# Democratic Ideals (Brown)/Chapter 5

CHAPTER V
PERSONALITY AND LAST DAYS
Beside Mrs. Colby's literary attainments and her wonderful capabilities for work, she was in private life a most genial and helpful friend to all who came in her way. Hospitality was one of her distinguishing characteristics. Many people today remember with pleasure the social gatherings, the four o'clock teas, and the evening lectures which they enjoyed at Mrs. Colby's home on Fourteenth Street in Washington. It was her custom whenever she made acquaintance with any interesting speaker from abroad, anyone who had a message to give, no matter on what subject, to arrange a lecture in her parlor inviting such personal friends as were likely to be interested in the subject proposed. She was as hospitable in her thought as in her home. She did not ask the political or religious creed, or nationality, or race, of the speaker. She asked only whether he had a message.
Mrs. Carrie Harrison, her friend of the Press Club, says in a recent letter to the editor of this book, "In 1897 I lived in Mrs. Colby's house and saw something of her capacity for work. No matter what she had
i ​
Personality and Last Days
done or how hard the work she had accomplished she would always clear up the room for an informal party Saturday night.
"And where did all the people come from? They were judges, doctors, North American Indians, Hindu philosophers, and what not. If there was a crank in town he would find his way to Clara B. Colby's Saturday evening. She was a mixer extraordinary. At about eleven o'clock she made coffee and, crowded around a long table, we talked on till midnight."
Her benevolence was unbounded. It is related of her that at one time when she occupied a single room at the W. C. T. U. building on Sixth street she heard a rapping at the outside door in the night. She went down and found a poor homeless woman there. She took her to her own room, and kept her over night, gave her a breakfast and helped her to go on her way in the morning. And this was not a rare instance of her helpfulness. She was always on the alert to aid those in need.
During her last winter in Washington in 1916 she roomed at 304 Indiana Avenue. During that season Washington was visited with a serious epidemic of grippe. Many of the tenants in the house were seriously sick. Mrs. Colby made herself a nurse, attendant and friend to each one, visiting them all daily, and ministering to their needs until at ​
Personality and Last Days
last the disease attacked her in a violent form which laid the foundation for the pneumonia that afterwards caused her death. When she left for the West in the spring the tenants of the different rooms stood together in tears at the head of the stairs, as she bade them good-bye to go to the train. It was her plan to go to Oregon and establish her home at Eugene, employing herself in giving interpretations and readings of Whitman and in lecturing along the Pacific coast. She visited Portland and seems to have been most cordially received. She wrote of receptions which were tendered her, of lectures that she had given, of having opportunities to present the aims of the Federal Suffrage Association and of making preliminary arrangements for future lectures. She then went to Eugene where she remained some weeks making arrangements for her work of the approaching fall and winter. But the disease of the previous winter had left its effects on her constitution and she was attacked by pneumonia. She lingered several weeks in great pain. Her sister, Dr. Mary B. White, came to Eugene and took her to her home in Palo Alto, California, in the hope that with kind care and surrounded by comforts she might recover her health. The journey, however, proved a great tax on her system and when she arrived at Palo Alto she was overcome
s
I ​
Personality and Last Days
by weakness and lived only a few days, passing away on the 7th of September. Her remains were cremated, and the ashes sent in an urn to Windsor, Wisconsin, the family home. Appropriate services were held there, as also in Palo Alto. Notices of her death were given in most of the papers throughout the country.
Thus ended a life of untiring and heroic endeavor. Mrs. Colby's courage was wonderful, and it helped her to defy and overcome the most adverse circumstances. She had great sorrows, but she never paraded them. Indeed, she seldom spoke of them, even to her most intimate friends. She suffered great injustice, but she never complained. Always cheerful, always hopeful, she "left the things that were behind, and pressed forward to the things that were before."
The soldier climbing up Vimy Ridge bearing aloft the colors, amid the constant fire of the German guns, was not a more brave or heroic figure than the woman rising above disappointment and sorrow, hampered by untold difficulties, yet fighting gloriously on for the enfranchisement of the women of the world, never losing sight of the great ideal to which she aspired, but "bearing all things, hoping all things, believing all things" to the end.
Mrs. Colby was a strong and inspiring character. Her life was filled with useful ​
Personality and I<ast Days
activity and good work, and yet with the most noble ideals, the utmost energy and patient endeavor, her life was in many respects a disappointment. Her plans were too elaborate to be carried out with the means at hand, and her ideals too high to be realized in the midst of this strenuous and material age.
Her friend, Miss Harrison, speaking of this calls it a "genius for failure," but her "genius for failure" was rather a hope for success. She was optimistic in the extreme and her aspirations lifted her into an atmosphere of ideality and exaltation which made her oblivious of the realities of life, and forgetful of the difficulties to be encountered. From her Pisgah height she always saw the promised land just ahead. Discouragement was a word which had no meaning for her. The righteousness of the undertaking was to her an assurance of attainment and her energy was equal to the largest possible demand.
It is sad to think that aspiration and hope, faithful labor, and self-sacrifice must so often be unable to reach the goal sought. The superficial pronounce the word "failure" with contempt when a clearer judgment and better understanding of spiritual reality would have led them to bow down in generous recognition of the lofty endeavor.
She was a democrat of the democrats, and her interest was confined to no class or condition of men or women, but wherever ​
Personality and Last Days
there was need of help, a call for sympathy, or a cause requiring sacrifice, she was always ready. She wanted to help everybody and instruct everybody. Unfortunately many people do not wish to be instructed, and some cannot be helped. It is the fate of the pioneer to make pleasant paths for others to walk in, and to open doors of opportunity to those who come after them. And Mrs. Colby was a pioneer.
She had the reward of which she said, "The consciousness of giving the world a forward movement along the path of liberty is the highest reward of human effort."
She was essentially a devoted religionist. Adhering to the Congregational church, she yet had an open mind to all the various forms of new thought and wondrous spiritual suggestion of our times. Her feeling was well expressed by the pastor of the Pilgrim Band as they departed in the Mayflower: "God hath more truth yet to break out of His word." More truth, more truth, is ever the desire of the earnest soul. Her cry, like that of Goethe when he died, was ever "more light."