The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-07-06
LITERARY LADIES
Lights Who Help Spread Bos-
tons Fame.
BROWSING IN THE ATHENEUM
Over Ancieat Tones and Modern Magazines
Julia Ward Howe and Elizabeth Pea
body-0ther Noted Women.

roIcence OF The HERALD. Il had not been
at the Athcnaeum in ten years. This morn
Ing ] found seemingly the same women
summering III its classic atmosphere who
wintered there ten years ago. They had
changed no more than had the solemn busts
of Sumner and Webster and Adams. or the
group representing DR.. Bowditch at his
studies peered out through the windows
that overlook the ''Old Granary" burying
grounds, where lie the bones of Franklins
parents and other worthless, and then ]
could have risen and asked the woman next
Ine if she remembered the day dropped
an ancient tome with bang from one of
the mysterious upper alcoyes. The Athe-
n9um is
THE BOSTON wOMAN'S PANTHEON,
her Louvre, her Borghese gallery, her Brit
ish museum. The old Athen9um was to
her the visible representative of culture
To the new Athenaum come the Boston
university girls and the learned maidens
from the Harvard Annex, and the women
professors from Wellesley and woman par
excellence, with her rather slight figure
and her sober face and-when she is young
at least-her mayfiower complexion. The
Athen3Gm is the Boston woman'S happy
literary hunting ground. Here Julia Ward
Howe, and Mary A. Livermore, and Louise
Chandler Moulton, and Elizabeth Stuart
Phelps Ward and Celia Thaxter and Lucy
Larcom and Mrs. James T. Fields took TO
ink as naturally as duck takes to water,
and here the women of the younger group,
Mrs. Margaret Deland and Sara Orne
Jewett, and Norah Perry, and Ella Farman
Pratt and Edna d. Cheney and their COM
y. IN rar .aa.afk. h,yax
New York says Boston is losing its old
literary prestige. 1t may be that the Ma
tionalists group will never equal the Elmer
sonians, but the reason is so much the
stronger for cherishing the writers she
still has, both those of the old and of the
new school. Under the huge elms of the
Common yesterday a white-haired woman
who is herself writer was talking &c me
of Julia Ward Howe, whom many women
would call first citizen of this New England
republic of women.
nv FRIEND REMEMBERS MRS. HOWE
as she played the organ in James Freeman
Clarke's church in the prime of her young
matronhood Though we think of her now
as uniting the literary worker with the
best type of the society woman, in those
days she let her intellectual interests dwarf
her interest in millinery, and Cooked like
ten Thousand frights,' if it be not held sac
religious to quote such an opinion. One
day-this story sounds as if it ought to be
told rather Of Elizabeth Peabody-she came
in from a walk quite Hurried. "Do tell
me" she asked hurriedly, ''is there any
thing wrong about my appearances 1t
seemed to me that people We're staring"
well, mother, it is very likely" an
swered one of her daughters, 'your bonnet
is hind side before
BY the time she went on the lecture plat
form this defect-let me for once be frank
and say that ! like woman the better for
it-had been in large measure remedied,
and my friend described for me the costume
worn by Mrs. Howe on her first appear
ance IN New York as public speaker. 1t
was a anauve foulard spotted with brown,
and for her head she had Il lace couture at
once gracefully becoming and dignified.
AT the time of the Sailors National Far
IL Boston. Mrs. Howe tended one of the
stalls, and have heard another woman who
was then young girl standing much in
awe Of the distinguished writer tell little
story of one of
THE HEARTIEsT LAUGHS OF HER LIFETIME
The booths were curtained at the back, and
behind the curtains were kept reserve
stock and all sorts of commodities. Now
it happened that Mrs. Howe in an inauspi-
cious moment stepped backward lost her
balance and fell through the draperies,
landing in bpshel basket, doubled up with
such scientific eXactness as TO be absolutely
pewerless before the task Of Strengthening
herself out again. The witness of this lit
tie incident retired behind the curtains of
the next booth and stuffed handkerchief
into her mouth for some minutes before
she could command properly respectful
countenance with which to go and lend her
fallen idol a helping hand.
An entertaining little passage between
Edwin Booth and Mrs Howe was related
by my white-haired friend under the elms.
Mrs. Barrow was playing Desdemona to
Booths Otheilo. Booth was invited to q
reception at the Beacon street house of DR..
and Mrs. Howe In course Of the evening
Mrs. Howe put on an air of great earnest
ness. and said: ''NIr. Booth, give me your
promise; you will do me favor!'
Booths cefell; he thought he was to be
called on for a speech or recitation, devices
of the enemy which he hates as heartily as
if he had never spoken a line before an au
dience. He sighed but passed his word
Promise me- said Mrs Howe, ''that the
next time you bring that pillow down you'll
do it in earnest The Desdemona wasn't
very thrilling.
The Oldest Of Boston's notable women is
MISS ELIZABETH PEABODY,
who must be fully eighty seven. Her per
sonal eccentricities are as marked as the
eccentrcities of her bonnets, but the mill
of human kindness is sweeter in her char
acter than in that of most individuals of
type more normal She has outlived Mrs
Nathaniel Hawthorne and Mrs. Horace
Mann. who were her sisters, and waits
with quiet patience, that is sometimes
pathetic, for the end. She will not leav,
behind her any literary achievement
worthy of her gifts, but it was she wht
first brought to this country from
Germany, the kindergarten method o.
teaching children, and her influence ha.
been strong in the educational world. Mrs
Horace Mann was at one time vice presi
dent of the New England Woman's club
which is older than Sorosis, and has mum
bered Mrs. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Mrs
Nathaniel =. Willis and Mrs Howe ans
Miss Parkman and other notable name,
among its officers. One associates her witt
snowdrops, because when her son was :
coach" at Harvard she had always, wher
they could be found sDowtrops in ever,
room of her house in Cambridge.
MRs BbrzABErH STUART PaELPs-wARD
is woman whose personal appearance
seems to lit in wonderfully with her writ
iBgs. See her give little talk to groul
of college girls, cher girls" she win cal
them. As she sits by q small table he
chin rests in her left hand and her eyes ar,
on the floor She looks shy, delicate fea
tured. and yet there is a strength in he
forehead. and in the lines of the eyebrow.
and tHe rather large nose. Her hair Il
drawn smoothly back without crinp o.
curl and gathered in a heavy knot held b.
a high backed comb. Her eyes have rathe
a sad look that vanishes only when sh
smiles. She is now, fancy, younger look
ing than before her marriage. At least Sh
has relaxed little Of the sobriety, almos