Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1868-07-09
EMINENT AMERICAN WOMEN.


W recent issue OF The Boston Advertis
i an, admirable sketch of Mrs. Howe, /,
poet; and Mrs. Caroline II. Dali, the recc
nized champion OF womans progressIin t
industrial field. In introducing his sketch,
MIR. Redpath refers to the difficulties Of de,
! ing with subjects purely personal, and say
Of an eminent statesman, who asks. ia
good provider ?" docs he take proper ca
, OF his children is he thoughtful husband
| we assume that if he is good and gre
man in public he is decent and canab
man at home, and do not thank Paul Pl
! lor any small gossip he may tender us r
specting his domestic relations.
: But, OF women who have won q name /
the world, by their talents or their service
!, such questions are quite eagerly asked
Foetry and yet good mother--possible
:, oatch fearless reiormer and yet know
how. to make fish-balls--you dosY ga
that ?, Now, would not tell If / knew. bl
cause it is the sign of groveling mind /
wish to know of u living woman whose pul
ne career is brilliant, whether or no he
Kitchen is superintendent by herself or wheth
or her children are as carefully nlrtured a
those OF other women who are incapable q
DONG anything except the daily duties-cer
tainly the noble and sacred duties-of m,
nursery and the household. With a woma,
conspicuous for genius or talent. we have /,
do only with its public manifestations ant
30 much by way Of preface 1t seems need
lui TO write before attempting to sketch an,
oil inc eminent women of Massachusetts.
- Although Mrs. Howe was not born In
New England, and although her ancestor,
dlu not come over in tho Mayflower, hel
poems and prose writings are thoroughly
imbued with its profoundest thought and ali
bear tho impress of its culture. Certainiv'
no other female poet is so well entitled to he
regarded as the representative of Its pbiloso-
ply and intellectual life.
:, Mrs. Howe is the daughter of Mr.. Samuel
ward, wealthy and prominent banker of
New York. She was born in 1919. Onher
mothers side she was descendant Of the
french Huguenot exiles who settled in South
Carolina her maternal grandmother was n
niece of General Marion, the Revolutionary
partisan OF that State, who so nobly failed
IN trying to render Its early history respecta-
bic. Her fathers family claim descent from
Roger Williams.
Miss Julia Ward was carefully educated
under the superintendent of her father.
VINO, himself in his later years strict Epis
copalian, brought up his family in that faith,
ana endeayored to keep this daughter apart
from the fashionable society in which thew
were entitled to move. His Daughters nat,i-
raj love for literature was rapidly deyeloped
by her secluded life. She began to make
verses in her carly childhood, and was
constant reader of the best authors of the
day, both English and German. All her
regarded her even then as one
OF the coming authors of the country.
Her hrst public contribution to the Dress
was review OF Lamartipes Joselyn, pub
lished in the New York Theological Review.
by poelcal transiations of the
passages quoted from, the poem. This paper
attracted good deal of notice at the time.
and was followed by review of Dwight's
OF tho minor poems of Schiller
and Goethe. Miss Ward had great passion
FOR languages, and, as early as fourteen, had
Italian and soon afterwards Ger
man. man whose classical authors she studied
with genuine deviation The influence of
these early studies of Goethe and Schiller
ana i the modern German philosophers may
still be seen IN her writings.
Ihe death of her father and brother.
within short time of each other, produced |
reaction in her mind, which found ex-
preston in series of poems on the Life of |
Jhrist. Margaret Fuller read them and
lrged their publication; but the opposition
u friends and relatives overruled this advice.
Excepting accasional contributions to the
press, it was not until long after her mar
lage that she published her first collection
If poens
At the age of twenty-three she was mar
led to Dr. Samuel g. Howe, and Immediate
y afterwards sailed for Europe with him.
n England her husband received great at
ention from many OF the literary and scien-
itc magnates. His name had become n
household word" there from the then re-
ent publication of Dickens "American
Votes" in which the case of Miss Laura
'ridgman received an honorable mention.
.fter visiting England, Italy, Germany, and
rance, Mr.. and Mrs. Howe returned and
ettled in South Boston, between which
lace, Boston proper and Newport, Rhode
sland, most of all their subsequent life has
cen divided. They had been abroad about
year and half. Their eldest child was
0rn in Rome
In Rufus Griswold's collection of the fc-
iale poets of America were first published
er verses on the birth of their daughter and
| Mappleson's "Lays of the Western
yorld' appeared her '.Lces in the Goblet"
life, (written three years afterwards. } I
9th OF which were noticed at the time with !
At this period she contin- I
ed her literary studies as far as her house. /
old duties permitted her to do so,-writing I
ocmss, but publishing nothing. In 1913
'ieA d reports her as saying that she studied
wedcnborg necessarily.
"Dr. Howe and his wife revisited Europe !
! 1850, and staid there during the summer
nd succeeding winter. Mrs. Howe spent '
ie winter at Rome, and began to write the
oems which were subsequently published
nder the title OF Passion Flowers"
During this visit she again revived that
we of fine art, which had been carefully
iltivatcd by her father, who, in order to |
1ucate his children In this knowledge, 4
lade one of the largest private collections | '
[ paintings that existed In America at that I,
me. 1t was from him that Thomas Cole,
ne father Of American landscape painting,
,ceived commission to execute one of the
lrec great series of works, which seem to |
ave been fatal to every one who took the {
eepest interest in them for Luman Reed, ]
Tho ordered " The Course of Empire" and I
amuel Ward, who ordered The Voyage ,
+ Life" died before they were completed, s
1hile "The Cross and the World" which {
g painted for himself, the artist did not '
We to complete.
Mrs. Howes active literary career, or ra- |
her, her public career, began about 1858, 1
'hen, on the retirement of Elizur Wright,
- tAoWc booh ChhiS vi me common
'ealth ! newspaper. She contributed chief
I the literary articles, but a large number !
the bright paragraphs for which that pa
er was famous in its day, are attributed to
er pen. At this time the study of Comte's /
ositive Philosophy led her to desire and !
egin more systematic course of culture {
,an that hitherto pursued by her.
In 1854 she published q small volume of {
oems, mainly literary, under the title of S
Passion Flowers" This was followed in |
S56 by "Words for the Hour issued !,
lortly after the attack of Brooks upon Sc
ator Sumner. This collection, unlike its
redecessor, is chiefly devoted to themes of {
10 day-as Kansas "The Fugitive
lave, The Assault in the Senate" and ,
inbred topics.
In 1857 Mrs. Howe published "The
Worlds Own" play, which was produced |
Wallack's Theatre, in New York. Its lit /
rary power is more decided than its dramat- !
, merit; it is a book to be read rather than
play to be seen. Such, at least, was the
ldgment of the best critics, among whom ]
lere was no dispute as to its value as a
,ork OF literary art. At this time Mrs. ,
lowe revived her knowledge of Latin and Z
enewed her readings of the classics-a
curse OF studies which told upon her style