The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1872-07-19

IL WAS u tolh WuiCI, iOAOWihS ho IA"
glanced all over Mrs. Livermore'G
lite. The stately matrOn was again {
child, with Copp's Hill Cemetery fol
her playground, and without fear o.
the quiet sleepers under her riotous
sport. She drew herself wild, i'm
petuous, overfOwing "tom-boy" Of 6
girl, brimming with fun and mischief
the strong, native, vital forces in
her bringing her forever to grief, YET
never permanently checked; the
champion always OF the poor and
friendless; and a strange, underlying
sadness getting sometimes to the sur,
face, through all the boisterous mirtll
and mischief. This woman was evi
IDENTIFY cut out on a grand pattern from
the beginning. The royal Hebrews
Injunction of =" not sparing the rod "
was faithfully observed in the traiD-
ing of the eager, intense, tumultuous
New England girl. She was sent sup.
PEERLESS to bed ; she was detrauded of
that crowning treasure and delight of
childhood, od,-SaturdaY afternoon; she
was scolded at, and urged and she
cried herself sick Tor would if any
such thing had been possible to the
fibre that went to the making of the
stout, robust little figure }, and wished
she was dead, and then broke the
cords which held her prisoner in the
chair, and, mounting that, made it
serve as pulpit, and preached to the
walls warning sinners to slice from
the wrath to Gomez while father and
mother would stand listening outside,
in amused bewilderment at the child 8
passionate eloquence. Sometimes,
too, the old Baptist deacon would
look mournfully at his daughter, and
say, IF you had only been a boy,
Mary, what q preacher, in that case,
you would have made! / should GER
tainly have educated you for the min
istry ; and what q world Of good you
might have done" But it never so
much as entered the Boston deacon's
heart, that this strange, impulsive,
fiery little soul, whose sex he 30 keen
ly deplored, had her own work to do
in the world, and would yet hold vast
masses breathless under the power OF
her logic and magic charm of her el.
oquence. But the years went on, and
the Boston deacon's daughter grew
into girlhood and womanhood, with
her marvellous energy, with her keen,
alert mind, with her hungry greed OF
knowledge, with her swift scorn OF
sophistries, but with the warm, gen
erous heart Ia little steadied with the
gathering years., as swift and helpful
now as in those old days when it
danced in Copp's Burying Ground,
and was the champion OF all the poor,
neglected children. -,
Whec we were married. said
Mrs. Livermore, with that humOr
whose current plays and sparkies
through all the earnestness OF her talk,
"our capital consisted OF books. l
did all my own work. l cut and
made my husbands coats and pants.
There is no kind of house work with
which l am not familiar. ! defy any,
body to rival me in that line. My
drawers, my closets. my whole house,
are always open for inspection"
It is marvellous, when you come to
think of it, the amount of mental and
physicaI strain which this woman
manages to undergo. There is the
constant wear and tear ct nerve and
brain. For three weeks at a time,
during the lecture season, she assures
me that she has not slept on bed,
except such poor substitutes for one as
lounges on cars and steamboats, afford.
Even during the summer her en-
gaoements are SO numerous, that the
evening l passed with her was the
SOLITARY one she could command for
the ensuing month. She was to
sneak in few days in Clinton, N. Y,
and to lecture before the graduating
class of the divinity school in Canton;
this being the first time in the history
of American institutions that such an
honor has been awarded to woman.
Add to this her constant reading, her
duties as chief editress of The Wo
man,s Journal, the letters that must
he answered, the ocean OF manuscripts
that must be waded through. One
cannot help sympathizing with the
sentiment OF the distich which she
she quoted to me as sample of the
avalanche of rhyme which poured
down on The Woman's Journal -
"Art thou not tired, my dear NJ. A. L.,
Working forever. SO hard and so well?"
"There were actually four pages Of
this" she said. OF course, no woman
could bear all this physical and men
tai strain without the foundation Of
admirable physique. With few ex
ceptions, she has enjoyed splendid
health. The stamina of her Puritan
grandmother seems to have been be
Sueathed, unweakened, to Mary A
fiyermore. Then there are the con
slant claims on her time and charity
As an instance in point, one year sh'
found homes for thirty-three children
worse than orphans.
81 never in my life,' she said
"turned anybody away who came t.
, me for help. never wilfull wronget
) human being" How few of u
{ could in our inmost souls say thes
words!
: / cannot forbear here, even at tn
E risk of making this article too long
s quoting an adventure which Mrs
t Livermore related to me as occurrin!
8 on the Missouri during her last lee
turing tour. The Missouri was a
8 flood tide. A sudden rise of tn
r river had rendered it impossible for
e steamboat to cross during the day
g Mrs. Livermore was engaged to lee
y ture that night in town on the OF
o nocite shore. After dark. q crOWde