The Portland daily press., 1875-07-14
About Women,

Miss Sarah Clark, sister of James Freeman
Clarke, has for several years resided in Rome,
where, by her gentle courtesy and sparkling
vivacity, she has won for herself a large circle
of friends. She has an artistic looking apart
ment on the Via Quattro Fontane, overlook
ing the beautiful grounds of the Barberni
Palace. She is now engaged in most inter-
esting work, which has occupied her for the
last four or five years, and which has involved
an immense amount of study and research, be-
sides great deal of travelling from city to city.
The work is series of sketches of all the
places visited by Dante, or mentioned by him
in his writings. These have all been visited
personally by Miss Clarke, and the account of
her experience in this Dante pilgrimage IS
most interesting. When finished it is designed
for America, it having been ordered by Mrs
Mitchell of Milwaukee, wife of the Congress-
man. Miss Clarke is now making another
series of the same sketches for Lady Ashbur-
ton. and afterwards intends having the designs
etched that they may be engraved.
An Illinois woman who wanted to go to
masquerade party as Mary, Queen of Scots,
looked through the Bible to ascertain how the
character was dressed.
A correspondent of the Chicago Inter. Ocean
writes of Winnie Ream. 'This bewildering
young moulder of craven images is a Kansas
girl. The paternal Ream was for many year.
resident of this state, where he followed the
vocation of hotel keeping. He operated first
in the Shawnee House, Leavenworth, and
afterwards in the Eldridge House at Wyan-
dotte. The patrons of these hotels and citizen
of the towns named recall Winnie Ream of
those days as pert, plump little body, with
remarkably bright eyes and 'handy" way of
waiting upon the guests at table; and it is re-
lated that When the family made the journey
from Leavenworth to Wyandotte she drove the
COW, walking the whole distance barefooted to
save her only pair of shoes. Nobody who
knew her in this sylvan era of her girlhood is
able to recall a single sign in her looks or her
actions of bent for chiseling statues. And
yet it is fair to suppose that the divine affia-
tus' had at least whispering lodgment in her
mind even then, if we are to accept the fiatter-
ing estimate which her friends put upon her
work as an artist If she ever 'sculped' any
thing in Kansas except biscuits and butter
rolls, there is no record or remembrance of it;
nor is it known here how and when she first
commenced her working of miracles in
stone."
At Pompeii they recently found curious
record. 1t vas scratched on the stucco of q
kitchen wall, and has been thus translated:
Lighted the fire, cooked his meals, and swept
his house for him $4,000 times to this day, and
he refuses to take me to the circus" Beneath
this, in a different hand, is written "Women
are never satisfied"
"Who can sound the de pths of her love? he so
liloquized, as he leaned out of the window while
the moonlight brilliantly illuminated the white
line where his hair was parted in the middle.
She thought he was talking about another wo.
man, and for three weeks she fixed the poul-
tices herself, did everything to repair the dis
astrous consequences of her impetuosity, and
treated him as a penitent AID devoted wife
should.
Mrs. Annie Besant, of London, England,
is making great reputation as a radical wri-
ter and speaker. She is said to have the high
est culture, and is acquainted not only with
the various European languages, but with the
bear ngs of their literature ON the subjects on
which shs is particularly interested. She is
beautiful being less than thirty years of age,
and with the soft, clear eyes, rich brown hair,
delicate oval face, and refined features, which
make the best type of English beauty. She is
rather under the average size, and dresses with
taste which can only be ascribed to the infiu-
ence of education in Paris, acting upon mind
naturally endowed with fine artistic sense.
She stands on the platform habited in a rich
black silk skirt and black velvet basque, with
white lace ruffie around the neck. There is no
Lott nd 1irht
bending forward of the form, or an uncon-
scious movement of the shapely head, or of the
mouth, the flashing or the sparkling OF the
eyes, as the telling arrow of logic or wit speeds
from the arch lips, do more effective work than
all those gestures which are the natural accom-
paniments of mere defamation. Although
she is in sympathy with the movement for the
eufranchisement of her sex, her main work is
that of a religious free-thinker and republican
reformer