The San Francisco call., 1897-05-30

In still comm union ST.
1t adds nothing to her rare personality
that she early won and without effort re-
tanned recognition.
She published in Harper's Magazine and
other periodicals of that class as well as
for the great papers. Perhaps no woman
has had more poems illustrated in Har-
per's by the best artists In the same
length of time than Mrs. Mace between
the years of 1870 and 1890.
At the Bangor centennial in 1869 her
poem was selected to be sung.
Her friends like to remember that " hen
Portland unveiled the English bust of
Longfellow, presented to the Maine His
torical Association by the Longfellow me-
moria! committee, of which the Prince of
Wales was chairman, Mrs. Mace was
called upon for the dedicatory poem, and
responded with her fine "Welcome Home
TO Longfellow.'
Then, too, when the gentle Whittier
first met Mrs. Mace he said: I'm Bangor
l know but two persons, Hannibal Ham
lin and thee. / know him for his states
manship and l know thee for thy beauti-
full poems"
1t is hard to tell of the catastrophe in
this beautiful life-hard to recall that
under the strain OF intense and conflict
ing activities of mind, heart and body,
the body, being weakest, gave way.
Worn out by the care of her youngest
daughter. an invalid. blue-eyed June
Mace, her "sum mer child" of whom she
writes, Her days had been for laugh ter,
paf for faor ha fol of 10
which resulte d in a stroke Of paralysis.
Possessed of what should have been
strong body, with a rich and trained in
telect, present success assured and the
future beaming with promise, she was
forced to lay down her pen. as her friends
believed, forever.
But her indomitable mind did not
yield so easily, Long before the tiniest
muscle would respond to her will, her
brain resumed its work.
In her quiet hill cottage near Los Gatos
she is regaining a measure of physical
strength and freedom; above all, her pen
hand Is again obedient, and she loves to
reach out toward others shut in like her
self from ''iife's sweet work and liberty" !"
She looks upon this as the one way left
her of serving the humanity she loves
this woman, whose simple act of living is
q service to the world.
From her broad window she gazes with
far-seeing eyes bayond picturesque Santa
Clara Valley, beyond stately Mount HAM
ilton, to where she sees great stone house
beside the blue Penobscot, where, she
says. "I see again beloved faces, missed
forever from my life. cannot forget. but
l think / shall find content in this pretty
home among the hills"
WILD ROSES OF MAINE
1July, 1885,
When the midsummer days are come
Ny heart is fed with dreams of home.
Beyond these blazing hills L
The Fairyland OF me mory.
For now the wild rose blooms again
In all the cherished haunts Of Maine
Along the roa size first view
The dainty flowers of seashell hue;
In open places of the woods
They beautify the solitudes
The craggy river banks they fringe
With rich festoons of rosy tinge
And over all the seaside isles
This glory of the summer smiles
0 boon divine which Beauty gives!
Once seen and loved it always lives
And like neversetting star
| Sheds bssful beams through years afar;
SO by Paclfics lone sea
The Maine Wild roses bloom for me,
SARAH HUGHES GRAVES.