The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-11-10
TIE LATE MIR. FAwCETT.
Personal Facts and Habits of the Blind
Statesman-His Home Life.
Boston Herald.

Boston Herald.
When young, Mr.. Fawcett lost his eyes, he
was made to feel that air must be made to take
the place of light in ministering to his physical
sense of the beautiful, and he never abated lot
of his enthusiasm for those healthful occupa-
tions which brought him closest in communion
with the beauties of nature. Rowing fishing
walking, riding and cricket found in him hearty
disciple. His animahsm was perfectly healthy
and his personal presence was always breezy
and CHEEKY. He was large in frame, with mass
i've shoulders and long limbs, and ne was proud
to the day of his death of the atheticism which
nature planted in him, and which he never al
lowed to decay. His great love of walking was
shared by his wife and his native Wiltshire, the
favorite scene of his delight in pedestrian ]aunts,
the happy and thoroughly congenial pair were &C
customed to tramp for miles and miles together.
1t was country not familiar to Mrs. Fawcett, but
her husbands love for it before blindness came
to him had led him to joyfully know as old
friends all the picturesque tree clumpS and all
the giant powders, so that when his companions
eyes had seen the outline, he piloted, without
falter their course over the familiar ground. 1t
is a little curious that with this strong memory
of his favorites in nature, Mr. Fawcett had little
aptness in learning things by rote, and spoke of
committing dozen lines of poetry las a ire
mendous undertaking." Yet he never showed
lack of facts and figures necessary to support a
position he had taken in argument.
In his home life, from what has above been
told of the man. it will naturally be seen that he
was adapted to calm and peaceful ways. For
number of years his residence was at Lambeth
in plain and rather unattractive brick house,
but with a beautiful garden tenth of a mile in
length in which he found open-air delight when
not off for broader breathing space, The ways
of living were plain Mr.. Fawcett showed
fondness for appearing the gentleman farmer in
his attire, instead of the scholar or the parlia-
mentarian and his co3rse, free garb, with the
massive boots that encased his feet, showed
him ever ready for contact with the soil and
far removed from cockneyism or the dilettante
ways of the mere parliamentary debater He
was an early riser, and, after before-breakfast
stroll in his garden with favorite great Scotch
terrier at his heels, he would dispose of plain
meal and then be ready for work, to which he
applied himself with vigor while at 'the Lawn
as his place is called. His morning pipe was
enjoyed while hearing his secretary read the
Times and the Daily News, and then literary
labor claimed him. The secretarys manuscript,
written of course from dictation, always
carefully revised by the aid of his wife, who also
saw to the correction of proofs Mr. Fawcett's
reading was not of extended range, and there
was nothing desultory in his habit. Aside from
the difficulty of approaching with others eyes
the printed page, his earnest occupations left
little time for ranging in remote fields of ltera
ture. With his inevitable after dinner cigar, he
enjoyed an essay from ELLA" from De
Quincy The English classics were much
loved mental food for him, and his custom was
to partake therefrom the last act before sleep
ing He had a strong affection for 'Lycidas,"
thus showing sharp poetical insight, quality
of mind that all his business habit could not
blunt.