Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1875-03-27
ABOUT ELIZABETH.

How she should have been the cause
of 80 much turmoil is problem that is
almost impossible to solve without
personal acquaintance with her. She is
a slight, insigni6cant-looking woman,
lean and angular, with face Of some
pretensions to beauty. Her height is
almost dwarfsh, and upon seeing her
for the first time one could not realize
how two such strongly physical men as
Tilton and Beecher could have been at
tracted by so slight and uninteresting an
object. But great events from little
causes flow. There is nothing in her
face or manner that would point to her
as the writer of the passionate and sen
timental letters that have been read on
the trial. On the contrary, she. would
sooner be associated with making pre-
serves or preserving pickles, and eating
both with true New England zestat tea.
That she is woman of strong charae-
ter is evidenced by the persistency with
which she has sat the trial through and
has listened without blush to the bit
terly cruel things which have been said
of her. I cannot reconcile Tilton's
harangues about her modesty, refine
ment, and delicacy, with her almost
brazen boldness in visiting the courts
where she is made the central point of
all the nastiness upon which the case
hinges. Certainly her nature is not one
that is easily shocked, and, unless she
is brought there for effect, l cannot un-
derstand why she is brought there at
all. Her course has been the subject
of universal unfavorable comment in al
most every direction. 1t may be true
that even the worm turns when it is
trodden upon, but it would be much
more creditable in this instance if the
worm were to turn in private. 1t her
face be examined critically and careful,
ly, one will become easily convinced
that the lines in it are not all weak.
When she forgets herself there comes a
harsh expression that plainly manifests
self-will. She will not scold, but she
will plan. She will be eff'usiye, but she
will not tell all that she knows. One
would naturally expect woman with
so frail physique, especially if she
were the tender and snow-pure being
her husband maintains her to be, to be
worn, worried, crushed by the mental
trials to which she has been subjected;
but she is not, if she may be judged by
her looks and her bearing; she is cool,
firm and selfpossessed Once or twice
she has shed tears, but they have been
plainly tears of 7exation and not of
grief. From this l would surmise, in
the language of one of the visitors to
the trial, that "whatever else she may
be, she is nobody's fool" AT all events,
she is about the last person in the world
who would attract passing gaze, ex-
cept for the insigniticauce of her ap-
pearance, which is remarkable. Per-
haps Helen of Troy was little woman,
with pale, pinched and demure face,
with no anatomy worth speaking of,
and Paris a purpletaced, robust and
iachrymose warrior, while Menelaus
was, not unlikely, a conceited fellow
who never thought it necessary to show
much interest in his wife, until the facss
Of Paris carrying her off became so no
torious that respect for public opinion
forced him to make a noise about it.
We know that Cleopatra was overlean
and had a snub nose. Antony must
have often sat upon the ragged edge Of
despair when he thought of Octavia.
Many OF the lean and homely women
of history have managed 10 make con-
siderable trouble with the hearts Of
great men. We cannot judge of the
powers of rattail file by merely look
ing at it.-Boston Gazette