and haye a liberal education.
The question was thoroughly pondered, and debated, and at
last decided. She borrowed the money and went to Ober-
lin, where, with great economy, management, self-denial, and
untiring application to her studies, she graduated with high
honors. Having discovered her talent for oratory in the
debating society at Oberlin, she decided to fit herself for a
public speaker.
On her return to New England she becai^e an agent of the
American Anti-slavery Society, lecturing alternately for the
slave and woman. She travelled through the Western and
some of the Southern States, speaking in all the large cities.
In 1855 shd was married to Henry B. Blackwcll. Thomas
W. Higginson performed the ceremony. She accepted the
usual marriage under protest, — her husband renouncing all
those rights of authority and ownership which were his in law,
and she retaining her own name. Although this has been to
her a source of great annoyance and persecution, from friends
as well as enemies, yet, feeling that the principle of woman's
individualism was involved in a lifelong name, she has steadily
adhered to her decision. I honor her for her steadfast prin-
ciple.
The first thing the slave does in freedom is to take to him-
self a name. Having been Cuffy Lee, or Cufiy Davis, just
whose Cuffy he might chance to be, as soon as he is his own
master he takes a new name that is henceforth to represent
his individual existence. Why wonder that a woman, believ-
ing in her own individual existence, who had distinguished
her name the world over, should refuse to be so entirely swal-
lowed up in another as to lose even the name to which she
had answered for thirty years ? I remember I had the same
feelings when I was married, though young and unknown, and*
394 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AQE.
although I took my husband's name, I retaiiied mj own
also.
The namo of Lucy Stone is prominent in all the early
National Conventions, as she was Secretary of the Woman's
Bights organization for many years. Mrs. Stone is small,
with dark-brown hair, gray eyes, fine teeth, florid complexion,
and has a sparkling, intellectual face. Her voice is soft, clear,
and musical ; her manner in speaking is quiet, making but
few gestures, and usually standing in one place. Gerrit
Smith told me once, with great glee, that sitting on Jhe plat-
form when Lucy was speaking, he saw her several tunes
gently stamp her foot 1
Mrs. Stone has one daughter, and since her marriage tier
life has been spent in retirement, until the news that Kansas
was to submit the proposition to strike the words *^ white
male" from her Constitution to a vote of the people, roused
her again to public duty. She spent two months in the spring
of 1867 travelling through that State, speaking to largo
audiences . She attended the Topeka Convention , at the forma-
tion of the ^ Kansas Impartial Suffrage Association," and has
lectured during the past winter on suffrage for woman in Con-
necticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York.
MRS. CAROLINE H. DALL.
Born in Beacon Street, Boston. She is more distinguished
as a writer than speaker, though she has lectured on various
subjects in many parts of the country. Her addresses are
uniformly well written, and show great research, and untiring
industry. Mrs. Dall is a highly educated woman, a close
student, an encyclopedia of historical facts and statistics.
Her reports, read in the annual Woman's Bights Conventions,
of the progress of the movement, are most valuable and inter-
esting papers. She has published several books under the
MRS. C. I. H. NICHOLS. 395
title, " Woman under the Law," •* Woman's Right to Labor,"
*The Court, the College, and the Market," All her produc-
tions have been extensively reviewed and complimented by
the press* In speaking of her last work, ** The New York
Evening Post " says : —
** Mi-8. Caroline H. DalFs well-known book, * The College,
the Market, and the Court,' has been issued in a new edition,
which contains important additions, some corrections, an in-
dex, and some notes on the unfortunate Dr. Todd, who was
lately so shockingly mangled by Miss Gail Hamilton. Mrs.
Dall's book has been very well spoken of abroad, as indeed
it deserves, — for it is the most eloquent and forcible state-
ment of the Woman's Question which has been made."
Many persons, now writing and speaking on this subject,
glean their facts from her books, and without always giving
credit where it is due. Mrs. Dall has been an active member
in the Social Science Association, and read many valuable
papers in their public meetings, both in Boston and New
York. She was associated with Paulina Wright Davis, in
" The Una, " — a woman's rights paper, published at Boston in
1854, — and has taken a prominent part in some of the Massa-
chusetts Conventions. She married a Unitarian clergyman,
who has been a missionary for many yeai*s in Calcutta. Mrs.
Dall's department of thought is in the region of facts. Not
capable of generalization, her mind does not deal in princi-
ples, hence the conclusions she draws from her facts are
sometimes neither legitimate nor philosophical.
MRS. C, I. H. NICHOLS,
In Kansas, I had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Nichols in
1867. She is a rSaiive of Vermont, but went to the West
396 EMINEKT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
several years ago. She has been ia Elansas through all the
troubles in that State, and to her influence, in a measure, is
due its liberal laws for woman. She was in the first consti*
tutional conventidn, and pressed woman's claims on its con*
sidcration. Mrs. Nichols is an able writer and speaker, and
is as thoroughly conversant with the laws of her State as any
judge or lawyer in it. She has taken a prominent part in
all reforms for the last twenty years. She is a noble woman,
and has borne the hardships of her pioneer life with a hero«
ism that commands admiration. For many yeai*s, Mrs.
Nichols ably edited the ** Windham County Democrat," — a
whig paper, published at Brattleboro', Vermont. Though
her articles were widely copied, it was not then known that
they were written by a woman.
SUSAN B. ANTHONY
Was born at the foot of the Green Mountains, South Adams,
Massachusetts, February 15th, 1820. Her father, Daniel An-
thony, was a stern Quaker, her mother, Lucy Read, a Bap-
tist ; but being liberal and progressive in their tendencies,
they were soon one in their religion.
Her father was a cotton manufacturer, and the first dollar
she ever earned was in his factory. Though a man of wealth,
the idea of self-support was early impressed on all the daugh-
ters of the family. In 1826 they moved into Washington
County, New York, and in 1846 to Rochester. She was edu-
cated in a small select school, in her father's house, until the
age of seventeen, when she went to a boarding-school in Pliib*-
delphia. Fifteen years of her life were passed in teaching
school in different parts of the State of New York.
Altho igh superintendents gave her credit for the best-dis-
ciplined school, and the most thoroughly* taught scholars in
SUSAN B. ANTHONT. 39t
the county, yet they paid her but eight dollars a month,
"whilo men received from twenty-four to thirty dollars. Aftet
fifteen years of faithful labor, and the closest economy, sho
had saved but three hundred dollars.
This experience taught her the lesson of woman's rights,
and when she read the reports of the first conventions, her
whole soul responded to the new demand. Her earliest pub-
lic work was in the temperance movement, where I first met
her in 1851, although she had lectured on that subject, and
formed temperance societies as early as 1848, while teaching
in Canajoharie, N. Y. In the winter of this year, she called
a State Temperance Convention in Albany. Mrs. Lydia Fow-
ler, Mrs. Maiy Vaughan, and Mrs. Amelia Bloomer all spoke
on that occasion. In May following, she called a Woman's
Temperance Convention in Rochester. Corinthian Hall was
packed during the proceedings. A State society was formed,
and three delegates — Miss Anthony, Mrs. Bloomer, and Mrs.
Mary Hallowell — were appointed to attend the Men's State
Temperance Convention at Syracuse, in June. But these
delegates were denied a right in the convention. The very
, idea of a woman's society, or a woman delegate, quite upset
the gentlemen of the convention. The clergy, as usual, were
especially denunciatory.
William H. Burleigh, corresponding secretary, in making
out his annual report, hailed the formation of a woman's
society as a powerful auxiliary to the temperance movement,
and he accordingly advocated the recognition of the delegates ;
but he was scouted, voted down, and that part of his report
blotted out. Rev. Mr. Lee, of the Wesleyan Church, invited
the ladies to speak in his house in the evening. The conse-
quence was, while they had an immense audience, the men's
convention was almost deserted. Similar attempts were
made by women all over the country, in the temperance asso-
ciations ; but they were uniformly thrust aside, and the result is,
898 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
those old organizations have died out, giving place to the orders
of Good Templars, Eechabitea» etc., etc., that gladly affiliate
with woman, in carrying on this important reform. At this
time. Miss Anthony's life and mine became nearly one. From
my retreat, which I seldom left, being surrounded with a large
family of young children, she and I surveyed, year after year,
the State and the nation.
Wherever we saw a work to be done, we would together
forge our thunderbolts, in the form of resolutions, petitions,
appeals, and speeches, on every subject, — temperance, anti-
slavery, woman's rights, agriculture, education, and religion, —
uniformly accepting every invitation to go everywhere, and
do everything. Through all those years, Miss Anthony was
the connecting link between me and the outer world, — the
reform scout, who went to see what was going on in the
enemy's camp, and returning with maps and observations to
plan the mode of attack. Wherever we saw an annual con-
vention of men, quietly meeting year after year, filled with
hroiherly love, we bethought ourselves how we could throw a
bombshell into their midst, in the form of a resolution, to
open their doors to the sisters outside, who had an equal
interest with themselves in the subjects under consideration. *
In this way, we assailed, in turn, the temperance, educational,
and church conventions, egi'iculturul fairs, and halls of legis-
lation. We persecuted the educational convention for a
whole decade of years, to the infinite chagrin of Professors
Pavies, Buckley, and Hazeltine, whoso feathers always ruffled
the moment Miss Anthony, with her staid Quaker face and
firm step, walked up the aisle, always taking a conspicuous
seat, as if to say. Gentlemen, here I am again, to demand
that you recognize as your equals, the hundreds of women
before you, — teachers, who sit in these conventions, without a
voice or vote in your proceedings. With the aid of such
chivalrous men as Superintendents Randall and Rice, we at
SUSAN B. AKTHOKT. 399
last triumphed ; women were permitted to speak and vote in
the conventions, appointed on committees, and to make
repoits on various subjects. Miss Anthony herself was
invited to prepare a report on educating the sexes together,
which she read to an immense audience in Troy, in 1858.
At the close of her able report, Mr. Hazeltine came to her
and said, ^ While I must admit the talent and power of your
report, I would rather see a daughter of mine buried beneath
the sod, than that she should stand before a promiscuous
audience and utter such sentiments.'*
Superintendent Kandall, standing by, replied, **And I should
be proud if I had a daughter able to do it.*' In October of
the same year Miss Anthony delivered the animal address
at the Yates County Agricultural Fair, held at Dundee. She
was to have spoken in the church, but the crowd was so great,
that, with a lumber-wagon for her rostrum, she spoke an
hour and a half in the open air. Hers is the one voice among
our speakers that never fails to fill the cars of her audience.
Her address was pronounced the ablest that had ever been
delivered in that county. Miss Anthony's style of speaking
is rapid, vehement, concise, and in her best moods she is some-
times eloquent. In late years she speaks extemporaneously,
retaining enough of the Quaker to make a failure, except
when strongly moved by the spirit. But the spirit is always
sure to move when she sees the rights of any human being
outraged. From 1852 she has been one of the leading spirits
in every Woman's Rights Convention, and has been the acting
secretary and general agent through all these years ; and
when in 1866 we reorganized under the name of "The American
Equal Rights Association," she was reappointed to both these
offices. From 1857 to 1866, Miss Anthony was also au agent
and faithful worker in the anti-slavery cause until the eman-
cipation edict proclaimed freedom throughout the land. She
has been untiring in her labors in securing the liberal legisla*
400 EMINENT WOMEN OF TSE AGE.
tion we now have for women in the State of New York. The
property rights of married women were secured by the bills
of 1848 and 1849. From that time to the present soarce a year
has passed without petitions, appeals, and addresses before our
legislature. In the winter of 1854 and 1855 Miss Anthony held
fifty-four conventions in different counties of the State, with
two petitions in hand,-^one demanding equal property rights,
the other the ballot, — and rolled up ten thousand names. She
performed these fatiguing journeys mostly in stage-coaches in
the depth of the winter. Miss Anthony, though not beautiful,
has a fine figure and alarge, well-shaped head. The world calls
her sharp, angular, cross-grained. She has, indeed, her faults
and angles, but they are all outside. She has a broad and
generous nature, and a depth of tenderness that few women
possess. She does not faint, or weep, or sentimentalize ; but
she has genuine feeling, a tender love for all true men and
women, a reverence for noble acts and words, and an active
pity for those who come to her in the hour of sorrow and
trial. She is earnest, unselfish, and true to principle as the
needle to the pole. In an intimate friendship of eighteen
years, I can truly say, I have never known her to do or say
a mean or narrow thing. She is above that petty envy and
jealousy that mar the character of so many otherwise good
women. She 15 always full of the wort before her, and does
it, going through and over whatever stands in her way. She
never sees lions in her path, but does what she is convinced is
right, whether it seems feasible to others or not. Hence she is
impatient and imperious with those who, not seeing the goal
she does, stand in her way. The legislators of this State can
testify to her pertinacity and perseverance. Those who
have complained of Miss Anthony's impatience, in pushing our
cause to a speedy success, must remember that without the
cares of husband, children, and home, all her time, thought,
force, and affection have centred in this work for nearly
SUSAN B. ANTHONY. 401
twenty years. She has raised and spent thousands of dollars,
in printing and postage, having scattered documents without
number all over this country and England. No one knows,
as I do, the untiring labors of this noble woman in our cause.
What people call cross-graiued in her is her quickness in
seeing the right, and her promptness in maintaining it, no
matter who her opposers may be. An anecdote will serve to
illustrate the strong principle, ipdependence, and self-reliance
of her-character. A lady of superior education, the wife and
sister of distinguished men, was placed in an insane asylum
to be quietly disposed of, that some domestic difficulties
might not be made known. After a,two years' incarceration she
was released ; but, insisting on separation, and the possession
of her children, she was again threatened, when she appealed
to Miss Anthony for protection. She promptly gave her the
accessary assistance, and found a safe retreat for her and her
daughter. No threats or persecutions could move her to
reveal the hiding-place of her clients. Anti-slavery friends on
all sides wrote to her, begging her to have nothing to do with
the matter, — that it would injure the reforms she advocated.
Leading men in the State wrote to her that she was legally
liable for abducting a child from its father, and that she would
be arrested some day on the platform in the midst of a speech.
Telegrams and letters of threats and persuasion were poured
3n her thick and fast ; among others, Mr. Garrison and Mr.
Phillips wrote to her saying, " Do you not know that you are
guilty of a violation of law ?** " Yes 1 '' she replied ; " and I
know when I feed and shelter a panting fugitive from slavery
[ violate law ; and yet you would uphold me for violating the
law in one case ; why not the other? Is a refined, educated,
aoble woman, flying from the contamination of an unfaithful
msband, less worthy of my protection than a black man
lying from the tyranny of his master?" Of the threats of
irrest from ^be presiding officer of the Massachusetts Legisla-
S6
402 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
ture, and an honorable senator of New York, she had no fean,
knowing that, in thus doing, they would make public exactly
what they desired to conceal.
In the autumn of 1867 Miss Anthony went to Kansas,
where she remained during the campaign, which closed so
triumphantly, giving nine thousand votes for woman's suffrage.
In Kansas she met for the first time George Francis
Train, who had been invited to go there, and stump the
State for woman's suffrage, by the ** Woman's Suffrage
Association " of St. Louis. She travelled with him in Bjuh
sas, addressing large audiences, until the day of election,
when I joined her at her brother's house. Mayor D. R. Aa-
thony, of Leavenworth. We then went to Omaha, to meet
Mr. Train, where we held two meetings, and from that poii^
we came to New York, speaking in all the lai^e cities of nioe
States. Through the influence of this new and noble cbanh
pion of woman's rights with Wall Street brokers, she was able
to establish *• The Revolution," — the first woman's rights paper
in this country, with a name representing the magnitude of
the work, — on a financial basis that ensures success.
Some odium has been cast on Miss Anthony for this affili-
ation with these Liberal Democrats ; but time wiU prove her
judgment as sound in this matter as it has been in so manf
other points where she has differed from her friends.
OLYMPIA BROWN.
Chief among the women who labored in Kansas in 1867,
are Olympia Brown and Viola Hutchinson, — the one speaking
and preaching, the other singing her sweet songs of freedom,
in churches, school-houses, depots, bams, and the open air.
Olympia Brown was bom in Ohio ; she was a graduate of
Antioch college, and went through a theological course at
OLYMPIA BROWN. 403
Canton, New York. She is the most promismg young^woman
now speakingin this cause. She is small , delicately organized ,
and has a most pleasing personnel. She is a graceful, fluent
speaker, with wonderful powers of continuity and concentra-
tion, and is oblivious to everything but the idea she wishes ,
to utter. While in Kansas she spoke every day for four
months, twice and three times, Sundays not excepted.
She is a close, clear reasoner and able debater. The Kan-
sas politicians all feared to meet her. One prominent judge
in the State encountered her in debate, on one occasion, to the
utter discomfiture of himself and his compeers. By some
mistake their appointments were in the^same place. She,
through courtesy, yielded to him the first hour. He made
an argument to show the importance of siiffrage for the negro,
with an occasional slur on woman. She followed him, using
his own words, illustrations, and arguments, to show the im-
portance of sufirage for woman, much to his chagrin, and
the amusement of the audience, who cheered her from begin-
ning to end. At the close of the meeting a rising vote was
taken, of those in favor of woman's sufirage. All the audience
arose, except the judge, and he looked as if he would have .
given anything if consistence would have permitted hun to
rise also.
Miss Brown is now an ordained pastor of a Universalist
church in Weymouth, Massachusetts, where she receives a
liberal salary, and is honored and beloved by her people.
The space assigned me in this volume is too small for
more than a brief sketch of this cause and its leaders. As
much odium has been cast on these noble women, I cannot
close without saying, what I feel to be just and true, of all
alike. It is no exaggeration to state, that the women
identified with this question are distinguished for intellectual
power, moral probity, and religious earnestness. Most of
them are able speakers and writers, as their published
404
EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AQE.
speeclriil, letters, novels, and poems fully show ; those who
have seen them in social life can testify that they are good
house-keepers, true mothers, and faithful wives. I have
kuown women in many countries and classes of society, and
« I know none more noble, delicate, and refined, in word
and action, than those I have met on the woman's rights
platform. True, they do not possess the voluptuous grace
and soft manners of the petted children of luxury ; tiiej
are not clothed in purple and fine linen, faring sump-
tuously every day, — for most of them are self-made women,
who, through hardships and sacrifice, have smoothed
the rugged paths for multitudes about them, and earned a
virtuous independence for themselves. All praise to those,
who, through ridicule and scorn, have changed the barbarous
laws for woman in ma^ny of the States, and brought them into
harmony with the higher civilization in which we live.
riCTOBIA, QUEEN OF ENQLAND.
405
♦••
VICTOBIA, QUEEN OF BNaLAND. 405
VICTORIA, QUEEN OF ENGLAND.
1
BY JAMES PABTON.
Great Britain wanted a monarch.
James the Second had abandoned his throne, and had been
driven from his country. William and Mary, who succeeded
him were childless, and without hope of offspring. Anne,
seventeen times in her life, gave the kingdom hopes of an
heir, and then disappointed those hopes. She was childless,
and it was well known to her household tl^t she was destined
to die childless. As it was part of the fundamental law of
the kingdom that the sovereign must be a Protestant, the
son of the exiled king was excluded from the succession.
The English are such slaves to habit and precedent, and the
wars of the Commonwealth were so fresh in the recollection
of the country, that it does not appear to have occurred to a
single individual that the realm of England could be gov*
emed unless it could find a person to play sovereign on
certain days of the year, in the show-rooms of St. James'
Palace. America had not yet taught the world the art of
nominating, electing, and deposing chief magistrates. There
had once been kings in England, and the shadow of one was
felt to be necessary still.
Wanted a monarch. No Roman Catholic need apply.
This was the problem for the ** Heralds" of that day. In all
the world there was but one person who could rightfully
succeed Queen Anne, and that was an elderly lady known to
406 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
the people of England as the Princess Sophia, and to the peo«
pie of Hanover as the wife of their sovereign, the elector,
Ernest Augustus. King James the First leflb but two children
of the seven who had been born to him. One of these w^s
the unfortunate Charles the First, who lost his crown and his
head ; the other was the Princess Elizabeth, who in due time
married Frederick the Fifth, Elector Palatine, one of the
hundred petty sovereigns of Germany. The Princess Sophia
was the daughter of this pair, and she was married to
Ernest Augustus of Hanover. Being thus the grand-daugh- *
ter of James the First, and the wife of a Protestant prince,
her right to the English throne, in case Queen Anne died
without issue, was unquestionable; and hence, in the act
of settlement of 1701, she was declared the heiress pre-
sumptive.
She had become a widow, and was living in retirement in
Hanover as Electoress Dowager, — an elderly lady of excel-
lent character, but as little fitted to govern an empire as a
child. The English, however, did not want any one to govern
an empire. They meant to do that themselves. They wanted
some benevolent and good-looking person to wear the robes,
inhabit the palace, and play the part of monarch, in a serene
and dignified manner. * For such purpose the good old
dowager of Hanover might have answered as well as another.
This destiny, however, was not in reserve for her ; for, seven-
teen days before the death of Queen Anne, she died, leaving
her son George, the Elector of Hanover, heir to the British
crown. George Lewis was his name, but he is known in
English history as George the First.
Thus it was that the present reigning family came to the
English throne. Queen- Victoria reigns to-day because of her
direct descent, through James the First, from Mary, Queen of
Scots, the mother of that pedantic king. On the Hanover
VICTORIA, QUEEN OF ENGLAND. 407
side, she can claim an ancestry far more ancient, and far
more illustrious than this. ,
^ The respect which many persons feel for an old family is
perhaps not quite so unreasonable as some of us repuT)licans
suppose. Time tries all. As a rule, whatever endures long
is excellent of its kind. In families which have long main-
tained a certain position in the world, we need not look for
brilliant genius, nor splendid courage ; but if we inquire
closely into their history, we shall generally find a full de-
velopment of what maybe termed the preservative virtues, —
prudence and family pride. A family which produces a
genius appears to exhaust itself in the effort, — it passes away
and disappears in the crowd ; but where there is robustness of
bodily health with a high degree of prudence and family feel-
ing, a race may endure for centuries without producing a
single individual of striking merit, or performing any valu-
able service for mankind. Nevertheless, there must be in
such a family real worth and real wisdom. One of the most
admirable provisions among the laws of nature is that one
which dooms a family of incurable fools to certain and swift
extinction.
The family now upon the English throne is one of the old-
est in Europe. Among the mountains which divide Italy
from Germany a powerful house named Welf held great pos-
sessions B3 long ago as the year 1100. Extending its con-
quests southward, it ruled some of the finest provinces of
Italy, where the name was changed into Guelph, by which it
has ever since been known. The Guelphs, with their im-
pregnable castles among the mountains, drawing tribute from
the fertile provinces of northern Italy and southern Germany,
appear to have been for a time as wealthy and powerful a
family as any in Europe of less than imperial or royal rank.
It became too powerful. The Guelphs quarrelled among
themselves. They divided into two factions, one of which
408 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
•■
p
retained the name of Guelpb, and the other acquired that of
GIvbeline, and each of them was powerful enough to main-
tain an army in the field. The bloody contest was waged a
while among the German mountains. The family quarrel, as
was usually the case in those days, absorbed into itself public
questions of great pith and moment, until the whole south of
Europe were drawn into the interminable strife. It was this
famous contest between the Guelphs and the Ghibelines which
saddened the existence of the poet Dante, and made him for
twenty years an exile from his native city.
When mortals fight, it rarely happens that one party is
wholly in the right, and the other wholly in the wrong. Both
the Guelphs and the Ghibelines committed enormous out-
rages. Neither of them was strong enough to hold the other
in subjection, and neither was great enough to forgive a fallen
foe. When the Guelphs conquered a province or captured
a city, they banished the powerful Ghibelines, and confis-
cated their estates. The Ghibelines, when they were victors,
pursued the same policy. Consequently there were always
a great number of persons, both within and without the con-
quered place, whose only hope of regaining their rights and
property was in overturning the government. Hence three
centuries of fruitless, desolating war.
But although in this cardinal error of the contest there
was not a pin to choose between the hostile factions, it is
nevertheless evident that the Guelphs were, upon the whole,
fighting the battle of mankind. Dante was upon their side,
— a great fact in itself. Closely allied with the pope, then
the chief civilizing power of Europe, the sole protector of
the people against the tyranny of their lords, the Guelphs
were greatly instrumental in limiting the power of the em-
perors, and preventing all the fairest countries of Europe
from lapsing under the dominion of a single dynasty.
It was from these warlike Guelphs of the middle ages that
VICTOBIA, QUEEN OF ENGLAND. 409
the present royal bouse of England descended. Gibbon, in-
deed, traces the family of Guelph up to Charlemagne ; but we
need not follow him so far in the labyrinth of heraldry. Let
it suffice us to know that a powerful prince of the Guelphian
race, six hundred years ago or more, acquired by marriage
extensive possessions in the north of Germany. This prince
is known in the history of Germany as Henry the Black.
^ Other Henries succeeded, — Henry the Proud, Henry the
Lion, and a long line of Henries, Williams, Othos, Georges,
and Ernests, until at length we find a branch of the family
established in Hanover, and ruling that province with the
title of elector.
Not much can be said in commendation of the more recent
ancestors of Queen Victoria. George the First was fifty-
four years of age when he stepped ashore at Greenwich, and
walked to the royal palace in its park, hailed and saluted as
King of England. He was an honest, hearty man, brave and
resolute ; but he had an incurable narrowness of mind, and
he was as ignorant of all that a king ought to know as the
kings of that period generally were.
" My maxim is," he used to say, " never to abandon my
friends ; to do justice to all the world, and to fear no man."
The saying does him honor. He was a man of punctual
and business-like habits, diligent in performing the duties ap-
pertaining to his place, so far as he understood them. But,
unhappily, when he left his native country, he left his heart
behind him. He loved Hanover, and a man c^n no more
Jove two countries than two women. He understood Hanover ;
he never understood England ; and the thing which he had
at heart, during his whole reign, was the aggrandizement of
Hanover. He had the satisfaction of dying in his native
land, which he was accustomed frequentlj* to visit, and bis
dust still reposQS there in the electoral mausoleum.
His son, George the Second, with all his narrowness and
410 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
•
ignorance, was not without his good and strong points. Like
most of his ancestors, he was honest, well-intentioned, and
braye ; and, like most of his ancestors, he was singularly
unfitted to have anything to do with the government of a
great nation. The ornament of his court was Queen Caro-
line, a patron of art and literature, whom the king loved
truly, and scolded incessantly, whom he sincerely respected
and continually dishonored. The scenes which took place at
the death-bed of this queen show us something of the char-
acter of both of the ill-assorted pair.
" The king," says a recent writer, ** was heart-broken, but
he was himself. He could not leave her in peace at that last
moment. By way of watching over her, * he lay on the
queen's bed all night in his nightgown, where he could not
sleep nor she turn about easily.' He went out and in con-
tinually, telling everybody, with tears, of her great qualities.
But he could not restrain the old habit of scolding when he was
by her side. * How the d^vil should you sleep when you
will never lie still a moment I' he cried with an impatience
which those who have watched by a death-bed will at least
understand. * You want to rest, and the doctors tell you
nothing can do you so much good, and yet you always move
about. Nobody can sleep in that manner, and that is always
your way ; you never take the proper method to get what
you want, and then you wonder you have it not.* When
her weary eyes, weary of watching the troubled comings and
goings about* her, fixed upon one spot, the alarmed, excited,
hasty spectator cried out, with a loud and quick voice, ^ Mon
Dieu I qu^est ce que vous regardez ? Comment peut^n fixer ces
yeux comme ca?' he cried. He tortured her to eat, as many
a healthful watcher does with cruel kindness. * How is it
possible you should know whether you like a thing or not? '
he said. He was half-crazed with sorrow and love, and a
kind of panic. And he was garrulous, and talked without
VICTORIA, QUEEN OF ENGLAND. 411
intermission of her and of himself, with a vague historical
sense, as if talking of a life that had come to an end.
''One incidept of this death-bed scene is probably witho^jt a
parallel in the history of the human race : She counselled
him to marry again, as he sat sobbing by her bedside. Poor
man ! he was hysterical, too, with grief and excitement.
Wiping his eyes and sobbing between every word, with much
ado, he got out this answer: ^Non — faurai des mailresaes.^
To which the queen made no other reply than, ' -4A, man
Dieul cela rCempeche pasT Criticism stands confounded
before such an incident.''
Such was George the Second, the great-great-grandfather
of the present virtuous sovereign of England. Such was
the British Court a little more than a hundred years ago.
The eldest son of George the Second, Prince Frederick,
or the Prince of Wales, was stupid even for a prince. He
passed his brief existence in political intrigues with his fath-
er's enemies, and in debauchery with the worst of the young
nobility. No good or even graceful action relieves the te-
dious record of his life. We need only say of him — for little
else is known — that he embittered his father's days, and that
England was well rid of him before it came his turn to play
the part of king. George the Third, the grandfather of
Queen Victoria, was the son of this Prince Frederick*
George the Third, who plays so important a part in the
history of the United States, was one of the most virtuous
and most mischievous of kings. He was honest, charitiible,
and temperate ; he was as good a father as an ignorant man
can ever hope to be ; he was an attentive and affectionate hus-
band ; he was a considerate and liberal master and patron. If
he had been born to the inheritance of a small farm, — if he
had been a huntsman in Windsor Park, instead of lord of the
castle, — he would have lived happily and wisely, and all his
native parish would have followed him mourning to the
112 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
tomb* But alas for England, tax-paying England! it was
his destiny to be styled king, and to indulge all his life the
fon^ delusion that he really was a king.
With such a father as he had, it is not necessary to say
that his early education was most grossly and shamefully
neglected ; and after his father's death, Jie fell under the in-
fluence of men and women who starved his intellect and fed
his pride. Coming to the throne in his twenty-second year,
ignorant of history, ignorant of the English people, totally
unacquainted with the spirit of a constitutional government,
equally obstinate and conscientious, the whole policy of his
reign was erroneous. He displaced William Pitt, and pro-
moted Bute. It was he, and only he, who exasperated into
rebellion the most loyal of his subjects, — the people of the
American colonies. Instead of hailing with joy the acces-
sion of Napoleon to supreme power in distracted France,
instead of aiding him to bring order once more out of the
chaos of that kingdom, instead of being his hearty friend and
ally, as he ought to have been for England's sake, as well as
for that of France and mankind, he squandered and mort-
gaged deep the resources of the wealthiest empire on earth,
in waging and inciting war against the only man who had it
in him to rescue France and prepare her for a nobler future.
He drove Napoleon mad; he prepared for him the long
series of victories which wasted his time, wasted his
strength, and destroyed the balance between his reason and
his passions.
When George the Third came to the throne in 17 GO, the
national debt of England was one hundred and thii*ty millions
of pounds. The American war raised it to two hundred and
sixty millions. The insensate warfare against the French
Revolution made it five hundred and seventy millions ; and
by the time Napoleon was safely landed in Saint Helena, the
debt amounted to the inconceivable sum of eight hundred
VICTORIA, QUEEN OF ENGLAND. 413
and sixty-five millions of pounds. It may be safely asserted,
that every guinea of this debt was unnecessary, and all ex-
cept a few millions of it may be considered the price which
Great Britain has paid, or is to pay, for allowing four such
men as the four Georges of Hanover to occupy the first place
in the government,-!- a place in which a wise and able man
could do no very radical good, but one in which an incompe-
tent man may work prodigious harm.
George the Third had fifteen children, of whom all but
two survived him. Five of these children were. sons, and
all of them were robust and vigorous men. Down to a late
period in the life of George the Third, no throne in Europe
seemed so well provided as his with liueal heirs ; and noth-
ing was more improbable than that it should descend to a
daughter of the fouHh son, — the Duke of Kent. The Prince
of Wales, however, had but one legitimate child, the Prin-
cess Charlotte, and when she died, in 1817, there was no
probability of her father having other legitimate issue. The
Duke of York, the second son, a shameless debauchee, also
died without legitimate children. The Duke of Clarence,
the third son, who afterwards reigned as William the Fourth,
had a large family; but, unfortunately, his wife. Queen
Adelaide, was not the mother of them.
Edward, Duke of Kent, the fourth of the king's sons, had
the reputation, in his lifetime, of being the only one of them
who observed the ordinary rules of morality. He is even
spoken of as ** austerely virtuous ; " an accusation which I
am inclined to believe was groundless ; for, if he was so aus-
terely virtuous, he would hardly have left so many debts
behind him for his widow and daughter to pay. Some
allowance must be made, however, for those unfortunate
princes who held the highest rank in the kingdom, without
having the income of a country gentleman. This poor Duke
of Kent, although he enjoyed a revenue about as Hrge as
414 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
that of the President of the United States, was the feudal
superior of men who had ten and twenty times that income.
What is wealth in one country is poverty in another. An
English prince with four thousand pounds a year is a very
poor man, unless he is a very great man.
To economize his slender resources, the Duke of Kent
resided, for many years, in Germany. He was living there
in 1817, when the sudden death of the Princess Charlotte,
and her newly born child, made it apparent that, if he lived
to the ordinary age of man, he would one day succeed to the
throne. This unexpected change in his prospects, it is sup-
posed, led to his marriage, in the following yeai^ with a Ger-
man princess, Victoria, the widow of the Prince of Leiningen,
and a daughter of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg. We now know
enough of this lady to have a right to believe that she was
a very sensible as well as exemplary woman.
Ere many months, it became evident that the Duchess of
Kent was about to become a mother, and the duke was de-
sirous that the child should be bom upon the soil of the
country of which it might be the the sovereign. One of the
elements in the popularity of Geoige the Third, which none of
his errors ever sensibly diminished, was the fact that he had
bc^n bom in England, — a circumstance to which he so
aptly alluded, in a speech at the beginning of his reign, that
it made an indelible impression upon the country. It was
natural that the Duke of Kent should desire to secure this
advantage for his unborn child.
Strange to say, this prince of the blood royal actually
had not money enough for the joumey home, a^d he wrote
to his family for a remittance. They refused it, and he was
obliged to borrow the requisite sum from friends in humbler
life. At Kensington Palace, in London, on the 24th of May,
1819, the Princess Victoria was bom. As she saw the light
in the pleasant month of May, they named her the May-flower^
VICTOSIA, QUEEN OF ENGLAND. 416
and so she was called in the family during her infancy. We
have the note, recently published, which the mother of the
Duchess of Kent despatched to her daughter, when she heard
the joyful intelligence.
** I cannot express,'' wrote the Duchess of Saxe-<]!oburg,
**how happy I am to know you are, dearest, dearest Yickel,
safe in your bed with a little one, and that all went off so
happily. May God's best blessings rest on the little stranger
and the beloved mother I Again a Charlotte, — destined,
perhaps, to play a great part one day, if a brother is not born
to take it out of her hands. The English like queens, and
the niece of the ever-lamented, beloved Charlotte will be
most dear to them. I need not tell you how delighted every-
body is here in hearing of your safe confinement. You know
that you are much beloved in this yom* little home."
Three months after, the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg sent to
her daughter in England the intelligence of the birth of her
grandson, — the Prince Albert of happy memory, whose
untimely death the Queen of England still laments.
When the Princess Victoria was but eight months old, her
father died, leaving his widow and her infant child nothing
but an inheritance of debt, and a rank in the realm of Britain
which is an inconvenience and a manifest absurdity unless
accompanied with great wealth. Queen Victoria can doubt-
less well remember the time when her mother was pestered
with duns, and when her own allowance of playthings was
limited by her mother's poverty. Nor, indeed, considering
her rank, was she ever in very affluent circumstances until
she ascended the throne, — her mother's allowance being only
eight thousand pounds a year, and part of this was expended
in discharging the debts of the Duke of Kent.
* The little princess was as well educated and trained as
a child so unnaturally circumstanced could well be.
** Do not tease your little puss with learning," wrote her
416 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
grandmother to the Duchess of Keut, when the child was
four years of age. ** She is so young still/'
And again, when she was seven : —
** I see by the English newspapers that his Majesty and
her Koyal Highness the Duchess of Kent went on Virginia
water. The little monkey must have pleased and amused
him. She is such a pretty, clever child."
We also have a very pleasing glimpse of the princess and
her mother in the following passage by bn anonymous
writer : —
'^When first I saw the pretty and pale daughter of
the Duke of Kent, she was fatherless. Her fair, light form
was sporting, in all the redolence of youth and health, on
the noble sands of old Bamsgate. It was a fine summer day,
not so warm as to induce languor, but yet warm enough to
render the fanning breezes from the laughing tides, as they
broke gently on the sands, agreeable and refreshing. Her
dress was simple, — a plain straw bonnet, with a white ribbon
round the crown ; a colored muslin frock, looking gay and
cheerful, and as pretty a pair of shoes on as pretty a pair of
feet as I ever remember to have seen from China to Kam-
schatka. Her mother was her companion, and a venerable
man — whose name is graven on every human heart that
loves its species, and whose undying fame is recorded in that
eternal book where the actions of men are written with the
pen of truth — walked by her parentis side, and doubtless
gave that counsel and offered that advice which none were
more able to offer than himself, — for it was William Wilber-
force. His kindly eyes followed, with parental interest,
every footstep of the young creature, as she advanced to, and
retreated from, the coming tide ; and it was evident that his
mind and his heart were full of the future, whilst they were
interested in the present.**
VICTOBIA, QUEEN OF ENGLAND. 417-
The death of George the Fourth, in 1880, and the accession
of William the Fourth, sixty-five years of age, and without an
heir, though twelve years married, rendered it all but certain
that the Princess Victoria, a graceful girl of eleven, would
one day be called to the throne. Until then, ,we are told,
she was not herself aware of the destiny before her ; but had
been reared in every respect like any other child of an in-
telligent family of respectable but limited fortune. She be-
came a highly interesting object both to her family and the
people of England. The queen has lately published the
cordial letter which her grandmother wrote to congratulate
her mother upon the eleventh birthday of the princess : —
^ My blessings and good wishes for the day which gave you
the sweet blossom of May ! May God preserve and protect
the valuable life of that lovely flower from all the dangers
tiiat will beset her mind and heart ! The rays of the sun are
scorching at the height to whicl^she may one day attain. It
is only by the blessing of God that all the fine qualities he
has put into that young soul can be kept pure aud un-
tarnished. How well I can sympathize with the feelings of
anxiety that must possess you when that time comes ! God».
who has helped you through so many bitter hours of grief^
will be your help still. Put your trust in him."
A few months later, when Parliament had named the
Duchess of Kent to the regency of the kingdom, in case the
king should die before the princess came of age, the same
kind grandmother wrote : —
** I should have been very sorry if the regency had been
given into other hands than yours. It would not have been
a just return for your constant devotion and care to your
child if this had not been done. May God give you wisdom
27
418 EMINENT WOMEN 07 THE AGE.
and strength to do your duty, if called upon to undertake it.
May God bless and protect our little darling I If I could
but once see her again I The print you sent me of her is not
like the dear picture I have. Th6 quantity of curls hide
the well-shaped head, and make it look too lai^e for the
lovely little figure."
And so her childhood passed away. She had, of course*
the usual retinue of instructors, &nd went the usual round of
lessons and recreation. The mighty Lablache gave her ia-*
struction in singing ; and the queen says of him that he was
not only one of the best actors and singers ever seen in Eng-
land, "but a remarliably clever, gentleman-like man, full of
anecdotes and knowledge, and most kind and warm-heaited.
The prince and queen had a sincere regard for him." That
she should acquire a familiarity with the three languages^
English, German, and French, was scarcely to be avoided,
since German was the native language of her mother, Eng-
lish the language of her country, and French the language of
^courts. In the volumes which she has recently given us,
Hkere are several specimens of the queen's drawing, from
which we may infer that she acquired enough of this art for
the occasional illustration of a private diary.
The most interesting event, perhaps, of her minority, — <
at least, the most interesting to hei*self, — was her first inter-
view with her cousin of Coburg, Prince Albert. From the very
hirth 4)f these children, their marriage by and by Was dis-
tinctly contemplated; and, as time went on, it became the
fiuvorite project of the grandmother of the cousias, the Duch-
ess of Saxe-Gotha, whose affectionate letters have been
quoted above. William the Fourth, it appears, had other
views for ;fais niece, and did his best to prevent tbe< meeting
of the cousins. But a grandmother and a mother, in affairs
of this kindi.are more than a match for an uncle, even though
YICTOBIA, QUEEN OF ENGLAND. 419
that uncle wears a crown. So when Prince Albert and the
Princess Victoria were seventeen years of ago, the prince
came to England, accompanied by his father and brother.
Both the young people were aware of the benevolent inten-
tions of all the German members of their family, and each
had been in the habit of dreaming of the future in accordance
with those intentions. They were well pleased with one
another on this occasion. Prince Albert, accustomed to the
quiet routine of a German duke's younger son, was equally
amazed and fatigued by the gorgeous life of the English
court. The lute hours were particularly disagreeable to him,
— as well they might be.
"My first appearance," he .wrote, ** was at a levee of the
king*s, which was long and fatiguing, but very interesting.
The same evening we dined at court, and at night there was
a beautiful concert, at which we had to stand till two o'clock.
The next day the king's birthday was kept. We went, in
the middle of the day, to a drawing-room at St. James'
Palace, at which about three thousand eight hundred people
passed before the king and queen, and the other high digni-
taries, to offer their congratulations. There was again a
great dinner in the evening, and then a concert which lasted
till one o'clock. You can well imagiue I had many hard
battles to fight against sleepiness during these late entertain-
ments.
"The day before yesterday, Monday, our aunt gave a bril-
liant ball here at Kensington Palace, at which the gentlemen
appeared in uniform, and the ladies in so-called fancy
dresses. We remained till four o'clock. Duke William of
Brunswick, the Prince of Orange and his two sons, and the
Duke of Wellington were the only guests that you will care
to bear about.
** Yesterday we spent with the Duke of Northumberland,
420 EMINENT TTOMEN OE THE AGE/
4
at Sion, and now we are going to Claremont. From tins
account you will see how constantly engaged we are, and that
we must make the most of our time to see at least some of
the sights in London. Dear aunt is very kind to us, and
does everything she can to please us ; and our cotmn also
is very amiable. We have not a great deal of room in our
apartments, but are nevertheless very comfortably lodged.'*
The queen has since recorded her recollections of the prince
at the time of this visit : —
**The prince w^s at that time much shorter than his brother,
already very handsome, but very stout, which he entirely
grew out of afterward. He was most amiable, natural^ un-
affected, and merry ; full of interest in everything ; playing on
the piano with the princess, his cousin ; drawing ; in short,
constantly occupied. He always paid the greatest attention
to all he saw, and the queen remembers well how intently he
listened to the sermon preached in St. Paul's, when he and
his father and brother accompanied the Duchess of Kent and
the princess there, on the occasion of the service attended by
the children of the different charity schools. It is indeed
rare to see a prince, not yet seventeen years of age, bestow-
ing such earnest attention on a sermon."
Aft;er a stay in England of some weeks. Prince Albert re-
turned home, and resumed his studies. Each of the cousins
was highly prepossessed in favor of the other. Indeed, the
princess seems to have made up her mind, on this occasion,
that, if public policy forbade her marrying her cousin Albert,
she would never marry at all*
The eighteenth birthday of Princess Victoria, which was
May the 24th, 1837, when she attained her legal majority,
was celebrated throughout the British Empire as a national
VICTOBIA, QUEEN OV ENGLAND. 421
festival, and her health was toasted by a million merry cir-
cles of loyal Englishmen. Almost on that very day, KiDg
William the Fourth, then in the seventy-second year of his
age, was stricken with mortal sickness. He lingered four
weeks, and then expired. It was on a fine morning in June,
as early as five o'clock, that the Archbishop of Canterbury
communicated the intelligence to Victoria, and i^jfoted her as
Queen of England. Later in the day, the Miniy[^ the Privy
Councillors, and a hundred of the principal ng^Mlity, assem-
bled in Kensington Palace to witness the formal proclamation
of the youthful queen.
•* We publish and proclaim," shouted the herald, ''that the
high and mighty Princess Alexandrina Victoria is the only
lawful and liege Lady, and, by the grace of God, Queen of
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Defender
of the Faith."
Until this moment, it is said, the young queen had main-
tained her self-possession ; but on hearing these tremendous
words, the realization of so man}' hopes and fond imagiuings,
she threw her arms about her mother's neck and sobbed.
She recovered herself in a few moments, and then the Duke
of Sussex, the youngest son of George the Third, and the
head of the English nobility, advanced to pay his homage by
bending the knee. Her good sense and good feeling re-
volted against an absurdity so extreme.
''Do not kneel, uncle," she said, "for I am still Victoria,
your niece."
Her bearing on this most trying occasion was eminently
becoming ; and, a few weeks later, when she prorogued Par-
liament in person, and spoke the royal speech from the
throne of the House of Lords, she conciliated every heart by
her modesty and self-possession.
There was a circle of relations in Germany for whom these
events possessed the deepest interest. The letter which
422 EMIKKI^T. WOM£N OF THE AGE.
Prince Albert wrote to congratulate his cousin upon her ao-
cession was creditable to his taste and feeling. He was theo
a student at the University of Bonn, from which he wrote,
Juno 26th, 1837 : —
" Mr DEAREST Cousin, — I must write you a few lines to
present you my sincerest felicitations on that great change
which has taken place in your life.
^ Now you are queen of the mightiest land of Europe, in
your hand lies the happiness of millions. May Heaven assist
you, and strengthen you with its strength, in that high bat
difficult task I
^ I hope that your reign may be long, happy, and glorious,
and that your efforts may be rewarded by the thankfulness
and love of your subjects.
**May I pray you to think likewise sometimes of your
cousins in Bonn, and to continue to them that kindness you
favored them with till now. Be assured that our minds are
always with you.
** I will not be indiscreet and abuse your time. Believe
me always your Majesty's most obedient and faithful ser*
vant, Albert."
Queen Victoria was crowned at Westminster Abbey about
a year ailcr her accession, — June the 28th, 1838. It would
be easy to fill many of these pages with accounts of a cer^
monial which has increased in splendor- as it has diminished
in significance. The whole ceremony was founded upon the
belief that the Sovereign represented the Majesty, and
wielded the power, of the great God of heaven and earth. So
long as this belief was real and universal, the ceremony of
the coronation, and all the complicated state and etiquette
of royal life, was not altogether wanting in propriety. It was
the attempt of rude and barbarous men to express their rude
VICTORIA, QUBBN OF ENGLAND. 423
ind barbarous conceptions of the divine government, and the
sacredness and awfulness of even its poor human representa-
tive. But people no longer believe that any special divinity
resides in, or is represented by, the convenient ducal houses
of Germany, from which England borrows a monarch upon
occasion. We need not dwell therefore upon the extremely
laborious and expensive way in which the English of modem
times get the crown placed for a few seconds upon a
sovereign's head.
She was queen, then, at length. She was the central figure
of a fiction as splendid as the Kenilworth of Sir Walter
Scott, and all the world looked with interest upon its gor-
geous illusions. In those years of her blooming youth she
seemed to the imaginations of men the most brilliant and
most enviable of human beings. Nevertheless, she has re-
cently told us, that she was far from happy at that time.
She could not, at first, quite reconcile her mind to be a
fiction. luheritiug something of the obstinacy of her race,
she desired to have her own way in some matters in which a
constitutional monarch must be submissive. She had a par-
ticular prejudice against the torics, — not merely against
their principles, but against their persons, — and this
"prejudice an unhackneyed girl of nineteen was not likely
to conceal. On the other hand, she was excessively
fond of the whigs, and particularly of the good-natured
premier, Lord Melbourne, who had advised and guided
her during the first anxious moments of her reign. She
carried these prejudices so far, that Lord Melbourne
himself, although at the head of the favored party, re-
monstrated with her upon the subject, and advised her to for-
give and conciliate the tories. Then again, being warm in
her friendships, she could not endure the idea of partiug with
some of the ladies about her person, when the tories c^me into
power. She was very restive in this afiair, and it was
I
424: EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
long before she could bend her will to the hard necessity of
losing the society of her friends for reasons purely political,
over which she had no control.
The strangest part of her conduct was, that, as soon as she
became her own mistress, she ceased to correspond with her
handsome cousin in Germany. With reference to this sub-
ject the queen has written : —
•' The only excuse the queen can make for herself is in the
fact that the change from the secluded life at Kensington to
the independence of her position as Queen Eegnaut, at the
ago of eighteen, put all ideas of marriage out of her mind^
which she now most bitterly repents. A worse school for
a young girl, or one more detrimental to all natural feelings
and affections, cannot well be imagined than the position of
a queen at eighteen, without experience and without a
husband to guide and support her. This the queen can state
from painful experience, and she thanks God that none of her
dear daughters are exposed to such danger,"
Prince Albert was naturally uneasy at her silence. A
young man of twenty-one must not long delay to choose a
career. So far, his life had been shaped by a secret but con-
fident expectation that he would one day be the consort of
his cousin Victoria, and if this was not to be his destiny, it
was necessary to. seek another. Impatient to know his fate,
he came to England in October, 1839, resolved to bring the
matter to a conclusion. Three years had passed since the
cousins had seen one another.
\When last they had met, she was a girl of seventeen, living
a retired life at Kensington Palace, with her mother and her
tutors, with little retinue and less ostentation. Ho was but a
lively lad, not grown to his full stature, and unbecomingly
fat. But now how different were they both I
It was half-past seven in the evening of October the 10th,
VICTOBIA, QUEEN OF ENGLAND. 425
1839, Tvhen Prince Albert and his brother alighted at the
principal entrance of Windsor Castle, one of the grandest-
looking royal residences in Europe. At the top of the stair-
case, the queen herself met them in evening attire, and
invested with the dignity which the very title of queen seems
to carry with it. Nor was the change in him less striking in
a maiden's eyes. The prince had grown tall, symmetrical, and
handsome. That down upon his upper lip of three years be-
fore was now an elegant mustache. He had become a man.
There was also in his countenance, we are told, a gentleness
of expression, and a smile of peculiar sweetness, with a
look of thought and intelligence in his clear blue eye, and fair,
broad forehead, which conciliated every one who looked upon
him. He was the very prince of romance, — just the hero
wanted for the dazzling fiction of which Victoria was the
gentle heroine.
His fate was decided promptly enough. The queen was
delighted with his appearance and bearing. She conducted
him herself to her mother. It was about dinner-time when
they arrived, and yet they could not dine with the queen that
night, for a reason which the queen herself explains : ** Their
clothes not having arrived, they could not appear at dinner,
but came in after it in spite of their morning dresses." There
was a large company of lords and ministers staying at the
castle then, and the etiquette of the dinner could not be
dispensed with, even in favor of these young princes.
Four days sufficed 1 On the fourth day after the arrival of
the prince, the queen told Lord Melbourne that she had
made up her mind to marry him. The minister said he was
y^^y gl^<l ^ bear it, and that he thought the news would be
well received.
•* You will be much more comfoi'table," added Lord Mel-
bourne, in his simple, fatherly manner ; •* for a woman cannot
stand alone for any time in whatever position she may be."
426 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGK.
Accordingly, on the following day Prince Albert came in
from hunting at the unusually early hour of twelve, for he
had received nn intimation the evening before that the queen
had something particular to say to him* Ou being sum-
moned to the queen*s presence he found her alone. iProcisely
what occurred on the occasion will never be known. It seems,
however, that it devolved* upon the queen to propose the
momentous question. The following is the prince's version
of what passed, as given in a letter to his grandmother : —
''The subject which has occupied us so much of late is at
last settled. The queen sent for me alone to her room a few
days ago, and declared to me in a genuine outburst of love
and affection that I had gained her whole heart, and would
make her intensely happy if I would make her the sacrifice
of sharing her life with her, for she said she looked on it as
a sacrifice. The only thing which troubled her was that she
did not think that she was worthy of me. The joyous open-
ness of manner in which she told me this quite enchanted me,
and I was quite carried away by it. She is really most good
and amiable, and I am quite sure Heaven has not given me
into evil hands, and that we shall be happy together. Since
that moment Victoria does whatever she fancies I should wish
or like, and we talk together a great deal about our future
life, which she promises me to make as happy as possible.
Oh, the future I does it not bring with it the moment when I
shall have to take leave of my dear, dear home, and of you?
I cannot think of that without deep melancholy taking pos-
session of me."
As soon as the interview was over, the queen, according to
her custom, recorded her feelings in her diary.
"How I will strive,** she wrote, in the first gush of tender
emotion, 'Ho make him feel as little as possible the great sac-
rifice he has made I I told him it was a great sacrifice on his
VICTORIA, QUEEN OF ENGLAND. 427
party but he would uot allow it. I then told him to fetch Er
nest (his brother), who congratulated us both and seenned
very happy. Ernest told me how perfect his brother was."
The same afternoon, she wrote to her Uncle Leopold,
King of the Belgians^ who had from the first fuTored the
match most warmly. This letter is highly creditable to the
goody simple heart of the maiden queen : —
** My mind is quite made up, and I told Albert this morn-
ing of it. The warm affection he showed me on learning this
gave me great pleasure. He seems perfection, and I think
that I have the prospect of very great happiness before me.
I love him iiobe than I can sa}"-, and shall do everything in
my power to render this sacrifice (for such in my opinion it
is) as small as I can. He seems to have great' tact, — a very
necessary thing in his position. These last few days have
passed like a dream to me, and I am so much bewildered by
it all that I know hardly how to write ; but I do feel very
happy. It is absolutely necessary that this determination of
mine should be known to no one but yourself and to Uncle
Ernest until after the meeting of Parliament, as it would be
considered, otherwise, neglectful on my part not to have
assembled Parliament at once to inform them of it."
To which the good old king replied, very sensibly and
happily : —
*• In your position . • . you could not exist without
having a happy and agreeable *iut£rieur.' And I am much
deceived (which I think I am not) , or you will find in Albert
just the qualities and disposition which are indispensable for
your happiness, and which will suit your own character, tem-
per, and mode of life. You say most amiably that you con-
sider it a sacrifice on the part of Albert. This is true in many
428 EMINENT WOMEN 07 TH9 AGE.
points, because his position will be a difficult one ; but much,
I may say ally will depend on your affection for him. If YOtJ
love him, and are kind to him, he will easily bear the bothers
of liis position, and there is a steadiness, and, at the same
time, a cheerfulness in his character which wiU facilitate this.**
Nothing remained but to announce the intended marriage
to the Privy Council, and through the council to the country.
The council met, November 23d, to the number of eighty, in
one of the large rooms of Buckingham Palace, the queen's
London residence. It deyolved upon the queen herself to
make the announcement to this formidable company.
•* Precisely at two," the queen wrote in her diary, '^I went
in. The room was full, but I hardly knew who was there.
Lord Melbourne I saw looking kindly at me with tears in his
eyes, but he was not near me. I then read my short declara-
tion. I felt my hands shook, but I did not make one mistake.
I felt most happy and thankful when it was over. Lord
Lansdowne then rose, and, in the name of the Privy Council,
asked that * this most gracious and most welcome communica-
tion might be printed.' I then left the room, the whole thing
not lasting above two or three minutes. The Duke of Cam-
bridge came into the small library where I was standing and
wished me joy."
The queen wore a bracelet in which there was a portrait of
Prince Albert, and she says in her journal, ^ It seemed to
give me courage at the council."
On the 11th of February, 1840, at the royal chapel of St.
James, in London, in the presence of all that was most dis-
tinguished and splendid in the life of Great Britain, the mar-
riage was solemnized. The queen, as brides generally do,
looked pale and anxious. Her dress was a rich white satin,
trimmed with orange blossoms, and upon her head she wore
a wreath of the same beautiful flowers. Over her h^^ad, but
VICTOKIA, QUEEN OF ENGLAND. 429
not 80 a3 to conceal her face, a veil of Honiton lace was
thrown. She was sparingly decorated with diamonds. She
wore, however, a pair of very large diamond ear-rings, and a
diamond necklace. Her twelve bridesmaids were attired in
similar taste, and they were all young ladies of remarkable
beauty. Prince Albert was dressed in the uniform of a Brit-
ish field-marshal, and was decorated with the collar and star
of the Order of the Garter. At the moment when the queen
and prince advanced to the communion-table, and stood be-
fore the Archbishop of Canterbury, the scene was in the high-
est degree splendid and interesting. But its splendors seemed
to fade away before the majestic simplicity of the marriage
service. There was really a kind of sublimity in the plain-
ness and directness of the language employed : —
** Albert, wilt thou have this woman to be thy wedded
wife ? " and " Victoria, wilt thou have Albert to bo thy wed-
ded husband ? " and ^ Who giveth this woman to be married
to this man ? **
To this last question the Duke of Sussex replied by taking
the queen's hand and saying,* ^I do." Perhaps some in the
assembly may have smiled when the Queen of England prom-
ised to obei/ this younger son of a German Duke, and when
he said, "With all my worldly goods I thee endow." The
queen tells us, however, that she pronounced the word obey
with a deliberate intent to keep her vow, and that she kept it.
There was, of course, the wedding breakfast at Bucking-
ham Palace, which was attended by the royal family, the
ministry, the maids of honor, and other personal attendants
of the queen and prince. Soon after seven o'clock in the
evening, the royal chariot dashed into Windsor with its es-
cort of life-guards, amid the cheers of the whole population
of the town. The honeymoon was spent at Windsor Castle.
Prince Albert gave himself entirely up to the duties of his
position and gradually relieved the queen from the burdens
£{0 EMINEKT WOMEK OW THX AGS.
of royalty. At first, he was not present at the interviewi
between the queen and her miuisters, unless specially iuvited^^
but after a year or two he was present as a matter of course,
and the queen invariably acted in accordance with his advice.
He was, in fact, as much King of England as though he had
been bom to the title. He said himself, in a letter to the
Duke of Wellington, declining the command of the army,
that his principle of action was ^ to sink his own individual
existence in that of his wife, — to aim at no power by himself
or for himself, — to shun all ostentation, — to assume no sepa-
rate responsibility befoi'e the public." Desiring, he added,
to make his position a part of the queen's, he considered it
his duty ^ continually and anxiously to watch every part of
the public business, in order to be able to advise and assist
her at any moment in any of the multifarious and difficult
questions brought before her, — sometimes political, or social,
or personal, — as the natural head of her family, superintend-
ent of her household, manager of her private aSaii*s ; her
sole confidential adviser in politics, and only assisbmt in her
communications with the officers of the government."
To his father, he wrote, a few months after his marriage :
^ Victoria allows me to take much part in foreign afiairs, and
I think I have already done some good. I always commit
my views to paper, and then communicate them to Lord
Melboume. He seldom answers me, but I have often had
the satisfaction of seeing him act entirely in accordance with
what I have said."
And again, in the following year: **! study the politics of
the day with great industry, and resolutely hold myself aloof
from all parties. I take active interest in all national insti-
tutions and associations. I speak quite openly with the
ministers on all subjects, so as to obtain information, and
meet on all sides with much kindness I endeavor
VICTORIA, QUESN Olf BNGLAND. 431
qtiietly to be of as mach use to Victoria in her position as I
can."
Provided thus with a mate so suitable and so efficient, the
life of Queen Victoria did not essentially differ from that of
any other wife and mother of rank in England, except that
it was a thousand times happier than married life usually is
in any rank. Happiness in married life depends upon sev-
eral things; but its fundamental condition is, the hearty
acceptance and patient, cheerful discharge of the duties of
the position. This condition was nobly complied with by this
fortunate pair. When the queen was urged to assert her
authority as head of the house and nation, since her husband
was but one of her subjects, she was not for an instant de-
ceived by such sophistry. She would reply, that she had
solemnly promised at the altar to o6ey her husband, and that
she would never consent to limit or refine away the obligation.
Both of them thus accepting the duties which nature and
circumstances had assigned them, and each having for the
other a genuine respect and affection, they were as happy as
people can rationally expect to be in this world.
November 21st, 1840, the princess royal was born. Two
days after, the prince wrote to his father : " Victoria is as
well as if nothing had happened. She sleeps well, has a good
appetite, and is extremely quiet and cheerful." The queen
was soon able to record in her diary, which she did with a
full heart, that during the time of her confinement **his care
and devotion were quite beyond expression.** And again:
** No one but himself ever lifted her from her bed to her sofa,
and ho always helped to wheel her on her bod or sofa into
the next room. For this purpose he would come instantly
when sent for from any part of the house. As years went
ft
on, and he became overwhelmed with work (for his atten-
tions were the same in all the queen's subsequent confine-
ments), this was often done at much inconvenience to
432 EMIKEKi: WOMEK OF TFS AGE.
himself; but he ever came with a sweet smile on his face. In
short," the queen adds, ^ his care of her was like that of a
mother, nor could there be a kinder, wiser, or more judicious
nurse."
Both the parents were for a moment disappointed that
their first-born was not an heir to the throne. They had not
long to wait for consolation. The following is a list of their
children : —
1. Victoria, the Princess Boyal, — now the wife of the heir-
apparent to the throne of Prussia, — born November 21st,
1840.
2. Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, heir-apparent, bom
November 9th, 1841.
3. Princess Alice Maude Maiy, bom April 25th, 1843.
4. Prince Albert Ernest Albert, born August 6th, 1844.
5. Princess Helena Augusta Victoria, born May 25th,
1846.
6. Princess Louisa Caroline Alberta, bom May 18th, 1848.
. 7. Prince Arthur William Patrick Albert, born May 1st,
1850.
8. Prince Leopold George Duncan Albert, born April
7th, 1853.
9. Princess Beatrice Mary Victoria Feodore, bom April
15th, 1857.
All of these children are still living, — the eldest twenty-
eight, the youngest eleven. They appear to have been
brought up in the most simple and sensible manner. The
queen records several times, in her Highland Diary, that when
the family chanced to be separated from their attendants, she
heard her children say their lessons herself. Thus on board
the yacht, she writes, " I contrived to give Vicky (Victoria,
the princess royal) a little lesson by making her read in her
English history." On this subject our own gifted and excel-
VICTORIA, QUEEN OF ENGLAND. 433
lent Grace Greenwood has recently related some extremely
pleasing anecdotes.
*• When I was in England,** writes Grace Greenwood, in the
"Advance"^*! heard several pleasant anecdotes of the queen
and her family, from a lady who received them of her friend,
the governess of the royal children. This governess, a very
interesting young lady, was the orphan daughter of a Scot-
tish clergyman. During the first year of her residence at
Windsor, her mother died. When she first received news of
her serious illness, she applied to the queen for permission to
resign her situation, feeling that to her mother she owed a
paore sacred duty than even to her sovereign. The queen,
who had been much pleased with her, would not hear of her
making this sacrifice, but said, in a tone of the most gentle
sympathy, —
^ • Go at once to your mother, child ; stay with her as long
as she needs you, and then come back to us. I will keep
your place for you. Prince Albert and I will hear the chil-
dren's lessons ; so in any event let your mind be at rest in
regard to your pupils.'
••The governess went, and had several weeks of sweety
mournful communion with her dying mother; then, when
she had seen that dear form laid to sleep under the daisies
in the kirk-yard, she returned to the palace, where the lone-
liness of royal grandeur would have oppressed her sorrow
ing heart beyond endurance, had it not been for the gracious,
womanly sympathy of the queen, who came, every day, to
her school-room, — and the considerate kindness of her
young pupils.
" A year went by ; the first anniversary of her great loss
dawned upon her, and she was overwhelmed as never l)efore
by the utter loneliness of her grief. She felt that no one in
all that great household knew how much goodness and
sweetness passed out of mortal life, that day, a year ago, or*
S8
434 EMINENT WOMEN 09 THE AQE.
could give with her, one tear, one thought, to that grave
under the Scottish daisies. Every morning, before break-
fast, — which the elder children took with their £ither and
mother, in the pleasant crimson parlor looking out on the
terrace at Windsor, — her pupils came to the school-room,
for a brief religious exercise. This morning the voice of the
governess trembled in reading the Scripture for the day;
some words of divine tenderness were too much for her
poor, lonely, grieving heart; her strength gave way, and,
laying her head on the desk before her, she burst into tears,
murmuring, —
" ' O mother I mother I '
'^ One after another the children stole out of the room, and
went to their mother, to tell her how sadly their governess
was feeling; and that soft-hearted monarch exclaiming, —
" * O poor girl I it is the anniversary of her mother's death,'
hurried to the school-room, where she found Miss — : r ,
struggling to regain her composure,
"'My poor child 1' she said. *I am sorry the children
disturbed you this morning. I meant to have given ordera
that you should have this day entirely to youi'self ; take it
as a sad and sacred holiday. I will hear the lessons of the
children.' And then she added, * To show you that I have
not forgotten this mournful anniversary, I bring you this
gift,' clasping on her arm a beautiful mourning bracelet,
attached to which was a locket for her mother's hair, marked
with the date of that mother's death.
" What wonder that the orphan kissed, with tears, this gift,
and the more than royal hand that bestowed it ! This was
Victoria, fifteen years ago; and I don't believe she has
morally * advanced backward ' since then.
** Another anecdote illustrating Victoria's admirable good
sense and strict domestic, discipline, came to me directly
from one who witnessed the occurrence.
VICTORIA, QUEEN OF ENGLAND. 435
ic day, wben the queen was present in her carriage , at
tary review, the princess royal, then rather a wilful
' about thirteen, sitting on the front seat, seemed dis-
to be rather familiar and coquettish with some young
s of the escort. Her Majesty gave several reproving
without avail ; * winked at her, but she wouldn't stay
d.' At length, in flirting her handkerchief over the
>f the carriage, she dropped it, — too evidently not
ntally. Instantly two or three young heroes sprang
their saddles to return it to her fair hand; but the
voice of royalty stayed them.
'top, gentlemen I ' exclaimed the queen ; * leave it
'here it lies. Now, my daughter, get down from the
^e and pick up your handkerchief.'
lere was no help for it. The royal footmen let down
eps for the little, royal lady, who proceeded to lift
\he dust the pretty piece of cambric and lace. She
d a good deal, though she tossed her head saucily,
le was doubtless angry enough. But the mortifying
may have nipped in the bud her first impulse towards
;ry. It was hard, but it was wholesome. How many
can mothers would be equal to such a piece of Spartan
line?'*
ill venture to borrow another pretty story from Grace
wood's budget. The following anecdote was related
by the hero of it.
y friend, Mr. W , is a person of very artistic
— a passionate picture lover. He had seen all the
paintings in the public galleries of London, and had a
desire to see those of Buckingham Palace, which,
ot being a * show-house,' were inaccessible to an ordi-
zonnoisseur. Fortune favored him at last. He was*
')ther of a London carpet merchant, who had orders to
436 EMINENT WOMEN OF THB AGE.
put down new carpets in the state apartments of the palace.
And so it chanced that the temptation came to my friend to
put on a workman's blouse, and thus enter the royal pre-
cincts, while the flag indicating the presence of the august
family floated defiantly over the roof.
*^ So he efiected an entrance ; and, when once within the
royal halls, dropped his assumed character, and devoted
himself to the pictures. 'It happened that he remained in
one of the apartments after the workmen had left, and while
quite alone, the queen came tripping in, wearing a plain
white morning dress, and followed by two or three of her
younger children, dressed with like simplicity. She ap-
proached the supposed workman, and said, —
^ ' Pray, can you tell me when the new carpet will be put
down in the Privy Council Chamber?'
*^ And he, thinking he had no right to recognize the queen
under the circumstances, replied, —
•• ' Really, madam, I cannot tell, but I will inquire.*
** 'Stay,' she said, abruptly, but not unkindly; *who are
you ? I perceive that you are not one of the workmen.*
" Mr. W , blushing and stammering somewhat, yet
made a clean breast of it and told the simple truth. The
queen seemed much amused with his ruse^ and for the sake
of his love for the art forgave it ; then added, smiling, —
" ' 1 knew for all your dress that you were a gentleman, be-
cause you did not ''Your Majesty "me. Pray look at the
pictures as long as you will. Good-morning t Come chicks,
we must go.^
fn
These are but trifles ; but they serve to show the queen's
simple and kindly character. Her Highland Diary, recently
published, abounds in similar trifles, and exhibits to us the
picture of a happy family, always delighted to escape from
the trammelling etiquette and absurd splendors of their rank,
VICTOEIA, QUEEN OF ENGLAND. 437
and capable of being pleased with those natural pleasures
which are accessible to most of mankind.
'*I told Albert,** wrote the queen once, ''that formerly I
was too happy to go to London and wretched to leave it,
and how, since the blessed hour of my marriage, and still
more since the summer, I dislike and am unhappy to leave
the country, and could be content and happy never to go to
town. This pleased him. The solid pleasures of a peace-
ful, quiet, yet merry life in the country, with my inestimable
husband and friend, my all in all, are far more durable than '
the amusements of London, though we don't despise or dis-
like these sometimes."
Alas I that a union productive of so much happiness ancl
80 much good should have been prematurely sundered by
death. In the spring of 1862 the Prince was attacked at
Windsor Castle by a disease which the physicians pro-
nounced to be gastric fever. After a short illness the patient
sank into a kind of stupor, from which he roused himself
with ever-increasing difficulty. Americans will never forget
that the last act of this truly wise and noble prince was to
review the draft of the letter which the ministry proposed to
send to the American government, demanding the return of
the confederate commissioners taken from a British Mail
Steamer by Captain Wilkes, of the United States Navy.
Every tory mind in the universe desired that letter to be
couched in such language as would preclude the possibility
of a peaceful issue. But Prince Albert had not a tory uiiud.
Collecting, with a great effort, his benumbing faculties, he
read the letter carefully over, and suggested changes which
softened its tone, and made far easier a compliance with its
just demands. Soon after the performance of this duty, so
honorable to his memory, he relapsed into a lethargy from
438 EMIKEKT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
which death alone released hun. The queen was heart*
broken. Ever since that lamentable day, she has been a
mourner. Her own pathetic words touchingly express the
sense she had of his value to her,, and of the irreparable
nature of her loss.
** It will now be, in fact," she said, ^ the beginning of a
new reign.'*
I have spoken of the sovereignty of this lady as a " fic-
tion," and compared it with one of the romantic creations of
Sir Walter Scott. It is not, however, wholly fictitious. In
* one respect, it has been a solid and precious reality.
The time .has not yet come when nations can safely dis-
pense with imposing and venerable fictions ; and until they
can, it is highly desirable that those fictions should not be
too closely inspected, nor too frankly criticised. If the
*sailor-king, William the Fourth, had been succeeded by
another male creature so devoid of all human worth and
dignity as George the Fourth, so licentious, so extravagant,
so ignorant, and so vain, could he have reigned over Eng-
land for thirty peaceful years? Probably not. Long ere
this, the sensible people of Great Britain would have begun
to ask themselves, ** Why maintain this costly pageant, since
it is but a pageant? " The reign of this virtuous and amia-
ble queen has postponed this question for thirty years,
during which the people of England have been gaining polit-
ical knowledge and experience, and drawing nearer the time
when it will bo safe and expedient to let that man have the
name of governing England who does actually bear the chief
part in governing. History will, perhaps, decide that this
was the chief service which Queen Victoria rendered her
country.
ADELAIDE BISXOBI. 439
EMINENT WOMEN OF THE DRAMA
BY WILLIAM WINTEB.
No record of Eminent Women would be complete without
Bome reference to representative actresses. . In these the his
tory of the stage, especially within the last two hundred
years, is abundantly rich. Since the theatre was re-established
in England, at the restoration of the monarchy, in 1660,
many brilliant women have practised its art and won its
laureb. Many bright names, therefore, appear in the cata-
logue of famous actresses, from the time of Eleanor Gwyun
and Mrs. Sanderson to the time of Helen Faucit and Mrs.
Lander. Each successive generation has had its favorite
theatrical heroines. Mrs. Pritchard, Mrs. Oldfield, Peg
Woffington, Anne Bracegii-dle, Kitty Clive, Miss Farren,
Mrs. Siddons, Mrs. Yates, Mrs. Jordan, Eliza (XN'cill, Louisa
Brunton, Sally Booth, Maria Foote, Mrs. Nisbett, Ellen Tree,
Adelaide and Fanny Kemble, — these names, and many
more, sparkle with fadeless lustre on that ample and storied
page of dramatic history. Nor are they merely names.
Tho triumphs of genius outlast all other triumphs. Kings
and warriors may be remembered as shadows ; but the fair
conquerors of the stage inspire a warmer interest and live in
a more vivid remembrance. Painting immortalizes their
dead and gone beauty. Tradition preserves the memory of
their achievements. Literature cherishes the lustrous record
440 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
of their lives and deeds. That record, from the days of
Gerard Langbaine to the days of Thomas Campbell, Leigh
Hunt, William Hazlitt, and Charles Lamb, has instructed and
charmed a vast multitude of readers. No story, in truth,
can be more impressive or more affecting. Genius, beauty,
renown, the pageantry of public careers, the wild tumult of
popular applause, lives of stainless integrity and heroic self-
sacrifice, and lives of glittering infamy, lawless revel, and
lamentable anguish, — such are the elements of a narrative
that no sympathetic mind can contemplate without emotion
or without improvement. To add one brief page to that
story — a leaf from the present time — is the purpose of this
sketch. Its group of actresses must, necessarily, be a small
one, since its scope is restricted within narrow limits. The
artists herein described, however, are typical of different
nationalities and different orders of talent. As such — and
not in negligence of the signal ability and reputation of many
of their contemporaries — they have been selected for present
description.
I.
ADELAIDE RISTORI.
To all votaries of the stage, Adelaide Bistori is a familiar
and an honored name. On the 20th of September, 1866,
the great Italian actress made her first professional appearance
in America. Since then she has acted in nearly all the im-
portant cities in the United States. The way had been
smoothed for her coming. Long before she came, portions
of her story had been widely circulated in the Press, and her
name had become known in almost every household. The
record of her life illustrates the development of an original
nature and the progress of singular genius. It commencefl
440
EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
^^
\ ♦
i*
^'. M.
^
nature aud tuu pru^iebs ^
* lk»A«^Q«j*i
b~^-
ADELAIDE RISTOEI, 441
in 1826, when Adelaide Eistori was born, in tlie obscure
Venetian city of Cividale del Priali, Her parents, Antonio
Ristori and Maddelena Pomatelli, his wife, were players,
members of a strolling theatrical company, and very poor.
The little Adelaide made her first appearance on the stage
when she was only two months old, being carried on in a
basket, in the representation of a comedy called ^The New
Tear's Gift.* When four years old, she began to enact juve-
nile parts, in which, as she was a bright and pretty child, she
speedily became a favorite. Her first teacher was her pater-
nal grandmother ; and very hard work that teacher had to
do, — since the pupil evinced far more partiality for music
than for acting, and was not, without great difficulty, diverted
from the former to the latter. Perseverance, though, bent
the twig, and so gave the desired inclination to the tree. As
the child grew, her sphere of employment began to broaden.
From juvenile parts she passed to the line of ^ chamber-
maids," in which, at the age of twelve, she was notably pro-
ficient. Her labor at this time mainly supported her parents,
and her six brothers and sisters — younger than herself.*
Change of place was, of course, frequent, in this nomadic
period of her career. The first fixed dramatic company with
which she became connected was that of the King of Sar-
dinia, established at Turin. In this city she found her second
teacher, Carlotta Marchioni, a famous actress in her day, and
not less generous than eminent. To this artist the young
Bistori was indebted for sound teaching and judicious encour-
agement. At times the eccentric old actress would call her
•* an imbecile,** and bid her " go and wash dishes." At other
times, when the girl's acting justified approval, she would
feign severity and fondly murmur, " PU have no more to do
with you ! you act too much as I would have you." In brief,
Harchioni had discovered the germ of genius in this bud of
womanhood, and she lovingly and fitithfully labored to devel
44:2 EMINENT WOMEN OY THE AGE.
op it iuto the perfect flower. With the Taria comp&ny Bis-
tori remained until 1841 » when she accepted an engagement
in the Ducal company of Parma. The next five years of
her life were ^11 of labor, variety, and advancement. Her
best successes were won in comedy ; but she also attained
distinction as an interpreter of the romantic drama. That
she was surpassingly beautiful in those days can easily be im-
agined by all who remember the superb charms of her ma-
ture womanhood. But she conquered not less by virtue and
genius than by personal beauty. In 1846, Guliano del Grille,
son and heir to the wealthy Marchese Capranica, saw Ade-
laide Bistori, loved her, and won her heart. The parents of
the young nobleman, however, sternly forbade him to marry
a woman who was not only sprung of humble origin but was
an actress. The consequence of this parental opposition was
a stolen marriage between these lovers. Not without great
difficulty, though, were bride and bridegroom united. Some
time after their marriage, which was hastily contracted at a
little church near Cesena (Ristori being then on her way
from Rome to Florence, to fulfil a professional engagement in
the latter city) , del Grillo had to make his escape from potent
and dreaded parental vigilance, disguised as a peasant and
mounted on a mule-wagon, — in which trim he passed safely
through many perils, and came at last to Florence and to his
wife. Finding their opposition vain, the parents presently
relented, and a general reconciliation was attained. In the
meanwhile the marriage of Ristori and del Grillo, originally
one of public proclamation, — a valid ceremony in the Ro-
magna, in default of the usual rite, — had been solemnly rati-
fied, at Rome, by Cardinal Pacca. Thus, in honor and emi-
nence, closed the first chapter in the brilliant life of the
actress. In deference to the wish of her husband's family, she
now retired from the stage. A brief period of domestic re-
pose succeeded. But the genius of Ristori, not yet fully sat-
ADELAIDE BISTOBI. 413
isfied by expression, fretted in retirement and Icn^ed for its
wonted field of labor. The fetters were soon broken. Hear-
ing that one of her former managers had been imprisoned for
debt, the actress determined to give three performances for
his benefit* In pursuance of this resolve, she returned to the
stage. Her reappearance was made at Rome, in 1849 ; and
so great was her success that the populace stormed the theatre,
and wildly demanded her formal and permanent resumption
of her legitimate pursuit. Upon all hands her greatness was
acknowledged. Even the noble relatives bent to the spell
of this victorious hour. Aristocratic scruples were laid aside ;
a beneficent genius was left free to pursue its natural course ;
and, from that day to this, Adelaide Bistori has labored
almost constantly in the service of the drama. Nor, in so
laboring, has she neglected even the least of the duties of
private life. Cherished as a wife, reverenced as a mother,
and extolled throughout the civilized world as an actress, she
is a living rebuke to the idle and petty theory that woman
cannot devote herself to an independent pursuit without
sacrificing the sanctities of her home.
Bistori's first efforts in tragedy were made after her reap-
pearance at Rome. It was then, indeed, that she determined
to dedicate herself to this branch of her art. A renowned
Italian actress, Caroline Internari, advised her to this intent ;
and experience has shown the wisdom of that advice. Step
by step, in the course of nineteen years, Ristori has risen to
the first eminence among the tragic actresses of her time.
Upon the Italian stage her rank was attained with compara-
tive ease. She played many parts ; but the culmination of
her national success was marked by her performance of Al-
fieri's Myrrha^ in 1850. It is a terribly painful impersona-
tion, but it is wonderfully strong. Outside of Italy and
France, though, it has never been regarded with much en-
thusiasm — save that of horror ; and there seems no especial
444 EMINENT WOMEN OP THE AGE.
need of pausing upon it here. From Italy Ristori turned her
eyes to France. To conquer Paris would be to conquer
Europe ; for Paris was the art-capital of the continent. Tak-
ing all the risks, therefore, Bistori selected an Italian com-
pany and made her way to the renowned metropolis. It was
during the season of the first Universal Exposition, on the
22d of May, 1855, that she made her first appearance in
Paris. Silvio Pellico's "Francesca da. Rimini" — embody-
ing that sweet, sad story which readers of English poetiy
have learned by heart in the tenderly musical and delicately
colored poem of Leigh Hunt — was the opening piece in this
important season. Ristori played Francesca. It is a char-
acter that reveals her sweetness more than her strength ; but
her personation of it was a perfect success. Seven nights
afterwards she played Myrrha. All Paris was at her feet
"Ristori," wrote Jules Janin, then the representative dra-
matic critic — "she is tragedy itself ; she is comedy; she is
the drama." " Our language is too poor,** said Lamartin«,
" to express the worth of that woman.** Her first season in
Paris extended to the 10th of September. At its close she
had given three representations of JFrancesca^ seventeen of
Myrrha^ twenty-two of Mary Stuart^ and seven of Pia da
Tohmei; and she had earned half a million francs. Mora
than that — she had conquered the capital. All the intellect
and- culture of Paris honored the artist ; Ary Scheffer painted
her portrait ; the Italian residents of Paris gave her a med-
al ; and a diamond bracelet, presented by the Emperor of
the French, testified to the imperial homage of ^Napoleon
ni. to Adelaide Ristori.** Her second season in Paris was
like the first ; nor did less success attend her in the other
great cities of Europe. At the subsequent incidents of hei
European career it is only needful to glance in brief and
rapid review. In 1857 she visited Spain ; and it is recorded,
in illustration of her marvellous personal ma^etism, that,
ADELAIDE BISTOBI. 445
on ono occasion during this yisit, she so wrought upon the
feelings of Queen Isabella, as to procure the pardon of a poor
soldier, condemned to death for a breach of martial disci-
pline. In 1858 she was in Berlin, and was decorated, by the
King of Prussia, with the " Order of Merit," — never before
attained by a woman, — in honorable recognition of her acting
as Deborah (the *'Leah" of the American stage). In 1860
she played a brilliant engagement at St. Petersburg. So far
in Italian. Now, however, she was persuaded to achieve
renown in French. Her first venture in this lauofuaofe was
made at the Odeon, in Paris, in 1861, in the character of
BeainXf in a drama expressly written for her by Legouve.
It proved a hit. The piece was played eighty nights in that
year, and afterwards, in 1865, was prosperously revived,
both in the capital and in the provincial cities of France.
At one time Bistori travelled with two distinct dramatic com-
panies, one Italian and the other French. To London she
went in 1863. Mary Stuart and Queen Elizabeth were there
accounted her best impersonations ; and, as every theatrical
community in America can now testify, they are entirely
superb and peerless works of art. In 1864 Eistori went to
Egypt and gave thirty-seven performances at Alexandria.
Still latdr she played at Constantinople, at Athens, and at
Smyrna. In 1865 she visited Holland, by invitation of the
University of Utrecht. By this time she hud attained all
possible professional honors in the old world, and it was only
natural that she should turn her eyes across the sea.
Kistori's American career, as already mentioned, began on
the 20th of September, 1866, — her appearance being made
under the direction of Mr. J. Grau. The event is remembered
as one of the most interesting and exciting that have, of late
years, marked the history of the stage. The place was the
French Theatre, in New York city. The house was densely
crowded. BIstori's entrance, in the first act of "* Medea," was
446 EMIKENT WOMEN 0? THE AGE.
awaited with almost breathless suspense, and was greeted
with a tumult of joyful enthusiasm. No artist, indeed,
could wish for a heartier welcome than American au-
diences habitually accord to a stranger. Nor, in the case of
Bistori, did this spontaneous cordiality abate, as the perform-
ance proceeded ; for the actress was recalled at the end of
each act, and three times at the end of the play. Every
heart felt the presence of an extraordinary woman. Her
majesty of person and demeanor ; her gracious dignity ; her
powerful and perfectly melodious voice, — the grandest voice
that has been he^d on the stage in modern times; her
stately, Roman head ; dark, flashing gray eyes ; wonderful
mobility of feature ; luxuriant freedom and massive grace of
gesture ; and, above all, the sense that hung about her of ex
haustless reserve power, — could not fail, in truth, to thrill the
sensitive, sympathetic American temperament. Then, too,
her personation of Medea disclosed, as in a comprehensive
picture, all the chief faculties and qualities of her genius.
After-performances did, of course, make them more fully
and definitely known ; but this performance seemed to crys-
tallize them all. In the tragedy of " Medea ** an irresistible
appeal is made to sympathy with both passionate and mater-
nal love, — each of which is seen to be scorned and outraged,
— and also to admiration for a brilliant personality. Medea^
a barbaric princess, has not only been deserted by her hus-
band, whom she loves with an intense and wild ardor that is
frightful and almost impious, but her children are taken from
her, even at the supreme moment of agony when her recre-
ant husband has cast her off in scorn, and announced his de-
sign to wed another woman. To be wronged as a wife was
a sufficiently miserable disaster. To be wronged as a mother
is an overwhelming calamity. The double blow breaks
Medea^a heart and crazes her brain, that is predisposed to
madness. Then, in the poisoning of her rival and the
▲SELAIDB BISXOBI. 439
EMINENT WOMEN OF THE DRAMA
BY WILLIAM WINTER.
No record of Eminent Women would be complete without
Bome reference to representative actresses. . In these the his
tory of the stage, especially within the last two hundred
years, is abundantly rich. Since the theatre was re-established
in England, at the restoration of the monarchy, in 1660,
many brilliant women have practised its art and won its
laureb. Many bright names, therefore, appear in the cata-
logue of famous actresses, from the time of Eleanor Gwyun
and Mrs. Sanderson to the time of Helen Faucit and Mrs.
Lander. Each successive generation has had its favorite
theatrical heroines. Mrs. Pritchard, Mrs. Oldfield, Peg
Woffington, Anne Bracegiixlle, Kitty Clive, Miss Farren,
Mrs. Siddons, Mrs. Yates, Mrs. Jordan, Eliza (XN'eill, Louisa
Brunton, Sally Booth, Maria Foote, Mrs. Nisbett, Ellen Tree,
Adelaide and Fanny Kemble, — these names, and many
more, sparkle with fadeless lustre on that ample and storied
page of dramatic history. Nor are they merely names.
The triumphs of genius outlast all other triumphs. Kings
and warriors may be remembered as shadows ; but the fair
conquerors of the stage inspire a warmer interest and live in
a more vivid remembrance. Painting immortalizes their
dead and gone beauty. Tradition preserves the memory of
their achievements. Literature cherishes the lustrous record
44S EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE,
Elizabeth^ \i\ particular, was pre-eminently great. Seeing
Ristori in that assumption, you saw a woman who was mani-
festly born to rule ; who swayed everything around her with
an iron will ; who had never even dreamed of doubting he?
divine right of monarchy ; but who, nevertheless, was the
victim of human passions, human weakness, and that sorrow
which is Heaven's discipline for all mankind. Pride was
•
never depicted better than in her arrogant scorn of rival
genius and aspiration, and in her martial defiance of a dan-
gerous enemy, — Philip 11., of Spain, Valor found its most
chivalric utterance, when she drew the sword of her father,
King Henry VHI? Love — the dangerous gentleness and
glittering passion of the tigress — was fully jDortrayed in
her fatal dalliance with the brave Earl of Essex. For the
rest: vanity, spite, spleen, malignant crtielty, and hypocrisy
— all that composed the imperial weakness of the " virgin
queen" — were minutely painted in her atrocious conduct
toward the captive Queen of Scots. How massive was the
nature of the great monarch you could easily comprehend, in
contemplating the splendid art of the actress, — her struggles
between duty and passion, her terrific remorse, and her
lonely, desolate death. Bistori interpreted many other char-
acters while she was in America ; but never one that so cap-
tivated the popular heart. Time may impair the recollection
of the actress in other parts ; but it can never dim in memory
her lustrous image of England's grandest queen. Analysis
of all her ..personations is, of course, impossible here ; but
mention of all may usefully be made. She appeared here,
during her first engagement, as Medea^ Mary Stuart^ Queen
EUzabethj Phmdray Judith^ Pia de Tolomei^ Francesca
da Riminij Adnenne Lecouvreuvy Thisbej Oamma^ Myrrha^
Deborah^ Norma^ and Lady Macbeth. That engagement, in-
cluding her tour outside of New York, extended over a
period of eight months, in the course of which time she gave
ADELAIDE BISTORT. 449
one hundred and sixty-eight performances. The last of these
occurred at the French Theatre, in New York, on the night
of the 17th of May, 1867, when she took a farewell benefit,
appearing as Medea. Her first speech in English was made
on this occasion, when, at the end of the performance, she
came forward, in response to the call of the audience, and
spoke the following words : —
** Ladies and Gentlemen, — This is the first moment of
profound sorrow I have known in this country. To bid adieu
to New York, the birthplace of my success, — to say fare-
well to the United States, that have evei^ where received me
with open arms, — awakens emotions too deep for any words
my poor tongue can utter. My visit to America is the grand
event of my life ; — grand in its temerity, grander yet in its
triumphs. Your enthusiasm, your munificence, your good-
ness, I shall remember long and gratefully ; remember till
memory decays and my heart ceases to throb. Adieu I "
On the following day Ristori sailed for Europe ; but in the
autumn of 1867 she returned to New York, and commenced,
on the 18th of September, her second, and last, American
engagement. This was signalized by the production, on the
7th of October, of a now drama, then acted for the first time»
Signor Giacommetti's " Marie Antoinette." The play is so
constructed that it depicts the queen at various chief periods
in her career. Its action commences in 178G, and terminates
in 1793. Comedy and tragedy blend in it, and exact from
the actress the utmost versatility and the deepest emotion.
Kistori amply satisfied the demand. By all who saw the per-
Bonation, her Marie Antoinette will ever be remembered as a
stately image of majesty and sorrow. In the drama, as m
history, Marie Antoinette is seen to have been subjected to
bitter injustice and insult : ruthlessly separated from her has-
29
450 EMINENT WOMEN OF TSE AGE.
band ; harrowed by tbo knowledge of his death upon the
guillotine ; torn from her children ; plunged into the deeps
of agony and despair ; and, finally, led forth to die amid the
jeers of the brutal, infernal mob of the French revolution.
Her experience, indeed, was the epitome of all miseries;
but, over all miseries her indomitable constancy remained the
victor. Ristori realized this ideal of suffering and fortitude.
Her Marie Antoinette was a beautiful, brilliant woman, a lov-
ing wife, a fond mother, a proud-spirited queen, a profound
sufferer, an exalted conqueror of all the ills of a most wretch-
ed fate. In two of the scenes, the pathos of her acting waa
such as no words cati express. One scene, at the end of the
fourth act, represented the parting betwixt Louis XVI. and
his wife and children. Overcome by his emotions, the king,
who knows himself condemned to die, rushes away into his
oratory, and closes and fastens the door behind him. The
queen and children pursue him : and then it was that Historic
bursting into a delirium, beat upon the door with both her
hands, and cried out upon his name, ^ Ah ! Luigi, una parola
— una sola 1 " and wrung every heart with grief and pity.
The other 'scene represented the wife and children, kneeling in
prayer for the husband and father, at that moment on his way
to the guillotine. The roll of drums and the wail of the
dead-march sounds in their ears, even while they pniy, but
continually grows fainter and fainter until it dies away in the
distance. Bistori's face was a perfect picture of convulsive
agony. A stupendous sorrow struggled in it with a vain,
despairing effort at resignation. These scenes always pro-
duced an extraordinary effect upon the spectators. Histori-
cally accurate in every detail, and literally true to nature in
every phase of emotion, Ristori*s Marie Antoinette lives, in-
deed, in many memories, as the beat of all her impersona*
tions. To have seen this piece of acting is to have appre-
hended every aspect of the French Eevolution, — its horror«
ABSLAIDE BISfOBI. 451
its pathos, its hideous details, its retributive justice, and its
full social significance.
Eistori's second American engagement lasted nine months.
Her last appearance in New York was made on the 26th of
June, 1868, as Queen Elizabeth. The chief new part that she
played during her final season was Isabella Suarez^ in a five-act
drama, of a religious character, entitled ** Sor Teresa," the
work of Signor Luigi Camoletti. The entire number of
performances given during her second engagement was one
hundred and eighty-one, of which fifty-six were given in the
iskind of Cuba. Her prosperity in America was very great.
Personally as well as professionally she made the most pleas-*
ing impression throughout this country. **Away from the
theatre," wrote one of her most earnest critics and devoted
students, — Kate Field, — ^'sne is the most human (and hu-
mane), the most simple, the most unaffected, the most sym-
pathetic of women. So strongly is the line drawn between
reality and fiction, that, in Bistori's presence, it requires a
mental effort to recall her histrionic greatness." . . • That
greatness, however, must forever survive in the history of the
stage. Putting aside all differences of critical opinion, one
thought is held in common by all who have watched her
career and studied her achievements. That thought is, that
she possesses a great intellect, a good heart, and a pure nature,
and that she has exercised the best possible influence upon
the drama. True to herself as well as to her profession, by
her personal worth and private virtues she has attained a so-
cial station commensurate in eminence with that which her
genius and aspiring energy have won for her in the world of
art. The woman is as great as the actress ; and the best
minds and purest lives of our time have proudly and gladly
recognized a fellowship with Adelaide Bistori.
4J)2 EUINEVT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
n.
EUPHROSYNE PAREPA ROSA.
In the autumn of 1866 the musical public of America wel-^
corned to these shores a richly-gifted and very remarkable
musical artist, — Euphrosyne Parepa Rosa. At the begin-
ning of her American career she awakened a lively interest.
Her talents were seen to be extraordiuary, and her tempera-
ment was recognized as uncommonly genial. Time has
confirmed that first impression, and lively interest has deep-
ened into an affectionate esteem. The story of the artist's
life is brief and simple. She was born at Edinburgh,
Scotland, in 1839. Her father was a Wallachian nobleman.
Baron Georgiades de Boyesku, of Bucharest. Her mother.
Miss Seguin, was a sister to the once eminent basso of that
name. Their married life lasted but a little while, being
terminated by the sudden death of the Baron, whereby his
widow, only twenty-one years of age at the time, was left in
poverty. To support herself and her infant child, Euphro-
syne, the bereaved Baroness shortly afterward adopted the
lyric stage as a profession, and presently began the education
of her daughter for the same pursuit. This proved a labor
of ease as well as of love. In her musical studies the child
made rapid progress; and she also acquired, with rare
facility, five modern languages, — English, Italian, French,
German, and Spanish. At the age of sixteen — in 1855 —
she made her first public appearance in opera, in the city of
Malta. Aminaf in " Sonuambula," — a customary role of
operatic debutantes^ — was the character she then assumed ;
and therein she made a marked and promising success. The
unusual power and compass of her voice, and the felicitous
method of her execution, speedily became themes of praise
with European connoisseurs of music. At Naples, Genoa,
BUFHBOSYNE FABEPA BOSA. 453
Borne, Florence, Madrid, and Lisbon, her first success was
repeated and increased. So, for two years, she prospered,
on the continent of Europe, receiving the applause of the
people, the cordial favor of musical criticism, and the com-
pliments and honorary gifts of nobles and of monarchs. In
1857 she made her d£but in London, in the same company
with Bonconi, Gardoni, and Tagliafico, in •*!! Puritani,"
and thereafter took a high place in the favor of the British
public. Her career in England lasted nine years ; in the
course of which period she became the wife of a British
officer, whose death, however, left her in widowhood, at the
end of sixteen months. The autumn of 1866, as has already
been stated, found her in the United States. The company
with which she came included the well-known cornet player,
Levy, and the violinist, Carl Bosa, and was directed by
Mr. H. L. Bateman. Her d^but here, September 11,
was made in concert, in the city of New York ; but she has
since achieved honors in oratorio and opera, in most of
the principal cities of thd Bepublic. In 1867 she became
the wife of Carl Bosa, with whom she has happily
lived and labored. Her rank in the musical world is high
and honorable, and rests upon solid merits. Nature has
endowed her with rich and remarkable gifts. Her voice, a
pure soprano, is very powerful, is even in the register, and
is thoroughly well balanced. Her method is entirely cor-
rect; and, in view of the great volume of her voice, her
fineness of execution is unusual and surprising. Perfect in
the technical part of music, and thoroughly acquainted with
the nature and the scope of her own powers, she does every
thing well that she undertakes, and she never undertakes a
task that she is not fully able to perform. Her intonation
and enunciation are faultless. In oratorio and in the con-
cert room she has no equal. On the stage, however, she
somewhat lacks, in acting, the intensity of passionate emo
456 EMIKEKT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
already ia tho profession, — one, Mrs. Maria Bradshaw, as a
singer, at Covent Garden, and the other, Mrs. Quin, as adancer,
at Drury Lane. Their influence, of course, favored their young
relative, and an affectionate mother protected, cheered, and
encouraged her. In 1827 she was engaged as a member of
the Drury Lane company, and in that theatre she made her
first conspicuous successes. Her range of characters, even
then, was wide. She played Lady Teazle^ and she also
played Jane Shore^ thus touching the antipodes of
comedy and tragedy, la that same j'^ear, and at that same
theatre, Charles Kean made his first professional appearance ;
and it is probable that the acquaintance then and there com-
menced, which was afterwards to ripen into love and marriage
between these two distinguished artists. At that time, and
for several subsequent years, theatrical business appears to
have been uncertain and unprofitable in London ; and, as a
matter of prudence no less than enterprise, Ellen Tree ya*
ricd her metropolitan engagements with various provincial
tours, visiting and playing in the principal cities of Kngland,
Ireland, and Scotland. Success, in every respect, continu-
ally attended her footsteps. She played by turns all the ac-
cepted leading parts in the legitimate drama, and her profes-
sional reputation was steadily augmented. One of her
eminent successes was her personation of Clemanthe^ in Tal-
fourd'd classic and beautiful tragedy, which was first acted
at Covent Garden, May 26th, 1836. With Jon, too, one of
the purest and brightest of all the denizens of the world of
fancy, her name is identified. In 1836, she visited the
United States, and made a starring tour of this country,
which lasted three years. Her success here was very great,
and she found the warmest favor, not merely with the general
multitude of theatre-goers, but with the best educated and
most refined classes in American society. Years afterwards,
in 1865, when, after a long absence, she reappeared in Now
ELLEN TBEE (MBS. CHABLES EEAN). 457
York, as Mrs. Charles Kean, it was remarked that many
gray-haired men and women appeared among her audiences,
lured to unfamiliar footlights by the desire to renew their in-*
tellectual association with the brilliant stage heroine of younger
and brighter days. In 1839 she returned to England, with
£10,000 as the fniit of her professional labors in America.
Her first English reappearance was made at the Haymarket,
where she was welcomed home almost rapturously by the
English public. On the 4th of November, 1839, she ap-
peared at Covent Garden, then under the management of
Madame Vestris (afterwards Mrs. Charles Matthews, and
since deceased), as the Countess^ in Sheridan Knowles's
drama of "Love," then acted for the first time, but repeated
fifty times in the course of that season. In January, 1842,
at Dublin, she was married to Charles Kean, with whom for
twenty-six years she lived in perfect sympathy and happi-
ness. Three months after their marriage they played a joint
engagement, extending over a period of fifty-three nights, at
the London Haymarket. "^As You Like It,'' "The Game-
ster,*' and "The Lady of Lyons," may be mentioned as typical
of the character of the pieces in which they performed. In
August, 1845, they came to the United States, bringing with
them Lovell's now well-known drama of " The Wife's Secret,"
written expressly for them, and in which they acted with
singular excellence. In this piece, and in Sbakspearean
plays, Mr. and Mrs. Kean fulfilled a round of engagements
in the principal cities of the Republic, with equal fame and
profit. In the summer of 1847 they returned to England.
Thenceforward, as before, Ellen Tree shared the labors and
the fortunes of her husband. She had no separate career,
nor did she desire it. In 1848 Mr. Kean was appointed by
the Queen of England to be conductor of the Christmas
theatriciil performances at Windsor Castle, instituted by that
sovereign and her lamented consort, the late Prince Albert,
458 EMINENT WOMEN OE THE AQE.
yrith the double design of benefiting the drama and I'^licving
the court of the care and ceremony incident to state visits
to the public theatres. This very difBcult office Mr. Kean
filled for ten years ; and, as he was wont to consult his wife
on every important matter, it is fair to discern in his signal
success some traces of Ellen Tree's prudence, tact, knowl-
edge of human nature, and ripe professional cultivation. At
the end of his first season, the queen denoted her apprecia^
tion of his services by giving him a diamond ring. In 1850
Mr. Kean became joint lessee of the Princess's Theatre, in
London, of which he was left sole lessee and manager in the
following year. Here began the most brilliant period of his
own and his wife's theatrical career. What Charles Kemble
commenced, and Macready continued, Charles Kean trium-
phantly finished, — the grand and noble work of doing en^
tire justice, in their representation, to Shakspeare's plays.
Strangely enough, accuracy on the stage is a modern viitue.
Hamlet^ as played by Garrick, wore the wig and the knee-
breeches of Garrick's time. Charles Kemble was the first to
make a stand for literal correctness of costume. Macready,
who took Covent Garden Theatre for his field of enterprise,
in 1837, went further, and made a stand for greater correct-
ness of scenery. But^ it remained for Charles Kean to do
more than had ever before been attempted, by every possible
auxiliary of art, skill, learning, labor, and money, to place
the plays of Shakspeare on the stage in a thoroughly correct
and splendid manner. That work he accomplished ; and he
is said to have remarked, very late in his life, doubtless in a
moment of despondency, that he had wasted the best work-
ing years of his career, in endeavoring to sustain the dignity
and purity of the British drama. He retired from the man-
agement of the Princess's in 1860, having, within his term of
nine years, made the most elaborate and brilliant revivals,
not alone of k?hakspearean, but of divers other dramas. The
ELLEN TBBE (MBS. CHABLES EEAN). 459
Beries commenced in February, 1852, with ''The Merry
"Wives of Windsor." This was followed, in due succession,
by "King John," ''The Corsican Brothers," "Macbeth,"
"Sardanapalus," "Richard III.," "Faust and Marguerite,"
"King Henry VIH.," "The Winter's Tale," "Louis XL,"
"A Midsummer Night's Dream," "King Richard 11. ," "The
Tempest," " King Lear," " Pizarro," " The Merchant of Ven-
ice," and " Much Ado About Nothing." Each of these pieces
bad a very long run, and in each Mr. and Mrs. Kean played
the principal parts. A public dinner was given to Mr. Kean,
on his retirement from the direction of the Princess's Theatre.
Mr. Gladstone presided ; and, on behalf of the committee
and subscribers, presented the retiring manager with a silver
vase, valued at two thousand guineas. In the speech that
he delivered on this interesting occasion, Mr. Kean made
the following significant allusion to the cherished partner of
his fortunes : " Mind and body require rest, after such active
exertions for nine years, during the best period of my life ;
and it could not be a matter of surprise if I sank under a
continuance of the combined duties of actor and manager, in
a theatre where everything has grown into gigantic propor-
tions. Indeed, I should long since have succumbed, had I
not been sustained and seconded by the indomitable energy
and devoted affection of my wife. You have only seen her
in the fulfilment of her professional pursuits, and are there-
fore unable to estimate the value of her assistance and coun-
sel. She was ever by my side in the hour of need, ready to
revive my drooping spirits, and to stimulate me to fresh ex«
ertion." In July, 1863, Mr. and Mrs. Kean set out from
London, with a small, selected company, including tl^eir
niece. Miss E. Chapman, Mr. J. F. Cathcart, and Mr. G.
Everett, to make a professional tour around the world. They
went first to Australia ; thence to California ; thence to the
West Indies ; and thence to New York. In the latter city
4:60 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
they arrived in April, ISGS, and made their first appearance
there, at the Broadway Theatre, when it, together with the
other theatres, was reopened, subsequent to the assassination
of President Lincoln. In the opening pieces, *' Henry VIII. ,"
and ^ The Jealous Wife,'* Mrs. Kean played Queen Catherine
and Mrs. Oakley. Majesty of mien, fervor of feeling, re-
markable variety of intonation and of facial expression, ac-
curacy of method, and charming vivacity betokened in those
personations the gifted and cultured actress. She was
seen, however, to be altogether unlike the Ellen Tree of for-
mer days, the slight, graceful, elegant, laughing lady, who
had blazed upon the stage as the radiant i2osaZin(2y and dazzled
every eye with her beauty and her wit.
«* For beauty, wit,
High birtli» vigor of bone» desert in service,
Love, friendship, charity, are sabject all
To envious and caluminating time."
The final sojourn of the Keans in the United States lasted
a year. On the 16th of April, 1866, at the Academy of
Music, in New York, after having appeared in the chief
theatres of the United States and Canada, they took a fare-
well benefit, playing in ''Louis XI.,'* and ''The Jealous
Wife." There was a very great multitude present, and the
occasion lingers in memory as one of the brightest and saddest
in the record of the stage. The fine art of acting never re-
ceived a more fervent, conscientious, and touching illustra-
tion than was afforded in this performance. Mr. Kean played
wi^h all the energy and fire of his nature, and, at the close
of the representation of "Louis XI.," made a most affecting
farewell speech to the public. Mrs. Kean's part in " Louis
XI." was Martelj the peasant's wife. She was very genial
and simple in it ; and thus, even in a trifle, revealed the es
ELLKN TBEE (MBS. CHABLES, KEAN). 461
sential charm of her temperament. A sweet, kind, unpre-
tending, helpful, affectionate woman, such Ellen Tree always
was ; and very naturally, therefore, she has always borne her
rare mental gifts and distinguished worldly honors with na-
tive modesty, ease, and grace, winning on all sides affection
not less than esteem. At the close of their engagement here,
Mr. and Mrs. Kean returned to England, there to commence
a series of farewell performances, by way of final retirement
from public life. This was abruptly terminated by the sud-
den and serious illness of Mr. Kean, on the 29th of May,
1867, when, at Liverpool, he was playing ^ Louis XI.** He
never played again. On the 22d of January, 1868, at Bays-
water, near London, he died. His grave is in the village
of Catherington, in ELampshire, close by that of his mother.
Ellen Tree, of course, will act no more. Sorrow saddens
the autumn of her brilliant life. From all quarters, though,
she is the recipient of the kindest and sincerest sympathy.
The Queen of England, herself a widow, has sent a letter
of condolence to the widow of the actor. Better than royal
courtesy, however, and better than all the consolations of
friendship and fortune, is the consciousness of duty well
and truly done toward him whom she loves and mourns, and
toward all the world. With that consciousness warm at her
heart, Ellen Tree can look back upon a well-ordered, &ii
honorable, a distinguished, and a successful life. Her rank
as a dramatic artist is with the best representatives of En|{«
lish comedy.
462 SlflNSNT WOMEN OF THE AOB.
IV.
CLARA LOUISA KELLOGG.
America's favorite vocalist, Clara Louisa Kellogg, was born
in Sumter, South Carolina, in 1842. She is, however, of
New England parentage. Her early years wore passed ia
Connecticut. She was educated at the free schools, and ia
them she used to sing with her little school-mates ; but she
does not appear to have attracted attention as a child, by
either proficiency in vocal exercises or especial beauty of
voice. At one time in her girlhood she sang in a church-
choir, in the town of Lyme, where she was thought to possess
a pretty voice, but one that could easily be shouted down by
more vigorous organs. In 1858 her parents were residents
of New York city, her mother being what is called " a healing
medium," — in other words, a clairvoyant doctor. Many
visitors were attracted to this lady — who is, indeed, de-
scribed as a singularly gifted and interesting person — by the
fame of her success as a physician. One of these visitors,
on conversing with Mrs. Kellogg, learned that her " medium "
powers had first been exercised in restoring to health her own
daughter, a slender, delicate girl, who, at the moment of this
conversation, was singing, behind a curtain that divided the
room in twain, to the accompanying jingle of a cracked piaao.
One confidence succeeding another, Mrs. Kellogg said that her
daughter's ambition impelled her toward the operatic stage*
Reference was hereupon made, by the visitor, to Miss Eliza
Logan, the once distinguished actress, — now in retirement^
as 'Mrs. George Wood. At a later period mother and
daughter called on this lady, and consulted her as to the ex-
pediency of Miss Kellogg's adopting a professional career.
The incident is interesting and significant, as indicative of the
troubles that beseti at the outset, every aspirant for the ^rtistio
CLABA LOUISA KBLLOGO. 463
life, and of the courageous energy that is needful to meet and
overcome them : —
**My sister," writes Miss Olive Logan, in one of her
lively, off-hand sketches, "spoke in a disinterested manner
to this young girl, — told her of all the haps and mishaps
of stage life, — spoke, also, of that unnecessary and unjust
obloquy which is attached to the name of every actress, and
then bade her go back and ponder seriously. She went back
with her mother, and both pondered seriously. They pon-
dered ou the fact that the young girl must do something for
self-sustenance. They pondered on the limited field of em«
ployment which is open to women. They pondered on the
emoluments and the delights of being a seamstress, or a shop-
girl, or a worker on a sewing-machine. They pondered on
the scope afforded the daughter's genius by these employ-
ments ; and, pondering, they decided. The young girl went
upon the stage. She made a failure, — a dire, desperate,
seemingly hopeless failure. But sho remembered that many
a great genius has failed at first, only to triumph at last.
There was a plucky spirit in the girl's heart, and she did not
turn to the sewing-machine as a last resort. Betiring again
to private life, she began to labor at art as no galley-slave
ever labored at the work to which he was sentenced. Her
days and her nights were given to the worship of the goddess
she loved ; and, on her reappearance on the stage, she was
tolerably, if not brilliantly, successful. Her great virtue was
that she did not consider herself perfect ; but day after day,
and night after night, she kept up that unceasing toil which
has now made her one of the most celebrated women of the
age and the only pure-blood prima donna assoluta of whom
America can boast."*
Surmounting all obstacles, Miss Kellogg at last made her
•p. 7. Nkholwn'f <<Town and Oounky."
4M EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
debut at the Academy of Music. This event took place
under Mr. J. Grau's management, in 1860, in '^Eigoletto.'*
The attempt was a failure. In fact, it was only after her third
debut that the young vocalist succeeded. Since then her prog-
ress has been very rapid to that fame and fortune rightfully
due to exalted merit and steadfast energy of character. Very
early in her career she had the happiness to attract the atten-
tion of a munificent friend of art, — one of those wealthy
men, found here and there throughout society, who practically
consider that riches are given to them in order that they may
promote the general welfare of mankind. That friend was
Col. H. G. Stebbins, of New York, who formed so high
an estimate of Miss Kellogg's musical gifts, conceived so deep
an interest in her singularly delicate, refined, and gentle
nature, and foresaw such a bright future for her in art, thai
he offered to charge himself with the care and cost of her
musical education. The offer was accepted by the parents
of the singer, and Col. Stebbins faithfully performed his
chosen work. In truth. Miss Kellogg was, in a measure,
adopted into the family of this sterling gentleman and gener-
ous friend, who has been to her a second father. Among the
music-teachers then employed for her cultivation were
Professor Milet, M. Riznire, and M. Muzio. One of her
earliest personations that attracted critical attention and in-
spired hope for her future, was her Grilda^ in "Rigoletto,*'
which she played at the Academy of Music, in 1861. Her
first really great success, though, was made as Margheritaj in
Gounod's ''Faust," which was first produced in New York,
in the season of 1864-65. Personal adaptability to the char-
acter was, doubtless, one of the chief sources of this success.
Margherita is a pure, delicate, gentle, loving, simple-hearted,
and simple-minded maiden ; and Miss Kellogg filled this ideal,
not less in spirit than in outward seeming. Another of her
successes was made as Linda di Chamounix, in May, 1867.
CLARi LOUISA KELLOGG. 465
^er actiny^ and singing, in the malediction scene, in act second
of this opera, are still remembered, with lively emotions of
astonishment and admiration, because of their extraor-
dinaiy vitality, tragic force, and glittering precision of
method, in which art concealed every trace of art and
wielded the magical wand of nature. In addition to these.
Miss Kellogg has made signal successes in *^ Crispiuo e la
Comare," '^Fra Diavola,'* "II Barbiere di Seviglia," ''I Puri-
tani," "L'Etoile du Nord," '^La Sonnambula," "Martha,"^
"Don Giovanni,'* "Lucia di Lammermoor," and "La Travi-
ata." Her dibut in London was made on the 2d of Novem-
ber, 1867, as Margherita. Few triumphs so genuine and so
brilliant as hers have ever been won upon the London stage,
and no American musical artist has hitherto attained a repu*
tation at all commensurate with that which Miss Kellogg now
enjoys abroad. Her impersonations, indeed, and her delight-
ful vocal powers have in a surprising manner affected both the
mind and the heart of the English people. Many pages might
easily be filled with thoughtful and ardent praises of the
singer, from the soundest critical journals in London. A
single qtrotation from one of these will not here be misplaced,
as representative of the tone of European opinion respecting
the prima donna of whom the art-public of her native America
is so justly proud.
"Miss Kellogg," said the London "Review," on the^
Saturday subsequent to her d^but, "has for four or five^
years past enjoyed the highest renown in her own land, re-
ports of which have long reached us here ; and now we are*
at>le to bear testimony to the truth of the praise which has
been bestowed on her by American critics. No ordeal could
have been found more severe than a first appearance as Jlfar-
gherita in Gounod's 'Faust,' a part in which the London pub-
lic has seen and heard some eight or more artists, — some
80
466 EMINENT Women of the age.
excellent, all more or less good. Besides others, Mtidame
Miolan-Carvalho (the original Marglierita in Paris), Mad-
emoiselle Lucca, Mademoiselle Patti, Mademoiselle Titiens,
Mademoiselle Artot, and, last of all. Mademoiselle Christine
Nilsson, have all been heard here in this part, and have left
impressions which render it extremely difficult for any new-
comer to succeed in the same character. The great success,
therefore, of Miss Kellogg is decisive proof of her merits and
accomplishments. Her voice is a soprano of pure and even
quality, sufficiently brilliant in its upper portion, and intensely
sympathetic in its middle and lower range. She has perfect
command over a compass of two octaves, — her execution
and intonation evidencing that complete course of student
training, the necessary drudgery of which is so frequently
shirked by vocal aspirants, and more especially when gifted
with naturally fine voices, which are too generally considered
by their possessors to be the chief requisites for success ;
whereas, in point of fact, the voice is but as an instrument
apart from the trained skill and art requisite to wield it. Miss
Kellogg is one of those exceptional singers who, blessed with
a fine voice, have yet not presumed, on the strengtlx. thereof,
to neglect those minute and laborious details of vocal exercise
which form the requisite training fon an executive artist.
These qualities are apparent in the certainty and precision
with which she intonates distant intervals, the note beiiig at
once perfectly reached without that wavering which is some-
times perceptible in singers of great pretensions, whose prac-
tice of scales and solfeggi hsiS not been sufficiently diligent.
Miss Kellogg's power, too, of sustaining a note with a pro-
longed diminuendo^ finishing with an almost imperceptible
pianissimo^ unfalteringly in tune, is another proof of
thorough training. Then her bravura-singing in fiorld orna-
mental passages has that distinctness and completeness of
style so seldom re'ilized ; while her shake is irreproachable in
KATB BATEMAN (MBS. GEOBGE CBOWE). 467
closeness^ evennessy and intonation. Beyond these technical
merits, Miss Kellogg possesses a refinement and sensibility
of style, and a power of expression, aided by a voice of
naturally sympathetic quality, which impart a charm to her
performance not to be found in mere mechanical excellence.
Moreover, Miss Kellogg is an excellent actress, — with an
intelligent and expressive face, a graceful figure, and that
propriety of gesture, action, and by-play, which denote that
the study of acting, apart from singing, has occupied more
of her attention than is usual with vocalists."
These views have the double merit of impartiality and truth-
fuluess. In their estimate of the singer there is no extrava-
gance. Miss Kellogg is gifted with extraordinary powers,
by which, and by great and continual labor, she has fairly
earned her eminence. Nor can her victory be too highly
esteemed. Success such as hers in the great art of musical
acting implies a rare union of splendid qualities of person,
mind, and character. Exquisite sensibility, keen intuitions^
an unerring sense of symmetry, a wide grasp of emotions,
reason and imagination, sadness and glee, the power to fill as
well as the power to conceive an ideal, — all these must the
singer possess, who would interpret the hunian heart and the
immortal soul through the most heavenly medium of utter-
ance that God has vouchsafed to his creatures.
V.
KATE BATEMAN (MRS. GEORGE CROWE),
In the career of Kate Batenftn — who, at the age of
twenty-six years, shares the distinction of the most popular
actresses of her time — is seen a conspicuous illustration of the
force that is exercised in public life by pitrity of character
468 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
and integrity of purpose. She possesses uncommon talejita
and sterling accoraplishments, and these she has employed
with a noble energy and singleness of purpose, and in a
pure, sweet, womanly spirit, that could not fail, and have
not failed, to win unbounded appreciation and sympathy.
The most important period in her professional life comprises
the last «ight years. Within that time she has won both
fame and fortune. Her experience of the stage, however,
dates back to childhood ; and much of her more mature
facility is of course to be attributed to earl}"* professional
training. She was born at Baltimore, Maryland, on the
7th of October, 1842, being the second child of H. L. Bate-
man and Frances Bateman, — the former well and widely
known as a theatrical manager, and the latter reputed as an
actress and a dramatic author. Shortly after the birth of
Kate, her father, then in mercantile business, returned to
the stage, playing, in the domestic drama, such parts as
Martin Heywood in "The Rent Day,** and Walter in
''The Babes in the Wood." On the Uth of December,
1847, at one of the theatres in Louisville, Kentucky, the
latter piece having been cast, and the children who usually
played the juvenile parts in it being unable to appear, the
Bateman children, Kate and Ellen, — one five years old and
the other three, — made their first appearance on any stage.
Their dibut was an accident, but their success was signal.
They were very pretty and interesting little girls, and their
brightness and cleverness won all the more appreciation be*
cause of their extreme youth. Then, too, parental sympathy
was touched by the spectacle of father and children playing
upon the stage together, in such relations as are sustained by
Walter and the Babes. *ln brief, all the favorable influ-
ences combined to make a career and open a brilliant future
for these children. Season after season they starred the
country under their father's management* New parts were
KATE BATEMAN (MRS. GEOBOE CBOWE). 469
found fof them from time to time. Kate used to be espec-
ially fine as Richard the Thirds which she was first cast in
at the suggestion of Moses Kimball, in the old days of the
Boston Museum, which institution he originated. Her best
part, though, was Henriette de Vigny^ in "The Young
Couple." In 1850 the Bateman Children were taken to
England, where, in all the great cities of the British Isles,
they found even more favor than they had found at home.
In August, 1852, they returned to America, and in 1856 they
retired from the stage. Ellen was subsequently married and
is now Mrs. Claude Greppo. Kate remained in retirement
and studied acting. At length, in 1860, she reappeared on
the stage, in the character of Evangeline^ in a drama, by her
mother, based on Longfellow's poem. The performance,
though very pretty and pleasing, did not, however, make a
deep impression upon the public mind. It was seen in many
American cities, during the season of 1860-61, but was no-
where greeted with much enthusiasm. In fact, since the
chief quality of the character of Evangeline is silent forti-
tude, its delineation afibrds but little scope for the vivid
display of dramatic powers. The most that was possible for
the actress was to look like a saintly sufferer and to be pic-
turesque in tableaux. Two years afterwards Miss Bateman
<again appeared in New York — at the Winter' Garden, in
A^ril, 1862 — as Julia^ in "The Hunchback," and this time
she made a prodigious popular sensation. Following up this
success with a great deal of characteristic energy, she ap-
peared as Lady Gay Spanker y in " London Assurance ; "
Lady Teazle^ in "The School for Scandal;" Juliana^ in
"The Honeymoon;" Juliet; Bianca^ in "Fazio;" GeraU
dine, in her mother's tragedy of that name, — originally writ-
ten for Matilda Heron, — and Bosa Ghregorio, in anew drama,
written for her, by Mr. T. B. DeWalden. Later in the
same year, in i^ugust, at the same theatre, she played an
470 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
othor engagement, which was signalized by the presentation
of her Lady Macbeth. Her best successes this year were
made in Julian Biancaj Lady Gay^ and Geraldine. In all her
personations, however, the chief charm was the innate parity
of womanhood that shone through them. Very often her art
was defective. In some parts (Juliet and Lady Macbeth ^ for
instance) she seemed utterly at sea. But no person of sen-
sibility could witness her acting without being conscious of
contact with an earnest, delicate, womanly nature, that was
as refreshing to the mind, jaded by the all too prevalent
artifice of the stage , as is the cool, delicious fragrance of
trees and flowers and grass, after a light shower in a spring
day. And not only did her nature charm by its ingenuous
sweetness and win by its purity : a certain fiery force of in-
tellect was perceptible in it, now and then, — shown in the
fourth act of '*The Hunchback," and in certain scenes of
"Geraldine," — that vitalized a style of acting which might
otherwise have sometimes seemed insipid. This fiery force,
combined with an acute perception of simple pathos, was
afterwards to find more abundant scope and more vivid ex-
pression. In December, 1862, Miss Bateman made her first
appearance as Leah^ — a character with which her name is
now identified ; and herein these qualities of her nature
were dispWyed with ample breadth. Few single passages
in modern acting are more touching than is her simyle,
natural, tender scene with Rudolph's child, in the last act of
''Leah;" and few kindred eflforts have electrified the multi-
tude so much as has her delivery of Leah\^ curse, in the
churchyard scene in that drama. These, however, are facts
of such common knowledge, that it were needless to dwell
upon them. It should be mentioned, though, that the play
of "Leah" is an American adaptation of the German drama
of "Deborah," by Dr. Mosenthal, made by Mr. Augustin
Daly. Miss Bateman's first appearance as Leah was made in
KATE BATEMAN (MRS. GEOBGB CROWE). 471
Boston ; but subsequently, for nearly a year, she starred the
country in that character, and everywhere attained new popu-
larity. Her first representation of it in New York was given
at Niblo's Garden, in January, 1863. Mr. J. W. Wallack,
Jr., and Mr. Edwin Adams appeared in the cast, as Nathan^
the apostate Jew, and Rudolph^ the lover. In the autumn
of that year. Miss Batcman, accompanied by her father as
manager, proceeded to London, where "Leah" was produced
in October, having just been revised and revamped by Mr.
John Oxenford, dramatic critic of the London "Times.**
That the performance was a success may readily be seen in
the remarkable fact that it was repeated for two hundred and
eleven nights in succession, before crowded houses, and
greeted with every possible manifestation of public and criti-
cal approval. Writers were not wanting, indeed, to point
out, truthfully and frankly, the defects of Miss Batoman's
acting ; yet its force, and its winning charm of fresh, 3 oung,
gentle personality were none the less recognized.
In the last three months of 1864 Miss Bateman fulfilled
prosperous and brilliant engagements in Liverpool, Man-
chester, Birmingham, Dublin, and Glasgow. The theatres
overflowed nightly, and the star of the young actress rose
still higher in the skies of fame.' Returning to London in
the spring of 1865, she reappeared as XeaA, and also plaj^ed
Julia^ Bianca^ Pauline^ and Geraldme^ concluding her en-
gagement, at the Adelphi, in July of that year. When
autumn came, she made another tour of the principal British
provincial cities, in all of which she played, with abundant
success, a round of her favorite characters. On her next
return to London, she received a complimentary benefit, at
Her Majesty's Theatre (since destroyed by fire), given to
Biijnalize her farewell to Ensrland. The occasion is recorded
as one of the most delightful of its kind in recent stage life.
Miss Bateman plaved Juliet. Shortly afterwards she sailed
4:72 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
for New York, arriving there on the 12th of January, 1866.
On the 15th of January, at Niblo's Garden, she reappeared
as Leah; and here she acted, for the next six weeks, before
crowded audiences. She then proceeded to Boston, where
she found her popularity unabated. Thence returning, she
reappeared at Niblo's ; but was forced, by sudden and severe
illness, to relinquish her engagement, and to remain for seV'
eral months in retirement.
In October, 1866, Miss Bateman became the wife of Dr.
George Crowe, an Engli^jh gentleman, son of Eyre Evans
Crowe, author of a "History of France^" and other works, and
. for several years editor of the London " Daily News." During
the year following her marriage, she did not appear in publio
life ; but, at length, having been entirely restored to health,
she accepted an engagement, offered by an English manager,
and, on the 7th of October, 1867, she reappeared in Liver-
pool, as Leah J creating a still greater popular excitement
than before, — which also attended her professional progress,
at Brighton, Manchester, Bath, Bristol, Cheltenham, Dublin,
and Edinburgh. She is now in retirement, at her husband's
residence, near the city of Bristol, England ; but she will
return to the stage in October, 1868, and commence the season
at the London Hay market Theatre, where she is engaged for
a period of three months.
Her present is full of success, and her future is full of
promise. Young, beautiful, distinguished, — a happy wife,
an affectionate and cherished daughter, a simple-minded
woman, — she moves forward, beneath a sunny summer sky,
on a pathway that is strewn with roses. Such women honor
the stage by their presence upon it ; and their personal as-
sertion of the dignity of the dramatic art is more eloquent
and more practicallj' effective than words can possibly be.
HELEN VAUCIT (MBS. T. HABTIN). 473
VI.
HELEN FAUCIT (MRS. THEODORE MARTIN).
For thirty years Helen Faucit has been a favorite actress
on the English stage. For thirty years she has amused and
instructed the British public, winning with easi^, and wear-
ing with grace, the golden crown of success. In both of the
chief branches of dramatic art, as a tragic and as a comic
actress, she has attained lofty eminence ; nor has she been
less esteemed as a woman than admired as an artist. It
seems proper, therefore, to select her as the representative
English actress of her time. The portraits of Helen Faucit
— portraits that, of course, were made long ago — represent
a tall, elegant figure ; a frank, sweet, expressive, good face ;
large dark-brown eyes, full of eager intelligence; and a
stiitely head, finely poised upon a swan-like neck, and crowned
with luxuriant dark hair that falls in abundant curls on her
snowy, sloping shoulders. Such, doubtless, was the fair girl
who charmed an earlier generation of the lovers of art, in the
brighter days of the British drama. Helen Faucit comes of
a theatrical family. Her father and mother, and her three
brothers and two sisters, were all members of the dramatic
profession. Her early education for the stage was superin-
tended by Mr. Percival Farren, of the Haymarket Theatre.
Her first public appearance was made at a theatre in Rich-
mond, near London, in the autumn of 1833, in the character
of Juliet. The announcement of her debut ran thus: **A
young lady — her first appearance on any stjige." The pub-
lic received her kindly, and she seems to have played very
well. But no novice can adequately personate Shakspeare's
Juliet, The character taxes the art of a thoroughly trained
actress ; and, in general, it is much more truthfully inter-
preted by women of fifty, who have passed years upon the
4:74 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE /IGE.
stage, than by the freshest beauties of eighteen or twenty-ifve,
Helen Faucit's first appearance in London was' made on the
5th of January, 1836, at Covent Grarden Theatre, as Julia^ in
the well-known ** Hunchback.'' One extremely interesting
incident marked the occasion, showing thstt imperial firmness
of mind, under the most trying circumstances, is not incom-
patible with the utmost gentleness of womanly temperament.
There was a very large audience present in the theatre ; and
being brought, for the first time, to the test of such tremen-
dous physical magnetism, the nervous power of the young
actress faltered, and she succumbed to the icy spell of stage-
fright. Her performance, as a matter of course, came very
near to being a dead failure. At length, as the second act
was drawing heavily to a close, she caught sight, in the or-
chestra, of the white head and tear-dimmed eyes of her oldest
and dearest friend, — a venerable gentleman, whose paternal
love and fostering care had cheered and encouraged all her
young ambitions. •'That white head," she afterwards re-
marked, ^ seemed to fill the theatre." Fired by the thought
of this friend's past confidence in her talents, and present
anguish in prospect of her failure, the actress made a great
effort, suddenly recalled her will to its sovereign seat, and so
turned the current of her fortune from defeat to victory. Her
voice rose loud and clear, and* all the fervor of her spirit
came into play. As a matter of course, her audience quickly
recognized the change, and felt the spell of genuine talent ;
and their hearty plaudits ratified her success. That success
has known "no retiring ebb," but has steadily increased
into such eminence as is only won and kept by commanding
talents and unsullied integrity. Helen Faucit's next appear-
ance was made as the heroine of Venice Preserved." After
that she played Mrs. Holler ^ and acted the chief part in
Joanna Baillie's new drama of " Separation," which had,
however, only a short life. But her chief success that season
HELEN FAUCIT (MBS. T. MABTIN) 475
was Clemanihej in Talfourd's ''Ion/' — (of which Ellen Tree
was the original). For her benefit, on the 20th of June, 1836,
she played Mrs, Beverley ^ in the "Gamester," and very
deeply touched the hearts of her audience, by her affecting
.picture of the poor wife's anguish and devotion. Even thus
early she seems to have excelled in characters requiring for
their portrayal deep feeling and exquisite tenderness. In the
following season, she personated the chief female part in
Bulwer Lytton's drama of ^ The Duchess de la Valliere," — a
piece of French extraction, then produced for the first time.
It failed, though, and it is never heard of now. On the 18th
of April, 1837, Helen Faucit made a hit as Portia. Mr.
Macready took the lease of Covent Garden Theatre in that
year, and made haste at once to engage her in his dramatic
company. It will be seen that, from the outset, she faithfully
and strenuously worked in the stock companies, which was
the secret of her sure progress. Macready kept Covent Gar-
den two years ; and, in the course of that time, Helen Faucit
played many important parts. Bulwer Ly tton's ** Lady of
Lyons " was, for the first time, acted, during this term of
management, — early in 1838, — and Helen Faucit was the
original Pauline^ to the Claude Melnotte of Macready. On
the 10th of October, 1839, the tragedian abandoned Covent
Garden, and accepted an engagement, under Mr. Webster
at the Haymarket, Helen Faucit and Mrs. Warner being
elected to second him in a round of his chief performances.
On the 26th of October, 1841, when Macready again assumed
the reins of management, in taking the lease of Drury Lane,
Helen Faucit was again engaged as leading lady : and cer-
tainly it is no slight testimony to the ability and culture of
the actress, that she was thus thrice chosen, to fill a position
of the first importance, by an actor so exacting, so coldly
intellectual, and so hard to please, as the famous tragedian is
well known to have been. Many new pieces were tried,
476 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
under the new administration of Drury Lane, and in most of
them Helen Faucit bad to study — and, as the stage-phrasa
is, " create "— new parts. . " Plighted Troth," *" The Blot in
the Scutcheon," " Gysippus," and ** The Patrician's Daughter,"
may be mentioned among the new dramas, that then, for the
first time, saw the b'ght. In all of these Helen Faucit'
appeared, and she also sustained leading parts in Macready's
Shakspearean and other, revivals ; thus participating in the
honors of one of the most brilliant periods of enterprise that
are recorded in the history of the British drama. She was
the original Julie j in Bulwer Lytton's ** Richelieu," and the
original Josephin&f in Byron's " Werner." When Macready
finally abandoned management, Helen Faucit betook her*
self to the "star" system, and went into the provinces.
Engagements were numerously offered, and successes were
numerously achieved. This portion of her career need not
detain minute attention. The actress who has once become
a popular favorite, has but to fulfil, under the starring sys-
tem, the usual routine of travelling from city to city, and
playing at theatre after theatre, with various business, it is
true, but generally with prosperous results, and almost always
with increase of fame. For some years past, Helen Faucit
has played irregularly,* only accepting engagements here and
there, under entirely agreeable and advantageous circum-
stances. She is the wife of Theodore Martin, whose repute
in literature, as an able, versatile, and brilliant writer, assur-
edly needs no bush, and whose rank in the world of English
letters is sufficiently indicated by the fact that the Queen of
Ensrland has selected him to write the Life of the deceased
Prince Consort. She has never visited the United States ;
nor, as she is now upwards of fifty years of age, is it likely
that she ever will come to this country, on a professional
expedition. American knowledge of her acting, therefore,
must depend on the study of English stage records and Eug-
HELEN FAUCIT (MRS. T. MARTIN) 477
f
lish criticism. Those authorities bear ample testimony to
the brilliancy of her past career and the sterling worth of
her talents and character. Adverse opinion has contented
itself with calling her '* Macready in white muslin." It is not
unnatural that her temperament and her style of acting should
have been influenced by the strong individuality of that re-
markable actor. Few players who have yielded to the
enchantment of Macready's art have ever been able entirely
to discard his mannerisms in their own playing. Helen Fau-
cit's native merits, however, are such as far outweigh her
boiTowed defects. A recent critic, Mrs. S. C. Hall, de-
scribes her, as follows, in words that clearly depict a true
artist and gifted woman : —
^ She bears home to the imagination one great harmonious
impression of whatever character she is impersonating ; but
when we look back and analyze that impression, we feel what
a wealth of subtle details has gone towards producing it,
with what exquisite graduations it has been worked up to its
crowning climax. . . . All she says and does seems to
grow out of the situation as if it were seen and heard for the
first time With the ever-wakeful conscientious-
ness of a real artist, Helen Faucit is continually striving after
a higher completeness in all she does. Her characters seem
to be to her living things, ever fresh, ever full of interest,
and on which her imagination is ever at work. They must
mingle with her life, even as the thick-coming fancies of the
poet mingle with his. As, therefore, her rare womanly na-
ture deepens and expands, so do they take a richer tone and
become interfused with a more accomplished grace. . . .
I have often, in former days, seen her, by her intense power of
shaping imagination, make characters harmonious which were
mere tissues of shreds and patches, and personages * moving-
natui:^!, and full of life,' which, as the author drew them.
478 EMINENT WOMEN OP THE AGE.
were hollow phantasms. Conspicuously has she done so
with the 'Lady of Lyons.' I saw her when this play was
first produced, and memory is sufBciently strong to compare
the actress of that time with the actress of to-day. She can
be compared with none other than herself; for no actress,
since Helen Faucit made the character so essentially her own,
has approached her in its delineation. It was then acting of
rare grace, and truth, and power ; it is now all that, but
m'uch more. Time, and study, and refined judgment have
enabled her to perfect that which was admirable in its earliest
conception. I recall the sensation that moved a crowded
house after the curtain fell on the first representation of
the ' Lady of Lyons.' There was a rumor that it was the
production of Lytton Bulwer, — a rumor only, which, so
carefully was the secret kept, some of his most intimate
friends emphatically denied. The play, it is peedless to say,
made an immediate success. It has retained its place as
one of the stock pieces of the stage ever since. There is
now, indeed, no Claude Mdnotie to be compared with Mac-
ready, although he was by no means young when he per-
formed that youthful part ; nor has any one ever approached
him in it. But Helen Faucit is far nearer the ideal Pauline
now than she was in those days ; and it is easy to imagine
the delight of Lord Lytton in witnessing that which it is not
too much to say surpasses, in refined grace and intellectual
power, the part as he created it.
*' Her Pauline is in truth a perfect performance. It has that
charm which comes only from the inspiration of genius ; for
at the root of all art lies the passion, which, as the great
French actor Baron said, sees farther than art. But it is also
the perfection of art where art is never, even for a moment,
seen ; the result of careful and continuous study, but with
the ease and force of nature in every word, look, and motion.
So is the character worked out from the beginning to the end."
. •
ANNA ELIZABETH DICKINSON. 479
ANNA ELIZABETH DICKINSON
-•o«-
BY MRS. ELIZABETH CADY STANTON.
N" listening to the many interesting incidents of this young
*s life, not all (entrusted to me for publication, my feelings
^ vacillated between pity and admiration, — pity, for all the
s of her childhood and youth, in loneliness, poverty, and
E^pointment; and admiration for the indomitable will,
"iige, and rare genius, by which she has carved her way,
^ lier own right hand, to fame and independence. While
txsiny truly great women, of other times and countries,
* marred their fair names, and thrown suspicion on their
T^y their vices and follies, this noble girl, through all
E^'tations and discouragements, has maintained a purity,
^ity, and moral probity of character, that reflect honor on
'^If, and glory on her whole sex.
-Tina Elizabeth Dickinson was born in Philadelphia the
>^ of October, 1842. Her father, John Dickinson, was a
'ohant of sound intellect, and moral principle, a clear,
^Ise reasoner, an earnest abolitionist, and took an active
t in the anti-slavery discussions of that time. He was a
^^volent, trusting man, and through the noblest traits of
character became involved in his business relations, and
•a reduced to poverty. His misfortunes preyed upon his
^nd and health ; and he died soon after with a disease of
0 heart, leaving a wife and five children, Anna, the young
480 EMINENT WOMEN OP THE AOB.
est, but two years old. The last night of his life was passed
in an anti-slavery meeting, where he spoke earnestly ; and
on his way home, not feeling well, he stopped at a druggist's
to get some medicine, and died there ^without a struggle.
Her mother, Mary Edmundson, was born in Delaware, of
an aristocratic family. She is a woman of refinement and
cultivation, and was carefully reared in conditions of ease
and luxury.
Both were descendants of tne early Quaker settlers, and
rigid adherents to the orthodox Friends. Their courtship
lasted thirteen years, showing the persistency and fidelity of
the father on one side, and the calm deliberation of the
mother on the other. As a baby, Anna was cross, sleepless,
restless, and crying continually with a loud voice, thus pre-
paring her lungs for future action. She was a waywai-d,
wilful, intensely earnest, imaginative child, causing herself
and her elders much trouble and unhappiness. They, seeing
her impatience of control, endeavored to " break her will," — a
saying that has worked as much cruelty in the world as the
proverb of Solomon, "Spare the rod and spoil the child.**
Foi*tunately they did not succeed, and through the triumph .
of that indomitable will we boast to-day that the most popular
American orator is a woman. She was considered an incor-
rigible child at school as well as at home. Though she always
knew her lessons, the absurd and arbitrary discipline so chafed
her free spirit that she was generally in a state of rebellion.
With courageous defiance she would submit to punishment
rather than rules she thought foolish and unnecessary. She
had an intuitive knowledge of character, and early saw the
hypocrisy, deceit, and sham of the world, — the hollowness
of its ceremonies, forms, and opinions ; and with wonderful
powers of sarcasm she could lay bare the faults and follies
of those about her. Hence she was a ten*or to timid, designing
teachers and scholars ; and good children were warned against
ANNA ELIZABETH DICKINSON. 481
her influence. Yet, as she was ever the champion of thosf)
who suffered wrong and injustice^ she had warm friends and
admirers among her schoolmates.
She says she always felt herself an Ishmaelite among chil-
dren, fighting net only her own battles, but for those too
timid and shrinking to fight for themselves. Her school-days
were days of darkness and trial. Owing to her mother's
limited means, she was educated in the free schools of the
Society of Friends. Meeting there the children of wealthy
Quakers, they would laugh at her poverty, and thoughtlessly
ask her " why she wore such common clothes." She would
promptly reply, '*My mother is poor, and we work for all we
have." Although she accepted her condition with bravery,
she determined to better it as fast as she could ; yet such
taunts were alike galling to her and cruel in those who
uttered them. Nevertheless, they were not without their
power in developing the future woman ; so for from depress-
ing her youthful energies, they stung her into a nobler life.
In her hours of solitude she would resolve to lift herself
above their shafts, to make a home for her mother, and sur-
round her with every comfort. Thus great souls feed and
grow on what humbles smaller ones to dust.
Her love for her mother was the strongest feeling in her
nature, and it was to relieve her from constant toil that she
early desired some profitable employment that she might
earn money for her own support. It was the sorrow of her
childhood to see her mother pale and worn, struggling with
all her multiplied cares, — for, in addition to her own family,
she kept boarders and taught a private school. Thus, with
ceaseless love and care and industry, that noble woman fed
and clothed and educated her fatherless children^ and to-day
has the satisfaction of seeing them all noble men and women ;
and mid peace and plenty she remembers the Jong days of
darkness, poverty, and self-denial no more. For the encour-
81
482 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AOE.
agemeut of those parents who have wayward, wilful children,
I would mention the fact that Anna, who was a greater trial
to lier mother than all her other children and cares put to-
gether, is now her pride, her comfort, and her support.
When about twelve years old she entered " Westown
Boarding-School of Friends," in Chester County, and re-
mained there two yeai-s; from this she went to "Friends'
Select School" in Philadelphia, where she applied herself so
diligently to her studies, that, although she pursued over a
dozen branches at one time, she seldom failed in a recitation.
During all her school-days, she read with the greatest
avidity every book that she could obtain. Newspapers,
speeches, tracts, history, biography, poetry, novels, and fairy
tales were all alike read and relished. For weeks and
months together her average hours for sleep were not five
in the twenty-four. She would often read until one o'clock
in the morning, and then seize her school-books and learn
her lessons for the next day. She did not study her lessons,
for, with her retentive memory, what she read once was hers
forever. The rhymes and compositions she wrote in her
young da3''s bear evident marks of genius. When fourteen
years old she published an article headed ^ Slavery " in the
** Liberator." She early determined that she would be a public
c|)eaker. One of her greatest pleasures was to get a troop
of children about her and tell them stories ; if she could fix
their attention and alternately convulse them with laughter,
and tnelt them to tears, she was perfectly happy. She loved
to wander all over the city alone, to think her own thoughts,
and see what was going on in the outer world. One of her
favoi'iite rendezvous was the Anti-slavery Office in Fifth
Street ; where she would stay for hours to hear people talk
about the horrors of slavery, or to read papers, tracts, and
books on that subject. At seventeen she left school.
She was skilful in all kinds of housework, and orderly in
ANNA ELIZABETH DICKINSON. ' 483
her arrangements. She was willing to do any kind of work
to make an honest living. No service however hard, or
humble, seemed menial to her. Being a born queen, she felt
she dignified whatever she touched ; even the broom became
a sceptre of royalty in her hand.
When about thirteen years old she visited a lawyer's office
one day, on her way from school, and asked for some copy*
ing. He, pleased with the appearance of the bright child^
asked her if she intended to do it herself; she said. Yes. He
gave her some, which she did so well that he interested him-
self at once in her behalf, and secured her work from other
offices as well as his own. How she could get money to buy
books was the one thought ; next to helping her mother, that
occupied her mind. To this end she would do any thing, — run
errands, carry bundles, sweep walks, — and as soon as she had
obtained the desired sum, she would buy a book, read it with
the greatest avidity, then take it to a second-hand book-store
and sell it for a fraction of its cost and get another. When
seven years old she would take Byron's works, secrete herself
under the bed that she might not be disturbed, and read for
hours. There was something in the style, spirit, and rhythm,
that she enjoyed, even before the thought was fully understood.
She had a passion for oratory, and when Curtis, PhiUi|3s, or
Beecher lectured in Philadelphia, she would perform any
service to get money enough to go. On one occasion she
scrubbed a sidewalk for twenty-five cents, to hear Wendell
Phillips lecture on "" The Lost Arts." There are many very
interesting anecdotes of her life during this period, illustrating
her fortitude under most trying curcurastanccs and her strong
faith in a promising future. Through her magnetism and
self-confidence she went forward and did many things grace-
fully and unchallenged, that others of her sex and age would
not have had the courage or presumption to attempt. There
was somethins: so irresistible in her face and manner that entire
4S4: EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE,
strangers would yield her privileges, which others would not
dare to ask. In her fourteenth year while with relatives in
the country, during the holidays, she attended a Methodist
protracted meeting, and was deeply moved on the subject of
religion, was converted and joined the church. Her mind,
however, was much disturbed on theological questions for
several years, but after great distress and uncertainty, with
the opposing doctrines and opinions she heard on all sides,
she found rest at last in the liberal views of those who taught
that religion was life, — faith in the goodness, and wisdom of
God's laws, and love to man. She disliked the silent Quaker
meetings, and made every excuse to avoid them. Her repu-
diation of that faith was a source of unhappiness both to her
family and herself. About this time she spent a few months
as a pupil and assistant teacher in a school at New Brighton,
Beaver County ; but as her situation there was not pleasant,
she applied for a district school that was vacant in that town^
.About to make the final arrangements with the committee, she
asked what salary they gave. One gentleman remarked " A
man has taught this school heretofore, and we gave him
twenty-eight dollars a month ; but we should not give a girl
more than sixteen." There was something in his manner and
tone 60 insulting that her pride compelled her to scorn the
place she needed, and, drawing herself up to her full propor-
tions, she said with great vehemence, " Sir, are you a fool, or
do you take me for one? Though I am too poor to-day to
buy a pair of cotton gloves, I would rather go in rags, than
degrade my womanhood by accepting anything at your hands.'
And she shook the dust of that place from her feet, and went
home to struggle on with poverty, firm in the faith of future
success. Young, inexperienced, penniless, with but few
friends, and none knowing her greatest trials, she passed
weeks looking for a situation, in vain. At last she was
offered a place as saleswoman in a store, which she accepted ;
ANNA ELIZABETH DICKINSON. 485
bat finding that it was her duty to misrepresent goods to
customers, she left at once, because she would not violate
her conscience with the tricks of trade.
The distinctions she saw everywhere between boys and
girls, men and women, giving all the opportunities and
advantages of life to one sex, early filled her with indigna-
tion, and she determined to resist this tyranny wherever she
found it. Sitting at home one Sunday in January, 1860, she
read a notice that the ^* Association of Progressive Friends *'
would bold a meeting that afternoon, to discuss '' woman's
rights and wrongs." She resolved to go, and, in company
with another young girl, was there at the appointed horn*.
Ten minutes were allowed the speakers to present their
opposing views. " It was my good fortune," says Dr. Long-
shore, " to be there, and to announce at the opening of the
meeting, that ladies were particularly invited to speak, as the
subject was one in which they were interested. In response
to this invitation, after several persons had spoken, Anna
arose near the centre of the hall. Her youthful face, black
curls, and bright eyes, her musical voice, subdued and im-
pressive manner, commanded at once the attention of the
audience. She spoke twice, her allotted time, and right to
the point. These were her first speeches in public, and her
auditors will long remember that day." She gave a new
impulse to the meetings and a fresh interest in the associatiou
for months afterward.
The next Sunday she spoke again, and on the same sub-
ject. An attempt was made, by an opponent, by interrup-
tions, foolish questions, sneers, and ridicule to put her down.
Tliis was a tall, nervous, bilious man, who spoke with the
aiTogauce and assumption usual in that type of manhood, —
as if he were a partner of the Most High in giving law to the
universe ; as if it were his special mission to map out the
sphere of woman, the paths wherein she might with safety
486 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
walk. By some magnetic law he fixed his eyes on this
fitrango girl, into whose soul the floods of indignation were
pouring thick and fast ; and when he finished, the scene that
followed was almost tragic. She rose, her feelings at white
heat, and, with flashing eye and crimson cheek, she turned
upon her antagonist, looking him square in the face, and
poured out the vials of her pent-up wrath, — the sum of all the
wrongs she had felt through struggling girlhood ; the insults
to womanhood she had read and heard ; the barbarisms of
law, of custom, and of daily life, that but for the strong will
God had given her to resist, would have ground her, with the
multitudes of her sex, to powder. She poured out such
volleys of invective, sarcasm, and denunciation, painted the
helplessness of women with such pathos and power, giving
touching incidents of her own hard experience, that her
antagonist sunk lower and lower into his seat and bowed his
head in silence and humiliation, while those who Avitnessed
the scene were melted to tears. Never was an audience more
electrified and amazed than were they with the eloquence and
power of that young girl. No one knew who she was, or
whence she came ; but all alike felt her burning words, and
withering scorn of him who had dared to be the mouth-piece
of such time-honored insolence and cant about the sphere of
woman. Pointing straight at him, and, with each step ap-
proaching nearer where he sat, saying. You, sir, said thus
and so, she swept away his arguments, one by one, like cob-
webs before a whirlwind, and left him not one foot of ground
whereon to stand. When she finished, he took his hat and
sneaked out of the meeting like a whipped spaniel, to the
great amusement of the audience, leaving the sympathies of
the audience with the brave young girl.
From this hour Elwood and Hannah Longshore became
Anna's most faithful and trusted friends and advisers. They
ANITA ELIZABETH DICKINSON. 487
appreciated her genius, comprehended the difficulties of her
position, and gave her a helping hand in securing means of
support. They encouraged her ambition to become a public
speaker. So intense and earnest was she in all her desires,
that she easily surmounted every difeculty to secure her ends.
No lions ever crouched in her path ; it was the real, not the
imaginary, that blocked her way.
Soon after the scene in the Sunday meeting, two gentle-
men called at her home one day and inquired for Anna Dick*
inson. They had heard her speak, and were so much pleased
that they desired to kno\# something of her family and sur-
roundings. As soon as they inquired for Anna, the mother's
heart stood still, supposing that these men had come to com-
plain of some of her pmuks in the neighborhood ; and she
was by no means relieved, when she heard that her daughter
had made a speech in a public meeting on Sunday, and they
had come to congratulate her on her success.
Her public career was at first a great mortification to her
mother, who felt that by this erratic course she was bringing
shame and humiliation on her family, never dreaming that
she was so soon to occupy one of the proudest positions
before the American people, to distinguish her family, and
place them in conditions of ease and luxury. But she shared
the common fate of genius, — persecution in the house of its
friends. At this time she became a constant visitor at the
house of Dr. Longshore, and found there the afiection and
wisdom, the warm and sympathizing friendship, her generous
and impulsive nature most needed for its development and
control. They took her to their hearts, cared for her in
every way, and to this day she calls their house her home.
''Wo felt towards her," says Dr. Longshore, •'as if she
were our own child, and she lingered with us in her visits
with filial devotion. We were the first strangers to manifest
488 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGS.
an interest in her welfare and future plans, and she recipro-
cated our friendship with confidence and love. She was
always so happy, so full of hope and life, that her presence
seemed like that of an angel. Hour after hour, in the even-
ing, when all was still, sh6 would entertain us with her varied
experiences, at home, in school, in church, in company, with
her teachers, playmates, and strangers, with her efforts to
get books, clothes, comforts, laughing and crying by turn.
Her recitals were so full, glowing, and eloquent, that we took
no note of the passing time, and the midnight hours would
often find us lingering still, pleased and patient listeners of
this strange child's life."
After reading some thrilling account of the slave sj'stem,
one night, she had a remarkable dream. She thought she
was herself a slave-girl, the victim of all the terrible experi-
ences of that condition. The toil, the lash, the starvation
and nakedness, the auction-block, the brutality of driver and
owner, were all so vividly painted on her imagination that
Bhe could not rid herself of the horrid realities of that system.
She could never speak on that subject in public or private,
but this terrible memory would come vividly back to her,
intensifying her feelings, and giving an added power to her
words.
After attending the meeting of Progressive Friends for
several weeks, she was invited to speak in MuUicaHill, New
Jersey, and on the first Sunday in April, 1860, she made the
first speech to which she had given any previous thought.
The large school-house was crowded ; her subject was
*' Woman's Work." Speaking from the depths of her own
experience, she held the audience in breathless silence for over
an hour. There was an indescribable pathos in her full, rich
voice, that, aside from what she said, touched the hearts of
her hearers, and moved many to tears. Her power seemed
ANNA ELIZABETH DICKINSON. 489
miraculous to the people, and they would not disperse until
she promised to speak again in the evening. Some one re-
marked at the adjournment, " If Lucretia Mott had made that
speech, it would be thought a great one." In the evenhig
she spoke on the subject of slavery, for the first time, and
with equal effect. A collection of several dollars was taken
up for her, the fir^t she ever received for giving an address.
FaiUug to find employment in Philadelphia, she accepted,
as a last resort, a district school in Bucks County, with a
salary of twenty-live dollars a month* She came home once
in two weeks to take part in the Sunday meetings. On her
eighteenth birthday she went to Kenuett Square, — a small
village thirty-two miles from Philadelphia, — to attend an
anti-slavery meeting that remained in session two days. She
spoke on slavery and non-resistance. In that doctrine of
Friends she had no fuith. A discussion arose as to the right
and duty of slaves to forcible resistance. She and Robert
Purvis, who was in the chair, spoke in the affirmative, and,
in a protracted discussion, maintained their opinion, against
the majority, "that resistance to tyranny is obedience to
God." Anna wound up one of her glowing periods with the
words of Lovejoy : "If I were a slave, and had the power,
I would bridge over the chasm which yawns between the hell
of slavery and the heaven of freedom, with carcasses of the
slain." The effect of her speech was startling, and thrilled
the whole audience. Robert Purvis unconsciously rose from
his chair, and bent forward, electrified with a new hope of
liberty for his race, looking as if their fate rested on her lips.
During her summer vacation she spoke several times to
largo audiences in New Jersey. On one occasion, in the
open air in a beautiful grove, where hundreds had assembled
to hear her, she spoke both morning and afternoon on tem-
perance and anti-slavery, producing a profound sensation.
At another time several Methodist clergymen had assembled
490 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
to lay the corner-stone of a new church in a village where
she was announced to speak. They went to hear her, from
mere curiosity, in rather a sneering frame of mind ; she, know-
ing that fact, was moved to speak with more than usual
pathos and power. They made themselves quite merry in
the beginning, but before she closed they were serious, sub-
dued, and in tears. The next day one of them introduced
himself to her, and said, *'I have always ridiculed 'Woman's
Kights,' but, so help me God, I never shall again." At all
these meetings contributions were taken up for her benefit,
and she began to think that this might prove to be her means
of support. On the evening of the day that she closed her
school, she advertised a meeting to be held in the school-
house, but 'the crowd was so great that they adjourned to a
church near by. She spoke on " Woman's Work ; " and with
the. novelty of the subject and the whole proceeding, she
quite startled that stolid community.
Shortly after this she attended another anti-slavery meet-
ing at Kennett Square. This meeting, held just in the bo-
ginning of the war, was rather an exciting one, and prolonged
discussions arose on the duties of abolitionists to existing
laws and constitutions. In the report from *' Forney's Press"
we find the following notice : —
« The next speakor was a Miss Anna E. Dickinson, of Philadelphia, aged seyenteen
years, — handsomo, of an exprossire oountenanoe, plainly drMsed, and oloqaent beyond
her years. After the listless, monotonoos harangues of the previous part of the day,
the distinct, earnest tones of this juvenile Joan of Arc wore very sweet and charming.
During ber discourse, which was frequently interrupted, Miss Dickinson maintained
her presence of mind, and uttered her radical sentiments with augmented reoolation
and plainness. Those who did not sympathize with her remarks were softened by her
simplicity and solemnity. Her speech was decidedly Ifte feature of the evening, provo-
cative as it was of numerous, unmanly interruptions, and followed by discussion of pro-
longed and diversified interest. Miss Dickinson, wo understand, is a member of tho
Society of Friends, and had been solicited, several times during the day, to address tho
aadienoe, but waited for the inspiration of the evening, which came in the shape of
Mrs. Qrew's remarks. They were told, said Miss Dickinson, to maintain constitutioofl
because they were oonstitutions, and oompromiaes beoause they were oompromiaea.
ANKA ELIZABETH DICKINSON. 491
B«t what were oompromiMa, and what was laid down in thon oonititntiooa 7 Stninent
lawgirera hare said that oortain great fandamental ideas of right were oommon to tho
world, and that all laws of man's making which trampled npon those ideas were nail
and Toid, — wrong to obej, but right to disobejr. The Constitution of the United
States sat upon the neck of those rights, reeognises human slareiy, and makes the souls
of men artieles of purchase and of sale."
There is not space to give her admirable speech on the
higher lav, nor the discussion that followed, in which Miss
Dickinson maintained her position with remarkable clearness
and coolness for one of her years. The flattering reports of
this meeting in several of the Philadelphia journals intro-
duced her to the public.
On the evening of the 27th of February she addressed an
audience of about eight hundred persons in Concert Hall,
Philadelphia. She spoke full two hours extemporaneously,
and the lecture was pronounced a success. Many notables
and professional men were present ; and, although it was con-
sidercd a marvellous performance for a young girl, Miss
Dickinson herself was mortified, as she said, with the length
of her speech, and its lack of point, order, and arrangement.
She felt that she was not equal to the occasion ; instead of
being flattered with the praises bestowed upon her, she was
filled with regret that she had not made a more careful and
thoughtful preparation. But she learned an important lesson
from what she considered a fiulure, worth more than it cost
her.
Spring was opening, and her fresh young spirit and strong
will demanded some new avenues to labor, some active,
profitable work. In her searches for something to do, says
a friend, "I met her one day in the street ; said she, *I must
work. I dislike the confinement and poor pay of school-
teaching ; but I shall go crazy unless I have work of some
kind. Why can't I get into the Mint?' After considering
the possibilities of securing a place there, for some time, our
plans were made, and, after many persistent cfibrts, we sue*
492 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AOB.
ceeded/' In April she entered the United States Mint, to labor
•
from seven o'clock in the morning to six at night for twenty-
eight dollars a month. She sat on a stool all those long hours,
in a close, impure atmosphere, the windows and doors being
always closed in the adjusting room, as the least drafl of air
would vary the scales. She soon became very skilful in her
new business, and did twice the amount of work of most
other girls. She was the fastest adjuster in the Mint ; but
she could not endure the confinement, and soon changed to
the coining-room. But this dull routine of labor did not
satisfy her higher nature. After the day's work was done,
she would go to the hospitals to write letters for the sick
soldiers, to read to them, and talk over the incidents of the
war. Many things conspired to make her situation in the
Mint undesirable. The character and conversation of the in-
mates were disagreeable to her ; hence she kept them at a
distance, while, her opinions on slavery and woman's rights
being known, she was treated with reserve and suspicion in
return. In November she made a speech in Westchester on
the events of the war, which increased this state of feeling
towards her, and culminated in her discharge from the Mint,
in the Christmas holidays. This meeting was held just after
the battle of Bairs Bluff. In summing up the recprd of this
battle, after exonerating Stone and Baker, she said, ''History
will record that this battle was lost, not through ignorance
and incompetence, but through the treason of the command-
ing general, George B. McClellan, and time will vindicate
the truth of my assertion." She was hissed all over the
house, though some cried, "Go on," ''Go on." She repeated
this startling assertion three times, and each time was hissed.
Years after, when McClellan was running against Lincoln in
1864, when she had achieved a world-wide reputation, she
was sent by the Bepublican committee of Pennsylvania, to
this same town, to speak to the same people, in the same
ANNA ELIZABETH DICKINSON. 493
hall. In again summing up the incidents of the war, when
ehe came to Balls Bluff, she said, " I say now, as I said three
years ago, history will record that this battle was lost, not
through ignorance or incompetence, but through the treason
of the commanding general, George B. McClellan." ** And
time has vindicated your assertion," was shouted all over the
house. It was this speech, made in 1861, that cost her place
in the Mint. Ex-Governor Pollock dismissed her, Und owned
that his reason was the Westchester speech, for at that time
McClellan was the idol of the nation. She says that was the
best service the Govenior could have rendered her, as it
forced her to the decision to labor no longer with her hands
for bread, but to open some new path for herself.
She continued speaking, during the winter, in many of the
neighboring towns, on the political aspects of the war. As the
popular thought was centring everywhere on national ques-<
tions, she began to think less of the special wrongs of women
and negroes, and more of the causes of revolutions, and the
trtie basis of government. These broader views secured hor
popularity, and made her available in party politics at once.
In the mean time Mr. Gai-rison, having heard Anna Dickinson
epeak at Westchester and Longwood, and being both charmed
and surprised with her oratorical power, invited her to visit
Boston, and make his house her home. Before going to Bos-
ton some friends desired that sh<f should make the same speech
in Philadelphia that had occasioned her dismissal from the
Mint. Accordingly, Concert Hall was engaged. Judge
Pierce, an early friend of woman's rights, presided at the
meeting, and introduced her to the audience. She had a full
house, at ten cents admission, was received with great enthu-
siasm, and acquitted herself to her own satisfaction, as well
as that of her friends. After all expenses were paid she
found herself the happy possessor of a larger sum of money
than she had ever had before ; and now, in consultation with
494 BMINEKT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
good Dr. Hannah Longshore, it was decided that she should
have her first silk dress. With this friend's advice and bless-
ing, she went to New England to endure fi'esh trials and dis-
appointments before securing that unquestioned reputation
and pecuniary independence she enjoys to-day. Through the
influence and friendship of Mr. Garrison she was invited to
speak in Theodore Parker's pulpit on Sunday morning, as
leading rtformers were then doing. Accordingly she spoke,
in Music Hall, on the ** National Crisis." Her first lecture in
Boston was the greatest trial she ever experienced. Her
veneration for the character of a Boston audience almost over-
matched her courage and confidence in her ability to sustain
herself through such an ordeal. Her friends also had mis-
givings, and feared a failure, as they noticed that Anna could
neither sleep nor eat for forty-eight hours previous to the lec-
ture. Some were so confident that she would fail to meet the
expectations of the immense audience, that they refused to
sit on the platform. Mr. Garrison opened the meeting. He
read a chapter of the Bible, and consumed some time in re-
marks in order to make the best of the dilemma, which, in
common with many, he, too, apprehended, while Anna
waited behind him to be ''presented," in an agony of sus-
pense she struggled to conceal. At last she was introduced,
and began in some broken, hesitating sentences ; but, gradually
becoming absorbed in her subject, she forgot herself and her
new surroundings, and so completely held the attention and
interest of the audience for over an hour that the fears of her
friends were turned to rejoicings, the anticipations of the few
were more than realized, and her own long anxious hours of
prayers and tears were forgotten in the proud triumph of that
day. At the close she was overpowered with thanks, praises,
and salutations of love and gratitude. As she delivered this
lecture in several of the New England cities I give the
following notice : —
AKNA ELIZABETH BICKIKSON. 495
" The Nbw Star. — If to bare an audience remain qnlet, attentirei and STmpathii-
ing during the delirery of a long lecture, is any indieatioB of the ability, tact, and suo-
oess of the speaker, we think it may be claimed for Mia Dickinson that she is a com-
peer worthy to be admitted as a particular star in the large and brilliant constellation
of genius and talent now endeavoring to direct the country to the goal of negro eman*
oipation.
*' Music Hall was filled to orerflowing; hundreds of the audience went early, and
mast hare sat there more than an hour before the lecture began; and, yet, we do not
remcmbor to have seen less signs of weariness and inattention at any lecture we ever
attended in this city. Her voice is clear and penetrating, without being harsh; bor
enunciation is very distinct, and at times somewhat rhythmic in its character, with
enough of a peculiar accent to indicate that her home has not been in Massachusetts.
Her whole appearance and manner are deeidedly attractive, earnost, and expressive.
Her lecture waa weU-«rranged, logical, and oeoasionally eloquent, persuasive, and pa*
thetio.
"She traced the demands and usurpations of the Slave Power from the commence-
ment of our government till the present time, and proved that, because it could not
hope to control the country in the future as it had in the past, it raised the standard of
rebellion, — an act long since determined upon when such an exigency should arise.
Slavery being thus proved to be the cause of the war, the Justice, necessity, and propri-
ety of its abolition, as a means of present defence and future security and peace, wai
forcibly illustrated.
" That the slave was prepared for freedom was proved by the thousands who hava
passed through so much danger and suffering to obtain it. The inhuman character of
the fugitive slave enactment was most beautifully referred to, bringing tears to many
eyes which are not accustomed to weep over the wrongs of the colored race.
" She spoke in eloquent terms of Fremont, which met with a hearty response from
the audience, as did other parts of hor address. On the whole, we think her friendf
here must be greatly delighted with her first effort, on her first visit to our old Common-
wealth.
** Previous to the delivery of the lecture, the ' Negro Boatman's Song,* by Whittier,
was sung by a quartette, accompanied by the organ, and the exercises were dosed bf
singing * America,' in which the audience joined." — Fall River Press,
She spent the following summer in reading and study,
collecting materials for other lectures. She continued, as she
had time, to visit the government hospitals, and made herself
a most welcome guest among our soldiei*s. In her long con-
versations with them, she learned their individual histories,
experiences, hnrdships, and sufferings; the motives that
prompted them to go into the army ; what they saw there,
and what they thought of war in their hours of solitude, away
from the excitement of the camp and the battle-field. Thus
496 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
8he got an insight into the soldier's life and feelings, and from
these narratives drew her materials for that deeply interest-
ing lecture on Hospital Life, which she delivered in many
parts of the country.
In October, 1862, she spoke before the Boston Fraternity
Lyceum, for which she received many flattering notices and
one hundred dollars. She had hoped, through the influence
of friends, to make a series of appointments for the winter,
and thus secure a means of support. But the military re-
verses and discouragements left but little spirit among the
people for lectures of any kind, and she travelled from place
to place until her funds were exhausted. Her lecture at
Concord, Now Hampshire, was her last engagement for the
season, and the ten dollars promised there was all she bad in
prospect for future need until something else might offer.
This was a trying experience, for she had just begun to
hope that her days of darkness had passed and triumph was
near. In speaking of it she says, '*No one knows how I felt
and suffered that winter, penniless and alone, with a scanty
wardrobe, suffering with cold, weariness, and disappointment.
I wandered about on the trains day after day, among strangers,
seeking employment for an honest living, and failed to find
it. I wouldhave gone home, but had not the means. I had
borrowed money to commence my journey, promising to remit
soon ; failing to do so, I could not ask again. Beyond my
Concord meeting all was darkness ; I had no further plans."
But her lecture there on Hospital Life was the turning-point
in her fortunes. In this speech she proved slavery to be the
cause of the war, and that its continuance would result in
prolonged suflfering to our soldiers, defeat to our armies, and
the downfall of the republic. She related many touching in-
cidents of her experiences in hospital life, and drew such
vivid pictures of the horrors of both war and slavery, that,
by her pathos and logic, she melted her audience to tears.
ANNA ELIZABETH DICKINSON. 497
and forced the most prejudiced minds to accept her conclu-
sions.
Xt was on this occasion that the secretary of the State Cen-
tral Committee heard her for the first time. He remarked
to a friendy at the close of the lecture, ^If we can get
this girl to make that speech all through New Hampshire^
we can carry the Republican ticket in this State in the com-
ing election. ^ Fully appreciating her magnetic power over an
audience, he resolved at once, that, if the State Committee re-
fused to invite her, he should do so on his own responsibility.
But, through his influence, she was invited by the Repub-
lican committee, and on the first of March commenced her
regular campaign speeches. In thid four weeks before elec-
tion, she spoke twenty times, — everywhere to crowded, en-
thusiastic audiences. Her march through the State was a
succession of triumphs, and ended in a Republican victory.
The member in the first district, having no faith that a woman
could influence politics, sent word to the secretary, ** Don't
send that d woman down here to defeat my election.'*
The secretary replied, ^ We have work enough for her to do
in other districts, without interfering with you." But when
the would-be honorable gentleman saw the furor she created,
he changed his mind, and inundated the secretary with letters
to have her sent there. But the secretary replied, ^ It is too
late ; the programme is arranged, and published throughout
the State. You would not have her when you could, and
now you cannot have her when you will." It is pleasant to
record that this man, who had the moral hardihood to use a
profane adjective in speaking of a woman, lost his election ;
and thus our congressional halls were saved from so demor-
alizing an influence. His district was lost by a lai^e major-
ity, while the other districts went strongly Republican.
When the news came that the Republicans had carried the
State, due credit was awarded to Anna Dickinson f6r her faith-
83
493 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGS.
ful* labors in securing the victory. The governor-elect made
personal acknowledgments that her eloquent speeches had
secured his election. She was serenaded, feasted, and eulo-
gized by the press and the people.
New Hampshire safe, all eyes were now turned to Con-
necticut. The contest there was between Seymour and Buck-
ingham. It was generally conceded that, if Seymour was
elected, Connecticut would give no more money or troops
for the war. The Republicans were completely disheartened.
They said nothing could prevent the Democrats from canying
the State by four thousand, while the Democrats boasted that
they would carry it by ten thousand. Though the issue was
one of such vital importance, there seemed so little hope of
success, that the Republicans were disposed to give it up
without making an effort. And no resistance to this impend-
ing calamity was made until Anna Dickinson went into the
State, and galvanized the desponding loyalists to life. She
spent two weeks there, addressing large and enthusiastic
audiences all over the State, and completely turned the tide
of popular sentiment. Even the Democrats, in spite of the
scurrilous attacks on her by some of their leaders and editors,
received her everywhere with the warmest welcome, tore off
their party badges, and substituted her likeness, and ap-
plauded whatever she said. The halls where she spoke
were so densely packed, that Republicans stayed away to make
room for the Democrats, and the women were shut out to
give place to those who could vote. There never was such
a furor about an orator in this country. The period of her
advent, the excited condition of the people, her youth, beau-
ty, and remarkable voice, all heightened the effect of her
genius, and helped to produce this result. Her name Was on
every lip. Ministers preached about her, prayed for her as a
second Joan of Arc, raised up by Grod to save that State to
the loyal party, and through it the nation to freedom and
AKNA ELIZABETH DICKINSON. 499
humanity. As the election day approached, the excitement
was intense ; and when at last it was announced that the State
was saved by a few hundred votes, the joy and gratitude of
the crowds knew no bounds. They shouted and hurrahed
for Anna Dickinson, serenaded her with full bands of music,
sent her presents of flowers, ornaments, and books, manifest-
ing in every way their love and loyalty to this gifted girl,
who, through so many years, had bravely struggled with pov-
erty to this proud moment of success in her country's cause.
Some leading men in Connecticut presented her a gold
watch and chain as a memento for her valuable services in
the State, paid her a hundred dollars for every night she had
spoken there, and for the last night before election, in Hart-
ford, four hundred dollars. From the following comments
of the press, the reader may form some idea of the enthusi-
asm of the people : —
"MISS DICKINSON AT ALLYN HALL.
"The highest oompliment that the Union men of this oltj oonld pay Miss Anna B.
Dickinson was to inyite her to make the closing and most important speech in this cam-
pugn. They were willing to rest their case upon her eiforts. She may go far and
speak mvoh; she will have no more flattering proof of the popular confidence in her
eloquence, tact, power, than this. Her business being to obtain votes for the right side,
she addressed herself to that end with singular adaptation. But when we add to this
lawyer-like comprehension of the neoenities of the case, her earnestness, enthusiasm,
and personal magnetism, we account for the effect she produced on the vast audience
Saturday night.
Allyn Hall wm packed as it never was before. Every seat was crowded. The aisles
were full of men who stood patiently for more than three hours, the window-sills had
their occupants, every foot of standing-room was taken, and in the rear of the galleries
men seemed to hang in swarms like bees. Such was the view from the stage. The stage
itself and the boxes were filled with ladies, giving the speaker an audience of at least
two hundred who could not see her face.
To such an audience Miss Dickinson spoke for two hours and twenty minutes, and
hardly a listener left the hall during that time. Her power over the audience wm mar-
vellouB. She seemed to have that absolute mastery of it which Joan of Arc is reported
to have had of the French troops. They followed her with that deep attention which
Is unwilling to lose a word, but greeted her, every few moments, with the most wild ap*
plause, which continued often for several minutes, breaking forth afresh with irrepressible
•nthusiasm. We find no ocoasion to abate a word firom the very high estimate given oi
600 EMIKEKT WOMEN ^P THE SlQU.
ber as an orator from her firsi speeoh in this citj. And she added Tastly, on Satarday
night, to the eiUmato of her bj her Temtillty and ability as an adrooato. The speeeh,
in itself, and its effeot was magnifloent, •» this strong adjective is the proper one. If the
eampaign were not olosed, we should give a fall sketoh of the speeoh, for its pertinent
eifect. But the work of the eampaign is done. And it only remains, in the name, we
are sare, of all loyal men in this distriot, to express to Miss Dickinson most heartfelt
thanks for her splendid, inspiring aid. She has aroused everywhere respeot, enthvsiaaB,
and devotion, let ns not say to herself alone, but to the oonntry. While sooh women
are possible in the United States, there Isn't a spot big enough fbr her to stand on, thai
won't be fought for so long as there Is a man left."
Fresh from the Tictories in New Hampshire and Comiecti-
out» she was announced to speak in Cooper Institute, New
York. That meeting in May, 1862, was the most splendid
ovation to a woman's genius since Fanny Kemble, in all the
wealth of her youth and beauty, appeared on the American
stage for the first time. On no two occasions of my life hav^
I been so deeply moved, so exalted, so lost in overflowing
gratitude, that woman had revealed her power in oratory,-^
that highest art to touch the deepest feelings of the human
soul, — and verified at last her right to fame and immor-
tality. There never was such excitement over any meet-
ing in New York. Although the hall was densely crowded
long before the hour announced, yet the people outside were
deteimined to get in at all hazards, — ushers were beaten
down, those without tickets rushed in, and those with tickets
were pushed aside, and thousands went home unable to get
standing-places even in the lobbies and outer halls.
The platform was graced with the most distinguished men
and women in the country, and so crowded that the young
orator had scarce room to atand. There were cleigymen,
generals, admirals, judges, lawyers, editors, the literati and
leaders of fashion, and all alike ready to do homage to this
simple girl, who moved them alternately to laughter and tears,
to bursts of applause and the most profound ^enee. Mr.
Beecher, who was president of the meeting, introduced the
speaker in his happiest manner. For more than an hour she
ANKA ELIZABETH DICKINSON. 501
held that large audience with deep interest and enthusiasm,
and, when she finished with a beautiful peroration, the peo-
ple seemed to take a long breath, as if to find relief from the
intensity of their emotions.
Loud cries followed for Mr. Beecher; but he arose, and,
with great feeling and solemnity, said, ** Let no man open his
lips here to-night ; music is the only fitting accompaniment to
the eloquent utterances we have heard." So the Hutchinsons
closed the meeting with one of their soul-stirring ballads, and
the audience dispersed.
As none of the materials furnished for this sketch have
interested me more than the conunents of the press, I give
the following. Knowing that Anna Dickinson will be as
great a wonder to another generation as Joan of Arc is to this,
the testimony of our leading journals to her eloquence and
power furnishes an important page in future history : — -
« MISS DICKINSON AT THB OOOPBB INSTXTUTB.
'^Th* erowd tA the Cooper Inatitate last evening mnit be truly called immense, no
other word being adequate to the emergency. The attraction was an address bjr Miss
Anna E. Dickinson, of Philadelphia, upon the subject of ' The Day — the Oaose.'
** She is of the medium height, slight in form, graceful in movement; her head, weU-
poised, is adorned with ftill and heavy dark hair, displaying to advantage a pleasant
fiMo, which has the signs of nervous force and of vigorous mental life. In manner she
is unembarrasBcd, without a shade of boldness ; her gesticulation is simple, drawing to
itself no remark ; her voice is of wonderful power, penetrating rather than loud, as
dear as the tone of metal, and yet with a reed-like softness. Her vooabulary is simple,
and in no instance can there be seen a straining after effective expressions; yet hor skill
in using the ordinary stores of our daily language is so great, that with a single phrase
she presents a picture, and delivers a poem in a sentence.
" Miss Dickinson shows in her oratorical method the feminine peculiarities which lead
her sex to prefer results to preliminaries, the sharply defined success of conclusions to
the regularly progressing eourse of previous argument. Her lecture was consequently
very eifeetlve to the ear, and ditBoult to report with justice to the speaker. She defined
the eontest with the South as the struggle between liberty and slavery in the broadest
sense of the words, extending to the moral, mental, and social world, and illustrated
her position with rapid allusions to the politieal history of the last ten ^ears. She then
drew a variety of oompariaons between the loyalty of the two parties at the North, and,
In answer to the question what sort of generab each had given to the oountry, madt
{
602 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
■ome hits of great foTM «( many well-known offioen, and paidatribato of praiae to
others.
"It was in this part of her address that the brightness of her wit and the power of
condensed expreauon already alluded to was seen most clearly. A single stroke of the
pencil placed not only a name bnt a character distinctly before the audience, who took
quickly, and fully eigoyed every point. The enrolment act, the threats of the North-
west to compromise for themselyes and leave New England out in the cold, and the
present splendid reyival of patriotic confidence in the North, were treated with surprising
power. The applause which burst from the audience at almost every sentence was more
hearty and enthusiastic than oven in the excited political gatherings of an election
season, and was, moreover, applause bom of the deepest and best feelings of loyalty.
At the conclusion of the lecture, which came to a close with a truly beautiful perora*
tion, the Hutchinson family sang one of their best pieces, and then, by request, followed
it with the John Brown song, in the chorus of which tbie audience joined with a thrilling
•Stot."^New York Evening Poti.
Her profits from this meeting were nearly a thousand
dollars. After her remarkable success in New York, the
Philadelphia ** Union League/' one of the greatest political
organizations in the country, invited her to speak in that city.
The invitation was signed by leading Republicans. She ac-
cepted it ; had a most enthusiastic and appreciative audience.
Judge Kelley presiding, and, after all expenses were paid,
she had seven hundred dollars. In this address, reviewing
the incidents of the war, she criticised General McClellan, as
usual, with great severity. Many of his personal friends
were present, and some, filled with indignation, left the house,
while a derisive laugh followed them to the door. The Phila-
delphia journals vied with each other in their eulogiums of
her grace, beauty, and eloquence. The marked attention she
has always received in her native city is alike most grateful
to her and honorable to her fellow-citizens.
July came, and the first move was made to enlist colored
troops in Pennsylvania. A meeting was called in Philadelphia.
Judge Eelley, Frederick Douglass, and Anna Dickinson were
there, and made most eloquent appeals to the people of that
State to grant to the colored man the honor of bearing arms in
defence of his coimtiy . The effort was successful. A splendid
ANNA ELIZABETH DICKINSON. 503
regiment waa rabed, and their first duly was to serenade
the young orator who had spoken so eloquently for their
race all through the wari The summer passed in rest and
fitudy.
In September, a field-day was announced at Camp William
Penn. General Pleaisanton reviewed the troops. It was a
very brilliant and interesting occasion, as many were about
to leave for the seat of war. As the day closed and the
people began to disperse, it was noised round that Miss
Dickinson was there ; a cry was heard at once on all sides, -
**A speech I A speech I " The moon was just rising, mingling
its pale rays with those of the setting sun, throwing a soft,
mysterious light over the whole scene. The troops gathered
round with bristling bayonets and flags flying, the band was
hushed to silence, and, when all was still, mounted on a
gun wagon, with General Fleasanton and his staff on one
side, and General Wagner and his staff on the other, this
beautiful girl addressed "our boys in blue." She lurged
that justice and equality might be secured to every citizen
in the republic ; that slavery and war might end forever, and
peace be restored; that our country might indeed be the
land of the free, and the home of the brave.
As she stood there uttering words of warning and proph-
ecy, it seemed as if her lips had been touched with a live coal
from the altar of heaven. Her inspired words moved the
hearts of our young soldiers to deeds of daring, and gave fresh
courage to those about to bid their loved ones go, and die,
if need be, for freedom and their country. The hour, the
mysterious light, the stillness, the novel surroundings, the
youth of the speaker, all gave a peculiar power to her words,
and made the scene one of the most thrilling and beautiful
on the page of history.
In the autumn of 1862, she was engaged to go to Ohio, to
speak for a few weeks before election, and a large sum of
504: EMIKEKT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
money was pledged for her services. But some Penn-
sylvania politicians, appreciating her power, and desiring her
help at home, decided to outbid Ohio and keep her in her
own State. Accordingly she accepted their proposals, and
threw her whole energy and enthusiasm into that campaign.
She endured all manner of discomforts and dangers in trav-
elling through the benighted mining districts of the State.
She met with scorn, ridicule, threats of violence, and more
than once was pelted with rotten eggs and stones, in the
midst of a speech. But she went through it all with the
calmness and coolness of an experienced warrior. One of
the committee admitted afterward that Miss Dickinson was
sent through that district because no man dared to go. She
returned home after weeks of hard labor and intense excite-
ment, weary and exhausted, and though all agreed that the
Bepublican victory in that State was largely due to hei
influence, the committee forgot their promises, and, to this
hour, have never paid her one cent for her valuable services.
Their excuse was, that the fund had been used up in paying
other speakers. As if a dozen honorable men could not have
raised something in an hour of victory to reward this brave and
faithful girl. During the winters of 1863 and 1864, she re-
ceived invitations, from the State Legislatures of Ohio and
Pennsylvania, to speak ip their capitals at Columbus and Har-
risburg. In January, 1864, she made her first address in Wash-
ington. Though she now believed that her success as an
orator was established, yet she hesitated long before accept-
ing this invitation. To speak before the President, Chief
Justice, Senators, Congressmen, Foreign Diplomats, all the
dignitaries and honorables of the government, was one of
the most trying ordeals in her experience. She had one of
the largest and most brilliant audiences ever assembled in the
capitol, and was fully equal to the occasion. She made
a profound impression, and was the topic of conversation
ANNA ELIZABETH DICKINSON. 505
for days afterwards. At the close of the meeting, she was
presented to the President and other dignitaries, and, the
next day, had a pleasant interview with the President at the^
White House.
As this was one of the greatest occasions of her life, and as
she was honored as no man in the nation ever had been, it
may be satisfactory to all American women to know by whom
she was invited and how she acquitted herself. Accordingly,
I give the invitation and some comments of the press.
COBBBSPONDENCS.
« n JCw Anna B. Diddmon, PkOaddpkM, Pa.f
** 11x88 DicKiHBoir,-»HeartiIj appreQUUng ih* VAlae of your sorrtoM tn th8 oampAigu
Sn New Hampshire, Cozmeotiout, PenxiBylyaiua, and New York, and the qnalitiee thai
have combined to gire yon the deeenredly high repntatloa yon ei^oy; and desiring ai
well- to testify that appreciation as to secure onxselTes the pleasure of hearing yoa, we
anite in cordially inviting yoa to deliyer an address this winter at the capital^ at soma
time suited to your own convenience.
Wabhixoton, D. C.y December 16, 1863.
H. HAlfUir, SOHUTUB COLTAX,
J. H. LAin, A. 0. WiLDiB,
jAiota Dizoir, Tbaodius Snyavs,
Chaalbs SuinraBy Hutrt G. Dncnro,
H. B. AvTBONT, William D. Ekllbt,
HXNBT WlLSOir, BOBBBT C. ScHBHCK,
JoHB Sbbbxah, J. A. Gabfibld,
Iba Habbi8, B. B. ViB Valkbrbitbo,
Bbb. F. Wasb, and seyen^ other BepresentatlTea.
and sixteen other Senators.
**Htm. Hamnibal HanUm, Viee-Presideni of the Vmt§d Statm; Hon. SeknfUr Colfam,
Spoaker of the House of Rtpreeentatmee; Hone, J, H. Lane, Jamee Dunn, Ckarlee
Snmner, H B, Anthony, Henry WUmm, John Sherman, A. C. Wilder, Thaddene
Steoene, Henry C. Deminy, WUUam D. KeOey. Robert C. Schenek, J. A. Garfieid, and
" Gbhtlbmbb , — I thank you sincerely for the great and most unexpected honor which
you have conferred upon me by your kind invitation to speak in Washington.
"Accepting it, I would suggest the 16th of January, as the time; desiring the pro-
•seds to be devoted to the help of the Boflbriag fraedman.
« Truly yours, AITNA B. DIGEIHSOir.
*' 1710 Locust St, Philadelphia, Jan. 7, 1864."
606 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
*' The HoiiM of Repreieiitetires, by a remarkablj large Toto, hAve tendered Mia
Diekiiuon the lue of their hsll for the oeeerion.
" Adminion to the floor of the House, $1 00; to the giUeriee, 60 oenti. Tioketi fbr
■tie at the prinoipAl hbteli Mid bookstores."
'<MISS ANNA DICKINSONS LECTURB IN WASHINGTON.
" IFrom the Regnlftr Oorroipoiident of the BToniog Post]
" Wi-BHiscnroH, Jen. 17, 1864.
*' Miss Diekinson's leetnre in the Hall of the House of BepresentatiTes, last night, was a
gratifying suooess and a splendid personal triumph. She oan hardly fail to regard it as
the most flattering oration — for snob it was — of her life. Long before the honr desi|^
nated in the newspapers for the eommeneement of the leotare the hall was filled, the
eapaoioos galleries as well as the floor. Seats for Ave hundred persons had been arranged
upon the floor, and the tiokets -^one dollar each — were sold by noon of Saturday,
"A large number of Congressmen were present with their wires and daughters, and
many of the leading men of the departments. Here and there an opposition member
was visible, but so few in number as to make thoee who were present unpleaoantly
oonspienous. At preoisely half-past seyen Miss Dickinson oame in, escorted by Vice*
President Hamlin and Speaker Colfax. A platform had been built directly orer the
desk of the oflioial reporters, and in front of the olerk's desk, from which the leoturer
spoke. Mr. Hamlin sat upon her right and Mr. Colfiuc upon her left. She was greeted
with loud cheers as she oame in, and Mr. Hamlin introdnoed her to the select audienoe
in a neat speech, in which he very happily compared her to the Maid of Orleans.
"This scene was one which would evidently test severely the powers of a most aceom*
plished orator, for the audience was not composed of the enthusiastic masses of the
people, but rather of loungers, oflioe-holders, orators, oriUcs, and men of the world.
But the fair speaker did not seem to be embarrassed in the least, — not even by the
movements of a crasy man in the galleries, who carried a flag, which he waved over her
head when she uttered any sentiment particularly stirring or eloquent.
" At eight o'clock Mr. and Mrs. Linooln came in, and not even the utterance of a fervid
passage in the lecture eould repress the enthusiasm of the audience. It was a somewhat
amusing fact that Just as the president entered the hall, she was eriUoising, with some
sharpness, his Amnesty Proclamation and the Supreme Court; and the audienoe, as if
feeling it to be their duty to applaud a Just sentiment, even at the expense of courtesy,
sustained the criticism with a round of deafening cheers. The crasy man in the gal-
lery, as if electrified by the courage of the young woman, waved his flag to and fro
with frantio delight Mr. Lincoln sat meekly through it, not in the least displeased.
Perhaps he knew that sweets were to come, but whether he did or not, they did come,
for Miss Diclunson soon alluded to him and his ooorae as president, and nominated him
as his own successor in 1866. The popularity of the president in Washington was
duly attested by volleys of cheers.
'* The lecture itself was an eloquent one, and it was delivered very finely. Miss Dick-
inson has evidently made a most favorable Imprsssion upon Congress and the people of
Washington. After the lecture was finished the audience called lustily for Mr. Linooln
to speak, but he edged his way out of the crowd to a side door, telling the vice-president
on his way out that he was too much embarrassed to speak ; which statement, made knowi
AKNA ELIZABETH DICKINS0I7. 507
Ic^ the people prennt by Mr. Hamlin, eaiued nmeh langbter.* The ' fireedmen ' wlU
obtoin over one thonnmd dollan u the solid remit of the leetore; those present M
hetfen were delighted; and Miss Diekinson hu the oonsoUiion of feeling not only that
she has aided a good oanse, bat that she has aohieved a line personal triomph. B."
«KISS DIOEINSON'S LBOTURB IN WASHINGTON
• At a meeting of the ExeontiTe Gommittee of the National Freedmen's Relief Sodety
of the Distriot of Oolnmbia held on the 26th of January, 1864, the ftollowing letter wai
read: —
« WABBXHOTOir, January 23, 1864.
« JZev. W. H. Chtmninff:
" Sn, — We hare the honor to eneloee herewith a draft for ten hnndred and thirty
dollars, being the prooeeds of the leoture delirered by Hiss Anna E Diokinson, in the
Honse of RepresentatiTeB, on Saturday erening, the 16th inst
" It is the speeial request of Miss Diokinson that this fund be appropriated for the
benefit of the National Freedmen's ftelief Sodety of the Distriot of Golumbia, of whioh
you are the yioe-president.
'* It was in response to an invitation of members of Congress that Miss Diokinson
dellTored her leoture at the oapitol. Her benoTolenoe and patriotism evineed in thif
gift entitle her to the gratitude not only of those who are the recipients of her mnnif>
ioenoei, but of every lover of his oountry.
** Very respeotfUly, your obedient servants,
"H. HAxuir,
^SOHUTLBB COLFAZ.'*
Immediately upon her return from Washington, she was
invited by a large number of the leading citizens of Philadel-
phia to repeat her Washington address in the Academy of
Music, to which she replied : —
"Mettra, Arch. Gittf, Ales. O. CatteU, T%m, Attnum, Edmmmd A, Somder, and ciker»:
" OxNTLiicm, — I thank you heartily for the honor oonferred on me by your most kind
invitation, and for the added pleasure of reoeiving it firom my own eity of Philadelphia.
I would name Wednesday, the 27th inst, as the time.
« Truly yours, ANNA E. DICKINSON.
WABXorcROV, D. 0., January 20, 1864."
((
The profound impression she made at Washington greatly
heightened her rapidly increasing reputation, and she was
urged to deliver that address both in New York and Boston.
'I
608 BHINEHT WOMEN 07 THE AGE.
In Boston, George Thompson, fhe eloquent English orator
and member of Parliament, paid this beautiful tribute to her
genius : —
" Mr FRmn», -^If one uMOOutoined to pabUo speaking is ever pUoed in an embar*
naring position, it is when he is oalled upon, as I am now, to address an aadienoe thai
has been so ehanned and highly azeited by sooh aloqiieBoe as that whuh it has beea
yoor i^ivilege and my privUege to listen to to*4Ught. Shakespeare says, ' As when
some aotor who has crossed the stage retires, the eye looks listleasly to see who foUowi
next; ' and so I oome before yon to-night. I have nothing to address to yon to-night|
nothing. I have been spellbound. Aaerioa, be prond of yonr danghter! Were she
my eonntrywoman, I should be prond of n^ oonatry for her sake. Appreeiato her, re-
ward her by following her oonnsels. I mnst oonfess, long aooustomed as I ha^e been to
publio meetings, and hearing the best eloquence on either side of the Atlantic, and
to hearing those who are esteemed our most gifted men in Parliament, I hare listened
to no speeoh which, fbr its pathos, its argument^ ittfsatire, its eloquence, its humor, its
sarcasm, and its weU-directed denunciations, has erer been surpassed by any I have
Inard before. I pray God that the life of this lady may be spared^ that she may see the
desire of her heart in the nnanimous adoption by her feUow-citisens of the great princi-
ples she has enunciated to-night. Give me America firee from slavery. Give me Amer-
ica in which shall be established universally, as yonr lecturer has said to-night, without
distinction of dime, color^ nlasi, or condition, liberty for all, goyemment by all and
for alL"
Her reputation was now thoroughly established, and during
that winter she addressed lyceums nearly every night at a
hundred dollars. ^ Chicago ; or, the Last Ditch," was the title
of the lecture she delivered in all our Northern cities. In the
spring she made a few campaign speeches in Connecticut.
She used what influence she had to prevent the renomina-
tion of Mr. Lincoln ; for she distrusted his plan of reconstruo-
tion, after an interview with him, in which he read to her his
correspondence with (jeneral Banks, then military com-
mander at New Orleans. She was convinced in that inter-
view that in his policy he was looking to a re-election instead
of maturing sound measures for reconstruction. During that
presidential campaign, though she continually laid bare the
record of the Democratic party, the treason of its leaders and
generals, and its want of loyalty during the war, yet she had
ANNA ELIZABllTH DICKINSON. 509
•
DO word of praise for Mr* Lincoln. She never took his name
upon her lips, except to state facts of history, after the Balti-
more Convention, until his death. She was invited to go to
California during that campaign, and offered thousands of
dollars, if she would go there and speak for Mr. Lincoln ;
which she declined. At the opening of the lyceum course
that fall, in consequence of her position with reference to the
BepubUcan nominee, she had not a dozen invitations for the
winter ; but, as the season advanced, they began to come in as
usual, showing that the conmiittees had withheld them during
the months preceding the election, hoping, no doubt, to awe
her to silence on Mr. Lincoln. In 1865, she spoke in Phila*
delphia on the Lincoln monument, and cleared a thousand
dollars, which she gave to Alexander Heniy, the mayor, to
be appropriated for that purpose. On this occasion, she paid
a beautiful tribute to the many virtues of our martyred pres-
ident, delicately making no mention of his faults.
One of the most powerful and impressive appeals that she
ever made was in the Convention of Southern Loyalists, held
in Philadelphia in September, 1866. In this convention there
was a division of opinion between the Border and the Gulf
States. The latter wanted to incorporate ^ negro suffrage "
in their platform, as that was the only means of success for
the liberal party at the South. The former, manipulated by
Northern politicians, opposed that measure, lest it should de-
feat the Bepublican party in the pending elections at the
North. This stultification of principle, of radical public sen-
timent, stirred the soul of Anna, and she desired to speak in
the convention. But a rule that none but delegates should
be allowed that privilege prevented her. However, as the
Southern men had never heard a woman in public, and felt
great curiosity to hear her, they a^oumed the convention,
resolved themselves into a coomiittee of the whole, and in-
vited her to address them. The following sketch from an eye*
610 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AQE.
witness will give some idea of the effect she produced on
Southern men: —
"A GOOD-NATUEBD VIEW
Of 10010 matton in and aboat the Oonrontlon ii gi?eii in fha IbUowlng fpioj letter of
Jamei Bodpath to the Boston ' TraToUer: ' —
"Phzladblpbia, Sept. 7.
" THE ADDRBSa OF ANNA B. DICKINSON.
"My last despatch from the ConTontion predioted that the border statesmen would n*
eeire a leoture from Anna Biokinson, and stated that they acted as If thej antioipated
it This prediction was formed from the appearanoe of the Maryland delegation, and a
knowledge of the oharaoter of the orator ; and it was folfilled.
** It was carious to note the audience. There sat, directly in front of the platform,
three or four hundred Southern men, few of whom had ever heard a woman speak, — few
of whom could debate, when antagonistic riews were advanoed, without the grossest
personal vituperation.
** Their ideal of controversial oratory was with them, and sitting at the right hand of
the young maiden as she stepped forward to deliver a speech as denunciatory as ever
he uttered, but as free from offensive personal allusion^as any oration can be. It was
Brownlow, the bitterest and foulest-tongued man in the South. On her left sat John
Minor Botts, with his lips tightly compressed, and his face telling plainly that he re-
mained Uiere from courteey, but wonld remain a patient listener to the speech.
" She began; and, for the first time since it met, the Convention was so still that the
&intest whisper could be heard. She had not spoken long before she declared that
Maryland had no business in the Convention, but ought to have been with the delegates
who came to welcome. There ma vehement applause from the border States.
« < That is a direct insult! ' shouted a delegate from Maryland.
''She went on without regarding these coarse interruptions, reviewing the conduct of
the border States with scorn, and talking, with an eloquence I never heard equalled ia
any previous effort, in favor of an open, hearty, manly declaration of the real opinion
of the Convention for justice to the colored loyalist, not in the courts only, but at tha
ballot-box.
" There was none of the flippancy or pertness which sometimes disfigures her pnblio
speeches. It was her noblest style throughout, — bold but tender, and often so pathetio
that she brought tears to every eye. Every word came through her heart, and it went
right to the hearts of alL Kentucky and Maryland now listened as eagerly as Georgia
and Alabama.
*' BrownloVs iron featnres and Botts* rigid face soon relaxed, and tears stood in the
old Virginian's eyes more than once, while the noble Tennesseean moved his place, and
gated at the inspired girl with an interest and wonderment which no other orator had
brought to the fanatic's hard face.
** She had the audience in hand as easily as a mother holds her child; and, like the
child, this audience heard her heart beat It was ennobled thereby. It was really a
marvellous speech. The fullest report of it would not do it Justice, because the grsfit
^aess lay in its manner and its effect^ as well as in its argument
iNNA BLIZABETH DICKINSON. 611
''Wlieii she finished, one after another Sonthem delegate oamo forward, and pinned on
bar drees the badges of their Btates, nntU she wore the gifts of Ai^^rnifr^ Missoor!,
Tennessee, Texas, Florida, Lonisiana, and Maryland."
There hare been many specalations in public and private
as to the authorship of Anna Dickinson's speeches. They
have been attributed to Wendell Phillips, Charles Sumner,
George W. Curtis, and Judge Kelley, Those who know
Anna's conversational power, who have felt the magnetism
of her words and manners, and the pulsations of her generous
heart, who have heard her impromptu replies when assailed,
see at once that her speeches are the natural outgrowth of
herself, her own experience and philosophy, inspired by
the eventful times in which she lived.
As well ask if Joan of Arc drew her inspiration from the
warriors of her day. It was no man's wish or will that Anna
Dickinson uttered the highest thought in American politics in
this crisis of our nation's history ; that she pointed out the cause
and remedy of the war, and unveiled treason in the army and
the White House. While, in the camp and hospital, she spoke
words of tenderness and love to the sick and dying, she did
not hesijtate to rebuke the incapacity and iniquity of those in
high places. She was among the first to distrust McClellau
and Lincoln, and in a lecture entitled ** My Policy " to unveil
his successor, Andrew Johnson, to the people. She saw the
sceptre of power grasped by the party of freedom, and the
first gun fired at Sumter, in defence of slavery. She saw the
dawn of the glorious day of emancipation, when four million
American slaves were set free, and that night of gloom, when
the darkest page in American history was written in the blood
of its chief. She saw our armies go forth to battle, the
youth, the promise, the hope of the nation, — two million'
strong, — and saw them return, with their ranks thinned and
broken, their flags tattered and stained, the maimed, halt«
512 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
and blind » the weary and worn; and this, she said, is fhe
price of liberty. Through the nation's agony was this girl
bom into a knowledge of her power ; and she drew her inspi-
ration from the great events of her day. Her heroic courage,
indomitable will, brilliant imagination, religious earnestness,
and prophetic forecast, gave her an utterance that no man's
thought could paint or inspire.
WOMAN AS iflYSICIAK. 513
WOMAN AS PHYSICIAN.
BY REV. H. B. ELLIOT.
•9m
The care of the sick has from earliest ages devolved on
woman. A group by one of our sculptors, representing Eve
with the body of Abel stretched upon her lap, bending over
it in bewildered grief, and striving to cherish or restore the
vital spirit which she can hardly believe to have departed, is
a type of the province of the sex ever since pain and death
entered the world. To be first the vehicle for human life,
and then its devoted guardian, to remove or alleviate the
physical evils which afflict the race, or to patiently watch
their wasting course, and tenderly care for all that remains
when they have wrought their result, — this is her divinely
appointed and universally conceded mission. Were she to
refuse it, to forsake her station beside the suffering, the office
of medicine and the efforts of the physician would be more
than half baffled. And yet, where her post is avowedly so
important, she has generally been denied the liberty of under-
standing much that is involved in its intelligent occupancy.
With the human body so largely in her charge from birth to
death, she has not been allowed to inquire into its marvellous
mechanism. With the administering of remedies entrusted
to her vigilance and faithfulness, she has not been allowed to
investigate the qualities, or to know even the names, of the
substances committed to her use, or to ascertain the methods
88
514: EMINENT WOMEN 01" THE AGE.
of their operation. With the mind to guide at the stages
"where its tutelage is of incomparable importance, she has not
been allowed to learn the delicate lines of its dependence
upon the body, or the subtle but invincible influences which
they mutually exert. To be a student of these things, with
scientific thoroughness, and then to practise independently
with what she has thus acquired, has been regarded as un-
seemly, or as beyond her capacity, or as an invasion of
prerogatives claimed exclusively for men. Indeed, the whole
domain of medicine has been *^ pre-empted " by men, and in
their " squatter sovereignty " (for no law divine or human has
yet deeded it to them) they have sturdily warned off the
gentler sex. But they will not be kept off. By quiet ap-
proaches they have long been gaining foothold upon the out-
skirts of the territory. Of late years they have ventured
into its very centre, claiming equal rights, or erecting their
own edifices and laying foundations for enduring institutions.
Under manifold disadvantages and with imperfect appliances,
it has yet come to be a fixed fact that, in this realm, as in
those of literature and art, there shall be no factitious dis-
tinctions from such cause.
To our own country belongs the credit of being foremost
in this change, first to admit, and most liberal in fostering
it. In England a ^female' inedical society" has existed
several years, and offers facilities for instruction by means
of lectures upon some branches, sufficient to qualify for a
diploma from ** Apothecaries* Hall." In connection with it
there is now a ''Ladies* Medical College," which recently
announced fifty students. But the aim of the whole move-
ment is at present only to furnish well trained midwives.
In Paris the " Maternity " Hospital affords opportunity for
observation in the department which its name indicates, with
whatever forms of disease may be collateral or incidental,
and receives women nominally as students, but they are not
WOMAN AS PHYSICIAN. 515
allowed tt) prescribe in the wards, nor instructed in regard to
the remedies used. Indeed, they can hardly rise above the
position of proficient nurses. In both countries, the way to
the entrance of women upon general practice among their
own sex has scarcely yet begun to open.
In the United States, there are three regularly organized
institutions for their education, with all tiie ordinary appli-
ances of Medical Colleges, — at New York, Boston, and
Philadelphia. There are hospitals and dispensaries con-
nected with them, and their students and graduates have now,
also, the usual privileges in many of the long-established
hospitals. Boston, with characteristic forwardness in
accepting whatever tends to the promotion of science or
philanthropy, was in advance of the other cities in this move-
ment, though outstripped by them in results. As early as
1845 and 1846 Dr. Samuel Gregory, in connection with his
brother, Mr. George Gregory, published pamphlets advo-
cating the education and employment of female physicians.
In 1847 he delivered a series of public lectures upon the sub-
ject, and proposed the opening of a school for the purpose. In
1848 a class of twelve ladies was formed, under the instruc-
tion of Dr. Enoch C. Rolfe and Dr. William M. Cornell.
An association styled the " American Female Medical Edu-
cation Society " was organized the same year, and afterward
merged in the New England Female Medical College,
chartered in 1856, which has been liberally sustained by
legislative grants, as well as individual donations. It owns
a valuable property, and has many facilities for its work.
It has graduated seventy-two women, many of whom are .occu-
pying positions of gi^eat influence among their sex, both as prac-
titioners of medicine, and as teachers of physiology and
hygiene in schools, and has also furnished valuable informa-
tion upon the laws of- health to a large number who have
attended partial courses of lectures by its professors. At
516 EMINENT WOMEN OF TH^ AGE.
«
Philadelphia the college has quietly pursued its work, through
the past eighteen years, with steadily increasing success,
notwithstanding the unfriendly attitude of the ordinary pro-
fessional organizations, and has sent forth a goodly number
of skilful physicians. Its corporators assert that *Mts cur-
riculum of study and requirements for graduation are in all
respects as high as those of the best medical schools in this
country'* and present a catalogue of thirty-eight regular stu-
dents for the year 1867. At the college in New York,
chartered in 1863, one hundred intelligent ladies have
already received instruction from a competent corps of pro-
fessors. Many of these have not designed to practise as
phj'sicians ; but have availed themselves of this method for
obtaining knowledge invaluable to them in their own homes.
Twenty-nine have completed the course, and received the
legal diploma ; and there ai-e now thirty students in regular
attendance. The New York Infirmary also, now in its four-
teenth year, originated and still chiefly managed by Drs.
Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell, has well earned an honorable
position and done noble service. It has furnished advice and
medicine gratuitously to more than seven thousand women and
children during the past year. These ladies have in view the
organization of a college, for which a considerable fund has
already been collected and a preparatory class formed. In
various other directions preliminary steps have been taken
toward the same end ; and there are estimated to be as manj'
as three hundred wopien, in full practice, scattered through
the land. These institutions are yet in their infancy, and
the opposition to their object has be^n such, on the part of
male members of the profession, that they have found difli-
culty in securing instructors of* the highest grade and
facilities for thorough clinical or anatomical study. This,
however, they are gradually overcoming, and, we doubt not,
will soon occupy a position, fully equal at least to that of
MBS. CLEMENCE S. LOZIEB, M. D.
617
»•
«► m-
,»«•■
^«_«^ y^a^^^XW^ • > » k • C4««> v< A ^r «^»w> A *A«*<»w*>« *&y *l**«%«*«y
-J. .
^
*
MRS. CLEMEKCE 8. LOZIEB, M. D. 517
the average of similar schools. We have deemed it appro-
priate to make these introductory statements, in view of the
fad that this ijeld for female action is one so little trodden,
as yet, that its claims are but vaguely apprehended ; and to
many of our readers the subject is perhaps entirely new.
The few individuals, the outline of whose history we are to
give, have been leaders in the whole movement, and are still
recognized by their associates as its most prominent advo-
cates. They are also amogg the ripest and most honorable
examples of what it is fitted to accomplish.
MRS. CLEMENCE S. LOZIER, M.D.
It is deeply interesting to ti*ace the causes which have led
My one to depart from the ordinary paths of life. In those
isauses there is often much that is palpably providential, —
the impelling of divine influences through extraordinary
arrangements, — and there is much of naturaj operations in
accordance with the recognized fitness of things. Both these
facts will be apparent in the instance we are now to consider.
M'hy should Mrs. Lozier, a gentle, modest, unambitious,
home-loving woman, have chosen the calling of a physician?
M'^e shall see as we sketch her biography. She was born Dec.
11, 1813, at Plainfield, New Jersey, the youngest of thirteen
children. Her father was a farmer, David Harned, — a name
^ell known at that period in the Methodist Church, of which
be was a faithful member, and in which his brothers were
Successful preachers. Her mother was Hannah Walker,
t^revious to their residence in New Jersey, they spent some
J^ears in Virginia, where Indian trilies, noted for their sagac-
ity, were then numerous. Mrs. Harned, a devout Quaker-
ess, and with much missionary spirit, mingled freely with
^em. From them she gained valuable information, which.
518 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
added to reading and close observation, with strong natm-ai
predilection, qualified her to act efficiently in the neighbor-
hood as an attendant upon the sick. Subsequently she spent
seven years in New York city, engaged in general practice,
with the advice and co-operation of her cousins, Drs. Dunham
and Kissam, by whom she was highly esteemed. William
Harued, an elder brother of Clemence, was also a physician
of good reputation in New York, and for some time partner
of Dr. Doane, formerly quarantine physician, in an extensive
chemical laboratory. Clemence was early left an orphan,
and was educated at the Plaiufield Acadenay. In 1830 she
was married at New York to Mr. A. W. Lozier. Her hus-
band's health soon failing, she opened a select school at their
house in West Tenth Street, which she continued eleven
years, averaging sixty pupils from families whose social posi-
tion indicates the character of the teacher whom they would
sustain. Many of those pupils and their children are now
her patients. Mrs. Lozier was one of the first teachers in
the city to introduce the study of Physiology, Anatomy, and
Hygiene as branches of female education. During this pe-
riod, she read medical works, under the direction of her
brother. When her scholars were ill, she would generally
be called before the physician, and her advice would be the
sole reliance in ordinary diseases. She also at that time, for
seven years, was associated with Mrs. Margaret Pryor in vis-
iting the poor and abandoned, in connection with the Moral
Reform Society, and often prescribed for them in sickness.
Subsequently, while residing in Albany, she visited in the
same connection in that city. Her opportunities for observ-
ing diseases in their worst forms among women and children
were thus unusually extensive. In 1837 Mr. Lozier died ;
but she continued for some time the occupations to which his
invalid condition had led her, though constantly looking for-
ward to the medical profession as that to which she desired
MBS. CLEMENCE S. LOZIEB, M. D. 519
to devote herself. In 1849 she attended her first course of
lectures at the Central New York CJoUege, in Rochester, and
graduated at the Syracuse Eclectic College in 1853, having
previously applied for admission to several other institutions,
and been refused on the ground that no female student could
be received. Returning to New York, she entered at once
upon regular practice, which she has continued with remark-
able success to the present time. Resorting to no means for
attracting attention, generous to excess, giving her services
gratuitously in numerous instances where fees would usually
be exacted, yet her professional income is equalled by only a
few of the most prominent practitioners in the city. She
never hesitates to treat the most critical cases, and in the
surgery required by the diseases of her sex has shown pecu-
liar skill, having performed more than a hundred and twenty
''capital operations" in the removal of vital tumors, besides
nearly a thousand of a minor character. Many loading phy-
sicians now readily meet her in consultation, and she is fre-
quently called out of town for the purpose. In 1867 she
visited Europe, where every facility was afforded her for the
inspection of hospitals, and eminent men received her, and
introduced her to their associates with most gratifying cour-
te^y.
In 1860 Mrs. Lozier commenced a course of familiar lec-
tures in her own parlors, given gi'atuitously to her patients
and their female friends, and attended by many of them with
much interest and profit. These continued three years, dur-
ing which a ''Medical Library Association" was formed, for
the purpose of promoting reading upon such subjects on the
part of ladies. Her own mind, however, was, from the be-
ginning, fixed upon the organization of a Medical College.
In her parlor listeners, to whom she was giving only the sim-
plest instruction upon sanitary principles, she foresaw the
nucleus of college classes. In her patients and the men of
520 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AOE.
wealth or benevolence to whose families she thus gained ac«
cess, she anticipated contributors to its funds. All her pro-
fessional and social intercourse was made to bend to this
result with untiring zeal and unwarering confidence. Her
own experience, and that of the few others who had met the
ordeal, convinced her that by no other means could a thor-
ough training be given to those who desired it, without such
sacrifice of personal feeling as no woman should be required
to endure. She denied both the expediency and practicability
of mingling the sexes in such education, and therefore re*
frained from co-operating in the measures proposed by others
to that end. Many meetings of ladies, for conference, were
held at her house ; but the disturbed condition of the country
prevented the maturing of their plans. Some were wearied
or discouraged in the effort, and forsook her ; but she never
for a moment doubted the success of the movement. At
length, in 1863, it was determined to organize. The Library
Association was merged in a College Association, a Board of
Trustees chosen, a charter obtained, professors engaged,
rooms secured, and the enterprise fairly inaugurated. Mrs.
Lozier pledged herself, beyond her own subscription, to
meet all pecuniary deficiencies for the first year. Her sat-
isfaction and gratitude for the fulfilment of her hopes were
complete. Since then she has devoted as much as possible
of her time, and a considerable portion of her property, to its
advancement. In all her efforts, from their inception to their
present results, she has been ably seconded by her son, Dr.
A. W. Lozier, whose indefatigable labors were invaluable to
the cause. Of him it is fitting to say here that he is an es-
teemed physician, married to a highly educated lady (who is
also a graduate of the Medical College), and is well-estab-
lished as a practitioner in New York.
Mrs. Lozier's marked characteristic, both personally and
professionally, is gentlenessi — carried in demeanor, perhaps.
MBS. CLEMENCE S. LOZIEB, M. D. 521
to an extreme of quietness, which sometimes detracts from a just
impression of her ability, decision, and confidence. Her influ-
ence upon her patients is always-soothing ; and she thus places
them in the best mood for the action of remedies, while by her
tenderness she wins many hearts, which will afiectionately
cherish her when time and space shall widely separate them.
Not naturally systematic, — not so strict and regular as many
might wish in her arrangements and modes of practice,— never
making impression by technical phraseology, — much of her
success arises from her sympathetic penetration of a case,
ready access to the entire state of those seeking her advice,
and the use of mild forms of treatment adapted to the sus-
ceptible female organism. In her aims she is singularly un«
selfish. Her simple remark to a friend, in view of one of
the most difficult operations, which she had not before per-
formed, but had then decided to undertake, in the presence
of one of our first surgeons, instead of entrusting it to his
hands, was indicative of heriiabitual spirit: **I desire to do
this for the sake of the cause, for the credit of woman." It
is her absorbing idea, and in it her own personal aspirations
are merged. At the basis of her whole character, however,
and the source from which spring all its movements, is a
spiritual faith. Years ago, amid trials known only to a lim-
ited circle, she grasped the unseen hand of the Great Physi-
cian, upon which she has never ceased to lean, and which has
never failed to lead her. In a private letter (which we must
be pardoned for quoting) she says, " I am so much indebted
to my religious teachings, to an unwavering faith in a present
Saviour, and his constant inspiring love, that I want to tell
all the world about that, and how I feel the gift of healing to
be the talent committed to me by him, and then how I feel
indebted to Mr. L. N. Fowler and his excellent wife, Dr.
Lydia F. Fowler, to Mrs. C. F. Wells, and many other helps
which God has raised up for me/' We mention this, not for
522 EfiflNENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
the purpose of eulogy, but because our sketch would be ia*
complete without the distinct acknowledgment of that which
is most radical, and upon which Mrs. Lozier herself places
her utmost dependence.
MISS ELIZABETH BLACKWELL, M. D,
In the subject of the previous sketch, our attention was di*
rected to one whom native tendencies and favoring circum-
stances so combined to lead to the chosen pursuit, that her
engagement in it was, from childhood, almost a foregone
conclusion ; and it would have required a strong compulsion
to divert her from it. In the lady whose name we now pre-
sent, we observe very dijQTerent elements of character, and
different influences prompting to a similar course. Miss
Blackwell is of English parentage, and was born at Bristol,
England, in the year 1821. Her father moved to the United
States in 1831, and first established himself in business at
New York. In accordance with his circumstances and views,
his children had at that time every advantage for a liberal
education. Proving unsuccessful in his enterprises, he re-
moved to Cincinnati, hoping there to retrieve his fortunes,
but died in 1837, leaving his family among strangers, to de-
pend entirely upon their own efforts for support. Elizabeth,
with well-matured mind, and already developing the energy
which has since so thoroughly characterized her, though but
seventeen years of age, opened a school, which she sustained
satisfactorily several years.
An apparently slight occurrence directed her attention to
the study of medicine. A female friend, afflicted with a dis*
tressing disease, expressed her keen regret that there was no
one of her own sex to whom she and other like sufferers
could resort for treatment. There were women who had
MRS. ELIZABETH BLaCKWELL, M D. o23
assumed the medical title, but without authority, and with
little claim to coufidence. Most of them, also, were of disrep-
utable character, and their practice not only unreliable, but
largely criminal. Her friend, appreciating Miss Bhickwell's
abilities^ and knowing that she had yet no settled aim in life,
urged upon her the duty of devoting herself to this object,
rescuing the title as applied to women from reproach, and
meeting a want which multitudes painfully felt. The sugges-
tion was immediately repelled, as utterly repugnant to her
tastes and habits. She had a peculiar and extreme aversion
to anything connected with the sick-room, or with the human
body in its infirniities. Even the ordinary physical sciences
' were uncongenial to her. Metaphysics and moral philosophy,
the abstract sciences, accorded far more with her inclina-
tions. Pressed upon her, however, as a question for consci-
entious consideration, and, with characteristic firmness, setting
aside personal preferences, she soon decided that the call
upon her was providential, and her duty plain. The oppro-
brium to be encountered and the difficulties to be surmounted
only deepened her determination. Writing for advice to six
different physicians in different parts of the country, their in-
variable reply was, that the object, though desirable, .was
impracticable ; ** utterly impossible for a woman to obtain a
medical education. The idea eccentric and Utopian." Her
reasoning from such counsel was brief, and her conclusion
peculiar. ** A desirable object, a good thing to be done, said
to be impossible. I will do it." She at once commenced
medical reading, under the direction of Dr. John Dixon, of
Ashville, N. C, in whose family she was residing as gov-
erness. Removing the next year to Charleston, S. C, she
supported herself by giving lessons in music, but continued
to study, with regular instruction from Dr. S. H. Dixon,
afterwards professor in the medical department of the New
York University, and pursued it farther under Drs. Allen
524 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
and Warrington, of Philadelphia. She found the study
deeply interesting, and followed it with ardor and thorough-
neas, while benevolence and singleness of purpose speedily
overcame her aversion to the associations of disease. Upon
applying for admission to the medical schools of New York,
Philadelphia, and Boston, she was uniformly refused. From
ten others the same answer waa returned, until at Geneva the
faculty submitted the question to the students, who unani-
mously voted for her reception, at the same time assuring her
that nothing on their part should ever occur to wound her
feelings while in attendance, — a pledge which they nobly
kept. Entering in 1846, she graduated in 1848, — the first
woman who received the medical degree in the United States.
So violent, and so ignorant, too, was the opposition of her
own sex, that during those two years no lady in Geneva
would make her acquaintance ; common civilities, even at the
table, were denied her, and in the street she was deemed un-
worthy of recognition. Within the college walls she found
nothing but friendliness and decorum ; and on the evening of
public graduation the cordiality of the students in making
way for her to receive her diploma, and pleasantly indicating
their congratulations, was marked and respectful. The next
morning (she was to leave town in the afternoon) her parlor
was filled with ladies. Success had turned the tide. Doubt-
less, also, many, moved by the evident approval of her asso-
ciates in study, were satisfied at last that her motives were
honorable, and her abilities adequate to her work.
The same year, Miss Blackwell went to Europe, and en-
tered as a student ^*La Maternity," at Paris, with special
reference to obstetrics. She also studied in 1850 and 1851
at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, in London. In the autumn
of 1851 she returned, and commenced practice in New York
city. Here again she experienced difficulties which only an
indomitable will and the consciousness of a lofty aim enabled
MISS. ELIZABETH BLACKWELL, M. D. 525
her to meet. With no such facilities from extended acquaint-
ance and gradual entrance upon the work as subsequently
favored Mrs. Lozier, she found a " blank wall of social and
professional antagonism facing the woman physician which
formed a situation of singular loneliness, leaving her without
support, respect, or counsel." The title had be^n appropn-
ated by such a class, that the sign was. too generally supposed
to indicate either a charlatan or an agent of infamy, and it
was almost impossible to find a respectable boarding-house
upon which her name would be allowed to appear. Notwith-
standing all the hindrances, howeVer, her testimonials and
soon-proved qualifications gradually gained for her the confi-
dence of all classes, the co-operation of physicians, and an
extent of practice entirely satisfactory. The Quakers were
first to receive her ; and among them she has ever since main-
tained a most desirable position. Contrary to her own ex-
pectation, and to the usual impression also, her services have
not been limited to, nor even chiefly required for, diseases
peculiar to her own sex, but she is called and relied upon
generally as the regular family physician ; and in that capac-
ity her relation to a wide circle of families is permanent.
In 1859 she again visited Europe, gave a course of lec-
tures in London on the connection of women with medicine,
and was registered as a member of the British Medical pro-
fession.
At about the time when Miss Blackwell established her-
self in New York, her sister Emily commenced the study,
under Dr. John Davis, demonstrator at the Medical Col-
lege of Cincinnati. In 1852 she entered the Rush Medical
College, at Chicago, reading also with Dr. Daniel Brainerd,
of that city, and spending the summer vacations in such at-
tendance as was permitted her at Belleviie Hospital, New York,
and graduated at the Cleveland College in February, 1854.
That year and the two following she spent abroad, — one
526 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
year in Edinburgh, one in Paris, one in London ; and return-
ing in December, 1856, located in New York. We regret
that our limits forbid a more eictended reference to this lady,
whose abilities, attainments, and personal excellences cause
her to share the respect of the public and the calls of private
practice equally with her sister. It has seemed necessary to
make Elizabeth Black well, as the elder physician, and foi
some reasons the more prominent, the special subject of our
notice. In our further statements, however, we shall find
them so thoroughly identified in their professional sphere,
that they must necessarily^ be named together.
The "New York Infirmary for Women and Children,** was
the product of their united thought and effort. It was incor-
porated in the winter of 1853, and opened in the spring of 1854
as a dispensary, regulated and attended by Dr. Elizabeth. In
1856, on the return of Dr. Emily from Europe, they associated
with them temporarily. Dr. M. E. Zakrzewska, a Polish lady,
enlarged their plans, took a house, and opened it as a hos-
pital, as well as a dispensary. The object was threefold, — a
charity for the poor, a resort for respectable patients de-
siring special treatment, and particularly a centre to female
students for practical clinical study. The Boston and
Philadelphia colleges had already been chartered, and sent
forth a number of graduates ; but there was then no hospital
which their students could freely visit, nor was there any de-
signed exclusively for female patients. The New York*
Infirmary was therefore, for some years, the only woman's
hospital in both these senses, and supplied an essential
element in any full scheme of instruction. About thirty
students have availed themselves of its advantages, by spend-
ing a year in daily attendance at its bedsides, and accom-
panying its visiting assistants into the homes of the poor.
With an honorable list of consulting physicians, the treatment
is yet entirely conducted by the Drs. Blackwell and their
MISS. ELIZABETH BLACEWELL, M. D. 527
female associates. Up to the present time over fifty thousand
patients have received prescriptions and personal care by this
means ; and nearly a thousand have been inmates of its wards.
Every variety of operation connected with midwifery (except
the Cesarean) , has there been successfully performed by Dr.
Emily Blackwell, as attending surgeon. Both the sisters
took an active part in the organization and work of the
"Ladies Central Relief Association,'* during the war; and
their parlor lectures to nurses about to enter the service of
the army were highly valued.
In the personal qualities as well as professional methods
of the Drs. Blackwell, the intellectual element decidedly
predominates. Clear judgment, close analysis, and steady
purpose mark their treatment of cases which come under
their charge. They are strenuous advocates of thorough
scientific attainments on the part of women who would en*
gage in the profession ; and enter continual protests against
short courses of study, and low standards of acquirement in
institutions for that purpose. On this account, they have
refused to co-operate with any which have been organized,
perhaps exacting too much from those which are confessedly
imperfect at the beginning, and laboring under unavoidable
disadvantages. Their influence, however, has thus been
stimulating to all who are engaged in such eflforts, ''pro-
voking them to good works.** A paragraph in one of their
lectures expresses their spirit. ** It is observation and com-
prehension, not sympathy, which will discover the kind of
disease. It is knowledge, not sympathy, which can admin-
ister the right medicine; and though warm sympathetic
natures, with knowledge, would make the best of all phy-
sicians, without sound scientific knowledge, they would be
most unreliable and dangerous guides." They are also firm
in their conviction of the expediency of mingling the sexes in
all scholastic traimng, and have very reluctantly njliuquished
528 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
for the present, the hope of opening the ordinary colleges to fe-
male applicants. In their mode of practice they adopt the main
features of the "regular*' system, while refusing to be ab-
solutely bound by any such limitations in their examination
and use of remedies. On the whole, they furnish each as
complete an instance as* has come under our observation
among women, of cool, dignified, self-poised character,
scorning shams and artifices, resolutely, with disinterested
motive, set on the attainment of worthy ends. In religious
connection, they are Episcopalians, though, in theology as
well as medicine, they seem to be independent searchers for
truth-
Miss HARRIOT K. HUNT, M. ]).
Perhaps no American woman of our time has made herself
heard and felt in so many directions and amid such diverse
circumstances as Harriot K. Hunt. Many have achieved
more eminence in some one department, and the world of
fashion or literature or art recognize them where she is un-
known. But the parlor and the platform, the sick-room and
the court-room, asylums and churches, wretched hovels and
mansions of elegance. East and West, have been the scenes
of her animated speech and determined work. By the lovers
of truth and goodness, the radical philanthropists of various
orders, she is widely known. Many causes have been pro-
moted by her public advocacy. In private relations many a
crushed, despairing woman has risen to new life under her
stirring appeals, many a bold, profligate man has shrunk
abashed before her pungent rebukes. It is difficult, therefore,
to eliminate the professional part of her history from the so-
cial and reformatory, as our design obliges us to do, and to
condense it into our brief limits.
She is a genuine Bostonian (a title which has significance,
MISS HABHIOT E. HdNT, M. D. 529
both favorable and unfavorable), pedigreed, born, bred, and
habitaated as sucb. Her father, Joab Hunt, lived many years
in the street ia which his parents and grandparents bad lived
and Aied. He was of a strong stock, full of vitality physical
and mental. Her mother, Kezia Wentworth, was of an
equally vigorous ancestry, and possessed a mind of remark-
able qualities, argumentative, practical, independent, and
withal abounding in tenderness and genial brightness, as did
also her father, in whom humor and 'earnestness seem to have
been happily combined. He was a shipping merchant, and
through energy and prudence came into easy circumstances,
amid which, Harriot and her sister Sarah, the only children,
were reared. Harriot was born in 1805, the first child, four-
teen years after her parents' marriage, and was joyfully wel-
comed and carefully trained. Her home was a happy one,
and everything which affection could devise to foster her
constitutional buoyancy of character was lavished upon her.
Nothing occurred to shade the steady brightness of her life
until 1827, when the sudden death of her father changed all
her prospects. His estate was found to be encumbered and
the settlement difficult. A few months previous, with some
intimations of his embarrassed affairs, the sisters had opened
a school, which became now the chief dependence of the
family, beyond the small income from the property. It was
also a means of discipline to themselves, qualifying them
for their future work, brought them more into contact with
tiie domestic lives of others, and acquainted them with those
private underlying facts in regard to the condition of young
girls and their home management, upon which so largely de-
pends their health in maturer years. Harriot says of it, '* My
school was flourishing and I loved it. Yet I never felt it my-
true vocation. It seemed to be preparing me for something
higher and more permanent. It was but transitional.'' In
1830 her sister was prostrated by severe illness. This, with
84
530 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
the experience of medical treatment in connection with it,
formed the turning-point in the history of both. It was a
distressing, complicated disease, and the presoriptions were
after the severest forms of the old school of practice. After
ten months' sickness without improvement, the sisters were
roused to consider and study. They procured medical books
and read, and arrived at the conclusion that the case had been
misunderstood. Then came a change of physicians, with
some advantage ; but the interest awakened in the study of
medicine and the conviction that much of the ordinary prao-
tice was blind and merely experimental, led them to pursue the
investigation further for themselves and for the benefit of
similar sufferers. In 1833, Mrs. Mott, an English woman,
established herself in Boston. Her husband was a physician,
but the care of female patients devolved chiefly upon her.
She made extravagant claims to medical skill in the treatment
of cases regarded as hopeless ; yet her general success was
too evident to be denied » She attracted their attention, and,
in spite of friendly protests and the displeasure of former
attendants, the invalid was placed under her care. The
result was favorable. After more than three years' confine-
ment, she was soon able to walk the streets and to attend
church. Relations of intimacy, and affection were created
between the physician and her patient's family. Afl;era time
they changed their residence, leasing their own house, and
taking rooms in Mrs. Mott's. Then the school was given up,
and Harriot accepted the position of secretary to Mrs. Mott,
•conducting an extensive correspondence with patients. She
entered upon it with her usual ardor. It enlarged the sphere
of her observation, intensified her sympathy especially for
those afilicted with hidden ailments, and '^deepened the in-
filinct which pointed her to the medical profession." Mean-
while she read with avidity everything which bore upon it.
She was fascinated by it, eager for knowledge in each depart-
MISS HABBIOT K. HUNT, M. I>. 531
ment and delighted with the results of research. Her mind,
however, biased by her experience in her sister's case, turned
most readily in the direction of inquiry after the laws of
health. She ^endeavored to trace diseases to violated laws,
and learn the science of prevention. That word, prevention,
seemed a great word to me," she says ; ^ curative was small
beside it." The death of Dr. Mott caused Mrs. Mott to re-
turn to England and broke up the household. Still the
studies were pursued, with an increasingly clear persuasion
of what the purpose of her life was to be, and a veiy dis-
tinct recognition of providential guidance in it. The period
spent thus, nearly three years (including her attendance in
Mrs. Mott's office), in addition to the more private reading
in the sick-room during the intervals of relief from school
duties, was one of extreme application. Few students after
the regular modes, with all the facilities of tuition afforded
them, have ranged over a wider field of knowledge or searched
it more thoroughly, so far as it can be exhibited in books.
The opportunities |br more practical examination by the bed-
side, or in contact otherwise with the subjects of maladies,
came subsequently, and were pursued with an eagerness
sharpened by the consciousness of deficiency resulting from
the previous lack. In 1835 an office was opened, the two
names, Harriot and Sarah, associated. They studied and
practised together. Often in the late night hours they recited
to each other lessons from medical works, or compared views
upon cases presented during the day. Each new case was a
fresh revelation to them, or gave them a deeper insight into
what they had already learned. There is a singular charm
about this part of their biography, as we have obtained
glimpses of it. Harriot evidently took the lead in every-
thing. She was thirty years of age, ^the very acme of human
life, — in vigorous health, every faculty fully developed and
toned to its highest point, of indomitable will and overflow-
532 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AO^.
ing witli enthusiasm. With no professional support, no
conferred title as guaranty of capacity or attainment, no ad-
vertising resorts for attraction, she launched from the safe
harbor of domestic privacy and social protection upon an
untried sea of responsibility and public scrutiny, with suit*
able discretion, and yet .with unflinching confidence that she
was on the track to which the Divine Hand had brought
her. Her practice was not after any established formulas.
She was bound by the regulations of no school, as none had
endorsed her. She valued the ordinary medicines, so far as
she perceived Uieir restorative effects, but received and used
freely any remedial agency whether moral or physical. She
writes, ** I was particularly attracted to mental diseases and
often found physical maladies growing out of concealed sor-
rows. We were frequently surprised by the successful termi-
nation of many of our cases through prescription for mental
states ; and the causes of diseases, with the quality of remedies
for them, became a deeper study. Love for our calling gave
life to the calling. Every fact we gathered had its use, and
while the perceptive faculties were stimulated, the reflective
were educated for guidance." And again, ** Medication alone
is not to be relied on. In one-half the cases medicine is
not needed and is worse than useless. Obedience to spiritual
and physical laws — hygiene of the body and hygiene of the
spirit — is the surest warrant for health and happiness. It is
only the quacks of the profession, emulous of the quacks
ostracized by the faculty, who put their trust in dosing. The
true physician knows better.'*
Patients gathered slowly at first, but with steady increase.
Many were declined conscientiously, because beyond her
present knowledge or ability, and without any false pride of
reputation. Obstetrics and other surgery she never prac-
tised. We pass over a few years, during which she was
gaining experience, position, influence, and property. Her
MISS HABBIOT K. HUNT, M. D. 533
sister married and removed, and she was left alone in her
professional work, which began to grow rapidly in its de-
mands upon her. In 1843 a ^ Ladies' Physiological Society "
was organized in Charlestown, at her suggestion. The mem-
bers met twice a month, to read and converse upon topics
which the name indicates, while industriously occupied for
some benevolent object. Within the year it increased in
numbers from a dozen to fifty, and was long sustained with
spirit and benefit, and, for aught we know, is still in active
existence. Its formation was eventful to Miss Hunt, as giv-
ing her the first hint of the possibility of lecturing to her own
sex. At many of their meetings she addressed them, and
acquired thus the freedom and facility of speech which she
has since exercised abundantly, before larger and more gen-
eral audiences, upon a variety of subjects. In 1847, at the
suggestion of friends, as well as the prompting of an earnest
wish for information through every avenue, she applied to
the faculty of Harvard College for permission to attend a
course of lectures in the medical department, stating that, at
the age of forty-two, after twelve years' practice, which had
become extensive, and ranking among her friends many of
the most intelligent citizens, it would be evident to them that
the request must proceed from no want of patronage, but
simply from a desire for such scientific light as could be im-
parted by their professors, and as would make her more wor-
thy of the trusts committed to her. The application was
refused, simply upon the ground of expediency, without as-
signing reasons. Three years afterward she repeated it,
accompanying it with an able letter, hoping that the favor
with which Miss Blackwell had been received elsewhere, and
the full discussion of the matter on several occasions, might
induce a different decision. It proved so ; and permission
was granted by the proper officers. The students, however,
waxed indignant at the prospect of such an associate in thcit
534 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
studies (or, perhaps, such a witness of their manners) , and
vehemently protested. Unwilling to create disturbance,
where her object had been entirely disinterested, she gen-
erously declined to avail herself of the long-coveted oppor-
tunity. The medical class of 1851, at Harvard, so unlike
that of 1846, at Geneva, in the case of Miss Blackwell,
gained for themselves an unenviable notoriety. In 1853 the
Female Medical College, at Philadelphia, conferred upon
Miss Hunt the honorary degree of M. D. She had well earned
it, and, whatever may be her technical irregularities, has con-
ferred as much honor upon the title as it has upon her.
In 1850 Miss Hunt began to attend conventions held with
reference to the interests and rights of woman. Every as-
pect of that movement profoundly affected her, and she gave
her influence earnestly to it. Her special part in it, however,
and her public speech, when opportunity offered, was con-
cerning the sanitary reforms needed among women, and their
right and duty to take care of themselves and each other and
their offspring in that respect. " Woman as physician to her
sex '' was her theme. The conventions furnished her fitting
occasions for urging it. They brought her also more promi-
nently before the public, and prepared the way for numerous
meetings, called for the purpose exclusively of listening to
her appeals upon the subject. At intervals, through several
summers, as convenience served, and she could be spared
from professional charge at home, she made tours through
New England, New York State, and Ohio, delivering ad-
dresses, organizing associations, visiting colleges and schools.
That she spoke well and effectively may be inferred from the
character of her audiences, composed of the most intelligent
classes, and the practical results in societies formed, and new
impulse given to measures for the education of women in every
department. During the last few years her life has not beed
marked by any events which could appropriately be noticed
MISS HARBIOT K. HUNT, M. D. 635
in our sketch. She has continued her residence in Boston,
and pursued her practice in a steadily increasing circle. Her
example has encouraged others to enter the field ; and she
has now some able co-laborers in the city, whom she thank-
fully welcomes and assists, declaring, ** All women-workers
have my benediction." At the end of twenty-five years she
celebrated her silver wedding to her profession. Her house
was crowded with cordial friends, who decorated it with
flowers, and testified their esteem by ab'mdant tokens. Ad-
vanced in years, her spirit is still buoyant as ever. She
writes, "'Knowing that all life is from the Lord, mine, pro-
fessionally, has been radiant, and I have enjoyed so much in
m » « My hair ig "vyhite, but my life is precious to me." "As
year afler year has glided away, I have gathered flowers and
fruits, which have cheered and beautified the approach of age.
Signal blessings, providential interpositions, interior guidance
in emergencies, religious thankfulness for strength in times
of need, distrust, and sin, mark the periods of my life, rather
than days and months." Sorrowing much over sufieriug,
with burning indignation against vices and oppressions, her
habitual mood is yet joyful ; and few who come into her pres-
ence can resist its magnetic power, or fail to go from it
stirred to higher and purer endeavors. She has cured many,
enlightened, cheered, and elevated multitudes.
In religious faith Miss Hunt is Swedeuborgian, — attracted*
to it, perhaps, by her imaginative and soulful temperament ,
by her affinity with its subtile metaphysics, with which it pen- ^
etrates and illuminates the physical sciences ; by its ethereal
spirituality, and by the magic words, "truth, good, and love,"
with which it plays upon the fervent mind, yearning for har«
mony and peace, like evening bell-chimes upon the ear
weary of the world's clamor. Whatever may be its doctrinal
soundness, its influence has been to invest her character and
636 EMINENT WOMEN 09 THE AGE.
experience with a peculiar glow deeply satisfactory to her*
self, and impressive to those who know her.
We have endeavored, thus, to represent impartially, three
of the most advanced, most trusted, and most successful fe-
male physicians of our country. They were pioneers in a
movement which has already resulted in the introduction of
hundreds to the same position. They prepared themselves
for it with fewer facilities than any who have followed them;
bending circumstances to their will, rather than shaped in
ttieir course by the suggestion of circumstances ; compelling
advantages, commanding helps, forcing open (but never
ludely) avenues long closed to the sex. It would be difficult
to find more complete contrasts than they present, both
physically and mentally ; and yet, like the geometric problem
of the triangle described within the circle, they are, from their
distinct points of departure, perfectly included within the
same circle of aim and influence. The world owes a debt of
gratitude and honor beyond computation to those who, at
the sacrifice of much that was dear to them, in the face of
opprobrium or misjudgment, aware of the immense respon-
sibilities involved, in the spirit of a true Christian ministry,
neither anticipating nor seeking the large emoluments which
have come to them, have led the way into such a sphere.
* As we have more fully pondered the subject, the persuasion
deepens that no more flagrant wrong to humanity could be com-
mitted, than that of hindering the entrance into it of any who,
with so pure intention and intelligent fitness, seek admission.
We could readily now extend much further our record of
worthy compeers in this work. Diplomas are multiplying
year by year, and among the recipients are " honorable women
not a few." Every large city, and many of the smaller
towns, would furnish names to add to our roll of honor ; and
a multitude of voices would unite in uro^in^ the claims of one
KRS. HANNAH E. LONGSHORE, M. D. 537
and another for a place upon it. Our desire to express the
cordial appreciation which we have of all such must,
however, be restrained. We limit ourselves to the notice of
two, one as illustrating the possibilities of large success in
general practice, the other the influences to be quietly ex-
erted in the department of professional instruction. We
dniw both instances from Philadelphia, partly because they
well represent the college established there, and partly be-
cause that city is probably the best field in which this branch
of woman a labors can fairly exhibit its fruits.
MRS. HANNAH E. LONGSHORE, M. D.
Mrs. Longshore is the daughter of Samuel and Paulian
Myers, born May 30th, 1819, in Montgomery County, Mary-
land. Her parents were natives of Burks County, Pennsyl-
vania, and members of the "Society of Friends." When
she was two years old, they moved into the District of Co-
lumbia, where she received her early education, attending a
private school in Washington City. In the year 1832, unwil-
ling to remain longer under the demoralizing influence of a
slave-holding community, they again changed their residence,
and settled on a farm in Columbiana County, Ohio. Here
the whole household co-operated in industry and the most
rigid economy, to secure for themselves a quiet and happy
home. Samuel Myers was evidently a man of practical re-
ligious character, and strong individuality, — one whom un-
wearying diligence, careful reading, and meditation had
developed into a good reasoner and a sound philosopher.
Having had experience in teaching, and taking a deep interest
in his children, it was his daily practice to aid them in their
studies as well as to use every opportunity for familiarizing
their minds with the principles of science. His aim was to
538 EMINB17T WOMEN 09 THE AOB.
make study a pleasure, to quicken their perceptions and
strengthen their reflective powers. The " divinity of labor ^
was also with him a cherished sentiment, part of his religious
creed. In his family and elsewhere he dwelt on it with em-
phasis. He maintained that every child had a right to the
best possible advantages for intellectual culture, and, equally,
that it was the interest and duty of society to train them in
habits of intelligent industry; that every one should con-
tribute in some way to the common product ; no sinecure
posts, no drones, no consumei's who should not be either di«
rectly producers, or so actively helpful to the producers that
they could claim a share of the benefit, on the apostolic prin-
ciple that *^if any would not work neither should he eat."
His children grew up deeply imbued with this principle, and
with it a feeling of individual responsibility and self-reliance.
There were six children, one brother and five sisters. The
older sisters passed much time in the open air, in the society
of their father on the farm, aiding him in the various branches
of labor adapted to their capacity. During the busiest seasons
in the field, however, a portion of the day was devoted to read-
ing and to conversations between parents and children. All
the branches of natural science were more or less considered
during these periods, while at labor as well as in the inter-
vals of rest. It was beautiful and instructive to witness the
family group in these discussions, and note the thoughtfulness
and enthusiasm exhibited, — frequently the utmost eagerness
and exhilaration of spirit. In the same connection religion,
morality, social reforms, politics, and whatever interested or
agitated society, received such share of their attention as
other duties permitted, and the mental development of each
child seemed to demand. In these respects they were differ-
ent from most of their acquaintances. Independent, united,
satisfied with their domestic resources for enjoyment, they
became somewhat isolated. They were respected in the
MRS. HANNAH E. LONGSHORE, M. D. 539
neighborhood, yet feared and shunned by many as eccentric.
Summer after summer, in rural simplicity, was thus occupied.
When not working in the field, Hannah was assisting a deli-
cate, feeble mother in household duties, and caring for the
younger children. These physical toils, combined with men-
tal activity, imparted discipline and courage to accomplish
whatever task was undertaken. The comparative leisure of
winter was more fully devoted to study, occupied as pupil or
teacher in the district school. She attended one term at the
New Lisbon Academy, about two miles from her home.
This distance she walked at morning and evening, regu-
larly braving the storms, the bitter cold, and drifting snow.
Neither the long walk, nor domestic duties, nor other trifling
reasons, were ever offered or needed as an excuse for im-
perfectly prepared lessons. Beside the milking-pail, the
churn, the wash-tub, the ironing-table, somewhere would the
book be placed, that study might progress while the hands
were busy. She joined the literary society connected with
the academy, prepared essays, and^gave lectures on scientific
subjects.
At a very early period an interest in anatomy was devel-
oped. When ten years of age she was often occupied in the
examination of insects, and the dissection of small animals,
pursuing it with the same nicety and accuracy with which
she would also analyze flowers, to gratify a craving for knowl-
edge in these departments. Very soon her attention was
turned to the study of medicine, with a view to practise, by the
family physician, whose prescriptions it had been her part to
administer in the family. Arrangements were made to com-
mence regular reading ; but untoward events frustrated the
plan, and it was postponed. At the age of twenty-two she
married, and the subsequent six years were chiefly devoted
to domestic duties, partly on a farm, and partly in a quiet
village. This, though apparently a blank portion of her
640 EMINENT WOMEN 09 THE AGE.
history, was not blank in useful experience. It was here
that her well-developed, but comparatively uureguUted forces
of mind and heart, and indomitable energy, were concentrated
and directed into a practical channel. She was put upon her
own resources, and her innate executive qualities were brought
into requisition. Never entirely satisfied that she was occu-
pying her whole sphere, she nevertheless resolved that she
would fill that portion of it well. The proficiency she ac-
quired in the performance of every service connected with
house-keeping, and the charge of a family in sickness and
health, she often refers to with thankfulness. Without this
skill and experience she would not feel qualified to meet the
emergencies often occurring in her relations to other families,
nor to practise her profession with thoroughness. At the
end of these six years events favored a change in her circum-
stances, and the busy cares of a farmer's wife were exchanged
for the quiet village home, with only her own family, con-
sisting of husband and two children, to occupy her. It was
then, when her youngest child was four years old, and some
leisure offered, that she resumed her favorite study. The
books and maps, skeletons, and preparations of her brother-
in-law. Prof. J. S. Longshore, who was also her preceptor,
were at her service. She proceeded with the usual course,
and at the end of two years entered as a student the ^Female
Medical College of Pennsylvania," located in Philadelphia.
It was the first session of that institution. At 'the close of
the second session, in 1850, she was one of the ten members
who composed the first graduating class. As an indication
of regard for her qualifications, the faculty immediately elected
her " Demonstrator of Anatomy," and she acceptably served
the college in that capacity. Her '^ sign " was the first one
exhibited in Philadelphia by any female graduate in medicine.
The calls of patients were at first few, and principally of the
poorer classes. It was found no easy matter for an entiro
MRS. HANNAH £. LONGSHOBB, M. D. 541
stranger, unheralded, to obtain practice. Ignorance, preju-
dice, and •petty persecution were to be encountered. Sneers
and ridicule were the staple arguments against her. Some
gentlemen of the profession took special pains to array public
sentiment against the movement. *'A woman's intellectual
incapacity and her physical weaknesses will ever disqualify
her for the duties.** •* She will either kill her patients or let
them die." "It would be evidence of insanity or idiocy to
employ her." ** If you call in a woman you will have to call
a man afterward, and no man will meet a woman in consulta-
tion." These expressions were heard on every side. With
unwavering purpose and confidence in ultimate success, she
was not discouraged, but availed herself of this enforced lei-
sure, to prepare and deliver a course of ^'Lectures to Ladies
on Medical Subjects." She also delivered a carefully written
lecture, on the "Medical Education of Women," to a large
and appreciative audience, in one of the largest halls of the
city, and repeated it, as well as the course to ladies, in other
halls and churches. These lectures, besides inducing consid-
eration and yight tiews upon the general subject, introduced
her more fully to the public, and enabled her hearers to form
some judgment of her qualifications for the duties she had
assumed. The result was, that, one by one, many of those
who heard her called on her for advice and aid. By the
third year her practice had increased so that she was obliged
to abandon all idea of further lectures, and also to resign her
position as demonstrator in the college. Since then it has
steadily extended, until few physicians of either sex, and
among women perhaps none, except Mrs. Lozier, can equal
it. As many as three himdred families in the city rely upon
her exclusively for medical care, and it is no uncommon thing
for her to prescribe for forty patients in a day. Her practice is
legitimate and general, that is, it includes all forms of disease,
acute and chronic, in respectable fiunily treatnuuit« witb sur-
642 EMINENT WOMEN 07 THE AGE.
geiy among women and children. Of the latter, she has had
occasion to perform many extremely delicate and tfangerouff
operations, — with what success, the best testimony that can
be desired, is the growing confidence with which she is called
upon by the most intelligent class of citizens. The objection
often urged against the introduction of female physicians, —
that they cannot endure the inevitable fatigues and exposures,
— has met a practical answer in the instance of Mrs. Longshore.
Inheriting from her mother a delicate constitution, her early
childhood was one of sensitiveness and suffering, notwith-
standing the benefit derived from the mode of life which we
have described , judiciously regulated. At the age of fifteen she
very narrowly escaped from a prostrating and protracted
attack, requiring many months for recovery. At the time
of graduation, the faculty predicted an early death from con-
sumption. Since then her weight has greatly increased, and
she gives every token of vigor. It is her conviction that her
continued life and present degree of health are due to the
active habits of the profession.
Mrs. Longshore is constitutionally ex&emel^ diffident.
For many years she was so easily embarrassed that she
dreaded and shunned society, beyond the limited circle of a
few friends. To appear in public as a lecturer, and to visit
strangers professionally, always required a struggle against
this timidity and the habit of reserve ; yet she has so far sub-
dued it, by absorption in her objects, that it would hardly bo
detected in her deportment. In appearance she is character-
ized by entire simplicity, equally removed from coarseness
and from affectation ; not adopting the Quaker costume and
language, but plain in her mode of speech and dress, vrith an
openness of countenance expressive of a truthful spirit.
Direct, unhesitating, and informal in her approach to a case ;
unpretending, and yet evidently assured in the exercise of
her judgment ; with a peculiar mingling of personal moiesty
MRS. HANNAH £. LONGSHORE, H. D. 543
and professional positivenessy she inspires patients with
immediate trust, which is rarely forfeited. Cool, cheerful,
rapid in her manner as physician, almost seeming to make
light of their ailments, she leaves them refreshed by her visit,
scarcely conscious of their need of condolence, and yet often
before leaving the houses of those endeared to her by long
acquaintance or dependence npon her care, she sheds the
tears of a true woman and a sympathizing mother. Her
mind acts with the quickness of intuition or of keen percep-
tions, and a brief interview, with a few questions, usually
suffices to guide her in the choice of remedies. In her seleo*
tion of these, she is not governed by any routine, nor limited
to one school of medicine, but considers that she is at liberty
to avail herself of any means which her experience has proved
nscful or the peculiarities of the case suggest. For some
time past, the prejudices which she at first encountered from
the ^ fraternity," especially under the pressure of resolutions
early adopted by the county society and some other organiza-
tions, have yielded to the evidences of her ability ; and now
some of the leading physicians of the city freely meet her ia
consultation, while others, too much trammelled by regular
tions, or personal fears, to act openly, have recommended her
to their female patients, and, in several instances, while pub-
licly uniting in measures of opposition to women as prac-
titioners, have privately sent to her for treatment their own
wives and daughters.
In the midst of these exacting and exhausting claims upon
her time, Mrs. Longshore is, in her domestic relations, affec-
tionate and faithful. Her husband and children are preferred
above all other objects of interest. Without them, she often
declares that life would lose its chief charm to her, — a dec-
laration the sincerity of which they and her mtimate friends
fully credit and abundantly testify, and which is confirmed
by the order of her household, and by her readiness at any
544: EMINENT WOMEN OT THE AGE.
time to consult their comfoit at the sacrifice of her own*
Her warm and active sympathy, also, with every movement
promising benefit for the wronged, the oppressed, and suffer-
ing, especially to those of her own sex, is well known among
her friends. Her gratuitous labors among the poor she has
always felt to be a duty, and congenial to her disposition.
She never knowingly accepts a fee from the needy, while she
is constantly distributing food, clothing, and other comforts,
gathered from every source within her reach. Not so much
marked by the devotional element, or uplifting spirituality, as
some whom we have already noticed, she is certainly abundant
in those fruits of pure and undefiled religion, which consist
in visiting the widow and the fatherless in their affliction,
and keeping unspotted from the world, and we trust is actu-
ated in it by the divine precept ^ to do good and to commu-
nicate ; for with such sacrifices Ood is well pleased."
A younger sister, Miss Jane V. Myers, M. D., resides in
her family, and has a large and lucrative independent practice.
An older half-sister, Mrs. Mary F. Thomas, M. D., now
liWng at Camden, Indiana, has been actively engaged in that
State several years. For two years she was editor, and for
a longer time contributor to a semi-monthly journal devoted
mainly to the cause of .women, published in Richmond,
Indiana. During the rebellion she was occupied much in
collecting and distributing supplies, and a portion of the time
her husband, O. Thomas, M. D., and herself had charge of a
hospital in Tennessee.
MISS ANN PRESTON, M. D.
If we were seeking a subject for an attractive biography
merely, there are many women whom we might have chosen
in preference to Miss Preston, for the striking characteriBtioi
HISS ANN FBESTON, M. D. 545
or Btirring incidents which their lives would have furnished ;
yet there are few whose lives are more worthy of record, or
their qualities of imitation, or whose work has been more ef-
fective for the cause we are advocating. Indeed, the few facts
which we are allowed to use are given us for their bearings
upon the cause, rather than for personal representation. Identi.
fied with the college and the hospital, she prefers to be known
chiefly through them, and to have her reputation merged
in whatever good they may accomplish. Yet the public,
who witness and honor these results of unobtrusive labor, have
right to know more of the personality of one who is so
clearly a workman that needeth not to be ashamed.
She was born December, 1830, at West Grove, Pennsyl-
vania, in the old homestead of her grandfather, where her
.father was born and died, and where she lived until constrained
to leave it for a wider sphere of action. Her father was Amos
Preston, a devoted Quaker. An obituary notice of him, by
one who had known him from childhood, speaks of him as a
man of unusual intellectual gifts, ^^enthusiastic in the pursuit
of truth, particularly on those subjects which most nearly
affect the present and everlasting welfare of the race, and
inflexibly faithful to his convictions of duty ; possessed of a
warm social nature and a rare faculty for entering into sym-^
pathy with the wants and interests of others, which, together
with his acknowledged disinterestedness, inspired confidence,
80 that he was trusted and loved by his personal friends as
few men have been. In the domestic relations the beauty of
his character shone conspicuous. The family government was
that of perfect love, while frankness and mutual confidence
marked his intercourse with his children." Her mother also is
mentioned as *^fond of literature and having an intense love of
nature, with a sensitive nervous organization. " Miss Preston
evidently combines in herself the consiitutional traits of both
parents. Her only sister dying in infancy, the delicate health
85
546 BMINBNT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
of her mother brought the chief care of a large family upon
her, making her early life one of close occupation and grave
responsibilities. Her opportunities for education were there-
fore limited to the country school (which, however, was of high
order) , and a period spent at boarding-school in West Chester,
the county town. But the neighborhood of their residence
was one of remarkable intellectual activity and culture, and
of moral excellence. A valuable public library, with a Ly-
ceum and Literary Association, gave tone to society, diffused
intelligence and promoted discussion upon all current ques-
tions. She regards her connection with these as one of the
richest blessings of her youth, and as having important bear-
ing upon her subsequent life. During that period, also, she
shared largely with true-hearted men and women in earnest
efforts of general philanthropy. Her influence in these di-
rections was distinctly marked, while in the genial domestic
circle, amid all her practical duties, she was cultivating a re-
fined taste, often evinced in poetic effusions, whose pure sen-
timents have been appreciated by many readers.
To a mind like hers, uniting keen sensibilities with energy
of purpose and breadth of aim, the charms of such a home
must have been great, while the impulse to pass beyond its
limitations was equally strong.
The years, however, passed on profitably and happily,
until she reached maturity. She would long before have
entered some wider and less secluded path, had not her moth-
er's continued need of assistance, while six brothers were
reaching manhood, seemed an imperative claim. But the
aspiration to more fully "labor for God's suffering ones"
was pressing. The time had come when she felt the neces-
sity for a broader field of satisfying work, and a fuller inde-
pendence than was possible with her surroundings. She
loved study, and medical subjects were peculiarly interesting
to h«r, yet she bad not shaped for herself the coarse which
HISS ANN PBBSTON, M. D. 647
she should pennanently take. At this midway point, when
the ties which had so long bound her to the ordinary routine
of woman's cares were loosened, and the remaining half of
probable life required definite direction, in 1850 the " Wom-
an's Medical College of Pennsylvania " was opened at Phila-
delphia. Information of proposals preliminary to it had
reached her and engaged her thoughtful attention, and when
they developed into practical form it commended itself to
her as meeting a vital want in society. It satisfied the de-
sires of her own mind. Without hesitation she turned
toward it as settling the question of what her future should
be, and became one of the first applicants for admission as a
student. The college opened favorably, with a faculty of
six professors, regular practitioners, and graduates of regu-
lar schools; though encountering, as was anticipated, the
opposition of a large portion of the profession. It was the
first in the world chartered for the purpose, with the usual
appliances for the instruction of women in all the depart-
ments of medical learning. Imperfections were unavoidable
at the outset of such an enterprise, pecuniary means inade-
quate, a self-sacrificing disposition needed on the part of all
engaged in it. But, ** sustained by the profound conviction
that the cause was right and must succeed, that the study
and practice of medicine are adapted to woman's nature, that
the profession and the world need her, and that her entrance
into this enlarged sphere of virtuous activity is the harbinger
of increased happiness and health for her and the race," — they
patiently continued their work. Miss Preston, with thor-
ough enthusiasm, and yet with the calm steadiness of a
ripened mind, entered into the whole movement, while on
her own part pursuing faithfully every branch of allotted
study. It was a great change from the rural scenes in which
her unruffled life had been spent, uncongenial to her temper-
ament and habits ; but no personal considerations could turn
548 EMINENT WOMEN OP THE AGE.
her from her course. Firm-willed and deeply conscientious,
•she devoted every energy to preparation for the new respon-
siblities which she was to assume. Her attainments were as
-complete as her opportunities rendered possible. She com-
menced practice in the city without ostentation or undue
eagerness for occupation, true to tlie principles which she
has often since urged upon students: ^None can sustain
othei*s who are not themselves self-sustained ; ** "Nothing but
strict inward rectitude can give that repose and strength to
•the spirit which will enable it to bear up safely through every
difficulty ;** *' Those who are admitted into the very sanctu-
aries of society, and entrusted with the most sacred confi-
dences, should indeed be strong and wise, and pure and
good;*' ''If you prove yourselves capable and worthy, society
is ready to receive you, but solid superstructures are the
^ork of time, and slowly, carefully, woman must work her
way." Conforming to the general rule expressed in this last
sentence (to which instances like Mrs. Longshore are excep-
tional), she deliberately felt her way into her true position,
friends who perceived her abilities aided her advancement.
Arrangements were made for her to lecture to classes in Phil-
adelphia, Baltimore, New York, and other places. Meanwhile
changes occurred in the college faculty, and in 1854 Miss
Preston was elected to the chair of ** Physiology and Hygiene,"
%i'hich, as well as the position of "Dean," she still occupies.
It is well adapted to her taste, and gives full scope to her ca-
pabilities. She fills it with dignity and acceptance. The annual
^announcements of the college prepared by her, are models
of clear, sound, and forcible statement, while her introductory
lectures and valedictory addresses, delivered by appointment
of the faculty, are replete with striking thoughts. In 1861
"The Woman's Hospital of Philadelphia " was incorporated,
an essential auxiliary to the college and an invaluable charity.
It has attained already a j)osition which commands for it the
MISS ANN PRESTON, M. D. 549
Aighest respect of the commuuity, has received liberal con-
tributions for its endowment, and possesses a handsome prop-
erty in buildings and grounds. Nearly three thousand patients
were treated through its means, and at the dispensary connected
with it, during the past year. Miss Preston was at the outset
appointed one of its board of managers, corresponding sec-
retary, and consulting physician, and still acts in those capac-
ities. During this period her private practice has become
sufficiently established and remunerative to meet all her wishes,
though her frail health, requiring constant vigilance against
over-exertion, has obliged her to limit it, — refusing night calls
and obstetrical cases. In 1867 the Philadelphia County Medi-
cal Society adopted a preamble and resolutions setting forth in
plain terms their objections to the practice of medicine by
women, and declining to meet them in consultation, — 'a conclu-
sion, however, by which many of their most reliable members
refused to be bound. Miss Preston immediately published a
reply, so admirable in temper and argument as to turn the tide
of opinion, both in the profession and outside of it, among in-
telligent observers, very much in favor of those in whose be-
half she wrote. No rejoinder, so far as we are informed, was
attempted ; but the restraints upon consultation have been re-
laxed instead of confirmed, and a better understanding of the
whole subject now prevails. Of course we do not ascribe the
improvement entirely to this cause, yet we cannot doubt that
the adjustment of these difficulties, as well as the advanced
ground occupied by the medical work for women in that vicin-
ity, is owing as much to her well-regulated, judicious, but in-
telligent, firm and persistent eflforts as to any other that can
be named. Personally her position in the esteem of the pub-
lic, and more intimately of a large circle of friends, is beyond
dispute or possible change, and tranquilly though busily she
occupies it. With the care whioh she has learned to exercise
over hereditary susceptibilities, many years more of useful-
550 BMIKENT WOMBN OF THE AGE.
Bess appear probable for her, within which she can hardly
fail to see her utmost aims accomplished for the institutions
and objects to which she has dedicated herself with a true con-
secration, while many who go out from her instructions will
bear the permanent impress of her serene, unwavering
character.
CAMILLA UBBO. 551
CAMILLA DRSO.
BY MARY A. BETTS.
"Thb violin is the violet," says the Chevalier Sor^phael in
that most imaginative and fantastic of musical novels, ^Charles
Auchester.*^ How came the fancy to the writer's brain?
Was it because the violet, with its trembling blue petal and
its evanescent fragrance, reminds one of the woods, the min-
gling harmonies of brook and bird-voice, of wind-swept trees
and restless wind ? Or, was it because to the artist the vio-
let was the most perfect of flowers and the violin of instru-
ments?
An instrument it certainly is of torture and delight. How
we have all groaned at the melancholy squeaks of a poor
fiddle in the street I With what a rapture have we followed
the violins in the orchestra, as their penetrating and aerial
tones completed for us the harmonic pictures or the wordless
songs I And in the hands of a genius whose thoughtful
brain and ardent heart have comprehended and mastered its
powers, what a magical shell is this crooked, stringed, sono-
rous thing of wood I
The brain and heart of a true violinist came into the world
one summer-day in the city of Nantes, France. This beau-
tiful old Huguenot city was then the residence of Salvator
Urso, a musician from Palermo, Sicily, and his Portuguese
wife, whose maiden name was Emilie Girouard. Signor Urso
was an crganist and flutist of rare merit, educated thoroughly
5S2 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AOE.
in all the principles of his art by his father, who had ddne
hearty service to music in younger days. On the 13th of
June, 1842, Camilla Urso was bom, — the first child of a
happy union. Though four brothers followed her, the little
daughter was most passionately beloved by her father, who
gloried in her inheritance of that gift which had been his
resource and constant pleasure. The warm Southern sky
never looked upon a more attractive child than the little Ca«
milla. Young geniuses are not always charming. Precocity
is often accompanied by conceit and nervous irritability. But
Camilla's bright cheerfulness was even more fascinating than
her talent.
She was alive to all the subtle mysteries of sound at an age
when the *' Cradle Song" is the favorite melody of most chil-
dren. Her father was first flutist in the orchestra of the
opera, and carried her to the theatre almost every night.
Through the long performances she sat, rapt in childish hap-
piness, never growing tired, never weary of repetition.
Madame Urso now declares that she heard more operas then
than she has listened to ever since.
At the age of six she found and proved her vocation. Her
father was organist at the Church of the Holy Cross. One
day she stood listening at his side while the choir performed
the mass of St. Cecilia. Solemnly, slowly, the organ tones
swelled and died. Clear voices of soprano and tenor rose
upon the air with the saddening plaint of Kyrie Meison.
The orchestral harmonies interwove their pathetic or trium-
phant music. The dark-haired child, with the broad brpw and
sWeet, parted lips, listened, — not awed by the under-wave of
the mighty orgftn, not following with curious, imitative mouth
the soaring voices and melodious words, — but enchanted for
life by the inarticulate passion and sorrow of the violin's chang-
ing vibrations. The hist note of the mass floated into silence,
but the little Camilla did not mingle in the crowd of depart*
CAMILLA UB80. 553
ig worshippers. Her father's hand aroused her, and she
walked home announcing in a firm tone, which was most
amusing, coming from that tiny figure : ^ I wish to learn the
violin. **
Her studies were immediately begun, and her progress was
most rapid. In a year she appeared at a concert given for
the benefit of a widow, whose husband had been one of
Signor Urso's friends.
The announcement of the concert astonished the citizens
of Nantes. It was considered the height of absurdity for a
child to attempt to play on so difficult an instrument. Friends
came to applaud, enemies to laugh, but all were amazed and
delighted. Little Camilla had no timidity, no anxiety for
success. Her new white satin shoes, the first she bad ever
put on, were much more engrossing for the time than the
violin she was to handle. The principal journal of Nantes
spoke thus of the performance : —
** Never had violinist a pose more exact, firmer, and at the
same time perfectly easy ; never was bow guided with greater
precision than by this little Urso, whose delivery made all
the mothers smile. Listen, now, to the Air Variee of the cel-
ebrated De Beriot ; under these fingers, which are yet often
busied with dressing a doll, the instrument gives out a purity
and sweetness of tone, with an expression most remarkable.
Every light and shade is observed, and all the intentions of
the composer are faithfully rendered. Here come more ener«
getic passages : the feeble child will find strength necessary,
and the voicQ of the instrument assumes a fulness which one
could not look for in the diminutive violin. Effects of double
stopping, staccato, rapid arpeggios, — everything is executed
with the same precision, the same purity, the same grace.
It is impossible to describe the ovation that the child received.
Repeatedly interrupted by applause and acclamations, she
654 EMINENT WOHBK OF THE AGE.
was saluted at the ond bj salros of bravos and & shower of
bouquets.''
Soon after this Signor Urso went to Paris, resigning his
position at Nantes for the purpose (^ giving the most thor-
ough musical education to the daughter of whose genius he
was so proud. He proposed that she should be received into
the Conservatoire.
The professors met the proposition with incredulity and
amazement. ** Absurd, indeed I " they said ; ^ she is too young,
and a woman cannot be a pupil of the Conservatoire.'' But
• Signor Urso persisted. ^ Only hear her," be said, ^ before
deciding." So the little sprite appeared before the most ex*
acting, the most critical of juries. Auber^ Bossini, Meyeir-
beer, and Massart were among the judges.
They retired for a decbion, and at the door the little appU
cant and the trembling father waited. At last the answer
came. The new pupil was accepted unanimously. The
father's hat went i^ito the air with triumph.
For three years Camilla studied almost incessantly. No
advantages were wanting to the young aspirant for musical
honors. Simon was her first teacher, but her chief instructor
was Massart, who took an extraordinary interest in the de*
velopment of her powers. He received her into his class,
and gave her, in addition, private lessons. All this instruct
tion was gratuitous.
From this time she had no opportunity for the amusementn
other children enjoy. She practised ten and twelve hours a
day, learning harmony, solfeggi, and masteripg difficaltiea
far beyond her years. To acquire that steadiness of positioa
for which she is now so remarkable, she placed one foot in a
saucer while playing. Fear of breaking the dish was a suffi-
cient motive to keep her feet motionless ; and to this simplf
CAMILLA UBBO. 665
eoDtrivimce we are indebted, in part, for Madame Urso^a
wonderful accuracy and agreeable repoae of manner.
The years of training were interrupted by a aeries of con*
eerts in the departments and a tixree months' tour in Germany.
This was a special indulgence, as pupils of the Conservatoire
are not allowed to play in public. Camilla performed at
Heidelberg, Baden-Baden, and Mayence, receiving every-
where the recognition due to an artist, not to a prodigy.
That Grerman public, so devoted to music in its highest forms,
led by masters of such varied genius, took the child to its
heart. Nobles and princes paid her compliments and be^
stowed beautiful presents upon her. A countess, who took
the most affectionate interest in her, insisted on giving her an
ornament she had worn at her own confirmation, — a large
cross of pearls attached to a long chain of red coral.
From these triumphs she returned to Paris and her studies
with Massart*
In a few months she ai^>eared at the public concerts of
Paris, at the Salle Herz, the Soci£t£ Polytechnique, the Con*
servatoire, and the Association of Musical Artists. Her
success was great. A (»ritic, qpeaking of her at this time,
says: —
* She is walking in the steps of the greatest virtuosi. She
plays the violin, not as a well-organized child might play
after a certain period devoted to study, but, indeed, with a
skill truly prodigious. Her pose^ her eneigy, her bowing,
reveal the consammate artist. But what is most surprising
is the sentiment of her execution ; she excels in that essen-
tial expression which comes wholly from the soul, and which
the composer, from lack of means to note and write out,
abandons to the discretion and intelligence of the executant."
At the age of nine she performed before Louis Napoleon,
then President of the National Convention. He Was greatly
556 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
delighted with her playing, and promised that, if he should
ever advance in position and influence, she might claim his
protection, and he would be happy to do her any favor in his
power. The wily ''Man of Destiny," whose ambition was
even then planning the renewal of the empire, and an at-
tempted mastership of Europe, has probably foi^otten the
pledge. Camilla has nevet reminded him of it, preferring to
depend on her own powers for all place she may hold in the
world's esteem.
In 1852 the little Urso received propositions from a Mr.
Faugas, of North Carolina, to come to America. He offered
her a salary of twenty thousand dollars a year; and, as the
fsunily was in need of the assistance the child's violin could
give, the offer was gladly accepted.
Preparations were made for an extensive tour, and a con-
cert-troupe of eight was engaged. Auber, hearing of her
intended departure, presented her with the following testi-
monial, which she justly regards as one of her dearest
treasures : —
«< NATIONAL CONSEBVATOBY OF MUSIC AND OF DECLAMATION.
"Pabis, August 12, 1S52.
^ Mademoiselle Camilla Urso is a young pupil of the Na-*
tional Conservatory of Music. Although still at a very tender
age, she has obtained brilliant success in several concerts in
Paris, and above all at the Conservatory, where the jury have
decreed to her by election the first prize at the competition
for the prizes of the year.
** Learning that she is soon to depart for the United States,
I am delighted to state the happy qualities which ought to
ensure her a noble artistic career.
**The Americans have already nobly proved that they are
not only just appreciators of the fine arts, especially of music,
but that they know as well how to recompense with generosiQr
CAMILLA UBSO. 557
the merits of the celebrated artists who are heard in the hos-
pitable towns of their rich and beautiful country.
"AUBER,
*' Member of the Institate,
** Director of the Conservatory."
The child-artist came to this country with her father, but
they soon discovered the insinuating Faugas to be a swindler.
The«moneys for Camilla's services were not forthcoming, and
the engagement was hastily broken.
The Germania Society now offered an engagement, and tho
little Urso played for them a year, meeting everywhere with
greiit applause and admiration. At the end of the year she
joined Madame Alboni, who was then singing in this coun-
try, and performed at six concerts with her in Trippler Hall,
New York.
In 1852 Madame Henriette Sontag, Countess Rossi, came
to this country to make a trial of the public which had re-
ceived Jenny Lind with such enthusiasm and generosity. She
won honors everywhere by her dramatic talent and marvellous
voice.
Hearing of Camilla Urso's success, she proposed to add her
to her own concert-troupe. At the conclusion of his daugh-
ter's engagement with Alboni, Signer Urso accepted the
overtures of Sontag, and Camilla joined her at Cincinnati, in
December, 1853.
Brief as was their connection, the most tender relations
were established between them. Nothing could be more
beautiful than the sight of this magnificent woman, who was
then the imperial mistress of song, surrounding with truly
maternal kindness the lonely little novice whom chance had
brought to her arms.
The generous affection of Madame Sontag was never for-
gotten by the child, and the now famous violinist speaks of
her benefactress with a devotion which years cannot diminish.
558 EMINENT WOICEN OF THE AGE.
*^She was perfection — an angel , in talents, temper, and
goodness. At fifty-two one would kneel to her, — what must
she have been at twenty ? She herself took the place of my
mother, who was not in America. She plaited my hair,
attended to my dresses, and cared for me in everything.'^
Camilla accompanied Madame Sontag to New Orleans,
where they gave eighteen concerts, followed by six weeks
of opera, in which Madame Sontag was the star. The two
artists created a genuine furore^ exciting their Southern au-
diences to the highest pitch of enthusiasm. Bouquets came
in showers, and the applause was incessant. One night
Madame Sontag carried eighty-six bouquets from the stage,
and the fairy violinist often received fifteen or twenty.
From New Orleans Madame Sontag went to Mexico, and
Camilla never saw her again. They parted m March, 1854,
and Signer Urso took his daughter to Savannah, and sub-
sequently gave concerts in different cities of Georgia and
some other Southern States. They then returned to New
York,* where, in May, they heard of the sudden death of
Madame Sontag by cholera.
The news of this loss prostrated the sensitive child with
grief. She refused to appear at concerts, and seemed to lose
all animation and vivacity. A change of scene was at last
imperatively necessary, and she went with her father to
Canada in 1856.
This trip was very successful, though not entirely profes-
sional. She travelled through the country, giving some
concerts, and winning admiration from crowded houses.
One incident of her trip was very enjoyable, — her recep-
tion on board of a French corvette. The officers desired to
do honor to their gifted little compatriot, and invited her to
visit them. She was then a charming young lady of four-
teen. She appeared before her admiring friends in a costume
CAMILLA IJBSO. 659
combining the three national colors of France. The gallant
marines showed her a hundred graceful attentions, presented
her with bouquets, and she, in return, bewitched them with
the music of her violin.
While in Canada she met with a serious loss. Her collec-
tion of presents, containing a magnificent bracelet presented
by the Germania Society ; her cross of pearls with its chain
of coral, and other ornaments of great value, pr/zed as the
souvenirs of her childhood's triumphs, and her European
Tesidence, were in New York. On the 22d of February, 1859,
when the people of the house where she had left her propertyhad
gone to see the annual parade in honor of Washington's birth-
day, some one entered and possessed himself of her jewels.
Search was unavailing, nothing was ever again heard of them.
On her return from Canada her mother met her in New
York. The joy of mother and daughter, reunited after so
long a separation, may easily be imagined. They spent some
time together, and then professional duties called the child
away. She had received overtures from a Mrs. McCready,
a reader of some celebrity at that time, to accompany her in
a tour through the West. They proceeded as far as Nashville,
Signer Urso remaining in New York, when Camilla discov-
ered that the contract was not to be fulfilled, the readings not
to be continued, — in short, that she had fallen once more into
the hands of swindlers. The McCreadys, after treating her
with great injustice and unkindness, left her penniless in
Nashville. A pitiful position for a young girl scarcely fifteen
years old I But Camilla's courage and resources were fully
equal to the occasion. This timid creature, who had always
relied entirely on her father's advice and direction, — who had
not been educated into that habit of self-reliance so frequently
a characteristic of American girls, — determined to give a con-
cert herself. She wrote to her friends giving information of
the state of afiairs, and then applied to a musician of the
560 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
•
city for some counsel as to time and place. She enlisted the
sympathy of the citizens of Nashville. The result was a full
house, and four hundred dollars for the empty pocket.
Soon after this she retired from public life. For five years
she did not appear in a professional character except for char-
itable purposes. But the cherished violin did not lose its
power in these years of quiet. She learned more of life, and
through varied experience her genius grew.
When she returned to the concert ball, on the 16th of
March, 1863, at a Philharmonic concert in New York, she
won instantly her old place, and "rained influence" upon us
with those calm wavings of her enchanted bow. She was
soon engaged to play at the Philharmonic concerts in Boston.
In the autumn of 1863 she received a beautiful gift from some
of the modem Athenians in the form of a watch and chain,
— the watch decorated with green enamel, and a diamond
of great value. On one side of the watch was engraved, —
" Camilla Urso.
From heb Boston Fbiekds.
Nov. 8th, 1863."
The gift was enclosed in a velvet box, bearing upon the
cover her initials in gold within a laurel wreath.
Engagements now crowded upon her, and she visited in suc-
cession most of the cities that had known her as a child,
spending much time in Boston, New York, and Chicago.
In 1864 she went to Europe, sailing in the ^ China," on the
26tb of August. Keaching Liverpool she prepared at once
to go to Phris, — her home for some years, and the scene of
some of her earliest triumphs. She was wonderfully success-
ful in this centre of art, and became the ^lioness of the
saloons."
Pasdeloup's monster orchestra was then performing in the
Chxjue Napoleon. Paris, with all its superb theatres has no
CAMILLA UB80. 661
large music hall. Camilla Urso was invited to play with this
orchestra, and plajed, at one of their concerts, Mendelssohn's
great concerto.
The minister of fine arts, Count Newerkerque, sent
for her to play at the palace of the Louvre. Never had
she performed before so distinguished an assembly as there in
the beautiful cabinet of the minister. Two hundred and fifty
gentlemen were present. Diplomatists, princes, and soldiers,
with their hard-won crosses, rendered homage to the fair vio-
linist, who saw with delight the faces of Alexander Duraar.
Lord Cowley, and Professor Alard. Her finest morceau o*.
this occasion was a Fanta&ie*Caprice of Vieuxtemps.
From Paris she went to Arras, Boulogne, Valenciennes,
and Cambray. At Boulogne she appeared at two successive
concerts given by the Musical Society of that town, — a cir-
cumstance almost unknown in the records of the society.
After spending fourteen months abroad, she returned to
America, where she has remained ever since. Her life since
then has been the same story of travel, study, and concerts.
She has become a great favorite both in the East and West.
What Boston thinks of her may be understood from the
fact that she has given more than one hundred concerts in
that city. There she feels herself entirely at home, sur-
rounded by sympathetic and appreciative friends. One of
fthe sincerest and most highly prized of all tributes to her
musical accomplishments is a letter, which was addressed to
her, after a concert in Music Hall, by the musicians of the or-
chestra of the ** Harvard Association : " —
•* We, the undersigned, members of the musical profession
in Boston, who have been recently witnesses of the extraor-
dinary musical talent displayed by Camilla Urso, in her
performances on the violin, deem it our pleasure and duty as
brethren (who, it may be admitted, are the more thoroughly
S6
562 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AQB.
capable of recognizing skill in this department of the art) to
offer some fitting testimonial to her. In no way, perhaps,
can we express our regard so beneficially as by giving to the
public a professional estimate of her ability.
^ We would especially record her performance of the violin
concerto by Mendelssohn, — one of the most difiicult works for
that instrument ; her playing of which was so marvellously
fine and near perfection itself as to excite our highest admi*
ration. It is not enough to say that it was a wonderful per-
formance for a woman; it was a consummate rendering, which
probably few men living could improve upon.
^ It may seem needless to characterize her playing, but a few
traits may be pointed out, namely, her complete repose of man«
ner ; largeness of style ; broad, full, and vigorous attacking
of difficulties; utmost delicacy of sentiment and ^feeling;
wonderful staccato ; remarkable finish in trills, with an intona-
tion as nearly perfect as the human ear will allow. When to
these are added a comprehensive mind, with a warm musical
soul vibrating to its work, we have an artist who may be
nearly called a phenomenon in the womanly form of Camilla
Urso.
** Signed by the whole orchestra, namely, Carl Zerrahn,
William Schultze, William Wieser, Stephen A. Emery, Carl
Meisel, Otto Dresel, Thomas Ryan, Wulf C. J. Fries, B. J.
Lang, Ernst Perabo," etc. «
The outside world of mere lovers of music sometimes give
tbeir opinions of Camilla's playing in remarks equally earnest,
though hardly scientific. One auditor, after listening to her
m wide-mouthed amazement, declared with a most emphatic
gesture, that she was " woman enough to vote." At a concert
in Chicago, an admirer, who was asked whether there had
been any flowers on the stage that night, answered, ** None
but Camelia Urso.**
CAMILLA URSO. 563
In the spring of 1865, soon after her return from Europe,
Madame Urso played at a concert in New Haven, The hall
was crowded with a noisy audience, composed mainly of
Btadents, irrepressible and critical, and }'oung ladies who
were deeply occupied with them and their criticisms. Th^
unhappy pianist of the occasion met with hearty contempt.
The talking went on as gayly as ever. But when the violin-
ist entered, with her simple, natural manner, and stood quietly
a moment waiting, the house was hushed. First she played
a brilliant Fantaisie of Vieuxtemps, displaying all her skill
in the execution of musical difficulties. Every one followed
her with the most eager attention. At the end came hearty
applause, and an imperative recall. **The Last Rose of
Summer" was her answer to the waiting crowd. Tenderly,
wearily, the notes of the familiar air breathed to us of regret
far beyond the sentimental lament of Moore's song. Not a
movement disturbed the flow of the melody. The quiet of
Badness seemed to hold the listeners. The music ceased, she
bowed once more, but the audience would not permit a with-
drawal. She seemed unwilling, at first, to respond to this
encore^ — this tribute often more tiresome than flattering.
But, after a minute's indecision, the violin went up to her
shoulder again, and the very genius of fun seemed to possess
it. She played *' Yankee Doodle," but the spirit of the mo-
notonous old tune was surely transmigrated into a robin, drunk
with the intoxicating air of some June morning. It was
surely a bird who took up the quaint refrain, and repeated it
again and again with mocking variations in frolicsome aban-
donment. The audience, a few minutes ago half ready to
weep, laughed and applauded by turns, in full sympathy with
the versatile artist. Players often execute tricks with the
strings that are laughter-provoking, mere legerdemain, as
meretricious as it is inartistic, but seldom has such an airy
spirit of humor expressed itself through the violin.
564 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE-
A little story found its way into the ** Musical Gazette *•
recently, which is so characteristic that it ought to be quoted
entire.
Ole Bull, Camilla Urso, and Miss Alida Topp met at a
party, a few evenings since.
** You play beautifully, my child, ^ said the Norwegian to
]VIiss Topp, ** but you can't do the greatest music. No tooman '
can ; it takes the biceps of a man.''
** My arm is strong enough," answered the brilliant young
pianist, laughing ; ** I break my pianos as well as a man could,
and Steinway has to send me a new one every week."
*' You see," responded Ole Bull, turning to Madame Urso,
•* you see how these people treat their pianos. They bang
them, they beat them, they kick them, they smash them to
pieces ; but our fiddles 1 how toe love them/'*
** Oh, yes, indeed," was Camilla's earnest answer, with a
flash of her most expressive eyes.
Her fiddles are three, her favorite one being a Guiseppe
Guamarius, made in 1737. For this she has a standing ofier
of $2000 in gold. An Amati is also in her little collection,
and the prize violin of the Exposition of 1867, made by C.
A. Miremont, which was sent her at the close of the Exposi-
tion. Iler bow was made in 1812.
The grave, and frequently sad expression of Madame
Urso's face, during her performances, has given rise to many
anecdotes of her life which are absurdly untrue.
All who love the charming artist will be glad to know that
family sufferings do not add to the pathos of her ^ Elegies," and
that beatings are not reserved for the patient mistress of the
bow.
Those who have the pleasure of her acquaintance know that
a more genial, sunny enthusiast does not exist than the sup-
posed victim of marital cruelty. Simple in her tastes, single-
minded in her devotion to her art, she denies herself society.
CAMILLA UBSO. 565
and lives for ber violin and her few cherished friends. She
is no idler, satisfied with the attainments of the past, but
steadily works her way to new laurels. Seven and eight
hours a day is ber usual time of practice, and in the long
summer days, when other artists seek change or diversion,
she finds her recreation in her beloved instrument.
On being asked whether she composed for her violin, she
answered, ''Yes, some little pieces, — the Mother's Prayer,
the Dream, — but they are nothing. It is enough for me to
render the works of the great masters.'*
In her childlike devotion to -the genius of Beethoven,
Chopin, and Mendelssohn, she reminds one of Hilda, the girl-
artist of Hawthorne's ^* Marble Faun," whose life was spent in
study of Baphael and Michael Angelo. It is better, thinks
this earnest woman, to render vocal the great conceptions of
the past, than to win a cheap reputation by fleeting musical
mediocrities.
Her remarkable memory retains all the music she plays,
the orchestral pai*ts as well as her own.
Madame Urso's stay in this country is now uncertain. Her
latest performances have been in the New England cities, and
in New York. She has accepted an engagement in Cali-
fornia, and will probably leave for Ban Francisco in July.
Her ardent desire is to return to Paris, and make that city her
home. If she leaves us, it will be with the possibility of
coming again to America, at some time in the distant future.
She will take with her a thousand good wishes, and leave
b'^hind her memories of delight.
566 SUINENI WOMEN OV THE AOE.
HARRIET G. HOSHER.
■«o«-
BY REV. R. B. THURSTON.
to*
The number of women who have acquired celebrity
in tBe art of painting is large ; but half a score would prob«
ably include all the names of those who have achieved great-
ness in sculpture. Without raising the question whether
women are intellectually the equals of men, or the other
question, which some affirm and some deny, whether there is
*^sex of the soul,*' they differ; and there are manifest reasons
of the hand, the eye, and the taste, for which it should be
anticipated that they would generally neglect the one depart-
ment of 86sthetic pursuits, and cultivate the other with dis-
tinguished success. The palette, the pencil, and colors fall
naturally to their hands ; but mallets and chisels are weighty
and painful implements, and masses of wet clay, blocks of
marble, and castings of bronze are rude and intractable mate-
rials for feminine labors. Sculpture has special hindrances
for woman, — though not for any lack of power in her concep-
tion and invention, yet in the manual difficulties of the art
itself. But genius and earnestness overcome all obstacles,
and supply untiring strength ; and the world give honorable
recognition to those women who have, with a spirit of vigor
and heroism, challenged a place by the side of their brothers
as statuaries, and have with real success brought out the form
of beauty and the expression of life and passion which sleep
in the shapeless and silent stone.
A
£66
SHINENX WOUEK OV THE AOE.
I
. t .
?< '•
iH
I • •
» v» t ^
I
HABRIBT G. HOSMEB. 567
One of the most remarkable examples is found in the
B-jbject of the following sketch. The materials from which
it is composed are derived from much correspondence, for
which we are under special obligations to Wayman Crow,
Esq., of St. Louis, the early friend of the artist, and to Dr.
Alfred Hosmer, her kinsman, now of Watertown, Mass. ;
from notices and descriptions of her works in various periodi-
cals, and from narratives published several years ago by Mrs.
L. Maria Child, in a Western magazine, and Mrs. Eilet,
in her volume of the '* Artist Women of all Ages and Coun-
tries.'' The latter gives a consistent portraiture of Miss Hos-
mer, but has been led into inaccuracies in regard to several
of the alleged facts. The notice of Tuckerman, in his book*
of ^American Artist Life," is quite too meagre to be just and
valuable. Mrs. Child, who was a family friend, and at one
time nearest neighbor of Dr. Hosmer, and who wrote in his
house, furnished a very pleasing and reliable sketch. Great
care has been taken to preserve in these pages everything
which is valuable, and to exclude whatever is not authentic.
Harriet G. Hosmer was born in Watertown, Mass., Oc-
tober 9, 1830. Undoubtedly she was endowed with rare
genius by nature ; and the incidents of her early life evidently
conduced much to its development in her chosen pursuit, and
to the bold and unique traits of character for which she is
distinguished.
Her father was an eminent phj'sician, whose wife and elder
daughter died of consumption while she was yet a child, leaving
her the only domestic solace of his afflictions, and hope of hia
heart. She inherited a delicate constitution, and, as if he saw
the same spectral hand which had desolated his home reach-
ing out for her, he made the preservation of her health the
first consideration in his system of juvenile training. It was
a maxim with him, "There is a whole lifetime for the educa-
tion of the mind ; but the body develops in a few years i
568 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
and, during that time, nothing should be allowed to interfere
with its free and healthy growth.**
In her early childhood Harriet was much abroad, usually
accompanied by a little dug, which she tricked out with gay
ribbons and small, tinkling bells ; while her fearless ways and
bright, pleasant features often drew the attention of strangers.
Dr. Hosmer's house stood near the bank of the Charles River,
and her youth was inured to skating, rowing, and swimming,
as well as archery, shooting, and riding. Horse, boat, and
weapons were supplied, and diligently she improved them.
She became remarkable for dashing boldness, skill, and grace.
She could tramp with a hunter, manage her steed like an
^Arabian, rival the most fearless in «the chase, and the best
marksmen with gun and pistol, and astonish and alarm her
friends by her feats upon and in the water, as agile and varied
as those of a sea-nymph.
Machinery very early excited her interest. Her questions
elicited information, and her ingenuity appeared in little contriv-
ances for her own amusement. A clay-pit> near home afforded
materials, and there she spent many hours in modelling
horses, dogs, and other objects which attracted her attention.
The fruits of her tastes and her prowess gradually found
their place in the house. Her own room became a cabinet
of natural history, and the curious works of her youthful
genius. Game, furred and feathered, which her gun had
brought down, dissected and stuffed by her own hands, but-'
terflies and beetles in glass cases, and reptiles preserved in
spirits covered the walls. An inkstand was made of a sea-
guirs egg and the body of a kingfisher. Among her trophies
a crow's nest, which she climbed a lofty tree to obtain during
her school-days at Lenox, rested, after she had gained fam^
in Italy, on the stand which she had made for it.
While she was thus securing physical health and power of
endurance, her mind was growing as well ; but not without
HABRIET G. HOSMEB. 569
certain incidental disadvantages from the free, wild, and even
rude manner of its development. Books did not suit her
active temperament and her taste for concrete things. Of
education and culture in the sense of the schools, during the
years of childhood, she had little. In this respect she resem-
bles Bosa Bonheur, who found her early education chiefly in
the lessons of nature learned out of doors. Her sports and
the prophetic labors of the clay-pit beguiled many of the
hours of study ; and, very naturally, through her unrestrained
liberty and occupations usually regarded as suitable onl^for
boys, she acquired much of the character and manners of a
brave, roguish boy. She was an intractable pupil, and if the
report is correct was ''expelled from one school, and given
over as incorrigible at another." Nevertheless it is said,
*' Those who knew her well loved her dearly," and defended
her from criticism with the testimony, " There is never any
immodesty in her fearlessness, nor any malice in her fun.**
Yet at this period she was a mystery to her friends. There
is good testimony at hand that '' her o\vn father confessed
again and again his ignorance " of her.
It is little matter, so long as there is no moral damage,
when outrage is done to mere conventionalities; and great
gain to health, enjoyment, enterprise, and genius may well
raise inquiry whether a public sentiment in regard to the edu-
cation of girls baa not prevailed quite too much to the
effect that they should be
" Ground down enough
To flatten and bake Into a wholesome crost
For household uses and proprieties."
Anecdotes abound in illustration of Miss Hosmer's un-
tamed frolicsomeness and disposition to practical jokes. In
one of those moods of unlicensed humor she caused to be
published in the Boston papers a notice of the death of an
670 EMINENT WOMEN OP THK AGE*
aged and retired physician then residing in her native vill.ige«
His friends, moved by the intelligence, came from the city to
make inquiries concerning the sudden event, and to offer their
condolence.
This incident led to the first important transition in her
life ; for it convinced her father that some new measures were
essential in her education ; and, after careful inquiry, in her
sixteenth year, Miss Hosmer was placed in the celebrated
school of Mrs. Sedgwick, in Lenox, Berkshire County, Mas-
sachusetts. Dr. Hosmer frankly informed Mrs. Sedgwick
of nis daughter's history and peculiar traits, and that teachers
had found her difficult to manage. The pupil was received
with the remark, *'I have a reputation for training wild colts,
and I will try this one."
With the old anxiety, and in accordance with his fixed
principle of securing the physical development first, and the
mental afterwards. Dr. Hosmer had stipulated that her ath*
letic exercises should be continued. They were, indeed,
included in the training of the school ; but in all the feats of
strength, courage, and agility, Harriet was the wonder of her
companions.
Mrs. Fanny Kemble was accustomed to spend summers at
Lenox, and was an intimate friend of the Sedgwicks. Sur-
prising anecdotes are related by eye-witnesses of her strength
and her equestrian feats. Miss Hosmer enjoyed opportuni-
ties of hearing her reading and conversation, and received
from her friendly encouragement in her art-career, which was
afterwards gratefully acknowledged. Her passion for sculp-
ture found exercise in making plaster casts of the hands of
her mates. Her room was decorated, as before at home, with
the trophies of the hunt and the spoils of the woods.
She remained threo years under the judicious care of Mrs-
Sedgwick, forming permanent friendships in the school, be
coming acquainted with many persons of eminence, moulded
HARRIET G. HOSMER. 571
by society of the first order, and inspired by the romantic
mountiiiii scenery, — a combination of influences of nature
and of life, which, in her father's judgment, were highly con-
ducive to the success she so early attained. When in her
nineteenth year she returned to Watertown, muck improved
by the wise direction given to her energies, her early predi-
lections ripened into a purpose to make sculpture her pursuit.
She had a thought, — she must make it a thing.
Having this end in view, she entered the studio of Mr.
Stephenson, in Boston, for lessons in drawing and modelling,
frequently walkmg the distance from home and back of four-
teen miles, besides performing her lesthetic tasks. Under his
instruction she completed a beautiful portrait-bust of a child,
and a spirited head of Byron in wax.
To perfect herself in anatomy, so essential to the sculptor,
Miss Hosmer desired, in addition to all she could learn from
books and her father, the knowledge which can be obtained
only in the dissecting-room. The Boston Medical School had
refused a request for the admission of a woman, but the Med-
ical College of St. Louis afforded the required facilities.
Prof. McDowell gave her eflicient aid, and sometimes private
lectures, when she was present while he prepared for his pub-
li3 demonstrations. She acknowledged her obligations to
him ^ with great affection and gratitude, as being a most thor-
ough and patient teacher, as well as at all times a good, kind
friend ; " and afterwards confirmed her words by presenting
to him a medallion likeness, cut in marble from a bust 4)y
Clevenger. She received a diploma for her attainments.
• Friendship added charms to the pursuit of science in St.
Louis. At Lenox she had formed an affectionate intimacy
with a school-mate, the daughter of Mr. Wayman Crow, an
eminent citizen of that city. An invitation to visit there
had incidentally opened way to the scientific privileges she
572 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
Bought ; while in his family she found her residence, and in
him, she says, ''the best friend I ever had.**
In that Western city, as aforetime, Miss Hosmer set at
defiance the conventional rules which ordinarily govern, and
perhaps too much afflict, young women, both by entering the
classes f )r instruction, and by her transits by day or evening
from the dwelling to the college, as well as by her customary
exercises. The tongue of animadversion could not, perhaps,
be entirely silent, even though, in that new region, with its
fresh social freedom, she might be less exposed to censure
than in the older and more staid New England ; but it is
asserted to the credit of the members of the college that she
suffered no annoyance from them. Some may believe that a
knowledge of her prowess in the use of deadly weapons was
her security, — for it would be little honor to fall by a wom-
an's shot, — and others may hold that blamelessness without
affectation, integrity, and earnestness of character in a high
pursuit are their own best protection, — safer than any rules
of a suspicious and prudish propriety. She justified herself
to her friends, gained their hearts by her vivacious and genial
qualities in the domestic circle, and preserved unsullied honor.
Before her final departure from St. Louis for her native
place, she resolved to see as much of the West as possible.
It was the dry and warm season of the year, and the naviga-
tion of the Father of waters was uncertain and difiicult. Sho
embarked for New Orleans ; spent several days in that city,
making herself acquainted with its objects of interest, sleep-
ing on board of the steamer, and returned, attended all the
way by her usual good fortune. Without stopping so long 2S^
to greet her friends, she ascended the river to the Falls of St.
Anthony, on a challenge from the captain of the boat, scal-
ing a lofty cliff, which had been regarded as inaccessible, with
the coui-age and agility of an Alpine hunter, and which ac-
cording to his promise, received the name of Hosmer's
HAB2IET G. H06MEB. 573
Height ; visited the Dacotah Indians, smoking the pipe of
peace with the chief, which was afterwards preserved in ^ the
old house at home ; " and explored the lead mines at Dubuque,
narrowly escaping a fatal accident there, which would have
left her friends in ignorance of her fate ; for they did not
know where the spirit of adventure had led her ; and her
arrival at St. Louis again was the relief of their anxiety.
These happy months over, she returned to her father's house
and her art. Ever ready to indulge and facilitate her pur-
pose, Dr. Hosmer fitted up a small studio for her conven-
ience in his garden, which she called facetiously her shop.
There she wrought out various contrivances of mechanical
ingenuity, and produced her first work in marble, — a reduced
copy of Canova's bust of Napoleon, for her father. The labor
was performed by her own hands, that she might be practi-
cally familiar with every part of the process. The likeness
and workmanship are both good.
Soon afterwards she commenced Hesper, — her first original
and ideal work. Mrs. Child, who saw it in the garden studio
in the summer of 1852, by Dr. Hosmer's invitation, gives the
following account of its execution and description, which
were published in the "New York Tribune," under the cap-
tion, " A New Star in the Arts : " —
''She did every stroke of the work with her own small hands,
except knocking off the comers of the block of marble. She
employed a man to do that ; but as he was unused to work for
sculptors, she did not venture to have him approach within
several inches of the surface she intended to cut. Slight girl as
she was, she wielded for eight or ten hours a day, a leaden mallet
weighingfour pounds and ahalf. Had it not been for the strength
and flexibility of muscle acquired by rowing and other athletio
exercises, such arduous labor would have been impossible.
''I expected to see skilful workmanship; but I was not
574 Eminent womek oi* the age.
prepared for such a poetic conception. This beautiful pro-
duction of Miss Hosmer's hand and soul has the face of
a lovely maiden, gently falling asleep to the sound of dis«
taut music. Her hair is gracefully arranged, and intertwined
with capsules of the poppy. A polished star gleams on
her forehead, and under her breast lies the crescent moon.
The hush of evening breathes from the serene countenance
and the heavily drooping eyelids. I felt tranquillized while
looking at it, as I do when the rosy clouds are fading into
gray twilight, and the pale moon-sickle descends slowly be>
hind the dim woods. The mechanical execution of this bust
seemed to me worthy of its lovely and lifelike expression.
The swell of cheek and breast is like pure, young, healthy
flesh ; and the muscles of the beautiful mouth are so delicately
cut, that it seems like a thing that breathes."
Uesper was presented by the artist to her friend, Miss
Uoolidge, of Boston.
When it was completed she said to her father, ** Now I am
ready to go to Rome.''. Rome is the Mecca of artists. The
tomb of the prophet is not more attractive to devout Mussul*
men than its Aesthetic treasures to all the children of genius.
They flow thither from every cultivated nation, for the study
of the noblest models, the inheritance of ancient and modern
ages, for the sympathy and encouragement of companions iti
aspirations and toils, for the exhilaration and joy of artistic
fellowship, — perhaps, also, for the indispensable end of more
favorable opportunities for making known their works and
of obtaining remuneration for their life-labors; and they
often encounter as well the trials which spring from our poor
nature, and allow no paradise on earth, — the envy, jealousy,
bitter criticism, and aspersion of partakers and competitors in
the same pursuits and the same glories.
About this time Miss Hosmer formed acquaintan'te with
HABBIET G. HOSMER. 575
Miss Charlotte Cushman, who recognized her ability, and kin-
dled her desire to study at Rome to a flame. It was arranged
that her father, whose affection and devotion to his daughter
seemed to equal her energy and enthusiasm, should accompany
her there, and leave her, returning himself to his profession.
She rode on horseback to Wayland to bid farewell to her
friend, Mrs. Child, and said, in reply to the questions, ^ Shall
you never be homesick for your museum parlor in Water-
town ? Can you be contented in a foreign land ? " ** I can be
happy anywhere with good health and a bit of marbte.''
Lingering only a week in England, in her eager haste, she
arrived at '* the Eternal City ** November 12, 1852. John
Gibson, the most renowned of English sculptors of this
century, was then in the zenith of his fame. It was the
young artist's strong desire to become his pupil, — a desire
clouded with much apprehension, because it had been inti-
mated that want of persistency in overcoming difficulties on
the part of ladies had brought disappointment upon instruct-
ors ; and the success of her application was extremely doubt-
ful. But two days after the arrival a friendly sculptor laid
before him, as he sat at breakfast at* the Cafe Gr^co, two
daguerreotypes, the one presenting a front, the other a pro-
file view of Hesper, and stated briefly Miss Hosmer's history
and desire. Mr. Gibson contemplated them silently for a few
moments and then said, "Send the young lady to me, —
whatever I can teach her, she shall learn." The ^ London Art
Journal" asserts that she was received by Mr. Gibson, "not aa
a professed pupil, but as the artist friend of our country-
man." Mrs. Ellet writes, "Ere long a truly paternal and
filial affection sprung up between the master and the pupil, a
source of great happiness to themselves, and of pleasure and
amusement to all who know and value them, from the curious
likeness, yet unlikeness, which existed from the first in Miss
Hosmer to Mr. Gibson, and which daily intercourse has not
576 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
tended to lessen." She expressed her joy in the new relation
in a letter. ** The dearest wish of my heart is gratified in
that I am acknowledged by Gibson as a pupil. Ho has been
resident in Rome thirty-four years, and leads the van. I am
greatly in luck* He has just finished the model of the statue
of the queen ; and, as his rooifa is yacant, he permits me to
use it, and I am now in his own studio. I have also a little
room for work which was formerly occupied by Canova, and
perhaps inspiration may be drawn from the walls."
The approach to the apartment she occupied was from the
Via Foutauella through a large room containing numerous
productions of Mr. Gibson's genius, a garden filled with
orange and lemon trees and various Sowers, a fountain trick-
ling in a shady recess, then the master's studio, and from
this by a Sight of stairs within a curtain, — nature, imagina-
tion, and labor, all at one. She remained seven years in the
studio of her teacher and friend.
The first winter in Rome was spent in modelling from the
antique. The Venus of Milo, the Cupid of Praxiteles, and
Tasso of the British Museum, were copied, in which the
pupil proved the correctness of her eye, the soundness of her
knowledge, and power of imitating the roundness and soft-
ness of flesh, which Mr. Gibson on one occasion stated he
had never seen surpassed and rarely equalled. Her faculty
of original conception had been evinced before in Hesper. •
Her first design was the bust of Daphne, the beautiful
maiden changed into a Laurel when fleeing from Apollo, after
the god had slain her lover, beseeching the earth to swallow
her up. It is now in the possession of her liberal patron and
friend of St. Louis, W. Crow. ^
It was speedily followed by the Medusa, represented as
she was before she was transformed into a gorgon. The hair,
retreating in waves from the forehead, changes into serpents.
It is described as a ** lovely thing; faultless in form, and in-
HARRIET G. HOSMER. 577
tense in its expression of horror and agony, without trenching
on the physically painful.'* It is owned by Mrs. Appleton, of
Boston.
** These busts/' wrote Mr. Gibson, ** do her great honor."
They were publicly exhibited in Boston in 1853. The next
year Mr. Gibson wrote to Dr. Hosmcr, to give him assur-
ance of his daughter's unabated industry and success in her
profession, relating also the favorable judgment of the Prus-
sian Ranch, then very aged and one of the greatest of living
sculptors.
In the summer of 1855 Miss Hosmer completed Q3none,
her first full-length figure in marble. CEnone was a nymph
of mount Ida, who became the wife of Paris, the beautiful
shepherd, to whom Venus had promised the fairest woman in
the world. The statue represents her as a shepherdess, bend-
ing with grief for her husband's desertion. Her crook lies on
the ground. It was sent to Mr. Crow, who had given her,
at her departure from America, an order for her first statue,
to be filled in her own time by a subject of her own selec-
tion. It is a very beautiful production, and afforded such
satisfaction that she was commissioned to execute another,
on the same terms, for the Mercantile Library of St. Louis.
This order was answered after two years by the life-size
statue of Beatrice Cenci, sleeping in her cell, B&er having
been subjected to extreme torture, the morning before her
execution.
Her father, a monster who deserved double death, but had
escaped public justice by his wealth, had been assassinated.
The daughter was accused of parricide, and, though guiltless,
condemned. The marble expresses the sleep of innocence.
This was a very fine work. It was exhibited in London, and
several American cities, where it received high encomiums.
A beautiful engraving of it was published in the •* London Art
Journal" with honorable criticism. Mr. Gibson is said to
87
678 EMINENT WOMEN OP THE AGE.
have remarked, on yiewing it completed, "I can teach her
nothing/' It was a gift to the library, of an unknown
friend to the artist.
The insalubrity of the Campagna, the level country sur-
rounding Bome, is well known. Southward is the region
of the Pontine marshes, of ancient malarious fame, on
which consuls, emperors, and popes have made vast expendi-
tures, Without subduing the malignity of nature. The pesti-
lential air still spreads pallor over the features of the poor
people who are compelled to live there, and even invades the
city. It was the wish of Dr. Hosmer that Iiis daughter should
take refuge in some health}'- place during the sickly season,
and the first summer was passed at Sorrento, on the bay of
Naples. The next year her zeal prevailed against all consid-
erations of prudence ; she would not leave the shadow of St.
Peter's and the art treasures in the midst of which she
wrought. The third summer, 1855, came, and she prepared
for a journey to England. But the course of true art, like
that of love, does not always run smoothly. The resources
of Dr. Hosmer were not inexhaustible ; the expenses of the
aiiiist's residence and pursuits in Bome were large ; financi^il
embarrassments were encountered; and retrenchment was
urged with emphasis from home. In these circumstances she
remained to prosecute her labors with the aim to produce
some work of such attractive character as should secure im-
mediate returns. The result was Puck, described by Shake-
speare's fairy : —
** Either I mistake yoor shape and making quite,
Or else yon are that shrewd and knavish sprite
Galled Robin Qood-foUow; are yon not he
That fright the maidens of the villagery;
Skim milk ; and sometimes labor in the qnom,
And bootless make the breathless housewife chnm {
And sometimes make the drink to bear no barm ;
Mislead night-wanderers laughing at their harm?
Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Pnok,
Ton do their work ; and thej shall have good look."
HARBIET G. HOSMER. 579
It is about the size of a child four years of age, seated on a
toadstool which splits beneath its weight. The lips are pout-
ing ; a muscle-shell cleaves to the forehead at the parting of
the hair ; the left hand rests, confining under it a lizard ; the
right hand holds a beetle, and is raised in the act of throw-
ing ; the legs are crossed, and the great toe of the right foot
turns pertly up ; — the whole composing a figure of so much
drollery and fun, that those who have seen it, when describ-
ing it, are wont to break into a gleeful laugh. This unique
impersonation of humor in marble, conceived, perhaps like
some gems of humorous poetry and romance in the hour of
adversity, has been very popular. Twenty-five or thirty
copies have been made. One is in the collection of the
Prince of Wales.
Puck was followed by a companion figure named TVill-o'-
the-Wisp.
At this time was resident in Rome Madame Falconnet, an
English lady, whose daughter, a lovely girl of sixteen years,
had recently died. Being a Catholic, 6*he was permitted to
erect a mortuary monument in the church of San Andrea del
Fratte. The design was entrusted to Miss Hosmer. It was
modelled in clay in the winter of 1857, and executed^in mar-
ble a year later. It is a portrait statue of the daughter, the
figure of a beautiful maiden^ resting upon a sarcophagus, in
the sleep that has no waking. In this production the still
repose of death is finely contrasted with the breathing slum-
ber of life, which even the stone expresses in Beatrice Cenci.
Mr. Layard, distinguished for his explorations in Nineveh,
thus speaks of it in a letter addressed to Madame Falconnet :
"I think you may rest fully satisfied with Miss Hosmer 'a
success. It exceeds any expectations I had formed. The
unaffected simplicity and tender feeling displayed in the
treatment is all that could be desired for such a subject, and
cannot fail to touch the most casual observer. I scarcely
580 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
*
remember ever to have seen a monument which more com-
pletely commanded my sympathy and more deeply interested
me. I really know of none, of modern days, which I would
rather have placed over the remains of one who had been
dear to me. Do not believe this is exaggerated praise. I
faithfully convey to you the impression made on me. I attrib-
ute this impression, not more to the artistic merit of the
work than to the complete absence of all affectation, to the
simple truthfulness and genuine feeling of the monument
itself." Mr. Gibson concurred in this commendation.
This was the first instance of the work of a foreign sculp-
tor finding a permanent place in Rome. It was a tribute of
the high appreciation in which the artist was then held and
was regarded as a great honor.
About the same period was modelled the fountain of Hylas
In mythological story, Hylas, the adopted son of Hei'cules,
when the Argonautic expedition stopped at Mysia, went to a
well for water. Th^ naiads of the fountain, enraptured with
his beauty, drew him in, and he was drowned.
The design of the sculptor consists of a basin in which dol-
phins are spouting jets, and an upper basin snpported by
swans ;• from this rises a pyramid, on which the fair boy
stands, while the nymphs reach up their hands to draw him
into the waters at his feet. The conception is classically just
and highly poetical.
Before the two works last described were executed in
marble, in the summer of 1857, Miss Hosmer returned to
America, — five years from her departure. She had become
a daughter of fame, but was still a child of nature. Her viva-
city remained; she was modest and unpretentious in her
enthusiasm ; and her aspirations were kindled for yet higher
achievements in the realms of art.
During this visit her mind was much occupied with the
design of a statue of Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, as she
HABBIET G. HOSMER. 581
appeared when led in chains in the triumphal procession of
Aurelian. She searched libraries and read everything that
could be found relating to that illustrious and unfortunate
sovereign. Subsequently she labored upon it with so much
assiduity and anxiety that her health was impaired, and she
was ordered into Switzerland by her physician to save her life.
The statue is of colossal size, seven feet in height, a' very
noble figure, the commanding effect of which grows npon the
mind, — a triumph of patient study, of genius, and of mechan-
ical skill. Zenobia is represented walking. The movement
has blended lightness, vigor, and grace. The left arm sup-
ports the drapery, which is elaborately cut; the right,
without a purpose, for it can neither bless her people nor
inspirit her troops, descends naturally as living muscle. The
wrists bear the chains, — not heavy and galling, — perhaps
Soman severity made them weightier. The head, crowned,
is slightly bowed ; the lips express disdain of the surrounding
{>ageant of victorious foes ; the eyes, downcast, and the feat-
ures of oriental beauty reveal a soul self-sustained and
absent, far away in memories of her magnificent empire of
the East. She is still a queen in spirit, undethroned by
calamity.
In this production Miss Hosmer made a bold, and, on the
part of woman, an almost unexampled, adventure into the
regions of the highest historic art ; and she returned wearing
the laurels of success. The statue received the highest praise.
Critics pronounced its vindication in the light of the noblest
models of Grecian art, and ascribed to it legitimate claims
to a place ih the front rank of works of sculpture. We well
remember the impression it made in Boston, where we were
scarcely more interested in the fascinating form itself, than in
observing the effect it produced on the minds of visitors who,
with quiet demeanor, speaking low, appeared like persons
coming unwontedly under the influence of a spiritual power
582 EMINENT WOMEN OF THJS AGE/
*
which arrested tlftir steps and excited profound emotions.
The poet Whittier says, " It very fully expresses my concep-
tion of what historical sculpture should be. It tells its whole
proud and melancholy story. The shadowy outlines of the
majestic limbs, which charmed us in the romance of Ware
are I^ere fixed and permanent : —
* A joy forever.'
In looking at it I felt that the artist had been as truly serving
her country while working out her magnificent design abroad,
as our soldiers in the field, and our public officers in their
departments.*'
In another sense besides what those words convey the
artist served her country. The marble was purchased by A.
W. Griswold, Esq., of New York, and is now in his pos-
session. By his generous consent after the time agreed upon
for its delivery, it was exhibited for the benefit of the sol-
diers in the famous Sanitary Fair at Chicago ; and there the
stately queen, who for her grasp at power trod the dust of
captivity in chains sixteen centuries ago, ministered relief to
the sufferers of the war for the republic and liberty. It is an
instance of the reproach, from which human nature is not
always exempt, even in a good cause, that a part of the pro-
ceeds on that occasion was retained by the exhibitors.
Very few productions of the modern chisel have excited so
much remark as Zenobia. There is an almost romantic story
connected with its exhibition in London. The critics recog-
nized its merits, but denied that such a statue ever was the
work of a woman, charging Miss Hosmer with artistic plagi-
arism, and ascribing the real authorship to Mr. Gibson, or an
Italian sculptor. An article making such assertions appeared
in the '* London Art Journal" and "The Queen." For this
Miss Hosmer commenced a salt for libel ; but soon after, the
author of the libellous communication died ; the suit was with-
drawn on the condition that the editors should publish a
HARRIET G. HOSMER. 583
retnictioQ in those periodicals, and, also, in the ^^London
Times" and "Galignani's Messenger," which was done. The
retraction of the editor in the *'Art Journal" was prefaced by
a vigorous letter from the artist, in which the assertion occurs
that Mr. Gibson would not allow any statue to go out of his
studio, as the work of another, on which more assistiince had
been bestowed than was considered legitimate by every
sculptor.
A large price was offered for Zenobia by the Prince of
Wales ; but the author said, "It must go to America." She
received five thousand dollars from the proceeds, besides all
expenses, of its exhibition for her benefit.
In the year 1860 Miss Hosmcr revisited her native town,
called there by the serious illness of her father. While tar-
rying once more at home she received a commission to design
a brotize portrait statue of Col. Thomas Hart Benton, the
distinguished senator and most eminent citizen of Missouri.
Her former residence in St. Louis was remembered ; and a
degree of local pride was mingled with admiration for her
success. Her friends knew her ability to express in marble
beauty, tenderness, grace, and dignity ; but thus far her works
bad been chiefly in the range of feminine characters. Could
she depart from this sphere of art, and with equal. skill set
forth the strong, rugged, massive qualities of the famous
Btiitesman, and thus create for herself a reputation which
need not bow before any difficulties, nor shrink from an en-
terprise requiring the most masculine capacity ? The com-
missioners to the fullest extent trusted in the breadth and
power of her genius. We append her reply to their com-
munication, because it was so pertinent and characteristic of
herself: —
" Watertown, June 22, 18C0.
•* Gentlemen : — I have had the honor to receive your letter
584 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
of the 15th inst. , iuforming mo that the execution of the bronze
statue, iu memory of the late Col. Benton, for the city of
St. Louis, is entrusted to me. Such a tribute to his merit
would deimmd the best ackuowledgment of any artist ; but
in the present instance my most cordial thanks will but in-
suflSciently convey to you a sense of the obligation under
which I feel you have placed me.
"I have reason to be grateful to you for this distinction, be-
cause I am a young *artist ; and, though I may have given
some evidence of skill in those of my statues which are now
in your city, I could scarcely have hoped that their merit,
whatever it may be, should have inspired the citizens of St.
Louis to entrust me with a work whose chief characteristic
must be the union of great intellectual power with manly
strength.
**But I have, also, reason to be grateful to you because I am
a woman ; and, knowing what barriers must in the outset
oppose all womanly efforts, I am indebted to the chivalry of
the West, which has first overleaped them. I am not un-
mindful of the kind indulgence with which my works have
been received ; but I have sometimes thought that the critics
might be more courteous than just, remembering from what
hand they proceeded ; but your kindness will now afford me
an ample opportunity of proving to what rank I am really
entitled as an artist unsheltered by the broad wings of com-
passion for the sex ; for this work must be, as we understand
the term, a manly work ; and hence its merit alone must be
my defence against the attacks of those who stand ready to
resist any encroachment upon their self-appropriated sphere.
*'I utter these sentiments only to assure you that I am fully
aware of the important results which to me as an artist wait
on the issue of my labors, and hence, that I shall spare no pains
to produce a monument worthy of your city, and worthy of
the statesman who, though dead, still speaks to you in laD>
HARRIET G. HOSMER. 585
■
guage more eloquent aud enduring than the happiest efforts
in marble and bronze of ever so cunning a workman.
^It only remains for me to add that as I shall visit St. Louis
before my departure to Europe, further details may be then
arranged. I have the honor to remain, gentlemen,
*' EespectfuUy yours,
**H. G. HoSMER."
In accordance with her purpose. Miss Hosmer visited St.
Louis, Jefferson City, and other places, examining portraits
and mementos of Col. Benton to supply herself with materi-
pis for the work. The next year she submitted photographs
of her model to the commissioners and to his relatives, by
whom th»y were unanimously approved. The plaster cast
was sent from Rome to Munich to be cast at the royal foun-
dry, the most celebrated in the world. In due time the stat-
ue arrived at the city of its destination; but partly ou
account of the war, more especially ou account of hesitation
in regard to the site, it remained three years or more boxed
as it came from Europe. The location was at last fixed in
Lafayette Park ; and on the 27th day of May, 1868, the
inauguration of the statue took place with imposing relig-
ious and patriotic ceremonies, in presence of a vast concourse
of citizens and strangers.
By an appropriate selection Mrs. Fremont, the daughter of
Col. Benton, unveiled the features of her father in bronze to
the eyes of the multitude. The figure is ten feet in height,
and weighs three and a half tons. A foundation was laid
for it forty feet square, which rises two feet above the ground.
On that rests a pedestal of New England granite ten feet
Bquare, so that the entire elevation is twenty-two feet. The
upper draper3' is a cloak of the kind which Col. Benton was
fond of wearing. The hands appear unrolling a map. Jobq
586 EMINENT WOKEN OE THE AGE.
Gibson expressed his opinion in a letter to the commission*
nrs in the following terms : —
•
^ The general effect of the figure is grand and simple. The
ample cloak, which covers considerably the odious modern
dress, is rich and broad, and the folds are managed with great
skill, producing graceful lines. The head, a fine subject, is
reflective and well modelled^ also the position of the hands
holding the paper, or plan, is very natural and well composed.
In fact, I consider the work does the authoress great honor ;
and I feel it will give satisfaction to the gentlemen of the
committee who had the penetration to entrust the execution
of such a work to their countrywoman ; and I may add, thai
the Americans may now boast of possessing what no nation
in Europe possesses, — a public statue by a woman, — a little
woman, — young, with great talent and love of her art.**
A letter of W. Crow, written the day after the inaugu-
ration, states that the general expression of the thousands
who saw it was favorable. Critics pronounced it a success as
a work of art. Friends of Col. Benton declared it to be a
good likeness. His relatives were more than gratified, — they
were delighted.
On the east side of the pedestal, the name Benton is
deeply cut. On the west side, the words : —
"There IS THE East—
Tbsbb is India."
This motto was selected by the artist with excellent judg-
ment. It associates this memorial of a great man with no
transient political questions, but with a vast enteq)rise of
national utility and honor, a triumphant work of civilizatioui
the grandeur of which will be revealed more and more in
successive ages, in regard to which the forecasting views of
HABBIET G. HOSMEB. 587
the statesman will be held in honored remembtxnce, when the
party struggles of his time will be forgotten, when majes-
tic journeys across the continent will be incidents of common
life. Our readers will be glad to see the peroration of the
speech on the Pacific Eailroad which suggested the motto : —
" Let us complete the grand design of Columbus, by put-
ting Europe and Asia into communication, and that to our
advantage, through the heart of our own country. Let us
give to his ships, converted into cars, a continued course un-
known to all former times. Let us make the iron road — and
'make it from sea to sea — • • • . the line which will
£nd on our continent the Bay of San Francisco at one end,
St. Louis in the middle, the national metropolis and great
commercial emporiums at the other, and which shall be
adorned with its crowning honor, the colossal statue of the
great Columbus, whose design it accomplishes, hewn from the
granite mass of a peak of the Rocky Mountains overlooking
the road, — the mountain itself the pedestal, and the statue a
part of the mountain, — pointing with outstretched arm to
the western horizon, and saying to the flying passenger,
*• There is the East — there is India."
The contract price of the statue to be paid to the artist
was ten thousand dollars ; the entire expense of the monu-
ment about thirty thousand dollars.
In the Dublin Exhibition of 1865, Miss Hosmer offered to
the public the Sleeping Faun, in marble of life size, which was
sold on the day it was opened for five thousand dollars. Sir
Charles Eastlake said, *^ If it had been discovered among the
ruins of Rome or Pompeii, it would have been pronounced one
* of the best of Grecian statues." It was exhibited again in the
Universal Exposition of Paris, 1867, where, with the great
paintings of Church, Bierstadt, Huntington, and others, it
588 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
gave to the most aesthetic nations new apprehensions of the
progress and honors of American art. ** Among the manj
pieces of marble statuary of mode^ artists," says the United
States Commissioner, E. C. Cowdin, Esq., ^none was more
admired than the Sleeping Faun, a figure of antique grace
finely conceived and admirably executed."
The Waking Faun, a companion piece, at a recent date
was only clay. It ii^ owned, with a second copy of the for-
mer, by Lady Ashburton, of England.
Another classic and beautiful work was a fountain desicrned
for Lady Maria Alford. A figure of a woman, a siren, sits
above the centre of the basin, which holds the water, singing.
Below are three pleasing little figures, mounted on dolphins,
which lie on the broad leaves of aquatic plants, enchanted by
the music.
A writer in Rome, after describing this fountain, says, ^ Miss
Hosmer has a peculiar mode of tinting the marble. I think
she must have caught the better part of Gibson's idea ; for
she does not give it a flesh color, but a light creamy tint,
which adds greatly to the expression of the statue and seems
like the true color of old marble." Pointing to the fountain
she said, '*A11 those babies have got to be washed before they
go away." This is the only reference we have obtained to her
practice in regard to coloring statuary, — a novelty, introduced
by Gibson, which encounters much opposition on the ground
that it turns a statue into a doll, — that the office of sculp-
ture is the expression of form, and shouM not in color, which
belongs to another art, assume to be the counterpart of nature.
Several works of a varied character have been recently
completed or are still in progress. Among them is a gateway
for the entrance to an art-gallery at Ashridge Hall, England,
ordered by Earl Brownlow. It is eight feet by sixteen, of ,
very elaborate design. The price paid to the artist is
twenty-five thousand dollars.
BABfilET O. HOSMEB. 589
jl^nother is a ?lijnney-piece for Lady Ashburton, illustrat-
ing the death of the Dryads. It also is to be sixteen feet high.
The figures are of life size in alto relievo. The cost is
twelve thousand five hundred dollars.
The Bridge of Sighs, so named, was ordered two years ago
by a literary gentleman of London. It illustrates in marble
Hood's popular poem descriptive of a drowned woman.
In 1860 Miss Hosmer sent to her friend, Mr. Crow, at his
request, the drawing of a monument for a cemetery. The
cross as a symbol has been virtually surrendered to the Catho-
lics, though Protestants may employ it with perfect right and
propriety ; and we trust the use of it will return. Like others,
Mr. Crow had felt the incongruity with Christian faith of the
heathen symbols, — the inverted torch, the Egyptian gateway,
the Grecian temple, — which occur so frequently in our burial-
places, and desired something new and appropriate, which
should express a Christian's hopes.
The design consists of a marble pedestal, of elaborate and
beautiful construction, surmounted by a group of statuary, —
Christ restoring to life the daughter of Jairus. The prostrate
form and the countenance of the dead maiden vividly pre-
sent the fact of our mortality. The noble figure of the Saviour
is full of tenderness, but without sorrow : he is doing a work
of joy. On the entablature of the pedestal are the inscriptions,
on the one side, "I am the resubregtton and the life : '' on
the opposite side, *'He that believeth in me, though hb
WEBE DEAD, YET SHALL HE LTVE." On the broad spaccs be-
neath, the family names are to be carved.
This design has not yet been put into marble ; but it is
eminently desirable that the conception should be realized.
The subject is not hackneyed; it is sculpturesque, appro-
priate, and Christian. When adequately accomplished it will
be a noble testimony, not only to the artist, but also to the
friend whose Christian sentiments called for it ; apd the com-
590 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
munity of Christians have reason for deep interest in it. The
symbols of faith should transcend the lower conceptions of
sense, sorrow, disappointment, and darkness, giving to our
cemeteries instead a characteristic expression of chastened
confidence and joyful hope.
A very few days after the death of President Lincoln, a poor
colored woman of Marietta, Ohio, made free by his proclama-
tion, proposed that a monument should be erected, by the col-
ored people of the United States, to their dead friend ; and
she handed to a citizen of that place five dollars as her contri-
bution for the purpose. Twenty-three thousand dollars were
raised and deposited in the hands of a committee, with the re-
quest that they would take measures for the erection of a
monument in Washington.
Miss Hosmer heard of the proposed " Memorial to Freedom,''
and, prompted by her friends, designed a monument, a plaster
cast of which has been exhibited in Boston. The structure
consists, first, of a base sixty feet square, to which seven steps
ascend. Four bos reliefs in bronze surround this base, repre-
senting incidents in the life of the president, his early occu-
pations, his career as a member of the Legislature, his inau-
guration at Washington, memorable events of the war, his
assassination and funeral obsequies. On the corners of this
base are four short, round columns, on which stand four stat-
ues of the negro, finely idealized, showing him in four condi-
tions, — sold as a slave, laboring on a plantation, a guide to
our troops, and finally a freeman and soldier.
An octagonal base rests on the lower, on four sides of which
are the inscriptions : —
'' Abraham Lincoln;
Mabttb PRBsmsNT OF THB Unitbd Statbs;
Emancipator of four Millions of Mkn;
Frbsxrvxr of the American Union."
Upon this is a circular basei around whi^h id a &6» rdief
HABBIET G. HOSMEB. 591
of thirty-six female figares, hand in hand, symbolical of the
Union of the States. From this rises a pillared temple, with-
in which stands the statue of the president, holding in the
left hand a broken chain, in the right the proclamation of
emancipation. Upon the cornice of the temple are inscribed
the concluding words of that instrument: ^And upon this,
sincerely believed to be an act of justice, I invoke the con-
siderate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of
Almighty God." Four mourning Victories standing around
the central figure with trumpets reversed express the sorrow
of the nation.
In this design, the description of which is given chiefly in
the author's words, she endeavored to express the idea that
the Temple of Fame which we rear to the memory of Lincoln
rests upon the two great acts of his administration, — the
Emancipation of the Slave, and the Preservation of the
American Union ; and with beautiful fitness the end is accom-
plished. The work itself is sufficient evidence of her convic-
tions as a pronounced and stanch friend of freedom and the
Union. It must have been a labor of love ; she must have
&shioned it with her heart as well as with artistic genius.
The ''London Art Journal" published an engraving and de-
scription, modified by presenting four female figures near the
columnr. of the temple bearing wreaths to the freedmen, from
which we extract the following sentences : " With the excep-
tion of the great monument to Frederick the Great, at Ber-
lin, by Bauch, the Lincoln Monument is the grandest recog-
nition of the art of sculpture that has been ofiered to our age.
Bearing in mind that this is to be called the Freedmen's
Monument, it was necessary that the circumstances attending
the act of emancipation should form, as they do, the principal
features of the design. It will stand a simple, comparatively
unadorned, yet most imposing, memorial of the dead, and a
592 EMINENT WOMEN 0? TSS AGE.
lasting witness to the lady sculptor who has had the honor ta
be selected for its execution. **
The committee adopted the design, ** deeming it the great-
est achievement of modem art,^ and confident that every one
who loves his country, and loves art, and honors Abraham
Lincoln, will aid in the completion of this great work. It
will cost two hundred and fifty thousand dollars ; but this
should not prevent its erection. There are now commenced or
proposed three memorial structures, which the nation may well
hasten to complete, even in times of political and financial
difficulty, — the monuments to the Pilgrims, to Washington,
and to Lincoln.
a
It will be observed that Miss Hosmer has wrought on
Ideal subjects. She would have enjoyed abundant patronage
working on busts, but has preferred to give the creations of
her own imagination a solid, enduring form. She thus makes
a higher challenge for immortal fame.
These pages convey to our readers materials for forming
their own judgment of the estimation in which she should be
held as an ai-tist. If compared with women, she has very few
rivals. We do not know whether the name of Sabina Von
Steinbach, who adorned the famous cathedral of Strasburg,
and whose sculptured groups are the objects of admiration to
this day, is more illustrious. If compared with men, there
are many who compete for the palm ; and the opinions of
critics, no doubt, will differ, at least for a period. Time is
necessary to establish the position of a genius of the highest
rank. We think Miss Hosmer can afford to wait, and that
she needs no indulgence of criticism on the score of her sex.
She has not gained the elevation on which she now sfcmds,
unchallenged and unopposed. The sketch of Mrs. Child
gives a paragraph to the fact. She herself, in the pithy and
pointed words of the letter to the "London Art Journal," before
adverted to, seems to say from her own experience: "Few
HABBIET G. HOSMEB. ^ 593
artists who have been in any degree successful enjoy the truly
friendly regard of their professional brothers ; but a woman
artist who has been honored by frequent commissions is an
object of peculiar odium." That journal, after the impeach-
ment which has been related, said, in connection with the
Freedmen's Monument : **0f her power to fulfil the trust
reposed in her there can be no doubt ; her genius is of the
highest order, and she has proved her capacity by producing
some of the greatest works in sculpture of our age." And
again: "The works of Miss Hosmer, Himm Powers, and
others we might name, have placed American on a level with
the best modern sculptors of Europe. There are examples
from the studios of the artists we have named specially that
have not been surpassed by any contemporary sculptor of any
nation ; while there is no doubt that already the foundationi
has been laid for a school of sculpture in the Western World,,
which will ennoble the people who have sprung from the same-
loins as ourselves, who speak the same language, and read
our literature, and, in spite of what some say, are proud of
the old country from which they have descended." This is>
not the judgment of partial friends nor incompetent pritics.
Miss Hosmer's diligence and enterprise have gained this,
crown for her genius. She has her days for the reception of
visitors and her seasons for recreation and athletic exercise ; hut
her hours of study are sacred, and she spares no effort to attain^
perfection in her art. " She studies from life and from death.'*
She received the commission for the "Bridge of Sighs" in-
Paris. Desiring to observe for herself the peculiar effects on»
the body, of death by drowning, in company with her friend,.
Mr. Crow, she visited the Morgue several times, till she found
the required subject. When working upon the Cenci she-
had models go to sleep on a bench, till she had fixed the atti--
tude of the girl sleeping in the prison. When she executed
the Medusa, the hair of which changes into serpents, sho
38
594 EMJ[NEKT WOMEK 07 THB AGE.
found no good casta of a snake in Borne, — her knowledge of
anatomy teaching her that they were taken from dead, not
living specimens. She employed a herdman near the city to
procure one alive, tied it to a piece of marble in her studio
till she was ready, then gave it chloroform and made her
cast, keeping it in the plaster three and a half hours. The
reptile came out alive and well, was sent baok by Goviona,
turned loose in its old haunt ; and she had the best model of
a snake in the capital of art, of which other artists avail them-
selves.
Her studio in the Via Margutta is said to be itself a work
of art, and the most beautiful in Some, if not in Italy. The
entrance is made attractive with flowers and birds. In the
centre of the first room stands the Fountain of the Siren. Each
room of the series contains some work of art, hanging baskets,
and floral decorations. Her own apartment, in which she
lierself works, displays her early tastes in flowers and broken
relics of art, with collections of minerals, drawings, and rare
books. A lady writes for the use of this sketch : ** She su-
perintends her work herself, and will wield the chisel more
adroitly than any practised workman. In this she has the
advantage ; for many artists can only design, and ignore the
practical working of their ideas, which, left to a mechanical
taste, often leave us an inexpressible dissatisfaction, while
admiring the conception.^'
In the process of sculpture, the sculptor first works out
•carefully his own ideal in a small image of clay. The rude
and mechanical labor of enlarging this image into the clay
model of full size (which often requires a frame of iron and a
blacksniith*s forge), taking the plaster cast, and finally trans-
ferring it to marble, is done by hired workmen. '•Still," in
the words of Miss Hosmer, " their position in the studio is a
subordinate one. They translate the original thought of the
tculptor, written in clay, into the language of marble. The
HARRIET O. HOSMER. 095
translator may do his work well or ill, — he may appreciate
and preserve the delicacy of sentiment and grace which were
stamped upon the clay, or he may render the artist's meaning
coarsely and unintelligibly. Then it is that the sculptor him-
self must reproduce his ideal in the marble, and breathe into
it that vitality which, many contend, only the artist can in-
spire. But, whether skilful or not, the relation of these work-
men to the artist is precisely the same as that of the mere
linguist to the author who, in another tongue, has given to the
world some striking fancy or original thought.**
Miss Hosmer's genius is not limited to sculpture. There
are those who believe that, had she chosen the pursuit of let-
ters, she would have excelled as much in literature as she
does in art, — that she would have wielded the pen with as
much skill and power as she does the chisel of the statuary.
Evidences of this are found in her correspondence. She has
published a beautiful poem, dedicated to Lady Maria Alford of
England, and a well-written article, in the "Atlantic Monthly,"
on the Process of Sculpture, perspicuous and philosophical in
its treatment of the subject. In it she defends women-artists
against the impeachments of their jealous brothers.
Becoming a resident of Rome, Miss Hosmer preserved
many of the habits of independence and freedom of exercise
which she had formed ip her native land. The latter was an
indispensable condition of health : accordingly she rode about
the city and its environs without restraint ; and after a while
people ceased to wonder.
About six years ago three persons established a pack of
hounds in Rome for the purpose of fox-hunting. Our artist,
as one of them, contributed two hundred and fifty dollars, and
procured the services of a huntsman, whom she mounted at
her own expense. This grew into a society of Italians and
foreigners. Americans gave their money liberally, and with
English residents entered warmly into the sport. Miss Hos-
596 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
mer, it is related, rode with astonishing ease and fearlessness.
^ None of the English officers excelled her in leaping ditches
and fences. With her friend, Miss Cushman, she often led
the chase, returning with quite as just claims for the fox as
gentlemen could present.** By the rules of the hunt the tail
of the fox, called the brush, is given to the best and boldest
rider as a trophy ; but the Italians, having a majority of the
members, managed eveiythmg in their own way, and, whal^
ever might be his feats of horsemanship, never did an Ameri-
can receive the coveted honor. At length an act of injustice
done to the American consul brought to pass a serious im-
broglio in the association of hunters for recreation — and a
fox. Hitherto Miss Hosmer had borne the absence of cour-
tesy to herself in silence ; but on that occasion she withdrew
from the society, and addressed a spirited and spicy letter
to the master of the Eoman hounds, which was sent to this
country for general publication, that it might be well under-
stood with what readiness American money was received,
and with what facility the honors passed to other hands.
In stature Miss Hosmer is rather under the medium height.
The engraving which accompanies this sketch is from a draw-
ing by her friend, Emily Stebbins, executed quite a number
of yeare ago. It presents her as much resembling a fair and
brilliant boy ; and this agrees well with the description given
by Mrs. Child of her appearance when she first returned to
this countiy : ** Her face is more genial and pleasant than her
likenesses indicate ; especially when engaged in conversation
its resolute earnestness lights up with gleams of humor. She
looks as she t8, — lively, frank, and reliable. In dress and
manners she seemed to me a charming hybrid between an en-
ergetic young lady and a modest lad. . . • She carried
her spirited head with a manly air. Her broad forehead was
partially shaded with short, thick, brown curls, which she
often tossed aside with her fingers, as lads do.** A recent
fiABBIET O. HOSMEB. 697
photograph shows the same style of wearing the hair, and
sha{>e of the forehead, with changes of time. The eyes are
more deeply set beneath the brows ; and the mouth and chin
with bolder curve give the expression of maturity and force.
In manner Miss Hosmer is prompt and decided. Her con-
versation is original, humorous, and animated ; her voice clear
and ringing ; and her laugh, which frequently occurs, musical.
She is fond of puns, and inclined to facetiousness. A common
signature of letters to her friends is a hat. One of her Eng-
lish friends named her Berritina, — in Italian, small hat. An
anecdote related to the writer by the gentleman concerned
exhibits her self-reliant and almost defiant spirit. He had
dined with her at the house of the American consul. When
the company separated, after dark, he proposed to accom-
pany her home. **No gentleman,** was the reply, ''goes
home with me at night in Borne.'* It is needless to say she
is a prominent figure in American society there.
It has already sufficiently appeared that her character is
strongly marked, positive, piquant, and unique. Some would
call her masculine and strong-minded. She certainly defies
conventionalities, and is self-sustained, bold, and dashing to
a degree which must offend those who believe it is scarcely
less than a sin that a woman should trespass on the ancier t
rules of occupation, and the borders of that gentleness and
delicacy which they have regarded as special properties and
ornaments of her sex. But the defence of her youth may bo
repeated ; her boldness is not immodest, and her humor is
not malicious. No trace appears of corrupt principles and
evil sentiments ; and if ^ spirits are not finely touched but for
fine uses,*' then her works prove that she must have been
sculptured by nature as one among the noblest forms of the
human soul.
By the ordinances of the Creator, and by characteristic en-
dowments, most women must find their wisest, happiest, and
698 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
most exalted life in the circle of domestic love and duty,
but they are not all called to reign in the sacred dominion of
the family ; and, without involving themselves in questions
agitated on many platforms concemiug the rights and sphere
of woman, not a few of their best spirits are quietly working
out those problems by enterprising abd honorable endeavors
with triumphant results. If legislation, from whatever cause,
in the past has been unjust, and if sad instances are recorded
of calumny which has foamed out against the daughters of
learning and art, it is still true that men generally have
shown themselves disposed to honor those who have performed
lofty achievements. From the time when " the women that
were wise-hearted '' wrought for the construction and decora-
tion of the Tabernacle in the wilderness, and the time when
Hypatia taught philosophy in Alexandria with inspiring elo-
quence, to the present, facts show that true and great-hearted
women can find sufficient encouragement, from age to age, in
the justice, admiration, and substantial rewards of brothers
who are brothers ; and bright on the pages that shall preserve
the history of those noble sisters will stand the name of Harriet
G. Hosmer.
fiOSA BOKHBUB. £99
BOSA BONHEUR.
BY PBOF. JAMES M. HOPPIN.
The happy and beautiful name which heads this article is
befitting the career of one of the most famed and brilliant of
women ; but, apt as it is, it fails to give us an idea of the re-*
markablo energy and brave persistency of character by which
its possessor has fairly acquired her fame.
About ten years ago, a gallery of French paintings of some
of the most noted modern artists was opened for exhibition
in the city of New York, in which, notwithstanding two
vigorous pictures by Dubufe, senior, and one or two land- ^
scapes by Isabey , and some other works of well-known paint-
ers, by far the most interesting picture in the collection,
which drew all eyes to it, was the portrait of Rosa Bonheur,
by Dubufe, junior, which is now classical.
The face of Mademoiselle Bonbeur, in this portrait, is full
of fire. The bright, black eyes have great intensity of ex-
pression. The features, by no means beautiful, are yet noble,
and convey the impression of concentrated force, as if sharp-
ened by thought. The hair, cut short, is parted like a man's
on one side of the head ; and the costume, also, gives the
suspicion of something like masculine attire. The keen and
ardent intellectuality of the countenance contrasts strongly
with the placid, ^^sousie^' expression, the stubbed horns, and
gentle eyes of the well-fed, amiable yearling, whose portrait
600 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
is by Mademoiselle Bonheur's own pencil, and on which she
is represented as carelessly and confidently leaning.
At the same time that this gallery was opened, there was
also on exhibition in the city Rosa Bonheur's picture of the
"Horse-Fair,*' — MarchJk aux Ohevaux. This magnificent
painting fairly introduced Eosa Bonheur to the American
public ; although, I believe, it was not the first of her pictures
which had been brought to this country. It is pure life and
movement. It is full of hurrying power. The horses seem
to be detached from the canvas, and one almost feels, at first
sight, like getting out of the way quickly, lest some of those
big-boned steeds, not apparently under the entire control of
their grooms, should trample him down in their fury. The
dust, lit up by the sunshine of a hot summer's day, pervades
with its powdery cloud the lower line of the picture. The
horses are a natural breed of useful and powerful animals, in
fine condition, and excited by the emulation and rush of num-
bers. Their necks are clothed with thunder, and the noise and
shouting have brought out all their mettle and fire. The
closest and most patient study is shown in marking the typi-
cal individualities of the animal, and in the production of such
living power without the slightest particle of exaggeration.
One can see the great masses of muscle quiver, and the very
hair of the horses' coats flying about. Yet, with this absolute
truth to nature, there is no servile imitation ; but there is that
creative touch which makes the horses alive, and bids them,
as Michael Angelo said to the bronze steed of the Emperor
Aurelius, " March 1*
Undoubtedly this is Bosa Bonheur's greatest picture, on
which her fame chiefly rests ; but, in our estimation, one or
two others of her paintings — especially of her cattle-scenes
— are not only more pleasing, but are equally characteristic
of her peculiar genius. *' The Ploughing Scene in the Niver-
nais," — Labourage IfivernaiSy — now in the Luxemboui^
BOSA BONHBUB. OOl
gallery, is a chartuing pastoral landscape in the heart of
sunny France, breathing the tranquil repose of nature, which
softens and refines the manifestations of rough animal force.
Yet how admirable the hearty strain and tug of the great oxen
under the encouraging voice of their driver, as the ploughs-
share mounts a little rising slope of the furrowed field I
One powerful white bull in the team, less tractable to the
yoke than his fellows, still hangs back with a sullen light ia
his eye. A long, flowering shrub has been laid over upon
its side by the cruel share ; while, on the very edge of the
ploughed ground, another little flower, untouched, lifts up
its pretty, fearless head. But it is not often that our artist
indulges in such delicate feminine touches as this ; for her
genius is bold and strong, and vies with that of man, despis-
ing the appeal to the mere poetic sensibility.
Such rural groups as "The Cantal Oxen," ** Hay-making,"
** Morning in the Highlands," "Denizens of the Mountains,"
and others, are grand pastoral pictures, in which the animals
seem to be, as they should, but parts of the wide and open
nature.
One of her cattle-scenes tells its story at a glance. A
majestic bull stands iu the centre of the group, in the full per-
fection of his strength, the monarch of the fields. An older
bull and cows lie around on the grass of a high table-land,
intermixed with heather, with a wide horizon of craggy
mountains in the distance.
A little way off from the central group stands, somewhat
foreshortened, and as if cast iu iron, a massive young bull,
with a lowering and jealous expression of countenance, look-
ing toward his companions, his horns like short daggers, and
his tail brandished in air, as if he were already measuring in
his rude breast the strength of his antagonist, which ere long
is to be tested in deadly combat.
But there is no forcing of such a meaning on the beholder.
602 EMINENT WOMEN 0¥ THE AGE.
The idea of the piece may be this, or it may be something elsg
equally in accordance with nature. The animal painting of
the day, developed in England by Sir Edwin Liandseer and
others, while wonderfully true and beautiful, and in the case
of the first-named artist highly poetic, contains that, as it ap-
pears to us, which is predicated upon a false principle. While
there is doubtless harmony in creation, and something of
typical human nature in all the lower orders of being, yet this
truth may be so exaggerated as to. become absolutely untrue
and degrading. We are touched by the pathos of **The
Shepherd's Chief Mourner" and the poetry of '* Coming Events
oast their Shadows before, '^ and we laugh at ^Dignity and
Impudence," taking home the latent lesson on humankind so
exquisitely conveyed ; yet to work upon this idea altogether,
to press this sentiment or fancy of moral resemblance between
man and the brute creation too far, and to attribute human
qualities to animals, surely takes from the truth of nature,
lowers art itself, and produces often but a well-painted fable
or burlesque. Bosa Bonheur at least never sins in this way.
You may call it a want of the poetic element, but her animals
are true to nature, and are not human beings ; they are only
simple oxen, sheep, horses, and dogs, subordinate parts of the
animal world, keeping their own place, exhibiting the well-
known traits and instincts of man's irrational servants, claim-*
ing to be nothing higher than they are, beautiful as manifesting
the nature God gave them, belonging solely to the sphere of
rural life, and framed in by the mountains, fields, woods, and
streams, by the homely features or the sweet tranquil beauty
of pastoral scenery. She is thus, as one has said, as true a
daughter of Paul Potter, as of Baymond Bonheur.
Bosalie Bonheur was born in Bordeaux, France, March
23d, 1822.* Her father, Baymond Bonheur, was an artist
* The following sketch of MademoiieUe Bonhenr's life is, for the most party dzMrn
dlieotly firomFrenoh sonroWi
B08A BONHSUB. 603
of some original power, but was compelled by poverty to re-
nounce bis higher studies and his dreams of artistic fame, and
to devote himself to giving lessons in drawing. He was thus
all his life kept in the humbler walks of his profession, though
he found his reward at last in living to see the fame of his
daughter Bosa.
Day and night this worthy man toiled at his occupation of
drawing-master, aided by his young wife Sophie, who gave
lessons in music, walking daily from one end of the city to
the other. Through the incessant labors of these devoted
parents, the prospects of their little &mily , already increased
to four children, became at length brighter, and Raymond set
about preparing two large pictures for the Paris exhibition,
when he was called upon to suffer the sudden bereavement of
his wife's death. This blow crushed his hopes. Bordeaux
became insupportable to him, and he removed to Paris when
Rosa, his eldest child, was seven years old.
She was placed with her two little brothers under the care
of a worthy matron named Catherine, who lived in the Champs
Eiys^es ; and the children were daily sent to the school of the
Sisters Cbaillot.
But sturdy little Rosa liked sunshine better than schooli
ftnd played truant on pleasant days. Her wandering steps
were drawn irresistibly toward the neighboring Bois de Bou-
logne, which, at that time, bore very little resemblance to the
pi^sent beautiful park.
Then it was but a rough young forest or copse-wood, un-
trimmed and uncared for, that had sprung up in the place of
the fine old oaks and beeches cut down by the Cossacks in
1815.
Great dusty avenues ran through this wood at right
angles, which was very rarely visited excepting by the duellist
and suicide. Sometimes the people of the villages around
came to the wood to find a shady place in the heat of dog-
604 BMINENT WOMEN 0¥ THS AGE.
dajB ; and here and there might be met a stray, solitary rider.
But, in spite of the shadows and solitude, the Bois de Bou«
logne had an unconquerable attraction for Eosa.
To her, a ten-years-old child, there was nothing so mag-
nificent in the whole world as this forest walk. With her
independent manners, brisk gait, her hair cut close, aud her
round, chubby face, she might have been taken for one of the
truant boy-heroes of the Chaillot school, if the little petticpat
coming down to her knee had not shown her sex.
She might often have been seen bounding like a kid along
the forest walks, while the good Catherine supposed she was
snug and safe at school.
Making excursions to the risers and the hills, she plucked
big bouquets of daisies and marigolds, or she broke her way
into the thick copse, throwing herself on the grass and pass-
ing whole hours listening to the songs of the linnets, watch-
ing the magical effects of the sunlight struggling through the
wood, and gazing dreamily at the great white clouds that
floated through the summer sky.
At another time, stopping on the side of the road, she
drew with a stick, on the sand, the objects that met her eye,
horses and riders, animals and people, framing in her person-
ages with a fanciful landscape, dotted with windmills and
cottages.
Her drawing sometimes so absorbed her, that she did not
notice the odd group that, after a while, gathered about her,
down on their knees, too, in admiration, at the precision of
the figures which the little artist had traced on the dusty
road-side.
One of them said to her one day : —
•* You draw well, my little girl I *•
^ Yes, indeed," replied the child, with a decided air. ^ Papa
draws well too. He gave me lessons •'^
BOSA BONHEUB. 605
But these erratic ways were after a while found out, and,
for better oversight, Rosa was apprenticed to a seamstress.
The spirited child felt this change bitterly ; and it was
yery soon seen that the monotonous bondage of needle-work
was wearing upon her sadly ; and her pale face and meagre
features caused her father to take her away, and place her in
a pension^ or young ladies* school, where, for her board and
education, he gave drawing-lessons three times a week.
Kosa soon began to show her bold, self-willed nature, that
brooked no control, and turned the school upside down with
her pranks.
Nothing could exceed the fun and ingenuity of her ex-
travagant madcap tricks. Cutting out grotesque carica-
tures of the older scholars and the teachers, especially of
the English master, she fastened these by threads to balls
of chewed paper, and then flinging them to the ceiling, there
they dangled and grimaced, to the infinite amusement of the
younger scholars.
There was no search for the offender. Bosa was at once
sentenced to a dry crust and water.
But, in the mean while, her extraordinary talent was recog-
nized, and madame, who kept the school, was very careful to
gather up these cuttings and caricatures for her album, form-
ing thus an amusing collection.
In her other studies Rosa made poor progress. Drawing
absorbed her. You might punish her and deprive her of
food, and shut her up, but she would sketch landscapes with
charcoal on the walls of her closet prison.
At the year's end, to the embarrassment of her father and
the envious admiration of the other pupils, she never failed
to bear away the first prize for drawing.
Rosa would have been even happy at this school, were it
not that her school-mates, by their mean jealousy and spite^
deeply wounded her self-esteem.
606 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
Most of the girls belonged to aristocratic and wealthy fam-
ilies, and the daughter of a poor drawing-master was looked
upon by them as a kind of mendicant, admitted by an act of
special charity into their company.
Twenty times a day, apd especially at mealtimes, these
young simpletons humiliated and martyrized their fellow-pnpil
by making comparisons of her plain gown with their silk
dresses, or their silver goblet with her pewter tankard.
These needle-points stung Rosa's proud young spirit. She
grew morbid and sombre. She avoided the society of her
companions. She had long crying fits, and at times was vio-
lently irascible and demonstratively contemptuous of the
whole establishment.
M. Bonheur found it necessary to take his daughter home
under his own humble roof, and here her troubled spirit
found rest. She threw herself at once wholly into artistio
pursuits. All day long she never quitted her father s study,
drawing and painting incessantly. When it grew too late to
draw, she betook herself to modelling in wax or clay ; for
she early developed a remarkable genius for sculpture, and
for some time the struggle was hard as to which branch of
art she should follow, but finally the charms of color pre-
vailed over those of form.
When she had decided to pursue painting as a vocation,
she spent her mornings at the Louvre Grallery, studying and
copying the pictures of the great masters of the Italian school,
and of Poussin and Lesueur, rather slighting the Flemish
painters. The director of the Louvre Galleiy, M. Mousse-
line, said of her at this time, '* Jc n^ai pas vu jusquHci eTex-
emphj (Tvne telle application^ et d^une telle ardeur au travail J*
When she had finished her day's work at the Louvre, she
began her studies with her father. He was her only teacher ;
and he did not permit her to do anything for public exhibi-
tion until he thought her genius was sufficiently matured.
K08A BONHEUB. 607
Four years were thus passed in the study of the old mas-
ters.
But at length she was forced to answer the question, to
what particular aim were her efforts to be directed? Should
she become an historical painter? That would be to forget
that she was a woman. Should' she be a genre painter?
That was something which did not meet the inmost bent and
quality of her mind.
Then it was that the remembrance of her early wanderings
in the " Bois de Boulogne ^ came freshly to her. She recalled
the long delights and delicious dreams that she had, as a
child, in communion with open nature in the fields and woods,
and she nwoke to the fact that she was to be a painter of
pastoral nature.
Immediately, with the energy of will which she put into
everything that she undertook, and which Goethe says makes
the difference between the great and small mind, she began
to study, not the painted classical landscapes, with their eter«
nal mountains like mill-stones, and their Arcadian fountains
covered with Greek inscriptions, but the streams, woods,
fields, and mountains near at hand, of God's making, and
covered with their living flocks and herds.
Every morning Rosa departed with her painting apparatus,
tod some simple provision for her noontide meal, crossing
the city barriers, and straying, wherever her fancy led her,
in the green fields around Paris.
After having walked a long distance into the country, she
rested at the border of some stream, prepared the colors of
her palette, and made a rapid sketch of the scene where she
happened to be.
She returned home worn out with fatigue, and often with
her garments drenched and covered with mud ; bnt this did
not prevent her from doing the same thing the next day.
Her attention was even then given to animated nature^
608 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AOE.
drawing the animals that she came across in the fields, and
studying their habits; but she longed to have a farm-yard
and stable at home, and, in fact, a couple of all the animals *
that were in the ark. As she could not quite realize this
wish, she came as near it as possible.
They lived in the sixth story of a house in the Bue Rum-
fort. Their lodging consisted of four very small rooms,
opening out upon a little terrace. Rosa managed to make
this terrace into a hanging garden, with flowers, rope-weeds,
and other climbing plants, — a kind of oasis flourishing amid
an endless desert of roofs and chimneys. And here was
installed a pretty sheep of Beauvais, with fine, long silkea
wool, and which for two years served as a model for onr
young artist.
But this was not enough. With a courage above her sex,
the young girl went three times a week to visit the abattoir
of the Roule. There she passed whole days braving the dis-
gusting features of the place, and working and taking sketches
amid a crowd of butchers and flayers.
At last she made her d^but in the Salon exhibition of 1841,
with two pictures, entitled ^ Goats and Sheep," and " Two
Rabbits."
The next year she followed with ** Animals in a Field," " A
Cow lying in a Meadow," and " A Horse Sale." In 1844 she
exhibited "Horses out to Pasture," and "Horses going to
Water."
She kept her pictures in her study until she was satisfied
with them, never compromising her reputation with a hasty
production ; so that in the exhibition of 1844 she had but
three little paintings and the clay model of a bull ; but, in
1845, she sent in twelve pictures of marked merit with the
true stamp of genius.
Mademoiselle Bonheur did not have to struggle through
long years of obscurity. She rose at once into fame. Her
BOSA BONHEUR. 609
/worksy though at first a little timid, showed unexampled
accuracy, purity, and a vig«>rou3 sentiment of nature.
The purcliiise of her noble picture of *'Cantal Ox^n," by
England, set the seal to her reputation ; and at the same time
the French committee of award decreed her a medal of the
first class. Horace Vernet, president of the commission,
proclaimed her triumph before a brilliant assembly, and pre-
sented her in the government's name, a superb Sevres vase.
In 1849 Rosa Bonheur sent to the Exhibition a number of
remarkable paintings, among them the famous ^Ploughing
Scene in the Nivernais," and a '' Morning Scene " ordered by
the government. In eight years she had exhibited thirty-
one pictures, and many more were painted for private indi-
viduals. Her reputation had now become European, indeed
world-wide; she could not fulfil half her orders from rich
amateurs, and wealth began to flow in upon her.
But she was still the same simple Bosa Bonheur that she is
to-day, absorbed in her art, and never showing any extrava-
gance or excess of display in her pictures. She never at-
tempted the sensational or impossible. She did not try any
novel methods of effect, and was true to nature.
All her pictures are truly felt and thoroughly executed.
There is no need of searching for any other cause of success.
Simplicity has done more for her than artifice for others.
In looking at her pictures people were surprised to find an
impression of a serious character in the faces of the great
white and red oxen, the limpid eye, and the muzzle dripping
with foam; the peaceable look of sheep browsing on the
savory grass of the hills and mountains, and the landscape
breathing the pensive charm and filled with the perfume of
the summer fields ; it was in fact art which simply reproduced
the charm of nature.
^ The mission of Rosa Bonheur," says M. Lepelle, of Bois
Oallaisy ** is to decipher the sublime poetry of rural nature*
89
610 EMINENT WOMEN OP THE AGE.
and to translate to us the works of God. It is in the fields,
the woods, the most rugged and solitary mountains, that she
finds (be inspiration for her pictures, aud her pencil teaches
us to read deeper lessons in the book of creation."
Perhaps the highest quality of Rosa Bonheur as an artist,
and that is saying a great deal, is her truth to nature, — what
the French call '*the probity of her pencil." Here she wins
our inmost sympathy.
Physically, Bosa Bonheur is of medium, or rather small,
stature. Her features are a little hard and masculine, but
regular. Her forehead is broad and beautiful. All the lines
of her face indicate immense force of character. Her black
or dark-brown eyes are full of brilliancy ; her hands are small
aud finely shaped.
Owing to the peculiar demands of her department of art,
leading her to traverse fields, to visit farm-yards and markets,
to mingle among shepherds, laboring men, and horse-dealers,
Bhe is accustomed, on such excursions, to wear a man's dress,
and looks very much in it like a young farmer. It is impossi-
ble to recognize her sex. But she never appears in this garb
excepting in the country.
Her dress at all times is simple to carelessness. Greedy of
time alone, she cannot afibrd to spend it upon herself.
Wearing a great slouched hat, coming over her face and
neck, she walks quickly with a firm step, her head down,
observing no one, and preoccupied with thought. She is
invariably accompanied in her rambles by two great dogs, of
one of which she has made a portrait.
Her masculine dress has sometimes led her into some odd
adventures, that are related by her biographers, but which we
do not think is worth the while to repeat.
She lives in the Bue d'Assas,near the comer of the Rue Vagi*
raud, in the only quarter of Paris where one still finds gardens
which have not given way to modern improvements and to an
JEIOSA BONHEUR. 611
avalanche of stones. Her little cottage, standing back from
the street a short distance, is literally embowered in foliage.
The ground floor contains a dining-room and three sleeping
apartments quite modestly furnished. On the first floor,
ascending to it by a carefully carpeted staircase, you come to
Mademoiselle Bonheur's atelier. This is hung with green
▼elvet, and is filled with exquisite and bizarre objects of art ;
and, with its tapestry, inlaid floors, pictures, bronzes, pieces of
armor, skins of wild animals for rugs, and branching horns of
deer and oxen upon the walls, it forms a curious and brilliant
sahn. It is open for receptions on Fridays. While cour-
teously entertaining her guests Mademoiselle Bonheur still con-
tinues working. ** Allow me to resume my brush ; we can talk
just as well together," she says, after the first salutation.
She rises at six, and when the day closes she is still found
at her easel, not leaving it until an hour after midnight.
During this lon^ period of work she is refreshed by now and
then hearing reading and music.
It is said that George Sand is her favorite author, though it
is difficult to understand how a character of such perfect
simplicity and purity as Rosa Bonheur's could find the slight-
est satisfaction of mind or heart from such an author. Evi-
dently she yields to th^ irresistible charm of the style, feel-
ing that the poison of the ideas has no danger for her.
She early decided not to marry, wedding herself to her art.
During her visit in England, it was half jocosely and half
seriously talked of, that Sir Edwin Landseer should marry
her ; but perhaps the fact of her vigorous rivalship in the
same line of art daunted the amiable old bachelor. It is
said that when he first saw her ^ Horse Fair," he magnani-
mously and humorously exclaimed, ^It surpasses me, though
ifs a little hard to be beaten by a woman."
Mademoiselle Bonheur has made many journeys. She
has visited the pi 3turesque portions of France, and roamed
612 EMINENT WOjftjN OF THE AGE.
over the Pyrenees into Spain. Her delight is in the mouti'-
tainSy — the more solitary and wild the better ; and she seldom
fails to bring home from these excursions a number of ex-
quisite sketches. Her companion in these journeys is a
Mademoiselle Micas, who resides with her in Paris. This is
a middle-aged lady, herself an artist, who, besides being
gifted with many mental accomplishments, is said to have
a remarkable power of subduing yicious animals by the mag-
netism of her eye. She thus approaches the most danger-
ous bulls roaming the mountain pastures, who are induced to
stand quietly for their portraits.
Rosa has partially realized the dream of her youth In
becoming the possessor, at her home in the Rue.d'Assas, of
quite a number of animals, — two horses, four goats, an ox, a
cow, donkeys, sheep, and dogs, without naming many smaller
animals, and rare fowls and birds.
She studies the individual traits of animals. She loves to
give their natural history, which she does with piquant origi-
nality. She grows poetical and enthusiastic in setting forth
the characters and dispositions of her favorites. In conver-
sation, she has vivacity joined with depth of judgment and
exquisite delicacy of ideas. She knows how to be^very sar-
castic, but her generous nature does not allow her to exercise
her talent often in this direction. She is abrupt and inde-
pendent, but kindly, noble, and self-sacrificing.
In 1849 she lost her father, whom she loved with all the
devotion of her strong nature.
Her father had been made the director of the Communal
School of Design for girls, in the Rue Dupuytren. Rosa
assisted him in his duties, and after his death took his place
nominally, although her sister Juliette, now Madame Peyrol,
really carries on the school.
Rosa makes a weekly visit to the institution, and this is
ROSA BC^HEUR. 613
the great day of the week for the school, — a day of mingled
laughter and tears.
The moment her quick, firm step is heard in the hall of t^e
building, there is a solemn silence.
She passes rapidly round in review, giving to each pupil's
work a penetrating glance and word.
Above all she cannot endure bad drawing, and where a
scholar repeats her mistakes she is sometimes very severe^
telling her that she had better go home to her mother and
learn to make bread, or some cutting remark of the kind ;
which, howlBver, a moment after is followed by some exces-
sively droll and good-natured speech, that dries up the tears
of the poor girl, and sets her laughing with the rest.
Upon her great picture of the ^ Horse-Fair,** Rosa Bon-
heur spent eighteen months of the most conscientious and
exhausting labor. Dressed in a> blouse, she went twice a
week to the horse-market, studying the animals, and, in fact,
their Normandy owners and grooms, the portraits of some
of whom she has spiritedly painted. This picture was
bought^by the French government, but afterwards fell again
into Mademoiselle Bonheur's hands, and she sold it to M.
Gambart for forty thousand francs. It was purchased by
William P. Wright of New Jersey, and is now owned by A.
T. Stewart.
Bosa Bonheur has received immense sums for her pictures,
and has, indeed, but to offer her paintings and her portfolio
of sketches to the public, to become wealthy ; but she is not
greedy of money, and is so generous in her gifts to relatives
and charitable objects, that she does not accumulate property.
She has been known to send to the Mont de PieU the valu-
able gold medals that she b^s received in order to raise funds
to assbt fellow-artists..
She supports two aged females, who were formerly her ser-
raats. Among many stories of her liberality we mention
614 EMINENT WoAeN OF THE AGE.
two. A poor lady artist, who had been coldly repulsed by
several rich mea of her own profession, to whom, in her ex-
treme distress, she had reluctantly applied for assistance,
went at last to Bosa Bonheur, who immediately took down a
small but valuable painting from her study wall, and insisted
upon her accepting it, by which a yery considerable sum of
money was raised.
* A young sculptor, who was an ardent admirer of her go-
nius, addressed her a modest note encksing a bill for a bun-
dred francs, which, he said, was all he possessed, asking her
if she would send him a little drawing of the Value of th«
bill. The same evening she returned to him his bill accom-
panied by an exquisite sketch estimated to be worth at least
a thousand francs.
We would close this brief account of her life, by quoting from
a graphic description, recently written by a Paris newspaper
correspondent, of Bosa Bonheur and her country home : —
*^ Bosa Bonheur's workshop is far away from the breweries
of Mont Breda, or the chestnuts of the Luxembourg* You
must take the Lyons line ; get out at Fontainebleau, and
ask the first individual you meet the road to Chateau By.
After an hour's walk, in a thick W€k>d, you perceive at an
opening of the Thourmery woods an airy-looking building, in
which the architect has combined iron, brick, and wood with
rare artistic taste. From the cellar to the roof everything
is graceful and coquettish in this miniature castle. Its irregu<-
larity is its greatest charm, and your eyes could feast all day
on the turrets hung with ivy and the balconies entwined with
honeysuckle, if your ears did not ring wiUi a peculiar har-
mony which detracts from your admiration. You imagine
that in the barn near by an Orpheus transformed into an ani*
mal is chanting forth a chorus of Bichard Wagner's ; bat, after
listening attentively, this strange concert is found to proceed
BQ8A BO^HEUB. 615
from the bleating of sheep, the lowing of cows, the neighing
of horses, and the yelping of dogs.
** The servant pointed out to me a funny-looking little man,
coming towards me knitting his eyebrows. He had on an
enormous straw hat. Looking under it I perceived a soft,
beardless face, browned by the sun and lighted up by two
moderate-sized chestnut-colored eyes. The small nose rather
exaggerated the size of the large mouth, showing two rows of
superb teeth. Long hair flowed from under her large peas-
ant hat in great negligence.
** 'Who are you ? ' * Where do you come from ? ' and ' What
do you want ? ' said she to me sharply. She stopped in front
of me, and thrust her hands in the pockets of a pair of
gray-ribbed velvet pants. I had been struck with the minute-
ness of those hands, and looked at her feet, which were
equally microscopic, in spite of their thick covering of calf-
skin undressed, with pegged soles.
**This C<esar-like apostrophe disconcerted me a little, but
recovering my coolness, I answered, *Iam a journalist, and I*
wish to see Miss Bonheur.'
*^*Well, look at her,' said the little peasant, taking off his
head-gear.
**She continued in a milder tone, * You must excuse me ; you
understand that I am obliged to keep intruders away. If
talent makes a wild beast of a person, it is scarcely worth
desiring. You know, also, the loss of time occasioned by
the visits of strangers ; the weariness caused by their questions.
Come now with me ; I am going to show you my sheep ; if
it tires you I can't help it ; hurry, because I left one half
shorn, and if the fleece is not taken off at once the poor
beast burns on one side and freezes on the other. I was
born to be a farmer, but fate decided otherwise. I am a
painter, and out of my element/ '^
616 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
We should be glad, were we able, to make a detailed crit-
icism of Mademoiselle Bouheur's works aud artistic - genius.
We will offer a few words, setting forth as* best we can her
relative rank as an artist, and, in the phrase of that philo-
Bophic French critic, M. Taine, the ^ milieu^ to which her
character and style of art-production belongs.
Rosa Bonheur is acknowledged to be, beyond all gainsay
iug, a master. She is one of the few painters of the day of
any country, who deserve that title. She has attained that
proud eminence, which many a man of decided power, but
who still walks in stereotyped paths, has not been able to
win. It implies that in her own special field of art she has
exhibited an original genius, and has become a leading, if
not the leading, representative. She is, undoubtedly, the
greatest female artist who has ever lived.
Of the two principal departments of art comprehended in
the idealistic and naturalistic schools, Rosa Bonheur belongs
decidedly to the latter. Nature has been her inspirer. We
liave seen how, by the sole force of her youthful genius, she
broke away from the classical school, like a young horse that
throws his rider, leaps the roadside fence, and gallops, with
fiery eye and streaming mane, into the wide green fields, re*
joiciug in his new-found liberty. She has taken the real facts
of nature for the basis of her art. She loves nature. One
must love the little violet before he can paint it. By a
patient, self-forgetting study of nature, by winding herself
into her inmost confidence, by following those deep princi-
ples of beauty and life that are so hidden and evasive, she
has grasped the secret of power. She is not beholden to
the Louvre Gallery, nor to Poussin. She does not look
at the clear and open face of nature *' through a glass
darkly " of the older school of pastoral painters, who, while
men of genius, have followed some preconceived theory,
Bome solemn artificiality, or some symbolic idea, which
EOSA BONHEUR. '617
came between the truth of nature and the eye and soul of the
lEtrtist ; but in her brave and simple faith she goes away from
pictures and crowds out into the pure country, lonely and still,
and smelling of the fresh-broken earth and new-mown hay ;
she traverses rough clayey roads through the fields ; she sits
in the bare cottages of peasants ; she chats with ploughmen
in their broad-brimmed hats and blouses ; she talks, too, with
the patient beasts as they stand panting in the furrows, or
with dreamy eye ruminate their cud under the tree-shadpws
in the sultry noontide ; she comprehends the language of
their voices, looks, and motions, and spells out, with a
child-like docility, the broad page made by the hand of the
Great Artist, and pictured over with flocks of sheep, — the
earliest type of innocence and purity.
She goes to maternal earth for her nourishment, from whose
ample breast is drawn the support of man. A healthful, rud«
dy child of earth, not of heaven, is her art, — playmate of
the herds and flocks, baptized by the , morning dew, and
sleeping amid the spicy heather of the mountains. Rosa
Bonheur belongs to the Dutch or Flemish school of pastoral
painters, with a far finer and more earnest spirit, and with
the more thorough and scientific training of the modern
French school.
She is a perfectly accomplished artist in drawing, anato-
my, and all the more technical and mechanical portion of
her art. She skilfully uses the palette knife on her landscapes
for the production of harmonious effects, which, it is said,
few aftists are able to do. As a colorist, or tonist, Troyon,
her most formidable rival as an animal painter, is said to
somewhat excel her, but in no other respect. Yet, after all,
it is not in these things that the great artist is seen, but in the
quality of the mind, its vigor and fineness, its capacity to
produce. Here, Rosa Bonheur, deeply musing, striking out a
new path for herself, going to the unfrequented but ever fresh
618 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
Bounces of nature, having confidence in her own powcis, and
producing original and splendid results, shows her true
greatness.
She has been called an imitator of nature, and no idealist,
or without poetry and imagination ; and she has been, in this
regard, unfavorably compared with Sir Edwin Laudseer. But
all art is in one sense imitation. It is not nature itself, but it
IS only a representation of natural objects. It is an illusion,
whose perfection is to awaken the same feelings that nature
does, to grasp the essential idea which gives life and interest
to the object, and forms its real subject in the mind. Rosa
Bonheur does this. Her pictures are vital with the true spirit
of the scene, or of an animal, and where there is poetry in the
subject, there is poetry in her picture ; but it is of an unob
trusive, unsentimental, every«-day, naturalistic sort. It does
not say, ^See, here is a poem ;^ but its truth and beauty steal
upon one unconsciously, like the beauty of simple rural scenery
and country life. She does not seek the unknown, but takes
the commonest and most familiar objects. She speaks to the
popular heart and the common mind. While her pictures
are full of almost unapproached genius in her peculiar field,
yet they are comprehensible by all. Take her picture of the
•'Muleteers crossing the Pyrenees." They are but three com-
mon Spanish peasants, working for their daily bread ; but
they have come to the top of the mountain pass, among the
mists and clouds, and are now beginning to descend. The
way grows easier. The prospect of getting to their journey'^
end, of the safe termination of their wearisome march, and of
the good wages that await them, fills their minds with careless
happiness, which, joined to rude physical strength and spirits,
makes them sing and exult. And the animals, how full of
character I They evidently sympathize with their masters'
content ; they know very well, too, that their labors have cul«
minated. What solenm trustworthiness and ofiicial rospecta-
B08A BONHSUB. 619
bility in the richly caparisoned and belled mule that . cids t —
what amusing knowingness in the multitude of long ears all
pointed forwards I — what awkward* obstinifte-headeduess, ex*
pecting cudgel blows, in the young rebel straying from line
to pluck thistles I — what a mingling of sagaciousness and tn-
s<mciance in the long heads and soft, almost human, eyes I
There is nothing sensational, nothing highly wrought and
imaginative, but there is exquisite truth, iusight, thorough-
ness, sincerity, healthful atmosphere, power, and beauty.
Kosa Bonheur's pencil will yet produce, it is hoped, still
more perfect works, bringing out undeveloped powers. She
has been strongly urged to come to this country and visit our
western regions, and to paint the buffiilo and his Indian hunter
on their boundless native prairies; but this she will never
do ; and her forte is not wild nature ; for the fine spirit of the
woman shows itself, even in the bold vigor of her genius, by
her choice of domestic nature, and her preference, in the
animal creation, of the noble and gentle friends of man, rather
than of his foes and victims of his deadly skill. The ox rather
than the lion is the symbol of her artistic inspiration. While
she loves to seek the wild solitudes of mountain nature, it
would seem to be for the sake of their healthful repose, and
in order to find her favorite animals in their native haunts
and their free modes of life.
In this quiet domain of art the feminine mind, with its
truth, purity, and love of beauty, finds a fit field ; though not,
perhaps, in the provlnu) of what is called high art, or ideal
art, but rather in the simpler province of naturalistic art.
Nature is woman's field, — the study of the fresh, pure works
of Ood, filled with his goodness and love ; and yet any field,
or any branch of art, for which her genius best disposes her,
should be open to her freely, even if she cannot hope to
become an Angelica Kauffmann or a Rosa Bonheur.
Bosa Bonheur has shown what woman can do. She haa
620 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AOE.
asserted her right to follow the free bent of her own genius.
She has dared to pursue the path which she felt God marked
out for her ; and she has Ihereby said to other women, if you
can, do the same. Through much that seemed to be totally
opposed to her sex, and impossible for a woman to achieve,
she has steadily made her way, with a pure, bright purpose,
and a strong, constant heart, until now the foremost men in
the world recognize her equal claim to greatness. She asks
no favor to be yielded her on account of her sex. She claims
to be judged by her works on her essential merits, and she
stands proudly, but unambitiously, the full, kitellectual peer
of man.
Genius has no sex. The qualities of the masculine and
feminine minds, while profoundly harmonious, even in their
contrasts, and together forming the perfect man, are, doubt-
less, as a general thing, differently ^made up ^ in their rela-
tive proportions and dispositions, according to the varied
needs of their life-work. In the masculine mind, perhaps,
the constructive and philosophic elements are more promi-
nently controlling, and in the feminine mind the intuitive and
sympathetic ; yet there is the same mind in both, the same
** fiery particle," the same imperial and divine faculty, whether
It is shown in the ruling ability of a Henry lY. of France,
or an Elizabeth of England ; in the philanthropic capacity of
a John Howard, or a Florence Nightingale ; in the literary
scope and depth of an Alfi*ed Tennyson, or a Mrs. Browning ;
in the creative artistic power of an Edwin Landseer, or a
Bosa Bonheur.
JULIA WABD HoftTB. 621
MRS. JULIA WARD HOWE.
■«••-
BY MBS. LUCU GILBEBT CALHOUN.
■ 01 *
FoUBTEEN years ago there came from the famous press of
Ticknor & Company, a small volume of Poems, whose first
page, beside the imprint of the publishers, bore only the
simple title-line
PASSION FLOWEBS.
An anonymous book of poetry does not commend itself
to the reading mob, and not many copies were sold. But the
critics read it, and the scholars, and that small public which
had heard that it was Mrs. Howe's book, and desired to know
what sort of verses a woman of society, a wit, a housewife,
and a mother of children would write. It was a book that
invited, and received, and defied criticism ; a book powerful,
pungent, and unripe. Its personalism was terrible. In
every page it said, ^ Lo, this thing that God has made and
called by my name I What is it ? Why is it ? Behold its
passions and temptations ; its triumphs and its agonies ; its
fervors and its doubts; its love and its scorn; its disap-
pointment and its acquiescence I" Here at last, in America,
was a woman-poet ; not an echo, nor a shadow, nor a sweet
singer of nothings. ^ Another Sidney, chivalrous, gracious,
and eager for her part in the battles of life ; to whom, also,
the muse ^id, **Look into thy hearty and write I ^ She was
not an artist, for her song had mastered her, but it must
622 EMINENT WOMEN OF T-HS AGE.
needs have been 8trong-winged, and bold to do that. Clearly
she was a many-sided woman, whom heart and imagination
alone would have made a; devotee, and her keen intellection
alone a free lance, and who thus alternately believed much
and nothing, alternately accepted and defied destiny. So
much one might read of her history in this book.
Society knew also that she was bom and reared in New
York, her father being a wealthy banker, well-bred, and
scholarly. Determined that this pet daughter — a wise little
atom even in her babyhood — should not be merely a fashion-
able girl, he gave her teachers and books, appealed to her
ambition, aroused her artistic instinct, and kindled her relig-
ious nature. The quick spirit responded to .every touch.
A wise and loving man meant only to mould a wise and
loving woman ; but day by day the steady eyes grew more
intent in their questioning ; day by day the broad brow wore
lines of deeper thought ; day by day the elder mind caught
glimpses in the younger of that strange, ineffable gift which
men call genius. The brilliant girl had written verses almost
as soon as she could write at all. French and Italian she
readily mastered, and in time, leaving behind her the waste
and weary land of German grammar, she came into such a
shining inheritance of German literature as seemed to create
in her new faculties of comprehension. Goethe and Schiller
were her prophets and kings, and she received with large
welcome the subtile philosophers of their speculative nation.
While a school-girl she published first, a review of Lamartiue's
Jocelyn, with translations in English verse, and afterwards a
more thoughtful review of Dwight's translation of the minor
poems of Goethe and Schiller.
So she grew to ripe girlhood, — reading, writing, dreaming ;
fiery within, as her warm tints and rich bright hair declared
her, but cold without, nnder the repression of her.education.
To this day it is plain that she cannot easily reconcile her
JULIA WARD HOWE. 623
«
antagonisros. That her reason accepts the strictest formulas
of life, her energetic intellect works well and thoroughly in
the harness of existing laws and limits, while her ^red temper-
ament" sometimes besets her to set all bonds at naught, and
scatter heresies of thought and conduct like firebrands.
At twenty, sentimental, romantic, longing for the actual
vivacity of life, and finding only the dulness of routine, she
was subject to seasons of passionate and profound melan-
choly. Her German studies had made her indifferent to the
formal worship in which she had been bred, and no vital
belief offered itself to her. Into this vague, hungry, and
dark mood of hers came the awful kindness of death. The
idol of her heart — her father — died, and within a brief time
a dear brother also, and the questioning heretic became a relig-
ious and spiritual enthusiast. This exaltation lasted for two
years. During that time the young devotee read little else
than the Bible, which she undertook as a meritorious religious
exercise.
One day a friend put into her hand ^ Guizot's History of
Civilization," and then her new life* began. She studied it
with all the force of her vigorous mind, and its large thought
aroused her from her dream of holiness to a life of use, while
it lent wings to heir self-centred imagination. She was now
a liberal in politics, — in religion a thoughtful inquirer. She
studied Paradise Lost, and felt its gloomy grandeur, while it
nevertheless compelled her reason to reject an eternal hell as
impossible. At twenty-three she married Dr. Samuel G.
Howe, of Boston, — a man whose heroic labors for Greece in
her struggle for independence, whose beautiful devotion to
the blind, and whose anti-slavery crusades made men speak
of him as the new Bayard. They went abroad immediately.
In England the petted child, the young heiress, the idol of
her own circle, the haughty belle, found that her only claim to
social distinction was her husband's fame, which the recent
624 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
publication of Dickens'9 ^ American Notes ** had made dear to
all noble English hearts. To a woman of her strong, self-
centred nature, of her conscious power, and stately pride,
this acceptance of her as the appendage of another, this care-
lessness of what sovereignty might be in herself, was an
abasement as bitter as salutary. She had dreamed of literary
fame ; but this sudden humiliation, the new cares, the alien
interests that crowded upon her, postponed her career for
years. She came to the Old World as a queen comes to her
own. Its beauty, its maturity, its solemn antiquity seemed
her inheritance. Bome, magnificent and desolate, made her
life a rapture. There her first child was born, and her pas-
sion of mother-love was hardly deeper than her passion of
sad tenderness for the supreme city. Now for the first time
her firmament was high enough to let her stand upright.
She lived in* this divine atmosphere for months, and then
came back to the cold clearness of New England days, set-
tled into the prosaic round of house-keeping, and gave her-*
self much to society.
In spite of housetiold .cares and baby hands tugging at her
priceless hours, she saved time for the hard study which was
the breath of her life. She read Swedenborg, and the tough
difficulties she encobntered only stimulated her. She toiled
at Comte, and made new resolves of thoroughness and breadth
of culture. In 1850 she again went abroad, returning to her
beloved home, where she wrote most of the poems included
in *• Passion Flowers,** and where art, and books, and her
precious children made that winter her golden prime. Com-
ing biack to Boston, Dr. Howe undertook the charge of "The
Commonwealth,** — a newspaper dedicated to free thought,
and zealous for the liberty of the slave.
And now Mrs. Howe's opportunity was come. She wrote
editorials, literary articles, and verses, contributing, abo,
those brilliant paragraphs for which the paper was famous in
JULIA TITABD HOWB. 625
its day. This success opened the way for the publication of
** Passion Flowers,** so overblamed and overpraised. Two
years after came ^ Words for the Hour," — a book that palpi-
tated, such red heart's blood coursed through the lines. These
poems, like the first, were wayward, inartistic, obscure, de-
fiant, but they were riper, and even more full of promise. In
each the thought was strong, and deep, and true. The
stately rhythm that now and then broke on the ear, the full
and passionate expression, the terrible sarcasm, the sudden
lyric glimpses, lavished by this intense soul dowered with the
love of love, the hate of hate, the scorn of scorn, revealed a
power which no woman but Mrs. Browning bad exceeded.
The critics decided to accept the new poet ; but a nature so
intense, a personality so strong as hers, is rarely understood
or estimated at its worth. On the one hand she was assaulted
with flattery, and on the other with abuse. She went steadily
on her way, saying such wittily sharp things of her detract-
ors that it argued no small courage in a man to couch a lance
at her, — still studying like an undergraduate, still writing
with the industry of a country parson, — and in 1857 publishing
" The World's Own," — a play produced at Wallack's Theatre,
in New York. It was brilliant, fuU of dramatic feeling, and
well managed, but lacked a certain theatrical suppleness, a
stage-effectiveness, without which it could not succeed.
In 1859 Dr. and Mrs. Howe accompanied the dying Theo-
dore Parker to Cuba. A charming book of travels, witty,
brilliant, airy, and graceful, was her account of this journey,
published first in the ** Atlantic Monthly," and then, with ad-
ditions, in a volume which she called '*ATrip to Cuba."
Fun is very near feeUng, in fine souls, and all through the book,
under the ring of the laugh one catches the breathing of a
sigh, as the shadows of the glittering island-life, and the
shadows of a parting friendship fell on the bright observer.
About these days, or earlier, readers of the ^ New York Tri-
40 *,
626 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AGE.
hune " were charmed with occasional letters from Boston, from
New York, or Washington, about the gay world and people
and places of note, about summer days and autumn glories,
about art and poetry and religion. Eagerly asking whose they
were, such readers came for the first time into glad relations
with Mrs. Howe, and felt her to be a benefactor, for the true
thoughts and bright pictures she had given them. Since 1860
her studies have been principally philosophical, including
Swedenborg, Spinoza, Kant, Fichte, and Hegel. **I am
afraid," she said, naively, to a friend, ^ I am afraid I believe
in each one till I read the next."
During the last eight years she has written many admirable
social and philosophic papers, which she herself values far
above her poems. Six lectures on Ethics were cordially re-
ceived in the drawing-room, where she read them to an audi-
ence of critical listeners. And at Northampton, at the time
of the meeting of the American Society of Arts and Sciences,
she read, before many of the academicians, a remarkable lec-
ture on ** Man a priori^ and a posteriori.^ She has written,
also, thoughtful essays, entitled Tolarity," ''Limitation,'*
and ^ The Fact Accomplished." She gave last year, to the
*" Christian Examiner," three able papers on ^ The Idea and
Name of God," on ''The Ideal Church," and ''The Ideal
State."
In 1866 she was daring enough to publish ''Later Lyrics,"
— a third volume of miscellaneous verses, and was justified of
her courage by the worth of her work. Her splendid "Battle
Hymn of the Republic," set to the ringing tramp of the ** John
Brown Song," was the Marseillaise of the war. Who will
forget, —
** Mine eyes have seen the gloiy of the coming of the Lord :
Ue Is trampling out the vintage where his grapes of wrath are stored :
He bath loosed the fateltl lightning of his terrible swifb sword |
His troth is marching on*
JULIA WABI/ HOWE. 627
** I have seen him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps ;
They have bailded him an altar in the evening dews and damps ;
I can read his righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps ;
His day is marching on.
•< I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel ;
' As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal ;
Let the Keto, bom of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,
Since God is marching on.'
*' He hath sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before his Judgment-seat ;
Oh, be' swift, my soul, to answer him, be Jubilant, my feet I
Our God is marching on.
'* In the beauty of the lilies Christ was bom across the sea.
With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me ;
As he died to moke men holy, let us die to make men tree,
While God is marching on."
In this third volume there is much less of the obscure, the
fantastic, the forced. A lyrical series called ^ Her Verses,"
says a fine critic, '^are so charged -with wild passion, that they
recall Mrs. Browning^s * Sonnets from the Portuguese,' with
more of the Sappho, and less of the saint." Mrs. Howe has
not yet mastered her splendid powers. When she has fully
possessed herself America will be yet prouder of her one
great woman-poet; for Harriet Prescott writes too few
verses for her fame's sake, and all other women too many.
Mrs. Howe's last book is just published. It is called
^ From the Oak to the Olive ; a Plain Record of a Pleasant
Journey,'* and is the story of a trip from London to Athens,
by way of Paris, Marseilles, Rome, Naples, and Venice.
This journey was undertaken in 1867, to assist in distributing
American supplies to the destitute and heroic Cretans. The
road is old enough, but the traveller had new eyes. Her
book is filled with lovely pictures of scenery and people, of
high life, and low life, of clear character-drawing, and quaint
fimcies. More than this, it is profoundly thoughtful, and goes
623 EMINENT WOMEN OF THE AOE.
straight to the heart of institutioiiSy manners^ and habits of
thinking.
With the private life of an author, or a queen, the public
has no business at all. Whether Airs. Howe stands in the
kitchen eating bread and honey, or sits in the parlor counting
out her money, may not be told in these pages. But certain
things that any person in society may know are the property
of the gentle reader. She has auburn hair, and large, sad
eyes, " where soul seems concentrate in sight." Her mouth is
her fine and expressive fcatiu'e, though her whole face is mobile.
Her bell-like voice and her pure enunciation have a charm
like music, and the eloquence of her fine hands is irresistible ;
her wit is brilliant, ready, merciless, and her sarcasm polished
and swift as the axe of the headsman Kudolph. Her friends
know that music is her passion, swaying her whole being ;
that the drama is to her the Beautiful Art, as she has
written of it in a noble poem called ^ Hamlet at the Boston ; "
that she' found the infancy of her children a constant miracle
of beauty, and that now, they pet and rule her as if she were
the child ; that the dignity of her nature, forcing her to accept
simplicity as the best good, makes all luxurious and showy
living distasteful to her, while her sense of synmietiy and
harmony delights in order and elegance.
For the rest, in the winter she dwells in Boston, abode of
the blest, and in summer she lives in an enchanted glade, the
loveliest place on the earth, which nobody can enter without
the magic password, and about which all that the world will
ever know is written in tinted lines, and called '^In my Val-
ley." The lesson of her life is earnest work, and more than
any one of her sex in America, perhaps, she has demonstrated
that it 18 wisdom for Women to learn the Alphabet.
THE
PHILOSOPHY OF HODSE-KEEPING.
87 fbi ftbt iMjIili of 1b» "AmMlott Agrieottnlit," ^
JTwMcol 0/ (Jk« IknnetUe ArU / a ScUnH/U ond ProeMeol Gtcida In iJb«
iMetffion ond JPraporafloM 0/ every Kind of VeeAi a Cem/pewiAun^ of
ike beei praetieal JSwIe* for the TreeereaHon of Heaiihf the
Care of Infante, the Vood, ClothAng, and Comfort of
Chiidrenf I>omeeUc Bemediee, the Buiiding, Cot^
aenienee, and Onunnentation of Mon^ee,
amd aU the Arte, Graeee^and At
pUehtnente of the JBCoueehoUU
Kins Bbabohs why this Book should bb nr bybbt Faicilt.
1. It Ifl the only oomprehensire work on the ral^eot erer printed. All similar booki,
•I Kn; Hale'tf Miss Beecher'Si Jennie Jane's, and Prof. Blot's, tfe mere 000k and receipt
books. This has one chapter of reoelpts and one onlj.
S. It goes deeper than any other book. All the others simply tell how to cook.
This Instracts in the principles of digestion, and prescribes the proper natriment for
diiferent ages, conditions, seasons, and climates.
t. There is no other book from which a hoosewift can get snoh practical infbrmation,
and so much of it, on plain sewing, and the making np of all articles of dress, from a
baby's shirt to a man's OTerooat.
4. It touches all points and departments of house-keeping.
fi. It glTes practical rules for the preserratlon of health, and recovery from sickness.
A. One chapter is deroted to Infknts, thetr care, treatment of disorders to which they
are Uable, their dressi and management. This chapter is particularly commended to
young mothers.
7. Spedal directions are glren as to the ornamentation of homes, and how to make at
the iireside various elegant and tasteful decorations.
8. Suggestions are given as to the training of servants and chfldren, which will be
fbosd of great practical value.
9. This book gives in plain language, easily understood, the results of the most
recent researdies of chemists and physiologists, respecting fbod. This can be found ia
BO other book before the pubUe.
It contains nearly 000 pages, and can be obtained through our distributing Agents.
It is sold only Iqr Subsoription.
S. M. BETTS & CO., Fnblisliers,
ifo. 91 Asylum Street,
HABTFOBD, COyiT.
TESTIMONIAX.S
OF THX
PHILOSOPHY OF HOUSE-KEEPING,
Bt Mr. & Mbs. JOSEPH B. LYMAN.
Opinkm qf 5. IMwards Todd^ ffs?., AgrieuUvnU EdUor tf ih€ Kao York DaOig Timm.
I can heartilf reoommend your treatise, as it tells erery one who reads its pages what
to do and how to do it, in the most feasible and philosophic manner. It is exactly snoh
a work as almost every house-keeper in the country can take into the kitchen and dining-
room, and learn, from the plain, simple, practical details recorded in its pages, how to
engineer every department of house-keeping with as much skill and efficiency as a Joiner
working firom his diagrams in his lUustrated Architect.
■ Tour book ought to be carefUly studied by every house-keeper In the dty and country.
I heartily reoommend it to all fiirmers and mechanics, to husbands and wives, to young
men and young women. Could I have had such a book when I exchanged my state of
single blessedness for that of married felicity, the practical instructions which I then
needed, and which are contained in Thb Fuii/>80fht of Hou8B-KSEPuro,woald have
been of more pecuniary value to me than the cost of a thousand books.
l%t Rari/brd CouraiU saift «
Thb PniLOSOPBT of House-ksbpoo really sets forth a philosophy of living which
Is sensible and practical. There is in most fkmilies abundance of material for health and
comfort, if it was not misused by ignorant and incompetent house-keepers. The health
depends so much upon the diet, and the observance of certain simple rules, that there is
more need of information in the home department of lifo than in any other.
The book before ns is comprehensive in its design, but simple and methodical In its
plan. Cooking assumes the dignity of an art, and properly so. The book is dearly and
agreeably written. We know of no one of its dass that will be so useful to house-keepers.
The Soldier^ Friend^ Kew Torkf taiftt
The volume is printed in good, dear type, on good paper, and presents to the eye, in
an attractive form, a great amount of valuable information, hints, and rules, worthy of
study by every house-keeper. And we advise all who want an excellent manual, to supply
themsdves with it, as it is placed within their reach by the publishers.
CptniUm of the Hev, Samuel SeetpCf D.D.^ of East Hampton, Mau,
The style In which it is written is elegant and chaste, showing a high degree of liter-
ary culture.
The Boeton DaiOy Traveller ea^t
This is a book that is needed in every family ; and it contains a vast amount of nseftil
information, brought together in small compass, and well arranged. It is the most val-
uable work upon the sul^ects treated that we have seen.
The SpHmgfidd RepuMoan eaifsi
The Philosophy of Houbb-kbepiko is a book which should be in the hands of every
house-keeper; Ihe good sense and thorough understanding of all the matters of which it
treats, that characterize it, render it an invaluable companion for the misUess of a
family. We commend it to all our readers,- hoping that in their hand& t may do much ta
inaugurate the era of hygienic house-keeping.
vies on
JIINJOl
^^f^-lU^
ACME
Bn^K^INDING CO., INC.
SEP 2 3 1983
\CVQ C/VMBRirOE STREET
ACME
BH'^K'JINDING CO., INC.
SEP 2 3 1983
100 CAMSRirGE STREET
CHARLESTOWN. MASS.
'^a^'
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