THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 
 C 
 
 'V
 
 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 OF A 
 
 HAPPY LIFE 
 
 BY 
 
 vlirs Elizabeth Christophers Hobson (^^^-^-•'-^J 
 
 PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION 
 NEW YORK 
 
 1914
 
 Printed for Private Circulation 
 1914 
 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
 This Edition is Limited to 250 Copies
 
 ■ r 
 
 p.: 
 
 / I , 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 To those friends of Mrs. Joseph Hohson 
 who, several years ago, signed a petition asking 
 her to write her memoirs. 
 
 MANY of us will remember how often we 
 have asked Mrs. Hobson to write her 
 memoirs, to put on paper some account of 
 her various experiences, — those sparkling anec- 
 dotes, those interesting narratives — which we, 
 who have had the privilege of her delightful 
 companionship, have so greatly enjoyed. 
 
 We received but little encouragement. 
 Mrs. Hobson, in full health and vigor not- 
 withstanding her seventy odd years, was 
 actively engaged in various pursuits, both 
 grave and gay. She ''had not time" — ''she 
 had nothing of interest to say" — "there are 
 so many memoirs not w^orth reading." 
 
 Finally, Mrs. Richard Aldrich conceived 
 the happy idea of putting into verse a "Peti- 
 tion," a petition which, signed by twenty-four 
 of Mrs. Hobson 's friends, was sent to her, in 
 the spring of 1907.* 
 
 * A copy of these verses, with the signatures, will be found in 
 the Appendix. 
 
 ui 
 
 550218
 
 iv PREFACE 
 
 This determined her to make the attempt. 
 She became interested, and often spoke dur- 
 ing the last years of her Hfe of the pleasure 
 it had given her to write these ''Recollections 
 of a Happy Life/' as she called them. ''For 
 I have had a happy hfe/' she would say. 
 
 Occasionally she would read to her friends 
 one or two of the chapters, as she wrote them. 
 "What do you mean to do with them?" she 
 was asked one day. "I mean to leave them 
 to all of you who have asked me to write 
 them," was the prompt reply. "You may 
 do anything you like with them." 
 
 And now the time has come. The bright 
 spirit, brave and cheerful in death as in life, 
 has passed on to another world.* 
 
 Desirous of carrying out her wishes, Mrs. 
 Hobson's family handed over to "those who 
 had asked her to write them" the manuscript 
 of the memoirs, to be disposed of as they 
 might deem best. 
 
 Those who were present well remember the 
 little gathering of friends, coming some of 
 them from Washington, who met in New 
 York on the 7th of March, 1913, to decide 
 
 * Mrs. Hobson died in Bar Harbor, Maine, June 11, 1912, in 
 her eighty-first year.
 
 PREFACE V 
 
 upon the disposition of the manuscript. It 
 was more of a memorial than a business meet- 
 ing. The first and last pages of the memoirs 
 were read, with extracts from Mrs. Hobson's 
 last letters, while many loved to recall the 
 last time they had seen her and to speak ten- 
 derly and gratefully of the friend they had 
 lost. 
 
 In regard to the memoirs. All present were 
 desirous of having them preserved in perma- 
 nent form, all conceded a high order of literary 
 merit, and several advocated immediate pub- 
 lication. But the consensus of opinion was 
 that they were too personal for publication — 
 certainly not for many years to come, not 
 until the chief actors had passed away — but 
 that a small number of copies, printed by her 
 friends for private circulation among them- 
 selves, would be more satisfactory and appro- 
 priate. This was also known to be in ac- 
 cordance with the wishes of Mrs. Hobson's 
 family. The conclusions finally reached were: 
 that an edition of the memoirs, limited to two 
 hundred and fifty copies, should be printed for 
 private circulation under the name of ^'Recol- 
 lections of a Happy Life," this being the name 
 already chosen for them by Mrs. Hobson; 
 that the edition should be simple in form, not
 
 vi PREFACE 
 
 an edition-de-luxe; that the book should not 
 be sold, all copies to be given gratuitously, 
 and all expenses defrayed by those for whom 
 the manuscript had been written. It was also 
 decided, subject to the approval of Mrs. Hob- 
 son's family, that the three so-called ''phil- 
 anthropic chapters," owing to their public 
 interest, should be reprinted, rebound, and is- 
 sued as a much larger edition for wider gratui- 
 tous circulation, more especially among ''First 
 Aid" and other social service workers, and to 
 be given to the libraries of Training Schools 
 for Nurses.* 
 
 The following resolution was adopted: 
 
 ^'Resolved, that Mrs. Hobson's family be 
 earnestly requested to publish the memoirs 
 at some future day, with such additions of 
 omitted portions, letters to and from Mrs. 
 Hobson, and such other material of interest 
 as may seem to them advisable. That the 
 electrotype plates of the memoirs be given to 
 the family." 
 
 Miss Schuyler was requested to edit the 
 memoirs; after which the meeting adjourned. 
 
 The editor was at once confronted by a 
 serious difficulty. One of Mrs. Plobson's 
 
 •These three chapters axe: "The Founding of the Bellevue 
 Training School for Nurses," "First Aid to the Injured" and 
 "Southern Trip."
 
 PREFACE vii 
 
 marked characteristics was her devotion and 
 loyalty to her friends. She was never known 
 to speak disparagingly of one to the other; 
 she loved to be with them (as they with her) ; 
 she made time for them. She exaggerated 
 their good qualities and minimized their weak- 
 nesses in all sincerity and good faith. Natu- 
 rally, after reading the manuscript, one after 
 the other of those mentioned came to the 
 editor to say that, much as they valued the 
 generous, warm-hearted tribute of their friend, 
 the over-estimation was such that, so far as 
 they were concerned, that particular para- 
 graph- must be omitted from the printed copy. 
 What was to be done? The memoirs were 
 made up of personalities from beginning to 
 end. If all were omitted, there would be 
 nothing left. And so, with much reluctance, 
 it was mutually agreed that, while each would 
 make allowances for the over-estimation of 
 themselves and others, it would be best to let 
 the pages stand as she, out of her warm, gen- 
 erous heart, had written them, to be printed 
 in the very limited, private edition only. 
 
 One other matter requires mention. An 
 erroneous impression has been received that, 
 owing to the fragmentary character of parts of 
 the narrative, much has been omitted. This is
 
 viii PREFACE 
 
 not SO. It is true that Mrs. Hobson's family 
 has very properly withheld certain portions, 
 which were too personal for even private 
 printing at this time. But this in no wise 
 affects the Hterary merit of the memoirs as 
 they stand. Mrs. Hobson was not an author. 
 She never wrote for publication — beyond phil- 
 anthropic reports. She wrote these mem- 
 oirs at the urgent request of her friends and 
 as time served during the last years of a very 
 busy life. The surprise is that so much was 
 written. She did not write consecutively, a 
 chapter here and there as the fancy took her, 
 writing as she expressed it ''from the point of 
 the pen, just as the mcidents crowded into my 
 mind," without books of reference or any 
 attempts at serious work, but simply ''recol- 
 lections" as she called them. Some of the 
 chapters are full and rounded, others were 
 begun and not finished, others are fragments. 
 The headings of the chapters are hers, but not 
 the sequence, and but few dates were given. 
 
 The book is not a biography, it is an un- 
 finished autobiography, but so replete with 
 interest and charm that it must always be a 
 regret that it was never completed. Mrs. 
 Hobson had meant to have written more, to 
 have filled in the gaps, to have interspersed
 
 PREFACE 
 
 new chapters, to have written of a journey to 
 Japan with Mrs. Osborn, in 1897, and other 
 experiences. All this had been planned for 
 that very summer of 1912, in Bar Harbor, of 
 which she saw but the first June days. 
 
 The editor has simply supplied dates, and 
 verified statements so far as this has been 
 possible through attainable information. With 
 three exceptions, however. 
 
 Mrs. Hobson, before her death, had asked 
 her friend and fellow-worker, Miss Schuyler, 
 to revise for her the two chapters entitled 
 ''The Founding of the Bellevue Training 
 School for Nurses" and ''First Aid to the 
 Injured," for which she had no books of refer- 
 ence at hand. The interest to the editor of 
 this pleasant task was still further enhanced 
 by the fact, already stated, that these were 
 two of the three chapters selected for wider 
 circulation, as reprints, owing to their impor- 
 tance and public interest. They have there- 
 fore been very thoroughly revised, with added 
 notes, each statement verified from original 
 sources, the narrative now being historically 
 accurate. The same is true of the other chap- 
 ter "Southern Trip," which has been revised 
 by Mrs. Archibald Hopkins, who accompanied 
 Mrs. Hobson on her journey to the South.
 
 X PREFACE 
 
 It is proposed to reprint and rebind these 
 three chapters as they now stand, with the 
 ehmination of certain personahties and the 
 addition of an appropriate preface. The ex- 
 planatory notes have been appended for the 
 enhghtenmcnt of a pubhc which should know, 
 but which does not know, how deeply it is in- 
 debted to Mrs. Hobson. 
 
 For the dates and other information re- 
 quired for the main body of the memoirs, the 
 editor is indebted to the family of Mrs. Hob- 
 son. She desires also to acknowledge her in- 
 debtedness to Miss Mary Parsons for other 
 valuable assistance. 
 
 Several of ]\Irs. Hobson 's friends, who knew 
 her intimately, have said that she has not done 
 herself justice in these memoirs, that no one 
 would know from them of the power of sym- 
 pathy and the force of character which were 
 hers, that she had not given the deeper side 
 of her nature. But may not this have been 
 intentional? Did not she mean to give the 
 light touch, to pass over with a word the 
 shadows one knows were there? Were not 
 the '^Recollections of a Happy Life" meant to 
 depict the happy side of that life, not the 
 sorrows and the trials which come to all? So it 
 would seem. For, be her own words what
 
 PREFACE xi 
 
 they may, those who knew Mrs. Hobson well 
 could never for a moment doubt her deep sym- 
 pathy with those in trouble, the earnestness of 
 her convictions, the abiding sense of the 
 fundamental principles which governed her 
 hfe. 
 
 To the friend who has had the privilege of 
 editing these memoirs, the work has been one 
 of very great pleasure. As one turns the 
 pages again and again, the narrative never 
 loses its freshness, nor the clear, flowing style 
 its charm. The social traits, so characteristic 
 of Mrs. Hobson, are all there — the vivacity, 
 humor, quick perception, the wide interests, 
 freedom from prejudice and independence of 
 thought, the adaptability to new countries 
 and strange peoples of the true cosmopolitan 
 — all are to be found in these pages. Nor 
 is there lacking the more earnest side, the 
 sympathy with suffering and with the op- 
 pressed which, united with enthusiasm, ability 
 and industry, have made her a power for good, 
 far-reaching and enduring. It is a great gift, 
 this which our friend has given to us, for into 
 these pages she has put herself. 
 
 Louisa Lee Schuyler. 
 
 New York, 
 May, 191-t.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 Preface iii 
 
 I. Childhood and Youth 1 
 
 II. Life on a Sailing Ship 15 
 
 III. San Francisco and Chile . . . .25 
 
 IV. Peru 33 
 
 V. Family and Friends 69 
 
 VI. The Founding of the Bellevue Train- 
 ing School for Nurses .... 77 
 
 VII. Chateau d'Aunay 115 
 
 VIII. First Aid to the Injured .... 135 
 
 IX. Constantinople 149 
 
 X. Italy 177 
 
 XI. The Holy Land 181 
 
 XII. Southern Trip 185 
 
 XIII. Washington 229 
 
 Last Jottings and Last Letters . . 239 
 
 APPENDIX 
 A Petition 255 
 
 xm
 
 Childhood must pass away, and 
 then youth, as surely as age approaches. 
 The true wisdom is to be always season- 
 able, and to change with a good grace 
 with changing circumstances. To love 
 playthings well as a child, to lead an 
 adventurous and honorable youth, and 
 to settle, when the time arrives, into a 
 green and smiling age, is to be a good 
 artist in life and deserve well of your- 
 self and your neighbor. 
 
 STEVENSON. 
 
 XIV
 
 APOLOGIA 
 
 I DOUBT very much if these Recollections 
 will ever be read except by the friends 
 who requested me to write them, and who 
 may survive me. I may not live to finish 
 them, for I am now in my eightieth year, but 
 I cannot forbear expressing now the pleasure 
 I have had in writing them, thus recalling the 
 memories of the happy past, for which I thank 
 Almighty God. To me Agur's prayer has been 
 granted : ^' Give me neither poverty nor riches, 
 feed me with food convenient for me." I have 
 had perfect health, devoted relatives and 
 friends, no pecuniary anxieties, and of the 
 world I have seen its best. Bishops and 
 statesmen, authors and artists, philanthropists 
 and scientists, have been among my friends; 
 and women, some of the noblest in many 
 countries. So with a grateful heart I lay down 
 my pen, with a tender farewell to those I love 
 
 and who have loved me. 
 
 E. C. H. 
 
 cornersmeet cottage, 
 
 Bar Harbor, 
 
 September, 1911. 
 
 XV
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF A HAPPY LIFE
 
 n
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 HAPPY LIFE 
 
 CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 
 1831-1850 
 
 1AM asked by some dear friends to write my 
 reminiscences, to put into writing some 
 of the anecdotes I have told them of my long 
 and somewhat varied life. To please them, I 
 shall make the attempt and, after I am gone, 
 they must decide whether it is desirable to 
 publish them or not; if not, they must destroy 
 them. 
 
 In thinking over the matter, I find that my 
 life has been divided into four epochs, all of 
 which have had a distinct effect upon my 
 character, probably from their absolutely dif- 
 ferent environments. The first was my life 
 till I married, at the age of nineteen, Decem- 
 ber 4, 1850. The second was my married 
 life in South America, till 1869; the third, the 
 thirteen years passed in New York, till 1882; 
 
 1
 
 2 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 and fourth, after I became a widow, the 
 twenty-six years when I have had my home 
 in Washington, varied by frequent visits, of 
 long and short periods, to Europe. 
 
 I am descended from the early Puritan 
 stock, and I have felt its influence on my 
 character all my life. In spite of my residence 
 in many different countries, the heredity in me 
 has always been supreme. Romanism, Epis- 
 copacy, Agnosticism, Mysticism, Christian 
 Science, in spite of the efforts of their followers, 
 have all failed to produce any permanent im- 
 pression upon me. Not that I am a Puritan, 
 like my ancestors; I know nothing and care 
 less for the old dogmas, election, predestina- 
 tion; but the Puritan conscience, so-called, 
 has followed me all my life, has protected me 
 in many moments of temptation and doubt; 
 and now, when the old creeds are passing away 
 and new ones arising, I am undisturbed, feel- 
 ing a blessed assurance that the simple teach- 
 ings of Jesus are influencing mankind more 
 and more, and that the cruel creeds and stupid 
 dogmas, over which mankind has fought for 
 centuries, will soon be forgotten, to give place, 
 let us hope, to peace on earth and good will to 
 men. 
 
 I had an opportunity, recently, to see the
 
 CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 
 
 genealogical tree of one of the branches of my 
 mother's family. Ichabod Wetmore, who 
 came from Wales about 1680, was one of the 
 first settlers of Middletown, Conn. He was 
 married three times, and had seventeen chil- 
 dren. His children, for several generations, 
 had large families, nine and ten children, until 
 now they have dwindled to two and three. It 
 is a mystery to me how they managed to bring 
 up their families as they did, for there was 
 nothing sordid about their lives : they were in- 
 telligent, well educated and self-respecting. 
 Look at the commonwealths they founded, 
 what good laws they passed, their schools and 
 colleges, and such intelligent men and women, 
 and how strong and dignified the men, how re- 
 fined and graceful the women. I have a minia- 
 ture of my grandmother, by Malbone, and I 
 like to feel that I am descended from such a 
 refined and beautiful woman. My mother, her 
 daughter, whose portrait at the age of fifty 
 hangs above me as I write, has an air of dis- 
 tinction and repose, which one does not see in 
 the women of her age nowadays, in their low 
 dresses and wigs, pearls and diamonds, smok- 
 ing cigarettes and playing bridge. But these 
 reflections are useless, so I will proceed with 
 my story.
 
 4 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 I had a most happy childhood. I was the 
 eldest of five girls, and as they will be frequent- 
 ly mentioned in my story, I will name them 
 now. I, the eldest, am Elizabeth, married to 
 Joseph Hobson;* Mary, married to General 
 Berdan; Lucy, married to the Hon. L. P. 
 INlorton; Caroline, married to Colonel R. G. 
 Lay; and Fanny, who died unmarried. I have 
 said that my father and mother came of the 
 best New England stock. My father's uncle 
 was Samuel Huntington, signer of the Decla- 
 ration of Independence, and my mother was 
 the direct descendant, through her father, of 
 Samuel Hinsdale, the first settler of Deerfield, 
 Mass., so well known in our Colonial history 
 as the scene of the famous Indian massacre. 
 Mr. Blaine once asked me where I came from, 
 and I told him my father's name, Elijah Hunt- 
 ington Kimball. ''Your people came from 
 Ipswich," he exclaimed; "you will find all their 
 graves in the churchyard there." Being at 
 Beverly some time after, I proposed to my 
 nieces to look up our ancestors at Ipswich. On 
 arriving at the graveyard, we dispersed in dif- 
 ferent directions to find the Kimballs. Pres- 
 
 * Elizabeth Christophers Hobson. Daughter of Elijah Hunt- 
 ington and Sarah Wetmore Kimball. Born — November 22, 
 1831. Married — Joseph Hobson, of Baltimore, Maryland 
 December 4, 1850.
 
 CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 5 
 
 ently I came upon a tombstone dedicated to 
 the memory of Richard Kimball, 1656, with 
 the epitaph, "An honest man's the noblest 
 work of God." I called to the girls to give up 
 their search, as we could be satisfied, as well as 
 proud, of the ancestor I had found. One story 
 connected with the early history of my family 
 is an account of a visit of Captain Kidd, the 
 pirate, to Gardiner's Island, in Juh', 1699, just 
 before his last voyage, when he was captured 
 and executed in England. John L3^on Gardi- 
 ner, 3rd Proprietor of Gardiner's Island, was 
 absent, and his wife, to propitiate her 
 dangerous visitor, invited the pirate to come 
 ashore and dine with her. He returned his 
 thanks and, with the message, he sent her 
 a piece of Oriental embroidery, known in the 
 family as "The Kidd Blanket," and also an 
 East Indian jar of sweetmeats, known as " The 
 Kidd Pitcher." The embroidery is two yards 
 long by three-fourths wide, crimson, green and 
 gold, in stripes, and is as bright and perfect as 
 when first woven. It is sometimes called 
 "The Kidd Altar Cloth," as it was presumed 
 that the pirate took it from a church. This 
 heirloom came into my line of descent from 
 Gardiner's Island, through my ancestress, 
 Mrs. Allen, who in 1710 became the third wife
 
 6 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 of John Lyon Gardiner. She was not the 
 mother of his Gardiner children, but the altar 
 cloth probably came into her possession. Her 
 son, Fitz John Allen, received it from her, and 
 through his daughter, EHzabeth Allen, who 
 married Christopher Christophers, it has come 
 to me, through five generations of Elizabeth 
 Christophers. ''The Kidd Pitcher" has also 
 been preserved and, bound with a silver band 
 and inscription, is now in the possession of a 
 descendant of John Lyon Gardiner, my dear 
 friend, Mrs. Henry Fairfield Osborn, of New 
 York. 
 
 So much for my ancestors. I like, however, 
 to recall the life at my grandfather's house, in 
 New Hampshire, where I passed many sum- 
 mers, because, as I look back upon it, in view 
 of life at present, I repeat that it seems incredi- 
 ble that so much refinement and culture could 
 have been coexistent with what must have 
 been very narrow means and a restricted life. 
 The farm was of about five hundred acres, 
 beautifully situated on the Connecticut River, 
 four miles south of Dartmouth College. There 
 was a large, comfortable house, shaded by " im- 
 memorial elms," great barns and outhouses for 
 the numerous horses and cattle, and, as I re- 
 member it, life was very busy and interesting.
 
 CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 7 
 
 My grandfather was an old Puritan. Oh! how 
 long those prayers were, and those sermons he 
 read aloud rainy Sundays when we could not 
 go the four miles to church, where, on pleasant 
 days, we stayed to two services and Sunday 
 school, eating our luncheon, which we had 
 brought in a basket, between services. He 
 was a fine old man, full of energy and preju- 
 dices, as we would call them now. The first 
 time I ever heard an oath was when I heard 
 him damn Jefferson ! 
 
 He managed on what must have been a very 
 small income to support and educate his large 
 family. His two sons went to college, his four 
 daughters to Miss Emma Willard's school at 
 Troy, the fashionable school of the day, and 
 were most accomplished women. Two of them 
 lived to fill conspicuous positions in society. 
 The elder, Eunice, married the son of the 
 Squire, the smart young man of the country. 
 He fell into bad habits, so my grandfather 
 brought her home, and instead of being di- 
 vorced, as she would have been now, and mar- 
 rying again, she became the good angel of the 
 village, founded a church and Sunday school, 
 and her beautiful garden was celebrated. She 
 did not talk much about it — gardens were not 
 the fashion then — though everyone cultivated
 
 8 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 the flowers which are now so admired as old- 
 fashioned. I doubt if my aunt ever heard of 
 an Italian garden, but, as she was well-read in 
 English literature, she had probably read 
 Bacon and taken some hints from him. I don't 
 know where her plants came from, but I have 
 a distinct remembrance of the first stalk of 
 heliotrope I ever saw, which she gave me, and 
 I never smell it now without thinking of Aunt 
 Eunice. To her I owe my memories of the 
 ''Vicar of Wakefield," "Sir Charles Grandi- 
 son," and the ''Children of the Abbey," and 
 last, but not least, the Bible, and especially the 
 New Testament. My grandfather preferred 
 the Old, and quoted the Prophets and spoke of 
 them as familiarly as if he had been brought 
 up with them. My aunt always wore a cap 
 with borders of fine lace, tied under her chin 
 with rose-colored ribbons. I always thought 
 of her as very old. Not long since, in looking 
 over the records in the family Bible, I found 
 that she died at the age of forty-two. 
 
 My grandparents lived to be over ninety, 
 and theirs must have been a strenuous life. 
 Almost everything which we buy now at the 
 grocer was made on the place. I remember 
 the intense interest I took in seeing the cheese 
 and butter made, the candles formed, the wool
 
 CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 9 
 
 spun, the preserves prepared. I was proud to 
 assist, especially at Thanksgiving, when the 
 mince meat was being mixed and the apple and 
 pumpkin pies were made, the pastry by my 
 aunt's delicate fingers. It was she who always 
 pleated the cambric ruffles on my grandfather's 
 shirts. All my three aunts did the most beau- 
 tiful muslin embroidery, babies' caps, dresses, 
 and exquisite long scarfs on India muslin. 
 How did they accomplish it all? My Aunt 
 Lucy, who was celebrated for her beauty, died 
 at the age of thirty-five in Philadelphia, where 
 she went to live on her second marriage with 
 Mr. James Stuart. She and her sister Caro- 
 line both first married brothers, Scotchmen, 
 named Young, who were owners of coal mines 
 in Pottsville, Penn. Their husbands died 
 within a year of each other, of consumption, 
 and the two young widows, both under thirty, 
 returned to their father's house in New Hamp- 
 shire, driving all the way in their own carriage. 
 I can see Henry, the colored coachman, and 
 the two black horses now, and I can recall my 
 feeling of pride when the steps were let down 
 for me to enter the great heavy coach. 
 
 My Aunt Caroline married a second time 
 Professor Haddock, of Dartmouth College, a 
 nephew of Daniel Webster, and I cannot re-
 
 10 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 member a handsomer or more high-bred gen- 
 tleman than he. 
 
 Now I must speak of New York, and tell of 
 my father and mother, and my own home life 
 as a girl. My father was a lawyer by profes- 
 sion, a poet and idealist in temperament. My 
 mother was intelligent, practical, beautiful. 
 As a wife and mother she was perfect. I never 
 remember a domestic jar. If she ever differed 
 from my father, we children never heard the 
 discussion. Life moved smoothly on the Long 
 Island farm; and again I must refer to the 
 wondrous amount of work accomplished in a 
 domestic way, such a contrast to the life of 
 to-day. The farm was seven miles from Brook- 
 lyn. There were no public conveyances; every 
 person, every trunk, every package, had to be 
 brought in my father's vehicles to and fro. 
 The hospitality was boundless. I used to say 
 that in summer I never knew where my bed 
 was, except that it was the last one unoccu- 
 pied. People used to say that they wondered 
 how my mother managed to entertain so much, 
 and she would reply with her radiant smile: 
 " Oh, I never worry as long as there are oysters 
 in the oyster-bed and chickens in the barn- 
 yard." 
 
 As I have said, we were five girls. All our
 
 CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 11 
 
 clothes were made in the house, and we were 
 always well dressed. In those days dress was 
 simple, but we had all we required, or even 
 wished for. There were never any discussions 
 about money. We never thought of people as 
 rich or poor. The only distinction we knew 
 was between the well-bred and the reverse, and 
 to this day it always shocks me a little to hear 
 people described as poor, as if it were a re- 
 proach. We always came to the table and my 
 father encouraged us to talk, and when my 
 mother would suggest that we talked too 
 much, he insisted that it was the only way to 
 teach us the art of conversation, and he was 
 certainly most inspiring. As we grew older 
 and went to boarding school in New York, 
 Friday and Saturday evenings were spent in 
 discussing our studies, examining us, and tell- 
 ing us the news of the day. My father had 
 many friends in public life and we sat and lis- 
 tened to their conversation. The slavery ques- 
 tion was coming to the front, and I became an 
 ardent abohtionist. My sister ]\Iary did not 
 sympathize with my views, and I remember 
 she whispered once at school: ''Don't talk 
 abolition; if you do the girls won't speak to 
 you." So there were differences of opinion 
 even then on the slavery question. One even-
 
 12 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 ing my father brought home from New York 
 a Uttle negro boy, who had been sent from the 
 South, through the ''underground raihoad," 
 and passed on to my father as a sympathizer. 
 After a short and unsatisfactory period in the 
 pantry, Harry was transferred to the stable, 
 and I was deputed to teach him to read. The 
 result was so successful, in spite of much dis- 
 couragement on my part, that he grew beyond 
 his teacher, was sent to school and finally be- 
 came a chaplain of a colored regiment in the 
 Civil War. 
 
 I must not fail to mention our school. All 
 of us who came under Professor Tappan's in- 
 struction and influence have realized during 
 our whole lives the intellectual impetus he in- 
 spired. A fine writer himself, we learned 
 from him to appreciate the beauty of style, and 
 to love the great EngHsh writers. He treated 
 us girls with such courtesy that we should have 
 felt humiliated if he had ever found us unpre- 
 pared for a recitation. He became afterwards 
 the first Chancellor of the University of Michi- 
 gan. 
 
 I left school at seventeen, and the following 
 winter I passed at the Astor House, then a 
 fashionable hotel, where my parents were in 
 the habit of spending the winter months. And
 
 CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 13 
 
 now took place an event which was the turning 
 point in my life. I should like to be able to 
 describe myself at this time, the winter of 1849. 
 My sisters all gave promise of beauty, but I 
 was never considered to have any. I was 
 small and fair, with a profusion of light-brown 
 hair and gray eyes which were not remarkable 
 in any way at that time, but they have served 
 me so well that a great oculist told me re- 
 cently that he had never seen but one person 
 with such strong eyes at my age. I had a 
 happy nature, and was fortunate in always 
 making friends, so whether I was pretty or 
 ugly, did not trouble me. 
 
 At the Astor House that winter were some 
 friends of my parents, a Captain and Mrs. 
 Jolmson, who were going around Cape Horn to 
 California in a fine ship, and they invited me 
 to go with them. From San Francisco they ex- 
 pected to go to India, thence home, to be gone 
 about a year. Gold had been discovered in 
 California two years before ; all the world was 
 excited on the subject, and I was wild to accept 
 the invitation. Everybody was envying me, 
 but my parents hesitated. 'Twas such a 
 plunge into the unknown. A trip which causes 
 no surprise nowadays was then a topic of deep- 
 est interest. My parents consulted our clergy-
 
 14 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 man and the family doctor, as well as our rela- 
 tives, and at last gave a reluctant consent. I 
 was pointed out at the Astor House as ''the 
 girl who was going round the world!" People 
 asked to be introduced to me. I was a celeb- 
 rity. I wrote touching letters of farewell to 
 my relatives and friends; I felt myself a hero- 
 ine. The spirit of adventure was strong within 
 me. I was fearless, but it was the bravery of 
 ignorance. No young girl ever stepped out 
 into the world more guileless or more uncon- 
 scious of evil. At last the day of departure 
 came; how well I recall it, the eleventh of 
 January, 1850, a cold, raw, blustering day. 
 When I came to bid my mother good-bye, I 
 would have given worlds if she had said: 
 ''Don't go, my child," but she did not, and, 
 smiling through my tears, I saw them leave 
 the ship and me to my fate.
 
 II 
 
 LIFE ON A SAILING SHIP 
 1850 
 
 HOW can I give any idea of life on a sailing 
 ship sixty years ago. The Virginia was 
 a fine clipper ship, and her arrangements were 
 considered excellent. She was provided with 
 every comfort then considered essential, but I 
 fancy, in fact I know, that the second-cabin 
 passengers on an ocean steamer now are far 
 more comfortable and have better food on 
 their short voyages from Liverpool than we 
 had on that four months' voyage. Of course 
 I was sea-sick and home-sick, but, as the days 
 passed and we got into good weather, with the 
 buoyancy of youth my spirits revived, and I 
 began to realize the beauty and charm of life 
 at sea. The captain and his wife w^re kindness 
 itself. Mrs. Johnson was a bride and as new 
 to the sea as I was. We soon adapted our- 
 selves to the routine, and, by the time we 
 reached Rio, I knew every rope in the ship and 
 could almost ''take the sun." The man at the 
 wheel was my friend ; the sails, the pumps, the 
 
 15
 
 16 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 spars, the coiled ropes around the belaying 
 pins, spoke to me a familiar language. 
 
 Oh, that bay of Rio! I have seen all the 
 famous harbors of the world since then, but 
 none ever filled me with such emotion, with 
 such a sense of beauty. 
 
 I pass over the rough and stormy passage 
 around Cape Horn. Also the three days passed 
 at Valparaiso, because I shall return there 
 later. 
 
 After a voyage of one hundred and twenty- 
 five days, we passed through the Golden Gate 
 and anchored at San Francisco. It was a ter- 
 rible-looking place : streets of shanties deep in 
 mud, here a high building and there a few 
 scattered houses, wooden sidewalks under 
 which the great wharf rats burrowed and ran 
 over your feet at night. People from every 
 clime; and oh, such terrible-looking women! 
 Sacramento Street was given up to gambling 
 houses ; at night they were brilliantly lighted, 
 the tables covered with gold doubloons around 
 which the men and women gathered in crowds. 
 As I looked at them through the windows, I 
 felt as if I were gazing into hell, and to this day 
 gambling for a stake, however small, is odious 
 to me. 
 
 We were invited to stop with Mrs. Hooper,
 
 LIFE ON A SAILING SHIP 17 
 
 whose husband was a partner of the firm of 
 Cross, Hobson & Co. To Mrs. Hooper at- 
 taches a curious story, which I heard many 
 years later. She had gone as a bride to the 
 Sandwich Islands, where her husband left her 
 for a cruise among the other Pacific Islands. 
 Time passed and he did not return, until finally 
 he was given up for lost. After some years had 
 passed, she married Mr. Hooper and came to 
 San Francisco. Her first husband, however, 
 was not lost. He was cast ashore in some in- 
 accessible spot, and drifted from place to place, 
 penniless and forlorn, until he finally reached 
 San Francisco, to find his wife married to a 
 wealthy man and in an excellent position. 
 Like Enoch Arden he turned away in silence, 
 settled far away in the prairies, and the story 
 was known to so few that Mrs. Hooper never 
 heard it, nor the world in general, until long 
 after both he and she were dead. 
 
 Another anecdote is illustrative of the 
 period. In those days in San Francisco, al- 
 though somewhat difficult to satisfy the east- 
 ern standard of hospitality, the merchants 
 were anxious to entertain the officers of the 
 men-of-war, there being quite a fleet in the 
 port. They chose a large warehouse for their 
 banquet. When the invitations were accepted.
 
 18 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 and the preparations were being made, they 
 found, to their dismay, that whale-oil lamps 
 were entirely inadequate to light the vast 
 space. No gas, no Standard Oil, no electricity 
 in those days; but the versatile Samuel Ward, 
 known in later years as ''Uncle Sam," came to 
 the rescue, assuring the committee that, if 
 they would leave it to him, he would provide 
 them light enough. When the night arrived, 
 the guests found the sides of the room 
 lined with marble statues, holding blazing 
 flambeaux of pitch pine, the statues being 
 stevedores, stripped and whitewashed. The 
 committee and guests made no unfavorable 
 comments. 
 
 From this digression I must now turn to 
 my own life, and its most important event, my 
 engagement to Joseph Hobson. Sixty-one 
 years ago, and I see him now as clearly as when 
 I first met him, and when he stood before me, 
 the perfect gentleman that he was, in such con- 
 trast to those around him. Handsome, cour- 
 teous, high bred, rather reserved, he was like 
 my own people, and my heart went out to him 
 at once; and when, after daily intercourse of 
 ten days, he asked me to marry him, I con- 
 sented without hesitation. No one could know 
 him and not feel sure of him. I made but one
 
 LIFE ON A SAILING SHIP 19 
 
 condition, that he should follow me home, and 
 that we should be married there. It was a 
 month's journey across the Isthmus of Pan- 
 ama, but I felt I could not be married any- 
 where but in my dear home with my parents 
 and sisters around me. So I bade good-bye to 
 my kind friends, the Johnsons, and, under the 
 care of Captain and Mrs. Waterman, who were 
 returning home, I departed, leaving my fianc^ 
 to follow a week later. Such was my regard 
 for ''les convenances," but, as it turned out, he 
 reached home a fortnight before I did, saw my 
 parents, and I found all the arrangements 
 made for our marriage when I arrived. 
 
 My journey home was adventurous. On 
 reaching the port of Realejo in Nicaragua, we 
 heard that cholera was raging on the Isthmus 
 of Panama, so Captain Waterman decided to 
 land at Realejo and cross Nicaragua. Captain 
 Waterman was a remarkable character, a type 
 of the old sea captains who have passed away 
 with the clipper ships they commanded, and the 
 American maritime commerce which is dead. 
 Tall and gaunt in stature, profane, even cruel on 
 the quarter-deck, he was low- voiced, gentle, and 
 kindness itself to a woman ; and he was like a 
 father to me during the six weeks I was under 
 his care. His wife warned me: ''Don't mind
 
 20 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 what people say about Bob, he never said an 
 unkind word to me in his Hfe." Kipling would 
 have understood him, the sailor, ruthless in his 
 control of the men who drove those great sail- 
 ing ships around Cape Horn as fast as steam 
 could have carried them, and then all affection 
 for women and children. 
 
 A great deal has been said of recent years 
 about Nicaragua transit, but I was one of the 
 pioneers of that route which has been so 
 fought over. Mrs. Waterman and I, on the 
 captain's advice, turned our plaid shawls into 
 trousers and long jackets, so we were pioneers 
 in that costume as well. Our mode of convey- 
 ance was an oxcart, with a mattress spread on 
 the bottom. Another cart followed with our 
 luggage, and, with four oxen to each, we 
 jogged over the not very bad roads, from 
 town to town and village to village, for three 
 weeks. The telephone of those days, that 
 mysterious intelligence department of simple 
 races, announced our coming, and all the vil- 
 lagers turned out to look at and w^elcome us. 
 We found it was expected that we should 
 descend from our equipage to receive them 
 and their gifts — cake, fruit, etc. At first the 
 naked boys and girls rather abashed me, but I 
 soon got accustomed to their bronze figures, as
 
 LIFE ON A SAILING SHIP 21 
 
 they were as unconscious of their nudity as 
 those in the Vatican. At the large towns we 
 were received by the chief dignitary of the 
 place. At Grenada, a fine town at the head 
 of Lake Nicaragua, a most beautiful house was 
 placed at our disposal, and fruits, fowls and 
 flowers were sent to us every day by our hos- 
 pitable host. Everywhere the people, high and 
 low, impressed us as dignified and self-respect- 
 ing. The race was Spanish ; in the lower classes 
 Indian and Spanish. We saw no poverty nor 
 squalor, a happy, simple, agricultural people. 
 Since then the country has been racked by 
 revolutions, and the beautiful town of Grenada 
 destroyed. 
 
 While at Grenada, we made our preparations 
 to descend the lake. A large boat, with ten 
 men to row and pole, was fitted up for the voy- 
 age of a fortnight, and we started on our trip 
 to the sea, the whole town turning out to wish 
 us ''buen viagio." 
 
 I am under the impression that we were the 
 first North American women who ever crossed 
 from sea to sea; at any rate the inhabitants 
 showed as much interest and curiosity about 
 us as if we were, and I remember that at Leon, 
 where we attended a most sumptuous wedding 
 party, I excited more interest than the bride.
 
 22 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 Our voyage down the lake was uneventful. 
 The virgin forest lined the shores, with now 
 and then an Indian hamlet, near which we 
 would tie up at night and hang our hammocks 
 in the trees, thus sleeping more comfortably 
 than in our cramped quart-ers on the boat. 
 I wonder now that I did not think of the 
 possible danger from snakes and venomous in- 
 sects, but I was naturally fearless, and under 
 the protection of " Bob " it did not occur to me 
 that harm could come to us. We shot the 
 rapids successfully, passing a little steamer 
 wrecked upon them, and reached Greytown, a 
 wretched little town on the coast, low, swampy 
 and malarious, infested with mosquitoes, in 
 blissful ignorance of their infectious qualities. 
 We had to remain there a week before the 
 Royal Mail steamer was due which would con- 
 vey us to Kingston, Jamaica. I can vividly 
 remember the horrors of that week, in a little 
 low hut with no furniture but a table, chair, and 
 a bedstead, on which a hide was stretched in 
 lieu of a mattress, and with only an Indian boy 
 to assist in the cooking which we did ourselves. 
 Most of the time was passed in fighting mos- 
 quitoes and tarantulas. There was nothing to 
 see; the few half-starved inhabitants were too 
 miserable to even show any curiosity about the
 
 LIFE ON A SAILING SHIP 23 
 
 strangers, and the English Consul, who I think 
 was the only foreigner in the place, was too dis- 
 pirited by malaria to pay any attention to us. 
 
 We had worn our semi-masculine costume so 
 long that it had ceased to seem strange to us, 
 so we walked on board the English steamer as 
 nondescript a pair of women as ever stepped 
 on a ship's deck. The expression of the smart 
 officer in his immaculate white uniform, as he 
 helped us over the gangway, was an instant 
 revelation to me, and I whispered to Mrs. 
 Waterman: ''Let us get into some decent 
 clothes at once." The woman in me was 
 roused. I selected a soft white frock, a pink 
 sash, and a Leghorn hat with feathers. My 
 long hair was braided around my head in the 
 fashion of the day, but, alas, all the water and 
 soap (cosmetics I had none) could not remove 
 the tan and freckles of six weeks' constant ex- 
 posure to a tropical sun. Nevertheless, I felt 
 sure that officer would have a different expres- 
 sion when he next saw me, and he had ; and I 
 had reason to think that the impression was 
 permanent before we parted at Jamaica. 
 
 I pass over the voyage home, the reunion 
 with my dear family, and the preparations for 
 my wedding, which took place December 4, 
 1850.
 
 Ill 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO AND CHILE 
 1850-1854 
 
 MY wedding trip was across the Isthmus 
 of Panama — the Isthmus before the 
 railway, before de Lesseps made his abortive 
 attempt to dig the canal. It was in the days 
 of the great California emigration, when the 
 miners returned with their belts filled with 
 gold. On that overloaded steamer the passen- 
 gers gambled all day on deck, and slept there 
 at night. My husband had secured a good 
 stateroom, and we took our meals with the 
 captain in his cabin. One evening while we 
 were going through the Caribbean Sea (and 
 oh ! how hot it was) , word was brought to me 
 that a woman was in my berth and could not 
 be induced to move. I went to see, and surely 
 there she was, undressed, and, to my remon- 
 strances, she replied: ''I have slept on that 
 deck ever since we sailed ; my money is as good 
 as yours; here is my ticket, and turn about is 
 fair play." I sent for the purser, who, after 
 remonstrating in vain, told her he would get 
 her a berth if she would get up. ''You go and 
 
 25
 
 26 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 see it, and tell me if you would sleep in it," 
 she said to me. I meekly went, and returned 
 to tell her that it was all right, as good as 
 mine, whereupon she whispered to me most 
 good-humoredly : ^'I looked about and made 
 up my mind they would not let you sleep on 
 the deck, so I took your berth. You don't 
 mind, do you?" We became very friendly 
 after that. She told me incidents of her life 
 in a mining camp, so that, when years after I 
 read Bret Harte's stories, I felt I understood 
 them. We arrived at the Isthmus. The 
 present town of Aspinwall did not exist. We 
 anchored off Ancon, where the officers of a 
 man-of-war gave me a picnic and cut down a 
 lofty cocoanut tree, that I might have the 
 pleasure of picking the cocoanut myself and 
 drinking the milk. I had never heard of '^ con- 
 servation" then, and had no scruples about 
 sacrificing a beautiful tree for my pleasure. 
 For two days and nights we were poled up 
 the Chagres River by four huge negroes until 
 we reached Gorgona, where I passed the night 
 in a corner of a great rough building, where my 
 bed was shielded from the crowd by canvas 
 walls, and my husband lay on a cot in front 
 of the curtain door, while I slept the sleep of 
 the weary traveller. The next morning we
 
 SAN FRANCISCO AND CHILE 27 
 
 mounted our mules for a twelve hours' ride to 
 Panama. How glorious it is to be young and 
 happy, fresh and hopeful! I did not mind the 
 terrible road, or when my mule sank to his 
 knees in mud, whence he was dragged out by 
 the man who led him. My lap was full of 
 orchids of every color, picked from the 
 branches above my head. The monkeys and 
 parrots delighted me, and the travellers who 
 trudged on foot amused me with their funny 
 stories and unfamiliar slang, the great forests 
 on either side ringing with the shouts and 
 songs of the adventurers of every race, officers 
 of our army and navy going to their posts, all 
 jolly and good-humored. They were going to 
 the El Dorado; they were not returning sick 
 and disappointed. And thus the hours passed, 
 until my husband lifted me off my mule and 
 said: ''You are a first-rate traveller, I can 
 take you anywhere." He might have modified 
 his praise when later he found me trembling 
 and crying with fright in my wretched little 
 bed at the rats that were careering about the 
 room — only he was quite as nervous as I was. 
 The captain of the steamer going north from 
 Panama was Lieutenant Beale of the Navy. 
 I knew him afterwards as General Beale in 
 Washington, and father of my friend, Mrs.
 
 28 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 John R. McLean. He was genial, with an ad- 
 venturous spirit, which every one seemed to 
 have that I met in those days, so he and his 
 officers made a pleasant party. We landed at 
 Acapulco, where we spent a day and night 
 under the hospitable roof of the Alcalde. It was 
 my first introduction into Spanish home life, 
 and certainly it was primitive. The domestic 
 animals had the run of the house, and at 
 night I was obliged to awaken my husband to 
 drive away the pig which was striving to push 
 me out of my hammock. 
 
 We stayed at San Francisco about six 
 months. Those were the days of the famous 
 Vigilance Committee, when the citizens were 
 obliged to take the law into their own hands; 
 and when I learned that my husband had 
 assisted at the hanging of two criminals, I 
 was so nervous and unhappy that he realized 
 that life would be wretched for me there, so 
 he made arrangements with his partners to 
 take charge of the business in Chile, South 
 America, his family having been established 
 there for many years and having large inter- 
 ests there. In order to effect this arrangement, 
 he sold his real estate in San Francisco. 
 Many years after, v/hen I went there on my 
 way to Japan, I met the man who bought the
 
 SAN FRANCISCO AND CHILE 29 
 
 property, and asked him where it was. "I 
 will take you to see it," he said. As I looked 
 on what once was a water lot, now covered 
 with massive stone buildings, he remarked: 
 '^ You might have been a very rich woman to- 
 day." In thinking about this ''might have 
 been," I have decided that I am not sorry, 
 and if I live to finish this story and my friends 
 read it, I think they will agree with me that 
 I have had a happier life than if I had passed 
 it accumulating money in California. 
 
 I recall one incident of the voyage on our 
 way to Chile. On the steamer, south of Pan- 
 ama, was a party of elderly men, South Ameri- 
 cans of importance, who wiled away the hours 
 playing their favorite game of ''rocamboa." 
 Reared as I have been in Puritan principles, I 
 watched their cards and their gold with dis- 
 gust. Finally, on Sunday, discovering them 
 at their daily occupation, I could not restrain 
 myself. I walked up to them, and in as fluent 
 Spanish as I could muster, I asked them if 
 they did not know that it was a sin to play 
 cards on Sunday, and a double sin to gamble, 
 pointing to the doubloons. As soon as they 
 had recovered from their astonishment, they 
 rose with the greatest courtesy, picked up their 
 cards and gold, and bowed themselves away.
 
 30 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 My husband, who was reading at the other end 
 of the cabin, jumped up in dismay and followed 
 them to apologize, when one said , smiling : ' ' Mais 
 elle est charmante, la petite Puritaine." But 
 their compliment did not save me from a good 
 scolding, andlneveragainmadeagamblingraid. 
 
 I found Chile a delightful country and I re- 
 ceived a warm welcome in Valparaiso from my 
 husband's family, in which there were two 
 girls of my own age. As I had married before 
 I had been in society, I knew nothing of the 
 life of the debutante, so I entered into the gay 
 life of my nieces with enthusiasm. On those 
 perfect saddle horses we rode long distances 
 over the mountains and into the valleys to the 
 ''haciendas," where we would dance far into 
 the night, returning by moonlight or at sun- 
 rise. I shall never forget my surprise at see- 
 ing my husband dance the ''samacueca" with 
 a young Chilena, with much grace and spirit, 
 and learned for the first time what a dancer 
 he was. One or more of our ships-of-war were 
 always in the port, and many are the retired 
 officers I have since met in Washington with 
 whom I have danced on those white decks, and 
 with whom I have ridden over those green hills. 
 
 South America has retained much more of 
 the impress of Spain than we have that of
 
 SAN FRANCISCO AND CHILE 31 
 
 England, owing perhaps to the Catholic re- 
 ligion which sets its mark so indelibly upon its 
 members. At that time there was no tolera- 
 tion, and we heretics w^orshipped in a small 
 upper room as in the apostolic times. Per- 
 mission to have a church of our own was later 
 obtained by a young New England mission- 
 ary, who came to Valparaiso about 1850, and 
 whose wife opened a school for girls. I don't 
 know by what chance Mrs. Trumbull obtained 
 rich girls instead of poor ones, as is usual with 
 missionaries, but such was the case. The 
 daughters of some of the most influential 
 Chileans went to her school, and thus she 
 and her husband were thrown into connection 
 with their parents. In the course of a few 
 years, through the influence thus acquired, 
 Mr. Trumbull obtained permission to build a 
 church, the first Protestant one, I believe, in 
 South America. I have since reflected, in 
 view of Mr. and Mrs. Trumbull's success in 
 Chile through their intercourse with the upper 
 classes, that perhaps our missionaries would 
 be more successful if they aimed at them in- 
 stead of confining their efforts to the poor. 
 
 Santiago, the capital of Chile, is a most 
 beautiful cit}-, and I was much impressed with 
 the luxury of its inhabitants. We stopped on
 
 32 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 one occasion at the villa of Sefior Cousino, a 
 very wealthy and influential land owner. He 
 and his wife were absent on their estates in 
 the south, but they placed their villa at our 
 disposal. Their carriage, perfectly appointed, 
 met us on arrival and we were driven to the 
 villa, two miles beyond the town. Passing 
 through lofty iron gates into the park, for a 
 distance of about half a mile, the road was 
 hedged by high shrubs of geraniums and 
 fuchsias in full bloom. We found a corps of 
 trained servants awaiting us. Our dinner was 
 served on silver and rare porcelain, and I re- 
 call that the curtains of the salon were cash- 
 mere shawls. The gardens were full of the 
 rarest flowers, and as we sat among the 
 camellias and orchids and under the olive 
 trees, the snowy peaks of the Cordilleras tow- 
 ered above our heads. We stayed ten days in 
 this enchanting spot, where our every wish 
 was anticipated, and we never gave an order. 
 All my remembrances are delightful of Chile, 
 a beautiful, interesting country and hospitable 
 people. I was too young to study its economic 
 or political conditions; I only know I was 
 very happy there. I there commenced to 
 learn the Spanish language, which became 
 like my mother-tongue in after years.
 
 IV 
 
 PERU 
 1860-1869 
 
 IN 1854 I returned to the United States for 
 a visit. My sister Mary returned about 
 the same time from Europe. During her ab- 
 sence she had passed two years in Portugal 
 with my uncle and aunt Haddock, my uncle 
 being our Minister there, and her letters give 
 such a vivid description of that country and 
 society that I would like to insert them in 
 these memoirs. Perhaps I may. On her way 
 home she passed a season in London and in 
 Paris, and assisted at the fetes given on the 
 occasion of the marriage of Napoleon Third 
 to the beautiful Eugenie de Montijo. She 
 made the acquaintance at that time of her 
 future husband, who became known later as 
 General Berdan of the Sharpshooters in the 
 Civil War. Mr. Berdan was a man of un- 
 usual intellect and inventive genius, indomi- 
 table perseverance and industry. In all the 
 
 33
 
 34 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 disappointments of an inventor's life, he 
 never lost his pluck and courage, and he car- 
 ried his youthful heart to the grave. 
 
 Two years later my sister Lucy married 
 Mr. L. P. Morton, at that time a prosperous 
 young merchant in New York, and later one 
 of the prominent bankers of the city. Even 
 as a girl, Lucy made an impression wherever 
 she went. As time went on, she developed 
 into a very rare woman. Her social gifts 
 made her a leader, and her tender heart drew 
 her into much philanthropic work. She died 
 at the age of thirty-five, of what I presume 
 was appendicitis. 
 
 It is not necessary for me to make any com- 
 ments on Mr. Morton's career as Governor of 
 the State of New York or as Vice-President 
 of the United States. This is part of the his- 
 tory of the country. He was as fortunate in 
 his second marriage as in the first, and his 
 wife and their children have always been very 
 dear and near to me. 
 
 After a somewhat prolonged visit at home, 
 my husband and I returned to South America 
 in 1860, and Lima, the capital of Peru, was 
 our home for more than nine years, where he 
 was the partner of Alsop & Company, the chief 
 American house on the Pacific coast. The for-
 
 PERU 35 
 
 eign business of the country was divided be- 
 tween Gibbs & Company, Huth & Company of 
 London, and Alsop & Company of New York. 
 Even now I can recall my emotions as I 
 entered that superb, dignified old Spanish 
 house in Lima of which I was to be the mis- 
 tress. It was seventy-five feet front, two 
 hundred feet deep, built around two courts. 
 The offices of the bank were on the ground 
 floor, the residence above. This, my Peru- 
 vian home, was built in the Spanish colonial 
 period and was formerly the residence of a 
 great official sent from Spain. The lofty ceil- 
 ings were of carved cedar. There was hardly 
 a room in the house less than thirty feet 
 square and some of them larger, and so per- 
 fectly ventilated that I never remember any 
 heat in them. Lima has the only perfect 
 climate I have ever known. The words of 
 the poet, "Where falls not hail or rain or 
 any snow, nor ever wind blows loudly," were 
 absolutely true. 
 
 Note. — "This unusual condition, an entire absence of rain, is 
 ascribed to the action of the lofty uplands of the Andes on the 
 trade wind. The southeast trade wind blows obliquely across 
 the Atlantic Ocean until it reaches Brazil. By this time it is 
 heavily laden with vapor. When it arrives at the snow-capped 
 Andes the last particle of moisture is wrung from it that the very 
 low temperature can extract. It rushes down as a cool and dry 
 wind on the Pacific slopes. . . . From November to April there
 
 36 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 In the summer, a huge awning was spread 
 over the '^ patio," which kept out the glare, 
 and there I passed the long tropical days. It 
 was before the era of modern activity. I had 
 not acquired at home the restlessness of the 
 sporting woman. After my morning ride (and 
 oh, such horses!) and bath and breakfast, I 
 was perfectly content to sit with my books, 
 my studies (French and Spanish), until 
 luncheon. Then my husband would bring in 
 some men : travellers, naval officers and friends. 
 We chatted for an hour or two. In the after- 
 noon, I made or received visits, and at dinner 
 the table was always laid for eight — there 
 were certain habitues on whom we could al- 
 ways count — and, after dinner, billiards. There 
 were three men to whom I shall always owe a 
 debt of gratitude. One was the English clergy- 
 man, or rather he was an Irishman. He gave 
 me books and taught me how to enjoy them — 
 a gentle, cultured man who did his duty in the 
 little church every Sunday, and never bothered 
 me with theological discussions during the 
 week. 
 
 are usually constant dryness, a clear sky, and considerable, 
 though by no means oppressive, heat. From June to September 
 the sky is obscured for weeks together by fog (not unpleasant). 
 Maximum temperature, about 78°; minimum, in July, 59°." 
 
 — Encyclopedia Britannica.
 
 PERU 37 
 
 Utterly unlike him was my German friend, a 
 linguist, a musician, an artist, man of the world, 
 an agnostic. I was at first a little anxious 
 when the two men met in my salon, for I 
 feared that the German would allow his con- 
 tempt for my dear little Irishman to become 
 apparent, for, of course, he could not in the 
 least tolerate what he called ''imbecility," 
 ''such stupid faith." But even he could not 
 resist the bonhomie of the Irishman, and he 
 had to respect the rare culture of such a ripe 
 scholar. 
 
 The third was an unusually interesting man, 
 a South American. Though born in England 
 and educated in France, he was a Spanish 
 hidalgo to his finger tips, a writer, a poet, a 
 politician, with rare business faculties, through 
 which he made a large fortune,* and, in the 
 latter years of his life, a distinguished diplo- 
 mat. I remember hearing ]\Ir. Blaine speak of 
 him as the cleverest diplomat in Washington. 
 This man was our daily visitor for many years. 
 He was my instructor and friend — and is so 
 to this day. 
 
 These men made my salon — and it was 
 one, trul}^! Oh, the good talk, the discussions, 
 the wit, the fun ! There was a revolution every 
 now and then to enliven us and an earthquake
 
 38 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 to terrify us, and then came the Civil War in 
 America. It was not to be expected that an 
 Irishman, a German and a South American 
 could view the matter as we did, and oh, the 
 battles that were fought over the maps spread 
 on the billiard table! Now and then the 
 officers from our ships would join us, and 
 strengthen our side in the discussion. 
 
 Those four years were most anxious ones 
 for us. My husband's family were Southern- 
 ers, mine from the North. During my ab- 
 sence, my third sister, Caroline, had married 
 Lieutenant R. G. Lay, so I had two brothers- 
 in-law in the Northern army, while my hus- 
 band had nephews and relatives on the Con- 
 federate side. My husband, notwithstanding 
 his Southern affiliations, was a strong Union 
 man. I learned, later, that his relatives at- 
 tributed his attitude to the influence of his 
 ''Yankee wife," but I am happy to say that 
 my influence was not necessary, though I 
 should certainly have used it if it had been. 
 With the assistance of the naval officers, we 
 followed the course of our armies, and the 
 animated discussions between them and my 
 coterie on political questions gave me a taste 
 for those subjects which I have retained to 
 this day. Peruvian politics were also very
 
 PERU 39 
 
 interesting, because we lived in a state of 
 chronic revolution. The government of Peru 
 occupied the singular position of owning the 
 chief source of wealth of the country, namely, 
 the guano, and after a defeated party made 
 up its mind that those who were in had made 
 enough, or, as we should say, robbed enough, 
 they made a revolution and turned them out 
 — hence, plots and conspiracies without end. 
 My South American friend was a strong mem- 
 ber of one party, and on a certain occasion, 
 when he feared that he might have to escape 
 from the country, he confided the party cipher 
 to me so that I might communicate with him 
 if necessary. I remember how proud I was at 
 such confidence. I came across it the other 
 day and, alas, I could not read it! 
 
 I should explain the nature of this source 
 of Peruvian wealth, because, in speaking of it 
 to a very intelligent woman recently, she said 
 she thought the guano was a fruit. The 
 Chincha Islands, about a hundred miles off 
 the coast of Peru, have been, for hundreds or 
 rather thousands of years, the breeding ground 
 of certain birds, whose excrements have 
 formed mountains of the so-called ''guano," 
 which, in that rainless climate, became almost 
 pure ammonia, making the most valuable fer-
 
 40 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 tilizer known to the scientific agriculturist. 
 The value was known to the ancient Peru- 
 vians, but the Spaniards cared nothing for 
 agriculture; they sought their riches from the 
 mines. Humboldt called attention to it in 
 1802; but it was not until 1842 that an Eng- 
 lishman sent a small quantity to England as 
 an experiment, and in the course of a few 
 years the results were so satisfactory that the 
 export commenced and the government found 
 that those barren islands were more precious 
 than the mines of Potosi. England, France, 
 Germany and America formed companies and 
 competed with each other for the contracts. 
 Money poured into the Peruvian exchequer — 
 and the government was so paternal that 
 everybody got a share of the spoils. I remem- 
 ber the widow of a general who received seven 
 thousand dollars a year pension. She married 
 and it went to her eldest daughter, and she 
 told me that they could all marry but the 
 plainest, who must remain single in order to 
 keep the pension. 
 
 Under these circumstances it can be easily 
 understood that, with a people naturally dis- 
 posed toward revolutions, there was plenty of 
 temptation to make them, and some were 
 even very bloody.
 
 PERU 41 
 
 On one occasion, when my husband had 
 gone off for a few days' shooting, I was awak- 
 ened by the sound of musketry, and soon 
 the servants rushed to my door to tell me that 
 there had been a fight in front of the house 
 and that the people were lying dead in the 
 street. It was a feast day and all the clerks 
 had gone away, and as I knew that the vaults 
 of the bank were full of silver, I felt rather 
 nervous lest the mob might break in. I or- 
 dered the great iron doors to be closed and 
 barred, and I went to the window to see the 
 condition of affairs. At each end of the 
 block, cannon had been placed, and soldiers 
 were on duty. This rather reassured me, and 
 presently my opposite neighbor, M. de Les- 
 seps, French Consul-General and brother of 
 F. de Lesseps, of Suez Canal fame, called to 
 me that, as he knew my husband was absent, 
 if I would allow him, he would come over and 
 hoist his flag on the house and protect me. I 
 gladly accepted so gallant an offer, and for 
 two days I was protected by the French Em- 
 pire. There were at least five revolutions 
 during the nine years we Hved in Lima, so 
 that I do not remember precisely how this 
 one turned out, but my impression is that it 
 was on this occasion that the President es-
 
 42 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 caped to a man-of-war in Callao, disguised as 
 a woman, in the carriage of the American 
 Minister. The defeated officials always went 
 to France, where they had previously de- 
 posited the profits of their offices against a 
 rainy day. Of course, money so easily ob- 
 tained was spent easily. The luxury was so 
 great that, when I returned home, in 1869, I 
 remarked on the simplicity of the women's 
 appearance at balls, and upon the lack of 
 jewels, which the Peruvian women wore so 
 lavishly. 
 
 I have said nothing about the social life in 
 Lima. In a certain sense there was no society, 
 as we understand the term. The fife was 
 patriarchal. The heads of the great old fami- 
 lies hved in a dignified state, receiving every 
 evening the junior members of the family and 
 poor relations. The mother, or grandmother, 
 always sat in the grand salon with a little 
 group of old men and ladies around her. The 
 younger members of the family collected in 
 one of the other large rooms, and tables were 
 set out where men, women and priests played 
 ''rocamboa" and smoked strong cigars. Poli- 
 tics and domestic gossip were fertile topics of 
 conversation. There was always a revolution, 
 just passed or impending, to discuss. In a
 
 PERU 43 
 
 country where divorce did not exist and the 
 "mariage de convenance" was de Hgueur, love 
 affairs were as common and of the same nature 
 as those that exist to-day in Italy, and those we 
 read of in the pages of Saint Simon. The Span- 
 iards are much more faithful than Frenchmen 
 or Italians, and these irregular attachments 
 frequently lasted for years, and if the incon- 
 venient husband or wife died, often ended in 
 marriage. Flirtations, as we would call them, 
 were not tolerated, but a serious attachment 
 was accepted, for was she not a ''des gra- 
 ciada"? One lover was allowable, not more. 
 There was one case that I watched with 
 great interest and sympathy. She had been 
 a beautiful girl, married at fifteen to an epi- 
 leptic cousin to keep the fortune in the family. 
 He took her to his estate in the country, where 
 in his fits of fury he would beat her unmerci- 
 fully. In one of these attacks he injured her 
 spine so severely that she became lame for 
 fife. She returned to her home in Lima, where 
 she inspired a fine young man with a devoted 
 attachment, which she reciprocated, and for 
 years he passed every evening by her side, as 
 she was extended, helpless, on her chaise 
 longue (where I have often seen her). Her 
 friends would drop in to speak to her, but
 
 44 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 did not stay long. '"Twas his place and no 
 one presumed to usurp it." 
 
 As in France and Italy, so in all Spanish 
 countries, the mother or grandmother of a 
 family has supreme authority. It is she who 
 arranges the marriages, reconciles the dis- 
 putes, and keeps the family together. The 
 Spanish laws at that time were exceedingly 
 favorable to women (I don't know whether 
 they have since been changed). The wife 
 inherited half the profits of her husband's 
 estate which had been acquired after mar- 
 riage, as well as her share of the principal; 
 and if by chance the marriage ceremony had 
 not been performed before the birth of the 
 children, a death-bed ceremony legitimized 
 them, and regulated the status of the wife. 
 
 Illegitimate children, if recognized by the 
 father, were entitled to a third of the estate 
 (that is, a third was divided among them), 
 
 and bore his name. Senor D , so well 
 
 known in Paris many years ago and who, I 
 believe, at one time held a big position, was 
 the son of a rich Spaniard who always passed 
 as a bachelor. When he was stricken with 
 paralysis, he sent for my husband to witness 
 his will and acknowledged the parentage of a 
 son and two daughters, between whom he
 
 PERU 45 
 
 divided his millions. (He was the first mil- 
 lionaire I ever knew.) The girls, unconscious 
 of their origin, were in a convent expecting to 
 remain there always. They were withdrawn 
 from the convent, taken to their father's house, 
 '^ clothed in purple and fine linen," and en- 
 lightened as to their birth and prospects. The 
 son was summoned from Europe. He arrived 
 in time to see his father before he died, and 
 then assumed his position as head of the house 
 and guardian of his sisters. The first step he 
 took was to invite a young man who had been 
 kind to him as a poor, lonely lad in Europe to 
 come to him, introduced him to his sisters 
 and said, "I love you like a brother; choose 
 which you will marry." He did so, and for 
 all I know, they were happy ever after. Senor 
 
 D himself sought out a young girl he 
 
 had known and loved when he was poor, and 
 unrecognized as his father's son, married her; 
 and when I saw her in her beautiful hotel, in 
 the Avenue du Bois, I would never have sus- 
 pected her humble origin, she was so attractive 
 and at ease in her surroundings. 
 
 One of my favorite resorts was the "ter- 
 tulia'^ of Dofia Ignacia — a great lady, sim- 
 ple and dignified, with only two objects in 
 life, her family and the Church. She lived in
 
 46 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 a stately old house, the floors paved with 
 Moorish tiles, and the walls covered with old 
 portraits in frames of silver. She always re- 
 ceived sitting in a superb armchair in her bed- 
 room. The bedstead of carved oak was on a 
 dais, with a canopy hung with rich brocade 
 trimmed with old Spanish guipure. The toilet 
 set, as well as her whole hatterie de cuisine, 
 was of silver. The mistress of all this was a 
 most dignified little woman, barely five feet 
 high, in black satin and lace ruff, her white 
 hair combed straight back from her forehead 
 and drawn up in a knot on the top of her 
 head; but she looked "de race," and she was 
 so regarded by everyone. Dona Ignacia's 
 charities were vast. Every Saturday the 
 courtyard of her house was filled with the 
 poor who were permitted to come for their 
 weekly alms, and she inherited the right to 
 dress the Virgin and Saints belonging to the 
 great church of St. Augustine near her house. 
 Every year before the festival of the Saint, 
 he and the Virgin and the minor saints were 
 brought to Dona Ignacia's house to receive 
 their new garments. It used to be one of my 
 privileges to go and witness the performance. 
 The Virgin's long hair was combed and curled, 
 her old clothes were bestowed on some saintly
 
 PERU 47 
 
 poor relatives and new, rich ones — if possible 
 richer than the last — given in their place. Her 
 crown, the gift of an ancestor of Doiia Ignacia, 
 was brought out together with the jewels, and 
 the Virgin was then ready for her trip through 
 the city in company with St. Augustine 
 (also newly clothed), and the attendant 
 saints, to visit Santo Domingo, where they 
 were expected to pass the night. 
 
 For this festival the whole town turned out. 
 Shops and offices were closed. Priests and 
 laymen, ladies and children followed the pro- 
 cession; incense burned and trumpets blew. 
 I am sure there was a procession of this kind, 
 in honor of some saint, at least once a fort- 
 night during the year, and sometimes busi- 
 ness was interrupted for three days in succes- 
 sion. From Holy Thursday to Easter no 
 vehicles were allowed in the streets, and on 
 Good Friday the billiard tables were all cov- 
 ered, and men and women wore black. Some 
 of the ceremonies were grotesque. In the 
 crypt of Santo Domingo, a representation of 
 the Lord's Supper was always given on Holy 
 Thursday. A long table was set out with 
 various kinds of viands, of painted wood. 
 Our Saviour, a figure as large as life, sat at 
 the head of the table with the disciples at
 
 48 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 each side all in black robes, except Judas, who 
 was in scarlet, the purse being conspicuous in 
 his hand. All the disciples had cigarettes in 
 their mouths, but our Saviour had a cigar. 
 The ceremony of carrjdng the Host to the dy- 
 ing was done with great pomp and ceremony. 
 If the invalid was a general or an official dig- 
 nitary, a band of music accompanied the 
 priests, and played dirges in the patio while 
 extreme unction was administered in the 
 chamber of death. The performances at Car- 
 nival were most curious. I never knew how 
 the custom arose, or was permitted, of drench- 
 ing every passer-by in the street with water 
 from the balconies; but it was such fun that I 
 know I used to stand for hours at my bal- 
 cony with pails of water which I poured upon 
 every pedestrian who was so unwary as to 
 pass under the window, and as I was con- 
 cealed behind a lattice, I could do it with 
 impunity. No woman dared venture into the 
 streets during those days. Sometimes the 
 young men of one's acquaintance would man- 
 age to get into the house and retaliate, and 
 then we were not spared.
 
 PERU 49 
 
 The Story of the Nun 
 
 It was at Dona Ignacia's house that I saw 
 the young girl who was the descendant of the 
 nun who escaped from her convent with a 
 Scotch doctor. I told the story to Marion 
 Crawford, and from it he wrote his novel of 
 "Casa Braccio." 
 
 I will write the story as I told it to him, 
 and which he said was the only story that 
 had ever been told him that he could use. 
 
 I went one evening to Dona Ignacia's ter- 
 tulia and was much struck by the appearance 
 of a young lady I had never seen there before, 
 and whose personality was in strong contrast to 
 that of the dark Spanish girls, as she had a very 
 fair complexion and red hair, was dressed very 
 simplj^ in white, and with a superb parure of 
 emeralds around her neck. I asked my old 
 friend Don Juan Tavera who she was. ^^She 
 is a Scotch relative of Dona Ignacia's," he 
 repHed. "Thereby hangs a very interesting 
 story; I will go to see you to-morrow and tell 
 it to you." Accordingly, the next day he 
 appeared, and after being provided with a 
 cigar, and a glass of lemonade by his side, he 
 proceeded to tell me the following story:
 
 50 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 In the colonial days before the Independence, 
 there lived in Arequipa a very powerful family 
 named Goyos. They possessed great landed 
 estates and rich mines which they had inherited 
 from their ancestors, who were among the 
 conquerors, and they wielded great power in 
 both Church and State. At the time of the 
 incident I am about to relate, the heads of 
 the family were tv/o brothers; the elder owned 
 and managed the property, the younger was 
 a Bishop and ruled the Church. The elder 
 was a widower with two children, a son and 
 a daughter. The great convent of Nuestra 
 Senora de los Dolores, founded and richly en- 
 dowed by the family, always had one of its 
 members as Abbess, and at that time the 
 brothers' only sister was the Abbess, It will 
 be seen, therefore, that the family was the 
 great power in Arequipa, and the chief object 
 in life of the brothers and sister was to pre- 
 serve their supremacy. For this object they 
 decided that the young daughter, Dolores, 
 should enter the convent and eventually suc- 
 ceed her aunt as Abbess, while her brother 
 should marry and inherit the estates, and a 
 young priest, one of their relations, would 
 inherit the bishopric. Dona Dolores had 
 no vocation for a religious life, and rebelled
 
 PERU 61 
 
 against the fate proposed for her; but the 
 father and uncle were inexorable, and after a 
 vain struggle she was forced to yield, accepted 
 her fate and took the veil. Her aunt felt sym- 
 pathy for the poor girl; perhaps she had been 
 through the same experience, for she made 
 Sister Dolores' religious duties as light as pos- 
 sible, allowed her to lead the choir (as she 
 had a fine voice) and gave her the business of 
 the convent to attend to. Embroidery was 
 one of the industries of the nuns, especially 
 that on linen, the designs for which were 
 brought from Spain; and to supervise this 
 work and to take care of it was one of Dolores' 
 chief pleasures. She always sent it to the 
 laundry herself, received it when it was re- 
 turned, laid it carefully in the presses per- 
 fumed with jasmine flowers, and the laundress 
 was the only woman from the outside world 
 with whom she had any intercourse, except 
 her family. The laundress happened to be 
 very intelligent and gave her all the news she 
 ever obtained of the world beyond the con- 
 vent walls. 
 
 Time passed, and Dolores had been about 
 five years in the convent when her aunt 
 fell ill, and all the nostrums at the disposal 
 of the nuns failed to help her. She grew
 
 52 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 worse and worse, and they were proposing 
 to give her the last offices of the Church, 
 when the laundress suggested to Sister Dolores 
 that the great Scotch doctor who had come 
 to Arequipa should be consulted. To con- 
 sult a man and a heretic! Such an idea 
 could not be entertained for a moment. But 
 the laundress was so insistent that the Bishop 
 was consulted, and he was induced to con- 
 sent; but the patient refused to allow the 
 doctor to feel her pulse or look at her tongue, 
 or even to see her. Sister Dolores, closely 
 veiled, could describe the s3niiptoms, and then 
 the doctor could prescribe. Although the doc- 
 tor said that an opinion under such circum- 
 stances was of no value, he consented, as such 
 a case was an unusual experience. Accord- 
 ingly, at the appointed time, he presented 
 himself at the convent gate, under the guid- 
 ance of the laundress, and was taken to the 
 antechamber of the Abbess' apartment — for a 
 great lady of the Abbess' distinction did not 
 sleep in a cell. He was received by Sister 
 Dolores, who was closely veiled. She told 
 him her aunt's symptoms, and he asked her 
 if she could count the pulse. ''No, I have 
 never tried," she replied. ''If you will place 
 your fingers on my wrist, I will teach you,"
 
 PERU 53 
 
 he said. Timidly she did so. "Count," he 
 said, and he was thrilled by the music of her 
 voice. He probably prolonged the lesson un- 
 necessarily, for she said at last: "I under- 
 stand perfectly; I will go now and count my 
 aunt's pulse." She returned presently, with 
 a written report. During her absence the 
 doctor made inquiries of the laundress in re- 
 gard to the Abbess' symptoms, and decided 
 that the old lady was suffering from cancer, 
 and had not long to live; but Sister Dolores 
 had made too profound an impression for him 
 to give up the case, so he prescribed some 
 soothing remedies, and offered to return in the 
 morning. These visits continued for several 
 days, until finally he succeeded in seeing Sister 
 Dolores' beautiful face. The laundress could 
 not always be in attendance, and the narcotics 
 dulled the vigilance of the Abbess. Finally the 
 doctor realized that his patient's days w^ere 
 numbered, and then his work would be over. 
 There was no time to lose. I pass over 
 the conscientious scruples of Sister Dolores; 
 love as usual won the day, and she promised 
 to fly with her lover after her aunt had 
 passed away. 
 
 The plot for escape was ingenious. The 
 convent was built of stone, and the sisters'
 
 54 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 cells were arched like casements, the only- 
 wood about them being the doors. The 
 doctor obtained a skeleton from the hos- 
 pital, which he conveyed to the laundress' 
 house, and placed it in the large basket in 
 which she conveyed the linen to the convent. 
 The day after the Abbess' funeral, which was 
 conducted with great pomp, the laundress 
 carried her basket to the convent and con- 
 cealed the skeleton in Dolores' bed. That 
 night Dolores set her bed on fire, and in the 
 confusion occasioned by the smoke and alarm 
 she escaped to the street, where the laundress 
 met her and led her to her house. The 
 frightened nuns sought in vain for Dolores; 
 a few bones were found in her cell, which in 
 their ignorance they imagined to be hers. 
 She was accordingly buried with all the 
 honors due to her rank and station, and the 
 family looked for another Abbess among their 
 number. Meanwhile poor Dolores was in a 
 most difficult position. If she were discovered 
 she would be tried for the greatest of crimes; 
 a nun who had been faithless to her vows would 
 be buried alive. Where was she to go? 
 What was she to do? It was impossible to 
 conceal her long in the laundress' house. 
 The doctor implored her to fly with him to
 
 PERU 55 
 
 the coast. Arequipa was about seventy miles 
 inland, over a desert to be passed only on 
 mule or horseback. She recoiled from such 
 a step, and insisted upon trying first to win 
 the pardon and protection of her family. 
 She resolved to throw herself upon the mercy 
 of her uncle, the Bishop, who had always 
 showed much affection for her, and who was 
 all-powerful with the rest of the family. Ac- 
 cordingly, about twilight, wrapped in her 
 mania, which concealed her face and form, 
 she stole into the palace and found her uncle 
 at evening prayer. She threw herself on her 
 knees before him and implored his protection. 
 He thought it was her ghost, for had he not 
 performed the funeral service over her poor 
 remains? When he discovered that it was 
 really she, in flesh and blood, he was horri- 
 fied, and thrust her from him as he would a 
 viper. But she still clung to him and told 
 her story, imploring his mercy and protection. 
 He listened, and finally said: ''Wait a mo- 
 ment," and left the room, returning shortly 
 with a bag which he thrust into her hand, 
 and whispered: ''Take this and fly with your 
 lover to the coast. I will see that you are 
 not followed." She found the doctor with 
 horses at the gate; he took her in his arms and
 
 56 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 rode away, never stopping but to change horses 
 and to eat a Httle food, until they reached the 
 coast, where by great good fortune they found 
 an EngHsh frigate at anchor. They went on 
 board, told the captain their stor}^; he called 
 the chaplain, who did his duty gladly, and 
 soon the happy pair were on their way to 
 England. 
 
 Time passed, the South American colonies 
 became independent of Spain, and Dolores' 
 brother was sent as Minister to England. 
 Before he went, the Bishop told him his sis- 
 ter's story; he had kept the secret until then. 
 He also told him where she was to be found, 
 for through the Church he had watched over 
 her, and he desired her brother to communi- 
 cate with her, which he did. And Dolores 
 was forgiven, and her children and grand- 
 children were recognized and received by 
 their Peruvian relatives. The young girl I 
 saw at Dona Ignacia's was the great-grand- 
 daughter of Sister Dolores, and the emeralds 
 I saw around her neck were in the bag that 
 the Bishop thrust into his niece's hand when 
 he bade her fly for her life. 
 
 One of my favorite recreations during these 
 many feast days was to make up parties and
 
 PERU 57 
 
 ride into the country to dig for pottery in the 
 ancient Peruvian mounds, of which there were 
 several within twenty miles of Lima. Start- 
 ing at daybreak, our delightful pacing horses 
 would bring us to our destination without 
 fatigue, and then the shovels would be brought 
 into use, sometimes with interesting results. 
 During my residence there I acquired a large 
 collection of jars, figures, etc., which would 
 now be very valuable. But as travellers 
 came and admired them, I would give them 
 away, saying that I could always replace 
 them. Finally I got tired of collecting, and 
 by the time I left the country I had none 
 to bring away with me. I was then ignorant 
 of their archaeological interest, as well as the 
 value of the old silver and paintings which I 
 might have acquired for a song; also of the 
 laces made in the convents after the old Span- 
 ish designs; and I shall never cease to regret 
 my ignorance of the rarity and beauty of the 
 Moorish tiles which covered the walls of 
 the convents, and one special opportunity I 
 lost when I might have had given to me the 
 whole tiled wall of a vast court of a convent, 
 on which was represented the life of St. 
 Francis, and which was being demolished in 
 order to build a railway station. Twenty-five
 
 58 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 years after, I paid ten dollars for a single tile 
 and thought it cheap; but in those twenty- 
 five years I had learned a thing or two. 
 
 We hear a great deal nowadays about the 
 simple life, and we see a good many abortive 
 attempts to lead it. The Spanish people did 
 it without knov/ing it. I say Spanish people, 
 for although the Peruvians had become inde- 
 pendent of Spain, they had not changed their 
 traditions or habits. Twenty years after, 
 when I went to Seville, I felt perfectly at 
 home, even to the accent of the language, 
 which was that of Lima. Lima was the seat 
 of the Spanish Viceroy, and he and the repre- 
 sentatives of the mother country lived in 
 great state. The lands were bestowed by the 
 Spanish kings to court favorites, and after 
 the Independence, their descendants main- 
 tained their affiliation with Spain and were 
 proud of their blue blood. There was one old 
 family who boasted of its descent, on the 
 female side, from the daughter of Atahuallpa, 
 the last Peruvian king, murdered by Pizarro, 
 as some of our Virginian families boast of 
 their descent from Pocahontas. 
 
 But I must explain what I mean by the 
 simple life. I was much pleased on one oc- 
 casion to be invited to pass pascua (the
 
 PERU 59 
 
 Easter holidays) at a great hacienda in the 
 south, where I was offered the prospect of 
 some good riding on the finest breed of 
 horses in the country. My husband, who 
 knew the customs, advised me to take a 
 mattress, bed hnen, and whatever personal 
 comforts I might require, but I disregarded 
 his suggestion as an insult to my host and 
 confined my '^comforts" to what I generally 
 carry in my travelling bag. I found the 
 house a vast one-storied structure built around 
 a court. Although in a most fertile province 
 and a perfect climate, there was not a tree, 
 shrub or flow^er in sight. I was ushered into 
 a vast salon, the only furniture some hard 
 divans around the walls and a table in the 
 centre of the room. The dining-room ad- 
 joining had nothing in it but a huge table and 
 some chairs, and on a side-table was a lot of 
 crockery of the most common quality, and 
 piled up at one end were forks and spoons in 
 profusion. I thought they were pewter, they 
 were so black, but learned later that they, 
 with the massive candlesticks, were of silver 
 made by the Indians from the family mines in 
 Potosi long ago. In my bedroom w^as a bed 
 frame; on it was stretched a hide, neither mat- 
 tress nor pillows, sheets nor blankets, and I
 
 60 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 found that my husband was right. The guests 
 were expected to provide their own. On mak- 
 ing known to the hostess my ignorance of the 
 custom, some sheets trimmed with superb 
 lace, Hke that for which we now pay any 
 price from the convents in Spain and Italy, 
 were brought in, and some blankets ; but I was 
 assured by the stout negress who officiated as 
 my maid, that the hide was much cooler and 
 better than a mattress, and so I found it. 
 Her mistress's toilet set of silver (never 
 cleaned) , with which she always travelled, was 
 loaned to me, and with this I managed very 
 well. The food was of the simplest. The 
 bread was brought from Lima. Although 
 hundreds, I may say thousands, of head of 
 cattle roamed over the estate, I never saw a 
 cup of milk nor a bit of butter. Our food was 
 kid and chickens, and the delicious yellow 
 potatoes for which the country is famous and 
 which have never been successfully cultivated 
 elsewhere. The owners of this estate lived in 
 a superb house in Lima, perfectly kept up, 
 made frequent visits to Europe, yet when they 
 went to their country home they lived con- 
 tentedly as I have described it, and that is 
 what I mean by their '^ simple life." 
 
 On the other hand, I got what I went for.
 
 PERU 61 
 
 I have ridden English thoroughbreds and 
 Arabs from the Sultan's stables, but for pure 
 enjoyment nothing ever approached the action 
 of those Peruvian stallions as they galloped 
 over those plains in pursuit of their untamed 
 brethren. Then the young bulls were brought 
 into the ring, and harmless bull fights were 
 improvised for my benefit. They were all 
 destined for the ring in Lima, being of the most 
 famous breed in the country. 
 
 Well, the years rolled on peacefully, the 
 Civil War was over, and we began to think of 
 returning home when a war cloud from an- 
 other quarter darkened our horizon. Spain 
 had never acknowledged the independence of 
 Peru and there arose some questions between 
 the two countries which seemed so impossible 
 to settle that Spain sent out a squadron to en- 
 force her demands. It was difficult for us to 
 believe that she would do this; but one fine 
 day my husband received news through the 
 American Commodore that six Spanish men- 
 of-war were at a short distance down the 
 coast on their way to bombard the forts of 
 Callao (the port of Lima), and he proposed that 
 we should come aboard his ship, the Pow- 
 hatan, as a place of safety, since as in his 
 opinion the Spaniards would probably land and
 
 62 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 destroy the town. A large squadron com- 
 posed of American, English, French and 
 German men-of-war was assembled to watch 
 the Spaniards; and I shall never forget the 
 profound impression which this first sight of a 
 great fleet made upon me as I sat on the deck 
 of the Powhatan, waiting for the arrival of 
 the Spanish ships. The foreign vessels were 
 drawn up in the shape of a half moon to the 
 north of Callao. The Spaniards, about noon, 
 steamed slowly up from the south and opened 
 fire, which was quickly returned by the forts. 
 Our ship was so near that through my opera 
 glass I could see the men at their guns and the 
 ricochets of the ball before it struck the fort. 
 The bombardment lasted six hours, until two 
 Spanish vessels were disabled and the Spanish 
 Admiral wounded; then they retired, not 
 discovering that they had dismounted every 
 gun but one on the fort. The fleet then went 
 south, bombarded the defenseless port of 
 Valparaiso and sailed for Spain, leaving the 
 question unsettled. When, many years after, 
 the Americans were so alarmed at the prospect 
 of the attack on our coast by the Spanish 
 fleet, and the Bostonians were sending their 
 bonds to Worcester, I said : '' Don't be worried. 
 I have seen them. I know them. They
 
 PERU 63 
 
 won't do us an}' harm." The spectacle of the 
 bombardment was thrilling in the extreme. 
 I was so near, I almost felt that I was taking 
 part in the action, and I have never heard of 
 another woman who has been so fortunate as 
 to witness a naval engagement from the deck 
 of a frigate. 
 
 South America is the country of earth- 
 quakes. We always had one or two shocks 
 every month, but they were generally so slight 
 that we learned to disregard them. The one 
 of 1868, however, was so memorable as to dis- 
 turb me even now as I think of it. The 
 country was shaken from the foot of Chile to 
 the centre of Ecuador. The fine town of 
 Arequipa, two hundred miles inland, built of 
 stone, and in the most massive manner, was 
 demolished. As the old Bishop said to me: 
 "I thought the last trump was sounding and 
 the end of the world had come." On the 
 coast, the towns of Arica and Iquique, built of 
 wood, were rent to atoms. The tidal wave 
 which followed the earthquake carried the 
 American iron sloop-of-war Waieree far out to 
 sea, and the return wave threw her back intact, 
 with men and armament, three miles on to the 
 shore, where I saw her a few weeks afterwards. 
 I was sitting in my salon about five p.m. that
 
 G4 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 day, when I was startled by the violent vibra- 
 tion of the glass chandelier. I knew what it 
 meant, and rushed to the great staircase, 
 where I found my husband coming to meet me. 
 We staggered down into the ''patio," to find 
 the whole personnel of the establishment 
 huddled together under the great archway, 
 always considered the safest place. The scene 
 in the street was indescribable: men, women 
 and children on their knees, invoking the pro- 
 tection of their patron saints, the church bells 
 clanging, dogs barking, donkeys braying, and 
 all this in less than a minute. Lima escaped 
 serious damage. Our fine old house, built of 
 adobe bricks, the walls three feet thick, did not 
 suffer seriously, only a few cracks, but farther 
 north the devastation was fearful. A great 
 land owner in Ecuador told me that such was 
 the destruction he could not define the land- 
 marks of his estate. 
 
 I must not omit an amusing experience I had 
 in an attempt to civilize a little savage. 
 There came to Lima a Scotchman who had 
 been knocking about the world all his life, very 
 amusing and, I fancy, as unscrupulous as he 
 was adventurous, but he had the manners and 
 breeding of a man of the world and he was on 
 friendly terms with us. In course of time he
 
 PERU 65 
 
 made a contract with the Peruvian Govern- 
 ment to bring a cargo of the natives of New 
 Caledonia to the Chincha Islands, to load the 
 guano ships. My husband insisted that it was 
 another name for the slave trade and expressed 
 his opinion of such business in no measured 
 terms to Mr. B . As I listened to the dis- 
 cussion, I expressed the wish to have a chance to 
 take a little savage girl and see what I could do 
 
 with her, and Mr. B immediately offered 
 
 to bring me one, and in subsequent talks on 
 the subject I alwaj^s called her '^ Zoe." Months 
 
 passed and Mr. B did not reappear, and I 
 
 had almost forgotten the incident, when one 
 day my husband came in and said : ''Well, my 
 dear, 'Zoe' has come." There was a note in 
 his voice which indicated disgust, as he added: 
 ''Mr. B died on the voyage and the cap- 
 tain of the vessel wishes to know what to do 
 with ' Zoe.' She is almost five years old, is the 
 only female on board, and so far they have 
 never been able to induce her to w^ear any 
 clothing." Imagine my dismay! The cap- 
 tain was sent for. He said Mr. B had told 
 
 him the child w^as mine; that he had tried 
 to tame her, but that she was like a little wild 
 animal. The sailors had made clothes for her, 
 but she would not keep them on, and he added
 
 66 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 gravely, ''Madam, you cannot bring her to 
 this house." I suggested sending her back to 
 her native wilds, but the ship was not going 
 back. I could not induce my husband to give 
 an opinion. He threw the decision upon me 
 and enjoyed my discomfiture. That evening 
 I laid the case before the habitues of the salon. 
 The German shouted and laughed like a boy, 
 and proposed to drown her like a puppy; 
 the clergyman gravely rebuked him, and 
 spoke of her immortal soul; whereupon the 
 South American exclaimed: ''I have it. We 
 will put her in a convent!" This suggestion 
 met with a shout of approval. From time 
 immemorial, in Catholic countries, the con- 
 vents have been the refuges of the feeble- 
 minded and undesirable members of the rich 
 families who have founded them. The nuns 
 take care of the unfortunates, and they pass 
 their days in the peaceful seclusion of the 
 cloisters, performing household duties and 
 embroidering garments for the saints and 
 priests. Our friend's suggestion was received 
 with acclamation and he undertook to make 
 the necessary arrangements. He assured me 
 that the nuns of a very ascetic convent he knew 
 of would welcome the appearance of such an 
 unusual inmate in their monotonous life, and
 
 PERU 67 
 
 SO it proved. ^'Zoe" was induced to put on a 
 chemise and a petticoat, and wrapped in a 
 cloak, she was conveyed to the convent direct 
 from the ship. It was not considered prudent 
 to have her come to my house. She must not 
 know that there was any world beyond the 
 convent, or any people but the nuns, for 
 fear of making her discontented; and so the 
 little savage entered into her new life, and 
 after much tribulation was tamed and civ- 
 ilized and became a good Catholic, and took 
 the veil. 
 
 The Spaniards having departed, we were 
 free to do so as well, and we turned our faces 
 homeward. One does not sever the ties of so 
 many years without a struggle. I had learned 
 to love the country, the people, the language 
 and the life. I had gone there a girl; I was re- 
 turning a mature woman, to commence life 
 again. I was to break up the house of which I 
 had been the centre, to part from the friends 
 who had contributed so greatly to my happi- 
 ness! While I was deploring the prospect be- 
 fore me, the German, who had been to Chile, 
 returned and informed me that he was engaged 
 to be married and should take his wife to 
 Germany. The South American decided to go 
 to New York, and the clergyman declared he
 
 68 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 would not remain without us and that he 
 would return to Ireland. 
 
 And now the second epoch of my life had 
 come to a close, and as I look back upon it I 
 ask myself how could the experience of the past 
 prepare me for what the future had in store 
 for me. I had a serene, happy existence, no 
 anxieties, no sorrow and few serious respon- 
 sibilities. I stepped from girlhood into mar- 
 ried life, and my husband, who was many 
 years my senior, was always indulgent and 
 affectionate. He was not fond of general 
 society, but was most hospitable, so that I 
 always had friends around me, and being the 
 only American woman in Lima, I was the 
 centre of a little circle both interesting and in- 
 spiring. During all those years the family 
 circle at home remained unbroken. Sickness 
 and death had not approached them and I 
 could not foresee that during the next ten 
 years I was to part from husband, parents and 
 sisters, as well as several of my sister's children. 
 It was with a sad heart that I bade good-bye 
 to Peru, to our many friends and to the 
 beautiful, stately house which had been my 
 home for so long, and sailed for New York, in 
 April, 1869 — to start a new home in our native 
 land after an absence of nearly ten years.
 
 FAMILY AND FRIENDS 
 
 1869 
 
 ON our arrival in New York, we first went 
 to the house of my brother-in-law, J\lr. 
 Levi P. Morton, where my dear parents and my 
 sister Caroline and her husband. Col. Richard 
 G. Lay, and my youngest sister, Fanny, came 
 to welcome us. Caroline's marriage had 
 taken place during my absence, and she had 
 been following her soldier husband from post 
 to post with her children since the close of 
 the war. She had all the vivacity and pluck 
 at that time which she has displayed ever 
 since in the circumstances of a varied life, 
 and has brought up a family of children who 
 have not done us discredit. 
 
 My sister, Fanny, was perhaps the most 
 naturally gifted of us all. An accident to her 
 hip confined her to her bed for three years, 
 
 69
 
 70 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 and, in spite of the skill of the best surgeons 
 of that time, she was lame for the rest of her 
 life. 
 
 We passed our first summer in travel, and 
 at Newport. While at Newport, at Mr. 
 Morton's house, I had the pleasure of meet- 
 ing General (then President) Grant and his 
 wife. There was to be a large dinner the 
 evening of their arrival and their luggage 
 did not come. My sister dressed Mrs. Grant 
 in one of her Worth gowns, and the French 
 maid arranged her hair, and such was the 
 transformation that the President exclaimed: 
 ''Why, mother, is this you! I didn't know 
 you." I did not find the President taciturn 
 and unresponsive to social amenities. 
 
 With him was his aide-de-camp, General 
 Porter, who, after a distinguished career in 
 the army, has filled several important posts, 
 among them Ambassador to France, and is 
 now one of our most honored and distin- 
 guished citizens. He is, I am happy to say, 
 one of my most intimate and valued friends. 
 It was during this visit of the President that 
 the project of Mr. Morton's entrance into 
 public life crystaUized and he became one of 
 General Grant's strong supporters. 
 
 I failed to feel at home that summer at
 
 FAMILY AND FRIENDS 71 
 
 Newport, and was glad to go with my hus- 
 band to New York in the early autumn to 
 look for a house for ourselves and get set- 
 tled. My father and mother were kind 
 enough to come to us, so that winter a house- 
 hold was formed without delay and the new 
 life commenced. 
 
 I wish here to speak of my parents. My 
 dear mother died in 1876, a terrible loss to 
 me. We were always absolutely congenial. 
 She never failed to write to me once a week 
 during my long absence in South America, 
 so that the tie between us had never been 
 strained. She took the deepest interest in 
 public matters, was a great reader, a most 
 agreeable talker, of gracious manners, and 
 popular with old and young. I have never 
 met anyone who combined the intellectual 
 and practical qualities more absolutely than 
 she. She superintended the affairs of a large 
 family calmly and without friction, and at the 
 same time followed the course of politics and 
 Uterature with keen interest. 
 
 My dear father died a few years after her, 
 at the ripe age of eighty-two. For several 
 years before his death he occupied his leisure 
 by writing a metrical version of the New 
 Testament, which I have always thought
 
 72 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 should have been introduced into the Sun- 
 day schools, as the rhyme would impress the 
 text upon the minds of the young who could 
 thus memorize it. My father was one of the 
 early abolitionists. I remember the story 
 told me when I was a child, that he came 
 home from a missionary conference on one 
 occasion and told my mother that he had 
 invited a colored clergyman to dinner. He 
 explained that the presiding officer had asked 
 the residents of the to^\Ti to offer hospitality 
 to the visiting brethren. All were invited 
 but one, and the question was asked: "Who 
 will invite our colored brother?" and my 
 father stepped forward and did so. He 
 ovvTied he felt a little nervous as he made the 
 confession, but my mother made no objec- 
 tion. They waited some time and the visitor 
 did not appear, so they ate their dinner and 
 he came in later and apologized, saying that 
 he was "unavoidably detained." So the 
 colored problem commenced to be agitated 
 in my family and was settled, so far as we 
 were concerned, over seventy years ago. 
 
 My father was much in advance of his 
 time, and deeply interested in two subjects 
 which are much in the foreground at the 
 present day — scientific agriculture and pop-
 
 FAMILY AND FRIENDS 73 
 
 ular education. During my childhood, I 
 watched the planting of trees, the experiments 
 in propagation of plants and fruits on the 
 Long Island farm, so that I was uncon- 
 sciously prepared to appreciate later Bur- 
 bank's wonderful discoveries and Gifford 
 Pinchot's efforts to save our forests and 
 streams. My father defended the cause of 
 coeducation, and always deplored that he 
 had no boys to bring up with his girls and, 
 if my mother would have consented, he 
 would have had us trained in a college course; 
 but she protested that she wished us to have 
 feminine attainments only, to marry early, 
 and she had her wish, for four of her daughters 
 married before they were twenty-one. 
 
 To return to New York. My first year at 
 home was uneventful. I felt a stranger. I 
 even spoke English with a Spanish accent, 
 and my father used to threaten to tie my 
 hands, I gesticulated so much. My sister, 
 ]\Iary, was in Russia with her husband, and 
 I missed her greatly. 
 
 Fortunately for me, the dear friend of my 
 childhood, Aline Woodworth, returned from 
 Europe at this time, a widow with her infant 
 daughter, and we took up our old intimacy, 
 which has never since been interrupted. I
 
 74 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 am very sure that no one ever knew this 
 rare woman but to love and praise her, a 
 gentlewoman in every sense, intellectual, gen- 
 erous and gracious. Thank God! she still 
 lives and is still my dear friend. 
 
 I suppose it is because I have never had 
 children that my friends have been so much 
 to me, have filled such an important part in 
 my life. Other people have loved their friends 
 as deeply, but have not had the time to give 
 to friendship that I have had. Since my 
 widowhood I have made long visits to my 
 friends : at their country places on the Hudson, 
 in Lenox and Bar Harbor, and in their city 
 homes. And they have come to me, in Wash- 
 ington, where their visits, with the many things 
 we have done together and the many interest- 
 ing people we have seen, have been and are 
 among my chief pleasures. 
 
 But now I am recalhng my life in New York, 
 and my friends there. I always associate 
 Mr. and Mrs. William T. Blodgett with their 
 New York City home, and with the boundless 
 hospitality, courtesy and broad interests which 
 were always to be'found under that roof. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Blodgett were tall and handsome, 
 and I always think of her as a ''grande dame," 
 in her dignity, and simple, charming manners.
 
 FAMILY AND FRIENDS 75 
 
 Their tastes were artistic, and Mr. Blodgett's 
 picture gallery was one of the first private 
 galleries in New York to be shown to the 
 public. Very beautiful pictures he had. They 
 are now, for the most part, scattered; but 
 among the choicest are those which have been 
 given to the Metropolitan ^luseum of Art 
 by Mr. and Miss Blodgett in memory of their 
 parents. Eleanor Blodgett I have known since 
 she was a child, and she is one of the dear 
 young friends of my later years. At one time 
 we worked together on the same commit- 
 tee for ''First Aid to the Injured"; but I 
 associate her more especially with her love 
 for beautiful things, her social gifts, her 
 hospitality, her sympathy with all in trouble, 
 her great kindness to many. 
 
 Another friend who will appear often in 
 this history is Virginia Osborn.* How can 
 I describe her? She always seemed to me 
 made of different clay from the rest of 
 us. We sat side by side at Mr. Tappan's 
 school, and the very first association I have 
 with her is hearing her recite Hood's ''Song 
 of the Shirt." Now that I recall the poem 
 (which so impressed me then), I feel that 
 it may have been one of the memorable 
 
 * The late Mrs. William Henrj^ Osborn.
 
 76 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 moments of her life, leading her heart in 
 sympathy towards human sorrow which, dur- 
 ing her long life, it was her chief joy to alle- 
 viate. The child of wealthy parents and the 
 wife of a man of importance and large for- 
 tune, Virginia Osborn cared for money only 
 as a means of doing good, never spending it 
 on herself, but recognizing not only the wants 
 of the poor but the tastes of the rich, and 
 taking pleasure in satisfying both. We were 
 intimate and devoted friends until her death, 
 five years ago, and I have often thought that 
 there must be more good in me than I sus- 
 pect because Virginia Osborn loved me. Her 
 children and grandchildren are among my 
 nearest and dearest to-day. Her eldest son is 
 one of the world's great scientists, the Presi- 
 dent of the Museum of Natural History in 
 New York City, and one of New York's most 
 influential citizens; her younger son is a 
 lawyer of distinction, a public-spirited citizen 
 and devoted to philanthropic work.
 
 VI 
 
 THE FOUNDING OF THE BELLEVUE 
 TRAINING SCHOOL FOR NURSES 
 
 May 1, 1873 
 
 IT was in 1872 that my friend, Mrs. Osborn, 
 invited me to accompany her to a meet- 
 ing to be held at the house of Miss Louisa Lee 
 Schuyler. She did not tell me its object, 
 merely saying that she thought it might be 
 interesting. I was at that time in deep 
 mourning for my sister, Mrs. Morton, very 
 sad, and not yet accustomed to the change 
 which the return to my own country had 
 made after so many years of absence. I 
 think Mrs. Osborn suspected this, and wished 
 to draw me into some occupation which would 
 interest me. If that was her object she suc- 
 ceeded, for my attendance at that meeting in 
 New York, on the 26th of January, 1872, was 
 an era in my life. It opened before me new 
 and absorbing interests, philanthropic and in-
 
 78 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 tellectual, and the friendships which I formed 
 at that time have continued to this day. 
 
 Before proceeding with my story, I must 
 say something of Miss Schuyler, to whose 
 influence and example I am so deeply in- 
 debted. She is the direct descendant of 
 Major-General Philip Schuyler of the American 
 Revolution, and also of Alexander Hamilton, 
 and it is needless to say that she does credit 
 to her inheritance. Aside from her remark- 
 able intellectual qualities, she has a heart of 
 gold, a genius for friendship, a fidelity towards 
 those she loves, and a tenderness and consid- 
 eration for suffering and sorrow which never 
 fail, and which inspire such confidence and 
 devotion in others that, in the great works 
 she has planned and carried out, she has 
 always had the most loyal and faithful as- 
 sistance. Her gentleness and good-breeding 
 disarm opposition, while her patient persist- 
 ence always enables her to carry her point. 
 
 Her sister, Georgina, is a charming com- 
 plement to her; gentle, refined, intellectual, 
 musical. I have no greater pleasure, when I 
 am in New York, than to sit with those two 
 sisters, so harmonious in their old-time sur- 
 roundings. And, in this connection, I must 
 say one word about their father, who honored
 
 BELLEVUE TRAINING SCHOOL 79 
 
 me with his friendship. It seems to me, he 
 combined more wit and wisdom than any 
 man I ever knew. Bonnat, who painted his 
 portrait, said to me, ''He must have French 
 blood, otherwise where has he got that subtle 
 wit and quick repartee? I have painted 
 many of your countrymen, but never found 
 such qualities before." Bonnat had probably 
 not before met an American who combined 
 these qualities with ease and fluency in 
 speaking French. Mr. Schuyler's ancestry 
 was Dutch and New England — no French 
 blood. Bonnat also said to me in reference 
 to ]\Iiss Schuyler, whose portrait he had also 
 painted, ''Tell me about your friend; she 
 must be a remarkable woman, her face com- 
 bines such strength and tenderness.". 
 
 At the meeting to which I have referred. 
 Miss Schuyler had assembled a group of ladies 
 who had worked with her during the Civil 
 War. They responded to her call, and she 
 invited them, with others, to join her in 
 forming a Visiting Committee for Bellevue 
 and other public hospitals of the City of New 
 York. Later, she secured legislation which 
 authorized the members of the State Chari- 
 ties Aid Association, which was founded by 
 her, and of which this Visiting Committee
 
 80 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 formed part, to visit all the State and County 
 institutions of Public Charities in the State 
 of New York, for the purpose of reporting 
 their conditions and bringing about reforms. 
 
 I entered the room a perfect stranger; Mrs. 
 Osborn introduced me, and Miss Schuyler in- 
 vited me to take a seat by her side. She 
 stated the object of the meeting, and then, 
 suddenly turning to me, she handed me a 
 pencil and a piece of paper, and asked me to 
 'Hake the minutes." I had never attended 
 a meeting of any kind in my life, and knew 
 no more about 'taking minutes" than a 
 baby! I protested, but smiUng, she said, 
 ''Take note of what you hear as well as you 
 can, and I will help you afterwards." Of 
 course she had to rewrite those minutes, and 
 thus commenced my education in philan- 
 thropy, and inspired by such a teacher I soon 
 became absorbed in the work. 
 
 On the committee which was formed that 
 day to visit and report on the condition of 
 Bellevue Hospital, I found, to my surprise 
 and dismay, that I was appointed Chairman 
 of the Subcommittee to visit the Surgical 
 Wards for Women. I have never to this day 
 understood why I was named chairman of 
 that committee, for a woman more abso-
 
 BELLEVTJE TRAINING SCHOOL 81 
 
 lutcly ignorant of the subject could not have 
 been found on the island of Manhattan. I 
 soon found that the other members of the 
 committee were almost as ignorant as myself. 
 These were: Mrs. Osbom, Mrs. Woodworth, 
 and Mrs. ''Baldy" Smith, the wife of the 
 well-known General who bore that nickname. 
 The whole committee were first to go in a 
 body to the hospital, to be introduced to the 
 authorities. This was done on the following 
 day, when we were escorted through the wards 
 by the Commissioner, General Bowen, and by 
 Mr. Brennan, the stalwart Irish Warden, who 
 was very polite. When I asked him years 
 afterwards how he happened to treat us so 
 well from the beginning, he replied, *'0h, I 
 saw you were all the real thing, and would 
 win out in the end." 
 
 I had never been in a hospital before. On 
 my first visit the sight of the patients and the 
 loathsome smells sickened me so that I nearly 
 fainted and had to leave, but I persevered 
 and returned to my task the next da3\ I 
 looked about and was perplexed; I did not 
 know what specially to look for. While I 
 was standing, confused, and rather embar- 
 rassed, I saw a young doctor looking at me. 
 I went up to him and said, ''I am one of
 
 82 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 the Visiting Committee; will you help me 
 to make my report? I know nothing about 
 hospitals." He replied, '^Look at the beds 
 and the bedding, the clothing of the patients, 
 their unclean condition, and go into the bath- 
 room and see the state of things there; after 
 a while I will come back into the ward, and 
 you follow me without speaking." I did as 
 he bade me. The condition of the patients 
 and the beds was unspeakable; the one 
 nurse slept in the bath-room, and the tub 
 was filled with filthy rubbish. As for the 
 nurse, she was an Irishwoman of a low class, 
 and to her was confided the care of twenty 
 patients, her only assistants being paupers, 
 so-called '4aelpers," women drafted from the 
 workhouse, many of whom had been sent 
 there for intemperance, and those convales- 
 cents who could leave their beds. It was 
 Friday, and the dinner of salt fish was brought 
 in a bag to the ward and emptied on to the 
 table; the convalescents helped themselves, 
 and carried to the others their portions on a 
 tin plate with a spoon. While I was watch- 
 ing this, the young doctor returned, and with- 
 out speaking to him I followed him out of the 
 ward, down a steep staircase, across a yard 
 filled with every kind of rubbish, into a large
 
 BELLEVUE TRAINING SCHOOL 83 
 
 building which proved to be the laundry. 
 Nauseous steam was rising from great caul- 
 drons filled with filthy clothing, which one old 
 pauper was stirring with a stick. I looked 
 about; the hideous masses were piled up all 
 around, but where were the laundresses? 
 There were none, the old man was alone, '' they 
 had gone away," he said. I asked him what 
 soap he used. ''I haven't had any for quite 
 a while," he said. ''How long a while?" said 
 I. ''Oh, I should say a matter of several 
 weeks." In reply to my exclamation of 
 horror, the doctor explained "that it took 
 the Commissioners a good while to supply all 
 the requisitions, meanwhile the hospital had 
 to wait. Now let us cross to the kitchen." 
 A huge negro cook was ladling out soup into 
 great tin basins which the workhouse women 
 were to take up to the wards, and I learned 
 that these same cauldrons were used for the 
 tea and coffee in the morning. Some pauper 
 women were huddled together in a corner, 
 peeling potatoes, and the whole place reeked 
 with the smell of foul steam and food. I had 
 to escape, it was too dreadful! 
 
 When I reached the outer air, my conductor 
 said, "You have only seen the outside; it 
 would take weeks for you to learn all the
 
 84 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 horrors of this place; but don't be discouraged, 
 I will help you all I can. But you must be 
 very careful not to be seen with me, or to 
 quote me, it might cost me my position here.'* 
 "I will come again to-morrow," I replied. 
 
 The days passed. We learned, among 
 other things, that there were no regular night 
 nurses. A man, called a night-watchman, 
 passed through the wards, and if he found a 
 patient very ill or dying he called a young 
 doctor. Occasionally patients were found dead 
 in the morning, who had been overlooked. 
 Rats scampered over the floors at night. In 
 fact, it seemed hopeless to attempt to cleanse 
 that Augean stable. 
 
 One day, on my way home, I stopped at a 
 bookseller's and ordered Miss Nightingale's 
 works and some treatises on hospital manage- 
 ment. These I studied, and with the members 
 of my committee visited the hospital con- 
 stantly. We had learned a great deal in that 
 first month. Miss Nightingale's papers had 
 taught us what was required and what ought 
 not to exist in a hospital. But oh! how low 
 our standards were, how much we had to learn 
 and act up to; certainly in Bellevue, the only 
 hospital I had ever seen, and which, I was 
 told, was the largest pauper hospital in the
 
 BELLEVUE TRAINING SCHOOL 85 
 
 city, with its thirty-two wards and over 800 
 patients. Were all hospitals like this, I 
 wondered ! * 
 
 In this country, at that time, the applica- 
 tion of Lister's use of antiseptics had not been 
 practically carried out, and so little was known 
 about surgical cleanliness that patients died 
 from blood poisoning following the simplest 
 operations, such as amputations of fingers and 
 toes. It was terrible to see young, strong 
 men coming into those Bellevue wards for 
 some small operation, and to find them soon 
 after dying from what I w^as told was ''pj^emia, " 
 a word new to me then, but with which I be- 
 came sadly familiar. 
 
 It will hardly be believed that there was not 
 an antiseptic of an}^ kind in use in the hospital 
 except carbolic acid. The house staff dressed 
 the wounds, going from one patient to another, 
 often carrying infection in spite of precautions 
 used. Sponges for washing the wounds were 
 
 * Had Mrs. Hobson visited the New York Hospital, Saint Luke, 
 Mt. Sinai, and other hospitals of the kind in New York City, 
 governed by enlightened Boards of Managers and supported 
 by endowments and voluntary contributions, she would have 
 found entirely different standards of control and management. 
 The medical staff of Bellevue was of the highest; nothing else. 
 Now, the new Bellevue Hospital, with its present management 
 and Training School for Nurses, ranks with the best in the city. 
 — Editor.
 
 86 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 not cotton, but bits of real sponge, and were 
 used on one patient after another without any 
 disinfection. I could fill pages with anecdotes 
 of suffering and death caused by the careless- 
 ness and ignorance of doctors, nurses and 
 public officials, but, thank God! these are 
 things of the past. The world has certainly 
 improved in humanity, intelligent philan- 
 thropy and scientific knowledge during the 
 last forty years. 
 
 I came across, the other day, Lady Priestly 's 
 account of the condition of Kings College 
 Hospital, London, in 1867, five years before the 
 time of which I am writing, and it corresponds 
 so exactly with the conditions in New York 
 that I will quote it in part, as it shows that 
 what we found at Belle vue was due to ignorance, 
 an ignorance at that time almost universal. 
 Lady Priestly says: ^'Puerperal fever was at 
 that time constantly epidemic in Kings Col- 
 lege Hospital; the lift started in the basement, 
 passed the post-mortem room, then the 
 surgical wards, and then to the maternity. 
 The women on the top floor nearest the lift 
 were invariably the first attacked with puer- 
 peral fever. A Royal Commission decided 
 that the separation of erysipelas and pyemia 
 was quite unnecessary. They advocated mix-
 
 BELLEVUE TRAINING SCHOOL 87 
 
 ing the medical and surgical cases in the same 
 wards, and regretted the formation of operat- 
 ing wards, as it was simply concentrating 
 the mischief arising from acute suppurating 
 wounds. While the Commission admitted 
 that nurses ran certain risks from infection 
 and not infrequently fell victims, still they 
 believed the same thing would happen if the 
 nursing were performed in the open air, or 
 on the summit of a mountain." This amaz- 
 ing opinion was given by one of the most 
 learned bodies of medical men in England, 
 just five years before this committee of the 
 State Charities Aid Association, composed of 
 a group of women, earnest, intelligent, but 
 for the most part ignorant of the task before 
 them, commenced the investigations which 
 resulted in important reforms in hospital 
 management, and the introduction of schools 
 for the training of nurses in the United States. 
 And here I must return to that first meet- 
 ing, in January, when our Visiting Committee 
 was formed. I did not then know that, a few 
 weeks before that meeting at Miss Schuyler's 
 house, she had been over Bellevue Hospital 
 with Mrs. David Lane and Commissioner 
 Bowen, and had come away with the strong 
 conviction that only through radical improve-
 
 88 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 ments in the nursing service could that hospi- 
 tal be redeemed; and that only through the 
 estabhshment of a Training School for Nurses 
 could the needed high standard of nursing be 
 attained, and the patients be properly cared 
 for. It was with this in view that the mem- 
 bership of that committee had been selected. 
 A stronger or more influential committee 
 for the purpose could scarcely have been 
 named in the City of New York. Not then, 
 but later, did I realize what it meant to have 
 seventy-eight earnest, active men and women, 
 representing the very best class of our citizens, 
 of enlightened views, wise benevolence, ex- 
 perience, wealth and social position, all bend- 
 ing their energies to the reformation of that 
 hospital, a hospital, be it remembered, domi- 
 nated by political influences, and only to be 
 regenerated through the force and backing 
 of a powerful pubhc opinion. This, then, was 
 the explanation why so large a committee 
 had been appointed to visit a single hospital, 
 and why upon it had been placed those ex- 
 perienced workers in the hospital service of 
 the U. S. Sanitary Commission during the 
 Civil War.* 
 
 * Among the visitors, I recall Mrs. Lydig M. Hoyt, who, from 
 the day the Committee was formed to the time of her death, in
 
 BELLEVUE TRAINING SCHOOL 89 
 
 At the time of which I write, there were 
 no Training Schools for Nurses in this country, 
 the ''trained nurse" was unknown. To have 
 spoken of what was projected when we first 
 visited the hospital would have been most 
 unwise, would most certainly have antago- 
 nized the authorities, who had, some of them, 
 never even heard of a Training School for 
 Nurses. ''What is it?" one of them asked 
 later. "What kind of a thing is a Training 
 School for Nurses?" As for the visitors, Miss 
 Schuyler's plan was that we were to visit 
 the hospital, to see for ourselves, report on 
 what we saw — the rest would follow. How 
 little I foresaw when the visitors, of whom I 
 was one, were asked to report, first upon clean- 
 liness, next upon diet, and finally upon "the 
 character of the nursing service," what mo- 
 mentous changes were to follow those investi- 
 gations. 
 
 1897, was a constant and most efficient visitor to Bellevue and the 
 Island hospitals; Miss Wisuer, for nearly forty years a devoted 
 and able visitor; Miss Rosalie Butler, Secretary of the Committee 
 from its organization until her death in 1892; Mrs. John A. 
 Swett and Mrs. Hartman Kuhn, afterwards managers of the 
 Training School; Mrs. Alfred Pell, who, from taking reading matter 
 to her Bellevue ward, became the founder of the " Hospital Book 
 and Newspaper Society"; Mrs. A. G. Norwood, Mrs. William 
 E. Dodge, Mrs. Edward Curtis, Mr. Samuel B. Lawrence and 
 many others.
 
 90 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 The time had come when my committee 
 was to make its first monthly report to the 
 full committee, of which Mrs. David Lane 
 was chairman. I wrote it as well as I could. 
 Then I met Dr. Gill Wylie (for that w^as the 
 name of my friend) at the office of Dr. James 
 Wood, and they went over and revised it. 
 After that I called my committee together 
 and they read and approved it. Then we 
 were ready, and we w^ent to the meeting. 
 
 How well I remember that day! It so 
 happened that the reports of the other four 
 Standing Committees were read first, and 
 when I listened to the accounts of the good 
 work w^hich had been done among the sick, 
 the comforts that had been dispensed, the 
 jellies and dainties distributed to the sick and 
 dying, my heart sank within me. I had done 
 none of these things; I had nothing but hor- 
 rors to relate ; and when the moment came to 
 read my report my voice trembled and I could 
 hardly stand. But, strengthened by the whis- 
 pered encouragement of my two friends who 
 sat beside me, I took courage, and as I pro- 
 ceeded I was conscious of a sympathetic 
 atmosphere, and when I sat down there was 
 a buzz which was almost applause. Mrs. 
 Lane rose: "Ladies, you have heard this
 
 BELLEVUE TRAINING SCHOOL 91 
 
 most interesting and important report; is it 
 your pleasure that it be accepted? " "I move 
 it be accepted as read, and sent to the Com- 
 missioners of Charities and Correction, and 
 that a special committee be appointed to 
 confer with them on the condition of the hos- 
 pital," said one of the ladies. The motion 
 was carried unanimously; and from that day 
 commenced the fight with public authorities 
 and doctors for hospital reform in the City of 
 New York. 
 
 Strange to say, doctors were our chief an- 
 tagonists, the doctors of the Bellevue Hos- 
 pital Medical Board. Not all of them, by 
 any means, but enough to hamper and hinder 
 and add greatly to our difficulties. The 
 "conservative doctors '* were especially try- 
 ing. ''We were ignorant women interfering 
 with what was none of our business." And 
 when we tried to improve the nursing service, 
 "they preferred nurses who would do as they 
 were told"; the intelligent, educated women 
 we proposed to introduce " would not be amen- 
 able to discipline," and they were "utterly 
 opposed to our interference." I will not here 
 mention the names of our opponents; most of 
 them have gone to their account, and many 
 realized their mistake and acknowledged it
 
 92 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 before they went; but our friends should 
 never be forgotten, and their names should be 
 recorded in letters of gold over the doors of 
 the new Bellevue Hospital: Dr. James R. 
 Wood, Dr. Stephen Smith, Dr. Austin Flint, 
 Dr. Thomas M. Markoe, Dr. W. Gill Wylie. 
 These men helped us, defended us, fought the 
 battle of reform with us for many years. 
 
 I hasten also to acknowledge our indebted- 
 ness to the House staff of Bellevue, those young 
 physicians and surgeons who, at personal risk 
 to themselves, gave us full support. Indeed, 
 one of them, Dr. Ernest W. Gushing, of Boston, 
 was dismissed from the hospital on this ac- 
 count; while Dr. Kinnicutt, in whose room in 
 the hospital the meeting of protest was held, 
 told me lately that he also would have been 
 dismissed were it not that he was obliged to 
 leave the hospital at that time owing to illness. 
 Meanwhile, through all these years, and 
 while he was in office, General Bowen, Presi- 
 dent of the Board, and the only Gommissioner 
 on the Board of Gharities who was with us, 
 stood our friend, and told us to ''go ahead." 
 
 We had now visited the hospital for three 
 months, and we knew what we wanted. What 
 we wanted was a Training School for Nurses 
 at Bellevue Hospital, formed on the lines of
 
 BELLEVUE TRAINING SCHOOL 93 
 
 Miss Nightingale's Training School at St. 
 Thomas' Hospital, London. The entire Visit- 
 ing Committee wanted it; there was not a 
 dissenting voice. This was in April, 1872. 
 
 First of all, it was necessary to get the con- 
 sent of the Commissioners of Charities, and 
 Mrs. Lane and Miss Schuyler were deputed 
 to confer with Commissioner Bowen and lay 
 the project before him, before making formal 
 application to the Board. General Bowen 
 received the proposition favorably, and prom- 
 ised to advocate it with his colleagues and 
 with the Medical Board. But he frankly said 
 that he could not undertake to get an appro- 
 priation for the School. He was assured that 
 if we were allowed to have charge of the nurs- 
 ing of three or five wards, and they would pay 
 over to us what it cost them, we would meet 
 the additional expense; and this was agreed to. 
 
 Then followed a period of suspense. No 
 notice was taken of our application, and 
 the summer was passing. But although we 
 chafed under the delaj^ it was not time wasted. 
 I had been appointed Chairman of the Hos- 
 pital Committee of the State Charities Aid 
 Association, to which was assigned the duty 
 of preparing a plan for the organization of the 
 School. Of course the first thing to do was to
 
 94 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 learn exactly how the work of such a training 
 school should be conducted. Dr. Wylie, a 
 member of the Hospital Committee, offered 
 to go to England, at his own expense, and get 
 the practical information we needed, while 
 others studied at home. Dr. Wylie spent three 
 weeks in St. Thomas' Hospital, with every 
 facility placed at his disposal. He put him- 
 self in communication with Miss Nightingale, 
 who wrote him a long letter stating the 
 fundamental principles of the management of 
 a training school, and wishing us '' God speed !" 
 in our work. This letter we have always 
 regarded as the Constitution of our School. 
 
 In September, negotiations with the Medical 
 Board were reopened by the Hospital Commit- 
 tee of the Association, which submitted its 
 plan for the School. The plan received the 
 approval of the Medical Board, and, through 
 General Bowen, the reluctant consent of the 
 Commissioners. We were free to act. 
 
 As soon as the consent of the Commis- 
 sioners was obtained, in September, 1872, I 
 prepared a pamphlet in which Miss Nightin- 
 gale's letter was inserted, extracts from Dr. 
 Wylie's report given, the plan of our School 
 described, and an appeal made to the public for 
 funds to establish the School. (S.C.A.A. Pub.
 
 BELLEVUE TRAINING SCHOOL 95 
 
 No. 1, 1872.) Within six weeks over $23,000 
 had been subscribed and we felt encouraged.* 
 It is a pleasure to be able to state here that 
 the medical profession of the City of New 
 York, as a whole, gave us generous and hearty 
 support. I hold in my hand a yellow, time- 
 worn leaflet, printed in January, 1873, thirty- 
 eight years ago, signed by the eminent physi- 
 cians and surgeons whose names are appended, 
 and which reads as follows: ''Having long felt 
 the great necessity for trained, intelligent 
 
 * The Special Committee which drafted the plan for the organi- 
 zation of the first Training School for Nurses in this country waa 
 appointed, in 1872, by the State Charities Aid Association, as 
 follows: 
 
 Mrs. WiUiam H. Osbom, Chairman 
 
 Mrs. Robert Woodworth, Secretary 
 
 Mr. Henry G. Stebbins, Treasurer 
 
 Mrs. WiUiam Preston GrifEn 
 
 Mrs. d'Oremieulx 
 
 Miss Abby Howland Woolsey 
 
 Mrs. Joseph Hobson 
 
 Miss Ellen Collins 
 
 Miss Juha Gould 
 
 Dr. W. Gill Wyhe 
 
 Mr. Chandler Robbing. 
 
 The same officers, and the names of Mrs. Griffin, Mrs. Hobson 
 and Miss Woolsey, appear again on the Committee of the Bellevue 
 Visiting Committee which organized and managed the School 
 during the first nine months after it was opened, May 1, 1873, 
 and on its first Board of Managers after the incorporation of 
 the School, in February, 1874. The connection with the State 
 Charities Aid Association was then severed, but the School con- 
 tinues to report annually to the Association. — Editor.
 
 96 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 nurses, we hail with pleasure the project of 
 establishing a Training School for Nurses 
 in this country. The plans prepared meet 
 with our hearty approval, and we trust the 
 public will contribute promptly and liberally 
 to a cause which will benefit all classes in the 
 community." * 
 
 A year later the Bellevue Medical Board 
 adopted resolutions much to the same effect. 
 
 We had promised to open our School on the 
 first day of May, but the first of February 
 arrived and, in spite of our efforts, we had 
 obtained no trained superintendent (which 
 Miss Nightingale had said was indispensable) 
 
 *This was signed by: 
 
 Chaa. M. AlUn, M. D. John T. Metcalfe, M. D. 
 
 C. R. Agnew, M. D. T. M. Markoe, M. D. 
 
 Gordon Buck, M. D. E. E. Marcy, M. D. 
 
 John G. Curtis, M. D. F. N. Otis, M. D. 
 
 A. Clark, M. D. W. M. Polk, M. D. 
 
 John J. Crane, M. D. Geo. A. Peters, M. D. 
 
 A. Du Bois, M. D. Willard Parker, M. D. 
 
 Edward Delafield, M. D. E. R. Peaslee, M. D. 
 
 Francis Delafield, M. D. H. B. Sands, M. D. 
 
 W. H. Draper, M. D. E. C. Seguin, M. D. 
 
 Wm. Detmold, M. D. John O. Stone, M. D. 
 
 Matt. B. Du Bois, M. D. T. Gaillard Thomas, M. D. 
 
 Thos. Addis Emmet, M. D. WiUiam H. Van Buren, M. D, 
 
 Austin FHnt, M. D. R. F. Weir, M. D. 
 
 John F. Gray, M. D. Geo. G. Wheelock, M. D. 
 
 Wm. W. Jones, M. D. L. de Forest Woodruff, M. D. 
 
 Fordyce Barker, M. D. J. R. Wood, M. D. 
 
 New York, January, 1873.
 
 BELLEVUE TRAINING SCHOOL 97 
 
 and no pupils. We could find no woman in the 
 country with the qualifications Miss Night- 
 ingale required; the only nurses to be had 
 were the ordinary monthly nurses; and as for 
 pupils, the applicants seemed very unsatis- 
 factory. We issued a circular letter through 
 the country districts inviting applications; 
 finally experience taught us that when the 
 applicant called the school a ''vineyard" to 
 decline to receive her. 
 
 We had hired a house near the hospital as 
 a nurses' home, for we determined that our 
 nurses should have comfortable quarters when 
 off duty, and good food; and we finally suc- 
 ceeded in securing a certain number of 
 pupils, and several respectable middle-aged 
 women for head nurses who had had some 
 hospital experience. But in vain had we 
 searched for an experienced superintendent. 
 How could we enter that hospital, with its 
 hostile influences, without a woman of char- 
 acter and knowledge to introduce our reforms 
 and teach our nurses? Time passed, the first 
 of April came, I was in despair, and expressed 
 my anxiety to Mrs. Osborn. ''I don't de- 
 spair," she said. ''I have so prayed for the 
 success of this work, and I have such faith in 
 it, that I shall make that superintendent's
 
 98 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 bed, confident that she will come to occupy 
 it." 
 
 A few days after this conversation, my 
 servant announced that a person who looked 
 like a Sister of Charity wished to see me. A 
 woman, with a most rigid conventual garb, 
 entered the room. At first sight she was very 
 unprepossessing, but she spoke, and the beau- 
 tifully trained English voice dispelled the 
 unpleasant impression. "I am told you are 
 establishing a Training School for Nurses 
 in New York; I have had some experience 
 in that work, and as I am free to remain 
 a while in the United States, I shall be glad if 
 I can be of any service to you." I held my 
 breath; was not this the answer to Mrs. 
 Osborn's prayer? My visitor proved to be 
 Sister Helen, of the All Saints' Sisterhood 
 (Protestant), which had charge of the nursing 
 of University College Hospital, London. She 
 had been sent to Baltimore to establish a 
 Sisterhood there, and had a leave of absence, 
 which gave her the time she offered to us. 
 After a long conversation I made up my mind 
 that her experience would be invaluable to us, 
 especially as she had been in charge at one 
 time of a workhouse hospital in the North 
 of England, the conditions of which corre-
 
 BELLEVUE TRAINING SCHOOL «9 
 
 spondcd to ours. I asked her to meet our 
 Committee the next day; meanwhile I tele- 
 graphed to Baltimore for information to cor- 
 roborate her statements. The reply was 
 satisfactory in regard to her ability and expe- 
 rience, but " she had a temper." It struck me 
 that in that hospital ''a temper" might be a 
 desirable quality at times; at all events the 
 ability and experience were what we needed, 
 and the result proved that she was just the 
 person we required ; and she laid in that bed 
 which my friend had made for her, three years. 
 The severe conventual garb of black serge, 
 the close coiffe and veil, the crucifix at her 
 side, and the calm commanding manner, im- 
 posed obedience upon patients who were 
 mostly Roman CathoHcs, and commanded 
 respect from doctors and attendants. Her 
 knowledge of '^hospital poHtics," of which we 
 were absolutely ignorant, proved invaluable in 
 her intercourse with the hospital authorities. 
 Sister Helen was not very popular with all 
 the members of the committee, but I always 
 Uked her; her masterful ways interested me; 
 she seemed like a Lady Abbess controlling her 
 novices, and she controlled us as well, until 
 finally we had learned to stand on our feet, 
 and then we parted on friendly terms.
 
 100 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 As was promised, we opened the School on 
 the first day of May, 1873, with three wards, 
 and the reformation and purification began. 
 Sister Helen's experience was our salvation, 
 and that summer she fought hard and kept 
 the School alive by her energy and tact, and 
 the respect her knowledge inspired among the 
 House staff. By autumn the results began 
 to tell in the care of the patients and in the 
 improved condition of the wards. During the 
 following winter we were asked to take charge 
 of two more wards, and by the end of a year we 
 were able to discharge our monthly nurses and 
 place our best pupils in their places. Applica- 
 tions from pupils commenced to pour in, and, 
 in spite of difficult questions which constantly 
 arose, we felt that success was before us.* 
 
 One of our difficulties, in the fight of to-day, 
 is amusing. Early in the work we decided 
 that a uniform v.'as necessary, but, to our 
 surprise, great opposition was expressed by 
 the pupils; they objected to a ''livery." 
 Among our pupils was Miss Euphemia Van 
 Rensselaer, belonging to the distinguished 
 family of that name, who, learning of our 
 dilemma, offered to try to solve it for us. She 
 
 * Beginning with six pupils, the School now (1911) numbers 
 913 graduates.
 
 BELLEVUE TRAINING SCHOOL 101 
 
 asked for two days' holiday, and, when she 
 returned to the hospital, she was dressed in a 
 blue and white ''seersucker" dress, white 
 apron, collar and cuffs, and a very becoming 
 cap. She was very handsome, and gave an 
 air of distinction to the simple costume. With- 
 in a week every nurse had adopted it, and it 
 has been the uniform of the Bellevue School 
 ever since. Another instance is typical of Miss 
 Van Rensselaer's character and influence. 
 When we took charge there was not a screen in 
 the hospital, no privacy whatever for sick or 
 dying. Of course we remedied that, but we 
 also discovered that the female patients were 
 taken to the amphitheatre for operations 
 before all the students, unassisted and unpro- 
 tected by the presence of a nurse. We felt 
 that this could not be allowed from our wards, 
 and I consulted a friendly surgeon, Dr. Cros- 
 by. He said he should be delighted to have a 
 nurse attend his patients, but, he added: 
 ''medical students are a rough lot, and they 
 may make it unpleasant for the nurses." 
 Again Miss Van Rensselaer stepped into the 
 breach. "I will go with the patient and take 
 
 Miss B with me ; I am not afraid." The day 
 
 came and I went to the hospital to await the 
 result. I saw the patient carried out, fol-
 
 102 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 lowed by two nurses. It was an anxious 
 moment. To have had those nurses insulted 
 by jeers and howls, and perhaps forced to re- 
 tire, would have been very serious, and it was 
 quite possible. Nearly an hour passed ; finally 
 I heard the students thundering down the 
 stairs. I waited anxiously until I could see 
 Dr. Crosby, and rushed to meet him. His 
 face beaming with smiles, he extended both 
 hands: "Their presence was a benediction; I 
 never had a more successful operation, and the 
 students were as quiet as if they were in a 
 church ! " he exclaimed. Miss Van Rensselaer 
 told me later that the theatre was crowded, 
 and when they entered with the patient there 
 was a faint murmur as if in surprise. It 
 ceased, and during the operation the order was 
 absolute. From that day to this, no female 
 patient has been unattended. Miss Van 
 Rensselaer succeeded Sister Helen as Super- 
 intendent; and later joined a sisterhood, and 
 is now known as Sister Dolores, a noble woman 
 whose life has been consecrated to the sick and 
 helpless. 
 
 As I write, anecdotes crowd upon my mind. 
 We progressed slowly, month by month, meet- 
 ing our difficulties as they arose and acquiring 
 knowledge by experience.
 
 BELLEVUE TRAINING SCHOOL 103 
 
 Owing to Mrs. Lane's illness, we had been 
 obliged, much to our regret, to accept her 
 resignation as President of the Visiting Com- 
 mittee. I had become her successor, and it 
 was then, in February of 1874, that our 
 visitors reported great mortality in the 
 maternity wards, situated on the upper floor 
 of the hospital. We had no nurses there and 
 knew nothing about their management. We 
 consulted Sister Helen, who said she could 
 spare a head nurse and some pupils to take 
 charge of those wards, and she also thought it 
 very desirable that our pupils should have 
 this additional training. Accordingly we made 
 application to the Medical Board to allow this 
 extension of the School, and received an invi- 
 tation from the Board to confer on the sub- 
 ject. Mrs. Griffin, Mrs. Osborn, Mrs. Wood- 
 worth and I were appointed to attend the 
 conference. It is now thirty-seven years 
 ago, but the incidents of that conference are 
 burnt into my memory. W^e found a number 
 
 of the doctors present, among them Dr. X , 
 
 who acted as their spokesman, and our friend. 
 Dr. Wood. The secretary read our letter, 
 in which we offered to take charge of the 
 
 obstetrical wards, and then Dr. X in the 
 
 most vehement manner denounced us as spies
 
 104 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 proposing to interfere with the management 
 of the hospital, and declared that, if we persist- 
 ed in our plan, we should have our Training 
 School closed. Dr. Wood, much agitated, 
 walked up and down the room, trying to speak 
 for us and calm his colleague, but the others 
 
 were evidently in sympathy with Dr. X 
 
 and plied us with questions in regard to our 
 plans and intentions which bewildered us. 
 There we were, a group of women who had been 
 working heart and soul for over two years for 
 the benefit of that hospital, and here were 
 some of the most distinguished doctors in 
 New York treating us as if we w^ere Tammany 
 politicians trying to rob them of their fees. 
 We were speechless with amazement. At 
 last Mrs. Griffin, in her stately manner, rose 
 and said: ''Gentlemen, we will not prolong 
 this interview; you will hear from us in a few 
 days." I never felt so indignant in all my 
 life. As Mrs. Osborn and I walked home, the 
 tears rolled down my cheeks, I felt so humili- 
 ated by the insults we had received. A special 
 meeting of the State Charities Aid Associa- 
 tion was called and we made our report. Im- 
 mediately Mr. Howard Potter, Mr. L. P. 
 Morton and General Barlow were appointed 
 a committee to confer with the Medical Board
 
 BELLEVUE TRAINING SCHOOL 105 
 
 without delay. I was not present; I cannot 
 say what our friends said to the doctors, but I 
 know that they gave them to understand, in 
 no unmeasured terms, that New York was be- 
 hind us, and that they would not allow their 
 wives and sisters to be insulted; in fact they 
 made their views so plain that, before long, 
 we received a communication from the Medical 
 Board inviting the training school to take 
 charge of the obstetrical wards of Bellevue 
 Hospital. 
 
 The three maternity wards were turned over 
 to us in May, 1874, and we placed Miss 
 Richards in charge, an exceptional woman, 
 who afterwards went to Japan and started 
 trained nursing in that country. She soon 
 reported terrible mortality in the Ijdng-in 
 wards from puerperal fever, there being two 
 deaths out of every five births. All the best 
 nursing we could give did not reduce the 
 mortality, and we soon learned that puerperal 
 fever had invaded Fifth Avenue, at that time 
 an exclusively residential quarter. I went to 
 see m}'' own phj^sician, Dr. Peaslee, who was 
 not a member of the Bellevue Board. He 
 handed me a medical journal and said, as he 
 turned a page: '*! shall be engaged for a 
 short time; meanwhile you can read this."
 
 106 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 The first words my eyes fell upon were: ''It 
 is death for a puerperal woman to be in a 
 surgical hospital, or to be attended by surgeons 
 or nurses who are practising in surgical wards." 
 The mystery was solved: these women were 
 in a surgical hospital and were attended by 
 doctors who were constantly in surgical wards. 
 Dr. Peaslee returned; I pointed to the para- 
 graph. "Is this so, and this is what is killing 
 those women ! " I exclaimed, trembling with 
 excitement. ''Yes," he said. The book in my 
 hand, I drove directly to see Mrs. Lucius 
 Tuckerman, one of our managers, and showed 
 it to her. " Could you write an article for the 
 Evening Postf^^ she asked. "I can try," 
 said I. "Then let us go to the hospital at 
 once!" she exclaimed. On the steps of the 
 hospital stood the warden and some of the 
 doctors. Mrs. Tuckerman was a little woman, 
 but she looked very tall as she accosted them. 
 "Gentlemen, we have learned the cause of the 
 mortality in the lying-in wards of this hos- 
 pital. We give you forty-eight hours to re- 
 move those women. If they are here at the 
 end of that time, the whole story will be 
 published in the Evening Post, written by the 
 lady who stands by my side." I shall never 
 forget Mrs. Tuckerman's expression of in-
 
 BELLEVUE TRAINING SCHOOL 107 
 
 dignation as well as power, as she delivered her 
 ultimatum. From the hospital we drove to 
 see General Bowen, President of the Board of 
 Charity Commissioners, who at once gave the 
 order for the immediate removal of the 
 twenty-five women awaiting confinement to a 
 pavilion of Charity Hospital on Blackwell's 
 Island. In less than forty-eight hours this 
 was done. All these women recovered. 
 
 Further formal representations were made 
 by the Visiting Committee, with the result 
 that, in June, 1874, the lying-in wards at 
 Bellevue were closed, all the women being 
 sent to Blackwell's Island, and the mortality 
 ceased among them, and on Fifth Avenue. 
 
 The question naturally arises, why did the 
 Medical Board, knowing, as they must have 
 known, of the mortahty in those Bellevue 
 wards, and the cause, treat us as they did, 
 when we offered to nurse the women? Why? 
 The explanation gradually dawned upon us. 
 The obstetrical service was very important 
 to the Medical School, and to remove the 
 women to Blackwell's Island would have in- 
 terfered with the clinics. They knew that 
 we would soon discover the cause of the 
 mortality, and therefore they objected to 
 placing us in charge. I ought to add that, at
 
 ICS RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 that time, the precautions against infection 
 were not what they are now, and probably 
 many of the doctors did not attach much im- 
 portance to them, Hke the doctors in England 
 to whom Lady Priestly refers. 
 
 Two years later, we found that the closing 
 of the maternity wards left about twelve 
 women a month, on an average, who were 
 taken in labor in the streets, for whom there 
 was no adequate place of refuge. So there 
 was now another task before us. Dr., after- 
 wards Bishop, Potter went before the Grand 
 Jury for us, and stated the case, and shortly 
 a disused engine-house was placed at our 
 disposal for the accommodation of these un- 
 fortunate women. That discarded old engine- 
 house became a most successful maternity 
 hospital, with the best results of any public 
 hospital at that time in this country. 
 
 On our Board of Managers were some very 
 remarkable women, who brought their rare 
 intelligence, ability and warm hearts to the 
 service of the School, and our meetings, 
 as may be imagined, were most interesting. 
 Among the Presidents of the School in those 
 early days were Mrs. William Preston Griffin, 
 who later served again as our President for 
 many years, and is now Honorary President,
 
 BELLEVUE TRAINING SCHOOL 109 
 
 and whose experiences on the ''Hospital 
 Transports" during the Civil War are else- 
 where recorded; Mrs. David Lane, who or- 
 ganized the great Metropolitan Fair of the 
 United States Sanitary Commission; Mrs. 
 Alexander Hamilton and Mrs. William Henry 
 Osborn. Mrs. Robert Wood worth was our 
 Secretary until she moved away from New 
 York; and Miss Abby Howland Woolsey, ex- 
 perienced in work for hospitals during the Civil 
 War, of great organizing ability, and who 
 drafted the plan for the training school, was 
 one of our most efficient managers. 
 
 My own connection with the School ter- 
 minated when I moved to Washington, in 
 1886, and one of my keenest regrets upon 
 leaving New York was that I had to leave 
 the School, which had been my greatest inter- 
 est. I always feel that I belong to it wher- 
 ever I may be. 
 
 But the one and only member of the Board 
 who began work for the School, in 1872, before 
 it was opened, and continued actively engaged 
 in it without a break until her death, in 1902, 
 was Mrs. William H. Osborn. For many years 
 before she died, and at the very beginning of 
 the School, ]Mrs. Osborn was its President. I 
 wish I could give an idea of what she was to
 
 no RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 the School. Her devotion to it was absolute; 
 she was constantly devising measures for its 
 welfare which her ability made practical; 
 her gentle, unassuming manner concealed a 
 strength of character which her associates 
 could depend upon to help them through any 
 crisis; and yet hers was a rule of love. No 
 one could work with Mrs. Osborn without 
 being affected by her deeply religious nature, 
 without respecting and loving her. Her gen- 
 erosity knew no bounds. She gave a large, 
 comfortable house for the Nurses' home; she 
 gave the model Sturges surgical pavihon; she 
 furnished the old engine-house, changing it 
 into a well-equipped maternity hospital; she 
 was always doing little kindnesses, and great 
 kindnesses, too, for superintendents, nurses 
 and patients, of which only they themselves 
 could ever know. But it was not the gift, 
 it was the way she gave, which made what she 
 did, simply and quietly, so very beautiful — 
 for she gave herself. When Mrs. Osborn 
 died, the whole School mourned her, the whole 
 hospital mourned her, for had she not been their 
 most steadfast friend for all those thirty years? 
 In an address delivered by the Hon. Joseph 
 H. Choate on Florence Nightingale, in New 
 York, May, 1910, the fiftieth anniversary of
 
 BELLEVUE TRAINING SCHOOL 111 
 
 the founding by her of the first training school 
 for nurses in England,* Mr. Choate speaks 
 of the founding of the first training school for 
 nurses in this country, thirteen years later. 
 After naming several ladies who were promi- 
 nent among the founders of the school, he 
 concludes with the following eloquent tribute 
 to Mrs. Osborn: ''That woman of sainted 
 memory, Mrs. William H. Osborn, who led 
 their activities in the creation of that great 
 school, and who gave so much of her heart, her 
 soul, her life and her treasure, to the building 
 up of that school." 
 
 As time went on, important benefactions 
 of various kinds were given to the hospital 
 by friends of the School. The old hospital 
 was patched up, but we never ceased our 
 entreaties for a new one. How we strove 
 for it in the early seventies will be found in an 
 interesting report of a special committee of 
 the State Charities Aid Association, of which 
 Bishop Potter was chairman.** It has taken 
 nearly forty years to get that new hospital. 
 And I doubt if anything of value could have 
 been accomplished had it not been for a new 
 
 * The Nightingale School was opened at St. Thomas' Hospital, 
 London, June 15, 1860. 
 
 ** Report of Special Committee on the erection of a new Belle- 
 vue Hospital, S. C. A. A. Pub. No. 4, February, 1874.
 
 112 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 era in the history of Bellevue, through the 
 creation, in 1902, of the City Department of 
 Bellevue and Allied Hospitals, with an unpaid 
 Board of Trustees appointed by the Mayor. 
 
 Since then many changes and improvements 
 have been made, notably the beginning of the 
 ''New Bellevue," on the site of the old 
 hospital, now in course of construction and 
 partly occupied; and the erection by the City 
 of a commodious, comfortable Nurses' Resi- 
 dence. The old Nurses' Home, at 426 East 
 26th Street, has been remodelled and joined 
 to a beautiful new building known as ''Osborn 
 Hall," equipped as an Alumnae Club House for 
 Bellevue graduates, and given by Mr. and 
 Mrs. William Church Osborn as a memorial 
 to Mrs. William H. Osborn. 
 
 As I have already said, the Bellevue Train- 
 ing School for Nurses, opened May 1, 1873, 
 was the first school of the kind in this country. 
 The New Haven and Boston schools followed 
 closely, being also opened in 1873. Twenty-five 
 years later, in 1898, thirty schools had been 
 established; and to-day (1911) there are 1,100 
 Training Schools for nurses in the United 
 States. 
 
 The early prejudices, the opposition we had 
 to contend with, have long since vanished.
 
 BELLEVUE TRAINING SCUOOL 113 
 
 I still remember the expression of amused 
 triumph which passed over the faces of the 
 managers at a Board meeting, a few years 
 after the School had gradually been extending 
 itself over the hospital, when a resolution was 
 received from the Board of Charity Commis- 
 sioners asking us "to take over all the wards 
 of the hospital"; while it was also reported 
 that "Dr. C was very angry with us be- 
 cause we had removed our nurses from his 
 ward." Now, a surgeon will not undertake 
 an operation of any importance without the 
 attendance of a trained nurse, and in all 
 serious cases of illness she is always sent for 
 by the doctor, while trained nursing by grad- 
 uates of Hospital Training Schools has risen 
 to the rank of a profession. 
 
 The founders of the School had three objects 
 in view: 1, to provide trained nursing for 
 public hospitals; 2, for private families; 3, 
 for the sick poor; and it is cause for satis- 
 faction and gratitude that all three objects 
 have been attained, while maintaining the 
 high standard of excellence which the School 
 has always stood for. 
 
 Our first graduates became, many of them, 
 the superintendents and matrons of a number 
 of training schools in this country. To-day
 
 114 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 they are to be found in all our States, and in 
 Japan, Italy and other countries; while, in 
 this city, Bellevue still claims and holds them 
 as their Alma Mater, and they have brought, 
 and still bring, service and comfort and 
 blessing into the homes of both rich and poor. 
 In writing these personal reminiscences, I 
 have not tried nor wished to give a history 
 of the School or statistical information con- 
 cerning it. This can be found, by those who 
 wish to know more, in books, reports and 
 printed papers without number, to which they 
 can turn.* But nowhere else will be found 
 an account of the difficulties encountered, 
 the opposition met and overcome, the striv- 
 ings and struggles, the hopes and fears, as I 
 have tried to depict them, of that earnest Httle 
 band of women, the first managers of the 
 Bellevue Training School for Nurses, with 
 whom I was associated and with whose friend- 
 ship I was and am honored. 
 
 * Among these "A History of Nursing," by M. Adelaide Nutting, 
 R.N. , and Lavinia L. Dock, R.N., 2 vols., G.P.Putnam's Sons, 
 1907; "A Century of Nursing," by Abby Rowland Woolsey, 
 S.C.A. A. Pub. No. 11, 1876; annual reports of the Bellevue 
 Training School for Nurses; State Charities Aid Association 
 reports, etc.
 
 VII 
 
 THE CHATEAU D'AUNAY 
 July, 1877 
 
 NOT long after the Civil War, my brother- 
 in-law, General Berdan, who had in- 
 vented a breech-loading rifle and cartridge, 
 which was adopted by the Russian Govern- 
 ment, went to St. Petersburg to superintend 
 their manufacture, and established himself 
 there with his family for about three years. I 
 made them a short visit there, but there are no 
 incidents connected with it worth relating. 
 
 In 1873 General Berdan went to Berlin, and 
 there the family was settled for another three 
 years. I have heard my sister say that, at 
 that time, the court and society of Berlin were 
 the most interesting of the many capitals she 
 had known. The Franco-German War was 
 over, and the Germans were in the first flush 
 of their victories. The old Emperor was still 
 alive, his gracious dignity shedding its influ. 
 
 115
 
 116 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 ence on society, while the Crown Princess and 
 her husband gave it a spirit of youth and en- 
 thusiasm. Bismarck and IMoltke were in 
 their prime, strong and active; energy and 
 hope were in the air; the boy, who later was 
 to discharge "the pilot" and seize the reins of 
 power, then gave no special promise of his 
 future. 
 
 Owing to General Berdan's distinction as a 
 soldier and inventor, all doors were open to 
 him, and with him entered his wife and eld- 
 est daughter; and even the little son and 
 daughter became the plaj-mates of the future 
 Emperor and the Princess Victoria. I am 
 sure that no one who had ever known my 
 sister Mary, would be disposed to deny her 
 remarkable social gifts. No matter where she 
 might be settled — in a New England village, 
 in the camp near Washington, on a Long 
 Island farm, in Paris, Geneva, Constantino- 
 ple, Pome — she invariably drew around her the 
 choicest spirits. So did I find her in Berlin, 
 and by her side her eldest daughter, Sarita. 
 Only a month ago (1911) I met Professor 
 Sloane of Princeton, who exclaimed: '^Tell 
 me about General Berdan's daughter. I knew 
 her in Berlin; she was a beautiful girl. I 
 remember going into a picture exhibition one
 
 CHATEAU D'AUNAY 117 
 
 day, where a portrait of a very plain princess 
 had been represented as very handsome by a 
 great artist, when Mr. George Bancroft came 
 up with your niece. He looked at the por- 
 trait and, turning to her, exclaimed: 'If 
 Lenbach could make such a beauty of the 
 Princess, my God ! what could he not make of 
 you.'" Professor Sloane added: "That was 
 thirty-seven years ago, and I can remember 
 how she looked as she smiled on the old gentle- 
 man, as if it were yesterday." Of course 
 Sarita had plenty of admirers, and a young 
 Frenchman won her; a fine young man in 
 the diplomatic service and for many years 
 Senator in France. They were married in 
 Berlin in 1875. 
 
 Two years later, I visited them at his in- 
 teresting chateau, or as Count d'Aunay called 
 it, "Mon vieux manoir." I wrote an account 
 of my visit at the time and entirely forgot it. 
 The other day, in looking over some old 
 papers hidden away in a closet, I came across 
 the manuscript, and insert it here. 
 
 Chateau d'Aunay 
 
 It is recorded in the history ''of the noble 
 families of the Duchy of Nevers" that "the 
 Chateau d'Aunay is about six leagues from
 
 118 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 the ancient city of Nevers, and not far from 
 the spot where Saint Perreuse suffered mar- 
 tyrdom." The same authority states that, in 
 the feudal times, the lords of Aunay were 
 constantly at war with their neighbors, and 
 especially with their neighbors the Barons de 
 Champdion. The latter were finally com- 
 pelled to pay homage annually to the Lord 
 of Aunay, and to offer at the same time, as 
 tribute, one swallow which had to be brought 
 in person by the Baron de Champdion, in a 
 cart covered with moss, drawn by four bulls, 
 to the gates of the chateau. Here the Baron 
 must kneel, kiss the lock, and let the bird fly. 
 The same authority states that the Comte 
 d'Aunay held his domain by the family Rei- 
 gner de Garchy, from 1276; it passed, in 1656, 
 by marriage, to the Marignys; and in the 
 same manner, in 1700, to the Le Pelletiers, 
 Marquis de Rosambeau. The Marechal de 
 Vauban married a Mademoiselle d'Aunay, and 
 his daughter married her cousin, the Comte 
 d'Aunay, who restored the chateau to its 
 present state in 1744. 
 
 Now I will proceed to tell how I found it 
 in 1878. A drive from Nevers, through a fer- 
 tile and highly cultivated country, brought 
 the party to the village of Aunay. The cha-
 
 CHATEAU D'AUNAY 119 
 
 teau is a gray stone pile, devoid of ornament, 
 built around a court, surrounded by a moat 
 spanned by a drawbridge, the portcullis with 
 its threatening teeth still hanging ready, as 
 in the days of the Barons de Champdion, to 
 fall before unwelcome visitors. Originally a 
 fortress, standing on a hill above the little 
 village at its base, the castle has been en- 
 larged from time to time, until its dimensions 
 are now spacious enough to accommodate a 
 large family and fifty guests j w^hile the ex- 
 tensive range of out-buildings, offices, stables 
 and kennels indicate the great number of re- 
 tainers and horses which formed the retinue 
 of the ''Grand Seigneur" before the Revolu- 
 tion. The gardens were laid out in the formal 
 style of the period, the orange trees w^ere in full 
 bloom, standing in green boxes, like those at 
 Versailles and Fontainebleau. The village 
 church had been restored by the grandfather 
 of the present proprietor. The entrance to 
 the family chapel was from the garden ter- 
 race. The devout behavior of the congrega- 
 tion, which filled the good-sized building, 
 showed that there w^ere but few ''mal pen- 
 sants" among the peasants of Aunay. The 
 congregation was entirely of the peasant class, 
 the older men in blouses, their wives in their
 
 120 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 white caps; here and there a girl in a smart 
 hat and feather, and a youth in a black coat, 
 but they looked out of place. One man was 
 pointed out who paid 15,000 francs a year 
 rent for his farm and who was worth 250,000 
 francs, yet he and his wife and children were 
 clad and appeared as simply as the rest. After 
 viewing the exterior of the chateau, visiting 
 the farm and the village school, where about 
 one hundred children were assembled, we ex- 
 pressed a wish to examine the interior. ''I 
 have not been all over the chateau myself," 
 said the young hostess; '' suppose we call the 
 steward and make a regular tour." ^^ Rather 
 let us go alone, it will be greater fun to explore 
 by ourselves," I cried. '^Agreed," said the 
 Count, and armed with a bunch of huge keys, 
 the party set forth. 
 
 Leaving the State rooms, all hung with 
 family portraits, to be inspected at leisure, 
 we ascended the wide stone staircase and 
 passed through suite after suite of bed- 
 rooms hung with tapestries, representing 
 biblical scenes in gigantic proportions. While 
 the bedrooms were lofty and spacious, fur- 
 nished with the high canopied beds, large 
 armchairs and sofas of the Louis XV period, 
 the dressing-rooms adjoining were low and
 
 CHATEAU D'AUNAY 121 
 
 small, and the visitors were puzzled to know 
 what became of the intervening spaces, as 
 the rooms above were disposed in the same 
 manner; and as the Count seemed unable or 
 unwilling to explain, we concluded that these 
 mysterious spaces were for the accommodation 
 of the family ghosts. After counting thirty 
 large bedrooms and dressing-rooms, and some- 
 times servants' rooms attached, we gave up 
 counting, as we became involved in such a 
 labyrinth of rooms, closets, galleries and 
 staircases, that we lost our way, until finally 
 Count d'Aunay exclaimed: ''Here we are at 
 the door of the iron room; come in and have 
 a look at the family archives." 
 
 From floor to ceiling were rows of shelves, 
 on which were boxes containing deeds and 
 documents of the family, dating from the 
 twelfth century. Opening one box the Count 
 took from it and placed in my hands a pack- 
 age of letters from Louis XIV to Colbert, 
 who had married a Mademoiselle d'Aunay. 
 Among them was a little note from the 
 Duchesse de la Valliere to Louis XIV, making 
 a rendezvous on a bridge. How did this little 
 scrap of romance creep in among those grave 
 State papers? Possibly the King received the 
 billet-doux while writing to his Minister; it
 
 122 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 fell between the papers, was accidentally en- 
 closed, and the Minister preserved it. How 
 else account for its presence among the papers 
 of Colbert, in an old chateau which he had 
 once inhabited! 
 
 On opening the closets of another room, 
 stores of china w^ere revealed : treasures of the 
 East, Italy, Saxony, Sevres, Chantilly and 
 Nevers. Fancy the rapture of a collector who 
 finds before him shelf after shelf crowded 
 with porcelain and faience which had re- 
 ceived no additions since 1799. We could 
 find no marks of a later date than 1789, and 
 many of the pieces were very rare and of 
 great beauty. After a look at the linen room, 
 which contained not only stores of linen suffi- 
 cient to supply a large public institution for 
 a term of years, but the priests' robes for 
 baptisms, marriages and funerals, we repaired 
 to the drawing-room to rest and talk over our 
 discoveries. 
 
 The drawing-room was furnished in the 
 time of Louis XVI. The mirrors were set 
 into the walls, framed by delicately carved 
 wreaths of flowers, painted white, the panels 
 were white, and the hangings and furniture 
 pale blue satin. (This visit took place in 
 1877, before the French style of decoration
 
 CHATEAU D'AUNAY 123 
 
 had been introduced into the United States.) 
 Portraits of men and women, in gay court 
 costumes, looked down upon us, and land- 
 scapes by Boucher and Watteau ornamented 
 the spaces over the doors. "It is to the good 
 sense of that man," said the Count, pointing 
 to the full-length portrait of a general officer, 
 " that I owe the possession of this estate. He 
 was my great-grandfather. Instead of fol- 
 lowing the Princes into exile at the time of 
 the Revolution, he came here when he found 
 it dangerous to remain in Paris, and lived 
 quietly on the estate during all those troubled 
 years. Whenever there was any hue and cry 
 for him, he would disappear among the ten- 
 antry for a while; thus the property escaped 
 confiscation, and I am benefited by what my 
 mother, who is a strong legitimist, is disposed 
 to call the treason of my ancestor; for it is 
 still considered, among the legitimists, that 
 any man who willingly remained in France at 
 that time was disloyal to the King's cause." 
 ''There are all manner of stories about him," 
 said the Countess. ^'I fear he was something 
 of a 'mauvais sujet.' See what a merry 
 gleam there is in his eye, while all the other 
 men look so grave and prim in their wigs and 
 rolls of parchment and books by their sides.
 
 124 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 I often think those pretty, gay women, in 
 their laces and patches, must have had a dull 
 time with such grim companions. I wonder 
 how they managed to amuse themselves." 
 ''Don't trouble yourself on their account, my 
 dear," said her husband; ''depend upon it 
 they had no lack of amusement. I fear if we 
 examine very closely into their careers we 
 might feel obliged, as their descendants and 
 good Catholics, to expend some of the income 
 we have inherited from them in masses for 
 their souls. But I have one relative whose 
 soul is safe, and if you will come into the 
 library I will show you her legacy to me." 
 
 THE BAROLO COLLECTION OF AUTOGRAPHS 
 
 On a table in a corner of the well-stored 
 library, where the 'worldly-wise Lieutenant 
 General had doubtless whiled away a good 
 many hours of his self-enforced seclusion 
 while France was passing through her bloody 
 ordeal, were five massive oaken boxes, which 
 our host opened, and laid before us a collec- 
 tion of autographs, which we subsequently 
 learned was considered one of the most inter- 
 esting in Europe. They were collected by 
 the Marquise de Barolo, nee de Colbert, a
 
 CHATEAU D'AUNAY 125 
 
 great lady of Turin, and great-aunt of the 
 present owner of Aunay, to whom she be- 
 queathed them. This lady and her husband, 
 who were celebrated for their charity and 
 benevolence, offered to Silvio Pellico (the 
 author of "I miei Prigioni"), on his release 
 from Spielberg, a home for life in their house, 
 with the post of secretary and a handsome 
 salary. In the second volume of the ''Life of 
 George Ticknor" is the following account of 
 a visit to Madame de Barolo, where he met 
 Pellico: 
 
 ''Pellico is a small, commonplace-looking 
 man, about fifty years old, gentle, modest, 
 and quiet in his manners; his health still 
 feeble, but not bad, from his long confine- 
 ment; and with a subdued air, which shows 
 that the spirit within him has been much 
 bruised and crushed, and probably his very 
 talent and mind reduced in its tone. . . . 
 Among those who now sought his acquaint- 
 ance (on his release from Spielberg, after the 
 Prigioni were published), were the ^Marquis 
 and Marquise de Barolo, persons of large 
 fortune, — two hundred or three hundred thou- 
 sand francs per annum, — of an old family, of 
 intellectual tastes, and much devoted to doing 
 good. . . . Madame de Barolo, to our great
 
 126 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 surprise, is a Frenchwoman, who, notwith- 
 standing her well-known religious character 
 and habitual, active benevolence, has all a 
 Frenchwoman's grace, vivacity and esprit. 
 The appearance of things was everywhere 
 elegant, tasteful, and intellectual. So was the 
 conversation. . . . About an hour after we 
 arrived dinner was announced, which was 
 served about six o'clock, by candlelight, in a 
 beautiful room, ornamented with a few pieces 
 of sculpture. The service was of silver. 
 Pellico was gentle and pleasant, but talked 
 little, and I could not help noticing the con- 
 trast between his conversation and the grave, 
 strong, manly conversation of Count Balbo, 
 as well as the gay, lively commerage of Ma- 
 dame de Barolo. The dinner, which was en- 
 tirely French, was extremely agreeable, and 
 when it was over we went to the salon, had 
 coffee and more pleasant talk, looked over 
 autographs, etc., till about nine, when we 
 returned to Turin." 
 
 I was fortunate in being permitted to make 
 extracts from a few of the Barolo autograph 
 letters which especially interested me. These 
 I have translated.
 
 CHATEAU D'AUNAY 127 
 
 Letter from Silvio Pellico to Madame la Mar- 
 quise Juliette Colbert de Barolo 
 
 Madame : 
 
 As your valuable collection of autographs 
 requires certain explanations in order to give 
 a clear idea of the subject of each, you have 
 kindly permitted me to undertake the task 
 during my happy sojourn at your villa. I 
 am your debtor for this favor, Madame, for 
 there are few occupations which recreate the 
 mind so much as that of reading the records 
 of historical personages, and tracing out anec- 
 dotes which relate to them. The slight labor 
 which this requires is amply repaid by the 
 keen pleasure derived by being enabled to 
 enter in spirit into other times and other 
 places — to be face to face with the interests 
 of kings and queens, great statesmen, illus- 
 trious warriors, the savant and the artist, 
 and also with those women who have been 
 celebrated, some for their beauty and their 
 talent, and some also for their misfortunes. 
 But nothing equals the charm which is at- 
 tached to the handwriting of a saint, two 
 words, to the simple signature of one whose 
 merit has been to fulfil his or her duties to an 
 eminent degree, or whose persecutions and
 
 128 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 sufferings have entitled him to be compared, 
 Hke Louis XVI, to the ancient martyrs. Such 
 Hves are then more than memorials; they are 
 relics. 
 
 In executing the little task which I now 
 have the honor of presenting to you, Madame, 
 I have followed the advice of M. le Marquis 
 de Barolo, who proposed that the autographs 
 should be left in the order that you chanced 
 to receive them, rather than to divide them 
 into classes, a distinction which is generally 
 most diflficult to make impartially, and which 
 is only absolutely necessary to make in very 
 large collections. When you wish to find any 
 of these autographs, you have only to refer 
 to the alphabetical table at the end, which 
 indicates the number of each piece. I beg 
 you to accept my feeble homage, and the sen- 
 timents of deep respect and attachment, with 
 which I glory in being, Madame, your very 
 humble and obedient servant, 
 
 Silvio Pellico. 
 
 It would be difficult for me to give any 
 complete idea of this remarkable and most 
 interesting collection. Saints, priests, popes, 
 kings, poets, historians, men of science and 
 men of war, statesmen, tragedians, women
 
 CHATEAU D'AUNAY 129 
 
 celebrated in history and in song, all have con- 
 tributed to it. St. Francis of Assisi, Savonarola, 
 St. Charles Borromeo, Pascal, Bossuet, Fcnelon, 
 Angelique Arnaud, among the number. 
 
 The Admiral Coligny writes to Catherine 
 de ]\Iedici, assuring her of his fidehty and his 
 desire for peace; Jeanne d'Albret to Cather- 
 ine, "full of affection and confidence." In 
 the light of the great massacre, how pathetic 
 are such letters! Five letters from Ferdinand 
 the Catholic, several from Charles V, one 
 characteristic note from Philip II, recom- 
 mending a Franciscan monk. Marguerite de 
 Valois, first wife of Henry IV, acknowledges a 
 loan from a gentleman of 10,166 crowns, in 
 1603. 
 
 Coming down to more modern times, a letter 
 from the Comtesse de Mailly to Louis XV: 
 ''I shall await you on Sunday with the great- 
 est pleasure, loving you as I do so madly. It 
 shows that I have no amour propre to make 
 such an avowal to my Lord. I embrace you 
 with all my heart." ''Died," says PelHco's 
 note, ''in 1751, avec des sentiments de peni- 
 tence." 
 
 From :\Iadame la Marquise de Pompadour 
 to a Marshal of France: "Monsieur Tron- 
 chin is giving me a drug to reduce an en-
 
 130 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 largement of the heart, which he tells me is 
 caused by the very violent grief I have suf- 
 fered during the last two years. He tells me 
 he could cure me if I could be altogether free 
 from trouble. On that condition, I do not 
 see how I can ever expect to be well. Sensi- 
 bility is a hateful thing, my friend, do not 
 complain of this, however. What do you 
 say, Monsieur le Marechal?" 
 
 Eight pieces from Victor Alfieri, contain- 
 ing sonnets and letters. One is a love letter, 
 written after he had cut off his hair so as to 
 render himself unpresentable before a woman 
 he had loved, and still loved — (Pellico's note) 
 ''I have given you this evening the best proof 
 of my weakness; I assuredly hope it may be 
 the last. You will see, by what I here send 
 you, that I am quite determined not to re- 
 tract. It is very humiliating to me that the 
 only result of my firmness has been to de- 
 prive myself of my freedom of will." 
 
 Montalemhert, to Silvio Pellico 
 
 June 21, 1837. 
 My very dear Friend: 
 
 I beg of you to pardon any involuntary 
 delay in answering your delightful letter of 
 the 23rd of February, and believe me that.
 
 CHATEAU D'AUNAY 131 
 
 in spite of my silence, it has filled my heart 
 and that of the angel who shares every feel- 
 ing of my life, with emotion and boundless 
 gratitude. We shall always preserve this 
 letter as one of our greatest treasures. Un- 
 fortunately it did not reach Rome until some- 
 time after our departure from that city. The 
 Abbe Lacordaire forwarded it to me, and it 
 arrived at a time when I was in Paris, ab- 
 sorbed in the studies and by the anxieties of 
 the discussions of the law relating to the 
 Archbishopric. But now that I am by the 
 side of my wife, enjoying the repose of the 
 country, I hasten to offer you the feeble ex- 
 pression of the affection which fills my heart 
 for you. We had hoped to have passed 
 through Turin in returning from Rome, and 
 I had promised myself the great pleasure of 
 seeing you and of presenting my wife to you, 
 who feels for you the most ardent enthusiasm. 
 But the heavy snows on the Mount Cenis 
 obliged us to take the Mount St. Gothard 
 route; thus forcing us to content ourselves 
 with having, while at Venice, visited that 
 prison which you have described with such 
 eloquent resignation in your immortal book. 
 We found on the adjoining roof some leaves, 
 which we gathered, and which my wife care-
 
 132 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 fully preserves and, now and then, distributes 
 among your female admirers, who are so 
 numerous in France, and especially among 
 that noble family into which I have entered 
 through my marriage. You are quite right, 
 my dear Sir, in saying that God has given me a 
 ''worthy wife." Unfortunately, I am far as 
 yet from being worthy of her. But I think 
 of the Divine Goodness, which has permitted 
 me to find in the charming young girl I have 
 married a direct descendant of the dear Saint 
 Elizabeth. Within the last few days, I have 
 become the father of a little girl, who very 
 naturally has received the name of the dis- 
 tinguished saint from whom she has the honor 
 to descend.* 
 
 Adieu, my dear friend. Do not refuse me 
 the privilege of giving you this title which is 
 most true. I unite myself to you before God 
 in the deepest sincerity of my heart. 
 
 Le Comte de Montalembert. 
 
 In the life of Montalembert, by Mrs. Oli- 
 phant, is a touching account of this daughter 
 Elizabeth, which may be appropriately intro- 
 duced in connection with the above letter. 
 
 * Montalembert married Mademoiselle de Merode, of the dis- 
 tinguished Belgian family of that name, sister of the well-known 
 Monseigneur de Merode.
 
 CHATEAU D'AUNAY 133 
 
 "One da}'," says Madame Cochin, "his 
 charming and beloved child entered that 
 library which all his friends know so well, 
 and said to him: 'I am fond of everything 
 around me. I love pleasure, wit, society and 
 its amusements; I love my family, my studies, 
 my companions, my youth, my life, my coun- 
 try ; but I love my God better than all and I de- 
 sire to give mj'^self to Him/ And when he 
 said to her: 'My child, is there anything that 
 grieves you?' she went to the bookshelves 
 and sought out one of the volumes in which 
 he had narrated the history of the !Monks of 
 the West. 'It is you,' she answered, 'who 
 have taught me that withered hearts and 
 weary souls are not the things which we 
 ought to offer to God.' Some months after," 
 continues the same friendly and s^inpathetic 
 narrator, "I had the happiness of accompany- 
 ing the family to the humble sanctuary where 
 the marriage ceremony was to take place. 
 The priest was at the altar to celebrate the 
 bridal, and the bride, adorned for her mar- 
 riage, in her orange flowers and bridal veil, 
 knelt radiant and tender at the altar. But 
 there was no bridegroom. The bridegroom 
 was that invisible husband who, for two 
 thousand years, has attached so man}^ young
 
 134 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 souls to him by bonds which cannot be broken, 
 and drawn them by a charm which nothing 
 can equal." * 
 
 *Thi3 chapter was not completed. 
 
 — Editor.
 
 VIII 
 
 FIRST AID TO THE INJURED 
 
 1881-1882 
 
 IN the course of my studies and inquiries on 
 the subject of trained nursing, I fell into 
 correspondence with Mr. Rathbone, of Liver- 
 pool, one of its most distinguished citizens 
 and member of Parliament. He had been 
 one of the earliest promoters of trained 
 nursing in England, and had introduced 
 the system into the workhouse hospital of 
 Liverpool. 
 
 It was Mr. Rathbone, if I remember cor- 
 rectly, who, long after the Bellevue Training 
 School had been established, sent me a 
 pamphlet about the ''Saint John Ambulance 
 Association" of England. 
 
 The members of this Society, a lineal de- 
 scendant, so to speak, of the Order of the 
 Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, having 
 
 135
 
 136 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 served under the flag of the Red Cross during 
 the Franco-Prussian War, returned to Eng- 
 land desirous of continuing their services for 
 the rehef of suffering in their own country in 
 time of peace. The feature of their work which 
 especially interested me w^as, not so much the 
 establishment of cottage hospitals and am- 
 bulance sj'stems, but that of giving instruc- 
 tion in the preliminary treatment of injuries 
 from accident and other emergencies, which 
 had been the means of saving many lives 
 and of mitigating much suffering. With 
 the co-operation of some of the most eminent 
 physicians and surgeons of England, the Saint 
 John Ambulance Association, in 1877, or- 
 ganized classes and arranged for courses of 
 lectures. The instruction was eminently prac- 
 tical — how to keep a wounded man from 
 bleeding to death, how to revive a person 
 apparently drowned, how to handle a broken 
 Hmb, w^hat to do in case of accident or sud- 
 den illness until the doctor could come. The 
 instruction was especially valuable for police- 
 men, firemen, stevedores, railway employees 
 and factory hands; but persons of all ranks 
 in life applied for instruction, from the Prin- 
 cess Christian down to miners and w'orking 
 women. In less than six years, over 40,000
 
 FIRST AID TO THE INJURED i:J7 
 
 pupils had passed tlioir examinations and had 
 received certificates.* 
 
 I was deeply impressed by what I had 
 read, and then found, as so often happens, 
 that others were equally interested and had 
 also been collecting information. Among 
 these was my friend, Miss Sarah T. Sands,** 
 of my own Hospital Committee of the State 
 Charities Aid Association. Mr. John Paton, 
 of New York, had written to her from Eng- 
 land — this was in 18S1 — greatly interested in 
 the important work of the Saint John Ambu- 
 lance Association, which he much desired to 
 see established here. He had also written a 
 short article describing it, for the New York 
 '^Christian at Work." 
 
 And here let me pause for a moment to 
 speak, with grateful acknowledgement, of the 
 indebtedness of this country to England for 
 many of our most important undertakings. 
 Our training schools for nurses owe their 
 origin to Miss Nightingale, our Associated 
 Charities to the Charity Organization Society 
 of London, our After Care of the Insane to 
 
 * See paper by John B. Pine, "First Aid to the Injured," read 
 at the Tenth Annual National Conference of Charities and 
 Correction, Louisville, Kentucky, September, 18S3. 
 
 ** Now Mrs. John R. Paddock, of East Orange, N. J.
 
 138 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 England's initiative, our First Aid to the In- 
 jured to the Saint John Ambulance Associa- 
 tion — these but a tithe of what we owe to 
 England's great philanthropists. 
 
 But to return. Miss Sands and I talked 
 the matter over with Mr. Paton, whose first- 
 hand information of the work in England was 
 of great assistance throughout, and decided 
 that organized work in this country might 
 better be undertaken by the State Charities 
 Aid Association, a strong, active society, 
 commanding the respect and confidence of 
 the public, with headquarters in New York 
 City, and already engaged in work for hospi- 
 tals. With the full approval and support 
 of the President of the Association, the sub- 
 ject was presented at a meeting of the Stand- 
 ing Committee on Hospitals. Miss Sands 
 read a statement, which I enlarged upon. 
 Much interest was excited, and our sug- 
 gestion that the Committee should take 
 immediate action was received with en- 
 thusiasm. 
 
 Then and there, on the 8th of December, 
 1881, the first step in organization was taken 
 for ''First Aid" work in this country, by the 
 appointment of a Special Committee of the 
 Hospital Committee of the State Charities
 
 FIRST AID TO THE INJURED 139 
 
 Aid Association, with power to act.* The 
 committee consisted of Mrs. d'Or^mieulx, Miss 
 Sands, and myself as chairman. From that 
 time on, not a day was lost. It was at 
 this meeting, if I remember rightly, that a 
 spirited discussion arose about the name. I 
 was not in favor of ''Saint John Ambulance 
 Association, " because I thought it might not 
 be understood in this country, ''Let us 
 take, instead," I cried, "a name which will 
 describe what we mean to do. Let us call 
 ourselves First Aid to the Injured.'^ The sug- 
 gestion was adopted by acclamation; and this 
 is the name which, for work of this kind, has 
 been used in all parts of the country from 
 that day to this. 
 
 Our little committee of three met fre- 
 quently at the house of ]\Irs. d'Oremieuk, 
 in Greene street, then part of the Washington 
 Square fashionable quarter, and there we 
 made our plans. We issued invitations to 
 members of the Association, and others, for 
 a meeting to be held in the rooms of the Asso- 
 ciation, at 6 East 14th Street. Availing m}^- 
 self of material furnished by Miss Sands and 
 
 *See minutes of meeting, December 8, 1881, Hospital Com- 
 mittee minute book, State Charities Aid Association. See also 
 Tenth Annual Report, State Charities Aid Association, Novem- 
 ber, 1882, pp. 21-23.
 
 140 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 Mr. Paton, in addition to my own, I prepared 
 a paper to be read on that occasion, describing 
 the work in England, and what we hoped to 
 do here. I wonder what has become of that 
 paper. It was printed and passed through 
 several editions, but I have kept no copy of it. 
 
 The meeting, held on the 4th of January, 
 1882, was well attended, and resulted in the 
 appointment of a Standing Committee of the 
 State Charities Aid Association on ''First Aid 
 to the Injured," of about forty members. 
 Subcommittees were appointed and Prelimi- 
 nary steps were taken for lectures and for the 
 formation of classes. 
 
 On the 25th of January another meeting of 
 the Committee was held, when General George 
 B. McClellan was elected Chairman, Miss 
 Eleanor Blodgett, Secretary, and Mr. John 
 Paton, Treasurer. I was made Chairman of 
 an Executive Committee of twelve, and we 
 soon got to work in good earnest.* 
 
 That was indeed an active winter. I en- 
 joyed the work — the daily intercourse with 
 earnest, capable people, the strong bond of 
 fellowship, the enthusiasm of the young doc- 
 tors, our happiness when a new class was 
 
 * First Report of Committee on First Aid to the Injured of 
 the State Charities Aid Association, ]\Iay, 1882.
 
 FIRST AID TO THE INJURED lU 
 
 formed, the rapid progress made. Of course 
 we worked hard — all of us. To me, it was 
 like the old days of the Training School, with 
 all of the pleasures and none of the difficulties 
 — for there was no opposition to ''First Aid." 
 Everybody wanted it. We had not even 
 money to raise, for the lectures were given 
 gratuitously, and most generously by the 
 doctors, twenty-three of whom volunteered 
 their services, and the ''pay classes" fur- 
 nished the money to cover the expenses of 
 the free classes. 
 
 It may well be imagined that the position 
 .of our young Secretary, Miss Blodgett, was 
 no sinecure. Much was due to her ability 
 and devotion that winter; and the following 
 summer she went to England to gather more 
 detailed information for our benefit. 
 
 But, first and most of all, were we indebted to 
 the physicians and surgeons, without whom 
 the work could not have been carried on; and 
 especially to Dr. Bowditch Morton, son of 
 the celebrated discoverer of ether, who wrote 
 our manual of instruction,* was Chairman of 
 the Medical Committee, and who also assumed 
 the arduous duties of Medical Examiner. Of 
 
 * "First Aid to the Injured," by Bowditch Morton, M.D. 
 Handbook. CopjTighted, 1884.
 
 142 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 the classes, those for shop-girls, dwellers in 
 tenement houses and workmen's clubs, were 
 formed by Miss Sands and Miss Grace Dodge; 
 for railway employees, in the Grand Central 
 Station, by Mr. Stockwell; for the men of the 
 Hoe Printing Press Works and the Delamater 
 Iron Works, by Mrs. Robert Hoe, Jr. Mrs. 
 Griffin had charge of the lecture courses. Mrs. 
 Van Auken organized the colored classes; 
 while the ''pay classes," of ladies who paid 
 for their instruction, were formed by Miss 
 Gertrude L. Hoyt and Mrs. Henry Oakley. 
 
 There were five lectures to each course, the 
 classes averaging about thirty pupils. Dur- 
 ing the first hour, oral instruction was given, 
 upon hemorrhages, wounds, burns, suffocation, 
 broken limbs, shock, other injuries from acci- 
 dents, sunstroke, sudden illness, etc. In the 
 last half hour pupils were required to put 
 into practice what they had learned — by 
 means of a boy employed for the purpose, who 
 served as ' ' ob j ec t lesson . ' ' Pupils were taught 
 how to make and apply tourniquets and 
 bandages, how to compress an artery, how, 
 when possible, to restore respiration, how to 
 improvise a stretcher from materials at hand, 
 how to lift and carry an injured person, how, 
 in fact, to render all possible assistance, in
 
 FIRST AID TO TILE INJURED 143 
 
 cases of accident or emergency, until a doctor 
 could be summoned. 
 
 Much to our regret, we were not able to 
 organize the police and firemen classes until 
 the following year. And yet, for persons so 
 entirely new to the work as we were, perhaps 
 we should have been satisfied — for 32 courses 
 of lectures to 22 free and 10 pay classes, with 
 nearly 1,000 pupils, and one or more branch 
 committees formed in other States, is really 
 not a bad record for a first six months.'^ 
 
 In the autumn of 1882, I was obliged to 
 sail for Europe, to be absent for several years. 
 I was deeply interested in the work and re- 
 gretted to leave it. But it had already proved 
 its usefulness, was being ably conducted and 
 was sure to go on. 
 
 Although ''First Aid to the Injured" was 
 started in this country, as I have already 
 said, in December, 1881, as a Committee of 
 the State Charities Aid Association, it soon 
 became apparent as the work enlarged and 
 grew in importance, that the Committee 
 should be reorganized as an independent so- 
 ciety, directly responsible to the community, 
 and more able to extend itself beyond the 
 
 * First Report of Committee on "First Aid to the Injured," 
 of the State Charities Aid Association, May, 1882.
 
 144 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 State. With some reluctance on the part of 
 its members, this separation from the parent 
 Association was effected, and the Committee 
 was reorganized on the third of February, 
 1883, under the name of ''The Society for 
 Instruction in First Aid to the Injured." 
 The Hon. John Jay was elected President, 
 Mr. John Paton, Treasurer, Mr. John B. Pine, 
 Secretary, and Dr. Bowditch Morton, Chair- 
 man of the Medical Committee and Medical 
 Examiner.* 
 
 That second year both classes and pupils 
 increased in number, and the work had be- 
 gun to assume national importance.** 
 
 * Annual Report of "Society for Instruction in First Aid to 
 the Injured," October, 1883. 
 
 ** " The Society adopted a plan of organization which may be 
 briefly stated as follows: It consists of a central body, and of 
 branches; the central body is composed of the officers and man- 
 agers of the Society, and of representatives of the various branches, 
 and is located in New York City. It is the business of this body 
 to organize branches in the larger towns and cities, and detached 
 classes in smaller places. . . . By this system of organi- 
 zation, the Society obtains that united action which is best 
 calculated to promote its objects, and at the same time each 
 branch preserves its independence and exercises a complete 
 control over its own affairs, subject only to such general regulations 
 as are necessary to secure uniformity of action. The Society 
 issues certificates to pupils passing the examination, and also 
 furnishes the branches with circulars containing the syllabus of 
 instruction, rules for lectiu-es and lecturers, rules and blank 
 report,3 for superintendents of classes, copies of the constitution 
 and by-laws, and also, at cost price, the 'Handbook of Instruc-
 
 FIRST AID TO THE INJURED 145 
 
 The first class formed outside of New York 
 City was in Orange, N. J., in 1882. Then 
 followed, in 1883, Providence, R. I., Brunswick 
 and Newark, N. J., Buffalo and Rochester, 
 N. Y., and Hampton, Va. The successful 
 "First Aid" classes in Boston were formed, the 
 same year, by the Women's Industrial Union, 
 and were called ''Emergency Lectures." In 
 Philadelphia, the work was begun by Dr. J. 
 William White, of the University of Pennsyl- 
 vania, who gave lectures to the pohce force, 
 with such marked results that a large mass 
 meeting was called at the Academy of JMusic, 
 to hear the reports from the police stations of 
 the saving of lives and relief of suffering, and 
 to estabhsh "First Aid" work in Philadel- 
 phia on a firm basis. 
 
 Years of expansion and usefulness followed. 
 In the 1911 report of the Society, there 
 were recorded 1,500 pupils and 60 classes in 
 New York City, for policemen, firemen. 
 Young Men's and Young Women's Chris- 
 tian Associations, the Salvation Army and 
 others. 
 
 The Society continues to report annually 
 
 tion in First Aid to the Injured,' which has been issued by the 
 Society, and, on similar terms, the necessary appliances for the 
 lectures." — Fro^n Annual Report of "The Socidyfor Itislrudion in 
 First Aid to the Injured,'' Odober, 1883.
 
 146 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 to the State Charities Aid Association. Its 
 President, Mr. Charles H. Marshall, one of 
 its oldest and most active members, is also a 
 member of the New York State branch of the 
 American Red Cross, the two societies work- 
 ing together. 
 
 How many national "First Aid" societies 
 there may now be in this country, I do not 
 know.* In the old days of my youth, in the 
 little villages and towns, we knew personally 
 our poorer neighbors, and helped them when in 
 need; then came the crowded cities with their 
 foreign population, requiring systematized re- 
 lief-giving on a large scale; and, finally, social- 
 
 * There are three national "First Aid" organizations in the 
 United States, more or less active, with date of formation as 
 follows: 
 
 1882. The "Society for Instruction in First Aid to the 
 Injured," organized by Mrs. Joseph Hobson, January 4, 1882, as 
 a Committee on " First Aid to the Injured " of the State Charities 
 Aid Association; reorganized under its present name, February 
 3, 1883. Headquarters of the Society, 105 East 22d Street, New 
 York City. 
 
 1905. "The National First Aid Association of America," 
 organized by Miss Clara Barton, April 14, 1905. Executive 
 office. Associates Building, ArUngton, Mass. 
 
 1910. "First Aid Department, American Red Cross," 
 officially organized, January, 1910, as a Committee of the War 
 Relief Board of the American Red Cross. Headquarters, 
 American Red Cross, 715 Union Trust Building, Washington, 
 D. C. Editor.
 
 FIRST AID TO THE INJURED 147 
 
 service work — as it is now called — has become 
 nation-wide in scope and in organization. 
 
 A strong and very important impetus has 
 been given ''First Aid" by the United States 
 Government during the past year, through 
 the organization, in January, 1910, of a 
 "First Aid Department" of the American 
 Red Cross — of which the President of the 
 United States, since the reorganization of the 
 Red Cross in 1905, is chairman. My friend, 
 Miss Mabel Boardman, one of its most active 
 and able members, is chairman of the Execu- 
 tive Committee. Although the ''First Aid 
 Department" has been but recently estab- 
 lished, it is already doing very efficient work. 
 Two Red Cross cars now (1911) travel over the 
 railroads, giving instruction at the shops and 
 to gatherings of trainmen and others along 
 the route; while other "First Aid" cars 
 are to be sent to the mining regions to furnish 
 lectures and demonstrations there. And fur- 
 ther extension is being planned for the entire 
 country. 
 
 Nor must I fail to mention the very im- 
 portant fact that courses in "First Aid to the 
 Injured" are now part of the curriculum at 
 West Point and at Annapolis. Also that the 
 New York Central Railroad, through its
 
 148 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 Young Men's Christian Association depart- 
 ment, gives this instruction to a very large 
 number of its employees. 
 
 How the work has spread from that small 
 beginning ! Now, boys and girls, soldiers and 
 sailors, firemen and policemen, are taught 
 'Tirst Aid"; the necessary outfit is sold at all 
 the drug stores, and not to know how to 
 assist in case of accident is a reproach to 
 every bystander. When I look back upon 
 the march of improvement in my lifetime in 
 benevolence and philanthropy, and in the 
 intelligence shown in doing good, I rejoice 
 that I have been permitted to have had a 
 little share in it.
 
 IX 
 
 CONSTANTINOPLE 
 
 1882-1885 
 
 IN 1881 my dear husband passed away most 
 suddenly from an attack of angina pectoris, 
 an event for which I was absolutely unpre- 
 pared. A more noble nature, a more high- 
 minded and more perfect gentleman never 
 walked the earth, very courteous, though re- 
 served in manner, disposed to silence in 
 society, and therefore a good listener, generous 
 and liberal in his ideas of living, devoted to his 
 family. I can only add the estimate of General 
 Sherman: ''He was indeed a gentle gentle- 
 man." 
 
 I remained in New York a year after my 
 husband's death, until September, 1882, and 
 then went to Europe to join my sister, Mrs. 
 Berdan, who with General Berdan was in 
 Constantinople. I stopped in Paris for a few 
 weeks at the American Legation, where my 
 
 149
 
 150 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 brother-in-law, Mr. Morton, was at that time 
 Minister. He and Mrs. Morton were winning 
 golden opinions by the manner in which they 
 were representing our country. 
 
 I was accompanied on my journey to Con- 
 stantinople by my niece Bessie, General 
 Berdan's daughter, who will figure in my 
 story during the next few years. We made a 
 most delightful trip by way of Venice, the 
 Adriatic and Athens. We arrived at Con- 
 stantinople at a most interesting political 
 moment. The English had recently defeated 
 Arabi Pasha, and Lord Dufferin was preparing 
 to go to Egypt to assume control of the 
 government. The Sultan was furious at the 
 state of affairs; he refused to act with the 
 English, and resented what he called their 
 interference. 
 
 It was at this time that he consulted our 
 Minister, General Wallace, who, as a distin- 
 guished officer of our Civil War, was, he con- 
 sidered, not only able to advise him, but would 
 also be disinterested. General Wallace, the 
 author of " Ben Hur," was an idealist as well as 
 a soldier, so when the Sultan said: '^ General, 
 what do you advise me to do?" the Minister 
 replied: ''Your Majesty, gird on the sword of 
 Osman and lead your forces yourself." The
 
 CONSTANTINOPLE 151 
 
 Sultan, who was an arrant coward, was so 
 flattered at the suggestion, that General Wal- 
 lace was a supreme favorite ever after, and 
 though only a Minister, could always obtain 
 an audience with the Sultan whenever he asked 
 for it, in preference to an Ambassador. I 
 always attribute the success of General Ber- 
 dan's negotiations with the Turkish Govern- 
 ment, and the payment of a large sura due 
 him, to the well-known partiality of the Sultan 
 for our Minister, who, of course, used his in- 
 fluence in behalf of his countrymen. 
 
 At that time, the diplomatic corps at Con- 
 stantinople was composed of most interesting 
 people. Of Lord Dufferin it is unnecessary to 
 say more than that I fell under the spell he 
 exercised over all who knew him (except the 
 Sultan, to whom he embodied the detested 
 power of England); but I could never appre- 
 ciate Lord Dufferin's reputation as a states- 
 man. He was such a ^^charmeur," ready 
 always to flirt with every pretty woman, that 
 I could not take him seriously. As someone 
 said, he was the ''Spoiled Child of the British 
 Foreign Office." In Canada he was adored. 
 After he left there, the Canadian Government 
 paid his debts and every to^^^l in the Dominion 
 named a bridge or a street after him ; and I
 
 152 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 shall never forget the scene the day he left for 
 India, every woman in the British colony in 
 tears and he striving to show sympathy for 
 each. Lady Dufferin was shy and reserved to 
 strangers, but in her intimate circle most 
 cordial. She was very fond of playing romp- 
 ing games, and many a time I have raced 
 through the great rooms and up and down the 
 stairs of the Embassy on the Bosphorus with 
 her, the children and the secretaries, in the 
 game of ''follow my leader." She was ad- 
 mirable in private theatricals, always taking 
 the part of the ''jeune premiere," losing all 
 her natural shyness when on the stage. 
 
 How impossible it is to form correct judg- 
 ments of the future of young men! We little 
 thought, as they gathered around our tea 
 table and joined our riding and water parties, 
 that we should live to see Goschen Ambassador 
 to Vienna, Lov/ther Ambassador to Constan- 
 tinople, Nicolson to St. Petersburg and now 
 head of the Foreign Office, and Hardinge 
 Viceroy of India. These men have received 
 their reward ; but the diplomatic service is full 
 of disappointments and deceptions, and, after 
 a rather intimate acquaintance with its mem- 
 bers of different nationalities, I have come to 
 the conclusion that it is the most unsatisfac-
 
 CONSTANTINOPLE 153 
 
 tory career I know. In the first place, it ex- 
 patriates a man. If he succeeds, he must hve 
 continuously away from his country, and al- 
 though the facilities of travel are now such that 
 he can return oftener than formerly, still he 
 loses touch with public affairs at home, and 
 when he finally returns he is a stranger in his 
 native land. This applies most to those coun- 
 tries, unlike ours, where there is a permanent 
 diplomatic service. I have noticed that diplo- 
 mats are always discontented, for the reason 
 that they never are permanently settled. They 
 are naturally always looking forward to a 
 change of post. Then the nature of their pro- 
 fession makes them suspicious and gossiping. 
 They must be ever on the alert to see what their 
 colleagues are about, and although I do not go 
 so far as old Wotton, who said, ''An Ambassa- 
 dor is an honest man sent abroad to lie for the 
 commonwealth," still I confess I have known 
 one or two who would have answered the re- 
 quirement. I notice in Morley's ''Life," Mr. 
 Gladstone expresses more or less this same 
 opinion. 
 
 In corroboration of my views of diplomacy 
 as a career, I will translate the following from 
 the memoirs of the Countess de Boigne, the 
 daughter of a distinguished French diplomat,
 
 154 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 and a woman who had Hved in diplomatic 
 circles all her life : ''In my opinion there is no 
 career . . . where the honors one receives 
 are more independent of their real value and 
 of every personal consideration. I know that 
 this career is generally considered the most de- 
 sirable, especially when one reaches the rank of 
 Ambassador. I have only known it myself as 
 such, and I pronounce it detestable. When 
 one has worked all night to make up the day's 
 work, and finally succeeds in carrying out a 
 difficult and delicate negotiation, all the honor 
 reverts to the Minister, who has intentionally 
 sent you instructions so twisted and involved 
 that he leaves you to divine his intentions in 
 order to disavow your acts, in case he should 
 so desire. On the other hand, if the nego- 
 tiation fails, the Minister shrugs his shoulders, 
 calls you stupid, and you are powerless, be- 
 cause secrecy being the fundamental law of 
 the profession, you are forbidden to justify 
 yourself. I comprehend that a man in public 
 life might find it convenient to accept a foreign 
 post for a certain period, rather than to retire 
 from politics entirely . . . but if he makes a 
 prolonged absence, he returns at the end of his 
 career, to lead, in his own country, a life shut 
 out from all its interests, a stranger to his
 
 CONSTANTINOPLE 155 
 
 family, with no intimate friends, and out of 
 touch with those habits and customs which 
 compensate the old for the plea.'iures of youth." 
 
 But to return to Constantinople. A greater 
 contrast to Lady Dufferin than the Marquise 
 de Noailles, wife of the French Ambassador, 
 could not be imagined. She was a native of 
 Poland, but had gone early to France and, with 
 her sister, was one of the gay ladies of the 
 Second Empire. 
 
 When I knew her, she still had the remains 
 of great beauty, for which she had been cele- 
 brated, and the seductive manners which had 
 beguiled the Marquis into marrying her in 
 spite of the opposition of his aristocratic 
 family. She had the art '' d'installation " to a 
 great degree, and the marked difference of 
 character of the two women could not be better 
 illustrated than to pass from the stiff drawing- 
 rooms of the English Embassy to those of the 
 French, hung with Toile de Genes and over- 
 flowing with flowers. Monsieur de Noailles 
 had been previously French Minister in Wash- 
 ington, and his wife's comment on that post 
 was: ''tres cher et pas d'hommes." 
 
 Those Embassies on the Bosphorus always 
 seemed to me like the hanging gardens of 
 Semiramis, and to this day I can think of no
 
 156 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 position for a woman more absolutely satis- 
 factory to her pride and vanity, combining as 
 it does Eastern luxury and the pomp of power. 
 
 The Russian Ambassador at that time was 
 Monsieur Nelidoff, now in Paris, and the 
 German, Mr. de Radowitz, a most able man, 
 later Ambassador in Spain. At that time 
 the German Emperor was laying his plans to 
 undermine the English influence and trade in 
 the near East. He was so ably seconded by 
 his Ambassador, Mr. de Radowitz, and his 
 successor, that German trade has not only 
 now penetrated into every part of the Sultan's 
 dominion, but Germans control important 
 positions in the army and in the finance 
 department. 
 
 I passed two winters in Pera (the European 
 quarter of Constantinople) and two summers 
 in a beautiful old villa at Buyukdereh on the 
 Bosphorus. Being free from political affinities, 
 our house was neutral ground where the mem- 
 bers of the various nationalities could meet 
 without suspicion. Even aides-de-camp from 
 the Palace came there, when they would not 
 venture, except officially, to an Embassy. 
 
 Among the Turkish officials were two who 
 deserve special notice — Rustem Pasha and 
 Pangeris Bey. The former, an Italian by birth.
 
 CONSTANTINOPLE lo7 
 
 but a loyal subject of the Sultan, was as 
 attractive in his personality and as agreeable 
 in manner as Lord Dufferin himself. After 
 the Damascene Massacre, which Lord Dufferin 
 was sent to subdue, Rustem Pasha was ap- 
 pointed Governor of the Lebanon and pacified 
 the religious animosities of the Druses and 
 Maronites by his conciliatory measures. Al- 
 though a man of high temper, he had it so 
 wonderfully under control that, unless one had 
 seen it flash out as I have once or twice, one 
 would never have suspected the passion veiled 
 by that calm, courteous exterior. What de- 
 lightful evenings I have passed listening to his 
 tales of Turkey as he knew it in his youth! 
 He was taken there as a boy (there was a good 
 deal of mystery about his origin), and his 
 training had made him a true Oriental; 
 while his intimate knowledge of European 
 politics and European society — speaking every 
 language perfectly — made him a most interest- 
 ing companion and gave him great advantage 
 in his intercourse with his colleagues. I re- 
 member his description of Lady EUenborough 
 and of her life with her last husband, the Arab 
 Sheik; also of Lady Hester Stanhope and her 
 life in Syria; Sir Richard Burton and his re- 
 markable wife; and his stories of palace and
 
 158 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 harem life, with which he had been brought up 
 in the days before Abdul Aziz modernized the 
 customs. I used to think, as I listened, that it 
 was like the Arabian Nights' tales, with the sex 
 of the story teller and the listener reversed. 
 Rustem Pasha died as Turkish Ambassador in 
 London. 
 
 His account of Lady Ellenborough's life was 
 incredible. She was a Miss Digby, and 
 granddaughter of the great Commoner, Coke 
 of Norfolk. At sixteen she married Lord 
 EUenborough, an old and vicious man. She 
 ran away from him with Prince Swartzenberg, 
 v/ho refused to marry her after Lord Ellen- 
 borough had divorced iier. She then became 
 the mistress of the King of Bavaria, who mar- 
 ried her to one of his subjects to preserve 
 appearances. Lady EUenborough tired of 
 him, and he committed suicide when she de- 
 serted him. She subsequently deserted five 
 Italians and two Greeks — a child of one of the 
 latter was killed before her eyes — and finally 
 she fell desperately in love with a young Arab 
 Sheik. She married him, according to the 
 Moslem rite, at the age of fifty. She spent six 
 months of the year with him in the desert, per- 
 forming all the duties of a Mohammedan wife, 
 milked the camels, washed her husband's feet
 
 CONSTANTINOPLE 159 
 
 and hands and cooked his food. She also 
 supported his other wives and children, who 
 were kept aloof from her. With all this, she 
 remained a Christian in name, and in her 
 prayer book after her death were found the 
 words written by her own hand: ''Judge not 
 that ye be not judged." This account of her, 
 which I had from Rustem Pasha, I have re- 
 cently seen confirmed, almost word for word, 
 in the life of Coke of Norfolk, her grandfather. 
 To my other friend, Pangeris Bey, I owe 
 much in the way of pleasure and information. 
 He belonged to one of those famous families 
 who have been in the service of the Sultan 
 since the conquest of Constantinople, as loyal 
 subjects; but, like the Jews w^ho are waiting 
 the coming of the Messiah, they are silently 
 anticipating the moment when the Greeks will 
 come into their own again, and then they ex- 
 pect to rule in the palaces of their conquerors. 
 Of such are the Masurus, Condoriotti, Mav- 
 royeni, Aristarchi, names of European repu- 
 tation, for they are always in the diplomatic 
 service of the Sultan. Pangeris had nothing 
 Turkish about him; he was pure Greek, small 
 in stature, but perfectly formed, and very 
 athletic, a distinguished officer, having been 
 aide-de-camp to Osman Pasha during the
 
 160 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 Russo-Turkish War, speaking five languages 
 fluently and with vast knowledge of the 
 world. He was at first a most interesting 
 acquaintance and later a most valued friend. 
 On Fridays, after the Selamlik, in summer he 
 would come for me and my niece, and take 
 us in one of the palace caiques up the Bos- 
 phorus. We would land at one of the pic- 
 turesque little villages which line the shores, 
 where we would sit under the trees and drink 
 coffee, and watch from a discreet distance the 
 Turkish women and children. I recall the in- 
 terest we felt in the brother of the Sultan im- 
 prisoned in the beautiful palace of Doima 
 Batchi. One day we questioned our friend 
 about him, as we were passing in the caique. 
 Pangeris turned his head away, and was silent. 
 After we had passed, he said in an undertone : 
 " Ladies, if these men who are rowing us under- 
 stood you, and were to report your remarks, 
 it would cost me my post and possibly my 
 head." 
 
 Pangeris would often take us to the beautiful 
 villas of the Turks and the Greeks on the 
 Bosphorus, where we would visit the ladies, 
 to whom we were as great objects of interest 
 as they were to us. They never could under- 
 stand why my niece was not married. An old
 
 CONSTANTINOPLE 161 
 
 eunuch told Pangcris she was worth two 
 thousand dollars! In the winter, Pangeris 
 would take us to the mosques and bazaars. 
 He taught me how to distinguish one kind of 
 carpet from another, how to fix their value as 
 well as that of embroideries, and I owe to his 
 advice the purchase of a Persian carpet which 
 is one of my most valuable possessions. He 
 became the intimate friend of Marion Craw- 
 ford, and figures in 'Taul Patoff" as Bal- 
 samides Bey. His great ambition was to 
 come to Washington as Minister, but his 
 views were too democratic to suit the Sultan 
 as his representative in America, and he died 
 as Secretary of the Embassy in Rome.* 
 
 Apropos of the bazaars, I made some pur- 
 chases of tiles for friends in New York which 
 afforded me a great deal of entertainment. 
 I learned upon inquiry that some very rare and 
 valuable tiles were in the possession of a 
 dentist who, through his professional duties 
 at the Palace, had obtained a contract for 
 repairing a very beautiful mosque. In so 
 doing, he had abstracted a large number of the 
 best tiles and substituted imitations. Mindful 
 
 * Since writing the above, the young Turkish party has driven 
 the Sultan from the throne, and Turkey is enjoying hberty of 
 thought and speech for the first time in its history.
 
 162 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 of my folly in letting the tiles in South 
 America slip through my fingers, I resolved to 
 get possession of these. I found the only way 
 to see them was to make a professional en- 
 gagement with the dentist. My friend, a 
 collector, who had given me the information, 
 and who had seen the tiles, was willing to 
 wager a beautiful piece of embroidery that my 
 efforts at getting a glimpse of them would be 
 unsuccessful. I found the dentist in a gloomy 
 old Turkish house literally overflowing with 
 bric-a-brac of every kind, not excepting the 
 room where he practised his profession, re- 
 gardless of germs and innocent of antiseptics. 
 After permitting a preliminary examination 
 of my teeth, I turned to the nearest ^'objet 
 de vertu" near me, and having acquired a 
 certain familiarity with the jargon of the col- 
 lector, I soon succeeded in making him think 
 that I was a true virtuoso, and we fell into dis- 
 cussions over the Tanagra figures and Greek 
 and Egyptian pottery scattered about, but I 
 did not discover a single tile. Gradually, I 
 induced him to lead me from room to room, 
 until finally he opened a door, and lo! there 
 they were, the floor and walls covered with 
 them! I restrained my exclamations of ad- 
 miration because I was told that he was very
 
 CONSTANTINOPLE 163 
 
 cautious about showing them, having stolen 
 them from the mosque. I waited long enough 
 to satisfy myself that there was nothing finer 
 in Constantinople and that I must have them 
 at any cost. I deputed the collector to make 
 an offer for them. He reported that the 
 dentist said his wife was not willing to part 
 with them, but he added: "Patience, everything 
 comes to those who know how to wait." 
 Three months passed, and no signs of success 
 and no word from the dentist until one evening, 
 at a ball, my friend the collector whispered in 
 my ear: ''the dentist is dead! Now is your 
 chance. ' ' Negotiations were entered into with 
 the dentist's son, and finally I obtained the 
 choice and the number I required, when an- 
 other question arose: how shall we get them 
 out of the country? — the Turkish Custom 
 officials being as keen for export duty as those 
 in New York for imports — when the owner of a 
 yacht came to my assistance. He agreed to 
 send his sailors for the box, which he did, and 
 deposited it on the deck of his ship, whence it 
 sailed to America, and in due course of time the 
 
 tiles found their place in Mr. C 's house. 
 
 I may add here that when Sir Purden Clarke 
 called to see me in Washington, a short time 
 ago, he said, looking at the few I had retained
 
 164 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 for myself: ''I know where they come from, 
 and those you did not take are now in the 
 South Kensington Museum." 
 
 One of the most interesting events of my 
 life in Constantinople was connected with the 
 marriage of my niece, Bessie Berdan,to Marion 
 Crawford. He had made her acquaintance in 
 America on his return from India; and after 
 the publication of ''Mr. Isaacs" and "Dr. 
 Claudius," he resolved to go and seek the girl 
 on whom he had set his heart before he had 
 attained the reputation those books had 
 brought him. He told me how he came to 
 write "Mr. Isaacs." He was in a very de- 
 pressed frame of mind. Various schemes had 
 failed which he had attempted, and he was 
 down on his luck. One day he was telling his 
 uncle, Mr. Sam Ward (of the torchlight 
 statues in San Francisco), some anecdotes of 
 his East Indian experiences when the old 
 gentleman put a pen into his hand, exclaiming : 
 "Sit dowTi at that table and write it all out"; 
 which he did, and in a short time " Mr. Isaacs " 
 was finished. Mr. Ward took the manuscript 
 to a publisher, who accepted it without hesita- 
 tion. The first edition was sold out in a few 
 days, his fame was made and a new nov- 
 elist was given to the English-reading world.
 
 CONSTANTINOPLE 165 
 
 Mr. Crawford arrived in Constantinople most 
 unexpectedly, and immediately commenced to 
 pay court to the young lady. She had already 
 around her a number of admirers. The arrival 
 on the scene of an American of quiet, reserved 
 demeanor did not at first disturb them. At the 
 hour of afternoon tea, when they were wont to 
 assemble, Marion would seat himself on a 
 wood-box near my sister's tea table and de- 
 vote himself to her and to me, and not 
 attempt to interfere with Bessie's circle. But he 
 would persistently sit them out, and they did 
 not suspect that he often stopped to dinner 
 and thus had ample opportunity to plead his 
 cause. Gradually it began to dawn upon the 
 others that there was a dangerous rival in the 
 field, especially when they heard their several 
 ambassadors assert that he was the cleverest 
 fellow they had met for a long time — when Lord 
 Dufferin took him off in his boat for hours to 
 talk about India, when Mr. de Radowitz 
 sought his opinion of his Tanagra figures, and 
 he was found to be an accomplished yachts- 
 man and athlete. It moved my sense of 
 humor to see their amazement as Marion's 
 various qualities, intellectual and social, re- 
 vealed themselves, and they had to like and 
 admire him in spite of his rivalry, so that the
 
 166 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 day the engagement was announced, like the 
 good fellows they were, they heartily con- 
 gratulated him while they acknowledged their 
 defeat. 
 
 With Mr. Crawford and Pangeris Bey we 
 penetrated into the most obscure quarters of 
 Stamboul. We witnessed that most barbaric 
 and terrible service by which the Persians 
 commemorate the death of Ali. The sight of 
 those fanatics, bleeding from their self-imposed 
 wounds, shouting madly as they rushed past 
 us, made me so faint that I begged the Persian 
 Ambassador, in whose loge we sat, to take me 
 away. *'It would be at the cost of your hfe 
 and mine, Madam, to enter that crowd," he 
 said. So for two hours we watched and 
 listened to the howls and shrieks of the wor- 
 shippers of the Mohammedan sect to which the 
 Persians belong. In strong contrast to this 
 scene was the solemn and devout service of the 
 Turks at Santa Sophia, at the feast of Rama- 
 zan, so vividly described in " Paul Patoff." We 
 stood in the gallery of the grand old Christian 
 temple, now converted into a Turkish mosque, 
 and looked down on to the devout worshippers 
 who, to the number of five thousand, rose and 
 fell on their knees with military precision as 
 the Ulema chanted the prayers. Mr. Craw-
 
 CONSTANTINOPLE 167 
 
 ford has given a most graphic description of 
 the scene in his novel ''PaulPatoff "; in fact, 
 the book is full of incidents which actually 
 occurred. Several years after, when my niece 
 went to Constantinople, the old man in the 
 bazaar who figures in the novel brought her a 
 beautiful piece of stuff as a present, which she 
 declined as being too valuable. He said: 
 " Please take, lady, your husband has made my 
 fortune." On the same visit they were passing 
 out of a door in Santa Sophia, when the guide 
 said: ''It was from this door that Paul Patoff 
 disappeared"; in fact, they found that Paul 
 Patoff was a guide book to Constantinople. 
 One of the charms of Mr. Crawford's books is 
 that the descriptions of scenery and character 
 are so accurate, for he never lays the scene of a 
 novel in a place unfamiliar to him. During 
 the three months he passed on the Bosphorus 
 that summer, he lived with Pangeris Bey in a 
 little kiosk on the hillside, where he studied 
 the Turkish people and the language ; and such 
 progress did he make with the latter, that we 
 were able shortly to dispense with our drago- 
 man when we went to the bazaars and used 
 his services instead. 
 
 I got very fond of the old Turks in the 
 bazaars. They were so different from the
 
 168 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 Greeks, Armenians and Jews, much more 
 honest and liberal. In fact, there were two 
 whose opinions I always trusted and con- 
 sulted and some of my best purchases I owe to 
 their good offices. One day I overheard the 
 red-haired guide, whom I employed to show 
 me the way when I first went there, speaking 
 a mongrel sort of Spanish to another, who 
 looked like his brother. I was so surprised 
 that I listened to satisfy myself that my ears 
 did not deceive me and then said to him: 
 '^ Where did you learn Spanish?" ''It is my 
 language," he replied, and then explained that 
 he was a Spanish Jew, descended from a colony 
 which settled at Salonica at the time of the 
 expulsion of the Jews from Spain by Ferdinand 
 and Isabella, and who had retained their re- 
 ligion and language while becoming Turkish 
 subjects. 
 
 Now I must go back to Buyukdereh, and 
 the wedding which took place on a beautiful 
 morning in October, 1884. A short time 
 before, my niece, Susie Lay, the daughter of 
 my sister Caroline, had arrived, a charming girl 
 of seventeen. Then, early in the morning the 
 bride and groom, General and Mrs. Berdan, 
 Susie Lay and I repaired to the little French 
 Catholic church, where we were met by the
 
 CONSTANTINOPLE 169 
 
 Austrian and German Ambassadors who were 
 the witnesses, and there the Roman Cathohc 
 rite was performed. At twelve, the Protestant 
 ceremony took place in the salon of the villa, 
 where orange trees in full bloom were massed 
 against hangings of crimson and gold, loaned 
 to us by our friends in the bazaar to hide the 
 bare walls. At the end of the room the trees 
 were arranged to give a Gothic effect, and 
 there the Protestant rite was performed by the 
 German pastor, in the presence of a most dis- 
 tinguished compan}^ The various nation- 
 alities present reminded me of the assemblage 
 on the day of Pentecost. And thus Marion and 
 Bessie were married and left us to go to Sor- 
 rento, which has been their home ever since, 
 where he has written his delightful Italian 
 romances and where they have brought up an 
 interesting family. 
 
 At present there is a good deal of talk about 
 the emancipation of the Turkish women, and 
 Pierre Loti has written a rather interesting 
 novel on that subject. It was my good for- 
 tune to make the acquaintance of a lady who 
 was a genuine ^'emancipee." She was an 
 Egyptian by birth, married to a Turk. She 
 spoke French very well, had been several 
 times to Europe and had a superficial knowl-
 
 170 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 edge of our language and customs. She in- 
 vited me on one occasion to go to her house in 
 the evening. I went, taking my niece with 
 me. Several men were there who made 
 themselves so much at home and whose be- 
 havior was so free that I felt much embar- 
 rassed. Finally my good friend Rustem 
 Pasha came in. He looked much surprised 
 when he saw us and whispered to me: ''You 
 must not stay here. Get away as soon as 
 possible. Take my carriage if yours is not 
 there." Accordingly, I made my excuses and 
 departed. Rustem explained to me after- 
 wards that Madame H had rendered her- 
 self d^classee among the Turks by her efforts 
 to emancipate her sex; that the Turkish ladies 
 turned their backs on her and that the Sultan 
 highly disapproved of her. She was so igno- 
 rant of our customs that she could not dis- 
 tinguish between familiarity and intimacy and 
 allowed the men who came to her house the 
 freedom of the demi-monde. 
 
 I asked Madame H afterwards how she 
 
 was going to manage her daughters, whom she 
 allowed to go to dancing school at one of the 
 Embassies and to ride, etc., when the time 
 came to put on their jashmaks and live in the 
 harem. She replied she hoped to marry
 
 CONSTANTINOPLE 171 
 
 them to men of advanced ideas, who would 
 give them freedom, adding, " In all new move- 
 ments there must be martyrs. My children 
 may have to suffer, but the time is coming 
 when we must have our rights, though it may 
 be long before it comes. Progress is slow in 
 Mohammedan countries." After the evening 
 passed at her home, I could not but regret that 
 she had not fallen into better hands for advice 
 and direction, as she had courage and ability 
 and might have done much for her sex; for I 
 suppose there must be many women in the 
 East waiting for an opportunity to claim 
 their freedom.* 
 
 So far as I could learn the men showed no 
 desire to emancipate the women. It is against 
 etiquette to speak to a man about his wife, 
 even to ask for her health. I remember on a 
 steamer going down the Sea of Marmora on the 
 way to Brousa, was a distinguished Turk who 
 knew us very well. His wife and children 
 were on board, hidden behind an awning. 
 He would come and talk with us frequently, 
 then return to them, but never alluded to 
 them. At Brousa, where we stayed several 
 
 * Freedom has at last come for them. The Turkish women 
 go about the streets unveiled — hold meetings where social and 
 literary matters are discussed and are claiming their rights. 
 (191 Ij".
 
 172 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 days, we lived in adjoining houses. He came 
 to see us constantly, after putting his wife and 
 children into a carriage and sending them off 
 to drive. Brousa is a most interesting old 
 Turkish town at the foot of Mount Olympus, 
 untouched by western influence, full of won- 
 derful mosques and should be visited by all 
 travellers. I lunched one day with a Turkish 
 lady and her children. Among the female 
 servants waiting at the table was one, very 
 fair, with golden hair and wearing a great 
 many chains and ornaments. After luncheon 
 I asked my hostess who the servant was who 
 seemed so different from the rest. She replied : 
 "She is a slave of my husband, and the child 
 she waited on is hers," adding, ''of course at 
 my husband's table all his children have a 
 right to sit!" These are only some of the 
 many instances I could cite to prove how far 
 apart are the Christian and Moslem points of 
 view, and how unlikely it is that they can 
 ever be reconciled. 
 
 Speaking of Brousa recalls a tragic incident 
 that occurred to a son of Macmillan the pub- 
 lisher. He, with one of the Secretaries of the 
 English Embassy, started from Brousa to as- 
 cend Mount Olympus. They made the ascent 
 successfully, and on returning Mr. Macmillan
 
 CONSTANTINOPLE 173 
 
 proposed that they should take different roads,- 
 and the guide accompanied Mr. Hardinge, 
 while Mr. Macmillan started alone, the de- 
 scent being easy and the road well defined. 
 On reaching the rendezvous, Mr. Macmillan 
 did not appear. The guide returned to look for 
 him while Mr. Hardinge, the present Viceroy 
 of India (1910), went for the police. The 
 next morning soldiers were sent to patrol the 
 mountains, without success. Orders were 
 sent from the Porte to leave nothing undone to 
 find the young man. Large rewards were 
 offered, but from that day to this not a trace 
 has been found of him. It is supposed that he 
 was robbed and killed by shepherds, who 
 buried him. While I was in the East manj^ 
 English travellers were seized and held for 
 ransom, till finally the English Government 
 made it known that they would pay no more, 
 under any circumstances, and soon the out- 
 rages ceased. 
 
 In the light of recent events one cannot but 
 regret that the Russians were not allowed to 
 take Constantinople when, after the Russo- 
 Turkish War, they were at its gates. Evil as 
 the Russian rule is, it is better than Turkish. 
 Russia would have been satisfied with the 
 ^'Warm water port" and a door to the ^led-
 
 174 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 iterranean. She would not have been forced 
 to turn enviously to the far East, and the 
 Russo-Japanese War might not have taken 
 place. All this might have been if England 
 had obtained possession of Egypt and the 
 Suez Canal ten years earlier. When I was in 
 Constantinople, twenty-five years ago, the 
 wise ones would wag their heads and prophesy 
 that ''This rotten government can't last much 
 longer, it is crumbling now." 
 
 Since then, the wonderful Turkish revolu- 
 tion has taken place, inspired and carried 
 out by the officers sent to Germany and 
 France to be educated and who there 
 learned not only military tactics but the ideas 
 of political freedom. The Sultan still sits on 
 his throne, and although he has lost the sup- 
 port of England, he has gained that of 
 Germany and still continues to play off the 
 Great Powers against each other to baffle 
 them. 
 
 One of the interesting figures in Constan- 
 tinople was Edgar Vincent, then in the Otto- 
 man Bank, young, about twenty-five, full of 
 energy, talent and executive ability, and as 
 handsome as a Greek god. He was chosen by 
 Lord Dufferin to go to Egypt as financial ad- 
 viser of the Khedive, and he advised so sue-
 
 CONSTANTINOPLE 175 
 
 cessfully that the Egyptian financiers were 
 relieved from their embarrassments and were 
 started on the road of their present prosperity. 
 Nothing is more noticeable in the modern 
 history of England than the remarkable men 
 she has sent to the far East in her service and 
 in that of the governments she protects. 
 Those I have had the pleasure of knowing, 
 have all been not only able, but gentlemen in 
 the best sense of the word, which cannot be 
 said of all those of other nationalities in cor- 
 responding positions. 
 
 In the spring of 1885 I left Constantinople, 
 after a residence of three years, feeling that I 
 knew a little something of the place. The 
 only way to know a country is to live in it and 
 know its people. When I see my friends 
 nowadays whizzing through countries in auto- 
 mobiles, seeing nothing of the daily life of the 
 people, knowing nothing of the customs, not 
 speaking the languages and obtaining only a 
 kaleidoscopic view of the scenery, I rejoice 
 that I started my travels on a mule and in a 
 sailing vessel, continued them in carriages and 
 railways, to say nothing of boats, rickshaws 
 and sedan chairs. Now my travels are overj 
 otherwise I am sure I should follow the fashion 
 and run about in an automobile like my
 
 176 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 friends and, like them, think I had really 
 seen and enjoyed the various countries I 
 passed through, at the rate of fifty miles 
 an hour.
 
 X 
 
 ITALY 
 
 1885-1886 
 
 FROM Constantinople I went to France 
 and from France to Italy, in the spring 
 of 1885. On reaching Italy I went to Sorrento, 
 to be near my sister, Mrs. Berdan, and Mr. and 
 Mrs. Marion Crawford. We spent the summer 
 together at the Hotel CocumcUa, formerly a 
 large convent, where we slept in the cells of 
 the monks and passed our days in the loggias. 
 Aside from my family, we had for companions 
 Mr. and Mrs. William Henry Hulburt. I must 
 speak of this extraordinary man as I knew him, 
 not as the world judged him. Gifted intel- 
 lectually far beyond the average, with rare 
 acquirements, both literary and artistic, and a 
 vivid memory, a keen sense of humor and 
 readiness of repartee, he made a most de- 
 hghtf ul companion ; and those dinners on the 
 loggias, the Mediterranean at our feet and 
 
 177
 
 178 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 Vesuvius smoking in the distance, when he 
 and Mr. Crawford discussed art, literature and 
 pohtics, still linger in my memory. Under 
 Mr. Hulburt's guidance I visited Pompeii and 
 Salerno. No need of a guide book. Pliny 
 and Horace and Virgil were our guides through 
 our clever countryman : and when I hear him 
 abused and despised, I think of him as I knew 
 him, so kindly, interesting and amusing, and I 
 feel that I must bear my testimony to the man 
 who had so many sides, of which I knew the 
 best. 
 
 It was at Sorrento, not long after, that 
 Marion Crawford bought and remodelled the 
 beautiful villa where he has written his best 
 novels, and where every room shows the 
 marks of his taste. There he died, in 1909, 
 and there his widow, my dear niece Bessie 
 Crawford, and her children now live. 
 
 I passed the winter of 1885-1886 in Florence. 
 I had a pleasant apartment in the Via Monte- 
 bello, and, by the aid of a few letters of intro- 
 duction, was soon launched into Florentine 
 society. My dear friend, Mrs. Woodworth, 
 was there and we revived the happy intimacy 
 of former days. 
 
 One of the most interesting acquaintances I 
 made in Florence was that of the Dowager
 
 ITALY 179 
 
 Duchess of Sermoneta, nee Ellis, and widow 
 of the ''blind Duke," the only Roman Prince 
 who supported Victor Emanuel and the cause 
 of United Italy. The Duke was a man of high 
 literary attainments, a Dante scholar, and a 
 connoisseur in Italian antiquities. His de- 
 scendants are to-day among the most promi- 
 nent of the great Roman nobility who are 
 identified with the progress of the country. 
 
 My friend, the Duchess, was an English- 
 woman, granddaughter of a Duke of Portland, 
 and very rich in her own right. She lived in a 
 dingy old palace stuffed with Italian antiq- 
 uities of every sort, but all interesting and 
 good. One evening, after dinner, I asked her 
 if she would show me her laces. She rang the 
 bell, and told the footman to bring the box of 
 laces. I naturally expected to see him return 
 with a paper box in his hand; instead, two men 
 staggered in under the weight of a huge 
 carved ''cassone," with an iron key a foot 
 long. We were four hours examining the 
 laces. I asked her how she came to make such 
 a collection. She replied: *' My aunt gave me 
 a thousand pounds for my trousseau. My 
 husband was blind and would not appreciate 
 lingerie, so I thought I would spend it in col- 
 lecting lace." There were priests' garments of
 
 180 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 Venise and Spanish point, flounces and collars 
 of Flanders and Holland, some remarkable 
 specimens of the earliest French lace, made at 
 the time Colbert introduced the manufacture 
 into France, Point d'Angleterre such as I have 
 never seen since, specimens of English lace of 
 every period; and I remember even now the 
 beaut}^ of a jabot which might have belonged 
 to a Lauzun or a Hamilton. The old embroi- 
 deries were wonderful: from the Greek Isles 
 and from Venice, from Sicilian and Spanish 
 convents and churches, and there was a baby's 
 layette of Point de Venise! The Duchess is 
 dead. I wonder who has inherited the laces, 
 the jewels, the rare old carvings, the pictures 
 and prints, tapestries and books. I presume 
 they have all gone to England, that store- 
 house of Europe.
 
 XI 
 
 THE HOLY LAND 
 April, 1895 
 
 ONE of the greatest disappointments of my 
 travels was my trip to Palestine. The 
 landing at Jaffa, the ancient Joppa, was ludi- 
 crous and might have been tragic. I had never 
 been warned that it was a dangerous port; in 
 fact, no port at all. The sea was rough that 
 morning, but I am so little accustomed to 
 regard the weather at sea that it did not occur 
 to me to look into the method of our landing. 
 The steamer anchored, and I went on deck 
 with my friend, Mrs. Osborn, to disembark. 
 I saw the dragoman speak to her. He took 
 her wrap, she rose and went to the gangway 
 and, as I supposed, walked down the ladder to 
 the boat. The dragoman returned and said: 
 "Lady, will you come?" I followed, and as I 
 reached the gangway I was lifted bodily by 
 
 181
 
 182 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 a stout sailor and thrown like a bundle into 
 the arms of a sailor standing in the boat below! 
 I must have passed at least ten feet through 
 the air, and when I recovered from my sur- 
 prise and my rage, I found my dear friend 
 sitting in the stern, in the attitude and act of 
 prayer. A stout Greek followed me in the 
 same way, while his sea-sick wife shouted and 
 howled with fright. Shortly the bags and 
 baggage were pitched down, as we were, and 
 then we started for the shore. It was a 
 perilous passage between rocks and shoals, 
 and when we landed we were assailed by the 
 Arabs, who so quarrelled and shouted over us 
 and our possessions, that my nerves gave way 
 and I burst into tears, the first time in all my 
 travels and adventures that I ever remember 
 losing my self-control. The trip through the 
 Holy Land was one long disillusion. The 
 Turkish soldiers protecting the Holy Sepulchre 
 against the quarrels of the Greeks, Armenians 
 and Catholics, the impostures of the so-called 
 Holy Places, the beggars, the lepers, the dirty 
 pilgrims, the terrible roar, the wretched ruins, 
 the impossibility of enjoying any spot about 
 Jerusalem in the peace one longs for, sanctified 
 as it is by reUgious associations, made my 
 visit to Jerusalem a source of deep regret.
 
 THE HOLY LAND 183 
 
 Nazareth and Mount Carmel were more 
 satisfactory, the hillsides untouched since 
 our Saviour and his disciples wandered over 
 them. The good monks at Mount Carmel 
 offered us the hospitality which they have ex- 
 tended to strangers ever since the days of His 
 Crusaders; and it was here, on these hills, that 
 sweet Alice Oliphant was carried to her last 
 home on the shoulders of the simple people who 
 adored her. The thrilling story of her life has 
 been told by an abler pen than mine, but I 
 cannot refrain from giving my testimony to 
 the charms of one of the most interesting 
 women I ever met, so gentle, exquisite and 
 refined, reared by a remarkable mother in the 
 highest circles of English life. 
 
 When I first knew Mrs. Oliphant she had 
 relinquished all to follow the fortunes of her 
 extraordinary husband, Laurence Oliphant. 
 He took her to Brockton, a community in 
 western New York, where his mother, Lady 
 Oliphant, had preceded them. They attrib- 
 uted to Harris, the head of the community, 
 supernatural powers, and under his direction. 
 Lady Oliphant, Laurence and Alice went 
 through a sort of ascetic probation in order 
 to fit themselves, as they thought, for the 
 better uplifting of humanity, enduring hard-
 
 184 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 ships of all sorts, and doing menial work. 
 Finally their eyes were opened as to the 
 personal character of Mr. Harris and they 
 left him, and founded a settlement of their 
 own in Haifa, in Syria, where the loving 
 and beloved Alice Oliphant, as I have said, 
 passed away. 
 
 i
 
 XII 
 
 SOUTHERN TRIP 
 October, 1895 
 
 IT was during the first year of the Harrison 
 administration, while I was visiting Vice- 
 President and Mrs. Morton at their beautiful 
 country place on the Hudson, that I renewed 
 my acquaintance with Mr. and Mrs. Morris 
 K. Jesup. In the course of conversation, 
 Mrs. Jesup asked me to make her a visit at 
 Bar Harbor. I accepted, and this apparently 
 sUght event brought a new and great interest 
 into my life. 
 
 It is unnecessary for me to describe Mount 
 Desert Island, the "Blessed Island" I learned 
 to call it, for some of my happiest hours, during 
 the last twenty years, have been passed there 
 in the hospitable home of those who became 
 mv dear and most intimate friends. Mr. 
 Jesup — alas! he has gone now — was, in some 
 respects, the most remarkable man I ever met. 
 He combined the practical sterling quaUties of 
 
 185
 
 186 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 the best New England blood, with the temper- 
 ament of the poet and idealist. I have never 
 known anyone w^ho could be so easily moved 
 to compassion, and who could also show such 
 fiery indignation. He was naturally melan- 
 cholic, and yet his laugh, at times, was as 
 boisterous as a boy's. He loved poetry, music 
 and pictures; his house was the centre of the 
 most gracious hospitality, and all interests, 
 civic, philanthropic and scientific, found a 
 welcome there. 
 
 His wife, whom he married when they were 
 both very young, was handsome, tall and 
 graceful, with a most charming disposition and 
 gracious manners, and their mutual attach- 
 ment was beautiful to witness. She was al- 
 ways his first thought. I have often asked her 
 if she realized how blessed she was in inspiring 
 and holding, for fifty years, an affection so 
 absolute and devoted. He showed his con- 
 fidence in her ability by leaving her the abso- 
 lute control of his large fortune, and she shows 
 that she deserved the trust, for she is ad- 
 ministering it wisely. 
 
 It is to this delightful couple that I owe 
 very many happy summers in Bar Harbor and 
 Lenox, where I was welcome at all times, 
 and where I met the choicest society in this
 
 SOUTHERN TRIP 187 
 
 country. Before Mr. Jesup died, he gave me 
 the charming cottage in Bar Harbor, in which 
 I am writing these Hnes, because, as he said, 
 he wished me always to hve near his wife. 
 The shadow of death was then approaching; 
 he died the following year, in 1908. I shall 
 never cease to mourn his loss. 
 
 One of Mr. Jesup's greatest interests w^as 
 the education of the colored race, and he was 
 Treasurer of the Slater Fund, founded for that 
 object. While talking with me on this subject, 
 during one of my visits to Lenox, he suddenly 
 exclaimed: ''I wish you would take a trip 
 South, and look about you and tell me what 
 you think could best be done for the colored 
 people." The proposition startled me, and I 
 was not disposed to treat it seriously, but after 
 I went to bed it pursued me. I fancied I heard 
 my father's voice telling me it was my duty 
 to go, for he always impressed upon his chil- 
 dren that they should never shirk an oppor- 
 tunity of doing good. I told Mr. Jesup the 
 next morning that I would do as he wished, 
 if I could induce my friend, Mrs. Hopkins, of 
 Washington, to accompany me. Before I give 
 an account of my journey, I must say some- 
 thing of the lady I had chosen of all others to 
 be my companion.
 
 188 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 Charlotte Everett Hopkins is such an inter- 
 esting character that I fear I shall not do her 
 justice by any description I may give of her. 
 Her father was Captain Henry A. Wise, of 
 the Navy, a native of Virginia who remained 
 faithful to the flag during the Civil War, when 
 his loyalty was severely tried by his being sent 
 to Norfolk to sink the Cumberland and other 
 ships, to save them from destruction by the 
 Merrimac. He was a fine officer, and a fine 
 gentleman, in the old-fashioned sense of the 
 word. He was celebrated for his wit, and his 
 wife was wont to say that it was a great sacri- 
 fice for her to go out to dinner, as she thus 
 lost the society of the most agreeable man in 
 Washington. As for Mrs. Wise, she was a 
 personage who was never forgotten by anyone 
 who had ever met her. She was the daughter 
 of Edward Everett, was brought up in New 
 England, residing later in Florence and Paris 
 until, in 1841, she went to England, where her 
 father was Minister, making her debut in 
 society there. Such was her wit, her humor, 
 her good sense, her bonhomie, her hospitality, 
 that she was loved by everyone. With such 
 an inheritance, my friend Charlotte could 
 hardly fail to be an exceptional character. 
 She married Mr. Archibald Hopkins, a well-
 
 SOUTHERN TRIP 189 
 
 known lawyer of Washington, and, during the 
 latter part of the Civil War, Colonel of the 
 37th Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers. 
 Mr. Hopkins is a son of the celebrated author 
 and teacher. President Hopkins, of Williams 
 College, and, for many years. President of the 
 American Board of Foreign Missions. 
 
 I have always thought that my friend Char- 
 lotte is about the best company I know, gifted 
 with extreme intelligence, the keenest sense of 
 humor, and great dramatic power in descrip- 
 tion, she is at the same time deeply sympa- 
 thetic with all forms of suffering, and self- 
 sacrificing to an extent I have never seen 
 equalled; in fact, I often tell her that ''her 
 philanthropy is almost a vice." She has been 
 foremost in all the charitable enterprises in 
 Washington, and has such a gift in addressing 
 an audience that she is sought for on many 
 occasions. Of course, with such a nature, the 
 cause of the negro was sure to appeal, espe- 
 cially as she and her husband had been friends 
 of General Armstrong, the founder of Hamp- 
 ton, so she cordially accepted my invitation 
 to accompany me on my southern trip. 
 
 W^e started on our journey sixteen years 
 ago, October 1, 1895. Mr. Jesup had charged 
 us not to go as missionaries, but to take our
 
 190 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 smart clothes, and letters of introduction to 
 the best people, as he wished us to get at their 
 views as well as that of others, in regard to 
 the negro question. We were also to see the 
 negroes of all classes and judge of the con- 
 ditions of rural life, and to visit not only Slater 
 Fund schools but others as well. It was a 
 large order, but we were full of enthusiasm 
 and not afraid. The result showed that we 
 needed to be both fearless and enthusiastic. 
 So, provided with letters to the schools and 
 to ''the first famiUes," we started for Hamp- 
 ton, where w^e were to get our " carte du pays." 
 It is unnecessary for me to describe Hamp- 
 ton, the model negro industrial school in the 
 country, whence colored teachers have gone 
 out through the whole South, and where 
 Booker Washington received his inspiration 
 and education. While we were there, a man 
 who had fought in all the battles on the Penin- 
 sula under McClellan, drove us through the 
 country and explained scenes and incidents of 
 the various engagements, bringing us out 
 finally at Yorktown, where we saw the noble 
 monument erected to mark the scene of the 
 final act of the Revolution, when Cornwallis 
 surrendered his sword to Washington. Every 
 inch of that drive was over historic ground,
 
 SOUTHERN TRIP 191 
 
 where thousands of our countrymen had shed 
 their blood in the cause of liberty. From there 
 we crossed the bay to Norfolk, escorted by 
 Captain Moton, a teacher at Hampton, who 
 told us that his ancestor was an African prince 
 who, while bringing some of his own subjects 
 to a slaver, was detained on board the vessel 
 until after she got to sea, and was sold with 
 his people. Moton is the military commander 
 of the scholars at Hampton, a strict disci- 
 plinarian, a remarkable speaker and one of 
 the leaders of his race. 
 
 We stopped in Norfolk one night only, as 
 we were anxious to reach Lawrenceville, the 
 first stage of our journey. We were told there 
 were two hotels in Lawrenceville, and we chose 
 the one whose name sounded the more at- 
 tractive. We found a rather large, dilapidated 
 two-story house, with an addition extending 
 from the main building, and it was to two 
 rooms in this annex that our host, a tall, 
 lanky, unkempt, shabbily-dressed man, con- 
 ducted us. While Mrs. Hopkins, who had 
 already assumed the position of room investi- 
 gator, had enlisted the services of a bedraggled 
 looking ncgress with broom and pail, I entered 
 into conversation with our host, who seated 
 himself in a social attitude on the rail of the
 
 192 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 veranda. I inquired about a sinister-looking 
 building across the street. ''Oh! that's the 
 jail we lock the niggers in at night, and work 
 them during the day." ''Are they securely 
 locked up and watched during the night?" I 
 inquired, for they seemed to me dangerously 
 near. "Oh! they try to break out now and 
 then; there ain't mo're than half a dozen there 
 now." Mrs. Hopkins, who overheard the con- 
 versation, commenced to examine the locks of 
 our doors, and whispered: "There is not even 
 a latch that will hold." 
 
 I next inquired about a colored school in the 
 neighborhood we had come to see, kept by 
 Archdeacon Russell. "Oh, yes," he replied, 
 "it's a good school; whenever I want a job 
 done I send' to Russell and his boys come and 
 do it. Russell is a first-rate nigger, but then his 
 father was a high-toned southern gentleman." 
 
 We were then called to supper by a refined, 
 delicate young woman of a pure English type, 
 looking worn out with hard work and poor 
 food, who proved to be our landlady. We sat 
 down to table with some rough-looking but 
 good-natured men who, we learned by their 
 conversation, were drummers — a class we met 
 frequently afterwards, and found at times very 
 amusing.
 
 SOUTHERN TRIP 193 
 
 Archdeacon Russell's school, in Virginia, 
 was the first among the many which have 
 been founded after the example of Hampton 
 through the South, and which have done good 
 service in the education of the colored race. 
 I learned there, to my surprise, that all the 
 scholars paid for their board and clothing, and 
 judging from the good trunks outside their 
 doors, the latter seemed ample. The parents 
 of these girls and boys were evidently indus- 
 trious people who were anxious for the educa- 
 tion of their children. We attended the classes 
 and the lessons seemed well learned, judging 
 by the prompt and intelligent answers. The 
 school seemed not only admirably conducted 
 but financially strong. 
 
 We passed through the dreaded perils of the 
 night safely, and at 6 A. M. were in the dining 
 room for breakfast. As for the breakfast — it 
 was our first experience of southern hotel cook- 
 ing. Well ! I made up my mind then that cook- 
 ing schools were of the first importance in the 
 South. We next proceeded to the town of Em- 
 poria, more dilapidated and broken down, if 
 possible, than Lawrenceville. The white men 
 were sitting on the fences in the sun, rather 
 silent, chewing tobacco; the whole place 
 seemed asleep, buried in dirt and dust, and
 
 194 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 piles of old tomato cans filled the gutters. I 
 tried to do a little missionary work for the 
 Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Ani- 
 mals by remonstrating with the proprietor of 
 a so-called livery stable on his neglect of a 
 splendid donkey, of the fine Sardinian breed, 
 covered with filth and vermin. I could not 
 convince him that he was not only ruining the 
 animal, but his own interests as well. 
 
 So far we had been more impressed with the 
 degraded condition of the whites than of the 
 blacks in these small towns. Whatever work 
 was done, was done by the negroes, while the 
 whites were idle, dirty and offensive in ap- 
 pearance. The fences were broken down, the 
 houses dilapidated, piles of refuse filled the 
 streets ; and as for gardens, or any kind of culti- 
 vation, they did not exist. All these conditions 
 in that lovely climate where, in October, there 
 had as yet been no frost, and nature seemed 
 only waiting for the hand of man to bestow her 
 bounties upon him. As yet the only white 
 woman we had seen was the sad-looking land- 
 lady at Lawrenceville. 
 
 At Emporia we took the train for Kittrell, 
 North Carolina, where there was a good sum- 
 mer hotel, we had been told, and where we 
 could pass Sunday and visit Mr. Hawkins'
 
 SOUTHERN TRIP 195 
 
 school (of the American Methodist Episcopal 
 Church), considered quite a model. The train 
 went along in a leisurely way, and, after about 
 an hour's trip in company with our friends the 
 drummers, who could not conceal their curi- 
 osity about us, we found ourselves on the plat- 
 form of the station at Kittrell. Mrs. Hopkins 
 called a boy who was standing by to take our 
 luggage to the hotel. ''Hotel burned down 
 last week, marm." As we had been told that 
 there would be no train till Monday morning, 
 she accosted a good-looking colored man stand- 
 ing near and asked him where we could find 
 lodgings in the town, adding that we had 
 come to see Mr. Hawkins' school. 
 
 ''I am Mr. Hawkins, madam; there is no 
 town here and no other hotel, but I shall be 
 very glad if you will accept my hospitahty." 
 
 I was standing at a little distance watching 
 the colloquy. Mrs. Hopkins came to me with 
 an amused look in her face, but command in 
 her voice, and said: ''There is nothing for us 
 but the open fields or Mr. Hawkins' house 
 until Monday morning." 
 
 I bowed, and we were soon in Mr. Hawkins' 
 wagon driving to his house, situated in a beau- 
 tiful grove of oaks and pines with several large 
 school buildings near by. The house was the
 
 196 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 ordinary two-story village house, with a veran- 
 da. As we approached, the door w^as opened 
 by a tall, fine-looking mulatto woman, to whom 
 ]\Ir. Hawkins said: ''My dear, these ladies 
 have kindly consented to pass Sunday with 
 us.'' 
 
 Without any expression of surprise, she said, 
 with a smile: ''Won't you walk in, ladies?" and 
 led us into a parlor comfortably and tastefully 
 furnished, a harmonium on one side, a book- 
 case on the other, and a bright fire burning in 
 the fire-place. It was the sort of pleasant 
 room one might find in any New England 
 village. After sitting a few minutes, Mrs. 
 Hawkins suggested that, as it was Saturday 
 and the schools closed early, it might be well 
 if we went to see them at once. We recog- 
 nized the housekeeper's desire to dispose of 
 us for a while, until she could make some 
 arrangements for her unexpected guests, so we 
 cordially expressed our willingness to go to see 
 the schools. We found them modelled after 
 Hampton, the arrangements of the simplest 
 kind, but very practical and scrupulously neat. 
 'Twas refreshing to see such neatness after our 
 recent experiences. All the work was done by 
 the scholars: the boys working on the farm 
 and in the stable, caring for the cattle, poultry
 
 SOUTHERN TRIP 197 
 
 and pigs, while the girls did the housework. 
 They all looked healthy and happy. 
 
 In due time we returned to the house to find 
 our hostess ready to receive us; she ushered us 
 into a bedroom furnished with every comfort, 
 even to the luxury of cologne in pretty bottles, 
 the best of scented soap, an abundance of 
 towels, and a can of hot water by the side of 
 the fire which was crackling on the brass 
 andirons. At the same time there was an 
 atmosphere of occupancy which convinced us 
 that it was Mrs. Hawkins' bedroom hastily 
 arranged. Shortly supper was announced and 
 we went into the parlor, to be introduced to 
 Mrs. Hawkins' father and mother from North 
 Dakota. We all proceeded to the dining room, 
 and found a good, well-cooked meal on the 
 table, and a pretty tea equipage in front of 
 Mrs. Hawkins. Our hosts seemed perfectly 
 unconscious that they were doing anything 
 unusual in entertaining white people, and our 
 only desire was to be as simple and uncon- 
 scious as they were. After a while the feeling 
 of awkwardness on our part wore off, and we 
 found ourselves talking with them as if they 
 were old acquaintances. As for Mrs. Hopkins, 
 she rose to the occasion in her own inimitable 
 manner. 'Twas a scene I shall never forget.
 
 198 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 Mrs. Hawkins' father was a mulatto, from 
 Martinique, with evidently a strong strain 
 of French blood, tall and handsome; her 
 mother was half Mexican, and looked Spanish; 
 they were both free born, and had gone to 
 North Dakota to settle, as they said, away 
 from the traditions of slavery. There they 
 had brought up their daughter, except when 
 she went to the Conservatory of Music in 
 Boston; and I discovered afterwards that she 
 sang like a bird. 
 
 After supper we all sat together around the 
 fire, till late into the night, and they told us 
 their histories, and their hopes and fears for 
 the future. They showed pride and self- 
 respect. Mrs. Hawkins was the only one who 
 seemed to feel any bitterness; she had evi- 
 dently suffered in Boston, and was less hope- 
 ful for her race than the rest. Mr. Hawkins, 
 w^ho had a most attractive personality, ex- 
 pressed an earnest conviction that his people 
 were on the right road to becoming good citi- 
 zens; ''only give us time," he exclaimed. We 
 touched on the delicate question of social 
 equality. ''We don't want it," they all said, 
 "if the white men would only leave our girls 
 alone. Let us revert to our original color; let 
 the men grow strong and the women virtuous.
 
 SOUTHERN TRIP 199 
 
 then give us education, and we can hold our 
 own. Hampton statistics show that the pure 
 blacks make as intelligent men and women as 
 those of mixed race." It was curious to sit 
 there and hear these people, all mulattoes, 
 defend the rights of the pure-blooded negro, 
 and rank themselves with them rather than 
 with the race to which their grandfathers or 
 fathers had belonged. I never met anyone 
 afterwards so strong in the expression of these 
 views; but everj^where we encountered the 
 deep feeling, still existent, of resentment 
 against that phase of the slavery system which 
 permitted the separation of families, the sale 
 of husbands from wives, the non-recognition 
 of the marriage tie and the consequent im- 
 morality. 
 
 The next morning we attended a service 
 called '' devotion." As Mr. Hawkins was not 
 a clergyman, he made that distinction between 
 the church service and his. We found all the 
 boys and girls assembled when we went in, 
 and Mrs. Hopkins and I were given seats on 
 the platform. I was much interested in watch- 
 ing the expression of the dark shining faces. 
 After prayer, reading of the Bible and singing, 
 Mr. Hawkins turned to me and said: ''Mrs. 
 Hobson, will you address the school?" I was
 
 200 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 startled by the sudden suggestion, having had 
 no experience in public speaking and begged 
 him to excuse me. ''Oh, but they will be so 
 disappointed," he whispered. 
 
 As he spoke, my eyes rested on a large map 
 of the Holy Land. I had been there recently, 
 and the outlines were so familiar that I ex- 
 claimed: ^'Children, would you like to hear 
 something about the Holy Land? " All hands 
 went up, and I commenced at Jaffa and then 
 led them through the country. The sight of 
 their upturned faces and their responsive ex- 
 pression, as I described the incidents of the 
 journey in a country they were familiar with 
 through the Bible, so inspired me that I 
 really enjoyed it, and realized, for the first 
 time, the influence an audience must have on 
 a speaker. When I had finished, Mrs. Hopkins 
 gave them an interesting account of General 
 Armstrong's career. Lincoln and Armstrong 
 are the two heroes of the colored race, and their 
 pictures hang in every school. 
 
 On our return to the house, we found the 
 party had been increased by the arrival of 
 Mr. Hawkins' father and mother. A sad- 
 looking, broken-down old couple, who had 
 been slaves on the very land now owned by 
 their son, and where he had built his cottage
 
 SOUTHERN TRIP 201 
 
 and his schools. The contrast between the 
 free-born negroes from North Dakota and the 
 slaves of the Virginia plantation told the story 
 of freedom and slavery with a pathos no words 
 can describe. Mrs. Hawkins' parents showed 
 no consciousness of inferiority — they were 
 simply natural — but the ex-slaves were shy and 
 timid. After dinner, when they seemed dis- 
 turbed by our presence, I lured the old woman 
 to the sunny side of the veranda and explained 
 to her the object of our visit, and drew her out 
 about herself and the past. She had been born 
 on the land where we sat ; she had had thirteen 
 children, of whom Mr. Hawkins, the youngest, 
 was the only one left. The rest, she said, had 
 died or had been sold away. She never had 
 any chance to take care of her children as, be- 
 ing a field hand, she had to work, and she 
 showed me the deep welts in her legs from the 
 lash. She was not bitter; she was only sad, a 
 broken-down old woman, whose only source of 
 happiness now was in her son, and he fully 
 deserved the loving pride she felt for him. 
 Her husband said little; he too looked sad and 
 worn out. So far we had not encountered the 
 amusing, humorous characters we had read of 
 in the southern books. Our friends all took 
 Ufe much too seriously to joke.
 
 202 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 In answer to our inquiries, we were told that 
 the boys and girls in the schools found plenty 
 of occupation as soon as they left, the boys in 
 practising the trades they had learned; and 
 the girls married the boys, and their training 
 told in their homes. They also try to buy 
 land, and in the vicinity we saw many acres 
 under the cultivation of Mr. Hawkins' boys. 
 
 We left on Monday morning, deeply im- 
 pressed with our experience of the life and 
 struggles of the best class of negroes to uplift 
 and help their race. We could not have had a 
 better opportunity to obtain the information 
 we sought — the real condition of the people, 
 their attitude towards the whites, their own 
 views of their present position, and their 
 hopes for the future. This experience was of 
 great use to us in forming our subsequent 
 conclusions. 
 
 I shall not enter into a minute detail of all 
 the places we visited, but simply give some 
 anecdotes significant of the conditions we met, 
 and the incidents which served to enliven our 
 trip. It was very hard travelling, through a 
 country not yet recovered from the ravages of 
 the war, and which had not then felt the touch 
 of prosperity which has since reached it. 
 
 Our next stopping place was Raleigh, where
 
 SOUTHERN TRIP 203 
 
 I had some relatives I had never seen ; but with 
 true southern hospitahty I had only to call and 
 send in my name to be received most cordially 
 as ''Cousin Elizabeth." We soon found they 
 would have no sympathy with the object of 
 our trip. They spoke of the negroes en masse 
 as dirty, lazy, insubordinate, and hopeless, 
 ''so different from those of former days when 
 they made the best servants in the world." 
 
 My pretty young cousin told of her recent 
 experience at Harvard, where she went to see 
 her brother graduate. 
 
 "Think of it," she exclaimed, "negroes are 
 received in the classes there. I went to the 
 ball and there I saw a negro dressed like a 
 gentleman. Of course I left immediately." 
 
 From Raleigh we went to Charlotte. 
 While there we inquired about a Uni- 
 versity we had been asked by a friend in 
 New York to investigate. A short drive 
 brought us to a shabby old house, the door of 
 which was opened by a gray-haired negro, in 
 a long, gray Confederate army coat. He 
 proved to be the President of the University. 
 He asked us into a room, filled with har- 
 moniums of different sizes, and a large table 
 in the centre was piled high with Bibles. The 
 President told us that the classes were hardly
 
 204 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 formed yet for the winter course, but acknowl- 
 edged that one was then in session. We urged 
 the privilege so strongly to be allowed to see 
 the scholars that, with evident reluctance, he 
 led us into the yard, thence into a barn, where 
 on some boards resting on boxes, about twenty 
 bare-footed children were being taught the 
 primer by the President's wife, and that was 
 the '' University " to which my friend and her 
 mother had been contributing for many years. 
 I need hardly say that the contributions 
 ceased after our report. 
 
 From Charlotte we drove through cotton 
 fields to Columbia, South Carolina, where 
 we had a most interesting and amusing ex- 
 perience. With difficulty, we obtained one 
 room in the large old-fashioned hotel, the 
 place being crowded with men who, as we 
 learned later, had come from all parts of the 
 State to attend the Constitutional Conven- 
 tion. The condition of the room assigned 
 to us was so unattractive, indeed I may say 
 disgusting, that Mrs. Hopkins proposed to go 
 and deliver a letter of introduction we had to 
 a lady from the North, in the hope that she 
 might offer us a night's lodging. Meanwhile, 
 I was to remain at the hotel, keep our room 
 and guard our luggage. My curiosity led me
 
 .SOUTHERN TRIP 205 
 
 into the hall to look at the crowd, composed of 
 stalwart, shabbily-dressed men, all of whom 
 had a certain air of breeding and a look of 
 command. A man with one arm stood near 
 me and, in spite of the fact that he was vigor- 
 ously chewing tobacco, he had such a pleasant, 
 friendly expression, that I could not resist the 
 temptation to accost him and inquire the busi- 
 ness of the great crowd. He told me they 
 were members of the Constitutional Conven- 
 tion, and then he asked me, ''If I were one of 
 the suffrage ladies? " 
 
 ''Oh! no," I replied, "but I would like very 
 much to attend one of your meetings." 
 
 " Well, " said he, " to-night it will be interest- 
 ing, because we are going to settle the nigger 
 question, whether they shall have the vote or 
 not. I will get you a seat if you are at the door 
 at eight o'clock." 
 
 Just then Mrs. Hopkins appeared, unable 
 to disguise her astonishment at seeing me, as 
 she said, "flirting with that disreputable look- 
 ing man." I whispered that he was a southern 
 Colonel, and most civil and gallant, and that 
 I was certainly going to the Convention under 
 his wing. Mrs. Hopkins brought the good 
 news that the lady from the North invited us 
 most cordially to stop with her; so, after receiv-
 
 206 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 ing my Colonel's card, I bade him good-bye 
 until the evening, and accompanied Mrs. Hop- 
 kins to the house of Mrs. B . On showing 
 
 the card to her husband, he said: ''You are in 
 luck, the Colonel is one of the most prominent 
 men in the Convention. Go by all means ; I will 
 take you to the door." We found that Mr. 
 
 B had been sent to the South during the 
 
 Reconstruction period ; I fancy the Southerners 
 would have called him a ''carpet-bagger," but 
 he was a well-bred, intelligent man, occupying 
 the difficult position of a Republican official 
 in a southern state. His wife was much inter- 
 ested in the negro conditions, especially in the 
 mulatto girls, and told us many anecdotes of 
 the difficulties of their fives. The sum of her 
 conclusions was that they should have an edu- 
 cation which would teach them thrift and that 
 labor was honorable, the influence of slavery 
 having been the reverse, as its stigma had 
 cast a shadow over all industry. 
 
 At eight o'clock we were at the door of the 
 State House, a fine granite building, with balls 
 of Sherman's artiUery firmly imbedded in its 
 waUs. My friend, the Colonel, who was wait- 
 ing for us, led us into the haU and gave us a 
 seat in the midst of a group of other Colonels, 
 to whom we were introduced. I found the
 
 SOUTHERN TRIP 207 
 
 subject under discussion was negro suffrage, 
 and after listening to several fiery speeches, I 
 ventured to suggest to my neighbors that the 
 question might be settled by the test of 
 illiteracy. 
 
 "But that would disfranchise 15,000 whites 
 who fought for the Confederacy," exclaimed 
 one of the Colonels. 
 
 "But, after all," I replied, "you white 
 men can always maintain control over the 
 negroes." 
 
 "Do you see that group over there?" he 
 replied, pointing to several negroes sitting 
 together. "Those men are natural orators; 
 they can lead their people where they choose. 
 No, we must find a way to disfranchise them, 
 or they will rule us." 
 
 We waited some time in the hope of hearing 
 the colored orators, but they made no attempt 
 to speak, merely sat calmly listening to abuse 
 by their opponents, biding their time. Some 
 years after, when I heard Booker Washington 
 speak, I recalled that scene in the Conven- 
 tion and I thought they had not waited in 
 vain. Our friend, the Colonel, told us after- 
 wards that one of those negroes had been so 
 successful in business, that he had bought his 
 old master's plantation, and gave his former
 
 208 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 mistress the use of the house and grounds 
 which were her only means of support. 
 
 We left Columbia the next day for Charles- 
 ton, feeling that we had learned a great deal 
 from our friends, the Colonel and our hosts, 
 on both sides of the great question. 
 
 We went to the best hotel in Charleston, 
 delivered our letters of introduction to the 
 first families, and awaited the result. We had 
 been told at Hampton to go to a certain drug 
 store, kept by a negro, who would put us in 
 the way of seeing the leading negroes of the 
 city. This we also did, and made an appoint- 
 ment with the druggist for the following even- 
 ing. On our return to the hotel we found 
 cards of invitation to dinner and supper, in 
 response to our letters of introduction. 
 
 The first house we visited was on the beau- 
 tiful esplanade by the sea, and was a most 
 attractive residence, occupied by charming 
 people, who gave us a most cordial welcome. 
 I never saw Mrs. Hopkins more brilliant than 
 she was that evening, and the whole party 
 listened with delight to her anecdotes and 
 witty repartee. I overheard one of the guests 
 whisper to our hostess: ''\\Tiat brings them 
 here?" "Niggers!" she replied. 
 
 So we were found out; I suppose through
 
 SOUTHERN TRIP 209 
 
 some words in our letters of introduction, but 
 nevertheless they were mystified; the anti- 
 slavery ladies and missionary teachers they 
 had seen did not wear velvet and point-lace, 
 and did not put up at the best hotel. Finally, 
 curiosity impelled them to lead up to the sub- 
 ject. We said little or nothing, as we desired 
 to hear their point of view without argu- 
 ment. They regarded the free negro as hope- 
 less ; he would never work without the stimulus 
 of the lash, and all the money spent by the 
 North on his education was so much thrown 
 away. Everywhere we heard the same senti- 
 ments, and we did not meet a single person in 
 that society who had taken the trouble to 
 investigate the question in order to verify his 
 opinion. We visited other aristocratic families 
 on the esplanade, who showed us their beau- 
 tiful family relics, and who charmed us by 
 their genial manners and conversation. The 
 men were handsome and agreeable, with 
 manners like Englishmen of the early Vic- 
 torian days. Those Charleston men were of 
 a different type from the Columbia Colonels. 
 They were of the governing class of the days 
 before the Civil War; and, disdaining to touch 
 politics now, they stand aloof, like the 
 Frenchmen of the Faubourg St. Germain —
 
 210 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 and Tillman represents South Carolina in 
 Congress! 
 
 The next morning we asked the head waiter, 
 a most portly and dignified colored man, to 
 get us a carriage, and were much surprised at 
 the ^mart victoria and liveried coachman 
 which awaited us, and remarking upon it to 
 him: ^'Nothing is too good for such ladies 
 as you," he said, with a profound bow; 
 and then we saw that he too had found us 
 out. 
 
 Upon the druggist's invitation, we went to a 
 meeting of negroes in a church. Among them 
 were clergymen of different denominations, 
 cotton-factors, doctors, lawyers, and trades- 
 m^en. They all spoke hopefully of their pros- 
 pects, were not discouraged, and were con- 
 vinced they were working their way up to the 
 light. One of them said: '^The doctors are 
 very anxious to have a hospital of their own, 
 for although colored patients are received at 
 the hospitals, colored doctors are not allowed 
 to attend them." These doctors all held 
 diplomas from Northern colleges.* We were 
 much impressed with the intelligence of those 
 
 * When, later, the much-wished-for colored hospital had been 
 established, some of the colored people in Washington, to whom 
 we spoke of it, wished so much to help that, for two years, they 
 paid the interest of the mortgage on the hospital.
 
 SOUTHERN TRIP 211 
 
 men, and their calmness in discussing their dif- 
 ficulties and the opposition they encountered. 
 We left the meeting in a pouring rain for the 
 station. The driver gave his horses in charge 
 of a friend and insisted upon carrying our bags 
 and seeing us safely on the train. He said, as 
 he gave us in charge of the Pullman porter: 
 ''John, take good care of these ladies, for they 
 are angels." John had never heard of the dis- 
 pute in New York when the clergy had decided 
 that angels were men, not women. 
 
 The South ! how much that one word repre- 
 sents of heroism and patriotism, pride and 
 prejudice, love and hate! In spite of all asser- 
 tions to the contrary, my intimate acquaint- 
 ance with so many southern women forces me 
 to assert that I have never known one, old 
 enough to have lived through the Civil War, 
 and who had therefore received the impress of 
 that awful struggle, who was really recon- 
 structed. Strive as they may, the iron entered 
 into their souls then, and although they are 
 now loyal to the flag, they can never forgive 
 their conquerors, or be reconciled to the 
 change. Then there is the eternal problem of 
 the negro. I have talked with my friends by 
 the hour, trying to convince them that the only 
 hope for the South was in the education of
 
 212 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 the negro, to make him an industrious, self- 
 respecting citizen. The southern leaders are 
 now recognizing this, and are appropriating 
 large sums for that object; but their hearts are 
 not in it and I am convinced that if, by vote, 
 they could dispatch every negro man, woman 
 and child to Africa, they would do so. The 
 negroes are aware of this feeling, and one of 
 them said to me: ''We are Americans as much 
 as you are; our ancestors came over at the 
 same time and here we shall stay.'' The 
 racial antipathy is especially strong among the 
 southern women, although they never cease to 
 insist upon their love for their '' mammy s" 
 and the devotion of their slaves. Their view 
 is that freedom has ruined the negro, made 
 him lazy, impertinent and lawless, and that 
 education, except on the simplest industrial 
 lines, is fatal to him. ''Of course they must 
 be taught to work, but higher education, 
 never!" When I argue with them that a 
 race is worthy of respect who in forty-five 
 years has raised itself from slavery, with all 
 the degradation the word implies, to become 
 owners of property, managers of banks of 
 their own, and who are practising the learned 
 professions among their people, I meet with 
 incredulity, or with indignant protests against
 
 SOUTHERN TRIP 213 
 
 raising such people " out of the sphere in which 
 God has placed them!" 
 
 Since those days of 1895, sixteen years ago, 
 there has been, I am happy to say, a great 
 change in public opinion in the South in regard 
 to the negro. The important educational work 
 of the Slater and the Rockefeller Funds has 
 gained sympathy and co-operation from the 
 best white element in the South, and the 
 future is full of hope. 
 
 From Charleston to Savannah, stopping at 
 Montgomery to see a remarkably good school, 
 in charge of tw^o northern ladies, and on to At- 
 lanta, where we passed a most interesting morn- 
 ing visiting the Spellman Institute, an indus- 
 trial school for colored girls, established by the 
 Baptists, and chiefly sustained by the benevo- 
 lence of Mr. Rockefeller. I have never seen 
 anywhere a more beautifully conducted insti- 
 tution, managed by a very remarkable woman 
 whose inteUigence and character greatly im- 
 pressed me. Every branch of domestic science 
 was taught, and there was a small hospital where 
 nurses were trained. I remarked to the princi- 
 pal that I presumed there was no difficulty in 
 finding good places for her girls in Atlanta. " I 
 do not encourage my girls to go into service in 
 Atlanta," she said. "I want my girls to marry
 
 214 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 early and make nice homes, and thus save the 
 young men and themselves." She added that 
 the custom at the South of sending the serv- 
 ants out to sleep was very demoralizing. The 
 negro quarters are generally at a distance from 
 the residence of the whites (in fact in many of 
 the towns of the South the negroes cannot own 
 or rent a house in the white quarter), and the 
 young women are thus exposed to many temp- 
 tations to which white servants are not liable. 
 This, she said, explains why the southern 
 ladies complain that colored women are lazy 
 and diiiicult to manage, for the freedom en- 
 gendered by going home every night has 
 naturally an attraction for them, as they are 
 social and pleasure-loving and are not willing 
 to forego their nocturnal liberty. Of course 
 the custom is subversive of all household dis- 
 cipline, and I learned that after six o'clock one 
 could rarely find a servant in any house except 
 perhaps a nurse, or an old woman who had her 
 lodging provided. The conversations we had 
 with the white residents of Atlanta corre- 
 sponded with those at Charleston, evincing 
 utter lack of sympathy with the colored 
 people. 
 
 From Atlanta we went to Tuskegee, taking 
 the New Orleans Express, which we were to
 
 SOUTHERN TRIP 213 
 
 leave at a junction where Booker Washington 
 had written that an engine with a car would 
 be waiting for us. Our train was late, and 
 about midnight we began to be anxious lest 
 we should find ourselves left on a platform in 
 a raw October night with no prospect of 
 shelter. We expressed our fears to the con- 
 ductor. *' Did Washington say the car would 
 be there?" he asked; *' because, if he did, you 
 needn't worry, he'll see to it. I'll hold up my 
 own train and pass you over safely.'* And so 
 he did. After a trip of about half an hour, 
 when we seemed to be climbing a mountain, 
 we were bundled into a big wagon filled with 
 negroes, who sang songs and told stories for 
 upwards of an hour. 
 
 When we finally reached our destination, 
 at 2 A. M., thoroughly worn out, Mrs. Wash- 
 ington received us and took us to our room. I 
 was grateful to see a bright fire, and to seek 
 the comfort of a bed. We slept the sleep 
 of weary travellers, awoke the next morning 
 much refreshed, and prepared ourselves to 
 meet Mr. and Mrs. Washington at breakfast. 
 As soon as the meal was over, we started on 
 our study of this remarkable institution. It 
 was like being in the heart of Africa ; there was 
 only one white person there, a teacher from the
 
 216 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 North, a temporar}^ appointment to teach 
 some new industry. 
 
 It is unnecessary for me to enter into details 
 of what we saw at that time, when all was in 
 its infancy ■ but even then the plan was clearly 
 defined in the mind of its projector, and as he 
 told us of all he proposed to do, his eye would 
 kindle, and his wonderful voice would tremble 
 with the emotion his hopes inspired. No one 
 could resist the influence of that marvellous 
 personality, or fail to share his enthusiasm. 
 Every teacher, every scholar seemed alert; 
 activity, industry, earnestness, filled the air; 
 'Ho work for our race," was the keynote of 
 the life of Tuskegee. And, during the years 
 that have passed since then, the education of 
 those young men and women who have gone 
 out into the world, has justified the hopes of its 
 founder, as revealed by the recent census, 
 absolutely contradicting the pessimistic views 
 of those who despair of the negro race. 
 
 Tuskegee is the child of Hampton, and the 
 two institutions were founded by two of the 
 most remarkable men whom our country has 
 produced since the Civil War — one the son of 
 a missionary, born in the Sandwich Islands; 
 the other the son of a slave. 
 
 During all our investigations, the details of
 
 SOUTHERN TRIP 217 
 
 which I need not recount here, we had not yet 
 reached the people we had come to seek, tlie 
 ''low downs " as they were called. On explain- 
 ing this to Mrs. Washington, she sent into the 
 country and brought into a meeting a number 
 of old men and women, ex-slaves, and, under 
 her influence, they talked to us frankly. They 
 showed no bitterness towards the past; they 
 were worn out and tired ; they expected nothing 
 of life but meagre food and lodging and the 
 grave, but they were full of hope for their 
 descendants. Tuskegee had shown them what 
 they could do, and their simple faith and con- 
 fidence in the future of their race moved us 
 deeply. What they all wanted now were 
 plenty of public schools in the country, where 
 the children would learn not only to read and 
 write but the simple industries that were 
 taught on the plantation before the war, and 
 which seemed to have been absolutely for- 
 gotten during the thirty years of freedom. The 
 schools at present are few and far between, and 
 open only three or four months of the year. 
 
 We felt we had touched the great need at 
 last — good rural schools and plenty of them, 
 and instruction in all the simple arts of life. 
 Mr. Washington told us of a woman, a Hamp- 
 ton graduate, he had sent to a place about
 
 218 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 twenty miles distant to open such a school, 
 and advised us to visit it. So, after a three 
 days' visit at Tuskegee, we started in an open 
 wagon, with a negro boy sitting on the shafts 
 to drive us, through the cotton fields to Mount 
 Meigs. 
 
 It was a beautiful October day, the men, 
 women and children in the cotton fields were 
 singing as they worked. It did not occur to 
 us to be afraid, though we were driving through 
 the so-called ''black belt" and did not see a 
 single white person during the day. At last, 
 after a most interesting drive of several hours, 
 we reached a small cottage near an old meeting 
 house, which was Mount Meigs, the place we 
 had come to visit. The teacher, Georgia 
 Washington, a large, fine-looking colored 
 woman, and her two assistants welcomed us 
 cordially and led us into the cottage, which 
 was scrupulously clean but bare of all but the 
 simplest necessities of life. Two beds, two 
 chairs, some packing boxes which had been 
 made into tables and drawers, with a stove and 
 some cooking utensils, composed the sole furni- 
 ture of the place. The old meeting house was 
 the schoolhousej the glass was out of the 
 windows; the floors were unsteady, and the 
 children's seats were made of boards supported
 
 SOUTHERN TRIP 219 
 
 on barrels. A map of the United States, some 
 pictures and a portrait of Lincoln hung on the 
 walls, and a pile of old school books, sent by 
 some friend from the North, composed the 
 library. To this struggling attempt at a 
 school, about one hundred and fifty bare- 
 footed children walked daily from one to three 
 miles, bringing with them cornmeal, eggs and 
 chickens to pay for their schooling and the 
 support of the teacher. The State paid the 
 head teacher twenty dollars a month for three 
 months; the other teachers received a small 
 stipend from the North, begged by Georgia 
 during the vacations. It was too late in the 
 afternoon to see the school, as the children had 
 gone; but it was not necessary to see them 
 to see the school. It was only necessary to 
 look at the teachers, and to hear their cheerful, 
 hopeful voices, to realize the spirit they in- 
 spired and which brought the little darkies 
 miles through the cotton fields to learn their 
 A, B, c's. We sat in the sunshine that lovel}^ 
 October afternoon and listened, with moistened 
 eyes, to the story of the struggle for existence 
 of that little school. It taught us our lesson, 
 that we must go to the ''low downs"; they 
 must be taught to rise. 
 
 We found our hostess had literally nothing
 
 220 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 in the house to eat except bread and coffee, 
 until the Monday morning when the children 
 would bring their contributions. Fortunately 
 we had a small provision in our valises (our 
 smart clothes had been sent home from Sa- 
 vannah), which we brought out, and we thus 
 had the pleasure of giving our hostesses a com- 
 fortable evening meal. Then, by the light of 
 the moon, convoyed by the teachers, and with 
 a boy to carry our missionary luggage, we 
 walked about two miles along a narrow path, 
 out through the dense growth of a cotton field 
 to a small station, where the New Orleans 
 Express could be flagged to stop and take us 
 to Mobile. On the platform stood an old gray- 
 haired negro who, with the good manners of 
 the past, bowed profoundly as he was intro- 
 duced to us as "our Trustee." 
 
 "I hope you take good care of these good 
 women," I said. '^I do my best, madam," 
 he replied. 
 
 We thought of our friends the Trustees in 
 New York, in their libraries and luxurious sur- 
 roundings, and we resolved that they should 
 show their interest in their old colleague in 
 Alabama. Accordingly, the next morning, in 
 Mobile, we indulged in reckless extravagance 
 at their expense in furnishing that cottage, and
 
 SOUTHERN TRIP 221 
 
 in supplying stores of every kind, and we did 
 not forget the old Trustee. The subsequent 
 history of this school is so interesting and 
 instructive that I append the following, taken 
 from its last annual report, of 1911 — this 
 long after the completion of the new teachers' 
 home, for which funds were sent down from 
 Washington shortly after our return. Later 
 came the new schoolhouse.* 
 
 From Mobile we turned our faces north- 
 
 * From report of 191 i. The People's Village School, Mt. Meigs, 
 Alabama: 
 
 "The school has made rapid strides in two years." Attend- 
 ance, 1910-11, 233, girls and boys; tuition fees paid $1,218.90. 
 Attendance, 1911-12, 260, boys and girls; tuition fees paid 
 $1,278.50. "We are not trying to enlarge the work, but are 
 simply anxious to place the small plant on the very best 
 possible footing. The industries for girls are sewing, cooking, 
 house and laundry work. These are the essential needs of the 
 homes from which our girls come. The laundry room will only 
 accomodate four girls at once, but we are making the best of 
 things and every day more than a dozen girls get a chance to 
 work there. They learn to make starch, to iron and starch 
 clothes, and above all how to wash clean. They are very fond 
 of this work as well as the sewing." A laundry stove is needed. 
 "The boys are taught practical farming while doing the farm 
 vrork, also gardening." Tools are needed. They are also taught 
 cobbling. Money is needed for repairs, for salaries, for almost 
 everything. " The brighter, more advanced pupils in the classes, 
 girls and boys, are passed on to higher schools, where they may 
 be fitted to become teachers, twelve of these having entered 
 other institutions within the year." The annual receipts of the 
 school are a little over $4,000. The school shows good work, 
 well done, but is sadly hampered by lack of means.
 
 222 BECOLLECTIONS 
 
 ward. We had visited twenty-eight schools 
 and institutions, had seen and heard much, 
 and we felt that we had learned our lesson; 
 we knew what we wanted to do and we longed 
 to go to work. We stopped over two days, 
 to visit the battlefield of Chattanooga. No 
 American should pass that way and fail to 
 pay a tribute to the men who fell on those 
 memorable days. They now lie side by side, 
 the Blue and the Gray, on those hillsides, each 
 engagement marked on the monument record- 
 ing the losses on that particular spot, a simple 
 eloquent story — American history carved in 
 stone. 
 
 On our arrival in Washington, we presented 
 our report to the Trustees of the Slater Fund. 
 We urged that efforts should be made to induce 
 the School Boards of the South to introduce 
 simple industrial education into the colored 
 schools, and to increase their number. We 
 offered to appeal to the School Board of Nor- 
 folk, Virginia, to allow us to introduce indus- 
 trial training into one colored school there, 
 and to manage it, as an experiment, at our 
 expense. The trustees approved of our sug- 
 gestion, and gave us $2,500 to start the work 
 if permission could be obtained.
 
 SOUTHERN TRIP 223 
 
 We selected Norfolk, because it was near 
 Washington and the centre of a large negro 
 population, with extensive, outlying rural dis- 
 tricts filled with just the class we wished to 
 reach. It required much negotiation to induce 
 the Norfolk School Board to accede to our 
 proposal, and to allow us the use of two of 
 their school rooms, after school hours, in the 
 one large building appropriated to the negroes; 
 but they yielded at last. 
 
 Our first task was to clean the rooms, 
 hygiene evidently not being a part of the 
 school program. One room was fitted up as 
 a kitchen, the other for sewing. The only 
 conditions for entrance were clean hands and 
 faces and clean aprons. We were fortunate 
 from the first in obtaining the services as 
 teachers of two most capable and inteUigent 
 women from New York, Miss Breed and Miss 
 Taylor. It has always been an article of faith 
 with me that He who inspires a work will send 
 the instruments to carry it out, and my creed 
 did not fail me here. We were obliged to give 
 our teachers a free hand, and they justified 
 our confidence. 
 
 It is now sixteen years since we started the 
 work in Norfolk, in 1895. Since then we have 
 introduced the industrial instruction into
 
 224 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 thirty-three schools in the vicinity, having 
 3,000 children on the rolls. Boys have gone 
 out to learn trades through the inspiration of 
 the simple instruction known as ^^Sloyd"; 
 girls have become good cooks, seamstresses 
 and housemaids; and last, but not least, the 
 School Board of Norfolk has become so im- 
 pressed with the value of the instruction that 
 this year (1911) it has assumed the expense 
 of it in the colored schools, and, what is more, 
 has introduced similar instruction into the 
 white schools. Our work is now actively under 
 way in the rural districts, where the parents 
 express themselves with, gratitude, and the 
 children cannot be driven away. The colored 
 people have themselves contributed $675 to 
 the schools, besides their labor. At present 
 we reach over 7,000 women, girls and boys. 
 Of course we have had discouragements and 
 disappointments, but the success has far out- 
 weighed them. 
 
 One little incident, which occurred recently, 
 has been to me an exceeding great reward. I 
 was walking in Washington one morning, when 
 I heard a pleasant voice behind me say: ''Mrs. 
 Hobson!" I turned, and saw a young colored 
 woman who said: ''Excuse me, you don't 
 know me, but I know you, and I want to
 
 SOUTHERN TRIP 225 
 
 thank you for what you have done for my 
 race." * 
 
 * Since Mrs. Hobson's death, two memorial services have been 
 held by the colored people of Norfolk, in November of each year, 
 to give expression to "the great love and esteem in which she was 
 held by the colored people of our city." "She was indeed a great 
 benefactor," writes one of them. "Her coming waa always 
 hailed with great enthusiasm, crowds of people would always 
 be on hand to give her welcome at the annual exhibitions of her 
 work" — so the letters run — with expressions of genuine grief over 
 their great loss. "We have formed a League which bears her 
 name," and plan to meet weekly, to sew, and "to do the things 
 she so much liked." 
 
 Fr(ym letters oj Mrs. Louise E. Titus, of Norfolk, Va. 
 
 C. E. H. 
 
 NOTE. — Mrs. Hobson had the great happiness of 
 living to see, to some extent, the fulfilment of her 
 plans and hopes for the introduction of industrial 
 training for the colored people into the public school 
 system of the South. 
 
 It was in 191 1 , sixteen years after the experiment was 
 being tried in that one school in Norfolk, of which she 
 has written, that the work of the Industrial Classes had 
 so proved its value that industrial training was made 
 part of the public school system for all the colored 
 schools of Norfolk and Portsmouth. This gave her 
 great satisfaction and pleasure. 
 
 The work was still continued, however, in the rural 
 schools in the vicinity of Norfolk, the expense being 
 paid in part by the County School Boards and, in much 
 larger part, by the Southern Industrial Classes.
 
 226 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 As her eightieth year approached, Mrs. Hobson felt 
 sohcitous about the welfare of these rural schools, not 
 yet ready to be transferred to the School Boards and 
 for which there was no permanent provision. She greatly 
 desired that the Trustees of the John F. Slater Fund 
 should consent to take over the work of the Southern 
 Industrial Classes after her death, assuming the manage- 
 ment as well as the expense, until such time as the indus- 
 trial training of the rural schools should be incorporated 
 into the public school system. With the approval of her 
 Board of Managers, she made this request of the 
 Trustees in the spring of 1912, a few months only 
 before her death. Fully recognizing the value and im- 
 portance of the work that was being done, the Trustees 
 cordially assented. This was a great relief and satis- 
 faction to her, as she felt that the work was provided for 
 in the future, and would be conducted on sound prin- 
 ciples. 
 
 It must have been a happy day for Mrs. Hobson when 
 she received the notification that the Trustees of the 
 John F. Slater Fund, at their annual meeting, held 
 April 24, 1912, had adopted the resolution, from which 
 the following extracts are given: 
 
 "Whereas, Mrs. Elizabeth C. Hobson (President 
 of the Southern Industrial Classes of Norfolk, Va.) haa 
 addressed to the Slater Fund Trustees a paper in which 
 she asks them to take over the work of the Southern 
 Industrial Classes, a work originating with and inaugu- 
 rated by her some sixteen years ago, which during that 
 time has demonstrated its usefulness and its great suc- 
 
 cess." 
 
 Here follows a detailed statement of the conditions 
 on which the Trustees agree to take over the work and
 
 SOUTHERN TRIP 227 
 
 "accept this responsibility," the resolution concluding 
 as follows : 
 
 "With this understanding, wo make our usual appro- 
 priation of $3,500. At the same time, we desire to ex- 
 press our appreciation of Mrs. Hobson's long and earnest 
 labors, which have been an inspiration and incentive 
 to other parts of the South, as well as to express our 
 regret that she no longer feels able personally to con- 
 duct the Southern Industrial Classes." 
 
 From simply reading Mrs. Hobson's account, in the 
 foregoing pages, of what has been accomplished, no 
 one could possibly know what her share of the work 
 had been. She would speak of the assistance rendered 
 by the managers; of the devotion and ability of Miss 
 Breed and Miss Ellen Taylor, successively resident 
 superintendents; of the zeal of the teachers, both white 
 and colored; of the importance of the work — but not of 
 herself. And yet she was always its mainspring. She 
 obtained for it from the Slater Fund an annual grant 
 of $3,500, to which was added each year over $2,000 
 given by her personal friends. She went herself to 
 Norfolk once or twice every year, while this was 
 possible; she encouraged and helped the workers there; 
 she spared herself neither trouble nor fatigue. She 
 was not only the originator and leader of the work, 
 but its inspiration throughout. Within a very few 
 days of her death, when ill and weak, she was still 
 writing letters in its behalf. 
 
 Mrs. Hobson died in June, 1912. On the 11th of 
 Januarj^, 1913, the Board of Managers of the Southern 
 Industrial Classes met, passed resolutions, transferred 
 the work to the Trustees of the Slater Fund and formally 
 disbanded.
 
 228 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 The distinguishing feature of Mrs. Hobson's work 
 was not the industrial training of the negro. That was 
 already being done, on a large and most important 
 scale at Hampton, as originated by General Armstrong ; 
 and was being conducted on an equally important scale 
 by Booker Washington at Tuskegee and in many other 
 places. It was the introduction of industrial training 
 for negroes into the public school system of the South, 
 which originated with Mrs. Hobson, and which, be- 
 ginning in a comparatively small way, is destined 
 eventually to spread through all the Southern States. 
 
 CHARLOTTE EVERETT HOPKINS.
 
 XIII 
 
 WASHINGTON 
 1886-1912 
 
 IT was in September, 1886, upon my re- 
 turn to the United States, after one of 
 my not infrequent visits to Europe, and fully 
 expecting to occupy my house in New York, 
 that I found, somewhat to my dismay, that 
 my agent, through a misunderstanding, had 
 renewed the lease to my tenant, and I was 
 homeless. I accordingly accepted the pro- 
 posal of my sister, Mrs. Berdan, to accompany 
 her and her husband to Washington, where 
 they had planned to pass the winter. 
 
 How slight are the causes that influence our 
 lives! The accident of the renewal of that 
 lease transformed the whole of my subsequent 
 life, removed me from New York, from its 
 intimacies and associations, and opened out to 
 me new interests and new friends. I was 
 
 229
 
 230 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 fifty-five years of age, in perfect health, keen 
 to enjoy what Hfe offered and with a sufn- 
 cient income for my support. We took a lit- 
 tle house on H Street, next to the Hon. 
 George Bancroft's, and commenced to look 
 about us. It was the second year of Mr. 
 Cleveland's administration. He had recently 
 married the charming woman we all learned to 
 love, and the members of his cabinet and their 
 wives composed a group of unusually inter- 
 esting men and women. Mr. Bayard, then a 
 widower, was Secretary of State; Mr. Endi- 
 cott, Secretary of War; Mr. Whitney, Secre- 
 tary of the Navy; Mr. Manning, Secretary, 
 and Mr. Fairchild, Assistant Secretary of the 
 Treasury. 
 
 Before I speak of people in official life, I 
 must give a short account of the non-official 
 society. Washington had not then become a 
 winter city; the millionaires of the East and 
 West had not yet discovered the charm of its 
 climate and the interests of its life. There was 
 hardly a house beyond Dupont Circle. Six- 
 teenth Street was lined with negro shanties, 
 and where now stand the stately marble man- 
 sions on Massachusetts Avenue, nothing could 
 then be seen, as the streets were not even 
 opened. The region behind the White House
 
 WASHINGTON 231 
 
 was a marsh, and Rock Creek park did not 
 exist — in fact, was an unexplored region. H 
 Street, where we estabhshed ourselves, was 
 the centre of society. Our nearest neighbors 
 were the Hon. George Bancroft, Hon. Ban- 
 croft Davis, Mrs. Cljiner, whose daughter 
 afterwards married Mr. Bayard, General 
 Beale and Mr. Corcoran, followed by the resi- 
 dences of Mr. Henry Adams and Mr. John 
 Hay. Beyond, Senator Cameron's beautiful 
 young wife was established, and on the other 
 side of the Square were the Blairs and other 
 old residents. It can be seen that we were in 
 good company, and I shall always gratefully 
 remember the cordial reception we received. 
 One of the first entertainments we attended 
 was at the house of Mrs. Bancroft Davis. It 
 was what was called an evening party, a din- 
 ner at eight o'clock, the other guests coming 
 from ten to eleven. 'Twas a delightful way 
 of entertaining. The dinner guests had seen 
 enough of each other and the new arrivals 
 brought in a fresh and agreeable element. 
 That evening I asked some one the name of a 
 man whose appearance interested me. ''I 
 don't know," was the reply, ''but depend 
 upon it he is somebody, or he would not be 
 here." He proved to be Mr. Phelps, our Min-
 
 232 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 ister to England, where he was greatly prized, 
 at home for a few weeks. Those delightful 
 evening parties are now a thing of the past, 
 for the present crowded evening receptions in 
 no way resemble them. There were never 
 more than thirty or forty persons present; we 
 sat in groups; we had time for gossip, discus- 
 sions and flirtations. The gatherings at Judge 
 Loring's, Secretary Endicott's, and Mr. Sam- 
 uel Gray Ward's were the most notable. 
 Judge Loring and his clever wife and daughters 
 were always at home Sunday evenings, and 
 there I met for the first time the great men 
 who had fought in the Civil War. They are all 
 gone now, and their lives have been written, 
 and their features immortalized in marble and 
 bronze; but I love to think that I knew Grant, 
 Sherman and Sheridan, that I have heard the 
 tale of the Monitor right from Worden's lips, 
 and laughed and joked with many of those 
 whose names are now historic. One is still 
 left. General Horace Porter, who was in most 
 of the great battles. 
 
 At Secretary Endicott's we met always a 
 delightful circle, and it was made especially 
 interesting that winter by the undisguised 
 courtship of the lovely daughter of the house 
 by Mr. Chamberlain. I was present at a
 
 WASHINGTON 233 
 
 dinner at Mrs. Endicott's the day the engage- 
 ment was announced, when the atmosphere 
 was certainly charged with as many dis- 
 cordant elements as could well have been 
 brought together. The dinner was given to 
 Lady Herbert, who had come over to attend 
 the marriage of her son (afterwards Am- 
 bassador) to Miss Wilson. It was the day 
 after the defeat of the Democratic party by 
 the Republicans, when my brother-in-law, 
 Mr. Morton, had been elected Vice-President. 
 I was, of course, happy, and Mr. Bancroft 
 Davis, who was a good Republican, pressed 
 my hand in sjTnpathy under the table. 
 Senator Gibson, a Democrat, shared the feel- 
 ings of our hosts. With the exception of 
 Lady Herbert, who was perfectly unconscious, 
 all the guests realized the situation, and we 
 so exerted ourselves that by the time the 
 game was served we were all in capital spirits. 
 I asked Mrs. Endicott, some years afterwards, 
 if she remembered that dinner. "Yes, in- 
 deed," she replied, ''and I cannot tell you 
 how grateful I was to you all." I was also 
 present at the wedding, a month later, when 
 ]Mr. Whitney displayed that ready hospitality 
 for which he was afterwards so celebrated. 
 At the wedding-breakfast, Mr. Whitney dis-
 
 234 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 covered that the large party from Boston 
 were to be in Washington that night. He 
 promptly invited them all (about forty) to 
 dinner. By four o'clock invitations were re- 
 ceived to an evening reception. We had 
 music and dancing, and everybody remem- 
 bered with pleasure Miss Endicott's wedding 
 day. 
 
 It is unnecessary for me to dwell on her re- 
 markable career in England. As an English 
 lady of rank said to me: ''Mrs. Chamberlain 
 is the best you have sent us." After all, even 
 in a Republic, the old blood tells. To this day 
 there is something about Boston people of old 
 descent which especially distinguishes them. 
 The men are the only ones I know who can 
 lead lives of leisure and not seem lazy. They 
 find something to do which interests them, 
 without giving all their time to making money 
 or in spending it. Of course these men have 
 money, inherited or acquired, but it is not 
 offensively apparent; it seems to fit them like 
 their clothes: they don't talk about it and 
 they don't pity people who haven't it. My 
 dear friend, William Endicott, is of this class. 
 
 To return to Washington. I have spoken 
 of Mr. Whitney. He made a good reputation 
 as Secretary of the Navy; in fact, he may be
 
 WASHINGTON 235 
 
 said to have created our modern Navy, but he 
 also started a new era in Washington society. 
 He set the extravagant pace in entertain- 
 ments which has gone on increasing ever 
 since. 
 
 Mr. Cleveland was a great President. He 
 was laborious and conscientious, brav-e and 
 fearless; and, although I am a Republican, 
 "dyed in the wool," there are several notable 
 events in his administration of which, as an 
 American, I am very proud. 
 
 That winter in Washington was so pleasant 
 that I decided to settle there. Four years of 
 absence had loosened, but not severed, my 
 ties with New York. I bought a house in 
 N street, and it has been my happy home ever 
 since.* 
 
 Mr. Harrison succeeded Mr. Cleveland as 
 President. He was a statesman, a fine speaker 
 and a great lawyer; but in manner he was the 
 coldest and most unsympathetic man I ever 
 met. My brother-in-law, Mr. ]\Iorton, was 
 the Vice-President. By his second wife he 
 had five daughters, who were just then grow- 
 ing up. Our intimacy was as close as if we 
 
 * Mrs. Hobson's home was at 1S20 N street, a house noted for 
 its hospitality and where she gathered about her, in an informal 
 way, the most interesting people to be met in Washington. 
 
 Editor.
 
 236 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 had been blood relations. I found myself 
 with a family around me, and I had with me 
 besides, at that time, my niece, Susan Lay, 
 whose father was our Consul-General in Ot- 
 tawa. That winter Susan became acquainted 
 with Mr. WiUiam F. Wharton, Assistant 
 Secretary of State. They became engaged, 
 and were married a short time afterwards. 
 
 Mr. Morton bought a fine large house on 
 Scott Circle and, during his four years of 
 office, maintained its dignity by a hospitality 
 which made it the centre of social and poUtical 
 
 life. 
 
 And now I must say something of the White 
 House life during the Roosevelt administra- 
 tion. No one could know Mrs. Roosevelt 
 without admiring her; she rose to her great 
 position with such dignity and grace^. Her 
 sweetness and serenity shed an atmosphere 
 of domestic sunshine in those great rooms, and 
 her cordial manner to the thousands of visitors 
 seemed to each a personal welcome. She had 
 a keen sense of humor, and one can easily 
 imagine that in her husband's society it was 
 constantly exercised. I doubt if in the whole 
 country there exists a happier couple. Those 
 luncheons at the White House! How I used 
 to enjoy them! Rarely more than eight
 
 WASHINGTON 237 
 
 guests, and generally people of note who were 
 passing through town. Mr. Roosevelt has 
 pre-eminently the hospitable instinct, and its 
 essence was in those luncheons. Such frank- 
 ness in conversation, such wit, such anecdote! 
 I remember a friend from New York saying 
 to me after leaving the table: ''Of course it is 
 an unwritten law that nothing is ever re- 
 peated that is said here." The President al- 
 ways said good-bye to his guests as he rose 
 from the table, and Mrs. Roosevelt soon after 
 we reached the drawing-room, an arrange- 
 ment which provoked a good deal of criticism 
 from people who came from other parts of 
 the country. They did not seem to realize 
 that their hosts' days were occupied to the 
 fullest extent, and that each hour had its 
 engagements. Of course no one can occupy 
 such a position without criticism; everybody 
 cannot be pleased. But no administration 
 since my residence in Washington (of twenty- 
 six years) has exercised such generous and 
 delightful hospitality, or given such a tone to 
 society, as that of the seven years when Mrs. 
 Roosevelt was the ''first lady in the land."
 
 LAST JOTTINGS AND LAST LETTERS 
 
 Washington, 
 
 January, 1912. 
 
 I have now brought these reminiscences up 
 to date. If I continue they must be in the 
 form of a journal, and I doubt if I can make 
 them of much interest. 
 
 Februanj 27th. 
 
 Yesterday Mr. Roosevelt "threw his hat 
 into the ring" as he said, and announced that, 
 if he should be renominated at Chicago, he 
 would enter the race for President, represent- 
 ing the Progressive Party. 
 
 March, 1912. 
 
 We are in the midst of the plans and prepa- 
 ratioijs for the Republican and Democratic 
 conventions, to take place in June. Mr. Taft 
 is using all his influence to secure delegates 
 
 239
 
 240 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 instructed for him, and Mr. Roosevelt is con- 
 vinced that the people want him. 
 
 Sunday, April 21, 1912. 
 
 The whole country has been stricken with 
 grief and indignation at the loss of the Titanic. 
 The tragedy is so appalling, caused by such 
 utter disregard of threatened danger and lack 
 of adequate preparation for emergencies, that 
 the government and the people are 
 
 This broken line is the last. 
 
 Mrs. Hobson died in Bar Harbor, Maine, 
 at her summer home, ''Cornersmeet Cottage," 
 on the nth of June, 1912. 
 
 It was in the spring of 1912 that Mrs. Hob- 
 son's last illness declared itself. All her life 
 she had been very strong, scarcely an ailment 
 beyond an ordinary cold now and then, but 
 in her eightieth year she realized that this 
 could not long continue. She was so buoy- 
 ant, so full of life, that her friends gave but 
 little thought to her advancing years, until 
 they found that she was anxious to have her 
 "Southern Industrial Classes" taken over and 
 cared for by the Trustees of the Slater Fund
 
 LAST JOTTINGS AND LAST LETTERS 241 
 
 in case of her death, and was arranging for 
 this. 
 
 Always direct, when the first attack of pain 
 came, she insisted upon knowing from her 
 devoted physician and friend, Dr. Sofie Nord- 
 hoff Jung, the nature of the trouble, and 
 when told that it was angina pectoris, she 
 faced it with the same brave spirit that she 
 had shown through all the varied circum- 
 stances of her life. 
 
 She thought, her friends thought, that the 
 end would not be so soon, that she might as 
 an invalid live for several years to come. But 
 this, for one accustomed to no restraint in her 
 movements, to whom travelling, either in 
 Europe or this country, and activity of all 
 kinds, were part of her daily life, was indeed 
 a new experience. How would she meet it? 
 How take it? How accept the life of an 
 invalid? 
 
 Her own letters tell us. 
 
 TO MISS LOUISA LEE SCHUYLER 
 
 Washington, 
 
 May 24, 1912. 
 
 ''I am far from well," she writes, ''am on 
 a rigid diet, and am forbidden any exertion.
 
 242 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 such as walking, running up and down stairs, 
 in fact doing anything I have been accustomed 
 to do. Well — I have had wonderful health 
 and much happiness, the best of relatives and 
 friends, and I am most grateful for the past 
 
 and resigned to the future I expect 
 
 to leave here next Tuesday for Garrison, and 
 I should like to see you as soon as possible 
 after I get there Your letter, re- 
 ceived this morning, gratified me very much. 
 That my httle memoir of a great event should 
 have interested the creators of it is indeed 
 flattering to me. It was written from the 
 point of my pen, just as the incidents crowded 
 into my mind as I wrote." * 
 
 TO MISS SCHUYLER 
 
 Washington, 
 
 May 28th. 
 
 ''I have been quite ill for the last week, con- 
 fined to my bed, and have had to give up my 
 visit to Garrison.** I am ordered to go direct 
 to Bar Harbor on Tuesday. Let me see you as 
 soon as you come up to North East Harbor." 
 
 * This refers to the reading aloud on May 11, 1912, the fortieth 
 anniversary of the founding of the State Charities Aid Associa- 
 tion, of part of her chapter on the Bellevue Training School for 
 Nurses, which excited great interest among all present. — Editor. 
 
 ** To Mrs. H. Fairfield Osborn, on the Hudson.
 
 LAST JOTTINGS AND LAST LETTERS 243 
 
 TO MR. AND MRS. H. FAIRFIELD OSBORN 
 
 Cornersmeet Cottage, 
 
 Bar Harbor, Maine, 
 
 June 4, 1912. 
 
 " I found your dear letters and telegram 
 when I reached here last evening, and they 
 warmed my heart which, 'tired,' as the doc- 
 tor says, still beats strong for those I love. 
 
 I wish you could have seen the cavalcade 
 which left 1S20 N. street last Saturday. Mrs. 
 Norman Williams sent her carriage for me, and 
 with Dr. Nordhoff and Dr. Fremont-Smith, I 
 started for the station. A taxicab with 
 ' Hutchy ' * and the boxes followed. Then 
 Corcoran and Mary in another, and the Lays 
 all in the rear! Dr. Smith arranged to accom- 
 pany me to Bar Harbor. We could not 
 secure a drawing room, but the doctor thought 
 it was important that I should get away, and 
 he would take the risk of my sitting up to 
 twelve o'clock. I was so exhausted with the 
 Scandinavian Legation being my neighbors, 
 that I suddenly exclaimed; How good it 
 would be to have a private car! This was 
 
 * Her faithful maid, Hutchinson, devoted to her for many 
 years. — Editor.
 
 244 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 enough for my niece, Mary Thorn, who was 
 with me. She immediately asked Dr. Smith 
 to telegraph the order, and in half an hour 
 the answer came that a car would be wait- 
 ing for me at Jersey City. And there it was. 
 I went to bed and slept all the way to 
 Boston. Susy Wharton came here with me, 
 and stayed Saturday and Sunday in Boston. 
 We had a good rest at the Puritan Hotel, a 
 new hotel, most comfortable, no strike ! 
 
 The kindness of dear Dr. Nordhoff cannot 
 be imagined. She came to see me one day 
 four times. Dr. Fremont-Smith and she 
 agreed exactly about my case, so I feel that 
 I am in good hands. As for my friends in 
 Washington, I can only say God bless them! 
 
 And now I am in this dear little cottage, 
 in this delicious air perfumed with white 
 lilacs, and I am most grateful to God for all 
 His mercies. 
 
 It makes me sad that you, my dearest 
 ones, are to be away this summer. Do come 
 back soon. Best love to Virginia, and thank 
 her for her sweet letter and telegram. Also 
 to Josephine and the two splendid boys."
 
 LAST JOTTINGS AND LAST LETTERS 245 
 
 TO MISS SCHUYLER 
 
 Bar Harbor, 
 
 June 6. 
 
 "I asked Mrs. Osborn to send you my letter 
 written after my arrival, which told the story 
 of my journey. Since then I have been rest- 
 ing from the great fatigue of the journey 
 which, in spite of all the alleviations, was a 
 hard one. But now I am in this sweet little 
 cottage, breathing the air perfumed with 
 lilacs, and am at peace. 
 
 My dear niece, Susy Wharton, came here 
 with me, and when she returns to Groton, my 
 niece, Mary Thom, will come — such dear 
 girls as they are 
 
 I am now striving to acquire resignation 
 and self-control so that I may be able to con- 
 form cheerfully to the new life which is before 
 me. Of course I needed the lesson or it 
 would not have been sent to me. Thank God 
 that my 'faculties,' as the old New England- 
 ers called them, are still mine. 
 
 God bless the dear sisters." 
 
 It is in this letter that Mrs. Hobson speaks 
 of two chapters of her memoirs and asks
 
 246 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 "that they be sent on to Margaret Aldrich to 
 read/' adding ''you know Margaret is the 
 one who inspired me to write the Recollec- 
 tions." 
 
 TO MISS MARY PARSONS 
 
 Bar Harbor, 
 
 June 8. 
 
 "My httle parlor has been glorified by 
 lupins and iris, sent by you through Mrs. 
 Coats with a loving message, and I want to 
 send you a few words of thanks and affection 
 for thus thinking of me. 
 
 Yes, here I am an invalid for the first 
 ' time in my life, for I don't count the acci- 
 dents or the occasional attacks of bronchitis. 
 But I am forced to accept the fact that the 
 heart that has beaten so long and served me 
 so well is calling a halt, and that I must 
 submit and live accordingly. Well, few women 
 have had such a long, healthy and happy life, 
 and I am most grateful to Him who has sent 
 me so many blessings — among the greatest 
 the dear friends who have never failed me. 
 Among these, dear Mary, I count you, and 
 I trust that sometime this summer I shall 
 have the pleasure of seeing you here, to have 
 again one of our long, sympathetic talks.
 
 LAST JOTTINGS AND LAST LETTERS 247 
 
 Dear Nelly Blodgett is coming to see me 
 to-morrow. Susy Wharton came here with 
 me, and when she returns next week Mary 
 Thom comes, and my sister Carrie later. I 
 expect my sister, .Mary Berdan, will come 
 with Mrs. Woodworth, who sails June 14.". . 
 
 TO MISS MAUDE K. WETMORE 
 
 Cornersmeet Cottage, 
 
 Bar Harbor, 
 
 June 10, 1912. 
 
 ^'I cannot tell you how sorry I was not to 
 see you when you came the day before I left, 
 but the doctor was imperative that I should 
 see no one. I am only just beginning to 
 realize how serious my illness is, and that 
 hereafter I must regard myself as more or 
 less of an invalid ; the heart is not to be trifled 
 with, and mine is an old one which has done 
 a great deal of work in its time 
 
 My little cottage is comfort itself and I 
 hope in time to be able to drive out. As I 
 lie here in bed, I think with much gratitude 
 that we were able this spring to settle the 
 matter of the schools so satisfactorily, and 
 that hereafter they will go on, spreading from 
 county to county through Virginia and further
 
 248 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 on. The last sentence of the Slater resolu- 
 tion I often repeat to myself — that the work 
 has been an inspiration to the whole South. 
 I trust, dear Maude, that you will always 
 take an interest in it, and extend that strong, 
 firm hand of yours toward it when it wants 
 guidance and encouragement beyond the work 
 of those Boards. It is the personal touch 
 which keeps such work alive. Boards are 
 so impersonal, the}^ appropriate the money 
 and then go about their own business. The 
 report this year is going to be very interest- 
 ing, especially the teachers' letters. I pro- 
 pose that a meeting shall be called in the 
 autumn and one in the spring, the first to 
 report plans, and the second to report prog- 
 ress. I have written to Emily Mulligan 
 about it. 
 
 I cannot tell you, dear Maude, how much 
 I value the affection you have always shown 
 me, and now that I lie in bed and count over 
 my blessings, I always include you among the 
 dear ones I love." 
 
 This was probably the last letter written by 
 Mrs. Hobson, for, a few hours later, she was 
 taken suddenly and alarmingly ill. Doctor 
 Smith was summoned. '^Doctor, am I dy-
 
 LAST JOTTINGS AND LAST LETTERS 249 
 
 ing? " she said to him. He, fully believing she 
 would rally, answered, ''No, Mrs. Hobson, 
 you are not dying." She said no more, nothing 
 to indicate that she knew the end was near. 
 Gradually she became weaker and finally un- 
 conscious, passing away in the early morning 
 of the 11th of June, 1912, without suffering, 
 quietly, peacefully. 
 
 There is nothing to regret, for her nor for 
 those who loved her, but rather cause for deep 
 thankfulness. Instead of years of possible 
 invahdism and suffering, there came the merci- 
 ful, quick release. She had accepted her great 
 trial with entire resignation to the will of God, 
 and was ready to go. 
 
 Her last day, or rather the day before the 
 last, was a happy one. Her beloved niece, 
 Mrs. Wharton, was with her, her dear friend, 
 Miss Blodgett, had come from North East 
 Harbor to see her. In that little parlor, so 
 associated with all that was pleasant — a warm 
 welcome, hospitality, good talk — she lay on 
 the sofa with the two young friends she loved 
 by her side, while through the open windows 
 came the soft June air and the perfume of 
 flowers. Luncheon was announced — but not 
 for her, not for the invalid! A few minutes 
 later, much to their surprise, she joined her
 
 250 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 friends at table, saying, ''she did not mean to 
 be shut out from such goo^ company," and, 
 taking her seat, led the conversation as delight- 
 fully as ever. It was Mrs. Hobson's youth, 
 not her age, which impressed people, and this 
 lasted to the end. 
 
 In the vestibule of Grace Church, the church 
 she had attended when living in New York, 
 on a beautiful June morning, she lay covered 
 with flowers, her family and her friiends about 
 her. They had come from Boston, Washing- 
 ton and Norfolk, from Long Island and the 
 Hudson River, many of those whose names 
 appear in these memoirs and many others. 
 They gathered about her in that little vestibule, 
 wishing to be near, to lay a flower at her feet, 
 to feel again that sense of companionship 
 which, in her case, death had not taken away. 
 It was characteristic that she had requested 
 the Te Deum to be sung instead of the funeral 
 psalms. 
 
 She lies in Greenwood, in her father's plot. 
 
 The following notice of Mrs. Hobson ap- 
 peared in the New York Evening Post of June 
 14, 1912, and is inserted here by request of
 
 LAST JOTTINGS AND LAST LETTERS 251 
 
 her family. Written by one of her friends, 
 it is so appreciative of Mrs. Hobson's per- 
 sonality, character and achievement that it 
 is appended in full as a fitting close to these 
 memoirs. 
 
 '' The death of Mrs. Joseph Hobson,-of Wash- 
 ington, at her summer home in Bar Harbor, 
 June 11, 1912, brings to her wide circle of 
 friends a sense of irreparable loss, for her eighty 
 years found her young in heart and in head 
 and brought her only the gift of added wisdom 
 and sympathy. Of good old New England 
 descent, educated in New York, living for 
 many years after her marriage in South 
 America — her husband, the head of one of the 
 great business houses there — Mrs. Hobson had 
 the lifelong habit of hospitality, the habit of 
 society, and the power to understand and to 
 appreciate persons of all countries and callings. 
 This social talent was still further enhanced b}' 
 a later residence in New York and in Europe, 
 her family connections bringing her in contact 
 with both diplomatic and literary circles in 
 Rome, Constantinople, Berlin, and Paris. 
 
 In whichever country Mrs. Hobson resided, 
 and however much interested in its public 
 questions, she was always a loyal American, 
 allowing no aspersions upon her country and
 
 252 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 proud of her American citizenship. She read 
 extensive^, was cultivated in many directions, 
 and her letters are full of charm. Her intel- 
 ligent and independent point of view, her 
 kindly humor and vivacity, and her fund of 
 anecdote, made her conversation most inter- 
 esting. She spoke both French and Spanish 
 fluently, and her house in Washington, for 
 the past twenty-five years, has been a centre 
 of delightful social intercourse. 
 
 But the earnest side of Mrs. Hobson's char- 
 acter was too strong and deep to be satisfied 
 with social achievements only. Loyal and 
 devoted to her family and friends, her heart 
 and her helpfulness went out to a much wider 
 range of interests. In New York, in 1872-73, 
 she showed marked ability as a member of the 
 committee of the State Charities Aid Associa- 
 tion, which organized the Bellevue Training 
 School for Nurses, the first school of the kind 
 in this country for the training of nurses. As 
 chairman of the Hospital Committee of the 
 Association, she introduced 'First Aid to the 
 Injured' into this city and country, organiz- 
 ing the first society of that name. Of late 
 years, after she had made Washington her 
 permanent residence, Mrs. Hobson gave her 
 whole-hearted support to the industrial train-
 
 LAST JOTTINGS AND LAST LETTERS 253 
 
 ing of the colored people, especially that of 
 young girls. For them she established the 
 "Southern Industrial Classes," in Norfolk, 
 Va., and in other parts of Virginia. The 
 success of this work was so great that it has 
 been taken over as part of the public-school 
 system of Norfolk, and is gradually being ex- 
 tended elsewhere in the South. This is one of 
 Mrs. Hobson's most important achievements. 
 Throughout her long life of eighty years, 
 'a happy life,' as she always called it, Mrs. 
 Hobson's sweet and strong nature brought love 
 and cheer into many hearts of several genera- 
 tions. Her active life, with all her faculties 
 unimpaired, continued to within a few weeks 
 of her death. Then came the warning note 
 that henceforth hers must be a life of cir- 
 cumscribed effort. This she accepted with 
 the same sweet spirit and religious faith 
 which never failed her. The end came sooner 
 than was anticipated. Suddenly, peacefull}^ 
 without suffering, she passed on into that 
 other world of light and love." 
 
 / 
 
 /
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 A PETITION 
 
 To Mrs. Joseph Hobson 
 
 And have you kept no diaries, 
 To hand you on and off the stage, 
 Whenever talk turns on our age 
 
 As learned from Lives and Memories? 
 
 While we who knew you live to quote, 
 Your words and views must oft be heard; 
 But you, who find tradition blurred. 
 
 Should not be shrined in anecdote. 
 
 Neat pages, like your livre-de-comptes, 
 Should sum the seasons you have seen; 
 From Lima to the Levantine 
 
 You could put down the things that count. 
 
 We know you missed the Civil War 
 Sojourning in a distant land; , 
 Yet in one fight you took a hand 
 
 By sailing on a man-of-war. 
 
 255
 
 256 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 You reached New York in time to clean 
 Those wards which made the dying dead, 
 But old reports aren't often read 
 
 And many know not what has been. 
 
 We want your story of the South, 
 
 How you have seen the black man learn, 
 And then we want the page to turn 
 
 On how you loathe the tariff's growth. 
 
 The world has changed since you were young. 
 You hold an age in either hand. 
 And each you love and understand. 
 
 But not so those you walk among; 
 
 The early half is long ago. 
 
 And we delight to hear you state, 
 Now humorous and now sedate. 
 
 The way you learned the things you know. 
 
 No kindergarten had been made, 
 
 But there were Bibles, were there not? 
 The summer never seemed too hot 
 
 To stay at home and in the shade. 
 
 Your parents held that common sense 
 Went further than too broad a mind, 
 They did not think to be "refined" 
 
 Or "delicate" should give offense.
 
 A PETITION 257 
 
 There was a lady in despair! 
 
 Her husband had disgraced their name; 
 
 Back to her father's house she came 
 And wore strange caps upon her hair. 
 
 You thought her very old, of course, 
 Yet she was only thirty-five, 
 And moved as though but half alive; 
 
 That was the way they took Divorce. 
 
 You see we listen when you tell, 
 
 But we have not your clear-cut prose, 
 And so we pray you to compose 
 
 These pictures you have loved so well. 
 
 As for the child you sit and sew 
 
 Small garments, soon to be outgrown; 
 We think instead you should put down 
 
 The things you wish that she might know; 
 
 And when the daily note you write, 
 
 We also crave that, in a book. 
 
 You'd say who came and which man took 
 You in to dinner on that night. 
 
 You may not owe this to a friend, 
 Nor to your nieces great and small, 
 But something you do owe for all, 
 
 The books of memories which blend
 
 258 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 Themselves together in your mind; 
 How often we have heaxd you say : 
 "Let me have memoirs grave or gay." 
 
 'Tis gratitude should make you bind 
 
 A sheaf from all that you have seen; 
 And when a neighbor's tale you broach, 
 That fear may be without reproach 
 
 The unnamed stars * * * can shine between. 
 
 The Petition was signed by: 
 
 President and Mrs. Roosevelt. 
 
 Mrs. Richard Aldrich. 
 
 Miss Grace Bigelow. 
 
 Miss Eleanor Blodgett. 
 
 Miss Helen Dunham. 
 
 Colonel and Mrs. Archibald Hopkins. 
 
 IMiss Gertrude Livingston Hoyt. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. IVIorris K. Jesup. 
 
 Mrs. James Lowndes. 
 
 I\Ir. and Mrs. H. Fairfield Osborn. 
 
 Mr. Arthur Jeffrey Parsons. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. John E. Parsons. 
 
 Miss Mary Parsons. 
 
 Miss Louisa Lee Schuyler. 
 
 Miss Georgina Schuyler. 
 
 Miss Emily Tuckerman. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. George W. Vanderbilt. 
 
 Miss Maude K. Wetmore. 
 
 1907.
 
 xmi 
 
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