Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1866-03-29
GEN. HooKRR-wARD BEECHER.


quote:
GEN. HoOKBR-wARD BEE CHER.
Amid the beautiful women land sun
ny day brings many beautiful women
into Broadway one will meet a host of
noted people in the space of an hour
Here is Gen. Hooker rejuvenated, in face
and uniform. In the glory of new bull
lion and the happiness Of beautiful
bride, he looks most unlike the rusty and
irascible man who used occasionally to
appear in Washington amid the cam
paigns of Virginia.
A few steps further on, beside Grace
church, l meet Henry Ward Beecher, and
look to see it, at near view, he carries
his fifty odd years as lightly as he looks
to do in the pulpit. Yes, beloved Of the
gods, they have set upon his face and in
his eyes the seal Of everlasting youth.
The extreme radicals, with whom he has
been so long identified, have anathema-
tized and dropped him. They say that he
has outlived all growth and fallen far
behind the march of the times. His face
gives the lie to these assertions. 1t
glows with the ever renewing life of q
heart that cannot grow old, heart that,
in these its first autumnal days, thrills
with the fresh pulses Of its spring; q
heart that can never cease to thrOD in
unison with the grandest issues of the
hour, and never grow cold in sympathy
with its kind. There is no use of your
talking, Mr.. Extremist while there is
drop of life left in Beecher, it will be
liyyn Shiptyinfy
not the torpid tainted, unconscious life
that half of the race drag from the era
die to the grave.
FANNY FERN.
A block further on | meet Fanny
Fern and her daughter. Fanny carries
her fifty years with as soaring a heaT,
and as springy step as she could Eos
sibly have done her twenties. FANNY
has set that strong, resolute face of hers
against growing old. She "v,ill not"
and she won't. Repose is a verv feeble
rill in her being. Troubled. and stormy
have been her days, Her experiences of
life would have aged an ordinary wo.
man years ago. But like every other
enemy Fanny dedes Age, and he has
not yet dared TO harm her as he can.
Even when at last Death shall seize and
carry her off he will have to do it in
terrible hurry or he will miss his prize
for Fanny is woman who will never
submit to 'die by inches" Fanny Ferns
face bears j striking resemblance to
that Of her brother, n. 2. Willis. The
likeness is so striking that, as you trace
it, you wonder while "Hyacinth" was
such prig how Ruth Hall" could
have been such an angel. The stylish
figure, the graceful bearing the amber
curls, the pale cold eyes, the strong jaw
are alike in both, only Fanny carries be-
fore her by far the most proud, power
ful and aggressive nose.
Fanny Fern is an elegant woman.
Her dress is usually faultless. Quiet in
tone, fastidiOus In taste yet in spite of
herself, the effect is striking. Her
naughty head, her elastic step, her sty-
lish form, make it so. Thus as far as the
eye can trace her. Fanny Fern is marked
woman in a Broadway crowd. Fanny
has done her best to make the public
believe that she is termagant, and has
succeeded. She delights in outrc asser-
tiOns aud savage sentences. 1t rather
pSaseS her to think that the whole tribe
of outsiders consider her dragon. Like
many of her sister women, she doubt
less finds it very difficult to walk full
fledged angel here below, and the men
who married her should have been sure
that they possessed the power of sub
jugation or the gift Of submission, if
they desired peace. And yet under this
volcano of birthstone ripple hundred
rilis of tender feeling, and Fanny Fern In
word and deed can be gentle, womanly
and good. Not long ago, on the sunny
side of Broadway, in its nurses arms
she saw somebody's baby. Who owned
the baby | cannot say. can only tell
you that came pat upon Fanny Fern
wedged in 3 corner apparently oblivi-
Gus to every body and everything but
that baby. Such ecstacy, and such baby
talk, and such q transhgured face, all
the pride and harshness in it melted in
to mother-love. Well I looked and
listened even while the crowd iostled
me on, and concluded that woman
who looked and talked like that to
baby was, whatever her faults, much
more a loving woman at heart than
virago or a blue stocking. Nobody