Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-09-07
MARY CLENfNrER HUDSON.

1t is not an easy thing to visit a
private residence at time when thelady
and gentleman of the house is engaged in
attentions to score or hundred guests,
and gets facts and figures about house
and home and guests and dinner and
| dresses. Yet these women accomplish
this and that too under the disadvantage
of having to do it in the night, for most
of Washington society is only to be seen
in the late evening. They must make
| themselves sufficiently welcome to gain
an entrance to the house, whether they
really are welcome or not, and gathering
there facts about home and guests and
dresses from some quiet corner, hasten
from one seventh to another until
the circuit of the evening is COM
pleted, and then, hurrying to the
office through cold and storm and
darkness, "Write it up" for the telegraph,
printer and proof reader a thousand miles
away, who in turn must prepare it for
the reader who is then sleeping in cOm-
Portable couch, little dreaming of the
hardship which these women are under
going to prepare the pleasing picture of
Washington social life with which be or
she is to be served with the mornings
breakfast.
1t was with the three women mentioned
in the beginning of this letter, however,
that it was to deal most. Mary Clemmer,
whose picture is given herewith, was per-
haps the earliest, or at least one of the
earliest, of the women writer's of Wash
ington. A woman who knew her well
has written of her as follows: ''In 1866
she inaugurated an original and specific
line of journalistic work that
at once fixed public attention.
Thousands of families became sub
scribers to the New York Independent
when that journal began the publication
of "A Woman's Letter from Washing
TOM In the years since then Mary
Clemmer has become widely known as
poet and novelist, yet it is as the fine in
terpreter of W ashington life, through an
eventful series of years, that we see her
most distinctive work. Her letters from
the capital were always significant of
fine perceptions, wide comprehension
and refined insight into the subtle rela-
lions and the Inducements of human
life. Strong in their political characterize
ton, these letters have been a potent
force in the shaping of national issues by
their power to influence public opinion"
Mary Clemmer was the daughter of
Abraham and of Margaret (Kneale)
Clemmer. She was born in Utica, n. Y.
In June, 1888, she was married to Ed
mund Hudson, of Washington, ID. c., and
the day of their marriage sailed with him
for Europe, where they remained until
the late autumn. 1t is good to remember
how beautiful was this last year of her
life. What 1t was to her is told in the
yelled sweetness of one of her poems en-
titled, ''Fulflment," in which she says:
What did do with all the years at best
Before l knew thee? Did no mystic chord
Tremble with prescience of the GROWING word
At last to make my life divinely blest?
What could | find in all my eager quest
OF dreamed of joy, of labOrs slow reward,
When had never seen my sole LIES Lord,
Nor ever entered into Loves large rest?
OH now know why fair young days were
dark.
l had not reached thy beings larger arc,
Nor worn, thy great gift, loves sacred
crown.
1t is fitting that a life of such labor and
self-sacrifce for others should go out thus
EMBODIED in peace and sweetness. In this
past year Mary Clemmer has cOncen-
trated the happiness of lifetime, and to
him who has given her this the assurance
will be his dearest consolation.