Bismarck tri-weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, D.T. [N.D.]) 1875-1881, 1877-08-06

ABOUT ANNA DICKINSON.
Her Family, Her Surroundings and
Her Future.
New York Correspondence OF the Baltimore Amerf-
can.
I saw Anna Dickinson the other day,
and the contrast between her life at
home and the stormy episode through
which she has passed was so marked that
thought your readers might be 1nteres-
ted in assisting to trace it. Few people
know Anna Dickinson as she is, or the
S ort of stock from which she sprung. She
is generally supposed to have been poor
girl, of New England birth and parent
age, with an assertive, dominant will,
and strong but uncultivated intellect.
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
She is born aristocrat, If we have any
such, able to trace her ancestry back goo
years, on the eastern shore Of Maryland,
on the mothers side, and: Through one Of
the Oldest and proudest Of Pennsylvania
lines On the fathers. Her mother was
an Edmundson-slaveholding Quakers,
until, in her mothers grandfathers time,
I liberal movement in the society obliged
its members either to give up their slaves
or resign their membership; he chose to
give them up. Her mother-her sepatron
saint, as she loves to call hers wo-
man of refined appearance and exquisite
manners, who has always sustained her
place in the very best society. As a girl,
her most intimate friend was Miss Fish
er-Sallie M. Fisher afterwards Mrs.
John M. Clayton-and an illustric us man
said Of her that she was ''the finest lady
and most thoroughbred woman" he had
ever seen. Anna Dickinsons srandfa-
ther on the fathers side was Pensylva-
nian nabob, whose ancestors had occu-
pied for six generations plantation, or
rather principality, of 900 acres, upon
which he lived like prince, and became,
probably, somewhat of an old Pagan, for
he quarrelled with his eldest, and, be-
lieve, Oldest son, Anna Dickinson's faith
er, and the latter left his home, deter
mined to make his own way in the world,
which he did. He became great whole
sale merchant, friend of James G. Biz
in short, one of the founders of the Lib
eral party. Unfortunately, however, he
failed, and six months thereafter, before
he had time to recover himself (for he
was an "old-fashioned' merchant and
had given up everything), he died of
heart disease, dropping dead in the street
on his way home from Liberal meeting,
where he had made, what there are per-
sons who still remember, the best extern
poraneous speech to which they had ev-
er listened.
Anna was the youngest of five children,
one sister ard three brothers, and there
were plenty of rich relatives on both sides
who would have divided up the children
among them and given the widow a
home, but this did not suit her ideas. She
wished to keep them together and rear
them herself, and SO she did, and did it
so we'll that her son Zone boy died) was
Professor in the first cellege on the Paci-
fe slope at twenty, and if Anna did not
share for quite so lenghthened a period
(she left school at fourteen) in the adj
vantages which her brothers and sister
enjoyed, it was because she was the
youngest, and elected not to do SO, seeing
that the long struggle was wearing upon
her mother, and fearing that if she gain
ed all she wished to give her in the way
of scholastic training, it would be at the
expense of that mothers life. Moreover,
she has lost nothing. Experience has
given her better education than books
could have done. From her father, An
ma Dickinson inherits the ardor, passion
and almost insane love of justice which
distinguished her, while from her moth
er comes the love Of fine and rare things,
the tenacity of purpose, the persever-
ance and determination to do or die,
which are equally part of her nature.
Underlying the whole is sensitive soul,
which vibrates to every passing breath
like the sensitive plant, and responds so
quickly and truly to the winds that pass
over it, that it almost depends upon them,
whether it discourses sweet music or dis
cordant sounds, like bells 3sfangled" and
'Fout of tune"
Anna Dickinson's home consists of an
apartment shut in from everything but
the breeze, which comes through the To-
iaged spaces of one of the wide streets
of New York. Here she lives with her
maid, her books, her pictures and her
work, and here her intimates share her
dainty lunch or quiet dinner, unpretend-
ing as 10 description of viands, but exqu1-
sitely cooked, and served in such rare old
china, with the addition Of such delicate
bits Of glass and antique silver, that the
soul who loves such things is gladdened
while the body is being satisfied.
Full and complete stock Of Wins
Liquors and Cigars at II. Gains. 19
Several officers belonging to the regi-
ments stationed up the Missouri and its
tributaries. left yesterday for their
respective commands. In some in