The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1872-08-02
Miss Hannah Adams.
BY JAMES PAEroS.


Many times since the Woman's Rights
agitation began, have had the wish TO
write a book with a title something like
this:
UOmcn Who Hare Taken Their Rights
Without Making a Fuss AJOW It.
Not that the j,iss has not been Of SER
vice in removing from our statute-books
many laws unjust to women, and in re-
moving from our minds some preiudices
/ that limited their sphere of labor. The
agitation has done good, and We see the
proof of it every day. \ few doors from
where 1 live a highly accomplished and
educated lady practices medicine; and L
saw, the other night at the opera, lady
I playing the harp rs a regular member
/ Of the orchestra. Her presence was well
come to every one, and her playing eX-
cited universal admiration. Recently,
women in New York have begun to de-
! liver morning papers, some OF them
even going down three hours before
daylight to get their supply. ! am con-
/ fdent, too, that the time is at hand
when women will be admitted to the
/ bar rs advocates. For some branches Of
/ legal practice they have been endowed
with peculiar talents. The agitation of
Woman's Rights has certainly made it
easier for women TO strike out into new
paths of honorable industry, and has
impaired to the public mind a certain
inclination to give women Il fair chance
in competition with men.
But long before Woman's Rights We're
ever heard of, women pushed their way
into unusual occupations, and accom-
plished works under disadvantages
which are now almost inconceivable.
Hannah Adams is one who did so. She
was, | believe, the first American lady
who gained her livelihood by literature,
and she carried out her purpose to do 50
/ when there was not a man in the United
States who lived by his pen alone. As
/ far as / can learn, the first person who
received salary as a mere writer was
/ Thomas Paine, who was engaged in
/ IVA, at an extremely low salary, to edit
a Philadelphia magazine.
Hannah Adams, born at Medfeld,
eighteen miles from Boston, in I775,
was the daughter of n village store
keeper, who sold dry goods and books /;
and it was the books her father had in
his store that afforded her the chief
part of her early education. At school
she learned little more than reading,
writing, sewing, and little arithmetic.
I Several traits marked her in early life
as q peculiar person. She was bashful
even to a painful extreme, being unable
to appear in strange company without
positive suffering. Another peculiarity
was most ardent love of knowledge.
az remember" she says in little me-
mOir which she wrote late in life, "that
my first idea of the happiness of heaven
was of place where we should find
our thirst for knowledge fully graft
fied.r
Another trait was a singularly enthu-
siastic admiration for natural beauty.
From youth to old age, she was always
enchanted with a fine prospect or q
beautiful flower. The tie which bound
her to kindred was so strong that the
death of her mother and sister caused
her ineXpressible and long-cOntinued
anguish. Probably if circumstances had
favored, if she had lived i'm an old cOun-
try instead of Il new one, if her mind
and imagination had had q better
chance, she would have run brilliant
literary career, or produced works OF
lasting value.
About the beginning of the American
Revolution, this delicate and timid
young woman, morbidly bashful and in
imperfect health, was thrown upon hel
own resources by the failure of her faith
er. At first she gained her livelihood
by the only industries then practiced il
New England by wOmen-knitting
sewing and spinning; but when the wa
s. closed the ports, she found more lu
crative employment i'm weaving "bobbiI
! lace,n which supported her very wei
, until the return of peace. In the eours,
Of her youth she had gained, with lit
tie chance assistance, considerable
. knowledge Of Latin and Greek; and sh,
= now turned this knowledge to accoun
, by assisting to prepare three yOunl
men for college. One Of these, who af
terward became a respectable clergy
4 man, had no other teacher i'm his pre-
@ paratory studies, and continued to stud,
with her until he entered the UniyeT
sity.
5 After the war, being compelled to fal
{ back upon her needle and spinning
= wheel, she was sorely Strengthened fo
means. No one, she says, in easy Gil
cumstances can form any adequate ide
of the Joy she used to feel when she Pre-
c cured any work by which she could ear
i, a few shillings; ''and this kind of EN-
joyment,n she adds, (which Providenc
> has given to the poor, appears intende
10 soften the many difficulties in thci
situation
While she was learning Latin an
! Greek, one of her fathers bOarders, VIII
:, taught her sometimes, showed her
: manuscript which he had copied frOi
= an encyclopedia, giving an account
= the different religious denomination
y and their beliefs. Ever eager for know
= edge, her curiosity was awakened, an
y she read all the books she could fin
u which afforded similar information
and, although she soon became DISCUS
! ed with the want of candOr and cou
~ tesy in controversial works, she pursue
u the subject; and at length began
= make compilation of facts and argl
~ ments, intending merely to purge I'll
: several statements of acrimony an
!, prejudice. Her manuscript grew apac
- until il had become volume of SON
magnitude.
Pressed by poverty after the war; q
thought occurred to her that perhal
Others would take pleasure i'm readiI
what had afforded her 80 much pleasu
IN i'm writing; and gradually the project
Z publishing il was formed in her min
SO After inconceivable difficulties, and pr
II curing, by personal solicitation, for
IL hundred dollars, she induced a print
y TO issue one thousand copies. The prin
d er, unhappily,was a contemplate scou
a drel, for he took all the subscriptiS
~ money, sold off the edition, and ga,
ie the POOR authoress by way of compens
ton, Jyty copies Of her tuOTk. And n
u !, only that, lie had the impudence
D. write TO her, telling her that he W
IN about TO print another edition, Al
IL, wished to know if she desired to ma
in any additions.
Sc As she had taken the precaution
IN secure a copyright, she was enabled
fa make better terms with another print,