Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-08-26


In the Direction of Charity.
Mrs. Madison was in high fashion dur
ing her later years. Society has its at
tacks of this kind and takes rp with as
little reason as it puts down favorite
| But there came with this late burst of
social warmth some good results into her
rather chilled and necessitous life. For
| in that day it was positive loss of fortune
to have held any public position. Mrs
Madison had in vain tried for years to
effect a sale of Mr.. Madison's papers to
| the government, and for want of this
| her means were very straitened. How
| it came about do not know, but it grew
to be the correct and Indispensable thing
| to call on Mrs. Madison Immediately on
leaving the presidents levees.
Her house was that diagonally oppo-
| site from M. Summers. There the best
people met regularly, and yet no one
could have said why. Mrs. Madison was
once the lady of the White House"
! She had had the quick thought to cut
| Washington's portrait by Stuart from
its frame and roll it carefully and carry
| it off III safety from tne invading British
troops already burning Bladensburg
| She was always gracious and sweet man
| nered and, TO her great credit. as much
so in her days of changed fortunes as
when size was surrounded by every aid
| to placid state of mind. And yet this
| was about all that was S;id And vet it
| was such an unwritten law that Mrs
Madison must have what she wished
| that-juSt because of this mysterious de-
cree of fashion-she actually got from
congress what she had vainly petitioned
| for for years.
Mr.. Buchanan stated one morning to
the senate that on such day Mrs. Mad
| ison would be such an age, and that the
| $50, 600 asked for Mr.. Madison's papers
| would come well to her as a birthday
present, and it was Immediately voted
to her To be sure it was for the writ
ings of good patriot and statesman,
| and the woman toreceive it was of great
age, and it was in that far better than
! the vote for nearly the same amount for
the cruel daub of a good man and sol
der which was an evidence that emo
tional legislation is not yet extinct.
But this made the occasion of a grand
levee for congratulating Mrs. Madison
and was among the last occasions on
which she was seen in public. Her fine
figure had outlasted the threescore and
ten years, and when well prepared for
company, in her worn, old fashioned
empire gown, her turban and clusters of
artificial curls-just as we see them in
the portraits of Mime. de Stael-the neck
and outlines of the face well shrouded in
folds of tulle, she was still the handsome
Mrs. Madison. | am quite sure | never
heard her called the widow of Madi-
SON."
But that was the prefix always made
to the historical name of another woman
| of the same age, who also asked of con-
gress the same favor shown to Mrs. Mad
| ison.
This lady was small and always wore
the widows dress she had to assume in
her early life. For over so years she did
not vary this outward emblem of the
solitude of her heart.
She, too, like Mrs. Madison. was anna
BILE and of charming manners, but she
turned from the world forever when her
great husband fell in the duel with Burr
| and from that time, her own children
| first, and close to them in her interest
| the orphans of the poor, received all her
| attention. Mrs. Hamilton was the chief
| founder of the Orphan Asylum of New
York. She saw its fftieth anniversary;
| she saw the other charities that grew
out of 1.-THE Children's Aid society is
one-and though her quiet life is ended
her good works go on, and her family as
well as her memory are living parts of
them.
Mrs. Hamilton was very small and
| light of figure. Her dark, bright eyes
and white hair gave her marquise eff
feet, and her widows dress gave the
| framing which suited her years and name.
She was very fond of young people and
would tell US things-incidentall
which made the early hardships and pen
| alties of the war for independence very
real
In speaking of travelling on horseback,
she told US once how her mother and
herself had to give that up for a time
and only go from Saratoga to Albany
when a strong escort could guard them.
| 1T was after poor Jane McCrea had been
killed by the Indians" and she made US
such picture of the condition of the In
dams after he English enlisted them
against US, that we realized" how far
back lay the time when such thing was
possible. and poor Jane McCrea" be-
came real girl in place of the bad little
wood cut, with one Indian holding her
long hair, and the other fourishing his
tomahawk as he kept his foot on the keg
of whisky
They have passed completely away
the HANDSOME, gracious, society loving
Mrs. Madison and the gentle widow Of
Alexander Hamilton" But Washington
is the wrecking ground of great names.
There are to be seen now, thankfully
working for slender pay and tremblingly
anxious to keepit safe amid the changes
| in tho &c -