Los Angeles daily herald., 1876-05-21
KARL-ILE.
And then comes the Cincinnati Sat-
urddy Night with its effusion on the
Lives of Eminent W0men-Sappho.

Sappho was about the only woman
who struck Tyre. There may have
been other women as able as herself,
but the Tyres We're scarce. They have
multiplied greatly since Sapphos day,
and there are women all over the
world who could undoubtedly strike
them without an effort. Sappho was
born at Mighty-lene "a mighty lean
town to be in Greece), but it is not re-
corded that she leaned particularly in
any direction except toward lyres and
lovers. She was not a beauty, so says
history, but she had taking ways"
she took fancy to some new Greek
every few days, and she managed al
ways to have Greek slave near her.
Sappho was a dark skinned, "pony-
built little woman, who was noted as
good house-keeper, a trait which
has long been extinct in writers ofpo-
etry (I quote from the current gossip
of the neighbors). Sappho was mar
ried two or three times, and yet she
was not in state of unalloyed felici-
ty. She was not entirely con-
vinced what it was she required
to render her happy. She managed
to be in love continually with two or
three at once, which kept up lively
state of affairs among the Greeks.
This is the origin of the familiar quo
tation, "When Greek meets Greek,
etc., After the death of her third hus-
band, whose life was insured for nine
ty thousand dollars, Sappho wore the
heaviest kind of mourning and dyed
her hair black, fashion which dis
consulate widows have followed to
this day. She wore wreath of laurel
twined with her curls and about this
time her poetry began to assume the
George w. Child's tone; she had never
made business of her talent up Co
the period, but two or three daily
papers started up in Mightylene, and
she embarked In the Tyre line at ten
dollars a week and "perks ~ said perks
being clipped tickets to "Davy
Crockettn and "Blind Tomn shows,
with the privilege now and then, of
making notices of msllenery and fancy
goods, for which graceful act she was
kept in felt hats and ostrich tips.
Greece was tried about these times,
and rendered desolate; Sappho was
growing uncomfortably and unpo-
etically stout, mot to pat too fine
point upon t,s'fat and forty" but not
fair. rhe attentions of her lover ceased
on account of the disenchantment
wrought by the chaneein circumstan-
stances, and Sappho, she could not
help it, she wore corsets ten inches too
small for her, tied back her overskirt,
and called herself thirty, but it was
failure. He excused himselffrom the
old familiar attentions, and told her
III Al IL
that the Leucadian breezes were STIR
red, and the Tyre struck to some pur-
pose. She seized her "stylus' (they
wrote with stylus have not learnedo
and wrote these immortal lines:
oh handy legged, Banty Timl
To-nigE when you lie on your pillow,
Your broken hearted love will sleep
Beneath Leucadia's heaving billow.
Among the oysters and the clans,
Amid the trash that floats to shore,
The jevil-fsh shall find a form
That's grease, but living grease no more.
And she kept her word They raked
the pond next day and hauled her in,
soggy and defunct-her Tyre rusty and
out of tune, and he was so conscience
stricken that he married her eldest
| daughter in less than a year after.
They put up slab bearing this touch
ing inscription, written for the occa-
sion by Supreme Judge of Indiana;
| sSweet Sappho so fond
| Was found In the pond,
| And buried upon the shore;
| Now low lies her head,
| For Sappho is dead,
| And will return to us neverm0re.
The meter is not entirely perfect in
the inscription, but they never expect
/ to meet her again. and 1T made no
difference. Sappho's tragic death
should have been warning to other
| lyre-hitters, but it hasn't; they go 1t,
lit and miss, even yet, and will to the
end of time, though Oliver Wendell
Holmes has given SO much advice on
the subject.