The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-01-19
SEEN IN A NEW LIGHT.
Mrs. Mary Lease is a Womanly
Woman Still.
BECKY SHARP" GOES TO VISIT HER

" OH N LIKE
Probably the most advertised woman
in the United States, if not indeed in the
world, is Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Lease of
Kansas.
had seen her at the hotel table several
times, and had engaged in conversation
with her there, finding her most ap-
proachable.
had watched her tall figure and some
what military bearing as she left the
dining room.
And then one evening something i'm
PEELED me to try to find out if there was
not something pre- eminently womanly,
socalled about this woman, so we'll known,
perhaps so little understood.
Human nature is after all so like and
so different We are like some rare
stone with so many facets rejecting SO
many lights to all, and if we amount to
anything much, a different light to each.
With the enterprise of an interviewer
mingled with the curiosity said to be
peculiar to my sex, but which is the at
tribute of man in even a larger degree. 1
sought Mrs. Leases room in the
National, one evening this week, with
the avowed intention of finding ''a new
Lease OF asking this woman if she
possessed any of the womanly attributes
For instance, what has she done beside
s'bear and nurse and rear" her children
all these years before she rose into sud-
den prominence and had SO generally
swayed with her wonderful voice and
oratory so many Kansas yeoman.
raped at the door of room %, Mrs.
McCollum's parlor, where the boy had
said | would find her A voice babe me
enter in tone somewhat different from
Mrs. Leases rostrum voice, and as if by
a singular coincidence favorable to my
purpose, l found her busy with piece
of dainty fancy. work.
She rose and gave me chair, then
seated herself on the sofa and said:
"Will you excuse me if go on with my
work; I'enjoy doing it, and I've had so
little time lately"
her if she did anything of that kind, in
fact, to interview her in any other role
than that of politician.
She gave delighted little gurgling
laugh, feminine enough, and said, How
nice! Well, first, say something about
this lovely room, Mrs. McCollum has
given me. You know I sleep here on
this sofa, which is easily made into bed
at night Isn't this cozy room, with its
books and pictures, bric-a- brac and
curios? l have one something like it at
uOu0s only bu0E0 dE0 more CuElOSs Gall
it my den. and l have things there from
every state in the union
Then glancing at a vase of English
violets on the small table which had been
delighting my senses since l entered,
she said: zone of the windows in my
room at home is a bower of tropic bloom.
You know some miserable man who once
interviewed me said, '1Irs. Lease hates
flowers On the contrary Pm seldom
without them. My little girls take such
care of my plants, and some OF them are
always in bloom when l go home"
I suggested. "you have no sympathy
with the dress reform movement, Mrs.
Lease. have you? Your attire seems
very feminine; would you feel insulted
if l said you even seem fond of pretty
clothes?"
''Oh no. indeed. I am very much in
terested in pretty dresses, but l will
never be in favor of any half way meas
ures. If we give up our dresses let's
don't wear skirts at all"
Mrs. Lease wore a black crepe
dress, which chung in soft draperies and
was finished with trimming of ribbon and
lace, the waist being almost covered with
lace.
In its folds at her throat shone an en-
erald OF unusual brilliaDcy. | spoke of
the stone and she said: "Oh yes; my
mothers people sent me that for a
Christmas present and it was accom- pan
led by sixty-four pounds, English money,
to pay my passage over to visit them.
When l deposited it in the bank the
cashier said, why, Mrs. Lease, we don't
often have this much British gold here
You know my mother was Scotch Irish
and a direct descendant of the Duke of
AthoL"
As we talked she continued putting
stitches in a sideboard scarf which she
was embroidering. 1t was of heavy
linen and she was embroidering it in
colored silks.
said: "Do you like fancy work?'
Eyes. indeed. I wish 1 could show
you the drawn work and the Honiton
and point can make, and l used to GRO
Chef everything. 1 paint a little in oils,
too; flowers principally, and portraits, a
little.
Later on spoke of Mrs. Leases fam
lily.
"How many children have you?' I
asked.
Her face lit up and she said proudly:
S.Four; Charley, who is studying at the
state university, and is 20 years old, just
twenty years younger than his mother
and l could scarcely believe that as
looked at her hair, still without a grey
streak, the Dlue eyes agloW ana the face
softened by a mothers thoughts of her
| children.
"Then," she went on, "comes Louise,
IA, who is unusually bright in her studies
and wants to be an actress. She has
written two plays and put them on with
a cast made up of her little friends.
Grace is next in age, IL, and the baby,
the idol of my heart, is 8; Ben Hur we
call him. After all. children are Gods
best blessings. No thrill of triumph
that ever moved me as 1 stood before a
vast audience, waiting to hear me speak,
can equal the feeling that surges through
my heart when l am privileged to take a
little child on my knee. Ben Hur writes
to me in every letter from home and he
puts his letters in rhyme, to please his
mother"
Are you fond of the theater, Mrs.
/ Lease?"