St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-05-19
FRED. DOUGLASS Ar HOME.
The Venerable, Historic COlored
Statesman and His White Wife.

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statesman and His White Wife.
Washington Letter to Cincinnati Enquirer.
Very few white men in a warm climate
have as good home as Frederick Douglass.
He does not inhabit mere house; he lives
in arespectable mansion. Having been an
industrious and methodical man, aware of
the value of money, he has saved his earn
ings, whether procured by authorship, or
lecturing. or manual labor, or Office-hold-
ing, and his residence at Anacostia, or
UniOntown, is the best house there. 1t
commands beautiful view of the city of
Washington, and of the broad rivers which
form the boundaries of Washington
and meet at its Arsenal Point. I'm
der his eye lies the whole city.
the monument, the dome of the capitol. the
navy yard, near and far buildings, and the
rolling blue heights Of Maryland and Vir-
ginia. In the rear of the house is a good,
large stable, and the outbulldings show at
tention to comfort and even luxury. [
might suppose that this property, as it
stands in no particularly stylish portion of
Washington city, was worth $12,OOO to
SIS, 900. The house itself is rather of the
Southern character, built, think. of brick
or stone, with door in the middle and
porch in front, and pediment over the
middle of the edifice. Ringing the door
bell, a woman of brown tint came to the
door and said that Mr.. Douglass was
within. We entered and hung our hats
and coats upon the hat-rack, and turned to
the right. The house consists, perhaps, of
four rooms On this lower or main floor, with
no less number of rooms above. To the
left Of the hall is the parlor proper, and be-
hind that is Mr.. Douglass library. 70 tn
right is the sitting-room; suppose the dine
ing room may be behind it.
The old gentleman, whose age, I think.
is rs, received us both with a mixture of
Christian kindness and pleasant dignity,
which made me think, as l sat near him
for some time, that he looked like the king
of Madagascar or some land we have dimly
heard of where the white mans intercourse
has not propagated selhshness and greed.
He is large man, cast III the mold of a
man of command and affairs; his hair is
now of grayish white and is carefully
combed and is worn somewhat long. It
falls back upon his broad shoulders. His
forehead is not very high nor yet very
prominent. but rather subordinate to the
general health in his face and body. He
has long nose, slightly retrousse, but with
nostrils open and taking in things, His
chin and jaws are rather firm and as he
speaks he rather inhales and smiles and
thus conveys something of an impression
of nervous earnestness. Although he is
one-half white, the colored portion of him
IS probably the most vigorous element. His
eye is dark and cleaning and bespeaks an
other and hotter land.
When 1 entered the house with Mr.. Cor
ham he introduced us carefully to the differ
ent persons there-quite a little party. We
had gone to see him without invitation.
and therefore broke in upon his ordinary
Sunday family circle. There were three
white ladies present, one of whom was Mrs.
Douglass. The other ladies heard the con-
versation, smiled atfably, but made few or
no remarks. Mrs. Douglass is a lady of
tall form, well made, but neither stout nor
thin. Her compeXion is little reddish.
She gives you the idea somewhat of a
woman who had been the matron or SUPER
intendent of some philanthOpic institution
in which charity plays the principal part.
She dresses herself plainly and modestly.
and in the intercourse of the family shows
her husband. She speaks of him as ..NIr.
Douglass" watches and hears what he
says with careful respect, and we had
been talking to him, perhaps, fifteen
minutes before she made any re-
marks, when, in some matter of the remip-
iscence of his slave life, she called his at
tention to an interesting matter he had
omitted. Further on she said: ''GentIe-
men, as you are friends of Mr.. Douglass.
will you let me have your autographs?" and
led the way to his library. She has hair of
a dark brown tint, and there is mixture of
the New England woman and the Western
woman about her, which gives you the idea
IrOf tile wife of some man whose purposes
lrwere' above mere comfort but who had exc
cuted and nearly finished his mission. He
did not say much to her in the talk. The
other white ladies present were near the