The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-07-11

I'D initiate the pride of any human
being.
Mrs. Stowe was not only great
author, with a wonderful mind, gifted
with dramatic instinct of tremendous
proportions, but she was the very
personifcation of simplicity; petite
in figure, homely in feature, quaint
in manner, absolutely careless as to
the fashion of her dress, so long as it
was clean and appropriate. She
passed through life as gently as a
summer breeze across harvest field.
She was kindness, good nature,
thoughtfulness, courtesy combined.
If ever truly Christian woman lived
she was one. Her head devised plans
of relief for those whose sufferings
filled her heart with grief. Long be-
fore she had fortune with which to
aid distressed humanity, she found
zestful pleasure in visiting the sick,
in helping the poor from her own
humble store. When she went
abroad, nothing dazed her. Accus-
toned to the homely simplicities of
country clergyman's house, she might
we'll have opened wide her wondering
eyes at the glittering generalities of
the Sutherland mansion. She might
have been pardoned had she felt some
degree of hesitancy as she entered
those palatial halls, and was con-
fronted with the great of the earth,
instead of which the little homely
American matron carried with her
gentle modesty, the breast-plate of
innate goodness of character, envel-
oping herself in natures wardrobe of
unfeigned simplicity. She made
friends wherever she went. Although
civilities of every nature were show
cred upon her, invitations from the
highest were at her command, every
door was opened to her, and the hom-
age of ten thousand hearts was at
her feet, she returned as she went, un-
changed in manner, unaltered in
dress, untouched in any element of
her extraordinary nature.
Although she will be known in all
time, so long as print endures and
memory remains, as the author of
"Uncle Toms Cabin, II must men
tion her Sunny Memories of Foreign
Land" her "Dred," her ministers
Wooing," her "Agnes of Sorrento"
her "Pearl of Orr's Island," without
considering for a moment her multi
tudinous contributions to the Allan
tic Monthly, to the Independent, and
to other periodicals of greater or less
repute. She was not only industri-
GUS but intelligently industrious, and
not only intelligently industrious
but humane in every outworking of
her busy pen.
Her home in Cincinnati, subse-
quently in Andover, and later in
Hartford, was always the center of
unbounded hospitality. She kept
kind of open house, but into the
inner circle of that open house few
were permitted to enter. Not that
there was any repellant force, not
that there was any Gordon of forbid
dance, but that, like the holy of
holies, it seemed to be place pre-
pared for special entertainment. 1t
is told of her by those who had the
pleasure of travelling in her company
for months on the other side of the
ocean, that she was the life of the
party; that her quaint observations,
her invariabls good nature, her con-
slant habit of looking at the better
rather than the worse side of things,
was like oil to the machine, like balm
to wounded heart, like wine to the
"OuAJ eiofOlCi, uaO db IL was tu6TS III
personal intercourse, so those who
were favored with her correspondence
enjoyed her unusual healthful nature.
Her hand writing was like copper
plate, fit type for the pearls of
thought she dispensed with fluent
readiness. Some of her letters,
written in the very recess of privacy,
are gems fit to be preserved in let
ters of gold.
She was very fond of children, and
nothing grati6ed her more than a
visit to friends house in Brooklyn,
where there were many children in
the family and all fond of charades.
| have Sc en- Lyman Beecher, Henry
Ward Beecher, Mrs. Stowe, Aunt
Esther" Beecher, as a dear old rela-
tive of the family was known, the
center of a large family group on
festive nights, enjoying with hearth
ss the charade acting of the chill
dren of the home. Time and time
again have l seen those great factors
in American affairs, now passed