The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-09-19
]. II. IL ALIAS saAxs AoLaa.,
Isprina6eld RepubIiean.I

Mrs. Helen Jackson was one of the notable poets and storytellers of this generation, and has peculiar and pow. erful hold upon a large public in both capacities, while by her social talents and her singular personality she has produced as remarkable though more transient an impression. Western Massachusetts may claim in her the finest poetic genius
 among American women, for she was born in Amherst. October IS, 1881, being the daughter of Rev. N. w. Fiske, pro- lessor of Latin and Greek and afterward of mental and moral philosophy at Am. herst college from 1924 to I847, and her girlhsod was spent there, though she re- ceived her education at Ipswich seminary, and at Rev. ! S. C. Abbott's school In
 New York citv. She married at twenty four Captain Edward B. Hunt, officer of engineers in the regular army, who be- came major during the war, and met his death in 1863 by the bursting of a subm arine battery of his own invention at Fortress Monroe. They had two chil- dren, both of whom died-one in baby hood, the other Ca boy) in his tenth year.
 Mrs. Hunt was turned to verse by her 0~ASosShShtSJ ~ tAo 0Ct huo GCkk6kukY these have left their indelible marks upon her writings; certain it is that with her widowhood began her literary work, which has been in many respects excep- tionaL. She first wrote vel ses as H. H." for the Nation and Lsdebendeat, then in the Atlantte Monthly, and since then in many other magazines, especially in
 Seri6ner's Monthly and 7Ae Centsry-
 whose columns, however, have been the arena of a much more extraordinary por- ton of her career, involving a sustained mysti6cation which was ingram in her nature. ohe is remembered in Amherst as a particularly active and adventurous girl, delighting in mischief and fond of queer impositions, and these characteris- tics found full play in the alias of "Saxe
 Holm." For there is no doubt existing in the minds of any critical reader that " Sake Holm " was as truly Helen Hunt as n. H." and yet, though tbe author ship Of the stories appearing under that name was constantly ascribed to her, she not only never confessed them, but re- sented imputation, and came very near denying the name outright, so that many friends could not be persuaded that it belonged to her. Besides these stories she wrote others which appeared anony. mously, and during the last few years of her life had entered upon a new phase of work, in which through literature and practical labor she was making a name of heiself-namely, in championins the cause of the Indians.
 Going to Colorado Springs for her health, which had suffered in Newport from frequent attacks of diphtheria, she took up her residence there, and in 1876 married William s. Jackson, a banker of that place She became deeply interested in the Indians. and in their wrongs. and devoted herself to their cause with a sim gle-hearted purpose which subordina,ed everything else She published in 1881 " A Century of Dishonor," tremendous arraignment of the treatment of the h. dians by this nation. and aferwald wrote many articles on the same subject for newspapers and magazines, pursuing her object with repeated letters to the lnte- TOT department, in which she advanced charges against the administration of In- dian affairs which compelled attention. She was especially interested in the fate of the Mission Indians of southern Cali fornia, in which region she has spent much of her time for tie benefit of her health, and President Arthur appointed her special commissioner, in conjunction with Abbott Kinney, to examine and re- port upon the condition of those Indians. Her hsst report was presented two years ago, and was model for such documents. A powerful impression was made upon the public by her recent ovel, Ramona" in which the terrible prejudice and per. secution suffered by the Mission Indians IS most vividly and sympathetically set forth. This was her lifework, and she was saushed with 1t. writing in a private letter under date of July 27th last |:
 "l feel that my work is done, and am heartily, honestly and cheerfully ready to go. In fact, am glad to go. You have never fully realized how for the last four years my whole heart has been full | of the Indian cause-how have felt, as the Quakers say, a concern to work for | it. My Century of Dishonor and Ra- mona are the only things have done of which am glad now. The rest is of no | moment. They will live, and they will bear fruit"
 Mrs. Hunt will, however, live also by 1 her verse, for she was true poet, of a | peculiar class, which may rightly be de- scribed as transcendental. being charac- teiized by certain spiritual mysticism, subtler than thought, often rising to a philosophical strength and that arc rarely found in | writings of pure sentiment. This individ- ! ual gift of hers is well exempliied in the sonnet entitled "Presence:
 o nameless thing which art and art not
 spell Whose bond can bind the powers of the air, | Compelling them thy face to hide or bear. voicel which bringing not the faintest Of sound. canst in the air so crowd and dwell | That all sounds die. O sight which needst |
 no share l Of sun, which sav'st blind eyes from their |
 despair. o touch VI hich dost not touch, and yet canst | To waiting flesh, by thy caress complete,