The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1876-03-29
LIVES OF EMINENT WOAfEN-SAP-
Pho

LIVES OF EMINENT W0AfEN-SAP-
PHO.
From the Cincinnati Commercial
Sappho was about the first women who
struck Tyre. There may have been other
women as able as herself, but the lyres
were scarce. They have multiplied
greatly since Sappho's day, and there
are WON en- all over the world who could
undoubtedly strike them without an eff.
fort Sappho was born at Mighty.
lean IA mighty lean town to be
in Greece), but it is not recorded that she
leaned particularly in any direction ex-
cept toward Tyres and lovers. She was
not beauty, so says history, but she
had stalking ways;' she took fancy to
some new Greek every few days, and
she managed always to have a 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 writer's of
poetry Il quote from the current gossip
of the neighbors). Sappho was married
two or three times, and yet she was not
in state of unalloyed felicity. She was
not entirely convinced what it was she re.
quired to render her happy. She man.
aged 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 quotations,
'When Greek meets Creek" etc: After
the death Of her third husband. whose
life was insured for ninety-thousand dol
lars. Sappho wore the heaviest mourning
and dyed her hair black. fashion which
disconsolate widows have followed to
this day. She wore wreath of laurel
twined with her curls, and about this
time her poetry beganIto assume the Geo.
W. Childs type; she had never made a
business of her talent up to that period,
but two or three daily papers started up
IN M'ghty-lene, and she embarked in the
Tyre line at ten dollars week and
''perks, said perks being clipped tickets
to ''Davy Crockett and Blind Tom
shows, with the privilege now and then,
of making notices Of millinery 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 uncomf.rt.
ably and unpoetically stout. mot to put
too tine point upon it, - fat and and forty
but not lair. The attentions of her lover
| ceased on account Of the disenchantment
wrought by the change in circumstances,
and Sappho, she could not help it; she
wore corsets ten inches too small for her,
tied back her overskirts, and called her.
self thirty, but it was failure. He ex:
cused himself from the old familiar at.
tentlons, and told her it was making
talk. Then it was that the Leucadiao
breezes we're stirred, and the Tyre struck
to some purpose. She siezed her 'ssty.
lus' (they wrote with stylus have not
learncd), and wrote these immortal lines:
Oh handy legged, Banty Tim!
Tonight 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 float to shore,
The devil fish shall find form
That's grease, but living grease no more.
And she kept her word. They raked
the pond n Ext 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 year after. They
pu: up slab bearing this touching in.
scrlptlon, written for the occasion. by
Supreme Judge of Indiana: i.
sSweet Sappho so fond
Was found in the pond,
And buried upon the shore;
Now low lies her head,
For S,ppho is dead,
ana will return to us nevermOre"
The meter is not entirely perfect in
the inscription, but they never expect to
meet her again, and it made no differ. J
ence., Sappho's tragic death should
have been q warning to other lyre.hitters,
but it hasn't they 60 it, hit and miss,
even yet, and will to the end of time.
though Oliver Wendell Holmes has given
SO much advice on the subject.