The Portland daily press., 1892-07-07


Mary Ewing Stevenson is the eldest of
the girls. She is nineteen years old. She
is the lily. Her manner is most gracious,
her carriage stately and the contour of
her face most regular and bewitching.
All the girls dress well and know what
colors go together. Letitia is just COM
pletlng her preparatory schooling. The
others are about ready to enter college.
In one of the rooms in Gen. Stevenson's
house hangs a picture of Mrs. Stevenson,
taken just before her marriage. She was
Kentucky girl, the belle of Danville,
represents Mrs. Stevenson in gown such
as gentle women wore before the war.
The skirt is full and spreading, as was the
fashion in those times, and the bodice is
cut; low and without sleeves. She stands
in stately pose and her hair, parted In
the simple style of that era, enhances the
beauty of her picture. Mrs. Stevenson
was then Letitia Green. Her father was
the Rev. DIR. Louis w. Green, President
of Centre College.
Mrs. Stevenson has been of almost as
much assistance to her husband in politi-
cal affairs as have been his closest political
allies. Yet she is essentially a woman
WIOoC ShiCA lAgOICoUo dIC OOuaQ up LII Uu6
affairs of family and home. She is wife,
mother, more than a woman of public
prominence. She is matronly, has low,
well-modulated voice, that most desirable
thing in woman, and amiability and
benevolence characterize her face. She
likes pictures and books, and it cannot be
said that she has any particular fads.
An especially conspicuous figure just
,Ior< ho +ra ;o6
Eliza A. Stevenson, the generals aged
mother. She is eighty-three years old.
Her physical strength is slipping from
her, but her mental faculties retain their
vigor. She hears and sees quite well for
one SO old.
Grandmother Stevenson, for of course
the name which the children give her is
used by all the family, is wrapped up in
the fortunes of her son. She is as happy
and as proud as any mother in the land.
She believes that her boy, he who has
taken care of her through these many
years, will be elected to the high office
for which his party has nominated him,
and she believes, too, that she will live to
see him inaugurated at Washington on
March fourth next.
What she says of her son is just the
b1InplS praiS6 Gudt any moodCI III AOE pO-
sition would speak. But the mother
light shines in her eyes, and it is not
weakness of age but fulness of heart that
makes her voice tremble as she speaks of
that son to whom honor and distinction
have come. She says:
"My boy was always what I would wish
him to be. He loved me and words never
were necessary to make me know it. His
acts proved it. He was dutiful, he was
honest; he was a good boy and he has
been good man."
Gen. Stevenson's house, in Blooming
ton, ILL.,, is modest two-story structure
of brick. An inviting porch and broad
piazza stretch along half of its front and
reach along the whole length of the sides.
The house stands back from the street
and is surrounded with trees and bushes
and vines. On each side are broad,
well kept lawns. There is hallway
in the middle of Gen. Stevenson's house.
The rooms are not extensively furnished,
but, nevertheless, they are fitted up ac-
cording to the dictates OF an artistic
taste