Memories and Anecdotes

nah Whitehall Smith-A Teetotaler for Ten Minutes-Olive Thorn

Frances E. Willard last week. What a

e, and devotion to a "cause" with a gentle, forgiving, com

mong her other guests. Miss Willard and Walt Whitman happened to be present. Whitman was rude and aggressively combative in his attack on the advocate of temperance, and that without the slightest p

uded to his fiery criticism, didn't seem to know she had bee

lard met him more than half-way, with generous cordiality, and they became good friends. And when with the women of the circle again she

t was all "art" every word, and not one line would he ever give up. The old poet was supposed to be poor and needy, and an enthusiastic daughter of Mrs. Smith had secured quite a sum at college

id, but I never felt like being a foolish trifler in her presence. Her outlook was so far a

conscious influence of her nobl

up for an after-dinner speech! Something brief, terse, sparkling, complimentary, satisfactory, and something to raise a laugh! O, you know this agony! I had nothing in particula

vance with deceptive gayety, from roast to game, and game

as evidently unwritten and not committed to memory. Every eye was drawn to her earnest face; every heart was touched. As she sat down, I rose and left the room rather rapidly; and when my name was called and my fizzling fireworks expected, I was walking up Fifth Avenue, thinking about her and her life-work. The whole experience was a revelation.

she felt she could go out and be a pra

oman, tru

little whil

rks that s

and her work and she honoured me by giving me that great ple

ly, but next morning's mail brought this depressing decision: "Dear Kate, we have decided that there will be more meat in going to you. When can we come?" I was hardly settled in my house of the Abandoned Farm. There was no furnace

s good-bye letter to me when ret

reby soliciting an exchange of photogr

er and

ur

ES WI

cepted almost anything either of those good friends presented for my attention. So after thinking seriously I signed. But after going to my room I felt sure t

ter, who was her guest, was greatly roused at her lack of belief in eternal punishment and her infinite patience with those who lacked moral strength, he said: "There are surely some sins your daughters could commit which would make you drive them from your home." "There are no sins my daughters could commit

the birds, you can

the woman who had observed a pair of birds so closely, and could make so charming a story of their love-affairs and

dmother of seven children; but her bright face crowned with handsome white hair, has that young, alert, happy look that comes with having a satisfying hobby that goes at a lively pace. She said: "I never thought of being anything but a housekeeping mother until I

d you be

ortant subjects. But it didn't go. I was complaining of my bad luck to a plain-spoken woman in charge of a circulating libr

then take

ildren how a teacup was made and got one dollar for that. But those pot-boilers were not inspi

that co

at from that day I began to study them, especially the wood-thrush and catbird. After I had studied them for two years, I wrote what I had seen. From that time my course has see

men had each in turn changed yo

with Marion Harland (Mrs. Terhune), declaring I could never appear in public, that I should be frightened out of my wits, and that I must decline. My voice would all go, and m

arly expire wit

de most delightful acquaintances lecturing in fifteen different States; am now booked for a tour in the West, lecturing every day and ta

about dead b

d-museum, was moved to rise and appeal to them in so kindly a way that some pulled off the feathers then and there, and all promised to

r birds, so that they will come at your

ed with them. Each bird whose acquaintance I make is as truly

glory and pride. Not one bird had I seen on it that cold, repellent middle of March. But M

oriole's nest, badly winter-worn; but they will come back and build again. I see you feed your chickadees and sp

Massachusetts, I said one day to my host, the artist J.W.

, who was with us last week, found thirty-nine varieties in our

table of this and that dish and vegetable, she promised to send me some splendid receipts for orange marmal

he is poor, a retreat is ready for her without pay; if rich, she would bette

ar better condition to write. She is a Swedenborgian, and I think that persons of that faith have

lady who makes a goodly sum out of home-made marmalade; another who makes dresses for her family and special friends; another who

gs, that, knowing her as I did, I think I should be untrue to her if I did not try to show her as she was in her brilliant prime, and not

bath," and then said to me, "Grace Greenwood, I mean; have you ever met her?" my heart beat very quickly in pleasant anticipat

hildhood, were the most precious volumes in my little library. Anyone who has had pets and lost them (

s; her Haps and Mishaps of a Tour in Europe; her sparkling letters to the Tribune, full of reliable news from Washington, graphic descriptions of prominent men

d her say, in a jolly, soothing way: "Don't get into a passion," to the man who was swearing at her big trunk. And the

ack, which was arranged in becoming puffs round her face; and such eyes! large, dark, magnetic, full of sympathy, of kind, cordial feelings and of quick appreciation of fun. She talked much and well. If I should repea

red each morning by repeated calls from children, who were sent by busy mothers to find out "Just how Miss Blake was feeling this morning." At last this became of

es, to whom she had been lately lecturing, proving that these hardened sinners had much

, harum-scarum, bright-eyed schoolgirl, Sara Clarke, of western New York, who was almost a gypsy in her love for the fields and for

"Minnie Myrtle," and so on through the alphabet, one almost expecting to find a "Ninny Noodle." Examining one of Mrs. Lippincott's first scrapbooks of "Extracts from Newspapers," etc., which she had labelled, "Vanity, all is Vanity," I find many poems in her honour, much enthusiasm over her writings, and much

I may fling myself at her feet! There is a splendour and dash about her pen that carry my fastidious soul captive by a single charge. I shall advertise for her throughout the whole Western coun

ne of the poe

he old

re the god

use, anot

d the Olym

earnest individuality, her warm, honest, happy, hop

ewing her poems, spoke of their "exceeding readableness"

formal, never a martyr to artificial restraint, never wrapped in a mantle of reserve; but, with an almost childlike si

s, reciting the rough Pike County dialect verse of Bret Harte and John Hay in costume. Standing behind a draped table, with a big slouch hat on, and a red flannel shirt, loose

ly, who fancied they were famous elocutionists; some were so tolerable that I could sit and endure it; others remark

It was Grace Greenwood who, at a tea-drinking at the New England Woman's Club in Boston, was begged to tell

tely, most of the leading authors, artists, politicians, philanthropists, agitators, and actors of her time in both her own land

h his full lips and beaming blue eyes. Whittier, alert, slender and long; half eager, half shy in manner; bo

curious mingling of Athenian

herculean punster," an

lions-Mazzini, Kossuth, Dickens and Talfourd, Kingsley, Lover, t

ed with the National Era, making her first tour in Europe as its correspondent, and has written much for The Hearth and Home, The Independent, Christ

t, sentiment, and discriminating criticism, plenty of fun and a little sarcasm, but not so audaciously personal and aggressive as so

n a platform-except to be hung; then it's unavoidable"; and by her eloquence and wit proved its falsity and narrowness. Without the least imitation of masculine oratory, her best remembered lectures are, "The Heroic in Common Life," and "Characteristics of Yankee Humour." She always had the rare gift of telling a story capitally, with ease, brevity, and dramatic effect, certain of the point or climax. I cannot think of any other woman of this country who has caused so much hearty laughter

nfluential daily paper and the lecture hall are the

are but "Movie Pictures," seen for