The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1891-04-01
Length OF DAYS.

We are told that they whom the gods love
die young, but we cannot doubt the loving
care OF God, our Heavenly Father, over
those who have been brought through four
score years and more of worthy living to
peace and a happy contentment in these
lengthening days. The month just ended
brought birthdays totwo venerable and re-
markable women, near neighbOrs, dear
friends and long. time residents of Mont
pelier-Mrs. Lucy Bancroft Snow and Mrs
Nancy Young Sprague.
Mrs. Snow was one of family Of five
orphaned children, Q. w. and Carlos Ban
croft (still well remembered here) having
been her brothers. and with them was taken
into the home of an uncle, Simeon Daggett
The other brother and sister were cared for
by another uncle, the father of the late
Arthur and Freeman Daggett, all of whom
she survives. Her habits of industry, fru-
gality, order, neatness and dispatch, may
have been directed by her early training,
but their perfection could never have been
attained had not these germs been inherent.
Through all the years of her married life,
her husband (Mr. Barnabas II. Snow, some
years since deceased, found her helpmeet
indeed The petty, yet trying, discord de-
pending on hired help in domestic service,
Mrs Snow knows nothing of; yet one who
has lived near her many years has never
heard her complain of hard work, or too
much of it. On the contrary, she has al
ways found time for dainty embroidering,
crocheting, knitting, etc, often furnishing
gifts of comfort or adornment for her
friends. A neighbor, familiarly running in
recently, found her studying an intricate
design for knitted lace. On her eighty
ninth birthday, the goth of March, the same
friend asked her how she had succeeded
with the lace. 90, 1 got it a-going," was
her reply. "Yes," exclaimed a daughter,
Mrs. N. II. Tabor, "mother always gets
everything a-going,' that she undertakes"
Not nnlx & -frftr Int 20, 10 Il x.rl,,
can point to any project of Mrs Shows that
she failed to carry through to the most thor
ough completion? From illness and injury
both of which she has experienced within
the last few years, she has rallied wonder
fully, and gives not little promise of full
filling wishes expressed to her by her SON.
in-law, Mr.. Tabor, on this last birthday,
that she might celebrate hundredth. Kind
and sympathetic, her tears flow freely for
the sorrows of others and for words of love
and acts of kindness to herself. Her re-
ligious interest makes her when we'll a
constant attendant upon public worship,
| and when kept at home her enthusiasm is
well sustained by her favorite paper The
| Christian Leader.
Mrs. Sprague passed her eighty sixth
birthday March II. OF family of ten chill
| dren, only one other is left Hon Samuel
! Young of Toledo, Ohio. Another brother
may be remembered by our older citizens.-
Ammi b. Young, architect of the first
| (stone) state house, burned in 1857. Another
was Professor Ira Young, late of Dartmouth
With less of physical vigor and endurance
than her neighbor and friend, Mrs. Sprague
has yet spent an active and useful life, a
life that has done much for the welfare and
happiness Of other lives. Domestic in heI
tastes, she, too, has been eminently indus
trlous, always giving to the nece ssary work
OF the home its due attention. still finding
time for the lighter occupations of fancy
irwin n
her eyes rest from those more trying pur
suits, she is knitting worsted boy-dolls, tC
delight the eyes and hearts of her little
friends to whom they will be given, more
than eighty years younger than herself
! With philosophical structure of mind sale
to belong to but few women, Mrs. Sprague
| has met loss-the loss of husband and al
| her children save one (Mrs. Byron Nj
| Chatfee, now OF ofChicago) with an apparently
quiet submission. None the less has she
felt her bereavement for her affections are
deep and strong, and a more faithful wife
or tenderer mother, who can find? A
prominent trait of her character is unfail
| ing cheerfulness and a very attractive fea
ture is ready wit Not ready-made, but
made on occasion-entirely original. Hel
letters are marvels of brillancy, worthy Of
the literati of the day. A great reader Mrs
Sprague had just read " Around the World
on Bicycle when in conversation with a
gentleman to whom she was introduced
she remarked, much to his amusement, tina
she had just taken trip around the worC
on bicycle, and was now looking for some
other diversion. Receiving a call from
neighbor (Mr. Joel Foster) on the evening
of her birthday she extended both hand.
to him. and it is doubtful if another couple
took lighter steps than for few minute.
they took around the rooms OF her pleasan
home, on that "St Patrick's Day." OF
afterward enjoyed more thoroughly game
OF whist. Perhaps no household in oul
town has had at its head couple of more
marked individuality than Mr.. Wooster
SPrague and wife.
These ladies are living comfortably, eacI
in her pleasant home. Mrs. Snow has the
companionship of a widowed daughter, Mrs
George Watson, and a third daughter, Mrs
Luther Cree, lives but few doors away
Mrs. Sprague, though widely separated from
her daughter, and. indeed, all kindred has
with her the niece of her husband Mrs NJ
5. Ferguson. Lives like these so interest.
ing to contemplate, teach lesson it is well
to heed. Are they not benefactions to all
| thoughtful observers, aud do they not give
brightness and hope and cheer to the vista
of possible old age? NJ. IF.